Battlefront Beta, Release dates, New Xbox — oh my!

‘Star Wars Battlefront’ to get Beta

On Tuesday, publisher Electronic Arts announced there will be an open beta for the upcoming “Star Wars Battlefront” in early October.

This beta will feature a few different modes.

The first is the 40-player Walker Assault mode on the snowy Hoth map, with players having the ability to play as Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader.

A co-op Survival Mission set on the desert world Tatooine will also be included, and the recently revealed Drop Zone mode will be featured.

All progress earned during the beta will not transfer to the actual “Star War Battlefront” game when it ships Nov. 17.

Seeing as this beta will be coming out a month before the actual game ships, this is less of a test and more of a marketing technique to promote the game.

Some things will be tweaked, but because the release date is so soon after the beta, nothing major will be changed. 

They will also be stress testing the online servers to ensure when the game ships, there are not any hiccups. 

 ‘Halo 5: Guardians’ gets awesome new trailer

The hype for the next Halo game gets even bigger as an awesome new trailer for “Halo 5: Guardians” was released Monday featuring Fireteam Osiris, one of the playable sets of characters in the game’s story mode.

In the trailer we see Spartans Locke, Tanaka, Vale and Buck, played by actor Nathan Fillion, get briefed on a mission before skydiving out of an aircraft and engaging alien enemies on the ground.

This might not have been a gameplay or story trailer, but it certainly got my blood pumping. “Halo 5: Guardians” cannot come soon enough.

‘Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’ and ‘Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End’ get release dates

Two high-profile sequels release dates were announced Monday. “Deus Ex: Mankind Divided” will be released on Feb. 23, 2016 and “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End” on March 18, 2016.

“Deus Ex: Mankind Divided,” is a sci-fi, open-world role-playing game starring Adam Jensen and featuring flexible gameplay where the player can approach the journey however they want.

“Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End” is the next installment in the Sony exclusive Uncharted series, where players take the role of the Indiana Jones-like Nathan Drake on a journey fighting bad guys and searching for ancient artifacts.

Overall, it is great news for both games and gamers. “Deus Ex: Mankind Divided” was first announced in April, so having the game come out less than a year later after announced is cool.

“Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End” releasing in March is odd, because first-party exclusive games usually release in the fall, but this might be Sony trying to make up for a poor fall lineup in 2015.

Xbox Elite console announced

Microsoft Corporation announced a new Xbox One console bundle Monday, called Xbox One Elite.

This new console comes with a one terabyte Solid State Hybrid Drive, a smooth-looking matte finish and an Xbox One Elite Controller. According to Xbox Wire, the Solid State Hybrid Drive is 20 percent faster than the standard Xbox One’s hard drive, giving the consumer a more powerful console.

It can be pre-ordered now through Microsoft.

Bundles are a common thing in the industry but this one stands out because it includes what seems to be a faster Xbox One. Before anyone worries, this upgrade only affects the console boot-up speed and will most likely not limit future games from consumers with older consoles.

Grant Meyer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @GrantMeyerDE.