Overall, weak show. Too many trailers, little gameplay footage, and whenever there is gameplay footage, it is a disappointment. Some footage reminded me of the PS3 era, and it looks like most of Xbox games won't be out for a few years, and unlike SONY, they don't have a solid line-up of recently released exclusives like Ghost or The Last of US 2 to fall back on. SONY can repackage and re-release those games whenever the PS5 is going through a drought, especially that the TLOU2 multiplayer portion of the game is still in development.

Back to Xbox, Halo is clearly unfinished, showing off a build that's running on PC? it's starting to make sense why their first event sucked (talking about the May event that all of you want to brush off and pretend that it never happened), and it also makes sense why the second event was scheduled for July. It wasn't a masterful strategic move to counter SONY's event (like some of you have been trying to convince us), they simply had no choice. Can you imagine what Halo would've looked like if it was shown months ago? lol.

On a more positive note, Everwild looks epic based on what little we saw, and it seems that MS has a clear advantage in terms of exclusive WRPGs (if they deliver). 

Obviously not with those exact words, but are you seriously going to tell me that you haven't seen the "quantity vs quality" narrative floating around lately? Like, for real?

I honestly have not, and I've been reading (and getting banned from) these threads ever since the announcement. the arguments I'm seeing are "Not enough gameplay" and "Halo looked bad" and "No release windows" and "Doesn't showcase what the Xbox X can do". I've not seen anyone say it should be quality over quantity, though I was considering saying it in the one thread that had a list of exclusives on it, because it is an apt comparison in that one context but nowhere else since Xbox hasn't had quality OR quantity in the last 7 years. 

Of course people like yourself dress it up better. No way would any hater admit Xbox has (gasp) too many games. No...it’s far easier to side step that that pivot to “Too much CG no gameplay”. It allows their narrative to be preserved that Xbox games are still not here yet and thus the window to bash them has widened.

Yet at the same time the “Halo Gears Forza” narrative is dead as we now see healthy variety of IPs. The Xbox “mid-late gen droughts” narrative is now dead because logically if we see CG trailers now that means they releasing in the next 2-3 years. Steady, yearly support confirmed. 

But of course we can’t talk about that. No what’s important is finding the next big narrative push. Funny thing is that the newest narrative “Xbox trailers all CG no gameplay” is a temporary narrative...gameplay is inevitable. What will the next narrative be I wonder? 

Edit: I mean there’s always the anti-GP narrative, but I always laughed at that. Advocating saving money and value is bad and spending more is good for gamers gives me a chuckle every time. 

Not here to argue with your take. But I will say this has been confirmed to be an older build that was initially meant for E3.  So they just sat on this instead of dedicated time and resources to making a demo further along in development.

The majority of the problems seem to stem from lighting and character model textures. Which I’m thankful for since those are easier to improve then say if the art style or gunplay was broken. 

The presentation was just solid, I would say a 6/10. But despite that, I'm leaning more and more towards the Series X for next generation after buying Sony consoles and handhelds as my secondary machines for the last two generations. 

In my opinion, here's what the PS5 has going for it:

- Better first party support

- Faster SSD

- More interesting design

- The controller has more features 

Here's what the Series X has going for it:

- Stronger hardware (CPU, GPU)

- Almost 20% larger SSD and better expandability

- Microsoft really going all in on Gamepass 

- Better backwards compatibility all the way back to the OG Xbox 

- More comfortable controller (probably with better battery life)

Of these points, the more interesting design of the PS5 is not going to be important after a few weeks and the controller having more features will only be important in a handful of games probably. The faster SSD is nice, but I think people are overestimating what that will do to gameplay and it will only be effectively used by some first party titles. Speaking of which, Sonys biggest strength is definitely the great first part support. However, I feel Microsoft is going to do a lot to remedy this to some degree and we've already seen a lot of games developed by their first party teams. Overall... the Series X looks more promising to me! It's the stronger console with more... "comfort" I guess (easier expandability, bigger SSD, more comfortable controller with better battery life, Gamepass is perfect for a guy like me who only uses PS and Xbox as his secondary console).

Edit: Oh, and I just wanted to add that Halo looks like a damn lot of fun! Games are meant to be fun and Halo seems to be just that, despite people only focusing on stuff like Raytracing. I'm also more hyped for Fable than the next Uncharted game and Psychonauts just feels at home on an Xbox console somehow. 

I just wanted to say.. similar things were said when crackdown3 was shown and we got a lot of "it'll be polished in time, it's an early build, etc.".  i know Halo's a flagship title, but it's getting similar crackdown 3 like vibes..  just saying.

Crackdown 3 was a published game, not an internal studio. Certainly not Halo. I think a better example is Gears of War 5. It’s beta didn’t look very good and got noticeably better looking when it finally launched. Again it’s mostly lighting and character textures. 

That's the only saving grace at the moment though.. that it is an internal studio, so you would hope everything is sorted before release, but all the criticism at the moment is similar.. graphics looked flat, but gameplay looks fun, it's an early build, looks like last gen, etc.  I'm sure the gameplay will be solid, but again.. not the best example for next gen.  343 can't keep living on the legacy of previous titles.  next gen launch is happening in a few months.

ZE MENTAL GYMNASTICS! ZEY'RE OLYMPIC! 

Seriously, dude. How could you even pretend otherwise? The greatest narrative about Xbox's slump has been that they have no games, be they quality or quantity. I posted many times the in-depth analysis about how many PlayStation and Nintendo exclusives we're getting every year vs how many Xbox is having. and despite all that, they keep showing dozens of exclusives...yet nobody remembers any of them and none of them get good reviews. Every E3 they tout all this exclusivity, all these games, all these studios (even before the acquisition of 15 new studios) and all of that means nothing becuase we're not getting anything that's worthwhile. 2-3 games a year, tops, since 2017. Even before then, they were being outclassed in quality and quantity both. 

I'm not sidestepping anything, I'm not massaging any narratives, I'm not complaining JUST about CG trailers (Hell, I've made it clear that the Sony presentation had too many cinematic trailers as well), the difference is legacy. Microsoft has been touting all these games and ideas and not delivering on any of the promises, while Sony has. THAT is why they failed, THAT is why their presentation was poor. THAT was why most people agree that Sony's lineup looks better even though, on paper, Xbox has a greater number of exclusives. It's because we all know better. Everyone but you seems to know better than to trust Microsoft's PR department. Everyone knows that when it's all said and done and all the cards are laid down, most of these will either be shit, boring, or not exclusive. 

I would genuinely love to be wrong, but I can't just erase the entirety of the last generation to fuel your desired narrative. I want Xbox to succeed, but nothing in the past 7 years has given me that faith. You say it's  a 'temporary narrative', but it's been going on for the better part of the decade. 

If you like Forza and Gears and Halo, that's fine. If you like ReCore and Sunset Overdrive, that's also fine. If you love State of Decay and Crackdown and Sea of Thieves, I'm genuinely happy for you.

But don't pretend that it's enough to carry a brand. Don't act like I'm strange or that most people here are 'just haters' for not feeling that's enough. It's not. There's not enough variety, there's not enough quality, and there's not enough quantity. Xbox's output has been shiiiiiite for the better part of a decade and I'm not gonna pretend otherwise just so I don't look biased. By every metric, Microsoft hasn't been doing well and this presentation has done nothing to convince me otherwise. More promises, more 'WORLD PREMIERE's, more tenuous grasps of exclusivity, and more lacklustre outings from franchises that stopped being interesting or unique 2-3 entries ago. 

And then there's Fable. I want to like Fable. I want to be excited for Fable. It's right up my alley. I love fantasy RPG hack and slash games. the first Fable was MINT. the second was okay. the third was pretty bad. the fourth (The journey) was terrible. That pattern is trending downward. A CG trailer that tells us nothing about the game except that it exists is not enough to get me excited for the return of a franchise that's been slowly going down in quality with each subsequent entry. I can't get excited about Everwild becuase even though Rare is a legendary developer, they haven't done anything iconic or memorable since Banjo Tooie. There's all this potential, but nothing in this presentation gives me the impression that these games will reach that potential. 

You keep acting like I'm 'just a hater' or something, but in reality I'm just super critical and no longer buying into the buzz after being burned dozens of times. If you think I'm not equally critical of Sony, you're allowed to be wrong about that. I hate just as much about Sony's output as I do Microsofts, but they have so much more going for them that even if I hate both brands equally there's still a tonne more to love. I hate racing games, so I don't give a shit about Forza OR Gran Turismo. However, Forza comprises like 50% of the top rated and top selling games on XBox but only like 3 or 4 games out of dozens of PS4. I don't care for First Person or Third Person shooters, so I don't give a shit about Halo or Gears or Killzone or *GASP!* even Uncharted! I don't care for any of these franchises. they're all fine and they all have entries I do like, but overall...meh. I could ignore them entirely and not miss a beat. while this still only accounts for a handful of Sony's output, it's effectively 40% of the remaining of Xbox's output. 

Even if Ihate FPS games, Sports games, TPS games, and Racing games (Cutting out stuff like Gran Turismo, MLB The Show, Killzone, Resistance, Uncharted, The Last of Us, and DriveClub), that still leaves me with dozens more games and franchises I love in genres I adore. I still get stuff like Ratchet & Clank (action platformer), Bloodborne (Action RPG), God of War (Fantasy Action), Spider-Man (Superhero), Horizon Zero Dawn (Open World Adventure), Ghost of Tsushima (Samurai Adventure), and so many others. If I cut out the same amount from both consoles, it leaves Xbox with I guess Rare Replay and Sunset Overdrive, but Sony with literally dozens to chose from. And that's not even including Third party support like Nioh, Persona, Nier (which did eventually come to Xbox and might be exclusive in the future), Demon's Souls, and many more. 

You need to quit with this 'oh you're just a hater' nonsense. It doesn't matter if I'm coming from an objective or subjective perspective, Xbox is not doing well and this presentation hasn't changed that. The numbers don't like. the sales don't lie. the volume of games on the system doesn't lie. the metacritic scores don't lie. all subjective ways to assess their success, and by all means they're going down and getting worse. and, ignoring all that, Sony just has SO much more to offer. Even if you cancel out genres and franchises 1:1 in an attempt to be fair on both sides (Removing Halo and Killzone, removing Uncharted and Gears of War, etc as first and third person shooters, respectively), Sony just has so much more in terms of variety, quality, and quantity. 

THAT is why this presentation needed gameplay. THAT is why we needed more information. When we're talking about new IP, a cinematic trailer tells us nothing. it doesn't tell us anything but the art direction, title, and dev team behind it. Everwild could be a base builder sim. It could be an action RPG. It could be a third person shooter. We don't know. Hell, if reports are to be believed, Rare isn't even 100% sure what the gameplay is yet! 

So cut it out. I'm being very reasonable with my arguments. Just because my rationale led me to not like something that you like doesn't mean I'm wrong or that I'm only being a hater. I am biased (literally everyone is to some extent), but it's only after decades of experience with the two companies in question. 

And yes, I think it's important to compare and contrast the Xbox and PS5 conferences. they largely market to the same group, had similar lengths, had similar tones, and are coming out the same year.