GhostRecon: WildlandsDortmunder Jungs Ghost Recon Wildlands
Open-world shooters have the potential to deliver player vs. player, co-op, and single-player experiences at a scale no other video game genre can match. Seriously, one game on this list is set on a world-record-setting half-scale map of Europe. Let’s find an open-world game that fits you.
Kompletter Artikel: 10 Best Open World Shooters To Play Right Now
Sony has revealed the next batch of free games for PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscribers. The August 2022 PS Plus lineup includes not one but three Yakuza games, a recent remake in the Mana series, the latest Ghost Recon, and more. These are Sony’s additions to the Game Catalog service offered with the higher tiers of PlayStation Plus, which will update on August 16.
To start, you can live your Japanese crime family fantasies with Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza Kiwami 2. Those mark the start of Yakuza offerings on PS Plus with others set to come later this year. Extra and Premium members can also get the 1v4 multiplayer game Dead by Daylight, as well as Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands and the extremely wacky adventure game Bugsnax.
Rounding out the new additions will be Metro Exodus, Trials of Mana, Uno, Monopoly Madness, and Monopoly Plus.
These are the premium extras for the higher tiers, separate from the PlayStation Plus Essentials games lineup. Extra and Premium members can grab those games too, which this month include Tony Hawk, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and Little Nightmares.
If you subscribed to PlayStation Plus Extra or Premium, make sure to check out our list of the best PS4 and PS5 games in the library to download and play today. Also, Premium members should take a look at our roundups of the best classic games and best PS3 games to stream.
Kompletter Artikel: PlayStation Plus Extra/Premium Games For August 2022 Revealed
The latest batch of free PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium games is going live now. These free games include three Yakuza titles, a Mana remake, one of the latest Ghost Recon games, and many more. They’re available in all PlayStation Plus subscriptions above the Essential line.
To start, you can live your Japanese crime family fantasies with Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza Kiwami 2. Those mark the start of Yakuza offerings on PS Plus with others set to come later this year. Extra and Premium members can also get the 1v4 multiplayer game Dead by Daylight, as well as Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands and the extremely wacky adventure game Bugsnax.
Rounding out the new additions are Metro Exodus, Trials of Mana, Uno, Monopoly Madness, and Monopoly Plus.
These are the premium extras for the higher tiers, separate from the PlayStation Plus Essentials games lineup. Extra and Premium members can grab those games too, which this month include Tony Hawk, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and Little Nightmares.
If you subscribed to PlayStation Plus Extra or Premium, make sure to check out our list of the best PS4 and PS5 games in the library to download and play today. Also, Premium members should take a look at our roundups of the best classic games and best PS3 games to stream.
Kompletter Artikel: PlayStation Plus Extra/Premium Games For August 2022 Live Now
Xbox has unveiled the list of games coming to Game Pass during the first half of August. Xbox Game Pass subscribers will be able to check out seven new games over the next two weeks, including two day-one releases and a massive AAA game that’s available now.
Leading the way is Ghost Recon Wildlands, which is available today for Xbox, PC, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Ghost Recon Wildlands is a cooperative focused third-person shooter set in an enormous open world. Set in Bolivia, Wildlands focuses on a battle between US Special Forces and a drug cartel that threatens to dismantle the country. Wildlands, which originally released in 2017, was the first open-world Ghost Recon game. It’s much better than its successor, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and it’s worth checking out if you’re looking for a squad-based shooter to play with friends.
Starting August 4, subscribers will be able to claim Shenzhen I/O and Turbo Golf Racing. Shenzhen I/O is a PC-only puzzle game inspired by real-life engineering. This in-depth logic game tasks you with building circuits and writing code. Meanwhile, Turbo Golf Racing is a day-one Game Pass release. You could consider it to be Rocket League with golf instead of soccer. Up to eight players compete in arcade races while ramming giant golf balls down the tracks.
The second day-one release is Two Point Campus, which arrives on August 9. The follow-up to Two Point Hospital, Two Point Campus is a sim game revolving around building and running a school.
A trio of titles arrive on Game Pass on August 11. Cooking Simulator is a realistic cooking game with a physics system inspired by real cooking. The last two games for the first half of August are PC Game Pass-only titles: Expeditions: Rome and Offworld Trading Company. Expeditions: Rome is a turn-based RPG set in Ancient Rome, and Offworld Trading Company is a great real-time strategy game set on Mars.
August 2
August 4
August 9
August 11
The additions to the Game Pass lineup outweigh the removals in the first half of the month, but there are five games leaving on August 15:
As usual, there are updates for existing games and new Game Pass Ultimate perks to look forward to. Citizen Sleeper’s first episode, Flux, is available now. Sniper Elite 5 has a new mission dubbed Landing Force that’s also available now. Sea of Thieves fans can dive into Season 7 starting August 4. New content drops for Fall Guys, Skate 3, and The Elder Scrolls Online will be available as Game Pass Ultimate perks.
Kompletter Artikel: Xbox Game Pass August 2022 Lineup Adds 7 Games
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon franchise is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and for a limited time, Ubisoft is giving away both the original game and some DLC for more recent entries in the series.
From October 5-11, you can claim a free copy of the original Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon for PC alongside the Fallen Ghosts DLC for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands and the Deep State Adventure for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint. All the giveaways can either be claimed directly through the Ubisoft Connect launcher on PC or via a giveaway page, where you can choose your platform of choice should you want the Wildlands DLC for Xbox One , PlayStation 4, Stadia, or on the Epic Games Store. The original Ghost Recon is only available on PC.
The process is a little different when it comes to accessing the Deep State Adventure DLC. To claim the Breakpoint DLC, you’ll need to actually boot up the game on your platform of choice, navigate to the expansion tab in the in-game store, and purchase the Deep State Adventure DLC for 0 Ghost Coins. You’ll need to own a copy of Wildlands or Breakpoint in order to access the free DLC.
Ubisoft also announced a new, free-to-play, battle royale-focused multiplayer entry in the series, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Frontline, as part of the franchise’s anniversary celebration. Unlike many more recent games in the franchise, Ghost Recon: Frontline will be in first-person, as teams of players battle it out to find crucial intel and extract from the battlefield before it’s too late. Ghost Recon: Frontlines does not currently have a release date, but interested players in Europe can sign up for a chance to participate in an upcoming closed test for the game.
Kompletter Artikel: Ghost Recon Wildlands And Breakpoint DLC Is Free For The Franchise's 20th Anniversary
Ubisoft’s latest earnings report contains some information about their sales across this console generation, including the franchises and games that have done particularly well. Ubisoft has announced that 11 games across 6 franchises have sold over 10 million units after releasing on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad posted a graphic to Twitter highlighting the company’s biggest sellers, and some of them might come as a surprise. The games that have sold 10 million units or more are:
Six franchises and 11 titles have sold over 10 million units this console cycle.
Assassin’s Creed Unity, Origins and Odyssey
The Division 1 & 2
Far Cry 4 & 5
Ghost Recon Wildlands
Rainbow Six Siege
Watch Dogs 1 & 2
(Reposting with graphic) pic.twitter.com/wsJr2UTDBf— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 14, 2020
The Assassin’s Creed series has evidently done well, although it’s worth sparing a thought for the excellent Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, which did not hit the same sales milestone. Curiously, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag had shipped 10 million units back in 2014, yet does not appear. This could be because it was a cross-generational title, although by that logic Far Cry 4 and Watch Dogs should be disqualified, too. It’s possible that those games specifically sold 10 million only on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, though, and that a higher percentage of Black Flag’s sales were for other consoles.
It also seems that Far Cry Primal and Far Cry New Dawn have not reached the heights of the numbered entries in the series, while Ghost Recon Breakpoint had a disappointing launch and hasn’t hit this sales milestone.
A few of these games have perhaps done better than expected. Watch Dogs 2 struggled at launch, with some reports putting physical sales in its first week at 80 percent below those of its predecessor. Evidently, the game bounced back. The Division 2 has also sold better than its frequent enormous price cuts might lead you to believe–but then, it’s also likely that a lot of people have taken the plunge on it when it’s heavily discounted.
In any case, it’s fair to say that Ubisoft sold a lot of games this generation. The publisher has several games announced already for next-generation consoles, including Watch Dogs: Legion, Gods and Monsters, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Rainbow Six: Quarantine.
Kompletter Artikel: Ubisoft Has 11 Games That Have Sold Over 10 Million Copies This Gen, And Some Are Surprising
Update: An Ubisoft spokesperson has confirmed to GameSpot that Maxime Beland has returned to Ubisoft. Original story follows.
The creative director behind some big Ubisoft games is reportedly rejoining the company. Maxime Beland, who left Ubisoft in 2019 for a brief stint as creative director on Epic Games’ Fortnite, is said to be coming back with a new and more influential role.
Video Games Chronicle reports that Beland will join as a vice president of the editorial team, which helps make big-picture decisions about various games across the company. This is part of a reported restructuring of the management team, following disappointing sales figures and various delays to make its lineup better differentiated. GameSpot has contacted Ubisoft for comment.
Beland was a 20-year veteran of Ubisoft, serving as creative director for Rainbow Six: Vegas, game design director for the original Assassin’s Creed, and creative director for the two latest Splinter Cell games, Conviction and Blacklist. He also helped direct certain portions of recent Far Cry games.
He left Ubisoft in February 2019, and became creative director on Fortnite in March. His LinkedIn profile notes that he left Epic in October, which would leave him available for this new role at Ubisoft.
The managerial role likely means he won’t be as hands-on with particular projects, so this doesn’t necessarily signal a revival of Splinter Cell. Ubisoft’s current slate of projects includes Watch Dogs Legion, Gods and Monsters, and Rainbow Six Quarantine, all of which were pushed to the 2020-21 fiscal year. Skull & Bones has been pushed back to at least April 2021. No new release dates have been announced for any of these projects.
Kompletter Artikel: Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six Creative Director Rejoins Ubisoft
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
An online game, created by a well-respected developer, and/or as part of a beloved franchise, and/or that is breathlessly anticipated, launches with major technical issues and receives a raft of negative reviews. From there, things get worse. Maybe some features that were promised aren’t in the game. Maybe the game is unplayably buggy. Maybe fans can spot the difference between canvas and nylon.
Whatever the reason, the game becomes a punching bag. Articles keep coming out. Fans keep complaining online. Players who bought the game on Day 1 expecting a polished product are outraged. People who didn’t buy the game are amused. And a highly anticipated, very expensive game now has a reputation for being a Dumpster fire.
All eyes are on the developer. Can they possibly turn this thing around?
That question has been asked and answered quite a few times in the past decade. Final Fantasy XIV, Destiny, No Man’s Sky: these games, and many more, have proven that no launch is too disastrous to recover from. Yet, with the explosion of the indie scene over the last decade and the democratization of game development through accessible platforms like Steam and itch.io, there has never been more great stuff to play at all times.
So what makes players stick with games that launch buggy or broken? What motivates players to return to a game daily even when connectivity issues mean they sometimes can’t even actually play it? Why do players spend time talking about games on message boards and social media when the rest of the gaming world has already moved on, dismissing these titles as “dead games”?
To answer that question, we took to Reddit and Twitter looking for players that are passionate about the games that make a bad first impression. Some have witnessed their game of choice find redemption. No Man’s Sky and Final Fantasy XIV players have been through the worst of it and now get to enjoy playing some of the best live service games available. Others–like the folks posting in r/GhostReconBreakpoint, r/AnthemTheGame, and r/fo76–are still waiting for their comeback. All in all, we spoke with roughly 40 players who believe that games can, and often do, get better over time.
As recently as September 2019, the cycle began again.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, the latest entry in Ubisoft’s long-running stealth-action series, is the most recent service game to launch to negative reviews and disappointing sales. We gave it a 4 back in September, praising its infiltration mechanics and satisfying headshots, but feeling that, overall, it was a mish-mash of half-hearted ideas. The negative press and low sales were loud enough that Ubisoft pushed multiple big games into the next fiscal year. Much of the broader Ghost Recon community has avoided Ghost Recon Breakpoint, instead opting to stick with its still-active predecessor, Ghost Recon: Wildlands.
Breakpoint hasn’t really moved beyond this phase. Though Ubisoft put out a patch In November that made more than 100 changes, the loot-shooter still has a long way to go, and still has yet to prove, for many players, that there’s a reason that it needs to exist at all, in a world where The Division 2 and Ghost Recon: Wildlands–games that came from the same publisher and feature many similar mechanics–still have active communities.
“I felt a genuine wave of relief when I heard the rotors of the AH-6 overhead and knew my buddies had come to rescue me.”
Even so, some players have found plenty to enjoy (and post about). Breakpoint player Mizu, an active member of the r/GhostReconBreakpoint subreddit, told GameSpot about the time her team’s transport ended up on the business end of a surface-to-air missile launcher.
“The pilot knew he couldn’t out-maneuver it in the great big transport he was flying, so he called for everyone to bail out,” she said. “All four of us managed to successfully evacuate before the missile struck, but we were scattered across the mountains. The others landed pretty close to each other, but I got lost in the mist and ended up boots down on a mountain several kilometers away.
“Our routine faction mission grind was interrupted by an impromptu rescue operation while the others scrambled to regroup and commandeer an AH-6 to pick me up. Meanwhile, I’d been spotted by an Azreal (a surveillance drone) while I was falling down the mountain and was forced to find an impromptu defensive position in an abandoned cabin. I think that was one of the moments I felt most immersed. Trying to beat back the Wolves who were hunting me, and the Sentinel patrols that had been alerted by the sounds of our firefight. I felt a genuine wave of relief when I heard the rotors of the AH-6 overhead and knew my buddies had come to rescue me. It’s the things you didn’t expect or plan for that shine the most. You can only have those kinds of experiences in an open-world like this.”
In a reactive game like Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, bugs can even become part of the charm. Interesting stories often result as unwieldy jank pairs with functioning systems. If the joy of Breakpoint is in “things you didn’t expect or plan,” moments of bugginess can contribute to the fun.
“My buddy and I were trying to capture a Sentinel Captain a little while ago. We needed him alive so I shot him in the leg,” Mizu remembered. “He exploded.”
More often, however, bugs–“spectacular” though they may be–are just bugs, and communities persist in spite of them.
Fallout 76 stumbled at launch as players struggled to overcome bugs, followed by Bethesda’s offer of a subscription version of the game.
In a time of frequent, turbulent Internet outrage, a game’s very real, critique-worthy flaws are often both amplified and obscured by the vitriolic hatred, abuse, and harassment that angry fans hurl at developers. That is, of course, true for live games as well. But while puddles shrinking in Marvel’s Spider-Man or the National Dex being removed from Pokémon Sword and Shield stirred the ire of small portions of each game’s fanbase, a disastrous launch for a massive AAA live game invites the ridicule of the entire game-playing Internet.
And under that level of increased scrutiny, mistakes seem to snowball. For example, Fallout 76 was critically panned upon release. It was hampered at the start by a lack of NPCs, an empty-feeling world, and severe technical issues. Bethesda worked hard to address those troubles–one patch in January included fixes for 150 bugs–but often ended up playing Whack-a-Mole with the game’s problems. When Bethesda fixed one bug, it broke the game in new ways. This was exacerbated by missteps outside the confines of the game’s virtual Appalachia. Bethesda sent some fans who paid for the $200 Power Armor Edition nylon bags instead of the promised canvas ones, sparking outrage. Then the company leaked the personal information of numerous customers.
One year after release, Fallout 76 is no longer on fire. But that doesn’t mean that the game has turned around completely. In October, Bethesda began selling Fallout 1st–a $12.99-a-month subscription service that granted paying players access to private servers and a private scrapbox–on the same day that rave reviews hit for Obsidian’s Fallout spiritual successor, The Outer Worlds. The decision to add a subscription service to the struggling game was roundly mocked on the Internet, despite the real utility it offered for fans.
Even in a situation like this, during which the community is divided on Fallout 1st, avid players highlight the reasons that, for many, Fallout 76 is worth sticking with. A group of more than 300 Fallout 76 players used their Fallout 1st subscriptions as a jumping-off point for roleplay, forming the Apocalyptic Aristocracy. They leaned into the accusations of elitism that accompanied a subscription, posing for posh group pictures and, tongue firmly in-cheek, referring to players who didn’t shell out for the subscription as “peasants.” Like Fallout’s vault dwellers, these players made the best of a bad situation. And that’s what Fallout 76 roleplayers have been doing since launch–carving out their own unique, flashy identities in the wasteland.
“I have a memory of a guy wearing a full Power Armor set sporting a minigun showing up in my camp demanding I ‘pay my taxes’ or he will destroy my base. This was before they removed camp damage from the game,” said itscmillertime, a Reddit user who has been playing Fallout 76 since a week after launch. “I found the whole thing pretty hilarious until his minigun started to wind up. I logged out before he could damage more than a wall. I give him credit for creativity at least.”
Fallout 76, building on the foundation of 20 years of role-playing games, naturally attracts players who are interested in fully embodying their characters. Anthem, while a major departure from the single-player, choice-focused RPGs BioWare had developed in the past, similarly draws in players who want to show off. While it’s difficult to roleplay a character in Anthem, customization options make it fairly easy to design an extremely cool Javelin (the in-game Iron Man-esque exo-suit). Both games provide an outlet for self-expression.
“One would think, ‘How could anyone like a game that’s so repetitive with its missions?’ Indeed it is, but for me it’s not about that,” said Sam “JetstreamSAM-I-M” Safi, a frequent poster on the Anthem-centric subreddit r/FashionLancers. “This game, to me, feels more like showing off what you have. There are people who share the legendary items they achieve in the game and there are other people commenting about how much they are looking for that. And when the time comes when they do achieve it [they feel satisfied].”
“Although there are no mics and you travel the cosmos solo, you feel the comradery.”
But sometimes communities are just plain nice, and the No Man’s Sky fandom is famously kind. The game launched with a dearth of content that turned off many players expecting a space-faring adventure across a huge, endlessly interesting universe. But in response to those criticisms, Hello Games released several free updates over years, eventually completely reshaping their game.
In 2019, a group of generous fans, led by Reddit user Cameron G, raised thousands of dollars to purchase a billboard reading, “Thank You, Hello Games,” outside the developer’s Guildford office. After the crowdfunding campaign closed, the group used the extra money to buy lunch and beer for the development team and then donated the remaining cash to the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation.
In-game, players are often similarly big-hearted.
“One day while in the Nexus, my wife needed my help, [so] I left my character AFK and when I returned someone has gifted me 250 million units worth of items,” said Reddit user IrascibleClown. “It made the game a little less stressful since, I play in survival, and now I pass things on to newer players. Although there are no mics and you travel the cosmos solo, you feel the comradery.”
Every rocky launch holds the potential for eventual redemption. Reddit user SirGuinnesshad, talking about Anthem, put it succinctly: “I’ve seen enough games turn a rough launch around that I still have hope.”
For Final Fantasy XIV players who have stuck around since the initial launch in 2010, that kind of hope has been richly rewarded.
“It felt incredible to be on the ground floor,” said Ryan “Nova” Litteral, who has been playing FFXIV since its 1.0 release. “It truly felt like the developers appreciated us and tried to recognize our dedication with the Legacy subscriptions and tattoos; some of the very few things in-game that are still truly exclusive.”
“It’s like being in a secret club and recognizing other members while you’re out and about,” he said. “Even after [A Realm Reborn] launched and the various expansions have been released, the game has still continued to grow and evolve and that same feeling is here. With every expansion launch, I’m reminded of how good it feels to be there for Day 1 with so many people around the world. Not to mention the fact that the game itself actually introduced me to my fiancée. We met each other raiding the Omega Savage series during Stormblood, clear across the country from each other. Now we’ve moved in together, it’s years later, and we’re set to be married in Hawaii in September 2020. So many great things in my life that came to be because of Final Fantasy–a game that absolutely flopped in the beginning but rose from the ashes and became something great.”
Not everyone finds their soulmate because of a game, of course. But every live game has the potential to grow and change and exceed expectations. Communities pop up in unexpected places and the fans who flock to service games are admirably resilient.
We will almost never move past rocky launches, entirely. As Kotaku’s Jason Schreier tweeted regarding Bungie’s rough launch for Destiny 2: Shadowkeep (in response to a request for an expose on why all live games seem to have some degree of issues at launch): “On day one the game might have 4x as many players as it will on every subsequent day. It’s cheaper to have a rough launch day than it is to maintain more servers than you actually need. (Also this shit is really hard).”
Live games are massive undertakings. Artists and engineers from a variety of disciplines come together to try to create something from nothing, then attempt to build and maintain an infrastructure that will allow them to share that something with millions of people at once. It will never be easy. But there will always be players who manage to see the beauty through the cracks.
Kompletter Artikel: The Stages Of A Live Game: How Communities Gravitate To Struggling Games And Find Fun
One final update before Breakpoint’s release.
Kompletter Artikel: Ghost Recon Wildlands Final Update Adds Mercenaries Mode – GS News Update
Ubisoft has announced one final content drop for Ghost Recon Wildlands. Now live, the latest update for Wildlands adds a brand-new PvPvE mode, Mercenaries, to the game.
“With Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint coming this October, we want to send off Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands with one last major update as a thank-you to the community,” Ubisoft wrote in a blog post. “We’re excited to experiment with this concept to bring something new and different before we launch the next installment in the franchise.”
An eight-player free-for-all, Mercenaries is divided into three phases: Recon, Helicopter Deployment, and Extraction. The mode is a race to be rescued first by gathering intel before anyone else and fighting off both computer-controlled soldiers and other players.
In Phase 1: Recon, you spawn in without any gear, weapons, or items. In order to reach the next phase, you need to discover the location of the extraction point by activating three different radio transmitters. While hunting down transmitters, you can also stop off at intel markers to unlock different perks, such as the location of every other player for a limited time or the position of a vehicle. While exploring, you can scavenge for supplies, which will come in handy for fending off other players or Unidad soldiers. Dying won’t reset your progress, but you will lose every weapon, item, and piece of gear on your person.
Once one of the eight players activates three transmitters, Phase 2: Helicopter Deployment begins. Only the player who activated all three transmitters will know where the extraction helicopter is going to land, but the other seven will be informed of the location once the chopper sets down. Boarding the chopper requires five segments in your extraction gauge, and you can fill one of those segments by activating three transmitters. So once the helicopter appears, you can follow it to immediately challenge the player who summoned it or continue hunting for transmitters and markers to better your odds for Phase 3.
Phase 3: Extraction begins once the helicopter touches down on the map, revealing its location to all eight players. As stated before, you need five segments in your extraction gauge to board the chopper. You can earn additional segments by staying within a set area around the helicopter, but only if you’re the only player present. You’ll have to fend off any approaching players to fill your gauge while fighting off the swarm of Unidad soldiers as well. The first player to earn five segments and board the helicopter wins the match.
There are seven rewards for playing the new Mercenaries mode, all of which are listed below. Ghost Recon Wildlands isn’t the only Ubisoft game to get one final major update this week. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey‘s final DLC, Judgement of Atlantis, also released, concluding the over 100-hour saga of Kassandra/Alexios.
Ghost Recon Wildlands is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Its sequel, Ghost Recon Breakpoint is scheduled to release on October 4 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Both Wildlands and Breakpoint are two of the over 100 games that will be made available through Ubisoft’s new PC game subscription service, Uplay+, which is scheduled to launch on September 3.
Kompletter Artikel: Battle Royale-Like Mode Comes To Ghost Recon Wildlands In Final Big Update