Posted by First and foremost, I’m not going to be covering everything that Xbox showed off in their conference. Xbox showed off 60 games as well as a host of other things, and I would be here all day if I went into detail on everything. Because of that, I’m just going to highlight some of the games that really stood out to me.
The Outer World was the first game that Xbox showed off at E3 and a few things immediately stood out to me. The game looks to be a sci-fi FPS RPG where your choices actually matter. The trailer implied that you could either play as a good hero, an evil villain, or something in between. That prospect really excites, because games rarely seem to let you do this. Plenty of games give you choices, but many of them are rather notorious for those choices not actually mattering or having a real impact on the story. If The Outer World really lets you play with whatever alignment you want and make whatever choices you want, then I’m excited.
The next game that was shown off was Bleeding Edge and it seems interesting. Bleeding Edge looks to be a 4v4 multiplayer game where players choose between different heroes and fight, much like Overwatch or Team Fortress 2. The game looks interesting enough, and the fact that it is made by Ninja Theory–the people behind Devil May Cry–assures me that the combat will be top notch.
I’ve never played any of the Ori games, but the newest one–Ori and the Will of the Wisps— looks pretty good. The game has an absolutely beautiful art style and gameplay looks to be pretty smooth and fast paced.
Minecraft Dungeons took me by complete surprise. Imagine a dungeon crawler like Diablo, but in Minecraft. The game really intrigues me, primarily because of the new enemy types and weapons that appear. This in turn makes me wonder if some of those things will eventually be brought to Minecraft proper. The other great thing about Minecraft Dungeons is that it encourages co-op, which in my book is always a good thing.
I’m already excited for Jedi: Fallen Order, mostly because it’s Respawn entertainment (an incredibly competent studio) making a Star Wars game. However, the trailer showed off by Xbox at E3 looks promising since it seemed to show off vehicular, primarily AT-AT, combat, and if there’s one thing I enjoy doing in video games, it’s piloting giant and destructive vehicles. Another interesting point shown in the trailer is that the protagonist will meet up with Saw Gerrera, so I’m excited to see what this game does for the main canon of Star Wars.
I don’t really play horror games, but the one that Xbox showed off at E3 looked good enough. Blair Witch seems somewhat similar to the Outlast games, but again this genre of games is pretty foreign to me. Either way, Blair Witch appears to be a promising psychological horror thriller.
I had heard about Cyberpunk 2077 before, but I had kinda forgotten about it until yesterday. After seeing it at the Xbox conference, I know for a fact that I’ll be getting the game. I also know for a fact that the game will be great for two reasons. The first reason is that the game is being made by CD Projekt Red, who are the same people behind the critically acclaimed The Witcher 3. The second reason is that the game will feature Keanu Reeves, who actually appeared at E3 to talk a little bit about the cyberpunk FPS RPG. Cyberpunk 2077 is definitely a game to keep an eye on, because I for one expect great things from it.
Spiritfarer looks like a cute little indie game that I’m sure some people will love, even if it personally doesn’t appeal to me a whole lot. It looks to be the kind of game similar to Animal Crossing in the sense that you can build and upgrade your town while caring for your friends, but again, these games don’t really appeal to me so I don’t have a whole lot to say.
Xbox is also reviving the classic Battletoads series with a brand new beat ’em up game. The game will also feature vehicle sections which may or may not be easier than the vehicle sections in the original game. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if this game is wickedly difficult much in the vein of the original.
RPG TIME: The Legend of Wright is the last formal game that I will be addressing today, and frankly, I don’t know what all to say to about the game. In the trailer, I honestly had a difficult time telling if what was shown was gameplay or just cutscenes. However, one major thing did shine through: personality. The game has a unique personality and an even more unique art style. The game’s art style includes hand drawn sketches and a very unique HUD/UI. Overall, even if the gameplay itself falls a little flat, I think that the unique art style will be enough to make up for this shortcoming.
The final thing I will address today is the new changes being made to Xbox Game Pass. Game Pass is now being brought to PC, and accompanying it is a host of new games. While many of these games were quickly shown in brief clips, the two biggest ones that stood out to me were a Lord of the Rings card game similar to Hearthstone and Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, which I for one am excited to (hopefully) play on my Xbox.
I will continue my rundown of Xbox’s E3 conference, as well as Bethesda’s, throughout the week.
Broad Scope Entertainment 