Microsoft’s announcements at E3 2018 revealed several sequels to some of their biggest franchises
– the Xbox giant had a lot of large expectations from fans, and oh boy did it deliver this
year.
50 games 18 exclusives and 15 world premieres is what was showcased.
But if you didn’t catch the press conference, fear not, we’ve got all the highlights - from
Gears of War to Halo 6 and Cyberpunk 2077, here’s what you missed.
The show started off with the game everyone expected to show up – the next installment
in the Halo franchise.
Except instead of being Halo 6, it’s Halo Infinite.
We only got a brief tease of the game with a short trailer that really emphasized the
world of the game, ending off with the reveal of Master Chief’s helmet.
According to Head of Xbox Bill Spencer, players will be joining Master Chief on his greatest
adventure yet to save humanity, but not much else was said.
We know that it’s made in the SlipSpace engine, we know that the story will feature
some stunning locales.
The release date has yet to be announced.
Forza Horizon 4 was another exclusive world premiere, and we got a taste of a trailer
AND gameplay.
Horizon 4 is a completely new take on the series - Ralph Fulton from Playground games
gave us some insight on what to expect from the title, which is set in Britian, and features
dynamic seasons in shared open world.
When you play, you play with the entire community, and you can interact with one another via
quickchat with those you meet in the game.
The changing of the seasons and the weather are a pretty big deal – as we saw in the
demo, lakes that were there in the summer season will freeze over in winter.
These changes are not only aesthetic but will also change your gameplay.
Horizon 4 also boasts seamless co-op, will contain world events for players to participate
in, will be optimized for the Xbox One X with 60 fps mode, and will be released on oct 2nd
with game pass available on the same day
Fallout 76 got a tease from Bethesda at the conference, despite the gaming giant having
it’s conference set for only a few hours later – Fallout 76 was recently teased and
made major waves in the gaming community, and now we know a little bit more about it
– it’s a prequel to all of the other Fallout games, and is four times the size of fallout
4.
Set in the hills of west Virginia, you are the first to lay eyes on a very different
wasteland when your vault opens up, and from the sounds of it, there will be a whole lot
of emphasis on not just surviving, but rebuilding America.
It’ll be available june 15th for pre-order.
Gears of War 5 was an announcement that everyone was expecting, and we got three for the price
of one at the conference – three new games including Gears Pop –a collaboration with
Funko for unique mobile spin – and Gears Tactics – a new take on turn based strategy
genre.
But most importantly, we were given a much needed trailer for Gears 5, and a story that
focuses heavily on Kate splitting up from the rest of the gang.
The world premier of Dying Light 2 debuted, and it’s set in what has been described
the second dark ages.
One of the primary concepts behind the game is - Your choices, your world – the demo
showed us how your choices in missions will start to change the entire landscape of the
city – everything has consequences, severely altering the world, making your game experience
unique – but of course, at night, you’ve got other threats you’ll have to deal with.
Another major World Premiere was Capcom’s long awaited Devil May Cry 5, introducing
a brand new narrative.
It’s been 10 years since DMC 4, and devs promise that it will be the best one yet.
Will it follow suit with how God of War has reinvented the hack and slash genre?
One thing is for sure though – we will be getting ourselves some Dante, who was teased
at the end of the trailer.
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 was announced, and it’s Urban Warfare takes place 6 months
after outbreak began, and you’re in the midst of a civil war.
The Ubisoft title showed off some In game footage featuring co-op gameplay mechanics,
combat and the kinds of weapons that’ll be featured in the game.
The conference highlighted some major Xbox exclusives, including the likes of Black Desert,
a vivid dynamic MMORPG steeped in mystery.
For those of you disappointed that Skate 4 didn’t make that conference, Microsoft is
serving up an alternative with Session, which perhaps may be a spiritual successor?
And lastly, the conference ended off with a major bang - the trailer for one of the
most highly anticipated games over the last several years – Cyberpunk 2077.
The creators of the Witcher 3 revealed a trailer for Cyberpunk at last year’s E3, but Cyberpunk
is a game that fans have been awaiting long before that, and we FINALLY GOT IT.
Made up from Game Engine Footage, the trailer showcased a whole lot more about the world,
giving off some major blade runner meets ready player one vibes.
What else did you miss?
Microsoft also announced new studios they’ve acquired for Microsoft Studios including (5)
The Initative, Undead Games, Playground, Ninja Theory (ninja gaiden), Compulsion Games
Compulsion Game’s We Happy Few finally got a release date – august 10th 2018.
We got a stunning trailer for the first person shooter Metro Exodus, set to be released Feburary
22nd 2019.
The World Premiere of the trailer for Jump Force debuted, featuring some familiar fan
favourites courtesy of Bandai Namico.
A sequel to Cup-Head was previewed, The Delicious Last Course, which promises a new story and
new playable characters.
Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts was shown – this is the game’s first time ever on X-Box,
and the trailer featured the characters of Frozen, Wreck it Ralph and so many more of
your Disney and Pixar favourites – it comes out Jan 29th 2019.
The awesome adventures of Captain Spirit also had a trailer shown – something many people
thought was another Life is Strange Game, but will only take place in the same story
world.
We got a new glimpse at the perpetually delayed Crackdown 3 featuring a lot of Terry Crews.
And another Exclusive in the form of PUBG with war mode announced, set to be released
winter 2018.
There we have it!
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