E3 2014: Microsoft

The question of “Who won E3?” can be unproductive and fuel some of the worst ideas about how games criticism should work, but during E3 2013 it became impossible to ignore that Sony garnered huge favour from fans and commentators alike for what was essentially kicking Microsoft’s ass, and things haven’t been much better for MS in the console market with the PS4 significantly outselling the Xbox One. The Kinect and its media features are or at least were a big part of the experience that the One was focused around providing, but they’ve not been the beguiling draw that Microsoft seemed to be banking on, and MS have been beaten in no small way by the opposing games console manufacturer simply focusing more on games. How exactly to conduct this conference was no doubt a difficult decision for Microsoft. Trying to push motion control, media streaming, and similar aspects of the console during this press conference would have meant further alienating gamers who were already leaning away from what they were trying to offer, but not including them as part of the briefing would mean potentially shunning some of the major features they were trying to build their console on. They made the right decision however, and it was a bold move.

A slightly different conference.

The conference this year was wall-to-wall controller-based video games with not a simulated living room or ESPN logo in sight. It was an impressive choice that made the event a more enjoyable experience and showed some respect for their audience. I remain on the fence about the conference as a whole though. Microsoft had plenty of titles to show off and gave more attention to indie games than we’ve seen in most previous years, but much of their presentation felt very safe and a lot more could have been done to show their commitment to smaller developers and the independent gaming scene. I’m sure a lot of people would consider that an unreasonable expectation for a company as big as Microsoft at a trade show like E3, and maybe it is, but they’re a company who have a lot to prove to their potential customers in a world where people are starting to question what the big reason for buying next-gen consoles is meant to be, and for as much as you can say “That’s just how the console industry is”, Sony thrashed Microsoft last year partly by doing what many people say can’t be done.

The point at which MS’s hard slant towards traditional blockbusters and away from smaller, more original games was best exemplified for me was a little after the halfway point in the conference when they smashed a large number of relatively interesting indie games into a montage that was only about four minutes long. It didn’t exactly scream that they cared about any of those games, but fortunately there were some more uplifting displays of indie alliance in the form of the gorgeous Oni and the Blind Forest, and the haunting Inside. I just wish we could have seen some of these indie titles actually being played.

If you're going to do a pre-rendered trailer do it in style.

It was towards the end that the conference began to display a particular lack of any kind of gameplay being put on show, indie or otherwise. The new Platinum Games project probably suffered most from this, with their games being so much about the feel and flow of the fights. It worked a little better for Crackdown however. I loved its neon-soaked Tron-like setting and if what you can do in the game is anything like what the trailer showed they’re onto a real winner. In a larger sense it was nice to see some of the games depart from the continual cycle of brown grittiness that it’s easy for these conferences to fall into and add a dash of colour to the proceedings, from the spell-slinging combat of Dragon Age: Inquisition to the saturated wastelands of Sunset Overdrive. It was a similar story with the new Dead Rising 3 content which broke from the mold of the base game in a wonderful Saints Row-style way, and for Project Spark and Fable: Legends, although I do think for both of those games we need to see a little more to truly be able to judge. Combat has never been the best part of Fable and I wonder how engaging it can really be to set up enemies and then sit by and watch as other players and AI perform the real combat. Likewise, the premise of Project Spark and some of the tools it offers make me deeply interested, I just wonder what it feels like to play and how varied you can make your levels in that game. As a side note the Project Spark trailer really didn’t need to include Conker who felt like a woefully outdated piece of tacked-on content.

Moving on, the announcement of a Tomb Raider 2 was nothing but good news, and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, while obviously not providing any revolution in the world of FPS games, is looking much more intriguing than Call of Duty: Ghosts did this time last year. It’s gone from “We have a dog” to “We have a good-looking futuristic metropolis and a host of new technologies for you to use in battles”. I’m a little sceptical of The Division which is doing some fantastic work in the GUI department but needs to do a little more for me to prove it’s not just a typical third-person shooter with a smart interface, and while Assassin’s Creed: Unity has found an amazingly good fit for its chaotic, building-climbing antics in the French Revolution, it could also just boil down to being a repeat of everything from every other Assassin’s Creed, especially when you’re not playing multiplayer.

Halo's vistas continue to be beautiful.

Finally, as a Halo fan I’m compelled to talk about what 343 had going on. It’s cool to see the whole Halo trilogy and Halo 4 on one disc, especially when they could have chosen to eek it out and rerelease all these games separately, I can’t get over how wonderful all those Halo 2 environments look with a fresh coat of polish on them, and it’s a smart decision to have all the levels in that game unlocked from the beginning. My biggest hang-up is that I’d like some reassurance that the new Halo that’s coming is going to be something that mixes up the formula a little. If they’ve got Halo 5 running at 60 FPS in 1080p, great, but a game needs more than that, and their unveiling of the Halo 5 multiplayer wasn’t an unveiling at all. Hopefully there’ll also be a way into that Halo 5 beta that doesn’t require buying the Master Chief Collection.

All in all, I’m not sure Microsoft did an amazing job. It still feels like the One is having trouble getting off the ground within an acceptable timeframe as so many of the big games coming are being consigned to 2015, and there’s little detailed information on many of the games they showed, but their presentation was promising, boasting more potential reasons for players to make the jump to next gen and showing that Microsoft are prepared to go an extra step if it really means getting gamers on their side.