#HoldTheLine

#AdvanceTheLine

The mere thought of a game not coming to their platform isn't a feeling they're used to having lol

Even though this title was never in doubt

Answering my own question from a few days ago

Do you think this show is what fans of Xbox deserved to have after the last ~18 months of drought?

Yes, and Phil Spencer's interview attests to this just after the showcase where he said things along the line of "The people who've invested in Xbox, it's our duty to make that payoff, and that's quality games, that's games coming on a regular cadence every year and we didn't do that in 2022 right".

For me, the show was 10/10 at resolving this specific issue or narrative that somehow Xbox is not fully committed to its fans.

Do you think this show sets Xbox to adequately capitalize on a potential competition slows down as set out by the relatively poor showing of a few days ago?

Yes and no, earlier Phil Spencer's interview when he said that they lost the worst generation to lose with Xbox One still holds. However what this comment does not address is the expansion of the market itself, there's always a crowd of newcomers in this industry that are not tainted by an existing library of some kind. With this crowd, Xbox is definitely shifting the appeal big time if both Xbox and Playstation shows are representative of the next 2-3 years of quality/quantity of releases.

With so many 2024 titles do you fear there might be another drought afterward?

No, but with a caveat, I feel Xbox's rapid expansion followed by Covid may create ripple effects where one year sees a lot of AAA releases and the next year might, while still good, not be as packed as the previous one. While I think it's safe to assume will never get a year as lackluster as 2022 some lean years are still probable, and if they show up you'll surely see the same usual suspect trying to push the same hold narrative and while we fully see that narrative for what it is, giving Xbox history it may still stick more then it should, especially with newcomers. Finger crossed that it does not happen and Xbox manage their calendar flawlessly from now on.

New question for anyone:

Do you think, that if the foreseen Starfield success materializes come September Zenimax Online may be tasked with something like Starfield Online? I, for one, certainly think so.

Its not just the change in art style, the game looks like it could be played on the Xbox one. Visually the game looks like it just barely upped Skyrim which is why I believe we see so much concern more than the art style itself.  Gameplay wise that is up in the air but I have much higher hopes that Avowed will be very fun the play but its not hitting any thing graphically coming next year with a lot more impressive looking open world RPG type games.  I would say what was really missing is lighting.  The game looked flat but who knows by the time it release all of that could change.  I look at how much Starfield changed so I am hopeful.

Thank God they addressed the 30fps stuff.

Not that fanboys will listen.

Xbox becoming kings of RPGs this gen.

I agree, the lighting seems to lack polishing as of now. It kind of made me think of Halo Infinite's first reveal on that front, it looks like the same kind of issue in this regard. It also looks like it's missing some sub-surface scattering making some models like the spider look plasticky.

But for me overall I liked what I saw but it's not the darker, more desolate environment,t with a Tolkienesque vibe the first trailer portrayed.  

That is probably one of the issues with pre-rendered trailers.  There is always the case that the actual game will look nothing like it.