We hope you’re having an exciting month exploring the Talos I space station in the June 2024 TA Playlist game, Prey, but now it’s time to look ahead and choose the featured game for the next month’s TA Playlist.Microsoft came out strong earlier this month with a phenomenal Xbox Games Showcase, featuring over 30 upcoming titles. There were some entirely new announcements, such as Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, Winter Burrow, and Mixtape, and we also saw new trailers and gameplay for previously-announced games like South of Midnight, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Avowed.For this month’s Playlist poll, we selected four franchises that had big games featured in this month’s Showcase, all of which are Microsoft first-party titles that will launch into Xbox Game Pass on day one. Obviously, we won’t see any of the actual games from the Showcase in a Playlist poll for a while, but we picked some previous games from the franchises to face off for the July 2024 TA Playlist. All of this month’s nominees are available on Xbox Game Pass, so which one will you choose for next month’s featured game?Doom (2016)Going in Showcase order, the first of our featured franchises came with the announcement of Doom: The Dark Ages, which will serve as a prequel to Doom. Developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks in 2016, this title rebooted the DOOM franchise, one of the original first-person shooters, and brought it into the modern era.Doom returns as a brutally fun and challenging modern-day shooter experience. Relentless demons, impossibly destructive guns, and fast, fluid movement provide the foundation for intense, first-person combat. Combine your arsenal of futuristic and iconic guns, upgrades, movement and an advanced melee system to knock-down, slash, stomp, crush, and blow apart demons in creative and violent ways.Doom (2016) has an impressive TA user rating of 4.4/5, with over 314,000 tracked gamers having started the game. Around 1% (just under 3,300 users) have unlocked all 54 of the game’s achievements, which is estimated to take around 30 to 40 hours for the base game and the five DLC packs. The DOOM Walkthrough by Kornfan2007 will help you navigate your way through Hell.Perfect DarkThe next big announcement to be featured on our list is the new Perfect Dark, which is currently in development by The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics. While we still likely have some time before we get our hands on the reboot, we do have Perfect Dark (2010), a remastered version of original 2000 Nintendo 64 game developed by Rare and 4J Studios, which was released on Xbox Live Arcade in 2010, and subsequently included in the Rare Replay collection.As agent Joanna Dark, infiltrate the rival dataDyne corporation to stop an extraterrestrial conspiracy. Experience every twist of the story, every stray bullet, every gadget and upgrade, every newly polished texture – and top it all off with full access to multiplayer modes.Perfect Dark currently has a TA User rating of 3.78/5.00, with more than 107,000 users unlocking at least one achievement in the game, and around 1% (just over 800 users) have completed all of the game’s 20 achievements. It’s estimated to take 50-60 hours to get the full 100% completion, although the Perfect Dark (2010) Walkthrough by DarkDan88 has a much shorter 10-20 hour estimate, so check that out if you want to shave some time off your mission.FableUp next is another revival of a classic franchise with the same name as the original, Fable, with an expected release window in 2025. We’ve featured Fable II and Fable III in previous Playlists (March 2018 and July 2021, respectively), but we’ve never gone back to revisit the very first entry in the franchise, Fable Anniversary, which was developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios in 2014.Fable pioneered every player’s choice having a consequence. With Fable Anniversary, a spectacular HD remaster of the original Fable, players will be reminded of why the franchise is so special and unique. All new textures and 3D models, an entirely new lighting system, a slick new interface, achievements, and all of the content from “The Lost Chapters,” make Fable Anniversary the definitive Fable experience for faithful fans and new players alike!Fable Anniversary currently sits at a TA User rating of 4.11/5, and it’s been started by almost 174,000 tracked gamers. It’s estimated that it took 20-25 hours to unlock all 50 of the game’s achievements, although that’s currently impossible due to one discontinued achievement related to the now-defunct Xbox SmartGlass application. Just over 7,100 tracked users completed the game back when that was possible, and 27,475 tracked gamers already have the discontinued achievement, so technically there are still around 20,000 tracked users who could go ahead and finish the game if they want! The Fable Anniversary Walkthrough by Dang3R Gaming should help you make your way through the fantastical land of Albion.Gears of WarThe final game featured in the Xbox Games Showcase, and one of the biggest surprises of the entire show, was a trailer for Gears of War: E-Day, a prequel that will focus on a young Marcus Fenix dealing with the first attack of the Locust on Emergence Day. As with Fable, we’ve previously featured Gears of War 2 (in February 2023) and Gears of War 3 (in February 2020), but we haven’t gone back to the original Gears of War, which was developed by Epic Games and published by Xbox Game Studios in 2006.A Nightmare from Below. A Hero from Within. The planet lies in ruin – cities crumbling, Man’s greatest works fallen. Humanity is cornered, nowhere to run. The Locust Horde has risen, and they won’t stop coming. They won’t stop killing. The Coalition is desperate for soldiers. The sick, the wounded, the imprisoned are all that remain. An inmate named Marcus Fenix, once left to die, is now charged with keeping humanity alive. He can take comfort in but one fact: The human race isn’t extinct. Yet.The original Gears of War has been played by over 516,000 tracked gamers in the TA community, with just over 7,700 users unlocking all 57 achievements – 49 from the base game, and eight more from two DLC packs. The completion estimate is a whopping 150-200 hours, although most of that is down to the original “Seriously…” and other fairly grindy online achievements. A Gears of War Walkthrough by WeisGuy9 is available to guide you through humanity’s war with the Locust.Coincidentally, Doom: The Dark Ages, Perfect Dark, Fable, and Gears of War: E-Day were the top four responses in the recent Poll of your favorite Xbox Games Showcase announcements, so there’s a lot of buzz for these franchises at the moment, and it will be great to go back and revisit one of these original games in preparation for the upcoming new releases. Which one will it be? Place your vote and let us know your thoughts in the comments! And as always, if you have any suggestions for future Playlist games or themes, be sure to drop them in the TA Playlist Game Suggestion Thread for possible inclusion in a future poll!Which game should the community play for July 2024’s TA Playlist?
Doom
Perfect Dark
Fable Anniversary
Gears of War