News round-up for the week of 16 May

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2K and Gearbox Software have announced the first of five free DLC characters for Battleborn.

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by Chris Brand

@pass_controller

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Alani, pictured above, will release on 31 May across all platforms. Season Pass holders and those who participated in the PS4 open beta will get early access on 24 May. Alani can use her ability to control water both to deal out damage to enemies and heal allies.

Battleborn also has an extended double XP weekend running until Wednesday, so there’s never been a better time to jump in.

It’s been announced that Soul Axiom is coming to Xbox One, PS4 and Wii U. Soul Axiom is a story driven, first person adventure/puzzle game set in the virtual world of Elysia. After uploading your soul to the server, you're free to "unravel the mystery of your digital afterlife."

​Check out the announce trailer below.

If that’s piqued your interest, you can find more info on the developer's official website.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun has opened closed beta registration. A real time strategy game with stealth elements, the plot sees a new Shogun rise to power and strive to bring peace to the realm, aided by five recruited specialists.

The five specialists each have their own strengths and weaknesses. For example: the samurai, Mugen, likes to get up close and personal with his opponents, whilst Takuma counts on his sniper rifle to take care of enemies from range.

​There’s another announcement trailer below.

The game will be releasing on PC, Mac, Linux, PS4 and Xbox One, but the closed beta will only be available for PC. If you want to be in with a chance to test it out come June, you can sign up here. 

Being developed by Spiders (that's the company; not actual spiders), The Technomancer is set to release on 28 June for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. A sort of spiritual successor to the slightly dodgy Mars: War Logs, players will return to Mars as, you guessed it, Technomancers - mage-warriors with the ability to control electricity.

War Logs received a lukewarm reception upon release, as frankly all of Spiders’ games have, so let's hope that they’ve learned from previous mistakes and can produce a decent RPG this time around.

Here's a video explaining the various gameplay elements.

Halo 5's forge mode is coming to PC in some rather bizarre news. Forge – Halo 5: Guardians Edition will be completely free, but won’t enable PC players to get in on any campaign or multiplayer action. That said, you will be able to invite Xbox Live friends into a custom game to test out your creations before publishing them.

4K resolution will be supported, as will keyboard and mouse controls for undoubtedly welcome precision control of the editing suite. Microsoft believe (correctly) that this will make it quicker and easier to bring your ideas to fruition.

Look out for Forge – Halo 5: Guardians Edition later in the year.

If you've been getting stuck into DOOM, you'll likely know there's an Ultra-Nightmare mode; an incredibly challenging difficulty level that also boasts perma-death.

Only days after release, someone has completed Ultra-Nightmare in just under five hours.

Speedrunner, Zero Master, achieved this remarkable feat on his second attempt, after dying just before the final boss during his first - how furious would you be!

He warns that it's not very entertaining in some parts, but if you've got a few hours to kill and some popcorn, you can watch the full run below.

Finally, we’ll leave you with a feel good story.

As reported by VG247.com, a disabled gamer helped Naughty Dog include better accessibility options in Uncharted 4. Josh Straub runs a website that rates games based on how accessible they are for those with disabilities. He got in touch with Alexandria Neonakis, UI designer at Naughty Dog, after being unable to complete Uncharted 2 due to button mashing requirements in certain encounters.

Good work, Naughty Dog. Hopefully more developers will follow suit.

​If you’ve any thoughts to share with us, our forums are always open.

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