Latest news with #FBC:Firebreak
Time of India
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Xbox games 2025: 10 biggest titles that are expected to launch on Game Pass this year
(Image via Microsoft) Xbox Game Pass has maintained a consistent release schedule in recent months, with new titles regularly added to the service. While Microsoft 's decision to divide Xbox Game Pass into multiple tiers has been noted, the day-one game additions to the Ultimate and PC Game Pass tiers have been a feature of the service. The year 2025 has seen various additions to Xbox Game Pass. January included Citizen Sleeper 2 and Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. February 2025 saw the addition of Avowed and Balatro. In March, Game Pass subscribers received titles such as the early access version of 33 Immortals and Atomfall. April 2025 included South of Midnight, Borderlands 3 Ultimate Edition, Blue Prince, GTA 5, Towerborne, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. New Xbox Game Pass games for May 2025 include Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dredge, Revenge of the Savage Planet, Doom: The Dark Ages, and Monster Train 2. Further games are expected to join the service shortly. The June 2025 lineup also has announced titles. The Xbox Games Showcase on June 8 is also scheduled to feature announcements. 10 biggest Xbox Game Pass titles expected to release this year Metaphor: ReFantazio - May 29 Warhammer 40K: Space Marine - Master Crafted Edition - June 10 The Alters - June 13 FBC: Firebreak - June 17 Rematch - June 19 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 - July 11 Wuchang: Fallen Feathers - July 24 Gears of War: Reloaded - August 26 Ninja Gaiden 4 - Fall 2025 Hollow Knight: Silksong - TBA by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like American Investor Warren Buffett Recommends: 5 Books For Turning Your Life Around Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo The Xbox Game Pass June 2025 lineup includes Space Marine remaster on June 10, The Alters on June 13, FBC: Firebreak and Lost in Random: The Eternal Die on June 17, Rematch on June 19, and Against the Storm's console release on June 26. Additional games are expected to join Game Pass in June 2025. The Xbox Games Showcase on June 8 is also a scheduled event. For July, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers are on deck. Gears of War: Reloaded is scheduled for August. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Engadget
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Engadget
'FBC: Firebreak' preview: Controlled chaos
A successful co-op shooter feels like a bottomless tub of popcorn, hot and smothered in golden butter, built for bite-sized consumption and impossible to resist. Smooth mechanics and a satisfying, repeatable loop should draw you in for one more bite, one more round, over and over again. FBC: Firebreak , Remedy Entertainment's co-op shooter set in the universe of Control , almost hits these marks. It just needs a little more salt. Remedy is a AA studio best known for crafting single-player games like Alan Wake and Control , which feature Lynchian mysteries and hellish twists, and Firebreak is the studio's first attempt at crafting an online, cooperative, first-person shooter. Firebreak supports up to three players at a time, and it pits your team against hordes of otherworldly Hiss monsters in the bowels of The Oldest House, the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control. The building was locked up with a bunch of Hiss inside at the end of Control , and Firebreak takes place six years later. You're a government employee who's volunteered to eradicate the Hiss in The Oldest House — or try to, at least — and you're sent inside with some improvised weapons, no extra training and a hearty pat on the back. We broke down the specifics of Firebreak 's gameplay loop and upgrade cycles after the developer walkthrough in March, but here are the basics: Before the match begins, each player gets to select one of three Crisis Kits, loadouts designed with specific playstyles in mind. Crisis Kits come with a tool and an item each. The Jump Kit is based around electricity and it has the Electro-Kinectic Charge Impactor, a portable jackhammer kind of device with a conductive metal plate on the end, capable of slamming into enemies or propelling yourself into the air. It also has the BOOMbox, which plays music to attract enemies before exploding. The Fix Kit gives you a big wrench that's able to repair machinery and stagger Hiss, and it also includes a turret that you have to smack with the wrench to assemble. The Splash Kit is for all the water signs out there — it features the Crank-Operated Fluidic Injector, an industrial water cannon that can extinguish fires and soak enemies so they're primed for extra damage, plus a Humidifier, which sprays healing water in a wide area. The game is broken down by Jobs, which are essentially custom-built missions in specific regions of The Oldest House. All Jobs have three zones, but otherwise each one has a unique objective, crisis, and environment. After selecting a Job, you get to customize your run by setting the Threat Level and Clearance Level — Threat Level determines combat difficulty and the number of rewards up for grabs, while Clearance Level sets the number of zones you have to clear and the type of rewards. I spent roughly two and a half hours playing Firebreak with two strangers who quickly became the best Hiss-fighting friends I've ever had, and we messed around with three different Jobs, and various combinations of Threat and Clearance levels. I stuck with one loadout, the Fix Kit with the big wrench, and was able to purchase upgrades to add the turret, grenades, upgraded guns and an exploding piggy bank accessory to my loadout. The piggy bank slots into the wrench and creates a thunderous AOE tornado when you hit Hiss with it. While I don't fully understand the science at play with the pig, I immensely enjoy slamming it into monsters. We ran through three Jobs — Hot Fix, Ground Control and Paper Chase. Hot fix is an industrial level where you have to repair giant fans and eventually fill up barrels with fuel before sending them down a zipline. In Ground Control, you shoot these nasty, wriggling pustules that look like giant botfly larvae to retrieve radioactive leech pearls and throw them in a mining cart. Paper Chase features an office filled with sentient sticky notes, and you have to shoot them off the walls and floors before they consume you or turn into big yellow monsters. Throughout all of these tasks, waves of Hiss appear, demanding your attention and gunfire. There are ammo refill stations and healing showers positioned around the maps, though their positions change with each tweak to the Threat and Clearance levels. You'll also have to repair some of the environmental features in order to fully take advantage of them — for instance, the shower initially spews out cold water, which can freeze players while they're trying to heal, but you can send in someone with the Fix Kit (me!) to quickly mend the hot water. This, and fixing the ammo station, were generally the first two things my teammates and I did in each run. And then, chaos. While each Job has its own goal, there's a shared cadence to the missions, with moments of calm preparation and exploration violently interrupted by hordes of Hiss. Out of the pistol, shotgun and submachine gun, the SMG was my weapon of choice, and it tore through groups of enemies, spurred along by my teammates' fire and, every now and then, a grenade. Ammo and health were constant considerations, but it was easy enough to note the locations of refill stations and showers, and or to ask my Splash Kit teammate to throw some healing water my way. Firebreak does a great job of rewarding teams that stick together — you get an extra shield when you're near your friends, and a bright visual cue accompanies this bonus, consistently reminding you to stay as a group. Of course, friendly fire is also a thing in this game, and errant explosions and bullets brought down everyone on my team a few times. We laughed and revived our way through it, but this highlighted my main issue with the game: It's often difficult to discern where any attack is coming from, making it tricky to reposition or avoid damage. Overall, I craved a bit more feedback. Firing the SMG was effective, but it also felt imprecise, and this vibe extended to the rest of the gameplay. Gathering ammo, collecting currency, healing, repairing things, using special abilities, taking damage and identifying objectives — all of these actions could be clarified and made more tactile. Remedy isn't exactly known for its gunplay , but some small tweaks could make the core experience in Firebreak far more coherent. While we played the most rounds of Paper Chase, Ground Control was my favorite level, featuring wide-open spaces for fighting Hiss and a clear objective in shooting all those gross pustules. The clarity in Ground Control was refreshing, especially when compared with the slight but constant confusion hovering over the rest of the experience. Once we all unlocked our special abilities, Firebreak really started to flow. Even when we weren't exactly sure where to go or what to do, my teammates and I grouped up and stood against the Hiss, healing each other, laying down crowd control and, in my case, smashing piggy banks in enemies' faces. We laughed, we strategized, we accidentally shot each other and we screamed, 'Where the hell is the safe room?' into our headsets. We had a fabulous time. And this is the highest praise I can lay at Firebreak 's feet: I spent nearly three hours playing Firebreak with two strangers and it felt like the most natural thing in the world. When our session ended, I wanted to keep playing. Though there's room to clarify some mechanics and add feedback to some functions, Firebreak lays a solid foundation for the modern Left 4 Dead of our collective dreams. I know that's an outdated reference, but I'm also confident I'm not the only one who's still chasing the high of the Left 4 Dead series — it was a running point of comparison among my Firebreak crew. All of the issues I have with Firebreak can be fine-tuned before the game launches this summer, and I have faith in Remedy to do so. Firebreak is poised to be a thoughtful and focused entry in the co-op shooter genre, and it's already an inviting extension of Remedy's darkest and silliest sensibilities. FBC: Firebreak is due to hit the Epic Games Store, Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on June 17 for $50. It's coming to the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and Xbox Game Pass day-one.
Digital Trends
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
I'm already having a blast with FBC: Firebreak's creative co-op action
As I fought a giant sticky note monster deep within the executive offices of the Federal Bureau of Control, I found quiet solace in the fact that Remedy Entertainment hadn't lost any of its quirky, wildly creative charm with its new cooperative first-person shooter FBC: Firebreak. Whenever a studio known for excellent single-player adventures branches out and tries something different, it always feels like a toss-up as to whether or not it'll succeed. Situations like Rare and Sea of Thieves stand as success stories, while disasters like Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League serve as cautionary tales. Fortunately, after going hands-on with the game for three hours, it feels like FBC: Firebreak is going to be the former, not the latter. Recommended Videos The studio's lack of experience with the genre can be seen in things like UI clarity, but for the most part, this is a cooperative shooter that thrives thanks to satisfying gun play and creative mission design that takes full advantage of Remedy's wacky connected universe. FBC: Firebreak is a game I already want to go back and play more of, which is a good sign after just a few hours of hands-on. In FBC: Firebreak, players control volunteers clearing out supernatural threats that have overtaken The Oldest House. Players complete different jobs in teams of three, completing special mission-specific objectives before returning to the elevator and leaving. It occupies the same space as games like Left 4 Dead and Deep Rock Galactic, which is a smart move for Remedy rather than trying to make a name for itself in the competitive extraction shooter or battle royale spaces. Each player can equip a different kit associated with a different element. I used the Jump Kit, which centers around electrocuting enemies. A good team composition would also include a kit that could get enemies wet, as that increased the area of effect for my electrical abilities. Different situations in each of FBC's levels impact the elements at play. A fiery grenade can set off a sprinkler, staying near a furnace for too long can cause heat damage, or holding radiated leech pearls for too long could poison me. A lot of the fun in FBC comes from the interplay of all these elements, and I was cheering when my squad could pull off a devastating enemy combo. The gunplay of FBC also feels tight so far, with the machine gun becoming a favorite of mine due to how the gun animated as I fired it. As someone who was disappointed by only being able to wield a pistol in Control, I appreciate that FBC lets me use some of the other weapons I've seen in that world. FBC is at its strongest when it leans into the Remedy of it all. Exploring the furnace from a new angle made me more intimately familiar with the area, while level conceits like sticky note monsters or growths on a wall that drop radioactive pearls are supernatural in a way that only quite works in Remedy's Connected Universe. I'm also grateful that this hands-on affirmed that FBC has strong mission design. The weakness of many co-op shooters, like Suicide Squad, is that missions often just boil down to killing a certain number of enemies and moving on. FBC is never quite that simple, having players move a shuttle along a track as they collect pearls or run around the furnace activating generators as hordes of enemies charge at players. The objectives change as players increase the difficulty, which should add some more replay value. FBC isn't like other cooperative shooters, and that's its greatest strength. It's also why I hope it'll allow me to overlook some of Remedy's growing pains as it enters the multiplayer space with a new interpretation on the world of Control. During my time with FBC, there were some UI and UX clarity issues. For instance, I had trouble understanding which enemies were damaging me. One objective, which had my team filling barrels with a substance before throwing them into a giant furnace, was confusing because it wasn't completely clear which barrels were filled or where we could fill them. In a debrief before my demo, Remedy said it was working on making features, systems, and UI clearer, so hopefully some of that will be resolved before launch. If it can clean all of that up, though, Remedy has what could be a gem of a multiplayer shooter on its hands. As someone subscribed to both of the services FBC is launching onto, I'm eager to give it another shot when it comes out. FBC: Firebreak launches for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on June 17 and will be available from day one as part of the PS Plus Premium and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate catalogs.
Digital Trends
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
How to join the FBC: Firebreak closed beta test
We're just weeks away from the release of Remedy's upcoming video game set in the Control universe, FBC: Firebreak. Unlike Control or Alan Wake 2, FBC: Firebreak isn't a single player third-person shooter but a co-op focused multiplayer game. The trailers how off a distinctly Remedy-style game, with strange events and monsters around every corner, but if you were drawn to the studio's past games for being single-player experiences, you might be unsure about this one. Thankfully, you have the chance to dive into the Oldest House early by signing up for the closed technical test. Here's our memo on how to do it. Recommended Videos Difficulty Easy Duration 5 minutes What You Need Email address How to join the FBC: Firebreak closed technical test Remedy is hosting a short closed technical test to make sure the game is stable and ready to go when it launches on June 17. The test will begin on May 15 at 6 AM P.T and conclude on May 19 at 2 pm P.T. Since this is a closed test, not everyone will make it in, so let's get you signed up for a chance to play ASAP. Step 1: Head over to the official FBC: Firebreak test signup page. Step 2: Scroll to the bottom and enter your email address. Step 3: After completing the capcha, you will get a verification code sent to that email you will need to enter. Step 4: Agree to the terms and conditions and hit Sign Up., That's it! You're now in the lottery to get into the FBC: Firebreak closed technical test. Those who are selected will get an email informing them they got in and further instructions on how to access the test. Remedy did not specify how many people will be chosen for this test, nor when emails will be sent out, so all you can do at this point is cross your fingers and hope you get it.
