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Online multiplayer is free this weekend on PS4
Sony is lifting its PlayStation Plus requirement for online multiplayer access on PlayStation 4 this weekend. This means online multiplayer will be free for all PS4 players from Friday, December 11th at 12:01AM PT to Sunday, December 13th at 11:59PM PT. Playing online usually requires a PlayStation Plus subscription, which costs $10 monthly, $18 for a three-month bundle or $50 for an entire year. A Plus membership also guarantees at least two free games and a lineup of discounts every month.
The 'Uncharted 4' beta launches ahead of schedule
We didn't know the specifics of exactly when the Uncharted 4: A Thief's End multiplayer beta would launch before, but that's changed. Nathan Drake's online adversarial adventures, and, by extension, yours, begin at 5 PM GMT (12 PM Eastern) tomorrow for European folks. Domestically, we'll have to wait for Friday. We've reached out to Sony for exact timing of when the test phase will go live in the US and will update this post should the company respond. Remember, you still need a copy of Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection to access the beta at all.
The first big 'Halo 5' update brings 16-player vehicle battles
Whatever you think of Halo 5's solo component, 343 Industries is determined to keep you interested in the multiplayer part. As part of a first content drop due next week (Battle of Shadow and Light), the studio is introducing 16-player Big Team Battles where vehicles play a big role. If your favorite memories of Halo involve epic Warthog duels, you'll likely get a kick out of the new mode and its four accompanying maps. You'll also find dozens of armor, weapon and vehicle sets (such as the Tundra Mantis, below). It should all be good news if you're a fan of the Halo series, although the real question is whether or not 343 will keep this up. Hopefully, you won't run out of things to do in the Xbox One's flagship title several months down the road.
Remember Mplayer? The '90s game service is relaunching
If you lived in the '90s and tried to run multiplayer Quake across a 56K modem, you may have fond memories (or not) of MPlayer. The '90s PC gaming service is coming back after being defunct for 15 years, thanks to a company called MPlayer Entertainment. To refresh your memory, MPlayer was a free, ad-supported online community that hosted up to 20 million visitors a month. It ran between 1996 and 2001, and offered over 100 free games, including Quake, Mech Commander and Rogue Spear. It also popularized the idea of VoIP chat between gamers. The ad-supported service was never profitable, however, and was eventually sold to GameSpy, which took it offline in 2001.
Here's how 'Halo 5: Guardians' multiplayer rankings work
Halo 5: Guardians is almost upon us, and once the campaign credits roll (or the game itself finishes installing on your Xbox One, depending on your style) you might be curious how multiplayer ranking works. Wonder no more because it's similar to League of Legends according to a post on Halo Waypoint. Your starting placement in matchmade Arena games is determined by how you fare in your first ten games. That "Competitive Skill Rating" breaks down into seven categories: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Onyx and Champion. The post stresses that the only way to increase your rank after those initial ten matches are set is by winning.
Nintendo launched a multiplayer web portal for Splatoon stats
How do you get your Splatoon fix when you're away from your Wii U? With SplatNet -- the game's newly christened web portal, of course. Okay, it's not actually that new: Japanese players have had access to the website for months, but Nintendo only just recently got around to translating the portal for international audiences. It's a convenient online hub that lets users check their weekly ranking, plan future matches with friends, view equipped gear and more.
The Uncharted 4 beta launches December 4th
Uncharted 4 won't arrive until 2016, but the forthcoming Nathan Drake Collection should keep you happy until it does. The remastered versions of the first three Uncharted games are launching in the first week of October, but if that seems like an eternity away, then help is at hand. The PlayStation Blog has revealed that the single player demo for the title will land on the store a week earlier, on September 29th. Of course, the key reason to buy the product is that you'll be able to take part in the Uncharted 4 multiplayer beta that's scheduled for December 4th through the 13th. Sony has also revealed to Eurogamer that European Nathan Drake fans will be able to snag a 500GB and 1TB PS4 bundle with the collection thrown in, the former setting you back £299.99 and the latter priced at £329.99.
'Minecraft' players on Windows 10 and mobile can now build together
Minecraft offers wondrous worlds for solo adventurers, but it also gives groups the perfect canvas to build on and break together. With this in mind, developer Mojang is making it easier to host your friends with cross-platform play between Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition and Minecraft: Pocket Edition. Up to five players can now join the same session on a local network with their PC, iOS, Android or Windows Phone devices. And, if you need another reason to try Microsoft's new OS, the Windows 10 version has also been updated with five-person online multiplayer over Xbox Live. Microsoft has put a ton of work into its new Xbox app for Windows 10 -- it's desperate to prove the OS is a worthy upgrade for PC gamers -- and this could make it easier for beginners to set up collaborative builds.
JXE Streams: #TeamEngadget's own Splatfest
Later tonight, Nintendo will celebrate Splatoon's latest update with an official Splatfest event, but forget that noise. Here at Engadget, we're having our own. Welcome to the Engadget Splatfest, a two hour squidtastic stream celebrating everything that makes the game's new update great. You'll see tweaked maps, new outfits, updated weapons and the feature that makes today's game possible -- enhanced matchmaking. It's everything the game needed in one fantastic package. Join us at 5PM ET (2PM PT) on Twitch.tv/Joystiq, right in this post or on the Engadget Gaming homepage, or right here in this post to watch a gaggle of Engadget editors tear each other apart as adorable squid-people.
'Call of Duty: Black Ops 3' multiplayer beta starts August 19th
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 doesn't drop until November, but you won't have to wait nearly so long to find out whether or not its online play lives up to the hype. Activision and Treyarch have revealed that the sci-fi shooter's multiplayer beta kicks off August 19th if you've pre-ordered the PlayStation 4 version, and August 26th on Xbox One. You'll only have five days to play in either case, but it should give you a feel for the player classes and new gameplay mechanics (such as momentum-based movement) before you get your full copy. It's not certain just which maps and game modes will find their way into the beta, but you'll likely find out before the test starts.
Play horror game 'The Flock' before it shuts down forever
The Flock is a competitive horror game attached to a ticking clock. Every player is a monster collectively called the Flock, and they're all after the Artifact, a light-filled item that transforms whomever holds it into a new creature. The goal is to hold the Artifact for the longest stretch of time, fighting off Flock monsters with the object's light. Here's the tick-tock twist: For every player that dies, the Flock's population number drops by one. When the population hits zero, no new players will be able to purchase the game. Only people who already own The Flock will be able to participate in the "climactic finale," and once that's done, the game will go offline permanently. No one will be able to play it again.
I won't be playing 'Halo 5: Guardians' and here's why
In the early 2000s, four-player, split-screen Halo was a revelation for my then-girlfriend Jenn (who would later become my wife), her two sisters and me. It was amazing, frantic, swear-filled fun. Controllers were thrown; tempers flared. But that's all sadly in the past. Last week, Halo's current custodian, 343 Industries, revealed that it's abandoning local split-screen multiplayer and native LAN support for this fall's Halo 5: Guardians. We knew from earlier reports that local campaign co-op was out of the question, at least at launch, but the Ars Technica report confirms we won't see any split-screen multiplayer modes or native LAN support. Allow me to repeat: No local multiplayer. None. In a Halo game. For me, and likely many other longtime Halo fans, the news is a bitter pill to swallow.
How Microsoft keeps 'Halo 5' multiplayer games glitch-free
Glitches and bugs can ruin even the greatest of multiplayer games (looking at you MW3 Javelin Suicide Bomb). But thanks to a pair of cutting-edge analytics tools, Halo's dev team can find and fix these coding hiccups before they become memes. Senior researcher Rob DeLine recently explained how they work. Trill is a temporal processing and in-memory analytics engine. "It's pretty much the world's fastest," DeLine said in the video below. "It's two to four magnitudes faster than the competition in terms of processing temporal data." When combined with the Tempe exploratory data-analysis web service, which allows devs to watch replays of real-time play, devs can quickly spot and solve issues based only on what (and how) the community is actively gaming.
'Halo 5' doesn't have split-screen, but 'never say never'
Halo 5: Guardians doesn't have split-screen cooperative play. This is a drastic shift for the series -- every console Halo game has featured local co-op, including the recently released Halo: Master Chief Collection, a bundle of the franchise's major titles. Plenty of longtime Halo fans have hit Twitter with messages ranging from disappointment to some that promise to cancel their Halo 5 pre-orders. Microsoft doesn't have any plans to launch the game with split-screen, but in a world of constantly updating consoles and streams of downloadable content, there's a sliver of hope for couch co-op fans, according to Microsoft General Manager of Games Publishing Shannon Loftis.
Super League Gaming brings competitive 'Minecraft' to American movie theaters
Arcades used to be the go-to place for gamers to come together and test their skills in friendly matches. While quarter-fuelled cabinets have fallen in popularity, the online eSports scene has exploded, resulting in huge tournaments and sell-out crowds. Super League Gaming, despite its name, wants to recreate the social, recreational arcade atmosphere for a new generation of games and players. For starters, it's planning a 28-city tour in the US, where it'll be hosting Minecraft competitions inside 80 AMC, Cinemark and iPic movie theaters. The game isn't exactly known for its competitive multiplayer, but organisers hope to stir up some friendly rivalry with PVP matches and casual building sessions.
'Evolve' simplifies the hunt with free deathmatch arena mode
Evolve isn't a typical multiplayer shooter. The game pits four hunters against a quickly mutating monster, with the first task usually being to find and trap the player-controlled goliath. The experience can be a little bewildering for newcomers, so developer Turtle Rock Studios is throwing in a free Arena Mode that keeps everything simple. In a best-of-three match, the hunters and monster are dropped in a small, pre-determined dome with only one goal; take down your opponent(s). The monster starts at stage two with 50 percent armour, reducing the need to devour local wildlife, and when a hunter dies they're out until the next round. It's a bare-bones take on the Evolve formula, stripping away some of what makes the game unique. Still, if you're interested in shorter rounds where you can easily hone your combat skills, Arena Mode could be a welcome change on planet Shear.
'Halo Online' is a free PC game launching only in Russia
Halo is making a triumphant, if border-blocked, return to PC with Halo Online, a free multiplayer-only game set to launch in Russia this spring. The Russian launch is a closed beta, as Microsoft figures out the best way "to welcome new fans to the Halo universe," according to a post on Halo Waypoint. Halo Online is built on a modified version of the Halo 3 engine, and it should run smoothly on lower-end PCs, Microsoft says. Halo Online comes from Halo: The Master Chief Collection collaborator Saber Interactive and software developer Innova Systems, who have partnered with Halo 4 and 5 studio 343 Industries and, of course, Microsoft.
Diablo III to begin technical testing in China shortly
If you're a gamer in China waiting for Diablo III, you have undoubtedly been waiting for a very long time. Given the game's subject matter and the strict censorship policies of the government, it's not a surprise that it's taken a while to get moving. At long last there is a light at the end of the tunnel, however, as distributor Netease has announced that the censorship issues are finally resolved and the game is free to begin technical testing. The testing phase will begin after the lunar new year is celebrated later this month. While the exact nature of graphical changes has not been disclosed, Netease stresses that the game will still be cool to look at, which could mean... almost anything, really. Still, at this point most of the players who have long waited for the game will just be happy to see it finally available within China.
TUG's multiplayer has arrived
The team behind TUG is about to let you play in the sandbox with your friends. The most recent update on the game's Kickstarter page includes multiplayer support so that you can built shelters with all of your friends. Moreover, this update adds in non-blocky voxel support. You won't just build houses out of dirt blocks; you'll build smooth, sprawling mansions! Out of, um, dirt. That part needs a bit of an update. You can check out the video just past the break for a comprehensive look at all of the features being added with this next patch to the alpha client. There are also several bug fixes and usability improvements for the client, including tweaks to rid the game of issues with small rocks and seed growth and improvements to tool use factors. If you're an alpha tester, the game you're playing will be that much better after the patch.
Rumor: Leak suggests the next WoW expansion is nearly feature-complete
So, ready to jump on the rumor mill? Because it's churning out big stuff about Blizzard today. An anonymous source from inside the company has apparently claimed that World of Warcraft's next expansion has quadrupled its art outsourcing and is nearly feature-complete. The source also claimed that Hearthstone is doing banner business, with its next expansion set to release in April with a heavier PvE focus. Darker news was revealed for the other franchises under the company's banner. The next part of StarCraft II is done but with no release date. Overwatch is in the midst of debates over business model and payment plans, with the studio pushing for a 2015 release but most likely going for 2016. Meanwhile, Heroes of the Storm has low expectations among the upper management and the Diablo III team has been "completely gutted." It's up to you you believe the rumors, of course, although come April, they might look rather plausible.
