Halo Infinite Generates Encounters Based on Equipped Vehicle, Has Linear Story

Halo Infinite campaign_04

In its latest episode of #Ask343, 343 Industries fielded questions from fans on Halo Infinite, confirming what would and wouldn't be in the game. It's already discussed dynamic weather and the lack of playable Elites while re-affirming that the game isn't open world. Players can still use a Banshee and head to objectives that await later on but there's a linear story thread to follow.

While you could stick to the main story path, it's also possible to explore different structures, rescue Marines and much more on the side. The story is meant to be an "ever-present anchor" – you won't encounter invisible walls but it skipping any story content isn't possible. As you progresses, new areas will unlock and certain new things may be discovered due to acquiring a vehicle. You could even bring some Marines along for the ride, further reinforcing the developer's goal of providing multiple ways to play.

One of the more interesting aspects while exploring the world is a systems that spawns encounters based on which vehicle you have (or even if you're on foot). If you have a Wasp, then certain events will spawn based on that. This isn't meant to be more difficult but instead changes thing up based your means of exploration.

Halo Infinite is currently in development for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC and releases this Fall.

Halo Infinite Won't Have Dual-Wielding, Playable Elites

Halo Infinite campaign_03

343 Industries dropped a wealth of new information on Halo Infinite in its most recent episode of #Ask343. It confirmed what could be expected from the dynamic weather system at launch along with how the day/night cycle would influence the world. Several other aspects were clarified like whether dual-wielding weapons is possible.

Unfortunately, there's no dual-wielding and it's not currently planned either. The focus instead is on using the various weapons, grenades and melee attacks along with different equipment. Covenant Elites also won't be playable and while the developer noted that "This is a Master Chief and Spartan story," it also said to "never say never." So perhaps they may be included some day as post-launch content.

Upgrades are also present for equipment and you'll discover different variants of weapons. An upgrade system for weapons was toyed with but the developer felt that it strayed away from Halo's core gameplay. Also, if you've ever wanted to kick things off of Zeta Halo's edge, it will be difficult but possible with enough "luck and skill."

Halo Infinite is currently slated to release this Fall for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC.

Destiny 2 – Trials of Osiris Disabled Due to Fireteam Rejoin Bug

Destiny 2 - Trials of Osiris

Bungie's woes with Trials of Osiris in Destiny 2 continue. Due to "an issue" with the Fireteam Rejoin function, the PvP event has been disabled for the rest of the weekend. This isn't the first (or third) time that it's been cancelled. Win-trading was recently blamed for the mode being unavailable, though Bungie didn't confirm the same.

However, community manager dmg04 noted that the current bug is a "gnarly one" and that the development team was "digging deeper." A fix will likely be coming with the March 23rd balance update, which means that Trials could be disabled this coming weekend as well. Fortunately, the developer will be working to ensure that "rewards aren't missed this season due to the delays." It also wants to give players in lower win areas a chance for the handcannon.

Though next week's patch will address Stasis and tone down the Revenant and Behemoth sub-classes, an update will also be going live tomorrow. The latter focuses more on bugs and issues with the Devil's Lair and Fallen S.A.B.E.R. strikes while also fixing Dunemarcher's Linear Actuators perk work at last. Stay tuned for more details on Trials of Osiris in the coming days.

Destiny 2 Xur Exotics – Monte Carlo, Knucklehead Radar, Winter's Guile

Destiny 2 Xur

Xur is back in Bungie's Destiny 2, hanging out in the Tower behind Dead Orbit. He'll be around until tomorrow's weekly reset so there's no time to lose. This week's Exotic wares are fairly standard, save for the weapon – Monte Carlo.

As a primary Exotic auto rifle, dealing damage with Monte Carlo will reduce one's melee cooldown (with kills having a chance to fully recharge melee abilities). Damage increases as you chain together kills with melee kills granting ammo. While not the most top-tier pick, it's still a very solid auto rifle for 29 Legendary Shards.

Exotic armor this week includes Knucklehead Radar (Hunter helm), Synthoceps (Titan gloves) and Winter's Guile (Warlock gloves), each for 23 Legendary Shards. Each of these is fairly standard – Knucklehead Radar provides radar while aiming down sights, Synthoceps increases melee lunge range and damage when surrounded, and Winter's Guile stacks melee damage with each melee kill. Unless you lack any of these Exotics, they can be safely skipped.

Dying Light 2 Dev Update Won't Include Release Date

dying light 2

Techland's Dying Light 2 will receive a development update on March 17th, more than a year after its initial delay. Rumors have circulated about management issues and other hurdles, though the studio recently assured that the sequel isn't in development hell. Over on the game's Discord (shared by darkghost38 on Reddit), community manager Uncy provided a bit more information on what to expect from the update.

First, he noted that there won't be a release date announcement. Fortunately, there will be more than just the usual "development is going smoothly" message. "You as the community will have a better understanding of what's going on and hopefully it will make the wait a little bit easier." Since there's no announcement for a release date, there also won't be any delay announcements, which is a nice way of looking at it.

Uncy also addressed worries of the game being cancelled, which will not be happening. Could there be new gameplay showcased? The cancellation of previous-gen versions? We'll have to wait for more details in the coming days.

Dying Light 2 is currently slated for Xbox One, PS4 and PC, and will also be a cross-gen title.

Now That Microsoft's Purchase Of Bethesda Is Complete, Which Platform Has The Best First Party?

The biggest problem with Xbox over the last 10 years, especially, has been the state of its first party titles. In an era where devices are becoming increasingly homogenized, and relying more and more on third party games that are almost always multiplatform, first party titles, which are exclusive to the platform holder's system, are what help make a case for and differentiate ecosystems. Nintendo has always realized the value of first party exclusives, and their entire business model is built around using their hardware as an exclusive vehicle to access their desirable software. PlayStation learned the value of first party games in the PS3 era, as the third party exclusives they had enjoyed for over a decade began to quickly go multiplatform, and Sony built up an enviable, world class stable of first party games to set PlayStation apart.

Xbox, on the other hand, puzzlingly seemed to downplay the importance of exclusives around that same time, and I don't think it's a stretch to put at least some of the blame for Xbox One's misfortunes over the years on the fact that there was very little impetus to pick it over a PS4. Once Phil Spencer took over, however, he resolved to address the situation. It's taken him a very long time – the Xbox One is now last gen, and its successor is on the market – but over the last few years, Microsoft has purchased literally dozens of studios to add to their stable of developers, IP, and publishing labels. The end result is that, in terms of sheer numbers, Xbox now has the biggest first party on the market, with 23 studios (significantly more than PlayStation or Nintendo), and literally orders of magnitudes more IP than either of its competitors.

So at this point, what is the state of the three console manufacturers' first party stable? It's safe to say there has been a disruption of status quo, of course, but has it changed anything? Has Xbox made up the difference?

When comparing first party portfolios, we need to get the elephant in the room out of the way first – Nintendo. It goes without saying that Nintendo's first party software is very literally in a league of its own. Nintendo has dozens of world class IP built up over the decades, and they remain the only company in history to be able to sell expensive hardware on the promise of nothing but their own games. Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Super Smash Bros., Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Pokemon, Splatoon, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Metroid, Xenoblade, Luigi's Mansion, and so many more, are franchises from varied studios that single handedly can compel people to buy new Nintendo hardware, sell so many dozens of millions of copies that the list of bestselling games is dominated by Nintendo (in spite of their games being available on just one system, unlike most other titles on the market), have routinely delivered some of the most celebrated and acclaimed games of all time, cover pretty much every single genre under the sun, and have cultural cachet that is very literally unmatched by almost any other game (and certainly by no other first party's titles). It is obvious, axiomatic, a given, that Nintendo's first party is the best – when people spend hundreds of dollars to buy often undesirable hardware by the millions to just play the newest Mario Kart, the point is self evident. They're playing on a different field than the other two.

The battle, then, is not for first place, but for second place. And here is where PlayStation has ruled the roost, especially in the last decade, slowly building up a reputation for consistency and excellence, and closing the once unfathomable gap that used to separate it from first place. The value and cachet of first party PlayStation games has been slowly rising, and Sony's traditional studio driven strategy, combined with their recent emphasis on cultivating IP, has given rise to an enviable slate of award winning games that have comprised one of the longest unbroken streaks of consistent high quality we have ever seen.

But Sony's rise isn't a clean upward curve – this period has seen loads of studio closures (Guerrilla Cambridge, Evolution Studios, Sony Liverpool, Japan Studio), has seen a severe contraction of output in quantity, and has seen a definite emphasis on certain kinds of games and genres over others. Where once Sony used to put out all kinds of games, including fighters, multiplayer shooters, 2D platformers, and whatever the hell Tokyo Jungle was, they now mostly seem to emphasize third person action adventure titles. This isn't to say that those are the only kinds of games they put out, as titles such as Dreams or Astro's Playroom will easily and readily attest to, but it is undeniable and incontrovertible that the third person action adventure title comprises a significant majority of Sony's output, and gets all of Sony's marketing money and push. The fact that several studios responsible for more unique titles in Sony's portfolio, such as Studio Liverpool with Wipeout, and Japan Studio with things like Gravity Rush, are now closed means this homogeneity may be likelier to continue, especially in the AAA console space (Sony's VR efforts are, to their credit, generally varied and unique).

On paper, Microsoft has Sony beaten. This is true, no matter how much certain people may want to gnash their teeth over it. Theoretically, Microsoft has more than double the studios, two to three times more IP, and some of the biggest and most recognizable brands, across a multitude of genres, and with decades of history, now tied to Xbox – The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, Halo, Forza, Fable, Gears of War, Minecraft are all Xbox games. Bethesda Game Studios, Ninja Theory, id Software are all Xbox studios. While without Bethesda, I think this would be a very clear PlayStation win (albeit Xbox would obviously be closer than it was before Spencer went on his shopping spree), the addition of Fallout and The Elder Scrolls alone means we are looking at some of the most popular games of all time now being Xbox first party titles.

While Uncharted, The Last of Us, God of War, and Horizon are obviously great, valuable IP with millions of fans, nothing Sony has comes close to matching the caliber of Fallout or The Elder Scrolls, except Spider-Man, and Spider-Man is a licensed IP.

Theoretically, Xbox is also covering a broader range of genres now – fighting games, racing games, RPGs, horror games, immersive sims, first person shooters, third person shooters, third person action adventure games, survival games, real time strategy games, simulation games, platformers, and more. Again, this is significantly more than Sony covers – actually it might be significantly more than even Nintendo covers at this point, especially when one considers that Nintendo has nothing, for example, in the immersive sim arena. In terms of sheer variety and breadth, theoretically, Xbox is now the top dog.

If I were to go by this analysis as painted above, then yes, Xbox takes the second place crown from PlayStation, with Nintendo still leading the pack (and Xbox actually beginning to trade blows with Nintendo in several areas, such as genre variety). This, again, is on paper. The fact of the matter is, all this is now contingent on Microsoft and Xbox properly executing and following through on all the acquisitions they have made. That means they have to manage these studios and IP well, not interfere with the creative process, and have them put out games in line with the expected quality from them prior to the acquisition. The issue is, Microsoft has not been known to do that in the past – consider how badly Rare was mismanaged, or how terribly Microsoft handled IPs with as much prestige as Halo or Gears of War. The one exception to the rule so far has been Minecraft, which under Microsoft, became bigger than it ever was prior to their acquisition, but we have far more examples of Microsoft mismanaging their game output than otherwise. And while some people might be tempted to point out that the examples of mismanagement are from before Phil Spencer took over as head of Xbox, which is fair, the bulk of them are still from a time when Phil Spencer was at the very least in charge of Microsoft's first party lineup, if nothing else.

PlayStation Studios

So has Microsoft closed the gap? On paper, sure. On paper, they are now way ahead of Sony, and within kissing distance of Nintendo (who maintain a thin first place lead). The jury is out on whether or not this actually translates into anything substantive in the real world. It all depends on how Microsoft manages its first party portfolio from here on out, as well as on whether or not Sony continues to decrease the breadth of its own first party as they have been in the past few years. In the here and now, though? Nintendo maintains first place, Sony is still second, and Microsoft is still third – but the battle is now closer than it has literally ever been before.

And that's already a big change from status quo.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Might be Coming to Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus – Rumour

Sekiro Shadows Die Twice_02

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is easily one of the best games to have been released by anyone on any platform in recent years, and it has enjoyed the sort of critical and commercial success that a game as good as this should. Given that, chances are you've already played the game- if you haven't, though, and were planning on buying it soon, you might want to hold off on that.

Industry insider, Xbox Era's Shpeshal Ed, recently suggested on Twitter that Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice might be headed either to Xbox Game Pass or be given away as a free PlayStation Plus game in the near future. He did not go into too many details (such as which of those two he was hinting at), but did say that you might want to hold off on buying Sekiro in case you were planning on doing that "in the next couple of months or so." Shpeshal Ed recently correctly leaked that Final Fantasy 7 Remake would be one of the free games given away to PlayStation Plus subscribers in March, so he does have a good recent track record.

Both Microsoft and Sony have been pushing their respective subscription services pretty aggressively of late. Xbox Game Pass is, of course, central to Microsoft's strategy now. In addition to a bunch of Bethesda games recently being added to the service, Microsoft has also said it'll keep many of the company's games exclusive to Game Pass in the future. Meanwhile, in the short term, they also seem to be hinting at something that may or may not be a day and date Game Pass launch for Outriders.

Meanwhile, Sony, too, have been focusing on PlayStation Plus quite a bit of late. Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Destruction AllStars have all been notable PS Plus games over the past couple of months. Oddworld: Soulstorm will be available with the subscription for free for a month at launch, and Sony has said that it plans to give away from games with PS Plus right at launch in the future.

Of course, we should find out one way or another whether Sekiro is going to be added to any of these, so stay tuned to GamingBolt for more updates.

Marvel's Avengers – Operation: Hawkeye – Future Imperfect Gameplay Shown off During Recent Stream

avengers hawkeye

Marvel's Avengers is getting its next major content drop soon, with Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye being added to the game's roster of playable superheroes, and also bringing with him new story content and additional optional missions and side content to take on. Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics will be hoping that the DLC, titled Operation: Hawkeye – Future Imperfect, is the first step on the road to recovery for the game, and ahead of the DLC's launch, they have shown off a meaty new portion of gameplay.

During a recent gameplay stream, Crystal Dynamics showed off plenty of the Hawkeye DLC in action, showing the ranged and melee combat with the character, while also showing off the new location that's being added to the game. If you're on the fence about whether or not you should jump back into the brawler with this upcoming DLC, checking out this gameplay footage might be a good idea. You can check out the full Twitch stream through here.

Operation: Hawkeye – Future Imperfect will launch on March 18. That update will also be bringing several other additions, including a campaign replay option, rebalancing of progression, customizable H.A.R.M. Rooms, and more.

Marvel's Avengers is currently available on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia. It will be releasing for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on March 8.

Ninja Gaiden Master Collection Will Run at 4K and 60 FPS+ on Xbox, as Per Microsoft Store Listing

NINJA-GAIDEN-Master-Collection

Team Ninja might not be working on a full-fledged new Ninja Gaiden entry right now (even though some at the studio definitely want to), but it's not like there's nothing in the future for series fans to look forward to. Koei Tecmo recently announced Ninja Gaiden Master Collection, a compilation of remastered versions of Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razer's Edge– and based on new information, they'll be quite the significant upgrades over their original releases.

A Microsoft Store listing for the game (as spotted by VGC) claims that on Xbox One, Ninja Gaiden Master Collection will run at 4K, and boast performance that could exceed 60 frames per second. Obviously, that's likely referring to the game's Xbox One X version, and it should mean that players can expect similar (or better) resolution and frame rate on the Xbox Series X via backward compatibility. This has yet to be confirmed by Koei Tecmo, though if it does turn out to be accurate, it'll be interesting to see how the game fares on a PS4 Pro.

Meanwhile, you'll also notice that the store listing in question is for a Deluxe Edition, which is something else that Koei Tecmo haven't officially announced yet. According to the store page, the Deluxe Edition will include a digital art book and soundtrack.

Ninja Gaiden Master Collection is due out on June 10 for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Final Fantasy 16, Resident Evil Village Rank in Top 5 of Famitsu Most Wanted Charts Yet Again

Final Fantasy 16

The latest weekly charts for the most highly anticipated upcoming games, as voted by the readers of Famitsu, are in, and they show rather predictable results. Monster Hunter Rise, which has been topping these charts on a weekly basis for some time now, is once again in the top sport, and with a pretty healthy lead as well. Trailing by nearly 200 votes, Bandai Namco's upcoming action RPG Tales of Arise takes second place.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy 16 and Resident Evil Village, both of which have also been routinely ranking high in these charts, are placed third and fourth respectively, while The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's sequel rounds out the top 5 yet again.

A number of upcoming Nintendo Switch exclusives occupy the next few places in the top 10, with Rune Factory 5, Bayonetta 3, Shin Megami Tensei 5, and New Pokemon Snap taking the next four spots. Meanwhile, now that Bravely Default 2 is out, the spot that it had usually taken in this charts every week has been freed up, and Capcom's upcoming Pragmata moves into the charts at tenth place.

You can check out the full top 10 below. All votes were cast by Famitsu readers between February 18 and February 24.

1. [NSW] Monster Hunter Rise – 822 votes
2. [PS4] Tales of Arise – 638 votes
3. [PS5] Final Fantasy 16 – 597 votes
4. [PS5] Resident Evil Village – 479 votes
5. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 – 461 votes
6. [NSW] Rune Factory 5 – 384 votes
7. [NSW] Bayonetta 3 – 366 votes
8. [NSW] Shin Megami Tensei 5 – 336 votes
9. [NSW] New Pokemon Snap – 228 votes
10. [PS5] Pragmata – 215 votes

[Via Nintendo Everything]