Quantum Break and Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment will be making multiplayer games in the coming days. Though single-player is still important, the studio is interested in challenging itself to achieve more.

A post by game director Mikael Kasurinen and creative director Sam Lake stated that, “We want to challenge ourselves to find ways to also expand these elements to include cooperative multiplayer.

“We will always strive to be the best storytellers we possibly can, and we want these stories to be shared and elevated through players’ cooperation. We believe that a multiplayer experience combined with Remedy’s unique world-building provides an exceptional environment for that.”

The developer currently has numerous “future projects” that will have multiplayer in some form and these will be developed using the Northlight engine. It’s currently hiring for a lead network programmer to help in “developing and shaping the multiplayer technology and features of Northlight.”

What are your thoughts on Remedy making multiplayer games? Let us know in the comments.

I wouldn’t be all too surprised if this is largely down to the consumer’s interest and how the demographic is changing as the motocross racer itself hasn’t done much to evolve and keep up within the last fifteen years or so, anyway. Players have changed, trends have come and gone, and for those who fail to keep up they will finish in last place. My thoughts towards this matter seemed rather evident prior to loading up the game.

MXGP 2 is in all shape and form a Milestone game. The game loads up, you’re given the choice of player name, nationality, vehicle and colour schemes, then as Milestone tradition would dictate there’s a loading screen for just about everything and every menu autosaves upon exit. This has been an issue with all of the studio’s previous titles. Loading takes far too long that which follows and the game chooses to save even when no changes have taken place.

"Players have changed, trends have come and gone, and for those who fail to keep up they will finish in last place."

So what does the game offer? It offers the Milestone formula. To those not familiar with the Milestone formula, what this essentially equates to is a breakdown of the following: An emulated racing career whereby you manage a team, race for money, and become the champion. Practice to your heart’s content in what’s known as Free Riding. Compete against time-based objectives within the game’s Time Session mode. And last but not least, Motocross of Nation: play as a real-life racer from your favourite given country and compete against those in simulated, annually events. There’s also an online-mode to take part in if that’s your thing.

All of these modes are pretty much what you would find in Milestone’s other titles, give or take a few tweaks for certain specifics of the game, and all of them deliver enough motivation and enjoyment to keep the player engaged. Motocross of Nation as it stands seems to be the only game mode that’s worth anybody’s time since it’s essentially the only differing aspect about the game when looking to other racers as a whole. Had I been initially interested in the game and my feelings towards it weren’t already decided then I could easily see myself investing a substantial amount of time into the game.

Once I began my first race one thing was immediate clear and it confirmed my initial feelings towards the game before going in: This is a game for motocross enthusiasts and ten-year old boys with water pistols and rebellious attitudes. That adrenaline rush, dirt and stones spitting from the track, rock music in your ears as you rip round corners. Hate to say it but it’s dated. It’s not appealing nor is it niche, it’s just plain, old and boring. The game lacks thrill. It’s deprived of personality and it’s presenting nothing of transition that allows it to feel modern nor accessible. I mean, the gameplay is fine. As one would expect there’s an adjustable difficulty setting for vehicle handling systems; ranking from beginner to professional. Physics play greatly into each of these handling models, since all of the bikes control as they should.

"This is a game for motocross enthusiasts and ten-year old boys with water pistols and rebellious attitudes."

The problem is, it feels exactly the same as those I’ve played in the past and I have yet to witness anything gameplay wise that makes it appealing to those outside the aforementioned demographic. Playing through MXGP 2 had me thinking primarily one thing: Motorstorm: Apocalypse, that was a good game, that needs a sequel. Differing somewhat from the racing style of MXGP 2, but one can see the similarities. There’s a bike, there’s rubble, and there’s motion blur. And frankly, that’s all the average Joe needs to see when his last deciding factor between the two games is one with a five-letter syllable, and the other being a literal translation for “Racing on judgement day”.

For the motocross enthusiasts out there, it doesn’t disappoint. The game offers up a variety of vehicles ranging from 250cc up to 450cc across 40 different manufacturers, and bordering twenty different tracks and stadiums to participate in there’s enough to keep players engaged. Following the tradition that Milestone bring to their titles, players can tweak, customize, and adjust their vehicles ranging from beginner paint choices right up to the enthusiast levels of switching out exhaust systems. This actually lends the game some weight for making the it feel your own and injecting your own sense of personality into the game which it doesn’t inherently bring. It also adds to the level of depth within the game’s vehicle handling mechanics which are in themselves simple enough to get on with, yet detailed enough to appease the hardcore fans.

Since the game also provides a selection of racers to play as all of who are mechanically based on their real-life counterparts, I’m sure the game caters well to those who know exactly what they’re doing and where each of these racer’s strengths and weaknesses lie. Unfortunately, this wasn’t apparent to me during gameplay and this probably has something to do with my personal preferences towards the game itself. There’s no doubting the differences and changes that each rider and vehicle brings to the table, but since my knowledge on such vehicles is the shortest distance of a straight-line between two points, my focus on actual gameplay was tied to the expectation of an adrenaline rush as opposed to the intricate detailing of bike mechanics.

"Playing through MXGP 2 had me thinking primarily one thing: Motorstorm: Apocalypse, that was a good game, that needs a sequel."

To be fair, the game should’ve provided me with this, yet it did not. If it wasn’t obvious enough, this seems to be my primary problem with the game as it’s such a basic and staple feature. MXGP 2 should be thriving with adrenaline, personality, culture, and a “Don’t give a damn” attitude. It delivers none. This partly extends to the game’s choice of music which I didn’t feel had given enough pump or vibe if you will, in delivering sense of immersion that you as the player is actually part of this motocross world and lifestyle.

In terms of the game’s A.I., I couldn’t overlook the unnatural stiffness of the competing riders. While I don’t expect the most absolute best of the best when it comes to animation quality and natural movements outside of leaning and turning, I didn’t feel as though as I was racing with riders that were convincing enough for me to be engaged. They’re fine for the races themselves and the competition is there to keep players on their toes, but the stiffness that the riders brought frankly didn’t do it for me.

"MXGP 2 should be thriving with adrenaline, personality, culture, and a “Don’t give a damn” attitude."

So where does the game stand visually and how does it perform? Well, it’ll do. Expressing this through a filtered perspective of taking the game for what it intends to be and who it’s appealing to, the “next-gen” visuals that other racing titles have brought are pretty much baron here, and truth be told I don’t think its audience will even care. Could it run on an Xbox 360? Easily. Is it available on the Xbox 360? No. And it’s sad to say, but given my thoughts towards the game appealing to ten year old boys which I’m pretty sure that a fair majority of them are still on last-generation consoles, it seems quite strange as to why it’s not available there.

But this is the PlayStation 4 version however, and given that it’s not impressive yet at the same time looks just fine, that’s all that can really be said about it. More crowds? sure. More dust physics? Go ahead. In terms of the graphical obsession we’ve all come to know and love in how many blades of grass can be rendered on the screen, I guess it could be improved. My concern however is frame-rate. Long story short, it’s a racer and it’s not sixty. Nor is it even stable. It’s not game-breaking and the die-hards won’t care, but if this is a concern for those who considered it, now you know.

"The graphical obsession we’ve all come to know and love of how many blades of grass can be rendered on the screen, I guess it could be improved. My concern however is frame-rate."

A great deal of what’s been said about the game may have one thinking I would’ve much preferred it to have been aborted mid-way through development. Not at all. The game is enjoyable, it provides enough replay value within its game modes to keep people entertained, and it plays remarkably well if you take it for what it is. What it doesn’t do unfortunately is deliver enough excitement or motivation for playing it if you’re not familiar with the genre, but are curious in getting your feet wet. Fans will play it and play it, over and over again. But truth be told, there’s no competing game on the market whereby players have a deciding factor to begin with.

Am I going to play this again? This genre thrived during the PlayStation 2 era and hung in there just long enough to entice the release of MX vs ATV: Alive and MX vs ATV: Reflex. Guess we should be thankful that we saw the release of MUD not to mention Fuel for the Xbox 360. So, no. The game is good and fans will take to it but the genre in itself needs some kind of drastic improvement or overhaul if it wishes to remain relevant.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

If you were one of those disappointed that Avalanche Studios’ Just Cause 3 wouldn’t have a multiplayer mode, especially after the excellent fan-made mod for Just Cause 2, then take heart. According to game director Roland Lesterlin in conversation with GameSpot, the idea had been discussed quite a bit but the decision was made to focus on the main player.

“We did talk about it a lot. The modding community even created a multiplayer mod for Just Cause 2 that was super fun, really cool. The same way that Just Cause 2 was known as a beautiful sandbox in a giant open world, and it surprised many people that consoles could even do that, we wanted to have that same experience… with updated physics and player mechanics, and concentrate first and foremost in the main player.”

That being side, Avalanche isn’t saying no to multiplayer for the future. Right now, it’s currently interested in the social aspect of players pulling off awesome feats and showing it to their friends.

“What we found was that a lot of players loved sharing videos of what they did. So we wanted to work on the asynchronous side of things. The challenges, ghost mode within leaderboards, being able to challenge your friends to beat feats you did in the world. Having these great PS4 Share feature and the Xbox upload feature, and Steam now has a spectator mode too. Having all these things in there feels perfect for a Just Cause game. It doesn’t mean we wouldn’t think about what to do with multiplayer in the future, but for this first time around we wanted to pour all our love and energy into a great single-player sandbox to start with.”

Just Cause 3 is out on December 1st for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

It’s within the game’s formula of being a twin-stick shooter where it sets itself apart from latter, as well as other games of such a commonly used narrative. While the intentions here are mediocre at best, the story is passable since the player’s attention should be entirely focused on its gameplay. Where the game chooses to utilize cut-scenes for specific moments within the game, they are kept to a brief minimum, hoping to place the player back into the action as soon as possible. Given the game’s lack of concentration to its characters and story, this is something I can appreciate.

" While the intentions here are mediocre at best, the story is passable since the player’s attention should be entirely focused on its gameplay."

Right from the beginning of the game there’s a selection of four characters to choose from, and as the player makes their way throughout the game additional characters will be available, each providing new ways of play thanks to their class-based skills. Where Cactus for example comes armed with an assault rifle and a flamethrower, others such as Lemon, Coral, and Holly come equipped with lasers, shotguns, missile launchers and so on. One thing in particular that I found to be enjoyable within these selection of weapons lies within its supercharge mechanic.

Also known as Mega Weapons, it’s function is an obvious one: Destroy your foe, your weapons gets buffed, unleash chaos. Simple yet effective. Had the game not made use of this, I feel it’s safe to say that things would have become rather stale. It has to be said that although my connection to these characters felt limited at best, they should carry enough personality to keep players amused and engaged throughout their experience with the game. Something along the lines of a children’s television show produced by the likes of Cartoon Network is where these characters hold reminiscence.

With that being said, it carries a slight familiar charm to that of Platinum Games’ The Wonderful 101, along with similar gameplay mechanics of Sierra Entertainment’s Geometry Wars 3. Where the former gets away with enough diverse gameplay and exciting action sequences, and the latter to that of a competitive nature with a killer aesthetic design, this game doesn’t quite manage to reach such varied levels of entertainment. Gameplay takes an approach that’s geared towards those who enjoy competition and difficulty. Providing the player with what is essentially two distinct health bars, the first corresponds to the character’s battery pack, which in turn represents the character’s life.

"With that being said, it carries a slight familiar charm to that of Platinum Games’ The Wonderful 101, along with similar gameplay mechanics of Sierra Entertainment’s Geometry Wars 3."

As this battery pack continuously depletes over the duration of gameplay time, the player must remain on top of their game and replenish its sources by defeating enemies. The second being provided to the player is one that I consider to be rather pointless to say the least. Representing the character’s health status, this is where enemies inflict their damage. Should the player be deprived of their health, they can simply mash away at the buttons and respawn to full regeneration, so long as their battery pack contains enough charge. As the game’s progression system works via a series of hubs, each with their own set of levels to take part in, each of these levels contain stages which play-out as a series of horde modes.

Clearing out each of these levels grants access to each of the game’s many boss battles, who then grant further access to the next hub world. As mentioned previously, the game plays out as a top-down twin-stick shooter, and while it’s satisfying to play with a mouse and keyboard, the nature of the game recommends you play with a controller from the comfort of your sofa. It’s not by any means mandatory, but as indicated by the local-cooperative choice of one to four players, the developer’s intentions seem rather clear.

"Should the player be deprived of their health, they can simply mash away at the buttons and respawn to full regeneration, so long as their battery pack contains enough charge."

Although the game’s combat mechanics are solid and provide a fair amount of diversity given the core mechanics of the game being a twin-stick shooter, one thing in particular I wasn’t to keen on was the game’s visual restriction in level design. While the game is by no means bland, it would do well in mixing up its level design in the way how things are played. It’s worth keeping in mind that the core mechanic of gameplay functions as a horde-based, twin-stick shooter, but the inclusion of an on-rails, bullet-hell sequence would’ve been a welcomed addition.

Similarity is too much of a common theme, as the similarities that exist within each level becomes one that’s expected upon entering the upcoming stage. Given the environment of the game is bound to that of a spaceship it would have been nice to see alternative stages, as opposed to just elevators, boarding platforms, and hallways. The game’s aesthetic design is best described as cartoonish science-fiction dipped in a shiny metallic rainbow.

Where the game manages to make use of these limiting environments is done so in a technique that’s actually quite clever. As the player battles against hordes of enemy robots which thankfully are quite varied, the battle stage constantly rotates, shifts, and transforms adding a new sense of space without actually transitioning to a new area. This visual overhaul is appreciated as it attempts to disrupt and diversify the player’s traversal, therefore providing challenge which the player must adapt to. It’s here where the similarities to Geometry Wars 3 prove strong, something of an explosive dance floor that thankfully puts a restriction on the use of dubstep.

"The game’s aesthetic design is best described as cartoonish science-fiction dipped in a shiny metallic rainbow."

Think Geometry Wars with bobble heads. With that being said, the game’s soundtrack is pleasing to listen to. Audio design is of an arcade nature, keeping in line with the tone of the game, which can also be listened to from the game’s main menu. Outside of the game’s campaign mode which in itself does provide enough satisfactory replay value, there’s also a community-based skill mode by the name of Daily Drive, and a challenge-based horde mode known as Infinity Drive, both of which are designed to push players to their limits, applying the pressure and stretching their endurance.

Should the game receive downloadable content within the near future, more of the same would be very much appreciated. Assault Android Cactus is a fun and challenging game, striking the right balance between difficulty and enjoyment. Solid in its gameplay and pleasing on the eyes, it’s great to play solo but it’s clearly at its best when played with additional players. This is where the game hits its high-points and will undoubtedly hold relevance in the time which follows its release.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

If you pre-ordered Halo: The Master Chief Collection, then you’ll be happy to know that the multiplayer beta for Halo 5: Guardians will be going live later today at 9 AM PST/12 PM EST. Of course, this will vary depending on which region you’re located in.

However, those who want to be able to get in right now will have a chance. According to Reddit users, if you watch all the episodes of Halo: Nightfall on the Halo Channel, you’ll receive Nightfall armour as a reward. Selecting this will then allow you to download the beta for Halo 5: Guardians.

Halo 5: Guardians’ mulitplayer changes quite a bit while still maintaining the same Halo feel. Players can now aim down sights with certain weapons, the graphics have been significantly overhauled and you can take advantage of new abilities like dashing, sprinting and ground pounds. Are you looking forward to the multiplayer beta? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Gameplay footage for the multiplayer in Halo 5: Guardians is now live but fans will only have a chance to experience it for themselves when the beta begins in December. Despite several rumours indicating the date to have been moved up to December 9th, Microsoft has stated (via GameSpot) that it will still be held on December 29th.

“As previously announced, the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta will officially begin on Dec. 29, 2014 and run through Jan. 18, 2015. Any dates claiming otherwise are inaccurate.”

Halo 5: Guardians’ multiplayer will introduce some fundamental changes to the formula. You can now aim down sights for the Battle Rifle, activate thrusters for quick dodging and even ground pound. It will certainly be interesting to see some of the reactions to the same, especially with the new sprint mechanics.

In the meantime, 343 Industries is working on fixing various matchmaking issues with Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Are you looking forward to Halo 5: Guardians’ multiplayer beta? Let us know below.

Are you looking for a wide open world to quest in full of several characters from multiple races? Inquisition has you covered with a large selection of companions each with their own motivations and whom you can interact in more different ways than before. Let’s not even get into the 200 hour campaign that Bioware is hyping for the game. Everything seems fairly hunky dory for fans of hack and slash games, RPGs and open world adventures alike.

And then Bioware announced the multiplayer mode.

"The theory sounds nice in practice. Heck, Bioware even went as far to say that it would resemble Mass Effect 3's co-op multiplayer mode."

Dragon Age: Inquisition’s multiplayer mode allows you to choose from 9 characters – three mages, three warriors and three assassins, each with their own unique skills and weapons. You’ll be teaming up with up to three people and fulfilling several different objectives. Essentially, one needs to traverse an environment until they reach an area objective.

Once this objective is complete they advance to the next area. Combat is real time and the approaches are more loot-based, embodying Diablo 3’s hack and slash nature to keep players constantly questing. There will be lots of customization on offer for characters and considering the depth of the weapons and crafting in Inquisition, that’s nothing but good news.

The theory sounds nice in practice. Heck, Bioware even went as far to say that it would resemble Mass Effect 3’s co-op multiplayer mode. This time around, you’d have actual objectives rather than fighting in a survival mode with a random objective appearing every three waves.

The problem? Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer had some serious issues.

Mass Effect 3 was perhaps the first “real” online multiplayer title I’ve ever taken part in. The range of characters was amazing and there was a certain thrill to shooting up enemies with your friends. There were separate difficulty tiers to conquer and only the truly hardcore player would try to solo Platinum difficulty alone.

"If you were really unlucky, you'd see a person hosting the match to be disconnected in the middle of a wave. What did this do? Oh, it only reset the current wave to the beginning."

Here’s where the first issue arises: Bioware’s match-making. In Mass Effect 3, regardless of difficulty, levels were meant for four players. This didn’t automatically adjust for solo players, so if Bronze tier was too much for you, then you’d be slaughtered in Silver. Even the more experienced players had issues trying to complete the Gold tier alone.

But the point is to pair up with players, right? As Bioware stated, the game lets you play with a party of less than four people and will constantly look for players to add. However, what happens when your team-mates go down? When you’re paired up with team-mates who go down in the midst of battle on the toughest difficulty that was already difficult to begin with, it can be a real headache.

That’s not even counting the sheer impracticality of trying to even find a match in Mass Effect 3. You had to enter multiplayer, then find a match, select your tier and desired level, then wait for the lobby to show up. If you were lucky, the person hosting the game didn’t disconnect and throw you into another loading screen.

If you were really unlucky, you’d see a person hosting the match to be disconnected in the middle of a wave. What did this do? Oh, it only reset the current wave to the beginning. So if you faced a staggeringly difficult objective that had to be completed with four players and one suddenly bolts near the end, forcing you to start from scratch? That too in an environment that doesn’t automatically scale the enemy numbers to match the players?

"Lessons have hopefully been learned but the same issue of difficulty not scaling is enough to make on worry."

I’m not even going to get into the sheer number of bugs, lag, glitches and issues that popped up in multiplayer. Hit detection would go for a toss at times. Some enemies would be stacked on top of each and somehow became thrice as difficult to kill. You would find yourself lagging out at points despite the relatively small size of most maps. The list goes on and no, Bioware didn’t fix all these issues before abandoning support for Mass Effect 3.

This isn’t to say that all of these issues will crop up in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Mass Effect 3 was the first time it attempted a co-operative multiplayer game on such a scale. Lessons have hopefully been learned but the same issue of difficulty not scaling is enough to make one worry. We’ll see how it pans out when Inquisition launches this November. If all else fails, there’s a compelling single-player campaign at least.

Bioware’s Dragon Age: Inquisition will have an expansive single-player campaign but interestingly, it will also have multiplayer. And not just any multiplayer – it will be a separate co-op mode similar to Mass Effect 3 in which four players team up to battle across a single 20 to 30 minute session.

It won’t quite be Horde mode like Mass Effect 3 but there will be five checkpoints with different conditions for winning. Gameplay will be in real time and you’ll be able to customize your character to suit different roles. There will be three environments – the Elven Ruins, Tevinter and Orlesian Palace – to compete in, and they will have randomly generated objectives.

Nine heroes will be available at launch with three mages, three rogues, and three warriors to choose from. You’ll be able to earn different currency to pick up various item packs, which are random just like in Mass Effect 3 (so you won’t always get what you want). And yes, you can just real world money to buy currency.

There will be more DLC in the coming months for multiplayer which will add new characters and levels. Dragon Age: Inquisition will be out this November for PC, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PS3 so we’ll see how the multiplayer plays out.

(Source)

The Last of Us: Remastered (along with the PS3 edition) will receive two free multiplayer maps for the Factions Mode according to Naughty Dog. This was revealed by community strategist Arne Meyer who provided updates on the overall match-making and multiplayer experience of the game.

“We’ve been working hard to alleviate the long waits in Factions matchmaking some of our multiplayer community have been experiencing. We are working on resolving this issue for those in our community who are still affected. We know this can be frustrating and the team here at Naughty Dog wants everyone in our community to know that working on this issue continues to be our number one priority.

“Over the last two weeks, we’ve discovered that the most significant improvements may come from working with other teams at PlayStation to make updates to some of the existing matchmaking libraries. Since we are working with multiple groups inside and outside of the studio, we don’t yet have an exact date on when these updates will roll out. Our current estimate is on the short side of weeks, rather than months. We’ll be sure to keep you updated the moment we can provide more specific timing, or an actual date.”

These new maps have been provided as a means to thank the community for the presence. Meyer noted that “if you find yourself waiting to get into a match, the best thing you can do is exit matchmaking and select ‘Find Match’ again.” Have you still been experiencing issues with the match-making in either edition? Let us know in the comments.

343 Industries has released an hour-long video for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, showcasing two of the six new remastered maps that will be playable in Halo 2: Anniversary. These are Sanctuary and Ascension, so if you’ve ever wondered how these maps pan out on in Team Slayer Mode, check them out above.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection will include the four main games in the saga, namely Halo: CE Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3 and Halo 4. While the latter two will essentially be HD versions of the original games, Halo 2: Anniversary will feature reworked visuals and multiplayer much like Halo: CE Anniversary. There will be tons of multiplayer content available since all maps and modes from all games will be available. If that weren’t enough, the Master Chief Collection will also offer beta access to Halo 5: Guardians’ multiplayer when it goes live in December end.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection launches for Xbox One on November 11th in North America and November 14th in Europe.