The Kingdom Hearts series will arrive on Nintendo Switch as three standalone cloud releases.
The streaming versions of the games will be available to purchase individually and as the all-in-one Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece for Cloud Collection.
These titles are Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix, Kingdom Hearts HD2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts 3 + Re Mind (DLC).
Established fans and newcomers alike are excited to see if Halo Infinite can live up to all that the Halo franchise stands for. Whether or not it can remains to be seen – we've got a campaign to play this December – but if the game's latest round of multiplayer technical previews is any indication, Halo Infinite's multiplayer is shaping up to be something truly special.
This past weekend, 343 Industries opened the game to Halo Insiders (which is a free program) who own an Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S and some PC players. This meant that two matchmaking-based modes – Social Arena and Big Team Battle – were quick and easy to jump into. I spent the majority of my nearly dozen hours with Halo Infinite in those two modes.
Microsoft
Before jumping into my thoughts on Halo Infinite's multiplayer following this technical preview, I want to mention that Friday night, from about 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., three online buddies and I played custom games in The Master Chief Collection. We played to hang out, but that doubled as a way for me to touch base with a franchise that's about to receive a flashy new entry. The classic Halo games absolutely hold up, but they are significantly slower than any modern FPS and despite how much fun I was having, I was desperate for a way to speed up match pacing (we ended up kicking the movement speed up by about 20 percent).
I continually told my friends I wish those old Halos were faster, smoother, and more strategic. Then I jumped into Halo Infinite and realized Infinite is very much the Halo of old… but faster, smoother, and more strategic.
Launching into the technical preview immediately brought me back – the classic Halo theme kicked in, my Spartan was front and center, and I saw the words Big Team Battle on screen. This mode is everything I had hoped it would be – large battles, vehicular destruction, control points dominated by players hoping to get their hands on a sniper rifle, and of course, that lone wolf who refuses to follow the team effort to capture the flag (okay, I can't lie, this was definitely me a couple of times).
The only map in this mode that I played on, Fragmentation, is reminiscent of Halo 3's Valhalla. It's set on a Halo and specifically in a more natural mountainous terrain. There are two large alien-made structures on both ends of the map and between them sits the pathways you'll take to either grab the lone Overshield, pick up one of the two vehicular requisition drops, or perch high above for easy Battle Rifle kills. Its symmetrical design keeps the playing field even no matter which team you're on, and it allowed my teammates and me to quickly learn the "lanes" to best capture control points, flags, or get some easy Slayer kills.
Microsoft
The weapons on this map included the standard Assault Rifle, the trusty Battle Rifle, an occasional one-shot-kill Skewer, the Bulldog shotgun, and more. To my surprise, Battle Rifles don't dominate the battlefield. I felt at home with one in my Spartan's hands, but when I didn't have it, I still stood a chance. I fell especially in love with the Needler, which is as fun as ever. Waiting for that timed explosion at the end of a round to kill an enemy never gets old, does it?
Visually, I wasn't blown away, but that's not to say the game doesn't look good. It looks great, but it doesn't scream new-gen the way other modern titles do. However, my biggest gripe with the technical preview stems from these visuals. Particularly the graphics of Performance mode, which brings the frames-per-second up to a blistering-fast and buttery-smooth 120fps.
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Simply put, Halo Infinite looks ugly in Performance mode. The textures take a hit and the game's resolution takes an even bigger one. Each time I gave Infinite's Performance mode another shot, I couldn't play for longer than a few minutes. Its lower graphical fidelity put everything but my Spartan's weapon out of focus.
I'm not the biggest snob in the world when it comes to visuals, but the lack of sharpness in Performance mode versus what I saw in the Graphics mode, which targets a 4K resolution and a frame rate of 60fps, solidified that I'd probably be playing the latter this December. Keep in mind that this technical preview took place on an old build and there's a good chance 343 Industries has already quelled my concerns with Performance mode.
Elsewhere in Big Team Battle, I was enthralled with finding new ways to use the game's equipment pickups. There's what is essentially a deployable shield, a repulsor that can bounce back enemies and grenades dozens of feet, and of course, the grappling hook. The game's marketing showcases the grappling hook quite often but to be honest, it doesn't feel as integral to Halo Infinite as marketing led me to believe, at least in multiplayer.
Microsoft
The grappling hook is not hard to find, but once you die, it's gone. Sure, it can whip you around large swaths of land with ease, and it never stopped feeling amazing to grapple onto a Ghost and hijack it, but thanks to its limited use, it quickly fell into the background of Halo Infinite's excellent gunplay, much like the other pieces of equipment did. While these pickups are useful, they never felt necessary, and that's because they serve to simply compliment the game's already fantastic gunplay.
Infinite's excellent gunplay shines most in the game's Social Arena, which is where you can find smaller matches of Halo classics like Slayer. In this mode's handful of maps, I was surprised with how easy it was to learn the maps, their layouts, and the best lanes to take out enemies with ease. I would have liked a little more visual variety – so far, every map feels like a training ground built for Spartans rather than something you'd encounter in a Halo campaign – but I still had a blast.
The maps make for the frenetic jump-while-you're-shooting-and-don't-forget-to-toss-a-grenade gameplay I've come to associate with Halo for decades, but with the added bonus that I could sprint, mantle up ledges, and ultimately play the game the same way I play every modern FPS.
With nearly a dozen Halo Infinite hours behind me, I'm happy to say that I'm actually (and finally) excited about the game. 343 Industries' first foray into the series with Halo 4 was good. Halo 5 was… not so good, and for that reason, I've remained cautious of Halo Infinite. This weekend's technical preview proved that despite my reservations, this game's multiplayer is in good hands. I only hope the Halo Infinite campaign can match it.
Halo Infinite made our list of the most ancipated games of the year, check that out here.
Epic Games has revealed that some of Universal's classic and iconic monsters are coming to Fortnite.
Epic announced the news today, revealing that the first monstrous icon to join the battle royale will be Frankenstein's Monster. Throughout the month, more monsters will be added to the Item Shop, but Epic only revealed one more that players can expect: the Mummy (no, not the one Brendan Fraser fought, unfortunately).
The Mummy is special, too, because not only will that skin be available in the Item Shop, but a Mummy will also be lurching on the battle royale island as a character trying to find their way back to the Underworld later this month.
These monsters are being added to the game as part of this year's Fortnitemares 2021 event, which sees the game transform in a number of ways for the Halloween occasion. Alongside Universal monsters, Fortnitemares 2021 will bring in new Halloween outfits and old ones from previous events.
While Frankenstein and the Mummy aren't yet available for purchase, the community-inspired Boxy and Boxer skins are in the item shop right now. Each has an alternate Spectral Style version that glows in-game, too.
Skins aren't the only things coming to Fortnite for the Fortnitemares 2021 event. The Cubes are preparing to take over the island this month, according to Epic.
"Later in the month, they'll escalate their domination of the island," Epic's Fortnitemares 2021 blog post says. "But take heart! Strengthen your resolve with a new weapon from The Sideways and returning Halloween tricks. A special LTM will be returning as well. During this Cubic chaos, there'll also be Quests to accomplish for eerie rewards."
During Fortnitemares 2021, the Dual Fiend Hunters pictured below will be available on the map, which should help in the fight against the Cube.
The haunting, narratively experimental Oxenfree came out back in 2016 to rapturous reviews, combining a coming-of-age story with some seriously unnerving supernatural goings-on involving radios, triangles, and something waiting beyond a rift in space and time.
Oxenfree's unique tone, aesthetic, and setting, plus its ambitious dynamic dialogue system, rocketed Night School Studio into the leagues of other excellent narrative-focused studios, alongside names like Campo Santo and Telltale. As a result it wasn't too surprising to find out that Night School would be the first video game studio to be acquired by Netflix, as the streaming giant prepares to make moves into game development.
You obviously know by now, but the last playable DLC character for Smash Ultimate is none other than Sora from Kingdom Hearts. He was a highly requested character to join the game's roster for many years, but Sakura explained in today's Smash presentation just how much fans wanted him to be in the game. Sakurai […]
I've celebrated my fair share of Chinese Mid-Autumn festivals, but if you're expecting a heartwarming real life story about my experiences therein, prepare to be disappointed: I don't usually plan anything. Mostly I just get to eat a lot of Chinese food and pretend that America gave me a public holiday (it didn't). So …
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl just came out yesterday, but that hasn't stopped Super Smash Bros. players from tearing the game apart for any juicy morsel that may give them an edge in the platform fighter.
Tales of Arise, the 17th mainline entry in Bandai Namco's series of JRPGs that's basically as old as human history by now, was one of September's biggest games. For one, it smashed in terms of sales, selling more than a million copies in less than a week. For another, the action-RPG really clicked with players,…
We're reaching the end of Steam Next Fest, which means your fellow PC gamers have had the chance to see what's good - and judging by what's been topping the charts, it looks like Robin Hood: Sherwood Builders is the surprise hit of the event. It's proven to be a winning combination of RPG games, survival games, and city-building games.
The early bits of the demo play out pretty much like any modern survival adventure - gather some food and resources, and craft your way to new tools. But pretty soon, you'll be putting those resources into a central coffer for your village, then asking your villagers to put together new buildings to expand the settlement.
Eventually, you'll start recruiting new residents, and you can streamline your way past the traditional survival mechanics by robbing convoys for resources. All along the way, you're guided by a dialogue-heavy series of quests featuring characters from the Robin Hood mythos.
So far, Square Enix is holding its cards close to its chest with Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy system requirements, so we can only speculate how taxing it's going to be for your gaming PC. We're hopeful that the barrier to entry won't be too high, considering the game also runs on the Nintendo Switch, but if you feel you might need an upgrade to use all its PC-exclusive tech, Nvidia has you covered by bundling the game with qualifying RTX 3000 desktops and laptops.
It's unlikely you'll be able to make use of Guardians of the Galaxy's support for 8K resolution - and if you can, hats off to you and your gaming monitor - but stepping into Star-Lord's shoes and leading a ragtag band of misfits will look that much better with ray tracing and Nvidia DLSS switched on. For that, you'll need an Nvidia RTX graphics card, which is pretty hard to come by during the ongoing GPU shortage if you don't already pack one.
Should you decide a new prebuilt gaming PC is in order or you fancy taking things on-the-go with a gaming laptop, you can net yourself Guardians of the Galaxy for free in the process. All you need to do is make sure you choose anything packing an entry-level RTX 3060 to enthusiast RTX 3090 and buy from a participating retailer.
Wasteland 3's final DLC is out now. Cult Of The Holy Detonation features two mutant cults who worship a nuclear explosion in stasis, and as usual it's your job to chat with them and probably choose between them, in between turn-based battles. You can find the launch trailer below.
Back 4 Blood may be the successor to Left 4 Dead we've long waited for, and as a launch day arrival, logic dictates that I should be excited about its inclusion in Xbox Game Pass. But among October's haul of new additions, it's today's arrival of Totally Accurate Battle Simulator that interests me more.
Ubisoft have announced Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Frontline, a new free-to-play first-person shooter about 100 players dropping into an open world in teams of three. Yes, yes, Ubisoft are once again asking you to please give them a live service success. You can find the announcement trailer and details about its modes and first beta test below.
It's a brand new month, and it's a special month at that. It's spooky season! The month of Halloween comes with ghosts and zombies galore, and a few games in October's Humble Bundle Choice might just give you a fright. Unfortunately, there's not a huge amount of scary games to find in this month's package, but that's OK. Hidden gems like Katana Zero help make October a worthwhile investment, alongside the scary Amnesia: Rebirth. The Humble Bundle is a monthly subscription that offers 12 games to download and keep forever, with new games offered at the beginning of each month. The games are given out as keys for platforms like Steam or Origin. Plus, a portion of all profits go to charity. A small price to pay Arguably the largest offering this month is Amnesia: Rebirth, a first-person horror adventure where you must survive the Algerian desert and face your past. The game currently has 'Mixed' reviews on Steam, but a strong...
My theory of Microsoft announcing the next wave of Game Pass games every week took a bit of a stumble. And that's because the company revealed the first batch of October games, well, today, three weeks after the last announcement. We can't all be winners in the game of life. Still, we now know what's coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC in October 2021. Back 4 Blood was already confirmed along with The Good Life, but we're also getting the horror game Visage — perfect for Halloween scares. There is a surprising lack of really spooky games coming in the early month. Granted, not every game had to lean on horror. Still, two out of eight isn't all that impressive. Regardless, the list is looking fairly good, with at least one major addition. Of course, I'm referring to Back 4 Blood, Turtle Rock Studios' spiritual successor to the immensely popular Left 4 Dead games. It'll be out as a day one release on October 12. Before that, however, w...
Nintendo has updated the Japanese release schedule on its platforms for the week of October 14, 2021. Here's a look at the upcoming digital download schedule: Switch Retail Earth Defense Force 3 Fight of Animals Monark Switch Download Arietta of Spirits Catty & Batty: The Spirit Guide Dungeon Encounters Hello Neighbor Immortus Temporus Ruin Raiders Survival Z The Good Life...
As part of the 20th anniversary celebration for the Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon series, Ubisoft announces it is giving away the original Ghost Recon, Ghost Recon Wildlands Fallen Ghosts DLC, Ghost...
Season Six for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone gets underway on Thursday, and this post on the Call of Duty Blog has details on what to expect. This includes a new Battle Pass, and this...
Succubus is now available on GOG.com and Steam, offering a first-person shooter where you play as a lustful demon (naked, naturally) on a quest for revenge through the underworld. The Launch Trailer...
A post from inXile Entertainment announces the pin has been pulled on the holy hand grenade, and the Cult of the Holy Detonation DLC is now available on Steam for Wasteland 3, the post-apocalyptic...
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is now available for PC and consoles, offering a fighting game featuring Nickelodeon characters. For anyone who ever dreamed of beating up the Rugrats this will make a...
October Humble Choice - Humble Bundle.* Games include Amnesia: Rebirth and Katana Zero. New subscribers can lock in a discount for the next year. Save 85% on Aragami on Steam. Save 20% on Tribes of...
Ex-Sony exec opens up about efforts to bring PlayStation hits to PC - Ars Technica. Thanks JDreyer. Peter Moore on the future of sports and the history of games - GamesIndustry.biz.
Wasteland 3: Cult of the Holy Detonation Is Now Available For Windows 10, Xbox One, And Xbox Series X|S. Battlefield 2042 Open Beta Is Now Available For Digital Pre-Load On Xbox One And Xbox Series...
Breakthrough Research Makes Recycling Lithium-Ion Batteries More Economical. Thanks Max. Razer delivers new ultraportable and gaming PC options for Windows 11. The Pixel 6 Is Officially Coming Oct....
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger Declares 'AMD's Lead Is Over' After Alder Lake, Sapphire Rapids. -NET Foundation under fire after board member quits. Tim Cook pens touching memo to employees to mark 10th...
Government Secretly Orders Google To Identify Anyone Who Searched A Sexual Assault Victim's Name, Address And Telephone Number. Thanks Max. Man Selling Catalytic Converter on Facebook Busted by Cops...
Most of the time, game-specific newsletters tend to just tell you what you may have already known about recent updates. That's primarily the case for the latest newsletter coming out of Dual Universe, which looks back at the past content patches that have arrived, namely the Apollo update and the Ares update. Speaking of those […]
For those who are enjoying World of Tanks in spite of Wargaming's whole influencer fiasco and last month's WoT community rep resignation, the month of October has plenty of things for you to do. This month is chock-full of events, many of which already started in the tail end of September like the usual battle […]
We all love to know what's happening in the world of gaming. Several updates are being made in various video games. Getting game news is not that easy ...
Microsoft 
Microsoft 
It's a brand new month, and it's a special month at that. It's spooky season! The month of Halloween comes with ghosts and zombies galore, and a few games in October's Humble Bundle Choice might just give you a fright. Unfortunately, there's not a huge amount of scary games to find in this month's package, but that's OK. Hidden gems like Katana Zero help make October a worthwhile investment, alongside the scary Amnesia: Rebirth. The Humble Bundle is a monthly subscription that offers 12 games to download and keep forever, with new games offered at the beginning of each month. The games are given out as keys for platforms like Steam or Origin. Plus, a portion of all profits go to charity. A small price to pay Arguably the largest offering this month is Amnesia: Rebirth, a first-person horror adventure where you must survive the Algerian desert and face your past. The game currently has 'Mixed' reviews on Steam, but a strong... 
My theory of Microsoft announcing the next wave of Game Pass games every week took a bit of a stumble. And that's because the company revealed the first batch of October games, well, today, three weeks after the last announcement. We can't all be winners in the game of life. Still, we now know what's coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC in October 2021. Back 4 Blood was already confirmed along with The Good Life, but we're also getting the horror game Visage — perfect for Halloween scares. There is a surprising lack of really spooky games coming in the early month. Granted, not every game had to lean on horror. Still, two out of eight isn't all that impressive. Regardless, the list is looking fairly good, with at least one major addition. Of course, I'm referring to Back 4 Blood, Turtle Rock Studios' spiritual successor to the immensely popular Left 4 Dead games. It'll be out as a day one release on October 12. Before that, however, w... 
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