Pretty simple.

Which game was your favorite featured game at Microsoft's Developer Direct for January 2024? Are you excited for multiple games? 

I'll put mine in order of excitement.

1. Avowed (Just absolutely gorgeous.)
2. Ara: Untold Story (Reminded me of civilization at first, which is a good thing. But I am intrigued by the real time aspect of it). 
3. Indiana Jones and the Full Circle (This looks great. I want to see more before getting excited but so far it manages to be pretty loyal to the source.)

Only reason these 2 are lower is because we have seen footage of both of them before. We have seen a lot about Hellblade over the past few years and Visions of Mana was announced last year). 
4. Visions of Mana (I absolutely love the cute style of this game. I've never played the other games so I don't really know how to compare it but I am sold on it so far)
5. Hellblade II: Senua's Saga (I have been looking forward to this game for a long time. I'm excited we finally have a release date for it but I felt like this spotlight was more of the same. Admittedly, it's probably low on here too because I know I have to beat the first game...) 

1. Indy
2. Avowed
3. Visions of Mana
4. Hellblade 2
5. Ara

1. Hellblade- looks incredible
2. Avowed-looks incredible, looking forward to playing it.
3. Vision of Mana- looks good, I enjoy the series.
4. Indy -Looks good but something about it seems just a bit off graphically, I can't really put my finger on it.
5. Ara -doesn't look like a game I would enjoy.

Visions of Mana

I especially liked seeing the 'companion creature', given how iconic Flamie was in Secret of Mana.
At least from first impressions, it feels like several people involved give a shit since they bring in key members who worked on previous titles.

Secret of Mana was my first RPG, and I have very fond memories of playing that co-op. Hopefully that's possible in the new one as well.

The music was goated. Since they are bringing back people who worked on the previous soundtracks, I have high expectations for the new one.

Indiana Jones looks really good, I feel like I want to give it a try in the future.

1. Indiana Jones
2. Hellblade 2
3. Visions of Mana
4. Ara
5. Avowed.

The games look good. Just, considering how long we’ve had to wait for them I was hoping for something on a blow-your-socks-off level and for me it didn’t do that. I will be trying out Hellblade, Avowed and Indy on Game Pass. But I wouldn’t buy a console for any of them.

Yes considering it was announced all the way back in 2019 I'm especially surprised hellblade 2 is only going to be a budget 8-hour title. I think my expectations for Indie's budget was too high as well. IDK why I was expecting it to be a showcase high production value title for this generation. The titles look solid though we'll have to see when they come out. Ara is probably the one I expect most likely to not get a glowing reception, it looked ambitious but clunky.

1. Avowed
2. Indiana Jones
3. Hellblade 2
4. Ara
5. Vision of Mana

Indiana looked like the most enjoyable blockbuster experience out of them. Of course, it was gonna keep the Machine Games 1st person DNA. Could be interesting plot wise, but my guess is it's gonna be moreso a rethread of the first movie but in a different story.

Awoved has much to prove after Obsidian had a potentially cool but luck warm 1st outing with Outer Wilds. Gameplay lacked impact but could have interesting mechanics nonetheless. Of course, people the game will mostly fall on it's writing and the complexity of it's choices and the how to tackle them.

As for Ara Untold, you have to specifically be into the Civilization/Real Time Strategy genre. Don't know how it'll stand among it's peers.

Visions of Mana coming directly on Xbox but no Gamepass makes me wonder if they forked some budget for Square Enix to port it there, although not enough. Of maybe it's just a genuine try from SE to look for a public on Xbox.

There's no inherent problem for Hellblade II for its campaign to be about 6-8 hours considering it's lesser price and what the first game was about. Don't think they necessarily need to go better in all aspects. But it's probably the one game I'm the most puzzled about since most of it's marketing is just around the visuals of it mostly. I feel like the lack of gameplay portion points out to something that could be lacking there or simply similar to the first game.

Also digital only release like Alan Wake II makes me irk a good bit. It's one of their big release but they kinda make it as lesser than the marketing suggests it to be.

Anywoo, seems prep enough for the year at first glance.