Microsoft pulled off one of the best video game showcases I’ve seen in a long time Sunday, giving us a bunch of game reveals as well as new trailers and game footage for a bevy of upcoming titles.
Following the big Xbox Showcase, there was a second smaller showcase dedicated entirely to Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6. You can read all about that—including all the big changes coming to the new shooter—right here.
Microsoft showed off a couple dozen games during the brisk 80 minute video, which didn’t bother with live speakers or any other shenanigans, and mostly just gave us games to get hyped about. There were some that I personally enjoyed more than others, and I’ve included the trailers for those below.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
I’m honestly blown away by this trailer. MachineGames—the studio behind the recent Wolfenstein reboot—has really gone above and beyond here, and Troy Baker’s voice work as Indiana Jones is superb. He sounds about as close to Harrison Ford as you can get. All I could think watching this was: Can we get a Han Solo game next?
DOOM: The Dark Ages
Microsoft started the showcase out with DOOM: The Dark Ages and I can see why. What a fantastic trailer! This game looks so damn good, it’s honestly the most hyped I’ve been for a DOOM game since the reboot. Maybe even before then. Taking the series and giving it a gritty Medieval vibe is just brilliant.
Fable
We didn’t see a ton more of the actual gameplay here, but at least we have a sense of where they’re headed with the new, long-awaited Fable. I’m curious if this will follow in past games’ footsteps and allow you to change your gender and appearance to some degree. It looks good!
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Okay, so I’m including this because I’m still excited for Dragon Age: The Veilguard (formerly Dreadwolf) even though this trailer is a hot steaming pile of dragon dung. Seriously, if you went to BioWare and said “Please give fans the exact opposite of what they want and a trailer that misses the tone of the series as widely as possible” this is the trailer they’d give you. Is anyone left at BioWare that understands what made their games great? Let’s hope this is just a bad trailer and not an indication of the game to come. Woof.
METAL GEAR SOLID Δ: SNAKE EATER
I’m in my happy place whenever I’m running around as Snake—Solid, Naked, you name it—and this remake of the 2004 game looks terrific. It’s also nice to hear David Hayter’s voice again. I think Kiefer Sutherland did a fine job but I’m still a little annoyed that Hideo Kojima thought it was a good idea to boot Hayter and pick a famous celebrity instead. Not cool, man.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6
This is a pretty fun, over-the-top, bombastic trailer for Black Ops 6, and honestly the game looks like a blast. I love a good Call Of Duty campaign, even though they’re always preposterous. They’re usually very cinematic and not too long, and I like all of that stuff. You play six or seven hours of campaign and then dive into the multiplayer.
Read more about Black Ops 6 including the new “omnimovement” system here.
Age Of Mythology
The classic Age Of Empires franchise gets a brand new entry after many long years with this mythologically-based Age Of Mythology. If you’re into these big civilization / army-management type games, this one should tickle your fancy. It looks absolutely phenomenal.
Gears Of War: E-Day
Okay, this is all cinematic but that’s fine. We’ll get a gameplay trailer soon enough, I imagine, and we all know that A) it’s going to look great and B) it’s going to be a third-person cover shooter with gunplay and mechanics we’ve come to expect from Gears Of War. What makes this really cool is that it’s a prequel set 14 years before the original game, where you see the events of Emergency Day as OG protagonist Marcus Fenix. That’s rad!
World Of Warcraft: The War Within
I’m not a WoW player but I do love their cinematic trailers. They always make me think that World of Warcraft looks fun. Then I go play the game and remember that it’s just not my cup of tea.
Winter Burrow
My cup of tea is more along the lines of this adorable critter game, Winter Burrow, which makes me think of Redwall and Narnia and Mouse Guard and all the other critter-based games and books and cartoons I’ve loved over the years. I figured I should include at least one indie title in this list and this was the one that jumped out at me.
Check out the new trailers for Starfield’s really awesome looking DLC and the next chapter in Diablo IV right here. Perfect Dark also has a new trailer that you can watch here.
What was your favorite trailer or reveal of the showcase? Let me know on Twitter and Facebook.
