Microsoft’s E3 Show and Rating

Microsoft knew they had to come hard and be all about games after the horrendous Xbox One reveal, and that’s exactly what they did. But did it work?

Metal Gear Solid 5: Microsoft kicked the game off with Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain, and boy does it look amazingly good, however, it’s also coming to PS4. It seems like MS and Sony have switched lovers with Sony courting Bungie, and Microsoft courting Kojima.

New Xbox 360: A new Xbox 360 model, based on the Xbox One, and will be available starting today. Beginning July first Gold members will receive 2 free games per month, starting with Assassin’s Creed 2 and Halo 3.

3 new Xbox 360 titles.

World of Tanks Xbox 360 edition: a free to play tank based shooter.
Max the cure of brotherhood, a platformer.
Dark Souls 2: Sequel to Dark Souls.

Ryse Son of Rome: Graphically the game is very impressive which is expected coming from Cryteck. The gameplay looks like a mix of Dark Souls and The Mark of Kri, maybe not the best two games to mix, but it worked. It also seemed to be a bit RTS-like controlling an entire army. It seems very repetitive based on the demo, so hopefully there will be more to break up to constant parry, cut, press a button to execute. Confirmed Launch title.

Killer Instinct: OMFG. It looks about as good as Mortal Kombat on Xbox 360, but it’s still Killer Instinct. After a second look it looks like Moartal Kombat on PC with amazing particle effects.

Insomniac: Ohhhh. Burn. MS wrote some checks out today. Kojima and Ted price.

Insomniac’s games: Sunset Overdrive. Crazy weapons check.

Forza Motorsport 5: Driveatar, a built-in AI system that learns how you drive to improve your speed and style in races (basically easy mode, with readable clues in games). The game looks good enough, but not wowing like Metal Gear Solid 5 and Ryse were. More like Forza 4.5 than a true evolution.

Minecraft Xbox One Edition: Minecraft ported for the Xbox One, they graphics are so.....Minecraft :D

Quantum Break: It’s confirmed as a game and TV shows. Your choices in the game affects the how the events happen in the TV shows when you watch it (meaning it should be different for everyone). Interesting premise, but well see how it turns out.

D4: A Cell-Shaded episodic murder mystery. Looks very Japanese.

Project Spark: Seems very Little Big Planet like, but more like the Media Molecule presentation at the Sony conference. You can build you own level, and based on the demon it’s very easy and intuitive being build in a less than a minute (with extreme experience). You can use smart glass to further sculpt and model you game. You can morph and shape the land realtime. The demo was horribly cheesy, and the game looks very childish, but the technology looks amazing. “Play, Build, Share” was their motto. Hmmm, should have just stole “Play, Create, Share”.

Next-gen Smart Glass: Natively build in the Xbox One. You can start games, set-up multiplayer, look at achievements, and much more. Watch DVR clips of you and your friends gameplay run throughs. Smart Glass can help match you up against players of similar level, reputation, and skill.

Upload Studio: Record, slightly edit, and upload gameplay footage. Xbox One uses Kinect and Twitch TV for it’s uploads.

Xbox Live: Everyone in your household can share your Xbox Live Gold Account. YA!

Crimson Dragon: LMAO the trailer to Crimson Dragon played by itself with no audio whatever.

Dead Rising 3. Looks like a bit like Dead Island graphically with a more gamey look. Seems a bit more serious this time around (THANK YOU). Hundreds of Zombies on the streets and they’re vicious (YES). A real Open World this time, with “no loading”. Gameplay looks significantly better, but animations could use some work. The protagonist talks to himself too much. Driving is your best way around the city, but driving through hoards will impair movement. Smart glass, can be used to assist you with artillery support. Coming this holiday.

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt: You can cast spells through smart glass. A completely Open World, that’s graphically as impressive as the Witcher 2 and maybe a step ahead.

Battlefield 4: Second Assault: 60 fps confirmed for Xbox One.

Trailer was being played, then stopped. Quote “Well will start over”. The trailer still won’t play “It’ll happen, I’m fine”. Unruly crowd. A good 2 minute pause, and finally a trailer.

Back to the reveal.

Looks phenomenal. Best looking game thus far. This is Next-gen ladies and gentlemen. The graphics of the PC reveal running at 4K 60fps are almost held up here (although side by side should prove otherwise), and while it’s not 4k it still looks amazing. Destruction, effects, the flow of the ocean, water effects, explosions, gameplay. This is it. Battlefield 4 has stole Microsoft's show. Wow. Simply Wow. Call of Duty is in trouble.

First Map Pack DLC first.

Below: An Indie game, I can’t even explain this. It looks like a platformer.

Black Tusk’s game: In-engine trailer. Looks like old Splinter Cell, we’ll have to see more.

Halo 5: Game trailer, but nothing really impressive. Halo 5 will run at 60 fps.

Xbox One: Launch November 2013 for $499.

TitalFall: The trailer looks like Vanquished meets Call of Duty meets Terminator. Robots have taking over and you’re the resistance trying to defend yourselves. Actual gameplay looks very much like Call of Duty which is what I should have expected. Graphically it looks like Call of Duty on PC max settings. You can glide around with jetpacks, and fight in mech’s that seem very mobile.

Kinect Sports Rivals:-----?: Just a trailer
Metal Gear Solid 5:-----A reveal: Amazing job Kojima
Ryse: B reveal: ----- Looks good, but needs more showings
Killer Instinct: ----- B reveal: Looks good but not wowing, but it’s freaking KI
Sunset Overdrive: -----?: just a trailer
Forza 5: ----- B reveal: Looks decent but more like Forza 4.5
Mincreaft Xbox One: ----- It’s Minecraft
Quantum Break: ----- B- reveal: Potential but not enough details yet
D4: ----- Just a trailer
Project Spark: ----- C+ reveal: Looks very creative, but maybe not a great game
Crimson Dragon: -----?: Just a trailer
Dead Rising 3: ----- A- reveal: Looks like a true zombie game, and finally mature.
The Witcher 3: ----- B- reveal: More of a trailer, but it is a huge RPG
Battlefield 4: ----- A+ reveal: WOW is all I have to say, go watch it if you missed it.
Below: ----- D reveal: There was no explanation, and it looked average at best.
Black Tusk’s Game: -----?: Just a trailer
Halo 5: -----?: Just a trailer
TitanFall: ----- B+ reveal: The game looks solid, but looks like an evolution of COD.

Microsoft’s did a great job showing the games. It was game after game after game. You can tell they didn’t want what happened at their Xbox One reveal to happen again, so they went all out. But I felt the entire thing was just far too rushed, and the pacing was horrible which is surprising because pacing is usually what they nail. There was little time to grasp anything, because it was one game barrage after another which is great, but doesn’t allow you to relish in the moment.

Moving on to the content, what was shown was overall solid. Microsoft’s first party games were.....basically the same with the 360. Microsoft’s first party devs. Are decent, but they just can’t compete with Sony’s and Nintendo’s in my opinion. The 3rd parties really carried this E3 for Microsoft with Metal Gear Solid 5, Dead Rising 3, and Battlefield 4 stealing the show (especially Battlefield 4). Microsoft didn’t show me a reason to excuse them from all the restrictions built into their, but they did show games and games that their audience will love to play.

This was a good E3 for Microsoft. They did exactly what they needed to do, and that was show games. Kinect and Smart Glass seem like complete ideas this time and will aid your overall game experience rather than being annoyances. Xbox Live Gold will now offer 2 free games a month like PS+ which is a nice bonus to 360 users, but there’s no confirmation on whether this will apply to the Xbox One although it’s very likely.

This was a really good E3 performance from Microsoft excluding the demos that had trouble running, but I don’t think it’s a winning performance unless Sony, Nintendo (can we count them), and 3rd parties just don’t deliver. However, the conference was empty on information and confirmation of services that we as consumers should rightfully be concerned about, and as I said the best games shown were all 3rd party, although 2 of my top 5 were third party exclusives (are they returning in masses this gen). Microsoft still has a lot of work to do with the console releasing this November, and at a $499 price point which rightfully turned some people off (thanks to required Kinect we can’t get a $399 version). Good job Microsoft, but you still need to improve your first party developers, and get your service issues under control, because that’s still preventing me and others from buying your console.

Overall MS E3: B

My Top 5 games of the conference:

1. Battlefield 4
2. Metal Gear Soild 5
3. Dead Rising 3 (huge surprise to me, I hated the others)
4. TitanFall
5. Killer Instinct