With Sony not involved in E3 this year as well as the continuing effects of COVID have caused this years event to be very different. E3 always seemed to be overstuffed with gaming news but with this one it seems like all the announcements have been at a sustainable clip. E3 always felt like a fire hose and this year it's more like a fun lawn sprinkler that's out in the yard just the right amount of time. I'm going to lightly cover some fun bits and if you saw something you wanted to mention, drop it in the comments.

Halo Infinite

I'm not sure how, but Halo Infinite multiplayer looks a bit more interesting than the brief single player they showed. I'm still quite excited that Halo Infinite ships with free multiplayer on PC and XBox at launch. I'm not entirely sure what game modes multiplayer will support but it seems there will be a form of capture the flag at a minimum. Another fun aspect of the free to play multiplayer is that since it's free to play on XBox that won't require a Gold or Games Pass subscription to play(yay me).

Starfield

The Microsoft + Bethesda event started out with the reveal of Starfield and the new release date of November 11th 2022. I'm not quite sure what the game will be about but it was a fun trailer and if the actual game looks like that we'll all be in for a treat. Not only will Starfield drop by next years end but Microsoft mentioned it's a PC + XBox exclusive. We all knew when Microsoft bought Bethesda that this meant many of the games would be XBox exclusives and it looks like each new game will be. That said, with the quite low cost of owning a Series S and Games Pass I wonder if it really matters to everyone?

Bethesda Will Not Quit Fallout 76

I'm happy to say that Fallout 76 looks to be getting two new expansions featuring Steel Dawn and The Pitt. Fallout 76 had a somewhat rocky launch but Bethesda has continued to work on it and it's grown to have a fairly large community. I plan on picking it up on the XBox this holiday season on sale and if anyone has any suggestions on which version to get let me know.

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope

Ubisoft revealed Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope which is a new entry in the real time strategy Mario + Rabbids series. I picked up the original Mario + Rabbids game and found the actual real time strategy game play to be incredible. I didn't like the overworld part very much as it felt like a bad version of a Mario game and I just wanted to race to the next strategy fight. The new game looks to feature the same overworld maps and hopefully this time around the over-worlding is a bit more fun.

Microsoft is Game Pass

Which each game Microsoft showed at its press event it seemed it was a day one Game Pass game. Microsoft also noted that for quite some time, Game Pass subscribers would get a new Game Pass game launching. I imagine Microsoft will license other titles along the way making Game Pass an incredibly good deal in gaming. When each new game can cost from $60-$120 depending on which version you buy, Game Pass seems like a steal. I haven't really spent a lot of serious time considering getting Game Pass but it seems like such an incredible value it seems hard to avoid.

We still have a few days left of E3 and I haven't quite watched every stream or read every press release so if you found something interesting let me know in the comments!