Author: Trafficblast

Civilization VI will expand further on July 23 with the Ethiopia Pack, which is available as part of the New Frontier Pass or can be purchased separately for $5. This pack will introduce Ethiopia as a civilization, along with new buildings and a new district. It will also introduce a new mode, as long as you own the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions.

The new mode is called Secret Societies, and it–as you might expect–adds some secret societies to the game world. Discovering one of these societies will unlock a unique, extra-powerful Governor, whose bonuses do not need to be assigned to a specific city.

Once a society is uncovered, the player who found it becomes a member of that society for the rest of the game, and if you form an alliance with a player who is also a member your Alliance Points will accumulate faster, and you’ll have better diplomacy options. Conversely, players in other societies are going to be your enemies.

Along with Ethiopia, players who have the New Frontier Pass will also get Teddy Roosevelt and Catherine De Medici Persona Packs, which will change the model and background of these leaders, and add new gameplay bonuses and agendas for them. These personas are called Rough Rider Teddy and Magnificence Catherine, which should give you some idea of what to expect.

This DLC will come to all the game’s console releases, too.

This is the second of six content drops promised for the New Frontier Pass. The next one is due in September, and the first release also introduced a new mode, called Apocalypse. Sid Meier’s memoir, which has a great name, is also due in September.

Death Stranding is coming to PC on July 14, and at the time of writing a Steam/Epic Games Store release is just 12 hours away. The PC version is being published by 505 Games, and they’ve released a launch trailer to go over the improvements coming in the PC version, and to introduce some elements of the game to new players.

The trailer mixes together cutscenes and cinematic gameplay footage to capture the game’s tone and some of its performances, and it shows off the game at 4K, presented in Ultrawide. It also shows off the game’s new Very Hard difficulty setting and Half-Life collaborative items. It’s also seems to be more-or-less spoiler free.

You can get the PC version of Death Stranding for free with certain Nvidia cards, which is a great deal if you want to upgrade your PC for RTX. If you’re not sure if your PC can handle the game, check out the minimum and recommended specs. The PC version will be able to achieve frame rates above 100fps.

GameSpot has gone hands-on with the PC version of Death Stranding ahead of release, and came away impressed. “The quality of Death Stranding’s PC port can speak to how Sony’s first-party exclusives can get another lease on life on a new platform for a different audience,” wrote critic Michael Higham.

Deadly Premonition 2 is out now for Switch, but some players of the long-anticipated game have found themselves disappointed over one particular aspect of the game–its treatment of a transgender character. Criticisms leveled against the game have pointed out that the game’s characters, including the hero Francis, frequently misgender the character, or use their deadname (the name assigned at birth).

Because other dialog within the game positions Francis as an ally, and the game does not always explicitly frame these transphobic actions as wrong, many of the director’s fans have been disappointed–especially after trans issues were explored with sensitivity in his previous game, The Missing.

Now, Swery has taken to Twitter to apologize and to promise that he will edit “that scene,” although which scene he specifically means is unclear.

“I realized by pointed out from friends, I might have hurt transgender people in my scenario,” he writes. “It wasn’t intentional. I am really sorry for that.”

He promises that additional checks will be performed, and asks players not to hate his characters, as any offence caused is his own fault.

Deadly Premonition 2 will also hopefully receive a patch to address its appalling frame rate, which is one of the reasons why GameSpot’s 5/10 review was less-than-glowing. “Ultimately, Deadly Premonition 2 lacks the emotional resonance found in the first game,” reviewer Kurt Indovina wrote. “It’s a different brew of coffee from your favorite roaster, but one that’s more bitter than you probably hoped for.”

Crysis Remastered is coming to Switch on July 23, and considering that the original 2007 game famously required a very powerful PC to run, many players are curious about how it will translate to Nintendo’s hybrid console. Now, a new (very short) gameplay clip gives us some indication of how it will handle.

The three-second clip below, recorded directly from a Switch, shows off the Remastered edition’s improved environment destruction and vegetation bending. There’s a few other details to glean from it too–like the impressive draw distance–but three seconds isn’t much to work with. Still, it confirms that the Switch iteration of the game seeks to improve on the 2007 powerhouse, when often Switch ports are more basic.

While the Switch version is launching this month, the PC, Xbox One, and PS4 versions have been delayed, and we’ll have to wait to see what further tweaks or improvements they introduce. In a follow-up tweet, the official Crysis account has promised that more news on the other versions will be coming soon.

This is the first time the Crysis series has appeared on a Nintendo console. The Switch port is being handled by Saber Interactive, the studio behind the console’s version of The Witcher 3.

Hopefully Crysis Remastered on Switch will be another strong port.

One of the surprises from Ubisoft Forward was the launch of an open beta on PC for Ubisoft’s new battle royale game, Hyper Scape. However, fans in Oceania quickly noticed that the game offered a less-than-ideal experience–and that’s because there apparently weren’t many servers in the region.

In a bit of good news, Ubisoft has confirmed it’s added a new data center in Australia to help players in the Oceania region have a smoother experience playing the game. The tweet also confirms that players don’t need to do anything to access the Oceania servers–local players will be automatically added to them for matches.

Ubisoft has also confirmed that Hyper Scape has introduced new items, including the Javi Rebel skin and the matching Harpy and Pod skins. You can see these in the video below.

The Hyper Scape open beta includes four modes: squad and solo versions of the signature Crown Rush battle royale mode, as well as two limited-time modes, Hack Runner Squad and Turbo Mode Squad. An in-game shop is also available; it sells cosmetic items that you can purchase with Bitcrowns you’ve accrued. You can read more about the Hyper Scape open beta on Ubisoft’s website.

The Hyper Scape beta is available now for free on PC, but there is no word on if it will come to PS4 and Xbox One. Hyper Scape does not yet have a final release date, but it’s expected to release this summer.

In the meantime, you can read our Hyper Scape impressions and check out some gameplay footage to get a better feel for the new sci-fi shooter.

There’s a new pack of free Fortnite cosmetics on offer for PS4 players, provided you’re a PS Plus subscriber. The bundle includes a new glider, a contrail, and an emote. Epic has offered similar free PS4-exclusive Fortnite packs in the past, most recently in April.

The relationship between Sony and Fortnite developer Epic Games reportedly deepened last week, with Sony investing $250 million to purchase a minority stake in Epic. According to a Gamesbeat report, one of the focuses of the new partnership will be Epic’s Unreal Engine 5, which will likely provide the backbone for many next-gen games on Sony’s upcoming PS5.

Additionally, Epic Games confirmed that the terms of the deal do not prevent the company from publishing on other platforms. Sony isn’t the only big player in the games industry to purchase a slice of Epic: Tencent reportedly paid $330 million to buy a 40% stake in the company pack in 2013.

If you’re trying to complete Fortnite’s weekly challenges, we’ve got you covered, from dancing in front of a camera at Sweaty Sands to finding all the floating rings at Lazy Lake. Some members of the community have also crafted some interesting projects recently, with a group of modders recreating maps from the SOCOM series within the game, and running a competitive league through Discord. Also, July’s free PS Plus games have been revealed, so check those out if you’re interested.