At 5pm British Time today (15th June), gaming’s biggest event of the year, E3, officially kicked off for 2015. Half an hour later, it was Microsoft taking the stage for the first Press presentation of this year’s expo.

The Redmond-based company started their 90-minute session this year with some big guns, in a World Première showcasing game-play footage of Halo 5: Guardians. Microsoft are bigging this up as the first Halo title to be exclusive to XBox One, and for the next five minutes we were treated to a sample of the kind of guns blazing action we can expect from the title. Courtesy of Kotaku, we bring you the footage of the entire five-minute playthrough:

Halo 5: Guardians will be in stores from October 27, 2015.

The phrase “rapturous applause” is often misused when describing audience reactions to E3 Announcements, but today at E3, one announcement by Microsoft got the crowd so hyped that even describing the applause as “rapturous” could be an understatement.

That’s because Microsoft just announced a new feature to the XBox One console that long-term XBox fans have been asking for from pretty much day one of the console’s release. That’s right folks – backwards compatibility is here!

Microsoft has revealed during Day 0 of E3 today that the XBox One is receiving software to allow as many XBox 360 games as possible to be played on the XBox One. Initially only 200 games will be immediately compatible with the new hardware, but the company intends to increase this number over time.

The compatible XBox 360 games will get their own listing in the XBox Live Store, where fans will be able to download the games to their XBox One whenever they like. However, if you own the CD for an XBox 360 title, you can simply insert the disk to the XBox One and you will be offered to download the title immediately to the One once the compatibility is available. What’s more, Microsoft have promised that you will not need to pay again for any of your existing XBox 360 titles to bring them to XBox One – meaning that you’ll potentially be able to bring over your whole library of Xbox 360 games to the One at no cost to you.

The games will play exactly like they did on the 360; and games that include online features will be playable with players still on their 360s using XBox Live. However, you’ll also get to use the XBox One’s native features with the game, such as being able to take in-action screenshots or side-load an app to show alongside the game. Take a look at the video below for the full low-down; meanwhile, we’ll leave the final words to Microsoft:

“If you’ve been holding off from upgrading from your XBox 360, now is definitely the time!”

As of this year, once beloved British developers Rare Ltd celebrate their 30th Anniversary. For the first 16 years of its life, Rare gained a cult following for its creation of several original franchises that each managed to captivate audiences with their quirky characters, fun gameplay and often cheeky sense of humour, whether it would be fun for all ages like Banjo-Kazooie; or for adults only like Conker’s Bad Fur Day. So popular was this company that they became Nintendo’s official second-party developer from 1994 right up until 2002, when they were bought by Microsoft. Since the buyout, the company moved from mainly developing for Nintendo consoles to developing solely for the XBox; and it’s been safe to say the results have been mostly lacklustre.

Today at E3, Microsoft announced a special love-letter project to Rare’s long-term fans to celebrate the developer’s 30th year – and give modern gamers the opportunity to experience the golden era of Rare’s creative nous. Coming this August exclusive to XBox One, Rare and Microsoft will be releasing ‘Rare Replay’, a unique collection of 30 of Rare’s classic titles ported to XBox One. Both of the titles mentioned earlier feature, along with other classic hits such as Battletoads, Jet Force Gemini, Perfect Dark; and even some of the XBox-era hits such as Viva Piñata and Grabbed by the Ghoulies.

As well as being able to play all these classic games in one collection on your XBox, the games will feature Acheivements to demonstrate your progress through each title, with Rare proudly boasting that it is possible to earn “up to 10,000 Gamerscore” from the entire collection. Watch the video below for the Announcement Trailer and to see more of the games on offer:

To emphasis the 30-year Anniversary aspect, Rare announced that the compendium will contain “30 games for $30 – that’s $1 a game!” Sure enough, the game’s retail price has been pitched at $29.99, which for us in the UK translates to £19.99 – which is a pretty sweet deal. Rare Replay is set for release on 4 August 2015/

Do you like demos? Do you like indie games? I hope so, because Nintendo has announced that Wii U owners will be able to download demos for nine different games. All of them are part of the Nindies@Home program.

Starting now and running until 9:59 am PT on June 22, you can download and play the demos. As an added bonus, playing them will grant you a 15% discount on the full games for up to a month after their release.

This is an effort on Nintendo’s part to give people at home a little taste of what its like to actually be at E3 “along with a chance to try some amazing games” before launch, according to Damon Baker, Nintendo’s senior marketing manager of publisher and developer relations.

The games and publishers in ths program currently are:

• Extreme Exorcism from Ripstone
• forma.8 from Mixed Bag
• Freedom Planet from Galaxy Trail
• Lovely Planet from tinybuild and QUICKTEQUILA
• Mutan Mudds Super Challenge from Renegade Kid
• RIVE from Two Tribes
• Runbow from 13AM Games
• Soul Axiom from Wales Interactive
• Typoman from Headup Games and Brainseed Factory

For full details on the games, including release windows, power on that dusty Wii U and head over to the eShop!

The Bethesda conference started out tonight with Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb interviewing some Fallout cosplayers outside the venue. There were some impressive costumes on display. They also interviewed the person at the front of the line, who said he has been waiting 6 years for Fallout 4 and looked quite sweaty and dehydrated.

After a replay of the reveal trailer of Fallout 4, the hosts then moved on to discuss the change in color palette and how the world looks much brighter. And of course, there is a dog.

After some more discussion about Fallout, they moved onto Doom. And played the trailer (which admittedly is 4 seconds long) 4 or 5 times in a gag that got tired very quickly.

Bethesda moved on to an opening montage of their games and then brought out Pete Heinz to the Skyrim theme to introduce their first ever E3 conference. First up on the presentation was a history of Doom, along with Marty Stratton, the Executive Producer of id Software. The first reveal of Doom was interesting to say the least. We started out with a marine moving through a futuristic facility, using the shotgun to take on hordes of enemies. There was plenty of blood and gore on display, but the game looked very sluggish on screen. Granted, the game seemed atmospheric, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t actual gameplay. Also, there was a slow motion effect when switching weapons that seemed very out of place. Also on display were several gruesome executions. Of course, it wouldn’t be Doom without tons of weapons, and all of them were on display. Shotgun, super shotgun, plasma rifle, machine gun and the chainsaw. The chainsaw kills were particularly gruesome, but the same animations were repeated several times. Granted, it is a demo.

Multiplayer on the otherhand, looked fast, snappy and, with one player snagging a powerup and  transforming in to the revenant. It was bloody and frantic looking. They also showed off the new map editor called Snapmap, which allows players to create new maps easily and quickly. They then closed out the Doom segment with a look at hell.  The area was grim, creepy and awesome, showcasing some hard fights with high powered weaponry like the rocket launcher. Near the end, the Cyberdemon made an appearance and then they…cut the trailer right as the BFG was charging up.

Moving back to the wider picture, Bethesda announced Bethesda.net, their own platform for launching all of their games . The next game to be shown off was Battlecry, which looked somewhat like a TF2 clone. While I wasn’t impressed, it may be for some people. They also announced that you can sign up for a beta of the game and it will be coming in 2015.

The next major highlight has to be Arkane Studios coming out on stage. This is the team that brought us Dishonored, and they jumped straight into a trailer for the sequel. Perhaps the biggest reveal was that you will be playing as either Corvo, orEmily Kaldwin and she apparently has the Outsider’s Power. The trailer was stylish, fast paced and stunning. Dishonored 2 will be available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Also announced was Dishonored Definitive Edition, an enhanced version of the game which includes all DLC for Xbox One and PS4.

Next up was a peek at whats coming to Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited. The realm of the Orcs was shown, as were several new areas that looked to be dungeons. Mobile also played a part in the presentation, with the company showing off an Elder Scrolls themed card game called Elder Scrolls Legends. Only art assets were shown, but no actual gameplay. It will be free to play on PC and iPad.

The final presentation was for Fallout 4, after some rather forced jokes about it being the end of the show. Todd Howard director of Bethesda Game Studios took the stage to show off the new game, first talking about the power of games to transport the player to new worlds, and the experiences that they deliver.  They then launched into a montage of concept art for the game, showing some impressive concepts and ideas, including what the world looked like before the bombs fell.

Character creation was up next, allowing you to simply drag your character’s face in real time to create your custom avatar. You can also play as a female. The new game starts before the bombs fell, which is an interesting change from the established formula. As the characters you created head for the vault, a bomb goes off and the screen cuts to black. However, Bethesda refused to reveal much more of the story. They instead cut to post bomb gameplay, 200 years into the future. The open world looked impressive. And, of course, they showed off the dog, highlighting the ability to give the dog contextual commands by simply pointing at the environment and pressing a button. A brief combat section was shown, showcasing the VATS targeting system before moving into a montage of various areas in the game. There was an impressive level of detail on display, although Bethesda’s character animations still leave a bit to be desired.

They also provided a look at the new Pip Boy, showing off the various menus and highlighting the idea of a latered armor system. You can also insert game tapes into your Pip Boy and play Fallout versions of classic games on it. You will also be able to get a real Pip Boy with the collector’s edition of the game, including an app for it for iOS and Android. Keeping with the mobile theme, Fallout Shelter was shown off. This is a 2d game that has you in command of a vault and its dwellers in a kind of cross between the Sims and Progress Quest. The game will be free and they claim it will have no paywalls and they announced it would be available after the conference. Unfortunately, its iOS only.

Jumping back to Fallout 4, they showed off a mode that allows you to build your own settlement and fully customize every aspect of it from lighting to defenses. They were quick to note that it is completely optional, but you will be able to create multiple bases and craft all manner of things. This transitioned into the weapon crafting system, which allows you to use almost any item you find in the game world to modify your weapons and your armor. They then closed the Fallout segment with a combat montage set to trademark Fallout period appropriate music. And…a Teddy Bear cannon…..

Fallout 4 will be released November 10, 2015.

The presentation closed with a thank you from the studio. All in all, a strong showing for Bethesda’s first ever E3 conference.