Conan Exiles Xbox Series X trailer shows off new-gen upgrades

Dedicated new-gen upgrades have come to Conan Exiles on Xbox Series X, and its highlight trailer is one of the best cross-gen showcases yet. 

Conan Exiles has been playable on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S (and PS5) for some time thanks to backwards compatibility, but it's only just received full-fat visual upgrades. As developer Funcom outlined in a new blog post, these include increased resolution and frame rates, improved shadow and texture quality, extended draw distance, enhanced foliage and volumetric fog, and special effects for the environments of the new Isle of Siptah expansion. 

The new trailer for the game's Xbox Series X optimizations helps put these upgrades into perspective. Each improvement is highlighted through handy side-by-side comparisons which not only demonstrate how much better Conan Exiles looks on the new consoles, but also serve as a useful reference for new-gen upgrades in general, handily pointing out how each upgrade actually affects a game's visuals. A game's resolution and frame rate are pretty self-explanatory, but sometimes it's easy to overlook the impact that increased draw distance or, say, volumetric lighting or fog tech can have. 

Originally released in 2018, Conan Exiles has cemented itself as one of today's biggest survival sandbox games. With single player and multiplayer challenges, not to mention the unique appeal of the Conan the Barbarian universe, it's grown out of the customary survival game launch issues and established its own identity as a sort of quasi-MMO. If you're looking to try out the new update, you can play it on Xbox Series X through Game Pass. And as it happens, PS4 and PS5 owners can get the game for just $20 until Thursday, June 10. For reference, the standard edition is currently $40 on Steam, with a medley of DLC and add-ons up for grabs. 

The latest Conan Exiles expansion, Isle of Siptah, introduced the titular island and, through it, a series of ancient vaults built and seemingly inhabited by ancient beings. At first blush, I'm getting some late-stage Ark vibes from Siptah; perhaps it's the fate of all primitive sandbox games to eventually jump the shark and go full alien tech. 

Here are all the upcoming Xbox Series X games revealed so far.