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The Ascent looks fantastic, it just keeps looking better and better every time we see it and I cannot wait to play it.
The fishing game, I can't remember the exact name, but I believe it was called MoonBay or something, that looks good too. I can definitely see myself spending a fair few hours with it.
I thought it was a good showing tbh, plenty of games that I'm looking forward to playing.
The fishing game, I can't remember the exact name, but I believe it was called MoonBay or something, that looks good too. I can definitely see myself spending a fair few hours with it.
I thought it was a good showing tbh, plenty of games that I'm looking forward to playing.
I hope they port the first 2.
They did the same thing with Gunvolt Luminous Avenger IX where they ported the side story character game and none of the Gunvolt series. It's like porting Megaman Zero before any of the Megaman games.
i just check the developpeur from the ascent....on wikipedia they said this is a 11 team member ! And the studio was create in 2018....this is clearly the kind of studio that microsoft should invest a lot of money on them !
They have a lot of talent, they work fast , they build a new ip, and clearly making a great game in a short of time and with not a lot of member.
They have a lot of talent, they work fast , they build a new ip, and clearly making a great game in a short of time and with not a lot of member.
The founders came from MachineGames.
Due to exposure to demo scene radiation, these types of Swedish developers have mutated into super game devs.
Probably over double that if you include EA Play coming to PC game pass.
Was I the only one watching yesterday, holding my breath for My Summer Car to make an appearence?
I think Xbox needs GOTY candidate franchises (90+ MC) like Gears of War trilogy, Uncharted, God of War, Zelda and etc.
Avowed, Perfect Dark and inXile's AAA RPG are my GOTY candidates for this generation. If XGS and ZeniMax studios can put GOTY cadidates or winners every year starting from 2021, I think we can say Xbox's lack of exclusives problem solved.
Damn I hadn't even considered. It won't be that long until the slogan becomes "over 1000 games".
Between Avowed, Perfect Dark, inXile's RPG, Fable, Starfield, Elder Scrolls 6, Outer Worlds 2 (or whatever that studio decides to make next), Halo: Infinite, Gears 6, Hellblade 2, and Forza Horizon 5, there's a very good chance we'll be drowning in GOTY candidates in the next few years, not to mention things like Everwild, State of Decay 3, Compulsion's new game, and any future games by ID/Arkane/Machinegames/Tango/Double Fine which all could be GOTY candidates as well. Let's just say we as Xbox gamers are in a very good place and, me personally, I'm quite excited for the future
That would only devalue the library.
They use "over 100" for psychological reasons, because that sounds more like curated, high-quality library of games rather than "here are a thousand whatever games you won't ever have the time for anyway".
It's is. I like it much better than Control. The time machine specs and design were well thought out. It's probably the best time machine design ever. The gameplay and powers were top notch too. I really liked the game, but being on the One was a death sentence. Same game made for the Series X would have sold much better.
Control started as a 8/10 game for me then ended up as a 4/10 or 5/10 game. Huge disappointment.
Recently replayed it on series S. Still my second favorite remedy game after alan wake
Welcome to the family 👍. It should hopefully prove to be an exciting time for the Xbox family this gen.
Agreed. But I wanna exclude ZeniMax(that's just me) because people believe XGS can't "hang" without them. GOTY or not I bet $100 that either Avowed, Perfect Dark or Fable gonna score at least lower 80s minimum. I don't talk about inXile's game because it seems to be further away. But this summer's E3 should be very interesting.
True, it had great graphics, set pieces, solid gameplay and and a very good story, brilliant game!
It's honestly one of my favorite games of all time, though I'm definitely biased in that I have a strong bias towards any game with time travel or time manipulation as a major part (even a game like Timeshift which 99% of people have probably never heard of, let alone played lol), I'm sad there hasn't been (and probably unlikely ever to be) a sequel to Quantum Break
100% Agree. The idea of episodic content via the TV show was just too early. Still wish it got a real patch to sort things.
The TVTVTV, SportsSportsSports image that many had of Xbox at the time really hurt it. It made it seem like the tv show aspect was forced by the publisher rather than a creative decision.
It's that time of the year again. Here are my early Xbox/Bethesda summer showcase predictions. As always, I write these purely for entertainment value and they're not necessarily why I expect or even think might happen. After Marano gave me a hard time for some of the more outlandish stuff I've included in the past, I decided to make these a little more grounded. Yes, this is very long, but I was writing for two publishers now. I have spoiler-tagged some common questions with additional information.
The traditional "Xbox Game Studios" title screen is shown with a few new upgrades for upcoming titles.
The show starts with an interesting sight, the Compulsion Games title screen. It's a reveal trailer very similar to the original We Happy Few reveal in 2016. It's a dark parody of Willy Wonka. A beloved pharmaceutical industry legend is aging and has an open and ongoing competition, he locks you in the factory at the heart of his ongoing pharmaceutical empire. If you can escape by dawn, the empire is yours. Many have tried over the past three years since the contest started, never to be seen again, but no one has succeeded and interest is waning. The vast-majority of the public still loves the company, but a vocal minority has come out in opposition to the contest and the implied loss of life. We see the main character, a sullen and detached young woman, who decides she has nothing to lose (or maybe more accurately, nothing to live for) and wants to attempt the eccentric tycoon's challenge. The art style is a clear evolution of what we saw in We Happy Few with gorgeous lighting and textures.
The next shot we see is the woman putting on a watch as the old man locks her in an office. The game operates in real-time, giving the player eight hours to escape the factory. It is a third-person action game with puzzle, platforming, and horror elements. From the brief section of CGI clearly intended to be indicative of the gameplay, it's like a strange mix of Control, Portal, and We Happy Few. We see a small taste of the character using weapons, pharmaceuticals, and fun traversal options to navigate the factory and conquer the horrors within. They won't say this, but there's multiple ways to exit the factory and different paths you can take. It's wide-linear, but you can absolutely miss secrets and other important information if you go too quickly or aren't paying attention. There will be an easy mode without a timer as well.
The trailer ends with a title, Fever Dream, but no release information is given.
Next, we see the Double Fine logo, followed by a Psychonauts 2 titles screen, before we launch immediately into gameplay. We see a short cutscene from early in the game that continues to set up the story before Raz starts moving through the environment. He's running through a forest that serves to help bridge the story between the first and second games. We see some tight platforming and combat and it's clear that the game's delay was well-served as the lighting and colors look great. We see at least one section with an odd mode of transportation where Raz jumps on an ostrich and it becomes an on-rails shooter temporarily before we see a short clip of a boss fight before the gameplay abruptly cuts.
We see a short clip of Tim Schafer saying they're excited to announce that Psychonauts 2 will be launching in July on Xbox consoles, PS4, PC, Linux, and Mac and it will be included in GamePass on the same day.
Matt Booty is shown in a professionally-produced, pre-recorded video (similar to the Xbox Games Showcase from last year). He says that Xbox Game Studios is in a period of growth and transformation and he couldn't be prouder of the progress they've made and the work they're doing. He references the Fever Dream trailer, saying that it's early in development, but they couldn't wait any longer to share. He also mentions that Psychonauts 2 is an incredible step forward for a legendary game studio and creator Tim Schafer.
Booty "warns" fans that this Xbox Game Showcase will be a bit different than shows they've done in the past. All the games shown are being published by Xbox Game Studios and will be launching on day one on Xbox GamePass. If you're looking for the latest from ID@Xbox or Xbox third-party partners, they will have more information to share as the summer goes on.
In order to keep the games coming, Booty says that he's excited to introduce their next guest. It's someone he's wanted to work with for a long time and this legendary video game creator is working with the Xbox publishing team on his next title. He thanks the audience and tells them to enjoy the show.
It's a stormy night in the presented city and the ray tracing is turned up to eleven. You can clearly hear the raindrops hitting the window and the sound of thunder in the distance. The old-fashioned cars driving tells us this game is likely set in the 1950's or 1960's. Just as you're beginning to be impressed by the streetlights being seen in the reflection of the puddles gathered on the sidewalk, the hum of the power fades and the fixed lights all shut off, leaving only the headlights and taillights of the cars in the street. It's a blackout. The camera pans to the right and through an apartment window, we see a dimly lit room from an open fireplace and the glow of a lit cigarette beside a seated man. The perspective shifts to a first-person view of a man in the same room as closes his book. He sets it on his end table and grabs his cigarette and puts it in his mouth. He is in a wheelchair and uses both arms to propel himself to the window overlooking the city. He gets to the window and recognizes the blackout. Just as he's about to take another drag from his cigarette, we hear a loud, pleading scream, "Help me!"
The scene cuts to black and all that's left is the sound of the storm outside. "Hideo Kojima Presents… Project Cimmerian," is shown on screen before we get a little more information. The first "episode" is coming in 2022.
Kojima is shown on screen in the same professionally-shot, pre-recorded video format used for Booty's segment. Kojima says that he's excited about the episodic format because it will allow him to take bigger risks as a creator and he's excited about the concept. He's happy to be working with Xbox and he specifically thanks Ninja Theory for providing him and his studio with their state-of-the-art technical tools to help him create life-like environments.
A gameplay trailer for Age of Empires 4 is shown. We see a few shots of the campaign, which appears to have taken cues from Halo Wars 2 and we see clips for a new "Siege" mode that serves as the Age of Empires equivalent of Halo Wars 2's Firefight mode. You (and up to three friends) battle waves of enemy units. You earn credits as you eliminate enemies you can use to improve your town. The game is coming to PC "first," but is eventually planned to come to console, playable with a mouse and keyboard or controller (using very dumbed-down controls). They are focusing on PC at launch to show they're committed to making AoE4 a strategy powerhouse.
The trailer ends with a "Spring 2022" release window and a reminder that it's launching on Xbox GamePass for PC.
A trailer for the full release of Grounded is shown set to "All The Small Things" by blink-182. It shows a bit of the story, which is told by the robot BURG.L. The general theme of the story seems to be focused around returning to a normal size. The new update will include a full, complete story (for now), new weapons and armor, a weapons and armor upgrade system, new creatures, new biomes through an expansion to the yard, and the addition of pets.
The full release has caught a bit of a delay, with a "Spring 2022" release window.
A trailer begins with a car pulling up to the edge of a cliff leading most to believe it's Forza time, but the door swings open and a character walks to the edge of the cliff. It was a double-twist. It's Forza Horizon 5. We see the traditional Forza Horizon reveal trailer, but it's not entirely clear what the location is at first. We see beautiful mountains and a bustling, modern city. Dangerous, twisting mountain roads and barely visible dirt roads are contrasted by "highways to nowhere" that seemingly go on forever through desolate areas. We see cars zipping around glaciers, deserts, and waterfalls. The trailer ends with the same car from the beginning of the trailer pulling into a dark warehouse and the character getting out and throwing the breaker, lighting the warehouse and revealing rows and rows of cars and other car paraphernalia like massive posters, trophies, and outfits.
Ralph Fulton is shown in the same style as Booty and Kojima and welcomes us to Forza Horizon 5, set in Chile. He does a voiceover while providing the traditional Horizon walkthrough. The highlights from Chile showcased include Santiago, the nation's capital and Patagonia. Fulton mentions the team putting significant work into the "driving environment." Weather was expanded, adding more realistic weather effects and creating more realistic driving conditions caused by the weather. They also changed the way they approach roads and traffic, creating more realistic situations like zipping in and out of traffic and allowing you to learn "shortcuts" to more quickly navigate congested areas. They've also added more interactive locations. Things like car dealerships, fuel stations, and mechanics give you more places to explore and make changes to your vehicles.
Fulton breaks down Forza Horizon 5's technical improvements next. It's an evolution of Forza Horizon 4, not a re-invention. The game features enhanced lighting effects on Xbox Series and PC and the next-gen SSD allows them to transform the way you play. The game features instant car swaps to make it easier to try all kinds of cars in different situations. The SSD also allowed them to approach map design differently through the use of what they're calling "Shortcuts." Shortcuts are designated points on the map that allow you to instantly access a place that would have previously been inaccessible. For example, a mountain is too steep to drive up it, but you can use a shortcut to access the top of the mountain, where there's a small track for high-stakes races. One last SSD improvement is "Forza Reset." Like setting up a line in a skateboarding game, Forza Reset allows you to set a point for your car to return to to make sure you can try to pull off the perfect drift no matter how much practice it takes.
The Horizon Festival is taking a year off and has instead been replaced by the Horizon Warehouse. It's a great way to show off your cars and other achievements in the game. On top of the traditional racing you've come to love and expect from Horizon, they've got a ton of new ways to play. The new first-person mode and improved narrative content expand the game's horizons. There's photography activities. They've greatly expanded the photo mode, allowing you to set up remote cameras, replay your best moments from the perspective of a drone, and even take pictures in first person of your car parked in the most scenic points in Chile. The game will grade your pictures and the activities will challenge you with different restrictions. You can share your favorite pictures with friends, on the Forza Hub, and even hang giant versions of them up in your warehouse. You can test drive concept vehicles, both on closed tracks and in the "real world" of Forza Horizon. If you earn a good reputation with the automobile manufacturers, you will earn gifts for your warehouse. There are more practical car-based jobs like providing courier services across Chile. The more you collect, the more things you get in your warehouse. Even traditional Forza tasks like creating liveries will earn you hardware. As you increase your influence, your standing in the Chilean car community will improve, opening up new opportunities. Another way to increase your influence is by creating content for social media by performing goofy stunts. The stunt shown in the walkthrough is car soccer.
Fulton is excited for the future of Horizon and can't wait for everyone to get their hand on it in September on Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC.
A new trailer is shown for As Dusk Falls. We get a little more context for the story and we get some idea how the gameplay is going to work. It's obviously story-driven, but I am incredibly curious to see how you progress through the story because the filtered-picture artstyle looks great.
The trailer ends with a release date in August.
A new trailer is shown for the CrossfireX campaign. It's a high-octane trailer with a nice combination of story cutscenes and obvious gameplay sections. The fact that it's being developed by Remedy is highlighted several times and the trailer is probably set to a catchy trailer song. I personally hope it's "Seven Nation Army" and not "Praise You" by Fat Boy Slim, but we all know how much Xbox loves Fat Boy Slim, so we'll see.
The trailer does end with a bit of a surprise. The CrossfireX campaign is launching on Xbox GamePass the same day it releases in July.
It's time for another publishing title, but I don't really have a target studio in mind, so I'll break down some available options instead. I think this will be a bigger game (Premium AA or AAA) and was probably originally intended to hit the launch window of the Xbox Series S and X, but was delayed by the pandemic. I generally think that Xbox is going to start showing externally-developed games closer to launch (with some rare exceptions, like Kojima), which would explain why we haven't seen it yet. I think it's probably launching in the first half of 2022. If we assume those parameters are true, the studio/team would have had to have finished their previous game in 2016 or 2017, allowing for 3-4 years development time on this game (in order to hit the initial launch window). Here's a few options with some other thoughts.
A trailer is shown for the first major Wasteland 3 expansion. It's set after the events of the main game and takes place on an entirely new map in Arizona. It's a standalone expansion, but you can bring your character over from the main game or create one that is immediately progressed to an appropriate level. inXile is doing some really cool stuff with the game's timeline and you can go to any point in the timeline late in the game to change the decisions you made and observe their impact leading into the expansion. It's got a shorter mainline story, because there's two mainline quest lines based on the decisions you made in Wasteland 3 and you can experience them both with the timeline system.
The expansion is launching in June and included with GamePass.
A short trailer is shown for Microsoft Flight Simulator's console launch. It's very similar in tone and style to the other MFS trailers and is really just to announce the release date. It's fully playable with the controller (and they address that in the trailer) and It's coming in July.
It's time for Halo. Joseph Staten is shown and he says he's excited to show you the first look at one of the Halo Infinite campaign missions. He provides light narration while we see the demo. Chief is in some kind of facility we've never seen before and is waiting for a file to download. We are not given much context because they're trying to preserve the mystery. Chief is talking to the pilot we've seen in the other trailers through a radio and he plans to meet him on the roof of the facility. The file finishes and Chief heads up the stairs, but there's several enemies in his way. He uses stealth to get past the first group, then takes out a patrolling grunt by using the grappling hook to pull him into an air vent where he silently assassinates him.
When Chief gets to the roof, he sees the pilot in the distance, but his Falcon gets shot down. As the Falcon is going down, an alarm starts blaring and enemies start pouring onto the roof. Chief fights through them and has no choice but to go back into the building. The next sequence is Chief using all his tools to get through the building as enemies are patrolling. It's a little different than other Halo games, because you seem to have more options to get through the building other than just a straight fight. Chief finds himself in the building's garage just as a lockdown kicks in and the doors slam shut. Staten mentions that a glowing terminal in the corner of the room would lift the lockdown, but he has other plans. He hops into a Banished Ghost that's in the garage and fires at the door until it's visibly weakened before ramming through it to escape the building. After he's out, a few other vehicles follow in pursuit with Chief heading towards the smoke of the downed Falcon, but the demo ends there.
Staten says he can't wait for everyone to play Halo when it launches in November on GamePass, but that's not all. He also introduces Halo Cliffnotes. He says that many people who have GamePass may have never experienced a Halo game before, so they wanted to give everyone an easy way to catch up. It's an interactive experience that is a supercut of the story so far, with a ton of the game's cutscenes and some of the best missions (roughly 15) all playable and edited into one tidy package. He also mentions that if you want the full experience, you can check out the Master Chief Collection and Halo 5 on Xbox GamePass. He says that it wouldn't be Halo without multiplayer, so he's leaving us with a trailer highlighting the newest way to play online, the all new Big Team Battle.
We get a brief overview of the new Big Team Battle. It's a 64 vs. 64 objective-based mode with a heavy emphasis on squad play (allowing you to spawn on your squadmates, like Battlefield) and vehicles. They show the mode in action in a format similar to the Sea of Thieves gameplay from E3 2016. They have "regular" Halo fans playing the mode with their video on screen (like they're streaming) and capture their reaction. It's complete anarchy. The game mode is Capture the Flag and the map is two very tall multileveled towers on opposite ends of a massive island. At one point, the opposing team has the flag carrier dead to rights so he grapples an enemy banshee and his friend scoops him in a Falcon before he falls to his death. It is very high-octane and seems to be a more streamlined way to play all the best parts of something like Warzone. The trailer ends with the announcement of flighting starting in August, focused on the new Big Team Battle. Flighting is exclusive to GamePass, to the outcry of many.
A short trailer is shown for Minecraft. It's getting an Xbox Series update with an updated graphics package including raytracing. They've included a few new colored lighting options to allow people to really go nuts and it looks so, so sharp. It's coming to Xbox Series S and X this July.
Next up is Hellblade 2. It's a story trailer. We learn what happened to Senua since the events of the first game and get a little context for what the second game entails. We get a few brief shots of gameplay towards the end of the trailer. It looks impressive and like the combat has been much more fleshed-out, but people still question if the footage is "real-time" or if the game is actually going to look like that. It's a bit of a low-key showing for Ninja Theory, but they're trying to preserve the mystery and not overexpose the game, but it is given a release window at the end of the trailer, "2022."
Phil Spencer is shown with Matt Booty and Pete Hines. He thanks everyone for watching and says the show is not over. Bethesda's Summer Showcase will be starting two hours after the conclusion of the Xbox Games Showcase so everyone has time to refuel and rewatch some of the great things they've shown so far.. Pete adds they have a lot of cool things to show and mentions that he may just have to get Todd Howard on stage to celebrate the new partnership (*wink*). Booty finishes, "Until then, here's one more thing…"
(Note: I originally wrote this game demo approximately one year ago, but I love it, so I'm putting it in here again. If this is what Everwild is, I will be very, very excited because I love the concept.)
The Everwild-esque Rare title card is shown.The rumors are true. It's a "god" game where you create a character and serve as the keeper of the "Island of Branwen." The island is a massive expanse of nature that spans different biomes and has many defining features, including mountains, waterfall, and even a section of tundra that is permanently frozen. You create your character based on templates that are based on common characters from European (mainly Irish, Welsh, and Scottish) folklore. While Sea of Thieves was about creating your own narrative, Everwild is focused on both tending to the island, which is a massive area with different wildlife living in harmony, and playing through structured narrative experiences. There's a heavy focus on co-op play, both in maintaining the garden and playing through the narrative sections.
One narrative section is demoed. The story is told by a whimsical voice that is positioned as a retelling of a fable by the gods' themselves. Several animals in the grassland section of the garden are being killed. A huge part of the game is maintaining "balance." Yes, some animals need to kill each other to survive, but as the keeper, one of your responsibilities is ensuring a healthy balance between predator and prey and making sure an area is not over-hunted. The animals that were killed were small rabbit-like creatures and their numbers are dwindling. As keeper, you re-assign them to another section of the island, where they have no natural predators, to rebuild their species. All the information about balance is detailed in a cave painting at the middle of the island (but is also available in a menu if you hate immersion).
You then track the predator to a cave, where we see a small, basic combat section (the keeper has a staff, but other means are available) that ends in the wolf-like beast being subdued. Alternatively, you could create traps to contain the wolf. The purpose of the combat is purely restraint and if you hurt the animal too much the species can become more aggressive semi-permanently (if aggressive, you can spend time nurturing the species to restore balance) . The player gathers some natural materials (berries and leaves) to create a bandage for the wolf. Upon observing its behavior, it becomes obvious that the wolf does not belong in the grasslands. It's thick fur coat and an overabundance of prey in the ice biome make it a good fit, so it's re-assigned. Upon completion and the restoration of harmony, we see the character go to a stone shrine and light come from the sky into the keeper's staff. The staff is then used to upgrade the island in different ways. We see a short clip of the wolf living in harmony in the ice biome and the rabbits returning to the grasslands.
The game is Everwild and it's coming in 2022, however, they will begin "flighting" in the Fall.
Rather than the traditional Xbox montage to close the show, we instead see a countdown timer for the start of the Bethesda show.
When the countdown hits 0:00, the first thing we see is a black and white photo of Robert Altman with the simple caption, "To the journey…" It fades to black and the screen stays black for fifteen seconds, as sort of a digital moment of silence.
It's Bethesda, so we launch right into a high-energy show with an AC/DC song. We see a demon in hell from Doom, then a dragon land on the ground in Skyrim, then BJ Blazkowicz shooting at Nazis in Wolfenstein. We go back to the demon and the perspective shifts to who he's fighting. It's Steve from Minecraft with a diamond sword. The dragon is shown and the perspective shifts, it's Banjo and Kazooie and they look a bit worried. BJ Blazkowicz is shown again and the perspective shifts. He's fighting alongside Master Chief, who has the shotgun from Halo.
Phil Spencer is back. He says that he's really happy to be partnered with Bethesda and he can't wait to see how Bethesda approaches using the Xbox characters in their games. Pete Hines comes out and interrupts him, letting him know that they're actually doing their own thing. Phil looks a bit surprised, but ultimately approves. Pete Hines says, "Now that that's out of the way, let's get this show on the road. Welcome to the Bethesda Summer Showcase."
A new motion graphic is shown. It's similar to the Xbox Game Studios introduction, but has a Bethesda-flavored twist and features a very subtle Xbox reference.
We immediately are launched into the first game. It's Wolfenstein. Blazkowicz is describing what happened in the days immediately following the second game.
Before the Germans "won," a group of American scientists were working on a weapon to end wars (obvious parallels to the Manhattan Project). The Nazis have tracked down and systematically eliminated all the scientists involved, but one is still MIA. His name is Dicky Bradbury (an amalgamation of the scientists involved in the Manhattan project). Dicky actually left the project early and "stole a bunch of his work." Rumors, or maybe more accurately legends, say that he's incredibly distrustful of the government and organized power so he's hidden himself away in Alaska and gone mad. Alaska has actually become a "hot spot" for Nazi activity with signs pointing to an impending conflict between Russia and the Nazis.
Terror Billy is public enemy number one, so the belief is that BJ will have the best chance getting through to him. With air and sea travel restricted and not wanting to draw attention to themselves, it's determined that the safest way for BJ to get to Alaska is for him to travel by train alone.
We are then dropped immediately into gameplay with BJ seated at a bar, looking into the mirror on the train's dining cart. He's wearing a heavy disguise with a large jacket, hat, scarf, and glasses. We must be closing in on Alaska, because the train's windows are partially frosted and the visible scenery looks cold and snowy. The game appears to be a significant graphical upgrade over the previous game with obvious attention given to the lighting. BJ is quietly enjoying some coffee when there's a commotion. A young boy wearing an orange jumpsuit is shown running into the dining car. He looks very gaunt and immediately heads for a table of food and starts quickly eating as much as he can, looking over his shoulder the entire time.
He only gets about ten seconds of eating in before the door bursts open again and a Nazi officer enters the car. He is furious and immediately runs to the boy and throws him down on the ground. BJ's view of the boy is obstructed behind a privacy wall, but we clearly see the officer pull out his pistol, take aim at the boy behind the wall, and fire. The other diners in the car scream and we see the boy's blood on the floor. The Nazi officer laughs and apologizes to the crowd before giving a short whistle. An adult woman and man, both similarly gaunt, enter the car and pick up the boy's body and carry him away. They are both silent, but you can clearly see the tears running down their faces as they exit the car.
BJ is seething. He sighs, knowing what he's doing is not good for his ultimate mission, grabs a corkscrew across the bar, and heads straight for the Nazi officer. He sneaks up behind him and stabs him in the neck while he's berating a woman for yelping when he killed the boy, saying that he does not deserve her pity. The officer tries to grab BJ, who is standing behind him and pulls off BJ's disguise. There's more shock in the car as people realize who he is, but people generally seem encouraging and supportive of what he's done. Just as the shock is wearing off, we hear a gun cock and BJ is told to turn around. It's another German officer and he's just made the find of the century. He's excited he's finally captured Terror Billy and immediately begins to wonder out loud what it will do for his career and standing in the Nazi army. BJ looks down at the dead officer's pistol but it's too far away for him to grab.
Just as it looks like all hope is lost, a diner in the car picks up his steak knife and stabs the officer in the neck, allowing BJ to grab the gun and shoot him. BJ and the diner share a knowing nod before another patron yells that he needs to get out of there. BJ fights his way, in traditional Wolfenstein fashion, through a few more cars, killing several Nazi soldiers as he approaches the back of the train. When he gets to the back car, he finds something horrific. It's a giant car full of Americans chained up, all wearing the same orange jumpsuits we saw earlier. They all look incredibly sick and nearly dead and BJ notices the car is freezing cold. The woman we saw carrying the dead boy earlier informs BJ they are all revolutionaries and they have been working in camps. They are headed to Alaska to work in massive labor camps there, as the Nazis prepare to invade Russia.
BJ looks around at the prisoners and realizes he has to save them. He has them all move to the back of the car and uses a grenade he picked up off a Nazi soldier's body to blow the car's connection to the rest of the train. The camera pulls back as we see the rest of the train continuing to speed off as the car of prisoners slows to a stop.
The game is called Wolfenstein III: The New Army and it's coming to Xbox Series consoles, PC, xCloud, and GamePass in the Spring (2022).
The final shot we see from Wolfenstein is BJ approaching the door of a bunker and knocking. Before the door opens, a security hole opens at the top and the barrel of a shotgun is pushed through. A wild-haired man, clearly Dicky, recognizes BJ and asks how he found him. He's clearly incredibly paranoid and asks if BJ is an imposter and who else knows he's there. BJ looks nervously to the side as Dicky pulls back the shotgun and puts his face up to the hole for a better look. The group of prisoners, most now wearing coats but still wearing the orange jumpsuits, is standing off in the distance. Dicky is clearly furious and the extensive demo ends with him screaming "What the fuck!?!?!?!?!?!?" with his voice echoing down the length of the bunker.
We hear an announcer's BOOMING voice and the camera slowly pans to an 80's arcade cabinet that appears to be located in Hell. It's a parody of an old-school action/fighting game trailer similar to the Killer Instinct reveal trailer. It's a standalone expansion for DOOM Eternal that's presented as an 80's/90's video game where children can "Be The Doomslayer" and play through the Doomslayers legendary journey. Like all legends, the details are a little fuzzy so the story, areas, weapons, equipment, and enemies have been warped by time. Similar to the Prey: Mooncrash expansion, it's a roguelike that flips the DOOM formula on its head.
The game starts with you creating a Doomslayer and you unlock additional cosmetics through gameplay (or micro-transactions). It's also co-op so you can play with up to three friends. The game is procedurally generated and has you fighting through arenas with placed enemies (so no enemies spawn in). The expansion features new enemies, weapons, and ways to get around. In addition, there's a wide variety of "modifiers" for all aspects of the game. You can use currency earned during your playthrough to buy random upgrades and modifiers for your player and weapons, but they also will drop randomly. As you get deeper into the game, enemies will also get modifiers. Common modifiers include more traditional things like double speed, double damage, double health, and bottomless clip, but also strange "DOOM-esque" things like paintball mode, flaming bullets, big-head mode, moon gravity, slowed time, etc. Everything is random so no two runs are the same.
The title is DOOM: Be The Slayer and it's coming in September. It doesn't reference DOOM Eternal directly, but will be multi-platform as part of providing legacy support and will be everywhere DOOM Eternal landed. It is $40, but is also included with GamePass. GamePass subscribers also get an additional perk in the form of a Master Chief cosmetic set. The game will also be 4K/120 (upsampled) on Series X or Native 4K/60.
That's not all from DOOM. DOOM Eternal is getting a next-gen upgrade. Like DOOM: Be The Slayer, it's 4K/120 (upsampled) or 4K/60 (Native) on Series X. It has improved performance, lighting, and load times. It's a free upgrade for all next-gen consoles and is available tomorrow.
We get a short teaser trailer for the next expansion for Fallout 76. It's an entirely new area that takes place on a different map in New Vegas. The timeline is unclear from the trailer, but the expansion takes place in the early days of New Vegas and the story beats serve as a prequel, setting up the events of Fallout: New Vegas. BGS Austin is consulting with Obsidian on the story. The expansion is launching alongside a next-generation upgrade for Fallout 76 in 2022 on all platforms that it currently exists.
Additional information will be available after the show. Bethesda will mention that they were working on this expansion before they joined Xbox, but are happy to be on the same team as Obsidian so they can pick their brains and collaborate on story content. They will also mention that this doesn't prevent Obsidian or Bethesda from considering a New Vegas sequel in the future, but nothing is currently in the works.
We then get a short talking head segment about Elder Scrolls Online. It's getting a major update this year. Rather than expanding the game's story, they're bringing a ton of quality-of-life updates to the game. The update will include performance upgrades (both locally and on the network side), graphical updates, improved character creation tools, improved combat, improved endgame content, an improved trial system (more rewarding/more flexible), and more ways to play. They want people to know they're committed to ESO and this will set them up for the future in a big, big way. He reiterates other platforms will continue to get support. They also tease a major shift coming to the game's story in 2022. They're sharing more details later in the summer with an ESO-focused event.
The Arkane logo is shown. It's not Deathloop, but the next game from Arkane Austin. The year is 1926 and we see a retro-futuristic city, but everything is fitting of the time period. It appears to be set in the United States and the city is a mash-up of New York and Chicago. Everyone is elegantly dressed and the city is pristine. A narrator tells us the beauty is actually a facade. A council of eight called "The Prime" runs the city and is ruthlessly authoritarian to preserve the facade. There's serious equity inequality, but the poor are kept hidden and work tirelessly behind the scenes to enable the elite to live elegantly. We see a marble hall that has pictures of the council. We see a few names, The Artist, The Builder, and The Engineer. It's all incredibly gross and pretentious.
Each member of the council oversees a different facet of the city's infrastructure and design and they're the character's targets. You can tackle them in any order, but they all have different strengths and weaknesses and grant you different abilities and benefits that adjust the gameplay experience. The chaos system from previous entries in this franchise returns in a big, big way. Your moment-to-moment gameplay is judged, but also how you choose to dispose of the council members. If you don't dispose of them in a way that isn't met with positive public sentiment, the facet they oversee will crumble and impact the gameplay experience. The game is wide-linear with a hub world.
The game is Dishonored: City Never Sleeps and is coming to Xbox Series consoles, PC, xCloud, and GamePass in 2022.
The next thing we see is Todd Howard. He thanks the audience for watching and says he's really excited to share what they've been working on in different capacities since the release of Fallout 4 released in 2015. He's proud to present the first real look at Starfield.
We see establishing shots of the game as Howard starts with the engine. They've made a ton of improvements since Fallout 4. He says we'll see improved lighting, textures, animations. Basically, every technical aspect of the engine got a serious upgrade. He talks about how faster hard drives allowed them to change how they approached storytelling. He says the technical focus early on in development allowed them to expand the scope of the game and expand the gameplay systems in fun and unique ways.
Starfield is first and foremost a game about discovery. The game starts with the creation of your character, but they really don't provide you with much "backstory." Are you a pirate from another system? Are you a scientist on a mission of peace? Those are questions for you to answer. As far as appearance goes, you are limited to creating a human (for story continuity), but they further expanded the character creation tools from Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 so you have a ton of options to get your "look" just right. The other thing that a limited backstory allows them to do is get you in the game immediately.
The game starts with your ship, called The Starfield, entering the "alien" system for the first time. You do a quick scan of the system and see that it has five explored planets and eight unexplored planets. The explored planets are hand-crafted and built from the ground up with different cultures, technologies, goals, and ideals. The unexplored worlds are procedurally-generated, but don't take that to mean they're barren. They're the same for everyone, meaning you and a friend can talk about what you saw on them. They've been lovingly combed and developed by the team and have had bespoke narrative content built on top. Surprises are hidden everywhere and exploration is always rewarded.
The Starfield (your ship) plays a massive role in the game and serves as your home. Ship flight is manual in space, but there's a galaxy-wide standard for deploying to planets. They use a pod-based system called "Torpedo" that you use to get from ship to ship and down to planets. Most planets have multiple Torpedo bays that allow you to travel to specific portions of the planet when you're pursuing leads and working through missions. The use of the Torpedo system also eliminated the lead for atmospheric flight. When flying The Starfield around the system, you can happen upon random space events.
An example is shown. The Starfield happens upon a ship that's not responding, so the character chooses to use the Torpedo system to check it out. Once the character gets on the ship, they find it's empty. They push up to the bridge and find it locked. After a brief hacking mini-game, the doors open and there are ten dead people on the bridge. A look at the ship's log shows that the captain of the ship went crazy, killing everyone on board, in the middle of delivering important resources to a company on one of the planets. At this point, the character faces an interesting dilemma. They can either complete the crew's mission and deliver the resources or try to find another use for it across the system.
There's other activities to do with The Starfield, including things like resource mining, bounty hunting, and ship salvage. There's also ship combat and while there's not an extensive ship upgrade system, there's different weapon modules you can buy, use, and swap as the mission or situation requires.
The mission structure is quite new for a BGS game. There's no one "main quest," but a series of main quests you can do in any order, but some will only unlock after other quests have been completed. The missions align with different planet cultures and goals. Some planets only know peace, so the missions are less about conflict and more about problem-solving. Other planets have only known war, so the missions there may be more focused on conflict. Factions return, with some planets having one faction (largely representing the planet's unity) and some planets having multiple factions (usually a source of conflict). The way you impact the planet can have long-term consequences for the future of each planet.
Howard gives us a brief overview of a planet. It serves as the system's technological and administrative "hub." It features the largest city that BGS has ever built and is considered by most to be the system's capitol. We see a short gameplay section where the player helps local law enforcement officials to kill someone who has been accused of targeting city officials. The combat, both melee and shooting, have been refined and improved, but they aren't the primary focus. The game is, at its heart, about exploration, communication, and understanding and accepting other cultures.
We see another planet. It is explored, but the people of the planet are quite primitive, so the more technologically advanced planets have not made "first contact." A stealth section is showcased, getting the character into one of the primitive villages before he finds an outfit to steal and fit in, so as not to disturb the primitive people. BGS worked to make stealth a much more viable option. Howard also mentions that you may help decide the primitive planet's fate as you work through the game's storylines. He says that the idea of many quest lines may make some people nervous, but not to worry. The game will have a definitive ending, but will also feature extensive end-game content.
Starfield is built from the ground-up as a single-player experience and there's no multiplayer in the game, but you won't be alone. Starfield has BGS's most-diverse and fun cast of companions. He doesn't want to ruin any surprises, but he thinks there's something (or maybe more accurately, someone) there for everyone. The game will also have a mobile companion app. When you're playing the game, you can use it to manage your inventory, view the journal, and review your stats. When you're not playing the game, you can still be in command of The Starfield, commanding your ship and collecting resources similar to Fallout Shelter that will be waiting for you when you come back to the main game.
The game is Starfield and is launching in October on Xbox Series consoles, PC, xCloud, and GamePass.
A trailer with more establishing shots and gameplay clips is shown.
Pete Hines, Matt Booty, and Phil Spencer are back on screen. Booty and Hines both review a few of the things they showed during their portion of the day. Spencer thanks everyone for watching and mentions that GamePass will be the best way to play all the games they've shown.
The show ends with a montage of games from both publishing arms.
The traditional "Xbox Game Studios" title screen is shown with a few new upgrades for upcoming titles.
The show starts with an interesting sight, the Compulsion Games title screen. It's a reveal trailer very similar to the original We Happy Few reveal in 2016. It's a dark parody of Willy Wonka. A beloved pharmaceutical industry legend is aging and has an open and ongoing competition, he locks you in the factory at the heart of his ongoing pharmaceutical empire. If you can escape by dawn, the empire is yours. Many have tried over the past three years since the contest started, never to be seen again, but no one has succeeded and interest is waning. The vast-majority of the public still loves the company, but a vocal minority has come out in opposition to the contest and the implied loss of life. We see the main character, a sullen and detached young woman, who decides she has nothing to lose (or maybe more accurately, nothing to live for) and wants to attempt the eccentric tycoon's challenge. The art style is a clear evolution of what we saw in We Happy Few with gorgeous lighting and textures.
The next shot we see is the woman putting on a watch as the old man locks her in an office. The game operates in real-time, giving the player eight hours to escape the factory. It is a third-person action game with puzzle, platforming, and horror elements. From the brief section of CGI clearly intended to be indicative of the gameplay, it's like a strange mix of Control, Portal, and We Happy Few. We see a small taste of the character using weapons, pharmaceuticals, and fun traversal options to navigate the factory and conquer the horrors within. They won't say this, but there's multiple ways to exit the factory and different paths you can take. It's wide-linear, but you can absolutely miss secrets and other important information if you go too quickly or aren't paying attention. There will be an easy mode without a timer as well.
The trailer ends with a title, Fever Dream, but no release information is given.
I know what you're thinking! Why would Xbox show this game when it's likely not releasing this year or even next year? I think the purpose of showing the game like this is two-fold.
One, it helps Xbox lay out the roadmap going forward. It should be Xbox's goal to empower consumers to invest in the ecosystem. Xbox should be able to clearly show and articulate what's coming this year, what's coming next year, and what's beyond that. Smaller/experimental titles, publishing games, and DLC/expansions will be shown closer to launch, but games that are XGS/Bethesda "staples" will be shown ahead of time, then go away for a while. I don't know that you will see Avowed, Fable, or Perfect Dark this year. We don't need to see them. We know they're coming and they probably aren't very close. That is enough. Save the development teams the trouble of creating vertical slices and trailers and let them focus on the actual game until you're ready to show them in a meaningful capacity. You'll see these predictions clearly follow those principles.
Second, Xbox needs some new blood in the "headline spots" of their shows and Compulsion deserves a vote of confidence. You will notice that Halo doesn't kick off or close the show in my predictions. That's by design. Halo has kind of had its moments already (opening in 2018, closing in 2019, then opening in 2020) and it doesn't need more spotlight. I'm not saying it won't get a lengthy chunk in the show, but I think it's fun to put a lesser-known studio in this spot. If any studio deserves that spot, it's Compulsion. Say what you will about We Happy Few, but the style and art direction of that game is second to none. Compulsion is my personal pick for XGS studio that impresses in the next-generation and I'd love to see them get the nod here.
One, it helps Xbox lay out the roadmap going forward. It should be Xbox's goal to empower consumers to invest in the ecosystem. Xbox should be able to clearly show and articulate what's coming this year, what's coming next year, and what's beyond that. Smaller/experimental titles, publishing games, and DLC/expansions will be shown closer to launch, but games that are XGS/Bethesda "staples" will be shown ahead of time, then go away for a while. I don't know that you will see Avowed, Fable, or Perfect Dark this year. We don't need to see them. We know they're coming and they probably aren't very close. That is enough. Save the development teams the trouble of creating vertical slices and trailers and let them focus on the actual game until you're ready to show them in a meaningful capacity. You'll see these predictions clearly follow those principles.
Second, Xbox needs some new blood in the "headline spots" of their shows and Compulsion deserves a vote of confidence. You will notice that Halo doesn't kick off or close the show in my predictions. That's by design. Halo has kind of had its moments already (opening in 2018, closing in 2019, then opening in 2020) and it doesn't need more spotlight. I'm not saying it won't get a lengthy chunk in the show, but I think it's fun to put a lesser-known studio in this spot. If any studio deserves that spot, it's Compulsion. Say what you will about We Happy Few, but the style and art direction of that game is second to none. Compulsion is my personal pick for XGS studio that impresses in the next-generation and I'd love to see them get the nod here.
We see a short clip of Tim Schafer saying they're excited to announce that Psychonauts 2 will be launching in July on Xbox consoles, PS4, PC, Linux, and Mac and it will be included in GamePass on the same day.
Yes, there's no reason for them to be (Lee) petty about it.
Yes.
Booty "warns" fans that this Xbox Game Showcase will be a bit different than shows they've done in the past. All the games shown are being published by Xbox Game Studios and will be launching on day one on Xbox GamePass. If you're looking for the latest from ID@Xbox or Xbox third-party partners, they will have more information to share as the summer goes on.
I've always thought that E3 (or more recently, the Xbox Game Showcase) isn't a very effective platform for Xbox to show independent games. Things like the ID@Xbox Twitch Showcase and some of the Youtube showcases they've done have been much, much more effective. Seeing the game and getting a bit of an explanation from the developer is much better than seeing three seconds of a game in a montage. Things that are a little bigger, like Tetris Effect: Connected or Warhammer 40,000: Dark Tide could also be great on those shows and give them a little "punch." I also just think that Xbox needs to get away from 90 or even 100 minute shows. They actually can be quite draining and games that have very solid showings can get a bit of a lukewarm response as the show goes on and people are starting to get tired of seeing things or are tired of anticipating that last "big thing."
E3 isn't the only show in town anymore. Publishers are getting better at providing their own messaging for the games they're making. The opportunity to show a brand new game is a powerful marketing tool and Xbox will get less of those opportunities as time goes on. Things like Ubisoft Forward, EA Play Live, and Square Enix Presents all make it much tougher for Xbox to show something like The Division or Just Cause for the first time on their stage. I think Xbox's money and time would be better spent trying to get their marketing in those third-party shows. Rather than showing Just Cause 5 for the first time on their stage, it's probably more effective to get their marketing into the Square Enix Presents when the game is first shown. After all, Square Enix Presents is probably a better opportunity for Xbox to capture "new eyes" than their own show.
It's a stormy night in the presented city and the ray tracing is turned up to eleven. You can clearly hear the raindrops hitting the window and the sound of thunder in the distance. The old-fashioned cars driving tells us this game is likely set in the 1950's or 1960's. Just as you're beginning to be impressed by the streetlights being seen in the reflection of the puddles gathered on the sidewalk, the hum of the power fades and the fixed lights all shut off, leaving only the headlights and taillights of the cars in the street. It's a blackout. The camera pans to the right and through an apartment window, we see a dimly lit room from an open fireplace and the glow of a lit cigarette beside a seated man. The perspective shifts to a first-person view of a man in the same room as closes his book. He sets it on his end table and grabs his cigarette and puts it in his mouth. He is in a wheelchair and uses both arms to propel himself to the window overlooking the city. He gets to the window and recognizes the blackout. Just as he's about to take another drag from his cigarette, we hear a loud, pleading scream, "Help me!"
The scene cuts to black and all that's left is the sound of the storm outside. "Hideo Kojima Presents… Project Cimmerian," is shown on screen before we get a little more information. The first "episode" is coming in 2022.
Kojima is shown on screen in the same professionally-shot, pre-recorded video format used for Booty's segment. Kojima says that he's excited about the episodic format because it will allow him to take bigger risks as a creator and he's excited about the concept. He's happy to be working with Xbox and he specifically thanks Ninja Theory for providing him and his studio with their state-of-the-art technical tools to help him create life-like environments.
So, this is obviously the biggest "swing" I'm taking in my predictions. It just seems like the time is right. It's not 100% clear how the Kojima/Stadia game played out or if it ever existed, but I think there's definitely signs that Kojima was shopping a project. I think that Death Stranding ultimately wasn't a great value proposition for Sony. Obviously, they would love to work with Kojima again if he was interested in making a more marketable game, but I think that Kojima is no longer at that point in his career. He wants to do something a little off the beaten path and I think that's a tough sell for most publishers that rely on individual game sales.
For Xbox, it makes a ton of sense. Yes, it's likely an expensive endeavor, but it actually probably presents decent value. Kojima Productions is not a very big studio and while Kojima likes a lot of the "bells and whistles" of development, like expensive voice talent and licensed music, he turned Death Stranding around relatively quickly and it launched in a pretty "complete" state. His name also obviously carries a ton of value and in a project like this, he would undoubtedly want to work with big-name talent that Xbox could put in marketing materials and use to advertise GamePass.
The concept behind this prediction and "Project Cimmerian" is that each episode is a very, very loose interpretation of a classic movie (unlicensed) with a dark twist that all take place in the same shared universe. The first one obviously being the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock classic Rear Window. The main character in that movie is confined to a wheelchair after breaking his leg and sees evidence of a murder through the lens of his camera as he spies on his neighbors during a heatwave. This would be a dark, P.T.-esque retelling of that story in a 3-4 hour, first-person, story-driven game that is presented without a camera cut from the moment we hear the woman's scream. The "dark, P.T.-esque retelling of that story in a 3-4 hour, first-person story-driven game presented without a camera cut" would be the consistent element to the episodes, but they would cover a wide range of movies with different themes, settings, and time periods. Yes, I came up with a list of movies. Five episodes, roughly one per decade. The movie episodes would be Rear Window, The Graduate, Apocalypse Now, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and A Beautiful Mind.
I have always found the idea of someone in a wheelchair during a horror/suspense movie/game really compelling because you can easily create situations where they're a captive audience because they can't run away. The "Cimmerian" in the title is obviously a reference to Greek mythology with the "mythical people" being the characters in the story and the "land of perpetual darkness" being the idea that their stories have a dark twist and are generally really grim. This concept would also allow Kojima to work with different voice talent and musicians for each episode and I think that would really appeal to him. Lastly, I think that Kojima saw the Kurosawa filter in Ghost of Tsushima and is really annoyed he didn't think of that, so we will likely get an era "filter" from the time each episode takes place. I am admittedly not the biggest Kojima fan, but I just tried putting myself in his shoes and I think this is the kind of delightfully insane thing he would come up with on a whim.
I have always found the idea of someone in a wheelchair during a horror/suspense movie/game really compelling because you can easily create situations where they're a captive audience because they can't run away. The "Cimmerian" in the title is obviously a reference to Greek mythology with the "mythical people" being the characters in the story and the "land of perpetual darkness" being the idea that their stories have a dark twist and are generally really grim. This concept would also allow Kojima to work with different voice talent and musicians for each episode and I think that would really appeal to him. Lastly, I think that Kojima saw the Kurosawa filter in Ghost of Tsushima and is really annoyed he didn't think of that, so we will likely get an era "filter" from the time each episode takes place. I am admittedly not the biggest Kojima fan, but I just tried putting myself in his shoes and I think this is the kind of delightfully insane thing he would come up with on a whim.
The timing is actually really great for Xbox as well. Xbox obviously has a ton of outstanding studios, but the pandemic has kind of thrown a wrench into Xbox's plans that has resulted in the current first-party drought. Kojima gives them another arrow in their quiver as they start to adjust to the "new normal" and we begin to see what Xbox's twenty-three studios can really do. If the game works out for both sides, that's great and they can continue the relationship. If it doesn't, that's fine. I, like many of you, believe Xbox will continue acquisitions over the next two years so Xbox won't feel pressured to continue their working relationship if the game is not a success. As for the early announcement, I think you get more punch doing this announcement early than risking it leaking. It also allows Kojima to post weird, vague tweets about the game until it releases and scoop them headlines.
Episodic releases are mutually beneficial for both sides. There's obviously rumors that Kojima was already working on an episodic game. I think that episodic makes sense for Kojima because he has struggled with scope-creep in the past, but the goal of this project would be very clear. It obviously would be very stimulating for him creatively to get to work with different talent on each episode and Xbox could market that talent for each episode. It provides Xbox with multiple content "drops" for GamePass and allows them to constantly remind people that the only place to play Kojima's latest is on Xbox GamePass.
The trailer ends with a "Spring 2022" release window and a reminder that it's launching on Xbox GamePass for PC.
A trailer for the full release of Grounded is shown set to "All The Small Things" by blink-182. It shows a bit of the story, which is told by the robot BURG.L. The general theme of the story seems to be focused around returning to a normal size. The new update will include a full, complete story (for now), new weapons and armor, a weapons and armor upgrade system, new creatures, new biomes through an expansion to the yard, and the addition of pets.
The full release has caught a bit of a delay, with a "Spring 2022" release window.
I don't know how closely folks have been following Grounded's development, but Obsidian seems to be doing a great job. The game has a small, but very active community and the developers are following through with weekly streams and a great roadmap that they've been updating pretty regularly. As long as that continues and the developers are interested in developing on the project, I think it's a great addition to GamePass, especially because it helps with the family-friendly content that Phil mentions a fair amount. That being said, I do think it's important that Obsidian gets a complete story out the door, even if they want to do another story or another area in the future. Not only is a complete story going to get the game in front of more people, I think it's important for Xbox to deliver content if they choose to use Early Access internally. Xbox is a publisher with a ton of resources, so if they're going to use Early Access, I want it to mean something other than "we wanted to get the money rolling in while we were still working on the game.". Grounded has seemingly handled Early Access brilliantly so far through their use of community feedback, but I think progress is king.
One good way to handle it could be to end the story with the player becoming normal-sized again, going inside the house, then realize they liked being small and shrinking themself again. That would allow for continued development, with the character wanting to explore new areas (the park, the house, the school, the mall, the arcade, etc.) as the tiny version of themself and those new areas could have their own unique problems and story beats. I love the idea of an ongoing game I can pop into for new content once in a while, but I think it's important they get that first major "deliverable," which Obsidian has positioned as the story, out the door to eliminate the dreaded "Star Citizen Stench" and generate a ton of goodwill.
One good way to handle it could be to end the story with the player becoming normal-sized again, going inside the house, then realize they liked being small and shrinking themself again. That would allow for continued development, with the character wanting to explore new areas (the park, the house, the school, the mall, the arcade, etc.) as the tiny version of themself and those new areas could have their own unique problems and story beats. I love the idea of an ongoing game I can pop into for new content once in a while, but I think it's important they get that first major "deliverable," which Obsidian has positioned as the story, out the door to eliminate the dreaded "Star Citizen Stench" and generate a ton of goodwill.
Ralph Fulton is shown in the same style as Booty and Kojima and welcomes us to Forza Horizon 5, set in Chile. He does a voiceover while providing the traditional Horizon walkthrough. The highlights from Chile showcased include Santiago, the nation's capital and Patagonia. Fulton mentions the team putting significant work into the "driving environment." Weather was expanded, adding more realistic weather effects and creating more realistic driving conditions caused by the weather. They also changed the way they approach roads and traffic, creating more realistic situations like zipping in and out of traffic and allowing you to learn "shortcuts" to more quickly navigate congested areas. They've also added more interactive locations. Things like car dealerships, fuel stations, and mechanics give you more places to explore and make changes to your vehicles.
Fulton breaks down Forza Horizon 5's technical improvements next. It's an evolution of Forza Horizon 4, not a re-invention. The game features enhanced lighting effects on Xbox Series and PC and the next-gen SSD allows them to transform the way you play. The game features instant car swaps to make it easier to try all kinds of cars in different situations. The SSD also allowed them to approach map design differently through the use of what they're calling "Shortcuts." Shortcuts are designated points on the map that allow you to instantly access a place that would have previously been inaccessible. For example, a mountain is too steep to drive up it, but you can use a shortcut to access the top of the mountain, where there's a small track for high-stakes races. One last SSD improvement is "Forza Reset." Like setting up a line in a skateboarding game, Forza Reset allows you to set a point for your car to return to to make sure you can try to pull off the perfect drift no matter how much practice it takes.
The Horizon Festival is taking a year off and has instead been replaced by the Horizon Warehouse. It's a great way to show off your cars and other achievements in the game. On top of the traditional racing you've come to love and expect from Horizon, they've got a ton of new ways to play. The new first-person mode and improved narrative content expand the game's horizons. There's photography activities. They've greatly expanded the photo mode, allowing you to set up remote cameras, replay your best moments from the perspective of a drone, and even take pictures in first person of your car parked in the most scenic points in Chile. The game will grade your pictures and the activities will challenge you with different restrictions. You can share your favorite pictures with friends, on the Forza Hub, and even hang giant versions of them up in your warehouse. You can test drive concept vehicles, both on closed tracks and in the "real world" of Forza Horizon. If you earn a good reputation with the automobile manufacturers, you will earn gifts for your warehouse. There are more practical car-based jobs like providing courier services across Chile. The more you collect, the more things you get in your warehouse. Even traditional Forza tasks like creating liveries will earn you hardware. As you increase your influence, your standing in the Chilean car community will improve, opening up new opportunities. Another way to increase your influence is by creating content for social media by performing goofy stunts. The stunt shown in the walkthrough is car soccer.
Fulton is excited for the future of Horizon and can't wait for everyone to get their hand on it in September on Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC.
I generally think that Forza Motorsport is going to be the technical marvel that drives the future of the Forza franchise. Releasing Forza Horizon now buys them more time to let Forza Motorsport cook and takes advantage of the great foundation that Playground and Turn 10 built with Forza Horizon 4. To be quite frank, Forza Horizon doesn't need a huge technical leap forward right now. Forza Horizon 4 is still one of the best looking games on the market and the extra time and manpower will allow them to expand the game's content offerings.
I know that if Forza Horizon 5 was set in Chile, many here would be disappointed. I know that many here have their hearts set on the game taking place in Japan. I just don't think they have enough solid partnerships in place with Japanese automotive manufacturers. If they were going to put Forza Horizon in Japan, I would want it to be a celebration of the Japanese automotive industry, but I have a hard time believing they're going to open their doors and allow Playground to tell the stories and show the cars that would make the game spectacular. I think Playground is taking the right steps to build those relationships, like things with the Japanese car pack in Forza Horizon 4, but I don't think the time is right.
The trailer ends with a release date in August.
A new trailer is shown for the CrossfireX campaign. It's a high-octane trailer with a nice combination of story cutscenes and obvious gameplay sections. The fact that it's being developed by Remedy is highlighted several times and the trailer is probably set to a catchy trailer song. I personally hope it's "Seven Nation Army" and not "Praise You" by Fat Boy Slim, but we all know how much Xbox loves Fat Boy Slim, so we'll see.
The trailer does end with a bit of a surprise. The CrossfireX campaign is launching on Xbox GamePass the same day it releases in July.
This game has had a rough road and is launching at the wrong time. I'm not sure what any of the parties involved on this one were really trying to accomplish, but here we are. I would imagine that Smilegate is looking for a way to get some value back on this game now that they're launching an expensive last-gen Xbox-console exclusive on a platform that features a bustling subscription service with a high attach rate and Xbox should be willing to oblige. They're going for an episodic model with two of the stories available at launch, so they could use GamePass to spread some word of mouth and generate some buzz in the hopes of selling future content and eventually getting the game on PlayStation and PC (even though that's an incredibly complicated proposition because the franchise exists in another form on PC). Xbox obviously needs the content and there's a chance it will come out and be a very good game. Remedy is a talented developer. If they can't find a way to make that deal, I'm not sure where this game goes. Smilegate and Xbox need to be willing to play ball. I have a hard time seeing it sell well only being on Xbox consoles and developed for last-gen and I'm not sure if you continue to make content or port it if it's dead in the water at launch.
Playful Studios has been pretty quiet since the release of New Super Lucky's Tale in 2017. The studio did port the game to Switch in 2019, but it seems unlikely they used the studio's entire staff. They have had some money problems and laid off some folks early last year after they expanded in 2019, but New Super Lucky's Tale was originally published by Xbox and it could have been a multi-title deal. They also could theoretically be reviving a Rare IP. The studio's CEO, Paul Bettner, also worked for Ensemble Studios.
Avalanche Studios has a lot of employees and is expanding. They specialize in open-world action games and we've seen evidence that the publishing team at Xbox is working on a game in that genre. Avalanche also had a job opening for an Xbox Specialist earlier this year. They also have had job postings in the past few years that said they were working on "the largest and greatest AAA project" they've ever taken on. It could be Just Cause 5, but we know that Just Cause 4 didn't sell as well as Square Enix would have liked and they didn't make their money back on it, so it seems unlikely they immediately jumped into bed with the same studio and gave them a bigger budget. Xbox is also heavily marketing another Avalanche Studios game, Second Extinction (Systemic Reaction is a subsidiary of Avalanche).
Creative Assembly is best known for strategy games, but they have been working on a new AAA FPS IP since early 2018. That team is largely made up of the group that made Alien: Isolation. Creative Assembly also were the primary studio behind Halo Wars 2 and Xbox has obviously been getting cozy with Sega lately (Relic working on Age of Empires 4, Yakuza, Phantasy Star Online, etc.). The project has been described in job listings as a "tactical FPS" and "ambitious multiplayer title" that is a "fresh take on the FPS genre" that will allow players to "embrace a variety of creative playstyles." They've also mentioned weapons, movement, abilities, and gadgets. It's apparently also sci-fi in genre and will have cosmetics, micro-transactions, and games-as-a-service elements.
Monolith Productions, a WBIE studio, has not released a game since 2017 when they made Middle-Earth: Shadow of War. There's very little evidence they're working on an Xbox game, but I am curious what's going on there. They've generally been a really efficient studio, so it's a bit odd we haven't heard from them in almost four years. WBIE was very quick to blowout Gotham Knights well over a year before it's intended release and that game has since been delayed into 2022. I personally think that they are moving on from Lord of the Rings to The Matrix, so that could explain the gap. They are also located in Kirkland, Washington, only four miles from the Microsoft campus. With WBIE's uneasy situation as part of AT&T, could Xbox have swooped in and money-hatted this title? Probably not. I mainly just wanted to write about Monolith because I find them fascinating.
This will be a quick one, I promise. Sumo Digital has over 1000 employees and has an insane number of projects in development (21) with a large number of clients (12) and the majority of the projects (14) aren't announced. They've worked with Xbox in the past, most recently on Crackdown 3, and they mentioned Microsoft/Xbox as a strategic partner last year (well after Crackdown 3 was released). Yes, Crackdown 3 had issues, but I definitely could see Xbox working with them again. Prime candidate.
I'm not going to pretend I am as well-researched and read on Japanese game development, but I have to at least throw some names at you. Swery65 worked with Xbox on D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die. He has a new studio called White Owls, but I think it's unlikely he's working with Xbox again. They worked on Deadly Premonition 2, which just launched last year and are currently working on a title they crowd-funded in 2018 called The Good Life, which is hitting Xbox and looks incredibly charming. Tabata (formerly the Studio Head at Luminous Productions, who made Final Fantasy 15 and are currently working on Forspoken) left Square Enix in October of 2018 and opened his own studio, JP Games. They have been scaling up in staff since 2019 and are targeting AAA development. While I think Tabata is talented, it seems a bit too early for him to commit to delivering a AAA game to Xbox.
If we eliminate those two names that are usually brought up, we're really left with three publishers that have continually delivered games to Xbox, Bandai Namco, Koei Tecmo, and CyberConnect2. All three were also featured in Xbox's TGS 2020 show. They're pretty big companies with a lot of projects and moving parts so it's much more difficult to follow their projects and predict what's coming. Koei Tecmo houses Team Ninja (of Ninja Gaiden, Nioh, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 fame) and Omega Force (of Musou game fame, but not exclusively). Both of those teams have a "gun for hire" feel and can definitely put out great games. They have other internal development teams, but those are the two studios that have hit on games in the West and I think that's an important criteria for Xbox right now.
Bandai Namco exists as a publisher but has internal development teams as well. While they could always serve as a middle-man and connect Xbox with an independent Japanese developer, I'm not sure why Xbox would cut Bandai Namco in unless they were really uncomfortable overseeing a project. I also don't really think there's an obvious group from Bandai's internal teams that makes sense for a project.
CyberConnect2 is really interesting. They're growing and have recently started self-publishing smaller titles, but still partner with a publisher on bigger stuff (most recently, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot). They have supported Xbox in the past, mainly through Bandai Namco, and could be a natural fit, but their timeline really doesn't match the parameters I've established.
Why not Capcom? We know that they were struggling financially in the window I'm referring to, before the release of Monster Hunter: World, and they've worked with Xbox in a publishing capacity in the past. We will see, but no.
If we eliminate those two names that are usually brought up, we're really left with three publishers that have continually delivered games to Xbox, Bandai Namco, Koei Tecmo, and CyberConnect2. All three were also featured in Xbox's TGS 2020 show. They're pretty big companies with a lot of projects and moving parts so it's much more difficult to follow their projects and predict what's coming. Koei Tecmo houses Team Ninja (of Ninja Gaiden, Nioh, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 fame) and Omega Force (of Musou game fame, but not exclusively). Both of those teams have a "gun for hire" feel and can definitely put out great games. They have other internal development teams, but those are the two studios that have hit on games in the West and I think that's an important criteria for Xbox right now.
Bandai Namco exists as a publisher but has internal development teams as well. While they could always serve as a middle-man and connect Xbox with an independent Japanese developer, I'm not sure why Xbox would cut Bandai Namco in unless they were really uncomfortable overseeing a project. I also don't really think there's an obvious group from Bandai's internal teams that makes sense for a project.
CyberConnect2 is really interesting. They're growing and have recently started self-publishing smaller titles, but still partner with a publisher on bigger stuff (most recently, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot). They have supported Xbox in the past, mainly through Bandai Namco, and could be a natural fit, but their timeline really doesn't match the parameters I've established.
Why not Capcom? We know that they were struggling financially in the window I'm referring to, before the release of Monster Hunter: World, and they've worked with Xbox in a publishing capacity in the past. We will see, but no.
The expansion is launching in June and included with GamePass.
A short trailer is shown for Microsoft Flight Simulator's console launch. It's very similar in tone and style to the other MFS trailers and is really just to announce the release date. It's fully playable with the controller (and they address that in the trailer) and It's coming in July.
It's time for Halo. Joseph Staten is shown and he says he's excited to show you the first look at one of the Halo Infinite campaign missions. He provides light narration while we see the demo. Chief is in some kind of facility we've never seen before and is waiting for a file to download. We are not given much context because they're trying to preserve the mystery. Chief is talking to the pilot we've seen in the other trailers through a radio and he plans to meet him on the roof of the facility. The file finishes and Chief heads up the stairs, but there's several enemies in his way. He uses stealth to get past the first group, then takes out a patrolling grunt by using the grappling hook to pull him into an air vent where he silently assassinates him.
When Chief gets to the roof, he sees the pilot in the distance, but his Falcon gets shot down. As the Falcon is going down, an alarm starts blaring and enemies start pouring onto the roof. Chief fights through them and has no choice but to go back into the building. The next sequence is Chief using all his tools to get through the building as enemies are patrolling. It's a little different than other Halo games, because you seem to have more options to get through the building other than just a straight fight. Chief finds himself in the building's garage just as a lockdown kicks in and the doors slam shut. Staten mentions that a glowing terminal in the corner of the room would lift the lockdown, but he has other plans. He hops into a Banished Ghost that's in the garage and fires at the door until it's visibly weakened before ramming through it to escape the building. After he's out, a few other vehicles follow in pursuit with Chief heading towards the smoke of the downed Falcon, but the demo ends there.
Staten says he can't wait for everyone to play Halo when it launches in November on GamePass, but that's not all. He also introduces Halo Cliffnotes. He says that many people who have GamePass may have never experienced a Halo game before, so they wanted to give everyone an easy way to catch up. It's an interactive experience that is a supercut of the story so far, with a ton of the game's cutscenes and some of the best missions (roughly 15) all playable and edited into one tidy package. He also mentions that if you want the full experience, you can check out the Master Chief Collection and Halo 5 on Xbox GamePass. He says that it wouldn't be Halo without multiplayer, so he's leaving us with a trailer highlighting the newest way to play online, the all new Big Team Battle.
We get a brief overview of the new Big Team Battle. It's a 64 vs. 64 objective-based mode with a heavy emphasis on squad play (allowing you to spawn on your squadmates, like Battlefield) and vehicles. They show the mode in action in a format similar to the Sea of Thieves gameplay from E3 2016. They have "regular" Halo fans playing the mode with their video on screen (like they're streaming) and capture their reaction. It's complete anarchy. The game mode is Capture the Flag and the map is two very tall multileveled towers on opposite ends of a massive island. At one point, the opposing team has the flag carrier dead to rights so he grapples an enemy banshee and his friend scoops him in a Falcon before he falls to his death. It is very high-octane and seems to be a more streamlined way to play all the best parts of something like Warzone. The trailer ends with the announcement of flighting starting in August, focused on the new Big Team Battle. Flighting is exclusive to GamePass, to the outcry of many.
A short trailer is shown for Minecraft. It's getting an Xbox Series update with an updated graphics package including raytracing. They've included a few new colored lighting options to allow people to really go nuts and it looks so, so sharp. It's coming to Xbox Series S and X this July.
Next up is Hellblade 2. It's a story trailer. We learn what happened to Senua since the events of the first game and get a little context for what the second game entails. We get a few brief shots of gameplay towards the end of the trailer. It looks impressive and like the combat has been much more fleshed-out, but people still question if the footage is "real-time" or if the game is actually going to look like that. It's a bit of a low-key showing for Ninja Theory, but they're trying to preserve the mystery and not overexpose the game, but it is given a release window at the end of the trailer, "2022."
Honestly, I don't care to speculate too much on the story of Hellblade 2. I loved the first game a lot and was shocked when they announced they were making a sequel. I tend to think the story will revolve around Senua's psychosis worsening to the point that she actually becomes the villain by the end, but we'll see. I interpreted the ending of Hellblade as Senua both letting go of Dillion and his death. That wouldn't seem to lead to her wanting revenge immediately at the beginning of the second game, either against the Norsemen responsible for his death or her father for the abuse she was made to suffer. They could go in any direction, because the end of the first game felt very much like the end of Senua's journey. I kind of have the same uneasy feeling I got when Naughty Dog announced The Last of Us 2 (a game whose story I did not enjoy), but I trust Ninja Theory, will be there on day one for Hellblade 2, and will continue to champion the first game.
(Note: I originally wrote this game demo approximately one year ago, but I love it, so I'm putting it in here again. If this is what Everwild is, I will be very, very excited because I love the concept.)
The Everwild-esque Rare title card is shown.The rumors are true. It's a "god" game where you create a character and serve as the keeper of the "Island of Branwen." The island is a massive expanse of nature that spans different biomes and has many defining features, including mountains, waterfall, and even a section of tundra that is permanently frozen. You create your character based on templates that are based on common characters from European (mainly Irish, Welsh, and Scottish) folklore. While Sea of Thieves was about creating your own narrative, Everwild is focused on both tending to the island, which is a massive area with different wildlife living in harmony, and playing through structured narrative experiences. There's a heavy focus on co-op play, both in maintaining the garden and playing through the narrative sections.
One narrative section is demoed. The story is told by a whimsical voice that is positioned as a retelling of a fable by the gods' themselves. Several animals in the grassland section of the garden are being killed. A huge part of the game is maintaining "balance." Yes, some animals need to kill each other to survive, but as the keeper, one of your responsibilities is ensuring a healthy balance between predator and prey and making sure an area is not over-hunted. The animals that were killed were small rabbit-like creatures and their numbers are dwindling. As keeper, you re-assign them to another section of the island, where they have no natural predators, to rebuild their species. All the information about balance is detailed in a cave painting at the middle of the island (but is also available in a menu if you hate immersion).
You then track the predator to a cave, where we see a small, basic combat section (the keeper has a staff, but other means are available) that ends in the wolf-like beast being subdued. Alternatively, you could create traps to contain the wolf. The purpose of the combat is purely restraint and if you hurt the animal too much the species can become more aggressive semi-permanently (if aggressive, you can spend time nurturing the species to restore balance) . The player gathers some natural materials (berries and leaves) to create a bandage for the wolf. Upon observing its behavior, it becomes obvious that the wolf does not belong in the grasslands. It's thick fur coat and an overabundance of prey in the ice biome make it a good fit, so it's re-assigned. Upon completion and the restoration of harmony, we see the character go to a stone shrine and light come from the sky into the keeper's staff. The staff is then used to upgrade the island in different ways. We see a short clip of the wolf living in harmony in the ice biome and the rabbits returning to the grasslands.
The game is Everwild and it's coming in 2022, however, they will begin "flighting" in the Fall.
Rather than the traditional Xbox montage to close the show, we instead see a countdown timer for the start of the Bethesda show.
When the countdown hits 0:00, the first thing we see is a black and white photo of Robert Altman with the simple caption, "To the journey…" It fades to black and the screen stays black for fifteen seconds, as sort of a digital moment of silence.
It's Bethesda, so we launch right into a high-energy show with an AC/DC song. We see a demon in hell from Doom, then a dragon land on the ground in Skyrim, then BJ Blazkowicz shooting at Nazis in Wolfenstein. We go back to the demon and the perspective shifts to who he's fighting. It's Steve from Minecraft with a diamond sword. The dragon is shown and the perspective shifts, it's Banjo and Kazooie and they look a bit worried. BJ Blazkowicz is shown again and the perspective shifts. He's fighting alongside Master Chief, who has the shotgun from Halo.
Phil Spencer is back. He says that he's really happy to be partnered with Bethesda and he can't wait to see how Bethesda approaches using the Xbox characters in their games. Pete Hines comes out and interrupts him, letting him know that they're actually doing their own thing. Phil looks a bit surprised, but ultimately approves. Pete Hines says, "Now that that's out of the way, let's get this show on the road. Welcome to the Bethesda Summer Showcase."
A new motion graphic is shown. It's similar to the Xbox Game Studios introduction, but has a Bethesda-flavored twist and features a very subtle Xbox reference.
We immediately are launched into the first game. It's Wolfenstein. Blazkowicz is describing what happened in the days immediately following the second game.
After Blazkowicz killed Engel, the revolution did begin. For five straight nights, there was chaos and war on the streets, but eventually the German armies retook control. In order to increase public sentiment, they've seemingly gone fairly "easy" on the Americans who revolted, but there's rumors and fears that the Germans are planning something horrible behind the scenes.. Blazkowicz and crew have been fighting, but have had to stay hidden to protect themselves. With the revolution waning, but the American people having shown they're willing to fight, the Kreisau Circle has decided it's time to take the fight to Europe, but they need help.
Terror Billy is public enemy number one, so the belief is that BJ will have the best chance getting through to him. With air and sea travel restricted and not wanting to draw attention to themselves, it's determined that the safest way for BJ to get to Alaska is for him to travel by train alone.
We are then dropped immediately into gameplay with BJ seated at a bar, looking into the mirror on the train's dining cart. He's wearing a heavy disguise with a large jacket, hat, scarf, and glasses. We must be closing in on Alaska, because the train's windows are partially frosted and the visible scenery looks cold and snowy. The game appears to be a significant graphical upgrade over the previous game with obvious attention given to the lighting. BJ is quietly enjoying some coffee when there's a commotion. A young boy wearing an orange jumpsuit is shown running into the dining car. He looks very gaunt and immediately heads for a table of food and starts quickly eating as much as he can, looking over his shoulder the entire time.
He only gets about ten seconds of eating in before the door bursts open again and a Nazi officer enters the car. He is furious and immediately runs to the boy and throws him down on the ground. BJ's view of the boy is obstructed behind a privacy wall, but we clearly see the officer pull out his pistol, take aim at the boy behind the wall, and fire. The other diners in the car scream and we see the boy's blood on the floor. The Nazi officer laughs and apologizes to the crowd before giving a short whistle. An adult woman and man, both similarly gaunt, enter the car and pick up the boy's body and carry him away. They are both silent, but you can clearly see the tears running down their faces as they exit the car.
BJ is seething. He sighs, knowing what he's doing is not good for his ultimate mission, grabs a corkscrew across the bar, and heads straight for the Nazi officer. He sneaks up behind him and stabs him in the neck while he's berating a woman for yelping when he killed the boy, saying that he does not deserve her pity. The officer tries to grab BJ, who is standing behind him and pulls off BJ's disguise. There's more shock in the car as people realize who he is, but people generally seem encouraging and supportive of what he's done. Just as the shock is wearing off, we hear a gun cock and BJ is told to turn around. It's another German officer and he's just made the find of the century. He's excited he's finally captured Terror Billy and immediately begins to wonder out loud what it will do for his career and standing in the Nazi army. BJ looks down at the dead officer's pistol but it's too far away for him to grab.
Just as it looks like all hope is lost, a diner in the car picks up his steak knife and stabs the officer in the neck, allowing BJ to grab the gun and shoot him. BJ and the diner share a knowing nod before another patron yells that he needs to get out of there. BJ fights his way, in traditional Wolfenstein fashion, through a few more cars, killing several Nazi soldiers as he approaches the back of the train. When he gets to the back car, he finds something horrific. It's a giant car full of Americans chained up, all wearing the same orange jumpsuits we saw earlier. They all look incredibly sick and nearly dead and BJ notices the car is freezing cold. The woman we saw carrying the dead boy earlier informs BJ they are all revolutionaries and they have been working in camps. They are headed to Alaska to work in massive labor camps there, as the Nazis prepare to invade Russia.
BJ looks around at the prisoners and realizes he has to save them. He has them all move to the back of the car and uses a grenade he picked up off a Nazi soldier's body to blow the car's connection to the rest of the train. The camera pulls back as we see the rest of the train continuing to speed off as the car of prisoners slows to a stop.
The game is called Wolfenstein III: The New Army and it's coming to Xbox Series consoles, PC, xCloud, and GamePass in the Spring (2022).
The final shot we see from Wolfenstein is BJ approaching the door of a bunker and knocking. Before the door opens, a security hole opens at the top and the barrel of a shotgun is pushed through. A wild-haired man, clearly Dicky, recognizes BJ and asks how he found him. He's clearly incredibly paranoid and asks if BJ is an imposter and who else knows he's there. BJ looks nervously to the side as Dicky pulls back the shotgun and puts his face up to the hole for a better look. The group of prisoners, most now wearing coats but still wearing the orange jumpsuits, is standing off in the distance. Dicky is clearly furious and the extensive demo ends with him screaming "What the fuck!?!?!?!?!?!?" with his voice echoing down the length of the bunker.
Yeah, I love Wolfenstein and this one got away from me.
The game starts with you creating a Doomslayer and you unlock additional cosmetics through gameplay (or micro-transactions). It's also co-op so you can play with up to three friends. The game is procedurally generated and has you fighting through arenas with placed enemies (so no enemies spawn in). The expansion features new enemies, weapons, and ways to get around. In addition, there's a wide variety of "modifiers" for all aspects of the game. You can use currency earned during your playthrough to buy random upgrades and modifiers for your player and weapons, but they also will drop randomly. As you get deeper into the game, enemies will also get modifiers. Common modifiers include more traditional things like double speed, double damage, double health, and bottomless clip, but also strange "DOOM-esque" things like paintball mode, flaming bullets, big-head mode, moon gravity, slowed time, etc. Everything is random so no two runs are the same.
The title is DOOM: Be The Slayer and it's coming in September. It doesn't reference DOOM Eternal directly, but will be multi-platform as part of providing legacy support and will be everywhere DOOM Eternal landed. It is $40, but is also included with GamePass. GamePass subscribers also get an additional perk in the form of a Master Chief cosmetic set. The game will also be 4K/120 (upsampled) on Series X or Native 4K/60.
The Ancient Gods, while I have not played it yet, was said to be the end of the Doomslayer's sage, but id has mentioned we will get more DOOM Eternal content. Pulling out all the stops, getting really weird with the content, and creating something they could possibly add on to in the future seems like a good way to end the current iteration of the DOOM franchise.
We get a short teaser trailer for the next expansion for Fallout 76. It's an entirely new area that takes place on a different map in New Vegas. The timeline is unclear from the trailer, but the expansion takes place in the early days of New Vegas and the story beats serve as a prequel, setting up the events of Fallout: New Vegas. BGS Austin is consulting with Obsidian on the story. The expansion is launching alongside a next-generation upgrade for Fallout 76 in 2022 on all platforms that it currently exists.
Additional information will be available after the show. Bethesda will mention that they were working on this expansion before they joined Xbox, but are happy to be on the same team as Obsidian so they can pick their brains and collaborate on story content. They will also mention that this doesn't prevent Obsidian or Bethesda from considering a New Vegas sequel in the future, but nothing is currently in the works.
We then get a short talking head segment about Elder Scrolls Online. It's getting a major update this year. Rather than expanding the game's story, they're bringing a ton of quality-of-life updates to the game. The update will include performance upgrades (both locally and on the network side), graphical updates, improved character creation tools, improved combat, improved endgame content, an improved trial system (more rewarding/more flexible), and more ways to play. They want people to know they're committed to ESO and this will set them up for the future in a big, big way. He reiterates other platforms will continue to get support. They also tease a major shift coming to the game's story in 2022. They're sharing more details later in the summer with an ESO-focused event.
The Arkane logo is shown. It's not Deathloop, but the next game from Arkane Austin. The year is 1926 and we see a retro-futuristic city, but everything is fitting of the time period. It appears to be set in the United States and the city is a mash-up of New York and Chicago. Everyone is elegantly dressed and the city is pristine. A narrator tells us the beauty is actually a facade. A council of eight called "The Prime" runs the city and is ruthlessly authoritarian to preserve the facade. There's serious equity inequality, but the poor are kept hidden and work tirelessly behind the scenes to enable the elite to live elegantly. We see a marble hall that has pictures of the council. We see a few names, The Artist, The Builder, and The Engineer. It's all incredibly gross and pretentious.
Each member of the council oversees a different facet of the city's infrastructure and design and they're the character's targets. You can tackle them in any order, but they all have different strengths and weaknesses and grant you different abilities and benefits that adjust the gameplay experience. The chaos system from previous entries in this franchise returns in a big, big way. Your moment-to-moment gameplay is judged, but also how you choose to dispose of the council members. If you don't dispose of them in a way that isn't met with positive public sentiment, the facet they oversee will crumble and impact the gameplay experience. The game is wide-linear with a hub world.
The game is Dishonored: City Never Sleeps and is coming to Xbox Series consoles, PC, xCloud, and GamePass in 2022.
As weird as it sounds, I don't think that Bethesda, despite publishing and developing those two games, can show them at their press conference. Press conferences are purely marketing and now that they're a part of Xbox, Sony's marketing deal should block them from showing those games.
We see establishing shots of the game as Howard starts with the engine. They've made a ton of improvements since Fallout 4. He says we'll see improved lighting, textures, animations. Basically, every technical aspect of the engine got a serious upgrade. He talks about how faster hard drives allowed them to change how they approached storytelling. He says the technical focus early on in development allowed them to expand the scope of the game and expand the gameplay systems in fun and unique ways.
Starfield is first and foremost a game about discovery. The game starts with the creation of your character, but they really don't provide you with much "backstory." Are you a pirate from another system? Are you a scientist on a mission of peace? Those are questions for you to answer. As far as appearance goes, you are limited to creating a human (for story continuity), but they further expanded the character creation tools from Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 so you have a ton of options to get your "look" just right. The other thing that a limited backstory allows them to do is get you in the game immediately.
The game starts with your ship, called The Starfield, entering the "alien" system for the first time. You do a quick scan of the system and see that it has five explored planets and eight unexplored planets. The explored planets are hand-crafted and built from the ground up with different cultures, technologies, goals, and ideals. The unexplored worlds are procedurally-generated, but don't take that to mean they're barren. They're the same for everyone, meaning you and a friend can talk about what you saw on them. They've been lovingly combed and developed by the team and have had bespoke narrative content built on top. Surprises are hidden everywhere and exploration is always rewarded.
The Starfield (your ship) plays a massive role in the game and serves as your home. Ship flight is manual in space, but there's a galaxy-wide standard for deploying to planets. They use a pod-based system called "Torpedo" that you use to get from ship to ship and down to planets. Most planets have multiple Torpedo bays that allow you to travel to specific portions of the planet when you're pursuing leads and working through missions. The use of the Torpedo system also eliminated the lead for atmospheric flight. When flying The Starfield around the system, you can happen upon random space events.
An example is shown. The Starfield happens upon a ship that's not responding, so the character chooses to use the Torpedo system to check it out. Once the character gets on the ship, they find it's empty. They push up to the bridge and find it locked. After a brief hacking mini-game, the doors open and there are ten dead people on the bridge. A look at the ship's log shows that the captain of the ship went crazy, killing everyone on board, in the middle of delivering important resources to a company on one of the planets. At this point, the character faces an interesting dilemma. They can either complete the crew's mission and deliver the resources or try to find another use for it across the system.
There's other activities to do with The Starfield, including things like resource mining, bounty hunting, and ship salvage. There's also ship combat and while there's not an extensive ship upgrade system, there's different weapon modules you can buy, use, and swap as the mission or situation requires.
The mission structure is quite new for a BGS game. There's no one "main quest," but a series of main quests you can do in any order, but some will only unlock after other quests have been completed. The missions align with different planet cultures and goals. Some planets only know peace, so the missions are less about conflict and more about problem-solving. Other planets have only known war, so the missions there may be more focused on conflict. Factions return, with some planets having one faction (largely representing the planet's unity) and some planets having multiple factions (usually a source of conflict). The way you impact the planet can have long-term consequences for the future of each planet.
Howard gives us a brief overview of a planet. It serves as the system's technological and administrative "hub." It features the largest city that BGS has ever built and is considered by most to be the system's capitol. We see a short gameplay section where the player helps local law enforcement officials to kill someone who has been accused of targeting city officials. The combat, both melee and shooting, have been refined and improved, but they aren't the primary focus. The game is, at its heart, about exploration, communication, and understanding and accepting other cultures.
We see another planet. It is explored, but the people of the planet are quite primitive, so the more technologically advanced planets have not made "first contact." A stealth section is showcased, getting the character into one of the primitive villages before he finds an outfit to steal and fit in, so as not to disturb the primitive people. BGS worked to make stealth a much more viable option. Howard also mentions that you may help decide the primitive planet's fate as you work through the game's storylines. He says that the idea of many quest lines may make some people nervous, but not to worry. The game will have a definitive ending, but will also feature extensive end-game content.
Starfield is built from the ground-up as a single-player experience and there's no multiplayer in the game, but you won't be alone. Starfield has BGS's most-diverse and fun cast of companions. He doesn't want to ruin any surprises, but he thinks there's something (or maybe more accurately, someone) there for everyone. The game will also have a mobile companion app. When you're playing the game, you can use it to manage your inventory, view the journal, and review your stats. When you're not playing the game, you can still be in command of The Starfield, commanding your ship and collecting resources similar to Fallout Shelter that will be waiting for you when you come back to the main game.
The game is Starfield and is launching in October on Xbox Series consoles, PC, xCloud, and GamePass.
A trailer with more establishing shots and gameplay clips is shown.
Pete Hines, Matt Booty, and Phil Spencer are back on screen. Booty and Hines both review a few of the things they showed during their portion of the day. Spencer thanks everyone for watching and mentions that GamePass will be the best way to play all the games they've shown.
The show ends with a montage of games from both publishing arms.
quantum break is awesome as hell it really came out at the wrong time, the tv show was whatever, i really hope we get a sequel down the line
Ending aside, i had a blast with Quantum Break back in the day, shame this will probably never get patched for the Series consoles.
Was super hyped coming out of that event...so many awesome games and the fact a ton of them are launching in GP is incredible....
I know it's been harped on over and over but goddamn GP is so frickin good....fundamentally changed my gaming habits and the hobby in general for me. After MLB The Show drops, I legit don't think I'll buy another game at launch for the rest of the year. I just know anything I want to play will either launch in GP or eventually find its way there.
BTW I've been on The Ascent hypetrain since the initial reveal and it's been at the top of my most wanted game list....and Friday's trailer only reinforced that. Holy hell it looks so good.
Nope. XGS and Bethesda will remain separate publishers, both under Xbox.
/Prepares scotch
/Dons monocle
/Retires to the study
Holy shit dude you outdid yourself! Love it.
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Who isn't? Xbox is firing on all cylinders and in overdrive currently. The moves they are making are a 2016 fan boys fever dreams. Never thought they would get this wild. After the last few months I wouldn't put anything out of the realm of possibility. Even they terribly paced show from Friday has me hyped. It's a good time to play on xbox.
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