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/15-best-space-exploration-games https://gamingbolt.com/15-best-space-exploration-games#respond Mon, 15 Jul 2019 08:56:22 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=407094 As a species, exploring the unknown is something we have always been obsessed with, and there’s no greater unknown than the vast expanses of space. And as is the case with so many other things, video games often help us fulfil these fantasies- some with more grounded attempts at simulations, others not so much. In this feature, we’ll be taking a look at fifteen games that, in one form or another, allowed us to do just that.

METROID PRIME

Nintendo’s seminal Metroid series has always seen us explore wondrous and unearthly alien vistas, and Metroid Prime was no exception to that rule. As the game that took the series to 3D, in fact, it presented us with more starkly realized alien landscapes than any game in the series has before. Tallon IV is a beautiful, desolate planet haunted by the remnants of the Chozo, and as you dig deeper into its secrets, you find threats hitherto undreamt of. There are many reasons to play a game as stellar as Metroid Prime, but the star of the show is the world it has you explore – few outer space games have achieved a setting as rich or as well realized as Metroid Prime did.

Pearl Abyss, better known as the developer of action MMO Black Desert Online, has acquired CCP Games. You might best know the latter for its insane MMO/spreadsheet manager EVE Online.

A press release stated, “The deal outlines that CCP Games will continue to operate independently as a developer with studios in Reykjavik, London and Shanghai while integrating the company’s extensive development and publishing expertise into Pearl Abyss’ operations for all current and future projects.”

Though CCP Games has had mixed success with off-shoots like EVE: Valkyrie, the developer’s main MMO continues to be as popular as ever. It’s been consistently receiving quality of life updates and expansions, the most recent being Into The Abyss, which launched in May 2018.

For its part, Pearl Abyss’ Black Desert Online has been a strong success for the company since launching in 2015 for Korea. It subsequently made its way to North America and Europe in 2016 for PC, and is currently in development for Xbox One.

Regarding the deal, CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson stated, “I have been seriously impressed with what Pearl Abyss has achieved ever since I first visited their website for Black Desert Online and subsequently became an avid player of the game.

“Pearl Abyss is a fast-growing company with lots to offer in terms of technology, capability and vision. I believe our two companies have a lot to learn from each other. We are very excited to join forces with them and achieve great new heights for our companies, our games and – above all – our players.”

Given the expertise that both companies have with MMOs (and despite their respective controversies), it should be interesting to see what they could achieve together. Furthermore, it remains to be seen if Black Desert Online could expand further into other territories as a result.

In a genre dominated by World of Warcraft, which is a complete and total behemoth of the arena, any MMORPG that actually manages to attract monthly subscriptions to it is laudable and incredibly resilient- it means that the MMO is offering a viable niche, or alternative, to World of Warcraft, that people are willing to pay for.

One of the games that has survived in a WoW dominated world all this time has been popular space MMO EVE Online, which still requires a monthly subscription for you to be able to play it. However, that will now be changing- this November, with the release of the new expansion, EVE Online will become free to play.

There will be caveats, naturally- free players will be able to play the game indefinitely, but they will find a lot of skills locked from them. Since skills determine what all you can do in the game, including what all ships you can fly, they will generally find themselves playing a more limited game than paying subscribers, who will continue to have full access to everything that the game has to offer.

Developer CCP are emphasizing that in spite of all of the restrictions, free players will be able to mine, explore, run missions and take part in the game’s huge fleet fights- so the bulk of the game’s baseline content will be available to them. Subscribers who stop paying will find access to higher abilities locked, and free players who start paying will find all abilities unlocked.

Given that EVE‘s world, and everything within it, is entirely based on player agency and action, making EVE a truly emergent game, it remains to be seen how a potentially larger player base, which this move will doubtless attract to the game, will change what happens in EVE. One thing is for sure, it will be an exciting time to be an EVE player in the coming months.

There really is no other MMORPG in the market like EVE Online. It’s been around forever, and in spite of the ups and downs and changes that the MMORPG segment has seen, it has continued to truck on with a core, dedicated, highly engaged fanbase that keeps paying every month to continue playing the game- the game which is simultaneously a thrilling future space sim, as well as a scary, dystopian picture of what happens when capitalism goes unchecked.

It’s been noted multiple times for the huge megabattles that often take place in it- you know, the kind of massive confrontations that actually end up making mainstream news, due to the sheer number and actual monetary damage involved. Well, the upcoming Phoebe update for the game might finally be putting a stop to them, because of the way it is changing how long distance travel will work.

Essentially, it will now take time to travel from one end of nullsec space  (where the battles happen) to another- this changes things because now, you can’t immediately respond to any slight provocation that might have gone wrong, leading to more time to actually talk things out before breaking into an all out war. You know. Like how real world politics work.

“We want to make it more viable for more smaller sub-capital and even capital engagements to happen without the threat of the entire universe showing up,” the developers noted.

“Nullsec is stagnant and needs a change. Big fights are cool, but they’re crowding out more accessible and more frequent smaller ones,” they added in a blog post.

You can check out the full range of changes the Phoebe update brings with it here.

DUST 514, the companion shooter to CCP’s massively popular EVE Online, today got the latest in a series of monthly updates. Uprising 1.7 adds innovative new weapons, an overhauled vehicles system, a new battlefield mood that should get you pumped, and major changes to Factional Warfare that should bring the shooter closer to the lore of EVE.

Of note should be the new vehicles system- the old one has been a sticking point for players, and this new one has been modeled to allow for better handling and control, along with also allowing for the possibility of customizing and retrofitting vehicles. In addition to this, there are, of course, new weapons, a new volcanic mood that changes the tone and intensity of the game to that of fiery lava, and and a plethora of changes to Factional Warfare, which include the addition of friendly fire.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more updates on the game.

CCP Games’ Dust 514, the first person shooter released exclusively to PlayStation as a companion for the massively multiplayer online game EVE Online, was met with a tepid reception amongst critics when it launched; however, CCP has been hard at work since, working on implementing fixes and improvements via massive updates.

The latest in this line of ongoing improvements for the game is the hiring of veteran game producer Jean-Charles Gaudechon executive producer of Dust 514. Gaudechon will drive future development of the persistent-world first-person shooter at CCP’s Shanghai studio.

“In addition to his extensive experience in the free-to-play space, Jean-Charles brings a tremendous sense of product vision and creativity to Dust 514,” said Sean Decker, senior vice-president of product development at CCP. “His track record of developing major online titles will serve the growth of Dust 514 very well.”

“The scope and vision of DUST 514, and its integration into the massive EVE Online Universe is unparalleled, creating the largest single-shard online multi-player game to date,” said Gaudechon. “I look forward to my journey with CCP as we push the boundaries of the game even farther, to an experience as large and meaningful as the EVE Universe itself.”

CCP’s long promised updates to the free to play shooter that ties into EVE Online, Dust 514, are now finally live. The updates, collectively titled Uprising 1.5, focus on new and expanded Corporation Roles as well as a revised New Player Experience and the all-new Squad Finder.

Among the tweaks to the core gameplay experience that Uprising 1.5 brings are included a new, revised player experience (which includes a completely redone tutorial, and rewards that are granted in the form of militia dropsuits, vehicles, weapons and modules), a Squad Finder, which will list any open squads for the player to join, and new roles for the corporations (CEOs and directors can now distribute specific roles to other members within the corporation. The roles that can be assigned are: Accountant, Personnel Director, Terrestrial Combat Officer and Terrestrial Logistics Officer).

Dust 514, the free to play firs person shooter, ties directly into CCP’s other, much bigger game, EVE Online; it aims to expand the experience. Stay tuned for more coverage.

According to Thor Gunnarsson, who spoke to Destructoid, “We already see that Dust 514, during open beta, had been driving hardware sales for Sony. We actually track that together. We so know that our fan base, Dust-curious players, are buying the PlayStation 3 to get into our game.

Of course, it’s more or less anecdotally – actual sales figures are another matter altogether.

“What we hear, anecdotally, is that PlayStation 3 sales are increasing. Sony have done a phenomenal job of managing console transitions, like they did with the PlayStation 2’s cost and size reductions. We can make the logical assumption that something similar will happen as the PlayStation 4 comes to market.”

As to how DUST 514 is doing with critics, it has scored 61 out of 100 on Metacritic for the PlayStation 3 version.

Using a variety of weapons, vehicles and other futuristic equipment, players will take on the role of mercenaries fighting for dominance in New Eden. It boasts endless customization and up to 32 players in simultaneous combat.