Pre-Conference Thoughts: In my opinion, Microsoft has had the best E3 conferences in the past few years. Although they announce the typical games (Forza…), there are a good chunk of games that they usually announce (like Battletoads and Ori). I expect them to build on that momentum and potentially surprise us this year.
Game(s) I Want To See: Battletoads, Halo Infinite, Teaser of the Next Xbox (Scarlett), New Indie Games
Presentation: I enjoyed that they showed game after game all throughout the presentation. The Gears of War 5 segment of the conference slowed down the presentation showing off a lot of cinematic stuff and uninteresting things (like how WWE wrestlers playing the game under the stage). Whenever someone went on stage, their message of gaming is for everyone and ‘meeting developers’ and ‘introducing you to their games’ felt very repetitive. After the whole presentation, I felt satisfied and entertained, which is all I want from a conference.
Announcement: With 60 games shown off and more details about Xbox Game Pass, Project xCloud, and Project Scarlett, there is a lot to take in and a lot to like. Battletoads looked okay, with a generic modern-day cartoon art style and seems like a generic beat ‘em up game, although the hoverbike section looked cool. Ori and the Will of the Wisp always looked great, but seeing the level design excited me since it reminded me a lot of Rayman Legends. Cyberpunk 2077’s trailer looked good cinematically and the world interests me, although I’m still iffy about the game. The concept of 12 Minutes is interesting, with the plot and gameplay revolving around time repeating. Tales of Arise looks like Dragon Quest XI, which is great, although I want to see some gameplay. Even though I did not write about every single game Microsoft went over, it felt like they had something for everyone which is great.
Final Thoughts: There was a lot of game announced during this conference and most of them had the right amount time focused on them (not Gears 5 though). However, the majority of the big games only had cinematic trailers with little to no gameplay shown off. Maybe I’m the only one here that thinks this, but I didn’t like Phil Spencer repeating the fact that gaming is for everyone, Microsoft meets developers around the world, and they want to introduce their games to us. Just like last year, Microsoft has the best conference this year at E3. Grade: B+
J Chang Gaming 