Top Story
Phantasy Star Online 2 closed beta coming in February for Xbox owners
Xbox One owners will have access to the Phantasy Star Online 2 (PSO2) closed beta test on February 7th at 5pm PST. You can sign up for the beta through the Xbox Inside Hub, giving players access to the preload which is accessible from February 3rd. The PSO2 beta allows players to carry over all of their progression over to the main game when it launches. Xbox is also promising special in-game items for those that manage to complete the beta’s time sensitive quests.
Released back in 2012, PSO2 originally launched as a PC exclusive in Japan before making its way to the PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in later years. Microsoft were pleased to reveal PSO2 at their E3 2019 conference last year, announcing that the game will be coming to the Xbox One as a free-to-play title with all of the pre-existing content. Microsoft aren’t leaving out PC owners as they can also register for early sign-up on Windows 10, however this specific closed beta is only for Xbox owners.
Europeans are out of luck for the time being
Unfortunately, Xbox has confirmed that this closed beta test will only be available to US and Canada. If you aren’t located in either of these two regions then it appears you are completely out of luck. SEGA has responded to comments asking for a European release on Twitter: “Regarding an EMEA release, there’s nothing to confirm right now. We understand it’s frustrating, but when we have more news to share, we will. Stay tuned to https://pso2.com for updates”. The closed beta test will end on February 8th at 11:59pm PST, giving players just over one day to join in on the fun.
Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?
Which of these is NOT a game in the Metro series?
- Metro 2033
- Metro Last Light
- Metro 2035
- Metro Exodus
The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today’s issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.
News Bits
Metro Exodus’ second expansion revealed – launches mid February
4A Games, the developers behind Metro Exodus, has announced the second expansion titled Sam’s Story will be released on February 11th 2020. Sam’s Story will show Sam’s path from Vladivostok all the way back home to the USA. Sam always wanted to return to his homeland but it felt like an impossible task. With the discovery that Moscow was not the only city still standing after the war, Sam’s dream of arriving home doesn’t seem as far-fetched as it did before.
Metro Exodus and the latest expansion is available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Google Stadia and PC. PC owners that have been waiting patiently for the Epic Game Store’s exclusivity to run out will be pleased to know the wait is almost over. Metro Exodus should arrive on Steam by February 15th.
Atari-branded hotels are coming to eight locations in America
Atari has signed a deal with a U.S. real estate developer to build eight Atari-branded hotels across the country. Each of these hotels will be kitted out with an esports studio, movie theatres and a “gaming playground” which is presumably an arcade filled with Atari games. The planned locations for the hotels are: Phoenix, Arizona; Austin, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; Las Vegas; San Francisco and San Jose, California; and Seattle, Washington. Though the Atari brand doesn’t carry anywhere near as much weight as it used to back in the early days of video games, there’s clearly still enough brand recognition for the company to secure lucrative deals like this one. Atari will earn five percent of the revenue from the hotels, in addition to $600,000 for signing the deal.
Daily Fact
Phantasy Star pioneered online gaming for SEGA
Phantasy Star Online was Sega’s first attempt at creating an online-focused game for their consoles. Sega is still considered a pioneer in online gaming, and were the first to include an online adapter in their machine and Phantasy Star was their flagship title.
The game eventually made its way onto all other consoles after the Dreamcast failed and is now being resurrected once again starting with a beta on Xbox One and eventually coming to PlayStation 4 and most likely Switch at some point. At the time of its release Sega chairman Isao Okawa was sure that online gaming would be the wave of the future, and he was clearly correct!
Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today’s fact.
Daily News
‘Insider’ leaks Resident Evil details and hints at impending Capcom reveal
AetheticGamer, also known as Dusk Golem, has posted a series of tweets detailing information about the Resident Evil series and a soon to be revealed Capcom game. Before we get into this rumour, we should clarify that this ‘insider’ has previously leaked details about Resident Evil 3 Remake prior to its announcement. There is a chance that all of this information could be wrong, so bear that in mind before taking this as gospel.
The insider says not to expect Resident Evil 8 as it is “years away”. Supposedly, Resident Evil 8 was in development for years before being dropped by Capcom. AetheticGamer claims the development teams on Resident Evil 7’s DLC and Resident Evil 2 Remake needed help, with RE2 in particular being allegedly behind schedule.
We can rule out the upcoming Capcom reveal being Dino Crisis related
The second tweet is far more cryptic: “A reminder that all humans were dinosaurs once” alongside a stock picture of an embryo. Dino Crisis fans perked up at the idea that they might be finally getting the sequel they’ve been dreaming about, but AetheticGamer was quick to dispel those ideas almost instantly. “I will say this; the game that’s going to be revealed pretty soon isn’t a Dino Crisis game.” Capcom recently renewed the trademarks of a number of IPs that haven’t seen the light of day in years, so there is a good chance we will be seeing something completely out of left field.
Apex Legends’s brand new hero Forge already killed off
Last week Respawn Entertainment surprised the Apex Legends community by revealing a brand new character to the game – Jimmie “Forge” McCormick. In less than a week since Forge’s initial reveal, it appears he has already been killed off in the brand new animated short. Forge’s death appears to be at the hands of the mysterious Revenant, a character that has featured in Apex Legends in the background for sometime now but is finally making his way to the arena.
It looks as though Forge’s death may not be as cut and dry as it appears in the animated short. The Apex Legends community has found a few clues to suggest the person Revenant killed may not be Forge after all. Forge’s obituary states he is “often imitated”. The animated short version of Forge has brown eyes and a white streak of hair in his eyebrows, whereas his official character art features green eyes and no white streak. Is this simply a production error or is there something bigger occuring?
Could both Forge and Revenant be heading to Apex Legends?
Fans have been data mining Apex Legends since day one. This has lead to almost every big reveal being leaked early, most recently Revenant’s involvement in the Halloween event. Respawn project lead Drew McCoy clearly has had enough of these leaks as he expressed on Twitter: “Leaks are the absolute worst. I’ve never worked on a single project where it was purposeful or wanted. We spend insane amounts of time and energy to create cool surprises. Really sucks when someone wants internet points bad enough to ruin that.”. There is a good chance Respawn are attempting to bamboozle the data miners by releasing two characters at once. Apex Legends Season 4 launches on February 4th, so stay tuned to find out what exactly is going on in this crazy battle royale.
