E3 2014: Microsoft Press Conference - Sunset Overdrive, Scalebound, Crackdown, Phantom Dust, it's all about the games

unnamed Microsoft starts E3 2014 and they're message was clear this time around - There will be games on Xbox One. They didn't waste a single minute on anything else. The Xbox team behind Phil Spencer just went up there and showed all the titles we can expect from Xbox One. What was presented? Here's a summary of what went down.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare gameplay demo

Forza Horizon 2 on 1080p. Out September 30

Dragon Age Inquisition trailer

Assassin's Creed: Unity Gameplay Demo. 4 player co-op campaign revealed

Sunset Overdrive trailer and Sunset Overdrive gameplay demo. Game out on October 28

New Dead Rising 3 DLC - Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix

Fable Legends gameplay reveal - 4 player co-op, with one player as the villain/dungeon master

Project Spark, Conker joins the project

Ori and the Blind Forest announced

Halo: Master Chief Collection announced for Xbox One - Out November 11

Makers of Limbo reveal their new game - Inside, coming first on Xbox One

New Tomb Raider announced - Rise of the Tomb Raider, out 2015

Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt Open-World gameplay demo

Phantom Dust revealed for Xbox One

Tom Clancy's The Division gameplay demo. Xbox One players will receive exclusive DLC content

Platinum Games announce Xbox One Exclusive - Scalebound

New Crackdown announced for Xbox One to close the show

Quick mentions

-ID @ Xbox, Microsoft's indie side strengthened.

- Halo: Night fall TV Series currently shooting.

- Halo: Master Chief Collections comes with access to Halo 5: Guardians beta that's coming this holiday.

- The Halo: Master Chief Collection is quite different from other collections. You have all 4 games remastered in one disc, with the ability to create playlists mixing missions from other Halo games (Example - Do the last mission of Halo 1, then next mission on the playlist can be Halo 4's 4th mission)

- Dance Central: Spotlight and Fantasia: Music Evolved announced. Digital only distribution, out this fall

-Xbox One players to get premiere content for Dragon Age Inquisition

-DLC for Evolve comes first on Xbox One

- Forza 5 users get a free course - the Nürburgring

That's Microsoft's press conference in a nutshell. What do you think? We consider this the best conference from them in years. More of our impressions on a future post as well as our E3 coverage episode on the TMG Podcast.

Xbox One controller can now be used on PC

195b96da-be0a-45c4-903f-7bc4b48b8e36The ability to use Xbox One's controller on your gaming PC is here. Microsoft just announced that Windows drivers for the new controller are now available for download.  The windows update to include the driver is coming in the near future, but if you want to make use of the new controller right now you can download the driver at Major Nelson's website.

For us, it's about time since the Xbox One controller is a great improvement from the Xbox 360 controller. The price for a new controller is quite a hefty amount, but it's good to know we can now make the switch.

[Source: Major Nelson]

E3 2014: Full E3 press conference schedule to get us all updated

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e3-future E3(Electronic Entertainment Expo) is the biggest event for the gaming industry, where all the big game reveals and announcements from big video game companies happen. It's literally just around the corner, so for those that want to catch all the reveals and big announcements from the big gaming companies, here's the full schedule of when each press conference goes live. 

*TAKE NOTE OF THE TIME DIFFERENCE: PDT is for those living in the United States, while GMT is for those living in South East Asia like the Philippines. 

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Microsoft - Monday, June 9th at 9:30AM PDT / Tuesday, June 10 12:30AM GMT

Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb said on his blog that you can stream the press conference, entitled "Xbox: Game On," through Xbox.com, Xbox Live and Windows Phone worldwide. The press conference will also be broadcast on Spike TV in the U.S. and Canada. Halo 5: Guardians has been announced by 343 Industries so it's very likely we'll be seeing a demo of the new Halo running on Xbox One. There are rumors of a Gears of War reveal, as well as more about Sunset Overdrive which is looking pretty promising. Forza Horizon 2 was also announced plus there's Fable Legends so we'll see them on the presentation. Oh and of course, we'll see more of Kevin Spacey for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

Also, with Microsoft announcing the Xbox One without Kinect, making the new console at the same price as its competitor, we will definitely see a strong presence of Kinect in the press conference.

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EA - Monday, June 9th at 12:00 PM PDT / Tuesday, June 10 3:00 AM GMT

Just like past EA conferences, we will see tons of EA Sports talk for NFL, NBA, the works. All that aside, we'll most likely see the latest on Dragon Age: Inquisition, Sims 4, Battlefield: Hardline, and we just might get a gameplay demo of Star Wars: Battlefront III. There are talks of them teasing a new Mass Effect game, but that's very unlikely in our eyes.

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Ubisoft - Monday, June 9th at 3:00 PM PDT / Tuesday, June 10 6:00 AM GMT

Ubisoft will be an interesting press conference. We'll definitely see a demo for this year's Assassin's Creed called Unity, as well as another announcement of the second Assassin's Creed planned for this year as well. Tom Clancy's The Division will have new gameplay to wow the crowd, and we'll get our first look at Far Cry 4 planned for this year. Just Dance will make an appearance yet again, and we'll see a demo for The Crew. We also expect a new IP coming from the European company since we've seen a new title from them two E3's in a row (Watch Dogs - 2012, The Division - 2013). Ubisoft has a lot going for them, it's crazy.

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Sony - Monday, June 9th at 6:00 PM PDT / Tuesday, June 10 9:00 AM GMT

Sony might have a great lineup for their presentation - Deep Down, the new Uncharted, The Order: 1886, and a possible reveal of From Software's PS4 exclsuive currently titled "Project Beast". Final Fantasy XV will make an appearance together with Kingdom Hearts 3. The indie scene might just get the spotlight yet again to strengthen the consoles indie game support.  What's going to be their big reveal? There's a big chance of a new God of War game moving the franchise forward. Destiny will definitely appear on Sony's presentation, and we might get more titles for PS Vita since it's been lagging behind on the number of new games per month. Oh, and we shouldn't forget the slight possibility of  The Last Guardian showing up at the presentation...very unlikely.

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Nintendo - Tuesday, June 10th at 9:00 AM PDT / Wednesday, June 11 12:00 AM GMT

Just like last year, Nintendo won't be holding the traditional press conference at E3. Instead, they will be broadcasting their presentation through a video similar to their monthly video called Nintendo Direct. It's called the "Nintendo Digital Event" and we will be seeing our first look at the new Zelda game exclusive to the Wii U. The Super Smash Bros Wii U and 3DS will definitely make an appearance, we'll get more footage for Bayonetta 2, and Monolith's RPG currently called X might get a full reveal. New 3DS games will take a small portion of the spotlight, but we expect all the effort will be put on making the Wii U appealing. There's rumor of a new Metroid that will be announced for the Wii U, which we pray is true because Nintendo needs announcements like that to be the big talk in E3. The horrible Wii U sales is a big concern and we hope they can bounce back with their presentation.

 

Where can I watch E3?

Since we are now in the age of Social Media and Live Streaming, watching the events that will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center will be easy for even folks on the other side of the globe. Here are a couple of sites that will be live streaming E3 happening next week:

Full event

Gamespot

Twitch.TV

Spike.TV

E3 Insider

EA Press Conference only

EA's Hub

Ubisoft Press Conference only

Ubisoft YouTube Channel

Ubisoft twitch Channel

Nintendo Digital Event only

Nintendo E3

The crew will be watching the event live, so just in case you are unable to watch the event live or just want the big scoop - stay tuned on our Twitter and Facebook page, we'll be posting the big announcements as it gets revealed. A full compilation of each press conference will be posted on the site.

We'll also be discussing everything that happened during E3 2014 on the TMG Podcast after the event. The post E3 show, Episode 36, will be up on June 17 on a Tuesday.

We'll update the list of channels covering the event as more come up. If you think we are missing some, please comment below and we'll add it to the list.

Things to look forward to entering 2014

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watchdogs-police-takedown-screenshot We are now on the final days of 2013. A great year for video games indeed thanks to the amazing games released as well as the debut of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. We are entering a new era, but where do we go from here? To be honest, it's hard to tell how 2014 will shape up. how does the next generation lineup look like after March? Will early PlayStation 4 and Xbox One owners have games to buy during the 2nd and 3rd quarter of 2014? Or will this be Nintendo's year to get things rolling for the Wii U? So many questions, but here's a couple of things to look forward to once we hit 2014.

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Wii U and it's 1st party titles

Let's face it. The Wii U isn't doing so well. Sales for the unit hasn't even hit 1M and the games isn't coming in batches as we hoped for a 1-year-old console. But we can't count the Wii U just yet. I believe this is Nintendo's year to make something happen to their next generation unit. Don't forget, their big first party titles are planned for this year - Super Smash Bros. Wii U, The new Zelda game (Footage yet to be revealed but confirmed to be in development since console launch), Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, and Bayonetta 2. But 1st party titles isn't enough to get the Wii U back in the spotlight, but it's definitely a good start to give it a sign of life to those looking for a new console to dabble with.

Third party support, which was widely promoted after the reveal of the Wii U, shows a big decline as it enters its first year. Ubisoft's exclusive title for the Wii U - ZombiU, didn't do well in sales but was considered a good game. But big publishers look at the numbers to consider a sequel and it looks like it won't happen anytime soon. That kind of result makes third party's hesitate in bringing their big games to the Wii U. Solution? Sell more units, build a player base. But of course it's easier said than done. Maybe a name change? The conversation during stores explaining parents the difference between the Wii and the Wii U must be a nightmare for any clerk working in a video game store. So much work needs to be done. Get to it Nintendo.

Titanfall, that is all. 

Is it that great of a game? Well, the folks that have played it have nothing but good things to say about this FPS Mech/soldier multiplayer game. This is also one of the titles trying something different. I'm not talking about the fluid switch from FPS shooter to mech shooter. I'm talking about Respawn Entertainment blending in their single player campaign with their multiplayer component. A very interesting concept and a perfect way to somewhat erase a mode most people ignore with multiplayer shooters nowadays but retain a sense of story and character progression. How will it fair from start to finish? We'll have to see when it hits shelves on March for Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC. You have never seen Titanfall in action? Just watch the video below will ya?

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SteamOS and Steam Machines

PlayStation 4 and Xbox One sure got most of the attention this year, but people should remember Valve made a big move by announcing the Steam Machines, Valve's console planned to your already crowded living room. It's just  not just one console being produced by Valve, thus it being called Steam Machines. Various hardware companies will be making different varieties of Valve's console, capable of running their Linux-based Operating System called the SteamOS. The big idea is simply bringing your huge Steam library into your living room to enjoy. With a keyboard and mouse? Well, not really. They also announced a Steam controller that is trying something...different.

A controller without joysticks. Check out the controller in action below. It's built so that games like Civilization V or other games built for keyboard and mouse won't be neglected once Steam hits your living room. It's hard to describe and explain how it would work. But the demonstration shows that the controller is capable of working well with Real-Time Strategy games and First Person Shooter games.

With how it looks, I'm not a fan of the design but you never know, it might be those products that will grow on you the more you use it...or not.

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The future of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One

Great start for Sony and Microsoft's new consoles. In just one day, they were able to surpass the 1 million units sold mark. So what's next? To release as much games as possible in their units. Last thing you want is your new unit being turned on once a month. There are tons of games planned for 2014 like Ubisoft's Watch Dogs and CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Titanfall and Quantum Break for Xbox One, and inFamous: Second Son and The Order: 1886 for the PS4. But  how does the lineup look like during the second half of 2014? It's still unknown what Sony and Microsoft has planned but be sure to tune in E3 2014 because it's going to be an all out war. A new Uncharted was announced exclusive to the PS4 and we still need more information on the next Halo title planned for the Xbox One. If there's one thing I hope to see in 2014, it's newer franchises. 2014 will be just as exciting as 2013, and it just makes me all giddy just thinking about it.

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PS3 and Xbox 360 still alive and kicking

Sure, next-gen is now upon us and technically the PS4 and Xbox One is now current generation while the PS3 and Xbox 360 is now previous generation. But don't set aside your prevous consoles just yet. There are a couple of titles to look forward to entering 2014. If you still want to give Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII series a chance, Lightning Returns is out in Japan but  the western version will be hitting stores February 11. Dark Souls 2, the sequel to the tough but amazing action RPG is for PS3 and Xbox 360 and is launching on March 11.

If you can't wait to play Titanfall but can't afford to make the upgrade on your PC or even making the jump to the Xbox One, it is also being released on the Xbox 360 on March 11. There's also Persona 5, which was recently announced by Atlus, exclusive to the PS3 and is planned for release at the end of 2014. The next in the Tales of series was also recently announced - Tales of Zesteria, which is also a PS3 exclusive, planned for a worldwide release in 2014. Oh, and of course, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes the prologue to Metal Gear Solid V planned for release on March 18 on PS3, Xbox 360, and next-gen consoles. All of that, plus all the yearly titles like Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed is enough to keep your current consoles active in 2014.

What are you most excited for entering 2014? Sound off in the comments below. And just in case we miss the chance - Happy New Year to everybody! Hope you all have a good one.

Xbox One has sold over one million units in the first 24 hours

Xbox One Launch_First Consoles The next generation of console gaming is now officially in full swing with the release of the Xbox One. How did it do on its first day? Oh, just one million in the first 24 hours.

The day one sale was announced by Microsoft just recently. The Xbox One was launched in 13 markets: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Microsoft is also reporting this to be the biggest Xbox launch in history.

With the PS4 also hitting the one million mark, this shows that the gaming industry is growing bigger and bigger despite it's short-comings as a whole.

Microsoft also shared a few stats on their exclusive titles:

  • Over 60 million zombies have been killed in “Dead Rising 3”
  • Over 3.6 million miles driven in “Forza Motorsport 5"
  • Over 7.1 million combos in “Killer Instinct”
  • Over 8.5 million enemies defeated in “Ryse: Son of Rome”

Bought the Xbox One on day one? Share us your impression on the comments below.