Uncrowned Guard

While official details about EA’s Battlefield 6 are extremely limited and mostly non-existent, the past few days have seen numerous “leaks” and rumors flooding reddit and other sources via insiders (or at least people claiming to be insiders). These rumors seem to indicate that Battlefield 6 will not even be called Battlefield 6 and will likely just have the name Battlefield along with a strong focus on a Battle Royale mode. The rumors about the Battle Royale mode are all very practical as they state the mode will support up to 128 players while also enabling Battlefield’s destructive environments to separate it from other Battle Royale games. This is certainly a reasonable rumor as it would be highly unlikely that Battlefield would not feature their destructive environment as it is such a focused game feature and marketing value of their Frostbite engine. The game will also have its normal core gameplay modes although previous rumors have stated that Dice, the developer of the game, is aiming to make some changes to the format and create a multiplayer full of game modes featuring very realistic warfare situations. However additional rumors have surfaced that the new battlefield game may allow players to utilize older Battlefield games within their matchmaking and game/map rotations. Some rumors have gone as far as saying that the new Battlefield game is not even a standalone game and is more of a service that will focus on bringing all past and future battlefields together. Although most rumors seem to indicate that it will be a full game that also provides features that include other Battlefield games. Not much is known about the campaign or the game setting itself however many have stated that it appears the title will be set in the near future and offer some futuristic weapons and tech for players to use. We must emphasize that these are currently all rumors and mostly unsupported leaks. So, some or even all the information may be incorrect or even change before the game is released. On a good note, it does appear that a reveal trailer is well into production (if not completed already) and we may be getting an official announcement as early as May to highlight some of the details of the game.

Modern Warzone has published a leak from some fairly creditable sources that Sledgehammer Games has been confirmed as the publisher for Call of Duty WWII: Vanguard. It is safe to assume that “WWII Vanguard” is the project’s name and is very likely to change long before public statements are made about the game itself. However, it does bring all the rumors of a WW2 based game to light as it would be hard to believe the game is not based in that timeline due to the project name. There are still rumors that at least part of the game will take place in the 50s, although this seems to be hard to follow as WW2 ended in 1945 and extending this time would bring the game into the Cold War, which we are still playing a Cold War based game. Of course, there have been pushes to make all of the Call of Duty games a “Call of Duty Universe” of sorts with the publishers backing up fan-based theories on how games affected the timelines of others. Sadly, we still lack nearly all of the details of the game itself and can only go off what have otherwise been wildly inaccurate rumors about the gameplay. We do know that Sledgehammer Games was the last CoD developer to create a WW2 based game, so they do have experience in this timeframe. We also know that Sledgehammer Games is very likely trying to go all out to redeem themselves after essentially being booted off the Black Ops Cold War project, along with Activision knowing that Black Ops Cold War did not really impress any of the players and is often considered subpar when compared to the older CoD Modern Ware from 2019. So here is to hoping an absolutely excellent CoD game as the series returns to its WWII roots. View full article

Modern Warzone has published a leak from some fairly creditable sources that Sledgehammer Games has been confirmed as the publisher for Call of Duty WWII: Vanguard. It is safe to assume that “WWII Vanguard” is the project’s name and is very likely to change long before public statements are made about the game itself. However, it does bring all the rumors of a WW2 based game to light as it would be hard to believe the game is not based in that timeline due to the project name. There are still rumors that at least part of the game will take place in the 50s, although this seems to be hard to follow as WW2 ended in 1945 and extending this time would bring the game into the Cold War, which we are still playing a Cold War based game. Of course, there have been pushes to make all of the Call of Duty games a “Call of Duty Universe” of sorts with the publishers backing up fan-based theories on how games affected the timelines of others. Sadly, we still lack nearly all of the details of the game itself and can only go off what have otherwise been wildly inaccurate rumors about the gameplay. We do know that Sledgehammer Games was the last CoD developer to create a WW2 based game, so they do have experience in this timeframe. We also know that Sledgehammer Games is very likely trying to go all out to redeem themselves after essentially being booted off the Black Ops Cold War project, along with Activision knowing that Black Ops Cold War did not really impress any of the players and is often considered subpar when compared to the older CoD Modern Ware from 2019. So here is to hoping an absolutely excellent CoD game as the series returns to its WWII roots.

Fans to one of the most classic FPS games of all time, Halo 3, are in for an exciting announcement as 343 Industries is planning to add at least two more maps into the now 14-year-old game. Of course, the Master Chief Collection landing on PC has refreshed the series and brought Halo 3 back into the gaming spotlight as of late, but this is still huge news from a developer that seemed completely focused on releasing the new Halo Infinite. The new maps are Waterfall and Edge which were leaked by beta testers and seemed to be Maps that were going to be utilized in the never released project of Halo Online. Halo Online was supposedly going to be a free to play multiplayer only shooter based on the Halo 3 game engine but was scrapped after only a few months of only being available in Russia. We do not have many details of Halo Online, but it does seem to be a poorly aimed product with how already wildly successful Halo 3's online multiplayer had become. With the new battle pass season system used in the Master Chief Collection it has been noted that these new maps will release as part of Season 6 which does not have a confirmed release date nor is it confirmed that the maps will launch at the beginning of the season. Waterfall appears slightly similar two Halo 2's industrial setting utilized in the map Lockout and edge is a full runner facility that is like the forerunner designs utilized in Halo 4. View full article

Fans to one of the most classic FPS games of all time, Halo 3, are in for an exciting announcement as 343 Industries is planning to add at least two more maps into the now 14-year-old game. Of course, the Master Chief Collection landing on PC has refreshed the series and brought Halo 3 back into the gaming spotlight as of late, but this is still huge news from a developer that seemed completely focused on releasing the new Halo Infinite. The new maps are Waterfall and Edge which were leaked by beta testers and seemed to be Maps that were going to be utilized in the never released project of Halo Online. Halo Online was supposedly going to be a free to play multiplayer only shooter based on the Halo 3 game engine but was scrapped after only a few months of only being available in Russia. We do not have many details of Halo Online, but it does seem to be a poorly aimed product with how already wildly successful Halo 3's online multiplayer had become. With the new battle pass season system used in the Master Chief Collection it has been noted that these new maps will release as part of Season 6 which does not have a confirmed release date nor is it confirmed that the maps will launch at the beginning of the season. Waterfall appears slightly similar two Halo 2's industrial setting utilized in the map Lockout and edge is a full runner facility that is like the forerunner designs utilized in Halo 4.

BioWare, the developer for Anthem, has posted a blog update that officially announced the end of development for Anthem’s big revamp (Anthem Next) and an end to the game’s development future. The blog post also states that there are no plans to end the live service that the gam runs on and players can expect the run “as is” for now. Which is a positive as the game requires an online service to run. For those unaware, Anthem was one of the most anticipated games of its time and launched in a state that could only be stated as unfinished. After years of improvements to the game by BioWare, the game is quite good but lacks any reasonable player base for a multiplayer focused game after the terrible start to the game. The studio makes mention of COVID-19 limiting their manpower and capabilities to a point that fixing Anthem was taking away from the new Mass Effect and Dragon Age releases while also creating problems with creating updates for more successful games, like Star Wars: The Old Republic. This is not a surprising move as the game was all but dead after the horrible launch and inability to fix the problems for months after the release, but it is certainly sad to see for core Anthem players who supported the game from day one. Hopefully Anthem 2 is not off the table for the studio as the game did have a solid platform and concept as a looter shooter, but the series may never be seen again with how poor the original has performed. View full article

BioWare, the developer for Anthem, has posted a blog update that officially announced the end of development for Anthem’s big revamp (Anthem Next) and an end to the game’s development future. The blog post also states that there are no plans to end the live service that the gam runs on and players can expect the run “as is” for now. Which is a positive as the game requires an online service to run. For those unaware, Anthem was one of the most anticipated games of its time and launched in a state that could only be stated as unfinished. After years of improvements to the game by BioWare, the game is quite good but lacks any reasonable player base for a multiplayer focused game after the terrible start to the game. The studio makes mention of COVID-19 limiting their manpower and capabilities to a point that fixing Anthem was taking away from the new Mass Effect and Dragon Age releases while also creating problems with creating updates for more successful games, like Star Wars: The Old Republic. This is not a surprising move as the game was all but dead after the horrible launch and inability to fix the problems for months after the release, but it is certainly sad to see for core Anthem players who supported the game from day one. Hopefully Anthem 2 is not off the table for the studio as the game did have a solid platform and concept as a looter shooter, but the series may never be seen again with how poor the original has performed.

The NZXT H1 is a premium small form-factor PC case that has been in the highlight as of late for shipping with a faulty PCIe riser cable that has exposed wiring touching the metal screw used to attach the cable to the case. The riser was designed poorly and lacked reinforcement where the screw is inserted, which allowed the screw to break down the board material and come in direct contract with the internal wiring and create a new circuit. This screw would then heat up and cause a fire. NZXT stated this was an extremely low probability issue and shipped out nylon screws to customers to replace the included metal ones. The nylon screws are non-conductive and therefore could directly touch the internal wiring without risk of fire. However, the company made an oversight as customers could very easily switch the screws out with metal ones and there were no warnings on the product to remind customers not to change the screw type years later. The product has been officially recalled by NZXT as a fire hazard and the official company letter states that they will be pulling the product off their company store until new risers are available and will be sending replacement risers to current customers. The letter states that customers may return the case if they purchased it from their official store, but states that customers must work with the retailer to return the case if purchased somewhere else. The letter also lists how to get a repair packet for current owners. The CPSC has issued an official recall notice as well for the product and stated that around 32,000 units were sold. View full article

NVIDIA announced the RTX 3060 GPU quite awhile ago but we now have a MSRP and a release date. The card is going to drop on February 25th (one week from today) and will be suggested to be listed at $329. This card is designed to be a “budget” card in the 3000 series along side the more expensive, and more powerful, 3070, 3080, and 3090 cards. If you did not know, NVIDIA GPUs currently uses the first two numbers (30) for the series and the last two numbers (60) as essentially a performance mark with the higher number being more powerful. Also the Ti versions are more capable than the non-Ti versions although are also more expense and the RTX 3060 Ti is already released for $399+ if you can find one. While this is great news for gamers who are looking for an exceptionally good budget card, it is not all good news as the GPU shortage has already shown its head for these new cards. Many stores offering preorders have already raised the prices over 50% of the MSRP and multiple sites have already reported that miners and scalpers are eyeing up the new cards. Overall, we are excited to hear about the new cards and truly hope they find themselves in the hands of gamers. However, it seems like these cards are already destined to fall into the GPU nonsense pit and be a hard to find in the overpriced GPU nightmare like the rest of the 3000 series. We would recommend preordering a card if you can in order to avoid the nightmare restocking process that is likely to follow. View full article

NVIDIA announced the RTX 3060 GPU quite awhile ago but we now have a MSRP and a release date. The card is going to drop on February 25th (one week from today) and will be suggested to be listed at $329. This card is designed to be a “budget” card in the 3000 series along side the more expensive, and more powerful, 3070, 3080, and 3090 cards. If you did not know, NVIDIA GPUs currently uses the first two numbers (30) for the series and the last two numbers (60) as essentially a performance mark with the higher number being more powerful. Also the Ti versions are more capable than the non-Ti versions although are also more expense and the RTX 3060 Ti is already released for $399+ if you can find one. While this is great news for gamers who are looking for an exceptionally good budget card, it is not all good news as the GPU shortage has already shown its head for these new cards. Many stores offering preorders have already raised the prices over 50% of the MSRP and multiple sites have already reported that miners and scalpers are eyeing up the new cards. Overall, we are excited to hear about the new cards and truly hope they find themselves in the hands of gamers. However, it seems like these cards are already destined to fall into the GPU nonsense pit and be a hard to find in the overpriced GPU nightmare like the rest of the 3000 series. We would recommend preordering a card if you can in order to avoid the nightmare restocking process that is likely to follow.

The NZXT H1 is a premium small form-factor PC case that has been in the highlight as of late for shipping with a faulty PCIe riser cable that has exposed wiring touching the metal screw used to attach the cable to the case. The riser was designed poorly and lacked reinforcement where the screw is inserted, which allowed the screw to break down the board material and come in direct contract with the internal wiring and create a new circuit. This screw would then heat up and cause a fire. NZXT stated this was an extremely low probability issue and shipped out nylon screws to customers to replace the included metal ones. The nylon screws are non-conductive and therefore could directly touch the internal wiring without risk of fire. However, the company made an oversight as customers could very easily switch the screws out with metal ones and there were no warnings on the product to remind customers not to change the screw type years later. The product has been officially recalled by NZXT as a fire hazard and the official company letter states that they will be pulling the product off their company store until new risers are available and will be sending replacement risers to current customers. The letter states that customers may return the case if they purchased it from their official store, but states that customers must work with the retailer to return the case if purchased somewhere else. The letter also lists how to get a repair packet for current owners. The CPSC has issued an official recall notice as well for the product and stated that around 32,000 units were sold.

The 4 year old Halo based RTS game has officially come to an end per a blog post by 343. The post did not mention shutting down the servers or anything along those lines, but 343 will no longer release patches or preform changes to the game. This also means that there will no longer be any additional content for the game and a port to Steam is essentially dead. Although they did mention that the team would ensure the game continues to work "as is". It is a sad day for the fairly large player base still playing multiplayer but 343 has done an excellent job in my eyes at supporting the game this long after it never really preformed well. Halo Wars 3 was not addressed in any manner but it is safe to say that it is not in 343's immediate road map for the Halo Series. The post makes it sound like all the staff helping with Halo Wars 2 had been moved to Halo Infinite and/or other projects in the company. Check out the video by TeamRespawn who have been dedicated to the game since day one and continue to be going forward.

After 2020’s E3 event was cancelled due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, the Entertainment Software Association has confirmed that E3 2021 is planned to happen as a digital event. The event coordinators promised a “reimagined” virtual event for 2021 after a failed attempt at creating a virtual 2020 E3 Expo and it is now confirmed that the event will be happening via multiple news sources (although there has yet to be an official announcement). Leaked documents sent to game publishers have the event three-day event scheduled to be live streamed June 15-17. These dates are the previously scheduled dates of E3’s planned “Summer of Gaming” event that it was planning to put together earlier as a sort-of digital replacement for E3 during the pandemic. We are unsure what will become of Summer of Gaming or if it and E3 will simply be one event. The Entertainment Software Association seems to have the intention of working with publishers to push out demos and previews of games to gamers before and during the event to coordinate with the event. The association also seems to have their eyes set on incorporating cloud gaming-based demos to work as the limited in-house demos that expo normally has. There are some problems with these confirmations however, as Entertainment Software Association has not published that the expo has been voted on by its membership board. This board consists of many of the industries largest publishers who have seen success in creating their own digital gaming focused events without E3 last year. There is currently no information on who is interested in an E3 Expo in 2021 and the expo has certainly already been facing challenges with many large publishers (EA and Sony to name a few) already leaving the event before 2020’s virus pandemic even began. Along with those problems, the ESA has yet to cancel a physical event even officially for 2021, making some worried that the event is not as focused or prepared as it may seem. However, for now we have a lot to look forward to and can only hope that game publishers realize that a unified and independent event is great for the industry alongside the numerous independent events that many gamers struggle to keep up with. View full article