The Summer Game Fest stampede continues today with a big one: the Xbox Game Showcase. The show starts at 6pm UK time and we’ll be covering all the major talking points right here, in a blow-by-blow account. As ever, you can watch the stream right here and chat about everything in the comments with us below.
What do we expect to see? Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from Wolfenstein developer MachineGames, the Shattered Space expansion for Starfield, and possibly Flight Simulator 2024. I’m also holding out hope for a proper look at the Fable reboot, and there’s a chance we may see the new Gears of War game that The Coalition has been working on. That’s a pretty solid line-up, if it all comes to pass.
However, it’s against the backdrop of studio closures and redundancies that Microsoft takes to the stage, so it’ll be interesting to see if there’s any reaction or reference to that. Microsoft has also made some bold moves in recent months to make previously Xbox-exclusive games available on PlayStation, so I wonder whether that initiative will continue with other games. It’s an important moment for Microsoft; let’s see what it’s got.
Like last year, the Xbox Game Showcase will be followed by a separate, game-specific broadcast, this time for Call of Duty Black Ops 6.
See you at 6pm?
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
Hello and happy Sunday! Here we go again. What are you hoping to see today?
Good evening. Thank you all for joining us! Not long now. Let’s have a look what everyone’s been saying…
Kami says: Evening all. What am I hoping to see Bertie… hmm… a small miracle? XD No but seriously, Microsoft need to land this one.
Hah! But yes, yes it does.
BrEaKBEaT says: Gears 6 & an Xbox handheld 👌
An Xbox handheld? Interesting!
SirDanielFortesque says: REALLY hoping for State Of Decay 3 releasing soon. I feel like I’m alone in enjoying first 2.
You’re not alone!
chrisdeku says: Will be like the PS one, should be lots of third party games. Isn’t Dragon Age getting revealed soon? Does EA have their own show?
The Dragon Age trailer is due on Tuesday, 11th, so I doubt we’ll see it here.
ThatAnarchistSpacer says: Will the next COD have Margaret Thatcher? She was in the trailer…
Indeed I think it does.
Kami says: Oh, and maybe something on World of Warcraft. As long as it isn’t more Classic Servers (there’s not much left that is considered “classic” in WoW terms anyway. Maybe Legion…)
Oh! That reminds me: Blizzard was being very cryptic about WoW on console recently. Maybe this is finally the moment it happens.
Seems like Chris is quite near the front. I hope we see him in the audience reaction shots. He’d better not be whooping and hollering.
First look at Black Ops 6
Something’s happening! We’re off!
We’re going to see some mature trailers apparently. I’ll be the judge of that. Saddam Hussein: check. This must be Black Ops 6.
1991. The Berlin Wall has come down. We’re getting a montage of Gulf War, um, action. There’s George Bush. There’s Bill Clinton. The Prodigy’s Firestarter is playing and my god, that’s still a banger.
There’s a bit of a spy vibe this time, as we infiltrate large buildings and people swan around in tuxedos. But of course there are guns – lots of guns – too. Requisite helicopter mission with minigun.
Come on, where’s Thatcher?
Motorbikes: check.
But no Thatcher. We get Phil Spencer instead.
Lively start. We’re now getting another premiere, one Spencer is pumped about. Bethesd Studios. Starfield?
No not Starfield. This is something fantastical. Heretic?!
Doom: The Dark Ages announced
It looks like Doom. That’s definitely the Doom Slayer. But it’s all much more gothic. There’s a spinning chainsaw shield. There’s a double-barrelled shotgun. There are some huge gothic beasties. There’s an exo suit!
Doom: The Dark Ages. Coming 2025.
Just call it Heretic you cowards!
Undead Labs now. This must be State of Decay 3!
State of Decay 3 trailer
We’re seeing a CGI trailer that’s introducing the characters and setting up the environment. Modified cars, scavengers, zombies, chain fences – all the typical zombie survival stuff. Oh we’ve transitioned into some gameplay now. It’s got a nice clean look, if that really is gameplay – no hud. Can you really have gameplay without a hud? Maybe it’s target rendering.
I’m not sure I can glean much about the game from this trailer.
A car stops on a bridge. Loud foot stomps. Huge zombie. End of trailer.
State of Decay 3. No release date.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard!
Dragon Age: The Veilguard releases this autumn
We’re being introduced to the characters. Harding the scout. Neve the detective. Lucanis the mage killer. Belara the veil jumper. Emmrich the necromancer. Davrin the warden. Taash the dragon hunter. Nice trailer giving a great overview of the game. It’s CGI but it looks very lively.
Dragon Age comes out this autumn.
Starfield Shattered Space coming this year
We’re on to Starfield now, it looks like. There’s a distinct horror gibe. Purpley pink planets, red-tinged atmospheres. Cults. Hellscapes in space.
Starfield Shattered Space coming this year.
In addition, there’s going to be Starfield update tonight, it seems, bringing new locations, new mods and more.
This is all happening at breakneck speed. I’m here for it.
We’re now onto Fallout 76, which is having a bit of a renaissance moment thanks to the Fallout TV show. It seems like more of a recap on the game rather than an announcement of…
“Play as a ghoul from early 2025” flashes by.
And we’re onto another world premiere…
Expedition 33 announced
Sandfall Interactive and Kepler. We’re hearing about a lady who paints, and we’re seeing a CGI trailer about people disappearing.
A bit of gameplay mixed in showing multiple characters. It’s an RPG it looks like, with combat like Final Fantasy. It’s visually very impressive. There’s a lot going on on screen. Expedition 33 the game is called.
It’s coming 2024 to PC and Xbox.
South of Midnight impresses with debut trailer
We’re seeing a huge fish in a swamp with a character on their back. They’re having a chat in Southern American accents. Just a chat, with a big fish. We’re now follwoing the character running through a swampy biome. They’ve got some grappling hook-looking abilities that whizz them through the environment.
They’ve walked into a boss encounter. The game has a kind of Spider-verse animated look and feel about it – a slight stop-start in how it moves. The monster we’re fighting now is a bulging, morphing ball of rage. We defeat it and the area suddenly grows with flowers. Intriguing.
Now the character is flying on an air current with some spiritual kind of ability. There’s some guitary music accompanying the action. It’s very stylish, and the world is crooked and imaginative.
A kind of action adventure game then?
South of Midnight it’s called, coming 2025 to PC and Xbox.
WoW The War Within releases 26th August
Blizzard now.
It’s World of Warcraft. Could it be WoW console? Come on, do it you cowards!
We’re seeing a montage of all the big villains from WoW. It’s a montage of CGI footage from all of the game’s main expansions.
Come on, come on, what is it, what is it?
There’s a Galadriel-like voice over talking about the final battle drawing near.
It’s not just a trailer for the new expansion is it, the War Within? Oh god it is isn’t it. This is the start of a trilogy of expansions.
Oh I got so excited for a moment there. Stand down, stand down.
Release date 26th August 2024, for The War Within.
Metal Gear Solid 3 remake shown
Snake! As in, Solid Snake! Or Naked Snake, as the game is calling him. It’s the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake, and it looks very handsome.
Bah, no other juicy details.
Whizzing onto Sea of Thieves now. Season 13 coming 25th July.
444 Games and Kepler now. This looks like Flintlock.
I love that hatchet the main character has – and seems to be dextrously smashing into people’s heads. Ah! They can turn into the talking god creature rat thing and fly through the air. This looks wild. An “explosive Soulslike” the trailer calls it, and it looks it.
Flintlock: The Siece of Dawn, coming 18th July to PC and Xbox.
Age of Mythology remaster coming 4th September
Age of Mythology now, I assume. Zeus giving orders, as he’s wont to do. One of the gods is causing an earthquake – rude.
It is Age of Mythology: Retold, coming 4th September to PC and Xbox.
Lifeis2D (He/Him) says: Good to see Black & White has ret… oh.
Haha.
ThatAnarchistSpacer says: IS THIS PERFECT DARK
Hello!
Perfect Dark announced in gameplay trailer
This must be Perfect Dark! Crystal Dynamics and The Intiative. We’re in a futuristic setting. Joanna Dark leaping around, hiding behind boxes, parkouring, chatting away. If this is gameplay, it’s very smart and fluid looking. There’s a real dextrous spy feel to how the game plays. We’re in a computer base now. Enemies are there. Whoa, she just took someone down with a flurry of kicks. There’s sliding, slow-mo shooting, night vision, smoke bombs. It’s colourful, it’s fast. This looks good.
Perfect Dark, no release date.
Xbox’s Matt Booty on screen now, giving us an overview of Xbox games. Looks like he’s bought himself a new leather jacket for the occasion.
Is this the outro?
He’s moving onto Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred. It’s coming this October. We’re going to see the opening cinematic for it now. Blizzard does do a good cinematic.
We’re in a Southern American setting, it looks like, maybe an Amazonion river. Neyrelle! She’s muttering to herself, and oh dear, she seems to be slightly possessed. Now she’s talking to her mother in a floating stone. The faces of these characters are rendered brilliantly – those skin textures are wonderful. Something horrid is going to happen now isn’t it?
Is this Mephisto?
She’s being drained of her life and strung up in a fleshy hellscape now.
Oh! Snap back to reality and we’re back on the boat. Neyrelle seems OK. Ah, but the person behind her has most certainly been killed – it’s quite gruesome. This whole trainer has been quite gruesome; Blizzard, doubling down on grimness.
Coming 8th October to PC and Xbox. Hmm – I’m sure it’ll come to PlayStation too but maybe they’re not saying yet?
Playground Games now. This must be Fable!
Fable coming 2025
This is all in-game footage apparently. We’re seeing Humphry, whose voice I don’t recognise but I’m sure they’re famous.
We’re seeing the main character walk around a city. It looks nice. They’re in a forest now, in front of a giant toad. It’s montaging a bit now. I wonder if we’re building to a release date.
Humphry reckons he made the hero who we’ll play as. We’re seeing some magic and some combat. It’s hard to grasp how much of this is CGI or not.
And as Kami points out, are we limited to one hero now?
Coming 2025.
Another world premiere now. A heavily stylised look, a shooter, but fast and comic book loud. Cards in it too, that give you some kind of power-ups. 5v5 rule-changing arena shooter.
Called Fragpunk, coming 2025.
Another premiere now. A storybook looking illustration, with us playing as a dainty little mouse. It seems to be a kind of survival game. We have to chop trees and gather equipment to survive the wilds. It’s very cosy. Well, it was until a giant owl turned up.
Winter Burrow, coming early 2025 to PC and Xbox.
Vibesy teenage game Mixtape announced
Headphones, Annapurna, downhill skateboarding. More lower FPS animation. This really looks like Spider-Verse in terms of how it moves and looks. It’s a mixture of 3D and 2D. It’s a story about being a teenager in an american town in the 1980s, I think. It’s got a hell of a soundtrack, it’s very vibesy. It’s a bit fantastical too – the characters are floating. Artsy, imaginative, musical.
Mixtape, it’s called. Coming 2025.
Asobo now. Flight Simulator!
Flight Simulator 2024 releases 19th November
Flight Simulator 2024. It’s got commercial flights, in case you want to show EasyJet how to do it. There’s an air ambulance now. There’s aerial advertising, in case you want to string up “I love Eurogamer” in the sky. There’s plane chartering. There’s agricultural aviation. There’s search and rescue. There’s helicopter cargo transport. Remote cargo ops. Aerial firefighting. Basically, there’s a lot to do in the world now besides flying over your house.
It’s very pretty looking, as you might expect. Hot air balloons! Sunsets! Storms! Northern Lights!
Flight Sim 2024 releases 19th November.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure announced for October
Brief Elder Scrolls Online interlude there. I’d love to get into it properly sometime.
Square Enix now. Deck Nine. A lady finds her friend’s body in the woods. We’re in modern day times. An all new supernatural murder mystery.
Ah it’s Max from Life is Strange. She shifted into a parallel timeline where her friend is still alive, but it’s a bit Final Destination in how her friend keeps nearly dying. But Max can jump timelines to try and save her friend.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure coming 29th October.
A fresh look at Indiana Jones
MachineGames now. It’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. A frozen bridge with missing planks. A frozen battleship. First-person, detailed environments. They’re trying to solve a puzzle but enemies arrive. It’s haphazard in the Indy way, but it’s a cut-scene of sorts. Some brilliantly awful German accents: check. Why don’t they just get German actors to do it? Probably because they find it offensive?
There’s a Nazi officer officer doing a bit of a comedy routine in front of Indy here, who’s tied up and forced to watch. The atmosphere is right – a bit silly, a bit pantomime. Now the ship is falling off the cliff and we’re into an action scene.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle coming 2024. No release date, then.
Mechs now! This is a ridiculously fast-looking fight we’re seeing – they’re buzzing around like flies hopped up on Red Bull. Laser beams are criss-crossing the sky, bullets are pelting everywhere. It’s like a fireworks display up there. Now we’re on the ground with oversized melee weapons, dashing and thrusting, ooh err.
This is Mecha Break, coming 2025, with a beta in August. A live service game then?
A pile of corpses now, a twisted monster on top of them with very long arms. A character pulling a long sword from their back and flipping up to attack it. They have some magical powers. Now we’re montaging to see differnt boss enemies. It’s an action game, it’s Japanese themed. It’s nice and twisted.
Wuchang Fallen Feathers, coming 2025.
Ah, this looks like Avowed from Obsidian.
We’re getting a snapshot of the game, which has a lot more purpose and variety than when we last saw it. A lot more exciting. Perhaps Obsidian took notes. Still only “coming 2024”.
Rebellion reveals Atomfall
A world premiere now. Rebellion!
An English countryside village, it looks like. World War 2 era it seems. A mech suit! Hitting someone with a cricket bat! Somethin’s amiss. A revolver. A bow and arrow. First-person. Some strange cult rituals. Zombies.
Atomfall, coming 2025.
Kami says: Fallout x Dad’s Army
Haha! Very good.
A Japanese samurai-inspired game now. Feminine voice. Concealed blades. Ninja stealth. Oh now we’ve swapped to a male-sounding viewpoint and character. This one is fully armoured and heavy by comparison. They are team-mates. It’s an action game of some kind.
“Together, we will bring justice back to the people.”
Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, coming 15th November.
Stalker 2 gets 5th September release date
This must be Stalker 2. Chris has been playing this out in LA by the way and wasn’t particularly impressed. I don’t think he’ll mind me saying that.
Remember, GSC had to rebuild to make this game – all of the original Stalker team went elsewhere after the studio was effectively closed down. Still, I’ve got a lot of respect for anything able to be made in Ukraine at the moment, for obvious reasons.
It looks like a game, at least – it looks like it’s got actual, proper substance.
Stalker 2, coming 5th September.
All-digital Xbox Series X coming this autumn
Microsoft’s Sarah Bond is on now, closing the show, it sounds like.
She announces there’s going to be a new all-digital Xbox Series X coming this autumn.
“And we’re hard at work on the next generation,” she adds.
There’s one more thing!
This is it, the big finish.
We’re in a ruined front room. Someone’s smashed through a wall. Gears of War!
Gears of War: E-day closes the show
It looks like Marcus Phoenix – or is that Dom? – having a fight with a Locust. And he’s getting pummelled. He smashes a TV in the Locust’s face. He’s still not doing very well. Oh but now he’s blown the creatur’s head off.
The earth shakes. A hole to hell opens. He falls, but then a hand pulls him up. Piano music plays in the background, reminscent of those earlier Gears trailers.
Gears of War: E-Day it’s called.
Kami says: So… prequel?
I assume so!
Well that was more like it wasn’t it? That was breathless from the off, and a lot of things to be excited about. I don’t think they left any rock unturned there.
It almost goes without saying that everything we saw announced today was – I’m prettty sure – also announced as coming to Game Pass.
themightyant says: PLENTY of games I want to play many coming to Game Pass. Only slight thing holding it back was a few too many 2025 or no dates and a few too many DLC
Yeah, it will be interesting to actually pick back through it and see what was dated and what’s coming this year. Surprised that some 2024 titles don’t have more specific dates yet, but perhaps they’re holding something back for Gamescom.
Kami says: Doubt the WoW Expansion is coming to Game Pass though
Hah, yes, that’s very true.
Right, well. We’re not going to be covering the Black Ops stream I’m afraid. The next one we’re covering live is Ubisoft Forward tomorrow evening at 7.30pm UK time.
Kami says: How many Tom Clancy games will UbiSoft Forward have? I’m gonna guess at least two.
Tom Clancy’s Ubisoft, you mean?
A lot to think about after that. Good show, Microsoft, good show. It was very much needed.
Have a lovely rest of your Sunday evenings, everyone, and we’ll see you all again tomorrow as the Summer Game Fest barrage continues!
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