The unnamed title is in early development with Houser serving as the writer and creative director. Lazlow and Michael Unsworth, who have also worked with him in the past on Grand Theft Auto, are also part of the creative team. It’s also worth noting that while Smilegate made a strategic investment in the company last year, it’s planning “full-scale investment” and funding development on the new title.

In a press release, Smilegate CEO Sung Joon-ho said, “We are thrilled to take on this new challenge in the global AAA game market alongside Dan Houser and Absurd. We are confident that the strong storytelling of the A Better Paradise universe, combined with the development capabilities of the Absurd team, will result in an outstanding title.

“We are a company with a developer-first DNA and truly understand what development studios need. Through our partnership with Absurd, we will fully support the A Better Paradise game project and do our utmost to help create a new title that will be loved by players around the world. Smilegate will leverage its extensive experience and success in global markets to ensure the A Better Paradise project becomes a beloved success worldwide.”

Houser added, “Absurd Ventures was set up to tell new and different kinds of stories, and to create what I hope are interesting and compelling original experiences. This new game is an opportunity to go somewhere entirely different and to take players on an entirely new adventure. I am excited to be going on this journey with the amazing team that we are building here at Absurd Ventures, and I am grateful that we are partnering with Smilegate, who really understand and support our vision.”

The results may take a while to manifest, but it should be interesting to observe, especially in the wake of MindsEye’s failure. Helmed by former Rockstar North president and GTA producer Leslie Benzies, it launched to negative reviews from critics and players. There have been updates to address the many issues, but the promised Hitman collaboration is delayed, and Build A Rocket Boy’s employees are allegedly at risk of layoffs.

The campaign offers four Acts with 15 missions in total. Classic Versus maps are also available, allowing players to fight against each or AI-controlled enemies in 3v3, 1v1 and 2v2 maps. Payload is an objective-based mode where one must escort three payloads to the enemy’s base. It has eight maps and also supports competitive and co-op play.

There are also two Operations – Thunderstrike and Northside – which see three players taking on hordes of AI enemies. Other modes include Brawl, a PvP mode which offers more MOBA-style gameplay, and Battlelines, where unit placement is key. Players can also create maps with the Level Editor, which supports Steam Workshop Integration.

Act 4 of the Campaign is coming along with a new co-op mode, Operation Northside; a new Skirmish map, Labyrinth; and a new Payload map, Tongren Facility. Each faction will receive four new units while three commanders – Warden (Global Risk), Cipher (New Horizon) and Stalker (Black List) are also coming.

The full release will have 66 units, nine commanders, and 12 maps across various modes in PvP and PvE.  Two Arcade modes, Brawl and Battle Lines, will also be available while the campaign provides 15 missions. If that weren’t enough, a map maker with Steam Workshop support is also being added. Stay tuned for more details in the coming week.

The new faction commanders are Eclipse of Global Risk, Freefall of Black List and Viper of New Horizon. Each has their own unique skills that can accentuate different play-styles. With the early access launch, there will be several modes available like Act 1 of the Campaign, co-op, AI Skirmishes, and multiplayer modes like Payload and Versus across two maps.

The remaining Acts will be coming throughout the early access development period along with a Replay system, Level Editor and community challenges. Crossfire: Legion is currently planned to release by Q4 2022 on PC so stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Two out of three factions will be playable – Black List and Global Risk – with each having their own units. They also have unique Commanders which possess unique abilities that can help turn the tide. Otherwise, the standard formula should be familiar to RTS fans – build your base, acquire various resources, strengthen your forces and then take down the enemy, presumably before they can do the same.

According to its Steam page, the current plan is to release Crossfire: Legion in full by Q4 2022. Multiplayer includes 3v3 and 1v1 modes on two maps. More units, Commanders and modes are planned during the early access period and even after launch so stay tuned for more details.

The post, which has been shared on the official Lost Ark website, provides a very clear round-up on what is in the works for the game, detailing certain key changes. The majority of the post focuses on the game’s progression and future updates, where they detail that even though players have been pacing through the tier 1 and 2 content, this has had an unfortunate side effect. The March update, which saw the release of the Abyss Raid Argos, required an item level that only those with a lot of spare time, energy, and money could reach, affecting the health of the game and leading to the scarcity of tier 3 honing materials.

Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG note that they have been actively monitoring and gathering data on play patterns in the western version, and that in the future, they will inform their players about future content roadmaps in a better way.

Additionally, they also admitted that even though the community wants new cosmetics skins and advanced classes very enthusiastically, bringing that stuff in is a tad bit tricky. However, they have been releasing them at a quicker pace compared to Korea, and are keeping an eye on feedback. For new classes, the team assured that they will be added at a faster pace, with new options coming soon.

Furthermore, to fix the shortages of tier three materials in the game, which is made worse by bots inflating the prices and increasing barriers to the endgame content, the team is adding additional sources of materials through pre-existing sources, new events, and a new event guardian raid, which is meant to be a more relaxed experience.

Finally, as a thank you to all the players who have stuck with the game since its launch, the developers are dropping in some free items for players who log in during the week of March 21, in the form of a care package that will include the following

LOST ARK, MARCH 21 CARE PACKAGE GOODIES

• New Animal Skin Selection Chest
• Mokokon Pet Selection Chest
• Moko-board Mount Selection Chest
• Lost Ark United Structure
• Appearance Change Ticket
• Pheons x132
• Menelik’s Tome x5
• Legendary Card Pack Selection Chest x2
• Jukebox songs will be provided when Jukebox content is released in the future.

It is refreshing to see a developer admitting to their game’s shortcomings post-launch, and committing to addressing those issues and being transparent about it. Of course, they now have to put their money where their mouth is, so here’s hoping we see that soon.

Of that total, more than 10 million are from North America, Europe, South America and Australia. Over 4.7 million new players were reported in the first three days, which certainly explains the initially intense server load. How things are now would depend on your server region of choice.

As for what’s coming next, the developer revealed on Twitter that it was making adjustments to its upcoming roadmap based on progression data from players. It apologized for the delay and said it would share the updated roadmap after the March update. So stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

Please be aware we are currently making adjustments to our upcoming content roadmap based on player progression data. We will be sharing an updated roadmap following our March update.

We apologize for the delay and appreciate your patience.

— Lost Ark (@playlostark) March 7, 2022

Set in Arkesia, Lost Ark starts out with the fantasy realm enjoying several hundreds of years of peace after a war against Kazeros’ forces of Chaos. However, the latter hasn’t been vanquished and is currently imprisoned inside of a volcano which is set to erupt. The player thus embarks on their journey to stop Chaos from overtaking the world.

Though it’s an MMO through and through with raids and player housing, Lost Ark features top-down hack and slash combat reminiscent of Diablo. It’s currently available only for PC with Amazon Game Studios handling the worldwide release. Time will tell if it becomes even more popular so stay tuned.

Below, you can check out previews uploaded by Easy Allies, COGConnected, and IGN, each of which shows plenty of new footage from across two missions in the campaign. Plenty of combat is shown, as is an interesting time slowdown mechanic, which allows players to take stock of enemies and surroundings, with things speeding back up as soon as you begin shooting again. Interestingly, where the Easy Allies and COGConnected previews are quite positive on the game so far, IGN’s impressions are much more lukewarm. Check out the full previews below.

CrossfireX releases on February 10, 2022 for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One.

The massively popular multiplayer title Crossfire has been due for an Xbox One version for a while. Called CrossfireX, the game is currently in the works, and while there has been no word on its exact release date, a listing of the game that prematurely went up on the Microsoft store may have given us a clearer idea of when to expect it.

To be more precise, the page mentions that a beta of the free-to-play multiplayer title will be releasing for Xbox One on June 25, just a few days from now. The beta’s page mentions support for 4K and HDR, and a file size of 5.88 GB. Meanwhile, a blurb accompanying the page also gives you an idea of the central premise that will serve as the foundation of the multiplayer mode.

It reads: “CrossfireX delivers an intense first-person shooter experience where players are immersed in a sprawling global conflict between the world’s two most formidable private military factions: Global Risk employs veterans of powerful armed forces who use advanced technologies to fight for order and security; Black List employs hardened mercenaries trained in guerilla tactics who fight to destabilize oppressive regimes in the name of freedom. Choose your side and complete objective-based missions across a variety of classic and innovative modes featuring tightly crafted gameplay and cinematic visuals.”

There’s been no official word on this so far, but given that the release date of the beta is apparently quite close, we expect an announcement to arrive imminently (if this is indeed accurate). Meanwhile, some new screenshots of the game have also been uploaded on its listing, which you can view below.

When CrossfireX launches for the Xbox One, it will also have a single playr campaign developed by Remedy Entertainment.