Gaming - Page 710

E3 2019 - Master Chief Collection is coming to Steam, but it's also coming to Microsoft's wildly successful Xbox Game Pass service on PC.

Today Microsoft fired off a volley of announcements that'll further its billion-dollar empire. With its strong new Game Pass approach, the company proved services are now synonymous with its games. Game Pass is not only coming to PC as a single subscription, but gamers can buy into the service on both PC and consoles in a new Xbox Game Pass Ultimate SKU for $14.99 a month. And starting today Game Pass is now in open beta on Windows 10 PCs.

One of the biggest subscription-selling games is yet to come, though, but it is indeed coming. Microsoft confirmed that the entire six-game Halo: Master Chief Collection will come to Game Pass on PC. "Our mission at Xbox is for you to be able to play any game, with anyone, anywhere, and we know for many of you that means PC. Last month we announced Xbox Game Pass for PC, and today that journey begins. We have curated over 100 games just for PC. And for the first time for PC, starting with Halo: Reach, the entire Master Chief Collection," said Sarah Bond, head of Xbox Partnerships.

E3 2019 - FromSoftware's bizarre new game Elden Ring is both a new beginning and a return to classic form.

The rumors were true: George R.R. Martin is working alongside Dark Souls dev FromSoftware on an ambitious new fantasy game. The project is called Elden Ring, and it's hypnotically weird and grim Tolkien-esque visuals are something only Hidetaka Miyazaki could think up. Instead of making another Dark Souls clone set in an original universe, Elden Ring is switching things up in a few ways, including full open world full of mystery, mayhem, and strangeness.

In a recent interview with Xbox Wire, Miyazaki revealed tons of new details on Elden Ring. It's a huge sprawling open-world action game with heavy emphasis on RPG elements. Elden Ring is the biggest project FromSoftware has ever made, and will feature third-person action-driven combat similar to Dark Souls, complete with hulking bosses and monstrosities to slay.

E3 2019 - The rumors were right on the money: Elden Ring is real, George R.R. Martin helped write and shape the world, and it looks supremely bizarre.

Today FromSoftware announced Elden Ring, a hypnotic new action RPG with exotic weirdness only Miyazaki could dream up. No exact details were confirmed, but the footage brings a truly grand sweeping fantasy feel that'd make Tolkien proud, complete with FromSoftware's striking visuals. The result is an entrancing bit of macabre media that ignites a deep well of hype within gamers like myself.

So what do we actually know about Elden Ring?

E3 2019 - Halo: Infinite, the next big chapter in the Halo series, will launch in Holiday 2020 alongside Microsoft's ultra-powerful next-gen Xbox console.

At the end of its press conference, Microsoft revealed some new Halo: Infinite footage and locked in a release window. It's biggest heavy-hitting franchise will release in tandem with its most powerful console ever, Project Scarlett, in Holiday 2020. On stage Phil Spencer confirmed that Halo: Infinite will leverage the full brunt of Project Scarlett's expanded hardware, which is four times as powerful as the Xbox One X.

No fresh details were revealed about Halo: Infinite but we did get a brief snippet of footage that showcases 343 Industries' new next-gen Slipspace Engine. The trailer wasn't particularly exciting, but it does set a more grim and daunting tone for Halo 6, proving that Master Chief will once again be a beacon of hope for humanity.

E3 2019 - Microsoft borrows from EA by offering early access to service subscribers.

Today Microsoft announced Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, a new subscription that bundles two of its most popular services together. Ultimate costs $14.99 a month and gives you Game Pass on both consoles and PC, as well as Xbox LIVE for multiplayer. But the games-maker sweetens the pot with another extra deal: subscribers get exclusive early access to specific games.

Now that all of Microsoft's first-party games are coming to both PC and Game Pass at launch, the service is looking better than ever. There's a huge incentive to buy into the ecosystem right now. One monthly cost gets you access to 100+ games on two platforms. But charging up to the Ultimate subscription also gets you early access in games like Gears of War 5. The Coalition's Rod Ferguson confirmed Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers get four days early access in Gears of War 5 when it ships in September.

E3 2019 - A new Blair Witch game is in development from the horror masters at Bloober Team.

Today at Microsoft's E3 2019 press conference, Bloober Team announced Blair Witch, a new game based around the 90s cult classic. The game looks immensely psychological and mesmerizing, tapping into the devs' penchant for superb weirdness and while also recreating that weird Twilight Zone-style pocket of the Black Hills woods.

The game will be told in first-person and brings to mind Outlast mixed with Senua's Sacrifice visuals and Bloober Team's own stylish flair. The game isn't really an adaptation of the film and features different characters, but it'll be set on the basic lore established by the franchise.

E3 2019 - Keanu Reeves is in Cyberpunk 2077. No, really. This is not a drill.

Today CD Projekt RED announced two massive tidbits about Cyberpunk 2077: the game will release in April 2020, and Keanu Reeves is starring in the neon-lit futuristic romp as a metal-armed badass. The new Cyberpunk 2077 trailer is filled with absolutely incredible visuals and sets a grim tone for V's story. Betrayed by a powerful crime boss, his partner is killed and V's left for dead.

Then sci-fi John Wick shows up to save us. "Wake the fuck up, samurai. We have a city to burn," Mr. Reeves says. If I had to guess, I'd say Reeves plays a ripper-doc who augments V with some fancy experimental tweaks for maximum carnage. And with any luck, Keanu will be a huge part of the game as our ally through thick and thin.

E3 2019 - John Wick himself took the stage to announce Cyberpunk 2077's release date, and it's coming in 2020.

Keanu Reeves was at Microsoft's E3 2019 to reveal some huge news: after years and years of costly development, one of the most expansive and ambitious FPS RPGs is coming in 2020. We're talking of course about Cyberpunk 2077, and it'll release on April 16, 2020 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Keanu actually stars in the game as an NPC who will help you burn Night City to the ground. We absolutely can't wait to check out the game when it launches next year. We've been reporting on Cyberpunk 2077 since 2016, chronicling its immensely complicated development and brought you multiple stories on its expansive scope, living breathing worlds, and chaotic action. Plus the multiple branching RPG storyline will open up new doors of dynamism and interactivity never before seen in a CD Projekt RED game.

Valve announced Steam's new UI changes months ago and the renders they showed looked pretty good. But the reality might be quite different.

Steam's new library and UI setup may have leaked out ahead of schedule and the results aren't that pretty. Steam Database spotted the new interface changes as part of a new CS:GO update in China and uploaded some snaps online, showing some marked changes.

The Steam's UI is now a list-and-visual combo, showing a series of VHS-esque panes reminiscent of Twitch's games library. These vertical slices look rather wonky simply because the images aren't formatted properly. Sure it's tidier than Steam's current setup but leaves a lot to be desired. Valve will likely play around with it before the UI is officially launched.

Google Stadia's internet requirements aren't necessarily steep, but they might not be totally accurate either.

Google recently revealed the bandwidth requirements for its ambitious new Stadia game-streaming service, confirming some surprising results. The service has something for most types of internet speeds, and users with 5-10Mbps can skate by with 720p 60FPS gaming. Google says playing games at 4K 60FPS on its cloud-based service will require 35Mbps, whereas 1080p 60FPS will need at least a 20Mbps connection.

This sounds all good and well, but there's just one problem: Google's own Stadia speed testing site may not accurately gauge the full might of your connection. I saw lots of reports that Stadia's test site gave back wildly inaccurate readings, telling people their internet wasn't up to snuff irregardless of what other speed trackers said. I tested this out by running Speedtest.net and then a similar connection verification on Stadia's site. The results were pretty different.

Square Enix is embracing Google's new Stadia game-streaming service as another way to sell--and rent out--its digital wares.

Crystal Dynamics' big new Avengers game will be the latest Square Enix title coming to Stadia, following other marquee games like Final Fantasy XV and the full Tomb Raider reboot trilogy. The news was confirmed in a huge banner on the Los Angeles Convention Center. No exact details about the Avengers project have been revealed, but Square Enix will showcase the game at its E3 2019 presser on Monday, June 10 at 9PM. Announcements from 2017 say Avengers will have an all-original story, and the teaser hints at a more gritty and adult-themed focus.

"The Avengers project is being designed for gamers worldwide and will be packed with all the characters, environments, and iconic moments that have thrilled longtime fans of the franchise. Featuring a completely original story, it will introduce a universe gamers can play in for years to come," reads the original 2017 announcement.

Something sinister lays in wait within the cold, broken surface of Destiny's moon...and it's hungry.

Destiny 2's new Shadowkeep expansion takes us back to the moon for the first time in years. A lot has changed since we last visited Luna. An ancient evil has awakened, a macabre blood-red spire straight out of a Wayne Barlowe painting stands like a monument of woe, and great chasms stretch like infernal maws on the moon's craterous surface. Bungie affirms that Shadowkeep will deliver a haunting and more psychological experience this time around, and I absolutely believe they can pull it off.

I'll never forget the first time I visited the moon in the original Destiny. I was absolutely spellbound by the mix of Hellraiser-style environments with their swinging chains and wicked spires and flowing Giger-esque weirdness. The art direction was incredible (and still is), making me feel like I entered some terrifying sci-horror adventure where there's no hope in surviving. The moon brought a true sense of claustrophobic darkness as it poured out wave after wave of mindless horrors, the absence of all light, a place ruled by shadow and the hideous monsters that roam its hallowed depths. Shadowkeep will bring back those old feelings with even more intensity.

The new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot won't end a mission for killing too many civilians. Instead, it'll just lower your "collateral damage" score.

In the new Call of Duty game, murdering civilians won't outright end the game, but only affect a new type of scoring. It's called the collateral damage system and it tallies up your nefarious misdeeds at the end of every mission, doling out a score based on the mayhem you did or didn't unleash. Modern Warfare aims to be more grisly, realistic, and visceral, and part of that comes from a more dynamically reactive punishment system for killing civilians.

The game will punish you in other ways for massacring civilians apart from a low score, though. In a recent interview with PCGamesN, campaign director Jacob Minkoff says in-game characters will react to what you do in the game. Killing too many civilians might cause your team to turn on you, or heighten the aggressiveness of enemies.

BioWare's absence at E3 2019 didn't go unnoticed, but the studio says they're still committed to Anthem's development.

Anthem is dying. The game was meant to be a huge live service title that spread across years of play, complete with expansions and monetized content. Due to a disastrous development cycle, a terrible misunderstanding of how live games operate, and rushed gameplay mechanics, BioWare's evolving dream game fell short of its goal. But BioWare isn't giving up, and nor should they.

So what's going on with Anthem anyway? Most of BioWare's core team has moved onto Dragon Age 4 and Anthem is now in the live operations maintenance stage. No new footage, DLC, or content was outlined during EA's big EA Play event. Anthem producer Ben Irving hints BioWare is taking a more improvised, impromptu approach to Anthem that focuses strongly on player feedback. The idea is by listening to gamers, BioWare can make Anthem a playground that's actually fun.

Respawn's new Jedi: Fallen Order Star Wars game is breaking EA's emphasis on long-winded online games, and breaks the cycle of time sinks found in today's biggest games.

Today Respawn unleashed a volley of new details on its ambitious Star Wars-meets-Uncharted adventure game, showing just how far EA is willing to go to adapt. We already knew Jedi: Fallen Order is a purely singleplayer action-adventure game without any online multiplayer or microtransactions, but now the studio confirms crafting won't be included either. This is huge news that solidifies Jedi: Fallen Order as a game with an actual ending. Way too many games these days make players hunt down materials in monotonous, time-wasting collect-a-thons to artificially elongate playtime...but Respawn's project won't be one of them.

In a recent rapid-fire interview with Game Informer, Jedi: Fallen Order director Stig Asmussen revealed some tidbits on the new self-described Jedi power fantasy. We learned that crafting isn't included--you won't be constantly searching for materials to upgrade Cal's armaments, hinting RPG isn't a focus--and how the Force bar refills as you attack enemies. Sadly the game won't feature NewGame+.

Respawn's huge new action-adventure Jedi: Fallen Order game treads old ground while innovating the Star Wars formula.

As exposed in today's new gameplay reveal, Jedi: Fallen Order has all the major ingredients for a delicious Star Wars dish. There's sprawling worlds complete with unique flora and fauna that bring new life to the Star Wars universe, massive Imperial setpieces like hulking AT-ATs and nefarious refineries sucking the natural resources from planets, a new "thoughtful combat" system with tactical Force power action, and a story-driven adventure through the heart of rebuilding the Jedi Order. But the game also borrows from other familiar franchises too, namely the adventure-fueled exploration of Uncharted.

At it's core, Respawn says Jedi: Fallen Order is a "Jedi fantasy game." This fantasy is grounded by two major themes: Uncharted-esque adventure and Jedi Knight-like combat.

Respawn's new singleplayer Star Wars game looks a lot like Uncharted meets Jedi Knight, and takes some liberties with Force powers.

Today EA revealed Jedi: Fallen Order's first gameplay footage and showed off Respawn's thoughtful combat in action. The third-person action game sort of feels like Dark Souls meets Star Wars with a third-person view, with emphasis on timing and dodging and semi-clunky animations and attacks. Lightsaber strikes are stylish, meaningful and impactful, and Jedi knight Cal Kestis has some nifty tricks up his sleeve like throwing his saber, parrying, and dishing out finishing moves.

No Star Wars game would be complete with Force powers. Jedi: Fallen Order has the major staples like Force push, pull, and an acrobatic jump for agile exploration and mobility. But Respawn adds in a new ability that changes everything: a time-freezing power called Force slow. Gamers can use the time-slowing power on the environment to solve puzzles, traverse dangerous obstacles, or even just unleash it on an enemy to slow them down and dodge their blaster fire.

Ninja Theory is making a 4v4 online arena game called Bleeding Edge, and it's specifically aimed at engagement.

Microsoft's Xbox division loves two things above all else: engagement and services. By infusing online hooks to ensure its games never end and monetizing its core base with services, the company makes billions every year. It's to the point where its games are becoming additive to its services and games are specifically designed to keep gamers playing for as long as possible (because Xbox gamers who are playing are more often than not also paying at the same time). Some games like Crackdown 3 were only really made to sell Game Pass subscriptions. Microsoft is taking the Netflix approach by bombarding gamers with tons of content to keep them busy, and it's working well.

Enter Ninja Theory's leaked new game, Bleeding Edge.

Destiny 2's ambitious new cross-save feature apparently doesn't include DLC entitlements, meaning expansions like Shadowkeep are locked to whichever particular platform you bought it on.

When Destiny 2's new Shadowkeep expansion ships this September, gamers will be able to migrate their guardians across PS4, Xbox One, Steam, and Google's Stadia service at will. The new cross-save feature eliminates the need to start completely from scratch. Your character, gear, milestones, accomplisments, and everything else tied to your Destiny account will be fully transferrable and unified across every platform Destiny 2 is offered on.

But DLC apparently won't be included in this cross-platform program (not that we thought it would).

Bungie lays out its ambitious vision for the future of Destiny, which include morphing it into a more robust and flavorful online shooter RPG.

With Activision out of the picture, Destiny's future looks a lot more exciting. Bungie's breakup with Activision sees a long saga of clashing business models, reboots, and back-and-forth rigmarole coming to an end. In September, the developers will ship Shadowkeep, Destiny 2's first major expansion outside of Activision's thrall. The expansion isn't just another content drop. It's a new beginning for Bungie and their dream space opera IP, and will introduce lots of tweaks and changes while planting the seeds for Destiny's long game.

In a recent Out of the Shadows ViDoc, Bungie said lots of interesting things about the new Shadowkeep expansion and the future of the franchise. Bungie's goals include deepening the well of Destiny's RPG mechanics to make it more dynamic, chaotic, and customizable, and crafting an ever-evolving world. One of the ways the devs will accomplish this is by re-tooling gear like weapons and armor and seemingly shifting towards a more MMORPG-style approach to world-building.