Welcome to the gaming edition of our weekly pop culture round-ups. Here you can find out all about the week’s latest video game gossip and what’s due out soon.
The News
Elite Dangerous finally getting grounded
Developer Frontier Developments were this week forced to reveal their latest expansion Odyssey, after the trailer was “accidentally” leaked by themselves.
Odyssey, the games latest expansion was announced in May of last year but Frontier have not given any further details about the project until now. Originally hailed as Elite’s “Next Era” the new details this week now show us that the game is about to open up to a whole new world of exploration. The update due out next year will finally give players the ability to explore planet surfaces not only in vehicles but now on foot as well, this is a feature that players have yearned for far too long. With the resurgence of the player base that No Mans Sky has seen, it’s no wonder that they have chosen to take the game in this direction.
The announcement was delivered by a brand new trailer that briefly shows players walking along a desert-like planet, complete with space suits, weapons and jet packs that wouldn’t look out of place in a Mass Effect game. The presence of weapons shows that there’ll be more than just exploring to do whilst planetside and that brings even more value to an already well-established space exploration sim. Frontier themselves have stated there will be “Intense first-person combat” and players will have to “Master a multi-layered, deep, tactical environment where Commanders, SRVs and Starships converge”.
Other new additions will bring some quality of life improvements to help the new content gel more fluidly with what the game currently has to offer, including social hubs to help commanders form alliances, purchase the new weapons and armour and take on brand new contracts. Plenty to keep new and returning players busy.
Kingdoms of Amalur set to return with remaster
Sticking with convenient “leaks” this week, Microsoft has now dropped the bombshell that Kingdoms of Amalur is getting a remaster in the form of “Re-Reckoning”. The once-popular RPG was supposedly going to be the start of an entirely new franchise but due to the closure of 38 Studios who owned the IP the game didn’t get the sequels it so deserved.
That all seems to be changing now after THQ Nordic acquired the rights to the game back in 2018. There has been speculation for a long time that a revival was on the cards, now it looks as though a remaster may well be testing the water to see if there’s still enough interest to pursue further titles. The remaster is currently slated for a release of 11th of August 2020 if Microsoft’s product page is to be believed.
Game Gear Micro announced by Sega
As part of Sega’s 60th anniversary this year, the company has announced that they will be bringing out a range of Game Gear Micros that are bizarrely palm-sized with a one-inch screen. What makes matters even worse, the Micro comes in 4 colours and will each hold four different games.
The console, which is currently only available to order in Japan, will set users back roughly £40 or $50, meaning if you want to play all the games available, it will cost £160. Not quite sure why Sega thought this was a good business strategy for the console but there seems to be a lot of fans not happy with the situations as it stands.
Releases this week
The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor
The only big hitter to be released this week comes in the form of ZeniMax’s latest expansion for it’s highly popular Elder Scrolls Online. Greymoor finally offers players the chance to return to the heart of Skyrim and vanquish the Vampire menace within. The expansion launches June 9th.
Other notable releases
Both Command and Conquer Remastered Collection (PC) and The Outer Worlds (Switch) both release today.
Prison Architect also receives its next DLC on all available platforms. Island Bound is released on June 11th.
Check back next week for more of the latest gaming news and keep an eye out for our movie and tech round-ups.
In the meantime, we have plenty of other gaming content for you to read!
