Looking back at Microsoft’s E3 2015 briefing

With Microsoft’s Gamescom conference schedule for tomorrow, I thought I would look back at their E3 briefing and share my thoughts on how it went. This will be an in-depth and honest overview of all things Xbox from the gaming Christmas we experienced back in June. I have to say, what a conference it was! There were plenty of awesome moments that had me, and I’m sure many gamers and industry professionals, howling in their seats with glee. It really did feel like Christmas had come early. As always, we aim to steer clear from latent console wars and flaming, to bring you the best, honest and positive opinions and news you’ve come to love.

First of all, that intro pictured in the banner was amazing. We were bombarded with images from Halo 5: Guardians, Fable Legends, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Forza 6, and Gears of War. Even watching back it doesn’t fail to give me chills. Such a great way to enter the show. It was like “Hey, this is what we have in store for you, among other things!”. Talk about getting your attention right off the bat.

And then Bonnie Ross from 343 Industries took the stage. I was fist pumping. I shouldn’t have to say it, but I love when women take up a hands-on, camera-facing role in the gaming industry. And Bonnie knows her stuff and she loves what she does, and she’s so proud of her role and her product.

Halo 5: Guardians was the first game. Xbox’s flagship title has everyone whooping, and for good reason. Halo has a massive following, built up from the original Xbox days which hit the gaming youth back then square in the face and refused to let go. This was a new generation of gaming, and it’s grown and evolved with gamers today.

The addition of Nathan Fillion to the franchise as a character model is only something that will endear new and old fans alike, especially if they’re fans of Firefly. In my opinion, I wasn’t overly wowed by what we saw of the game-play elements of Halo 5. To me, it felt and looked a lot like Mass Effect 3, particularly with the large Reaper-like things in the distance. Let’s face it, even the antagonist in the video had some serious Turian genetics going on. What I will say though, is that graphically it looked phenomenal. It’s smooth and rich, and there are some pretty sweet particle effects going on with the explosions which I always really like.

What struck me more than anything I’d seen on the stream so far, wasn’t the content, it was people’s reactions on social media. I read a lot of comments such as “This looks incredible!” and “I can’t wait to get this!”. I felt like I was missing out on something. There had been barely any action at this point, so I couldn’t help but wonder whether this was diehard Halo-fanboy behaviour, which there is absolutely nothing wrong with, or whether I really just wasn’t getting it. Halo as a franchise was something I’d never really gotten to grips with. I’ve played them, but as a whole, they never really captured my attention the way other space games have in the past.

That being said, I can understand how and why people are going to love Halo 5: Guardians, which comes to Xbox One on October 27.

Josh Holmes from 343 Industries came out and explained some of the more technical aspects of Halo 5: Warzone, a new Halo 5 multiplayer mode, where we learned that it would feature seamless drop-in and drop-out play, akin to what we experienced in Destiny. Boasting a count of 24 players in teams of 12 and computer-controlled enemies, even I was little bit stunned at that point.

This is the scope Xbox One owners have been gushing over since the console was launched and Halo 5 seems like the perfect game to really push that. Not only that, but the multiplayer maps are four times bigger than any multiplayer map in any Halo game before? I can’t help but wonder if people won’t be wandering around looking for their adversaries, seems pretty huge. Seriously though, PvPvE sounds epic. Even I’m a little bit juicy at the prospect.

New exclusive, first party franchise ReCore was showcased next, which showed off a lone female wandering a sandy wasteland with her robot canine companion. Who doesn’t love a dog in games nowadays?. The fact it’s being made by Keiji Inafune and the makers of Metroid Prime got everyone on Twitter simultaneously salivating. To me it felt a little bit Wall-E, post-apocalyptic, scavenging, with robots.

The female and robot companion stumble across an inactive robot which looked similar to something Matt Dixon would create and nasties attack. During this sequence we see the girl pulling the core from the nasties which then kills them. This gives us a rough idea about how the enemies in the game may be defeated. Wow, very sad, a death, the dog sacrifices himself to clear the enemies away. Dog is nothing but a core, which is then put into the inactive robot, and robot dog is now a robot humanoid.

The way she says to the new humanoid, “Welcome back, buddy” makes me wonder whether the core retains memories and personality, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

The closing of the trailer showed the girl with a number of different robotoids, so my guess for the future before we find out more information about ReCore is that it’s likely to have puzzle solving elements, with each robot having a specific function, and swapping the core out of the robots who will fulfill different roles.

ReCore is coming to Xbox One in Spring 2016.

Generally I felt pretty ambivalent towards ReCore. I’m not sure it’s something right now that I’m immediately going to buy on launch, but it is something I’m more than halfway interested in, so I’ll keep an eye on it for now.

But then came Mr. Mack-Daddy himself. The Overlord of Xbox. I can’t help but gush a little bit over Phil Spencer. This is a guy who has drastically changed Xbox for the better. When he says Xbox is a brand that is very consumer focussed on what gamers want, and wants to make Xbox the best place for games, I believe him. Because I genuinely feel that. To quote Phil himself, “At Xbox our mission is simple. To put you, the gamers, at the centre of everything we do.”

When we look at the storm that was E3 2013…Don Mattrick. What were you doing? Always on? Digital only sharing? No internet, stick to 360? Then he stepped down and went to Zynga which he has since also quit after exponential losses so maybe Mattrick just shouldn’t do games…and Phil waved his magic wand and did what he felt was right and necessary to rectify Don’s wrongs.

After a warm up explaining how they’ve been listening and doing everything they can to give the fans what they want, Phil’s geared up for something big. They weren’t sure they could do it. But they did. This was the bombshell. Backward compatibility comes to Xbox One. Are you joking me? Everyone at the conference was on their feet. I know I would be too, if I wasn’t sitting on my bed in a darkened room thousands of miles away eating cookies. Xbox 360 games will be playable natively on Xbox One. This is beyond incredible and the biggest announcement from the entire event.

Mike Ybarra announced a hundred titles will be available for backwards compatibility from Christmas, with hundreds more titles being added then on. They’ll start showing up automatically in our game library on Xbox One. Retail disks will also work, once the content has been downloaded to the hard drive. So it will work the same way for Xbox 360 retail disks as it currently does with Xbox One disks.

I have love for Mike immediately as he fires up his “favourite game” Mass Effect on Xbox One, and then shows us that the functionality of the Xbox One is still compatible with 360 titles, such as using voice commands to take screenshots, broadcasting and GameDVR to name just a few, and is still compatible with Windows 10.

Xbox Preview members get a taste of these backwardly compatible titles the same day, with everyone getting them from the holiday season this winter. I’ve tried backwards compatibility and it’s amazing. I can’t wait to play even more games.

Another great thing Xbox have done for us, is that they’re not going to charge us further to play the games we already own! Consumer-centric wins again!

The Xbox Elite controller came after that. Wow. Just wow! Fully customisable, additional paddles, switchable components, button remapping…I need a towel. The price I expected was around £70-£80, but I’ve recently learned it’s going to be retailing for $150, which will be more like £100-£125. It’s a lot to pay for a single controller, so I’m hoping the quality and the effectiveness as a controller really is enhanced for the price. It’s something I’m going to have to get my hands on to try before I buy, lest I buy just a glorified customisable normal wireless Xbox One controller.

Todd Howard then took the stage to give us some information about the long awaited Fallout 4. Fallout 4 is a franchise I’ve had some minor issues with. I didn’t really enjoy some of the earlier titles, and Fallout 3 I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with. Fallout: New Vegas I really enjoyed.

I’m really pleased that developers are really starting to take control of the power of the console to create absolutely expansive areas for players to wander in now. This gives so much more scope in terms of playing, storytelling and exploration. And then the announcement that PC mods were going to be available to use on Xbox One exclusively? Amazing news! Mods can completely alter the gameplay of a title in ways that gamers want. They’ll be playable, and shared for free.

Fallout 4 is coming out November 10 along with Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Peter Moore of EA then came out, and this is where I switched off a little because EA to me means sports games.
However, he’s talking about EA Access, which is free throughout E3. Still just as disinterested. The Vault is surely a great asset, for $5 a month, being able to play a growing amount of EA titles. Game lending done right. While you don’t outright own the game, you’re able to download and play it for as long as the subscription is active, with early access to new releases plus discounts upon purchase.

Titanfall and Dragon Age Inquisition were announced for EA Access this summer, which are two incredible games from EA. This is the kind of stuff I can get behind. As I’m not a big sports fan, EA games often fly way below my radar. This is another company that is really trying to change their image for the better. I appreciate that.

Announcement of Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 came after that. I haven’t played or even tried the original, though it does look crazy, but again it’s not something I’m going to be going out of my way to have a go on. I like the concept, where the tables have turned and now zombies are protecting themselves against the Plants. Plants vs. Zombies is a strange franchise, one that seems to have stolen its little corner in competitive gaming.

Picture is mostly unrelated.

Then came a short video about Ford motors, and their 50th Anniversary and boom, Ford GT 2016 is lowered from the ceiling. I think I can hear my boyfriend scream from the other room. He’s not even watching E3, but the car itself…oh mama. This can only be Forza 6.

As racing games go, suprisingly, I’m not entirely turned off from them. I have always enjoyed racing games, though find serious racing games such as F1 to be almost too much. Generally though, I like racing, I like a challenge. However, with the exception of Forza with its Drivatars, I find truly innovative racing games are few and far between. Forza 6 will be incredible.

I could go on and on about Microsoft’s incredible E3 conference. I could talk about the breathtaking Rise of the Tomb Raider gameplay or the Cuphead and Beyond Eyes showcase. Everything was just awesome and made me excited to be an Xbox One owner. The majority of games are coming out this year or are better on Xbox One like the Rainbow Six Siege announcement that it comes with the two previous games through backwards compatibility. I can’t wait.

Gamescom is supposed to be about the future and tomorrow we’ll see Crackdown gameplay, Scalebound, Quantum Break and learn about some new first-party franchises Microsoft is investing in. What was your favorite announcement from E3? What are you hoping for at Gamescom? Tell us in the comments below. How excited are you?