Square Enix has revealed more details about the upcoming beta for Hitman on PlayStation 4 and PC. The beta will contain the opening prologue mission that is included in all editions of Hitman and will allow players to experience just how Agent 47 joined the ICA.
Alongside the announcement of the beta’s content Square Enix also posted a Beta FAQ and a brand new trailer. The beta will be available on Feb 9th for PlayStation 4 pre-orders and February 12th for PC.
Here is a brief synopsis that Square Enix released:
Play the beginning. The HITMAN Beta is set at a top secret recruitment and training facility and revolves around how Agent 47 joined the ICA.
Pre-order the game to guarantee access to the PS4 Beta on Feb 12th or PC Beta on Feb 19th. http://buy.hitman.com
Over the weekend, I got a chance to take part in Tom Clancy’s The Division closed beta on PC with some staff members. The three of us were lucky enough to get into to Ubisoft’s massive stress test and I’m happy to report that not only was Ubisoft’s test apparently a success but my brief few hours with The Division showed that the game has a lot of promise in areas that recent releases like Bungie’s Destiny failed to deliver upon.Read More
During a live-stream held today for the Playstation 4 version of sci-fi MMORPG Phantasy Star Online 2 publisher/developer SEGA announced that the Japanese closed beta for PSO2 on PS4 will begin in just a few short weeks. For console users this will be their first chance to join their fellow Guardians on PC in exploring the galaxy in this latest take on the long running Phantasy Star series.
Registration for the JPN PSO2 console beta will open on January 25th and will run until Feb 25th. All potential players have to do to be selected for the beta is download a special “ticket” from the JPN PlayStation Store between those dates. 50,000 eligible accounts will be selected by SEGA and entered into the closed beta phase which will run from Feb 25th thru March 6th. According to the live-stream the closed beta won’t be live that entire time, but rather select windows of time. The floodgates for all Japanese PlayStation users open on April 20th, and best of all PSO2 won’t require PlayStation Plus to play online!
As of press time the Japanese PC version of PSO2 does not filter via geolocated IP address, meaning that North American players can play together on Japanese servers. SEGA has been oddly silent on the potential western release of PSO2, with their official social media account going dark since PAX 2012. Reportedly a contract between SEGA and their Chinese distribution partners is one of the reasons for the continued silence and lack of a western release. At this point with over 4 years between releases it seems doubtful SEGA would ever bring the game here.
Check out some screen grabs from the live-stream after the jump.Read More
Paladins Champion of the Realm, the newest game from Hi-Rez studios (creators of SMITE, and publisher of Tribes). The game features (so far) a cast of 9 characters who fight over a single point to capture. After capturing the point players must then escort a cannon to three “doors” which the cannon destroys advancing the game. Most games last about 10 minutes and feature fast paced action that’s pretty close to nonstop. The game currently features 9 Champions each of whom have 3 special abilities that are activated by a key press. In this way its very MOBA like, but the similarities end there. Instead of towers, or turrets, the game has you capturing a point, for tickets. The more players on the point the more tickets you get. After 100 tickets, a “siege engine” spawns and you escort the engine to the enemies gate, where it fires at the gate and does damage. This all sounds pretty confusing but the game is honestly quite simple. Most of the game your directed directly to the objective that currently was needing to be achieved.
Paladins UI is very minimalist
The games major difference from other MOBAs comes in its card system. As you level up you are allowed to select a series of 5 cards which have unique effects on your three abilites. One might boost damage, one might boost duration, anotehr might cause a debuff on the enemy. This is how the game handles “builds” the cards are drawn at random from your stack as you level up, and you can earn more cards each time you level up, or you can purchase more cards for in game currency or buy cards. Yes the game has microtransactions, its not yet clear how all of them will work, but it does seem clear that at least you can earn everythign thats currently in game just by playing. You would have to play a lot, but you could earn it all.
this screen is what you get when you level up
I found the game to be a lot of fun, I streamed it for two hours, you can watch the VOD here on my twitch channel, but watching 20 minutes of it should give you enough of an idea of what the game is about to decide if you like it or not. Most matches last less than 10 minutes. Personally I love the games look, really reminded me of Wild Star. Its very cartoony and bring, something that I honestly love. The style is often made fun of for being too childish, but for me dark games are just too much, I really prefer the pretty colors and particle effects. The Beta is very much a Beta, with new content being added very quickly. It also has its fare share of bugs, but there is a full forum for reporting bugs and I have no doubt that Hi Rez will work diligently to iron out the bugs, while adding as much content as they can.
Currently in semi-open beta you can sign up on the site or purchase access (buy in for 20$ here) on the Hi-Rez site. The game is I think its worth the the small buy in to get on the ground floor. The game is (At least according to wikipedia) planned for multi console release, so getting in early on PC should give players an edge. Judge for yourself by checking out the youtube and twitter content that Hi-Rez is putting out.
Overwatch is game that everyone wants to play, but very few have access to. It seems Blizzard has decided that even those few are too many to play its FPS-MOBA hybrid, and they will be shutting off their (currently up) beta servers next week. The beta servers have been up for about a month and a half and included one (semi)open weekend of play for many players, but the rest of the time were restricted to a small group of beta testers who were given access. You can read all about Overwatch oonn our site here but the long and short of it is that we liked what we saw, and cant wait for another chance to play it! The Beta is scheduled to end at 9AMPST on Decemver 10th, one week from today, the forums will stay open until December 18. There will be no new waves of players added untill the 10th, and players that are already in will not be kicked out. Blizzard also plans to add more players after it relaunches, but this is a blizzard game so most of what we know is vague and eventaully type of information.
Blizzards said in the announcement. “Since the start of the Overwatch beta in late October, aspiring heroes from around the world have battled it out in more than 900,000 matches. In this same period of time, we’ve also gathered invaluable information about our servers, core systems like matchmaking, and overall map and hero balance—thanks not only to the raw data we’ve collected from the game, but also to the numerous bug reports, suggestions, critiques, and experiences you’ve shared,” “This phase of development has been key, but now it’s time to analyze the data we have, dig into your feedback even further, and put that knowledge to use as best we can.”
PC game did a great video on why overwatch is not free to play which I really liked, it featured several developers and explained in detail why the game simply would not work as a free to play game you can watch it here
Ubisoft has given the GO command on both the Rainbow Six Siege open beta and the game’s launch trailer. Titled ‘the breach’ this brand new one minute trailer – narrated by a British special forces member – outlining some of the emotions members of the Rainbow team might feel when participating in one of the game’s multiplayer-centric matches.
Rainbow Siege’s open multiplayer beta went live this weekend – featuring 14 different operators and three different maps – on all major platforms (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Windows PC). The open beta was delayed by two hours on Friday and is scheduled to close tomorrow night before the final game becomes available via retail and digital distribution on December 1st.
For more Rainbow Siege coverage check out our full coverage of the game’s closed beta from earlier this fall.
The newest addition to the line up for Blizzards huge MOBA overwatch has been annoucned. Her name is D.VA (pronounced DIVA). She appeared briefly on Blizzards official over watch twitter with a link to the StarCraft 2 WCS site. In game Hana “D.Va” Song is, in game lore, a real StarCraft 2 pro. She’s the best in the world, in fact, but she’s taking a break from the game so she can serve her homeland.
“At the age of 16, D.Va became the #1 ranked player in the world and proceeded to go undefeated for the next three years in all competitions,” her official StarCraft 2 player biography states. “D.Va is an international star, beloved by her fans at home and abroad, and has toured in exhibitions around the world. Recently, she has taken a step back from competition to focus on her commitment to protect the safety of her homeland.”
Intrestingly she is not yet listed on the Blizzard official Overwatch site, so we have no idea what she can do. Personally id love to see her pilot a mech, as many forum posts and websites have guessed. She is also described as “MEKA’s newest recruit” on Twitter, lending that theroy even more credence.
We will wait official word from Blizzard then update the story!
Today marks the beginning of the closed Overwatch beta which was revealed via live stream a few weeks back. Blizzard has gone to great lengths to ensure that player’s chances of being scammed out of their precious battle.net accounts have been reduced by doing away with beta CD-Keys. Instead those selected for the very limited beta test of Blizzard’s upcoming First Person Shooter will have their account flagged automatically and an email sent to their account.
If you get an email from “Blizzard” asking for your login information or containing a “beta key” there’s a 100% that this is someone trying to phish your account.
Sadly none of us on staff got into the Overwatch Beta as of the publication of this article but on Twitch.TV there are several dozen people streaming their experience with the open beta along with over 134,000 people watching the game alongside them.
So just how you get into the closed Overwatch beta?
Q. How are Closed Beta participants selected? A. Beta testers are chosen based on many factors, including your Battle.net region, when you signed up, your computer hardware specifications, and an element of luck. We are also inviting select journalists and community contributors from around the world on a case-by-case basis.
In regards to how they notify selected players Blizzard said:
If you are selected to participate in the Closed Beta, you will receive an invite via email. Invites will always be sent to the email address associated with your Battle.net account.
To help avoid phishing attempts, if you believe you’ve received an invite, it’s best to refrain from clicking on any links in the email(s) you receive. Instead, you can verify that your account has been granted a Closed Beta license in Battle.net Account Management.
If you’ve been selected for the Overwatch Beta and need to download the game you can follow these instructions, which Blizzard supplied:
Overwatch is a 6 vs 6 multiplayer online first person shooter being developed by Jeff Kaplan’s team at Blizzard. Originally under the development using the code name ‘titan’, Overwatch has had a very long and complicated history. The game was revealed at last year’s BlizzCon and hype for the game is starting to grow leading up to today’s beta live stream event on Twitch.TV at 10 A.M PST. If you’ve been out of the loop completely or missed some of the reveal trailers, Broken Joysticks is here to catch you up before this morning’s big announcements.
Blizzard’s team based First Person Shooter Overwatch will have its first beta go live for select players on October IGN has reported. Like most of Blizzards initial beta tests this version of Overwatch is subject to change – including major system overhauls and is not open to the general public.
In terms of features the initial offerings will include seven different maps and 18 different heroes for players to mess around with. Other major features include the inclusion of voice chat, spectator mode and custom games. It sounds like Blizzard is getting ready for Overwatch to explode onto the e-sports scene in a major way just like Heroes of the Storm did earlier this year.
For those of us who aren’t selected via the Overwatch website Blizzard hopes to hold some larger stress test weekends throughout the remainder of the year. Here’s hoping that they are open to all or at the very least open to a much larger pool of potential players.
Don’t forget that tomorrow Blizzard will be introducing the Overwatch beta to players around the globe via Twitch.tv!
Blizzard will be announcing the first details for the beta version of their highly anticipated Team Based Shooter Overwatch live on Twitch.TV on Thursday October 15th they announced via Battle.Net. Viewers of this stream won’t only get to hear the new details first but will also enjoy over 90 minutes of gameplay footage from two different perspectives.
Here are the official details from Battle.net:
Join a duo of aspiring heroes, Haylinic and Ellohime, as they team up with our developers to fight for the future LIVE from Blizzard HQ. During these inaugural streams, you’ll have a chance to see over 90 minutes of unedited real-time gameplay from not one, but two perspectives—plus, you’ll get a first look at what you can expect from the upcoming Overwatch beta. (Wicked!)
Overwatch was originally announced back in November 2014 and features a number of different colorful characters. Blizzards monetary model for the game is currently not known. Overwatch may be a free-to-play little with purchasable heroes like Heroes of The Storm or it could be a full retail product like Blizzard’s 2012 RPG Diablo III.
We’ll bring you a full recap of the livestream on Thursday!
After a long gruelling wait – andwatching Twitch streamers and YouTubets posting their first impressions – the Star Wars Battlefront beta is available through Origin for all to try!
If you had the foresight to pre-load the beta than you can jump right in and get in on the action. For those of you who haven’t – there is a mandetory 7.5GB download required.
We previously also posted the recommended System Specs for Battlefront. Hopefully your rig is up to the task.
Star Wars Battlefront’s beta is available on Windows PC, Xbox One and PS4 for all until October 12th. It allows players to try the Battle on Hoth Walker Assualt level as well as the brand new point control Drop Zone mode and finally a horde like wave defence mode.
Writers Note: This beta was reviewed using the PlayStation 4 copy of the game.
There was a time when I was actually pretty decent at FPS games: back when graphics on PC games weren’t as demanding so the variety of computers they worked on was greater, back when twitch shooting wasn’t the entire focus of gameplay, back when franchises like Rainbow Six focused on tactical play and thinking outside of the box. You see, I like FPS games when they demand a little more than being the quickest, most accurate trigger on the block. I like when FPS games require a lot of tactical thinking and even the most trigger-happy, balls-out shooter on the team can be taken down by preemptive thinking. Rainbow Six: Siege seems to be a kind of return to form for this franchise in that regard and for that, it makes me feel like the kind of FPS player that can actually grow and become more skillful as I play. That’s the kind of game I like.
Activistion’s previously closed beta for Call of Duty: Black Ops III is now open to everyone for about the next 24 hours. If you don’t mind the the hefty 13 gigabyte download you can try out three maps and several different game modes ahead of the next COD’s release this November. Other new features for Blops 3 include the inclusion of “specialists” – soldiers who each have their own power weapons that can be earned through kill streaks.
A separate beta for Windows PC and Xbox One will be available from August 26th thru the 30th and both will presumably have some open period available to all.
Are you looking forward to Street Fighter V’s upcoming beta test? Depending on the region you reside in there are a number of different ways for you to get your hands on a portion of Capcom’s latest brawler before release.
If you live in North America, like I do, the easiest way to get access to the beta is by pre-ordering a copy of SFV through Amazon, Best Buy or GameStop. Beta codes for retailer specific pre-orders will be sent out next week on July 20th.
European PlayStation 4 owners have until July 15th to sign up for their beta. Those chosen to stress-test SFV will be sent a redeemable code via email on July 23rd.
Players in Asia will have to enter into a lottery of sorts to be selected. PlayStation Plus members have until tomorrow to snag the “Street Fighter V Closed Beta Ticket” to be entered into a chance to win access.
If you are wondering what will be included in the beta – six playable characters (four at start with Cammie and Birdie to be rolled out later on during the beta test). In terms of stages players will be tossed into a training room known as “the grid” while waiting for a match to begin, once the match has begun you’ll be fighting in either the Bustling Streets, Terminal Station or Forgotten Waterfall arenas.
Beta testing begins on July 23rd for 5 consecutive days.
