‘Star Wars: Battlefront’ beta will be open to everyone, work offline

It seems like every time we see Star Wars Battlefront, it gets a little more exciting. Small, but epic missions. Huge multiplayer battles. Aerial combat with up to 20 players. Can this game possibly live up to its own hype? You’re going to find out. Yes, you personally — EA has announced that the Star Wars Battlefront beta is going to be open to everyone.

It’s more than just a simple multiplayer beta, though:this preview has a little bit of everything. Competitive players will be able to try out the Walker Assault and Drop Zone game modes (staged on the Hoth and Sullust maps, respectively). Players looking for a more solitary experience will have access to a Survival Mission mode, compatible with offline solo play and local and online co-op. Not bad! Unfortunately, EA still isn’t sure when you’ll be able to download the beta — just that it’ll be available to all Xbox One, PC and PlayStation 4 owners later this year.

Via: Eurogamer, EA

This web game shows that landing a Falcon 9 rocket is pretty much impossible

You thought the carrier landing stage in Top Gun was a nightmare to pull off? Then get ready to scream obscenities you didn’t know you knew at MIT Media Lab’s SpaceX Falcon 9 Lander. This 8-bit web-game combines all of the pulse pounding excitement of landing a multi-million dollar prototype spacecraft with the rage-inducing control scheme from a 1983 Yugo. The goal of the game is simple, get the rocket to set down gently on an ocean-going platform using only the WASD keys before its limited fuel supply runs out. Now try it without giving yourself a coronary.

[Image Credit: top – Space X, inline – MIT Media Lab]

Via: The Verge

Source: MIT Media Lab

Playdate: We’re getting weird with ‘Metal Gear Solid V’

I have no idea what’s going on with Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain‘s story. That has a lot to do with my only experience with the series resting squarely on playing half of Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance on Xbox and nothing else. I never had an original PlayStation (Playdate regulars know that I have a history of owning the wrong console) so I didn’t fawn over Metal Gear Solid and traipsing around the game’s Alaskan military base the way everyone else in the late ’90s did. Hell, if it weren’t for our Twitch regular Chris “lXDUKEXl” Duquette’s suggestion the other week, Sean Buckley and myself wouldn’t even be broadcasting ousted auteur Hideo Kojima’s latest for two hours today starting at 6 pm ET / 3 pm PT.

But here we are! How much wildlife can I fulton out of the Afghani desert? Will the easy-mode/cone of shame chicken hat become part of my regular garb? Tune in to see for yourself. As always you can watch our broadcast on this very post, the Engadget Gaming homepage or, if you want to chat along with us, head over to Twitch.tv/joystiq. While you’re there, hit the heart button below the streaming window to give us a follow.

http://www.twitch.tv/joystiq/embedWatch live video from Joystiq on www.twitch.tv

[We’re streaming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain on PlayStation 4 and at 720p through OBS, so rest assured that any wildlife fultoning you do will look much better on your setup at home.]

EA removes female players from ‘FIFA 16’ after NCAA eligibility concerns

EA is no stranger to issues with the NCAA, and this time FIFA 16 women’s rosters are the culprit. The gaming studio announced today that following an NCAA notice, it would remove 13 players from the game that are currently on or “likely” to be on college rosters. “We believe this decision denies these 13 athletes the opportunity to represent their countries in the game, but we have removed them from FIFA 16 to ensure there is no risk to their eligibility,” EA said in a blog post. While EA didn’t compensate those players for appearing in the game, the NCAA says that including them would still jeopardize their ability to take the pitch for their respective schools. The group of players that won’t make the game includes six players from Canada, six from Mexico and one from Spain (detailed info here). All 12 women’s national teams are now playable with EA Access Play it First Trials.

Via: VG247

Source: Electronic Arts

‘Myst’-inspired game ‘The Witness’ hits PS4 and PC in January

The Witness has been cloaked in a fair bit of mystery since Jonathan Blow started working on it in 2009, right after the rabid success of his first game, Braid. Now, we finally have some concrete information: The Witness will launch on PlayStation 4 and PC on January 26th, 2016. Blow and his team announced the release date in a new (4K, 60fps) trailer that shows off the game’s latest graphics and a bit of puzzle-based gameplay.

The Witness takes place on a gorgeous 3D island that appears to be packed with secrets and an odd mix of technology and ruins. It’s a big, dense game with 677 puzzles at last count. The Witness is visually reminiscent of The Talos Principle — a brilliant 3D, first-person puzzle game from Croteam — but Blow says that’s where the similarities end.

“I think these two games are ultimately about very different subjects, and were made for very different reasons, and you feel the differences when you play,” he told Engadget in February. “That said, it is likely that someone interested in one game may be interested in the other game.”

Blow definitely hopes plenty of people are interested in The Witness — over the past six years, he’s poured all of the money he made from Braid (millions of dollars) into his second game.

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Source:
Jonathan Blow (YouTube)

Tags: hdpostcross, JonathanBlow, pc, ps4, STEAM, TheWitness

The best part of playing ‘Metal Gear Online’ isn’t the shooting

Metal Gear Online takes The Phantom Pain, well, online. We’ve just got to go a few rounds in Bounty Hunter, one of two play-modes — the other is Cloak and Dagger and focuses on stealthier things. Controls will be familiar to anyone that’s played MGS5, but because everyone can’t be Solid Snake (ugh), in MGO there’s a range of roles and abilities from stealthier builds with non-lethal or silenced weapons, to a half-mech suit (the Walker Gear) that lets you blast the hell out of your opponents. While the mech seems like the easy choice for a whole lot of kills, but that doesn’t necessary mean it’s the funnest way to play.

Each of the roles appear roughy balanced: lightweight characters will also get stealth camouflage to improve their chances of survival. And yep, there are cardboard boxes too. Those lesser-equipped characters move with a bit more urgency too. Close-quarter combat also gets a whole lot more fun when several characters rush in to get a knock-out. However, when you go down, it’s not quite over. You can still wiggle the L-stick and hammer buttons to revive yourself — and even if your enemy attaches a pesky Fulton balloon to spirit you away from the battle completely. (Well, until the respawn.)

We got to play on two stages: one set in a half-built dam and Black Site, which will look familiar to anyone that’s battled through Ground Zeroes. Like the single-player game, weather conditions can (and will) change mid-game. We got caught in a rain squall that ruined our prime sniping spot up high. You’ll also get points for non-lethal acts. Shoot down a balloon and save an ally, or force a confession out of an enemy for a nice point bonus… before you finish the job. Naturally, if you’re still a bit green at MGS5, you’re going to find it a pretty steep learning curve, but you’re also likely to pick up a kill here and there. Helping your allies is strongly advised until you find your feet — and the entire side will benefit.

The second mode, Cloak and Dagger, involves an infiltration team and a defense team. This time, once you’re dead — or floating in the atmosphere — that’s it for you. Tense stand-offs are likely to be the standard. The infiltration team will have to pick up a data disc and get it back to an escape point. The defending team, obviously, has to stop that. (If we get a chance to play, we’ll update this article with our impressions.) The game will appear within Phantom Pain on October 6th across PS4, Xbox One, PS3 and Xbox 360, although the older generation of consoles will be limited to less players on screen. A PC version will join the fight in January 2016.

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Tags: metalgearonline, metalgearsolid, mgs, mgs5, stealth, tgs2015, video