Don’t worry – plenty of cross-gen titles like Disco Elysium – The Final Cut, FAR: Changing Tides, Eldest Souls, Röki and The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes await on PS4 and PS5. PS4 titles include Alien: Isolation, Dead Island Definitive Edition, Outlast 2 and Elite Dangerous, all backwards compatible on PS5, further expanding the options for current-gen console players.

There’s also Gungrave G.O.R.E., perhaps one of the best bad games you’ll ever experience. For Premium subscribers, classics like Tekken 6, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny, IQ Final and Ape Escape Academy will be available. All are playable on PS4 and PS5, though you’ll need to download PS5 versions of each title. As for PlayStation Plus Essential subscribers, check out this month’s free games here.

Other noteworthy titles include The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes, Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, FAR: Changing Tides, Gungrave G.O.R.E, Elite Dangerous, Dead Island Definitive Edition and Alien: Isolation. Interestingly, bilbil-kun said rumors have circulated about The Last of Us Part 2’s addition to the catalog for Extra and Premium, but it’s reportedly not happening.

There should be more games announced, including a new slate of classic games for Premium subscribers, so stay tuned for the official announcement. In the meantime, The Callisto Protocol, Farming Simulator 22, and Weird West are free to claim as part of PlayStation Plus Essential in October.

Elite Dangerous was described as having a “difficult calendar 2021” due to the “disappointing” launch of the Odyssey expansion. As such, Frontier continues “to support the game and our passionate players with development updates, and we have seen an upturn in player sentiment as a result.” Its third-party publishing label, Frontier Foundry, also has four titles releasing in calendar 2022 including FAR: Changing Tides and Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters.

Interestingly, Frontier has plans to enter the world of Formula 1 with the “first release for our annual F1 management game franchise.” It also expects the release of Jurassic World Dominion to provide a “corresponding benefit” to Jurassic World Evolution 2.

Unfortunately, those waiting for the company’s take on Warhammer Age of Sigmar, which will be a real-time strategy game, will need to wait longer. The title has been delayed to fiscal year 2024 (which starts post-April 2023). “This change will further improve the quality and longevity of the game, and overall make it more successful.” As such, Games Workshop has already outlined several other Warhammer games coming this year (sans Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2) so that should keep fans busy.

As for Jurassic World Evolution 2, it’s currently available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch. It recently received its first expansion, the Early Cretaceous Pack, in December though sales for the same haven’t been revealed.

Microsoft has unveiled its next round of titles coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC, console and the cloud. On February 18th, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire – Ultimate Edition, which includes the base game and all of its DLC, will be available on console and the cloud. Code Vein for PC and Wreckfest for all three platforms goes live on the same day.

Arcade classic Killer Queen Black becomes available for consoles and the cloud on February 23rd. Codemasters’ DiRT 5 will follow on all three platforms on February 25th alongside massive space exploration title Elite Dangerous for consoles. Superhot: Mind Control Delete goes live on February 25th for PC subscribers.

Xbox Game Pass has added titles like Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age, The Falconeer, Project Winter and Wolfenstein: Youngblood thus far in February. It should be interesting to see if any other titles will close out the remaining few days of month. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

It’s now been almost two full years since the Epic Games Store launched. It can be hard to remember, but there was a period in time when the store was at the center of controversy after controversy in regards to exclusive game deals. The deals themselves have not stopped, but it seems the outrage has by and large, at least for now. What also didn’t stop, surprisingly, was the free games. If anything, Epic is giving out even more games now than before, and we’ve got two more this week.

This week we’ve got two very different games. First up is Elite Dangerous, a massively multiplayer game where you must take to the stars and built up your ship in an open-world narrative adventure. The second is The World Next Door. It’s an anime-styled puzzle game/visual novel that follows a rebellious teen who finds herself trapped in a hostile alternate world that she must escape from before time runs out.

Elite Dangerous and The World Next Door are available for free via Epic Games Store until November 26th. You can redeem them through here or on the store launcher. Next up in line for next week is MudRunner.

ABZU

The idea of deep sea exploration is dangerous and exciting at the same time- Abzu is a game that focuses entirely on the latter, putting players into a vast underwater environment and letting you go in whichever direction you please at any time you want. Given how rewarding exploration feels in Abzu, you always want to see more of the game’s gorgeous world, unlock more of its environments. It might not be the flashiest game in this group, but it’s one that you definitely need to play nonetheless.

GRAND THEFT AUTO 5

Let’s start off with the biggest, most popular sandbox game there is, shall we? Sure, GTA 5 has a massive campaign to go through, and finely crafted missions to experience, but the real star of the show is the open world sandbox. We’ve spent countless dozens of hours wreaking havoc all around the map, messing with the NPCs, and trying out new things just for the heck of it. You can spend hours upon hours just enjoying the open world of GTA 5 without ever even touching the main story- that’s the mark of a truly great sandbox game.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/15-best-sandbox-games-you-need-to-play/feed 0 445351 https://gamingbolt.com/elite-dangerous-odyssey-announced-out-in-2021 https://gamingbolt.com/elite-dangerous-odyssey-announced-out-in-2021#respond Sat, 13 Jun 2020 18:31:38 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=445264

Frontier Developments’ space flight simulator Elite Dangerous has been going from strength to strength since it first came out, and at the PC Gamer show, the developers revealed the next big step for their game, announcing its newest upcoming expansion, Odyssey.

And here’s the most exciting part about Odyssey- while Elite Dangerous has till now always strictly been a space flight game with players restricted to their cockpits, Odyssey will introduce on-foot traversal. That’s right, you’ll now be able to land on planets, explore them on-foot, and interact with the environments. The expansion introduces several new planets, while players will also be able to visit older planets, which have received visual upgrades.

Meanwhile, the developers have said that the expansion will still retain the mission-based structure of the base game. Check out its reveal trailer and an interview with the developers below.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey is out in 2021 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.