The quick customizable load outs on Avowed is going to be great for the immersion.

• Avowed: Looks very good
• Hellblade 2: Looks fantastic
• Indiana Jones: Looks fantastic
• Visions of Mana: Looks meh (I am not a JRPG fan)
• ARA: Looks okay

I really love this format.
It is so much better to have 5 games and really get to know them instead of a trailer-show with 100 games and 30 second teasers for each.

Nathan Drake is Indiana Jones at home.

Indiana Jones looks great!

Great Direct. A lot better than expected.
- Avowed - I’m sorry if it hurts anyone’s feelings, but this game looked terrible in my opinion. I was kinda interesting in it when it was announced but it just keeps getting worse with every showing. Skip.
- Hellblade 2 - Already on my plan to play list. It looked good but I was already convinced that I’m gonna play it. May 21 is looking like a good release date for now, as I don’t remember any other interesting games releasing around that time.
- Visions of Mana - Best game of the show hands down. It’s JRPG, so wins by default. Can’t wait to play it as well.
- ARA: History Untold - Not interested in the genre, but the game looked interesting, I probably could have given it a try, if it was coming to Xbox, but PC only makes it a skip unfortunately.
- Indiana Jones - What should I say, this game looks brilliant, and it even surpassed Hellblade 2 as my most anticipated first party game. Gonna be honest, didn’t expect them to nail this game in such matter.

3.5/5 for games. ARA 0.5 for not being able to play it.

OK, from all this obviously I am most excited about Avowed. Obsidian really is the reason I got an Xbox. But looking at what they did, it seems their world can be rival to Tamriel, which is a great feat as this is the thing that makes Elder Scrolls great. If Avowed turns out good and the world is good, it might hopefully make Bethesda feel the need to up their game for TES VI.

Ara looks like a good, well thought out Civilization clone. The thing is, from the presentation I see nothing groundbreaking new, but a lot of attention to detail. Ara might become the best Civilization game, just like Okami is one of the best Zelda-games.

Senua and Visions of Mana look both great, but that was also expected, nothing here changed anything massive.

I am very skeptical about Indiana Jones. For one I didn't knew that Todd Howard is involved, and that is a bad thing that he is. I don't trust his insticts to put the focus on the right things. I love the old LucasArts point-and-click-adventures, so this game has a lot to live up to. But if executed well, it could be great. I like that they said they put more focus on puzzles than fights. I also like that they have missable and optional puzzles. And I like that they seemingly allow problems to be solved in different ways. So if executed well Indiana could be great, I am just not confident at the moment it will be executed well.

Anyways, looking forward to Avowed.

At least the Indie game will be a definite departure from Tomb Raiders and Uncharted in the sense that going around shooting everything that moves does not seem like this game is going for. Its looks like a first person adventure game which is not something I do not remember being something that is done a lot.

Ara: Will get on Steam sometime in the future.

Hellblade 2: Need to play the first game, have it installed on my Xbox.

Indiana Jones: Most exciting reveal/showcase, hyped for it. Will get it on Xbox first and likely double dip on PC sometime in the future.

Avowed: Will get eventually in the future first on Steam/PC.

Visions of Mana: Aside from Indiana Jones, my most hyped up game, in my top 5 most want to get unreleased games. Likely gonna get it on Playstation or Steam/PC first.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 releasing in September and the second half of Xbox's lineup is insanely stacked! Seems like Hellblade 2 will be the only title for the first half though lol. Oh well. More time to play Dragon's Dogma 2!

2024 looking like another great year for game releases.