 Hi, this is Nick Stout with The Verge. We're here at the Xbox Spring Showcase in San Francisco. Microsoft has brought some of the most anticipated games of 2016 here, and we're going to get to play them. So, Quantum Break, Dark Souls 3, Below, Minecraft for the Oculus Rift. They're all here. Some for Xbox, some for PC, and we're going to get some exclusive gameplay footage as well. Let's get started. This is Dark Souls 3, the newest action RPG by From Software. It's not too much different than the other Dark Souls games, and that's kind of the point. The game is still punishingly difficult. It's still gorgeous in a horrific horror kind of way, and it's still a ton of fun to play. Essentially, you're a nameless character. You get to create yourself, and you're put into this world that you don't really know much about. Nearly everything that moves wants to kill you, and you essentially have to stay alive. If you die, and you're going to die, you're going to die again, and then you're going to keep dying over and over and over again. You get better and better. You get better at the game, and also the game remembers things. It helps you level up by killing enemies, taking the experience from them, and even when you die, you can then try and save it and level up. Dark Souls 3 comes out on March 24th for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. So this is Below. It's a new indie game from Toronto-based studio Capybara Games. I've been excited about this for a really, really long time because, well, it looks really gorgeous. The game is employing a kind of tilt-shift effect for its art style. Basically, parts of the screen are blurred out, and other parts are really in focus. So I guess what the developers were trying to emphasize was a kind of smallness of your character. Everything else seems really ambiguous and large, and you're this really tiny little character who has to fight his way through a dark, cavernous area that you don't really know anything about. We don't really have a release date for Below yet. We know it's coming out in 2016 for both Xbox One and PC, although its Xbox exclusivity is not permanent. So it'll come out for PlayStation 4 sometime in the future. This is Quantum Break. It's a new game coming from a development studio called Remedy Entertainment. It's out on April 5th for Xbox One and Windows. Essentially, it's kind of like a movie-video game hybrid, and that makes sense too because it has a digital live-action TV show component. Remedy says that your choices in the game should affect what you see on the actual television show. There's actors who are in the game, and they're also in the TV show. I can't tell you their names right now, though I do recognize them. There's Iceman from X-Men, there's one of the hobbits from Lord of the Rings, and Littlefinger from Game of Thrones. So they've got the whole modern fantasy cast. The game is about some sort of quantum anomaly where you can control and stop time, and you can fight enemies as if you were some kind of superhero, but it's supposed to be based in real-world theoretical physics. Right now I'm playing Minecraft in the Oculus Rift for Windows 10. It's right now in beta, but it's going to be launching with the Oculus Rift in the spring when the headset starts shipping. For being a pixel art game, the VR experience right now is incredibly immersive, actually. It takes a little bit getting used to, because sometimes you have to kind of reorient your body. Essentially, this is just the full Minecraft experience in VR. I imagine this is going to be hugely, hugely popular for lots of Minecraft players. Microsoft has given us a pretty good preview of what's to come in 2016. For more information, check out theverge.com and subscribe to us on YouTube at youtube.com slash theverge.
 Hi, this is Nick Stout with The Verge.
 We're here at the Xbox Spring Showcase in San Francisco.
 Microsoft has brought some of the most anticipated games of 2016 here, and we're going to get
 to play them.
 So, Quantum Break, Dark Souls 3, Below, Minecraft for the Oculus Rift.
 They're all here.
 Some for Xbox, some for PC, and we're going to get some exclusive gameplay footage as
 well.
 Let's get started.
 This is Dark Souls 3, the newest action RPG by From Software.
 It's not too much different than the other Dark Souls games, and that's kind of the point.
 The game is still punishingly difficult.
 It's still gorgeous in a horrific horror kind of way, and it's still a ton of fun to play.
 Essentially, you're a nameless character.
 You get to create yourself, and you're put into this world that you don't really know
 much about.
 Nearly everything that moves wants to kill you, and you essentially have to stay alive.
 If you die, and you're going to die, you're going to die again, and then you're going
 to keep dying over and over and over again.
 You get better and better.
 You get better at the game, and also the game remembers things.
 It helps you level up by killing enemies, taking the experience from them, and even
 when you die, you can then try and save it and level up.
 Dark Souls 3 comes out on March 24th for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
 So this is Below.
 It's a new indie game from Toronto-based studio Capybara Games.
 I've been excited about this for a really, really long time because, well, it looks really
 gorgeous.
 The game is employing a kind of tilt-shift effect for its art style.
 Basically, parts of the screen are blurred out, and other parts are really in focus.
 So I guess what the developers were trying to emphasize was a kind of smallness of your
 character.
 Everything else seems really ambiguous and large, and you're this really tiny little
 character who has to fight his way through a dark, cavernous area that you don't really
 know anything about.
 We don't really have a release date for Below yet.
 We know it's coming out in 2016 for both Xbox One and PC, although its Xbox exclusivity
 is not permanent.
 So it'll come out for PlayStation 4 sometime in the future.
 This is Quantum Break.
 It's a new game coming from a development studio called Remedy Entertainment.
 It's out on April 5th for Xbox One and Windows.
 Essentially, it's kind of like a movie-video game hybrid, and that makes sense too because
 it has a digital live-action TV show component.
 Remedy says that your choices in the game should affect what you see on the actual television
 show.
 There's actors who are in the game, and they're also in the TV show.
 I can't tell you their names right now, though I do recognize them.
 There's Iceman from X-Men, there's one of the hobbits from Lord of the Rings, and Littlefinger
 from Game of Thrones.
 So they've got the whole modern fantasy cast.
 The game is about some sort of quantum anomaly where you can control and stop time, and you
 can fight enemies as if you were some kind of superhero, but it's supposed to be based
 in real-world theoretical physics.
 Right now I'm playing Minecraft in the Oculus Rift for Windows 10.
 It's right now in beta, but it's going to be launching with the Oculus Rift in the spring
 when the headset starts shipping.
 For being a pixel art game, the VR experience right now is incredibly immersive, actually.
 It takes a little bit getting used to, because sometimes you have to kind of reorient your
 body.
 Essentially, this is just the full Minecraft experience in VR.
 I imagine this is going to be hugely, hugely popular for lots of Minecraft players.
 Microsoft has given us a pretty good preview of what's to come in 2016.
 For more information, check out theverge.com and subscribe to us on YouTube at youtube.com
 slash theverge.