After Bethesda’s stellar conference it’s on to another titan, in the pleasingly rectangular shape of Xbox.

Microsoft wasted no time in bringing out the big guns, opening the show with new gameplay from Halo 5: Guardians. Promising seamless interaction between the solo campaign and multiplayer, the trailer ended with a confirmed release date of 27th October 2015.

Moving swiftly on, Xbox treated us to a shiny CGI trailer for new first party exclusive Recore. Continuing a trend for dogs in games (not complaining), the trailer certainly hints at an interesting new IP, to be released in Spring 2016. Captain Phil Spencer then dropped a serious bomb, in the shape of backwards compatability on Xbox One. It remains to be seen how well this will work in practice, but it’s certainly an intriguing (and popular) move.

Rather than another bomb, Xbox then dropped a car on the audience. Literally. A very shiny one, I might add, to add some oomph (if it were needed) to Forza Motorsport 6. Out in September, Forza looks to be everything Forza fans know and love, with added wet weather and 24 car multiplayer.

OH NO THEY DIDN’T. Xbox rattled through the conference at such a pace that the annoucement of Dark Souls 3 may have gone unnoticed, if it hadn’t been Dark Souls 3. Details are very thin on this one at this stage, but we do know it’s heading for a Spring 2016 release.

Ubisoft then jumped on board the good ship Microsoft to showcase an exclusive Beta on Xbox One this December for Tom Clancy’s The Division. Hopefully we’ll get more details on this one in Ubisoft’s own conference. With a bit of Rainbow Six: The Siege footage to close, Ubisoft’s brief holiday on the Xbox stage came to an end.

Xbox then moved on to showcase a whole host of indie titles in development through ID @ XBox, with Ashen looking particularly stylish.

At last, Xbox gave the stage to our favourite adventurer/archaeologist Lara Croft, announcing a release date of November 10th 2015. Same day as Fallout 4. Brave or foolhardy? Either way, Crystal Dynamics showcased some fierce avalanche gameplay to give us our first real taste of Rise Of The Tomb Raider.

To close, Xbox invited us all to a party. A Gears of War party. Starting with the expected announcement of a remaster for Xbox One in the shape of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, the conference ended with new gameplay footage for Gears 4. You’ve got a bit of a wait on this one, however, as it’s not slated for release until the end of 2016.

Xbox certainly came out of the gate strongly this time around, with a good variety of AAA and indie titles and the seismic drop of backwards compatibility on Xbox One. Your move, Sony.