Xbox: A New Generation of Games Revealed

Ryse: Son of Rome

E3 begins the Xbox One portion of the conference. They promised only games in a recent statement. They begin with Ryse: Son of Rome (Xbox One Exclusive) by Crytek. This game looks beautiful first of all. The gameplay puts you at the head of a Roman army as Marius Titus as he storms an enemy castle. The combat is much like a hack-and-slash title, but God of War-like with the command prompts once enemies are weak.The gameplay shown at today's conference can be found here. Personally, as a fan of this time period, this game looks very promising.



Continuing on, Killer Instinct is reborn with new graphics exclusively for the Xbox One as Killer Instinct 3. It's back and looks terrific! The game's trailer is quick and shows three of the original characters, Sabrewulf, Jago, and Glacius revamped!

It's baaaack...

EDIT: IGN released further information on Killer Instinct today (6/11/13). Microsoft apparently plans to make Killer Instinct free on release...however only Jago, the masked ninja, will be available for play. The rest are actually paid for. This is obviously not going to go well for them...I wonder why they would revive a series...and then make you play Jago vs. Jago all day, if you don't want to pay.

Forza 5 was shown some love with gameplay, which displayed its incredible graphics. Microsoft also showed some love to the indie games with the announcement of Minecraft: Xbox One Edition.They continue with Remedy's Quantum Break, which was previously announced on May 21st with the Xbox One Reveal. Microsoft emphasizes the connection with the TV show version and the game version (but once again didn't show much of anything interesting).

Project Spark is a user-driven game.

Microsoft continues by announcing Project Spark, a very creative platform that utilizes Kinect and Xbox Smartglass to format your own world! While many people use their Kinect for scrolling the menu (if they're not a recreational child gamer), this appears to be a very fun and extremely useful application of what Kinect can really do. Could this be the evolution of Kinect that Microsoft was talking about?

Global streaming at your fingertips.

Xbox Smartglass was shown some support. The interactivity with the Xbox One proves that the Smartglass is an excellent ally in games such as Ryse and Killer Instinct 3. During this portion of the conference, they announced that Microsoft has partnered with Twitch to allow complete editing of gameplay and live streaming when desired. This will undoubtedly bring new streamers to the online community, and, as a result, bring gamers together worldwide.


Continuing on, Xbox One no longer uses Microsoft Points, and instead uses real currency. Also, there is no longer a 100 friend limit. Adding on to the good news was the announcement that one Xbox Live membership will operate for all of the accounts on that box.

Capcom Vancouver came out next to announce Dead Rising 3! They promise that the game has no load times. We're introduced to a new protagonist, Nick Ramos. The gameplay shows the use of multiple weapons, as is usual per the Dead Rising universe. Driving has been changed so that zombies prohibit movement when driving through them in great numbers. This game was also shown some interactivity with Xbox Smartglass through cool features, such as the demonstrated "Artillery Strike". You can check out all of the zombie-killing brutality right here.

Battlefield 4, although getting off to a rocky start in the conference, presented some beautiful looking graphics, due to the updated Frostbite Engine. The game runs at 60 FPS.

Black Tusk (Vancouver) partners with Microsoft, along with 4 other producers, to create brand new Triple A titles. Microsoft extended their thanks to the old icons such as Master Chief and Marcus Fenix.

A brand new Halo experience was announced for a 2014 release that will utilize all that Xbox One has to offer. No further information was given at the time. I assume more will come out this week. The game runs at 60 FPS. Interestingly enough, 343 did not call it Halo 5. I wonder what this means.

The GameInformer postershot of Titan Fall

The conference closes out with a trailer of the new Xbox One, PC, and Xbox 360 exclusive, Titan Fall by Respawn. The gameplay puts you in the control of a soldier in a sci-fi universe. They fight alongside the "Titans", large autonomous mechs, that are extremely dextrous and agile, which is different from the usual nature of a mech. The pilots and titans have a relationship apparently. This game was the highlight of the conference, and definitely deserved to be so. Respawn, the creators of the first Modern Warfare, says that this game was made to be "unlike anything that has been created."

Finally, the price of the Xbox One was given as $499. A fair price, given the Cloud, Smartglass, Kinect, and sponsored companies that will offer their services.

Continue reading for my full review of the conference:

First and foremost, this conference definitely delivered. Microsoft held true to their statement about presenting only games and they did just that. The highlights in my personal opinion were Titan Fall and Project Spark. I'll got through these individually starting with Titan Fall.


 


This game is created by Respawn, the directors of the original Modern Warfare. These guy spawned off from Infinity Ward and Titan Fall is their first expansive game. If you haven't seen the multiplayer gameplay, check it out here. I can definitely see the Modern Warfare aspects in this, and at first, I was wondering what would be special about this. Sure it looked nice, but where was the gameplay to get me into it. Then they showed it...and I was blown away. The gameplay, overall, is smooth, just as you would expect, but then the Titans come out. I would like to highlight these guys. If you check out (2:40) on the video, you will see the summoned Titan making its descent, and after that, you see the gameplay. The first thing I noticed was the fluidity of the mech. It moves almost as well as a human does. Then, its powers. The mech displayed some abilities that are almost akin to the plasmids of Bioshock to destroy other mechs. That was something I haven't seen in a long time, even the classic mech games (I'm talking about you, Super Robot Wars). Respawn commented after the show that the player and mech have a relationship, which shows through in the fact that enemies can't jack your mech from you. Pretty amazing. The game will be out on the Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC in Spring 2014.



There is not much to say about this game, but that's not saying that it's not interesting. This title surprised me from the first second. Kinect was used to create brand new landscapes, showing the  beautiful, fully user-created world. They changed everything from the time of day, to parts of the landscape in particular. Then, engaged in warfare with enemies that I assume were created by another user on that same world. This looks like an excellent game that fully utilizes Kinect's ability to register voice commands and interact with the game.