TGO Daily | Wednesday August 25, 2021 | Gamescom Xbox Showcase
In the news: Gamescom Xbox Showcase & Destiny 2: The Witch Queen expansion.
TGO Daily | Wednesday August 25, 2021
Gamescom | Xbox
Gamescom 2021 has officially kicked off the week with Xbox’s showcase. Let’s cover some of the big ticket items:
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Will receive World Update 6 on September 7th. This will bring updated regions of Germany, Austria and Switzerland - bringing a new elevation map and adding 100 famous landmarks from the areas.
There will be older planes added to the game as well, crafted in part with the assistance of several museums for authenticity.
They’ll also be adding a competitive racing mode where you’ll be able to go head-to-head against your friends using high-speed planes. A unique competitive addition to a game generally more about sightseeing.
Xbox Cloud Gaming
Is confirmed coming to Xbox Series X/S & Xbox One this Holiday 2021. You may remember that Microsoft just finished updating all their servers hardware over the Summer to handle Xbox Series X streaming. Microsoft is targeting for the games to play at 60fps on 1080p.
The advantage of Cloud Gaming is that now, with a good internet connection, Series X/S games will now be accessible to Xbox One without the struggles of older hardware trying to run something too difficult. Remember the rocky release of Cyberpunk 2077, which impacted PS4 and Xbox One the hardest due to their older hardware? Well, with Cloud Gaming, that would’ve been far less of an issue, as the Xbox One would be running the game off of Series X hardware on their server.
The further big impact of this is it continues to open up other avenues to Series X games being accessible. Microsoft plans to bring Cloud Gaming to internet-capable TVs as well later down the line. Microsoft is opening up the avenue of access to their games beyond the latest console release, which will bring more players to Xbox and, by proxy, more subscribers to Xbox Game Pass.
Crusader Kings 3
Will be coming to Xbox Series X/S and PS5, but with no release date as of yet. The famous PC strategy RPG title is coming with full controller support that Paradox say was built “from the ground up”.
Paradox had a positive reaction from fans for their Stellaris release on console, so if Crusader Kings 3 also does well we can potentially expect more PC titles receiving console support.
Halo Infinite
Noticeably absent from the Xbox showcase, but we know from earlier this week that Microsoft is still planning a Holiday 2021 release for the latest Halo title. It’s possible they’re saving a release date premiere for today’s Opening Night Live stream hosted by Geoff Keighley. With so little time between now and Holiday, we should be getting a release date very soon if we don’t get one during Keighley’s show.
That show will take place at 1:30pm EDT/5:30pm UTC.
With some of the big stuff out of the way, let’s do some fast facts for other announcements at the show:
Dying Light 2 - Released a short gameplay trailer that looks interesting. It seems like they’re taking what made the first game fun and improving upon that combat and parkour.
Forza Horizon 5 - Dropped a gameplay trailer, with near 10 minutes of gameplay. They’re also doing a Limited Edition Xbox Controller for the game as well.
Sea of Thieves - Is doing a crossover event with Borderlands.
Stray Blade - Is an action-RPG with some smooth looking combat.
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Expansion
Set to release in February 22, 2022, the expansion will feature the end of the long saga of Light and Darkness. While the saga will end, Destiny 2 will still continue beyond. The groundwork for the expansion will begin with the latest Season of the Lost, that is now officially live.
The update will also include a new weapon crafting system. The system will allow creation of seasonal and raid weapons. It’ll also get a proper kick off with the introduction of a new first person weapon - the glaive. The update will also, of course, feature new weapons and armor sets.
A new difficulty mode called “Aspirational” will also be introduced. The new difficulty (with similar feelings of Halo’s Legendary mode) will feature heavily restricted spawning, harder hitting bosses, and a scaling difficulty based off the number of people in your party. Bungie has a history with ‘Legendary’ modes, so I’d expect this one to have the same challenge and fun that we’ve seen before.
🔦 Video Spotlight
Exposing FRAUD And DECEPTION In The Retro Video Game Market | YouTube
A long video, but covering the insane spikes we’ve seen in retro game selling; you may recall the Super Mario 64 copy that sold earlier this year for $1.5 million USD? An unbelievable spike in selling has happened this year alone, and clearly the rabbit hole of it goes very deep.
💡 Read More
State of Decay 2 revisiting first game's map in free update.
The Gunk trailer shows SteamWorld developer's first 3D action game.
Double Fine wants to work on something ‘completely new and surprising’. Tim Schafer talks about their plans following Psychonauts 2 release.
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