Starting things off with a brief cinematic and gameplay trailer from Assassin's Creed Unity, Microsoft's Gamescom conference moved into gear and started proceedings. Phil Spencer, Xbox head honcho stated that "Xbox is the best place to play", before launching into a non-stop barrage of gaming goodness.
Grand Theft Auto V was briefly mentioned as coming to Xbox One, allowing players to carry over Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 save files and carry on where they left, but Fifa 15 was the first game out of the Microsoft (Bill) gates so to speak. A new European exclusive console bundle was announced, and exclusive content in the form of the Fifa Ultimate Team Legends was confirmed for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 versions of the game, allowing players to use famous footballers in matches such as Sir Bobby More (hopefully with fully digitised comb-over to boot).
A collection of games from Microsoft's ID@Xbox program were shown off next. The trailer displayed many of the indie titles that would be coming first to the Xbox One, such as Goat Simulator (oh yes), Inside, Cuphead, #IDARB and many others. Particular focus was given to Space Engineers (a game about "Building cool stuff in space and then blowing it up"), SUPERHOT, a clever time manipulation shooter that looked good but annoyingly kept repeating the title over and over in the trailer, and Smite, a 3rd person MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) in the style of DOTA and League of Legends.
Following the multiplayer reveal yesterday, a new level in the single player campaign of Call of Duty: Advance Warfare was shown off on the big screens. It was standard Call of Duty explosions, shouting and gunfire, capped off with an impressive explosive destruction sequence of the Golden Gate bridge. A Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare console bundle was revealed for pre-order as well, featuring a custom Call of Duty themed Xbox One console with a 1TB (terabyte) hardrive (double the normal Xbox One hard drive's 500GB space) and most importantly, a custom Xbox One controller with special sound effects - yay.
Evolve made a brief appearance; the new multiplayer game from Turtle Rock Studios (makers of the Left 4 Dead series) featuring asymetrical multiplayer action of four human hunters versus one giant monster. A brief in-game match was played onscreen (although it was annoyingly talked over by over the top hyped up announcers) on a new snowy map called Distillery. Xbox One players are set to get the Beta and new DLC content for the game first.
Now we get to the big bombshell of the conference; Rise of the Tomb Raider is now an Xbox exclsuive. The sequel to 2013's Tomb Raider, a reboot of Crystal Dynamics' popular franchise, Rise of the Tomb Raider's Xbox exclusivity announcement caused (and still is causing) a bit of a heated ruckus online with Sony fans, as the series started out way back on the original PlayStation in the 1990s. It's an undeniably smart move on Microsoft's part whichever way you look at it, as it's a big and powerful 3rd party exclusive to get on their side, not to mention having "The best combat bow in gaming" as well. Wise move Microsoft.
The first proper gameplay footage for Quantum Break was then debuted, the next game from Max Payne/Alan Wake creators Remedy. The Max Payne heritage really stood out gameplay wise, as your character is a sort of time-bending agent who can speed, stop and rush through time and gunfights in a very Matrix-y/Bernard's Watch sort of way. Your character has the ridiculously epic sounding goal of "Fighting to stop the end of time". Crikey - let's hope he's successful then.
Fable Legends was given a brief moment to show off a trailer, this time featuring gameplay from the player controllable villain's perspective. The registration for the multiplayer beta was announced as currently available to sign up for, which is due to start on the 16th October.
Scream Ride was quickly shown off in a trailer which looked like a ridiculously stupid (in only a good way) and cartoonishly violent version of Rollercoaster Tycoon, due for Spring 2015.
A blast from the very recent past, Forza 5 Motorsport got a brief moment in the big green Xbox spotlight to announce that 6 new cars, including the Rolls Royce Wraith and Formula E racing cars, were now available in the game to download for free. Classy.
On the topic of Forza, in game footage of Forza Horizon 2 was shown, and the experience looks to be inherently a social one, with some similar leanings towards games like Ubisoft's The Crew in terms of how you can play and race with your friends online.
One of the more visually breathtaking games of the conference, Ori and the Blind Forest, from developer Moon Studios, was given significant time on the big screen. The game looks like a beautiful Studio Ghibli film mixed with some Disney-esque animation, with skilled platforming and some strong Metroidvania (Metroid and Castlevania inspired) influences. From what we've seen so far it looks to have a strong emotional narrative as well as good gameplay. One to watch, and set for release this holiday (or Christmas as it's more commonly known).
Another big hitter in the Microsoft catalogue, Sunset Overdrive, by Insomniac Games (the developers of the Ratchet and Clank series of course) was given a new trailer, this time hinting at some further story details, and most importantly, it featured some new robot enemies for players to fight. The game is due out on 28th October.
The other big news to be announced was that the white Xbox One console and controller (originally only available to Xbox staff) that fans have been clamouring to buy ever since the console's original launch back in November are in fact real. A white Xbox One bundle with Sunset Overdrive was announced, and is available for pre-order today.
Of course, what would a Microsoft conference be without the giant green power armour clad elephant in the room making some sort of appearance. That's right, Halo got the honour of closing the conference as Bonnie Ross (head of 343 Studios) took to the stage to announce the shiny new Halo channel, which looks set to completely replace the original Waypoint, the Xbox 360's Halo app. Nothing particularly concrete was shared about it, other than it looks like the app will be the place where you watch all things Halo related, whether that's Nightfall, the upcoming Ridley Scott film included with the Master Chief Collection, or the other short clips and web series that regularly appeared on Waypoint in the past.
A partnership with streaming service Twitch was also mentioned, so presumably you'll be able to watch the big Halo tournaments live through the Halo channel when they get underway.
We got a brief glimpse of the Delta Halo level from the Halo 2: Anniversary story, which features a similar graphics switching option like the original Halo: Anniversary, as well as 'enhanced audio'. Overall, it looks like the same Halo 2 we know and love with a shinier paint job, which will undoubtedly please hardcore fans and fledgling newcomers to Microsoft's big shooter franchise.
Speaking of hardcore fans, they'll be pleased to hear that the original skill based matchmaking system from Halo 2 is returning (oh joy). This appears to be just for the Halo 2 multiplayer, so whether this applies to the plethora of other Halos in the box remains to be seen - presumably each will have their own separate systems, and hopefully it won't be too confusing either. The map 'Sanctuary' was also debuted in all its 60 frames per second glory, and few teasers were dropped about what we can expect in the Halo 5: Guardians Beta; seven maps, teams of four versus four and no customisable loadouts (drat). The Beta starts on 29th December and will run for three weeks - Beta access comes with the Master Chief Collection.
The conference ended on a bit of an anti-climax with Microsoft announcing that digital pre-ordering and pre-loading will be coming to Xbox One (yay) but not yet; it's scheduled to start in late September for a few specific titles at first - Fifa 15 and Forza Horizon 2, with more to come later. Better late than never though.
Overall, it's been another strong showing from Microsoft at Gamescom, continuing with a strong games focused showing, and thankfully very little mention of TV. Keep up the good work Phil.
The Everybody Plays team is at Gamescom all this week for hands on impressions of many of the games on offer from all the conferences, so don't forget to check back for regular news posts, and follow us on Twitter at @everybody_plays for updates from the show floor.
