Microsoft doesn’t hold back on the games as it opened E3 2014 with a solid show. The company made their case for buying an Xbox One, but what really sold me with this conference is that Microsoft didn’t try to sell the audience on the console itself. It did so indirectly, announcing exclusives while focusing all their attention on software instead of hardware or entertainment apps like HBO Go or ESPN.
The show opened with a safe bet in the form of a stage demo of Call of Duty: Advance Warfare. Other than the beautiful visuals, it looked like the narrow corridor first-person-shooter we’ve come to expect from the series. Not necessarily a bad thing, as I’m a sucker for a good sci-fi war story. The gameplay demo was grim, showing plenty of soldiers fighting with future tech in close quarters combat. Then there was a dismembered arm that I somehow missed but everyone on Twitter couldn’t stop talking about.
I would like to say the show became a little more adventurous, but Microsoft continued to play it safe. With Forza: Horizon 2, and Assassins Creed Unity showings, it was to be expected that the triple A games coming this year would be at the front of the show. Unity showed off some co-op gameplay that looks great, but I’ve never been compelled to touch that series so I was not the target audience for that part of the show.
We saw new trailers for Evolve and Dragon Age Inquisition. Both games look interesting, especially Inquisition which seems like it’s been talked about for quite a while now. Inquisition is due out Oct 7, 2014.
Insomniac stepped on the stage with Ted Price to show off gameplay of their Xbox One exclusive, Sunset Overdrive. Overdrive is a mix of Jet Set Radio, Lollipop Chainsaw, third person shooters,and the best of Insomniac. I wish I can say more about this game, but unfortunately I have not had hands on. However,game looked fun up on stage, so I’m excited to hear more after all the E3 impressions come in over the week.
The weird was in attendance at the show as well. Project Spark, the build your own world/game similar to Little Big Planet finally showed off some more gameplay in its new trailer. But the trailer was followed by announcing Conker, the bad-mouthed squirrel from Conker’s Bad Fur Day will be a playable character in Project Spark. I love Conker, he’s one of my favorite video game character. He deserves his own game! Where’s old school Rare when you need it?
Dead Rising 3 is receiving some DLC too: Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha. Yeah, I don’t know what that is either. Apparently it features all of the Dead Rising characters in arcade style gameplay set in the DR world. Whatever.
343 Industries officially announced Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The collection features Halo 1-4 for Xbox One, as well as the beta for Halo 5 in December, and the live action Halo, Halo:Nightfall. Since I never touched the series, the Master Chief Collection would be a good start when I finally pick up an Xbox One.
Microsoft transitioned into their 2015 lineup by showing off a few indie titles I’m very excited about. The first one was Ori and the Blind Forest. Not much is known about this title outside of its gameplay trailer. But its art style reminded me of the games developed on Ubisoft’s Framework engine. The hand drawn art style is beautiful and I can’t wait to see more.The game is in development from Moon studios.
Playdead Games showed off their spiritual successor to their film-noir, monochrome classic, Limbo. I loved Limbo, and their new title, Inside, already looks like a new indie favorite. The game is set in a dystopian world, from the looks of the gameplay trailer. It’s set for an early 2015 release.
Jumping into their 2015 lineup, a new Tomb Raider was announced. Rise of the Tomb raider is due out in Holiday 2015, and it looks to continue the dark, gritty tone set in the Tomb Raider 2013 reboot. We also saw a gameplay demo of Witcher 3 which looked incredible. I’ve never touched the series, but I’m on board with this new title.
The show ended with a trailer for Crackdown. The series returns after the lackluster release of Crack 2 in 2010. Not much to say with this one, but fans of the Xbox exclusive will be happy to see the series come back.
A few other bullet points from the show:
- Platnium games has new exclusive for Xbox One, Scalebound.
- The Division made its return with another gameplay demo. I can’t get a read on this game with its scripted demo. All these on stage demos are scripted, but The Division seems lost with this year’s and last year’s demo.
- Fable Legends was announced, and it showed off co-op gameplay.
- Harmonix announced Dance Central Spotlight, a digital only title releasing in September. We’ll see if Microsoft dropping Kinect from the Xbox One as a bundle will hurt Spotlight and Fantasia, another Kinect game from Harmonix.
- Microsoft showed play a sizzle reel of other indie titles coming to Xbox One. Some really interesting titles in reel were shown. I can’t wait.
Overall, the show was safe, but good. I love Phil Spencer’s presence on stage, we just needed a little more of him. He was great break form the executive monologues we’ve come to expect at E3.
