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Xbox-Bethesda Deal is About Great Exclusive Games on "Platforms Where Game Pass Exists" – Xbox Boss

Bethesda Xbox

In the recent roundtable discussion between Xbox and Bethesda team members, Xbox boss Phil Spencer provided some interesting details on how exclusivity would work for Bethesda's titles. "So obviously I can't sit here and say every Bethesda game is exclusive, because we know that's not true. There's contractual obligations that we're going to see through as we always do in every one of these instances.

"We have games that exist on other platforms, and we're going to go support those games on the platforms they're on. There's communities of players. We love those communities and we'll continue to invest in them. And even in the future, there might be things that have either contractual things or a legacy on different platforms that we'll go do."

However, for Xbox players, the acquisition is about "Delivering great exclusive games for you that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists, and that's our goal. That's why we're doing this. That's the root of this partnership that we're building, and the creative capability we will be able to bring to market for our Xbox customers is going to be the best it's ever been for Xbox after we're done here."

Microsoft earlier noted that some future Bethesda titles would be exclusive for Xbox and PC. Titles like Deathloop and GhostWire: Tokyo, which have a one-year exclusivity period on PS5 (while also launching for PC), are clearly excluded. Spencer's recent comments clarify that current titles won't suddenly become exclusive to Xbox consoles. So The Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76 players can continue enjoying those games on PlayStation.

On the other hand, this potentially points to other titles that don't have existing deals or contractual obligations being exclusive to Xbox and PC. Microsoft hasn't indicated which titles fit into this criteria but this could include Starfield, The Elder Scrolls 6 and even the upcoming Indiana Jones title from MachineGames (especially since none of them have confirmed platforms till now). We'll have to wait for more details in the coming months so stay tuned. In the meantime, 20 Bethesda titles will be coming to Xbox Game Pass later today – check out the full list here.

Monster Truck Championship Review – A Monster's Jam

There's something about monster trucks that should translate perfectly to games. They exist almost in their own world, sectioned off from the rest of entertainment, not quite as detail-oriented as NASCAR but not quite as intentionally bombastic as the WWE. But what makes them so great is their huge, over-the-top ability to take down anything in their path and still get up to breakneck speeds. While it doesn't have the luxury of using the real-world Monster Jam license, Monster Truck Championship makes this crossover work about as well as you could hope. Even with its higher emphasis on simulation over arcadeyness, its level of control over these giant metal beasts feels wonderful, both on the racetrack and in the freestyle arena. The only problem is that there isn't more of it.

Compared to its officially licensed counterpart, Monster Truck Championship puts a lot more emphasis on the simulation aspect of its monster truck simulator. Trucks don't have a boost, nor can you control them in mid-air. Instead, you have a high degree of control over the trucks without it ever feeling unrealistic or punishing. These beasts can get up to exhilaratingly high speeds and do awe-inspiring tricks, and while you need to take note so that you don't lose traction or flip over, the gameplay always feels like it's giving you the benefit of the doubt when you're doing something cool.

monster truck championship

"These beasts can get up to exhilaratingly high speeds and do awe-inspiring tricks, and while you need to take note so that you don't lose traction or flip over, the gameplay always feels like it's giving you the benefit of the doubt when you're doing something cool."

Most of the game's structure falls into the career mode, where you participate in sequences of multi-staged events to gather points and make your way from the starting National League into the higher prestige, more rewarding Major League. Every event consists of some combination of stages, and you garner more points the better you do in every stage. The more points you get, the more events you unlock, until you reach the league's finale and you move up to the next stage of your career.

The actual gameplay occurs in one of four ways: longer races, short one-on-one drag races, simple freestyle trick showcases, and other demolition-focused skill showcases. Every event does a good enough job of mixing up the sequence of stages, so you don't feel like you're playing the same thing over and over again. There are six or seven unique courses for each type of event, and they're generally diverse enough to feel distinct from each other course in an event type. Some long race courses, say, are much longer and more straightforward, while others have diverging paths or are set in packed stadiums. The drag races, which are much shorter 8-person tournaments, have a lot more variety, mostly due to their short length. Some are less than 10 seconds and require a single turn, while others are a bit longer, maybe 25 seconds, but require some more tight turns and jumps. These give you a lot less room for error, especially with their focus on getting a good RPM even before you start, but they can be the most fun in their quick runs.

Freestyles and demolition events are set in the same arenas, each of which is crafted to naturally allow you to keep your combos going. Even when you're not attempting a massive, death-defying trick, odds are you're still performing some long jumps or bicycles to connect you between big tricks. Plus, they all start out with a planned, slow-motion major stunt that gives some early vigor to your run. I always felt in these trick showcases like I was actually doing something cool and that the game rewarded what I thought were the coolest things I did, even if they weren't the biggest tricks. Even if doing backflips can get old after a while, I always felt like I was doing the kinds of tricks that would get me "ooh"-ing and "ah"-ing at an actual monster truck event. It doesn't hurt that these courses, along with the trucks themselves, look really good, from the dirt coming off the tires to the shine off the truck doors, and their impressive load times on the Xbox Series X makes it very easy to jump into events.

monster truck championship

"Even if doing backflips can get old after a while, I always felt like I was doing the kinds of tricks that would get me "ooh"-ing and "ah"-ing at an actual monster truck event. It doesn't hurt that these courses, along with the trucks themselves, look really good, from the dirt coming off the tires to the shine off the truck doors."

You're mostly free from any detailed management of your career, aside from the ability to hire sponsors and staff to your team. Sponsors give you specific missions to complete, like land a backflip or win a race, in exchange for reward money. The harder the mission, the bigger the payout. Your team, on the other hand, is the only real way to improve your truck. You can choose your truck's chassis for the cosmetic change, but the team you build, which grows as you progress, makes the real changes to your truck's stats in exchange for a piece of your income. You can also hire managers that give you higher income and lower event entry fees over time.

While the ability to add engineers to your team is a good idea in theory, the game's economy and overall lack of difficulty make team management almost entirely moot. Aside from the first few events, I was never lacking in the financial department. I was regularly making much more money than I'd need for entry fees, so even the best engineers taking even 10 percent of my income was hardly a tough concession to make. And with the chassis and other cosmetic options having no effect on gameplay, it's easy to completely forget about the economy altogether.

When it comes to actual gameplay, too, I found that I breezed through almost every event without much stopping me, emphasizing how short the campaign really is. Even without the best team members or most upgrades, I regularly finished in the top 3 of almost every event, if not outright winning them. Even in the final, theoretically most challenging league, any event that I didn't win was a disappointment, not because of my desire for greatness, but more so because of the opponents' general lack thereof. I often found myself leading races wire to wire, and I sometimes would double the next highest score in freestyles, all on the normal difficulty. The game's structure lends itself to forcing you back to previous events to place higher in the standings and get more points, but when all was said and done, I had not only not needed to go back, but I had unlocked most future events without so much as retrying a single one.

monster truck championship

"I was able to barrel my way to the top of the highest league in about 5 hours, and by that point, I felt like I had accomplished everything there was to do."

It doesn't help, then, that the game is far too barebones to keep your attention for longer than a few hours. Because every track is used in every league, they become extremely repetitive by the time you reach the Majors, with the only change being the number of laps in a race and a change in the logos on the sides of buildings. I was able to barrel my way to the top of the highest league in about 5 hours, and by that point, I felt like I had accomplished everything there was to do. There aren't other trucks to change how you play, nor are there any substantial other modes aside from traditional offline and online quick play. I wanted to continue playing, but I had little incentive to go back and complete everything all over again.

Despite lacking an official license, Monster Truck Championship puts itself in a great spot to be the premier monster truck racer on the market. Its simulation feels great and finds a good balance between realism and encouraging impressive stunts, and a diverse array of tricks allows you to feel like you're achieving all the cool things monster trucks should be able to do. Without anything in the way of endgame or really any reason to return once the campaign has ended, its only major problem is selling itself short. I really wish there had been more to Monster Truck Championship's package, since it shows glimpses of a great foundation for a top-tier monster truck simulator.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.

Xbox Game Pass Receives 20 Bethesda Titles Today

Xbox Game Pass - Bethesda titles

In a new Xbox Wire post, Microsoft has announced 20 games from Bethesda Softworks that will be added to Xbox Game Pass today. With a few exceptions, many of these titles will be playable on Xbox consoles, PC and the cloud. Even though The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition is already available for console owners, subscribers on other platforms will be able to play it as well.

The full list is quite extensive and includes the following titles:

  • Dishonored Definitive Edition
  • Dishonored 2
  • Doom (1993)
  • Doom 2
  • Doom 3
  • Doom 64
  • DOOM Eternal
  • The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
  • The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (Console, PC)
  • The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition
  • The Elder Scrolls Online (Cloud, Console)
  • The Evil Within
  • Fallout 4
  • Fallout 76
  • Fallout: New Vegas (Console)
  • Prey
  • RAGE 2
  • Wolfenstein: The New Order
  • Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
  • Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Prey and Fallout 4 will be returning to the service after exiting last year, though the latter is the base version and not the Game of the Year Edition. Dishonored Definitive Edition and The Evil Within are new entries while Dishonored 2 makes its return after leaving last September. It should be interesting to see if Dishonored: Death of the Outsider and The Evil Within 2 arrive on Game Pass at some point.

A roundtable discussion is currently on-going between Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda team members – find out more about that here. Microsoft has also confirmed that some future titles from Bethesda will be exclusive to Xbox and PC. Stay tuned for more details in the coming days on which ones.

Destruction AllStars Patch 1.3.1 Adds Mayhem 8v8 for Teams, New AllStar Skins

Destruction AllStars

A new patch is live for Lucid Games' Destruction AllStars and brings Mayhem 8v8 for Teams along with new cosmetics and quality of life changes. Nine new AllStars skins are available with two being Heroic and one Legendary. The number of AllStar Coins that players receive on leveling up has also been increased.

Perhaps the most noteworthy change is that Weekly Changes will now reward Destruction Points and AllStar Coins on completion. Since Destruction Points are needed to purchase higher tier cosmetics and the single-player Challenge Series, this allows for earning them without spending real money. Patch 1.3.1 also offers various stability improvements and fixes.

Destruction AllStars is currently available for free on PlayStation 5 via PlayStation Plus. Those without PS Plus can purchase it for $19.99 on April 6th. More content is due in the coming weeks including a Challenge Series for Bluefang, Carnado Solo in the Featured Playlist and "a few more surprises." This is in addition to new AllStars and modes that are planned for the future.

Loop Hero Crosses 500,000 Sales in First Week

Loop Hero

In its first week of launch, Rogue-lite idle RPG Loop Hero has sold over 500,000 units. Developed by Four Quarters and published by Devolver Digital, the title had an average user playtime of 12 hours. Its soundtrack is also the fastest selling in Devolver's history.

Over on Steam, the developer thanked fans for their support and revealed upcoming quality of life patches in the works. These include new speed settings, the ability to save during expeditions and even trait decks from bosses. It also confirmed that "lots more content" would be added like new classes, transformations and cards.

Loop Hero is currently available for PC. The story is set after the end of the world as a lone hero sets out to discover what happened. The player is on a set looping path as part of a randomly generated run but can place different environments, buildings and enemies on it with cards. Different card interactions have different effects and it's possible to attain resources to upgrade one's camp. Stay tuned for more details on future updates.

Square Enix Showcase Confirmed for March 18, New Life is Strange to be Announced

Square Enix

Square Enix has announced Square Enix Presents, a digital Direct-style showcase that will feature new announcements and updates on upcoming games. The debut episode of Square Enix Presents will be going live a week from now, on March 18 at 10 AM Pacific Time, and will be a roughly 40 minutes long, with new trailer and announcements for multiple upcoming games.

Square Enix has confirmed that a new Life is Strange game will be announced at the showcase (with the game's Twitter page confirming that fans can expect a new cast of characters, a new story, and a new central supernatural power). Reports have suggested that the series' future will be handled by Before the Storm developers Deck Nine going forward, rather than by Dontnod Entertainment, and we'll now know soon enough how true that is.

Meanwhile, Square Enix also confirms that you can look forward to updates on the likes of Balan Wonderworld, Outriders, Marvel's Avengers, and more. A Just Cause mobile game is going to be unveiled, while several other mobile games from Square Enix Montreal will also be showcased. Announcements to celebrate Tomb Raider's 25th anniversary will also be made- likely the recently leaked Tomb Raider: Definitive Survivor Trilogy. Meanwhile, you can also expect announcements from Square Enix's sister company TAITO.

We will, of course, be covering the event live, so make sure to stick with GamingBolt for all the news and updates.

Ys 9: Monstrum Nox Trailer Highlights the Game's Positive Reception

ys 9 monstrum nox

Nihon Falcom have been admirably consistent with the new instalments they put out in the Ys series, and the recently released Ys 9: Monstrum Nox was another notch on their belt. The game launched to solid reception from critics, while series fans have also had no shortage of praise for the game (it's combat seems to be especially well regarded). To highlight some of that praise, the game's publisher has put out an accolades trailer, which you can check out below.

If you've been on the fence about whether or not to give the game a go, we'd definitely recommend taking the plunge. Our own impressions of Ys 9 were similarly positive. In our review, we awarded the game a score of 9/10, praising its combat and its cast and characters, and said, "Ys IX: Monstrum Nox brings a wide array of impressive gameplay elements in concert with a wonderful cast of characters to make an exhilarating, thoughtful package that's one of the series' best." You can read our full review through here.

Ys 9: Monstrum Nox is currently available on PS4, though the game will also be releasing for PC and Nintendo Switch some time later this year. A precise release date for that has yet to be announced, so stay tuned to GamingBolt for more updates on when that happens.

Little Nightmares 2 Has Sold Over 1 Million Units

Little Nightmares 2_11

Bandai Namco and Tarsier Studios launched the excellent horror puzzle platformer Little Nightmares 2 a month ago now, and the game has enjoyed success on all fronts right out the gate. On top of solid reception from critics and praise from fans of the series, the game has also seen strong sales in the short time that it's been out.

Bandai Namco recently announced via the game's official Twitter account that Little Nightmares 2 has sold over 1 million units since launch. That's an impressive milestone (especially for an indie developed release) no matter how you look at it, but seeing as the game's managed those sales in just a month, that achievement becomes even more laudable.

It was recently confirmed that Tarsier Studios, now under the ownership of Embracer Group, would move on to new properties, but even though the developer is not going to work on its beloved horror IP anymore, Bandai Namco has confirmed that it will continue to invest in Little Nightmares. Who will work on future games remains to be seen.

Little Nightmares 2 is available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Stadia. The game will also be releasing for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S later this year. You can read our review for it through here.

The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eridanos Releases on March 17th, Opening Cinematic Revealed

The Outer Worlds - Murder on Eridanos

Obsidian Entertainment has released the opening cinematic for The Outer Worlds' second expansion Murder on Eridanos. It also announced a release date of March 17th with the expansion available standalone or with the Expansion Pass. Check out the cinematic below.

Players travel to Eridanos following the death of Halcyon Helen. Eridanos is composed of several floating islands and using the Discrepancy Amplifier, you'll discover hints to solve the overall mystery. From the Grand Colonial Hotel to the groves of Rizzo, there's something strange going down on Eridanos and it's up to the player to find out what.

Along with new story missions, the expansion adds three new science weapons, the level cap increasing 3, new perks and new flaws for one's character. The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eridanos will be available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC players next week while Nintendo Switch owners will have to wait till later this year. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Could be Headed to Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X/S

dragon ball z kakarot

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot might not be the most spectacular game you'll ever play, but for many fans of the beloved Japanese franchise, the action RPG was exactly what it needed to be. Even more than a year on from its launch, the game is still going strong, and it's possible that there might be more milestones ahead for it- and Bandai Namco themselves may have inadvertently spilled the beans on them.

Bandai Namco Latin America's official Instagram page recently uploaded a trailer for the upcoming Trunks: The Warrior of Hope DLC. Interestingly enough, as spotted by Nintenleaks on Twitter, the trailer mentions Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X/S among the platforms that the DLC will be releasing for. No Switch or Xbox Series X/S version of the game has officially been announced by Bandai Namco, of course, and while this might simply an error, it wouldn't be surprising to see the game coming to more platforms (especially since most recent Dragon Ball releases have been ported to the Switch). And considering how successful Kakarot has been for Bandai Namco from a sales perspective, it would make sense that they'd want to expand on that commercial success by making the game available to even more prospective players.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is currently available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.