MICROSOFT E3 REVIEW
XBOX’S TOP FIVE E3 MOMENTS
HALO: THE MASTER CHIEF COLLECTION Microsoft promised Halo at E3, and it delivered. The Master Chief Collection combines all four numbered Halo games and includes remakes of the first two titles, Ridley Scott-produced TV series Halo: Nightfall plus beta access to Halo 5. Best of all? It’s out this year.
CRACKDOWN 3 Microsoft’s biggest fan- pleaser was the news that a third Crackdown is coming to market. And what’s more it’s being created by the man who built the original (and best) game in the series: Dave Jones.
This year was certainly an improvement on 2013’s show for Microsoft
the overall magic that makes Xbox One what it is. It’s critical to using things like Skype and Twitch. “For me it’s tough to mentally
separate those two things out. But you are going to see games that are built with Kinect at their heart, games like Dance Central, then you are going to continue to see games that integrate various parts of Kinect, like Ryse with voice commands. That’s not going away. We’re committed to keeping Kinect as a core part of the magic of what the box is about. SmartGlass was another element missing from this year’s conference. “This show is about Xbox One so that’s what we chose to focus on. Xbox One, fans, gamers and games was what today was about,” continues Booty. There was barely any mention
of Xbox 360, either. “We are committed to supporting that, too,” insists Booty. “What did you think about Forza by the way? That is coming to 360, too. We
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also have a new Magic: The Gathering coming to 360. You’ll continue to see games and DLC that’ll show up on 360.” It feels wrong, however, to point
out the things Microsoft didn’t show during its press conference. It may have felt safe, but a lot
of effort and planning clearly went in to pleasing its fans and showing off the strength of its Q4. Microsoft even went out of its way to excite some of its more dedicated fans, with the reveal of the largely forgotten game character Conker in Project Spark (with the potential for others, says Booty) plus the return of Phantom Dust (which was never actually released in Europe) and of course the eagerly anticipated return of Crackdown. Xbox at E3 may not have given the trade much insight into its long-term goals. But the industry can feel confident that Microsoft is doing its utmost to rapidly win back its large and lucrative fanbase.
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We remain committed to Kinect. It’s part of the overall magic that makes Xbox One what it is.
Matt Booty, Microsoft
RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER There were two Lara Croft games on show at this year’s E3: one a top-down isometric four-player co-op action puzzler, the other a sequel to last year’s Tomb Raider reboot. One of the few genuine surprises at the show, the trailer points to another mature take on the franchise.
SUNSET OVERDRIVE Long-term PlayStation devs Insomniac announced it was making this Xbox One exclusive last year, but at E3 we got a glimpse at just how big Microsoft plans to go with it. The game took up a sizeable chunk of its booth, it was plastered around hotel rooms across LA and it’s due out this year.
ASSASSIN’S CREED UNITY Ubisoft’s hit series had aligned itself with Sony at previous E3s, so seeing it on stage at Xbox’s conference was a surprise. The epic trailer revealed a four-player take on the series and wowed audience members with stunning next-gen visuals well beyond last year’s Black Flag.
June 20th 2014
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