After a leak earlier this morning, EA has officially confirmed the next Battlefield game, titled Battlefield 1.

The game will be set in World War 1 and will release on October 21 for Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC (via Origin).

As per usual with EA games, there are a mass of pre-order bonuses. The Early Enlister Deluxe Edition will be available for all playforms on October 18 for $79.99. If you pick it up, you’ll be able to play three days early. You’ll also get extra vehicles and emblems including the Lawrence of Arabia Pack, Red Baron Pack and new visual appearance for three vehicles- the Frontline Camouflage train, the Dazzle Camouflage Dreadnought and the Night Raid Airship.

Battlefield 1 will contain dogfighting in biplanes and airships with external manned guns, and all the World War 1 “goodies” you’d expect. Trench warfare French tanks, gas masks and mustard gas were all shown off in the trailer. Melee combat will also have a larger focus with rapiers, trench shovels and spiked batons all available as melee weapons.

Check out EA’s blog post for more info on Battlefield 1.

Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” finds Steve Rogers leading the newly formed team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. But after another incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability, headed by a governing body to oversee and direct the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers, resulting in two camps—one led by Steve Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark’s surprising decision to support government oversight and accountability.

Avengers Phase 3 kicks off in brilliant style with Captain America: Civil War

So let’s take a look at the intro to Phase 3 and what it means to the world’s favourite super team.

Now I was worried about this one, considering how much we saw in the trailers and character profiles in the build up to the film’s release, but I was pleasantly surprised that not only was most of the bulk of the action NOT in the trailers for once, but there is SO MUCH more in this film.

There are some mild spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t watched it yet, stop reading now!

Ok, the biggest thing they teased in Captain America: Civil War was of course the Spiderman reveal, with Tom Holland taking over the webs now and Marisa Tomei taking over as a much younger than normally portrayed Aunt May. Which also brings some fun into the script with a, now single, Tony stark being somewhat attracted to her (that would be a VERY interesting twist) as he not only finds Peter, but sits down and becomes a mentor for him before making him his snazzy new suit.

Captain America: Civil War has been called Avengers 2.5, but it’s really not. What it IS is a start of a change of guard in the actor and character department that actually works really well and kicks off the Phase 3 run of films in BIG style. What really stands out here is the choreography of the fights. Every one of them is gritty, hard and brutal… But all of them are fantastic to watch and make you route for both sides evenly.

The biggest thing that shocked me in this change of guard is how they have not been afraid to seriously hurt characters that may, or may not, be back later. We already know theres no Iron Man 4 on the books, but that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, as he is in the first Spiderman film next year.

But of course the BIGGEST thing about this film is the bringing back together of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and the history not only between them both, but the other big characters. If you’ve read any of the comics, or know anything about Winter Soldier, one of the big reveals won’t come as a shock, but I heard gasps throughout the cinema while I was there from people who obviously didn’t know. What really stood out was how this effected other relationships Steve Rogers has, like with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and, as we knew, but also revealed, Peggy carters niece, Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) and how things are changing so much in the universe since Tony’s reveal of himself as Iron Man, like that was a big pivotal moment in the universe (well, it is as far as the governent and, now Secretary of State, Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt) is concerned)

As all that is going on, other relationships are changing and evolving. Especially that between Vision (Paul Bettany) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), as he’s cybernetic, her natural aura that puts people off her and make them feel uneasy when she’s around doesn’t affect him and he’s trying to get closer to her, but still not understanding the nuances of having a body, let alone emotions and feelings since becoming Vision. This leads to some sweet, but also cringe worthy moments between the two and other characters too.

Overall this was a great film, one of the best in a while, not guardians of the Galaxy great, but great all the same and a fantastic kick off to the new Phase of the MCU, even if they have cancelled Inhumans and replaced it on the slate.

A solid 8 out of 10!

~Lone

Gearbox Software’s new shooter Battleborn is out today, just in case you’ve been living under a rock.  While the game does have a single player campaign, it also has an extensive multiplayer PvP component. As with many shooters, its going to take us some time to see how the servers hold up, how the progression system works in the long term, and just how fun the game is for extended periods of time. So, in case you were wondering where the final score is, don’t worry. We’ll be updating our review in progress over the coming days with more impressions and videos. But for now, here’s a clip from Digmbot’s launch day stream to tide you over. And don’t forget to jump down past the video when you get done for some more impressions of this new IP.

Battleborn is a hard game to define. Like Overwatch, it’s a hero shooter. Characters have unique weapons and abilities, and you level up throughout the match. However, it also shares some MOBA DNA. As you level up, you choose augments to your basic abilities. You might want to increase the AOE damage of the archer Thorn’s blight pool for example. Or, you may choose to have her gain increased movement speed whenever she touches her own blight. The choice is yours, and it allows you to customize your Battleborn to your chosen playstyle or respond to the in game situation by specializing to deal with certain opponents.

The game does have a single player campaign, which can be played solo, with friends or in public groups. Only a handful of missions are available at launch, with the rest coming out later on. With 25 characters to unlock via mission completion, challenges and more, theres no shortage of content. The game also comes with three modes. Incursion sees you escorting your minions down a lane and building gun turrets, accelerator turrets and more as you try to push into the enemy base and destroy their sentry robots. Meltdown on the other hand tasks you with driving minions into giant furnaces to score points. And Capture, perhaps the dullest of the modes, is a standard capture and hold three points affair.

What sets Battleborn apart is the sense of humor and the way that experience is handled in match. The furnaces in Meltdown think they are gods. As minions are engulfed, they will scream out things like “By fire be reborn aaaas…..HUBCAPS!” Characters have tons of witty one liners. And even the sentry bots that guard the enemy base have their own personalities- I’ll never forget the first time one killed me and then flipped me off during the death cam replay.

Then there’s the way the game handles levelling and experience. In most shooters or MOBAs, you get experience from kills or from taking down significant objectives. While this still holds true in Battleborn you also have other options available. If you want to spend shards (the game’s currency earned from kills as well as object on the map) to build and level up defensive and offensive turrets, the game will reward you with XP. This means that a support focused character can play the map and continue to level up. In addition, gear is taken into battle in the form of loadouts. There is no item shop. Instead, you must spend shards to activate your gear. The better the gear, the more shards it costs to activate. And, showing it’s Borderlands DNA, the most epic of loot in Battleborn often comes with some significant disadvantages to offset the insane buffs it can provide. All this means that the game allows players to determine how they level up, when they activate gear (if at all) to obtain power spikes, and keeps the action flowing at a pace that never feels frustrating. Getting slaughtered in straight up fights? Sit back, support the team by building healing turrets and get some levels. Kicking ass and taking names? Spend those sweet shards to up your crit chance as you activate that sweet pair of gloves you unlocked in a loot pack after that last campaign mission.

As you can probably tell, theres a lot of interesting ideas in Battleborn. The characters are memorable, the levels are well laid out and the gameplay loop is satisfying and allows you to be flexible in your playstyle. We’ll be bringing you more over the coming days, so stay tuned!

Want the system specs for Battleborn? Click HERE for PredictedCyborg’s preview of what you need to run it.

Still need more gameplay? Check out Lone and Digm playing the open beta HERE.

Today press releases and announcements on social media confirmed the date of release for one of Bethesda’s upcoming games that was accidentally spoiled in potentially the funniest way possible – Dishonored 2.

The release date has now been set as Friday, November 11th and will be released for the Xbox One, Playstation 4 and the PC on that date worldwide. There will also be a gameplay premier shown off at Bethesda’s showcase at E3 on June 12th.

This is of course the sequel to the first Dishonored game, which saw you playing as an assassin with supernatural powers. The big draw this time of course is that not only can you play as the previous protagonist, royal protector, Corvo Attano, but also Empress Emily Kaldwin. The choice in methods is also still present, meaning you can decide to proceed slowly and take out opponents silently, or enter aiming to cause mass chaos.

For more information, you can browse over to the game’s site at www.dishonored.com

This is one of two reveals today, after the announcement of Dawn of War 3 a few hours earlier.

After posting up a silent 30 second video GIF upon their Twitter yesterday, Relic Entertainment and Sega have released the announcement trailer of the new Dawn of War game – Dawn of War 3.

This is of course a Warhammer 40,000 game, and its being developed with assets taken from Games Workshop’s popular miniatures game series. The trailer went live at 3pm BST/7am PDT and depicts several scenes of intense combat as the voiceover repeats what sounds like a soldier’s battle oath about being a light in the darkness and eventually facing death without a regret.

Of interest is the fact that there are Titans depicted within this trailer, hinting that they’ll be in this game unlike Dawn of War 2. Lone tells me that they’re the Eldar Wraith Lords and Imperial Knights Titans specifically.

If you’ve not already had a chance to check it out, here it is:

Information about the game will probably be revealed a little later, but going to the website for the Dawn of War franchise reveals that “in Dawn of War III you will have no choice but to face your foes when a catastrophic weapon is found on the mysterious world of Acheron.”