After the media debacle that was Microsoft’s “explanation” of their DRM and Used games stance for next gen, Microsoft needs to come out swinging and win back its core audience; Gamers. In spite of some audio setbacks and forced applause, things ended up on a decidedly “OK” fashion. I’ll hit the highlights.
The press event opened up with a banger. First up was a video demo of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid title “The Phantom Pain”. It was a self-described “open world” Metal Gear game. This is exciting seeing as how it can literally change just about every way you approach the way Snake gets around and does his business. The game will feature real time weather and real time… time? Also, I’m pretty sure I heard Kojima say “Smart Glass”. Keifer Sutherland was a great replacement voice actor.
Immediately following that reveal was the reveal that there will be yet another hardware revision for the Xbox 360. This system sku is designed to look more like the Xbox One. It looks much more like the upcoming system and is available today, I guess. Also revealed as part of the continuation of the 360 brand is Microsoft’s version of Playstation Plus. Meaning they will be offering free games to Gold Members from here on. The first two announced games are Assassin’s Creed II and Halo 3. Two games that probably most current 360 owners have probably already played, but I digress. The main difference, it appears, is that once you download the titles (from Games on Demand, I imagine) they are “yours to keep”. In other words, it sounds like even after you drop Xbox Gold, you still have the games. Also revealed for the 360 is that World Of Tanks is coming to the console as a “free download”. This will be an exclusive title. Interesting but, I dunno.
From this point on it was all Xbone, all the time. First demo up was for the upcoming Crytek game “Ryse”, pronounced “rise”. Despite being billed as an “Only With Kinect” last year, it’d appear to be quite controller friendly. In it, you take control of a roman general as you wage war, stab dudes and complete an over abundance of QTE’s. Think of it as God of War in a skirt with less gods (so far anyways).
Killer Instinct is a thing, again. Characters that fans will remember are here, and there was a yell of “ULTRA COMBOOOOOO!” at one point. So yeah. Rare is at it again this time with Double Helix only on the Xbox One. (Don’t look up Double Helix’s games, it’s not pretty.) I hope they do a pack in soundtrack like for the SNES version, which I still have.
Insomniac is on stage and CEO Ted Price reveals a new open world shooter called “Sunset Overdrive”. This looks pretty cool but considering it’s from Microsoft Studios as well, not much hope of it being on other platforms.
Forza 5 trailer and some game play. We are treated to a new term “Drive-atar”. According to Turn 10, your drive-atar will learn your driving patterns and create you as a virtual AI in other gamers versions of Forza 5, via cloud processing. Sounds crazy but equal parts cool and horrible. If your friends are all shitty drivers and do things to mess with the game, then does that mean their drive-atars will do the same?
Phil Harrison comes out talking about how they love working with Indie devs. Then they played a “reveal” trailer for Minecraft for the Xbox One. *sigh
Next is Quantum Break. A game that really little is known about. According to the Creative Director Sam Lake, it will blend game play an “TV” ( I assume cut scenes) together. You will be able to affect things on both ends. A trailer is shown and it looks pretty cool. Time will tell… sorry that was a bad pun.
Super fast trailer for “D4”. Revealed as an episodic game from Swery65. Not your typical game creator, and looks to be anything but normal.
Next up was “Project Spark”. This, for lack of a better way to describe it, looks to be Microsoft’s answer to Little Big Planets “Play Create Share” motto. The demo given shows a world created using the Xbox One, and smart glass (drink). Could be really cool if the community gets behind it like they have with LBP.
Some Xbox One and Smart Glass (drink) interface is shown. Start a single player game and have a match search for Multiplayer games going in the back ground. Switch seamlessly from one to the other. Then there is a demo of not only more Killer Instinct, but of the built in Twitch integration. Looks slick.
No more 100 friend list restriction (which we knew already) and Microsoft Points are out in favor of actual money (which we were all hoping for).
Dead Rising 3 takes the stage and shows off it’s new engine. It looks to be way more graphic, and more gritty. In other words, it looks nothing like the previous Dead Rising games. There are no more load times and it’s a go anywhere do anything kind of game. No more work benches, just make weapons on the fly. Oh yes, and there is Smart Glass (drink) integration here, as well.
CDProjekt Red shows up and shows off the new Witcher game. Witcher 3; Wild Hunt. Looks amazing and super deep, as a Witcher game should.
Battlefield 4 single player demo. Looks nice. Shooty guns and all. That water tech looks great. As usual, the battlefield series sounds effing amazing.
“Below” is revealed. It’s a next gen new game with the same feel as Sword and Sworcery. If you’re into that sort of thing.
New Halo game. Crowd goes wild. So over master chief, sorry.
Biggest news, Xbox One will be out in stores this November for “Only” $500. No mention of separate skus this time. No mention of anything else really other than the price and a month.
Final game to show off is the new project from the ex-Infinity Ward guys, ReSpawn, called “Titanfall”. Picture Call Of Duty with wall-runs, double jumps, and giant hulking mechs. It looks great. Runs at 60fps, and has a lot of guns that you shoot from the first person perspective. Great looking game, but from the demo, nothing breaks the COD mold except what I mentioned. No dogs that I could see, so that’s a shame. Coming Spring of 2014.
That’s pretty much it. Nothing mind-blowing. In my opinion, Microsoft should have done something, anything really, to try and put out the fires started last week with the DRM/Used Games press release. I guess the press conference is not the place. This fight has now gone to Sony. Do they back away from what MS is doing and point fingers. Or do they slide up beside them and try to bolster both, doubling down on gamers wants not needs. Tonight at 9pm is when something will be revealed, hopefully.
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