Latest News - Page 2

Forza Horizon 5 is a technical marvel that will push the Xbox Series X to its limits.

Today Playground Games announced Forza Horizon 5, a crazy next-gen spectacle that will show what the Series X is truly capable of. The game looks stunning and features high-resolution textures based on 12K resolution photogrammetry captures, and was built from the ground up for Xbox Series X/S consoles (however it's also coming to Xbox One). The devs promise real-time weather events like dust storms, intense tropical storms, and dynamic seasonal changes over time.

The devs also confirm raytracing will be enabled for Forza Horizon 5, complete with HDR and 4K graphics. "This is the largest, most diverse open-world ever for the franchise. We can see in miles in every direction."

Microsoft's E3 show delivered a ton of announcements and gameplay reveals, but one thing caught me off guard: Mention of the Wolfenstein franchise.

Although Halo Infinite dominated the Xbox E3 2021 show, Phil Spencer might've teased the next Wolfenstein game from MachineGames. "We unveiled the stunning multiplayer mode for the world's most beloved shooter in Halo Infinite, adding to the roster of iconic Xbox shooters alongside Wolfenstein, Gears of War, Perfect Dark, and Doom," Spencer said at the end of the show.

On the surface this doesn't mean much. However, we know a new Gears of War is in development, as well as a new Perfect Dark. Wolfenstein was mentioned alongside these in-development games (and there's a good chance a new Doom is in the works, too).

UPDATE: Blizzard's blog site confirms Diablo II Resurrected is still coming to last-gen consoles like PS4 and Xbox One.

Blizzard finally announced a release date for Diablo II Resurrected, and it's sooner than you think.

Diablo II Resurrected will launch September 23, 2021 on consoles and PC, complete with overhauled 4K graphics, new quality-of-life improvements like an expanded stash, chat rooms and lobbies, as well as trading and everything else the original classic was known for. And yes, Diablo II Resurrected is built on Lord of Destruction (v1.13 to be exact).

The new trailer doesn't list Xbox One as a platform. This is strange because Blizzard recently said DIIR would launch on current- and next-gen consoles and PC.

Battlefield 2042 isn't coming to Xbox Game Pass on day one, EA and Microsoft today confirmed.

Today DICE showcased the first gameplay footage for Battlefield 2042, revealing crazy world-breaking storms, wingsuits, grappling hooks, ziplines, and on-the-fly weapon attachment changing.

The biggest surprise was something that didn't show up. Rumor has it Battlefield 2042 was to release on Xbox Game Pass day one, but those reports were wrong. The end of the trailer had no mention of Game Pass, so the shooter will only be available via a subscription on EA Play Pro on PC.

Bethesda confirms its new sci-fi space epic will use a next-gen iteration of its Creation Engine.

Today Bethesda announced Starfield will release on November 11, 2022 exclusively for PC and Xbox Series X/S consoles. It won't be coming to Xbox One. The team is building the game with its new and enhanced Creation Engine 2, which was scaled specifically to harness the raw power of new hardware, including the Series X's Zen 2 CPU, Navi GPU, and PCIe 4.0 SSD.

"In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom. Harnessing the power of next-gen technology and built on the all-new Creation Engine 2, Starfield takes you on a journey through space as you strive to answer humanity's greatest mystery," Bethesda said.

It's official: Starfield is releasing November 11, 2022 exclusively for next-gen Xbox Series X/S consoles and PC, a leaked video seen on the Washington Post confirms (sorry WaPo).

Bethesda announced Starfield's release date and showcased some new in-game footage at the Xbox press conference (footage was leaked ahead of time). As hinted at by key journalists, Starfield won't be ready until Holiday 2022, and it's not coming to Xbox One. The game will instead be released on the more powerful and flexible Xbox Series X/S console hardware, which offers ultra-fast loading via PCIe 4.0 SSD tech, expanded GDDR6 memory, and powerful new Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU hardware.

Starfield is still in development and the footage was from an in-game alpha build. The trailer set up the game's emphasis on exploration and hope, confirming one of the in-game factions called Constellation (this was actually part of the initial teaser images shown a while back).

Insomniac praises the PS5's power and versatility, says they were "astonished" when Ratchet and Clank was able to hit 60FPS without any major compromises.

Making console games is all about compromise, but the PS5's Zen 2 CPU, Navi GPU, and ultra-fast SSD help eliminate sacrifices and unlocks game performance. Case in point: Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, which has three in-game performance profiles (native 4K 30FPS, 4K 60FPS with variable scaling, 60FPS with RT on).

"Something else that occurred to me is...when you start development on a game, you're just trying to figure out what the game is, then you come back to questions like target frame rate and resolution," Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart lead designer Mike Daly said in a recent Twitch stream.

Galvanic Games' new nifty indie Wizard With a Gun is a stylish new sandbox survival game that channels some interesting source material.

Today Devolver Digital revealed a ton of interesting and weird indie games. Wizard With a Gun was one of them. The game is described as an online cooperative sandbox game with an emphasis on crafting and survival. The grid-based tilesets and strange wilderness instantly conjure up Don't Starve, and the entire map seems to be floating in the void, not unlike the old-school SEGA Genesis classic Toejam and Earl's weird planet explorations. Wizard With a Gun's biomes are also randomly generated, just like Toejam and Earl's maps.

The opening sequence of the reveal was totally reminiscent of Ralph Bakshi's older Wizards animated film, featuring a gritty and colorful visual style. The in-game art is also dark and brooding with stark shadows and lots of maroon tint.

Everyone wants to know how Geoff Keighley secured one of the hottest new games for Summer Game Fest. The reality is that negotiations between Keighley and FromSoftware began years ago.

There's been lots of talk about Elden Ring over the past few months. The game was revealed over two years ago at E3 2019, and Bandai Namco's silence led to lots of speculation. There were rumors of Elden Ring being part of tomorrow's Xbox showcase, but Keighley swooped in and secured the deal from Microsoft. No one knows exactly why FromSoftware and Bandai Namco went to Keighley instead of Microsoft, but we do know negotiations and talks had been happening as early as 2018.

"We've been talking about it for a long time with From and I, for years, with doing something with Elden Ring. I mean it stretches back to 2018 or 2019, I think when we first started talking about it?" Geoff Keighley said in a Q&A after stream session during Summer Game Fest.

Ubisoft went off the script for Far Cry 6's season pass. Instead of story expansions, they're trying something different: A three-chapter series of DLCs where you play as some of the most evil villains in gaming history.

Far Cry 6's new season pass will let you play as Vaas, Pagan Min, and Father Joseph Seed in first-person perspectives. The idea is that you'll step into the mind of villains and experience a unique hell tailor-made for each of their twisted psyches. Vaas, for example, is stuck on a nightmarishly twisted rendition of Far Cry 3's Rook Islands where a cataclysm breaks the skies, sharks swim in the air, and the volcano is always erupting.

The DLC chapters are a cerebral and bizarre revenge fantasy that's kind of like a Tales From the Crypt episode directed by Hannibal's Bryan Fuller. Now Ubisoft reveals more details about the pass. Each chapter is basically a roguelike where you lose all your progress when you die.