Today’s Microsoft Xbox press conference before the start of E3 contained a huge number of announcements—mostly games—that will most certainly drive Microsoft and the Xbox One console into the holiday season as the year rounds up.

First and foremost, the announcement from Microsoft that backwards compatibility is coming to the Microsoft Xbox One should ring true to many owners who have huge Xbox 360 libraries and no way to play their games. If anything, this might be the tipping point for a lot of 360 owners to actually upgrade their machine—that is if they don’t take one look at the games coming out for Xbox One and buy one now.

SiliconANGLE is currently hosting a Crowdchat about the E3 press conferences (Xbox included) and you can join in on Twitter if you’re interested.

There were a lot of games announced at the conference so here’s a few editor’s picks to whet your appetite.

Halo 5: Guardians

Microsoft intends to impress with the release of Halo 5: Guardians, the newest installment in a long-running series that has kept players on their toes, even with regenerating shields. In this game, science fiction superstar Nathan Fillion (of Firefly fame as Captain Mal) will be voicing one of the Spartans during a hunt for the missing (and possibly rogue) Master Chief.

The gameplay demo gave a lot to chew on with great graphics, a massive story arc, and team-based combat. Looks like the Spartans will be in up to their power-armored necks trying to get at Master Chief wherever he has gone.

A new Warzone multiplayer feature will be added that will put 24 players against one another in a massive battlefield including AI-controlled enemies.

@kytsune 24 players, or as Planetside 2 calls it, a small squad. #e32015 http://t.co/7RriXJ0ttP

— Eric David (@LiteralEric) June 15, 2015

The entire package is expected to hit the shelves Oct. 27 this year.

Gigantic

As MOBAs such as League of Legends and DOTA 2 continue to dominate the landscape of that genre, it’s interesting to see what kind of games are on the horizon. One in particular is Mogita, Inc.’s Gigantic¸ with a closed beta fast-approaching August this year, should be a massive contender.

Gigantic is a cel-shaded MOBA game where players will be thrown into the battlefield to stop an enemy team, as well as support their own “guardian.” The guardians are giant creatures which dominate the battlefield and push forward towards the center—of course, both teams have guardians so in most matches they will clash in the center in a sort of Godzilla vs. Mothra sort of battle. The winner may depend largely on how well the supporting team keeps the guardian intact and how heavily they hinder the enemy’s guardian.

Forza Motorsports 6

Racing games have become a staple of every console release and with each iteration the cars get faster, the roads glisten with shimmer with more sunlight, and we can almost see our reflection through the TV in the chrome bumpers. Forza Motorsports 6 is no exception to this rule. Ford Motor Company lead the presentation out by lowering an extremely expensive-looking vehicle into the auditorium.

Tom Clancy’s The Division

Ubisoft’s much anticipated, and much delayed, Tom Clancy’s The Division appeared briefly at the press conference with a very short segment. This is a title that the SiliconANGLE staff has been waiting on for years it seems and it looks like there may finally be a release date sometime early in 2016. It’s hard to say because very little information came along with the new trailer, but time will tell.

I think that we’re looking at Tom Clancy’s The Division right now on Xbox’s press conf, yep that’s what… #e32015 http://t.co/DdHkcFpjGk

— kytsune (@kytsune) June 15, 2015

The Rise of the Tomb Raider

Anyone in gaming can tell you at least a little about Laura Croft and the Tomb Raider franchise—it has been with us for almost two decades. So the most recent iteration on this game series Rise of the Tomb Raider is catching quite a few eyeballs and the game demo from Microsoft’s Xbox E3 2015 press conference spared no expense.

On stage, the audience saw Laura Croft and her companion scale the sheer, icy rocks of a cliff face and clamber through an avalanche. They also saw what looked like quick-time events (hit ‘X’!) and a lot of interesting rock climbing parkour.

We expect to see Rise of the Tomb Raider to hit the Xbox One November this year.

Gears of War 4: Gearing up for Betrayal

In the presentation for Gears of War 4 viewers got themselves an in-the-face view of monsters that have a surprising dental issue: they have tentacles instead of teeth. Unfortunately, the trailer of the gameplay from GoW4 was also really dark so it was hard to see much of anything for most of the run (to be fair, the players were delving through some dimly lit underground caverns…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b43JfcIjO4c

During the presentation we learned other things. Such as when your companion tells you not to touch something, you probably should not touch it—one such incident led to a shorted out flashlight (and further darkness.)

According to earlier coverage about Gears of War 4 the game will involve an element of “betrayal,” or at least managing betrayal. For a better outlook on what this means for the game beyond the presentation at the Xbox conference see this 2014 coverage from Kenny McDonnel at Moviepilot.com.

The franchise appears to be continuing its face-paced gameplay with ugly monsters and strange eerie alien worlds without breaking a sweat. We expect more news on Gears of War 4 to be coming to us soon.

Photo credit: Microsoft Corp, Rise of the Tomb Raider.