Before talking about my mixed feelings after the Xbox / Bethesda showcase I figured it was best to look at some numbers first: In short what we saw was almost an hour of gameplay, with just 16 minutes being from upcoming exclusives (24%) and 21 minutes (31%) being from exclusive games in total. Conversely all new exclusive announcements besides Horizion 5 were accompanied by a CGI trailer.

The intent here is not to bash this presenation but to help reign in the sort of half-hype I have seen generated by it and to help work through using numbers, a process which may not be healthy but so be it. 

What we seem to be seeing is a combination of the collective corner both Sony and Microsoft have pushed themselves into; namely announcing games too soon, and then having to repeat that cycle to avoid having nothing to announce at the next major showcase. There are numerous ways out of this cycle, which all other games companies are currently taking, but Xbox/ Bethesda seem the most locked in. This is a good sign of things to come as the full potential of the new 23 studio roster will comes to bear in 2022 but it is important to remain calm until then. And I will be looking more into that studio roster in future.

Other things I have seen as critisms I would like to downplay: I am sure we will see extended Halo gamplay in a seperate show soon & Battefield was always unlikely to come to gamepass because it wants to be a true blockbuster.

In summary I feel like this could have been a better showcase by showing more of fewer games, The outerworlds 2, Contraband and Redfall could have waited and I would loved to have seen more than 5 minutes of Halo. My advice to Xbox would be to calm dow, more of us will buy a Series X/S when there are the games to justify it, those who will buy a console on hype already have one.

I watched the show. Looking at the list of games announced and talked about, you'd think I'd have been excited, but I wasn't and I wonder if it is because some part of my brain was aware that I wasn't seeing much of games, but was rather hearing about them.

They could have removed all the updates for exsisting games (Games as a service)/DLC updates (sea of theives, grounded ect), to another thing "after the show", along with all the gamepass announcements&stuff. Also stuff like updates (graphics/resolution, for games already out) (doom eternal, elderscrolls, fallout)... Hell even something like Diablo II remastered... its so old (even if it looks fine, its not something that wows).

That alone would have cut down some time no?

You want shows to be filled with "new" & "exciting" stuff.
The showpeices, that sell you on the product.

Also you need a healthy mix of gameplay along with all the cgi trailers.

Think because of updates to older games (as a service) and graphic updates to older games already out ect.
Everytime you get hyped up, by something new and good looking.
Hey look at this old game, too. We did X,Y,Z with it.
So you get this roller coaster type deal, instead of just hype building and building.


Yakuza like a dragon, Phyconauts, Fallout 76, ESO, Diablo 2 res, Far cry 6, Grounded, Flight Sim,... ect ect

= all games we have seen before, or are already out.

Then you add in all the smaller indie stuff, and the amount of CGI trailers showed.

There was high points, stuff you could get excited for.
There was just alot of everything else, between.



*** To me the highpoints were:

Stalker 2, Battlefield, Eiyuden Chronicle, Age Of Empires 4,....... 

(apart from Stalker 2, I think rest will come to PS4/PS5/PC) 
*Stalker 2, is apparently a "xbox console launch exclusive" (ei comeing to other platforms)

Ever since E3 mostly started showing games that get delayed or cancelled, I can't get excited about E3 anymore.  I am looking forward to the new features the FS2020 release for XBox brings. New fauna, particle effects (wake effects), float planes, ski planes and transition to DX12. 27 July is a date I can look forward to. The rest, better not get hopes up too soon.

You spot on with gaming companies (especially Sony and MS) backing themselves into a corner by constantly trying to have something big and new to show every year.

But there's nothing wrong with that approach provided you actual have the games to show something yearly. I just think the focus needs to be on gameplay demos and not CGI trailers or essentially trailers of trailers (wtf) whatever it is that they showing.

Now that Sony no longer have major press conferences they have essentially moved to the Nintendo model - show something when you have something and make it focused! I commend MS for keeping E3 alive though and I feel that the right and most effective approach is probably a combo of the two.

When it comes to Halo, all I got to say is yikes. 4-5 months til launch, on a game delayed for 7 months now, yet we only see in-engine cutscenes for the campaign? How do they not have at a few levels ready to show gameplay at this point? Are they even working to improve the levels or are they just remaking the cutscenes in-engine (pretty sure they were in-game last time) so they look better in ads? And finally, how is Xbox so poorly mismanaged? Their only franchise that seems to constantly be on top of things is Forza. Yeesh.

That could be why.

Ingame graphics are maybe not as good looking, as the CGI trailers cutscenes they can show.
After last showing, maybe they are scared to show ingame gameplay graphics.  (they dont want another greg situation)

Even the multiplayer part they showed, it was mostly CGI stuff, and these short cuts, where you barely saw any gameplay.

Also odd they didnt even give a date for when the multiplayer part of Halo Infinate is comeing.

I agree that if the content is not there make the presentation shorter or right out not have one. E3 seems to be goong away now. This has been the worst an E3 has been in a long time. Im not sure there is one showing you could say was good that cpuld have saved it. Althought I havent seen Nintendo yet as I make this coment.

Umm the multiplayer they showed was 90% gameplay. Not always from the players perspective, but absolutely in-game. The only part that wasn't was when the spartan women was talk to the soldiers for maybe 10 seconds of it. They are doing a multiplayer overview today so I'm sure we will see more gameplay or even a full match.