Xbox Game Pass was just officially unveiled for PC last month along with the new combined Xbox Game Pass Ultimate that includes Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold together. E3 brought us some new additions to Game Pass and now Microsoft has revealed the slate for July that includes some pretty major headliners.

Xbox made the announcement through their official Twitter that revealed eight total new games coming to Game Pass in the month of July, four coming to both Xbox One and PC, one exclusively for Xbox One, and three exclusively for PC.

They went on further in another tweet to give release dates for these games, with Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Xbox One/PC), My Time at Portia (Xbox One/PC), and Undertale (PC) coming tomorrow on July 4. The remaining five games, Blazing Chrome (Xbox One/PC), Dead Rising 4 (Xbox One/PC), LEGO City Undercover (Xbox), Timespinner (PC), and Unavowed (PC) are then coming on July 11.

The two headliner games on this list are definitely Dead Rising 4 and Middle-earth: Shadow of War, even though both had their fair share of controversies and criticism around launch. LEGO City Undercover was once a Wii U exclusive before later releasing on other platforms and is still a fun game itself. Undertale is one of the most talked about indie games of recent years, so that’s definitely great for PC gamers as well.

This is a pretty solid month all around for games on Game Pass, so make sure to download them and try them out when they go up.

One of the biggest knocks against the current generation of consoles from the very start was a lack of backwards compatibility whatsoever, which meant gamers had to hold onto their old systems just to keep playing old favorites. This is why it was such a nice surprise when Microsoft announced their Xbox 360 backwards compatibility program a few years later, which later extended to original Xbox games as well. The release of new backwards compatible games for Xbox One have been a fairly slow drip over the years and Microsoft has officially announced their final batch of BC releases as they look towards the future.

Microsoft may not have had any BC related reveals for Xbox One during their 2019 E3 conference yesterday, but they instead decided to drop the info via their Xbox Wire today. This includes new BC original Xbox and Xbox 360 games, as well as new Xbox One X enhanced titles as well. Starting with original Xbox games, we have the following new BC additions.

• Armed and Dangerous
• Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb
• Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent
• Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict

On top of these games, there are a number of DLC packs for some of these original Xbox games and other previous releases that have been made available for free. There are even more additions for Xbox 360, which also includes Too Human as free for everyone as well.

• Asura’s Wrath
• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
• Enchanted Arms
• Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
• Far Cry Classic
• Far Cry Instincts Predator
• Infinite Undiscovery
• Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie
• Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands
• Skate
• Star Ocean: The Last Hope
• Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
• Syndicate
• Too Human
• Unreal Tournament III

Eight more Xbox One X Enhanced games have also been added, all of which are from Rare.

• Banjo-Kazooie
• Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts
• Banjo-Tooie
• Kameo Elements of Power
• Perfect Dark
• Perfect Dark Zero
• Viva Piñata
• Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise

The original Xbox and Xbox One X Enhanced titles are available now, with the Xbox 360 games being added sometime this week. It is definitely sad to see this program end for Xbox One, but we definitely have gotten a lot of classics and underrated games being added over the years that we can experience through our Xbox One.

It’s that time of the month yet again where new Xbox Live Games With Gold titles are revealed, cutting it a little close this month. Every new month means four new games for Xbox Live Gold subscribers to download and enjoy. After multiple months of getting two Xbox One games, one Xbox 360 game, and one Xbox Original game, we’ve gone back to the two Xbox 360 games setup for the upcoming month.

First up, we’ve got quite a disappointment for the Xbox One game that will be available all month starting on May 1st, which is Marooners. This game released in early 2018 to a 56 review score on Metacritic and only retails for $9.99. This honestly might be one of the worst Xbox One offerings we’ve gotten to date and really makes the whole month a bad value from the start.

Things do look up quite a bit in the second half of the month with The Golf Club 2019 Featuring PGA Tour. This golf series has seen some improvement over the last few years since it starts while we have been lacking new PGA Tour games from EA Sports and only released last August. The game features an 80 Metascore and retails for $49.99, so this is a much better value than the other Xbox One offering.

We also have two Xbox 360 games that are backwards compatible being offering, starting off with Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon from May 1st to May 15th. This game released back in 2011 and has a 68 Metascore, while retailing currently for $19.99. This is replaced in the second half of May by the 2010 title Comic Jumper, which comes with a Metascore of 74 and a retail price of $14.99.

May is not a downright awful month for Games With Gold, but the inclusion of Marooners really drags it down immensely. Regardless, make sure to grab the remaining April games today before the new games go up starting tomorrow, May 1st.

DC Comics and Warner Bros. Entertainment launched their own streaming service last September known as DC Universe, which features everything related to the comics giant. Since that launch, fans have been asking for the app to expand to consoles and the wait is now over for at least one platform.

The DC Universe streaming service costs $7.99 per month or $75 per year and includes exclusive DC Comics related shows such as Titans, Doom Patrol, and Young Justice: Outsiders so far, with shows like Swamp Thing and Harley Quinn coming later this year. In addition, there are a backlog of various DC media including other TV shows, movies, and comics as well.

As of right now, the DC Universe app is available for download on iOS devices, Apple TV, Android devices, Android TV, Apple Fire TV, and Roku, as well as accessible through the website itself also. The lack of console support has been disappointing to say the least, but now it is set to expand further.

DC Comics has revealed that DC Universe will be coming to Xbox One sometime in the month of April. No specific release date was given, but that should mean it is set to arrive sometime in the next couple weeks.

This has left PS4 owners wondering when they will get the app as a result. However, there is no information on that at this time, but you would think it is likely coming sooner rather than later. Nintendo Switch would also be nice to see, though we haven’t even seen Netflix his that platform for some reason.

Keep an eye out for DC Universe to roll out in the coming weeks for Xbox One.

March is nearly over and that means it is almost time for a new batch of Xbox Live Games With Gold offerings for next month. Microsoft typically reveals these within a week of the next month and they did just that today with the reveal of four games coming to Xbox Live Games With Gold in April with two for Xbox One, one for Xbox 360, and one for original Xbox.

It may fall on April Fools Day, but there is no joke about The Technomancer becoming available on April 1st for Xbox One and will be available through the entire month. The Technomancer was not the most well received game when it launched back in 2016, but the Xbox One version was the highest rated on Metacritic with a 68.

Joining Games With Gold in the second half of the month starting on April 16th is Outcast – Second Chance, which also comes in with a mediocre Metacritic score of 67. Both games currently retail for $39.99 on the Xbox Games Store though, so this is a good chance to see if they are worth playing without having to pay $40 for each one.

The backwards compatible options are a little better though, with an original Xbox game kicking off things for the first half of the month starting on April 1st with Star Wars Battlefront II. This is most certainly not the recent Star Wars Battlefront II, but rather the original for Xbox that released way back in 2005. When it released, the game received a Metacritic score of 83, so we’ll have to see how well this holds up. This one was previously released as backwards compatible, so it’s not a big surprise considering the recent Star Wars offerings as GwG lately.

Lastly, we have the lone Xbox 360 game this month with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, which received a 90 Metacritic score back in 2006. This was also a nice surprise, as it was not previously backwards compatible until the announcement earlier today. This game will be available in the last half of April, starting on April 16th.

Don’t forget to grab the available games for March as well that will go away at the end of the month, including Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion for Xbox One and the must own Xbox 360 game Metal Gear Rising Revengeance.

Crackdown 3 has certainly been one of the longest gestating games of this generation of consoles after initially being revealed as a way to really push the idea of cloud computing on the Xbox One and what it could do. After a number of years and what seemed like multiple overhauls, the game finally released last month to disappointing reviews all around. We saw games like Anthem and Jump Force overcome negative reviews to sell well for the month of February, but Crackdown 3 was not so lucky in its debut month.

As reported by VentureBeat as always, the February NPD numbers were just released yesterday and it was no surprise to see some of the games at the top. While we didn’t expect Crackdown 3 to win the month, it certainly did worse than we could have ever expected.

When looking at the top 20 for the month of February, Crackdown 3 is nowhere to be seen whatsoever. Your first thought might be that any Xbox game would fail to chart well due to being part of Xbox Game Pass, but that has not been the case in the past. Games like Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2 topped the NPD charts in their respective months last year even with Game Pass, so the correlation there does not seem to match up.

This is truly a major disappointment for Xbox after the success they had in 2018 behind the aforementioned games and also Forza Horizon 4, but the hype around Crackdown 3 has been minimal for awhile due to how long it has taken. The reviews for the game certainly didn’t help boost sales in anyway either, with Twitch numbers also being almost non-existent right after launch.

Hopefully this isn’t the end of the Crackdown series though, as the first two games offered lots of fun. Crackdown 3 just felt like it was always going to disappoint with the long wait and changes made over time. If Terry Crews can’t save a game for you, there likely isn’t anybody that could.

A little game called Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds has really shaken things up on the PC gaming front. People love this game. However, it is currently a PC exclusive. It is reportedly in the works for Xbox One, but a firm release date has yet to be announced. That’s okay though. Because Fortnite Battle Royale is here. And it’s completely free.

We all know Fortnite Battle Royale is a “fast follow” game. It’s been accused of completely ripping off PUBG. It’s fine. It’s still a free game that’s available on Xbox One and PS4 right now.

I’ve had an absolute blast with Fortnite Battle Royale over the past couple of weeks. I can’t believe this game is free to play. I’ve had several 6+ hour binges with this game and it still hasn’t worn thin, which is somewhat surprising considering the simplicity of the concept. This is a “last man standing” game. That’s it. You have the option to play in a squad of four, duo or solo. It’s not a bad solo game, but the best version of this game exists when you are playing with three buddies.

Every match is the same thing. You are assigned a character (but you cannot currently choose who you want to be), you jump out of a floating bus, land on the ground, pick up as much loot as possible and then try not to die. A deadly storm causes the playing field to gradually shrink, which brings enemies closer together and ramps up the action. And weapons are not that easy to come by. For real, if you don’t scoop up a couple of quality firearms quickly after landing, you’re pretty much screwed.

What really intrigues me about this game though is the pickaxe. It can be used to collect resources and build forts. You can also use said pickaxe to bash through any wall on the map. A perfect addition for anyone who has wanted to reenact a certain scene from The Shining. Building forts is really my favorite aspect of this game though. My team had two builders and two people looking out for enemies. We built a magnificent fort, a fort we thought we could last 1,000 winters in, a fort that we thought for sure would help us be the last team standing. Then, out of nowhere, we hear the sound of multiple rockets being launched in our direction. BOOM. Half of our fort had been obliterated and we were left exposed to heavy gunfire. We had to go face the enemy head on. We all died.

That’s the other thing. You aren’t really required to go for kills in this game. In fact, you can be the last man standing without ever killing anyone. I really enjoyed this aspect of the game because it allows people to play however they see fit. Sure, most people are going to go for kills. But many people are also opting for the “hide the whole damn time” strategy. And it works! Seriously, you can hide in a bush and become completely invisible to enemies who are directly in front of you. If you are good at stealthily navigating the map, you never have to fire a single shot. It’s exhilarating as hell and extremely satisfying to be the last man standing.

If you’re looking for something new to play on the Xbox One or PS4, I really can’t recommend Fortnite Battle Royale enough. It’s fast, fun and never gets old.

Upon first glance of the recently released Cuphead, the 1930’s style of animation is sure to be what catches your eye. And rightfully so. The completely hand drawn animation is absolutely stunning. And let’s face it, when was the last time you played a game that pays homage to the cartoons of the 1930’s? The answer, I believe, is never. Studio MDHR really went the extra mile to make sure their game oozes 1930’s style. Not just the animation, but the sound effects and music as well. From the first time I saw the opening menu and heard that theme music, it became clear that the developers did not cut any corners.

But the 30’s is not the only era that Cuphead reminds me of. Cuphead’s gameplay lends itself extremely well to the classic run n’ gun games of the late 80’s and 90’s. Games like Contra and Sunset Riders. There are currently no online modes for Cuphead; the only multiplayer available is local. This alone gives it the feel of a game like Contra. But it doesn’t stop there, as soon as you jump into one of Cuphead’s several “Run N’ Gun” levels, you are attacked from all angles. The first thing I thought of was the beginning of Contra 3, when the bullets immediately start flying and you have to start blasting or get blasted. It’s the same thing here; if you blink you might get hit by an enemy. It’s pure insanity.

As you’ve no doubt been told countless times already, Cuphead is TOUGH. Several times I found myself trying to coordinate no less than three different actions at the same time just to stay alive. It felt like I was trying to rub my stomach, pat my head and scratch my back at the same time. Keep in mind I do not have three arms. But the level of difficulty found in Cuphead is a breath of fresh air from 20 years ago. I personally loved Sunset Riders (SNES) back in the day. My brother and I would pop that cartridge in the SNES and go at it for hours and sometimes not even make it very far. It didn’t matter because the game was so fun. And that’s exactly how I feel about Cuphead.

Every time I start a new level in Cuphead, my thought process is as follows:

Attempts 1-3: “There is no f*ckin’ way any human can do this.”

Attempts 4-7: “Alright I made it about 30% of the way through the level before I died. I guess that’s progress.”

Attempts 8-12: “There is a pattern here. I can figure this out.”

Attempt 13: “Screw the pattern I’m just gonna run and shoot.”

Attempt 14-20: “Bad idea. Let’s Learn that pattern.”

Attempt 21: I’ve just beaten the level. “NOTHING CAN STOP MEEEE!!!!”

Then the whole thing starts over again. And again. And again. It’s a cycle; just like the classic run n’ gun games. You dodge bullets, you shoot bullets, you kill the boss and then you do it again. Simple concept? Sure. But it has stood the test of time and I am so happy Cuphead has brought this concept back with a fresh spin on it.

With Star Wars Battlefront II coming in a few months, EA DICE seems to be drumming up some hype for the upcoming title by reducing the prices of its predecessor, Star Wars Battlefront, on both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One — especially if you are a member of either platform’s paid subscription service.

Before going any further, do note that these prices appear to only be applicable in Europe so far. As for North America, prices on the Xbox Marketplace has been similarly adjusted, but the PlayStation Store hasn’t been updated yet.

Moving on to the actual prices, the Season Pass — which grants access to four expansion packs: Death Star, Outer Rim, Bespin and Rogue One: Scarif, as well as 20 new pieces of galactic tech, 16 new multiplayer maps, an exclusive “shoot first” emote, eight heroes and four new game modes — is now for being offered for free on both the Xbox Marketplace and PlayStation Store, rather than the initial $19.99 asking price.

Both of these deals are available to users regardless of whether they are a Xbox Live Gold or PS Plus subscriber or not, though you will still need said subscriptions to access the game’s online features.

Meanwhile, the Ultimate Edition — which includes everything and the kitchen sink — has seen a similar price cut, with the game going from its original price of $29.99 to a meager $4.50. Unfortunately, Sony doesn’t seem to be offering a similar deal on the PlayStation 4 in Europe (or perhaps is late in doing so), so its unlikely players in North America will be seeing a similar deal.

Compared to the Season Pass offerings, however, you will need an Xbox Live Gold membership to be eligible for this deal.

It’s clear at this point that if you have any intention on getting into the Star Wars Battlefront craze, then this is the perfect time to do so — especially with Star Wars Battlefront II on the horizon. Owners of the base game who were unwilling to shell out cash for the season pass now have free access to it, while those on the Xbox One who opted to skip the game entirely can get it for next to nothing.

There has been no mention of an end date for this sale or if there are any plans to alter it, so hurry up and get in on the deal now before it gets altered any further.

Destiny 2 finally came to consoles on Tuesday and it’s already proving to be a clear improvement over the previous installment. However, with everything that Bungie did right with the game, there is one thing that went horribly wrong: shaders.

To put it plainly, the present state of shaders in Destiny 2 is completely unacceptable for a whole number of reasons.

So here’s the deal: In Destiny, players could obtain shaders — which were used to apply different colors to your character — through various means, whether it be through random drops, purchases or as a reward for doing something particularly noteworthy. What made them fun, however, is that they had infinite uses, so you could switch between them at your heart’s content once you found some that you liked.

This, however, is not the case in Destiny 2. Now, shaders are consumables that disappear on use.

What makes this particularly troubling is that they are also more difficult to obtain and it’s no longer a matter of simply buying them from a vendor. Now, shaders can be found randomly in new items called Bright Engrams and while its fully possible to obtain a large stock of them normal methods, the easiest way is to simply buy them using real-world money. Through the use of silver, players can go to the Eververse Trading Company and trade some of it to buy a Bright Engram which may or may not have a shader inside.

The mere thought of having to use real-world money to bolster your stock of shaders is bad enough, but what makes it far worse is that silver isn’t necessarily cheap and the costs add up. A quick glance at the PlayStation Store reveals that there are four price points for silver:

• 500 Silver for $4.99
• 1000 (+100) Silver for $9.99
• 2000 (+300) Silver for $19.99
• 5000 (+800) Silver for $49.99

Now, consider that:

• 1 Bright Engram costs 200 Silver
• 3 Bright Engrams costs 500 silver
• 5 Bright Engrams costs 800 silver

Clearly, you’re meant to buy in bulk if you want the highest chances at getting a shader. However, considering that the highest price point is $49.99 — a mere $10 less than the actual game — why not just shell out the extra cash and buy a copy for your friend? At least in that instance, you can suffer looking horrible together.

Unfortunately, it only gets worse from here. For whatever reason, Bungie decided to make shaders work on only one piece of armor at a time, which means players would have needed to get four copies of the same shader if they wanted their entire outfit to match. What’s interesting in this situation, however, is that Bungie somehow seemed to realize that this would be a problem, but chose to be rather heavy-handed in addressing it: offer shaders in stacks of three. This means that three of your four pieces of armor will be altered by the shader, but you’ll still need to find another shader of the same color scheme to complete the set.

What happens if you want to use a different color scheme? Well, better hope you have two more stacks of that same shader in case you ever decide to switch back.

What happens if you get a new set of gear? You know the drill.

The worst part about all this is that there was no mention of this change whatsoever in the weeks leading up to Destiny 2’s launch. With all the media coverage and Bungie’s own advertisements and releases, one would think that such change would be disclosed pretty early on. As such, the change left players absolutely blindsided by the change, prompting many of them to head to Reddit in revolt.

One thread highlighting this very issue has 37.5k upvotes as of writing this. In it, redditor WeilageM calls on the community to not spend a penny on Destiny 2 microtransactions until Bungie makes shaders unlimited use again.

“Getting a stockpile of shaders doesn’t beat just having a collection you can use at will, even if the shader drops were so frequent that you never ran out of the ones you want,” WeilageM writes. “At that point, why even have them be consumable? Because you’re supposed to run out, get impatient, and just start dumping money into Eververse so you CAN have a stockpile.”

Of course, there are other microtransaction issues that Destiny 2 suffers from, such as gameplay-affecting mods and the presence of Bright Dust. However, shaders are the biggest offender.

As stated previously, it is fully possible to get a full stock of shaders through f2p means (my editor states having more than what he knows to do with after 20-30 hours of playing), so perhaps this dilemma takes on a different meaning depending on the beholder — they’re cosmetic items after all. However, when all is said and done, it’s clear that Bungie either thought that having frequent consumable drops was an improvement over rarer permanent rewards or purposely retooled shaders to fit into its microtransaction system in order to turn a profit.

In either case, its clear that Destiny fans are not pleased with the change and are starting to call Bungie out on it. Now, all that remains to be seen is whether Bungie will listen.

PlayerUnkown’s Battlegrounds has been the talk of the town as of late, so it was only a matter of time that it would become available on consoles to widen its audience. As it turns out, that time has come and talks of a Battlegrounds Xbox One version has already begun to surface following an interview with Eurogamer.

But here’s the problem: while the fact that a Battlegrounds Xbox One version is coming has been made abundantly clear, what isn’t as clear is whether it will be truly exclusive to the Xbox One and skip the PlayStation 4 entirely.

Of course, this isn’t due to the lack of trying to obtain as much information as possible. Both Microsoft and Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene have been oddly roundabout in the way they discuss Battlegrounds and its alleged exclusivity. Everyone has confirmed that it will be coming to the Xbox One, but none of them have definitively said “no” to it coming to the PlayStation 4.

First, there’s Mike Ybarra, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s gaming division across Xbox and PC:

“We’re publishing it on Xbox and it’s a console launch exclusive,” said Ybarra when questioned about Battlegrounds alleged Xbox One exclusivity. “For anything else – we don’t like to answer on behalf of developers, so you’d have to ask Bluehole. I’ve got a large portion of my team working with them to optimize it and their [Bluehole] focus is entirely on the PC and Xbox, period, to get that done.”

When questioned on what console launch exclusive really meant, he merely said, “It’s up to Bluehole. We’re not the developer.”

Speaking to Greene didn’t do much either, with him refusing to mention anything about any potential future developments between Battlegrounds and the PS4:

“No, just at the moment we just don’t have any bandwidth to work on any other version,” Greene said. “That’s why we did the publishing deal with Microsoft, because the console port for Xbox was being done by Anticto in Spain, which is basically three or four guys. They’re hiring more now but now we have Microsoft’s support… we just want to focus on the Xbox and Windows versions.”

Unfortunately, if you expected discourse on Twitter to be any different, then you’d be sorely mistaken. When questioned, yet again, about what the implications of a console launch exclusive were, Sammie Kang, the lead community manager for PUBG, stated:

“Yes. This partnership is about allowing our dev team to solely focus on Xbox & PC development and bring PUBG to Xbox players faster.”

With so many people who should be able to easily say whether Battlegrounds will remain exclusive to the Xbox One, the only real conclusion that can be made is that it won’t be and a PlayStation 4 version will be coming eventually (similar to Rise of the Tomb Raider, which found itself in a similar debacle in 2014). A game as popular as Battlegrounds is a pretty big deal and you’d think that Microsoft would be singing from the rooftops if it managed to snag exclusive rights to it. Its silence speaks volumes.

And if you think about it, there’s no particular reason why Battlegrounds Xbox version would be the only console release: what does Bluehole stand to gain out of it? The PS4 remains the best-selling console at the moment and it would be in Bluehole’s best interest to get a piece of the pie while the going is good. Unless Microsoft lured Bluehole in with some amazing deal, ignoring the PS4 would just be hurting the game’s potential.

Of course, the question of whether it will remain exclusive to the Xbox One (it won’t) isn’t the only issue here. Another is that every party involved remains unwilling to flat out admit whats going on when there’s no reason not to. It’s almost comical to think that this story would have gotten far less attention if Battlegrounds status on consoles were confirmed one way or another. Sure, some people would be upset if it were exclusive to Xbox One, but everyone’s mad about something already.

So while we wait for someone to wise up and just tell us what’s going on, fans of the game can look forward to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds full release on PC in late 2017 and Battlegrounds Xbox version at some point in the future.

Check out the full Eurogamer interview here.

Injustice 2 is chugging along, pushing out characters here and there to help the game remain fresh for fans. It wasn’t too long ago that Starfire was added to the roster, but it looks like Warner Bros. and NetherRealm Studios already has the next set of characters lined up, announcing that Fighter Pack 2 will herald the inclusion of Hellboy, Black Manta and Raiden to the game’s roster.

Fighter Pack 2 is a little strange, especially when compared to the previous one. Injustice 2’s first Fighter Pack introduced two DC characters, Red Hood and Starfire, and one Mortal Kombat, Sub Zero. In contrast, this DLC pack only has one character that is actually from DC — Black Manta. The other two, Raiden and Hellboy, are from Mortal Kombat and Dark Horse Comics, respectively.

Of course, its not like NetherRealm Studios hasn’t made it clear in the past that guest characters are more than welcome to join its roster. Characters such as Jason Vorhees, Predator, Leatherface and even God of War’s Kratos has been included in other NetherRealm-developed titles at one point or another.

All three characters are worthy additions to the roster, just that its likely some will take pause over the fact that there is only one DC character being added this time around.

At any rate, Fighter Pack 2 will be available for purchase on September 12, with the first character being available for early access on the same day. Furthermore, players who have purchased the Injustice 2 Ultimate Edition, Injustice 2 Ultimate Pack or the Injustice 2 Fighter Pack 2 will have early access to each of the three new fighters as a bundle before they’re available individually.

Injustice 2 is available now on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Check out Injustice 2 Fighter Pack 2 trailer below:

Earlier today, Capcom released a new trailer for Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite, revealing the final characters that will be available on launch and the final Infinity Stone: Soul Stone. The characters didn’t leave much to the imagination, but the Soul Stone was anything but, as the trailer didn’t fully explain what the heck was actually going on when the stone’s various abilities were used.

Fortunately, popular FGC personality Maximilian has had plenty of opportunity to learn the nuances of the Soul Stone ahead of its official reveal and was kind enough to release a video breaking down everything that the stone is capable of based on his time with the Gamescom build of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.

In an earlier article, I questioned various functions about its effects, such as how much health players would be able to drain, how much life resurrected teammates would come back with, as well as how long they’d remain alive after their resurrection. Many of these questions were answered in the video, but it turns out there is far more to the stone than what the trailer let on. Quite honestly, I thought the stone was insane at first glance, but its actually even crazier than I imagined.

First off, the Infinity Surge functions like a whip that can be used to drain both the yellow and red health of the opponents health and recover some of your own. The amount of health gained isn’t particularly large and you can’t expect to often hit someone who is alert and not prone to randomly pressing buttons. Overall, it’s strong but not necessarily crazy.

The Infinity Storm, on the other hand, is quite nuts. I wondered about whether the teammate would come back permanently at full health and it appears that one of the cases I considered came to pass: KO’d teammates do come back permanently, but they only revive with roughly 20 percent health.

Amusingly enough, that isn’t even the craziest part about the Soul Stone’s Infinity Storm. Viewers might have noticed during the trailer that both teammates were active on the screen at the same time and it turns out this wasn’t some special ability belonging to either character or dynamic camera work — this is another function of the stone’s Infinity Storm. Regardless of the reserve teammate’s status, both characters will become active on screen to wreak havoc on their opponent. During this time, the player is free to unleash whatever attacks and hyper combos that the game allows, presenting an exceptionally difficult situation for the opponent.

With such a strong ability, it stands to reason that there would be a major downside to using the stone and Max reveals that there is. As he explains, upon activating the stone’s Infinity Storm, the reviving character is left in a vulnerable state. As such, since the field doesn’t actually impact the abilities of any character, its possible for the activating player’s characters to get caught in a happy birthday (when both characters on a team get hit and subsequently caught in a combo). Furthermore, since the reviving character only has about 20 percent of their health, it won’t take much for them to get KO’d again.

Based on this new information, the Soul Stone looks like it could be devastating if used in the right hands. I was expecting Reality Stone to be the most used Infinity Stone (during the game’s infancy at the very least), but it seems the Soul Stone could also see an equal amount of usage.

Check out Maximilian’s complete breakdown of the Soul Stone in the video below:

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is coming out in a few short weeks and Capcom is looking to keep the hype at maximum levels before then, unveiling the Soul Stone and its fifth character trailer, showing off Firebrand, Jedah, Dormammu, and Ghost Rider in action.

The Soul Stone is the final Infinity Stone to be revealed and the wait was well worth it. Unlike other stones which had special properties when using its effect, this one is fairly one dimensional, though still seemingly impressive as it allows players to steal the opponents health when activating its Infinity Surge. The Soul Stone’s Infinity Storm looks to be equally impressive as it allows the player to revive a fallen character.

Unfortunately, the trailer — perhaps intentionally — doesn’t do a particularly good job in showcasing the nuances of the Soul Stone. The life bars are hidden so we don’t get to see how much health is drained, nor do we get to see whether it affects the yellow or red health bar. This is an important distinction because while draining yellow health is still a strong ability, draining red health means the opponent can’t regain as much health overall when they substitute their character. Similarly, we don’t see how much health a character gets or how long they remain alive when they’re revived by the stone’s Infinity Storm effect. Unless the stone’s meter takes a very long time to charge when compared to the others, then the ability to permanently revive a fallen character at full health is overpowered. It seems likely that the effect only lasts for the duration of the Infinity Storm, but the trailer ends before such speculation could be confirmed.

In either case, from a preliminary glance, the Soul Stone looks pretty strong, albeit somewhat wonky in implementation — a player who is doing well and is using the life drain effect properly will probably have both characters alive and have no one to revive.

Meanwhile, the trailer also showed off four characters of the demonic variety: Firebrand, Jedah, Dormammu, and Ghost Rider. The only character among the four new to the series is Jedah and we already saw gameplay of him at Evo 2017. Similarly, Capcom previously confirmed that Firebrand, Dormammu and Ghost Rider would be making an appearance at Gamescom 2017, so their inclusion shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who follows this game.

As for their movesets, the series veterans all seem to have at least one new move. Firebrand can create a violent gust of wind that launches opponents up into the air, Dormammu can swing his arms to instantly faceplant an aerial opponent and can use his Power of the Creator ability to summon fiery vines along the ground which bring opponents to him, and Ghost Rider has an attack where he repeatedly hits an enemy with his chain before ending the onslaught with a punch.

All in all, the Soul Stone, Jedah and the new moves for the veterans all look really cool, but we’ll have to wait until September to see how they play out in full.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite arrives for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on Sept. 19.

Check out the trailer below:

It’s been 10 years since gamers were introduced to the underwater city of Rapture and the iconic Big Daddy, and it looks like 2K Games plans on holding a celebration in honor of this, announcing a BioShock 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and an anniversary celebration party that will be held at PAX West 2017.

The BioShock 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition won’t add much to the series in terms of gameplay or content, as it simply includes BioShock: The Collection, all three games in 1080p with all DLC attached, that came out last year. However, it does also come with a 11” Collectible Big Daddy & Little Sister Statue which features lights, audio, and a motorized drill. Of course, it wouldn’t be a 10th anniversary collector’s edition without a hefty price tag, and this one will cost U.S. residents (its unavailable everywhere else) $199.99.

As for the BioShock 10th anniversary celebration party, dubbed “Return to Rapture,” the event will be held at PAX West 2017 on Sept. 2 and feature cosplay contets, music, photo opportunities, themed food and drinks, and will be completely open to the public.

Those interested in getting their hands on the BioShock 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition should move fast as its in extremely short supply and its already available for pre-order at GameStop and the 2K Store.

On the other hand, if you have no sense of urgency or simply not interested in being in possession of the collector’s edition, then check out a trailer commemorating BioShock‘s 10th anniversary below:

Earlier today, Bandai Namco revealed the vaguely named Projekt1514 to be Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, the latest entry in its long-running list of Sword Art Online inspired games. And if you were to look at the reveal trailer and the new gameplay video, you might notice it bears a striking resemblance to a popular PlayStation Vita title from 2014: Freedom Wars.

Freedom Wars for the PlayStation Vita is one of the major Monster Hunter variants along with Soul Sacrifice, Ragnarok Odyssey, God Eater and Toukiden. Despite the crowded pool, it managed to carve out its own niche by having an interesting design and setting, along with unique combat mechanics. Just like in the other games in the genre, players are frequently tasked with taking down larger enemies that require more finesse than the average opponent; and that finesse came in the form of thorns, which are essentially grappling hooks which players could use to move around the field or latch onto enemies and attempt to cut their limbs or external weapons off. What made this mechanic so entertaining, is that not only would destroying these parts cause damage to the enemy, it would force them to change their movement or attack patterns (an enemy without any viable means to attack will resort to charging or jumping on players, for example).

Of course, the thorns in of themselves helped add to the complexity of the game, as there were three different types of them: red, green and grey. Red thorns could be used to trap and immobilize enemies, green thorns could be used to heal and revive allies and gray thorns could be used to boost a teammate’s defense or create barriers which blocked gunfire. When combined with six fully-customizable groups of weaponry and a customizable support unit with its own batch of weapons, there were plenty of ways to tailor your character to a given situation and there was little chance of finding a player who had the same setup as you online.

The game was very successful, attaining the second highest all-time opening sales for Vita software sold in Japan at the time and found a solid fanbase in other regions. Many had hoped that it would get a sequel, especially considering how the story ended; and while nothing was ever concrete, producer Junichi Yoshizawa did state during an interview in 2015 that a sequel would be possible depending on fan demand. Unfortunately, its the latter half of 2017 and there still has been no official mention of a Freedom War sequel.

Yet with the hopes of a sequel almost completely dead, there is still a lot for Freedom Wars fans to look forward to in Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet. Obviously, SAO: FB is not a straight-up replacement for a Freedom Wars sequel, but its hard not to notice the similarities between the two games after looking at some gameplay which recently surfaced on Dengeki Online’s YouTube Channel.

Just from this bit of gameplay, we see that players will be able to split into groups of four in order to carry out missions in multi-layered levels. Additionally, we see that players have two sets of weapons and there are multiple types of them (so far there are swords, pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles and sniper rifles). There’s no indication that any of these weapons will be customizable to the degree that was seen in Freedom Wars, but weapons with different effects have been a facet of the series for the past several entries, so there’s a chance it could reappear in Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet too.

There’s also the presence of grappling hooks which function somewhat similarly to the way thorns worked in Freedom Wars, though we only see it being used for movement in the video. It’s still possible that they could still be used for other purposes, such as support or latching onto giant enemies, and if that’s the case, then it might be tied into the game’s class system (for example, Kirito might be able to use the hook in a more offensive manner than Sinon because he is a melee class instead of a sniper).

Of course, there’s still the chance that placing such high hopes on Fatal Bullet might be a little too hasty and this point. Yes, the gameplay does resemble Freedom Wars so far, but its still an SAO title and they’re known for not having particularly large budgets. What’s more, developers now have to worry about using that budget to develop a game for three platforms — PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC — instead of just the PS4 and Vita.

Reservations aside, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet does still mean good things for Freedom Wars fans. Anything resembling a title as entertaining as Freedom Wars is greatly appreciated; and regardless of how well it does, Freedom Wars will be at the top of fan’s minds when they think of this game (it already is for some) which might cause them to become vocal for a sequel again. Hopefully, the right people listen will listen this time.

A release date has been set to bring Thumper to the Xbox One.  The critically acclaimed rhythm game launched launched last year for the PlayStation 4 and PC, with a Switch release also heading out earlier this year.

Thumper is a rhythm title with a unique twist.  Players must press a button to hit notes in sync with the background music of the game, all while avoiding obstacles steering a quickly moving beetle.  Players can make only a couple of mistakes while navigating the blisteringly fast track before they must restart at level checkpoints.

The game features nine levels all which have increasing challenge as the player navigates the track and plays through boss battle.  A pounding soundtrack and unique visual effects made this one of the most engrossing VR titles for PSVR and PC VR headsets.

As for Xbox One only features, the developers say that the Xbox One controller is a good fit for the game as the controls have been fine tuned to use the impulse trigger vibrations when scraping rails and turns on each track.  Vibration is also used to correspond with the stereo soundtrack.

Xbox One owners will finally get a chance to try Thumper in August.  Thumper will release on August 18th.  The developers note that Thumper will also be fully compatible with the Xbox One X when it releases, offering native 4K gameplay.

Look for it on the Xbox Store and Windows 10 Store simultaneously on launch day.

It’s probably something we’re going to hear a lot of in the months and years ahead, despite Microsoft’s marketing of the Xbox One X — a third party developer has abandoned trying to reach true 4K resolution on the console due to the inability to also have a consistent framerate.

There was considerable framerate drop at 4K resolution on Xbox One X

Tripwire Interactive recently announced that Killing Floor 2 would be heading to the Xbox One and would be receiving enhancements for the Xbox One X. Unfortunately, those enhancements do not include native 4K resolution and Dave Elder of Tripwire had this to say in recent comments on the matter.

“Killing Floor 2 runs at native 1800p, fixed resolution (no checkerboarding) on Xbox One X. We did experiment with true 4K rendering, but the frame rate drop was a bit too significant. 1800p provides the optimal balance between visual quality and performance in Killing Floor 2.”

Regardless, it does sound like the Xbox One X version of the game will be the best version available on consoles. Using the additional power of the Xbox One X allowed Tripwire to hit a fixed resolution on the machine, compared to checkerboarding techniques used on the PlayStation 4 Pro version of the game.  Elder also said that the game runs at a higher frame rate on the Xbox One X than on the base Xbox One.  He also revealed that the new Xbox One X will be using Ultra textures and feature increased resolution for things like shadow maps and shadow draw distance.

Microsoft has been walking a fine line in describing the Xbox One X and its capabilities since E3. With marketing words like “True 4K and Ultra 4K” being used interchangeably with Native 4K, Microsoft’s message is confusing to the average consumer. It’s expected that Microsoft’s first party games and studios will hit Native 4K resolutions with solid framerates on the Xbox One X. As for the demanding third party AAA titles, it wouldn’t be incredibly surprising if we hear more and more quotes like this one from Tripwire.

Killing Floor 2 is slated to arrive on the Xbox One on August 29th.  The Xbox One X is due out on November 7th, though Microsoft has yet to begin taking pre-orders for the “world’s most powerful console.”

Xbox Live Games With Gold rumors for August have been floating around for a couple of days, but they turned out to be false.  Regardless, the line-up of games that’ll arrive next month for Xbox Live Gold Subscribers is still pretty solid, including a couple of last generation favorites.

For the Xbox One, Slime Rancher will make its console debut in August.  The game will be available from August 1st through 31st for XBL Gold Subscribers.  From August 15th through September 15, Trials Fusion is the second Xbox One game featured in the program.

Things are quite good on the Xbox 360 side for August.  From 8/1 – 8/15  the original Bayonetta is part of Games with Gold.  The game recently saw a resurgence in popularity when it finally released for PC just a short while ago.  For those that didn’t get a chance to play that when it released on the Xbox 360, “Free” is a good spot to give it a go.

Red Faction Armageddon is the other Xbox 360 game that’ll be available through the program, and when it was released initially it was praised for the incredible amount of destructible elements.  Red Faction will be available from August 16th through August 31st.

Capcom has announced that Resident Evil: Revelations will be arriving on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in North America on August 31 for $19.99.

Released for prevous-gen consoles in 2012, PlayStation Resident Evil: Revelations tells the intertwining stories of Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, depicting the events that took place shortly after the establishment of the counter-terrorism group BSAA. The game is split into two main sections: controlling Jill and Parker Luciani (her new partner) as they search for Chris and Jessica Sherawat (his new partner) at their last known location, the a cruise ship called the Queen Zenobia, and controlling Chris and Jessica as they make their way to the Zenobia (its a major plot point). Jill’s part plays more like a traditional Resident Evil, while Chris’ section is reminiscent of the action-oriented gameplay popularized by Resident Evil 5. Throughout the game players will encounter murder, intrigue and an overwhelming amount of horrifying creatures.

Since this game was for older consoles, Capcom took the time to update the graphics to match the power of the PS4 and Xbox One, setting the game at a resolution of 1080p. Those who played the original should immediately recognize the increased environmental detail and refined creature movements, which Capcom says will “add a whole new dimension to the terror.”

If getting what is essentially a remastered version of Resident Evil: Revelations for $19.99 wasn’t enough, Capcom decided to include all the DLC for Raid Mode for no extra cost. As such, both weapon packs and all the downloadable costumes will be available right out of the gate.

Here’s a rundown of what the DLC contains:

Weapon Pack Resistance Set

• G18 “Speed Load” Handgun
• P-90 “Sonic Assist” Machine Gun
• Windham “Steady Hand” Shotgun
• Python “Short Range+” Magnum
• High Roller “Speed Load” Machine Gun
• PSG1 “Long Range+” Sniper Rifle

Weapon Pack Enhancement Set

• “Speed Shot” Handgun
• MP5 “Speed Shot” Machine Gun
• Hydra “Sonic Assist” Shotgun
• L. Hawk “Speed Load” Magnum
• High Roller “Sonic Assist+” Machine Gun
• M40A1 “Sonic Assist+” Sniper Rifle

Raid Mode costume: Rachael Ooze
Raid Mode costume: Lady Hunk

With Capcom showing clear interest in its Revelations series, along with previous mentions of a new Resident Evil in the works, it would be great if that project turns out to be Revelations 3. If it does, then maybe it could feature characters that fans haven’t seen in a while (like what Capcom did with Revelations 2), such as Rebecca Chambers or Carlos Oliveira.

When EA revealed that Star Wars Battlefront 2 would not only feature a full-fledged campaign mode and free DLC, many fans whooped and clamored at the notion of the Worst Company in America Award winners finally having a change of heart. Could it be that EA have finally changed their ways? Do they care about their fans? Well, they’ve published indie games recently, that’s good! They gave Mirror’s Edge a second chance! It was a bit pooey, but that’s not necessarily their fault. Have EA finally taken a miraculous turn from fiddle-playing robot Satan to a sparkling Jesus Christ? Hahaha, no.

You see, EA is like that guy on Fiverr who dresses up as Jesus Christ and calls your mate’s mum some form of profanity for a few quid. You can pay a pretty penny for him to give you a laugh and a tickle, but if you want the really good stuff, you’ll be wanting to pay double, if not triple, the price. EA’s dress-up Jesus is an act, a mirage of sparkling heavenly goodness, and nothing has shown this more than their treatment of microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront 2.

In order to try and wring every penny out of their customers, EA have obviously introduced loot boxes into Battlefront 2. Like everyone is now. There are loot boxes in Activision’s Modern Warfare Remastered for God’s sake! In Modern Warfare Remastered, however, the items found in said loot boxes are purely cosmetic and while it may be repulsive to inject microtransactions into the remaster of a decade-old game to fill Activision’s insatiable corporate gluttony, they don’t harm those who play the game normally.

Battlefront 2, on the other hand, is a different tale. In what could only be considered a massive punch in your Marksman-H training remote, (Get it? It was a Star Wars joke.) Electronic Arts have decided to put Battlefront’s unlockable Star Cards inside the game’s loot boxes.

“Why does that matter?”, you say. Well, let me tell you. The Star Card system in the original Battlefront game was an unlock system that allowed players to equip weapons or extra abilities that they would otherwise not have access to. Purchasable through credits earned from completing matches, the items available in higher tiers were some of the most unbalanced weaponry seen in recent multiplayer shooting and, judging from DICE’s record with weapon balancing, the sequel will probably be the same. While the last unlockable gun in a game is never the best weapon per se, Star Wars Battlefront proved that combinations of Star Cards could lead to an immensely overpowered build, and Battlefront 2 has locked all of that behind microtransactions.

It goes without saying that when unbalanced items are locked behind a high virtual paywall, players are going to have to earn their way to become scummy little game-breakers. As soon as you remove that skill or time barrier and replace said barrier with the option to pay, it immediately becomes pay-to-win.

Loot crates will be available to buy with real world money, and as they add more weapons through updates and DLC you can be sure that they’ll also be locked behind loot boxes, too. With loot rarities and being able to purchase more expensive boxes with chances of better loot, Battlefront 2 will quickly become a battle for who has either the most time, or who has the most money they can lob into EA’s bursting bank account.

I’m personally not against the inclusion of loot boxes and microtransactions in games, in fact, for the most part, I’m all for it. Overwatch’s myriad of skins, voice lines, and sprays are all part of what makes that game so fun, addicting and endearing; Blizzard could learn to stop locking huge chunks of skins behind specific schedules though. Injustice 2 is a game that does a very similar thing to Battlefront 2 by giving you pieces of gear for characters, although not only are their effects not active during ranked play—and can be turned off in casual—but NetherRealm’s fighter throws countless amounts of loot boxes at you so often it can be exhausting to open them all.

If anything, Battlefront 2 shows that EA are likely never going to change. While they may not be as transparently money-hungry as the voracious change-thieves Activision, EA will keep finding ways for consumers to throw money at their feet like desperate men at a seedy strip club. From Ultimate Team to Dead Space 3 and now to Star Wars Battlefront, EA are the best in the business at grabbing your wallet and slapping you with it.

Only time will tell if Battlefront 2 will end up as bad as it’s starting to look like. After all, between now and launch day there’s definitely time for the company to make substantial strides towards making their game consumer friendly. As it stands right now however, EA are some very Hungry, Hungry Hippos, but their marbles are your paychecks.

Microsoft’s E3 2017 Press Conference is in the books for this year and as expected Microsoft revealed a number of new games, their new console, and some new features that are coming to the Xbox ecosystem.  The most anticipated news was the price and release date announcements for what is now known as the Xbox One X.  Previously known as the Scorpio, the Xbox One X will launch on November 7th, 2017 and is priced a little on the high side at $499.  From there all of the focus was on games, past and present.

Xbox One X Announcement Trailer

Forza Motorsport 7 Confirmed and Revealed

Microsoft has a penchant for bringing cars out on stage to showcase their Forza driving series and this year was no different.  Alongside the debut of Forza 7, Turn 10 also debuted a Porsche Supercar.  Forza Motorsport 7 was confirmed to be running at 4K 60FPS on the Xbox One X.

https://youtu.be/Dokpy_KIuyA

Metro Exodus Announced Showed in 4K

4A Games made their debut on the Xbox 360, so it’s only fitting that the first gameplay was shown for the game on the Xbox stage.  Looking like a generational leap from the last game in the series, Metro Exodus showed off some impressive visuals that are possible on the Xbox One X.  The game is slated to arrive in 2018.

Assassin’s Creed Origins Debuted Egpyt Confirmed

Ubisoft debuted Assassin’s Creed Origins at the Microsoft Press Conference, showing off both a large gameplay segment of the game and a trailer.  After a year-long hiatus the gameplay and reveal trailer certainly looked good and gameplay changes seemed to change some parts of the Assassin’s Creed mechanics.  Although it certainly still looks familiar, even in the ancient Egyptian setting.

Trailer

Gameplay

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Xbox One Exclusive

It seemed only natural that one of the PC’s most popular games would come to consoles, but PUBG is coming exclusively to Xbox One.  PlayerUnknown took the stage to reveal the first Xbox One gameplay and said it would be arriving later this year.

https://youtu.be/m0Tnp-3W3z4

Deep Rock Galactic Announced

Announced as a Xbox One console launch exclusive, Deep Rock Galactic is a four player cooperative first person shooter.  Looking something like a cross between Minecraft and No Man’s Sky, Deep Rock Galactic features elements of exploration, combat, and looting enveloped in a unique art-style.  Coming from Coffee Stain Publishing and Ghost Ship Games no release date was given for Deep Rock Galactic.

State of Decay 2 Continues to Look Great

The development for State of Decay 2 appears to be coming along well.  The game which is slated to arrive in 2018 is an Xbox One and Windows 10 Exclusive.  A little bit more detail about the scenario for State of Decay 2 was revealed in the lengthy gameplay trailer.  Survivors that have been abandoned by the military must make tough decisions survive the zombie apocalypse.  Though it does sound like it will rely on some of the original game’s mechanics in gather survivors and building a community.

The Darwin Project Announced

The Darwin Project was announced at Microsoft’s Press Conference and it looks to be jumping into the Battle Royale genre in an interesting way.  Nothing was said about the game, but the gameplay revealed what looked like a reimagining of the genre with players having special power-ups and abilities.

Minecraft is going 4K

If you thought Microsoft was going to leave Minecraft out of the Xbox One X 4K party you’d be mistaken.  Today they announced that Minecraft would be getting an update for Xbox One X with 4K textures, bigger servers, crossplay features and other content that will be coming to the game down the line.  This will unify Minecraft across mobile devices, Windows 10, Virtual Reality and on on consoles.  A new graphics pack was also announced called the Super Duper Graphics Pack that will arrive later this year.

https://youtu.be/Nq_Q77bJ3H0

The Black Desert is to Coming to Xbox One

The Black Desert released a couple of years ago on PC, but is coming to the Xbox One.  Announced with this new trailer, it’s not the most popular MMO on the market today, but neverthess will be arriving on as a console launch exclusive on Xbox One.

The Last Night Announced for Xbox One

Another console launch exclusive for Xbox One, The Last Night is artistic, two-dimensional platformer set in a cyberpunk world where the main character faces a world of adversity due to a childhood accident.  The game features four unique districts to explore with infiltration style gameplay.  The Last Night is slated to arrive in 2018.

The Artful Escape Announced as Console Launch Exclusive

Sea of Thieves Gets a Lengthy New Gameplay Reveal

We haven’t heard much about Sea of Thieves in a while.  Rare’s shared world experience is still on track for a 2018 release and the latest gameplay walkthrough gives us a bigger taste of what’s to come.  Treasure hunting, pirating, blowing up skeletons, that’s what was showed off this year for Sea of Thieves.

Terry Crews Gets Everyone Pumped For Crackdown 3

In retrospect, the bombastic nature of Crackdown and Terry Crews is a match made in heaven.  Good thing the casting director for the latest trailer had the foresight to hire the Old Spice guy to get people excited for the latest gameplay reveal for one Xbox One’s most anticipated exclusives.

https://youtu.be/k_9fG8hPCi0

Code Vein Gameplay Showcased

We’d already heard a little about what to expect from Code Vein when Bandai Namco announced the game earlier this year, but the gameplay trailer for the game was the first we got a chance to gander at.  Dark Souls fans will likely be looking forward to Code Vein when it launches in 2018.

Super Lucky’s Tale Announced

Super Lucky’s Tale is a console exclusive for the Xbox One and it’s an all-ages platformer.  The game features 4K Ultra HD graphics for Xbox One X and is also a play anywhere title.  The game is slated to launch alongside the Xbox One X on November 7th, 2017.

Dragonball FighterZ Revealed

Ori and the Will of the Wisps Confirmed

We knew another Ori game was coming from Moon Studios and today we got a reminder of just how great that studio is at both audio and visual design.  The Will of the Wisps is an all-new adventure but it looks like Ori will be returning and will have a new friend to help.

This second game in the Ori series is said to take players beyond the forest of Nibel.  Ori and the Will of the Wisps is another game that will optimized for the Xbox One X with enhanced visuals, 4K assets, and feature Xbox Play Anywhere functionality.

Tacoma Dated for Release

Tacoma is another in the line of games that have made multiple appearances at E3 with Microsoft, and this year we finally get a release date for the game in a brief trailer.  Tacoma will in August for the Xbox One.

Cuphead Gets a Release Date

Cuphead is finally coming out.  After years of hype and multiple appearances at E3 a release date for the stylish platformer has been given.  Cuphead will arrive on September 29th and Microsoft has begun taking pre-orders for the game.

ID@Xbox

It wouldn’t be a Microsoft Press Conference without an ID@Xbox montage.  The trailer showcased numerous games that are coming to the Xbox One from indie developers.  A massive list of games including:  Osiris, Paladins, Raiders of a Broken Planet, PUBG, Unruly Heroes, Fortnite, Battlerite, Surviving Mars, Robocraft, The Artful Escape, Astroneer, We Happy Few, Fable Fortune, Dunk Lords, Brawlout, The Last Night, and others highlighted the growing list of self published titles.

Life is Strange: Before the Storm Revealed

LIFE IS STRANGE: BEFORE THE STORM is set in Arcadia Bay, three years before the events of the first game in the series. Players will take on the role of a rebellious 16 year-old Chloe Price who forms an unlikely friendship with Rachel Amber; a beautiful and popular girl destined for success. When Rachel’s world is turned upside down by a family secret, it takes this new-found alliance to give each other the strength to overcome their demons.  Before the Storm is set to arrive on August 31st, 2017.

Shadow of War Gameplay Walkthrough

Shadow of War got a brand new gameplay walkthrough that demonstrated some of the new mechanics in the game.  While a lot of the combat elements of the game have been retained, a new menu system prior to assaults allows you to customize battles in new ways.

Backwards Compatibility Announced for Original Xbox Games

Backwards compatibility is being extended to original Xbox games.

Bioware’s New Game Anthem Steals Spotlight

Bioware has apparently been working on something pretty massive that closed out a decent showing for Microsoft’s E3 Press Conference.  Revealing Anthem, a cooperative game that allows four players to play in an open world full of diverse challenges.  Ashen looked like EA’s take on Destiny, offering cooperative gameplay and the rewards of loot around every corner.

Players use different Javelin Exosuits that can be equipped with unique weapons and abilities as well as gear that is found, earned, and crafted.

The recently announced Xbox One X has finally got a price.  Despite all the rumors and speculation leading up to the show, Microsoft has confirmed the price point for the console that had been rumored earlier.

The Xbox One X will cost $499 per Phil Spencer’s announcement at Microsoft’s Press Conference.  Earlier it had been speculated by Geoff Keighley that the console would come in at this price. Many pundits, critics, and analysts have already chimed in to say that this price is a little on the high end.

Regardless, the $499 price point puts Microsoft at somewhat of a competitive disadvantage with its main competitor in Sony and the PlayStation 4 Pro which is already priced lower and will sitting right beside the Xbox One X on store shelves this holiday.

It’s true that the Xbox One X is more powerful and does offer the highest visual fidelity, but price may again be the spot where Sony continues to dominate Microsoft at home and abroad.

The Xbox One X will launch on November 7th, 2017 at $499.

The Last Night has been announced for Xbox One and PC, offering artistic cyberpunk platformer.

“The Last Night is what we call post-cyberpunk – it’s not the kind of dystopia the genre is famous for, rather it depicts an alternate direction for society. One where the fight for survival doesn’t mean food and water, but a purpose for living. Human labour and creativity has been rendered obsolete by AI, so people are now defining themselves by what they consume, not what they create,” says the developer.

Further details about the game give the trailer some substance.  The main character is Charlie, a lower class citizen who isn’t able to function in a world that has grown technologically due to a childhood accident.

The Last Night started as a prototype game for a cyberpunk gamejam and won the competition.  The small development team then continued to work on the concept to flesh it out into a full game, apparently.

The release date for The Last Night has been set for 2018.

The initial reveal trailer certainly fit that bill, you can check out The Last Night’s gameplay reveal below:

The Last Night Reveal Trailer

The big day has finally arrived for Microsoft: its highly anticipated E3 Press Conference. Later today (Sunday, June 11) at 2 p.m. PST / 5 p.m. EST, Microsoft will finally reveal to the world what they have been waiting for since it was noticeably absent at last year’s E3: Project Scorpio.

It should be no surprise that Microsoft has been losing to Sony in both power and sales in the console war, but this press conference could prove to be a major turning point for the company as it has more stuff to showcase this year than its prime competitor. And, of course, it will need to do this in order to overtake Sony which has been resting on its laurels ever since this current generation began.

That said, there are three categories of things that we should expect Microsoft to show off this year: Hardware (Scorpio), Games/Services and Pricing.

Hardware

The thing on everyone’s mind is what is currently known as Project Scorpio, and at this point, there is barely anything known about the Scorpio’s specs and capabilities that Microsoft has left to tell us.

Microsoft has made it a point to know long before the upcoming conference that the Scorpio is poised to be the most powerful console ever, leaving everything Sony has to offer in the dust. What’s more, we know that one of Microsoft’s primary goals for the Scorpio was for it to be able to run all current Xbox One games, which generally range in native resolution from 900p to 1080p, at their default frame rate but in 4K resolution.

Additionally, we know that the Scorpio was built with the hardware capabilities to support the high-end VR, due to an announcement from Phil Spencer at E3 2016. The company recently doubled down on that at GDC 2017, saying its working to bring mixed reality headsets to the Xbox One platform. Unfortunately, in a recent announcement, Microsoft revealed it’s primary focus is on mixed reality for Windows 10 PCs, so there is little reason to expect that the company to say anything about VR for its consoles during today’s press conference.

That said, there are still several things that Microsoft needs to showcase. First off, it will need to prove the upgrade to gameplay performance and presentation is worth the upgrade. Second, it will need to effectively showcase what 4K gaming looks like, especially if the console will feature 4K gaming by default like we’ve been led to believe. Lastly there are the bare minimum requirements that Microsoft will have to meet, such as name, design, release date and price (which will be covered later).

Games/Services

Microsoft, just like Sony, has been seeking out partnership deals with major developers in a bid to secure exclusive content for their consoles. And surprisingly enough, Microsoft has been doing a better job of it than Sony, but the problem is that many of those games have either missed the mark or got cancelled. As a result, Microsoft has often been left to compete against Sony (which still has some exclusive titles to speak of) with third-party games that are available on both systems.

The advent of the Scorpio is Microsoft’s chance to reverse those fortunes — if the new console is as impressive as it claims, the next step will be for the company to lure developers towards its system and produce worthwhile titles that can properly compete with Sony.

Microsoft’s ID@Xbox initiative means that indie games should already be covered. Now all that’s left is for past games that had been announced recently to come to get firm release dates and arrive. Leading the pack is Undead Labs’ State of Decay 2, the follow-up to 2013’s State of Decay, which was announced at E3 2016 and is scheduled for a 2017 release. In addition, there’s Studio MDHR’s Cuphead which is slated for a mid-2017 release. Lastly, there’s Fullbright’s timed Xbox exclusive, Tacoma. That title was announced several years ago and now would be the prime time for an update on its status.

As for first-party titles, Crackdown 3 and Forza Motorsport 7 are likely to be shown off this year (along with possible release dates), as is Rare’s multiplayer pirate adventure, Sea of Thieves.

Third-party titles should also receive a special mention because they should look better on a Scorpio than any other system, hence incentivizing both players and developers to play/produce titles on Microsoft’s systems, rather than Sony. One title where we might see this play out is Middle-earth: Shadow of War, as Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment had explicitly described an upcoming title supporting Scorpio (and PS4 Pro) upon its announcement. This would be an excellent time for Microsoft to show off what the game looks like in 4K resolution and emphasize that players won’t be getting the same experience elsewhere.

Lastly, there’s Microsoft’s Xbox Play Anywhere initiative. Since taking over the company’s gaming division three years ago, Phil Spencer has made it a goal to bring the Windows 10 and Xbox ecosystems closer together and the Scorpio will likely be the piece that ties everything together. We’ve already seen that Microsoft has little issue with making first-party titles such as Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3 available on PC as part of the initiative and we’ve also seen third-party titles like Resident Evil 7 biohazard appear as part of the service as well. With Scorpio promising 4K resolution, it stands to reason that Microsoft would try to bring more third-party developers on board with initiative, as well as make more high-end PC games available on the console. If you’re going to have a console that can offer the same experience as a high-end PC, then you might as well have the same games available for both, right?

Pricing

To be fair, price could arguably be packed into the hardware section earlier, but the importance of this aspect is incredibly hard to overstate.

With all of its purported features, including non-gaming ones such as the inclusion of a 4K Blu-ray drive, many have been left to wonder just how much the Scorpio will cost. As it stands, the most expensive console on the market is the PS4 Pro at $399.99 and Microsoft is now in the non-enviable position of figuring out a price for a console that can actually be competitive with its rivals while still remaining true to its specs.

The immediate assumption would be that Microsoft prices the Scorpio at $399 making it perfectly in-line with the PS4 Pro, but with the console’s specs considered, it feels like Microsoft would be just be underselling its tech and selling the console at a loss. Meanwhile, $449 would be an interesting proposition — it would come $50 higher than the PS4 Pro (which is fair considering the tech), yet $50 under the original price of the Xbox One. Considering Microsoft’s present situation and past decisions, this would be a good price point for the console, though the price is still an awkward one.

Everything considered, the price that makes the most sense for the Scorpio would be $499. This would make it the most expensive console on the market, but it would be still be worth it considering everything the console brings to the table. That said, pricing a console at $499 is what partially necessitated the need for the Scorpio to begin with, so Microsoft might be apprehensive (understandably) to do it again. Granted, unlike with the Xbox One, what the Scorpio offers would actually warrant the price.

There is no point in going beyond this price, as anything higher than that is pure suicide. $550 is an awkward price and $600 and above is pure insanity — Microsoft saw what happened to Sony and the PS3 when it debuted at this price and there is no way it would risk doing the same to itself in its current position.

At the end of the day, Microsoft will need to offer a price for the Scorpio that can both attract newcomers to its system as well as convince pre-existing Xbox One (S) owners to upgrade. Remember, the PS4 is priced between $250-$400 and the Switch is $300 and both are incredibly attractive despite not holding a candle to the Scorpio tech-wise; Microsoft will need to be careful during its event or the Scorpio could very well be dead on arrival.

Microsoft recently said virtual reality won’t be part of their E3 2017 press conference. However, almost a week ago, they filed a trademark for a feature called “Direct Reality” which is related to gaming. According to the trademark listing, it covers “computer game software for holographic applications”. Could this be a sign that mixed reality will be teased at E3? Or maybe how HoloLens will work with the Xbox One family of devices? We don’t know at this point but it’s always fun to speculate.

A few months ago, Microsoft said that mixed reality would be coming to their consoles in 2018. Since then we haven’t really heard much about it. If I were to guess, I would say that Direct Reality is probably Microsoft’s term for mixed and virtual reality gaming on Project Scorpio and the interface which allows you to explore Xbox Live through a headset. During Build 2017, Microsoft demonstrated a space where Xbox Avatars could interact with one another—like a lounge. All of that probably refers to Direct Reality.

Hopefully Microsoft will tell us more at E3 2017, however, don’t hold your breath because they company has already denied it. Then again, it might all just be misdirection. Luckily, we should have an answer on Sunday, June 11.

Update:  Mike Ybarra CVP of Xbox & Windows gaming has pushed back harder against the claims by Ars Technica, where he said that the study was providing an “inaccurate view of what people do,” via Twitter.

A few days ago, an article was published with an in-depth study of how Xbox One owners used their consoles. Towards the end, the study made the claim that backward compatibility wasn’t a popular feature and even went as far as using statistics from 2015 to back up their figures. Instead of considering the limitations of their study—in particular the population size and its variety—it went on to just assume that the numbers were concrete.  Well, it turns out that they were way off the mark according to Microsoft. Today, Mike Nichols took to Twitter to answer questions about backward compatibility and its usage. He revealed some startling figures which directly contradict the study’s extrapolations.

“Some q’s today on back compat use.  Roughly 50% of xbox one owners have played, over 508 million hours of gaming enjoyed,” reads a tweet from the Xbox CMO.

According to Mike Nichols, who has first-hand data from Microsoft, roughly 50% of all Xbox One owners have played a backwards compatible game on their console. Apart from that, over 508 million hours have been spent playing backward compatible games on Xbox One. Even if we take into account the millions of Xbox One owners out there, the per capita usage statistics are remarkable.  Nichols’s data clearly demonstrates that backward compatibility is quite a popular feature. If we take into account the fact that only 50% of Xbox One owners have used backward compatibly to begin with, the per person usage is staggering.

“Usually one or two BC games in our daily top played games.  Usage remains high.  Quality games last and are worth playing,” said Spencer.

The Xbox boss chimed in the conversation as well.  While Phil Spencer didn’t offer any exact figures, the Xbox head says that there are usually one or two games in the daily top games played on Xbox One that are backward compatible. While Ars Technica’s latest research on backward compatibility is soundingly debunked by these Xbox executives (and more and more like a hit piece), hopefully backward compatibility is here to stay.  The last thing we need as a community is the inability to play games that we’ve already purchased, despite executives from other platforms not seeing the benefit of being able to do so.

The value is in the option, not whether it’s cost effective for a corporation to include that capability in their console.  Whether we play one hour or hundreds, the ability to go back and replay older games that we’ve already paid for is the crux of the argument, not whether its feasible or not. Apart from that, Call of Duty: Black Ops II made it to the NPD top 10 chart in April 2017. When was the last time you heard of an Xbox 360 game doing that?

Ever since Project Scorpio was announced at E3 2016, Microsoft has been using terms like “True 4K” and how the console’s GPU churns out 6 TFLOPS instead of the PlayStation 4 Pro’s 4 TFLOPS. It looks like that competitive spirit has made its way to the console’s teaser trailers. Recently, Microsoft released a number of short videos telling users that they will experience true power with the console. However, if you look at certain scenes, it seems that Microsoft is highlighting the roughly 2 TFLOPS difference between their device and the competition.

It’s probably not a coincidence that “6>4” is clearly visible on one of the banners. 6 TFLOPS obviously referring to Project Scorpio’s computational power and 4 TFLOPS is what the PlayStation 4 Pro produces. However, that’s not all. In another scene, the price and release date may have been revealed. Believing this requires a greater leap of faith but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Another still from the teaser reads “X10S101-317″. “X10S” may refer to Project Scorpio and the “101-317” may mean that the console is coming out on October 13, 2017. Or it might just be a bunch of nonsensical figures which have no connection—no matter how tenuous they are—to anything. There are some gamers out there who believe that the “X10S101-317” is a code for an image which points to a $399 price tag. We won’t know until June 11 when Microsoft reveals everything about the console.

Whenever companies release games or hardware, they love inserting various Easter eggs. While it’s highly likely that the “6>4” text is a reference to the power difference between Project Scorpio and PlayStation 4 Pro, “X10S101-317″ could mean anything. However, like with any Easter egg, it’s always a blast to speculate on the possibilities. Until we have confirmation about the release date, you should take the “leaked” release date with a grain of salt. Apart from that, let the theories flow.

Today, Bethesda Softworks released The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind to patiently-waiting gamers around the world. However, what does the future hold for the title on other platforms? Well, we have some great news for customers interested in Project Scorpio. It looks like the game will receive a proper upgrade for Microsoft’s upcoming console around Holiday 2017. The Elder Scrolls Online is one of the few titles to run at native 4K on PlayStation 4 Pro so prospective Project Scorpio owners should expect the same in terms of resolution.

In an interview with Finder, Rich Lambert, the game’s creative director, confirmed that they would enhance Project Scorpio in a similar fashion. He said, “I think we’re going to be in for the same kinds of things (with the Project Scorpio version) that we did with the PlayStation 4 Pro. So visual stability will be up there. We’ll probably have the same types of visual bells and whistles. As for what Microsoft is going to release, I don’t know. I haven’t really spent any time trying to dig through what they’re doing. I’m sure they’ll have something (at E3), but as it relates to exactly what I’m focused on right now, I don’t know.”

Given the 1.8 TFLOPS difference when it comes to GPU computational power between Project Scorpio and PlayStation 4 Pro, hopefully Bethesda Softworks will push their team to offer additional enhancements on Microsoft’s console. In my opinion—despite the fact that The Elder Scrolls Online is a very pretty game on Xbox One—it could use additional lighting effects. Hopefully some of those options found on the PC and Mac versions will make their way over to the Project Scorpio version. Apart from that, stability should be a priority as the Xbox One version stutters at times during combat, and when many players are around. Hopefully Bethesda Softworks will reveal more information after E3 2017 when Microsoft officially unveils the console and many developers are allowed to discuss how their games will benefit from that added power.

Following the release of Halo 5: Guardians back in the fall of 2015, people have been wondering how long it may be until we see the next entry in the series. With the Xbox One Project Scorpio coming out later this year, a lot of people thought we might see  a release of a Halo 6 alongside it. After it was already confirmed that would not be the case and it wouldn’t show up at E3 this year recently, it has now been said that it won’t make an appearance at Gamescom either.

As we told you the other day, Brian Jarrard, community manager at 343 Industries, responded on Reddit the other day under his username Sk7ch343 to say that the tease that was given for something Halo related at E3 would not be the next major entry in the series, with him also putting to bed rumors of a Halo 3 Anniversary announcement as well.

Someone made a separate thread on the Halo subreddit linking to Jarrard’s initial posts, which led to someone saying “No beta this year? Perhaps announced at Gamescom to open up room for other things at E3?” Jarrard responded to this post as well by simply saying “Definitely not.”

With Jarrard stating that Halo 6 will not be revealed at E3 or Gamescom, that pretty much solidifies that we won’t be seeing anything from 343 Industries about Halo 6 in 2017. Microsoft’s presence in Japan is so minimal that the Tokyo Game Show certainly would be a venue to show it off. Unless they were to hold an event later in the year specifically to announce it along with more details about the Scorpio after E3, it’s looking like we’re going to be waiting until at least 2018 for any Halo 6 news.

With Halo 6 off the table, the focus for 343 Industries the rest of the year is likely going to be continuing support of Halo Wars 2, so hopefully we get some good information on that at E3.

As long as there are multiple competitors for a product, there are naturally going to be people that argue for one side versus the other. This has been the case for decades with gaming, whether it was the Super Nintendo vs. Sega Genesis or Xbox One vs. PS4. This has been donned as console wars, but the head of Xbox has previously stated how he didn’t believe in the idea of console wars and he has once again reaffirmed that belief.

Xbox head Phil Spencer has spoken in the past a number of times about how he doesn’t like the idea of console wars and has himself been very congratulatory towards the likes of Sony and Nintendo for their various launches.

This topic surfaced once again though with the recent release of Little Nightmares, in which Spencer congratulated the official Little Nightmares Twitter on a post that had the game’s reviews listed on it. Someone then responded to that saying that Team Xbox and Spencer seemed to really pushing Little Nightmares, even though it was a third party game, in which Spencer responded by saying:

I’ll never feel strange promoting great games.  You should play it on the platform you own..

Phil Spencer has always felt that the companies should worry about themselves and not feel in as much competition against one another. However, this also comes from the head of the company that has been lagging behind the leader Sony this generation.

But it seems like the gaming companies have been a lot more cordial with each other in recent years than back in the days where Sega actually had campaigns that said “Genesis does what Nintendon’t.” The recent release of the Nintendo Switch showed the various companies wishing Nintendo well on their launch, which is definitely great to see.

The reveal of backwards compatibility coming to the Xbox One at E3 two years ago was a very pleasant surprise that has been getting better each and every week with new games being added to the library. Some days definitely bring better games than others and while today’s aren’t your AAA games like the recently added Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, five new games have still been added that you might be interested in.

Today’s new additions to the Xbox One backwards compatibility library as announced by Microsoft’s Major Nelson via Twitter are Hard Corps: Uprising, Harms Way, Band of Bugs, Bullet Soul, and Bullet Soul -Infinite Burst, with the latter two actually being fairly recent games.

Hard Corps: Uprising released back in 2011 for the Xbox 360 and is actually a prequel to Contra: Hard Corps, and thus also a prequel to the original Contra. This run and gun game offered both single player and co-op play, with getting decent reviews, coming with a 75 on Metacritic for the 360 version.

Harms Way came a year earlier in 2010 and was a racing game that was released for free as part of the Doritos sponsored “Unlock Xbox” event that also brought us Doritos’ Crash Course on 360. There aren’t too many reviews for this game, but it does have a 65 on Metacritic currently based on four reviews.

Band of Bugs is by far the oldest game on the list, as it released for the Xbox Live Arcade on 360 back in 2007. This turn based tactics game released to mediocre reviews, currently sitting at 68 on Metacritic.

The last two games being added today, Bullet Soul and Bullet Soul -Infinite Burst- actually did not release in the US on Xbox 360 until 2016, which is not too common for backwards compatibility. These vertical shoot ’em ups do not have any reviews on Metacritic at all, so it’s hard to judge these two.

The Xbox One backwards compatibility program was introduced back in 2015 and has brought us a quality selection of games from the Xbox 360’s library that are fully playable on the Xbox One. The much requested Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was finally made backwards compatible last month and now it has actually received an update on Xbox One as well.

From the very start, there have been a number of games that have been requested more than any others, with the two Call of Duty: Black Ops games being near the top. We got the first Black Ops awhile ago, but it wasn’t until mid-April that we finally got the sequel added.

The team in charge of backwards compatibility has done a good job in the past of improving games on Xbox One through followup patch updates and that is exactly what they have done here as well. According to GearNuke, a new update has been made available for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on Xbox One that you can download right now.

This update comes in at around 700 MB and reportedly fixes anti-aliasing in the game that was causing jagged edges compared to the Xbox 360 version. In addition, they said that there are reports of input lag also being improved in this patch, but there is no real confirmation for that part at this point.

It is really fantastic to see Xbox continuing to support older games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 as they release on Xbox One through backwards compatibility. A game such as this has had some really incredible numbers of people online since it was added last month, which we assume will continue for awhile.

Are there any other Xbox 360 games that are backwards compatible on Xbox One that you think need a patch to improve its performance? Make sure to let us know in the comments below.

Gaming has evolved much over the decades, with various changes coming each and every new generation, and even within generations thanks to system updates and services. With this approach, game companies always have to be proactive with ideas. Trying to come up with unique and different ways of presenting games is going to be important for the future and Xbox’s Phil Spencer has one potential idea for how to release story based games.

In an interview with The Guardian, Phil Spencer talked about the current state of the industry and games as a service. Within this, he mentioned talk about microtransactions and their place in gaming.

Specifically, Spencer mentioned how something like FIFA’s Ultimate Team is a great way to handle this model, but how he would be very disappointed if he was playing a single player story based game and came across some sort of paywall part the way through. For that reason, he has an idea about how to handle story based games potentially.

“I’ve looked at things like Netflix and HBO, where great content has been created because there’s this subscription model. Shannon Loftis and I are thinking a lot about, well, could we put story-based games into the Xbox Game Pass business model because you have a subscription going? It would mean you wouldn’t have to deliver the whole game in one month; you could develop and deliver the game as it goes.”

Spencer’s idea very much sounds like the style that publishers like Telltale Games have done and what Square Enix did with the recent Hitman reboot. It does work well with Telltale Games in how the stories are split up well, but I could see this being a problem in the more expansive single player story based games.

Having a game like The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild split up into parts that were released over time as they were finished would definitely have taken something away from that experience without question, but this model could work for some types of games. Even though the number of big single player story based games from Xbox aren’t that common, we’ll have to wait and see whether they attempt something like this in the future.

The NPD Group has released their figures for video game hardware and software sales for March 2017 and saw big percentage increases year over year in almost all categories, with the biggest leap being in hardware as Nintendo released the Switch.

That said the Nintendo Switch was the number one console sold in March.  The chart topper was not only a best for the month of March among its peers, but it was also a best for Nintendo itself, topping it’s previous best seller the Gameboy Advanced which launched over 15 years ago.  NPD says that the Switch was one of the biggest successes of any hardware launch since 1995.  We gave the console high marks in our review of the Nintendo Switch.

Surprisingly enough, however, Ubisoft hit the top of the software list with Ghost Recon: Wildlands beating out The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the top spot.  For all the flak it caught, Ghost Recon: Wildlands has had the second best debut ever for a Tom Clancy title and is the best seller of all of the great games we’ve seen in 2017 thus far.  The Division still holds the top spot for a Tom Clancy debut though.  Mass Effect: Andromeda came in third, and that saw sales tail off behind that of which we saw for Mass Effect 3.  The top five was rounded out by a couple of PlayStation 4 exclusives with Horizon: Zero Dawn and MLB 17: The Show.

You can check out the full top ten below:

NPD Software Top 10 March 2017

• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Record: Wildlands (Ubisoft)
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild  (Nintendo)
• Mass Effect: Andromeda (Electronic Arts)
• Horizon: Zero Dawn  (Sony)
• MLB 17: The Show  (Sony)
• Grand Theft Auto V  (Take-Two)
• For Honor  (Ubisoft)
• NBA 2K17 (Take-Two)
• Nier: Automata (Square Enix)
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (Activision Blizzard)

It’ll be interesting to see if Nintendo can keep up the pace with their Nintendo Switch sales.  There was obviously a lot of pent-up demand for the new Legend of Zelda game, but the summer appears to be looking strong for the console with Splatoon on the horizon.  To tide Switch owners over, and to possibly entice new interest when consoles finally come back in stock, the excellent Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be arriving later this month.

With Project Scorpio’s release on the horizon, Microsoft is set to release the most powerful console ever made.  The specs recently revealed by Microsoft will be giving game developers plenty of horsepower to make games.  They’ll be righting the wrongs of the Xbox One, which according to one developer was a step backwards.

“When I first started working with Xbox One, I was a little bit disappointed,” says Mike Raynor of the Coalition (Gears of War 4) in an interview with Gamasutra.  “It kind of felt like we’d really taken a step back.  And I’ve seen that evolve, and improve constantly since we’ve launched, but with what we’re doing with Scorpio, it’s now very pleasurable to work with.  From a developer standpoint, when you think about Xbox One, Xbox One S and now with Scorpio, a lot of development for us is similar to PC.  And we kind of think of PC as kind of the ultimate platform in terms of scalability.”

It felt like we’d really taken a step back, says Gears of War dev

While the Xbox One was a huge improvement in terms of power over the Xbox 360, it was certainly not as ambitious as Sony’s PlayStation 4 in terms of raw power.  The Xbox One got off to a rocky start with a 2013 release that saw many games releasing as inferior versions on the platform when compared to the competition.  Lower frame rates and resolutions were attainable on the Xbox One, while consumers were asked to pay a premium price for the console compared to the PS4.

It doesn’t sound like this will be the case with Project Scorpio.  The new console is set for release in 2017, with a full reveal coming at E3 2017 in Los Angeles this June.

Xbox One recently received an overhaul of its dashboard recently, but that doesn’t mean that Microsoft is done with new updates in the near future. Today, Xbox’s Larry Hyrb, aka Major Nelson, revealed a few new features that are coming soon to Xbox One, with them rolling out starting today for Xbox Insiders.

The aforementioned Xbox One update removed a feature that was available since launch, the ability to snap, which has been disappointing for some. One area this has made more difficult is the ability to manage party chat as you can no longer just have it on the side. However, the introduction of chat overlay should help with that soon.

There are often times when playing a game online that you can’t tell who is talking or perhaps whose mic might be causing excess noise. The new chat overlay feature that you can turn on will make this much easier though, as it will pop up on the screen whenever someone speaks in the party, letting you know who exactly is talking. When there is no noise though, this will go invisible. You can evidently choose the placement of this box on the screen as well, which you can get a glimpse of in the image above.

Another new feature is the addition of Killer Instinct as a game that can be used in Clubs to host tournaments and such. This will allow both official and user-generated tournaments for Killer Instinct to be held, which is an expansion of the Arenas idea they introduced previously with other games like World of Tanks.

Finally, Major Nelson also mentioned a rundown of other features that are coming, which are as follows:

-Share your Looking for Group post on the Activity Feed or through a message
-Unfollow a Club or Game Hub directly from your Activity Feed
-Your profile will display your Arena tournament history and upcoming tournaments.
-For Beam and Twitch broadcasts, you will now have an option in the Guide for your Kinect to locate you automatically.
-Captive Portal support for wireless internet is coming to Xbox One, which allows for Wi-Fi authentication through a browser. Great for colleges, hotels, or public Wi-Fi locations.
-Filter posts on your Activity Feed on the Xbox app for iOS and Android
-On the Xbox app for Windows 10, we’re adding the option to select the audio input and output sources for Party chat.

These new updates are going to start rolling out today for Xbox Insiders, so keep an eye out the next few weeks for these if you are a member of the Xbox Insider program.

Microsoft today announced their plans for future Xbox Scorpio reveals, and it indeed looks like the next stop for more information is E3 2017.  Phil Spencer took to the Xbox Blog today to summarize what we know about the Scorpio so far, and to reassure those looking forward to the console that there will be a diverse lineup of games on the horizon that are described as only playable on Xbox One & “Better on Scorpio.”

Spencer says there’s a diverse lineup of games coming to Scorpio

“Ultimately we know you care most about great games, whether they be exclusive, multiplatform, independent or AAA.  We are proud of the diverse lineup of games coming this year that will only be playable on Xbox One and will play better on Project Scorpio.  We designed Project Scorpio to be the best console to play the blockbuster multiplatform games from our publishing partners, made it easy for recently released titles to upgrade to true 4K and for beloved, backward compatible titles to play better than ever before,” reads Spencer’s post.

There really is no telling what Microsoft could announce at E3 2017 in terms of games.  They’ve had quite a few surprises up their sleeves in recent years and definitely shown a committment to releasing exclusive titles for the Xbox One.  Some have been out of the blue, like Halo Wars 2, Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break and others that broke from the constant stream of Halo, Gears of War, and Forza titles that they delivered over the last decade.

Invitations went out this morning for Microsoft’s 2017 E3 Briefing.  Moving it up a day, Project Scorpio will take center stage ahead of E3 2017 on Sunday, June 11th 2017.

Xbox Live is always really good about having sales throughout the year, with some of them really standing out above the rest. One of the best each year is the Xbox Live Spring Sale, which is now live for both Xbox One and Xbox 360.

Larry Hyrb, aka Major Nelson, made the big reveal of the latest Xbox Live Spring Sale on his blog, where he announced all of the major sales going on this week.

Before even getting to the games themselves, the Xbox Design Lab has discounted their custom controllers by $15 as part of this Spring Sale, so this is the time to pick one up if you have not yet.

The Xbox Live sale is made up of a ton of games for both Xbox One and 360, including a number of Xbox 360 games that are able to be played on Xbox One through backwards compatibility.

Many of the biggest games of 2016 are on this list, including Doom, Battlefield 1, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, and Dishonored 2, as well as some newer games like For Honor. With so many amazing games on sale though, you’ll have to check out the full list yourself, which can be found below.

Xbox One Xbox Live Spring Sale Deals

Xbox 360 Xbox Live Spring Sale Deals

Battlefield 1’s first night map is slated to arrive on June 1st, according to the official Battlefield site where DICE revealed the first beautiful image of the Nivelle Nights map.  Early June will be the first available time to play the night map, which will be available for Premium Pass owners.

The image above is our first look at the map, but here’s what DICE has to say in describing the map which is lit by moonlight, fires, and laterns.

“As darness falls over the muddy battlefields around Malmaison and Soupir, French and German batteries perpare to yet again support their troops on the contested ground.

The moon, the searchlights, and artillery lights up the night skies, exposing the vast network of trenches.  Bite and hold as your foe will fight for every inch of ground.  Strategy and teamwork will overcome those who have neither.”

While DICE says that the map will currently only be available to premium members, they haven’t made it clear whether the map will roll out to all Battlefield 1 players eventually.  There’s also no word on whether this DLC Map will be covered under the “Premium Friends” feature that DICE rolled out recently that allows players who team up with a friend who is a Premium member to access premium maps.

Mark the date, Battlefield 1 takes to the night on June 1st.