Foul E3 - The Good and Bad of Microsoft's Press Conference

Microsoft were first up of the big three, as they always are, at this years E3. But did their presentation knock it out of the park or lave us wanting more?

First up, some early reactions directly after the press conference finished. This was recorded by YouTube's direct capture, so forgive the stupid long opening.

Let's get on with the full list of reactions, as there is plenty to talk about.

The Good

Rare Replay

Classic Rare games just can't be beat. So why bother! This collection of 30 classic Rare Software titles are coming to the Xbone this August, which gives people undecided about the new Microsoft console a great reason to buy in sooner rather than later. An excellent bundle for people who love reliving their childhood. But of course, it wasn't the best Rare news...

Sea of Thieves

Rare are finally returning to making good games! After years of sports and Kinect games purgatory, Sea of Thieves is another great Xbone exclusive, which will feature online co-op where you and your buddies can sail the seas, plunder for treasure and fight cursed enemies in a wonderfully looking comic styled sprawling new games. We can't wait to see more and we'd kill to play it.

Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2

It used Kenny Loggin's 'Danger Zone' as it's key song. 'Nuff said.

Cuphead

Probably the best looking indie title in years. The 1930's Disney inspired side scroller is one of the best games, art wise, I think I have ever seen. The gameplay seems to draw parallels to a lot of recent games like Shovel Knight and DuckTales Remastered. If it plays as good as it looks, it'll be an instant classic.

Gears 4

Alright, I'll level with you. I like the Gears games. They're stupid, but they're fun. Gears 4 is more of that. The series themes of chest high walls, active reload and grotesque enemies are all there. I would have liked to have seen a little more of the story, but there's plenty of time to get into that. We predicted it might come, but we're glad it's confirmed.

The Bad

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition

No matter how excited I am for a new Gears, remastered games do not excite me. I don't care if they're all slightly polished, I am not buying the games again. I get why this is a popular trend this year, I really do, but for further conjecture, any remastered game shown on a main stage will immediately go into the Bad section on future articles. They should be footnotes to the new stuff, not the definitive article.

Forza Motorsport 6

OMFG FUKKEN CARZ LAD. Nope. No. Get Henry Ford out of there. We don't care.

Ubisoft's Entire Showing

Okay, so Rainbow Six: Seige looks fun, if just a collection of tiny maps. We get to play the old ones through backwards compatibility. Fine. But The Division did not get a release date, despite three years of being shown at conferences. This is getting old now. Ubisoft aren't delivering things people can get excited for anymore. I hope this changes in their conference this year, but damn, is it starting to sound like a dementia ward every time they show up.

Backwards compatibility

Listen, anyone who owns new gaming hardware, probably already has the previous hardware. There is no reason why backwards compatibility should be a thing, let alone the thing that gets the biggest cheer from the crowd. It is not that hard to plug in the old console and use it. For God's sake, the previous gen uses all of the old stuff like Xbox live anyway! Maybe we're the minority here, but we don't get why this is such a big deal nowadays.


Keep visiting back after the conferences and visit our Twitter for as-it-happens commentary and humour on this years E3!

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By Mike Owen
@ThatMikeOwen

The Editor in Chief of Foul Entertainment, Mike edits most of what you see on the site. He runs the production of our podcasts, and currently pens Pop Culture Club and The Death of Video Games.

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