Technology

Microsoft has announced a whole slate of games that will be joining Xbox Game Pass today, with 11 new titles available on the subscription service via Xbox and PC. The new Game Pass titles were announced during Microsoft and Bethesda’s joint E3 conference on Sunday. The lion’s share comes from Bethesda, which adds 10 more titles to the service, in addition to the 20 Bethesda titles added to the service since it was acquired by Microsoft earlier this year. Six of these titles will also be accessible via Xbox, PC, and xCloud. PC players will also have access to Fallout: New Vegas starting today. In addition, Yakuza: Like A Dragon has also been added to Xbox Game Pass, which is available today. The entire mainline Yakuza series is also already available on the service. Here’s the full list of...

Microsoft’s concluded its E3 2021 showcase with a rather cool announcement: the Xbox Series X-shaped mini fridge, which the company promised to make after defeating Skittles in a Twitter poll, will be released in holiday 2021. Microsoft is promising that the upcoming Xbox Mini Fridge (the official name) is “the world’s most powerful mini fridge,” an obvious play on one of the company’s key marketing points for the Xbox Series X console. But Microsoft took the joke further, spotlighting the fridge’s “Xbox Velocity Cooling Architecture” (a pun on the Xbox Series X’s “Velocity Architecture”) in a trailer. When the Xbox Series X was first announced in 2019, people instantly memed on its boxy shape and compared it to a refrigerator — a meme that Microsoft eventually leaned into itself on social...

Have you ever wanted to make your iPhone your own, with your individualized style and flair? Sure, you can change your home screen wallpaper. But if you really want to personalize your phone, why not create your own app icons? It’s doable, using Apple’s built-in Shortcuts app. You actually won’t be replacing the icons that the apps came with — rather, you’ll be creating separate Shortcuts that lead to the app. It’s a tedious and time-consuming process, but in the end, you can have a fully customized iPhone home screen. Here’s how you do it: First, find and tap on the Shortcuts app. It’s pre-installed; if you can’t see it immediately on your home screen, swipe left until you’re at the App Library and start typing “Shortcuts” into the top search bar. Once you’re in the app, tap on the “plus”...

Team Xbox will take to the stage alongside Bethesda to showcase a 90-minute presentation of games for E3 2021. It’ll last 90 minutes, and it’ll apparently show off games coming to Xbox this holiday season, games that’ll soon be coming to Xbox Game Pass, plus some other announcements. Microsoft is calling the event its “biggest moment of 2021 so far,” so Xbox fans shouldn’t miss this one. Here’s how you can watch it: When does the Xbox and Bethesda game showcase begin? It’ll start at 1PM ET / 10AM PT on Sunday, June 13th. How can I watch the Xbox event? You can watch it at Xbox’s Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter pages. It’s available in other ways around the world, too. Microsoft says it’ll be available “simultaneously on channels across the globe, including Bilibili in China, Jeuxvide...

Previously known as Rainbow Six Quarantine, Ubisoft finally revealed Rainbow Six Extraction during its Ubisoft Forward conference on Saturday. The presentation started with a cinematic reveal; Extraction is set in the same Rainbow Six universe, featuring Siege operators such as Hibana, who’s gone Missing in Action. United under the Rainbow Exogenous Analysis and Containment Team (REACT), you form a team with other operators on a rescue mission and face a creepy alien threat known as the Archean. Here’s the trailer: [embedded content] A deep dive gameplay trailer reveals Extraction as PvE co-op experience for up to three players where you’ll be able to choose from a roster of 18 Rainbow Six Operators with their own unique gadgets, weapons, and abilities. Extraction is set across 12 maps, wh...

Ubisoft’s upcoming extreme sports MMO, Riders Republic, will launch on September 2nd, the company announced at its Ubisoft Forward show on Saturday. In a nearly five-minute trailer, Ubisoft showed off some of the sports that you can play, including biking, snowboarding, and even wing suiting. The game will have a variety of modes, including mass races (with more than 50 players on next-gen consoles) and six vs. six trick battles. And you’ll also be able to customize your player with all sorts of gear — in the trailer, I think I spotted a biker with a built-in ice cream stand on their bike, for example. Riders Republic will be available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, and PC when it launches in September, and the game will support crossplay and cross-sa...

Ubisoft’s Mario and Rabbids crossover turn-based strategy game is getting a sequel for the Nintendo Switch: Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. Ubisoft revealed both a new cinematic trailer and a sneak peek at some gameplay on Saturday, as well as a launch date for sometime in 2022. The official announcement at Ubisoft Forward followed a leak hours before on Nintendo’s own online store. The first Mario + Rabbids title, Kingdom Battle, was originally revealed by Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto at Ubisoft’s press conference at E3 2017. Despite the bizarre nature of its IP mashup, Kingdom Battle was one of the best early Switch games, mixing elements of the Mario and Rabbids characters with solid yet accessible X-COM-style tactical action. We called it “a shockingly good Nintendo Switch strategy gam...

The studio behind the upcoming virtual reality air guitar game Unplugged gave an update at the Upload VR Showcase on Saturday and revealed one big band that will be part of the soundtrack. Unplugged uses hand tracking technology to let you rock out on a guitar in VR, no gloves or special guitar controller needed. You can see where to “strum” by following a Guitar Hero-like stream of notes that roll in your direction, and you’ll earn points for nailing your virtual chords and strums. It looks pretty impressive. (And speaking of Guitar Hero, that series’ former lead guitarist Marcus Henderson is helping develop the game.) In Saturday’s trailer, developer Anotherway announced that The Offspring will be part of Unplugged’s official soundtrack and teased that “we have bands in the soundtrack th...

Upload VR returned to E3 with its third annual showcase of the most inventive and intriguing games coming to VR. As the medium continues to mature year after year, it continues to be a platform for developers to innovate. While not all of the games shown were brand new announcements, we picked five of our favorites from the showcase that you can look forward to immersing yourself in soon. Song in the Smoke [embedded content] First announced for PSVR earlier this year, Song in the Smoke is a VR survival game and a departure for developer 17-Bit, better known for cartoony indie games like Skulls of the Shogun and Galak-Z. In a new developer diary, studio CEO Jake Kazdal explains how VR made him want to create not just a game but a fully living and breathing world. It’s coming to Oculus Rift ...

Ubisoft capped off its E3 keynote with a big surprise: a first look at Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The next-gen take on James Cameron’s world looks gorgeous, and Ubisoft says it’s being built with its own Snowdrop engine at internal studio Massive. Here’s the story premise: In this new, standalone story, play as a Na’vi and embark on a journey across the Western Frontier, a never-before-seen part of Pandora. Explore a living and reactive world inhabited by unique creatures and new characters, and push back the formidable RDA forces that threaten it. The game appears to be built with next-gen hardware in mind. Frontiers of Pandora is slated for release on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X / S, along with cloud services Google Stadia and Amazon Luna. It also isn’t the only sci-fi universe Ubisoft...

After introducing the guerrilla freedom fighter protagonist for Far Cry 6, Ubisoft’s new trailer pivots back to the highlight of any new installment: its villain, Antón Castillo. Played by Giancarlo Esposito, the despotic leader of the fictional island nation of Yara is seen making his terrifying entrance onboard a boat where the protagonist Dani is attempting to flee with a group, one of them who turns out to be Diego, Castillo’s son. The cinematic is a chilling introduction as he chews the scenery with his charisma before unleashing his brutality, which is surely the turning point for what making Dani join the resistance to overthrow the Yaran tyrant. The Far Cry series is of course known for its iconic villains, and Ubisoft were keen to leverage this by announcing post-launch plans for ...

Follow the updates from some of gaming’s biggest shows Contributors: Verge Staff After taking a year off, E3 2021 is here, bringing days of major gaming news and announcements through a series of remote events. The big reveals kicked off with Summer Game Fest’s Kickoff Live event on June 10th, and E3 proper takes place from June 12th to June 15th, featuring events from Microsoft, Nintendo, Ubisoft, and more. We’ll be covering all of the news from the show, and you can keep up with everything right here. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back...