E3 2015: Microsoft Press Conference

You probably already watched the Microsoft press conference. If not, the video of it is linked above. This post will not offer pictures and will be more of a chronicle of my (Dr. S) experience than a full coverage of the press conference.
Microsoft starts with Halo 5.
I still remember MCC. NEEEEXT! Playable at E3 though.

New exclusive. Recore. Only a render trailer though. Looks cute.

Phil Spencer throwing buzzwords. PR speak, PR speak, PR speak. Oh, and btw Phil, one game does not make a franchise!
BOOM!!!
360 backwards compatibility. Available this holiday, for free, including a jab towards Sony.

Also a new Xbox One controller called Elite. Offers some customization and other features. More on that in the future

Fallout 4 is next, but we covered that already. Oh, one big news though: Mods created on the PC will be available on the Xbox One.
Microsoft is having a run. Can Sony mount a counter?

Mr. Moore talking EA Access. Titanfall and Dragon Age: Inquisition coming to the vault. Nice, if you don’t already have them.
People who own XBL Gold get 1 week of EA Access for free after E3.
And Garden Warfare 2 is coming next spring. Only a render trailer.

Forza 6, featuring the new Ford GT. No, Xbox is not the home of racing, that’s still the PC.
Forza will run at 1080p/60. And it’s a racing game. Coming September 15th.

Dark Souls 3 is having its “World Premiere”, funnily enough we already talked about it on the last Twinstiq Podcast.

The folks behind Uplay show The Division. Will we learn something new about it? No.

Gigantic. A Windows 10 and Xbox One exclusive. F2P, with a beta in August.

Now follows an Indie Showcase. Couple of games that are already out on the PC.
Tacoma gets shown, from Fullbright, the folks behind Gone Home. Looks of course nowhere near as good as the teaser trailer previously shown, but I'm still interested. Coming 2016.

Aurora 44 with their game Ashen. I get a certain Ico mixed with The Last Guardian mixed with Shadow of the Colossus vibe from it.

Beyond Eyes by tiger& squid. Can’t say much about it, besides: it was bright.

CUPHEAD! By Studio MDHR. Been looking forward to this one since it was first announced. It’s the game that looks like an old cartoon.

Xbox Game Preview, the Xbox version of Early Access. DayZ is joining Xbox Game Preview.. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Not the biggest fan of Early Access, although I can see the benefits. Microsoft hasn't said anything about refunds, so that could be an issue.“I want a game that is not a game. I want a game that is a universe” from the guy who is a grenade, Dean Hall. The game that is not a game is called "Ion" and it’s set in space. That’s all we know.

Rise of the Tomb Raider, Holiday 2015. It looks good and I enjoyed the first one. Probably won’t buy it for the XBO, unless they announce 1080p/60 now. You can waste your money MS and I can wait. Game itself looks very much like the previous one, plus added tomb raiding. So that’s good!

Rare…reanimating the corpse?
Rare Replay, featuring 30 games. August 4th. Includes some Viva Pinata game. I’m sold.
Guy talks on stage about Rare evolving over time. I’m sure he meant devolving. But let’s see, he has something new from Rare. Looks like a Pirate multiplayer game. Could be cool. It’s called Sea of Thieves.

Fable: Legends. Love the soundtrack. The game itself will probably be fine, but I’m a huge fan of the Fable series, even enjoyed 3, and would rather see a real RPG from them.
Cross-platform multiplayer for Fable: Legends.

Microsoft not only supporting Oculus, but also the Vive from Valve/HTC. And then there is the Hololens.
The Hololens with Minecraft demo looks cool. Not because of Minecraft, but because Microsoft seems to have really figured out AR.

Back to Xbox One with Gears of War.
GoW Ultimate Edition. Multiplayer Beta starting today. Those servers will be toast.
Gameplay from a new Gears of War. Looks like Gears. Hardly any progress since the last one. The animations are stiff, the graphics underwhelming, the gore looks like on the 360. Gears of War 4 confirmed. Wow, this was bad. I really liked the first 3 Gears games, but this?

A new Xbox One UI is coming. More games during Gamescom.

And that’s it.

So, overall feelings: I highly doubt their “best exclusives” promise from the beginning. Halo 5 could be cool, Forza 6 was very light on information, Gears looked really bad. Rise of Tomb Raider looked really good, but that’s only a timed exclusive. Rare Replay was probably one of the best things when it comes to games.
On the not strictly games side however, Microsoft really shined. Backwards compatibility (although limited) and mod support for Fallout 4 is a HUGE deal. Hololens looked great. The new controller? We’ll see. Anyway, strong showing from Microsoft on that front. Sony won’t have it easy.

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