Gigantic: Rampage Edition comes to PC, PlayStation and Xbox on April 9

Gigantic is making a return ad Gearbox Publishing announces Gigantic: Rampage Edition, the premium and definitive release of the original MOBA hero shooter from Motiga. This premium version of Gigantic will give fans of the original game a bigger and more Gigantic experience than ever before, while welcoming new players, including hero shooter and MOBA fans, to the thrilling team-based multiplayer game. Here are the key features for Gigantic: Rampage Edition: EVERYTHING FROM THE ORIGINAL GIGANTIC AND MORE NEW HEROES ROLAND – A world-hardened man, who lost his arm, but gained unparalleled reach. KAJIR – A fast reflexed feline who has a taste for fighting in the alley and streets. EXCITING ROSTER OF HEROES– Twenty-three returning heroes to select from, all with a unique set of offensive and defensive capabilities, including their own ultimate abilities. Choose a hero, join a team and go against another team in 5v5 battles to see who will win it all! EXPANSIVE AND INTRICATE MAPS – Set in a vibrant fun-filled world, prepare to jump into and blast your way across expansive battlefields with creatures, such as massive Guardians, to aid you in battle! NEW MAPS PICARO BAY – A breezy seaside map with verticality, narrow alleyways, and a pirate ship for waging fast paced clashes. HEAVEN’S WARD – A heavily industrialized district that showcases an old power plant, warehouses, and factories with many nooks and crannies for players to have a blast in. CUSTOMIZATION AND HERO PROGRESSION – Make your favorite Gigantic hero your own! Build and customize individual hero loadouts that match your playstyle, unlock and choose from a variety of hero and weapon skins, including new skins not from the original game, and unlock additional content for your hero as you progress! GAME MODES  RUSH – A more accessible, fast-paced and action-packed mode for all players bringing a streamlined Gigantic experience that lets players jump in and get into the action with ease. CLASH – The original game mode players from the classic version of Gigantic is back, bringing a deeply strategic and thrilling team-based experience for more epic matches. CUSTOM – Create your own exciting matches where you can pick a map, compete against friends to refine your skills on the battlefield, and also spectate. CROSS PLATFORM PLAY BETWEEN CONSOLES AND PC: Team up and jump into epic matches with friends across multiple platforms. FREE POST LAUNCH CONTENT: Following the launch of Rampage Edition a Ranked Mode and new hero skins will be released for free via updates. Gigantic: Rampage Edition will launch on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 4 on April 9, 2024.

PowerA announces new Fortnite-themed accessories

PowerA, a global leader in enhancing interactive entertainment with officially licensed gaming accessories has announced its latest partnership with Epic Games. The outcome of this new collaboration is Fortnite-themed video game accessories showcasing captivating designs featuring beloved Fortnite characters, Peely and Midas, for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X|S. The Advantage Wired Controller for Xbox Series X featuring Mida is available now for $39.99 USD on the official PowerA Store. With this purchase you’ll receive a bonus in-game cosmetic – Storm King Fist Pickaxe. “Withover 500M registered accountsworldwide and growing, it’s no secret that Fortnite remainsa top game on all platforms. The PowerA x Fortnite Collection embodies an exciting fusion ofinnovation, design, and the captivating universe of Fortnite. AsEpic Games’partner for thisventure, we are thrilled to unveil an exceptional range of gaming accessories poised to enhancethe gaming journey for fans across the globe,” expresses Akio Strasser, Senior Global Marketing Director at PowerA The Nintendo Switch line of this Fortnite collaboration features Peely and each item comes with an in-game cosmetic. See all the information below: Enhanced Wireless Controller for Nintendo Switch – Peely   Bonus In-Game Cosmetic – Prickly Axe Pickaxe Protection Case for Nintendo Switch – Peely Bonus In-Game Cosmetic – Rocket Rodeo Emote Wired Earbuds for Nintendo Switch – Peely Bonus In-Game Cosmetic – It’s Complicated Emote You’ll be able to purchase this collection on PowerA.com, Amazon, and GameStop.

Trailer for the live-action Borderlands movie drops tomorrow

This year could be another strong year for video game adaptations with multiple tv shows and films coming out for popular franchises. One of the films coming this year is the first live-action Borderlands movie that was announced a few years ago.  It was announced in July the Borderlands movie will come to theaters on August 9, 2024. Today, a teaser was shared announcing the first trailer for the highly anticipated movie will be dropping on February 21, 2024.  The teaser provides a great look at Claptrap, voiced by Jack Black, Kevin Hart as Roland, Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis, and Cate Blanchett as Lilith.     

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is getting revealed on February 21

It was only a year ago when FromSoftware announced they were working on the first major expansion for Elden Ring. Today, the studio announced they will finally be revealing Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree after much anticipation from fans. The reveal for Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree will happen on Thursday, February 21, 2024, at 10 AM ET on YouTube. The Gameplay Reveal trailer will be three minutes long, says FromSoftware. This presentation will be 3 minutes long. Language subtitles will be available. Please use the YouTube caption tool to select your preferred language. — ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) February 20, 2024 In other Elden Ring news, it was reported that Tencent is developing an Elden Ring mobile game that will be free-to-play with in-app purchases, similar to Genshin Impact.

Review: Helldivers 2

Developer – Arrowhead Game Studios Publisher – Sony Interactive Entertainment Platforms – PC, PlayStation 5 (reviewed) Review copy given by publisher PlayStation 5’s newest live service cooperative action game has arrived, and it is none other than Helldivers 2, the sequel to 2015’s top down shooter Helldivers. Inspired by sci-fi action movies such as Starship Troopers, Helldivers 2 is an addictive fight for freedom and democracy with a group of friends, but it is dragged down by nasty server issues and matchmaking bugs. At its core, Helldivers 2 is a third person squad-based shooter that has you playing as a titular Helldiver soldier from a fictional world known as Super Earth. Think of it as being similar to the widely popular Deep Rock Galactic, where you have a central hub to customize your loadout, and embark on missions from a terminal to various procedurally generated environments and locations. You’ll be squashing alien bugs known as Terminids as well as evil robots known as Automatons with up to 3 other squadmates. Each loadout consists of a primary weapon, secondary weapon, and an accessory such as a grenade. Stratagems, which are air drops you can call that provide supplies, machine guns, or shields for your team, make a welcome return from the first game. The basic gameplay loop is quite simple. Choose a mission ala squashing some bug eggs or uploading some encrypted data and dive right into various alien planets via your launch pod. Shoot through waves of nasty bugs or Terminator robots before you call in the ship for an extraction. Helldivers 2 takes on a more realistic approach to shooting, as friendly fire is always on and each time you reload, it throws away the remaining bullets in the magazine. This forces a more tactical and strategic approach to combat, which is synonymous to how the first Helldivers was too. You can’t expect to spray and pray your way through this game buddy! Aside from your main objective to complete, there’s a multitude of various side activities to discover and partake in on the planet you landed on. There’s loot to collect, random bug nests to clear, or even side missions to complete. Once you’re ready to head back to your mothership, call in the extractor and you’ll have to point-defend for two minutes before the ship arrives. What’s unique about Helldivers 2 is that in order to call in Stratagems or even the extractor ship, you need to input various combinations of buttons on the Directional Pad on the DualSense controller. It can be a bit difficult to do when things get hectic but it’s a novel mechanic nonetheless. Progression comes in the form of unlocking further difficulty levels in missions, which go from Easy, Medium, and Challenging, all the way to Hard, Extreme, Suicide Mission, and Hell Dive. There’s tons of equipment, weapons, and accessories to purchase with your hard earned currency. There’s also a battle pass-like system with an in-game shop where you can purchase items with real life money too. It’s a live service game after all… The game is a blast to play, especially with friends, as you experience hilarious and intense moments of chaos, teamwork, and heroism. If you want a fast game, there’s also a convenient quick play option. The game is full of humor and satire, poking fun at the absurdity of war and propaganda. The game also has a lot of replay value, as you can unlock and customize your Helldiver, and participate in the Galactic War, a persistent online campaign where you can influence the outcome of the conflict. What Arrowhead Game Studios did that blew my mind is invoking the sense of community and camaraderie. Every completed mission contributes to a global effort to liberate various planets in the name of democracy. The major bottleneck holding the game back right now is the consistent server issues that prevent players from logging into the game. The game has been released for nearly 2 weeks now and yet it is still suffering from connectivity failures on a daily basis due to the sheer number of players trying to log in. As a live service, online-only game, this is a pretty big concern considering people who pay full price for the game can’t even enjoy it.  To make matters even worse, let’s say you do get over the first hurdle of getting into the servers. Matchmaking issues also plague players as those who try to join with randoms get disconnected or lobbies fail to get formed. If you do end up getting booted mid-game from a bug or server-related issue, you also won’t get any rewards, which essentially makes the past half an hour wasted. That being said, the developers have addressed these issues and are working diligently to mitigate and resolve the aforementioned grievances, so here’s hoping it gets fixed soon! It doesn’t help that the game also feels a bit repetitive at times, as the missions and enemies lack variety. The game could use more content and features, such as new modes, maps, and objectives. Currently there are no vehicles available in Helldivers 2, but the developers have already announced that mech suits would be coming soon! It is still unknown if actual cars or trucks will be available down the line or not, but given this is a live service game, it’s not entirely out of the picture. After all, vehicles were a thing back in Helldivers 1! There’s a fair number of accessibility options here, with standard features such as setting the screen and UI brightness as well as toggling motion blur and depth of field. Voice chat can be enabled via the microphone on the DualSense controller, which is pivotal considering how important it is to communicate with your squadmates in game. Spoken languages come in English, Portuguese, French, German, Spanish, and Italian, which is an impressive suite of options. Subtitles can be enabled to small, medium, and large, but unfortunately the default text on

Microsoft Says Its Next Xbox Is The “Largest Technological Leap” For Any Console

It is no secret – Microsoft is officially going to release select titles on competing systems. While the first has done this before, this time its with first-party releases, no published games. In total, it said four unnamed games are on the way. But from corroborating reports it’s told that the titles are determined to be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea Of Thieves, and Grounded by The Verge & Famitsu. One other interesting comment is by Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming CEO. In that, he addressed there are no other plans for games beyond the four. Or, that it signifies that Xbox as a platform is truly going third-party. Even more, during the podcast he elaborated that platform exclusives are to certainly shrink over the next decades just based off of the direction the industry is heading. During the show, Xbox president Sarah Bond did address that the next-generation Xbox is already underway. Although not sharing much, she did express that it will be “delivering the largest technical leap we will ever see in a hardware generation.” You can watch the segment of the podcast in the video below: “We’re also invested into the next-generation roadmap”, Bond elaborates during the discussion. But, this is not anything new following the previous document leaks that took place back in 2023. At the time, internal documents revealed that Microsoft is preparing a new system aiming to release in 2026. The said document also revealed a DualSense-like gamepad which has recently been reported to roll out later this spring. And now with next-generation talk for Xbox, the same is also taking place at PlayStation. Recently during a financial call at Sony, it was revealed that the PlayStation 5 is already in the “latter stages” of its lifecycle. And alike the Xbox Series X|S, the PlayStation 5 does not have a lot to show for its platform exclusives this generation. You can read the full report by heading here. What are your thoughts on this statement by Microsoft?

Tales Of Arise, Indivisible, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, And More Slated For Xbox Game Pass February 2024 New Update

This past week, Microsoft shared major news regarding Xbox Game Pass. Partly, the Xbox firm announced that the total subscription counts for its service is now counting 34 million users. Even more, it also has an update on its plans for the library moving forward. As part of the Activision Blizzard King acquisition, the first addition to Xbox Game Pass will be Diablo IV later in March next month. Additionally, the firm already kicked off February strong with its latest lineup reveal earlier on. In that, titles including Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night, Resident Evil 3, PlateUp! Were just a few of the new roster that was shared then. The more surprising news is that four Xbox Game Pass titles are also said to be hitting other platforms in the near future, Microsoft said at its recent podcast. For the new announcements regarding Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft shares a new list of titles coming for the remainder of February 2024. You can read the whole selection below: Console Tales of Arise – 2/20 Bluey: The Videogame – 2/22 Maneater – 2/27 Indivisible – 2/28 Space Engineers – 2/29 Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun – 3/5 PC Tales of Arise – 2/20 Bluey: The Videogame – 2/22 Maneater – 2/27 Indivisible – 2/28 Space Engineers – 2/29 Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun – 3/5 Cloud Tales of Arise – 2/20 Bluey: The Videogame – 2/22 Maneater – 2/27 Madden NFL 24 [EA Play] – 2/27 Indivisible – 2/28 Space Engineers – 2/29 Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun – ⅗ For titles on the way out, there are two games exiting Xbox Game Pass on February 29th. Those titles being Madden NFL 22 [EA Play] (Console; PC), and Soul Hackers 2 (Cloud; Console; PC). From the list, we recommend you read our first-impressions for Indivisible. “Overall, Indivisible takes the best of RPG and Platforming and blends them into something insanely unique, with some of the best art and fluid animation I have seen for an independent title. This is surely one to look out for.” Adding to that, we also did a review for Tales of Arise we suggest reading. “Tales of Arise uses excellent writing and characters with great effect. Fantastic visuals and a deep combat system round out the package to make it one of the best entries in this storied franchise.” You can read the full piece by heading here. What has you most interested in this new list for Xbox Game Pass? Source: Xbox Wire

Bethesda To Sell A New Fallout ‘S.P.E.C.I.A.L.’ Anthology, Pre-Orders Now Live

In recent times, Bethesda’s Fallout franchise remains on the back burner since the 2018 release, Fallout 76. And although the game is a live-service with much of what players enjoy of the series as new content is added, players are ready for a new release. However, it is likely still years away as Bethesda just got off the release from Starfield. Speaking to IGN, Todd Howard tells that the series is miles away from being realized as of the interview. Howbeit, all is not lost as fans can look forward to the upcoming television series. This coming April, Amazon is to air its exclusive Fallout TV show. From the teaser trailer, Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, and Kyle MacLauchlan star in the approaching series. From one interview, Howard does go on the elaborate the new show will be in the same timeline as the games that inspired the TV show. Speaking on the Fallout lineage, Bethesda is preparing to release a new Fallout Anthology. Like previous, a new mini nuke edition is coming – this time bundled with Fallout 76 themed after the perk cards of the live-service. Pre-orders are now live for ‘The Fallout S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Anthology’. Inspired by Fallout 76’s in-game perk cards, the Fallout S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Anthology contains seven collectible cards, stored in the core of a miniature bomb (though disarmed, the painted mini-nuke features an explosive sound effect!). On these S.P.E.C.I.A.L. cards, Vault-Tec’s fan-favorite Vault Boy makes the best use of his Charisma points to depict the core skills of any exceptional vault-dweller, from brute Strength to sheer Luck. “Whether you’re new to Bethesda Game Studios’ Fallout, or this isn’t your first time stepping out of the vault, get a crash course in wasteland survival from the very beginning of the award-winning role-playing game series that blasted onto the scene in 1997.” The bundle includes Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition, Fallout: New Vegas – Ultimate Edition, Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition, and Fallout 76. Also in 2024, Fallout is expanding to Magic: The Gathering. In a presentation last year, wizards of the Coast revealed that the Bethesda IP alongside Assassin’s Creed & Final Fantasy will received dedicated expansion leading into 2025. You can read the full report by heading here. What are you planning to play from the new anthology first? The Fallout S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Anthology arrives on April 11, 2024 for PC. Source: Bethesda

Already PlayStation 5 Said To Be In The “Latter Stages” Of Its Lifecycle, Executive Tells

PlayStation 5 as of yet still remains to be the largest selling console for the 9th generation of commercial systems in the video game race. In its latest report, the newest Sony machine sold 54.8 million units. Accounting for a decline in corporate projections and for PlayStation Plus subscribers, this is a surprising feat to say the least. Additionally, its first-party titles are taking a unique turn in 2024. From one financial report recently, executives reveal that the properties for its platform are expanding reach. From CFO Hiroki Totoki, Sony Interactive Entertainment is eyeing other means to distribute its titles. Additionally, this year specifically will be vacant of identifying IPs and this year is to feature new releases – namely of its live-service venture. In coverage of the recent financial earnings for Sony by Bloomberg, the PlayStation 5 is already nearing the second half of its lifecycle. This surprises many users online as the momentum of releases this generation has remained light in comparison to prior systems. And, this does not apply to only PlayStation, but Xbox as well for certain too. “Looking ahead, PS5 will enter the latter stage of its life cycle. As such, we will put more emphasis on the balance between profitability and sales. For this reason, we expect the annual sales pace of PS5 hardware will start falling from the next fiscal year,” Sony senior vice president Naomi Matsuoka addressed. Again, the firm reiterates on the matter of hardware sales with it now expecting less to push out in the tailend of this generation. What makes this different than – let’s say, Nintendo – is how much the firm has managed in the same time. In roughly four years, the Nintendo Switch managed to deliver a massive library of titles. This includes re-releases of its Wii U & new, unique entries for the new platform. And Nintendo still continued this strategy well into the present and still exceeding expectations. You can read the full report by heading here. What are you most surprised about the statement from Sony?

The Crazy Taxi reboot to have a 100-player survival mode

One of the worst-kept secrets from Sega right now are the reboots of Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio as known Sega leaker shares new information. According to MbKKssTBhz5, the new Crazy Taxi title is modeled after AAA live service games like Fortnite with live events, collaborations, and customizations planned. He also states that there is a plan to create a live service reboot and a remake of the original Crazy Taxi. Over a week ago this leaker also reported that the reboot would be released in 2027 and would have online elements. https://twitter.com/MbKKssTBhz5/status/1759683123921518868 With Sega’s new plan they are using Fortnite and GTA Online as the main inspiration and the company aims to be competitive in the live service scene using their classic IPs in different ways. https://twitter.com/MbKKssTBhz5/status/1759683511013740713