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Long War creators working on official XCOM 2 mods for launch

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As if XCOM fans needed more reasons to be excited about the upcoming release of XCOM 2, publisher 2K has announced a partnership between Firaxis and Long War Studios, creators of the popular Long War mod for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, directed toward developing multiple, officially supported mods that are slated to launch alongside the game on February 5.

One of the most respected fan-made mods for any PC game, Long War extends and turns up the difficulty of the campaign from Enemy Unknown (and its expansion, Enemy Within) by adding new soldier classes and equipment, along with substantial overhauls to the strategic metagame. Increasing the challenge substantially, Long War adds a fantastic degree of depth and replayability to an already excellent game. Many players who found the base game too easy once mastered, especially fans of the original games from the 90s, have declared Long War to be the definitive way to play, and it is undoubtedly a major factor in the enduring longevity of the 2012 classic.

We have been playing a preview build of XCOM 2 for the last month and have seen that Long War‘s influence has permeated the design, from the game’s amped-up difficulty curve and deeper strategic elements to the addition of such things as specialized ammo. Unlike its predecessor, which also released on consoles, XCOM 2 is launching solely on PC at first, in order to make robust support for the modding community a central feature right out the gate. This is entirely due to the success of mods such as Long War, and lead designer Jake Solomon told us as much when we spoke to him in December: “The Long War certainly inspired us in that if somebody does a good mod, there’s definitely an audience for it and we need to empower these people.”

Long War‘s creators recently announced the formation of their own studio, Long War Studio, to develop Terra Invicta, a “grand strategy game” about defending Earth against an alien invasion, which is currently “in pre-Kickstarter development.” Accordingly, many fans were left wondering if they would be too busy to develop mod content for XCOM 2. This new partnership puts those concerns to rest, promising a bright future for XCOM 2 modding. There is no word yet on the content of the mods in development, but Long War Studios’ John Lumpkin will be joining the Firaxis Megapanel on January 30 at PAX South to explain more, and that presentation will be streamed here.

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Bringing VR’s best Star Wars game to PlayStation VR2 was a no-brainer, devs say
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When ILMxLAB learned about the PlayStation VR2, Director Jose Perez III thought it was a "no-brainer" for the studio to bring the Oculus Quest game Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge to the new headset.
"We're always looking at how we can push the fidelity of the work that we're doing," Perez III tells Digital Trends in an interview. "PlayStation VR2 is ridiculously powerful; we got really excited about what we could bring to that. We started talking with our friends at Sony because we had a great relationship with them for Vader Immortal, and it was really a no-brainer. Then, you put the headset on, you start feeling the haptics, and you start seeing what you can do with the visual fidelity and lighting, and it's like, 'Oh, this is awesome!'"
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge - Enhanced Edition | Official Trailer | PS VR2
PlayStation VR2's launch and its first wave of games are nearly upon us, and Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge Enhanced Edition is one of those titles. This is a make-or-break time for VR, which is still struggling to move into the mainstream but could become more popular if Sony's headset can offer a compelling and accessible virtual reality experience. Ahead of its release, Digital Trends spoke to Director Jose Perez III and Producer Harvey Whitney from ILMxLAB to learn about the process of crafting one of these critical "no-brainer" launch games and PlayStation VR2 will ultimately stand when it comes to the future of VR gaming.
The power of PlayStation VR2
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge was originally released for Meta Quest VR headsets in November 2020. It's set on the planet of Batuu, which people also explore at Dinsey parks, and follows a Droid Technician who gets caught in the middle of a grander fight against the First Order after crash-landing on the planet. At the time, it was meant with decent reviews and only got better as its story was completed and expanded with the Last Call DLC.
After getting the "Enhanced Edition" of the game for PlayStation VR2 greenlit, ILMxLAB actually had to go and make it. As the team was dealing with new hardware for the first time, producer Harvey Whitney thought it was good that the team's first project on PlayStation VR2 was an enhanced version of an existing game.
"Early on, knowing that we already had the content that was created for the original, that changes things quite a bit," Whitney tells Digital Trends. "We're not redeveloping the story and coming up with all of that. We just had that opportunity to work as a team and ask, 'What do we really push here, and where are the changes that we want to make, and what we can do to really take advantage of this hardware?'"

The VR space is full of different headsets with unique specs, with the much higher specs of the PS VR2 standing out. The PlayStation VR2 sports some impressive specs compared to its VR peers, displaying content in a 4000x2030 HDR format at a 90Hz or 120Hz frame rate. Plus, games have the PS5's power, spatial, and brand new Sense controllers to take advantage of, rather than the 2013 console and 2010 motion controls that limited the original PlayStation VR.
PlayStation VR2 supports Roomscale, Sitting, and Standing play styles, which added more complexity as Tales from the Galaxy's Edge supports all three. Thankfully, Perez III that bringing Tales from the Galaxy's Edge to PlayStation VR2 was relatively manageable because of how impressive the system's specs were.
"A lot of the development processes are similar [to other VR platforms]," Perez III says. "We're still working inside of Unreal, and we're doing a lot of those same processes. But we don't have to look at performance quite as much as we do on some of the other devices, so we're able to open up a lot of things or not be as concerned about certain things. That comes with better hardware."
Better hardware, better games
Looking at the biggest games of the PlayStation VR2 launch window lineup, the visuals of titles like Horizon Call of the Mountain and the VR modes of Resident Evil Village and Gran Turismo 7 are impressive. In our discussion, Whitney also made it quite clear that one of the real advantages of working on this remaster was not having to worry about strict limitations on the visuals or even the audio. "We got lucky in the sense that there's a lot more to PlayStation VR2 that we hadn't had previously," Whitney says. "We could really push the graphics and make it shine. But then there were also some other things that came into play. We totally redid the audio, it sounds amazing."

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Everything announced at the February 2023 Nintendo Direct
Samus Aran stands tall in Metroid Prime Remastered.

Nintendo is the king of digital video game showcases, and the company jump-started its 2023 with another great show. This February 2023 Nintendo Direct gave us our best look at The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom yet, highlighted upcoming Nintendo Switch exclusives like Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe, and Pikmin 4, and featured the shocking reveal and shadow drop of Metroid Prime Remastered. On top of all that, we learned thattwo new platforms are coming to Nintendo Switch Online.

We now have a clear idea of the Nintendo Switch's game lineup through the summer, so there's no doubt that this Nintendo Direct featured lots of notable announcements. As it can be hard to keep track of it all, we've recapped everything Nintendo announced during the February 2023 Nintendo Direct right here.

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Warzone 2.0 Season 2: release date, Ashika Island map, and Resurgence mode
Characters from Warzone 2.0 posing for Season 2.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be entering its second season, and while Activision hasn't officially unveiled all of the contents of the update, the company did make a few announcements to stir up excitement. Much like you'd expect with live-service games, Call of Duty is built on a seasonal system, wherein the game gets major content drops with each update.

Season 2 is gearing up for launch after a short delay, and for many fans, it's a make-or-break scenario, because reception to Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0 has been middling thus far.

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