What happened at Xbox’s E3 show? From Starfield to RedFall

Microsoft’s Xbox E3 2021 press conference brought us some exciting news for all sorts of upcoming titles including Halo Infinite, Forza Motorsport, Starfield, and much more. Here’s everything you need to know about what went down.

2021 saw one of Microsoft’s most highly anticipated pressers in recent memory, especially since last year’s E3 trade fair was canceled due to the global health situation. That’s not all, though, as the gaming giant had obviously been making some major moves during the lockdown.

Having acquired Bethesda back in March – developers of the Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Dishonored – players were looking forward to hearing more about which games would be Xbox-exclusive in 2021, 2022, and beyond. And they weren’t disappointed.

Not only that, but there are still plenty of unanswered questions about almost all of the games that we saw confirmed: Halo Infinite, the first Forza Motorsport on Xbox Series X|S, and much, much more.

Halo Infinite

Halo Infinite still doesn’t have an exact release date, but the Xbox E3 press conference did tell us it will be coming out Holiday 2021.

Aside from a launch window, devs shared a brand-new trailer for the exclusive game, as well as further details on weapons and even some gameplay. Releasing a first-look at unfinished gameplay, as it was still being developed, was a disaster back in July 2020. A meme featuring “Craig” from the trailer went viral, as people joked the graphics were akin to the Xbox 360.

That wasn’t the case this year though, as fans were treated to scenes of a very polished game, that even features free-to-play multiplayer on top of looking fantastic, as a Halo game on the current generation of Xbox should.

Here’s everything we know about Halo Infinite so far.

Forza Horizon 5

Everyone was expecting an announcement about the new Forza Motorsport game at E3. That didn’t happen. What did happen was we got the first look at Forza Horizon 5, coming to Xbox on November 9, 2021.

With so many questions still unanswered going into the presentation about what was next for the Forza series, it was the perfect time to deliver, and deliver they did.

During the Xbox show, Microsoft Studios confirmed there will once again be a battle royale mode in Forza Horizon 5. Not only that, there’s a new volumetric lighting system to improve graphics – something new to Xbox Series X|S.

Here’s everything we know about Forza Motorsport so far – and Forza Horizon 5.

Starfield

With Bethesda joining the Microsoft network of game developers, all eyes turn to Starfield – the game they’ve confirmed will be released before the next Elder Scrolls game.

Feeding off of scraps is the best way to describe Bethesda fans in relation to the sci-fi title, as even after E3 2021 we still don’t have a lot of information to go off of, but we do have a set release date of November 11, 2022.

Besides that and an obvious setting in space, we also got a possible name for your ship: the Constellation. Other than that and some good-looking screenshots though, there’s still not a whole lot to go on for this mysterious title.

Here’s everything we know about Starfield so far.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl

Break out the vodka and the sausage, because we’re headed back to the Zone, baby. That’s right — at E3 2021 we got our first real look at the highly anticipated S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl, and the Anomaly-filled wasteland has never looked better.

While we did get to return to the bliss and safety of the campfire with our fellow Loners, what we didn’t get during E3 was a set release date. We do know Heart of Chernobyl is set to come out sometime in 2021, but exactly when remains unknown. The holiday season could be a good bet, but we’ll be sure to update you with the latest information as soon as it’s available.

The Outer Worlds 2

In what was perhaps the most meta of any E3 trailer we saw this year we got the news that The Outer Worlds 2 was currently in development. Did we also learn things like what will be in the game, or a release date? Nope! Literally all we know is that The Outer Worlds 2 is currently in development, but based on the trailer we’re also confident it will continue with the original’s unique sense of humor.

Microsoft Flight Simulator & Top Gun

Flight Sim isn’t a new title by any means, but it was also featured in the Xbox presser to show off the new Top Gun: Maverick crossover that will be going on later on in 2021.

Age of Empires 4

You didn’t think we had forgotten about you RTS fans now, did you? In addition to some great-looking shots from the first new AoE game in over 15 years, we also got a concrete release date of October 28, 2021 for Age of Empires 4.

The new trailer is classic Red vs Blue team action, and there are knights, archers and trebuchets galore. Based on what we know about AoE your in-game armies probably won’t be that impressive, but we still can’t wait for a new title from arguably one of the biggest names in the RTS genre.

RedFall

Finally, a game absolutely no one saw coming was Redfall, a Co-Op PvE game where you and your crew take on bloodthirsty vampires in what looks like an equally bloody good time — at least based on the trailer.

https://youtu.be/lxX-4U5uJqk

Each character, hero, whatever they’ll be called seem to have their own unique abilities and weapons, including what looks like a wooden-stake gun and some kind of UV light cannon, guns that seem perfect for vampire-hunting duties.

On top of all those details, we also got a release window for the game, while it’s not an exact date, at least we know Redfall will be coming out sometime during Summer of 2022.