It is E3 once again, and that means it is time for game developers to show us what is going to be coming out over the next couple of years. The first company up this year is Microsoft, and they started off E3 right.
The first game they showed was Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The video started off with the soldiers in an aircraft until it crashed and they had to fight on foot. The graphics looked great and it was fun to see Call of Duty in a future setting. The thing that really stuck out to me the most though, were the grenades. The character held a grenade, but pushed a button on the top that changed the grenade type. However, otherwise it seemed just like every other game in the series. It does look fun, but it doesn’t seem to have any groundbreaking mechanic to add this time. IT is worth noting though, that Xbox will be getting the Add on content before Playstation
Next up was Forza. They announced that a new track for Forza Motorsport 5 called Nurburgring is out for free starting today. Then they jumped over to Forza Horzon 2. The game seems to be like the other Forza games but with some new additions. Naturally, there are more cars, an open world and now there is even a dynamic weather system being added. The coolest addition though, pertains to the online races. There are no lobbies, so you immediately join a game and in on the fun. There are also clubs with online now. They didn’t really go into much detail, but to me it seems that it is kind of like a guild. If I am mistaken on that one though, let me know in the comments.
Next up was a trailer for Evolve. No new details were given much. The trailer showed off some of the gameplay and that you can play as either the human characters or as the monsters. The game still looks great, and i can’t wait to try it out for myself.
Ubisoft came out next and showed off Assassin’s Creed Unity. Assassin’s Creed is no stranger to E3, though i was expecting to only see this pop up in Ubisoft’s conference. Unity features the ability to have your own Brotherhood for the first time in the series. They showed some gameplay with this feature and it looked amazing. Having multiple assassin’s with you working toward the same objective opened up a ton of new possibilities and strategies. I am however assuming this is Co op over the Xbox Live service. I also wonder about the customization and characters in the game now though. Is it more of a silent protagonist? Is your character like the other leads but customizable? or are the other characters in your brotherhood main characters as well, and will there be a character select for online if that is the case? I have to say that I’ve never been a huge Assassin’s Creed fan but i can’t wait to see the Ubisoft conference to see if we get anymore details about this game.
Next up on the list was Dragon Age Inqusition. There really wasn’t much shown here that we hadn’t already seen before. I feel like this was shown just to remind and hype people up for the release in October.
If you like crazy games and a lot of color this next game, Sunset Overdrive, might be to your liking. I had heard a little bit about this game before but my first time seeing it was her at E3, and i think it looks fantastic. It looks like a great shooter with crazy weapons. The character is fully customizable but was shouting insults that made me think of him as a mutant killing Spider-Man, and that is definitely a good thing. The creators also showed a gameplay segment in which you were trying to fight your way across an amusement park. The game looked stunning and it made me want to play it immediately.
Capcom has had some long titles for their games lately, but this one takes the cake. Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha is an arcade like experience with the character from the Dead Rising Games. I didn’t catch on if it was DLC or if it was it’s own game, but it looked pretty crazy. You can cosplay various Capcom characters while beating up zombies and it’s available NOW! so if that sounds interesting and you have an Xbox One then you can buy it whenever you’d like.
Alex Rigopules from Harmonix came out next to announce a couple games coming out. Neither had footage of them shown but one is Dance Central Spotlight and it features a new system to allow newer songs to get in the game a lot faster. The next game was Disney Fantasia Music Evolved. In this game you play as a sorcerers’ apprentice and remix Disney music.
Fable Legends came up next. In this new fable, you play as one hero from a group. It looks like they each have their own weapons an abilities. I thought this was a little odd until I saw the gameplay video. It almost looks like Gauntlet, but in the Fable universe. Also, a fifth person gets to play as the villian. As the villian you can control traps and tricks to try and kill off the heros. It is definitely a unique twist onto the fable world but one that looks like it could be very enjoyable. If it sounds really cool to you, then try to get into the beta this fall.
Project Spark was the next game on the list. The graphics are great and very cartoony and gives the game a fun vibe. It seems to be a game in which you get to create… well possibly everything. They didn’t really say much about it. Just that there were a lot of creators. Oh, and Conker is gonna be in it too. You may not remember the foul mouthed squirrel since he hasn’t been seen since his game on the Nintendo 64. I have a feeling some of his fans are upset that he isn’t getting a sequel. Maybe we can still hope for one.
Ori is another game we don’t know much about. It looks like a beautiful sidescroller though. I’m definitely going to keep my ears open for more news on this in the future.
And the moment we all knew was coming……Halo! Halo 5 Guardians was shown off today and it looks nice. The story sounds to be picking up where Halo 4 left off and has Master Chief looking for the truth. Not much else was mentioned but then they announced The Master Chief Collection!
The Master Chief Collection contains Halo Combat Evolved, Halo 2, 3, and 4. It contains everything unlocked from all 4 games. The cool thing about the multiplayer is that every map ever playable from the halo series is in this collection in updated HD graphics, but they keep the same engine they used in its original game. Oh, and if you don’t want your memories of Halo 2 multiplayer ruined don’t worry as the original Halo 2 multiplayer experience is available untouched from is original version as well. This collection also will come with the Halo 5 beta as well as the digital series Halo Nightfall.
Its tough to follow up Halo, but the game Inside was next. It was made by the studio that made Limbo, and it has that same eerie sidescrolling feel. Its going to be one to look out for.
The also talked about Microsofts support of Indie developers. This is a program called ID@Xbox. They briefly talked about what the program entails, and then showed a montage of games made using this program, and it looked like there was a great mix of genres in it. I I didn’t get to write down all of the names but here is a list of some coming:
Knight Squad
Earthlock
Lifeless Planet
Mighty No. 9
Rise of the Tomb Raider had an announcement video but nothing more. It showed Lara talking with a psychiatrist and glimpses of her exploring tombs. If it is anything like the last one, we can expect great things.
We were shown a mission of the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. In it you were tracking a griffin. it has an expansive open world and events you can chose to solve or run past. It was my impression that the result of your actions will affect the game world, so if expanded upon that would be an awesome mechanic.
Any Phantom Dust fans out there? Well, it is going to be one on the Xbox One. I never had heard of, or played the original, so I don’t really have much to go on for this, but the video showed two people with glowing auras about to fight, so if thats your thing, keep an eye out.
Tom Clancy’s The Division was next and it showed a gameplay video. It seems to have some mechanics where you can possibly see how long it has been since people were in an area. I could be completely wrong but thats what it looked like to me. The shooting seemed also as well, with ample cover and passage ways to use in each fight. I think that it will be good, but even better if it offers up a co op experience.
Platinum Games came out next and announced a new game called Scalebound. This was my favorite video from the show. You have guy, armed with a sword and crossbow, running away from a giant monster only for another monster to attach the first monster. The guy/hero then gets some fighting in only for a third dragon, or dragon like monster, come into the picture. It is an Xbox One exclusive and may have just sold me on the system as well.
And we have one final game for this show. Crackdown. It looks amazing, but was only titled Crackdown. There was no word on if it was a remake, reboot, or a third game in the series but the trailer showed that there will still be agents fighting crime and with cooler, flashier graphics.
Overall Microsoft had a good conference. It gave me a few reasons to buy an Xbox One. Though they did pretty much nothing with Kinect or what any future plans might be. Overall I think was a smart move as many fans have spoken out about not wanting Kinect, though i do think that it would have nice to hear a little about the future of Xbox.