Xbox & Bethesda Games E3 2021 Showcase

[iroboto]

Liked it quite a bit.

There's no way I need anything except GamePass after seeing the lineup.

For 2021, I'm most excited for:

Sea of Thieves APL
The Ascent
Flight Sim
Twelve Minutes
Psychonauts 2
Forza Horizon 5
Halo Infinite
Shredders

Those 8 will keep me busy

Missing out big if Plagues Tale is not on there. The sequel looks mighty fine!

 

[Malo]

Well Contrabrand, Twelve Minutes, Somerville, A Plague Tale Requiem, Replaced, The Ascent, Forza Horizon 5 and Redfall look really interesting to me.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Missing out big if Plagues Tale is not on there. The sequel looks mighty fine!

It's 2022.

 

[Remij]

Halo Infinite looks awesome. I'm hyped as hell for that game!

Forza Horizon 5 will consume my life too.

 

[iroboto]

It's 2022.

oh right lol

 

[zed]

I did watch about half the trailers last night on the arstechinca site (igonred the stuff thats already released) Prolly xboxs strongest e3 ever
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021...ent-from-microsoft-and-bethesdas-e3-showcase/

starfield - no gameplay = hohum
stalker 2 - looked like it could be quite fun, grahically OK parts were good but also parts not, eg platic bricks in this day and age, farcry 6 was similar
Back 4 Blood - looked like it could be very fun to play, nothing special with the graphics but they do the job
Contraband - I dont think ,this showed gameplace? so I ignored
Battlefield 2042 - looked pretty bad, graphically also pretty mediocre
12 minutes - looked like it could be a good game to play, I dont know if we saw any gameplay, but piqued my interest
Psychonauts 2 - whilst no where near the technical level of rachet and clank I like the art style more
Party Animals - not very original but could be fun whilst drunk but I could see one losing interest quickly
Somerville - perhaps best atmosphere of the down games, I like the look also esp for an indie title, well done to the developers
Halo Infinite - much improved over that last dire showing, still not graphically where it should be for a showcase title, why they not show apeman?
Diablo II Resurrected - didnt watch this easy money cashin
A Plague Tale: Requiem - Prolly one of the 3 titles I would want to play though we didnt see any graphics so it loses points for that
farcry 6 - dint see
Slime Rancher 2 - seemed like a quick and dirty indie game
Shredders - just looked terrible both gameplay wise and graphically
Atomic Heart - Interesting title and one of the standouts WRT the graphics
Replaced - one of the better looking pixel art games, Im not a fan of the style because its an easy cheat. though looks to be good if you like beatemup games
Eiyuden Chronicles - art style is basically a rip off of some switch game
The Ascent - graphically it looked good though topdown is a lot easier to make look good, one of the games I would want to play
Age of Empires IV - Wow for one of MS biggest franchises it looks terrible, graphically very unimpressive
The Outer Worlds 2 - no gameplay
Forza Horizon 5 - looked very nice in parts others not as impressive, looks to be more fun to play than gran tourism, I dont think there were raytracing
redfall - this had no gameplay I think

the rest I didnt watch as I think they're already out
bolded are what I thought were the better titles

 

[cheapchips]

Through the lens of a PC/Xbox/Gamepass subscriber this was a montage of interesting things I'll get to try and maybe really enjoy.

It was nice to get a glimpse of actual Series titles this year.

Duff move to end on a CGI trailer! They were doing so well!

 

[pjbliverpool]

I did watch about half the trailers last night on the arstechinca site (igonred the stuff thats already released) Prolly xboxs strongest e3 ever
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021...ent-from-microsoft-and-bethesdas-e3-showcase/

starfield - no gameplay = hohum
stalker 2 - looked like it could be quite fun, grahically OK parts were good but also parts not, eg platic bricks in this day and age, farcry 6 was similar
Back 4 Blood - looked like it could be very fun to play, nothing special with the graphics but they do the job
Contraband - I dont think ,this showed gameplace? so I ignored
Battlefield 2042 - looked pretty bad, graphically also pretty mediocre
12 minutes - looked like it could be a good game to play, I dont know if we saw any gameplay, but piqued my interest
Psychonauts 2 - whilst no where near the technical level of rachet and clank I like the art style more
Party Animals - not very original but could be fun whilst drunk but I could see one losing interest quickly
Somerville - perhaps best atmosphere of the down games, I like the look also esp for an indie title, well done to the developers
Halo Infinite - much improved over that last dire showing, still not graphically where it should be for a showcase title, why they not show apeman?
Diablo II Resurrected - didnt watch this easy money cashin
A Plague Tale: Requiem - Prolly one of the 3 titles I would want to play though we didnt see any graphics so it loses points for that
farcry 6 - dint see
Slime Rancher 2 - seemed like a quick and dirty indie game
Shredders - just looked terrible both gameplay wise and graphically
Atomic Heart - Interesting title and one of the standouts WRT the graphics
Replaced - one of the better looking pixel art games, Im not a fan of the style because its an easy cheat. though looks to be good if you like beatemup games
Eiyuden Chronicles - art style is basically a rip off of some switch game
The Ascent - graphically it looked good though topdown is a lot easier to make look good, one of the games I would want to play
Age of Empires IV - Wow for one of MS biggest franchises it looks terrible, graphically very unimpressive
The Outer Worlds 2 - no gameplay
Forza Horizon 5 - looked very nice in parts others not as impressive, looks to be more fun to play than gran tourism, I dont think there were raytracing
redfall - this had no gameplay I think

the rest I didnt watch as I think they're already out
bolded are what I thought were the better titles

I thought STALKER 2 had excellent graphics but I'm not really a fan of the dark broody art style or gameplay. Forza obviously looked incredible although less so when I watched it on the big screen as opposed to my phone, I also noticed quite a lot of pop in. I loved the look of Psychonauts and agree from visual aesthetic point of view it might be a R&C contender for me. Honestly though, the graphics that impressed me the most out of all of those were Flight Simulator.

 

[mr magoo]

https://www.ign.com/articles/xbox-g...ninja-theory-rare?utm_source=facebook,twitter

"Microsoft has announced an Xbox Games Showcase: Extended presentation that will take place on Thursday, June 17 at 10am PT/1pm ET/6pm BST and will feature conversations with Double Fine, Obsidian, Ninja Theory, Rare, and more."

"It's important to note that Microsoft specifically mentions that this show will feature "conversations with developers" and makes no mentions of big reveals. "

 

[Silent_Buddha]

https://www.ign.com/articles/xbox-g...ninja-theory-rare?utm_source=facebook,twitter

"Microsoft has announced an Xbox Games Showcase: Extended presentation that will take place on Thursday, June 17 at 10am PT/1pm ET/6pm BST and will feature conversations with Double Fine, Obsidian, Ninja Theory, Rare, and more."

"It's important to note that Microsoft specifically mentions that this show will feature "conversations with developers" and makes no mentions of big reveals. "

Yup, that's what I heard directly after the conference yesterday. I'm hoping that maybe they'll show some clips from the new titles they are working on. But, I'm not getting my hopes up.

Regards,
SB

 

[fehu]

What happened to the new acquisitions?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

What happened to the new acquisitions?

New as in the existing 23 studios? Hard at work developing titles.

New as in the rumored 3 acquisitions? No word yet. If the rumor is false there'll likely be no new news. If they want to announce something, then the developer presentation on the 17th will be the most likely day for it ... if they want to announce it during virtual E3.

Regards,
SB

 

[cheapchips]

New as in the existing 23 studios? Hard at work developing titles.

New as in the rumored 3 acquisitions? No word yet. If the rumor is false there'll likely be no new news. If they want to announce something, then the developer presentation on the 17th will be the most likely day for it ... if they want to announce it during virtual E3.

Since we're not led to expect huge purchases, seems like a good place to do it.

 

[Cyan]

usually, I dont like this kind of long events with videos, but gotta admit that this time around quite a few games are interesting. Specially the vampires game, Redfall.

Also Starfield and Age of Empires IV covers are beautiful, imho.

 

[iroboto]

Lets goooooo

 

[iroboto]

What happened to the new acquisitions?

If they did acquire them, it's probably best to leave those announcements for another time. I think there is a time and place for those types of things, and they really needed to nail that they had games coming and those games are coming to game pass.

The stars of yesterdays showcase should be the games.

Acquisition announcements can come at another time. No reason to kill your own hype cycle with acquisition talk.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

I'm really anticipating Age of Empires IV.
When was the last time we had a high-profile pure-RTS that wasn't a remaster? 10 years ago?

Now that Starfield is confirmed to late 2022, when is Elder Scrolls VI coming out? 2024?

Holy shit, I can't believe how good that canyon with the stream in it looks. And they are doing this with RT ... on the XBS-X!

Regards,
SB

There's no RT in Forza during actual gameplay, only when browsing cars in Forzavista:

You can also expect powerful, all-new graphical features like HDR captures of the vibrant Mexican sky, sweeping vistas, and an unparalleled attention to detail. Available in 4K 30 FPS on the Xbox Series X (1080p 30 FPS on Xbox Series S) with an optional 60 FPS performance mode, and ray tracing added to cars in Forzavista, you will be immersed in the open world of Horizon like never before.

 

[zed]

I thought STALKER 2 had excellent graphics but I'm not really a fan of the dark broody art style or gameplay. Forza obviously looked incredible although less so when I watched it on the big screen as opposed to my phone, I also noticed quite a lot of pop in. I loved the look of Psychonauts and agree from visual aesthetic point of view it might be a R&C contender for me. Honestly though, the graphics that impressed me the most out of all of those were Flight Simulator.

Stalker for me looked very CGI like, the lighting like I said with the overdone specular plastic look looked very dated,
FWIW nice to see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duga_radar in the game, I went there and to me it was more impressive than the chernobyl reactor (If you ever get a chance its worth a look at this massive structure)
Forza does look good though its only 30fps and the lighting is baked plus like you said pop in, no RT etc, forza 6 will no doubt look far superior this is being held back by being cross gen.
I didnt see FS, but Ive seen it on a better PC than a series X and it struggled with framerate, so I'll wait until it actually launches and see how it handles streaming in new areas

 

[Deleted member 11852]

usually, I dont like this kind of long events with videos, but gotta admit that this time around quite a few games are interesting. Specially the vampires game, Redfall.

Also Starfield and Age of Empires IV covers are beautiful, imho.

Spoiler

These both remind me of the art that Atari would use on their 2600 cartridges.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I'm really anticipating Age of Empires IV.
When was the last time we had a high-profile pure-RTS that wasn't a remaster? 10 years ago?

I had to think about this as I've played quite a few RTS in the past few years, but high-profile ones are relatively rare.

The last one that had a ton of publicity would probably be Ashes of the Singularity which came out in 2016 or Halo Wars 2 in 2017. I use "or" there as Halo Wars 2 was a bit of a clunky port to PC which prevented it from being really good for me and it didn't get as much hype or publicity as Ashes of the Singularity.

I miss when we used to get multiple quality RTS games a year.

Regards,
SB