E3: Microsoft Aims For a Well-Rounded Showing

After a strong first day of E3, I was excited to see conferences keep the momentum up, and the odds of this were looking good considering Monday opened with Microsoft’s conference. They didn’t waste any time either, starting right off with Halo 5: Guardians. From a gameplay perspective, Halo 5 seems like an incremental improvement over its predecessor. I was happy to see Edward Buck from Halo: ODST make a new appearance if for no other reason than the fact he’s voiced by Nathan Fillion. Not much of the story was revealed though it seems Nathan (yes, I’m calling him by the actor’s name) and other Spartans are now on the hunt for Master Chief. Personally, I thought Halo 5 looked great, though I fully admit to have a soft spot for this franchise.

Microsoft’s killer app was soon followed by Recore, a new Xbox One exclusive being developed by Keiji Inafune, better known as the father of Megaman, and Armature Studios which is headed up by staff who previously worked on Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Sadly there’s not much to say here, we were only treated to a short cinematic trailer starring a girl in the desert and her robotic dog being chased by a group of spider-like robots. The dog self-destructs to save its owner, leaving only a blue core behind. She then places the core on another robot and we see it come to life. The trailer was interesting, but it’s hard to get excited for any game when we don’t even know what genre it belongs to or how it plays. I was more excited by the pedigree heading the project than the trailer itself.

This was then followed by the Xbox Elite Controller. Microsoft touts a “pro level precision” and it showed off a high level of customization. In the end, I find it hard to get excited for a controller when the current one seems to do its job fine.

We then moved on to the land of multiplatform titles, starting off with Fallout 4 which was promised to allow for PC mods. The developers did not provide details on how this would be done, but I will be very surprised if they allow every mod to make it into the Xbox One considering the NSFW nature some of these often carry. Regardless, it’s safe to say that if Sony doesn’t implement a similar feature then the Xbox One version of Fallout 4 will be the superior console experience.

EA’s Peter Moore entered the stage to discuss EA Access, and how Titanfall will be joining the service’s roster this week. Moreover, the entire EA Access library will be available for Xbox Live Gold users during the remainder of this week. I have to say, this sounded more like a sales pitch than anything else. EA also showed off Plants Vs. Zombies 2: Garden Warfare, as gameplay was shown I could almost hear the Internet’s collective groan. A cinematic trailer for a Plants Vs. Zombies is something I’m sure no one asked for. There’s no doubt in my mind, EA’s presentation was a sharp dip in quality for the conference.

Luckily, Microsoft pulled right back for most by showing off Forza 6. Sadly, considering I am not a fan of sim racers or even half-sim racers, any opinion I could share regarding it would be uneducated at the best. All I can say is that graphically it looked good, too good for the Xbox One. What we saw was most likely either pre-rendered or running on a PC, though I hope I am wrong and that Turn 10 studios prove me wrong.

We were then greeted with another cinematic trailer, this time for Dark Souls III though once again, with no gameplay shown I was rather indifferent about it. The game is currently set to release as a multiplatform title in 2016. Now, it was Ubisoft’s turn to take the stage with The Division and Rainbow Six Siege. The first did not show any gameplay and the latter consisted of 5 second segments edited together. One piece of good news is that Rainbow Six will also include both Rainbow Six Vegas titles, though it’s unclear if these will come on the disc or as downloadable extras.

The conference then moved on to indie offerings. Too many of these were shown for me to give an opinion on all, but I will say Cuphead stood out. This 2D sidescroller draws stylistic inspiration from 1930s cartoons, creating a visually stimulating experience that sometimes borders on the surreal. Other titles include Tacoma, Ashen, Beyond Eyes and Gigantic, but so little gameplay was shown that I’m not even sure what genres these fell into.

For years, Microsoft has lacked a proper rebuttal for Uncharted and this time that counter-argument came in the form of Rise of the Tomb Raider. Graphically, I was mightily impressed by what I saw, fans of the previous title are sure to enjoy the sequel, though it’s unlikely it will appeal to anyone who didn’t care for the first one.

Generally speaking, Microsoft’s conference didn’t move me, as any title shown past Halo either lacked gameplay videos, was previously known to be in the works or would be launched for other system as well. With that said, it’s during the final half hour things changed. Firstly, we saw RARE’s return via RARE Replay a compilation of over 30 games ranging from their ZX spectrum days to the previous generation with everything in-between. Obviously we can’t expect titles like Goldeneye or Donkey Kong Country as those franchises are not owned by the British developer, but line-up is still impressive. The studio also showed off Sea of Thieves, a free-to-play pirate themed MMO.

The Gears of War franchise also made a return with a remastered version of the original whose public beta started yesterday. Better yet, Coalition Games announced Gears of War 4, complete with a gameplay video. I haven’t played this series since the third title, having skipped Gears of War Judgement, however, Gears of War 4 looks like it will be one of the best shooters on Microsoft’s console.

There are two announcements I’ve been saving for last, as I felt these needed to be addressed individually. The first refers to the upcoming backwards compatibility update with the Xbox 360. At first, I loudly cheered for this, but it wasn’t long before reality sunk in. Microsoft stated will be working on over 100 games by this Holiday. This means backwards compatibility will be partial and likely glitchy. I was then reminded of the Xbox 360’s own backwards compatibility with its predecessor which never reached completion, left a lot to be desired and by 2008 was all but abandoned. I’m not dismissing Microsoft’s announcement as I believe this is a step in the right direction, however we have been burned by the Redmond giant before.

That leads me to the next point, the Microsoft Hololens. During the presentation, games were shown Mojang’s newest version of Minecraft which is fully compatible with Microsoft’s Hololens. If what we saw is true, this needs to be seen to be believed; a fully holographic videogame playable in your room. This is revolutionary, it looks like something out of a sci-fi movie and it reminds me too much of Project Natal, later known as Kinect. Microsoft has made similar presentations before on how they had developed new technology that would change gaming forever, from Project Natal to Milo’s supposedly advanced Artificial Intelligence. The first is the disappointment we now know as Kinect and the latter became Kinectimals. Much like the boy who cried wolf, I now find hard to believe Microsoft’s claims.

Overall I though the conference was very hit-or-miss. Most games shown provided little to no gameplay and in many cases I couldn’t even tell what genre they belonged to. For a conference focused on the Xbox One, many of its titles were either multiplatform or timed exclusive and the Hololens reveal sounds too good to be true. Considering my favorite announcements were a compilation of RARE’s games and an incomplete backwards compatibility feature I’m sad to say I was a little disappointed.