Ubisoft is delving deeper into the Clancyverse with Tom Clancy’s XDefiant, a free-to-play game it revealed on Monday. The first-person multiplayer shooter will pit teams of six characters (or Defiants) against each other across several game modes. There’s a focus on gunplay, though you’ll also be able to harness traits, abilities and “ultras” — which seem similar to ultimates in other games — based on the faction you’re using.

XDefiant is a bit of a crossover between Ubisoft’s various Clancy franchises. The initial set of factions include the Wolves (inspired by Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon), Echelon (Splinter Cell) and the Outcasts and Cleaners (The Division). More Defiants will be added to the game later, and will draw from a variety of characters and abilities “from the Tom Clancy universe … and beyond,” Ubisoft said.

Ubisoft San Francisco is developing XDefant, which the creative leads said features “fast-paced firefights meet punk rock moshpits.” You can customize your Defiant’s loadout (including a primary and secondary weapons, attachments and device). You’ll be able to modify your setup when you respawn to help you adjust to what’s happening in a match. It sounds like there will be ways for both casual and competitive players to get the most out of the game too.

There are clear echoes of Overwatch and Valorant here, with plenty Clancyverse flavor thrown in. Executive producer Mark Rubin previously worked on Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty games, and there’s some obvious DNA from that franchise in XDefiant as well.

XDefiant is coming to Xbox One, PlayStation, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, Google Stadia, Amazon Luna and Ubisoft Connect with full cross-play expected at the outset. The game’s still fairly early in development, but Ubisoft’s already inviting the public to try it. The first public PC test starts on August 5th, and you can sign up through the XDefiant website for a chance to take part.

NVIDIA recently said that it was working with MediaTek to bring RTX graphics to ARM-based laptops, and now it has shown what that might look like for gamers. At the Game Developers Conference (GDC), it unveiled a technical demo with an RTX-powered MediaTek ARM processor running Wolfenstein: Youngblood.

NVIDIA showed off real time ray-traced reflections and DLSS on the game using an ARM-based platform for the first time. It also showed off a demo called Bistro (from Amazon's Lumberyard game engine) running real-time ray-tracing on ARM, with RTX direct illumination (RTXDI) and NVIDIA Optix AI-acceleration denoiser (NRD) features turned on. The demos ran on a MediaTek Kompanio 1200 ARM-based platform combined with a GeForce RTX 3060 GPU.

NVIDIA made the tech work by porting several RTX SDKs to ARM devices. Those include deep learning super sampling (DLSS) to boost sharpness, RTX direct illumination, NVIDIA Optix AI-acceleration denoiser, the RTX memory utility (RTXMU) and RTX global illumination. NVIDIA said that the RTXDI, NRD and RTXMU SDKs for ARM with Linux are now available for developers, with RTXGI and DLSS coming soon.

Of course, you won't get to see any of this until manufacturers add RTX hardware to their ARM-based laptops, Chromebooks or other devices. Game manufacturers will also need to implement the tech for ARM-based games. However, both the Wolfenstein: Youngblood developer and game engine company seem bullish. 

“RTX support for ARM and Linux opens up new opportunities for game developers to provide more immersive experiences on a wider variety of platforms,” said Unity's senior technical product manager Mathieu Muller. "An iD Tech-based game running on an ARM CPU with ray tracing enabled is a significant step in a journey that will result in many more gaming platforms being available to all game developers," added Machinegames CTO Jim Kjellin.

Of course, NVIDIA's relationship with ARM is set to get a whole lot closer as it bought the company last year for $40 billion. However, the deal is subject to regulatory approval and NVIDIA rival (and ARM customer) Qualcomm has objected to the deal. On top of that, ARM employees 3,000 people in the UK and that country's regulator is currently investigating the sale. 

Eight years after its second entry, a new Company of Heroes game is in development at Relic Entertainment. Announced today by publisher Sega, Company of Heroes 3 will take the World War II real-time strategy series to the Mediterranean theatre. As before, the emphasis is on commanding squads of infantry and individual tanks, but new to this game is a strategic map that will allow you to decide how to approach the Allied invasion of Italy. How you plan your moves there will determine the forces you have at your disposal in the real-time battles that follow.

Relic is also introducing a pause button that will allow players to stop the action and queue up commands to all their units. In practice, it looks like the single-player campaign will play out a lot like one of Creative Assembly’s Total War games, which isn’t too surprising given that Sega owns both studios.

Company of Heroes 3 is due in late 2022. In the meantime, fans can sign up to play an early build of the game by linking their Steam and Relic accounts. Additionally, the entire franchise is on sale on Valve’s storefront, allowing you to get the second game for a mere $1.10.

Faster internet and mobile data speeds are cutting wait times for game and entertainment downloads. The two art forms helped people through lockdowns, so it makes sense for tech and media gatekeepers to maintain that momentum as life slowly returns to normal. Netflix did just that by allowing subscribers to watch partially downloaded shows and movies. Now, Google is doing the same for mobile games. The latest version of Android will allow you to fire up a game long before it completes downloading.

According to Google, you'll eventually be able to start playing Play store titles in seconds. More specifically, it says that games will be ready to open at least two times faster than before. One example shows a 127mb game being fit to play with just 20 percent downloaded. For now, developers can sign up to a beta for the feature, but Google says it will eventually become the default system for Play Store games.

The tech giant has tried to tear down some of the barriers around digital gaming in the past. Notably, it launched Instant Games in 2018 that loaded up ahead of the full installation process. While its Apple Arcade rival, Play Pass, allows subscribers to try a library of apps for a monthly fee. Then there's Stadia, Google's promising (but troubled) cloud gaming service that does away with game downloads.

More broadly, the play-as-you-download feature comes at an opportune time. Like their console and PC brethren, mobile games are increasing in size. A trend players may have spotted with the release of open-world and metaverse games like Genshin Impact and Roblox on iOS and Android. Research from Sensor Tower shows that the average file size of mobile games increased by 76 percent in the US since 2016. Helping players get to the action faster in the face of larger downloads is therefore a win-win for developers and the public alike.

Absolver studio Sloclap is working on a new kind of kung fu game, Sifu, and it requires a little more time and attention than developers originally planned. Sifu was supposed to hit PlayStation 4, PS5 and the Epic Games Store this year, but it's been delayed to early 2022. 

Sloclap shared the new release date in a trailer that also shows off the game's unique death system. Sifu is a kung fu-inspired game, much like Absolver, but it's narrative-driven and every time a player dies, they return to the fight as an older version of themselves. Sifu is all about hand-to-hand combat and magical age progression, and it tells a violent tale of revenge suitable for any age — well, teens and up, according to the ESRB.

The game's first trailer was inspired by Old Boy and today's video is called, "Sifu - Fight Club Gameplay Teaser," so we're sensing a film-centric theme, too.

Death Stranding Director's Cut, an extended version of Kojima Productions' 2019 sci-fi action game, will come to PlayStation 5 on September 24th. Sony debuted the first full trailer for Death StrandingDirector's Cut during today's State of Play livestream, alongside the game's release date and news that pre-orders are open now. Check out the trailer right here:

Today's trailer confirms the Director's Cut will have new boss battles and combat mechanics, including fresh weapons and accessories like an ambulatory Buddy Bot. There's also a shooting range, a racing mode, new campaign missions and upgraded transportation options. The game was revealed during the Summer Game Fest kickoff livestream in June, but these are the first concrete details about what'll be included.

All of that is in addition to the core game, which is difficult to summarize (like most Kojima titles), but we'll do our best: Death Stranding is beautiful and tedious. It's an expansive, strange, futuristic adventure about isolation, death and social connection, and it's often cinematic to a fault. Which, oddly enough, makes a director's cut feel like the next logical step.

Alongside Oculus VR and livestreams, Facebook's gaming ambitions also include the cloud. Today, the company is making free game streaming available to 98 percent of the mainland US and bringing on board a major partner in Ubisoft. Facebook says it has now scaled-up its cloud computing infrastructure to the extent that it can roll out the service to 100 percent of the US by the fall. An international rollout is also underway, beginning in Canada and Mexico and expanding to Western and Central Europe by early 2022.

While its rivals Google and Amazon have opted for a standalone cloud gaming service for a monthly subscription, Facebook has built its offering into its main social network and accompanying Android app. Unlike the competition, which deliver console and PC games over the internet, the social network is focusing on smaller free-to-play mobile titles that it says are easier to host at its data centers. 

After launching cloud gaming on Android in a handful of US states last October, Facebook says it has added 25 titles to the service, including newcomers Roller Coaster Tycoon Touch by Atari, Lego Legacy Heroes Unboxed and Dragon Mania Legends by Gameloft and State of Survival by FunPlus. It's also redesigned its Play section with new categories, including a list of the top games in the US, improved filtering and sorting options.

More than 1.5 million people play cloud-streamed games on Facebook every month, the company revealed. With 195 million daily users in North America and more than 1.87 billion global users, the service has a big runway ahead of it. Despite offering less games than the competition, Facebook will be hoping that its focus on mobile titles can help it to thrive in the lucrative game streaming arena. The cloud gaming market will be worth an estimated $1.4 billion this year and over $5 billion in 2023, according to research firm NewZoo.

To bolster its appeal, Facebook is partnering with France-based developer Ubisoft. The studio's game subscription service is already available on Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, but (for now at least) Facebook will only host its mobile gaming titles. Ubisoft games available on the service include Assassin’s Creed Rebellion, Hungry Shark Evolution and Hungry Dragon, with Mighty Quest and Trials Frontier launching in the coming months. Facebook also recently acquired Unit 2, the developer behind game creation platform Crayta, with plans to integrate its tools into its cloud gaming platform.

On the infrastructure side, Facebook is focusing on lowering latency caps to allow it to host even more game genres across multiple devices. Currently, it says its "sweet spot" is in mobile sports, card, simulation, strategy, action-adventure, and puzzle titles, but it plans to add more variety to the mix in the coming months. 

Facebook says it is still working to get cloud gaming onto iOS devices. Though its gaming app is available on iPhones and iPads, it doesn't include playable games due to Apple's restrictions on third-party software.

By now, gamers are accustomed to receiving freebies through Sony's PlayStation Plus and Microsoft's Xbox Games with Gold perks. Now, Amazon is here to remind you that it offers gaming benefits for Prime members, too. From today through to September 1st, the subscription service is giving away three classic LucasArts PC games on the first of every month. The trio includes The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, followed by Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and, finally, Sam & Max: Hit The Road. 

Compared to its expedited deliveries and Prime Video streaming, Amazon's gaming goodies (including free titles and loot) inevitably feel like the lesser of its Prime perks. These certified classics should therefore help to boost its appeal with nostalgic gamers. 

Since its revival in January, the Disney-owned Lucasfilm Games brand has been busy retooling its franchises for newer platforms. In honor of Monkey Island’s 30th anniversary, Limited Run Games released a comprehensive collector’s edition back in October that assembled all five games in the series, including Telltale’s Tales of Monkey Island. In June, Sam & Max: This Time It's Virtual! brought the anthropomorphic detectives to Oculus VR. While Indy is about to star in a new game from MachineGames, the studio behind the modern Wolfenstein series, with Bethesda's Todd Howard serving as an executive producer.

In three weeks' time, you'll be able to start playing the pixel remaster versions of the first three Final Fantasy games. Square Enix has revealed that the Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III remasters are coming out on July 28th for PC via Steam and on July 29th for Android and iOS. You can now also pre-purchase the games individually for prices between $12 and $18, or buy the bundle with all six games for around $96. You'll get three soundtracks and two unique wallpapers for each title you pre-purchase. The gaming giant doesn't have a specific release date for the fourth to sixth installments in the franchise yet, but they're also scheduled to come out sometime this year.

Square Enix first announced that it's giving the first six games in the Final Fantasy franchise the pixel remaster treatment during its E3 presentation back in mid-June, though it barely shared any details about them. In the description box of the first installment on Steam, it says the game will feature completely new graphics, as well as "improved ease of play" with a modernized UI and auto-battle options. Its soundtrack has been rearranged, but the process was overseen by original composer Nobuo Uematsu. In addition, it will come with extra features, such as a bestiary, an illustration gallery and a music player.

While the other three games getting a remaster don't have a release date yet, Square Enix recently announced it's pulling the current versions of the fifth and sixth installments from Steam on July 27th. The developer received a lot of flak for reducing the quality of the art on the games it originally released on Steam, so it makes sense for the remasters to completely replace them. 

Remedy Entertainment's excellent Control is one of the most memorable games of the past few years. The developer has some good news for fans of the mind-bending adventure: there's much more Control on the way.

The studio and 505 Games agreed to co-publish and develop a multiplayer spin-off. Condor (which is a codename) is a co-op player vs. environment game. You'll be able to team up with three friends and tackle enemies — most likely controlled by the otherworldly force called the Hiss. Condor is being developed for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

But that's not all. According to a press release, Remedy and 505 have initial plans "to further expand the Control franchise with a bigger-budget Control game, to be agreed in more detail in the future." So, it sure sounds like there's a proper Control sequel on the way too.

Don't expect to learn much more about those games anytime soon, though. "It is going to be a long time before we show off these projects," Mikael Kasurinen, game director of the Control series said. However, "there are other Remedy experiences coming from our studio that I know you will love." The studio is working on the single-player campaign for CrossfireX, which is slated to arrive this year.

"Control is an extremely successful game," said Rami and Raffi Galante, the co-CEOs of 505's parent company Digital Bros Group. It has sold more than two million copies, and it's been a freebie on PlayStation Plus and Epic Games Store. You can also play it through Xbox Game Pass too, and it's definitely worth checking out.