Frontier’s first Formula 1 management sim is will release this calendar year, the Elite Dangerous and Planet Zoo developer has confirmed. Giving an update for the first half of the financial year, Frontier revealed that they have high hopes for this new annual franchise for the management game experts. “We are very well positioned for the future,” they write. “This calendar year will see us enter the incredible world of Formula 1 – a truly global sport – with the first release for our annual F1 management game franchise.” Little is known about the F1 game at this time, but Frontier first announced that they were working on this project in March 2020. We have to expect that they will reveal the title in the coming months as interest in the sport builds in the run up to the start of the 2022 season in March and the massively different regulations that will transform what the cars look like and how they perform. However, the game will launch in the next financial year which, for Frontier, starts in June 2022. In some ways they will be going toe-to-toe with the next F1 game from Codemasters, which typically releases around the British Grand Prix in July. The last few years has seen Codemasters beef up their career mode  to include more and more team-management elements, though we obviously expect that Frontier can put a lot more detail and nuance into a dedicated management sim. See our F1 2021 review here. The financial update was not all positive. Jurassic World Evolution 2 is at ‘nearly’ 1 million units sold since November, with the game’s prospects dented somewhat by not being able to release around the same time as the postponed Jurassic World Dominion film release – they’re hoping for a bump in interest when that does release later this year. Similarly, while revenues rose by 33%, the company was working with lower margins and posted an operating loss as they have expanded significantly over the past few years. Two games are expected to release in the next six months – FAR: Changing Tides and Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters – both from the Frontier Foundry publishing arm, but revenue guidance has been reduced for the remainder of this year and the next, leading to a 255 drop in share prices. Furthermore, their Warhammer: Age of Sigmar real-time strategy game that was planned for release in 2023 has now slipped to the first half of 2024. Source: Frontier

Amplitude Studios has revealed the first DLC expansion for their historical 4X grand strategy game Humankind. When it releases on 20th January, Culture of Africa will grow the game with six new cultures taken from the different eras of African history. African cultures were obviously included within the base game’s selection of 60 – you had Ghanaians, Nubians, Zulu and others showing up to represent – but there’s so much rich history in the African continent which was, after all, where Homo Sapiens emerged from. It’s fitting that Africa gets to provide inspiration for the first DLC pack. Six new cultures will be added, with one for each era in the game, while there will also be new natural and built wonders, independent people and 15 new narrative events. The six new cultures are: Era 1 – Bantu (Expansionist) The Bantu expansion is a postulated series of major migrations of an original Ntu-speaking group from Central- West-Africa across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Pick this culture if you want to grab a lot of land fast and early! Era 2 – Garamantes (Agrarian) The Garamantes emerged as a major regional power in the mid-second century AD. Their growth and expansion rested on a complex and extensive qanat irrigation system (known as foggaras in Berber), which supported a strong agricultural economy and large population. Pick this culture if you want to get food from arid Territories! Era 3 – Swahili (Merchant) The rise of the Swahili coast city-states can be largely attributed to the region’s extensive participation in a trade network that spanned the Indian Ocean. Pick this culture if you have lots of coasts and want to take advantage of them! Era 4 – Maasai (Agrarian) A fierce pastoralist people with a Nilotic (rather than Bantu or Swahili) language. For the Maasai, achieving warrior status meant single-handedly killing a lion with a spear. Pick this culture if you want to optimize your growth rate! Era 5 – Ethiopians (Militarist) During the Scramble for Africa, Ethiopia and Liberia were the only two nations that preserved their sovereignty from long-term colonization by a European colonial power. By weaving the natural cliffs and ledges into the creation of their fortresses, Ethiopia was able to fend off most colonial forces. Pick this culture if you’d like to quickly catch up on military and science! Era 6 – Nigerians (Agrarian) Nigeria unites a wide variety of cultures under the rule of one state. The variety of its terrain and the abundance of its hydraulic resources offer it significant agricultural possibilities and make it one of West Africa’s foremost producers. Pick this culture to increase your oil deposits and agricultural workforce! The five new wonders include: Mount Kilimanjaro, Victoria Falls, Zuma Rock, Lake Natron and Great Mosque of Djenné. The expansion is now available for pre-order, with purchases through 20th January coming with a 10% discount. We loved the base game of Humankind, giving us an alternative to Civilization for an all-encompassing 4X grand strategy game. In our Humankind review, Jason said: “HUMANKIND is as deep as you could possibly want from a 4X strategy game, but the constant addition of new things to think about never feels overwhelming because everything’s explained so well, and often with a good bit of humour too. It’s an excellent game, and if you’ve never delved into the 4X genre before, this might be your best chance to do so.” Source: press release

Rogue Company update 1.88 is now available to download, introducing a new playable hero. You’ll need to install this latest free patch in order to get online and play. Glimpse will be joining the existing roster, opting for more of a stealthy approach compared to her comrades. You can find more details on this new Rogue further down. Rogue Company update 1.88 has a lot more in store for fans of this team-based tactical shooter, giving us a taste of what’s to come in 2022. Developer First Watch Games has promised that new content and events will deploy throughout the year. However, the studio is also dedicated to refining the core game, kickstarting its “Project Saint” initiative, focused on quality of life improvements. If you haven’t played Rogue Company since launch then now’s a great time to dive back into the action. After trialling Battle Zone for a limited time at the end of 2021, this battle royale mode has become a more permanent addition, adding even more ways to play this great third person shooter. As for Glimpse, here’s an overview of what she brings to the game: As a child, Glimpse was forced into a secret genetic modification program. She eventually escaped the facility that held her captive with the help of stolen cloaking technology. Scarred by her childhood trauma, she vowed to stop those responsible for creating her and has been hunting ever since. Weapons: Assault Rifles (ARs) and SMGs Starting Weapons: Nightshade AR and Knight SMG Secondary: P12K Pistol Melee: Kukri Gadget (New): Pop Smoke Grenade – New variant of smoke grenade. When thrown, the Pop Smoke Grenade will erupt in smoke immediately upon making contact with a surface. Ideal for placing smokescreens quickly and/or in places you normally couldn’t; Semtex Grenades. Abilities: Camouflage – Activate your suit’s camouflage and become much harder to see, for as long as your energy supply lasts. Moving faster and/or taking damage makes you easier to see. Glimpse’s Camouflage has 3 levels of invisibility based on how fast she moves. Passive: Sleight Your genetically engineered senses are dramatically heightened, allowing you to periodically detect enemies around you. Perks: Nimble Hands Hunter Padded Steps Stalker Life Drain Tracker Rounds When we first played Rogue Company at launch back in 2020, we were left pretty impressed. A third person hero shooter with a tactical edge, it has received numerous updates and expansion since launch, introducing a slew of maps, characters, and modes. Better yet, it’s still completely free-to-play. Rogue Company is available to download and play on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch. And yes, there’s crossplay! Source: Press Release

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, more commonly known as PUBG, is now free-to-play across PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC. It’s a major relaunch for the game which has been a premium title ever since it debuted in Steam Early Access back in 2017. New PUBG players will start off with a free Basic account that grants access to most in-game content. This allows the main game to be playable by anyone, but players will be lured to upgrade to Battlegrounds Plus to unlock a number of perks and in-game cosmetics as well as access to Ranked play. Priced at £9.99 / $12.99, the Battlegrounds Plus update includes: Survival Mastery XP +100% boost Career – Medal tab Ranked Mode Creating Custom Matches BATTLEGROUNDS Plus includes the following items: Captain’s Camo Hat Captain’s Camo Mask Captain’s Camo Gloves Bonus 1300 G-COIN Anyone that previously purchased PUBG before the free-to-play transition will automatically be upgraded to Battlegrounds Plus as well as receive the PUBG Special Commemorative Pack DLC to show that they were there in the first five years of the game’s life. To celebrate, as the developers surely hope to see a huge influx of new players, they will be hosting several Special Drops events. These will task you with completing in-game missions, inviting friends and watching streams in order to earn rewards and are taking place today. We’ve got some handy link for you to download PUBG for free on the three main platforms: Download PUBG for PC via Steam Get PUBG for free on Xbox Here’s some free PUBG on PlayStation If you are a returning player on PlayStation, beware that you need to get the PUBG – Special Free To Play Transition Pack from the PS Store in order to get the upgrade rewards. PUBG launched into Steam Early Access at the start of 2017 and really kicked the Battle Royale craze into high gear. It saw staggering success even as it was stuck in Early Access, but as a paid game and one that took quite some time to make its way to Xbox and PlayStation, it lost the Battle Royale crown to Fortnite’s free-to-play mode. Now, five years after its original debut, PUBG is joining the free-to-play market, though arguably it had already lifted ideas like seasons and battle passes from F2P gaming while being a premium title. Back November, PUBG: New State was released for mobile. The new game is set in 2051 and includes weapon customization, the drone store and a player recruitment system. It is playable in seventeen languages and includes three game modes. Battle Royale will find players fighting across Troi and PUBG franchise staple Erangel, a 4v4 Deathmatch will offer a more focused experience while the Training Ground lets you test your skills before joining a big battle. There is a monthly Survivor Passes that allow players to unlock a variety of in-game rewards and Ranked Seasons that allow players to compete against other Survivors, increase their “tier” and earn high-end in-game rewards. Ranked Seasons will run for two months at a time. Source: PUBG

Forever Skies has been revealed by developer Far From Home, and it will appeal to those who like running around an apocalyptic world. Forever Skies takes place in a future where an ecological disaster has brought about the fall of civilisation, and it will task players with surviving the unforgiving world. The gameplay teaser trailer shows a ruined cityscape to explore as well as the search for resources and knowledge of the Forever Skies world. “We were truly overwhelmed and humbled by the initial reception of our project. I hope that the teaser trailer with the first gameplay running on the power of Unreal Engine will give a nice glimpse into our wrecked world and a clear idea of the direction we’re heading.” said Andrzej Blumenfeld, Far From Home CEO and Gameplay Lead. The features of Forever Skies include: Return To Earth – Take on the role of a scientist returning to Earth devastated by a global ecological disaster. This event caused the surface of the planet to be covered in a colossal layer of toxic dust, forcing humanity to build massive towers to try to survive. Build & Control Your Advanced Airship – Build and customize a high-tech airship. It will be your home, workshop, laboratory. Extract and gather resources to improve it to make it fit your gaming tactics. Utilize Science To Survive – Analyze scanned items and reverse engineer lost technology. Research new ways of obtaining food, resources, new tools and more. Scavenge Ruined Skies – Explore and discover the remains of our civilization. Extract resources from the ruins that were built up high to escape the dust. Find out what happened and how we lost Earth. Descend Below The Dust – Discover a strange new world that changed with the absence of humanity. Hunt for viral pathogens, use them as weapons or better yourself with viral boosts. Fight for Your Life – Below the dust lies a totally new ecosystem so expect a fight against evolved and dangerous creatures. Forever Skies will release first on Steam in Early Access this year, and it will come to consoles at a later date. Source: Press Release

FAR: Changing Tides will release on 1st March for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch and PC, publisher Frontier Foundry has confirmed. Pre-orders are now live, but Xbox Game Pass subscribers should note that they game will be added to the Game Pass library for Xbox on day one. FAR: Changing Tides is the follow up to Okomotive’s FAR: Lone Sails, the team swapping the sand dunes of that game for an adventure across flooded environments instead. You will play as Toe, a boy stranded in in this flooded world having to traverse the landscape with a rather unique looking ship that glide along the surface or head below. You’ll have to solve puzzles and survive the elements while searching for a new home. Celebrating the launch date reveal, Frontier has also released part of the soundtrack. The first of these ‘soundwaves’ blends together in-game sounds with some meditative orchestration. It’s a lovely, soothing video to run in the background of your day. Lovely. A second hour-long lo-fi video will be coming along soon. Source: press release

Red Dead Online players have been throwing quite the strop this past weekend. Fans of the cowboy sandbox sim have rallied to push #SaveRedDeadOnline on social media as they believe Red Dead Online is being shafted and that Rockstar hasn’t done enough to support the game. Specifically, players are frustrated at the lack of regular content updates. While RDO has seen its fair share of content since launch, the number of new missions, professions, features, and cosmetics has dried up, the clip at which these are added being slow and inconsistent. Overall, there’s a general feeling that Rockstar has both hands full, blissfully tugging on the bountiful teats of Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online. Two years of this nonsense from Rockstar now. They simply don’t care anymore, the care and love for Red Dead 2 is long gone. It’s all down to GTAV now, what a disappointing turnout. #SaveRedDeadOnline — Ben T. (@videotech_) January 6, 2022 Rockstar give my homies playing red dead some new content please worth their time.#SaveRedDeadOnline — Mutahar (@OrdinaryGamers) January 8, 2022 The last major Red Dead Online update, titled Blood Money, launched in July 2021 to a mixed reception. The free expansion introduced Crimes and Opportunities as new activities within the game world, finally letting you posse up and rob trains among other unsavoury pass times. Since then, however, players have been waiting for Rockstar to give them something more substantive. What’s even more frustrating, the community claims, is the developer’s wall of silence. It’s their hope that Rockstar will address fans’ concerns and outline a roadmap of new content for 2022. With Rockstar being Rockstar, we wouldn’t be surprised if that didn’t happen. It’s clear to see that Red Dead Online hasn’t been as successful as Grand Theft Auto Online, perhaps to the extent that plans for new content and expansions have been put on hold or canned entirely. Meanwhile, GTA Online has seen regular content drops and events, including last year’s The Contract. This included a meaty chunk of story missions, not to mention brand new music from one Dr. Dre. Red Dead Online is included with every purchase of Red Dead Redemption 2. More recently, the multiplayer mode was made available as a standalone title on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

A new trailer for ELEX II has been released, diving into the combat of this science fantasy RPG sequel. Coming out on 1st March 2022 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC, the game is also now available for pre-order on digital stores across these platforms. The trailer shows off the many ways that you can fight back against the invading alien forces, whether it’s shooting them with guns, bows, rockets and laser weapons, getting right up close to whack them with sword, axe and chainsaw, or using magical abilities to make it rain fire. It’s all part of what Piranha Bites have promised will be a massively improved combat system. ELEX II returns to the science-fantasy world of Magalan, featuring a huge open world that you can explore with a jetpack, just like in the first game. It’s several years after Jax defeated the Hybrid, but now a new threat is coming from the sky. That’s right, the Skyanides are coming, and they’re going to ruin the precarious balance of the world, and it’s up to you to try and unite people to fight them off. Would that it were so simple to get people to put aside their differences and work in their own best interests. The world will bend to your actions with NPCs that remember what you’ve done, will join and leave your group depending on your choices, and can also be killed, which ripples out to impact the story. The first game released back in 2017 with big ambitions and a tone that gained a decent following, but also a few weaknesses when stacked up against bigger budget titles. In our ELEX review, Steve wrote: “ELEX is the very opposite of the accessible games that have revolutionised the open world RPG in recent years. I enjoyed it as a modern looking take on the Gothic series, but newcomers will have to be prepared to fight against the systems through the beginning of the game. This has resulted in the game quickly gaining a cult following who celebrate its obscurity and lack of accessibility. I don’t agree with this take and would argue that the best aspects of the game would only be improved by a more polished and refined presentation.”

Amazon’s new MMO Lost Ark has been given a five minute trailer which explains the game, the classes, the world, character customization, and much more. The free to play title set to be released on PC February 11th and has already had a closed beta on Steam which was very popular. The game has 5 different classes including Warrior, Martial Artist, Gunner, Mage, Assassin. Those then have further subclasses. Warrior class players can play as a Paladin, Berserker, or Gunlancer. Martial Artist subclasses are Striker, Wardancer, Scrapper, and Soulfist. Meanwhile the Gunner subclasses include the Gunslinger, Artillerist, Deadeye, and Sharpshooter. Mages are split between Bard and Sorceress, and Assassin’s are split between Shadowhunter and Deathblade. Lost Ark will have multiple regions including Central Europe, North America East, and North America West. Players will be able to play with friends as long as they are on the same world. Amazon haven’t had much luck when it comes to gaming, in house title Crucible launched and shut down within months and while New World seems to be going well it was plagued with issues on launch. Lost Ark might avoid these issues as it’s not a new game and it was not developed by Amazon. Created by Tripod Studio and Smilegate RPG the game launched in South Korea four years ago in 2018 and since then has also successfully launched in Russia and Japan. Amazon have grabbed the rights for the game in the West, thrown a bunch of money at it to get it localised and are now releasing it. With four years of patches and bug fixes and a game that is already a hit in other parts of the world Amazon must be on to a winner this time. The recommended specs for Lost Ark are as follows: CPU: Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 GPU: 1080p FHD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050, or AMD Radeon RX560 2G 1440p QHD: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 or AMD Radeon RX5700XT Ultra (4K, UHD): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 Memory: 16GB RAM Disk: SSD, 50GB OS: Windows 10 64-bit, DirectX 9.0c Source: YouTube

Techland thought they were being clever when they proudly announced Dying Light 2: Beyond Human would take 500 hours to fully complete. There was a considerable backlash with many pointing out that 500 hours was just ridiculous so they added another tweet, “500 hours is related to maxing out the game – finishing all the quests, endings, and exploring every part of the world, but a regular player should finish the story + side quests and do quite a lot of exploring in less than 100 hours, so don’t worry!” They have now revised the timings again and are saying that to finish the just the main story, which is what most players are interested in, will take 20 hours. “We wanted to clarify our recent communication about the amount of hours required to complete the game. Dying Light 2: Stay Human is designed for players with different gameplay styles and preferences to explore the world how they see fit,” they tweeted. Dying Light 2 Stay Human was recently delayed and will now be landing on digital and physical stores on February 4th, 2022 n PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.  This the second time the release date has moved, in January 2020 Techland announced that the game would be delayed out of its early 2020 window to allow additional development time, “Dying Light 2 Stay Human is by far the biggest and the most ambitious project we’ve ever done. Unfortunately, we’ve realized for us to bring the game to the level we envision, we need more time to polish and optimize it,” said Pawel Marchewka, CEO of Techland. There’s a new promotional site that will let you discover what type of zombie you would become, and also reveals more about these new monsters. Techland have also partnered with Dynamite Entertainment to create a comic book set in the Dying Light world, called Banshee: I Am The Cure. Source: Twitter

Well here’s something unexpected. According to a reliable tipster, Quantic Dream are turning The Dark Sorcerer PS4 tech demo in to a game. The new title is a “humour based” game with a branching narrative and is said to be being handled by the core team of Quantic Dream in Paris. In case you have forgotten what The Dark Sorcerer was like (or, like me, are thinking that Quantic Dream are not exactly known for their laugh out loud games), you can watch it below. The new game is said to be cross gen and will also be coming to PC as well as consoles. Quantic Dream’s are currently working on Star Wars Eclipse which was announced during The Game Awards 2020. We still know very little about the game except that it’s set in the High Republic era, hundreds of years before the events of the films and the Skywalker Saga. However, since the announcement there have been reports that the game is in serious trouble and stuck in development hell. It is said that the Quantic Dream engine just can’t handle the number of characters needed for the game and is three to four years away from release. Notable entries to Star Wars The High Republic include the book Light of the Jedi which deals with the fallout of the hyperspace lanes closing following the Great Disaster. There is also a High Republic comic series published my Marvel, and a number of other books including Into The Dark that has some links to Light of the Jedi. If the rumour is true then Star Wars Eclipse would be the first game set during the High Republic era. The name Eclipse could lead to a number of different possibilities, such as other stories that explore some of the issues from the Great Disaster. It could also reference the beginning of the fall of the Jedi as they peak and start to decline leading to the events of the prequel trilogy. Source: Twitter

Cities: Skylines Airports DLC is due to be released on January 25th, with the new pack adding airports to the game and the ability to manage them. This pack will be priced at $12.99. However, this will not be the only content released at the same time with four content creator packs also being announced. The packs include a map pack, a vehicle pack, and two radio stations that cater to those who like relaxation music and those who enjoy jazz. Content Creator Map Pack ($4.99/€4.99/£3.99): Featuring 8 new terrain maps by Sanctum Gamer, unleash your city-building creativity on new and unique landscapes. Content Creator Pack: Vehicles Of The World ($4.99/€4.99/£3.99): A set of 21 new vehicle assets from around the globe, brought to you by bsquicklehausen. Fill the streets of your cities with iconic service vehicles, like a Police Supercar and more! Calm The Mind Radio ($3.99/€3.99/GBP TBC): When city-building stresses you out, tune that dial to Calm the Mind Radio. The game’s relaxation radio station will bring chill vibes into your architectural workflow. On Air Radio (($3.99/€3.99/GBP TBC): Cool cats rejoice, On Air Radio brings jazz beats to Cities: Skylines. Ideal for building the smoothest cities around, ya dig? The key features of Cities Skylines Airports DLC includes: Modular Airport Building: Place and design your airport, connecting its various buildings by using concourse networks Airport Progression: If your airport gets the approval of business travelers and tourists alike, you’ll be rewarded with expanded building options and bigger airplanes, creating a boon for the local travel industry. Public transport: Make life easier for would-be travelers by placing dedicated airport buildings, allowing you to connect your airport to the city through base game transport types like bus, metro, and train stations. Cargo Air Traffic: Tired of hiding your cargo terminals by themselves on the outskirts of your city? Create cargo terminals that are connected to the larger airport complex that fit in visually with other airport buildings, eliminating the need for older eyesores while hauling in new goods and materials. On Tuesday 11th January at 2pm GMT Paradox Interactive will be doing a preview livestream of the Airports DLC on its Twitch channel. Cities Skylines first released in 2015 and since then has seen a number of DLC expansions that add to the way cities can grow or be impacted. Everything from Natural Disasters, Mass Transit, Industries, Campuses, Sunset Harbour, and Going Green. Source: Press Release