The Xbox presentation at Gamescom took place today, and Microsoft revealed several titles set to be released in 2016. Microsoft began the keynote with a trailer and gameplay footage from Quantum Break. Quantum Break was originally announced over two years ago but we had not yet seen much of it until now. The footage is impressive, and is reminiscent of the May Payne series, showing off the ability to manipulate time. Quantum Break also uses a facial capture technology to bring the actors portraying the characters into the game. Shawn Ashmore (X-Men, The Following), who voices Jack Joyce, was there to make the announcement.
A Crackdown 3 trailer was shown, there has been no release date set in stone yet. The multiple beta is set to kick off in 2016. It was also announced that Crackdown 3 will feature “100 perfect destructible environments”.
The world-premiere footage of Dark Souls III dropped. Although the reveal trailer is short, the clip shows a massive world and some impressive boss fights.
Another 2016 game announced was Scalebound, which is a third-person hack and slash adventure where your companion is a dragon. That’s right, it looks like developer Platinum Games ditched the classic 1 to 3 accompanied companions and has given you a dragon to fight side-by-side with and command.
Xbox will now provide a DVR service for Over-the-Air TV. This will allow the user to record live over-the-air TV, schedule recordings and watch those shows on-the-road. This was one of Microsofts most requested features from Xbox users.
There was more footage of Halo 5: Guardians, Forza Motorsport 6 and Rise of the Tomb Raider, Fifa 16, Tomb Raider, We Happy Few and Home Front: The Revolution.
The Qwerty keyboard that was popular with the original 360, is getting remade for the Xbox One controllers.
Microsoft also announced cross-platform compatibility with Windows 10 for first-party games. During the announcement, Phil Spencer said, “We think enabling people to play multiplayer games on Windows 10, across Xbox One and Windows 10, will unlock the potential of Xbox Live and grow social network that’s there today.”
Microsoft ended beautifully on what is possibly is one of the most asked for sequels since the original released back in 2009, Halo Wars 2. The announcement teaser below says it all:
Overall, I enjoyed what I saw from the Xbox presentation. They did speed through each announcement rather quickly, and I’m glad we finally got to see some footage of Quantum Break, as well as the announcement of Halo Wars 2. With the announced games today, 2016 is looking like a promising year for Xbox, along with Recore and Sea of Thieves previously announced at E3.
Gamescom continues tomorrow, August 5th, with EA and Call of Duty. Blizzard’s presentation takes places August 6th.