Microsoft at E3

After seeing Microsofts reveal of the Xbox One a couple of months ago and all their policies that came along with it, I, like many others, felt that Sony had a slight edge going into E3.

Microsoft I feel, is moving away from gaming, NOT far, but just testing the waters of other means of entertainment through the Xbox One. Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing for them as innovation comes with taking risks and Microsoft is taking a huge risk with all the other non-gaming related features packed into Xbox One. Who knows what the future holds for them but I was just not drawn in by their television features to be impressed enough to buy it on that merit alone.

Also, Microsoft's policies regarding DRM, always online, used games, and Kinect were a slap in the face to the consumer. Yes, since E3 they have addressed these issues and are trying to do some PR clean up but I only feel it is because of pre-order numbers and the general backlash that the gaming community had for them. E3 should have been the time to address the issues, not 2 weeks after and the whole lying to the consumer "DRM and always online are core to the product and what the product was built around. We cant just flip a switch and turn them off."..... Two weeks later "We turned off DRM and always online!"

Anyway, onto what this should be about, the games. Below I have listed most of the exclusives and my impressions of the gameplay videos and trailers. (exclusive to ONLY Xbox One, so you wont see Titanfall, Project Spark, etc. as they are also confirmed for PC and I will cover those games in a later post.)

Below- this was teased by Capybara Games Studio and looks like a beautifully designed indie game. I would need to see more gameplay but right now it looks like it could be great. The soundtrack by Jim Guthrie seems impressive and it doesn’t look like it will disappoint. This is a game that even though is an exclusive, I could see it in the future being ported over to PC. (Other games by Capybara have ended up on Steam)

Crimson Dragon – Eh. Not interested. It looks good, but I feel like it is just Panzer Dragoon updated. Hopefully for fans, it wont be linear (it is listed as a "Rail Shooter") but a semi open game world.

Dead Rising 3 – One word about the trailer…. Disappointing. I loved the first 2 dead rising games. They were fun without being extremely serious. They were games that were ment for the players to just pick up , go out and have fucking fun with it. I feel like the dead rising 3 trailer focused more on it being a serious game and really taking that fun, relaxing, hey lets go kill some zombies feeling out of the game basically jumping on the current zombie bandwagon of lets make a story driven game where the zombies are overpowered and make the players really fear the environment… oh and lets throw in airstrikes that the player can call down using smartglass… (how you have access to airstrikes is beyond me, in the first two games you played as civilians.)

D4 – an episodic murder mystery. Not much shown but I do believe it will be using a lot of Kinect features to play… Sorry, ill pass on this. (Although since E3 a bit more has come out on this and it does seem interesting.)

Halo – As far as I am concerned, Halo died when Bungie stopped developing it. Though I am sure it will be great for the fans of the series.

Killer Instinct – Now this is something that I need to address. Everyone seems to be on the similar mindset of THIS IS AMAZING! IVE WAITED SO LONG FOR THIS! … Stop… Now this has been in development with Rareware and Double Helix. For those who don’t know here are the games double helix has pumped out:
    Silent Hill Homecoming – Bad
    G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra – Bad
    Front Mission Evolved – Eh
    Battleship – Bad
    Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters – OK
    MX vs ATV Reflex - their best outing
So.., lets hope that Rareware has more say than Double Helix in this but I am wary of this. Also even though it was announced as Free2Play you only get one character for free, the rest you have to pay for. Not cool. If it was a $40-$50 title and you get every character and a little more then sure that's fine but masking it as Free2Play is kind of shady if you ask me. Its not that I have a problem with F2P games, I don't, I play a few now, but I am against the F2P but if you want to win or have any fun past the first 15 mins you have to pay.

Quantum Break – This seems… Interesting… I wonder what its about though and no gameplay! They have mentioned that it will tie in with a television show but I don’t see that working out well (eg: ask how Defiance is working out…)

Ryse: Son of Rome – Looks cool. I feel though like its Microsoft's attempt at making a God of War clone. (Not that I am saying that no game from here on out can be set in ancient Roman times/tied with Greek Mythology, just look at the gameplay!!!!) The footage shown seemed like one long cinematic with button pressing to keep you awake.

Sunset Overdrive – This has potential to be great. I loved the teaser for it and I am really interested in more. Keep your eye on this game as it is developed by Insomniac who made Spyro, the Resistance series and Ratchet and Clank so they have a great track record.

So there you have it. Overall, Microsoft showed some good games but only a few of which I was really interested in and even then, the big hitters like Titanfall and Project Spark are being released on PC which I will post my thoughts on later.

My next post will be on Sonys presentation and I will run through their announced exclusives. Feel free to comment and give me some feedback. Stay tuned! HyperSmash