Oh my gosh, the funniest thing happened at work yesterday afternoon. It’s been super busy for the past few weeks, and I’ve been pretty much glued to my computer screen from the time I walk in until the time I head out. Anywho, when I have to keep track of a lot of things, I[Continue reading...]
You wouldn’t think that a twist-up eyeliner would be that much different from a regular pencil liner that you sharpen. They’re both eyeliners, right? And technically both do the same thing, aka lining one’s eyes. Buuuuuuut ever since I joined the ranks of beauty lovers who only apply makeup under extreme circumstances, aka the five[Continue reading...]
So…what is the Monday Poll? Excellent question! It isn’t, contrary to its name, an actual poll, like with little clicky buttons. It’s just a list of more or less random questions I’ve been posting on this blog every Monday morning for the past quadrillion years (since 2007). 1. Outdoor concert or outdoor movie? Um, neither[Continue reading...]
As you know, cats have been strong supporters of the U.S. Armed Forces since before the American Revolution, providing logistical “lurvy” support to service members, veterans and their families, as well as providing volunteer pest control on bases and naval vessels. A few years ago, before his departure from this earthly plane, Tabs designed and[Continue reading...]
Hiya! Connor has the last of her dance performances for the school year this weekend, so chances are I’m doing dance mom things as you read this. 🙂 I’ve probably mentioned this before, but where I live in the Bay Area, you’ll often see lots of wildlife roaming about. Case in point, I was coming[Continue reading...]
Together We Thrive: Celebrating the Joy of the LGBTQIA+ Community in Gaming
Team Xbox
Summary
The Trevor Project and the Gaming Safety team are partnering to create a safer, more inclusive gaming community.
Explore Games Curated by LGBTQIA+ Communities at Microsoft.
Discover Pride Gear.
Games can be a powerful medium to express and explore one’s identity in a creative and safe environment. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind allows players to romance and marry characters regardless of their gender. Overwatch features openly LGBTQIA+ characters, such as Tracer, who is heroic, strong, and prominently featured in the game. Tell Me Why tells the story of Tyler, a transgender man, with sensitivity and depth. Games can be a powerful way to explore identities within the safety of creative play while enabling all players to experience new perspectives that may be different from their own.
This Pride month, we invite you to join us on this journey of learning, growing, and thriving. Gaming is for everyone, and together, we can work towards creating a gaming community that is welcoming to everyone and is inclusive of people with a wide range of perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. That meaningful work is achieved through people impacting others through education, appreciating the lived experiences of others and building empathy with members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
We believe it’s important to support organizations that uplift, empower, and address the needs of the LGBTQIA+ community. In the last 30 years, together with our employees, Microsoft has donated over $16M to organizations that support the LGBTQIA+ community, and in the last year alone, we donated over $1.3M. This year Xbox, along with Microsoft, is thrilled to continue these efforts with a $200K contribution to multiple organizations supporting the LGBQTIA+ community to help inspire conversations, rally community actions, and empower people to share their Pride.
Additionally, Xbox Game Studios Publishing is proud to continue partnering with GLAAD to produce more inclusive games from conception to design to development. Xbox is partnering with The Trevor Project to help connect LGBTQIA+ players with valuable resources that help support well-being and safety as they play within the Xbox community. Every player has a unique story, and we look forward to future projects where people across the rainbow spectrum may experience the same empowerment. Read on to learn more about how we are celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community this month and beyond:
GIVE
Spotlighting Xbox’s partnership with The Trevor Project
Gaming has long been a source of fun, community, and self-expression for the LGBTQIA+ community. According to GLAAD, LGBTQIA+ gamers are 24% more likely to use gaming as a support to help get them through tough times – with 66% of LGBTQIA+ players sharing that gaming allows them to express themselves in a way they don’t feel comfortable doing in the real world.
This impact is not lost on us. At Xbox, we are committed to creating gaming experiences that are welcoming for all players, and that includes providing a safe and inclusive space where everyone can be their authentic selves.
That’s why we’re proud to spotlight Xbox’s standing partnership with The Trevor Project, a U.S. nonprofit that provides lifesaving and life-affirming services to LGBTQIA+ young people. Since 2019, Xbox and its safety teams have been partnering with The Trevor Project to connect players with resources to support their well-being and ensure they feel safe and welcome when they play on Xbox.
In the spirit of Pride, we want to share the following safety tips to help players get the most out of their gaming experience:
Explore your user settings. Xbox offers settings that allow players choice in how they play. Players can select whether to make their friends list visible, choose to receive messages from people who aren’t friends, or block content they don’t wish to view.
Take comfort in knowing Xbox has your back. To support the broader player-base and LGBTQIA+ community, we take player safety seriously. This includes:
In-game reporting tools to help players flag issues of inappropriate behavior or content. Xbox invests in 24/7 coverage globally to help respond to and investigate reports.
Moderation tools that work across text, images video and voice, to block harmful content before it reaches players.
Access to automatic text filters, which empowers players to customize their gaming experience and decide what content is not okay to receive – these filters automatically block content before it reaches the player.
Continuing to create proactive measures to block hate speech and invest in technologies to help moderate potentially toxic communications, while allowing individual expression.
Gaming and Impact with Rewards with Xbox
Rewards members in the United States can earn and donate points to organizations supporting LGBTQIA+ communities with Xbox. The organizations below will be available on the Rewards hub:
GLAAD: Founded in 1985, GLAAD – the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization – works with television, film, video games, Spanish-language media, journalists, and social media to tell stories and consult on LGBTQ media representation. GLAAD tackles tough issues and provokes dialogue that leads to cultural change through increased media accountability, public campaigns, corporate engagement initiatives, and advocacy programs that help to ensure 100% inclusion and acceptance of the LGBTQ community. (US)
Outright International: Outright International is dedicated to working with partners around the globe to strengthen the capacity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) human rights movement, document and amplify human rights violations against LGBTIQ people, and advocate for inclusion and equality. (US)
National Center for Transgender Equality: The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) advocates to change policies and society to increase understanding and acceptance of transgender and non-binary people. In the nation’s capital and throughout the country, NCTE works to replace disrespect, discrimination, and violence with empathy, opportunity, and justice. (US)
Xbox players can earn Rewards points in various ways, such as playing games, completing Game Pass Quests, and purchasing games and other eligible items at the Microsoft Store (exclusions apply). Start earning todayand redeem your points for great rewards. Donate your points on the Rewards hub or on the Rewards redeem page.
PLAY
Tell Me Why Available for Free in June on Xbox Consoles, Microsoft Store, and Steam!
Tell Me Why, the award-winning narrative adventure from Don’t Nod Entertainment and Xbox Game Studios Publishing, will be available for free on Xbox consoles, Windows PC, and Steam for the entire month of June 2024. As in past years, the Tell Me Why team encourages players to give what they would have spent on Tell Me Why to an independent trans creator or a trans-inclusive charity in their community.
Explore Games Curated by LGBTQIA+ Communities at Microsoft
Xbox invites you to play with pride.
During June and beyond, check out a variety of game collections that showcase LGBTQIA+ creators, lead characters, and games with inclusive gender and relationship options. Available on the Microsoft Stores on Xbox and Windows, check out the transgender and non-binary community games collection and the LGBTQIA+ community games collection. These collections will exist year-round as part of our ongoing work to create more inclusive gaming ecosystems and elevate content that resonates with communities. For Xbox Game Pass members, explore what games are available to play in the Xbox Game Pass collection and the PC Game Pass collection.
Featured titles within the collections include:
Need for Speed Unbound (Available with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on Console, PC, and Cloud) – Need for Speed Unbound’s character creator allows for multiple gender expressions via clothing, hair, and voice options that aren’t limited to the gender binary. The game also features racing rival, Justicia, a trans woman voiced by trans actress, Sena Bryer, in addition to including LGBTQIA+ iconography in the streets and as decals for your cars.
Starfield (Available with Xbox Game Pass on Console, PC, and Cloud) – In this role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey. Starfield boasts an impressive character creation tool with multiple body types, skin tones, hairstyles, non-gendered features, and they/them pronoun options. Exploration options include pursuing romantic relationships regardless of gender.
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (Available on Console) – Play as star and stagehand as you determine the story through conversation and song in this video game for musical lovers. Written by the iconic and openly gay narrative designer, David Gaider, you’ll craft not only a unique narrative, but a soundtrack to your own musical experience based on your choices. Forge your own story and decide who to romance.
The Quarry (Available with Xbox Game Pass on Console and Cloud) – Play solo or in a group of friends as any of nine camp counselors in this thrilling cinematic experience that leads down a tangled web of possibilities based on your choices. Enjoy a night of fun before a party quickly turns into an unpredictable night of horror and your relationships are tested by unimaginable life-or-death decisions.
This Bed We Made (Available on Console) – Chloe Lussier, CEO and co-founder of Lowbirth Games, wants to tell impactful stories that feature unconventional heroes. Set in the 1950s, the story that unfolds in This Bed We Made is tied to real history when being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community was criminalized. Step into the role of Sophie, an indiscreet chambermaid at a hotel filled with secrets, in this third-person mystery narrative game that explores the lengths people have had to go to pursue loving relationships as their authentic self.
Celebrate Pride in Forza Horizon 5
This year’s Pride-themed Xbox art will be added to Forza Horizon 5 as a vinyl: an in-game decal that you can use to customize any car. Show off this unique design on your car using #ForzaRainbow on social media for a chance to be featured! (The vinyl will be available starting June 7 from the Forza Horizon accounts on Instagram and X.)
Overwatch 2 Celebrates Pride with In-Game Map and Calling All Heroes
Overwatch 2 celebrates Pride this month with the return of a fan-favorite map and Calling All Heroes. All month long, the Pride festival returns to Overwatch 2’s Midtown map. Players can look forward to playing on this map as they queue for Unranked and Competitive games and directly in a dedicated play card on the Arcade. Calling All Heroes is Overwatch 2’s competitive Esports series that provides an inclusive environment to aspiring competitors of marginalized genders, including those who present themselves as Trans, Non-Binary, and Genderqueer. This competition returned last weekend, and everyone who tunes in at twitch.tv/ow_esportswill be able to earn new drops like the new Monarch Venture skin.
DISCOVER
Xbox Gear Shop
Show your love and support for Pride 2024 with our new limited-edition t-shirts, hoodies and more – designed by and with the LGBTQIA+ communities. Get your Pride gear now!
Celebrate Pride with the new 2024 Pride Collection exclusively on the Blizzard Gear Store! Led through the Blizzard LGBT+ Employee Network, the Blizzard Pride Collection features Pride-themed apparel benefitting The Trevor Project from May 15 through June 30, 2024.
Explore Xbox’s Kingdom of Color
In celebration of Pride, the Xbox logo was reimagined as a crystal radiating with power at the top of a magic staff. The storybook-inspired image also includes a castle with festive rainbow banners and fireworks. The artist, who is part of the LGBTQIA+ community, imagines the Kingdom of Color as a place where people who identify as LGBTQIA+ rule and the magic of Pride is spread to every corner of the realm. Right from the pages of a leather-bound book filled with colorful art and calligraphy text, this image evokes not only familiar stories of dragons, knights, and wizards, but launches those stories into a more inclusive future in which all players find their magic.
Xbox Ambassadors Celebrate Pride 2024
The Xbox Ambassadors Program is celebrating Pride by spotlighting members of the Xbox Ambassadors community who responded to a recent survey about their experiences as gamers.Read the Xbox Ambassadors blog to hear community members sharing their favorite memories playing video games, recommending games that do a good job representing LGBTQIA+ people and experiences, and offering tips on how to stay safe when gaming online.
Pride Dynamic Background and Wallpaper Available Now
The Pride Month Xbox design is available today as an Xbox wallpaper and dynamic background on console – follow these steps to apply the dynamic background:
Press the Xbox button on your controller to open the guide.
Select Profile & system > Settings > General > Personalization > My background > Dynamic backgrounds.
You can choose between Games, Xbox, or Abstract dynamic backgrounds. Choose the background art that you want with the A button.
Radical Joy with Microsoft
In the face of adversity, existence itself can be resistance and spark change. This Pride, LGBTQIA+ people at Microsoft share the meaning of joy and invite everyone to spread acceptance, abundance, and harmony everywhere. Join us and discover more at Microsoft.com/pride.
Welcome to Next Week on Xbox! This weekly feature highlights all the games arriving soon on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows, and Game Pass. Discover more about these forthcoming titles below and explore their profiles for additional information (note that release dates may be subject to change). Let’s dive in!
The Final Shape looms. A nightmarish calcification of reality into the Witness’s twisted design. Embark on a perilous journey into the heart of the Traveler, rally the Vanguard, and end the War of Light and Darkness. For the first time ever, Prismatic empowers you to combine Arc, Solar, Void, Stasis, and Strand into a custom subclass of your design. Light and Darkness have no quarrel within you, Guardian.
Downward will let you set off on humanity’s final adventure, to seek out an explanation for the apocalypse that changed the Earth as we know it. Taking advantage of parkour techniques and of the mysterious power you are given, you will traverse astonishing and dangerous ruins of past civilizations, all to find the legendary artifacts meant to control the deadly calamities that came to this world.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game is an asymmetrical multiplayer horror based on the iconic ‘80s film. In the battle between Killer Klowns and citizens of Crescent Cove, team up and use your wits to harvest humans or save them from the alien invasion!
Available on day one with Game Pass! Serve up sushi as a robot chef in Rolling Hills, a life sim about running your own restaurant in a cozy village. Make new friends, purchase ingredients, enhance your shop, and improve the lives of your neighbors as you perfect your craft! Playable on Cloud, Console, and PC.
Take the role of President or Prime Minister in one of ten countries. You will then govern the country as you see fit, while trying to retain enough popularity to get re-elected. Democracy 4: Console Edition is the ultimate sandbox for testing out your political ideas. We all think that we could do a better job ourselves in running a country compared to politicians, but is that really true
You’re a representative of Craft & Co selling automated fabrication tools across the galaxy when your spacecraft crashes into a hostile planet. Now you’ll have to build the strongest defenses if you wish to escape from it. Use the tools you sell and the local resources to build up all of what you’ll need to survive and eventually be able to escape the planet.
What is a recklessly adventurous kid to do when he ends up stuck between life and death? In Ghost Teen Escape from Limbo, you’ll have to exploit your ghost form to solve a multitude of tricky platforming puzzles if there’s any hope of returning to your home amongst the living. Explore 50 single-screen puzzles in black-and-white 2D pixel art style.
Embark on an epic pixelated adventure in Run & Jump Guy, a classic platformer featuring three unique locations: Island, Snowy Forest, and Castle. Face diverse enemies and conquer challenging obstacles as you journey through each level. Prepare for an epic showdown against a formidable boss waiting at the end.
Experience the thrill of adventure and put to the test your climbing and platforming skills in Grappin, the first-person adventure game that takes you to new heights. After a mysterious awakening, you discover the Grip, an artifact that serves as your grappling hook. Your mission is clear: return the Grip to the Grip Shrine, located at the summit of the highest mountain.
Race against players from all over the world in the new Criterium multiplayer mode. Take part in online races with up to 6 players and execute your strategy to win the race. Create a team of 2 riders from over 900 professional cyclists available and choose your rider outfit.
Inspired by classic action movies, The Hong Kong Massacre places you at the center of a hard-boiled revenge story, filled with brutal, cinematic shootouts and vivid underworld locations. Take on the role of a former police detective bent on exacting vengeance for his partner’s murder and use of a mixture of raw firepower, slow-motion and dive/dodge mechanics to tear your way through the criminal ranks.
Footage style first-person game where you’re a journalist who returns to his country in search of answers about the death of his mother. This investigation will lead him to discover his origin in a place far from the world where terror lurks.
The original Rider’s Spirits was first released in 1994 exclusively in Japan. Now this timeless racing classic is finally available worldwide for the first time! Choose from an array of wacky racers, each with their own unique attributes, and show off your riding skills. And if things get ugly, use all kind of crazy items in order to get advantage and be the first one to cross the finishing line!
A hidden object game with musical elements. Each hidden character found unlocks a new musical instrument inside each game’s level. Thus, you’ll be able to create your own songs as you find cute little dogs hidden by beautiful 2D cartoon backgrounds.
After 13 Years, Test Drive Unlimited Makes its Grand Return
Romain Ledig, Product Manager, Nacon
Test Drive Unlimited launched on Xbox 360 in 2006. At the time, it revolutionized the open-world multiplayer racing genre. Set on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, the map offered a variety of landscapes, roads, and locations to explore. A focus on multiplayer aspects made a significant impact: for the first time, players experienced exploring an open world together, driving their favorite cars.
For 13 years, racers have eagerly awaited the return of a franchise that captivated a generation of passionate fans. But this isn’t about tapping into nostalgia, the teams at Nacon and Kylotonn are rekindling the excitement that made the Test Drive games so iconic over a decade ago. It’s a tribute to everything that made the series legendary while (excuse the pun) reinventing the wheel with the introduction of new features and improvements to enrapture a new (and old) generation of petrolheads.
We’re excited to reveal here that Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is set to launch on September 12, 2024 and that pre-orders are live on Xbox Series X|S.
It was Test Drive Unlimited 2 that built on the foundations laid by its predecessor, adding a dynamic weather system and a day-night cycle. The addition of a new island, Ibiza, included expansion to social interactions, with new ways for players to interact and connect, and where friendships were formed over friendly competition. The social aspect enhanced immersion, turning the second installment into a true lifestyle-oriented racing game.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is a new frontier for massively multiplayer online open-world racing games. We’ve fully replicated the island of Hong Kong, recreated at a 1:1 scale. This technical feat took the team three years to achieve. It’s also far more than a neon-lit cityscape, brimming with unique places to explore. Yes, you’ll drift around small alleys and race along highways, but there are also various mountains, beaches and other places to take your driving off-road.
Rediscover the iconic elements that made Test Drive Unlimited iconic in Solar Crown. While exploring a vast open world, shopping in real dealerships, putting your own touch on your vehicles and avatar via extensive customization options and competing against players across the world. Just like the original games, these features can be enjoyed solo or with other players. The open world, dealerships, garages, races, and clan HQs are all interconnected social hubs, where players meet through their avatars and cars.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is much more than a return after 13 years; it’s the highly anticipated sequel to a franchise that marked an entire generation of players. It’s a love letter to the franchise’s rich DNA, while introducing a new map, and providing a high-quality visual and auditory experience.
Pre-order Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown now and experience the ultimate lifestyle & racing adventure starting September 12, 2024.
Humanityis available now for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and with Xbox Game Pass / PC Game Pass.
Solve puzzles and help the rogue AI restore humanity.
Keep these essential tips in mind to get the most out of saving humankind.
Humanity is an action-puzzle game that puts you in the role of a Shiba Inu trying to rebuild mankind after its destruction at the hands of a rogue AI, and it launches today on Xbox. If you’ve got Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass, you can download and play right now! If you’re not yet familiar with Humanity, check our announcement Xbox Wire post here.
When you’ve got a job as big as single-handedly (paw-edly?) saving the human race, you could probably use a few pointers. We’ve got you covered. Here are seven tips to ensure you start off on the right foot—er, paw.
1. Fixing Your Flow
In each Humanity stage, you place commands on the ground to direct the humans over obstacles and solve puzzles to get them into a goal. The goals fill with light as humans stream into them. But sometimes, you may notice a goal isn’t filling or only fills partially. This means you need a bigger flow of humans to trigger it. Check your route and make sure no people are straying off the path and that you have a steady number walking in.
2. Don’t Worry About Losing Some Humans
Humanity‘s story takes place in a hub area called the Testing Grounds, with AI “Cores” running experiments to rebuild mankind. The humans you lead are made of light—so when they perish, they turn back into light and walk through the door again. So don’t feel bad when you (inevitably!) lose a few to cliffs or falling blocks or weapons. The only human-shaped characters you should be worried about losing are the bonus Goldy, which unlock game progression, cosmetics, and more. And for them, consider…
3. Putting Your Humans in a Holding Pattern
The never-ending, always forward-moving line of people doesn’t need to be stressful. If theme parks have taught us anything, putting humans in a queue can save everyone from headaches. Make the queue work for you by directing the humans into a circular or back-and-forth pattern when you need to temporarily hold something safely. It’s perfect for ensuring you don’t lose any bonus Goldy mid-stage.
4. Use Diving for Quick Traversal and Higher Jumps
At the end of the game’s Prologue, you learn a very important technique—diving. When you hit the jump button in mid-air, you’ll dive into the horde of humans and can traverse among them as if they were water. It’s a great way to travel around stages quickly, but there’s a more advanced trick to it. You can use momentum as you emerge from a dive (pressing jump again) to jump higher than you normally can. This allows you to scale walls that are three blocks high with ease.
5. Make Use of Retry Keep Commands
Not long into Story Mode you’ll unlock the ability to Retry a stage but keep the commands you’ve already laid down in place. It’s called Retry Keep Commands, and it’s maybe the most important option when you’re puzzling out a route for the humans to take. Because if you realize you’ve made a mistake that there’s no time to correct, you can simply reset the flow of humans with Retry Keep Commands and make fixes (you can also optionally use Retry Clear Commands to clear the stage entirely).
6. Stuck? Check the Solution Video
Humanity is a puzzle game; sometimes you might need a hint—a push in the right direction. We didn’t want you to get stuck on a puzzle. Select Solution Video from the pause menu and watch as much or as little of the clip as you want. It won’t spoil how to get the Goldy though. That’s up to you!
7. Want More Humanity? Play Thousands of User-Made Stages
Here’s one of the biggest tips of all. If you love a particular type of puzzle in Humanity or just want to play more even after you finish the story, go to Play Stages from the title screen. Here, you’ll find playlists of user-made levels—almost 10,000 have already been uploaded. Each stage even indicates how difficult it is so you can find stages that meet you at your puzzling skill level. You can search by specific puzzle types and sort by the highest-rated, clear rate, or newest uploads. For launch, we have a specially selected playlist of stages inspired by Xbox.
And there you have it, seven essential tips to get the very best experience from Humanity. It’s available right now on Xbox, and with Game Pass and PC Game Pass. Best of luck saving mankind!!
A unique blend of puzzle-solving and action-platforming, HUMANITY puts the fate of all mankind in your hands. Er, paws. Did we mention you’re a dog?
You are a Shiba Inu charged with commanding massive, marching crowds to jump, turn, push, float, shoot, and climb their way to salvation. Guide the masses through 90-plus stages filled with obstacles, enemies, puzzles, unlockable skills, and wild boss fights in the narrative campaign, or browse a wide array of user-made levels (or build your own!) crafted via the super easy-to-use in-game Stage Creator.
Whether on your standard display or in the (PC only) optional VR Mode, watch as breathtaking swarms of people follow your commands to the exit, all in HUMANITY’s stark iconic style, courtesy of director and celebrated visual designer Yugo Nakamura and famed game creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Rez Infinite, Tetris Effect: Connected).
Pocket Stables, which is available for pre-order today, is a game where you can raise your very own racehorse. If you are a horse racing fan, you have probably dreamed of owning a racehorse. In this game, you are the owner and rancher, and you can produce everything from facilities and training methods to jockeys and horse breeding.
Aiming for a Fantastic Farm
Improved facilities are also essential for the training of racehorses. In addition to training facilities, you should also develop facilities for tourists visiting your ranch. If the ranch becomes an attractive tourist destination, funds and other resources for raising racehorses will increase.
Feel the Release and Excitement of Victory
This game is packed with not only the excitement of sports, but also a relaxing element.
The colorful scenery of the ranch and the sight of horses and trainers training together will leave you feeling enriched. Also, it will be exciting to see the racehorses you have worked so hard on win the race!
Raise your dream Triple Crown horse with your own hands and reach the pinnacle of glory.
Pocket Stables will be available on Xbox from June 6, 2024. Pre-order the game today!
Manage a ranch while training your racehorses to race for a Triple Crown.
Manage your very own ranch while training your racehorses to win big in exciting races!
Build training facilities like dirt courses and pools amidst the beautiful natural surroundings of your ranch. Increase your ranch's fame and entice visitors to spend some dough at your ranch's amenities, like ice cream stands and gift shops.
Find horses with the right combination of stamina and speed and intensity and train them to race. Keep winning races to earn bigger and better prizes, as well as the ability to compete in even bigger and more exciting races on an international scale.
Send once-great racehorses out to stud. Find effective pedigree combinations and breed a new generation of talented colts.
Can you train a Triple Crown winner and bring fame and glory to your ranch?
How NetherRealm Studios Methodically Designed Homelander for Mortal Kombat 1
Summary
Designer Joe Epstein shares the diligent work the team at NetherRealm Studios did to bring Homelander to Mortal Kombat 1 on Xbox Series X|S.
“Does this feel like Homelander?” was a key tenet throughout the creative process.
Homelander will be available on June 4, 2024, as part of the early access period for Mortal Kombat 1 Kombat Pack owners on Xbox Series X|S, followed by wide availability on June 11.
I joined NetherRealm Studios not knowing what I’d be working on. So, first morning, I was stunned to learn what felt like everything at once about Mortal Kombat 1. And I was beyond excited to work on Homelander as an upcoming guest fighter.
I’ve often recommended “The Boys” by claiming Homelander as one of the great characters in modern fiction. If Butcher is Ahab and The Boys his Pequod, Homelander makes a helluva white whale. Through the monstrous indulgence across each aspect of the character, from the writing to costuming to the performance above all, Homelander becomes a blank canvas for any interpretation you like. This includes the obvious ones the show invites; he’s wearing stars and stripes, after all. You can draw a line from the groundbreaking superhero deconstruction in “Watchmen” to the terminal cynicism of “The Boys.” Both stories repurpose archetypes of prior eras to ask some unsettling questions. Which is more likely, that a real costumed vigilante would be a heroic idealist, or a net danger to others? Would Superman worry about gauzy American values, or about the stock price of the research conglomerate that made him?
So, I’m happy to go book-club with Homelander, but that isn’t what got us in the door. We’re here because Homelander is awesome, great, and terrible, in the way a nova or rogue wave or H-bomb has those qualities. He is the merciless last boss of a story with no credible heroes in sight. That’s what punches our ticket. Later, we can see he’s lonely, juvenile, and tortured, despite unmatchable powers… that he’s, if not sympathetic, at least understandable. Few people would choose the life that made him so strong but so cruel. And what better fit could there be for Mortal Kombat, a hard-edged universe where we sometimes half-joke there are no good guys?
After careful preparation, we began work. Nailing tone was key. “Does this feel like Homelander?” Was our guiding-light question applied to everything: poses, movement, sound effects, facial expressions, hand gestures, even the set of a shoulder or angle of a dangling foot. Homelander’s central emotion is a bottomless contempt, which he struggles to hide for the sake of appearance. Watching that mask slip is the show’s core tension (and most perverse joy), and we strove to maintain that here.
And that’s before we get into his arsenal. It’s an amusing task translating Homelander into a game like Mortal Kombat 1 – in “The Boys,” he’s so strong that few encounters actually become fights, so there aren’t many direct attack pose references. This of course was not a problem developing his Fatalities and Brutalities. Homelander carelessly dispatches most would-be attackers with a laser-eye flicker or casual neck-snapping. Even against other ‘supes,’ he usually deters futile confrontations by merely enkindling his eyes or waving a hand. With few exceptions we won’t spoil, Homelander lacks credible foes, and he knows it. So, we leaned heavily on the fighting references that do exist, laying the foundation of his kit with the haymakers he uses in the show’s most intense battles. We pepper in his disdain with some slapping and shoving attacks, more insulting techniques than a Lin Kuei or Shirai Ryu would dare use. And it was a no-brainer to include several versions of laser eyes, his most destructive and frequently used ability. Beyond that, we had to embellish, always still asking ”Is this Homelander?”
To emphasize his mobility and distinguish him from both Mortal Kombatmainstays and from other guests, we gave him unique flying poses and modes, so ”the only man in the sky” rightfully commands airspace better than anyone. Developing the game’s first flight mechanic naturally introduced complications. Art considerations involved how to distinguish flight visually – all sorts of animations depending on travel direction and what led into flight, mussed hair on Homelander himself while he’s airborne, and cape physics adjustments. These overlapped with technical tasks ensuring Homelander flies in the correct trajectory, with the right velocity, depending on the player’s inputs. Design considerations included setting when it should be possible to enter and exit flight and what Homelander is capable of while soaring.
To demonstrate how skeptically he regards challengers, we gave him a punch-specific counter pulled directly from a flashpoint moment in “The Boys”Season 3. As with flight, this is a small-seeming decision that leads inevitably to hurdles. No existing counter-style move needed to differentiate between punches or kicks, for starters, and it isn’t as simple as just checking if the incoming attack resulted from a punch or kick button, since some punch button attacks don’t result in punches, while some kick button attacks do. Plus, Homelander may attempt a punch counter with either his chest or back toward the player’s POV, while incoming punches may also likewise emerge from either chest-to-camera or ”flipped” stance. So, any given punch-versus-counter interaction has four different ways it can visually play out, therefore that many more possible outcomes to set up and quality-control.
“Catch punches and kick back” or “get a guy flying around” might sound like straightforward things. But implementing them was an interdepartmental effort between animators, designers, engineers, and QA to get great-looking and feeling results. We set out to spotlight Homelander’s most brutal exchanges and honor (or maybe appease?) him with novel spins on familiar mechanics, and we hope you agree.
Homelander will be available on June 4, 2024, as part of the early access period for Mortal Kombat 1 Kombat Pack owners on Xbox Series X|S, followed by wide availability on June 11, 2024.
The Kombat Pack includes the Johnny Cage character skin featuring voice and likeness of actor and martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme (available now), along with 6 new post-launch DLC playable characters and 5 new post-launch Kameo Fighters. Kombat Pack also includes 1-week early access to all DLC playable characters.
DLC Playable Characters (All Coming Post-Launch)
Omni-Man (Invincible)
Quan Chi
Peacemaker (DC’s Peacemaker)
Ermac
Homelander (The Boys)
Takahashi Takeda
DLC Kameo Fighters (All Coming Post-Launch)
Tremor
Mavado
Janet Cage
Ferra
Khameleon
It’s In Our Blood!
Discover a reborn Mortal Kombat Universe created by the Fire God Liu Kang. Mortal Kombat 1 ushers in a new era of the iconic franchise with a new fighting system, game modes, and fatalities!
What a jam-packed weekend we have for you with Free Play Days! Driving and Dragon Ball fans jump in, as Assetto Corsa Competizione and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 are available this weekend for Xbox Game Pass Core and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members to play from Thursday May 30 at 12:01 a.m. PDT until Sunday, June 2 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.
Ahoy fellow Pirates! Enjoy a full week long trial of Skull and Bones which will be unlocked from Thursday May 30 at 12:01 a.m. PDT until Thursday, June 6 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.
Additionally, Call of Duty Modern Warfare III (Multiplayer/Zombies Only) is free for all Xbox members from Thursday May 30 at 10:00 a.m. PT until Monday, June 3 at 10am PT. (Xbox Game Pass Core and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate not required) for Free Play Days for All!
Game Pass Core will give players access to our advanced multiplayer network, a select collection of over 25 games to play with friends around the world, and exclusive member deals! Read more about Game Pass Core at Xbox Wire.
How To Start Playing
Find and install the games on each of the individual game details page on Xbox.com. Clicking through will send you to the Microsoft Store, where you must be signed in to see the option to install with your Xbox Game Pass Core or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership. To download on console, click on the Subscriptions tab in the Xbox Store and navigate down to the Free Play Days collection on your Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Keep The Fun Going
Purchase the game and other editions at a limited time discount and continue playing while keeping your Gamerscore and achievements earned during the event! Please note that discounts, percentages, and title availability may vary by title and region.
Free Play Days (Game Pass Core or Game Pass Ultimate Required)
Assetto Corsa Competizione Optimized for Xbox Series X|S, Smart Delivery Assetto Corsa Competizione is the new official GT World Challenge videogame. Thanks to the extraordinary quality of simulation, the game will allow you to experience the real atmosphere of the GT3 homologated championship, competing against official drivers, teams, cars and circuits.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S, Smart Delivery Go Super Saiyan this weekend with Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2! Immerse yourself in the largest and most detailed Dragon Ball world ever developed: train with all iconic characters such as Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan, Trunks, Cell, Frieza and more to create your perfect fighter and protect the history of the Dragon Ball universe. Join an online hub of up to 300 players from around the world to team up for hard raid missions or measure your strength! There’s never been a better time to jump into Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, now out for Xbox One, Series X & S, and on sale this weekend at up to 50% off. Future Saga Chapter 1 DLC is also available now — read more about it in on Xbox Wire!
Skull and Bones Optimized for Xbox Series X|S Ahoy Pirates! From May 30 to June 6, don’t miss on the opportunity to play for free and save 50% on Skull and Bones! Embark on the vast naval open world in this online action RPG where you rise to become the most fearsome pirate kingpin. Customize your fleet, craft unique ships, and forge formidable weapons to dominate in exhilarating sea battles against your foes, all while expanding your pirate dominion.
During this Free Play Days, you are free to play any content you want, whether it is to progress through the main storyline or tackle challenging content with your friends. And when you purchase the full game, you will be able to keep all the progress you made.
Free Play Days For All
Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® III – Cross-Gen Bundle
Call of Duty Modern Warfare III (Multiplayer/Zombies Only) For a limited time until June 3rd, play Multiplayer and Modern Warfare Zombies in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III for FREE. Dive into Multiplayer in Call of Duty and check out the brand-new 6v6 map Paris, along with additional fan-favorite 6v6 maps such as Das Haus, Stash House, and Rust – playable across five core modes including Demolition, new to Season 4. Plus, the free access offer includes Modern Warfare Zombies. It’s time to see what you’re made of.
Don’t miss out on these exciting Free Play Days for Xbox Game Pass Core and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members! Learn more about Free Play Days here and stay tuned to Xbox Wire to find out about future Free Play Days and all the latest Xbox gaming news.
How Still Wakes the Deep Makes You Care for a Doomed Crew
Summary
Still Wakes the Deep follows through on its cinematic inspirations as we go hands-on with the first two hours of the game.
Being able to develop a rapport with the Beira D oil rig crew before disaster strikes helps you connect emotionally.
Still Wakes the Deep is launching June 18, 2024, for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and will be available day one with Game Pass.
I never thought I’d find the open sea air more terrifying than navigating through a confined, flooded bulkhead… but here we are. I think part of that comes from the fact that as you look upon the open ocean that surrounds the Beira D oil rig – the central location of The Chinese Room’s (Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs) upcoming horror game Still Wakes the Deep– it’s an ever-present and cold reminder that you’re trapped here with just a handful of crew standing between you and impending doom.
There’s no getting off this ride; the terror on board is something that you must contend with at some point, and I love that part of the game so far. This mix of tension, dread, and inevitable horror is clicking so well that it’s going to be excruciating having to wait a few more weeks to finish my tour of duty in Still Wakes the Deep when it launches June 18, 2024, for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and day one with Game Pass.
We’ve previously covered some of the many cinematic inspirations the team has brought to Still Wakes the Deep. Now having played through the first third of the game and seen many of those films, I think they’re nailing the look, feel, and inspiration for many on that list. In particular, “The Thing” and “Annihilation.”
Another that came to mind while playing — which is a different type of horror — is Craig Mazin’s excellent “Chernobyl.” That’s felt most especially in the early stages –an accident on the mammoth oil rig sets off a cascade of events, rocking the station and everyone on board, and the crew springs into action trying to make sense of what just happened. Before they know it, the situation has continued to spiral further and further beyond their control, shifting from containment to one of survival mixed with fleeting thoughts of escape.
But crucially, before that moment arrives – the calm before the storm – the game opens with the chance to explore a good chunk of Beria D and interact with what feels like every member of the crew in some capacity. Each one is given a moment with your main character, Cameron “Caz” McLeary, mixed in with a fair bit of swearing and ribbing. With the oil rig located off the coast of Scotland, it’s well written and believable, allowing you to develop a rapport with this crew before things start to fall apart.
Time with everyone early on might be brief, but it’s immersive, and it’s handled with great effect — like how the spoken dialog leans heavily on UK English and the regional dialects (I had to play with subtitles to catch everything said accurately). In just a short amount of time we’re brought into Caz’s predicament and how that feeds through the entire crew in the lead-up to the accident. It also gives you a good sense of the crew’s bond with each other — they care a lot for one another. This makes the latter parts of the demo land particularly emotional, once many of them become distressed (and much, much worse).
As shown in the gameplay footage from last year, we’re asked to navigate through bulkheads, flooded passageways, and very dark corridors with nothing but a screwdriver and a headlamp. The design of the interior of the Beria D is very impressively modeled – you can practically feel how cold it is to walk through the station, or when placing your hands on the wheel of an airlock, as the sound of the wind rushes through you once you step outside. It’s a great contrast to the silence that comes when all the hatches are locked down tight, letting any little sound reverberate through the station.
The… let’s call it the terror here as we’ve been asked to avoid spoilers, is… well… terrifying. I’ll leave it at that. If that’s not enough, Caz finds himself at times falling into a bizarre hallucinatory state that seems connected to the events around him, which is another mystery I’m eager to explore further, and see how the story brings all these events together.
We only experienced a taste of what Still Wakes the Deep has in store for us, but it’s clear The Chinese Room appears to be firing on all cylinders here — they’re on the cusp delivering another masterpiece of gaming horror. Look for Still Wakes the Deep to launch June 18, 2024, for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and day one with Game Pass.
The classic vacation dilemma – do we go out, experience this new place, and find activities to do; or do we just sit down and relax? When I started playing the first 5 hours of Dungeons of Hinterberg, I wasn’t expecting a video game to so perfectly capture a feeling I’ve had on every real-life trip I’ve taken. And yet, through a clever melding of action-puzzling and Persona-like social statistics, that’s exactly what I found myself thinking in this game’s early stages.
Dungeons of Hinterberg has a curious, unique set-up – it’s set in our world, but for that fact that, three years ago, mysterious dungeons popped up around the globe, packed with folklore-inspired monsters, and offering magical powers to those that travel there. We take on the role of Luisa, a disillusioned lawyer who’s travelled to Hinterberg – a picturesque Austrian resort town that’s made a tourist industry out of its 25 new dungeons – for a vacation.
While it could be simple story set-up, that vacation forms the entire structure of the game. Each day in Hinterberg is split up into Morning (usually accompanied by a story sequence), Noon (where you can decide to explore the game’s 4 biomes and tackle dungeons – or simply relax for stat boosts), Evening (where you can meet other characters in the town for various benefits), and Night (where you can either head to bed, or add more to your stat boosts for the day, with a penalty for staying up late).
It makes for a cycle that constantly has you assessing and reassessing what’s best for Luisa, not to mention your own curiosity. The overall structure here has the feel of a Persona game – you only get limited numbers of actions per day, and there are many characters to meet and social stats to level up, which come with their own benefits.
You may just want to look around for a while – Hinterberg and its surroundings are beautiful, rendered in a thin-lined comic book style and bold colors, a literal picture-postcard look – but who you choose to meet around the town comes with meaningful consequences. Entire mechanical systems are gated behind their friendship, and it’s a constant compulsion to work out what you want next. Do I want to hang out with abrasive journalist Travis, who unlocks a photo mode, or embittered blacksmith Hannah, who can help me improve my equipment in new ways?
But the other half of Dungeons of Hinterberg holds an entirely different experience. The overworld hubs hide secrets to discover and monsters to take down, while the titular dungeons held within them are tightly wound action-puzzle experiences in and of themselves, bringing to mind the likes of Zelda, Tomb Raider, even occasionally Mario levels.
I won’t go into too much detail here for fear of spoilers – discovering the dungeons’ tricks is a huge part of the game’s charm – but you’ll quickly realize that each new test can be extremely varied. Some are combat gauntlets, others filled with mechanical puzzles, and some bring entire perspective shifts, briefly turning the game into a side-scroller or an isometric adventure. This variety is helped along by the game’s magic system – each biome offers new spells, but they can only be used in that biome, meaning you’re effectively relearning how to use your abilities in each new place, and allowing Microbird to create fresh experiences in each location. That each spell can be used for exploration and combat only adds to the pleasure.
Combat is snappy and action-oriented, offering you a variety of moves, unlockable abilities, and a precious dodge roll, and you’ll quickly help Luisa turn from a tourist into a bona fide slayer. Couple that with RPG-inspired gear systems, and a web of mechanics created and expanded in an order that you help choose, and you have a truly compulsive cocktail.
But holding it altogether is that lazy vacation vibe – this never feels like a stressful game, like you’re being pushed from story beat to story beat. Instead, I’ve been choosing to spend some days exploring, and others relaxing, knowing that I’m always building my stats in some way, free to explore this strange destination at my leisure. It’s a truly unusual feeling for an action game to get across – and one I’m sure I’ll be thinking about well beyond my stay.
Dungeons of Hinterberg arrives for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, and Cloud on July 18. Play it day one with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.
Welcome to Hinterberg, a new tourist hotspot in the idyllic Austrian Alps! You play as Luisa, a burnt-out law trainee taking a break from her fast-paced corporate life to conquer the Dungeons of Hinterberg. There are plenty of dungeons to find and adventures to be had in Hinterberg – will Luisa be sent packing on her first day, or remain to become a Master Slayer? Only one way to find out…
Snowboard down a glacier, zipline through the forest, climb a mountain, or have a coffee by the lake… There’s no shortage of places to discover while you’re out looking for your next dungeon!
Monsters lurk around every corner in Hinterberg, and your sword and magic skills are essential for keeping them at bay. Harness the wind, conjure a snowboard out of thin air, or freeze your enemies in a jelly block!
Braving a dungeon requires more than just cutting-edge sports gear and a good sword arm: Hinterberg’s dungeons are full of puzzles that will surprise and challenge you. Use your head, your magic skills, and every trick in the book to solve them!
Spend your nights forging friendships with the locals and other adventurers! Some of them will help you get stronger or teach you new tricks, others are just here for excitement and selfies… But good relationships don't just make your stay more memorable – they're the key to becoming a better slayer!
It's a dangerous thing, toying with people's gaming memories, because they've often welded to our sense of self and who we are. They're not impartial any more, if they ever were. These memories are a powerful thing to appeal to, and a smart way for a game to get attention, but it's also dangerous ground to tread. Because what if in aping the past, you undermine it? What if in the harsh light of reality, you expose old games for what they were - limited in comparison to what we have now?
I've been thinking about this because of two games: Skald, the Commodore 64-styled role-playing game, and Crow Country, the PlayStation 1-styled survival horror. Skald came out this week and we have a review in the works, and Crow Country came earlier in the month and our review aired this week. That's partially the reason I'm making Crow Country our game of this week.
It's a gorgeous thing. It's got that muddy colour palette PS1 games used to have, and that sense of claustrophobia caused by a low screen resolution. The camera angle is fixed, the characters are chunky, and you can almost count the number of polygons on them. It really does look like a PS1 game, and people have been giddy about it on social media for weeks. But is that all games like this are - superficial nostalgia plays?
And then there was Silent Hill Transmission or, this time around, basically just a longer look at the upcoming Silent Hill 2 and a chance for Konami to promote a load of tie-in tat. Joining me this week are Eurogamer's Victoria Kennedy and Vikki Blake to discuss.
Spyro developer Toys for Bob has formally confirmed its next game will be published by Xbox, in a teasing statement that ends with a decidedly purple-coloured heart emoji.
Toys for Bob was previously part of the now-Microsoft-owned Activision Blizzard, and made its name making Skylanders, then working on the Crash and Spyro trilogy releases.
John Romero's autobiography Doom Guy: Life in First Person is being adapted for screen in two different forms.
As reported by Deadline, the story of the id Software co-founder is being made into a documentary by Canadian filmmaker Rob McCallum.
Meanwhile, a dramatised adaptation of the Doom creator's book is also in the pipeline. Both of these projects are going to be executive produced by Naomi Harvey of Golden Possum Productions.
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