Xbox Series X News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Elden Ring players are debating which faction they would join if the Dark Souls Covenant system was brought into The Lands Between. Covenants have been a staple in the Dark Souls series since the franchise made its debut in 2011, with the system even making an appearance in the PlayStation-exclusive Bloodborne. However, Covenants were notably absent from Elden Ring, and more than a few longtime fans of developer FromSoftware have since expressed their desire to see the feature return in a future update or sequel.

Riot Games has released a new trailer for its upcoming fighting game 2XKO, this time around, offering up an in-depth look at a new addition to the game’s roster—Illaoi, the Kraken Priestess. Check out the trailer below.

Sony’s multiplatform release strategy has accelerated rapidly in recent years, with the company now viewing PC as a much more prominent part of its larger strategy, especially where live service titles are concerned. Earlier this year, for instance, Helldivers 2 launched simultaneously for PS5 and PC, and it’s fair to say that the majority of game’s unexpected success has been thanks to PC audiences. Now, interestingly enough, it looks like Sony might be considering ways to bring even larger audiences into Arrowhead Game Studios’ acclaimed co-op shooter.

Developer FuturLab has announced that PowerWash Simulator has been played by 12 million players. Celebrating the milestone, the studio states that the game’s various collaboration DLC releases, including ones with SpongeBob SquarePants, Back to the Future, and Warhammer 40,000, had a hand in hitting the number.

Sega has declared 2024 the year of Shadow the Hedgehog, which means fans of the Ultimate Lifeform (as he likes to be referred to) have plenty to look forward to in the coming months. That, of course, includes Keanu Reeves voicing him in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which will release in theaters worldwide this December, but Sonic fans in the gaming space won’t be left behind either.

One dedicated Starfield player has managed to put together an impressive-looking custom ship inspired by the Vault-Tec Corporation. Aside from serving as a showcase of their stellar design skills, the unique Starfield spacecraft has also reminded a number of fans of some long-forgotten Fallout lore.

An Elden Ring player dressed their character as Princess Zelda, then crushed Starscourge Radahn. Elden Ring players love focusing on how to optimize their builds, but a lot of the time, style is just as important. To many gamers, looking as cool as possible while taking on the toughest bosses is a key part of the experience.

Atlus has shared extensive new details on Metaphor: ReFantazio with a deep dive showcase dedicated to the upcoming fantasy RPG. Along with announcing an October launch date for the title, the developer has also offered new information on what to expect from the game’s overarching structure, the locations you’ll be visiting across its fantasy setting, and more.

Iron Gate Studios has released its latest and most challenging region for Valheim yet with Ashlands. Available for public testing on Steam, the penultimate biome sports lava everywhere, the menacing Valkyrie and other horrors, though there’s new armor and weapons to make it worthwhile. Check out the first gameplay trailer below.

A clever Baldur's Gate 3 player has discovered a build that can seemingly one-hit-kill just about any enemy in the game. While Baldur's Gate 3 is generally considered a tough game to beat, using this could make it a much easier experience from start to finish.

The massive popularity of Elden Ring continues to produce a number of interesting fan creations, including a detailed birthday card with «real world» character stats. Unique fan-made Elden Ring crafts have frequently caught the attention of online communities, and this latest homemade gift has fans talking about the applicability of RPG statistics in daily life.

Since before Sonic Frontiers even launched, Sega made it abundantly clear that future instalments in the franchise would be building on the foundations laid down by the open world platformer, and with Frontiers having sold as well as it did, it’s safe to assume that the company is probably sticking to those plans. In fact, a direct sequel to Sonic Frontiers seems to be in development.

An Overwatch 2 player was apparently stuck in the game's matchmaker for 17 hours. The Blizzard Entertainment hero shooter has repeatedly been called out by the community for its long queue times.

Metaphor: ReFantazio has revealed a release date of October 11 and showcased more gameplay. Metaphor: ReFantazio is the next release from the creators of Persona that will take players through a medieval world. Set in the United Kingdom of Euchronia, a nation of three countries inhabited by eight tribes, the story of Metaphor: ReFantazio begins with chaos ensuing after the king is killed.

Xur has returned in Bungie’s Destiny 2, which is seeing an uptick of interest thanks to Into the Light. He’s in the Arcadian Valley on Nessus until the next weekly reset and carries Exotics like Skyburner’s Oath, an Energy scout rifle.

Microsoft has announced another edition of the ID@Xbox Digital Showcase, its annual event focused on indie games, which is returning a week from now, on April 29, at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM BST.

During a recent showcase, Atlus announced an October release date for Metaphor: ReFantazio, which was followed by an extensive deep dive detailing various elements that players can look forward to in the upcoming fantasy RPG.

2020’s Watch Dogs: Legion was considered by many to be a dip for Ubisoft’s open world franchise, with its “play as any NPC” premise not having landed the way many had hoped it would, but four years on, questions about the future of the franchise are growing louder by the day. It seems, however, that the franchise has no future- not for some time to come, at any rate.

An Overwatch 2 player discovered that they were assigned a rank that doesn't actually exist. Just like any competitive shooter, Overwatch 2's ranked system rewards players with medals based on their skills, which also makes it more efficient to match them against players with similar ranks.

A Disney Dreamlight Valley player spotted a hilarious detail on Maui's statue. The Moana character is one of the NPCs in Disney Dreamlight Valley, and can be unlocked by visiting the Moana Realm and completing the quest called «A Feast Worthy of a Demigod.» Players can also unlock the Dazzle Beach biome and have Maui as their neighbor once they accomplish these requirements.

An inventive Palworld fan has shared ideas for five original Pals. Palworld has more than a hundred Pals that players find on the Palpagos Islands, including fan favorites like Lamball, Jormuntide, and Chillet. While Palworld recently added Bellanoir, players are eagerly awaiting the expansion of the Paldeck with even more new Pals, and have been offering their ideas.

Microsoft has announced that its ID@Xbox Digital Showcase will return next week on April 29. The showcase is a dedicated platform for highlighting upcoming indie games heading to Xbox consoles and PC, promising a smattering of new announcements as well as updates for existing ones.

Moon Studios’ No Rest for the Wicked launched into Steam Early Access last Thursday and received a mixed response due to various issues, including performance. Nevertheless, the development team has been quick to address many of these. Its second hotfix is now available, improving the overall performance of rendering, visual effects and fog.

An Elden Ring bug has managed to turn the wishes of several fans into reality by allowing a player to fight Dragonlord Placidusax a second time. While FromSoftware games usually don't have a lot of bugs, the few that pop up in Elden Ring tend to be hilarious or interesting, with this find falling into both categories.

It's been confirmed that SteamWorld Heist 2 will be a day one Xbox Game Pass game when it releases on August 8. Xbox Game Pass has had an impressive year so far, kicking things off with the smash hit Palworld and keeping the momentum going strong with a steady string of high-quality day one releases. Luckily for subscribers, there's no sign that Xbox Game Pass' momentum is slowing down anytime soon.

A well-known insider has shared some new details about Metaphor: ReFantazio. Their information emerged online just ahead of Atlus's next Metaphor: ReFantazio preview event.

One Starfield fan has started a discussion by pointing out how weak frag grenades are in the game, and how that makes no scientific sense. The grenades in question have been present in the game since day one, though a recent discovery makes their weakness even more confusing to Starfield fans.

One Hogwarts Legacy player has recently experienced a bug that causes Lumos, the wand-lighting charm, to instead be listed as a damage-dealing spell in the game's HUD. Lumos is a well-known spell among fans of the Harry Potter franchise, but in Hogwarts Legacy, as well as the books and movies, its use is as little more than a magical flashlight.

Bandai Namco has released a new update for Dragon Ball FighterZ, addressing the many issues that had been introduced after the game's previous update. On February 29, Dragon Ball FighterZ finally got its long-requested rollback netcode update along with a free upgrade to the newly released PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions. This update was meant to improve upon Dragon Ball FighterZ's online environment, as the previous console and PC versions used delay-based netcode. However, once the update went live, instead of fixing the online environment, it only broke the game instead.

A creative Baldur's Gate 3 fan has recently shared on social media an impressive Astarion cosplay wearing drow studded leather armor. The player's remarkable craftsmanship garnered the attention of the Baldur's Gate 3 community, who swiftly poured in to applaud this cosplay work.

Disney Dreamlight Valley is adding a new villager to the game soon, and a new teaser gives a strong indication that it's a character with an extremely long history with Disney. Disney Dreamlight Valley is constantly adding new villagers to the game with their own stories to explore, and fans have been trying to decipher who is next since the Disney Dreamlight Valley roadmap rolled out.

A popular insider has revealed that Fortnite may be looking to collaborate with X-Men '97 to bring the show's version of characters like Wolverine to the battle royale game. Keeping in mind that the Disney+ series has been trending recently, adding X-Men skins to Fortnite seems like a reasonable move from developer Epic Games.

While Square Enix recently released the benchmark tool for the upcoming Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, producer and director Naoki Yoshida has taken to a blog post on the game’s official website to reveal that the software will be getting a new version to improve what has been described by players as the “lifeless eyes” of characters.

A creative Baldur's Gate 3 player has used the game's powerful character creator to create a protagonist based on Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars. It's always great to create a unique protagonist in Baldur's Gate 3, but it's equally interesting to see characters from other franchises recreated in-game.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has received a new update on consoles that adds destructible terrain to one map, weapon balance changes, a Ducati crossover, and more. PC PUBG users received the same update on April 9.

Capcom reveals planned changes to Dragon's Dogma 2 inside an upcoming April patch and gives players a sneak peek at what they can expect to see once it arrives. Capcom's return to its action RPG series has proven to be a hit with fans and critics alike, especially for those who enjoy customizing their Pawn helpers through the detailed character creator. Still, for all of its successes, Dragon's Dogma 2 launched with a number of issues which Capcom has been busy attempting to fix.

The third of Xbox's multiplatform efforts on PS5, Sea of Thieves, reportedly boasts superior visuals on the Sony machine. A recent analysis comparing the Xbox Series X/S and PS5 versions of Sea of Thieves revealed the latter pulling ahead on the graphical front.

A talented artist has created two life-sized statues based on iconic characters from the Halo franchise. Developed by Bungie and released as an original Xbox exclusive in 2001, Haloestablished itself as an instant classic, one which many have cited as a game that redefined first-person shooters on consoles.

Developer Pieces Interactive and publisher THQ Nordic have released a new trailer for horror game Alone in the Dark, celebrating the positive responses the game has received from certain outlets and critics. You can check it out below.

While Destiny 2’s free Into the Light update has received positive feedback from fans, there have been concerns over how long the content will remain. Onslaught will shift to the Vanguard Ops playlist once The Final Shape launches, but what about everything else?

Dead Island 2 has announced the exact date and times it's set to launch on Steam across the world. The zombie-mashing action adventure game was released on Xbox, PlayStation, and Epic Games Store almost exactly a year ago, unfortunately skipping out on Steam users. Despite its long and troubled 9-year development cycle across three different studios, Dead Island 2 released to positive reception, as it provides ample first-person melee action fun in incredibly vivid and iconic zombie-torn Los Angeles environments.

Rainbow Six Siege's «Reputation» mechanic is still reportedly seeing a number of problems with its implementation, notably incorrectly flagging players for harmful in-game behavior. Honor systems have been a staple of plenty of online games, encouraging players to practice good sportsmanship and treat fellow players with respect. Competitive games like League of Legends have often featured special rewards tied to honor systems, including Chests for players to acquire new League of Legends skins. Now, Siege's honor system is seeing a few hiccups.

Grounded, the new survival game by Obsidian Entertainment, is out in early access for Xbox Game Pass members. This game is still in development, but there is a lot to discover and much to do in this early version of the game. Players will need to gather materials, craft tools, and buildings, and protect themselves against giant bug attacks.

Behaviour Interactive Interactive is recalling some changes made to popular Dead by Daylight Killer duo The Twins. The Twins are Dead by Daylight's brother-sister duo Charlotte and Victor, although only Victor's new powers are being recalled.

Sonic x Shadow Generations has already received age classifications in several jurisdictions, with its latest rating emerging on April 19. This turn of events is a promising sign for Sega's fandom, as it indicates that Sonic x Shadow Generations is on course to hit the store shelves without any delays.

Atlus has announced that a new wave of merchandise items themed after its hit RPG Persona 3 Reload will have a practical purpose, namely disaster preparation and first aid. The special Persona 3 Reload kits will be sold in Japan through merchandise company Movic and launch in mid-2024.

A newly confirmed day one Xbox Game Pass game for June 4, Rolling Hills, may appeal to fans of life sim games like Stardew Valley. Stardew Valley led the charge when it came to the life sim/cozy game renaissance, inspiring all kinds of similar games that offer their own unique twists on the concept. There are multiple Stardew Valley-style games readily available on Xbox Game Pass, including Stardew Valley itself.

The console version of Cities: Skylines 2 has received yet another delay, which will prevent it from reaching Xbox and PlayStation users until at least late 2024. This is the second major postponement that the Cities: Skylines 2 console ports have suffered in the past seven months.

When The Wolf Among Us 2 was re-announced five years ago, many had hoped that the game would finally have a smooth development cycle on the road to launch, but it has hit a number of significant stumbles behind-the-scenes since that time, and that launch has continued to be pushed back. Recently, developer Telltale Games broke months of silence on the game by sharing four new gameplay screenshots, accompanying which, the developer has also issued a brief statement.

The second paid DLC for Gunfire Games’ Remnant 2, The Forgotten Kingdom, sees players returning to Yaesha to combat Lydusa, a wrathful stone spirit. There are new weapons, mods, rings and amulets to collect and bosses to tackle, but perhaps most exciting is the new Archetype – the Invoker. The developer outlines the new class and its powerful abilities in a new trailer – check it out below.

Starting on April 19, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty: Warzone are getting a new double XP event. While the start date of the double XP event for Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone is known, the developers have not yet confirmed when the double XP will end.

OneLEGO Fortniteplayer has built a functional aircraft with incredible speed and maneuverability. Over the past few months,LEGO Fortnite players have created intricate vehicles that require a lot of resources. For example, one combined a number of turnable wheels, suspensions, and other high-tier materials to craft a semi-truck, whileanother spent all the wood in their inventory to create a pirate ship.

11 bit Studios’ Frostpunk 2 isn’t even out yet but is garnering praise for its recent beta. A new accolades trailer highlights what critics think of the social survival sequel. Check it out below.

With Destiny 2’s The Final Shape raid out on June 7th, players will have minimal time to prepare. Thankfully, the Fireteam Finder tool will be in place to help find other players without venturing outside of the title, like with previous raids. Bungie has confirmed that the feature has exited the beta stage.

Starfield players are expressing frustration over what they call a «lazy» detail after discovering that three mission NPCs are identical. The detail is annoying Starfield players because of how easy it would have been to fix, and has some lamenting the issues with the game in general.

Ubisoft and developer Massive Entertainment haven’t spoken as much about Star Wars Outlaws’ space sections as they have about its many planets and moons and the gameplay opportunities they will present, but what little has been said so far has certainly indicated that the game’s grand scale and ambition will be reflected in the parts of its intergalactic map where protagonist Kay Vess will be piloting her ship, the Trailblazer.

Star Wars Outlaws’ promise of a vast map where players are able to seamless travel from open world planets and moons into outer space has been one of its more enticing aspects, but there’s still plenty yet that we don’t know about when it comes to what kind of content and gameplay opportunities the game’s space areas will bring. Developer Massive Entertainment has said that space in Star Wars Outlaws will be “full of things to do”– but what things exactly?

Ori developer Moon Studios launched No Rest for the Wicked into Steam Early Access yesterday, and it’s seen mixed impressions from players for various reasons. These include performance issues, lack of key rebinding in-game, untranslated text, etc.

It seems as though the highly-rated PlayStation console exclusive game Kena: Bridge of Spirits is coming to Xbox Series X/S platforms. Kena: Bridge of Spirits was originally released for PC, PS4, and PS5 in September 2021. The game earned mostly positive reviews from critics, with particular praise given to its impressive graphics and art style, which earned some comparisons to the animated films made by Disney and Pixar.

Debunking certain speculations, an insider confirmed that Tom Clancy's The Division Heartland has gone through notable changes. Until now, an extended period of little to no updates for The DivisionHeartland had the fans worried about the game's fate.

Bungie’s next expansion for Destiny 2, The Final Shape, launches on June 4th. As the conclusion to the Light and Darkness saga, it sees players venturing into the Pale Heart of the Traveller to defeat The Witness. Alongside a single-player campaign, players can partake in a new raid as the final battle against The Witness.

New screenshots have been revealed for The Wolf Among Us 2. The video game adaptation of Bill Willingham's Fables comics has been long-anticipated. The first Wolf Among Us game began its release in 2013, ultimately publishing a complete collection of all five episodes in 2015. Since then, fans have been excited to see a return to Bigby Wolf's story, as the game and comics have left enough potential for plenty of other parts of the world to explore in The Wolf Among Us 2.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 has no shortage of devious tricks up its sleeve with which to take players by surprise in the meanest way possible, but none of them can hold a candle to Dragonsplague. The disease is contracted by Pawns and is highly contagious, which means Pawns can infect other players’ games if summoned, and if signs of the disease are ignored, the results can be (literally) catastrophic.

Releasing for PlayStation and Windows in 2021, Kena: Bridge of Spirits was one of the highlights of its year, but nearly three years on from release Ember Lab’s acclaimed action-adventure title has still yet to make its way over to additional platforms. That, however, could be changing soon, if a recent age rating is anything to go by.

Square Enix’s Visions of Mana is the next big title in the long-running action RPG series, with a story focused on Val as he accompanies his friend Hinna to the Tree of Mana. Combat incorporates special abilities via Elemental Vessels, which can also result in different classes. However, it won’t have one thing that the series is renowned for: Co-op multiplayer.

Developer Owlcat has released a new trailer for its sci-fi RPG Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, which released in December. The trailer is essentially a guide highlighting one of the game’s lesser talked-about aspects, showcasing the game’s space combat between spaceships. Check it out below.

Plenty of long-awaited video games remain in development for years, seeing starts, stops and even restarts. Telltale Games’ The Wolf Among Us 2 is no exception, but like the Big Bad Wolf himself, it’s still kicking. Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley announced that the project has entered production and shared some new images.

Alongside offering a lengthy apology for the state of Cities: Skylines 2 as well as its recently-released Beach Properties DLC, CEO of developer Colossal Order, Mariina Hallikainen, and Paradox Interactive deputy CEO Mattias Lilja, have revealed that the console release of the city builder is being pushed back.

Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment are promising an expansive open world experience with the upcoming Star Wars Outlaws, which is being billed as the ultimate scoundrel fantasy, and though that will involve a lot of juggling of different criminal syndicates and maintaining your reputation with each different faction, that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to find the time to sit down and, say, play some cards.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is out this year, and while Warhorse Studios’ first title had a massive scale, the sequel is much bigger. The developer revealed it’s “twice as big” as the first game, with two maps to explore. Coupled with a story that sees Henry of Skalitz involved in the “problems of kings,” there’s much to look forward to.

Warhorse Studios finally announced Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 after various rumors, and it sees Henry of Skalitz returning as the protagonist. The open-world action RPG has a much larger scale than its predecessor, with spokesperson Tobias Stolz-Zwilling calling it a “behemoth” of a game that’s “twice the size” of the original.

Dead by Daylight is making changes to how DLC is purchased, consolidating various expansions into one bundle in order to make purchasing through first-party stores easier. The upcoming Endless Hunt DLC pack will include a variety of content in one purchase, streamlining the process for Dead by Daylight players.

EA Sports and Codemasters have released the first gameplay footage for F1 24, the next title in its long-running racing sim series. It showcases some stunning visuals and the legendary Max Verstappen himself. Check it out below.

After rumors and an accidental trailer leak, Warhorse Studios and Deep Silver have officially announced Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. The sequel to the 2018 open-world action RPG launches this year for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Check out the announcement trailer and 14-minute gameplay reveal below.

The latest update to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription service lineup has added four games for players to check out, including three titles that were not previously announced. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is, as its name suggests, the ultimate version of Xbox Game Pass. It gives subscribers access to everything available in the other tiers, including PC Game Pass games, along with access to titles in the EA Play library.

Baldur's Gate 3 has revealed a first look at what players can expect from Patch #7, and the key additions happen to be improved evil endings, as well as the launch of the game's official modding tools. Despite releasing in a stacked year defined by several major titles, Baldur's Gate 3 made history by winning Game of the Year at every major awards show. It brought the isometric RPG genre to a mainstream audience, and succeeded in living up to the tremendous legacy of Baldur's Gate 2.

As it celebrates Baldur’s Gate 3 winning Game of the Year at the BAFTA Games Awards, Larian Studios is prepping for its next big patch. Patch 7 adds improved evil endings to the experience and promises “even darker conclusions” for the “most sinister playthroughs,” even if you’re not playing as The Dark Urge. It then posted two short GIFs of new cutscenes for the evil endings (be warned of spoilers).

Baldur’s Gate 3 won’t receive any paid expansions, and Larian isn’t keen on developing a sequel, but that doesn’t mean fans can’t look forward to more updates. Patch 7 is in the works, and alongside the improved evil endings, with new cutscenes and music, it also marks the arrival of official modding tools.

The latest update forDying Light 2 Stay Human is pretty massive, adding Nightmare Mode, its new highest difficulty. However, there are also several night-time changes, Gear Loadouts, visual improvements and more.