Gaming - Page 816

Fortnite is an ever-evolving game with Epic Games ensuring people won't get bored of it, but now it's getting made into a board game (the play on words is beautiful, and totally unintentional until I re-read that sentence) with a new Fortnite Monopoly set on the way.

Donald Mustard from Epic Games tweeted out a picture of the game, adding: "Thrilled to show you the final art and game board for Fortnite Monopoly! It's so so fun and such a unique spin on the classic game mashed up with last player standing Fortnite. In stores Oct 1st!!!" There will be plenty of recognizable locations from Fortnite in the new Fortnite-branded Monopoly, too.

We will see areas from Fortnite that include Dusty Divot, Lazy Link, Paradise Palms and Tilted Towers among others. We should see the game pieces featuring heaps of popular skins from Fortnite, which should include Nevermore, Omega, Skull Trooper and more.

Metro Exodus is set to be one of the most exciting games of 2019, with developer 4A Games building in support for NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards and RTX features that will also make it one of the best-looking games of the year.

During an interview with GamesTM magazine (issue 204) the Head of Global Brand Management for Deep Silver (the publisher of Metro Exodus), Huw Beynon, said that Exodus' single-player campaign will be as long as the previous two Metro games combined. Both of those games combined have around 25 hours of playtime, with the developer having issues fitting Metro Exodus onto a single Blu-ray disk.

In the interview, Beynon said: "We're looking at a total playtime of both previous games combined. In terms of geographical footprint, as we have moved to these more open areas, we can fit pretty much the entirety of the first two games (in terms of footprint) into just one of our huge levels. The last two games came in at about 12GB each, and we're struggling to fit Metro Exodus onto a single Blu-ray. This is a massive step up for the studio".

Mass Effect: Andromeda was originally supposed to have DLC, but BioWare simply wasn't set up to support it for the long run--especially after having to give the game's visuals another pass.

BioWare was quite busy when Mass Effect: Andromeda shipped. The studio had been working on its big new online multiplayer game Anthem in tandem with the Mass Effect spin-off, and ultimately the devs had to make a judgement call regarding extras like the Quarian Ark DLC. BioWare's Mike Gamble said as much in a recent interview with US Gamer, where he basically affirmed the studio simply didn't have the resources to support Mass Effect: Andromeda for the long term.

"I can speak conclusively when it comes to Andromeda, the [DLC] plans were never in place the way that they are for Anthem."

Past reports were right: Nintendo confirms that some Switch games won't be compatible with cloud save backups, meaning your data is still potentially at risk.

Without an option to manually backup game saves, Nintendo Switch owners are vulnerable to losing countless hours sunk into their libraries should something happen (our data actually got corrupted shortly after launch). That's where Nintendo's new Switch Online subscription service comes in as a safety net. Like Sony's PlayStation Plus, Switch Online subscribers can back up their precious save files to the cloud where Nintendo protects it until you stop subscribing. But there's just one catch: not every Switch game will support this feature.

A Nintendo representative confirmed the news to GameInformer, saying this move is an attempt to protect the integrity of the game itself by preventing cheating and manipulating online rankings. Nintendo's own first-party Splatoon 2 can't be backed up, and Dark Souls, which can have absolutely massive playtime saves, is on the list too.

Overkill reveals a bunch of new details about its upcoming online The Walking Dead shooter.

Overkill's four-player Walking Dead game is an online multiplayer FPS that channels the gritty and brutal vibes of Robert Kirkman's post-apocalyptic world. We've known about key details for a while now--including character classes, emphasis on scavenging, and gunplay--but a new developer stream highlights some interesting tidbits like walker behavior, traps, puzzles, class abilities, and much more.

For example: we know The Walking Dead FPS won't have microtransactions (cosmetic or otherwise), leading us to believe it'll be monetized with traditional season passes and DLC. Overkill also confirms a fusillade of info including combat details like weapons jamming and silencers breaking, info on the main story, character details, and confirmation of a cross-over with other TWD properties.

After watching Overkill's latest developer stream for its new The Walking Dead shooter, I noticed the game is actually prime real estate for season pass content--especially now that the devs confirmed microtransactions won't be in. Here are my predictions.

Since resource scarcity plays a huge role in The Walking Dead universe, it only makes sense it'd show up in Overkill's new Walking Dead FPS. Any time an online game has strong emphasis on crafting and gathering materials, resources and loot it usually means the mechanic will be monetized in some fashion--even singleplayer-only games like Assassin's Creed: Origin follows this path, which I predicated ahead of official confirmation. Typically publishers like EA, Ubisoft, and Activision offer gamers the chance to buy "time-saving convenience items" that reduce the grind for crafting. Instead of spending X amount of time to search areas for random loot, players simply buy a pack of materials to use when they need them. This is predicated on the time vs money trade-off.

We know Overkill's The Walking Dead is an online-based multiplayer game with heavy emphasis on team play. It'll have drop-in/drop-out co-op, and gamers have to not only work together strategically to take out enemies and survive, but to clear areas in the strongest motivator for any online game: the infinite quest for loot. But Overkill producer Saul Gascon confirmed The Walking Dead won't have these kinds of microtransactions...so how will it be monetized? Probably with season passes, expansions, and piecemeal DLC.

Since games are on PC hardware that's dramatically more powerful than scaled-down consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One, it only makes sense AAA devs and publishers should tap the full brunt of the platform's advanced graphics and CPU tech. Ubisoft aims to do this with its big new ancient Greece-themed Assassin's Creed game.

Just like Origins, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is getting special attention on PC and will have various upgrades to surpass the console version. On the heels of announcing Odyssey's PC spec requirements, Ubisoft confirms that the game is being made specifically by its Kiev branch with higher-end optimization in mind.

The PC flavor will have dynamic resolution scaling enabled by default, but this can be turned off to enable uncapped FPS for more powerful graphics cards. PC gamers can also adjust a bunch of graphics settings (more specifics likely coming soon) and benchmark their hardware to boot.

Ubisoft has announced what kind of rig you'll need to get its new ancient Greece-themed Assassin's Creed: Odyssey up and running, but it only revealed details for 30FPS gaming.

By adapting key Greek mythology, incorporating a huge in-game map set across the sweeping Aegean, and a combat-infused story arc set across the Peloponnesian War, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is shaping up to be something quite special. Thanks to higher-end hardware the PC version will outshine consoles considerably, and now Ubisoft isn't exactly demanding too much from PC hardware...at least if you want to play at 30FPS. Even though the game releases next month, official specs for 60FPS+ haven't been determined yet...but it's likely we'll get updates soon.

If you have a lower rig you can skirt by and game at 720p 30FPS with an Intel Core i5-2400 CPU, an AMD Radeon R9 285 or GeForce GTX 660, and 8GB of RAM. Recommended specs for 1080p 30FPS at High settings include a Ryzen 5-1400 or an Intel Core i7-3770 CPU, an AMD Radeon R9 290 or GeForce GTX 970 and 8GB of RAM.

Switch Online subscribers will have their games saves automatically backed up to the cloud unless devs opt out, an anonymous source tells NintendoLife.

Gamers will finally be able to back up their Switch game saves as part of the new Switch Online subscription service, but exact details on how this will work remain scarce. According to a developer source, cloud saves will actually be enabled automatically for all Switch games. The source says developers and publishers will have discretion to decide whether or not their games are included in the cloud save program, but they also have to explain their reasoning to Nintendo.

"All existing games will default to 'enabled'. I specifically asked Nintendo about that and had that response. If a dev/pub wants an existing game to not support it, they have to ask," the source told NintendoLife. "When submitting a game, you are encouraged to enable cloud save. You have to have a good reason to not support it."

Ubisoft has announced that free weekends are coming to The Division this month and to start the celebrations off early, The Division on PC will be granted first pick of the litter.

Ubisoft has taken to their website to give a full run down on the coming free weekends for Tom Clancy's The Division. According to their website, Ubisoft will be giving players the opportunity to pre-load The Division before it is available to play, players will have available to them the entire standard edition of the game (this means no DLC's).

During the free weekend, if players decide to purchase The Division all of their progress will be carried over and discounts of up to 70% will be provided. This will include other products as well, such as: "Gold Edition, Season Pass, DLC" and will run until "September 11th on the Ubisoft Store and September 10th on Steam." The PC free weekend begins on September 6th and will continue until September 9th. For more information regarding Ubisoft's free weekend for Tom Clancy's The Division, head on over to the official Ubisoft website here.

A new trailer has been released onto the Tomb Raider YouTube Channel and it showcases where the storyline is at from the last two Tomb Raider games.

It appears that Square Enix are trying to prepare both new and old players for the launch of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. By doing this, the publisher has released a new trailer titled 'Tomb Raider: The Story So Far.' The trailer showcases cut-scenes from 2013's Tomb Raider and 2015's Rise of the Tomb Raider, the goal of which is to refresh both new and old players of where the storyline is at.

According to the description of the YouTube video, "Lara Croft is more capable and driven than ever before in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. She will stop at nothing to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, and in doing so, become the Tomb Raider she is destined to be." Shadow of the Tomb Raider will feature the best version of Lara we have seen yet, so buckle up and put your excavation hats on because the launch of Shadow of the Tomb Raider is just around the corner. For those interested in pre-ordering Shadow of the Tomb Raider, visit the official Tomb Raider pre-order page here.

Warner Bros. Games have released a brand new video onto their YouTube Channel, the trailer reveals a LEGO Harry Potter Collection coming to both the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.

This collection will combine already released titles, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1 - 4 and LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5 - 7 to make the ultimate magical collection. As you may of guessed from the titles of each of the games, the titles will take players through the growing periods of Harry's life all the way up until he completes his stay at Hogwarts.

The LEGO Harry Potter Collection will feature improved graphics in the form of enhanced lighting, textures and visual effects. It should also be noted that this collection also contains previously released DLC packages, this includes the 'Character Pack DLC' which features Godric Gryffindor, Harry , Helga Hufflepuff, Lockhart, Luna, Peeves, Hermione, Ron Weasley, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. The LEGO Harry Potter Collection will be released onto the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One on October 30th.

Nintendo may have slipped up slightly, a screenshot has been taken from their website and it showcases the name of the coming Yoshi title for the Nintendo Switch. Introducing, Yoshi's Crafted World scheduled for a 2019 release.

This screenshot has been sourced from NintendoWire, they claim that Nintendo provided the name of the coming Yoshi game in the 'recommended games' section of the Super Mario Odyssey listing on their website. As a skeptic of these types of things, I can say this image does seem quite legitimate and I honestly believe Nintendo did slip in some regard.

I visited the Super Mario Odyssey listing on the Nintendo website to further clarify if this was true, or if this image has been photo-shopped. If you visit the listing now, Nintendo has changed the listing title to "Yoshi for Nintendo Switch (Working Title)." This is an interesting change, perhaps the name change means that Nintendo did slip up and accidentally reveal the title for their game. Regardless of what Yoshi's game is actually called, it will be developed by Good-Feel and will be published by Nintendo, the title is planned for release sometime throughout 2019 for the Nintendo Switch.

As we were right on the cusp of knowing what Nintendo had in store for the rest of the year, tragic news has surfaces from Japan. Recent reports have suggested that Hokkaido, Japan has been hit with quite a substantially sized earthquake.

According to the recent reports, Hokkaido, Japan has been hit with a 6.6 magnitude earthquake that has caused more than 150 people to be injured and at least seven people to be killed. The earthquake caused massive bodies of land to slide, destroying structures, buildings and also causing nearly 3 million civilians to loose power to their homes.

As we observe what has happened in Japan, Nintendo has tweeted out saying that they have delayed the Direct livestream due to this earthquake. Nintendo has not been clear how the earthquake has directly impacted them, but it can be assumed that the company wants to make sure that the livestream has a stable connection before they commence it. Nintendo has not given a rescheduling date for the Direct so be sure to stay tuned as we will cover the updated livestream time and date.

We finally know what the Blackout map in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will look like, with the biggest map in Call of Duty's history causing some development problems with the game, something that might force out the sustained 60FPS gaming COD gamers are used to.

During a huge 195 questions that Game Informer asked Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 design director David Vonderhaar, we foujnd out that Blackout can technically pump away at 60FPS, and while 60FPS is the target, the game might not be able to hit it at all times.

Vonderhaar was clear that Black Ops 4 isn't locked to 30FPS, but it seems the 'biggest Call of Duty map ever' will see lowered frame rates versus the normal Call of Duty game modes. It's most likely because 80 players are running around in COD: Black Ops 4's new Blackout mode, as well as the map being bigger than any COD map in history.

EVE Online developer has been acquired by Pearl Abyss for a hefty $425 million, with the South Korean games studio securing CCP Games for close to half a billion dollars. Pearl Abyss secured all IP that CCP owns, something that includes EVE Online and other MMOs with millions of players.

CCP will operate independently post-acquisition, keeping its 250 employees at its various studios based in London and Shanghai, as well as its home studio in Reykjavik, Iceland. The $425 million deal will include cash and a bonus earnout if "certain financial targets are met", reports GamesIndustry. Pearl Abyss not only secures EVE Online, but CCP has seen success in its other MMO game: Black Desert Online, which is home to a huge 9.5 million players.

CCP Games CEO Hilmar Veigar Petursson said: "I have been seriously impressed with what Pearl Abyss has achieved ever since I first visited their website for Black Desert Online and subsequently became an avid player of the game. Pearl Abyss is a fast-growing company with lots to offer in terms of technology, capability and vision. I believe our two companies have a lot to learn from each other. We are very excited to join forces with them and achieve great new heights for our companies, our games and - above all - our players".

DICE has been expanding its hype for Battlefield V now that the open beta has officially kicked off (for those who didn't pre-order or aren't Origin Access members) but now we're finding out more details about Firestorm, the new battle royale mode for Battlefield V.

DICE teamed up with developer Criterion Games, the studio behind Burnout and the not-so-great Battlefield Hardline for Firestorm. DICE worked on the single and multiplayer sides of Battlefield V, while Criterion handled the battle royale mode that is infused with everything that makes Battlefield great.

Firestorm will see you battling it out on the biggest Battlefield map ever created, with a ring of fire surrounding you, your squad, and all of the enemies for an "all-out war for survival" with up to 16 squads of up to 4 players each.

The new Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 trailer gives some clues on how zombies will work in the new battle royale Blackout mode.

A bit ago we reported that PvE zombies will be introduced in Black Ops 4's new Blackout mode, and now we have some ideas on how they will work. Zombies appear to be a mechanic to keep things from getting stagnant and forcibly push players to concentrated areas on Blackout's absolutely huge map.

After all, Blackout has 80 players and Treyarch wants to move things around and target different areas so gamers are continually engaged and battling it out. That's really what zombies seem to be: map-placed mechanisms that not only keep tension high but force you to move or be completely annihilated.

THQ Nordic has acquired the rights to the Kingdoms of Amalur "and other assets" from 38 Studios, the company today announced.

After a long string of IP buyouts, THQ Nordic adds a name to its roster that should give hope to fantasy gamers: Kingdoms of Amalur. As the first game in the series, 2012's Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning had innovative RPG mechanics and deep lore penned by author R.A. Salvatore and currently enjoys cult status. But ultimately the game failed to meet sales and Reckoning ended up being the first and last in the series as 38 Studios filed for bankruptcy and shut down the same year. A sequel was planned before 38 Studios closed its doors, and would've happened if a $35 million publisher deal hadn't fallen through.

Now that THQ Nordic owns the rights we could see the sequel release in some form. The publisher could even resurrect project Coprenicus, the scrapped MMORPG based in the Amalur universe, which THQ also acquired.

The devs at Deck 13 are having a lot of fun with The Surge's expansions. The first DLC, A Walk in the Park, took us to the warped CREO World amusement park and had us take on hulking bosses. Now the second expansion is taking us to Westworld...well kind of.

The Good, the Bad, and the Augmented is The Surge's second major expansion pack, and as you might've guessed it's decidedly Western themed. The DLC has our amped up hero taking on Dr. Rischboter's monstrous machinations in an old abandoned CREO QA lab, and will feature new weapons, armors, and 16 new "insane" modifiers.

"Fight through the mad doctor's training rooms and try modifying them yourself for increased rewards by combining up to 4 of the 16 insane modifiers available. At the end of each stage, fight against distinct Challengers, powerful opponents forged from the training scenarios who are equipped with 30 unique new equipment pieces - armors, weapons, and implants - that you can take for yourself! Fight against mad scientist Dr. Rischboter for unique weapons, armor sets, and plenty more!" reads a press release announcement.