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Showing posts from September, 2021

Astria Ascending Launches Today with Xbox Game Pass

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Xbox fans, ascend!  We’re very excited to announce the release of Astria Ascending , a JRPG published by Dear Villagers, available today for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S and with Xbox Game Pass. The French-Canadian studio Artisan Studios has developed Astria Ascending in collaboration with some famous and talented Japanese creators, whose names might be familiar to you. Here’s five reasons to check out this new turn based JRPG. Let’s get started!  A rich and mature story supported by a sumptuous score In a world where chaos looms, eight fated heroes are chosen. They become demigods and are doomed to die while holding the fate of the world in their hands. The captivating story is authored by the great Kazushige Nojima, known for his work on the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series. His wish was to offer a mature and intriguing story, emphasizing the complex relationships between people and their choices regarding their duty.  “Each hero has their own perspective, but it’s th

The Eternal Cylinder: Designing Survival Mechanics for a Planet Being Destroyed

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Summary Having a giant Cylinder crushing the whole game world forced us to change some of the things you normally find in a survival game. Since the player needs to always be moving to avoid the Cylinder, all the building and gathering is not applied to static structures, but to your moving family of Trebhum characters. Making it easier to perceive the real level of danger in the game world really helps players go into a more exploratory mindset from time to time. Hello there, dear readers. My name is Edmundo Bordeu and I am one of the three brothers who founded ACE Team. I also happen to be one of the designers who worked on our latest bizarrely ambitious project, The Eternal Cylinder — available today on the Xbox Store for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S . Today, I am going to talk about some of the toughest design challenges we had adapting mechanics found in survival games to a beautifully strange alien planet with very different rules. The first thing you need to know abou

Race Against Time in Aeon Drive, Available Today for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

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30 seconds to complete each level. An ability to teleport without restrictions. Only one life and an unlimited number of attempts. That’s Aeon Drive — and if that pitch doesn’t sound thrilling to you, we honestly don’t know what would. Aeon Drive is an action platformer with a speedrunning twist, brought to you by 2Awesome Studio and Critical Reflex. You will be playing as Jackelyne — a space ranger from another dimension. She was trying to get home, when her ship crashed on an unknown planet in the city of Neo Barcelona. If she won’t be able to fix her spacecraft on time, the city will be doomed. The challenge seems impossible at face value — the city streets are dangerous and hard to navigate, and Jackelyne has mere seconds to get to her destination. But luckily, there are a lot of tricks in her sleeve — and you’ll have to learn to use all of them to save the city and get Jackelyne home. Here are some major obstacles that Jackelyne will face on each level of the game — and s

Fan-Favorite K’ Lights up the Stage in The King of Fighters XV

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Since its debut in 1994, the King of Fighters fighting game series has been driving the world to excitement with its appealing characters and unique game system. Six years have passed since the last title in the series, and now the newest title in the series, King of Fighters XV , surpasses all its predecessors in terms of graphics, systems, and online experience! KOF XV features a whopping 39 fighters, including classic popular characters, resurrected fan favorites, and those crucial to the unfolding events. The KOF series is also known for its heavy-hitting storyline, so you won’t want to miss out on what events happen between characters.   This newest chapter, which began in KOF XIV , features Shun’ei, Kyo Kusanagi from the Orochi Saga, K’ from the Nests Saga, and Ash Crimson from the Ash Saga. This is the first time the heroes from each Saga have come together to fight in the tournament. The Nests Saga began in the 6th mainline KOF game ( KOF ’99 ) and ended in KOF 200

The Vast Open World of Dying Light 2 Stay Human

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February 4, 2022 is getting closer and closer, and now’s the best time to hop into The City and learn a little bit more about the large open world of Dying Light 2 Stay Human . Villedor’s full of secrets, memories, and complex characters, and today, we’re going to take a closer look at where to find some of them, and how to bring The City back to life. Before the apocalypse happened, Villedor had been a beautiful, modern place. These days are gone, but you’ll still find elements bringing back its former glory. A lot of them, like subway stations, TV towers, or railway tracks, are no longer working in the way we know. Instead, people adapted these places to their current needs, turning them into bases or escape routes. So when you look at The City’s infrastructure with just a little bit of creativity, you might see how this new reality has changed the meaning of the places around you, replacing their old functions with new ones. And it’s not just buildings that people adapt. To reg

Free Play Days – NASCAR Heat 5, Overcooked! 2, and Pathfinder: Kingmaker – Definitive Edition

Don’t miss out on these exciting games available for you to play this weekend. Nascar Heat 5 , Overcooked! 2 , and Pathfinder: Kingmaker – Definitive Edition are all available for Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members from Thursday, September 30 at 12:01 a.m. PDT until Sunday, October 3 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. How to Start Playing Find and install the games here on Xbox.com . Clicking through will send you to the Microsoft Store, where you must be signed in to see the option to install with your Xbox Live Gold membership. To download on console, click on the Subscriptions tab in the Xbox Store and enter the Gold member area to locate the Free Play Days collection on your Xbox One. Keep the Fun Going Purchase the game and other editions at a limited time discount and continue playing while keeping your Gamerscore and earned achievements during the event! Please note that discount percentage may vary by region. Game Details NASCAR Heat 5 Standard Edition ( 19.99 SRP )

Eternal Return Launching October 19 with Exclusive Perks for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Members

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Summary Eternal Return combines your favorite genres into a new and exciting experience. Play Eternal Return solo against other solo players or with friends. Eternal Return will launch October 19 as a free-to-play title on Windows PC with Perks for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members. A seedy organization known as Aglaia is conducting experiments on people that harness a mysterious element, VF, which grants them otherworldly strength and abilities. In Eternal Return , you play as one of the many test subjects, craft items and weapons with materials you find on the island, beat the other test subjects, and become the last one standing. Eternal Return is a mix of genres that you know and love, combined into what one might call a multiplayer online survival arena. (Yeah, it’s a mouthful.) Teammates dragging you down? Go ahead and play solo against 17 other solo players. Not quite the lone wolf? Team up and take on the island with up to two more friends! Eternal Return wil

Use Psychokinetic Powers in Scarlet Nexus with Xbox Game Pass Today

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Summary Scarlet Nexus is now available with Xbox Game Pass on PC, Console, and Cloud. Protect the world against alien mutants using psychokinetic powers that interact with your environment as well as other psionic allies in your party. Play as either Yuito or Kasane and explore their dual stories in a futuristic world. Following its success as a breakout hit of the Summer, we’re excited to announce that Scarlet Nexus is now available with Xbox Game Pass on PC, Console, and Cloud starting today, September 30! In this action RPG, you’ll be navigating a highly futuristic, high-tech world terrorized by deranged, alien mutants known as the Others, who are vulnerable to psionic attacks. Fortunately, the world has entered a new era where psionic hormones in the human brain can sometimes grant select people with psionic abilities. As a psionically-gifted member of the Other Suppression Force (OSF), you can use psychokinetic powers to defend humanity against the Others and unlock the

Tokyo Game Show 2021 Recap: Xbox Cloud Gaming launches in Japan

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Today Xbox returned to the Tokyo Game Show 2021 virtual stage to celebrate the latest regionally relevant news for our fans in Japan and across the Asia region. ‘We’ll always have games’ was the theme of this year’s show, and we continue to be humbled and inspired by the power of games to connect our community around the world. Today, we were excited to showcase how we offer players more freedom to play the games they want, with the people they want, on the devices they choose through the launch of Xbox Cloud Gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate in Japan. With appearances from Forza Horizon 5, Bethesda’s Todd Howard with Starfield , a showcase of Japanese Minecraft creators, a fireside chat with Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox, and Shinji Mikami, Head of Tango Gameworks, and a variety of third-party updates including Sarah Bond, Head of Creator Experience and Ecosystem unveiling Bandai Namco Entertainment’s SCARLET NEXUS available to play now with Xbox Game Pass globally, the Tokyo Game

Xbox Cloud Gaming Launches in Australia, Brazil, Japan, and Mexico

At Xbox, our mission is simple: bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. To achieve that, we aspire to empower everyone to play the games they want, with the people they want, anywhere they want. We are creating a future that combines the gaming heritage of Xbox and the power of Azure. A future where we bring high fidelity, immersive games to more than 3 billion players around the world. We’re now taking another step forward to reach that vision: Xbox Cloud Gaming as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is launching in Brazil and Mexico later today, and Australia and Japan on October 1, as announced at Tokyo Game Show. With this launch, players in each of these countries can play over 100 Xbox Game Pass titles that are cloud-enabled and localized for their country on supported Windows PCs, Android phones and tablets, and Apple phones and tablets. This means players have the ability to continue their Gears 5 campaign on an entry-level laptop even if it’s not a ga