After a year of backtracking their goals for launch, a steady competition with the PlayStation 4, a recent price drop and seeming to finally give up on the lumbering brick that is the Kinect, (which is revealed to reserve processing power of the Xbox One that held the console back from 1080 resolution and 60 frames per second) it was finally time for Micro$oft to reveal the new upcoming games library after it’s drought since launch day (minus Titanfall).
They listened to what we wanted: more indie games, more original IP, higher resolution. They gave us what the loudest of the gaming community wanted, and the result was an exhaustingly extensive 90 minute display of all of the above, plus everything they show every other year. So, here are the 8 things to take way from Xbox’s E3 Presentation this year.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Gameplay)
There was a time where Call of Duty was a series known for recreating settings in World War II. In the HD era of consoles, that was deemed overdone and boring, so Call of Duty upgraded to “Modern” warfare, and to half-assed annual releases. Now that’s boring and overdone too, so we’re moving to Future Warefare, where now the only thing that can allow audiences to distinguish the CoD series from Halo and Titanfall is Kevin Spacey reprising his role from House of Cards. It looks pretty though.
November 4th, 2014 (Multiplatform)
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Assassin’s Creed: Unity (Gameplay)
Ubisoft finally unveils the gameplay elements of Unity, and, seven installments into the franchise, we’ll get to play with 4 player co-op. The french revolution never looked prettier. There was also very clear bugginess you’d only find in Assassin’s Creed in the live demo, so expect that on launch day.
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Fall 2014 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (Cinematic)
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A sequel to last year’s well received reboot was announced. Only this time, the subtitle comes before the name of the franchise, so that’s new.
Holiday 2015 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
“ID @ XBOX”
We got to see a montage of Indie Games almost exactly like what Sony showed the PS4 was going to give us at last year’s E3. So great for us, great for developers. #slowpoke for Xbox.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Gameplay)
Taking notes from EA’s acquisition of Mass Effect, the Witch’s third, and biggest, release will sport next-gen visuals and an open world, but it seems to retain some of it’s essential RPG elements from it’s acclaimed predecessors.
February 2015 (Multiplatform)
Evolve (Gameplay)
After debuting at PAX, the new game from the creators of Valve’s Left 4 Dead incorporates their memorable cooperative play style and, like the multiplayer options in L4D where opponents could play as Zombies, Evolve pits 4 human characters against one, human controlled alien beast.
October 21st 2014 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Halo 5: Guardians Beta (Cinematic & Gameplay)
343 unveiled the recently rumored remastering of Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 4, dubbed the Master Chief Collection that will be chick full of content, over 100 playable maps in mutiplayer, access to the new television series currently in production, and the mutiplayer beta for Halo 5, all for the price of one game: 60 dollars. The most exciting moment of the entire show was seeing a gorgeous recreation of the opening to Halo 2. You’ll know that feel if you loved that game.
November 11th 2014 (Xbox One Exclusive)
Sunset Overdrive
The creators of Resistance and Rachet & Clank, Insomniac Games, has come up with a fun looking third person action game reminiscent of InFamous on psychedelics. The pulp style, dystopian San Diego look sports fourth wall breaking camera styles, super reactive environments to jump, run and glide on, and aliens fighting mutant powered teenagers.
October 28th, 2014 (Xbox One Exclusive)
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