Sony has announced that two Indiana Jones games and four Star Wars titles will arrive for PlayStation Now in Europe today, May 5. Yes, that's one day after Star Wars Day… the PlayStation Blog admits the company made a "Wookiee error."
"We decided to shift our focus and resources to PS4 and Windows PC to further develop and improve the user experience on these two devices," the company said at the time. "This move puts us in the best position to grow the service even further."
An update recently released for Linux contains details that hint at what AMD's upcoming RX Vega graphics cards have to offer, according to HotHardware.
The Linux direct rendering manager (DRM) update revealed that a Vega GPU will come equipped with 64 next-generation compute units resulting in 4,096 stream processors. For comparison, the newly released AMD Radeon RX 580 has 36 compute units and 2304 stream processors. If we're talking about teraflops (TFLOPS), the Radeon RX Vega would offer 12.5 TFLOPS, which is a substantial jump from the RX 580's 6.2 TFLOPS.
Another significant change with Vega is its memory structure; it will be using second generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM2) instead of the GDDR5 memory of Nvidia's Pascal cards and the RX 400 and 500 series from AMD. HBM2 achieves higher bandwidth, uses less power, and is physically compact since the actual dies are stacked on top of each other. This technology was also used in a few of AMD's Fiji graphics cards: the R9 Fury X, R9 Fury, and R9 Nano.
In addition, there were leaked results from what seemed like a Vega-based GPU running the 3DMark benchmark Time Spy 1.0. According to Guru3D, the benchmark results gave the unreleased Vega GPU a 5721 score. It is unknown where this particular card is in the pecking order within the Vega line, but it looks to compete with the mid-high end GTX 1070. For context, the Nvidia GTX 1070 scored 5699, the GTX 1080 scored 7152, and AMD's RX 580 scored 4388.
For more on gaming performance with the latest graphics cards, check out our reviews of the AMD Radeon RX 580, RX 570, and Nvidia's latest in the GTX 1080 Ti.
The full trailer for the upcoming sci-fi sequel Blade Runner 2049 arrives on Monday, but ahead of that, a new teaser has been released. It's short, but it provides a taste of what to expect when the movie is released in October. Check it out below:
Blade Runner 2049 stars Ryan Gosling, with Harrison Ford reprising his role of Deckard from Ridley Scott's original 1982 movie. The cast also features Ana de Armas, Jared Leto, and Robin Wright, while in March it was revealed that Edward James Olmos will return as enigmatic cop Gaff.
In a recent interview with Deadline, Villeneuve spoke about the challenges of making a sequel to such an iconic film. "It's the first time that I had to take the universe of someone else and to make it my own," he said. "It's very challenging, the biggest artistic challenge I've had in my life probably. I hesitated a lot before doing it, but when I said yes I committed at one hundred percent .
"It's very difficult to talk about it because I'm in the process of doing it, so it's a bit like asking a hockey player to describe how he will score as he's going through the other players. It's a massive challenge."
The Prey series has been dormant for a decade--but now it's back.
Arkane Austin's new Prey launches today for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. It's what rose out of the ashes of the canceled Prey 2, which Human Head was making before Bethesda decided to reboot the project and put Arkane Austin (the sister studio of Dishonored creator Arkane) on the game. Apart from the name and its high-level themes, the new Prey has basically no connection to 2006's Prey or the canceled sequel.
GameSpot recently had the chance to sit down with Arkane president and Prey creative director Raphael Colantonio to discuss a number of topics about the sci-fi shooter. He told us about the origins of the project, its influences, his reaction to nasty Twitter comments, and a lot more.
As with other recent Bethesda games, review copies were not made available ahead of launch, so keep checking back with GameSpot to find our review and other coverage in the days ahead.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
GameSpot:Going back to the beginning, there was a lot of talk and unconfirmed reports about when Arkane became involved with the project and everything leading up to that. So I'm wondering if you could just talk about how Arkane became attached to Prey and what you bring to it from your background and perspective?
Raphael Colantonio: We were doing the same game that we always like to make: a first-person RPG/shooter with a lot of simulation. And we wanted to do something this time on-board of a space station with aliens, where you have to escape. So more like a System Shock-inspired game since it was one of my very first games of the genre that I liked to play when I was younger. And as we're developing it--we still didn't have a name, we just had a code name back then--the name became available. Prey became available because the other game was canceled.
And we were asked if we wanted the name. We thought about it. The themes are pretty similar. It's been ten years between Prey and this new game, so we just went with it.
Can you talk about how everything surrounding the whole Prey IP and everything impacted what you wanted to do with your version?
I think in the movie industry, it happens all the time. There are ten movies with the same name and nobody really has a problem with it, but in the case of this IP, it was [of] a more fuss about it. When we took the [Prey] name, we were like [to Bethesda], "As long our game doesn't change." And it's the game we're doing. It's an Arkane game, and that's all that matters. We did not try to put any link other than the high-level themes with the original.
"In the movie industry ... there are ten movies with the same name and nobody really has a problem with it" -- Colantonio
So, when you're looking back at those two games, you would say there's basically no connection between them outside of the name?
Outside of the name and the high-level themes, there's no connection.
There hasn't been a Prey game for ten years, so can you talk about some of the challenges of bringing that franchise back after so many years away?
There were none. We didn't even think about it. We never looked at it like, "How do we bring this back?" It was like, "How do we do our game?"
And then diving into the game itself, the story seems really interesting to me. Can you sum up the story?
The story itself is you play the role of Morgan. You are scientists. You are part of an experiment to alter humanity forever and at some point things go wrong and ...
As they always do.
As they always do in these kind of things. And you find yourself on-board of a space station infested with aliens and you have to escape using your wits, newfound abilities, and anything you can find on-board the station. That's pretty much the game, right? And it's first-person, RPG, simulation game where the player is offered a lot of choices in the way he plays.
In terms of the alien design, was their one common thread that ties all the aliens together? I really like the mimic ability. So could you just talk about the alien and critter design?
Yeah, it's a family. It's an ecology of aliens. And you find out as you play that the ... So the Mimic is the very first one. It's the one that was found by the Russians in the '60s, so that's for the background. And they contained it, and then at some point they were doing experiments with it and something happened. All of the aliens in the room have a purpose in the ecology, and so the Mimics are the scouts. They gather energy and multiply when they have enough energy and then, when there are enough of them, they get combined into something called a Weaver. The Weaver is a creature that creates other aliens as well. So like from corpses they create the Phantoms that we've seen in the demo as well. Et cetera, Et cetera, and the Phantom are the guards and ... So the Weaver is the creator, is the mother, and you have some more that you find out as you play.
And then, eventually, you find out that they all have a common purpose which is revealed in the game as well.
And then in terms of influences, it's a sci-fi game, people look at it, and one of the things I see online is BioShock and then System Shock, just touchpoints that people quickly go to. But what were specific influences for you? Whether it be games, or movies, or TV, or anything?
Well, System Shock definitely. BioShock--it's funny when people say Bioshock, because Bioshock was System Shock underwater. So that makes us System Shock underwater, in space, which goes back to System Shock, I think. But other than that, I would say there's some Dishonored as well because System Shock is an old game and I think what inspired us was the mood, the overall approach of it. You look at the systems, we've added all our own spiel to it and so all the Dishonored approach and level design style and all the branching of the stories, et cetera. This is on top of all that.
And then as far as movies go, or properties in general, I think there's a little bit of Lovecraft. There's a little bit of Lost. There's Moon, Sunshine, Total Recall, Aliens, Starship Troopers.
I understand development is a very fluid process and things change, but how closely does the original design match up with what is coming out this week?
Very, very closely. The only thing we didn't know were the implementation details and the exact looks of the creatures and the look of the world. But as far as the experience goes, and overall story structure, it's very close to the original.
Was there anything that was left on the cutting room floor? Things that didn't make it?
Millions of things. As always. And some might see the day in some other future game or date or ... but, yeah it's always part of the process. In fact, probably even more in our company than some others. We do a lot of prototyping, and we put the systems in the game--even at an early stage where it's not solid yet--just to test the feel of it, and then we can do ones that survive the most.
A lot of games today are going very online-centric, but Arkane's latest games have not really done that. Have you ever thought about multiplayer in the Prey universe? Is that something you guys have thought about?
It would be great. Yeah. A multiplayer, co-op version of the game would be amazing. In this case, we did not do it as [there are] typical constraints to doing this. [It would be a] different game as well. But that would be cool.
What's it like working with Bethesda?
Well the part that matters the most to me is that they've always been very hands-off as far as creative decisions. They've always been very trusting. And so we've always made the game we wanted to make [whether it's] Dishonored, Dishonored 2, or Prey. And they've always been supportive with that. So that's great.
And then another thing I'm really liking about the latest Bethesda games is Mick Gordon. I loved his music for Doom. You guys are working with him as well for Prey. Can you talk about that relationship and what his music brings to the game?
[Music is a] very, very strong impact as far as the identity goes. There's the visuals, the gameplay, and there's the audio. And we definitely wanted something special. And I heard his music in [Wolfenstein: The New Order] and I really, really liked it.
He had very cool guitar scales that he was using. And so I wanted to try to see how those arpeggios that he's so good at would work with a moody space game. And so we did a test and he came two weeks later and it was great. It's actually the music that now is in the menu. And it kind of defined the direction for all the music that then come for this game.
Prey seems to be a lot of things in term of genres. It looks scary. I think you guys have said psychological as well, but not to the horror end of it. How would you describe the genre you guys are trying to go for?
Yeah, I think psychological thriller. A lot of tension. It's interesting; we've never tried to scare people off so much, and watching the videos on YouTube and reading Twitter, people are terrified. It's funny. I mean, I watch the videos and people are literally yelling, screaming.
So that's cool. I mean, it's a good plus. I think we did not want horror as a focus because it's a means to an end. It becomes a thing where we would scare you off, which is not the idea. Plus you have to keep it up all through the game. Which, it's a little bit of a ... It sounds too narrow for the kind of game that we wanted to make.
We wanted to provide an experience about how you escape a place and then how you're going to unravel some other layers of story in there and what kind of decisions it would take. Yeah, so the horror is more like an aside.
And you're just referencing the story and the heroes and everything. It has multiple endings as well. Do you ever think about all the work you've put in and then someone just doesn't see one ending? Are you encouraging people to go back and play a second, a third time? Are there systems in the game that encourage you to?
For a long time, I would have told you that we don't really worry about that part. It's true. You do more content than people would see. But nowadays content is so expensive and a lot of other games expose their content all the time. Like, 'Oh you haven't seen this? Play again. Do this now.' It seems to be modern approach. And we've never really looked at games this way. We just offer this space for possibilities and then you find your own story and it hopefully feels great.
And you might want to play it again, but this time it would be a little different. So we will, of course, encourage people to play several times. And I think they will realize that they are mutually exclusive things, so as they do that, they probably will want to either reload or start a new game from scratch and this time take [a] different set of neuromods and [make] different decisions so they can experience different angles of the game.
And in terms of the actual gameplay, is it possible to have like a pacifist playthrough? Can you get through without killing the aliens?
No. It's not a legacy from [the] Dishonored games.
Given Arkane and Bethesda's history, in terms of ongoing support in the future, is it safe to assume that there are more stories in the Prey universe that you want to tell? Whether it's with this game or things even further?
Yeah, we're looking at what kind of games we'll do and how do we keep the game alive. There's nothing official right now I can speak of, but we're interested in all this of course.
One of the things about Arkane's last game, Dishonored 2, was the PC version had a little bit of struggle. Out of the gate, some people were a little upset with the way it ran. And obviously you guys patched it and it got better. Can you speak to the PC version of Prey right now? How confident are you that you're going to start strong?
We're pretty confident. First of all, it's not like we first do the game on console and then at the end we sort of only import the game to PC.
Right, it starts on PC.
Starts on PC, right. That's how the game development works. So every time I read, "Oh, these guys are not doing the right port," it always makes me laugh a little.
The real reason why PC games often have problems is because there are so many current editions of hardware. So [much] stuff out there and sometimes timing, you know, the drivers come out at the same time as our game or something happens that makes it more challenging. But, of course, this time we are, given what happened with Dishonored 2... We doubled our thoroughness in making sure that the game is going to run smoothly. So that's where we are at this point. The game is fully ready. But that's what we've been doing for the past months is, you know, a lot of tests on different configurations and making sure it works.
So, to answer your question, we're pretty confident. You never know, but we're pretty confident.
And, like you were just saying, different permutations of hardware is now the case with consoles, too, where you're supporting Xbox One and then, presumably, Scorpio, and PS4, and PS4 Pro. So, do you plan to have updates for those new systems coming out?
Yeah, we will. We'll probably follow up with that of course.
And then I'm always curious to hear from a developer's side: How much overhead is actually going on to support those new consoles?
It is not a crazy amount of work. It's just that every time it's one more SKU, it's one more submission. Every time it's one more little project. So you fragment your team and your effort and your testing, et cetera. So it's not negligible, but it's not like porting it to a new system, something like that.
I don't know if this is something you can answer, but do you have a Scorpio kit that you're working with now?
[Asks PR person] Can I answer this? I don't know. I think it's safe to say that we have pretty much every hardware that is available in our office. At least to check it out.
We saw that Bethesda is a partner with Nintendo for the Switch and that console seems to be off to a good start. They just announced sales this week. We're seeing Skyrim there. If the install base is big enough, is that something you'll think about bringing Prey there?
Honestly, that would be more of a business question than a developer question. We do it if they want to.
And then, with its very tense moments and its psychological elements, is that something you think would work in a VR environment?
It would probably work very well, yeah. VR definitely adds one layer of immersion. We don't have any plans for it, but yeah.
Another very interesting thing about Prey is you guys have a demo out which is not really all that common today. Can you just talk about why you wanted to do that?
I think we just wanted to maximize our chance for people to see what the game has to offer. And putting out a demo is always hard because it's more work ... when you're already late. It's not the thing that developers like to do. In our case, I think it worked out well because the beginning of the game, ...it's not a too-slow start. Sometime we do games where it would not have been the right approach.
Some games just are slow burners.
Right, right. It just feels right for [Prey]. It was not too much work for us because, really, what it is just too often the beginning of the game. I think Bethesda wanted to explore [a demo]. We do different things [for] different games based on what's most adapted and it felt right in this game.
That's something else that's a big trend in games today, is transmedia like we're seeing. It's very rare that a game is just a game. There's some kind of connection and offshoot whether it be comics or movies. Do you think of Prey as like a transmedia property? Or is it just a game for now?
For now, it's just a game. We designed a world that is much bigger than the game, so it could be. I'd love to see that, but for now, it's just a game.
How much do you read into nasty things people say online about you and your game? Do you think about that a lot? Sometimes it feels like a vocal minority.
Yeah, I usually don't, but lately, as soon as we [released] the demo, I've been on my Twitter every two seconds to check what reactions are. Yeah, checking them too early is more disruptive than anything for us. And again, it's hard to know what the noise that it generates, it's hard to know if it's a big number or a tiny very loud [group]... so there's too much thinking about it can be misleading to us, so we try to ignore it. Plus there's a lot of people who speculate on things, either that this thing's going to be amazing even though they have no idea because they haven't seen it. Or some people swear it's going to be the worst thing ever even though it doesn't make any sense either.
I check out a lot of the videos that they post of the playthroughs. And I'm actually having a lot of fun seeing their screaming and what happens at the moment when they ... You know, the big twist. When they find out actually what's going on is also a good moment for us to just watch it. It's very cool. And, yeah, there's a negative thing, but overall I found it's mostly positive. A lot of people are really, really thrilled about the game.
I guess that just leads to a wider question about how you balance what you know is good game design. What you learned from all the years, versus what the community might just call out for.
Sometimes it's not necessarily the most complex things that bring the most satisfactions to players, so I have my views on what I like and what is hard to do and what's cool. But sometimes they will rave about something that was not a lot to do, or sometimes they were just totally overlooking something that took us forever to make.
So I don't know. For me, as a gamer ... I like when I feel that the game is a simulation as opposed to a script. Just like the fact of picking up objects, throwing them around, and hearing the noise. Maybe it would attract an AI to come in and so it's looking for me as opposed to it know where I am already. All these things are just, for me, elements that make a good game.
What are some games you're playing today that you think are doing that really well?
I was going to mention a game that I've been playing that I really love but that is not doing this at all. Inside.
Okay, right.
I love Inside--that's for another reason, right? Because it's another type of experience and they do that very well. And kudos to them.
Other games that do the kind of things we do ... Well, in a way, I would say Fallout probably. They have bigger scale and they do things a little different, but there are a lot of common DNA I think between what they do and what we do.
Is there anything else that you think people need to know about Prey? Because that seems to be one of the things too with the demo. You want to get it out there. You want people to have a sample of it. So what should people know about it? The thing that really sets it apart?
I think it's a game with a lot of possibilities and I hope that it will leave memories to players. And opportunities for them to do a lot of videos on YouTube because there are so many types of combinations between the mechanics that some fun stuff will emerge and I think people will want to show that.
Sony has announced the top-selling games and DLC on the PlayStation Store for April, and it was Persona 5 that came out on top of the PS4 charts in the United States.
Persona 5 launched on April 4, giving it the benefit of having almost a full month to rack up sales. (Compare that with MLB The Show 17, which launched on March 28 and made it to No.4 on the US charts for March and No. 5 for April.) For its part, the PS3 version of Persona 5 made it to No. 3 in the US but didn't rank in the top 10 for Europe. The PS4 version was the No. 13 game in Europe.
Whether The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind marks your triumphant return to a familiar land or your first entry into the series, publisher Bethesda is giving you a heads up on the system requirements you'll need to play on PC or Mac.
Current players of The Elder Scrolls Online can rest easy since the expansion has the same system requirements as the current game.
PC - Minimum System Requirements:
OS: Windows 7 32-bit
CPU: Intel Core i3 540 or AMD A6-3620
RAM: 3GB
Hard Drive: 85GB free HDD space
GPU: DirectX 11 compliant video card with 1 GB of RAM (Nvidia GeForce 460 / AMD Radeon 6850) or higher
Sound Card: DirectX compatible
Internet broadband connection
PC - Recommended System Requirements:
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i5 2300 or AMD FX4350
RAM: 8GB
Hard Drive: 85GB free HDD space
GPU: DirectX 11 compliant video card with 2 GB of RAM (Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 or AMD Radeon HD 7850) or higher
Mac - Minimum System Requirements:
OS: OS X 10.9
CPU: Intel Core i3 540 or higher
RAM: 4 GB
Hard Drive: 85 GB free HDD space
GPU: AMD Radeon 5870 (1GB of VRAM) with OpenGL 4.1
Internet broadband connection
Mac - Recommended System Requirements:
OS: OS X 10.11
CPU: Intel Core i5 2500S or higher
RAM: 8 GB
Hard Drive: 85 GB free HDD space
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7870 or higher with OpenGL 4.1
The expansion is due out in a month and takes players to Vvardenfell, which was the setting of the much-loved The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind from 15 years ago. The new game is set 700 years before the original. Get a look at the trailer below.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind will add a new storyline, PvP mode, and the playable Warden class. It will be released globally on June 6 and will be available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. For the latest news leading up to its release, GameSpot will have full coverage right here.
Alien: Covenant arrives in theaters in two weeks, and there's been plenty of recent promotional activity for the sci-fi horror movie. Two new clips have now been released--the first sees stars Katherine Waterston character Daniels communicating with MUTHUR, the Covenant's onboard AI, while the second suggests something gruesome is about to happen to a couple of the ship's crew members. Check them out below:
The first teaser for the upcoming Marvel TV show Inhumans has been released. The short promo doesn't actually reveal any footage, but it does deliver some ominous voiceovers and the show's distinctive logo. Watch it below:
This teaser follows the first cast image, which was revealed yesterday. The image shows the main characters from the series, including Black Bolt (Anson Mount), Medusa (Serinda Swan), Gorgon (Eme Ikwuakor), and Karnak (Ken Leung).
The show is being overseen by Scott Buck, who also was showrunner on the recent Marvel Netflix show Iron Fist. Buck spoke to EW recently about the decision to shoot the first episodes with IMAX cameras. "The first two episodes feel like a movie," he said. "[Using IMAX] gave us a lot more freedom and encouraged us to think bigger than we would if it was just a normal network show."
The Inhumans were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in a 1965 issue of Fantastic Four. Led by hypersonically voiced Black Bolt, their first self-titled comic line ran from 1975 to 1977. They have subsequently appeared in a variety of limited and ongoing series over the past four decades.
Inhumans is one of several new Marvel shows in the works, alongside Runaways and Cloak & Dagger, which are both currently in production. A New Warriors TV show was also recently announced.
Nintendo recently held a preview event in New York where the company demonstrated the side-scrolling Pikmin spin-off Hey! Pikmin along with the Mii-based RPG Miitopia, providing us with some new information about the upcoming 3DS titles.
The hands-on demo of Hey! Pikmin gave us our first glimpse at a new home base area in the game dubbed Pikmin Park. Rather than taking the Pikmin you've amassed with you into subsequent levels, the plant-like minions are deposited in Pikmin Park after each stage. Here you can deploy them to different sections of the park that are littered with elemental hazards (such as electrical wires), which the Pikmin will gradually clear out while you're exploring other levels. The amount of time it takes to clear an area of Pikmin Park depends on the amount of Pikmin you have stored there, so the more you assemble, the faster they can complete their tasks.
You can also expedite the process by using the new Pikmin Amiibo that releases alongside the title. Tapping the figure adds more Pikmin to your Pikmin Park, though it's unclear if the Amiibo will serve an additional purpose or if the title will be compatible with other figures, such as the Olimar Amiibo from the Super Smash Bros. line.
Miitopia, meanwhile, has largely been a mystery ever since the game was first unveiled last November in a Japanese Nintendo Direct. The footage showcased during the broadcast drew comparisons to the quirky 3DS life sim Tomodachi Life. These similarities weren't coincidental; Miitopia is being developed by the team responsible for Tomodachi Life, and the premise in both is to populate your game with your collection of Miis and witness them humorously interact and form bonds with each other.
Like the 3DS's "built-in" StreetPass game Find Mii, Miitopia is a simplified take on RPGs in which your Miis are cast in the roles of your party members. Each Mii is assigned a class, from traditional RPG jobs like Knight and Thief to more off-beat ones like Cook and Pop Idol. The Miis behave according to the personality you set for them; a cautious Mii, for instance, will favor using stat-buffing abilities. In between battles, Miis are lodged at inns, where you can witness interactions between them (which will increase their bond and in turn unlock new skills), feed them to improve their stats, and send them off to purchase new weapons. Up to four Miis can be in your party at a time, though the Nintendo reps at the event have said that players can recruit more than eight Miis.
If you don't have an extensive collection of Miis to use, Nintendo is also launching an online service called Mii Central from which you can download other players' creations and bring into your game. It was unclear if the service will be exclusive to Miitopia or if you'll be able to keep the Miis you download to use in other titles.
Miitopia also features Amiibo support. Scanning a figure will give you a "game ticket," which can be redeemed to play one of the title's minigames. Nintendo hasn't specified which Amiibo will be compatible with the title or if they'll have any additional functionality.
Both Miitopia and Hey! Pikmin will release on July 28, the same day that the newest addition to the 3DS line of handhelds, the New Nintendo 2DS XL, launches in the US. Nintendo is marketing the New 2DS XL as an entry-level console in between the lower-end 2DS model and the New 3DS XL, featuring the same hardware as the latter but without its ability to display stereoscopic 3D effects. The New 2DS XL retails for $150.
As revealed in the trailer above, Sub-Zero (of Mortal Kombat fame), Red Hood (who sometimes works with Batman), and Starfire (a Tamaran princess) will be playable characters in Injustice 2. They'll be released as part of the Fighter Pack 1 DLC.
A price for the pack was not announced, but we do know these characters--along with six others--are bundled together as part of Injustice 2's Ultimate Edition, which is priced at $100. The $80 Digital Deluxe Edition also comes with these three characters.
Similarly, a release date for Fighter Pack 1, or any of the subsequent DLC packs, was not shared. The characters won't be available on day one, as they remain in development.
Those details should be announced before long, as Injustice 2's release is now just over a week away. It launches for PS4 and Xbox One on May 16. Other recent character reveals have included Joker, Darkseid, and Brainiac.
Each year, Valve releases a Battle Pass in the run-up to The International, Dota 2's big tournament that takes place in the summer. In past years, the Battle Pass has included in-game content like cosmetics and perks. This year, Valve is adding an entire co-op campaign to Dota 2.
Called Siltbreaker, it's a two-part mode that tasks you and three other players with exploring Dark Reef, an underwater prison in the game's universe.
"As Act I opens, a dormant evil stirs in the depths of Dark Reef, with only the secret Conclave of the Brine prepared to face it," Dota 2's website states. "Will you answer the Conclave's call and journey to halt this dark power's ascent?"
If you play Siltbreaker, you'll gain campaign experience points, which you can then use to spin the Wheel of Rewards. Additionally, the Battle Pass adds an exclusive reward: a Desert Sands Baby Roshan.
Act 1 launches this month, while Act II will launch sometime in July.
Alongside Siltbreaker, the pass includes several other notable additions:
Battle Point Tributes let you grant bonus tokens onto the wagers of your teammates;
Team Quests task you with completing single- and multi-game goals as a team;
During the Battle Pass season, a team's combined Battle Level totals will build Prestige Towers instead of normal defense pillars;
Players can answer questions about Dota in Queue Trivia;
If you collect a full set of Fantasy Player Cards, you can unlock effects and icons for a specific team of five heroes;
At the start of a ranked match, players can choose to double down on MMR loss or gain;
Every week, ten Battle Pass owners will win a Relic that can be equipped on every hero.
This year's International takes place from August 7-12 at Seattle's KeyArena. 25% of Battle Pass proceeds go into the prize pool, which is a little over $3,650,000 as of this writing.
Overwatch and Halo are very different franchises: Overwatch only has competitive multiplayer, while the Halo series includes many different games, each with several modes to play. Halo has a huge, overarching storyline stretching across books, TV shows, movies, and games. Overwatch's narrative, on the other hand, is found in in-game dialogue and environmental hints--although it has recently received some short videos and comics. Recently, Overwatch lead writer Michael Chu and Halo executive producer Kiki Wolfkill spoke at a panel about the different challenges they face when crafting stories, but also the importance of a narrative to a successful game.
As reported by The Ringer, they appeared on a panel at Tribeca Games Festival. Chu spoke about how developer Blizzard goes about crafting a story that can only be conveyed through the multiplayer mode, explaining that it's difficult but nonetheless a vital part of the game.
"We felt that it was equally important to develop [not just] Overwatch the game, but also this universe. Because [at] Blizzard, that's what we do," he said. "What we've learned about development over the years is that when you're making these heroes and you're making the levels and the art, it really helps to have the story background to figure out what kind of content you want to make, context for heroes and levels."
To communicate this background information to the player, Blizzard relies on the snippets of dialogue that appear at the beginning of matches. "We had to be really efficient," he explained. "There weren't that many places to get story out in Overwatch. One of the ways that is actually most effective is the pregame dialogue. It's one line, one response."
For developer 343 Industries, the huge Halo lore poses quite a different challenge. Wolfkill explained that it's a huge undertaking to deal with a series that has five mainline games, a handful of spinoff games, and multiple companion novels and TV series. It can be overwhelming for players.
"I will admit that it's easy for us to drink a little bit of our own Kool-Aid, we get so deep into the lore that we forget how unapproachable it can feel sometimes for someone who is new," she said. "So it's tough because on the one hand we have an obligation to carry the stories forward. On the other hand, we do want to bring new people into the universe."
To avoid this pitfall, 343 Industries makes efforts to communicate narrative through other media, to help get new players accustomed to the Halo universe and the nature of the narrative arc. She explained, "We do look at ways of expressing a story in the universe in other places around the games, as a way of on-boarding people into the universe. We look for opportunities... Where are places where we can get back to some very clean, pure, Halo storytelling for people to come on board for the first time and really get pulled into the universe?"
You can listen to the whole panel or read more from the transcript over at The Ringer.
Even though the long-awaited return of cult TV show Twin Peaks is only a few weeks away, until now we have seen very little actual footage from the new season. Last week, new shots of the town were released, and now we have a short teaser that reveals some of the key characters as they now appear.
The video includes Kyle McLachlan as Agent Dale Cooper, Everett McGill as "Big" Ed Hurley, Grace Zabriskie as Sarah Palmer, Michael Horse as Deputy Tommy "Hawk" Hill, and Harry Goaz as Deputy Andy Brennan. It also features Harry Dean Stanton as Carl Rodd, a character that appeared in the prequel movie Fire Walk With Me. Check it out above.
The new season is set to premiere with a two-part episode on Sunday, May 21 at 9 PM ET/PT. Showtime subscribers will be able to watch the next two episodes immediately afterwards on the network's streaming service.
The following week, Episodes 3 and 4 will air on Showtime, before settling into a single episode a week until the two-part finale in September. This will air from 8-10 PM on Sunday, September 3.
For Honor's Season 2 starts on May 16, and now publisher Ubisoft has released new footage of the maps and characters coming as part of the upcoming season.
First up are two trailers for the game's new heroes, The Centurion Knight and The Shinobi Samurai. The Centurion (above) comes equipped with a standard issue gladius for close-quarters combat, and Ubisoft says the character will be a strategic fighter who "sees the battlefield like a chessboard."
The Shinobi, meanwhile are silent warriors who move with "a dancer's grace and kill with precision," and they each wield a traditional Kusarigama--a deadly sickle-and-chain weapon. Take a look at the Shinobi below.
For Honor's new maps have also been shown off for the first time. The first, Forge, is set in a wintry steel mill, while Temple Garden plants you in the beautiful and serene grounds of a traditional Japanese temple. Check out the footage of Forge here and Temple Garden here.
The arenas will be available to all players with Season 2 kicks off on May 16. The two new fighters will launch for free for season pass holders the same day, though other players will have to wait until May 23 to unlock them with in-game Steel.
Halo 5 has a rotational social playlist, and now the next mode for it has been announced. As revealed on Halo Waypoint, the new playlist is Rock 'n' Rail, which sees players starting with rockets and railguns. It's a pretty hectic and intense game mode, which debuted in Halo 4.
"While this new iteration of Rock 'n' Rail is inspired by Halo 4's beloved Rock 'n' Rail mode, it's been specifically tailored to better fit the Halo 5 sandbox," multiplayer designer Sara Stern said. "Instead of basing gameplay around the use of jetpacks, we've altered the gravity, stabilizer time, and jump height settings to bring combat off the ground and into the air."
In Halo 5, Rock 'n' Rail makes use of the game's Spartan abilities, which you can use to boost high in the air. In turn, that might make landing shots a little more difficult.
Halo 5's Warzone mode is also getting updated. Warzone Turbo will be re-introduced on May 12, while the Warzone Warlords mode returns for the May 26-29 weekend.
Finally, Halo 5's newest ranked season, for May-June, is now underway. Here is a rundown of what's new for this season, as written by 343 Industries:
NEW SEASON FEATURES
Soft Forfeit
It will be "safe" to leave if someone has already left the match (from either team)
No need to stay on to prevent a ban or extra point loss
No ban if someone has already left
No extra CSR loss penalty if someone has already left
You still lose the same amount of CSR as a normal loss
Leavers always lose CSR, regardless of how their team does after, so it's better to stay if you're on the winning / advantaged team until the other team leaves.
Reduced early-season wait times for higher-skilled players
High-skilled players sometimes get MMRs that are higher than is needed
These will now be truncated to a reasonable value at the beginning of the season
They are still high enough to prevent very uneven matches, but low enough to allow more timely matchmaking
Even Stricter CSR boundaries: Onyx population reduced again
The previously fixed inflation bug had inflated this despite the changes
We should see even stricter boundaries in the new season
Destiny's limited-time Iron Banner event is coming back next week
In the developer's latest weekly blog post, the studio confirmed that Iron Banner will kick off on Tuesday, May 9, starting at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. The gametype for Iron Banner this time around is Mayhem Clash; this is the first time ever that this mode was used in Iron Banner.
This Iron Banner event comes to a close on Tuesday, May 16, at 2 AM PT / 5 PM ET.
As usual, there are some cool-looking rewards up for grabs during this Iron Banner event. These include pulse rifles and machine guns, as well as armor for Titans, Warlocks, and Hunters.
In other Destiny news, the first gameplay footage for Destiny 2 will be shown off during a livestream event on May 18. The game launches in September for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
An uncensored version of Half-Life is now available for the first time in Germany, a country that has a history of censoring games. People living in Germany can now pick up the uncensored game for free on Steam right now.
This uncensored version replaces the original when it's installed (via Polygon). Some things to note is that your progress will remain intact and you will not be able to revert to the original, edited version after making the switch.
It's not immediately clear what drove the decision to remove Half-Life from the list this week.
In 1998, Valve boss Gabe Newell explained in an interview with Link that the edited version of Half-Life for Germany replaced blood with oil and made human characters effectively robots ("body parts are replaced with mechanical components like springs and cogs") to comply with Germany's rules.
Steam's gifting system is changing. In a blog post today, Valve acknowledged that the process of sending someone a gift on Steam has had "a bunch of friction in it for a while."
In an effort to make it easier to give gifts, Valve is adopting a more direct approach.
"Steam Gifting will now be a system of direct exchange from gift buyer to gift receiver, and we will be retiring the Gift to E-mail and Gift to Inventory options," Valve said.
Users can buy a game "months in advance" and choose when it will be delivered. Valve says gifts will be delivered "on time, every time."
As for declined gifts (you might decline a game you already have in your inventory), the new system lets you select "decline" and the purchase will be refunded directly to the buyer. Additionally, the updated gifting system now works across countries more easily. However, if there is a "large difference in pricing between countries," gifting won't work; you'll be notified before checkout.
The new gifting system is available now. Any gifts already purchased are not affected.
Star Citizen's single-player mode, Squadron 42, has some seriously impressive talent signed on. One of the big-name actors in the game is Luke Skywalker actor and The Joker voice actor Mark Hamill.
To celebrate Star Wars Day today, Cloud Imperium Games released new footage of Hamill performing as his character, Lt. Commander Steve "Old Man" Colton. The footage begins at around 23:40 in the video below (via DualShockers).
This is not the first time we've seen Hamill in Star Citizen, as a gameplay video from 2015 showed off his character in action--you can watch that here.
Hamill and Star Citizen creator Chris Roberts worked together in the past for 1999's Wing Commander, based on the game of the same name that Roberts created.
Hamill is joined in Squadron 42 by other A-list actors like Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight), Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings), Gillian Anderson (The X-Files), Ben Mendelsohn (Bloodline), and Mark Strong (Kingsman), among others.
The idea that video games can help with depression and other forms of mental illness is not an uncommon one, and non-profit organisation CheckPoint hopes to explore the relationship between video games and mental health in greater detail.
CheckPoint currently devotes itself to providing mental health resources to the games industry, and improving the understanding of the interactions between video games and mental health.
The organisation now seeks to create a video series to improve awareness of different mental health issues, act as a tool of aid by featuring scientific advice from mental health professionals, and investigate how video games can be a powerful tool in promoting positive mental well-being.
CheckPoint also hopes to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues in the video game community by exploring the lived experiences of notable industry professionals.
These include Josh Scherr of Naughty Dog (writer on the Uncharted series), Teddy Diefenbach (developer on Hyper Light Drifter and now creative director at Square Enix Montreal), Rami Ismail of Vlambeer (Nuclear Throne), and former GameSpot, now Eurogamer video producer Johnny Chiodini.
Virtual reality company Oculus VR announced today that it is "winding down" its Story Studio, a division that made the Emmy Award-winning VR short Henry.
Oculus executive Jason Rubin said in a blog post that the decision to close the studio came after "careful consideration."
"We've decided to shift our focus away from internal content creation to support more external production," Rubin said. "As part of that shift, we'll be winding down Story Studio."
He continued: "Now that a large community of filmmakers and developers are committed to the narrative VR art form, we're going to focus on funding and supporting their content. This helps us turn our internal research, development, and attention towards exciting but unsolved problems in AR and VR hardware and software."
Rubin went on to assure people that Oculus remains "absolutely committed to growing the VR film and creative content ecosystem" in the wake of shutting down Story Studio.
In 2016, Oculus announced a commitment of $250 million to help fund VR projects around the world, $50 million of which will go towards non-gaming, "experiential" VR content.
"In the same way we invested in the third-party game developers who made the incredible content lineups for Rift and Gear VR, we're going to allocate more resources to third-party creatives to build out the VR storytelling library," Rubin said.
Some of Story Studio's other works included Lost, Dear Angelica, and Quill. These films, as well as Henry, will continue to be available from the Oculus Store.
THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
Star Wars: The Force Awakens could have had a slightly different ending. In the original script, it was BB-8 who accompanied Rey to the island where Luke was living, according to EW. However, The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson asked The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams if he could swap droids.
Abrams agreed, and it ends up being R2-D2 instead of BB-8 that makes the journey.
"The big [favor] was, I asked if R2 could come with Rey, and if BB-8 could stay behind with the Resistance," he explained. "Originally, it was BB-8 who went with Rey, which makes sense for the story in a way. But I asked, 'Can you do me this solid and switch the droids?'"
Also in the EW interview, Johnson spoke about how Luke's story will be essential to The Last Jedi. The "entire movie" explores the reasons why Luke left to go live on the island, Ahch-To.
"Figuring out where his head was at was the very first thing I had to do when writing the movie," Johnson said. "I had to crack this. And it had to be something for me that first and foremost made sense. Why did Luke Skywalker go off to this island? That was the starting point, and that's what the entire movie explores."
The Last Jedi arrives in theaters on December 15, 2017. It stars Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Laura Dern, Domhnall Gleeson, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis.
If you already own these games for Xbox 360, they should show up automatically in your Xbox One game library. If not, you can pick them up on your console or through the Xbox Store links below.
[Updated May 5 with five games: Hard Corps: Uprising, Harms Way, Band of Bugs, Bullet Soul, Bullet Soul - Infinite Burst]
The Xbox One's backwards compatibility feature, introduced in November 2015, lets you play Xbox 360 games on the new console. But what games are available? We've now rounded them all up--and we'll continue to update this post as new games are made available.
Update: Publisher Aksys Games has confirmed via Twitter that it is bringing Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma to PS4. The game will be available as both a physical release and a digital download when it goes on sale in the US this fall.
Original story: The grim visual novel/adventure game Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma looks to be coming to the PlayStation 4. The news was leaked by an early product listing on Amazon (via Wario64). According to the listing, the title launches on August 18 and has been remastered with improved HD visuals and options for both English and Japanese voice acting. You can watch a trailer for the original release below:
This isn't the first time this week Amazon has outed an unannounced title; the retailer inadvertently leaked the existence of Darksiders III before it was officially revealed by publisher THQ Nordic.
Zero Time Dilemma is the third installment in the Zero Escape series, set between the events of the 999 and its follow-up Virtue's Last Reward (both of which were also later ported to PS4 and other platforms). Like its predecessors, the game features multiple characters whose stories intertwine and unfold in a nonlinear fashion. Zero Time Dilemma was generally well-received by critics when it was released last June; while our review found some of its point-and-click mechanics dated and frustrating, we praised the game for its complex and engaging narrative structure.
As part of Activision Blizzard's latest earnings report today, the company revealed that Blizzard's hero shooter Overwatch has crossed a big money milestone. It is now a "billion-dollar" franchise, the eighth in Activision Blizzard's portfolio, joining the likes of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.
The billion-dollar figure covers revenue from game sales and microtransactions through the game's popular Loot Box system, according to Polygon.
Overwatch set a new record for monthly active users during fiscal Q1, Activision Blizzard said, though the company did not share any specific numbers. The company also reiterated that Overwatch hit 30 million registered players faster than any other game in the company's history.
The slide containing the Overwatch details also mentions some initial commentary around Call of Duty: WWII and Destiny 2. Preorders for both games are "very strong," Activision Blizzard said.
Additionally, Call of Duty: WWII's first trailer became the "most-liked" Call of Duty trailer ever and the fastest to hit 10 million views. It's pretty notable, since the Infinite Warfare trailer took a lot of heat on YouTube. For Destiny 2, Activision Blizzard said the premium versions of the game that come with the expansion pass "have attracted the majority of pre-orders so far."
With the first anniversary of Overwatch's release coming up soon, it seems like that Blizzard would celebrate that milestone with something in the game.
While the developer has yet to announce any plans to do so, someone has data-mined the game's newest PTR update on PC and discovered what could be references to the next event.
Reddit user FailCraft did the digging, discovering references to "EVENT 6" for all characters, as well as new cosmetic items. More maps are apparently referenced as well, though it's possible these could be new versions of existing maps instead of brand-new ones.
FailCraft goes over his findings in the YouTube video above.
Given the popularity of Overwatch's previous events, it would be no surprise at all to learn that another is in the works. Overwatch launched on May 24, so if this is an anniversary event, it could be coming up soon.
In April, Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan confirmed there are three new standard maps in the works that could launch this year. Additionally, three "non-standard" maps are in development.
The latest Overwatch seasonal event was Uprising, which wrapped up earlier this week. The previous ones were called Summer Games, Halloween Terror, Winter Wonderland, and Year of the Rooster.
Overwatch has been a big hit, passing 30 million registered players by Blizzard's latest count. In an earnings report today, Activision Blizzard said Overwatch remains Blizzard's "fastest-growing new franchise." The game is now a billion-dollar franchise, Activision Blizzard said.
NetherRealm is gearing up to make a big announcement about Injustice 2, it seems.
Studio boss Ed Boon posted the tweet below today, which seems to suggest that Injustice 2's DLC plans will be revealed on May 5 at 8 AM CT. That comes out to 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET / 2 PM GMT. "Tomorrow should be fun," he teased. Boon also shared an animated GIF that teases the reveal further.
Earlier this week, Boon teased that news about Injustice 2's DLC would be announced "soon," so a reveal tomorrow is in line with that. He also held a Twitter poll asking if fans about what they would like to see from Injustice 2's DLC; you can see the results of the poll below.
E3 is right around the corner. There will be big press briefings from Microsoft and Sony (among others), while it's now been confirmed that the PC Gaming Show is coming back.
The event will be held on Monday, June 12, starting at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM ET. This is prior to Sony's briefing, which takes place that evening. Ubisoft's normal timeslot is early afternoon on Monday, though the company has not yet confirmed its plans for 2017.
This is the third year of the PC Gaming Show. Sean "Day[9]" Plott will host the event, which promises "exclusive announcements" and new trailers. Additionally some of the "most exciting developers and projects" for PC will be shown and discussed during the show.
You can attend in person at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles (tickets are free), while the show will also be broadcast live on Twitch, YouTube, Beam, and Facebook Live.
The show is organized by PC Gamer, while Intel is one of the main sponsors.
For more on E3 2017, you can see a schedule of all the big events right here. It's the biggest show of the year for news, so keep checking back with GameSpot for lots more.
E3 will be here before you know it. The annual summer event runs June 13-15 in Los Angeles, but things get started a few days earlier with press conferences from some of the biggest publishers in gaming. To help you keep track of everything, we're rounding up the times and dates for all the big press briefings and other notable events during the week of E3.
Right now, Microsoft, Sony, Bethesda, and EA have announced plans for E3 2017. If history is any indication, Ubisoft's briefing will take place the afternoon of June 12.
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