Media Monday at E3 kicked off with Xbox where 500 dedicated fans camped out Saturday night to join press and VIP at the Galen Center this morning. Head of Xbox, Among all the buisness and media frenzy a small green pond of average fanboy/girl gamers joined Xbox on the floor as they laid out their plans for this holiday going into 2016.

Last year Microsoft delivered on their promise of focusing soely on games, games, and more games. It definitely helped the Xbox One make up some of its lost ground on Sony’s PS4 as the company won the battle of hardware sales on two different months in the past year, including a holiday period. What could Xbox do to follow its success?

Here comes the opening sizzle reel with Laura Croft, and Gears of War. This years motto “Jump Ahead”

343 Industries Bonnie Ross opened things by talking about all the new ip we’d see today. It’s the first time I can remember a female voice open one of these presentations. It says volumes about how far the industry has come.

This crowd is going nuts for the first story gameplay from Halo 5 Guardians. It’s smooth and the quirky covenant scrub charm is back. Here you’re playing as the game’s new protagonist John Locke.

With his own squad of marines, the team battles the enesmies from Halo 4. That annoying vanishing is back. I should have mentioned right now 4 people are on stage playing a co-op mission that takes place in the main story. A new reels showing off story cinematics and vehicular multiplayer combat is shown.

Halo 5 is playable at e3. The game will see players control two different teams of spartans with the ability to drop in and out at will. The multiplayer is said to be the bigges in the game’s over the top history.

Oh damn! World Premiere

The creators of Metroid Prime bring you a barren ravaged world where a girl and her robot companion battle hordes of killer androids to survive. It’s called Recore and it’s available Spring 2016.

Phil Spencer is on stage talking about the game and the state of Xbox. He called today’s line up “the greatest in Xbox history.”  So far, yeah it is!

A new feature for Xbox One, backwards compatibility!

 

Head of development Mike Ibarra is showing off the feature with Mass Effect on the Xbox One. It’s available this holiday. “we wont charge you to play the games you already own”

A new Xbox controller. Eliete will be available this fall, hair trigger locks, more precision.

Todd Howard from Bethesda is on stage after last nights Fallout 4 triumph. The demo is much of what we saw last night at Bethesda. A bit more of the game’s combat features are being shown including stepping into a mech suit and mowing down enemies with a chain gun.

They closed their portion of the presentation with the same reel from last night.

Todd announces Xbox exclusive feature? PC mods created on well PC can be transfered to Xbox One.

EA’s Peter Moore is onstage to talk about EA access. A $5 a month service that grants early access to games and a vault of free old games. Titanfall joins EA access vault this week. Dragon Age INquisition comes to the service later this Summer. Play Fist, Play More, Play for Less. EA access vault is free for Xbox Live members all week.

Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2. New characters, new worlds. A world premiere trailer was shown. Not Suburbia, it’s Zomburbia. This time around the plants are the invaders. Highway to the Dangerzone is making this even more epic. The game arrives Spring 2016. Check out @comicsbeat on instagram for up to the minute pictures.

A car came up through the floor and acsended to the celing! This is Forza Motorsport 6. To celebrate Ford’s GT anniversary the game has the car exclusively this year. September 15, 2015 you can drive it in the game and save thousands of dollars.

World Premiere from Bandai Namco. Dark Souls 3 in Early 2016. It looks freaking nuts from the CG tailer.

Now Ubisoft is showing The Division. A new trailer expaling the game’s story was shown. A virus decimated humanity and you’re part of an elite squad activated as a last resort, you are The Division. Lots of jumping over cars and shooting at people, sounds like fun. This action RPG set in New York. Xbox ONe players get an exclusive beta later this December.

Rainbow Six: Siege followed with the announcement that both RS Vegas titles will be free with Siege. A new trailer was shown for Siege. The FPS focuses on team combat. Ubisoft have made this clear blowing up shit gun ho will not win the game. Play it October 10, 2015.

 

A stylish Windows 10 and Xbox Exclusive came on screeen. It’s an animated co op battle much like Gauntlet but better. Gigantic comes to beta this August.

Another sizzle reels for slew of Xbox games is shown. Including Ark, which we’ll go hands on with at the show this week. ID@ Xbox has some interesting titles coming from more than 1,000 independent developers.

The developers of Gone Home bring you Lunar Station Tacoma. This story driven game takes you through the mystery of a missing crew and launches 2016.

Ashen, from developer Auora44 is a cold fantasy exploration game that will see players survive a world of ghouls and monsters.

Beyond Eyes, is a game about a blind girl that tells a story of hope. Developer Tiger Squid will release the game later this year first on Xbox One.

Cuphead is a game with the look of a 1960’s Disney cartoon. Studio MDHR created the most lunatic game I’ve ever seen. Coming 1936 plus 20 years.

Xbox Game Preview lets users buy and try games still in development. A feature that’s common on PC but first on consoles here. The first titles include The Long Dark , Elite Dangerous,  and Day Z. A few titles will be available today.

Creator of Day Z, Dean Hall is on stage talking about wanting a game that’s “a universe”. He’s showing off the massive MMO called ION. The trailer shows a space thriller the likes of Alien.

Rise of The Tomb Raider:

New gameplay is being shown. The demo begins with Laura making her way out of an icy cave. The game’s looking real good. The ice climbing mechanics from the previous game are back. Laura scales the mountain to get a view of some ruins only to be knocked off by mother nature. As she dangles from a rope attached to her partner she swings to her own rescue and now is running from an avalanche. She Spider-Maned her way onto a different mountain! The demo ended with a trailer that shows some of the game’s story and the tombs she’ll raid. The game launches November 10, 2015.

A new xbox trailer that showcases stuff from Rare like Perfect Dark and Battletoads. 30 hit games in one collection, it’s Rare Replay available this August. A treat as the studio celebrates its 30th anniversary.

The studio also has a new game. A premiere trailer using in game footage starts in a cartoony animated beach. Cut to pirates sailing on harsh water and forcing another pirate to walk the plank. This game is Sea of Thieves.

Fable Legends is free to play on Xbox One and PC with crossplay between the two. This co-op version of Fables launches soon.

A new partnership with ValVR and Oculus is being mentioned. An Xbox One controller ships with Oculus.

Microsoft Hololens revelaed in January is like google glass but more futuristic. Now we’ll learn how it works with gaming. The demo is using Minecraft built for Hololens is being shown. Ok Hololens just took the Minecraft world and rendered it on an object in the real world. We’re seeing what Hololens is seeing and I can’t distinguish that it doesn’t exist in the real world when you watch the screen and the stage at the same time.

Gears of War is up next. Rod Ferguson is on stage to talk about Gears of War Ultimate Edition on Augst 25, 2015. Public multiplayer beta starts today.

Now lets get into Gears of War 4, Game features new characters. The world looks like something out of Walking Dead if it were in the Salem witch trials. Its lighting effects are gorgeously blending with the real world weather. Our heroes storm into a desolate old building full of books and a monster hive. You had a flashlight now itls gone and things go from bad to worse. This character runs through a hallway laced with gross looking pods that you shouldn’t touch even on a dare. These don’t seem like the traditional enemies you faced in previous games. You can still chainsaw them though. Yep, it’s called Gears 4 and it hits Holiday 2016.

Phil Spencer is back on stage enticing the audience to move from the 360 to Xbox One. There will be more reveals on Xbox at E3 during the week. We’ll update this post with assets in a few as things wind down.

 

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