One of the biggest questions heading into MultiVersus’ 1.0 launch has been answered. WB Games’ crossover platform fighter dropped in Open Beta in 2022, and the plan at the time seemed to be a smooth transition to a full launch. Instead the game was temporarily shut down, despite having run multiple Battle Passes and taking real money for skins and other cosmetics. Several months later, a relaunch is right around the corner with 1.0 scheduled for May 28, 2024. So, what happens to all that purchased content, and would there be any compensation for those founding players when MultiVersus returned? The latest wave of info from developer Player First Games has laid it all out, and we’re here with the condensed version. – Lucas White Read More
Stellar Blade, the Nier: Auotmata-ish PS5 character action game, has a bunch of chests to unlock that give you all kinds of sweet rewards, from healing items to gold to crafting resources. Many of these chests require that you input a sequence of buttons in an allotted time limit, while others need a passcode to open. There’s one in Xion, the game’s main hub world, that’s like this, demanding a passcode before unlocking. It’s called Aaron’s Locker and, truth be told, you may already have what you need to get the chest opened. – Levi Winslow Read More
In a twist no one saw coming, it is heavily rumored that Xbox might put some of their games onto PlayStation platforms. It’s a move that could see a huge shift in the entire hierarchy of the video game industry. While the stand-out titles we hope will appear on PlayStation are Halo and Gears of War, all the speculation got us thinking about the other Xbox exclusives we would love to see on PlayStation.
Sunset Overdrive
Imager Source: Xbox Game Studios
Insomniac Games is best known for making PlayStation franchises like Ratchet and Clank and Marvel’s Spider-Man now, however back in 2014 they released the Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive. Colorful and kinetic, of all the games on this list Sunset Overdrive is the game I’d most like to see on PlayStation.
The open world of Sunset City is a parkour playground where players zip across the city on grind rails and bounce from building to building. Jet Set Radio meets Ratchet and Clank as the player character tries to save the world from an evil energy drink that is turning people into hordes of orange mutants.
Ryse: Son of Rome
Image Source: Xbox Game Studios
Ryse: Son of Rome was an Xbox One launch title back in 2013. A third-person hack and slash, it was developed by German studio Crytek and recounts the life of fictional Roman general Marius Titus. Marius is deployed to Britain and plays an important role in the historic Roman invasion of the island, even capturing the legendary tribal leader Boudica, before fending off a barbarian horde alongside Emporer Nero.
The game received mixed reviews at launch but with graphics that still hold up today, an interesting premise, and a unique setting, it would be cool to see Ryse: Son of Rome move over to PlayStation.
Quantum Break
Image Source: Remedy Entertainment
Remedy Entertainment’s Quantum Break was the studio’s biggest experiment in multi-media storytelling yet when it was released in 2016. The time travel narrative was told both in-game and via live-action television episodes interspersed between levels. Quantum Break starred Shawn Ashmore (The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan), as a man caught in the middle of a time travel experiment gone wrong.
The game is a third-person shooter with the player combining firearms and time-bending superpowers to manipulate the environment and enemies around them. The cast list also included Aiden Gillen (Game of Thrones), Dominic Monaghan (The Lord of the Rings), and the late Lance Reddick (John Wick).
Hi-Fi Rush
Image Source: Tango Gameworks
Shadow-dropped onto Xbox Series X|S in January 2023, Hi-Fi Rush is a vivid, cell-shaded rhythm-action game from experienced horror developers Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda. In the game, players control Chai, an aspiring rockstar who accidentally gets a music player fused to his heart.
The world moves in rhythm and matching the beats during combat increases Chai’s combo score. The game was a sleeper hit on release with critics complimenting Hi-Fi Rush’s style and soundtrack as it reached 2 million players in just four months.
Sea of Thieves
Image Source: Rare
Developed by Rare, Sea of Thieves got off to a rough start when it was first released in 2018, but in the years since has turned itself around and is now one of the most popular multiplayer games around. In this sea-faring adventure, ghost ships, reanimated skeletons, and Krakens stand in the way of you and your crew’s quest for fame and treasure.
Centered on ship combat, Sea of Thieves has a chaotic open world, a healthy player base, and still receives regular updates. With a new adventure almost every month, including a free cross-over with The Legend of Monkey Island series, there is a lot for players to dive into.
Grounded
Image Source: Obsidian Entertainment
What if Honey I Shrunk The Kids was a survival game? That’s the basic premise of Grounded, a co-op title developed by Obsidian Entertainment. After they are accidentally shrunken to a minuscule size, a group of teenagers have to survive the terrors found in the grass and soil of their backyard.
The game features the usual genre tropes of scavenging resources, gathering supplies, and building bases, but places them in a unique environment full of giant (in comparison to your player character at least) insects and some of the scariest spiders to ever appear in video games. Luckily for players with arachnophobia, Obsidian implemented a feature that allows them to make the frankly terrifying Wolf Spiders a little more palatable.
Ori Duology
Image Source: Xbox Game Studios
2015’s Ori and The Blind Forest and its 2020 sequel Ori and The Will of the Wisps are a pair of beautiful Metroidvanias from Austrian developer Moon Studios. In the platformers, players control two spirits, Ori and Sein as they traverse the mysterious Forest of Nibel and set out to bring light back to the forest.
The sequel meanwhile gave the characters 3D models, new abilities, and a larger world to explore. Both games received widespread praise for their art design and presentation.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Image Source: Xbox Game Studios
A fascinating examination of psychosis and grief, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice follows titular Pict warrior Senua as she travels to Helheim to rescue her partner’s soul from the goddess Hela. Exploring both Norse mythology and Celtic culture, Hellblade features a mix of puzzles and combat encounters.
Hellblade has some really interesting sound design as the voices in Senua’s head (called Furies) help guide her on her journey, so playing with headphones is a must. Developed by Ninja Theory, a sequel, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, is scheduled to release in 2024.
Killer Instinct (2013)
Image Source: Xbox Game Studios
Allow me to rattle off just a few of the characters on the roster of 2013’s Killer Instinct: an alien with ice powers, a The Ring-style spirit trained in the ways of the samurai, a Battletoad, the Arbiter from Halo, and a fire-breathing velociraptor. If that doesn’t pique your interest in Iron Galaxy’s fighting game I don’t know what will!
Fighting games are as popular as ever and Iron Galaxy has worked hard to keep Killer Instinct online for nearly a decade. The core game went free-to-play in November 2023 (with a paid Anniversary edition available) and cross-platform tests with PC players began in February 2024. The game is still alive and kicking (pun intended) and it would be cool to play as a fire-breathing raptor on Sony’s platforms.
Dead Rising 3
Image Source: Capcom
Dead Rising 3 is the third installment in Capcom’s zombie-slaying franchise. It features a new protagonist, mechanic Nick Ramos, and transfers the action into an even bigger playground. Rather than a mall, Dead Rising 3 is set across a whole city. The story, which begins three days into the latest zombie outbreak, has Nick looking for a way to escape the city of Los Peridos.
As is tradition, Dead Rising 3’s campaign puts players on a timed deadline and equips them with a bunch of crazy improvised weapons. This time around the franchise’s trademark Psychopaths are based on the Seven Deadly Sins and, while it probably doesn’t reach the heights of Dead Rising 1 and Dead Rising 2, it’s the only game in the series not on PlayStation and that’s a shame.
What do you think of the current state of Xbox and their potential plans? Let us know in the comments below.
About the author
Alex Johnson
Alex has been writing about games for over four years and if there is one thing he fears in life it is writing a bio. He studied film at the University of Lincoln, has a small obsession with Fortnite and hopes to actually finish a FromSoftware game one day.
Thursday’s Xbox showcase included some big games that I can’t wait to play. But if you tuned it right when the action started you might have missed the best part of the show: a series of fun pop-up facts and trivia about various Xbox-owned studios.
On January 18, Xbox posted its latest Developer Direct, showing off gameplay from a few big titles coming to Xbox and PC later this year and letting the people making these games talk about them in detail. (Hey, Geoff, take note.) It was a solid showcase and that new Indiana Jones game looks wonderful. But perhaps my favorite part of the event happened before all the trailers and gameplay. During a countdown before the Developer Direct started, Xbox flashed numerous fun facts about studios like MachineGames, Oxide, and Obsidian Entertainment.
I didn’t see a lot of people talking about these neat little pieces of trivia, so I wanted to take a moment and highlight some of them so we can all enjoy them after the fact. I love stuff like this. I also lovedPop-Up Videoon VH1 back in the day. Anyway, to the facts!
Epic Games held a little showcase at the Game Developers Conference earlier today, called State of Unreal. Designed as a way to keep everyone who makes games up to date on what’s in store for the industry-dominating Unreal Engine, the highlights are also obviously interesting to anyone who plays games as well.
Both Epic and some external studios took the opportunity to show off some of the stuff they’ve been working on in Unreal Engine 5. The shortest video, and perhaps most impressive, is this clip from Ninja Theory’s Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, which highlights some incredible facial animation capabilities (using Metahuman, which we’ve written about previously):
State of Unreal – Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II | GDC 2023
It still doesn’t look real, there’s something about the exaggeration of the lips and her teeth that I can’t fully explain, but it still looks amazing.
Another subject of the technical showcase was action RPG Lords of the Fallen, with a more conventional look at how games are made using the engine:
Lords of the Fallen – State of Unreal Technical Showcase Trailer GDC | Wishlist: PC, PS5 & Xbox X/S
Next up is this gameplay demo from Infinitesimals, a backyard bugs game that I’m pretty sure was first announced years ago, but which is still in development. This clip is a little more developer-focused, but still gives you a look at how Unreal Engine 5 handles the scale of a large open world:
Infinitesimals – Unreal 5 Gameplay Demo | State of Unreal 2023
And finally we’ve got this driving video, which is not just an ad for Unreal Engine and Epic’s Quixel, but for EV company Rivian as well (their car’s dash screens run on the Unreal Engine). This one is showing off some lovely foliage, along with some impressive driving physics as well (it’s particularly neat how the car will hit small rocks that will then fly away):
Unreal Engine 5.2 – Next-Gen Graphics Tech Demo | State of Unreal 2023
While it’s expected to take everything shown at these presentations with a grain of salt, it’s encouraging that three of the four videos here were of actual games currently in development, meaning that the usual “well, your actual games aren’t going to look this good” caveats we normally need on these posts aren’t quite as needed here.
