Team Talk | What were your personal highlights from X019?

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London was host to X019 last week and those lucky enough to attend the Xbox event got a chance to go hands-on with (and see footage of) some of the newest and unreleased titles coming to the platform over the next year. An extended Inside Xbox stream provided a healthy dose of reveals, announcements and updates for the rest of us. Here are our highlights.

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by Chris Brand

@SuperCrisco

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by Team PTC

@pass_controller

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Chris

​Whilst the omission of anything Project Scarlett related was a surprise, I didn't actually notice the console's absence until some hours after Inside Xbox had wrapped up. So much was jammed into the, roughly two hour, slot that it felt fuller and more satisfying than the comparatively tepid E3 showcase from June.

My focus was instead captured by the many titles that are coming to Game Pass, along with the unexpected handful of new additions that launched on the service to celebrate X019. Arguably the biggest of the latest batch, Rage 2, is every bit as good as Sam claims (maybe I should start paying attention to his recommendations?) and scratches the itch left by DOOM Eternal's delay.

Looking towards the future, even more games will debut on the subscription service, including 10 Final Fantasy outings, 3 Yakuza titles, a host of indies from ID@Xbox and Ori and the Will of the Wisps looking just as charming as its predecessor.

In the meantime, the newly added Darksiders III could be the first entry in the series that I manage to complete or, more likely, the third entry in the series that sits in backlog purgatory until I need to free up space.

See anything you like?

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Sam

​X019 came as rather a nice surprise last week, almost serving the UK up its own little slice of E3. Microsoft went big for what was essentially an episode of their Inside Xbox series, revealing the first batch of new Xbox Game Studios titles and showcasing more of some we already knew to be in development.

They all looked fine, with Tell Me Why from Life is Strange developer Dontnod Entertainment being what stood out to me the most. One title I’m even more curious about is an independent effort, though.

Last Stop is set in present day London and tells a supernatural tale revolving around three different co-protagonists. It’s developed by Variable State, the team behind the excellent Virginia, which channeled The X-Files to tell an engaging narrative without a single subtitle or spoken word of dialogue. Last Stop seems even more ambitious, which immediately put it on my radar.

Elsewhere, I was pleased to hear that Project xCloud will be made available to Game Pass subscribers at no additional cost. I’m still not sold on streaming games, but I’ll give it a go for the grand old price of nothing.

I should also mention that seeing the Yakuza and Kingdom Hearts series find new homes on Xbox brought a smile to my face. Not on my own behalf, but because long-standing community member Plasma Wing has been begging for that to happen.

If Virginia is anything to go by, Last Stop should be an interesting thriller.

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Liam

Like Chris, much of what got me excited about X019 was the news that more great titles were heading to Game Pass.

Whilst I never got around to completing the original Rage, the fact I can pick up both it - and the newly added sequel - through the subscription service serves as motivation to go back and give the franchise the attention it deserves. I’m also looking forward to trying Grounded and its hugely promising Honey, I Shrunk the Kids-style setting, which looks like it could be a lot of fun.

But the standout title from the show had to be West of Dead, a twin stick shooter set in a western-themed purgatory from Upstream Arcade and Raw Fury. I’m not a huge fan of procedurally generated levels, but I do love me some cel-shaded graphics, and the concept of a dead sheriff (voiced by Ron Perlman, no less) dealing out justice with a six-shooter sounds awesome.

Having got a taste of the tight gunplay and unique setting via the game’s open beta (which you can try until the 25 November) I am now very much looking forward to this game’s full release.

There's still a chance to try out the promising beta.

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James

Having missed out on X019 altogether, and needing to catch up with our very comprehensive and exciting round-up, I'm pleasantly surprised to not see a slew of announcements which are just franchise X with another number slapped on the end – bar FFX-2's incorporation into the Game Pass library of course.

A new IP from Obsidian, hot off the success of The Outer Worlds is equally welcome, and though the people-ambling-about-in-a-coop-open-world genre is hardly under-served, it's been long enough since the cinematic gold that was Ants for the concept to feel like a breath of fresh air.

The rumblings around Project xCloud, which seems to have dispensed with the need for actual grown up product names at this stage, continue to sound good but have fairly little to show for it.

It seems clear that Microsoft is playing the long game on this one, especially compared to Google with Stadia, and while largely pulling out of EGX to focus on this event gave the company a chance to have the audience all to itself, they will need to deliver more exclusives - or just good all round game experiences – to get everyone excited enough for Project Scarlett to actually buy one.

We're going to assume that the name Project Xstream was already taken.

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Let us know your highlights from X019.