Forza Horizon 2 Coming This Fall For Xbox One

Today, Microsoft officially announced Turn 10’s next Forza entry, Forza Horizon 2, via IGN.  The followup to the first open-world racing title of the franchise is due out this fall and will feature new cars, European settings and some of the new shiny tech introduced in Forza Motorsport 5 (we’re of course referring to the cloud-based Drivetar system).  According to IGN there will be hundreds of cars to drive, but only the new Lamborghini Huracán has been revealed.  The new Lambo will likely be the car we see on the game case come release time.  No word on whether we’ll see any Top Gear inclusion like we found in Forza 5, but I’m sure many of us would be glad to see the silly trio from the best car show in the world make a return to the Forza series.

More details to come, perhaps at E3 next week, but this is all we get for the time being.  Keep your eyes and ears open as we’re likely to hear another bit or two about Xbox games prior to the E3 kickoff.  Microsoft will be streaming their press conference live at 9:30am via Xbox Live and web browsers if you’re interested to take a look at what’s to come.

EVOLVE – Next-Gen Co-Op Done Right

In the fall of 2014 we’re going to see a lot of high-budget games hit our consoles.  Many games like the revamped Halo 2, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Destiny, The Division and others will begin to flood our consoles, finally offering a slew of what we expect to be high quality content to really give us a variety in our game selection.  Don’t get us wrong, Titanfall is a blast to play, but it’s really all that’s worth playing right now until Watch Dogs and Wolfenstein launch later in May.  But while games those big-name games will get most of the attention, gamers should be very careful to not overlook new entries – we’re specifically intrigued over the new EVOLVE game.

From the makes of Left 4 Dead, 2K Games, comes a new cooperative shooter that pits four players against one.  Though the numbers don’t suggest it, the teams are even.  Those four players will work as a small hunting strike force, to which one player will control the hunted behemoth knows as a “Goliath”.  Think a little bit of Turok, Left 4 Dead and perhaps Ghost Recon wrapped all into one fluid game.  There’s tech, alien worlds, dangerous terrain, and one mega monster.  But you aren’t out to just run & gun, this isn’t Call of Duty or even Titanfall.  Players can take a beating and the Goliath can take a significantly greater beating.  Players also have roles to play via a class-based system that employs a healer, a supporter, a tank, and a trapper.  They all have special abilities that make them valuable to the group as a whole and, when working together, give them the chance to take down the vicious beast.

This game doesn’t just look good, it looks fun.  It looks like LOTS of fun.  We’d love to run our digital mouths for another hour but we’re going to let a full-length gameplay trailer do all the talking.  The full gameplay session you see here runs a lengthy 52:35.  The first 7 minutes should give you a good idea of what to expect, though you’ll probably find yourself glued to your seat wanting to see more and more.  Though we love summer and all the good times it brings, we just can’t wait for fall to come around.

Prepare For TitanFall

Here we are just one week prior to the heavily anticipated and much-talked-about TitanFall launch for Xbox One and PC.  To that end, we ask you a simple question: remember when games came out and you merely got a tease about what the experience would be like?  Those days seem to be long gone as gamers and marketing teams push to get more and more content announced well before a game launch.  In movies, this completely takes away any mystery and replaces it with expectations – those expectations can sometimes downplay wonder and awe, like the first time you ever used a chainsaw bayonet on Gears of War or perhaps the first time you called in an AC-130 gunship on Modern Warfare 2.  Don’t plan on that for TitanFall, though, as the game is still largely a mystery to even those of us who sunk hours into the open beta until our hearts exploded.  With just under a week to go, TitanFall is still a game we’re itching to know more about, and we absolutely love it.

But besides that, there are some things gamers can find out ahead of the games launch.  First, a new Official Gameplay Launch Trailer for TitanFall can be viewed via YouTube (see below) which features game footage of the Xbox One.  If you’re watching carefully, you’re going to see some of the graphical content noticeably better than the demo content (which seems to have been incorporated into the demo at times) that was available during the beta.  The resolution of 900p may have been achieved with excellent upscaling methods used to minimize the difference from native 1080p.  What’s even more interesting is the story elements that are woven into the game get a little more air, albeit short-lived.  The whole mission-based multiplayer aspect was almost absent from the beta, yet it still remains a big part of the game that we’re going to play on March 11.  Respawn Entertainment have been pretty quiet about this, but recent leaks have pointed toward match-changing dynamics and events that will happen while you’re facing off against your enemy.  It’s not just Attrition and Last Titan Standing matches that constantly cycle.  No, there’s more to this beast that makes us think that perhaps we really did only get the tip of the iceberg.  Again, we love this idea of this.

Some other leaks to come forth are the inclusion of zip-lines for pilots for better mobility around higher locations.  Pilots will be able to access them from end-to-end and can travel either direction (we’re thinking maybe a jetpack thrust helps maneuver a pilot along the line) to better assist players in staying out of the killzone that is the open ground where titans can roam free.  Also, turrets have been spotted in the final build under certain game mode variants that are autonomous yet controllable by either side.  Fifteen maps were also leaked to be available with the final product.  That’s a lot of maps for a launch game, but it is multiplayer-only so it does make sense.  Respawn Entertainment have been able to focus exclusively on the multiplayer aspects which is why we’re so freaking excited to play this game with our friends.  Other than that, talks about monsters and pilot-vs-pilot modes were also discussed over on Reddit, where a number of these leaks have come forth in the last few days.  Perhaps “monsters” of some kind are going to be a part of the game-changing methods that could take place that will pose a threat to any within their vicinity.  We can dream all day and dig all we want, but the good news is that TitanFall drops on March 11, just seven days from the posting of this article.  Get ready, people.

Early Access To Xbox One Update Revealed

Microsoft and its Xbox Live team have made it known that there is a closed early access release of its early March update that some users will be invited to take part in. The update is critical for the nearing TitanFall release as it will improve various social and matchmaking aspects of Xbox Live. There is no signing up for this pre-release. If you own an Xbox One and have a Live Gamertag, you could be receiving an email inviting you to test out the new update. There will also be access to a private forum to express thoughts and ideas about the update. Keep an eye on your inbox if you’re willing to try out the update as it could take a day or two for Microsoft to get the invitations out.

TitanFall Beta Expires At 6pm PDT

If you want to squeeze out a few more rounds of TitanFall before it gets pulled from Xbox Live, you have until 6pm PDT to do so. After that, only PC players will have access via Origin. If you don’t have the PC beta downloaded already, the you’re going to have to wait until March 11 to get your game on. What ever shall we do with ourselves!? Some of us will be back on Battlefield 4 as it seems to be the only other real intense shooter experience available.

TitanFall Beta Signups Are Live – TitanFall Footage Available Online

If you head over to titanfall.com, you’ll be able to sing up for the PC and Xbox One multiplayer betas, which are said to go live somewhere around 2.14 and 2.17.  For the record: these two dates have been reported by different sources, but the announcement video showed 2.14.  TitanFall is getting heaps of praise and heavy press coverage right now as closed beta invite gameplay footage has been allowed to make it’s way to various news reporting sites.  Over at theverge.com, there is a 24-minute gameplay video available if you really want to see this game in action.  But if you are looking for a description of what is to come, “controlled insanity” might be the best way to summarize TitanFall.  In interviews with Respawn Entertainment devs, TitanFall is said to be designed with a balanced approach to open conflict that avoids one-sided domination by either team.  The game will make newbies feel good about their skills and make skilled players feel incredible, something found in a game like Battlefield but with a smaller learning curve.  All the words in the world can’t really give you a good idea of what to expect, so peruse the web and find your in-game footage videos.  For the moment, enjoy the beta signup video which shows TitanFall’s nearly-finished HD graphics.

Speaking of graphics, TitanFall may not run at 1080p on Xbox One but Respawn Entertainment is working with Microsoft to create a superior upscaling method to narrow the differences in detail between a 720p or 900p image and one set natively at 1080p.  We haven’t heard anything for sure about the final product, only that the game is output at 1080p but whether that’s its native resolution remains to be confirmed.  Graphics aren’t everything, yet they are the most noticeable element of any game.  TitanFall will look good, it’s just a question of how good it will look.