Feature: Every Xbox Game We Played At Summer Game Fest 2024
Summer Game Fest has wrapped up, and what a spectacle it was this year! Thereâs still a lot of exciting stuff to discuss from the event over the next few weeks, but what exactly did Pure Xbox get up to while we were living it large in the LA sun?
Well, “living it large” might be a bit of an exaggeration. It was more like sweatily running back and forth from preview to preview, trying our best to absorb as many details as possible about the most anticipated games coming to Xbox over the next few years.
To share our experience, we’ve compiled a list of all the games coming to Xbox that we got to try out during Summer Game Festâs Play Days. Let’s go!
Note: We’ll be updating this list with all of our Summer Game Fest 2024 coverage as it’s published, so stay tuned!
Afterlove EP (October 2024)
Afterlove EP is a love letter to its creator, the late Mohammad Fahmi (the heart behind Coffee Talk). After such a profound loss, the future of Afterlove EP was uncertain. However the team at Pikselnesia is continuing to develop the game in honour of their friend..
Afterlove EP is a visual novel centred around a young man mourning losing his girlfriend. Heâs neglecting his health, his band âSigmund Feudâ, and is in clear need of support. Whilst weâd love to reach into the screen and give him a cuddle, we think heâll be okay. Why? Because his girlfriend returns in spirit form to help guide him through his grief.
We didnât get to play too much of Afterlove EP at Summer Game Fest, partly because itâs super text-heavy. We were complimented by the rep hosting the Play Days booth for âactually readingâ the dialogue though, which weâre obviously quite smug about. What we did manage to sit down with was full of heart, beautifully illustrated, and accompanied by a wonderful soundtrack. Weâre looking forward to playing more. And to also cry. A lot.
Black Myth: Wukong (Xbox TBD)
Black Myth: Wukong was the last stop on our Play Days tour – and our favourite! It really stings that it wonât be released on Xbox at launch, but we hope itâll be with us soon after.
Letâs be real: the two-hour-long Black Myth: Wukong demo we got hands-on with was phenomenal. The balance between action RPG and soulslike was perfectly balanced, and we felt epic taking on multiple boss fights. The action is relentless, punchy, and quite frankly gorgeous.
Things get a bit more interesting where Wukongâs stances are concerned as they alter his moveset. During our demo, we managed to sample two of the three stances on offer. We began in âSmashâ stance: a quick combination of moves that reward you for being aggressive by building up a focus meter to pull off heavy attacks. The second stance was made available to us once Wukong reached level five. Weâd like to think of the âPillarâ stance as the antagonising, cheeky sh** moveset. In âPillarâ stance, Wukong sits atop his staff. If youâre able to hold this position and build your focus meter, the staff gets longer, and longer, and looonger. This goads his enemies into range before unleashing a mega ground slam assault, practically one-tapping anyone caught under his staff. âPillarâ was our favourite stance. We found ourselves giggling as we squared up to foes perched safely atop our 20ft tall longstaff like some sort of immovable, heckling, arsehat.
Want to know more? You can check out our Black Myth: Wukong hands on preview elsewhere on Pure Xbox:
DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO (October 8, 2024)
Of all the games shown during Summer Game Festâs Play Days, DRAGON BALL: Sparkling! ZERO had one of the biggest crowd reactions. We heard fans and journalists practically roaring with excitement across the campus in anticipation of the long-awaited follow-up to the Budokai Tenkaichi series.
DRAGON BALL: Sparkling! ZERO made us feel in control of the much-beloved franchise. In Story Battle, we saw glimpses into alternate paths the anime could have taken. For example, ever wondered what wouldâve happened if Goku fought Raditz alone without Piccoloâs help? OoOoO, spicy. We also played a number of customer matches both as and against iconic characters from across the series. Our favourite was playing as Great Ape Vegeta against a helpless Krillin – resulting in us mercilessly smashing him through a fully destructible city.
Although we werenât too fussed, weâre positive fans of this storied fighting franchise will be eating good with this one.
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (TBD 2025)
If thereâs a genre of game to expose this writer as a âfake gamerâ then boy-oh-boy is it this one. The Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves PR folks were very kind to us as we fumbled through a 30-minute hands-on session with the fighting game. It meant we were able to leave feeling happy rather than hideously embarrassed.
Weâll double down by saying that this writer is no expert when it comes to fighting games⊠but listening to the crowd response during Fatal Furyâs trailer was certainly a memorable one. You fighting fans are hardcore, and we love it!
During our time with the game, we were able to sample two new characters: Preecha and Vox Reaper. Our favourite was Preecha – and we whacked the absolute willies out of Terry, Rock, and Marco. Honest, we did!*
(*Because we used the new âSmart Styleâ, which is practically stabilisers for poor fighters like Craig.)
Fear the Spotlight (Fall 2024)
Summer Game Festâs opening showcase may not have struck a chord with all of us, but we were very impressed by Blumhouse Gamesâ upcoming collection. Despite having 27 million sets of eyeballs watching as the curtains gave way to premiere Fear the Spotlight, we can confidently say they had nothing to fear. Us, however⊠well, thatâs a different story.
Feeling somewhat brave, we sat down with Fear the Spotlight for roughly 30 minutes. We played as Vivienna, a highschooler and bookworm who breaks into her school with rebel best pal Amy to perform a seance – wHaT cOuLd pOsSiBLy gO wRoNg?
We donât want to spoil the fun, but what we will say is the 90s tropes, VHS aesthetic, and Silent Hill-style puzzles are a perfectly blended combination. Fear the Spotlight avoids all of the old-school controller jank too. Oh, and most importantly, there was a moment in the demo that legitimately made us jump out of our skin. You have been warned!
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (July 19, 2024)
We werenât able to play as much of Xbox Game Pass’s Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess as weâd have liked at Summer Game Fest (see: standing booth, jelly legs, LA heat). That being said, it certainly made an impact.
Underneath its flamboyant colours and extravagance, Capcomâs upcoming action-strategy Kunitsu-Gami plays more closely to a hero tower-defense game. You play as Soh, a sword-wielding protector of the Maiden of the Mountain. The Maidenâs primary mission is to cleanse demons from the world⊠through dance!
Basically: during the day you set up your defences by placing villagers in immediate danger and move your dancing princess toward a cursed Torii gate. At night, this Torii gate spawns monsters in waves. Your mission is to slay âem all with the aid of your villager units. When the day comes around again, you can move your happy dancer to the gate and cleanse that sucker. If only all of lifeâs problems could be solved with a little jig. Sigh.
Marvel Rivals (Xbox Beta In July 2024)
Marvel Rivals draws a common comparison to hero-shooter Overwatch 2, and for good reason. We were big fans of the original Overwatch back in the day, but not so much interested in its latest offerings, finding the whole thing dull if weâre being completely honest. Turns out, the hero-shooter format isnât as stale as we thought because from what we played of a PC build of Marvel Rivals, this could well be the genreâs best chance to stay relevant.
Marvel Rivals looks and feels epic. With 21 playable characters spanning several Marvel IPs, the roster is definitely something to be excited about. Not to mention, NetEase have done a stellar job making everyone a bit hot. Yeah, Marvel Rivals has got the stuff.
We managed to play a couple of rounds with and against other user-controlled players, taking control of characters such as The Punisher, Starlord, Magik and even Magneto, all of which were satisfying to control. Whilst we do think some of the characters are slightly more overpowered than others, overall the game ran smooth and felt competitive.
Metaphor: Refantazio could well be something special, and not exclusively for fans of Shin Megami Tensei or Persona either. We parked our butt down in the SEGA/ATLUS tent for an impressive hour long demo of Metaphor: ReFantazio alongside our colleagues Zion and Alana from Nintendo Life.
The format of our demo was split into three sections that roughly took 15 minutes to complete. Craig being Craig, however, wanted to absorb every little detail of this demo as he could, and took advantage of the full hour.
We had a taste of Metaphorâs dungeon crawling and battles first. Immediately, the real-time combat felt like a natural evolution for these types of games, building on what Persona 3 Reload boasts. We picked a fair few fights in this real-time scenario, hitting our prey a few times before they became stunned and ready for us to finish the creatures off in turn-based battles. Metaphor: ReFantazio introduces an action cap on how many moves you can make per turn, instead of the traditional âeveryone gets a goâ style combat. It definitely changed things up, and whilst HP/MP and all that jazz is still the same, deciding who will attack this turn did make for an interesting dynamic.
We could go on to tell you everything thatâs new and different in Metaphor: ReFantazio, and we will in due time, but to keep things relatively brief; we found the game to be wholly familiar but fresh in more ways than the one. Weâre big fans of how the game portrays a reality similar to ours as fantasy, and compares the magical realm of Metaphor to standard living. Oh, and going to the toilet in the game increased our luck. Now that was a fun callback.
Neva (TBD 2024)
We didnât have âcrying at Summer Game Festâ on our bingo card this year. But honestly, what did we think was going to happen when we stepped foot into Devolverâs Neva booth? As huge fans of Nomada Studiosâ inaugural GRIS, Neva was up there as one of our most anticipated games to play during SGF Play Days. GRIS had us in tears from start to finish, making a lasting impression on us, and it feels like Neva is likely to do the same.
Before we took control of striking red-caped wolf-mummy Alba, an extended version of that heart wrenching reveal trailer set the mood. And for 45 minutes we were going to make damn sure that our sweet baby Neva was going to be the safest wolf pup in all of the land.
What we liked was this is clearly a story about the wolf, Neva, and not so much Alba. She already starts the game with all of her abilities, like a double jump and competence in battle. In this way, Neva felt polished and perfect to play and blasting our way through the demo felt natural and compelling.
Weâd like to say more about Neva, and we will once Craig puts together a full preview.
New World: Aeternum (September 28, 2024)
Amazonâs flagship MMO has been lurking around on PC for a good three years now. We were there when it first launched in 2021, chopping trees, buying houses and slaying skellies with friends in tow. New World was a decent enough time. But as the months came to pass, unfortunately, so did our interest in the game. In its defence, itâs not entirely New Worldâs fault – other games just came out, and like the magpie this writer is, he saw something shiny and moved on.
The Amazon booth was our first port of call during Summer Game Fest Play Days and weâll admit our interest wasnât much to write home about. However, once we were sitting down, controller in hand and playing the game, New World: Aeternum was a really pleasant experience.
As this is essentially New World relaunching itself onto console, weâre sure itâll find a new audience on Xbox. The onboarding experience has been tweaked enough to make New World: Aeternum feel fresh for returning players too. But our biggest compliment was actually forgetting we originally played New World with mouse & keyboard, and having to actively notice we were holding a controller speaks to how thoughtfully this port has been handled.
Parcel Corps (September 3, 2024)
Picture this; Itâs a warm summerâs day in London. Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio Future bump into each other on their way to start their new job as an Amazon Prime delivery driver. The two of âem hit it off and 24 years later out pops their love child, Parcel Corps. Need we say more?
Although we played roughly 15 minutes of the game due to a mix-up with appointments, we sat down with the gameâs creator William Barr to whack, crash and smack into oncoming traffic as probably the worst cycling delivery guy on the planet. But it was a lot of fun, and William gifted us a tiny cycling cap as a reward for our efforts.
Parcel Corps is a free-flowing cycling game making its way to Xbox Series X|S this September. Whilst we didnât get too much time with the game at Summer Game Fest Play Days, there is in fact a demo available on Steam right now.
REPLACED (TBD 2024)
REPLACED is a 2.5D action-platformer from Sad Cat Studios, a game thatâs been on our wishlist ever since it was announced at E3 (RIP) in 2021. The demo we sat down with was another split into three sections; a cutscene heavy introduction, side-quests and mini-games, then finally an action packed finale.
Whilst we were sad our Xbox Game Showcase prediction for REPLACED to receive a proper release date this year did not come true, that sorrow quickly dissipated once we sampled the delights tucked within – not one, but two – 30-minute demo slots we rocked up for.
REPLACED is a gritty story following an incident that forces an A.I to take control of their creatorâs body and mind. In the beginning we see R.E.A.C.H (said A.I) running from a burning building whilst in hot pursuit by cops. The first section felt quite familiar to the opening of Playdeadâs INSIDE. Not in its subject matter, but more in the way it played out.
The combat section of the demo was certainly a highlight for us. With waves of enemies launching a mix of attacks for you to dodge and counter. REPLACEDâs combat plays like most games these days, but that’s not to say it made it any less enjoyable.
We genuinely loved what we played, and although the game still needs some time in the oven to iron out some kinks, itâs definitely one to be excited about if these types of games are your jam. It’s also an Xbox Game Pass title!
Star Wars: Outlaws (August 30, 2024)
Alright, letâs just get stuck into Star Wars: Outlaws shall we? Of course, we have the internet and have seen thereâs a few negative feelings towards Ubisoftâs planet=hopping space opeâRPG (that pun worked right? Opera + RPGâŠno? Okay, fine) but weâll just come out and say it, we liked what we played of the game.
We were invited to the Belasco Hotel for a hands-on demo with Star Wars: Outlaws and although it felt cookie cutter in a lot of ways, itâs a Star Wars open world game! As big fans of the Star Wars franchise we thought it was freaking cool! We adored the soundtrack, Kay Vess is an awesome lead, and we particularly enjoyed a couple of silly fuzzy rabbit-like creatures scurrying around on the floor. Weâll admit they have nothing to do with how good the game is to play, but we liked them and thatâs all that matters at the end of the day.
Our demo was split into three sections – the first; to destroy data aboard an Imperial space station. The second; to navigate our way through the wreckage of an ancient High Republic cruiser. And the third; to infiltrate a Crimson Dawn syndicate hideout and steal a priceless relic. We sampled a taste of stealth, hectic combat, outer space dog fighting (the ship kind), and the platforming aspects of the game.
For the most part, it was serviceable with familiar gameplay tropes like an active reload on weapons, its own take on Red Dead Redemptionâs Dead Eye ability, and a handy merqaa companion in Nix. We did have an issue with the rough edges surrounding its platforming, but it was fun. Ubisoft were serving this weird âblue milkâ as part of the whole experience, maybe there was something in it, we donât know, but we found the game quite enjoyable.
SteamWorld Heist II (August 8, 2024)
We canât say too much about our hands-on time with SteamWorld Heist II right now. We can say that weâve played it, itâs real, and from what weâve seen in trailers already it looks really good.
Fans of the SteamWorld franchise are sure to get a kick out of this one when it launches August 8th on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles (including as part of Xbox Game Pass!). Keep your eye on Pure Xbox though⊠we’re sure weâll say somethingâŠsometime⊠soonishâŠmaybe.
Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of The Ringsâą Game (TBD 2024)
Tales of the Shire is an upcoming cosy Hobbit game from New Zealand developer WÄtÄ Workshop. When we first caught wind of Tales of the Shire back in April, our first thought was how great of an idea it was to take an existing IP and develop a game in a genre it didn’t occupy yet. Lord of the Rings has seen many titles pop up in the action category, so we were happy to hear our Hobbit pals could live a free and peaceful life away from conflict in Tales of the Shire.
We played a 30-minute demo of the game and were intrigued by how big of an emphasis it puts on the Hobbits’ love for food. Whilst the simple act of running has been replaced by a gleeful skip, thereâs certainly no skipping second breakfast in this game.
We conversed with the locals of Bywater village, collected fresh ingredients and cooked food for a couple of familiar names. Tales of the Shire is simply a wonderfully peaceful way to spend your time and is something weâd love to do again soon.
The Plucky Squire (TBD 2024)
Out of all the games we nabbed an appointment for, All Possible Futuresâ The Plucky Squire was the game we felt like we needed to play during SGF Play Days.
The Plucky Squire oozes a level of creativity and charm that we rarely see outside of well established franchises like Zelda, Mario, and Astro Bot. For 45 minutes we were engaged, smiling and thoroughly enjoying our hands on time with the upcoming family adventure.
Weâd be remiss to not mention that The Plucky Squire clearly draws inspiration from the Legend of Zelda franchise, namely âZelda: A Link Between Worldsâ in which Link was able to slip his way into walls and paintings. Having played through a number of Linkâs adventures ourselves, The Plucky Squireâs gameplay felt familiar, natural and transferable.
Sounds good right? You can check out our Plucky Squire hands on preview elsewhere on Pure Xbox:
Which of these Summer Game Fest 2024 titles are you most looking forward to for Xbox? Tell us below.
