Microsoft's E3 2013 Press Conference

Alright, Microsoft's press thing ended about an hour ago, here's everything you need to know about what they showed in order of apperance. Sorry for the wall-of-text approach, but I'm too lazy right now to edit it all proper like. Maybe I'll come back later and clean it up a bit. I'm not going to link to any videos because at this point it's mostly just stream captures that are floating out there. But before I get to the games, I'll just list some other things first. New 360 design is available today, based on the look of the Xbox One. Xbox Live Gold is changing a little starting July 1st, by adding 2 free games per month. Sort of like PSN+ does with their thing. When Xbox One rolls out, the friend limit will be gone, same for Microsoft Points. The box is going to cost $499, €499 or £429, in November 2013, 21 territories. Too rich for my blood. Alright, then games games games.

Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain, looks pretty nice and has new horse stealth. Bunch of weird character intros, just like you would expect from a MGS game. A solid start for a conference. Get it? Solid, right? Right? Dude on horse is Ocelot. Punished Snake is Snake's name this time. I think it's the Xbox One version, but I don't know if they specifically said anything.

Next up is a trio of 360 games, starting with World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition. Don't really know what to say. That tank just hit a big-ass ramp. Team based 15 on 15 warfare. Free to play, but obviously you need XBL Gold.
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood looks like a family friendly 2D platformer. This looks like something that's probably a licensed property or something, I just don't know it.
And lastly, Dark Souls 2 trailer. Didn't we already know that Dark Souls 2 would be on 360? Seems like a waste of time to show the trailer here. DS2 is coming March 2014, that seems quite late in the cycle.

The rest of these are Xbox One games. They even made a point to say this, just in case anyone was going to be confused.

Ryse: Son of Rome from Crytek. Very quicktime heavy combat, looks pretty though. Some kind of tactic thing happening, group formation with fellow soldiers.

Killer Instinct returns, naturally exclusive to Xbox One. Jago, Saberwulf and Glacius confirmed.

Sunset Overdrive from Insomniac Games, Xbox One exclusive. Some kind of stylized open world shooter game, not really digging the style at all. Shooting monsters with guns, pretty original.

Forza 5 from Turn 10 Studios. Looks like a car game. Some kind of deal with McLaren, they even lifted a new McLaren P1 on to the stage. Pitching a new learning AI, powered by “the cloud”. Doesn't sound like something that needs cloud power. Just saying. They call it Drivatar. Man, who comes up with names like this, seriously.

Minecraft coming to Xbox One. Nothing like Minecraft to show the power of Xbox One.

Quantum Break from Remedy. We saw a little of this 3 weeks ago, but now with more game and less live acting. The ultimate Remedy experience, with some interesting looking time mechanics. Dude is walking through a moment stuck in time, freeze frame of an explosion. Looks cool.

D4, from Swery65, creator of Deadly Premonition. Episodic murder mystery, looks sufficiently Swery with a stylized look.

Project Spark, looks like Microsoft's very own game creator thing. Sort of like a Little Big Planet clone. Coming to Xbox One and Windows 8.

Crimson Dragon, from the creator of Panzer Dragoon and Phantom Dust. Hey guess what, it looks a lot like Panzer Dragoon. They had some sound problems during this one, and the audience decided to start providing their own sound effects, pew pew.

Dead Rising 3, exclusive open world zombie game from Capcom. Appears to have the combo weapons of Dead Rising, but now you can also drive cars. Revolutionary game mechanics. Tonally seems a lot darker than previous Dead Rising games. Dude calls an airstrike from SmartGlass app. I don't know why he can do that, but hey, video games.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt from CD Project Red. Looks great, Geralt has a beard. Open world environment, some kind of voice command support too. Sexy mermaids confirmed.

Battlefield 4 from DICE and EA. Looks nice, but we already knew that. More audio problems on the stage. Someone stepped on a cable probably. Jet destruction confirmed.

Below, from Capy Games. Capy has the best logo of all time, by the way. Top down adventure game with rogue like elements.

Sneak peak at an untitled stealthy game from Black Tusk.

Halo 5, from 343 Industries, 2014. No gameplay shown, but hey it's a first person Halo shooter. Promising a 60 FPS game.

Titanfall from Respawn Entertainment. That's the former Call of Duty guys, in case you didn't know. Very fast paced first person combat in and out of mechs, jetpack powered double jumps, wall running, stuff. Spring 2014.

And that's that. The key phrase today was “the power of Xbox One”, or the variation “the power and performance of Xbox One.” Almost everyone who was on stage said that phrase, and got paid the big bucks to do it. Nothing really stuck out to me as a must have. Sorry Microsoft, no deal yet.

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on June 10th 2013 at 2:52pm