Wait what? All champions and stuff unlocked in all Riot games on Game Pass? Wait what? I guess if they are getting money from MS for everyone that plays the game on GP, then that trumps getting large lumps of money from the few whales in the standard F2P version? I dunno, this sounds way too good to be true. Although I guess it doesn't mention
cosmetics, so there probably will still be some microtransactions. Still, that's pretty bonkers if all the characters and stuff are unlocked. Wait, AND you get free XP boosts? I don't even play these games and I'm speechless that MS managed to pull this off. Wait, and that extends to the mobile versions of those games? So, I guess it checks if your account is associated with Game Pass and if it is it just unlocks those things in the mobile versions of the games? What?!?!?!
Plague Tale: Requiem looks great. I need to make time to play the first one so I can be ready for the 2nd one. Time ... I need more of it.
Forza Motorsport looks really good. Not something I'm interested in playing but looks really good and perhaps gives an indication of what improvements we might see in the next Forza Horizons game (which I will probably play). Interesting that they aren't calling it Forza Motorsport 8, but just Forza Motorsport. Vehicle damage looks really good. Interesting that they are highlighting trackside detail and not just track detail. Also, I know the RT based reflection on the vehicles is supposed to be impressive, but it's hardly noticeable compared to all of the other improvements that they have made to the game. Probably because I just don't really see it unless they slow down the game and specifically focus the camera on it.
So glad that FS2020 is still getting a lot of support. I also can't believe that every time I see new footage from the game, I still can't believe it looks as good as it does. Asobo really hit it out of the park graphically with this game.
Haha, glad to see Forza Horizon partnered with Hot Wheels again.
Nice to see Gunfire Reborn on here, I love that game. Spent way too much time in it.
The Last Case of Benedict Fox, that might be good. It at least looks thematically interesting.
Interesting, so Obsidian at least is free to make whatever they want to make, large or small it appears. Pentiment looks charming although I'm not sure it's something I'd play. I suspect this isn't something Obsidian would have greenlit if they were still an independent studio or if MS didn't have Game Pass. It's one of those games where it's difficult to convince someone to spend money on it even if it might be a great game. However, on GP, the barrier to someone just giving it a try out of curiosity is significantly lower.
On a related side note, that's one of the best things about Game Pass, IMO. It allows developers to put more focus on the gameplay while ignoring graphics for the most part. You don't
NEED flashy graphics in order to sell a game if a person doesn't need to buy a game to play it. You can instead put more of your budget and team focus onto the gameplay with graphics being secondary, tertiary, or last WRT how much attention is put towards it. IMO, that's fantastic as I feel that the past couple of generations of console gaming has put too much of a focus on graphics (because that's what sold) and as a result gameplay in the vast majority of AAA games has suffered greatly. And also allows Indie games to shine much brighter since they typically have to choose between graphics (where they are unlikely to be able to compete with AAA studios) or gameplay (where they often outshine AAA studios). But if they focus on gameplay their prospects for generating sales are unfortunately lower because you can't get a sense of how good the gameplay is from static screenshots or even videos.
I hope PS+ thus focuses on different indie developers than GP focuses on. You can't get all deserving indie developers onto one subscription service, so it'd be great if each subscription service brought in different indie developers to give indie devs greater exposure to gamers.
Anyway, back to the MS showcase.
I want Diablo IV to be good, but I just don't trust Blizzard with the franchise anymore. The graphics look nice though.
Ooh, I like the aesthetics of Ravenlok. No clue about the game itself, but I like how it looks.
Wolon looks interesting. I hope this is much better than that disappointment of a FF game that they made. Hopefully either a different team or a different development head. Interesting that Phil Spencer comes out to speak about this title. Almost as if to subtly hint that this will be better than that crappy FF game that they made.
And, hell yeah, he came out to also introduce the Persona ports to PC and Xbox.
God, I can't wait to get my hands on Persona 5 Royale.
Kojima. Wait, there's no way there's going to be a MS partnered game from Kojima within the next 12 months, is there? Also, Kojima Productions working with the teams at MS? Is there some collaboration between Kojima and one or more MS studios? Auuugh, so vague. Oooh, imagine what kind of game could be made if Kojima Productions worked with say Arkane or Tango Gameworks? Ooooooh.
Holy cow that was a long segment on Starfield, but wow, it looks and sounds impressive. Build your own space ships? Land and explore any area of any world inside of a solar system? 1000 solar systems? Space combat? It's almost like they are going back to their roots somewhat as they must be relying on procedural world building in order to have that many explorable locations. Then throw in hand built areas for the main story and possibly side stories. I'm not an open world (open universe?
) type of guy, but I might have to at least dip my toes into this when it releases.
Maybe I should have broken this up into multiple posts.
Regards,
SB