E3 2014: Microsoft Keynote

Microsoft kicked off this year’s E3 Press Events and first on stage was Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox. He thanks the gamers all around the world for supporting Xbox. He then moves on to tell us that the entire 90 minute presentation will be dedicated to games and in we go!

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

The first game up is, of course, Call of Duty. We are shown the inside of a dropship as you fly over a city with a few other soldiers. The ship is struck and a door flies open, sucking a soldier out of it. You are seeing this from the perspective of an individual called Mitchell and one of his comrades demand a reset of their drop point. Damaged already, landing isn’t an easy business and they end up smashing into a building.

Dusting themselves down, Mitchell kicks open the door of the ship and the video transitions near-seamlessly from a cutscene to gameplay. As Mitchell walks through the destroyed city, you can instantly notice that everything around him is very futuristic from the gun that he’s holding (that has the entirety of the Head Up Display embedded on it (ammo left etc.)) to the soldier in a MECH suit next to him. A firefight breaks out and, left in the open, Mitchell grabs a car door to use as a shield.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeFOqEyQX2c

Skipping to a different point in the game, the player now has some new weapons but is still in a firefight. One of the weapons he has will highlight enemies in red, making them much easier to take out. Another of his weapons fires plasma-esque balls at enemies. There’s a shielded barricade embedded in the floor. Wrenching it out of the ground, Mitchell begins to move forward with the shield. Whenever he takes a shot, the shield automatically drops a hatch at the top to allow fire. Pulling out a grenade, he cycles through three options that are displayed on an LED display on the explosive itself. Shown are a Frag, Smoke and Smart grenade type. Opting for the Smart choice, he throws it up onto a bridge and it seeks out the nearest targets.

Moving to a dropship, his assumed objective, his comrade plants an explosive but gets his arm trapped as the door closes. He’s forced to leave him behind with his arm trapped in the ship, but in a cruel turn of ironic events, the explosion from the dropship blasts Mitchell back and a hunk of metal lands on his arm, severing it.

Releasing 4th November 2014, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be available on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Forza Horizon 2

Dan Greenawalt, Creative Director at Turn 10 Studios takes to the stage and tells the audience that almost one million people play Forza each and every week. He then announced that everybody’s favourite map, The Nurburgring, has been 100% captured to create an authentic experience, and that it will be releasing for owners of Forza 5 completely free as of that moment.

Dan is replaced by Ralph Fulton, Creative Director at Playground Games who tells us a bit more information about Forza Horizon 2. Just like its predecessor, this title will be an action-packed open world driving experience with over 200 cars and will be premiering the Lamborghini Haracán. Along with this, day and night cycles have been introduced along with dynamic weather. For those of you who have Drivatars, yours are already driving around in Forza Horizon 2 and will now be available in the open world part of the game, rather than just in races.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISTP14j9zD4

The gameplay will also be a seamless transition between single and multiplayer with no pre-game lobbies. You can now also have clubs of up to 1,000 members. We are then shown some gameplay footage of expensive cars doing things I wouldn’t do in my Ford Fiesta, let alone a Porsche.

Forza Horizon 2 will be releasing 30th September 2014 for Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Evolve

We were shown a new trailer that announced that there will be an exclusive beta and DLC first on Xbox. In this new gameplay trailer, we also saw a newer looking monster and some updated shots of the different classes: Assault, Trapper, Medic and Support.

Evolve will be releasing 21st October 2014 on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH-BlAiYqQo

Assassin’s Creed: Unity

Vincent Pontbriand, Senior Producer of Ubisoft enters the stage and let’s us know some background on the game. Set in 1789 at the turn of the 19th century, you play as Arnold Victor Dorian in Paris during the French Revolution. We then transfer into some gameplay footage.

The movement looks fluid as ever in this gameplay segment and it seems you can now go into buildings as well as scale the outside. It is not confirmed that this is possible for all buildings. You are now joined by another assassin - another person. Your friend takes out a guard whilst you traverse the environment. Entering through a second floor window, you both take out guards inside and move through to the other side of the building. You come across another two assassins and push forward into a mansion where your target, Marquis De Bullion, is located. We are now shown all four perspectives as each assassin takes out guards in their own fashion. The first has a sword, one has a knife, another has a spear and the other has an axe. All the assassins gang up on your target and throw him into the crowd of peasants below.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity will be launching 28th October 2014 on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZWwrh_TDhs

Dragon Age: Inquisition

A new trailer begins for Dragon Age: Inquisition and shows that premiere content will be available on Xbox. The trailer is a cinematic one which shows a lot of different landscapes, monsters and heroes. There are a lot of fight scenes with the different characters.

Dragon Age: Inquisition will be releasing 7th October 2014 on PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwmEIylU87Y

Sunset Overdrive

A soldier enters a warehouse district and gets pinned behind a crate. He begins a gunfight with individuals in ski masks and soon enough, runs out of ammo. The protagonist of Sunset Overdrive bursts through a door to his left and grinds on the railings in the warehouse, taking out the bad guys. He then turns to the camera, breaking the fourth wall and begins talking directly to the viewer. He explains that Sunset City has been overrun by Mutants created by contaminated energy drinks. Whilst he talks, he is also killing off the mutants in a variety of ways.

Ted Price, Founder & CEO of Insomniac Games takes to the stage and explains the core concepts of the game: the ability to traverse the environment quickly and in style, using an arsenal of weapons to get rid of your enemy. We then go into some gameplay and instantly, we know that this game is going to be breaking the fourth wall a lot as the HUD looks like the cracks on a camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bscHb2IKRoI

The protagonist skates around the environment smoothly, killing off mutants left, right and centre. There is a power-up bar in the top right, but we weren’t shown what this is used for. A boss appears and he is tasked with taking it down. Whenever you get a combo or do something impressive, you are rewarded with a 3D cartoony “POW”, “BOOM” etc. which appears in the way you killed that enemy (for instance, killing them with ice, it will look like ice).

Sunset Overdrive will be releasing 28th October 2014 exclusively on Xbox One.

Dead Rising 3 Super Ultra Arcade Remix Hyper Edition Ex Plus Alpha

As a slight jab at themselves, Capcom announced a new game mode coming first to Xbox One for Dead Rising 3 in which you can play as all your favourite Dead Rising characters, along with a host of Capcom characters. The mode is similar to that of Dead Rising 2’s online mode, but much more wacky and mini-gamey. It features four player online co-op and what looked like split-screen capabilities. This will be celebrating the 31st Anniversary of Capcom and looks very arcadey.

Dead Rising 3 Super Ultra Arcade Remix Hyper Edition Ex Plus Alpha is now available on Xbox One.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xxYKUPmzrU

Dance Central Spotlight

Alex Rigupolis, Founder & CEO of Harmonix comes on stage to talk about the new Dance Central game but first announces their partnership with Disney to bring Fantastia Music Evolve which lets you remix your favourite Disney classics and play as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. He then announces Dance Central Spotlight which allows you to dance to the hottest hits week after week as they have updated how they will be getting the songs to you, the player.

Both Dance Central Spotlight and Fantastia Music Evolve will be available this fall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUwW0acrfE8

Fable Legends

David Eckelberry, Game Director for Fable Legends takes the stage and announces that a multiplayer beta will be coming this holiday season and will feature Stirling, a classic Fable character along with Winer, a hero of will, Rock a hero of skill and Inga, a hero of strength. We are then shown the four player co-op adventure where you can quest together. The chapter we are displayed is one in which the team have to recover an ancient artifact.

As the heroes split up, we get a glimpse at all of their different fighting styles and the ability to find and keep treasure. The highlight here though is that everything that the heroes are fighting against is being set up by The Villain, another player. The Villain plays something akin to an RTS and sets up where the enemies will come from and what they will attack. This brings a whole new perspective into the game and allows for a much more strategic play style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33wCCSKqVGQ

Project Spark

We are shown a new trailer for Project Spark in which a guy and a girl jump between each others games to show them off. We are shown some more map creation but, out of the blue, Conkor from Conkor’s Bad Fur Day pops up and says “10 years without a game? Make your own!”

Project Spark will be coming to PC and Xbox One.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzk0KM169pQ

Ori and the Blind Forest

We are then shown an early trailer of a new title exclusive to Xbox One, Ori and the Blind Forest. Not much is shown but this game looked to have a really nice art style and be a side-scrolling platformer created by Moon Studios.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cklw-Yu3moE

Halo 5: Guardians

The ominous chanting music that any gamer would know as Halo begins to play through the theater. The end of Halo 2 begins to play out but keeps jumping to a new soldier, watching the ending on a screen. A voice states “Seeds of our future are sewn in his past”.

Bonnie Ross, Studio Head of 343 Industries comes to the stage and sheds some light on this trailer says that in Halo 5: Guardians, the story is based around Master Chief searching for the truth and an unknown soldier trying to find him. She then announced Halo: The Master Chief Collection for Xbox One which contains Halo: Combat Evolved, 2, 3 and 4.

Dan Ayoub, Studio Head at 343 Industries joins Bonnie on stage to talk about this in more detail. You can play all four games seamlessly and there’s even a custom playlist that includes all the best bits from all four titles. He then goes onto announce the Halo 2 is getting the full anniversary treatment and getting a remake which will be included in the collection. You can switch between the classic version and the new version at the touch of a button and there’s even the original Halo 2 multiplayer exactly how it shipped. Six iconic maps have also been recreated for the Xbox One. We are then shown some gameplay from the Ascension map with three professional players: Bravo, Neighbour and Ghost.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqD2MkOwDcU

There will be over 100 multiplayer maps available in the collection, running at 1080p 60FPS on dedicated servers. There is also 4,000 gamerscore up for grabs!

Bonnie then goes onto tell us about Halo Nightfall, the live action digital series which leads upto the events of Halo 5: Guardians which will be releasing later this year. Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be available 11th November 2014. If you pre-order the collection, you will gain access to a Halo 5 beta starting in December.

Inside

Inside is the newest game to come from the creators of Limbo and has been in development for the past four years. It will be coming first to Xbox. It is another side-scroller and takes a more 2.5D approach than Limbo. You play a child in a desolate world of what looked like mind washed individuals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUvVmc3z8Io

ID@Xbox

Chris Charla, Director of ID@Xbox takes to the stage to talk about this program that helps indie developers by supporting their creativity and help them self publish on Xbox. We are then shown a trailer showing some of the indie games coming to Xbox which includes:  Knight Squad, Plague Inc Evolved, White Night, Earthlock Festival of Magic, Cuphead, Hyper Light Drifter, Lifeless PLanet, Splash Dash, FRU, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Mighty No 9, Grave, Threes, Fenix Rage, Wollfe, #IDARB, Hellraid, Below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSZPikI2Mo4

Rise of the Tomb Raider

We are shown a short trailer where a young lady is sitting in a psychiatrist’s office and keeps getting flashbacks to Tomb Raider from 2013. Lara says she is “becoming who I’m meant to be” and we see her raiding some tombs! Not a lot was released about this title.

A release date has not been given for Rise of the Tomb Raider.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV9XyNu6AFU

Phantom Dust

Ken Lobb, Creative Director at Microsoft comes to the stage and talks briefly about Killer Instinct. He says about how the gamers loved the idea of rebooting franchises and so they have only gone and done it again!

A cinematic trailer is run where we see a man sitting on a bench in the middle of a city. His eyes close and a tornado appears. In a flash, he is transported a desolate version of the city and a woman is standing there. They both start to glow blue and pink respectively and begin to fight.

A release date has not been given for Phantom Dust but it will only be on Xbox One.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0YKmI9DCC0

Tom Clancy’s The Division

Ryan Barnard, Game Director at Ubisoft introduces new gameplay. We are shown a snowy city that is overrun by hostiles. Panning down into the sewers, we see the protagonist with a woman called Megan. He follows her through the sewers to 34th Street subway station where an orange overlay shows him what happened here. It shows a smashed train and passengers fleeing from the burning character. He walks through this and it disappears.

Walking out of the subway station, they meet up with two other people, Bronson and Chris. Getting into cover, they watch some enemies in the street before moving to another position and starting a firefight with them. A Firefly is used which is similar to a drone but uses flashes to disorientate and blind the enemy. Aspects of combat are shown and your health doesn’t seem to regenerate, at least not in combat.

Tom Clancy’s The Division will be releasing in 2015 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwFLnTiLmNQ

Scalebound

Hideki Kamiya, Game Director of PlatinumGames Inc. introduces a new Xbox One Exclusive that takes action to a whole new scale. We are shown a cinematic trailer of a man running away from a dinosaur-like creature within a forest. Once in a clearing, another creature appears and the two creatures begin to duke it out, with the man in the middle. He puts on his headphones and jumps into the fray. One of the creatures turns out to be a dragon and as soon as the man touches it, his body transforms into scaled body armour and he helps to take out the creature.

He then climbs onto the back of the dragon and flies off, greeted by a number of other people on dragons, all with different armour trim colours. No release date was given for Scalebound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5mVH_MqBUU

Crackdown

We are then introduced to the newest Crackdown title which will have a whole new campaign, fully playable co-op, multiplayer with dedicated servers. A cinematic plays in which a remote controlled drone is flying through the air and gets shot down by a bad guy at the top of a building. An agent jumps off a building with a sniper rifles and gets into position. Another agent is on the ground in a truck, lined with C4 explosives. Yet another agent is waiting with a trigger and sets off an explosion, blowing up the building next to that of the bad guy. This creates a ramp for the truck driver and he drives straight up the side of the collapsing building. As he nears the top, he dives out and the sniper takes a shot at the truck, blowing a large ball off the top of the building which sails through the air and smashes into the bad guy’s building and the bad guy himself.

Crackdown will be releasing in 2016.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHHBm7HRo-E

Phil Spencer returns to the stage to close off the Microsoft Press Event, thanking gamers all over the world for choosing Microsoft and Xbox. “It’s more fun with Xbox One”.