Xbox held a positively loaded show this morning, stacked end-to-end with great-looking first and third-party titles, including some decent surprises and important updates on long-await games. We couldn’t get James in to do his usual round-up of the event, so in the absence I’ll do my absolute best to conjure up some of his penetrating insight.
Now let’s look at everything Microsoft was able to show during the Xbox Games Showcase:
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Fable Looks To Be Shaping Up Nicely
Playground Games brought a brand-new and shiny trailer for its take on Fable, complete with a giant Richard Ayoade and chicken kicking. No release date or anything yet, but the footage below is reportedly “in-engine” so that’s something.
Avowed is coming in 2024
Obsidian’s huge new fantasy RPG has been quiet for a while, but thanks to the showcase we got a pretty decent look into the game’s visuals and gameplay, sporting a distinctly Obsidian tone across the board. Very keen for this one. Next year, too!
Star Wars Outlaws Is Ubisoft’s New Open World Star Wars Game
It’s coming in 2024 from Ubisoft Massive, the folks behind The Division and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and it’s an original story set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. More info is coming at the Ubisoft Forward this week.
Starfield Is Incredibly Impressive And Has An Equally Impressive Collector’s Edition
I have lofty hopes for this game, and if delivers on even half of what the team at Bethesda were showing during the stacked 45-minute Starfield Direct that follows the Xbox Games Showcase I’m going to be absolutely sold. Oh, and if you’ve got around $500 AUD lying around, there’s a fancy Constellation Edition with a working watch!
The S Xbox Series S Now Stands For Storage… And Sexy
A new Carbon Black variant of the Xbox Series S is coming on September 1 and it’ll be sporting a bigger, 1TB SSD to go along with the new look. Super exciting stuff.
Surprise! Limited edition Starfield accessories are coming.
Not content with just a (very) nice-looking Xbox Wireless Controller, Starfield is also getting the first theme Xbox Wireless Headset. They both look fantastic, and will both likely sell out before I can get a chance on them.
Clockwork Revolution Looks Like Time-Bendy Bioshock
The folks at inXile (Wasteland, Arcanum) are bringing us a brand-new IP in Clockwork Revolution, a steampunk action RPG that looks like what you’d get if you mixed a little bit of Bioshock with a little bit of Deathloop. Maybe? Whatever the case I want to play this badly.
Forza Motorsport Has A Release Date
The new car game from the car game people is zooming onto Xbox X|S and PC on October 10. Get it? It’s made by Turn 10, and comes out on 10-10. Presumably this will have cars and it’ll be some kind of competition to see which car can find the quickest route to where it started.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
It wouldn’t be Microsoft Flight Simulator without annualised releases, but this genuinely looks like such a cool product. Powered by massive advances in its already-impressive tech, this new iteration of Asobo’s Flight Sim is adding a huge list of new types of flying from medical rescue to cargo and even air racing. It looks might impressive and as the name implies it’s coming out in 2024.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Sounds Like How I Feel
The folks at Ninja Theory have provided a new glimpse at the highly-anticipated Hellblade sequel, and this one gives us a stunning look at Melina Juergens’ performance as Senua and a tease of the kinds of psychological horrors we can expect whenever this game does eventually launch. Which is in 2024, supposedly.
South of Midnight
Compulsion Games (We Happy Few, Contrast) is back with a new game, and though the initial reveal at the Xbox Games Showcase was more tell than show, it looks to be in possession of one hell of an art style and clearly has some great, Southern folklore influences that I’m super keen to see more of.
Towerborne Is From The Creator’s Of The Banner Saga
I’m not sure exactly what to make of this, but it looks rather neat. Up to four-player co-op fantasy goodness, give it to me. Coming in 2024.
33 Immortals Has 33-Player Co-op
Why not 34 Immortals? This one’s coming from the people at Thunder Lotus, who made the exquisite Spiritfarer, so I trust that it’s going to be excellent, even if the idea of raiding with 32 other people only sounds chaotic at best.
Cities Skylines 2 Is Coming Soon
Cities Skylines has been a huge hit with the sim crowd, and now it’s going bigger, better and bolder. And it’s out reasonably soon on October 24.
Dungeons Of Hinterberg Is Very Extra And I Love It
The sheer amount of things going on in the trailer for this beautiful, dungeon-crawling adventure gave me a migraine but I know I definitely want to check this out. Just look at it:
Jusant Is All About Climbing
Pretty bold of them to take the worst part of every modern 3D adventure game and make a whole new game out of it but I’m very down for whatever mountain-climbing shenanigans are going on in Justant. It just looks so nice.
Ichibum Assuga Stars In Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Apparently all the billions of yen I racked up in Like a Dragon’s business mini-game weren’t enough for Ichiban Kasuga. Now he wants infinite wealth. It’s the official title for Like a Dragon 8, which is now slated to launch in 2024. This trailer is very good:
Metaphor: ReFantazio Marks Is A Fantasy Game From The Persona Folks
Yep, this is absolutely a game by Studio Zero. Al the hallmarks of a Persona/SMT game are here but with less modern stuff and more fantasy stuff. It looks suitably bonkers in concept and in its UI. This game is going to consume my life, I can feel it.
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
Capcom’s got a new RE Engine-powered action adventure that oozes style in a very “back in the day” Capcom kinda way. I love it. More of this, please.
Here’s A First Look At Payday 3
Payday 3 is coming on September 21st and fans are sure to eat this one up. It looks edible great.
Two New Persona Games!
It’s a touch unfortunate that these did leak ahead of time, but it’s still exciting to see Xbox continue to get the Atlus love with a pair of new Persona games making their (official) debut at the show. Persona 5 Reload is a reimagining of the cult classic a revamped battle system, cutting-edge graphics and gameplay, enhanced audio featuring all-new English voice-over, a remastered soundtrack with new arrangements, and much more
Still Wakes The Deep Will Keep You Awake
The folks behind Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture are back with a narrative horror experience set on an oil rig. I’m very interested to see more of this, love a good nautically-tinged horror game.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Has A Release Date
It’s coming September 26th and takes players to a new section of Night City where they’ll go on a daring spy thriller adventure alongisde memorable characters like Keanu Reeves’ Johnny Silverhand and Idris Elba’s Solomon Reed. Check it out:
The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom Is Coming
It’s coming very soon on June 20, so make a start on the base game already. You’ve had long enough!
Fallout 76 Is Going To Atlantic City
The people of Vault 76 are ready to go out and hopefully find more safe haven, quests people and probably tons of loot.
Monkey Island Is Coming To Sea Of Thieves
The legendary swashbuckler, Guybrush Threepwood, is making an appearance within Sea of Thieves. The new update will be free to all who own the game or have it through Game Pass and will bring Guybrash and the iconic cast of characters to new life on July 20th.
Overwatch 2: Invasion Is Coming
It’s out August 10th and promises a new support Hero, Story Missions, new maps, modes and heaps more.
The Ornithopter From DUNE Is Coming To Microsoft Flight Sim
I still haven’t read/seen DUNE but I imagine this is a cool get for fans. I wonder what other cinema or video game tie-ins the team could be working on.
