Please note that the games in this list are backed up by articles reported in the last and the current year. So we are not listing these games just for the sake of it.

The Next Gen Forza:

It’s no secret that Turn 10 are working on the next iteration of the long running Forza series and they won’t find a better time than today to reveal it. Last week Sony and Polyphony Digital announced Gran Turismo 6 so it only makes sense to announce the next generation Forza for this holiday.

The official twitter account of Xbox also tweeted the following:

Dear @sean0fthedead, patience is virtue. Love, #XboxReveal

— Xbox (@Xbox) May 20, 2013

Plus earlier reports also indicate that reveal is on the cards tonight. It will be interesting to see whether the next Forza will have any Kinect functionality built in to it.

Ryse:

Announced way back at E3 2011, Crytek’s Ryse pits the player in the role of a Roman warrior. It was supposed to be released on the Xbox 360 but as we all know that never happened. We had earlier reported that Ryse may be a launch title for the next Xbox.

There possibly cannot be a better way to showcase the next generation Kinect along with Ryse. That will be a win-win situation for both Microsoft and Crytek.

The Next Gen Project Gotham Racing:

The Project Gotham Racing series has always been a launch title for the new Xbox in the past. We expect that it will be no different this time around.

A few weeks back we had reported that Lucid Games were teasing the next installment in the long running Project Gotham Racing series. They said: “So yeah, Mid-May will be interesting for the studio. We have some exciting updates coming. Stay tuned!”

Mid-May basically means today, the Xbox reveal.

Respawn Entertainment’s First Game:

There is a very strong rumor making it’s round that Respawn Entertainment’s first game will be a exclusive to the next Xbox. According to our reports, it will require constant internet connection and will be multiplayer centric.

However there are no reports on whether the game will be playable in offline mode or not. Microsoft will have one hell of a show if they show this game along with Call of Duty Ghosts.

Lionhead Studio’s Next Game:

The developers of a series that is going downhill ever since Fable 2 are apparently working on a next gen game for the new Xbox. This is apparently the next Peter Molyneux game according to a job listing posted a few months back.

This new game will be using latest graphics technologies like DX 11 and the brand new Unreal Engine 4.  Given that DX 11 does not run on the 360, it is obvious that the game is being developed for the next gen Xbox.

If Peter Molyneux does show up tonight, I hope he does not bore the audience/gamers with his philosophical thoughts.

Kinect Sports 3:

Yes, it’s a Kinect game. And yes, we want to bombarded with any more of those. But one way or another, it will be a way for Microsoft to show off the new Kienct – if there indeed is one – along with providing something for the casual audience to enjoy.

We dare say it’ll be a new spin on the typical mini-game and individual sports genre that Kinect Sports: Season One and Two provided for the Xbox 360. Other than that, not much more but maybe (just maybe) Microsoft and developer Rare, who has been handling the series, will surprise us.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

On the other hand Microsoft has revealed basically nothing about the next Xbox. Considering that the PS3 had the advantage over the Xbox 360 in being able to render 720p and 1080p outputs with video games, obviously it would help if the Big M somehow caught up

So, how does 4K gaming actually looks like? Is it really different from the 720p/1080p games we play on our PC and consoles? And most importantly do we actually need 4K resolution gaming?

The above gallery has compressed images. For uncompressed ones, please check out the following: Batman Arkham City, Dead Space 3, Crysis 3, Battlefield 3, Borderlands 2, DiRT 3, Hitman Absolution, Deus Ex Human Revolution, FIFA 13, Metro 2033, PlanetSide 2, Mirror’s Edge, Portal 2, NFS: Shift, SimCity, Skyrim and The Witcher 2.

This images (via Reddit) are from recently released games like Hitman Absolution, Crysis 3, SimCity and more. Obviously they are running on a high end PC.

The above gallery illustrates just how 4K games look. Just as 1080p is meant to represent a 1920×1080 resolution, 4K essentially means an image or video with a resolution of 4096 pixels wide and 2160 pixels high. It can be typically seen in theatres like iMax for projecting an Ultra HD picture. Of course, the sharpness depends on the amount of pixels per inch or pixel density present. For example, most smartphones these days come with 1080p resolution but on a small 5 inch screen, the human eye is unable to tell the difference between these a regular 720p resolution after a point.

It all has to do with the pixels (of course there’s plenty of other technology that goes into a great picture, but that’s another story).

So imagine if you take an incredibly high amount of pixels and stretch it across a large display, say inches, this will allow the human eye to perceive a greater amount of details. It’s like taking a microscope to a real life object – so naturally to be able to showcase all that detail, you need to have a larger than normal viewing area. This is why iMax screens are bigger than typical movie theatre displays.

But here’s the thing: even if a game is capable of running at a 4K resolution, and has been optimized for the same, one with will need an Ultra HD TV display to take full advantage of it. Sure, you can make out an incredible amount of detail already, if the above screens are any indication. But regular TVs that output to 1080p won’t be able to output ALL of that detail – heck, processing it is another thing altogether – and the current crop of Ultra HD screens are expensive. Like tens-of-thousands-of-dollars expensive. We’re still in an era where 3D TVs cost a bomb. So while the next logical step to improving graphical performance is to move to a higher resolution, it’ll take a good long while before the manufacturing costs drop.

As for whether we need 4K gaming: Truth be told, you don’t need great graphics to make a great game. However, with most genres like first person shooters stuck in a rut that only devices like rectify, developers will be focusing more and more on presentation values to immerse gamers. As such, the visuals are still an incredibly important part of gameplay. Nothing says you’re in the game quite like an ultra-sharp resolution – and if you look at games like Mirror’s Edge or Crysis 3, that rely on their visuals to a different aesthetic extent, then the overall number of pixels on display makes a difference.

The best analogy is actually Borderlands 2 in 4K – like clearing away the smudges governing a highly detailed painting. It’s incredible to even consider that the game is actually utilizing a cel-shaded art style when the details are so crisp.

Will there be stellar gameplay experiences to match those details in the years to come? If the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Cyberpunk 2077, Thief and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag are any indication, then the future is certainly bright.

Credit: @BenPeterGriffin

Microsoft will be showing off the next generation of games and entertainment on May 21st along with their reveal of the next Xbox. One must really appreciate Microsoft’s patience till date  as they have never responded to rumors or speculations, especially when most of them have been negative.

Graeme Boyd, Social Marketing Manager at Xbox has tweeted that Xbox will be back at GamesCom this year.

Xbox will be back at gamescom this August. “Next chapter of Xbox gaming experiences” on show. Can’t wait, LOVE gamescom.

GamesCom  has been a Sony show if one goes by tradition. But it seems Microsoft will be going head to head this time around.

Obviously, it’s too early to speculate what Microsoft has in store at GamesCom. But E3 hopefully, will make things clear,

Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

The biggest rumor that has been floating around for some months is the next Xbox will allegedly require a consistent internet connection to play video games. This has resulted in quite a bit of backlash from the critics and fans alike.

But according Arstechnica, this might not be the case. The next Xbox may after all be playable with no internet connection.

According to Arstechnica‘s source, an internal email was sent to Microsoft’s employees. The email read:

“Durango is designed to deliver the future of entertainment while engineered to be tolerant of today’s Internet. There are a number of scenarios that our users expect to work without an Internet connection, and those should ‘just work’ regardless of their current connection status. Those include, but are not limited to: playing a Blu-ray disc, watching live TV, and yes playing a single player game.”

Now we are not sure, how reliable Arstechnica’s source is, so it’s best to take this information with a pinch of salt. Of course, we would love this rumour to turn in reality as there are countless locations on the planet where there is no or unstable internet connection.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.