#E32016 Xbox Press Conference Recap/Predictions Review
Xbox! Let’s see how they did.
Xbox One S led the show. Not Scorpio, but Slim. It’s a slimmer Xbox One that’s white, and is capable of being placed horizontally and vertically. The console has an integrated power supply, and is capable of HDR Gaming. It also is capable of playing BlueRay in 4K. It comes with a new controller, with texture grip and increased range. The best part, which the crowd loved, was the fact that the console is $299, starting in August. Great! I might get one then if that’s the case and give my current Xbox One to my younger sibling.
Gears of War 4 came on the screen, but prior to that, Xbox talked briefly about “Xbox Play Anywhere.” Basically, after purchasing a game on Xbox, you can play that game both on Xbox One and Windows 10. And it’s all free! Awesome news for PC Gamers. I think this applies to a majority of games, but I only saw them specifically say so for Gears of War 4, Ark: Combat Evolved, and Scalebound. This includes another game, but I’ll get to that later.
Gears of War 4 looks beautiful, though. The gameplay is familiar as always. The lines for one of the soldiers was a bit corny, but I guess you can look past that when there’s a freaking gun that shoots saw blades. I mean, are you kidding me? This game is awesome! Gears is on the upswing right about now, while Halo feels like it’s on the downswing. The Co-Op modes will feature cross-play with PC. Horde Mode will return, deemed here as Horde 3.0. A special Gears of War Xbox One Elite Controller will be available as well. Maybe in a bundle? They didn’t say how you can get it. The game will be available on October 11, 2016.
Killer Instinct got a minute or two of time. People really love this game. I didn’t know there was so much love for it before I heard the crowd cheer about it. They showed a little clip that presented General Raam from Gears of War, where he stabs Jago in the chest a few times. So you’ll be able to play as Raam in Killer Instinct. Cool feature for those who play it. Raam is free this week to play as.
Forza Horizon 3 was next. The game will take place in Australia this time. The landscape looks beautiful, with deserts, and lavish forests. Kangaroos too. Gotta love the kangaroos. We saw Dune Buggys, Sports Cars, and Offroad Vehicles in the gameplay. This game features PC-Xbox cross-play as well. The game is also co-op, and people’s game worlds will synchronize upon joining a friend’s session. They described this as seamless. The game releases on September 27, 2016.
I missed part of Recore. Looks like a third-person action-adventure title. Love the landscape too. We could use more of these type of games nowadays. The different bots available are used to help traverse the landscape, and they’re all capable of different things. There’s one that helps the protagonist latch onto surfaces or reach higher places. Cool, can’t wait to see more.
Probably the biggest surprise of the show was… Final Fantasy 15. Why is this at Xbox? Just felt strange. Anyway, the game looked alright. Looked like a cluster of chaos in the boss fight they showed. Maybe the guy playing wasn’t that great at the game. Didn’t hear the exact date because of the guy’s heavy accent, but what I heard was September 2, 2016. Turns out it’s actually September 30, 2016. Oh well. I still think it’s possible for this game to get delayed.
A new expansion for The Division was shown off, titled “Underground Expansion.” Exploring the subways then? I would like that a lot. The subways are a big part of New York City. They also mentioned randomly generated missions, and urban dungeons.
EA showed off Battlefield 1 again, but it’s the same freaking trailer as yesterday. Well… it comes out on EA Access on October 13th. That’s new news, I guess?
They talked about new features coming to Xbox One this summer as well. You can now play music in the background while gaming. Awesome feature. I did that a lot on PS3, especially with Red Dead. Minor, but useful feature - you can now use any language you’d like, regardless of location. Cortana will be added to Xbox soon. Not really gonna use Cortana, but cool, I guess. They talked about “Clubs” for Xbox Live, where you can make communities sort of like Forums where people can gather around specific topics. Some of the examples were “Minecraft Builders” or “Division Agents in LA.” Things like that. I’m starting a “No-Mics Multiplayer” club. They went into “Looking for Group” which is basically an ad you put out looking for people to play Multiplayer games with. Lastly, you have Arena - which allows you to set up tournaments to play games in, whether it be solo or with friends. EA games will be featured in Arena, like FIFA. Can’t wait for background music and clubs.
They did a bit of Minecraft too. They have Cross-Play via Xbox Live now, on multiple devices like Windows 10, Mobile, and Gear VR. They now have dedicated servers titled “Minecraft Realms” that you can invite friends to. This entire section felt very corny, and wasn’t scripted very well. More announcements will be made at MineCon, they stated at the end.
There’s now custom Xbox One controllers you can get, which custom colors for the controller, along with custom colored buttons. You can also get a custom engraving. Really cool. Hope it’s not too expensive.
Inside, the new game from the developers of Limbo got a teaser. It looks gray and depressing. I love it! They gave Inside a lot of praise for the game, putting it on a high pedestal. Has me intrigued, since I like the setting for it already. Limbo is also free on Xbox One starting this week!
They did a little showreel of Indie games. Stardew Valley and Cuphead are the highlights here.
A game called “We Happy Few” was shown off. The game looks like it takes place in an office where everyone is supposed to have enough “Joy.” They have to take pills in order to have joy, or else they get considered a “Downer”, which comes with serious consequences. It has a creepy atmosphere to it, which is interesting. You see in the live demo that some of the employees are beating up a pinata, but since you didn’t take your Joy pills, your vision reveals it as a dead mouse once you hit it, instead of a harmless pinata. The employees are seen eating it. So… which was the hallucination? The mouse or the pinata? It’s an intriguing game concept, and I want to see more. You also see through a window, a fellow employee getting a needle in the neck from this creepy clown guy. The clown guy then walks to the window, looks you in the eyes, then closes the blinds. Creepy, I love it. The game will be available on Xbox Preview.
Remember Gwent from The Witcher? It’s a full game now. You build your deck over time, selecting cards based from four different factions. It has a full multiplayer experience, and cross-play functionality. A closed beta is coming this September.
Tekken 7 was given a live demo. The transitions from cinematics to gameplay is very seamless, and the fighting looks good. I’m not really a fighting game fan, personally, but it does look nice. Love the guy who presented it, by the way, with his traditional robes and dark shades. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 will also be available on Xbox One for Gold members, via Backwards Compatibility. The game is coming in Early 2017.
DeadRising 4 got a teaser with a bit of gameplay. Loved the Christmas theme they did during the conference, with fake snow falling above the audience, and “Jingle Bells” playing. Lovely.
Scalebound got a live demo, with a huge boss fight. They even said it was the biggest boss fight they ever made. It looks action-packed and chaotic, which could be fun. You can also play Co-Op, but it looks like the protagonists aren’t distinguished enough in Co-Op. Also, when the protagonist put his headphones on, everybody in the chat started quoting Lucio from Overwatch. Lots of Overwatch love in the chat. “Drop the beat!”
They showed off Rare’s Sea of Thieves. It was pre-recorded footage of people who got to play the game early. It’s multiplayer-centric, and people have to work together in order to get their ship sailing. There’s other small interactions, like one player’s character getting drunk. The people in the footage initiated boat combat, which is very similar to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, except a much different art style. The lower sections of the boat need repairing if your boat is damaged, or else it’ll sink.
State of Decay 2 got a teaser. Looks like it’ll be in a rural setting based on the landscape and area they showed off. Also looks like you can settle down places and build it up slowly over time. We can only speculate at this point, but I think it’ll have multiplayer based on how it was presented.
Halo Wars 2 only got a teaser with a few bits of gameplay, but a multiplayer beta will be starting this week, stretching from June 13 - June 20. The game releases on February 21, 2017.
Xbox Scorpio was what they ended the show with, titled Project Scorpio. The Scorpio has 6 teraflops worth of GPU power, allowing it to be capable of 4K Gaming and VR. Phil Spencer says “nobody gets left behind” with Scorpio. All accessories will work in the “Xbox Family.” It will release Holiday 2017. Many developers also backed it via a recorded video, with people like Todd Howard.
Reviewing My Predictions
Here’s how I score my predictions. Incorrect is zero points, half-correct is half a point, and correct is a full point. I can get a possible of 19 with this one.
- We’re going to see a lot on Recore hopefully. Gameplay and a release window. Probably 2017. I’m optimistic for this game, so I want to see what it is.
Correct! Recore is confirmed for September 13, 2016. (1/19)
- I think EA will show up at this conference. Probably will show some Battlefield 1 footage. Maybe Titanfall 2 as well.
Yes indeed they did. Only briefly, yet it was footage we already saw. (2/19)
- Godd Howard comes and talks about Fallout 4 Mods or whatever. Maybe he talks about the upcoming DLC.
Todd did appear, but not on stage, and not in regards to Fallout. (2.5/19)
- I feel like something big will be announced for Backwards Compatibility. Maybe something like Red Dead Redemption will be backwards compatible. Modern Warfare 2 maybe? Something that will get the crowd going.
Does Tekken count? Well, Backwards Compatibility was mentioned, so let’s go with half a point. (3/19)
- Gears of War 4 gets a big showing. People will love it. Gears is on the upswing. This will be a really big game for Microsoft this year.
Yes, it is. Saw blade gun hype. (4/19)
- Scalebound gets some gameplay. Looks interesting enough, so some more gameplay will be nice. Will it come out this year? I don’t think they need it as an exclusive release this year, so I would say that it’s slated for 2017.
I was right. 2017, and gameplay. (5/19)
- Halo Wars 2. Really excited for this. Loved the first one. They finally made an RTS work on a console, so it’d be nice to have another one.
Yes, they did do a segment on Halo Wars 2. (6/19)
- Sea of Thieves. I would say that a beta will be announced later this year for it. Maybe over the summer.
It was shown, but no beta was announced. (6.5/19)
- Bioshock Trilogy. I know the 4th entry in the series is in development, so the trilogy would be nice to have. I love Bioshock, especially Infinite. “Booker, Catch!”
I wish. (6.5/19)
- Xbox Scorpio gets announced. The possible controversy surrounding Neo applies here as well. It will be more powerful than the Neo, I predict, and will release later than the Neo as well.
Good end to the show. Crowd seemed to like it. Not sure yet if it will be more powerful than Neo, but I’ll take the point for now. It seems very powerful, though. (7.5/19)
- DeadRising 4 gets shown off here. It gets a release window and gameplay.
Yes indeed, although not much gameplay in the trailer. (8.5/19)
- HoloLens will get a segment as well.
Nope. (8.5/19)
- Some new IP would be nice.
The Indie games don’t count, I feel, so no. (8.5/19)
- CUPHEAD FTW
FTW (9.5/19)
- Crackdown 3 will be given gameplay and a beta will be dated. This is another big Xbox game that I hope does well for them.
They showed the logo at the end, but it wasn’t in the show. Surprising. They did show the logo, so it’s still alive I guess. Still shocked it didn’t get shown off. (9.5/19)
- A sequel to Sunset Overdrive is possible, but I don't think it'll happen yet. Maybe a teaser now, and then gameplay next year.
Nope. (9.5/19)
- A really bold prediction, but I would love it if I could play Steam games on my Xbox One. If they could figure that out, I’d be really happy. There were rumors about an "Xbox Steam Powered" domain that surfaced, but I haven't heard anything since.
Keep dreaming. It’s vice versa, though, with Xbox games on Windows 10. (9.5/19)
- A slim Xbox One has been rumored as well. Unless it’s as powerful as the Scorpio, I don’t see the point of buying one.
Yes indeed. They led the show off with it. (10.5/19)
- The rest of the conference should be things from third-parties. Maybe Watch Dogs gets some time. Which is why I want Xbox to show off new IP.
Yes, some third party games were shown - like The Division. (11.5/19)
Not bad with predictions. Could be better.
I think Microsoft did a good conference. It didn’t blow me away at all, but I would say it’s like a 7/10. It was solid, good all-around, but nothing that really shocks you. Well, besides Final Fantasy 15.
What did you think? Let me know below! Ubisoft is next!
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