Breakaway, the competitive video game developed by retailer Amazon's internal game studio, has been canceled. The developer, Amazon Game Studios, announced over the weekend that it has canceled the game "after a lot of soul searching," and is now instead moving on to pursue "new ideas" instead.
"While we have developed many ideas and made a lot of progress, we are also setting a very high bar for ourselves," Amazon said. "In spite of our efforts, we didn't achieve the breakthrough that made the game what we all hoped it could be. After a lot of soul searching, the team decided to focus on new ideas. As a result, Breakaway is no longer in active development."
The cancellation statement continues: "We remain exceptionally proud of the team's work, and feel privileged to have been a part of such a dedicated and enthusiastic community."
Amazon Game Studios left the smallest glimmer of hope for Breakaway, saying it could return to the project "if a thunderbolt of inspiration strikes." The official word is that "Breakaway is no longer in active development."
This is no big surprise, as Kotaku reported back in October 2017 that Breakaway, a 4v4 game, was canceled. The shutdown of the project came after Amazon reportedly held multiple public tests. Presumably the feedback was not as enthusiastic as Amazon would have wanted.
So now Breakaway will join the ranks of canceled games that includes titles like Scalebound, Star Wars 1313, Titan, and others.
As part of its big effort to continue to improve Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Microsoft is inviting community members to test new updates in a "flighting" program. Invitations are now going out for the Halo Community Feedback Program, and specifically the MCC Insider Program.
Plenty of people signed up for the program, apparently, as developer 343 said in a blog post that it has been "thrilled to see so much interest and excitement" for the program. The first wave of invitations were sent out last week. If you signed up already and don't see your invite, be sure to check your junk and spam folders. If you haven't signed up, it's not too late--you can do so here.
This process begins with a survey that should take around 5 minutes to complete. Note that this survey, and the testing program, is subject to Microsoft's confidentiality agreement, so you can't talk about it. If you're invited to join, you will also need to be a member of the Xbox Insider Program to test updates on Xbox One--you can find out how to sign up here. Eventually, 343 will push out updates to Halo: MCC to Insider Program members.
Some other things to bear in mind is that even if you do get into the MCC Insider Program, you might not get access to every update. 343 cautions that "the participation audience will be intentionally small" at the start before expanding to more players later down the track. You should also expect some "hiccups and bumps," but that is to be expected given that it's the whole purpose of this.
"We look forward to your participation and feedback but we also ask for your understanding and appropriate expectations as we share work-in-progress builds directly with you," 343 said.
In addition to the big new Spring sale happening on Xbox Live, Microsoft is offering a pretty sweet deal on Xbox Live Gold. If you're a new subscriber, you can get 3 months of Gold for only $10.
That's a pretty nice deal, considering 3 months of Xbox Live Gold normally goes for $25. You need Xbox Live Gold to play Xbox One games online (for the most part) and to take advantage of other subscriber-only benefits such as deeper discounts on deals. You can sign up on Xbox.com right here (via Slickdeals). Again, this deal is only available for new subscribers to Xbox Live Gold.
With Xbox Live Gold, you also get free games every month on Xbox One and Xbox 360. The first of April's free Xbox One games is The Witness, from Braid creator Jonathan Blow--here's how to get it now.
Given the immense popularity of the battle royale genre thanks to trailblazing games like PUBG and Fortnite, many are wondering if other games will follow suit and add a Hunger Games-style mode. We know Activision Blizzard is watching the battle royale space, so could Overwatch jump aboard and add a battle royale mode?
Don't get your hopes up. Speaking to Kotaku, game director Jeff Kaplan said he's intrigued by the idea, but pointed out that it would be no small task to get it done the right away. Kaplan, who says he has played "hundreds" of hours of PUBG, said he's concerned that even if Blizzard could do it, that it might not feel right without a lot of work.
"A lot of times when I hear some of our fans pitch it, they're like 'Oh, just put a card in the Arcade one day that's a battle royale mode,' and I'm like 'F***, that would be awesome,'" he said. "But there's a lot of design and tech work to get us to that place and not just feel like a me-too game."
Elaborating, Kaplan said Overwatch is "first and foremost" a game about heroes--and their balance is part of the reason why an Overwatch battle royale mode might not work. "Part of what makes the core loop work in a battle royale game is the search, the looting, and the fairness that everybody's sort of equal," Kaplan said. "Overwatch wasn't designed to be a 1v1. Every hero's not balanced against every other hero."
Given how popular the battle royale genre is, we do imagine other games will add their own modes, while some new battle royale games might pop up altogether like this one. We'll be watching, and bringing you all the news as it arrives.
In other news about Overwatch, the next iteration of the game's Uprising limited-time event is starting later this month; here's what we know so far.
Microsoft is preparing to make some kind of announcement about Original Xbox backwards compatibility support on Xbox One, it seems. In a blog post today, Microsoft said it has a "big update" to share regarding this. The announcement will be made during the next episode of Inside Xbox, which premieres on Tuesday, April 10, at 3:30 PM PT / 6:30 PM ET.
"One of our most common requests is for Original Xbox Backward Compatibility news, and we'll be starting off the show with a big update on just that," Microsoft said in a post on the Xbox Wire.
On Monday, April 10, Microsoft will provide a "full breakdown" of what to expect from the next episode of Inside Xbox. That being said, Microsoft teased that "we reserve the right to keep a moment or two fully under wraps for a proper surprise."
The first episode of Inside Xbox premiered in March, and it brought news about Sea of Thieves and PUBG, as well as another look at the new Duke controller.
Keep checking back with GameSpot for all the latest Xbox news.
Ready Player One finally opened over the weekend--and it was a huge hit. The virtual reality-themed movie scored $53 million in North America, with a further $128 million from overseas markets in the Friday-Sunday period. That's good for $181.2 million all up after just three days.
That makes Ready Player One Spielberg's biggest hit in a decade, following Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which made $100 million during its opening in 2008. Analysts told Variety that Ready Player One's big opening-weekend haul reaffirms Spielberg as a money-maker after other recent big-budget projects like The BFG and The Adventures of Tintin came up short commercially.
"It put Spielberg right back in his sweet spot," ComScore analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Variety. "He was one of the architects of the summer movie season. It shows that when Spielberg goes back to what people loved about him in the first place, it really pays off big."
Some other notable takeaways from Ready Player One's first weekend were that the audience was primarily male (59 percent), while the majority of those who saw it (56 percent) were over the age of 25. The movie is steeped in nostalgia, so this makes sense.
Ready Player One had a reported budget of $175 million, so it'll still need to perform well in the coming weeks to turn a nice profit. The movie boasts an A-Minus CinemaScore rating, which is good, and it suggests that word-of-mouth will help box office sales stay strong.
For more on Ready Player One, check out GameSpot's review, as well as our further breakdown of 5 Reasons To Go See It in the video embed above.
Kratos has a softer side in the new God of War for PS4, but he is still a savage killer who brutalizes people and creatures with his new Leviathan axe and other weapons. With development on the game finished, Sony has now released a new gameplay video that shows Kratos and his son Atreus doing battle with a huge troll and more.
In addition to the combat, the video shows off the new, single-cut camera system and treasure chests you'll discover in the world. We also get another look at the game's stunning-looking visuals, which continue to surprise and impress. Unlike past games in the PlayStation series, this one is a Norse mythology story set in Scandinavia.
For more on God of War, you can check out this video that shows off Kratos' new Leviathan axe and hear from developers about why they went with it instead of his familiar arsenal.
Sony announced that God of War had gone gold earlier this month, meaning the game is ready to be sent off for manufacturing. It is scheduled to release for PS4 on April 20. It will launch alongside a special edition PS4 Pro bundle that features a God of War-themed console and some digital content. It also gets a performance mode with PS4 Pro even if you don't have a 4K display.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War is dropping its big microtransaction system. In a forum post today, developer Monolith said it is releasing a number of free updates to the game in the coming weeks and months to respond to player feedback to make the game better, and among the changes is the removal of some elements from the in-game marketplace.
Responding to concerns that people raised months ago before Shadow of War was even released, Monolith said it is removing all Gold and War Chests from the game's store. Being able to outright purchase Gold and gain Orc followers through warchests "reduces the immersions in the world and takes away from the challenge of building your personal army and your fortress," Monolith admitted.
"The core promise of the Nemesis System is the ability to build relationships with your personal allies and enemies in a dynamic open world," Monolith said. "While purchasing Orcs in the Market is more immediate and provides additional player options, we have come to realize that providing this choice risked undermining the heart of our game, the Nemesis System. It allows you to miss out on the awesome player stories you would have otherwise created, and it compromises those same stories even if you don't buy anything."
Currently, you can buy allotments of Gold in packages of 500 ($5), 1,050 ($10), and 2,200 ($20). Regarding the timeline, come May 8 you will no longer be able to buy any Gold in Shadow of War. On July 17, Monolith will permanently remove Gold, Warchests, and the Market itself.
If you have a balance of Gold on July 17, it will be converted to Gold Loot Chests at a rate of 150 Gold to one Gold Loot Chest. If you have less than 150 Gold, this will be converted into just one Gold Loot Chest.
In addition to the microtransaction changes, Monolith is addressing the negative feedback around the Shadow Wars part of the game's campaign. We noted in our review that this part of the campaign, which sees players defending their fortresses from Sauron, was a slog and not very fun. Monolith is pledging to improve the experience with "new narrative elements," while it will be streamlined "for a more cohesive experience." There will be other unspecified "gameplay improvements" coming down the road that will be detailed in future updates from Monolith. This will cover things like further changes to the Nemesis system, as well as new skins and changes to the skill tree. There will also be "gear system upgrades" and "progression updates."
"The entire team here at Monolith appreciates our dedicated fans, and we feel that these improvements will provide all players with the very best Shadow of War gameplay experience.," Monolith said.
You can read this detailed FAQ to see a full rundown of what's changing in Shadow of War and why.
Overwatch's limited-time mode, Uprising, is returning this year, and Blizzard shared a few more details about it today. This is the same King's Row mission as last year, but now it has a new name and modes. It's now called "Overwatch Archives," and you can play in Story Mode or All Heroes Mode. Story Mode is basically a replaying of Tracer's first mission in King's Row, with four heroes available: Tracer, Mercy, Reinhardt, and Torbjorn.
All Heroes Mode, as its name suggests, lets you play the same King's Row mission but as any hero you want. Regarding the new name, Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan said in the video above, "The idea is there are all these cool past moments in Overwatch history, and by going into the archives we can re-live those, and Uprising was just one of those events."
All of last year's loot box items are coming back for this year, along with some new skins. Kaplan teased that one of the Shimada brothers--either Hanzo or Genji--will be getting a new skin as part of the update. Blizzard also teased that the new Uprising mission will have "new content" that the developer will discuss later. In particular, Kaplan teased that Blizzard will release a new video during this week's Overwatch League competition that may show what's coming in the new event.
As announced previously, the new Uprising event goes live on April 10. Blizzard has been talking about the new Uprising event for some time now.
Back in January, Kaplan stated Uprising would return for 2018 but that Blizzard "want[s] to evolve it" in some way. At the time, he also said the Anniversary event would make a return to give players another chance to unlock the items that were only available last year. A date for that has not been announced, but it'll presumably come in May, when Overwatch will celebrate the two-year anniversary of its release.
It's officially April, which means a new stack of free games is available for Twitch users with Amazon Prime. This is all part of the Free Games With Prime program, which formally began last month and will continue each month going forward.
April's free games are headed up by SteamWorld Dig 2, a fantast-style platformer about digging deep into the ground to see what kinds of loot and enemies you find. Also available are the adventure game Tales from the Borderlands: A Telltale Game Series, the nostalgia-heavy RPG Kingsway, and Tokyo 42, a stealth-action game set in futuristic Japan. Last but not least is DubWars, which pairs Dubstep electronic music with top-down shooting.
Twitch Prime is a perk for Amazon Prime members. All you have to do is link your Amazon Prime account to your Twitch account. Once you do, you can download all five games for no cost between now and April 30. They're yours to keep forever, even if you cancel Amazon Prime at some point down the line. The only slight catch is that you need the Twitch desktop app to install them. To find your freebies, just click the crown-shaped Prime Loot icon next to the search bar on Twitch.
We don't know for sure what free games will be on offer next month for Twitch Prime members, but Tumblestone and High Hell will be part of the program at some point. Other freebies currently available for Twitch Prime members include some neat loot for Epic's popular shooter, Fortnite: Battle Royale.
Square Enix has promised a series of patches to the Steam release of Chrono Trigger. Though only one change has been detailed so far, it seems the company is taking to heart the feedback it received after releasing a port of the mobile version in February.
In a Steam update, Square Enix said that the first patch will come early this month and will allow players to swap between the current graphics and the original Super NES style. The sprite smoothing filter used to give the 16-bit RPG a higher-resolution look was among the top complaints from fans. The other most common gripe, that the user interface was based on the touch-screen mobile version, wasn't mentioned among these changes.
"We have been working on addressing the issues that you've raised, and will be releasing a number of patches over the coming months as we continue to support Chrono Trigger on Steam," the update read. "For now, be assured that we're working very hard on adjusting, updating and supporting Chrono Trigger on Steam."
Square Enix is also extending the availability of the Limited Edition until 9 AM PT on April 30, so that it will still be offered after at least one of the patches has gone live. It's available for any purchasers at the regular price for a limited time. That version grants you a selection of downloadable music, digital liner notes, and six wallpapers.
To its credit, this version of Chrono Trigger does include the Dimension Vortex and Lost Sanctum dungeons from the DS version, adds keyboard and gamepad control options, and has an autosave function. Given a little TLC to take care of the rough spots, it might actually become one of the better ways to play the classic.
This April Fools' Day surprise was no prank. After teasing that it would incorporate a World of Warcraft joke into its April 1 episode, Family Guy fully embraced the MMORPG and the most famous meme it ever spawned.
After being forced to join the Coast Guard, Peter, Cleveland, and Joe find themselves in a gunfight with a bunch of terrorist frat boys--because, of course. It's then that Cleveland suggests they try "what's referred to as a Leeroy Jenkins." He's speaking, of course, of the 2003 World of Warcraft staged viral video in which a player named Leeroy Jenkins ran into a very difficult battle with little warning, causing the rest of his clan to follow behind and get slaughtered.
And, naturally, that's exactly what Cleveland does next. He rushes in, guns blazing and screaming "Leeroy Jenkins," as Peter and Joe follow him. Family Guy doesn't stop there, though. The show also temporarily drops its animation style and becomes a 3D-rendered World of Warcraft-style view, complete with health bars and potions, of the three.
In the ensuing fire, our heroes are quickly outgunned and retreat, only to run into dragons. "Where did they get dragons? These guys have magic," Peter says. Just like it played out in Warcraft, the plan leaves all three men dead as Cleveland explains, "This episode has a lot of internet things."
There's no doubt that the Leeroy Jenkins joke has been done to death over the last 15 years. However, Family Guy harnesses it in a pretty funny way and it's the commitment to detail that makes it work so well. Having Joe and Peter plan out their attack and crunch the numbers, just as Leeroy's clanmates did in the original video, is a great touch. Of course, it's still not as impressive as the World of Warcraft episode South Park did in 2006, but that would be quite a feat to top.
We're just days away from WWE's biggest event of the year, Wrestlemania. The company's most important PPV of the year will also be the largest in terms of the number of matches on the card, and one of the battles with the most hype behind it is John Cena vs. Undertaker, even though the match has yet to be officially announced. The biggest question on everyone's minds is, "Who is going to win?"
In addition to Cena beating down Taker, we ran some more simulations in WWE 2K18 for as many matches as we could. However, some wrestlers, like Mustafa Ali and Ronda Rousey, were not in the game, and there was no way to run a three-team tag team match, so those were skipped.
The lead up to this year's real-life event has been crazy. From Daniel Bryan being cleared for a return to the ring, to Shane McMahon fighting in the event--even though he's been hospitalized--to Macaulay Culkin challenging Rusev, the buildup may be more exciting than the actual PPV itself. That's saying a lot, since there are quite a few huge matches on the show that have the potential to be legendary. This is especially true for both Smackdown championship matches featuring Royal Rumble winners: Asuka vs. Charlotte (c) and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. AJ Styles (c).
Wrestlemania 34 comes to PPV and the WWE Network on Sunday April 8 at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT. The Kickoff Show will start at 5 PM ET/2 PM PT on the WWE Network and streamed live on YouTube, with the second hour appearing on the USA Network. You don't have to watch through YouTube or on USA Network, as there are multiple ways to watch Wrestlemania 34 this year, which includes on your consoles. It's going to be a long show, with at least seven hours slotted on the Network for the show to run.
If you're interested in more on Wrestlemania--including live coverage of the event itself--stay tuned to GameSpot in the upcoming week, leading into Wrestlemania 34.
Far Cry 5's menus have been promoting the upcoming release of Live Events, and the first of these is finally available. Well Done provides you with a specific objective and offers special rewards for completing it during the allotted time; here's how to access Live Events and what awaits you.
You'll want to first boot up the game and load up your save. From there, bring up the in-game menu (the one with your map, inventory, and so on) and tab over to the Online area. From here, you can select Live Events, which takes you to a screen that informs you of the current event. You'll be informed of the objective and be able to accept the quest, which you can then complete as you play normally.
Well Done, as this first Live Event is called, tasks you with killing animals using fire. Provided you don't have any moral qualms with that, there's one other wrinkle that stands in your way: You can't use the two most obvious means for doing this, the flamethrower and molotovs. As a result, you'll need to rely on things like flame arrows to secure the required number of kills.
The Live Events screen tracks both your personal progression and the community's progression. A special reward awaits for meeting the threshold with each. Personally, you'll rack up some Silver Bars once you've made some progress; rack up all 20 kills and you'll get a Prestige flamethrower called Flamebearer. You'll also earn some Silver Bars as the Far Cry 5 community makes progress on the event; at 150,000 total kills, participants will receive a Flamebearer outfit to wear. All of this has to be done by the time the event ends on Tuesday, April 10.
Live Events are another piece of the long-term content Far Cry 5 promises to offer. Outside of the campaign itself, which is playable in single-player or co-op, there's also the Far Cry Arcade, where you can create levels or download and play those created by other players. Beyond that, Ubisoft itself also has quite a bit of DLC on the way, and it sounds pretty out there. For more on what to expect from the game, check out our Far Cry 5 review.
While there are still many months before Halloween rolls around, it's never too early to get excited about it, right? Universal Studios has announced the first maze in the works for 2018's Halloween Horror Nights celebration, and it's a big one.
For the first time ever, Stranger Things will get its own haunted maze at the annual haunt. The Netflix series will have mazes at three Universal Studios parks--Hollywood, Orlando, and Singapore--that will take guests to locations from the series like the Hawkins National Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Byers home, and, of course, the Upside Down.
A press release says visitors will experience an "oozing a shower of floating orb-like spores" in the Upside Down, which sounds wonderful and gross all at the same time. Naturally, the Demogorgon will also play a role in the maze, as it stalks fans during their journey.
To bring Stranger Things to life, the Horror Nights team is collaborating with creators the Duffer brothers, as well as producer Shaun Levy and Netflix. Given the impressive treatment the attraction has given to properties like Ash vs. Evil Dead, Saw, The Shining, and The Purge in recent years, this particular maze should be a sight to see.
Halloween Horror Nights will kick off in Hollywood and Orlando on September 14, with Singapore's event launching on September 28. If you've somehow missed Stranger Things thus far, you have plenty of time to catch up before visiting the Upside Down yourself.
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