15. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

The most immediately stunning aspect of Space Marine 2 is the gobsmackingly large swarms of enemies. Tyranid swarms are brilliantly realized here, with dynamic animations and a good amount of rendering detail even from far distances. This is all thanks to the proprietary graphics engine that Saber Interactive uses, aptly named the Swarm Engine. Seeing a giant swarm of enemies coming at you from miles away has never felt more amazing; more broadly, the Warhammer 40K universe has never been so beautifully realized than with Space Marine 2.

Frostpunk 2 – Sept 20th

Frostpunk 2 takes the gritty moral dilemmas of the first game and turns them up a couple of notches. You’re given the task of keeping New London afloat as it struggles to survive the consequences of the catastrophic “Great Storm” from the first game. Yes, that technically means you manage a city set in a post-post-apocalypse in Frostpunk‘s sequel. Frostpunk 2 expands the series’ scale with the ability to build districts rather than mere buildings and the inclusion of a new “Utopia Builder” sandbox mode. We’re looking forward to seeing what horrific circumstances you can put your city through when Frostpunk 2 drops on September 20th.

Starfield

Starfield is Bethesda’s first new IP in over 25 years, and it’s obviously one of the most highly anticipated games of this year. This adventure will take you to the far reaches of outer space as you explore over a hundred different planets, many of which will be teeming with all sorts of activities to pursue and quests to complete. A refined combat system, gorgeous visuals, and detailed character customization are just some of the many improvements Starfield will be bringing to the Bethesda RPG formula. It will be released for Xbox Series X/S and PC on 6 September 2023.

Earlier today, it was announced that a Xbox-themed Indie Showcase would be coming later this month. Of the games announced, one of those was S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. Even if you don’t think of it in the same way as most indies, it is in fact independently developed. It does seem as if that developer does also want to keep expectations in check about what to expect next week.

On the official Twitter account, the developer clarified that there would be no new footage shown from the game. Apparently, in the initial blog post, a behind the scenes video was shown with some first in-game “demonstrations” of the title. Whatever the video was, it must have been taken down quickly, because it doesn’t seem to be floating around the usual places. The team was afraid this would give the impression there would be more at the showcase itself, but that is not the case. They do say that there is more news that will shared in 2021 and gave some artwork, which you can see below.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been announced for Xbox Series X/S and PC. The Xbox Indie Showcase will be on March 26th.

pic.twitter.com/2dfMnd11Kq

— S.T.A.L.K.E.R. OFFICIAL (@stalker_thegame) March 19, 2021

I think it’s pretty fair to say that pretty much everyone was surprised yesterday at the announcement of STALKER 2 at Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase. There has been talk about the sequel for quite some time now, and the first game has been one of the most beloved to a certain subset of PC gaming enthusiasts (the original game never got a console release). Now we have some creepy new screens and details for the upcoming shooter.

Via DSOGaming, we got four new screens that you can see below. It doesn’t show a lot, but does give you an idea of what the expect for its tone and griminess. New details have emerged, primarily that the game is set to follow in its predecessor’s footsteps and be a horror, shooter and immersive sim hybrid and will have both new and old locations with a choice system that will have both long term and short term consequences. As of now, there is no plans for any kind of VR or battle royale mode.

STALKER 2 will release at some point for both Xbox Series X and PC.

UPDATE: It should be pointed out that the numbers mentioned in this report account only for the videos uploaded directly to the official Xbox YouTube channel, and not cumulative views across all uploads. For instance, the Halo Infinite gameplay reveal on the official Halo channel has 2.3 million views at the time of writing.

Original story:

Yesterday’s Xbox Games Showcase had a lot in it. Some people thought the show was fine, others were a lot less high on it. But one thing that most people seemed to be surprised and excited about was the reveal of STALKER 2. While we’ve known the game has been in development for quite some time, no one expected it to show up at the Microsoft show. And it seems people are hungry for it.

Going by the YouTube views, STALKER 2‘s original Xbox reveal has just over 845,000 views as of writing this. Just to compare to some of the other big titles, the long awaiting reveal of the new Fable is sitting at 557,000 and Halo Infinite‘s gameplay reveal is just under 700,000. You can see the STALKER 2 reveal trailer that everyone is watching through here.

As of now, we don’t have a lot of details about the game, but we do know it will, of course, be coming to PC as well as Xbox Series X. No other platforms or time frames have been revealed.

We first heard of STALKER 2 a few years back, but since its surprisingly premature announcement, we haven’t heard or seen much of the game. Until now, that is. At the Xbox Games Showcase, we got our first proper look at the upcoming horror first person shooter.

The trailer looks suitably atmospheric and oppressive, showing plenty of spooky environments, like an unwelcoming forest, overgrown parts of Chernobyl, decaying structures, and more, while also teasing the sort of horrors fans of the STALKER games will demand, and be very used to. There isn’t a whole lot of gameplay in there, but after years of silence, fans of the STALKER series will be glad to see at least something. Check it out below.

Interestingly enough, this will be the first time a STALKER game will be releasing on an Xbox console. Or any console. Or any non-PC platform, actually. No release date has been announced for the shooter.

STALKER 2‘s announcement came out of nowhere. It was totally unexpected, and with a release scheduled for 2021, also a bit early. Too early- why so early? Why would you announce a game that won’t be out for another three years, and you know it won’t be out for that long?

According to Epic Games’s director of publishing Sergey Galyonkin, the game is currently only in the design doc phase- so it hasn’t even properly begun development. The only reason it was announced as early as it was was to generate some publisher interest for it this E3. Which makes sense- but which is likely to make the wait for the fans brutal and unrelenting. Just as Square Enix fans how they feel about games tat take years to come out because they were announced before they properly began development.

Galyonkin’s insight also suggests the game will be made using Unreal Engine, for what it’s worth- which is a good engine, and hopefully leads to a less buggy product than the original game infamously was.

[via PC Games N]