Gamer's Outpost LLC

by Chris Reed

For console gamers, the most important difference between the Xbox One, Wii U, and PlayStation 4 is the games. Sure, they differ in CPU and graphical power, but none of that matters unless it’s used to fuel awesome gaming experiences. To find out which console is worth your hard-earned cash, we’re going to look at what exclusive games are in the works for each system. Here are five of the most exciting upcoming Xbox One games you won’t find on any other platform.

Quantum Break
Release Date: Q2 2015

If you’re wondering just how ambitious Xbox One developers are, wonder no more. Quantum Break, by the makers of Max Payne and Alan Wake, is a third-person shooter that’s being made alongside a live-action television series. You’ll play a section of the game, then watch an episode of the show, then lather, rinse, and repeat. Some of the scenes in the episodes presented to you, however, will depend on the choices you make in the game.

While this isn’t the first video game to have a TV show tie-in (Defiance is a current example), the way the two interact here sounds very interesting. Don’t expect innumerable branching pathways, because then they’d have to film an ever-expanding set of alternate scenes. But if this multimedia project coalesces into a powerful whole, it could turn out to be a very interesting project. Look for Quantum Break sometime in the middle of next year.

Halo 5: Guardians
Release Date: Q4 2015

Coming late next year is the next major episode in what is arguably the most beloved first-person shooter series of all time. The Halo franchise is nearly synonymous with Xbox, so Halo 5: Guardians is a huge deal for Microsoft. Developer 343 Industries is taking its time with the game, not rushing to get it out before it’s ready, or to bolster sales of the Xbox One hardware.

This may be why very little has been revealed so far, aside from a pair of cryptic teaser trailers. But based on the way Microsoft is treating this game, all signs point to Halo 5: Guardians as being a very big hit.

Fable Legends
Release Date: (TBA)

Another long-running Xbox exclusive series is Fable. While designer Peter Molyneux has a long history of promising more features than he delivers, his Fable games have always been a lot of fun. Typical to the fantasy genre, in these games you start as a nobody and work your way up to being a major celebrity by doing either heroic or villainous things, depending on the choices you make as you play.

Fable Legends is set in the same fantasy world of Albion, but it’s a different sort of game from its predecessors. Instead of a single-player action role-playing game, the developer calls Legends a “multiplayer online quest adventure game.” To cut through the jargon, four players (or AI-controlled characters) will act as heroes in the game, while a fifth player takes the role of the villain. The villain’s job is to set up the quest, deploy the enemies, and trigger traps as the heroes play. It sounds kind of like a dungeon master in a game of Dungeons & Dragons, which could work out very well on Xbox One.

Scalebound
Release Date: (TBA)

Developed by Platinum Games, the makers of such excellent action games as Bayonetta 2 and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Scalebound looks like a fantasy game of epic proportions. You play as an adventurer who travels to a distant world full of enormous monsters. Luckily for you, you soon befriend a dragon who helps you take on these vicious beasts.

Really, that’s about all we know so far about the game, but the trailer looks suitably grand. If the game is anything like that (or like the excellent titles Platinum has made in the past), it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Crackdown
Release Date: (TBA)

The Crackdown series follows a futuristic cop in a corrupt, open-world city overrun by violent gangs. What’s remarkable about it is how you start out as a pretty normal guy, but thanks to incremental upgrades, by the end of the game you can leap up the sides of skyscrapers and wipe out swarms of bad guys single-handedly.

We haven’t seen much of the third installment (which will not be called Crackdown 3, according to EuroGamer), but we do know that it will offer a cooperative campaign, destructible environments, and will take advantage of the Xbox One’s cloud computing feature. Watch the cinematic trailer to get an idea of what to expect once the game comes out.