Spice is life, and it's about to flow in full as Dune: Spice Wars prepares to leave Early Access. Developer Shiro Games and publisher Funcom announced plans to bring Version 1.0 to Steam in September 2023. There's also a release trailer to go along with the news. The new preview shows off more of the real-time warfare and the various means of political sabotage at your disposal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZJPQ2dRt-8

Dune: Spice Wars originally launched in Early Access on April 26, 2022. The 4X real-time strategy game tasks players with battling for control over Arrakis. Multiple factions—including House Atreides and House Harkonnen—are available along with key characters from Frank Herbert's novel. 

[caption id="attachment_399159" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot via Shiro Games[/caption]

Tremors

In addition to controlling spice resources and pulling off acts of subterfuge to expand, you'll need to watch out for sandworms. Ignoring wormsign is a great way to lose your spice harvesters and troops. The number of games featuring any form of giant worm management or warning system in place is shockingly low. We'll take what we can get and consider it a bonus if a quality RTS happens to be attached. 

The folks behind Dune: Spice Wars previously worked on Northgard, a strategy survival game based on Norse mythology. Northgard launched in 2018 and received its latest major update in April 2023. Like Northgard, players seem mostly positive on Spice Wars so far. Hopefully this sandworm will boast a similarly long post-launch tail. 

If you're looking for more on how this one came together, the devs have been fairly active in showing off concept art and other details.

The post Dune: Spice Wars leaves Early Access this September appeared first on Destructoid.

The spice must flow

Xbox has detailed the latter part of November's Xbox Game Pass lineup, and it's got some intriguing additions. Wars for spice, fights for survival, and historical mystery are all headed to the subscription service before the month's out.

Leading the back-half of November are two entries out today, Somerville and Pentiment. The former is an Inside-like sci-fi thriller, while the latter is an excellent historical fiction mystery from the crew at Obsidian. I highly recommend making time for it this month.

The Game Preview version of Dune: Spice Wars rolls onto PC Game Pass on November 17. The 4X strategy game set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe is one way to get your maneuvering and strategizing fix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2TJHua1EQk

Or maybe you just want to plunge into a hopeless fight against the forces of Chaos. Well, Warhammer 40K: Darktide is here for that. It's a co-op game from the makers of the popular Vermintide series, so there's some solid pedigree behind it.

Don't forget indie projects like Soccer Story, either. It's an interesting mix of games to close out the month. Here's the full lineup.

Xbox Game Pass - Late November 2022 additions

• Pentiment (Cloud, Console, PC) - Out today
• Somerville (Cloud, Console, PC) - Out today
• Dune: Spice Wars (Game Preview on PC) - November 17
• Ghostlore (Game Preview on PC) - November 17
• Lapin (Cloud, Console, PC) - November 17
• Norco (Cloud, Console) - November 17
• Gungrave G.O.R.E. (Cloud, Console, PC) - November 22
• Insurgency: Sandstorm (Cloud, Console) - November 29
• Soccer Story (Cloud, Console, PC) - November 29
• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (PC) - November 30

Leaving Xbox Game Pass on November 30

• Archvale (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Deeeer Simulator (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Console, PC)
• Mind Scanners (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Mortal Shell (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Undungeon (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Warhammer 40,000 Battlesector (Cloud, Console, PC)

The post Late November Xbox Game Pass lineup includes spice, stories, and chaos appeared first on Destructoid.

Team Ferguson for life

Xbox has announced that 2021's strategy sim Dune: Spice Wars is headed to the PC Game Pass service — Shiro Games' take on Frank Herbert's iconic literary universe is currently available on PC via Steam Early Access, but should be made available to the paid subscription service in the very near future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lFx4wfc8Tc

Dune: Spice Wars is a 4X real-time strategy set against the arid and isolated backdrop over the fictional planet Arrakis. Taking up control of one of many factions from the Dune universe, players compete for control of the planet and its lucrative "spice" reserve — a plant that forms the root of incredible powers, from extended human life to interstellar travel. Guide troops, establish refineries, balance resources, and deal with your fellow spice fielders by fair means... or foul.

Announced and released in the aftermath of Denis Villeneuve's epic live-action movie, Dune: Spice Wars returns the series to its strategic gameplay roots, as popularized by the extremely popular and genre-defining PC/Amiga release Dune II: Battle for Arrakis (1992). The new game received a major update this past summer, adding dedicated multiplayer servers, peer-to-peer support, new regions, events, and factions.

Heartbreakingly, There's no sign of Kyle Maclachlan, Batista, or Rebecca Ferguson, but Dune: Spice Wars still looks like a very fine time for ruthless, intergalactic entrepreneurs everywhere.

The post Dune: Spice Wars is bringing its sci-fi strategy to PC Game Pass appeared first on Destructoid.

Fight for spice and sand

The latest video game adaptation of the Dune universe will be playable this month. Real-time strategy game Dune: Spice Wars will launch into early access on Steam on April 26, 2022.

Developer Shiro Games and Funcom announced the news today, alongside another playable faction in the strategy game: the Fremen. If you've seen or read Dune, you're familiar with the Fremen. They're the people who call the harsh desert planet Arrakis home.

Fremen move better across open desert and are less likely to attract sandworms. They'll also be better at allying with the neutral Sietches. Arrakis is home turf for the Fremen, after all, so they'll make for formidable foes against the Harkonnen, Atreides, and Smuggler factions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lFx4wfc8Tc

Shiro Games' Dune: Spice Wars mixes elements of real-time strategy and 4X games. As the different factions vie for control of Arrakis and its much-coveted spice, players can try to establish bases, develop infrastructure, and wage war to win the planet. Or use subterfuge, politics, and diplomacy instead.

Getting a little spicy

This is only one of Funcom's Dune games in the pipeline, as the publisher also has an open-world survival game set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe in development too.

Dune has had a lengthy history in video games, as we combed back over in our retrospective last year. While its adventure game was also notable, Dune: Battle for Arrakis wound up being a landmark game for Westwood Studios. It's easy to say that Dune and the real-time strategy are pretty intertwined.

With the first movie getting a solid reception and more on the way, the door's open for Dune to get a video game resurgence too. Beyond getting some skins in Fortnite, that is.

The battle for Arrakis will kick off again later this month, when Dune: Spice Wars launches into early access on PC via Steam on April 26, 2022.

The post Dune: Spice Wars takes its strategy into early access this month appeared first on Destructoid.

This is My Dune

Publisher Funcom and developer Shiro Games have offered up the first gameplay video for their incoming strategy title Dune: Spice Wars, an adaptation of the legendary sci-fi universe devised by author Frank Herbert. The game is currently in development for PC and consoles.

As we reported in December, when Dune: Spice Wars was first announced, the new title will return the real-time-strategy roots of Westwood's classic Amiga and PC releases of the early 1990s. Players will be afforded the opportunity to select from a number of houses set within the Dune universe, before attempting to build a thriving mining community within the planet's lucrative spice-mine market.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lFx4wfc8Tc

The new trailer, which appears to be narrated by the dulcet tone of a Lady Jessica-type, demonstrates how players will be responsible for the building and maintaining of communities, factories, silos, and machinery, carving out a piece of the all-important spice pie while steadying the scales of democracy, subterfuge, and war with rival houses, local communities, and cut-throat bandits.

Bargaining, espionage, resourcefulness, peacekeeping, and brute force will be the tools necessary to ensure that your time on Arrakis is a successful one, lest you and your people find yourselves face down in the sand. These are very early days, but if Shiro Games is able to capture even half the atmosphere and compelling gameplay of the Westwood titles, then Dune: Spice World could prove to be a real gem.

House Ferguson all the way.

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