Rainbow Six Extraction Trailer Showcases Vigil's Stealth Skills

Ubisoft's Rainbow Six Extraction has received a new Operator Showcase trailer, this time focusing on Chul Kyung Hwa aka Vigil. While some Operators like Sledge rely on brute force, Vigil is more of the sneaky kind, utilizing his ERC-8 Disruptor to avoid detection from foes. Check it out below.

While possessing a similar device in Rainbow Six Siege, it could only make Vigil invisible to any video feeds, be it from drones or cameras. This one seems to be an upgrade, shielding him from the Archaeans even if they're a few inches away. Players can then get behind them and perform a stealth takedown.

Rainbow Six Extraction is out on September 16th for Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Google Stadia and PC with support for cross-platform play and cross-saves. Those who play Rainbow Six Siege can avail of the United Front bundle in both games for free. If you play Extraction and hop into Siege for the first time, then all 18 Operators from the former will be unlocked in the latter.

EA Play Live Won't Have Any New Star Wars Games

For the past few months, there have been rumors of a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. With EA Play Live happening next week, it seemed that there would be an announcement or at least a teaser. Unfortunately, the official EA Star Wars Twitter account has confirmed that no new Star Wars games will be showcased at the event.

However, the company is looking forward to "celebrating with you next year when we share our vision for the Galaxy far, far away!" If nothing else, this could mean an announcement or two next year. Perhaps news on the next big Star Wars Battlefront as well? It wouldn't be too strange, though given DICE's focus on Battlefield 2042 for the foreseeable future, it remains to be seen.

Along with Star Wars, BioWare's next Dragon Age and Mass Effect titles will be skipping the show. EA Play Live will be broadcast on July 22nd and is confirmed to feature titles like Lost in Random, Battlefield 2042 and Apex Legends. Rumors also cite that a reboot of Dead Space by Motive Studios will be revealed. Stay tuned for more details in the coming week.

Weird West Gameplay Trailer Details Playable Characters, Out in Fall 2021

WolfEye Studios and Devolver Digital have released a new gameplay trailer for Weird West, detailing the five origin characters that players can control. Each character has their own story and journey but their actions will ripple throughout the world and have an impact on their future. Of course, the trailer also showcases a hefty amount of combat – check it out below.

Jane Bell is a bounty hunter who seems to be searching for her missing husband. Cl'erns Qui'g is a cursed pigman that's viewed as a monster by society. Across Waters is a "guardian" of the land, tracking an "evil wind" across the plains with his bow and arrow. Desiderio Rios is a werewolf that can transform in the middle of combat and slice foes up. Finally, there's Nell Bitterleaf, a future-seer that seeks to change "what's coming."

All five are tied together for a purpose "deeper than they know" and it's noted that the more players dig, the weirder things get. Weird West releases in Fall 2021 and will be coming to PS4 and Xbox One along with PC. To learn more about the game's permanent choices and the Conductor, head here.

Ex-Sledgehammer Executive Reveals The Amount of Work That Goes Into Developing a Call of Duty Game

Ex-Sledgehammer General Manager Glen Schofield sat down with Edge magazine for an interview, in which he argues about how fans and the industry is not appreciative of the work that goes into developing a new Call of Duty game every year.

Glen Schofield served as a co-director on many of the franchise's entries, and goes in detail about how intensively he researched the subject material for creating the games. He argues that fans think that developing a new Call of Duty is as simple as pressing a few buttons on a machine, and a new game pops out every year.

As transcribed by VGC, Glen states, "People nowadays [think] a Call of Duty is… you know, just put it through the grinder and another one will come out. They don't realise how much work goes into making a Call of Duty game. There's just a ton of research."

"You're working with experts – I studied World War Two for three years. I worked with historians. I spent eight days in a van in Europe going to all the places that were going to be in the game. I shot different old weapons. All of these things that you have to do when you're working on a Call of Duty game."

"And, you know, to become an expert – we worked with Navy SEALS and Delta Force people to learn [the] tactics and techniques and get them into the game, right? You had to learn about the Special Forces from different countries like England and France and Spain and Italy and all that, because they were all in the game. So, a lot of learning, constantly reading, constantly watching videos and constantly working with experts."

Game development isn't an easy task, even with the massive financial backing that a publisher such as Activision provides. However, this doesn't excuse the fact that Call of Duty is being extensively milked as there's always the pressure to release a new game every year. With Call of Duty: Warzone being a live-service title that requires maintanence and updates alongside the full-priced annual release, many of Activision's subsidiaries have been reduced to support roles to keep oiling the Call of Duty machine with the most recent example being Toys for Bob.

Somerville Director Insists That The Game Is Not A Puzzle Platformer

Jumpship co-founder and Somerville game director Chris Olsen recently sat down with GamesIndustry.biz to talk about the studio's upcoming game. He insists that the game is not a puzzle platformer, but rather a unique experience that is hard to describe.

Chris Olsen says that there is a lot of misconception surrounding Somerville, and part of it has to do with the trailer itself. The trailer showcased the character pushing and pulling objects, which led to fans believing it to be a 2D puzzle platformer. Chris has now clarified that the game has full 3D movement, and is a unique experience which is "definitely not a puzzle platformer."

"I couldn't quite describe it in a way that made it fit into a mold, essentially," Olsen says. "At the time, [the journalist] was like, 'Sounds like you need to get your pitch together' or something like that, but in my own head, I was really happy I couldn't say exactly what it was. It definitely feels like something I've not played before, both mechanically and the way the story is told.

"So that misconception of it being a puzzle platformer about manipulating items to get on top of them and all these things… I'd say it has some of that DNA — sort of — but we've gone so far away from that now it's become its own thing. All I really feel comfortable calling it now is 'a sci-fi adventure.'"

From the looks of it, Somerville tasks players to rebuild a family that has been affected by an unknown conflict within a post-apocalyptic universe. Sommerville releases in 2022 for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC and will be available on Xbox Game Pass at launch.

Epic Games Store Reveals Next Week's Free -to-Claim Games, Includes Defense Grid: Awakening and Verdun

The Epic Games Store has recently revealed its selection of free-to-claim games for next week, which include Defense Grid: Awakening and Verdun. These will of course, be replacing this week's selection of games which include Obduction and Offworld Trading Company which are now available for users to claim. 

Defense Grid: Awakening is a tower-defense game from Hidden Path Entertainment, which released way back in 2008 to great reviews. Verdun on the other hand, is a WW1 first person shooter from developer Blackmill which released in 2015 for PC. Both of these games will be free-to-claim starting July 22 up to July 29.

The Epic Games Store revealed that it had acquired 160 million users since its launch in 2018, and fans have claimed 749 million copies of free games that the store gave away last year. The Epic Games Store also gave away Control a few weeks before, which ended another wave of its mystery game event.

Xbox Head Phil Spencer Shares Concerns On How Gaming Is "Losing Its History"

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer sat down with Kinda Funny Games to discuss a number of things, with topics ranging from legacy titles on Xbox Game Pass to the PS5 DualSense controller, and how he is worried about gaming losing its history. Check out the video below.

Phil Spencer shares his concerns on the matter and implores others in the industry to come forward to preserve the legacy of the medium. Xbox Series X/S can natively run most of Xbox One, Xbox 360, and original Xbox's titles while Nintendo and Sony have relatively inferior implementations on that front.

"I do worry a little bit about losing our artform and the history of it,", Phil Spencer said(as transcribed by VGC). "When I think about old ROMs and MAME and these things of where these old games are going to go as the hardware that's capable of running those games… I really wish as an industry we'd come together to help preserve the history of what gaming is about, so we don't lose the ability to go back."

Phil Spencer also proposes cloud gaming as a viable front for emulating these older games, since consumer-grade hardware might not have such horsepower.

"On preservation, one of the things that the cloud does offer us is the ability to throw more hardware at some of the emulation scenarios, to make it possible to really emulate… when the team figured out how to emulate Power PC instruction sets on a X86 set, which was how we went from 360 to Xbox One back-compat, we were kind of lucky that the Xbox One had enough processing power to pull off that emulation."

Of course, its not possible to emulate every game, since many require specialized hardware such as the Kinect. On the other hand, Sony doesn't seem to be on the same page particuarly with its decision to close the PSP digital storefront even after fan-backlash.

Baldur's Gate 3 – Patch 5 is Now Live, Includes New Shadowheart Scenes

Announced last week, Patch 5 for Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate 3 is now available for early access players. It adds a number of new features like the Active Roll System (spells and other bonuses will now influence skill checks), Background Goals (provides mini-quests that encourage role-playing) and much more. The patch notes also detail some of the many new scenes for Shadowheart.

These range from new recruitment scenes to scenes that expand on the artefact she's carrying. An additional scene in the camp between Scratch the dog and the owlbear cub has also been added. Point and click character responses, 12 new magic items as loot and quest rewards, active rolls for picking locks and disarming traps and much more have also been added. There's also a Disengage action for combat to avoid Attacks of Opportunity (but jumping can now provoke the same so be careful).

Check out the full patch notes here. Baldur's Gate 3 is currently available in early access and while it won't release this year, Larian Studios is looking at 2022 for a full release. Stay tuned for more details on subsequent patches and updates in the coming months.

Patch #5

Improvements and Additions

  • Added new scenes expanding on Shadowheart's mysterious artefact.
  • Added new recruitment scenes with Shadowheart.
  • Additional reactivity from Shadowheart when she approves of you.
  • Added new camp scene with Scratch and the owlbear cub.
  • Added Point and Click character responses.
  • Added 12 new magic items in loot and quest rewards.
  • Revised active roll UI during dialogue. This includes improved displaying of bonuses and double dice for rolling with Advantage or Disadvantage.
  • You can now use spells and items to increase chances when rolling during dialogue (including your companions' spells and items).
  • Picking locks and disarming traps are now active rolls.
  • Added a new Disengage action that allows you to avoid provoking Attacks of Opportunity.
  • Adding an item during Bartering will automatically equalise the gold on both sides.
  • Added a way to cancel concentration from the concentration indicator.
  • You can now pin most tooltips to hover over additional terms… for more tooltips.
  • Increased the line limit in the dialogue history window.
  • You can now save while leveling up.
  • Added unique visual effects for class-specific spells.
  • Added new icons for spells, statuses and items.
  • Added dozens of new interactable items, expanding on the lore and background of the world.
  • Revamped visuals for spells used by multiple classes to create more cohesion with Class-specific spells.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Delayed to Spring 2022

Fatshark's Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has been delayed. The co-op sci-fi shooter was originally slated for 2021 but will now be releasing in Spring 2022 for Xbox Series X/S and PC. On Twitter, Fatshark CEO and co-founder Martin Wahlund explained that "building a game during a pandemic is a challenge", one that the studio isn't immune to.

"We have a responsibility to deliver the best game we possibly can, and frankly we need more time to accomplish this goal. It's no secret that building a game during a pandemic is a challenge and we are not immune to this. We are planning to use the extra time to both focus on the level of quality at release, as well as invest in more systems to support Darktide for years to come."

Announced last year, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is set in the Hive City of Tertium on Atoma Prime. Though originally under control of the Imperium of Man, Chaos has scoured the planet and turned it into a cesspool of corruption. As a recently freed prisoner, the player joins up with the Inquisition to overthrow the invading forces.

As players complete missions and become more trusted with the Inquisition, they'll unlock new missions to complete. The story is written by Dan Abnett who's responsible for some of the best novels in the universe like Eisenhorn, The Horus Heresy and Gaunt's Ghosts. More details and gameplay, along with the developer's post-launch planned, should be revealed in the coming months so stay tuned.

Lost Judgment Receives New Gameplay of School Setting, Skateboarding and More

Following up on behinds the scenes videos with actors Ken Mitisuishi and Hiroshi Tamaki, Sega has a new video for Lost Judgment that focuses on Takuya Kimura. As the voice actor (who also provides his likeness) for Takayuki Yagami, Kimura discusses his role in the new title along with director Toshihiro Nagoshi. Chief producer Kazuki Hosokawa also shows up to discuss various gameplay aspects.

Along with discussing the new school setting, where Yagami goes undercover, Lost Judgment deals with themes like bullying. Despite its serious tones, there are still plenty of different fun activities for him to engage with (including a Sega Master System which you can find games for). Skateboarding is one and it's possible to pull off some sick tricks and grinds. Combat is as important as ever though and another look at the new Snake style is seen.

Though it's more defensive, allowing players to unleash deadly counterattacks on foes, there does seem to be some timing involved. Nevertheless, combat looks as fast and fluid as ever. The title's recreation of Isezakichō in Yokohama (known as Isezaki Ijincho in-game) also looks fantastic and should make for a fun environment to explore.

Lost Judgment releases on September 24th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4 and PS5. It may be the last title in the series due to a rumored disagreement between Sega and Johnny and Associates, the talent agency that manages Takuya Kimura. Stay tuned for any details and updates in the coming days.