You might not expect a game like Grounded to come from Obsidian Entertainment. The studio's modus operandi tends to be story-heavy RPGs like Pillars of Eternity, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, and The Outer Worlds, which makes Grounded a major change of pace. It's a cooperative survival game about gathering food and water to stay alive and building structures for protection against dangerous creatures--and it's set in the tiny world of a backyard, in which your character is about the size of an ant.Obsidian gave media an early look at Grounded at its studio in Irvine, California, ahead of its announcement of the game at Microsoft's XO19 in London. We got a bit of a sense of the broad strokes of Grounded's gameplay. You play as one of four teenagers in 1990, all of whom are shrunk down to mere millimeters as part of some kind of experiment. Either alone or playing online with up to three friends, you find yourself trapped in a backyard full of hostile insects and creatures, trying to stay alive. As in other survival games, you'll need to cook food and find water, construct a base, and craft weapons and items that'll help you fend off foes.It might not be a traditional Obsidian game, but Grounded is an Obsidian game, and the small team of 13 developers working on the title is trying to bring things to the survival genre that are specific to the studio. The biggest is a focus on story, something survival games often elide in favor of keeping players in the moment-to-moment experience of just staying alive."Obsidian's known for building rich stories with memorable characters," game director Adam Brennecke told GameSpot. "So first of all, one thing that we're trying to bring to the survival genre are memorable characters that you'll know and love, having personalities, creating a rich storyline that the player can experience."The second thing is just world-building. I think we're masters at world-building, so we put in a lot of detail on how the world is built to make it feel like a real place. And then I think another thing we're also known for is letting the player experience the game that they want to play. So having a lot of ways to play through the game, not only in what you equip and personalizing your character in that way, but different ways of approaching problems and going through the game in different ways."That story is told through the four teenage player characters, who Brennecke said will converse with each other as you play, as well as through the instructions you receive from the experiment's director, which guided players through a tutorial during Obsidian's hands-off demo. You'll also find story information and clues about what's going on as you explore the backyard in the form of journals and audio logs, as well as environmental storytelling. Though Brennecke wouldn't provide any details that might be spoilers, it seems fair to assume that you and your friends are not the first people to venture into the wilderness that is this particular backyard. He also said the narrative might reveal more about the Instructor, the voice on the radio leading you through the experiment.The world of the backyard is also a huge part of what gives Grounded its identity. You'll weave your way through blades of grass and past giant mushrooms, encountering creatures such as ants, ladybugs, and spiders. Along the way, you'll find discarded items from the place's full-scale human inhabitants, like a He-Man-like action figure, or a slowly leaking juice box. Brennecke said these items can serve multiple purposes--they're landmarks that help you navigate, and they might also make for good places to build shelters. In the case of the juice box, you can also get juice from the huge item, providing you a useful source of water that also provides you some nourishment if you drink from it.Brennecke said the entire world of Grounded has been hand-crafted; nothing in it is added to the world procedurally. It includes multiple biomes to explore, and it's also apparently teeming with life. The backyard supports its own ecosystems, with the plants growing over time and the various creatures who live there interacting with each other in a natural way. Kill enough of a certain kind of insect, it seems, and you might change the balance in an area of the backyard, adjusting its ecosystem. Those ecosystem changes mean that one playthrough will be different from the next, Brennecke said, with the backyard changing due to your influence and the interactions between its denizens.In a practical sense, Grounded is about staying alive and traversing the backyard to learn its secrets. During the demo, an Obsidian developer chopped down massive blades of grass to craft planks, which in turn were used to build walls and set up shelter before nightfall. Things get markedly more dangerous at night, Brennecke said, so as in other survival games, you're going to be looking for a place to hole up and sleep most of the time. You'll also build tools like throwing axes and spears, which you can use to hunt insects to cook for food, and to fight off the more dangerous inhabitants of the backyard, such as enormous, deadly spiders.Moving through the narrative will also move you through Grounded's tech tree, provides the game an RPG feel more akin to Obsidian's usual fare. You'll make different armor sets that carry unique properties, forge weapons you can use for various situations, and unlock items that will allow you to reach new areas of the backyard. Advancing through the tech tree is a big part of how you'll move through Grounded's story, as it allows you to take on tougher obstacles and reach places you couldn't otherwise explore. A weedkiller-covered section of the backyard known as the Haze requires you to craft a gas mask in order to enter it, for instance.You don't have to unlock the entire tech tree on your own, either, Brennecke said. It's actually a part of Grounded's multiplayer, allowing for cooperation between you and your teammates."The tech tree is a cooperative experience," he explained. "So everyone in the game can build towards certain tech. I can't think of a game that does that, but it's a fun experience where everyone on the server playing together can cooperate and build towards certain tech.""On the team, we're all like super hardcore survival game players," Brennecke said. "So there's a lot of stuff that we're trying to bring to the table to make the early game very accessible and approachable, but also have deep mechanics for those players that want a deeper gaming experience. Want to get into the nitty-gritty of stats and how to optimize their character builds and stuff like that."Grounded can be played either alone or with friends, but it's purely a cooperative experience, Brennecke said. It's also not a shared world game--only the people you invite to your games will appear in your backyard, and vice versa. Obsidian plans to release the game in Game Preview on Xbox One and Early Access on Steam, and it'll also be part of Xbox Game Pass."We have experience doing sort of early access with our backer beta on Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, and that let us kind of see how people are gelling with the game," Brennecke said. "So if there's some aspect of the game that they're not really liking, it allows us the opportunity to make adjustments and just make the game better."Part of what Obsidian wants feedback on is how Grounded will tell its story, Brennecke said. When the game launches in preview and early access, the story won't be complete, giving Obsidian a chance to see how players receive its narrative approach. Other elements, like dynamic weather, are things the team wants to implement but which might not be in the game when it first becomes available to players.Though we saw very little of Grounded--basically just a slice of its early tutorial, along with a little base-building--it already seemed as though the title adds a lot of interesting ideas to the genre. For fans of Obsidian, however, Grounded is a confident step in a new direction, and we'll need to wait to see whether the things people like about the studio's games, like storytelling, character development, and player choice, are compatible with the survival genre.Grounded is expected to hit Xbox One and PC in spring 2020. Info from Gamespot.com

During Microsoft's X019 stream, it showed the first gameplay trailer for Age of Empires 4, which was first announced more than two years ago. The trailer showed a variety of units like warriors, knights, cavalry, and catapults in a massive castle siege scene. You can watch it for yourself below.The stage presentation also included an interview with Shannon Loftis, who is heading up the newly dubbed studio World's Edge. She pointed out that the trailer debuts two of the big reveals for this game. The first is when the game is set--it takes place during the medieval era. Microsoft also confirmed the first two civilizations that will be represented in the game, and they're on display during the trailer: the Mongols and English.Age of Empires IV is in development at Relic, the studio responsible for the Company of Heroes series. Microsoft also confirmed that its recently formed, dedicated Age of Empires studio is named World's Edge, and it's headed up Shannon Loftis.Also as part of the Age of Empires announcements, Microsoft announced the release of Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition. It's out now on PC, including Steam. X019 News X019 Inside Xbox News: Halo Reach Coming To MCC, New Obsidian Game, And More Lots Of Final Fantasy Games Coming To Xbox Game Pass; Kingdom Hearts Heads To Xbox One Xbox Scarlett Won't Be "Out Of Position" On Power Or Price, Says Xbox Boss Rare Announces New IP, Everwild Halo: Reach Coming To Xbox Game Pass And PC Soon Yakuza Series Is Coming To Xbox Game Pass Obsidian's Grounded Is Honey, I Shrunk The Kids Meets Rust Life Is Strange Dev Reveals New Game, Tell Me Why Outer Worlds Dev's Next Game Is As Far From Space As You Can Get DmC and Hellblade Dev's Next Game, Bleeding Edge, Release Date Leaked Info from Gamespot.com

X019, Microsoft's big event outlining the future of Xbox games, had several noteworthy announcements today. And Halo fans are getting a bit of a treat before year's end, because Halo: Reach is coming to Xbox Game Pass next month, rounding out the Master Chief Collection. It'll be available on December 3 this year for Xbox One and PC (through Steam as well).Halo: Reach first came out for Xbox 360 in 2010 and was the last Halo game from original series developer Bungie. It's a prequel that tells the story of Noble Team, a group of Spartans who gave it their all in the lead up to the beginning of the original game Halo: Combat Evolved. Reach is regarded as one of the high points for the franchise, and it's been upgraded visually for this generation with native 4K support. You can see footage of the PC version in action below:Halo: Reach will be part of the Master Chief Collection for both Xbox One and PC. However, this is the first game in the gradual rollout of Halo titles through the Collection for PC specifically. For all our coverage on all the things new for Microsoft games and Xbox One, check out the news coming out of X019: X019 News X019 Inside Xbox News: Halo Reach Coming To MCC, New Obsidian Game, And More Lots Of Final Fantasy Games Coming To Xbox Game Pass; Kingdom Hearts Heads To Xbox One Xbox Scarlett Won't Be "Out Of Position" On Power Or Price, Says Xbox Boss Rare Announces New IP, Everwild Halo: Reach Coming To Xbox Game Pass And PC Soon Yakuza Series Is Coming To Xbox Game Pass Obsidian's Grounded Is Honey, I Shrunk The Kids Meets Rust Life Is Strange Dev Reveals New Game, Tell Me Why Outer Worlds Dev's Next Game Is As Far From Space As You Can Get DmC and Hellblade Dev's Next Game, Bleeding Edge, Release Date Leaked Info from Gamespot.com

Square Enix joined Microsoft for its X019 livestream to announce that a plethora of Final Fantasy titles are making their way to Xbox One via Xbox Game Pass next year. Additionally, classic and Kingdom Hearts titles will be available on the Xbox platform. A few classic Final Fantasy titles will arrive on Xbox Game Pass for Console and PC starting sometime next year. These include Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, and Final Fantasy XII. Square Enix also confirmed that some newer entries will be available next year, including Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, and Final Fantasy XV.Additionally, Square Enix said the Kingdom Hearts HD remastered collections are headed to Xbox One sometime in 2020. These include Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 HD Remix and Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue. Before wrapping up its announcements, Square Enix stated that demo for Kingdom Hearts III is available now on Xbox One.Microsoft's X019 livestream recently concluded. The company divulged a smorgasbord of news and announcements, including an Xbox One release date for Halo: Reach, the confirmation of Age of Empires IV, a bevy of Xbox Game Pass titles available right now, and much more. X019 News X019 Inside Xbox News: Halo Reach Coming To MCC, New Obsidian Game, And More Lots Of Final Fantasy Games Coming To Xbox Game Pass; Kingdom Hearts Heads To Xbox One Xbox Scarlett Won't Be "Out Of Position" On Power Or Price, Says Xbox Boss Rare Announces New IP, Everwild Halo: Reach Coming To Xbox Game Pass And PC Soon Yakuza Series Is Coming To Xbox Game Pass Obsidian's Grounded Is Honey, I Shrunk The Kids Meets Rust Life Is Strange Dev Reveals New Game, Tell Me Why Outer Worlds Dev's Next Game Is As Far From Space As You Can Get DmC and Hellblade Dev's Next Game, Bleeding Edge, Release Date Leaked Info from Gamespot.com

During its X019 livestream, Microsoft announced a flash sale for quite a few great games, including some of this year's biggest titles like Borderlands 3 and Gears 5. The sale is only live for the next 36 hours though, so if you want to take advantage of any of the deals, you'll want to act fast. You can see the entire slate of game deals in the list below.The majority of what's on sale are the special editions of each game. Borderlands 3's Super Deluxe Edition is nearly $40 off and includes all of the game's upcoming DLC. Mortal Kombat 11 Premium Edition is 50% off and includes the game's fighter-filled Kombat Pass, which includes the recently released Terminator and the upcoming Spawn and Joker. Both Destiny 2 expansions are also on sale.While it mostly includes the Ultimate, Special, and Deluxe editions for Xbox One games, the sale does have some deals on the base versions. Control is available for $45, Kingdom Hearts III is now just under $20, and Playerunknown's Battlegrounds costs $13.40.In related news, Microsoft also revealed its entire selection of Black Friday 2019 deals for Xbox One during its X019 livestream. Console bundles for the Xbox One X and Xbox One S are discounted, in addition to controllers, headsets, and more. Plus, be sure to check out our guide to all the best Xbox One deals for Black Friday--some of the below games may be even cheaper in a few weeks, so it's worth cross-checking these flash sale prices with Black Friday's Xbox One game deals before pulling the trigger now. See all deals in X019's flash sale Borderlands 3 Super Deluxe Edition - $80.40 ($120)Gears 5 Ultimate Edition - $56 ($80)Sea of Thieves Anniversary Edition - $25 ($50)Control - $45 ($60)Mortal Kombat 11 Premium Edition - $45 ($90)Red Dead Redemption 2 Ultimate Edition - $40 ($100)Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Deluxe Edition - $45 ($60)Destiny 2: Forsaken - $15 ($25)The Division 2 Gold Edition - $30 ($100)Playerunknown's Battlegrounds - $13.40 ($20)Forza Horizon 4 Ultimate Edition - $50 ($100)Kingdom Hearts III - $19.80 ($60)Ghost Recon Breakpoint Gold Edition - $65 ($100)FIFA 20 Champions Edition - $64 ($80)Madden NFL 20 Superstar Edition - $64 ($80)NHL 20 Deluxe Edition - $56 ($70)NBA 2K20 Legend Edition - $50 ($100)Rainbow Six Siege Gold Edition - $28 ($70)Code Vein Deluxe Edition - $56 ($80)The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan - $20.10 ($30)Assassin's Creed Odyssey Gold Edition - $35 ($100)Assassin's Creed Origins Gold Edition - $30 ($100)Far Cry 5 - $15 ($60)Far Cry New Dawn Deluxe Edition - $25 ($50)Watch Dogs 2 Gold Edition - $27 ($90) Black Friday 2019 Deals & News Black Friday 2019 Start Times, Store Hours: GameStop, Best Buy, Target, And More Black Friday 2019: The Best Xbox One Deals So Far Black Friday 2019: The Best PS4 Deals So Far Best Buy Black Friday 2019 Ad: Best Gaming, Tech, And Entertainment Deals Black Friday 2019: When Does It Start, Deals To Expect, And More Target Black Friday 2019 Ad: Best Gaming, Tech, And Entertainment Deals At Target Info from Gamespot.com

After acquiring InExile Entertainment last year, Microsoft confirmed during its X019 livestream that the studio's upcoming RPG, Wasteland 3, will launch on May 19 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.Before wrapping up the livestream, InExile boss Brian Fargo announced the game's release date alongside a brand-new trailer that was incredibly chilling. The "1987" trailer, below, shows survivors battling computerized enemies in a snow-covered Colorado devasted by bombs.Fargo, who is expected to retire after Wasteland 3 ships, said the game was designed as a standalone experience. He also confirmed that no previous knowledge of the Wasteland series, nor playing Wasteland or Wasteland 2, is necessary to jump into Wasteland 3.Wasteland 3 was announced three years ago through crowdfunding site Fig. Since then, the project has surpassed $3 million and made an appearance at E3 2019. We were able to go hands-on with Wasteland 3, where we said the game is "shaping up to be a solid follow-up that maintains the level of choice and agency from its predecessor--while also really seeing the stakes with its increased production quality." X019 News X019 Inside Xbox News: Halo Reach Coming To MCC, New Obsidian Game, And More Lots Of Final Fantasy Games Coming To Xbox Game Pass; Kingdom Hearts Heads To Xbox One Xbox Scarlett Won't Be "Out Of Position" On Power Or Price, Says Xbox Boss Rare Announces New IP, Everwild Halo: Reach Coming To Xbox Game Pass And PC Soon Yakuza Series Is Coming To Xbox Game Pass Obsidian's Grounded Is Honey, I Shrunk The Kids Meets Rust Life Is Strange Dev Reveals New Game, Tell Me Why Outer Worlds Dev's Next Game Is As Far From Space As You Can Get DmC and Hellblade Dev's Next Game, Bleeding Edge, Release Date Leaked Info from Gamespot.com

With X019 happening, plenty of big announcement have been made for Microsoft's gaming platforms, including several Japanese games making their way to Xbox. A total of 10 Final Fantasy games will hit Xbox Game Pass, while Sega revealed three Yakuza games will debut on the platform as well. But what wasn't part of the stage show was Xbox boss Phil Spencer confirming that Square Enix's MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV, will be coming to Xbox One.In addressing the press at X019, Spencer said, "I wanted you to know, rest assured that we will be bringing that game [Final Fantasy XIV] to Xbox. We have a great relationship with Yoshida-san [FFXIV director] and we’re working through what it means to bring [to Xbox] a cross-platform MMO that they’ve run for years."While it may not come as too much of a surprise, since FFXIV director/producer Naoki Yoshida has continually said he hopes to eventually bring the game to other platforms, Spencer's statement makes it clear that things are actually moving along. No potential release date or launch window was suggested, however.In a previous interview with Yoshida-san, he told us, "My direction has never changed from the beginning when we started with A Realm Reborn: strive to have as many people play FFXIV on multiple platforms. Secondly, I want to allow people to play with their friends without any cross-platform limitations. I am still in discussion with Microsoft and Nintendo to make this a reality."FFXIV and all three of its expansions are playable now on PC and PS4; for more on why the MMORPG is important, be sure to read our FFXIV Shadowbringers review, post-mortem interview with Yoshida-san, and feature on how the latest expansion became one of the best stories told in franchise history. And for more on X019, check out our stories below: X019 News X019 Inside Xbox News: Halo Reach Coming To MCC, New Obsidian Game, And More Lots Of Final Fantasy Games Coming To Xbox Game Pass; Kingdom Hearts Heads To Xbox One Xbox Scarlett Won't Be "Out Of Position" On Power Or Price, Says Xbox Boss Rare Announces New IP, Everwild Halo: Reach Coming To Xbox Game Pass And PC Soon Yakuza Series Is Coming To Xbox Game Pass Obsidian's Grounded Is Honey, I Shrunk The Kids Meets Rust Life Is Strange Dev Reveals New Game, Tell Me Why Outer Worlds Dev's Next Game Is As Far From Space As You Can Get DmC and Hellblade Dev's Next Game, Bleeding Edge, Release Date Leaked Info from Gamespot.com

Microsoft and Sony are both gearing up to introduce their next generation of consoles, and so far both companies are broadly explaining their visions for the next-gen of hardware. For Microsoft, that means committing to not repeating the mistakes of the Xbox One launch."I would say a learning from the Xbox One generation is we will not be out of position on power or price," Xbox head Phil Spencer told The Verge. “If you remember the beginning of this generation we were a hundred dollars more expensive and, yes, we were less powerful. And we started Project Scarlett with this leadership team in place with a goal of having market success."Spencer went on to say that the company had discussions about whether to do another console generation "years ago," and added that he personally thinks there will be more generations after that. Because of that calculus, he said, "We're all-in on Project Scarlett and I want to compete, and I want to compete in the right ways which is why we're focused on cross-play and backward compatibility."Microsoft has provided some information on the specifications of its next console and the Scarlett certainly shaping up to be on equal footing with its competitors. We've created a comparison between the Scarlett and PS5 to breakdown what we know about each piece of hardware thus far and how they compare to each other. X019 News X019 Inside Xbox News: Halo Reach Coming To MCC, New Obsidian Game, And More Lots Of Final Fantasy Games Coming To Xbox Game Pass; Kingdom Hearts Heads To Xbox One Xbox Scarlett Won't Be "Out Of Position" On Power Or Price, Says Xbox Boss Rare Announces New IP, Everwild Halo: Reach Coming To Xbox Game Pass And PC Soon Yakuza Series Is Coming To Xbox Game Pass Obsidian's Grounded Is Honey, I Shrunk The Kids Meets Rust Life Is Strange Dev Reveals New Game, Tell Me Why Outer Worlds Dev's Next Game Is As Far From Space As You Can Get DmC and Hellblade Dev's Next Game, Bleeding Edge, Release Date Leaked Info from Gamespot.com

It's finally happening: Bungie is about to severely weaken one of the best, most tried-and-true guns of Destiny 2. An upcoming update will cut the legs out from under The Recluse, a pinnacle SMG from Year Two that remains one of the most versatile and sought-after guns in the game. It's about to become a lot less useful, thanks to rebalancing that will also effect the Titan Exotic helmet One-Eyed Mask, and the Xenophage Exotic machine gun.In its latest This Week at Bungie blog post, the developer shared details for a few upcoming balancing changes, with a nerf to The Recluse headlining the list. Currently, the gun carries a perk called Master of Arms, which is activated when you get a kill with any gun in your arsenal. When the perk is running, The Recluse deals significantly more damage, making it a beastly addition to your arsenal in just about all situations, both in the PvE and PvP sides of the game. Destiny 2 News And Guides Destiny 2 Patch Notes: Pinnacles Tweaked, Izanagi's Burden Fixed Destiny 2 Xenophage: How To Start The Exotic Weapon Quest Destiny 2 Exotic Bow: "Make Bows, Not War" Quest Steps For Leviathan's Breath Nerfs To The RecluseRight now, when Master of Arms is activated, The Recluse does precision-level damage no matter where you hit your target--basically, it's like the gun lands nothing but headshots. In Destiny 2's next content season, the Season of the Dawn, the game will get a change that removes that bonus, which will knock down the damage The Recluse deals significantly. It's part of Bungie's continued focus on trying to bring Legendary guns (of which The Recluse is one) down a peg in strength, in order to make rarer Exotic guns stand out from the crowd more.As Bungie details in the TWAB, The Recluse will still get a damage bonus from Master of Arms, but it won't be as powerful as the current bonus."Many doubted The Recluse when it was first announced, but it has since proved to be resilient to being squashed," Bungie writes. "Although the precision damage modifier did not actually improve the efficacy of the weapon at its best, it did allow for fairly mindless spraying to be just as good as concentrated aiming. After considering various options on what to do with it, the decision was made to remove that part of the functionality and preserve its activation methods. The alternative was leaving in an effect we believe to be too strong for a Legendary weapon."Nerfs To One-Eyed MaskAlso getting pared down is a favorite Titan helmet from Year Two called One-Eyed Mask, which has become a regular adornment for many players in PvP. One-Eyed Mask marks the person who damages you when you take fire, activating a perk called "Marked for Vengeance." If you then kill the person who did damage to you, you get immediate health regeneration as well as an overshield, making you even more powerful for taking down the next person you encounter.The update that nerfs The Recluse will also alter One-Eyed Mask to do away with the overshield."In a previous sandbox update, One-Eyed Mask received some tuning in how Vengeance was applied to Titans," the blog states. "Next Season, this perk will continue to provide health regeneration when defeating an opponent that has inflicted damage upon your Guardian, but it will no longer grant an overshield."Boosts To XenophageThe TWAB wasn't all bad news, though. The recently released Xenophage, is getting its power amped up to make it more effective. Xenophage fires explosive rounds that explode somewhat like grenades, but it doesn't deal extra damage for critical hits. That made it somewhat less powerful than Bungie intended it to be at release, and coupled with its small magazine size, made the gun fairly forgettable. Next season, Xenophage will get a couple more rounds when you pick up Heavy ammo in PvP, and will do more 50% more damage in PvE."Xenophage unintentionally shipped a little weak, so it’s getting a bump up in raw damage," Bungie writes. "Machine Guns have a higher ammunition capacity than other Heavy weapons, trading raw DPS for ease of use. Xenophage slides further towards other Heavy weapons such as Grenade Launchers in that aspect but didn’t get enough power back. This will correct that."There's only one month left in the Season of the Undying, so now's the time to get out there and enjoy your Recluse and One-Eyed Mask before Bungie's changes come through. On the bright side, Xenophage could be a very useful gun with these new changes, which will be nice considering how difficult it was to unlock in the first place.Info from Gamespot.com

Minecraft Dungeons, the upcoming combat-focused co-op dungeon crawler based on Minecraft, will release in April 2020, Microsoft has announced. The game is coming to Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4, but a specific date within April has not been announced just yet. The news comes alongside the many other X019 announcements and confirms that we have less than six months left until we can play the new Minecraft game. There's a cute new trailer for the announcement, although it doesn't show any gameplay footage. X019 News X019 Inside Xbox News: Halo Reach Coming To MCC, New Obsidian Game, And More Lots Of Final Fantasy Games Coming To Xbox Game Pass; Kingdom Hearts Heads To Xbox One Xbox Scarlett Won't Be "Out Of Position" On Power Or Price, Says Xbox Boss Rare Announces New IP, Everwild Halo: Reach Coming To Xbox Game Pass And PC Soon Yakuza Series Is Coming To Xbox Game Pass Obsidian's Grounded Is Honey, I Shrunk The Kids Meets Rust Life Is Strange Dev Reveals New Game, Tell Me Why Outer Worlds Dev's Next Game Is As Far From Space As You Can Get DmC and Hellblade Dev's Next Game, Bleeding Edge, Release Date Leaked Minecraft Dungeons, which has a focus on combat, joins Minecraft Earth and Minecraft: Story Mode as the latest spin-off in the Minecraft series. It will be playable for up to four players, who will be able to work together to tackle the game's numerous dungeons. You can still sign up for the game's closed beta if you want to check it out before April.Microsoft has also announced release dates for Halo Reach on Xbox One and PC and Bleeding Edge, as well as a huge slate of new games for Xbox Game Pass, including the Yakuza series and a lot of Final Fantasy titles. Minecraft Dungeons will also launch on Xbox Game Pass.Info from Gamespot.com

Terminator: Resistance, a new action/stealth title set in a post-Judgment Day period of the Terminator timeline, is out today for PS4, Xbox One, and PC--but only if you're in Australia or Europe. Players in the US hoping to get their hands on the new Terminator game will have to wait a while longer if they want to play the game on consoles, as the game's American release on PS4 and Xbox One has been delayed until December 10. Curiously, it went up on Steam in the US on November 14, so it's available on PC. The game has had a quiet release, slipping in under the radar during a busy period for new releases. The game, which follows the timeline established by the first two movies (and ignores the other films, much like recent cinema release Terminator: Dark Fate), mixes action and stealth. The game casts players as Jacob Rivers, who is part of the resistance against Skynet's army of machines. He'll need to take down using a variety of energy weapons and hacking abilities, but also avoid combat whenever he's not armed with an appropriate gun. It's developed by Teyon, the studio behind Rambo: The Video Game.It's unclear exactly why this delay has happened, but December 10 is certainly a less crowded release date than November 15--Terminator: Resistance is going up against both Star Wars: Fallen Order and Pokemon Sword & Shield in regions where it launches today. It's unusual for games to have staggered release dates in 2019, although not unheard of. Google Stadia launches next week, but by the end of November it will only be available in 14 countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States.Info from Gamespot.com

Obsidian's most recent game, The Outer Worlds, has been a big success for the studio both critically and commercially. Now the studio, which was bought out by Microsoft back in August, is looking to the future. At Microsoft's X019 event the studio announced Grounded, a survival game where you play as a shrunk-down human. It seems like the studio is doing well right now, but according to its founder, Feargus Urquhart, the plan going forward is to not rock the boat too hard.As USGamer reports, Urquhart recently spoke about the studio's now more-secure future under Microsoft, as well as his own desire to return to directing games after focusing on running the business for so long. He wants to return to his roots--he worked on the first two Fallout games, as well as Baldur's Gate, before founding Obsidian in 2003. "I would like to be a game director again," he said, stating that he would like to "meddle" in games once more.Interestingly, he also noted that Obsidian wants to avoid growing its staff headcount too much, with a 200 person benchmark having been established. While teams are going to "be a little larger," and Obsidian is going to have a "larger outsourcing budget," Obsidian itself isn't going to be allowed to get too enormous by the company heads. "I mean, Assassin's Creed is awesome, all of those games are awesome, but I don't think we need to compete with numbers," Urquhart said. "I don't want to do thousand-person teams." Despite having Microsoft money behind them, it seems that Obsidian wants to avoid the potential perils that come from a massive studio.Along with Grounded, Obsidian also has a Nintendo Switch version of The Outer Worlds in the works, which is due to release by March 2020.Info from Gamespot.com

With each new Pokemon game comes a new set of Pokemon, mechanics, and a region to discover, and Sword and Shield are no exception. The vibrant Galar region is a consistent delight to explore, incentivizing and rewarding collecting and battling in equal measure, and grandiose battles add an exciting dimension to the familiar Gym formula to deliver an engaging adventure beginning to end. But most notably, Sword and Shield cut down on the tedious and protracted elements from previous games in favor of amplifying what makes Pokemon great in the first place. This is the most balanced a Pokemon game has felt in a long time, and with that, Sword and Shield mark the best new generation of Pokemon games in years.The games waste no time in getting you a starter Pokemon and off on your way to becoming the Champion. You can even skip some of the hand-holding you'd get in previous games, including the "how to catch Pokemon" tutorial, which hasn't been done since 2001's Pokemon Crystal; if you simply catch some Pokemon right away, the character who would have taught you acknowledges that you're already good to go instead. You can reach the new Wild Area, an open-world expanse filled with all kinds of Pokemon of all levels, within an hour or so of starting your adventure.And the Wild Area is the show-stopping feature of this generation. Pokemon roam the fields and lakes, changing with the day's weather. They pop up as you walk by, and you can even identify Pokemon out of your direct line of vision by their cries. It's all too easy to set out for one destination only to be distracted by a Pokemon you haven't caught yet, an item glittering on the ground in the distance, or even an evolved form of a Pokemon that you didn't realize you could catch in the wild. There's constantly something new to do or discover, and it's there to engage you right out of the gate.Both in the Wild Area and outside of it, the Galar region is stunning. Locales from industrial city centers to rolling hills in shades of green and gold are vivid and beautiful, and small details, like Wooloo playing in a field, add a lot of charm. The United Kingdom-inspired motif includes both crumbling medieval castles and booming football-inspired stadiums, punk musicians and posh snobs--though Galar is still surprising to explore, not adhering so close to theme as to be totally predictable. I even found myself pushing ahead to the next town hoping to find a boutique with new clothes and accessories, on top of everything else waiting to be discovered in each locale, because the UK-inspired plaids and streetwear looks are cute.You're given much more freedom to explore than in previous generations. Sword and Shield go even further than Sun and Moon did in banishing HMs for good; you can fast travel to locations you've visited before from anywhere outside starting quite early in the game, and you have a bike that can later convert to a water vehicle to replace Surf. All other roadblocks, like trees in your path you need to Cut or large stones you need to move with Strength, are relics of the past. There are still hooligans that will artificially block your path at certain points in the story, but the actual hurdles to movement are completely gone.Random encounters are also gone, and instead, you see Pokemon roaming all of Galar--even in the traditional routes and caves--which helps distinguish one area from the next. There are some Pokemon that remain hidden in the tall grass, denoted by an exclamation point, but you have to run toward the rustling grass to actually initiate the fight, so you're never caught totally by surprise. Some Pokemon can only be found this way; this further encourages you to explore each locale thoroughly while making return trips painless, free of constant interruptions by wild Pokemon or stopping to use Repels to keep them away.For wild Pokemon, battles are true to the established formula, but for big battles, Sword and Shield strip out Mega Evolution and Z-moves in favor of a new battle mechanic, Dynamaxing, which is sort of a combination of the two and can only be activated in certain locations. A Dynamaxed Pokemon grows to a massive size and is stronger overall, and its moves convert to superpowered ones based on type. It's much more bombastic than Mega Evolution or even Z-moves, but functionally, it's simpler--and that's refreshing. After years of using both Mega Evolution and Z-moves in high-level battles, Dynamaxing is a welcome reset that also feels like a natural evolution of the increasingly high-octane battle mechanics of recent games. Any Pokemon can Dynamax, too; you're just limited by location rather than an item, so it's a more flexible way to battle that works for relaxed and competitive battles alike.Dynamaxing is a fixture of the new Max Raids, in which you and three other people or NPCs take on a giant Pokemon at certain locations in the Wild Area. Raid Pokemon can vary from run-of-the-mill, easy-to-catch Pokemon to ones that are incredibly hard to find in the wild, but regardless, the rewards are fantastic; completing a raid, even if the Pokemon escapes and you fail to catch it, nets you tons of rare and important items. Plus, the Pokemon you get from raids are guaranteed to have some perfect stats, so even duplicate Pokemon are worth catching again.At the lower levels, the raids are pretty easy, and you'll likely have no trouble taking them on with only NPCs in tow. But the four- and five-star raids are challenging to the point where I couldn't even complete some of them without the help of other human players. This is a welcome level of difficulty in the post-game, and communicating locally to get a raid group together is seamless--all you have to do is put out a call for raid partners (or people to trade or battle with in general), and nearby players will get a notification and have the option to join you from the social menu. It's a great alternative to traditional competitive play after you've beaten the game, and while it does feed into competitive battling in both the item rewards and the caliber of Pokemon you're catching, it's satisfying just to overcome the challenge with friends.The new Pokemon themselves are fantastic as a set. Quite a few of them seem geared for competitive play, with abilities and moves that inspire interesting strategies. Galarian Weezing, for example, has an ability that neutralizes opponents' abilities; because many battle strategies involve use of abilities like Intimidate or Sand Stream to set up the battlefield to your advantage, Weezing could be a serious threat. There are also the aesthetically-inclined Pokemon, like the incredibly goth Corviknight or the adorable electric corgi Yamper, to inspire collectors. Throughout my journey, I was consistently delighted to discover each new Gen 8 Pokemon and the Galarian forms of older ones.The starters, sadly, are among the worst of the new Pokemon; while they're cute at first, their final evolutions are all not great. Each fits the British theme in a clever way and has a unique move to go with it, but on a purely visual level, all three are awkward with no clear winner among them. I still feel guilty confining my starter to the Pokemon Box, but it at least freed up a spot in my party to try out the new Pokemon I do like.The Pokedex features a healthy mix of old Pokemon from each previous generation as well. There are certainly surprising omissions, but like with the new Pokemon, the list includes both fun Pokemon and competitive ones, plus an even spread of types. Sword and Shield might not have every Pokemon in existence, but what's here is balanced exquisitely for battle, cuteness factor, and type. And because there are items that give Pokemon experience points now--and because you can access your Pokemon boxes almost anywhere--you can easily change up your team on the fly without having to stop and grind just to get a new Pokemon caught up in level. I experimented with different Pokemon more during Shield's main story than I ever did in a previous Pokemon game, and it made me appreciate the Gen 8 Pokemon even more.It also makes for a more digestible experience. The Wild Area is expansive, and because the available Pokemon change with the weather, it can look very different from one day to the next. There are enough Pokemon to keep things dynamic and surprising as you explore each day, but with some consistency across each biome so you know at least what kinds of Pokemon to expect. Even after 55 hours, there are still Pokemon I have no idea how to find, and uncovering the Wild Area's secrets bit by bit has been a treat.If anything, the constant draw of the Wild Area made the pacing of the story a bit choppy. I wandered and explored for five hours before challenging my first Gym, then defeated the next two in quick succession before breaking again to revisit the Wild Area. That said, I also was never too over- or underpowered for each Gym, and I was eager to explore in between them regardless. You can also do more in the Wild Area than just battle and catch Pokemon--you can camp out and make curry with your Pokemon, and that ended up being a lovely distraction. Making curry and playing with my Pokemon was a great way to break up longer excursions, plus a convenient way to heal everybody at once, and it's really just an adorable way to spend a few minutes.The Gyms themselves are a refinement on the longstanding formula in which you would have to go through a maze or solve a little puzzle to reach the Gym Leader. Similarly, each has a Gym Challenge, but they vary from herding Wooloo to competing with NPC trainers to catch a Pokemon, and this keeps things from getting stale. Dynamaxing combines with anime-style drama to make the Gym battles themselves appropriately exciting, too, as your opponents tend to put on quite the show when they enter the stadium. While the Gym and other story battles are largely pretty simple, some of the later ones do take more thought (and a few revives, in my case).For competitive battles, small but significant quality-of-life tweaks greatly reduce the remaining barriers to entry. There are now items that allow you to change a Pokemon's nature, which was the main missing piece in getting Pokemon battle-ready without hours and hours of tedious breeding and soft-resetting. You can also leave two Pokemon of the same species in the Daycare together, and one can pass Egg Moves to the other, meaning you don't have to re-breed a Pokemon just because you forgot to put one Egg Move on it or changed your strategy a bit. The post-game Battle Tower also includes rental teams right off the bat to introduce you to some basic strategies, which also means you can start climbing the ranks without scrambling to prepare a slipshod team of your own first. All of this gets you battling at a competitive level much more quickly than was possible before, which is the whole point.In collecting, battling, and exploring, Sword and Shield cut out the bloat and focus on what makes these pillars of the Pokemon games so captivating in the first place. You're not held back by overly complicated back-end systems or hoops to jump through; from the outset, you can start wandering the Galar region, seeing its new Pokemon, and trying out its new battle strategies with very little in your way. This leaves you free to enjoy what Pokemon is all about, and that makes for an incredibly strong showing for the series' proper debut on Switch.Info from Gamespot.com

Racing in Palm City--the fictional street racing capital of the world--is all about earning money and building a reputation. During the day there are sanctioned races on closed streets, with safety barriers, an adoring crowd, and substantial cash prizes awaiting those who cross the finish line. At night, illegal street racing engulfs the city's neon-soaked roads, and the police respond in kind, blanketing the star-lit sky in the sound of thunderous V12s and whirring sirens. This dichotomy between day and night sets Need for Speed Heat apart from its contemporaries, and makes for Ghost Games' best entry to date, stripping away a lot of the series' needless baggage to get to the heart of what Need for Speed is all about.There's still a hackneyed story about crooked cops and racing crews that take themselves far too seriously; it's full of corny dialogue, farfetched stakes, and irritating characters that wouldn't make the cut in earlier Fast and Furious movies. Story missions occasionally crop up, too, forcing you to follow a character while they talk at you, and there's even one instance of a dire tailing mission. Aside from this, however, the narrative is mostly relegated to background noise that's easy to ignore, especially if you opt to skip any of its cutscenes. Need for Speed Heat is mostly focused on getting you behind the wheel of a car you've customized yourself, altering everything from the ludicrously oversized spoiler on the back, right down to the distinct sound of the engine.Each aspect of the game's design is built around the core dynamic between day and night. Official circuit races dominate the faux-Miami streets when the sun is beaming, rewarding you with cash that can be spent on new cars, parts, and visual customization options. The autoparts companies and car salesmen in Palm City are a peculiar bunch, though. They won't sell to just anyone--such is their love of cars. They have to know that you're "cool" enough and are going to put their parts to good use, so the dead of night is spent competing in illegal street races to earn rep and convince them of your pedigree. This creates a clear divide between day and night that gradually cultivates this enjoyable flow, as you switch back and forth between the two time frames depending on whether you need money or rep.The duality of this concept establishes an unmistakable vibe to each time of day--almost like they're two completely different worlds. The sunlit streets feel relatively safe, with sanctioned events emanating a casual, crowd-pleasing atmosphere. Courses are clearly marked with barricades, there's room to drift your car sideways around most corners, and the only thing you have to worry about is beating the other competitors to the finish line. By contrast, Palm City's nightlife is risky and fraught with danger. Rain that was previously casting a gloomy shadow over the day's races has now settled onto the surface of the road, as visually-striking puddles absorb the city's neon haze and reflect it back. Traffic clogs the streets, making races feel more claustrophobic, and the threat of the police getting involved is a perpetual source of concern.Cops in Need for Speed Heat introduce a unique sense of dread because of the way they're intrinsically linked to your rep. As you win races and accumulate more and more rep during a night's work, your Heat level will steadily rise. Catching the attention of the boys in blue will expedite your Heat's ascension, with cops becoming more aggressive and plentiful the higher it climbs. There's an element of risk and reward here, as a higher Heat level means a larger multiplier for all of the rep you've accrued in a single night. The only way to bank that rep is by escaping the police and reaching a safe house, but this is easier said than done when the police are on your tail like a bad rash. You can play it safe and store what rep you have, or extend the night by antagonizing the police in the hope that you'll be able to shake them when your multiplier is higher. Need for Speed Heat's best moments come when you've led the fuzz on a jolly merry-go-round and manage to ditch them by the skin of your teeth to bank a considerable amount of rep.Although the police do have a tendency to feel unfair. If they get close enough and bring your car to a sudden halt, a "busting" timer appears, automatically signaling an end to your escapades if it ticks all the way down. The problem with this, aside from how fast it runs out, is that it will continue to count away the seconds even after you've accelerated away from the police. It should be difficult to escape the cop's clutches, but since you can get arrested if they total your car, ending up in cuffs because an arbitrary timer counts down when you're not even penned in is frustrating. There are also very obvious moments when police cars will spawn directly in front of you to prolong a chase. Sure, they might be crooked cops, but that doesn't stop their blatant cheating from dulling the pulse-quickening thrill of each hot pursuit.These scenarios can be thrilling, however, especially when you push your car into top gear. There's a fantastic sense of speed in Need for Speed Heat, as cars and lights blur past your wing mirrors at what feels like 300 miles per hour. A noticeable lag on your steering inputs does make each car feel slightly heavier than they otherwise should, though. The handling model also doesn't have the malleability to alter the handling from one car to the next, so they all end up feeling relatively similar to drive aside from variations in speed and acceleration. Drifting is also a tad iffy, borrowing its mechanics from the likes of Ridge Racer as opposed to Need for Speed's past. Rather than feathering the brakes to get your car sideways, Need for Speed Heat asks you to let go of the accelerator and then pump it again in order to achieve a successful drift. It's a realistic approach, boiling drifting down to deft throttle control, but it can be difficult to get a handle on at first, namely because pumping the brakes feels much more intuitive due to the past 15 or so years of racing games adopting this method. Thankfully you can alter the control scheme, and drifting is generally quite fun regardless. It feels a lot slower than it has in the past, but you have much more control over angles and potentially extending the length of your car's rubber-burning slide.There are dedicated drift events, too, which require you to purchase the appropriate parts if you want to come out on top, and it's here where Need for Speed Heat significantly improves upon its immediate predecessor, Payback. There are no luck-based Speed Cards needed to improve your car, nor are you limited to using specific vehicles in designated events. Instead, the upgrade system in Need for Speed Heat gives you the freedom to take a Nissan Skyline and mix and match parts such as the suspension, tires, and differential, until you have a car that can compete in road races, off-road races, and drift events--it's just a shame there aren't a few more event types to partake in. On top of that, there are also myriad parts available if you want to fully upgrade each car's performance, along with a veritable bucketload of customization options, just in case you've ever wanted to control how much fiery overrun spurts out of the exhaust pipes. Each part is moderately priced so money is never much of an issue, and better parts are unlocked simply by increasing your reputation.With only a select few events, no discernible difference between each car's handling, and a simplistic driving model, Need for Speed Heat does stumble into repetition during its final few hours. It's not quite a rip-roaring return to form, then, but this latest entry puts the Need for Speed series back on the right track. The duality of its day and night events props up what would otherwise be a fairly run-of-the-mill racing game, but the renewed focus on hurtling around the track, racing wheel-to-wheel, and customizing each car in numerous ways, taps into the essence of what Need for Speed used to be about. Need for Speed Heat may not revolutionize racing games, but it's the best the series has been in a long, long time. Info from Gamespot.com

A new official, canon Overwatch short story has been released. Valkyrie, written by the game's senior lore and story designer Michael Chu, is a first-person story about Mercy coming to terms with the role she performed in the Overwatch organization after it has disbanded. The short story appears to be set shortly before the beginning of the game, and ties in to an in-game story event that can net you a new Mercy costume.We've gone through the story and summed up the lore highlights from it below--stop now if you'd like to read it yourself without spoilers.The story begins with Mercy remembering her parents, who were volunteering at a hospital in Switzerland during the Omnic Crisis, and were killed by an airstrike one day when she was still young. The story jumps forward to Mercy as an adult, working at an aid camp just outside Cairo. She's been there for two years removed, having ended her tenure as head of medical research for Overwatch when the organization collapsed sometime earlier. Her reputation was in tatters when Overwatch was disbanded, and she headed to Egypt to help out because Overwatch was "responsible for much of the country's suffering."The story then cuts to Mercy being reunited with Soldier 76 and Ana, who have tracked her down as 76 badly needs healing. Mercy and 76 have a heated discussion about the state of things--76 is out for revenge, especially against Reaper, and the two don't see eye to eye.The story flashes back to Mercy and 76's first meeting, sparked by Mercy's research into nanobiotic healing (which is, the story assures us, not related to nanobot technology). We're given some insights into Mercy's research background, and how she was brought on bought with the promise of letting her develop healing technologies for use off the battlefield--which is, of course, not exactly what happened.Back in the present, the trio is jolted by an explosion at the nearby Anubis facility, and a reluctant Mercy straps into her Valkyrie suit alongside the other two to go help fend off Talon forces. In the heat of battle, Mercy finds Hanan, a young girl trapped by rubble, who recognizes her as Mercy when she uses her healing staff. She soon finds herself having to rescue Hanan's brother, too, who is trapped in a collapsing building.A mortar hits the building during the rescue attempt, and Mercy's suit is badly damaged. She manages to save both children as the building collapses, getting trapped as the building collapses around her. But 76 comes back for her, and ultimately everyone survives. In the aftermath, 76 and Ana tell Mercy that they're leaving to continue hunting Reaper, who was responsible for what happened that day. Mercy does not go with them, but as she continues her work, and as she reflects on saving the two children and how excited they were to meet Mercy, she starts to reassess the value of her work with Overwatch.If you're hungry for more Overwatch lore, the recently announced Overwatch 2 promises to deliver much more.Info from Gamespot.com