E3 2015: Microsoft Press Conference Impressions

Microsoft and the Xbox One has been reeling since their infamous performance at E3 2013.  Microsoft hasn't truly won back the support of gamers and the Xbox One is suffering because of it.  What Microsoft needs to do is announce titles that gamers can only find on the Xbox One and commit to shipping them in a timely manner.  The last thing they need is to repeat last year's good showing with no followup.  In fact, three key exclusives from last year's show (Crackdown, Scalebound and Quantum Break) aren't even going to be at E3 2015.  So does Microsoft have a few aces up their sleeve or are we in for another disappointing performance?

After 90 minutes, I can safely say that was Microsoft's best conference in recent memory.  While nothing at the conference was mind-blowing, it had a good mix of new and existing titles along with a couple surprises.

Microsoft's big strength at this conference was live demos.  The live demos for Halo 5, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Minecraft on Hololens and Gears 4 were all well done and highly entertaining to watch.  Out of the all the live demos, the Minecraft on Hololens demo was the best as it perfectly showed the potential of using holograms to interact with games in brand new ways.  Also it was nice to see a greater focus on survival horror and more proportional characters for Gears 4.

Outside of the demos, Microsoft had some solid announcements around exclusive content for Xbox One.  Comcept and Armature's Recore with an intriguing mechanic revolving around building up a team of friendly robots shows loads of potential.  Rare Replay and Sea of Thieves both look to recapture the spirit of Rare's former glory in the forms of a compilation and new IP respectively.  Even the ID@Xbox showcase and Xbox Game Preview unveiling were fun to watch although the approach seemed to be very familiar to Sony's way of highlighting indies at E3.

The one area where the Microsoft conference faltered was when it came to third-parties.  Aside from the Dark Souls III and Plants vs. Zombie: Garden Warfare 2 reveals, they spent a good third of the conference on titles like Fallout 4, The Division and Rainbow Six: Siege without breaking any new ground on them.  In particular, the "exclusive" Fallout 4 gameplay was the same demo from the Bethesda conference with a minute of new content.  On top of that, EA had an embarrassing showing of their EA Access subscription service.  I feel a little sorry for Peter Moore as every announcement he made fell on deaf ears, but the fact is gamers aren't going to respond to EA's crap no matter how nice you make it sound.

While Xbox One backwards compatibility does fall under the good from this conference, I am little skeptical on its functionality.  As Microsoft traditionally loves to do when they take about certain console features, they were very vague in how they outlined backwards compatibility for Xbox One.  Also they made a quick mention to downloading the 360 game to the Xbox One when you put in the game disc.  Due to the vague terminology, I have a feeling that Xbox One backwards compatibility won't be how everybody believes it will be.

Overall, Microsoft's E3 2015 press conference delivered where it counts: first-party content.  It was a relief to see Microsoft pull back from relying on third-parties so much and come more into their own.  Although we won't know if Microsoft can follow-up on these promises until months down the line, they did build the positive momentum needed at this point in time.

Grade:  B+

E3 2014: Sony Press Conference Impressions

Heading into E3, Sony was in the best position amongst the three console manufacturers as the PS4 has sold over seven million units.  With the immense amount of pressure on Microsoft and Nintendo to deliver this year, E3 2014 was Sony's to lose.  Could Sony pull out another show stopping performance or would they rest on their laurels now that they are number one in the current console war?

To answer that question, Sony killed it again this year.  While last year's conference only came together in the last thirty minutes, Sony kept people excited and interested throughout their two hour presentation.  There was a good thirty minute chuck that almost killed the pace of the entire conference as Sony took time to talk about Free to Play titles, PlayStation Now, PlayStation Plus and the PS Vita.  Although it may have been a dry thirty minutes, it was necessary portion of the conference because it gave important information on the PlayStation Now Beta coming this summer, announced the PlayStation TV for 100 dollars or 139 dollars with a controller and the Lego Movie video game and gave a little life to the PS Vita with games like Tales of Heart R and Minecraft.  The portion of the conference that felt completely unnecessary was the presentation of the PlayStation exclusive show Powers and the Ratchet & Clank movie.  It may have lasted close to ten minutes, but it added nothing to the conference other than a lot of eye rolling.  Aside from that forty minute portion of the conference, Sony hit everything else out of the park.  There were tons of great gameplay demos for The Order 1886, Entwined, Far Cry 4, LittleBigPlanet 3, Mortal Kombat X and Batman: Arkham Knight.  Each demo made this writer and the company watching gasp, laugh, pump their fists and get excited.  These gameplay demos sold a lot of these games as must owns to yours truly.  Along with the great demos, Sony dropped a lot of surprises at the conference like a remastered version of Grim Fandango exclusive to PlayStation, From Software's Bloodborne, Dead Island 2, Magika 2, Giant Squid's Abzu and Devolver Digital games coming exclusively the PlayStation consoles.  Sony also made a big effort in pushing exclusive content and benefits for multiplatform games on their consoles such as the Destiny Alpha and Beta coming first to PS4 and exclusive missions or enemies in Batman and Diablo III respectively.  Sony ended the show in style too as they showed off the first trailer for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.  After all the controversy surrounding The Last Guardian's false cancellation announcement, this writer thought Sony had to make an effort in showing the game is still alive and kicking.  Although The Last Guardian would have brought this conference to legendary levels, Uncharted 4 did its job in ending the Sony press conference with a bang.

After the end of every conference leading up to Sony's, this writer felt underwhelmed with the lack of legitimate surprises and games that truly captured my imagination.  Apart from the dull forty minute information dump, Sony's conference was a breath of fresh air.  Everything showcased at this conference are the reasons people play and get excited about video games.  Due to Sony's efforts on Monday, this writer is finally feeling much more optimistic about the next generation of video game consoles.  Last year Sony dropped the mic, this year they stole the show.

Grade:  A

E3 2013: Microsoft Press Conference Impressions

The next generation of consoles starts now.  Today is when Sony and Microsoft pull back the curtain on their new machines and next wave begins.  There are going to be tons of huge announcements and yours truly is here to follow them all.  Following each press conference, I will be writing my impressions.  I will take a look at the good, the bad and the utmost ugly for each conference then wrap it all up with a final grade at the end.  Like usual, Microsoft is first at bat.

After such a poor Xbox One reveal, Microsoft needed a home run with this press conference.  Sadly, the house that Bill Gates built got thrown out trying to round third base.  Microsoft kept their entire conference focused on the games, which was a step in the right direction.  The fault of this conference was that Microsoft focused on too many games for their allotted time.  They jumped from one game to the next with no real sense of pacing.  Case and point, the Killer Instinct reveal.  The reveal of Killer Instinct was easily a high point for this conference, but Microsoft just showed off a trailer for the game and went on to the next game instead of taking their time to let the surprise sink in and show off some actual gameplay.  Microsoft did show some gameplay later in the conference as part of their Xbox Live demo, but it felt too little too late.  Games such as Minecraft, Forza 5, Quantum Break, Dark Souls 2, Black Tusk Games' teaser and Battlefield 4 could have been cut from the conference to help properly pace the show and give more time to interesting games like Below, Crimson Dragon and Sunset Overdrive.  Another thing that plagued the Microsoft conference was a slew of technical difficulties.  The audio cut out during the Metal Gear Solid V demo and the Crimson Dragon trailer and the Battlefield 4 demo failed to start.  These mishaps felt like problems that Microsoft could have been prepared for say by doing a dress rehearsal or running back-up demos backstage if something does not work properly.  Out of the sheer number of games and announcements shown at the Microsoft conference, there were a few that caught my eyes and ears such as all the 360 announcements, Killer Instinct, Crimson Dragon, Metal Gear Solid 5 and Witcher 3.  The final reveal at the Microsoft conference was Titanfall, the long-anticipated game from Respawn Entertainment.  Revealing this game would have been a grand finale if Titanfall was not leaked just under a week ago.  Microsoft should have kept Titanfall much closer to their chest in order to avoid such a huge leak.  The leak was not the only problem with Titanfall.  Considering it is made by the same team that developed Modern Warfare 2, Titanfall pretty much looks like a futuristic Call of Duty.  Not a good comparison to have considering how tarnished the Call of Duty name is.

While I have complained quite a bit about the Microsoft Press Conference, it was an okay showing.  At one point, I personally thought they could pull off the unthinkable and give us one excellent conference.  It was not the train wreck this writer expected, but it was not the knock out performance Microsoft direly needed.

Grade:  C

On the Download: May 6-12

With nothing extraordinary released on the PSN or Nintendo eShop, this week's edition of On the Download highlights some iOS offerings and one big XBLA release.  For Steam users who have not picked up Valve's excellent puzzle game Portal 2, it is on sale for only 7 dollars this weekend.  A phenomenal deal if I say so myself.

Gameloft has made a name for themselves by making carbon copies of the most influential and popular games in recent memory such as Call of Duty, Legend of Zelda and Starcraft.  Gameloft's tactics have also acted as a double-edged sword of sorts.  While Gameloft may trick the casual gamers by creating extremely similar games for iOS and other downloadable services, many core gamers such as yours truly do not hold the developer in high regard.  More or less Gameloft has become the poster boy of plagiarism in video games and the punchline to many jokes.  Gameloft's third entry in their complete ripoff of Halo, N.O.V.A. 3, has just launched for iOS.  N.O.V.A. 3 (short for Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance) follows hero Kal Wardin as he returns to Earth to stop the evil Volterite Protectorate.  The main campaign spans 10 missions that take players from a war-torn Earth to the frozen Volterite City.  N.O.V.A. 3 also includes a red vs. blue style multi-player modes with up to 12 players across 6 different maps.  If you are dying to have Halo on the go with you, N.O.V.A. 3 will cost you 7 dollars.  For those who have standards, it is much easier and more fun just to play Halo.

At the end of 2011, Frontier Developments brought a great WiiWare game in LostWinds to iOS.  Now about four months later, Frontier has brought LostWinds 2: Winter of the Melodias, another great WiiWare game, to iOS.  In Winter of Melodias, Toku and the Wind Spirit Enril must save Toku's mother, Magdi, from the clutches of Balasar.  Toku must harness the power of Sonte, the Spirit of Seasons, to instantly change Mistralis between the Summer and Winter.  This new power allows Toku to solve puzzles and interact with the environment unlike anything he has done before.  The first LostWinds worked really well on iOS so I do expect LostWinds 2 to be the same in quality or even better.  For 4 dollars, LostWinds 2 is another game to download for your iDevice.

The gaming phenomenon known as Minecraft has finally reached consoles with Minecraft's exclusive release on XBLA.  If you do not know what Minecraft is by now, where have you been for the past year?  Mojang's open-world sandbox game has captured the hearts of millions to the point there is a whole convention dedicated to this game.  The XBLA version of Minecraft was developed by 4J Studios.  Minecraft for 360 supports Kinect and cross platform play with anybody who owns the game on the PC.  In the PC version, players have the freedom to create however huge a world that they want.  In the 360 version, they are limited 1024 x 1024 blocks, but this limit will most likely be expanded in future updates.  Also the 360 version of Minecraft is quite a few versions behind the PC version due to how easy updating a game is on the PC compared to updating a game on the 360.  Do not worry as all the features found in the current version of Minecraft for the PC will make its way to the 360 eventually.  To make up for the shortcomings, Minecraft for the 360 has a good amount of content exclusive to this version of the game such as a newly designed crafting system and control interface.  For those who skipped out on the PC version of the game to pick Minecraft up for the 360, it will cost you 1600 Microsoft Points.

Off the Newsstand: Game Informer Issue 228

Two editions of Off the Newsstand in one week, well that is a first.  Got both issues of EGM and Game Informer on the same day so immediately after I breezed through EGM, I breezed through Game Informer.  The bad part of that breezing through both magazines was that I had nothing to read until this past Tuesday when I got my newest issues of both Nintendo Power and Game Informer.  After an underwhelming March issue of Game Informer, let us see if Game Informer can bounce back with a good April issue.

In short, Game Informer Issue 228 is a better than Issue 227.  It is not the best issue out there, but a solid nonetheless.  With Ubisoft's announcement of Assassin's Creed III releasing this coming October, Game Informer has new protagonist, Connor gracing the two special covers.  While the Assassin's Creed III cover story is a much more informative and a better read than The Last of Us cover story from the last issue, it did nothing to get me excited for the fourth Assassin's Creed game in four years.  Honestly, I was more excited for Assassin's Creed: Revelations after reading Game Informer's cover story back last June than for the newest entry in Ubisoft's cash cow.  Maybe it is franchise fatigue or Assassin's Creed may not  be my cup of tea.  If you are a fan of Assassin's Creed, you will definitely eat up everything that is reveled in Game Informer's good cover story.  If you are not a fan of Assassin's Creed, this issue of Game Informer is packed with good articles.  Some of the articles you can find in this issue are an interview with Mojang's Markus "Notch" Persson, the man responsible for a little indie game by the name of Minecraft, coverage of the D.I.C.E. summit in Las Vegas, a roundtable interview with Marvel Comics' top writers about video games, comics and Avengers vs. X-Men, a look at Zen Studios, makers of hit downloadable game Pinball FX 2 and a interview with the designer of the Flash game tribute to the 8-bit era, Abobo's Big Adventure, Roger Barr.  Those all come with another solid round-up of previews on upcoming games such as Hitman Absolution and Far Cry 3 and reviews on recently released games like SSX and Syndicate.  One article I could personally do without is Game Informer's annual April Fool's tradition, Game Infarcer, a fake magazine within Game Informer.  It will illicit a few laughs here and there, but there are much better ways to use those few pages on a stupid jokes about the gaming industry.  I will say it is funny watching somebody skim through Game Informer only to stumble upon the Game Infarcer article and believe everything on those few pages.

Overall, Issue 228 of Game Informer is a solid issue.  The cover story will only excite fans of the Assassin's Creed franchise, but it is still an enjoyable read.  If you do not enjoy the cover story, the other great articles will more than make up for it.  You will not be disappointed if you pick up Issue 228 of Game Informer at your local book store or library.