Gamescom 2021 Xbox Showcase Roundup

Warning: The following article may include embedded videos that contain strong language. Reader’s discretion is advised.

It is another week in gaming news, and Activision-Blizzard isn’t dominating it, so it must be another one of those online E3-like streams. Yes, I recently railed against them for the simple understanding that I am a human being, I have things to do, and spending two hours on a bloated indie showcase is not time well spent when you have to write about it. This was a condensed 90-minute presentation that was a little flabby in some areas, trying to explain everything in laborious detail while boring us all to death. That’s an improvement. It might not sound like it, but it is!

The first thing shown off was the highly anticipated release of the upcoming Dying Light 2: Stay Human, which I’d argue spread its legs a little too much during E3. Given that they had the same trailer in back-to-back shows during E3 this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if the latest trailer shows up tonight at Opening Night Live, which Alexx will be covering tomorrow. I’ll say it now, I’m quite excited to see what years of improvements can do to the Dying Light series. Though after reading James Paterson & Bill Clinton’s “The President Is Missing,” the phrase, “Modern Dark Ages” is an unsettling one.

It seems fun, bright, and full of that parkour silliness that the series is good at. I’ll never get over dropkicking zombies off of rooftops. Of course, the game is still set to release on December 7th for PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5. At the moment, there is no rumor of delay or calls for it like other titles set to release later this year. I cannot wait for Dying Light 2: Stay Human.

Next up on the flight plan was Microsoft Flight Simulator, the world’s leading tool in how to train people to not panic when crashing a plane. Most of this part of the show was taken up by little updates on what is coming over the coming updates. Coming to the game is the 6th world update improving Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and a race mode that could be great fun. There was nothing mentioned about the Top Gun DLC teased a while back. The world update is coming on the 7th of September with a pre-WWII German plane and Junkers JU-52 also coming during the update. There was also the announcement of the VoloCity Air Taxi and the partnership with the Reno Air Racing Association.

The latter is coming later in the year, which brings the idea of the Daily Mail Trans-Atlantic Air Race from London to New York, a topic the wonderful Jago Hazzard recently covered. It harkens back to a time of “screw it, let’s do it” not entirely for the overall benefit of the sector it is in, but just to do it. Nonetheless, these wacky races (minus a snickering dog) produced what would be the military jet of choice during times of bitter cold wars, the Harrier Jump Jet. Racing with your friends across the world in what can quite literally be some wacky races sounds fun. I’m into that.

Following that was a collection of not particularly indie games, but the cross-section of indie and triple-A: Humble Games. Strap-in for this one, as rogue-like dungeon-crawler game Archvale, elemental rocketry-sim Next Space Rebels, isometric drunkard game about fighting and bike riding Midnight Fight Express, anime dodgeball game Dodgeball Academia, Bushiden, Flynn: Son of Crimson, Unpacking, Signalis, Unsighted, Chinatown Detective Agency, and Into the Pit are all coming to Game Pass on day-one of their release to PC, console, and what was once called xCloud. I think it goes without saying my opinion on Game Pass once again. Still, this just makes the best deal in gaming better for all.

Do you need a trebuchet? I think Microsoft and Relic Entertainment have enough of them going about, they were like Oprah with those bloody things. Age of Empires 4 looks great, with the release set for October 28th this year onto PC and Xbox Cloud Gaming (still prefer xCloud). It might be interesting to play an Age of Empires game that isn’t on the Nintendo DS, as long as I don’t have to touch a trebuchet or see another one in my life.

This brings us neatly to the next announcement: Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will soon be able to use xCloud on consoles too. No specific date is set for the release of Xbox Cloud Gaming just yet though. We’ve got the usual “holiday” 2021 for the upcoming release, which could of course be pushed.

Next up was a reminder to pull my metaphorical finger out and get a review of The Battle of Steeltown done fairly sharpish. Yes, one of my top games of 2020 was Wasteland 3, and the second of the DLC expansions was given a trailer. The Cult of the Holy Detonation is set to come to the frosty mountains of Colorado on October the 5th. Sadly, while it is set in the Cheyenne Mountain military complex, I don’t believe I’ll get to hug Richard Dean Anderson, Christopher Judge, Michael Shanks, or Amanda Tapping. Did I have to make a Stargate SG1 reference? No, but did I want to? Indeed.

However, that’s not all for those seeking a bit of Wasteland 3 fun… Well, not necessarily fun, but adventures with God-president Reagan’s cultist followers and every other abominable horror of post-apocalyptic Colorado. With the announcement of the second expansion to the game, Microsoft also announced the full-fat version with all DLC and the full experience, titled Wasteland 3: Colorado Collection. The collection is set to release on October the 5th, and is the perfect pick-up for anyone without the game or both expansions, in one neat little package.

From something exciting and fun to the rather questionable Sea of Thieves. The piracy continues, as further cosmetics are brought to the rather empty world, with a game crossover to something equally barren. The Borderlands Mayhem ship set, “inspired by the Vaults of Pandora,” painting a great big yellow marker on the horizon of anyone looking to “grief” other players. I said it when Rainbow Six Siege and Prime Gaming were making you a massive walking Pizza, it seems rather stupid to put a target that large on your back.

This next one makes me want to return to State of Decay 2. I played it not long after release and enjoyed it a bit. Well, after the game hitting a total of 10-million lifetime players across the various released versions, the team at Undead Labs has revamped the Trumbull Valley map with a free update to the State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition of the game.

Earlier in the week, Aaron Greenberg noted on Twitter, “no new reveals or major surprises.” What is this Aaron, a new A-RPG Souls-like with a bit of a more typical colorful high-fantasy setting called Stray Blade? That seems like a new reveal and to shock at least one person, it wasn’t exciting me from what we saw. It looks nice, seems fine, and is coming next year to consoles and PC from 505 Games and Point Blank. If I’m going to get sucked off into the portal of banging my head against that wall, I need to see some more.

If Crusader Kings 3 was releasing on PS4 and Xbox One too, I’d be jumping up and down on the neck of my horse sister-wife in excitement, as I committed to-plan the idea of killing my daughter-in-law in a tunnel in France. Well, I’m getting executed soon enough anyway, so the fact that Crusader Kings 3 is only coming to the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S shouldn’t bother me, but it does. The series has more twists and turns than any series of Game of Thrones, and it can be as ridiculous as you want it to be. It is just a shame that only three people will be bothered with it. After all, getting ahold of a PS5 or Xbox Series X in this day and age is like finding the cure to the bubonic plague. The same can be said for release dates too!

Moments later there was a segment about Psychonauts 2, which is now out. As far as I know, we’re not covering it. I’m never going to pass up on a Psychonauts game. That’s a happy place, and the first game is one of the best games ever released.

Next up was a gentle little surprise, as I forgot it was even a thing, The Gunk. Despite having a name that is about as memorable as the verse to “Agadoo,” The Gunk looks like a very PS2-era adventure. You are a slightly malformed humanoid doing a special thing in space, and solving puzzles. From the people behind the wonderful SteamWorld Dig 2 (key previously provided), this is one that I am low-key excited about. Yes, lack of exciting color notwithstanding, these people know how to make a fun game.

Then it was the end, with the final game not being the next episode of Master Chef stomping about, misspelling his own name, and being the modern equivalent to shooters as I am to modern-day banking. Nope, no mention of Halo, instead we got the colorful Forza Horizon 5 showcased in lots of detail. Well, lots of detail for the circumstance at least. The first reveal was the cover car, which is as exciting as the design on top of all those Pizza boxes you’ve ever eaten from. It is a Mercedes-AMG One, another super-car that looks like a super-car. In the background, there are a couple of Ford Broncos.

Following that news was going to be hard, but I think my sarcasm over this might just be thick enough to handle it and carry us to the gameplay. It is the usual affair here: something ridiculous happens like a Ford falling out of a cargo plane onto the side of a volcano, which would be the joke I’d make if that wasn’t what actually happened. Yeah, it is really nice actually. I like the look of Mexico and I am loving the fast cars going vroom, but there isn’t much to say here. A Mercedes races a Cargo plane, but really the Horizon series is known for its outlandish moments, so it hardly feels surprising. It is set for release on November the 9th, coming to the Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Believe it or not, that was it, a solid show with one of two dud moments but still a solid show nonetheless. There were interesting games shown, not too much pondering everywhere but enough in places to please the obsessives. For those now looking for the show as a whole, we’ve linked below the full show from Xbox’s YouTube channel. As mentioned above, tomorrow Alexx will have a rundown of Opening Night Live with announcements from 2K, Rockstar, and others expected to be at the show.