Everything announced Jan 25th 2023
In the announcement post, Microsoft was clear on what isn’t going to be shown off: Starfield, which is getting its own standalone event in March. What we can expect is ESO, Forza, Minecraft Legends, and Redfall. From ESO, the latest region to explore in Tamriel and “a major new feature” coming this year. For Forza, we can expect a supercar being shown off and the newest entry, whether it’s New Horizons or a traditional motorsports title, is a toss-up. Minecraft Legends, Mojang will be focusing on the PvP of Minecraft Legends with fresh gameplay. Redfall, from the people behind Dishonored and Prey, will be showing off more single-player and multiplayer gameplay, along with getting a better look at the world the game inhabits, including customization, boss enemies, and more on the open-world aspect.
A sizzle reel of studios and developers from the four games mentioned above opened with Mojang and Minecraft Legends focusing on the PvP/co-op aspect, showing off some new gameplay, promising fun and cooperative strategy with base building and resource management with plenty of ways to help your team, no matter how you play. Releasing April 18th, 2023 and available on Game Pass.
Then they turned their attention to Turn Ten and the newest Forza Motorsports game, promising the prettiest and nicest graphics, better sound, and dirt build-up. It was just graphics porn, but it looks pretty coming 2023.
A surprise game reveal and announcement from Tango Gameworks, known for their horror game Evil Within 1&2 and most recent Ghost Wire Tokyo, came Hi-Fi Rush, a rhythm action game where the rhythm of the world helps to amplify combat. There’s a robocat and you can pet it. This was absolutely the highlight for me of this show. It shadow dropped the same day as the event, which I love. (For those that care, the PC version uses Denuvo Anti-Tamper).
Then they announced the ESO expansion and chapter Necrom with the new class Arcanist, a dude with a book class. Every fantasy game needs it, along with the location of the new region being in East Morrowind. Coming June 20, 2023.
Following that, we got an extensive look at Arkane Austin’s Redfall, a co-op single-player character shooter where you’re trying to defend a small Massachusetts island town of Redfall from vampires, with some new gameplay and more details on the characters’ skills and their skill trees in the game. Along with that, we got a look at the kind of missions you can expect, along with some trippy environments in the form of vampire lairs and warped spaces. You can tackle with friends or solo. Generally, it looks like the loop is going to kill a bunch of vampires, then kill a bigger, badder vampire, and survive, making the town safer. shrug Releasing May 2nd, also on Game Pass.
Overall, I think this Direct was fine. The announcement post did its job by setting expectations for what was going to be shown off. It had a unique and interesting surprise announcement in the form of Hi-Fi Rush. The developers in the talking head segments were not as cringe-worthy as they could have been, which is good. It did a good job of showcasing the games releasing on Xbox and Gamepass in the coming months. A solid showing, 7/10. It did its job.
