Well, something certainly went wrong in the messaging for the Xbox Games Showcase this year. From what was said, you’d have expected an hour and a half of it before the Starfield Direct began. So when just after an hour Phil Spencer appears talking about what’s already been shown, my first reaction was “okay, what are you hyping us up to?”

But, no. The showcase really did last for just over an hour, with Phil’s appearance being the closing statement before the transition to Starfield. He did announce a new Series S console, coming in carbon black with a 1TB SSD, but there was nothing at the end to really hype up that end. Just a simple transition into an almost hour-long look at Starfield. Which, while I’m looking forward to it, is clearly too much for a single game no matter how big it is.

What that Starfield Direct showed off was enough to cement it as a large game. There are planets aplenty within this galaxy, with what Bethesda say is the largest city they’ve ever built for a game on one of them. But that won’t be the only one, with plenty of settlements scattered across the cosmos. It’s not just cities and planets you can explore, as ships and space stations all have interiors, too.

You could dock at a station to sell goods, wander out of your ship to talk with those on the station, and then pick up a quest. Once out in space again, however, searching for a contact, you instead find a friendly face who invites you onto their ship for a chat. The possibilities are endless with this one. Play how you want to. Be who you want to. Gunfights and space combat also look pretty hectic, but seemingly a lot less janky than previous Bethesda games.

Starfield starts off what is going to be a very busy final third of the year with a 6/September release date. And I do mean a busy period. Across Summer Game Fest and Future Games Show, there’s been a lot of dates slotting in at either September or October, and now it’s been confirmed that Forza Motorsport is also coming in October. The trailer for this one didn’t show much we haven’t already seen, but it did tease the career mode showcase coming in the next Forza Monthly stream.

Ah… Microsoft Flight Simulator. Never played it much like a simulator, since I’d have all the aids on to make sure I had an uninterrupted flight. And now there’s a new one! Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will take advantage of the latest advancements in simulation, cloud, machine learning, and graphics to create an even more stunning world to explore. Will be interesting to see the comparisons, as there are certainly some… amusing errors in the current game.

The trailer showed off numerous jobs that can be tackled as part of the game’s mission mode. Putting out fires, rescuing people, transporting goods… there’s a whole range of missions that are more than just training programs to tackle. Again, I prefer to just explore the world, skipping around various airports taking in the sights of the local area. But I could see myself diving into these jobs to see how successful I am in them. The races in particular.

This one I’ll talk more of when covering the Ubisoft Forward event, but we finally have details on Massive Entertainment’s open world Star Wars game! A trailer at the start of this showcase revealed details such as who we play as and the fact this is set between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It promised more information at the next Ubisoft Forward, so I’m very excited to see it in action.

The first game shown off at this Xbox Games Showcase was Fable. No gameplay, but it was a fun trailer that played into the fact not every player will be a good hero. It certainly nailed the humour in my eyes, but I can’t help but wonder when we’ll get to see more. These cinematic trailers are great, but there comes a time when gameplay needs to be shown. I can only hope that the marketing for it is now starting to ramp up, rather than it going dark for another two years.

There were a few omissions from games I was expecting to be here, but considering there’s an extended showcase coming soon… They’ve pretty much already confirmed more third party stuff will be there. While I won’t be covering that extended showcase, I’ll certainly be looking out for whatever gets announced there.

Images Taken From:
Starfield Official Gameplay Trailer | Bethesda Softworks
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 – Announce Trailer | Xbox