Monthly Archives: December 2019
Amazon’s First MMO, New World, Gets a May 2020 Release Date
Amazon Games’ New World MMO finally has a release date. The open-world game was officially revealed earlier this year, but during tonight’s Game Awards Amazon announced that New World will officially be released in May 2020.
According to Amazon, New World is an open-world MMO set during the 17th century’s “Age of Exploration.” Players venture to a newly discovered island called Aeternum. There, players must “conquer” the land and overcome rival players and a legion of undead creatures that are trying to purge the colonists from the land.
Players can explore the open world, discover treasures, and build an empire. New World will also feature massive battles and fortress sieges with up to 100-player battles. Join forces with other players online to form Companies, or play solo and build your life in the New World.
Nine to Five Is a New Tactical FPS From Ex-Remedy and Wargaming Devs
Game-development veterans from studios like Wargaming (makers of World of Warships and more) and Remedy (whose most recent game, Control, just won IGN's 2019 Game of the Year award) have formed a new studio called Redhill Games. At The Game Awards, Red Hill announced its debut title Nine to Five, a new team-based tactical FPS.
“A lot of modern shooters are often too chaotic and random to really let you enjoy them," said Redhill CEO Matia Myllyrinne. "With Nine to Five, we’re challenging players with creative new mechanics to bring back that classic feeling of playing with friends, finding your role, and working together to outplay the competition."
Gears Tactics Release Date Revealed
Gears Tactics, the Gears of War strategy spinoff, will be released on April 28, 2020, Microsoft announced during The Game Awards.
The release date was revealed as part of the Gears strategy game's first public appearance since it was announced at E3 2018. Alongside the release date, the trailer featured new Gears Tactics gameplay and revealed it will feature a "40+" hour campaign. Check it out:
The strategy game is set 12 years before the events of the first Gears of War and comes complete with its own story, customizable squad, and boss battles.
Gears Tactics was originally announced as a PC-only release. However, The Coalition's Rod Fergusson has since revealed it will also be released on Xbox. The most recent release in the franchise, Gears 5, earned a glowing review from IGN on the back of its impressive campaign, compelling story, and jam-packed multiplayer suite.
Joker Joins Mortal Kombat 11 Roster in January
Mortal Kombat 11's Kombat Pack's next fighter to join the roster is Joker who will be joining the lineup on January 28, 2020, as announced in a trailer during The Game Awards as well as on NetherRealm's Twitter account.
The Kombat Pack was announced back in August, where developer NetherRealm Studios revealed that six fighters will be joining the roster through March 2020.
When the Bat’s away, Joker’s goin’ to play. See you soon kiddos!
Ghost of Tsushima Gets a Release Window for PS4
Developer Sucker Punch showed off a full-length trailer of its highly-anticipated PS4 exclusive Ghost of Tsushima at The Game Awards tonight, including a Summer 2020 release window on PlayStation 4.
The trailer was full of cinematic new gameplay and a whole lot of story, including stealth kill mechanics and hint of the narrative driving The Ghost's journey. Accompanying much of the gameplay was a live orchestra playing music from the game. See that trailer below:
A blog post released after the trailer revealed further details. "While Jin starts our game as a samurai, he’ll learn skills and adopt tactics that are decidedly not samurai-like," the post reads. It also describes Ghost of Tsushima as "the biggest game Sucker Punch has ever made by a wide margin."
Path of the Warrior Is a Classic Beat ‘Em Up, Except in VR
Splosion Man developer Twisted Pixel, in partnership with Oculus Studios, just announced a new VR beat-em-up at The Game Awards. Furthermore, Path of the Warrior is available right now on Oculus Quest and Rift.
Path of the Warrior aims to bring the classic, over-the-top brawler experience to VR. Players can punch combo their way through waves of enemies, and use interactive objects like pool cues, trash cans, and anything else they can get their hands on to knock out the baddies.
“Some of my earliest memories in gaming were beat ‘em ups like Double Dragon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game, and later on Streets of Rage and Final Fight,” said Oculus Studios executive producer Mike Doran. “When we had an opportunity to sign Twisted Pixel to create a Quest title with a blank slate when it came to genre, an arcade beat ‘em up was at the top of their list too.”
Magic: Legends MMORPG Announced
Magic the Gathering is entering the MMO space with Magic: Legends.
Developing...
Miranda Sanchez is an executive editor at IGN. You can chat with her about video games and anime on Twitter.
Weird West Announced From Former Dishonored Devs
During The Game Awards Thursday, publisher Devolver Digital and WolfEye Studios announced the new developer’s debut game, Weird West.
Weird West is described as “an action RPG experience set within a surreal vision of the developing frontier.” It will mix fantasy monsters with a darker take on western gunslingers and have an isometric, top-down view on the action below.
A press release accompanying the announcement also explained that “each journey is unique and tailored to the actions taken - a series of high stakes stories where everything counts and the world reacts to the choices you make.” This could imply it has some sort of replayable or roguelike structure, but that’s just my own speculation as it could easily mean it’s simply a linear game with reactive systems too.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps Gets a Small Delay
Fresh new Ori and the Will of the Wisps gameplay was shown off at The Game Awards Thursday night, along with the announcement that its release date has been delayed by one month.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps will now release on March 11, 2020 opposed to the previous date of February 11, 2020.
The gameplay briefly showed new levels and monsters to fight in what looks to be even more intense situations.
It will launch on Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate the same day, and also be available on PC and Steam. At Gamescom earlier on this year, we learned about the addition of spirit trials to the Ori series, which will allow you to asynchronously race against your friends - and the rest of the world - to claim the best times.
Apex Legends Holiday Event Gets a Surprise Launch
Apex Legends is getting all dressed up for the holiday season with a new event called Mirage's Holo-Day Bash, which includes new activities, cosmetics, and a double XP weekend.
Announced at The Game Awards, this holiday event runs from December 12 through January 7 and features a new limited-time mode called Winter Express. In it, squads of three with pre-set loadouts and fight to capture the World's Edge train. The first squad to capture the train three times wins. Then there's the Mirage Voyage Town Takeover, a special party boat loaded with a hot tub, dance floor with dancing Mirage's, and fireworks. And finally, the double XP weekend starts at 10 AM PT on Friday, December 13 and runs until 10 AM PT on Monday, December 16.