Halo 5 Beta coming 29th December

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I feel strangely unmoved. After giving the thumbs-up to Xbox’s showing at E3, their Gamescom conference was a modest affair that kept its head down.

If you missed the event, here are the top five take-aways from their show in Germany.

1. What? Seriously?

It was a benign start; Crystal Dynamics were dragged onto the stage, discussed Rise of the Tomb Raider (following up their reboot which birthed a tiger-murdering icon) and seemed ready to leave without making a mark. Then they announced, almost by-the-by, that their game would be an Xbox One exclusive. The what now?

The best of Xbox One at Gamescom 2014
Lara’s sent many PS4 fans to therapy with her exclusivity announcement (Pic: YouTube)
MORE: Rise of the Tomb Raider is exclusive to Xbox

Calling this a ‘surprise’ would be an understatement of the biggest variety. There was initial confusion over whether this deal was permanent, but due to talk of it being ‘only on Xbox’ during 2015 my guess is that it’s timed. That’s great for execs, advertisers and Microsoft fans. Not so much for anyone else.

2. Annnnnd in the blueeeee corner…


If anything’s leapt up my list of ‘cringe-worthy staging’ during Gamescom, it’d be awkward sports narration of multiplayer matches.

We were treated to this via Evolve’s developers as they ran commentary on a battle against their latest monster, the Kraken. The amusing ludicrousness helped brighten up the show. Especially thanks to them wearing baseball caps backward. Nailed it.

3. Quantum awesome


One of the highlights of Gamescom was a public reveal of Quantum Break’s gameplay, proving that Alan Wake and Max Payne live on in spirit despite their own franchises losing steam.

Mining the writer’s penchant for storytelling with ‘stutters’ which freeze scenes, the potential of these set-pieces was hinted at via the notion that, in some cases, time would loop or crash into itself.

Seeing cars explode under fire before rebuilding themselves was a neat trick, as was a fight trapped purely within a stutter.

MORE: Halo 5 Beta coming 29th December

As for the painkiller-addled detective, his gunplay has evolved into something even more cinematic thanks to powers that let you slow time for dashes out of cover (flanking foes in the process) or beat-downs.

This gives a chance to mess with enemies, as they quickly become confused as to where you are. One second you’re in their sights, and the next… you’ve as good as vanished.

4. No-one’s too small