Konami is phasing out online support for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Metal Gear Online on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 beginning today.
A post on Konami’s website says that Metal Gear Solid V’s purchase system on PS3 and 360 are shutting down. All DLC for Metal Gear Online will no longer be available for purchase beginning on November 30.
The full shutdown of online play won’t happen until May 31, 2022. Konami does confirm, of course, that the main game will still be playable offline on the impacted systems.
Metal Gear Solid V includes two multiplayer modes. One is Metal Gear Online, a PvP mode that supports up to 16 players hunting each other down with the game’s stealth and espionage mechanics across three game modes. The other is an online version of the game’s base-building feature, which can be used to get items and money for the main game.
The Phantom Pain released back in 2015. At the time, IGN called it a masterpiece in our Metal Gear Solid 5 review, saying, “The Phantom Pain doesn’t just respect my intelligence as a player, it expects it of me, putting it in a league that few others occupy.”
A number of Twitch channels will go dark on Wednesday, September 1, as a form of protest against the platform. This comes after many streamers claimed Twitch has not taken sufficient action against hate raids, which have plagued marginalized streamers for the last several weeks.
As reported by The Verge, the #ADayOffTwitch blackout was planned by ShineyPen, Lucia Everblack, and RekItRaven as a follow-up to the Twitter campaign, #TwitchDoBetter. The Twitter campaign was led by RekItRaven as a way to pressure Twitch into providing better tools and protections for streamers on its platform. The issue first came up a few weeks ago when “hate raids” began happening regularly, where a flood of bots would come into a streamer’s chat, all spamming the same racist or bigoted comments.
While Twitch did release a statement on Twitter about the #TwitchDoBetter campaign, however, it did not provide any specifics about what it was doing. It released a second statement a week and a half later to address the fact that it did not take any action against hate raids. However, all it said was that it’s working on it and does not what to let the people organizing these raids know its plans.
The #ADayOffTwitch blackout was organized as an attempt to force Twitch to take immediate action to protect streamers against hateful actions.
“A Day Off [Twitch] is largely about coming together in solidarity. The one day off is a step in the many steps we have to take towards change,” ShineyPen told The Verge.
RekItRaven also said that the blackout was more about smaller streamers banding together than actively hurting Twitch’s profits. The response among the community has been varied, with some streamers feeling like the blackout is pointless and others unable to take time off due to contractual obligations.
A note about #ADayOffTwitch from the cast & crew of our streamed show. Please read & remember not everyone is free to take tomorrow off, no matter the level of support they have for the event. pic.twitter.com/Pu6lE8CucQ
— Mother LandsRPG: Season 3! (@MotherlandsRPG) August 31, 2021
Some larger streamers have had negative reactions to the movement. Asmongold, a large World of Warcraft streamer who recently transitioned to Final Fantasy XIV, said on a stream, “Nobody gives a f*** if you take the day off. Nobody knows who you are.”
Asmongold went on to say that he believes in the power of numbers and would participate if a big streamer got involved, despite being a large streamer himself, having 2.4 million followers on Twitch.
A representative for Twitch told The Verge that they are aware of the blackout and are supportive of the content creators participating. According to Lucia Everblack, the discussion around #ADayOffTwitch shows that it has already been successful in shaping the conversation and pushing Twitch to make significant changes.
“We don’t just want solutions to current problems,” Everblack told The Verge. “We want policies in place so that these kinds of problems never happen again or at least never get this severe.”
Next to Halo and Minecraft, Forza is arguably one of Microsoft’s most famous and recognizable franchises. The series debuted in 2005 with the original Forza Motorsport, and the racing series has released more than a dozen titles since then. With Forza Horizon 5 debuting in November, we’re looking back at the Forza series and ranking the entries in the main series, along with the Horizon sub-brand that debuted in 2012. We also included some other entries, like the mobile game Forza Street.
Forza Street has a very different vibe than the rest of the series
A free-to-play spinoff, Forza Street was released in 2019 from developer Electric Square. As the franchise’s first game developed specifically for mobile, it features a very distinct and unique setup from the rest of the main series, focusing more on fast-paced races. In a big shakeup from the main series, the cars automatically drive themselves, with players only responsible for braking and accelerating–the game takes control of the steering. Forza Street is also available on PC, but it doesn’t exactly compare to the rest of the series when it comes to presentation, gameplay, features, and support.
12. Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious
A partnership between Microsoft and Universal for Fast & Furious felt inevitable, and it finally happened in 2015 when Forza and Fast & Furious crossed over for a standalone expansion themed around the Vin Diesel movie series. The standalone racing game features about a dozen cars from the Fast & Furious franchises, including some that debuted in Furious 7, which was the latest entry at the time. The game also featured familiar characters like Tej Parker, with Ludacris returning to voice the expert mechanic. As for the gameplay, it involves taking part in over-the-top race challenges set in France, just like the movie.
Something about family
A partnership between Microsoft and Universal for Fast & Furious felt inevitable, and it finally happened in 2015 when Forza and Fast & Furious crossed over for a standalone expansion themed around the Vin Diesel movie series. The standalone racing game features about a dozen cars from the Fast & Furious franchises, including some that debuted in Furious 7, which was the latest entry at the time. The game also featured familiar characters like Tej Parker, with Ludacris returning to voice the expert mechanic. As for the gameplay, it involves taking part in over-the-top race challenges set in France, just like the movie.
11. Forza Motorsport 2
One of the 300+ cars in Forza Motorsport 2
Three years after the original Forza Motorsport, Microsoft launched Forza Motorsport 2 in 2008 to great success and acclaim. Featuring more than 300 cars from 50 major manufacturers and a dozen tracks, Forza Motorsport 2 offers many different ways to play to suit your style and its assists were a welcome addition for players just learning the ropes. The game was praised for its innovations at the time like menus that told you where your car is damaged and the temperature of the tires, to simulate the real driving experience. At the time, we said in our review that Forza Motorsport 2 reaches the “precise brand of evolution you’d want from a sequel to the original Forza,” featuring a better driving model and an overall offering so deep that you could spend countless hours zooming around the tracks.
2009’s Forza Motorsport 3 was a visual spectacle at the time
Released back in 2009, Forza Motorsport 3 was celebrated for being a step up from its predecessor in almost every way. Among its many new features and elements was a Rewind button that allows players to skip back in time after they crash or make a wrong move. The racing game was also praised for its online modes, which delivered new ways to play both with friends in a private match and against the community at large. There were new Drag and Drift events, along with team-based Cat and Mouse tournaments that afforded new ways to play. Here at GameSpot, we also enjoyed the game’s excellent soundtrack, featuring songs from artists like Alkaline Trio, Fall From Grace, and The Fratellis, among others.
2011’s Forza Motorsport 4 is perhaps best remembered for releasing around the time that Microsoft was pushing its camera-based Kinect technology. The camera could track players’ heads so they could look around, or it could actually control the car. Microsoft would go on to discontinue Kinect, but Forza Motorsport 4 showcased how such a setup could have worked, even if it didn’t offer the type of precise controls fans have come to expect from the series. Outside of the Kinect integration, Forza Motorsport 4 changed things up with its World Tour mode and made changes to how players unlock cars. And once again, the game was praised for its ability to cater to players of all different types of skill levels.
2005’s Forza Motorsport was the game that started it all
The very first Forza Motorsport game was released in 2005, meaning the franchise is celebrating its 16th anniversary this year. The game introduced Xbox fans to the simulation-style racing series that would go on to spawn numerous sequels and spinoffs. The original game was generally praised by critics. Here at GameSpot, we scored it a 9.2, with praise directed towards the game’s ability to mesh advanced sim elements into a package that was generally approachable to newcomers. It’s a design philosophy that has carried forward throughout the years across its numerous installments. The game certainly looks dated by today’s standards, but it proved to be a big success that became one of Microsoft’s most celebrated franchises overall.
2012’s Forza Horizon kicked off the spinoff series
The fifth installment in the Forza series, Forza Horizon was released for Xbox 360 in 2012 as the first spinoff of the racing franchise. Microsoft tapped Playground Games to develop the game, and the company would go on to acquire the UK outfit in 2018 after the sub-brand exploded in popularity. The big change from the main Forza Motorsport series is that Horizon is focused on non-track races and off-road competition in a big open world. The game is set in Colorado and sees players taking part in various races and competitions to make their way to the Horizon festival, which is where the game gets its name. It would go on to spawn multiple sequels and help elevate and differentiate the Forza series overall.
2013’s Forza Motorsport 5 from series developer Turn 10 was the first entry released on the new-at-the-time Xbox One console. It was actually a launch title for the Xbox One, and Microsoft went all-out, recruiting Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond for voice roles in the game’s campaign. The game boasted gorgeous graphics (for the time) showing off what the Xbox One was capable of. The racing game also pushed the franchise forward with a clever use of the Xbox One triggers to provide haptic feedback about traction and stability, while the game was known to be welcoming enough for newcomers with its collection of assist features. “This is a game built on the romantic thrill of motorsport in all its forms, and that love for its subject matter is all but impossible to resist,” GameSpot’s Forza Motorsport 5 review said at the time.
2014’s Forza Horizon 2 was the second entry in the spinoff series, also developed by Playground Games and released as the first entry in the offshoot series on Xbox One. Set in picturesque locations across France and Italy, Forza Horizon 2 took some of the action off-road with races across fields and dirt, giving players a new type of driving experience. Similar in structure to the first game, Forza Horizon 2 has players taking part in various events across a campaign that unlocks more and more cars and settings as the game progresses. The game also welcomed a Fast & Furious crossover expansion, and we’ll talk more about that as its own entry later.
2015’s Forza Motorsport 6, featuring the new Ford GT on the cover, introduced a seemingly small but important element to the series: wet weather. Not only did the rain make for some unique artistic flair in the overall look of the game, but wet weather changed driving conditions and this made an impact on how the game played and what you needed to do and know to succeed on the track during a downpour. Night races were added to Forza Motorsport 6 as well, again mixing things up with the way the game looks and handled after the sun goes down. The game’s initial launch was followed up with a standalone free-to-play game called Forza Motorsport 6: Apex, which brought the series to PC with a different, experimental business model prior to Microsoft’s more inclusive releases.
Forza Motorsport 7 is another verrrrry good-looking Forza game
The Forza Motorsport series continued in 2017 with Forza Motorsport 7 on Xbox One, at the time boasting to be the “most comprehensive, beautiful, and authentic racing game ever made.” The game was indeed a nice visual step up, boasting a 4K/60fps experience. The game added new environmental and weather effects, and the rain in particular glistened in stunning detail. There were an overwhelming 700+ cars in the game and 30 famous real-world tracks to race on. Similar to past games in the series, Forza Motorsport 7 was also praised for its feature-set that offered enough for seasoned fans to enjoy and was approachable enough for newcomers. It was also praised for its great diversity of driving experiences, letting people have the type of driving experience they want.
Forza Horizon 3 iterated and improved upon the first two releases in a number of ways. Released in 2016 and set in the sprawling and gorgeous environments of Australia, Forza Horizon 3 introduced stunning skyboxes that were based on real photographs and video, so when you looked up to the sky, it was actually the real Australian sky and clouds. Forza Horizon 3 has more than 350 cars and is set on what was the biggest Forza Horizon map at the time. The game featured new ways to race and drive, and in traditional Horizon fashion, there were special “showcase” events featuring races against speed boats and airships. Another notable aspect of Forza Horizon 3 was its online co-op that allowed up to four people to play cooperative or competitively at the same time.
Forza Horizon 4 is set in the idyllic British countryside
Released in 2018, Forza Horizon 4 was seemingly a special one for developer Playground Games, being a “home” game of sort with its setting in Great Britain. In addition to its stunning environments and sweeping landscapes, Forza Horizon 4 is known for introducing changing seasons to the franchise, letting fans experience winter, spring, summer, and fall, complete with gameplay-relevant changes to the environment.. The game also featured more of an online focus, with dozens of players on a single server together. After launch, the game welcomed numerous expansion packs, including those themed around Hot Wheels and James Bond. The game also leaned into the battle royale trend with its Eliminator mode.
South Korea’s National Assembly passed a bill today challenging Apple and Google’s current app store policies, with implications potentially impacting both companies on a global scale.
As spotted first by The Wall Street Journal, the law is an amendment to South Korea’s Telecommunications Business Act. The new piece of legislation prevents major platforms like Apple and Google from banning app developers from using built-in payment systems, meaning app developers have the freedom to use their own payment systems.
The new law also forbids store owners from reprimanding developers that use alternative payment systems than the ones available on their app storefront. Failure to comply with the new law will result in fines of up to 3% of a mobile app store owner’s revenue in the country.
While this legislation only impacts South Korea, the legislation could have a massive impact on the tech giants across the globe. Both tech giants have been subject to criticism for their app store policies, with countries looking to crack down on both. Earlier this month, the US Senate introduced the Open App Markets Act, which would also developers to use their own payment systems if passed and sign into law.
Apple and Google have also been subjected to various lawsuits here in the United States. Last year, Fortnite developer Epic Games filed a lawsuit that challenged the app store policies. The case Epic Games v. Apple was argued last May, with a federal judge currently reviewing the case with a ruling anticipated to come before the end of the year.
Recently, Apple settled a completely different class-action lawsuit with US app developers, but the trade-offs have been minimal on Apple’s end and is pending approval from the court. At the same time, Google is currently being sued by 36 states plus the District of Columbia for its app store model.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Xbox has had some excellent console exclusives over the past few years, a number that’s likely going to grow during the Xbox Series X|S’s lifecycle given Microsoft’s string of studio acquisitions. But that’s the future–we don’t know for sure what will and what won’t be dope. All we can do is look at what’s currently out, and decide which games are our favorites.
Our top 20 Xbox console exclusives are detailed below. We’ve listed them in alphabetical order. For the purposes of this list, we’ve only included one game from each franchise so that no one franchise can dominate the list. We’ll be sure to come back and update this list as new Xbox games launch or if one of the exclusives listed below also releases for additional console platforms.
Developer Mischief’s Adios is a cinematic first-person game that sees you coming to terms with an intriguingly nuanced dilemma. You play as a farmer who disposes of dead bodies for the mob by feeding them to your pigs–that is, until one day you’ve had enough. You tell your friend, a hitman for the mob, that you want out, knowing that he’ll have to kill you if you stand by your decision. Adios’ story grapples with themes of morality and grief but grounds them in a relatable tale about two people trying to come to terms with their lives. The game handles player agency so well, gifting it and stealing it away during select moments to mirror the concept of knowing what you want to say or do but not always being able to. Adios is available for Xbox One and PC.
Developer Mighty Yell’s first game, The Big Con, is fantastic. In terms of story, visuals, and music, this adventure game is oozing with the style of ’90s animated TV shows and culture. In The Big Con, you play as Ali, a teenager roped into a partnership with a con artist after finding out her mother owes almost $100k to loan sharks. You go on a cross-country trip to swindle every dime you can. The challenge of planning your own cons is pretty fun, as The Big Con encourages you to be strategic in piecing together how to maximize your profits. The story is no slouch either–seeing Ali come into her own as a talented con artist as she grapples with her mom’s expectations of her and the blossoming queer feelings she has for her best friend keep you invested. The Big Con is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
Developer Acid Nerve’s Death’s Door is an action-adventure game that deals with themes around death, grief, and mortality. It’s not all doom and gloom though–sure, Death’s Door has a melancholy vibe, but its story features plenty of charming characters and jokes too. In Death’s Door, you play as a young crow whose job is to kill creatures when it’s their time to die and collect their souls. However, you hit a bit of a snag when an elderly crow steals the soul you were tasked with retrieving, forcing you to journey across a land devoid of death in search of a means to reacquiring the soul you lost. Death’s Door is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
Developer Ghost Ship Games’ Deep Rock Galactic is a four player cooperative first-person shooter. The game is less Left 4 Dead and more Rainbow Six Extraction, putting emphasis on individual classes that have specific roles during missions that are crafted around main and secondary objectives. Depending on your team’s performance, you earn a select amount of currency, which can be used to improve the equipment and weapons for your chosen class. It’s a solid co-op experience that makes all of its classes viable options–not a bad first game for Ghost Ship Games. Deep Rock Galactic is available for Xbox One and PC.
Developer Playground Games’ Forza Horizon 4 has an incredible opening showcase moment, and the thrills really just don’t stop–this studio knows what it’s doing when it comes to crafting a racing game that is as approachable as it is engaging. You don’t have to know all that much about cars to enjoy Forza Horizon 4; you just need to be someone who appreciates really pretty racing games. This latest entry in the series stands out for the introduction of seasons, each of which provides unique experiences to the same tracks–a course that’s easy to drive in the summer may be much trickier when there’s ice on the ground in winter, for example. Forza Horizon 4 is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
The Coalition’s Gears 5 expands on the scope of the series, incorporating open areas that afford you agency to pursue optional objectives. This addition adds a nice freshness to the tried-and-true Gears formula. This is still an engaging third-person shooter that rewards quick reflexes with satisfyingly brutal depictions of carnage, but there are now more opportunities to tackle the same challenges in different ways depending on how you approach an enemy base and what weapons you’ve chosen to bring with you. The story isn’t phenomenal–you primarily play as Kait Diaz, who goes out in search of the origins of the Locust in hopes of uncovering the mystery surrounding her family’s history–but the gameplay more than makes up for that. Gears 5 is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
Developer Obsidian Entertainment’s Grounded is a survival game where you play as someone who’s been shrunk down and must now find their way in a suburban backyard filled with insects and arachnids that pose a danger to you. It’s basically Honey, I Shrunk The Kids meets Minecraft–which is a fairly fun set-up, especially if you have friends to party up with. As you strive to build a base and weapons to protect yourself from the critters that want to eat you, you must uncover the strange remnants of a secret lab and technology that may hold the key to how you shrunk in the first place, as well as the means for returning to your normal size. It also includes a neat assortment of accessibility features, including an arachnophobia mode that makes spiders seem less scary. Grounded is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
Okay, admittedly, this is cheating. 343 Industries’ Halo: The Master Chief Collection isn’t one game, it’s six–Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, and Halo 4. But if you’re looking for a story-driven, sci-fi military drama with excellent first-person arena shooter mechanics, Halo is king. Few shooter franchises have had the impact that Halo has, and The Master Chief Collection is the ideal way of experiencing that story from the beginning, regardless of whether you want to play from the series’ start of Halo: Combat Evolved or the chronological start of Halo: Reach. Halo: The Master Chief Collection is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
First developed by Double Helix Games (now part of Amazon) before being handled by Iron Galaxy and Rare, Killer Instinct is the third main entry and a reboot of the fighting game series. If you’ve played a fighting game before, like Injustice 2 or Guilty Gear Strive, then you already have an idea of what Killer Instinct is. The game is great–fighters are diverse and combat is mechanically rewarding, with many combos to learn and satisfyingly pull off. And the game’s initial problems at launch–lack of fighters and content–have been addressed with three seasons of post-launch expansions. Killer Instinct is available for Xbox One and PC.
Bloober Team’s The Medium just squeaks onto this list. It’s a great Xbox console exclusive that deserves to be listed here, but it’s also scheduled to release for PS5 in September so it won’t be an exclusive for much longer. Starring Marianne, a medium, this psychological horror game sees you simultaneously exploring a decrepit resort and the trauma of those who stayed there, as Marianne’s literal body and consciousness can exist side by side in the real and spiritual plane. This structure delivers some stellar cinematic shots, as well as a way to explore an intriguing story through both a literal and figurative lens. The soundtrack is incredible, too. The Medium is available for Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Developer Asobo Studio’s Microsoft Flight Simulator is such an incredible feat. The game uses real-world data pulled from Bing Maps to inform the in-game AI to generate a fully realized 3D Earth. Flight Simulator looks at our Earth and then somehow, some way (we’re convinced it’s magic) updates its in-game Earth to reflect an accurate depiction of what’s going on, including changing weather patterns like massive storms or hurricanes. And then it just lets you loose to fly anywhere you want in that world–so yeah, again, an incredible feat. Microsoft Flight Simulator is available for Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Developer Cyan’s Myst is a reimagining of the original 1993 Myst. This remake incorporates new art and sound assets, includes more interactions, and adds an option to randomize the game’s puzzles. In Myst, you’re sucked into a strange book and transported to an island where you begin to uncover clues surrounding a family that’s been mysteriously trapped. The original Myst is fantastic, but it’s pretty old at this point. This remake does for it what the remakes for Resident Evil 2, Final Fantasy VII, and Demon’s Souls did for them–it modernizes an excellent experience to current day standards. Myst is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Oculus Quest.
Developer Glumberland’s Ooblets is a bizarre but charming blend of farming simulator and creature collecting RPG. Think “Stardew Valley meets Pokemon.” You play as the newest resident of Badgetown, where you’re given a worn-down farm and the choice of your starting ooblet, a little creature grown from seeds. As you fix up the farm, you’ll be able to plant crops to sell and ooblets to grow. You can also set out on a journey across the region of Oob and challenge other trainers, which play out as card-based dance battles. With the funds you earn, you can buy improvements to your farm, furniture for your house, and gifts for your neighbors–the latter of which improves your overall relationship with them. Ooblets is available for Xbox One and PC.
Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis is an updated and separate “shared universe” version of the original Phantasy Star Online 2–you can use the same character across both games but you’ll have to level them separately across the two. New Genesis is a more streamlined PSO2. It features a new story that gets you into the action more quickly, a faster and more intuitive combat system, and new exploration mechanics–Photon Dash and Photon Glide–that help you get around the world. As a relatively new MMORPG, New Genesis is still a bit bare bones when it comes to endgame content, but what’s currently there is already pretty fun. Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
Rare Replay is one of the rare (heh) games to truly be an Xbox exclusive. You can buy these games individually for other platforms but Rare Replay is an Xbox exclusive–there’s no PC version and no plans to ever make one. Developer Rare’s collection includes 30 games from the studio’s history, from the era of the ZX Spectrum to the Xbox 360. That’s a huge variety of titles, from beat-’em-up Battletoads and 3D platformer Banjo-Kazooie to first-person shooter Perfect Dark and life simulator Viva Piñata. So even if you’re not a fan of every type of game, there’s likely at least one title included in Rare Replay that will tickle your fancy. Rare Replay is available for Xbox One.
Developer Rare’s Sea of Thieves is an action-adventure game in which you can live out your fantasies of being a pirate. The game takes place in a shared world, allowing you to both set sail with your friends and encounter other players–it’s your choice as to whether you want to help them, ignore them, steal from them, or just outright kill them. Sea of Thieves’ ship combat is a great time with friends, and its vast open world is quite the sight to behold. One of the game’s biggest criticisms at launch–its lack of content–has been addressed with several substantial updates and expansions. Most notably, Sea of Thieves has a major Pirates of the Caribbean crossover expansion that adds hours of fun story-driven content to the game. Sea of Thieves is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
If you’re tired of playing Left 4 Dead style games where you’re going up against zombies, may we direct your attention to developer Systemic Reaction’s Second Extinction, a cooperative first-person shooter where you and your squad go up against dinosaurs? In Second Extinction, humanity has retreated to space stations when mutated dinosaurs take over the Earth. Your squad’s job is to orbital drop onto the planet in a series of missions to find a way to fight back and ultimately deal with the dino threat. The game utilizes a threat level system so engaging in missions in the same parts of the world will lower the threat level and make subsequent drops in those areas easier, but ignoring other areas will allow the dinosaur presence to spike out of control there and make future missions in those areas more difficult. Second Extinction is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
Developer Undead Labs’ State of Decay 2 has come a long way since its launch, expanding on its zombie survival open world formula with graphical overhauls, new maps and modes, and more story missions. It’s now a solid game for those looking for that Walking Dead experience, where you’re building bases, recruiting allies, managing resources, maintaining relationships, scavenging for resources, and creatively fighting hordes of the undead. There’s a cooperative element to the game as well, so you can tackle State of Decay 2’s challenge with friends if you want. State of Decay 2 is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
In a lot of ways, Insomniac Games’ Sunset Overdrive is an early precursor to the developer’s follow-up project, Marvel’s Spider-Man. An open-world action-adventure game, Sunset Overdrive makes you the superhero-like guardian of Sunset City, which is in the midst of a quarantine following an energy drink turning most humans into mutant monsters. Like Marvel’s Spider-Man, Sunset Overdrive mixes combat and movement–you’re rewarded with incredible bonuses for shooting your arsenal of guns while wallrunning, grinding across phone lines, or bouncing on top of cars. Your character also brings plenty of hilarious wisecracks to every fight, and the game’s continued references to other games and movies is pretty funny. Sunset Overdrive is available for Xbox One and PC.
Developer Falling Squirrel’s The Vale: Shadow of the Crown is a fascinating take on an action-RPG as you play as a princess who is blind. Since you can’t see anything, you have to do all the stuff traditionally associated with RPGs–fighting enemies, stealthily sneaking past guards, firing a bow, and walking through markets–all via sound. You have to listen to enemies shuffling around you and exhaling as they swing a sword to know where and when to parry and attack, or pick out the clanging of a blacksmith’s hammer amidst a busy market to figure out where to go to shop for new armor. It’s an incredibly unique experience. The Vale: Shadow of the Crown is available for Xbox One and PC.
Armor sets inspired by warriors of ages past are coming to Halo 3 and Halo: Reach in Halo: The Master Chief Collection’s next season, and they are unlike anything ever before seen in Halo.
Revealed in a new Canon Fodder blog post on Halo Waypoint, the new sets draw inspiration from the armor worn by the Spartan warriors of ancient Greece, the knights of medieval Europe, and the Viking warriors of Scandinavia. The sets will be available as part of Halo: MCC Season 8, titled Mythic, along with new nameplates and weapon and vehicle skins.
Gallery
Halo publishing team art director Horia Dociu dove into some of the thinking that went into the new skins in the blog post, saying the new season served as a cool way to bring themes present throughout the Halo series to life in a visual way.
“Mjolnir and a few other mythological Norse names in our canon inspired an Asgard warrior concept, which came along with the horned helmets and all the other Viking associations history and pop culture have highlighted,” Dociu says. “While monikers like Wraith, Banshee, and Ghost felt like a stoic, dark-gothic lens through which to approach a classical knight armor take on our Spartans. Halo is all about the mythical warriors of the future, so what better way to reinforce the fantasy than to imbue the armors with the legendary visuals that have echoed for centuries in our own history of legendary warriors?”
The sets are similar in spirit to the “Fractures” that will be seen in Halo Infinite, which are non-canon skins with more unconventional themes, like the Yoroi Samurai Spartan armor that has been seen in various images and screenshots promoting the game. That’s something future issues of Canon Fodder will dive into “further down the road.”
Halo franchise and narrative writer Jeff Easterling writes in the blog post he personally loves it when a franchise can be viewed through a new lens, as will be the case for MCC’s new season.
“Whether it’s a samurai take on Star Wars or a steampunk take on Batman, seeing familiar elements given a wild and far-out twist can simultaneously give you a fun new thing to enjoy while also helping you appreciate the core reasons of why you love the original thing in the first place,” Easterling writes.
Easterling teases that these new armor sets will also set the stage “for more fun experimental themes to come in the future in this and other venues.”
Halo: MCC’s next season will also see the addition of a new Halo 3 map in the form of Icebox, a reimagining of the Halo 2 map Turf.
EA Motive Studios held a Dead Space remake developer livestream on August 31 that showcased some in-progress gameplay, including a look at what appeared to be a muscular Isaac Clarke in a set of updated armor.
The one-hour presentation went over several features of the Dead Space remake. Motive Studios illustrated the enhanced lighting and smoke effects that look to bolster the game’s claustrophobic atmosphere, and it also highlighted tidbits of the new dismemberment system which lets you peel off the flesh of your enemies for even more gruesome Necromorph kills.
Peppered throughout the livestream were glimpses of Isaac and his updated armor. The game is dark, so it’s hard to get a discerning look, but it appears as if Isaac’s armor is glossier or shinier. It’s also more detailed, with the backpack and shoulder pads looking more industrial than the 2008 original.
Isaac, my boy, have you been working out?
And curiously, it seems Isaac has been hitting the gym, as his shoulders and biceps/triceps look noticeably larger than in the original Dead Space game.
We’ve reached out to EA for comment and will update if we hear back.
Motive Studios also revealed that Isaac will be voiced in the remake. Gunner Wright, who played Isaac in Dead Space 2 and 3, will return to voice the character. However, he won’t be a motormouth; Issac talks under certain situations.
Microsoft’s biggest franchise is Halo, a series created by Bungie and now developed internally at 343 Industries. The sci-fi series primarily about an ongoing battle between humanity and the alien Covenant has a long and storied past, and the franchise has seen numerous popular and beloved entries over the years.
With Halo Infinite set for release in December, we’re looking back at the Halo series overall and ranking the mainline FPS franchise. This list covers only the main FPS games, not offshoots like Spartan Strike or the arcade game Fireteam Raven. We’re also not including the Halo Wars series, though it’s great for those who want more story context on Infinite. And while Halo: The Master Chief Collection is absolutely the best way to play Halo in 2021, it’s also not featured on this list because it is a compilation package instead of one game. You can also sign up for Game Pass Ultimate to play every mainline Halo game as well as numerous spin-offs.
7. Halo 5: Guardians
2015’s Halo 5 is the latest entry in the main series
The latest Halo mainline game is Halo 5: Guardians, which was released in 2015 for Xbox One. Ahead of the game’s release, Microsoft kicked off an elaborate marketing campaign in which fans were led to believe that Master Chief might in fact be the bad guy. In the story, Chief is being hunted by a new Spartan named Agent Jameson Locke, and the campaign actually shifts away from Chief and lets you play as Locke in the majority of the missions. However, many felt the marketing overhyped the storyline, which did not pay off in the way that some fans might have wanted. Still, the campaign was an enthralling one, with its story weaving many threads and taking players to new places. The campaign levels were designed to be more open-ended, as well, with players more free to choose their own paths through the environment. Unfortunately, Halo 5 did not support split-screen, with Microsoft citing data that most people simply don’t play that way. That said, the feedback came swiftly, and although Halo 5 never added split-screen, this did prompt the studio to promise that future Halo games–like Halo Infinite–will indeed support split-screen.
For multiplayer, the big new addition to the mix was Warzone, a large-scale MOBA-style mode that mixed PvE and PvP. The mode was generally well-received, though some portion of the audience complained about its use of Req packs, which let players spend real money to unlock items in the mode. Another innovation for Halo 5 multiplayer was its clambering system, which allows players to move more freely through maps by vaulting over ledges and climbing walls. It introduces a new level of speed and verticality to Halo, and it’s something that is being brought forward with Halo Infinite.
ODST began as a small project and scaled up to a full game
2009’s Halo 3: ODST was originally conceived as a type of bridge game between Halo 3 and Halo Reach, but it turned into a full product that remains a favorite for many Halo fans. The story follows members of the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) group, who are voiced in the game by Nolan North, Alan Tudyk, Nathan Fillion, Tricia Helfer, and Adam Baldwin. You play as the Rookie, and after a landing gone wrong, it’s up to you to piece together the clues about what happened as you attempt to reunite with your squadmates in New Mombasa. In a big shift for the series, your character is not some cybernetically enhanced supersoldier but instead a regular ran-and-file fighter–albeit an elite-level one–thus necessitating a more strategic style of play. Halo 3: ODST is also known for its film noir-like visual qualities and darker color palettes overall.
On the multiplayer side, Halo 3: ODST’s big and memorable innovation was the Firefight mode. In his Horde-style mode, Spartans fight to stay alive for as long as possible as waves of increasingly difficult enemies. Players can use Skulls to make the experience more difficult and/or unique, and the mode supports couch co-op and online multiplayer.
With Halo 3: ODST, what began as a small-scale project became a bonafide game that is visually and tonally distinct from the rest of the series, and one that is if nothing else, memorable.
One of the more fan-favorite Halo games to date is the last one that Bungie made before leaving Halo behind, 2010’s Halo: Reach is a prequel to the original Halo game. It puts players in the boots not of Master Chief but of Noble Six, an anonymous member of the Noble Team. This is part of what made Reach so exciting, refreshing, and memorable. The story, too, struck a more somber tone. Anyone who read the original Halo novel, Halo: The Fall of Reach, knew how it would end, but. it’s a big shift away from the “Chief saves the day” approach to the other games, and its story felt more personal. Also on the campaign side, Reach introduced space dogfights, a new and exciting mechanic that literally elevated the action from previous games in the franchise. The multiplayer in Halo: Reach was as good as ever, and it mixed things up with a brand-new mode called Invasion where one team of Elites tries to break into a Spartan stronghold. Halo: Reach isn’t the best Halo game, but it’s consistently one of the games that people point to as a signature moment for the series when it comes to its unique story and that it was the final game made by Bungie.
With Halo 4, development shifted to Microsoft’s 343 Industries
Halo 4 marked a major shift for the Halo series, as it was thefirst entry in the main series developed by 343 Industries after it assumed control of the franchise, with Bungie going off to make Destiny. A lot of pressure was put on 343 to deliver something exciting and put its own stamp on the franchise beloved by so many, but the game did not succeed in every category. While the story mode was generally well-received for its engrossing narrative involving the new Prometheans, the multiplayer mode–seen by many to be the bread and butter of the franchise–wasn’t as successful. It was criticized in some circles for borrowing mechanics from other popular shooters–with loadouts and (gasp) sprinting–instead of carving out its own path. Still, Halo 4 was an enormous commercial success and helped show that 343 wasn’t simply mimicking Bungie.
Halo 3 was released in September 2007 after a memorable marketing campaign that asked fans to “Believe.” Fans actually got their first crack at Halo 3 through… Crackdown. Yes, Microsoft included beta access to Halo 3 with its new IP, Crackdown. The game officially released in September 2007 to great success, bringing in $170 million in revenue on its first day and $300 million over its first week. It went on to become one of the best-selling games of 2007, which was a notable achievement given other marquee games like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Rock Band released that year as well. Reviewers generally enjoyed Halo 3, with many praising its Forge system that would go on to become one of the franchise’s most defining elements. In Forge, players can create their own maps and modes, extending the lifecycle and appeal of the game, and this type of user-generated content was ahead of its time. Burnie Burns of Rooster Teeth used Forge to create the fan-favorite Grifball mode, for example, which would go on to be an official mode in subsequent Halo games.
Bungie followed up Combat Evolved with Halo 2 in 2004, and it was another major success. One of the most defining elements of Halo 2 was its online multiplayer through Xbox Live, which was a brand-new service at the time. While the game made strides in the area of multiplayer and introduced fans with a new way to play and test their skills against the world, the campaign mode remains a sore spot for many. Due to various issues, including time constraints, Bungie was unable to fulfill its complete vision. And with a deadline approaching, the team decided to end things on a cliffhanger, setting up the forthcoming Halo 3 a few years later–though that did lead to a very memorable final quote. Halo 2 is also notable because it was the last game to come to PC natively, with the franchise moving toward a console-only release strategy for many years into the future (but not forever; more on that later). The game also introduced dual-wielding of weapons to the Halo universe, which have since come and gone over the years.
The game that started it all. Halo: Combat Evolved was released in November 2001 as a launch title for the original Xbox. While FPS games on console are now popular, this was not always the case, and Bungie’s Halo was a trailblazer. Microsoft is reported to have lost billions of dollars on the OG Xbox, but Halo was a standout, breakthrough title that would go on to become one of the most recognizable and iconic in all of gaming. Halo: Combat Evolved is in the Gaming Hall of Fame, as it should be, and in addition to having a memorable campaign that introduced the world to Master Chief, Halo: Combat Evolved featured split-screen multiplayer. This was before the launch of Xbox Live, so playing together meant physically being together, and many still fondly remember those times, including us.
In Fortnite Season 7, Week 13, you’ll need to open a mission kit, then place a jammer outside IO base in a single match. This quest will go live in-game on Wednesday, September 1 at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET. As the details stipulate, you’ll have to redo both parts of the quest if you fail to complete them in the same round, but don’t worry. With this guide, it’ll be easy to earn your XP fast. Here’s where to find the mission kit and jammer in Fortnite.
Fortnite Mission Kit And Jammer Locations
Both the mission kit and jammer can be found at Corny Complex in this week’s challenge. You’ll notice a lot of activity in that region these days because it’s where Doctor Slone will make her final stand against the alien threat. Placing the jammer is one of the latest steps in her grand scheme following last week’s activation of the mysterious countermeasure device.
When you drop into Corny Complex, you’ll find the mission kit just northwest of the biggest red barn in the area–it’s the one next to the lone silver grain silo. Interact with it, then quickly hurry over to the main residence in Corny Complex. Right next to the house’s western exterior wall is the jammer prompt. Use that one to finish the quest and score an easy 45,000 XP.
Just remember, you must not only do it in the same match, but also in that specific order. In the map below, we’ve labeled the mission kit with the blue icon, and the jammer with the red icon.
Visit the blue icon first, then the red icon.
This will kick off the penultimate week of Season 7 Legendary Quests, as the season looks primed to end after Week 14 around September 12, according to in-game details. Can Slone prevail over the aliens? Does everybody even want her to? What happened to Farmer Steel? There are many lingering questions, and soon we may just get some answers.
For as long as there have been successful movies, there have been copies, imitations, and rip-offs. Hollywood studios are hugely risk-averse–the sheer cost of making movies and the vulnerability of many studio executive jobs means that most would rather churn out something resembling a big hit than take the chance on an original concept.
In many cases, this means a sequel or reboot–but that’s only an option if you are the studio that owns the rights to the original film. For the others, it’s a matter of making movies that try to recapture whatever made the first one so popular, whether it’s the storyline, tone, visual style, or chemistry between the stars.
In the past decade, this has extended beyond imitating single movies to entire franchises. With movie series based on popular books such as Harry Potter and the Hunger Games proving so successful, studios have looked at whatever similarly themed novels could be adapted, in the hopes that they can find similar success.
Of course, it often doesn’t work. In trying to slavishly copy the formula of a hit movie, writers and directors often hugely underestimate audiences and fail to give their films any spark of originality. Harry Potter is not popular simply because it’s about a kid who learns magic. It’s the casting, the chemistry between the leads, and of course, the way in which JK Rowling’s world was so well translated to the screen–something that cannot simply be xeroxed (something even Rowling herself has attempted and failed to do with the Fantastic Beasts spin-offs).
So here are some of the most blatant attempts to imitate a popular or influential movie. Not all are terrible films and some were even financial successes. But all suffer from a misguided belief that simply copying another is to make something as beloved as the movies that are attempting to emulate.
