Mildred W Means

Today’s live stream revealing Call of Duty Black Ops 4 finally showed what’s in store for this latest game in the series which is due for release this October.

The game is set in a narrative world between Black Ops 2 and Black Ops 3 with grounded combat and tight gunplay in a tactical team experience. It’s 100% boots on the ground with no fancy trickery such as wall running. Let’s cut the bullshit though because there is a battle royale mode and of course zombies.

The battle royale mode will feature land, sea, and air vehicles and it’s the biggest map ever made, about 1500 time larger than Nuketown. Maps, weapons, and gear from the BLOPS series are being brought together to in what sounds like a bit of a mash-up.

The zombie mode is different this time however as it comes with a story where players will be traveling through time as you can see in the trailers below which show the Titanic and ancient Rome. These campaigns can be tweaked with Mutations where players can change elements of the gameplay. Players will also be able to add bots to the co-op play to make up the numbers.

PC players will be catered for with dedicated servers, as much customisation as possible, uncapped framerates, 4K and ultrawide monitor support, HDR, and scalability to cater for as many systems as possible. See the last trailer below for the PC specific features.

The game will also be launching on Battle.Net and not Steam as Activision start consolidating their PC releases onto Blizzard’s platform.

That’s pretty much it for now but there are a few trailers to get through so hop to it.

 

As we get ever closer to the Battlefield V reveal, EA and DICE has kicked out another quick teaser and it’s looking like Battlefield V could be heading back to WW2.

At the top of the screen, you can clearly see British and German insignias and the goggles look like WW2 aviator’s goggles. This kind of flies in the face of a recent tweet where they said, “A New Battlefield in a New Setting. It’s a brand-new experience and still everything you love about Battlefield – where every fight is different and brought to life across unexpected theaters of war”. Perhaps there’s a twist to all this.

We’ll know on Wednesday what’s in store at 1PM PT/ 4PM ET and 10PM CET via the reveal stream.

Shhh… not long now.
Tune in for the #Battlefield V reveal on May 23: https://t.co/kpTnOyxuxr pic.twitter.com/zzIwGi0Y1w

— V (@Battlefield) May 21, 2018

Previous hints at what’s coming up have been posted in the past couple of days so here’s a quick recap.

V. Gameplay Changes. While we don’t want to scoop our own reveal, you can bet exciting gameplay changes are coming. Let’s just say you might want to avoid blinking during the Battlefield V Live Reveal.

Ready for battle? Learn more: https://t.co/kH1xaK98cC

— V (@Battlefield) May 19, 2018

4. New Modes and Experiences. Operations in Battlefield 1 gave you the chance to take on epic journeys across several maps. Will this teamplay-focused experience be in the next Battlefield? You’ll know if you watch the live reveal.

— V (@Battlefield) May 19, 2018

3. The Return of War Stories. DICE believes in both all-out multiplayer and single player, and the live reveal will have more info on the returning fan-favorite War Stories. Prepare for untold, compelling narratives in a new setting.

— V (@Battlefield) May 19, 2018

1. A New Battlefield in a New Setting. It’s a brand-new experience and still everything you love about Battlefield – where every fight is different and brought to life across unexpected theaters of war.

— V (@Battlefield) May 19, 2018

 

Ubisoft’s latest financials reveal that they are to push back the release of Skull & Bones.

Announced last year, Ubisoft’s Skull & Bones is their open world high-seas title where you play a captain sailing off for riches and conflict in the Indian Ocean. Players have to battle Colonial Empires, Trading Companies, and Pirate Gangs all wanting control of the waters.

During their financial call, they announced that are pushing the game back to a 2019-2020 release window to “give itself more time to develop Skull & Bones to offer players an even more engaging experience”. This means the game could appear any time after April 2019.

UbiSoft healthy earnings report has probably given them the luxury of more development time thanks to the huge sales of Far Cry 5 which was Ubisoft’s second-biggest ever release. Their their other franchises are also doing well with Rainbow Six: Siege now having more than 30 million players.

Ubisoft’s total annual sales were up 18.6% to €1,731.9 million beating their target of d €1,640.0 million.

New Zealand based Grinding Gear Games has had great success with their ARPG Path of Exile thanks to their no pay to win monetisation policy and regular content updates. Today that have announced that Chinese publisher and all-round mega-company Tencent has acquired a majority stake in Grinding Gear Games.

According to GGG’s CEO Chris Wilson, this latest move will not impact the way in which the game operated or the company is run. The company will still be independently run by the current team with the change being that they have financial reporting obligations to Tencent. They say there will be “minimal impact on our philosophy and operations”.

GGG stresses that they will have “retain full control of Path of Exile and will only make changes that we feel are best for the game”. This means there will be no change to the monetisation on their international servers and will not be pay to win. Tencent may requestr changes to the Chinese version and GGG says that if any of these changes are a good fit for the international servers they may get rolled out.

GGG will be focusing on developing more Path of Exile and say they are “committed to our current schedule of four releases per year” and there are “really big plans” for future expansions.

CEO Chris Wilson added, “If you like what we’ve done so far, you’ll love what we’re working on next. As well as multiple 3.x expansions in 2018 and 2019, we’ve just started development of 4.0.0, which is currently targeted to enter Beta testing in early 2020.”

Epic has launched a new Limited Time Mode in Fortnite called Solo Showdown.

This mode is the same as the normal battle royale mode only this time players are duking it out for prizes through competitive play. Placements are being tracked and determine rewards you receive at the end of the event and the top 100 players will be rewarded.

Trying to prove yourself on the battlefield? Queue up for the Solo Showdown mode for a hotly contested Battle Royale experience. Unlike other LTMs, Solo Showdown will not change core gameplay of the current Solo mode. Instead, you will be placed against other self-selected competitors making this the ultimate test of survival.

Players have to play 50 Solo Showdown LTM games to be eligible for prizes which are as follows:

• 1st Place: 50,000 V-bucks
• 2nd – 4th Place: 25,000 V-Bucks
• 5th – 50th Place: 13,500 V-bucks
• 51st – 100th Place: 7,500 V-bucks

The mode will conclude on 21 May at 10AM EST. The points scoring has also been detailed over on Epic’s site and rankings are expected to appear on this page.

Epic says they are using this mode as a “one-off stepping stone to learn how to build great events for all types of players” and there will be a “major announcement about competitive play next week!”

As you can see from the front page of the site there has been a load of Paradox announcements this morning which were revealed at this year’s PDXCON event. This included the following game reveals.

• Hearts of Iron IV: Man the Guns
• Imperator: Rome
• Stellaris: Distant Stars releases next week
• Europa Universalis IV: Dharma expansion
• Crusader Kings 2: Holy Fury expansion
• Age of Wonders: Planetfall

The even can be watched in full in the video below if you want to see how it all played out. There’s some great looking stuff coming up.

Iceberg Interactive and developer Cybernetic Walrus have announced that their super fast racer Antigraviator will release for PC on 6 June.

In Antigraviator players will have to use traps, power-ups, and boosts to win the races. Players also have unlimited speed and the most skillful players should come out on top.

“We’re extremely proud of Antigraviator and how the development has gone. We had the opportunity to showcase the game at several events such as GDC and PAX East, and the audience response was very positive” says Mike Coeck, CEO of Cybernetic Walrus. “We know that PC gamers have been looking forward to playing our game and its greatest asset: no speed limit. In addition, we’re working hard on the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game and thank console gamers for their patience.”

To celebrate the news, a new trailer has been released and it’s looking quite stunning. We’ll be checking the game out in the coming days.

More Age of Wonders is coming from Triumph Studios but Age of Wonders: Planetfall is not quite what you might have expected. Planetfall is a sci-fi themed Age of Wonders title which has been in development at Triumph for the past three years and it’s coming to PC and consoles in 2019.

In Age of Wonders: Planetfall, players will emerge from the dark age of a fallen galactic empire to craft a new future for their people. Exploring the planetary ruins and encountering other surviving factions that have each evolved in their own way, players will unravel the history of a shattered civilization. Fight, build, negotiate and technologically advance the way to utopia, in a deep single player campaign, on random maps and against friends in multiplayer.

“We’re thrilled to finally announce our latest endeavor alongside Paradox,” said Lennart Sas, Triumph Studios CEO. “Age of Wonders: Planetfall is roughly three years into development, running on a new generation of our multi-platform Creator Engine. While the setting is new, we’re confident that Age of Wonders fans will feel right at home exploring the remnants of the Star Union. Our aim is to make a game that greatly expands upon its predecessors, and still employs the core principles that made Age of Wonders such a success.”

Key Features:

• Strategic Turn-Based Sci-Fi Combat –  Perfect your combat strategy in intense turn-based battles that offer tactical challenges, a large cast of races, units with customizable weapons, and destructible environments.
• Discover a Rich Science Fiction World – Uncover the history of the fallen galactic empire as you explore lush landscapes, and experience the emergent story. Encounter NPC factions and rival houses, and discover hidden technologies that can strengthen your society and give you advantage over enemies.
• Planetary Empire Building  – Create your own unique House, and build prosperous colonies through economic specializations of planetary sectors and governing doctrines.
• Multiple Paths to Victory – Achieve your end goals through conquest, diplomacy or doomsday technologies. Engrossing options with NPC factions and rival Houses won’t make the decisions easy!

Creative Assembly has announced the next slice of Total War: Warhammer 2 DLC called Queen & The Crone.

The Hag-Queen, Crone Hellebron, will be leading a murderous army of Dark Elves from the dark lands of Naggaroth to wipe out everything that is good in the world. This will be the first Legendary Lords pack released playable in both the Eye of the Vortex and Mortal Empires campaign. The content will include new elite units, quest chains, magic items and skill trees, all centred around Queen Alarielle the Radiant and Crone Hellebron.

• Two new Legendary Lords with new quest chains, magic items and skill trees
• New campaign mechanics and objectives
• New Hero type for High Elves
• New Lord type for Dark Elves
• New battlefield units for both races
• 16 elite Regiments of Renown

Free content will also be released at the same time, Alith Anar will be a new, free Legendary Lord alongside The Queen & The Crone, as well as his personal Shadow Walker unit.

Due for release on 31 May, The Queen & The Crone is currently available to pre-order at a 10% discount from SEGA approved digital retailers including Steam. Further details can now also be found in a blog post from CA.

Paradox continues their expansion announcements at PDXCon with the reveal of Crusader Kings 2: Holy Fury. Holy Fury is coming in 2018 for the suggested retail price of $19.99.

Crusader Kings II: Holy Fury is the newest and one of the most wide-ranging expansions to Paradox Development Studio’s beloved medieval grand strategy role-playing game. Take charge of a body of righteous warriors in Holy Fury, leading your army on a Crusade for the faith, or defending against attackers. Holy Fury takes its inspiration from the Northern Crusaders of Catholic Europe against its Pagan neighbors. Play either side in a new holy war.

In Holy Fury, Pagan rulers who reform their religion instead of converting will have a chance to design that new Reformed Paganism. A religion of peace or one of war? Will you be guided by the stars or bow to the whims of bloodthirsty gods? Who will lead this new church? Build a new creed on the ashes of the old ways.

Other features in Crusader Kings II: Holy Fury include:

• Shattered and Random Worlds: Start your game on a fictional map of Europe as a small realm fighting for space, or on a random map with historical analogues for the great kingdoms of yore.
• Warrior Lodges: Join a Pagan warrior lodge and raid your way up the ranks, unlocking access to powerful allies and greater military skill.
• Legendary Bloodlines: Descendants of great warrior heroes will have bonuses that match the accomplishments of their forefathers, including historical bloodlines of Charlemagne, Genghis Khan and others..
• Sway or Antagonize Your Neighbors: Try to win a reluctant vassal through charm and persuasion, or provoke someone you want to push into conflict.
• Sainthood: Pious Catholics can become canonized, passing on their glory to their descendants and making their resting place a site of great value.
• Coronations: Feudal kings and emperors must find clergy to crown them, since all power descends from the heavens.
• New Crusade Events: Deeper gameplay for the religious wars of the era.
• New Succession Laws: A Pagan Elder Council may have the final word in how a realm is divided among heirs, or a ruler may challenge his brother to combat to unify a realm.
• And much more: Changes to religion, custom names for people or objects, deeper baptismal mechanics, lists of people you’ve killed, and other small changes for flavor and variety.