Pages

▼

Halo Infinite Campaign Files Have Leaked

The first technical preview for Halo Infinite recently went live, and Halo fans have finally been getting the chance to dip their toes in the water and see how the shooter's multiplayer component are shaping up. Early impressions are certainly encouraging in several ways, but it seems the beta's release has also gone hand-in-hand with a bit of a blunder from 343 Industries.

Creative director Joseph Staten recently took to Twitter and confirmed that the developer "unintentionally included a small number of Halo Infinite campaign files" in the recently released beta, and that these files contain spoilers for the story. That, of course, means that dataminers have been digging around in the beta's files and have discovered several spoilers for the game's campaign.

"Keep your eyes peeled for spoilers," Staten writes, "and don't spread them if you see them." We, of course, won't be covering any spoilers here on GamingBolt, but be careful around the internet in the coming weeks and months.

Interestingly enough, there's more campaign-related news where Halo Infinite is concerned. As spotted by @_XboxNews over on Twitter, the Halo Waypoint mobile app seems to indicate that the game is going to have multiple campaigns.

Of course, we know that there's only one campaign is going to be in the game at launch, but it seems quite likely that 343 Industries might release more single player campaigns in the future, especially seeing as they plan on continuing to support Halo Infinite with persistent support for at least the next decade.

Halo Infinite launches this Holiday for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. More betas will be going live before then, and are going to be larger in scale than the current one.

Halo Infinite Beta Runs at Roughly Around 100 FPS on Xbox Series X

The first technical preview for Halo Infinite's multiplayer component has gone live, giving players a taste for what to expect when the shooter launches this Fall, and reception for it so far has been quite positive. Even on a visuals and performance front, things are looking quite impressive already. YouTube channel ElAnalistaDeBits recently uploaded an analysis of the game's technical preview (which you can view below), and numbers for its frame rate and resolution on multiple consoles have emerged.

On the Xbox Series X, the Halo Infinite beta runs at 4K resolution, and though it targets 120 FPS, the performance generally hovers in the 100-110 FPS range, while sometimes dropping into the 90s as well. Meanwhile, on an Xbox Series S, the resolution drops down to 1080p, which means it's able to stick to 120 FPS much better, with hardly any drops in performance to speak of.

On a base Xbox One, the frame rate is consistently maintained at 30 FPS at 1080p, while on an Xbox One X, the resolution is cranked up to 4K, with the frame rate still being maintained at 30 FPS, with very few drops here and there. Other than the base Xbox One, all consoles are supposed to receive more modes favouring performance in the future, which should be interesting to analyze.

Meanwhile, the Xbox Series X/S have better load times, while shadows, textures, and ambient occlusion are also improved on the two and on Xbox One X as compared to the Xbox One. Clearly, results are already impressive, and this is just the very first technical preview (with more elaborate betas yet to come in the future), which means things may very well improve further in the future.

Halo Infinite launches for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC this Holiday, possibly in November.

Steam Deck is Future Proof, but Might Receive Future Iterations, Valve Says

The Steam Deck is, of course, not going to be as powerful as the most powerful PCs on the market right now, but for a handheld gaming PC, it's got some pretty impressive specs. The thing with the PC space, however, is that there's always new and better technologies popping up, which means it doesn't take long for even the most powerful hardware to become outdate. So how's the Steam Deck going to deal with that?

Speaking to IGN, Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais reiterated that the Steam Deck is going to consistently meet its performance and resolution targets (Griffais has previously also said that the device can handle almost any game that might be thrown at it).

"Everything that's been coming out this year [that we've tried] has been running without issues," Griffais said. "I think this is largely a factor of industry trends. If people are still valuing high frame rates and high resolutions on different platforms, I think that content will scale down to our 800p, 30Hz target really well. If people start heavily favoring image quality, then we might be in a position where we might have trade offs, but we haven't really seen that yet."

Hardware engineer Yazan Aldehayyat added that in terms of future proofing, things are looking pretty good for it, partly thanks to its LPDDR5 memory. He said: "We're using the LPDDR5, which is brand new to the industry. I think we might actually be one of the first products to showcase this new memory technology. So in that sense, that gives a lot of future proofing."

Steam Deck designer Greg Coomer went on to say that is the device should prove to be successful (which Valve seems confident about), the company might even release future iterations of it. "We look at this as just a new category of device in the PC space," Coomer said. "And assuming that customers agree with us that this is a good idea, we expect not only to follow up in the future with more iterations ourselves, but also for other manufacturers to want to participate in the space."

Meanwhile, designer Lawrence Yang says that owing to the SteamOS3 being available for free, any and all manufacturers are going to be able to develop similar devices should they wish to. "We want to make sure people know that the SteamOS 3 is available free, for any manufacturer that wants to make a similar product," Yang said.

The Steam Deck is going to launch in limited regions of the world in December this year, with more shipments to follow throughout 2022.

PS5 Architect Mark Cerny's External SSD of Choice is the WD_BLACK SN850

When the PS5's next firmware update goes live, it will finally allow beta PS5 users to extend their SSDs with external third party options. With requirements for supported SSDs have been revealed, manufacturers have started confirmed compatible options for the console, with both Seagate and Western Digital recently having confirmed compatible models for the PS5.

Of those two, it seems the latter is the preferred choice for Mark Cerny, lead systems architect on the PS5, who recently took to Twitter to confirm that he personally has put down his money to purchase Western Digital's WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD.

The SSD in question is not cheap, as you would have expected, and comes in three variants. The 500 GB model will set you back $149.99, the 1 TB model costs $229.99, and the 2 TB model costs $529.99. That said, given that Cerny is more or less endorsing the SSD, it seems that PS5 owners who're looking to expand their console's SSD can't really go wrong with this one.

Tales of Arise and Final Fantasy 16 Top Famitsu Most Wanted Charts Yet Again

Bandai Namco and Square Enix's upcoming action RPGs, Tales of Arise and Final Fantasy 16 respectively, have ben topping the Famitsu charts for the most highly anticipated upcoming games (as decided by reader votes) for a number of weeks running, and the status quo is maintained this week as well, with Tales of Arise retaining the top spot and Final Fantasy 16 following in second place.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's sequel, which came in at No. 5 last week, has jumped up to the third spot, even though it fewer votes this week. This means fellow upcoming Switch exclusives Bayonetta 3 and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have been pushed down to No. 4 and No. 6 respectively. Meanwhile, Shin Megami Tensei 5 is sandwiched between the two at No. 5.

The rest of the top 10 is split evenly between Switch and PS5 games, with Splatoon 3 and Ushiro at No. 7 and No. 8 respectively, and Gran Turismo 7 and Pragmata rounding out the top 10.

You can check out the full top 10 below. All votes were cast by Famitsu readers between July 8 and July 13.

1. [PS4] Tales of Arise – 525 votes
2. [PS5] Final Fantasy 16 – 491 votes
3. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 – 484 votes
4. [NSW] Bayonetta 3 – 408 votes
5. [NSW] Shin Megami Tensei 5 – 406 votes
6. [NSW] Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl – 339 votes
7. [NSW] Splatoon 3 – 267 votes
8. [NSW] Ushiro – 228 votes
9. [PS5] Gran Turismo 7 – 199 votes
10. [PS5] Pragmata – 196 votes

[Via Nintendo Everything]

NEO: The World Ends with You Review – Cutting Through the Noise

Trying to make a follow up to a beloved cult classic years after the fact rarely, if ever, goes well – this isn't just true for video games, mind you. Look at the subpar results achieved with the attempted revivals of Arrested Development, or the Terminator movies. A lot of the times, what makes something so beloved to so many people is attributable to the extremely unique blend of the people who worked on it, as well as their specific headspace at that present moment in time. Trying to follow up on that years later – either with the same team, but who are now very different people than they were when they worked on the original, or with a mostly different team altogether – is typically a recipe for disaster. 

NEO: The World Ends with You could easily have fallen into that category. It's coming 14 years after the original, and it's launching in a very different market than the one that the original title released in. Back then, JRPGs were on the decline, and the overwrought nature of their plots and characters had turned many off from the genre. The World Ends with You, with its urban setting and extremely relatable themes, as well as a striking sense of style, refreshing aesthetics, and hip hop soundtrack, as well as its extremely unique dual screen gameplay enabled by the DS, stood out from the pack right away. But the trail that The World Ends with You blazed was followed and built upon by many. Even as Square Enix ignored the property for over a decade, urban JRPGs started to become more and more popular, and JRPGs as a whole started to mount a comeback. Where the original game was remarkable in large part because of its novelty, NEO has to stand out on its own merits.

Time has not dulled the series' edge, apparently, because NEO manages to come through, succeeding remarkably at almost everything it tries to do, successfully evoking the original, and building upon its canon with its own fresh ideas. NEO: The World Ends with You is very close to being the perfect sequel to a game like The World Ends with You – it is, essentially, everything that fans of that game have been asking for for 14 years. It's hard to believe that there is almost a decade and a half separating the two entries because of how well NEO channels the original, in fact. And at the same time, it also takes advantage of the intervening 14 years and of the far more capable technology it gets to be on to deliver a substantially bigger and more fleshed out experience – it never feels like it's content to just stay within the boundaries the original title marked, either. It's a remarkable balancing act, one that even sequels born in less difficult circumstances often have trouble with, and it's a wonder NEO pulls it off as well as it does.

NEO The World Ends With You_04

"Time has not dulled the series' edge, apparently, because NEO manages to come through, succeeding remarkably at almost everything it tries to do, successfully evoking the original, and building upon its canon with its own fresh ideas. "

The basic premise is the same here – a bunch of teenagers who realize they're caught up in something called the Reaper's Game, a twisted game that the deceased have to play through in the afterlife in an attempt to win back the right to return to their lives and the world of the living. NEO generally stands on its own merits – a newcomer to the IP will still be able to follow through its substantial story, and be able to follow most of the developments without any trouble. That said, however, the full significance of a lot of it all may well be lost on them, since NEO is a far more direct sequel to the original game than we have been led to believe. It goes beyond just having a similar premise to the original, or some references and nudges to that game, this is a very literal direct follow up to that game, and knowing what happened in The World Ends with You definitely enriches NEO by that much. Even though it is decidedly newcomer friendly, NEO: The World Ends with You is definitely a game made for the fans of the original, and they are the ones who will get the most from it.

This isn't to say that newcomers can't enjoy the story – they can, and presumably they will as well, because it's done really well, with some sharp writing and great characters. I'd go as far as to say that the new cast of characters is far superior to the original batch, with Rin being a far more likeable and pleasant character than Neku, whose dourness didn't make him the easiest person to relate to. The supporting cast similarly shines as well – Rin's best friend Fret is a total loudmouth moron, but he never gets obnoxious or grating, and is generally just a fun character who you're more than happy to have along for the ride. Nagi is an anti social otaku, but her interactions with the other characters (whether it be her jeering dismissal of Fret's stupidity or her swooning and unrequited crush on a fellow party member) make her a delight. Every new character seems far more immediately fleshed out and compelling than characters did in the original, and the tropes they are initially presented as are then built upon and subverted in some really interesting and compelling ways. 

The cast and storytelling in general benefit from the game's excellent and sharp writing. The characters sound like you would expect teenagers to, and that's a really hard thing to nail down, because generally, adults trying to write teenage dialog just ends up being cringey. There are a couple of occasions NEO veers into that territory, but on the whole, it's extremely well written, with some fantastic dialog punctuating the game's surprisingly brisk pacing. It also helps that the game's presentation and aesthetic is so sleek and immediately striking. The art style is bold and stands out, the cut ins used for most conversations and cutscenes are incredibly expressive (and rarely seem to hold back the storytelling like you ordinarily would expect them to), the voice acting is a triumph on every level, with every character and every actor a delight, and the music-

Well, The World Ends with You was especially notable for its soundtrack, and NEO seems to realize that, because it mostly brings over that entire soundtrack wholesale and as is. A lot of the songs are remixed, and while I can see some fans and purists unhappy at the (frankly very minor) changes these remixes result in, I think on the whole, the new versions are superior to the originals. NEO also introduces new songs of its own, these ones tending more towards punk rock and metal, and they're generally great enough to stand side by side next to the older songs and blend in effortlessly enough that it might take you a bit to realize that a lot of them weren't ever in the original game to begin with. 

NEO The World Ends With You_05

"The battles are the highlight of the experience, and they benefit from just how many systems the game has that feed into them."

While the story side of things is definitely a bit diminished for newcomers, the gameplay side will find them on even footing with fans and veterans in terms of the enjoyment they can get from it. The Reaper's Game involves a seven day marathon of different objectives and quests that sees its players going through Shibuya, taking down Noise (the manifestation of negative feelings and thoughts) that infests it and its inhabitants, with "psychs" (as in attacks) they can activate by equipping pins. Unlike the original game, which was very specifically built around the DS's unique hardware, NEO was built for consoles and PC – so no unique battle system or control schemes here. At first, this can feel like a bit of a step down – combat seems far too simple, with each character getting only a single button (and therefore, a single attack) assigned to them, and battles feeling very button mashy. But NEO fleshes its mechanics out over time, layering things on until the battle system becomes extremely involved, necessitating players thinking in three dimensions for multiple characters at the same time, and also rewarding customized pin load outs that can work together to stack effects and bonuses to devastating effect.

These battles are the highlight of the experience, and they benefit from just how many systems the game has that feed into them. Said systems are slowly introduced and built upon over time – for example, in a bid to recreate modern teenage culture's obsession with style, fashion, and brands, NEO: The World Ends with You sees your characters' equipment basically become clothing from different brands, with special bonuses being unlocked if you wear multiple pieces from the same brand, or if you are stylish enough to really rock what you're wearing. Or, for example, the ability to delevel your party – lowering your level lowers your stats, and makes battles far harder, but magnifies the quality and quantity of rewards you can expect (something that can especially help players of all persuasion find their sweet spot with the challenge, especially when combined with the extremely flexible difficulty levels the game also offers). Then there is this game's version of social links – these aren't handled like you would expect them to be based on other JRPGs, but rather take the form of a skill tree. By befriending the people around Shibuya, you add them to your "social network", and by becoming closer with them and helping them out with their problems, you get to unlock unique abilities associated with them – whether it be new items to buy at a store, or the ability to have multiple pin loadouts.

All of these systems were in the original game too, but NEO adds a whole bunch of new mechanics of its own as well. Each new character, for example, gets a unique power associated with them – Fret can essentially plant ideas and thoughts in people's minds by reminding them of specific ideas or things at specific points to induce thoughts related to them. Nagi can help clear people's depression or frustration by targeting the specific noise that is manifestation of their lethargy, and help motivate them to do something, which typically involves them doing something so they can clear the way for the party. And Rin's power is the ability to reverse time, to try and redo things with foreknowledge and prescience if things go south for the party. These abilities can make for some extremely interesting gameplay scenarios – Rin's tie more into the main story progression, but generally, being able to go around Shibuya and impress thoughts upon people and clear their heads with Fret and Nagu definitely makes the city and its inhabitants feel more real and authentic this time around, and causes a better connection with them for the player – it's hard not to like the people of Shibuya more when there is more to them than just a one line thought bubble over their head, and when you have delved into the deepest recesses of their mind to try and help them get their lives back on track.

NEO The World Ends With You

"NEO: The World Ends with You is that rare thing, a long awaited and belated sequel to a cult classic that ends up thoroughly recreating the brilliance of the original, while pushing against its boundaries."

NEO: The World Ends with You's many victories on the gameplay side of things can often feel undermined, however, by its bevy of technical issues. The unpatched Switch version of the game is a bit of a mess, with severe frame rate drops with very little provocation (including on the loading screens! How do you have frame rate drops on loading screens?), long load times, and infinite load loops and crashes that disrupt the experience. I would say this is an unacceptable state of things – but the day one patch actually fixes most of this, surprisingly enough. Framerate drops are exceedingly rare with this patch applied (though they do still occasionally crop up), and I've run into no crashes or load loops since either. Load times themselves have been shortened a little bit, and while on occasion they can feel annoyingly long, on the whole they are no longer disruptive. This is good, and it means most people who play it get to play the game without any of the significant problems it has in its unpatched state – but if you play it via a physical copy, there is still a very large chance that you run into these problems if you don't patch it up right away. So that's something to keep in mind: under no circumstances should you play NEO without the day one patch. Make sure you have the latest updates.

However, there are some problems with the game that can't be patched away. Chief of these is the camera – NEO: The World Ends with You employs fixed camera perspectives, and these can be extremely frustrating and disorienting for players, particularly since the camera just jumps from one fixed angle to the next without warning or transition, and sometimes totally flips the directions around the player. You tend to get used to this over time – each location has specific camera angles at specific points – but it's a learning process for sure. 

There's also the trouble with some bizarrely obtuse or sloggy objectives you can sometimes get. Earlier on, I called the game's pacing brisk, and it is, it's remarkable how little things seem to drag. But that's on the story side of things, and on the gameplay side, there are definitely a few in-game days where it can feel like you're just being made to go on a series of infuriatingly trite fetch quests, which can grind the game's momentum to a halt. On the whole, just running around Shibuya and chaining battles with Noise can be fun, so NEO never threatens to get boring – but it does come closer to it than it needs to at times with what feels like objectives only added to introduce some unnecessary padding to the play time. Which can especially feel like a shame, given that one of the original game's triumphs was how lean and streamlined it was.

These problems, such as they are, don't detract from the game, however. NEO: The World Ends with You is that rare thing, a long awaited and belated sequel to a cult classic that ends up thoroughly recreating the brilliance of the original, while pushing against its boundaries. That it has more shortcomings and failings than the original did comes down to it being a far more ambitious game as well, and in the end, even with the flaws it does have, NEO: The World Ends with You delivers an experience that at the very least manages to stand side-by-side with the original, if not outright exceed it in many ways. Whether you're a long time fan of the original who's been eagerly awaiting the follow-up for fourteen years, or a newcomer jumping in now to see what all the fuss has been about for all this time, you're in for a hell of a ride. You have seven days – survive. Fail, and face erasure.

This game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

Mass Effect 4 Story – What Directions Can It Possibly Take?

For as long as it's been around, Mass Effect has always excelled at storytelling. The original trilogy had its ups and downs towards the end and with some plot threads that weren't resolved too well, but those were minor blips when compared to all of its other narrative accomplishments. Meanwhile, even a game as deeply flawed as Mass Effect: Andromeda had an excellent story to tell, and while its lack of memorable characters or the shockingly low number of new alien races was disappointing, it used its central premise extremely well to drum up some truly engrossing mysteries.

It's not surprising, then, that there's already a whole lot of speculation about what narrative direction Mass Effect 4 – or whatever BioWare chooses to call the next game in the series – is going to take. It goes without saying, of course, that the game is years away, and based on how very little we know about it right now, there's just so much that's completely up in the air. But already, we can can some educated guesses based on what little's been shown and based on what's happened in past games.

If you've been keeping up with Mass Effect news and discussion, you may be aware already of some of the most popular theories about the next game in the series. One of these is that it's going to take place several centuries after the events of the original trilogy. From the game's brief yet packed teaser trailer, it's safe to assume that we're going to be back in the Milky Way in the next game, and that does raise some interesting questions, especially with BioWare having very strongly hinted that the game is going to tie together the stories for the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy (we did see both galaxies in that teaser trailer as well).

Of course, the only possible way to do that would be with a time skip. Sure, the Andromeda Initiative left our galaxy between the events of Mass Effect 2 and 3, but it didn't arrive at its destination until six hundred years later. So if Mass Effect 4 is indeed going for a convergence of the two plot lines, it stands to reason that the Milky Way has to catch up, chronologically speaking, which means a time skip is really sort of necessary. And it would, honestly, make a lot of sense for BioWare as well. Not only would it be narratively interesting to see the state of the galaxy such a long time after the original trilogy, it would also help the game get enough distance from what's happened before that it wouldn't feel beholden to every single decision made in the trilogy, and give it some creative breathing room.

That said, one decision that it's going to have to abide by is the ending to Mass Effect 3. For a long time, BioWare has been reluctant to dub any of the game's endings as the canon ending, and that was something they smartly sidestepped by making Mass Effect: Andromeda a sequel that kicked off before ME3, but then jumped forward several centuries in a completely different galaxy where there was no way to be entirely sure what had happened back home. But Mass Effect 4 is bringing us back to the Milky Way, and is set after the original trilogy, which means it's going to have to pick a canon ending for Mass Effect 3. 

And sure enough, the trailer does seem to strongly suggest that the Destroy ending is the one BioWare has gone with. There are several things that are hinting at that. For starters, we see Liara in the teaser, who looks much older (asari live for hundreds, even thousands of years, so it makes sense that Liara would still be around even after a potential time skip). But beyond that, her physical appearance hasn't changed drastically. She's still the organic lifeform she was in the original trilogy, not a fusion of synthetic and organic life, which means we can probably safely rule out the Synthesis ending.

Meanwhile, there was also that dead Reaper in the teaser, and though there's any number of ways it could have died, it does seem to suggest that the Destroy ending is canon. Which would raise some questions, of course- the Destroy ending does kill all the Reapers, but it, well, destroys all other synthetic life forms in the galaxy as well, which includes all the geth, any and all artificial intelligences (including EDI), and even Shepard, who, of course, is partly synthetic, thanks to the Lazarus Project, which brought him back from the dead in Mass Effect 2. Meanwhile, unlike the Control and Synthesis endings, the Reapers are also not around to help the survivors fix the galaxy, which means crucial intergalactic structures such as the Citadel and the mass relays are either completely destroyed, or at least rendered inoperable.

So what's going on with all that in Mass Effect 4 following the time skip? Have the mass relays been fixed by now? Has artificial intelligence started rearing its head again? How is space flight and traversal across the galaxy being done if the mass relays aren't working? It's possible, then, that the Control ending is canon- but there's something else in the teaser that suggests that maybe it isn't.

Mass Effect 4

That something is the piece of N7 armour that Liara picks up, looks at, and smiles. The implication here is very clear- that piece of armour belongs to Shepard, which means Liara might be trying to bring them back in some way, shape, or form. Shepard sacrifices themselves in all of Mass Effect 3's endings, but with a high enough military strength score, the Destroy ending does have that one scene that suggests that maybe they survived. Of course, it's highly unlikely that Shepard is still alive in Mass Effect 4 if there is indeed a time skip – Shepard is human, after all, not asari – but perhaps Liara could be looking into other ways of bringing them back. Perhaps as an AI? It's definitely a possibility.

The one big question that we all have about Mass Effect 4 that is nearly impossible to concretely answer right now is, who're the primary antagonists going to be? We can at least confidently say that the Reapers aren't the villains once more- no matter which ending is picked as the canon one, they're no longer a threat to the galaxy one way or another. So who are the next big bads? Given that the Andromeda galaxy won't be ignored in Mass Effect 4's story, it's possible that the kett and the Scourge have made their way to the Milky Way, though there wasn't really any indication of that in the teaser. Besides, I think BioWare would want a clean break from that story for this sequel, at least as much as they possibly can without completely ignoring it. Mass Effect 3's Leviathan DLC revealed that the Leviathans, the creators of the Reapers, are still alive and kicking out there, and clearly, the terrifying race still sees itself as the dominant lifeform of the galaxy- so perhaps they might return to it to reclaim what they feel belongs to them? It would certainly be an interesting threat, that's for sure.

One way or another, there's potential for a lot of really interesting narrative stuff in the next Mass Effect. Based on what little BioWare has teased about the game so far, the sequel is opening itself up to some fascinating possibilities that are definitely cause for excitement for series fans. Again, given how far off the game is at this point, we're probably not going to get any concrete information on what to expect from its story for at least a few years. But if BioWare doesn't mess this up, Mass Effect 4 could end up doing some truly incredible things with its story.

Life Is Strange: True Colors Highlights Setting Of Haven Springs In Newest Video

Later this year, we will once again set into the offbeat and quirky world of Life is Strange with the third mainline entry in the series, True Colors. Bucking the episodic nature of previous games, it will release as one full title, with the focus this time being on empathy, with the main protagonist being Alex Chen, a young girl who can sense and feel other people's emotional state. The game will also return to the small town setting, this time in Colorado with Haven Springs, and today we got a highlight video of what the fictional place is like.

A new video was released, narrated by one of the potential romantic interests for Alex, Steph, as she details Haven Springs. It will house the cast of eccentric characters the game will have, and there are also several different events talked about, such as a Spring Festival and a town wide live role-playing game, both of which will probably play a role in the game's narrative.  Check it out in full below.

Life is Strange: True Colors is set to release on September 10th for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, PC and Stadia. A remastered collection including the first game and it's spinoff is also coming later in the year to the same platforms, which you can read more about through here.

Age of Empires 4 Shows Off Naval Combat And One Of The Dynasties In Latest Trailers

It can be hard to believe, but it was 2005 when Age of Empires 3 launched. Now 16 years later, we're on the verge of a full sequel finally coming out, set to hit this October. Age of Empires 4 promises to once again allow us to build a mighty empire that focuses on important historical events in both new and familiar ways. Today we got a quick look at one of those empires, as well as a new way to dominate your foes.

Via the official Xbox YouTube channels, Microsoft and Relic Entertainment highlighted the Abbasid Dynasty, which will be one of the eight dynasties you can chose. They will have a variety of interesting features, such as deadly camel riders as well the use of the wisdom to advance their empire. The second video is all about the new naval combat, where you will build specialized boats to help conquer the seas. Check out both below.

Age of Empires 4 will release on PC on October 28th.

Tales of Arise Trailer Showcases Kisara's Powerful Guard

Continuing its trend of character trailers for Tales of Arise, Bandai Namco has a new one for Kisara. As captain of the Elde Menancia Guard, Kisara is equipped with a hammer and shield for fighting in close range. Check out some of her backstory and abilities below.

Due to wielding a massive tower shield, Kisara guards instead of evading. She can still initiate powerful counter-attacks though and boasts a strong defense. What's especially interesting is that Kisara is Dahnan and "highly regarded" by all, even soldiers on the side of Rena. Her dream wasn't revealed though so it should be interesting to see how this fits into the quest of Alphen and Shionne.

Tales of Arise is out on September 10th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. Bandai Namco recently released gameplay of various field activities, from farming and fishing to cooking dishes, locating owls and skits. Stay tuned for another character trailer in the coming days as Dohalim still remains.