As Halo Infinite Season 2: Lone Wolves is about to kick off, 343 Industries has finally provided a roadmap for what’s to come to the game for the rest of the year.
By in large, the Halo Infinite roadmap covers what Lone Wolves provides. 343 Industries has confirmed that Season 2 runs for a total of six months. The season begins on May 3rd and concludes a week prior to the one-year anniversary of the multiplayer’s release on November 7th.
It’s already been reported that Halo Infinite’s Season 2 offers a brand new Battle Pass, featuring 100 tiers. The Catalyst and Breaker maps also debut this season. Additionally, 343 Industries is rolling out three new modes including King of the Hill, Land Grab, and Last Spartan Standing. Though, there are a few new tidbits to cover in the Halo Infinite roadmap.
Two narrative events are scheduled this season. ‘Interference’ runs on May 3rd and wraps up on May 16th. The second, dubbed ‘Alpha Pack,’ runs from July 19 to August 1st. The first week of Season 2’s Fracture: Entrenched event runs from May 24th to May 30th.
On top of that, the Halo Infinite roadmap promises to deliver some long-awaited updates to the core game. 343 Industries states that the online co-op for the campaign mode has a “late August target.” Additionally, campaign mission replay is also targeting a similar late August window. An open beta for Halo Infinite’s Forge mode is scheduled for September as well.
343 Industries has briefly outlined what Season 3 will offer. Starting on November 8th, Season 3 brings the now-standard element of new maps, modes, narrative events, and a Fracture event. Aside from what’s expected the Forge open beta will continue during Season 3. Local split-screen co-op is also said to arrive. Though the timing is still to be determined.
The Halo Infinite roadmap has understandably left the community divided on the length of Season 2 as well as the amount of content awaiting the game. We know we need to deliver more content and more features more quickly, Halo Infinite’s head of creative Joseph Staten says in a Halo Waypoint blog post. “Staying true to priority zero means that sometimes we need to slow down in order to stay healthy and move faster later. But we’re also aggressively looking at ways to accelerate.”
343 Industries is hosting a livestream on April 27th at 4 PM ET/1 PM PT. The team is showcasing the narrative events and new content on Twitch and YouTube.
Normally, these come in two waves and now, the company has revealed what’s hitting Game Pass in the second half of April.
F1 2021 (Cloud) — April 19th
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered (Cloud) — April 19th [EA Play]
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (Cloud, Console and PC) — April 19th
7 Days to Die (Cloud, Console, and PC) — April 26th
Research and Destroy (Console and PC) — April 26th
Bugsnax (Cloud, Console and PC) — April 28th
Unsouled (Console and PC) — April 28th
As part of Xbox’s ongoing partnership with Ubisoft, Game Pass is also getting two more games: Assassin’s Creed Origins (Cloud, Console and PC via the Ubisoft Connect app) “in the next two months” and For Honor: Marching Fire Edition (PC via the Ubisoft Connect app, a free upgrade to the Marching Fire Edition on Console and Cloud).
On top of that, the following 12 Cloud games have received touch controls on mobile:
Finally, these four games are leaving Game Pass on April 30th:
Cricket 19 (Cloud, Console and PC)
Outlast 2 (Cloud, Console and PC)
Secret Neighbor (Cloud, Console and PC)
Streets of Rage 4 (Cloud, Console and PC)
As always, Game Pass subscribers can take advantage of an exclusive 20 percent discount to purchase any game in the catalogue and keep playing even after it leaves Game Pass.
Further, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate costs $16.99/month and is required for streaming (which Xbox refers to as ‘Cloud’) to mobile devices and browsers. On top of that, this tier includes Game Pass for both Console and PC, as well as subscriptions to Xbox Live Gold and EA Play.
Find out what came to Xbox Game Pass earlier this month here.
Microsoft is looking into ways to introduce ads within free-to-play Xbox titles. The program, according to sources from Business Insider, aims to fold advertisements into games in a non-disruptive way.
Apparently, Microsoft wishes to include ads to help provide revenue for both the game developer and ad company. As such, Microsoft is not taking a cut from the ad revenue and instead allows the two parties to share the ad funds.
As for what this program will end up looking like, a lot still remains. The report claims that Microsoft is working to give “select brands” the ability to purchase ad space. These ads will then appear in free-to-play Xbox games. However, the company appears to be very aware of how players may react. Thus Microsoft and Xbox are investigating ways to not “irritate” players.
Theoretically, these ads could appear as billboards in a racing game or in an open-world title. Though, the full extent of how this program will implement ads is still relatively unknown. Likewise, it’s not known if the ads will be static images and logos or if video ads will run in-game. However, Business Insider did confirm that Microsoft will not be using collected data from Bing or other services to create targeted ads.
Microsoft may be moving swiftly on this program. The company could introduce it as early as Q3 2022. Though, it’s not confirmed whether Xbox has begun pitching advertisers on the program yet.
Microsoft and the Xbox ecosystem are not exactly strangers to presenting ads. Any console player booting up their Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S is immediately met with ads on the dashboard. These typically promote games, new movies, services, etc. However, given that Microsoft is creating a more “private marketplace” for ads within games, it’ll be interesting to see how it targets the gaming audience specifically.
Fortunately, this initiative will solely be focused on free-to-play titles. Publishers who attempted to implement ads into full-priced games, like EA, have received backlash in the past. UFC 4 saw an outpour of player criticisms as unskippable ads were featured in a $70 game. Meta also added in-game ads to Blaston, which again, wasn’t received well by players.
Ahead of its May 3rd debut, Halo Infinite developers 343 Industries share a look at the Season 2 maps. Dubbed Catalyst and Breaker, the two maps join the roster alongside the preexisting 10 maps.
In a short video lapsing under three minutes, 343 Industries shows us Catalyst, an abandoned Forerunner map. The studio describes it as a “symmetrical arena map nested high up inside of an expansive, tunnel-like Forerunner structure.” We see some of its verticality in its different levels. Catalyst features a light bridge running down the middle portion. While there are visible exterior potions, Catalyst is an interior map.
The second map that Halo Infinite Season 2 introduces is Breaker. As opposed to Catalyst, Breaker is practically all exterior. Its location is a Banished ship-breaking facility. 343 Industries states Breaker is a “pseudo symmetric BTB map set in a Banished scrapyard where each team’s base is a huge chunk of ship debris.” There are multiple dynamic aspects at play as shown in the preview. Hop-ups and ledges raise and lower. The middle of the map is split by a deadly moving plasma beam.
On the Halo Waypoint blog, the team discusses that Catalyst is meant to expand the game’s Capture the Flag suite. Though, its design and internal popularity made the team shift ideas. Upon Season 2, Catalyst will host many different modes including the new Land Grab mode.
343 Industries claims Breaker is one of the team’s “most ambitious BTB maps ever.” Once again, many design elements revolve around its use as a Capture the Flag map. “The central feature of this map is the middle, which divides the spaces with ramps over a death pit which has given way to some pretty memorable vehicle runs.”
Along with new maps, Halo Infinite Season 2, dubbed Lone Wolves, also introduces a brand new Battle Pass for players to purchase. New modes include Land Grab and Last Spartan Standing. Additionally, Season 2 sees weapons updated and balanced.
Note that Halo Infinite’s co-op will arrive during Season 2. Though, it won’t be available at launch. No specific date is known at this point, however.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is kind of like your mom’s meatloaf.
Sure, there are better, more intricately-crafted meals out there, but that doesn’t make Mom’s cooking any less delicious.
The journey of The Skywalker Saga has been a long one. After being first announced nearly three years ago, developer TT Games has been hard at work on their next foray into the galaxy far, far away. Collecting all nine mainline Star Wars films into one brick-based package, this game looks to usher in a new era for the franchise, after more than a decade and a half of Lego titles.
The Skywalker Saga is inarguably the biggest Lego game ever made. While past titles have sported many levels and hundreds of characters, this does all that while including open, explorable worlds, a reinvented combat system, and a new over-the-shoulder camera angle. Even though this was announced before the next generation of consoles got started, this very much feels like a next-gen Lego Star Wars.
But it’s also very much a game of give and take. While it does innovate in almost every aspect, nearly everything comes with a caveat. However, none of these flaws are big enough to detract from just how good this whole package is.
For gamers who have been with the Lego Star Wars franchise since 2006, the gameplay of The Skywalker Saga is the first big change they will notice. There are some familiar trappings like collecting Mini Kits and grabbing as many studs as possible, but pretty well everything else is different.
Gone is the fixed camera and fairly basic platformer gameplay, and in comes a new more modern approach to playing the game. The camera now follows your character over their shoulder, as it would in God of War or Uncharted. This change makes the game instantly feel like an upgrade from past Lego titles. Not to say the other games in the franchise have felt lesser, but this new camera does elevate the experience quite a bit.
Instead of going through fairly linear missions making up each movie of the franchise, these linear sections are now broken up by larger open-world hubs. While at first, I did question why they were there, after a few hours these explorable zones had me hooked.
While moving through each of the movie’s stories it became so easy to get lost in these open sections searching for collectibles. Sure, the upgrades these hidden relics grant you are, for the most part, fairly inconsequential; however, that did not stop me from wanting to collect every single one of them.
These small carrot-on-the-stick collectibles all come with their own set of challenges, offering some of the most fun creative thinking moments of the game. The solutions never hit the level of creativity of something like Super Mario Odyssey, but they are simple, yet fun diversions that had me straying off the beaten path more often than not.
When going through the linear missions, however, it does feel very much like a Lego game. You will build, traverse, and solve minor puzzles as you venture across the galaxy, and for the most part, it is a good time. It is a simple formula, but it works.
Some of the shake-ups found in these story missions are the best moments The Skywalker Saga has to offer, though. Taking a break from swinging a lightsaber to pilot a speeder on the Forest Moon of Endor has never felt better. Or how about the sudden surprise of puzzle-solving from two different perspectives in the droid factories of Geonosis? These little mix-ups keep the experience fresh in a title where you are doing a lot of the same thing over and over.
Like many of the systems in The Skywalker Saga, combat has been entirely reworked as well. The new combat system takes notes from the past games in the franchise but reinterprets them into something wholly new.
However, gamers looking to find something as complex as either of those games will not find that here. This is almost like a low-calorie diet version of either of those. Yes, there is a combo system in place, but it is quite simple and fairly easy to master. And yes, there is dodging, parrying, and a giant health bar in boss encounters, but most can easily be beaten by mashing the attack button.
Something that is a welcome addition is the third-person shooting. Similar to games like Gear of War, you can take up arms behind cover and pick off enemies that way. Again, this is nothing as complex or as pinpoint accurate as other games, but it does feel good to shoot a blaster.
The combat here may look and feel different than the Lego games of yore, but ultimately, The Skywalker Saga never makes it feel quite like the revolution that many had thought it could be before release.
Co-op is back as well! And while it can be fun to play through these epics with a friend, adding another play does take the already thin screen real estate and double the issues. This of course wouldn’t be a pressure point if you could jump in with a friend online; however, at launch co-op can only be done locally.
From a technical standpoint, The Skywalker Saga is, far and away, the best-looking Lego game ever made. The character models give off this authentic Lego sheen, making them look like they have come to life on your living room floor.
The way that light bounces off of these plastic characters is truly stunning. And the attention to detail on these figures is something to behold. You can see the seams along the side of minifig headpieces, or the dirt or snow collecting in their joints as you traverse various worlds. It’s these small touches that really make this feel like seeing your favourite Lego sets come to life.
The playable characters and set decorations are the highlights there, however, the game’s many environments can be a little hit or miss. While locales like Ahch-To or Bespin look great with pops of color and excellent lighting effects, others disappoint.
Planets like Tatooine, Crait, and Geonosis can look messy at times, with these mostly one-color environments becoming a bit of a brown, orange, or white mess when looking at them closely. This is especially the case when focusing on objects in the distance. With the lack of general palette variety on these planets, backgrounds can look splotchy and can take away from the immersive Star Wars experience found in other locations.
The sound design of The Skywalker Saga is a dream. The soundtrack is, of course, masterful, as it features nearly all of the series’ John Williams-composed work. Despite this being a Lego game, I found myself welling up at certain moments if only because of the masterful score (damn you, “Binary Sunset”).
The rest of the soundscape created here is impressive. Each locale has its own sonic flare, and the Lego of it all adds these nice familiar clicks and snaps to everything as the world is disassembled and rebuilt around you.
A couple of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga’s biggest misses come in its presentation. The two most notable of these are its voice acting and the HUD.
The voice acting here can be a bit of a mess. TT Games utilizes both actual dialogue from the Star Wars films as well as added lines read by voice actors. And while in practice it can be cool to hear Daisy Ridley or Mark Hamill every once in a while, it is a little jarring to hear these characters jump back and forth between the original actors and hired talent.
Most of the voice acting team do a serviceable job, usually chiming in with that signature Lego game humor, but there are some that are downright bad. Not to take anything away from the voice actors who lent their talent to The Skywalker Saga, but hearing Adam Driver and the actor brought in to play Kylo Ren back to back makes it sound like this character is two completely different people.
Also on the presentation front is the busy HUD. The act of playing this game can be messy at moments, with your health, a combo metre, stud counter, quick-time events, mission log, a map, and a boss’ life bar all on-screen at once.
This problem increases exponentially after unlocking upgrades to reveal the game’s many collectibles, creating little light blue halos all over the screen at any given time. These HUD elements can, for the most part, be turned on and off, but it is annoying that you have to go digging in the menus to make that happen.
In short, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga may not be the qualitatively best Star Wars game ever made, but it just might be my favorite. This really does feel like the beginning of the next generation for the franchise, and an evolution of what has come before.
Yes, it does have its missteps with messy environments, simple combat, and lackluster voice acting. But it’s the “just one more puzzle” nature of the open world, the stunning character models, and getting to relive some of my favorite moments in film history that kept me playing.
This is a love letter to Star Wars in nearly every way. While it stumbles in a few places, it puts fun at the forefront of the experience, and is that not what gaming is all about?
Nintendo is aiming to break ground on a brand new R&D office in Kyoto, Japan. As a part of a new expansion initiative, the company has announced a $39.8 million USD (about $50 million CAD) land deal.
The prospects of Nintendo opening up a new office may sound like an exciting bid at a new studio. However, as revealed by the company, the office will serve as an R&D facility. The office will be located next to the current Nintendo office in Kyoto.
“Along with the R&D investments and capital investments, Nintendo believes acquiring and utilizing this land will carry an important role on reinforcing its R&D,” a Nintendo representative writes.
Nintendo hopes that the 107,946-square-foot facility with 12 floors will be completed by 2027. The site formerly belonged to a Foundation Support Factory and Disaster Prevention Center. Nintendo has eloquently dubbed the office “Corporate Headquarters Development Center, Building No. 2.”
The development and construction of the R&D office will take the same amount of time it’s been since the company first revealed Metroid Prime 4. Though, thankfully for Nintendo, players won’t have exceedingly high expectations for the facility.
While Microsoft and Sony have both been veering toward acquiring studios for software, Nintendo’s land deal suggests it’s prioritizing the development of hardware and gaming technology. An R&D department located next to its Kyoto headquarters and an existing R&D department strengthens the Nintendo campus. Don’t expect this facility to develop the next Switch; it’ll take a while for operations to begin. However, it can’t be understated how valuable having close proximity to R&D will be for Nintendo.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is looking at solidifying its $69 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. Regulators and shareholders must still sign off on the deal before Call of Duty, Diablo, and Overwatch are under the Xbox umbrella. Sony has also been acquiring studios such as Bungie and even Canadian studio Haven.
Indie cult darling Bugsnax is making the leap from being a PlayStation exclusive to multiple platforms, including Xbox Game Pass.
On April 28th, the bizarre adventure game is coming to Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Steam and Nintendo Switch.
The Isle of BIGsnax update launches April 28th FREE for all Bugsnax players!
And that's not all…the newly updated Bugsnax is coming to Xbox One + Series X|S + PC Game Pass, Nintendo Switch eShop, and Steam the same day! pic.twitter.com/rnH6REwWG7
Bugsnax first launched on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC and macOS in the fall of 2020. The game quickly built a fanbase not only for its catchy soundtrack but also surrounding its world of kinda-bug and kinda-snack creatures.
Players take on the role of a journalist arriving on Snaktooth Island, looking for lost explorer Elizabert. Along the way, you’ll discover the strange Bugsnax and a group of settlers on the island. In many ways, the game functions similarly to Pokemon Snap, where players interact and research the Bugsnax in different ways. It blends humour and mystery throughout a bite-sized 10-hour narrative.
Although it was a PlayStation console exclusive, Bugsnax is finally being ported to Xbox and Switch. More than a year later, the game is accessible to a brand new audience. As confirmed by the Xbox Wire, the game will be playable via Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Young Horses has also been developing a new free content update for the game. Launching day and date on April 28th, The Isle of Bigsnax update brings roughly three hours of new content to the table. Players will discover new mysteries. “Find even more to do on the main island of the original game,” says the developer.
Yuri Lowenthal, Casey Mongillo, Debra Wilson, and Haviland Stillwell are all confirmed to be reprising their roles for the new story content.
On top of its arrival on Xbox platforms and Xbox Game Pass, Bugsnax will be available on Nintendo Switch and Steam for $24.99 USD (roughly $31.51 CAD).
Microsoft has placed over 750 games on sale with savings of up to 80-percent off select titles. Games on sale as a part of the Xbox Spring Sale include Xbox One titles as well as those on Xbox Series X/S. First-party titles like Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 are both notably on sale.
The Xbox Spring Sale is already underway and will run until April 21st. All games listed are digital-only.
Microsoft is reportedly working on a new chip for its Xbox Series X console. The upgraded chip is said to be focused on helping increase power efficiency while cutting the costs of manufacturing.
During a Q&A video, Microsoft journalist Brad Sams said he believes the company is working on a newly refined chip. “I believe it is accurate that Microsoft is working on a smaller, more power-efficient chip. I’m very confident in that,” Sams said in the video.
The Xbox Series X is still powerful in its own right. Though, the console is built on technology first developed a year or so prior to its November 2020 launch. Sams goes on to explain that the Xbox Series X chip is “a dated design.”
As far as what the new chip will do to serve players, the scope is likely limited to performance. It’s still too early in the console’s lifecycle to consider plans for a ‘Pro’ model of the Xbox Series X. A new iteration on the current chip could help improve the console’s power consumption. Therefore, one could imagine the console being able to be quieter while running. Additionally, it may be able to run cooler.
Microsoft is also likely looking at ways to reduce the manufacturing cost of the console. “Now, are we going to see performance improvements, are we going to see anything else? I do not believe so. But Microsoft is always working on making cooler, more efficient chips because that lowers the cost of production.” Of course, there’s no guarantee whether or not that will reflect on the purchasing cost of the console.
Currently, it’s difficult for hardware manufacturers and their suppliers to keep up with demand. Therefore, it’s hard to pinpoint when a potential new chip would be integrated into the Xbox Series X. It’s entirely possible that consoles with the newly developed chip could hit retail and digital shelves this fall.
A new Xbox update adds the ability to switch your TV’s input to your Xbox console using a game controller.
Once the feature is enabled, all you’ll have to do is press the Xbox button on the gamepad.
It’s important to note, however, that this feature is only available on Xbox Series X and S, not the last-gen Xbox One. That’s because the newer systems sport HDMI-CEC, which is required for this functionality.
To turn it on, go to your console’s settings –> TV & A/V power options –> Sleep mode & startup –> Switch TV input using controller.
