God Of War Fans Possibly Find The Game's Final Secret, Some Are Upset It's Not Cool Enough
Way back in May, God of War director Cory Barlog mentioned that there's a final secret in the game that no one has been able to find yet, at least publicly. In a game brimming with foreshadowing, fans were eager to find out what this last thing could be, as it could even hint at the next God of War game. A subreddit specifically made to search out secrets for the game was created and has been furiously exploring this game for the final secret. During San Diego Comic Con this past week, Barlog decided to aid in the search by narrowing it down to one building: Kratos' house.
Warning: the rest of this story contains spoilers for God of War, including its ending.
Armed with this new hints, the various God of War subreddits combed every single inch of Kratos' abode. In the wooden shack, players eventually discovered some things they hadn't noticed before...and a few of them are convinced that can't be the real answer.
Players found four runes in Kratos' house. When combined, the runes translate to the name "Loki," which is revealed at the end of the game. A player who sees that at the beginning and pieces it together would get a pretty big but not necessarily game-ruining spoiler for the game. When fans discovered this, most were convinced it was just a neat easter egg, but not worthy of the months' work and a label of a "final secret."
"It cant be the final secret. It just cant," reads the title of the top thread on r/GodofWarSecrets. "I'm pretty sure that the runes can not be the last secret," reads another.
The main problem people are having is that the secret is that it is simply too blase for a game that is anything but. For being a final secret that Barlog teased for months, fans expected something more, perhaps something way bigger than the developers ever intended to include as a hint in this game.
"I think the secret will tell us where the next game is taking place," one commenter said shortly after Barlog's Comic Con hint. "I don't see how it can be anything else."
While the expectations may be out of whack, it's not surprising that fans have come to expect that the game would hint at sequels. The last few hours of the game really ask the player to accept that the story is laying groundwork for further parts of the story with future motivation establishing and characters being teased. It makes some sense that the people most obsessively combing through God of War would be the people who think any hidden secrets contain massive story value.
There's also the possibility that they could in fact be right. While Sony Santa Monica concept artist Joe Kennedy cryptically tweeted "Faye Knew" in response to the tease, indicating that Atreus' mother put those runes there specifically, he later clarified that he was only speaking of from his position as a concept artist. Barlog, who fired the starting pistol for this race in the first place, has yet to confirm that the runes in the house are the final secret he was referring to.
Until or unless Barlog speaks out about it, fans are going to keep searching that house, hoping to wring something major out of its walls.
No Man's Sky debuted nearly two years ago to controversy and mixed reviews (you can read our take on the original version here). Since its release, amidst all the backlash, developer Hello Games has built a strong niche following with consistent free updates that have added content and new things to do, including storylines to chase down and base-building elements. The latest update, simply titled Next, brings multiplayer and third-person views have come to No Man's Sky as well as several building mechanic tweaks. Given the new update, we felt it was no better time than to dive into this beautiful galaxy and see if the years and updates have been kind to Hello Games' ambitious opus.
What follows is a journal kept by yours truly that will be updated every day until its completion where we roam the galaxy, in search of new sights, dangers, and missions to undertake.
Well, friends, there's a whole galaxy out there. So let's get to it.
I initially decided to do a new game, as it had been so long since I played No Man's Sky that going through the tutorial might be helpful. Turns out this was not the case at all. The game still opens the same way, with you waking up marooned on a planet, having to scavenge items to repair your ship. However, about halfway through the process, one of the tutorial messages informed me that the resource I needed to repair my ship's engine...was located off-planet. It didn't help matter that fellow editor and rapscallion at large Kyle Hilliard popped into my game to shoot me dead before flying off to another planet without even offering to help me out of my dire circumstances once I respawned. You can watch the video below of him destroying me if you're a sick monster or something.
Frustrated, I downloaded my old save from the game and popped into a 15-hour save I had from when the game first launched. Things improved a smidge there, but I still felt frustrated as I was constantly surrounded by mechanics requiring me to replenish a bar. I'd jump halfway across a system to another planet only to find out I couldn't leave it because my thruster engines were depleted, which meant I had to spend five minutes searching a randomized, deserted planet for resources to turn into fuel.
Eventually I (re)made my peace with this scavenging setup, in spite of the frequent doldrums, and began to zip around space. For me, the best bits of No Man's Sky aren't the dogfights or spelunking in alien colonies. Instead, it's the moments of zen when you're flying across the stars and through asteroid fields, sometimes carrying cargo, sometimes just looking for a new direction. Even if what you find at the end of those small journeys is disappointing, the wanderlust rarely fades. I kept venturing on and on to see what the game's procedural universe had to offer me, often finding ways to relax as my ship carried me to and fro places unknown.
At one point I turned the audio way down and threw on some Nina Simone to listen to over the hum of my ship's engine.
From here, I found my groove with No Man's Sky again. I dropped into planets, researched new critters for small bounties, and flew to space stations, which have been expanded since the original and include more stores and NPCs, to learn new languages from both locals and pilgrims on the starways. I fooled around with the character creator to make my character more strongly resemble the wandering doof I imagine him to be.
Wearing my new face, I crafted new upgrades, including an advanced mining laser to help me cut through harder rocks and strange organic material to gather elements so I could (eventually) build my base.
I was about to set up shop on a small planet of mostly grey rock when that nefarious bandit Kyle showed up again. I tried to make peace with him, awkwardly gesturing to show him I meant no harm, when he fired on me with his mining laser. Well, he didn't really give me a choice then, did he? I responded by blowing him away with the plasma grenade attachment on my multi-tool after an awkward, violent dance (you can watch it here) and then his body slumped and disappeared.
Eat it, Hilliard.
From there, I took to the stars again and flew into an asteroid field, chopping rocks into bits to turn into precious fuel before finally growing frustrated with the lack of progress and hanging up my space boots for the day.
So far, No Man's Sky Next, and all of its previous upgrades, still feels like the base game I played back in 2016. The core loop of scavenging, collecting bits of language, and upgrading equipment is still virtually the same. However, we haven't gotten to the base-building elements nor the freeform sandbox mode, which we will definitely try out before the end of this week. I'm looking forward to the sandbox mode in particular, hoping it removes all the gauges and annoying upkeep chores from what could be a fantastic and beautiful exploration game.
We'll get to building tomorrow. Until then, cadets, happy spacetrails. Here's a clip of Kyle burying himself alive for some reason to see you off.
For more on wandering in No Man's Sky, be sure to check out Reiner's Sci-fi Weekly discovery log on the original version of the game.
Loot crates are still a touchy discussion, but one small change that people have been unanimously asking publishers to implement in the west is information about loot box percentages. Does it make sense to buy a loot box if the purple item I want only has a 1 percent chance of appearing? How many commons am I expected to get? This information is useful and helps to curb the addictive nature of loot boxes and is already mandatory for some countries.
Psyonix has decided to just go ahead and release the information on Rocket League's loot boxes, citing major changes coming to the progression system of the game. From Psyonix's blog:
Rare Item: 55%
Very Rare Item: 28%
Import Item: 12%
Exotic Item: 4%
Black Market Item: 1%
Chance of receiving Painted attribute: 25%
Chance of receiving Certified attribute: 25%
The developer explains that these have been the rates since the loot boxes first arrived to the game in September 2016 and, should they ever change, Psyonix will publicly announce it. The timing is likely to coincide with the announcement of the Rocket League Championship Series season 6 and to focus on the more exciting news of that versus loot box rates.
Regardless, it's an important thing that hopefully more developers and publishers make public and ideally include in their games right next to the "Buy" button.
Arcade1Up is hoping to resurrect the classic arcade game market for homes, making them more affordable and easy to maintain. The company is launching a line of pint-sized cabinets that are about three-fourths the size of your typical machine for the price of your typical current generation console.
We spoke to CEO Scott Bachrach and he said the idea came from looking at your typical arcade emulators and realizing they didn't replicate the feeling of being in an arcade. The team took Atari compilation machines out of places like Urban Outfitters and brought them home, quickly realizing that while the games were still good, the machines didn’t nail the best part: The feeling of being in the arcade. The team at Arcade1Up wanted to emulate the arcade as best they could, without the cost and hassle of dealing with a huge cabinet. Bachrach stated "We realized there had never been an offering at retail for a home arcade that gave you the same experience, or damn close to, the feeling of being in an arcade. We wanted to give a simulated experience to what it felt like when you played that game 20 years ago."
In terms of the design of the cabinets, the hardest thing to procure was the original art. The team at Arcade1Up had to go through extensive work to find the art for the old cabinets, as much of it didn’t exist in any sort of archive. “The stuff was done 30-35 years ago, it wasn't catalogued on computers...so you're literally going and hunting down artwork from 30 years ago in some cases. " Scott elaborated on some of the difficulties involved. "Brand owners don't have it, so you have-to find it and you have-to go back and get original sheets that were done… We really want to be as true as we possibly can be to the original artwork."
The cabinets will be offered alongside risers to make them feel more authentic for those who prefer to stand at their machine. The different options all weigh about 65lbs and are easy to assemble. Alongside the more portable size, the emulation of the games remains authentic as well. Bachrach informed us that they "use a control panel that is almost identical to the original control panels, we use a screen size that is within two inches of the original screen. “
The cabinets available at launch will be:
Asteroids, with Major Havoc, Lunar Lander and Tempest Street Fighter II Champion Edition, with Super Street Fighter II Turbo, and Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers Rampage, with Gauntlet, Joust, and Defender Centipede, with Missile Command, Crystal Castles, Atari Millipede Final Fight, with Ghosts N' Goblins, 1944: The Loop Master, and StriderEach cabinet will ship with four classic games and there will be five cabinets available at launch. The cabinets are themed, so you won’t see street fighter on the same machine as centipede due to the control scheme. Some options are Asteroids, Major Havoc, Lunar Lander and Tempest, while another will have three versions of Street Fighter II. The Arcade1Up cabinets will be available for pre-order on July 25 and will release this September for $399. A few Game Informer editors got their hands on the cabinets at E3, and they walked away impressed with Arcade1Up’s authenticity to the original products.
We reported on the new GTA Online expansion, After Hours, when it was revealed the other day. Now that's out and playable, you can join Tony Prince in building a new night club, which is never as simple as it sounds in Grand Theft Auto.
What separates After Hours from other GTA Online content is that Rockstar chose to shower After Hours with fresh dialogue and story that isn't seen in most of the other GTA Online night club entrepreneurship. You can check out the announcement trailer below for a taste.
Another interesting note is that GTA Online is eschewing the PlayStation Plus requirement for online multiplayer until August 6, so you can jump in and try it without being a subscriber. Grand That Auto V: After Hours is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC for free.
No Man's Sky originally released in 2016 and it did not live up to the stratospheric expectations players placed upon it, but developer Hello Games has not let that deter them. The game has received frequent updates over the past two years, but today's update, titled Next, is far and away the biggest.
It adds third-person options, legitimate multiplayer, improved visuals, better base-building, and lots more. Join Ben Hanson and me, as well as interns Camden Jones and Derek Swinhart, as we explore what's new, try to kill Javy, and see what happens when you try to sit on a ship that is taking off.
If I could snap my fingers to instantly change something in the world, I would eliminate people’s ability to write about Star Wars: The Last Jedi on social media. No matter what is said – whether it’s good, bad, or something completely mundane – toxicity and chaos erupt. That film has hit the polarization point of politics. Someone always jumps in to let someone know their opinion is wrong.
Go ahead and shake your head at me for suggesting we silence speech, but this is my dumb Thanos fantasy, and I’d love to see The Last Jedi have a day of social silence. Just one damn day.
I had similar finger-snapping desires about No Man’s Sky roughly two years ago. People couldn’t share a thought about that game without someone jumping down their throat for so much as saying its name. Weirdy enough, I sympathized with people who were unleashing angry messages on social media. Why? Hello Games' vision for No Man's Sky changed between its announcement and release. Some of the ideas the team hoped to include in the game didn't make the cut, and the visual fidelity shown in the early trailers didn't line up with the final product. People felt like they had been given a spaceship full of lies. That frustration is justified.
On the other end of the spectrum, people went into the game blind or with tempered expectations. Some of the ended up enjoying it immensely, and were like "I just named an alien lizard after my dog. This game is cool."
No Man’s Sky feels like it released forever ago, but it’s going to be the big talker again this week, and maybe for a while. Hello Games continues to support the project with big updates, and this week’s new content is its most exciting yet.
We were told no one would likely ever meet in No Man's Sky, but that happened almost immediately after the game launched. That encounter ended in disaster, further angering an already irate base of players. Flash forward two years, and the messaging has now shifted from "You're alone in space" to "Exploring is better with friends." No Man's Sky Next allows a small group of friends to team up and discover life together. This is a complete change from what the game was originally intended to be, but may be the difference maker to bring people who deleted the game from their hard drives back for a second look.
The multiplayer, as exciting as it is, isn't the driving force for my return. I'm more excited to see how the core game has evolved. Hello Games has reworked the resource gathering, story, missions, base building, scanning, U.I, and practically everything in the game. I burned out on the resource management early on, and didn't find the journey to the center of the universe engaging. I'm going back to see if these facets of the game are better, and I'm going to do it with a crew of friends.
I'm also coming back because Hello Games is finally communicating with players, and is promising weekly content drops. Sean Murray today wrote a letter to the community saying that they made mistakes in the past, and are now ready to talk and be active with players. I don't believe for a second that Hello Games couldn't communicate before. In that post, Murray said "Certainly one regret is that the intensity and drama of launch left no room for communication with the community. We decided instead to focus on development rather than words."
The radio silence was a bad move. This comment makes it seem like Hello Games was engaged in a "we'll prove them all wrong" mission. They admit they made mistakes...two years later. Everyone plugged into gaming news knew mistakes were made. Hello Games chose to disappear rather than confront them. What if the community has similar issues with Next? Are we now at a point where we'll hear from the dev team, or will they disappear again?
No matter what happens, we're looking at two years of a make-good effort to a game many people had written off as "dead at launch." Several of us at Game Informer are revisiting the game and will be sharing our thoughts over the next few days. My take will be right here in next week's Science-Fiction Weekly. You can join Javy Gwaltney on his expedition today through a live journal that details his discoveries and impressions.
Are you heading back into No Man's Sky, or do you still carry the torch that it'll forever be No Man's Lie? Let me know your thoughts on the game in the comments section below.
It's only been a few weeks since Hammond was announced and now he's already live outside the test servers, so everyone can get a chance to take him for a roll.
Hammond is a hamster inside a large rolling mech, a modified escape pod he used to abscond from the lunar colony he was held in. He uses the mech to not only roll around at high speeds, but also attach himself to solid structures using a grappling line and swinging around like, well, a wrecking ball.
Check out the live trailer of Wrecking Ball below.
I personally think they should change the name from Wrecking Ball to Hammond, but I suppose it doesn't matter if everyone just calls him Hammond, anyway.
Hammond is live now on all platforms, so you can go ahead and choose the new hero the next time you boot up the game.
Night Dive Studios, the developer behind HD updates to games like Turok and Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, has announced the next game in their triumvirate of late 1990s first-person shooters. This time around, Night Dive is bringing Forsaken to Xbox One and PC for a modern audience.
The 1998 shooter was originally released on the PlayStation, PC, and Nintendo 64, with some unique enemies in the N64 version. Forsaken was best known for its complete freedom of movement, where players could move up and down in a gravity-free fashion as well as strafe any direction they like.
For the HD remake, Night Dive is keeping the polygon count identical to the 20-year-old game, but the game will now run at 60 FPS, which is a bit more than double what the original game hit. Night Dive is also including all the N64-exclusive content for the update. You can check out the trailer for the new HD version below.
Forsaken launches on Xbox One and PC on July 31.
Mainstream horror titles have fallen significantly in popularity since their heyday in the PS1 era. Although games like Resident Evil 7 and Until Dawn made waves upon release, their success is tempered by never-released titles like Silent Hills and Dead Space 4, and commercial disappointments like The Evil Within 2. Big publishers seem increasingly hesitant to take a risk on triple-A horror. But while the high-budget space has scaled down, indie creators have stepped up to fill in the gaps and give players the spooks.
Over the past several years, games with tiny development teams and virtually no budget have focused on creating experiences that are both streamlined and terrifying. Although certain elements of polish may be missing (graphics are typically primitive, environmental interaction is kept to a minimum), the titles make up for it with a refreshingly raw quality. Untextured objects and jerky animations don’t detract from an ominous tone or foreboding writing. Horror doesn’t need to be high definition to make a player’s hair stand on end.
Anatomy, a title by developer Kitty Horrorshow has no animated characters, no weapons, and no menu screen. It’s an hour-long experience that consists almost entirely of walking around a suburban house, picking up cassette tapes, and listening to them in the kitchen. It is, without exaggeration, the scariest game I’ve ever played.
Anatomy, like most games made by Kitty Horrorshow (who prefers to go by this name), has a deliberately lo-fi aesthetic. The game takes place in a dark house, with a tiny draw distance that hearkens back to the claustrophobia of Silent Hill. Lines of static make their way down the screen, growing more intense as the experience goes on. The cassette tapes scattered throughout the rooms offer an unsettling thesis on the similarities between a house and the human body. That unease is only accentuated by the fact that you often have to venture into the very areas described in gross detail by the tapes; after listening to the audio clips, it’s hard to not picture the living room as a beating human heart.
“There's a great deal to be said about the inherent psychological impact that dealing with something 'lo-fi' can have,” says Kitty Horrorshow. “People are generally uncomfortable with things that seem worn-out, warped, corroded.”
Anatomy seems to have a mind of its own. The game often shuts down without warning, unceremoniously kicking you back to your desktop. Subsequent runthroughs feature distorted sound and visuals, giving the impression that the game doesn’t want you playing it. It feels haunted.
Kitty Horrorshow, and other developers have embraced an aesthetic reminiscent of fuzzy old VHS tapes, full of digital noise and partially corrupted. Itch.io, a digital distributor that specializes in indie titles, has horror pages filled with intentional throwbacks to the mid-‘90s (and earlier). In an effort find more primal sources of fear, many developers have turned to distorting our often-comfortable sense of nostalgia.
Developer Toni Kortelahti, also known as 98DEMAKE, rose to prominence by “demaking” modern games. His YouTube channel is full of primitive-looking versions of titles like The Last of Us and Mirror’s Edge. When making his own game, Kortelahti knew he wanted to keep this PlayStation One aesthetic.
"The polygons were all wobbly and jittery, and the textures were warped and weird,” says Kortelahti in an interview with Gamasutra. “The ridiculously low resolution…often made it so that you weren't always sure what you're looking at — turning even innocent games into scary ones."
Kortelahti’s own title, OK/NORMAL, took great pains to adhere to the technical limitations of the original PlayStation, using those restraints as an eerie tool. The game mirrors the collection-focused gameplay of early 3D titles, but with an uncomfortable twist: Rather than bananas or coins, you’re collecting pills and empty glasses. Low resolution textures repeat endlessly, tiling the walls and sky in an almost nauseating fashion. Polygon counts number in the hundreds, not thousands. OK/NORMAL never clearly explains what it’s about, but any specific plot is secondary to the pervasive, ominous tone.
“You weren't always sure what you were looking at,” Kortelahti says, speaking about the early PlayStation titles that inspired him. “The games had your imagination going wild in ways that modern graphics really can't.”
OK/NORMAL and Anatomy’s styles are both glitchy, almost falling apart. It’s a choice that plays on our prior knowledge of the medium and our learned understanding that a game is based on a set of predictable rules. When those rules are betrayed, the game feels almost sentient. It appears to be intentionally choosing to frighten us, rather than operating on pre-programmed behavior.
“Glitches in video games are often funny or absurd,” Kitty Horrorshow says, reflecting on Anatomy. “But if the experience you're dealing with is something frightening, having the actual artifice around the experience come across as broken, or even just old and lost, can compound the feeling profoundly.”
An extreme version of these themes can often be found in Creepypastas, internet horror stories that frequently use malevolent games as a source of scares. One of the most popular of these stories is BEN Drowned, a series of blogs written in the fall of 2010. In it, the writer buys an old copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask at a yard sale and finds that it still has a save from the previous owner. Over the course of several weeks, the game exhibits more and more strange behavior. Dialogue is missing or wrong, locations are fundamentally changed, and the player is followed by a seemingly inert statue. The writer spirals into obsession and paranoia. The old save, it seems, still contained the angry spirit of a young boy who drowned before finishing the game.
Even though the original writer of BEN Drowned has since admitted to making the whole thing up, the videos released alongside the original story are genuinely unsettling. The bizarre textures and warped music feel like a violation of the original game’s friendly playspace.
These stories almost always center around indie games and/or old consoles. I find it hard to imagine modern big-budget games being convincingly “haunted” in the same way. The systems nowadays are too refined, the graphics too realistic. There’s something uniquely fragile about the early years of 3D titles on the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Developers were only beginning to understand that new technology. While they were struggling with the programming, why couldn’t something else have slipped inside the game unnoticed?
2:22AM and Horror by Subtraction2:22AM is a free game made by umbrella-isle on Itch.io, designed to emulate the feeling of watching late-night public access TV. It’s a series of somewhat randomized experiences connected by blurry real-life footage of disconnected things. Between minigame-like experiences where you do things like chop a vegetable, the game shows you clips of streetlights or a pot boiling over. In one vignette, you’re standing outside a house at night with a shovel. Each click makes the shovel dig a little deeper into the ground; eventually, you’ve dug a grave.
Nothing particularly horrifying happens throughout 2:22AM’s 20-minute runtime, but I couldn’t shake a persistent feeling of dread. Scenes are never allowed to satisfyingly finish. When chopping the vegetable, every swing of the knife brings it closer to your hand, but during the swing that would ultimately cut your thumb, the game cuts away. 2:22AM is predictable only long enough to lull you into a false sense of security, before turning the situation on its head. Its echoing soundscape and unexpected transitions are nightmare-like, unshackled from the ties of reality and logic.
This abstract approach allows for more subtle approaches to horror than the jumpscare factories popular on Steam. In the work these indie developers, fear doesn’t come from monsters or crazed humans; it’s inextricably linked to the environment itself. The streets of an empty town or the dreamscapes of a quiet void pull emotions more delicate than simple terror to the surface. 2:22AM, Anatomy, and OK/NORMAL all use their lack of visceral detail to focus towards the unquantifiable aspects of the experiences.
An empty street doesn’t have to contain a grotesque and graphically impressive monster, this genre of horror argues. The feeling of isolation and the implication of a greater, unspoken threat are enough. Their restraint seems to communicate a consistent message: You don’t even know what you should be scared of.
Kitty Horrorshow has a number of games available on her itch.io page, and also releases experiments to her Patreon backers. OK/NORMAL is available on itch.io and Steam. 2:22AM is free on itch.io.
Last week, Epic showcased a daring rescue from streamer @MrMuselk attempting to rescue another Fortnite player who seemed completely stuck without materials and couldn't scale a cliff. The rescue ended less-than-great. But now Epic has forever enshrined that moment in Fortnite's history.
The player who was supposed to be rescued, Chappadoodle, now has a tombstone in the exact spot where, uh, mistakes were made. Reddit user StoreBrandEnigma discovered the shrine after the latest update and posted a video. The grave is a simple and understated tombstone with some rubber tires, which would have saved Chappadoodle from his fate in the first place.
In the comments, an Epic developer said "The legacy of Chappadoodle lives on."
This isn't the first time Epic has responded to community discussion or well-liked jokes by adding them to the game. I wonder if they have a small team of one or two people dedicated to just adding stuff the community is talking about.
Although Silent Hills will never see the light of day, fans of the dormant series can now revisit a few of its earlier titles on Xbox One. The Silent Hill HD Collection, which includes the second and third games, and Silent Hill: Homecoming are both now backwards compatible.
The Silent Hill HD Collection is a notoriously janky up-res (it was developed from incomplete code), and we didn't particularly enjoy Homecoming either. That being said, the series is undoubtedly a part of gaming history; it's better it exists in some format than not at all.
Silent Hill: HD Collection and Silent Hill Homecoming are coming to Xbox One Backward Compatibility today https://t.co/qPMRNs2ZLo pic.twitter.com/dpc14O2YFa
— Larry Hryb @ SDCC (@majornelson) July 24, 2018
Fans of the melee-focused Metroidvania-platformer Guacamelee have been hotly anticipating the poultry-filled sequel since its announcement last October. Now it seems Guacamelee 2 is ready for primetime with a release date announcement of August 21.
Guacamelee 2 brings four-player co-op to the series but still retains all the melee combos and 2D exploration that fans have come to expect from the series. Check out the new footage in the release date trailer below.
Guacamelee 2 will be launching on PlayStation 4 and Steam. Drinkbox hasn't said if the game will be coming to other platforms, but told us at PSX last year to simply look at how the first game progressed. For now, though, the announced versions of Guacamelee 2 will be available on August 21.
Comcast is once again partnering with Activision to offer free early access into a Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 private multiplayer beta for Xfinity members.
Starting Friday, July 27, Xfinity Internet customers can request an access code for the beta, which commences on August 3-6 for PS4 members, and later on August 10-13 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC users.
The code request will be set up at the Xfinity site.
Lara Croft's return is right around the bend, with our archeologist and hardened survivor heading into the jungle on September 14. According to developer Eidos Montréal, the game has gone gold, shorthand for when a developer has determined its game is of a high enough quality to ship to stores.
The announcement came via a tweet:
Shadow of the Tomb Raider has gone gold! Lara’s defining moment is out of @EidosMontreal’s hard-working hands & on its way to manufacturing. Shadow of the Tomb Raider will be available for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows PC/Steam on September 14. pic.twitter.com/6XTwzuMVnP
— Tomb Raider (@tombraider) July 24, 2018For more on Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, be sure to check out this video that dives into an area of the new game's setting: Paititi.
No Man's Sky's big Next update, which promises to add true multiplayer and a third-person perspective, is now live for all players on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
To accompany the launch, Hello Games has posted extensive patch notes outlining everything the update, which clocks in a 7.6 GB. The update includes new missions (scheduled and cycling out regularly!), major changes to bases (build those dang things anywhere! Delete them if you want!), rebalanced resources (you can now pick up deployable tech!), and lots more. Be sure to check out the full blog post detailing all the changes.
The free-to-play Realm Royale arrived earlier this summer in Early Access on PC. Hi-Rez's colorful take on battle royale is more based in fantasy that military operations, with forging and horseback riding playing a big role in the minute-by-minute gameplay.
Dan Tack liked what he played and sees promise in the game. "The battle royale genre is certainly going to suffer from saturation in the coming years," he says, "but Realm Royale is worth a look." PS4 players will be able to determine whether that promise shines through for them as early as next week when the game hits closed beta.
You can watch a trailer for Realm Royale in action right here:
You can find instructions for how to sign up for the beta on Playstation's official post.
Confirming what was earlier reported in the pages of Japanese magazine V-Jump, Bandai Namco has officially announced base Goku and base Vegeta as DLC for the title.
In other recent Dragon Ball FighterZ news, the Switch version is getting a public beta in August along with new multiplayer modes.
GOKU TRAILER
VEGETA
The Occupation, a time-based investigative thriller from White Paper Games, is releasing on October 9 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
After a bombing has shaken Britain and given the government authority to strip away civil rights from the citizenry, you play a journalist tasked with figuring out what happened and talking to the government agents ready to push a yoke on the populace. You can politely sit there and accept their propaganda or walk around and discover the truth for yourself. Events play out in real time, so whatever you're doing, you're using that time not doing something else.
Playing The Occupation was one of our highlights of Day of the Devs last year.
In addition to a digital release, White Paper Games has partnered with publisher Sold Out to release a retail version of the title out the same day. Strap up your work boots and get ready to uncover a conspiracy when the game releases in October.
Usually when it's someone's birthday they get the presents, but in the case of Epic Games' Fortnite turning one, you're getting the stuff. In particular, it's patch 5.10 which brings back limited-time mode Playground, offers the new compact SMG, and a birthday questline with a llama and Birthday Brigade Ramirez.
Playground introduces new team select options, and the patch also delivers a Save the World storyline in the Canny Valley as well as various quality of life tweaks.
For the full patch notes, head here.
Ever since its release in late 2015, Konami has provided content updates for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, though there are often long periods between content drops. Today marks the first time in over a year that the game's received new content, but it's also a pretty big one too.
Players who are fond of dabbling in the multiplayer FOB missions will now find they have the option to play as the sniper Quiet. According to Konami, she has several abilities, though you can't change her outfit or headgear:
You can play as Quiet to infiltrate FOBs. You cannot change her uniform or head options. She is an expert with a sniper rifle, and her steady hands let her take her shots with minimal shaking. Quiet’s movement speed is extremely fast and allows for unique jumping abilities over high steps where a player would usually need a ladder. She can close in on enemies quickly with her special dash, while remaining still for a certain amount of time will make her stealthy.
If playing a Quiet isn't appealing to you, this new update also adds a couple of devices for you to tinker around with, including a dark matter generator that can take foes out, an energy shield, and lethal and non-lethal variation on a powerful sniper rifle.
You can get the full rundown on the goodies in this update by checking out the post here. For more on Metal Gear Solid V, be sure to check out our review of the release version of the game.
Last year's Longshot story mode was a cool addition to the Madden franchise, but while I was endeared to the game's characters and the performances by the voice actors, it wasn't as fun to play through the football moments themselves. Madden 19 is attempting to change that with more "regular" football sequences while still exploring the characters we've come to know and love as well as some new ones, like the GM played by Rob Schneider.
I played through the first hour or so of the mode, and you can see not only the game's first fifteen minutes, which sets up where Devin and Colt are now, but also where the story goes from there.
Warning: The videos and text below contain spoilers. LONGSHOT: HOMECOMING – THE FIRST 15 MINUTESThe story picks up more or less where we left it in the last game: Devin is trying to make his way into the NFL, with playcalling verbiage still not his strong suit, and Colt is kicking around back in Mathis, trying to draft off of whatever Longshot fame – be it from the show or the song – he can grab onto.
LONGSHOT: HOMECOMING – AN EXTENDED LOOKOne of the main things I noticed while playing the mode – other than there's more regular football to be had – is that so far there aren't the choices that the first one had. This includes dialog choices. So while you're playing on the field more, there aren't as many decisions to make off of it. It'll be interesting to see if this changes as the story goes on – which looks to include as many twists and turns and colorful characters as the first Longshot. While the clip below doesn't show Colt taking the field, don't worry, not all the football is going to be played through Devin's point of view.
The FIFA series has its licenses and modes fairly well covered, from the re-acquired Champions League to the dominance of Ultimate Team. The franchise's gameplay component has been improving this generation, but it still needs some further refinement. FIFA 19 is giving players a few new gameplay tools to help open up its possibilities.
Reflexive Touches
Not every pass you're going to get is going to be perfect, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to corral it or adapt to the situation. The latest version of the game I played had situations where players might try to bring in an errant pass with their trailing foot or even shoot from a less-than-ideal body position. The flip side of this is that your accuracy might be off and the odds not great, but it at least gives you a chance, whereas in other years you'd have to suffer through a longer animation.
Analog Flicks
I personally don't use a lot of special moves because I don't always trust I have the time or space to execute them, but the new analog flicks with the right analog stick could be a shortcut of sorts. These let you pop up and control the ball in mid-air so you can get around someone or unleash a volley. Of course, when you're trying to be fancy, time will always be a factor, and the ball may pop up a little higher than you expect at times (Perhaps this depends on your attribute levels, I'm not sure). Still, in the right situation I expect to use them to create a little magic.
50/50 Balls
Who gets possession of a lose ball isn't always realistic in the FIFA series, but developer EA Vancouver is working on which animations trigger in these situations to produce more realistic results.
I'm torn on this one: I've seen some cool effects of players coming together to get a loose ball where the ball bounces around due to the chaos going on, but that was back at E3. In my recent time with the title, the 50/50 animations were less pronounced. Also, since they're animation based, players will still have to rely on the game itself to deliver the right outcome. Hopefully when the game comes out these will continue to trigger when appropriate and award the correct possession of the ball.
More Flexible Tactics
Strategy is as big a part of soccer as the beautiful touches of the ball, and FIFA 19 is offering more flexibility by allowing players to change their formation and tactics due to the situation. Pressing on the d-pad won't just tell your players to generically be defensive or aggressive like in the past, but it can be set up to trigger a specific formation or pressing style, for instance, which you've already chosen. Could this help put an end to coughing up a two-goal lead?
Timed Finishing
When shooting, hit the shot button again right before you're player is about to make contact with the ball and they'll get a more accurate and powerful shot. To help understand the timing involved, you can turn on an optional color meter which you can also see in the instant replay. Even if you get the timing right you won't automatically score a goal, but it certainly improves your chances. EA Vancouver says that it learned from how overpowered the low driven shot was in FIFA 18, so hopefully the timed finishing remains as hard to pull off as it has been in my experience.
Passing Accuracy
This was a problem in FIFA 18, and therefore is one of the big questions for FIFA 19's gameplay and whether it can get to the next level. I've played a number of matches, and while I definitely admit that some wayward passes have been down to user error, there were also times that I was surprised when a pass went to a player I never intended. Gameplay producer Kantcho Doskov says the team is aware of the problem and it's something the continue to work on, but admitted there was no magic solution per se.
2K Sports and Visual Concepts are teaming up with Saber Interactive to publish Saber's NBA Playgrounds 2, which will now be called NBA 2K Playgrounds 2.
The two-on-two basketball game was delayed this spring on the eve of its release. Jason Argent, 2K's senior VP of basketball operations, confirms that this was due to the two sides processing the deal.
Argent also says that NBA 2K series developer Visual Concepts is helping Saber add polish to the game – which has new gameplay components that will be announced in a few weeks.
NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 comes out for PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC this fall.
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