GAMES
Best Video Games Of 2020 With Crossplay & Multiplayer
In a year where everyone around the world has had to stay apart, multiplayer video games have been an indispensable tool to keep people together. While modern communication methods like Discord and Zoom are great ways to talk to friends, loved ones, and co-workers, the magic of video games provides a different level of much-needed fun and interactivity.
Up until recently, wide-sweeping crossplay was a fever dream for gamers. Even multiplayer games that were available on both the respective Xbox and PlayStation console families were generally isolated to their respective ecosystems and networks. However, this had begun to change.
Continue scrolling to keep reading
Click the button below to start this article in quick view.
Recent years have been far more generous in regards to allowing crossplay, however, as Microsoft, Sony, and even Nintendo have taken massive strides in allowing gamers to play among other console families. Here are the best crossplay games that have come out in 2020.
Best Crossplay Game of 2020: Call of Duty: Warzone
Though technically an extension of 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s multiplayer, Call of Duty: Warzone essentially operates as a standalone game, and it also has connections with this year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Warzone isn’t Call of Duty’s first foray into battle royale, with 2018’s Black Ops 4’s Blackout game mode setting the initial groundwork, but it has several important differences and is entirely free-to-play.
Featuring the iconic first-person shooter gameplay that put the series on the map, Warzone adopts many unique features that sets it apart from other examples in the highly-saturated battle royale genre. For instance, Warzone’s currency system allows players to purchase classic killstreak-type rewards, revives, and equipment, and its Gulag mechanic provides players with the chance to revive upon death. Call of Duty: Warzone can be played on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.
Best Crossplay Game of 2020: Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
For those looking for a more traditional Call of Duty experience, there’s Black Ops Cold War. Bringing back the storyline (notably absent from Black Ops 4) that was started all the way back in 2008 with Call of Duty: World at War, Cold War fleshes out the Cold War-era plot introduced in Black Ops and Black Ops II.
The game also features the return of Zombies, a series mainstay absent from 2019’s Modern Warfare, as well as the series’ archetypal multiplayer with some new twists and game modes. Black Ops Cold War is available on the same consoles as Warzone – PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.
Best Crossplay Game of 2020: Rogue Company
From Smite, Realm Royale, and Paladins developer Hi-Rez Studios, Rogue Company is a tactical third-person hero shooter that takes major cues from games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valorant, and Overwatch. Featuring six classes that are comprised of 16 heroes with a range of unique abilities and quirks, players compete to accomplish various tasks and missions among the game’s three game modes.
Players can play among each other on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Switch, and PC, though parties with any PC players will only be matched up with other PC players.
Best Crossplay Game of 2020: Star Wars: Squadrons
Part spaceflight simulator, part hardcore Star Wars fan’s ultimate dream, EA’s Star Wars: Squadrons is about as immersive of a Star Wars experience as can be imagined. Set after the events of Return of the Jedi, Squadrons lets players have intense dogfights in classic Star Wars ships.
The game also offers VR and HOTAS support. While Squadrons features a campaign, the main attractions are its two multiplayer modes which allow players on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC to duke it out among the stars.
Best Crossplay Game of 2020: Genshin Impact
Comparable in many ways to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild gameplay-wise, Genshin Impact is a free-to-play open-world RPG from developer miHiYo. Players explore a large fantasy world replete with countless weapons, enemies, and god-like bosses.
With its anime-like aesthetics and action JRPG gameplay, it’s a unique fixture on this list as it’s a story-based role-playing game. Still, Genshin Impact features region-locked four-player co-op gameplay that can be played between PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, and mobile devices.
Best Crossplay Game of 2020: Minecraft Dungeons
Drawing clear inspiration from the likes of Diablo, Mojang’s Minecraft Dungeons is an isometric hack-and-slash dungeon crawler, serving as a creative departure from the series’ sandbox building roots. Unlike other similar games, Minecraft Dungeons features no class system, allowing players to use any weapons and gear that they find.
Featuring procedurally generated dungeons, players can explore, loot, and fight with one another on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Switch, and PC.
Best Crossplay Game of 2020: Spellbreak
Developer Proletariat’s Spellbreak may seem like just another free-to-play battle royale game among countless others in 2020, but it brings some interesting and unique twists. Rather than fighting with guns, players in Spellbreak engage in combat with spells and abilities in a fantasy environment.
Still, the basic elements of modern battle royale games remain – hectic combat, plenty of loot, and a constantly shrinking map. Spellbreak also has a battle pass system, providing players with the ability to unlock rewards like experience boosts and cosmetics. Players can fling spells at one another on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Switch, and PC.
Best Crossplay Game of 2020 Honorable Mention: Among Us
Though technically released in 2018, Among Us was met with very little attention until 2020 upon which it took the world by storm. In a world where people are forced to keep their distance from one another, Among Us managed to be hugely impactful, entering just about every facet of culture, including winning Best Multiplayer and Best Mobile Game at the 2020 Game Awards.
Among Us is a social deduction game in which players attempt to deduce who among them is an Impostor looking to sabotage and kill the other Crewmates aboard their spaceship, similar to the likes of Mafia or Werewolf. Among Us is available on Switch, PC, and mobile devices, with Xbox One and Xbox Series X versions set to come out in 2021.
Crossplay gaming is finally breaking out in the way players have long-wanted it to, and it couldn’t have happened at a more apt time. The console wars will continue to rage as they always have, but allowing an Xbox player to play with their PlayStation-owning friend across the country is certainly a bright spot in an otherwise difficult year.
Author: Dimitri Gedevanishvili
Dimitri is a freelance video game writer for Screen Rant. He is a lover of movies and video games and an even bigger lover of writing about them. In addition to writing, he is a video producer and Partnered Twitch streamer. Growing up in the Seattle area, he attended Washington State University and enjoys watching the Seahawks and the Sounders (usually) win.
GAMES
This Week’s Deals with Gold and Spotlight Sale
GAMES
The German Empire Marches to Italy in a Free Expansion Today
We have a new expansion for our WW1 Italian Front FPS game Isonzo releasing today! It’s the first part of our Caporetto season of free expansions, and features a whole new faction with the arrival of the German Empire on the Italian Front, and brings a new map for the Offensive game mode. There will be two more releases in the Caporetto season, each one with a new map to ultimately link together into a three map Caporetto Offensive.
The German faction comes with more than ten new weapons, as well as historically accurate uniforms and equipment. This first Caporetto map sees you taking part in the early stages of the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, with German troops assaulting Italian positions on the road to Caporetto. Historically it was a military disaster for Italy which brought down the government – but maybe things can go differently with you on the battlefield?
The update sees new uniforms and equipment from the German Empire for Isonzo’s six classes: Rifleman, Assault, Engineer, Officer, Marksman and Mountaineer. For those who aren’t familiar with the game, each class has different weapon, gear and perk options that allow you to specialize your play style within the overall focus of the class. For instance, Marksmen are always sharpshooters, but a lot depends on your loadout. You could be a long-range sniper and observer identifying and eliminating high value targets with a scoped rifle, or you could equip body armor to take and hold a front line position with deadly accurate mid-range fire. Every class has choices to make in this regard.
In Isonzo’s signature Offensive game mode, one side must attack and break through multiple defensive lines. Thick layers of barbed wire, trenches, and whatever extra defenses the enemy engineers put together will stand in the way of a successful attack. Objectives can be taking and holding key points, or planting dynamite to sabotage enemy supply stashes or heavy artillery guns.
The new Caporetto map – the first of three in the season – is a huge battlefield based on the strategically important Monte Kolovrat. There are five defensive lines, where each line has two objectives for the attackers before they can advance further. While in the historical Battle of Caporetto both German and Austro-Hungarian forces were involved, in Isonzo we’ve chosen to focus on the German contribution, so the map recreates the stunning German advance from the town of Tolmein all the way to Kolovrat Ridge. It’s a damp, overcast day when the attack begins, and the attackers must first cut their way through lines of wire to break into a devastated town – including capturing a church defended by multiple heavy machine gun positions. Fortunately, in Isonzo there are many tactical options available to deal with such strong points: artillery barrages, smokescreens, snipers, rifle grenades, even poison gas. From there, it becomes a literal uphill battle for the German attackers as they begin to climb towards the peak of Kolovrat Ridge. They’ll need to sabotage bunkers and capture command posts while navigating rocky trenches and steep forested slopes. At the penultimate fourth defensive line there is a huge siege mortar to sabotage and a cluster of houses providing cover to the Italian defenders – then it’s one last climb to reach the final objective: Hill 1114. If the Germans can take it, the Italians will finally be the ones fighting uphill as their reinforcements stream in to try and counterattack.
Of course, things are no walk in the park for the defenders either – although it’s easier to maneuver when going downhill, and it’s much simpler for officers to deploy flares to call in support, the extensive trench lines can become a liability once the Germans get a foothold, providing cover as they advance. Some of the Italian defensive positions can be exposed against the sky, making it easy for German marksmen to pick off targets. Italian engineers should make good use of their construction abilities to put down additional sandbags and lay out extra wire to prevent German assault troops sneaking through the trees to flank trenches with their grenades or light machine guns.
As we mentioned before, historically the Battle of Caporetto was a disaster for the Italians. Appalling leadership led to poorly motivated and unprepared troops falling apart in the face of the combined Austro-Hungarian and German armies using cutting edge infiltration tactics. The Italian soldiers were not allowed to retreat until too late, and in the end hundreds of thousands would surrender. After Caporetto the top Italian general was fired and replaced by someone far more competent, who managed to turn the war around for the Italians. In Isonzo, it’s a more fair fight where both sides have an equal chance of winning, if they can use all the tactical options available better than their opponents.
The release will also bring other improvements to the game, including a prestige mode and higher level cap. Additionally, for those who want more options for visual customization of their character, the Royal Units DLC is releasing alongside the free expansion and contains uniforms from the German Kingdoms of Bavaria and Württemberg. Though part of the German Empire, these states had their own distinctive uniforms which we’ve carefully recreated with the same accuracy and attention to detail as with the other uniforms in the game.
The Battle for Caporetto Begins…
Isonzo is available right now on the Microsoft Store for Xbox, and the free Caporetto expansion is out today! Plenty of time to master the art of mountain warfare before the German Empire joins the action on the Italian Front. Follow us to get the latest development news as we add the finishing touches!
We’ll see you in the trenches!
Isonzo
BlackMill Games
$29.99
World War One expands to the mountains of the Italian Front – beautiful but deadly in equal measure. Inspired by the two year struggle for control of the Isonzo river valley and the Alps during World War One, Isonzo elevates the WW1 Games Series, figuratively and literally.
From the makers of Verdun and Tannenberg…
Take part in historical offensives from the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo to the Strafexpedition. Reflecting the course of the actual battles, as the attackers advance the fighting will shift through vastly different landscapes within a single offensive: from hillside fortresses to mountain trenches and fierce urban combat on city streets. Everything is recreated based on research and field trips, from sound effects and uniforms down to the houses, vineyards and trenches you’ll be fighting over.
The new Offensive game mode puts you right in the middle of key historical offensives on the Italian Front. Lead the charge across stunning Italian landscapes as you choose your path to victory – cut paths through barbed wire, flank your enemies by following mountain trails, or man a mortar to blast a way through. Shape a dynamic battlefield by laying sandbags and wire, placing ammo crates, deploying trench periscopes or sniper shields, and more.
Call in support with a unique historically accurate flare system: flare guns can mark targets for artillery or biplane flybys, or different colored flares can be used to guide your team. Once the big guns have softened up the enemy, finish the job at close quarters with an Arditi dagger or mountaineer’s pickaxe. Man heavy machine guns, mortars and even mountain guns for more direct fire support.
Choose from six classes based on historical combat roles and build your loadout from a selection of weapons, equipment and perks linked to that class, giving flexibility and variety while staying grounded in what real soldiers might have carried. You’ll be operating wire cutters, bandaging yourself and wounded teammates, and blowing the whistle to start an assault. One shot can kill and even lighter injuries can lead to quickly bleeding out.
Being an effective soldier in Isonzo is not just about being a good marksman. Mastering the terrain is also key – the mountain can be a friend or foe. Learn how to navigate well to maintain cover and surprise your enemies or support your allies.
Finally… watch out for the dreaded poison gas. You’ve never experienced WW1 action quite like this!
Isonzo key features include:
• MOUNTAIN WARFARE: Assaulting mountain fortifications, battling through ruined towns, and fording rivers are just a few of the challenges you’ll face as you fight your way through numerous enemy positions
• TACTICAL MULTIPLAYER FPS: Choose your role and loadout carefully to survive this high altitude combat – play a sniper to pick off the enemy engineers before they can cut your wire, use rifle grenades to clear enemy machine guns, and much more
• WORLD WAR ONE GAMEPLAY: Historical Offensive game mode based on real battles and focused on the unique challenges of Alpine warfare. Fight with 30+ WW1 weapons, poisonous gas attacks, and intense artillery barrages
• BUILD FOR VICTORY: Place your own wire, sandbags, trench periscopes, and more! Whether you’re digging in or on the attack, shaping the battlefield to your advantage will be key to victory
• FACES OF WAR: Make every class your own by picking from a variety of historically class-appropriate uniforms, accessories and headgear. As a finishing touch, you can even pick your mustache from several famous period-accurate styles!
• AUTHENTIC WW1 ATMOSPHERE: Accuracy in everything from maps and weaponry to music and the uniforms – fight for the Kingdom of Italy, the German Empire or the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy
MORE GAMES IN THE AUTHENTIC WW1 GAME SERIES
Immerse yourself in more WW1 action with our other standalone titles Tannenberg and Verdun. Experience trench warfare on the Western Front in Verdun, or maneuver for control of key sectors in Tannenberg on the Eastern Front. These authentic WW1 shooters let players choose from a range of squads from across the war, as they fight for control of the ever-changing frontlines.
GAMES
Transport Fever 2: Console Edition is Bringing the Full Transport Tycoon Experience to Xbox
Today, we proudly share a sneak peek into the development of Transport Fever 2: Console Edition, and how we managed to bring the full transport tycoon experience to Xbox.
Transport Fever is a very popular and highly rated transportation tycoon franchise on PC. Its latest entry, Transport Fever 2, delivers a level of size and detail never before seen in the genre. The goal of the game is to build a successful transportation company by constructing railroads, streets, water and air lines. Starting in the 19th century, the player connects towns and industries to transport both passengers and cargo. In addition to a customizable free game mode, there is also a fully-fledged campaign mode with challenging missions set in real-world transportation history.
After the huge success of Transport Fever 2 on PC, it was only logical to bring the experience to consoles as well. Not only that, but no efforts were spared to give the console community the full experience that made the game great on PC. In order to achieve this, the engineers at Urban Games had to pull some rabbits out of their engineers’ hats.
Always providing the freshest layer of paint
One of the most cherished features of Transport Fever 2 are its highly detailed vehicles. The game comes with more than 200 lovingly hand-modeled trains, ships, and airplanes, each sporting multiple 4k textures and normal maps.
On PC, it is easily affordable to have all the models and textures in memory whenever needed, as a typical rig has 16 GB of RAM and a GPU with a dedicated extra memory. Consoles, however, are built differently. They have a unified architecture with an overall smaller amount but ultra-fast memory. The key to make it work on consoles is texture streaming, which allows to clear textures of models that are not in view anymore. Moreover, this technology is used in Transport Fever 2 to constantly load textures at the highest affordable resolution to present the stars of the show, like the classic Class A 3/5 steam locomotive, in their best coat of paint at all times.
Keeping the ground like a console pro
A trademark of Transport Fever 2 are its huge maps. During development of the game, it was always paramount to provide a real sense of scale. The engine should allow for maps where a high-speed train, such as the famous Japanese Shinkansen, can really make use of its superior speed. So, a lot of effort was put into designing a highly effective terrain rendering pipeline that can handle maps of more than 120 sq miles of size with a detail resolution of almost 1 yard. Central to this is a dynamic terrain tessellation algorithm on the CPU that, while costing a bit of extra memory, makes sure the engine can render these maps on a wide variety of PCs.
Now, enter the world of consoles with their incredibly well-designed GPUs and graphic APIs. Here, the hardware can be leveraged very well for terrain rendering by making use of the GPU tessellation feature. This feature generates the render mesh for the terrain fully on the graphics card, saving valuable processing time for the complex economy and city growth simulations. While generating more triangles, the hardware approach still costs less memory overall due to its efficiency. So vast maps can be viewed from a bird’s view high up in the sky and seamlessly zoomed in down to individual rocks on a riverbank.
Inspiring the inner architect
Finally, let’s talk about constructions, a central and defining part of the Transport Fever 2 experience. Constructions are large assemblies that consist of dozens of assets, street segments, ground decals and terrain modifications. Think of structures like airports, train stations, docks, highway crossings, and many more. Anything that is needed to build a vast transportation empire.
For a smooth construction experience, it is key that the player really feels that he has precise control over the building placement. On PC, constructions are typically built using the mouse. As the average PC user is very well adjusted to this method of input, it is sufficiently performant to calculate the entire construction each frame and place it under the cursor. However, on consoles, the best way of building constructions is to have them always kept in the center of the screen and move the camera along the map for placement. And moving the camera needs to be as smooth as silk.
So, for the console release of Transport Fever 2, the construction preview pipeline was overhauled. All dynamic calculations are now performed in the background while a static preview of the structure and its underlying ground plan are shown. Not only are constructions now completely stable in terms of FPS, but they also give feedback to the player on what environment features the construction would tear down when built.
Let’s get tycooning on console
We are very excited to bring the Transport Fever franchise to consoles for the first time ever with the release of Transport Fever 2: Console Edition on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One in February 2023, and we hope you will enjoy it as much as we did developing it.
Google Discusses Fixing 404 Errors From Inbound Links
Musk regrets controversial post but won’t bow to advertiser ‘blackmail’
Google Search Console Was Down Today
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research]](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research-80x80.jpg "SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research]")
SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research]
A Year Of AI Developments From OpenAI
Facebook Ads Benchmarks for 2024: NEW Data + Insights for Your Industry
5 Quick Tips to Increase Referral Traffic
![How to Schedule Ad Customizers for Google RSAs [2024]](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/How-to-Schedule-Ad-Customizers-for-Google-RSAs-2024-80x80.jpg "How to Schedule Ad Customizers for Google RSAs [2024]")
How to Schedule Ad Customizers for Google RSAs [2024]
7 tips for creating great digital presence
Most SEOs Believe Google’s November Core & Reviews Updates Will Complete In December
-
SEO6 days agoGoogle Discusses Fixing 404 Errors From Inbound Links
-
SOCIAL4 days agoMusk regrets controversial post but won’t bow to advertiser ‘blackmail’
-
SEARCHENGINES6 days agoGoogle Search Console Was Down Today
-
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research]](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research-400x240.jpg "SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research]")
SEO5 days agoSEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research]
-
SEO4 days agoA Year Of AI Developments From OpenAI
-
PPC6 days agoFacebook Ads Benchmarks for 2024: NEW Data + Insights for Your Industry
-
PPC5 days ago5 Quick Tips to Increase Referral Traffic
-
![How to Schedule Ad Customizers for Google RSAs [2024]](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/How-to-Schedule-Ad-Customizers-for-Google-RSAs-2024-400x240.jpg "How to Schedule Ad Customizers for Google RSAs [2024]")
MARKETING6 days agoHow to Schedule Ad Customizers for Google RSAs [2024]