MS started their conference off with an old 360 slogan "Jump In."
The first thing that played was a trailer featuring beautiful scenery and a stampede of animals that look like rhinos. Then there were soldiers walking through stone rings and that's when I got the feeling that ths is a Halo game, and indeed it was. It ended with Masterchief holding his helmet. The game's title is Halo Infinite.
Phil Spencer came out to the stage for the first time with some boring fluff talk. He stated that 50 games wold be showcased with 18 of them being exclusives and 15 of them world premiers.
The next trailer that played was for Ori and the Will of the Wisps, a game that was unveiled last year, so it was no new surprise. I absolutely loved the first one and I really wanted to know a release date for the second, but I didn't get it. Honestly, I'm thinking of upgrading to an X just for this game. It's absolutely beautiful.
The first world premier showed off some kind of samurai game and I remember hearing rumors that From Software was working on a new Tenchu game, which I thought this would be. But no, the new game is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It looks to be a more narrative driven samurai themed Dark Souls style game, but with much more hectic action. Really looking forward to this one.
Todd Howard of Bethesda took the stage next to talks about the history between Bethesda and Xbox. He then announced that Fallout 4 will be added to Gamepass. An exclusive world premier look of Fallout 76 followed. He stated that it will be a prequel to the first Fallout and will be four times the size of 4. It takes place in West Virginia and the West Virginia state anthem is the soundtrack for the trailer. A new trailer then played beginning in black and white showing a nuke detonating. It then transitioned to color and began to talk about Vault 76, which seems like it may be the first shelter created. June 15th will be first day of pre-orders.
The next world premier is for an SE game from Dontnod Entertainment. It shows a kid dressed up as a super hero. The trailer stated the game takes place in the Life is Strange universe. It shows an alcoholic father dealing his son. The game seems to be all about the kid's imagination. The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is the title and can be downloaded for free until June 26th.
The next exclusive revealed was Crackdown 3. Honestly no surprise here, because this was unveiled four years ago. The main character seems to be based on and voiced by Terry Crews. I didn't see anything that looked new in the game, but it still looks like a lot of fun. I enjoyed the first two, although I was disappointed in the second. It will also be on Gamepass at launch. Feburary 2019 is their new target date, but I have no hope in them hitting that target.
A trailer then announced that an Xbox One X Enhanced Nier Automata will be released digitally on June 26th. I never got around to playing it on the PS4, and this version will have all the DLC included. Just one major problem, though... no physical edition. No physical... no buy.
The next trailer that played focused on a train passing through what looks like a post-apocalyptic Russia. The game is an FPS that appears to feature demons and zombies, along with werewolves. The game turns out to be Metro Exodus and will release on February 22nd 2019.
Phil Spencer came out again with a huge announcement. Kingdom Hearts III will be releasing on Xbox One on January 29th 2019. The footage showed off characters and settings from Frozen. It also showed classic characters such as Donald Duck and Goofy. There's also characters and settings from Wreck it Ralph, Tangled. Hercules, Toy Story and Monsters Inc. There was also a quick cameo by Mickey Mouse. Sadly, this is one of those titles I'm not excited about, because I never got into the franchise, but the fact that Xbox finally gets another RPG franchise means MS hasn't completely given up yet in trying to get Japanese support for XBox.
The next exclusive trailer is just for Sea of Thieves DLC. There will be two expansions coming. I wasn't able to grab their names in time.
Then there was a trailer for Battlefield V. *shrugs*
Another exclusive world premier shows off a racing game focusing on a McClaren. Automatically, I'm guessing it's Forza Horizon 4. It then change settings showing trucks and rally cars racing on off road tracks. I also saw a hovercraft (WTF?!) and motorcycles. Indeed, it turned out to be Forza Horizon 4. A developer took the stage after the trailer to talk about the game. He said it takes place in Britain and the game's new mechanic are dynamic season changes. A stage demo began showing off some of the different cars driving in different settings. The developer mentioned that the entire world community will be online all at once to race and interact with, all in 60 FPS. The off road portions look like a lot of fun, and there are also beautiful country roads. An emphasis was placed on the changing of seasons changing everything in the environment along with gameplay and also unlocking new events. One such example was when winter froze over the lake to unlock new routes. oct. 2nd. included in Gamepass.
Phil Spencer returned with more fluff talk. He announced the creation of a new MS studio called The Initiative based in Santa Monica. Undead Labs, creator of State of Decay 2 has now joined MS Studios along with Playground Games of Forza Horizon and a new project from Playground has been teased. Shockingly, it seems Ninja Theory has joined MS Studios and my first though is, "Great... another studio killed off by Microsoft." Compulsion Games of We Happy Few has also joined MS Studios and new trailer for We Happy Few was shown with a release date of August 10th
Another console exclusive trailer rolls out, but it looks like it's just for PUBG. Not really sure what they were trying to advertise, but if it's a new expansion, it will come out in Winter 2018. I still think it was a waste of resources to invest so heavily in this game.
The next world premier was for an anime game that was revealed to be Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition. It will be coming out Winter of this year.
Yet another world premier. This game is about a virus wiping out civilization set in an apocalyptic city. The trailer gave off a very strong Ubisoft vibe. It then confirmed my believe that it is a Ubisoft game, that being Division 2. A gameplay trailer then followed, but started to bore me because everyone was just walking around the environment. It looked like a zoo or botanical garden. Once they moved out to the parking lot, that's when the action began to start. I wasn't really impressed by anything from it. It just seems like your typical team-based cover shooter. The scripted team chat always bothered me in these presentations.
Ashley Spiker of Xbox Game Pass came out to talk about a new feature their service will employ called FastStart, which uses machine learning to help launch games faster. It will be available in the upcoming June update. Halo: Masterchief Collection will also be coming later this year on the service. Ashen, Warhammer, After Party and Phoenix Point will also be on Game Pass the same day as their global releases. Current games such as Division, Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 4 will also be added.
Then there was a video game montage that showed off so many games so quickly, I couldn't pay attention to them all. One such game that caught my attention was Super Meat Boy Forever, but if that's coming out to the Switch, that's the platform I'm going to be buying it on.
The next trailer was for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It looks like it's going to be another great Tomb Raider game. The release date will be September 14.
The next exclusive trailer looks to be a skateboarding game, and the first thing that came to my mind was Skate? No, the title will be Sessions.
Yet another exclusive was unveiled, which looked to be like a role playing game. The action looked pretty fantastic. The title was then shown to be Black Desert, which is an MMORPG. I'll have to pass on that. I only have time for one, and that's FFXIV and I barely even play that anymore.
Another world premier trailer shows off monsters and demons. The Capcom logo appears and then it's identifiable as a new Devil May Cry. Looks like he has some cyberborg stuff to him. Hideaki Isuno and Matt Walker came out to talk about the game and promised that it would be the most fun Devil May Cry yet.
The next console launch exclusive is for a new Cuphead called In the Delicious Last Course. I don't know yet if it will be DLC or new game entirely. It will be coming 2019.
The next exclusive trailer shows a fox grabbing a sword and slicing grass a la Link. It's clearly an indie adventure game and looks interesting. The game is called Tunic. I might need to keep an eye on that one.
A world premier trailer then begins to play from Bandai Namco. It shows off Naruto, Dragon Ball characters and One-Piece. It appears to be a Shonen Jump mash-up fighting game called Jump Force. Did I see Ryuk from Death Note at the end?
The next world premier was for yet another apocalyptic game. I should have recognized it right off the bat when I saw the character in first-person doing parkour. The game is Dying Light 2!!!! Chris Avellone from Techland took the stage to talk about the game. There's going to be a choices mechanic that affects everything from environment to gameplay. In the gameplay demo that follows, they show what happens if you do a Peacekeeper mission and kill the guys you're talking to in order to unlock water. The city begins to develops but there are consequences, and there are new enemies you must fight. If you team up with them instead of killing them, you can make water a black market currency where some really bad enemies will begin appearing. I can't wait for this! This is one of the highlights of the show for me. I loved the first and this one sounds like it's going to be much more amazing. Can't wait!
The next exclusive world premier revealed.....BATTLETOADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's coming next year, but I'm trying my best not to get too excited... I really don't want to be let down by it.
Another world premier reveals Just Cause 4. It looks so good, and there's even a fucking tornado! December 4th will be the release date, and this is another one I can't wait to play. I absolutely loved the third game!
The next world premier got everyone excited by displaying Gears of War cog logo. Unexpectedly, Gears Popko figures came out of the brick wall. There's going to be a Popko Gears of War mobile game from the sounds of it and it will be released in 2019. Rod Fergusson from Coalition took the stage to make another announcement. There will be another Gears of War game called Gears Tactics and it will be a turn-based strategy game. At this particular point, Gamespot's stream hung up on me. When I finally got it back up, it showed story footage from a new Gears of War game. It looked to be Gears of War 5, but I don't know how much I missed. Gameplay footage followed and I saw one of the characters wielding a spiked club. That ought to be fun! And yes, it is Gear of War 5, which will release sometime in 2019.
Phil Spencer started to close the show with even more fluff talk but before he could say goodbye, the feed was hacked.
Turns out, there was one final surprise. After the feed was hacked, a new world premier trailer played. The game evidently takes place in 2077, but no setting was given. The developer's logo of CD Projekt Red was shown and then concluded with the title: Cyberpunk 2077.
Hats off to Microsoft. Phil Spencer said there would be a lot of games shown, and there were. Very little filter, just trailer after trailer after trailer. I could have done with a few more stage demos and it was also a giant tease to start the game off with the new Halo trailer and then show absolutely nothing for it. I'd have loved to have at least two new IPs revealed, but they made up for that with announcements of Nier Automata, Tales of Vesparia and of course Kingdom Hearts III, so they're trying pretty hard to secure some Japanese games.
They look to have some great third-party games and some interesting indie titles coming along the way as well. Then, there was the announcement of Battletoads that had my heart skipping and ending the show with Gears of War 5 was a strong move while also surprising everyone with the Cyberpunk 2077 announcement at the very end. Since I now have a 4K TV, I've been waiting for enough reasons from MS to upgrade to an Xbox One X and I think the Gears 5 announcement (and maybe even Forza Horizon 4) will close the deal. I really want to play that game in 4K!
Overall rating: B-
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