I’m happy to share some facts about what’s sure to become your favorite park management game of all time! Park Beyond is coming to Xbox Series X|S on June 16, 2023 and is now available for pre-order on the Xbox Store. From the beginning, we’ve been developing the game on console to give you the best experience. The entire UI and all our features have been custom designed for the Xbox version to provide an optimized gaming experience.
In Park Beyond, we give you the opportunity to build the park of your dreams. You can do this in our unique campaign guided by our loveable written characters or jump right into our sandbox mode.
Of course, we also have a deep management system with different layers, depending on how deep you would like to dive into this world of numbers but…
What makes Park Beyond special are the “Impossifications” – over the top versions of theme park feature that let you go beyond the humdrum and ordinary. And you can use these with so many features, it’ll make your head swim! You may have already seen how our normal Ferris wheel becomes a colossus with eleven wheels instead of just one. Or the Crazy Kraken is transformed from an (already awesome) whirling animatronic ride into a colossal, living, breathing octopus that throws guests through the air.
For purists, it is possible to stay within the limits of what is physically possible and enjoy all aspects of the game. But if reality is just too restrictive, there’s very little you can’t Impossify, even the deepest levels of our park management systems!
A janitor with a broom is a bit too dull? No problem! Give him a flamethrower and any garbage guests leave behind is incinerated on the spot. Your mechanics are only carrying around normal, boring equipment? No problem! See what a few extra exo arms can do.
You can also Impossify any beverage or grocery store in Park Beyond, increasing the fun factor for visitors. You’ll gasp in delight along with your guests the first time you see what happens to a simple kebab store or a coffee shop.
Our story is also Impossified. How is that possible, you ask? We’ve crafted a hearty selections of story missions for you to play through. Additionally, in our extensive campaign you will have different choices before each mission to drag you deeper into the story and increase the replayability. Our unique characters will take you by the hand and teach you all aspects of the game. Even simple tutorials are always connected with fun and entertaining dialogs or cutscenes.
You want infinite possibilities? The sandbox mode is the perfect place for that. You can use all the features we mentioned in the sandbox mode and combine them to design the park of your dreams. Just let your modular roller coasters whiz past your Impossified rides and then rush them right through one of your modular buildings and shoot your coaster through a cannon into a mountain, you created with terraforming.
And believe me when I say that is just the beginning…
Finally, you may wish to share your awesome creations with your friends. We’re all show-offs sometimes, aren’t we? Especially when we have spent hours or even days with the wildest creations and parks. I have very good news for you. We wanted to make sure you could share your creations with the world, and we are so excited to see what you come up with. We’ll give you the opportunity to share your content on Xbox Series X|S.
If all this sounds great and you can’t wait for the release anymore, then you won’t have to wait much longer. Park Beyond will be coming to Xbox Series X|S on June 16, 2023 and you can already pre-order it now on the Xbox Store.
We can’t wait to see what the park of your dreams will look like, but right now you’ll have to excuse me, it’s my turn to board the Fireball Express Screammaker 8000, so I’ll see you in the park!
Park Beyond Visioneer Edition Pre-Order
Bandai Namco Europe S.A.S.
☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
Pre-order Park Beyond and get the PAC-MAN™ Impossification Set as bonus. Enjoy themed rides, shops, decorations and entertainers to give the park of your dreams a unique look. The Visioneer Edition includes the full game, the Park Beyond: Annual Pass, as well as its Coaster Car Bonus, and Zombeyond Impossification Set. In Park Beyond, you can create the park of your dreams without being held back by gravity! Take the role of a newly-hired visionary architect for a struggling company and create mind-twisting theme parks. You can create the rides you have always dreamed about but that couldn’t exist in real life. Team up with Phil, the enthusiastic park veteran, Izzy, the stern but friendly executive, and a host of other colorful and passionate characters, to build a successful and profitable park company. The user-friendly controls and a story-driven campaign mode will help you learn the ropes of park management and build increasingly crazy rides and modular coasters. Success depends on your creativity!
Park Beyond Pre-Order
Bandai Namco Europe S.A.S.
☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
Pre-order Park Beyond and get the PAC-MAN™ Impossification Set as a bonus. Enjoy themed rides, shops, decorations and entertainers to give the park of your dreams a unique look. In Park Beyond, you can create the park of your dreams without being held back by gravity! Take the role of a newly-hired visionary architect for a struggling company and create mind-twisting theme parks. You can create the rides you have always dreamed about but that couldn’t exist in real life. Team up with Phil, the enthusiastic park veteran, Izzy, the stern but friendly executive, and a host of other colorful and passionate characters, to build a successful and profitable park company. The user-friendly controls and a story-driven campaign mode will help you learn the ropes of park management and build increasingly crazy rides and modular coasters. Success depends on your creativity!
LEGO 2K Drive is an all-new, open-world driving adventure coming to Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S
Cruise around the huge open world of Bricklandia in awesome transforming vehicles that let you drive across Street, Off-Road, and Water terrains! Explore multiple biomes, compete in races, complete quests, and build new rides!
Welcome to Bricklandia, home of a massive open-world driving adventure in LEGO 2K Drive! This all-new AAA LEGO driving game is coming to Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S on May 19 and is now available for pre-order.
Developed by Visual Concepts as part of a multi-title partnership between 2K and the LEGO Group, LEGO 2K Drive lets you race anywhere, play with anyone, build your dream rides, and defeat a cast of wild racing rivals in your quest for the coveted Sky Cup Trophy. This is driving made awesome.
In LEGO 2K Drive, your transforming vehicle gives you the freedom to speed seamlessly across Street, Off-Road, and Water terrains as you explore the vast landscape of Bricklandia.
The unique biomes of Bricklandia are rich with personality and exhilarating challenges, with tons to see and discover as you cruise around, compete in races, meet colorful characters, complete quests, collect treasures, and build new rides! The world is packed with LEGO humor and carefree fun, with lighthearted commentary provided by Awesome News Network anchors Vikki Wheeler and Parker Carr.
LEGO 2K Drive‘s expansive Story mode follows your journey from rookie roadster to renowned champion, with the ultimate goal of winning a Grand Brix Cup hosted on tracks among the clouds to claim the coveted Sky Cup Trophy. But to be the best, you’ll have to prove yourself against a series of rival racers and eventually triumph over the infamous Shadow Z, a braggadocious villain who doesn’t want to share the road with anyone. As you claim victory in more races and complete events throughout Bricklandia, you’ll unlock new areas and level up your License Class for additional abilities and extra speed.
Outside of the Story mode, which you can enjoy solo or in two-player splitscreen co-op, you can also jump straight to action with the single track Race and Cup Series tournament modes, or let loose in off-the-wall Minigames. Speaking of co-op multiplayer, you can roam across Bricklandia in a party of up to six pals in the Play With Friends online mode—and if you’re looking for some friendly competition, Play With Everyone mode lets you take on racers around the world to see who’s the fastest.
Drivers of all skill levels will have a blast cruising around Bricklandia, but LEGO 2K Drive‘s deep mechanics make it easy to learn and tough to master. The pick-up-and-play accessibility is great for younger audiences, while experienced drivers can go for the fastest times with clever use of exciting power-ups and techniques like drifting, boosting, quickturns, and even instantaneous jumps. Your drives can be as casual or competitive as you like!
When you’re not behind the wheel, unleash your creativity in the Garage, where building Street, Off-Road, and Water vehicles is as easy as snapping bricks together. Construct new cars and boats from scratch, modify any vehicle in your collection, or unwind by following guided builds, then take your creation for a spin. There are tons of customization options in the Garage, from individual brick shapes and paint jobs to finer details like the sounds of your horn and engine. Using Brickbux earned via gameplay, you can also unlock new vehicles, brick types, flairs, and more for your growing collection.
LEGO 2K Drive is available for pre-order as LEGO 2K Drive Standard Edition, LEGO 2K Drive Awesome Edition, and LEGO 2K Drive Awesome Rivals Edition, with the latter two editions offering bonus content packs and the Year 1 Drive Pass* featuring four seasons of post-launch content. Pre-order LEGO 2K Drive on the Xbox Store today and prepare to put the pedal to the plastic on May 19!
*Year 1 Drive Pass included with 2K Drive Awesome Edition and Awesome Rivals Edition. Also available for individual purchase. Base game required. For digital orders, Year 1 Drive Pass content will be automatically delivered in-game upon release. For physical orders, Year 1 Drive Pass content will be delivered via a code in box to be redeemed in game and available upon release. More details on the Year 1 Drive Pass will be shared in the future.
LEGO® 2K Drive Awesome Edition
2K
☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
The Awesome Edition includes LEGO® 2K Drive for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. Welcome to Bricklandia, home of a massive open-world LEGO® driving adventure. Race anywhere, play with anyone, build your dream rides, and defeat a cast of wild racing rivals for the coveted Sky Trophy! THE ULTIMATE LEGO DRIVING EXPERIENCE
Get behind the wheel and gear up for tons of open-world exploration and thrilling races! Take on the exciting Story mode, jump into a single race or Cup Series tourneys, and let loose in off-the-wall minigames. Master the art of drifting, boosting, jumping, and using power-ups to defeat opponents! RACE FOR THE SKY TROPHY
Story mode follows your journey from rookie racer to famous champion as you compete against a series of charismatic rivals. With each victory, you’ll work your way up the ranks to take on the infamous Shadow Z. OPEN-WORLD EXPLORATION
The vast and vibrant world of Bricklandia is yours to explore as you see fit, full of colorful characters and kooky quests. Zoom past lush fields on Turbo Acres‘ pavement, go off-roading in the deserts of Big Butte County, cruise across Prospecto Valley’s picturesque waterways, and more. UNLEASH YOUR CREATIVITY
Building vehicles in the Garage is as easy as snapping bricks together. Construct new cars and boats from scratch, modify any vehicle in your collection, or unwind with guided builds, then take your creation for a drive! PLAY TOGETHER AT HOME AND ONLINE
Roam around Bricklandia in local splitscreen or join your driving buddies online! THERE’S MORE AWESOME IN THE AWESOME EDITION
LEGO 2K Drive Awesome Edition includes: – Aquadirt Racer Pack
– Year 1 Drive Pass: Includes Season 1, 2, 3 and 4 DLC packs. the Awesome Pizza Vehicle. Release timing of the DLC contents will be revealed at a future date. – 550 Coins
– Awesome Bonus Pack: Includes Wheelie Stunt Driver Minifigure, Machio Beast Vehicle and a Vehicle Flair. – 3 Day Early Access
Do a little hunting and fishing with this weekend’s Free Play Days! Seek out a fanatical doomsday cult residing in rural America, experience the thrill of landing a record-setting bass, or become the Hunter and team up with superheroes from the Marvel universe. Far Cry 5, Bassmaster Fishing 2022: Classic Edition, and Marvel’s Midnight Suns Enhanced Edition are available this weekend for Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate member to play from Thursday, March 23 at 12:01 a.m. PDT until Sunday, March 26 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.
How to Start Playing
Find and install the games on each of the individual game details page on Xbox.com. Clicking through will send you to the Microsoft Store, where you must be signed in to see the option to install with your Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership. To download on console, click on the Subscriptions tab in the Xbox Store and enter the Gold member area to locate the Free Play Days collection on your Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Keep the Fun Going
Purchase the game and other editions at a limited time discount and continue playing while keeping your Gamerscore and earned achievements during the event! Please note that discounts and percentages may vary by title and region.
Game Details
Bassmaster Fishing: 2022 Bassmaster Classic
Marvel’s Midnight Suns Enhanced Edition
Far Cry 5
Celebrate Far Cry’s fifth anniversary with Far Cry 5, one of the most acclaimed games in the franchise, and now available at 60 FPS on Xbox Series X|S. Plus, you can save up to 85% off all editions during Free Play Days.
Discover the open world of Hope County, Montana, besieged by a fanatical doomsday cult. Dive into the action in solo or two-player co-op of the story campaign, use a vast arsenal of weapons and allies, and free Hope County from Joseph Seed and his cult.
Bassmaster Fishing: 2022 Bassmaster Classic
Grab those shades, attach that lure, and get ready to reel in a prize catch – The Bassmaster Classic is coming to Free Play Days! In Bassmaster Fishing: 2022 Bassmaster Classic, anglers can relive the thrill of big bass fishing on Lake Hartwell and explore 8 more locations around the USA.
Whether taking to the water solo or playing online against other anglers, the right combination of boats, rods, lures, reels and… sunglasses, will determine whether you lift that coveted Bassmaster trophy or flounder at the foot of the leader board. If you’re casting out this weekend – Tight lines!
Marvel’s Midnight Suns Enhanced Edition
Get ready to dive deep into the darker side of the Marvel Universe with Marvel’s Midnight Suns, a unique tactical RPG that combines rich storytelling and character relationships with a revolutionary card-based combat system crafted by the strategy masters at Firaxis Games!
For those looking to go for maximum effort, check out the Marvel’s Midnight Suns Season Pass, which is also included in the Legendary Edition. The Season Pass adds four DLC packs bringing recruitable new heroes, story missions, new upgrades for the Abbey, and new skins and outfits. Deadpool and Venom have already been released, with Morbius and Storm on the way!
Don’t miss out on this exciting Free Play Days for Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate member! Learn more about Free Play Days here and stay tuned to Xbox Wire to find out about future Free Play Days and all the latest Xbox gaming news.
“Gaming sustainability is something that Xbox is very proud of, and making big strides in. But, with climate [change], you can’t beat your competitor at it. You have to compete against your own best self in every category. And just like we’re saying, ‘When everyone plays, everyone wins,’ the same goes for, ‘When everyone reduces energy and emissions, everyone on the planet wins.’ No doubt about it.”
Appearing on the podcast following Xbox’s announcement of a new suite of developer tools designed to reduce energy use and emissions through game code, Patterson explained how she and her team have been making ground-breaking strides to help the entire industry apply more sustainable thinking, and to “create powerful good using the gaming industry”
It’s not been a simple task. “For a long time, the industry has maintained that there’s no gains to be found in greening game code,” Patterson explained. “And that’s because there’s an enormous complexity between the hardware, the software, the electrical and other engineering, the design, and then the game code itself that creates the power that is required in order to create the gaming experience.”
“Broadly considered, the industry decided that this was a completely intractable problem – in fact, within the UN’s Playing for the Planet Alliance, it was considered even as of a month ago to be an impossible problem to solve.”
The solution to that seemingly impossible problem was to create resources for developers to identify ‘Energy Bugs’ – previously invisible problems created by coding that can unintentionally use more power than needed – at source, and fix them quickly. While Xbox has already taken strides to reduce power usage in consoles themselves, this new effort will aid developers in reducing power consumption caused by the games you play on them.
“You can have fun breaking things in a game. And right now we’re not having fun breaking the planet. Let’s have fun fixing it.”
At GDC, Xbox announced the rollout of a new Developer Sustainability Toolkit, a power monitoring system, certification reports, power consumption dashboards, guides, case studies, and a pilot program that offers specialist assistance to game devs looking to work on their games’ energy consumption. The goal is to, “precision engineer the visual and analytical feedback that is needed for game developers to make changes to their code that will allow them to reduce energy consumption on the consoles in the living room of every gamer in the world.”
That openness, that this isn’t only applicable to the Xbox platform, is key here: “The thing that I find really remarkable is that when a studio sees what a no-brainer it is to fix so many of these Energy Bugs, they fix them in a way that is not just reducing emissions on the Xbox console platform, but they’re instituting [them] to the entire game code. And that game code then gets released to almost every other platform that they are releasing to in the future.”
The work won’t stop with Xbox developers, either: “We are empowering and inviting the rest of the industry to use these insights, these case studies, these tools, and also inspire their own investigations in order to be able to create impact, no matter how small or large their gaming studio is.”
The overall goal here is to make the enormous size of the games industry not a problem for sustainability, but a part of the solution – and making use of the inherent positivity of that creative space:
“In the environmental field, things are going haywire right and left. It’s a depressing field. If society focuses on everything going wrong all the time, and we’re encountering stories of loss and destruction, it’s true that statistically there are many challenges in front of us, but gaming opens up all of this remarkable, creative problem solving… You can have fun breaking things in a game. And right now we’re not having fun breaking the planet. Let’s have fun fixing it.”
There’s an Elite controller for everyone. No matter what games you like to play, the controller provides you with the best experience to fit your gaming style. To highlight this, we’re introducing Xbox Elite Cereal, which puts passionate gamers at the forefront of popular culture in a way that’s reserved for traditional athletes and celebrities. While not a real cereal, it’s a metaphor for all the ways any gamer can be Elite with their own perfect Elite Series 2 controller.
We’ve partnered with gaming influencers, Chica, Myth, and Loserfruit to celebrate the unparalleled value, choice, and diversity of the Elite Series 2 lineup. They will share more about their experience with Elite and this new partnership on their respective TikTok channels throughout the rest of this month.
Of course, if this was a real cereal, it would need to come complete with an Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 inside as a prize. We’ve even come up with some fictional flavors for Xbox Elite Cereal, each representing the three different members of the Elite family:
Wheat Flakes: Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2
Frosted Wheats: Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 – Core in white
Mallos: Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 with Xbox Design Lab
Every good cereal also needs its own jingle and mascot. Inspired by the iconic characters and catchy tunes of classic cereal advertisements, the Xbox Elite Cereal commercial introduces our new Elite mascot, who’s here to help everyone choose the Elite Series 2 controller that’s best for them. Watch the official Xbox Elite Cereal commercial below/here:
Visit the brand-new Elite Family page on Xbox.com to learn more and find your own Elite Series 2 controller.
With the release of Dead Island 2 approaching as fast as a horde of zombies, we’re here to tell you a bit about some of the zombie types you’ll meet when you visit HELL-A next month.
There are three different variations — Infected, Apex and Variant — each with different strengths and weaknesses, but you’ll learn your favorite ways to dispose of each and every one of them (if you’re that way inclined). There are also certain zombie killing challenges within Dead Island 2 and once complete, you’ll learn more about each zombie to help you find the best ways to slay.
Infected Types
Let’s start with the easiest zombies to kill, the Infected types, of which there are three — Walkers, Shamblers and Runners. First up are Walkers. They have no resistance or weakness to any weapons and can be butchered easily in one-on-one combat, so they’re definitely the ones you will have the most fun with at the start.
While Shamblers are frail, rotting and slow, they’re weak to blunt and explosive damage but resist bleed damage as they lack blood! Their bones are so brittle their own attacks often cause their limbs to break off. Keep an out for large numbers of these though.
As for Runners, they’re attracted to loud noises and as they’re fast, so they can cover ground quickly. They’re weak to sharp and bleed damage, though watch out, as they have a Push attack which will knock you backwards.
Apex Types
Next up are some of the more challenging zombie types — Bursters, Butchers, Crushers, Screamers and Slobbers. Bursters are bloated with volatile gas and infectious black blood that spreads the zombie virus and they’re properly DISGUSTING. You don’t want to get to close to them when they explode, BUT they also damage nearby zombies, so use that to your advantage.
Butchers are our least favorite – they feed on corpses to regrow their own bodies, so you have to finish them off quickly before they regenerate. They have terrifying blade-like hands too, and it’s likely you’ll hear them before you see them.
Crushers are swollen with autophage-reinforced muscle fibers and their overhead smash sends a seismic shockwave through the ground — jump over it to stop getting knocked to the ground — and then take advantage of the Crusher’s momentary weakness. Top tip: you can stop this powerful attack by maiming their arm.
We think the worst type of zombie you’ll meet are the Screamers. Their voltaic lungs produce a plasma-induced stream of sonic shockwaves which force you backwards and attract all zombies in the surrounding area. Projectile attacks are the only way to defeat them.
Unfortunately the best way to defeat our next zombie – Slobbers – is to get close as fast as possible to stop them puking caustic bile and then force them into melee combat. They resist blunt and projectile damage and are immune to caustic damage, but slice or shock them to cause the most damage.
Variant Types
Don’t get too comfortable just yet… you haven’t met the Variant zombies! This is when things start to get really spicy. Burning Runners will ignite anything flammable they come into contact with and, as you’d expect, they’re immune to fire damage, but water and chem bombs will extinguish their raging flames.
As the name might suggest, Grenadier Walkers wear a vest loaded with grenades, ready to explode the moment they receive any damage. You’re better off focusing damage on limbs or the head when in close combat to try and prevent the vest detonating. Finally, Riot Gear Walkers — to even get close to defeating them, use melee and projectile attacks — explosives are a great way to knock that armor off.
That’s it for now, as we don’t want to spoil too much ahead of launch on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S on April 21st.
There’s still time to sign up to the Dead Island 2 newsletter and get the Tricksters’ Smile Knife at DeadIsland.com. Now, where did we put that katana?
DEAD ISLAND 2 GOLD EDITION
Deep Silver
☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
Dead Island 2 is thrilling First-Person Action RPG, stylish, vibrant and flooded with zombie infection. Explore iconic, gore-drenched Los Angeles. Meet larger-than-life characters. Slay countless foes in exquisitely bloody detail. And evolve to become the ultimate Zombie Slayer! The Gold Edition includes the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game, two premium character packs, Golden and Pulp Weapons Packs and Expansion Pass. The Expansion Pass gives access to two brand new chapters of the story coming after release. Pre-order now and get the Memories of Banoi Pack. FEATURES Explore HELL-A – Dead Island 2 takes players across the most iconic locations of the City of Angels, now stained with horror, in an exciting pulp journey from the verdant suburbia of Beverly Hills to the quirky promenade of Venice Beach. Brutal Melee Sandbox – Combat delivers the most intense, visceral and gory first person experience possible, with plenty of weapons and tactical (and brutal) options to chew your way through the zombie horde. Whether you’re slicing, smashing, burning or ripping, we want you to truly feel it. Be the Ultimate Zombie Slayer – There are six characters to choose from, each with their own unique personality and dialogues. You can fully customize the abilities of each Slayer, with our brand-new skill system allowing you to re-spec instantly and try out the craziest builds. Zombie Infestation – Ready to experience the most advanced dismemberment system in games? Our LA is crawling with zombies that look and react realistically. These mutated wretches are the reanimated, rotten heart of Dead Island 2 with dozens of distinct zombie types, each with their own mutations, attacks and hundreds of visual LA-themed variants. Our monsters are relentless, challenging, and true Los Angelinos. Will you be able to survive? A Cinematic Co-op Adventure – As a proper RPG experience, Dead Island 2 offers plenty of exciting quests, a crazy cast of characters, and a thrilling pulp story, to truly immerse you in its twisted universe. Re-playability is guaranteed. Add an over-the-top co-op mode for up to three players, and you’ll stay in LA for a very long (and gory) trip.
I went hands-on with Redfall, playing a solo mission twice to discover how much of a difference your character choice will make.
Redfall launches with four characters, each with wildly differing abilities and upgrade paths, making each paythrough different.
Redfall arrives on May 2 for Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, and will be part of Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass on day one.
Arkane has always been a studio that puts player choice at the heart of its ideas. Dishonored gives you huge choice about how to approach your hapless targets. Deathloop, created by Arkane Austin’s sister studio in Lyon, lets you tackle its story in a close-to-infinite number of ways. Prey offers you tools to uncover the mystery hidden at its core, but doesn’t stand in the way of you using them however you’d like. It stands to reason that Arkane Austin’s newest project, Redfall, would live by the same code. But the way it’s approaching that player choice is strikingly new – your approach to taking back a vampire-strewn Massachusetts island will be defined as much by the character you choose to play, as it is your actual interactions.
Redfall’s cast of four playable heroes is the largest an Arkane game has offered. After playing through a 90-minute demo twice, using two different solo characters, it becomes abundantly clear what the team is aiming for here – Redfall is a game that opens up in very different directions based on who you play as – in mechanics, in combat, in exploration, and even in the way it tells its story.
The story mission I was presented with was fairly simple. Get to a mansion on the edge of town, enter a scientist’s lab, and discover his connection to the vampire plague that’s seen you trapped on the island. Getting to that mansion is the tougher part. I chose to make a beeline through the heart of Redfall, passing through Vampire Nests and violent cultist territory, and eventually into the mansion grounds – patrolled, as you’d expect, by a large number of enemies. Much of your route is urban by design, meaning tightly packed streets, high walls, and not a huge amount of room in which to manoeuvre.
Each character comes with a range of upgradable skills and, as I discovered, they make an enormous difference to that journey. I played this same mission with two characters – Devinder Crousley and Remi de la Rosa – and found that the way played was affected entirely by that choice. Here’s how those playthroughs went:
Playing With Remi
An elite Navy rescue team member, Remi is the prototypical action star of the bunch. Having spent her life on combat frontlines, she’s equipped to take on Redfall’s many monstrosities with brute force. But she’s also an engineer, and has brought along a robot buddy, Bribón to help her do so with more finesse than simply “stake anything that moves”.
As you might expect, Remi’s toolkit is designed to let her take down groups of enemies from close range (and she has passive upgrade that allow her to increase close range damage, pushing you further down that path), and to keep her alive while she does so. Her most aggressive ability is a sticky C4 charge that can be detonated remotely, letting you damage multiple enemies at once, or set traps as you guide enemies you grief into its path. To help you with the latter, Remi can also use Bribón (who is a separate AI character, with its own healthbar and attacks) to set off a siren, letting you alert multiple enemies and draw them to you.
Combining these two abilities became key to how I got through Redfall’s streets smoothly. After spotting enemies, I’d throw down a C4 charge and set off Bribón’s siren – a group would charge the robot, while I snuck around cover and flanked them. Having upgraded my siren ability to let me do more damage to enemies that had been attracted by it, I’d then finish off the group with a shotgun, using its attached stake to take down any vampires I put into a vulnerable state.
Playing with Remi as a solo character turns Redfall into an action-packed experience, asking you to balance risk and reward constantly.
If things got too hairy, I could turn to Remi’s ultimate ability, Mobilize, creating a rally point that healed me while I was inside its radius. In these moments, I played like a classic tank, absorbing lots of damage while dealing even more of my own. Most vampires can’t be killed with bullets alone, so in battle with multiple monsters, I’d switch out my shotgun-and-stake for a weapon that fired a UV beam – useless against human enemies, but able to turn vampires to stone in short order, letting me shatter them with a simple melee attack.
I cleared vampire nests (psychical spaces that offer big rewards in return for taking on their challenges) and unlocked a safehouse, which offers safe harbour, a new fast travel point, and extra missions. But attracting so much attention on the streets also increased the attention of the island’s Vampire Gods. As I approached the mansion, a lightning storm erupted around me, and saw the appearance of the Rook – a brutal, melee-focused mini-boss sent to kill me for doing so much damage along the way. It’s a lovely, emergent touch, and an extra trial designed to test you after you’ve begun to master combat.
With the experience I earned from taking down the Rook, I also upgraded my C4 charge to let me ‘boom jump’, taking no area of effect damage and eliminating fall damage, but I used this mainly as another means to get behind enemies while they were distracted – and once I entered the mansion grounds, I combined my abilities to clear out as many enemies as possible in its gardens because of how much aggression I could absorb, before entering its winding corridors with a stake launcher (able to one-shot most vampires) to take down any stragglers.
As you can tell, playing with Remi as a solo character turns Redfall into an action-packed experience, asking you to balance risk and reward constantly. But playing as Devinder offered a very different vibe while engaging with the same mission.
Playing With Devinder
Think of Devinder as, essentially, all four Ghostbusters rolled into one – he has the scientific expertise of Spengler, the wonder of Stantz, the cool demeanour of Zeddemore, and the wit of Venkman. A filmmaker and author with an audience interested in the paranormal, his kit revolves around inventions he’s created to find and document supernatural entities – but he’s now had to upgrade it to kill them off as well.
Devinder’s kit is very different to Remi’s. His Arc Javelin is a mid-range attack that acts as a combined stake and area-of-effect attack, sending electricity out to incapacitate enemies (and vampires can be outright killed by being hit by its lightning). His ultimate, Blacklight, is a super-powered UV beam weapon, which can transform an entire area of vampires into stone near-instantly – very useful for getting out of a tight spot.
And this is the interesting thing about playing as Devinder – the final piece of his toolset is as much about avoiding attention as it is dealing with it. The Translocator is Redfall’s closest analogue to Dishonored’s Blink, a throwable device that lets you instantly transport to where it lands. As a result, instead of getting into action on the streets, I spent most of my journey getting onto rooftops, quietly taking out Watchers (a Vampire form that act like roving security cameras) with my Javelin, and sneaking past larger groups.
Think of Devinder as, essentially, all four Ghostbusters rolled into one.
Like with Remi, I took out a Vampire Nest on my way – but instead of running in guns blazing, I carefully scaled a church roof, entering a belltower and creeping into the encounter instead of taking down the guards around it. And without attracting so much ire, I also didn’t have to take on the Rook, who would have been a sterner challenge with a set of weapons built more for long-range combat.
Even the more manicured mansion grounds played out differently with Devinder. Instead of entering through the front gates, I used my translocator to sneak into the back garden, bypassing deadly areas of Blood Mist that had forced Remi to use the front door. It felt like playing the same game made by a different set of developers, with different interests in how to challenge you, adding a puzzle layer on top of its meaty gunplay.
But perhaps my favorite part of playing with Devinder wasn’t mechanical at all – it was how he told the story along the way. As a para-scientist, Devinder’s interactions with all of this weren’t defined by anger, fear, or triumph as much as they were by fascination. Every new type of vampire I met was greeted by Devinder talking about their physiology or behavior, ending with him giving them a name – a Watcher, a Shroud, and so on (clearly, Devinder is the member of the group creating the vampire taxonomy that the rest of the team use). It’s a lovely choice, making playing with Devinder as much of a documentary about the vampire plague as it is an action story.
Mixing it Up
Of course, the two other characters, Layla and Jacob, would have changed this experience for themselves. And this is just in solo play – every character also comes with abilities designed for co-op play (which also increases the number of enemies you need to fight as you go). Remi can upgrade Bribón to heal the whole team is they stay close by, while Devinder can up allies’ damage through ‘Color Commentary’. I’m just as fascinated to see how these disparate toolsets work when combined as I am to try them all solo.
Even at this early stage, this spin on Arkane’s traditional openness to player expression is intoxicating, enlivening both solo and co-op play. I’m very excited to try out those other characters and delve deeper into how Redfall will let us experiment with its tools.
Redfall Bite Back Edition
Bethesda Softworks
☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
Redfall is an open-world, single player and co-op FPS from Arkane Austin, the award-winning team behind Prey and Dishonored. Continuing Arkane’s legacy of carefully crafted worlds and immersive sims, Redfall brings the studio’s signature gameplay to this story-driven action shooter. Dig your teeth into the Bite Back Edition and receive the Redfall Hero Pass, the Throwback Outfit Pack, Laser Beam multi-weapon skin, and the Tactical Knife Stake weapon attachment for close-range fights. The Redfall Hero Pass gives you access to two future heroes with unique powers and gameplay. The Throwback Outfit Pack includes a unique outfit and backpack for each of the four base heroes inspired by their lives before Redfall. INCLUDES:
– Redfall Base Game – Redfall Hero Pass with Two Future Heroes
– Laser Beam Multi-Weapon Skin
– Tactical Knife Stake Weapon Attachment
– Northern Expedition Devinder Outfit – Eyes in the Dark Jacob Outfit – War Clothes Layla Outfit – Engineer Volunteer Remi Outfit Pre-order or play on Game Pass to receive the Vampire Hunter Pack, including: – Level 2 Unrivaled Grim Tide Shotgun
– Polar Vortex Multi-Weapon Skin – Blood Ravager Stake weapon attachment FEATURES: Uncover the Truth, Take Back Redfall
The island town of Redfall, Massachusetts, is under siege by a legion of vampires who have blocked out the sun and cut the citizens off from the outside world. Explore the open world and immerse yourself in a deep story campaign as you unravel the mystery behind the vampires’ appearance. Ally with a handful of survivors against the creatures threatening to bleed the town dry. Slay Alone or Squad Up
Redfall blends single- and multiplayer options seamlessly, allowing the player to venture into the darkness alone or to squad-up for up to four player co-op. Teammates can try different hero loadouts and combine their strengths to find creative solutions to the vampire apocalypse. You will collect an arsenal of specialized weaponry and customize your character with unique upgrades and abilities to suit your playstyle for guns blazing, stealth combat, and everything in-between. Unconventional Heroes Vs. The Night
Created by science experiments gone wrong and gifted with psychic abilities, Redfall’s vampires will challenge you and your squad to get creative. You will choose from a team of diverse heroes – each with their own character-specific abilities – to overcome the vampire legion and their brood of maniacal followers.
– DEVINDER CROUSLEY – The Verified Cryptid Hunter: A cryptozoologist and aspiring inventor. Armed with weapons of his own creation, he’s on a mission to prove himself.
– LAYLA ELLISON – The Telekinetic Threat: A biomedical engineering student who volunteered for a medical trial where something went very wrong, leaving her with intense telekinetic abilities.
– REMI DE LA ROSA – The Ingenious Ingeniera: A brilliant combat engineer who has spent her life on the frontlines. With the help of her robot cohort, Bribón, she’s determined to help rescue Redfall’s survivors.
– JACOB BOYER – The Deadeye with an Undead Eye: An ex-military sharpshooter turned private contractor. Strange happenings on Redfall have left Jacob with a mysterious vampiric eye and a spectral raven that’s never far from his side. The Open World of Redfall
Redfall is a true Arkane experience set in a rich world that blends the familiar with the extraordinary. Redfall’s open world is handcrafted by the master level designers behind Prey’s Talos I space station and Dishonored’s Dunwall. From the town’s once-bustling downtown and the haunted forest to the decimated seaside boardwalk and beyond, you will fight through cultist outposts and supernatural psychic spaces as you piece together Redfall’s many mysteries.
Redfall
Bethesda Softworks
☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
Redfall is an open-world, single player and co-op FPS from Arkane Austin, the award-winning team behind Prey and Dishonored. Continuing Arkane’s legacy of carefully crafted worlds and immersive sims, Redfall brings the studio’s signature gameplay to this story-driven action shooter. Pre-order or Play on Game Pass to receive the Vampire Hunter Pack, including: – Level 2 Unrivaled Grim Tide Shotgun
– Polar Vortex Multi-Weapon Skin – Blood Ravager Stake Weapon Attachment Upgrade to the Bite Back Edition to receive:
– Redfall Base Game – Redfall Hero Pass with Two Future Heroes
– Laser Beam Multi-Weapon Skin
– Tactical Knife Stake Weapon Attachment
– Throwback Outfit Pack (Unique Outfit for Each Hero) FEATURES: Uncover the Truth, Take Back Redfall
The island town of Redfall, Massachusetts, is under siege by a legion of vampires who have blocked out the sun and cut the citizens off from the outside world. Explore the open world and immerse yourself in a deep story campaign as you unravel the mystery behind the vampires’ appearance. Ally with a handful of survivors against the creatures threatening to bleed the town dry. Slay Alone or Squad Up
Redfall blends single- and multiplayer options seamlessly, allowing the player to venture into the darkness alone or to squad-up for up to four player co-op. Teammates can try different hero loadouts and combine their strengths to find creative solutions to the vampire apocalypse. You will collect an arsenal of specialized weaponry and customize your character with unique upgrades and abilities to suit your playstyle for guns blazing, stealth combat, and everything in-between. Unconventional Heroes Vs. The Night
Created by science experiments gone wrong and gifted with psychic abilities, Redfall’s vampires will challenge you and your squad to get creative. You will choose from a team of diverse heroes – each with their own character-specific abilities – to overcome the vampire legion and their brood of maniacal followers.
– DEVINDER CROUSLEY – The Verified Cryptid Hunter: A cryptozoologist and aspiring inventor. Armed with weapons of his own creation, he’s on a mission to prove himself.
– LAYLA ELLISON – The Telekinetic Threat: A biomedical engineering student who volunteered for a medical trial where something went very wrong, leaving her with intense telekinetic abilities.
– REMI DE LA ROSA – The Ingenious Ingeniera: A brilliant combat engineer who has spent her life on the frontlines. With the help of her robot cohort, Bribón, she’s determined to help rescue Redfall’s survivors.
– JACOB BOYER – The Deadeye with an Undead Eye: An ex-military sharpshooter turned private contractor. Strange happenings on Redfall have left Jacob with a mysterious vampiric eye and a spectral raven that’s never far from his side. The Open World of Redfall
Redfall is a true Arkane experience set in a rich world that blends the familiar with the extraordinary. Redfall’s open world is handcrafted by the master level designers behind Prey’s Talos I space station and Dishonored’s Dunwall. From the town’s once-bustling downtown and the haunted forest to the decimated seaside boardwalk and beyond, you will fight through cultist outposts and supernatural psychic spaces as you piece together Redfall’s many mysteries.
Hello there, fellow Agents! It’s been a long time coming, but I’m incredibly excited to announce that Deceive Inc. – my studio’s brand new social stealth PvP extraction shooter – is out now on Xbox Series X|S!
As Deceive Inc. Agents, you’ll be dropped into exotic locales – tasked with remaining undercover, gathering intel, and competing with rival Agents to thwart each respective evil villain’s plan for world domination. Secret agent caper? Nah! Just another day at the office.
Deceive Inc. is not your typical multiplayer game. One of the shining examples of this is in how we approach map design. Each map in Deceive Inc. effectively serves as its own tiny open world. Crawling with NPCs, secret corridors, a VIP villain, and more, the maps we’ve designed at Sweet Bandits Studios are purpose-built to feel uniquely alive and full of discovery.
To prepare you for your new life as a secret agent, I threw together this summary of all four maps available at launch. Just don’t tell IRIS, they may get mad at me.
Hard Sell
In the regal home of information broker-turned-supervillain, Sebastian Garcia, Agents must infiltrate an auction to steal the Bull’s Eye: an art piece containing a hard drive full of secret government data.
In operation Hard Sell, you’ll find yourself navigating Garcia’s Super-Villa as attendees and party-goers await a high-profile auction. As a tried-and-true super villain, Sebastian Garcia has retrofitted his mansion with loads of corridors and secret passageways to discover.
Silver Reef
As two disruptors in the world of high-fashion bulletproof fabric, the Evensen Twins know how to show up in style. Which is why they’ve booked the luxurious Frozen Coral Hotel for the unveiling of a brand new prototype. Fashion is serious business. Especially for Deceive Inc.! Which is why the Agents have been tasked with preventing this prototype from hitting the market.
A shining example of the extravagance and excess of high fashion, Silver Reef is a hotel resort designed to be pure spectacle, but it also serves another purpose. This map is the only one to feature two VIP characters, the Evensen twins. Having two VIP characters to disguise yourself as makes it twice as hard for players to sus out who could be a player, and who is the NPC. Use this tactic to your advantage.
Diamond Spire
Jati bin Teh is a force to be reckoned with. As a business mogul, actor, musician, and athlete; his sphere of influence has inflated to an incredibly dangerous level. His Aspire by Jati Tower contains a R&D Laboratory where they have reportedly synthesized a highly addictive secret ingredient for the entrepreneur’s new sports drink. Jati has become big enough. It’s up to Deceive Inc. to balance the market.
Diamond Spire is the Deceive Inc. map with the most verticality. How you approach exploring the map’s many levels will determine your success during the insertion phase. Choose your gadgets wisely, and you may find that the increase in mobility will help you sweep through this skyscraper quicker than your rival agents.
Fragrant Shore
For this mission, Deceive Inc. is sending you to San Flores – a gorgeous tropical port city in the Caribbean. Intel suggests that this quaint island getaway is also where fragrance maven Luana is synthesizing her new eau de parfum. Not only will it make you smell amazing, it will also give her complete control over your mind. If you don’t mind, follow the scent, and extract this toxin, agents. We’re counting on you.
Fragrant Shore takes place primarily outdoors. There are tons of alleyways to take cover in if you find yourself overwhelmed in a firefight. Once it comes time to infiltrate the vault, you’ll find that there are less places to hide, and you may come across a bottleneck that brings you face to face with your rival agents. Make sure you explore all of your options for entering the vault, as the most obvious option may not be the best one.
Stay up to date on Deceive Inc. by following @PlayDeceiveInc on Twitter and Instagram, and also make sure to join the top-tier agents over on our Discord! Most importantly, play Decieve, Inc.on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One today!
Happy extracting, agents!
Deceive Inc. – Standard Edition
Tripwire Interactive LLC
☆☆☆☆☆36
★★★★★
Welcome, agent, to DECEIVE INC. Go undercover as the world’s greatest secret agents in this multiplayer game of social stealth and subterfuge. Disguise yourself as anyone to blend into the crowd, deploy high-tech gadgets to gain the upper hand, and extract the package before the competition takes it for themselves! No trick is too dirty when you work for DECEIVE INC. Game Features: MEET THE SPIES – Pick your play style with a roster of diverse agents, each with their own customizable weapon and skillset. From world-renowned burglars to up-and-coming espionage sensations, DECEIVE INC. prides itself on being an equal opportunity employer. GEAR UP – Create your loadout from a plethora of highly versatile gadgets. With agent’s favorites like the Inflatable mat, holo-mimic, and bulletproof umbrella, our world-class R&D department has you covered. Literally. MASTER YOUR DISGUISE – Use your trusty holographic watch to avoid detection and infiltrate restricted areas by disguising yourself as one of the various types of NPCs. Or equip the holo-mimic gadget to fully blend in by taking the form of inanimate objects like toilets, chairs, plants, and more! VISIT EXOTIC LOCALES – While working for DECEIVE INC., you’ll visit many locations all over the globe. Teeming with sophisticated NPCs and full of secrets for you to discover, every map comes to life the minute you load into a match. CHOOSE YOUR MODE – Squad up with other agents and craft the perfect heist in Teams mode, or squash the competition as a lone wolf in Solos. DECEIVE INC. also features support for gaming in 4K HDR at 60 FPS on Xbox Series X|S Want to get a taste of what it’s like to work at DECEIVE INC.? From November 11th to November 13th come join us for an invite-only Closed Alpha Internship! (Unpaid and potentially unsafe, of course)
Join the young king Evan on a grand adventure that blurs the line of animated feature film and video game in Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom – The Prince’s Edition, launching on Xbox, Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass today.
As a king, Evan bears the responsibility of great power. He’ll personally set forth and do battle to unite and save his people in this action RPG. However, the king’s duty does not end there. As part of the main game, Evan must also develop his empire in a city simulator-like Kingdom Management mode, and lead his army in a real-time-strategy like Skirmish mode.
These two modes will become important parts of Evan’s journey as he works to demonstrate his leadership on and off the battlefield, so read on for a dive into how they work and a couple of tips to get you started.
Kingdom Management Mode
After a certain point in the story, Evan will be able to sit upon his throne to initiate Kingdom Management mode. Starting from a small humble town, you will help Evan lead his people by choosing which buildings to construct and assigning citizens to work on their respective sections.
Each building will provide significant conveniences or bonuses to your kingdom. Some buildings constructed in Kingdom Management mode are the sole source of some rare items.
Citizens will drive upgrades and research in Evan’s kingdom. Each citizen has their own specialty and bonus that will make them more suited for one job or the other. It’ll be Evan’s job as king to make this assessment and decision.
Pro Tip: Prioritize the Evermore Spellworks if magic is more appealing to you. This building will allow you to upgrade and research new spells!
Skirmish Mode
To build and expand his kingdom, Evan must demonstrate his tactical prowess by leading his army against other enemy armies in a real-time-strategy-like mode called Skirmish mode. In this mode, Evan will command up to 4 units of soldiers. Each soldier type is easily distinguished by the color of their uniform.
Pro Tip: Solider type effectiveness is also determined by weapon type. For example, Swords are strong against Hammers, Hammers are strong against Spears, and Spears are strong against Swords. In other words, Sword > Hammer > Spears > Sword. Bows are strong against all weapon types, but vulnerable to melee attackers.
In Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom – The Prince’s Edition, Evan will need a versatile skill set to successfully embrace his role as king. How will you choose to rise to the occasion?
Enjoy the game on Xbox Game Pass today, which includes all the DLCs that introduce new gameplay and story content; Adventure Pack, The Lair of the Lost Lord, and The Tale of a Timeless Tome. Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Windows.
Ni no Kuni™ II: Revenant Kingdom – The Prince’s Edition
Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc.
☆☆☆☆☆84
★★★★★
$79.99$59.99
PC Game Pass
Xbox Game Pass
Lose yourself in the ultimate Ni no Kuni experience with this Prince’s Edition including:
– Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (full game)
– Expansions that add hours of additional gameplay
– Prince’s Equipment Pack Join the young king, Evan, as he sets out on an epic quest to found a new kingdom, unite his world, and save its people from a terrible evil. Embark on this unforgettable adventure, which blurs the line between animated feature film and video game. Developed by LEVEL-5, Ni no Kuni II features enchanting character design from the legendary artist Yoshiyuki Momose and a stirring soundtrack composed by the world-famous Joe Hisaishi.
After the destruction of the Antonov An-225 “Mriya,” the team behind Microsoft Flight Simulatorendeavored to recreate it in-game and begin the process of helping rebuild it in real-life.
We spoke to Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann to learn how this ambitious project got off the ground.
Available in the in-game store, you can fly the Antonov An-225 “Mriya” today in Microsoft Flight Simulator on both console and PC.
I’m a big fan of airplanes. Large ones, small ones, medium sized… Each one is extraordinary in their own way when you take a step back and consider how incredible it is that these manmade machines can conquer the sky. There have been thousands of unique aircraft designs that have taken flight; the SR-71 “Blackbird” for its otherworldly look, the P-38 “Lightning” with its unique H-shaped design, and the iconic B-17 “Flying Fortress” which lives up to its namesake as a literal fortification in the sky, are some personal favorites. But none have been quite as impressive as the Antonov An-225, affectionately known as “Mriya.”
Designated as the An-225, since it could carry up to a colossal 225 tons of cargo, the Mriya (which translates to “dream” in Ukrainian) was the largest and heaviest aircraft in the world. Originally created to transport the Buran-class orbiters in the 1980s before being retrofitted to carry oversized payloads, it housed six turbofan engines across its immense wingspan, two large vertical stabilizers, and a 32-wheel landing gear assembly — there was truly nothing like it.
Needless to say, it was upsetting when news broke in early 2022 that the only existing Mriya was destroyed during the Battle of Antonov Airport, at the outset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
So, when I first heard the news the team behind Microsoft Flight Simulatorwas moving forward with an ambitious goal of not only recreating the aircraft for everyone to enjoy in their world-class flight simulator, but equally determined to bring the real Mriya back to life, I had to learn more. I managed to catch up with Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann, shortly after the announcement of the aircraft’s launch in Microsoft Flight Simulator, to discover more about this amazing project.
“There was an outcry in the flight sim community that day [February 27, 2022] and all of us were really affected by the news,” Jorg recounts upon first hearing of Mriya’s destruction. “In our team meeting, there was an outpouring of sadness and shock. Personally, it struck me deeply as the Mriya had also been a symbol of mankind’s ingenuity… it was in that meeting that I quite emotionally said we need to preserve the memory of this great aircraft in our sim.”
“Personally, it struck me deeply as the Mriya had also been a symbol of mankind’s ingenuity.”
After the meeting, Jorg contacted Chief Pilot for Antonov Airlines Dmytro Antonov via LinkedIn and reached out to their Microsoft office in Ukraine. At that time, no one in Ukraine was able to talk to about digital preservation of the An-225, but one key contact, Alexander Matsko, embraced the idea of bringing Mriya into Microsoft Flight Simulator.
“It was delightful news for us, considering the high professional level of the Microsoft team and their high international reputation,” described Deputy General Director for Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines Viktor Avdieiev, upon hearing the news that Microsoft was trying to bring the An-225 back in a flight simulator. “This aircraft occupied a special place in global aviation history; no such other plane exists… Thanks to this product, many people get to know this powerful bird and will love it as we do.”
“We kept in touch over the tumultuous months,” Jorg described. “[Matsko] later introduced us to Antonov Company and really was instrumental in making this happen. On our side, I contacted Ubaid, the head of iniBuilds, a close partner of ours that had just completed an excellent rendition of the Airbus A310-300. He and his team of experts were equally enthusiastic, and work began shortly thereafter.”
It was that team of 17 at iniBuilds that brought the An-225 to life in Microsoft Flight Simulator. You can really get a sense of the passion they poured into the finished product because it’s such an extremely hyper-detailed recreation of the Antonov An-225, and players can now experience it on both Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC.
“This aircraft occupied a special place in global aviation history; no such other plane exists.”
“They [iniBuilds] did lots of online research initially, and collected open questions in a detailed list that was then sent to Antonov,” Jorg told me. “Antonov filled in all the blanks, which is why we were able to reach such a high degree of authenticity.”
“The specialists had the opportunity to visit Mr. Antonov and several other Antonov Company engineers in Leipzig, where they flew the digital plane together,” Avdieiev describes. “Antonov Company provided the original recordings of the An-225, and An-124’s engines were recorded to make digital Mriya sound realistic.”
iniBuilds had the full support of the Antonov Company and Mr. Dmitry Antonov, the Chief pilot of the An-225. Mr. Antonov also made a video series with lots of incredible detail that helped Jorg and his team to initially get going on the digital re-creation. Other details were filled in when the team met him and other Antonov pilots for a test session in Leipzig.
“It was truly an enlightening experience talking to the pilots who flew the Antonov An-225,” Jorg said. “The most unique point we learned was understanding the handling characteristics of such a unique large aircraft! Their feedback allowed us to make the aircraft fly as close to reality in Microsoft Flight Simulator.”
The pilots of Antonov gave the team real insight into the various areas of the plane and the uses they had. For example, they advised that being such a unique aircraft, the Antonov An-225 carried its own towbar to maneuver safely out of any airport it flew to around the world. One was specially modelled just like it for the simulator and can be seen in the cargo bay of the version found in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
“What if they could bring Mriya… back to life?”
But the team at Microsoft Flight Simulator were not merely satisfied with a digital recreation of the aircraft. What if they could bring Mriya… back to life? That’s when discussions with the Antonov Company went deeper on how they could find a way to help contribute to the rebuilding of this aircraft.
“We decided to give 100% of the gross receipts from the sale of the digital An-225 for one year after launch directly to Antonov Company so the money could be used to rebuild the An-225.” Jorg said. “If Antonov determines that rebuilding isn’t feasible, then the funds can alternatively be used to create a memorial to the plane.”
Proceeds from the in-game DLC will go toward rebuilding the An-225 and currently this is the only method through which the sim and gaming community can contribute to this effort. Still, it’s a lofty goal and if it doesn’t come to fruition, there are plans to find other ways to honor the aircraft’s legacy.
“We did not set a minimum donation but instead opted to give Antonov all the money we receive. We feel strongly that we want to help restore a national treasure to its former glory and highlight the resilience of Ukraine. So far, we’re thrilled with the reaction from the simmer community.”
“We feel strongly that we want to help restore a national treasure to its former glory and highlight the resilience of Ukraine.”
Asking Jorg what he hopes simmers take away from the experience of piloting this incredibly unique aircraft in Microsoft Flight Simulator, Jorg was insightful in his response.
“The Mriya is not just the world’s heaviest plane that broke, and still holds, a large amount of aviation records. Like much of [the aviation community], to me, it stands as a monument for what we as humans can achieve. The dream of flight goes back a very long time, and it was realized over centuries by brilliant minds around the world. The Mriya was, and is, a significant milestone in that aviation history and in the history of human ingenuity. I hope simmers will appreciate the engineering marvel of this aircraft and dream that the Mriya will one day fly in our skies again.”
Aviators can easily test their skills in one of the aviation world’s most versatile and resilient aircraft.
Microsoft Flight Simulator is thrilled to introduce a versatile, rugged aviation legend into the in-sim marketplace today. The An-2 is a single-engine, short take-off and landing (STOL) utility biplane produced by Ukrainian aviation manufacturer Antonov. The An-2 is crewed by two and can carry up to twelve passengers.
Over 18,000 An-2s were manufactured from 1947 to 2001 in Ukraine and Poland and many remain in service, with a number of licensed variants still being built in China. The aircraft has been utilized in at least 40 known applications, including crop dusting, medical transport, passenger travel, cargo, scientific, surveying, skydiving, fire suppression and military exercises. With its exceptionally forgiving nature (an unforced roll in this plane is practically impossible) and ease of modification, the An-2 has also been converted into an unmanned aerial vehicle many times for military applications.
The An-2 traces its roots to the 1930s, when Soviet aerospace engineer Oleg Antonov envisioned a tough, single-engine utility biplane that could serve many civil needs. Years later, in 1946, the Soviet government gave Antonov his opportunity. The top-secret Soviet Research and Design Bureau Number 153 (OKB-153), which would later become Antonov Company, was established on May 31, 1946. Its first project was the biplane that Antonov conceptualized years earlier. After months of feverish work (even after hours during the war), the aircraft took its maiden flight on August 31, 1947.
The hallmark of the An-2 is its ability to fly slowly; it doesn’t have a published stall speed. Due to its large wings and its leading-edge slats that automatically deploy once the airspeed drops below 40 miles per hour (mph), pilots report being able to maintain controlled flight as slow as 32 mph and even lower in certain conditions.
The An-2 measures 40 feet, 8 inches in length, has a standard empennage, and features a traditional fixed undercarriage that can accommodate skis or floats in addition to terrestrial wheel landing gear. Its upper wing spans 59 feet, 9 inches, and its lower wing measures 46 feet, 7 inches. It is powered by a 9-cylinder, 1,000-horsepower Shvetsov ASz-62IR supercharged radial engine that turns a 4-blade variable pitch. It can take-off with as little as 65 feet of airfield and land with just 50 feet of ground roll. It has a minimum range of 525 miles, a service ceiling of 14,800 feet above sea level, and climbs at 880 feet per minute without a payload or 500 feet per minute with a payload. The An-2 cruises at 130 mph and has a top speed of 160 mph during descent.
There are four variants included, all with 4K liveries:
A terrestrial, wheel landing gear version with a standard cockpit featuring steam gauges and ten liveries:
Antonov Airlines, Xbox Aviators Club, Aviators Club, Red, Bare White, Blue, Dark, Green, Metal, and Orange
A terrestrial, wheel landing gear version with a modern GPS cockpit and two liveries:
White and red
A floating version for water operations and a standard cockpit with steam gauges and two liveries:
White and blue
One fitted with skis and a standard cockpit with steam gauges and one livery:
Fly in the An-2 today, available in the Microsoft Flight Simulator in-game marketplace for $14.99. The sky is calling!
Microsoft Flight Simulator is available for Xbox Series X|S and PC with Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, Windows, and Steam, and on Xbox One and supported mobile phones, tablets, and lower-spec PCs via Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Microsoft Flight Simulator Standard 40th Anniversary Edition
Xbox Game Studios
☆☆☆☆☆258
★★★★★
$59.99$47.99
PC Game Pass
Xbox Game Pass
From light planes to wide body jets to gliders and helicopters, fly highly detailed and accurate aircraft in the Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition. The world is at your fingertips. Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition features 37 airplanes, gliders, and helicopters with unique flight models, 25 handcrafted airports, 4 classic commercial airports, 14 heliports and 15 glider airports. Explore Your World
• Vivid and Detailed Landscapes – Immerse yourself in the vast and beautiful world that is our planet with over 1.5 billion buildings, 2 trillion trees, mountains, roads, rivers and more.
• Living World – The Earth is vibrant and ever-changing and so is the world of Microsoft Flight Simulator, which includes live traffic, real-time weather, and animals. Earn Your Wings
• Aircraft – Hone your pilot skills in a variety of aircraft from light planes to commercial jets with comprehensive flight models. Every aircraft includes highly detailed and accurate cockpits with realistic instrumentation.
• Checklist System – From pro to beginner, scale your level from full manual to full assist with interactive and highlighted instrument guidance and checklist. Test Your Skill
• Live Weather -The weather engine enables users to switch on the live weather mode to experience real-time weather including accurate wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, rain and more.
• Day and Night Engine – Experience flight at any time of day or year allowing for night VFR, visual flight rules, navigation.
• Aerodynamic Modeling – A state-of-the-art physics engine with over 1000 control surfaces per plane allows for a truly realistic experience. Microsoft Flight Simulator has fulfilled the aspirations of aviators worldwide for 40 years. Celebrate the award-winning franchise with the 40th Anniversary Edition, loaded with all-new features, aircraft and content that span the history of aviation. The 40th Anniversary Edition update introduces:
• 1 true-to-life Airbus A310 Airliner
• 2 helicopters and 14 heliports
• 2 gliders and 15 glider airports
• 7 famous historical aircraft including the Hughes H-4 Hercules (aka the Spruce Goose)
• 4 classic commercial airports
• 24 classic missions from the franchise’s past
Crash Team Rumble sees heroes and villains from the Crash Bandicoot universe face off in a 4v4 team-based competition.
Developer Toys For Bob talks about how they’re aiming for a fun, strategic, platforming game with cross-platform multiplayer supporting public and private matches.
Crash Team Rumble is available for pre-order today on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S; includes access to the closed beta in April.
Crash Bandicoot crashed The Game Awards 2022 a few months ago literally by rappelling in from the rafters to reveal Crash Team Rumble, the next title starring everyone’s favorite marsupial. Details since then have been scarce, but that all changes today, with Toys For Bob revealing gameplay details, key upcoming dates, pre-order availability, and more!
Crash Team Rumble is a 4v4 team-based competition starring iconic heroes and villains from the Crash Bandicoot universe. Your goal is simple: collect more Wumpa fruit than your opponents. Working together with your team, you will dash, jump, slide, and bounce across a variety of locations to pick up and bank the most Wumpa fruit, capture key gems to boost your score, and block the opposing team from scoring.
The complete player roster is still a secret, but we do know that Crash Bandicoot, Coco, Tawna, Neo Cortex, and Dingodile will be in the starting lineup and available to try during a closed beta this April. Additionally, Lou Studdert, Associate Creative Director at Toys For Bob, shared with us that, “You can play as a hero or a villain, and you can have a mixture of as many heroes and villains as you want on your 4-person team. For example, you can have a team with three teammates playing Neo Cortex and one as Crash Bandicoot.”
Teamwork is essential to winning, and teams that select a balance of characters and work together will have the advantage. Each of the available heroes is exceptional at either being a Scorer (collect Wumpa and add it to your team’s Wumpa Bank), Blocker (defend your team’s Wumpa Bank and disrupt the other team from scoring), or Booster (capture gems to increase your team’s Wumpa score and activate Relic Stations to give your team an advantage).
In addition to these three roles, each character will also have their own stats including health, Wumpa carrying capacity, combat, and mobility. They will also have unique abilities and a special power that is available once your power meter is filled. If previous Crash Bandicoot games are any indication, you can expect to see plenty of slides, spins, slams, and more!
While developing each character, Toys For Bob wanted to strike a balance between competitive gameplay and the fun factor. Studdert explains, “We are constantly playing through the game, over and over again, testing out new ideas, finding the right balance and set-up. We always want to make sure that the end result is a game that is fun to play, with no character being better or stronger than another. We want the player to be able to select a character and have fun utilizing their selected character’s abilities in strategic ways to contribute to the team as a whole.”
He went on to say, “Part of the development process is coming up with new ideas and new abilities that complement the whole roster. Heroes have abilities that can help their teammates, however we elected to keep it broad and were careful to keep team composition flexible as possible for gamers.”
Another detail revealed by Toys For Bob addresses a multiplayer element important for this genre and style of team-based online game. “Crash Team Rumble is a competitive, strategic, multiplayer, platforming game that players can enjoy cross-platform. There will be public and private matches, so players can jump into a game with their friends or choose to find a game in the public lobby.”
Whether you’re new to the world of Crash Bandicoot or a longtime fan of the franchise, Studdert says the team is working on creating a game that appeals to everyone, regardless of their experience with previous Crash games. “When building the game, we wanted to first make sure it is approachable, so any player can jump in. We are acting as a welcoming point to players new to the franchise. And for Crash fans, we add additional layers to the game that feature deeper strategy for them to enjoy.”
Crash Team Rumble is set to release for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S on June 20, 2023, with pre-orders beginning today. Pre-ordering includes access to the closed beta, currently scheduled for April 20 to 24.
This March, some great rewards are coming to hit games from the EA catalog, such as Apex Legends, FIFA 23 and multiple others through EA Play. Here are this month’s rewards for EA Play members:
Battlefield 2042 Hand Cannon Epic Weapon Charm – Now to April 1
Apex Legends Prowler’s Fortune Weapon Charm – Now to April 10
NHL 23 WOC Roman Set – Now to March 31
FIFA 23FUT Hero Jerzy Dudek Tifo Set – Now to March 31
FIFA 23 FUT EA (Re)Play: Vol. 3 Stadium Set – FIFA 23 – March 23 to April 27
FIFA 23 VOLTA K League Anniversary Apparel and Coins – Now to March 30
FIFA 23 Pro Clubs 80s Skate Zig Zag Mask – March 17 to April 28
FIFA 23 Adidas Run for the Ocean White Tee and Coins – March 17 to April 28
FIFA 23 FUT Season 5 XP Boost – Now to April 28
Madden NFL 23 MUT March Pack – Now to April 3
In addition to these rewards, EA Play members can access a growing library of fan-favorite games, including the gripping F1 22, the next generation of all-out warfare Battlefield 2042, as well as Madden NFL 23 where players can experience innovative gameplay features including the game changing impact of FieldSense – a new foundation for consistent, ultra-realistic gameplay. EA Playmembers also get access to select new-release EA games for up to 10 hours, such as the latest trial for Wild Hearts. The EA Play trial allows hunters to play up to the gates of Minato and battle the mighty Kemono; players who decide to purchase the game will have their progress carry over to the full game.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Game Pass PC members receive EA Play at no additional cost with their Game Pass subscription. Members enjoy great player benefits, including in-game challenges and rewards, special member-only content, trials of select brand-new titles, access to a collection of EA’s best-loved series and top titles, and 10% off purchases of Electronic Arts digital content.
2023 marks the 10-year anniversary of the [email protected] indie publishing program.
The program has helped bring over 3,000 games to Xbox, and paid out more than $4 billion to developers.
Director of [email protected] Chris Charla looks back at the last decade – and looks forward to what’s still to come.
GDC 2013 was tough for independent developers and Xbox. It was clear that the way we were working with indie devs – which had seemed so progressive and groundbreaking just five years earlier when 2008’s “Summer of Arcade” launched indie games into the gaming mainstream with titles like Castle Crashers, Braid, and Geometry War: Retro Evolved 2 – was just not working. The indie dev scene was growing faster than anything we’d ever seen, and our business processes and back-end just couldn’t keep up. And devs knew it, and they were not happy.
As we looked ahead to the future, it was clear that indie games and independent developers were crucial to our strategy of providing Xbox players with the broadest variety of content to play. So at GDC 2013, we took it on the chin when devs took swipes at XBLA and Xbox, and we got down to the hard work of listening, suggesting ideas, taking feedback and listening some more. Things had to change.
Over the summer of ’13 we worked hard to develop a new program at Xbox, one that would address the needs of devs in 2013, as well as be able to grow to address the continually changing and growing needs of the indie dev community. The program (after three name changes in the week before we announced it at Gamescom 2013!) was [email protected], and we’re celebrating our ten-year anniversary this year.
I don’t ever like to declare success, especially when I see how much more we have to do, but ten years on, I think we’ve done a pretty good job so far with [email protected]
We’ve enabled more than 3,000 games to ship on Xbox from independent developers (more than the total number of games that released on the original Xbox and Xbox 360 combined), onboarded more than 5,000 developers into the program, and paid developers more than four billion dollars. Let’s talk more about Game Pass in a sec, but first – wow! Four billion dollars is really a lot of money! It’s such a testament not only to the power of videogames as an entertainment medium, but the power of independent development, our fans and players, and proof that when you listen and work to empower developers, good things happen.
Our first goal in the program has always been to make shipping games on Xbox as straightforward and easy as possible, whether that’s technically getting a build working on Xbox, working through the backend store provisioning work, or signing a contract. We still work on this goal every day. But we are also keen to listen to other needs our devs have, and to respond – that’s how we introduced self-publishing in the first place!
Over the years, several programs have started at Xbox in direct response to independent developers’ feedback, from our early access program, Xbox Game Preview, to cross-platform play with friends on PC and other manufacturers’ consoles, as well as cross-progression, so players’ progress in a game elsewhere can carry over to Xbox. That last one took a minute to happen, and we thank all the devs who worked closely with us to make it happen in a way that was robust and safe for our player community. Ironically, we’ve even enabled retail disc publishing for developers in [email protected], Xbox’s digital self-publishing program. This retail program is still in the pilot phase with a limited number of partners, but developers can make physical versions of their games with only a low “minimum order quantity” of physical units from Xbox. We look forward to rolling this out to more broad participation in the near future (devs, please watch for our April newsletter for more info here).
We’ve also been excited to help developers participate in programs such as Game Pass, which help them find audiences as much as they help players find their new favorite games. One thing that’s become clear as the [email protected] program has grown, especially over the last few years as the pandemic curtailed travel, is that it’s become hard for us to know every developer in the program, and that can make it a challenge for devs to share their concepts with us. When we hear a dev say, “I don’t know who to talk to at Xbox,” we wince, because while we want to be as accessible as possible, clearly this is a place where we can be doing better. This GDC, we’ve booked more than 200 meetings, but there are still dozens and dozens of partners we’d love to meet with that we haven’t been able to find time to schedule, to say nothing of the amazing, serendipitous encounters that make events like GDC so magical.
Meeting partners new and old and looking at games is one of the most amazing parts of getting to work on a program like [email protected], and we’re never going to slow that down. But to ensure all developers get equal access to decision makers at Xbox, and to provide faster feedback to developers on concepts submitted – especially for Game Pass deal evaluations – we’re going to be launching a new process that provides a template that has all the info developers need to submit a concept for deal consideration, and that will be looked at by the key decision makers from our Game Pass, business development, [email protected] and Portfolio teams.
This will help ensure that whether a developer knows someone at Xbox personally or not, they can get their game into deal consideration quickly. And that will help us ensure we continue to bring the widest variety of games to our players on Xbox and in Game Pass – as well as meeting lots of new developers! Of course, this process will require a mutual NDA to ensure folks’ IP rights are protected. We’ll have more details to share in the April [email protected] newsletter. If you’re not a member, now is a great time to join at xbox.com/id!
Ten years on from the dawn of [email protected], one thing is crystal clear – games from independent developers are foundational to the Xbox offering, and this GDC we’re excited to talk about our efforts to ensure that players get to experience games and stories from the broadest number of Creators too, with the [email protected] Developer Acceleration Program. We’re also excited to meet with developers in person, keep listening and keep planning how we can improve our offerings for independent developers on Xbox, whether that’s through discovery improvements, promotional amplification, sharing more data to help developers maximize their success on our store, or ways we haven’t even considered yet. We hope everyone has a great show – there’s so much more for us to do and we can’t wait to get started!
The program aims to empower underrepresented creators with the resources and information needed to bring their creativity, innovation, and originality to Xbox.
Xbox has set out to reach billions of gamers, which means creating gaming experiences that appeal to new audiences. Because players expect new stories, experiences, and mechanics, we are actively seeking out and empowering developers with unique perspectives to create games that appeal to the diverse audiences on Xbox.
In 2019, we saw an opportunity to bring more games to Xbox from underrepresented creators. The team took action by carving out funding to ensure that new developers with diverse perspectives and unique content had the resources needed to bring their games to Xbox. More specifically, we offered non-recoupable funding to help teams offset the cost of porting their games. This effort has since helped 100 emerging independent developers offset the cost of bringing their games to players on Xbox, allowing players to enjoy titles like Onsen Master, ValiDate and Paper Ghost Stories 7PM.
Today, we are publicly announcing the [email protected] Developer Acceleration Program. The program’s mission is to empower underrepresented creators with the resources and information needed to bring their creativity, innovation, and originality to Xbox. We aim to achieve this mission by focusing on the following areas.
The Emerging Creators section on the Xbox dashboard.
Porting: For emerging developers the investment required to release on multiple platforms can easily conflict with other priorities such as further development, polish, or marketing. For this reason, the funding offered by the Developer Acceleration Program is non-recoupable and does not require exclusivity or company equity. Instead, it is intended to help developers find success on the platform by offsetting their porting investment. Offers are unique to each developer’s situation and take into account the developer’s need and experience.
Information: In addition to funding, participating developers gain access to information and best practices in the form of monthly webinars called Green Room events where developers engage with members of team Xbox covering topics like game lifecycle, marketing tips, certification prep and more. These topics are not exclusive to the program, but the goal is to create an environment where new teams can connect directly with subject matter experts and ask questions in an open and welcoming environment.
Prototypes: Many underrepresented developers have lacked access to resources and networks to get their ideas off the ground. The Developer Acceleration Program is piloting a prototype initiative with the goal of partnering with a small number of promising developers with great ideas and offering the funding and support needed for the teams to create a prototype that accurately communicates their vision. The funding offered is non-recoupable.
The Emerging Creators section, showing off the games included.
We are excited to announce the program as a way of ensuring that we are reaching the developers that most need our support. By removing longstanding barriers to entry for creators and normalizing diverse storylines and characters in gaming, both players and developers win.
The types of developers that we seek to support includes but is not limited to developers who are led by those from Black, Indigenous, Latino or LGBTQIA+ communities, women, developers with disabilities, developers from emerging markets or teams with unique perspectives. This also includes independent developers working on a game that responsibly centers the experience around diverse characters or that prioritizes accessibility.
If this is you, we invite you to contact us at [email protected]. Our team will follow up with next steps to being the application process.
Welcome back to my favorite surprise, what games are you playing next? If you missed it, we announced an additional game that you’ll want to get into your download queue (Looking at you Ghostwire: Tokyo). For now, let’s get to the games!
Available Today
Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom – The Prince’s Edition (Cloud, Console and PC) Once upon a time, there was a world torn by endless war. But then came a great king who would change this world forever. Join the young king Evan to found a new kingdom in the Prince’s Edition, which includes all DLCs.
Coming Soon
MLB The Show 23 (Cloud and Console) – March 28 Available on day one with Game Pass: MLB The Show 23 gets you closer than ever to living your baseball dreams on the diamond. Shock the game and own the show with your favorite players, your favorite rivalries, and all your favorite MLB moments. Want to hit the field early? Game Pass members can get four days early access on March 24 including additional in-game items with the purchase of the Early Access Bundle. Read more about the new updates and features coming to MLB The Show 23 here.
Infinite Guitars (Cloud, Console, and PC) – March 30 Available on day one with Game Pass: The metal war machines have reawakened—and only your electric guitar can turn their technology against them! Gather up your party, tune up your favorite axe, and get ready to rock in Infinite Guitars, a rhythm RPG featuring vibrant anime-inspired art, adrenaline-fueled Mech battles, and a blazing original soundtrack.
In Case You Missed It
Ghostwire: Tokyo Coming to Xbox Game Pass April 12 Explore a modern metropolis amidst a massive paranormal event in Ghostwire: Tokyo, coming to Game Pass on Xbox Series X|S and PC April 12! Join a ghostly ally to confront spirits, myth and folklore come to life in this supernatural action-adventure from Tango Gameworks, complete with the new Spider’s Thread update. Learn more here.
DLC / Game Updates
Cities: Skylines – Hubs & Transport – March 22 Cities: Skylines World Tour – The Last Stops begin on March 22 with new Content Creator Packs including Shopping Malls, Africa in Miniature and Sports Venues, along with radio stations – 80’s Movies Tunes, Pop Punk Radio & JADIA Radio.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Scribes of Fate DLC – March 28 Xbox Game Pass members can save up to 10% on Crowns in the Xbox Store! Discover two new four-player dungeons and begin your Shadow Over Morrowind saga in The Elder Scrolls Online: Scribes of Fate. Investigate a Telvanni anomaly in Bal Sunnar and battle for the soul of a Daedric cult in Scrivener’s Hall – available March 28 on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S! Learn more about the Scribes of Fate DLC here.
Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure – March 29 Your Forza Horizon 5Rally Adventure is coming on March 29! Drive purpose-built rally monsters and conquer the rugged Sierra Nueva. Attack Horizon’s most thrilling routes in Timed Rally and Multi-Car Races. Feel the intensity of massive dust trails and deformable roads in 10 new cars. Game Pass members can save 10% on the Premium Add-Ons Bundle and get immediate access on March 29.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks
3-Month Free Trial of Apple TV+ – Available until March 31 Ted Lasso is back! The Emmy-winning smash series returns for a third season with more optimism, determination…and biscuits. Claim your Perk for 3 months free of Apple TV+ and stream now. Hurry up though! You have until March 31 to score this great offer.
Leaving March 31
The following games are leaving the Game Pass library soon. It might be worth clearing your gaming schedule this weekend to jump back into these games, but you can always use your membership discount to save up to 20% on your purchase before they go!
A Memoir Blue (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Chinatown Detective Agency (Cloud, Console, and PC)
ClusterTruck (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Double Dragon Neon (Cloud and Console)
Kraken Academy!! (Cloud, Console, and PC)
MLB The Show 22 (Cloud and Console)
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid (Cloud, Console, and PC)
As always, we’ll have more news, more perks, and more games for you here and on @XboxGamePass and @XboxGamePassPC on Twitter. Talk to you here soon!
From now until March 27, 2023, a dozen demos are available to play as part of the [email protected] GDC Online Demo Event.
From a multiplayer horror FPS to a live action mystery, there’s something for everyone included.
If you’re attending GDC, you can find these demos at the [email protected] Sponsored Kiosk in the IGF Pavilion.
GDC 2023 is here, and this year we’ve got a special treat for everyone! Starting today and running until March 27, 2023, a dozen demos are available to play as part of the [email protected] GDC Online Demo Event. We encourage you to continue to check them out all week before they disappear. Oh yeah, and don’t forget you can provide feedback to the developers, too!
All the demos are available Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S and show how varied the [email protected] line-up is – from a multiplayer horror FPS to a live action mystery, there’s something for everyone included. Keep in mind that most of these demos are an early look at gameplay and may not represent the full game at their release, including the availability in each country as developers continue to update and refine their title ahead of launch.
If you’re searching for the games on console, visit the Microsoft Store on Xbox, select the Search button, type “Demo,” press Enter, then select Demos to find these games. Alternatively, you can click on any of their title links below in the post to be taken to their respective game pages.
If you are checking out GDC in-person, you can find these demos at the [email protected] Sponsored Kiosk in the IGF Pavilion (Booth: N2431) at the Moscone North Hall. The IGF Pavilion is open Wednesday, March 22 through Friday, March 24.
Below is the diverse list of games that will be available to try!
Reset an AI gone rogue as you traverse the space station, The Arc, in this beautiful Cyberpunk-styled action-roguelite set in the far future! Start each run as an augmented, cloned human and save The Arc from destruction!
A truly creative strategic puzzle game. Manipulate four threads of time to guide your band through perilous predicaments. Manage squad resources to maximize your score. Experience a homage to 1990s ensemble dramedies. Customize your music with audio effect pedals and playing styles.
Indulge in a delicious adventure as you choose to battle or befriend your enemies to save the day your way! Personalize your cupcake hero and meet charming friends along the way. Leave the world better off than you found it in this turn-based RPG.
The villainous Conductor Chaos challenges you to become the next star player of Booom-Slang! You will need to master a myriad of single-player and multiplayer modes to make it to the top. Mashing together stylized low-poly art with zany FMV sequences, get ready for top-down, twin-stick shooting, catastrophic chimera madness!
Boxville is an adventure puzzle game about speechless cans living in the city of boxes and drawing doodles on cardboard to tell their stories. Boxville is good for either playing alone, allowing you to dive into the atmosphere and challenge your brain with sophisticated logic puzzles and riddles, or playing with a friend or family member to share unique audio-visual experiences and solve the puzzles together.
Evil Wizard is a humor-filled action RPG that puts you in the shoes of a former Final Boss. Rise from defeat, rediscover long lost powers, and fight to reclaim your castle from an army of so-called heroes. Evil Wizard has also won the GDC Best in Play 2023 accolade.
New jobs can be tense – especially when you’re about to become a doctor! Join Finley on an original narrative adventure as you take your first steps in a new and exciting world. Together, experience the last days of summer before a change of seasons stirs up the sleepy town of Porcupine.
Live the memorable experience of a first-person, story-driven adventure and puzzle game. Avoid traps, use your jetpack and taser gun to think your way through zero gravity puzzles in a mysterious space station. In the end, what are you really trying to escape?
The round-based co-op survival FPS and spin-off to the award-winning British horror game, Maid of Sker. Play solo or with up to four players to survive the supernatural onslaught of the Quiet Ones. Face hordes of new and familiar enemies, supercharged elites with unique supernatural powers, upgradeable steam-punk weapons, interchangeable spine-chilling masks, and mysterious story objectives.
Burn your soul! Soulvars is a pixel art turn-based deckbuilding RPG where your party of Soulbearers face off against invading Dominators in dynamic high-speed battles.
An absent father must rescue his teenage daughter from an eclectic cult before their final night at the Isle Tide Hotel. Players investigate the strange events that unfold to save Eleanor Malone in this live-action interactive mystery game, where every decision affects the story.
Join Ludovik in a 2D Stealth Platformer and Graphic Adventure set 20,000 years after the extinction of humanity, as he explores the jungles of a futuristic Babylon to discover the secret behind the Library of Babel’s sudden lockdown and the mysteries behind their mythical creators.
Head over to your console and start enjoying these super rad game demos on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S! And yes, we’d love to hear what you think. Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord, Twitch, and YouTube. And make sure to stay tuned to Xbox Wire to read more about [email protected] games throughout the year. learn more about what Team Xbox has planned during GDC.
On the fifth anniversary of Sea of Thieves, we spoke to key members of the team to learn about the very first ideas that sparked this project.
This retrospective includes never-before-told stories about the game’s creation.
Stay to the end to learn about everything Rare has on offer for the game’s fifth anniversary.
If you listen to enough developers talk about how they made their games, you’ll hear a phrase pop up repeatedly. It will sound something like this: every game that reaches release is a minor miracle. The act of creating a game, particularly a modern AAA game, is a turbulent process – the industry is full of stories about an early idea that undergoes huge transformations: genres change, settings shift, mechanics are invented and dropped. Many projects stop here, unable to fulfil their promise. Of those that make it through, many games – possibly most – will be released as something fundamentally different to how they were imagined in the first place.
Sea of Thieves does not share that story. Go back and read early interviews with the team at Rare, and you’ll realize this very quickly. Its developers were openly discussing features that would come to the game, years before they were playable, or sometimes even in development – not all of them even made it to the launch version, but almost every single one would eventually reach its pristine waters.
Celebrating its fifth anniversary today, Sea of Thieves is a very different and (excuse the pun) rarer kind of miracle. It’s a project that set up its core vision from the very beginning and – through a wild prototyping phase, a full shift in game engine, the choppy waters of launch, and its enormous growth since – never lost sight of the unique game it wanted to be. I had the chance to visit Rare ahead of the anniversary, and spoke to six people who were a part of the project from the very beginning, talking through how they made this miracle happen, the challenges they faced, and how, despite almost 10 years of development, Sea of Thieves only continues to grow.
The original talk wasn’t about an open-world adventure game about pirates. It was a very different game about spies.
In 2013, in a meeting room set at the heart of Rare’s leafy, countryside campus, a small group of minds set out to decide what was next for the studio. After three Kinect Sports games, there was a desire to try something new, something radical. The fruits of that conversation are playable right now in the form of Sea of Thieves, a success story for Rare that changed how the studio makes games, how it thinks about new ones, and even the company motto. But on that day, the talk wasn’t about an open-world adventure game about pirates. It was a very different game about spies.
“The earliest germ of an idea came out of us playing a party game called Werewolf, which is all about subterfuge,” says Creative Director Mike Chapman. “It’s about a game that showcases soft skills: verbal communication, social dynamics, player psychology. We were thinking: Is there a game that could showcase things like that?
“And we actually started with, ‘wouldn’t it be cool if it was about secret agents?’ Wouldn’t it be cool if I’m there completing my mission with you, but then you get a voice over the intercom saying, ‘Drop him.’ And you’ve got players tearing each other apart.”
The key idea here was about freedom, the ability to not just complete missions the game sets you, but set your own personal missions in a world with other players. The team came up with a mantra to encapsulate this: “Players Creating Stories Together.”
Some of the earliest Sea of Thieves concept art, when it was still known internally as ‘Athena’.
Some of the earliest Sea of Thieves concept art, when it was still known internally as ‘Athena’.
Some of the earliest Sea of Thieves concept art, when it was still known internally as ‘Athena’.
Some of the earliest Sea of Thieves concept art, when it was still known internally as ‘Athena’.
A month into the process, the team decided that the theme of spies wasn’t quite right, and didn’t offer the range of experiences Rare were looking for – but that Players Creating Stories Together very much did. So they went back to the literal drawing board. They toyed with various settings: games about dinosaurs, vampires, and more. But one idea stuck fast:
“What we liked about pirates is that the roles are defined,” explains Studio Head Craig Duncan. “The term ‘crew’ is already a small group of people going on adventure together. You could almost take the principles of the game we were thinking about and go, ‘Well, yeah, there’s no roles and goals – pirates play by their own rules, governed by their own sense of adventure.’ That can be motivated by wealth, or the spirit of the sea. So once we locked pirates in it was like, ‘That’s it. That works.’ And then you start all the hard work.”
It’s at this point, in early 2014, that Sea of Thieves was truly born. Four years ahead of launch, the team already had the driving force that makes up the entire game we know today – a game that offered a sea-blue slate to write your own stories on, and one that would evolve with the players over time, feeding new ideas into the mix as it grew. Now they just needed to find some designers to make it.
Thankfully, a solution was about to literally walk through their door. Around the same time, Rare had organized a game jam, and now-husband and wife design team Andy and Shelley Preston had assembled a group to work on a prototype they called Dead By Dawn.
Andy explains the concept: “It was a multiplayer experience where you had two teams within a map, and it was basically ‘build in the day, survive at night. But it had Sea of Thieves’ physicality, players running around together cooperating, using physical props to work together.”
A three-day jam saw Andy and Shelley’s little team get so wrapped up in their idea that they broke the rules and dedicated a month to the project, turning a tiny idea into a fully playable demo through relentless prototyping. Eventually, they decided to pitch it to Rare’s higher-ups – who happened be the people behind those early Sea of Thieves talks.
Andy grins as he recalls how well it went over: “[Producer Joe Neate] instantly said to [Creative Director Gregg Mayles], ‘See, this is what we should be doing, we should be building something. We shouldn’t be theorizing over paper one-sheets, we should actually be trying to build an experience together.”
Dead By Dawn was deemed a little too far outside of Rare’s normal output – but the way it had been made was exactly what the team behind the new pirate project had been looking for. Not long later, Andy and Shelley were called up to a boardroom, and told what they would work on next, with a familiar mantra at its heart:
“I can remember them standing in front of a whiteboard,” recalls Shelley. “It basically just said: ‘Players creating stories, sailing a pirate ship together.’ Everyone was really creatively open to what that could be like, and there was no real set remit. We just kind of jumped into a prototype and started creating.”
“Everyone was really creatively open to what that could be like, and there was no real set remit. We just kind of jumped into a prototype and started creating.”
If you’ve watched Rare’s new documentary, you’ve seen the prototype. Created in the Unity engine, it was scrappy, ugly but, crucially, easy to work with. The team was able to come up with new ideas, and have them playable within the same day. It meant that Sea of Thieves emerged from the design depths incredibly quickly.
The game’s approach to ships – turning traditional gaming vehicles into something more like a level design players could move around through co-operation – came first. Then came the idea for a practically UI-less experience, asking players to interact with the world around them, not just follow a directional marker. Physical treasure, weather effects, and more emerged at high speed. The foundations of Sea of Thieves were set from the very beginning.
Andy and Shelley came up with a design principle for all of this: “Tools Not Rules”, the idea that everything presented to the player could be used more or less freely. You didn’t walk to a glowing marker on a mini-map to earn some coins – you consulted an actual map, rigged your ship, used a compass, scoured an island for clues, dug up the treasure, and returned it to an outpost. But along the way, you might accidentally head to the wrong island, find a different map, meet another set of players, and have an entirely different experience – an entirely different story.
The team was able to create a game so quickly that they became convinced they were onto something unique. In fact, they were so convinced by their ideas, they took another unusual step: they kept it a total secret, even from Xbox’s most senior leadership:
“The executives knew there was something,” Duncan explains. “But it was like, ‘Hey, we’ll let you know when we when we’re ready to let you know.’ And of course, when you do that, you create some veil of secrecy, which means people want to know more. And then it’s about how you play that to your advantage.”
Six months into prototyping, they finally revealed the game to their bosses, with Head of Xbox Phil Spencer and Creative Director Kudo Tsunoda asked to fly to Rare to finally find out what the team had been up to. But instead of simply watching a PowerPoint presentation, a controller was eventually put in their hands. Appropriately for the game in question, Rare didn’t want to just tell them a story – they wanted them to make their own inside the prototype.
You can watch a clip of that first ever playthrough below:
The executives played a version of Sea of Thieves that, visuals aside, was strikingly similar to the core of what you can play today. After that, they were shown an in-engine art diorama to see what it would look like – another facet of the game that stayed remarkably consistent from the earliest days of the project.
This isn’t the way games are normally revealed to executives – and it worked beautifully. Instead of talking about the business aspects of the game, the new players swapped stories about what had happened in their playtest. Spencer had played by the rules, and set out to find treasure with his crew. Tsunoda, on the other hand, betrayed his crew, stole their treasure and then jumped overboard to swim to another ship, and swung it round to start a battle. Rare hadn’t planned this out, but the tools they’d offered allowed it to happen organically.
The theory was proven out, and Sea of Thieves was formally greenlit.
The team was so convinced by the prototype, they took an unusual step: they kept it a total secret, even from Xbox’s most senior leadership.
After this came the tough part. Sea of Thieves was intended to be made in the separate Unreal engine, so much of the work after this point became not about improving on what the team had, but recreating the Unity version in Unreal. It was a far slower process than they had been used to, forcing them to unite the mechanics, art, online elements, and more, rather than steam ahead on design alone.
In pure mechanical terms, the version of Sea of Thieves that emerged at launch was in some ways less advanced than the prototype it had come from. Some features had to be deprioritized in order to get the game out in time, leading to a version of Sea of Thieves that offered the spirit of what Rare was aiming for, but not at the scale it had planned for. The response was tough, but fair – players liked what they had, but didn’t feel like they were able to do enough with it. Rare changed approach:
“We ripped up our roadmap,” says producer Joe Neate. “As soon as we launched, we were like, ‘Okay, a whole new captaincy system, that’s not what people want right now.’ They want more of the ingredients in this world, right? They don’t want another system to just build on top of the ingredients you’ve got – and so, straightaway, we changed our plans then.”
The original concepts for Sea of Thieves’ pirates, and their final looks.
For a time, development became primarily about responding to players, not building back to the prototype vision. The Megalodon was added to allow for PvE interactions between players. AI ships were added to allow for more combat opportunities without griefing other players. The team began working on the narrative Tall Tales, to give players a goal, without compromising on the more organic story ideas the game world offered.
But, as time went on, the team began to find opportunities to build back what they’d been playing behind closed doors for so long. The prototype, and the clarity of that original idea, was so strong that it became a blueprint for what was to come.
Everyone I speak to on the team has a different answer for exactly when Sea of Thieves matched their original vision for the game, but it’s generally agreed that the one-year Anniversary Update was a watershed moment. A year after launch, the game wasn’t just matching the prototype for mechanics, it was introducing ideas the team never would have thought about in the same way without the influence of its players. This was truly the evolving experience the team had dreamed of, a game and a world that reacted to the people inside it, and a space where players really could create their own stories.
From there, the process of continuing to develop Sea of Thieves has been a mix of building on those original ideas, and adding ones the team never could have foreseen. Ship fires, captaincy, and burying treasure for other players to find came out of the game’s earliest plans. Meanwhile, game-wide votes on the future of the Golden Sands outpost, and the enormous, unexpected Pirate’s Life update – a crossover with Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean – emerged as new opportunities and technical advances popped up.
But key to every one of these additions is that you can categorize them all as new ways for Players to Create Stories Together. No matter how difficult the challenge, or how wild the idea, Sea of Thieves has lived by its own game development code, as steadfastly as its pirates stick to their own.
“I think 10 years of Sea of Thieves will feel like a long time – but also, we’ll blink and be there. And I still think we’ll have unfinished business when we get to that point.”
That unique vision has led to another unusual situation: 5 years in, Sea of Thieves still doesn’t truly have imitators. While it sits within an increasingly busy world of game-as-service titles, there’s nothing quite like this game, from its mechanics, to how it releases new content, to its community.
“There was a time before the game came out when we were kind of looking over our shoulder going, ‘Someone is going to beat us to the punch,’” says Art Director Ryan Stevenson. “And even while we’ve been out, no one else seems to be doing it.”
“It’s not a template is it?”, adds Shelley Preston. “It’s not an easily copyable idea. It’s a reflection of a group of people in a certain time and their creative way of thinking around our take on a pirate game. That’s very unique to us.”
That ability to make a game that’s so unique to Rare that it doesn’t exist already, and continues to be unique, was such a lightbulb moment for the studio that Rare even changed its company motto in order to make more games like it. Head to the bottom of its website, and you’ll read: “We create the kind of games the world doesn’t have.” Sea of Thieves was the starting point for that ideal – and it’s one that’s helping to guide the still-mysterious Everwild, and whatever else the team might cook up in the future.
But Sea of Thieves’ tale is far from a closed book. At five years old, there’s much the team wants to add. In fact, they recently had a meeting to plan out the next five years. I hear about ideas for smuggling mechanics, the option for players to be rewarded for protecting other players from griefers, and even a mechanic for ‘painting’ screenshots that Chapman once told me about, two years before the game had even launched (and you can even see in the gallery of prototype screenshots above).
The beautiful thing about a vision as clear but as horizon-wide as Players Creating Stories Together is that the team feels like they’ll never truly run out of ideas – they’ll keep making new things as long as there are players to enjoy them. Chapman puts that drive to keep creating succinctly:
“I think 10 years of Sea of Thieves will feel like a long time – but also, we’ll blink and be there. And I still think we’ll have unfinished business when we get to that point.”
Anniversary Activations
The Sea of Thieves team are doing plenty more to celebrate the game’s fifth anniversary. Here’s what’s going on for the rest of the month:
The feature-length Voyage of a Lifetime documentary made to mark the fifth anniversary premieres today, March 20, on the Sea of Thieves YouTube channel: youtube.com/seaofthieves
There’s still time to pick up the Lustrous Legend Figurehead as a free anniversary login bonus – just take to the waves in Sea of Thieves before 10am UTC on March 22.
Set a course for New Golden Sands Outpost to find the time-limited fifth anniversary picture wall where pirates can pose and take selfie portraits for posterity!
The Pirate Emporium will run an extended Anniversary Sale until March 28, with up to 60% off cosmetics from classic sets, Rare heritage ranges and items themed around Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean.
A special Community Weekend runs from March 25-27 with free gifts and in-game multipliers in the community’s hands – find out more in the anniversary article at aka.ms/SoT5thAnn
Sea of Thieves Deluxe Edition
Microsoft Studios
☆☆☆☆☆58
★★★★★
$49.99$39.99
Xbox Live Gold membership required to play on Xbox One; sold separately. ========= Celebrate five years of Sea of Thieves with this special edition, which includes a copy of the game with all permanent content added since launch, plus a wide-ranging assortment of extra cosmetics and collector’s items. In addition to the 2023 Edition bonus content – Hunter Cutlass, Hunter Pistol, Hunter Compass, Hunter Hat, Hunter Jacket, Hunter Sails and 10,000 gold – this edition of the game comes with a further Deluxe Bundle containing the Black Phoenix Figurehead, Black Phoenix Sails, Crab Dab Emote, Deck Hide Emote and 550 Ancient Coins for use in the Pirate Emporium.
Sea of Thieves 2023 Edition
Microsoft Studios
☆☆☆☆☆938
★★★★★
$39.99$31.99
Xbox One X Enhanced
PC Game Pass
Xbox Game Pass
Xbox Live Gold membership required to play on Xbox One; sold separately. ========= 2023 Edition Out Now
Celebrate five years since Sea of Thieves‘ launch with this special edition of the game, which includes a copy of Sea of Thieves itself with all permanent content added since launch, plus a 10,000 gold bonus and a selection of Hunter cosmetics. The Hunter Cutlass, Pistol, Compass, Hat, Jacket and Sails will ensure you cut a formidable figure as you set sail for adventure!
About the Game Sea of Thieves offers the essential pirate experience, from sailing and fighting to exploring and looting – everything you need to live the pirate life and become a legend in your own right. With no set roles, you have complete freedom to approach the world, and other players, however you choose.
Whether you’re voyaging as a group or sailing solo, you’re bound to encounter other crews in this shared world adventure – but will they be friends or foes, and how will you respond? A Vast Open World
Explore a vast open world filled with unspoiled islands and underwater kingdoms. Take on quests to hunt for lost loot, forge a reputation with the Trading Companies and battle foes from Phantoms and Ocean Crawlers to Megalodons and the mighty Kraken. Try your hand at fishing, make maps to your own buried treasure or choose from hundreds of other optional goals and side-quests! Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life
Play the Tall Tales to experience Sea of Thieves’ unique narrative-driven campaigns, and join forces with Captain Jack Sparrow in Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life, an acclaimed original story that brings Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean sailing into Sea of Thieves. These immersive and cinematic quests provide around 30 hours of the ultimate pirate adventure. A Game That’s Always Growing
With each Season bringing in new game features every three months alongside regular in-game Events and new narrative Adventures, Sea of Thieves is a service-based game that’s still growing and evolving. Check back regularly to see what free content has been newly added, and see how far you can climb through each Season’s 100 levels of Renown to earn special rewards. Become Legend
On your journey to become a Pirate Legend you’ll amass loot, build a reputation and define a unique personal style with your hard-earned rewards. Adventurer. Explorer. Conqueror. What will your legend be?
This 3D visual novel presents you with choices that matter… Just not in the way you think
It’s become kind of a trope associated with interactive narratives in games: supposedly, for them to be good, all the decisions the player makes should have a radical impact on the story itself. If not, some people go as far as to pretend the choices “don’t matter”, therefore leading to an unsatisfying experience. We thought about that a lot when we designed The Wreck, and decided to try to go with something hopefully a bit more subtle.
The conflict we had to resolve was this: on one hand, we wanted to tell a specific story, one of resilience, redemption and bloom, in which a character who starts in the worst possible situation works her way towards a well-deserved solace. But on the other hand, we also wanted to make a video game that would be reactive to the player’s inputs, provide them with answers to their questions and convince them that they have a role to play in the story we were telling.
The first tool we used was to give the player access to the thoughts of Junon, the main character. Every time something crosses her mind, her thoughts are displayed onscreen for you to read. Better: when she faces a dilemma, for instance when she’s not sure how to react to her sister Diane’s suddenly serious tone, you’re the one picking a strategy on her behalf… and forcing her to face the consequences.
Those “thought choices” are not crucial in the sense that they won’t completely redefine the story. Best case scenario, they’ll shed some light on an aspect of Junon’s personality that was, up until that moment, kept secret. But they allow for a strong connection to form between the player and our main character. Because you’re literally in her head, and because she’ll think the things you want her to think, you gradually feel more and more attached to her – and involved in her fate.
Also, influencing Junon into thinking something will open up new dialog options to pick from, so the player also has an influence on the conversation Junon has with the game’s NPCs. That’s where The Wreck’s narrative becomes non-linear: each encounter is composed of several different stretches of dialogs, but we wrote them in a way that is plastic enough for you to come across them in a lot of different orders. Once you’ve completed an encounter with an NPC, we made sure you have every information you need for the overall story to unfold, while still getting the impression that your influence on Junon is real and direct.
Take a look at those flow charts: as Junon progresses through the game’s “levels”, the story structure becomes gradually more complex. And yet, to the player, it feels fluid and linear, as if there was no other way to reach the game’s unavoidable conclusion. Of course, this design choice is risky, as some may complain that the choices they make don’t seem to have enough of an impact. But we’re hoping that, for the majority of players, this concern won’t weight much compared to the strong bond they’ve gradually developed with Junon, and their desire to know how her tale of redemption ends.
For every thought the player instills in Junon’s mind, they are rewarded with a new nugget of information. They learn a little bit more about why she is the way she is, which traumas she’s hiding, and how she’s making progress in her struggle to get her life back on tracks. Through your choices, you commit to your relationship with her, and when she’s finally able to remember a crucial – and dark – part of her story that redefines her whole relationship with her mother, you’re familiar with her enough to help her make the final choice. The only one that really matters.
This ultimate choice will lead you to three very different endings that will redefine the tone of The Wreck completely. Usually, when games do that, it can feel a bit clunky: there’s the ending that feels natural, “canon”, and then there are the other ones, the “lesser” ones, that you may even regret ending up with. We really wanted to avoid that. That’s why this last choice is not about how the story will end – in fact, the story ends just before it.
In fact, this choice, this last commitment by you, the player, is about what Junon will do with all that happened to her. By picking one of those three possibilities, you define the kind of woman she’ll become. You invent a new Junon, one who is ready to start living again as soon as you switch off the console. And that is only possible because, choice after choice, you invested in knowing her.The Wreck is available today on Xbox Series S|X, Xbox One S and X.
The Wreck
The Pixel Hunt
☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
At 36, Junon’s life is in pieces: her career has stalled, she’s emotionally numb, and her personal life is falling apart. Things come to a head when she’s called to the ER to find her estranged mother in a critical condition. This is the most important day of Junon’s life, and unless something changes, it might be her last. Relive the Past. Experience Junon’s memories and piece together the story of her past, including the tragic secret that lies at its centre. Alter the Present. Use your understanding of Junon’s trauma to change how she navigates the day, unlocking new dialogue options and healing broken relationships. Embrace the Future. When you’re at rock bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up. Help Junon find peace with herself and discover the humor, beauty and hope that lie even on life’s bleakest days.
Experience a fresh mashup of the puzzle and strategy genres
Relive a homage to classic 1990s ensemble dramedies
This is my second title launching on Xbox and it’s really cool to see how much our company has grown since Hexagroove: Tactical DJ in 2020. The first time around was a great experience but there was so much more I wanted make more accessible and inviting. In Backbeatwe designed the interface from the ground up for 4K and scalable across all members of the Xbox device family. The games we design at Ichigoichie are built on mashing up genres and deriving our gameplay mechanics from musical theory. This was at times a little overwhelming in Hexagroove, so I worked hard to portion out new mechanics in Backbeat through a much broader portion of the game. So much in fact you’ll still be learning new tricks more than three quarters through the main campaign!
Backbeat is at first glance a turn-based sokoban puzzle game. You have a band of up to four characters and must get them all to the goal within a limited number of turns. Each character moves differently presenting unique challenges. After some levels we introduce time mechanics to the mix, and you’ll need to synchronize each character’s timeline with the others, working together to unblock obstacles on the path to the goal. Finally, we add four shared resources you must manage while navigating space and time. Which turns you choose to change direction or interact with the environment cause these resources to increase or decrease. Maximize the resources and you get a high score. Run out of resources, and you’re in a failure state. Fortunately, rewinding the turns of each character individually is possible to allow incremental improvements to your puzzle solutions.
One thing I wanted to add to Backbeat was a story to motivate your choices and set the stakes. The setting is 1995 in suburban Washington, D.C. and has a lot of callouts to the last days of the analog era before the advent of the internet. The narrative is a homage to ensemble 90s dramedies like “With Honors”, “The Commitments”, and “School of Rock”. Heroine Watts is doing her best to hold together a band of amateur funk musicians and contending with all the struggles of collaborative creation: inflated egos, clashing personality types, and external responsibilities to work and family. A diverse cast of characters exists in each of the two main bands, and I hope you can find one that speaks to you.
If you’re a fan of puzzle games, turn-based strategy, or story-rich retro experiences, then I think there’s something for you to appreciate, and many more novel features to discover. Start with the free demo of Backbeatand I hope you have some funky fun!
Backbeat
Ichigoichie
☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
$29.99$26.99
A mashup of puzzle and strategy games. Manipulate four threads of time to guide your band through sokoban-style puzzles. Manage squad resources over a set of limited turns. Experience a homage to 1990s ensemble dramedies. Customize the dynamic soundtrack with audio effects. === STORY ===
Stephanie „Watts“ Watson, an aspiring bassist, bounced from audition to audition never finding music that really resonated with her, that is, until she discovered the magic of funk. Caught up in the groove, she recruits a group of hometown amateurs to take on art school darlings La Tormenta at the Battle of the Bands. === MECHANICS ===
Each character in your band moves through the map in different ways, encountering unique solutions and obstacles. Advancing a character consumes a turn and part of the timeline, setting up interactions with other characters and enemies at different points in time. Rewinding a turn undoes your move, allowing you to find improved solutions and new ways to tackle problems. Manipulate each character separately, rewinding or fast-forwarding along the timeline in the process to reach her current point in time. Changes in time are reflected in the progress and actions both past and present of each character, creating some possibilities and removing others. Each character has his own resource-limited super move which can be triggered under certain conditions. Tip toe through tight spaces with your bassist, slide through guards with your keytar player, break through walls with your drummer, or blow enemies out of the way with your mighty super sax. Strategic use of your super moves increase the number of solutions to each puzzle and are the key in gaining a maximum score. Four resource-based musical metrics govern how and when you can move and interact with objects in the levels. These can completely block progress if used inefficiently, and create amazing musical chains and high scores when regulated artfully. === MUSIC ===
Join Watts as she grows on a musical journey rooted in funk and fusion. Soulful grooves and hot licks are composed by Pete Fraser, session saxophonist to the The Pogues, Friendly Fires, and Field Music! Twenty musical motifs are recorded by a live ensemble of seven funk masters, providing the foundation for the dynamic music in the game. Unique songs are generated depending on what directions and paths you take in each puzzle. Customize your performance with alternate playing styles, instruments swaps, and realtime audio effect pedals. === CONCEPT ===
Backbeat is a homage to the 16 and 32-bit story-driven games of the 1990s, recreating the challenges and victories of the last days of analog life and the birth of the internet. The suburban Washington D.C. area is reflected in diner parking lots, shopping malls, and dimly lit arcades. A colorful cast of supporting characters both friend and foe join Watts as she struggles with leadership, success, and holding together a band.
Now you can save the day in even more ridiculous ways!
Hi! I’m Sos Sosowski, the creator and solo developer behind McPixel 3. I am excited to announce that this march, you will be able to enjoy all new adventures of the titular hero on Xbox! But first, let me tell you more about the game, because there’s a whole lot to do there!
Is This the Way to Save the Day?
McPixel is not your regular superhero. While he tries to save his own skin in the most unpredictable way, his adventures usually end in absolutely hilarious failures. You control the titular character and explore over 100 tiny levels trying to find the right solution by using and combining anything you can find. Every solution has an outcome, but there’s only one good answer so you’ll never get bored!
Each of the levels has a time limit before the calamity happens, and the levels are arranged in rounds, that you circle through until you finish all of them so that you are never bored being stuck in a single place. In these rounds you will travel around the world, go back in time, perform in TV shows, get shrunken down to the size of a pebble and more!
The Mind-Bending Genre-Bending!
Every once in a while, during your adventures, you will come across a minigame. The minigames are simple, and require not only puzzle solving, but a bit of dexterity as well. They can be found in the weirdest places and come in a whole palette of genres! We have shoot’em ups, beat’em ups, driving, FPSes, platformers, on-rails, QTEs, and more! All in a full software-rendered retro style glory!
Welcome to McBurg!
The game takes place in the city of McBurg, which you explore to find new adventures. Finding different outcomes in adventures yield coins which you can then use to unlock even more levels! Additionally, a lot of tiny gags and secrets are hidden throughout the city, including the ability to change into different costumes you have come across while saving the day!
Steeeeve!
During your adventures you will often come across Steve, who can be found in the weirdest places, prompting you to join him on a short adventure. Steve is not like McPixel, however, and does not save the day. He is just a normal guy, who will go fishing, cooking, painting or summoning demons, among other things.
McPixel Visits Grandma!
In a brand-new update, McPixel gets a letter from grandma telling him to come for a visit! Join McPixel on his visit to grandma’s place and make sure she actually survives the unfortunate encounters McPixel puts her through in a new never-before seen level pack!
In addition to that, two new minigames and a brand new Steve level wait for you in this level pack!
The Classic Remastered Additionally, you will be able to play the original six levels, first ever made for McPixel in 2011, remastered to match McPixel 3’s style and graphics! These six levels were the first ever to be created during a 48-hour game jam! This is where McPixel all started! Grab McPixel 3 now and join this crazy explosive adventure!
McPixel 3
Devolver Digital
☆☆☆☆☆15
★★★★★
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s falling too fast to be either of those. It’s McPixel! A wanna-be hero who keeps getting mixed up in the most unbelievable situations you can imagine. Levels
One moment you’re stuck in a speeding train headed towards the cliff; the other, you’re in a falling plane. Sometimes you need to win an impossible-to-win soccer match, and the other, you’re a dinosaur trying to hide from a meteorite. Stuck in a flaming house? Sandwiched between two battling armies? Certainly not a problem for McPixel! 100 levels of fast-paced action are waiting for you! Minigames
Sometimes, the usual adventure style will get interrupted by genre-bending minigames. Ranging from racing, shooting, fighting, and sports to even platforming or FPS! The game offers over 20 minigames scattered around the world of McPixel! Coins and stamps
McPixel is not all about just saving the day but having fun trying to come up with the craziest possible solutions. And for every solution, you will be rewarded with coins! Find all solutions in a level to get the gold prize and some extra coins! You can use them to unlock new levels! Also, everyone loves coins, right? They’re shiny and golden and spinning! No reason not to have some more! McBurg
The game takes place in the city of McBurg. Explore the city and find different adventures! Some of the paths in the city are blocked and will require you to spend coins to move forward and access new levels! The city will get populated with characters and items from the levels you already visited as you play. You will also be able to don some of the costumes you found while playing. On the edge of the city upon a grassy hill, you can see a Devolver vault, full of gold, looming over McBurg. So, if you ever need a lot of coins, maybe it’s time to pay Fork Parker a visit? Steve
Sometimes, during your adventures, you will find Steve. Steve can be in the weirdest and most unexpected of places, and finding him will transport you to the Steve level. Steve is not like McPixel and doesn’t specialize in saving the day. He’s just some guy, doing stuff. Like fishing, cooking, driving a car, or summoning demons. You know, just the average guy kind of stuff. Key Features:
– 100 mind-blowing levels
– Nearly 1000 hilarious gags to discover
– Over 1500 interactive items
– Over 20 minigames in all imaginable genres
– Over 300,000,000 pixels
– Steve
– A water level
Stray Souls pays homage to classic games in the horror genre, while crafting an experience for the modern era.
Designed to be completely immersive and unsettling to keep you on your toes!
Coming to Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S this fall.
I absolutely love horror, but it takes an awful lot to scare me. Jump scares are all well and good for a quick startle, but I’m always looking for those experiences that will stick with me long after the credits roll. I’m talking Silent Hill 2 or “Paranormal Activity”levels of psychological terror! The day Stray Soulscame across my desk, within the first 10 minutes, I knew that the folks over at Jukai Studio were my… Souls-mates. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Stray Souls tells the story of Daniel, who is your average 18-year-old in an anything but average situation. After inheriting the home of his estranged grandmother, he thinks he’s got it made, with a place to finally call his own and the independence that comes with it. However, his joy is short-lived once he discovers that he may not be alone in the house after all.
Turns out, Grandma was hiding some pretty big secrets! Fortunately for Daniel, his nosy neighbor Martha knows quite a bit about what’s going on in his home. Unfortunately for Daniel, his nightmare is only just beginning.
Playing as Daniel, you and Martha head out on a mission in search of answers about your past. Each piece of the puzzle leads you closer to the truth, but you’ll encounter dark forces at every turn all too happy to try and stop you.
Like any good horror game, you’ll get to face off against hordes of gruesome baddies, but what separates Stray Souls from other games in the genre is that our hero, Daniel, is a teenager, not a trained soldier. He doesn’t have access to a huge cache of weapons and body armor, which means you’ll need to rely on combat strategy and resource management to survive. You can even run from most fights if you want to!
The team at Jukai Studio are students of the genre and it shows. You can really feel the influence of classic horror games throughout, but modernized for today’s gamer. Like puzzles, for example. The puzzles are designed to be challenging, but solvable without having to look up the answer online. No more lugging around etched crests trying to figure out what to do with them!
What hooked me most about Stray Souls as a player is how the developers have crafted this tense, creepy atmosphere that never feels truly safe. Apparitions moving in the distance. Snapping branches all around you. Is there something waiting just around the corner? Your imagination is sometimes your own worst enemy in Aspen Falls and I love it!
Stray Soulsis coming to Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S this fall, and I absolutely cannot wait for everyone to get their hands on it. I’ve never had so much fun working on a game while simultaneously getting the holy heck scared of me every step of the way!
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