Today saw Microsoft set out their plans for the upcoming year in gaming with their annual presentation at the E3 conference. While there was little in the way of big surprise announcements, there were plenty of big games announced and showcased that are making their way to the Xbox One in the next year or so.
Instead of the usual Microsoft offering, which showcases new features to their console as well as games, it was only new titles and updates on upcoming releases that were shown. It was a great ploy considering one of the main criticisms of the Xbox One so far has been that it featured little in the way of blockbuster titles.
The first title, as per tradition, was the new Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. It was a typical E3 demo for the franchise, with a little bit of the new action abilities that the game features being shown, such as Titanfall-esque boosters that let you jump higher and grenades whose function can be changed on the fly. Advanced Warfare looks like Call of Duty’s final step into sci-fi territory, with an exceptionally futuristic look that was rather new but still with the feel of the series. The combat shown was very traditional too. It’s early days yet for the game, with its main focus being multiplayer, but it’ll be interesting to see how Sledgehammer’s solo debut in the Call of Duty series develops.
Next up was Forza. After announcing the Nurburgring for immediate availability for Forza 5, they announced Forza Horizon 2 – an exclusive sequel to the successful open-world entry to the series. It’ll boast 200 cars, a day/night cycle, dynamic weather all hosted on dedicated servers without the need for lobbies. The game also allows you to create clubs for as many as 1000 people to join to race together. Horizon 2 is slated for release on September 30th this year.
One of the most exciting upcoming games at the moment, and the big hit of the Microsoft conference is Evolve. From Turtle Rock Studios, the developers behind Left4Dead, the game has been in development for over 4 years and was revealed with a fantastic trailer a few months ago. The game looks to break boundaries in games with a unique 4v1 concept – with co-operative class gameplay for 4 players against 1 human-controlled monster. This game looks really interesting and a real step forward for co-operative gameplay.
The next-gen Assassin’s Creed Unity made an appearance in Microsoft’s conference next. Set in 18th century Paris during the French Revolution, the game has the biggest playground ever for the series as well as the introduction of co-op for the first time. You can play with up to 3 friends in traditional Assassin’s Creed combat, with a demo in the conference showing 4 players helping to capture a palace belonging to one of the nobility the people of Paris were rising up against. It looked much like a predictable step forward for the series, with much of the same gameplay but just with more detail, more capacity for movement and more visceral action.
My personal highlight of the conference was Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive. The creators of Ratchet & Clank showed their Xbox One exclusive with a typically fun trailer. The game is cartoony, but a little more grown-up compared to Ratchet, and with gameplay a little more geared towards traditional third-person action. It looked like great fun, with the Insomniac arsenal of wacky weapons there too, and like a game that I’d enjoy playing. Ted Price, Insomniac’s founder, also announced an 8-player co-op mode for the game called “Chaos Squad”, which could be great fun. Sunset Overdrive is slated for release on October 28th this year.
Capcom announced the first Dead Rising 3 add-on, in the tongue-in-cheek style of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, bringing back old protagonists of the series for an arcade 4-player co-op experience, available immediately on Xbox Live. The best part about it is its ridiculously unabbreviated title: Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha Prime.
Halo is still the key franchise for Xbox, and this E3 brought plenty for fans to pore over. Both the rumoured Halo 2 Anniversary and Master Chief Collection were announced for the Xbox One, meaning all numbered Halo games will be playable. The multiplayer of all will be faithfully ported to be as similar to the original as possible. All games will ship on one disc, with one single interface and all maps from the multiplayer being available. There will be playlists covering maps and modes from different Halo titles. The next iteration in the Halo series was also teased further. Halo 5: Guardians’ multiplayer was shown briefly, with new game modes and features in the new game. It will have the arena gameplay that players know and love, but at 60 frames per second and with new abilities. There will be a beta for Halo 5 this December, with access available to those who buy the Master Chief collection.
Phil Spencer, Xbox’s new Chief Exec then began to announce games coming in 2015 and beyond, and there was naturally a little less in terms of gameplay.
A new Lara Croft game was announced on the back of the successful reboot of last year. Rise of the Tomb Raider looks incredible, with a focus on her past and getting over her traumatic experiences of the first game. The facial expressions in the game were especially good, although not much of the traditional action was seen, so it’s harder to say how the game will play.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was shown with gameplay of hunting a griffin. It looked fantastic, with the franchise’s history of incredible graphics continuing. It’s an RPG with impressive open landscapes that are all traversable. It looked to me like a more featured version of Diablo for consoles, rather than just being ported.
Tom Clancy’s: The Division was also shown again at this E3 after being revealed last year. The game is situated in a post-apocalyptic New York, after a virus was released. It looked very good, being slightly more impressive in terms of visuals than the similar Call of Duty. It was a solid gameplay demo, but didn’t have anything of a “wow factor”, just showing the four players clearing out a gang in front of their base. The Division is slated for next year.
The conference featured a lot of smaller announcement. Bioware’s Dragon Age: Inquisition was trailered, featuring a dark tone and a world that is bigger than any other Bioware game. It was covered in more depth during EA’s presentation, and is set for a release on October 7th. Dance Central Spotlight will be the series’ first Xbox One version, coming in September along with a Disney Fantastia edition. Inside was announced from the developers of the hit XBLA game Limbo. The game shares similar gameplay traits, but features more of a third dimension and a story of oppression that works well with the game’s mechanics. Platinum Games, developer of Bayonetta showed off their new title Scalebound, featuring huge monsters and a protagonist who seems as interested in his headphones and looks as slaying the beasts that lay ahead of him.
The final announcement of the conference was a next-gen Crackdown game. There was a trailer that outlined the game’s open-world, futuristic co-op nature that looked very good. There is little else known about the game though, and it could be a while before it is released.
My overall impression of the games for Xbox is that there are a lot of futuristic games on the way, with an amazing level of detail and information being given to players in elegant ways. Co-operative multiplayer has really hit a new zenith too, with games like Assassin’s Creed, Crackdown and Sunset Overdrive introduced interesting, but very distinct, types of co-op that mean you can have fun with your friends on the Xbox One.
All-in-all I was a little underwhelmed by the Microsoft conference. There was no real awe-inspiring trailer or fantastic closing segment. There were some great games on show, and there’s definitely more to be excited about for owners of the Xbox One now, but the console still has no real killer app on the way. Halo didn’t really steal the show in the way it could have with a trailer and there was no Gears of War or similar announcement. Sunset Overdrive was perhaps the only exclusive that I could see myself buying, but it didn’t look like a must-buy. At the moment, there’s no single reason to for me to buy an Xbox One. The next year might be a little better for Microsoft, but the transition to next-gen is still not complete yet.