The new Xbox: all confirmed Xbox 720 games in one place
What was once a mere trickle, lapped by thirsty newshounds, has become a mounting flood of details and assets, eating away at the internet's very foundations. The number of next generation Xbox game announcements has officially passed the point where I can keep track of them all without artificial aid. Hence the below list, a collection of all currently known next gen projects with sample screens, videos and links to our choicest coverage. You should definitely bookmark it, because I'm going to update and re-promote this puppy continuously till either the CMS cracks under the strain, the next Xbox hits shelves or I weary of games journalism altogether and resume my earlier career as a (mouthy, incompetent) bartender. Feel free to alert us to any games or details we've missed - if I like the cut of your jib, I might even throw you a namecheck. Let's begin.
1. Human Element
Release: 2015
Having quit Activision to form his own studio, Robotoki, ex-Call of Duty creative strategist Robert Bowling began work on a non-linear zombie survival game. Details are scarce, but we know that there will be three "classes" of sorts, Action, Intelligence and Stealth, and three starting options - survival on your lonesome, survival with an adult partner, and survival with a child. The game will support cross-platform play and incorporates real world map data - allowing you to, for example, step down the road to your grocers with your iPad in order to gather food for your survivor in-game. It's all commendably ambitious, and we're looking forward to seeing the project in action.
2. Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6: Patriots
Release: 2013
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has said there's a "good chance" the latest Rainbow Six will see release on next generation consoles - given the entire absence of new information since the game's November 2011 reveal (and assuming it hasn't been quietly cancelled), we can probably upgrade that to a certainty. Patriots is a more scripted shooter than the Rainbows of yore, but don't go moaning about concessions to "mainstream taste", just yet - the developers say it'll feel "radically different" to Call of Duty and Battlefield, thanks not least to a multiplayer mode in which you plan operations using a 3D hologram of the level. The terrorist-bopping storyline is driven by moral choices, like whether to sacrifice a civilian for the greater good, and appears to involve multiple perspectives.
3. Watch Dogs
Release: 2013
Developed by Ubisoft Montreal, Watch Dogs takes place in a near-future version of Chicago where every aspect of daily life is governed by technology. Protagonist Aiden Pearce is a vigilante armed with a PDA which allows him to hack into phones, laptops, cameras, traffic lights - practically anything that carries an electrical charge, in short. Hacking doesn't only give you control over the device in question, however - it also reveals all sorts of personal data which may be of significance to the plot.
Ubisoft has indicated that the city will respond to players' actions. Cause one too many strategic pile-ups by hacking automated bollards, for instance, and the press will hound you relentlessly, making it harder to get away with subsequent acts of disruption. Given the premise and Ubisoft's smugly mysterious talk about the online functions, it seems likely the game will support cross-platform functionality, allowing you to interact with your own Chicago by way of a realworld smartphone. There are also hints of a Dark Souls-esque multiplayer, whereby players hack into other people's games.
Ubisoft's Watch Dogs - weaponising the digital age
4. Star Wars 1313
Release: 2013
Taking its name from level 1313 of the planet Coruscant, this return to the Star Wars universe is a relatively dark and sordid take on the venerated IP, which features cover-based shooting and Uncharted-style platforming. Players take charge of a bounty hunter, possibly related to a certain Boba Fett, and must explore a seedy underworld. Industrial Light & Magic are helping out with the visuals and animations, and the result is one of the prettiest third-person titles yet seen. Alas, rumour has it that the long-in-development game has been put on hold, in order to focus on projects related to the new Star Wars movie trilogy.
5. Destiny
Release: 2013
Bungie's "shared world shooter" is likely to make a major splash on the next generation Xbox - it's an opulent science fiction universe buoyed up by Activision's formidable resources, in which players take the part of human Guardians seeking to reclaim the solar system's riches in the wake of a massive alien invasion. Destiny is an always-online experience which allows interaction with the wider player community intelligently, where it makes sense with your behaviour and objectives - travel to a particular planet to investigate a drifting space hulk, for instance, and you may encounter potential allies (and rivals) within. There are three classes, each of which has access to unique abilities bestowed by the mysterious Traveller - a moon-sized entity which floats above the sole remaining human city. Bungie has built an entirely new engine to process the game's extensive networking features and impressive environments.
6. Beyond Good and Evil 2
Release: TBA
Series creator Michel Ancel has confirmed that Ubisoft is "targeting the next generation of consoles" with the new Beyond Good and Evil - sequel to one of the most venerated Zelda clones ever coded. There's little to tell right now, other than that martially minded photojournalist Jade and her porcine accomplice Uncle Pey'j will return - Ancel and his team appear to be preoccupied with the Rayman franchise. Prototype footage of in-game environments surfaced last year, hinting at a Bollywood turn for the series.
7. Dragon Age III: Inquisition
Release: 2014
The third game in BioWare's uneven fantasy role-playing series reportedly takes place in Orlais, a Francophone empire that's home to bards, cutthroat aristocrats and much turmoil between mages and Templars, who are teetering on the verge of full-blown civil war following an act of magical terrorism. It's rumoured that players will take charge of an Inquisitor, who must keep a lid on the region's volatile politics by fair means or foul. You'll apparently be able to intervene directly, setting out into the world with customisable party in tow, or indirectly, dispatching agents to sabotage the machinations of your enemies.
BioWare's art director Neil Thompson suggests that choice of aesthetic may trump raw technological performance when it comes to differentiating Inquisition from last gen games. The game runs on DICE's Frostbite 2 engine, cue gigantic environments, and share key systems with the next Mass Effect title.
8. Cyberpunk 2077
Release: 2015
A gloriously good-looking class-based RPG, which takes place in a sexily decrepit near-future metropolis known, welcomingly enough, as Dark City. Leaps in cybernetic technology allow consumers to experience the thoughts and memories of their fellow men and women, but there are hefty drawbacks - those who indulge run the risk of becoming addicted, with inevitably violent consequences. The police maintain a special unit, the Psycho Squad, dedicated to tracking down and pacifying these renegade junkies. It's not clear whether the main character will be of their ranks, or a junkie himself. Cyberpunk 2077 is based on a fabulously complex pen and paper game of the same name, and you can therefore expect some pretty labyrinthine class options.
9. The Witcher 3
Release: 2014
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is coming to "all high-end platforms" next year - nudge nudge, wink wink - and you'll find a full preview in issue 97 of OXM, available in stores now or by way of the App Store and Google Play. It's an open world game which is said to be larger than Skyrim, in which returning hero Geralt must contend with the invading army of Nilfgaard while searching for lost loved ones. It's now possible to jump and climb, and the second game's somewhat thin monster-hunting escapades have been fleshed out into a full-blown subgame, requiring much more in the way of observation and strategy. Combat has been sharpened up with a new targeting system and new animations. The game runs on CD Projekt RED's new proprietary technology, which apparently makes it easier for designers to craft stories in large, volatile environments.
10. Whore of the Orient
Release: TBA
A spiritual successor to L.A. Noire, created using the same MotionScan technology and developed by the remnants of Team Bondi, this mysterious project is set in 1930s Shanghai - a burg otherwise known as "the most corrupt and decadent city on the planet, where anything can be had or done for the right price. Plaything of Western powers who greedily exploit the Chinese masses. Boiling pot of Chinese nationalism, with the Kuomintang ruthlessly trying to suppress Communism and the labour movement. Home to the International Police Force, a group of Western cops hopelessly trying to keep the lid on and keep the peace." Job descriptions relating to the project describe it as a "narrative action adventure". Beyond that, all we have to go on are concept artworks.
11. Thief
Release: 2014
A pleasantly eldritch reboot for one of gaming's foundational stealth franchises, with master thief Garrett reprising the role of leading man. Though handy with a blade Garrett's no frontline warrior, so progression is more about duping, bypassing or - when all else fails - out-running heavily armed guards than fighting them. You can expect yet another huge urban open world, bustling with civilians to rob and rooms to scour. Gameplay tools include a bow and several kinds of arrow, a grappling hook which allows you to dangle, Batman-style, from ceilings, and the capacity to dust surfaces for finger prints.
12. Battlefield 4
This one looks "nothing short of astonishing" on next gen consoles, if EA's Frank Gibeau is to be believed, and given DICE's track record in the field of barn-storming visuals, we're finding it easy to credit his devious layoff-mitigating pronouncements. The first concrete details are expected imminently, perhaps at the Game Developers Conference in a couple of weeks.
Assassin's Creed 4
A piratical outing for the long-running, period-hopping open worlder, in which you play the part of one Edward Kenway - gallant ship captain, despoiler of womanhood and a student of pre-industrial parkour. The game takes place in the Caribbean during the early 18th century, and features a vastly expanded take on the third game's naval subgame alongside new combat abilities. Next generation console versions will benefit from "new connected features" - quite possibly comparable to those of stablemate Watch Dogs.
Source: Rheena.com
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Re: The new Xbox: all confirmed Xbox 720 games in one place
Originally Posted by Robbo
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