Microsoft knocked it out of the park, firing on all cylinders in their 2018 press conference.
Microsoft delivered big time in their 2018 E3 press conference, announcing acquisitions of new studios, and a re-dedication to first party as well as new installments in tentpole franchises.
Microsoft opened their press conference with their heaviest hitting first party game, back to Halo and back to Master Chief. The games trailer shows Master Chief plugging some sort of AI (presumably Cortana) into the back of his helmet as the final tease.
The creators of Dark Souls and Bloodborne are teaming up with publisher Activision to bring “Shadows Die Twice” out. It isn’t an exclusive to Xbox, but getting FromSoftware onto their stage was a massive win for Microsoft. There isn’t a whole lot of information about this game, other than it seems to be set in feudal Japan and looks to follow along in FromSoftware’s difficult combat action.
The Crackdown 3 trailer shows Terry Crews destroying pretty much everything in sight. The game first appeared at E3 2014, and is approaching its 2019 release after being officially delayed before E3 began. The trailer showed a return to the kind of gameplay seen in the original Crackdown games, as opposed to city destruction the recent trailers had been taking.
The game is “100% free” and will laucnh on June 26th of this year.
The theme song. The action. Oh man I cant wait. The release date for the game was revealed late last night at the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra tour as January 25th 2019, but that doesn’t mean this trailer was void of any new information.
Frozen is officially a playable world in Kingdom Hearts 3, as well as the return of the gummy ship. Larxene is in the Frozen world causing trouble for Organization XIII.
Sora also talks in the trailer about Roxas, and how he knows he is still inside of him.
Dynamic Seasons, a shared open world, and a hovercraft. The demo shown on stage showed many different players racing around in the shared world together, as well as the new setting of Britain. The seasons change how the game is played as well, as lakes freeze over in the winter and snow effects how vehicles handle on roads.
Bethesda Softworks’ Todd Howard took to the stage to announce the post-apocalyptic prequel to the Fallout Universe. The game takes place before any other Fallout games, and is “four times bigger” than Fallout 4.
The game takes place in the hills of West Virginia 20 years after the nuclear strikes that created the Fallout universe. In the game, players will emerge into the Shenandoah Valley tasked with rebuilding society only a few years after the nuclear weapons devastated the land. More from the game is expected from Bethesda’s own E3 keynote this evening.
The Division 2 is set in Washington DC, as the Division agents attempt to keep a corrupt portion of the former government from taking over 6 months after patient zero and the destruction the virus caused.
The next entry into the rebooted Tomb Raider universe is set to release on PS4, Xbox, and PC September 14th 2018. The game is developed by Edios Montreal, whereas the previous two in the trilogy had been developed by Crystal Dynamics. The game is supposed to be the final chapter in Lara’s origin Story.
New DLC for Cuphead “The Delicious Last Course” is coming in 2019. The DLC features new playable characterMs. Chalice. The DLC includes a new isle, bosses, weapons, and charms. The DLC is coming exclusively to Xbox and PC.
The new Xbox console is “deep” into development says Xbox boss Phil Spencer. He also mentioned the company’s work on AI and cloud technology.
The first trailer for Gears of War 5 was revealed during the press conference as well, in what became a fakeout for the final trailer.
The trailer has a grim tone, and the sigil of the Locust re-appears around the neck of Kait, one of the heroes of the game. Marcus Fenix and son return alongside the rest of the Gears 4 team. Players appear to play as Kait Diaz, rather than JD Fenix as they did in Fears 4. Del Walker is accompanying her, as JD and Marcus seem to be on their own mission.
The trailer also shows off an extremely varied set of ecosystems including tundras as well as lush jungles. There are also some massive new melee weapons for players to use to crush their enemies. Gears 5 will be released in 2019.
The actual final trailer from Microsoft’s 2018 E3 keynote was by far the biggest (probably in scale of the final game too). CD Projekt Red, the developers of the Witcher Franchise, are expanding their talents into the Sci-Fi department with CyberPunk 2077. The game has been announced for some time now, but this is the first time any art has been shown for it.
The trailer was not gameplay, but it was in the gameplay engine so it does shed some light onto the graphical fidelity and art direction of the game, which both look amazing. The trailer centers around what I would assume is the playable character describing the city he lives in while talking over a lot of very intense scenes. The city looks completly lawless, and that seems to fit our playable character just fine.
That is for Microsoft’s E3 2018 Press Conference! Let us know what you think and what you are most looking forward to!