Something happened to COD around 2014, the franchise that placed its players in modern war engagements suddenly became a future shooter! The whole antigrav jumps and the many laser based fighting tools it looks like Activision is finally done and dusted with the setting. After three instalments and the bomb that was Infinite Warfare the trigger has been pulled with COD now going back to its roots.
Vince Zyle writes "Star Wars Hunters is a really fun game! It’s not as good as other Star Wars games like Star Wars Battlefront 2 but coming from a developer like Zynga who worked on very underwhelming and low-quality titles before, this is a major upgrade.
There’s not much objectively wrong with the game aside from the work needed to make visuals smoother during animations. That’s one of the biggest issues at present alongside frame drops that occur from time to time when there’s too much going on which isn’t too bad but certainly noticeable.
In conclusion, Star Wars Hunters is a game for arena shooter fans who are looking for an action-filled game. Some of the other issues will hopefully be ironed out with future updates."
Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty thinks they "deserve a pretty positive grade" for the recent Xbox Games Showcase
You bought it all around six months ago. You spent billions because the company is literally inept but yeah a plus man
It's like a kid that pays the smart kid in class to do his science fair project for him, then brags "Hey, look what I made! That's an A+ effort right there!"
Wait didn't Sony buy all the great studios THEY own also? So Microsoft is a villain for trying to catch up?
@GamerRN the only example I can think of that you're referring to is Bungie with Destiny? Maybe a few others that were already in financial risk of closure?
Almost all the others were long nurtured studios that Sony help build up from their beginnings. Insomniac for instance is what it is today because of Sony's support from the early PS1 days from Spyro to Ratchet & Clank onward. (Or for me, the hidden gem Disruptor) Insomniac even gave Microsoft a chance w Sunset Overdrive and hardly anyone bought it, so Insomniac saw MS as a wasted effort. They probably heard about the Gamepass plans early on b4 it was announced and ran. Gamepass is where games go to die bc unless you're in the 5% most successful titles, you're in risk of your game, and possibly your studio dying off.
Gamerrn
Play coy all you want but Sony never went and bought 2 of some of the largest publishers in gaming. There is a huge difference. Doesnt matter much anyway because as Ms has already shown, it's base cannot support all the ips they've bought.
@ Gamer: “ Wait didn't Sony buy all the great studios THEY own also? So Microsoft is a villain for trying to catch up?”
Ugh a few thousand of my brain cell expired after reading your comment.
Edit: sorry forgot to comment on the article
Good job microsoft on showing the stuff you stole and dangling it on front of the police saying you deserve it because you work hard to get it 🤦🏿
‘ Xbox Studios Boss: We "Deserve a Pretty Positive Grade" for Xbox Games Showcase’
And what grade do you think you deserve for the rest of your 2024 shenanigans? 🤔
@1victor
"Ugh a few thousand of my brain cell expired after reading your comment."
Based on your comment history I assumed that your brain cells already had a battle royal and that's how you ended up with that user name?
I think it's the gamers that get to decide that... you don't take a test and then go up to the teacher saying "I deserve an A".
Here’s the thing and I know it’s going to cause a stir like it’s some fanboy bullshit but it needs to be said
Microsoft did indeed have a great showcase, no way about it, they did
BUT…theres a lot of ways to go about it
We’ve been moaning for years how studios constantly keep showing off games that are years away and the thing is this is exactly what Microsoft has done this year
Simple reveal trailers to fully showing of a bit of gameplay, it’s irrelevant the fact is Microsoft already revealed Perfect Dark, Fable, State of Decay, Avowed, Indiana Jones before the showcase and some of those titles were revealed a LONG time ago. They did the same thing with Hellblade 2 for a while until it finally released, it always felt it was at every show. Gears of War had no release date so how many shows is that going to be at realistically? I just assumed going by the comments online people hated this sort of stuff and yet the next they praise it. We’ve still got other games MS revealed a while back and will get more re-reveals in the future so the same will happen again.
Then you have multiplatform games on top of all that because let’s be honest between the Summer Game Fest and Microsofts Showcase you’ll want to reveal your games at something more established and bigger so these big third party studios will chose Microsoft to show their games at since Sony hasn’t got any presence at these shows and people like EA don’t really do their own shows because they are always terrible.
It just feels like overtime, if Microsoft finally go third party in the next few years, the Microsoft Showcase will basically become a third party mini E3 show more multiplatform developers will want to get in on as long as there’s an Xbox version.
I'm glad someone else has pointed it out.
Everybody got angry at trailers of games with no gameplay or release dates and some of these didnt even have a year, so I'm not sure what's changed? Those of us with a series X spent the first two years saying 'wait till next year'. After this show we are still kicking the can down the road....
I'm happy to see what's coming, but the show did everything that everyone said they hated in the past! I guess given the shocks of the early year for MS, any optimism is appreciated, but I'll be reserving judgement for when we actually see games. At least ID know how to do a gameplay trailer - more of that please!
Tend to agree ms announces things far to early and with this showcase being the second last xsx focused show given the intended push to next gen in 26 it couldn't afford to be quiet.
I feel like most of these games announced won't see daylight until 25 / 26 some may abandon the xsx in favour of next gen and next showcase will be another repeat and maybe a next gen tease or reval if they are planning early 26
"You bought it all around six months ago. You spent billions because the company is literally inept but yeah a plus man"
Sure thing...
Perfect Dark, South of Midnight, Fable, Flight Simulator 2024, State of Decay and Gears 6 all looked incredible it those has absolutely nothing to do with ABK or even Bethesda.
I guess some people simply can´t accept that MS is on a whole new level of quality, quantity and variety that competition can´t come close!
Xbox has the whole generation on the lock and even some games to spare and save for the next generation console. All Top tier games day one on Gamepass including COD.
Things will only get better for us. This is just the beginning of something ever greater.
Guess what they didn't show much of? Exclusive titles. Not even Gears 6 was cited to be exclusive to Xbox.
Looks like you were proven wrong yet again.
https://ibb.co/qWLK4Zp
https://ibb.co/Xk7Y5qj
Haven't you learned to wait for release yet? You said the same about Redfall and Starfield. Looking great in previews is all well and good. It's how they actually play that matters. Where is this "whole new level of quality"? They've yet to even be nominated for game of the year, nevermind winning it. That's what a whole new level of quality means.
“Things will only get better for us. This is just the beginning of something ever greater”
Good grief.
Fanboy shit aside…come on
Cringe
ah spare me with this “us” mentality, you corpo mouthpiece are getting tiring...
if you’re a gamer and you see games you like buy it (and the device to play it if you haven’t) and move on, it’s a box not a homeland to defend.
Don't be a slave to company please man and be open minded about different views man.
I see an Obscure_Observer post I don't read it but simply down vote it and I'm not even a simple man. :)
"Things will only get better for us. This is just the beginning of something ever greater."
My God. I can't even imagine what is wrong with this person and what kind of life he lives. Just look at the things he writes and spews. Can you imagine, he is talking about video games, just a form of entertainment? He talks as if he is on a holy crusade or a fight for freedom awaiting salvation or liberation. How can someone become so obsessed, crazed, and devoted to a videogame brand that serves no purpose in life except to provide some entertainment during your free time?
@shinoff2183
"Xbox has lost. Just accept"
They´d lost. Xbox and PC gamers won.
Fair trade to me, since I couldn´t care less if the´re losing while we get our games! TONS of games day one on Gamepass.
@frosty cause they release on pc, are we now gonna call all sony 1st party games not exclusive anymore because they also release on pc?
I agree. Dont you find it interesting how Microsoft bought Activision after their own internal studios failure and then at first chance they say "We"...... You didn't do anything but dig deep into Papa Microsofts deep pockets and take their money to buy someone else's work. After several years managing the business, yeah, I'll probably allow you to say "we" when you've proven yourself. That's like me having the school nerd do my science project, paying him to do it and then turn it in and say I did it. I don't see any difference
@ obscured dodo dojo: “Based on your comment history I assumed that your brain cells already had a battle royal and that's how you ended up with that user name? “
You don’t learn do you I’m surprised that account hasn’t been banned yet.
In regards to my name I couldn’t find a dumb name because your moldybread/ orchard/ logic keep taking all the ironically stupid one like this last one🤦🏿.
Btw I didn’t disagree with your comment as I know that’s how you get paid 🤣and it’s sad to say but that agree is from another of your accounts.
.
@Foxtrox I agree with your comment 100% and you perfectly aligned with my thoughts on this
👍👍
As a primary Playstation gamer i give it positive grade since the showcase was OK and most of the games coming to PS5.
IMO best of the shows
Astro bot
Black myth wukong
Phantom blade zero
new Doom
new Gears
MGS Delta
Mario Party Jamboree
Zelda EoW
Pass on Doom Gears and Mario party for me though my kids may want to play Mario Party. Also a temporary pass on Black Myth until they get discs in their house physical copies of the game. Not a huge fan of the Zelda art style but I will still get it as it has the old school gameplay
didnt know you could throw around beds and tables in the old school zelda gameplay, it seems it is a puzzle game, not an adventure game.
How are "most" coming to ps5?
Astro Bot while to much of a kids game for me looks cool, but that was all Sony had.
XBOX had some game this year for sure! Looks like "most" won't be on PlayStation
Fable
Perfect Dark
OD (I know nothing about it but I love Kojima)
Indiana Jones
State of Decay 3
Stalker 2
Avowed
Gears 6
The Outer Worlds 2
Microsoft Flight Sim 2024 ( the best looking game I have ever seen!)
I would say so. Well done showcase. I do still miss E3 though as I still just don't really like these online showcases replacing much of the in person presentations where everyone gathers. Companies, devs, and fans of the whole industry (not just for one platform) alike at one event.
You deserve a steaming pile of shite just like the Series S you released to gimp this generation
Even in a “slow year” Sony still has more games than Xbox coming out in 2024. One C rated showcase showing games 5+ years away and all of a sudden Xbox fans think they can beat their chest.
if that's your issue you can just play on pc, uncapped framerates, better textures, more options, mods, user fixes if a dev fucks something up and if you wanna talk about that, consoles hold the gaming industry back because it already runs on 2+ years old hardware on release, but I bet you don't care about that
The only thing Microsoft crushed were studios like Tango and Arkane, just think we could have seen games from them if it wasn't for xbox.
Plenty of things to cry about in the industry. Like those studios closing. Sony stopping psvr 2 support. MS crappy elite controller endurance. Sonys lack of games. I could go on and on. You really seem to have a hard time dealing with MS's success. MS crushed the showcase and NiN did great. All sony really did was let you know ASTRO bot is what you have to look forward too and they are going full 3rd party.
Why would I care what Sony did or didn't do? All I want from them right now is Bloodborne on PC.
"You really seem to have a hard time dealing with MS's success." Yes I do, because MS "success" means industry consolidation and studio shutdowns as a direct result of MS's greed spree of newly purchased Publishers. Success to you is just buying and consolidating an industry at the cost to gamers and the workforce... but hey as long as the CEO's and shareholders get their payday and people like you keep cheering them on they'll keep doing it.
Buddy I hate to inform you of this but every company is a consolidation of studios. Further more there will continue to be layoffs across the industry. I will say this. Your 1st sentence is exactly why people don't take you seriously on n4g. Why would I care what sony did and didn't do? You seem to follow Sony with blind eyes then hate on MS for doing the same exact things that sony does. You gotta be objective man. That's the part you're missing. Game on!
"You seem to follow Sony with blind eyes then hate on MS for doing the same exact things that sony does. You gotta be objective man."
Please quote me caring about Sony (lets make this easy for you) in the last 3 years and please show me defending Sony spending $80 billion on industry consolidation.
"Buddy I hate to inform you of this but every company is a consolidation of studios."
Just say you have no idea what industry consolidation is and it's impact on the workforce and consumers.
"Your 1st sentence is exactly why people don't take you seriously on n4g."
Looks at InUrFoxHoles profile and comment history... sure buddy, self awareness isn't a strong point here. Why not explain where my comment isn't truthful of the current situation.
Defend gaming not your obsession over your favourite plastic box whose owners are currently the biggest danger to the industries workforce.
Biggest danger? What is your end game here? Make this easier for both of us. What exactly is you think MS is going to do in the end? Now keep in mind I'm open to hear you out but don't beat around the bush. I need to understand what you believe the exact out come is here.
Your comment history is literally filled with you defending Sony, you've switched to PC as your primary place to play but it's clear you were a huge Sony fan.
Also how are you going to paint a picture of MS ruining the game industry and then still support them by buying their games on PC? You don't even believe the stuff you're peddling.
"What exactly is you think MS is going to do in the end? Now keep in mind I'm open to hear you out but don't beat around the bush. I need to understand what you believe the exact out come is here."
I don't "beat around the bush" when it comes to the biggest POS in the industry, Microsoft. Industry consolidation destroys competition and innovation and leads to mass layoffs, a lesser products at higher cost to the consumer, a very basic grade school explanation for you. If you would like to know more I suggest to look up industry consolidation on Google and see how MS is bringing all the negatives from it into gaming.
Industry consolidation BAD, is that clear enough for you?.
... still waiting for my pro Sony quotes by the way as I'm their biggest fan and to quote you, "You seem to follow Sony with blind eyes then hate on MS for doing the same exact things that sony does".
Yeah not gonna happen. You keep trying to blame MS for things the industry has already done. Who raised the game prices to $70? Name one company that hasn't done layoffs. Name one company that isn't buying studios. You keep saying things that are already happening then saying MS bad. MS lives rent free in your head. You literally are fear mongering than sitting back in the hopes the stuff floating around in your noggin comes true lol. Enjoy that. You big mad.
Lol.....gets a $70 billion check from your parent company, buy half the industry and then congratulate yourself for all the content you got.
Is he for real? The level of entitlement and privilege is gross.
Redfall and Starfield are just the latest examples why nobody should ever trust XBox advertising. Hololens, Crackdown 3, Phantom Dust Remake, and Scalebound are some of the other major offenders in the last decade. Games like Halo: Master Chief Collection and Sea of Thieves were horrible at launch.
FABLE LEGENDS!!! XBox has deceived gamers so many times that I completely forgot about a game that Microsoft promoted heavily during multiple E3s only to cancel it later.
Did you really just try to list a bunch of games not developed by Sony studios and try to claim that Sony is just as bad as Microsoft? Come back when you can cobble together a list of Sony first-party problems that comes close to the ones perpetuated by Microsoft Game Studios (better be more than just Killzone 2 because that game still looks amazing today and has the critic's score to back up its gameplay).
It's also odd to me that folk get so hyped for games like Fable.
Fable 2 was a good game (albeit a little on the simple side for my tastes) whilst the other entries were quite middling. So quite why a CG trailer with no gameplay is being hailed as mindblowing is odd to me.
Given the track record of MS studios, I just cannot get really hyped for anything they have lined up. I hope Fable will he good, but I am very much in the 'I'll wait and see' camp rather than assuming it will be some stellar release.
Playground games track record is what has me most excited about fable. I never played the old ones though.
Meanwhile, MS continues to choose profits and executive pay over the talent of their creative teams. Oh, but then let's wine about how "hard" it was from an executive decision-level to close one of their studios and lay-off all the talented employees. Was it harder than what those creatives are now facing on the other side?? Cry me a river. MS is no different than every other corporate entity and it's utterly appalling and saddening that this is the state of the videogames industry. But ya know, keep lapping up the kool-aid that these executive wankers continue to casually spill on the floor while they reward themselves with more money and moan about how many pats on the back they deserve for a "job well done."
You deserve a piece of shit💩. This dumb ass thinks we didn't forget about the closures.
A positive grade not going to happen most of the games are years away. Microsoft has no idea how to run the Xbox brand. A game like Wukong got pushed back because of the Series S and optimization basically the Series S screwed over Series X owners again. The showcase may have been good but as for a grade I would say a C- at most.
Seems to me Booty has taken over from Spencer as chief bullsh1tter now.
Different mouth, same old cr*p.
Shut up. This is the best showcase Xbox has had in 10 years. Let’s see what they bring next year… back to dog sh*t
You don't deserve shit. The studios deserve all the credit. What horrible leadership at Microsoft.
I agree with you when you say that the studios deserve all the credit. That´s true.
However, you gotta keep in mind that booty is one of the few key people who approves those games to be funded and developed in the first place.
Sure. What else is he going to do...approving originally 3rd party successful IP is a no brainer.
Did he also approve the closures? That's where it would've mattered....he approved releasing redfall in that state?
It's actually crazy to me that they buy up the industry, and not only talk about "hitting their stride" with these games that were in development whether Microsoft purchased them or not, but now they're out here fishing for likes like a YouTuber. Get the entire f outta here with these pats on the back with dead presidents. This entire approach is deplorable, especially in the midst of studio closures.
I’ll guarantee that that’s why he and Phil didn’t say much after they axed all those studios. They were just like “we’ll ride it out til the showcase cuz we have some good games then everyone will forget.” Sad part is, they were mostly correct.
Not much else to say after you lay off people. "Numbers didn't check out, shareholders were pissed, we cut out what brought the least money".
If we look the games they announce yes, they would have a good grade. But on the other hand are ton of games they announced years ago and finally they are looking the bright sun after development problems.. the best example it's the new Gears of War, excited? Of course, but now we have to wait 3/4 years on a new Xbox showcase to finally show gameplay and again they are going to say they deserve a good grade.
Idk, they deserve that consumers still have a careful look about MS it's going to do in the future.
"Deserve?!?" Oh man. Wrong language there lol You bought all of those multiplatform games. The XGS games still don't have release dates from announcements several years ago.
Perfect Dark? No release year, let alone date, in trailer
Gears of War E Day- Same
State of Decay 3- Same thing
Fable-2025
South of Midnight -2025. 9 years since We Happy Few and 7 years after Xbox acquisition.
Look. The rest of this year looks solid and 2025 and beyond should be consistent moving forward but Xbox has yet to deliver consistency for the last 10 years.
The show was good because they bought 30 studios and have plenty of multiplatform content to show.
I judge systems based off what their first party games deliver. Xbox has been a disaster for so long that I need to see if XGS can deliver great games consistently.
Not impressed by buying Bethesda and ABK.
Games are made for playing not watching Redfall got a standing ovation when it turned up at an xbox show before release
What grade did that showcase get ?
For the first time in years the 2024 XB showcase was very interesting to me. I saw several titles that I'm interested in playing hopefully in 2025. The downside was most XB exclusives shown had no concrete release dates.
I could just accept the fact that they indeed had a good Showcase.
But I just can't help myself that I simply dislike the way Microsoft/Xbox achieved it.
It's the big picture, the pattern, simply everything about how Microsoft, publically observable, have been approaching the console business since the 360 era.
Going forward to everything that wasn't even meant to be publically disclosed.
Such as their intern statements that every Zenimax IP will be exclusive, to "pushing Sony out of business" or "playing the long game to take over Nintendo".
It's their cockiness, their money brute force, the Xbox One betrayal and back paddling, and it's also Game Pass, which underlying strategy is to bind IPs behind licenses and a double paywall. Sacrificing all of our privilege owning a game.
And sacrificing important revenue for studios, such as Hellblade 2, which, how recent reports show, failed to even reach the Top 100 in retail in Europe. Potentially putting even Ninja Theory at risk of getting internally questioned financially by execs.
Looking at most recent sales data from Europe, I am "delighted" that Microsoft's business strategy doesn't translate into better numbers.
But rather a strong dislike, with hardware sales of the X|S falling down to only 68K in a whole month, Hellblade 2 missing retail's Top 100 and the Series S most likely being again responsible for another delay of an anticipated 3rd party title.
What I am saddened about the most though is:
How people can't clearly see the true nature of Microsoft's market behaviour.
And what must have had happened why they dislike Playstation so much that they accept Xbox's strategy over them.
Did he really just....? Man, what a friggin heel..... You're not allowed to think that way, dude. Also, you showed a bunch of trailers. Yeah, that's flashy and all but there SHOULD HAVE BEEN a lot of gameplay and release dates, you've had years to get things together. Even Sony operated during COVID rather than sitting around and making excuses and what did we get? GOD OF WAR RAGNAROK! And what's The Coalition been up to and all they had was an intro trailer? You may have drummed up excitement but it's lights, smoke, and mirrors with no promise, dude. Nintendo showed a lot more gameplay, I might argue at least Sony showed gameplay than you did even there their State of Play was crap, you skated by with trailers that don't tell us anything. Nah, dude. What a punk
Dude laidoff thousands of employees and now he wants a pat on the head because he managed not to screw this one thing up.
MS owns /controls the majority of what were once private/independent studios, so I mean, it's was kinda not hard to put together a showcase of what's upcoming. Starved for some attention/recognition there Booty?
oh for fk sake
"but we did good, right ?"
do you think that changes anything? a sort of online grade that necessarily means nothin?
And still only showed games we already knew were coming. It was a good showing of games with a great tempo. But did not show anything new and impressive.
It was a good show, so good that even Sony fans get to be excited as like half of it is coming to playstation.
A new Red Faction game was apparently in the works, but Embracer never greenlit it and instead canceled it along with studio layoffs.
It's a shame that the level of environmental destruction in this series was treated as a novelty and not followed up.
I get that tightly controlling the gamer's experience is desirable but there must be some scope for some games to let people go nuts and for it to still make sense from a design perspective.
Yeah. Developers ditched that for better graphics. Even Red Faction developers are guilty of this.
The the series left the WWII setting for a reason
How about take the Call Of Duty formula but turn it into movies games that makes sense
Call Of Duty: Independence Day
Call Of Duty: Transformers: The Last Knight
Call Of Duty: Lethal Weapon