went to microsoft quite difficult For the company’s mysterious no-show at the big Game Awards event in December. For those of us who don’t have the patience to type a clever underscore, it was a success.
Microsoft surprised everyone by dropping a new Tango Gameworks rhythm action game called Hi-Fi Rush. It immediately seemed like a fun mashup of Sunset Overdrive, Ninja Gaiden, and Guitar Hero. Even better, Tango released it right after the Direct ended, making this one of the first same day + release combos in quite some time. It’s no exaggeration to say that without Xbox Game Pass, this surprise would not have been possible. With Xbox Game Pass, word of mouth builds up over time, and the success of a game doesn’t rely heavily on pre-order campaigns or months of purchases. Marketing hype.
Redfall, meanwhile, was the headliner, capping things off with a deeper look at Arkane’s vampire-themed FPS. It still clearly retains Arkane’s DNA, but is distinctly different from the studio’s previous emergent gameplay offerings such as Dishonored and Prey. Instead, he does a lot of shooting against lots of wild enemies with lots of cool weapons, from vampires that darken the arena to giant bosses that almost resemble Destiny’s Strike. This should be a good enough head start before decades-old franchise juggernauts like Zelda, Diablo, Street Fighter and Final Fantasy clog up the summer (not to mention Rocksteady’s long-awaited Suicide Squad: Justice defeats his league).
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In fact, the only disappointment of the day came from Forza Motorsport. It’s not a game. in case. Once again, it looks incredible. The Forza series has never been visually lacking, and the rebuilt, next-gen-exclusive reboot (i.e., no Xbox One version) is full of paint reflections, dynamic day/night cycles, and realistic dirt build-up. surprised us. 500 units. And it was in a compressed 1080p live stream. In his native 4K/60fps it looks even better. Instead, the disappointment took the form of Forza Motorsport’s release date, or more precisely, the lack of a release date. Given that all four were scheduled for the first half of this year, per the company’s mandate at the Xbox Showcase, expect to learn exactly when each can be played.But unfortunately we didn’t even get Season To hope for Forza – we only got a generic ‘2023’, except to see next-gen racers slipping into the second half of the year.
In summary, if Microsoft took anything away from the original Direct, it’s two things:
1) Non-E3 showcases will continue to use this format. can. We won’t break the overproduced and overly long Inside Xbox format again.
2) Betray expectations and continue to provide excessively. Starfield later got its own direct and was revealed not to be part of this direct. Those expectations were again surpassed when it hit .
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews and host of IGN’s weekly Xbox show. podcast unlockedas well as the monthly (ish) interview show, IGN UnfilteredHe’s from Northern Jersey, so it’s a “Taylor ham”, not a “pork roll”. Discuss with him on Twitter @DMC_Ryan.
