Microsoft held an Inside Xbox this morning revealing a bunch of updates to games coming out in the first half of this year. Here were the biggest announcements.
Grounded Is Coming To Xbox Game Preview In July
We got our first real good look at Grounded, Obsidian’s upcoming survival adventure which is set to arrive on both Xbox Game Preview and Steam Early Access on July 28, 2020.
With ant-like stature a major hurdle, the goal of the game is to, as Professor Frink from The Simpsons might say, “rebigulate” yourself while surviving the horrors of a regular suburban backyard. Being a clever survival sandbox, players can fashion body armour out of acorn shells, quench a powerful thirst with the morning’s dew and, with up to three friends in co-op multiplayer, survive a yardful of bugs, spiders and flying insects.
Sea Of Thieves Is Getting Another Big Update
Through a free update titled Ships of Fortune, Rare is expanding on the in-game trading companies to allow players the chance to buy-in as Emissaries, a sacred and special role that boasts extra rewards and cosmetic booty for those at the top of their game.
Though flying the flag of an Emissary is a prestigious boon that demands respect, it’ll also paint a target on your vessel as rival pirates will no doubt know that wherever you sail, an untold treasure is bound to be close by. Whichever company you side with, you’ll be able to dress up both your pirate and ship, compete against other newly-minted Emissaries in the Ledger. With five grades to work through and titles to earn, the role of Emissary is a welcome one for Sea of Thieves enthusiasts.
The Last Campfire Is The Adorable New Game From No Man’s Sky Developer Hello Games
We got our first glimpse at what a small team within Hello Games has been working on, an adorable yet dark puzzle platformer by the name of The Last Campfire.
The game’s lead designer Steven Burgess gave gamers a walkthrough of the first few minutes of the game, describing the game as a passion project and noting that it had been in development for a few years now. He also noted the game has a lot of dark fantasy elements, likening it to The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.
As Ember, you push on through a beautiful and perilous world to free flames, reignite hope and solve riddles that tend to revolve around Ember’s penchant for creating light.
Hotline Miami Collection Is Coming To Xbox One But Not In Australia
During Inside Xbox, it was announced that the Hotline Miami Collection would be seeing the light of day on Xbox at last.
The ultraviolent top-down shooters, soaked in as much neon as blood, have long been cult staples for the games industry so to hear that they’re coming to another platform is exciting, to say the least. Of course, much like when the collection came to the Nintendo Switch, it isn’t going to be available for us Australians.
Forza Street Is Finally Coming To iOS and Android This May
After an incredible pre-registration for Android users, the team behind Forza Street have announced during Inside Xbox that iOS users are just a few weeks away from hitting the blacktop.
With the game set to arrive on mobile devices at last on May 5, Turn 10 has promised to reward any first-month adoptors with a free Founder’s Pack as a welcoming gift. The pack includes the rare 2017 Ford GT, in-game credits and gold, all waiting to be added to your garage. Given that success in these free-to-play games comes down to who earliest fits out their garage, a rare supercar is just the ticket to get players on board.
https://youtu.be/07TffPtB_Jg
Xbox Game Bar Is Getting Some New Features On PC
Beginning with providing video capture, quick access to audio settings and a frames-per-second counter, the want of the PC gamers has long been at the core of the team’s philosophies. Today’s announcements exist to fix the trouble of having to Alt+Tab between apps while trying to game, the solution is to welcome said apps into the Game Bar ecology through widgets.
The first two to make the leap are XSplit’s Gamecaster, a popular streaming app, and so-called system booster Razer’s Cortex, though Xbox claims to have seen incredible interest from other industry leaders and expect the number of widgets to grow before too long. It’s all very intuitive with widgets appearing in their own little storefront so that you’re able to browse and install them at will without ever having to exit out of Game Bar.
The team also announced a partnership with Intel to bring key features available in the Intel Graphics Command Center to the program. Though it’s still early in the partnership and the initial benefits, said to include power profiles and access to display settings, will be limited at first, as both the IGCC and Game Bar evolve, so too will the widgets.