Gamescom 2014: Microsoft Press Event

Industry Event: Gamescom 2014

Location: Cologne Germany

Date: August 2014

Gamescom 2014 was pretty awesome, no expense was spared by publishers to make the largest, most extravagant booths on the floor. The Xbox press conference is where Gamescom began for me. The conference started with a new cinematic trailer of Assassin’s Creed Unity, which was very impressive. After that was the introduction of Phil Spencer, who talked about the usual Xbox exclusives and why it is the best console on the market, of course I will let you be the judge of that. What stood out the most during the conference was anything Halo related, fans of the series were delighted to hear Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta is starting December 29, 2014 and ends January 18, 2015, exclusively on Xbox One. They showed off Halo 2 from Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which looked really good with updated graphics running on Xbox one.

Peter Schmeichel was there present to introduce the new Legends in Fifa 15: Ultimate team ,which are only on Xbox, these included names like Roy Keane, Alan Shearer, Sir Bobby Moore, Roberto Carlos and many more. During the course of Gamescom I played Fifa 15 several times, I noticed a big improvement in players reactions and animations. Some cool new tactical features like Park the Bus, In The Mixer, and Time Wasting can really help to take down your opponent when used correctly, but be careful, you may end up providing an easy break for your opponent. Stadiums in Fifa 15 look amazing and each player now has an Authentic feel. All in all Fifa 15 is a refreshing addition to the series and I look forward to playing it again during the demo.

During the conference I got to see the Gameplay Premiere for Quantum Break. They played as Jack Joyce, the main protagonist and I must admit his time shifting abilities are awesome. Time shifting was used a lot to avoid bullets, run towards enemies to take them out and even stop a truck from crushing Jack. I can’t wait to see more from Quantum Break and look forward to its release in 2015.

A new Fable legends Gameplay trailer was shown off during the conference, which showed us more about the heroes and villains that in-habitat the majestic world of Albion. I was lucky enough to play multiplayer during Gamescom and I must say, it was a lot of fun. Multiplayer in Fable legends sees 4 Heroes fight to get from one side of the map to the other, while the villain, played by 1 person, tries to stop the heroes by setting various traps and spawning monsters to try take you down before you reach the end of the map. If the heroes make it to the end of the map, then they enjoy the victory, if not then the victory goes to the villain. When playing as a hero you play in third person, when playing as the villain you play looking down on the map in an aerial view. I played as the hero Glory, a mage whose primary attack was to throw magic apples, a fire apple which dealt damage to enemy and poison apple which de-buffed the enemy. She was very fast and could easily dodge incoming enemy attacks by teleporting a few meters in the direction you are moving. The game session I played went to the wire, we were close to the end, but the villian prevailed and took the victory. One let down was that you need 5 Xbox One’s in order to play Multiplayer, the villains aerial view doesn’t look graphically demanding and it would be great to be able to play this role on a tablet. The developer did mention its something they are exploring, but its not a high priority.

Also shown was a Gameplay trailer of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, it consisted of the usual cinematic display we’ve come to expect from Call of Duty, with the addition of some cool future tech. I was most impressed with the multiplayer, which I got to play a number of times during Gamescom. The new Exoseleton System adds something new to the run and gun gameplay that is Call of Duty. Boost jump allows you to jump on to roof tops and high objects. The movement is similar to Titan Fall, but not as drastic as the game is not set as far in the future. You can choose from a vast amount of Exoseleton abilities, such as grenades, shields and invisibility. You can earn supply drops which you can open at the end of every round, supply drops give you access to some cool weapons. During my time playing the best gun I experienced was a submachine-gun I got from a supply drop. There are a number of cool score streaks to mess around with, some new, some similar to old score streaks, but redesigned to suit the time the game is set. There is a number of new exciting game modes to try out when the game is released. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a refreshing step forward in the series and fans should be excited for this one!

There was a humorous trailer of Sunset Overdrive shown, which didn’t reveal too much more. The game does look extremely fun though, I sat in on a play through, where one of the game developers played a level and his colleague spoke about what was happening. The characters in the game are very funny and pop out with funny sayings and sentences during gameplay. There are a number of different monsters in the game, all require a different strategy to defeat. Boss mob’s can be extremely difficult and if playing anything other than easy, you may find yourself having to take more than one attempt to defeat them. They handed out free cans of OverCharge Delirium XT during the after hours gaming party, I drank a can myself and lucky didn’t turn in to a Mutant like those who did in the game. The game is definitely a unique take on a third person action shooter, its packed with good fun and lots of laughs.

Microsoft showed off ID@Xbox and some of the Indies that are either exclusive or coming to Xbox One first. If you don’t know what this is, ID@Xbox is a program by Microsoft allowing independent video game developers to self-publish titles for the Xbox One console. They showed trailers for indie games such as Space Engineers, a game about construction and repair of spaceships/stations. Super Hot, an interesting first person shooter based on time only moving when you do. The Escapists, a 2D prison sim, the game play looked a little crazy, but the idea is to escape the prison. Our team was scheduled to meet with the ID@Xbox team and play some Indie titles, but unfortunately they were experiencing some unexpected technical issues at the time.

Forza Horizon 2 saw the introduction of Formula E, with stunning visuals of the Renault Spark Formula E car. They also had the car on display at the event to see up close and personal. They mainly focused on their Driving Social features. Where they try to make Forza Horizon 2 the best social experience of any racing title. A good of example of this is, even when playing single player you will see your friends driving around, you can easily race with them or hop into an Xbox live party and race online against others. You can also create a club, with up to 1000 members, you can use this if you only wish to race against a certain brand like Ferrari or race against a certain rating of car. You can design your car and share it online, other people can choose to use your design on their car, likewise you can use someone else’s shared design. I didn’t get much hands-on time with the game, but I did manage to get 2 races in. The game is similar to the first in ways, but has seen a lot of improvement graphically. It is fast paced and you will find your self driving off road at times to take short cuts, etc. The music selection is also really good. If you are a Forza fan you will love this one, if you like racing game, it might be worthing giving this a shot.

Another exciting announcement was the introduction of 3 new Xbox bundles to be released for the holiday. The first of which was the FIFA 2015 bundle which comes with a standard black Xbox One with a download code for FIFA 2015 and is priced at €399. The second was the Sunset Overdrive bundle, which comes with a sleek white console with a download code for Sunset Overdrive and is priced at €399. The last but not least is the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare bundle which has a unique console design, it comes with a download code for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and has a staggering 1tb hard drive and is priced at €499.

Microsoft certainly had a lot to show and are holding their own in the console market. They proved that the Xbox One is a worthy opponent to Sony’s PS4.