Uncrowned Guard

2021 is finally upon us and we certainly hope it is a better year than 2020! However you might as well make a New Years Resolution that you can keep, like signing up for our Uncrowned Legion for free! View full article

The past days have been full of rumors about Ubisoft+ coming to Xbox Game Pass and there is some weight behind these rumors. The "leak" that is fueling these rumors seems to be a simple posting from Xbox that list "Microsoft obtaining publishing rights to an unannounced AAA surprise" which could be essentially anything from a single game to a full studio partnership, or a second EA Play style integration. When did this leak turn into an Ubisoft+ deal? Well, that seems to be the problem as sources just starting sending Tweets and articles about it without any reliable source to backup the claim. There is also the problem of Ubisoft+ only offering one tier and it is unlikely that we will see a major publisher drop all their AAA games on Game Pass day one. However, Ubisoft does work with Game Pass often and stranger things have happened in the gaming world. Perhaps even if this rumor is false, the excitement and momentum that it is creating will fuel an actual deal with the two companies. It is far too early to see how EA Play on Game Pass has benefited EA, but it is fairly safe to assume that it did not hurt the company and that may be all Ubisoft needs to jump in. View full article

The online servers for Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Spartan Assault and Halo Wars will be turned off next year and digital sales of those games will end this month. The games will still work for local play, but all online services will be turned off no sooner than December of 2021. 343 has provided a chart of features for these games after the shutdown happens with matchmaking and file share ending for all the FPS games, but all local content (including custom games) will remain working. Achievements are listed as "varies" for every game and details are limited on what that means, but it does not seem promising as they later encourage players to grab all their missing achievements before the shutdown. This shutdown will also include playing the games via backwards compatibility modes but not via Xbox One versions or MCC as those versions are running on a more modern system. However, even trying to hop onto an Xbox 360 version on Halo via your Xbox One will result in the same shutdown of online services. Halo DLC will be available for free until the shutdown but the games themselves will no longer be listed at this point via the Xbox Store. There is supposed to be a notation in the announcement on the free DLC, but it does not appear to be listed anywhere, so your experience may vary. The 343 team has encouraged players to push for those last few achievements and to enjoy their custom file share content as much as they can, as even the legacy file share will be shut down after this move. It has been a great run full of solid memories for the series on 360 but all good things must come to an end. Thankfully, local content will still be working, and all the games are included in the Master Chief Collection (besides Spartan Assault and Halo Wars) or otherwise available on newer platforms or PC. Oddly, Halo 2 is missing from this entire announcement although it does not appear to be listed in the store anymore either. View full article

Merry Christmas from all of us at Uncrowned Gaming! We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday today. Oh, and don't forget to stop by our community to spend some holiday joy with your fellow Uncrowned Legion. View full article

Ever since 343 announced that Halo Infinite would have a free to play multiplayer, the gaming community has both praised the move while also fearing the microtransactions that will come with it. Luckily, a recent interview with Halo Infinite lead progression designer Christopher Blohm has clarified the microtransaction plans for the game and it is encouraging. Blohm has confirmed that loot boxes will not be part of the game and all microtransactions will be “one and done” style purchases. He also stated that microtransactions will only be cosmetic items available for purchase and will not directly affect gameplay in any way beyond visuals. Along with those clarifications, we also learned that the game will be focusing on unlockable cosmetic items though the in-game progression system and achievements which is a huge plus for Halo fans who loved pushing though challenges to gain armor in the past. While we do not know how much of the cosmetics will be locked behind achievements vs paywalls, we do enjoy hearing that the team seems to be focusing on a player friendly microtransaction system. There is certainly plenty of time for things to change before the game is released and surely more information will come out about the system in the coming months but for now we have reason to be excited. Also do not forget to check out the full Halo Waypoint update to also see some nice in game screenshots of the upcoming title. View full article

Details are limited and no reasons were given about why the delay has occurred beyond "we need more time to provide the Xbox Game Pass experience" posted in an Official Xbox Update, but the inclusion of EA Play on PC for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers is officially delayed until sometime in 2021. This update is fairly concerning as it landed exactly on the day that the partnership should have launched and the update leans heavily towards only an update arriving in 2021 and no mention on the partnership itself coming. We can hope that it is due to integration issues and Microsoft needing to direct their focus to the troublesome Xbox Series S/X launch, but there is nothing more than speculation and a highly uninformative update at this time. The good side to this is a Tweet by @XboxGamePassPC mentions that the delay is due to the team wanting to provide a higher quality experience and made it sound as if the aforementioned integration issues may be the delay. View full article

After a few hyped up rumors, Epic Games has confirmed that not only is Master Chief coming to Fortnite, but an entire suite of Halo themed items are expected to coming. The release at the Game Awards showed Chief's armor skin and confirmed a cross-over is coming. Recent leaks have also shown a Warthog vehicle skin, a Pelican glider skin, and what appears to be some map graphics all coming for Season Five. Season Five is the followup of the current Marvel Cross over and will include Halo, God of War, and Star Wars in a phenomenon that has started a search for warriors from other dimensions. We do not have a full list of cross-overs that will end up being a part of the lineup, but it is very exciting so far! Although with both Xbox, PlayStation, and Disney dropping their biggest characters into the game, we can not help but look at Nintendo for the glimmer of Mario hope (Although Samus would probably be the best fitting). Check out the release trailer below! View full article

Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Warzone's Season One update has been delayed by one week. The original release date was announced for December 10th but will now be December 16th. "It's an unprecedented amount of free content and the teams are currently prepping for the biggest Season One launch week ever seen," Activision said in a blog post. Season One starts a massive integration between player progression and battle pass rewards on Cold War and Warzone. Warzone will be gaining a pile of Cold War weapons and blueprints and Cold War will be gaining new maps, playlists, and fireteam maps. The classic Raid map seems to have already been leaked via coding, but we do not have a confirmation of this. Seasonal prestige is getting a new system that will add 1000 ranks that link together Modern Warfare, Cold War, and Warzone. Media outlets seem to be reporting that the current seasonal system is a grind in Cold War, and it appears they will be continuing the grind, but adding in some more double XP weekends to help players. Activision has also stated that the update will bring numerous quality-of-life improvements to the games, but no details have been leaked on what this means. It also appears that the new Warzone map, rumored to be Rebirth Island, will be landing with the Season One update as well. Overall, this update seems both massive and exciting to us as players. We hope these large seasonal updates continue longer than they did in Modern Warfare, but for now we will stay excited for what is about to come this month. View full article

Winter makeovers and Christmas themed events have certainly not been uncommon for the Call of Duty series and it appears Cold War may be getting a Winter Nuketown '84 this year. A call of Duty player discovered a bug that showed Christmas style decorations on the map and that seems to be solid evidence that a winter theme is planned. While this is still a bug and not a leak, we are hopeful and the player feedback seems overwhelming positive. However, this has been added to list of visual bugs players seem to be encountering in the game and hopefully we can also get some bug patches from the developers for Christmas as well. View full article

Yamaha has launched a new AV receiver and it appears to be quite good for gamers with both the new consoles and many PC setups. The RX-A2A supports 4K at 120Hz and includes Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM). This means smooth game play along with reduced input lag according them Yamaha. Quick Media Switching (QMS) is a feature they added to allow easy switching between movies and gaming and Quick Frame Transport (QFT) reduces latency for even smoother, no-lag gaming, and real-time interactive virtual reality. All these features seem to be a great blend of support for a solid next gen gaming receiver. Plus I have always been a fan of Yamaha's audio equipment.

Uncrowned Empire has added a series of changes to our websites as we prepare to go live. Check below to see the changes! We plan on adding more articles like this as we work on our communication. Uncrowned Empire Website is now fully live for user use during development Added dedicated section for company news Compacted forums for more simplified layout Made Calendar public for sharing company wide events Uncrowned Addiction Website is now fully live for user use during development Now shares all Uncrowned news directly from Uncrowned Empire Vastly expanded forums for more content Added calendar to list tech events, releases, etc. Added new section for tech based resource guides Fixed user group permission issues in using forum Fixed moderator permissions in editing articles News articles will now be promoted directly from the In The News forum Uncrowned Gaming Website is now fully live for user use during development Now shares all Uncrowned news directly from Uncrowned Empire Vastly expanded forums for more content Added calendar to list gaming events, releases, etc. Added new section for our Shooter guides and class system Fixed user group permission issues in using forum News articles will now be promoted directly from the Gaming News & Upcoming Releases forum Known Issues All sites Image uploading is creating an error during larger files All sites Bookmarking to mobile home screen creates a solid icon View full article

The "Mass Effect" trilogy is getting a 4k remaster in 2021 that will be coming to consoles and PC, that includes the PS4 and Xbox One. The details are limited, but we know that it will be the first three games in the series and will be an "enhancement", not a full remaster. The Legendary Edition will include all the single player DLC and in game armor and weapons. As of writing this article, there are currently preorder listings of the game for $60 on Amazon and Best Buy, but information is limited and some rumors include PC players getting the upgrade for free if they own the other games. View full article