BurtonReviews Lists the Highlights of the Microsoft E3 Press Conference: XXX

(Image sourced from http://www.xboxoneuk.com/xbox-one/news/e3-2017-microsoft-media-briefing-gets-new-day-and-time/)

Today saw Microsoft continue to chug on the E3 hype train with their almost 2 hour conference that, honestly, didn’t quite hit the mark.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad conference, crammed full with 43 games being showcased, and 22 of those were exclusive to the Microsoft console, as well as unveiling the next piece of revolutionary hardware to come out of the tech behemoth’s doors, the Xbox One X (more on that later), Microsoft had a lot to show.

But none of it wowed like an excellent E3 conference should, the games showed ranged from okay looking to quite good (with one “HOLY SHMOSUS” exception (also more on that later), and the new console itself, which has been hyped hard by Microsoft for the better part of a year now, never gave a really compelling reason of not only why it should exist, but also why it should be plunked into your entertainment centre on day one.

So was the Microsoft conference a disappointment? Yes. Was it kinda boring? Yes. But there were still some great games and conference moments, so let’s talk about those.

(Image sourced from https://www.windowscentral.com/xbox-one-x)

1.    Xbox Scorpio Reveal: This is it?

And let’s start off with the announcement that everyone was biting at the bit to get out of this conference, what in the actual hell will the up until yesterday new console titled the Xbox Scorpio actually be. Many theorised that it would be the next step up in the Xbox family tree, marking a new, more constantly evolving way to move to the next generation of consoles. Which would have been the opposite to what Sony had done just this past year with the PS4 Pro, which was less of a next step in gaming, and more of a specialist, 4K capable version of the PS4 for the hardcore gamers instead of something closer to the PS5.

In my opinion, a constantly evolving method of console generations might sound like the most efficient and beneficial way for console to upgrade their performances, however with this strategy gamers would have to fork out shed tons of money every couple of years for the next newest and shiny piece of tech. this method would not only grievously squeeze all of our wallets dry faster than Darth Vader force choking his lieutenants after they’ve lost the last piece to his Lego Death Star, but it would also mean the technological leap and advancement seen in each generation would diminish. With us upgrading so often, each step forward would be that, a single step, instead of the leaps and bounds we excitedly experienced from the crappy polygons of PS2 to the shockingly realistic for the time graphics of the PS3 generation.

(Image sourced from https://www.finder.com.au/microsoft-e3-2017)

So when Sony announced the PS4 Pro would be more of a specialist item, I was more than happy that they weren’t choosing the less exciting and a lot more expensive path for console generations. And thankfully it looks like Microsoft is taking the same approach with the Xbox Scorpio, or now titled Xbox One X at $499.

Firstly let’s talk about the name, oh my god is it bad. Not only does it vaguely sound like a porno edition of the Xbox One, but by just duct-taping the X onto the end of the title doesn’t make this iteration distinct enough from the others. From The Xbox One (which was already confusing because that’s what we called the original console), and the Xbox One S which also just stuck a letter on the end – but thankfully a letter that hadn’t already showed up in the title, the name of this box just feels like a lazy fart in the wind.

Now, onto it being more of a 4K capable super version of the Xbox One instead of the next generation of Microsoft consoles like people thought it would be. While I am very happy they are going down that route, it does feel a little bit anti-climactic that it is just that. I mean after hyping this things flops up for so many months, to just have that hype-train arrive at a station where one guy is pointing up at a screen where the image of a vaguely different looking version of the Xbox One is sitting there, and then the console is barely mentioned or given a reason for its existence throughout the rest of the conference, it makes the journey here feel a lot less worth it.

(Image sourced from http://n4g.com/news/2052755/microsoft-e3-2017-predictions-project-scorpio-crackdown-3-red-dead-redemption-2-and-more)

2.    So Many Games: So Many Mehs

And one of the main reasons that the Xbox One X didn’t feel like it had a reason to be, was because it had no games coming with it that felt like they took full advantage of its technical prowess.

In-fact most of the games displayed at the conference didn’t really bring any excitement, pop, bang, or other positive adjective.

Of course there were still some great games on show, which I’ll get into in a minute, but on the most part games like Super Lucky’s Tale, just didn’t look great or entertaining. And other games were coming back for their 3^rd or so E3 and felt like they had already shown all they could and were just popping up to remind us they were still a thing, I’m looking at you way too long Sea of Thieves trailer.

(Image sourced from http://world.news.mediline.hu/news/cyberpunk-game-the-last-night-revealed-as-xbox-launch-exclusive)

But enough of the negatives of the show, let’s take a brief commercial break for some of the good aspects of this conference. 3 games/moments in particular caught my eye in a big way, but the problem was that for most of the good and interesting looking games that Microsoft had on offer, they only gave a 30 second trailer too with no explanation, or chucked it into a sizzle reel of what felt like 100 games where the names went so fast it was hard to work out what I was actually getting pulled in by. Such as this 2D action game that reminded me in all the best ways of the badass boss battler Furi, but it was only shown for 5 seconds, tops, so I couldn’t even get a glimpse of the name (It’s Shift, had to go back and scour through the conference); or the vampire Dark Souls-like anime game: Code Vein, which looks stylish as hell but also got only up to 15 seconds of stage time whilst sea of thieves’ stage time felt as vast as the ocean itself.

Rounding off the list of games that didn’t get enough of a spotlight is this interesting indie Last Night. A pixel art sci-fi game that I have almost no knowledge about but it looked damn cool and every second of the short and tantalising trailer oozed a Blade Runner-esque cyber punk style that caught me from the second the trailer started.

(Image sourced from http://www.blastr.com/2017-6-11/crackdown-3-trailer-stars-terry-crews-and-november-release-date)

3.    Crack Down 3: TERRY! TERRY! TERRY!

Another highlight of the conference was for a game that I still don’t really care about, but the trailer for it was funny as hell. That would be the trailer for Crack Down 3, featuring one of the most charismatic and best human beings on the planet, Mr. Terry Crews, being his likeable, and effortlessly funny self. If you want a laugh just YouTube the trailer.

(Image sourced from http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/assassins-creed-origins)

4.    Assassin’s Creed Origins: Back to Square One

One trailer and showcase announcing the return of a franchise that has taken a break that didn’t pull me in though sadly was the Assassin’s Creed: origins footage shown in the conference. Now taking place in ancient Egypt and documenting the beginning of the wrist mounted knife lovers – the Brotherhood of Assassins – after a year off to recalibrate what makes AC so special, I was expecting to have my socks blown off by the hoodie wearing murderers return, but instead I was just left thinking ‘meh’. Origins looks like your typical Assassins Creed game with a handful of new features. Such as where you take control of an actual eagle to scout out areas from above, that I’m presuming will play much like the similar drone mechanic in other Ubisoft tent-pole franchise Watch Dogs.

Nothing wowed in this supposed triumphant return of one of my favourite long standing game franchises, the graphics looked on par with past entries, which isn’t a bad thing, but when Xbox is trying to show off their super-duper powerful new machine, then its abit of a let-down, the gameplay looks like the same old cookie cutter AC prowling and stabbing that we know and love, and the location of Egypt honestly doesn’t excite me at all. Sure the pyramids are gonna be epic to climb, but outside of that there are no really interesting structures to glide across as you escape a mob of incapable guards. God I miss the days of climbing the jaw dropping architectural landscape of renaissance Italy.

(Image sourced from http://www.game-debate.com/news/23090/e3-2017-ea-reveals-biowares-anthem-a-co-op-sci-fi-action-game-set-in-a-primeval-world)

5.    Anthem: Mic Drop

But then, when all seemed lost, one shining beacon of unbelievable graphical fidelity literally flew onto screen and forced us to drop our jaws at how freakin cool it was. And that incredibly epic looking game was BioWare’s Anthem.

Being developed by the main team at BioWare who was responsible for the critically acclaimed Mass Effect Trilogy, Anthem is yet another intricate and insanely interesting adventure. From the trailer what I could get was that the planet has been wrecked and taken over by hostile beasts and other, more dangerous foes, all but a city protected by a huge daunting wall. You play as a freelancer, what’s a freelancer I hear you ask? Well they seem to be the elite badasses of the land that in their unique Ironman style mechsuits go out into the devastated world beyond the wall and explore the land, acquiring bountiful loot and vanquishing terrible night mare beasts that could swallow you whole in the blink of an eye.

Sounds awesome right? Well it looked damn awesome too, like Horizon Zero Dawn levels of awe inspiring. The way the light seeped through tree branches as the player flew through a huge cavernous ring to then plunge down into a deep river that was illuminated by cold blue neon lights below, every frame of this trailer is more than epic-wallpaper worthy. Some may say its abit unbelievable that it will actually look good in the final product, but im an optimist, and if it does, this will without doubt be the best looking game up until this point in gaming history.

(Image sourced from http://uk.businessinsider.com/anthem-new-bioware-game-trailer-e3-mass-effect-2017-6?r=US&IR=T)

Outside of the gorgeous graphics, the little we saw of the gameplay and mechanics looked epic too, weapons and supers look fun as hell to unleash on unwitting targets, and the loot system looks to be as addictive as Destiny’s. Especially as you can customise your mechsuit to be exactly the formidable tool of destruction that you want it to be, with a range of classes to choose from, the moment to moment play of this game looks to exhilarating.

Some things that are understandably unclear though, being the first actual full length showcase of this game, is whether it is a completely multiplayer experience, or whether you can voyage into this strange and beautiful world by yourself. The presentation showcased a group of players teaming up to explore the hostile forests just outside the wall, and the whole setup gave off major Destiny vibes, so we will have to wait and see the extent of which this shared experience encumbers on how you can play the game.

(Image sourced from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/0/microsoft-e3-2017-xbox-press-conference-can-expect-project-scorpio/)

So that was the Microsoft conference. Overall a disappointing and lacklustre event, but not without its merits. A lot of games in the whiplash inducing sizzle reel looked really interesting, and the unbelievably cool introduction to Anthem was definitely a show stopper, but it wasn’t enough, and brought in too late to save what was an undeniably meh conference.

Thanks for reading, and hey while you’re here why not check out my YouTube channel, BurtonReviews, where I upload awesome gaming montages put to badass songs or scores every Sunday. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbUfnyezvQsVsDgN3TGRh1Q