Category: Xbox

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When All Elite Wrestling (AEW) burst onto the wrestling scene in 2019, Ladder Match competitions were instantly a major draw inside the ring. Why? Because Ladder Matches require amazing acrobatic feats and a desire to not only win but win while delivering a performance that is nothing short of spectacular. A performance that, simply put, defies gravity.

It didn’t hurt that the AEW talent roster was, and still is, brimming with young athletes whose desire to “one-up” one another’s performances has translated to countless in-ring moments that leave entire stadiums in awe. Cue Darby Allin any time he scales the ladder with his skateboard in-hand. Arguably the most epic AEW Ladder Match of all time: Sammy Guevara vs. Scorpio Sky at AEW Dynamite in April 2022. Fans have watched and rewatched this match over and over for more than a year!

Starting June 29, you will finally get a chance to come as close as you’ll ever get to reliving that match as Sammy Guevara OR Scorpio Sky in AEW: Fight Forever for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One! Prepare to ascend those fateful rungs as Sammy or Scorpio – or choose another of your favorite AEW wrestlers from an in-game roster of 50, including Darby Allin and his skateboard. You can even play as controversial referee Aubrey Edwards!

For the uninitiated, the Ladder Match is an AEW title challenge like no other. Not only do you have to fend off your opponent, but you have to do so while scaling a ladder inside the ring. Ladder Match mode in AEW: Fight Forever delivers the same level of intensity. Your biggest, high-flying moves can only happen in Ladders! Players will reach their highest point in the game, and attempt to perform back-flips, big-drops, perhaps even the Jeff Hardy leg-drop on their opponent. Landing those acrobatic moves just right requires impeccable timing and athleticism… and a ladder that doesn’t break on your way up (or down)! Every Ladder Match is a race to the top to see who can grab the Champions Belt first!

It’s important to know that ladders aren’t just for climbing and launching acrobatic attack moves, including your very own Swanton Dive. In AEW: Fight Forever, ladders are also part of your arsenal of weapons, especially when they’re wrapped in barbed wire. And yes, in true AEW fashion, ladders can and do draw blood.

In the words of the legendary Ladder Match champion Sammy Guevara, “When I get up there, I’m like, you know what sounds cooler than winning? Doing some crazy stuff!”

AEW: Fight Forever launches in two short weeks. Pre-order AEW: Fight Forever for Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One now to add Matt Hardy and Broken Matt Hardy to your in-game wrestler roster!

AEW: Fight Forever Elite Edition – Pre-Order

THQ Nordic

☆☆☆☆☆
25

★★★★★

$79.99

$71.99

Pre-order

Pre-order AEW: Fight Forever Elite Edition NOW and receive Matt Hardy, FTR: Revival Pack, Limitless Bunny Bundle & Hookhausen, Very Handsome, Very Evil Pack!

“The AEW: Fight Forever Elite Edition includes access to even more AEW wrestlers and over-the-top minigames including:

– The AEW: Fight Forever FTR: Revival Pack which features AEW wrestlers Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler PLUS minigames JoinUs and Deth Race-X
– The AEW: Fight Forever Limitless Bunny Bundle which features AEW wrestlers The Bunny and Keith Lee PLUS minigames MJF Car Thrash and Sloth Sling
– The AEW: Fight Forever Hookhausen Very Handsome, Very Evil Pack which features AEW wrestlers HOOK and Danhausen”

AEW: Fight Forever – Pre-Order

THQ Nordic

☆☆☆☆☆
40

★★★★★

$59.99

Pre-order

Pre-order AEW: Fight Forever NOW and receive Matt Hardy as playable character with two costumes!

Developed by YUKE’S Co., Ltd., creators of numerous, multi-million unit selling wrestling games, AEW: Fight Forever combines arcade-wrestling game feel with innovative All Elite Wrestling finishers and tandem offensive moves. The All Elite Wrestling promotion is currently taking TNT and TBS networks by storm every week with their Rampage and Dynamite shows, featuring some of the biggest legends to enter the ring plus a stable of brand new, high-flying, AEW talent. AEW: Fight Forever brings more than 50 of the best of the best from that talent roster together in one game! Online co-op wrestling is going completely next level in Fight Forever with Tag Team matches that feature sequences of team maneuvers performed with simple commands. More than 10 different game modes, including Unsanctioned Lights Out and Falls Count Anywhere PLUS more than 40 weapons, deep customization, career mode, and mini-games all await in AEW: Fight Forever!

Related:
Halo Infinite: Infection Mode Returns, Here’s How It Was Made
For Porsche’s 75th Anniversary, Xbox Reimagines Automaker’s Iconic Motorsport Liveries 
Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon Brings Mech Remixing to a New Level of Scale

Season 4 of Halo Infinite delivers a host of new features and content, among them the fan-favorite Infection mode that’s been a part of the multiplayer suite since the days of Halo 2. We sat down with the development team to get the scoop on what’s coming and why fans should be excited to slip back into their (potentially contaminated) armor.

Patient Zero

Infection has been around almost as long as Halo, first appearing as a custom game in Halo 2 before joining official playlists in Halo 3. It’s been a staple of every mainline Halo game since, even getting a Flood (the parasitic enemies who threaten to wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy)-flavored version in Halo 4. But what exactly is Infection? 343 Industries Modes Product Owner Joe McDonagh lays it out as, “A classic Zombies-versus-survivors set up. Everyone starts on one side, as a survivor. Everyone but the single Alpha Infected, that is. If you get killed by the Alpha Infected, you switch sides and become an Infected. It boils down to this: can the survivors survive until the end of the round, as they get whittled down by the Infected? It leads to some awesome, last man standing ‘Get to the chopper’ style moments.”

The gameplay of Infection is designed for in-your-face, up-close-and-personal skirmishing, as the Alpha Infected is armed with energy swords that allow for one-hit kills, alongside Season 3’s Shroud Screen, which creates opportunities for traps and ambushes. Others who are Infected along the way get energy swords and the new Quantum Translocator equipment, letting them run in for a quick slay, then teleport away before enemies arrive. Survivors tote Bulldog Shotguns and Commando Rifles, but they’ll have to get uncomfortably close to the Infected to take them down. The net result is a lot of frantic running and yelling as survivors try to locate and kill the Infected while the other side isolates and hunts Survivors. It’s mayhem in all the best ways.

Honoring a Legacy

McDonagh and the team knew that it was important to do right by the community when creating the Halo Infinite iteration of Infection, given it is held in incredibly high regard both inside and outside the studio.

“A lot of folks here at 343 cut their teeth on this mode when they were part of the community, before they got into the industry,” says McDonagh. “Some of them, like Zach (Boyce – designer) got into the industry becauseof Infection. So it’s their origin story as Halo fans. We might be working on the franchise, but we’re conscious of the fact that we’re lucky enough to be its guardians, not its owners. And Infection is where a lot of that began.

“But back to crushing your enemies. Infection gives something you don’t get elsewhere in Halo Infinite. It’s a social experience, like Fiesta. It offers a more forgiving and casual experience than the occasionally Darwinian battles of Arena. Also, because the sides are dynamic, you get to backstab your friends, which, in my experience, always deepens gaming bonds.”

A New Strain of Infection

In this iteration of Infection there’s a narrative reason why the Spartans are turning on each other. The Season 3 story left off with the Banished AI Iratus infiltrating the Spartan training simulation and exerting his will to take control. This will be reflected in the appearance of Infected players, as well as new VO reflecting the altered reality.

There are new gameplay touches as well, McDonagh tells us that weapons spawn on the bodies of dead Spartans around the map, so thematically players are looting the unfortunate souls who have fallen in battle in the hopes of staying alive a bit longer. These weapon spawns are randomized each match though, so Survivors can’t map out a route to the best gear, and Infected players can’t lie in wait in ambush. Scoring in the mode is also tied to how long you survive, so the longer you stave off the inevitable end the more points you’ll rack up.

Lastly, the maps all have unique touches and themes to fit the Infection narrative. Level Designer Cliff Schuldt shares some details: “We made special versions of 9 maps to support the theme and the gameplay for the mode, and make it feel like something unique to Infection: Aquarius, Bazaar, Behemoth, Chasm, Cliffhanger, Forest, Launch Site, Recharge and Streets have all been reworked to fit the theme. We created barricades to change the gameplay flow to familiar maps. We also added new sections, for example Behemoth has new tunnels underneath and you can access the back alleys in Streets.”

“We made special versions of 9 maps to support the theme and the gameplay for the mode, and make it feel like something unique to Infection.”

Tips for Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse (Or Not)

So what are you to do when the odds are stacked against you and zombified Spartans with energy swords lurk around every corner? UI Designer Branden League has some tips. “As a Spartan, stay close to your team. Staying alive is not just a priority, it’s a responsibility. A responsibility to your teammates. That being said, using a fallen buddy for more ammo doesn’t make you a lesser Spartan.” A slightly harsh opinion, but fair in the context of a zombie Armageddon, I suppose.

And what if you’re the one hunting? How do you get your fill of Spartan snacks? “As the Alpha Infected, go slow to take full advantage of your camouflage. Use the Shroud screen to protect your brother zombies by blocking off sight lines. Master the Quantum Translocator, because once you understand it, you can use it to sprint slingshot yourself into a room which, by anyone’s standard, is a pretty special way to make an entrance.”

Sprinting, slingshotting zombies, what’s not to love?

Building for the Future

With Infection growing from a player-made mod to a fully-fledged feature mode we can’t help but wonder, what might be next? Could another created mode make the leap to official status? Forge Lead Designer Michael Schorr thinks there are tons of opportunities, some of which are already on the way.

“Repul Soccer has always been a strong contender to follow in the footsteps of Grifball, another legacy mode (like Infection) that has community origins,” said Schorr. “Phase Shift, a Slayer mode where players can ‘phase’ between two slightly different versions of the same map, is quite good and has been a favorite for many 343 devs. Players will see Husky Raid, another community favorite, make its debut in a Halo Infinite playlist this summer. Further down the line we’ll be introducing the Forge AI Toolkit, which allows players to spawn and manage campaign AI in Forge. I think a lot of interesting experiences are going to spring out of that functionality – all with the potential to become a staple mode in Halo Infinite.”

A Vision of Things to Come

The biggest struggle Halo Infinite faced in its first year as a live service game was offering a consistent pipeline of new content for players. Lengthy seasons were the norm, but since the launch of the Winter Update last December the cadence of content has demonstrably improved, a trend which Head of Live Service Sean Baron believes will become the norm going forward.

“Season 4 is very exciting for me because it’ll mark the third straight on-time release for the Halo Infinite Live Service team,” says Baron. “You know the saying — ‘Once is chance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is a pattern.’ I think that’s where we are now — we’re seeing the outcome of the focus on consistency. And I couldn’t be more excited for the team getting there.  We still have plenty of room to improve — we’ll always be working to find new ways of improving and ensuring the predictability of the service. But I’m very happy with the progress we’ve made there and looking forward to making it four in a row with Season 5 later this year.”

But Baron and team know that it’s not just about the volume of content, quality plays a key role as well. He sees that as one of the key pillars to continuing to push the game forward. “When I think generally about the trajectory of Halo Infinite, it all comes back to our Player Experience Goals of Consistency, Satisfaction, and Quality. We’ll maintain that focus on Consistency. Like I said, I think there is clear evidence of improvement there. Same with Satisfaction—we’ll continue layering on the features and experiences players want.

With Infection growing from a player-made mod to a fully-fledged feature mode we can’t help but wonder, what might be next? Could another created mode make the leap to official status?

“Where we need to start showing more noteworthy improvements is with Quality. Both technical and experiential Quality. My hope is that over the next few releases and updates we’ll start seeing Quality make the same types of jumps that we’ve seen with Consistency and Satisfaction.”

Season 4 delivers not just the launch of Infection but includes the introduction of a new Career Rank system, new maps, new equipment and more. All that, coupled with the additions to the game over the past six months and the exciting future content, improvements and experiences in the pipeline all go to show that now is the perfect time to jump back into Halo Infinite if you’ve been away. And if you get to stab your friends with an energy sword and turn them into a zombie well, that’s just a bonus.

Find out more about Infection and Halo Infinite Season 4 on Halo Waypoint.

Halo Infinite

Xbox Game Studios

☆☆☆☆☆
1092

★★★★★

Get it now

PC Game Pass

Xbox Game Pass

Season 3 Available Now!
Halo Infinite’s largest multiplayer update yet is available now! Season 3: Echoes Within offers players a new 100-tier Battle Pass, new maps, a new mode and, for the first time, a new weapon and equipment item.
Free-to-Play Multiplayer:
Halo’s celebrated multiplayer returns, reimagined and free-to-play! Seasonal updates evolve the experience over time with unique events, new modes and maps, and community-focused content.
Forge Beta:
Halo’s legendary content creation tool is back and more powerful than ever with advanced features like a new visual scripting engine, object scaling, lighting and audio tools as well as marked improvements in fidelity and object budget limits. Whether it’s remaking iconic experiences from previous Halo entries or creating something entirely unique, the possibilities for thrilling custom maps and game modes are infinite.

Cross-Generation and Cross-Platform Gaming:
Halo Infinite provides an amazing experience across the Xbox One and newer family of consoles as well as PC with stunning 4k graphics and world-class cross-platform play. And, on Xbox Series X as well as supported PCs, enjoy enhanced features like up to 120FPS and greatly reduced load times creating seamless gameplay that usher in the next generation of gaming.*
*Up to 120FPS and 4K Ultra HD available on Xbox Series X consoles and compatible PCs only across supported maps and modes; compatible TV or monitor required.

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For Porsche’s 75th Anniversary, Xbox Reimagines Automaker’s Iconic Motorsport Liveries 
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Porsche – legendary automaker, and a familiar name to real-world and virtual racing fans alike – marks its 75^th anniversary this year, and Xbox is joining the celebrations. We are excited to release a limited collection of custom Xbox Series X consoles and matching Xbox Wireless Controllers in vibrant colorways based on six historic Porsche motorsport liveries. While not for retail, over the next four months, fans can enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win a console and controller from our collaboration with Porsche, finding inspiration in the brand’s storied motorsports history. Xbox is a platform for gamers to power their dreams and turn aspirations into reality, and it is this same drive for greatness that has pushed Porsche’s motorsports performance to new heights and carried drivers across the finish line to over 30,000 motorsport victories to date. 

“Xbox and its fanbase are no stranger to Porsche and the incredible capabilities of its high-performance vehicles in our beloved racing and driving games like Forza Horizon 5,” said Marcos Waltenberg, Director of Global Partnerships at Xbox. “That’s why we’re excited to team up with the renowned sports car brand to create special edition Xbox hardware that celebrates their milestone anniversary given our shared vision and goal of reaching global audiences who love cars, gaming and self-expression.”

For decades, Porsche has consistently created some of the most recognized and vibrant liveries ever to take to track. As racing games have developed new levels of immersion over the years, Xbox has worked closely with Porsche to bring its iconic design to the platform through hits like the Forza franchise. These liveries are now a part of racing lore, and the Xbox 75^th Anniversary collection pays homage to six of Porsche’s most unforgettable looks by reimagining them for the Xbox Series X console and accompanying controllers. We will unveil the following six limited-edition console designs at major auto and gaming events around the globe this summer:

• 75^th Anniversary / Porsche 963
• Salzburg (1970)
• “Hippie” (1970)
• “Pink Pig” (1971)
• Porsche Racing Edition (1978)
• 911 GT1 (1998)

Fans in the US, UK, and Germany can enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win the Porsche-inspired Xbox Series X consoles with matching Xbox Wireless Controllers by visiting www.porschexboxsweepstakes.com from June 8 to October 1. Each Porsche-inspired console will have a corresponding video shared on Porsche and Xbox social channels, beginning with the Porsche 963 / 75^th Anniversary console.  

“To mark our 75^th anniversary, Porsche is thrilled to team up with Xbox to design custom, limited-edition gaming consoles to continue inspiring gamers to dream – both virtually and in the real world,” said Ayesha Coker, Vice President of Marketing of Porsche Cars North America, Inc. “With over 30,000 motorsport victories to date, it wasn’t easy to select only six liveries, but we’ve chosen some of the most iconic ones that our fans will recognize from notable victories over the years.”  

Since 2005, Porsche and Microsoft’s Turn 10 Studios have collaborated on co-branded elements for Porsche and the Forza franchise. Beginning with the original Forza Motorsport and continuing through the franchise, including the latest Forza Horizon 5, Porsche vehicles have been a part of the racing lineup available to players. This partnership has consistently created new ways for fans to get behind the wheel of a Porsche, and has further established the automaker as an innovator in motorsport. 

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In many ways, Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon is a reintroduction to a series, more than a reboot of it. In the 11 years since Armored Core V, developer FromSoftware has moved from a niche proposition to one of the focal points of gaming culture, and its latest game feels like an attempt to proudly steer its newer fans towards one of the series that started its journey. As such, if you’re already a fans of From’s high-complexity mech combat games, much of what it has to offer will feel familiar – albeit much, much shinier than before.

The focus is still on taking your personally customized war machine through enemy-packed arenas, dominating a mixture of smaller, robotic enemies, bosses, and equally kitted-out mechs, collecting the funds and materials you need to graft on new weaponry, limbs, and internals to become more efficient as you go on.

But the first thing I notice in a hands-off look at gameplay isn’t the industrial-chic mech being launched from a high speed elevator – hard as it is to miss – but the world around it. The real change, at least for me, is a sense of scale. It may not have a truly open world in the vein of Elden Ring, but AC6 doesn’t lack for that game’s sense of wonder.

The mission I see has the player attempting to infiltrate the base of an enemy faction called RaD, who have taken over a vast industrial facility called Grid 086. It’s a marvel to look at, an enormous factory built over tens of storeys, without an invisible wall apparent to stop you exploring. It doesn’t appear to be a one-off – a montage of other levels shows me scorched deserts, ice caves, and entire cities. The focus here seems to be on turning standalone levels into truly enormous spaces to dole out mechanical justice within.

This should have a knock-on effect on gameplay too – where Armored Core missions of the past were more focused on getting you from objective to objective, there’s an element of choice involved here. Grid 086 doesn’t have a single entrance; instead, you’re given a choice of how to proceed. You could head to the front gate and take on its swarming, robotic guards, but you could equally use your thrusters to reach a much higher hidden entrance. These are the examples we’re given, but I’m positive there are more means of ingress to find.

That addition of choice broadens the level of strategy as a whole. The core of, well, Armored Core has always been in building a mech that meets your specifications – nimble, melee focused pursuers, walking artillery batteries, missile launcher-encrusted monsters, and more. That ability to approach levels in your own way only deepens the potential for choice, and allows for your particular brand of mech to shine.

But customization cuts both ways. Where From’s Souls games are often built on a relentless search for perfection, challenging you to build a character and then get better at using their specific strengths over the course of a whole game, Armored Core VI looks to ask for a little more flexibility. We see a stronger enemy make light work of the player guiding our demo, taking down their shorter range sword-and-rifle combo with a variety of quick melee attacks. Instead of simply reloading the checkpoint and heading back into the fray, our demoist instead heads to the Assembly menu and puts together a whole new machine. Among other changes, they swap out the legs for a more efficient dash attack, and replace a shoulder-mounted missile launcher with a full-on cannon, designed to more efficiently stagger enemies.

Heading back in, they cripple the once-victorious enemy by preventing it from moving as much as possible, and avoiding those dangerous, close-range attacks with dashes when they can’t immobilize it. It’s a little bit of design philosophy made tangible – in Armored Core VI, it’s not a case of “try, try again”, it’s more like a chemistry experiment, asking you to keep tinkering with the ingredients until you find the right mixture to take down your opponent.

I’m left very hopeful for what we have to come from Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon – as a fan of the series, this is already feeling like a deft mix of the Armored Core fundamentals I’ve been missing, and new ideas to flesh them out for modern machines.

Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon will be released for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One on August 25.

ARMORED CORE™ VI FIRES OF RUBICON™ – Deluxe Edition

Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc.

☆☆☆☆☆
28

★★★★★

$69.99

Pre-order

Pre-order now to receive the following bonus content:
MELANDER C3 G13 Special Customization “TENDERFOOT”
• MELANDER C3 parts set (early unlock)*
• Emblem (early unlock)*
• Exclusive AC Decal
* Early Unlock: The parts set and the emblem can also be obtained by progressing through the game.

The Deluxe Edition includes:
• Full game
• Exclusive Digital Artbook & Original Soundtrack
Allows players to view concept art and listen to in-game music.

Combining FromSoftware’s longstanding expertise in mech games with their signature action gameplay, ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON brings a brand-new action experience to the series.

Dynamic, Omni-directional Battles
Players will pilot their mech in fast-paced, omni-directional battles, taking advantage of massive stages and their mech’s mobility on land and in the air to ensure victory.

Customized Parts for Individual Battle Styles
Customize Armored Core parts to suit a large variety of playstyles. Selecting different parts not only changes the mech’s attacks, but also directly affects its movement and battle style, so each mission can be approached with a unique mech strategy.

Thrilling Boss Battles
Deploy a wide variety of offensive and defensive tactics at close and long range to take down powerful enemy bosses.

ARMORED CORE™ VI FIRES OF RUBICON™

Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc.

☆☆☆☆☆
28

★★★★★

$59.99

Pre-order

Pre-order now to receive the following bonus content:
MELANDER C3 G13 Special Customization “TENDERFOOT”
• MELANDER C3 parts set (early unlock)*
• Emblem (early unlock)*
• Exclusive AC Decal
* Early Unlock: The parts set and the emblem can also be obtained by progressing through the game.

Combining FromSoftware’s longstanding expertise in mech games with their signature action gameplay, ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON brings a brand-new action experience to the series.

Dynamic, Omni-directional Battles
Players will pilot their mech in fast-paced, omni-directional battles, taking advantage of massive stages and their mech’s mobility on land and in the air to ensure victory.

Customized Parts for Individual Battle Styles
Customize Armored Core parts to suit a large variety of playstyles. Selecting different parts not only changes the mech’s attacks, but also directly affects its movement and battle style, so each mission can be approached with a unique mech strategy.

Thrilling Boss Battles
Deploy a wide variety of offensive and defensive tactics at close and long range to take down powerful enemy bosses.

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Hello dear readers, we are immensely pleased to have revealed our brand-new meditative action-puzzle climbing game, Jusant, at the Xbox Games Showcase yesterday.

As you may have noticed, it is quite different from Don’t Nod’s previous games in that there is no spoken dialog. Jusant tells a story, as do all our games, simply in a different way. Here, we wanted to go through some of the ways in which we tell this emotional story without words.

One of the most prevalent methods of storytelling in Jusant is environmental. You’ll start out at the bottom of this immeasurably tall tower, surrounded by arid land and desolate plains. What is this place, in the middle of nowhere? What is its purpose? Who lived here, and how? The answers may lie atop the tower, intriguing enough for you the climber to take on the challenge of reaching the peak.

There are telltale marks of civilization left on the tower itself, such as beaten paths and weathered walls, which show how old this place is, how long it’s been abandoned, and the ways the previous inhabitants traversed the structure. These marks tell us about the old ways of living and show which passages the people traveled most and the walls they climbed, as you will.

Other remnants of the past, such as old furniture, broken contraptions, rotting sail boats, will remind you that time seems to have stopped for this tower-dwelling civilization. When taking the time to explore off the beaten paths, you’ll be rewarded with frescoes, altars, and even letters you can read that provide more information about the world and its lore.

You’ll discover multiple different biomes as you ascend the tower. We wanted to include some environments and nature that we know in our world – such as deserts, mountains, caves – to give you something familiar in this strange world. We know what these places are in our world, but in this vertical world each biome had a specific purpose. By exploring the biomes, you will come to better understand how people lived and what was at stake when they were forced to leave. There are several environmental elements throughout the game that will encourage you to explore further.

While Jusant is peaceful and slow-paced (if you desire) the gameplay can be hard to master. This is because we want you to feel the sense of accomplishment and pride upon overcoming the challenges that the climb poses. It was interesting for us to have another character to offer help in this demanding journey and to again emphasize the importance of nature: a Ballast, a creature made entirely out of water. This companion will help you on the journey with its ability to open paths and wake nature along those paths, as well as reveal clues about the tower’s history. The relationship with the Ballast is harmonious: you will need one another to reach the top safely. Even without words, we tried to give a sense of symbiosis both in the gameplay and their interactions and it felt natural to give you the possibility to interact physically with the Ballast; to connect. (Petting the companion confirmed!)

Finally, is of course the music. In our lore, we put great significance on sounds and melody, which some objects and structures important to the narrative share a special connection with. We tried to illustrate this within the peaceful and atmospheric soundtrack composed by Guillaume Ferran. Music also helps us express the feelings of our characters and convey the mood. At the same time, we want to evoke emotion from you and engage in the ascension of this changing tower.

The music also represents how the relationship of both characters evolves. That’s why there is a theme for both the climber and the Ballast, and one that merges the two as another way to illustrate how complementary they are. Music is always a powerful narrative tool, and we make sure it holds a central place in this game.

Jusant, the upcoming meditative action-puzzle game from Don’t Nod, releases on Xbox Series X|S this fall and will be available with Xbox Game Pass. We can’t wait!

Related:
Cities: Skylines II Is a Truly Enormous Sequel – and It’s Built as Much for Console as PC 
Xbox’s Bright Future, and How We’ll Get There
Everything You Need to Know About Forza Motorsport, Coming October 10 to Xbox Series X|S and PC 

Since its launch in 2015, Cities: Skylines has enjoyed an eight-year reign as the optimal city builder, offering unrivalled freedom and resources that let players craft their perfect empires. Now, Paradox is set to take that one step further with Cities: Skylines II, the sequel to the long-running simulator.  

Cities: Skylines II promises vast improvements to the city-building experience you know and love, while introducing exciting new elements that make your metropolis feel like they’re living and breathing alongside you. There are new economic simulations, traffic systems to manage the flow of your city, and realistic weather patterns that present unique challenges. Your cities now also have a buildable area of 172 square KM and can boast over 4,000 building assets – a huge expansion on the first base game. 

Not only that, Cities: Skylines II has been built from the off with Xbox console players in mind, to provide the best possible experience for all those budding architects who prefer playing with a controller. We were lucky enough to speak to Mariina Hallikainen, CEO of Cities: Skylines studio Colossal Order, to learn more about what makes Cities: Skylines II the perfect sequel regardless of how and where you play.  

Evolution For Players 

PC players will feel right at home with the controls of Cities: Skylines II, but the delight here is now console players and their needs have been top-of-mind since development began. Hallikainen tells us that crafting a convenient console experience has been a “crucial part” of the game’s design. 

“The game was designed for all platforms simultaneously, meaning it is the same code base, same UI, same achievements for all players. This allows for the same kind of experience, no matter on what device you decide to play on,” Hallikainen says.  

“Unlike its predecessor Cities: Skylines II has been developed for multiple platforms from the start. It doesn’t matter if you want to design the perfect traffic network, the most efficient public services or just build the most beautiful skyline imaginable, everything is more fun and more relaxing when you do it from your couch.” 

The UI and controls have been expertly crafted and tested with the controller in mind, too. Hallikainen tells us that you’ll be able to navigate the UI seamlessly whether you’re using a controller or a mouse and a keyboard. 

Whole New World

Cities: Skylines II has been built to take onboard all the lessons learned from the making of its predecessor — as well as fan feedback — in order to make it feel more alive than ever before. 

The most noticeable change up front is that Cities: Skylines II is much, much bigger. Each map is made up of 441 tiles, which can be unlocked in any order you want.  

“You can grow a continuous city from the starting tiles, create smaller separate areas connected by pre-built highways in the map or anything in-between,” Hallikainen tells us. “The cities can become massive and your imagination is the only limit!” 

“The cities can become massive and your imagination is the only limit!”

The visuals of Cities: Skylines II take advantage of the latest graphics technologies as well, presenting the cities in much greater detail. 

“Lighting is physics-based and the sun’s position depends on the latitude of the map, giving the game a more realistic look that strives to also replicate the lighting conditions of different areas around the earth faithfully,” Hallikainen adds.  

The simulation in Cities: Skylines II has been overhauled and is much more detailed than before; the inhabitants of your city – be it citizens, vehicles, businesses — react to their environment, the changes around them, and have entire paths that you can observe.  

“It supports a redesigned economic system which is built on real-life economic models,” Hallikainen tells us. “This means that citizens in Cities: Skylines II earn money and spend it on living, travelling and activities in their free time.” 

Companies find locations with good connections to resources and access to the workforce, and adjust their production in real time to help boost their profitability. The various new material resources allow for a deeper business simulation as the companies sell, buy, import, export and refine the resources into goods that are then sold to citizens and other companies. 

The pathfinding and traffic AI have also been reworked to make for a more immersive experience. Vehicles can make decisions on the fly that will improve the flow of traffic, such as changing lanes, and will even try to give way to emergency vehicles passing by. It’s smarter, reactive, and makes for hyper-realistic management.  

“Another cool and new thing is the introduction of parking spaces, which really makes the cities feel more realistic,” Hallikainen adds. “The citizens need to find a parking space and that will further drive up the importance of handling roads and traffic.” 

Power to the People 

Another striking new addition to Cities: Skylines II is the Lifepath feature, which allows you to track your citizens, who they are, what they do, and where they’re going at any time.  

Each citizen has their own income and expenditures, and all of them are intertwined to affect the choices they make, such as where they live or where they want to shop – and how they want to get there.  

“Citizens have been an integral part of Cities: Skylines since the beginning, so in Cities: Skylines II we wanted to give them more agency through the advanced AI and simulation, as well as a way to meaningfully voice their opinions about the city,” Hallikainen explains.  

Even with all this added depth, the economy simulation is designed to balance itself out in most cases in order to provide the player a smooth playing experience, Hallikainen assures. The economy simulation helps beginners and newly-founded cities to succeed, but more experienced players can delve deeper into the simulation and work out its intricacies to fine tune their city more. 

Changing with the Seasons

Seasons are a brand-new feature for Cities: Skylines, and they go far beyond your typical expectation of seeing sun in the summer and snow in the winter. Hallikainen tells us that that they’ll recreate realistic weather patterns found on different sides of the globe, an updated pollution system where air pollution now takes wind direction into account, and groundwater options for freshwater pumping.  

“Seasons work differently on each map as the exact position and latitude of the map defines how the weather and thus the seasons will affect the gameplay,” Hallikainen explains. “Seasonal variations will have an impact on the electricity consumption, traffic and weather which will give players additional problems to adjust to. Players can expect familiar challenges as in Cities: Skylines II, but the added depth in the simulation will provide new challenges to tackle for those that are well-versed in crafting a digital metropolis.  

However, the AI is perfectly balanced to support newcomers to the series, and players can familiarise themselves with the game’s wealth of features and assets at their own pace. 

“Even with all this added depth, the economy simulation is designed to balance itself out in most cases in order to provide the player a smooth playing experience,” Hallikainen explains. “The economy simulation helps out beginners and newly-found cities to succeed but more experienced players can delve deeper into the simulation and work out its intricacies to fine tune their city more.” 

So whether you’re a seasoned architect ready to take your building game to the next level, or an aspirational overlord raring to put down your very first road tile, Cities: Skylines II is poised to welcome you into its world, and its bigger, bigger and bolder than you could ever imagine.  

Cities: Skylines II is heading to PC, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Game Pass on October 24^th.  

Cities: Skylines II

Paradox Interactive

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

Get it now

IIf you can dream it, you can build it!

Create and manage your own city without restrictions. Offering a deep simulation and a living economy, Cities: Skylines II will challenge your decision-making skills and allow you to build the cities of your dreams. Get ready for a new epic scale in the most realistic city builder – ever.

Here your city will evolve and react to your decisions. A dynamic and ever-changing world that is both challenging and rewarding. Use your creativity and strategic planning skills to grow your city into a thriving metropolis that will attract businesses, residents, and tourists alike. From residential neighborhoods to bustling downtowns, the possibilities are endless. Navigate through the complexities of running a city and keep up with the needs and demands of your citizens.

See your city grow and transform over time. With stunning graphics that are as beautiful as they are detailed, Cities: Skylines II will bring your city to life.

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Xbox Games Showcase 2023 and Starfield Direct Double Feature: Every Announcement and Reveal

Today, at Xbox Games Showcase and Starfield Direct, we showed the exciting future for players and game creators – dozens of new games, a new 1TB Series S console and new ways for players to get their games anywhere with PC Game Pass coming to NVIDIA GeForce NOW later this year. After our double feature, Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox Creator Experience, Sarah Bond, Head of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty, and Game Director at Bethesda Game Studios, Todd Howard also addressed the future of gaming at Microsoft in our What’s Next for Gaming event.

Players are discovering and playing games like never before – we have reached new records for monthly active users and monthly active devices, and just last quarter we saw a 46% increase year over year in people playing PC games on Game Pass. Game Pass continues to grow – our revenue from subscriptions overall reached nearly $1 billion last quarter.

We’re excited about the future of Xbox, and we see the opportunity to grow not only our own business, but the entire industry as a whole – through creating groundbreaking new games, inviting creators to build their dream projects on our platform, and opening gaming up to everyone, no matter where they are in the world. These are our key pillars to help continue that growth.

Xbox players, across all formats, will see new exclusives arrive more reliably

We know that players choose to play Xbox because of great content. Our ambition is to release at least four first-party games a year- although we’ll also balance that out with careful consideration for each project’s needs. That’s on top of the work our teams are doing to grow our existing communities that we’ve fostered over many years like The Elder Scrolls Online, Sea of Thieves, Minecraft, Forza, and so on. In the last five years, our teams across Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda have shipped 10 games with over 10 million players each life to date, from new IPs like Sea of Thieves and Grounded, to franchise entries like Minecraft Legends and Elder Scrolls Online. 

Our first-party games now have over 150 million monthly active users. We’re committed to investing in new franchises, taking risks, and creating the most diverse line-up of games from any company in the industry – and the likes of Fable, Clockwork Revolution, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II and more represent the most ambitious line-up of games we’ve ever presented.

Of course, Starfield is one of these games. With a simultaneous release on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Steam – with Game Pass day one on Xbox, PC and Cloud – it’s our belief that Starfield will become the most-played Bethesda Game Studios title, ever. Bethesda Game Studios has built on the Xbox development platform for a long time, and now that Bethesda is a part of the Xbox family, we’ve been able to support them more than ever – and it’s allowed the team to create the most ambitious game in the studio’s history, inside their first new universe for over 25 years.

We enable creators of all sizes

In today’s Showcase, we included ID@Xbox games like Dungeons of Hinterberg, a game from a husband-and-wife duo in Austria, whose debut title shared a Showcase with Starfield. With our support, we allow creators of all sizes to create the games they want to, at whatever scale they need.

To do that we offer multiple paths into the business, and multiple paths to success. Our indie program, ID@Xbox, has now paid out over $4 billion to over 5,000 creators in over 100 countries. Our new Developer Acceleration Program is helping to bring new, less-heard voices into the space – we’ve already helped to fund projects from 30 underrepresented developers and are in contact with 250 more.

Game Pass offers a way to get games played by millions of members. One of Sarah Bond’s favorite notes coming out of the Showcase is that every one of the Game Pass titles featured this year comes from a creator that has previously released a game with Game Pass. We’ve also expanded PC Game pass to 46 more markets, bringing us to a total of 86, so game developers can reach millions of people in new countries.

There are currently more than 5,000 games in development for Xbox from developers across 100 countries – that’s more games in development from third parties than at any time in Xbox history. With this wellspring of games to come, our vision is to enable Xbox to offer the most diverse, easy-to-access line-up in the industry – you’re never far from finding your next favorite game.

We want to bring gaming everywhere

In today’s Showcase we showed Forza Motorsport, Starfield, South of Midnight, and more definitively next-gen games – titles that utilize the power of the Xbox Series X. Supply chain issues have now eased and we’ve been able to increase our supply globally making Xbox Series X easier to find than ever before, just in time for the line-up of exclusives we showed today to arrive.

We also offer the most affordable way into next-gen with the Xbox Series S, opening modern gaming up to more players than ever before. It’s a strategy that’s working – our data shows more than half of Series S buyers were new to the Xbox platform – and today we built on that strategy. We’ve heard your calls for more storage – with the new black Series S, we’ve introduced a version of the console with 1TB of space, perfect for those looking to build out a fuller library on their console. It will hit store shelves on September 1. We’ve also recently worked with our partners at WD and Seagate to bring down the price of our expandable storage and introduce more size options for our plug-and-play solution.

We’re also making the Xbox console experience even faster and more user-friendly, working on an all-new Home User Experience. After testing in our Insider program for several months, and continuously refining through Insider feedback and user research, we will be bringing a fresh look anchored on discoverability that will begin rolling out to all users in the coming months.

Today we shared that Game Pass members will soon be able to stream select PC games from the library through Nvidia GeForce NOW. This will enable the PC Game Pass catalog to be played on any device that GeForce NOW streams to, like low spec PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, mobile devices, TVs, and more, and we’ll be rolling this out in the months ahead. We’re excited by our future – to grow the industry, bring great new first-party titles every year, give partners more ways to deliver and access games and offer multiple ways to play all of them, wherever our players want to play. We are looking forward to going on this journey together with our community.

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