The Xbox Games Showcase of yesterday held quite a few promising games. Not all of them interested me, but there was a good look at Redfall, a new trailer for Hollow Knight: Silksong, and expansions to Bethesda’s online games that take people to new places, plus plenty more announcements. And all of what was shown is releasing in the next 12 months.

As for those that interested me, one of the early announcements was High On Life. A rather bizarre first-person shooter that features talking guns. With this game, you’ll be taking on aliens while exploring the colourful worlds, while also rescuing members of the alien race who are those talking weapons you’ll be using. Oh, and the aliens you’re fighting have captured the humans to turn them into drugs.

Yeah, it’s looking to be a crazy ride. But what can you expect when a co-creator of Rick and Morty is part of the team making it? There’s the drive to be making a great FPS while also making sure it is a hilarious journey throughout. Not all of the quips throughout the trailer were landing for me, but this zany sci-fi galaxy is somewhere I want to be exploring. And I can do that soon, as it’s coming in October.

And speaking of exploring, Lightyear Frontier looks to be bringing some sci-fi farming simulation to Game Pass next year. Having crash landed on a planet, you’re now building up a life for yourself by exploring the world for useable items to cook and craft with. Planting crops and taking care of them and placing new facilities is sure to bring the personal touch to the place you now call home.

There’s a history to the planet, with ruins leading to secrets hidden beneath the surface. Just what had once lived here, and what happened to them? It’s there to uncover, whether alone or with up to three friends. The entire game allows for co-op action, so four players can enjoy building up a new life in this strange new world. It’s coming next Spring, so there’s quite a wait for it, but it will be worth it.

Last on the sci-fi games is the one that ended the presentation. Starfield is the next Bethesda RPG, and it is looking to offer a galaxy of opportunities. Maybe. The galaxy is certainly big enough, with 1000 systems to be exploring, but can that be justified with the story? It’s unlikely the main story will even utilise half of those systems, and unless you can fill every system with some sort of side quest, there’s many that will go unused for more than just general exploring.

However, if the gameplay loop can get players invested, I’m sure it won’t matter. They will explore where they want to explore, looking for secrets and things to do when not following a questline. The gameplay reveal trailer showcases gunplay, on-foot exploration, and ship-to-ship combat. You can customise your ship with a large number of modules, and the most in-depth character creator yet appears in this game. There’s no concrete date for it except that it releases next year, so plenty of time to see even more of this galaxy throughout.

Back down to earth and onto the seas, Season Seven of Sea of Thieves is set to be arriving next month. And how best to show what’s coming? With a song! Some quality-of-life features are coming with this update, including the ability to save the customisations you’ve applied to your ship, and customise your cabin with a lot of new customisation options. Such will be a part of being a captain. I’m certainly interested in getting back on the seas, so this gives me a great excuse to do so.

While spoiled thanks to rumours, Minecraft Legends is bringing a new genre to the franchise. An action strategy game, you’re taking control of a hero to defend the lands from an invasion of the Nether, cultivating a community of villagers and mobs to join you in pushing back the raiders. It will be fun to see what story they can craft with this concept, and whether an action strategy game will be something that fits in the world of MInecraft.

The new Forza Motorsport featured to show off the graphical improvements to the game, which look to be plenty. Maple Valley was looking divine with this gameplay showcase, with it being used to showcase the various new features of the game – such as the dynamic time of day and advanced visual damage simulation. The game really does shine at night.

Along with Maple Valley, returning real world favourites in Leguna Seca and Spa-Francorchamps are here, along with two new ones in the South African Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit and a new original circuit based in Japan – Circuit Hakone. It will be interesting to see how many more tracks there are come the Spring release of the game, and just what other improvements the new engine is bringing to the gameplay.

Hot Wheels for Horizon. For the second time. Do I care? Why would I, when it looks like they’re doing a lot more with the world than the previous version of it. And why would I care when it seems there’s going to be a lot of track building opportunities, and with new modules that weren’t even featured in the first Hot Wheels expansion.

Depending on how big this world is, and how much of the terrain is driveable, this could easily be the ultimate fusion of Forza and Hot Wheels. From the images and trailer, it does seem that there’ll be more driveable terrain than the first one, which makes for a lot more opportunities for player-created events. This evolution of Hot Wheels is coming next month, so I’ll certainly be getting stuck in as soon as.

This feels the right move to have made for the first expansion, even if it might be disappointing to others. Playground have been doing their best to advance the suite of props available for players to use when it comes to creating events, and what better way to further increase those options than with a toy brand renowned for its use of plastic track pieces?

Overall, it was a great showing from the Xbox Showcase. A number of indie games mixed in with the larger studios’ games made for a great mix of genres. While the rest of this year is looking thin for Xbox Game Studios, there’s no doubt that 2023 is going to be their biggest yet.

Images Taken From:
High On Life Official Trailer from Xbox YouTube
Starfield Bethesda Gameplay Reveal article
Forza Motorsport Xbox.com article