Live Conference Notes
- Phil Spencer is awesome
- Call of Duty continues DLC-first on Xbox
- Call of Duty Advanced Warfare visually and gameplay looks like something else entirely, possible evolution for the series, thrusters in standard gameplay, futuristic setting with mechs and spider tanks, unique setting for Call of Duty
- Forza 5 Free DLC - Nurburgring Track
- Forza Horizon 2 - full day-night cycle, dynamic weather, 1080p, Forza Drivatar carried over from Forza 5, expanded community functionality, open world, September 30th release date
- Evolve demo, exclusive beta and first DLC on Xbox, as impressive as ever, new monster types shown
- Assassins' Creed Unity - set in French Revolution, live demo with 4 player co-op, next-gen exclusive, full crowd simulation ala Hitman Asbolution, co-op inter-spliced with single player, gameplay looks identical to standard Assassins Creed, brutal executions, no timed exclusive DLC or early beta access confirmed at show
- Dragon Age: Inquisition - timed exclusive DLC on Xbox first, looks every bit as amazing as before
- Sunset Overdrive - CG trailer, hilarious, looks great personality-wise
- Sunset Overdrive gameplay footage now, humorous and exciting mix of platforming/skating and gunplay, very gory, eight player multiplayer, October 8th release date
- Dead Rising 3 DLC, comical - Ryu cameo - seemingly in the vein of Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
- New Harmonix game - Disney Fantasia Music Evolved in the vein of Dance Central, Dance Central game on the side
- New Fable - Fable Legends, 4 player co-op, great visuals, same trio of combat styles, you can play the villain as a top-down challenge controller, same humour present
- The creation sandbox game in the vein of Littlebigplanet from last E3 - Project Spark, very well defined, incredible range of games, co-op campaign, possible Star Wars content, CONKER!
- New indie type game, similar vein to Limbo or Rayman Origins, name is Ori and the Blind Forest, releasing Fall 2014
- HALO 5 CG trailer, Halo 5 Guardians beta in December, short teaser of multiplayer with expanded SPARTAN abilities
- Halo 1/2/3/4 November 11th Xbox One, Halo Master Chief Collection, Halo 2 getting the Anniversary Edition treatment ala Halo 1 Anniversary, pure unaltered Halo 2 multiplayer gameplay (Halo 2 considered possibly best FPS multiplayer game ever), every Halo game at 1080p/60fps with dedicated servers, Halo: Nightfall Digital TV series included and produced by Ridley Scott
- Limbo 2/spiritual successor, early 2015 game, called INSIDE, gameplay footage
- ID@Xbox (indie help program) segment, number of "first on Xbox" (timed exclusive) indies, some cool trailers
- World Debut, new Tomb Raider for sure - YEP, it's Tomb Raider, CG Trailer, Holiday 2015 (not an exclusive), official title THE RISE OF TOMB RAIDER
- The Witcher 3 new gameplay, re-designed UI, mixing potions/herbs mechanic still in, amazing visuals, nice mechanic where shooting a bolt at a Griffon leaves a trail of blood even when it flies off, gory combat, looks like refined rather than necessarily expanded gameplay, preset gameplay cutscene possibly to not spoil full griffon boss fight (not an exclusive)
- New game exclusive to Xbox One, CG trailer - its a reboot of PHANTOM DUST
- The Division new expanded gameplay trailer, timed exclusive DLC for Xbox, amazing visuals but standard gameplay
- Platinum Games Xbox One exclusive, CG trailer, looks similar to futuristic Monster Hunter type game, allied dragon to player, called SCALEBOUND
- Crackdown REMAKE? exclusive to Xbox One (duh), CG Trailer, could be whole NEW game EDIT it is CRACKDOWN 3
- Looks like that's all folks! Yep, Phil saying that's all...wait for a "one more thing" trailer, looks like a NOPE, they're showing a "trailer reel" of all the stuff now and WE ARE DONE
Overall Thoughts - Very solid conference, nothing mind-blowing as we already knew all of this stuff. The three major announcements are Halo: Collection, Scalebound and Crackdown but the latter two really aren't as mind-shattering as I would have hoped. The Halo Collection though looks amazing, awesome value and makes me really want an Xbox One now. I think Microsoft needed to pull out all-games and they did just that, so kudos to them, but very few major exclusive announcements unfortunately. I'm kind of disappointed we didn't see a new exclusive on the scale of Mass Effect 4 but what was there in the conference looked great - though all the CG trailers was kind of off-putting but not unexpected. Good performance Microsoft, hats off to Phil Spencer!
I'll be doing a full review of the Microsoft/EA/Ubisoft/Sony press conferences later today.
Nothing new on Season 2 for Killer Instinct? I know TJ Combo was revealed, but I'm urging for what new characters will apear in Season 2. By the way Jack, what are your thoughts for the up coming Warhammer 40k MMORPG? I think it's suppose to have it's own show at the Square Enix section.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see some varity on this site. :)
They had the Killer Instinct lead developer come out, but then he started talking about something else - I forget which game it was.
DeleteI'm excited by the MMORPG and its potential, but I don't know nearly enough about it to really comment. I remember the gameplay trailer they showed ages ago but I can't recall if they have changed the game up since then when THQ folded.
Yeah, a lot had changed. You're thinking Dark Millenium, that was canceled a couple years ago. The one that's in development is Eternal Crusade, which is being made by Behavior Interactive. They're very close with community, taking some feedbacks here and there, plus they'll let the community vote on what Space Marine Chapter, Chaos Warband, Ork Klan, and Eldar Craftworld will be featured at launch. Oh, and in their first expansion pack, the community will vote on which race will be playable (Although Tyranids are going to be part of the PvE like in dungeons and raids).
DeleteThe MMO is also free to play, with Orks boys being the only free race ad class, while the rest of both can only be played by a paid subscription. Behavior is also against the "Pay to win" concept, and mentioned that equipments that're earned will always at least be 10% better than the ones people bought with cash.
You can find out more on their website here: http://www.eternalcrusade.com
You can thank me later. ;)