Gaming Briefs wearing Boxers for November 20th + Xbox Partner Preview

                Ubisoft has first delayed, then canceled its quarterly fiscal report, and then halts stock trading, causing everyone to speculate that the company, that’s been struggling for several reasons the last few years, has been sold. To Who? Nothing solid on that until Ubisoft speaks up.

                In unfortunate news, game dev legend Rebecca Heineman passed this week, losing a fight with cancer. The story of how the shit show she had to go through single handedly porting DOOM to the 3DO will always live on in legend.
 

                Not much else really caught my eye on the news front this week outside of the Valve hardware announcement (Which I also covered on this blog), so right into the Xbox Partner Preview

Xbox has had a hard… decade in getting any hype out of me but with this preview I was already hit strong by its opening salvo of Armatus.

Second hit with The Mound: Omen of C’thulu , with what looks like an open exploration 16^th century horror game, in an eerily similar setting to New World, but with hallucinations and betrayal, and one hell of a dodecahedron. Honestly both looking good.

                Dave the Diver Makes its way onto Xbox with an expansion of In The Jungle coming in 2026.

                Oh Look a Metroidvania in a SEA of Metroidvanias (He said, while salivating over the prospect.) Crowsworn looks pretty amazing from what I’ve seen of it.

 

                From Echo Generation and Ravenlok comes an EXTREMELY 80’s Sci-fi horror Aesthetic to blast your neurons neon and make you wonder about the grotesqueries from beyond. IT looks like a card based RPG with very voxel-y textures. Echo Generation 2 announcement looks like it’d get you to dress in bright neon colors for the good of mankind.

 

                Tactical Dungeon Crawling Vampire Survivor… spinoff comes Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors. This combination of words turned me off so hard It could be picturing Rosie O’donnel in any state of undress.

 

                Something that did cause a pang of desire was the Aston Martin Valhalla preview for 007 First Light. Damn sexy car.

 

                Roadside Research is a Alien Invasion gas-station simulator. I don’t have other words for this, but I can’t wait to see streamers get their hands on it.

 

                Damn, we are so horror heavy in this preview, but in the best way. From Apogee we get Chaos Reigns, and AWESOME looking hellscape of boom and shoot and boomshoot.  Swear to god It’s like they were trying to appeal to me personally with this entire broadcast. Even down to 70’s grindhouse credits aesthetics.

 

                And then RIGHT after that we have.. .ANOTHER HORROR THEMED GAME. From the creators of Little Nightmares 1 & 2, a new Co-op horror title with the tagline of “Go Through Hell Together”, Reanimal comes out just in time for Valentines day, February 13^th 2026.

 

                Damn, this has such an interesting narrative premise where every time you die a decade passes, and what looks like a heap of permanent choices being involved, Erosion’s first look appears to have a fun gameplay loop to go with all of that.

 

                Zoopunk would fit alongside a lot of late PS1/early PS2 era action games like Tai fu or… any number of animal mascot brawlers of the time.

               

                Gotta love a game that’s opening statement is just “LETS GO GAMBLING” to get anyone used to the memes of the last year to trigger the trauma of that one blown out audio (Aww dangit) Clover Pit definitely looks the part of being addictive yet dangerous. Available now on Xbox

 

                Alright I didn’t expect to be told to go assassinate Eminem today, but hey Hitman gotta spill some mom’s spaghetti in this new Elusive target mission for Hitman: World of Assassination dubbed Eminem Vs Slim Shady, because Marshall just can’t come to terms with… himself.

 

                Well shit this game started out aggressively, right into one of the flashiest bossfights I’ve seen in a long time with notes of betrayal, destruction, and the background showing a lands of chaos and ruin. The fight itself changing scope several times, and even dimension once or twice, It definitely made an impact that I’m interested in.  Tides of Annihilation coming to Xbox.

 

                From the makers of Raji (?) is this extremely fascinating looking game steeped in a style I’m glad to see. No gameplay to speak of,  but damn does this have my attention. Raji Kaliyuga.

                The most important thing to me is this, my Legion Go will go ZOOM… hopefully. I've been looking forward to this update and was hoping I didn't have to jerry rig it just to get it working on the handheld I already have.  

               

                 All in all, not bad. A few games I’m really looking forward to now (Especially after I had several people send me the link for the Total Chaos trailer, like people know me or something.) Definitely better than the Sony State of Play last week.

That's all for today, later!