I really enjoyed the Xbox Developer Direct.
The games that caught my attention the most were Avowed and Visions of Mana.
Honorable mention for the Indiana Jones game.
I also really liked the style/design of the presentation itself.
I really enjoyed the Xbox Developer Direct.
The games that caught my attention the most were Avowed and Visions of Mana.
Honorable mention for the Indiana Jones game.
I also really liked the style/design of the presentation itself.
Personal opinion below.
It’s a bit strange that only one has a fixed release date despite all of them supposedly releasing this year, with the biggest offender being Indiana Jones that only has a generic “2024” release date. That being said, they all showed glimpses of gameplay and different environments, suggesting there’s at least a good chunk of the game already built. I could definitively see Indiana Jones being postponed, though (not a prediction, just saying that I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened).
Avowed seems ok. I’m not a fun of first-person fantasy games (I like looking at my character performing sick moves in cool armour), but they certainly know what they are doing and the gameplay looks fun and snappy. Unfortunately, apart from the combat system and one limited character interaction, they didn’t show too much of the gameplay to give me an idea of what the moment-to-moment gameplay will be, so I’ll suspend my judgement on this one for the moment while I keep waiting for more info.
Senua’s really good, but I never had any doubt about this one. It looked good when they first showed it a few years back, and it somehow looks ever better every time, despite this being the third or fourth trailer I’ve seen in as many years. It gives me the impression they really care about crafting as much a polished game as they can. I’m very optimistic about this one.
I love that they spent half the time dedicated to Secret of Mana talking about the cute critters. I loved every second of it, I’m a sucker for cute animals lol. Unfortunately I always find action JRPGs to be hit and miss: sometimes the game drags just too much and the gameplay ends up boring me before I finish the game. I’m not talking about this game in particular, it’s just a generic statement on the genre, and it’s just a “me” thing, feel free to disagree. Anyway, I’ll keep my eyes on this.
I always love strategy games, so I’m curious about Ara History Untold, which I hadn’t heard before today. I’m not going to lie, I was not entirely impressed, but it got me curious.
About Indiana Jones, I’m already looking forward to playing it, no doubt! I hope the focus will be on puzzles and exploration, as they promised, instead of combat, but I am hopeful they’ll do a decent job.