Halo 2 “Gameplay” Demo Revealed (E3 2003)

The Halo 2 E3 2003 demo stands out for many infamous reasons, exposing the culture of smoke and mirror showings at E3 along with how misleading a reveal could be. Nevertheless, at the time, it was awesome. Seeing Master Chief return to Earth with a major city under siege, dual-wielding weapons and embarking on an extended clean-up mission against the Covenant was just incredible. Incredibly misleading compared to the final product, sure, but still incredible.

The year is coming to a close but as soon as 2020 hits, it’ll be a race to see which console manufacturer can gain the most favour for the next generation. Obviously given the massive success of the PS4, it’s likely that Sony will have a strong lead with the PlayStation 5. The console is rumored to be revealed at a PlayStation Meeting taking place in February 2020.

That doesn’t mean Microsoft is staying quiet though. The company officially announced Project Scarlett first and recently announced a number of new IPs like Rare’s Everwild and Obsidian’s Grounded (not to mention a slew of major additions for Xbox Game Pass). Does the company feel worried about any aspect of the PS5 so far?

Aaron Greenberg, who’s general manager for games marketing at Xbox, responded to a recent Kotaku Q&A with, “Not really. We’re more customer-obsessed than competitor-obsessed. I think Sony has built a great business, they have a very strong brand and a strong presence and we have a lot of admiration for what they’ve done.”

“Equally, we feel proud of the fact that we’ve built the world’s most powerful console, I think we’ve grown now our internal studios so we have one of the largest if not the largest internal studio teams, and we’re gonna continue to innovate with things like Project xCloud.

“We’ll innovate with different varieties of games—you’re seeing us grow our partnerships with Japanese developers and Japanese creators with things like the Yakuza series, things like more Final Fantasy games on Xbox Game Pass, the entire Kingdom Hearts series on Xbox. These are all from us listening to fans and dedicating time to fulfill those projects.”

Other factors like third party deals, first party exclusives, additional services, hardware, marketing and of course, pricing will also decide which console holds sway in the Holiday 2020 season. Nevertheless, it’s good to see that Microsoft isn’t on the back-foot like in pre-launch Xbox One days and is making moves to appeal to its core audience. We’ll see how Sony caters to its fans in kind within the coming months.

Remember Xbox All Access, Microsoft’s monthly subscription that provided access to Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass along with an Xbox one console? It’s coming back on October 29th at Telstra in Australia, November 5th at GAME and Smyths Toys in the UK and on November 18th via Amazon in the United States. Furthermore, the deal now allows for upgrading to Project Scarlett down the line.

You need to pay $19.99 per month for 24 months with the following options available:

• Xbox One console: Players in the U.S. and U.K. can choose between Xbox One X, Xbox One S, or Xbox One S All-Digital Edition bundles. Players in Australia can select the Xbox One X Forza Horizon 4 bundle or the Xbox One S Forza Horizon 4 bundle. One Xbox Wireless Controller included with each bundle
• 24-month membership to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate: Xbox Pass Ultimate includes all the benefits of Xbox Live Gold, including online multiplayer, and access to over 100 great games on console and PC.
• Option to upgrade to Project Scarlett once its available in Holiday 2020

You need to visit a participating retailer and select the console of choice along with being in good standing with the relevant financing partner. After signing up, the bundle is yours. Though it’s not the same as owning a console or building a library of games, Xbox All Access does allow more players to gain entry to Project Scarlett at launch.

Of course, some terms and conditions apply like an upgrade when going from the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition to Project Scarlett. The real question is: Will this drive more people to pick up Project Scarlett in the long-term? Time will tell so stay tuned for more details.

343 Industries revealed Halo Infinite at Microsoft’s E3 2019 presser but didn’t really present any gameplay. Instead, we got the “Discover Hope” cinematic trailer which showcased Master Chief’s rescue and revival. However, at one point in the trailer, a strange symbol resembling a stretched QR code was seen.

Xepyal on Twitter took to reconstructing the symbol into an actual QR code. When scanned, it leads to an audio clip where footsteps can audibly be heard. Suddenly, a voice that seems to be Cortana speaks out, saying, “This… This is part of me. I don’t know why… I don’t know how… But it is me.”

Take it for what it’s worth, but Frank O’Connor, the franchise development director for Halo, responded with a tweet that simply said, “hmmm.” So while the validity of the clip hasn’t been confirmed, it hasn’t been denied either. This wouldn’t be the first time that the series has played around with trans-media promotion.

Halo 2 was famously promoted by an alternate reality game called “I Love Bees.” It quickly went viral and garnered numerous awards for its innovation. Whether this ends up having the same impact for Halo Infinite or is simply the start of 343 Industries’ marketing rabbit hole for the game remains to be seen.

Either way, Halo Infinite will be releasing in Holiday 2020 on Xbox One, Project Scarlett (where it will be a launch title), and Windows 10 PC.

https://twitter.com/xepyal/status/1155847752678551552

hmmm.

— Frank (@franklez) July 29, 2019

The next generation of consoles is still a ways off. We won’t be seeing Project Scarlett, Xbox’s next gen console, until Holiday 2020 and the PlayStation 5 has yet to be properly dated. Both systems will sport solid-state drives though, significantly reducing loading times for massive games.

However, Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke – known for the Divinity: Original Sin series and currently developing Baldur’s Gate 3 – feels there’s some major potential in cloud-based gaming hardware like Google Stadia. Speaking to WCCF Tech, Vincke believes that elastic rendering and physics simulations not possible on current hardware will be possible.

When asked whether SSDs in consoles have the potential to be revolutionary, Vincke said, “To be fair, people have SSDs in their PCs already, so it’s not that much of a revolution. Streaming is a very important technology for modern games, so the faster you can stream your data, you can put more of it, and you’re going to have higher quality assets, which is pretty much what everybody expects there to be.

“The big questions are going to be how much memory do you get to actually do that? Is there sufficient memory to fool around with? How much CPU power are we getting? Because that’s also important, but it’s the classic things that we see with every generation. I mean, how much GPU power do we get? But at the end of the day, it’s always going to be more, it’s going to be more detailed, it’s going to allow us to do more accurate simulations.

“I think that the more interesting question is how stuff like Google Stadia will change things. It gives developers something different. In the data center, these machines are connected to each other, and so you could start thinking of doing things like elastic rendering, like make a couple of servers together to do physics simulations that may not be possible on current local hardware. I think you’ll see a lot of evolution in this direction.”

We’ve certainly heard about how Google Stadia will allow for more complex systems like AI, weather simulation and whatnot. With the service having a limited roll-out in November for regions like the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and more, it will certainly be interesting to see the consumer reception. More importantly, we’ll be waiting to see how developers leverage the technology in new and exciting ways.

As for Larian Studios, Baldur’s Gate 3 will be its biggest role-playing game till date. Don’t expect it anytime soon though.

Microsoft may have only just officially unveiled Project Scarlett, but it’s something that’s been pretty much common knowledge for a while. Xbox Scarlett was leaked multiple times before Microsoft spoke about it at E3- and one of the things all the leaks mentioned multiple times was that Project Scarlett would include two variants of the console. A higher end, more powerful SKU codenamed Anaconda, and a cheaper, less powerful SKU codenamed Lockhart. 

But as per a new report by known Xbox insider Klobrille on Twitter, it seems that might not end up happening. Supposedly, with a year and a half still to go before Scarlett’s Holiday 2020 launch, plans have changed internally at Microsoft. The company is allegedly dropping the strategy for two SKUs, and “might” be launching into the next generation with just one single Xbox Scarlett model.

As is always the case with unconfirmed and unverified insider leaks, it’s best to take this with a grain of salt for now. But if it does indeed end up being accurate, questions will arise about a number of things- such as the console’s pricing in light of its impressive spec list, for instance.

There are more and more reports coming in that the leaked next-gen Xbox two SKU strategy is put on hold for now and Microsoft might go into next-gen with one SKU. I have no updates on this other than the fact that yes, obviously 1 1/2 years before release plans can change.

— Klobrille (@klobrille) June 19, 2019

Project Scarlett Launches in Holiday 2020

Microsoft finally confirmed that its next Xbox would be out in Holiday 2020. Project Scarlett, as it’s currently being referred to as, utilizes a custom processor which leverages the Zen 2 and Navi Technology from AMD. Four times more powerful than the Xbox One X and featuring GDDR6 memory for better performance overall, Project Scarlett will push the frame rate to 120 fps. That’s along with 8K resolution support, variable refresh rate and more. Next-gen ray tracing, in real time and hardware accelerated, is also promised. Microsoft also revealed that it’s using the SSD as virtual RAM to gain performance improvements in the region of around 40 times compared to the current generation. Four generations of gaming content, hinting at backwards compatibility for all previous Xbox consoles, also seems to be a given.

Halo Infinite Launching With Project Scarlett

Master Chief has finally returned, back from the dead, yet again (is this like the fourth time counting? We’re not sure). Rescued and ushered onto a ship, we’re shown the current state of the universe – the infamous Halo ring is still around and humanity or perhaps the UNSC have lost everything. What seems to be an enemy attacks the ship and good ol’ Chief rushes off to fight it. There wasn’t much else, except for a bit with Cortana’s voice, but Halo Infinite is out in Holiday 2020 and will launch with Xbox Scarlett. So that’s something.

Gears 5 Releases in September, New Escape Mode Revealed

The Coalition’s Gears 5 will be releasing on September 10^th (four days earlier if you own Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or the Ultimate Edition). More details on PvP and Horde are coming later but for now, we got to see a trailer that showcased protagonist Kate Diaz mentally torn in various directions. The Coalition also announced Escape Mode, a three player co-op mode where teams must coordinate to escape from swarms of enemies. You can even challenge other players to Escape missions and compete in the leaderboards.

Cyberpunk 2077 Out in April 2020, A Wild Keanu Reeves Appears

Look, say what you want but CD Projekt RED had the coolest reveal of the show with Cyberpunk 2077. We witnessed a cinematic trailer which seems to indicate the weight of different choices. By the end, Keanu Reeves appeared, telling the player that they “had a city to burn.” If that wasn’t enough, it was announced that Cyberpunk 2077 would be releasing on April 16^th 2020. You had more than our curiosity, CD Projekt RED – now you have our utmost attention (and possible preorders).

FromSoftware’s Elden Ring is Something (And Looks Cool)

Leaked prior to E3 2019, Elden Ring is being developed by FromSoftware with a world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki of Dark Souls fame and George R.R. Martin, the writer of Game of Thrones. None of those leaks could prepare us for the trailer though which features a lone person hammering something, disembodied limbs and warnings of the skies burning. No further details were provided. It’s almost like Miyazaki was exchanging notes with Kojima before the reveal.

Double Fine Productions Joins Xbox Game Studios

Is Double Fine Productions of Broken Age, RAD and Psychonauts 2 fame working on the next Halo or Forza? Thankfully, no but it is the latest studio to be acquired by Microsoft and join the Xbox Game Studios family. Tim Schafer was on hand to present new gameplay footage of Psychonauts 2, which is out later this year, and it looks to capture that perfect mix of creepy and quirky that the original embodied. No release date, sadly, but it’s worth looking forward to.

Ninja Theory Announces Bleeding Edge

Sure, this was probably one of the more underwhelming reveals of E3 2019 but that’s only because it was leaked beforehand. Ninja Theory’s Bleeding Edge is a 4v4 multiplayer brawler with different characters to choose from, a variety of weapons and sick environmental kills. It looks fine in its current state but the feel of the combat and other gameplay details still need to be expanded on. There’s a technical alpha test on June 27^th so hopefully we’ll get our answers then.

Ori and The Will of the Wisps Out in February 2020

How can Moon Studios make Ori and The Will of the Wisps look better and better with each subsequent reveal? We don’t know but this trailer, complete with a nasty giant spider and gorgeous-looking environments, finally decided to give us a release date. Ori and the Will of the Wisps releases on February 11^th 2020 for Xbox One and PC and while it’s skipping this year, all that extra polish should make it worth the wait.

Project xCloud Launching in October

Microsoft already revealed that its own personal cloud-streaming service Project xCloud would allow for streaming Xbox One titles onto various devices. That’s pretty significant in and of itself, especially with over 3500 games currently available for the console. However, at E3 2019, the company revealed that Project xCloud would allow for streaming from your game console to various devices as well, providing a remote play option in the process. Other details, like price, have yet to be revealed but it’s out in October.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is Now Available

Xbox Game Pass launched for PC prior to the Xbox E3 presser and we received further confirmation that titles like Gears 5 and Halo: The Master Chief Collection would be on it. At the presser, however, the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate offer was revealed and made available. For $14.99 per month, you get Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass for PC. An introductory offer of $1 per month further sweetens the deal.

Along with offering backwards compatibility for previous generations of Xbox, Project Scarlett will also support all existing Xbox One controllers and peripherals. This was confirmed in a recent Xbox Wire post, which also noted that your current “Xbox career” would also carry forward. Support for existing Achievements and social contacts seems to be included but more explicit confirmation is needed.

Meanwhile, on the recent episode of Inside Xbox, Xbox boss Phil Spencer outright confirmed that Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One titles would all be playable on Scarlett. Much like the current backwards compatibility scenario on Xbox One, not every game will be supported due to licensing issues and whatnot. But that’s still a pretty hefty library out of the gate for Scarlett.

Project Scarlett will be releasing in Holiday 2020 and utilizes a custom version of AMD’s Zen 2 CPU and Navi technology. 343 Industries’ Halo Infinite will also launch with the console though it’s still coming to Xbox One and Windows 10 PC. Stay tuned for more information on Scarlett in the coming days (and year).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDODX8dZa4c

Microsoft’s E3 presser was a bit of a letdown, but we got one major reveal out of it nonetheless- that of Project Scarlett, which what they’re calling the next generation of Xbox for now (it’s what we’ve been calling it for a while anyway, thanks to numerous leaks).

That said, it wasn’t a full reveal. We didn’t see the box, we didn’t get the proper name (or names) of the console (or consoles), nor did we get information on what the pricing will be. And that’s because Project Scarlett, whatever it is, is more than a year away from launch. So why is it that Microsoft wound up talking about a console in June of 2019 that is not due out till Holiday 2020?

Well, as per head of Xbox Phil Spencer in an interview with The Verge, the company’s experience with the Xbox One X gave them the confidence to do so. Microsoft started speaking about Project Scorpio a long time before it was finally unveiled as Xbox One X, and even longer before it ended up releasing. Spencer says that gave Microsoft the confidence to talk about Scarlett at E3 2019.

“I definitely think doing the announcement of Project Scorpio 18 months-ish before we launched X was good learning and background for us this year,” said Spencer. “I think that’s definitely true. I think that gave us some confidence that we could keep buzz. We also know that we’re going to have dev kits out, developers building games, and I’d rather not have to pretend that something is not happening when everybody knows it is happening.”

“So it puts you in this position of people asking you, ‘What’s the name?’ and I say, ‘We don’t have the name yet,'” he continued. “They ask me about price points and everything else, so you’re in this position of talking about the things that you set. Most importantly, you’re going to talk about what your goals are for the platform. Give people something to look to, so when they hear there’s a game in development that’s launching at a certain date, is it going to support X? And I think our experience with Scorpio gave us the confidence to talk about Scarlett on Sunday.”

Project Scarlett is due out in Holiday 2020, which means we can expect to hear more about it at E3 next year. When it does launch, it will do so with Halo Infinite releasing alongside it as a launch title.

While 343 Industries didn’t reveal any gameplay for Halo Infinite, going instead with the tried-and-true cinematic trailer approach, it did provide some new details on Xbox Wire. Community director Brian Jarrard reiterated the trailer’s use of the Slipspace Engine, like last year’s showing. However, he also confirmed that split-screen support is indeed coming back.

“Like last year’s reveal trailer, this latest look at Halo Infinite is powered by our new Slipspace Engine–an engine built from the ground up to realize our incredibly ambitious aspirations for the future of the franchise. Which yes, also includes the long-awaited return of split-screen support to the series.”

The inclusion is important because Halo 5: Guardians infamously shunned split-screen co-op support. This time, 343 Industries wants to bring back that feeling of progressing through the campaign with a buddy through couch co-op. Time will tell if the story is worth a darn but the campaign should still be fun with friends.

Halo Infinite will be releasing in Holiday 2020 for Project Scarlett, Xbox One, and PC. In the latest trailer, Master Chief was rescued, only to be told that everything has been lost. The infamous Halo ring looms in space but Chief is still ready to fight. Stay tuned for more details on the game – we’ve got a ways to go till release.