Month: February 2018

Square Enix Collective is delighted to announce that Battalion 1944, the old-school WW2 FPS from Derby based studio Bulkhead Interactive, has entered Early Access on Steam.

The shooter – which is designed to replicate the feel of the best FPS games from the 1990s – albeit with all the extra grunt and gloss of a modern day game – recently enjoyed a successful beta weekend as a sign off before its Early Access debut. Now, however, is when things ramp up.

“It’s no exaggeration that Battalion 1944 is the game I’ve always wanted to make,” says Joe Brammer – Studio Lead at Bulkhead Interactive. “We’ve enjoyed success at Bulkhead before, but we’re all gamers who grew up playing the best FPS games, so the idea of making one that stripped things back to the competitive nature of the shooters of old has been a dream come true. “What’s even better is seeing the reaction of the gamers who have been able to play it so far – it seems they’re as excited as we are.”

Bulkhead Interactive previously worked on The Turing Test back in 2016, a celebrated puzzler also published by Square Enix Collective.

“For us, Battalion 1944 represents a step into an entirely new genre,” offers Phil Elliott, Director of Indie Publishing at Square Enix Limited. “Square Enix Collective was set up with the intention of releasing indie games from a wide range of studios working on a diverse line up of titles, and Battalion 1944 and its focus on an old school FPS ethic is something we’ve never done before. We’re sure it’s going to be a major asset in our line-up for years to come.”

Battalion 1944 will retail on Early Access for £11.99/€14.99/$14.99. Those who backed Battalion 1944 back when it was on Kickstarter will get exclusive skins and multiple cosmetic and vanity focused loot crates.

Battalion 1944 is available on Early Access today.

More game info available at the Battalion 1944  website.

Source: TechPowerUp!

CI Games finally released the long-awaited multiplayer update for Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 last week. Although not mentioned publicly in the patch notes, the Polish publisher also eliminated the Denuvo protection from the game. For those readers who don’t keep up with the Warez scene, Russian cracker BALDMAN cracked Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 one month after its release. Many would agree that there wasn’t any point in keeping the anti-tamper tech in the game. But now, with it gone completely, DSOGaming re-tested the game to see whether there were any performance gains without Denuvo.

To make a long story short, the DSOGaming team noticed a significant reduction in the game’s loading time. However, they weren’t completely certain if the reduction was a product of the removal of Denuvo or game optimizations done by the developer. The previous performance issues still haunted the game, and there were zero improvement in graphics performance. This was expected to a certain degree taking into account that Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 is a GPU intensive title after all. It might be a different story with games like Watch Dogs 2 or Assassin’s Creed Origins, since they are more demanding on the processor. Now, we just have to wait until Ubisoft removes Denuvo from them.

DISCOVER TWO ADDITIONAL OPERATORS AND A NEW CO-OP EVENT

Today, UBISOFT revealed the first details of “Operation Chimera” and “Outbreak Event”, the opening content of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege Year Three. Two new operators, specialists in biohazard situations and playable in adversarial multiplayer, will have to face a major threat in the game’s first co-op event, Outbreak.

This time, the Rainbow team faces an entirely different threat: an infestation of unknown origin is attacking the small town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The danger is so high that the authorities have quarantined the entire town, trapping civilians and soldiers inside. Pushed to its limits, team Rainbow calls in some of the very best biohazard specialists currently in operation within the World’s elite national CTUs.

These hot zone specialists from France and Russia respectively, are experts in matters of biological warfare and veterans of numerous conflicts involving bio-chemical weapons. They are Rainbow Six’s best hope against the dangers lurking in the Quarantine Zone.

Outbreak, a four-week brand new co-op event

In Outbreak, the first seasonal event for Rainbow Six: Siege, players will choose their best team of three to enter the devastated town of Truth or Consequences and neutralise the threat. From exploding monstrosities to hulking horrors, the Rainbow Six team will face something never-seen before. These armoured monsters will bring the fight close and push the destruction engine to new heights. Players will have to find new ways of using their arsenal against a foe that doesn’t take cover and engages instantly in close combat. Watch the new Tom Clancy’s Rainbow: Six Siege – Outbreak: Space Capsule Trailer HERE.

“Operation Chimera” will be available on TTS from February 19th and on all platforms on March 6th while “Outbreak” will be playable on PC on the second day of the Operation Chimera TTS, on February 20th. It will then be available on all platforms from March 6th to April 3rd inclusively.

To learn more about our two upcoming Operators and Outbreak event update, be sure to tune in to the livestream during the Six Invitational finals happening in Montreal on February 17th and 18th: https://www.twitch.tv/rainbow6

For more information about the game or news on the upcoming title update, please visit www.rainbow6.com.