Microsoft’s event kicked off this year’s show with a rapid-fire presentation of new and previously-announced titles, keeping the focus on showing more of the games themselves. Among the highlights: remastered Halo, new Crackdown and Phantom Dust projects and better looks at Assassin’s Creed, Sunset Overdrive and Fable Legends.
Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 4 were all announced as a part of The Master Chief Collection, coming to Xbox One on November 11. It includes the original competitive multiplayer from Halo 2 “exactly as it was ten years ago.” Also included are all of the original maps from all four Halo games in their original form in 1080p. Finally, all copies of Halo: The Master Chief Collection come with the Halo 5: Guardians beta.
Third-person action-shooter Sunset Overdrive, announced at last year’s show, was given a closer look, showing off the game’s combo system, colorful art direction and amusement park environment. Eight-player multiplayer mode announced over Xbox Live. It will release October 21.
First gameplay for Fable Legends was shown off, demoing the game’s four player co-op. The big new change from the previous games is the ability to have a fifth player join in as the villain, altering the game with new enemy encounters and traps as the players navigate the environments. A multiplayer beta is set to begin this fall.
The first gameplay demo for Assassin’s Creed Unity was unveiled, demonstrating the dynamic crowd, which is much larger than any previous Assassin’s Creed. The focus of the demo was the new four-player cooperative mode, giving you a chance to take on assassination targets with friends for the first time in the series.
The next game in the Crackdown series, simply titled Crackdown, was made official with a reveal trailer. Dave Jones, the creator of the original title, is working on this new title. Hideki Kamiya from Platinum Games announced Scalebound, a new project in collaboration with Microsoft. It appears to be a Monster Hunter-style action game.
Other news from the event:
A revival of the original Xbox exclusive Phantom Dust was announced with a teaser, showing off two characters fighting in the wastelands.
Rise of the Tomb Raider, announced with a teaser, introduces an older Lara, conceivably between the last-released game and the first-released game.
The fourth game in Harmonix’ Dance Central series, Dance Central: Spotlight, was announced for a September release.
Playdead’s next project, Inside, was officially announced with a gameplay trailer. It’s a 2D puzzle-adventure game, not unlike the studio’s last game, Limbo. Ori and the Blind Forest, a new 2D platformer from Microsoft and Moon Studios, was announced as well.
Capcom’s Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha’, a bizarre, fan-focused Dead Rising 3 add-on, was shown off, with an online multiplayer mode and a large selection of Capcom character costumes.
There was new gameplay of Ubisoft’s upcoming Tom Clancy game, The Division. More of the game’s co-op was shown. Xbox One will be getting some timed-exclusive DLC.
The hunting system for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was demoed for the first time, complete with glimpses of the new combat and magic systems.
As usual, the show opened with footage from the new Call of Duty. Advanced Warfare will once again have timed Xbox exclusivity for add-on content, and the cityscape gameplay segment showed off the game’s new future tech.
Forza Horizon 2, announced before the show for both Xbox One and Xbox 360, was given a release date of September 30. The more casual wing of the racing franchise is heading to Europe for its second installment.
Sandbox creation title Project Spark’s feature set is getting larger as it approaches a wide release. Among the new offerings: Rare’s irreverent squirrel buddy, Conker.
Before the show, mobile hit Threes was announced as an ID@Xbox title for Xbox One. It’s designed to be playable snapped to the side of the window while playing and watching other things.
Also announced in the pre-show stream: an Xbox One port of Happy Wars, with four-player split-screen and cross-platform play with 360.
The biggest pre-E3 news was the announcement of a Kinect-less Xbox One bundle, which released today for $399.
Andrew Passafiume and Chris Dominowski contributed to this report.
