2 months after ‘The Big One’ – E3, it’s time for Microsoft to present its next big conference at Gamescom. In their own words, they had so much to show this year, that they had to split it between two shows. So we got the 2015 side of their Greatest Games Line-up in History at E3, now it was time to look at the 2016 side of things. I was quite excited for this conference, I wasn’t expecting the same level as E3, but I was very much looking forward to seeing the likes of Quantum Break and Crackdown, and to get a bit more information on the whole Windows 10/Xbox One thing. Let’s take a look at what went down.
To start off, we had the obligatory gaming montage, a ‘must have’ for any gaming presentation showing us everything that was to come from Xbox, before Gregor Bieler of Microsoft Germany came to the stage to greet the audience of Cologne in German before making way for Phil Spencer to take centre stage. He talked about Microsoft’s commitment to both the console and PC market space before saying that the Greatest Game Line-up started with Rare Replay which was released on the day, and that this conference would start with looking at the games that would be joining Sea of Thieves, Recore and Gears of War 4 in 2016. So let’s take a look at what went down.
Quantum Break
The game I was probably most looking forward to seeing opened the show, and I was very impressed by what I saw. What started off looking like any other third person cover based shooter soon changed when the time bending powers were put on display, it was a fresh new take on the third person action game and with the in game show, and runs concurrently with the game itself, it’ll lead to something that for me will feel very new. They’ve hired in well known actors, one of which – Shawn Ashmore, came on stage to tell us that the game focuses on the heroes, but the live action segments focuses on the villains of the story. Quantum Break wasn’t beaten for me and was my game of the show for sure. I just hope that it lives up to my now sky high expectations. It’s exactly what I want – a new game that feels new and different. Also, on another note, it graphically looks fantastic, but I tend to reserve judgement until actual release now, especially after the Watch Dogs debacle. It’s being released on April 6th 2016. Take a look at the video below
Crackdown 3
Didn’t show a huge amount of this and what was shown didn’t get me as excited as I thought it would. I love the first Crackdown game, and still hold high hopes for Crackdown 3, but the main aim of the trailer seemed to be to show of the destructible environment in multiplayer which harnesses the power of the Xbox Cloud which allows you to get 20 times the power of your Xbox One console apparently. I’m sure I will enjoy it, and I’ll definitely pick it up, but it didn’t seem like the leap forward I thought it would be, but a big new city full of destruction is bound to be fun regardless. And I’m sure they will show more over the coming months to keep me enticed. That being said, the idea of a transforming vehicle does sound cool.
Scalebound
Perhaps unsurprisingly Microsoft stuck all three of their 2016 big guns at the start of the conference, with the last of which being a first gameplay footage look at Scalebound from Platinum Games, a developer who currently have such a great reputation after their work on the Bayonetta games and Metal Gear Rising Revengeance. The gameplay showed the combat in the game featuring our hero Drew and his dragon Thuban. There seems to be a light hearted nature to the conversation in game, and the combat as expected is smooth. While you don’t seem to control the dragon directly, it looks like you use buttons to command actions. And there seemed to be some sort of loot system, though it may be few and far between. Finishing the fight sequence was a battle against another large monster, followed by the reveal that there would be 4 player co-op with the game. I’m all for co-op games so I’ll be keeping an eye on how this will work, but it looked like the other player had a different dragon/monster with them, so there may be an element of customisation available here. That is just pure speculation on my part though. Platinum Games look to be onto another winner here, and that can only be a massive positive for Xbox One owners.
The games slowed down after this, when Mike Ybarra (Head of Platform Engineering) took to the stage to let us know about new features coming to Xbox. Opening this segment was the reveal that DVR would be available for Free to Air TV in 2016. This will be a free service that will allow you to record your favourite shows, and use popular feature on regular set top boxes such as series recording. You can do this in the background while playing games, or if your Xbox is using the ‘instant on’ feature. You’ll also be able to access your recordings on your Windows 10 PC and download them to your devices to watch on the go. While the Xbox message has diverted swiftly from the ‘entertainment’ aspect it seems as though they are still committed to it, which in all honesty is great, because with their sole focus being games, and still adding the entertainment stuff, we get the best of both worlds. And for people not having a main stream TV service, the Xbox is turning into a genuinely viable option for their TV needs.
I’ll quick fire through the next few points. There will be a new chat pad for the Xbox One controller, good addition for those who like to do their web browsing, or find themselves messaging friends a lot. All future Xbox 360 games with gold will be backward compatible, which means there will be more free games available each month for people who just own the Xbox One console – nice. And on that note, backwards compatibility will be available for everyone in November, along with a brand new Windows 10 inspired dashboard, which I along with many other I’m sure am very much looking forward to. And some quick Windows 10/Xbox One game news – Killer Instinct Season 3 will be released on both Xbox One and Windows 10 in March, and Rash from Battletoads joins the game from today.
ID@Xbox
I always look forward to hearing more about the indie games. The most unique games tend to come from the independent developers and there was plenty here to get gamers excited, with games coming to both Xbox One and Windows 10. The segment opened with the Kickstarter funded (over $5.5 million!!) Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, but I was disappointed to not see any gameplay for the amount of time they took on stage. I was very surprised with the announcement that Cities Skylines was coming to console. It’ll be interesting to see how they adapt the controls for a city builder for a control pad. There was a nice list of games coming soon – Beyond Eyes, Escapists – Walking Dead, Yooka-Laylee, Worms and many more. They even had Ron Gilbert on stage to introduce his new point and click adventure Thimbleweed Park which harks back to the old school PC pixelated point and click adventures he is famous for. We then got more information on the Xbox Preview Program which Sheltered available today, and Ark: Survival Evolved (which I LOVE the look of) available this winter. Starbound and We Happy Few (a funky looking horror game) are also coming to the platform at some point in the future. I’d love to be able to put a few more videos of the aforementioned games, but I fear it will take up far too much space. So have a look on YouTube for some trailer of some great looking games. In the meantime, take in this montage
Jasmine Lawrence from the Xbox One Engineering Team came on to talk about Windows 10’s impact on gamers, and introduced a very pretty tech demo from Square Enix. There was also talk about the Xbox to PC interaction. Voice and text chat is available between both platforms as are cloud saves. A big plus is the cross buy/play. Buying a copy of Gigantic on Xbox will also allow you to play on PC without shelling out again. The idea of playing a game on Xbox, saving to the cloud, then picking up the same game and save on PC is a great prospect. It was also announced that many of the big Xbox games will be coming to PC, using Sea of Thieves from Rare as an example. Whether or not all games will come under the cross buy umbrella is yet to be seen. It’d be nice to be able to play the all these games that are coming to both platforms, on both platform with only a single transaction. Long term thinking here – when the next generation of consoles come out and I get rid of the Xbox One for a new one, I’d like to be able to boot up my PC and have access to my game old game collection.
Cobalt
Mojang came out and talked about that really popular game that everyone but me seems to love – Minecraft, and their Windows 10 version of the game that is currently in beta. But they also announced a new side scrolling adventure game – Cobalt, which is an Xbox One console exclusive.
Dark Souls 3 was up next with another World Premier video. It looked very Dark Souls-y? Which I’m sure fans of the game will be very happy with. For me, Dark Souls has been a game that I’ve admired from afar. I plunged into the second when I reviewed it, but I’ve not got the time these days to commit to mastering a game with that level of difficulty. I will always admire them for what they are, but won’t ever commit to purchasing I doubt.
Homefront: The Revolution
I was very surprised to see this Homefront make an appearance. I really enjoyed the first game, I liked the premise of the game, and while it was nothing mind-blowing it’s a game that I’ve been looking forward to a sequel to for a while. And I was happy enough with what I saw. It was a bit generic at time, but for some reason I just seem to be ‘on board’ with the story of the game, and I love an open world. It’s gritty and dark, and while there don’t seem to be doing anything new, I’m pretty confident I will enjoy my time with it.
The majority of the remainder of the conference went by without much of note. FIFA 16 features on Xbox with EA access were all very predictable (Legend players, 10% saving on FUT with Access, Play up to a week early etc.), a look at Halo 5 Guardians which is STILL not doing it for me. Don’t get me wrong, I will be buying it, but nothing that I’ve seen has really gotten me as excited as Microsoft wants me to be for it if that makes sense? And showing off a new map in esports fashion wasn’t going to change that for me. Every time I see a FPS with ‘gaming commentary’ it really makes me cringe. Just Cause 3 made a much better impression on me than it did during E3 where it felt like the biggest bag of ‘meh’ it could have done. Forza 6 showed off some lovely looking puddles and rain – I’m sure that will mean something to someone, and Rainbow Six Siege made an appearance. I could probably go into more on all of that, but I don’t think there is really a huge amount to talk about.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
FINALLY some footage not in the snow. This looks a lot like a progression from the previous game, rather than an evolution, but maaaaan it looks so good. A big hitter for Microsoft with it being an exclusive for a year before it appears on the Playstation. I think they made a mistake with what they showed for the E3 trailer but this more than made up for it. I’m not going to say anything else, just look (thanks to Eurogamer for the video):
Halo Wars 2
I thought Gears of War was destined to close this show, and when 343 came out I thought ‘more Halo 5’, but NO! A new Halo Wars game! Now I never finished the first but I remember it being one of those rare RTS games that genuinely worked on console. And I’m all for looking more into the Halo universe. Nothing really revealed other than a tease, but I’m sure fans will be licking their lips at this. It’s also going to be on Windows 10!
So that’s that, Gamescom done for Microsoft, and while it didn’t have the same buzz as the E3 conference it was still a very strong showing. I think there is plenty here for Xbox owners and Windows 10 adopters to look forward to. I for one am very excited for the future of the brand. What are your thoughts? Head over to our forum to let us know!