Devloper_Direct Live Reactions

Welcome to our Developer_Direct live reaction! This is a new format that Microsoft is attempting to capture in the Nintendo Direct style of things. Promised Developer: first narrative on the games they're working on; no host, no fluff, just games. Redfall, Minecraft Legends, Forza Motorsport, and Elder Scrolls Online are all announced to be featured in a future Direct centered purely on Starfield in the near future. There were some rumblings about a surprise announcement being made yesterday, so we'll see what Microsoft has in store.

Starting off with the intro video, the team at Tango Gameworks is announced to be showing something, which is the surprise rumor from yesterday. Minecraft Legends is first up, focusing on the PvP experience. Online co-op experience for the story mode, along with a 4v4 multiplayer mode It reminds me of a more fleshed-out base-building version of Brutal Legends' action/RTS gameplay. Teams will need to work together; examples given include sending someone out to collect resources while someone hangs back to start building structures. whole castle-like settlements with different layers of walls and bases acting as a barricade between your base and the enemy. A redstone anti-siege tower that also functions as a catapult launching block is shown. Releasing April 18th 2023 into gamepass.

Forza Motorsport follows up with a bunch of techy words and descriptions that go over my head, but god, does Forza look like the prettiest game to release on a console. At launch, there will be over 500 cars available and over 800 different upgrades and customization options. Things like dirt accumulation as you drive offroad and paint chipping are completely redone for a more realistic display. Modifying things like your engine and turbo will now change how your car sounds while driving, including Dolby Atmos. Forza Motorsport will launch with 20 environments at launch. I'm not sure if that means 20 individual tracks or settings, but five of the locations are brand new, including one featured in South Africa for the first time, so I'm guessing those 20 environments are tracks. They got me worked up over how good the traffic cones are looking in this game. Fully dynamic time of day and weather systems are being introduced; no two laps are ever the same on a race, time passes in real time, and storm clouds can roll in and out as you race, impacting the traction on the track and how a race plays out. All environments are rendered in 4K at 60 frames per second.It's hard to realize this is a game at points; some of these scenes look like they're pulled from a live feed. A campaign is being introduced for what I think is the first time as well; no details are given besides the fact that it is focused on car building. There was no mention of a release date.

Tango Gameworks is showing off their surprise drop. Hi-Fi Rush looks like a blast. Jet Set Radio-style art style mixed with a rhythm-based action game The entire trailer is oozing with style and something I would never expect from the Evil Within team—something Mikami jokes about himself. Moves and attacks add layers to the soundtrack, and the closer you are to the beat, the more combos and damage you can perform. Things in the environment all move and interact with how the music is going. Progress won't be held back if you're not good at keeping up with the beat, but music improvement and multipliers and rewards will be affected. Many visual guides built into the HuD and environment are intended to help you keep time. Your character, Chai, also has different partners that you will meet up with and can sort of tag in to help extend combos or reach new parts of the level. This definitely looks like it's going to be a hidden gem and a great experience on GamePass. Also, it's out right now, and yes you can pet the cat.

The Elder Scrolls Online expansion, Necrom, will be announced next. Launching in June and featuring a new playable class, "The Arcanist," Necrom will take place in eastern Morrowind. I'm so worried about jumping into another MMO after WoW has taken over my life for the past 20 years. There is a follow-up to this broadcast deep-diving into what Necrom will introduce into the game. It's nice to see them give that community their own dedicated time. Today, for an unspecified limited time, they're making all 20 previous chapters free to play and experience.

Finishing with Redfall, which I've seen more than enough of; just give me a release date. More locals are shown off around the town of Redfall, Massachusetts; every location looks beautifully crafted and diverse. What seems to be part of a mission towards a lighthouse is shown off, as is a new vampire type known as a shroud that has a darkness area of effect ability that cuts off sightlines. Boss enemies can be summoned into areas based on mission progress, and missions can be completed in multiple ways, which is expected for Arcane at this point. There are special areas scattered around the map that take you into different dimensional rifts that change each time you enter. Vampire nests are shown in which you must infiltrate and take a beating heart from the center of the nest before attempting to escape in a set amount of time while acquiring high-level loot.Safehouses are bases for neighborhoods you have to recapture as side missions; it sounds like the more you do in a given area, the less vampire presence there is while you work your way up to a boss in that zone. Each of the four characters has a large talent tree to draw from, allowing for a diverse range of play styles.Guns can be modified with "vampire stakes" that can give a unique effect for vampire hunting; they look like bayonets at the end of your gun. The end goal is taking back Redfall while facing off against literal vampire gods. Redfall releases on May 2nd, a little later than I personally would've liked, but

I really liked this new approach to things; hearing from developers themselves about things they find interesting or what they hope players pick up on is something we usually don't get from normal marketing. If they can do one of these, say, quarterly, just to give people a heads up on what's happening with their teams, I'd say it's a welcome addition to the usual showcase events they do. Without a firm release date, I believe Forza has been pushed out of the 12-month window they gave it last year, and that it and Starfield will be the big two games for the second half of 2023, which is a risk. Forza, we know, is going to do well, but throwing Starfield into that prime holiday spot against Spiderman 2, when it's full of unknowns and Bethesda games are known for the junk and bugs that people are used to, are they going to be as acceptable as it being under Microsoft's umbrella and funding?