Xbox Direct January 2023

[ScramFranklin]

5 first party games shown. They have already stated Starfield won’t be there and will be getting it’s on show later on.



Whole Show:




Minecraft Legends (April 18 Launch):




Forza Motorsport (2023 Launch):





Hifi Rush (surprise announcement, tango gameworks, out today)




Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom (all previous chapters now free)




Redfall (May 2nd Release):

[ScramFranklin]

Lol so Tango Gameworks new IP is legit. Supposedly a multiplayer brawler with an art style similarly to Jet Set Radio. Guess we will see

[ScramFranklin]

They finally found a good format. They need to stick with this going forward

[OneLegSquats]

3 posts in a row, cant you just edit?
Anyways looking forward to see what changes they've made with Forza

[ScramFranklin]

3 posts in a row, cant you just edit?
Anyways looking forward to see what changes they've made with Forza

Yea I’m going to edit in the individual trailers in a bit to the OP.

[TokenV]

3 posts in a row, cant you just edit?

[freeburn]

if they don't make forza motorsport on pc vr compatible I'm going to be one salty ass bitch

[BigBallsMcgee]

Pathetic

[ScramFranklin]

Pathetic

Huh. I thought it was fairly good. Pretty diverse lineup of first party games coming in the next few months. Maybe you were expecting more but they stated from the announcement that it would only be 4 games. Hifi Rush was a surprise 5th

[OneLegSquats]

You seem upset

[mgftp]

The biggest win here is MS not having that pile of chit Forespoken.

[freeburn]

Hifi rush looks cool, hopefully the combat is fun

[JayJ350]

Xbox the best box.

[ScramFranklin]

Xbox the best box.

But you have said a few times that first party games don’t matter. This show was only first party, xbox developed games

[BigBallsMcgee]

Huh. I thought it was fairly good. Pretty diverse lineup of first party games coming in the next few months. Maybe you were expecting more but they stated from the announcement that it would only be 4 games. Hifi Rush was a surprise 5th

nothing wets my whistle. You cant seriously compare those games to sony and nintendo output. Ive yet to actually play a game on my series x and that looks to continue

[ScramFranklin]

Hifi Rush is super fun. A couple hours in now

[ScramFranklin]

nothing wets my whistle. You cant seriously compare those games to sony and nintendo output. Ive yet to actually play a game on my series x and that looks to continue

It seems like a personal thing then with regards to your taste. I just think it’s weird you call it pathetic but enjoy games that aren’t really considered good (not that that is an issue in isolation, just in combination with you coming in here with your comment).
They need more aaa games, but everything they have released the last several years had been solid.
You really haven’t played a thing on your series x? That’s definitely an obscure taste thing, as there are plenty of games better on game pass than Gotham Knights and Forspoken

[BigBallsMcgee]

I
You really haven’t played a thing on your series x? That’s definitely an obscure taste thing, as there are plenty of games better on game pass than Gotham Knights and Forspoken

Like what? And can I play it on Playstation? Because if so, thats what I did. Im talkin exclusives

[phillipsanchez]

Forza looks incredible... race cars looking like race cars.

Will have to give that cartoon rhythm game a go too.

[ScramFranklin]

Like what? And can I play it on Playstation? Because if so, thats what I did. Im talkin exclusives

Why does only first party count? And no I’m not saying first party doesn’t matter. Just that there is plenty of non-first party games on game pass that are much better than those games.

And Like literally everything first party they have released the last couple years is better than those games (again perhaps not for your taste). Pentiment, fh5, grounded, psychonauts 2, flight sim were all great. Halo dropped the ball in gaas but was good. As dusk falls is pretty good

Forza Motorsport will likely be great, as the studios previous Motorsport games were and this has 3x the development time. I’ll wait for reviews on redfall and Minecraft legends

And looks like Hifi Rush will join the list of great first party games, I’m having a blast with it.

[bongowongo]

Hi Fi Rush is pretty cool. Dont know if I will stick with it, but this is what MS needs, smaller first party titles littered throughout the year so that xcels have something to play until the big ones "come soon".

[ScramFranklin]

Hi Fi Rush is pretty cool. Dont know if I will stick with it, but this is what MS needs, smaller first party titles littered throughout the year so that xcels have something to play until the big ones "come soon".

Hifi Rush has its hooks in me. So good. Like a mix of a Rhythm game with Devil May Cry, with a cool jet set radioish art style

It’s extremely good

[ScramFranklin]

I know it’s super early on and this isn’t a real consensus and no critic reviews are out yet, but strong early impressions from users

https://imgur.com/a/r4dVlAZ

[BigBallsMcgee]

Why does only first party count? And no I’m not saying first party doesn’t matter. Just that there is plenty of non-first party games on game pass that are much better than those games.

And Like literally everything first party they have released the last couple years is better than those games (again perhaps not for your taste). Pentiment, fh5, grounded, psychonauts 2, flight sim were all great. Halo dropped the ball in gaas but was good. As dusk falls is pretty good

Forza Motorsport will likely be great, as the studios previous Motorsport games were and this has 3x the development time. I’ll wait for reviews on redfall and Minecraft legends

And looks like Hifi Rush will join the list of great first party games, I’m having a blast with it.

I played psychonauts on playstation. Grounded in theory could be up my alley but thats about it. nothing compared to sony and nintendo lineups

[phaginator]

Lmfao, is that it? Another Forza?

Holy fck at Xcels, no wonder PS5 destroys Xbawx in sales.

[TokenV]

Lmfao, is that it? Another Forza?

Holy fck at Xcels, no wonder PS5 destroys Xbawx in sales.

if something like Hifi Rush got announced by Sony you'd probably call it game of the year material

****ggot

[phaginator]

if something like Hifi Rush got announced by Sony you'd probably call it game of the year material

****ggot

Call me when Xbox actually wins a GOTY award p haggot.

[phillipsanchez]

I had a bit of time to play Hi-Fi Rush today and can confirm it's very good.

Got black keys in the intro and was super keen for a rhythm game with a killer soundtrack, but the licensed music is too few and between.
Can't say it's amazing for me, personally. I will tuck into every now and then but have no urge to smash through it.

[MustardTiger17]

PC > Switch and Nintendo 3ds > Xgayone

[nkiritsis13]

I know it's an actual pipe dream and technically impossible because it's not even the same engine, but I would love it if by some miracle and magic that they figured out a way to make TES: Online without the online to be the sort of official Beyond Skyrim.

Hi-Fi Rush is admittedly not my type of game, but it looks nice and I'm happy to both see the variety and the Jet Set Radio inspiration.

Forza, I only care about two types of racing games: Karts or Twisted Metal type.

Redfall is...hmm.

$70 or $100 deluxe
Denuvo
Pay money for 2 hErOeS (fukk, I am sick of this zoomer shooter trend alone)
Premium skins
Pre-order bonuses

The only earnest praise I can give it is that the particles and lighting look really good, but the textures are low res and it has what I am now just going to accept as being Arkane's signature uncanny, low res art style which I abhorred since the first Dishonored.

Alright - I've got coffee in me, so here it goes:

Spoiler!

After watching their, and emphasis on their, gameplay after they clarified that it wasn't a Left4Dead clone, I almost would rather it were a vampire Left4Dead clone because that was quite mediocre. Granted, I don't understand what compels Arkane to keep thinking that they can make a good shooter with their apparently continuing legacy of clunkiness. Someone at Bethesda needed to have a sit down with them a long time ago and tell them to stay in their lane and hand Death Loop and now this over to Machine Games, and hell, maybe have Arkane take a shot at the Indiana Jones title since you could probably come up with some interesting "immersive sim" elements and focus on environmental storytelling with that much better.

Alongside their own comparisons to Far Cry (why would you choose the Great Value brand of open world as a point of comparison is beyond me) and STALKER, this reminded me a bit of Borderlands, albeit with an extra chromosome in the shooting and looting department, but at least a slightly less offensive art direction, particularly because of the restricted classes hErOeS (fukk you, gen z) and emphasis on co-op. In fact, they even have a hidden, mythological, locked away, god/godlike big boss to kill at the end. Despite their faults, Borderlands 1 and 2's limited classes at least were not only distinct personality-wise - and I'd wager much more likable than a zoomer shooter's characters - but they had wildly different class trees because of the highly exaggerated, sci-fi setting.


By contrast, Redfall has four humies. One has an irritating robot that does the same thing tossing a rock could accomplish. Another has a glorified flashlight with accompanying terrible pun. I'm not even going to pretend that four regular-ass humans is ever enough to justify sectioning them off into classes hErOeS.

For Borderlands though, even that restriction seems like a bit of a product of its time seeing as how Tiny Tina's Wonderlands dropped the fixed characters for more classes that were completely customizable. From a replay standpoint alone, I like that latter approach myself, and the cynic of me can only see these companies continuing to follow the identical hErO trend because of how much easier it is to exploit for premium skins on top of paying for more. Come to think of it, I cannot think of a single one that doesn't do just that, or at least tried (e.g. Overwatch 1/2 and all the Overwatch clones, Ghost Recon Siege, Battlefield 2042, COD), and the $100 edition of Redfall is a bundle of red flags to go by leading me to think that's their intention here as well.

Tangent aside, where Redfall differs from Borderlands (and Far Cry) the most truly is in the gameplay, where at least those two are far, far more competent in the shooting department, while Redfall is notably sluggish, stiff, and lacking of any sense of weight or impact. Borderlands might be a pinata of rainbow vomit, but it sure does shoot well, but not only that, it offers a larger and more varied swathe of enemies to mow down. The combat situations they presented never increased in an appropriate level of scale, with the most effective scene arguably being the more horror-oriented encounter in the house against a lone vampire. Referring back to the Redfall hErOeS, what's the point of a distraction bot against two enemies? There's an astonishing lack of scale to the encounters, including what were supposed to be impressive boss-like ones.

Looking at the package they've presented and considering this is Arkane, frankly I would have pitched this as pretty much the opposite:

- Four/$ix separate types of vampires to play as hunting humans. At least you can run with the idea of there being multiple types of vampire "classes" with distinct abilities from one another.

- I don't know if the limited number of enemies is some sort of technical limitation (particles from magic? I have no idea what the reason is), but if it was, larger numbers of regular humans would certainly be much easier to implement (and to be blunt, probably more fun to kill). At the very least it would have been a much more unique direction that would have avoided the early interpretations of Redfall being a Left4Dead type of game.

- Given Arkane's affinity for stealth and level design, that would also allow for designing Arkane-style gameplay during the day as a vampire trying to avoid the sun and sticking to the shadows.

- At night, you would be completely free to explore the game as it is now, but now you have a mix of gameplay styles and elements that synergize better with Arkane's actual strengths, not this delusion that they're now a Bethesda shooter studio when they've got id for god's sake.

Bit of a shame because bits of it were giving me a very loose Midnight Mass impression, although I was kind of rooting for the

Spoiler!

Spoiler!

vampire

by the end in that as well. I can't say that I ever really had any hope in it because it's Arkane trying to make shooters their thing again. Maybe it will surprise, but their AI still seems rather lobotomized and if they still haven't figured out how to make guns, or just aiming the guns remotely satisfying or how to come up with a new art style that isn't ugly as sin, then I'm keeping my expectations low.

Also it's seventy dollars.