GameReviewPad contributors give their reactions to the E3 2016 Microsoft press conference.
LOUIS HUGHES
Microsoft continues the trait of focusing on games, but started things off a little different this time. Instead of showing a big name game (later), they showed off the Xbox One S to no one’s surprise, but what got everyone off guard is that the price will start at $299. After the event, I assumed since it said “up to 2 TB” that the $299 will be for a 500 GB version. It’s been confirmed that I was right on the $299 version, while the 1TB will be $349, and $399 for the 2TB. The biggest feature for this console, other than the size, is its support for 4K Blu-ray movies (UHD) and streaming.
The main game I’m excited for is Forza Horizon 3, since I love the open world aspect of the series and look forward to driving about the lush world of Australia to a killer soundtrack. Seeing General RAAM in Killer Instinct Season 3 was okay since I gave up on the Gears of War franchise. As nice as the gameplay was with new elements (Gears of War 4), the game didn’t wow me. I was shocked to see Tekken 7 coming to Xbox One, since it can be said the platform is lacking fighting games, but with a game like Killer Instinct that’s okay. Was I the only one that noticed the developer state how Tekken 7 will have a story mode on day one? I do like how the game is taking notes from Mortal Kombat X’s story presentation of having a cinematic scene and transitions into gameplay flawlessly.
An indie title that caught my eye was We Happy Few. The visuals look similar to Bioshock Infinite. I like how twisted the game is on having the character being forced to be happy when there are other emotions besides happy and the punishment for going rouge.
It was nice to see the return of the Halo Wars franchise with this long awaited sequel. My playtime with Halo Wars proved to me that RTS games can work on consoles. It still pains me why no RTS games were released on Wii and Wii U since the control scheme was perfect. I can say this game, no question; I will buy on Windows 10 and not Xbox One.
Let’s get to the reason people will take about this briefing. Microsoft not only announced the Xbox One S, but the long rumored Project Scorpio. This beast of a machine will be out next holiday season. Normally, announcing a new machine would bring hype, but instead, it’s bringing up more questions. The main feature talked about during the briefing is that future games (*first party*) will have Xbox Play Anywhere (cross buy). While this is a cool feature, most of the people I talked to after the announcement told me they will buy the Windows 10 version and not buy an Xbox One console. Learning that by next holiday we (might) have three different versions of the Xbox One console will confuse the average consumer. Heck, I’m in the process of building my first gaming PC and hope to build up my Steam library and Windows 10 games.
Since I don’t own a 4K TV and have little interest in VR, I’ll be sticking with my old, bulky, white Xbox One. I applaud Microsoft, they listened to fan feedback for making these monthly updates and showcased a lot of first party titles with little third party. Indies did get more screen time, but the important ones still got a blink and miss moments on the sizzle reel.
More reactions to the Microsoft press conference demonstration may be added later.
