The Trilogy Is Coming
The Trilogy Is Coming
Edition 46 - October 18th to October 24th
Good morning gamers. Time to hit resume as another week kicks off.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy finally has a release date and it looks pretty good. In 2022, February will be the month where every gamer goes into hibernation due to all the new releases. Also, several new studios are getting some awesome initiatives.
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Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition
Here we go again...Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition will be available on PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC digitally on November 11th and as a disc on December 6th. The three iconic games included are GTA III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas.
Updated Player Experiences will include GTA V style controls, layout and targeting controls. The trilogy also includes updates to weapon and radio station selection wheels, mini-map enhancements, the ability to immediately restart a failed mission and new accomplishments for members.
Enhanced Visuals will feature higher resolution textures, a completely rebuilt lighting system, improved water and weather effects, enhanced detail in trees and foliage and increased draw distances to provide people with a new level of depth and definition.
Platform Specific Features include 4K-resolution for the PS5 and Xbox Series X. It will also include NVIDIA DLSS Support for PC and touch screen camera zooming, Gyro aiming for the Nintendo Switch.
Xbox Games Pass and PS Now will be getting GTA: San Andreas and GTA III respectively. It has not yet been confirmed if the complete trilogy will be available on both services.
February 2022 Games Releases
It’s becoming increasingly more common nowadays for game studios to delay the release of their games past the original date. When an accumulation of delays start to surface we find ourselves in a situation where tons of hugely anticipated games get scheduled to release around the same time. We’re about to enter one of those periods with Battlefield 2042, Call of Duty Vanguard and Halo Infinite Multiplayer all releasing within 35 days of each other. The next major release window will be February 2022 - let’s take an early look.
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is coming to Destiny 2 on February 22. The expansion revolves around Savathûn and will add tons of new content across the game. Bungie has recently received some community uproar due to the news that they’re planning to charge separately for the new Dungeon content.
Horizon Forbidden West was officially delayed to February 18 and PlayStation Studios Head Hermen Hulst attributed the delay to the lack of motion-equipment access through the pandemic.
Elden Ring is the most recent game added to the lineup after being delayed to February 25. In the meantime, FromSoftware is holding a “Closed Network Test” (aka, a closed Beta) in November.
Saints Row (the reboot) is scheduled to release on February 25. Development seems to be on schedule considering they’ve just revealed an exclusive first look at the games opening missions.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human is set for a February 4 release after already being delayed twice; past its original 2020 window and the December 2021 date.
February 2022 is looking incredible with those 5 games alone but there’s a few others to throw in the mix too. PlayStation exclusive Sifu and the Life is Strange Remastered Collection are also scheduled to release in that window. If we dig a little deeper, Pokémon Legends Arceus and Rainbow Six Siege Extraction will be releasing at the tail end of January 2022.
New Game Studios
Electronic Arts is opening a new studio in Seattle. Marcus Lehto, a former Bungie employee and the co-creator of the Halo Universe has joined EA as a Game Director. Lehto is considered the “Father of the Master Chief,” and he will focus on first-person games.
Tencent’s TiMi Studio Group has established a new F1 Studio. The studio will focus on the development of AAA open-world games. The games will be available across multiple platforms in order to best reach a global audience. The studio will work with developers based out of China, United States, Canada, Singapore and more.
Square Enix has announced the creation of a London Mobile Studio that will produce high-quality and free-to-play mobile games. The studio is looking to add new internal talent while “Avatar: The Last Airbender” is in development by their Vancouver based studio Navigator Games. The company says they have great relationships with the world’s top entertainment companies and incredible Square Enix-owned IPs.
Esports Corner
🥇Congratulations to Team Spirit for winning The International 10 and securing the biggest prize pool in esports history!
Will Overwatch Players Unionize?
Félix “xQC” Lengyel, current Twitch streamer and former professional Overwatch player has publicly revealed that many professional Overwatch players considered unionizing ahead of the Overwatch Leagues inaugural season. He said that “they [Blizzard] gave us these big ass contracts [...] Every player had to sign to accept the official Overwatch League agreement”, and they were only given 24 hours to do so. Not much has changed since then on the unionization front of things but Activision Blizzard did recently announce that they’re removing the leagues competitive balance tax and soft salary cap after the U.S Department of Justice pointed out that it’s only an option for leagues that have player unions.
The Best Get a Ring, The Rest Get Nothing
Riot Games has partnered with German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz to create custom championship rings for the winners of the 2021 League of Legends World Championships. The rings “represent the highest level of achievement and prestige in esports” and will be made from 18 karat white gold and sapphire; designed to look similar to the Summoner’s Cup trophy. Riot Games and Mercedes started their partnership a year ago where Mercedes serves as a presenting partner at key international League of Legends events.
New Games, Familiar Faces
Today’s esports ecosystem includes hundreds of professional teams competing across dozens of games. Last week seemed to be a pretty big week for teams entering and leaving various games, so here’s a recap.
Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) and Misfits Gaming entered Rocket League esports
Mindfreak announced that they’re taking a break from Valorant until early 2022
Turkish Football club Besiktas announced their brand-new female Valorant team
G2 enters the female Valorant scene by signing most of the former XSET roster
Game Review - Metroid Dread
Metroid Dread is a Nintendo Switch masterpiece and definitely deserves to be a Game of the Year contender. It doesn’t matter if you’re new to the Metroid games or a seasoned veteran because you’re going to love this game regardless. The gameplay is sublime, the art-style is incredible and the audio design is next-level (no pun intended). It is the first entry to the mainline Metroid series since 2002 and follows Samus as she explores the eight regions of planet ZDR, the biggest world a Metroid game has ever seen. Metroid Dread does an exceptional job at answering age-old questions and developer MercurySteam found an ingenious way to implement the perfect mix of modern and classic controls. We’re giving Metroid Dread a major round of applause and a score of A.
Gaming Roundup
Ubisoft has reportedly approved the making of another Splinter Cell game. According to Tom Henderson, the game is in the early production phase and is being led by a studio outside of Ubisoft’s Montreal Headquarters.
PlayStation announced that God of War (2018) will be launching on PC January 14th, 2022. PlayStation will also be hosting a State of Play event on October 27th to give updates on third-party titles coming to the PS5 and PS4.
Rumour has it that Ubisoft’s upcoming live-service game Assassin’s Creed Infinity will “remake and retell” classic Assassin’s Creed stories. In addition, Ubisoft is said to be developing a stand-alone open world Assassin’s Creed game.
Sony’s PlayStation 5 has broken the Nintendo Switch's 33-month streak as the “best-selling hardware” in the USA. The data comes from market research NPD Group for September.
Sea of Thieves executive producer Joe Neate confirmed that the game has surpassed 25 million players. In celebration of this milestone, Sea of Thieves is giving away 25k gold to players who log in between October 19 and October 26.
Among Us is coming to Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation on December 14th. Crossplay allows players to play with 4-15 friends on a variety of different devices. PlayStation users will also receive a Ratchet and Clank Among Us cosmetic in the future.
There are Discord communities of cheaters and stream snipers who place “bounties” on popular streamers. The “bounty” will be earned once a stream sniper does enough to make the streamer angry.
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