So Microsoft are kicking off this years E3. Arguably, they’ve got the most work to do here, having somewhat lagged behind Sony and Nintendo in recent years with some lacklustre first-party titles. Will they reveal their new console? We certainly assume so. Read on to find out…

(Don’t expect the most in-depth coverage here. I hurriedly wrote this as the show went along)

THE OUTER WORLD

So first up was The Outer World a colourful and fun looking sci-fi first person shooter from Obsidian and Ninja Theory. I’m not the biggest FPS fan, but it sure does look beautiful and looks fun enough that I might try it whenever it comes to Game Pass.

BLEEDING EDGE

I wasn’t entirely sure what this was. Lots of quirky characters. Nothing special. Seen it all before.

ORI AND THE WILL OF THE WISPS

Now THIS has my attention. A strange little platformer that kind of looks like Rayman Legends but with massive beasts chasing you? Looks fun.

MINECRAFT DUNGEONS

From the creators of Minecraft comes Minecraft but without the building! I do enjoy Minecraft but the lack of missions or goals is always something that stopped me from fully loving it, so this is definitely something I’d wanna play. A bit like X-Men Legends but in a Minecraft world. I’m in.

So now they’ve announced they’re revealing over 60 games in this presentation. I probably won’t cover them all.

STAR WARS: JEDI FALLEN ORDER

I’ve already covered this HERE, but I’ll mention it briefly. This looks pretty awesome to be fair. If only it wasn’t made by EA, i’d be a bit more excited.

BLAIR WITCH

Seeing the cabin towards the beginning, part of me wants this to be a LOST game. Wishful thinking. It kind of reminds me of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories or Blair Witch. Oh crap, it is Blair Witch! (I’m literally writing this as we go, in case you hadn’t figured that out). Yep. Sold on that. I’m a big defender of Blair Witch so count me in! Possibly too spooky.

CYBERPUNK 2077

Yeah sure. Visuals are amazing, trailer was decent. Probably not my cup of tea but we’ll see. Colour me intrigued. Wait, what? KEANU REEVES is in it? Ok, now you’ve got my attention. Reeves has taken to the stage and is generally being awesome as usual. Hero.

SPIRITFARER

Is this some sort of Fallout thing? The cartoon visuasl are very reminiscent of Fallout. Spiritfarer. Ok. Didn’t really get what was going on there.

BATTLETOADS

Now we’re talking. One of the toughest platform games of all time is back! Looks decent.

RPG TIME: THE LEGEND OF WRIGHT

Well this is different. I like the look of this. Looks like the sort of thing Nintendo would do, and I like me some Nintendo.

Well they’ve just unveiled around 20 games in quick succession. Supermarket Shriek looks great. This was followed by someone called Sarah Bond giving a Game Pass announcement. Yada yada yada. Game Pass for PC opens today. Game Pass Ultimate gives you both Xbox and PC Game Passes and Xbox Live for $14.99 a month.

MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR

Is this a flight simulator? Not my cup of tea but it sure looks absolutely stunning. Yes, judging by that title, it’s definitely a flight simulator.

Then we have Charles Dance narrating a video for ultimate edition of Age Of Empires II or something, followed by Wasteland 3. Didn’t know there was a Wasteland 1 or 2. Neither tickle my fancy. Now there’s more talking, this time from Xbox Studios, announcing Double Fine Productions have joined them. Big applause for that and for their founder Tim Schafer who presents a trailer for Psychonauts 2. That didn’t interest me in the slightest.

LEGO STAR WARS: THE SKYWALKER SAGA

Another Star Wars game? Intriguing. Ooooh a new LEGO Star Wars? Oh ok, so it’s all 9 films but in an all new game? So is that including remakes of the original games or is it actually complete new from the ground up? Guessing / hoping for the latter.

A Dragonball game. Not interested.

12 MINUTES

No idea what this is, but I like it.By the looks of it, it’s a top down mystery thriller. A thriller about a man trapped in a time loop. That looks cool.

A WAY TO THE WOODS

So you play as a Deer and i’m guessing you’re trying to find your ways to the woods. Looks a bit like that Goose game on the Switch. Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same makers. I’m up for that.

GEARS OF WAR 5: BOUND BY BLOOD

Is this Gear Of War? I played the second one for a bit. It was ok. I didn’t love it. Got no interest in this one. That didn’t really give anything away. I’m going to assume it was Gears Of War. Ok so it was Gears 5. There was no gameplay footage or anything, just a video of peoples faces coming in and out of some girls’ face.

Now we have yet another sci-fi horror shooter. They all look the same. It’s hard to be excited about any of them when you can’t tell them apart. I’m seeing people in the Twitch chat call it Gears of Duty. That seems about right. Oh wait, it’s still Gears of War.

Xavier Woods, Tyler Breeze and AJ Styles have made a brief cameo, seen playing the game backstage. Wonder how much they got paid for those 3 seconds?

What is happening? So you can play as the Terminator in Gears 5? Or is Terminator: Dark Fate an add on?

I’m not sure what is Gears 5 or not anymore.

Now they’re advertising a new controller. Or is it still Gears?

DYING LIGHT 2

And we’re moving on finally. Some zombie game. Looks like your typical first person zombie shooter. Not interested. Oh, it’s a sequel to Dying Light! (I’ve never heard of Dying Light)

FORZA HORIZON 4

Now a presentation for Forza Horizon 4. I thought that was already out? Oh wait, please tell me this is a new LEGO Racer??? Ok not quite, but i’ll take a LEGO Forza. I didn’t catch the actual name of the game. Oh, it’s DLC for Forza Horizon 4. Nevermind.

GEARS FUNKO

So there’s a Pop Funko game coming out. Fun. I don’t recognise the characters though. Wait, THIS IS GEARS OF WAR AS WELL? WHAT IS GOING ON???

Then we have a trailer for yet another zombie outbreak game with State Of Decay 2. Once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Then a trailer for a western release for some Japanese RPG. Oh, Phantasy Star Online 2. I have heard of that. I’m sure that’s very exciting for some people. Now a game with lots of ships and boats and falling buildings called Crossfire.

I’ve just remembered that I want Fable 4 announced this evening. We’ll see.

TALES OF ARISE

Well this just looks like Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, especially those massive rock monsters. Might give it a whirl though.

BORDERLANDS 3

Another first person shooter, with visuals reminiscent to Fortnite mixed with Telltale Games’ art style. This doesn’t interest me in the slightest though. Just another sci-fi shooter. Oh, it’s Borderlands 3. That’ll be why it reminded me of Telltale. I’ve got the first few Borderlands games. Might actually play them one day.

ELDEN RING

Oooh, Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin teaming up for a new game. Heard a few rumblings about this. Well it’s definitely not a Game Of Thrones game. It looks bloody epic though. There’s not a whole lot of information about it but I’m digging the Lord Of The Rings-esque music.

Oh ok, we got through 60 games apparently. Pretty sure 10 of those were just Gears Of War. So what are we leaving with? Fable? That’s probably wishful thinking. We’ve got a bit more talking before we wrap things up. Something about game streaming.

Ah of course, the new console. All this talk about mobile and being transformative makes me think they’re following in the Switch’s footsteps. That could be a major threat to the Switch. It’s 120 frames per second, which is ridiculous. Is that even necessary?

So we still have no official name for Project Scarlet, but we do know it’ll be out for Christmas 2020. So apart from a release date, we still don’t really know anything new about it or what it looks like. Not really a reveal then, is it?

HALO INFINITE

And finally we have a trailer for the new Halo, which will be on whatever the next Xbox console. Halo looks nice and cinematic, which is to be expected. I’ll play it in about 10 years when I finally save up to get the next console.

SYNOPSIS

And there we have it. There was so much talk of the new Xbox being unveiled and we know absolutely nothing more than we already knew beforehand other than that it’ll be 120 FPS, so that’s a massive disappointment.

But despite that, there were some interesting looking games here. I’m definitely up for Blair Witch and Elden Ring, Minecraft Dungeons looks fun, a brand new LEGO Star Wars will be pretty sweet (providing it is a whole new game and not just a remaster) and 12 Minutes looks intriguing as hell. I kind of wish I was into Flight Simulators, as those visuals are absolutely gorgeous. Most importantly though, THERE WAS NO FABLE. I demand a new Fable. Maybe next year.

As for the other “big” reveals, none of it really bothered me that much. However, tomorrow night we have Square Enix’s conference. Now that, I’m excited for, as we’ll be seeing the first details from Marvel’s Avengers as well as new info from Final Fantasy VII Remake. I’m not gonna do a live reaction for that one though because it’s not on until 2am here in the UK.

But if you return to this site at 9pm BST tomorrow (10th June) I will return to react live to the Ubisoft presentation. Can’t think of anything they’ll announce that’ll excite me but we shall see.

G’night.