A Candid Conversation On Microsoft’s E3 Showcase

After the big day of press conferences today, a few of the Game Informer editors had the chance to dig in and explore a number of the games that Microsoft showed earlier that morning at their media briefing. Ben Reeves and I were among those with the good fortune to dig into several of those games, and we’ve here to offer a quick recap and conversation about what we saw.

Miller: That was a lot of games, tonight. Any favorites stand out for you?

Ben: It’s all kind of a blur of leopard pants and Nathan Fillion cutting in front of me at the Halo demo at this point, but I remember playing Sunset Overdrive fairly clearly. I’m not sure I loved it. Did you play it? 

MIller: Well, we’re in agreement that it was weird to be hanging out next to Captain Reynolds as we all watched the Halo collection. And yeah, this was my first time trying out Sunset Overdrive, and I’m not sure a loud and crowded floor late at night after a busy day lends itself particularly well to the experience. It’s a pretty confusing game the first time you play!

Ben: Yeah, I like the idea of combining Tony Hawk-style traversal with shooter mechanics, but the action itself felt very chaotic. I think I need to play that game from the start to really appreciate it. I love Insomniac and I want to believe this game is going to succeed, but the demo I played didn’t win me over. Just because the elements it features are solid, it doesn’t mean it’s been baked into a tasty package. 

Miller: For me, even though I’m sure there were some features I’d get used to with time, I felt like some of the action felt more than a little floaty, which I’m not a big fan of. However, I did like the zany vibe of the game, especially the weird weapons -- I guess that’s almost an expectation now with an Insomniac game. After my brief 15 minutes with the game, I feel like I really haven’t made up my mind about this one yet, but I’m happy to say that it certainly feels different from almost anything else at this year’s show so far. 

Now, I happen to know for a fact that you played Evolve, because you were one of my teammates as we brought down Cthulhu...I mean, the Kraken. We’ve covered Evolve several times in recent months, but this was the first time I personally got to play it, and I thought it was quite cool. I was surprised by how distinct each of the classes were, and the importance of teamwork in order to bring down the big baddie. 

Ben: I hear you. Evolve was definitely the game of the night for me. This was the first time I got to play it, and I have to say that I walked away impressed. I’m a big fan of Turtle Rock’s previous series, Left 4 Dead, so I shouldn’t have been surprised by Evolve, but I was. Even after hearing the guys who went on the cover story talk about their experiences with the game, I should have known what to expect, but Evolve feels like a genuinely new gaming experience. I feel like it really combines the best of both worlds; it’s a great co-op title, but you’re also competing against a real human who has a massive arsenal of powers. I played an assault class who had a temporary invulnerability shield and a flamethrower – what’s not to love?

[Next page: Microsoft's indie line-up]

Miller: Evolve was definitely an attention getter, but one of my other favorite parts of the evening was that little hidden nook upstairs where Microsoft had hidden away all the ID@Xbox games. There were some sweet indie titles up there. 

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime was really compelling. It allows two players to work together navigating this spaceship and firing at the endless flow of enemies that approaches. However, your ship is kind of like the Millenium Falcon, where you’ve got to climb up and down ladders to get to all the good guns. It has you scrambling all over the place to survive. I was playing solo, and so I had an AI partner (a dog, if memory serves) that can be directed to any one of the weapon emplacements around the periphery. 

I was also fascinated by #IDARB, both becuase it is a really fun arena sports game, but also becuase of the fascinating approach to how the game was made. Do you know about this?

Ben: No, but I did head up there. I saw some of the cast of Silicon Valley up there. Why did Microsoft invite all these celebrities to this party to get in the way of our gaming time!! Anyway,  #IDARB, that’s the indie sports title? 

Miller: Yeah, exactly. It’s kind of fascinating. The game started out as a picture of a red box, and then the developers went to the internet, primarily through Twitter, to help shape what the box should become. The eight player sports game that has emerged is totally insane and a lot of fun, as each team goes scrambling around a single room arena, trying to throw a ball into the opposite goal. It’s very simple, but it’s frantic and exciting, and the project left me smiling. While I was playing, #IDARB, you were over with that new title, Chariot, right?

Ben: Yeah, the indie title that I spent the most time with tonight was Chariot, which was a lot of fun. The game starts out pretty simple, but slowly evolves and gets more challenging as you go on – though I guess you could say that about most games. I think I’d describe it as a kind of co-op platforming game. You and your partner play a prince and princess who have to cart a chariot containing your father's ashes across the lands without it getting lost or damaged. You have a grappling hook that lets you quickly grab onto the cart, but the challenge really comes from the puzzle-like nature of the environment. You can pass through certain energy fields scattered across the environment, but the cart will be blocked by these fields, so you have to use your grapple to figure out how to pull your cart up and around the environment’s rolling hills. I think the puzzles near the end of the game will provide some interesting platforming challenges, but the lady at the demo station said I was one of the best players she’d ever seen. I told her to take a picture, because it would last longer. 

Miller: You're a real class act, Ben. Hyper Light Drifter was also playable, but only the survival mode -- which I actually think was a smart idea on the part of the developer. The game itself has a pretty deep story and campaign structure, but this survival mode was a great way to show off the responsive combat and abilities that form the core of the gameplay. 

While we’re talking indie, I don’t want to forget about Ori and the Blind Forest, which is one of the bigger surprises of the show for me so far. This title came out of nowhere at the press conference earlier this morning, and from a studio I’d never heard of. It turns out that the reason I haven’t heard of it is that this small team of developers at Moon Studios is scattered all over the world, and they’ve been working on Ori for something like four years. 

A lot of folks, myself included, assumed this game was a straight-up platformer based on what was shown at the press conference. But I played the full demo or Ori, and it’s actually much closer to a Metroid or Castlevania game. You’re controlling the titular character as he moves through a magical forest, and there are constant upgrades to uncover, gates to unlock, and enemies to fire at with your magical light. It’s very charming. And don’t be fooled by its cute animal aesthetic -- it’s really hard! While it’s not a strict platformer alone, the jumping and movement mechanics are very responsive and tight, reminding me more than once of Super Meat Boy, which is currently my high water mark for tight, challenging platforming fun. I think a lot of people are going to get very stoked about this new downloadable title once they play it. 

[Next page: The new Fable game]

Miller: While I was checking out Ori, didn’t you get a chance to dig into Fable Legends?

Ben: Yeah, bro!!! Tots. 

Miller: Ugh.

Ben: Uh, I mean Sir. I did check out Fable Legends and it kind of hits on some of the same concepts as Evolve – you have four players joining forces to fight against a shared player enemy. However, I don’t think Fable Legends feels as polished at Evolve. I played as a tank class character who had a shield bash attack and a lot of good defensive moves. However, the action in that game didn’t feel as fluid as Evolve, and I never felt the shared since of urgency to get to a certain destination and get the enemy like I did with Evolve. I’m not sure that this is the right direction for the Fable series, but I’m hopeful that Lionhead will be able to polish the title before it’s final release. As Evolve has proved the concept is solid, but the execution needs work.

I think that’s the last game I saw. What about you? I think we might have missed a few games. 

Miller: It was a busy event, and there were several other games that I just didn’t have time for, but I did try to glance past the waiting lines to as many as I could, and everything looked solid. The new Dance Central doesn’t seem to be profoundly changing, but still looks fun. The Halo collection has me intrigued. And the new Forza is gorgeous. All in all, I thought Microsoft put a strong presentation on display to help sell the potential of Xbox One in the coming months. 

I know we’ve got a whole squad of GI editors descending on the Microsoft booth later this week for more in-depth looks at all their games, but for a first look, I came away interested in a lot of what Microsoft is selling. You?

Ben: For sure, I wish they had Crackdown at this event, but I’m not surprised that it’s not playable because they just announced it. Otherwise, I feel like they have a pretty solid spread of games, but other than Evolve nothing really stands out. Maybe there are a few other interesting titles at the booth, so we better some sleep so we have energy to play them later this week. 

Miller: Sleep? What is this sleep you speak of? Well, regardless, I’m with you; I’m excited to check out the full booth line-up in the coming days. 

That’s all folks. Thanks for reading, and watch for more extensive previews of many of the games we talked about above as we tour the show floor later this week.