Xbox Press Conference - Gi E32018 Recap #2

"Xbox starts off with a bang, doesn't stop for a second, and then pulls an unexpected twist at the end that blows you away..."

Yesterday, we got the Xbox E32018 Briefing. If you want to watch the full conference click here! We did a full live tweet session bringing the news live as it came in over on Game Infinite News over on Twitter. We have to say, this E3 Xbox Conference was AMAZING. Xbox blew us away. If you have ever uttered the phrase, "Xbox needs more games" than you will be happy. Phil Spencer said they were bringing the games like never before. They showed over 50 games in this conference! Thats right, 50! Sixteen of those games were exclusives! The last part of the briefing was nonstop world premiers. We saw so many new games and new trailers in this briefing that it was actually kind of overwhelming. I was scurrying to take notes of the games and also screenshot the event and live tweet it all at once. My desk was mission control with my Xbox playing the briefing on my TV, my iPad Pro in hand with the muted conference on short delay for screenshots, my Mac there for notes and prep, and of course my iPhone tweeting out the news. It was intense as Microsoft went from game to game to game with barely any stopping. I felt like Captain Kirk standing under a vent with an endless supply of Tribbles falling onto me.

Below is just a short list of the biggest news, with trailers attached to it all. All we can say is Xbox showed so much great stuff that we think that they are the hands on favorite to win E3 2018! Xbox starts off with a bang, doesn't stop for a second, and then pulls an unexpected twist at the end that blows you away... If you don't have time to read it all, click here for the TL:DR

1. Halo Infinite HALO IS BACK. Xbox rolls immediately out of the gate with a new halo game. The number six was apparently too small, so 343 Industries called the next Halo game Halo Infinite. Halo Infinite also gets a new engine, called Slipspace. This was only a welcome teaser demoing the new engine with Halo elements running in game. We known little other than the title, except a promise that Halo Infinite will bring back a focus on Master Chief based on the feedback around Chief's lack of presence in Halo 5. We also know that Halo Infinite will feature local co-op bringing back the much requested feature that was lacking in Halo 5. Many fans have caught that Chiefs helmet looks really old school, adding some confusion on whether or not this is a true sequel. Let's hope Xbox pulls off proper marketing for this game so we don't have Wii U moment for Halo. Commenters were confused as if this was some kind of Halo MMO or other spin off rather than Halo 6. However, this is just a tech demo showcasing the new engine; it is likely none of what we saw is the actual game itself. We do know and can confirm that Halo Infinite is a sequel that takes place after 5.

2. Fallout 76

I remember seeing Fall Out 4, and honestly I thought it looked like a previous gem game. Graphics wise, FO4 was nothing to impressive. However, Bethesda was secretly hard at work at this monster. We have a beautiful new game with Fall Out 76. During the Xbox E3 Briefing, we got a new look. Check it out. More is definitely going to be shown at Bethesda's BE3. Our recap will be posted after.

3. Captain Spirit

We loved Life is Strange. LiS is an amazing piece of art. Dontnod put themselves on the map as a group of unknowns making one of 2015's greatest games. Then we got a prequel from a different developer that by all expectations should have been a failure but wasn't. We also got a decent new arrival from Dontnod with Vampyr currently being reviewed by Game Infinite Reviews coming soon. Dontnod has said Life Is Strange 2 is being developed, so when the art style appeared on screen and Dontnod's name appeared, I stood up in excitement thinking it was LIS2. However, it turns out to be another spin off title set in the LIS universe called Captain Spirit following a young boy on his imaginative adventures. The lack of a LIS2 reveal is in no way surprising as Square Enix (LIS's publisher) would most likely want to keep that big of a showing for their own conference. (Here's Hoping 🤞) One of the most unusal parts of this reveal is that Captain Spirit is completely free! How or why they did this is unknown. Is this a short game equivalent to one of the episodes of LIS? Was this a marketing stunt of some kind or passion project? How do they make money off of a free cartoony story game? I need to know!

4. Nier Automata

This one is simple. One of the greatest games of 2017, NieR: Automata, exclusive to PS4, is coming to Xbox One. Game Infinite had this game on our top ten games of 2017 with a score of 8.5/10. Score one for team Xbox. Xbox fans can now stop envying their Playstation friends, and we know one thing for sure. There will now be all that many more 2B Cosplays.

5. Metro

Metro Exodus is a beautiful upcoming game that was initially revealed to show the power of Xbox One X. During the briefing, we get a new look!

6. Forza Horizon 4 Do you want a photorealistic open world online driving game? No its not Crew 2. No its not Project Cars. No its not Need for Speed. It is the new look at Forza Horizon 4. Not gonna lie, I went to get the laundry out of the washer during this one. Looks like another beautiful copy paste but hollow racer. I want something truly unique. If you area Forza fan, watch the beautiful trailer.

7. 5 New Studios Taking a break from the ONSLAUGHT OF GAMES that was the Xbox Briefing, Xbox revealed a welcome news that as a commitment to games and first party titles, they are adding FIVE studios to their internal Microsoft Studios umbrella.

New Developers Studios joining Microsoft:

1. Ninja Theory

2. Compulsion Games

3. Undead Labs

4. Play Ground Games

5. The Initiative

8. Division 2 Ever have a fool me once fool me twice feeling when hearing about a new game? I was so stoked and bought into Watchdogs. So much so that I had the collectors edition preordered for two years, just to be immensely disappointed in the final product. The game didn't look or feel nearly as good as the game we were shown and promised. The E3 demo looks better than the final product. Products should get better up to release not worse. I never played much of it and avoided Watchdogs 2. In similar stance, The Division promised us this beautiful detailed game. At launch was a buggy ugly empty mess. The E3 Demo for Division looked gorgeous. The E3 Demo for Division 2 looks gorgeous. But Ubisoft needs to do more than the vague promises of being "better" to earn back the trust it lost with Division. I was actually surprised a sequel was made. It looks great, but looks have deceived in the past. At least for now, enjoy storming through D.C.

9. Shadow of the Tomb Raider A weak point in an otherwise amazing presentation, Shadow of the Tomb Raider received a new story trailer. There was no detailed gameplay or extended look. This is also unsurprising as like LiS, Square Enix is keeping the meat of their game for their own conference. However, I was surprised at how in progress the game looked. Water and Hair effects looked awful and far worse than Rise of the Tomb Raider which is one of the best looking games on Xbox One X. We can only hope this is the case that Shadow is simply unfinished and Square Enix isn't falsely polishing their game. We will see how Shadow evolves closer to launch. We are still stoked for Shadow after the success of two amazing previous games. If you still can't get enough Tomb Raider, check out our review of the 2018 Film.

10. Black Desert

Will Black Desert ever come out? We sure hope so as this game looks gorgeous and will bring a popular MMO to Xbox. We get a character name and some new look. One interesting note is the absence of the term "online" in the name. This could simply be streamlining or suggest off line aspects are coming?

11. Devil May Cry 5

It is rare to see a franchise be rebooted, and then have it go back to the original. In fact, I can't think of an example of when this happened. DMC the reboot was a good game, but it didn't resonate with all fans. I probably was one of the few who liked it, mostly as a new comer to the franchise. Capcom is basically saying 🤷‍♂️ sorry and going back to the originals. Instead of making a sequel to their reboot they are are making a sequel to the their original games with Devil May Cry 5. While, it claims to go back to its roots it borrows a lot of its art style from the reboot over the original. It is using a new engine and looks gorgeous. We are going to miss Kat, but this new reboot/sequel hopes to course correct the franchise back into the fan's good graces.

12. Dying Light 2

Fans of the first game will probably be happy with the announcement of Dying Light 2. It takes all the unique cool aspects of the first game like parkour and the day night cycle. This game adds RPG elements with a new decision system that adds story choices with world consequences. They were smart in making the zombies feel like an addition rather than a focus. That being said. It is another zombie game.

13. Jump Force Not going to lie. I know almost nothing about anime. Thats what I have Brandon and Bryce on the team for. But I got the feeling this is going to be big for anime fans. Goku fights random other anime characters in this world premier of Jump Force.

14. GEARS GEARS GEARS

Hope you like Gears of War! Because they gave you THREE. Xbox trolled fans a bit by first revealing a mobile Pop figure inspired game. Then they revealed Gears Tactics which is a top down strategy game. Then they were like...oh right! Gears 5 and the crowd went wild!

15. Crackdown 3 Assuming this third installment in a tiny franchise almost forgotten ever releases, Xbox will have another hot exclusive titles. Hopefully Crackdown 3 is a success!

16. From Software's Sekiro: Shadow's Die Twice

While some may have been hoping for a Dark Souls 4, we got a new IP from everyones favorite video game torture developer. Its odd and unique and worth a quick look!

17. That's It Folks Thanks For-*ERROR ERROR*

Sombra would be proud of Xbox in the way they went out with a bang. After setting everyone up for thinking that the Briefing was done. They could have easily started with Halo and ended with Gears. With plenty of content in between enough to fill three other conferences, Xbox had a solid event. While in the middle of saying thank you and good bye, the entire stage goes red with glitches and code. I saw the bright red lights and the old school code and was puzzled. I thought, Super Hot 2? No thats what art it looks like but is too small. A new IP? What is is? CD PROJECT RED I stood up from my chair, hand over mouth, as I behold Xbox Win E3 with the surprise trailer for CYBERPUNK 2077 All we can hope for is a instant classic one in a generation game that takes the massive open world and scale of Witcher 3 and blends it with the looks and scifi future world of Detroit Become Human. No pressure Red. Summary

Is it possible to have too many video games? If you said yes, you probably stopped reading this anyways. If you said no. Congratulations you are a real gamer and probably loved this onslaught of games that was the Xbox Event. They started with Halo, and ended with probably the GOTY 2077, and in between was jam pack over the top GAMES. In summary and for the TL:DR

1. Halo Infinite

2. Fallout 76

3. Captain Spirit

4. Nier Automata

5. Metro Exodus

6. Forza Horizon 4

7. New Microsoft Studio Teams

8. New Studies under Microsoft Studios

9. Shadow of the Tomb Raider

10. Black Desert

11. Devil May Cry 5

12. Dying Light 2