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    Xbox Series X|S

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    The fourth Xbox console from Microsoft launched on November 10, 2020 with two distinct models; Series X and Series S.

    Not E3 2020: Microsoft

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    gamer_152

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    Edited By gamer_152  Moderator
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    Last time on video game industry, Microsoft put on a "gameplay reveal" for the Xbox Series X which contained neither any long-form gameplay nor that many Series X games. This lapse in marketing meant their arch-rivals Sony were now looking to be top dog. The purveyors of the PlayStation boasted floor-shaking announcements and a more extensive diversity of titles. But as hoped, Microsoft's earlier event was just a false start. With their Xbox Games Showcase, the wizards behind Windows were able to provide a more lingering glimpse of the experiences they'll be shipping this holiday. It was a promising sneak peek with the publisher displaying both respect for the customer's wallet and an appreciation of the limitless possibilities for games beyond traditional blockbusters. Here are some of the moments that stood out to me.

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    More than two years on from the shooter's announcement, and with its release just a couple of junctions away, it was high time we saw Halo Infinite in motion. The section that 343 Industries demoed was an animated homage to Halo: Combat Evolved's sophomore mission. It was the series returning to the same well one too many times for me. Combat Evolved was about exploring a Forerunner ringworld, Halo 2 was about discovering there were more arrays just like the one from the previous story, and Halo 3 delivered us to a reboot of the same setting. Halo Wars 2 returned players to the Ark and Installation from Halo 3 and Halo: The Master Collection was a literal remake of previous entries. There's so much fan service in this epic that it's having nostalgia trips about its nostalgia trips. Halo 5 felt like the series' most significant departure from the established conventions; it was where 343 stopped acting as a repeater for Bungie and became their own transmitter. So, it feels like they're limiting themselves to snap back to such familiar territory.

    But Halo is a lot like pizza: even when it's okay, it's great. Having been conditioned to associate the animations of each weapon with the feel of them, Halo's timeless gunplay blasted through the screen at me. The pistol recoiling as it unloads into a Grunt, the shotgun sending Brutes hurtling backwards, it's all like watching someone pop bubble wrap or peel the film off of a new phone. There's not many series that could get away, in 2020, with imitating what they were doing in 2001, but Halo's art and game design are just that enduring. And outfitting the Master Chief with a grapple hook, Halo joins Call of Duty, Doom, and Titanfall in promoting vertical traversal.

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    When evolving graphical technologies enabled developers to expand the borders of levels, sprint mechanics were necessary to let players speed along the X and Z axes on the new scale. A grapple allows a user to do the same on the Y-axis; it's a relief from all those times we've seen a clifftop we know we want to get to and have spent our time winding around the plateau, trying to find a way up. It also takes some pressure off of the level designers: if they want to put the player on higher ground, they no longer have to craft a series of gradual inclines for them to get there, they can rely on the player to hoist themselves up. The flip side is that a grapple makes it easier for the player to reach areas of the stage that would otherwise be off-limits to them. I wonder if Halo will be able to make players sweat to retrieve skulls when they can web sling through a level.

    Not that Infinite is just Halo 1 with abseiling. You wouldn't think it from this footage, but in peripheral statements, the developers say that the game will encourage free exploration of levels and offer up optional objectives. It will include a light upgrade system, allow free participation in its multiplayer, and act as a platform for multiple campaigns as opposed to containing one single-player journey. A lone slot on an ersatz E3 show doesn't lend itself to exhibiting such big-picture creative choices, but they're out there. The decision to make Infinite a campaign container makes a lot of sense. It may well explain why this isn't "Halo 6" and why the story we saw is closer to a sequel for Halo Wars 2 than a sequel for Halo 5. The creators can do more than conclude the trilogy; they can tell stories about whatever they want. From a production standpoint, the studio won't have to make a whole new Halo from the ground up every time it wants to introduce a new campaign mode; it can work within the toolset it has already built. Cheaper for it, more Halo for us.

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    Value for money is one of the chief weapons in Microsoft's arsenal as it heads into the ninth generation. It's cemented in the Xbox Game Pass which is not just an eye-popping deal for anyone searching for new play experiences; it's also a bridge between the current stable of hardware and the next. When a new console launches, you typically have to burn a whole wad of cash on the physical device, only to start building a new console library from scratch. In today's prices, those games weigh in at £50/$60 per unit, and launch gems are few and far between. With Game Pass, you can pay £8/$10 on top of the console price, and have access to over 100 pieces of software. Many of those items will be new, and many of those new items will be genuinely desirable experiences rather than time fillers to get us a year or two down the line when the quality levels out. We're a long way from a clunker like Ryse: Son of Rome being an integral entry on the launch slate and we may see a faster console adoption rate for the next generation because its library has received this jump start.

    The Game Pass selection includes not just systemically-grounded games, but also some artsy, character-focused recreation like Dontnod's Tell Me Why and INT./NIGHT's As Dusk Falls. I would be interested to know what sets Tell Me Why apart from the Life is Strange series. From what we've seen, both are dramas taken from the perspectives of young people where supernatural phenomena act as metaphors for emotional struggles. Often, coming to terms with trauma. Dontnod's plot work has sometimes been choppy, but it's evident in every one of their narratives that they love their characters. Their stories are unabashed in their sentimentality and manage to hit an inspiring balance between celebrating emotional ties between people and acknowledging the dark tragedies that too often shatter young lives.

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    As Dusk Falls evokes a similar tone to much of Dontnod's catalogue, but its use of cardboard cutout characters in 3D, dynamic environments is uncanny. When its characters are in shock, they also tend to look more gormless than surprised. On the more kinetic end of things, we have Psychonauts 2 which was looking graphically juicier back in late 2018 when the first trailer hit. The platformer Double Fine flaunted is missing a certain spark. I can jump on platforms; I can punch monsters, but what else? Then again, maybe what the Psychonauts community want is a surrealist platformer that plays like it's still 2005.

    A game like Tetris Effect Connected is more my speed. The two recent popular Tetris releases were made to light up very different parts of the player's brain. Tetris Effect was a responsive and impassioned audiovisual odyssey. Best played in a dark room or through a VR headset, it pulsed and chirped at the touch. Tetris 99 uses hobby-grade graphics but capitalises on the snappy D-Pad of the Switch to let you play as the most formidable Tetris combatant you can be. I don't expect the directional arrows on the Series X controller to be as light, but the idea of a game that brings together the beauty of Tetris Effect and the sport of Tetris 99 gets me hyped.

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    The Gunk is worth a mention if for no other reason than it being oddly pleasing to say "The Gunk". The Gunk is one of those games that relies not only on high fidelity graphics or only on prepossessing art direction but realises one through the other. The Gunk creates an alien atmosphere by wiring the aesthetics of the natural to synthetic chemistry. In The Gunk, we see bioluminescent fungi and pustules, along with foreboding, swampy flora and fauna. The Gunk.

    But for the most original use of that ferocious engine under the Series X's hood, look no further than The Medium. Bloober Team's new horror uses that 12 TFLOPS GPU to render two overlapping realities on-screen simultaneously. There have been games that have allowed us to switch between two worlds or see elements of another world in the one we're exploring. However, there's no more vivid visual metaphor for the player character being able to perceive another reality than a whole viewport on it taking up half the screen. Both the settings in The Medium were exquisitely detailed in their desiccation, with the game adopting Observer's environmental theme of homes that resist occupation. The cap on the show was a trailer for a new Fable. It's something I thought I wanted, but now that it's here, I wonder if Fable's repertoire of slapstick and fart jokes will hold up.

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    Overall, I still would have liked to see more gameplay from Microsoft, considering we're now months out from the launch of many of these games, but I'm also deeply impressed with the depth and variety of games that the publisher showed. Over the lastcouple of E3s, I lamented that Microsoft was giving the cold shoulder to indie games and more experimental projects. As Game Pass has grown in prestige, more sub-AAA and serious games have gotten a seat at the table again. I'll absolutely devour that new Halo when it launches, but even better, in its adolescence, the Series X will also see a story of two troubling siblings trying to process their childhood, a boy exploring the zany minds of strangers, a colourful, pounding new block puzzle challenge, a chance to skirt the line between two suffocating realities, and yes, even The Gunk. Thanks for reading.

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    bobafettjm

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    I came out of the event pretty excited for the new Xbox, just as I did after the PS5 event wanting a PS5. I was kind of surprised to see just how much people seemed to have hated it. It was nice to see a pretty balanced take on the event.

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    gamer_152

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    #2 gamer_152  Moderator

    @bobafettjm: Thank you. I can't say I've read around too much, although, I know there were some people frustrated that Microsoft were using the space to advertise Game Pass or who didn't like the graphical treatment on Halo Infinite. I understand where they're coming from, but overall, I saw a lot of positives in these streams.

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    nateandrews

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    I definitely expected more from the Halo Infinite reveal, though at this point I'm not quite sure what "more" would actually mean. 343's two prior entries have been my least two favorite Halo games, so clearly more of that wouldn't have done much for me. It just felt odd seeing a gameplay demo of what may as well have been a mission from the first Halo game, but with a somewhat underwhelming grappling hook. Very strange. The multiplayer in Halo has always been the draw for me though, so I'm still looking forward to seeing what that eventually looks like.

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