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Ahead of its release next month, Bethesda and developer MachineGames have published a new blog post that reveals some new gameplay details for Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, a standalone prequel to last year’s The New Order. First, protagonist B.J. Blazkowicz will wield a brutal-sounding pipe melee weapon.

Players will acquire this “handy helper” early in the game and will use the multi-purpose melee item throughout. “The idea was to have something new–something different than the knife,” executive producer Jerk Gustafsson said.

The pipe can also be pulled apart so that players can dual-wield it, dealing even deadlier damage. In addition, players can use the pipe for a variety of non-lethal purposes, including climbing and breaking through walls, among other things. “It’s equally a progression tool as it is a weapon,” Gustafsson said.

Bethesda also says that takedowns with the pipe are going to be brutal, bloody affairs, and can vary depending on its single- or dual-wield status. Plus, since the pipe is hollow, “if you gank someone, there’s a good chance a geyser of blood’s gonna spurt out the other end.”

Also in the blog post, Bethesda confirms that Nazi zombies will make an appearance in The Old Blood (see below), and that MachineGames is aiming for an overall “pulp B-movie vibe” with the game. Check out the full blog post to learn even more about The Old Blood.

The Old Blood launches May 5 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. As mentioned above, since it’s a standalone game, it does not require The New Order. The Old Blood will sell for $20.

It includes two main campaigns: “Rudi Jäger and the Den of Wolves” and “The Dark Secrets of Helga Von Schabbs.” The game plays out across eight total chapters.

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It’s April 16, which not only means it’s Futurama voice actor Billy West’s 62nd birthday, but it’s also the day when more free games have become available for Xbox Live Gold members on Xbox 360.

Available now are Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel. The games are free through the end of the month.

They replace Gears of War: Judgment and Terraria, which were free April 1-15.

At school or work? You can queue up your download by way of the Xbox Store online through these links:

• Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
• Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel

Alternatively, you can use SmartGlass on your phone or tablet to start the download process or through your Xbox 360 itself.

Microsoft is offering a total of four free games to Xbox Live subscribers on Xbox 360 this month, which is double the number of games is typically gives away.

Xbox One owners, meanwhile, can download Child of Light and Pool Nation FX for free all month long.

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Yet another multiplatform game will run in a higher native resolution on PlayStation 4 than Xbox One.

Developer Codemasters has announced that its upcoming racing game F1 2015 will run at 1080p on PS4 and 900p on Xbox One. Both versions, however, will run at 60fps.

Game designer Stevn Embling confirmed the resolution and frame rate details Thursday in an interview with Eurogamer.

“On console we’ve had it very, very close to 60fps, certainly on PS4,” he told the site. “Everyone at the studio is doing a fantastic with the optimization, and we’re in the final couple of months before release where there’s a big push that we hit that 60fps, and that’s the plan.”

Earlier this week, developer Slightly Mad Studios confirmed that its own racing game, Project Cars–now due to launch in early May–will also run at 1080p on PS4 and 900p on Xbox One. In addition, Slightly Mad is targeting 60fps for both console editions.

F1 2015 was announced late last month, and is due to launch across PS4, Xbox One, and PC in June. The game is being developed on a new version of Codemasters’ EGO engine and aims to deliver the “ultimate Formula One video game experience.”

For a closer look at F1 2015, check out some work-in-progress images in the gallery below.

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A rudimentary modification to GTA 5 on PC has allowed Oculus Rift owners to view Los Santos in virtual reality for the first time.

Footage published on YouTube shows players stepping into the skin of protagonists Michael, Trevor, and Franklin, using an Oculus Rift DK 2 to simulate the game in first-person mode.

Though developer Rockstar North has not officially provided Oculus Rift support for its latest Grand Theft Auto title, players have found a way around this by using the latest version of VorpX, which is a software program that allows various game builds to be compatible with VR.

For now, the experiment only offers basic VR functionality, in that head movements are used to move the first-person camera. Due to the game’s code not being optimised for virtual reality, the results may be unpleasant and uncomfortable for some users.

Footage aired so far shows one player walk around Michael’s house in VR (below), while another captures a bike ride at night (above).

Grand Theft Auto V shipped on PC on Tuesday, April 14, and quickly became the most played non-Valve game published on Steam, with more than 300,000 people playing the game simultaneously.

GameSpot’s GTA 5 PC Review offered a strong recommendation to try the game: “GTA V shines on PC thanks to 4K-grade textures, the availability of additional post-processing effects, and an unlocked frame rate.”

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The long wait for the release of Project Cars should be over in a matter of weeks, as publisher Bandai Namco has “guaranteed” a specific launch date for the title.

Following a succession of delays to the project on at least three occasions, the racing sim is now due to ship on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on Friday May 8. This release date is specifically for the UK market, and while there is no official launch timings for North America yet, if convention is followed the game should arrive in the US on Tuesday May 5.

Developer Slightly Mad Studios has plans to ship a version on Wii U, but details on the release date for this remain vague.

Meanwhile, a guide for Project Cars’ minimum and recommended PC specs has been issued:

Minimum

• CPU: 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400, 3.0 GHz AMD Phenom II X4 940
• GPU: Nvidia GTX 260, ATI Radeon HD 5770
• Memory: 4Gb RAM, 1Gb VRAM

Recommended

• CPU: 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 3700, 4.0 GHz AMD FX-8350
• GPU: Nvidia GT600 series, AMD Radeon HD7000 series
• Memory: 8Gb RAM, 2Gb VRAM

Further below, a list of Project Cars’ supported steering wheels can be found (Slightly Mad Studios says this is not final yet).

Developer Slightly Mad Studios originally scheduled to release Project Cars in November 2014, though a month before release that date was pushed to March 2015. Then, weeks ahead of its postponed launch, the game was pushed back again, this time to April.

Ian Bell, the developer who heads up Slightly Mad Studios, said the further delay was initiated because detecting all of the game’s final bugs has proven to be a complex task.

“Despite our long heritage and pedigree in making critically-acclaimed racing games, Project CARS is by far the grandest and most intricately detailed of them all,” he wrote in a prepared statement.

Project Cars Supported Steering Wheels

PLAYSTATION 4

• Thrustmaster T300RS
• Thrustmaster T300 Ferrari GTE
• Thrustmaster T100 Force Feedback
• Thrustmaster T80
• Thrustmaster TH8RS
• Thrustmaster TH8A
• Thrustmaster T3PA Pedals
• Thrustmaster T500RS
• Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S
• Fanatec Porsche 911 GT2
• Fanatec Porsche 911 GT3 v2
• Fanatec CSR (+ Pedals)
• Fanatec CSR Elite (+ Pedals)
• Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base
• Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base v2

XBOX ONE

• Thrustmaster TX Racing Wheel Ferrari 458 Italia Edition
• Thrustmaster Ferrari 458 Spider Racing
• Thrustmaster TH8A
• Thrustmaster T3PA Pedals
• Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base
• Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base v2
• Mad Catz Pro Racing Force Feedback

PC

• Thrusmaster T300RS
• Thrustmaster T300 Ferrari GTE
• Thrustmaster TX Racing Wheel Ferrari 458 Italia Edition
• Thrustmaster T100 Force Feedback
• Thrustmaster TH8RS
• Thrustmaster TH8A
• Thrustmaster T3PA Pedals
• Thrustmaster T500RS
• Thrustmaster RGT Force Feedback Clutch
• Thrustmaster F430 Force Feedback
• Thrustmaster Ferrari F1 Wheel Integral T500
• Thrustmaster GP XID Gamepad
• Thrustmaster GPX Gamepad
• Thrustmaster GPX LightBack Black Edition Gamepad
• Fanatec Porsche Turbo
• Fanatec Porsche Carrera
• Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S
• Fanatec Porsche 911 GT2
• Fanatec Porsche 911 GT3 v2
• Fanatec CSR (+ Pedals)
• Fanatec CSR Elite (+ Pedals)
• Fanatec ClubSport Shifter (+SQ)
• Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base
• Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base v2
• Logitech G25
• Logitech G27
• Logitech Driving Force
• Logitech Driving Force Pro
• Logitech Driving Force GT
• Logitech MOMO Force
• Logitech MOMO Racing_
• SimRaceway SRW-S1

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2K Australia, developer of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, has closed its doors, a source within the studio tells Kotaku Australia.

According to their source, the entire studio will be shutting down, and every staff member will lose their job, saying “All hands are gone.” The costs of operating a AAA studio in Australia were reportedly the cause of the studio shutting its doors. Official comment is expected to be issued soon.

2K Australia was the country’s last remaining AAA studio. Most recently, the developer took the lead on Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, but the studio has long played a large part in assisting the development of other 2K properties, such as the BioShock series, and The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

Update: Official comment from a 2K representative has been provided to Kotaku Australia: “We can confirm we have taken steps to begin the studio closure process for 2K Australia in order to better manage ongoing development costs while improving the working proximity of our creative teams. We are very grateful for the team’s valuable contributions to numerous 2K projects, and are working with affected staff to explore reassignment opportunities where possible.”

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