With a far larger playspace to explore, mounts impacting the way you build, traverse, and fight across the open world with your friends, and a suite of quality-of-life improvements to core crafting and survival systems, there are plenty of areas for Obsidian to target as it considers the Grou𒅌nded 2 early access roadmap. Speaking with game director Chris Parker, he tells me that the studio has identified narrative as a core focus moving forward.

Looking Ahead

"We have a lot of learnings on how to craft a survival experience that is fun and interesting, but also how we could add some narrative flair to that," Parker says,ꦇ speaking to the challenge the original Grounded team encountered when trying to merge Obsidian's legacy as an RPG creator with the genre trappings of survival games. "I think the Grounded 1 team always wished – and to be clear, I don't think that they were unhappy with what was there, the team was excited about it – but they always wished they could have gone deeper with the narrative and developed it more."

"So, that was something we wanted to establish right from the beginning," says Parker. "The way that we were able to develop Grounded 2, because we have the foundational base that we built with Grounded, means that we are able to take on these sorts of challenges earlier. Whereas with the first gam𒅌e, the team was really figuring out how to ma꧑ke the survival mechanics feel really awesome."

Ground🐻ed 2 is set two years after the events of the original game. Pete, Max, Willow, and Hoops return as four playable characters, teenagers who are once again shrunk to the size of insects after an explosion at Brookhollow Park ruins an unveiling ceremony of a statue in their honor.

Obs𓂃idian says that the whole story w👍on't be there from day one – just enough to start uncovering mysteries – but promises that story will be a bigger part of updates moving forward. "Grounded 2 is a great opportunity to hit the narrative right out of the gate," says producer Miles Winzeler.

"We'll have act one ready for the early access launch, which will be its own self-contained chapter. That can help us inform how we handle larger updates down the 𒁏line, and define how we move between Point A and P🦩oint B of both the gameplay and narrative changes at each beat."

Speaking of beats on the roadmap, Parker says Ob🎃sidian learned a lot of lessons through the original Grounded in early access, and is making changes to the way it deploys updates. "When we started with Grounded 1 in early access, we were trying to do almost monthly updates. That was a hassle and it didn't work. It didn't make the community happy and it didn't make the team happy. So we are looking at longer, meatier updates that are in the four to five month range."

We want to be able to deliver big chunks of content, just like we were doing later on in Grounded. Where the team was getting out a huge chunk of whatever area of the yard, with all-new creatures, armor, new equipment, new mechanics, or whatever it might have been.⭕ With Grounded 2, we want to bring all of these pieces into a content update so that the community can experience an entire chunk of the park and provide feedback oꦐn it as a whole piece of the game, which is really important to us."

Obsidian is yet to release the full Grounded 2 early access roadmap, although the studio has committed to being more transparent about its plans for the sequel. We're expecting ꦚto learn more on that front on J🎶uly 29 – when Grounded 2 lands in Game Preview/Early Access for PC, Xbox Series X, and Game Pass.

Grounded 2 lands in Game Preview/Early Access for PC, Xbox Series X, and Game Pass on July 29, 2025.

This renewed focus shines through in a lot of diff🌃erent ways, but it's perhaps best evidenced in the ways in which stealth has been made a viable playstyle. Game director Brandon Adler tells me that "Fallout: New Vegas and the Deus Ex games were a big inspiration", which is clear in the synergy The Outer Worlds 2 presents between this wildly expansive approach to character building and more complex, interlocking environments.

Play Your Way

Let's start with the world you'll be exploring, because I think this is one of the most significant im🌊provements that I noticed after my time playing The Outer Worlds 2. Setting out into a mysterious research facility, the variety of pathways towards my objective does summon fond memories of Eidos Montreal's Deus Ex games. There's locked doors and ventilation shafts, hackable electronics, and secret routes waiting to be found if you're willing to tease the camera above the centre point of the screen.

"We've tried to make sure that we have good stealth paths through most of the environments," says Adler, ꦗwho explains that Obsidian has introduced throwable distraction devices and takedowns to "make it easier for p๊layers to understand" that stealth is truly viable.

"Even as we're closing production of the game down, we have a strike team that is going through every major place of interest, room-by-room, to see if we can stealth properly through each location. And if we can't, well, what are the adjustments? Can we change a patrol here to linger longer, not faci🤪ng you? Can we place some distraction devices? We're doing a lot of that type of stuff right now, because we want to offer this type of experience for the players who want it."

More complex environments and the addition of takedowns alone does not make for a comp🌳elling stealth game. Thankfully, Obsidian is matching its ambitions in this space to some really complex character building opportunities. Traits (both positive and negative) give you the ability to really lay the foundation for your fantasy.

Skills like 'Lockpicking' (lowering the difficulty of locked doors and increasing your invasion chance) or 'Sneak' (increasing stealth attack damage while decreasing the NPC awareness detection rate) allow for further💝 specialisation. And combinations across the perk tree not only unlock new abilities but change how the entire world reacts and responds to your character.

Given the scope of these intertwining systems, it's difficult for me to even convey just how many options you'll have here to play your way. Say you want to build a stealth assassin, then the combination of the 'Nimble' Trait, skill point investment into 'Sneak', and the Assassin 'Perk' mean you'll e🌞ventually end of moving faster when crouched than you would while standing, with your movement speed increasing dramatically every time you chain kills from stealth.

You can no doubt imagine how a combinat♚ion like this would make you move like a force of nature through environments. Furthering the fun, perhaps you imbue this character build with a Flaw like 'Bad Knees' which dramatically improves your base movement speed, but creates a cracking sound every time you stand from a crouch – alerting enemies in the vicinity to your location. There's an exceptional amount of depth, and that applies beyond the stealth playstyle focus I'm taking here.

"One of the biggest pieces of feedback we received for The Outer Worlds was around the moment-to-moment gameplay," says executive producer Justin Britch. "We're on a journey to make this nirvana RPG experience. We want everything to feel reactive; from the moment-to-moment gameplay, the dialogue choices you 🏅make, to the way you solve problems in the game," he says, adding, "we can't wait to see💃 what players come up with in The Outer Worlds 2."

The Outer Worlds 2 will release on October 29, 2025 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. It'll also be available through Game Pass on day one.

Grounded was one of the first titles from Xbox Game Studios 🎃to go multiplatform, part of a new initiative at Microsoft Gaming to make its output more widely ac🍎cessible to players. Grounded made its way to PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch last April following four years of console exclusivity on Xbox, spurring the survival-adventure on to reach more than 25 million players worldwide. A big achievement, one I expected Obsidian would want to repeat should the studio ever break ground on a sequel.

Humble Beginnings

Speaking e🐬xclusively with G𒅌amesRadar+, Feargus Urquhart tells me that Grounded's success on platforms outside of the Xbox ecosystem didn't guarantee that its sequel would do the same. "It really is on a title-by-title basis," says Obsidian's studio head and CEO.

"The simplistic way of looking at Grounded 2 is t♑hat it's all about being in Game Preview and Early Access. It's about building the core. We got Grounded into the player's hands and then we could see what they liked and what they didn't like, and you don't want to complicate that by having tons of♈ different SKUs."

When Urquhart refers to "SKUs" here, he really means platforms. For a video game that's all🎐 about quick iteration, Obsidian says there's benefit in keeping the scale smaller as its development teams build an early access roadmap and adapt it through ongoing conversations with the community.

"Adaptability and reacting to what players are asking for helps inform how we will evolve the game," says Marcus Morgan, executive producer of Grounded 2. "That was the spir💫it of everything we did throughout the development of Grounded, including the expansions to new platform💃s."

Morgan tells me that Obsidian had long wondered whether the original Grounded could ever exist outside of the Xbox ecosystem, as players spent years c♏ommenting that they "wanted to play this game with their friends on PlaySation and Nintendo" – but there were never any guarantees. "We were thinking, yeah, let's try to see if that works within the broader Xbox strategy to make that happen, to connect players together. That process played a role in how we thought about expanding Grounded."

I have spoken to multiple developers and decision makers at Obsidian, and they all maintain that a limited early access release for Grounded 2 has been the plan from the beginning. I asked Morgan whether the success of Grounded on P🥂S5, PS4 and Switch – production was already undeꦐrway on the sequel by the time it arrived – made Obsidian consider a wider day-one release for Grounded 2.

"Even before we headed to new platforms, there was already a vision for where we wanted to take 🌄Grounded going forward. So while the influx of new players certainly didn't hurt – and neither did making more money – we were already on the road long before that even happened. We knew what we wanted to do, and there was already excitement and support across the Xbox organization to go out and keep growing this franchise."

So, does that mean that Grounded 2 will eventually launch on PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2? It could depend entirely on whether that's something players actually want. "You know, there are pros and cons of doing an early access game," Morgan continues," and one𒐪 of those things is that you're releasing a game that is intentionally unfinished so you can build on🐠 it with the community."

"Starting with that as a baseline initially helped us make Grounded successful, which is the only reason we're here for Grounded 2. Our focu🌌s is just on what our players are enjoying, and what's satisfying is that we can do that in a sustainable manner," he says. "That's the approach that we'll take going forward, and we'llౠ see what happens in the future – with regards to how it grows and how it expands."

Grounded 2 lands in Game Preview/Early Access for PC, Xbox Series X, and Game Pass on July 29, 2025.

"The starting point for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Grounded 2 in early access is the same size as the entirety of Grounded 1.0," says executive producer Marcus Morgan. "One reason for that is: this is Grounded 2, right – obviously it's got to be bigger! But the more important reason is that it facilitates the Buggies, which are our mounts. We really had to push to redesign the entire world, because now that you have mounts you can navigate the world much more quickly. Tﷺhat decision has actually changed the way we design all of our areas in Br✅ookhollow Park, both above and below ground."

Brave New World

While Obsidian (anꦯd Deus Ex developer Eidos Montreal, who is partnered on production of this sequel) is yet to settle on a final size for Brookhollow Park, it's expected to be roughly three times the size of the original game's backyard by the time Grounded 2 eventually emerges from early access. Part of the challenge here, says game director Chris Parker, is in making this new setting feel distinct. "The challenge with a sequel – and this is certainly something that we think about a lot – is that there can be this perception that Grounded 2 looks a lot like Grounded 1."

"We've tried to make everything more beautiful," says Parker, speaking to the shift to Unreal Engine 5. "The areas that are essentially grass, which there are a lot of in Grounded, have n🌳ew creatures and new elements about them which work to refresh those areas and make them new, but then we also have completely new biomes too." Brookhollow Park is this vibran🌞t, nostalgia-soaked suburban wilderness that offers far more variance – expanding your options in exploration, building, and survival.

Producer Miles Winzeler tells me that "the change of locality" was driven by Obs🔯idian's desire to look beyond new featuresets like the Buggies, refreshed combat, and a suite of mechanical improvements. "Outside of the map-size changing, the move from a backyard to a park has been huge for us."

"We've kept the organic parts of Grounded, as they were essential to the survival elements, but these changes open the door to a lot of new situations in more man-made structures. Areas like the Ice Cream Cart and the Barbecue which are built for public coꦰnsumption. This is a natural progression for Grounded, and a great blank slate for us to build on through early access," says Winzeler.

Making sure that Grounded 2 feels like a true sequel is clearly something Obsidian and Eidos Montreal is wary of. It's why I ask Morgan whether the studios ever considered expanding the player count beyond four in co-op to match the expanding scope of the world. "The shared-world nature and the intimacy of playing with your friends is a really, really important part o𝓡f what made Grounded feel special and unique. We identified areas 🐷we could build upon – the new mounts, world, story, and plenty more – but that part we wanted to keep the same. There's an intimacy to that."

Morgan adds: "The relationship you build with your friends, and the camaraderie you have in doing this all together, was somethꦑing we wanted to retain. So that's a com❀ponent of why we didn't go to like a 60-player server, because it would have undermined what Grounded was really about. Grounded is about going on this nostalgic adventure with your friends, and we want to keep that spirit alive as we move into Grounded 2."

Grounded 2 lands in Game Preview/Early Access for PC, Xbox Series X, and Game Pass on July 29, 2025.

That surprise you're picking up on isn't because I think developer Obsidian Entertainment isn't capable of greatness – the studio is, after all, undoubtedly responsible for some of the best RPGs of the last 20 years. Role-playing games, not shooters – there ꦫare sharp degrees of expertise required to succeed in either landscape. But the studio has clearly set itself exceptionally lofty targets here, with big ambitions fuelling what could be its most definitive title to date.

A True Evolution

The Outer Worlds 2 is a substantial evolution over its predecesso🃏r, designed to be more reactive and intricate in all that it does. Obsidian has drawn from the legacy of Fallout: New Vegas to help inform The Outer Worlds 2's complexity. There are more varied flaws and traits, and over 90 perks – even from a brief time poking through the menus, it's clear that there's a dizzying variance to character creation and expansion. Stealth has been carefully overhauled, and there's a dynamism to speech that demonstrates growth over similar systems seen in Obsidian's Avowed and Bethesda's Starfield.

Which is all to say that The Outer Worlds 2 is really shaping up to be a pretty exceptional RPG…but let's get back to that shotgun. The one adorned in shards of ice. The one which blasts enemies back with this shatteringly concussive force. I haven't stopped thinking about the reload animation, as individual shells are slotted into place before the barrel is cocked back into position with a satisfying snap. It speaks volumes that, while exploring a sprawling environment full of branching paths, locked doors, and ventilation systems, I feel so inclined to charge into enemy encounters with this thing in my hands. This isn't how I'd traditionally play a video game like The Outer Worlds 2, but I can't help my𓂃self.

For a stuᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚdio like Obsidian, with decades of experience and expertise 🍃in the RPG genre, I was keen to understand how it is delivering gunplay that could legitimately outshine dedicated shooters. Brandon Adler, game director of The Outer Worlds 2, was only too happy to answer: "Even before The Outer Worlds shipped, that was one of the things we knew we wanted to improve when it became time to target a sequel."

Adler tells me that this process included the design team completing a "full breakdown of Destiny" for inspiration, and a masterclass with another key team from the Xbox Game Studios network. "Another big aspect was talking to the Halo folks. We asked them: 'What do you guys do? How can we improve this, and what are we doing wrong?' They gave us this huge list of stuff and said that we should target these types of things, add this to our weapons configurations. So we diꦰd all of that."

He also points to the decision to bring in dedicated combat and weapons designers into development early, and the impact increased🤪 resources can have on a production – the original game was published by Private Division, rather than Xbox Game Studios. You can feel this flood of expertise in the way the guns handle; the personality inherent in every reload, the unique recoil patterns attached to every weapon c🔯lass, and the sharp snap into ADS.

Which is all to say that The Outer Worlds 2 is shaping up to be a compelling prospect, regardless of whether you're coming to it for the most in-depth RPGs of the year or have typically൩ leaned towards more tra๊ditional shooters in the past. There was always going to be this need for The Outer Worlds 2 to prove itself on a larger stage than the 2019 original.

It's the first 🥀title🌳 out of Xbox Game Studios to be priced at $80, and another would-be Xbox exclusive that's set to land on PS5 from day one. It's difficult to know whether Obsidian is truly ready for the scrutiny that's abo🐓ut to follow. But what I do know is that after three runs through a small slice of The Outer Worlds 2, I'm absolutely desperate to carve my own path🥂 through Arcadia.

The Outer Worlds 2 will release on October 29, 2025 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, Obsidian co-founder and Grounded 2 director Chris Parker explains why the sequel happened, as oppo♓sed to building on the original game. "Grounded worked on Xbox One, it was very hard to continue working on that platform and continue to expand the world and do everything that we wanted to do. And so there's that sort of technical limitation." This explains why the game is launching exclusively for Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Granted, Parker admits it🐓 would've been theoretically possible to deal with the technical limitations, but "there were just things that we wanted to do that I think the original team couldn't accomplish, just because the way that they designed the world didn't work for it."

Ultimately, Parker said that this fresh start will allow the game to be supported for even longer, while keeping with the ambitions of the studio. "When we started Grounded 2 it was like, hey, this is our o🐈pportunity to build the world from the ground up and kind of give it the legs you're talking about, so that we can continue to add into it, support it, not just through early access, but beyond that as well."

Grounded 2 will follow its survival game predecessor's early access window, but the downside is "the game's not done and it's out to the world," which makes for horrifying bugs like this reverse face

Xbox Game Pass received its澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: latest price increase in 2024 alongside the introduction of the Xbox Game Pass Standard tier. And recently, Microsoft announced that it was increasing the price of the console and its first-party releases, with The Outer Worlds 2 stepping up to the $80 plate later this year.

This price increase on its games had Xbox players sure Xbox Game Pass was sure to be bumped up in the near future, so Microsoft can pull the "it's even more value n𒁏ow" line due to increasing the price of games, and would you look at that, it's probably ha𓂃ppening.

posted an image from the html code of the Xbox Cloud Gaming website, and noticed that a new notification type called "SubscriptionPriceIncrease" has been added. And given that we're about to reach the one-year anniversary of the last Game Pass price increase (which, in turn, came 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a year after the previous one), things aren't looking good.

Granted, the blow may be less for some this year as Microsoft has released several games this year, with Indiana Jones and the Great🅺 Circle, Avowed, and Doom: The Dark Ages all releasing to solid acclaim, and the likes of Ninja Gaiden 4, Keeper, and The Outer Worlds 2 still to come.

Playing Gears of War: Reloaded on PS5 is exceptionally surreal, especially in online co-op with a player on Xbox Series X

Not only is Team Ninja (which is somewhat responsible with their soulslikes Nioh and Wo Long), returning to its premiere action series, but PlatinumGames is returning the the genre that made the studio an all-time great before it got into RPGs and live service. PlatinumGames producer Yuji Nakao recently spoke about the disappearance of the action genre, while, Team Ninja producer Masakazu Hirayama spoke about the topic at 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Summer Game Fest in an interview attended by GamesRadar+.

"The conversation about action games has changed quite a lot since the last Ninja Gaiden game," Hirayama says, referr♌ing to 2012's Ninja Gaiden 3 (or maybe 2014's Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, which we'd all like to forget, but the point still stands). He adds: "Soulslikes have kind of taken center stage."

However, desꦜpite this, and despite Team Ninja's soulslike focus over the last decade, the team knew things had to be different when returning to Ninja Gaiden. "Ninja Gaiden is about having high speed, pure action gameplay. So we are going against the trend in that way."

However, despite the 13-year gap (or 18 year gap, considering Ninja Gaiden 3 was kind of pants) and the change in developer, Team Ninja is certain that fans of the series will not feel lost returning to it. Hirayama says, "When you pick up the controller and you play, it has that responsiveness, that really satisfying gameplay. Right when you pick it up, it feels like an evolution. It's like, oh, this is Ninja Gaiden." Now we just need Capcom to go back to Devil May Cry.

Capcom's android apocalypse Pragmata is such a genius mix of shooters and puzzle games, both of which I normally hate, and I'm starting to rethink my entire existence.

Speaking to GamesRadar+ at Summer Game Fest, Outer𓆏 Worlds 2 director Brandon Adler spoke about the improvements, saying "even before The Outer W✃orlds 1 shipped, that was one of the things that we knew we had wanted to improve when we were going to target a sequel." In service of making great first-person shooting for the sequel Adler revealed the team "did a full breakdown on Destiny, because we loved how that felt."

But Destiny wasn't the only Bungie franchise whose shooting fed into The Outer Worlds 2, as Adler revealed that Obsidian sought out advice from Halo Studios "we said, like, 'Hey, what do you guys do? What are we doing wrong? How can we improve this?' And so they gave us a huge list of stuff, and they said, like, 'Hey, yo🌞u guys should target these types of t🎃hings. You guys should add this to your weapon configurations.' We did all of that."

Adler also mentioned that hiring a combat designer and weapons designer also gave the combat a huge boost, as they could dedicate their time to the combat. "So overall, it was just making that an actual thing that we decided to put a lot♔ of effort and resources towards. But yeah, it was, it was something pretty important to us early on."

The Outer Worlds 2 "basically borrowed" Fallout: New Vegas' excellent Perks system, and I'm already spinning up an amazing stealth RPG build

Ninja Gaiden 4 is the first game in the brutally tough, spectacle fighting series in about 13 years, and a lot has changed since Ryu was last stabbing foes. The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Showcase 2025 gave us just a brief new look🐬 at Ninja Gaiden 4's updated formula, alongside an October 21, 2025 release date.

"When PlatinumGames speaks to Team Ninja about this next Ninja Gaiden, we often joke that 'we've made something that really doesn't feel like 🅷a modern game—it's just too hard,'" Nakao joked in a chat with . "These days, games are trending toward being easier to play, but Ninja Gaiden 4 goes⛦ in the complete opposite direction. So don't lose heart!"

Elsewhere in the interview, the lead developer reminisced about growing up during "the golden age" of classic action ꧑games that are now a rare sight. "For people of my generation, it feels like the types of games we grew up playing have become a lot less common in recent years. Instead, we've seen the rise of Soulslike games, which have certainly become very popul🌄ar."

Not wanting to give anyone the wrong impr🙈ession, Nakao notes that he's also a fan of your Dark Soulses and Dark Souls-like games. They're good fun. Still, he can't help but feel that a certain type of action got left behind. And the glut of Soulslikes revealed at Summer Game Fest so far is only backing him up.

"Maybe it's just my own wishful thinking, but I can't help but feel that a lot of action gam⛎e fans are starting to crave that experience again," he continued.

"Isn't🐟 it about time we all dove back in? I really feel like Ninja Gaiden 4 has turned out to be the kind of game that could strike a chord with those fans of💯 the genre. If it could carve out its place in the history of modern slash-action, and as a new benchmark for the genre, I'd be thrilled. And if Ninja Gaiden 4 could serve as a spark that reignites excitement around slash-action games, then that would be even better."

Check out our list of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games for the rest of this year and beyond.

Much like the first title, expect to be living a Bug's Life kind of adventure in this new game as you play as a teen who has been shrunk and thrown into a dangerous and now oversized world. With a brand new environment, new creepy crawly species to fight, and a bunch of new exciting systems to keep track of if you hope to stay alive, Grounded 2 already looks as if it has the makings to be one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best survival games of all time.

We've gathered all the latest news about the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X game, so you can keep track of all the ꦗlatest tiny developments. From the Grounded 2 Early Access release date, gameplay, trailer, and more, we've left no bug-infested stone unturned.

Grounded 2 release date

The good news is that Grounded 2 will be launching into Xbox Game Preview and Steam Early Access on July 29, 2025. This big news was revealed during the recent 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Games Showcase 2025 as part of Sum𒅌mer Game Fest, and sh🦩ocked everyone.

The first Grounded was announced back in 2019, and then went into Early Access in 2020 before getting a full rel🦩ease in 2022. So far, it's unclear when the sequel will have its full release, but if it follows the pattern of the first game, we are looking at two years. During the Grounded 2 Direct, it was also revealed that a public roadmap will be launching that will based on play🤪er feedback.

Grounded 2 platforms

Grounded 2 will be available to play on Xbox Series X and PC once it launches into Early Access. Currently, there is no word on a PS5 or Nintendo release. However, before you start lamenting about owning the wron꧙g console, it'💯s worth keeping in mind that in 2024, the first Grounded was released on the Switch, PS4, and PS5.

So, the sequel could follow in its footsteps and make its way to other consoles in the future. Who knows, maybe we'll see it added to our list of澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: upcoming Switch 2 games as well! For now, though, it's looking to be an 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox exclusive.

Grounded 2 trailer

Grounded 2 story and setting

Grounded 2 is set a few years after the events of the first game in the year 1992, and will follow the story o꧒f the four original teens who are still missing.

If you're unfamiliar with the story of the first Grounded, basically, you are one of four teens who find themselves mysteriously shrunken down to the size of an insect and trapped in a backyard. 🍸As they explore and 🍒try to survive the brutal environment of the yard, they discover notes from Dr. Wendell Tully, who invented the machine known as SPAC.R, which can shrink objects and people.

It turns out that you are, in fact, in Dr. Wendell Tully's yard, and so is the SPAC.R. However, thanks to an explosi🔯on, the pieces are scattered, and you must find them all to get back to normal. Althoug♍h on the way, it's discovered that the company Ominent is behind your kidnapping and has been experimenting on children

So yeah, Groundඣed 2 has Ominet back in full force and up to shady antics once again, it seems. During the Xbox Showcase at Summer Game F𓂃est 2025, we learned that this time around, it seems like the company is back to its old tricks, and it's up to you to survive once again.

In the Groundedꦉ 2 Direct following the Xboꦍx Game Showcase, the development team at Eidos Montreal and Obsidian Entertaiment also revealed the world of 2 is larger than the first in Brookhollow Park, which has new biomes, from the likes of an icy environment that takes the form of an overturned ice-cream cart that's contents has spilled out, as well as a "spooky" anthill,

Grounded 2 gameplay

Much like ꦛits predecessor, Grounded 2 is primarily a survival game that will have you scavenging a gigantic world for materials, as you loot bug corpses, dive into dungeons, craft shelters, and unlock upgrades that turn you into⛎ a tiny insect terminator.

Much like the first game, we expect that as you progress the story and battle massive boss bugs, you'll get to unlock technology and equipment that helps you survive as well as thrive in your shrunken state. Not only will you need to stay alive with all the creepy crawlers after you, but you'll have to manage your hunger and thirst level♐s as well.

Stamina also depletes during combat, and a nighttime cycle will make enemies more aggressive, so keep that in mind when you're out and about looking for resources. Like the first game, co-op is also a big gameplay feature, giving you the opportunity to play with your mates (orꩵ use them as a shield when fighting those giant bugs). The game can be played solo, though, so don't worry, no matter what kind of player you are, you are sorted here.

However, what truly m💙akes Grounded stand out among other titles in the survival genre is its RPG-like quirks. Action is expected to be split up with witty dialogue from NPCs, and you'll cover tidbits of lore as you make your way through the game and work to survive as a mini-person just trying their best.

During the Grounded 2 Direct, we also learned more about new gameplay features, including th💟e fact that we'll be able to dash this time around, but so can all of the enemies we face - with the reveal that we'll also be facing cockroaches. Excitingly, the upcoming sequel will also feature mounts known as buggies that give us a new way to traverse and explore the world, and they'll fight alongside you when you jump off of them.

Can I pre-order Grounded 2?

Sorry, folks, but you can't pre-order Grounded 2 just yet. However, considering how the game is set to release sometime in July into Early Access, that may change soon.

However, you can now wishlist the game on both Steam and the Microsoft Store, so at least that's something! We'll keep you posted as we wait for more updates. In the meantime, you can read our original 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Grounded review to prepare yourself before the sequel hits.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Oblivion Remastered is also out on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S; plus, Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can now download the game for free on either console or⛦ computer.

But it seems like, for humble Steam players, it was not a question of "where" they'd play the lusciously improved Oblivion, but a matter of "how soon" they cღould type in all 16 digits of their credit card numbers.

"Bought i🌞t immediately," one Reddit comment says on an discussing how Oblivion Remastered was on Steam. "🐬I'm praying to the divines that your internet speeds are optimal."

"Take my money," offers another.

"I just fell to my knees in th𓃲e bread aisle," says another .

For its part, Bethesda owner Xbox says in a that "if you're a longtime fan, everythi꧙ng you know🎐 and love is intact, and if you've never played, this is the perfect place to begin."

Oblivion Remastered features improved UI, enemy scaling, 4k resolution, glossy 60fps, and more – like brea📖thtaking graphic upgrades thanks, in part, to stu𒀰dio Virtuos. Shivering Isles' purple butterflies now look like they're made of stained glass.

So it's safe to say that Steam players are thrilled with the game that has been in their lives for less than an hour. It was love at first sight, an♒d Oblivion Remastered's Positive Steam reviews are already rolling in, with one in particular summarizing the whole phenomenon well: "Fun."

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered looks more real than ever as screenshots from Virtuos 'leak' and reports point to a shadow drop next week.

Further solidifying expectations, a placeholder stream on reads: "All will beꦍ revealed..."

Th🐬e artwork and "IV" leave no room for doubt: this is the Oblivion remaster announcement. That said, there's still some lingering uncertainty oveᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚr whether the remaster's rumored shadow drop will bookend this reveal stream, or if launch will come sometime afterward.

Fans dug up an apparent backend link to a soon-to-be-live Oblivion remaster website earlier this month🍷, and🍒 the unannounced game has only sprung more leaks since.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Images from Virtuous studios – the Dark Souls remastered studio, and now seemingly the Oblivion remaster's co-developer or lead developer – were by far the leakiest. If your game has side-by-side images out in the wild, I think it's safe to say the cat's not going 🦂back in the bag.

Those screenshots showed substantial visual upgrades for the 2006 RPG, and previous rumors, which are looking increasingly accurate, also hinted at gameplay improveme♋nts.

The standout is overhauled combat, with blocking purportedly veering closer to the Soulslike formula – fittingly enough, given Virtuous' Dark Souls remas🌃tered background – and stealth, ar💟chery, and stamina management are possibly all getting various modernizations.

That said, these are t🍒he fuz꧂ziest leaks we have, so hold your horses until the reveal stream.

News of an official Oblivion remaster has sparked interesting comments from the mod team behind Skyblivion, an unofficial Oblivion remaster made in Skyrim's engine. The team says "both projects can exist" and "players are the true winners," welcoming a Bethesda-backed version and enjoying the prospect themselves.

Why wait? Oblivion fans have already made their own remaster in Doom, and it features one too many adoring fans for my liking.

Xbox is also set to bring back the double feature framing, following the Starfield Direct in 2023 and the Black Ops 6 Direct in 2024. These dedicated sessions dive deep into one specific title following the main showcase, with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Outer Worlds 2 given the honors in 2025.

Xbox promises that The Outer Wilds 2 Direct will "bring you i𒐪nside the walls of Obsidian Entert🥂ainment, revealing new gameplay, details, and developer insights."

The presence of The Outer Worlds 2 Direct sets the sci-fi RPG as one of the key Xbox Series X for the remainder of 2025, following the delay of the long-awaited 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fable reboot into next year.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Studios also has 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:State of Decay 3 in development at Undead Labs, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War: E-Day at The Coalition, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Clockwork Revolution at inXile, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Perfect Dark at The Initiative with TBC release dates, although it wouldn't be a surprise to see all four of these at the Xbox Games Showcas🥃e 2025.

What's more unknown is whether we'll finally get an update on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Marvel's Blade from Arkane, Rare's Everwild, or Bethesda's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Elder Scrolls 6. And there's even less chance of getting anything new on OD, given that Hideo Kojima is currently working to get 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Death Stranding 2 out the door on June 26 for PS5.

The 🎐Xbox Games Showcase 2025, followed by The Outer Worlds 2 Direct, will air on June 8 at the following timesꦿ:

• PDT: June 8, 10am
• EDT: June 8, 1pm
• BST: June 8, 6pm
• CET: June 8, 7pm
• JST: June 9, 2am
• AEST: June 9, 3am

While the Xbox Games Showcase 2024ꦺ had an in-person component, live from Los Angeles, the 2025 offering will be a digital-only presentation. Still, it will run in the position previously 💮occupied by E3 – and now Summer Game Fest.

The big question on my mind right now is whether Xbox has the ability to draw attention away from the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nintendo Switch 2 (which is set to launch on June 5) or the firepower to battle for attention against GTA 6, f𝓰or which Rockstar 🤪could drop a second trailer for at any point.

It's an exciting time regardless, with Xbox enjoying one of its best years of the generation so far – learn more about all that in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Avowed review and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:South of Midnight review.

What do you hope to see at the Xbox Games Showcase in 2025? Drop your best predictions in the comments below.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:South of Midnight makes a strong first impression. Then again, titles from developer Compulsion Games always have. There was Contrast in 2013 and We Happy Few a few years later, experiences defined by their visually evocative worlds and deliberately modest scale. "We've always been ambitious with all the projects that we create, within the means that we've had," says Compulsion founder Guillaume Provost. Although the studio head is aware that expectation has shifted underneath the studio in years gone 💙by.

Seven years on from its acquisition into the Xbox Game Studios group, Compulsion is larger than it has ever been before – having nearly tripled in size since work concluded on We Happy Few – and hungrier than ever to show to the world what it is truly capable of with this 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X game. "Within Xbox there was a certain amount of expectation, with regards to the level of quality that titles need to bring to the table. We all wanted to execute at a level that we felt good about when sitting in the room across from our peers and industry giants wh🍸o have a lot of experience making games."

Welcome to the Deep South

The further Hazel burrows into Prospero the stranger things seem to become. Her hometown ravaged by a hurricane, the life that she used to know swept away in a single moment etched in time. And so into the rabbit hole of the American Deep South she dives, where 🍃local folklore seems to have a way of slipping beyond the seams of superstition and into the fabric of her reality. South of Midnight follows Hazel through "one very strange day," laughs Jasmin Roy, game director.

This is an action-adventure whicඣh takes place over 10-12 hours of playtime, "your adventure starting in the morning and ending at midnight," says art director Whitney Clayton. This frame affords Compulsion the opportunity to whisk Hazel along from one lush, decaying environment to the next as she heads off in search of her mother. "Different landscapes correlate with different times of the day. Each has its own really specific mood, which then reflects the type of story being told in that mome⛎nt," she says. "It's a curated experience, which is a complete reaction to us having a game that was procedural before."

South of Midnight feels worlds apart from We Happy Few. That's not only a result of Compulsion shifting away from a roguelike structure in favor of a more ♔linear presentation, but because of the general vibe that's being cultivated. Where the studio once channelled the dystopia of Terry Gilliam's 'Brazil', it's now grappling with the high-strangeness of Ethan and Joel Coen's 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' albeit through a distinctly southern gothic lens – stark realism colliding with a series of increasingly off-kilter events. "I don't know about you, but if a catfish started talking to me I would probably freak out a little," says narrative director Zaire Lanier. "But Hazel needs to find her mother; so while she will acknowledge that this is all a little weird, her reactions a💖re also subdued."

That balancing act is at the heart of South of Midnight, a journey which is able to whiplash between smiles and sadness with relative ease. What you'll explore here is 14 chapters of a folktale – the titular South of Midnight – which tells of a world wrought with collective tr𓆏auma, manifesting as knots in the grand tapestry, and of mournful monster kings who roam the land waiting to be tamed. You'll follow 🃏this path equipped with Hooks and Spindles, the tools a Weaver can wield to channel powers bestowed upon her by the land, and a Distaff, which lets Hazel tap into echoes of the past.

South of Midnight is exceptionally smooth in motion. The game runs at a stable 60fps on Xbox Series X as Hazel gracefully double-jumps ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚbetween platforms and glides over hazards, oversized brambles and toxic waters. The stop-motion animation effect applied to all of the foliage and fauna in the world is actually a clever visual trick, where Compulsion uses a concoction of "tech, art, and visual effects to emulate this consistent, handcrafted stop-motion feeling in the world," says Clayton.

Compulsion tells me that th🍨e studio stopped short of applying this stop-motion effect to the entire gameplay experience because the style is not only "polarizing" but can induce nausea in some players prone to motion sickness. Clayton says: "We wanted to make something that felt nice to play whilst still maintaining a distinctive style." Roy adds that "the stop-motion effect is on by default, because we consider it to be the ideal way to experience the game, but there are accessibility options to turn it off if you want or need to."

The roots of this pain run deep

There's a pattern to the way South of Midnight plays. The hopes of a reunion between motᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚher and daughter propulse the narrative forward, but each chapter sees Hazel attempt to bring some peace to the land. "Players move from these moments of contemplative exploration, traversing the world and discovering little ♑points of interaction to build up the lore of the space naturally, and then they get trapped in these areas with evil spirits that haunt the place," says Roy.

Haints, angry creatures born of pain and stigma, make quick work of your health if you aren't able to successfully control the baying crowd. Combat is fluid, Hazel able to execute a five-strike combo and a charged-att🍬ack from range. You do, however, have limited options in the defense department. "The system is centred around dodging," Roy continues. "This was a conscious decision, even from our early prototypes; we wanted Hazel to be an agile character." Enemies are quick to press any advantage, so timing a precision dodge to unleash a shockwave Strand Blast is k🍰ey, as is swinging the camera around to track surrounding spirits.

When that isn't enough, there are powerful spells at your disposal. Weave im💯mobilises enemies, causing them to take increased damage for a short time; Strand Push repels enemies and disrupts attacks; and Strand Pull 🍸yanks smaller Haints towards you, or allows you to quickly close the gap with larger ones. "Spells are really powerful and using them is important," says Roy. "We didn't want you to spend too much time without them, but we also wanted to give players a resource to manage."

That's where Unravel comes into play. There's a brief window of opportunity to 'Unravel' a defeated enemy – reeling in the spirit's energy with spellbinding hostility, echoing a system seen in the 2007 PS3 exclusive Folklore. This action not only replenishes a fraction of your health (one of the only ways to do so) but kickstarts spell cooldowns, giving encounters this franti🍌c push and pu🙈ll. Roy tells me that this system was not present in earlier prototypes, although the team quickly fell in love with the dynamic it lends to combat. "We thought it was really enjoyable, so we just followed the fun at that point," he says. "There's a few upgrades that you can get later down the road that let you interact with Unravel as well."

Compulsion wants to be clear on this point: "South of Midnight is not an RPG, it's an action game." The upgrade path is minimal, with a nine-slot tree for combat abilities and twelve-slots for spell upgrades – unlocked by collecting 'Floofs'. That's the in-game currency; so named because Hazel has no otꦿher word for what she's seeing or experiencing, and earned primarily through leaving the critical path to go exploring the wilds of the world, a reward for completing light traversal puzzles.

"You're not necessarily going to see 🧜a linear climb on your da൩mage output," Roy continues, "because the upgrades are really about adding new functionality to your spells and abilities." Strand Pull, for example, can be upgraded to unleash a timed Tethered Strand attack once an enemy is pulled within range, while Aerial Rend adds a ground slam attack to Hazel's arsenal.

There i🧔s some risk that South of Midnight's combat could 🎉become a little repetitive over time. It's fun, but I get the sense that it may lack the depth and dynamism necessary to avoid falling into routines. Still, Hazel will gain access to a fourth and final spell by the time you reach Chapter 6 – Crouton, an old rag doll that Hazel is able to control and reach new areas within the environment. Roy adds: "In combat, the puppet becomes the puppeteer, turning one of the Haints on your side."

How to overcome your demons

Once certain battles conclude, you'll encounter an Echo Knot. Unravelling these conﷺcentrated centres of trauma reveal a painful memory tied to the area, along wiꦉth a pattern piece. This is how South of Midnight handles its narrative arc, through small vignettes that gradually help Hazel understand her purpose in each of the places she travels. Collect enough pieces of a pattern, trapping the painful memories within special blue bottles, and you'll be able to face the Monster Kings – "folkloric, mythical creatures that are the centerpiece to that particular biome," says Clayton.

"Some of them are going to be more confrontational – boss fights," adds Roy, speaking to two encounters with two mythical creatures glimpsed in So🌟uth of Midnight trailers; Two-Toed Tom (a gigantic alligator) and Huggin' Molly (an equally gigantic spider), each based on real southern American folklore. "Others will focus on traversal." Lanier adds: "What connects them is that they each have their own haunted backstory. The gameplay loop is discovering why a creature is the way that it is, and then using that information to acquire a pattern and untangle them at the end of certain chapters."

What stuck with me since my time with South of Midnight is how connected all of these elements feel, with the experience of tapping into echoes of the past and collected pieces of these magical patterns so naturally woven together with both the visual design of the environment and the soundscape which envelops it. This is u꧑ndoubtedly one of the most impressive aspects of the game.

"When you learn something about these creatures you get to listen to a part of their song, and through it you'll start to understand ✅their trauma," says audio director Chris Fox. "And once you reach the final encounter, whatever that should look like, you get the full picture – to hear the full song about their life and story." And let me tell you, it's a delightful flourish.

The future is what you make it

South of Midnight is, in essence, the exact sort of experience Microsoft Gaming needs right now. After a generation cycle that's been largely defined by its fits and starts, the Xbox Series X is about to receive an adventure that is quite unlike any other – a big idea that's being delivered with bold, fearless execution. While my concerns of repetitious activity do remain, particularly with respect to the power of that core narrative loop and the scale of combat encounters over time, there is every chance that Compulsion will rise to meet the moment here with its first 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox exclusive since the acquisition.

After five years of development, South of Midnight is content locked – the studio focused entirely on polishing the game ahead of its release on April 8, 2025. It's enough to put studio founder in Guillaume Provost in a reflective mood. "One of the reasons I was drawn to South of Midnight a꧋s a concept is that the setting isn't one that you typically see in video games."

"That has always been a priority for the studio. Whether it's🙈 from a mechanical, story, or a setting standpoint, we want to create video games that have a distinct voice, and that people can see it, and recognise it for what it is immediately. This team is hungry for making things that spell out our love for the craft," says Provost. "I feel confident about where we are with ꦇSouth of Midnight, and I can't wait to get it out into the world."

Whether you choose to pay $90 to access Avowed on February 14 or hold out until its wide release on PC, Xbox Series X, and Game Pass on February 18, it's destined to be a monumental few days for Microsoft Gaming. The launching point for what is undoubtedly the most important year for Xbox in a generation. And let's be honest here, it kind of has to be.

There were times over the past 12 months where you could almost hear it, the death knell ringing. The tolling bell echoing amongst news of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:mass layoffs and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:studio closures, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:game delays and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Game Pass price hikes. Another tumultuous period for a company who can't surely manage many more of them, with Xbox under increasing scrutiny as it struggles to sell the potential of its burgeoning multiplatform release strategy, appropriately scale membership to its subscription service, and quell concerns around the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码ꦑ历史查询:Series S' impact on developer💃 ambitions.

For a while there, it really did feel as if Microsoft Gaming was genuinely at risk of collapsing under all of the weight it is shouldering. Perhaps that's why Xbox is going all in on 2025. The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox games in the spring release window alone is electrifying, a reminder of why so many of us migrated to the platform to begin with. What we're looking at here is Xbox reinvesting in the core – the Xbox Game Studios group delivering expressive RPG, FPS, and action-a﷽dventure titles, the lineup bolstered by ambitious experiments from talented third-party publishers.

Xbox's 2025 in brief

The release of Obsidian's Avowed in February is followed by Compulsion Games' 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:South of Midnight on April 8 and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Doom: The Dark Ages on Ma𒈔y 15 from id Software. Three ambitious, beautiful, and decadently-crafted experiences that are shouldering the burden of building momentum for Xbox in a challenging landscape. Sprinkled throughout the spring𒀰 are other excellent additions to the Game Pass library; Rebellion's Atomfall on March 27 and Sandfall Interactive's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on April 24 undoubtedly the standouts.

Looking beyond the summer, Playground Games' Fable and Obsidian's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Outer Worlds 2 have tentative 2025 windows, while The Coalition's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War: E-Day and The Initiative's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Perfect Dark reboot are also rumored to launch within the financial year. It really does feel like this is the moment every Xbox owner has been waiting years for – the true result of Microsoft's big studio acquisition spree, which started in earnest all the way back in 2018. I d✤on't know about you, but this massive investment in key genres (across both new IP and legacy franchise revivals) is starting to rekindle fond memori𓆏es of the original Xbox and Xbox 360 eras.

Now, with that all said, I am trying to temper my own expectations. We need only look at the quality gulf between Redfall and Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, to be reminded that Xbox Game Studios has a tendency to be wildly inconsistent in a way that output from the PlayStation Studios group isn't (澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Concord notwithstanding). There's even less room for error in that respect now, with so many of Xbox's first-party releases primed for release on PlayStation – Series X/S sales are reportedꦿly less than half of tไhe PS5, so key would-be exclusives are ab🦂out to get unprecedented exposure.

Doom: The Dark Ages is confirmed to be a simultaneous release across both platforms, and it's expected that a great many of these other🍰 Xbox games will eventually land on PS5 before the year is up. I'd suspect that any success for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Forza Horizon 5 (two crown jewels in the Series X lineup) within the PlayStation ecosystem later this year will only expedite Xbox's drive for platform ubiquity. Could Halo or Gears really make the jump to PS5? It's not out of the realms of possibility.

Whether Xbox's drive onto rival platforms is ultimately judged as a success or failure is a story that will unfold gradually all throughout 2025. For now the focus should be on Avowed. As the first major release from Xbox Game Studios this year, it's bound to set the tone for the year to come. If Obsidian has a winner on its hands (and we've certainly been left 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:🐲impressed by what we've played of it so far), then momentum willღ only begin to build. If it lands with a thud, pressure will begin to build around South of Midnight and Doom: The Dark Ages to demonstrate that Xbox is able to rise to meet the moment.

As one of the most esta♍blished developers, Kojima is best known as the creator and director of the Metal Gear series, but he's also has credits working on a pletho💖ra of games over the years, from directing classics like Snatcher and the Policenauts, to producing Konami's Zone of the Enders and MercurySteam's Castevania reboot. Not to mention Kojima also got game design credits under his belt for Boktai: The Sun, and who could forget the horror direction he may have gone in P.T. and Silent Hills.

Alongside some PlayStation exclusives, we also have a very curious 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X game in development from Kojima Productions. With plenty to look forward to, read on below to find a full recap of everything you need to know about all of the upcoming Hi꧒deo Kojima games that have been revealed.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Developer: Kojima Productions
Platform(s): PS5
Release date: June 26, 2025

Following the success of 2019's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Death Stranding, Kojima Productions is embarking on a sequel for its experimental action-adventure experience. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is set to land on PS5 in 2025, with Hideo Kojima reprising☂ his roles as writer, producer, and creative director on the project.

Death Stranding 2 sees Sam Porter Bridges (played by a returning Norman Reedus) look beyond the UCA and set out on a new journey to save humanity from extinction, questioning the decision to foster greater connections between the remnants of human civilization every step of the way. Expect another adventure filled with high-strangeness, weird otherworld♓ly enemies, and the sort of cinematic production values that Kojima 🌺has become so synonymous with delivering.

OD

Developer: Kojima Productions
Platform(s): Xbox Series X
Release date: TBC

While Death Stranding would eventually land on PC and Xbox Series X, Hideo Kojima has been primarily working in collaboration with publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment ever since his splinter with Konami in 2019. That's all set to change with OD, an 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming horror game that's being made in partnership with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Studios. 🤪We know that Hideo Kojima will serve as wriಌter, director, and producer of this new creative endeavor as he explores "what it means to overdose on fear."

Get Out and Us director Jor💜dan Peel has also contributed as a writer on the project, and more 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:big names are said to be attached to the game that haven't been revealed just yet. OD remains something of a mystery, but we know that Kojima is♚ leveraging Xbox's Cloud Gaming technology to "take on the challenge of creating a very unique, immersive, and totally new style of game" that he has tapped actors Sophia Lillis Hunter Schafer, and Udo Kier to star in.

Physint 

Developer: Kojima Productions
Platform(s): PS5
Release date: TBC

Once Hideo Kojima is clear of his commitments with Death Stranding 2 and OD, the famed creator will be making his "return to the action-espionage genre" with Physint. Announced in January 2024, there is very little known about this new action-espionage game – you know, the genre that Kojima helped pioneer through his Metal Gear series – although it will be a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:PS5 exclusive.

The collaboration was announced by Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, with Kojima going on to note that this will be a brand new IP and that it will be the "culmination" of his work in the industry thus far, blending "cutting-edge technology and talent from around the world to create it." In fact, Kojima said it will 🥀"transcend⛎ the barrier between films and video games", and later teased you could be mistak🧔en for watching a movie while playing it. It's intriguing stuff, but we'll likely be in for quite a wait for it to arrive, with the director stating 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历ꦅ史查询:it's st✅ill another five or six years away.

Death Stranding: Director's Cut is considered to be one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best PS5 games to play right now. Go check it out, or go back to our original 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Death Stranding review to learn more about the game while we wait for the sequel.

But journeys are more than just the beginning, and Avowed promises to be an epic one. Sailing away from the island we finally land at Dawnshore, a harbor just🃏 a stone's throw away from the bustling city of Paradis, and our gateway to The Living Lands. And who do we stumble upon at the docks bu🍰t Kai? He cuts quite the figure.

For starters, he's blue and mermaꦇn-like, as are all coastal Aonuma in Eora (which is alꦗso the Pillars of Eternity setting), and looks like a seafaring swashbuckler, backed up by a holstered cutlass and large flintlock pistol. Chiseled like nobody's business, Kai even bears more than a passing resemblance to Handsome Squidward – and yes, that's as big a compliment as they come.

In a heated debate with Captain Cynric as the pair await my arrival as an Envoy of the King, I'm immediately endeared to Kai when, off-put by my hero's funky fungal facial featurꦅes, Cynric stumbles over her words and Kai gives an eye-rolling response. He's sassy from the off, but all in the name of being righteous – while also being well aware of the danger that abounds in The Living Lands, especially as the Dreamscourge has everyone on edge.

Our goals 💦align. He needs to find a claviger, and I need to find an ambassador – both of whom were last seen traveling together out in the wilds. Our tutorial pals already took off as soon as we arrived, so, hello sailor, Kai becomes our first fꦯull-time companion.

He may be a ne✨w face, but he's immediately a warm welcome to RPG fans like myself beyond making a good first impression in conversation. He's voiced by Brandon Keener, who also plays Garrus Vakarian in the BioWare-developed Mass Effect sc💖i-fi trilogy. Fan affection for the character is fervent to say the least – I'm among them – so it's a great way to make us feel right at home as we begin to develop a party of misfits across the game to come.

Whether it's something slower paced like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Baldur's Gate 3 or more action-focused like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dragon Age: The Veilguard, companions really do form the backbone of a great RPG. Bey🍌ond Brandon Keener as Kai, other recognizable favorites also play roles in Avowed: Mara Junot will play Giatta; Anjali Bhimani will play Yatzli; and Scott Whyte will play Marius, .

More than a feeling

Having lived in Dawnshore for about six years, Kai is a great companion to get you to grips with the land you've come to explore. He's been around long enough to have connections wi🔯th some of the early characters you meet – like some shopkeepers – but still has an outside perspective to bring to the table, which gives you some common ground.

So far 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:we love Avowed's camp party feature, and it's given us ample opportunity to get to learn about Kai's history and more. Having come to The Living Lands as an expatriate drifter from Rauatai after his naval service, he's found an off-the-grid new home here. He's clearly been through hell in his earlier years, having served in a Rauataian campaign to try to reclaim Aonuman ancestral land in the Deadfire Archipelago while restoring order to the pirate-ꦗridden islands and improving relations with its current inhabitants. Young and idealistic, it was something he believed in – but after constant bloody conflict he began to question the motives of his superiors and ponder the pointlessness of war.

Having deserted and left it all behind years ago, rather than grow jaded it's given him some perspective. He has a lot of history rather than just baggage, and is using what he's learned to help build a path forward, not just for✅ himself, but for those he cares about as well. Get on his good side, and heꩲ'll stick by you. But he's still on his own journey as well – in the process of healing. He's got plenty more to say about his background too, but don't worry, I'll leave you to discover more about that yourself!

Supporting fire

Kai is also a great mechanical addition from early on. Just as you have your own skills easily accessible on the d-pad or skill wheel, Kai's own moves can bec𒊎ome a part of that. With just a nod, he can lay down some covering fire from behind, or even assist in exploration with the power to burn down parts of the environment (you'll need it to deal with c꧅obwebs and ivy early on if you can't be bothered to flick through your own spellbook).

Most importantly, his cutlass and pistol aren't just for show. He dual-wields both in the fray. It's an effective loadout, but serves as a handy reminder to players that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Avowed's flexible combat system empowers you to play with your own gear sets and switch them around on the fly – it's super customizable. Also, Kai jus🍒t plain looks cool doing it.

Some RPGs can really feel like they take 🐷a long time to get going. In part, that's because you often don't have a full party until several hours in, and that dynamic takes time to form. While it's true that in my first few hours with Avowed the party is incomplete, its opening doesn't feel lesser for focusing on Kai and the player character's dynamic. If anything it feels better for it, allowing for some deep character work to come to the fore, all while Kai handily introduces you to what the deal is with The Living Lands and guides you into the flow of the game.

Also, to anyone annoyed at the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:lack of romance options in Avowed I say to you: skill issue. Must we lock up our hearts simply because the digital code that powers a game has limits? As those who engage with art, as humans, our affections aren't beholden to any such rules. Whether the game allows me to codify it or not, I already feel myself growing close to Avowed's companions even though we've only traveled together for such a short time. It really is all about the journey and who you spend it with, and I for one can't wait to see what the journey throws Kai and I's way next. What more could I as🌼k for from an RPG hook than☂ that?

Obsidian's new RPG is sure to be our next Xbox RPG favorite. Despite the Skyrim comparisons, Avowed is an Obsidian RPG first and foremost: "Let's bring in all the greatest hits"! Want to set off an adventure and can't wait? Our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RPG games list has your back!

But this isn’t a list of the ten best RPGs on Xbox. Otherwise The Witcher 3 and Skyrim would have definitely gotten shoutouts. Instead, please enjoy this trip down memory lane as we embark on this perilous quest to tell the story of RPGs on Xbox in just ten titles. These are all game-changers that, while they might not seem it today, altered the way we even thought about RPGs on a console for decades to come. Oh, and every game on this list is backwards compatible on Xbox Series X and S! And a bunch are some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Game Pass games you can try with your subscription. Handy, as many of them are still among the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RPG games to play today, which is great news if you have a spare 10,000 hours f🐼ree…

The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Platform(s): Xbox
Release date: June 6, 2002

Long before the all-conquering Skyrim, Bethesda brought a much weirder RPG to Microsoft’s original Xbox. This 2002 release was a hugely ambitious open-world for the time. Fair warning, mind, that a babysitter who lets your children play with the liquor cabinet would be less hands-off than Morrowind. It’ll happily tell you a quest location then leave you to work out how to find it in an absurdly hostile land with no mission markers, decent tutorials, or any of the things we take for granted in mod🅺ern RPGs. A difficult game to master, then, which also makes it incredibly rewarding if you’re willing to persevere with it. Good luck!

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Developer: BioWare Edmonton
Platform(s): Xbox
Release date: July 16, 2003

A year after 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Was: Episode🐠 II – Attack of the Clones had given us the line “I hate sand”, Bioware massively overcompensated with this beautifully written 2003 epic that’s still one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Star Wars games ever made. Hot off the success of Baldur’s Gate 2 (which was a genre highpoint many, many years before the recent 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Baldur's Gate 3) Bioware crafted an 💧RPG for PC and Xbox simultaneously with all the accessibility of a console title but all the b🔯rains its acclaimed PC games were known for. An incredibly confident sci-fi debut from a studio that was just getting started with this genre. This wasn’t just a good Star Wars game, it was as essential a part of your Xbox collection as the original Halo.

Fable

Developer: Lionhead Studios
Platform(s): Xbox (Remaster: Xbox 360)
Release date: September 14, 2004

Designer and visionary Peter Molyneux knows his fantasy, even if that's partially due to some pie-in-the-sky promises for this flawed-but-fun first entry in the Fable series. Yet, while the game didn’t make good on all of Peter’s ideas – honestly, nothing could – it was still a delightful romp through a gloriously silly fantasy universe that nevertheless delivers on its lofty ambitions. The opening alone, in which you play a child who can punch any NPC and happily take a bribe from a cheating husband to not to tell his wife about his affair (you’ll then be called out by a guard as "accessory to Improper Man and Lady Behaviour"), is a sublimely cheeky antidote to more self-serious RPGs. Here’s hoping the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new Fable can pull off the same trick.

Jade Empire

Developer: BioWare
Platform(s): Xbox
Release date: April 12, 2005

A passion project from studio veterans, this RPG mixed Chinese mythology and homemade fantasy in Bioware’s first attempt at an original IP. Tragically overlooked on Xbox as the Xbox 360 was on the horizon, this was an essential part of Bioware’s journey. The usual sharp writing and great characters were now joined by a far more hands-on martial arts combat system that replaced KOTOR’s sit-back-and-watch fighting. Didn’t hurt that the game was filled with great villains who really deserved a smack in the face, either. We also wish more fantasy RPGs had aerial combat sections inspired by top-down arcade shooters (no, really!). If you loved 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dragon Age: The Veilguard, go try this studio’s hidden gem immediately.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release date: March 20, 2006

A lot of early Xbox 360 games were simply HD ports of what we’d been playing on the original Xbox. That all changed when Oblivion came along. Finally, a game that used all that extra horsepower to give us, well, a really big field. But what a field! Oblivion was beautiful, utterly massive, and would probably be talked about a lot more fondly today if Skyrim hadn’t completely stolen its thunder a few years later. As much of a statement of what consoles could do as Morrowind had been on Xbox, except this is infinitely more accessible and has Patrick Stewart in it. So world-shattering was this release that we declared "welcome to the first day of the rest of your role-playing life" in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion review back on Xbox 360.

Mass Effect

Developer: BioWare
Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release date: November 20, 2007

Easy to forget that this was once an Xbox 360 exclusive, and a series so important to that console’s identity that it was basically Xbox’s Final Fantasy. Mass Effect 2 may have been the peak of the series, but none of that would have happened had this game not gotten so much right the first time. You’re the subtly-named Commander Shepherd, leading a squad of loveable/hateable/I-want-to-romance-you-able characters on an unforgettable mission through the cosmos. An incredible achievement that proved Bioware didn’t need Star Wars to make a beloved sci-fi adventure, and led to one of the greatest trilogies ever in gaming. So much so that in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Mass Effect Legendary Edition review we reiterated that it's "an unmissable" series.

Lost Odyssey

Developer: Mistwalker, Feelplus
Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release date: December 6, 2007

We could have written an entire list of poor, doomed games that Microsoft developed to try and crack the Japanese market (RIP Blue Dragon). One of the more successful attempts was this heartfelt RPG from no less than the creator of Final Fantasy. There was a real hunger for a mo🦩re traditional turn-based JRPG after the divisive Final Fantasy 12, but Lost Odyssey is probably most fondly remembered for its frequent flashback sequences that tell NPC short stories. These play out like little visual novellas and really go for the heartstrings. It’s probably the most conservative game on this list, but a surprisingly strong JRPG on a console that’s as American as a balꦐd eagle eating an apple pie.

Fallout 3

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release date: October 28, 2008

New Vegas gets all the love these days, as if it wasn’t working off the incredible template that Bethesda forged here. One it got so right that we basically accepted an identical shinier retread with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fallout 4. There’s the incredible opening that sees you go through your entire childhood before the shocking reveal of leaving the bunker and seeing the post-nuclear wasteland for the first time. A terrifying horror game lurks in its ghoul-infested subway stations. And there’s a bit where you meet a cult worshiping a sentient tree that begs for death. Fallout 3 pushed the 360 to breaking point, but few Xbox games were as willing to take the RPG to such ambitious, bizarre places. Back on release, we called it "a huge, varied, epic, ambitious masterpiece" in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fallout 3 review.

Dragon Age: Origins

Developer: BioWare
Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release date: November 3, 2009

Bioware was so un-confident that this game would be a hit, that it didn’t plan any sequels (which some of Dragon Age 2’s meaner players might say is pretty damn clear). It's easy to forget after the success of 3 that the idea of a spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate was a pretty tough sell back in 2009. But Bioware attempted – and succeeded! – in making the old-school character-focused fantasy RPG more appealing to modern console players' tastes. So began a series that’s still giving us great games today, based on our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dragon Age: The Veilguard review.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings – Enhanced Edition

Developer: CD Projekt Red
Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release date: 17 April, 2012

One of the PCs most ambitious RPGs was somehow miraculously squeezed into your humble Xbox 360, in what would be the most incredible Witcher-based miracle until some demons somehow got the third game running on Switch. Geralt’s second adventure is no 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Witcher 3 – few games are – and yet it might even be more ambitious, famously featuring a second act that can play out completely differently depending on early decisions you make. Proof that a series which was PC to its bones could work on console, this was Geralt’s first victorious step into the gaming mainstream, and well worth revisiting. In our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Witcher 2 review, we gave it a five star rating ꦺand called it "a brilliant masterpiece".

Want more? Avowed is set to be a more up-to-date Xbox RPG favorite. Despite the Skyrim comparisons, Avowed is an Obsidian RPG first and foremost: "Let's bring in all the greatest hits"!

Which means I jumped at the chance to go hands-on with a brand new slice of the game picking up from the very beginning. Unleashed onto the Dawnshore, I've already spent three hours (and change) questing across it. While 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Avowed doesn't feature a ful🎶l open world, but rather large and dense zones, it's still nevertheless quite a rich area to get to grips with what makes Avowed unique. As someone who bounced off Dragon Age: The Veilguard and has always struggled with Skyrim (sorry!) I wasn't sure what to expect. But Avowed already has me hooked. Here's the 10 things you need to know, and what's stood out to me the most from what I've played so far.

1. Allows you to get stuck in with combat

Not everyone is always in the mood for stacks of numbers. While Avowed certainly has those to offer for the digit delighted stat lovers out there, the first-person combat is fun to simply get stuck into, allowing you to really embrace some action-first hacking and slashing if you so desire. Combat 🍃has a lovely weightiness about it, and whether you'💖re pinging a bow, taking a hit with your shield, or about to fling out elemental spells, it's all intuitive and easy to understand. Just stick 'em with the pointy end until they're dead (and that charge attack is so satisfying to pull off, as it can send enemies ragdolling).

2. Jumping is vital (for secrets and more)

When you see fantasy swords and sorcery, it's easy to imagine you'll be trundling around an open world in a slight jog as you bosh baddies on the noggin. But Avowed's open areas are detailed spaces to explore thanks to some parkour-like first-person clambering. Its movement isn't quite as fully featured as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dying Light 2, but you're neve🌺rtheless nimbler than you might expect, and some quest areas will reward clever jumping with great prizes. But even on the standard path you may come across broken bridges or outcrops that can get you to your destination. Just look where you𓂃're going lest you take a fall.

3. The power of the lore button

No fantasy world is complete without a web of proper nouns to become properly entangled in. After all, learning the language of a new world is all part of the immersion, and how fans are made. But if Avowed is your first foray into the Pillars universe, then worry not, as you always have the option within dialogue to pull up an explanation of any lore terms yo✃u've encountered.

While both 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Metaphor: ReFantazio and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Final Fantasy 16 have attempted this in their own way, Avowed takes a simple but powerful approach, similar to narrative heavy visual novels. It opens up a fresh box that has the terms mentioned throughout your entire chat right there ready to select and browse without🐬 br🌊eaking the flow of conversation. Never feel lost again by fancy fantasy words!

4. The smart, clear UI makes it great for controllers

Avowed's UI is far from over-designed, though it's still quite pretty. Most importantly, it's clear. I love how it's clear from both your health bar and an enemy's when they're blocking as it adds a purple shield overlay, mak🍷ing it obvious when you're safe and when to go for a guard break. I love the clear waypointing that makes it obvious what's optional and what's going to progress your main path forward. But most importantly I love how natural it feels on a controller, making Avowed a crunchy RPG that feels tailor-made for Xbox, from clear d-pad shortcuts, to using the triggers in combat, to assigning and managing gear in the inventory. Even the sprinting works a bit like in Call of Duty. It all feels wonderfully natural.

5. Double weapon wheels for twice the fun

While you'll be speccing your Envoy hero to favor certain stats and skills from the classes available, Avowed isn't about locking you into one style of play and forcing you to commit to one or the other. With the touch of a button, even in mid-combat, you can dynamically switch your loadout, altering both your main-hand and off-hand in the flow of combat. Yes, like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Bayonetta. That means you go fro꧋m shield and litt𒁏le stabby knife to dual wielding a pistol and a spellbook in an instant, giving you loads of options at your battle-ready fingertips.

6. Sword AND sorcery!

Again, Avowed empowers you to find your own combat flow and get it the way you want it, meaning you can mix and match your main-hand and off-hand dynamic as you see fit. While some weapons take up both shots, like bows or greatswords, others are a lot more flexible, and many are one-handed. For instance, though shields can be placed in the off-hand, spellbooks also must inhabit that slot. Which does mean you can cast aside a shield and wield a tome instead, relying more on the (very powerful) dodge button instead of blocking. Some ranged weapons are also one-handed, meaning you can go shield and mace in one slot, and combine a gun and magic for the other (we won't stop mentioning it – you can literally dual-wield guns and magic!)

7. Keep the spells flowing

You've a finite pool of magic power for casting spells, which you can top off with potions and consumables. Yet, you can also restore it by absorbing the purple drops that come from enemies as you slay them. Which is all to say, you can find a rhythm of spell-slinging that me🉐ans you can stay topped off in the midst of combat without having to micromanage yourself constantly, pushing you to stay on the offensive with magic while also supplementing it with other ways to finish off foes so they'll spill that all important purple juice. Bonus points if you shatter frozen foes with a bullet.

8. Go arrow happy

This one goe🧸s out to all our fellow Elder Scrolls fans who like to make their rangers viable so they can snipe their way out of danger. Not only is the ranged build in Avowed, at least early on, a very valid option, but it's joyous to play. Aiming down sights, you can power up shots, hitting weak spots for big damage. But you can also let go of your bow pull early to get off shots a bit faster. It's very powerful, as it allows you to get damage in at a distance and seemingly shoot past shields. Be 🅷warned, however, there are a lot of ranged enemies as well, so you may end up in a sniper battle. Played this way, it all becomes a marvelous fantasy flavored FPS in its own right.

9. Making camp means making friends

What's an RPG without a party? And what's a party without a camp within which you can trade tragic backstories, chatter about recent events, and simply grow closer? While early on the party hasn't grown to its full potential, we're already enjoying our camp detours as a great way to get more color on the world and learn more about our allies. Kai, a merman-like coastal Aumaua (voiced by Brandon Keener AKA Garrus from Mass Effect) is our first proper pal, and a fantastic introduction to the world we find ourselves in as we cut about Dawnshore. No you're obsessed!

10. Getting to play a character

While we can't show you the character creator yet, we can talk about it, and there's plenty of rea💧lly interesting elements you can adjust even in the early build we played. As a Godlike, you've been uniquely touched by divinity even before birth, which means you can give yourself some funky fungal features. And yes, some people will be very rude about it in conversation (you look great, though, don't listen to them). Even beyond appearances, in the opening hours there's quite a lot of opportunities to use your stats to unlock new options in dialogue, making these branches feel quite weavy and providing ample room to roleplay.

Can't wait for Avowed? We've got a list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RPG games to play right now instead! Or looking for more of what's next from Xbox? Then check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games!

It goes without saying that when we got the call to visit Obsidian Entertainment HQ in Irvine, Californ🅘ia, we jumped at the opportunity to neglect the sunshine and instead stay indoors pouring 💫over every facet of Avowed available to us. That means talking to the great RPG developers responsible for this rather unique and funky fungal take on the genre, and, of course, spending many hours with the opening of the game. We get into it all, from getting started with questing, meeting the companions, the combat, and more – all while discussing it all with the many individual developers that have been crafting it.

Keep reading to discover our Avowed Big Preview, your best place to get started with one of the biggest 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games and one of the most anticipated 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games of 2025.

Avowed: The Big Preview

New Avowed Gameplay

Hands-on with Avowed

Insight from Obsidian

Dive Deep Into Avowed

Retrospective

Your Guide to Avowed

Thank you for reading our Big Preview on Avowed, our deep-dive into one of the most-anticipated RPGs of 2025. Be sure to stick with GamesRadar+ in the months ahead as we cover the game ahead of its release on February 18, 2025.

Gears of War: E-Day is being developed on Unreal Engine 5, and will excitingly explore Emergence Day and the origin story of protagonist Marcus Fenix. So, not only is it one of the biggest 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games coming our way in 2026, it's also a very exciting addition to longtime fans of the series, and could very well be a great entry point for newc🔜omers. It wil🎃l almost certainly completement Reloaded, that's for sure.

While we're still awaiting a concrete release date, it promising to be a major highlight in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X game lineup next year, with 2026 also set to usher in both the 25th anniversary of Xbox, as well as the 20th anniversary of the Gears of War series. From the reveal trailer to expected platforms and more, read on below as we g꧟uide you through everything we know so far about Gears of War: E-Day.

Gears of War: E-Day release date speculation

There hasn't been a confirmed Gears of War: E-Day release date just yet, but The Coalition confirmed it will be arriving sometime in 2026.

While it was originally thought to land in 2025, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Coalition confirmed the prequel will be landing in 2026, with an post recapping the Xbox Game Showcase 2025, which saw Phil Spencer close the show by highlighting Xbox's 2🧸5th anniversary "with the exciting proclamation that, in 2026, Xbox playe✨rs will celebrate a quarter-century of Xbox with a new Fable, the next Forza", and, crucially, "Gears of War E-Day".

We're still aw🎉aiting word on a concrete release date to follow the new 2026 launch window, but we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for further updates.

Gears of War: E-Day platforms

Gears of War: E-Day will be available on PC and Xbox Series X/S. The upcoming game will also be included on day one as part of Xbox Game Pass.

So it's a great time to revisit all the past games in the series now so you don't have to worry about any catch-up when the title finally arrives (read our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War review for more information on where to start).

Gears of War has always been an Xbox-exclusive title, but Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has stated that we may be seein✅g more Xbox exclusives launch on Switch and PlayStation thanks to a multiplatform strategy.

"I do not see sort of red lines in our portfolio that say 'thou must not,'" Spencer told . So, fingers crossed that we are wrong and that Gears of War: E-Day eventually makes its way to PS5 and PS5 Pro gamers.

Plus, with Gears of War: Reloaded also set to come PS5 alongside Xbox Series X/S, it's not entirely outside of the realms of possibility that we might see E-Day one day come to the console in the 🎶future, if not at launch.

Is Gears of War: E-Day a prequel?

If you're wondering if Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel, yes, yes, it is. In fact, it's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:set 14 years before the 🐭original action gam﷽e and will star younger v🃏ersions of both Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago, with both John DiMaggio and Carlos Ferro reprising the roles.

The story will take place during Emergence Day and see our heroes having to face the Locust Horde (a race of genetic💦ally altered humans). In case you need a lore refresher, Emergence Day is a full-scale and coordinated planet-wide assault on Sera. It took place only a few weeks after the Pendulum Wars ended (a devastating conflict that claimed millions of lives and left the environment of Sera in🔯 shambles). Basically, Sera was in a weak position, and Emergence Day was everyone's worst nightmare come to life.

E-Day also signaled the start of The Locust War in thওe Gears of War tiꦗmeline. In terms of the Locust Horde, we got a brief description of them thanks to a post on . The baddies of the upcoming story are labeled as "subterranean monsters" who are "grotesque and relentless" as they "erupt from below, laying siege on humanity itself."

Gears of War: E-Day trailer

We got to see the first (and currently only) Gears of War: E-Day trailer during the澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: Xbox Showcase 2024 presentation, and it was a weird, somber affair. In the clip above, we see a young Marcus Fenix struggle against a Locust Horde Drone and pretty much watch him get his butt handed to him until the very last secon💮d when he finally manages to blow the enemy's head into smithereens.

We also see Dom make an appearance and a brief glimpse at the fallen city of Kalona, showing us the horrif💦ic results of the Locust Horde's last assault. It's all very moody and thematic but also packed with some nostalgia as well. For example the soun🙈dtrack used in the teaser is the Gary Jules version of Tears For Fears’ ‘Mad World'.

Now, if you remember the first Gears of War trailer, it also used Tears For Fears’💟 ‘Mad World.' However, Gary Jules's version of the song is a lot slower in tempo, and the effect is that the trailer seems a lot bleaker as a result, but in a good way. I mean, war isn't meant to be sunshine and rainbows, right?

Gears of War: E-Day gameplay

While we haven't seen any gameplay footage just yet for Gears of War, we do know that the upcoming shooter will slightly differ from recent titles in the series. There i🎶s going to be a great emphasis on the horror aspect of the story, in some aspects taking us back to the roots of the series itself, as confirmed by creative director Matt Searcy during an interview with .

"We looked back at what people felt like when they played Gearsꦇ of War or any of the Gears - Gears 4 included," Searcy explained. "But when people tell you what they remember playing, the things that stood out to them, the feelings, a l♕ot of it is about these, kind of dark, almost horror-esque, scary moments."

Now, of course, the series that defined a lot of third-person shooters made today will be (you guessed it) still a third-person shooter. However, a post on Xbox Wire has also said that "The Coalition is working to recreate and improve the series’ trademark third-person action", wi🔯th new technology. You'll still be charging between cover in life-or-death situations during the game's campaign. However, we may see tweaks and innovations in how the team weaves storytelling into all the action.

"It’s us r♏evisiting the tone and the feeling of what makes Gears great, but we’re tapping into new techniques, new processes, and new technology that’s going to make the gameplay feel better than ever. It’s going to be awesome, a game that feels both 🌜truly new, and authentically Gears," .

The game is being developed on Unreal Engine 5, and we're still waiting on confirmation regarding multipl✅ayer settings. More updates are expected to be shared as we move further into 2025. So, keep your eyes on this page.

Can you pre-order Gears of War: E-Day?

Currently, you can't pre-order Gears of War: E-Day. However, you can already wishlist the game on Steam. The title is also co💮ming to Game Pass, so at least♋ there is that to currently look forward too.

We'll keep an eye out for any pre-order news, but in the meantime, you can look over our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best action games if you are looking to fill ꩵup your time whi⛄le we wait for Gears of War updates.

If you're after more titles, read our lists of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox exclusives and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X games to play right now.

Despite all of that, I've been dying to take my Geiger counter out for another trip. It's been 15 years since the series' last game, Call of Pripyat, and in that time few games have been able to match The Zone's bleakly immersive survival experience. But before getting to play the series' long-awaited follow-up 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, which launches in November, I've been worried that the newest entry would dial back some of its grit in an effort to appeal to more mainstream tastes – after all, it's quietly become one of the biggest 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games of 2024, with Microsoft Gaming partnering with developer GSC Game World to bring 🌞Stalker into the world. 

Those worries, in hindsight, were very stupid. I recently visited GSC Game World in Prague – where due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine – and in the three hours♔ of Stalker 2 I got to play, the game became near-comical in how little it cares about the player. At one point I survived a tense shootout with three bandits, only to die when I couldn't bandage a bleeding wound in time. Later, an attempt at hunting a band of wanted men for their bounties backfired when the ꦉsound of gunfire drew a pack of feral dogs, who decided I looked like the tastiest stalker of the group and tore me to shreds. There were other occasions where I didn't even risk fighting, preferring to bribe bandits for a key lead rather than waste my limited ammo fighting them for it. 

Like everything in The Zone, Stalker 2 is deeply unforgiving – but that's precisely why I think it's going to induct a whole new generation of stalkers. I have concerns over how stable the game will be at launch, but if you&🎉apos;ve spent any time in Fallout's survival mode, counting your ammo in Metro, or even slogging through The Last of Us on Grounded difficulty, it's hard to think of another game I can so readily recommend ahead of its launch in November.

No tourists

If you're worried about jꦫumping into Stalker 2 without having played the original trilogy, be at ease. The game begins with a midnight incursion into The Zone, where all-new protagonist Skif wants to find an anomaly strong enough to charge a mysterious artifact, an item changed by The Zone's near-supernatural energy. It's a fairly forgiving and straightforward introduction: you're given plenty of medical supplies, enemies are scarce, and your objective – to scan a series of anomalies – is straightforward and linear. Predictably, though, it all comes crashing down when you're ambushed and left for dead by a stalker with a much bigger gun. It's a neat introduction, and it means that when you wake up later with almost no equipment, you'll be (ro🔜ughly) familiar with The Zone and its oddities. 

While the main quest encourages you to search for 😼leads on the stalker who wronged you, you're ultimately free to go your own way from here on out, and that's exactly what I do. It's hard to express just how big Stalker 2 is until you open its map for the first time – zooming out on the map reveals its staggering size, but even my immediate surroundings are dense with points of interest to check out. Given this expanded scope I'm particularly keen to see how Stalker 2 works as an open-world game (and selfishly, I need money to re-equip myself), so make my way to a nearby town of scavengers and hoover up work. 

The first job I take from a bartender seems simple: head down the road and rough up a stalker who owes him money. Unfortunately, a group of bandits have beaten me to it, and they've got him pinned in a warehouse. Said bandits force 🌞me into being a mediator, and when the indebted stalker tells me he's stashed his valuables on top of a nearby water tower, they also send me to retrieve it. Unfortunately for them, said stash includes the first scoped gun I've seen all game. GSC seems to read my mind, as the weapon's owner radios me to suggest I have the perfect drop on the bandits below. 

Shooting at range is difficult due to bullet drop and my gun being an SMG, but it's worth it for the supremely satisfying thunk that comes with a fatal headshot.  Stalker 2 carries forward the meaty gun violence that helped establish the grit and weight of its predecessors. Humans keel over with a well-placed shot to the head, but trying to line that shot up while just-as-lethal bullets are flying in your direction is incredibly difficult, and staying in one place for too long will turn you into an easy target. By the time I've killed and looted everyone, manually stripping their guns for ammo, I'm so eager to find my next shootout that I nearly forget to collect the bartender's debt. Nearly.

Unfortunately, fighting mutants isn't as fun. As cool as their designs are – Bloodsuckers, for example, are towering humanoids with mouthfuls of tentacles and a penchant for turning invisible – they're la🔯rgely just bullet sponges, limited to battering you and occasionally circling around before lumbering in to batter you once again. I was hoping for a little more counterplay here, but it lacks the strategic depth that fighting humans boasts. 

Likewise, anomalies are as tricky as they've always been. You can throw a rusty bolt into the shimmering air around an anomaly to temporarily dispel them, but if you plan on getting through one, don't expect the bolt to keep it gone for long. When someone asks me to rescue their brother's body from a ravine filled 𝕴with them, I initially try to do the right thing and reach the body in one piece, but he proves too heavy to carry through each anomaly in time. After respawning out of the ravine one time too many, I do something I'm not proud of: as soon as the surviving brother turns away, I shoot him once in the back of the head and empty his pockets into mine. 

It's grim, but it's also fundamentally Stalker. There's an overbearing pressure ꦯto make ends meet, whether that's stripping every gun you come across for ammo, or taking odd jobs for a little cash. It's this purposefulness that makes Stalker 2 deeply immersive. Most of my time in the game was spent indulging in curiosity and exploring The Zone's lush green wasteland, but that constant ebb-and-flow of supplies often dictated whether I'd wade into a mutant-infested cave or pass it by until I found more medkits. 

Campfire tales

When I finally reign in my wa꧋ndering to tackle Stalker 2's main quest, I quickly learn that stalkers are as stingy with information as they are ammo. My hunt for the stalker who betrayed Skif means wading into regional politics, as an authoritarian group called the Wardens have come down hard on a town of scavengers. To get a lead I've got to play ball with either the Wardens or the town's residents, which means tracking down a stalker who's suspected of killing and looting a few Wardens outside of the town. I hit up a nearby bandit encampment where he was recently seen, forki﷽ng out all of my hard-earned cash to buy a lead rather than waste my precious ammo fighting. 

When I find my man, who's hiding out in a booby-trapped windmill, I'm given the option of killing him or aiding in his escape. I choose the latter, which means traipsing through a radioactive, mutant-infested cave to find an artifact that will help. During these more choice-driven quests, I run into a few snags that pull me out of the game a little. I'd already explored this cave earlier, but nothing spawned or happened there until I was meant to find it. After fishing an artifact out from a pool of frothing radioactive gloop and helping my fellow survivor escape, I give his stolen goods to the town's loose coalition of stalkers rather than the Wardens I'd originally promised to help – which is al🗹l well and good, but when I return to the Wardens (because I can't resist the drama) they don't so much as acknowledge my betrayal. Navigating The Zone's splintered factions is something I've been particularly looking forward to, so I'm hoping this occasion was the exception rather than the rule – consequences drive everything else in Stalker 2, so it would be a real shame for the game's story elements to not capitalize on that. 

While we're on the topic of concerns, it's also worth acknowledging that this in-development build of Heart of Chornobyl was a little rough around the edges. Some of the issues I encountered were relatively minor (like one dog getting its head stuck in a fence, which was admittedly quite funny) but others were more irritating, such as quick-saving being inconsistent, or finding a quest-giver's unreachable body strung through the rafters of a cottage. It's important to note that this is an in-development build – GSC Game World tells me it will be working on polish right up to launch – but given the original trilogy's notorious jankiness, it wouldn't surprise me to see Stalker 2 have issues of its own come release day. That's never stopped me from enjoying the series before, but given Stalker 2's launch will eclipse anything GSC Game World has done before, I'm hoping another month of polish pays off for𝐆 the sake of making a good first impression to newcomers.

Ultimately, I do thin♎k Stalker 2 is going to take a lot of players on Xbox and PC by surprise. The likes of Elden Ring, along with a bloom in "realistic" difficulty modes, shows that we'r🅘e generally willing to get punished time and again if it's for a world worth surviving in. The Zone follows this rule – after all, what's a little bit of radiation between friends? I ended my time in Stalker 2 battered, bruised, and low on just about every supply imaginable, but came away with a craving to let my curiosity guide me into just one more moldering warehouse or dark cave, to score just one more thunk-ing headshot before being killed myself. No, The Zone might not want me there – but given how much fun defying it is, I can think of no place I'd rather be dying at come launch. 

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl launches on November 20 for Xbox Series X and PC. To pass the time, check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best shooters you can play until then. 

State of Decay𝕴 3 popཧped back up with a new trailer last night, focusing mainly on a tense fight against undead hordes and the melancholy permadeath that's come to define the series so far. The whole thing looked largely familiar to long-time de🅰caying survivors, but we now have more details about the threequel's co-op ambitions. 

While State of Decay 2 introduced co-op to the series, you and your friends were tethered together and thus, couldn't stray too far from the host player. State of Decay 3 is looking to change things with a "much larger, truly shared open worl🌟d."

"The first thing that I hope people pick up [from the trailer] is that there's four player characters we're highlighting — three of them start in different places in the world — so we're implying this idea of a shared world experience, not just a ride-along, and that the boundaries in which you can go off independently are going to be much, much greater than they were in State of Decay 2," explains studio head Philip Holt in a recent blog post. It doesn't sound like State of Decay 3 will be a totally untethered co-op experience, but the game is at least loosen𝄹ing the leash a little.

To deliver on that promise, Undead Labs is teaming up with the RPG hitmakers at Obsidian Entertainment (the Avowed studio) on the game's improved online flexibility. Obsidian's bug-sized survival hit Grounded released with Undead Labs' "shared save technology," and it sounds like the team is now returning the favour to "deliver a truly open co-op world owned by multiple players," which potential⛎ly alludes to multiple player-owned communities on the same map.

ꩵThe Gears of War stewards at The Coalition are also helping the studio become acquainted with Unreal Engine 5, as is evident by the lack of the series' signature jank, so there's a real Xbox Game Studios team-up happening on the infected 👍threequel. 

There's no release date yet for State of Decay 3 but you can check out everything else announced at the Xbox Game Showcase.

The question which the Xbox Games Showcase needs to answer on June 9 is what, exactly, that might be. I've been writing summer prediction pieces about Xbox here at GamesRadar+ for coming up on six years now and I always seem to land in exactly the same place: the time has come for radical transparency. I still believe that this is true – Microsoft Gaming has struggled with messaging since the Xbox One era – but I'm not convinced that such an approღach will be possible this time around. Not when you consider how increasingly muddled the wider strategy from Phil Spencer and the rest of the Xbox executive leadership team has become over time. 

Will the price of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Game Pass subscription tiers rise to accommodate the new crown jewel of the platform? We know that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be the first video game in the franchise to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:land in the service from day one, we just don't know at what cost. Can the creative teams at innovative studios like Double Fine and inXile survive in an environment where the creators of genre-defining experiences like Prey and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hi-Fi Rush can not? 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty says he wants "smaller games that give us prestige and awards" but that doeꦰsn't necessarily seem rooted in all that much reality. Could big-impact titles like Starfield follow Sea of Thieves to PS5 i🌸n the future? Right now the multiplatform expansion strategy appeꦜars written in sand rather than etched in♐ stone. 

The time has come for clarity

Embracing a form of radical transparency would answer these questions. It would also work to assuage the uneasy feeling many in the Xbox community are feeling right now, and reaffirm Microsoft Gaming's core strategy and ethos as we transition past the halfway-line of the Xbox Series X generation and into the endgame – a successor could, after all, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:land as early as 2028, and Spencer has 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:already committed to new hardware. The thing is, transparency could also detract (or otherwise distract) from what I imagine will be Xbox's primary goal during the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Summer Game Fest 2024 schedule: seizing on a rare lull in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming PS5 games calendar, with Sony currently lacking any key franchise pillars for the remainder of the financial year (although that could change after the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:May 2024 State of Play). 

When it's all said and done, the one thing I hope the Xbox Games Showcase delivers more so than anything else is clarity. Because the Xbox Game Studios group has the announcements and apparatus in place to once again enact a stranglehold over the biggest genres in the business. Looking at the lineup of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games, I find myself reconnecting with why I became so drawn to the Xbox platform in its halcyon years: the promise of PC-quality play on console; the framework to take online multiplayer to new, unassailable heights; and a commitment to delivering best-in-class experiences within the 'core' shooter, role-play, and racing niches. Sadly, that message became diluted over time as Xbox waged a war for input o🅘ne and spent a generation-cycle dealing with the aftermath. 

But Xbox should be in a position to make the case that it's the best place to play once again. We know that Playground and The Initiative are hard at work on reboots for Fable and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Perfect Dark, respectively. 343 Industries, The Coalition, and id Software are rumored to be working on new installments to the Halo, Gears of War, and DOOM franchises. inXile, Compulsion, Obsidian, and Rare are investing in new IP through 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Clockwork Revolution, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:South of Midnight, Avowed, and Everwild. MachineGames is working on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Arkane Lyon has 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Marvel's Blade, Blizzard continues to tease the possibility of World of Warcraft lining up on console alongside Bethesda's Fallout 76 and The Elder Scrolls Online, and Call of Duty is about to hit shelves slathered in Xbox branding for the first time in a decade. Oh, and don't forget about the promise of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Elder Scrolls 6, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fallout 5, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Outer Worlds 2, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Project Mara. Am I forgetting anything? Oh yeah! Undead Labs' 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:State of Decay 3. Honestly, there might be others. 

It's an outrageous, exhaustive lineup of confirmed first-party-developed projects that, frankly, is unrivaled – particularly when you factor in second- and third-party platform exclusives that are landing on Game Pass from day one – Hideo Kojima's OD, Avalanche's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Contraband, or Studio Wildcard's ARK 2 bring prime examples. The problem here is that there's maybe two🎃 vague launch windows and no confirmed release dates between every single video game that I just mentioned. It's transparency that led Microsoft Gaming to unveil so many projects so early in their respective development journeys, but🍷 it's a lack of clarity that has left so many of them appearing as if they are trapped in limbo. 

Cut through the noise

There's going to be a lot of noise generated by the Xbox Games Showcase and Black Ops 6 Direct, a double-bill event which I'm genuinely excited to sit through. Xbox will likely announce that scores of legendary Activision and Blizzard games are about to land on Game Pass. Perhaps King will be used as a lynchpin to launch a renewed mobile gaming initiative. There may be new details of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, perhaps a look at whatever it is that Double Fine has been working on since it shipped 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Psychonauts 2 in 2021, and I wouldn't be shocked to see new hardware – a refined controller, or the long rumored 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X refresh. Igno꧙ring all of that noise is going to be paramount. 

By the time things are all said and done, I hope t🐓hat we all have clarity where it really matters: how are each of these announced video games shaping up in development, and what do the people creating them have to say about their projects. Rumors have persisted that Everwild, Perfect Dark, and State of Decay 3 have had tumultuous turns in pre-production, and the best way to shake off that perception is to get the teams out in front of a crowd – it's effectively been four years since we last received official updates on any of these titles, and a new trailer, statement of intent, or (whisper it) gameplay demonstration would go a long way to alleviate any perception of enduring problems.♓ 

I hope that we leave the Xbox Games Showcase with a firmer understanding of when Avowed, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and World of Warcraft: The War Within will land this fall. I hope that titles a little further off get, at the very least, loose release windows and brief flashes on new gameplay too. That's what I hope for, more than anything else. Clarity that these video games are actually coming, and that the studios making them are secure as they look to deliver the world class experiences we know that they are capable of achieving. Xbox needs to prove that it is capable of delivering for t💝he core who have stuck with Xbox so far, and that it has the release schedule capable of adding more players to those ranks. 

Developer Ninja Theory has been sharing tidbits fღrom its upcoming Viking epic every day in the lead-up to launch, and today, we were treated to a peek at its photo mode. That isn't normally the most hy🧔pe part of a marketing campaign, but I'm making an exception here because you can move the light bulbs (I'm super serious.)

The video embedded below cycles through plenty of options in Hellblade 2&apo🌌s;s photo mode - from the standard camera placement and filter options to the more exciting features, such as manipulating characters and adding effects - as our main gal Senua swings at a foe.

There were two major details that jumped out at me, though. The first was the way Hellbla💫de 2 lets you set a depth of field, literally letting you pull and push a slider across the environment. The other is the aforementioned adjustable light bulbs, which again, I'm going to spend hours moving around the game. From the brief look, we can see there are multiple light bulb types that you can attach to either the camera or any part of the level, as well as options for what it can and can't illuminate. 

Maybe you wa💃nt Senua under a spotlight, with the horrors around her in shadow. Maybe you want to focus on the drama of a duel and have the light ignore fog or other environmental details. Maybe you just want to light up the dark corners in e✅very level, which I'm sure are plentiful, because there has to be something hidden in at least one of the shadows, right? Right? 

Either way, I'm scared of what this photo mode might do to me. Cosplaying as a pro photographer in Red Dead Redemption 2 or Rider's Republic already consumed days of my existence. But how could I resist when Hellblade 2's comba💧t is ꦆinspired by Game of Thrones' most brutally beautiful battle?

Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 comes out on Xbox Series X|S, Game𝕴 Pass, and PC via Steam on May 21.

Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games of 2024 guide to see everything on the horizon. 

Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty held a town hall meeting with staff yesterday to discuss the division's future and news of Xbox shutting down four subsidiaries, according to a report from . "We need smaller games♏ that give us prestige and awards," Booty reportedly told staff. 

Booty's comments have obviously raised eyebrows online since the company closed the Japan-based Tango Gameworks earlier this week, a year after the studio had released critical gem 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hi-Fi Rush, the effortlessly endearing marriage between rhythm games and sty꧅lish slashers à la Bayonetta.

Game directo꧃r John Johanas reacted to the comments with a simple screenshot of in-game companion Peppermint looking rather... well, you can infer what you like from the image below.

Hi-Fi Rush seemed to meet both of Booty's goals. The game won a BAFTA Award for its characterful animation that always moved to the beat, a Game Award for its equ🍒ally impressive audio, and was nominated for several accolades at other award shows. Johanas previously that "it was not a cheap game to make," though compared to Xbox's Call of Dutys, Fallouts, and Forzas, Hi-Fi Rush was certainly i🍎n the "smaller games" camp. 

Microsoft Gaming's cutbacks affectedꦓ three other studios with Arkane Austin (Prey, Redfall) and Alpha Dog (mobile spin-off Mighty Doom) also gone. Roundhouse Studios was then effectively folded into ZeniMax Online, the studio currently at work on MMO The Elder ꦺSc✱rolls Online. 

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier added some context to the turmoil on , explaining that "ZeniMax had to consolidate and chose to shutter studios that were pitching r🍨ather than studios wit🍰h active projects" - the latter option would also effectively double as canceling in-development games.  

Tango Gameworks was supposedly "in the process o꧂f pitching a sequel💞" to Hi-Fi Rush, meanwhile, the team at Arkane Austin was pitching a return t𓆉o their immersive sim roots with a project that might have been a "new e🌱ntry in the Dishonored series."

As Xbox shutters studios, community concern mounts for the teams behind Hellblade, Doom, Avowed, and more.

InXile Entertainment, the studio behind the isometric Wasteland RPGs, revealed its debut first-person game last summer. We know that your decisions will have a ripple effect through time. We know that it's set in a cool, retro-futuristic city. And we know that it's rel🧸eꦜasing on Xbox and PC. But now, the studio has graced us with a "bread crust texture." No joke. 

InXile's social media account jokingly claimed that there were "no laws" on Leap Day. One player then challenged the account to show off Clockwork Revolution - since it was supposedly a lawless day, after all - and InXile delivered in the only way that wouldn't get the studio in troubl🌠e with corporate daddy Microsoft. See below. 

Is tha🐟t a top-down view of a bread roll? Is that an actual crumb? Why does bread in this game look so detailed? What happens to food degradation when I travel back in time? These crumbs delivered more questions than answers, and I won&aposᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ;t be satisfied until I see this bread crust in the game's steampunk setting, honestly. 

Microsoft previously revealed that any similarities between Bioshock Infinite and Clockwork Revolution (the cloudy city, golden architecture, floating railways) were 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:unintentional. Regardless, its game director cited Vampire: The Masquerade and Arcanum as bigger influenc♍es. 

While we wait for more crumbs, check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games coming in 2024 and beyond on all platforms. 

Xbox has pursued a multiplatform strategy for some time now, and further expansion always felt like an inevitability. It's been a decade since Microsoft acquired Mojang Studios, and pledged that Minecraft would retain its multiplatform status – something which remained in place for the wide releases of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Minecraft Dungeons and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Minecraft Legends. Xbox Game Studios PC games started circumventing the Xbox ecosystem to land on Steam in 2019, while 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Psychonauts 2 and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Wasteland 3 arrived on other platforms even after Double Fine and inXile were brought into the first-party fold. And then there's the Call of Duty of it all, which effectively has court-mandated multiplatform protections in place following the completion of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Activision Blizzard acquisition.   

With that all said, there is something about this new strategy that feels different. More deliberate, perhaps, with greater potential for expansion and experimentation from the development teams operating under the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Studios label. When Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer an𒊎nounced plans to bri🧸ng four Xbox games to PS5 and Switch outside of any existing acquisition cycle, he cited a desire to leverage the install bases of rival platforms "to help grow" certain first-pa꧟rty franchises, and create opportunities to "invest in sequels" and other creative opportunities across the portfolio. 

It appears to be a shrewd strategy. Nintendo has shifted 132 million Switch units over the system's lifetime, making it the largest of the three primary console platforms. Sony says that the PS5 has surpassed 50 million consoles sold in little over three years, while the Xbox Series X and Series S, comparatively, have secured an estimated 25 million sales over the same period. Is Xbox's current install base – combined with players strewn across PC, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Game Pass, and Cloud Gaming – large enough to ensure the long-term survival of live ser🉐vice experiences like Grounded and Sea of Thieves? 

Something has to change

Hidden within Spencer's statement is an inference that it may not be enough, particularly when we consider the rising costs of development and the comဣplexities inherent with managing large playerbases. Grounded and Sea of Thieves were selected for this initiative, in part, because of Microsoft's desire to continue expanding these community-driven platforms, even as the company acknowledges that the games have each "reached their full potential on Xbox and PC." Spencer continues: "Part of having the ability to continue to invest is that the businesses behind those franchises continue." 

That's an inherently scary statement. It's been little over a month since Microsoft laid off 1900 staff from itꦇs vi🐓deo game division, and canceled a survival game that Blizzard had reportedly be😼en developing for six💖 years, following the 68.7 billion dollar acquisition of Activision. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:PlayStation Studios recently made 🅰similar cuts, shuttering London Studio (who was working on a live-service PS5 game of its own) while reducing headcount at Sony's most su🍷ccessful studios – Guerrilla (Horizon), Insomniac (Spider-Man), and Naughty Dog (The Last of Us). It's estimated that tens of thousands of developers lost their jobs last year, and that 2024 is on track to surpass those numbers. It's all contributing to this growing sense that video game production is unsustainable in its current form, and that the industry itself is on the verge of a𒆙 crash the likes of which haven't been seen since 1983. 

If games like Sea of Thieves wading into uncharted territories means that Rare is afforded an opportunity to build on strong foundations – expanding its universe and the activities within it to better support an absolutely wonderful community of players – then I'm all for it, particularly as more resources shift internally towards new projects like Everwild. We're in a tumultuous landscape, and honestly, I'm happy to celebrate Xbox exclusives arriving on other platforms if it means that Xbox Game Studios gets to keep on creating and Xbox IP is able to get a new lease on life. I only wish this strategy had arrived in time to save 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Halo Infinite. 

In the same month that Microsoft announced an estimated 9% reduction in the headcount of its gaming division, one of its most successful and important subsidiaries announced a change of its own. 343 Industries confirmed that it was ceasing the seasonal cont☂ent model for Halo Infinite, drastically reducing the update cadence of its free-to-play FPS, as the studio begins "accelerating towards th꧂e future" and investing in "brand new projects." I can't help but feel as if this is the next stage of undeserved end for Halo Infinite – a slow death that started in earnest after the game launched as an incomplete package, and continued as 343 itself suffered layoffs and endured a dismantling of its senior leadership in 2023. 

It's weird to think that it was a little over three years ago that former 343 studio head Chris Lee told me that he expected 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Halo Infinite to last a decade. That the campaign would continue the "Master Chief's saga for years to come" as the open world of Zeta Halo expanded to accommodate new stories; ultimately though, no expansions were ever formally revealed to the public, and none are expected to come now. A disappointing end to what I called a smart "foundation for future expansion" in my 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Halo Infinite review. Lee continued: "We want Halo Infinite to be a platform that grows over time [...] Creating this game is th🎃e start for the next ten years, and we'll be continuing to build that platform out as time goes on."

I'm not going to lie: I find it highly unlikely that a Halo campaign will ever land on a PlayStation platform; Master Chief is the closest thing Xbox has to a mascot, and SIE has never quite been able to crack the FPS mar💎ket (it's been over a decade since Killzone last reared its armored head, and even longer since attempts were made with the likes of Resistance, SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs, MAG, Haze, Warhawk, and a smattering of other experiments). Even as Microsoft looks beyond the potential of first-party exclusives, there's still a 'system seller' quality to a new story starring Chief and Cortana. Then again, for some strange reason, I have less reservations about a Halo multiplayer experience one day making the jump – and it should have been Infinite. 

Finish the fight

The free-to-play shooter was always primed to introduce different audiences to the raucous energy of Halo, particularly as it was both partitioned off from the campaign and released simultaneously on PC – a first for the long-running series. 343 may have endured a rocky start with its nascent li💮ve-service experience, but Halo Infinite multiplayer has blossomed into this pretty awesome thing over the last two years. The quality of the seasonal content and battle pass rewards has improved massively, new game modes and Forge features empowered the community, and a smattering of quality-of-life sets only helped to breathe new life into an exceptionally solid shooter whose biggest mistake was stumbling ou🐲t of the gate in a highly competitive live service arena. 

I can't help but feel as if Halo Infinite (multiplayer) should have been lining up alongside Grounded and Sea of Thieves on the PS5 store, and that an injection of players eager to finally see what all the fuss is about with this franchise could have ensured its deserved long-term viability. Perhaps some of you will think that Halo on PlayStation in any capacity would be sacrilege, but I keep coming back to this line from Spencer&a🙈pos;s statement of intent around this new initiative: "Looking forward, I think there is an interesting story for us of introducing Xbox franchises to players on other platforms to get them more interested in Xbox. We think there's good brand value for Xbox there."  

It's not impossible to imagine a world where PS5 owners inhabiting the Halo Infinite servers alongside PC and Xbox owners becomes enough to justify further investment in something that was, by 343's own admission, designed to carry the franchise forward for a decade. Would Halo's arrival on PlayStation platforms have been seen by some as a ringing of the death knell for the Xbox brand? Perhaps; in fact, given the furore that was generated as unsubstantiated rumors suggested 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Starfield and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Indiana Jones and the Great Circle were maki🉐ng the jump, it certainly would have been. 

Then agaiꦐn, could Halo Infinite landing on PS5 have introduced an entirely new generation to the joys of a truly inimitable F💦PS? Not only ensuring the long-term health of Infinite, justifying investment in multiplayer advancements and even DLC on the campaign side, but pushing those players towards Xbox Series X or Series S hardware to sample the rest of the franchise through Xbox Game Pass? I guess that now we'll never know. 

"Our approach to choice and consequences is to eschew a black-and-white, good-versus-evil morality scale, where the moral balance of your decision is very obvious," director Carrie Patel explains in an澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: interview with Gamesradar, "but rather something that feels closer to life, where sometimes🐲 it's not obvious or sometimes the right choice feels obvious, but the outcome can be surprising; justified but surprising."

Patel explains that she enjoys 🍬th𝓡at moral challenge as both a player and a designer because it allows people to "chew on something complicated and kind of make and explore those decisions in the relatively safe environment of a game." Where else could you accidentally fly your own ship into the sun, if it weren't for Obsidian games, right?

Patel then points to Mass Effect 2 - despite 𝓰its pulpy paragon and renegade binary - and the incredible Legion loyalty quest as an example of a dilemma that players were "talking about years later." She believes that thoseඣ kinds of headscratchers "bind" players to their in-game counterparts. "And also the characters and companions that they're sharing this journey with."

Between KOTOR 2, Pentiment, The Outer World, and Pillars of Eternity (which shares a setting with Avowed), the studio certainly has a knack for tough decisions that leave you with existential questions no matter what. We haven't seen much of that in Avowed aside from a brief side quest shown off in the澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: Xbox Developer Direct 2024, but I'm s🐬till excited to see more in th🍒e coming months. 

Another Avowed lead recently explained that there’s "no one perfect build" in the classless RPG.

Bleszinski was previously the lead designer on the original Gears of War trilogy before ꦆfounding the now-defunct studio Boss Key Productions and spearheading the gravity-defying arena shooter Lawbreakers. On social media and in various interviews over the last few months, Bleszinski has vocally expressꦍed interest in returning to the storied franchise. Speaking to , the designer pitched a soft reboot for the shooter series before saying "Phil Spencer has my number." 

Blezinski has now released a statement about the situation on social media. "We&♔apos;ve been over this a million times," he begins. "I'm down to consult. Give my tw🍃o cents. I understand that Gears will always be an enormous part of my legacy. I appreciate and respect that. That said, [publisher Microsoft and developer Coalition] haven't hit me up. OK. It is what it is."

The ex-developer then says that if the two companies were "smart," they would "enlist" him for input because "just from a PR standpoint alone it would be gold." He leaves the note on a slightly more optimistic note, explaining that he's since movedꦦ on from the series and toward broadway, memoirs, and a comic book series called Scrapper. 

"As much as I appreciate your support and those who know me from my Gears work (I did aꦐ lot more than that ga꧒me series, for the record) it’s time to move on," he says. 

The bloody third-person shooter-chainsaw series hasn’t enjoyed a new entry since 2019's Gears 5 and its excellent Hivebusters expansion a year later. Though, fans of hunky army soldiers and scaly underground monsters can look forward to the upcoming live-action film and animated series cu🐲rrently in developm🌃ent at Netflix.

See everything in development at Xbox Game Studios with our handy guide.

Halo Infinite, in my opinion, finally became💫 the full FPS package𒁏 that it promised at launch last month and stood shoulder to shoulder with its other, older Halo siblings in terms of feature parity and overall shoot-punch-boom fun. Season 5 introduced an excellent PvE mode, a host of fanc💫y new maps, fresh equipment, and more - but it's also the divisive game&apo🧜s;s very last season.

In last night's community , 343 Industries announced that Halo Infinite would be ditching seasonal cycles and adopting the smaller "content updates" - the first of which is dropping on January 30 - that Halo: Master Chief Collection enjoyed for a while🧜. Instead, the shooter will now have smaller "Operations" run from four to six weeks with an accompanying 20-tier battle pass each time. 

"We have a dedicated team working on Halo Infinite, continuing to deliver going forward," the team revealed. The game is definitely not going into maintenance mode or anything similar anytime soon, but the studio is putting more power in the hands of players with plans to further flesh out the custom games editor, Forge. The community has already hammered out some wild creations with the tool, creating Pokemon parodies, miniature MOBAs, andಌ giant Kaiju fights - and I wouldn't scoff at seeing more.

"But we also have additional teams now, accelerating towards the future, working on brand new projects," the team also stated. "We are also growing and have exciting things for the future." It certainly sounds like the team is gearing up work on the next mainline Halo game, while 🗹slowly dwindling support on Infinite. 

Games can't and shouldn't be around forever, but hopefully 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:studio layoffs aren't p🔯aving the way for another bumpy road to release for the team. Fingers crossed. 

See where Halo Infinite places in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:top ten Halo games of all time list.

Thankfully, that looks to be exactly what we're getting when you look at the lineup of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games for 2024. While there has been no shortage of excellent titles released for the platform in the last four years – you need only glance at our lists for the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X games and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best games on Xbox Game Pass to get a better sense of that – this is looking like a banner year. The sort of 12-month span that can drive attention towards the Xbox platform, even as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Sony runs rampant with the PS5 and Nintendo reportedly prepares to launch its 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nintendo Switch 2. 

The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Activision Blizzard acquisition is finally complete. Xbox and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Game Pass have momentum coming into the new year following the release of Forza Motorsport, Hi-Fi Rush, and Starfield, not to mentio♔n the resurgent interest in Halo Infinite. Between massive first-party releases, awesome looking third-party offerings, the threat of new hardware, and a promising year for Game Pass, 2024 could be a record-setting year for Microsoft Gaming. So let's get into what you should expect to see from Xbox this year. 

Xbox Series X console exclusives deliver a statement of intent

Microsoft Gaming has struggled to shake this perception that Xbox has a game flow problem. It's a perennial issue, one which reared a head in the awkward Xbox One phase and has (quite unfairly) persisted into the Xbox Series X era – propagated by tentpole titles like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Halo Infinite, Redfall, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Starfield missing their intended release windows. The platform holder seems intent on changing that narrative in 2024, and it hasn't wasted any time in getting started. The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Developer Direct was used to outline a clear statement of intent: the video g♔ames you want are comꩲing, and soon. 

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 was given a May 21 date, making it the first notable Xbox Series X exclusive of the year. Ninja Theory appears to be positioning the niche adventure as a true system showcase for the Xbox Series X, proof of what a nimble development team is able to achieve with a strong creative vision and the time to properly experiment with Unreal Engine 5 and new motion capture technologies. It looks utterly sublime, and news that it's being scoped to an eight♕-hour runtime is promi🎉sing – the less bloat the better with something so p💮sychologically intensive. 

Avowed was handed a Fall 2024 launch window, and while the ambiguity is a little disappointing, my confidence that Obsidian Entertainment will hit this mark was bolstered by an extensive look at unfiltered gameplay. Beautiful, varied biomes becoming a home for all of your fantasy-RPG aspirations, regardless of whether you want to be spell-slinging magecaster or a sword-and-shield warrior battling against the corrupted blight sweeping the Living Lands. It's great to see Xbox position a key console-exclusive RPG for 2024, particularly as the likes of Fable 4, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Outer Wilds 2, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Elder Scrolls 6 are still years away. 

Avowed and Hellblade 2 look fantastic, but Xbox's key release is undoubtedly 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. This new action-adventure has been assigned an ever wider "2024" release window, but again, there's a real sense that it'll materialize given how much we were shown in a single-sitting. If history has taught us anything about Xbox (澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hi-Fi Rush excluded), it's that appetizingly cinematic reveal trailers are often accompanied by a multi-year wait for information – I'm looking at you Everwild, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Perfect Dark, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:State of Decay 3. 

Thankfully, MachineGames understands the value in showing rather than telling. The studio went all out with extensive insight into the production, a scene-setting trailer, and a look at the game in action – a phenomenal expansion of the work this team has achieved with titles like The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, The Darkness, and Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus. The Great Circle looks to be a dream come true for Indiana Jones fans, and an incredible example of what is possible when an IP is properly matched up with a willing development team; promising, given that Arkane's take on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Marvel's Blade is on the distant horizon. 

A strong showing from third-party developers

While I'd wager that 2024 will also see the release of other key exclusives from the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Studios group – there's over 13 titles in development over there that we know about, and that's without us having a real sense of what teams like Double Fine, id Software, andﷺ The Coalition are up to – there's also a smattering of excellent looking third-party console exclusives on the near horizon from external developme🐠nt partners that you really should be getting excited about. 

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl was recently given a September 5 release date for Xbox Series X and Game Pass, with the long-awaited immersive first-person shooter set to deliver a stඣunning return to the Chornobyl Anomalous Exclusion Zone. Asobo is working on an expansive Microsoft Flight Simulator sequel this year too, building on the startling simulation of the Earth's most open highways to support a wider variety of aviation career paths beyond commercial pilot. 

Those two video games are guaranteed to command a lot of attention, but there's some smaller titles that may have slipped under the radar that are well worth you♐r attention. Microbird Games is making its debut with Dungeons of Hinterberg, a fun adventure game which has you exploring lush alpine environments armed with little more than a sword and a tourist guide for company. The Banner Saga developer Stoic is working on Towerborne, an entertaining co-op game th🔯at looks to capture the spirit of Castle Crashers for a new generation. And then there's 33 Immortals, a delightful 33-player roguelike coming from Thunder Lotus Games – the studio behind Spiritfarer and Sundered. 

That's all to say that 2024 looks to be a banner year for third-party exclusives on the Xbox platform. While I really hope that we see the likes of Ark 2, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Contraband, Routine, and Replaced emerge after extended stays in hibernation, there's enough on the docket that Xbox can still have an excellent year without them. PlayStation may have locked up support from Arrowhead Game Studios (Helldivers 2) Square Enix (澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth), and Team Ninja (Rise of the Ronin), but🐎 I do appreciate that Microsoft is continuing its investment in experienꦐces which span a wide variety of genres and appropriate age-ranges. 

The best year for Game Pass yet

If everything goes to plan for Microsoft Gaming in 2024, Game Pass will transform from being a must-own subscription service to something you would be foolish to go without. Every upcoming Xbox game that I have mentioned s꧟o far is coming to the platform day one, included as part of your subscription to Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. It's incredible value for players of all persuasions, so how could it possibly ge♊t any better? 

Microsoft completed its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard after months of court battles with industry regulators across the globe, and 2024 is when we'll start to see results in a tangible sense. While Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has kept his plans a tightly guarded secret, it is anticipated that Game Pass is going to be flooded with a wave of Activision Blizzard titles this 🥃year. 

That could mean everything from Diablo 4 to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Call of Duty games, and even stretch to include legacy franchises like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and countless others. It also isn't out of the realm of possibility that Call of Duty 2024 (reportedly a Gulf War-set Black Ops installment) could launch day one on the service. Factor these unknown possibilities in with other surefire Game Pass releases – Flintlock: Siege of Dawn, Persona 3 Reload, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hollow Knight: Silksong – and we're looking at one of the stron♐gest years in the history of the service. 

Expect new hardware and storefronts

Watching the Activision Blizzard acquisition play out in the courts (both of the legal and public opinion variety) all last year was definitely as fascinating as it was frustrating, it did give us some excellent insight into Xbox's plans for the future. Namely, an accidentally-revealed roadmap indicates that an 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X refresh is on the cards for Fall 2024. Codenamed Brookli꧙n, the system appears to offer a brand new cylindrical design (made possible thanks to the optical disk drive being removed) which comes with 2TB of stora🦋ge as standard. 

What I am perhaps most excited by, however, is the Xbox Universal Controller. This long-overdue refresh of the Xbox controller is said to include a rechargeable battery, improved haptic feedbᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚack, an accelerometer, and more seamless support for switching between devices as Microsoft continues its investment in mobile and cloud gaming. It sounds great, however my secret real hope for 2024 is that we finally get an Xbox Elite Wireless Controll💝er Series 3 – preferably with a built-in capture button, because enough is enough Xbox. 

Given that Candy Crush developer King has come under the Xbox Game Studios banner as part of the Activision Blizzard deal, I wouldn't be surprised to see Microsoft make a strong push into mobile gaming – setting up specific storefronts on Apple and Android devices. There's also the question of Keystone too, a streaming-only device set to capitalize on Xbox's gains in the cloud gaming market𓆉. 

🥃Development of the console was reportedly shelved in 2022 due to concerns over its production cost and consumer pricing, although given how closely Microsoft's movements in the Cloud streaming business was scrutinized during the Activision Blizzard court battles there could be other forces at play here. Still, I wouldn't be shocked to see it re-emerge this year in some capacity. 

2024 is Xbox's for the taking. Bolstered by an attractive line-up of first-party titles and strong third-party support, there should be little doubt that there will be plenty to play on your Series X throughout the year. What's exciting is that there's still more to come, with Microsoft likely to date other titles 𝓰that it has in production over the summer and into the fall windows. It's going to be a great year for Xbox owners – one to remember, should it all come together.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox’s Developer Direct 2024 gave us another peek behind the curtain at developer Oxide G🌼ames, who dedicated a portion of its segment to the impact of player feedback. "Building the game alongside real players has given us that critical player feedback," designer director Michelle Menard explains in the embedded video below. "In the end, we believe this makes for a deeper connection between the players and the game."

"One of my favorite examples is when we first introduced the concept of dangerous wildlife to the game," lead designer Michael Califf continues. "It turns out, in our first iteration, it was maybe a little bit too aggressive or disruptive."

The developer explained that the team already knew a change was needed before one insider forum post simply stated: "Couꦿgars! Cougars! Cougars! I hate cougars! Someone get these feline demons away from me." In-game 🐓footage then hilariously shows a cougar party hounding a screaming woman while other villagers get on with their day. It seems the cougar plague was just that common, eh?

"I'm happy to report🗹, based on more rec💯ent feedback, that I think we ended up in a good place with the overall threat level of mountain lions to a player's citizenry," Califf assures, meaning no cat demons for us. 

Ara: History Untold is due to release this fall on PC and Game Pass, followed by an Xbox Series X|S port sometime later. Publisher Xbox Game Studios also shed light on the rest of its 2024 slate, which includes 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

For more, check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:biggest upcoming games coming in 2024.  

Development of modern video games is on something of a challenging trajectory right now, where the expense and experience required to see a AAA title through production is continually compounding. This means that while it's largely true that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Baldur's Gate 3 will shape the future of the RPG – pushing developers to invest in denser, more reactive and cinematic play spaces – it's probably going to take between three and five years before we see the first waves of titles inspired by Larian's award-winning approach to game design, if not way longer. 

Which is all to say that we won't likely see games as proudly idiosyncratic as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Alan Wake 2 or as wildly expansive as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom this year. That's alright though, because I'm hoping that we'll finally begin to see more big-budget and independent games building off of success stories of 2018 and 2019 – experiences as experimental as Outer Wilds, as in-depth as Disco Elysium, as appropriated-scaled as The ꧙Outer Worlds, or as damned-smart as Return of the Obra Dinn. Should that come to pass, then 2024 should be one hell of a year in its own right. 

Exploring the state of play

It kind of has to be though, right? If documents released through the Activision Blizzard acquisition court battles are to be believed, 2024 is effectively the halfway point of the current generation. The Xbox Series X and PS5 are expected to have a shelf life of around eight years, so we're at the stage where we should see first-party developers really begin to push the technology after spending four years grappling with the potential and pitfalls of each platform. That is certainly on the near horizon, as Microsoft Gaming positions Avowed and Hellblade, and as PlayStation continues to invest heavily in third-party exclusives like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Rise of the Ronin. 

Interestingly, both the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Studios and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:PlayStation Studios portfolios have scores of first-party games in development right now, alt♑hough precious few have speculative release windows, let alone firm dates. Given the perpetual challenges developers are facing with leaks and illegal hacks – Rockstar and Insomniac being the most high profile victims in recent months – I'd like to think that publishers may take matters into their own hands and push for greater transparency. While this approach has its own problems, I would love to see studios given the freedom to be more vocal about development timelines, and more forthcoming with progress throughout the entire production pipeline. 

Because while it's certainly great that Xbox was able to reveal games like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Perfect Dark and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:State of Decay 3 on its own terms, for example, all we've had to go on for almost four years are single cinematic trailers and the occasional press statement – Ninja Theory has been pretty forthcoming throughout the development of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, and this could act as a model for others within the Xbox Game Studios network. Similarly, I'd love for PlayStation Studios teams to be given more freedom to talk to the public, particularly after the cancellation of The Last of Us Onlಞine after years of pre-production – what this means for Sony's wide investmen⭕t towards live service remains to be seen, inviting wide (and𝔍 often unhelpful) speculation. What we need now more than ever is a clear sense of what's coming, and a better sense of the intent behind company directions and initiatives.

That's especially true as the platform holders begin to introduce new hardware permeations. Sony recently released the PS5 Slim in selected territories, an economic revision that doesn't exactly rewrite the rulebook. Microsoft is reportedly preparing to release an all-digital 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X refresh with a new design, features, and controller. We aren't likely to see anything as drastic as the PS4 Pro or Xbox One X this time around, and if the big two aren't going to be expending energy trying to convince core players to recycle through hardware models, they need to do a better job at showcasing what's on the horizon – really getting players locked into the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Pass Core and PlayStation Plus ecosystems. 

And then there's Nintnedo. Always one to play by its own rules, the Switch is now staring down the barrel of a potentially challenging 12 months after what was arguably the strongest year in the console's lifecycle. Outside of the truly delightful Princess Peach: Showtime, the publisher has positioned a mass of long-awaited remakes and remasters – the returns of Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, Luigi's Mansion 2, and Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door. The death knell for the Nintendo Switch is ringing, and it's likely that the successor to the system is on the near horizon – ideally, with the long-awaited 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Metroid Prime 4. 

With all that said, I do think that 2024 is going to be fantastic for players – no matter your genre preferences or platform allegiances. There's a wealth of excellent looking 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming PS5 games and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games that you need to have on your radar, many of which we'll be exploring this month as we launch 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Big in 2024 – the GamesRadar+ new year preview, taking you 🌠inside the most anticipated games with exclusive interviews, hand-on previews, and all-new analysis. We are launching new articles every day throughout🌄 the month of January, so be sure to keep an eye out for those to get a better sense of where you should focus your attention. 

The new patch, currently only availab༒le on the beta branch for Steam, doesn’t bring any major features or unexpected changes. The instead lists sev🌊eral bug fixes, ironing out audio issues, misdirecting quest objectives, and other pesky problems. Studio design director Josh Sawyer that the team couldn’t backport much-requested features over from the sequel, like a turn mode, because of problems with the game engine Unity 4. 

Why update an almost ten-year-old game that isn’t currently in the limelight? Well, Avowed, the studio’s first-person take on the fantasy൩ setting, is scheduled to release this year, and perhaps the team wants to smooth out the original game for newcomers stepping into Eora for th⛎e very first time. 

♕There’s also the fact that Baldur’s Gate 3 courted more attention than any top-down RPG in at least a decade, with a surprisingly strong commercial performance succeeded by endless game of the year awards. Once the Forgotten Realms’ story is over, Baldur’s Gate 3 graduates might be hunting for similar games and the Pillars of Eternity duology are sure to blip on their radar. 

Overall, newcomers have reasons aplenty to return or discover Eora in 2024, and this new update is likely just Obsidian thinking ahead rather than teasing something else. With that said, Josh Sawyer recently revealed that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:he ꦺwould be open to mak🐈ing Pillars of Eternity 3, but only with a Baldur’s Ga🅺te 3 budget. Fingers crossed we see a PoE resurgence soon, then.

Already played Pillars? Why not check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:25 best RPGs to get your role-playing fix?

Alas, it seems unlikely that Marvel's Blade will launch this year alongside the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games of 2025 confirmed for imminent release. Still there's lots here to get excited about. A recent in-depth discussion with Arkane lead Sébastien Mitton revealed 澳洲幸༒运5开奖号码历史查询:a first tease of the in-game character model, giving us a sneak peek of what we can likely expect when Marvel's Blade actually🦋 launches. Thirsty for more? Here's everything we know to be confirmeꦜd about the new Blade game right now in 2025, from story speculation to development and more.

Marvel's Blade release date speculation

Xbox Game Studios is yet to set a firm Marvel's Blade release date or window. When the team at Arkane Lyon revealed the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Marvel game back at The Game Awards 2023, the team 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:said that it was going "silent ♑for a while" as it moved through the next phase of production. Which is all to say that I'd be shocked ✨to see𝓡 this one appear before 2026.

Marvel's Blade platforms

Marvel's Blade is coming to PC and Xbox Series X, and will be available from day one through the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription service. It's unclear whether a Marvel's Blade PS5 release is being targeted, although a striking number of titles from the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Studios group are shedding 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox exclusivity right now – the latest is Bethesda's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which is due to land on PS5 in 2025.

Marvel's Blade trailer

The first Marvel's Blade trailer dropped as part of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Game Awards 2023. It's a cinematic affair that essentially g🥃ives us a small snapshot of the sett💧ing and our first introduction to Blade as a character. It's a mood piece designed to give you a sense of the vibe Arkane is shooting for, and it's exceptionally effective.

Marvel's Blade gameplay

Arkane is yet to showcase any of the Marvel's Blade gameplay, although we do have some first details. For starters, this experience will be a strictly single-player affair, with players controlling Blade from a third-person perspective. This is a big shift for the studio, with the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Arkane games typically operating from a first-person angle – Dishonored, Dea🎀thloop, and Prey, for example.

Still, even with this big shift in gameplay styles, it's likely that Marvel's Blade will leverage Arkane's immersive sim and snappy combat tendencies – Blade is both a master of stealth and deception, as well as an expert mꩵartial artist and competent gunslinger. "As a kid of mixed origins, I felt a special connection to Blade – a hero with a dual heritage himself," said Dinga Bakaba, Game Director, Arkane Lyon. "The opportunity to put our spin on this character is a dream of 🌟mine and a challenge that our team embraces with a passion. We couldn’t be happier to put players in Blade’s boots, as he becomes the champion of my hometown of Paris, one stake at a time."

Marvel's Blade story

Marvel's Blade will feature an original story that's more 'mature' in tone that we have come to expect from the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Marvel games released in recent history. Arkane is looking beyond the best 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Blade stories from the comics for this new adventure, although the studio has confirmed that Eric Brooks is th💞e Daywalker we'll be taking command of.

Spe💧aking to how Arkane is putting its spin on the legendary character, studio art director Sebastien Mitton says: "From his trench coat to his iconic sunglasses, Blade is a slick, stylish, and driven character. This project is the perfect opportunity to push Arkane’s art style into a🎶n even more modern and bold territory. The essence of our work lives at the junction of impactful ideas and innovative know-how."

Marvel's Blade setting

The Marvel's Blade setting is confirmed as "the heart of Paris" which is trapped in some sort of vampiric emergency. Little else is known about the setting, although we're expecting that the legendary Daywalker will be navigating a quarantined♛ section of the city as they dance "between the warm society of the living and the rushing power ofꦑ the undead."

Promising to "explore the concept of testing your fear threshold, and what it means to overdoes on fear", it certainly sounds like it has all of the makings of one unsettling 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming horror game to watch out for in the future that's set to make use of Microsoft's Cloud gaming technology. Plus, with some big names said to be attached, and some tantalizing teases about what it's striving to do, it's quickly become one of the most curious 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games in the pipeline.

With some other 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Hideo Kojima games in the works, Kojima Productions is currently focused on bringing us the sequel to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Death Stranding this June, and new surfaced last year that revealed "scanning and filming" were suspended for𒐪 OD due to SAG-AFTRA strikes, so it may be some time before we learn about the project, but we'll certainly b🌜e watching out for more updates about its direction. In the meantime, read on♏ below to get a full recap of everything we know so far about Hideo Kojima's OD.

OD (Overdose) gameplay experience

At least when creative director Hideo Kojima was working on Metal Gear Solid games, you sort of knew what you were getting – cinematic stealth actio🧸n. But as soon as he started to stretch into other franchises and new IP, his work became more difficult to anticipate. P.T. was a masterclass in looping psychological horror, Death Stranding, an oddly esoteric game about hiking through an apocalypse,🌃 and then there's OD.

Kojima himself has said that he is🎉 "creating a very unique, immersive, and totally new style of game – or rather, a new form of media." The first teaser trailer ends with a sting claiming that Overdose will be "for all the players and screamers." There's a lot to unravel here, so let's start with genre, as that's easier to figure out: OD will be a horror. Kojima Productions says that "OD explores the concept of testing your fear threshold, and what it means to OD on fear."

Okay, so that's a start. The studio also says that it will do this "while blurring the boundaries of gaming and film", which is where things start getting a little more complicated. At The Game Awards, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Kojima reaffirmed that OD "is a game, don't get me wrong" but then went on to noไte that "at the same time, it's a movie; and at the same time, it's a new form of media."

It does sound a tad confusing, which is likely why Academy Award winning filmmaker Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us, Nope) 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:has come on board to collaborate. In fact, Kojima later revealed Peele is just one of "several talented storytellers involved in the project", with a host of big names said to be attached in a group he ref✃ers to as 'The Avengers'. We don't yet know any ꦕmore names involved in the project (beyond the actors mentioned below), but Kojima teases that whenever he shows the list of people who are a part of OD to his agents and managers "they can hardly believe it's true". How curious.

A 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:very bizarre leak in 2022 wasn't all that helpful in figuring out what style of play we should anticipate here, but it could blend some degree of active and passive play – owing to the fact that Overdrive development is being driven through a partnership with Microsoft Gaming, leveraging the power of🐷 Xbox Cloud Gaming for development.

The speculation game is actually quite important to these sort of weird creative endeavors - which is something we touch in our article exploring just why The Xbox Game Studios and Kojima Productions 🎃partnership is import♈ant. Kojima says he wants to "make something nobody has seen before" – we know that it'll be a horror, and that it'll blur the line between games and film, but exactly what shape that will 😼take remains to be seen. And we likely won't see anything more for a while yet.

OD cast

Hideo Kojima has unveiled the actors who will take starring roles in OD, although he is yet to confirm the names of the characters that they will eventually play. It's likely to be a little while before we learn𓃲 more about the OD cast, but you can find the current list of will star in the project here:

• Sophia Lillis (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves)
• Hunter Schaffer (Euphoria)
• Udo Kier (Flesh for Frankenstein)

OD teaser trailer

The first OD trailer was unveiled at The Game Awards 2023. The short teaser shows three of the core cast in what appears to effectively be motion-capture screen tests – floating heads on a black background, rendered by Epic's Unreal Engine 5 and MetaHuman technologies, as the eyes illuminate the lights and camera in front of them. You can watch the first teaser trailer for H🐼ideo Kojima's OD above.

OD expected release date and platforms

The OD release date is still likely to be years away at this point. Creative director Hideo Kojima is certainly focused on development of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Death Stranding 2 right now, with this 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X game expected to follow after. Kojima Productions and Xbox Game Studios🔜 announce❀d their collaboration in 2022, explaining that the two development houses were working to utilize the power of th💦e cloud. What that means for platforms is anybody's guess, but I'♐d suspect that it will land on Xbox Series X, PC, and mobile devices via Xbox Cloud Gaming and Xbox Game Pass.

Speaking to key creative leaders across Blizzard, the vibe is one of excitement with just a hint of lingering trepidation. Spencer and other senior Xbox executives recently visited the Blizzard campus in Irvine, California, but it wasn't toꦜ talk business – rather the team wanted to meet with its new colleagues and play some Warcraft Rumble ahea༺d of its launch on November 3. So, where does that leave Blizzard as it looks to 2024? 

"We all want to talk to Microsoft to see what other opportunities we can get, but we haven'tꦏ had the chance to talk to them about all that yet," says Holly Longdale, executive producer and vice president for World of Warcraft.🦄 "But we're so excited by it. There's obviously a huge amount of potential to unlock things for us even further."

The World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft has the most to gain from the acquisition. It may be one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best MMOs of all-time, and is set to celebrate a monumental 20th anniversary in 2024, but there's still so much potential for it to evolve and grow. At least, that's the view from Holly Longdale, executive producer and vice president at Blizzard who oversees World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft Classic. "With the acquisition, when you have the opportuni🍌ty to have a conversation with a company like Microsoft, you can imagine that there's probably a lot of really awesome opportunities there." 

Spencer says that "our commitment at Xbox is to bring more great games to more players in more places," and while he won't be drawn on questions surrounding World of Warcraft's release on Xbox or Game Pass, both would speak directly to his core philosophy of tearing down barriers to play. Longdale stresses that those conversations haven't begun yet. The focus right now is on the Worldsoul Saga, comprising three new expansions which are being developed in parallel. Longdale thinks of The War Within, Midnight, and The Last Titan as a "foundation for our future" – a unified experience which can "stretch where we take W🅠orld of Warcraft." 

Even with all that to consider, it hasn't stopped the World of Warcraft teams from starting to think about what comes next. "We talk about it all the time," Longdale laughs as I ask about the possibility of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:World of Warcraft coming to console. "It would be very insincere to say that we're not, like… of course we're talking about that. We are Microsoft now." She believes that the WoW team is "pretty well positioned" to overcome the technical hurdles associated with bringing the MMO to Xbox, although it could be a while before we hear anything concrete. "Right now, we're focused on the Worldsoul Saga. But if that comes up then we'll reexamine things but, man, we've got enough to deal with right now." 

WoW Classic

The potential for a Game Pass release does also raise interesting questions about World of Warcraft Classic. The experience, perhaps best thought of as the original version of the MMO encased in amber, is currently available to all Warcraꦛft players who hold an active subscription. Entrance into Game Pass could mean that Classic is exposed to an entirely new wave of players – not just people who may want to indulge in a little nostalgia for the past, but folks who have never played a second of World of Warcraft before. 

Game producer Linny Cooke believes that the game is better set to receive brand new players than you might expect, pointing to the success of WoW Classic Hardcore earlier this year. "It's actually been really interesting to see how popular Hardcore has been for both playing and streaming, and it's something that's actually gotten a lot of new players interested." This isౠ reaffirmed by Tim Jones, with the assistant lead designer telling me that they have "data which shows there were actually a lot of people who had never played any version of Warcraft before come and try Hardcorꦡe out."

WoW Classic Hardcore was an interesting experiment for Blizzard. It presents a version of the original MMO where, if you die for any reason, you need to go create a new character to try again. It's a brutal setup, but one which has actually worked to create the feeling that many players experienced when they took their first trips into Azeroth back in 2004. "The focus of Hardcore is the leveling journey; there's no rush to the endgame because everyone is dying all the time. So the early zones are constantly populated with new players," says Jones. "The capital cities and low-level zones feel more alive, and so you really get ෴that MMO community feel in Ha🐈rdcore." 

"Phil [Spencer] and Mike [Ybarra, Blizzard president] have been talking about this drive to make our games accessible to everyone, however they want to play. I think the future of WoW Classic is going to be super exciting, because Hardcore shows that it can be really interesting for new players," Jones adds. He does also make it clear that he's not been privy to any 🔥conversations surrounding Game💫 Pass, and notes that he's "not really responsible for making those decisions" on questions surrounding Classic breaking out of the subscription to become a standalone product, but it is interesting all the same to see WoW Classic captivate an audience who weren't able to experience it the first time around. 

Diablo 4

Of all the titles in the Blizzard portfolio, it's likely that Diablo 4 will enjoy the easiest transition as Xbox steps up its involvement. Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson has worked for and collaborated with Microsoft for two decades. The game should make for a blockbuster entrant into Game Pass next year, which is when Spencer has teased that Activisio🍨n Blizzard titles will join the subscription service. And s🥂peaking of Spencer, he used some of his precious stage time at BlizzCon to say: "I can't wait for you to see what the team has planned for that game, it's going to be awesome." 

"You know, I love the fact that Phil Spenc🌺er is a Diablo 4 fan," says associate game director Brent Gibson. "Yeah," laughs game director Joe Shely, "it certainly doesn't hurt." The pair are looking to the future of Diablo 4 with anticipation, with the studio commit💟ted to the release of quarterly seasons and premium annual expansions. It's demanding work, and work the leadership team believes can be better supported by the involvement of Microsoft. 

"We build elements of the game in parallel with each other – we're developing these expansions inꦆ parallel with seasons," says Shely. "It takes a dedicated team to do that, and it's incredible to have Microsoft's support to do that. "Microsoft is very committed to Diablo 4, so we see a bright future there." Gibson 🔯adds: "The opportunities for growing the Diablo franchise are huge, and we have a brilliant team that has a boundless amount of great ideas. What we are today isn't necessarily what we could be tomorrow, and that's a wonderful place to be."

The team is quick to note that something players shouldn't expect is for Xbox franchises to begin immediately invading Sanctuary. "We are always interested in collaborating, when it's something that feels right," says Gibson♔, pointing to recent Diablo 4 cosmetic skins inspired by World of Warcraft as a great example of cross-pollination. "The team is passionate about keeping the dark tone, making sure that things stay appropriate [...] So trying to keep things as true to the IP as possible is very important to us."

Overwatch 2

Less clear is how Microsoft may influence the future of Overwatch 2. The free-to-play competitive shooter is currently battling to regain its reputation after a challenging launch window, with its development team♑ using BlizzCon to showcase wide changes to its competitive systems and promise that three new heroes are on the way. Jared Neuss, executive producer and vice president for Overwatch 2, says that "something we're really proud about is the fact that we're taking risks and trying new things, and when you try new things some of them will work and some of them won't. It's always challenging to hear feedback, but feedback is what makes us better and it's what makes the game better." 

While Neuss tells me that it's too early to get into the particulars of how Microsoft may shape Overwatch 2, something he is keen to lean on is feedback from other internal studios from within the Xbox Game Studios group. "Being able to tap into even more people who have experience in this space, who have tried different things and have learned different lessons, is something I'm personally very excited about," he says. "Just knowing that we have that many more people that we can reach out to and just have frank discussions with about the development process is su🅷per exciting to me because there's a lot that we can all learn from each other."

The relationship between Blizzard and Microsoft is in its earliest days. There's a lot of important questions to be asked, problems to be solved, and decisions to be 🅘made – complexities to layer across an already packed release schedule. But the time be💜ing, Spencer maintains that his "commitment at Xbox is to bring more great games to more players in more places." 

How that statement relates to the gam💟es Blizzard is creating remains to 🍸be seen, but Spencer is certainly saying all the right things: "Now that Blizzard is part of Xbox, we will nurture the essence of what made Blizzard unique. We're going to empower our new colleagues in a culture of trust, inclusion, and collaboration to continue what they do best: redefining existing genres, creating never before seen experiences, and uniting players in new ways."

During 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:BlizzCon 2023, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Overwatch 2 executive producer Jared Neuss told me  that the opportunity to work alongside the talented teams at 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Studios is "super exciting". Microsoft has a wealth of internal FPS talent, from the Halo teams at 343 Industries to the shepherds of the Wolfenstein and Doom franchises in MachineGames and id Software, there's arguably no better place for Overwatch 2 to be as it continues to battle back from a divisive launch – read our original 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Overwatch 2 review for more on that one.

Speaking to the potential of collaboration, Neuss reflected on his own history – having worked on shooters like Halo 5: Guardians and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Destiny 2 in the past – as he teased out future opportunities. "As a person who worked on Halo at Microsoft, one of my favorite thinℱgs is how the experience that I and other members of the team are able to bring to our development process on Over🧜watch 2. And being able to tap into even more people who have experience in this space, who have tried different things and have learned different lessons, is something I'm personally very excited about." 

Neuss is keen to stress that "what form that takes is obviously not something we're talking about" just yet, but does give some hint towards how the Overwatch 2 team can iterate🍌 and evolve its ideas, and how it can help other Xbox teams do the same. "Just knowing that we have that many more people that we can reach out to and just have frank discussions with about the development process is super exciting to me because there's a lot that we can all 🌱learn from each other." 

Something we learned about Overwatch 2 today is that it's far too early to count the free-to-play shooter out just yet. The development team is teasing out big changes to competitive play, a raft of incoming quality-of-life improvements, and the arrival of a brand new hero this December who already looks like an utter delight. 

There's still plenty more to come from Overwatch 2 this weekend too, with a deep dive into the next season still on the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:BlizzCon 2023 schedule. And we'll have more from our great conversation with Neuss live on GamesRadar+ in the coming🧸 days. 

On the eve of Halo Infinite’s release three years ago, a meme surfaced on the that shows Spencer holding a bulky Xbox Series X over his shoulder like some kind of heavy cannon. “How awesome would it be to see🐭 a weapon inspired by the Xbox Series X?” reads the post. Well, three years later, that Redditor’s request has become a reality.

“Remember that meme of Phil Spencer holding a Series like a rocket launcher?” writes modder GashnorOfficial on the subreddit, “I made it a real thing in Halo: Reach.” There are so many random moments in the clip below. Our player character begins with a box of shotguns, for some reason, before chucking it away for a shiny new Series X that happens to use Xbox 360 game disᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚcs as ammunition. The console of mass destruction then fires out green energy bursts that leave Xbox logos in their wake. Then the camera pans out to reveal that a cosplaying alien grunt was behind all the havoc.

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“I fully custom modeled the Series X yesterday in Blender from scratch,” writes Gashnor. The cute playable alien actually comes from Gashn𝐆or’s own overhaul mod, , that swaps all of Halo: Reach’s enemies and your own Spartans with different cosplaying grunts. Adorable.

Halo creators have also been going wild with Halo Inꦓf𒁃inite’s updated Forge mode, which recently added tꦰhe ability to manipulate AI, leading to remakes of the series' favorite campa෴ign missions, MOBA modes, and even a zany Pokemon battle arena showing up in-game.

Halo: Reach fans should check out the Starfield planet that looks awfully similar to the game’s namesake.

Forge is a longtime series tool that allows players to edit existing maps, create their own from scratch, and even dream up whole new game modes using Halo’s chaotic alien sandbox. But with the release of Season 5: Reckoning - whicﷺh dropped on October 17th - developer 343 has added NPCs to Halo Infinite’s toolset, allowing players to manipulate the behavior of grunts, brutes, and other enemies. 

Calling the update a game-changer wouldn’t be an ex✱aggeration since, well, players have literally been recreating other games within Halo Infinite’s Forge. Over on Twitter, DanTheBloke showed off their “Pokemon battle arena.” The player somehow managed to stuff various aliens into balls which you can throw, before setting two teams off in a cage fight. There are he🔯alth bars too! All it needs now is some XP and we can have a proper train/battle/gym loop.

Another forger went backward in the Halo space-time continuum and recreated the final mission from 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Halo: Combat Evolved. In a video posted to , The Maw’s tight warthog run stayed intact with the remak෴e, complete with ꦛthe original’s badass music. 

Rather than turning Halo into a different classic game, some forgers instead switched genres, turning the FPS into a light MOBA. On , user Gowans created a single-lane MOBA mode “over the space of 90 minutes and with zero experience of F💦orge coding.” The mode sees opposing grunt swarms blasting at each other until the enemy base (Sentinel, in this case) is destroyed. 

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Of course, forged modes would be incomplete without the purely whacky ones. Redditor loudmaryjane expanded the already-scary hunters until they reached a towering size and, to top it off, th🦂e custom level loosely resemblꦜes a city. So that’s basically a Spartans versus Kaiju mode. 

Countless other clips have circulated online as forgers experiment with survival modes, escort missions, and battle royales. Halo Infinite’s Forge already 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:spawned a million creations and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a million more with this update. All thin✨gs considered, Halo Infinite’s fifth season has given the struggling shooter a much-needed boost thanks to the gorgeous new maps, interesting Forge creations, and the upcoming PvE mode.

Here’s our guide to every Xbox Game Studio and what they’re working on.

But such highlights don't tell the whole story. The way in which the exemplary game engine is packaged up as a single-player video game experience is a clear downgrade from the hyper-deluxe brilliance of its pre꧂decessor. While career mode provides a fan-pleasing focus on modifying so many famous motorcars, it's otherwise vastly stripped down and offers ꦕjust one very singular, repetitive gameplay loop that simply isn't as enjoyable as what came before. 

This loop starts with a menu screen where you spend 'Car Points' on your vehicle. You start with a few hundred and earn more by leveling up your vehicle. Allocating points to mods, you raise the performance value of your car, keeping it within a set limit while maximizing on-track gains. This is easy to follow as they're condensed into four main areas: Speed, Braking, Acceleration, and Handling, each with a value that turns green or red for 'better or worse' a🍰s you switch components. If such under-the-hood tinkering𝓰 leaves you cold, don't worry – there's a handy single button press where Forza Motorsport will do it for you, though the result is sometimes imperfect. 

Quota unquota

Next, you head to a 10-minute practice session. Yes,♌ for every career mode race. This normally ends after three laps; a quota the game says 'required', though it can actually be skipped (or surpassed), though ꩲskipping it does mean you don't earn as many credits or Car Points so it's not advised. There is also an optional target lap time to beat, which oddly doesn't require penalty-free driving. This time is a good indicator for whether you've got the difficulty set right, but it's otherwise unimportant. 

At the startline, you can drain unneeded fuel from your tank (which you'll need to do every single time if you care about such weight gains), you're then left – biz﷽arrely – t🙈o choose your own grid position from 4th to 24th, with bonus credits and driver XP available if you meet your target despite starting further back. 

Then you race in 24-car battles, which i📖s impressive indeed. Depending on your difficulty level, you may have rewinds available, a dynamic racing line or damage to contend with. Damage is mainly mechanical, though paintwork scratches very easily on the 'realistic' setting, with some panel damage evident too, though nothing ever falls off the cars. Usual story there. 

On expert difficulty, contact or track limits violations are assessed in real time, with penalty seconds awarded or not depending on the severity of your violation, which is very well implemented. You duly drive for some 10 minutes in this beautifully smooth but often plodding simulation, finish second and move on to start the loop again. And again. And again. Whatever the discipline, career mode always feels the same.

Runaway winner

But wait – why did you finish second? Well, unless you get an early run on the leader, there's still that age-old Forza problem where one car zooms off in front. It's been nine years since I complained about this in my 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Forza Motorsport 6 review, but here it is again, clear as day. It&aꦐpos;s commonplace to see one AI car somehow 11 seconds faster than everyone else despite a legal and outwardly unremarkable car. It makes no sense. The leader's not always uncatchable, but sometimes there's just nothing you can do.

The majority of Forza Motorsport's🃏 solo campaign is spent in relatively slow cars so it's sedate and underwhelming. You heave them through corners, wait with the patience of a saint to get your foot down on corner exits, and inevitably rear-end AI cars as they inexplicably brake in front of you. Spending your Car Points on grip enhancements does make for more fun, and you really can feel the difference even when changing things like the width of your tires. The simulation is great, but the gameplay is not. Career mode is dull for literally days at a time. 

This isn't helped by the new presentation style, which does away with the famous guest voice overs, upbeat music, and gloss-heavy menus in favor of what's best described as gray screens with orange bits. After the bombast and ultra-slick enthusiasm of the previous installment, it feels disappointingly basic. The more arcadey features like Mod Cards and the fruit machine bonus spinner are gone, though that doesn't mean it's now a hardcore sim. You won't find qualifying rounds, a flag🍰 system, safety car, engine failures, team management, sponsorships, career rivalries, tire warming, or financial penalties for car damage. There's not even any obvious defensive driving exhibited by the AI. Compared to something like EA's F1 series, this is a markedly basic, bare bones racer.

On Xbox Series X, Ray Tracing is disabled on the recommended visual setting, instead 🎉appearing as a separate, dynamic but lower-resolution 60fps mode, or as a 4K fidelity mode that runs at 30fps. You do get used to 30fps if you play it long enough, but it is disappointing not to have 4K60 with Ray Tracing on the Series X. What more people will likely care about is the overall look of the game. Far from photo-realistic, Forza Motorsport looks very ﷽clean and computer-rendered, with cars often looking plasticky, especially at night. 

The day/night transitions update the lighting and shadow positions every 18-25 seconds (and you might notice the jump), and the dynamic skies appear to be a series of static skyboxes compared to Forza Motorsport 7's pretty, moving clouds. The overall effect is still frequently beautiful as morning fog burns off or the setting sun's glare increasingly encroaches into your vision as the race progresses, but it doesn't feel as freeform or organic as the still-great weather system of the original 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Project CARS. 

Grade me!

One standout feature, however, is the way Forza Motorsport rewards you for driving well. Tracks are split into sections and you're graded out of 10 for every sequence of corners you complet✨e, reminiscent of a now-ancient game called Need For Speed: Shift. Good marks level up your vehicle, unlocking new mods and Car Points to 🌟spend on them. No mod is ever really 'bought', as you can roll back to a cheaper unlocked part without penalty. 

It's clear that Forza Motorsport wants you to be as smooth as it is, rewarding gentle, progressive inputs over secondary taps o𒀰f the brakes and blipping the throttle (more Prost than Senna), though a fantastic overall exit speed does appear to trump everything else. Either way, Turn 10 really gets why people love racing games: it's about self-improvement just as much as beating the rest of the field. While you're pootling about in the rain in a 1990s touring car, this rating system becomes a game in itself. It certainly makes things more interesting, if not any more exciting. 

What is massively exciting, however, is the online mode. Echoi♏ng Gran Turismo Sport's timed-event entry system, you choose an event, practice for it while a timer ticks down, and choose your moment to perform up to three laps of qualifying. Then the race begins, with wonderfully solid, tense, close racing. Penalties and license le🦩vel changes are applied for poor sportsmanship, making this a serious and meaningful online experience. It's so, so good. 

Time Attack is dressed up as 'Rivals' mode where you take on rival gamers using online leaderboards and ghosts, and there's certainly fun to be had there, especially as you can focus on faster cars that respond well to quick inputs, resulting in an exemplary driving experience. But beyond the car dealership and free play, that's basically it. It's a pared-back experience, feeling smaller and emotionally flat compared to❀ the superlative, exhaustive Forza Motorsport 7.

I said in my 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Forza Motorsport 7 review that the racer had "firmly set the bar by which all other racing games will be judged," so naturally this iteration has to be held to its light. The game engine here is demonstrably better than Forza Motorsport 7's but, in terms of breadth of gameplay, presentation, general excitement, and enjoyment gleaned from racing the AI cars, the older, now-deleted Forza Motorsport 7 is clearly superior. More content including tracks and event series will be added over time, so it will certainly ꧅improve, but right now the career mode here is so sedate and one-note, it's hard to recommend Forza Motorsport's offline mode over any of its peers.  

Forza Motorsport was reviewed on Xbox Series X, with code provided by the🔥 publisher.

There's a lot of information to 🌸p𒆙arse, but we've collected all of the major Xbox leak news together so that you can get a look at the whole story.

Xbox Series X refresh 

An 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X refresh, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:codenamed internally as 'Brooklin&apo🦋s;, is arguably the biggest takea🧸way from the Microsoft leaks. The key takeaway are 2TB of storage, no disk drive, and a curved design. Microsoft is also boasting improved energy efficiency and faster WiFi, at 𝓰a price directly in-line with the current Xbox Series X.

The Xbox Series X refresh will also reportedly launch with a new controller that features gyro controls and improved haptics. That's codenamed Sebille, and features a joint black and white design and✤ new modular thumbsticks toও improve longevity.

Sebille is expected to launch in May 2024. A slight refresh of the Xbox Ser𝄹ies S will follow in August, with the new Xbox Series X coming in October.

Leaked Bethesda games (Fallout 3 and Oblivion remasters) 

The second biggest reveal from the Microsoft FTC leak is what appears to be a full release schedule of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Bethesda games, pointing to new games from the entire Bethesda Softworks group. These internal documents are dated to March 2020 – before the release of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Doom Eternal, and the finalisation of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox's acquisition of Bethesda – and some expected timings have mostly been pushed back by a year or two, likely as a result of pandemic-era disruption. For example, the leaked list notes a 2021 release for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Starfield, which eventually arrived earlier this month, two years later. Similar delays affected Redfall, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Project Hibiki, which is now known as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hi-Fi Rush.

The leaked Bethesda release schedule also mentions the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new Indiana Jones game, which we've known about for some time, but the biggest reveals are the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Oblivion and Fallout 3 remasters. Initially expected in the 2022 and 2024 fiscal years respectively, it's clear that the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Oblivion remaster has slipped from that date, but there's no word ♑on when either projecღt might eventually arrive.

Additionally, the list confirms a new Doom game, titled Doom: Year Zero, Ghostwire: Tokyo 2, and Dishonored 3 – something which A🉐rkane fans are already reeling over, following the tepid response to Redfall. That's on top of Project Kestrel, which seems like it could be Zenimax Online's newಌ MMO, something called Project Platinum, and an unannounced game from a licensed IP. 

Development disruption means we're unlikely to see some of those games until 2026 based on other release windows (which is also reportedly the earliest that we'll see 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Elder Scrolls 6 from 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Bethesda Game Studios), but there'ꦉs always a chance they show up at a different 🦄time.

Red Dead Redemption 2 PS5/Xbox Series X version 

Elsewhere, leaked emails discussing the potential for new 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Pass arrivals appear to have revealed the existence of a Red Dead Redemption 2 PS5/Xbox Series X version. In 2022, emails discussing which games could fill the hole in the platform left by Starfield's delay to 2023 mentioned an outside chance that a new-gen version of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Red Dead Redemption 2 could be brought to the subscription service.

That would imply that Microsoft understood the new-gen version to be in development. Leaked documents suggested a release date some time in 2023, which has clearly not materialized, but the amount of evidence Microsoft amassed on the subject definitely makes it seem that the Xbox team expect💫ed the project to rear its head. Xbox's analysts even went as far as estimating the $5 million per month cost of bringing an RDR2 upgrade to Game Passไ, and the 10 million monthly hours of play it would offer users.

Phil Spencer wanted to buy Nintendo

In a conversation about potential acquisition targets, Phil Spencer outlined his desire to buy Nintendo, describing the possibility as a "career moment." Spencer does note that that would be an ambitious target, placing Steam owner Valve firmly in his sights in a similar way. More attention is paid to an attempt to purchase 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Warner Bros Interactive, but there's no sig𒀰n of that deal coming throug♔h just yet. 

Xbox thought it might win this console generation 

Acknowledging the Xbox One's struggles when compared to the PS4, Phil Spencer sent an email to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood in the wake of 2020's PS5, seeming pretty confident about the company's chances in the new generation. Revealing what he really thought of the PS5 in the immediate aftermath of its first public showcase, Spencer said that he was "proud of our team."

He went on to say that "we have a better product than Sony does, not just on hardware but equally important on the software platform and services on top of the hardware." Spencer did acknowledge that console specs were just the tip of the iceberg that that "we haven't won anything," but he closed his message by saying that "this was a good day for Xbox." An interest🅷ing assertion on the day of your biggest competitor's largely-successful hardware reveal…

Microsoft is planning an E3 2024 conference 

The release plan for the Xbox Series X refresh notes an "Xbox Marketing Beat" just after the release of the upgraded Series S console, in the first half of June 2024. That would make it sound like Microsoft has already decided on a significant blowout in the period that would traditionally have been known as E3 2024. Whether it'll be as big as this year's show, which included the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Starfield Direct, remains to be se🃏en, but with substantial new hardware just over 💎the horizon, it's no surprise that Microsoft is planning a big show. 

The next Xbox is all-in on cloud gaming

A leaked 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:r🦩oadmap for the next-gen Xbox console ten🍰tatively scheduled to launch in 2028 reveals a renewed focus on cloud gaming. The unnamed Gen 10 system is eyeing "cloud hybrid games" capable of "new game genres and types, unlocked through player growth and technical innovation." Microsoft also touches on AI and machine learning through features like content and dialogue generation, and graphical innovations like super sampling. 

There's a lot of information to parse here, but for wider context you should check out our breakdown of all the studios under the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Studios umbrella, and our explainer on the ongoing 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Activision deal. 

Yesterday, July 13, a US court released from the case of the Federal Trade Commission against Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The court documents reveal Microsoft Gaming's CFO Tim Stuart believed the company could see over 10 million Starfield sales on PS5 alone if it had kept Bethesda's RPG on Sony's 🍸platform.

Obviously, we know Starfield isn't coming to PS5 anymore. What persuaded Microsoft to ditch these 10 million potential Starfield sales was the belief the company could recuperate these profits by launching Starfield via the Xbox Game Pass subscription service on both 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X/S and PC, not to mention incre🍰ased console sales.

It's a bit of a gamble from Microsoft, which clearly believes Starfield will be enough to get people to buy into Xbox and Game Pas🌟s purely for Bethesda's new game. 10 million sales is a hell of a lot to sacrifice for a game, especially one that's been in development for so long at a development studio as big as Bethesda Games.

It's not just Starfield that's mentioned here by Stuart, either. The CFO also  believed the Indiana Jones game from MachineGames, part of the Zenimax umbrella Xbox acquired when it also took over Bethesda, could also see 10 million sales on PlayStation consoles. But just li🀅ke with Starfield, Microsoft chose to forgo these possible sales in favor of launching exclusively on Xbox Game Pass on day one.

These court documents were published alongside 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:the FTC๊ losing their court case against Microsoft. A judge de🍨creed the FTC hadn't provided sufficient evidence to grant an injunction halting Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and so the planned purchase is now officially cleared to proceed in the US.

Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games guide for a look ahead at all the new-gen games coming to the console.

In an appeal filing revealed by , lawyers representing the "Gamer's Lawsuit" say that the court, which 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:previously dismissed the suit, "failed to consider uncontღroverted evidence that Microsoft had the intention to put iꦰts main competition, the Sony PlayStation, out of the market; and that this merger is a part of that strategy."

That evidence, apparently, consists of an internal email sent by Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty to Xbox's chief financial officer, Tim Stuart. In the public release of the filing the contents of that email, referre൲d to as Exhibit K, have been redacted, as Microsoft characterizes it as an "internal exchange" that should not be shown outside of court.

The Gamer's Lawsuit hasಌ been kicking around since December 2022, and reached particularly notable heights as lawyers representing the gamers 澳洲🍸幸运5开奖号码历史查询:asked Sony and Nintendo♈ CEOs to come testify. After the suit was dismissed earlier this year, it was 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:amended and refiled with a request that the court make a preliminary injuncti🐻on against the deal - ꦚthat .

This is all separate to the FTC's effort to block the Xbox Activision mer♒ger, which is broadly considered quite a bit more serious than the Gamer's Lawsuit. That's on top of the U꧋K's CMA blocking the purchase earlier this year, a move 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox is set to appeal.

There will surely be no shortage of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games regardless of whether the deal goes through.

Honestly, I'm relieved. Up until the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Games Showcase, you could say that I've always been a little Avowed curious. It's the first AAA RPG from the genre-masters at Obsidian Entertainment, following its acquisition into the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Studios fold in 2018. Beloved for its work on Alpha Protocol, Fallout: New Vegas, and The Outer Worlds, there's real electricity to the idea o♊f Obsidian working on an Xbox Series X exclusive RPG – and receiving all of the first-party funding and support that comes with such an ambitious endea꧟vour. 

Offsetting that excitement has been this tinge of trepidation. Microsoft Gaming does, after all,  have a point to prove this generation. Would Obsidian feel pressure to build a bigger playground than it ever has before, or a need to challenge the titans of the fantasy-RPG genre? 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt are excellent open-world games, but so la🌠rge that I'm not entirely convinced that they have scripted endings – at this point, I'm too afraid to ask. 

That's☂ not what I'm looking for from Avowed, or from Obsidian. Historically, the studio does its best work within clearly-defined boundaries, and I see increasing value in experiences which don't take your time, energy, or attention for granted. Thankfully, the magic worlds which have caused all my fears to dissipate: "[Avowed] is set up as a series of interconnected open zones which players can explore at their own pace." 

Size really does matter

Avowed 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:isn't set in an open-world, and it's the best news that could have come out of the Xbox Games Showcase. Patel has compared the size and structure of Avowed to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Outer Worlds and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. Admittedly, there's a widening gap between those two role-playing games, but it means you're likely looking at an adventure with a ceiling of aroun🔥d 25 🐟hours if you want to experience a story with a beginning, middle, and end. 

Obsidian says i𓂃t's building enough distraction into Avoweܫd that your investment can scale from there, but I'm overjoyed to learn that it's being built with recognition that time is our most valuable resource. "You can invest in discovering every nook-and-cranny in the world, discovering every secret, finding every side-quest, meeting every character – or you can have a much more focused experience. It's fully up to players how much time they want to spend in the Living Lands."

The Living Lands is described as a "plagued, wild island" set in the fantasy-world of Eora – a realm underpinned by advಌenture, choice, and consequence. Obsidian has a penchant for building memorable worlds, and the decision to focus on establishing a series of more densely-packed playspace can only be seen as a strength. It hei🧜ghtens the chance that we'll encounter a richer, and more visually-diverse set of biomes, each as weird and wonderful as the next – full of fantastical flora, sentient fauna, and a vast array of corrupted enemies to battle throughout. 

Something I really appreciate about The Outer Worlds was how its tighter game worlds ultimately helped combat en🔥counters feel more authored, and made each of my decisions feel more widely impactful. Hopefully we'll see the same here with Avowed, particularly with Obsidian stretching for such an expressive companꦺion and combat system – with swords, spellcraft, and dual-wielding pistols at the heart of it. 

There's obviously so much more of Avowed that we still need to see, but right now I'm just happy that with this 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Obsidian game, th🐬e studio is being allowed to play to its strengths in a first-party setting. 

Avowed is one of the headline 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games set to release in 2024. It's also expected to land on PC and be available on day one with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Pass. 

"We’ve moved on to gen 9," Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty tells , referring to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X and S. Booty ඣconfirms that outside of support for older ongoing titles like Minecraft, first-party development on Xbox One is done. Instead, Microsoft plans to "maintain support" for the older platform purely through cloud gaming options, which do alloඣw you to play Series X games on Xbox One.

Prior to this, almost every first-party Xbox Series X game has also launched on Xbox One, from Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 to Grounded and Minecraft Leg🥃ends. The most notable exception is Microsoft Flight Simulator, a game that pushed even the most high-end PCs to their absolute limits. Microsoft still has a less powerful piece of hardware to scale its games back for with Series S, but it seems current-gen games will soon have a lot more room to meet their next-gen potential.

The transition between generations has been a particularly slow one this time around, and not just for Xbox. Even first-party graphical showpieces on PS5, like God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West, have launched with PS4 versions, too. Whether due to the years-long supply shortages for both consoles or some other reason, many studios - both 🅰first and third-party - have kept the old-gen alive much longer tha🐼n usual.

There is, of course, a cost for next-gen ambiti🙈ons - development time. Booty acknowledges that modern triple-A game development cycles, which used to be two or three years, are ballooning to "four and five and six ye𓂃ar" timelines. "There are higher expectations. The level of fidelity that we're able to deliver just goes up."

These are the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games you should know about.

The publisher promised a double-bill of updates and reveals for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Game Pass wonders, cou𝓰pled with a gloriously in-depth look at Starfield ahead of its September release. The first half – aka the Xbox Games Showcase itself – was full of non-stop surprises. We got a fresh look at Xbox exclusives we've not heard much about for years, alongside new games from studios that have been silent since their acquisition by Microsoft. Suddenly, Microsoft's collection of Xbox Games Studios has an incredibly enviable slate.

First-party pizazz

Firstly, we got release windows for Avowed and Senua's Saga: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hellblade 2. And although both are set to drop in 2024, getting a better sense of what Avowed was all about was much needed. It was a game we'd not heard about since 2020, af✤ter all, and the upcoming Obsidian g൲ame is certainly high up the list of most anticipated Xbox titles. Senua's Saga continues to look like the best-looking game Xbox has in its line-up too – I still can't get over how realistic the excellent Melina Juergens' mo-capped face looks rendered in Unreal Engine 5.

Speaking of faces though, I did not have seeing Richard Ayoade's face pop up on my Xbox Games Showcase bingo card. Ayoade's debut as vegetable-loving Dave the Giant was such a strong opener, particularly when you consider just how feral the Fable community has beജen for an update on this title. The trailer was an immediate reassurance t🐼hat despite Playground Games now being at the helm, rather than series creators at Lionhead (the studio sadly shuttered in 2016), none of the British slapstick comedy that made the original series so iconic has been lost. Any trailer that makes use of the word 'wanker' on a global stage gets high praise from me.

But, British idioms aside, just that trio of updates alone was such an agenda-setter for the show. They're three top Xbox exclusives that have been in the works for so many years but without any sense of public-facing progress, and that's been a big criticism of Microsoft of late. Those updates, along with an October 10 release date for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Forza Motorsport,﷽ showed that Microsoft is listening and understands that updates for these titles were long overdue. 

However, Microsoft didn't stop there and also gave us the reveal of three new games from Xbox Games Studios developers. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is everything I want from the next Flight Sim, with missions like remote cargo drops and search and rescues to complement its naturally zen gameplay. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:South of Midnight was an impressive reveal from We Happy Few developer Compulsion Games, the second drop of the entire showcase and one which easily arrested attention. The visually-striking 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Clockwork Revolution closed out the show, with a look at the time-bending steampunk RPG gameplay from Wasteland 3 developer inXile Entertainment before Xbox boss Phil Spencer took to the stage to wrap everything up.♌ 

The icing on the cake? Spencer revealed that there are Xbox Series X restocks on the way, and that a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new black 1TB Xbox Series S in direct response to fan feedback. It's a beautiful hardware update, and one th🌱at directly answers concerns about the ballooning install size of video games in the modern era.

Winning partnerships

Microsoft almost didn't need sections for third-party games, and yet somehow it just made the entire package all the stronger. Microsoft leant on its partnerships well, with Keanu Reeves popping up to showcase 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty gameplay – and that all-important release date. It wasn't quite the 'breathtaking' moment from the 2019 Xbox sജhowcase, but it had the same vibe. 

The showcase also had the full reveal of Ubisoft's new 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Wars Outlaws, the first open-world Star Wars which will be set during the time of the original trilogy – an epic trailer that teases a gameplay walkthrough to come at the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Ubisoft Forward just 24 hours later. 

But, the announcements just kept on coming. No chatter, no hyperbole, just reveal after reveal, including showings for a swathe of Persona games, a new Capcom game called Path of the Goddess, a new title from the Banner Saga devs, and an awesoꦡme-looking climbing game from the Spiritfarer dev. And that really is just to name a few. 

The Xbox Games Showcase was subli💟me, and it all hung off the successful focus on Microsoft's own games. This is a Microsoft back on form and I can't wait ꧋to see what the next 18 months mean when these games start dropping on Xbox Series X. 

Here's everything announced at the Xbox Games Showcase.

Sunday's show really was a huge, huge show. Lots of release dates, new Xbox Game Studios titles, fresh trailers, and more were packed into a little over an hour. The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Games Showcase 2023 showcased so many 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming PC Games.

But now, it's time to take a deeper look at some of those. Microsoft says the event will "offer deeper dives into what you sa💟w from Avowed, Towerborne, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom, and Microsoft Flight Simulator – Dune Ex♈pansion, as well as games from our creative partners".

You𝔍 can read up on all games🎃 at the Xbox Game Showcase below:

Xbox Games Showcase - All games announced

• Fable trailer is as bonkers 🌺as weꦫ hoped it would be
• South of Midnight is the latest game from the We Happy Few devs
• Star Wars Outlaws is Ubis🔯oft's Star Wars game, an underworld story set in the Rebellion era
• Spiritfarer dev un🎐veils next game - a Hades-style co-op action roguelike💧 for 33 players
• Payday 3 launcꦑhes 2,670 d💙ays after it was announced, and it's day one on Game Pass
• Pe♒rsona 3 Reload fans are loving the glow up - apart from one character
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查꧃询:Avowed looks like an ace Skyrim successor
• Sea of Thieves is teaming up with greatest ✨adventure game of all time
• Flight Sim 2024 announced with missions including cargo drops and rescues
• Senua's Saga: Hellbladeඣ 2 has wrapped shooting, coming next year
• Lﷺike a Dragon 8 is called Infinite Wealth, and it takes the series abroad
• Atlantic City is coming to Fallout 76
• Path of the Goddess is a creepy colorful new game from Capcom
• Forza Motorsport retu🦂rns after a six-year ab💮sence this October
• Persona Tactica coming November 17
• The Elder Scrolls Online Necrom gets new trailer ahead of June 20 release date
• Overwatch 2 Invasion kicks off Blizzard's PvE resurrect🥃ion tour in August
• Starfield gets story trailer ahead of Starfield Direct
• Jusant, Life is 🎐Strange developer's next game will see players climbing to𝐆 new heights
• Still Wakes the Deep is a new game from The Chinese Room
• Dungeons of Hinterberg is a cel-shaded, skateboarding, swordfighting adventure
• Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty trailer confirms September rele💟ase date
• Cities: Skylines 2 finally launc๊hes this October, and it's coming to Game Pass
• Metaphor Re Fantazio is a new fantasy RPG from Atlus
• Towerborne is a new game from the creators of The Banner Saga
• Clockwork Revol🍷ution is a time-bending steampunk RPG with BioSho🎃ck Infinite vibes, coming to Steam and Xbox
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:A 1TB black Xbox Sꦫeries S is on the 🌃way

But, until that time, ♓we're here in the run up to chat about what we could see at today's sh♊owcase. 

Microsoft is calling it "a huge double feature" with updates on "upcoming games from X༺box Game Studios and our incredible partners around the world". That should mean Xbox Game Studios titles, indies, and more like Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.

Good morning, to the early bird Xbox𝔍 crew! Josh West here, GamesRadar's UK Managing Editor. The Xbox Games Showcase may be a few hours away yet, but there's quite a bit that we're going to cover here this morning. There's some leaks, some early news, and plenty of speculation. Let's get into it!

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl won't be at the Xbox Games Showcase

If you had asked me on Friday what Xbox Series X console exclusive I was most excited about seeing more of at the Xbox Games Showcase, I'd have probably told you 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl. D🍃eveloper GSC Game World appears to be doing a phenomenal job reviving this🍎 legendary immersive-FPS series, and I'm desperate for more gameplay. 

Sadly, a GSC representative to confirm that Stalker 2 won't be at the Xbox Games Showcase. In fact, it sounds like we might not see it through the E3 2023 season at all. 

A GSC Game World rep said the following, when asked whether Stalker 2 will appear at the Xbox c♍onference today. 

"We usually do not announce or deny our participation in shows, but this one time we'll make an exception. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will miss the June online conferences preferring to make imp💦ortant announcements in the upcoming months. Our plan is to give progressive updates on what𓆉 we’re planning."

That's certainly a shame but, given the difficult conditions that the game are being deve🤡loped under, I'm glad that the developers at GSC are working to th🐭eir own schedule to deliver something they can all be proud of. 

One reason that it's so difficult to predict what will actually show up at the Xbox Games Showcase is that Microsoft has a surprising amount in development. Serious🐼ly, for a platform which can't seem to shake the reputation that it has no games, there's a hell of a l💖ot going on behind the scenes. 

Xbox Game Studios is comprise🌄d over other 20 video game studios now, and by my count we only know what 10 of them are working on right now. 

Here's the full list of Xbox Game Stud𒊎ios' teams, any one of which could show up today with news or announcements. 

First-party studios who could show up at the Xbox Games Showcase

• 343 Industries
• Arkane Studios
• Bethesda Game Studios
• Compulsion Games
• Double Fine Productions
• id Software
• Inxile Entertainment
• MachineGames
• Mojang Studios
• Ninja Theory
• Obsidian Entertainment
• Playground Games
• Rare
• Roundhouse Studios
• Tango Gameworks
• The Coalition
• The Initiative
• Turn 10 Studios
• Undead Labs
• World's Edge
• ZeniMax Online

You can check out the full 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Games Studios lis🧔t here, which💎 gets into more details on which developers are operating under the Microsoft Gaming banner and what each of them are working on. 

Xbox Games Showcase predictions

Given that we're now just five hours out from the main event, maybe it's a good time to start discussing our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Games Showcase predictions in a little more depth. 

Of all the studios set to make an appearance, we have our sights se👍t on the following teams🐈 to make a real splash:

The Initiative (澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Perfect Dark)
Playground Games (Fable 4)
Obsidian Entertainment (Avowed)
The Coalition (Gears 6)
Ninja Theory (澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hellblade 2)

Will Gears 6 be announced at the Xbox Games Showcase?

My biggest question coming into the Xbox Games Showcase surrounding Gears 6. It's been over three years since the release of Gears 5 and another Locust-infused adventure i𒅌s long overdue. 

The Coalition has been busy in that time. The studio reoptimized the game in time for the launch of the Xbox Series X, and helped get Gears Tactics out the door... but we know it's been working behind the scenes on getting to grips w🐠ith Unreal Engine 5.

In fact, The Coalition has quickly become one of the developers leading development of Unreal Engine 5 games – both internally at Microsoft and externally, having collaborated with Epic Games on the stunning 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Matrix Awakens tech demo. The Coalition is also working with Ninja Theory on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hellblade 2 and Undead Labs on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:State of Decay 3, so I'd think it's time to see the team's expertise i🧜n action on Gears of War 6. 

How big is Microsoft going for the Xbox Games Showcase? BIG. And I mean that in a literal sense. Xbox enthusiast is attending one of the Xbox Fan Fest events in Los Angeles and posted a photo of the set-up – monstrous-sized Xbox consoles line the city streets, and they light up! The Xbox takeover o✨f LA is underway.

Back to Gears 6 for a second

What were we talking about before I got distracte🍃d by the giant Xbox consoles? Ah, that's right – Gears of War 6. Listen, I wasn't done speculating wiꦑldly. 

Like I was saying before, The Coalition is one of the industry-leading studios when it comes to Unreal Engine 5 development. You can check that video out above to see a a cinematic test demo Xbox released in 2022, a showcase of what The Coalition is a🃏lready achieving with UE5. 

I don't know about you, but there are elements of the character models, atmospheric lighting, and environmental design which scream Gears of War. While there is every chance that The ♑Coalition is working on a new IP for Xbox, it's far more likely that it will continue the adventures of Marcus, Kait, and the rest of the surviving Delta Squad. 

Here's my fi൲rst bold prediction f🅰or the day: Gears 6 is announced with a 2024 release date, revealed with a stunning UE5 in-engine cinematic. 

All gameplay, all the time

Here's an interesting detail worth no🌠ting going into the Xbox Games Showcase. Microsoft Gaming exec Aaron Greenberg has said that ""None of our first-party games in the show are full CG trailers... everything is either in-game footage, in-engine footage, or in-game footage with some cinematics.✤ Each of our trailers will be labeled so it is hopefully clear for our fans." 

• All the first-party trailers in the Xbox Games Showcase will feature in-game footage

If Microsoft can be accused of anything, it's that it has a tendency to pull the trigger a little early when it comes to announcements. I recently identified five Xbox Series X exclusives which⛦ are long overdue an update – all of which were revealed in either 2019 or 2020 with cine✅matic trailers and then never seen agai🦩n. 

It's promising to hear that Xbox is prioritizing in-game footage for the 2023 showcase, which should give us a better idea of what to expect and a better sense of how far each of ജthese first-party games are through🐎 development. 

I think we'll see a lot more of Avowed

We first caught a glimpse at Avowed at the Xbox E3 2020 conference and have been desperate for more information ever since. It's one of the key new 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Obsidian games, and is reportedly taking up the majority of the studio's time now that Grounded and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Pentiment are out the door. 

Set in the realm of Eora, Avowed is a spin-off🧜 out of the Pillars of Eternitꦅy franchise. Rather than isometric antics though, Avowed will be a full on swords and sorcery RPG, cast from a first-person perspective. 

This is my second bold prediction since ⭕I started this liveblog: I think Obsidian will show Avowed gameplay, I think it'll look like a spiritual successor to Oblivion, and I think ꧋it'll get a 2024 release window. 

A bonus sub-prediction, Obsidian won't acknowledge the existence of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Outer Worlds 2. 

Will Perfect Dark emerge from the shadows?

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about this 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Perfect Dark. Microsoft founded a brand-new studio to deliver this reboot, with The Initiative comprised of industry veterans in the action and adventure spaces. Announced in 2020, the new Perfect Dark will reportedly see Joanna Dark entering into a new AAA spyꦕ adventure to help thwart an attack on the planet's ecosystems. 

Three years of radio silence has been challenging to navigate though, especially with reports that development had stalled and the further news that Perfect Daꦆrk is being co-developed by Cry🌳stal Dynamics – the studio behind the excellent rebooted Tomb Raider g🦹ames. I expect we may see a new trailer which mixes in-engine cinematics and direct-feed🐬 gameplay, although a release date may still be a little ways away.  

Will we finally see Fable?

There's a lot of rumors out there suggesting that we will get a big Fable reveal at the Xbox Gaꦇmes Showcase. I think part of that is certainly wishful thinking – it's been 13 years since the release of Fable 3, and a new installment to Xbox's iconic RPG s🐟eries is long overdue. 

But there is groundswell thanks to a glitter-෴filled༺ tease from the Xbox social accounts in recent weeks. 

It's been three years since the reveal of this Fable reboot, in development at the Forza Horizon studio Playground Games.𓆏 So, do I think a Fable gameplay reꦰveal is possible at today's Showcase? 

Not only do I think it's possible, I think it's highly likely that Fable will finally be revealed to the world. My third big prediction is that the Xbox Games Showcase will close with Fabl𝓰e𝔉 gameplay, a title reveal, and a release window. 

An update on Stalker 2

A reminder just in case you're only just joining us, developer GSC Game World has confirmed 🌠that Stalker 2 won't be at the ꦺXbox Games Showcase. While 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Stalker 2 is undoubtedly one of the biggest 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games, the studio says it wa﷽nts to focus on development and deliver updates at its own pace. 

Expect to see more Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

I think it's fairly reasonable to expect to see Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty at the Xbox Games Showcase. The price and p🍰re-order details of the expansion leaked recently and, given that CDPR skipped Sum♉mer Game Fest, it seems reasonable to predict that we'll get a new look at the game in action and launch details today. 

Whether Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves ꦯwill appear alongside Phil Spencer remains to be seen though. (We can dream though... yes, we can dream)

It's time for another prediction

While we know what a lot of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Games Studios teams are working, few have been as under the radar as Compulsion Games. T🔯hey were acquired in 2018 alongside InXile Entertainment, Ninja Theory, and Obsidian. 

We know that Ninja Theory is working on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hellblade 2 and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Project Mara. We know that Obsidian is working on Avowed and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Outer Worlds 2, having already released 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Pentiment and Grounded. But what is Compuls𒀰ion doing? That, my friends, is a mystery. 

It's been five years since the release of We Happy Few, so I think it's time for another bold prediction: Compulsion will reveal a new IP thꦡat's full of immersive-sim sensibilities and equipped with a🌊 distinctive artstyle – oh, and it'll release this year too.

As much as I'd love to see something new from Double Fine and InXile Entertainment, both teams have only just pushed massive games out the door – Psychonauts 2 (🙈2021) and Wasteland 3 (2020), respectively – so I wonder whether it'll be too soon for them to share details. Especially if Microsoft sticks to its guns on not showing cinematic trailers. 

60 Minutes To Go!

Here we go! We're into the f🔥inal stretch now, folks. The Xbox Games Showcase start time is: 10AM PDT time / 1PM ET time / 6PM BST time /7PM CET time. 

You can watch the Xbox Games ꦉShowcase here with us live, or you can head over to the official Xbox ಌ or channels. 

It's Sam here now, ready to take the reins ahead of the Xbox Games Showcase in an 🍸hour. *wave*

Josh has left us in an interesting place with Senua's little face peeking out. It's been a year since 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 gameplay demoed at the Game Awards 2021. It was an epic trailer, with ultra-photoreaℱlistic faces, and the usual demonic sheen.

We've only seen a little of the game since, with a small🎐 demo of the Unreal Engine 5 tech in action back at GDC in February. The game is definitely overdue a release date, as it was first announced back in 2019. 

Is it me or does that feel like a decade ago?

Just 20 minuteꦗs to go friends! We're rewatchin🐼g old trailers in prep!

Other Xbox games that could make an appearance include some of the 2021 reveals like Contraband, or other games like⛎ Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, or even wild cards like Machine Games' Indiana Jones project.

Just a few minutes to go now folks! What are w💖e goi🐷ng to see first?

Don't forget you can tune in via the official Xbox  channel, over on the X🅷box  stream

And we're off!

FAAAAABLE

Omg Richard A𓆏yoade is in the game and som🎃eone's called him a wanker. This is brilliantly British

WAFTERS

"This is the age of innovation"

Wait are they wooden glasses?

And he's a giant. Of course he is. H💮e's ಞa bloody boss fight.

That was such a vibe.

No releas𝔍e date though. Sad face, but that looked amazing.

Compulsion Games up now, with som🎃ething new. We've got some serious blues in the bayou going on now.

Fable pics for you there.

Compulsion is the studio behind We Happy Few. And we've got a black hero for this one, with her weilding some kind of magic powers in a ga✨me called Southꩲ of Midnight.

Star Wars games from LucasFilm up now, and looks like it's set dur🏅ing the original trilogy

Lil' guy alert right there. Like a furry axol☂otl  

Female hero in this one too🀅,💖 with some serious mullet hair going on.

Star Wars Outlaws!

Coming 2024 to Xbox Series X - ah this is the Ubis🦹oft one. More to come at the Ubisoft Forward tomorrow. A gameplay walkthrough specifically. 

Thunder Lotus is up now and it's ﷽another world premiere. Going back ꦚto their combat roots apparently.

This is 33 Immorta💟ls i✤s a top-down, co-op, action rouge-like. 33 player co-op

"Face the wrath of God"

Coming 2024 to Xbox Series X and Game Pass.

PayDay 3 up now

Looks ut🌜terly chaotic as you'd expect, with lots of guns, explosions, and silly clown masks.

Persona 3 Reload coming 2024

Obsidian Entertainment... is this Avowed?

Something ꧑is corrupting souls - we can see a bear riddled with ♌mushrooms for example

Here comes the magic. Turning someone 💞to ice and hitting them with an ac♛e, or vines coming out of the ground. Elemental magic?

Forge your destiny - is the tagline

Coming 2024. It is Avowed

Legend of Monkey Island and Sea of Thieves crossover confirmed! This is so cool seeing Guybrush Threepwo☂od in the Sea of Thieves 𓃲art style.

This is going to be the ul꧂timate adventure isn't it!

A new original story for free on July 20!

Asobo Studio with the next gen of Flight Simulator now. Aerial firefighting coming to Flight Sim. Helicopter cargo transport. Air ambulance and agricultural work. Moutain rescue, skydive aviations, aerial construction, industrial cargo transport, remote cargo drops, VIP charter services, and air racing. Flider pilot, scientific research, experimental flight, transport services, hot air balloon trips... ho 🐻boyꦚ.

All of that coming to Flight Sim in 2024. Genuinely couldn൩'t type fast eno🌜ugh.

Dun𒁏e bug ship thing also coming to Flight Sim on November.

I'm also not sure if that ෴was a whole new Flight Sim back there. 

Melina here⛄ - the actress behind Senua. Hellblade 2 comin𝔍g up now

All captured on Xbox Series X. 

Apparently the game has just fꦫinished shooting, so guessing not a release date today then

Senua's crawling through a really small gap and the voice🃏s ar𓄧e ringing in her ears.

"wisdom has a price"

"can feel♔ the lost ones everywhere. they're watching us"

The world is contorting around her, pulsating. Unclear what's happening𒁃 but it&🦄apos;s creeeeeeepy.

"all the grief, all the rage, all the fear"

Everything's she done ꦜhas led her to this p🅷lace. 

Coming 2024.

Yakzua Like a Dragon and I🌼chi is face-down on the beach and completওely naked. Sure.

There's a lot covering his modesty ri🀅ght now. And he's in th♐e US?

Coming 2024.

Fallout 76 update now. 

15 million Fallout 76 players now! That&a🐓pos;s a lot of vault dwellers.

Atlantic City coming soon to Fallout 76.

Capcom up now... tentacles in the sky 𒅌and hands g༒rabbing Japanese shrines.

How is this as creepy as it is pretty? Creepy hands turn 𝕴to plants in the daylight.

Onimusha?

Path of the Goddess, coming to Xbox Series X and day one on Game Pass. No date on that one thoug💜h.

Some General Motors c🦂ars coming to Forza Motorsport.

I'll admit,🃏 I missed the name and have very little idea about 💎cars beyond VW and Audis 

Forza Motorsport coming October 10. 

Bethesda presenting now...

Elder Scrolls Onl💟ine rath🐈er than anything new, got overexcited then!

Elder Scrolls Online Necrom🦂 com𝓰ing June 20. Old info but a good reminder.

Overwatch 2 - new game m𓂃ode called Flashpoint coming, hero mastery too. There's also a♛ co-op event inbound, a firing range, story missions too. 

August 10 for that drop.

New heroes start pack too.

Atlus with more Persona now.

One of our team ha💝s just said: "Chibi Ryuji, I love you"

Persona Tactica PST coming November 17, 2023.

Wait, wait we're onto Starfieldও 🅰now? Surely they'd say if we were onto the Direct now?

Or is this just a fancy new trailer?

No just the story trailer and then Starfield Direct trailer. Reౠconfi⛄rmation of the September 6 release date.

Good cape ꦗon this next world premiere. Another lil&ap🌟os; guy in its backpack too.

Lil' guy can make plants grow with a squeak as you climb. It's a🌸 Dontnod game - this studio is really pushing into different genres.

Jusant. Coming fall 2023. 

Still Wakes the Deep coming early 2024.

Day one with Game Pass.

Colourful skateboarding swordfig🎃hting game. Was th🎃at sword called Paper Cut 2.0? Nice.

Dungeons of Hinterberg, coming 2024 to Xboxꩲ Series X and day one🤡 Game Pass.

Omg Keanu's here. YOU'RE BREATHTAKING>

KEANU SAYS CHECK IT OUT

We're goiꦅng down to Dogtown for this one and we'll be rescuing the president of the New United States.

This is like Mission Impossible in here.

Giant robot hunting V down.

Is there talk of a cure for V here? Sorry for the Cyberpunk spoܫilers friend🧸s.

September 26, 2023! That's SOON

That looked epic. 

Cities Skylines 2? Two Sam games back to b🀅ack, this is a lot f🐭or me folks.

Ho boy I am NERDING out here. Those bridges, the w🌳eather. It&ap𝓀os;s huuuuuuuge.

October 24 release date.

More Pers🦩ona happening now but let's just circle back for some Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty screenshots of Idris in Action.

Metaphor de Fantazio coming 2024.

Xbox Game Sꦍtudios now from the creators of the𒆙 Banner Saga.

This looks amazing. Towerborne - coming 2024.

Inxile Entertainment up now.

Steampunk town, some kind of rebellion going on.

Leader of the town seemingly hunting you down?

"Change the past" and "control the future"

Clockwork Revolution "coming i💙n due t༒ime" - fair enough

Oh hello Phil Spencer. What's the t-shirt todꦜay?

On consoles:

Significantly increased supply of Xbox Series X. 

More storage for Xbox Series S... and it's a black Series S now with a 1TB SSD. Noic♓e.

$349 for price and it's coming September 1.

That's a sexy S

And now we're over to the Starfield Direct. 

Head over to Josh on the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Starfield Direct live blog and we'll wrap up everyth♒ing from the Xbox Games Sho🃏wcase here!

Morning! We're back to document all of the fallout from last night's Xbox Game Showcase - and there's a lᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚot of it to cover.

First up, however, is big Phil Spencer talking about the state of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Activision deal. Speaking at an event in LA, Spencer said that he remained𒆙 "confident" th🔥at the deal would go through, stating that Microsoft is working closely with regulators to help get it over t🃏he line.

From Phil Spencer, we turn to Avowed. Long-billed as a Skyrim successor, Avowed isn't actua💧lly aiming to take Bethesda's crown.

Speaking to our friends at PC Gamer, CEO Feargus Urquhart said that his team was trying to create something quintessentially Obsidian, ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚand that might mean sacrificing  size:

"We could go off and create an 8km x 8km open world and then deal with all the consequences of that - because that makes it a different style game [...] we wa𝕴nt  to tell more confined stories that the player c💝an experience with their companions, and then move from part of the world to part of the world. And, like I said, in the end, that's us."

Okay folks, let'♑s do this one more time as the Xbox Games Showcase Extended is about to b꧑egin! Sam's back with you for one last showcase :)

This follow-up showca✨se will offer up some deeper dives into just some of the game🌊s we saw on Sunday.

According to Microsoft, we're going to hear more about Avowed, Towerborne, Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom, and Microsoft Flight Simulator – Dune Expansion. 

I&apoౠs;m personally sad not to see Fable in that list, but learning more about Avowed in particular has piqued my in💮terest. 

Interestingly, Microsoft al🧜so teased that we will get some new on other games that didn't feature in Sunday's showcase, alongside "in-depth interviews, behind-the-scenes features, gameplay walkthroughs with brand new footageꦓ, and more"

"And you may even see some very specia𒁃l guests show up, perhaps even one celebrity…", Microsoft goes on to tease. Who could that be? We already got Keanu Reeves in the Sunday extravaganza, so who could this be?

Just 10 minutes to go now folks. I hav🙈e snacks, d💃o you?

It's also worth noting that there is a Forza Monthly presentation in an hour too. "Join us for a special June 2023 edition of Forza Monthly... Forza Motorsport Creative Director Chris Esaki will premiere a gameplay demo of Forza Motorsport’s all-new career mode, Builders Cup, and share more details on the upcoming game. You’ll also hear from Playg💞round Games on the return of Donut Media (@Donut) in the Upgrade Heroes series update for Forza Horizon 5, community race organizer @RacingHaven on their upcoming offseason plans, and more!" 

But right now, it'🃏s time for tಌhe Xbox Games Showcase Extended.

One minute!

Gotta love Tina Amini's Xbox nails. 

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty up first! 

We🍌're having a waไlk around Block Market in Dogtown

Block Market is a place you can find 🌠new weapons and goods, and they're some of the most deadly 🥃in the world. 

New abilities available here too, like air dash. 

Or the𒉰 option to change your appearance to lose your heat! 

𒉰CD Projekt Red has overhauled the police actions too, so you ma♎y well need it.

Keanu Reeves is the celebrity!

"Night City has levels to it, and I think Dogtown is going to a darker plac💫e. It's dystopian, it has a tension to it, an undercurrent of st🥂ruggle. Shit's gone down," says Keanu.

Colon🌳el Kurt Hansen seems to be our big bad in this🌱 DLC then, eh? 

"Johnny's just 🐠looking for a fair shot", say💯s Keanu. "I've got some great speeches."

Did Keanu just double bird us? I'll take it.

O💖n Solomon Reed vs Johnny Silverhand. Solomon's trying to reclaim his life, just like Johnny. "It might start as revenge, and it might end in revenge."

On Phantom Liberty as a spy thriller. It's a scaven♛ger hunt of information. There's double crossing. A question of what's true and what's fiction. 

Tina Amini is a "good egg" according to Keanu.

High on Life DLC is clearly going to be v🐼ery very weird if this footage is anything toဣ go by.

High on Knife - coming soon.

The L🔥amplights League and the Tow𝄹ers at the End of the World coming October 3.

Carrie Patel, game director on Avowed, now up!

Avowed has returning characters ✅from Deadfire in particular for people who have played Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2. 

We're still in Eora too.

Couple of companions there 🐲confirmed - Kai the battlehardened ꧃being one.

Not a Watcher this time, but you d𒈔o have a connection to the world. 

On the plague - it's devouring the living lands, and it's part of your mission to investigate it a⛦nd stop it. 

You can play someone who is more magically atuned, or just go pure combat. You can choose the playstyle you want. They want it 💯t🍬o feel dynamic.

Dual-weilding pistols confirmed.

How big is it - roughly comparabl🌠e to The Outer ꦜWorlds or Knights of the Old Republic 2.

The First Descent from Nexon Games up now. A new Unreal Engine fr🤡ee-to-play game with a badaꦜss bunny-inspired armor set.

Th🎃is is certainly not a game I'm familiar with but there's customization and revisions to the grapple hook coming based on player feedback.

Launch expected this year, and♔ crossplay beta test this Augus✅t.

Towerborne u🐬p now, from the makers of The Banner Saga. It's a co-op game and everyone's working through the worldmap together. 

The Belfrey i꧃s your base. The game is a mix of 2D and 3D. 

It's aཧll about humanity's last chance at survival. It's your mission to hold the forces of darkness at bay.

Adding another player "ampl🍃ified" 🉐the fun in Towerborne. 

It's a seasonal game, so expect new stories with♕ new quests, expanding in a natural, organic way.

You can join the ins﷽ider pr🅺ogram today for Towerborne.

Two new public events coming to Fallout 76. 

Fallout 76: Once in a Blue Moon coming June 20.

Free to play update.

The Blu💯e Moon has risen oven Appalachia, including new cryptids. 

Two new public events to giv�﷽�e you the option to earn new rewards. 

And of course,𒐪 Atlantic City is coming soon, as was announced onꦜ Sunday.

Two new game modes coming to Hi-Fi Rush, including Arcade challenge mode and a new Rhythm Tower. So a h🐠orde mode?

New costumes, t-shirts, and more too.

All coming July 5.

John Johannes gam🍌e directo♐r for Hi-Fi Rush here now. 

Everything in this mode is unlocke🅘d by finishing the ga🌳me. 

BPM Rush Mode,ꦫ Power Up Tower Up - the two new mo꧙des.

Five new original songs, two new enemies. 

BPM Rush - Hi-Fi Rushꩲ's take on a♋ turbo mode. 

200BPM max but they'll ease you in. 

Power Up Tower Up - Chai starts off dow🐭ngraded and you've got to earn your power-ups back to gradually increase your stats. But, each one comes with positive and negative perks to your gameplay. 

Power-ups change per level randomly too. 

"It's a chonky update"

Zenimax🐟 now breaking down Tܫhe Elder Scrolls Online Necrom trailer.

The Daedric god of knowledge is the b🀅ig bad in Necrom. 

Some nostalgia from the Dragonborne DLC𓂃 fܫrom Skyrim with the green sky.

Arcanist class is the new one for Necrom. 

All coming June 20.

Phasmaphobia coming to consoles?

Cross platform, cross progression. 

Console Early Access August 2023.

Exoprimal up now.

Taking survey feedback into consideration to influence developmen🥃t. 

Second beta coming soon, check the website.

PvE miss﷽ions coming in new mode, that'll rotate weekly𒈔.

This is a lot of dinosaurs and guns at once. 

New mode is called Savage Gauntlet.

There will be exosuitꦓ variants, such as Deadeye and then Deadeye Alpha. Different firing modes and other di🐠fferences.

Plans to regularly update𒀰 the game after it launches with new seasons of content. 

July 14 is the release date for Exoprimal.

ID@Xbox&aಞpos;s Developer Acceleration Program titles up now.

ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ꧋⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚLots of great games in here, including Botany Manor, Despelote, Stray Gods.

Flight Simulator up n♋ow - sadly not for Flight Sim 2024 but the Dune DLC.

Woah, actual Dune ornithopters!

Partnership started in discussions back in 2021! 

Flight Sim has gone full sci-fi with br🎃inging these 🐼to life.

Ea🥃ch blade for the ornithopters has individual controls and thrust.

Secret mission hidden somewhere! 

Pinball-inspired combat game?

Go Mecha Ball coming 2024. 

Oh hey Lies of P. Anyone played the demo yet?

You can create your own weapon by combi💞ning blades and handles. 

Each blade and handle has its own Fable art. 

I'm sorry... the P ORGAN?

It's your way to upgrade Pinocchio, but ho b🗹oy that's quite a choice of terminology there isn't it.

Hellblade 2 - here's Will Potter, social m🦹edia for Ninja Theory. 

At the point in the game we 💜🎶saw at the showcase, Senua's at her lowest point and here she needs to find a spark of hope to go on.

Ninja Theoryꦦ's mo-cap tech has improved A LOT.

"What we want is the be🌞st performance possible", "the best fidelity". 

OMG this rig they've made for th𒆙e boat to mimic the motion is mad!

You can watch the full version of that developer diary on ꦏYouTube and I am totally going 😼to.

There it is!

It feels like this is drawing to a close now doesn't it. Just giving me e♍vent FOMO.

Oh wait, we're stꦺill going. This is Lightyear Frontier, the mech farming game with 🎃co-op support.

"coming early 2024".

10 new indie games coming to Game Pass

Another Crab's Treasure, Little City, Big City, Techtonica, Sea of Stars, Harold Halibut, Galacticare, Neon White, Mineko's Night Market, The Book Walker, and🤡 The Wandering Village.

33 Immortals from Thunder Lot❀us up now. The mad game with 33-player co-op. 

This is a live demo. 

Each section has 33 chapters... I think🦩 they like that number. Didn't even have enough people in the studio to fill out all 33 slots!

LOL

"As you can see, this is not Spiritfarer".

This does look very cool, very stylish. 

"Cooperate so tha🧔t the biggest strongest group survives to take o🦩n the final boss"

And that's a wrap! Thanks for c🔯oming back to join live with us folks!