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Summer Game Fest has wrapped up, and what a spectacle it was this 12 months! There’s nonetheless lots of thrilling stuff to debate from the occasion over the subsequent few weeks, however what precisely did Pure Xbox rise up to whereas we have been residing it massive within the LA solar?
Nicely, “residing it massive” may be a little bit of an exaggeration. It was extra like sweatily operating forwards and backwards from preview to preview, attempting our greatest to soak up as many particulars as doable about probably the most anticipated video games coming to Xbox over the subsequent few years.
To share our expertise, we have compiled an inventory of all of the games coming to Xbox that we bought to check out throughout Summer time Sport Fest’s Play Days. Let’s go!
Be aware: We’ll be updating this listing with all of our Summer time Sport Fest 2024 protection because it’s printed, so keep tuned!
Afterlove EP (October 2024)
Afterlove EP is a love letter to its creator, the late Mohammad Fahmi (the guts behind Coffee Talk). After such a profound loss, the way forward for Afterlove EP was unsure. Nonetheless the staff at Pikselnesia is continuous to develop the sport in honour of their buddy..
Afterlove EP is a visible novel centred round a younger man mourning shedding his girlfriend. He’s neglecting his well being, his band ‘Sigmund Feud’, and is in clear want of assist. While we’d love to achieve into the display screen and provides him a cuddle, we expect he’ll be okay. Why? As a result of his girlfriend returns in spirit kind to assist information him by means of his grief.
We didn’t get to play an excessive amount of of Afterlove EP at Summer time Sport Fest, partly as a result of it’s tremendous text-heavy. We have been complimented by the rep internet hosting the Play Days sales space for “really studying” the dialogue although, which we’re clearly fairly smug about. What we did handle to sit down down with was filled with coronary heart, superbly illustrated, and accompanied by a beautiful soundtrack. We’re wanting ahead to taking part in extra. And to additionally cry. Rather a lot.
Black Myth: Wukong (Xbox TBD)
Black Myth: Wukong was the final cease on our Play Days tour – and our favorite! It actually stings that it received’t be launched on Xbox at launch, however we hope it’ll be with us quickly after.
Let’s be actual: the two-hour-long Black Delusion: Wukong demo we bought hands-on with was phenomenal. The steadiness between motion RPG and soulslike was completely balanced, and we felt epic taking over a number of boss fights. The motion is relentless, punchy, and fairly frankly attractive.
Issues get a bit extra fascinating the place Wukong’s stances are involved as they alter his moveset. Throughout our demo, we managed to pattern two of the three stances on supply. We started in ‘Smash’ stance: a fast mixture of strikes that reward you for being aggressive by increase a spotlight meter to tug off heavy assaults. The second stance was made obtainable to us as soon as Wukong reached degree 5. We’d like to think about the ‘Pillar’ stance because the antagonising, cheeky sh** moveset. In ‘Pillar’ stance, Wukong sits atop his employees. If you happen to’re capable of maintain this place and construct your focus meter, the employees will get longer, and longer, and looonger. This goads his enemies into vary earlier than unleashing a mega floor slam assault, virtually one-tapping anybody caught below his employees. ‘Pillar’ was our favorite stance. We discovered ourselves guffawing as we squared as much as foes perched safely atop our 20ft tall longstaff like some kind of immovable, heckling, arsehat.
Wish to know extra? You possibly can take a look at our Black Myth: Wukong hands on preview elsewhere on Pure Xbox:
DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO (October 8, 2024)
Of all of the video games proven throughout Summer time Sport Fest’s Play Days, DRAGON BALL: Sparkling! ZERO had one of many largest crowd reactions. We heard followers and journalists virtually roaring with pleasure throughout the campus in anticipation of the long-awaited follow-up to the Budokai Tenkaichi sequence.
DRAGON BALL: Glowing! ZERO made us really feel answerable for the much-beloved franchise. In Story Battle, we noticed glimpses into alternate paths the anime might have taken. For instance, ever questioned what would’ve occurred if Goku fought Raditz alone with out Piccolo’s assist? OoOoO, spicy. We additionally performed quite a lot of buyer matches each as and towards iconic characters from throughout the sequence. Our favorite was taking part in as Nice Ape Vegeta towards a helpless Krillin – leading to us mercilessly smashing him by means of a totally destructible metropolis.
Though we weren’t too fussed, we’re constructive followers of this storied combating franchise will likely be consuming good with this one.
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (TBD 2025)
If there’s a style of sport to reveal this author as a “faux gamer” then boy-oh-boy is it this one. The Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves PR of us have been very variety to us as we fumbled by means of a 30-minute hands-on session with the combating sport. It meant we have been capable of depart feeling completely happy reasonably than hideously embarrassed.
We’ll double down by saying that this author is not any knowledgeable with regards to combating video games… however listening to the group response throughout Deadly Fury’s trailer was actually a memorable one. You combating followers are hardcore, and we find it irresistible!
Throughout our time with the sport, we have been capable of pattern two new characters: Preecha and Vox Reaper. Our favorite was Preecha – and we whacked absolutely the willies out of Terry, Rock, and Marco. Trustworthy, we did!*
(*As a result of we used the brand new ‘Good Model’, which is virtually stabilisers for poor fighters like Craig.)
Fear the Spotlight (Fall 2024)
Summer time Sport Fest’s opening showcase might not have struck a chord with all of us, however we have been very impressed by Blumhouse Video games’ upcoming assortment. Regardless of having 27 million units of eyeballs watching because the curtains gave method to premiere Fear the Spotlight, we are able to confidently say they’d nothing to worry. Us, nevertheless… nicely, that’s a special story.
Feeling considerably courageous, we sat down with Concern the Highlight for roughly half-hour. We performed as Vivienna, a highschooler and bookworm who breaks into her college with insurgent finest pal Amy to carry out a seance – wHaT cOuLd pOsSiBLy gO wRoNg?
We don’t need to spoil the enjoyable, however what we’ll say is the 90s tropes, VHS aesthetic, and Silent Hill-style puzzles are a superbly blended mixture. Concern the Highlight avoids the entire old-school controller jank too. Oh, and most significantly, there was a second within the demo that legitimately made us soar out of our pores and skin. You’ve been warned!
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (July 19, 2024)
We weren’t capable of play as a lot of Xbox Sport Cross’s Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess as we’d have favored at Summer time Sport Fest (see: standing sales space, jelly legs, LA warmth). That being mentioned, it actually made an impression.
Beneath its flamboyant colors and extravagance, Capcom’s upcoming action-strategy Kunitsu-Gami performs extra carefully to a hero tower-defense sport. You play as Soh, a sword-wielding protector of the Maiden of the Mountain. The Maiden’s major mission is to cleanse demons from the world… by means of dance!
Mainly: through the day you arrange your defences by inserting villagers in fast hazard and transfer your dancing princess towards a cursed Torii gate. At night time, this Torii gate spawns monsters in waves. Your mission is to slay ‘em all with the help of your villager items. When the day comes round once more, you’ll be able to transfer your completely happy dancer to the gate and cleanse that sucker. If solely all of life’s issues might be solved with just a little jig. Sigh.
Marvel Rivals (Xbox Beta In July 2024)
Marvel Rivals attracts a typical comparability to hero-shooter Overwatch 2, and for good purpose. We have been large followers of the unique Overwatch again within the day, however not a lot fascinated with its newest choices, discovering the entire thing boring if we’re being fully sincere. Seems, the hero-shooter format isn’t as stale as we thought as a result of from what we performed of a PC construct of Marvel Rivals, this might nicely be the style’s finest probability to remain related.
Marvel Rivals seems to be and feels epic. With 21 playable characters spanning a number of Marvel IPs, the roster is unquestionably one thing to be enthusiastic about. To not point out, NetEase have carried out a stellar job making everybody a bit scorching. Yeah, Marvel Rivals has bought the stuff.
We managed to play a few rounds with and towards different user-controlled gamers, taking management of characters akin to The Punisher, Starlord, Magik and even Magneto, all of which have been satisfying to regulate. While we do suppose a few of the characters are barely extra overpowered than others, general the sport ran clean and felt aggressive.
Metaphor: Refantazio might nicely be one thing particular, and never completely for followers of Shin Megami Tensei or Persona both. We parked our butt down within the SEGA/ATLUS tent for a formidable hour lengthy demo of Metaphor: ReFantazio alongside our colleagues Zion and Alana from Nintendo Life.
The format of our demo was break up into three sections that roughly took quarter-hour to finish. Craig being Craig, nevertheless, needed to soak up each little element of this demo as he might, and took benefit of the complete hour.
We had a style of Metaphor’s dungeon crawling and battles first. Instantly, the real-time fight felt like a pure evolution for most of these video games, constructing on what Persona 3 Reload boasts. We picked a good few fights on this real-time situation, hitting our prey a couple of occasions earlier than they turned shocked and prepared for us to complete the creatures off in turn-based battles. Metaphor: ReFantazio introduces an motion cap on what number of strikes you may make per flip, as an alternative of the standard ‘everybody will get a go’ model fight. It undoubtedly modified issues up, and while HP/MP and all that jazz continues to be the identical, deciding who will assault this flip did make for an fascinating dynamic.
We might go on to inform you all the pieces that’s new and completely different in Metaphor: ReFantazio, and we’ll in due time, however to maintain issues comparatively temporary; we discovered the sport to be wholly acquainted however contemporary in additional methods than the one. We’re large followers of how the sport portrays a actuality just like ours as fantasy, and compares the magical realm of Metaphor to plain residing. Oh, and going to the bathroom within the sport elevated our luck. Now that was a enjoyable callback.
Neva (TBD 2024)
We didn’t have ‘crying at Summer time Sport Fest’ on our bingo card this 12 months. However truthfully, what did we expect was going to occur after we stepped foot into Devolver’s Neva sales space? As big followers of Nomada Studios’ inaugural GRIS, Neva was up there as one in every of our most anticipated video games to play throughout SGF Play Days. GRIS had us in tears from begin to end, making an enduring impression on us, and it appears like Neva is prone to do the identical.
Earlier than we took management of putting red-caped wolf-mummy Alba, an prolonged model of that coronary heart wrenching reveal trailer set the temper. And for 45 minutes we have been going to make rattling positive that our candy child Neva was going to be the most secure wolf pup in the entire land.
What we favored was that is clearly a narrative in regards to the wolf, Neva, and never a lot Alba. She already begins the sport with all of her talents, like a double soar and competence in battle. On this manner, Neva felt polished and ideal to play and blasting our manner by means of the demo felt pure and compelling.
We’d prefer to say extra about Neva, and we’ll as soon as Craig places collectively a full preview.
New World: Aeternum (September 28, 2024)
Amazon’s flagship MMO has been lurking round on PC for three years now. We have been there when it first launched in 2021, chopping bushes, shopping for homes and slaying skellies with pals in tow. New World was a good sufficient time. However because the months got here to cross, sadly, so did our curiosity within the sport. In its defence, it’s not totally New World’s fault – different video games simply got here out, and just like the magpie this author is, he noticed one thing shiny and moved on.
The Amazon sales space was our first port of name throughout Summer time Sport Fest Play Days and we’ll admit our curiosity wasn’t a lot to put in writing dwelling about. Nonetheless, as soon as we have been sitting down, controller in hand and taking part in the sport, New World: Aeternum was a very nice expertise.
As that is primarily New World relaunching itself onto console, we’re positive it’ll discover a new viewers on Xbox. The onboarding expertise has been tweaked sufficient to make New World: Aeternum really feel contemporary for returning gamers too. However our largest praise was really forgetting we initially performed New World with mouse & keyboard, and having to actively discover we have been holding a controller speaks to how thoughtfully this port has been dealt with.
Parcel Corps (September 3, 2024)
Image this; It’s a heat summer time’s day in London. Loopy Taxi and Jet Set Radio Future stumble upon one another on their method to begin their new job as an Amazon Prime supply driver. The 2 of ‘em hit it off and 24 years later out pops their love little one, Parcel Corps. Want we are saying extra?
Though we performed roughly quarter-hour of the sport attributable to a mix-up with appointments, we sat down with the sport’s creator William Barr to whack, crash and smack into oncoming visitors as in all probability the worst biking supply man on the planet. But it surely was lots of enjoyable, and William gifted us a tiny biking cap as a reward for our efforts.
Parcel Corps is a free-flowing biking sport making its method to Xbox Sequence X|S this September. While we didn’t get an excessive amount of time with the sport at Summer time Sport Fest Play Days, there may be the truth is a demo available on Steam right now.
REPLACED (TBD 2024)
REPLACED is a 2.5D action-platformer from Unhappy Cat Studios, a sport that’s been on our wishlist ever because it was introduced at E3 (RIP) in 2021. The demo we sat down with was one other break up into three sections; a cutscene heavy introduction, side-quests and mini-games, then lastly an motion packed finale.
While we have been unhappy our Xbox Sport Showcase prediction for REPLACED to obtain a correct launch date this 12 months didn’t come true, that sorrow shortly dissipated as soon as we sampled the delights tucked inside – not one, however two – 30-minute demo slots we rocked up for.
REPLACED is a gritty story following an incident that forces an A.I to take management of their creator’s physique and thoughts. At first we see R.E.A.C.H (mentioned A.I) operating from a burning constructing while in scorching pursuit by cops. The primary part felt fairly acquainted to the opening of Playdead’s INSIDE. Not in its subject material, however extra in the best way it performed out.
The fight part of the demo was actually a spotlight for us. With waves of enemies launching a mixture of assaults so that you can dodge and counter. REPLACED’s fight performs like most video games as of late, however that is to not say it made it any much less fulfilling.
We genuinely beloved what we performed, and though the sport nonetheless wants a while within the oven to iron out some kinks, it’s undoubtedly one to be enthusiastic about if most of these video games are your jam. It is also an Xbox Game Pass title!
Star Wars: Outlaws (August 30, 2024)
Alright, let’s simply get caught into Star Wars: Outlaws we could? After all, we’ve the web and have seen there’s a couple of unfavorable emotions in the direction of Ubisoft’s planet=hopping area ope’RPG (that pun labored proper? Opera + RPG…no? Okay, superb) however we’ll simply come out and say it, we favored what we performed of the sport.
We have been invited to the Belasco Lodge for a hands-on demo with Star Wars: Outlaws and though it felt cookie cutter in lots of methods, it’s a Star Wars open world sport! As large followers of the Star Wars franchise we thought it was freaking cool! We adored the soundtrack, Kay Vess is an superior lead, and we significantly loved a few foolish fuzzy rabbit-like creatures scurrying round on the ground. We’ll admit they don’t have anything to do with how good the sport is to play, however we favored them and that’s all that issues on the finish of the day.
Our demo was break up into three sections – the primary; to destroy knowledge aboard an Imperial area station. The second; to navigate our manner by means of the wreckage of an historical Excessive Republic cruiser. And the third; to infiltrate a Crimson Daybreak syndicate hideout and steal a priceless relic. We sampled a style of stealth, hectic fight, outer area canine combating (the ship variety), and the platforming facets of the sport.
For probably the most half, it was serviceable with acquainted gameplay tropes like an lively reload on weapons, its personal tackle Red Dead Redemption’s Lifeless Eye capability, and a helpful merqaa companion in Nix. We did have a problem with the tough edges surrounding its platforming, nevertheless it was enjoyable. Ubisoft have been serving this bizarre ‘blue milk’ as a part of the entire expertise, perhaps there was one thing in it, we don’t know, however we discovered the sport fairly fulfilling.
SteamWorld Heist II (August 8, 2024)
We will’t say an excessive amount of about our hands-on time with SteamWorld Heist II proper now. We can say that we’ve performed it, it’s actual, and from what we’ve seen in trailers already it seems to be actually good.
Followers of the SteamWorld franchise are positive to get a kick out of this one when it launches August eighth on Xbox Sequence X|S and Xbox One consoles (together with as a part of Xbox Game Pass!). Preserve your eye on Pure Xbox although… we’re positive we’ll say one thing…someday… soonish…perhaps.
Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of The Rings™ Game (TBD 2024)
Tales of the Shire is an upcoming cosy Hobbit sport from New Zealand developer Wētā Workshop. After we first caught wind of Tales of the Shire again in April, our first thought was how nice of an concept it was to take an present IP and develop a sport in a style it did not occupy but. Lord of the Rings has seen many titles pop up within the motion class, so we have been completely happy to listen to our Hobbit friends might reside a free and peaceable life away from battle in Tales of the Shire.
We performed a 30-minute demo of the sport and have been intrigued by how large of an emphasis it places on the Hobbits’ love for meals. While the straightforward act of operating has been changed by a gleeful skip, there’s actually no skipping second breakfast on this sport.
We conversed with the locals of Bywater village, collected contemporary elements and cooked meals for a few acquainted names. Tales of the Shire is just a splendidly peaceable method to spend your time and is one thing we’d like to do once more quickly.
The Plucky Squire (TBD 2024)
Out of all of the video games we nabbed an appointment for, All Attainable Futures’ The Plucky Squire was the sport we felt like we wanted to play throughout SGF Play Days.
The Plucky Squire oozes a degree of creativity and attraction that we not often see outdoors of nicely established franchises like Zelda, Mario, and Astro Bot. For 45 minutes we have been engaged, smiling and totally having fun with our arms on time with the upcoming household journey.
We’d be remiss to not point out that The Plucky Squire clearly attracts inspiration from the Legend of Zelda franchise, particularly ‘Zelda: A Hyperlink Between Worlds’ wherein Hyperlink was capable of slip his manner into partitions and work. Having performed by means of quite a lot of Hyperlink’s adventures ourselves, The Plucky Squire’s gameplay felt acquainted, pure and transferable.
Sounds good proper? You possibly can take a look at our Plucky Squire hands on preview elsewhere on Pure Xbox:
Which of those Summer time Sport Fest 2024 titles are you most wanting ahead to for Xbox? Inform us beneath.
