Microsoft E3 Press Conference Grade

Microsoft had a terrible E3 last year. Possibly one of the worst ones ever. You probably already know what Im talking about (always online DRM, no used games, huge focus on entertainment features rather than games etc).

This year the theme at Microsoft's E3 press conference was all about games, hence the title "Xbox Game On." Did Microsoft show off enough exclusives games to get back in the "Console Wars"? Read on and see!

First the good:

Microsoft's E3 was definitely much more focused on games than last year. In fact thats all they showed at E3, games, games and more games. They showed more details on games like Sunset Over Drive and Forza Horizon 2. They also announced some new games. One of the biggest new announcements was definitely the Master Chief Collection for Xbox One. The Master Chief Collection will have all mainline Halo games remastered in HD, the original versions of the game, Halo 2 multiplayer with over 100 maps and more cool stuff. Microsoft is doing a remake of Phantom Dust for Xbox One. A new game in the Crackdown series was announced. Microsoft announced their Japanese exclusive game they paid Platinum Games a bunch of money for, Scalehound. They also announced a new Fable game Fable Legends.

Microsoft also showed a lot of indie games. Although many of these games are also coming to PS4, its good to see them doing a better job getting indies on Xbox One.

Now for the bad:

Microsoft had a huge focus on third party games. They spent nearly a hour showing games like Call Of Duty Advance Warfare, and Assassin's Creed Unity. They went on and on about how Xbox One gets some of the paid DLC for some of these games first. They had too much of a focus on third party games. Games that can be played on PS4 (and will look better on there too).

Microsoft didn't show much gameplay for a lot of their exclusives games. Sunset Overdrive got a lengthy gameplay video, but other than that most of the other games didn't get enough love. Most of them just got a trailer and no actual gameplay.

Almost all of their exclusives they showed looked unimpressive. Scalehound looks stupid. The main character seems incredibly cocky and unlikeable. The artstyle made me want to throw up. Sunset Overdrive looks very cheesy and unoriginal. Fable Legends looked very underwhelming compared to other upcoming RPGs. Project Spark looks ridiculously similar to LBP. To be fair they did not show a lot of gameplay of most of these games, but from what they did show most of the games didn't seem very impressive.

You have most likely noticed I haven't said anything about Halo 5. Thats because they barely mentioned it. All that was shown was a brief trailer and no actual gameplay. No release date either. They briefly talked about the story but its still unclear what its about. This is a huge blow as Halo 5 is the biggest game coming out for Xbox One.

Another problem is we don't know when most of the Xbox One exclusives are coming out. Hardly any release dates were given and it looks like most of them will release in 2015 or later. The biggest game coming out this year for Xbox One is a remake (Master Chief Collection).

Microsoft's E3 was definitely better than last year's. Although they showed a lot of games many are third party games which will also be available on PS4. They didn't show enough gameplay for most of their exclusives and what was shown was unimpressive. 2014 is looking bleak for the Xbox One because most of the games didn't get release dates and aren't coming out this year. On the bright side Microsoft is headed in the right direction by focusing more on games.

Grade D+