Earlier this week, it was revealed that new heroes in Overwatch 2 would be unlocked in their free tier Battle Pass system. This means that you will potentially need to grind hours of the game in order to play any new hero. On the other hand you can pay to unlock the tiers instantly, essentially making it pay to win. The first character to be done this way is the new healer, Kiriko. Alternatively, Kiriko will be available at launch with the purchase of the Watch Point pack. What happens after the season is over? They said that you would still be able to unlock previous heroes in some way.
Gamers are upset with this news and they have not been silent about it. Twitter and Reddit are full of disappointed and upset people. Some have even said that it would kill their game before it even launches.
Microsoft’s Purchase
Assuming that Microsoft’s purchase goes through, it is possible that the way the heroes are unlocked changes. The way Halo handles their battle pass system is that you can go back and complete previous battle passes once the season is over. Halo’s battle pass system is also only for unlocking cosmetics though and not abilities or anything that could potentially change the game. In a competitive game like Overwatch not having a hero unlocked could be the difference between a win or not, so we will see if Microsoft or even Blizzard change their plans.
Kiriko Leaked
Less than a day after the battle pass stuff came to light, Kiriko’s reveal trailer was leaked. You can watch it below, but it is in Spanish only.
What do you think of the way they plan to do their battle pass? Should battle passes only contain non-game changing things such as emotes and cosmetics? Let us know your thoughts.
As posted by dbdleaks on Twitter, we have our first look at Wesker, Rebecca, and Ada for the Resident Evil: W chapter of DBD. So far it looks like we’re just getting the standard cosmetics, but how great would it be if we got a Lance Reddick skin for Dead by Daylight? Maybe we could eventually get a Billy legendary cosmetic for Rebecca. The show may have not been the best, but he was great in it.
Like Nemesis, Wesker is going to be able to infect you with a virus (this time the Uroboros virus) which you can heal with a new disposable item, First Aid Spray. His perks are Superior Anatomy, Awakened Awareness, and Terminus. The survivors’ perks aren’t fully revealed as of yet, but right now for Ada they are Wiretap, Reactive Healing, and Low Profile. Rebecca’s perks are currently Better than New, Reassurance, and Hyperfocus.
Wesker’s Perks
Superor Anatomy
When a survivor fast vaults within 8 meters of you, your normal speed is increased by 30/35/40% for 3 seconds. It deactivates once you vault and has a cooldown of 30 seconds.
Awakened Awareness
When carrying a survivor you can see the aura of other survivors within 16/18/20 meters of you. Auras stay visible for 2 seconds after you stop carrying the survivor.
Terminus
When exit gates are powered, the perk activates. Injured, downed, and hooked survivors are inflicted with broken until the gates are opened. After the gates are opened they will stay broken for 20/25/30 seconds after the gates are opened.
Survivor Perks
As mentioned, survivor perks aren’t finished yet, but as of right now they appear to be for Ada:
Wiretap
Allows her to spu on a killer
Reactive Healing
Gain a surge of healing when her allies are hurt
Low Profile
Leave no trace when you’re the final survivor.
And for Rebecca:
Better Than New
Give her teammates speed boosts
Reassurance
Give temporary relief to struggling allies
Hyperfocus
Complete skill checks at increased speed.
Stranger Things
On top of the Resident Evil W leaks, they also posted videos of the rumored new Stranger Things map. There is no telling when the map will be out, but it looks like it’s still early in the development process. There’s no telling if this will replace the old Hawkins map or if this is a rework of it. This new one appears to be more of how it looked in season 4 and while they could just have it be a different wing of the lab, it will probably replace it. There’s no way to know right now if we will see the old map return or if they will hold off and only release this new map. With the map looking more like it did in season 4 of the show, it is a very good possibility that we see Vecna make an appearance as a killer in the future too.
Wesker should be officially announced on Wednesday, August 3 when Behaviour streams their Behaviour Beyond event. Right now, that is all that has been confirmed as they announced they would reveal what the W stands for, but anything else is anyone’s guess. It could be that they announce Stranger Things return or they will make a smaller announcement on Twitter for that in the future. It’s also speculated that we will see new games that Behaviour has been working on, their last one being Death Garden (RIP).
What do you think? Are you excited for the Behaviour Beyond event? Will you be playing Ada, Rebecca, or Wesker when they come out? Let us know.
While streaming on Twitch with Marvel Avengers’ lead designer, Brian Waggoner, Techniq may have accidentally revealed the game’s next hero. He said “my acting coach is actually the voice of She-Hulk. I won’t say her name because I don’t think that’s public knowledge yet but I think it was announced”. Waggoner said “We’re working on our next hero, who we haven’t said who it’s going to be yet. There will be a time for that. The focus right now is celebrating the work the team did on Jane. When it’s time to talk about who’s next, we’ll talk about who’s next”. The two were streaming on Twitch together in preparation of Mighty Thor, which sees Jane Foster’s Thor come over from an alternate timeline.
Jane’s Thor release isn’t a coincidence, as the MCU is preparing for Thor Love and Thunder to be released soon. While the game and the MCU are not related, it is typical that the game introduces upcoming characters that will appear in the MCU. They’ve released Hawkeye and Kate Bishop before the Hawkeye show debuted. Spiderman came out a few months before No Way Home did. It is a good way for people to get some familiarity with the character before hand without needing to read years of comics. Unlike Haweye, Kate Bishop, and Black Panther’s releases, Mighty Thor will be limited. It’s more like Spiderman’s debut where there’s not many centralized missions for the character and it doesn’t do much to move the story along.
Other Rumored Characters
She-Hulk joining Marvel Avengers wouldn’t be the last character, if the rumors are true. In fact there is a list of characters that will be coming after She-Hulk and the order in which they will debut. Winter Soldier, Captain Marvel, and War Machine are supposedly the next three. Take it with a grain of salt though, as the rumors didn’t mention Jane Foster’s Thor and she’s now in the game, though the list could be for full chapters, like Black Panther was. Other characters that have been data-mined from the files are Ant-Man, Dr. Strange, Falcon, Mar-Vell, Mockingbird, Quake, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Woman, Vision, Wasp. Ant-Man is the interesting one in that list as he appears in the game, but isn’t allowed to use his powers anymore.
Since the MCU is different, a chapter doesn’t need to promote an MCU property and it doesn’t always done that. If it did, then Dr. Strange, Scarlet Witch, and Vision would have probably been out with WandaVision or Dr. Strange. Falcon and Winter Soldier would have possibly come out during their show as well. It is possible that the shows were supposed to premiere before the game did, but Covid changed those plans. We know WandaVision was delayed, but we don’t know what the original release date was, it’s possible that it was supposed to release before the game even debuted.
What characters do you want to see added to the game? I think Quake and Mockingbird would be great. I would love to see them in the MCU again. Having them in the game could help introduce people to them who didn’t read comics or watch the show.
Is Dead by Daylight headed back to the Upside Down? Last year the Stranger Things DLC was pulled from stores when Netflix didn’t renew their contract with the game. While the characters stayed in the game if you already owned them, the Hawkins Laboratory map was removed. The perks from each character were renamed and put into base game perks. Over the weekend it was reported by DBDLeaks on Twitter that Netflix had contacted Behaviour Entertainment about a new chapter and getting their previous one back into stores. The new chapter would see Vecna, the big bad from season 4 join the game. On July 27,2022, the last part was debunked, meaning that Vecna probably is not coming to the game. The other stuff reported could still be happening though.
Investigating Stranger Thins leak right now as 'Vecna' model turned out to be fanmade. Parts of evidence provided supporting this leak is still legit for me. I would take it with grain of salt right now, although as I said, I still don't have enough information to fully debunk it
If the content is added back into the game, there is probably going to be confusion over the perks. As mentioned, they were renamed and made part of the base game, so would they then go back to their characters with the original name? Would these survivors have no perks? Steve, Nancy, and the Demogorgon came with the DLC and each one had some cosmetics you could purchase on top of the characters. One cosmetic was Johnathon. If the DLC does come back, could we eventually have new cosmetics, like Joyce, Hopper, Robyn, or Murray? It’s possible that they’d need the actors’ agreement on top of Netflix’s or else we’d get models that don’t match the characters, like Laurie Strode or the original Quentin Smith.
But Why?
Netflix has been focusing more on gaming, to the point it was part of Summer Game Fest. Between Netflix raising the price of their service, on top of their content being offensive to some groups, the company has been losing a lot of subscribers. They lost so much revenue that they laid off over 400 people in the last few months. It’s possibly they are looking for more revenue sources. Getting the DLC back into Dead by Daylight makes a lot of sense as a source of cash flow. It’s already done and basically won’t cost them anything, plus it is great advertising for the show. Stranger Things is one of the most popular franchises they have. It’s ending with season 5, but there have been talks of a spinoff potentially happening. The final episodes of season 4 premiere on July 1.
Are you excited for the prospect of a return to the Hawkins Lab? Maybe a reworked Hawkins Lab like they’ve done with Lampkin Lane? Personally I’d be excited. Hawkins Lab could be difficult to run, but it was a very unique map.
In 2020 the fifth Fable game was announced, tentatively just called Fable. Unlike the other main Fable games, this is not being made by Lionshead Studios. Lionshead Studios shut down in 2016 and their last game, Fable Legends, was cancelled. This time Playground Games is working on the franchise. This is their first project that isn’t Forza related.
What is Fable?
Fable and its sequels are RPG games. The stories are all mostly standalone with the world being the same one, just progressing through time through each game. In the three main games of the series, Theresa, a blind seeress is related to the hero, first as his sister, and subsequently the hero is a descendent of her brother. Fable: The Journey, which is a Kinect spinoff game, has Theresa appears again, this time not related to the main character. In Fable: The Journey, Theresa dies and the hero, Gabriel, becomes the new seer.
What about the new game?
Besides a trailer in 2020, nothing is confirmed about the new game. Since Fable was announced, Microsoft finished the acquisition of Bethesda Software, which focuses heavily on RPG games. They’ve made the Elder Scrolls and Fallout Series and in early 2023, they will be launching Starfield. It’s possible that Xbox wanted all eyes on Starfield when that launches, which is why we haven’t seen anything regarding Halo in a few years. My bet is that the next time we see it will be at E3 2023, after Starfield launches. It may even be one of the biggest games shown at next year’s show.
There’s speculation that it is a complete reboot of the series, either taking place many years after the four games where no character is connected to the past or that it will start from scratch and the previous games never happened. The trailer was just a tease and nothing has been confirmed or denied so far. It could be a remake of the original Fable game as well for all we know.
What’s on my Fable wishlist?
I love Fable. Even though I didn’t play the sequels until earlier this year, but the original game I put a lot of time into. I never did play the Kinect game though and I think a lot of people are the same. It may not have been bad, but you needed a Kinect on the Xbox 360 meaning that the game was on rails. If you’re going to do an RPG it needs to be as open as possible, in my opinion. I put a lot of time into Skyrim when I played it last year, mainly because I kept finding new and exciting things to do. I don’t see how you could do that on a Kinect game. So what is my ultimate wishlist for the next Fable game?
Don’t reboot the franchise
Let everything that happened happen. Seeing the old Guild hall through the centuries was one of the best parts of the series. I love how it goes from this place where heroes gather and get quests to destroyed in the second one to the old kings secret santuary in the third one.
Maybe not everything
Theresa was a huge part of the series. She guided the hero whether it was her brother or a king, she was there to show them the way. If that means that they need to pretend that Fable: The Journey never happened, so be it.
Make it truly open world
Going from area to area would be an amazing experience in that world. Even if the cities would be separate and the inside would be separate from the world map, like Skyrim, it would be great to go from Bowerstone to Oakfield without needing to load into multiple areas.
More side quests. When you have Bethesda as a partner under Xbox, consult with them if you need more side quests. On top of side quests I’d love to have more jobs too. In Fable 3 making the pies was great and being a blacksmith in 2 was pretty fun as well. The main game can be a lot of fun, but people get lost in side quests and it would make people play the game that much longer.
Customizable characters
Part of the fun of Fable 3 was going around fighting in a chicken suit. I’d love to be able to mix and match outfits. We should also be able to choose our gender like in the second game. Any weapons, hair styles, etc should be available within those shops and not found on the map randomly. If anything some outfits and hairstyles should be unlocked by doing certain missions.
Weapons, Weapons, Weapons
Fable 3 was odd in that your weapon grew more powerful and changed appearance. Give us choices of weapons, weights of hammers and swords. Ability to choose two handed weapons or single handed weapons and a shield. Maybe even two single handed weapons in each hand. If you’re going to have guns in the game, have them alert the enemies when it’s shot, but if you use a bow, let it be more stealthy. Maybe ability to customize the weapons via skins as well, I’d love to hit people with a tiger print sword.
What is on your Fable wishlist? Are you excited about the new game? When do you think it will be released? Let me know in the comments.
In my last post I talked about the things that I am hyped about that were announced, but what about the disappoints? Games are great, but sometimes there’s rumors and leaks that just aren’t discussed. They may be announced at a later time, but when you’re hoping they are shown and aren’t then it can suck. So what are the ones that were missed this year that I was hoping for?
Final Fantasy VII Remake
I would love it to be announced for Xbox, but even if I need to play it on PC or PS5, I’d like to at least know when part 2 is coming. I’d also love to know how many parts there are and the projected release date for them. I put in many hours of the original Final Fantasy VII and haven’t touched the remake because I just want to play it all the way through, like I did growing up. The 25th anniversary of VII has a conference today though, it’s not officially part of Summer Game Fest, so it wasn’t on the schedule, but it is possible they show something today. With the console exclusive tag being removed from Sony’s store, it being announced for Switch or Xbox is a huge possibility.
GoldenEye Remake
Earlier this year Achievements were leaked for this unannounced game. More were leaked early this month as well. It was rumored to be a Nintendo Switch and Xbox game. Unfortunately it wasn’t shown during the Xbox conference and so far there’s nothing official saying it could be anywhere else. Nintendo is rumored to be doing a Nintendo Direct later this month though. Could we see GoldenEye at a Nintedo event? It’s a possibility they have the right to announce it first. We’ll see by the 30th if any of this comes true.
Fable
Fable was announced a few years ago with a short teaser. Since then nothing has been shown of the game. Is it even still in development at this point? Probably. Since it’s announcement, Microsoft has acquired Bethesda and they are king of the RPG. With Starfield so close to release, it’s possible that they want to put that out and then show something next year regarding the game.
Gears of War: Marcus Fenix Collection
This was a game that I was hoping would be real. Gears of War 6 is going to be using the new Unreal Engine, so I was hoping we would see a collection of games before that. I have streamed every single main Gears game to date, so to do it all again on their latest console with amazing graphics is something that I’d really love to do.
Was there anything you were hoping to see? Do you think we could see some of these games get announced before 2022 is out? I know I am still holding out some hope.
So I was going to write about each presser that happened at Summer Game Fest, but there was a lot. There’s been a lot of games announced and more press conferences popped up than originally announced, so I will give my highlights and what I’m excited for. There’s certainly a lot to be excited for even if I don’t mention it here.
First and foremost, two surprises coming to Game Pass on day 1, TMNT Shredder’s Revenge and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I was looking forward to the Ninja Turtles games coming this year and having this on Game Pass on day 1 means less money I need to spend. I will be playing that as the next game I stream after the Dead by Daylight event. As far as Texas Chainsaw Massacre is concerned, it looks fun, but without people to play with I wouldn’t be interested in playing it that much, with it being on Game Pass, there is a good possibility I will have people to play with.
Overwatch 2
Blizzard set an event on June 16th, so people expected more information on the game would be revealed then. I don’t think anyone expected Overwatch 2 to have a character reveal as well as a release date announcement at the Xbox Bethesda conference. It was a pleasant surprise. Then they announced that a new beta would be coming on June 28th. I loved the first beta and am definitely looking forward to playing more Overwatch 2. I’ll be playing the beta as well, which should be crossplay this time around.
A Plague Tale 2
This was already announced and we knew it was coming to Game Pass on day 1, but to see the trailer was amazing. The first game was incredible and I’m not really sure where this series is going, but I can’t wait to play it. This is another one of those games where if it wasn’t on Game Pass I would have never even touched it, but I am really glad I did.
High On Life
This game looks ridiculous. This game is from Squanch Games so it is ridiculous. I was laughing at the game play reveal as it has the same humor as Rick and Morty, but when it comes from the creator, that’s to be expected. The premise is humans are being used as drugs for an alien race and you have to stop them from making humanity go extinct just because of their nasty human habit. Honestly this game might just be a day one purchase for me.
Saints Row Boss Factory
So this isn’t so much a game as it is a pregame item. Basically you can create your boss in the new Saints Row before the game launches in August. I am thinking about playing this between games of Dead by Daylight during their anniversary event.
What are your highlights from Summer Game Fest? Let me know in the comments.
Sony’s State of Play for June 2022 has come and gone and what word sums it up? Capcom. Capcom showed three games during the half hour show: Resident Evil 4 Remake, Resident Evil Village for PSVR 2, and Street Fighter 6. I don’t know about the rest of you, but a VR 9 foot tall vampire lady sounds pretty good to me.
Resident Evil 4 Remake
Resident Evil 4 Remake does not come as a surprise after over a year of rumors and the 2 and 3 remakes. The game visually looks amazing and with updated controls, it will surely be a hit. I played every Resident Evil game in 2021 and Resident Evil 4’s controls were it’s biggest downfall for me. Well those and Ashley (who I killed numerous times). With new controls and hopefully a less annoying Ashley and Resident Evil 4 Remake could be even better than the original. One does have to wonder if this is the end of the line for the Resident Evil Remakes. It would make sense to go back and remake the remake of Resident Evil 1 in the same style as the others. I’d really love a remake of Code Veronica though, as great as that game is, a remake could make it even better. Resident Evil 4 Remake launches on March 24, 2023
Resident Evil Village – PSVR 2
Lady Dimitrescu is going to make all the horny fans drool while watching her in VR and I am here for it. With Resident Evil 7 being on the original PSVR, Village coming to PSVR2 just makes sense. I doubt much visual improvements can/will be made, but with how the game looked already, that shouldn’t be an issue. Resident Evil Village for PSVR doesn’t have a release date yet.
Street Fighter 6
After being announced earlier this year, Street Fighter 6 has officially made it’s debut. It looks incredible with a new visual design. This appears to be a new era for Street Fighter with things that haven’t been seen in any previous version, including exploring the world that they’ve created. Street Fighter 6 is set to launch on PS4 and PS5 in 2023.
PSVR 2 was the star of the show, even if Capcom did deliver 3 highly anticipated games. So what is coming to the headset? Well more zombies of course. If Resident Evil 4 and Village didn’t give you enough of the undead, then you will be happy to know that Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners: Chapter 2, Retribution will be coming to it. It looks like they are expanding on the previous games crafting and group system as well as adding new enemies.
No Man’s Sky – PSVR 2
No Man’s Sky has had a lot of issues since launch. It didn’t deliver on day 1 what it promised. It eventually got everything that was announced, but that was at least a year after launch. PSVR and Oculus No Man’s Sky wasn’t that great, so will the PSVR 2 help with that? Hopefully. The good thing about the game though, even if they don’t deliver right away, they do deliver. It may take a while, but they do deliver what they promise.
Horizon: Call of Mountain – PSVR 2
This is the game that is going to make or break the PSVR 2. Let’s be real, Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West are system sellers, that whole world is amazing. If they can deliver in VR what is so great about playing the others, then this will make PSVR 2 sell out. It’s already hard enough to get a PS5, so with this game coming, it will probably be just as hard to get the headset.
It was also announced that Horizon Forbidden West got a new update. With it comes New Game+ as well as an Ultra Hard mode. It also lets you respect Alloy at any time. The game also got some performance updates for the PS4 Pro and PS5.
Stray
Do you want to play as a ginger tabby cat? Stray is the game for you then. You will be able to access your inner cat on July 19 on PS4 and PS5. This is also the first game that is going to be free for Premium and Extra tier PS Plus Subscribers. Could this be a preview of them doing it more? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
The Callisto Protocol
Do you want a space horror game from the original creators of Dead Space? Well then say hello to The Callisto Protocol. I thought this was either Dead Space 4 or the Dead Space Remake, but it’s a new IP entirely.
Other Games
I’m not really sure what to say about these other games. They look cool, they look like they could be fun. I just don’t have much to say about them, so I will just post the trailers.
Rollerdome
Eternights
Tunic
Season: A Letter to the Future.
Spiderman Remastered
Spiderman Remastered? Yes! For PC! Sony has promised to deliver $300 million for PC in the next year, but this was the only PC announcement at the show. Their acquisition of Bungie might be a big part of their prediction, but Spiderman coming to PC could be huge. It will be interesting to see if they release Spiderman 2 on PC at the same time as the PS5 version.
Final Fantasy XVI
Sony opened the show with 2 Resident Evil games and it ended it with Final Fantasy. A lot of people were guessing that we’d get news about Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2, but that was absent from the show. We might get some news on that soon, seeing as how it is the game’s 25th anniversary. There were rumors of news this month actually, but we’re only three days in so it could be coming down the line. Until we get news on that, we have a new trailer and release time frame for Final Fantasy 16. It should be launching in summer 2023.
I was hoping for news on Final Fantasy 7 remake, but there’s rumors it could be announced for Xbox at their conference. Adding fuel to these rumors is the removal of the exclusive on the Playstation Store. We’ll have to wait and see. This was a strong showing regardless, although it was short. Was there anything you were hoping to see and didn’t? Are you hoping for anything to be announced for Sony at one of the other conferences? Let me know!
June is here and that means the Summer of Gaming 2022 is officially kicking off. What are you hoping to hear about? I know I am hoping for some Fable news, a new Watch Dogs, maybe some gameplay of the new VR Ghostbusters game. In fact, I will be trying to do a write up of each one so everything is separated and in its own dedicated post. I will also be discussing things on my live streams, so come hang out and let’s discuss what’s announced. Here is the current schedule:
Wednesday, June 1
Warhammer Skulls Showcase 2022
Thursday, June 2
Sony State of Play and IGN Pre and Post Shows
Monday, June 6
Netflix Geeked Week Day 1 (Series)
Tuesday, June 7
Netflix Geeked Week Day 2 (Film)
Wednesday, June 8
Black Voices in Gaming
Netflix Geeked Week Day 3 (Animation)
Thursday, June 9
Summer Game Fest
Upload VR Showcase
Netflix Geeked Week Day 4 (Stranger Things)
Friday, June 10
IGN Expo
Netflix Geeked Week Day 5 (Games)
Tribeca Games Spotlight
Freedom Games Showcase 2022
Saturday, June 11
Guerrilla Collective Showcase
Wholesome Games Direct
Future of Play Direct
NetEase Games Livestream
Sunday, June 12
Xbox & Bethesda Showcase
PC Gaming Show
Something I want to point out is that Netflix’s Geeked Week is not just about games, in fact only day 5 is dedicated to games, but day 4 is a day dedicated to Stranger Things. It may be possible they show something regarding a new Stranger Things game then. It would be great if Dead by Daylight got the license for Stranger Things back, but that is probably not going to happen. If it did happen, it would probably not be announced then.
Either way, I am excited and I think in some ways this feels larger than E3. It’s probably because it’s taking place over more days and not a week. Are you excited for what’s possibly being announced? What are you hoping to see?
With just under a month to go until the Xbox and Bethesda press conference for Summer Game Fest, the rumors are flying. What rumors you ask? According to Green Ninja on Twitter, Microsoft is going to announce Ubisoft+ Classics will be part of Game Pass. Will they actually include it? It’s possible, but I doubt it. EA Play already can be accessed with Game Pass, so adding Ubisoft seems like a pipe dream. As great as three bundled services under one price sounds, Ubisoft+ Classics is already part of Playstation Plus.
Ubisoft+ Classics is a collection of older Ubisoft games and doesn’t include their full library. Ubisoft+, however is their entire catalog of games. New releases are added to the service on release and any DLC and premium editions of games are part of their subscription service. It’s a pretty great deal and I wish EA Play and Game Pass included DLCs as part of their subscription fee. Even if Game Pass included DLC for their first party games, that would be pretty huge.
They also said that Xbox Game Pass Family plan will also be announced at the showcase. This would be huge if true. Xbox 360 had a family plan for their Gold Membership, so the fact that it disappeared was disappointing. People with multiple Xboxes (including me) will be ecstatic that we will finally be able to allow our families to play with us on a separate console or even on PC using their own accounts.
Contraband
The final leak they revealed was that we will Contraband gameplay. Contraband is co-op smuggler’s paradise set in the fictional world of 1970s Bayan. From Avalanche Studios. It was announced last year at E3, so a lot of people have been waiting for more information about the game. This was last year’s trailer:
Are you excited about these potential leaks? Anything you’re hoping to see?
Behaviour Entertainment’s flag ship game is going into it’s seventh year and they did a live stream to celebrate. They talked about the next 12 months of Dead by Daylight and the next chapter(s?) that are coming up. Were the leaks accurate? Let’s talk about it.
Dead by Daylight Chapter 24
The chapter is officially called Roots of Dread and it comes with a killer, survivor, and map. Right now it is on the PTB, with an official release date for June 7th, 2022. As we reported earlier, the new killer is the Dredge. The survivor is Haddie Kaur. The map is Garden of Joy. The Dredge is supposed to be the boogyman, the fear that we all had growing up. The map is part of a small town and a lovely house in this town. What’s interesting about the map is they said it’s not specific to these characters. It will have variations for different ones. With them almost done redoing all of the maps to the new engine, it is possible that it would be faster to redo this map numerous times for future updates.
The killer perks as previously reported are:
Septic Touch: Whenever a survivor performs the healing action within your terror radius, that survivor suffers from blindness and exhaustion, it lingers for 6 seconds after healing is interrupted by any means. This unlockable perk is unlocked in the Bloodweb at level 40.
Darkness Revealed: When you open a locker, the auras of all survivors within 16 meters of any lockers are revealed for 3 seconds. This perk has a 30 second cool down. This unlockable perk is unlocked in the Bloodweb at level 35.
Dissolution: 3 seconds after injuring a survivor by any means, Dissolution activates for 12 seconds. The next time a survivor fast vaults over a pallet inside your terror radius, the Entity will break the pallet at the end of the vault and the perk deactivates. This unlockable perk is unlocked in the Bloodweb at level 30.
Haddie Kaur’s perks are:
Residual Manifest: After a successful killer blind, the killer is affected by blindness for 30 seconds. The perk also allows you to rummage through an opened chest once per Trial and guarantee a basic flashlight.
Inner Focus: You can see other survivor’s scratch marks within a 32 meter range of you. Whenever another survivor loses a health state within a 32 meter range of you, the killer’s aura is revealed to you for 5 seconds.
Overzealous: After cleansing a totem, your generator repair speed is increased by 4%. This perk deactivates when you lose a health state by any means.
The killer’s powers will be that he can teleport to lockers, this will provide him a fast way to get around the map.
Chapter 25?
Early in the show they announced that the RPD map, the one that came with the Resident Evil chapter would be getting different variants. Later in the show they announced something called Resident Evil Project W. This is more than likely related to the RPD map variants. It would be odd for them to announce the next chapter so early. It wouldn’t be unfound though. The Ringu was announced in December and released in March. If this is the 25th Chapter, then we could expect Wesker as a killer, with Ada Wong, and Rebecca Chambers as survivors.
Perk Updates
Without mentioning what they are, it was announced that 40 perks on both survivor and killer are going to be reworked. Right now, there are perks that survivors and killers typically run, these are known as meta perks. The goal is to change them enough so they aren’t meta. This means that Hex: Ruin, BBQ and Chili, Dead Hard (which never works anyway), Decisive Strike, along with many others will be reworked. They’re hoping to roll that out this summer.
There’s also going to be preset loadouts. You can have three set of perks as well as different outfit sets ready to go. This means that if you want to do a meme build, you will be able to just choose it and the perks will be there ready to go. It will also work the same way with the outfits and charms.
The Shrine of Secrets is going to be getting an overhaul too. If you have level 1 of a perk, you can now buy level 2 of that perk, but how does that make sense if every perk needs to be unlocked? Let’s find out.
Prestige Updates
We’ve all been there, we reach level 50 of a character’s blood web and we have the option to either Prestige and lose everything, or just stay at level 50. The update will let you prestige and unlock that character’s perks on every character. This means the game will be a lot less grindy. If you prestige three times, level 3 of those perks will be unlocked for every character.
This will be a big help for me especially, since I’ve been trying to level everyone up and get all perks, but I’m only on Jake. Prestiging a character also won’t make you lose any perks, items or addons. You can also Prestige passed three levels for more rewards. Personally, I was hoping for a blood web option of selecting a perk at the start of a blood web and it automatically making a path to that. This seems like an even better option.
Game Updates
There will be a new layout for the main menu, which will now include an incentive for playing either killer or survivor, whichever role is needed more will give you bloodpoints for playing it. You will also be able to see how long until the Rift ends right on the new main menu and not going into it to check.
A big new feature, one that arguably should have been in the game for a while, is the ability to check the store, check archives, etc while you are waiting for a match. This means that you can set a challenge while in queue for a match. Speaking of queue, you will have more than one challenge now. You will have a killer one and a survivor one, this way you won’t play killer and accidentally only be on a survivor challenge. You’ll also be able to view full Rift outfits.
Mori Updates
They are going to be redoing moris. It will soon automatically start a mori as soon as you down the last survivor. This means that killers will no longer be able to carry the last survivor to the hatch. If they want to give them the hatch, they will need to walk there. This also means that the momento mori will either get reworked or removed completely. We will probably see a rework of ebony and ivory moris as well in the future.
Bots
When Nemesis came out, he came with two AI controlled zombies. It was teased that they like to rework assets they have when asked if other characters would come with AI bots. Bots will be available in custom games for you to play with or against. This means that you will be able to practice playing with perks or against killers without affecting your rank. It also means that you won’t have to do 3v1 games if you’re missing an extra person.
Crossovers
Dead by Daylight has been very careful about doing crossovers. They usually limit it to other horror icons. Today they announced an Attack on Titan crossover.
This is the first time Dead by Daylight is collaborating with an anime. You will be able to get skins and looks inspired by the show. There are ten planned Attack on Titan outfits coming to the game soon. They showed off three pieces of concept art for the crossover. First is Oni as the Armored Titan. Second is Dwight as Eren. The third is Zarina as Hange.
Dead by Daylight Mobile
DBD Mobile is getting a huge update soon. Leader boards, a social system, quick matches, improved control layout, new reward, and more are coming. There will be a closed beta test coming in the next few weeks for these new updates. Once the closed beta is online, you will be able to sign up to it via the app stores.
Hooked on You
The biggest WTF moment came when a DBD Dating Sim was announced. “I Love You, Colonel Sanders!” developer Psyop is working on “Hooked on You: A Dead by Daylight Dating Sim.” You’ll be able to flirt with killers on Murderer’s Island. I guess all that Rule34 art finally paid off. You can expect to enjoy the humor, romance, and horror this summer.
What do you think, are you excited for these changes? Are you excited for the new dating simulator? I was hoping for a change to the way you open the doors or work on generators, but these are some welcome changes. I’m oddly looking forward to Hooked on You as well. It’s an absurd concept that seems like it would be a lot of fun.
Journalist Nick Baker from Xbox Era claimed that a Master Chief Collection style game was in the works for Gears of War. He went on to say “if you go from November 2021 to November 2022 and you look at Microsoft’s big game output, it could wind up being Halo, Gears, Forza…” If he’s right then that would be a huge game for Xbox this year.
As for what it would include? It will probably include remasters of Gears of War 2 and 3. It should also include the Ultimate Edition, which is a remaster of the first Gears game. If it is like the Master Chief Collection then it’s possible that we would get Gears of War Judgement either included as part of the collection or as a DLC later on. Would it include Gears of War 4 and 5? I doubt it for a few reasons. The first being that Gears of War 4 and 5 wouldn’t get much out of remasters for the Series X. Second, both games have already received updates for the Series X/S. I think it’s just a matter of time before we get a collection of Xbox 360 Gears games. The real question is will it be in 2022?
What about Gears of War 6?
Last year Nvidia GeForce Now database was leaked. The leak included a list of unannounced games including God of War, Detroit: Become Human, Gears of War 6 and many others. The two former were announced for PC in the subsequent months, but Gears of War 6? That’s still unannounced. Nvidia did confirm that the leak was real, but that the games listed were purely speculative. Gears of War 5 released in 2019, so a new game releasing in 2022 would make sense. In July 2021, the Coalition announced they were winding down development of Gears 5 and would be working on new projects using Unreal 5.
While that may not seem like enough time to create any game, Epic developed Unreal Engine 5 with forward compatibility in mind. This means that developers can create games in Unreal Engine 4 and move them to the next-generation engine later. It’s possible that the collection or even Gears 6 started on Unreal 4 and moved to 5 in the past few months. Is it really that easy though? Epic makes it seem very easy to switch from 4 to 5. With Fortnite chapter 3, they switched from Unreal 4 to Unreal 5’s engine. How many other released games will be changing engines though? That remains to be seen.
What else was leaked?
Here is the full list of what was leaked, but it’s important to take these with a grain of salt:
Unannounced title by Square Enix (could be like four games) — Tomb Raider on Unreal Engine 5 announced
Kingdom Hearts IV
Resident Evil 4 Remake
Street Fighter 6
Dragons Dogma 2
Monster Hunter 6
GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas Remasters
Bioshock RTX remaster
Bioshock 2022
Mirrors Edge RTX Remaster
Untitled Respawn Game (Three Star Wars games)
Titanfall 3
Tekken 8
Human Fall Flat 2
The Talos Principle 2
Crysis 4
Earth Defence Force 6
Bayonetta 3
Judgement (this one seems odd to me due to legsl disuptes with SEGA and actor agency)
Catherine Full Body
Shin Megami Tensei V
Batman: Arkham Knight RTX Remaster
Half-Life 2 Remastered
Project FPS
Xcom 3
Injustice 3: Gods will Fall
Destroy all Humans 3
MGS 2 & 3 HD (no shot in my opinion)
Mario and Rabbids
Death Stranding Directors Cut PC
Sniper Elite 5
City Skylines 2
Total War 9
Payday 3
Hangar 13 Unannounced (Cancelled Superhero game)
Fight for Middle-Earth
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (PC)
Mortal Kombat Next Gen & Mortal Kombat XII
Moss – listed on Steam (PSVR Timed Exclusive it seems)
Space Punks (for Steam)
Hitman Pro
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Remastered
Goat Simulator 2
Wreckfest Sequel
Worms Next =X
Titan Quest 2 =X
Outcast
Viking by Criterion.
Metro Next
S.T.A.L.K.E.R Android
As Dusk Falls and As Dusk Falls Season 2 (ERSB Ratings confirm)
Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers (Switch Exclusive)
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order
Ruined King
Summer Game Fest
If there is a new Gears of War game coming this year, then it will more than likely be announced at Summer Game Fest. The question is what else could be announced? It depends on how many of these titles are supposed to be released in the next year. I’d be very excited for remasters of the Gears games, but there is so many other games listed I’d be excited for. Ultimate Alliance 3 would be fun, I know it’s on Switch, but putting it on PC would be great. It would be even better if they could get the license to list 1 and 2 again, I’d love to go back and replay them.
Are you excited for the possibility of a Marcus Fenix Collection? What about Gears 6? What else on the list are you excited for?