E3 2014: Microsoft Press Conference Impressions

Welcome to the very first day of E3 2014.  Instead of roaming the floors of the LA Convention Center, press conferences will be broadcast to the world from various venues across the city of Los Angeles.  Every bit of anticipation and hype has been building for these sixty to ninety presentations.  The next steps towards the future of the video game industry begins right here, right now.  Following each press conference, yours truly will be sharing his impressions right here on Silver Bit.  These impressions will analyze the good, the bad and the ugly of each conference then wrap it up with a final grade.  As always, Microsoft kicks off E3 with their press conference.

Right off the bat, this press conference was one of the best conferences Microsoft has ever put on.  Much like last year's show, this conference focused solely on games.  The only mention of Kinect came in the brief minute Harmonix had where they spoke about Disney Fantasia and Dance Central Spotlight.  Another similarity to last year's conference came in the form of Microsoft cramming their ninety minutes with games, games and more games.  There was little to no room for anybody to breathe between game demos and trailers unless you count the incredibly awkward developer vignettes.  It was not hard to see that Microsoft wanted to hammer home that they listen to the core gamers, but those vignettes felt forced and completely unnecessary.  Although the pacing is something Microsoft needs to work on, it is a step in the right which should be a good sign for future press conferences.  The conference's strength came from the games shown.  Microsoft made a much better effort in highlighting the games coming from first-party studios. While none of them really made this writer excited, games like Crackdown 3, Fable Legends, Phantom Dust, Scalebound, Sunset Overdrive and Halo: Master Chief Collection will get some people interested in buying an Xbox One.  Along with all the first-party titles, there were a good number of third-party games showcased at the show.  The Microsoft presser saw the reveal trailer for Rise of the Tomb Raider, an impressive demo of Witcher III: Wild Hunt, a fun multiplayer demo of Assassin's Creed Unity and gameplay from both The Division and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.  Along with all the love for larger games, Microsoft made a little effort to showcase the indie games coming to Xbox One which they focused a lot of time on revealing Playdead's Inside.  The strengths came from all the content of the show, but Microsoft failed in one regard.  Microsoft did set their holiday lineup for 2014, but sadly it is very lackluster in this writer's honest opinion.  There is no real killer app among Forza Horizon 2, Halo: Master Chief Collection and Sunset Overdrive to elicit people to pick up the Xbox One this Christmas.  Their message came clear that all the games people will care about will be coming out in 2015 or later except that you can join the beta for every major game this holiday season.  Honestly, relying on betas to sell a system is not an effective business plan.  Microsoft needs to deliver on the games and soon because people are not going to wait forever.

Overall, the Microsoft E3 2014 Press Conference was really well done.  This holiday season may be very barren in regards to Microsoft's offerings, but there are some interesting projects down the pipeline to be excited about.  Although Microsoft did make some strides in impressing this year, it did play things far too safe with their reveals and demos than truly showcasing why the Xbox One is greater than the PS4.

Grade:  B

On the Download: August 26-September 1

Well it is the last weekly edition of On the Download for a while.  It has been a lot of fun to put the spotlight on all these unique and incredibly interesting downloadable titles that release weekly and even daily for the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, 3DS, iDevices and PC.  Downloadable games have made their mark in the video game industry these past few years by standing toe-to-toe with even the biggest of triple A console or PC titles.  Some of the most innovative and inventive experiences in video games today come from these smaller downloadable titles.  I have really enjoyed writing On the Download on a regular basis and giving a spotlight to these games that many gamers overlook.  It has been one of my favourite weekly posts to write here on Silver Bit and I hope you all enjoyed reading it.

Now that I am done with the little farewell for now speech, let us get down to business.  Got a packed week of downloadable games to talk about.  Two games I want to talk about quickly here in the intro and the other two I will get into more detail below.  First, this week Telltale Games released the third episode in their Walking Dead adventure series called The Long Road Ahead.  Decisions from the earlier episodes affect the events of The Long Road Ahead and pave a way for new long-lasting decisions that will affect future episodes in the series.  The third episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead game is available on PSN, XBLA and PC for 5 dollars.  The second game I want to mention here is the iOS port of Bastion.  Coming completely out of right field, Supergiant Games announced the game earlier in the week only to release it for iOS this past Thursday.  Easily one of the best downloadable games of 2011 has been re-imagined to work on the iPad.  Bastion only works on iPad 2 or higher and costs 5 dollars.  If you missed out on this remarkable game last year and own one of the newer iPad models, Bastion is a no-brainer.  Download it right now!  It is that good.

For a while there it looked like Rock Band and much of the rhythm game genre was dead, thanks to an over saturation of Rock Band and Guitar Hero games from EA and Activision.  With games like Audiosurf and Symphony trying to revitalize this genre through the downloadable game space, Harmonix has decided to bring Rock Band to the downloadable space with Rock Band Blitz.  Unlike the core Rock Band games for console, Rock Band Blitz does not use special peripherals to play the game. In Rock Band Blitz, you will use the regular controller to switch between each instrument lane and match notes in one of the game's 25 songs, which is very similar to Harmonix's older rhythm games such as Frequency and Amplitude.  Rock Band Blitz offer the same Rock Band gameplay, now all just for single-player.  Without much of a campaign, the main drive to play Rock Band Blitz is due to the online leaderboards,which tracks your top scores on each song.  In addition to the 25 songs that come with Rock Band Blitz, gamers are able to import any song they have for Rock Band 3.  Rock Band Blitz is now available for PSN and XBLA for 15 dollars or 1200 Microsoft Points.

Mass Effect is a huge series with one of the most expansive universes in video game history.  To extend the life of their RPG epic and provide more insight into the rich mythology of this universe, BioWare has developed the Leviathan DLC for Mass Effect 3.  The Leviathan DLC takes place before the final mission on Earth and dives into the dark history of the Reapers.  Commander Shepard hears reports of something lurking in the dark corners of space.  That something being powerful enough to single-handedly slay a Reaper.  What is this powerful being, this leviathan of sorts and is it friend or foe?  It is up to Shepard and his crew of the Normandy to find that out.  Leviathan expands on the events of Mass Effect 3 and provides new characters to interact with, new pieces of information on the mythology to chew on and new weapons and upgrades to play with.  For those not ignorant enough to abandon Mass Effect 3 because of the polarizing ending and want to dive back into this incredible game, you can pick Leviathan for PC, PSN and XLBA for 10 dollars or 800 Microsoft Points.