Did Microsoft Have an Exciting Line-up at E3? | E3 2021 Reactions I The Co-op podcast

Gary Swaby of The Koalition writes: E3 2021 has kicked off, and the news is flowing at a rapid pace. Earlier today, we finally had the chance to witness the Xbox Bethesda Showcase, followed shortly after by the Square Enix Presents stream. Both shows offered a variety of titles aimed at different fan bases and demographics. But did these conferences live up to our expectations?

[rbailey]

Microsoft + Bethesda conference was perfectly fine and gave a glimpse into the long-term vision the Microsoft has for some of these studios. Square Enix was disappointing and hopefully, they will show more of the anticipated games people are interested the next time around.

[darthv72]

I just watched the xbox show and it was certainly better than expected. The highlight for me is of course halo and forza but also the funny trailer for outer worlds 2 was very clever. Flight simulator finally has a release date and the top gun expansion to tie into the movie is a nice freebie. But that mini fridge at the end... I need that in my life.

[medman]

When I initially saw the xbox show, I was a bit disappointed....however, I went back and watched it a second time and there are a lot of very promising games in there. I really liked what I saw from Stalker 2 and Forza, but a game I totally missed the first time was Replaced...that game looks pretty fantastic. There were many other good ones in there too. I think when I watched the show first time I was really anticipating games like Starfield (actual gameplay), Hellblade, maybe even Everwild or Perfect Dark so when those didn't show it was kind of disappointing, but it was a good show regardless imo.

There are so many titles coming to gamepass over the next year and a half it's pretty ridiculous....1st and 3rd party. Crazy. I don't really have a dog in the fight because I usually buy multiple consoles, and I got lucky and snagged a ps5 on launch day and a series x a few weeks after launch, but for me Microsoft delivered what they had to after the dismal showing last July 2020.

[DJStotty]

Gotta admit that Outer Worlds 2 trailer was basically the script for every new game trailer lol

[shuvam09]

Heck yeah. It was pretty fun. Without Sony, it was on MS to deliver the stuff. And it was pretty cool ngl. I personally don't have in the Series consoles as I'm primarily PC now, but that waz a great line-up regardless. And more importantly, most of them are coming this year. And to Gamepass too!

[itsmebryan]

I think the show was great. The games had alot of diversity and with 27 included with gamepass was the cherry on top. They put the "Xbox has no games!" Comments to bed for good.

I wonder what they will have on their Thursday presentation

[DJStotty]

I'm guessing on Thursday we may get a few snippets of gameplay from the developer talks, maybe some features of games etc, and hopefully some surprise trailers/gameplay :)

[blackblades]

Eh

[Concertoine]

My main issue is the lack of new stuff, and the lack of info on 2021 games. What exactly is Scorn? And what about all the pre-rendered/in-engine stuff we’ve alreadg seen? What do Perfect Dark, Fable, Hellblade 2, Everwild, or Avowed even look like? If just one or two of those were shown it would have been a good -> great E3

[Sitdown]

What do you mean by lack of new stuff?

[rpvenom]

Same.. only thing stood out to me was Stalker 2, atomic heart. Forza graphics look great but I'm not a fan of racing sims, halo's showing to me was a deflection of what seems to be no improvements after the last showcase, and other that that.. it was all indie games/party games/kid games and old games being remastered or finally released on xbox. I was really wanting xbox to blow everyone away but maybe my expectations were too high.

[DJStotty]

Forza Horizon is not a racing sim, Motorsport is the racing sim, horizon is more just racing.

Remastered games? indies? kids games?

did we watch the same briefing?

[sourOG]

Well said

[TheOptimist]

Unironically PC Gaming SHow was the best major show. The others were pretty meh.

Small shows on the other hand felt like actual E3 - Tribecta Games, Devolver, etc were soooooooo much better than all of them.

Even the Summer Games Kickoff was much better but I think my bias may be because of From Soft on that one.

[GhostScholar]

I was not impressed by the graphics at all with Elden ring. The demon souls remake looked a million times better.

[Razmiran]

Well, elden ring is cross-gen

[ChiefofLoliPolice]

Of course the Demon Souls remake was for next gen only. Elden Ring is a cross gen game and made with older consoles in mind as well.

[TheOptimist]

*claps slowly* for two reasons

1. Demons Souls - A remake made exclusively for PS5
Elden Ring is an original IP made for cross gen consoles

2. "not impressed by the graphics"
From soft has never been about graphics. It has been about an immersive, reactive world with good gameplay and cryptic lore.

I mean, it took two generations to make Demon's Souls look that good. Creating worlds like Dark Souls isn't easy.

[GhostScholar]

I understand that it's cross gen, but there are plenty of ps4 and xbox one games that look way better. Ghost of sushima, tlou 2, forza horizon 4, horizon zero dawn, and sekiro all look better than elden ring. I'm not saying it won't be a good game, I'm just not fan of the look of it.

[CaptainHenry916]

I was surprised by the PC gaming show. I actually liked it and was definitely better than the previous year's

[TheOptimist]

Exactly. It was a nice surprise. Previously they have been cringe fests with only one or two good announcements.

The only thing missing this time was Persona 5 Royal PC announcement aaaa

When is that coming to PC.

[MadLad]

There were a lot of games shown that I'm excited to see more of. They're even following it up with information on more titles. I thought it was a good show.

It was cool to see Obsidian working on a sequel to Outer Worlds. I liked the game, but it needed to be reworked a bit and more fleshed out. Hoping we see that with this sequel.

[-Foxtrot]

It was...okay

It's just everyone else has been terrible that it stands out more

[F0XH0UND922]

I agree. Their event was one of their best in years but even Sony's bad events were at least on par with the Xbox event. So.many.multiplats.

[chiefJohn117]

Stop the cap

[F0XH0UND922]

@chief

It's not cap, though.

[rakentaja]

Maybe, but basically everything goes to a Game Pass. This should not be called "just third party games".

[GhostScholar]

That's an interesting take considering most of the games shown by Microsoft were exclusive and on game pass day one. Nice try though. Even sony fan boys are saying microsofts conference was great.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

This is pretty much what I've thought, everyone has had a pretty poor showing, and Microsoft actually had a decent showing this year, so they've had the best show of E3 thus far.

[waverider]

It was average. Forza was way above everything else and got next gen graphics, even if it was running at 30 frames.

[EasilyTheBest]

Here you are as usual playing anything Xbox down. Ridiculous.

[Amplitude]

I'm personally pretty done with 30fps, but to say "even if it runs at 30fps" just because they included both a 30fps and 60fps mode is pretty lame tbh.

Here's a little "fanboy test" for ya. Ask yourself: "Would I say the same thing about Ratchet and Clank just cause they have a 30fps mode?"
If the answer is no, then my advice to you is to grow up and stop pretending that either one of the multi-billion dollar corporations that don't care about you is worth simping this hard for

[waverider]

I played Ratchet at 30 FPS. Didnt had any problems with that. Also tried the other modes when they were available. I dont think that all games must be 60 frames or more, but a racer at 30 frames isnt good. And again from all the power narrative from Microsoft, with the 12 teraflops.... A cross gen game.... didnt they get the new tools? Even so, i thought that Forza was the only game with the next gen graphics.That had some kind of wow factor. The same didnt happend with Halo. And Starfield didint had gameplay. Those were the 3 big games from Microsoft. Everythhing else isnt blockbuster, system seller.

[DJStotty]

@Waverider

"I dont think that all games must be 60 frames or more, but a racer at 30 frames isnt good."

Driveclub - 30fps - on PS5, 30fps? even with that stellar power from the SSD?

You should really research the platform you support so hard before basically sounding like a hypocrite

[UltimateRacer]

Microsoft showed what was expected really, a boring show to be honest.

[rakentaja]

If you call that boring, how you comment the rest of the presentations at E3? Ubisoft? Square Enix? Capcom? Sony wasn't even there...they don't give a sh*t about fans.

[BrainSyphoned]

Say what you will about the long term longevity and effects game pass will have BUT
It was a new experience to go through a whole E3 video knowing I'm going to play at least a little of almost every game they showed for no extra money. Especially for things like Hades that I already own on PC but wouldn't mind playing again with a fresh pool of achievements to chase. Now to get something better than a 1S for my gamepass games.

[-Hermit-]

The gamepass stuff was great, easily the best part about it from my point of view.

[neutralgamer1992]

Yes it was a good show. I like many others just want to see more gameplay of some of the revealed games

[Aussiesummer]

It's was ok.

[masterfox]

Nope, they show games no doubt, but games that probably easely can be done on old gen, they didnt show a single next gen game , heck put side by side the new Forza to the past one, pretty sure you will have hard time indicating the diferences, you can say whatever you want , but I would be very upset if my 500 dlls next gen console doesnt have a effing single next gen game by now, not even something to look forward to, the good thing here is not the case for me.

[enkiduxiv]

This was always going to be a problem. Microsoft is actively working against itself by pushing both game pass and the series x/s. Why would I bother buying the fancy new Xbox if I can expect to get access to all of Microsoft's titles for free with any new PC or TV purchase I make? While the service is very nice, the flip side of this is that all of these titles need to scale down to work on all of these devices.

Sony has already produced titles specific to its new hardware. The dual sense and the lightning fast hard drive are what drive the experience. Sure, a series X could run the new Demons Souls, but you would never get to feel the enemies spine crunch as you get the perfect back stab or feel the metallic ring of the meat clever knock a souls boss to its knees. Now that's next gen gaming right there.

[northpaws]

I was expecting at least one "oh my god (jaw dropped on the floor)" moment, but that didn't happened. Don't see anything that would make me want to get an Series X right away.

I want to see more gameplay, especially Halo Infinite single player, Hellblade, Starfield, Fable...etc, the heavy hitters.

Forza Horizon or Flight Simulator are not my cup of tea, so even though they look great, it doesn't mean much to me.

[Jericho1337]

Mad how many announced titles (Hellblade 2, State of Decay 3, Avowed, Fable, Perfect Dark) didn’t make the cut. Glad they have a surprisingly good back end to 2021.

[DJStotty]

I think those will be saved for next year, or the other shows during the year.

You don't put all your eggs in one basket, and then leave yourself with nothing to show for 12 months.

rest assured, gameplay for all those games is incoming.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Idk, wouldn't be the first time having nothing to show for almost a year, but I agree they won't release all of those before the end of the year.

[YourMommySpoils]

Show needed an auto skip button for every generic presentation.

[RaiderNation]

Exciting? No. It was certainly full of...stuff. But other than Forza nothing looked next gen to me. They're still not hitting the mark in terms of those epic "wow" moments.

[Shadowsteal]

Nothing else even had gameplay except the Halo 5 trailer and FH5.

[ocelot07]

It was alright. Better than their last few E3 shows but not really exciting. Other than Forza noting From Microsoft interested me. It's hard go get excited about Starfield since it was just a CGI trailer.

The games that really caught my eye where 3rd party games that I'll be buying on PS5 or PC for example Stalker 2. Is a timed exclusive I'll rent it on pc if I really enjoy it I'll get it once it releases on ps5. Battlefield 2042 I'll get on ps5. Age of empires 4 is PC only.

[F0XH0UND922]

I totally agree. The games that I thought looked great were Stalker 2, BF 2042, and Back 4 Blood...all of which I will buy elsewhere. Halo still looks like a 360 game and Forza looks good but I'm not a huge racer fan. Nothing was shown yesterday that would make me want to buy an Xbox.

[FlavorLav01]

It was same ol’ Xbox if you ask me. More Forza and Halo(which both looked just fine), just missing the Gears talk. Everything else big was either 3rd party, CG cutscenes, or conceptual. Smaller titles like 12 minutes, Somerville, and Replaced built more hype for me than the big stuff, so that’s alittle disappointing.

[InUrFoxHole]

The conference was amazing! Loved the direction xbox is going

[Hellcat2020]

Bethesda had a great show
Xbox on the other hand...meh

[B_Rian89]

I'll just say...I'm not regretting selling my series x last week

[chiefJohn117]

Just outta curiosity what games will you be playing in the next 6 months?

[CrimsonWing69]

I was bored out of my mind watching the MS press conference. I will say it's the best of the bunch so far. Capcom was the worst, followed by Ubi, and then Square... which all were the equivalent of eye torture it's just a pick your tool to experience whatever kind of pain.

This has truly shown me that E3 is dead.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

This has been a pretty bad E3 overall, I haven't really been excited by many of the games shown this year (I've had more wtf reactions, especially at the SE presentation).

[Yui_Suzumiya]

This is the first time I've been interested in owning an Xbox system.

[Stanjara]

It was great. Best of E3 so far. Capcom ufff...SqE...Chaos. Pc... sleep mode.

[DFresh]

I thought Microsoft did a great job with their conference.
I'm liking how game companies now are doing less talking and more showing,
Actions always speak louder than words.
Let the products speak for themselves.
Hopefully with Microsoft having some AAA 1st party studios that it will push them and Sony to create even better games.
Competition is always good.

[Elda]

For me I thought MS/XB show was average at best & none of their exclusives impressed or wowed me because most that were shown were cgi trailers. I'm not into Halo but I will say it looks better this time around. I saw a few multi-plats that I want to play & no gameplay of Starfield was disappointing.

[Snakeeater25]

Because sony was not there

[ChiefofLoliPolice]

It was definitely one of their better shows. It's usually just "meh" for me but this year was actually pleasant.

[DJStotty]

So going by these comments, the narrative has now switched from

"xbox has no games"

to

"the games they do have do not look good"

[IRetrouk]

Was a good show, their best in years to be honest.

[lellkay]

The show was bad.

[XBManiac]

Not really. But I'm very excited because I have free Game Pass until 2024, thanks to EA Access coupons.

[gold_drake]

it was okey. it wasnt something that id be looking back to. it was shooter after shooter after shooter. on brand id say.

now Redfall looked amazing but that was a cgi trailer only

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I think we can say this has just been a lackluster E3 overall, Microsoft has had the best showing of everyone at the moment.

[rakentaja]

Stalker 2 was my baby. The game looks unreal.