It’s true that Rare largely struggled to produce compelling experiences since Microsoft’s acquisition in 2002, but one exception is Viva Pinata . A bizarre take on the life-simulation genre, Viva Pinata sees players raising and breeding living pinatas while completing a variety of objectives. Noted for its eye-catching art style and quirky humor, Viva Pinata spawned sequels and even its own television series. A new Viva Pinata could fill a niche on the Xbox Series X and appeal to the more casual gamers out th

Originally scheduled for a March 2020 release, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is an action RPG with enough elements of horror to fit the description. Set in the fictional World of Darkness, a group of rogue vampires has broken the masquerade and begun killing and turning humans throughout Seattle. Players take on the role of a newly turned vampire and must learn to control their new powers before joining one of the cities’ vampire groups. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is coming to PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X sometime in 2

E3 2019 has come to a close, and as usual, the event featured a staggering number of games on display, including some promising horror games. With no new Capcom announcement as was rumored, the horror genre was a bit underrepresented compared to previous years, but there were still quite a few impressive horror titles at the s

As Xbox rose to dominance in the Xbox 360 console generation, the console received so much third-party support that the number of first-party exclusives started a decline with Xbox having fewer of its own unique IP. By the time the current Xbox One generation came along, the lack of first-party support only seemed to increase. But in recent years, under the leadership of Phil Spencer, Xbox has acquired multiple studios to build out its exclusive Adventure game story guide portfolio. This should start paying off in the next Series X generat

Bug Fables is pretty solid in every aspect, but I will admit to some mild frustration due to the game’s dedication to being a Paper Mario tribute act. As a result of the flat style, sometimes the platforming and puzzle sections were a little awkward. Lining up certain jumps could be hard to gauge as the shadows under the characters were too light to reliably determine where I was going to land. This problem could be exacerbated if I was trying to go toward or away from the screen as the ground might not be fully visible due to the camera’s position. The side view of the game could also be a hindrance to solving puzzles as it would be hard to properly aim abilities like Vi’s Beemerang, which made some puzzles more annoying than they should have b

Just like Until Dawn featured some Hollywood star power, so too does The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan , with Shawn Ashmore playing one of the lead roles, alongside Pip Torrens. The first game in a new horror anthology series , The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan looks to deliver very similar gameplay to Until Dawn , but with a new ghost ship setting and a new cast of characters, it should still feel like a fresh experience when it launches on August

A next-gen Fable , sometimes referred to as Fable 4 in the absence of an official announcement, has been rumored for quite some time to be in development. With this year’s launch of Xbox’s next-gen offering with the Xbox Series X console, those rumors have naturally shifted to suggest that Fable would appear as a next-gen game if it is indeed in development at

As for the party management portion of the game, Bug Fables is pretty light when it comes to managing equipment and skills. Instead of individual levels, your entire team levels up as one unit. When you gain enough XP, you can then choose to upgrade your health, your Team Points (which is your MP), or give yourself more Medal Points so you can equip more medals. Medals are your main pieces of equipment as there’s no armor or weapons to worry about. These can give you buffs, status ailment resistances, or in some cases, even allow you to use new moves. The RPG mechanics aren’t very complex, but it leads to a streamlined experience that still forces you to strategize, as you can only equip a limited number of medals and carry a limited number of healing it

In an effort to create more Xbox console-exclusives, Microsoft has been on a spending spree of acquiring studios. Last year’s E3 saw Microsoft announce the acquisition of a number of studios, and we expect that trend to continue at E3 2019, especially with the news that Sony is also buying studios to bolster the PS5 first-party lineup. As for which studios Microsoft may announce it’s acquired at E3 2019, that’s less clear. The leaker that leaked the Microsoft E3 2019 press conference suggested that IO Interactive, Asobo, and Relic Entertainment are all potentially going to join Xbox Game Studios, but we’ll have to wait for E3 to be s

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer first teased the next-gen Xbox at E3 2018, and so it stands to reason that a more substantial look at the console could come at Microsoft’s E3 2019 press conference on June 9. If Microsoft does talk about the next-gen Xbox , it’s a safe bet that we will learn about the new console’s specs, and we may even get an official name for it as well. However, anyone hoping to see an actual physical console is probably a bit too optimistic, as something like that won’t be finalized until closer to launch, which many analysts predict will be November 2