Xbox is celebrating its 20th birthday this year and showed us its hottest up-and-coming titles during a 90-minute livestream on Sunday, 13th June. After acquiring the parent company of Bethesda Softworks in March 2021, Xbox welcomed eight development studios which will expand its portfolio of game exclusives. Altogether, 33 new games will arrive on Xbox’s streaming service, most of which were showcased at the live event. If you did not have time to watch the stream, we’ve got you covered with our selection of the top 5 biggest announcements this year:
- Starfield
Bethesda, which is known for creating the Elder Scrolls V, Skyrim and Fallout 4, finally showed us an official teaser trailer for its first new universe in 25 years. Starfield was first announced at E3 in 2018, but we haven’t heard much about it since then. This time, viewers got a first look at what the creators envision to be a “next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars” where players can explore with “unparalleled freedom”. The trailer shows a pilot getting into a spaceship which is preparing for launch off a rocky planet, as the narrator tells us that we have come to the beginning of humanity’s final journey to “discover what’s out there”. Starfield will launch in November 2022, but you can watch the teaser trailer here:
- Battlefield 2042
We also saw a dramatic gameplay trailer of DICE’s newest addition to the Battlefield series: Battlefield 2042. In this futuristic game, players can expect total all-out war with the same high-quality graphics and destructible environment that we are already used to from the franchise. While there will be no single player campaign or battle royale modes, the max player count has been doubled to 128 on PC and next-gen consoles. These large scale maps are divided into sectors which contain clusters of control points to be captured. Within the four classes, players can choose from specialists which come with unique backstories and gadgets, including grapple hooks, a health/revive gun, an auto-turret, and a movement sensor. The trailer even shows one soldier jumping off a building and gliding across the map in a wingsuit. The game will be released in October this year, and you can watch the early gameplay here:
- Halo Infinite
Halo, a highly anticipated fan favourite, is returning later this year with a free-to-play multiplayer mode. While gamers can look forward to the return of classic weapons such as the Energy sword, Needler, and the Plasma pistol, 343 Industries is also adding brand-new weapons such as the Threat Sensor which periodically illuminates enemy players within its radius and the Repulsor which can be used to deflect projectiles. The multiplayer will launch alongside a Campaign mode, in which Master Chief and a mysterious new AI embark on a journey to find out how or why the old AI Cortana was deleted. You can watch the multiplayer trailer here:
- Forza Horizon 5
A personal highlight of mine was the demo of Forza Horizon 5, which showed off its new campaign mode where players can explore a representation of Mexico alone or together with strangers and friends. The map, which was introduced as “honest, authentic and filled with love”, looks truly stunning as Playground Games Limited demonstrated the life-like visuals and precise attention to detail which went into making this game. The open world aspect of the new campaign mode definitely has the potential to hook its players for several hours while they race through the desert or drive through little Mexican coastal towns. You can watch the presentation of Forza Horizon 5’s new game mode here:
- Far Cry 6
After an initial delay, the new Far Cry game is due to be released in October 2021. The latest gameplay trailer revealed the ‘resolver’ spirit of Far Cry 6, much of which is inspired by historic developments in Cuba. Ubisoft explains that while ‘Resolver’ means “to solve” in Spanish, it took up a far more complex meaning due to decades of scarcity brought on by trade embargoes and the later collapse of the Soviet Union. “Because importing items was so challenging, Cubans had to make do with whatever they already had on the island,” explains Lead Game Designer David Grivel. Thus, ‘resolver’ in this game is all about turning the player into a one-man guerrilla army, inflicting maximum chaos with what they have; the trailer presented a variety of stealth tools which can also be used to inflict damage.
Images: Xbox, Bethesda