Microsoft Put in Some Work at E3 2018 Here’s Our Recap
I just get back from absolutely dominating in my summer kickball league at around 5pm yesterday to get back in time to catch the last half of the Microsoft conference and my God was I physically aroused by what I saw. Today I got the chance to watch the first half I missed so I figured now would be a good time to compile a nice little recap for anyone who is interested.
The conference starts out by showing one of the staples in the Microsoft library with Halo Infinite on it’s new SlipSpace engine. Master Chief seems to be donning a more traditional, old school set of Mjolnir armor in the teaser and then BOOM! the man, the myth and the legend, Phil Spencer takes center stage to have us sitting on the edge of our seats. As I like to do so often, Phil Spencer dropped a beautiful stat onto our heads with 50 games being shown, 18 of which being exclusives and 15 of which being world premiers, so just a heads up I will focus mostly on some of the bigger highlights. Ori and the Will of the Wisps seems to have gone leaps and bounds beyond the first game, Ori and the Blind Forrest leaving fans of the franchise wasting anxiously in anticipation for its release in 2019. One of the biggest cliffhangers of a tease from E3 2017 was that of Shadows Die Twice, which was shown to be Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice brought to us my From Software the developers of one of my favorite franchises of all time Dark Souls. The game looks absolutely incredible with a great mix of style from the 3 heavy hitters in the Souls Like genre, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Nioh and I am dying to get my hands on it in 2019. Todd Howard from Bethesda then took the stage where he showed off the first look at Fallout 76 which you can check out Dom’s thoughts here . We finally got another look at CrackDown 3 with lead man and household name Terry Crews as the protagonist. The game has been through a shaky production, but maybe the franchise will make a big comeback in February of 2019. I will also finally have the chance to play one of the best games of 2017, Nier Automata when it comes to Xbox on 6/16/2018. Metro Exodus is taking my boy Artyom out of the underground and throwing him right out into the Russian wasteland in the third installment of the criminally underrated, Metro franchise, set to release February 22, 2019. Papa Phil then dropped the huge news that the long awaited Kingdom Hearts 3 will be coming to Xbox for the first time. Sea of Thieves will be getting 2 new, desperately needed expansions Cursed Sails and Forsaken Shores. Forza Horizon 4 is coming with no surprise to literally anyone, with the setting now being in jolly ole England with dynamic seasonal weather.
Big Daddy Phil came out yet again to drop some more knowledge on us, that Microsoft has acquired or created 5 studios starting with The Initiative, Undead Labs, Playground Games, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion Games. This has helped to bring back Microsoft in the never ending war of exclusivity in the console landscape. We then get another trailer for We Happy Few from the newly acquired Compulsion Games. PUBG went all out with yet another trailer showing new weapons, the release date for the new map and a tease for the long rumored Winter map. The Division 2 was then shown off, with a little more promise than what was delivered from the original. Xbox Game Pass was presented as THE titular way to play pretty much whatever new and some old games you may be interested in. Shadow of the Tomb Raider made an appearance before the underwhelming Square Enix conference. The incredibly flashy Devil May Cry 5 trailer came next replenishing a fading hope that we would ever see this franchise make a comeback. Cuphead is getting another DLC with The Delicious Last Course including a new isle, new bosses, and Ms. Chalice as a playable character. For all of my fellow weebs out there, Jump Force, the merging of pretty much any anime series you’d ever be interested in, was brought to us as another Shonen Jump fighting game. Dying Light 2 looks to expand the already vast universe of the first game. AND right here is where I was able to tune in for the tease of the “long awaited” return of Battletoads, followed soon after by Just Cause 4.
Finally, the confirmation of the 3 Gears of Wars games came in the form of a Funko Pop game we know little about, an RTS game of the same universe, and for the love of God the final confirmation of Gears 5 with Kait being the main protagonist. I have been in dire need of Gears of War 5 since completing the cliff hanger campaign of Gears of War 4. To end the entire conference brought to us by Microsoft, Phil “The Spectre” Spencer got hacked by…….oh my holy fuck, I may have vomited, CyberPunk 2077 from the masterminds over at CD Projekt Red, the creators of The Witcher franchise. On top of a tease that Xbox has already begun working on the next Xbox console, Microsoft rounded everything out perfectly. We have exclusive games coming our way, huge titles that fans have been waiting for, and so much more. Overall, Microsoft showed a dominant performace at E3 2018 and I am proud to be a former Xbox One gamer because fuck everything else I have a PC now. PEACE!
No but seriously, Microsoft killed it.
