Xbox Series S/X: Thread 04

[Tobal]

I liked the look of Diablo 4 and a nice inclusion of 'couch' co-op to go with all the online MP

Starfield looked as i'd expected, fallout in space with some NMS which i think im ready for, as i skipped F76 and NMS has never gotten it shooting and space combat to enjoyable let alone good.

The 12 months release focus cutout the usual the CGI trailers of vaporware they've gotten burned with before cough.. Fable... cough Perfect Dark, and nothing from ID was surprising, the Riot games stuff is pretty big, just not for the anti-social people on this forum that shun MP games.

[fishbowlhead]

Starfield looks like a fan mod skin for Skyrim but back to 15fps.

[hudson]

Nice to have the old Persona games on GP.

A lot of the stuff just seemed really samey. Western style games with art styles that never really thrilled me. Hopefully we'll get more Japanese stuff.

[briareos_kerensky]

That was my first time seeing Diablo IV but it looked surprisingly drab and generic.

I'm skipping around the presentation now, and when DIV's cinematic came up without title or introduction, I thought it was a generic fanatasy game...I was expective a more impressive and stylistic cinematic from Blizzard.

[cutmymilk]

Hot Wheels looks great though!

[briareos_kerensky]

Starfield looks like everything Star Citizen wants to be.

[nonny]

Right just finished watching...

Starfield looks about what I expected. I like the tone and scale of it but the frame-rate is very much in the gutter at the moment so unsurprising it got delayed. I thought it looked great though... as someone who has enjoyed Skyrim but never warmed to Fallout this one seems to sit somewhere in the middle for me and overall it looks promising.

If they can sort out the framerate and keep it healthy I think it'll quite possibly be the best RPG game Bethesda has put out... if not, well it'll probably run great in a year or so when they finally figure out how to keep it stable.


Forza Motorsport I thought looked Epic. I appreciate what they're doing with the engine, pushing full time of day, weather, physics etc... It looks exactly what I expected and I was also happy to see them confirm a release window.

Quality of life updates to current games, like the Hot Wheels expansion to FH5... the 40th anniversary flight sim updates... Sea of Thieves updates... that all looked fine and dandy. I'll definitely be up for the Hot Wheels stuff and I do enjoy SoT from time to time when it has some new meat.

Also good to see Grounded finally out of preview. That game doesn't get enough credit really and I need to go back and check it out.

RedFall. Wasn't really sure what to expect here but this is exactly my kind of game... I don't think it looked amazing from an artistic standpoint but definitely something I will be playing when it hits.

Outside of that I was marking off several indies which definitely caught my eye. Cocoon looked excellent as did Ravenlok (sp?) from the guys that did Echo Generation. Really liked the look of that Benedict Fox game as well... couple more I can't remember the name of but plenty to try out via game pass. Oh yeah Hollow Knight was another one.


Overall I think it was really decent and I would actually argue it is probably their best showcase for some time because it just concentrated on the next 12 months and everything is coming to game pass day one. If you are subscribed just knowing you get to try out all of those is something major.... whether any of it floats your boat is another question.

Good to also see some Japanese support and Kojima now confirmed, even though we don't really know what he is working on precisely.

I think what might not be so good is maybe they left a little on the table that is further out than 12 months from now. What is coming in the latter half of 2023? We didn't see Avowed. We didn't see Hellblade 2 or Project Mara. We didn't see anything from id Software or some of the other studios...

So maybe concentrating just on the next 12 month window isn't giving enough screen time to the other big titles sitting in the wings. It makes me wonder what this "extended" showcase is now in 2 days time...

All up though I thought it was solid enough and at least they didn't sit there talking about things much at all and just kept the show reel running.

[nonny]

As a side note... not shown at the show but just confirmed... Valheim is going to PC Game Pass. What with the Riot Games announcement as well it seems there's a lot of PC specific stuff dropping in.

[Neon Ignition]

Just catching up on it now:

Xbox has been having a weak year since around 2010 so this year is...


-Redfall: Looks very middling, one of those games you're glad is on GP as you'd likely not pay for it otherwise
2023

-Hollow Knight: Silksong: Not interested in
No Date Given

-High On Life: Felt like a leftover of the 360 era
October 2022

-A Plague Tale: Requiem: Still looks good
2022

-Forza Motorsport 8: Still looks very nice visually, looks much better than GT7 addressing a lot of the dated visual elements sims suffer from
Spring 2023

-Overwatch 2: If it weren't free to play...
04 October 2022

-Ara: History Untold: Nothing to see
No Date Given

-Scorn: To be honest, for me UE5 is doing all the work visually. Feels like a 90s era PC game in modern clothing so doesn't appeal at all
21 October 2022

-Flintlock: Nope
Early 2023

It feels like we're getting a lot of bitty stuff, the likes that comes to PC largely unnoticed but is being used here to fill out Game Pass

-As Dusk Falls: Man, talk about visually dislikeable. Nope.

-Ereban: Nah, looks at least two gens old
2023

-Wo Long: Team Ninja peaks my interest but they showed nothing which is odd when it's not that far off
Early 2023

-Starfield: It's a humourless Fallout game! Other than the framerate (which is easily remedied by playing the PC version) this has the honour of being the second game of the show to look good.
2023


Now, it's a common thought but I feel this really held true particularly strong this year:

01 - These were very much games being served by Game Pass rather than Game Pass being served by these games

02 - If MS hadn't been on a buying spree this would have been their worst year yet. Somehow they're getting leaner and slower every year despite the money spent.

It was an abysmal showing, I won't lie, it would have served better to simply not do one and rely on regular Direct style vids instead. Fortunately everything is Game Pass launched and so on but after all these years and as we will be entering XSX's third year on the market next year Microsoft's pipeline is an utter embarrassment. There's a lot I've begun to appreciate about the Series X but this particular area... man alive

[Cassius_Smoke]

If anyone can point out a single game in that showcase that can compete with Sony or Nintendo I'll eat my hat.

Forza aside, it was title after title of indie game vaporware crap. They own how many studios?? And this is what we get?!

'oh well 2024/25, that's when the big guns hit.' No, no it won't. Xbox IS this line up of **** year after year. Xbox one proved it, now they're just continuing the trend. I don't own an Xbox and I'm pissed off.

[Neon Ignition]

Turns out Wo Long is a Soulsborne game, scratch another one

[Cepp]

I thought Ara: History Untold was going to be a new Age of Empires game with the way the trailer was going on. It's a turn-based grand strategy game apparently. Civilization, but with an emphasis on alternate history as per the below article which has some gameplay screenshots.

Ara: History Untold is a new turn-based strategy about what could have been | Eurogamer.net

[hudson]

If anyone can point out a single game in that showcase that can compete with Sony or Nintendo I'll eat my hat.

Forza aside, it was title after title of indie game vaporware crap. They own how many studios?? And this is what we get?!

'oh well 2024/25, that's when the big guns hit.' No, no it won't. Xbox IS this line up of **** year after year. Xbox one proved it, now they're just continuing the trend. I don't own an Xbox and I'm pissed off.

I reckon Starfield has enough draw to sell an atomic shed tonne of Game Pass subs. I will deffo cough you too check it out. High chance of a buggy release though. Hmm

[nonny]

I think Abysmal is a bit harsh... I'd rank the Xbox One launch as Abysmal as a benchmark and this wasn't that... but each to their own.

The more I think of it the more that 12 month cut off is key. Remember Starfield, Stalker 2, Redfall were all due out either by now or in a few months so there's been a rather huge hole in the calendar much like GT7/Horizon getting pushed into earlier this year. I think that's telling here.

I'm actually surprised we didn't get any news of this reported Halo Infinite Battle Royale (Project Tatanka) as lots about that has leaked recently. Maybe that's something they're showing more of in the extended show.

[Cassius_Smoke]

The Xbox subreddit has some Stockholm syndrome levels of delusion going on.

From what I gathered:

Flintlock > Horizon forbidden west

Wo Long > Bloodborne

Starfield > Any space exploration game

Lightyear > xenoblade