#E3 NEWS! Why is the Xbox One starting to sound good now!?

Microsoft had a very surprising presentation. Like they were finally able to make the Xbox One relevant and interesting!

They announced the return of a few fan favorites, a few exclusive surprises and even a great kicker.

Let's start with that last one - The Xbox One Gets Backwards Compatibility (source courtesy from kotaku).

That's right, apparently you will both be able t load up your digital 360 games AND use 360 discs! Starting this winter! Of course, not all games will work at first, they expect 100 titles to be backwards compatible, let's just hope they don't ditch the service a few months in like they did with the original Xbox > Xbox 360...



You know what I would love? If they also allowed us to use ol' original Xbox games on the Xbox One (heck, it's right there IN the title if you think about it!). Wouldn't you like to be able to play Panzer Dragoon Orta, Jet Set Radio Future or Gun Valkyrie?? (hmm, those are all Sega games... coincidence??)

You know what I also liked? "We won’t charge you to play the games you already own.” Haha! Classic console war-stuff!

Here's some Halo 5 gameplay:



Looking nice, I like the shiny visuals here and there, but to me it looks pretty similar to what I've seen of Halo 4...

You know what actually really impressed me? Cuphead. And unlike's Halo's super-impressive-HD-gritty-graphics, it's just an old school sidescroller platformer. But it has a ton of charm:



A tribute to good ol' 1930s classic cartoons, you just never see stuff like this anymore nowadays. The game simply looks GORGEOUS! Look at all those animations! The art style! The characters! The backgrounds! The tone!

I LOVE IT already! This one's coming to Xbox One and PC in 2016.

Here's a trailer for the new Microsoft-exclusive Rise of the Tomb Raider, the sequel to the last TR reboot people were kinda divised on (some LOVE it, others, meh..):



I'm getting a much better Tomb Raider from this sequel! But it looks like "more of the same".

Out on December on Xbox One.

One of the nicest surprise was the unexpected new ability to play old Rare games on the Xbox One, which is called "Rare Replay". Basically for $30 you will be able to get 30 rare Rare games (I couldn't resist writing that line, sorry!):



This sounds REALLY NEAT!!

I just have one tiny nitpick: Aw, no "Battlemaniacs" or "Battletoads & Double Dragon"...? A shame.. We could have gotten the complete series...

Here's a trailer for Gears of War 4, just Gears 4 apparently:



While it looks... okay. It also looks awfully similar to any previous Gears game in my eyes. Show me a single screen from this game and I wouln't be able to say from which episode it comes from. Which reminds me: I still need to finish Gears of War 2...

And finally, amongst Microsoft's show was also a new trailer for the new (Kojima-less?) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain:



Very cinematic.

And that's it for the Xbox-related E3 post. Next stop - Ubisoft and Sony!