Microsoft holds serve, but doesn't ace it; Star Wars highlights EA Play.
Are a Marvel-like credits opening and Keanu Reeves really all you need to have an awesome E3 press conference?!? Quite possibly.
But seriously, the timing isn't quite right for Microsoft to blow off the top of the next-generation conversation, and that elephant was kind of standing in a dark corner of the room while we got another impressive sizzle reel of 60 games(!) and other tid bits of information and surprises.
Project Scarlet is confirmed to release in fall of 2020 with Halo Infinite as its primary launch title. It's back to the good ol' days for Microsoft as both the game and Microsoft's strategy seem to be harking back to the OG XBox days. Other than that, we didn't get much new information, at least not the cool stuff fans probably want. No name, cost, look of the console, nor specific date, though I never expected any of that to be announced anyway; it's way too early for that. Last year was a big conference in terms of setting up the future, but that future isn't quite here yet.
It's understandable, but it's also a missed opportunity considering that Sony isn't going to be present at E3 this year (though they've been feeding all kinds of random news to stay in the conversation, at least a little bit). The worst part is that the details we did get about Scarlet were all buzz words with thunder that Sony already stole when news stories broke recently about what the PS5 (name unconfirmed, but come on, it's going to be the PS5) would have: Solid State Drives for minimal load times, Ray Tracing, 8k, a 120 refresh rate, etc. Sony already noted that their next console will feature all of those things, so hearing it in a big "reveal" teaser (from actual Microsoft devs, which was really nice) was sort of a sizzle-less announcement.
What wasn't sizzle-less was the rest of the gaming highlights Microsoft showed. So many games! Holy cow. but it seems like most of them are simply filling out the final year and a half of this console life cycle, which is fine (Another reason why it would be too early to reveal too much next-gen stuff since there's still so much life in this gen to go). I'm not terribly interested in a lot of those games, and we didn't get to see much of Microsoft's "Gaming Coalition" is up to, so I'll probably have to wait until next E3 before deciding if there will be enough there to entice me to switch from Playstation to XBox next gen (Halo alone is a good start, though). But wow, was there an incredible breadth and width of styles of games. We got indies, we got hardcore M-rated triple-A doozies, we got action-driven games, narrative-driven games, multi-player games, platformers...so much of what a gamer needs.
On the boring tech side of the presentation, seeing how Project X-Cloud will integrate throughout Microsoft's infrastructure was cool, but not unexpected, and there weren't a ton of details revealing its features. I'm hoping that kind of stuff will not appear in next year's E3, though. Save that for a press release or a short presentation somewhere else.
Games that I especially took notice of:
-Ninja Theory's Bleeding Edge, which is a cool-looking 4-v-4 team-based shooter/brawler.
-Cyberpunk: I'm actually not that interested in this game, but seeing that there will be a Keanu Reeves character in the game is cool. Hopefully his character has different skins, including a Matrix skin.
-Gears 5: We already knew the game existed, but we got a look at the new Escape mode, which reminds me of one of my favorite co-op multiplayer experiences I've ever had when I played Sony's Resistance 2. Each class has different abilities and roles, and you aboslutely have to work together to succeed. If this mode is anything like that, I definitely want to try it. On a side note, hearing that there will be community-built hive maps is really cool.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps: Very artful, serene 2-D platformer, but with intense action, bosses, etc., is right up my ally. This franchise is one I've always wished would come to Nintendo consoles, but if I do jump to XBox, this will be a game I play for sure.
Psychonauts 2: I love 3-D platformers, but it's been a long time since I've played a weird one like the first game in this series. Hopefully the sequel lives up to the name.
"Kiddie" games: Microsoft certainly balanced the chainsaw blood-splattering of Gears with games like Minecraft: Dungeons and the Lego-Forza crossover that are geared for younger audiences. They showed quite a few other games like this, and some of them right after huge triple-A trailers, which doesn't seem fair to the smaller games.
Battletoads 3: Looks good, but I hope it evolves with modern gaming tropes while still feeling old-school.
Lord of the Rings LCG: I've played the card game version of this, and while I didn't care for it, seeing that it's coming to XBox gets me hopeful that the Star Wars LCG game eventually will come to consoles, as well.
EA PLAY
Rather than a traditional conference, EA has used the new interactive play way of showing new content for a while now. This year, EA highlighted its upcoming Star Wars game Jedi: Fallen Order. In the video we got, the game looked pretty linear as the Jedi you play as walks through a stormtrooper facility in a somewhat lush, plant-filled environment where giant bug creatures can pop out at any moment. But gameplay shown later on, after the EA Play presentation, revealed that game is far from a linear Uncharted version of Star Wars. No, it'll have hub worlds and plenty of area to explore. The entire mission EA showed in the presentation is something you can skip entirely.
Oh yeah, and you can force freeze a blaster shot, force grab the trooper that shot it, pull him in front of the shot you froze, then unfreeze the shot to kill the trooper with his own shot!
Hopefully the story is good. Connecting to both Episode III with Order 66 and Rogue One with Saw Gerrera and (possibly?) K-2SO is a nice touch.
EA also showed off Battlefield V, including new maps based on their real-world locations. They also showed Apex Legends content, which remains one of the most fun stories of the year.
EA then got into its sports lineup. This year's Madden cover athlete, Patrick Mahomes, was used to show off the new superstar features in Madden '20. Superstar players get these special attributes specific just to them. Mahomes, for example, can throw the ball further than any other quarterback. It was great when the host of the presentation, which was shown in Los Angeles, had some disdain in his voice before revealing he was a Raiders fan. Other players' abilities include special hot reads and deep jump-ball abilities. EA also will implement RPOs into playbooks, as well as new formations and customization options. Every year when I see Madden, I think it's a good time to jump back in, but I'll probably end up waiting until the next generation before buying a new Madden. Maybe by then, the Niners will be good enough in the game to play competitively. Hey, I can hope, right?
