E3 2015 Wishlist: Microsoft
(Ed. Note: E3 is coming up June 16-18, and our resident big games expert Jibrii Ransom has three “Wishlist” preview articles, about Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, that will run prior to the big game industry event.)
Microsoft has had it rough this console generation, what with their questionable decisions with the Xbox One when it was revealed, resulting in a change in their plans that helped a bit upon launch. Hopefully they can pick it up at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) show.
It is obvious we are going to see a huge blowout for Halo 5: Guardians. Halo is the Microsoft franchise that many gamers who own Xbox know as the game of the system. Halo 5‘s beta was a nice teaser of things to come. But to be honest I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Sure it was fun, but it felt different than what I remember. Hopefully there will be some gameplay changes made for the game. Because with my impressions from the beta, and the horrid launch of the Master Chief collection, this game has to really go all out with its presentation. Not only showing fans but reassuring them that there can be a phenomenal Halo title made by 343 Studios. Not saying their titles are bad but the mixed reviews from the fan base seems to.
Leaked a few months back was Gears Of War Remastered. Personally while I love the Gears Of War franchise, a remastered version of the game is not a needed headliner for the system. Sure, the games are amazing but at some point all these remastered versions of already existing games gets tiring. My only hope for it is that the remastering has a fixed online mode. I wouldn’t want to relive the bad lag, and connectivity issues seen in GoW2 and GoW3.
Even though it was an exclusive to the Xbox One, it is kind of weird we haven’t seen much of the new Tomb Raider title. At first when they announced they were revamping the Tomb Raider series I was worried. But in a shocking turn Tomb Raider ended up being an incredible game, one I fully enjoyed playing my 3 playthroughs of. So we can definitely expect to see a huge showing for Tomb Raider at E3.
Due to their partnership with Activison it is painfully obvious that we will see a huge presence for Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3. While I was very unimpressed by the trailer, due to the trailer looking like a compilation of many different shooters that have already come out, maybe seeing a live demo of the game will be enough to impress me. I lost a lot of faith in any COD games, ever since Modern Warfare 2, and many fans were very displeased with COD Advanced Warfare. Hopefully Activison learned from their mistakes in the past and can deliver a gaming experience out of the COD formula which has already been milked dry.
Last year Microsoft promised us a bunch of new IP’s coming to Xbox One, and even now we haven’t seen much of anything from them. Some titles they announced have been killed off by Microsoft themselves, such as Phantom Dust. So hopefully we can expect a bunch of new projects that are unique enough to give an experience that can only be had on Xbox One. Many titles on Xbox One seem to be the same experiences over and over again. In my opinion Microsoft needs to bring something new to the table. Not just new games of the same formula we’ve seen dozens of times over, but an all new experience. Something that has never been seen on a Microsoft console before.
Which brings me to the next title I pray that we see at E3, Scalebound (the featured image above). I was really excited to see a new project announced for Platinum games. After games like Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, and Bayonetta 2, a new IP from them excites me. From the look of the trailer it seems to be an over-the-top action game, with co-op play. Looks like you will be able to team up with dragons to face off against monsters of this world, which are massive. I kind of get a feel of a Dragon’s Dogma gameplay style vibe which is a personal favorite of mine. My hope is to see this more of an open world game, with that over the top action style that Platinum Games is known for.
Killer Instinct is currently the only game I really play on Xbox One. With its strange take on game making decisions it has actually become one of my favorite fighting games currently on the market. Personally I would love to see a Season 3 DLC announced for the game, adding even more characters, and stages. While the cast is already pretty colorful and diverse seeing what else can come out of this game would be amazing. And while it has done making the console worth the purchase, one game can not hold a system on its own, nor should it have to.
Hopefully Microsoft is aware of what they need to make the Xbox One more successful, and hopefully get that back on track. There is a lot of potential for the console and with no more focus on Kinect Rare a.k.a Playtonic Studios can hopefully a real game again. We got word earlier in the year that we will see the spiritual successor to Banjo Kazooie, a game called Yooka-Laylee. So hopefully that makes an appearance along with a bunch of new projects because the outcome of this years Microsoft E3 press conference will decide if the Xbox One is really Xboned.
