Game Bites: E3 Day 2 With Xbox/Bethesda, Square Enix and The PC Game Show

Day 2 of E3 2021 has now finished and there were a ton of games announced today. Today was a day of celebrating AAA titles with presentations from the merged Xbox and Bethesda, Square Enix and the PC Gaming Show. 

The first AAA presentation of E3 and one of the bigger presentations we will probably see was Microsoft’s Xbox + Bethesda games showcase. Microsoft had many new announcements, gameplay trailers and listed tons of games coming to Game Pass which is their game streaming platform for Xbox games only. They had announced a mix of 27 titles coming to Xbox Game Pass in total. We saw a new trailer for the new sci-fi RPG Starfield which will be coming out on Nov. 11, 2022 and be available that same day on Game Pass (get used to that phrase, Microsoft pounded into the audience with almost every game). Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl got the date of release: April 28, 2022. Coming first for Xbox consoles and PC, Back 4 Blood will be available on day one on Xbox Game Pass. Contraband, a new co-op open-world game was announced. Sea of Thieves will have a crossover expansion with Pirates of the Caribbean as a free update coming on June 22, 2021. Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life will have familiar characters such as Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones. 

The upcoming first-person shooter game Battlefield 2042 had its first actual gameplay reveal. The Xbox Series X/S exclusive 12 Minutes, which is an interactive thriller, is coming out Aug. 12. We got a new story trailer and gameplay from the psychedelic action adventure game Psychonauts 2, which is coming out on Aug. 25. Fallout 76 is getting an expansion and update called Steel Reign on July 7 and the expansion The Pitt in 2022. For the fans of party games like Fall Guys, Party Animals, where you play a ragdoll-like cute animal, will be a console launch exclusive releasing in 2022. We had a look at a new title, Somerville, coming to Game Pass in 2022. Halo Infinite is getting a multiplayer mode this holiday season. Diablo 2: Resurrected got a new gameplay trailer and an official release date: Sept. 23. A sequel for A Plague Tale, named A Plague Tale: Requiem, was confirmed to be launching in 2022 and will be also available on Game Pass. Atomic Heart, which had Bioshock vibes to it, will be available on Game Pass from day one. Age of Empires 4 is launching on Oct. 28. Replaced, a new game where you are an AI trapped in a human body against its own will, is coming to Xbox in 2022. The Outer Worlds 2 dropped a funny cinematic trailer that was basically one long apology for not having anything new to show. Microsoft Flight Simulator is coming to Xbox on July 27. Another installment in the Forza line, Forza Horizon 5 is launching on Nov. 9. Redfall, which is a vampire shooter from the team behind Dishonored, will be an  exclusive for Xbox launching in Summer 2022.

Square Enix had the next big presentation which included more updates on already announced games as well as some new stealth drops and confirmed leaks in new games. Prior to the show, there were leaks of a new game from Square Enix and developers Eidos Montreal and at the presentation we got to see that the game was Guardians of the Galaxy. We got a taste of some of the gameplay as well as the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy, which looks very similar to another Square Enix title, Marvel’s Avengers, and will be launching this October. Speaking of Marvel’s Avengers, we got a look at the upcoming Black Panther: War of Wakanda expansion which will be free and feature Black Panther but so far has no release date. The long discussed Babylon’s Fall was mentioned and will be a live service game coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Steam but has no release date. We got a surprise announcement that the first six Final Fantasy games will be getting a pixel remaster and will only be available on Steam and mobile. Life is Strange: True Colors got another mention and announcement that the preorders will include the Life is Strange remastered collection and will be arriving September 10th. For the 30th anniversary of the Seiken Densetsu series, Legend of Mana Remaster is coming to PS4, Steam and Nintendo Switch on June 24. We got an announcement for the upcoming NieR mobile game as well as a Hitman mobile game called Hitman Sniper. The big ending to the Square Enix Showcase was the new title Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. The new IP has Souls-like elements and will be developed by Team Ninja with a 2022 release.

The PC Gaming showcase was the last of the day and featured a few previously shown games but had its own announcements as well. Some of the most impressive games shown were Icarus, Silt, and Dying Light 2 Stay Human. Icarus is a session-based PvE survival game for up to eight co-op players, and it can also be played solo. It comes from Dean Hall, creator of DayZ. Silt mixes elements of Limbo and Tim Burton-inspired hand-drawn artwork in a game where you’ll be exploring the deep sea and possessing sea creatures to make use of their unique abilities and solve puzzles the deeper you go. Dying Light 2 Stay Human is the long-awaited sequel to the survival horror action game that involved parkour to avoid zombies.