Xbox just wrapped up its latest Xbox Developer_Direct, showcasing Ara: History Untold, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, and the new Indiana Jones game. We also got the surprise of Visions of Mana.
The Xbox Developer_Direct goes live in a little under two hours. To catch the show, be sure to tune in at 12pm PT / 3pm ET / 8pm BT on YouTube or Twitch. And if you're fan of The Elder Scrolls Online, stick around until after the show, as the company will share more details on the game's 2024 timeline.
If you can't make the show for whatever reason, keep up with us as we'll be updating this article with frequent live updates.
We're just 15 minutes away from the Xbox Developer_Direct going live. To catch the show, be sure to tune in at 12pm PT / 3pm ET / 8pm BT on YouTube or Twitch. If you can't make it, keep up with this article for updates on everything happening!
The Xbox Developer_Direct is starting now! Tune in on YouTube or Twitch. If you can't make it, we'll provide important updates on everything you need to know.
Xbox began the show with a demonstration from Obsidian Entertainment, taking us into the studio to showcase Avowed. The company begins by explaining its ambitions with Avowed, showcasing its colorful world and clips of action-oriented gameplay, alongside the promise of deep choice found in any RPG.
Avowed allows the user to quickly swap between melee, spellcasting, and shooting to allow for a greater breadth of unique builds. The showcase gave us several clips of gameplay where the player is facing many of the world's monsters, and the player can have multiple loadouts to swap to swiftly.
Obsidian moves on to showcase how the player will be forced to make difficult decisions throughout many of its quests. We see different characters explaining an event, and how the player can make decisions based on what they decide to do.
Obsidian then moved onto how Avowed's colorful art direction, utilizing a unique collection of architecture inspiration to keep the world striking.
We then moved onto Ninja Theory for a new showing of Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. We get a quick explanation of what Senua's journey is about, and how she's made peace with her past and must travel through Iceland on her quest. The vikings have enslaved her people, and she must battle against giants and draugur to survive.
Ninja Theory makes it clear that the team has worked with actual people who have experience psychosis to make the story feel as authentic as possible. We also see how the team's motion capture space has grown in size, alongside an entirely new combat system revolving around brutality. The developer wants the player to feel her struggle at every step of her journey.
The music is now binural, and every single sound can also be, alongside the voices Senua hears. It makes listening through headphones feel as if the player is in a 3D space.
It launches May 21 of this year.
Square Enix made a sudden appearance at the Xbox show and showed us behind the scenes of the latest Mana title. Visions of Mana gets some additional gameplay footage, showcasing its real-time combat and a few vistas of its environments
Square shows off how it came to create its adorable monster designs, showing these lovable chibi forms of real-life beasts and mythical creatures. We also see the player receives a giant, cute dog-like mount.
Square Enix also gave us a deeper look at how the game's soundtrack functions, seamlessly transitioning between traversal modes and combat modes to make it feel like a consistent score.
Visions of Mana launches during Summer 2024.
We then moved onto Oxide to showcase its new strategy game. With experience off of Civilization V, the company has finally come to dive deeper into Ara: History Untold. Similar to Civ, players choose a collection of historical leaders and expand their empire how they please.
The company showcases how players can choose their own method of winning, either deciding to focus on military might, artistic exploration, or monuments that showcase their influence on the world. Players can also utilize the crafting system to add an additional layer of strategy.
Xbox then jumped to the new Indiana Jones game, jumping us into Machine Games' office. The player will be in the shoes of the iconic archaeologist. And then we jump into our first look of the Indiana Jones game, with a typical Nazi regime threatening Jones and being menacing as always.
We immediately see a nice glimpse of Indiana Jones' face, exploring crypts, completing puzzles, using his whip to defeat Nazis and and going on massive adventures around the world.
The game is called Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The story begins with a mysterious man appearing in a museum before Indy goes on his adventure.
Machine Games emphasizes how there are several problems that need clever solutions, by providing several different paths to explore, navigate danger, and unravel puzzles. Machine Games is using lots of stunt actors and motion capture to make the world feel brought to life. We also got an introduction to the character Gina, who will be Indy's companion throughout the story.
Emmerich Ross is the villain and Machine Games is very proud of him. The whip in particular has pretty phenomenal physics, letting the player climb things, distract enemies, whack foes and then wrap it around their leg and toss them to the ground.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is launching later this year.
