Gaming - Page 711

The minds behind A Song of Ice and Fire and Dark Souls have teamed up for a new game, and it's called Elden Ring.

According to a leaked press release and image from Bandai Namco, FromSoftware's next big game is called Elden Ring. Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin had direct influence in writing and shaping Elden Ring alongside Hidetaka Miyazaki, the leaked documents confirm. The fantasy project is the biggest game FromSoft has ever made and sits in the devs' wheelhouse of action-oriented RPG mechanics.

Past rumors said Elden Ring would be called Grand Rune, and would be set in a dark and grim Norse fantasy setting. Reports also said the game would be expansive in scope with open-ended exploration across horseback, complete with tribal conflicts and large-scale battles. The leaked info seems to corroborate this by affirming Elden Ring has "danger and discovery lurking around every corner."

A listing for Metro Exodus has been spotted on the Microsoft Store, what happened to the Epic Games Store exclusivity deal?

According to the listing, Metro Exodus is scheduled to become available on the Microsoft Store as early as next week, more specifically a release date is planned for the 9th of June. While this might seem like a placeholder date, Microsoft are scheduled to hold their E3 conference next week where they could reveal Metro Exodus being included in their PC version of the Xbox Games Pass.

Metro Exodus coming to the Microsoft Store this way might be a way to dodge the one-year exclusivity deal with Epic. To play the devils advocate and back up Epic, the listing for Exodus on the Microsoft Store does not show a price, which could mean that players who wish to purchase Metro Exodus through the Microsoft Store may perhaps have to wait out the one-year exclusivity with Epic. An official statement is needed on this matter as it is truly confusing.

If you are out of the loop when it comes to real-time-strategy games, I'd recommend the survival RTS 'They Are Billions' and its newly announced campaign.

In need of fresh new RTS to sink some hours into? Look no further than Numantian Games' 'They Are Billions'. They Are Billions allows player to experience a colony-building steampunk strategy game that is based around the survival of your city against the likes of immense zombie hordes.

The title release back on the PC in December of 2017 and since then has been quite popular amongst the RTS community. They Are Billions is currently in Steam Early Access and developers Numantian Games have announced new additional content. Players will soon be able to dive into a campaign called 'The New Empire' which will add a bunch of new features. The campaign expansion is set to release on June 18.

Bethesda has reminded everyone that they will be showing off DOOM Eternal at their E3 2019 presentation with a new short teaser trailer.

Bethesda has teased everyone that at this years E3 they will be showing off DOOM Eternal in all its glory. Bethesda says that DOOM Eternal will be showcased at their presentation on June 9 at 5:30pm PT, and that "What you interfere with now is bigger than you can imagine."

For those that didn't know, DOOM Eternal will be using the latest iteration of the id Tech Engine, id Tech 7. The game will feature unique levels and locations that have never been attempted in a DOOM before. Make sure to check out the livestream next week for anymore DOOM Eternal news, a link can be found here.

THQ Nordic have come out swining early with a brand new announcement teaser for their next Darksiders game, Darksiders Genesis.

The teaser trailer has been released onto the Darksiders YouTube Channel and showcases a brand new Darksiders experience that players can look forward to. This time round, THQ Nordic and Airship Syndicate present the first top-down action adventure title in the Darksiders franchise. The upcoming game is titled Darksiders Genesis and will follow the story of Strife.

Strife is the fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse and has been called upon to prevent the destruction of humankind at the hands of Lucifer. Fans seem to quite happy with the decision of Genesis being played from the top-down perspective, as it could open the door for the other horseman to be unlocked and playable in 2-4 local co-op, or better yet online. THQ Nordic will release more information about the title during their press conference at E3 next week.

When Destiny 2's new Shadowkeep expansion drops in September, the game's install size will require 165GB of free space.

Destiny 2's huge new moon-based Shadowkeep DLC kicks off some big changes for Destiny's future. Bungie is breaking down the accessibility barriers by making Destiny free-to-play, bringing it to Steam, and offering cross-save support across all platforms--even Google's new Stadia streaming service. But as the game grows with tons of updates, content drops, and seasonal modes, so too does the file size...and Shadowkeep will push it even higher.

According to the PlayStation Store, Shadowkeep will bump Destiny 2's installation size to "165 GB hard drive storage space as of 09.17.19." With all current expansion and post-release content, Destiny 2's PS4 install size is around 82GB. That means Shadowkeep will double the game's size requirements.

Baldur's Gate 3 is actually happening, and the Divinity: Original Sin developers at Larian Studios are making it.

Today Larian announced Baldur's Gate 3, a mainline sequel to BioWare's landmark fantasy cRPG that swept the industry back in 1998. The devs confirm the new Baldur's Gate is "based off of current D&D mechanics and spells" and promises to deliver the same high-quality story. massive freedom, and multiplayer chaos that Larian is known for.

Based on the incredible pedigree of Divinity: Original Sin and it's sequel, Larian is the perfect fit for Baldur's Gate. Baldur's Gate 3 is coming to PC and Google's new Stadia platform. No release date was announced.

Blizzard cancelled a StarCraft first-person shooter after two years of development, sources tell Kotaku.

As Activision-Blizzard re-focuses on established franchises, Blizzard's big wave of new games has been pared back. Back in 2017, then-Blizzard President Mike Morhaime said the company's pipeline was "in a better position than ever before in our history." New IPs were in development alongside big ambitious projects. But most of those games may not ever come out, including the now-cancelled StarCraft FPS.

In 2016, Blizzard confirmed it was ramping up development on a next-generation FPS, which we now know was based in the StarCraft universe. Sources tell Kotaku that Blizzard cancelled the StarCraft shooter so it could accelerate development on a sequel to the monumentally successful Overwatch. Considerable progress had been made on the FPS before it was canned, sources say.

Out from Activision's thrall, Bungie is making Destiny 2 free-to-play, opening up cross-saves, and bringing it to Steam.

Bungie is making massive changes to the Destiny franchise and fully embracing the new cross-platform era of accessibility that's sweeping the industry. Today Bungie announced Destiny 2 will go free-to-play once the new Shadowkeep expansion drops on September 17.

The free version is called Destiny 2: New Light, and includes all year one content from smaller expansions like Curse of Osiris and Warmind; every year one strike, mission, PVP mode, raid, and weapons and armor will be available for everyone. Year two content will still be locked behind the current season pass structure. Paid expansions are back, and Shadowkeep will be sold as premium DLC, but no previous content or expansions are required to play it.

Google's new Stadia game-streaming platform has some innovative features that can change multiplayer gaming.

Google's online-only Stadia is chock-full of good ideas (and admittedly some bad ones). The $10 a month service that beams games to your TV, PC, or Pixel 3 smartphone offers nifty features like save state sharing and its new Stream Connect functionality that affords new tactical capabilities to squad-based titles.

Google briefly showed off Stream Connect during a Ghost Recon: Breakpoint stream. The feature adds live picture-in-picture feeds of your teammate's screens, adding another layer to cohesive team synergy. Players can see exactly what their teammates are doing and what's around them to strategically plot out their next moves. Multiplayer games like The Division 2, Destiny 2, and Borderlands 3 could benefit tremendously from this system especially during harder endgame raids or missions.

Google's new Stadia game streaming platform will sell games a la carte as well as bundle them into its monthly pro subscriptions.

Today Google revealed more info on its Stadia cloud-powered streaming service, and the company is taking big queues from Microsoft's Game Pass-Xbox Store synergy.

There's two subscription options: a free version that requires gamers buy big AAA games like Destiny 2, Borderlands 3, and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint separately like any other storefront, and Stadia Pro, a $10 a month tier that nets you access to a pool of premium games that're added over time. Google only announced Destiny 2 as part of the Stadia Pro service, so we'll still have to buy games outright (but subscribers will get a discount).

Just last week, Squanch Games released the twisted yet hilarious VR-compatible adventure title Trover Saves the Universe. In celebration of that launch, Rick and Morty have decided to pick up a controller and give it a shot.

The above video has been released onto the Squanch Games YouTube Channel and begins with Rick and Morty sitting on a couch discussing how long it is going to take until season four of their TV show is released. Teasing that the release is just four months away, Morty decides to throw on a video game, and that game is none other than Trover Saves the Universe.

If you didn't know, Rick and Morty is created and voiced by Justin Roiland who also created the development studio Squanch Games. Roiland is the voices of both Rick and Morty, and also voices most, if not all of the characters within Trover Saves the Universe. If you haven't realized by now, Roiland has also taken his Rick and Morty type humor and spliced it with that of Trover Saves the Universe, resulting in the colorful disgusting masterpiece that lay before your eyes.

Rumors have been swirling around for The Witcher 3 releasing on the Nintendo Switch for quite some time now, and now a new piece of information has surfaced suggesting the port may exist.

The information comes from Doug Cockle, who is the voice actor for The Witcher 3's main character, Geralt of Rivia. Cockle took to Twitter yesterday with the above post, asking his fan base "who else wants to see this..... ;)". While this isn't any hard evidence to say that The Witcher 3 is coming to the Nintendo Switch, it certainly is an eyebrow raising post that could bring up questions to the existence of a port.

I think the Tweet can be interpreted in two different ways; either Cockle is legitimately asking his fans if they would like to see The Witcher 3 be brought to the Nintendo Switch, or a Nintendo Switch port actually exists, Cockle knows, and is just teasing fans. What makes me more inclined to believe that latter of the two is Cockles use of the ";)" or winking emoticon. Usually this emoji is used in a more tongue 'n cheek kind of fashion, which leads me to believe that this is tease to fans for a future Witcher 3 Nintendo Switch announcement. Only time well.

The Death Stranding director has cleared up what kind of genre Death Stranding is, saying the title has created a "totally brand genre".

Death Stranding director and legendary video game developer Hideo Kojima has taken to his Twitter page to clear up some questions that have been posed to him as of late. Kojima has answered the question regarding the genre his new upcoming title Death Stranding will be falling into. Many fans have speculated that the game is a stealth action experience, but from the gameplay we have seen a definitive genre categorization hasn't been yet done. Here is where Kojima comes in.

Kojima clears up that despite what fans may have speculated, "DS [Death Stranding] is not a stealth game." In fact Death Stranding "Could move subjectively but not a FPS shooting game either". So what is it then? Kojima says that development of the title incorporates the concept of "connection(strand)". Through doing this, Kojima believes that he has created a "totally brand new genre called action game/strand game(social strand system)."

Dying Light 2 has got to be one of the games I'm most excited to hear about from next weeks E3 presentation, and to build up hype even more we have a new concept art to dive into.

The art comes from the official Dying Light Twitter page, where we can assume that developer and publisher Techland has taken to tease fans. From the image we can see multiple different buildings and each are equipped with what seems to be human living conditions and infrastructure. Assuming that this concept art is a reasonable representation of what players will experience within the game, we can say that players will be traversing these rooftops and interacting with a variety of different NPC's survivors, while also using the provided infrastructure to their advantage.

Creative Director at Techland, Adrian Ciszewski spoke out about the rooftops, saying "The path to achieving your goal will at times take unexpected turns, but you can always get back on track, at a certain cost. The thriving rooftops are visible proof of a path once taken by the protagonist--the more he helps the survivors, putting his own needs aside, the more life and hope can spread throughout the city. Players will have their own cities that entirely reflect them in Dying Light 2."

90's kids would remember back in the early 2000's SpongBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, well, THQ Nordic is breathing life back into the title as a new teaser has been released.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom was originally released back in 2003 for the Gamecube, Xbox, PlayStation 2, Gameboy Advance and PC. The title was quite popular, and has been renowned as one of the best SpongBob Squarepants games ever released. THQ Nordic has decided to revive the game, or better yet 'Rehydrate' the game as it seems that a re-release for the title is currently in the works.

The above teaser has been released onto the THQ Nordic YouTube Channel and gives us a quick tease of what is to come. The official description for the title is as follows; "The cult classic is back, faithfully remade in spongetastic splendor! Play as SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy and show the evil Plankton that crime pays even less than Mr. Krabs. Want to save Bikini Bottom from lots of rampant robots? Of course you do! Want to underpants bungee jump? Why wouldn't you! Want to join forces in a brand new multiplayer mode? The battle is on!"

Destiny 2 is coming to Google's new Stadia cloud streaming service, sources tell Kotaku.

Google's new game streaming platform could change gaming forever. Stadia will break down hardware barriers by beaming games to phones, laptops, TVs, and desktops for a monthly fee. But it has to prove itself in two major ways before it can take off: latency and content. Luckily Google has some of the most potent and widespread cloud servers in the world, and now it's signing on major games-makers to fill out Stadia's content offerings.

According to industry sources, Bungie's shooter Destiny 2 will be among the top games offered Google Stadia. PC-to-Xbox cross-saves are also coming to Destiny 2 and Stadia will support this feature, allowing players to switch between platforms and pick up where they left off. With Stadia, gamers will be able to access Destiny 2 natively on TVs via Chromecasts and PCs via Google Chrome without downloading the full game or any patches.

Among the chorus of Destiny complaints and requests, one question remains consistent among all players: when are we going back to the moon? Quite soon.

Dataminers have leaked Destiny 2's new major expansion and it's a doozy. It's called Shadowkeep, and it'll transport players back to the moon for some low-gravity shoot-em-up chaos. The info has been corroborated by Kotaku's Jason Schreier as authentic. The enemies will predictably be the Darkness-coveting Hive swarm, who have been slightly morphed and should have some interesting backstory changes this time around.

The expansion marks the first major paid release after Bungie split up with Activision and acquired full publishing rights for Destiny. The leaked splash screen confirms Shadowkeep will have a physical collector's edition, indicating it could be a The Taken King-sized affair or even rival Destiny 2's Forsaken content.

People Can Fly, the devs behind Bullestorm and Gears of War: Judgement, might be crafting a new original IP for Square Enix.

Starting in May, Square Enix started posting fictional in-game logs on a mysterious Twitter account. For a whole month no one really noticed...that was until a mention of E3 was tossed in. The project is called Outriders, it's sci-fi based, and is set around humanity's desperate escape from a dying Earth. The scant Twitter info depicts it as a rather grim and survival-based affair that could be a perfect backdrop for a new original shooter IP--and the devs who brought us Bullestorm could be behind it.

Back in 2017, Square Enix announced a strategic partnership with People Can Fly for a "new high-end original title for console and PC." Years went by without any info on the project. Now over two years later, Outriders pops up. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.

Rocksteady Games' new project will remain shrouded in mystery for a while longer.

Arkham developer Rocksteady is working on something big for WB Games, but no one actually knows what it is. Reports suggested a Superman game but that was quickly shot down. Other sources say it's an online-based service game centered around the Justice League menagerie of heroes. Whatever Rocksteady is crafting behind the scenes, we won't get official word at gaming's biggest trade show next week.

"Hi all! A number of you have asked so we wanted to let you all know up front that Rocksteady Games won't be showing at E3 this year. We'll be watching as fans but remaining in London, hard at work on our next big project. Enjoy the show!" Rocksteady co-founder Sefton Hill said on Twitter.