Halo Infinite‘s first multiplayer map has been revealed. In a new Halo Waypoint update, two interior images of a multiplayer map have been shown off for the first time.
The map, which is not officially named in the update, is the very first thing we have seen from the game’s multiplayer. The first screenshot, below, shows a very familiar Halo scene: two Spartans squaring off on a map with an emphasis on verticality.
The first screenshot of Halo Infinite multiplayer
The final game will contain a mix of interior and exterior levels, by the sound of it. As you can see in these shots, the level contains plenty of detail–and looks to be using the power of the Xbox Series X for some nice lighting effects.
Design director Ryan Paradis explains in the update that while there will be “limited-time events” in the game’s multiplayer, they don’t want players to feel like they need to jump in at specific times or miss out. “Think of all the games we’ve all played that have random rewards, ask people to play a way they hate just for a new shiny, or weaponize FOMO against the player,” he says. ”There will be limited-time events, but we don’t want to turn free time into a chore. We’re not all about that.”
Halo Infinite is now expected to release in Fall 2021, developer 343 Industries confirmed in a blog post. As part of the developer’s year-end update, 343 confirmed the new release date and also provided some new insight on the game’s graphics, art, and customization features.
Halo Infinite was originally expected to release as a launch title for the Xbox Series X|S in November, but due to complications related to COVID-19, and other factors, Microsoft delayed the game to an unspecified point in 2021. The new Fall 2021 date might be later than some expected, as it’s a full year beyond what was originally announced.
Joseph Staten, a longtime Microsoft veteran who recently returned to Halo to work on Halo Infinite, said he’s impressed by what he’s seen from the development team.
“Folks here don’t just understand Halo, they love the core gameplay and characters and community–everything that makes Halo, Halo–just as much as I do. And, like me, they also feel a deep responsibility to serve,” he said. “
“We aren’t making this game for us. We’re making it for you. My first week on the job, I played the entire Infinite campaign. Twice. I was, in a word, stunned—in the best possible way—by what the team had done. Infinite is, by far, the most expansive and vertical Halo world, ever. Why did the team do this? Because they understand that wonder and freedom are key to the Halo experience.”
When Halo Infinite releases, it will be available on Xbox Series X|S, as well as Xbox One and PC. Xbox Game Pass subscribers can play it at no extra cost.
Beyond Light, Destiny 2‘s latest big update, introduced sweeping changes to the three-year-old game, sunsetting large amounts of old content to make room for the new. After backlash from the game’s fanbase, the Destiny 2 team has addressed the complaints specifically in regards to weapons and rewards, and is promising changes going forward.
In a post on the Destiny website, assistant game director Joe Blackburn addressed how rewards had been changed for Destiny 2, and how they could be improved in the future. Infusion caps placed on old weapons were one of the more controversial updates added this year, though Blackburn explains the reasoning for adding them.
“Introducing Infusion Caps is … a way to make sure that the overall number of rewards Guardians need to care about in order to be competitive in Destiny isn’t prohibitive,” Blackburn wrote. “It is also a way to continue evolving each season’s meta, while at the same time making sure players still have a ton of options when choosing what they want to bring into the next challenge. Our goal from the beginning with Infusion Caps is to improve and keep Destiny 2 fresh over time”
Blackburn does admit that the initial rollout had some misses, however–mainly that Beyond Light just didn’t add enough weapons to make up for the ones that were being taken away (or simply aren’t viable for endgame content). With this in mind, Blackburn promises that “future annual releases will contain more new weapons to collect than Beyond Light or Shadowkeep.”
Gears 5 is receiving a new mini-campaign as DLC on December 16, and it’ll be available as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The campaign, Hivebusters, follows the heroes of the game’s Escape mode as they go on a “suicide mission” to take down a Swarm hive.
The campaign will be playable in three player co-op, with Lahni, Keegan, and Mac featuring. You’ll be able to use and upgrade their Ultimate Abilities, which was not the case in the regular campaign. The game will come with 16 achievements, totaling 210 Gamerscore, too.
This DLC is written by Kurtis Wiebe, who also wrote the Hivebusters comic series, published across 2019. This DLC is based on those comics.
Gears 5 is releasing a Game of the Year edition alongside this DLC, which includes Hivebusters and earlier updates. The DLC also benefits from Xbox Series X/S optimizations, including 4K graphics, shorter loads, and quick resume.
If you don’t have Game Pass, you can buy the DLC separately for $20.
Gears 5 recently added WWE stars The New Day as DLC, and in a stranger twist, introduced an update to let you replace Marcus with the wrestler Batista throughout the campaign. Gears 5 is also available on Steam, making it the first game in the series to appear on the storefront.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Sony has now launched the PlayStation 5, and if you’ve managed to find one you have plenty to look forward to next year. Both Sony’s first-party developers and third-party studios are starting to ramp up their efforts to make 2021 a strong year for PS5 owners. From first-person shooters to platformers, the coming year has something for every kind of fan. In the following article, we’ve listed the biggest games coming to PlayStation platforms over the next year.
Deathloop
Deathloop is the next game from Arkane Studios (Dishonored, Wolfenstein: Young Blood). In this stylish shooter, you’re an assassin trapped on an island that’s in a perpetual time loop. Lavish spenders are throwing a never-ending party with no consequences, while you attempt to take out key targets and break out of the loop. But there’s also another assassin in this cat-and-mouse game, and she’s hunting you. It’s coming May 21, and is remaining a PS5 console exclusive even though Microsoft acquired publisher Bethesda.
Destruction All-Stars
Destruction All-Stars is a derby-style car combat game recalls the glory days of games like Twisted Metal, bashing your rig against your opponents to wreck them. Once your car gets too damaged and just can’t carry on any more, you can jump out and keep trying to cause some havoc on foot. Sony announced this game will be included with PlayStation Plus when it launches in February.
Final Fantasy XVI
Click To Unmute
Final Fantasy XVI – “Awakening” Reveal Trailer | PS5 Showcase
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
The long-running RPG franchise is appearing to get an infusion of political intrigue and drama with its next installment. The sole trailer we’ve seen so far for the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI marries familiar Final Fantasy tropes with the dirty political intrigue of a series like Game of Thrones. Hiroshi Takai of Romancing SaGa and The Last Remnant is set to direct, with a development comprised of veterans from the FFXIV dev team. Square Enix hasn’t confirmed the game’s release date yet.
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Ghostwire: Tokyo is a horror-action game set in modern-day Tokyo. It’s another project from Ex-Capcom veteran Shinji Mikami and his studio Tango Gameworks, which is now under Microsoft due to the Bethesda acquisition. You’ll investigate the eerily empty city that has been abandoned by humans. But don’t worry, you have plenty of angry ghosts to keep you company instead. The game doesn’t have a confirmed release date yet.
God of War: Ragnarok
The sequel to God of War is on its way but that’s about all we know–we don’t even know its name. Fans have taken to calling it “God of War: Ragnarok” due to a brief teaser that promised “Ragnarok is coming.” But other than that, we haven’t seen so much a single whisker from Kratos’ beard. We all knew a sequel would be on the way after the cliffhanger from 2018’s God of War reboot, but we’ll have to wait to see more when it arrives sometime in 2021 for PS5.
Gran Turismo 7
Racing games are a mainstay of showing off new hardware, and the Gran Turismo series especially so. Something about photorealistic chrome and the dewy shine of a wet track just helps serve as a benchmark for hardware power. Polyphony is pushing the PS5 hardware to deliver 60FPS at 120K, making Gran Turismo 7 a real visual showpiece. Currently, there’s no confirmed release date for the upcoming driving-simulator.
Project Athia
Project Athia is another PS5 console exclusive from Square Enix, but we know almost nothing about it. A brief teaser-trailer showed some of its fantastical elements, but aside from that we’re still in the dark. In fact, until the Final Fantasy XVI trailer debuted, there was common speculation that Athia was a codename for a Final Fantasy. That seems less likely now, but there’s still a lot to learn.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Click To Unmute
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart Full Presentation | Gamescom 2020
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Ratchet & Clank has been a mainstay on PlayStation consoles for a long time, and the next entry looks to capitalize on the power of the PS5 with a dimension-hopping mechanic that uses the fast-loading SSD to switch your environment on the fly. We’ve only seen this exercised in a carefully curated demo video of the upcoming Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, so it remains to be seen how freeform the dimension-swapping is in the full game. This one is set to release on PS5 sometime in 2021.
Returnal
Super Stardust studio Housemarque sets high ambitions with its upcoming spacefaring roguelike, Returnal. As a pilot stranded on an alien planet, you’ll explore the harsh environs as you’re stuck in a time loop to repeat your runs over and over again. The game is a PS5-exclusive and is scheduled to release sometime in 2021.
Stray
Stray has a grim vision of the future, but it at least has one element that’s still cute and cuddly, and it’s you. The third-person adventure stars a cat courier exploring a dystopian cyberpunk future and solving a mystery.
Apex Legends fans who want to dig deeper into the game’s lore are in luck, thanks to a new artbook releasing next year that will delve into a character’s past. Apex Legends: Pathfinder’s Quest is a 208-page hardcover book from Dark Horse Books, but it’s not yet clear whether it’s a traditional artbook or a comic.
Announcing Apex Legends: Pathfinder’s Quest. 🤖 From the writers of Apex, explore the world through the eyes of Pathfinder as he chronicles his journey to interview his fellow Legends in hopes of locating his creator. EXCITING! Pre-order now: https://t.co/eiRFaQflvlpic.twitter.com/YQxgob5acp
The book is due to release on February 2, 2021, both physically and on Kindle. The book’s Amazon page currently lists the book as sold out, but it’s possible that more stock will be secured ahead of release.
Manny Hagopian, the lead writer of Apex Legends, is credited as the book’s author. There’s no preview of the pages inside the book yet.
Pokemon Go developer Niantic’s Harry Potter mobile game, Wizards Unite, is introducing a series of villains and evil creatures in the new Adversaries update.
This update, which is the “biggest feature release of the year,” adds new evil characters to fight against. These include the bad boy Draco Malfoy and the nefarious Bellatrix Lestrange. The werewolf Fenrir Greyback is also included with the update, along with the Basilisk.
These villains will come to Wizards Unite as part of the game’s new monthly patches. Players can earn rewards like Wizarding and Challenge XP, among other bonuses, for defeating the villains.
The Adversaries update also adds a new Adversaries Registry, which is a compendium of more than 75 collectibles that players can collect. There are more combat lessons also available in this registry.
By now, filmgoers are familiar with many of Marvel’s biggest characters, and a few of the weirdest. When it comes to Spider-Man and his family of characters, though, that sphere of knowledge makes it only as far as Miles Morales and Doctor Octopus for most. It’s a good thing, then, that Jared Leto is here to introduce the latest trailer for the upcoming Spider-Man-adjacent film, Morbius.
Before you dive in, there’s no new footage from the Morbius film in this trailer. What’s new here is Leto’s introduction. The trailer that follows is an abridged version of the trailer we’ve already seen.
“Hello to all you wonderful Marvel fans,” Leto says. “I can’t wait for you to check out my new movie, Morbius, coming your way very soon. In the film, I play a new Marvel character who attempts to cure his lifelong blood disease with an experimental science, in the process turned into a living vampire.”
“It’s an exciting role in an expanding universe,” Leto continues before offering a message to Japanese viewers about theaters being open for moviegoers when the movie debuts in 2021.
Comic book fans will know that Morbius isn’t a new character per se, but the 2021 film will mark the first time the character has appeared in live action. Morbius the Living Vampire first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 in 1971. He was initially a villain, but became an antihero over time. Leto’s description of the character is succinct and accurate. Just as Spider-Man’s powers came from a spider bite, biochemist Michael Morbius gets his powers when injecting himself with modified vampire bat DNA. In other words, he can still eat Italian food and retains any opinions he had about crucifixes before he became a vampire.
Like the previous trailer for Morbius and the information Sony has already released, though, this leaves us with a lot of questions. Leto mentions joining an expanding universe in his intro. We’re not ready to call it and say that Sony’s films are merging with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but when we’re talking about Marvel, the word “universe” definitely has implications. Further complicating this are the casting confirmations and rumors of both the Morbius film and the third MCU-connected Spider-Man film. This trailer, too, includes a cameo of Michael Keaton, presumably reprising his role as the Vulture, as he asks Morbius, “what’s up, doc?” as well as the graffiti of the suit from the Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man films, which starred Tobey Maguire.
Let’s pile on top of that the confirmed casting for the third Spider-Man film. Jamie Foxx will play a version of Electro, the same character he played in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man), and just today we learned that Alfred Molina will reprise the role of Doctor Octopus, his character from 2004’s Spider-Man 2. And then there’s that stinger from Spider-Man: Far From Home, which featured J.K. Simmons as internet pundit J. Jonah Jameson ranting about Spider-Man before revealing his secret identity (Rude, JJ.).
Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange is said to play the role of Spidey’s new mentor, and Strange’s sequel is called Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. While Far from Home joked about the idea of a multiverse, 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was all about the idea, and Spider-Man comics have pushed different Spider-Men into alliances in ways that would make The Flash and other dimension travelers blush with envy. The idea of a multiverse-centric live-action Spider-Man film sounds like a risky move, but it’s far from implausible considering all of this information.
Now, 343 Industries has delved into the game in a new Halo Waypoint update, and there’s news on Craig. Neill Harrison, the director of art management at 343 Industries, has revealed that the Brute will look very different in the final game, and that the version we saw was far from a finished model.
“Firstly, I can confirm that the facial animation on NPCs was not fully implemented in that build, which resulted in Craig’s incredibly deadpan/lifeless look,” Harrison says. “All characters are modelled in a neutral pose, prior to blendshapes & animation being applied. So, poor old Craig was never intended to be seen in that condition which is not something that was evident during the gameplay.”
Craig’s face is actually a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in the trailer, but the screenshot of his face has become infamous. “It was only later, in the close-up freeze frame of his one bad moment, where it came to light and the legend of Craig was born,” he says.
Craig, who is just doing his best.
“There’s been further work done on the material fidelity and more variety added for Brute faces, we’re also working to add some hairdos and beards which was something we hadn’t gotten to in July,” Harrison continues. “So, whilst we have come to love our dear old Craig, he’s certainly undergoing a significant makeover.”
All models have seen similar improvements, and the game is certainly looking a lot better now. Still, we wouldn’t be surprised if Craig appears somewhere in the game as an Easter egg.
Yes, Your Grace, a small game about making decisions on how to run a kingdom, recently released on Xbox Game Pass after hitting PCs and consoles earlier this year. In its first five days on the service, the game–which features Xbox Series X/S enhancements–has done extremely well, the publisher has now revealed.
Mike Rose, head of indie publisher No More Robots, has shared news of the game’s success. In its first day, the game added 10,000 new players, and over the four days that followed it continued to add that many new players every day.
“Around 250,000 people have now played Yes, Your Grace,” Rose revealed–a high number for a game like this.
Wow, an *incredible* first day for Yes, Your Grace on Game Pass 10,000s of downloads within the first 24 hours, and around 3,000 concurrent players 😮😮😮 Optimizing the game for Series X|S seems to be encouraging people to try it out! pic.twitter.com/Tf8KAJsgcb
Updated stats! 5 days after Game Pass launch, and nearly 100,000 people have played Yes, Your Grace on Game Pass — 10,000s every single day, with concurrents still at around 2,000 players Around 250,000 people have now played Yes, Your Grace 👑👑👑 pic.twitter.com/sXkFGEMB9k
If this pace continues, then Yes, Your Grace will roughly double its player base within two weeks–a fantastic result. Rose says that optimizing the game for the new Xbox consoles seems to have had an impact.
Rose has been very open about sales figures for No More Robots’ games in the past, and has been a fascinating resource for figures and observations. Descenders, in particular, has been covered extensively as it has hit new platforms. Here’s some further coverage of how these games have performed on Xbox, PS4, and Switch.
