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E3: Xbox One’s gaming side finally unveiled at Microsoft’s keynote, but is it enough for gamers?

Tori Floyd
·Editor

Microsoft kicked off the first day of E3 with a proper gamer’s welcome to the Xbox One, its next-generation console. The tech giant offered up a host of exclusives and a wide range of games for the Xbox One – although not necessarily anything that will move a console on its own.

Coming to multiple markets November 2013, the Xbox One will retail for $499 USD, putting it on the high side of what analysts were expecting it to sell for. Microsoft’s Don Mattrick announced there will be 13 next-generation titles already coming to the Xbox One, many of which were shown off in the presentation.

While the presentation felt like it got off to a bit of a slow start, showing off a redesigned Xbox 360 and a few new Xbox 360 games, things picked up with Crytek’s Ryse: Son of Rome. The game makes you the leader of a Roman army, issuing commands to your army as you march as a unit, and engaging you in melee battles that include quick-time event finishing moves.

[ Full Coverage: Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 on Yahoo! Canada News ]

Other stand out games from the event (at least for this blogger) include Sunset Overdrive from Insominiac Games, a third-person shooter combined with free-running, set in a violent cartoon world; Dead Rising 3, which now lets you navigate the world in vehicles (including mowing down zombies in your car) and attack the undead using hundreds of weapons lying around the world, waiting to be used on their own or combined to make your own zombie-hacking machines; and Below, an exclusive title for the Xbox One created by the same studio behind the award-winning indie game Sword and Sorcery.

Microsoft also unveiled some offerings from its own Microsoft Studio, specifically Project Spark. Players can create their own game using Kinect voice commands and Xbox Smartglass. You can create your terrain, and then place specific elements like towns and characters. You choose which objects are sentient, and decide what’s in their “brain,” the specific behaviours of the creature or object. When complete, users can then share their playable creations online with other Project Spark users, and also play the creations of others.

While Microsoft didn’t address any questions about always-on connectivity during their keynote presentation (and really, why would they?), they did showcase some of the features that an improved Xbox Live and Xbox Smartglass will be bringing to the system. On the Xbox One, Smartglass will be better integrated with a number of games headed to the Xbox One. Using an Xbox Smartglass-enabled tablet, you can track your progress in a game, compare how far you are with friends and, as was demonstrated with Dead Rising 3, you’ll be able to use your second screen to perform actions like dropping bombs in-game. You can also use the new Xbox Smartmatch feature, which finds opponents that roughly match your skill level to play in online matches.

Even if you aren’t a Smartglass user, Xbox Live is getting some major new features, too. Microsoft demonstrated Upload Studio on Xbox One, which lets you record snippits of game play, package it with titles, and then upload it to the gaming cloud. Those interested in sharing their video with friends and strangers online can also look forward to the Twitch integration in the Xbox One, allowing you to broadcast live gameplay on the popular livestreaming website. Two other big changes for Xbox Live users: you’ll no longer have to purchase things in “Microsoft Points” as all prices will now be shown in your local currency, and you can now share the perks of having an Xbox Live Gold membership (like online multiplayer) with others in your household through the new Xbox Gold sharing.

The event began wrapping up with a teaser trailer for a new Halo game, featuring Master Chief standing in the desert, watching a ship rise out of the sands. The footage looked stunning, and it certainly should: 343 Studio’s Bonnie Ross says the game will run at a “blistering” 60 frames-per-second. But the final reveal of the day was saved for Titanfall, an exclusive first-person shooter for the Xbox One, coming Spring 2014.

Whether a slew of exclusives will be enough to make gamers purchase the Xbox One remains to be seen, especially since many gamers still have questions about how they’ll be able to play offline, or with used or borrowed games. We’ll have to wait and see just how many people opt to put an Xbox One on their holiday wishlist later this year.

Here’s a list of all the games shown in today’s presentation:

  • Metal Gear Solid V

  • Assassin's Creed II, Halo 3 (free for Xbox Gold members on Xbox 360)

  • World of Tanks (Xbox 360)

  • Max The Curse of Brotherhood (Xbox 360)

  • Dark Souls II (Xbox 360)

  • Ryse: Son of Rome (Exclusive)

  • Killer Instinct (Exclusive)

  • Project Spark (Exclusive)

  • Sunset Overdrive (Exclusive)

  • Forza Motorsport 5 (exclusive)

  • Minecraft (Exclusive)

  • Quantum Break (Exclusive)

  • D4

  • Crimson Dragon (Exclusive)

  • Dead Rising 3 (Exclusive)

  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

  • Battlefield 4: Second Assault

  • Below (Exclusive)

  • Titanfall (Exlusive to Xbox One and Xbox 360)

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