Lesquin, France, December 16, 2019 – Bigben and EKO Software are delighted to announce the launch of a new DLC for Warhammer: Chaosbane. The Tomb Kings includes a new story that is completely separate from the main campaign.
In The Tomb Kings DLC for Warhammer: Chaosbane, you are taken to the dangerous necropolises of the Land of the Dead. Once a civilisation at its peak with impressive cities and people of noble lineage, the lands of Nehekhara have now been reduced to sand and buried ruins after the treachery of the evil Nagash. Explore an all-new environment and experience the desert landscapes of the Land of the Dead. Help the Amethyst Order in a quest that will expose you to the dark secrets that lie in the ancient crypts of the Tomb Kings. With a completely new adventure to complement the main campaign, the Tomb Kings DLC features an original story and introduces scores of new enemies from the Warhammer universe. Travel the arid deserts of Nehekhara and explore 10 ancient Tombs with varied gameplay that have been sealed for a millennia. Solve environmental puzzles, protect magisters of the Amethyst Order and discover dangerous artefacts in the ancient temples of the Land of the Dead.
Are you brave enough to venture into the Land of the Dead and face the vengeful mummified kings of old? The living are not welcome where the dead reign supreme.
The new DLC story The Tomb Kings is available now on Steam for, and on PS4™ and Xbox One early next year.
Dec. 16, 2019 – Starcaster Games (Starcaster LLC) is happy to share the first look at Gladiux® coming to Consoles and PC in 2020. Gladiux is an Action Combat game that takes place in the days of Ancient Rome. We will reveal more about the story and the full trailer closer to GDC 2020 in San Francisco.
This is the first title by Starcaster Games since the studio was founded in April 2019. We have a lot more in store down the road and are excited to be coming out of the shadows finally.
You can find out more about the game at www.gladiux.com as well as follow our company for future announcements.
FREMONT, CA – December 16th, 2019, 7am PST – CORSAIR®, a world leader in high-performance gaming peripherals and enthusiast components, is pleased to announce that it has agreed to acquire high-performance controller pioneer SCUF Gaming “SCUF®” and its extensive patent portfolio. The transaction is expected to complete by the end of December 2019.
Since launching in 2011, SCUF has recognized that one size does not fit all and set a new standard for performance controllers for use with Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. SCUF radically changed the way controllers are used by redesigning the layout of a controller to increase hand use and improve performance, matching the evolving complexities of competitive games.
In comparison to generic game controllers, SCUF controllers are modular by feature and design, built to specification to shorten hand movements and gain a measurable performance advantage, making it easier for players to tailor the controller to their individual preferences. SCUF controllers feature a vast range of configurable components, including a patented paddle control system, removable back paddles, a quick-access remapping switch, customizable thumbsticks, hair trigger, trigger stops and extenders, choice of D-pads, and an interchangeable magnetic faceplate.
“We are thrilled to greatly expand our portfolio of industry-leading peripherals and enter the gaming controller space to help gamers play at their best,” said Andy Paul, Founder and CEO of CORSAIR. “SCUF leads the market for performance controllers and are a key ingredient to the success of countless esports professionals. SCUF will make an excellent and winning addition to the vast lineup of award-winning CORSAIR and Elgato products.”
“Over the last ten years, we’ve worked tirelessly to create the features that have made SCUF the preferred controller for the majority of top professional gamers. Controllers are the single most important connection between an individual and their game, becoming an extension of the player to maximize their performance,” said Duncan Ironmonger, Founder and CEO of SCUF Gaming. “We are delighted to join forces with CORSAIR, who share similar DNA to SCUF with regards to innovation and design in the gaming market. CORSAIR has the operational scale and network to help us bring our innovation to even more gamers.”
SCUF is a strong enthusiast gaming brand with an expansive IP portfolio and deep partnerships within the esports space. SCUF has a loyal affiliate network and is a licensed partner of Activision for Call of Duty, as well as the official controller partner of many gaming leagues including the NBA 2K League and eMLS.
SCUF Gaming will remain a separate brand within the CORSAIR family and will continue to operate from its HQ in Atlanta, as well as regional offices. All existing SCUF Gaming warranties, purchases, and support are unaffected and will continue to be provided by SCUF Gaming.
Jones Day served as legal advisor to CORSAIR. McDermott Will & Emery served as legal counsel to SCUF Gaming. Stifel served as exclusive financial advisor to SCUF Gaming.
Another installment of our Holiday Gift Guide series for 2019 – this one focusing on video games which, if you haven’t ascertained by all the theme park coverage and airsoft articles on this site, is what we’re all about! 😉 Enjoy!
MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries (PC)
The MechWarrior game franchise goes back a long time, and this latest installment has plenty of strategy, tactics, and all-out mech carnage to fill the entire Inner Sphere. Set before the invasion of the clans, MW5: Mercs puts you in command of your own mercenary unit and all the glory and pain that goes with it. Pick it up for the PC gamer in your life via the Epic Game Store (get over it people).
While the gameplay can be somewhat uneven, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order tells a gripping tale set in post-Order 66 Star Wars (14 years before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope). It follows a young Jedi Padawan named Cal Kestis as he is being hunted. Also, Respawn Entertainment needs major kudos for the amount of Star Wars lore and material they have packed into the game. There’s so much to chew through – even benign stuff in the background ended up giving me geeky-chills.
Hideo Kojima’s first post-Konami title is polarizing to say the least. You play as Sam Porter Bridges/Norman Reedus, a courier tasked with delivering supplies to the fractured and isolated colonies that remain and reconnecting them via a wireless communications network. At least, that’s how Wikipedia described it. After playing it a while now, however, I would describe it as part delivery sim with realistic cargo/weight management and bat-shit crazy Kojima style. It’s insane, and I loved every strange minute of it.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 is an outstanding, funny romp through a haunted hotel. It takes everything we loved from previous Luigi’s Mansion games and adds so much more to it – with smooth gameplay and spooky ghost hunting equipment and enemy types. It’s not just a perfect game for the Halloween season but, also, any time you want to have a spooky-fun time on your Nintendo Switch.
While Red Dead Redemption 2 came out on consoles last year, it made its PC appearance in 2019. So, it makes this list! With enhanced visual options thanks to the potential graphics powerhouses in modern gaming PC’s, the game looks more beautiful than ever.
Barcelona, Spain / Vienna, Austria, December 13th, 2019: „Welcome to the colony!“ – how is it possible that 18 years have passed since we first heard that phrase at the beginning of Gothic, the game that set a milestone in the history of German fantasy RPGs, such as Risen and Elex? Since then, we all have grown older, acquired some wrinkles, and are laughing at how we look in pictures from the early 2000s – or how games looked back then.
But, what if we could turn back time, take everything that was great almost 20 years ago, and put it in a beautiful modern look (let’s say powered by Unreal Engine 4) along with improving some things that were not that great, like the combat system, for example?
RENTON, WASHINGTON – December 13, 2019 – Wizards of the Coast and Tuque Games are proud to announce DARK ALLIANCE, a third-person action RPG, will launch worldwide on PC and consoles in Fall 2020.
DARK ALLIANCE is an exciting, action-driven, hack-and-slash adventure filled with iconic monsters, legendary characters, and epic loot. In an all-new trailer that debuted during last night’s Game Awards, Jeff Hattem, Founder of Tuque Games introduced millions of players to the game’s unique take on Drizzt Do’Urden and his legendary companions.
“From the moment I founded Tuque, our team has known that we wanted to bring our passion for D&D and creativity to the Dark Alliance series,” said Jeff Hattem, Head of Studio, Tuque Games. “We’re taking players on an epic journey through the harsh and violent, Icewind Dale, where they’re going to need to use their wits, their weapons and their party members to help them survive the iconic monsters we’re going to send their way.”
A spiritual successor to the Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance series featuring popular characters created by best-selling fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, the new DARK ALLIANCE combines the pulse-pounding action of a hack-and-slash dungeon crawler with the progression and loot systems of a role-playing game.
“Drizzt and his companions are some of Dungeons & Dragons’ most recognizable heroes,” said Nathan Stewart, Head of Franchise for Dungeons & Dragons. “This all-new Dark Alliance will give players a visceral experience that drops them into the action of a Drizzt storyline like never before.”
Featuring couch or online co-op for up to four people, fans can play as scimitar-wielding hero Drizzt Do’Urden or one of his unique companions Catti-Brie, Bruenor, or Wulfgar as they set out on an action-packed adventure in the icy tundra of Icewind Dale.
To learn more about DARK ALLIANCE and see the trailer, visit the official website at www.DarkAlliance.com.
Warsaw, Poland – December 13, 2019 — 11 bit studios is proud to fully unveil the biggest expansion to the Frostpunk world! The Last Autumn serves as a story prequel to the plot of the popular base game and will change the perception of the frostbitten landscape fans are so familiar with. It will be available for PC through online stores such as Steam, GOG.com, and the Humble Store on January 21st. Along with the release of its biggest expansion, Frostpunk is having its biggest sale to date with a 60% discount on Steam!
The Last Autumn depicts an important turning point in the Frostpunk universe, as it sheds light on events of the story that happen before the winter strikes. Imagine the world of Frostpunk before the frost consumed everything; the world that is full of life and energy. See the civilization’s last attempts to remain unbeaten by nature and build a generator in an effort to save your people. Experience the uneven battle against winter as it slowly takes over the British Empire and threatens its collapse. The Last Autumn offers new buildings, technologies, and Books of Laws that will assist you in navigating through unprecedented social issues and shape the Frostpunk society in previously unknown ways.
“We’re really excited to show our latest work to the community. The Last Autumn will debut a month later than originally planned, but we firmly believe that it will be worth the wait since it’s one of the most amazing things we did with Frostpunk so far. And the story doesn’t end here. The third DLC is coming so 2020 will be a big year for Frostpunk.” – says Kuba Stokalski, Frostpunk Lead Designer.
The Last Autumn is included in the Frostpunk Season Pass that was released in August for PCs. The pass grants access to all three DLC packs: The Rifts, The Last Autumn, and the unannounced pack codenamed “Project TVADGYCGJR”. If you don’t have the Season Pass, each DLC pack can be bought separately. All expansions will arrive on consoles at a later date.
Last up — the cherry on top, if you will — 11 bit studios has a special treat for the musically-inclined part of the Frostpunk community. Frostpunk’s ‘Suite for String Quartet’, by composer Piotr Musiał, is comprised of the game’s main theme and accompanied by the music from ‘The City Must Survive’. Sheet music for this stellar composition can be found here. May it serve as a source for great musical interpretations!
December 13, 2019 – For eighteen years and three console generations, the Xbox community has shown us the power both games and fun can have on all of us. As we enter a new generation of gaming, we see a future where you’re instantly absorbed in your games – where worlds are even more lifelike, immersive, responsive and surprising – and where you are at the center of your gaming experience. With the new Xbox Series X, we will realize that vision.
Xbox Series X will be our fastest, most powerful console ever and set a new bar for performance, speed and compatibility, allowing you to bring your gaming legacy, thousands of games from three generations and more forward with you. Its industrial design enables us to deliver four times the processing power of Xbox One X in the most quiet and efficient way, something that is critically important in delivering truly immersive gameplay. We also designed Xbox Series X to support both vertical and horizontal orientation. It’s bold and unique, very much like our fans around the world and the team of collaborators and innovators who built it.
The name Xbox is an expression of our deep history in gaming, our team’s unrelenting passion, and our commitment to both our fans and the future of gaming at Microsoft. It also signifies our belief that a gaming console should be for just that – gaming.
Alongside Xbox Series X, we also unveiled the new Xbox Wireless Controller. Its size and shape have been refined to accommodate an even wider range of people, and it also features a new Share button to make capturing screenshots and game clips simple and an advanced d-pad derived from the Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller. The new Xbox Wireless Controller will be compatible with Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs, and will be included with every Xbox Series X.
The possibilities of what Xbox Series X enables developers to achieve was also brought to life this evening with the unveiling of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. A sequel to the award-winning Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice from world-renowned developers Ninja Theory, the game is being built to leverage the full power of Xbox Series X. The footage shared tonight was captured in-engine and reflects the power of Xbox Series X available to developers to deliver new universes, experiences and games in ways you have never imagined.
Bringing Developers’ Dreams to Life with Xbox Series X
Games today deliver amazing visuals and tell an array of different and deep stories. That’s why, when we started work on Xbox Series X, it was vital we continue to advance state-of-the-art visual capabilities for developers, while also ensuring they could realize even greater feeling, emotion and empathy in their games. With Xbox Series X, we will elevate the way games look, play and feel. We will also remove the technical barriers faced in previous generations and enable developers to create more expansive, immersive gaming worlds that invite more players to play.
From a technical standpoint, this will manifest as world-class visuals in 4K at 60FPS, with possibility of up to 120FPS, including support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and 8K capability. Powered by our custom-designed processor leveraging the latest Zen 2 and next generation RDNA architecture from our partners at AMD, Xbox Series X will deliver hardware accelerated ray tracing and a new level of performance never before seen in a console. Additionally, our patented Variable Rate Shading (VRS) technology will allow developers to get even more out of the Xbox Series X GPU and our next-generation SSD will virtually eliminate load times and bring players into their gaming worlds faster than ever before.
We are minimizing latency by leveraging technology such as Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and giving developers new functionality like Dynamic Latency Input (DLI) to make Xbox Series X the most responsive console ever. Xbox Series X is also designed for a future in the cloud, with unique capabilities built into the hardware and software to make it as easy as possible to bring great games to both console and elsewhere. Xbox Series X will deliver a level of fidelity and immersion unlike anything that’s been achieved in previous console generations.
One Console, Four Generations of Gaming
One of the things we’re most proud of with Xbox Series X is the promise we’re delivering to our fans who have and continue to invest with Xbox. Thanks to backward compatibility, you can expect your gaming legacy, thousands of your favorite games across four generations of gaming, all your Xbox One gaming accessories, and industry-leading services like Xbox Game Pass to be available when you power on your Xbox Series X in Holiday 2020.
Building on our compatibility promise, with Xbox Series X we’re also investing in consumer-friendly pathways to game ownership across generations. Leading the way with our first-party titles including Halo Infinite in 2020, we’re committed to ensuring that games from Xbox Game Studios support cross-generation entitlements and that your Achievements and game saves are shared across devices. As we branch out and extend gaming to more players around the world, console gaming will remain at the heart of our Xbox offering. Game creators around the globe are already hard at work building content for Xbox Series X and our 15 Xbox Game Studios are developing the largest and most creatively diverse lineup of Xbox exclusive games in our history. On behalf of Team Xbox, we’re excited to enter the future of console gaming with you and can’t wait to share more in 2020.
LOS ANGELES, CA – December 12, 2019 – The time has come, Tenno, to confront the enemy with a different tactic, an ancient Orokin technology, a deadly weapon — a star-bound battleship. From The Game Awards 2019 in Los Angeles, Ca., Canadian developer and publisher Digital Extremes is proud to reveal today that Empyrean, Warframe®’s explosive new four-player co-op battleship experience, is available now for free on PC. Roaring across the stunning new space environments of Earth, Saturn, and Veil Proxima, Empyrean sends Warframe players into a space combat odyssey unlike anything they’ve seen before. In the future-tech Railjack battleship, clans will crash into hostile Grineer forces in fast-paced, cooperative, realtime spaceship battles.
Along with Empyrean’s arrival on PCs today, Digital Extremes also is excited to announce that Warframe Rising Tide is available now on PlayStation®4 and Xbox One. Tenno can download the update and immediately began researching and building their Dry Docks and Railjacks in preparation for the oncoming confrontation.
NEXT LEVEL COOPERATIVE GAMEPLAY
On the precipice of The New War, veteran and new players alike will find themselves playing closely together using high-level cooperation and communication skills. Whether it’s blasting hordes of opponent Fighters and Crewships, or shooting like a bullet from the Archwing Cannon into enemy vessels to commandeer or destroy them, players will wield new upgradeable offensive firepower. But to succeed, Railjack squads will need both offense and defense. The working Railjack vessel takes damage, requires resources to keep ammo flowing, and will need players’ coordinated attention, from dousing fires and welding hull holes to combating enemy boarding parties.
Empyrean Highlights Include:
Welcome to the Railjack: Empyrean puts players at the helm of the Sigma Series Railjack battleship. This ultra powerful ship is upgradeable, customizable, and the centerpiece for all future Empyrean space missions, battles and Cinematic Quests.
Getting the Team Together: This phase of Empyrean is designed and optimized as a cooperative experience. Solo players will still be able to enjoy Empyrean, but the difficulty and progression is balanced around full crews. The year 2020 will bring enhanced solo capabilities and more surprises!
Free Flight: Intimidated? Don’t be. Try out the Railjack in Free Flight Mode. Learn the basics without engaging in battle and then join a squad when you’re ready.
Railjack Powers: The Railjack itself provides incredibly diverse options to counter Grineer assailants. With constantly updated technology like Cloaking Fields and Void Holes to be earned, and special moves like “Juke” to out-maneuver enemies, players will earn powerful moves as they progress.
Warframe Powers: Aboard the Railjack in combat, players also have a wealth of fantasy-fulfilling options at hand. They can jettison into battle using Archwings to infiltrate enemy ships or shoot from “Archwing cannons” to annihilate smaller ships. Using the Tactics map, Tenno can tap into on-board Warframe Abilities and cast them where needed. They direct their teammates to attend crises, welding hull holes or confronting a boarding party, and they can teleport from location to location, whether it’s on board the Raijack or an enemy vessel.
NEW UPGRADEABLE SYSTEMS
Empyrean brings with it new innovative game systems that expand Warframe‘s space battle fantasy. From choosing simple Railjack aesthetics like ship names, colors and skins, to constructing weapons, armor and powers, Empyrean‘s new upgrade systems are deep and powerful. They include:
Intrinsics: With the totally new “Intrinsics” feature, players will experience a new reliable RPG progression system. By playing through missions and earning Intrinsics points, Tenno build their own player ranked skills
Avionics: These are the vessel’s upgradable ‘powers’. They comprise Battle, Integrated, and Tactical types and they work like Warframe Abilities
Components: Guns, Engines, Reactors, and Shields
Armaments: AKA weaponry, are different firepower types
Building the Dry Dock and Railjack can be accomplished using resources obtained for free in-game or in the Warframe Marketplace. Warframe Empyrean is available now on PC; download it here: www.warframe.com. Look for the console versions of Empyrean in the near future.
December 13, 2019 – At The Game Awards 2019, ZeniMax Online Studios presented a thrilling cinematic trailer showing the climax of the Season of the Dragon, The Elder Scrolls Online’s first year-long interconnected adventure.
Eagled-eyed viewers will notice ZOS also teased next year’s big adventure right at the end. With the Season of the Dragon coming to a close, it’s time to prepare for 2020’s year-long adventure, returning Elder Scrolls fans to the legendary lands of Skyrim.
Also announced: at the HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas, and in front of a live audience of ESO players and fans, ZeniMax Online Studios will reveal The Elder Scrolls Online’s next year-long adventure and Chapter! Tune-in at 2 pm PST on January 16, 2020 to explore the Dark Heart of Skyrim.
