#then you read the last paragraph and get it why yesterday announcement feels kinda rushed

[dannyric333]

INSANITY

[mozillogames]

Microsoft Held You Softly At E3 2017

Microsoft’s Press Conference was arguably a lot more eagerly awaited than EA’s, which kicked off proceedings of E3 yesterday with their rather lack luster show, and it turned out to be a fairly strong showing from Microsoft. Phil Spencer proudly announced that they’d be showing 42 games at their show while constantly maintaining the smug grin that I now think might just be his normal face. However, the games weren’t exactly the big actor on the stage in this show.

Project Scorpio was finally going to be revealed with all the juicy details one might expect. Big numbers like 1172MHz and even bigger words like teraflops. All in all, Microsoft could have made up the numbers and figures as 90% of people will end up turning to the nearest person who actually knows what any of it means and look for a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Apparently with Project Scorpio it’s a thumbs up. But wait, do I mean Project Scorpio or do I mean Xbox One X, I think the X is for Xtreme. I hope the X is for Xtreme. I’m already calling an issue that only I will have to deal with, Xbox One X sounds a lot like Xbox One S, as someone who works in game retail this will confuse about 90% of mums and dads. Pray for me.

It’s odd to think that the big “reveal” of the Xbox One X can be glossed over so easily, but we’ve known all the information about it already, outside of the X, which is definitely for Xtreme. It’s just that everyone outside of the name and what it looked like was mostly known already. It looks like a grey Xbox One S.  Now the question on everyone’s teraflopped lips was how does it make games look? What better way to show how a game can look good than with a car game, things which traditionally always look unnaturally good.

It also wouldn’t be a car game reveal without an actual car. Hidden away in the weird space church that was the Microsoft Stage was an actual car. Someone somewhere looked on with more than a spooky building from an actual car being in the room. Phwoar. Kiss your dad for me, there’s an actual car in the room. Outside of that Forza Motorsport 7 is a game that exists with fake actual cars now with more weather effects than ever before, still, it’s not exactly Mario Kart.

In a more impressive display of the Xbox One X’s graphics we saw what could possibly be gameplay for Metro Exodus. It looked really quite nice, in a million shades of brown kind of way, although the lack of UI of any form begins to raise questions about whether or not it’s representative or not. I’ve never played a Metro game but the big mutant bear looked cool, so that’s always a plus.

This was when Phil Spencer strutted out to proudly announce they were taking the wind out of Ubisoft as the big space god voice made one of its many announcements. Assassin’s Creed Origins flew onto our screens and its set in Egypt! This was a massive reveal because no one knew it was set in Egypt, and haven’t known about it for literally months. By the way it’s been known for literally months. Gameplay to be shown, and sadly revealing that it still looks a lot like every other Assassin’s Creed game, except that it’s gone back to Black Flag, which is at least a step in the right direction. Where would we also be with a Ubisoft game without it including every game mechanic from every game they’ve ever released, now with eagle/drone.  Also the gameplay showed a lot of aspects that really began to turn me off. The combat still looks clunky and awkward and now there’s an equipment loot system and RPG leveling elements, because damage numbers were always a big part of Assassin’s Creed games.

One of the biggest announcements, while possibly reactionary, was that Player Unknown: Battleground will be coming to Xbox One, although let’s be honest, that bubble will have burst by the time it hits Xbox One in September or November, whichever one it was. Microsoft began to pick the pace up a little bit as they started showing a plethora of games. The quickest turn off to a game was with Black Desert, a game that looked interesting and cool at first, and hints of a Japanese/Korean Dragon’s Dogma, only to have it ruined by turning out to be an MMORPG. There were some really interesting indie games like The Last Night which had one of the best art directions of the entire show (EDIT: but is also made by GamerGate supporting developers who continue to say awful and outlandish things, I’ll give it a miss). There was CodeVein as well which looked like a Dark Souls-esque JRPG that could be silly fun as well as many MANY others that had my interest piqued, the main issue with a lot of them is that they will all be released on PC or even released on PS4 as well.

Cut to Sea of Thieves. Still looking oddly interesting but we’re still not entirely sure how the multiplayer actually works. Would I need to get the same 10 friends together each time I wanted to go to the seas like some complex D&D group or will it end up being more of an MMO experience in which who decides who is captain, are we all the captain. I’m the captain now?

Following on from pirates with their raping and pillaging, except not that, was an odd insert with Super Lucky Tales. It’s a cute platformer taken straight from the 90s, which parents won’t buy their kids because they look at the design and think “Well, my child can play 18 rated games really well, so this is probably too easy”, you think it outrageous, it’s an actual statement I’ve had said to me by a parent about Shovel Knight while I was at work. Either way, a pleasant surprise in the sea of 18 rated murder sprees. However this did then lead straight into Terry Crews shouting at you and confirming that Crackdown 3 does still exist, hooray. Also Cuphead finally has a release date, after several years of existing only in the ether.

The barrage of fun looking indie games continued as Microsoft burst into a full sprint to reveal their 42 games in a montage that gave enough time to each game that you might have read the title or even comprehended what was going on. Some notable games in the barrage of titles included Ooblets, which looks incredibly adorable and is some weird Harvest Moon Pokemon game, from what I can tell, as well as Tacoma which just looks kinda cool.

If it seems like I’m rushing through things here, blame Microsoft, they had 42 games in their show and sped through them with little time to spare. Phil Spencer finally revealed the secrets behind his trip to Japan, other than to get all the figurines he ever wanted, Dragonball FighterZ, because Zs are cool. It’s a fighting game by Arc System Works, so it looks astonishingly good and visually impressive, but you know, Dragonball was all Spencer could walk away with? Maybe he really likes Bulma, understandable really.

In an odd tripling for a paragraph, we also saw some more information about Shadow of War, or Shadow of Wardor as it should be called, which revealed that it is in fact a sequel to the last game, so expect more of that. Not something I’m really into, except the accents were 10/10 and there was a decent level of humour to be had with some characters, although this is countered by a man calling himself “The Machine” and shouting about revenge. Life is Strange, not just a follow up to my prior line, has a sequel coming out. Again, something that I’m fairly sure everyone knew about already, but you know, cool! Also Ori and the Blind Forest is going to have a sequel with Ori and the Will of the Wisp which looks set to continue having really depressing images of dead animals and parental figures that tragically die in front of your eyes like it’s Bambi.

Some of the final things in the show included a price for the Xbox One X, which will set you back $499 or £449, as well as backwards compatibility for Original Xbox games which is great, if your mum probably hasn’t sold them all in a car boot sale. Why release new games when people can just replay the ones they already own and feel like they’re getting a service. Xbox One X, it’s still a dumb name, I just hope the X is for Xtreme.

The show essentially wrapped up with more information on Bioware’s Anthem. This time they revealed more of the setting, the graphics and vague gameplay with a definitely scripted segment of gameplay that somehow made me less interested in the game, EA taking a page out of Ubisoft’s book. Giant creatures that look like they were ripped straight out of Horizon Zero Dawn, the setting of Anthem is still not entirely clear other than you jump down from the city and fly threw tubes and tunnels like you’re The Thunderbirds. It also turns out that it is probably just Destiny by Bioware, bit of a disappointment really on that one. Shotgunning aliens in the face can be fun and all, but a shotgun is also a little unimaginative.

Showing off a rather stunning design, however, the game did look visually impressive, filled with little bits and pieces with the suits of armour the play uses to kill the local wild life, such as multiple rockets launching from one’s shoulder. It’s a game to keep an eye on, for sure, but even with a “gameplay” trailer, I still feel like I know very little about the game or even how online it is, just like the pirate game I’ve already forgotten the name of. The awfully scripted conversations that didn’t at least once involve one friend saying to another “alright fuck face” suggests drop in and out multiplayer, but is it more like everyone’s just running around fucking pigs and sometimes you’ll meet up to do a quest? Who knows?

Overall the Microsoft press conference was alright, I am forgetting more and more of it as time passes though, which doesn’t exactly speak for any of the big announcements that were in the conference. In terms of games there was nothing ground breaking and new in announcement when it comes to AAA releases, a lot of it has already been leaked or spoken of before leaving the show feeling more like the show of follow ups than the show of industry breaking announcements. For the most part the 30 or more indie games that Microsoft blitzed through held my interest a lot more than most of the other titles shown and that’s because I’d not seen a lot, or anything, on most of them.

Microsoft may have put a lot of its eggs in one basket, that basket having a giant X on it for Xtreme, which appeals to a VERY small percentage of the market. There wasn’t a lot driving anyone to go out and buy an Xbox One X in November, or an Xbox One for that matter, it was a lot of assurances for those who already own one, but little attempts to win anyone over with new IPs or long missed titles, like Fable, making a return. Also, what the fuck is Mixer and why was it mentioned so often?