Author: Trafficblast

The Game Awards 2020 will feature “around 12 to 15″ brand new game announcements, according to the event’s producer, Geoff Keighley.

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During a recent Reddit AMA for the December event, Keighley was asked how many new games would be revealed. “I think there are a good dozen+ games that will be announced/revealed at the show for the first time”, he replied, and later clarified to a different query that the total number would be “I think around 12 to 15 or so?”

In further clarification on Twitter, Keighley noted that these will be previously unseen games, rather than additional information on games previously announced. “Yeah i’m talking more about brand new games that have not been announced at all” he said on the thread.

Yeah i’m talking more about brand new games that have not been announced at all

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) December 8, 2020

We know, for instance, that BioWare will be at The Game Awards with its new Dragon Age game, but since it was announced earlier this year that the game is in development, presumably that means it is not among those 12-15 announcements. As such, we may be seeing more than 12-15 games at the ceremony, alongside the actual award announcements themselves.

To see what to expect at the event, take a look at The Game Awards 2020 nominees, including the six Game of the Year contenders and 30 categories across all aspects of gaming, from games themselves to esports and creators. Recently Keighley announced that Ghost of Tsushima had won the Player’s Voice award.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is getting a new map named Haven when Season 10 launches later this month. It’ll be available for PC players on December 16 and console players on December 17.

Haven is a much smaller map when compared to PUBG’s other offerings. It’s designed for 32 players and is only one tile wide–a normal map is eight by eight tiles. The map is much denser than other maps, though. Its urban setting includes factories, coal yards, apartments, and other locations that give players a lot of places to find cover.

In addition to the new map, Season 10 is bringing other features to the battle royale, including new enemy AI combatants. Soldiers that are part of the “The Pillar” faction now roam the map, complete with their own trucks and helicopters, looking for players to kill. Players can kill these bots to earn special gear, although they won’t be easy to take down.

PUBG is also getting an emergency parachute that players can manually deploy mid-match. It’ll be useful for how vertical Haven is–giving players the ability to reposition by jumping out of windows and off rooftops.

Developer PUBG Corporation folded into the parent company, Krafton Inc, to form a new studio earlier this year. The studio, now named PUBG Studio, will focus exclusively on the development of its main properties, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and its mobile counterpart, PUBG Mobile. PUBG Studio is also in charge of expanding the PUBG property in various fields, including esports.

Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S can be played right now by changing the console’s location to New Zealand.

There are hours to go until the much-anticipated RPG unlocks in Europe and the US, but the game is already playable in New Zealand, and a workaround means you can convince you Xbox you’re there too.

In your Xbox system settings, head to Settings -> System -> Language & Location, and change location to New Zealand. Doing so will unlock the game to play. We’ve tested the method ourselves and confirmed it works.

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Sadly, PS4, PS5, and PCs aren’t so easily convinced that you’ve suddenly moved to another part of the world, meaning you’ll need to wait until your appointed time in the game’s global unlock schedule to play on those platforms.

If you’ve got early access, make sure to check out our huge Cyberpunk 2077 guide for the differences between Life Paths, tips on how to get started and much more.

For more, check out our Cyberpunk 2077 review, as well as the first minutes of gameplay from the Corpo, Street Kid, and Nomad life paths. You can also take a look at how much the game has changed since the 2018 E3 demo.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

A hidden message in the latest trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 has revealed that free DLC drops for the sci-fi RPG will begin to arrive in “early 2021”.

In a single frame of the trailer, right at the end as the ‘pre-order’ image flashes up, a lengthy message from CD Projekt Red can be viewed. The message reveals that the free DLC program for Cyberpunk 2077 will begin in early 2021, and provide an assortment of free “cool stuff”.

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“We’ve mentioned before that expansions will be coming, and while we’re not ready to talk specifics just yet, we will say that we’ve learned a lot from our work on both Hearts of Stone & Blood and Wine. Our planned expansions will take you even deeper into the world of Cyberpunk 2077, offering substantial, story-driven content that’ll give you tough choices to make through impactful narratives that you won’t soon forget,” said the developer in its hidden message.

“But before we get there, we’ll first be kicking off our free DLC program in early 2021. Just like with The Witcher 3, expect an assortment of free DLC packs to begin hitting Night City, dropping a bunch of cool stuff that’ll inject even more life into the world of the dark future.”

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If you don’t recall CDPR’s approach for The Witcher 3, the free DLC included minor quests, new outfits for both Geralt and the major characters, and a New Game+ mode. Cyberpunk 2077 would certainly be a prime candidate for all those elements, but with learnings from the really rather good Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions under its belt, hopefully there’s some slightly more inspiring tidbits to come with the free program.

For more, check out our Cyberpunk 2077 review, as well as the first minutes of gameplay from the Corpo, Street Kid, and Nomad life paths. You can also take a look at how much the game has changed since the 2018 E3 demo.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

With Cyberpunk 2077‘s advance review codes being sent exclusively for PC, fans have thus far had no insight into how the game plays on consoles. Now, Video Games Chronicle has booted up the PS4 version of the game on a PS5 with backwards compatibility, in order to compare its performance to the PC version we currently know much more about.

In comparison to a PC version of the game running max visual settings and medium ray-tracing, Cyberpunk 2077 on the PS5 seems to stack up surprisingly well, despite running a version of the game designed for the PS4. Street scenes on the console version aren’t as populated with either people or vehicles when compared to the same scenes on PC. VGC has also reported that the PS5 version of the game doesn’t appear to have a “Performance Mode” at launch, unlike the Xbox Series X.

Despite loading in the day one patch that CD Projekt Red has pointed to as the solution to many of the game’s most criticized bug and performance issues, VGC still ran into visual bugs in the opening sections of the game, as well as a full crash.

You can see a number of comparison screenshots in VGC’s article showing just how well the console version of the game stacks up. While there hasn’t been enough time for a comprehensive comparison, it looks like console players will enjoy a similar experience to gamers running expensive PC rigs.

GameSpot’s review of Cyberpunk 2077 scored it 7/10, praising its characters and intriguing sidequests, though those were let down by a buggy performance and overall lack of purpose. “So much of [Cyberpunk 2077] is superficial set dressing, and there’s so much happening all around you–ads going off at all times, gunfights breaking out in the streets, texts coming in about cars you’ll never buy–that a lot of the game feels superfluous,” reviewer Kallie Plagge said. “The side quests and the characters they showcase are the shining beacon through the neon-soaked bleakness of Night City, and they give you room to explore the best the core RPG mechanics have to offer.”

Announced earlier this year, Dustborn is an upcoming game by Dreamfall Chapters developer Red Thread Games that’s said to be “about hope, love, friendship, robots–and the power of words.” Now, Red Thread has announced that Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream will be publishing the dystopian road trip game.

As reported by Gematsu, the studio said it was important to find a publisher that would share its vision for narrative-driven games. “Quantic Dream shares our passion and love for great narratives and interactive storytelling,” Red Thread Games creative director Ragnar Tornquist said. “It was vitally important for us to only work with someone who truly understood and appreciated our vision for this game, and we couldn’t have asked for a better partner to help us bring Dustborn to players around the world.”

“From the very beginning, we were captivated by Dustborn‘s ambition, its visual and gameplay originality, its colorful characters and the themes it addresses,” Quantic Dreams’ CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere added. “Our goal as a publisher is to enable Red Thread Games to express their vision in the best way and then share it with as many people as possible. Quantic Dream will provide Red Thread Games with its own technical and editorial resources.”

Quantic Dream went independent earlier this year, announcing its goal to self-fund its own games, as well as providing investment to smaller studios.

Dustborn is due to be published for consoles and PC in 2021, with a more exact release window still to be announced. With a colorful visual style inspired by graphic novels, Dustborn sees the protagonist Pax road tripping across the “divided states of America” in a dystopian “post-infodemic” world.

Red Thread Games has previously released narrative-focused adventure Dreamfall Chapters and last year’s Nordic noir mystery Draugen.

Temtem, a Pokemon-like RPG that released in early access on Steam earlier this year, has made its way to PS5. The game, which will eventually come to other consoles too, has not hit version 1.0 yet, but it arrives on Sony’s new console in fairly robust form.

This version of Temtem comes with a story campaign, complete with MMO elements. You’ll be able to travel between six islands, training and taming Temtem creatures and fighting against enemies in turn-based battles. You’ll encounter other players as you go, which should make the world feel alive.

A new launch trailer for the game has been released, too, which you can view below.

How extensive the game’s online options are on PS5–and how well battling and trading works–remains to be seen. If you want to make the leap, you can grab the standard version for $40 or the Deluxe Edition for $60.

Right now, the bonuses offered by the Deluxe Edition are a bit slim, although additional cosmetic packs will be added when the game goes live. Right now, it contains:

• Camo Short Hair Bandana
• Camo Long Hair Bandana
• Camo Fatigues
• Camo Rucksack

It’s rare for PlayStation games to release in early access, with no formal program for them in place. MediaMolecule’s Dreams received an early access paid release, and Fortnite was technically in early access until June 2020. The PC version has received some big updates since launch, and was a bit of a sensation when it launched, selling big numbers.

The game is targeting a spring 2021 release on other systems, including the Switch, PS4, and Xbox family of consoles.

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 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.”

Multiplayer for Halo Infinite will be free-to-play, and will run at 120fps. For more, check out GameSpot’s editorial on why going free-to-play is a smart move.

This update also reveals that Halo Infinite will arrive in Fall 2021.