Minutes away from the E3 main stage, it’s time for some last minute perdition before I start my blog. I think we are going to see an exclusive Shadow Run game for the Xbox One, and one big 3rd party exclusive from Activision. Although I’m a little surprised to see Phil sporting an AC shirt in the pre-show, but knowing him that could just be a personal plug rather than deliberate product placement. I’m also confident we are going to see a lot of independent games shown, while we will see some time on Xbox TV and other online driven programs. What I don’t expect to see is any talk of performance. No GPU upgrade from the 10% block, no Direct X, no “power of the cloud”. All and all, it should be almost nothing but games. Let’s see how it goes.
12:30 – A lot less green then I expected from the opening theatrics
12:31 – Start with Phil ... I guess there is no other way to go, but still, I’m already happy to see they didn't mess up something so simple. This is the man we all came here to listen to. He’s already talking about the other competitors as allies and not enemies. What a great way to not just start this conference, but to start E3. Go Phil
12:35 – What a great way to thank Fanboys for all the crap they flung at Xbox. Humble, accepting, but not discouraged.
12:36 – COD continues to bring DLC to Xbox first. Not really shocking, but if there was any year they were going to lose that it would be this one.
12:36 – This call of duty game looks a lot like call of duty. Go figure.
12:37 – Rocket boots!
12:40 – Huge battle in a major city, looks like South Korea.
12:41 – This look to be a lot more science fiction then any pervious COD. Robots and far future drones are everywhere, the solders are in mech suits, one just ripped a car door off to use as a shield. It will be interesting to see how this translates to multiplayer.
12:43 – Looked fantastic, and the focus on the set piece reminds us why COD is great. It’s almost enough to forgive them for the crap-a-thon that was ghosts
12:45 – Turn 10 is now on stage. Not the way I would have gone. Forza is awesome, we know that, and FH will also be awesome, but we also know that.
12:46 – OH SNAP, never mind, Nerbough Ring for free OUT TODAY is some pretty big news. I see what you did there.
12:47 – “when you create a club”, a subtle nod to how Froza Horizon is showing much better then drive club.
12:49 – Looks amazing. A true focus on “driving freedom”. Clearly a winner.
12:50 – Evolve looks great, but I’m surprised to see it on MS stage. It’s been pretty PlayStation friendly in the hype to this point. DLC first on evolve? Wow, that’s a shock. Good job I guess.
12:51 – Hey look, AC on stage as the second 3rd party with game play. I have a feeling MS is getting some exclusive content, which would again be stolen from Sony.
12:54 – Visually this is the most impressive thing I’ve seen this generation, and the period is fantastic, a world I really want to be a part of.
12:57 – No Xbox exclusive content after all. Still, a great showing.
12:58 – Oh dragon age. I’m not at all shocked at the production values of this trailer, but to be honest, I kind of expected game play. Oh, a release date, and much sooner than expected. Although that makes it even more shocking to not see game play. Content coming to Xbox first ... again, that’s surprising.
1:00 – Sunset overdrive trailer. What a great way to drive home the “not another shooter” game play message. Well done Sir.
1:01 – insomniac is on stage. Not sure how you follow that up ... not sure you NEED to follow that up. I’m already sold.
1:03 – Game play is showing off the need for mobility and the use of interesting weapons. Very fluid movement that looks to be single button driven.
1:04 – Oct. 28 release date. Good news
1:06 – Capcom exclusive ... what am I watching?
1:07 – Ok, it was fun to watch Capcom make fun of themselves, but I’m not really sure that trailer landed. I don’t know what the DLC is and I’m not sure why I would buy it.
1:08 – Dance Central: Spotlight exclusive to Xbox One. This isn't a surprise. Dance Central wasn't going away, and the PS4 simply can’t do it without “move”, so they are really just keeping it off Wii U.
1:09 – Fable legends ... going into this E3, this is the game I knew the most about without knowing anything able. Let’s see if they clear up what exactly this game is about.
1:10 – Sure, sure, there is a story. I don’t care. What the hell is the game about? Is it multi player fable? Is this a persistent server? Right now this looks like every other 3rd person action game ever and there is no reason it’s called fable.
1:12 – Really? That’s the gimmick? There is a real time game master? I’ve never been a fan on selling you game on the fact that you didn’t have time to build things yourself and want players to do it for you. Don’t we already have project spark for people who want that creative experience? Is there a campaign? What do I do if I can’t get 4 friends to play this with me?
1:14 – “To sign up or learn more” ... what more? I didn't learn ANYTHING. What a horrible showing.
1:15 – Go right into spark after that? Just to drive home the fact we are seeing the same thing twice.
1:16 – Not a bad showing of project spark, much better than last year.
1:17 – haha Conker in the Spark logo.
1:19 – Hey look, an activation exclusive. When I made that perdition I was thinking an old, AAA IP. But hey, I’ll take it.
1:20 – Halo. You don’t even need the trailer, just hearing the music gets me excited.
1:21 – Looks like you might not be playing the whole game as master chief.
1:22 – Master Chief collection; this was leaked a while ago, but still fanatic news. The details on multiplayer is all we should hear about from this point on.
1:25 – Halo Remix mode, a complete remake of halo 2, the ability to move between classic and new on the fly ... what’s not to like
1:26 – Halo 2 multi-player directly ported ... that just sold more Xbox Ones then anything MS has said to this point.
1:27 – 100 maps, 1080p, dedicated servers ... wow.
1:28 – Halo Nightfall, the new Halo live actions series, comes with the collection. This is an fantastic value.
1:29 – Halo is the first confirmed multiplayer game running at 1080p/60 this gen.
1:30 – WORK IT PHIL
1:31 – Although Limbo was a fantastic game, it’s hard to get too worked up over a new game using the same formula. Will be solid I’m sure, but isn’t ground breaking.
1:32 – ID@Box – let’s see if you can brand the message a little better then you've done up to this point.
1:33 - Show the games, don’t do anything about how horrible you messed up the messaging of the program itself. Equal parts disappointing and encouraging; you learned, but only after the damage was done to the point where you can’t recover.
1:37 – Raise of the tomb raider looks great and I’m excited. But again, nothing exclusive to Xbox.
1:38 – Witcher 3, same as above. CD projeck has already committed to no platform preference.
1:41 – The game looks fanatic, but we have already seen game play and knew what to expect. I like the contextual way the game tells you to go back when you finish the quest you are on.
1:45 – Phantom dust. Huge cult value, but they could have done better when going for cult appeal. Still, shows a strong commitment to gamers and bringing back what has been asked for.
1:47 – Division. I’m very excited about this game, but this has been shown before. Again, I don’t foresee any “only one xbox” content. Mind you, even seeing it before, this game is still very impressive. Is that voice an NPC of a live person?
1:48 – Looks live. Smart glass “god mode”? Everything about this game is great. I’ve seen it played a number of times, but every time I get more excited.
1:49 – Division DLC coming first to Xbox, plus beta is coming first to Xbox. Honestly shocked.
1:50 – Scale bound, a new exclusive IP from Plantumgames ... not enough to go on, but the trailer looks great.
1:55 – Crack down 3. Great trailer, great to know it’s happening, but after 2 it’s hard to call this one a guaranteed hit.
All and all I think MS did a fantastic job in that they did what they said they would. They showed a lot of games, confirmed the commitment they have to gaming, and showed some compelling reasons to pick up and Xbox one. More importantly, they did it with class; the first thing they did was thank Sony and Nintendo, and the second was to thank everyone who has been hating on them for a year. This shows a company that's found its footing, and that's a great thing.
They didn't spend any time on the exclusives we already know are coming unless they had game play, showed us some new games, and showed they have a great partnership with 3rd party.
They never WOW'd me ... but that's ok. I was expecting to be wow'd. They did make me very, very excited about Xbox.
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