I have harshly criticized Microsoft for its incomprehensible absence at the massive The Game Awards event in December. As such, it’s only fair that I give them credit: su primer Developer_Direct (aka Xbox Direct for those of us who don’t have the patience to type that damn underscore every time) it was a success. The 40-minute long stream wisely mimicked the hostless format pioneered by Nintendo and cleverly pilfered by Sony, and as a result we saw five games, got four release dates, and perhaps most importantly, took away some optimism for the coming months.
Microsoft pleasantly surprised everyone with a new rhythm action game from Tango Gameworks called Hi-Fi Rush. It immediately seemed like a delicious mix of Sunset Overdrive, Ninja Gaiden and Guitar Hero. And what is better, Tango released it right after the Direct ended., making it one of the first same-day announcement and launch combos in quite some time. It’s no exaggeration to say that such a surprise wouldn’t have been possible without Xbox Game Pass, where word of mouth can build over time, and a game’s success doesn’t depend as much on a pre-order campaign and months of advertising.
Meanwhile, Redfall was the highlight, closing out the event with a deeper look at the vampire-themed Arkane FPS. It still clearly retains the DNA of Arkane, but it’s also decidedly different from the studio’s previous pop-up offerings like Dishonored and Prey. Instead, you’ll be shooting a lot with a bunch of cool weapons and against a bunch of savage enemies, from vampires that enshroud the battlefield in darkness to huge bosses that almost look like Destiny ones. It’s out May 2, which should be enough of a head start before decades-old franchises like Zelda, Diablo, Street Fighter, and Final Fantasy saturate the summer (not to mention the highly anticipated Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice). Rocksteady League).
We’ve seen five games, gotten four release dates, and taken away some optimism for the next few months.
In fact, the only real disappointment of the day was Forza Motorsport. Not the game. Once again, her looks are amazing. The Forza saga has never lacked for visual detail, and the reboot rebuilt for next-gen only (meaning no Xbox One version) wowed us with its paint reflections, dynamic day/night cycle, and realistic stacks of dirt on their 500 cars. And that’s only in the live stream compressed to 1080p. It will look even more glorious at its native 4K/60fps. Instead, the disappointment was the release date of Forza Motorsport or rather, the lack of date. Given that Microsoft made it clear early on that it would focus on four games for this Direct, and that all four were expected in the first half of the year as per the company’s decree at Xbox Showcase last summer, it was fair to expect to know exactly when. we could play each of them. But alas, they didn’t even give us a station to look forward to for Forza: a generic “2023” was all we got, pretty much confirming that the next-gen racing game will arrive in the second half of the year.
In summary, If Microsoft takes anything away from its first Direct, it should be these two things:
1) Continue to use this format for presentations outside of E3. Works. Don’t ever use the overproduced and overly long format of Inside Xbox again.
2) Keep promising little and offering a lot. It became clear that Starfield would have his own Direct from him later on and would not be a part of it. That helped gauge audience expectations, which were exceeded when Hi-Fi Rush hit the screen, and again when it opened the same day.
