Jina Boreham

For someone who was initially miffed about Rare going the way of a massively-multiplayer, online experience — and admittedly heralding a much lower level of excitement as a result — the outcome, after a fair number of days at [virtual] sea in the closed beta, are more upbeat. Albeit, still mixed in a number of ways. Let’s start with the positives and work our way down: Sea of Thieves has a peculiar degree of charm to it. Perhaps not to the same degree of colorful personality of previous titles, but subtly present nonetheless. Anyone who’s followed Rare for a long time will instantly recognize the degree of care and consideration for the details, both grand and minuscule in equal measure. The glare of the sun as you swim your way back to your ship, the ruffle of paper as you scour your chartered map for the desired island to reach; even the way your on-board lanterns flicker and crackle as the waves collide and risk snuffing out the flames.

It's worth noting that while the datamine does reveal plenty of content that players haven't been able to experience for themselves just yet, it doesn't provide the full picture of what Sea of Thieves will bring to the table once it releases. The closed beta for Windows 10 and Xbox One users has been extended for another two days , so potential pirates still have ample time to ride the high seas to discover if the game matches their met

With the recent release of the Xbox One S, and the impending launch of Project Scorpio, Xbox fans have plenty to look forward to this year. Additionally, with Microsoft "very focused" on first-party titles , it seems Xbox is giving gamers plenty of reason to pay attent

The addition of harpoon guns brings some exciting possibilities for underwater combat and maneuvering: it's a great shark deterrent (as it's likely gunpowder-based weapons won't be usable under water post-beta), and also brings the possibility that pirates will be able to attach themselves to opposing ships via the harpoons and potentially sneak up Read the Full Content sides. Of course, that's not the only new weapon to watch out for. The boarding axe, heavy sword, rapier, flintlock pistol, and blunderbuss will also be featured in the full version of Sea of Thiev

There are also references to more instruments beyond the hurdy-gurdy and accordion, which have become massive hits among players. Each of the two existing instruments has a lead and backing track (along with their drunk variants), but a fifth track for drums also appears to be on the cards. Many players have also wished for larger galleons allowing for crews of 5 or 6, but the datamine has revealed no fruits in that regard – just more pomegrana

Logan: To maybe explain a bit more about what our mission was, we started off with a treasure map in our possession that clued us in to an island that we should travel to. After consulting our sea chart in the lower deck of our ship, we set sail in the direction of our supposed treasure. And that’s when we hit the r

And yet…as pleasing as it was to eventually get to grips with the ship’s functions — jostling between control of the wheel and micro-managing of the sails, during solo sessions — or as enticing the next island on the horizon was to make landfall over, it’s hard not to come away from Sea of Thieves and think: "OK…but what else is there?" Admittedly while the beta did restrict activities to purely hunting down treasure, to say the more "in-between" segments — the mundane segments if you will — proved to be the more entertaining and/or insightful segments brings up a worrying and (potentially) lacking hook that Sea of Thieves’ gameplay sorely needs.

For those who aren’t aware, Cuphead is a "run-and-gun platformer" created in the style of 1930s cartoons. Players will enjoy a single-player campaign, along with multiplayer action. Like the other games on this list, there is still plenty of details yet to be shared about Cuphead , but needless to say, gamers are already lining up to grab this unique indie ti

According to Rare, the studio wants to offer a balanced experience that's equal in almost every facet. In practice, that means a game with full feature parity, but more than that it means an equal playing field from day one. So Rare also says they're planning on launching Sea of Thieves day and date on both console and PC, with launch still on track for early 2

Microsoft officially reveals the long-awaited console, named Xbox One X, which is slated to release worldwide November 7th, 2017. Packing impressive technical specifications, the console includes a CPU/GPU combo capable of delivering 6 teraflops of computing power, 12GB of GDDR5 RAM, and 1TB of storage, sticking true to the long-speculated 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disk driver and true delivery of 4K gaming cont

It’s in no way surprising that the mantra of "…but what do I do?" or variations thereupon, has lingered over Sea of Thieves like a pungent-but-irremovable odor. While there was always a strong case that there’d already been a fair amount of intrigue built up for what Rare — proper Rare that is, not Kinect Sports-shackled "Rare" — was cooking-up, prior to and since its reveal back at E3 2015 (which admittedly garnered somewhat of a deflated "eeeeeehhhhhh" reaction from yours truly), details pertaining to its content, its progression, its finer details outside of an odd sample of footage and some rather unfunny plodding through voluntary player commentary, have been somewhat conserved. For what purpose though; after all, you and I both know Microsoft need all the good marketing they can get their hands on if they’re to give Xbox a reasonable chance in 2018.