E3 2015 – Xbox Press Conference – LIVE

MICROSOFT E3 2015 Press Conference:

*Live blog. Please refresh*


Halo 5: Guardians

-The show starts with Halo 5 Guardians. We are playing as Spartan Locke, and are introduced to the new squad based gameplay showing squad commands.  Game is fast, and smooth. Similar enemies are shown with some new weapons.

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-Josh Holmes comes to stage, from 343 Studios stating that Halo 5 Guardians is the most ambitious title to date. We play as two different squads in this campaign, one as Master Chief and the other Spartan Locke.

-New multiplayer mode coming with Halo 5. 24 players and 4x the size of previous maps. Game mode is called Warzone. Player vs Player vs Everyone. Teams of 12 vs 12 plus campaign enemy AI in the map.


Recore

-Xbox Exclusive World Premiere – Trailer. Sandy planet. From the creators of Metroid Prime. Showing a scavenger girl and her robot dog. The dog sacrifices itself to defend of the encroaching enemies, but its energy globe remains. The spark gets put into a new robot, and the dog’s personality is back. Game is Recore. 2016. Exclusive first-party franchise.


Backwards Compatability

-The head of Xbox, Phil Spencer takes the stage.

“Xbox continues to innovate, and we have the greatest lineup of games in Xbox history.”

-Xbox continues to put out monthly updates, and the latest one right around the corner is Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility. That’s huge. Xbox 360 and Arcade games will work natively on the Xbox One. 100 titles will be supported this holiday, with more coming. Our retail discs will work. All the Xbox One framework will be supported in the 360 titles: Screenshot, DVR, Broadcast. Won’t be charged to re-play the games we already own.

-Quick showcase of the new Xbox Elite Controller


Fallout 4

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Fallout 4 is up next. Added story trailer that wasn’t shown last night. Showcases the laser musket rifle and the power armour in action. In the streets, we come across a huge baddie that climbs out of the sewers, named Deathclaw. Power armour uses VATS as well.

Fallout 4, with Xbox One will support the PC community mods for free. Checkout the Bethesda Press Conference for more Fallout 4 info.


Ea Access

-Peter Moore, from EA comes out and starts to talk about EA Access. Rehashes Early Access to EA titles with EA Access, and play for less. The Vault has the best of EA on Xbox One. Madden 16 will have early access, and Titanfall is going to be released in the Vault later this week, and later this summer, Dragon Age Inquisition will be available.

-Peter announces Plants vs Zombies Garden Warafre 2. Arriving next spring. Quick trailer showing some new plants and zombie. Welcome to Zomburbia.


Forza Motorsport 6

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-New GT drops drown from the ceiling and Forza Motosport 6 is on display next. Discusses the 50th anniversary of the GT and the win at the 24 Le Mans. New trailer is shown showing upgraded visuals, 24 car multiplayer, day and night races, and weather. Sept 15th, 2015 release date.


Dark Souls III

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-World premiere. BANDAI NAMCO, FromSoftware, Dark Souls 3? Desolate medievil setting. Yup Dark Souls III. Coming 2016.


Tom Clancy’s The Division & Rainbow Six: Siege

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Ubisoft is up next to quickly discuss Tom Clancy’s The Division. I’m guessing we’ll get more info during their press conference. Laurent Detoc is on stage. Bonjour. The Division is a deep realist RPG with a personal touch. Exclusive Xbox early Beta this December.

-He moves onto Rainbow Six: Siege. Quick trailer. Coming out this October, now included in the bundle, thanks to the Xbox One backwards compatibility will be Rainbow Six Vegas 1 and 2 for free.


Gigantic

-Windows 10 and Xbox One exclusive. Very cartoon and stylized art. Colourful. Game is called Gigantic. Free to Play arena combat style game. Choose your hero, choose your guardian.


ID@Xbox and Xbox Early Access

-ID@Xbox games showcase next. Sizzle reel of upcoming titles.. Introduction to some of the ID teams showing the exclusive Xbox games coming later this year and next year: Tacoma, Ashen, Beyond Eyes, Cuphead.

-Xbox Game Preview announced. Like Steam’s Early Access. While the game is still in active development. You get a free trail before you decide to pay for the game’s early access. 4 games available later this year: The Long Dark, Sheltered, Elite Dangerous, and DayZ. 2 titles start today for early access.

-Dean Hall – from DayZ to announce his new game. He wants a simulation MMO that explores space. New trailer for upcoming Early Access Game. ION.


riseofthetombraideroxmRise of the Tomb Raider

-Brian Horton. Crystal Dynamics. Rise of the Tomb Raider gameplay reveal. Holiday 2015. Starts with Lara in a mountain cave with a flare. similar walking mechanics where Lara braces herself against the wall. Snow traversal. Jonah from the previous game is back for the ride. Cinematic mountainside climbing. Avalanche starts and Lara books it, leaving Jonah behind. Level based destruction during running sequences similar to the previous game, but expanded. Hunting is back. Bow and arrow are back. Bigger, detailed tombs. More ambitious game. November 10, 2015. EXCITED!


rareware-4e26145007227RARE Hits Collection

-Xbox One Exclusive:

“You never forget your first game. Remember Battletoads, Banjo-Kazooie, Concur’s Bad Fur Day”

RARE. 30 hit games. called Rare Replay. Aug 4th collection. Pretty cool.

-New exclusive game from Rare. Fantastical world. Very colourful. Called Sea of Thieves. Pirate and pirate ship game.


Fable Legends

-Up next, new trailer. Adventure game. Colourful forest with fairies. Free-to-play. Fable Legends, coming this holiday. Cross-platform.


Oculus, Valve VR, and Hololens

-New relationship with Valve VR for Windows 10. Xbox partnership with Oculus. We will be able to play Xbox One through Oculus Rift. Microsoft Hololens powered by Windows 10.

-Lydia Winters from Mojang (Minecraft) comes to the stage to show up a live demo of Minecraft using the Hololens. From playing minecraft right on to wall, to having a game overview right on the table. Hololens and Minecraft look very cool. Ability to watch players in the world with an overview. Scroll the wold, pinch to zoom. Very cool technology.


Gears of War Ultimate Edition & Gears of War 4

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Gears of War Ultimate Edition finally confirmed. Updated and modernized for the next-gen. August 2015 release. Rebuilt for 1080p 60 fps. The original trilogy.

-Xbox One World Premiere: New Gears of War trailer. It’s a night time level, like the original reveal waaay back when. With flashlights. Gears music. New weather elements and level destruction. Chainsaw gun is back. New monsters. Very dark ominous level. Feels very much like Gears. Gears of War 4, holiday 2016.


-Phil Spencer is back to rehash this years line-up, backwards compatibility, ea access, virtual reality gameplay. Announces that at Gamescon later this year we’ll have new info about Crackdown, Scalebound, and Quantum Break.

Quick sizzle reel for the biggest blockbusters on Xbox One coming later this year and next.


Microsoft press conference is over. Up next is EA’s at 1PM. Stay tuned.

-iRogan

NEWS – Forzas, Far Crys, Borderlands, oh my.

First things first, but not necessarily in that order: New Design.

I’m not sure if I like it yet, as visually, I really prefer the whole text-blog look. I find the feels of the tile mosaic overwhelming, but I can understand how reading the previous way, things get overlooked. These are raw emotions.

We’ll see how it goes for now. Once you actually start filtering things down into categories its easier to find things. I’ll start titling things to their respective categories, which I had previously only done with reviews.

Also posted over the weekend was a new screenshots page. So far I have Forza Horizons 2, GTA V (360 edition), and Saints Row III. I’m really liking the new screenshot options on the Xbox One, so expect some from Far Cry 4 once the Upload app gets up-dated. 😉

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Earlier today I posted a quick review of Forza Horizons 2‘s presentation of Fast and Furious tie-in game content. While not bad, its weird how it all came about, presented as its own stand-alone thing, with achievements, and free for a limited time. Its nothing more than a demo of what Forza Horizons 2 is, with some movie-centric cars.

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I completed Episode 1 of Tales from the Borderlands and will be posting a quick review of that for Thursday before starting Episode 2. I’ve also been playing Far Cry 4 a lot, inferred from the mention of screenshots I suppose. Expect a more thorough impression write-up on Wednesday for What I’m Playing feature, and a proper review. I’ve been playing it in co-op but reached a point where further story progression is necessary. The game elements are just so random and hilarious sometimes. I hope to get a Short Story out of that game soon too.

Well enough about me…


Evolve’s New Hunters

Probably better suited to tomorrow’s update, but Evolve is getting a big content update tomorrow, which includes 4 DLC characters. Slim, the new Medic, Sunny, the new Support, Crow, the new Trapper, and Torvald, the new Assault. Behemoth is the new Monster being released.

Sadly I haven’t had the opportunity to try this game yet. It doesn’t cater to my typical game, but if it drops in price like Titanfall, might be worth looking into.

April Games With Gold

To celebrate 100 million games downloads, Microsoft is doubling down on the free Xbox Games with Gold in April:

Xbox One

  • Pool Nation FX
  • Child of Light

Xbox 360

  • Gears of War: Judgment (Available from April 1-15)
  • Terraria (Available from April 1-15)
  • Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (Available from April 16-31)
  • Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel (Available from April 16-31)

I’ll give Pool Nation and Child of Light a shot, but I’m not sure it’ll be my style of game. Unfortunately the 360 games I have. 😦

Half-Life 2: Update

The fan-created mod for Half Life 2, titled Half-Life 2: Update has been released on Steam free of charge. The 7GB update has numerous visual enhancements and bug fixes. Half-Life 2 has always been my favourite game and this serves as another opportunity to go back and revisit it. Maybe keep an eye out for some screen shots from that :).

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection

Requires a day one patch of 16GB on the Xbox One and 8.3GB on the PS4. Yikes. Luckily I have the storage. But do you?

I’m curious how big the game’s install is alone. I’ll be picking this up on Thursday. Eee!

Black Tusk Teasing Gears of War

Its not much, but Black Tusk has teased some Gears of War stuff via a Twitter picture Friday. Just a quick photo from a mo-cap shoot, but its still exciting to know that they are working on another Gears of War.

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Halo 5 Dates

At the end of the HuntTheTruth trailer featuring Master Chief and Locke, the release for Halo 5: Guardians is announced as Oct 27th, 2015.


See you tomorrow with this weeks new games and DLC.

-iRogan