Gaming News

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The next iteration on Codemasters' GRID franchise releases in 3 weeks' time on 9th October. It will be available on PC, Xbox and PS4, and should bring the series up to date in terms of utilising the performance of the modern platforms.

Have a look on Shacknews for more info and the latest gameplay trailer.

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, slated for release on 14th November on the Microsoft Store (Xbox Game Pass for PC) will also be on Steam. As a bonus, the original Age of Empires: Definitive Edition which was released in 2018 on the Microsoft Store, is now also available on Steam.

You can read the full details on PC Gamer and Shacknews

The developers of PUBG have announced that the forthcoming Autumn update will enable cross-platform play between Xbox One and PS4 players, but not PC. There was no indication that they will ever support PC - maybe because of the obvious advantage keyboard/mouse players have over controller for games like this.

You can read more about this on The Verge and IGN

A vulnerability has been discovered in Nvidia's graphics card driver that has been rated as highly severe. Installing the latest driver (431.60 or later) will fix the issue.

You can read more on the issue on IT Pro and LifeHacker plus the many other techie and hardware related sites.

The final of the Intel Extreme Masters Chicago 2019 starts tonight at 8pm UK time. Team Liquid will play ENCE in a best of five match. Keep up with all the action on Twitch

Update: Team Liquid won the final 3-0, with both teams having come through the earlier rounds unbeaten. Watch it via the Twitch archive

The group stages, semi finals and final of the Intel Extreme Masters Chicago 2019 take place later this week. The schedule can be seen on the ESL site and as usual, full live coverage will be available via Twitch

The closed qualifying rounds for the Intel Extreme Masters event in Chicago next month are currently under way. Catch the action on the ESL Twitch channel

Following the voting session, the dates for the next BobLAN have been announced. It will run from lunchtime on Thursday 14th November through to early afternoon on Sunday 17th November. Get those holidays booked!

A couple more publishers have presented their offerings for the coming year - Ubisoft and Square Enix...

• Watchdogs Legion - the third installment is set in a London that's been taken over by extremists. I thought game settings were meant to be works of fiction?! Release date 06/03/2020
• Ghost Recon Breakpoint - can be played single player with AI team mates, or multi. Beta due 05/09/2019
• Rainbow 6 Quarantine - another installment in the Tom Clancy franchise. No release date yet
• Marvel's Avengers - four player online co-op, initially featuring Capt America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow and the Hulk. Release date May 2020

Here are some of the highlights so far from E3 2019

• FIFA 20 - improved realism, street football - release date 27/09/2019
• Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order - gameplay footage of the player as Cal Kestis, a Jedi in training. No release date yet
• Apex Legends - new content and a Season 2 preview
• Battlefield V - new maps scheduled June, July and August. Additional gameplay updates in Q4 2019
• Gears 5 - five game modes, and the biggest single player campaign to date. No release date yet
• Fallout 76 - the Wastelanders update will include a new quest, a Battle Royale mode and new human NPCs with full dialogue trees
• Rage 2 - major update and a new expansion Rise of the Ghosts

The latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise has been announced for release later this year - Call of Duty Modern Warfare (haven't we already had one of those?) is scheduled to hit the streets at the end of October, just in time for the peak trading season.

To view a teaser video, check out the Call of Duty YouTube channel

Don't these weekends just fly by? Another great turnout from both ends of the country, and probably the earliest we've ever had 10 people present on the Thursday!

Tech-wise, not a massive amount of change. George swapped a graphics card and that was about it. No major rebuilds or breaches of change freeze, which was a first!

Game-wise, there was one newcomer which everyone loved:

• Wreckfest - wow, what a fun game. Think Grid but where you are encouraged to try to take each other out :) Wreckfest Bus Last Straight Crash
• Battlefield 1 - aside from some retarded tank driving and confused pigeons, this was fun but not as long-lived as last time.
• CS:GO - once again the go-to game during breaks from other games. Still a firm favourite, and now free to own.
• DiRT 3 - one game of Cat and Mouse only this time.
• Rocket League - just the one tournament, which probably took a lot longer than it should :)
• Titanfall 2 - still great fun.
• Unreal Tournament - a great game of deathmatch with rocket launchers - very QuakeWorldesque.
• DOOM - played for a short time, but UT is the winner of this genre.
• Day of Defeat - we had a few good games on the bomb/defuse map Colmar - nice to see it back.
• Board games - these seemed to replace Rockband for the late night fun.

Games we didn't play this time:

• Darwin Project - very brief go, didn't have the appeal of when we played it a year ago.
• GRID Autosport - ousted by Wreckfest this time.
• Rockband - the neighbours will have been happy that there was little or no Rockband this time!

See the full game schedule over on the BobLAN 2019.1 page

Finally, massive thanks to Bob and Lynda for all the preparation and cleanup for which we are all incredibly grateful! (reminder to all those who attended - make sure you have paid up!)

Yesterday was probably the best attended setup "night" yet, with around 12 people present. Setup included an eval of Wreckfest to see if it's worth the £15 asking price, and a go on the Danger Zone mode in CS:GO. Gaming included UT, Doom, CS:GO, Grid etc - a good start!

The first gathering of 2019 will commence this Thursday, with the customary extended setup afternoon/evening. For those unable to attend in person, you can follow events and join in via the BobLAN 2019.1 page. The schedule will auto-update, and we'll do our best to keep the tweets flowing as we switch from game to game.

Following a tense decider in the best-of-five final, Team Liquid took the title against a superb Fnatic team. If you didn't manage to catch it live, there will be reruns on the ESL Twitch feed

Pre-tournament favourites TeamLiquid overcame mibr in the first semi-final, and Fnatic continued their superb run with another hard fought win over NRG.

A Liquid Fnatic final tomorrow morning will be difficult to call. On paper it should go the way of Liquid, but with Fnatic in the form they are in, who can say?!

The semi finals of IEM Sydney 2019 will take place early tomorrow morning. TeamLiquid are taking on mibr, whilst NRG are up against Fnatic after their epic 115 round quarter final against NIP earlier today.

Tune into the ESL Twitch feed to watch what promises to be two great matches.

Epic Games have bought up Psyonix, the creators of Rocket League. Conflicting details have emerged from Epic, with the confusion over whether Rocket League will still be available via Steam once it has been made available on the Epic gaming platform. It looks like it will still be available for updates on Steam if you already have it, but not to new customers.

EuroGamer have had a go at interpreting the various press releases :)

The next IEM major of the year is at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, over the weekend 3rd to 5th May.

View the schedule on the IEM site, and then follow events via the ESL Twitch feed