E3 2013: Is Microsoft the One?

Yes it’s that time of the year again. The year game fans and journalists go to LA if they can, but mostly the year a lot of game fans sit down behind their PC or TV and watch the event from home. Of course I’m talking about the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The coming week I will cover every press conference which could be seen per live stream. At the end of each post, I will leave a playlist with shown trailers on stage at the conferences.

As usual, Microsoft kicked off, this time with their Xbox One. A lot of people were watching tense to spot a word of “TV” in the presentation, but Microsoft did good. They showed a beautiful line-up of third-party and exclusive titles. It seems they had a smart strategy, showing off their TV and all-round entertainment functions on the XboxReveal, leaving most time on E3 for games. Games, games, games, games.

Konami is dating Microsoft now?!

The opener of their presentation was very strong: Hideo Kojima got up on stage and showed a video of the newest Metal Gear Solid (You know, that game series that was planned to be cancelled around 4573628 times..). Apparently it’s going to be a lot more open world than before. With strong statements like “real-time weather”, “a new breed of stealth”, “dynamic CQC” and “unparalleled strategic freedom” the game breathed next generation. Whether these terms are pure marketing talk is of course not possible to know yet, but we do know one thing. Konami and Metal Gear Solid are not exclusively PlayStation anymore. It even seems they have more with Microsoft, considering they showed off their game on their conference. Very fun fact: the new voice actor for Snake is none other than Kiefer Sutherland!

So Snake looks better than ever..

We are not yet done with the Xbox 360…

It seemed Microsoft learned from their mistake with dropping support for the first Xbox so soon and so they announced some new interesting things for the Xbox 360. For starters, a new model is coming out, if you still want to buy one. This Xbox 360 is heavily influenced by the Xbox One design and seems to be shipped with Kinect. Oh, and it is available since yesterday! Secondly, Xbox Live Gold members who stay member for prolonged periods of time, will receive 2 free games per month, starting July 1^st. The first ones will be Assassin’s Creed II and Halo 3, not the least titles. Furthermore, they claimed that at least over one hundred games will still release for Xbox 360 this year. So yeah, buying that new model is still worth something.

How do I look?

Then something happened. A CEO got on stage. Things were getting exciting… Was this the scoop of the century?

No, it was not.

As exciting as some people might have found it, I could not care less about this announcement. World of Tanks, a Free2Play PC title is being tailored for Xbox 360 exclusively this summer. I might give it a try, but it’s not what I was watching this conference for. Two other games that I do want to play ( and was watching for) are Dark Souls II and Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, though. The first one is a sequel to the critically acclaimed open world RPG Dark Souls, which has cost a lot of controllers in living rooms. One of the most aggravating hard games made in a long time, the producers claimed this one is going to be even more challenging. Ouch. Max: The Curse of Brotherhood had the looks of a good Pixar movie, but game play seemed interesting enough for adult players. We’ll have to wait to see more. I’m interested.

Dark Souls II and Max: The Curse of Brotherhood

Xbox One: Rome, Racing and Retro

Finally, it was Xbox One’s turn. What would Microsoft have in store for us? Many goodies, I can tell you that. They started off with an exclusive developed by Crytek (Crysis series), called Ryse: Son of Rome. It looked absolutely stunning. When the trailer flawlessly turned into game play, showcasing that the graphics were just as good as in the trailer, I was sold. No CGI! It seemed to become a simple hack ‘n’ slash game with Quick Time Events, but I don’t care. It’s a Roman Era setting, for Caesar’s sake! The game play video showed a shield charge with arrows flying everywhere and a lot of gruesome, aggressive combat. You play as Marius Titus, a legion commander. Did I mention I want to play it?

What could be a great add-on to such a good start? Maybe a popular old skool fighter like Killer Instinct, made by Rare exclusively for the Xbox One? Probably. On stage they showed some real cool looking game play with two players. The remark of the man playing was maybe a bit too much (“Just let it happen… It will all be over soon.”), but besides that the show was rolling. Xbox One has potential.

Killer Instinct and Ryse: Son of Rome

And of course Forza Motorsport 5 was shown. To spice up the show, a fancy car was pulled up onto the stage and more gameplay was shown. The game looked better than ever, but the talk about Drivatars annoyed me. Basically an “Avatar” of you is created when you race, that will influence the artificial intelligence of the game-controlled competitors, making it more realistic. Or something like that. It all sounded like a lot of PR talk, and well, as I wrote a few times, I don’t like that. I want to see to believe.

Oh right, Minecraft Xbox One Edition was announced as well. But I did not see the relevance of it, to be honest. Not sure if it was an exclusive, but it looked like it.

CARS! Well, Forza.

More exclusives!!

What could top those awesome exclusives? Even more exclusives! Hidetaka Suehiro, also known by the name of Swery65 on the Internet, was announced to make an exclusive episodic murder mystery for Xbox One, called D4. Since Swery and his team AccesGames also created the Survival Horror “Deadly Premonitions”, this is very interesting. That game was praised for being innovative in horror, a wide open game, as well as being artful. Sounds promising for D4.

Another interesting exclusive was Project Spark. At first the game reminded me of LittleBigPlanet, since it was said to be a game where you build your own game. But after seeing game play it looked quite distinct. It’s hard to explain, so if this does not make sense, I’d like to refer to the video in the playlist in this post for clarification. Basically, you create the landscape of your game, the setting, the enemies and the characters. In doing so, you can theoretically create games from Angry Birds to League of Legends, or Rayman to Snake. Just use your imagination. Using SmartGlass integration you can give your creations just that extra distinct look. Oh, and you can create a pet rock. Isn’t that lovely.

Remedy was also back on stage and showcased more of their revealed exclusive Quantum Break. It looked amazing and according to people from the studio, it’s supposed to be an experience blurring the lines between video games and television. It seems that your decisions while playing the game affect the story, which is shown as a television series. Or something like that. It looked amazing, just have a look.

Insomniac (known from Spyro, Jak&Daxter) was also at the conference to show-case their new IP – exclusively for Xbox One – called Sunset Overdrive. It felt like Jet Set Radio meets Bulletstorm in a wonderful new style. I loved the visuals of it. Probably my surprise of the show. It was fast, dynamic and  incredibly different.

Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive, Project Spark, D4

Dead Rising 3, Battlefield 4 & The Witcher 3

Yes, a new Dead Rising has been confirmed. Exclusively for Xbox One, this open world zombie killer game will feature no loading times and even more creative ways to deal with zombies. According to Capcom, it has three times as much zombies as Dead Rising 2. Considering the size of that game, that is quite amazing if it’s true. Some game play was shown, which will be in the playlist at the end of this post.

Furthermore Battlefield 4 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt were shown. Due to some technical problems, the footage for Battlefield 4 had to wait for a minute, which made people laugh. But afterwards they didn’t laugh anymore. They screamed and yelled, because it looked a-ma-zing. A whole skyscraper was brought down as a climax. Go see for yourself. An interesting announcement here: the Second Assault add-on for Battefield 4 will be timed exclusive for Xbox One. Oh, the deals Microsoft must have made for all that exclusivity.  Good thing they’re packing enough money.

The Witcher 3 seemed to show off the same amazing Eastern European style of medieval times as 1 and 2 did, with increased free roaming elements and a non linear story. Also optional voice command via Kinect was announced. Absolutely stunning looking game. This game, which is based on a book by Andrzej Sapkowski, will be released for Xbox One and Playstation 4.

Dead Rising 3, Battlefield 4, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

More exclusives and two huge announcements

It seemed Microsoft understood the message they got at the XboxReveal. You want games, you’re going to get them, so much was clear. From the creators of Sword & Sorcery, a new Indie game called “What Lies Below” was shown. Black Tusk Studios was also working on an exclusive title, but no title seemed to have been shown. More interesting for now was the announcement of yet another Halo. Probably the fifth one, this small teaser trailer showed Master Chief walking through the desert with a robe which reminded me of Journey. People were guessing what the hell this game was, up to the point that the robe was dropped. Chief’s helmet was shining in the sun and people were happy. Halo for Microsoft is like God of War for Sony, or Mario for Nintendo; if a new one gets announced, fans will be happy.

And then there was also the case of Respawn Entertainment.. A company founded by Jason West and Vince Zampella after they left Infinity Ward, because of legal conflicts with publisher Activision. These guys worked before at the success that was called Medal of Honor and were responsible for the crazy sales that Call of Duty got after part 4: Modern Warfare. It’s safe to say that their new game – Titanfall – is going to score. It looks like a generic mech game, but small little details like a jetpack and free-running styled gameplay might just be what’s needed to gain success. Oh, and once again, it’s an exclusive for Xbox One.

Halo 5 and Titanfall

Some last interesting facts

To wrap up here are some other interesting facts about the Xbox One:
– Microsoft Points will be replaced by real currency, meaning transactions should be easier to make.
– A game called Crimson Dragon was shown as well, but since the audio did not work due to a technical failure, they did not say anything else about it. The developers must have cried, poor guys.
– SmartGlass functions were shown with games like Dead Rising 3, where artillery support could be called in. It can also show game hints, leader boards, snapshots of friends statuses and other details.
– The Xbox One is scheduled to release in November this year.
– The Xbox One is going to cost 499 Euros/£429/$499 at release.

If you are wondering right now: But what about Sony? Don’t worry. I’ll join the console wars after I’ve covered every conference separately. Next up is Electronic Arts.

The playlist with all shown gameplay footage at the conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9_Y6JDW-NU&list=PLui09PBI_eanwVtVG68mkMPT6Ji15kEhY