Tag: Redfall

Xbox won’t close Arkane Austin after Redfall’s terrible reception

Head of Xbox Studios Mat Booty said Microsoft has no plans to close Arkane Austin after Redfall’s poor critical and consumer reception

Head of Xbox Studios Mat Booty said Microsoft has no plans to close Arkane Austin after Redfall, the team’s take on multiplayer shooters, launched to poor critical and consumer reception. Booty made the comments to Axios (thanks Eurogamer) and said the Redfall team is still working to improve the game in future updates.

“That is the plan right now,” Booty said when asked whether Arkane Austin would remain open. “They are hard at work on updates and continued content for Redfall [and we want to] support them to be able to keep working to deliver the game they had in mind.”

“The game they had in mind” echoes head of Xbox Phil Spencer’s comments when he publicly acknowledged Redfall was a disappointment – though Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier said Arkane Austin didn’t even want to make Redfall. Schreier’s sources told him that Arkane Austin hoped Xbox would can the project after Microsoft purchased their parent company, Bethesda, but that didn’t happen.

In a roundtable discussion after the Xbox Games Showcase that GLHF attended, Booty left Redfall and Arkane Austin out of Microsoft’s slate of games while discussing how he believes Xbox has “turned the corner” in 2023.

Still, at least the studio remains open and its team members employed, despite the snub. Earlier in 2023, Microsoft laid off several key people on the 343 Industries team who worked on Halo Infinite.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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Xbox head Phil Spencer promises a better Redfall in future updates

Phil Spencer, CEO of Xbox Game Studios, promised a brighter future for Arkane’s Redfall after the FPS game’s troubled launch

Phil Spencer, CEO of Xbox Game Studios, said he’s surprised and disappointed by Redfall’s lackluster reception, but promised a brighter future for the FPS game. Spencer made the comments while speaking on the Kinda Funny Games show, though he didn’t indicate what kind of updates Arkane Austin has planned for Redfall outside the 60fps patch.

“The team at Arkane is taking the near-term feedback,” Spencer said. “We’re still working on the 60fps update. We have a good timeline for that [and] we’re gonna continue to work the game. We’ve shown a commitment to games like Sea of Thieves and Grounded to continue to go and build games. But I also know these games are $70, and I’m gonna take full responsibility for launching a game that needs to be great.”

Spencer said the team expected aggregate review scores to be “double digits” higher than they were. Redfall has a 57 aggregate score on PC, where it faced the worst performance issues, and 62 for Xbox. However, he doesn’t believe performance troubles are what caused the game’s poor reception.

“When I look at the review scores of this game it’s [about] did we have enough creative differentiation in our core idea and did we realize that creative ambition?” Spencer said. “I’m a huge supporter of Arkane Austin. Their track record is awesome, [and] I love a lot of the great games that they’ve built. This is one where the team didn’t hit their own internal goals.”

Arkane hasn’t issued a statement since Redfall launched, so whether the team feels the same way about failing to meet its own creative goals is unclear.

Redfall is on Xbox Game Pass for console and PC, so if you wanted to give it a try without shelling out $70 for it, that might be the best option.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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May 2023 game releases: Upcoming titles being released this month

There’s more than just the next Zelda game

May is just around the corner, and it looks packed with great video games to look forward to. The long-awaited sequel to one of the best games ever released will keep Switch owners busy for quite some time, while Xbox and PC gamers are getting a highly-anticipated co-op first-person shooter with vampires.

Strategy fans will be treated to a new Age of Wonders title, and a unique puzzle game − in which a dog herds human crowds to save them from falling into the abyss – is coming to PC and PlayStation, with support for VR headsets, including the PSVR2.

A Lord of the Rings game that got delayed several times is finally coming to most platforms, and a new augmented-reality pet game from the creators of Pokémon GO is due in May, too.

Plenty of titles to be excited about, so let’s have a look at the best games releasing in May 2023.

Redfall will be crossplay across all platforms

Vampire hunting is better with friends, no matter where they’re playing from.

Anyone gleefully looking forward to Redfall (most of us) will be happy to hear that it’ll be crossplay between all available platforms.

On Monday, Arkane Studios announced via a developer Q&A that Redfall supports crossplay across Xbox, the Epic Games Store, Steam, and PC Game Pass. Meaning you and up to three others can group up to take on the vampiric hordes regardless of platform! That sure makes coordinating with friends considerably easier, eh?

Redfall is the latest effort from Arkane Austin, the development house that brought us modern-day classics like Prey and Dishonored. Like the studio’s previous efforts, Redfall‘s campaign blends high-octane FPS combat and sneaky immersive sim sequences in an open world filled with vampires – it looks positively bleak.

 

There’s little time left until Redfall comes out, as it launches on May 2, 2023, for Xbox Series X|S and PC. Initially, it was due out before the end of 2022, before Bethesda delayed the game to this year. There wasn’t a release date announcement until the recent Xbox Developer Direct showcase. 

Fingers crossed that Redfall won’t suffer another delay before then, especially since it’ll likely be the biggest Xbox first-party release until Starfield drops.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Redfall’s world is positively bleak in new trailer

Vampires, magical guns, and snarky quips await players in Arkane Austin’s new FPS.

A brand-new trailer for Redfall came out on Monday, giving us a better look into its grimy, blood-caked world.

Redfall is an open world first-person shooter from Arkane Austin, the developer that brought us hits like Dishonored and Prey – masters of the immersive sim and stealth genres, basically. In Redfall, you’ll take on a horde of vampires that have overrun a small island town in Redfall, Massachusetts. The entire game is playable in four-player co-op too!

Check out the new footage for yourself below. It highlights some of the game’s environments – from quaint seaside neighborhoods to caves swarming with blood-sucking fiends.

There are a few glimpses of side quests and the magical abilities that players can wield here, along with some of the nastier boss-like vampire types. Prior teases from Arkane Austin revealed that among those nasties will be pustulating ‘milk cow’ vampires.

While comparisons to Left 4 Dead are inevitable, Redfall allegedly takes more queues from Arkane’s prior work. So expect a lot of traps and sleuthing about – which has been front and center in other promotion videos.

Last month, Arkane revealed Redfall‘s release date of May 2, 2023, for Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Arkane announces Redfall release date at the Xbox showcase

Arkane announced the Redfall release date during the Xbox showcase, following a look at the shooter game’s story mode, weapons, and more

Arkane announced the Redfall release date during the Developer_Direct Xbox showcase, following a lengthy look at the shooter game’s story mode, weapons, and more. As earlier rumors suggested, Redfall will release on May 2, 2023, for Xbox Series X|S and PC via Windows.

Redfall’s story campaign sees you and up to three others explore the doomed coastal town of Redfall, once a bustling destination for tourists and now home to an army of vampires and their brainwashed cult of followers. Your goal is clearing the streets and shops of the undead scourge and defeating the vampire gods whose very presence bends the laws of nature and distorts reality.

The Arkane team said Redfall is a typically Arkane creation – packed with environmental storytelling, unexpected narrative events, and dozens of ways for you to approach any problem.

Outside of campaign mode, you and a group of friends can team up to clear out the surrounding neighborhoods, rescuing survivors and gathering information that eventually leads you to the Elder Vampires.

Each character has a range of upgradeable skills that help them specialize in combat. Layla, for example, can create an umbrella of light that absorbs incoming damage and turns it back against the enemy. You can upgrade weapons as well, adding attachments to augment their power, including the always-necessary stake. Can’t have those bloodsuckers coming back to un-life on you, after all.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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An Xbox and Bethesda showcase is coming soon – without Starfield

A new Xbox Bethesda showcase is set for late January, but Starfield isn’t among the upcoming Xbox games planned for the presentation

A new Xbox and Bethesda showcase called the Developer_Direct is scheduled to air on Jan. 25, 2023, at 3 p.m. ET, Xbox announced in an Xbox Wire post. If you’re hoping for some Starfield news after nearly a year since Bethesda released the last set of information, though, you’re in for a bit of a disappointment.

Xbox said there will be no Starfield news during the Developer_Direct. Instead, the team plans on hosting a standalone showcase all about Starfield – eventually. There’s no indication when the Starfield showcase might be just yet.

The Developers_Direct focuses on upcoming Xbox games such as Redfall, the vampire-hunting FPS game from Arkane, along with Minecraft Legends, Forza Motorsport, and The Elder Scrolls Online’s substantial new update planned for later in 2023.

Expect to see new Redfall footage – the first Arkane has shown in months – with more details on boss encounters, customization, and combat. There’s also new gameplay from Forza Motorsport and a deep dive into the PvP elements of Minecraft Legends’, the real-time strategy Minecraft spinoff set to launch on all platforms in the first half of 2023.

None of the games planned for the Developer_Direct has a firm release date yet. However, between rumors of Redfall launching in spring and the complete absence of any Xbox games such as Avowed that are still early in development, it seems Xbox is taking a leaf from Nintendo’s Direct showcases and only focusing on the next few months of releases.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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Redfall is reportedly coming out this spring

The next big FPS from Arkane Studios could launch sometime in May.

Redfall, the four-player cooperative FPS about slaughtering ghoulish vampires, might be coming out relatively soon. 

According to a report by Windows Central, publisher Microsoft is targeting May 2023 for Redfall‘s launch. Specifically the first week of that month. Officially, we only know Redfall will release sometime in 2023 after receiving multiple delays.

Arkane Studios, the developer that brought us games like Dishonored, Prey, and Deathloop, is also making Redfall. It’s an open-world affair where players can team up to explore the vampire-infested island of Redfall, Massachusetts. You can approach encounters by either taking the stealthy route or going in guns-blazing. Each playable character has a variety of unique special abilities, which will let parties come up with wild strategies.

There’s still not too much publicly available gameplay footage of Redfall, though a meaty developer diary from last summer revealed a bit more.

Like most other Microsoft exclusives, Redfall will launch on Xbox Series X|S and PC. It’ll also be available on Xbox Game Pass for anyone with an active subscription.

Redfall is also one of Microsoft’s first-party games that’ll cost $70 at launch. The company insists that “content, scale, and complexity” play an enormous part in this price hike. Other publishers within the games industry, including PlayStation and Ubisoft, are also selling titles at that price point.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Redfall has disgusting ‘milk cow’ vampires that ooze blood

Arkane Studios explains how nasty creatures of the night will be in Redfall.

What is particularly striking about the gothic co-op FPS Redfall is how much more gnarly enemies appear than in previous games from Arkane Studios. Deathloop, Prey, and Dishonored have spooky moments but nothing approaching full-on splatter horror vibes. Redfall‘s vampires, on the other hand, are utterly nasty.

During QuakeCon 2022 on Thursday, Bethesda released an all-new developer diary for Redfall. It goes over crucial aspects of design, like how approachable the campaign is for one player in contrast to a team of four. Or how you can attach whaling harpoons or broken guitars to firearms, because what else would you stake vampires with?

In the world of Redfall, humans have to become vampires of their own free will. So high-ranking members of vampire society must share blood with a person that wants to transform. The catch is those people might become some other beast rather than an atypical creature of the night — notably a ‘blood bag’ offshoot.

“[A blood bag] is this grotesque creature that is a vampiric version of a milk cow,” Ricardo Bare, creative director at Arkane Austin, said in the video. “It just produces excess, bloated amounts of blood for other vampires to sip on whenever they’re a little thirsty.”

The team explains that blood bags think highly of themselves despite how unflattering this sounds. Sharing is caring — even when it’s crimson life essence, I suppose.

Redfall is coming out sometime next year for Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Redfall’s latest trailer showcases open world vampire mayhem

Arkane Studios is back with a fresh look at the wonderfully bizarre co-op FPS.

The hype for Redfall is slowly growing. Following a rather impressive showing during Xbox & Bethesda’s not-E3 shindig, everyone’s been dying for another look. Thankfully, Arkane Studios gave us another teaser.

On Thursday, Bethesda released the latest trailer for Redfall. It’s primarily an overview of the open world and how players will navigate sections. First off, if you’re someone that fancies Arkane’s Dishonored or Prey franchises, the entirety of Redfall is playable in single-player. Co-op is optional. Despite what many thought, this isn’t a Destiny 2 MMORPG-like experience, thankfully.

There’ll also be several heroes in Redfall. Including the telekinetic savant Layla Ellison, ex-military sharpshooter Jacob Boyer, combat medic Remi de la Rosa, and cryptozoologist Devinder Crousley. We’ll get to know all of them through Redfall‘s lengthy campaign.

Check out the new Redfall trailer below. There’s also a high-quality YouTube Mirror available here.

I can’t remember the last time any game loudly and proudly mentioned cryptid-hunting. Arkane clearly knew the zoomers would love this premise and ran with it. Vampires appear to be the primary antagonistic force, though there’ll be other strange monsters too.

“Our vampires are not some aspirational fantasy,” says Harvey Smith, creative director on Redfall, said on Bethesda’s blog. “They’re predatory monsters who feed on the vulnerable to make themselves more powerful.”

This trailer comes three weeks after Redfall‘s gameplay debut. Shame that we have to wait until next year to sink our teeth in this one.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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