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It is no secret that the battle royale genre is currently ridiculously popular, so much so that PUBG still averages nearly a million concurrent players on Steam alone. However, despite the genre's rampant growth, very few AAA studios have announced a version of their own. With that in mind, you might be interested to hear that DICE is the first to break the silence as they have just revealed that Battlefield 5 will have a battle royale game mode!
According to the brief announcement message, the Battlefield 5 battle royale mode will be centered around three gameplay pillars: destruction, team play and vehicles. The details are still few and far between, but I must admit I'm quite curious to see how DICE plans to pull this off. Vehicles tend to be incredibly powerful yet easy to defeat through teamwork and specialized weaponry, the second of which might not be as readily available in a battle royale mode. So how exactly are we going to stop someone from rampaging in a tank?
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During today's EA conference at E3 2018, Titanfall developer Respawn announced that they are working on a brand new Star Wars action adventure game. The details are still shrouded in mystery, but what I can tell you is that it will be called Jedi: Fallen Order and that it's expected to arrive in the 2019 holiday season.
According to the brief description on the official website, Jedi: Fallen Order will be set shortly after the events of Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith and will focus around one of the surviving Padawn. Again, there are very few details to go on, but according to Respawn's Vince Zampella on Twitter it will be a singleplayer story set amidst "dark times". How exactly this is going to reflect on the narrative, I simply don't know, but I do hope it means Jedi: Fallen Order will be just a bit more grounded than the your standard Star Wars story.
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This shouldn't come as too much of a shock given that the announcement had more leaks than a submarine made out of Emmental cheese, but Hitman 2 has now been officially revealed. Much like its predecessor, Hitman 2 will bring with it a 6 brand new and large sandbox locations to muck around in, as well as an even greater focus on environmental kills and sabotage. Unlike its predecessors, however, Hitman 2 will finally allow us to use a rather sizable and hopefully floppy fish as a weapon!
While there isn't much in terms of gameplay information available just yet, the developers did release a rather fetching new trailer. If nothing else, it'll give you a pretty darn good idea of the sort of nonsense IO Interactive is looking to allow us to get up to. Have a look:
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As the title would suggest, Code Vein is Bandai Namco's upcoming action-RPG that appears to be quite heavily inspired by the Dark Souls series, both in terms of gameplay mechanics and tone. In other words, the combat is all about price strikes and dodges, while the world and its inhabitants are all dark and twisted, some barely able to hold themselves together.
If that sounds as appealing to you as it does to me, you'll be glad to hear that Bandai Namco has now finally announced it's release date alongside a lengthy new trailer. You can expect to see Code Vein this September 28th on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, while you can check out the new trailer right below. Have a gander, but do keep in mind that the video seems to have some story spoilers, as silly as that may be:
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Thrones of Britannia is the very first of the new Total War Saga spin-off series. Instead of focusing on a large conflict spread across an equally large time frame, Thrones of Britannia offers a much more detailed look at some of the most interesting events that happened after the English king Alfred the Great halted the Viking invasion in 878 AD.
If this sounds like something you would like to try out, you'll be glad to hear that Thrones of Britannia is now available on Windows, macOS and after the most recent update, Linux as well. Much like the previous few Total War games, the newly added Linux port has not been made by Creative Assembly themselves, but rather by Feral Interactive. You might recognize them from their work on the Linux and macOS ports of Total War: Warhammer 1 and 2, Dawn of War 3, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and the list goes on. So far they've done a pretty stellar job with their ports, so chances are the same applies to this new one as well.
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Tooth and Tail is a colorful and fairly fast-paced real-time strategy from the developers behind Monaco, though it's not exactly your standard RTS. First and foremost, all of the factions are comprised of sentient animals caught in an endless civil war over who gets to eat, and who gets to be eaten. Secondly, the amount of control you have over your units is fairly limited, so instead of worrying about micromanaging your individual troops you will have to focus almost entirely on strategy and composition in order to secure victory.
While the launch trailer below won't exactly tell you much about the gameplay itself, it should at least give you an idea of just what kind of RTS Tooth and Tail is trying to be. Have a look, it's a fairly short video:
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Despite being the biggest PC storefront, Steam has a bit of a strange relationship with adult, ultra-violent and potentially controversial games. Some are allowed in without any changes, others are censored but have easily-accessible patches that remove said censoring, and a whole bunch more are simply denied entry. With that in mind, you might be interested to hear that Valve has now suddenly revealed that they are working on allowing pretty much all games to be sold on Steam!
"What do players wish we would do? What would make them most happy? What's considered acceptable discussion / behavior / imagery varies significantly around the world, socially and legally," reads the official announcement. "Even when we pick a single country or state, the legal definitions around these topics can be too broad or vague to allow us to avoid making subjective and interpretive decisions. The harsh reality of this space, that lies at the root of our dilemma, is that there is absolutely no way we can navigate it without making some of our players really mad."
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After following Clementine's journey for around six years now, Telltale is finally getting ready to conclude the whole storyline with The Walking Dead: Season 4. The details are currently few and far inbetween, but judging by the recently posted trailer it would appear that the fourth and final season will have a much more somber and depressing tone than the previous ones.
I'd rather not ruin the reveal by trying to explain it through words alone, so if you're interested in seeing what exactly Season 4 will be about, make sure to check out the recently posted trailer down below. It's a fairly brief video, but it's quite an intriguing one regardless. Have a gander:
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After being available in Early Access (not the Steam kind) for quite a while now, the full version of The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset has finally made its way to both PC and consoles. In terms of content, you can expect to see the entirety of the High Elf homeland of Summerset, resolutions for storylines that have been going on for years, the option to create your own and highly powerful jewelry, new abilities that come from the ancient Psijic order, and naturally, delves, various public dungeons, world bosses and other such group-related activities.
You can get a bit of a closer look at Summerset and what exactly it brings to the table through the two recently posted trailers. The first is a fully cinematic trailer setting up the story and some of the characters, while the second one is your classic gameplay video showing off what Summerset looks like in action. Have a gander:
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Path of Exile's previous Bestiary league was a bit of a mixed bag. While the concept itself was quite entertaining, the actual implementation left a lot to be desired, especially in the late-game where only certain beasts were of any real relevance. With that in mind, I am delighted to say that the newly released Incursion update is one of those most enjoyable ones Path of Exile has ever had!
First and foremost, many of the previously terrible skills have been either reworked or heavily rebalanced, so if you're itching to give oldschool classics like Fireball or Ice Blast another try, this new league has you covered. On a similar note, burn damage has been buffed so Ignite is now once again a powerful status effect, while the various Trap interactions have been made more consistent and interesting to fiddle with. There are a lot more changes, many of which are too specific to cover, so if you're interested in all of the details you should head on over to the official forums.