I am an Xbox software engineer and a veteran of the United States Coast Guard. My passion is to connect the world through video games. In my lifetime, I have experienced an incredible shift in technology that now allows video games to revolutionize the way we communicate and maintain relationships with others. Based on my own time in service, my wife’s ongoing service, as well as my upbringing in a military family, I know that utilizing technology to maintain contact with loved ones is essential for the wellbeing of service members and their families.

When I was young, I took pleasure in dismantling objects to investigate their components and then attempting to improve them as I reassembled them. Once, my mother discovered me with a screwdriver in hand, attempting to fuse the Nintendo console to our tube TV after my cousins had tried to hide the console from me. So, it was a natural fit for me to serve in the United States Coast Guard as an Electronics Technician, where I developed innovations to integrate different kinds of technology to computers including radars, televisions, radios, and even engines. During my service, I saw the transition from modular equipment to fully integrated technology with real-time communication capabilities, which allowed us to solve problems more quickly, disseminate information faster, and triangulate search and rescue operations with efficiency.

I also witnessed the revolution of video game technology from cartridge-based platformers to online, open-world RPGs and strategy games with multiplayer and chat capabilities. While we were busy in the Coast Guard and didn’t often have time for play, when we did, we played hard. One of my favorite weekends was when we hosted a gaming festival and connected buildings through gaming with Xbox and LAN (Local Area Network). When I was stationed out on a cutter (a ship), I could be out of contact with the land and my wife for several weeks at a time. But my wife and I often used video games to reconnect and play after stressful times of separation, whether it was creating towns in Fallout 4 or competing for the best score in Zuma. Laughing with her put me at ease and helped me transition back into my family.

For a while, I was deployed overseas. My experience there was difficult and left me with complex post-traumatic stress disorder. But playing games like Halo and Call of Duty enabled me to process my reality in a way that was separated from it and safe. When I completed my service, playing video games helped me transition back to civilian life. In a sense, my brain felt broken, but when I discovered I could play a game on the hardest mode and conquer it, I also discovered I was still able to analyze problems and solve them successfully and I was able to feel confident that I could still engage with a hobby I had enjoyed since I was a little girl with a screwdriver in one hand and a controller in the other.

In honor of military families and service members, here are some ways you can join in supporting service members and their families.

Xbox Supports Military Families via Partnership with USO

From a civilian perspective, it’s challenging to truly understand the sacrifice and commitment that service members and their families make. Sacrifices like being able to hug their partner after a stressful day. Being able to hang out with their best friends after a long workday. Missing their child throw their first strike out in little league. Walking the family dog through the neighborhood at sunset. But through all of these sacrifices and commitment, there are so many things working to keep them connected to family, home, and country. Letters from family, friends, and loved ones. Favorite books and records. Phone calls. Video games. 

Something that makes every player unique is the same thing that unites us: “Gaming is different for everyone.” What serves as a method of socialization to somebody is relaxation to others. It’s a way to connect with family and friends and a way to step away from reality. For some it’s a way to decompress, connect/compete with their fellow service members, or check-in with their family back home.

The USO is a nonprofit organization that has served those who serve us since 1941. The organization works tirelessly each and every day to support and strengthen service members and their families throughout their entire military experience. Throughout the world, service members can take refuge in USO Centers, brick and mortar facilities featuring comfortable amenities like Wi-Fi, gaming equipment, pool tables, snacks and drinks, and programs designed to connect service members to their loved ones back home. Programs like USO2GO and Entertainment help the organization reach service members in austere locations of particular hardship, providing morale-boosting connectivity in places where it’s needed the most. Military Family programming supports both military children through programs like the USO Reading Program and military spouses with Coffee Connections. 

The USO continues to revolutionize the way it delivers its mission and in 2019, the USO launched its Gaming Program as another way to provide support. Recognizing the importance of gaming, the USO strives to create a comprehensive gaming program that captures a little bit of everything for everyone. Tournaments like the Salute to Service Showdown give service members the chance to compete for all-inclusive trips to the Super Bowl. The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Esports program enables military children the opportunity to compete against their peers in scholastic competition. Gaming Coffee Connections gives military families the ability to play games with others – providing the opportunity to connect. USO Centers house gaming equipment giving service members the ability to play with family, friends, or step away from it all and jump into the latest single player story.

Video games are so much more than a screen, a game console, and the act of putting on a headset for a few hours of fun. They provide service members with a moment of normalcy and a brief respite from the pressure of their service to this nation – and through the USO, they can do just that. Throughout the last year, Xbox has partnered closely with USO to open gaming centers around the world. Whether supporting the launch at a state of the art facility at Eglin AFB, or a brand new USO center at Pituffik Space Base 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Xbox is committed to helping USO deliver on their mission. To celebrate the connection gaming can provide, Xbox is announcing the sponsorship of two Rapid Response Gaming Kits to be deployed where needed most. More about USO’s Gaming program, including Rapid Response Kits, can be found here.

Gaming and Impact with Microsoft Rewards

To celebrate the connection created through gaming, the USO has been added to Microsoft Rewards on console in the following marketplaces: AU, BE, CA, DE, ES, FR, GB, HK, IE, IT, JP, MX, NL, NO, NZ, SE, SG, TW, and US. Xbox gamers can download the Microsoft Rewards app and join to start earning points for doing what they already do: play on Xbox, shop on the Microsoft Store, search on Bing, solve daily puzzles, and other fun activities. Earning points with new promotions every day and redeeming them for cool prizes such as games, gift cards, sweepstakes entries, or donating points to their favorite organizations like USO and more, is fun and easy. Join us today and donate through Xbox. 

Click on the good boy below to see how you can support USO with Microsoft Rewards:

Play Together, Near or Far

Games bring people together in a powerful way. No matter where you are in the world, you can connect with someone by playing a game. Sharing an immersive experience with a loved one brings us close in many unique ways, such as shared goals, talking through decisions in emotional narratives, and the fun of competition. These connections not only allow families to feel closer together but can also help provide huge boosts to mood and mental wellbeing, especially when someone might be feeling homesick or isolated while stationed far away for long periods of time.  

Xbox Game Pass provides families with a variety of multiplayer games to choose from, including new titles that are added all the time. For the month of May, we are highlighting a collection of games that are great to play together. Featured titles within the collection available with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass include:

Minecraft Legends (Available with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass) – Experience an epic legend from the Minecraft universe in this new action-strategy game with multiple ways to play online with friends and family. Team up and strategize together to overpower groups of fierce piglins in cooperative mode or challenge your loved ones to a Player-vs-Player match for two teams of up to four players each.

Human Fall Flat (Available with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass) – Up to eight players can team up for silly, lighthearted challenges in this puzzle platformer that is fun for all ages. With over 20 levels of floating dreamscapes to navigate, get ready to make memories full of laughter as you flop around together to solve physics-based puzzles in this playful adventure.

Madden NFL 23 (Available with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate) – Lots of people connect over a shared love of sports. Madden NFL 23 lets people take their love of football to the next level by being a part of their favorite teams. The best part is that you can go head-to-head with friends and family online to prove which team is better, play on the same team to try and win together, or create your own franchise with 31 other players.

The Elder Scrolls Online (Available with Xbox Game Pass and Rated M) – Begin your fantasy journey with friends, play together with family, or chart your own path in the ever-expanding world of Elder Scrolls. Enjoy epic story quests, take on dangerous enemies, and create your own style of play in a role-playing adventure that is even better when experienced with a full party of explorers.

Grounded (Available with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass) – Shrunken to the size of an ant, you must explore the mysterious backyard, build a base, and defend it against roaming creatures. But you don’t have to do it alone in this cooperative survival-adventure. Share the backyard with up to three friends or family members, with the option to come and go as you please and play together when you can.

USO and Xbox: Gaming Career Kickstart

As part of our partnership between the USO and Xbox, Larry Hryb, Xbox’s Major Nelson, Jenn Panattoni, Head of Social Impact, Tech Advisor Chris Lamb, Senior Producer iAsia Brown, and Senior Sustainability Specialist Gina Kirby recently launched our virtual series, “USO Career Kickstarts with Xbox,” on Thursday, May 4, with their session “Explore Communication Careers in the Game Industry.” Supported by the Microsoft Software and Systems Academy, Xbox is set to deliver two additional sessions for this special virtual series, with each one-hour session spanning a variety of game career roles in Game Production and Game Engineering. Register for our July and September sessions.

Microsoft Software and Systems Academy (MSSA)

Participants specialize in Cloud Application Development (CAD), Server and Cloud Administration (SCA), or NEW! Cybersecurity Operations (CSO) starting in May 2023.

MSSA is a 17-week technical training program that equips former and transitioning service members for entry-level careers in high-demand fields in IT. Upon completion of MSSA, participants have a pathway towards Microsoft certifications and direct hiring opportunities with Microsoft or one of its 1,000+ hiring partners.

Our tested curricula incorporates live virtual instruction, hands-on labs tackling real-world scenarios, and industry-recognized certifications to prepare participants for a meaningful tech career in any industry.

MSSA also delivers a robust professional development curriculum that includes career planning, professional skills-building – including resume writing and interview techniques – and job search strategies.

Our MSSA program is designed to get our graduates jobs and not put them on the bench, so we will continue to work with our graduates until they land a job – once an MSSA grad, always an MSSA grad.

For more information and upcoming cohorts please visit Microsoft Military Affairs.

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Welcome to Next Week on Xbox! In this weekly feature we cover all the games coming soon to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows, and Game Pass! Get more details on these upcoming games below and click their profiles for further info (release dates subject to change). Let’s jump in!

Weird West: Definitive Edition – May 8 – Game Pass

Survive and unveil the mysteries of the Weird West through the intertwined destinies of its unusual heroes in an action RPG from the co-creators of Dishonored and Prey. Discover a dark fantasy reimagining of the Wild West where lawmen and gunslingers share the frontier with fantastical creatures. Form a posse or venture forth alone and make each legend your own.

Boss Rush: Mythology – May 9 – Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery

Take on the role of a mysterious knight who travels across different worlds in search of the most difficult opponents. Fight famous enemies from Greek, Scandinavian, Slavic, and Egyptian mythologies and show everyone who is the strongest warrior.

Size Matters – May 9

In Size Matters you take on the role of a scientist who has unintentionally ingested a chemical which causes him to shrink every second. As you shrink, getting around the laboratory gets trickier, with the game essentially turning into a platformer as you figure out ways to climb up onto where the equipment and ingredients are located.

After You – Level Escape – May 10 – Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery

You are Aron, a man who wakes up in his room and realizes that he is alone — his family and his neighbors are missing. From here, he will begin a journey to try to understand what has happened. After You – Level Escape is a game full of difficult, narrative puzzles with gameplay focused on exploration, reading notes, and deduction.

Garden Simulator – May 10 – Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery

With Garden Simulator you’ll get your own patch of land, place decorations, and nurture the plants before you harvest them. The richer your yield, the more you can sell and the more money you can spend to enhance your piece of paradise. With countless unlockable features and additional content, your green thumb will be challenged to the max.

90” Soccer – May 10 – Xbox Play Anywhere

Choose your team and face your opponents on quick and wild matches to claim victory where you only have 90 seconds to win.

Sudocats – May 10

Cats are wonderful creatures, but you better not put them together without a proper introduction. Plan ahead and display them in the right order so that they get along as you relax while playing this unique version of Sudoku.

Urbek City Builder – May 10

In Urbek, you will be able to build a city of your own design! Manage its natural resources, improve the quality of life of the population, and build its neighborhoods in your own way.

Blacksmith Forger – May 11

Craft gold and iron ingots as well as weapons and shields while your customers wait for you to complete your work. If they wait too long, they get bored, so you need to deliver your weapons and shields to the customer as fast as you can.

Death or Treat – May 11

A 2D action-roguelite and hack & slash, with hand painted environments and traditional animation. Explore all the worlds and defeat hordes of enemies using different weapons and skills.

Filthy Animals | Heist Simulator – May 11

A chaotic multiplayer heist game for one to four players, spanning across eight different chapters featuring a total of 21 unique heist levels! Take on the role of mutant animals following the orders of Tony, the Filthy Animal Bossman Criminal Mastermind. Wreak havoc through a series of heists starting with a convenience store, a bank robbery, then break into a super-secret military base, with missions ranging all the way into outer space.

Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 – May 11 – Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery / Game Pass

Available on day one with Game Pass! This turn-based RPG is back with a ramped-up battle system for more strategy, as well as a brand-new event system that gives you more thrilling choices to affect your experience! Playable on Cloud, Console, and PC.

TT Isle Of Man Ride On The Edge 3 – May 11 – Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery

The Isle of Man Tourist Trophy is the most epic, most dangerous, and most spectacular race in the world. It is a course of over 60 kms on the roads of the Isle of Man, includes 264 bends, and requires high-powered bikes specially prepared for the race. The riders who compete in it train their whole lives for the chance to win the ultimate accolade: being crowned champion of the Isle of Man TT. The game includes all the official content of the latest TT (riders, bikes, teams, course) for a unique and true-to-life experience.

Herodes – May 11

It is the year 2197. Humanity has never been closer to immortality. There is no disease that can’t be cured, no virus that can’t be defeated. Until now. You will use cutting-edge technology to shrink yourself down and hunt down a new and mysterious virus that can’t be defeated by any other means.

MathLand – May 11       

An evil pirate, Max, has stolen the sacred gems and has cursed the islands filling them with obstacles and traps. Help Ray, our pirate, find the gems and restore the natural order of things by completing fun math games to get to them.

Nightmare Reaper – May 11

Progress through the cursed depths of a nightmare while finding an arsenal of powerful weapons and improving your abilities along the way. This retro-inspired FPS with looter shooter and rogue-lite elements breaches the wall between classic and modern gameplay.

Gnomes Garden 5: Halloween – May 11

Vampires, werewolves, and zombies need your help! Jump in with the princess and her friends to a whole new world of adventure! Mysterious, mystical beings and unexplainable events await in the thrilling causal fantasy strategy game Gnomes Garden: Halloween.

Little Disaster – May 12

Help this little disaster to reach the shiny crystal on every level in this explosive puzzle platformer. Watch the timing of your explosion-meter, otherwise you can destroy everything around you! Use your brain to solve each puzzle and complete more than 70 increasingly difficult levels across four different environments.

Kargast – May 12

Kargast is a dark narrative exploration game with light RPG elements and branching endings. It tells a surreal and semi-satirical story of an unwell child on the brink of death, and his adventures through his surreal, cryptic surroundings.

What do a giant enemy crab covered in interdimensional crystals and a plucky Kangaroo have in common? Simple – They are both bending the rules!

Kao The Kangaroo is back in a new five-level adventure as they take on the perils of the Eternal World! A grumpy old crab has been empowered by the power of the Eternal World, granting him dominion over the lands. After years of being rudely awoken by the locals, the crab is out for revenge! Only Kao has what it takes to stand up to the click-clacking menace!  Will Kao be able defeat the Crab King?! Will the Enteral World ever be truly banished!?! Find out in Kao The Kangaroo: Bend the Roo’les!

Bend The Roo’les takes the Kao The Kangaroo formula and adds a fresh twist across five unique levels. Each level is a challenging take that will push even the most grizzled of Kao and 3D platformer veterans to the edge of their abilities! From retro-inspired side-scrolling action, to lava rising levels that would make a blue hedgehog cower, Bend The Roo’les is more of the Kao you know and love in a whole new style.

This DLC carries on the history of Kao the Kangaroo’s retro influences, including tributes to various levels we have played and loved through the decades. Kao The Kangaroo has seen changes across all aspects of the video game industry and culture. As we gear up to release the next (baby) step in the series, it feels fitting to take inspiration from the decades that originally influenced our series to begin with.

 As a studio, it is always a pleasure to see our plucky Kangaroo star in new experiences. We cannot wait for you to try what we have been cooking up! So, get ready to hop into the latest Kao adventure and put an end to the Eternal World!

Kao the Kangaroo

Tate Multimedia S.A.

☆☆☆☆☆
31

★★★★★

$29.99

Get it now

Kao the Kangaroo is a beautiful 3D platformer jam-packed with fun, exploration, adventure, and mystery! Join Kao, the feisty furball, as he embarks on an unforgettable quest to uncover the secrets surrounding the disappearance of his father. He’ll traverse rich environments, filled with hazards, puzzles, and foes. Each turn uncovers another clue as well as revealing a secret world bubbling under the surface.

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Neverwinter was one of the first console MMORPGs to really get its hooks into me. With the rich lore of Dungeons & Dragons lifting it up and some innovative ways in which it handled combat at the time, not to mention all the journeys that could be waiting for me along the Sword Coast, the entire experience was ripe for adventure (and my time).

While it has been a while since I last ventured into that online realm, I jumped at the opportunity to talk with Executive Producer Brett Norton and Creative Director Randy Mosiondz about the game’s past, present, and future as it hits its eighth year on Xbox (and 10^th overall) this year. It was fascinating to get their insight about the legacy of Neverwinter in an age when so many online games tended to fade over time, but Neverwinter seems to be as strong as it ever was. Interestingly, it wasn’t originally scoped to be a massive multiplayer online RPG at all.

As some adventurers might be aware, before launching as a free-to-play MMORPG, Neverwinter was originally announced as a co-op focused Dungeons & Dragons game that would bring R.A. Salvatore’s “Neverwinter Saga” series of novels to life. Since iteration is a significant part of the game development process, there were many concepts the team was trying out during that early phase of its life, as they refined and focused on the title.

“Early on there was an attempt at building a narrative-focused game where there was heavy storyline scripting, and every player in an adventuring party could ‘vote’ towards how a story would play out.”

“Early on there was an attempt at building a narrative-focused game where there was heavy storyline scripting, and every player in an adventuring party could ‘vote’ towards how a story would play out,” explains Creative Director Randy Mosiondz. “While it was an interesting system, once we incorporated an action-focused combat style, we found the two game elements didn’t mesh well together.”

Mosiondz explains that one of the biggest things the team learned in that iterative process was that when locking a group of players into a narrative, anyone who had experienced that same tale beforehand would grow impatient with having to sit through dialog options, while others simply wanted to get back to the action. This left any player who wanted to listen to the narrative opting out of group play.

“We realized we were trying to serve two types of players and were doing a disservice to both. In the end, we decided to move towards action-combat, as there weren’t a lot of MMORPGs doing that at the time, and players seeking games with heavier narrative focus would enjoy single-player story games better anyway,” says Mosiondz. “The advanced narrative system is still buried somewhere in the code, and if you’ve explored some of the more complex character dialogs you may have seen some of it; it’s pretty robust.”

Based on Neverwinter‘s success over the past decade, it seems clear they made the right choice in focusing on the action gameplay aspect to get development started. Once that core concept was established, development began in earnest with lots of content and ideas starting to take shape leading to the game’s eventual release on PC in 2013.

“That’s one of the graces of an ongoing live game: anything you don’t get into the initial release becomes content for a later release.”

“There was a lot of game we packed into the initial release, which was due in large part to the tremendous efforts of our launch team, as well as a disciplined approach to zone implementation,” says Mosiondz. “Once we developed a strong prototype zone and dungeon that we felt was fun and engaging, we built upon those styles for every successive piece of content implemented.”

Mosiondz mentions that there were still a lot of things the team wished to have incorporated into Neverwinter’s launch, but a big part of shipping a game of this scale is knowing when to focus on refining the content you’re launching with to give the best possible experience to players from the get-go.

“That’s one of the graces of an ongoing live game: anything you don’t get into the initial release becomes content for a later release. And we’ve had 10 years of releases [on PC] since launch to add or revise systems and content. I also think a big part of the relatively strong stability of Neverwinter at launch was due to the experience garnered from all our previous releases, like City of Heroes, Champions Online, and Star Trek Online have allowed us to refine our tech and our practices to allow for a solid launch.”

A few years after the initial launch on PC, Neverwinter set its sights on console. Cryptic had been wanting to bring its titles to Xbox, but at the time there were not a lot of MMORPGs for the platform.

“Even though we knew we wouldn’t launch the game on both PC and console, we were still planning for console support in the future. And when that day came, we were ready!”

“Back in the day, Champions Online was actually built to be delivered on Xbox; as some Champions fans can attest, the game can still be played pretty well on PC with a controller,” says Mosiondz. “When it came time to develop Neverwinter, we knew we wanted to start planning for console in the early design of the game. Even though we knew we wouldn’t launch the game on both PC and console, we were still planning for console support in the future. And when that day came, we were ready!”

Neverwinter’s launch on console was a massive success, as they had suspected, with console gamers enjoying the action-based combat system and social aspects of what MMORPGs can bring. That success is what also led to the eventual port of Star Trek Online, which has also proven to be a tremendously successful MMORPG on console. Even with those successful launches behind them, there was still plenty for the team to learn from.

“We had been preparing for launching Cryptic’s games on console for a long time, so there are some elements we learned early on,” says Mosiondz. “The most obvious one is that you must put constraints on game design to make sure console gamers have a solid experience rather than trying to retrofit PC gameplay back to console. Another thing was the technical infrastructure that needed to be built. While live console marketplaces are fairly common now, there were a lot of complexities back in the day about how things are done with subscriptions, microtransactions, etc., that still needed to be mashed out. It wasn’t until a lot of those things started coming together that made MMORPGs on consoles feasible.”

Since release, there have been no shortage of amazing characters and stories from Dungeons & Dragons lore that have been given a chance to come to life in the world of Neverwinter. Naturally, I had to know from the creators what it has been like playing around in the world of D&D and what some those favorite characters and memories from that experience have been thus far.

“I’ve been a D&D fan for an awfully long time, so building adventures based on it was a dream come true for me.”

“Some of the ‘big bads’ we’ve used as module villains are often our most memorable,” says Executive Producer Brett Norton. “Tiamat, the evil dragon queen, was a unique and massive undertaking for a boss. She’s absolutely massive, has great music that accompanies her fight, and she’s still probably the largest single largest enemy you face in all of Neverwinter. A special callout goes to Acerak as well, the main villain of Neverwinter‘s Chult arc, because he’s both evil and hilarious. His ‘I’m an immortal lich and I don’t care‘ attitude makes the Tomb of the Nine Gods dungeon particularly memorable experience, as you tear his lair apart and finally get on his nerves.”

“As to the good guys, the Acquisitions Incorporated characters are about as wild as it gets,” continues Norton. “Fighting alongside James Darkmagic in the Manycoins Bank Heist is always crazy, with him both helping the party and, occasionally, accidentally polymorphing everyone into chickens in the middle of a fight. The entire Acquisitions Incorporated adventure is unique in Neverwinter, and one of the most memorable series of missions we’ve done.”

“I’ve been a D&D fan for an awfully long time, so building adventures based on it was a dream come true for me,” says Mosidonz. “I’m a storyteller at heart, and love building experiences for players to enjoy. It wasn’t so much a job as a craft for me, and hearing players talk about their favorite characters or adventures that I worked with my team to build really warmed my heart.”

A lot has changed since the initial launch of the game — the version players can experience now is very different than what arrived on day one. Neverwinter has had to keep up with not only new console iterations, but revisions to their source material as well (when it was released, “4th Edition” was the main version and now the game is powered by the “5th Edition” ruleset). As part of this constant evolution, I asked Norton what is it about Neverwinter does he think has allowed it to endure for a decade?

“You can’t expect players to keep playing the same game forever, so you need to grow and evolve with them.”

“Part of enduring is realizing that your game has to grow and change with your audience, and while we won’t claim to have done it perfectly, the team has strived to try new features, new stories, and generally push the boundaries of what could be done with our tools, tech, and D&D in general,” explains Norton. “You can’t expect players to keep playing the same game forever, so you need to grow and evolve with them. The other part comes from the team’s ability to continually release new modules with a pretty regular cadence. We just released our 25th module for Neverwinter, and that means we’ve put out multiple big updates for Neverwinter each year. The game that players see today also isn’t the same version that players saw upon release; major features like guild strongholds and dungeon queues did not exist when the game was first released.”

With the recent release of the latest module, Menzoberranzan, the future continues to be very bright for the future of Neverwinter with seemingly no shortage of adventures that may be in store, some of which Norton hinted at.

“Neverwinter will continue to visit new places in the ever-expanding Forgotten Realms,” explains Executive Producer Brett Norton. “There’s a lot of key locations that we still haven’t visited, like Thay itself, or even Waterdeep. Wizards of the Coast also continues to release new sourcebooks as well, and we generally keep an eye out for some of the newer locations that would fit well into Neverwinter. No spoilers, but we’ve got a unique setting planned for the end of 2023 that we hope comes as a welcome surprise.”

Neverwinter is available to play for free on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. You can download it here from the Microsoft Store for Xbox.

Neverwinter

Gearbox Publishing

☆☆☆☆☆
1116

★★★★★

Get it now

Neverwinter is the premier Dungeons & Dragons MMORPG experience, featuring fast-paced combat and epic dungeons. Explore the vast city of Neverwinter and its surrounding regions, battle its many enemies, and be a part of Forgotten Realms history.

Experience Dungeons & Dragons Like Never Before – Neverwinter is an action MMORPG that bridges intense combat with classic D&D gameplay. Journey through the city of Neverwinter and the legendary subcontinent of Faerûn, and face off against the greatest adversaries from D&D legend.

Build Your Own Legend – Bring your adventures to life through iconic D&D classes and races, advanced paragon paths, companions, and a remarkable range of customization options. Whether you’re hunting dragons and beholders within crumbling dungeons or battling other players in the icy reaches of Icespire Peak, you’ll discover why Neverwinter is the definitive Dungeons & Dragons experience.

Optimized for Xbox One – Neverwinter inspires classic Dungeons & Dragons adventures with a fully optimized player experience for Xbox One. The fast-paced action gameplay of Neverwinter has been mapped to the Xbox One controller, giving adventures the ability to move around the battlefield and cast powerful spells with ease. Xbox One players can also use their Xbox One friends list to find and party up with others as they explore iconic locations of the Dungeons & Dragons universe.

This game supports English, French, German, Italian, and Russian.

Additional System requirements: Minimum broadband internet connection of 512 Kbps is required to access all features.

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The Xbox app for Windows PC lets you discover and download new games with Game Pass, play console games on your Windows PC with cloud gaming, and chat with friends across PC, mobile, and Xbox console. Below you’ll find the latest updates and patch notes for the Xbox App on PC for April 2023 – this update is now available for download from the Store. Always be sure to keep your app up to date for the latest improvements and bug fixes. You can learn more about the Xbox App for PC here.

April Release (2304.1001.15.0)

Quick Games to Play and Longest Games collections added to your Home screen:

• When browsing your Home Game Pass screen, you can scroll down to view various collection channels, including these new collections that list average gameplay times to fit your gaming preferences.

Accessibility filters for All PC Games:

• Filtering the All PC Games list just got better by adding a wide variety of Accessibility filters to help find the right game for your needs.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where no games appeared in the All PC Games section.
• Fixed a bug where some text was cut off when directed to install the Riot or Ubisoft game launcher.
• Fixed a bug where some cloud games were not showing in the Cloud Gaming section.
• Fixed a bug where installation errors did not provide additional details and troubleshooting suggestions.

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The iconic Double Dragon brothers return for some tag team, beat ‘em up action with a roguelite spin! The year is 199x in an alternate New York City. The city has been ravaged by nuclear destruction, leaving chaos and crime to take hold of the city. Unable to sit still and allow this havoc to be wreaked further, Billy and Jimmy Lee (with the help of some new and familiar faces, and you – of course) take it upon themselves to free their city from its four major criminal gangs.

Dynamic Level Select

Once you’ve decided to take on the four major gangs, it’s up to you to decide in which order you’d like to take them on. Each gang takedown is a mission and the order itself in which you choose the missions will shape how you experience the levels. The first level will be the simplest in terms of the number of mission sectors, enemies, and overall difficulty. When a gang is defeated, all remaining gangs levels up, increasing the size of their hideout and recruiting stronger and tougher minions. This allows you to experience different sectors of the missions through multiple playthroughs.

Purchasable Upgrades

Throughout the course of the game, you will have the ability to earn in-game cash. There are a couple of different ways to earn cash, including performing special KOs, completing bonus objectives, maintaining combo and special KO chains, and more.

This cash can be spent on randomized purchasable upgrades for your individual tag team fighters. For example, you can strengthen your duo by upgrading to increase the damage of melee attacks for one fighter and then upgrade the speed in which SP is auto regenerated for the other. Conversely, you can save up your cash to purchase revives or convert your remaining cash into tokens at the end of a playthrough.

Token Shop

Tokens are in-game currency that allows you to buy additional unlockable items. They’re earned through exchanging your remaining cash at the end of a playthrough. Once you’ve raked in enough tokens to spend, head on over to the Token Shop where you can spend your hard-earned chips.

Purchase items such as unlockable playable characters (keep an eye out for some familiar faces), tips to help improve your gameplay from the developer themselves, art from the game (including the city map and character concept sketches), and music.

Game Modifier

Having trouble building up your token stash? It might be time to modify your gameplay experience then. When you start a new game, you’ll be given the option to tweak the game’s difficulty (including the ability to play in permadeath for an extra challenge or infinite continue). The harder you make a playthrough’s difficulty, the lower your cash to token exchange rate is, allowing you the possibility to earn more tokens at the end.

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is coming this summer to Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. For more information on Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons, visit DoubleDragonGaiden.com or follow @modusgames on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Discord.

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