tadmin – Trex Game Studio

The FTC Pushes Back Against Xbox Game Pass Price Increases

tadmin — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 03:04:23 +0000

Last week, Xbox announced it was introducing new Game Pass tiers and raising its subscription prices for existing members on September 12. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took issue with these changes in a filing yesterday to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

In case you missed it, Microsoft revealed a new tier called Xbox Game Pass Standard, a $15 monthly subscription for new members that excludes day-one releases, EA Play, PC Game Pass, and cloud gaming. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes those perks, will have its monthly price raised from $17 to $20. Xbox Game Pass Core, which only offers online play and a smaller library, is raising its yearly sub from $60 to $75 (the $10 monthly fee remains unchanged). PC Game Pass is increasing from $10 per month to $12.

Additionally, the $10.99 Game Pass for Console is no longer be available to new subscribers as of July 10. If existing subscribers fail to renew their membership, they will be permanently locked out of this tier and must subscribe to another, more expensive membership.

In the filing, the FTC blasts Microsoft’s discontinuation of Game Pass for Console, stating that users must pay a substantial price increase (81%) to switch to Game Pass Ultimate. Those unwilling to do so must settle for Game Pass Standard, which the FTC describes as a “degraded product” since it excludes day-one releases.

“[Game Pass Standard] costs 36% more than Console Game Pass, and withholds day-one releases. Product degradation—removing the most valuable games from Microsoft’s new service—combined with price increases for existing users, is exactly the sort of consumer harm from the merger the FTC has alleged.”

The FTC was the primary opposition against Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard and sees this move as proof of its concerns over the purchase.

“Microsoft’s price increases and product degradation—combined with Microsoft’s reduced investments in output and product quality via employee layoffs[…]—are the hallmarks of a firm exercising market power post-merger.”

The FTC goes on to call the price increases “inconsistent” with the case Microsoft made during the Xbox FTC trial last year. It states, “Microsoft promised that ‘the acquisition would benefit consumers by making [CoD] available on Microsoft’s Game Pass on the day it is released on console (with no price increase for the service based on the acquisition).’ Microsoft’s post-merger actions thus vindicate the congressional design of preliminarily halting mergers to fully evaluate their likely competitive effects, and judicial skepticism of promises inconsistent with a firm’s economic incentives.”

That last portion references Call of Duty: Black Ops 6‘s (the first new entry to release post-acquisition) October 25 launch on Game Pass Ultimate, roughly a month after the subscription tier’s price increase.

Paramount Cancels Halo Series After Two Seasons

tadmin — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 03:04:23 +0000

Paramount has canceled Halo, the live-action TV adaptation of Xbox’s flagship franchise, after two seasons. The show’s second season premiered on Paramount+ earlier this year.

According to The Hollywood Reporter’s sources, Halo showrunners Amblin, Xbox, and 343 Industries are seeking a new outlet for a potential third season, with Paramount reportedly supporting the move.

“Paramount+ can confirm that ‘Halo’ will not move forward with a third season on the service,” Paramount said in a statement. “We are extremely proud of this ambitious series and would like to thank our partners at Xbox, 343 Industries and Amblin Television, along with showrunner and executive producer David Wiener, his fellow executive producers, the entire cast led by Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief and the amazing crew for all their outstanding work. We wish everyone the best going forward.”

After years of development, Halo premiered on Paramount+ on March 24, 2022, and stars Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief. Season 1 received a mixed reception from critics and fans, with many lambasting it for deviating from the games’ established lore and characterizations. Season 2, which premiered earlier this year on February 8 and concluded on March 21, was received more positively, with several critics and viewers hailing it as a dramatic improvement. Season 1 currently sits at 70% on Rotten Tomatoes/61 on Metacritic. Season 2 garnered a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes/64 on Metacritic.

For our thoughts on Halo Season 1, check out our video reviews of each episode. You can also read our February interview with the showrunners about how they planned to make Season 2 feel more faithful to the games.

Forestrike Is A Puzzle-Like Kung Fu Game By The Makers Of Olija

tadmin — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 03:00:56 +0000

Skeleton Crew, the team behind the 2021 side-scrolling action game Olija, and Devolver Digital have revealed an intriguing new project: Forestrike. The game sports a unique premise: as a martial artist, you can foresee and simulate future combat encounters, allowing you to perfect your execution before laying a finger on anyone.

The fighter battles to free a captive Emperor from an evil Admiral, and doing so involves mastering Foresight, a meditative technique to mentally predict and play out battles before they unfold (for Dragon Ball fans, think of image training). Gameplay-wise, players are pitted against different combinations of enemy types. They use Foresight to play the battle in advance to find the optimal approach to defeating them while taking little to no damage.

For example, using Foresight may help you learn to dodge a charging enemy so they trample an ally, then finish him off by lobbing a nearby weapon. Determining the best approach may take several Foresight attempts, but once you have your strategy down, you then execute the battle in real-time. After winning a fight, a replay feature allows you to rewatch it using slow-motion and other editing tools to study your strategy or generally feel cool about your performance.

Using the Foresight makes Forestrike’s combat feel puzzle-like in its execution, and winning fights as flawlessly as possible matters. That’s because you have limited health to fight through multiple stages in a roguelike-style branching map. Along the way, you’ll earn upgrades that carry over to future runs, as well as perks called Techniques that enhance your abilities.

Forestrike is a neat spin on the action genre, and it’s slated to launch sometime in 2025 for Switch and PC.

Splitgate 2 Leaps Out Of A New Portal Next Year

tadmin — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 03:00:55 +0000

Splitgate’s combination of Halo-esque first-person shooter with Portal-inspired portal jumping mechanics made it quite the sensation when it launched in open beta in 2021. With its servers regularly buckling under the weight of its players, the game caught lightning in a bottle but petered out when the game finally went 1.0 and simultaneously ceased receiving support in 2022. Now, developer 1047 Games is back with Splitgate 2 and aims to refine the original’s winning formula.

Like the first game, Splitgate 2 will be a free-to-play 4v4 shooter that arms players with a portal gun and more traditional firearms to battle each other in aerial, dimension-hopping combat. The sequel is being built in Unreal Engine 5 and has a new emphasis on factions. Players can suit up to compete in the Sol Splitgate League as members of one of three groups: the agile Aeros, the time-manipulating Meridian, or the trigger-happy Sabrask. According to a press release, “Factions will grant players the ability to choose and progress based on their preferred gameplay style or competitive strategies.” Splitgate 2 will feature new objective-based game modes across new arenas and upgradable weapons.

Additionally, a special Splitgate 2 companion app is available to download now. The app lets players explore the game’s universe through collectibles that unlock in-game rewards when Splitgate 2 launches. It also features quizzes and a new comic series called Splitgate: The Games We Play. The five-issue series will flesh out the backstory of the characters featured in the announcement trailer and additional issues will arrive monthly.

Splitgate 2 launches in 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Check out the first batch of screenshots below.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Is ‘Respectful And Referential’ To Previous Games Without Making Them Mandatory

tadmin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 03:01:08 +0000

With 10 years between 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, the most recent release in the series, and the upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the latter has much riding on it. It’s both a follow-up to a beloved game from a decade ago in one of BioWare’s most beloved series, and it’s the first BioWare game since the launch of 2019’s Anthem, a live-service multiplayer effort EA sunset less than two years later.

Curious about the pressure surrounding the release of Veilguard, I spoke to BioWare about lessons learned from following up on Inquisition and what it’s been like returning to this series so many years later.

”We start out in pre-production,” BioWare general manager Gary McKay tells me when I ask about BioWare’s guiding principle for developing Veilguard. “We spent a lot of time iterating, experimenting, and innovating on different things. At one point, it was multiplayer – we did a hard look at multiplayer, but we felt we really couldn’t return to our roots. And when we asked ourselves, ‘What is the game that we want to develop,’ we really wanted to get back to our roots, which is amazing storytelling. It’s about those unforgettable characters. And it’s about having the opportunity to influence the world.

”And we really felt multiplayer wouldn’t do that. But single-player RPG is really where we wanted to spend our time, so after spending that time in pre-production, really honing in on what the vision of this game is, and [being] afforded the opportunity to deliver on the creative promise of this game, [now] we’re really excited about what’s coming out.”

McKay says Veilguard blends seasoned veterans with new voices and perspectives, and “that’s really important for this game.” For example, people like former Dragon Age producer Mark Darrah, who left the studio in 2021 but is now consulting for Veilguard, and creative director John Epler together have decades of experience at BioWare. They work with people like game director Corinne Busche, who joined BioWare shortly after the launch of Anthem (but brings in a love of Dragon Age from the series’ 2009 start), every day to develop the game we’ll be playing this fall.

”[You] want to have different perspectives, different backgrounds,” McKay says. “If you bring a bunch of people together that have only known one thing, that’s not where you see creativity. That’s not where innovation comes from. Innovation comes when you have […] that past history and blend it with some new voices and perspectives.”

Darrah has been attached to BioWare in some capacity since its early Baldur’s Gate days, and when I ask him about the studio’s progression from that series to the next Dragon Age, he says it’s been amazing. “The thing that is so amazing about Veilguard is this is the game where we finally said out loud that BioWare’s greatest strength is telling stories through characters. If you go all the way back to Baldur’s Gate 1, Baldur’s Gate 2, these games are telling stories through characters, but there wasn’t an intentionality behind that. And in this game, we’re finally putting that intentionality first and foremost, putting the characters first, building the game around that, around those character moments, which is really the best way that BioWare knows how to tell stories.”

I ask Darrah if there’s anything Veilguard is doing that BioWare wanted to do on previous games but couldn’t, and he says, “Storytelling through animation.” In previous games, each character moves in “exactly the same way,” and everyone is homogenous in that way, he says. “If you put on a suit of armor, and you put it on Alistair, you looked exactly the same standing right beside each other.

”Now, we’re able to keep the character coming through in the visuals and the motion, even as you’re customizing them, which just wasn’t possible in the past.”

He also mentions BioWare’s confidence in its game development engine for Veilguard, which, like Inquisition, uses EA’s proprietary Frostbite. “Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II were doing what they could with the technology they had; Dragon Age: Inquisition did a good job of using Frostbite respective of the engine,” Darrah says. “But with this game, there’s a better understanding of the engines over a lot more time, but also, the technology of the hardware that the game is going to be played on moving forward [is] able to do a lot more stuff [and] execute it visually to a degree that just wasn’t possible in the past.”

On Inquisition

With 10 years between Inquisition and Veilguard, BioWare has to balance satisfying longtime fans of the series with newcomers jumping in for the first time. Epler says the studio worked hard to ensure Veilguard is respectful and referential to previous games without feeling like you need to have played Inquisition, Dragon Age II, or Origins to fully understand what’s going on.

”So while there are references, there are moments that we have callbacks, it really is its own story, its own continuation with a different cast, with different characters,” he says. “Historically, Dragon Age has always had a different cast per game, so that gives us a lot of freedom in terms of what we want to lean on in the past and what we want to really bring in that’s new and forward-facing.”

Darrah adds that Veilgaurd’s events play out with a storytelling goal for the future of the series. “This is a game which takes the ball that Inquisition had, puts its own spin on it, has its own characters, takes its own direction, but continues the path forward into the future,” he says.

”Dragon Age has always been about change. Every game has had a new protagonist, and it’s been exploring its own space all the time, and this game is no different. [Veilguard] does a good job of bridging that gap. The really super fans of Dragon Age have actually made a lot of really educated guesses, and some of them are pretty right about where the franchise is going. The thing we need to make sure is that people who may have only played Inquisition are understanding what the franchise is really about – it’s about a new protagonist, it’s about change, it’s about evolution – and don’t come in expecting a direct sequel to a game they played and then are disappointed. This game is something new, something that evolves, something that is greater than what came before, the same as each game […] before it.”

For Busche, balancing newcomers and fan expectations in Veilguard is about managing assumptions. She says Veilguard takes place in a part of Thedas BioWare has only hinted at. The team has hinted at the Grey Warden fortress of Weisshaupt, the depths of Arlathan Forest, the Rivain Coast, the Grand Necropolis of Nevarra, and Minrathous, but now players will finally go to these stories’ locations.

”We have a rich history of world-building within the IP, so existing players will be familiar with these places and very excited to go to them and explore their mysteries,” Busche tells me. “But for our new players, we’re not assuming you know anything about these locations. I would say that also extends to the characters; we’ve taken great care in how we introduce each and every single companion and major story figure within the game [with that in mind].”

Epler tells me that Veilguard differs from Inquisition and other Dragon Age games in the way that Rook, the player character, can’t save the world without the characters they meet on their journey.

”Dragon Age has always been about characters but to some degree, it’s almost felt like we’ve lucked into that,” he says. “Inquisition is a story that ultimately, you, the main character […] have the biggest part to play. We wanted to tell a story this time where you literally cannot save the world without these characters. Beyond that, though, we also wanted to give them their own arcs that can run parallel to the main story and really give them that kind of deep storytelling our fans really enjoy.”

Though he’s biased for obvious reasons, Epler says Veilguard is his favorite Dragon Age game he’s worked on (and he’s worked on all of them, starting as a quality assurance tester on Origins). He says one reason for this is the storytelling in the characters, companions, and relationships.

”They have their friendships, they have their rivalries, and lean into that concept,” he tells me. “You’re not just pulling together a bunch of people who will do whatever you say. You’re assembling a family, and that becomes the core of what the Veilguard is all about. It’s about taking this group, this found family, and saving the world, side by side with them.”

For more about the game, including exclusive details, interviews, video features, and more, click the Dragon Age: The Veilguard hub button below.

Fallout Show Nominated For 16 Emmy Awards, Including Best Actor For Walton Goggins

tadmin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 03:01:08 +0000

Fallout, a TV adaptation of the popular post-apocalyptic video game series, was released on Amazon Prime this past April. Video game adaptations can be a bit of a mixed bag sometimes, but in this case, fans and critics alike (us included) loved its characters, world-building, and its overall take on the Fallout universe. It should come as no surprise, then, that the show has been nominated in numerous categories at the 2024 Emmy Awards.

Fallout was nominated in 16 categories, but two of them are particularly exciting. First, the show is one of eight nominees for Outstanding Drama Series, ranking it among other big shows of 2024, like Shōgun, which currently leads the pack with 25 nominations. Secondly, Walton Goggins was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series for his portrayal of The Ghoul. This is his second Emmy nomination – the first being for Supporting Actor on the show Justified back in 2011.

Here’s a full list of the show’s nominations:

Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes

Outstanding Stunt Coordination For Drama Programming

Outstanding Production Design For A Narrative Period Or Fantasy Program (One Hour Or More)

Outstanding Picture Editing For A Drama Series

Outstanding Picture Editing For A Drama Series

Outstanding Main Title Design

Outstanding Period Or Fantasy/Sci-Fi Makeup (Non-Prosthetic)

Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series

Outstanding Drama Series

Outstanding Sound Editing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour)

Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour)

Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Season Or A Movie

Outstanding Stunt Performance

Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series

Outstanding Music Supervision

Last year’s Emmy Awards had video game representation as well, with HBO’s The Last of Us, which earned a total of eight awards. Whether or not Fallout manages to reach that level of prestige, it’s already been renewed for a season 2, so fans of the series can look forward to a return to the wasteland sometime soon. To see all of this year’s Emmy nominations, click here.

Nintendo Is Raising The Famicom Detective Club Series From The Dead With Emio – The Smiling Man

tadmin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 03:01:08 +0000

Nintendo is, relatively speaking, a family-oriented company. Their games are aimed at kids, their parents, and everyone in between with bright colors, wholesome storytelling, and extremely approachable game design. That said, there are exceptions to this rule, like in this creepy 15-second teaser uploaded to the company’s YouTube channel last week. A man in a trench coat wearing a paper bag with a smile drawn on it stares into the camera while a distorted music box plays in the background. The only additional context we got was the hashtag #WhoIsEmio, leaving fans scrambling to figure out what exactly this was hinting at.

Today, that mystery has been cleared up. Emio, also known as “The Smiling Man,” is the star of a new game in the Famicom Detective Club series, which hasn’t had a new entry in 35 years. The game was revealed today alongside a video featuring series producer Yoshio Sakamoto, who wrote the first two games and went on to direct titles like Super Metroid and Metroid: Zero Mission. According to him, they decided to make this new entry during their time developing the Famicom Detective Club remakes back in 2021.

”In Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club, a student has been found dead in a chilling fashion, his head covered with a paper bag with an eerie smiling face drawn on it,” a press release reads. “This unsettling visage bears a striking resemblance to a recurring clue in a string of unsolved murders from 18 years ago, as well as Emio (the Smiling Man), a killer of urban legend who is said to grant his victims ‘a smile that will last forever.'” Players will assume the role of a private investigator and set out to solve the case and stop the killer for good.

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club will be released for the Nintendo Switch next month, on August 29. Hopefully, the titular killer won’t murder too many people before then.

Are you excited to see this series revived? Let us know in the comments!

Xbox 360 ‘Blades’ Interface Returns As Dynamic Background Ahead Of Digital Store Closure

tadmin — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 03:08:39 +0000

The Xbox 360 digital store shuts down later this month on July 26. Amid a wave of price reductions and other end-of-life updates, nostalgic fans can relive the console’s earliest days via a new dynamic background modeled after the old “Blades” interface.

For those too young to remember or didn’t get an Xbox 360 until years later, the Blades interface was the console’s first dashboard design. It was the first thing players saw from the console’s launch in 2005 until it was updated to an entirely different interface in 2008. Navigating it felt smooth as butter, and some diehards still believe it’s the best UI of any Xbox console.

Although it’s less detailed, and you can’t flip through the Blades of this dynamic background and hear that satisfying “whoosh” sound, it’s nice to see Microsoft acknowledge the 360’s like this. Here’s how you to make the Blades your Xbox background:

Press the Xbox button on your controller to open the guide.
Navigate to Profile & system > Settings > General > Personalization > My background > Dynamic backgrounds.
Choose Xbox 360 Blades under Featured or Xbox dynamic backgrounds
Select the background art you want using the A button.

You can read more about the impending Xbox 360 store closure and final updates by visiting this Xbox Wire article.

Dead By Deadlight Gets Lara Croft Survivor Today, 2v8 Mode And Cross Progression On The Way

tadmin — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 03:08:38 +0000

Dead by Daylight’s 8th-anniversary stream revealed a few big updates for the popular asymmetrical horror game. The most immediate is the addition of Lara Croft as the game’s latest crossover survivor along with the impending addition of the much-requested 2v8 mode.

Tomb Raider Chapter

Lara Croft (the 2013 reboot version, specifically) joins DBD today, and though she lacks her pistols and bow, she sports three new perks highlighting her adventuring prowess. Here’s an explanation of each per DBD’s website:

Finesse: Your fast vaults are faster when healthy, with a cooldown after a successful use.
Hardened: When you open a Chest and cleanse or bless a Totem, Hardened activates for the duration of the Trial. From that point, every time you scream, you’ll instead reveal the Killer’s Aura.
Specialist: When you open or rummage through a Chest, gain 1 Token (up to 3). When you do a Great Skill Check, consume a Token to reduce the max required Generator progress.

2v8 Mode

On July 25, a new 2v8 multiplayer mode descends into the game. This pits two Killers against eight survivors in expanded versions of five classic maps. The number of generators has been doubled, and Survivors must now repair 8 out of 13 to escape. Captive Survivors are now sent directly into cages, and Survivor perks have been reworked into a new role system designed to encourage teamwork.

Cross-Progression

Cross-progression is being implemented on July 22. This means players can now sync their progress across multiple owned versions of the game. Everything can be shared across any platform except for Switch, which has a few restrictions as you can see in the chart below.

Click to enlarge

Today’s stream also revealed a new trailer and the release date for The Casting of Frank Stone, the single-player DBD game developed by Supermassive Games (Until Dawn, The Quarry). You can read all about that here.

The Casting Of Frank Stone Terrorizes Players This September

tadmin — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 03:08:38 +0000

The Casting of Frank Stone, Supermassive Games’ single-player narrative-driven horror game set in the Dead by Daylight universe, has a release date. This intriguing horror collaboration will arrive on September 3, and a new trailer provides a proper introduction of the main cast.

Developed by Supermassive (Until Dawn, The Quarry) and published by Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive, The Casting of Frank Stone stars five teenagers – Christine Gordon, Jaime Rivera, Linda Castle, Robert Green, and Bonnie Rivera – who film their own horror movie in an abandoned steel mill. Unfortunately, this mill has ties to a notorious murderer named Frank Stone, and the youth’s innocent art project goes horribly wrong.

We still don’t know much about the narrative other than that it is set within the world of Dead by Daylight and takes place in the town of Cedar Mills during the summer of 1980. Gameplay-wise, The Casting of Frank Stone follows a similar blueprint to Supermassive’s previous horror titles in that it’s a choice-driven adventure where characters can be permanently killed off based on your decisions. You can check out a recent gameplay trailer here to see it in action.

The Casting of Frank Stone is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.