So the Xbox conference is done and dusted. Now it’s time to take a look at some of the announcements, and games that were on show.
The show opened with a trailer for Assassins Creed Unity. It didn’t really show to much, it was more of a cinematic affair, but still, it looked pretty good.
The we got to take a look at Fifa 15, now I know there are a fair few people who don’t really care for Fifa games all that much. But there are also a heck a lot who do. Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel came on stage to talk about Ultimate Team as it’s the most popular game mode on Fifa, more precisely Legends, and the announcement that Legends will be exclusive to Xbox One. Also Fifa 15 will be playable first on Xbox One through EA Access.
There was also the announcement of the Fifa 15 Xbox One bundle that will cost £349.99
We then got to take a look at some of the upcoming games from the ID@Xbox program, and man there were a lot on show. Just some of the ones mentioned
- Blues and bullets, cup head, dungeon of the endless, fuiit ninja 2 funk of titans. Ghost of a tale, goat simulator, Gunscape, Massive Chalice, Inside, Knight squad, Loves in a dangerous spacetime, #IDARB, No time to explain. Plague Inc: Evolved, Superhot, Prison simulator, The Escapist, Smite, Below.
It’s a mighty impressive list, with some very good looking games on it if you ask me.
Then it was on to COD: Advanced Warfare, and a look at a single player level ‘Collapse’ which takes place on the Golden gate Bridge. It was all action and explosions, and it looked pretty neat, whilst not looking like anything revolutionary. Again another bundle was announced for £429.99, this one featured Call of Duty decals, a 1TB hard-drive and ‘noises’….
Evolve was up next, with a first look at a new map called ‘Distillery’. Evolve is looking really good, I was pretty sad when it was delayed until February, but hopefully it will make the game better. The one thing I did hate though, was the commentary that they decided to do alongside the gameplay. It was cheesy and just didn’t work. But there will be an open Beta in January, so that is awesome news!
Some big news was up next, it was that ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider’ had gone exclusive to Xbox, yup, that’s right. At first people were thinking it might only be timed, but apparently not, it’s an actual proper, real exclusive. I think this is pretty big news, ok the game may not be the biggest franchise around. But for a franchise to go exclusive when its already had games out on multi platforms is a pretty big and bold move. No gameplay was shown off though, which was a shame.
We then got to see the one that a lot of people have been waiting for. Quantum Break!
Personally I think it looks pretty fantastic, and I’m really looking forward to seeing some more of it.
Next up was a look at two more exclusives Fable Legends and Screamride. Fable Legends is shaping up pretty well, but I didn’t see anything that got me too excited by it. Screamride however, looked pretty interesting. Build rollercoasters, and then make them crash.
I don’t really get the point of the game right now, but colour me intrigued!
We got a pretty good look at Forza Horizon 2.
We were then treated to some lovely looking gameplay from Ori and the Blind Forest. This game was one of my highlights from E3, and the more I see of it, the better it gets.
There as then a bit more about Sunset Overdrive, and the official announcement of the bundled version including the White Xbox One console and controller.
The show was then inevitably finished off with Halo news. We got news of when the Halo 5 beta will be and what we can expect in it – Dec. 29, 2014 – Jan. 18, 2015; 7 maps, 4v4 combat, several game modes, 60 fps, dedicated servers, unlocks for the full game. There was an announcement of the Halo Channel that will feature episodes of Nightfall, Halo profiles, challenges/rewards, and being able to join friends direct from the channel. We also saw a quick gameplay video of the remastered version of ‘Sanctuary’. It all looked pretty sweet.
Finally we were informed that pre-ordering and pre-downloading was going to be a thing! Like really soon, in September in fact. This is excellent news!
I’m sure there are some bits that I’ve missed or forgotten about, but don’t worry we will be posting a lot more Gamescom info this week, so be sure to check back!
– Will
