Gaming - Page 477

Spider-Man is still coming to Marvel's Avengers, and he's still exclusive to PlayStation platforms. But PS4 and PS5 owners will have to wait a bit.

Crystal Dynamics just revealed its plans for Avengers' 2021 roadmap, including various content drops, updates, tweaks, and big new expansions. Spider-Man was noticably absent from the list. The developer had previously announced Spider-Man would be a free playable Avengers hero for all PS4 and PS5 owners in early 2021.

"We can't wait for you to add Spider-Man to your Marvel's Avengers roster in early 2021, and as we've promised before, he will be available at no additional cost to owners of the base game, exclusively on PlayStation," Crystal Dynamics associate art director Jeff Adams wrote on the PlayStation Blog in August 2020.

Crystal Dynamics reveals Avengers' full content roadmap for 2021, including a new Black Panther expansion.

Now that Avengers is on PS5 and Xbox Series X, the team can push towards its most important goal: engagement. "Our focus moving forward is to deliver new content that is compelling to play and replay again while offering better rewards," Crystal Dynamics wrote on its new Avengers blog post. The developer plans to make good on its promise with regular seasonal updates with new activities, cosmetics, rewards, and eventually, new heroes and story arcs. All future content is 100% free for Marvel's Avengers owners.

The roadmap cadence follows most live games, with multiple smaller-scale updates set in between sizable expansion-sized content. Avengers' next-gen port released alongside Operation Hawkeye, the current expansion-level update that adds a new playable character (Hawkeye) as well as a new narrative storyline. The next big expansion-sized update, War for Wakanda, will introduce Black Panther as a playable hero in late 2021.

Cyberpunk 2077's anticipated Patch 1.2 update will make some big fixes like boosted frame rates and visuals on PS4 and Xbox One systems, and now CD Projekt shares more details on the nitty gritty details.

In a recent blog post, CDPR confirms some quality-of-life adjustments coming with v1.2, including reduction of psycho cops and vehicle controls. If you've played Cyberpunk 2077, you know how ridiculous the cops can be, especially when they appear out of nowhere. CDPR is tweaking AI spawns to decrease the likelihood of police instantly appearing behind you. They're also adding in a new drone to help boost immersion (but I think this will just end up being annoying).

Another significant change is improving vehicle steering. Patch 1.2 will add a steering sensitivity control, a much-needed feature considering most cars practically slide all over the road.

In an odd twist of fate, Xbox Game Pass on PC and the Microsoft Store has a better version of NieR Automata, an infamously glitchy PC game.

Xbox Game Pass has had its fair share of issues on PC, but the service is now getting updated and upgraded versions of specific games. Users are reporting that the Microsoft Store and Game Pass PC versions of NieR Automata actually run better than the Steam port. The reason? It technically is a different version.

According to PC Gamer, Microsoft is selling the Become As Gods edition of NieR Automata that previously released on Xbox One. It's not the Game of the Yorha Edition. The newer version unlocks borderless windowed mode by default and so it doesn't have the resolution issues the original had. You can also enable FidelityFX Contrast Adaptive Sharpening to make the game look better in certain areas.

Starbreeze is saved! The ailing games-maker has finally found a publisher for Payday 3 and solidifies its future.

After years of uncertainty, Payday 3 has finally found a publisher. Starbreeze has teamed up with Deep Silver parent company Koch Media (owned by Embracer Group) to publish Payday 3, which is set to release in 2023 on consoles and PC.

The partnership will be a long-term publishing deal that stretches across 18 months after the game's release, and Koch Media will be responsible for physical and digital distribution. The development and publishing deal is worth 50 million Euros, Starbreeze says.

Warner Bros. Montreal has delayed Gotham Knights to 2022, the developer today announced.

Gotham Knights, the new Batman game without Bruce Wayne, will no longer release in 2021. The game has been pushed back to an undetermined date in 2022 on PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC:

"Gotham Knights will no launch worldwide in 2022. We are giving the game more time to deliver the best possible experience for players. Thank you to our amazing fans for your tremendous support of Gotham Knights. We look forward to showcasing more of the game in the coming months."

Ubisoft just gave away a bunch of free Assassin's Creed Valhalla gear, including an Altair armor set. Too bad it's not actually worth using unless you're at the very beginning of the game.

Right now, all Valhalla players can download the so-called Godly Reward set for free on the Animus Store. The pack includes a bunch of nifty items, including the Modraniht set, some tattoos, settlement decorations, and a throwback to the franchise's roots with an Altair armor. Sadly, this awesome nostalgic gear isn't really that good and simply doesn't hold a candle to any gear you'll have equipped if you're in the mid- to late-game.

There's a few reasons why Altair's armor isn't that good. It's superior quality, the second tier of armor, so don't expect any amazing stats. The armor also can't be upgraded so there's no boosting the stats or even changing the appearance in any way. It only has one rune slot, and no extra bonuses or synergies, so it won't magically replace any set-based chest gear you have equipped.

Crystal Dynamics advises players on how to tackle the unnecessarily confusing and frustrating task of PS4 to PS5 save migration.

Managing cross-gen saves is a big pain point on Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 (so is the limited storage). We've reported on this multiple times, and took off points for it in our official PS5 review. Now Avengers players are learning how aggravating the process can be.

As outlined in a series of confusing tweets from Crystal Dynamics, Avengers players have to go through a few steps in order to bring their PS4 saves over to PS5. The issue is that both PS4 and PS5 versions of a game can be installed on the PS5 at the same time. Sony's next-gen console also separates the saves by each console gen. So there's a PS4 save, and a PS5 save. PS4 saves can be migrated to PS5, but PS5 games are stuck on the PCIe 4.0 SSD.

Ubisoft is giving away a bunch of free gear to all Assassin's Creed Valhalla owners, including a cosmetic Altair armor set.

As a thank you to all Valhalla buyers, Ubisoft has a new freebie pack on the Animus Store, The so-called "Godly Reward" isn't as good as the amazing Carolingian set included with Amazon Prime, but it does let Eivor dress up as Altair from the first Assassin's Creed.

As far as actual gear goes, the Godly Reward unlocks the full Yule seasonal set that includes the Modraniht armor, dagger, and shield. The stats and quality of the set will vary based on your current gear rating, so don't redeem the offer until you level up and boost your current equipment.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla's first expansion, Wrath of the Druids, will release April 29, Ubisoft today confirmed.

AC Valhalla is a great game--I gave it a 93/100 in my official review--but it really wears thin after a while. The endgame loop is centered around tons of grinding for very little gain outside of gear upgrades. The real problem with Valhalla's late game is lack of substantial content. Luckily, that should change next month with the arrival of the game's first major expansion, Wrath of the Druids.

Ubisoft today announced two big things for Valhalla: The free seasonal Ostara Festival, and the exact launch of the Wrath of Druids expansion. Not much is known about the expansion other than a brief description. Based on this, we can infer the expac will delve into the weird primal rabbit hole of Valhalla's most enjoyable moments--the Grendel quest, the side mission where Eivor trips on mushrooms, the awesome Daughters of Lerion boss fights, etc.--and explore the more exotic side of 8th century Angland.

Remember Project Athia, the crazy action game that looked like Final Fantasy 15 on speed? The project now has a name and Square Enix reveals more details on the fantasy title.

Project Athia is now officially called Forspoken, and Square Enix today introduced us to Frey Holland (played by Ella Ballinska), the game's main character. The new gameplay footage shows off some amazing animations and one of the most fun-looking game traversal systems I've seen in a long time, with Frey air-diving forward with frenetic momentum that would make Dante jealous.

So what did we learn from the update? The world is apparently called Athia, and it's one of unique fantasy power, reminding us of the Final Fantasy ethos meshed with something akin to Labyrinth. There's dragons, untamed beasts that look like Behemoths from FF, and unique biomes to explore. Luminous Productions, the developer of the game, says Forspoken is a "narrative-driven adventure."

Gamescom 2021 will be a hybrid event with both a digital stream as well as on-site events, the showrunners today announced.

Unlike E3 2021, which is pivoting to an online-only venue, Gamescom 2021 will welcome fans into Cologne's expo center for on-site demos, showcases, and hands-on trials of new games. Publishers and exhibitors will attend the event and hold physical venues with booths demo reels, but the entire show will also be streamed online to a global audience.

The event will adhere to new safety protocols in the #B-SAFE4business model, which includes mandatory mask-wearing, extensive disinfecting measures, adequate ventilation, and always-open doors to offer contact-free exits and entrances.

Sony is stepping up its game and will give away 10 free PS4 titles as part of its Play At Home initiative to help gamers get through tough times.

As the U.S. government doles out $1,400 stimulus checks, games-makers are also doing their part to aid consumers. Microsoft is adding tons of great games to Xbox Game Pass, and now Sony is giving out 10 games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 owners. Most of the games are indies--and some of them appeared on PS Plus as freebies--but the headliner is the Horizon Zero Dawn complete edition, which will be free from April 19-20 and again on May 14-15.

Starting March 25, the following games will be free to download and keep. A good portion of them are PSVR titles, though, so keep that in mind. PlayStation Plus isn't required, and you can redeem the games on your PSN account even if you don't own a console.

Soon Xbox players will be able to boost their game download speeds with a new console-level feature.

A new Xbox quality of life feature improves one of the most annoying things about modern gaming: Download speeds. According to Microsoft, the new feature unlocks the full download bandwidth speeds available on your network. The only catch is that you can't play a game while you're downloading something.

The feature will show up in the Xbox's queue section that manages downloads and uploads. Toggling it on will suspend any gaming session you currently have running, but the console creates a suspend and resume point (or a Quick Resume point if the game supports it) to ensure you don't lose any progress.

Following months of radio silence and a recent scathing report, Dying Light 2's future was pretty grim. Now Techland has stepped in to clear thing sup.

Dying Light 2 has been confirmed to launch in 2021, Techland today announced. Sadly, no exact release date nor platforms were revealed, but expect a current- and next-gen version. During today's stream, the developers gave a brief explanation on what's happening behind the scenes and call for support of fans everywhere

"This is a huge and complex project, and we've needed time to ensure it will live up to our vision. All of us here are putting our hearts into delivering a game you will continue to play for months. We'll be ready to talk about Dying Light 2 very, very soon.

Rip, tear...and smash. id drops a new trailer for Doom Eternal's final expansion that encompasses every metalhead's power fantasy.

Doom Eternal's Ancient Gods Part 2 expansion release tomorrow, and to celebrate, id is completely redefining the word epic. The latest Ancient Gods trailer is like a Dethklok metal saga, complete with dragons, demons, buff sci-fi warriors, gigantic hell-powered mechsuits, towering Godzilla-sized archdemons battling against Pacific Rim/Gundam mechs, and a new fiery war hammer that annihilates everything.

Before the epic showdown with the Dark Lord, Doom Guy has to rip, tear, and (thanks to the new Hellbreaker hammer) smash his way through hordes of monstrosities. The whole thing looks like a testosterone-boosted Lord of the Rings battle scene and we can't wait to try it out.

One of the actors in Call of Duty was hosting some Warzone on Twitch when she noticed something very interesting about a couple of streamers.

The streamer Alex Zedra is the face behind one of the characters in Call of Duty, Cade Janus, and was hosting Sarah "Icy Vixen" Belles and BearedBanger. Zedra's community of watchers noticed some quite peculiar behavior as both of the players seemed to have an aim that just wasn't possible. An example of what I'm talking about can be seen above.

Both Belles and BeardedBanger have denied all claims of using any hacks in Warzone, but both have since had their channels suspended for cheating. The pair of streamers were accused of using wallhacks that allow the player to see through solid objects and aimbot hacks that automatically aim the player's cursor at enemy players. For more information on this story, visit this link here.

Activision-Blizzard is firing dozens of employees as it pivots away from live-based esports events in the Overwatch and Call of Duty Leagues, sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

Activision made more money in 2020 than it's ever made before, raking in $8 billion in revenues (and over $2 billion in profits). That hasn't stopped the company from continually firing employees and chasing digital revenues. Activision-Blizzard plans to fire 50 employees across multiple divisions, including its esports live events teams and even developers at King, the maker of the mega-popular Candy Crush games.

"Players are increasingly choosing to connect with our games digitally and the e-sports team, much like traditional sports, entertainment, and broadcasting industries, has had to adapt its business due to the impact the pandemic has had on live events," a rep told Bloomberg.

In a new paradigm-shifting policy, Google will now let app developers keep more of their initial revenues earned on the Play store.

Google today announced a new revenue split in favor of app developers. The company will now let devs keep 85% of revenues made on the first $1 million in earnings. Google has halved its collection rate from 30% to 15% for this range, but devs who make over $1 million will owe Google 30% of their revenues.

This new model will help smaller-scale developers avoid the current loss loop, which sees many of them paying out more to Google than they receive from apps and in-app purchases made on the Google Play store.

Industry vet Jade Raymond (producer on Assassin's Creed II, Watch Dogs) has opened up a new indie studio in Montreal called Haven. The team's first project is a game for Sony's PlayStation platform.

Today Sony and ex-Stadia leader Jade Raymond announced a new games studio based in Montreal, Canada. The new team is called Haven, and it's working on a new unannounced IP for the PlayStation ecosystem. Next to nothing is known about the game itself, however we expect it to target the PS5.

Raymond originally helped lead the team behind the first Assassin's Creed games and founded Ubisoft Toronto, then moved to EA to lead its Motive studio on a new unannounced project. Raymond left EA in 2018 when the company shook up management and added Motive to EA Worldwide Studios. She found a home at Stadia where she led the first-party games division, but also left after Google cancelled all first-party games and closed its games studios labels.