Xbox @ E3

Sorry for the delay, internet trouble delayed our articles. Microsoft had a solid e3 this year and there was a certain confidence in the presentation. lets break down the news.

Integration Everywhere
There was a defiantly different tone to this years E3, Microsoft trailing behind their rival seems to of made them look in and change things up. The first thing that hit us was there new initiative "play anywhere" which isn't game streaming, instead it's cross buy, cross play, and cross save initiative between Xbox One and Windows 10. It appears that all of Microsoft's upcoming exclusives will be part of the initiative. If you buy the digital version of any of these titles from either the Windows Store or Xbox Store you get it for the other store for free. Your saves and achievements freely flow between the two platforms. Even the new controller with the Xbox One S (more on that in a moment) features wireless and Bluetooth tech, which allows it to be used across devices.

Even Minecraft is enjoying an greater integration with all the mobile versions (Win 10, Android, iOS and Gear VR) are now enabled with cross play via Xbox Live, achievements and compatibility with Minecraft Realms (dedicated servers so your friends can access your world even if your offline).

This integration focus was an important set up to this next bit.

Hardware for All

First up was the Xbox One S, A slimmed down version of the Xbox One The 40% smaller size isn't the only change. First the S will feature 4k video support for those who have lovely 4k TVs, HDR game support which is basically bringing contrast and colours closer to the human eye. (More Details on HDR HERE), The new pad can be customised on their website (which isn't active yet) and as mentioned before isn't limited to the Xbox.

Some additional information that hit later, The S features an IR blaster (so your Xbox acts as a remote) because the S dose not have the Kinect port but the there will be a USB adapter for upgrading users.

The Xbox One S have a staggered launch of its three flavours 500GB - £249,  1TB £299 and 2TB £349 (for comparison fat Xbox One is £229 for the 500GB and £256 for 1TB on Amazon) with the 2TB launching in August. The others should filter in by Christmas.

The Xbox Scropio was their final announcement that we'll talk about early. As you can see third party devs are excited for the prospect of console this powerful featuring a 6 Teraflop GPU (I'll post a graph shortly for easy comparisons) and an 8 core CPU. In realistic terms you're looking at 5 to 6 time the power of an Xbox One.

As you can you see the Xbox Scorpio is an entire PS4's worth more powerful than the leaked specs, of cause there is nothing stopping Sony from pushing more power before either system launches next year.

In terms of features Microsoft wants the Scorpio to handle games at 4k without up-scaling and run VR without stripping down the graphics or functionality matching the PC VR experience. MS didn't reveal if they will be launching their own headset or will be stepping up their partnership with Oculus. There is an interesting counter point regarding VR, during the video Tod Howard mentions bringing Fallout VR to it but its currently being said that its Vive exclusive.

Bringing the first part of the article back again. Microsoft has confirmed the Xbox One, Xbox One S, And Xbox Scorpio will share the same game library and accessories. After the event confirmed that non-Scorpio optimised games will run on the new machine games should also benefit from the extra grunt especially games that use unlocked frame rates and/or dynamic resolution such as Witcher 3 and Halo 5, these games on Scorpio will run at their maximum FPS and/or resolution. [NOTE: Currently Sony is saying that games without a "Neo"mode will not run on their machine BUT this could easily change] 

There are some concerns though. Obviously price comes screaming to mind the specs alone will push it in the £500- £700 bracket (£500 being an extremely generous estimation assume AMD Polaris tech) and that's assuming there isn't an VR (headset/motion control) component included in the box. I also worry about competitive play with original X1's and the S. 4k players would effectively have longer/clearer line of sight than their... lesser siblings. Lastly Microsoft's language suggests that there will be more "families" beyond the Xbox One suggesting they are shifting to a similar launch pattern as iPhone and Galaxy phones, hopefully they create clear cut off points for the systems.

Anyway on to the games

Gears 4

Gears showed of some campaign co-op on stage, the level in question show cased some pretty extreme weather that makes us question why people ever settled on that world. Microsoft confirmed that PC and Xbox players will be be able to play co-op modes together including the all new Horde 3.0, sadly we did not see horde in action. Microsoft also announced Gears 4 will support HDR on Xbox One S and showed off a bloody Gears edition of the Elite pad. It's since been confirmed pre-ordering Gears 4 nets you the 4 360 games

Sea of Thieves

Easily my highlight of the show, Rares first "real" game since Nutz 'n' Boltz impressed us no end. The games highly stylized graphics defy the tutorial free multiplayer. Its shaping up to be an fantstic multiplayer experience. Honestly its hard to discus it with out showing you, so check out the gameplay footage below.

Scalebound


Scalebound also impressed with a co-op (yes the game features 4 player dragon rider co-op) boss fight featuring Platinum games largest ever boss fight, which will certain make Bayonetta 2 fans pay attention. It's till unclear how much of the game is actually co-op, it appears to be limited to boss fights but that seems awkward to set up if everyone is doing something else in game.

Interestingly Scalebound was previously confirmed as Xbox exclusive is coming to the Play Anywhere imitative. Now it's possible that the game could come to Steam but I suspect it will be exclusive to the Windows Store.

Forza Horizon 3

Forza made its traditional appearance, however it wasn't the usual show and tell. Microsoft used Forza Horizon 3 to show case the Play Anywhere imitative. You had four players each playing FH3 on a different set up; Xbox One, Xbox One S, a mid-range PC (using an X1S pad) and a top of the range 4k PC with a steering wheel. Each player was doing their own stuff in their own worlds before the X1 player sent out an invite for the game's co-op enabled campaign. The invite was answered by the other three stage players. It was pretty cool to see them all play together.

FH3 is set in Australia and looks absolutely glorious even on the old rickety Xbox One (I jest), they seem to be using the setting to its fullest with players racing through cities, deserts and jungles. Which combined with co-op gave us all at GK-UK Top Gear flashes.

Dead Rising 4

Dead Rising 4 is a true sequel and not a remake as previously rumoured, though both Dead Rising 1's star (the surprisingly young looking 54 year old) Frank West and and setting Willamette do return. This new entry sees Frank "I've covered wars you know" West return to Willamette mall in a fresh outbreak around Black Friday (hey that's familiar) so there is plenty of Christmas zombie joy to be had. The new game world isn't just the old one jazzed up, DR4's world is described as 60% mall and 40% city. DR4 will feature even more crazy weapons (including an exosuit) but to counter this there are more zombie types, well 3. The Horde: The classic Dead Rising shambling corpses. The fresh: these are only recently turned zombies and as such they are faster and can follow Frank up and over obstacles. Finally the EVO: which appear to be human/zombie hybrids which are being likened to Jurassic Park's Raptors, with them being able to work together and with the horde, letting the masses wear you down and strike when your weakened. Another addition is Frank's ability to take selfies which according to the press at E3 is an hilarious edition. Dead Rising 4 will launch this year... at Christmas ins't that lucky!

State of Decay

State of Decay was one of my favourite games on X1, you may remember us mentioning it.... several times. Microsoft treated us with a trailer for the sequel with the tagline: Nobody survives alone. Which got our hopes up for co-op the only clearing omission from the original game.

Undead Labs quickly confirmed SoD 2 will feature 4 player co-op, with "guests" playing as survivors from their own game saves and get to take a share of the rewards back. I can't explain how much I am want to play this game, to share the inky viscus dread with three others will be the best bounding/torment.

Halo Wars 2

Creative Assembly (Total War) and 343i's follow up is shaping up pretty well, MS is saying that fan demand is the main reason for the spin off's resurrection. There is a public beta live right now and the game will launch properly February 21st (FYI Feb '17 is going be crazy busy)

Its being reported that those who pre-order will get Halo Wars: Definitive Edition for Xbox One and PC suggesting that this isn't a bundled 360 game but an remaster.

Xbox Live Update

MS announced a trio of new features coming to Xbox Live: Clubs: kinda like Facebook groups, used as an area for you to find like minded Gamer., Looking for Group: seems to exist as an dig at Destiny's lack of Raid matchmaking. You'll be able to post "adverts" saying exactly what your looking for in a group and people can "sign up" if they feel they meet your requirements. Finally there is Arena which is fairly self explanatory Tournament system but importantly these wont be limited to just publishers as Gamers themselves can set up and run their own tournaments

Assorted other stuff
Here we are at the end of our round up and heres a splattering of stuff not covered above

• Tekken 7 IS coming to X1 in 2017, Tekken Tag 2 is currently free for Gold members.
• Playdead's new game Inside will launch June 29th, Their first game Limbo is free on Xbox One
• Witcher's Gwent is getting it's own game! 
• Final Fantasy XV has a gameplay footage to show off the games new combat... it went badly.
• Recore will launch this September and looks... good but slightly indie. 
• Whilst Phantom Dust reboot is dead Microsoft is remastering the orginal for Xbox One

And thats about it really, here lets end on the new controller's multiple looks

Bethesda @ E3 round up

Bethesda had a pretty safe E3 with few "all new" announcements and was mostly housekeeping on its current titles and plans. No Elder Scrolls 6 here.
Quake's back!

Looks like making this years DOOM really triggered something with in the now Bethesda owned ID software. Quake is returning and appears to be reciving the same treatment as DOOM. Introducing Quake Champions an hero based (set characters with special abilities), fast paced arena shooter. Here check out the trailer!

Quake. Is. Back.

The fast, skill-based arena-style competition that turned the original Quake games into multiplayer legends is making a triumphant return with Quake Champions. Running at an impressive 120hz with unlocked framerates, id Software’s new multiplayer shooter is getting ready to take PC gaming by storm once more.

Quake Champions features a roster of unique characters, each with their own distinctive abilities, allowing you to fight the way you want.

Fallout 4 DLC

Bethesda confirmed the 2nd wave of DLC for Fallout 4 (still under the one season pass) featuring 2 workshop content drops and a final expansion.

The first DLC will be "Contraptions" which will allow you to build physics based devices... basically lets you make a version of Mouse Trap for your settlements. Launching this month Contraptions will feature elevators, green house kits, fireworks, armour racks (yay) and more such as stocks (lets see Macy Long complain now!).

The second DLC entitled "Vault Tech Workshop" which as the name implies will allow you to build and operate your own vault (which seems slightly counter initiative considering this a post bomb world), complete with experiments to run on your new dwellers and all new pre-war (I suppose that's technically true)  items. You'll be able to customise your dwellers using new cosmetic and hair dressing items. "Vault-Tech Workshop" launches in July. As you can see in the following trailer, it certainly seems to be taking its cue from the free mobile titles Fallout Shelter.

The final DLC (unless the guys get drunk and decided to add more again) is "Nuka World" and will be much closer to Far Harbor in terms of content. This DLC will see the Sole Suvivor traveling to an all new "open region" featuring a town set in the ruins of the Nuka Cola world theme park.

Skyrim's Back

It was rumoured for so long and now its been confirmed, Skyrim is coming to Xbox One, PS4 and PC (with some PC users getting it free). Not only dose the new release come with the DLC and remastered effects such as better snow, water and sunlight, but as rumoured it will also support console mods. Ultimately there isn't a lot more to say here, take a look at the polished up new release due 28th of October.

Prey returns!

We finally now know the fate of the Prey series after Bethesda canceled Parkour alien bounty hunter sequel to the first native Indian spiritual force vs alien invasion. Yeah I forgot about rather jarring shift there, anyway Prey now returns via Dishonored 1 & 2 developer Arkane. So far it looks rather impressive and holds very little outward link to the original title.

Arkane Studios, the team behind the critically acclaimed Dishonored series, is bringing their unique vision to Prey, a first-person sci-fi action game that reimagines the franchise from the ground up… with an added psychological twist.

You are Morgan Yu, the subject of morally dubious experiments designed to improve the human race. You awaken aboard the Talos 1 in the year 2032 and must uncover the secrets hiding in the depths of the space station while being hunted by the mysterious alien force that has taken over. You’ll have to rely on the tools you find on the station – along with your wits, weapons and mind-bending abilities – to combat the growing threat and, hopefully, survive.

left overs
Bethedsa also announced multiplayer DLC for DOOM, breifly teased Wolfenstien, Fallout and DOOM would be receiving VR support and that Elder Scrolls Online will be removing its borders between players.

This will let everyone experience all the content regardless of faction or level. Under the new system the player levels to the environment so your free to join up with anybody. No need to worry though as areas that are meant to be hard will still be hard, this is intended to return the sense of free exploration of the single player titles, players can now explore with out worrying that they'll be insta-killed by a rat.

Lets end this wrap up with a glorious look at Dishonoured 2 gameplay!

EA @ E3

EA is first taking on E3 this year, with its own take on Nintendo's direct. EA's take involved 2 separate shows running side by side in the US and UK. I'm panic writing this article "live" so it will be rough as hell.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson starts by confirming Star Wars, Titanfall 2, Battlefield and Mass Effect Andromeda. Wilson says there are now over 2 billion gamers, cant help but feel that includes mobile.

First up we're getting a look a Titanfall 2 with Vince Zampella. First we get to see some multi player New pilot powers (teleport, grapple hook), Titan powers that look like they have been lifted from the avengers including hulk shock waves, and Iron-man chest laser. There will be 6 new Titans

Commenting on the earlier single player leak, "for those 4 people who didn't see the leak". Its all the same footage, we have aliens, awesome robo-human teamwork and anime buster swords. All in all its largely what you'd expect from the Modern Warfare guys.

Next up is a Madden trailer... which to an UK citizen looked... fine I guess (sorry for our US readers). Usual sports game updates, better season, more realism and better commentary. However it appears Madden (and probably Fifa) is EA's attempt to lure more people into pro gaming. With three teirs of eSports. The first is basically fan ran events with custom rules, the 2nd is one ran by partners with them establishing rules, and finally and top tier EA ran tournaments.  

Now EA is showing off an eSports bit... and it comes off a little silly (to me) with programmers being treat the same way as Boxers are before a fight. EA is hosting an Madden championship with an $1,000,000 price.

Next up is Bioware... I'm going to privately scream.

"you are the alien" is the central theme for Mass Effect Andromeda, 90% is apparently going to be all new (in universe) so all new tech, all new planets and all new races. Looks like we're not getting a new trailer but we do have lots of behind the scenes footage which is filled with gameplay and movie clips. It dose look really really nice, which is to be expected on a current gen exclusive frostbyte powered game.

EA is introducing "EA Play To Give" which appears to be in game challenges that once completed send a donation to charity for a total of $1 million.

Next up is Fifa 17 (more but different screaming), EA is saying this years entry is "revolutionary". An every excitable "football fan" Hunter is telling us about football fantasy in the playground vs video games. The following trailer is showing off what appears to be a fairly dramatic story mode following said football fan "Hunter". the character talks and looks nicely animated, it doesn't appear to support custom characters. Apparently "The Journey" (which is the name for Fifa 17's story mode.) is so in depth it requires them adding the managers in game.  

More of the usual sport title updates, more interestingly is them showing off the "new rookie talent" rendered in the Frostbyte engine.

The success of last years Unravel has inspired EA to create its own Indie label - ironically named "EA Originals" despite the self serving name, EA is actually going to pump all of these profits from these titles back to their developers. The first title in this label is "Fe" which frankly looks like your typical artsy indie title, it dose however look like it could be an interesting experience much like Beyond Eyes from last years xbox E3.

Next up is Star Wars. First up is Battlefront 2 which will "reflect fan demand" and also feature content from the new films (assuming ep 7 and rouge one), In 2018 Visceral action adventure original story. a brief alpha clip was shown and it looked very nice on a desert world. And finally Respawn's game will be set in a "different era" and will be a third third person action game (the behind the scenes video showed a mo-cap light saber dual at Respawn).

Finally we have Battlefield 1.first up is a short in game teaser for what appears to be the single-player, which is all very very nice looking. Battlefeild 1 will feature more natural and intuitive destruction, The maps also feature dynamic weather which will directly affect how you play. The game will also feature Behemoth vehicles such as the Blimp, Armoured train and Warships.

Next up os the rest of the tease and boy dose it look good, the effects seem suitably overwhelming and intense,

The Eye Of Truth Spies E3

Nintendo's plans for E3 has been rather controversial this year as they are claiming the entire event will be for just one game Legend of Zelda. Whilst the Wii U seems dead for the rest of the year the 3DS has "many unannounced" titles coming, them skipping E3 is eyebrow raising. However Nintendo's updated their E3 page.

That right there is pretty darn ominous.

The Nintendo's page reconfirms that E3 will see the world premier of footage of the Wii U and NX launch title, it's worth noting they wording suggests it's only the Wii U version that will be shown BUT entirely possible Nintendo is simply lying about what we'll see at E3

The E3 page is the same reveal footage from it's original reveal set to to ambient nature sounds, its rather pleasant. I have it playing away as I write this very article... Ah nature!

Whilst we're here lets do a little harmless speculating based entirely on the promo image. We have the Eye/lenses of Truth surrounded by what appears to be a circuit digram, which makes me instantly recall Link's fancy arrow and the mechanical enemy from that first trailer. The colouring certainly brings twilight princess to mind... though that could be because i'm currently playing Twlight Princess HD.

Abe's TakeOminous imagery aside, its going to be great to see the new Zelda title in action but the wait till next march is going to be soul destroying! Personally I do worry Nintendo might show off too much of the game as its their sole focus of E3.

E3 Rumour: SKYRIM!

Yep its time of the year when the hype train pulls into the station and offers advance booking to random locations where it probably wont go. Yep today we have some lovely E3 related lies rumours. Yesterday I saw an "report" that the entire thing was one sentence taken of NeoGaf "Nvidia is involved with Nintendo " that's it the whole story.

Anyway according to multiple sources (who have been okay at this in the past) Bethesda has some big plans for this years E3. What could they show at this year's show, surely its too early for the next Elder Scrolls game? So its likely to be Doom, Fallout and maybe Elder Scrolls Online content, Maybe a new Wolfenstein, and maybe a deeper look at Dishonoured 2.

You know where this going? Yep they are saying that Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is getting an release on Xbox One complete with mod support, with no mention of the PS4. Some of you will recall Tod Howard revealed they ported Skyrim to Xbox One as a training exercise for the new systems.

Its interesting they aren't mentioning PS4 or that it will be an remaster. Its possible this could be some new kind of backwards compatibility with Bethesda handling the work in house and actively adding features without reworking the rest of the game.

Abe's Take
I'd be worried about all these remasters as we approach year 3 for the new machines but damn it the idea that I could soon be wandering through Skyrim with survival mode dose make my drool ever so slightly.

So Nintendo's E3

We know this is late and E3 is now over but we thought between Sony's (in our view) highly suspect Shenmue 3 kickstarter and Nintendo's bizarre E3 we thought it best to let calmer minds prevail.

Nintendo certainly is known for doing it's own thing and their Digital Events certainly set them apart. Whereas Microsoft and Sony's big press conferences felt very much like management speeches Nintendo turned themselves into literal Muppets (with help from the Muppets creators Jim Henson Studios).

Barrel Roll
Nintendo jumped straight into their event with Star Fox Zero, we got to hear a little bit behind it's development (but not who was actually doing the development). Despite a generally warm reception the internet quickly called foul on the game's graphics, comparing it to an N64 or 3DS game. The graphics was later explained that the game is has two separate view points running at (targeted) 60FPS at the same time, effectively meaning the game was permanently split screen.

You Asked They Listened, Kinda.
This year after Legend Of Zelda was delayed into next year and then confirmed to be a no show at E3 there was 2 big games on everyone was asking for, Metroid for 3DS/Wii U and Animal Crossing Wii U. Nintendo heard that and announced two new games but they wasn't what anyone had been expecting. Metroid Prime: Federation Force, A co-op action shooter set in the same universe as the cult GameCube series, and Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival, a Amiibo powered Mario Party styled game.

Obviously this quickly annoyed fans who was expecting core entries, there is even a petition by bitter fans for Nintendo to CANCEL the Metroid games purely because of the name believing it to be an "insult" to the brand. Teasing it as an eSport title "BlastBall" a day before certainly didn't help.

Though thanks to Nintendo's Treehouse broadcast (more on that in a minute) we know it was always intended to be a Metroid game (not a conversion), It was meant for the launch for the New 3DS (not rushed), Samus will feature, The producer of the Prime Trilogy is also handling this and wanted to flesh out the Federation before making the next core game. Honestly Federation Force is a non-issue for me as I have been asking for more Luigi's Mansion style spin offs and this title is being handled by Next Level Games, the team who brought us the brilliant Luigi's Mansion 2

Animal Cross Amiibo Festival looked slow and seeing as it was Amiibo entirely powered there was concerns about how much it was going to cost the player and just how much "game" there was going to be. Everyone including us here at Game Knights expected an full Animal Crossing game that interacted with the upcoming Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer on 3DS (another Amiibo powered game). To us this was the bigger gut punch of the two because we had only recently got Mario Party. But again thanks to the Treehouse it seems likely that AC Amiibo Festival will be free and the store pre orders are for "starter packs" that feature two figure Amiibo and 3 Amiibo cards (the figures being player pieces and card unlocking Mini-games).

Deflating The Event
This has to be the weirdest thing about Nintendo's E3 2015. Over the two weeks before E3 Nintendo dropped a Micro Direct announcing several all new 3DS titles, A Devil's Third presentation confirming its August release date, A Smash Bro's Direct that showcased two (leaked) characters (Ryu and Roy) and the next wave of DLC costumes including 3rd party crossovers, and The Nintendo World Championships teased "blastball" and announced that Mother 1 would see a western VC release as Earthbound Beginnings.

This left the event with no BIG announcements and a fair amount of stuff we have already seen. With three large third party exceptions Bravely Second, Devil's Third and Project Zero/Fatal Frame and even the Indies was all absent from the main show.

Then the Bizarreness continued when the Treehouse broadcast dropped more information. Such Platinum Games are co-developing Star Fox Zero and Project Guard (not the one of the "Projects" I expected to move forward) and Project Zero/Fatal Frame hitting the west in September. Even the missing Indies appeared, With news that Steam-world Heist will be hitting the 3DS first not due to some contract but out of loyalty.

Why did Nintendo announce so much outside of its event, When it was so light on new content? pre-E3 we assumed it was down to big announcements such as Nintendo's new membership service.

The Shadow
The light content certainly did not help the shadow that hung over Nintendo's E3, the NX. Nintendo's next system was as promised absent, But NoA president Reggie fils-Amie did bring up the mysterious device at the start of the Digital Event explaining it will not be seen till next year (in a later interview he referred to the NX as home console). This brought Nintendo's new system to our minds as Nintendo showed us upcoming games and announced new B-list games, plenty of stocking stuffs but no real presents.

This isn't uncommon for Nintendo ever since they started their Directs, Usually they tend to focus on the next 4-6 months and tease something new. However next year will be the Wii U's 4th year and Nintendo consoles tend retire at 5. It's understandable that Nintendo's fans are worried that the struggling system has all ready started to wind down. Metroid Prime's producer didn't help matters saying that any follow up would be on the NX and that a Wii U versions of MP:FF was scrapped. The NX's shadow was so prevalent is prompted Miyamoto to RECONFIRM Zelda Wii U is still happening and it hadn't been shifted over to the new system.

Abe's Take
We said ourselves Nintendo had the biggest battle at this years E3. Big N had to prove the Wii U was still a console to keep/buy and ultimately the Digital Event failed. The new games they announced needed explaining better (why didn't a divisive title like MP:FF not get a better intro) and the baffling choice to strip announcements for when they needed them most just cannot be explained. Now after E3 we know a lot more about the games, they are shaping up to be quite good but there was no "tent pole" title, no "look at this" games. I'm sure there will be directs to flesh out more content in the months to come but for now things are looking... down for Wii U.

Microsoft E3

Well Microsoft delivered one of their biggest E3 shows ever. Almost every games was an exclusive, timed exclusive or had exclusive features.

Halo 5
We got to see more of Halo 5's campaign. The level they showed of showed the last covenant base under siege from the arbiters elites. We followed Spartan Locke and his fire team (so much Nathan Fillion goodness here) as they try tracking down Master Chief. The level was certainly cinematic and was very impressive.

We also got a look at a new multiplayer mode "Warzone". This 24 player mode seems to of taken a cue from Titanfall as both Spartan teams arrive in pelicans but the comparison doesn't end there, Warzone maps are the largest MP maps in Halo's history and depending on the level features either covenant or Promethean AI forces. Much like Respawns title the goal here was to merge the  best of story and multiplayer modes.

Abe: I really liked what I saw here.

NEW IP
Next up was an all new Xbox first party game "Recore". developed by Megaman creator Kaji Inafune and Amature studios who are the very same guys who made Metroid Prime. Only the following trailer was shown with zero details given. Recore seems to be about a young girl on a desolate world populated by robots.

Abe: With so little shown its hard to be excited but the talent involved shouldn't be ignored.

360 on Xbox one
Its finally happening. Microsoft will be bring it's 360 game to Xbox One both in digital and disc form. Apparently this will be an emulation (much like the 360's backwards compatibility) and only requires the original developers/publishers to give the ok. Zero work on their part.

This feature will combine the "best of both worlds" you'll be able to play with 360 owners online but also have access to Xbox One features like Twitch, Screenshots and the like. The system is currently live for those in the previews, the rest of us have to wait till "the holidays". It seems MS is banking on this feature as a few upcoming games (Fallout and Rainbow Six) also unlock their 360 games.

Abe: unrelated news I have an 260 up for grabs.

New Pad
This was a surprise. We knew about the "new" pad before E3 but it appears that the headphone jack enabled X1 pad is only a refresh. There is also an new Elite pad. This is intended for serious gaming and eSports. The controller features an concave D-pad, taller sticks, button mapping, togglable hair triggers allowing for faster fire and rear paddles. The analog sticks can even be switched out for smaller units.

Abe: this is a pretty awesome pad but i imagine the cost being kinda high and I cant help but feel this will unbalance the online much like the modded pads on 360.

Fallout 4
This was a surprise, Bethesda already showed half hour of gameplay a few hours ago why was they here on Xbox stage? well turns out they had an exclusive feature for Xbox One and this is a biggie. Mods are coming to Xbox One! The PC mods will be made available for FREE to all Fallout X1 players.

Abe: This is huge! Mods are the one of the big reasons why people choose PC gaming over console and will no doubt help microsoft sell the X1 version of PS4.

EA Access & PVZ GW2
EA access is adding two new games to it's vault Titanfall and Dragon Age Inquisition. EA reconfirmed that every upcoming EA release will launch one week early on EA Access.
EA also announced an brand new Plants VS Zombies game; Garden Warfare 2. EA promises that this will be the most over the top and crazy shooter. EA Access is free for this week.

Forza 6
We didn't get a giant amount of details but we got a trailer and some details like night and rain racing, 24-player car multiplayer and 450 Forzavista cars and will launch September 15th.

Indies
There was an awful lot of great indie games shown, far too many to go into detail here. Big news as that xbox is getting it's own version of early access where players can buy still developing games. However unlike Steam's system all xbox early access games must have demos. Elite Dangerous and DayZ are the first games in early access on Xbox. DayZ's creator also teased his new game "a MMO not built on coding or script but physics and biology"

Gears of War
Gears of War Ultimate was announced, similar to Halo Anniversary on 360 this will be just the first title but instead of graphics being updated, they have rebuilt the games engine, Modernizing the gameplay in the process. It also features all the additional content from the PC version and has an all new multiplayer engine. Ultimate will arrive in August and a Beta will be running this week.

Gears 4 was also shown off and instantly caused Gears 1 flashbacks with its light horror angle. Gears 4 has an all new cast and so far the enemies are beastal but they do seem to have some Locus like design elements. Gears 4 will be 2016's christmas title.

Rare's Back
Rare looks like it's getting over its Kinect issue and is back making games, Continuing the theme of old for now, new later. They announced Rare Replay, 30 of Rares games (sorry no Goldeneye 64) from across their 30 years at a budget prices of $30 (we don't have UK pricing but I sense a pattern here), will feature titles from the SNES, N64, Xbox and 360 eras.

Next up might be my favourite (its hard to say, everything was so good) but Rare also debuted a brand new game "Sea of Thieves" A shared world, first person adventure game. A better description would be Pirates Online. Check out the above trailer.

MS VR AR Plan
Microsoft announced yet another VR partnership, this time with Valve. We don't know the details like the Oculus deal. They also reconfirmed they are still working with Oculus. MS also showed of Minecraft running on hololens. At first the Hololens player was playing Minecraft through a blocky portal in a wall with their friend also playing via Surface tablet. But then the Holo player stood up and rendered the game world on the table. The table top model continued running in real time as the other player continued playing the traditional game.

The Holo player was able to scroll the "model" around accessing more of the game world, even able to raise it allowing him to peer into the model revealing the inside of the buildings and exposed a cavern underneath. The holo player also has access to the PC commands and was able to strike TNT with lightning to expose the cavern.

Summery 
Microsoft delivered even more than I've posted here, the Indie games deserve a look in. Phil Spenser stepped on stage and promised Xbox One was getting the best line up of games Xbox had ever seen. It's hard to deny that. The remarkable thing was there was very little multiplatform games with Dark Souls 3 being the only game that didn't have any form of Xbox extra.

E3 Talk!

E3 is coming! we are now more/less a week away (depending on your time zone) from the event. Excitement is building which of cause we're now getting news from "insiders", developers, publishers and Platform holders.

Platinum games
Platinum games (Bayonetta, MGR) will be announcing a brand new game exclusively with IGN@E3. Now it was believed this will either be an PS4 exclusive or multi-format seeing as Platinum's last 3 games was exclusive. However one member of platinum games Y. Hashimoto is tweeting about the Nintendo direct (image below), There is also the message from Akiko Kuroda, producer of Bayonetta 2 (text below) and finally apparently the head of Platinum Games International business is "prepared for the salt". 

"I have started working on the next project, but it looks like the announcement will come later. In any case, I think that it would be nice if something Bayonetta-related was also developed in 2015, so please pay attention to the continuation of Bayonetta!”

Given that due to Nintendo funding Bayonetta 2 and is extremely unlikely to be go multi-format could we be about to see Bayonetta 3, the long rumoured 3DS spin off, or perhaps the the rumoured Nintendo purchase of the IP from Sega?


Hardware Surprises?
Whilst we now know (thanks internet leaks) that both the PS4 and Xbox One are getting new models with bigger 1TB drives. Both Nintendo and MS have released seemingly "nothing" updates to the Wii U/X1 in preparation for E3. Will we see an New X1 dashboard hit at E3? Could the Wii U be getting new functionality?

The there is RAD the developers behind the PS4 exclusive "The Order" are extending their engine to X1 and something else

"Since the release of The Order, we have been very hard at work to advance our engine and technology to a place where we can deliver our games on PC, Xbox One, PS4 and one other unannounced platform that you will soon find out about."

What platform could this be? Nintendo has said we won't know about the NX till next year. Could this be Amazon's game console or an exclusive Steam Machine?

Nintendo Oddness
In the last week we've had a lot of announcements from the House of Mario regarding new games. Even the long rumoured Terraria for Wii U/3DS has been confirmed in it's forums. Now we also know that we're getting a new Smash direct just before E3 June 14th, that will detail Lucas DLC, Miiverse stage and the Splatoon Mii Fighters. Seeing as every Smash trailer, direct and event has ended in a tease for the next character, I expect we'll see DLC character 3. The oddness however is why isn't these announcements at E3, is Nintendo's direct and Treehouse event so full already?

Abe's Take
I always love E3 though it's been tougher to watch as an increasing amount of content is leaked before. Typically only leaving the most secretive with any surprises. Nintendo tends to be pretty water tight in this area but as the stage floor gets set up soon they to will spring a leak.

My only true hope for E32015 is surprises, Arguably Nintendo has the biggest fight this year as they have to prove to both owners and perspective owners that both N3DS and Wii U are still worth it in the run up to the NX. Microsoft also has to prove it has enough reasons outside of power to compete with the PS4's success and finally Sony just seems to be relaxing with Morphus as even their own execs have admitted it's first party offering will be "light".

Nintendo Annouces This Years E3 Plan By KILLING A Member Of Staff

Yep you read that right. Nintendo has released a video with the guys at Mega64 explaining their plans and apparently... murder.



Last year Nintendo surprised everyone by hosting a Nintendo Direct instead of a normal E3. This year that'll become the Nintendo Digital Event, and will show off games from 2014 "and beyond". So, Hopefully, Zelda. The show will start streaming live from 5pm on Tuesday 10th June.

After the Digital Event, Nintendo Treehouse: Live @ E3, will open, constantly streaming in-depth game demos and interviews throughout E3. And on top of that, Nintendo will be hosting a Smash Bros. Invitational, in which 16 of the world's best Smash Bros. players will compete, while showing off the new Smash Bros. Wii U and 3DS games to the world in the Nokia Theatre and online.

Smash Bro's will also be available to play at Best Buy in the US.