With E3 2020 having long been cancelled, it’s fallen to online events to fill the gap when it comes to the next generation of consoles. Sony had their major reveal a month ago. Today, it was Microsoft’s turn to deliver the goods with an hour-long show focused solely on presenting the games that will available on the Xbox Series X. I found the presentation merely fine and sorely lacking in the components it needed to get folks excited for the brand again.
The showcase kicked off with what many had been waiting for; the first campaign gameplay for Halo Infinite. I thought it was just ok; the graphical detail is likely to be on par with its predecessor, but my biggest questions stem from the story and setting. It appears that 343 Industries are throwing out much of the story from Halo 5: Guardians and replacing it with the narrative of Halo Wars 2. They’re also attempting to recapture the magic of the original Combat Evolved with the ring setting and older enemies making a reappearance. Taking on fan feedback is a worthy endeavour but simultaneously, there is a danger that Infinite could turn into a desperate course correction; it could follow the same fate as last year’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, desperately trying to please everyone and ending up muddying the water even more. To assuage these fears, more details should be shown before its planned launch alongside the Series X.
State of Decay 3 and the new Forza were fairly predictable announcements, mainly upping their fidelity when compared with previous releases. I didn't expect to see a third State of Decay in particular after its predecessor bombed with both critics and audiences, but it appears Microsoft is still committed in this regard. Matching Sony in mediocre announcements, it was revealed that Destiny 2 would be re-launching on Xbox Series X later in 2020. A rather ho-hum announcement, but at least it will come with the new “Beyond Light” expansion. On the whole, there was a lack of gameplay in some of the more major announcements as they instead chose to go down the CGI route. We’ll see more in due course, but in terms of showing off what the Xbox Series X can render, there is still a lot to be desired.
The biggest announcements of the show were two major AAA titles; first up was Rare with Everwild, which looks like a four-player coop fantastical action game with some gorgeous aesthetics to boot. I’m glad that Rare continues to get chances to flex their creative muscles, rather than being pressed into a project Microsoft wants them to do. After the disappointment of Sea of Thieves though, the British developer still has some way to go to earn back the trust of consumers, given how their previous release was effectively an early access title disguised as a full price product at launch.
Equally good to see was Obsidian Entertainment’s output; not just one project but three of them. An expansion to The Outer Worlds entitled “Peril on Gorgon” showed that Obsidian are not abandoning their New Vegas spiritual successor after their acquisition by Microsoft. On top of this they’re also working on Grounded, an early access survival game and to balance this out, Obsidian announced a new fantasy RPG called “Avowed”. Obsidian is incredibly well-versed in this field and hopefully it will be a great catch for the Microsoft family of developers.
Unfortunately though, this is where much of the big announcements ended, as the rest of the show was dedicated to a couple of indie titles and more begrudgingly, a heaping of “console launch exclusives”. Some indie titles looked promising, most notably “As Dusk Falls” and “Tell Me Why” which both look to bring some more story-heavy experiences to the Xbox platform. Both games also have some great-looking art styles, allowing smaller studios to flex their creative muscles. Other announcements were, again, merely fine. I was surprised to see the survival shooter Stalker make a comeback; it’s been greatly overshadowed by 4A Games’ Metro franchise over the last decade. There was also a trailer for Crossfire X, a fairly standard looking shooter that may be out to take a few players away from the annualised Call of Duty releases.
To round off the show, we had the long-awaited return of Fable, whose development duties will now fall to Playground Games. I found it unfortunate that the show was concluded by another long-established franchise as opposed to a completely new one, but at the same time it’s very exciting for Fable fans who haven’t seen a mainline release in a full decade. Can it bring the dogged RPG franchise back to prominence? Is a reboot or reimagining? This will only be told with time.
In the end, I’m frustrated rather than impressed. It’s not just the previous console generation; over the last decade, Microsoft and Xbox have been stuck in a rut and time after time, they haven’t managed to make a grand comeback. The brand has a lot going for it on a commercial level. Phil Spencer is a great boss; they’ve tossed out all the rotten gimmicks that held them back and features like backwards compatibility and game pass are both great additions. But outside of a couple of small reveal trailers, there’s not a whole lot to get excited about; it had its focus in the right place but didn't follow through with AAA content. One could argue that Xbox has only had one truly excellent franchise in the last decade with Ori and the Blind Forest. They're going to need a lot more to remain competitive.
When you find yourself having to put the words “console launch exclusive” up in lights, that ends up dampening my excitement for the Xbox Series X, a series that still lacks a convincing identity in the game development scene. Xbox's positioning as the place for hardcore, high fidelity games has been heavily diluted by its integration with the PC platform. I suppose it may come down to pricing when the console releases at the end of the year. As for new AAA franchises however, we’ve once again been told to wait and as such, the ninth generation of game consoles may get off to another slow start.
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