It’s Friday my dudes (and dudettes), so it’s time to wrap up this week’s gaming news. There a few things happening right now in the gaming world (people don’t like Pokemon Sword and Shield, Jedi: Fallen Order is allegedly a GOTY contender, and FaZe Ewok is making the move from Twitch to Mixer), but the biggest news came from X019 yesterday. So I think we should do a recap for those that missed the conference instead of my traditional QTE’s. Sounds good? *silence from office where no one else is*. Ok good!
Here were the highlights yesterday’s Inside Xbox at X019:
Rare’s new IP, Everwild debuted (and it’s got deer with butterfly ears)
The first game trailer premiered at X019 was honestly pretty weird. No hint at what the gameplay will be like; just a bunch of weird Pokemon looking animals (except these ones might look better than the ones in Pokemon Sword & Shield). What’s even weirder is they immediately interviewed someone from Rare right after the trailer and when he was asked about the game he spent like 5 minutes explaining that Rare has a separate team working on Everwild, so Sea of Thieves will still be a big focus. Um, what? What is this game?!? It looks like Ashen but with a Breath of the Wild art style. We’ll just have to wait and see I guess.
Another new IP, Grounded, is basically Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The Game
Obsidian Entertainment, creators of The Outer Worlds, debuted this survival game next, and I couldn’t be less interested. Don’t get me wrong, I do think the developers did a great job making a game that stands out in its genre but this just isn’t for me. However, I’m sure if it’s free to play I’ll somehow get roped into putting a solid 10 hours into this game.
Also, if you’re considered a millennial and you HAVEN’T heard of Honey I Shrunk the Kids, shame on you.
West of Dead looks badass and is available now
Ok so this is the first title that kept my interest through the entire trailer. The art style looks very much like Void Bastards and Ron Pearlman (Hellboy) voicing the Ghost Rider looking character is awesome. I’m not a big twin-stick shooter guy, but I think that I’ll put that aside to play this game. AND it’s the first game announced that is available to play today in open beta. I’m sure I’ll put at least 4-5 hours into it this weekend so stay tuned here for my thoughts.
Rust is coming to console but it’s WAY too late
Rust has been out for PC since 2013 in early access, and its time has already come and gone. Bringing the game to the console is just dumb at this point. Who is gonna play this game? Like seriously? There have been a TON of survival games released in the years since Rust debuted and there are a ton more on the way. Hard pass.
Stop. Making. Mario. Kart. Knockoffs.
I just don’t get it anymore. The gap between all these clones and the actual Mario Kart franchise is so fucking big, and it’s not getting smaller. Do I think this game looks cool? Aesthetically, no. Do I think it would be fun to play? Yea I actually do. But I 100% would rather plug in my N64 and play a 20-year-old Mario Kart than this game. One of the funniest moments of the entire show was when they introduced two “pros” to demonstrate the gameplay. Who in the world is a “pro” at this game?? What’s the grand prize for winning their tournaments? $40? LOL. If it’s free to play, I know I’ll end up trying it out but I also know I’m gonna say “fuck this let’s play a real game” after 2-3 races.
Bleeding Edge is slowly turning into one of my most anticipated games of 2020
I can’t explain how excited I would have been if they announced that the open beta for Bleeding Edge was available right now. My heart might have exploded. This game looks really fucking good. All the hero designs are cool as hell. You can play as a gothic cyborg with a guitar axe. You can play as a snake that’s using a skeleton as a ventriloquist dummy. You can play as…a granny with giant plasma ball hooked up to her body like Bane…(That’s kinda weird). It looks like a MOBA but without the things that make MOBA’s annoying and I cannot wait to try it out.
This platformer looks so original and insane that I’m immediately sold
We’ve heard about The Artful Escape prior to X019, but every time I see it I feel like I’m learning about it again for the first time. It’s so fucking weird and cool and odd and what the fuck are the Where The Wild Things Are monsters doing in it and oooo you can ride a skateboard and oooooo you can play guitar on the back of a butterfly ok yea just take my money I’ve seen enough. *deep breath*. So yea I think I might play that game next year.
Project xCloud news: Some bad stuff but mostly good
Ok so let’s start with the bad news: EA is getting involved. That is never a good thing. If EA is involved in any form with any project, you can bet your life that they will find a way to steal people’s money. Could you imagine if their games were available to stream on xCloud BUT you had to have an EA Access membership too? I can.
Now the good news: First, xCloud will be available to stream to PC in 2020. This is probably the first platform that xCloud will be on that makes sense and I am excited to see how the quality is on both standard and gaming PCs. Second, all games on the Game Pass will be available to stream on xCloud. There are so many games on the Game Pass that I would try out if I didn’t have to wait for them to download, and now that issue will be gone. And that’s great because…
The Game Pass is about to be LOADED with content
Yakuza. Final Fantasy. RAGE 2. Remnant: From the Ashes. Age of Empires 2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Darksiders 3. Halo Reach (on MCC). My Friend Pedro. Minecraft Dungeons. Microsoft Flight Simulator. Bleeding Edge. Grounded. Wasteland 3. Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
Do I need to say anymore? I used to shit on the Game Pass for not having anything worth playing, but they have really turned it into an excellent service. This might have been the highlight of the conference for me.
Crossfire X might break the competitive FPS market if it’s as good as it looks
How do you break into a market saturated by some of the biggest franchises in gaming history? Make a high-quality game that’s free-to-play. Seriously my first thought after watching this trailer was “shit, what is Call of Duty gonna do if this is good?” Halo will always have some form of a player base because it’s got such a huge cult following, but Call of Duty and Battlefield are gonna have a tough time convincing people to pay $60 for their games if this is any good. Hell, Riot Studios better be paying close attention as well since they’re making a competitive FPS game as well. But for the fans, you couldn’t be happier with this announcement. The game looks beautiful, it’s got a Counter-Strike vibe, and was that a killstreak that blew up the village? This might be the exclusive that Microsoft needs right now to stay relevant. Here’s hoping that it’s available before the summer.
Minecraft Dungeons looks cool but that presentation was pretty fucking bad
Ok so two things from this portion of the presentation: first, maybe we shouldn’t criticize devs for scripting their presentations anymore? Because that was god awful, but you can’t blame the dev. He literally described the game exactly like anyone trying to explain a game to their friend. Reminds me of how my little brother once tried to tell me how to play World of Tanks; one of the worst experiences of my life. And second, there’s gonna be a pretty big competition in this genre next year. At first, I thought “Diablo IV is going to destroy this kiddie dungeon crawler”, but honestly this game has a decent shot at being successful. Kids that aren’t old enough to play Diablo now have a G rated alternative, and it’s gonna be included with the Game Pass. I can definitely see a Diablo IV vs Minecraft Dungeons blog in my future, and I think it’s going to be shockingly close.
iD Xbox trailer was hype and I can see myself playing each and every one of these games
Ok, maybe NOT the train track game, but every single one of these titles looked awesome. If you’ve been following PartyChat you already know about Haven, the upcoming title from The Game Bakers. Streets of Rage 4 is gonna be fucking HYPE and will take me back to my Sega Genesis days. Skatebird looks like…a bird on a skateboard…but for some reason, I think it’s really cool? Carrion looks like an EVIL ASS version of Dead Cells. she dreams elsewhere looks like a trippy and dark JRPG. I have no idea what to compare Forager to but it looks fun and co-op. AND ALL OF THEM WILL BE ON THE GAME PASS WHAT THE FUCK. I’ll say it again: the Game Pass stuff was the highlight of this entire conference.
And finally, they wrapped the whole show up with Wasteland 3, which was pretty weak to be honest.
Ok, let me be clear about something: I’m not saying Wasteland 3 is a weak title. It’s a very good franchise that I personally am not a huge fan of, and the trailer actually looked pretty cool so I’ll probably check it out when it’s on Game Pass. But to wrap up your entire show with this game? Weak sauce. Major weak sauce. Announce a release date for Halo Infinite. Show us something new about Project Scarlett. I’m not asking for much, but c’mon guys Wasteland 3 is not that hype of a title. Could’ve ended with a bang, but instead ended with a whimper.
So yea, that was the show. Some good stuff, some pretty bad stuff, but overall a pretty OK showing from Microsoft. I still have no idea why I would buy Scarlett over a PS5 or gaming PC, but I guess we’ll have to wait for E3 for that. Last note for everyone, if you weren’t tuned into my stream on Mixer last night, I started Bendy and the Ink Machine and almost shit my pants. Today, I will be finishing the game along with streaming some Modern Warfare I’m sure so follow me on Twitter for my go-live time!