Three years after it released in Steam Early Access, and one year after it launched for real, Ark: Survival Evolved's third and final DLC expansion, Extinction, arrives today on PC. It comes to PS4 and Xbox One on November 11th.

Extinction follows on from Ark's previous paid expansions, Scorched Earth and Aberration, and introduces a brand-new map, a new selection of mechanics, and new tameable critters.

For this, its final offering, developer Studio Wildcard has once again opted to go hard on the sci-fi, foregoing Ark's earlier, more natural environments for a brooding sprawl of dereliction. Extinction's map transports players to a ravaged Earth, which, for those invested in the series' lore, "holds both the secrets of the past and the keys to its salvation". Alongside its ample wasteland, Extinction includes the remains of a sprawling metropolis, waiting to be explored.

Read more…

UPDATE 7/12/18: Digital Extremes has announced that Warframe's excellent open-world Fortuna update, which unfolds across and beneath the frozen wastes of Venus, will come to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on December 10th.

There's no news yet on when we can expect the expansion to make its way to Digital Extreme's impressive, recently released Switch version, but hopefully that'll change soon.

UPDATE: 8/11/18: Four months after it was first revealed to the world by way of a musical number (which, incidentally, is the way that all things in life should be revealed), Warframe's massive Venus-based Fortuna expansion is out on PC.

Read more…

Rainbow Six Siege is poised to receive the fourth and final season update for its current Year 3 schedule and, in anticipation, Ubisoft has revealed first details on its new Morocco-themed map and two new Operators.

Siege's Year Three Season Four update, more memorably known as Operation Wind Bastion, is focussed on Morocco's Groupe d'Intervention de La Gendarmerie Royale (GIGR). Its headline features, all geographically appropriate, have been outlined in a new blog post.

"Rainbow Six has secured permission to use the renowned fortress located in the Atlas Mountains," explains Ubisoft, and it's here that Siege's new map, at least part of which unfolds within a mud brick Kasbah, is situated. "Enjoy unprecedented roof access," the publisher continues, "but do try to stay focused despite the breathtaking oasis just next door."

Read more…

Bulkhead Interactive, the Derby-based studio behind Battalion 1944 and The Turing Test, is now making a brand new game for Square Enix.

Square Enix is already working with the studio to publish Kickstarter success Battalion 1944 in early 2019, after the WW2 shooter rounds out its current Early Access period, which has lasted most of the year.

This new deal sees Square Enix also become a 20 per cent shareholder in the studio.

Read more…

UPDATE 14TH NOVEMBER: New hero Ashe is now live on all platforms - PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Along with Ashe come balance changes and bug fixes. Roadhog has had a fair bit of work with the intention of making his abilities more consistent, particularly his hook; and Reaper, Mercy and Symmetra have all been slightly buffed. Full Overwatch patch notes are on the official forum.

ORIGINAL STORY 6TH NOVEMBER: New Overwatch hero Ashe is available to try on the PC Public Test Region now. To use the PTR, load your Blizzard/Battle.net launcher and select, from the Region/Account dropdown above Overwatch's Play button, the Public Test Region.

Ashe was unveiled at BlizzCon 2018. She's the leader of the Deadlock Gang McCree used to run with before he left to join Overwatch's covert ops department Blackwatch. McCree and Ashe have history.

Read more…

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds comes out on PlayStation 4 in December - one year after it hit Xbox One as a timed console exclusive.

Video game analyst Daniel Ahmad took to ResetEra to say the battle royale game was coming to Sony's console next month, and Eurogamer understands this to be true.

PUBG's arrival on PS4 doesn't come as a huge surprise, after it was leaked by the Korean ratings board and, more recently, Sony's servers spat out PUBG images (as spotted by a user on PSNProfiles).

Read more…

It's the latest in a long line of complaints about Fallout 76's jankiness, but following a Reddit post claiming the beta can be hacked on PC, Bethesda has now admitted some of the accusations are valid and require fixes to prevent cheating.

The trouble began when Reddit user teetharejustdone posted an extensive list of potential issues with Fallout 76 on the Fallout 76 subreddit. Claims ranged from a lack of server checks to verify models and file integrity, to unencrypted client to client communication (allowing players to view other user's in-game stats and even their IP addresses). And indeed, following the recent discovery Fallout 76 can be modded on the player-side, creations have appeared on Nexus Mods which give players an unfair advantage.

In a statement to Eurogamer, Bethesda confirmed some (but not all) of these concerns are correct.

Read more…

Humble Bundle is running a week-long sale on all things Warhammer, with up to 90% off a variety of Games Workshop titles.

The steepest discount is on strategy release Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch, down to 1.89, but you can get recent Left-4-Dead-ish release Vermintide 2 for 11.49, Total War: Warhammer 2 at 33% off (a steal at 26.79) and the complete Dawn of War pack for 24.99, which is a pretty good deal considering you get 26 bits of digital content with it.

The sale also includes various less-heralded Warhammer releases like Kill Team and Sanctus reach, the latter alongside its DLC which is also discounted for both Total War: Warhammers.

Read more…

When World of Warcraft: Classic launches next summer, the only raids available will be Onyxia and Molten Core. It will be, in other words, as World of Warcraft was circa March 2005.

It's notable because although World of Warcraft: Classic is built on the foundation of patch 1.12 from August 2006, it will actually take many months for WOW Classic to reach a similar point-in-time content-wise.

There will be "waves" of content, Blizzard said in a WOW Classic panel (available to watch if you're a Virtual Ticket owner) at BlizzCon 2018. Here's how it looks currently:

Read more…

Log on to Hearthstone tomorrow and you'll be gifted half a dozen free packs from the game's most recent expansion, The Boomsday Project.

A new set of quests will also award up to 500 gold for a further five card packs.

The giveaways are in celebration of Hearthstone hitting 100 million players, a milestone announced by Blizzard last night. That's not 100 million active players, mind, although the game is clearly still very popular.

Read more…