Microsoft @ E3

[Badnik Mechanic]

...

...

Is it just me... or does something about this holographic demo look a bit odd?

Also. This is just Kinect 3 isn't it? Instead of sitting down to play you have to get up and walk around which we've shown we don't like.

[Nepenthe]

Holographic minecraft... that sounds revolting.

That's a weird way to spell "cool."

[TCB]

With the power of VR (holy crap that looked great)...

"SOON

GAMERS EVERYWHERE WILL BE ABLE TO STIMULATE RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEIR WAIFU/HUSBANDO FROM THE COMFORT OF THEIR OWN HOUSE"

[Gabz Girl]

Gears of War Ultimate edition with just the first game? Hmmm...

Now they're playing the demo for the newest Gears of War. Ohhh, who are these guys?

[Badnik Mechanic]

No idea what his is but it looks quite awesome.

[Nepenthe]

Okay we went from monster to fire tornado. This Gears is weird.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Gears of Souls.

[Gabz Girl]

God it's so flipping dark I can't see a damn thing. Darkest Gears game yet I think!

[Nepenthe]

Hey Phil, next time force Rare to make a platformer.

[KrazyBean]

So it's just called Gears 4...not Gears of War 4? Hmm. OK.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Soooo that's it?

[KrazyBean]

I just realised...no Call of Duty, what??

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

I just realised...no Call of Duty, what??

 

The FIRST ON XBOX deal they have has expired. 

[Covskin]

So it's just called Gears 4...not Gears of War 4? Hmm. OK.

Because Judgement never happened.

[Gabz Girl]

Gears 4...I wanna know what the story is though. Is it a prequel? Sequel? Alternate universe??

Anyway, it was an alright conference. It had its moments like backwards compatibility, Rare Collection and a whole host of great looking Indie games, but it would've been SO much better if Scalebound, Quantum Break and Crackdown were there.

[Marcello]

Sea of Thieves disappoints me. I wanted Banjo, but I would've been OK with other things if they hadn't been an MMO.

 

An MMO.

 

Fuck.

[Tornado]

Whelp. Looks like its definitely going to be an Xbone for me of the two.

[Silencer226]

The conference was decent. Backwards compatibility is a big deal for a lot of people so good job on that, I'm guessing it will be similar to how the xbox 360 handled bc with original xbox games. Which if that is the case, hopefully they commit to it this time around. The VR stuff is something that's never really interested me, its cool tech but I'm just not completely sold on it just yet. As far as games go, what exclusives they showed were alright, Gears is still same old gears it seems (time could change that I suppose), Halo is Halo. The Inafune title interested me more than the other stuff they showed, unfortunately that was just a cinematic lol. And unless I'm missing something, the rest I can get on my PC.

 

So yea. Decent, I wanted to run out and buy an xbox one today guess that's not happening. :<

[KHCast]

Gears 4 seems like something up my ally. The characters seem pretty neat compared to the past ones. Halo 5 looks amazing, and the story looks ambitious. And Cuphead looks like a fun little thing. The VR stuff seems interesting, but I'll need to see more from it.

Overall I'd give this a 6/10 this year. Better than the previous few years, but still eh.

[Nepenthe]

Average conference. Started strong with Halo 5 and backwards compatibility. Fizzled when EA and Tomb Raider came out. Recovered its momentum with the awesome indies and Rare Collection, although the new Rare pirate game resoundingly missed even the aesthetic of the old Rare people have been clamoring for. It's disappointing on that round, but they picked up their step by ending with Gears 4.

Other interesting bits were the new controller, early access, Minecraft VR, and Forza 6. Would've been a top tier conference with Scalebound. Would've been unbeatable with an actual Rare platformer. 7/10.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

6/10 for me. 360 compatibility was a hugggee bomb...

...until MS mentioned that all games must be approved by the publisher before you can play the game.

 

(Not that it benefits me anyway since I never owned an Xbox)

 

Then Gigantic...I'll keep an eye on it and only because it's also coming to Windows 10.

 

But Dear Lord, the first 30 seconds of that pirate trailer. I thought XONE is gonna have a platformer. A return of Conker or maybe Banjo. But instead, PIRATES. On the ship. Assassin's Creed all over again, only with cartoony graphics.

 

Hologram glasses presentation was amazing...it's AMAZING to watch...but I never had interest in Minecraft, and I still don't. Try a different game.

 

Tomb Raider, brilliant graphics and animation...but Uncharted 2 did it first and it's not mouth dropping anymore. I'll still get this game though, when it comes out on PS4.

 

So yeah, my thoughts.

[Willsy]

I was skeptical, but I came away from this....kind of... impressed? Firstly, backwards compatibilty is really fucking cool, and the fact that you don't have to buy or rent the games again is brillaint. Secondly, I was extrememly pessimistic about Halo 5 but I think it looks really interesting now. 343, you have my interest. Thirdly, Sea of Thieves; Now I'm going to have to be honest, I'm glad theat they are doing a new IP instead of Banjo. It opens the door to new ideas that they can't really do with the other IP (are you guys telling me that you want an open world pirate Banjo MMO?). Definitely interested in this one, but I want to see more first. 

 

Overall, that was a pretty good conference, and the Xbox One certainly seems far more appealing to me now. I might just have to "jump ahead" at some point and buy one. 

[Covskin]

Decent enough presentation. Backwards compatibility for FREE is far more attractive than PS Now, that Minecraft hololens/VR stuff is incredible if it works that well, and they actually focused almost purely on games!

 

I'll wait to see Sony and Nintendo's offerings before deciding just how good Microsoft were though.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Ok so... honestly... this was actually... not that bad a conference.

 

It's without a doubt the best Xbox Conference for years... though oddly... the best things from it were not the games, least not for me, the best stuff was the service improvements... Kinda.

 

Backwards compatibility is apparently a huge thing, though with me it's really overrated since the only time I EVER tend to use it is with games that I've never played. Also you are limited to what companies 'approve' so... yeah it's not exactly the amazing announcement it first appears to be.

 

The Xbox elite controller looks really cool, the replacement/customised parts is a HUGE deal.

 

The try before you buy thing is a REALLY good idea, though they kinda have to do this and I imagine Sony will very soon follow considering how both Valve and GOG now give you refunds/try before you buy.

 

Hologram.... This... didn't exactly blow me away... because it's Kinect 3, at least that demo was, if I'm playing games, I don't want to have to wander around, get up off the chair an go for a walk, make stupid hand gestures to move my camera or perspective, I want to sit down and play and be as lazy as possible. I don't see any point at all in being able to play Minecraft or any game on a desk, or on a bed or on anything other than a TV. 

 

EA access... PS+/Games with Gold is better.

 

Also the 'when your friend joins in they don't see what you see'  yeah urm... if I'm wearing a big VR device, odds are you've just made gaming a tad anti social since we can't ever look at each other during our gameplay.

 

As for games.

 

As someone who had never any interest in Gears, Gears 4 looked really cool. Tomb Raider, can't wait to play it on my PS4 since they pretty much admitted it wasn't an exclusive, same with Dark Souls 3, Also their indie thing, everything is coming to other systems. Robot dog + girl... a CG only trailer for a 2016 title... pathetic... show gameplay or don't even bother. Especially given last years CG bullshit with the 'show a CG trailer.... then don't show gameplay until over a year later.' 

 

Rare collection sounds fantastic, though why this is an Xbox exclusive when it could easilly be sold in much higher volume on the 360 is beyond me. 

 

Rare Pirates looks amazing... then they showed it's a co-op/multiplayer and I lost more or less all interest.

 

It was odd, I almost want an Xbox One because what they offer as a service actually sounds really good, but in terms of content, yeah not quite blown away just yet. Bring me an update for Scalebound and Crackdown and that other game which they announced last year which people went ape at which may or may not be cancelled.

[Carbo]

6/10

Too perfunctory. Too safe. Not many surprises other than console OS features which Sony are now going to have to really double down on it feels. Too frontloaded. Recore theoretically sounds like the most interesting game but Armature has only been continuing to churn out shit without Nintendo's direction and the teaser itself didn't tell me anything. Credit to Rare for putting out a brand new IP at last that is removed from all of the negative preconceptions but unfortunately it doesn't save it from looking completely uninteresting. Gears 4 looks like a decent return to the first game's form but the demonstration itself was terrible and it was impossible to see shit.

But it was all functional. And they focused on games. So that's good. Phil Spencer is the best thing to have happened to Microsoft.