On the morning of the launch of Warframe 1999, the ambitious 90s-themed update and story expansion for sci-fi-fantasy looter-shooter Warframe, Digital Extremes published the update notes for Warframe 1999, which launched in the morning of December 13. Warframe 1999 introduces a new tile-set, called Höllvania, alongside its companion cinematic quest, which will send players back in time to discover the Protoframes and help find the Protoframe creator, Albrecht Entrati. Players will form part of an underground resistance team alongside the Protoframes, although players will not play as the Protoframes or even their own Warframes in 1999. Instead, players will travel to Höllvania and complete the new Hex quest as Drifter. Höllvania has its own seasons, and players will enter the new area in winter.

The update also adds new quests and mission types in the new map, which see players hunt down and stop the Techrot and Scaldra in a number of classic Warframe game modes, including assassination, exterminate, and Warframe's first PvPvE mode. Along with the new game modes, there is also a new Warframe—appropriately called Cyte-09, sticking with the 90s theme—who looks to be something of an all-rounder, thanks to his abilities. Cyte-09 also drops with his own signature rifle, the Reconifex, which applies a heat effect and reload speed buff on timed reloads, and the Vesper77 secondary, which appears to be a critical-based sidearm that highlights weak points when aiming down the sights. There are also a number of changes coming to Warframe's core gameplay, including the introduction of the Atomicycle motorcycle, which will be available for all open maps, and the long-awaited Nyx and Trinity reworks. Find out more about the more minor changes in the full Warframe 1999 patch notes.

Square Enix just announced the final season of Foamstars, the colorful, unique 4v4 PvP party shooter for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. After the new season, which will run from December 13, 2024, to January 17, 2025, Square Enix will stop providing seasonal updates to Foamstars, effectively marking the end of the game's live service. It won't be the end of Foamstars entirely, though, since the game and its servers will remain live after the final season ends—with all previous seasons' content available, to boot. Still, without additional content coming, the future of Foamstars is uncertain, and many are already asking how long the game will remain interesting to players, especially in a genre that has so many alternatives.

In order to stem the inevitable player exodus and attract new players, despite the effective discontinuation of development, Square Enix is planning a series of in-game events it calls the Foamstars Cup. Along with the new season, Square Enix will also introduce customizable character shots and a handful of other enhancements. Foamstars went free-to-play earlier this year, shortly after its launch, likely as a move to attract new players, but the effective abandonment of the game by Square Enix is something of an indication that even this wasn't enough to justify further development of the game beyond what Square Enix is promising after this final season.

Marvel Rivals is set to launch on PlayStation 5 at the end of this week, Friday, December 6, and Sony has finally revealed some of the technical details that will ship with the upcoming PvP shooter. On the base-model PS5, Marvel Rivals will supposedly run at a stable 60 FPS at 1440p resolution, with UE5 Lumen Global Illumination and Chaos Destruction tech. Meanwhile, High Frame Rate mode will deliver 120 FPS, likely dropping the maximum resolution and quality settings to reach the higher frame rate, although Sony neglects to mention the resolution in this mode.

The PS5 Pro steps things up somewhat, thanks to the improved processing power and AI enhancement features. On PS5 Pro, Marvel Rivals will run at up to 4K and 60 FPS in Pro Mode, with an optional 120 FPS High Frame Rate Mode promising higher frame rates and resolutions than on the base PS5, although again there are no specific resolutions quoted here. The PS5 Pro also adds Lumen Reflections, which is a ray tracing implementation that allows for better, more accurate reflections off of a wide variety of surfaces, theoretically enhancing things like water effects, diffuse reflections, and indoor and outdoor lighting, making all the aforementioned more realistic. In addition to improved visuals and performance, PS5 and PS5 Pro players will get access to two special skins as in-game purchases or PlayStation Plus add-ons, namely Peni Parker's VEN#M skin and a PlayStation-exclusive Scarlet Spider skin for Spider-Man.

Welcome to the first week of December and the first of advent for those that celebrate it. This week's AAA release is the 2024 release of a FPS shooter that first saw life back in 1998, but under a new developer and publisher. If this isn't your cup of tea, then you can try your luck in beating humans, demolishing things, surviving a bullet hell, finding your lost memories or pretending to be a superhero.

Delta Force / This week's AAA title / Thursday 5 December
Delta Force is back! The iconic series returns as the definitive free-to-play modern team-based tactical shooter and featuring three distinct gameplay modes: large-scale PvP warfare, intense extraction shooter action, and a remake of the legendary Black Hawk Down campaign. Steam link

Gaijin Entertainment and Matter Team are happy to announce Active Matter, a new mind-bending tactical hardcore shooter set in a fractured multiverse. The game will be available for purchase on PC (at Steam and Gaijin.Net stores), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in 2025. The exact price and release date will be announced later. The Closed Beta Test of Active Matter is planned for 2024 at Gaijin.Net, and players are welcome to sign up at the game's official website to make sure they do not miss this opportunity.

Active Matter players control operators stuck in a time loop, returning, time and again, to the same point after each death. They choose a loadout and enter quantum-unstable zones, rich in active matter - a substance capable of warping and ripping the very fabric of space and time. Rivals from other timelines, physics-breaking anomalies that change gravitational force and ethereal beings stand in the way. Players harvest active matter, collect the loot and extract to a safe area before the whole zone ceases to exist with everything inside it.

Valve's next-gen hero shooter, Deadlock, has been making waves lately, with a recent update addressing cheating in a rather comical way. Now, it looks like the developers are putting in more work to both expand the game's hero roster and bring it up to feature-parity with other modern MMOs and PvP shooters. According to the changelog for the October 24 Deadlock update, Valve has added six new heroes to the game alongside some much-needed bug fixes, visual tweaks, and new social features.

The biggest news is obviously the new heroes, which, despite being added to the game, aren't quite ready for prime time just yet. As such, Valve has created a new experimental mode called Hero Labs, where players will be able to test new, potentially incomplete, heroes and provide feedback to the developers. The preliminary names for the six new heroes are Holliday, Calico, Wrecker, Fathom, Viper, and Magician, and Valve developer, Yoshi, is clear that these new heroes are still works-in-progress, with Magician in particular lacking his own ultimate ability. New heroes aren't the only changes coming to Deadlock, though, and Valve's update notes include a new character shader and better sky and environment illumination, a commend feature to show appreciation to other players, and a slew of balance changes to just about every character in the game.

Arc Raiders, the upcoming third-person PvPvE survival shooter from the developer of The Finals has received a date for its first tech test on Steam. This will apparently be the game's largest external play test to date, and, given the far-away release date, the developer will likely be evaluating things like server performance and game stability first and foremost—although players will likely be asked for feedback regarding game performance and features, as well. The tech test will run for four days, starting on October 24 and ending on October 27.

Players interested in trying out the upcoming extraction shooter can apply via the game's Steam Store page, although they will also need to agree to a non-disclosure agreement, and they will not be allowed to stream any gameplay, share any footage or images from the new game, or even talk about the playtest. In the announcement for the playtest, Embark Studios is clear that this is not meant to be a marketing push for Arc Raiders, despite the press wave that came with the tech test announcement, and the studio hopes to save the excitement for when the game fully releases in 2025.

Despite the recent successful launch of Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero, which sold 3 million units in 24 hours, it looks as though Bandai Namco is pressuring 200 of its 1,300 employees in Japan to voluntarily resign in what is being called a short-sighted move to boost profits. According to a recent Bloomberg report, the Japanese game developer is skirting strict labor laws in Japan by removing all work responsibilities from 200 of its employees. Allegedly, nearly 100 of those staff being pressured into resignation have already left the company. Along with the layoffs, Bandai Namco has apparently cancelled three new games that were in development, namely, new Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto games.

This shift at Bandai Namco comes in spite of a booming Japanese game industry, which will reportedly grow by 6.66% annually until 2029. Game Developer attributes Bandai Namco's coerced "voluntary" layoffs to the losses generated by the consistently underwhelming performance of the company's online division, which supposedly generated a net loss of an equivalent to $51.35 million in the last fiscal year. If our recent reporting is any indication, there seems to be a shift in the overall gaming market, in which younger audiences predominantly seem to prefer multiplayer (specifically PvP) games. Second to PvP is single-player gaming, which was consistently the preferred game type for more than 30% of gamers, regardless of age groups. This latter niche is seemingly where Bandai Namco's strengths and audience seem to lie, along with many of its other Japanese game studio competitors, like From Software, Nintendo, and Capcom.

Welcome to week 40, which is also the beginning of October and another week packed full of new game releases. This week's major release is a F2P MMORPG by NCSoft, for those that are into those kinds of things. This is followed by an animal horror game, an open world zombie survival, an arcade inspired isometric action shooter of sorts, some roguelike magic, a remake of a 2015 adventure game and finally a Japanese co-op action RPG. In addition to this, the first DLC for Starfield is out this week.

Throne and Liberty / This week's major release / Tuesday 1 October
Welcome to Throne and Liberty, a free-to-play MMORPG that takes place in the vast open world of Solisium. You can scale expansive mountain ranges for new vantage points, scan open skies, traverse sprawling plains, explore a land full of depth and opportunity. Adapt your fight to survive and thrive through strategic decisions in PvP, PvE or both as you encounter evolving battlefields impacted by weather, time of day, and other players. There is no single path to victory as you seek to defeat Kazar and claim the throne while keeping rival guilds at bay. Steam link

As we enter the middle of August, this week's major upcoming release is a 4X space strategy game, where your goal is to rule the galaxy. If that's not your cup of tea, then maybe a fast-paced military RTS or a tactical FPS shooter might be more of your thing. Alternatively you could be cleaning up other people's mess, build a massive production line or kick an inflated pig's bladder around a field. In other words, half of this week's release is some kind of strategy game.

Sins of a Solar Empire II / This week's major release / Thursday 15 August
Sins of a Solar Empire II is the sequel to the critically acclaimed space strategy game that seamlessly blends real-time battle tactics with the depth of 4X. As both emperor and battle commander you must lead one of six playable factions to victory against the threat of extinction! There are no turns. There is no battle mode. There is no strategic mode. It's all one mode and it's all in real-time. Steam Link

After several slow weeks of new game releases, we now have a week that's overflowing with new game releases. The most anticipated release this week is an online PvPvE dungeon crawler, built on Unreal Engine 5. This is followed by a crusty space game, an evil game, a game that involves attracting birds to you, a dystopian New York of the future, a bit of Japanese folklore, some more dungeons, fighting some gods and finally being a Japanese goddess. Yes, we threw in a bunch of extra games this week, yet we're not able to cover all the new releases that are coming out.

Dungeonborne / This week's major release / Friday 19 July / Early Access
Dungeonborne is an immersive first-person PvPvE dungeon crawler. Venture solo or join forces with trusted companions to hunt for treasure, explore ominous dungeons, and battle terrifying monsters and cunning adversaries. Escape before succumbing to darkness and greed. Embrace your role as a Fighter, Priest, Rogue, Swordmaster, Pyromancer, Cryomancer, Death Knight, or Druid. With first-person clarity, feel the power of each spell, the weight of your weapons, and the strategic impact of every decision. Charge into battle, unleash devastating skills to disrupt enemy formations, cast life-saving buffs on allies, or use tactical throwables to turn the tide. Steam link

Amazon Games and NCSOFT announced today that THRONE AND LIBERTY, a free-to-play MMORPG featuring massive-scale combat in a dynamic world, will launch in North and South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan on Tuesday, September 17, 2024. The game will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, with cross-platform play enabled.

"On behalf of Amazon Games and NCSOFT, I'm proud to announce that THRONE AND LIBERTY will launch on September 17, 2024. We all know fans around the world have been eagerly waiting for news on when they can jump into the game," said Merv Lee Kwai, Head of Third-Party Publishing at Amazon Games. "We can't wait to show you what we've been working on, and invite you to experience it all for yourself when the game launches this September."

Today, Focus Entertainment and Saber Interactive premiered a new trailer for their highly-anticipated third-person action game Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.

The trailer reveals a whole new PvE experience and the return of the beloved PvP mode from the first game. Unveiled during the Warhammer Skulls Festival live stream, this trailer also marks the opening of digital pre-orders on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Steam and Epic Games Store ahead of the release on September 9, in addition to the already-available retail pre-orders.(Video below)

Calling all scavengers! Publisher tinyBuild and indie developers Hologryph and TowerHaus have debuted the first gameplay trailer for the open-world PvPvE extraction shooter SAND at today's tinyBuild Connect showcase. Get your first look at the gigantic diesel-punk mechs, action, looting and surprises that await in SAND's vast desert world. More details on SAND's upcoming first playtest will be shared soon, and players can sign up now on Steam to be notified when it begins later this summer!

SAND is set in an alternate-history universe, where the Austro-Hungarian Empire leads space colonization in the 19th century, humanity travels the stars, and the fallen planet of Sophie lays in ruins after an ecological disaster evaporated the world's oceans. Now only the bravest and most reckless treasure hunters, working alone or in teams, scavenge and battle across Sophie's deadly deserts, abandoned settlements and beyond in search of hidden riches.

The time has come, sharpen your axe and ready your shield. ⚔️ Godsworn is now available in Early Access! Godsworn is a classic mythological RTS. Experience an epic fantasy retelling of the northern crusades, where pagan gods and their tribes clash against crusaders and armies of heaven. Choose a divine hero, rally worshippers alongside mythical creatures, and smite the unworthy!

The wild pagan lands have been under the watchful eye of the gods for as long as time. The arrival of a knight order bearing the banner of heaven threatens to upset the uneasy alliance. Will the realm burn, or will blood of both divine and mortal be spilled to protect it?

MintRocket's Project TB unveiled as Wakerunners! This is a post-apocalyptic team-based action game set on a future Earth, offering a unique blend of fast-paced combat, diverse characters, and engaging game modes in a Top-Down PVP setting. The official name 'Wakerunners' combines 'Waker', for the human species enhanced with biometric abilities, and 'Runners', for the ability to accelerate and decelerate, which is a key setting in the game's universe.

Game Worldview
In the technologically advanced world of Wakerunners, biometric data chips have granted special abilities to human 'Wakers.' After a global virus outbreak and the fall of lunar debris - Earth lies in ruins, revealing gravitational anomalies and the new energy source, 'Lunium.' Survivors have formed alliances, competing to secure this precious resource and claim rulership of the new world.

Today, Ubisoft announced that BattleCore Arena, a free-to-play competitive platform shooter, is under development at Ubisoft Bordeaux and coming to PC via Ubisoft Connect and Steam. Playing as a spherical core, players will enter multi-tiered maps and contend with gravitational forces as they roll, dash, jump, and double-jump to outmaneuver their opponents with physics-based movement. Players will also be able to eject (or be ejected by) their opponents as they wield a multi-faceted arsenal, featuring ranged weapons for close-range impact or mid-distance power, as well as perks to help them evade danger, knock out enemies, or aid their allies.

BattleCore Arena is a PvP game with competitive modes including Backup, a 3v3 team deathmatch; Golden Core, in which possession of the eponymous Core is the path to victory; and Free-for-all, a fast-paced way to test your solo skills or warm up before climbing the ladder in ranked matches. Players can customize their core with cosmetic options for armor, lights, banners, elimination explosions, and more so they can show off their style while zipping around the arenas. If you live in Europe, you can register to participate in the BattleCore Arena tech test running from February 1 through February 5. Stay tuned to Ubisoft News for more on BattleCore Arena.

With autumn in full swing, the first full week of November brings a bunch of new games along with it and this week's AAA title is the third in the series and appears to have something to do with duty. As for this week's other titles, we can look forward to managing some kind of sports teams, crafting robots, erasing names, messing around in dungeons and finally some old school action.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III / This week's AAA title / Friday 10 November
Modern Warfare III celebrates the 20th anniversary of Call of Duty with one of the greatest collections of Multiplayer maps ever assembled - both fan favorites and all new ones. All 16 launch maps from the original Modern Warfare 2 (2009) have been modernized with new modes and gameplay features and will be available at launch to get everyone started, while over 12 all-new core 6v6 maps will fuel post-launch live seasons.

The Crew Motorfest is out now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC, and is included with a Ubisoft+ subscription. At launch, the game has over 600 available vehicles, 15 themed Playlists, and four PvP game modes for players to participate in, and it all takes place on the Hawai'ian island of O'ahu. Get ready to speed down the streets of Honolulu, soar above volcanoes in a plane, cruise along the beach in boats, customize your vehicles, and so much more in a game designed to be a car-culture celebration. With everything The Crew Motorfest has to offer, here are our top five ideas for what to check out first:

Experience Motorfest
Motorfest is a car-culture festival, and its grounds will serve as the heart of your experience. At the festival, you'll be able to see massive decorations, murals, inflatables and lot more, designed to honor O'ahu and car culture; show off your car collection; kick off the game's themed campaigns, called Playlists; and participate in online game modes including the Grand Race, Demolition Royale, Summit Contest, and Custom Show. As you explore Motorfest, you'll also see other players driving by, showing off their custom rides as they take part in the festivities as well, and deepening the sense of car-culture community.

Today we showed Bungie fans worldwide a glimpse of our future at the PlayStation Showcase, in the forms of two major game announcements. First up, we officially announced Marathon to the world! This is the first completely new project from Bungie in more than a decade. Marathon is a sci-fi PvP extraction shooter where players will embody cybernetic mercenaries known as Runners. Exploring a lost colony on the mysterious planet of Tau Ceti IV, Runners - working solo or as part of three-person crews - will fight for survival, for riches, and for fame.

We're incredibly excited to announce the game and to share our vision for the future. We know that you are curious to know more, and we will have much to say in the future. For now, know that Marathon is currently in development on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, featuring cross save and cross play. Check out the Marathon site to learn more about the game and follow Marathon on social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) to stay up to date. Below, don't miss a Q&A with Marathon General Manager Scott Taylor and Game Director Christopher Barrett, where they discuss debuting Marathon to the world.

As we enter the second week of May, we have a rather eclectic range of games for you, with no clear headline title of this upcoming week's releases. That said, we have dungeons, hype trains, occupations and all kinds of crazy things to look forward to in the coming week.

Darkest Dungeon II / Monday 8 May
Darkest Dungeon II is a roguelike road trip of the damned. Form a party, equip your stagecoach, and set off across the decaying landscape on a last gasp quest to avert the apocalypse. The greatest dangers you face, however, may come from within...

Exoprimal is an online, team-based action game that pits humanity's cutting-edge exosuit technology against history's most ferocious beasts - dinosaurs. Exosuits are grouped into different roles, and players will pilot these exosuits to hold firm against overwhelming dinosaur swarms in online-only, team-based action game modes. The year is 2040...Sudden dinosaur outbreaks have engulfed the globe in a crisis that threatens humanity's very existence. Dino Survival, the main game mode, sees two teams of five players competein a variety of PvE and PvP missions. Players will be transported to the scene of the latest dinosaur outbreak and follow the new generation AI known as Leviathan's guidance to complete objectives. The team that completes the mission first will emerge victorious.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Exoprimal open beta test. Our team gained a great deal of data from exofighter survey responses and social media. We'll put this feedback to good use and make Exoprimal the best game it can be! While the open beta allowed players to experience some of the missions available in the Dino Survival mode, Exoprimal's full release will feature the following content for players to enjoy.

2bytes Corp. released their first gameplay footage of Space Gears, being developed by their game studio, Pentapeak Studios, on their Steam page. Space Gears is a sci-fi, strategy game that has players terraform Mars with an army of mechs. Players must cooperate or compete with each other to gain control over scarce resources on the Red Planet.

The video showcases the game's systems, including land terraforming, base-building, and mech-assembly, as well as its combat system, featuring intense mech-on-mech, squad-based battles. To overcome the limitations of classic RTS games, which have been characterized by difficult and complex micromanaging and a high barrier to entry for new players, the focus was taken off of complex multi-tasking, involving build orders, resource allocation, and base expansions, and instead focused on delivering intuitive combat. Players can enjoy combat and strategy through multiple, fluid and fast-paced PvE and PvP modes that are immersive and easy to play.

Prime Matter and Smilegate are proud to announce that Crossfire: Legion - a fast-paced RTS heavy on action, meant to honour the legacy of the giants that defined the genre at the turn of the millennium - has left Early Access and is now fully released! Co-developed by Blackbird Interactive, the game leverages Smilegate's hugely popular Crossfire universe - where rival military conglomerates fight for global domination across a shattered version of the near future.

For months, the teams have been hard at work enhancing the playing field: new commanders and units have been added, then carefully tweaked and balanced; new competitive and co-operative game modes have introduced new ways to play; and the high-octane single-player campaign has been finalized. The 1.0 version now packs a ton of content for campaign players, co-op players, and competitive players alike - with substantial improvements across all areas and game modes!

Blizzard Entertainment announced today that Diablo IV, the next generation installment in the genre-defining series, is debuting in 2023. Blizzard also announced that Diablo IV is coming to Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, alongside versions for Windows PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, with cross-play and cross-progression enabled for all platforms. Inside Sanctuary—a realm long embattled by the devastating wars between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells—decades have passed since the events of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, but the world remains plagued by a sinister, corrupting force. And now Lilith, the Daughter of Hatred, has been reborn in the mortal world and is determined to rule over Sanctuary once more.

Joining the battle alongside iconic classes Barbarian, Sorceress, Rogue, and Druid is the legendary Necromancer, the fifth playable character class, which returns with newly designed undead mechanics. Players will be able to utilize the Necromancer's Book of the Dead, an all-new ability for the class, allowing them to dominate the battlefield with deeper customization of their undead army than ever before. Fight with aggressive skeleton Warriors, fast-attacking Skirmishers, sword and board Defenders, or scythe-wielding Reapers. Unleash a litany of spells with Skeleton Mages, imbuing them with shadow, cold, and sacrificial magics. Deploy tanking Bone Golems, health-stealing Blood Golems, and charging Iron Golems. Or sacrifice them all to absorb their power.