GAMES
This Week on Xbox: October 4, 2019
We know you’re busy and might miss out on all the exciting things we’re talking about on Xbox Wire every week. If you’ve got a few minutes, we can help remedy that. We’ve pared down the past week’s news into one easy-to-digest article for all things Xbox! Or, if you’d rather watch than read, you can feast your eyes on our weekly video show above. Be sure to come back every Friday to find out what’s happening This Week on Xbox!
Ghost Recon Breakpoint Launches in Early Access on Xbox One
Ghost Recon Breakpoint players with Gold or Ultimate editions can now explore the vast archipelago of Auroa as a lone Ghost trapped behind enemy lines, or as a co-op team of up to four Ghosts via Xbox Live. Ghost Recon Breakpoint standard edition will launch October 4… Read more
Neverwinter: Uprising is an Exciting Story from the D&D Universe Featuring a Rebellion and Dragons in Space
A never-ending war between the fierce Githyanki and their former overlords – the powerful Illithid – has overflowed into the iconic dungeon of Undermountain. Both groups are searching for a powerful and ancient artifact that allows entry into a fortress city contained… Read more
Coming Soon to Xbox Game Pass for Console: Dishonored 2, Fallout: New Vegas, World War Z, and More
It’s a rainy day here at the Microsoft offices and that tells me one thing: it’s time to swap my summer shirts for winter coats and prepare for the eventual blanket of leaves. It’s also time for lattes that my pumpkin spice-loving co-worker insists are simply the best… Read more
Realm Royale Goes to War With New BokOps Battle Pass
Realm Royale is once again looking to the future – the future of combat, that is! Our new BokOps Battle Pass, available now, features 50 levels of earnable content themed around the next generation of military technology. The BokOps forces are the best of the best – the next generation… Read more
State of Decay 2 Introduces the Outfit Customization Update
Everyone knows that the hardest part of surviving the zombie apocalypse is losing your favorite hoodie or flannel. Never again will you lose that cherished puffy vest when a survivor meets an untimely end because today we’re introducing outfit customization for all State of Decay 2 players… Read more
Explore The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr Together and Earn Exclusive Rewards During Dragon Rise
Visit Elsweyr’s most beautiful sites, slay Dragons, and complete the Dragonhold Prologue quests to unlock exclusive rewards during this new in-game event. Don’t have The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr yet? It’s on sale right now! Explore Warm Sands The Dragon Rise event begins… Read more
New Tricks and Treats in the Killing Floor 2: Grim Treatments Halloween Update
Halloween returns this year for Killing Floor 2 and the spectral terrors of the night abound with new Grim Treatments content update. This time we’re packing five new weapons, a brand new official community map, an objective map, a new outfit, new weapon skins… Read more
In Driven Out the Protagonist is Not the Main Attraction
Enemies in games have always fascinated me. Their design, their animations, their moveset and the underlying AI that rules them are all important facets that creates something that almost feels alive. The main protagonist is often the focus of any game, but I find that it is more… Read more
Free Play Days: NHL 20
To celebrate the start of the NHL season, NHL 20 is available now through Free Play Days for Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members this weekend! With more customization, new modes, and gameplay innovation, you can experience even more ways to demonstrate your skills… Read more
Building Your Scrappy Motoring Masterpiece in Jalopy
Who likes a road trip? Visiting places new, visiting places familiar, spending time with family, keeping an eye on petrol and maybe even getting your hands dirty to repair the car – this is exactly what Jalopy’s all about. You’ll set out on a grand journey through the former Eastern Bloc… Read more
Become an Eldritch God and Punish Heretics That Defy You in Sea Salt
The beauty of video games is that you can do whatever you want, so for our game we went for two things that are hard or not recommended to do in real life: being a God and being a bit evil. Sea Salt takes place in a setting inspired by HP Lovecraft and European folklore… Read more
Sally’s Law Brings You a Tear Jerking Story of a Daughter and a Father to Xbox One
The story begins when Sally learns that her father has become ill and heads to her home, where she has left a very long time ago. Sally’s Law explores the relationship between Sally and her critically ill father. As the game unfolds, the relationship between daughter and father… Read more
On the Verge of a Meltdown in Apex Legends Season 3
Welcome to Apex Legends Season 3 – Meltdown. Drop in hot and stay cool as you explore an all-new Apex Arena, World’s Edge. Meet the newest Legend, Crypto, a brilliant hacker with the ability to reveal others’ secrets. And get kitted with a powerful new weapon, the Charge Rifle… Read more
New Tamer Class Added to Black Desert
The divine beast Heilang is the loyal companion of Tamer, the newest character class in Black Desert on Xbox One. Available to play today as part of a free update, Tamer wields a Shortsword and Trinket, hunting enemies alongside her legendary protector. To fully understand… Read more
See the World in Microsoft Flight Simulator
It took a couple of flybys, and dusting off the memories of the street layout from my hometown of Kailua, Hawai’i, but I can successfully report that I found my childhood home while buzzing palm trees in a Cessna 172 during a recent hands-on preview with Microsoft Flight Simulator… Read more
Lonely Mountains: Downhill Releases October 23 on Xbox One
Hello everyone! We are Megagon Industries, a 3-person team from Berlin, and today we’re happy to present Xbox One players with our new launch trailer and the October 23 release date for Lonely Mountains: Downhill. Better yet, it’s also coming to Xbox Game Pass… Read more
Xbox Game Pass and Spotify Team Up to Deliver the Ultimate Value in Gaming and Music
Everyone has a favorite gaming song. Say you’ve got iconic video game music playing while you’re hunting the elusive side-quests, or you’ve got another jam playing to keep you amped while you and your buddies decide where you’re going to drop – either way, listen to what… Read more
Get Ready for the Next Esports WRC Season with WRC 8
Following an intense season involving 12 challenges over eight months, the time has come for the final of the esports WRC Powered by Hyundai, with nine qualifiers vying for the title, including Jon Armstrong, 2018 World Champion, and Lohan “Nexl” Blanc, the 2017 winner… Read more
Next Week on Xbox: New Games for October 8 to October 11
Welcome to Next Week on Xbox, where we cover all the new games coming soon to Xbox One! Every week the team at Xbox aims to deliver quality gaming content for you to enjoy on your favorite gaming console. To find out what’s coming soon to Xbox One… Read more
Hunt: Showdown is Available Now on Xbox One
Crytek is releasing its online multiplayer bounty hunting game Hunt: Showdown today on Xbox One! It is available in the Microsoft Store for $39.99. To celebrate the launch, we’re also really excited to be releasing a brand-new DLC pack, Legends of the Bayou… Read more
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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.
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