MMO News [euro]

All of a sudden there are two big pirate games coming out in 2018
Destiny 2 comes out on PC a month-and-a-half after console
Call of Duty WW2 multiplayer shown off by Sony
Assassin's Creed Origins has a £699 special edition
First Far Cry 5 gameplay debuted at Ubisoft E3 show, features good dog
Beyond Good & Evil 2 finally resurfaces, gets a full CGI trailer
Steep's getting an Olympics-themed expansion
Ubisoft teases VR horror game collaboration with Elijah Wood
The Crew 2 is motorsports-themed, has airplanes and powerboats
Ubisoft reveals new pirate game Skull & Bones
Microsoft is remastering Age of Empires for PC
Cliff Bleszinski reveals LawBreakers PC and PS4 release date
Isometric fox adventure Secret Legend is now Tunic
A long look at Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord's new and improved combat
War of the Chosen is XCOM 2's new expansion
Klei announces new role-playing game Griftlands
Ni No Kuni 2 gets a release date
Total War: Warhammer 2 gets a release date and new screenshots ahead of E3 gameplay reveal
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will get an Xbox One X and PS4 Pro patch
One of the ugliest controllers ever is about to make a comeback
Free Titanfall 2 trial this week
WipEout series claims first ever UK chart top spot with Omega Collection

All of a sudden there are two big pirate games coming out in 2018

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 12:30 AM PDT

During Ubisoft's E3 2017 media briefing, the company unveiled a new pirate game due out in autumn 2018: Skull & Bones. The news didn't exactly come as a surprise to the developers at Rare, makers of fellow 2018 pirate game Sea of Thieves, but they'll have watched the detailed gameplay trailers with interest nonetheless.

All of a sudden, there are two big pirate games coming out next year. But what sets them apart? What makes Sea of Thieves different than Skull & Bones? Rare's Ted Timmins, a designer on Sea of Thieves, points out some pretty stark differences that make the two games fundamentally different.

"For us it's you are the pirate and you work together with a crew," Timmins tells me at a Microsoft showcase event at E3. His point here is clear: in Sea of Thieves you actually play as a pirate who is free from the shackles of a pirate ship. Your pirate can leap into the water, explore mysterious shipwrecks, hunt for treasure on islands and fight skeletons with a sword. In Skull & Bones, while you assume the role of a pirate, you mostly play as the boat you sail.

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 07:33 PM PDT

Activision and Bungie have announced Destiny 2 is coming out two days earlier than first revealed. The shared-world shooter will now launch 6th September 2017 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The PC version comes out on 24th October, Activision confirmed. The open console beta begins on 21st July, with a PC beta to follow late August.

Another date: the Destiny 2 console beta early access period for PS4 players who pre-ordered begins 18th July at 10am PDT (6pm UK time). Early access for Xbox One players who pre-ordered begins on 19th July at 10am PDT (6pm UK time). So, PS4 players can get a day's head start on the beta. The beta ends for everyone at 10am PDT on 21st July.

Meanwhile, we have a new Destiny 2 trailer that revolves around new villain Dominus Ghaul.

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 06:45 PM PDT

Sony showed off a trailer for the multiplayer mode of Call of Duty WW2 at its E3 conference, confirming that yes, there is multiplayer, and it skips across the various European battlefields you might expect.

It looks pretty straightforward stuff, in the main, and CoD's stock has fallen a touch in recent years, which is probably why it skipped past mid-montage rather than getting the red carpet treatment that heralded its arrival as a PS4 marketing deal.

Still, it's loudly heralded as Actual In-Game Footage (albeit sans HUD) so that's nice, and it Sledgehammer's turn to do Call of Duty this year - that studio always puts on a good show. We'll doubtless get some time with the game on the show floor later in the week.

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 03:58 PM PDT

Assassin's Creed Origins has a special edition that is so special it costs £699 / $800.

Available exclusively on Ubisoft's online store, this prohibitively expensive edition throws in everything but the kitchen sink. It's even overflowing with words, bearing the mouthful of a title "Assassin's Creed Origins Dawn of The Creed Legendary Edition."

So what does the Assassin's Creed Origins Dawn of The Creed Legendary Edition get you that makes it cost so much? Here's the booty list:

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 02:50 PM PDT

Ubisoft showed off some proper Far Cry 5 gameplay at its E3 2017 conference earlier today, and it's just what you'd expect.

The trailer kicks off with a nice bit of hymn recital, followed by several minutes of bloody murder. The main focus of this one is the notion of "guns for hire," "friends for hire," and "fangs for hire" - allies you can call on in the form of non-player characters, wild animals, real-world friends, and a real good dog.

It's the first time we've seen the feature in action, with you seemingly being able to point at an enemy and set your various pals-for-hire upon them on command. The dog that was featured, Boomer, is not only a very good boy, but also will steal and retrieve for you an enemy's weapon if you ask him nicely.

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 02:21 PM PDT

After nearly 15 years the long, long, loooong anticipated sequel to Beyond Good & Evil has finally been unveiled. Only it isn't a sequel at all, but rather a prequel.

Indeed series creator Michel Ancel is full of surprises. Closing Ubisoft's E3 press conference moments ago, Ubisoft unveiled a CGI trailer showing the new cast of this adventure.

The trailer begins with an anthropomorphic monkey trading a relic for a disc with a sinister-looking pig-man sporting a Fu Manchu moustache. The deal goes south when the pig-man realises he's been given a chocolate trophy and things go all The Fifth Element as the monkey man hops onto his getaway flying motorbike driven by a dark-skinned human woman with a fro.

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 02:02 PM PDT

Steep is Ubisoft's strangely glorious winter sports game. I sense it struggled to find an audience, but at Ubisoft's E3 press event, the publisher announced it's getting an expansion.

It's Olympics-themed, apparently - hope so, anyway; it's called Road to the Olympics - and it's based around the PyeongChang 2018 games. Expect lots of sporty events and colourful Lycra. (It may not be Lycra.) It's out in December, presumably on Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 01:52 PM PDT

Ubisoft teased a very peculiar VR game at its E3 press conference moments ago. It's called Transference and it stars Macon Blair (Blue Ruin, Green Room).

In the live-action teaser Wood explains that his production company SpectreVision is collaborating with Ubisoft Montreal on this project.

As explained more clearly on the Ubisoft Blog, Transference lets players explore a mysterious house where they'll be able to affect the lives of the family who lives there and your actions will "ripple through time and space".

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 01:45 PM PDT

The Crew 2 is due out in early 2018, and though it still features the giant coast-to-coast map of the USA that made its predecessor stand out, it has a very different theme.

Turning its back on the hackneyed crime plots that tend to dog racing games with a story (hello, Need for Speed Payback), The Crew 2 is all about turning that map into a motorsports playground - with some surprising additions. Powerboats and stunt racing airplanes join the road cars, off-road buggies and motorbikes of The Crew and its expansions.

You'll still be street racing in tuned sports cars and exploring the American wilderness in off-road vehicles, but also taking to the rivers and the open ocean in speedboats, and the skies in the agile prop planes familiar from the Red Bull Air Race, threading through skyscrapers. Check out the reveal trailer and gameplay:

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 01:27 PM PDT

Ubisoft Singapore is making a new pirate game called Skull & Bones.

A debut trailer details how it grew out of a continuation of the naval combat in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. But this is more than a 2.0 - this is a whole new game.

Skull & Bones takes place in the Indian Ocean, a shared-world ocean, apparently, and in it you'll be able to play both with friends - fighting off AI pirate hunters and beasties beneath the surface - and against friends, in 5v5 player versus player combat across a variety of modes. You'll choose from a selection of ships and customise them, from a small sloop up to a giant frigate.

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 12:08 PM PDT

Today's surprise PC Gaming Show announcement was a remastered Age of Empires, dubbed the Definitive Edition, coming to Windows later this year.

The remaster comes with 4K UHD visuals, new zoom levels, new and improved gameplay, a new soundtrack and Xbox Live multiplayer (on PC). It's not clear what the new gameplay is but the new graphics are noticeable and the new zoom levels look very helpful indeed.

Age of Empires will be 20 years old in October, which is I imagine when the remaster will want to come out. I was in secondary school gearing up for, and being distracted from, my GCSEs - what were you doing back then?

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 11:47 AM PDT

Cliff Bleszinski has announced a release date for LawBreakers on PC and PS4: 8th August. It will cost $29.99/£24.99.

A PC beta will run from 28th June to 3rd July. You'll have to head over to the LawBreakers website to sign up for it.

Bleszinski and studio Boss Key clearly hope the lower price point will give LawBreakers a fighting chance alongside a game like Overwatch. Bleszinski even had a little pop at $60 multiplayer-only games when he announced the price on the PC Gaming E3 stage, saying, "None of this $60 multiplayer-only bulls***".

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 11:22 AM PDT

Zelda-style adventure Secret Legend has been given a re-reveal as Tunic, and is coming to PC, Mac and "consoles" in 2018.

Unveiled at E3 2017's PC Gaming Show, it has you "explore the wilderness, discover spooky ruins, and fight terrible creatures from long ago" as a "tiny fox in a big world", according to its blurb.

The new trailer for the low-poly adventure sees you slash away at enemies in an isometric world, and appears to be more punishing than the cute visual style suggests, ending with a fast-paced confrontation against a towering ancient guardian of sorts.

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 10:42 AM PDT

TaleWorlds has given a meaty old look at combat in Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord.

The videos show how much the sequel has improved in almost every area over the original. Not only does it look much better but it behaves much better. The AI is more complex, the formation system is more complex, and as a Sergeant you can control bands of fighters assigned to you by your Commander.

Look out for shield bashing, directional blocking and attack chaining.

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 10:22 AM PDT

Jake Solomon has just been onstage at the PC Gaming Show at this year's E3 to announce an expansion for XCOM 2. It's called War of the Chosen, and it features three new enemy factions and three new ally factions. Oh, and some people who are a bit like zombies. It sounds amazing.

The Chosen refers to the enemies, three champions from the alien army who will challenge players in different ways. The Assassin is duty-bound and honour-driven, focusing on stealth and close quarters. She can vanish from sight and attack with a blade, which sounds incredibly annoying - but in a good way, I think. The Hunter is a long-range sniper. Then there's a Warlock, "Which is, you know, a Warlock," according to Solomon.

Brilliantly, The Chosen evolve as players fight them again and again over the course of the campaign, getting stronger, picking up new abilities and even gaining procedural quirks. Meanwhile, there are three ally factions for the player to hunt down and win over: Reapers, who focus on stealth and sabotage, Skirmishers, who are half-alien hybrids, and Templars, who specialise in Psionic tricks that build power over multiple attacks.

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 10:16 AM PDT

Klei Entertainment's presumably wonderful new game - does it make anything else? - has been revealed: Griftlands.

The Griftlands Steam page went live moments after a glimpse was shown at the PC Gaming Show at E3.

"Griftlands is an RPG where everything is negotiable: money, loyalty - even morality," the Steam page says. "Choose your character and make your fortune."

Ni No Kuni 2 gets a release date

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 09:25 AM PDT

Ni No Kuni 2, Level-5's follow-up to the exquisite 2013 JRPG, has been given a final release date, with the Bandai Namco published game coming to PlayStation 4 and PC on November 10th.

We've yet to see too much of Ni No Kuni 2, though Studio Ghibli's involvement does seem to have been dialled back a little. Still, Joe Hisaishi is still on music duties, and it still looks absolutely splendid. Not too long left to find out if it reaches the heights of the original - a game that was 'rich yet breezy, classic yet modern, exquisitely made and completely sure of itself," as Oli noted in his review - and, more importantly, to see if Drippy is at least making a cameo.

We hope to have a little more on Ni No Kuni 2 for you later this week.

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 07:59 AM PDT

Total War: Warhammer 2 will release on September 28th, 2017.

The grand strategy follow-up is set to be shown in greater detail later today, at the E3 PC Gaming Show at 6pm UK time (head to our E3 2017 Schedule Guide for more times and details on that).

Warhammer 2 will indeed feature "four new playable races" - we all know that fourth race is the Skaven but, as Chris found in his big Total War: Warhammer 2 preview, developer Creative Assembly is still trying really, really hard to be all coy about it. We wouldn't be surprised if we heard more about that at the show later on.

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 07:06 AM PDT

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be enhanced for Xbox One X and PS4 Pro.

"I can confirm that we are working both on Xbox One X and PS4 Pro patches for The Witcher 3," CD Projekt Red told me this afternoon. "No extra details at this moment. More info is coming."

The Witcher 3 was one of the games shown on Microsoft's stage as 'Xbox One X Enhanced" last night.

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 06:52 AM PDT

One of the most - how do I say this politely? - interesting controllers is making a comeback, with the ungainly duke controller for Microsoft's original Xbox being resurrected by peripheral manufacturer Hyperkin, just in time for backwards compatibility support for the 2001 console coming to the Xbox One.

The duke launched alongside the original Xbox all those years ago, and gained notoriety for its somewhat bloated dimensions. I haven't got a ruler out and made any hard calculations, but I'm pretty sure it's the same size as two Xbox One X consoles taped together.

The duke was quickly succeeded by the Controller S in 2002, though it has since acquired cult status. The updated duke controller will be compatible with Xbox One and Windows 10, and will replace the large Xbox logo in the centre of the pad with an LCD screen, and it'll also come with a nine-foot detachable cable. There's no word just yet on pricing or release date, but it does look set to be a limited release so if you really must get one it's worth registering your interest now.

Free Titanfall 2 trial this week

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 04:55 AM PDT

The brilliant Titanfall 2 is free to try to this week on all platforms: PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

The free trial includes two campaign missions - The Beacon and The Pilot's Gauntlet - as well as full multiplayer. The free trial ends 18th June.

Free trials are part of EA and Respawn's announced, ongoing support for Titanfall 2, the roadmap for which should end this month.

Posted: 12 Jun 2017 03:33 AM PDT

22 years later - long after the sad closure of Studio Liverpool - the iconic WipEout series has a first UK chart number one. Ironically it's a collection of old games, in the WipEout Omega Collection on PS4, that achieved it.

The WipEout Omega Collection was Recommended in Eurogamer's review. "The dearly departed Studio Liverpool's much-loved series is given a lush makeover in this generous compilation," wrote Martin. Included are WipEout games HD, HD Fury and 2048.

Digital Foundry highly recommends WipEout Omega Collection for those of you with a PS4 Pro and 4K TV, too.

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