Gamescom 2014, Day 2, Part 1: Far Cry 4, Dying Light Encourages Competition, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Is Call of Duty With SCIENCE, Two Assassin's Creeds, Alien: Isolation Scare Your Pants Off, Shadow of Mordor Is Awesome And More!

Written By: Tyler

I'm back for another day of Gamescom, and this one will have more gameplay impressions since IGN will now have a livestream for games. Since I have the day off I will be doing two parts, with the first part being more focused on gameplay impressions of the demos I watch, and the second part will be later today and will focus more on the news of the day. Let's start off with some news, and the opinions on the games will come right after.



News 

Sony Is Going To Announce New PS4 Games At TGS 2014
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/08/14/sony-to-unveil-new-ps4-games-at-tgs-2014-says-boss

Sony didn't have enough time during their Gamescom press conference to unveil all the games that they wanted, so they teased more games for the Tokyo Game Show that takes place in September.

The highlight of the article for me was actually in the comments, where one guy posted a gif of The Last Guardian and another said, "Stop. Its like watching a funeral." Well played ConsoleHighElf, well played.


The Last Guardian Isn't Cancelled
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-last-guardian-making-great-progress-but-we-pro/1100-6421717/



 Sony once again told us that The Last Guardian isn't cancelled, but we won't be seeing it at TGS. This is hardly news at this point, but I guess it helps ease the fears of fans who think that the game may not be in development anymore.


Really, Ubisoft? Microtransactions In A Full-Priced, AAA Title? Assassin's Creed Unity Has 'Em
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/assassins-creed-unity-has-microtransactions-but-ub/1100-6421724/

In frustrating news that secretly makes a person want to rage quit games, Ubisoft announced that there are microtransactions in Assassin's Creed Unity, though they stress that you can unlock everything in-game. It's still ridiculously stupid to have this kind of thing in a game that is going to retail at full-price. This is okay in a free-to-play, but this is terrible. 



Video Game Impressions

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt -- I have never played a Witcher game but I'm still really excited to get into the series with this one. Months ago I said on a Podcast that a great RPG is more exciting and better than any genre. You can throw your best shooters, platformers, etc at me and the best RPGs will almost always win... unless you're Metal Gear. Metal Gear always wins. Anyway, because The Witcher 3 is a huge RPG, I'm genuinely excited to get lost in the world. I've only heard great things.

This demo mostly shows the main character walking through the woods, but you can already tell the care that was put into crafting this Fantasy world. It looks wonderfully realized. The combat looks fluid and exciting even though we didn't see a whole lot of it.

There's a feature called The Witcher Sense and it will allow you to track enemies and it "opens up a new layer to explore the open-world." It's important with quests and monster hunting. You will be able to ask around the cities for information on it, such as asking if there has been any weird disappearances lately. There's also a day-and-night cycle which basically amounts to day = easier and bad = holy crap the monsters are tougher! You can also fast-forward through the days or nights.

There is also sea combat, but they couldn't talk about it now.


Assassin's Creed Rogue -- I don't care about Assassin's Creed. I only care about Unity because of the co-op mechanics. I don't know why I've never been able to get into the series because there are things about it that I dig.

In this demo we get naval gameplay. Not to be confused with natal. Okay, that was cheesy. Wait, come back!

We got to see combat on the sea, which included ramming other ships, shooting cannon balls and then inevitably boarding a rival ship. After you conquer the ship you can use it for a few different things, such as adding it to your fleet or using it to repair your ship.

More importantly, we saw a polar bear as our character was traversing the landscape after he left his ship.

Then we saw him walking around a village in a second demo, and the gameplay here should be familiar to any fan of the series. Jumping around, platforming like a boss, taking people out with a combination of stealth and melee combat using all your little gadgets. Nothing out of the ordinary as far as I can tell, but again, I'm not an expert when it comes to this series.

I mean, the game looks alright. Hell, it looks good, but I don't really have any desire to play it.



Assassin's Creed Unity -- We get to see the first assassination mission. Paris as a 1:1 scale and you can go in one building for every four. Climbing has been improved and it's quicker to get down to ground level.

In this demo they are focusing on stealth, and we see him killing people and walking off. Why not just leave a dead body laying there after you've slit his throat? Good work assassin!

You can do murder mystery jobs. You investigate, find clues, follow characters, interrogate said characters, and once you have suspects you can accuse people. Whoever you accuse gets put in jail which is very democratic.

The gameplay looks very Assassin's Creed, and that won't be a bad things for the fan. Seeing it jump to the current-gen will allow them to do much more, such as co-op. I wanted to see a co-op demo, and while they discussed it a little, they didn't show it.

Basically it's about character progression. You get skill points and whatnot to advance your character while you're playing with your friends. I really hope the co-op is killer because I admittedly got pretty excited when I first saw it.



Alien: Isolation -- You can take my gamer card away but until today I hadn't actually ever seen footage of the game. It sounded really cool, but I never watched anything.

We got to see Ridley's daughter walk through the dark on a ship while avoiding Alien. The gameplay doesn't appear complex, as it's mostly a cat-and-mouse type of experience but that's what the first movie basically was, and that's why this game should be great. We've seen a bunch of horror games like this in the last few years. In the demo we got to see a few different ways to get away from Alien.

We also saw human enemies, and in the demo they used Alien as a way to get rid of them. It was actually really cool. The player used something to bring Alien into the room and Alien then dismantled some of the humans... but in this game something like that is risky because now Alien is in the room.

The idea of blurring the rest of the screen when you're using the motion sensor is such a simple but effective one. You also can't use the same strategies over and over in order to survive because Alien will learn and adapt to that.

Use your senses and the limited technology that you have to survive when Alien: Isolation drops in the coming months.



Far Cry 4 -- In this demo we're in the Himalayas, watching the main character kill people with knives, crossbows, shotguns, etc. We also saw him shoot at some animals and use a wind suit and fly through the air. It is a gorgeous game.

After the short Himalays demo, we get to see their interpretation of Shangri-La. We got to see a lot of the area and a little bit of gameplay as it's explained that Shangri-La is more linear than the rest of the game. As to be expected, it is also beautiful. They mentioned how the environment is the main character when you really get down to it, and I think it's very true. I also think it'll be fun to have this different feel to the game, even if it only lasts a little while.

They mentioned Hexen briefly, and why not have a new Hexen? I'd buy a new Hexen. Hexen Hexen  Hexen.

Far Cry 4 looks like it's going to be a few interesting things narratively that the third did not, but from what I've seen it doesn't really redefine the experience. On the same note, does it have to? People like Far Cry for what it is (myself included).



Super Time Force Ultra -- And now time for a true AAA experience; Super Time Force Ultra. Super Time Force was a game I didn't have the option of playing until recently and I have yet to pick it up. This version (STFU) is coming to PC so I may as well just wait and get it on there.

They added fifty new levels called the Hellideck (I think that's the spelling) that is basically a set of challenges that you have to use your abilities to manipulate time to solve.

I still want to play this. Pick Ultra up on PC on August 25th.


Somehow I'm still not sick of the Dead Island 2 commercial even though it plays before every demo. I think that's a testament to how good the song -- The Bomb by Pigeon John -- is.




Below -- The demo is the beginning of the game. You sail up to an island and you instantly feel very, very tiny. The world is a massive, scary place, and you are only a miniscule fraction of it.

Since it's a Roguelike, death is permanent, but you can loot your own body and get stuff back. You will die, of course, and in death you are expected to learn what everything is, such as traps and whatnot.

I missed a bunch of the rest of the demo, unfortunately so that's all I got.



Toy Soldiers -- This is the first new game I've seen today, but I've never invested any time in the first two Toy Soldiers games. The demo starts with a guy on a turret laying waste to hordes of enemies in a mixture of Tower Defense and action, where you can take control of any part of the battlefield.

It also has destructible environments so you can change the path of the enemies.We saw that in action when the player shot a bridge and it collapsed, forcing the enemies to go a different route.

For some lighthearted, action packed Tower Defense, make sure to check out Toy Soldier when it launches in 2015 on multiple platforms.



Steamworld Digg Wii U -- The acclaimed "platform mining adventure" is coming to Wii U, and I ignored it when it came out for 3DS.

You dig for minerals, upgrade your equipment by talking to people on the surface. Eventually, in this randomly generated world, you will find upgrades underground, such as speed boost or "really funky" upgrades. Of course, there are enemies underground as well. The game has elements of Metroidvanias.

In the Wii U version we will have better graphics, new animations, an expanded soundtrack and secret areas that are going to remain a secret for now... but they're apparently a tribute to Nintendo. My whole existence is a tribute to Nintendo so I'm okay with that.



Dying Light -- We get to see co-op and PvP for the first time in this zombie game that I'm really excited for. The demo starts with a couple people smashing zombies and then going down an elevator.

There appear to be challenges that pop on the screen that make you abandon your teamwork briefly, such as being the first person to escape a place or putting a bounty on a zombie head. The challenges hare split into different branches like strength and agility so if you win the agility challenge then you will get bonsues in agility.

Then we see, for the first time, a player comes into the game as a zombie. Whenever night time comes, it's possible for a player to invade your game. In the demo the player played as a night time zombie and he was sensitive to light. You have to destroy hives in combat, and if you do that, you win the match. When you win, you get extra experience and access to different crafting materials. The zombie player has his or her own skill tree for unlocking stuff.

I think that the PvP is interesting but I'm not sure if this is the type of game that I want people invading. And I don't like not being able to create certain things if I don't get involved in it. Regardless, I'm still excited for Dying Light because I'm a fan of the Dead Island games -- despite the flaws -- and love just playing co-op in a big zombie open-world.



Star Wars: The Old Republic -- This demo is about the new expansion that is coming next Tuesday where players can have individual strongholds and conquer the galaxy in their flagships. You can conquer a planet and own it for a while, getting bonuses while you rule with an iron fist. Or nicely, I don't know what kind of person you are.

I like the idea of adding houses and galactic combat to the MMO. Players can spend hours Simsing their Star Wars game. I mean, I don't play it so I don't know what it looks like these days but I did play it a little bit back when it first went free-to-play and I don't think I gave it a fair shake. 



Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare -- They showed off some Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare multiplayer. It was one match and was meant to showcase the most important part of the CoD experience.

I like that they're trying something a little new with the series. It still looks and feels the same (from what I gather, though ultimately I won't know until I get my hands on it), but has more emphasis on verticality. There are dynamic events that happen in matches, such as a whole new room being dropped in, as we saw in the demo.

They seemed to make a lot of the CoD experience bigger, with more customization, and tweaking perks and other existing features, but I'm still only mildly excited for this. When the game was first revealed I was pretty pumped because it seemed fresh and new, but now I think about it and I don't know if I need it. Titanfall is different, and has giant mechs, but the game handles the same as CoD and though Titanfall has fewer features, they're similar enough that I've lost a little bit of interest in Advanced Warfare.



Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor -- The final demo on IGN for today is a game I'm ridiculously excited for despite not being a Tolkien fan at all.

After watching the demo: wow. The game just keeps getting better and better. The demo basically showcased how character and enemy progression happens, and how your relationships with the enemies and the world evolve. Any enemy can gain experience and they will remember you. Everything is connected, and there are a bunch of options on how to complete your goals. For example, you could take over a War Chief bodyguard and have him betray his master. Not only that, but after he betrays the War Chief and kills him, he will become a War Chief. It's an incredibly fascinating dynamic.

Not only that, but when you die, the world continues and relationships change while you're reviving. So you could die and a bunch of things would change, thus changing your own tactics.

The combat looks fluid and exciting, and it seems to have some depth and a bunch of different possibilities.

The demo was really awesome. If this isn't one of the best games of the year it will be a tragedy.

E3 Day 0 (Part 2) -- The EA and Ubisoft Press Conferences

Written By: Tyler

Image from: http://e3expo.com

Welcome back. With this post, I will be giving a mostly live rundown of the EA and Ubisoft press conferences. What I mean by "mostly live" is that, outside of any point where I have to leave my PC, I will be writing this post as I watch the press conference so that's why it will seem very "in the moment."


EA Press Conference

Star Wars: Battlefront 3. After that popped up, EA dropped the mic and left the stage. No, but they did start it off by talking about Star Wars, showingvery brief in-game footage and then ending it by saying that the new Battlefront will show up in Spring of next year.

Unfortunately at this point I had to leave my PC so from this point on I just had to go through articles and get my news. I take it I missed a game demo of Dragon Age: Inquisition and they teased a new Mass Effect that will take place in *gasp* space, and a new IP that will tell "contemporary" stories.

I came back during the new Sims, in which personality is supposed to play a big role in the stories of the Sims. The concept is "smarter sims" and Sims 4 is supposed to be deeper in that regard. For example, one old woman annoyed a guy in the footage we were shown, and the next day at the gym the guy worked out harder because he was frustrated. Then they threw him a party to cheer him up... and he laughed to death. Whether this will work as they intended remains to be seen.

Next up is EA UFC. It started with Bruce Lee... no really, the video did. The MMA fighters talked about how Bruce Lee was the father to MMA, and then we were told we can be Bruce Lee. Next came the video game footage... the 5th round between BJ Penn and Bruce Lee. Having played the demo, I found that the AI brawled way too much on the feet, and this video was no different. I won't dissect all the gameplay, but this video hasn't really done anything to calm my nerves concerning the full game.

Onto a new sport now -- hockey. NHL '15 is on its way to the surprise of absolutely nobody, and apparently everything is supposed to change. So the pucks will be cannon balls and knives are allowed. Just kidding, but it's the typical spiel about how it's going to be more realistic. Then an emotional video of hockey players played in which we got to see a cinematic of the great Canadian game.

Then we were showed an extremely early example of the new Criterion Games game, in which they have expanded beyond cars... we will now be able to play with helicopters, jet skis, cars, etc in a first-person view. 

Frostbite 3 is coming to EA Sports PGA Tour. So get hyped for the... most... exciting... sport on earth.

With Madden '15, they're working hard on defense since defense is apparently "nearly" half the game. Well, I'd say it's exactly half, but I'm not nitpicking.

Dawngate is an upcoming moba that is supposed to build on existing mobas, not just clone them.

As the show starts to wind-down, Mirror's Edge 2 is shown off. This is one of my more anticipated games, so of course I got excited. They talk about Faith, attitude and the style of Mirror's Edge and we see footage of the conceptual prototype. Turns out, Mirror's Edge 2 is going to be heavy on parkour. Who woulda thunk it? I don't think they expanded as much on the reveal from last year as they should have.

And next is Fifa '15, and once again we're told how Fifa is going to be more realistic with man to man battles, more agility, authentic atmosphere and visuals. Nothing out of the ordinary, but something that is sure to be a lot of fun if you're a soccer fan.

Then Battlefield: Hardline shows up to the party. It's time for cops and criminals this time. The plot is supposed to be more like a great cop TV show, but the focus is obviously going to be on multiplayer.
They showed us footage of a heist in-game from multiple perspectives -- the cops and the criminals. It looks and feels like Battlefield, but I have to admit that taking it away from the military based gameplay to this intrigues me. The game looked incredibly exciting and dynamic, like a Battlefield game should. I was already sold, but after I watched the crane come down and be the catalyst of a ton of destruction... give it to me right now. October 21 can't come soon enough.

After that awesome footage, they launched the beta of Battlefield: Hardline.


Closing Statement: I wasn't terribly impressed with the EA Press Conference but it had its moments. It looks like they're doing something neat with Sims, and ending it with Battlefield was a great thing because that game looks astonishing, but mostly we just get some updates on sports games. I also think that Battlefront should have gotten more than it did, because while it's exciting enough that it exists, we've been waiting so long for it that some real game play would have been welcome. Same with Mirror's Edge.



Ubisoft Press Conference

The Ubisoft press conference starts with a pretty shot of a mountain. Aww. What this mountain means is Far Cry 4. After a lengthy cinematic, Dan Hay shows up on stage, saying that it's the first five minutes of the game. 

Then we apparently get some stand-up comedy. I got to give it to them, putting Aisha Tyler up there every year now is probably a good idea because she's entertaining. What's next? Just Dance 2015. Yay?

We get to hear Happy for the millionth time in the last 24 hours, and it shows off footage of the game. I'm not excited at all, but I can't even slow dance so what do I know? The big news is, now you can play it on your phone! Sweet! I'm going to do that...

After talking about how dancing makes people happy, Aisha does a nice transition to relate that to post-apocalyptic New York. Here comes The Division. All they did was show a movie of it, so how the online aspects tie-in are still a mystery to me, which sucks because that's all I wanted to know.

Next up we have The Crew. In the video, the car is going F-Zero fast while a moody song plays in the background. There are two one-hour missions in the game. There are co-op missions, open-world driving... basically The Crew sounds like a pretty inventive racing game. You can get the "beeta" on the Crew website, and the game is coming out November 11 on Xbone, PS4 and PC.

 It was only a matter of time, so here comes Assassin's Creed Unity... a game that actually impressed me during the Microsoft press conference. There's another cinematic with more moody music
but no actual gameplay. It's a really cool video, though. Afterward we're told that the core experience has been changed. Then the gameplay comes and it looks like a lot of open-world fun, with a neat ending where the other players show up. 

So what did we all want? A fitness game. Thanks Ubisoft for bringing us Shape Up. Instead of doing boring stuff, we will jump on trains and shit. We see a video of the presenter stepping on piano keys against himself, and it doesn't actually look terrible. Then we get to see push-ups! This party doesn't stop! This is an S Club party! I believe Shape Up is a fitness game I can get behind.

From fitness to World War 1, we have the puzzle game Valiant Hearts. The game has a pretty artstyle and revolves around a dog and the letters that soldiers wrote back in WW1. It was an incredibly touching trailer but I'm not really sure what the game play will be like, nor will it be any good. What I do think is we'll get an emotional game that sticks with you, even if it isn't the most fun to play. 

How do we end it? With pre-alpha footage of Rainbow Six: Siege. I'm beyond excited for some tactical shooter gameplay, such as blowing up the floor in order to ambush your opponent and rescue the hostage. I cannot wait for this game to come out, because even in pre-alpha it looks like a beast (not graphically, but just gameplay wise).


Closing Statement: Ubisoft tends to have really theatrical press conferences, which is a double-edged sword for me. On one side, it makes for an extremely entertaining, lively and comical presentation, but on the other side, sometimes it goes on way too long when you just want to see games. They are definitely the "least corporate" of the companies presenting, in the sense that they seem to have more fun with the whole ordeal, and right now they're tied for the best presentation of the show... with Microsoft, who played it more bland but gave us a ton of great games.

E3 Day 0 (Part 1) -- The Microsoft Press Conference

Written By: Tyler

Image taken from http://e3expo.com

First thing's first, I have to do the obligatory Eminem reference when you've been gone from something for a while. Guess who's back? Back again, Tyler's back, tell my friends (because seriously, they have assumed I'm dead). Yes ladies and gents, I have been gone for almost a month. I went away, and I wasn't sure if I'd even bother writing anymore, but once in a while I'd check out the stats on this blog and I was still getting some views so I figure why not?

And now, what better time to come back than the Superbowl of gaming? It's E3 time, and here's my game plan: I am not a professional blog -- if you can't tell by now -- so I have no E3 press credentials or anything, and I have a real job to go to, but I intend on watching as much as I can during the next few days. At the end of each day, I will make a post talking about the day. Now, because of my work schedule (I have some really early mornings), there may be some press conferences or news I miss, but if I do, I will talk about that the next day.

As the Microsoft Press Conference went on, I realized just how big it was. I don't want to bombard you people with one completely massive post, so I tell ya what... this post has just become a Microsoft-only post, which means you will be getting multiple posts each day, depending on how long the posts are. I imagine EA and Ubisoft won't be as huge, so I might pair them into a single post. We'll see how it goes. Look at me adapting.



The first press conference of the day was Microsoft and it was great.

When the lights went down we were bombarded with a lot of flashy images and a countdown. Once the countdown hit 0, the Xbox symbol came up and Phil Spencer got beamed down from space (okay he walked out). After the typical corporate talk about how awesome games are and how great we are, he said that this presentation is all about the games this time, which is welcome because we all remember how bad last year went.

The first game that is shown is, of course, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Xbox owners will be the first to play all additional content for the game. I'm glad that Call of Duty is going a little more Sci-Fi this time around, and the footage looked like it could breathe fresh air into the franchise, but to be honest, I'm like a lot of gamers at this point where I'd need to play it and see how it is because I'm just not hyped. It definitely looks more interesting than the previous few, though.

There's a new, free track for Forza 5... and you can get it now. So, you know, do that.

Then there's Forza Horizon 2. It's 1080p and has stuff like dynamic weather. It also apparently has no lobbies so you can get right into the action. You can get it on September 30th of this year. I've never actually played a Forza and I'm not a huge racer fan so I'm not real excited, but it does look like it'll be a good time so I think any racing game fan should be excited.

And here we go... Evolve. It gets its beta and DLC first on Xbox. A lot has been said about how incredible the potential is for this game, with original multiplayer, and I really hope it's good because the trailer they showed was exciting. We get to see a new monster -- and oh yeah, it's the Kraken.

Assassin's Creed Unity is next and I'm not an Assassin's Creed guy. You can join with up to three friends on Xbox Live, which might actually be a selling point for me. I mean, I don't own an Xbox One, but I'm assuming it will be this way on PS4 and whatnot.

I'm not expecting the series to be completely re-designed and the footage shown doesn't indicate that it will be. However, I have to admit, seeing the co-op in action has me jazzed for Assassin's Creed for the first time... ever. This will add a whole new dynamic to the experience. It really looks like they're doing this right... if you can play through the story completely in co-op, I am all in.

Then we get a feature about the first games of people. Then people are burning. No this isn't the opening scene of Parasite Eve, it's Dragon Age: Inquistion. Confession time: I've never played a Dragon Age. But I want to play it.

From Fantasy to military shooter. Oh wait no, it's SUNSET OVERDRIVE... the game I'm most pumped for. Nice trickery, Insomniac Games. They show us a fun little teaser trailer before Ted Price comes out and introduces us to some actual gameplay. His favourite game is Super Metroid which makes him okay by me.

So what does Sunset Overdrive play like? It's fast, chaotic and silly.  It's colourful and fluid, and I cannot wait. You can play co-op with up to 8 friends, which would be awesome for me.

Next is Dead Rising 3 DLC. It has a really long name but it could definitely be fun. I know, I'm positive.

Here we go with something I really don't care about at all. On October 21, we have Disney Fantasia Music Evolved. You remix your favourite songs through "impressive motion play." In September, there's a digital-only title called Dance Central Spotlight. To anybody who likes this kind of thing, good for you, but it wouldn't see my money if I had an Xbone.

Fable Legends has joined the fight. I'm all for any game that allows me to play the campaign/story with friends, so the game is of interest for that reason, but Fable is not something I'm emotionally invested in. However, you are able to play as the villain and control the world from up above. This is an interesting gameplay mechanic, which I think is a nice addition because the rest of the game looks fine but not awe-inspiring. Looks like another solid Fantasy third-person action title where teamwork might actually be important.

Project Spark is up next, only for Xbox and PC. It looks like there's a lot of variety to the type of games you can make with it. I'll have to see what comes out of it... oh crap, is that... Conker? That's interesting. While I'd rather just have a new Conker, he will apparently be in Project Spark. As I was saying, I'll have to see what comes out of Project Spark but it definitely has a lot of potential.

Moon Studios is coming out with what appears to be a very artistic, side-scrolling platformer called
Ori and the Blind Forest (I think, as I was looking away briefly and I'm not sure if I read the title correctly).

The Halo music that everybody is familiar with hits, and we actually get some real footage of a new Halo. It's pretty epic and it appears that there's someone like Master Chief out there. Bonnie Ross comes out and she's pretty. Hey, I'm a guy.

On November 11th, you can get Halo: The Master Chief Collection and play all the core Halo games (featuring Master Chief of course) on Xbox One. I'm not really excited because I've played them all and I'm not the type of guy who buys this type of thing, but there's no doubt that this is a huge release. It does look like they're putting a lot of care into it... retouching "every part of the game," and they're keeping the Halo 2 multiplayer exactly the same. It has every map in all four of the games, running at 1080p, on dedicated servers and on their original engines. It will also ship with 4000 gamerscore if... you know, that matters to you.

Halo: Nightfall is a digital series and that's included in the collection. Okay, I said I'm not the type of guy who would buy this kind of thing but as the presentation goes on, I'm into it.

 In December, the Halo 5: Guardians beta shows up as well. There's a whole lot of Halo in your life.

After people were done filling the cup (Kevin Smith orgasm reference), Phil Spencer shows up to cuddle everyone with some upcoming 2015 games.

The follow-up to Limbo, Inside, is dark, moody and it looks like you're trying to escape from somewhere. I was sold on it before I saw anything just because Limbo was great.

There's a lot of indie games coming, and we see a little bit of some of them. There are too many to talk about, but I will say, there are some truly incredible looking indie games coming. This is why the indie scene is a hotbed for creativity.

Then we have a world premiere of the new Tomb Raider. It doesn't show any gameplay, so it's really hard to tell what it's going to give us.

Then we're treated to some new gameplay for The Witcher 3, one of the most hyped upcoming RPGs.
I don't know what to even say... it just looks like a big, bad RPG. The combat looks solid and the hunting looks fun.

Then Ken Lobb comes out and starts talking about Killer Instinct. But wait, he's bringing sexy something else back. What is it, you ask? None other than Phantom Dust, and I feel really ignorant because I don't even know what that is. The footage only shows us a cinematic of two people throwing fireballs at each other, basically, so I don't know what to think.

Oh man, now we talk about The Division, one of the games I'm most excited for. The video starts with some pretty Christmas music, but I'm going to guess that something goes wrong. You know, just a hunch. Christmas Day is treated so poorly in fiction.

After the squad meets up, we get to witness a battle. I'm well aware that the people playing it are going to play more "professionally" and thus cooler than a lot of players, since they're trying to hype the game up and make it more like real team work (as opposed to a lot of gamers just playing stupid), but damn it looks like a lot of fun. The combat, of course, doesn't go as planned and things get chaotic. Cover gets blown up and the enemies seem to be relatively intelligent. I still don't get how the multiplayer is going to work in the sense that where do opposing players fit in?

Next Scalebound gets shown off with a nice cinematic that once again really tells you very little about the actual game. All these games look cool.

The next exclusive Xbox One game is Crackdown 3. I've always wanted to play Crackdown but haven't gotten around to it. Again, it's all cinematic with lots of explosions so Michael Bay would be proud. What is it going to be like as a game? I'm sure it'll play like the others, but you can't tell much from it.

Oh hey, Phil Spencer is back to wrap it up. He talks about how awesome Xbox is going to continue to be. The press conference ends with a montage of games in a variety of genres


Closing Statement: I think it would have been hard to mess up this press conference because of the focus on games. We know that Microsoft was bound to get some awesome games, and they did a good job of giving the stage to what gamers truly care about. It was a successful conference to me and made me want an Xbone even more than I already do, as its the only next-gen console that I don't currently have.


What do you think? Did I report anything wrong? Don't kill me if I did, because I have a hard time multi-tasking so watching video and writing made my head explode and I was replaced by an incompetent robot. Tell me what you think in the comment section below or yell at me on Twitter @ArtBathednCrime