Inside Xbox May 2020 Xbox Series X Special - Recap

Today, Microsoft showed us our first glimpse at the amazing gameplay from the upcoming next-gen console, Xbox Series X. It was a short Inside Xbox, no where near what an E3 Event would handle, I suspect we are going to get the big event, at Microsoft's 20/20 event later. This one focused exclusively at games with gameplay coming to the next-gen console, and this event marked the largest event to date, to show us games coming from next gen. Up until now, the list of confirmed games was still quite short, and now we have several more to show. For those who missed the livestream, and want to watch it in it's entirety, check it out here below.

Below are a selection of just some of the stand out games that were shared with us at this Inside Xbox event! I have to say; I was excited before however this event trully has me ready for next-gen. One of the really cool pieces of news we learned the night before the event, was the logo for games that are optimized for Series X, that will be used in various marketing materials to let us know when a game is taking full power of the Series X. This is vary similar to the "Xbox One X Enhanced" moniker used in the past. This just makes me wonder; however, if Xbox Series X will have it's own branded game cases, or if Microsoft will continue to produce identical Xbox One game cases, and simply add this new logo somewhere. I truly hope for brand recognition, and simplistic messaging, Xbox also releases full Xbox Series X game cases.

Disintegration

Where the hell did this come from? I will say the biggest surprise of the day was Disintegration receiving a release date. This game was only just revealed at Gamescom 2019, and details were fairly vague. We saw every little of the game and with this being a first reveal, myself and my gamer friends all considered this to be pretty far off. I put this on my "Most Anticipated 2020" mostly out of intrigue of it's premise and the fact that ex-halo developers were making it. However felt like I knew nothing about it. There was a closed invite only beta of which I couldn't even get into. We honestly haven't heard much of anything about this game since it's reveal, and BAMM, it is now right around the corner. The developers must have waited an industry unusually long period of time before revealing their game. In a time of multiple game delays, Disintegration is actually right around the corner with a June 16 2020 release date. No, not 2021, this year, next month. Players will "Lead a crew of Outlaws as...Romer Shoal, pilot the fight to Reboot Humanity against Black Shuck and the domineering Rayonne forces bent on eliminating human society" Disintegration is available for pre-order now, and is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC by the brand new and young V1 Interactive founded in 2014, by co-creators of Halo and SOCOM: US Navy SEALs.

assassin's Creed Valhalla

The second best part of the stream was our second look at Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Honestly if this game had been revealed last year, it would have made the top 3 of my most anticipated 2020 list, because I can't say how stoked I am. I am a massive Assassin's Creed fan, and I am so happy that Ubisoft switched gears years back to allow more time to develop these games as they are truly massive in scope. Today, they pointed out that Valhalla also looks very different than the last two installments and honestly I am very happy about that because my biggest complaint Odyssey was that it looks so identical to Origins. It felt so copy paste. Egypt and Greece looked exactly the same to me. This looks nothing like those games. They talked a lot about how they focused on more visceral, gritty combat and that is always a great thing. They also mentioned today that Assassin's Creed will be smaller than Odyssey, more dense, scaled back because of feedback from fans that Odyssey was "way too big" and I agree. My second biggest complaint about Odyssey was Origins felt 10% too big for me but I still loved it, and Odyssey was 3x the size of Origins. It was ridiculous. Apparently, there was such a thing as too big of a game, and Ubisoft found it. They also have shared how they have removed the much hated grind XP walls that Odyssey seemed to have that encouraged micro-transations and hours of side quests. All in all they seem to be removing the bad things about otherwise amazing games. My only criticism was that they called this a "gameplay" reveal, and let's be honest; it isn't. This may be an "in-engine trailer", but nothing of that was actual gameplay. They confused scripted cinematic trailers that take place in engine with actual gameplay trailers. The first trailer was a cinematic rendered trailer, this one was a scripted cinematic in game engine, but yet have we seen "gameplay". Gameplay trailers are supposed to have fixed camera angles, in game actions, maybe even some hud elements. This was pretty, but a little disappointingly misleading.

I think Second Extinction is actually from an alternate universe. It comes from a universe where instead of the 10,000 zombie video games we have, they make dinosaur video games over there. This thing looks awesome, and I am so happy to see something different. While it reminds me of Left4Dead or WWZ but with dinosaurs, this game looks fresh and beautiful. Anyone who has been asking for a remake of the old Turok games, (the last time anyone bothered to make a good dinosaur game) this might just be the game for you. I was absolutely blown away at the AAA doom like visuals and gunplay.

Dirt 5

Fans of the "Dirt" racing franchise must be overjoyed to hear the news of a new installment of the franchise. I will say I did find it exciting to see such a beautiful racer announced for Series X.

Scorn

Being at home during quarantine, I decided to watch this event on the big screen in the living room. I bet the developers would be happy to know this trailer made my wife who typically loves horror movies squeal in disgust at this weird horror game. Oddly sexual alien horror, with lots of alien looking genitalia inserting itself in various organic entrances, the game trailer made even me uncomfortable. At first I thought this was a "Alien" game, based on the fact that it looked EXACTLY like Prometheus, then I thought I was in a very weird part of a porn site. Either way, horror hentai fans may enjoy this new reveal, Scorn.

The Medium

The Medium took a turn for a positive with the Horror element of the event. It was pretty weird and cerebral, and I will admit that I am intrigued. It is hard to describe so I definitely recommend watching the trailer. It is coming from "The Blair Witch" developer, Bloober. Players take control of Marianne, a medium haunted by visions, living and interacting across the real world and a spiritual world. It will feature 4K resolution, ray-tracing, and utilizes the Xbox Series X's SSD for a single, seamless, cinematic experience without loading screens.

Scarlet Nexus

Have you ever wanted to play as an anime character who battles walking bouquets of flowers? Well nows your chance with this weirdly fun and beautiful looking game. Scarlet Nexus really reminded me of last year's Astral Chain, with its highly stylized art style. It is nice to see some Anime love on the Microsoft platform that does seem to be last to receive eastern developer market games. I hope Xbox will get even more JRPG's and anime inspired games for next-gen.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

Those who enjoy a good Vampire game can look forward to Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2, and yes that is a ridiculously long title. I never played the first one, but this first person vampire game looked pretty cool.

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