E3 Microsoft Conference Review

So after watching Microsoft's presentation at E3 I find myself thinking, "This is what the Xbox One reveal roughly should've been.". The came out there and hit the ground running showing off a trailer for Metal Gear Solid 5 with gameplay and from there on it was mostly about games, support stuff for the Xbox 360 (with them even revealing a new version of the console available today), games, Xbox One, and more games. While I was much happier with this conference than the one they had in May I still don't think that this will be enough to pull back all the people that have grown very weary of the Xbox's future. So with that said let's get on to "What I like" about the Microsoft E3 Press Conference.

What I like: 

- Lots of games; with some exclusive games revealed and good amount of gameplay trailers.

As I said before Microsoft really did things right this time around regarding games. They revealed lots of exclusives such as Ryse, Metal Gear Solid V, Killer Instinct, Crimson Dragon, Respawn Entertainment's first game Titan Fall, Capcom's Dead Rising 3, Insomniac's Sunset Overdrive, and my personal favorite of the reveals Spark along. Another thing I really liked about these reveals is that they actually showed gameplay for a most of the games they talked about rather than just Cinematic trailers (look at Pre E3 Review for why this is so important to me.)

- Free downloadable games.

Microsoft announced that all Gold members would get two free games per month. This is a bit late as Sony has been doing this for a while with it's Playstation Plus members. It is however still good to see that Microsoft is also giving it's Gold members something similar even if only for a short time.

- Support for the Xbox 360 continued

As I stated before Microsoft did talk about it's continued support for the 360. This was one of the first things they talked about actually ad even released a new slimmer and quieter version of the 360 that has a look sort of similar to the One. They also stated some of the titles that would be coming out on the 360 throughout the year such as Batman Arkham Origins, and Grand Theft Auto 5.

-Streaming, Recording, and Editing

This is something I was personally happy to hear about. The Xbox One will have the ability to automatically record your gameplay and then has functions to edit it on the fly as well as uploading it for all your friends to see and then using the Kinect to add commentary to gameplay footage. Along with this Microsoft also announced their partnership with Twitch allowing for gameplay to be streamed.

-Xbox Live Gold Sharing

This will allow for family in the same household to access Gold features on a different account. While the restrictions haven't been detailed yet this is an interesting and good feature as it will allow families to be able to watch netflix or hulu while the gold account is in use playing games or for siblings to possibly play two separate games with their own respective accounts without having to pay more than once for a Gold subscription.

-$499 release price and November release date

I believe this to be a pretty decent price for the Xbox One.

-Spark!

I saw the game Spark and was really taken in by it. The ability to create and shape the world around you so that you can create your own game experience really interest me and I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing more about Project Spark in the future.

What I didn't like:

For this conference there wasn't anything that I didn't like really. They came there to talk about video games and that is exactly what they did. 

What I would like to see in the future before release:

The one thing I can think of right now that I would like to see would be them explaining some of the policies that have really turned off a lot of Xbox supporters. I started to see why they would prefer to have the One always online with Forza, and Spark but I don't agree with the way they are using it to restrict gameplay for people without an internet connection or used games. So if Microsoft has an overall plan that they are trying to reach for the better of their consumers they should really let us all know this soon. Good games will get you but only so far when your system restricts or turns away the consumers that you are targeting it for. 

So in closing while Microsoft didn't completely redeem themselves they have shown that they haven't completely forgotten that the Xbox is first and foremost about video games. This conference hasn't completely made me want a Xbox One over a Playstation 4 but it has definitely made want to at least consider picking it up as my second console sometime after the initial release. 

I will have the Sony Conference review up later tonight and the "Last of Us" will be up sometime after early next week once I get the chance to pick it up Friday but until then please leave comments and opinions and subscribe to the blog as I will do my best to get reviews out as soon as possible on all the current top games.