A new Fortnite creation tool is on the way

Epic is launching its Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and its arriving very soon. The creation application will let users design and publish content directly into Fortnite starting March 22, 2023.

This creative tool has been talked about before by Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, as a way for people to build in-game content and release it in Fortnite. Thanks to the new store page for the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), we've got details on? what exactly that entails.

The UEFN will allow users to import mesh??es, textures, animations, and audio. Animation, gameplay design, custom content, and more are all in store. Plus, it wil?l have a Live Edit tool for real-time collaboration and revision control, as well.

Epic plans to share more details next week, during its State of Unreal talk at GDC 2023.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=teTroOAGZjM

Tap into the unreal

A few FAQs on the Unreal Editor for Fortnite page clear up a bit about how this differs from other creation tools, as Fortnite already has Creative mode. UEFN is a PC-only editor with a range of tools. Rather than Creative, where you're controlling a character to build and edit islands, UEFN has more similarities with the tools and workflows used to develop Fortnite Battle Royale itself. It's planned to be built ou?t and evolve through its Beta launch.

The result could be a fair bit of user-generated content, a la Roblox. Which, given how massive Roblox is, makes sense. I'm curious to see just what people can do with these tools, but also very curious about what plans look like for publishing and potentially monetizing this new wave of Fortnite content. Hopefully ?we'll learn a bit more during next week's State of Unreal chat.

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Work together to survive the horrors

It's never too early in the year for scares and frights. Outlast studio Red Barrels confirms that The Outlast Trials is going into Early Access on May 18, 2023.

The Early Access launch will go up on both Steam and the Epic Games Store, though pricing has not been announced as of this writing. While Red Barrels has hosted a closed beta already, this will be the chance for many more players to hop in and try out the new Outlast for themselves.

You can check out a new trailer below, which focuses a little less on the gameplay and more on The Outlast Trials' voice actors and their ability to scream. Th?ey're pretty darn good at it!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKwMY4ZBJJ0

Red Barrels has made a name for itself in the horror genre with the Outlast series. They play almost like a found footage-style experience,?? where?? you have to sneak and scurry around while terrors hunt for you.

Outlast together

The difference in The Outlast Trials is that it can be a solo or co-op experience. You an?d up to three other players get "involuntarily recruited" by the Murkoff Corporation to test certain t??rials, and you can opt to tackle them solo or with your friends.

?You'll still be hiding, running, and fleeing. But special tools will allow you new ways to sneak around or slow down enemies. There's also character customization options for your chosen trial competitor, too.

Multiplayer survival horror has been pretty popular, as games like Dead By Daylight and Phasmophobia can attest. I'm sure Outlast fans are probably interested in seeing ?what Red Barrels does with more players in its horror designs.

Really, it's just nice to have p??als to encounter the scares with you. It certainly softens the scares for the fright-averse out there, in my experience.

The Outlast Trials hit?s Early Access on?? May 18. No date's been set for full release.

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Goodbye to Grapital City

The brawling battle royale Rumbleverse is closing down. Today, Iron Galaxy Studios and Epic Games confirm that Season Two will mark the last one for Rumbleverse, as the brawler goes offline on February 28.

In a new blog, Iron Galaxy outlines the overall shutdown procedure. The final update for Rumbleverse will roll out today, which will close the store and open the full experience to every player. The current Battle Pass will be given to everyone, and XP gains will be doubled. Quads, Trios, Duos, and Solos will all be live, ??and the team has unlocked some additional emotes and accessori??es as well.

"There is still fun we can have together before the sun sets on Grapital City," the team said in today's blog. "The remaining weeks will be a chance to celebrate the competitive spirit you’ve brought to this game. There will be more livestreams to play some games with?? the ??developers and let them pull the curtain back to share some behind-the-scenes moments from the creative process that built this city. We’re so grateful for the players who have joined us in the Rumble. Thank you."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxOPuvPtg58

Down but not out

Iron Galaxy's multiplayer wrestling rumble was a bit different from the usual battle royale; rather than guns and ammo, it featured brawlers and gra??pplers. slamming each other in a massive wrestling-themed city.

It's a truly different kind of rumble royale, and it's a bummer to see it go. In an open letter to the Rumbleverse community from the Iron Galaxy team, the developers chose to share a personal note with fans. They thank the players who took up Rumbleverse, and left it on a ??note that this might not be the last we see of it:

"It is our sincerest hope that this news does not mark the end of Rumbleverse.?? You may not yet have seen the Rumble in its final form. If we can welcome people back onto the deck of the battle barge again, we hope you’ll be there, laced u??p and ready to take your rightful place in the cannon.

Iron Galaxy will keep making games. It’s our passion and our purpose. Our people are filled ??with skills and inspirations to keep the worl?d playing.

Thank you for ??playing. This is not the last time you’ll hear from us. This is not the last time we’ll invite you t?o play."

It's a sad but hopeful note to end on, and for a few more weeks at least, Rumbleverse is open to still jump in and play before the arena shuts ??down.

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Fly Kerbals to the moon, let them play among the stars

It's a new year, and a few more games are going free on Epic's PC storefront. Kerbal Space Program and Shadow Tactics - Aiko's Choice are free this week on the Epic Games Store.

From now until January 12, you can hop onto the Epic store and claim both Kerbal Space Program and the standalone Shadow Tactics expansion Aiko's Choice for free. These will add the games to your library for good, so even if you're not looking to play either one right now, just claiming it puts the??m both in your collection for later.

Kerbal Space Program is the infamous rocket-disaster simulator about launching small, unsuspecting Kerbals into orbit with your specially designed rockets. It's a straightforward concept on paper that's made more complicated when you realize it is, actually, rocket science. Playing Kerbal is a pretty fun way to learn about how hard it is to pu?t a metal tube in ??space, while also cackling when your plans go spectacularly awry.

Otherwise, Aiko's Choice is a standalone expansion for Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. The base Shadow Tactics is a fairly well-liked stealth tactics game, and Aiko's Choice is like a concentrated version of it. It's a campaign all its own, and doesn't require the base Shadow Tactics to play.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAa9Ao26gtM

Ground control to Kerbal Tom

It's a solid pairing of games for this week's Epic giveaway. Both also sit in some interesting niches of gameplay, so this is reall??y a good excuse to try them out without putting down any cash.

As for the next Epic Game Store freebie, the Store lists the impostor game First Class Trouble as it??s next upcoming game ?giveaway. That's expected to go live on January 12, and be available to grab through January 19.

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Don't worry, I am here

Fortnite is getting another anime collaboration today, this time with some superpowered stars. Deku, Bakugo, Uraraka, and All Might from My Hero Academia arrive in Fortnite today with purchasable skins? a??nd cosmetics in the Item Shop.

Over in the Item Shop, the four aforementioned heroes are getting their own skins and special items. Midoriya's skin comes with an All Might Back Bling, for instance, while Bakugo's cosmetics are suitably explosive. There are emotes as well, featuring bits like Deku's tendency to take notes on heroes and All Might??'s cheerful laugh.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7O4UypFSp4

Even if the cosmetics aren't your thing, the My Hero Academia x Fortnite collaboratio?n is also shaking up the island. Special All Might-themed Supply Drops will be hitting the arena, and they can contain a little bit of Sma??sh power to blast at opponents.

Plus, some new Creative and additional experiences are joining the game too. Completing the special quests will net you some cosmetics, while the Hero Training Gym offers a themed activity to take part in, much like the Hidden Leaf Village map for the Naruto crossover.

Going Plus Ultra

If you're unfamiliar with My Hero Academia, it started as a manga and has become a pretty popular modern anime series out right now. Set in a world where superpowers are real, My Hero follows Izuku Midoriya, a.k.a. Deku?, on his journey to become a hero through attending U.A. High, taught by the heroic icon All Mi?ght and learning alongside childhood rival Bakugo, newfound friend Uraraka, and the rest of Class 1-A.

To boil it down further, it's got a lot of similarities to Sky High. But it's a pretty good series with some memorable characters, and a cool one to feature alongside previous Fortnite crossovers like Dragon Ball and Naruto. I'm hoping for more Shonen Jump series to make their way in, too.

The My Hero Academia x Fortnite crossover event is live now. The special quests wil??l run until December 29, ??2022.

Related: How to get Deku's smash in Fortnite on Prima Games

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One Unreal Tournament will return, however

Epic is closing down servers for some of its older titles. Several classic Unreal titles, as well as some Ha??rmonix games and other pieces of the Epic back catalog, are going offline.

The services are turning off so Epic can move to solely support its unified Epic Online Services, according to the company. While most of these games will remain available offline, some will be rendered no longer playable. "We apologize to the players affected by these changes," Epic says in its update.

Games affected range from Epic's classic titles, like Unreal, to some from studios it's acquired over the years. A few Harmonix titles will see their online services turned off, though Dance Central VR and Rock Band 4 will stay live.

Here's the list of games with services turnin??g off on January 24:

• 1000 Tiny Claws
• Dance Central 1 -3
• Green Day: Rock Band
• Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess
• Rock Band 1 - 3
• The Beatles: Rock Band
• Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars
• Unreal Gold
• Unreal II: The Awakening
• Unreal Tournament 2003
• Unreal Tournament 2004
• Unreal Tournament 3
• Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition

Thrash Unreal

One title may be seeing a second wind, though. Epic does note it has plans to bring back online feature for Unreal Tournament 3 through Epic Online Services in the future.

Titles that were available on digital storefronts are already being removed, and DLC purchases disabled. Additionally, a select number of games have been removed today. The Mac and Linux versions Hatoful Boyfriend and Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star are gone from digital stores. Also, the mobile title DropMix has been taken down too. If you ow?n these already, you should still be able to play them.

Battle Breakers is going to shut down on December 30. Alongside those games listed above, a few other games shut down completely on January 24: Unreal Tournament (Alpha), Rock Band Blitz, the Rock Band Companion app, and SingSpace.

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The 'Everything Must Go' bundle is priced to move

The virtual DJ sim Fuser is set to shut down its online services next week. But before that, Harmonix is clearing the shelves of its Diamond Shop?.

Harmonix is giving away all the Diamond Shop items in Fuser, through an "Everything Must Go" bundle. The Diamond Shop is Fuser's extra cosmetics shop, where players could previous spend an in-game currency ?to pick up special aesthetic piece??s.

Since the online and store services of Fuser will be shutting down on December 19, it looks like Ha?rmonix has decided to just let everyone grab what they want before it's gon??e forever.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2lE0BY26dw

While the online portion of the game will be shut down, Fuser will still be playable offline. So if you want to look good while you grind the campaign or just freestyle, this is your chance t?o pick these up.

The Diamond Shop notably doesn't include DL??C tracks, though. If you want to add any music to your crate before the store shuts down, you'll need to do that before December 19.

Give the beat, boys, and free my soul

It's still a bummer to see Fuser shutting down like this. I just did a multiplayer session over the weekend with some friends, and was reminded of how fun Fuser can be to play in a group.

Though the actual tech and solo side will stay up, the multiplayer will be turning off and no more new music will be on the way. If you're looking to grab what you can, while you can, the time to do so is gradually winding down to Fuser's live service shutdown on the 19th.

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A decade later, the fire still burns

Little Inferno is a name you might not have heard in quite a while. The indie project about burning things for fun and profit is back in 2022, with the Little Inferno Ho Ho Ho Holiday Expansion.

Arriving on November 18, Little Inferno is ringing in the festive season with plenty of kindling. Nu??tcrackers, reindeer, jelly bean??s, and more are all ripe for the flame.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3DWkqFyqhw

It's a pretty sizeable expansion, with an entirely new story and a new character. Plenty of holiday products await your flame, and there are over 50 new combos to discover. Or you can just get the infinite?ly burning Yule Log and have yourself a relaxing, cozy night by the TV light.

All I want for Christmas is fuel

Little Inferno first lit a spark back in 2012, becoming a bit of a sensation in an ever-growing indie scene. Developer Tomorrow Corporation has gone on to make some fun puzzle games, like Human Resource Machine and 7 Billion Humans.

But something about the discoverability and mystery of Little Inferno still feels all its own. While it's made it to new consoles in the time since its debut, seeing? a new DLC drop for it this many years later is pretty exciting.

So if you want to ring in the new year with a little fuel and a little fire, Little Inferno is back with more reasons to celebrate the season. It's up for wishlisting on Steam,? Epic, a?nd GOG, and is headed to Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android sometime soon.

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The Satellite Scramble takes off on September 15

A new Fall Guys season is taking off this week, and it's headed for the stars. Fall Guys launches Season 2 t??his week, dubbed Satellite Scramble, goes live on September 15.

As you can guess, this new season is all galactic. Space-themed variations of other?? Rounds found in Solos, Duos, and Squads will roll out, as will some new Costumes and Challenges.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELZo29FsCTA

A mission to repair the Fall Guys satellite can net a few rewards: a Space Bean nickname, some Kudos, a Satellite Explorer nameplate, Space Ico??ns pattern, and a Satellite bac??kpack at the highest tier.

But the big attraction, of course, is the new Rounds. Several new levels will join the Fall Guys rotation.

A whole new world

The Tiptoe Finale seems hilarious, as four squads try to tiptoe their way to victory. It's like the usual Tiptoe round where some platforms are stable and others fall, exc??ept four teams are racing to the center for the crown.

Starchart sees beans l??eapi?ng and trying to run across invisible paths to reach the end. Sure, you could hit the buttons to light the way, but what fun is that?

Pixel Painters has players hop on tiles to spell out patterns, while the Cosmic Highway has rows of rotating and moving platforms. Hyperdrive Heroes brings back the moving platform hij?inks, moving in a circular route as obstacles whiz by.

Hex-a-terrestrial has players navigate floating platforms, while Space Race sends the Gauntlet into the stars. Frantic Factory is??? a free-for-all variant of Button Bashers. And yes, even more new obstacles will make them all chaotic and ripe for falling.

T?he Season will ha??ve both a premium and free track. And the premium track in particular has some wild-sounding costumes, including Spock, the Xenomorph, and Hatsune Miku.

It sounds like a whole lot of space wackiness is coming to the now-free to play Fall Guys. Mediatonic says more improvements, bug fixes, and features are on the way. We'll see how big space gets for Fall Guys on September 15.

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Bah gawd, that's Iron Galaxy

If you've ever played a battle royale and thought the whole shooting thing was a little dry, there's a new battle royale out today that should solve that and then some. Rumbleverse is live today, bringing ch??ops, kicks, and high-flying throws to Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.

If you haven't seen it before, Rumbleverse is essentially a wrestling battle royale from Iron Galaxy, the studio behind games like Wreckateer and Divekick. The studio's had a fair bit of experience working on fighting games, and it shows in Rumbleverse.

The 40-person grappler royale has players rush throughout a city, grabbing special magazines full of moves to then employ aga??inst other players. ?Melee weapons like bats and chairs are also in the mix, of course.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=suOmxeeyRsI

There's a standard battle royale mode, or Solo Mode, as well as a recently revealed Duos Mode where players can team up. There's also a Playground Mode, which will let users explore Grapital City at their own place. It's kind of like the training room equivalent, for t??his wide world of wrestling.

Total knockout

Rumbleverse is free-to-play as well, and it has crossplay enabled. You can also form cross-platform parties for Duos, though you'll need to add each other through the Epic Games Launcher to make that happen. The FAQ on Iron Galaxy's site has an easy-to-follow rundown for how to make that happen.

While the game launches today, its first season kicks off next week on August 18, with a Battle Pass available for purchase then. There are also special bundles for Rumbleverse, if you want to start out with some ex?tra cosmetics an??d shop bucks.

Fortnite may potentially be getting Goku, but for those who really want to brawl, seems like Rumbleverse is a solid option. It's out now on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC via Epic.

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You can DDT the competition very soon

The multiplayer wrestling battle royale Rumbleverse is launching quite soon. Iron Galaxy announced today that Rumbleverse will launch on August 11 for PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and PC ?via Epic.

The free-to-play brawler goes live on the 11th, and a week later the first season of Rumbleverse will kick off. According to Iron Galaxy's blog, this will include a Battle Pass with cosmetics t?o ea??rn along a special path.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=suOmxeeyRsI

Rumbleverse is a 40-player battle royale-style game. But rather than guns and shooting, Rumbleverse is abo?ut good ol' fashioned wrestling. Characters can pick up and u??se various moves like strikes, kicks, uppercuts, and giant slams to knock out opponents.

Announced in December during The Game Awards 2021, Rumbleverse was set to launch in February. Iron Galaxy delayed the launch though, and has been running tests and early play??times. Now, it seems like the fighter's ready to head into the ring.

Bah gawd

It's been hard to miss Rumbleverse, as it's been making the rounds in the fighting game community social sphere with each new playtest. And I'll admit, the concept has me intrigued. Plenty of battle royale games hone in on accuracy and shooting ability, but very?? few have sated the brawling, fighting, wrasslin' urge.

There have been several battle royales that have gone into and out of the spotlight over the years, but this one at least seems worth a test drive. At the low, low p??rice of free, why not?

Rumbleverse slams onto PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox S??eries X, and PC via the Epic Games Store on August 11.

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Add it now to stay in the Matrix

The tech demo experience The Matrix Awakens is leaving digital storefronts soon. PlayStation 5 and X?box Series X|S o??wners have until July 9 to pick this demo up, before it departs.

Announced during the 2021 Game Awards, The Matrix Awakens is an Unreal Engine 5 tech demo that also intersects with The Matrix. It featur?es performances from Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss in alarmingly realistic CG.

But it's also?? not just a cutscene, but some playable slices of game and an open-world sandbox where you can mess with the world. Different areas show off ??parts of Unreal Engine 5's tech. It is a tech demo, after all.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU0gvPcc3jQ

The Matrix is here

It's a fun demo with some neat tech to show off, and is already worth the low, low price of free for that. But for Matrix fans, there's also some charming banter between Reeves' Neo and Moss' Trinity that makes for a genuinely nice little slice of game. It would kind of rule to see a new Matrix game with this kind of approach. Especially considering how wild The Matrix Online got.

You can find The Matrix Awakens tech demo on the PlayStation Store and Xbox store until July 9, 2022.

Meanwhile, if The Matrix Awakens awoke a taste for new Matrix games for you, there's not much else new. You can, however, check this cool Sifu mod that replaces the main character with Neo and the enemies with Agent Smith. It's not the Path of Neo, but it's a mod that unsurprisingly fits the mood of the Burly Brawl from The Matrix Reloaded. Agent Smith just cannot catch a break, no matter where in The Matrix he goes.

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Sweet Thieves are made of these

A new Fall Guys event is rolling in on Thursday, bringing some more Assassin's Creed theming. Abstergo's Challenge adds some new objectives to complete for prizes, while Eivor and Odin roll into the Fall Guys Store.

Abstergo's Challenge kicks off on July 7, with a bunch of objectives themed around the game mode Sweet Thieves. Th??is is the mode where one team plays invisible beans, trying to steal away candy, while the guardians of the c??andy try to grab and capture them.

Beating objectives like winning as a Thief or Guardian, ??as well as carrying enough candy and pressing buttons, gets you points in Abstergo's Challeng?e. Prizes include a title, pattern, and a shiny Apple of Eden-styled backpack.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmifoKhiMdk

Odin the All-Father and Eivor the Wolf-Kissed will also be available as costumes in the Store, at 1200 Show-Bucks apiece or 2000 for the bundle. These do cost cash, as opposed to the challenge cosmetics.?? Still, option's there if you want to round out your Ezio Auditore costume from the seasonal? pass with some more modern assassins.

Stealth drop

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout launched into free-to-play, landing on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox consoles, and Epic store in the process. Players have had some criticisms of the new monetization model.

It's also been a pretty good excuse to dip back into Fall Guys, thou?gh. Despite sharing some criticisms about ??the new model, I've still enjoyed dipping back in and playing, as the physical comedy and antics of the ultimate knockout royale hasn't really faded for me. Free-to-play has made it easy to convince friends to hop on and try it out, too.

I do wonder why so much Assassin's Creed stuff?? has been streaming into the game. It makes more sense than s?ome other Ubisoft properties, I suppose; though I really would love to see a bean-shaped Sam Fisher.

Abstergo's Challenge will be live in Fall Guys from July 7 through 11.

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Despite some growing pains, it's a good time to fall off inflatables

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is free-to-play now, for close to a week. Over the last weekend, I spent hours getting back in; acclimating to the new model, browsing the new rewards, and marveling at all that's changed since I dropped off. And despite some early wrinkles, I can't really deny it. It's a good time to be back into Fall Guys.

It's almost impossible for me to divorce Fall Guys from the moment when it launched. It was the first summer of the pandemic, and with everyone inside and socially distanced, Fall Guys was a welcome reprieve. Much like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it became a forum for social interaction. But that's not to say Fall Guys wasn't good on its own merits, either.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqNs9Dn4RoI

We all fall down

What Fall Guys really nailed then, and still does so now, is the chaotic game show feel. The moment when you start up a new show and 60 players are standing in a massive block, waiting to hurl themselves face-forward through an obstacle course or race track. Shows like Wipeout and Takeshi's Castle (MXC, for Spike viewers) are all about this chaos. Getting it in vi?deo game form, howev??er, is a little tougher.

It's ??not just the multiple players careening down the same course. It's the physicality of it. The way everyone bumps into each other. How a bean totters and tumb??les, then gets flung around the course by a giant mallet. It's like seeing people run down a hill of trampolines and trapdoors in comically large sumo suits.

Fall Guys stays comedic because you are always acutely aware of the difference between success and failure. You can en??vision, in your mind's eye, what a perfect run of the brand-new Track Attack looks like. It should be so simple to cruise along the?? middle lane, threading the needle and blowing past the competition through speed ring after speed ring.

Yet your own follies, combined with players bumbling and fumbling alongside you,?? makes it all the messier. And it's all the more fun for ?it, too.

Guys, falling

It helps that the new courses are spectacular. Track Attack and Speed Circuit are already new favorites of mine, and Blast Ball is a fantastic addition to the final round pool. The mixture of d??odgeball with time-delayed bombs and floors that could fall out from beneath you makes for just the right mix of careful planning and surprise swings.

The upside of Fall Guys going free-to-play is the sheer number of new players flooding into the servers. Mediatonic boasted about hitting 20 million players in the first 48 hours, which is a good number in the abstract. ??In the actual moment-to-moment though, it meant everyone was jumping on. And it was ridiculously easy to get a match.

Anecdotally, I know plenty of people who dove back in due to the free model. Heck, I'm one of them. I fell off a while back, and it's been a blast to have such a good excuse to revisit why I loved Fall Guys in the first place.

Free play

Of course, with the move to free-to-play comes a few growing pains. We took a look at some of those issues the other day, as users have painstakingly detailed ways in which the free-to-play model is not working for them. I agree with some of it too, from my own experience getting back into Fall Guys. Seasonal pass progression could be more emphasized for wins, and the item pricing is a ??little high for my own taste.

Fall Guys clearly takes after the Fortnite model, which makes some sense. But it also feels like Mediatonic is still figuring out what numbers it needs to tweak to make that model specifically fit Fall Guys. ??These f?eel like the type of growth issues that any game has, trying to fine-tune a free-to-play model.

I'm hopeful that Mediatonic can navigate it well, though. This return to Fall Guys has reassured me that, through all this time, the developers behind the game have still been able to nail that particular spark. While winning itself feels a ?bit different due to Crowns no longer doubling as currency, winning still feels exciting just for the thrill of winning itself.

It's still a joy to mess with my friends in Squad games. It's exciting to discover some new strategy or time-saver in the white-knuckle platforming challenge of Slimescraper. And it cracks me up to see Fall Guys highlights pop up on social media, seeing all the hilarious ways people can triumph and fail in this game. It's still figuring some stuff out, but it's good to be playing Fall Guys again.

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Fame and Kudos are touchy subjects

Multiplayer platformer royale Fall Guys went free-to-play last week, with its first free season and a new model launching across new and old platforms. A lot of players have been dipping back in, or jumping on for the first time. But some Fall Guys fans, especially long-time players, seem frustrated?? with the changes made to its monetization model.

Prior to the free-to-play launch, Mediatonic's competitive game-show-style platformer Fall Guys was a one-time buy game. W??ith the move to free-to-play, the model has shifted from using Crowns (wins). Now Crowns just go towards ?a separate, smaller cosmetic track.

The price of Fame

One major area of frustration is with Fame, the currency used to progress in the seasonal pass. It's similar to the battle pass model used by games like Fortnite. Fall Guys players earn Fame for ??every match played, which then goes towards levelling up in the pass.

The move to free-to-play has caused some friction, as noted by Gamerant. Some users have discovered that the difference in Fame between finishing in a later stage or getting knocked out immediately is negligible, though. Some players suggest it might be faster to blast through the pass by simply losing??.

The frustration here's a bit understandable. I can say through my own playing over the last week, pass progression started out fast but felt like it slowed down the further I?? went. The challenges help, but the Dailies and Weeklies are limited.

Crowns are king

Winning also used to carry a more direct cosmetic boon than it does now, too. Where Crowns used to turn into spendable currency for cosmetics in the? shop, they now just go towards a longer cosmetics reward track. Those are fun to unlock, with some golden nostalgia lying way, way down the line. But it also means that, coupled with Fame fall-offs, winning just doesn't carry the same bounty for some.

"Games aren’t fun if it feels like there are no rewards and Fall Guys is giving the players very little," said one user in a long analysis of the new systems.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqNs9Dn4RoI

Some tension was to be expected over adding more monetization into Fall Guys via the purchasable Show-Bucks (similar to Fortnite V-Bucks). But there seems to be frustration over not just one or two things, but several aspects of the new model.

I say all this, while I have been largely unaware and blissfully enjoying a return to Fall Guys. The shows introduced in some seasons between when I stopped playing and now are a blast, and the move to free-to-play has made it easy to convince friends to download and try it out. Mediatonic posted that it hit a 20-million player milestone within the f??irst 48 hours of i??ts first free season.

That's all in the short term, though. Mediatonic's new approach to Fall Guys could cause some long-term tension.

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Falling, free falling

The frenetic platformer royale Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout goes free-to-play and adds some new platforms today. The Free For All season is live now, and Fall Guys is officially launched for Nintendo Switch and Xbox consoles.

News of this update arrived last month, revealing Mediatonic's gameshow-style competition is coming to new platforms. With today's update, Fall Guys is now free to play on all platforms. It also has cross-play across all platforms, so the party doesn't stop when you swap over. Mediatonic also confirms in an FAQ that the new season makes Fall Guys cross-progression as well.

//twitter.co??m/FallGuysGame/status/153?9235705460776962

Today's update also marks the launch of the new Season Pass. Everyone gets access to 50 levels, while legacy players—those who bought Fall Guys when it first launched—get the whole thing free.

Grab a hold of the ledge

Some more updates are in store for Fall Guys today as well. Alongside the new cosmetics in the Season Pass, some new courses are being added. ??Hex-A-Ring, Volleyfall, Speed Circuit, Track Attack, Bounce Party, The Swivelle?r, and Blast Ball are all added in to the game.

A?n Auto Grab option is also available, letting players automatically grab ledges. You can also now dive-grab Tails and Crowns, which is sure to make some of those protect-your-tail rounds more interesting. Voice Chat is also enabled in Parties.

One note is that while Steam owners will continue to be able to play Fall Guys and get all the updates, the platformer royale won't have a Steam store page anymore. Any new players picking up Fall Guys on PC today will need to play through the Epic Games Store.

With all the new cosmetics and courses, as well as cross-platform play, it really does seem like a good summer to get back into Fall Guys. Time to get my hot-dog suit? out of the closet and ch?ase some Crowns.

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Making crossplay more accessible

There's nothing more annoying than going to play a game with a friend, only to realize that you can't play together because you own the game on different platforms �it's a struggle we've all had to deal with at one point or another. Thanks to Epic's new free release of PC crossplay tools? for developers, though, we're one step closer to eliminating the blues that come with platform-exclusive play.

According to a blog post on the Epic Online Services website, they're delivering "a single set of services for game development on any en??gine, any store??, and any platform" that are "proven to scale in some of the largest games."

These tools allow for a ton of features on the Epic Games ??Store, like being about to merge friends lists between Steam and the Epic Store, sending game invites across stores, account linking, self-updat??ing crossplay improvements when games are installed, and a plug-and-play SDK, which basically means that developers can pick and choose which tools they want to implement with their games, and leave everything else.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLnCx_KMPi0

Senior Director of Online Services at Epic Games Simon Allaeys shared his thoughts on the new feature?? in a press release:

“Crossplay gives all friends the opportunity to come together and create fond memories across interactive experiences. We ?are in the fortunate position to drive change in the industry with cr?ossplay tools for all developers and we believe that connecting friends and communities will take the gaming industry to its next major growth spurt and its next billion players."

While these new tools are debuting on PC with Steam, Epic has plans to expand them to other PC game stores, as well as macOS and Linux, and eventually crossplay with consoles and mobile platforms further down the line. Developers can get started on implementing crossplay into their games by going to Epic's developer portal and downlo?adin?g the Epic Online Services SDK 1.15.

Even with the solid lineup of free games that the Epic Games Store releases every month, it still struggled to encroach on Steam's territory. Maybe this is Epic rolling over, but I prefer the more optimistic take that this is just a sign that t??he kids are finally playing nice.

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Get caught up on the BioShock series in one fell swoop

The new Epic Games Store freebie is live, and it's a three-for-one. BioShock: The Collection is free on Epic, now through June 2.

The Collection packages together BioShock Remastered, BioShock 2: Remastered, and BioShock Infinite: The Complete Edition. All three versions of these games include all? of their corresponding single-player DLC.

So alongside three immersive shooters, there are also some pretty solid DLC additions here, like Minerva's Den for BioShock 2 and Burial at Sea for Infinite. Essentially, it's a complete package of all things BioShock up to present day. And the first BioShock also includes a Director's Commentary too.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdEJDEWTpO4

There have been plenty of freebies handed out through the Epic Games Store's giveaways, but the full BioShock is a pretty rad package. You can check it out via the Epic launcher or the link here. The next free game hasn't been revealed yet,? but will unlock a week from now, roughly.

There's always a lighthouse

As for the BioShock series, well, we haven't seen much of it since the conclusion of Infinite. A new BioShock has ostensibly been in development at Cloud Chamber, but it's been so?me time since we heard anything ?about it.

So while its spiritual predecessors in games like System Shock are also in development, BioShock is up in the air. June is just around the c?orner, the perfect time for game announcements. But we've yet to see anything notable that could indicate news on the way.

For now, a return to Rapture is much more likely, thanks to this BioShock Epic freebie. Or, if you're in a musical mood, you can check out the award-winning BioShock high school show choir adaptation. I mean, say what you want about any of the games, but BioShock does have some great music.

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Don't make a bloody mess

Ambitious, brooding, stylish, and messy, Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong feels right at home with the eternal undead i??t follows.

It takes the narrative adventure style, mixes it with tabletop RPG and some pen-and-paper puzzle?? solving, and comes away with something fresh. It just also stumbles a few times on its way there.

The Vampire brand has been slowly upping its presence in video games over the past few years. Alongside the slew of visual novels and a nebulous in-development Bloodlines sequel, Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong is an interesting new entrant. When it shines, it rea??lly feels like the better parts of playing a tabletop campaign. It's the stutte?rs in-between that cause the most trouble.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=d76hfJVVvYA

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong (PC [played], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Big Bad Wolf
Publisher: Nacon
Released: May 18, 2022
MSRP: $49.99 on PC, $59.99 on console

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong follows three different vam??pires—Galeb, Emem, and Leysha—hailing from three different clans but all falling under the thumb of the Boston Camarilla and its upstart Prince Hazel Iversen. An attempted reunification party meant to consolidate Hazel's power became a bloodbath, and so she disperses the three protagonists on different quests to ascertain who has attacked them, why, and whether another strike is imminent.

It's a good kickstart to the plot, and I enjoy the moments where Swansong leans heavily into the lore of Vampire: The Masquerade. There's a lot of internal politicking and posturing, as internal disputes within the Boston Camarilla spill over. It doesn't hurt if you don't know the difference between a Toreador and a Nosferatu, and a Codex is available to handle more eso?teric concepts?? like the Beckoning.

Swansong also hands you some generally straightforward vampires to play. Galeb, the Ventrue, is a domina?ting presence as one of the older souls still in Boston; the tension between managing his legacy and leaving for distant shores was a highlight for me. Emem Louis is younger, a fast and charismatic Toreador who finds herself caught up in the politics of the court.

Leysha, the Malkavian among the bunch, has the most interesting gameplay mechanics. She can obfuscate her appearance and even change outfits, making some of her sequences feel like the recent Hitman trilogy. Sh?e also struggles with visions and premonitions, and possibly hallucinations. Her story can feel a bit fraught at times, though it ultimately hit a solid resolution? (with my decisions, at least).

As each one gets wrapped up in the fallout of the party, they have to infiltrate operations and interrogate others to get information. Part of this involves traditional adventure game exploration. Developer Big Bad Wolf's previous project, The Council,?? had a similar basis of adventure game exploration and discovery.

Talk it out

Swansong also pulls a similar twist with its confrontations, where major decision points play out as debates between two characters. Throughout each level, the player has to manage two resource meters: their willpower, used?? to employ reasoning, and their hunger, which grows as they invoke vampiric powers.

These come to a head in confrontations, which pit you against another NPC in a pretty engaging duel of wits and reason. I was often forced to ascertain how certain characters might respond to certain attempts, metering out my willpower left. Do I spend a lot of willpower to employ some Rhetoric, in hopes it wins me this round and gets me closer to the goal? Or do I inte??ntionally fail this point, saving my res?ources for later?

It seems like a lot the first few times it happens, though ultimately confrontations are simple: make it through the conversation and win the final point, without "missing" too many times and failing. Failure is usuall??y soft anyways, usually cutting off one of several points of progres??sion or incurring a physical change in a character. But it feels good to just barely eke out a battle of the minds.

I just wish the dialogue interactions outside these battles felt a bit more rewarding. Once in ??a blue moon, I'd get a piece of info that I could use. In a few cases, they opened up a new route forward. Largely, I felt like spend??ing willpower on basic dialogue didn't reward me enough to keep doing so. Exploration and discovering hard clues, like a letter in someone's safe or an SD card from a camera, often elicited more tangible rewards.

There's a lot of exploring to do too, as Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong's puzzles can get in-depth. The best ones heavily lean on the "get out a pad and pen" style; I've got a notebook full of scribbled passwords, number sequences, and eve?n a cipher. I'm someone who enjoys that stuff, and in a few cases, they really resulted in some tense sequences. A few of the final puzzles in Swansong really got my heart racing, as I had to make fast deductions and quick logical leaps to avoid terrible outcomes.

A few others are a bit more obtuse, especially in the breadcrumb hints they give. Getting a "completionist" run in your first go will feel a bit arduous, and while I enjoyed the more standar??d puzzles, some involving navigating the area just felt annoying to poke away at. It felt better organizing my thoughts and solving riddles, rather than trying to ascertain how to use preset jumps to get from point A to point B.

Character models look nice in still images, though once they get mo??ving, they have a bit of an unnatural look in some dialogue scenes. The navigation in general can feel a bit stiff too, and it's also where I encountered a fair deal of bugs. Sometimes my character would get hitched on a stair wrong, or it would take a deal of time to accurately land my cursor on the marker I was aiming for. Controller suffers the most from this, though the mouse-and-keyboard had some awkward moments too.

Camera angles got misaligned in a few conversations, characters would clip into walls or sit on air. In general, there were a decent number of "oh, that's weird" moments. It never felt game-breaking, but Swansong is noticeably janky at times. One sequence in particular brought all those issues together though: a stealth mission that really felt out-of-place and genuinely unenjoyable. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief once I knew I was done with it, and have no desire to go? back and replay that part in particular.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong does feel like a game that encourages replaying though, if only to see different permutations of the ending. There are definitely a few major branching points, where a character could end up in a very different epilogue or even prematurely meet their Final Death. I don't know that I'm keen to explore them personally, but a few choices did really tug at my heart, and I found myself caring about the fates of ?the protagonists a good bit by the time credits roll?ed.

It's an un-living

Swansong really feels like it tries to capture the better parts of Vampire: The Masquerade's tabletop roots. The segmented structure, level?-over-level progression in stats like Education and Technology, and many alternative methods for advancing the story can make it feel like a good, short campaign. I clocked about 20 hours, which felt like just the right length, even as the ending chapters rapidly ??leapt between the three protagonists as their narrative arcs closed.

When it's leaning heavily into logic puzzles, mystery, deduction, and sleuthing, Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong sings. It's the janky issues, rough exploration puzzles, and a few odd choices that prevent Swansong from being a showstopper.

If you're heavily interested in a vampire-fueled mystery game with some good "a-ha" moments, Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong can deliver. It'll falter and miss some notes here and there, but it does at least sate my thirst for some vampire storytelling f??or now.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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The 'big' update was pretty big after all

The platformer battle royale Fall Guys is making some big moves soon. Mediatonic announced today that Fall Guys is going free to play, headed to both Ninte??ndo Switch and X?box, and teased a good deal more on the horizon.

Today's teased "Big" update was a showcase of what's coming to the knockout fest on June 21. It starts with Fall Guys going fully free. While previously Fall Guys did require an up-front payment, now it will be free for everyone to download and play. Those who bought and played Fall Guys before June 21 will get a special Legacy Pack, with a stockpile of co??smetics and a fr??ee Season Pass for the first new season.

Obstacle-dodging and physics competitions are coming to new platforms, too. The long-awaited Nintendo Switch and Xbox versions of Fall Guys debut on June 21, as well as an upgraded PlayStation 5 version and an Epic Games Store spot. The PC side has an addendum, though: new players will not be able to download and play Fall Guys on Steam anymore. Previous owners will still be able to access and get updates through Steam. It sounds similar to the way Rocket League's move to Epic went down. With Mediatonic under the Epic umbrella now, it makes some sense.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHNjK3oQ5U4

The news keeps coming, though. Season 1—it seems like Mediatonic is resetting the seasonal counter for the big expansion—also introduces the Season Pass. It's a bonus version of the free progression path that can be purchased with in-game currency Show-Bucks. It will be a 100-level pass, allowing players to unlock the next Season Pass if they max out the current one, and Fall Guys will still have a free pr??ogression path. Kudos al??so carry over.

It's a free-for-all

Mediatonic also confirms in its FAQ about the update that Fall Guys will be cross-play and cross-progression across all platforms. So if you're on PC and head over to Switch, you can carry over that progress. It wil??l require making an Epic Games Account.

The studio recommends you log in on your original platform first, if you haven't played since Epic Games Accounts were introduced to Fall Guys. And it's totally possible; I'm a lapsed Fall Guy myself. But this new update sounds pretty rad, and that's before getting to all the new obstacles and costumes on the way. Plus, today's stream ended with a tease of what's to come: a course creator. The big Fall Guys update rolls out on June 21.

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iPhone owners get another option for Fortnite

It just got a little bit easier to play Fortnite just about anywhere. Xbox and Epic announced today that Fortnite is now freely available via? Xbox Cloud Gaming, through supported bro??wser-enabled devices.

Fortnite is playable through the Xbox Cloud Gaming beta in 26 countries. And most notably, it's free; all you'll need is a Microsoft account and an iOS, iPadOS, Android phone or tablet, or Windows PC. With that done, just head over to the Xbox play site and sign-in, then start dropping.

Notably, this doesn't require a subscription to Xbox Game Pass. While previously you could play Fortnite through a Game Pass Ultimate sub, this makes Fortnite access through Xbox Cloud Gaming completely free. It's als??o playable through ei??ther native touch controls or a supported controller, if you've got one of those for your phone.

It's a big step, and apparently not the last one for Microsoft. The company says in today's announcement that starting with Fortnite, they're looking to bring more free-to-play games in. No specifics on which games, but it's an interesting proposition, especially because of the browser aspect. Rather than needing a console, you just need a decent connection a?nd the phone in your pocket.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M3-AwaIwzM

Renewing the battle royale

It's also big news for iPhone users who have had some trouble playing Fortnite. Ever since the big Epic-Apple spat went down, Fortnite has been delisted from the App Store. When that changes is anyone's guess, but this Xbox workaround gives players the option to get back on the Fortnite train on their phones, at the least.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney shared the news, saying "no subscription required, no 30% Apple Tax." It seems to be a good day for iOS Fortnite fans. And as for Microsoft's further plans in the free-to-play space, it'll be interesting to see what other games th?ey look to get enabled on the cloud.

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Returning to their Croft

The next entry in the Tomb Raider series is on the way, and it'll be built in Epic's engine. Crystal Dynamics confirms that it's working on the next Tomb Raider in Unreal Engine 5.

The news arrived during today's State of Unreal presentation, where Epic launched UE5 to the public. The engine is now available to use, alongside some extra tools like the Lyra Starter Game and a city sample from The Matrix Awakens Unreal demo from late last year.

//twitter.com/tombr??aider/status/151136??8712279904258

Legacy of the Tomb Raider

No details were announced yet on where this journey will go or how it links in to previous Tomb Raider games. Crystal Dynamics helmed the first two reboot games, starting with 2013's Tomb Raider and then Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos-Montréal, meanwhile, took up 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Things have been quiet for Lara since then, as Crystal Dynamics went to work on Marvel's Avengers and Eidos-Montréal went to Guardians of the Galaxy. Now, it looks like CD is back on the Tomb Raider franchise, and I'm interested to see where ?they take the character from here.

It'll be some added work, as Crystal Dynamics is also collaborating on the Perfect Dark reboot with The Initiative. That's another project we've yet to see much of, outside of the initial ?announcement. It's unclear when we'll see either Joanna Dark or Lara Croft back on the screen again.

With all that, I'm happy to see Tomb Raider games back in development. I was a fan of reboot trilogy, and would definitely like to see where Crystal Dynamics could go. The Matrix demo was pretty impressive too, and Tomb Raider games have usually been good showpieces fo?r tech and visuals.

The new Tomb Raider is also now one of several projects in development on Unreal, including the next Witcher ga?me from CD Projekt Red. Today, Epic confirmed over 85 studios are working on UE5, including those two and The Coalition. Seems li?ke Unreal is off to a running start with the new engine.

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The proceeds will go to several humanitarian aid organizations

Epic has revealed the total amount raised from its two-week charity efforts. Fortnite proceeds have raised $?144 million USD in total for human?itarian relief efforts for people affected by war in Ukraine.

For two weeks, Epic and Xbox committed all Fortnite proceeds towards relief efforts. It started on March 20 and within a single day had already raised $36 million. This morning, the day after the charity efforts concluded, Epic confirmed the total amount at $144 million.

The contributions will go towards Direct Relief, UNICEF, UN World? Food Program??, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the World Central Kitchen.

//twitter.com/FortniteGame/status/151098?1457195454474

Fortnite has been a hot topic too, thanks to the temporary removal of building. Alongside a host of new cosmetics, including Marvel's Dr. Strange, Fortnite removed the ability to build for a short time during this season. It's back now, though those that enjoyed the new way to play can still ditch the blueprints in Zero Build mode.

The $144 million raised in Fortnite for Ukraine came from all real-money purchases, including V-Buck packs, gifted Battle ??Passes, and cosmetics. Funds were set to be logged and sent to relief organizations as they came in as well.

Other companies have also been supporting efforts in Ukraine. Both Humble Bundle and a large number of indie developers on Itch ?put together charity bundles to raise funds for aid in the region.

Publishers like Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and CD Projekt have halted sales of their products in Russia and Belarus as well. And this morning, World of Tanks studio Wargaming announced it is leavi??ng both Russia and Belarus, handing operations of its very popular live service games over to a local studio.

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This could mean a new school is in session

CD Projekt Red recently confirmed it's working on a new saga in The Witcher universe. The announcement came with an image, showing a medallion that's a little different from Geralt's wolf medallion. The Witcher medallion is, as CD Projekt Red now confirms, shaped like?? a lynx.

Speculation first started circling when CDPR Global Community Director Marcin Marmot replied with an enthusiastic nodding GIF to a user speculating that the medallion looks like a lynx. Speaking to Eurogamer, CD Proj?ekt Red's Global Communication Director Robin Malinowski said "some mysteries should not be so mysterious."

"I can confirm that the medallion is, ??in fact, shaped after ??a lynx," Malinowski told Eurogamer.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-l29HlKkXU

Those who don't know The Witcher too well might wonder why any of this matters. Well, in The Witcher universe, each monster hunter hails from different schools. Geralt, the series protagonist up to this point, falls under the School of the Wolf, as did his mentor Vesemir. Letho, an antagonist of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, hailed from the School of the Viper.

The School of the Lynx, however, is not an official school—yet. There is some fan-made content, or "fanon," about the School of the Lynx online that some have mistaken for where The Witcher may go. It proposes the idea of the witcher Lambert and sorceress Keira Metz setting off for new horizons. This isn't actual Witcher canon, though.

One of the authors of the page confirmed as much, speaking to Kotaku. So while the Lynx medallio??n does bring up some interesting possibilites, we don't know for sure what it could mean for the new?? saga.

All we know at the moment is that a new journey for The Witcher is underway at CD Projekt Red, and it's being made in Unreal Engine 5. As for bigger questions of schools, sorcery, and where Ciri is in all this, time will ultimately tell. Or rather, CD Projekt ??Red will, when it's ready.

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The party just got bigger

The obstacle course-royale Fall Guys is bringing its platforms much closer together. Today, Mediatonic launched a new update that will let PC and PlayStation players play Fall Guys in full cross-platform lobbies.

While cross-platform play was previously possible in Fall Guys with Custom Shows, this new up??date expands it out to all playlists. This means you can now team up across platforms to compete in the online playlists, ranging from Squads and Duos to the classic M??ain Show.

It works by linking your Epic account to the Fall Guys service. Once you're hooked in, anyone on your PlayStation, Epic, or Steam friends list should show up. You can find more info on linking the accounts here.

Today's update also comes with an update on the Xbox and Switch versions of Fall Guys. While it's still in the works, Mediatonic says it is comingâ€??”just not with this update.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CT7eZ1ydPs

There's also a new game type on the way, and this update adds a few fixes and patches too. Even after the summer of its breakout success, Fall Guys is still tumbling on with new content.

It's a bummer the extra platforms are still seemingly a ways off. In the meantime, though, at least the player base won't be so split across current platform lines. Cross-progression was already pretty handy, but full cross-platform Fall Guys parties are nice for?? those who don't want to download a game twice or swap consoles around for a quick match with pals.

The full cross-platform update for Fall Guys goes live today.

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Iron Galaxy's Rumbleverse heads back to the lab again

The rough-and-tumble fighter royale Rumbleverse is taking some extra time to get things right. Developer Iron Galaxy has announced that Rumbleverse will not be launching on Feb. 15.

Originally set to launch in February, with Early Access kicking off the week before on Feb. 8, there's no date set now for the grappler royale's debut. Extra time is being allotted for the multiplayer rumble to come together, Iron Galaxy confirmed in their announcement today.

"Having Grapital City filled with Rumblers taught us a lot," the team writes. "We're excited about the game we're making—and we're glad you are, too—but there's more we want to do to perfect the experience. More than a game, Rumbleverse will be a community that we want to?? support for a long time. We're going to take the time to make sure w??e can get that right."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=77TS9tm9o5c

If you still want to check it out, though, there will be some chances in the future. Iron Galaxy says more chances to test out Rumbleverse are on the way, starting with a PC test on Feb. 12. You can sign up through their site here.

For those who picked up the Early Access pack already, Iron Galaxy confirms it's working with partners to offer refunds. The studio also confirms there?? will be another chance to purchase content for the game, once a new launch date is scheduled.

First revealed at The Game Awards 2021, Rumbleverse looked fairly promising. It also seemed like early impressions of it from the initial test were positive too. But any extra time can hopefully add a little extra polish and improve on what's already there. As it is, getting me interested in a new battle royale is pretty tough. But Rumbleverse'??s injec??tion of high-flying wrestling action into the mix might be what pulls me back in.

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Epic is boosting XP and giving out a pickaxe to make up for December's login issues

If you had some trouble logging into Fortnite during its recent outages, you can pick up some freebies this weekend. Epic has announced a few thank-you gifts to players who had to deal with Fortnite server outages that will arrive on Friday.

For those who missed it, the Fortnite servers had a few outages last month. Players were unable to log in, as Epic investigated the stability issues. The servers did come back online in each case, and now the Fortnite developer is looking to make good f?or the time lost.

//twitter.com/?F?ortniteGame/status/1478743086591213571

To wit, Fortnite will host a Power Leveling Weekend starting on Jan. 7 at 7 p.m. and running through Jan. 10, at 7 a.m. ET. These weekends usually boost up your experience gain, so it's a nice time to r??eally grind out levels for whatever rewards you're aiming for.

Also, anyone who logged in during Winterfest will get a new Crescent Shroom Pickaxe, before it goes into the Fortnite Shop. So if you were one of the folks frustrated with the downtime last week, seems like you can put in some overtime starting on?? Friday.

With all the Spider-Man and Gears of War cosmetics to tally up in the latest season, the Power Leveling weekend in Fortnite seems like a good time to get it all don?e. I'm also not really sure what a Crescent Shroom is either, but ei??ther way, a free pickaxe is a free pickaxe.

The Winterfest ends on Jan. 6 at 9 a.m. ET, so if you want to grab the freebi?e, m?ake sure you log in.

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From Activision Blizzard to NFTs, it's been a long year

The year 2021 is finally coming to a close, and it sure has been a long one. It marked the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the gaming industry first full year of next-gen consoles, and another year of online events and showcases—at least, for most of the ??year.

There were cloudy spots and rays of sunshine amongst the headlines. Amid all of it, this has certainly been a time for reflection and examination. As shortages and a shift to remote work put pressure on both the software and ha??rdware sides of the industry, everything was in flux. Yet still, there were a few heartwarming tales that, even if they didn't rock the world, did keep us moving forward.

With all that in mind, here are some of the biggest gaming stories that?? dominated the headlines in 2021.

[caption id="attachment_296559" align="alignnone" width="1536"] The first Activision Blizzard walkout. Photo via Upcomer/Parkes Ousley.[/caption]

Activision Blizzard

Without a doubt, one of the most notable and high-profile stories of 2021 was the situation at Activision Blizzard. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing announced its lawsuit, and not long after, stories of discrimination, harassment, and a bad workplac?e culture flooded out.

As the year went on, stories continued to crop up, emplo??yees spoke out, and workers even began to organize and make demands that their company do better. If anything marks a difference between past reports of shoddy workplaces and now, it was the unified response seen from employees at Activision, Blizzard, and the many studios under the publisher's massive ??umbrella.

It is the end of 2021, and while some demands like the removal of required arbitration have been met, employees have still called for the removal of Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. All the while, even more stories continue to surface, with internal issues at the company seemingly dating back years and years. It also energized efforts at other companies too, as Ubisoft workers began to call for the changes they weren't seeing enacted after la??st year's reports. Suffice to say, this is a story that will likely continue to play out in 2022, and with state agencies involved, could be pretty massive.

The ongoing effects of COVID-19

In a 2020 interview, Xbox head ?Phil Spencer said that the industry would start to see the impact of the coronavirus in 2021. It's a quote that bounced around in my head throughout the year, as we continued to see the pandemic and virus have an effect on almost every part of the industry.

Development on quite a good number of games has been delayed, due to the shift to remote work and adjustments that needed to be made. Shortages throttled the hardware side, generating issues with meeting demand for new consoles and even affecting more specialized hardware. Showcases moved online, E3 was held d?igitally, and the whole industry had to keep adjusting to a new norm.

There were some glimmers, however. The Game Awards were held in person, and PAX held an in-person event. There's even a PAX East on the books for 2022, as well as other possible events??.

Whether any of that sticks, with the surge of new variants going around, remains to be see??n. But even on a small scale, the industry has been adapting. The cross-generation bridge lasting a little longer hasn't been a terrible thing, and has seen the rise of programs like Smart Delivery. Publishers have started to dial in the whole online showcase thing that Nintendo had previously cornered? the market on, and remote previews have become common on our side of things, which is really great for more voices to get more coverage opportunities. If nothing else, we can hopefully continue to make lemonade out of lemons next year.

NFTs, I guess

Here is the obligatory mention of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, a trend that kicked up at the tail end of 2021. A concept that still seems strange, even when you do have a handle on it.

NFTs quickly became the least-favorite subject of anyone who doesn't own one. Since their emergence into daylight, it's been a series of publishers attempting to cash in on the latest trend. Staunch defenders advocate for their industry-changing potential, while critics point out the many flaws with their current existence. People on the inside of early attempts to incorporate NFTs are questioning their very inclusion.

It's a mess. But if you're not a fan of NFTs, there has been one upside: the resounding response to attempts to put them into games has, so far, been met with great resistance. There's no better example than the immediate about-face seen in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 NFT fiasco. Are we going to see more of these things in 2022? Yeah, probably. But for now at least, they've failed to latch on in any meaningful way outside a few cosmetics in a Tom Clancy's game.

Indies rule the world

It's not like it was a slow year for games. Granted, many major games either pushed out to next year, or arrived very late in the year. Titles like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Forza Horizon 5, Resident Evil Village, and Halo Infinite still dominated.

But man, was it a good year for indie games. Some serious heavy-hitters of the year came up through the indie scene. Small projects like Inscryption and Wildermyth captivated us with refreshing new ideas. Death's Door wow'd us with its fresh look and beautiful action. It's been hard, some years, to get folks to test out some indie games. But it felt like everyone had one or two this year that really hit them, from Unpacking to Sable, and Unsighted to An Airport For Aliens Currently Run By Dogs.

And of course, let's not forget Destructoid's own Game of the Year selection, Chicory: A Colorful Tale. A beautiful game about art, creation, fear, doubt, and a dog with a paintbrush. Next year looks read??y to deliver on a lot of major games from the big-name publishers.?? But it was nice, in 2021, to have a year that felt absolutely dominated by the indies.

Studio acquisition frenzy

It was a banner year for studio acquisitions. It felt like ev?ery few weeks a new studio acquisition was announced. And not just from Embracer Group, either. ??Here's just a short selection:

• Epic acquires Harmonix
• Private Division acquires Roll7
• Krafton acquires Unknown Worlds
• CD Projekt acquires The Molasses Flood
• Tencent acquires Turtle Rock Studios
• PlayStation acquires Housemarque, Firesprite, Bluepoint, Valkyrie, Nixxes
• Electronic Arts acquires Playdemic
• Embracer picks up Gearbox, Aspyr Media, Easybrain
• Nintendo acquires Next Level Games

And that's not even counting the Microsoft-ZeniMax deal, which was announced last September but locked in this year. It's been quite the year for companies buying other c??ompanies.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=euiSHuaw6Q4

Epic vs. Apple

The Epic vs. Apple case went into the courtroom earlier this year. I know, right? And to no surprise, it was utter chaos to start.

Once the racket settled, it quickly became an opportunity for both companies to snipe at each other, surfacing discovery documents that shed light on both Apple and Epic's stores, as well as their business. The end result was a decision neither company seemed happy with, though it could set some interesting precedent moving forward. And it did leave us with that one bizarre Fortnite trailer in the style of the old Ap??ple commercials.

Xbox Game Pass and the subscription surge

There were a lot of games that came out this year. Because of that, one of the biggest surp??rises of the year was the Xbox Game Pass really showing its worth.

Major games like Psychonauts 2??, Forza, Halo, and others launched on the platform. The first-party games might have been obvious, but even games like Outriders were hitting the service right away. And several others, like Scarlet Nexus, seemed to get a second wind on the Game Pass.

Now, Netflix is moving into the space, Sony is reportedly looking to up its offering, and Nintendo has already expanded its subscription service's library. Game Pass really forged ahead here with both a good year, and a year that seems to herald a shift in the way ?we buy and play games.

Good causes keep going

There was concern, at the outset of the pandemic, at how in-person events would respond. Some shut down, while some moved online, and many faced new challenges in having to host something normally experienced a?nd enjoyed in-person.

Games Done Quick was one of the organizations that, quickly and deftly, adjusted to the pandemic, and it showed again in 2021. Both Awesome Games Done Quick and Summer Games Done Quick have continued to raise money for charity, alongside a number of other speedrunning charity events.

Meanwhile, other efforts like Spawn Together raised money for good causes ins??ide the industry. There may have been a lot of tiring, disheartening, spirit-deflating headlines this year. But still, it's nice to see stories like this come up now and then, as a reminder of what we can still do to generate good in spite of everything.

What were the stories that resonated or affected you the most this year? Let us know!

The post The biggest gaming stories of 2021 appeared first on Destructoid.

Set off on a Tomb Raider adventure for free

The new adventures of Lara Croft are on a pretty good discount today. The rebooted Tomb Raider trilogy is today's Epic Games Store freebie, with all three of the new Tomb Raider titles available to download and keep.

That includes 2013's Tomb Raider and its sequels Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Each version is the "definitive" or full collection of the series, so you'll als??o be getting all the additional content too. From extra costumes to new challenge tombs, tha??t's a lot of surviving and tomb raiding.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_FIyNcQSgA

This is part of Epic's ongoing holiday celebration festivities, with free games going up every day. The past few days have had some extremely good gets, like the automated RPG Loop Hero and wacky, zany couch co-op adventure Moving Out. This three-for-one deal is a pretty big one though, running from now through Jan. 6. Then the next freebie, Gods Will Fall, will arrive.

And those Tomb Raider games are pretty solid. The re-envisioning of Lara Croft's journey made for an excellent action-adventure game in 2013's self-titled reboot. Then in Rise of the Tomb Raider, we saw more puzzles, more challenges, and some interesting survival elements incorporated for those looking for a good challenge. And even though I'm not personally the hugest fan of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, it did have its moments.

Though we haven't seen much of Lara since that latest entry in 2018, it'll be fun to have an excuse to jump back into these reboots and see how the new version of Lara Croft evolved through the trilogy. For the low, low price of free, it's hard to look down on a deal like this. Find all three on the Epic Games Store for PC here.

The post The Tomb Raider reboot trilogy is the lat??est? Epic freebie appeared first on Destructoid.

The Winter Fortnite frivolities are underway once again

[Update: Epic has confirmed that servers are back online. "We appreciate everyone’s understanding as we worked to resolve these issues and we’ll have more details next week on what we’re doing to help you make up for lost time," their statement read. Our original story follows below.]

You might have noticed if you were looking to make some Battle Pass progress today that Fortnite is down. The battle royale game has been unavailable to play for several hours today, as E??pic is looking into the matter.

It started earlier today, with Epic acknowledging through the Fortnite Status Twitter account that it was investigating issues with matchmaking and logging in. An update ?followed after, confirming that the game was currently unavailable and players would be unable to log-in as Epic investigated the issue.

Most recently, Epic has said it is working on a fix that will bring Fortnite back on??line. The servers are unavailable in the meantime, as the team investigates a solution to it??s stability issues.

//twitter.com/FortniteStatus??/status/14762846349714841?63

It's not uncommon for any multiplayer game to have some server hiccups or long queue times. That goes double for games as popular as Fortnite, and during the holidays too. And considering the current season has some pretty sick web-slinging alongside its other additions, players are probably pretty eager to get in and play a few matches.

But this has been a notable service interruption, and one that's lasted for a while too. Players have been reporting issues throughout the day, and posts have been going around the internet about the outage.

While a fix seems inevitable, it's worth knowing about if you planned to squad up this evening. It's another reminder, I guess, of how popular Fortnite is, that its server outage is even making headlines at non-enthusiast outlets.

We'll update this story as we hear more from Epic about when Fortnite will be back online.

The post Fortnite was down, but the serve??rs are b??ack now (Update) appeared first on Destructoid.