By Microsoft kicked off day 2 of the Electronic Entertainment Expo Sunday morning by announcing a new iteration of the Xbox One line, the Xbox One X.
Codenamed “Scorpio” in the rumor mill, it will be coming out Nov. 7 this year and retail for $499. With a custom CPU, 12GB and GDDR5 RAM, Microsoft will look to find a middleground between PC gaming setups and your everyday console.
But the announcers didn’t spend much time talking about the system, quickly shifting the focus to games after the initial announcement; and there were a lot of them. Microsoft brought over 40 different games to show off, 22 exclusive to Xbox, with favorites like “Forza,” “Assassin’s Creed” and classics like “Crackdown” making a return.
“Anthem,” Bioware’s newest IP, got a full gameplay trailer at the Microsoft event after being teased Saturday during EA’s opening presser. The trailer showed off players in customizable exosuits called “javelins,” complete with jetpacks, rockets and more.
The trailer opened with a player jumping out of a carrier, using the javelin as a futuristic wingsuit to dive into the middle of a huge open area filled with alien-looking creatures and rogue factions — an open world to fight over and protect with friends. This looks to be Microsoft’s attempt at a “Destiny 2” response. The game will be coming sometime in 2018.
“Forza 7” was also announced with quite a bit of hype. The trailer showed off the typical beautiful array of cars and maps gamers have come to expect from “Forza” titles. Vast amounts of customization options to make any car run any way, running in 4K and 60 FPS on the new Xbox One X.
The event even featured the world premiere of the real-world 2018 Porsche 911 GT2RS, a brand new car from Porsche in honor of the new 6 year agreement reached between Porsche and Microsoft.
Another big surprise that confirmed previous leak reports was “Assassin’s Creed Origins,” an Assassin’s game set in ancient Egypt which will act as the origin story for the series. The trailer teased new abilities like a controllable eagle to get a bird’s-eye-view of the area before sneaking in to find a target, and looks to focus more on mythology and superstition with a mythical serpent appearing at the end of the video.
Anime and fighting game fans will be excited to see a new Dragon Ball game that was announced Sunday as well — “Dragon Ball Fighter Z.” The art style features an almost identical look to the famous anime series, and has a cast from across the series’ many different runs, which should release in early 2018.
Terry Crews helped with the announcement of “Crackdown 3,” a return from the classic Xbox arcade shooter. Screaming into the camera, the screen “breaks” as his in-game counterpart is revealed. Not much in the way of details or gameplay was shown, but the teaser was sure to please longtime fans of the series.
“Sea of Thieves,” once again made an impressive appearance at E3, showing off a longer gameplay video and detailing some of the ways players can take to the high seas with their friends, raid pirate forts and hunt for treasure on mysterious islands.
Bethesda, the company behind the hugely successful “Elder Scrolls” series, held its own conference later Sunday night. While it wasn’t quite as long or robust, some big news did come out about new DLC for “Dishonored 2,” as well as “Quake World Championships,” and virtual reality updates for “Doom” and “Fallout 4.”
Ubisoft will keep the ball rolling at 1 p.m. Monday, June 12, at the Hollywood Palladium. Sony will follow up at 6 p.m. the same night. Check back for more updates all week.
