The ambitious tactical space combat simulator Dreadnought has been quietly in beta since early 2016, but now at least on PlayStation 4, all systems are go for the official launch. The development team at Yager will of course continue to work on the game to maintain balance and provide new content, but they’re also working to deliver the first post-launch update for PS4 by January. PC should leave beta sometime early next year.

The tactical space game first opened its beta in August 2017 following a positively received closed beta. The Free-To-Play game takes a strategic bend to a class based game like Overwatch, meaning it’s not just the heavy damage dealing, titular ships that are important, but their whole support network too. It’s basically the Star Trek game we’ve always asked for.

There’s still a few bugs to squash, such as the PS4 having the tendency to crash in a few cases, but the developers have already send out a hot fix. Will you be trying your hand at piloting in Dreadnought? Let us know in the comments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ums77uAN7XE

YAGER’s Dreadnought has made an important step forward today – it’s now in open beta and free to play for all interested. You can download the open beta by heading here.

The open beta introduces a new map in the form of Ixion. Situated above Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, it places emphasis on a huge orbital ring that with narrow openings. Night versions of the maps Rings of Saturn and Red Sands have also been added.

Dreadnought is essentially a competitive multiplayer game where teams battle in capital space ships for supremacy. There are 50 ships to choose from divided into five classes and each ship has its own variety of weapons and abilities. It should be noted that even though Dreadnought is free to play, it still possesses micro-transactions to purchase cosmetics, EXP boosters and Hero Ships.

What are your thoughts on Dreadnought going into the open beta stage after years of closed beta status? Let us know in the comments below.

Along with some of the bigger names, PlayStation Experience saw a number of other announcements that should keep fans busy when they eventually release.

These include remasters of games like PaRappa The Rapper, Patapon and Locoroco; a new Danganronpa; the return of the Ys series with Ys Origin; the announcement of YAGER’s Dreadnought being exclusive to the PS4 for its console release; a mysterious new adventure title called Vane; fighting game/MMO Absolver; and Nex Machina, the latest title to come from Housemarque of Resogun fame. That’s not including a ton of other indies (like Strafe) that were seen in passing.

And for all the PlayStation Vita players, you’ll be happy to know that some of these games will be heading to the handheld in the coming year.

What are your thoughts on PlayStation Experience this year? Let us know in the comments below, along with whether it was an improvement over last year.

"We wanted to give players the option to re-create the spaceships they love, from a space-pirate-inspired Galactica to a Millennium Falcon-type vessel. However, we wanted to bring these heroes and ships together to fight in fleets, like a league of extraordinary captains."

YAGER has had a rather interesting career graph, especially considering its work on Spec Ops: The Line and Dead Island 2. What motivated the return to a flight sim of sorts with Dreadnought?

Just like you said: spaceships were never really gone here at YAGER. Mathias Wiese, one of the co-owners of YAGER and our Art Director, is probably the biggest spaceship fan out there and is constantly drawing spaceships in meetings. Mathias also worked on the initial Yager game, where a lot of the visual design and spirit for Dreadnought can be found. So after Spec Ops: The Line, this passion turned into a pitch for Dreadnought. We finally had an opportunity to create something with big spaceships in the gaming space that captured the spirit of all the amazing TV shows and movies that we love. So, for us, the question is less “why are you doing this,” but more “why haven’t you done it before?” Big spaceships are amazing.

What inspired the multiplayer focus for Dreadnought? How was the overall gameplay envisioned, especially with regards to teamplay?

We wanted to give players the option to re-create the spaceships they love, from a space-pirate-inspired Galactica to a Millennium Falcon-type vessel. However, we wanted to bring these heroes and ships together to fight in fleets, like a league of extraordinary captains. Once we outlined this as our goal, the base ships we created aligned really nicely with classes from shooters, like Team Fortress 2—the main difference being that Dreadnought can go bigger and is not limited by human scale. We think this shooter-inspired DNA creates intuitive controls and adds a lot of depth to the gameplay. If you’re up against a fleet with a Tactical Cruiser and two Dreadnoughts, it triggers a range of potential tactics in your head, depending on your ship class and team setup. However, if a Corvette suddenly swoops in, you have to adjust to that. We’re big fans of this type of unit diversity because it creates a lot of tactical depth and encourages players to hone their individual play-styles.

Positioning your ship, using your shields and knowing when to strike have been key elements of the game thus far and have given it a more naval warfare kind of feel. How difficult was it to capture that kind of atmosphere while ensuring matches still flowed smoothly?

It’s great that you’re bringing this up, thank you. Naval warfare is actually one of our DNA slides for Dreadnought—it’s great that we got this across. Balancing the intense, cinematic action with the sheer size of the ships was a real challenge. We didn’t want to create a simulation; we wanted to create pop culture in the best sense. Accessible, but deep. So far, the feedback that we have heard tells us that we did a pretty good job, which we are obviously very happy about. Dreadnought feels well-paced and deliberate, but also intense and action-heavy once the ships engage.

"The 52 ships we have in our new progression system are keeping us pretty busy at the moment, but once we go into open beta, we definitely would like to explore more options."

Dreadnought has already received a fair amount of enthusiasm from its community. What is the current status of the closed beta?

We are super happy about the support we get from the community. This game is our passion project and we want to make it great. As a result, things have taken us longer than we expected. We are grateful that our community members appreciate our efforts, but we understand that they are starting to get a bit restless. We’ve been working really hard on implementing what we like to call Progression 2.0. This is a system that will significantly increase the amount of ships, weapons and modules available to players. It will also give them clear goals and more choices to make along their journeys as mercenary captains. We are very eager to see how players will react to it and to work with their feedback as we approach open beta.

What new modes do you have planned? How will they shake up team dynamics?

We just announced a shift toward bigger teams and currently have our sights set on 8v8. There are two main reasons for putting more ships in each battle:bigger, more intense battles and more tactical choices. This match size increase will also make it easier for each team to split up into smaller tactical forces of two and three ships.

The newly announced Onslaught Mode will introduce smaller, AI-controlled ships as targets. Similar to the 8v8 change, Onslaught is designed to keep the game manageable and fun for new players, while also creating more tactical options for experienced ones.

Can you tell us about the various ship classes? Will you be adding any more in the coming months?

We have five main classes in the game: the Dreadnought, Destroyer, Corvette, Tactical Cruiser and Artillery Cruiser. They’re essentially shooter classes—the tank, assault, scout, support and sniper—taken to the extreme. However, each of these classes has multiple ships that stress different characteristics on a high level.

Each ship also has four module slots that massively alter how it can be played. For example, a Monarch (heavy Dreadnought) can be equipped with the Plasma Broadside, Autocannons, short-range Missiles and Warp Jump. This makes the ship a pretty mobile, short-range skirmisher. The same ship with the Nuclear Missiles, Armor Hardener and Vulture Missiles becomes a fortress that stays behind the frontlines to deal long-range damage and breakup formations. It’s all about enabling the player to be the mercenary captain they want to be, while also keeping everything accessible. And we haven’t even started to talk about officer briefings.

Will we be adding more? The 52 ships we have in our new progression system are keeping us pretty busy at the moment, but once we go into open beta, we definitely would like to explore more options. We are very happy with the stable gameplay setup that we have. Now we can start experimenting and making the core even stronger without damaging it. So yes, there will be more classes, even more manufacturers.

"Inspiration for Dreadnought came from popular culture and sci-fi—Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly and all those amazing universes."

What other changes can be expected for Dreadnought in the future? Will Steam integration happen any time soon?

Like we mentioned before, Onslaught is the next game mode that we want to make available to our players. We’re also working on new maps. Currently,we’re focusing on our own Grey Box platform, but we will continue to ensure that it’s easy for players to get into the game.

After reducing squad size from 5 to 3, what improvements have been seen in matchmaking? How has the response been from the community?

The reduced squad size has made it much easier for us to find balanced matches. Since we are in closed beta, we kept the player population pretty small since there’s no need to burden players while we’re still figuring things out. Again, we thank everyone for helping us get this right. Our community has taken the change to 3-player squads pretty well, but some are worried how it will affect the competitive play. However, we think there anyways that we can keep the competitive aspect of the game strong. We already announced our plans for custom matches, which will enable players to setup tournaments and clan battles much more easily.

With so much nuance to the game (and given its space sim genre), how much easier is it for new players to progress through the experience?

Inspiration for Dreadnought came from popular culture and sci-fi—Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly and all those amazing universes. One thing that makes these stories so successful is that they are easy to get into, but also have a lot of depth and complexity once you get attached to them. We tried to keep the same kind of spirit in Dreadnought. The tiered approach is designed to create a journey for the player that is always interesting, but never overwhelming—at least we hope so.

When can Dreadnought be expected to release commercially? Will you consider PS4 and Xbox One releases?

At this point, we are not giving out exact dates. We’re in our last closed beta phases at the moment, so we should be there soon. Will Dreadnought come to console? Well, we’re focusing on the PC version, but we always created Dreadnought with the controller in mind—mainly because we wanted to keep the controls simple and intuitive, and because naval warfare gameplay naturally lends itself to the controller. So, who knows?To infinity and beyond, right?

Dreadnought, a new 5v5 spaceship shooter from Yager, the guys who brought us the excellent expectation defying Spec Ops: The Line, will be entering closed beta this week. You can ensure that you get access to the closed beta by buying either of two founder’s packs.

The cheaper of these options is the Hunter pack. The Hunter Pack is priced $9.99/ £6.99 / €9.99, and it gets you 500 in-game points for use on cosmetics, an XP boost for seven days, and an exclusive ship decal, emblem, and coating. It also gets you the medium Dreadnought hero ship the Morningstar, as well as two Fleet Recruitment Packs, which is just a fancy way of saying you get to invite two of your friends to the beta too.

You can alternatively splurge $39.99/ £27.99 / €39.99 on the Mercenary Pack, which comes with comes with five hero ships, including the Morningstar, 3,000 in-game points, exclusive decals, and a 30-day XP boost. It also comes with invitations for four friends to the closed beta.

If you would rather not spend any money, you can just register for the closed beta, though you should keep in mind that doing so does not guarantee that you will get in.

The game, which is running on the powerful Unreal Engine 4, is currently set to be published by Grey Box Games. While there is no specific release window for the title, it has been slated for release at some time in early 2015, possibly in the form of a public beta, where it will be made available via digital download.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Classes

Development

At the time of writing, the amount of information available regarding Dreadnought is very limited indeed, this may change once the game has been released but thus far what we do know is that the game was first announced in June of 2014.

Following the announcement of the game, the co founder of Yager Games Mathias Wiese, who also happens to be the game’s art director, said “Dreadnought harkens back to the PC space combat game we developed when we first started out. In the years since, we’ve been developing and testing some incredible ideas that now perfectly come together in Dreadnought. Grey Box has been an amazing partner and we’re incredibly thankful they share our vision for what Dreadnought will become.”

Also speaking about the game’s origins, Tony Medrano, the Creative Director of Grey Box said “We all have that dream of sitting in the Captain’s Chair. It’s an awesome feeling to control something so huge and powerful, and that feeling is present in Dreadnought.”

Given the games predominantly online and free yo play nature which focuses on multiplayer combat, justifiable concerns were voiced. Some gamers looking forward to the game were worried that Dreadnought would, like so many other games, have a pay to win game model. Since then the developers have come out and said, “Balance, fun and fairness are extremely important to us. We plan to do something really new and unique with regards to monetization. With Spec Ops: The Line we had taken the narrative action game genre to a new level, and with Dreadnought we will do the same concerning the current free-to-play business models. We choose a games-as-a-service-model as this gives us the possibility to truly expand the universe constantly, to build something big and truly magnificent together with the community.”

Story

At the time of writing, it’s not yet known if the game will feature any plot elements.

Gameplay

Dreadnought is a multiplayer game that will give the player captaincy of a number of large spacecraft, likely referencing the games title. “Dreadnought” is a class of warship that borders on the medium to large size, most modern battleships are of the dreadnought class due to the size to power ratio.

Once again similar to their real world counterparts, the player can choose between different classes of dreadnoughts that come in different sizes and each comes with its own advantages, speed and manoeuvrability, and its own disadvantages, lacking firepower or thick armour.

A preview of the game stated that the ships feel as big and heavy as their onscreen versions, but that the pace of the game is far from slow. This helped enforce the feeling of being the ships commanded and not simply controlling a ship. The knock on effect of the ships being as large and heavy as they are results in the game being heavily dependent on strategy and the positioning of ships.

A further element of the game’s strategy comes from the allocation of power within the ship. This means that the captain can allocate more energy to the engines for increased speed, increases in energy to the weapons will make your salvoes more powerful and increases in the shields will increase your defensive capabilities. Forcing more energy to one location of the ship will leave other areas lacking, so forcing power to the shields and weapons is good for stationary bombardment but it you would be unable to manoeuvre your ship.

The elements of strategy carry over to the core multiplayer portion of the game where players will find it advantageous to work as a team and coordinate their team towards objectives accordingly. When attacking the enemy, targeting specific areas of the enemy will likely result in system damage allowing players to disable the engines, weapons or shields of the opponent. This makes targeted and coordinated fire the best way to win.
When a player dies, they can swap the ship class they were using before they respawn.

Classes

The game sports five classes at this time:

The Corvette – A large but nimble ship with light armour.

Dreadnought Class – The largest ship class in the game, the Dreadnought can employ small fighters and makes use of huge broadside cannons.

The Destroyer – A mix of Dreadnought and Corvette class ship.

Tactical Cruiser – A support ship that can heal friendlies and attack foes.

The Artillery Crusier – a long range ship with a slow firing but hugely powerful rail gun.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Note: List is in random order.

Firewatch

Developer: Campo Santo
Publisher: Campo Santo, Panic Inc.

Firewatch puts players in the role of a man named Henry, a retiree that has taken a new lonesome position. His new gig has him stationed in the Wyoming wilderness where he simply watches out for forest fires. The only means of communication with the outside world comes in the form of a radio to his companion and supervisor Delilah. Since Firewatch was Camp Santo’s first video game, little was known or expected until Pax 2014. Taking place in the 1980s, the story of Firewatch is one of exploration and mystery as it seems not just the wild animals are lurking in the lush forest.

During Pax 2014, the development team expressed that Firewatch is open-world but not as some would expect. Instead of being able to locate new places and take on different quests, the story will drive players into a more linear path. Nonetheless, Firewatch does carry over elements from Telltale Games, thanks to ex-Telltale Games creative director and designer Jake Rodkin. Expect a number of different responses to choose from when talking with Delilah. Unfortunately, it’s unknown if dialog choices will play a big part endgame.

You know who Yager are, right? They worked on the highly acclaimed Spec Ops: The Line, and are now currently working on Dead Island 2 with Deep Silver. They are also working on a brand new game, called Dreadnought, which is a sort of tactical action game, with giant fleets of enormous spaceships duking it out.

A lot of people are probably puzzled as to why Yager would choose to follow up on such a cerebrally engaging game as Spec Ops: The Line with something like Dreadnought, and the answer is at least somewhat clarified in this new video that they have revealed above, where they show us more of the gameplay of the title, but equally importantly, show us gameplay with commentary, meaning we sort of see their own insight into the game that they are making here.

It’ll be out some time next year. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage.

YAGER has revealed that it will be working with Grey Box to create Dreadnought, an “aerial armada action game” developed using Unreal Engine 4 which will release for PC. You’ll have various battleships to choose from, each with their own weapons, armour, crew, engines and abilities.

YAGER art Director and co-founder at Mathias Wiese stated that, “Dreadnought harkens back to the PC space combat game we developed when we first started out. In the years since, we’ve been developing and testing some incredible ideas that now perfectly come together in Dreadnought. Grey Box has been an amazing partner and we’re incredibly thankful they share our vision for what Dreadnought will become.”

Creative Director at Grey Box Tony Medrano stated that, “We all have that dream of sitting in the Captain’s Chair. It’s an awesome feeling to control something so huge and powerful, and that feeling is present in Dreadnought. Our goal is to nurture that feeling at all costs by working with players to fulfill the creation of their dream armada. With the game announced, that feedback starts now. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Dreadnought is set to begin public beta testing in early 2015.