!.07-Xbox Wire

Survive a Dystopian Future in The Ascent, Available Now with Xbox Game Pass
Begin Your Journey with Omno, Available Now on Xbox Game Pass
Co-op Dungeon Crawling Comes to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One in Blightbound
10 Tips and Tricks to Help You Hit the Ground Fighting in Samurai Warriors 5
The Forgotten City’s Journey From a Mod to a Standalone Game

Survive a Dystopian Future in The Ascent, Available Now with Xbox Game Pass

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 10:00 AM PDT

You belong to The Ascent Group, but do you think you can survive without it? A solo and co-op action-shooter RPG set in a sci-fi cyberpunk world, The Ascent is the first title from Swedish indie studio Neon Giant. Players can now explore the brave new world of Veles in this dystopian RPG shooter, which is available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and with Xbox Game Pass for Console and PC.

As for the story, The Ascent sees players trying to learn more about The Ascent Group, a self-contained corporate-run metropolis that stretches high into the sky and is filled with creatures from all over the galaxy. Taking on the role of an indentured worker, the world starts to go haywire when The Ascent Group shuts down for unknown reasons. The city quickly becomes a dystopian and Darwinian hellscape, with rival corporations and crime syndicates looking to fill the empty space and players having to take up arms to hold them off.

The Ascent – July 29 – Xbox Game Pass ● Optimized for Xbox Series X|S ● Smart Delivery

As with many RPGs, The Ascent finds you starting off at the bottom of the proverbial food chain, especially given your indentured servitude. However, as you progress you will gain power, finding new weapons, cyberware, and augmentations to help you battle for survival. You'll literally be moving up in the world, as The Ascent features and unprecedented sense of verticality with different levels and platforms to navigate.

In addition to plenty of single-player action, The Ascent also supports co-op play for up to four players. It also runs at 60fps with full 4K support on the Xbox Series X, offering amazing gameplay performance for new generation console players. Available now for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and with Xbox Game Pass for Console and PC, The Ascent is an action-orientated sci-fi RPG that aims to take the genre to new levels.

Begin Your Journey with Omno, Available Now on Xbox Game Pass

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 09:00 AM PDT

Hello again, adventurers! After 5 years of sitting in my office all alone, hammering away at my keyboard, it feels very surreal to finally be able to say that my very first game, Omno, is out now on Xbox One and Xbox Series XIS and with Xbox Game Pass for Console and PC.

For those of you who have never seen it before, Omno is a single player adventure game where you play as a pilgrim making your way through an ancient world of wonders on a quest to find a mythical gate of light. It's a game of exploration and traversal, where you'll have to use platforming and puzzle solving skills to make your way through each world.

You'll acquire new abilities as you progress, each one a celebration of the joy of movement – whether that means dashing over sheer drops, surfing over sand dunes or gliding through the clouds. Omno is also designed to be a calm, gentle experience: there's no combat, and instead you'll find yourself interacting with all of the strange and fantastical creatures you encounter, with each one rewarding you for your friendliness and curiosity, often in surprising ways!

Omno started as a dream for me many, many years ago, and to see it sitting on the Microsoft Store and alongside some of my all-time favorite games in the Xbox Game Pass catalog still feels like a dream to me. As a first-time solo developer, the imposter syndrome is very real right now, but I also feel very proud to have finally gotten this thing over the finish line.

There are a lot of great games launching every week right now (and I'm looking forward to having the time to play some new games again myself!), but I really hope that some of you will find the time to try Omno. I'm both terrified and very excited to hear what people think of it!

Co-op Dungeon Crawling Comes to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One in Blightbound

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 08:00 AM PDT

We are a Dutch indie studio based in Utrecht and were founded in the Netherlands in 2007. Since 2018, we have been working with Devolver Digital to bring players our game Blightbound, a multiplayer cooperative 2.5D dungeon crawler that is available now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. Blightbound can be played a couple different ways: via couch co-op, with AI teammates, with other players online, or any combination of the above. If you like what you're hearing, stick around for more details on the general gameplay and metagame of Blightbound.

The world is covered in Blight and littered with mutated wretches, monsters, and other abominations. You play as the heroes of the Refuge, a mountaintop sanctuary untouched by the Blight. Choose one of 3 classes to play as: a tanky Warrior, a deadly Assassin, or a wise Mage. Venture down into the Blight with your party of 3 heroes, where you need to synergize and combine your skills and abilities with your teammates to defeat atrocious boss monsters, especially on higher difficulties. While you are on your adventures, keep an eye out for survivors for the Refuge and recruit other heroes lost in the Blight. Score some sweet, sweet loot by completing dungeons so you can buff up your heroes and customise them to your unique playstyle.

Unlock and choose from a roster of 20 heroes at launch, each with their own combination of passives, skills, and ultimate abilities. As a Warrior, draw aggression from enemies and alleviate pressure from your teammates while still being lethal against enemies who make the mistake of getting up close. As an Assassin, flank the enemies and unleash your deadly arsenal of weapons and abilities to do devastating damage. As a Mage, use your utility to heal your teammates, dictate enemy movement, and repel enemies from a distance.

However, how you choose to play Blightbound is completely up to you. Every hero has weapon and item slots, and you decide how you would like to build your heroes. If you would like to be a close-quarters Mage, you could equip the Deathbite Staff which turns every third attack into a short range ground slam, throw on the Manaburst Brooch which creates an explosion around you every time you pick up a mana orb, and the Mechanical Wheel which gives you an extra charge and extra cooldown reduction to your dodge skill. Why not also throw on the Healing Flask, which grants you extra health and life, so your now beefy badass Mage can sustain in a close-quarters brawl? (Just remember to also heal your teammates!)

We have made some truly wacky builds during our internal playtests. One of the highlights is a glass cannon Warrior who can almost one-shot elite enemies but falls over if there's so much as a strong breeze.

After completing levels, you will be rewarded with items. There are more than 200 unique items in Blightbound which allow you to tailor any role to your individual playstyle. Slap on the weapons and items of your choice, lock in your favorite heroes, and conquer increasingly difficult dungeons with your friends, with other players, or with the AI!

We're incredibly excited for Blightbound's launch and we hope you are too. Let us venture together into The Blight!

10 Tips and Tricks to Help You Hit the Ground Fighting in Samurai Warriors 5

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 02:00 PM PDT

Samurai Warriors 5 smashes its way onto Xbox One consoles today (playable on Xbox Series X|S via Backward Compatibility). But since the series hasn't been seen on any Xbox system since Samurai Warriors 2 back in 2006, we wanted to provide beginners a quick guide for dominating the world of Musou gaming. Here are 10 tips to get you started…

Let's Get Down to Basics

The most basic way of dealing with hundreds of oncoming enemies is to strike them all at once in a giant sweeping motion. When you begin playing the game and encounter a horde running your direction, hit the attack button at least three times before unleashing the bigger charge attack (referred to as a Power Attack in-game). This normal-normal-normal-charge combo serves to strike many enemies at once, helping clear a path to the next group of soldiers.

It Takes Two

Nobunaga and Mitsuhide are the two main characters featured in Samurai Warriors 5, and therefore should be everyone's first priority when it comes to training and upgrading characters. The faster you can achieve higher ranks for Nobunaga and Mitsuhide, the easier your life will be when it comes to fighting through some of the more difficult battles in the game.

Stunning Fashion

Stunned enemies are left vulnerable to bigger combo attacks, and this is especially important when fighting enemy warlords who are ready and waiting to strike back with counterattacks. Depending on the weapon employed, most fighters can stun opponents with a combo hit of 2 regular attacks followed by a Power Attack. Once stunned, follow up with more powerful attacks to take the warlord down without fear of counter measures.

Why Can't We Be Friends

In Citadel mode, you can utilize different troops to defend against invading enemies. As characters battle together, their Friendship level will increase. Once their Friendship level reaches the maximum, you will be able to view special scenes not featured in the regular story (Musou) mode.

Ultimate Skills to Pay the Bills

If you want to play like a pro, master the art known as Ultimate Skills. Four types of Ultimate Skills can be equipped at any one time, from Recuperation (refills Musou gauge) to the Avalanche that sends a giant spear into the ground in a giant shockwave to stun all nearby enemies. Master these Ultimate Skills to hit better combos and destroy enemy units in the flashiest, most dazzling way possible.

Time to Get Hype(r)

Hyper Attacks allow you to round up your enemies into one place and then follow up with a standard attack and a devastating Power attack. This allows you to experience the exhilaration of defeating a large number of enemies at once, while also continuing your combo. Your character will also receive a boost in strength from increasing your combo counter.

I've Got the Power

By equipping a weapon that your character is proficient with, some Power Attacks will turn into a unique Power Attack. As this is a very strong attack, characters that learn their unique Power Attack earlier will be much easier to use.

Gold Rush

There are some enemies that can be more easily defeated by specific Ultimate Skills. By using the right Ultimate Skill against the right enemy, you can defeat them in one hit, the amount of time until you can use your next Ultimate skill decreases, and the amount of gold they drop goes up!

Time to Train

You can efficiently strengthen your characters by using the rewards you receive from battles, such as Stock EXP and Stock Weapon Mastery. As soon as you gain access to a new character, you should head to the Dojo and start strengthening them up!

Elements of Surprise

Try to focus on acquiring skills for your characters that increases their Musou Gauge. This will allow you to freely use your powerful Musou Frenzy Attack and allow your character's weapon to activate its elemental effects, making you much more of a threat on the battlefield!

As part of a free limited time bonus, gamers who purchase Samurai Warriors 5 will be able to download the Samurai Warriors Costume Set, including new outfits for Nobunaga Oda and Misuhide Akechi. To redeem, the limited time bonus must be downloaded by August 9th.

The Forgotten City’s Journey From a Mod to a Standalone Game

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 11:00 AM PDT

In 2016, The Forgotten City was a big story-driven expansion for a popular RPG and the first mod to win a national screenwriting award. You discover a mysterious underground city in a state of ruin, travel back in time and meet its inhabitants. Then you learn about a terrible curse: If one person sins here, everyone dies. So you try to figure out who’s responsible for the sin that destroys the city, and prevent it – all while caught in a Groundhog Day-style time loop.

The mod was downloaded more than 3,000,000 times, and IGN called it “simply amazing,” but as popular as it was, I’d made it in my spare time on a budget of $0, and I knew I could do much, much better. So, way back in 2017, I decided to develop it into a standalone game, bigger and better in every way possible.

I just had 3 small problems:

1) I had no time

2) I had no budget

3) I had absolutely no idea how to make an entire game

Despite all that, it is now available on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, and this is a story about how it all came together. So let's travel back in time, shall we?

My first problem – no time – I solved by quitting my job. It was insanely risky, of course, especially as I was in the legal profession, where taking a few years out usually means you can’t get back in. It felt like jumping out of an airplane, and my plan was to learn to fly by the time I hit the ground.

My second problem – no budget – I solved by dipping into my savings and applying for grants. After making a rough prototype, I managed to land grants from a benevolent arts funding body (Film Victoria), as well as an Unreal Dev Grant from Epic. The mod and its reception really opened a lot of doors.

My third problem – no experience – I solved by hiring Alex, a programmer who’d just finished making a VR spacewalk sim in collaboration with NASA – a one-man-army who’s done the work of an entire team of programmers over the last four years. We met by chance at a party. Remember parties? Right place, right time.

The highlight of 2018 was seeing the game revealed on stage at E3’s PC Gaming show. After a lifetime of watching E3 it was mind-blowing to see my little game up there. We even managed to win an Unreal E3 award: “Unreal Underdog” for being brave (read: crazy) enough to compete with the big dogs of E3.

It felt like a win at the time, but we later realized we’d made the mistake of announcing the game way earlier than we should have, because we kept finding ways to make it better, and ended up having to delay it a few times.

The highlight of 2019 was exhibiting the game at GDC and PAX East. We were just about out of funding, when I met a publisher called Dear Villagers, who gave us the support we needed to make the game we always wanted to make.

Later they told me one of their scout’s key criteria, in deciding who to publish, is “Would I like to have a beer with this person?”, so never underestimate the importance of relationships. I couldn’t visit them in France because of the pandemic, so I sent them a nice case of beer with a “thank you” note anyway.

2020 was a blur, but two things stand out:

First, we got to work with a couple of extraordinary historical consultants to make sure our game world – an ancient Roman city – has historically authentic art, architecture, costumes, and customs. One, Dr. Philip Matyszak, has a D.Phil from Oxford, teaches at Cambridge, and has written 17 books. The other, Dr. Sophie Hay, has spent the last 20 years excavating the ruins of Pompeii. They’re both really smart, lovely, and down to earth, and helped us immensely.

Second, we finally figured out how to make good dialogue animations, thanks to a call with Shon Stewart, the Lead Animator at one of my favourite devs, Obsidian. No, our animations aren’t Triple-A motion capture, but considering we’re a core team of 3 devs, I’m super happy with the way they turned out.

That brings us to 2021. The game launches later this month.

The last 4.5 years have been terrifying, exhilarating, creatively satisfying, and all-consuming. They’ve also been super productive: We’ve re-written the script (it’s now twice as long), and added new characters, quests, twists, endings, gameplay mechanics, as well as professional voice acting and a new orchestral score.

Whatever happens next, I’m really proud of how The Forgotten City turned out, and I’m really glad I took the leap!

Thanks for reading!

!.07-Xbox Wire

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