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'Grounded' is an ant-sized survival game set in a suburban backyard
If The Outer Worlds has got you excited to play whatever Obsidian Entertainment's cooking up next, you won't have to wait too much longer. Its first-person survival title, Grounded, will arrive on Xbox Game Preview next spring.
Survival arena brawler 'Darwin Project' launches March 9th
Been waiting for Scavengers Studio's Darwin Project ever since it stole the spotlight at last year's Microsoft E3 conference? Don't worry: your wait is almost over. The early access version of the Hunger Games-style battle royale title will be available for purchase on Windows 10 and Xbox Game Preview, the platform's pre-release program for Xbox One, on March 9th. Darwin Project is a multiplayer game that combines various aspects of popular titles in the genre, such as Don't Starve and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. In our previous write-up, Engadget Senior Reporter Jessica Conditt described the game as "Katniss Everdeen running around Pochinki Hill, chopping down trees like Wilson the Gentleman Scientist."
As ‘PUBG’ finally exits beta, its creators look to the future
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) has been this year's biggest surprise. Since launching on Steam Early Access in late March, the game, which conceptually started life as a DayZ mod, has picked up 25 million players on PC, not to mention a marketing and publishing deal from Microsoft for an Xbox One version. This week, version 1.0 arrives on Steam, gaining a second map and new instant replay feature in the process. But for PUBG Corp CEO Chang Han Kim, even though the game is losing its beta status, work is far from finished. "When we first started this project and thought of the Early Access model, we never took it as a model where you start developing a game, you complete it, you ship it out and then be done with it," Kim said through a translator. "As long as we have fans out there playing our game, it will never be complete."
'PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' arrives on Xbox One December 12th
For Xbox One owners, the wait to play PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) will end December 12th. The battle royale game consistently racks up 2 million daily players on Steam, and in just over a month it will transition to the Xbox Game Preview program as a work in progress, with studio Bluehole leaning on players to help guide the game's development. "We can use it like Steam Early Access where we can develop on console with the community, and that's going to be really essential -- in our view -- for getting a really great version on console," creator Brendan Greene told Engadget.
Survival RPG 'The Long Dark' adds story in time for August launch
After years of development as a crowdfunded project and, later, a pre-alpha build on Xbox One and Steam, wilderness survival RPG The Long Dark from Hinterland Studios finally has a release date of August 1st. Better yet, the studio announced on Wednesday that the game will be be making the jump to PS4 on that date and all three platforms will gain access to the first two chapters of a new five-part story mode dubbed "Wintermute".
Microsoft will let you try Windows 10 games early
The Xbox Game Preview program is a nice way to try indie console games before they're finished, but what about PC gamers? Where's Microsoft's answer to Steam Early Access? At last, it's here. Microsoft has announced that Xbox Game Preview is coming to Windows 10, giving you a chance to play early desktop games and potentially influence their design. The company has only confirmed Rockfish Games' Everspace as one of the launch titles for the initiative, but it's vowing that there will be "many more to come."
Survival in 'We Happy Few' starts next week
We Happy Few was one of my coworker Jess Conditt's favorite games from E3 this year, and for good reason: its alt-history, drug-and-paranoia fueled take on a dystopia is unlike anything we've ever seen. But how did it all begin? With a question, according to an Xbox Wire post by developer Compulsion Games' Sam Abbott. The team was trying to figure out how to make a bigger game than its first (Contrast, which made its debut with the PlayStation 4) but wanted to keep its staff size from ballooning. That's why Compulsion turned to procedural generation -- akin to No Man's Sky -- for its 1964 English city.
'The Solus Project' is Xbox One's sci-fi exploration game
We've seen a few games graduate from the Xbox Game Preview program and become full-fledged Xbox One titles, but perhaps none as intriguing as The Solus Project. Earth is a goner, so humanity takes to the stars, with what's left of the human race hanging out near Pluto. From there you're shipwrecked on an even more distant planet while looking for a suitable colonization site.
Get a terrifying taste of 'We Happy Few' on Steam, Xbox this holiday
We Happy Few isn't necessarily a terrifying first-person stealth and combat game. So far, it's more of a bone-chilling, creepy, deeply unsettling experience. In other words: It looks great. Today, there's good news for anyone who pledged to the game's successful $330,000 Kickstarter, or anyone in the market for a drug-fueled romp through a fictional 1960s English town. We Happy Few will hit Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview at the same time this holiday season, Compulsion founder Guillaume Provost tells Engadget.
Xbox Game Preview will give you early access to indie titles
Microsoft has announced a new early access program for independent titles, called Xbox Game Preview. With this service, you'll have the ability to play games that are in active development and provide feedback about them to their creators -- similar to what Steam currently does with its community. Xbox Game Preview is expected to roll out later today on Xbox One, featuring indies such as The Long Dark, Sheltered, Elite: Dangerous, Day Z and more. This is yet another move by Microsoft to further support the ID@Xbox program, which it's been focused on growing since its introduction in 2013.
