Hopefully most of you caught the live stream or other information that Microsoft has put out there for Gamescon 2014. True to recent form, Microsoft focused their live reports and streams on games, games and more games. You can also check out loads of additional videos and more information and news about upcoming games at Microsoft’s Xbox News Channel.
Of the games highlighted, I’m super excited about Assassin’s Creed: Unity and Quantum Break. AC:Unit looks amazing and if the gameplay is anything like Black Flag (but with multiple players), it is going to be awesome. Quantum Break looks awesome all over. I’ve been waiting for this one since I saw the first trailer so many months ago!
I really liked seeing a push for the ID@Xbox games. There are more than a few of them that look like they are going to be super fun and/or very innovative like Smite and Below.
Evolve has been on my radar for a bit and I’m cautiously optimistic that it will end up being loads of fun to play. If it plays like the original L4D, I think it will be a blast. Comments from people who played during ComiCon, however, was that it was pretty easy to win as the beast. I hope that balances out more or that people learn to play more as a team. I think the forced teamwork aspect of L4D was awesome.
I’m not so sure about Fable Legends. I’ve been excited for just about every Fable game that has been released and unfortunately been let down by most all of them. They are certainly fun to play and I think this one might be as well, but I’m wondering if adding the “play as evil character” might make things simply too complex when some of the issues from prior games weren’t addressed. Let’s hope I’m wrong!
Ori looks very interesting. I’m still not quite sure what to think but it does look very different. I’m keeping my eye on this one.
Sunset Overdrive is getting quite a bit of press. I’m torn. I want to think it will be fun, but it could turn out to be overwhelming and simply a non-stop button mash exercise. I’m thinking this one will either be super fun or a flop. Fingers crossed for a super fun game, but I might wait on this one until more people have a chance to play it and share their thoughts.
Playing all of the Halo games again on the One will be a blast. I have them all, or I guess more appropriate HAD them all and have been trying to get my son to play them. Apparently there are gaps in my library so it will be nice to allow my son to play through them all on the Xbox One.
I did like the comparisons they showed between the old graphics and the new graphics. The new graphics look pretty awesome on the SP maps anyway. When they showed the MP maps I was a bit disappointed. While I appreciated the new textures, etc., perhaps it was my monitor, but it looks like they introduced far too many dark areas. As if they simply cranked up the contrast for some reason. I wasn’t digging it and am hoping that it was simply this uncalibrated monitor I’m currently working on causing that look.
Unrelated to games, Microsoft also released info on upcoming features surrounding social, TV, USB and DLNA support. This will be pretty important as many users posting feedback to Microsoft have been asking for a more robust entertainment solution from the console that has billed itself as such.
So what do you think? Did Microsoft deliver on games information? Are you excited for any of the upcoming games or new features?