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'State of Decay 2' celebrates July 4th with themed DLC and fireworks
Open-world survival RPG State of Decay 2 has officially surpassed 3 million players, and to celebrate (and keep them coming back), developer Undead Labs is serving up a special July 4th-themed DLC update.
A new 'Fable' game is reportedly in the works
A brand new Fable game is in the works, or so says a number of sources close to the rumored project. According to Eurogamer, UK developer Playground has been given the job of creating a new, big-budget revisit to the fantasy world of Albion, and while franchise owner Microsoft said in a statement that it does not comment on rumor or speculation, all signs seem to give the reports credibility. For a start, November 2017 saw Playground openly reveal its plans for its first ever non-racing game, described only as an open-world action RPG. Meanwhile, Xbox boss Shannon Loftis has made no secret of Microsoft's fondness for the franchise.
BT offers broadband to every rural home in the UK, for a price
The UK was confident when it unveiled plans to make broadband available to every home by 2020, but how's it going to get there? BT thinks it can help. The telecom giant has made an offer to spend up to £600 million (about $788 million) giving 1.4 million rural homes access to internet with speeds of at least 10Mbps. This would theoretically help the government meet its goal in one fell swoop, rather go through a slow existing process that requires residents to ask for access. It sounds tempting, especially since the current approach would leave some waiting for access when 2020 arrives, but it's not as clear cut a solution as it looks on the surface -- it could lead to higher internet bills.
Zombies aren't the only threat in 'Days Gone'
They're called "infected" in The Last of Us, "feral ghouls" in Fallout and "unmentionables" in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. But put aside labels and physical differences, and they're all the same: terrifying horde monsters. In Days Gone, they're called "freakers," and there are a lot of them. This open-world survival game made its debut at E3 2016 with an action-packed trailer that took zombie hordes in gaming to a new level, but left us wanting for details. The gameplay looked great, but the demo lacked something of a human connection. Today, Sony showed us a bit more: a taste of the game's open world as Decon St. John's human rides his motorbike across the game's vast landscape on a quest to rescue a friend. Not from freakers, though -- from other people.
'Skull & Bones' takes open world online gaming to the high seas
Ubisoft Singapore just announced its next game here at E3 2017, called Skull & Bones. It challenges players to rise to the rank of ultimate pirate kingpin while playing with their friends and against their enemies in an online open world. During the conference, the developers showed off 5-on-5 multiplayer, as ships jostled about in combat and, eventually, escaped with their ill-gotten loot. If this sounds familiar, it's because the team previously worked on the ocean gameplay in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. According to the game's description, you set sail on the Indian Ocean, amass a fleet and ally with other pirate captains to form gangs. Your character refused a king's a pardon and sailed from the Caribbean to hijack trading ships and take down your rivals. Since many people thought ACIV's ocean-going sections were the best part, there's a lot to be excited about here. Interested gamers can sign up for more information on the upcoming beta test right here, although, with a fall 2018 release window, you're probably in for a wait.
‘Need for Speed Payback’ adds higher stakes and familiar ideas
On paper, Need for Speed Payback sounds a lot like Grand Theft Auto V crossed with a modern Fast and the Furious movie. Tale of revenge? Check. Three distinct protagonists with differing skillsets? Check. Heist missions? You see where we're going with this. There aren't a ton of other details to go on, but Electronic Arts says that the arcade racer will once again be open world and will feature "jaw-dropping set pieces." Like a submarine surfacing in an ice floe?
'Zelda: Breath of the Wild' makes open-world games exciting again
At this point, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has become a video-game phenomenon. Much has been said about how it's a new take on the dusty old Zelda formula, or on how it represents a fresh direction for Nintendo in general, by buoying its new Switch console. But Breath of the Wild deserves just as much credit for how it subverts and reaffirms the power of the open world.
Nintendo delays new 'Zelda' to 2017, announces NX version
There's good news and bad for Nintendo's upcoming Legend of Zelda open-world title for the Wii U console. First the bad: It's been delayed again, so it won't arrive now until 2017. The good news is that it's going to come out on the next-gen Nintendo NX console, which, by the way, Nintendo just revealed. In a (roughly translated) tweet, Nintendo Japan says that it pushed back the game "for further quality improvement," adding that it will be released "simultaneously" on the Nintendo NX.
'Batman: Arkham Knight' never feels too big to play
This article contains spoilers for Batman: Arkham Knight; you've been warned. I didn't want to like Batman: Arkham Knight. In the long run-up to its release, I'd become increasingly disinterested every time developer Rocksteady Studios mentioned how the game had grown compared to its prequels. Twenty times bigger than Arkham Asylum! My eyes glazed over. Drive the Batmobile around Gotham! Yawn. My worry was that Arkham Knight would be a product of the Warner Bros. Interactive marketing department, riddling the series I love with bloat and unnecessary features solely because the PlayStation 4's and Xbox One's more powerful hardware allowed for bigger experiences. It's been a while since I was this happy to be wrong: Arkham Knight's genius is that despite its physical size, the game never feels larger than whatever carefully constructed moment you're in.
Sprint activates 'Open World' international plan in 33 new places
Sprint is expanding the reach of its "Open World" roaming add-on to 33 more locations beyond Latin America. Open World, the Now Network's answer to T-Mo's "Mobile without Borders," is now active in France, several Caribbean islands, Gibraltar, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles and Tonga, among many other locations you can see on its official website. The free add-on comes with calls and texts to Canada and Mexico and will work within those countries in addition to a number of Latin American nations. It also offers 1GB of high-speed data for subscribers travelling within these eligible locations. Note that it's only available to certain LTE/GSM handsets, though, including the upcoming iPhone 6s.
Mac Game of the Week: Galaxy on Fire 2 HD brings iOS' best space adventure to the Mac
While some developers have recently gone towards a philosophy of making a bunch of smaller releases and dropping them on the App Store quickly, German developer Fishlabs has done the opposite. It's focused on one huge game, Galaxy on Fire 2, and spent the last year expanding and perfecting it. The app is on iOS, and it's just a brilliant game for the iPad, if you haven't seen it yet. Galaxy on Fire 2 HD is also available on the Mac, and Fishlabs' hard work is evident from the beginning. As you can see above, the graphics are phenomenal. What you'll get is open-world space exploration, combat and trading game, with a huge galaxy to explore, a large story to play through, and plenty of things to do, from full combat missions to simply flying around the galaxy and trading or exploring. This game's been polished and re-polished and then some. As an original title on the Mac App Store, it doesn't get much better than this. The one issue I have is in the voice acting. Some of it can be a little wooden, and because the developer is European, the accents are a little strange. But that's just a small caveat. If you haven't played this one yet, and especially if you have a big bright MacBook or a new iMac to play it on, definitely pick up Galaxy on Fire 2 HD. It's on the Mac App Store for $9.99.
Daily iPad App: Grand Theft Auto 3
I'm not quite willing to call Grand Theft Auto 3 old school -- I spent so much time on the original top-down versions of the series that those are still more retro to me than the fully 3D graphics and living, open-world city that GTA3 made famous on the consoles (a tradition that continues right up into Saints Row: The Third, which I recently played on my Xbox, and next year's Grand Theft Auto 5). But it's been ten years since we first saw the streets of Liberty City from the ground up, and Rockstar Games has now brought this classic to iOS as a universal version. And especially on my iPad 2, I'm willing to call it the best console port I've ever seen. The graphics look and run terrific, and the virtual controls, while still a little creaky, actually work really great despite all of the various things you can do. Newcomers to this one used to modern console games will probably notice all of the polygons, but as a reproduction of the original game, it really does look and play very well. And though it's only been ten years, it's really awesome to drive around the streets of Liberty City once again, and listen in to Lazlo's Chatterbox and all of the other great radio stations, checking out all of the open world city conventions (from grabbing any car to escaping the cops) that originated right here. If you've never played this game, you might find it a little aged. The missions are a little unclear compared to today's more simplistic fare, and there's no line to follow on your minimap: All you get is a little dot to go after. But for those of us who really enjoyed the heck out of this one all those years ago, this is great to see, and it's clear that Rockstar has brought it over to this platform with great care. This is an excellent version of this great game, and playing it on my iPad 2 took my right back to those days in my parent's basement when my friends and I would just drive around trying to get four stars and try to escape the cops. One note of warning: The game says it's built for all current iOS devices, including the iPad 1, but a lot of the iTunes reviews say it doesn't run great on those older machines. If you have an iPad 2 or an iPhone 4S, however, it should run quite well. I had one audio glitch while playing, but it definitely wasn't gamebreaking. Grand Theft Auto 3's anniversary iOS edition is available for $4.99 right now.
Two Worlds expansion Curse of Souls hits the Marketplace
While we doubt Oblivion will credit Reality Pump's Two Worlds as the wind beneath its wings, we still can't help but wonder if it's cold there living in the shadow of Bethesda's role-playing opus. Nevertheless, the lesser of the two open-ended RPGs continues to get love by way of downloadable content, the latest of which dropped today over Xbox Live. Dubbed Curse of Souls, the 600 point multiplayer-focused affair is the game's second, following the already available Tainted Blood, and promises, among other things, an extra 10 hours of content spread over 35 new quests. The download also adds a player-versus-player arena throwdown in the town of Tharnburg, no doubt making for a thrilling spectacle for the handful of players still frolicking in the world of Antaloor as they wait for the game's recently confirmed sequel.[Via Press Release]
Burnout Paradise events, online focus confirmed
Burnout Paradise at E3 was something of a love/hate experience. On the one hand, its frenzied high-definition crashes and pyrotechnic displays reminded us why we love Criterion's visceral racing series in the first place. On the other hand, the demo was devoid of any of the modes popularized by previous entries, particularly Takedown, instead spearheading the series into an online free for all that seemed decidedly removed from what what players had come to expect from Burnout. With such tremendous focus being placed this time around on multiplayer racing, the developers now reveal that they have garnished the Burnout experience with "hundreds" of online challenges and an 'EasyDrive Friends List,' which will be internal to the game. According to the team, this will allow players to pop in and out of online races on a whim without having to fuss with a lobby.In addition, for those who remain conflicted, Electronic Arts has offered up just what single player challenges players can expect from Burnout Paradise once it ships in early 2008. Specifically, EA has confirmed that the game will feature four types of single player events, including regular races, 'Marked Man,' 'Stunt,' and 'Road Rage' challenges, though sadly it appears that the 'Crash' events did not make the cut. In addition, taking a page from Atari's Test Drive: Unlimited, EA notes that the entire Paradise City game world will be available from the word go, and that players will be able to "start and even end a challenge at their leisure." Finally, as previously mentioned, Burnout Paradise is among those titles confirmed to take advantage of Sony's upcoming rumble-ready DualShock 3 controller. In addition, as demonstrated at E3, the game will also include support for both the PlayStation Eye and Xbox Live Vision webcams, which will be chiefly used to take candid snapshots of players at the moment of impact.
Pre-order Saints Row, get the demo
Up for a little Grand Theft Demo? Pre-ordering the sinfully similar Saints Row at certain Toys 'r' Us and Gamestop stores now gets you a disc with the following gangster goodies: Saints Row Demo Saints Row Trailer Making Of Video Art Gallery Music Tracks Downloads (gamer pics and theme) K1lla's Xbox Domain has a bunch of impressions from people who have played the demo, which appears to be a technically impressive, if not grand, car-jacking experience with plenty of cursing and derivative gameplay. Now for the question even Tommy Vercetti is asking: Why the f isn't this stuff on Xbox Live Marketplace?
Massive Saint's Row demo headed for XBLM
MSXBOX World recently chewed it up with Volition's Jacques Hennequet, squeezing some juicy Saint's Row details out of the game's producer. As it turns out, a "very large" demo will be deployed on to the Xbox Live Marketplace before the game's retail release (Q3 2006). Unfortunately, Hennequet declined to elaborate on Saint's Row's multiplayer aspects and only confirmed that there would be multiple modes and maps.We recently got a brief look at an early build of Saint's Row, and while it was often running at the rate of a slideshow, we recognized the potential. Character creation, control mechanics, visual style and effects, animation, AI, and the physics engine all trump the current state of Grand Theft Auto. If Volition can get its GTA-killer running up to speed, the Xbox 360 will have an exclusive gem to showcase. Stay up on this one.[Thanks, SickNic]
