A new trailer was released today showing off the latest undead extravaganza coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops III. Following on from the events of Der Eisendrache, the new zombie map features the Origins foursome stranded on a Pacific Island. Unfortunately for them, this island happens to be home to a secret biological research lab with a dalliance for Element 115 experiments. The trailer gives us a glimpse at some of the new enemies players will be going toe-to-rotten-toe with, including some rather aggressive looking fauna and mutant zombie creations. Take a look for yourself in the video below. Eclipse is available as part of the game’s Season Pass or to purchase separately, with PlayStation 4 users granted early access to the DLC on 19 April.
Xbox One and PC players will have to wait a little longer to go hands on with the expansion as it arrives on those platforms in May. Let us know your thoughts on the latest Black Ops III DLC pack over in the forums. April is certainly looking like the month for betas. The Halo 5 Firefight beta is going on right now, plus there’s multiplayer betas for Doom and Gears of War 4 taking place this weekend and next week respectively. Those who successfully applied to take part should start to receive their beta keys a day after the event commences, with the first day saved exclusively for people who signed up as a Catalyst Frontrunner. Frontrunner or not, everyone will have access to the same content, which looks to be pretty generous for a beta. According to Catalyst’s Design Director Erik Odeldahl’s post on the game’s official site, participants will have access to a number of main missions and side-quests: “Closed Beta participants will be able to try out several of the main missions in Faith’s story, Side Missions, other optional content, and the Social Play features Mirror’s Edge Catalyst has to offer.” Catalyst’s Social Play will allow players to connect and challenge each other throughout the city of Glass by creating their own time trials as well as taking part in DICE designed ‘Dashes’. Check out the latest developer diary released by DICE below for some more details on what Social Play entails. Mirrors Edge Catalyst is due to release on 24 May for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
If you’re one of the lucky few who gets to go hands on with the game in next week’s closed beta, then why not head on over to our forums and let us know your thoughts on how Catalyst is shaping up. Remedy’s Quantum Break has done considerably well since it released last week, topping the UK all format charts and quickly becoming Microsoft’s bestselling new IP. Remedy took to the Quantum Break community forum in order to offer a response, outlining how they plan to resolve the numerous issues affecting gameplay, as well as detailing a few requested features that will be added in the future; such as the option to enable and disable film grain effect. Key Windows 10 issues being addressed are:
You can read the full list of planned fixes and performance tweaks for both the PC and Xbox versions in Remedy's full post over at the game’s official forum. Have you encountered any issues with Quantum Break’s performance on PC or Xbox One? Let us know over in the forums. You can catch our Quantum Break video review below. James thoroughly enjoyed the experience, so don't let any potential technical issues put you off. News round-up for 11 April12/4/2016 A teaser trailer for Titanfall 2 has been released by EA. Not much else is given away, but 12 June is set as the date of the worldwide reveal. You can watch the trailer below. Codemasters have acquired Evolution Studios.
Sony announced the closure of Evolution Studios last month, while retaining the rights to the UK based developer’s Driveclub and MotorStorm franchises. However, the team at Evolution can now look forward to making multi-platform games after they were picked up by another British development team, Codemasters, who know a few with things about racing games themselves as the developers of the F1 and DiRT series. Paul Rustchynsky, a 12 year veteran at Evolution, will be sticking with them through the change and suggests you follow him on Twitter for any news about a new IP. SMITE update 3.5 is out now for Xbox One. It won't hit PS4 until Wednesday due to Trophies being added, but future updates should arrive on both consoles at the same time. Included in the update is a new God, Skadi: Goddess of Winter, the option to play at 60fps, general bug fixes, balancing tweaks and new Achievements/Trophies. You can read the full patch notes here. It’s been a long time in the making - being delayed more times than we can remember - but Quantum Break finally released last week. It appears to be living up to the hype. Quantum Break not only topped the all formats chart in the UK this week, but it is now the biggest selling new Microsoft Studios IP this generation. You can see what James thought in our review. As always you can share your thoughts with us in the forums. New Gears Of War 4 trailer revealed11/4/2016 The trailer flicks between Marcus Fenix sharing a moment with his wife Anya and their young son, to the - now grown up - JD Fenix running for his life in a dark wood. The band's frontman, David Draiman, said in a recent interview with Inverse that the trailer gave him chills. That was no doubt the intention of the director, Henry Hobson, when opting to use Disturbed's emotive cover of the classic Simon & Garfunkel hit. Have a look for yourself and see if it is indeed chill-worthy. Draiman went on to say, “It seemed very, very appropriate for the storyline, for what the main character is going through, and it seems to set the stage perfectly." A big fan of the franchise, Draiman also added, “The storyline was always so dramatic, it really drew you in and kind of helped you role play, so to speak, while you were actually playing the game. I’ve always enjoyed the series, and it’s definitely one of my favorites.” An open beta is due at the end of the month in which you'll be able to try out the game's multiplayer before it releases on 11 October. Adam Fletcher, Director of Community for Gears Of War, teased us with an indication that more news will be coming soon. What do you think of the trailer? Let us know in the forums.
A freshly made Twitter account for the publishing arm of Telltale, @TelltalePublish, today teased us with two images of the upcoming title. The images, it turns out, are stills from the live-action trailer for 7 Days To Die which you can watch below. Set in a post apocalyptic world overrun by zombies, The Fun Pimps’ 7 Days To Die is more than just a first-person shooter. Originally released in 2013 through Steam early access, it’s an open world survival horror game with crafting and base-building elements to it - think Minecraft meets State Of Decay and you’re almost there. Mining and scavenging are absolutely necessary to gather the materials you’ll need to fight and survive. It’s also reminiscent of tower defence games; as the zombie hordes grow larger and more dangerous at night you’ll have a better chance of seeing the dawn if you can find a defensible place to stay. You’ll be able to reinforce walls and craft traps - like deadly spike pits - to protect yourself, but they won’t last forever, you can only hope that they last the night. 7 Days To Die will be released this summer on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in both physical and digital form, and those who pre-order will get five exclusive skins from Telltale’s series, including Michonne and Lee Everett from The Walking Dead. There’s no UK or European pricing just yet, but it should cost the equivalent of $29.99. The console version adds a new multiplayer mode supporting couch co-op. Additional online multiplayer modes, features and DLC plans will be revealed in the coming weeks. Have you played this via Steam’s Early Access? Excited for a console release? Let us know in the forums. The latest of Halo 5’s free multiplayer DLC goes live today, with Ghosts of Meridian adding new maps, REQ’s and weapons, plus the return of a certain fan favourite game mode. Each game will consist of five rounds in which players must work co-operatively to complete objectives, difficulty increasing as you progress. Seeing as this Firefight is of the Warzone variety, players will have full access to all their REQ’s in order to help them achieve victory. The beta kicks off next week, running from 14 – 18 April. Like previous updates before it, Ghosts of Meridian also adds new maps for Arena and Warzone game modes. Tyrant is the new arena map, featuring a large Forerunner structure wedged inside an asteroid belt, while Skirmish at Darkstar features an industrial setting based on the moon Meridian and will go into rotation for Warzone game modes. Besides the new weapons, armour and REQ’s on offer, a few multiplayer tweaks were snuck in with Ghosts of Meridian. The most notable of these was the return of SWAT DMRs which will be added to the SWAT playlist, and players can now ‘ping’ their location during Warzone and Arena matches by pressing up on the D-pad to alert team mates to conflict zones. Forge mode hasn’t been forgotten either, with 343 adding a number of new pieces and updates to the map building mode. Want to make it rain? Well, now you can with the new weather effects which also include the ability to add snow, dust, motes, paper and embers to your creations. You can check out the complete list of everything included in the Ghosts of Meridian update over at Halo Waypoint. Two more updates are planned for Halo 5, as well as the full version of Warzone Firefight. Memories of Reach and Hog Wild will release sometime in the Spring and Summer respectivly, while 343 recently confirmed that the much requested Infection mode will be added to Halo 5 soon. Let us know your thoughts on the Ghosts of Meridian update over in the forums.
Current caretakers of the Gears of War franchise, The Coalition, today announced the release date for the next installment in the series.
The first of those revelations looks to be the official box art, which was revealed by Entertainment Weekly. Gears of War 4 is set roughly 25 years after the events of Gears 3 and will star an all new cast of characters. It will begin a “new saga” for the franchise according to Fletcher, with JD Fenix and his crew taking on a “fearsome new threat”.
The game was unveiled at E3 last year, with few details released since then. But in the Xbox Wire post, Fletcher briefly touched upon what fans can expect from the upcoming game: “Harkening back to the dark and intense roots of the original classic, fans can expect a familiar, yet distinct evolution of gameplay, including brutal and intimate action, a heart-pounding campaign, genre-defining multiplayer and stunning visuals powered by Unreal Engine 4.” A multiplayer beta is coming to Xbox One later this month, beginning 18 April for those who played GoW: Ultimate Edition before opening up to everyone else a week later, meaning it won’t be long before fans are able to experience Gears of War 4 themselves. Let us know your thoughts on the next entry in the Gears franchise over in the forums. Bethesda have released a trailer for the second of Fallout 4's DLC. You can tame said creatures or have them square off against each other in a fight to the death (all in the name of progress of course). If that's not entertaining enough you could pit them against your settlers - make them earn their place! Aside from new and creative ways to slaughter the very people you set out to protect, Bethesda have added other - less murder-y - things to keep you occupied. Nixie tube lighting, letter kits, taxidermy and more can be attached to your settlement. Check out the trailer below. Wasteland Workshop drops 12 April for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. It's included in the season pass or can be picked up separately for only £3.99.
Are you interested in having a Deathclaw viciously slay your fellow man? Let us know in the forums. Microsoft’s Build 2016 took place in San Francisco last week, with Phil Spencer present and addressing a few Xbox related questions at the annual developer event.
One of the most interesting questions put to Spencer was in regards to console and PC exclusives.
It’s been well publicised that nearly all Xbox One first party titles are available on PC via the Windows 10 store, and it has left many wondering if the lack of actual AAA Xbox One exclusives (asides from Halo 5) is damaging to the console’s standing in an already lopsided ‘war’ with Sony’s PS4. Spencer had this to say when asked if all Microsoft’s first party titles will be available on Xbox One and PC in the future: “While certain people would love for me to say something as clean as “all of them,” the problem is…Ashes of the Singularity, a game we showcased. That’s a hardcore RTS on PC. It’s not a great controller experience. It probably requires a keyboard and mouse. Now, if I enable keyboard and mouse on a console, which we will do, and then you download that, and you’re playing on a monitor, is that a PC or a console game?” Playing PC games on console and vice versa may appeal to many, but Microsoft are aware that making games available to both platforms just for the sake of it could be damaging to the experience: “Our intent is for genres and where the creative makes sense in both spaces, we’ll put our games in both spaces. You see us doing that. But I don’t want to make it some kind of artificial mandate. Then we end up with Frankengames that weren’t meant for a certain platform. Because some suit said, “Hey, everything has to run on both platforms,” you end up with something people don’t want.” With numerous rumours suggesting that Sony are working on a more powerful PlayStation 4 that could be capable of 4K, many have been wondering whether Microsoft have any plans of their own to release an upgraded Xbox One. According to Spencer, we’ll be unlikely to see an Xbox 1.5 in the near future, and any move forward in the console market would most likely be significant one rather than simply improving on the current hardware: “Not a big fan of one and a half. I think about what happens in most spaces. If I’m going to move forward, I want to move forward in big numbers… For us, our box is doing well. It performs. It’s reliable. The service is up. If we go forward with anything, I want to make it a substantial change.” Resolution and framerates have been the big talking point for this generation of consoles, with only a few titles on both the PS4 and Xbox One hitting the coveted 1080p 60fps mark. While there are probably many early adopters who would consider shelling out for an upgraded Xbox One that could consistently deliver the aforementioned specs, Spencer’s comments are no doubt welcome words for those who have only recently invested in Microsoft’s machine and are not looking to purchase another anytime soon (this writer included!). Let us know your thoughts over on the forums. |
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