2023 was somewhat of a renaissance for Xbox, finally releasing one of it’s biggest titles from recent years acquisitions in Starfield, surprise dropping Hi-Fi Rush, completing the expensive (and drawn out) purchase of Activision Blizzard King, and keeping the excellent Game Pass stocked with bangers monthly, many of which were brand new releases. However, Microsoft are still struggling to shake the bad juju from recent years mis-steps, and need to somehow up the ante in 2024 with bigger, better, and more favourably received games.
There’s a lot of games in the pipeline from Big Daddy Phil and co., though they’ve had an annoying habit of dropping an announcement and then shutting up about the game for literally years.
Below are five games we must see more of in 2024, be that new information or – even better – released into Game Pass. Let us know what you’d like to see more of in the comments or over on our social media linked at the bottom of the page.
No.5: Hellblade II – Senua’s Saga
The original Hellblade was somewhat of a sleeper hit, being released initially on Playstation as an exclusive before finally coming to other platforms. It offered slow but methodical combat, a grippingly dark tale, and some of the best use of 3D audio even to this day in it’s depiction of mental health struggles.
This long-awaited sequel looks not only to up the ante in terms of the stunning presentation (the recent gameplay trailer shows off some incredible technical work) but flesh out the story and gameplay with even more of a horror and psychological slant. It’s been years since it was revealed, and we still only have a vague 2024 window, but Xbox need to lean on this one hard for Game Pass, especially if they can aim it at the generally quieter Summer period.
No.4: Avowed
Starfield, as great as it was for some, clearly didn’t hit as massively as both Bethesda and Microsoft hoped. Skyrim was a beast for any game to follow, but if fan reception is anything to go by, perhaps the makers of what many proclaim to be the best Fallout – fellow Xbox-owned studio Obsidian – can deliver the truly next gen RPG gamers have been waiting for.
Avowed has only been shown off in a brief taster trailer 3 years ago, and a short gameplay trailer earlier this year. 2024 has to be the year that we see more in-depth information, and hopefully a release. Could Obsidian show their dominance and out-Skyrim Bethesda in the fantasy RPG genre? Let’s hope this year is when we find out.
No.3: Fable
The original Xbox was defined by only a handful of games, and there’s no denying that Lionhead’s Fable was one of them. Despite the lofty promises made by Peter Molyneux, Fable still stood out from the crowd with some RPG-lite mechanics that offered more depth the more you looked, from battle-scarred characters to good vs evil dynamics affecting your play style.
We got the above in-engine trailer after a prior CG taster, and while it looks stunning, it also didn’t really show much in the way of, you know, how it’ll play. We don’t expect to see this released this year at all, but a deeper dive on how the British RPG will look and play when we do finally get our hands on it is a must for us.
No 2: Gears of War 6
This one is firmly in the rumour-mill area for now, but it’s been four years as of writing since we got the last entry in the Gears franchise. Leaving things on a cliff-hanger is one thing, (that we weren’t super keen on) but to then go radio silent for over four years on what’s next is a whole other ruined tomato patch.
There’s plenty of rumblings about the next title in the series, but nothing confirmed as of yet. A full reveal at one of Xbox’s showcases this year would go a long way to satiating our appetite, but please don’t drop a 30 second CG teaser and leave us hanging for another three years. What kind of studio would do that…
No.1: Perfect Dark
December 11th, 2020. Xbox are hyping up their brand new studio The Initiative, promising a new AAAA (yes, four of them) title from this cavalcade of industry talent they had acquired. The Game Awards rolls around, and we get the above teaser for a reboot of Perfect Dark, Rare’s oft-lauded follow up to Goldeneye. Hype is high, Perfect Dark looks to be back on track after the frankly shit 360 launch title Perfect Dark Zero.
Then, it all goes a bit Pete Tong. The only updates we get are off the record, back-alley notes from frustrated devs, an official update that Crystal Dynamics are helping out (before the abysmal release of Avengers), and then a fair amount of high-profile talent leaving.
In the three years since, there’s been nothing official in the way of gameplay trailers, news, or even a hint that things are still going well. 2024 is all but essential for more updates on this reboot, or else it risks going the way of Beyond Good & Evil 2, Skull & Bones (though that is supposed to be finally coming out in a few months) and a dozen more titles revealed only to disappear into the ether.
Can Perfect Dark as a franchise hold enough good will to support this long wait? Will it be outshone by yet another year of excellent releases? We hope to see for ourselves this year, even if it’s just more of a deep dive than a release (or even some sort of playable demo).
So, that’s our picks for games we must see more of in 2024, but there are far more that we’d like more info on. Let us know below what you’re looking forward to, or if you think we’re ever going to see Perfect Dark.
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