E3 Microsoft: Focus on Gamers
It’s June, terms almost over and that can only mean one thing! Yes it’s E3 and it’s time for some of the worst, most awkward press conferences you’ll see all year. As always we begin with Microsoft.
It's June, terms almost over and that can only mean one thing! Yes it’s E3 and it’s time for some of the worst, most awkward press conferences you’ll see all year. As always we begin with Microsoft. It’s fair to say that in the few short months since the Xbox One has been out sales have been less than stellar, or at least less than Microsoft would have hoped. Since its announcement Microsoft have made more U-turns than the coalition government. Last May we were presented with this potentially brave console that aimed to revolutionise how games consoles interacted with our televisions both as a set top box and also through Kinect. Unfortunately the whole thing was laced with this rather unpleasant and restrictive rules on gamer ownership essentially aiming to destroy your ability to sell or even lend your games.
Due to massive fan backlash this was quickly gotten rid of and much more recently even Kinect is now an optional device bringing the cost down to a more acceptable level. Their E3 conference kicked off with head of Xbox Phil Spencer saying that “Today we are dedicating our entire briefing to games”, something Microsoft fans have been clamouring for about 14 months now. The conference got off to a rather dull start however, showing off first the new Call of Duty, then the new Forza and the new Assassins creed. Everything looked glossy and slick and graphically impressive but their hardly the sort of innovation one expects, or indeed hopes for at E3. Next we were treated to a new trailer for Dragon Age 3. Another sequel, yes and also another multiplatform game but an interesting one none the less with a lot to prove. The original was a truly fantastic game, the spiritual successor to the Baldurs Gate series whereas the sequel was famously a massive disappointment. The newest entry, Dragons Age Inquision looks incredibly pretty with some very cool looking dragons. As is often the case with E3 demos it’s often hard to figure out where the cut scenes end and the gameplay footage begins but it definitely looks promising.
Despite hating the Fable franchise, Fable legends managed to look reasonably exciting. At first glance its mix of typical action RPG combat and co-op looks nothing new but the inclusion of a villain player is very interesting. Whilst four players can play as a team of heroes a fifth player acts as a sort of overlord, placing monsters and traps for the heroes to deal with. It looks like a weird mix between Fable and Dungeons and Dragons which I’m sure many people will love. Personally I was very interested to get another look at Project Spark, Microsoft’s Little-Big-Planet-esque game creator. The variety of games made so far seems huge, ranging from RPGs, to racers and even to simple board games. The trailer also ended with a strange cameo from Conker, a gaming character who hasn’t been about since the ridiculously funny and ridiculously offensive Conkers Bad Fur Day way back in 2001 (!!). Apparently it’s up to the players of Project Spark to make his new game!
An announcement that is sure to please a lot of fans is Halo Masterchief collection. A single disc containing all 4 Halo games with Halo 1 and 2 now in full HD. More importantly the incredibly popular Halo 2 multiplayer is back on the disc. The shutdown of the Halo 2 servers a while back pissed off a lot of people and this will certainly help soothe those wounds. With all 4 games on one disc though that’s 100 Halo multiplayer maps all at 1080p which…..yeah…..is pretty attractive. The collection also includes a Halo digital TV series named Nightfall AND access to the Halo 5 multiplayer beta. This thing is surely going to be expensive but it’s also surely going to fly off the shelves.
The highlight for me however was the first gameplay demo of The Witcher 3. For those not in the know the Witcher is a series of games by a small Polish developer based on a series of little known Polish books. They are truly fantastic RPGs and the Witcher 3 looks pretty darn exciting. We got to see the games main character Geralt, the titular Witcher hunting a griffin through a forest. For the first time in the series the game is now completely open world which is something the former games definitely lacked. The combat looks as fantastic as it was in the Witcher 2 with a tonne of gore and a tonne of action - February 2015 can’t come fast enough.
There was, of course a lot more on show that I can’t go into too much detail here. We got a glimpse of Ubisoft’s Division. This multiplayer only shooter is obviously meant to impress and revolutionise online co-op but I found it largely unoriginal and uninspiring. We also saw teasers for a new Tomb Raider game and the return of the Crackdown franchise which will definitely please some people. Microsoft definitely delivered what they promised and showed a lot of games. Unfortunately, in this modern era of multiplatform giants like Ubisoft and EA console exclusivity doesn’t mean what it used to. The best they could do with most of these games is promise exclusive content “first on Xbox”. I’ll almost certainly be playing the Witcher 3 on my PC when it comes…..assuming it can run the damn thing.
