New Vehicle-Centered Labo Set And Game Revealed
Nintendo has revealed a third Labo kit, Vehicle, with an entirely new cardboard set and game on Twitter today with a release date in September.
The software from the video seems to involve driving around using the cardboard steering wheel and pedal. The steering wheel also has the function of using different levers to transform the vehicle into a plane or submarine, as well. The plane parts are seemingly very Pilotwings-like and, considering the recent Labo patch for Mario Kart 8, applying the steering wheel to that game is likely on the table.
Check out the trailer below.
The Labo vehicle kit will release for Switch on September 14 for $69.99.
The Strong museum, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Second Avenue Learning have collaborated on an iOS minigame collection titled The Original Mobile Games. This "new" title chronicles the history of handheld and dexterity-based games dating back over one hundred years and compiles them into a modern collection free on iOS.
RIT students spearheaded the project, garnering attention from gaming historians and later aid from the Second Avenue Learning production team. The collection launches with six titles, each complete with an introduction to give historical context, with new games being planned as add-ons at a later date.
"The initial launch features, among others, Pigs in Clover (players navigate four balls through a maze), Queen Mary (players place three “bouys” and then pilot the ship into the dock), and the Niagara Puzzle (players must send a stream of balls into the whirlpool at the bottom of the Falls)," The Strong museum writes. "These games were often themed around historic events. Queen Mary celebrates the 1934 launch of the popular ocean liner. The Niagara Puzzle even played a small part in changing history; it was used to smuggle maps, files, and compasses to British prisoners of war during World War II."
The Original Mobile Games is only available for iOS devices and can be downloaded right now.
Throughout the Yakuza series, Kiryu is pretty well-known to avoid romantic entanglements, whether due to his own choice or an outright obliviousness. One notable exception was Yakuza 2, and now retained in Yakuza Kiwami 2, as Kiryu gets to know the hard-nosed detective Kaoru Sayama. That relationship is the focal point of the new trailer for Kiwami 2, which you can find below.
Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a full remake of Yakuza 2, originally released in 2006 in Japan and 2008 in America on the PlayStation 2. The game is completely remade in Yakuza 6's Dragon engine and has extra Majima content not present in the original release.
You can pick up Kiwami 2 next month on August 28 on the PlayStation 4. A demo is available now on PSN.
Since the original launch of Destiny, Bungie has fielded and absorbed feedback on the lore of the series. For a lot of players, the lore of the series is more important than the games sometime makes it seem, and they have made that clear. With that, Bungie and Blizzard are compiling Destiny's lore and publishing it into an anthology for you to proudly display.
The Destiny Grimoire Anthology Vol. 1 is the first collectible volume of collected Destiny lore. It covers all the heroes, villains, enemies, and allies throughout the series.
The 128-page first volume is titled Dark Mirror and is intended to provide new information and perspectives on aspects of the lore the games cover and aspects they don't. Each volume is intended to cover a different to examine different facets of the world, encouraging fans to get them all.
The book is up for preorder now with a planned release this fall.
Game Informer's Ben Hanson, Kyle Hilliard, and Javy Gwaltney talk about picking No Man's Sky up again after a couple of years and what they think of the gameplay for No Man's Sky Next from Hello Games. Then Suriel Vazquez joins the show to talk about the Mega Man X Legacy Collection and the delightful WarioWare Gold on the Nintendo 3DS. After some great community emails and a shocking appearance by Dan Tack, we're joined by Edmund McMillen to talk about leaving Team Meat and Super Meat Boy behind for his work on Binding of Isaac: Four Souls.
You can watch the video below, subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes or Google Play, listen to episode 408 on SoundCloud, or download the MP3 by clicking here. Also, be sure to send your questions to podcast@gameinformer.com for a chance to have them answered on the show.
To jump to a particular point in the discussion, check out the time stamps below...
1:50 - No Man's Sky Next
21:40 - Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 & 2
34:40 - WarioWare Gold
49:05 - Community emails
1:39:50 - Edmund McMillen on Binding of Isaac: Four Souls
The Marvel Ultimate Alliance games, action RPGs featuring huge casts of Marvel characters, have been delisted from digital distribution services suddenly and without warning from publisher Activision.
A post on Reddit noticed the games missing today. There had been speculation about them getting delisted due to the frequency in which the two titles were appearing on sale. The games were on both PlayStation Network, Steam, and Xbox Live sales multiple times in the last two months, but Activision had not announced anything. Now, the game is missing from all three of those services.
The games were ported from previous generation consoles to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2016, two years from today. While people who own the game can still play it unimpeded, anyone who was hoping to get it in the future or came back from a Marvel movie looking for a game to play can't look to this one any longer.
[Source: Reddit]
Blizzard has taken to announcing new characters for their MOBA game Heroes of the Storm fewer and farther between. It's been just under two months since Yrel was shown off, which is one of the longest lengths of time for new character reveals. That changes today with Blizzard announcing High Inquisitor Whitemane for the game.
Nothing has been revealed about her yet, but the Heroes of the Storm Twitter account indicates she'll be getting her own Hero spotlight tomorrow.
We'll be revealing Whitemane's Hero Spotlight after the first match of #HGC EU. ✨
— Heroes of the Storm (@BlizzHeroes) July 26, 2018Presumably her fighting style will be primarily magic-based, which could be pretty useful depending on how Blizzard designs her.
With Hitman 2 releasing this November, Warner Bros. and IO Interactive are giving players the opportunity to get their name and likeness into the game by sniping people really well.
Hitman: Sniper Assassin is a standalone title with multiplayer components that follows the mobile game of a similar name fairly closely. From now until November, players with an IO Interactive account can play Sniper Assassin and compete for high scores. Those top three scorers will get their names and likenesses into future content of Hitman 2, though it's not clear if they're just NPCs or full-on targets.
Check out the trailer for the competition below.
Future Hitman 2 content seems to mean that, despite Hitman 2 releasing on a disc and not episodic like its predecessor, IO Interactive will probably be treating the game as a live title with new content and updates beyond the initial release. Hopefully that includes new levels and elusive targets, as well.
Hitman 2 releases on November 13 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Three Fields Entertainment’s games so far (Danger Zone and Dangerous Golf) haven’t strayed from the studios’ roots as the creators of the Burnout series and its fabled Crash mode. Danger Zone 2 is no exception: You hurtle your car towards an intersection and hope to create as much chaos and damage as possible when you detonate your explosive Smashbreaker and blow up everything around you. But this sequel adds on to the formula by also emphasizing what you do before you get there, and in the process, expands the playing field – if only a little.
The new objectives added to the levels (which are now set in outside environments) are not surprising, but they’re effective. They don’t just give you something extra to do, they fit nicely into the game’s existing framework. Who doesn’t want more ways to spread destruction? Destroying a requisite number of a certain vehicle type is often about controlling a semi and punting cars ahead of you like auto-projectiles. Racing through timed gates sounds boring, but when it’s into oncoming traffic in a fast-but-fragile formula-one-type car, you may actually look to scrub off speed just to stay alive rather than get to the gate as fast as you can. Increasing your speed also ups the fear factor when you chain together boosts, which is the only way to win in some levels. These examples also highlight how Danger Zone 2’s various vehicles influence gameplay in their own way, another welcome addition.
Regardless of how appropriate it all fits together, the gameplay isn’t deep enough to allow you to construct outcomes that lead to lasting satisfaction. For instance, the way you interact with cars and environment is limited, and the linear levels always end in a Smashbreaker detonation in a pre-designed zone. The reliance on a mixture of randomness and carefully orchestrated set pieces is definitely part of its charm, but the predominance of randomness only exacerbates the sense of shallowness and lack of thrills that go beyond an ephemeral dopamine hit.
Like the first game, Danger Zone 2 isn’t helped by its sparse feature set. Multiplayer consists only of leaderboards (not even pass-the-controller multiplayer) and there’s no progression system apart from medaling to unlock the next level.
Danger Zone 2 takes necessary, if limited, steps beyond its predecessor with new pieces that fit nicely into the structure of chaos. It makes a spectacle all right, but it’s fleeting.
Although Forsaken promises to give Destiny 2 players plenty of new things to do (a new campaign, two new destinations, the new Gambit mode), it’s also making big changes to some of the things already on offer. This September, fans will find two major aspects have been altered: Milestones, which will become more plentiful and fluid, and mods, which will hopefully become a more meaningful way to customize your gear.
We spoke to Destiny 2 game director Steve Cotton about both of these changes, and he shed plenty of light on how players can expect to change up their guns and weekly schedule around the new mods and milestones in Forsaken.
From Milestones To ChallengesOne of the most prominent changes from the original Destiny to Destiny 2 is the increased focus on weekly milestones. At the start of each week in Destiny 2, you get a fresh new slate of milestones which offer “powerful” loot – the only kind that can increase your power level in the lategame.
Although this system makes it easy to see what you should do to increase your power, it also has its flaws. Milestones currently have you heading to the same activities to accomplish the same tasks every week. And once you complete these weekly milestones, you don’t have too many other ways of leveling up. Iron Banner and Faction Rally events, catalysts, and other activities offer other objectives to chase, but it’s hard not to feel discouraged from playing after a certain point every week, which isn’t exactly what you want out of a “hobby” game.
When the Forsaken launches, hardcore players will have much more on their plates. Rather than a set number of milestones, what you do in a given week will vary. While raids and raid lairs will still offer their regular powerful rewards once per week, other milestones will change to a four-day cycle. “All the Destiny 2 milestones will be there, but they will be advertised and tracked in a different way,” Cotton says. The tab will now only show critical-path objectives, like story mode and DLC completion, quest steps, and legacy milestones from the base game (such as quests for exotic weapons like the MIDA Multi-Tool).
Instead of checking a tab to see your task list, you’ll now find the director lighting up and pointing you to individual locations and activity destinations (like the Vanguard and Crucible screens), which will show you how to earn powerful loot. “The best way to think about this is that there will be several different ways to go out in the world and get more powerful,” Cotton says.
Second, some terminology is changing. Milestones are now challenges, and what Destiny 2 currently calls challenges (objectives that offer tokens for their completion) will be absorbed into the new bounty system. Along with the usual powerful reward checklist from the base game (for completing the weekly Flashpoint, Strike, Crucible, Nightfall, Clan, and Raid challenges), there will be new weekly challenges for bounties, Gambit, Heroic story missions, and the Dreaming City’s new public event. And, when it's time for an Iron Banner or Faction Rally event, those will also add to the list of challenges for that week.
On top of that, new daily challenges will offer more ways for players to get earn powerful loot every day. These challenges will rotate among various activities like strikes, Nightfall strikes, Gambit, Heroic adventures, and Crucible. So in a given week, you might tackle two Crucible challenges, two Gambit challenges, two strike challenges, and one Heroic adventure, depending on the random rotation.
If you don't have time to log in every day, don't worry – daily challenges will wait for you. If you miss daily challenges, they'll stockpile until you have four saved up right before the next four-day reset. "If you wait longer than four days, you will miss the reset but the next time you log on there will be four daily challenges available to you," Cotton says. "If you do one or more the next day, if one of the ones you did is the daily reset, a new one will pop (on a schedule), and so on."
Bounties will also offer additional ways to get more powerful. As we mentioned earlier this month, the bounty system will offer small quests for players of varying power levels to accomplish, and some will offer powerful loot. Not all bounties will, but each bounty will clearly display its reward, letting you know which ones to pick up if you’re only looking for powerful rewards.
There will also be several hidden challenges to look for, ones not highlighted by the director and which observant players will have to find for themselves, scattered across several activities. This should bring back some of the mystery fans have been looking for since the launch of Destiny 2; not only will you have a more extensive checklist of things to get more powerful, but exploring the world for secrets might also prove useful.
All of these new ways to earn powerful loot should offer reasons for players to keep playing much more regularly. “The intent is that you will always have something to go after,” Cotton says. This, on top of the new triumphs system, collections, and regular events already on the Destiny 2 calendar, should give players lots to do as they make the climb to the 600 power cap and suss out all of Forsaken's secrets.
Another aspect of Destiny 2 that’s being reworked are mods. Before, they offered a way for each weapon and piece of armor to differentiate itself, and legendary mods offered a small boost in power, making them the only way to reach the power cap. As players sunk their teeth into the game, however, they found most mods weren’t all that different, and often, felt more like a requirement than a fun tool (see: legendary kinetic mods, which only offered five-point power boost for kinetic weapons).
With Forsaken, mods will hopefully be useful enough that you’ll want to equip them, not have to. For one, mods will no longer offer a power boost, which means you won’t have a pressing need to equip a mod just to slightly increase your power. This means a couple of things: First, at Forsaken’s launch, only legendary mods will be available (no more combining rare mods!).
Second, it means a bit of house-cleaning. With your current mods becoming obsolete, you’ll have to make a quick run to the Gunsmith, who will take your old mods and trade them for components to make new ones. This does come with a slight downside: Because all mods are now designed to be more expressive, energy and heavy weapon mods will no longer act as a way to change the element of a given weapon.
These new mods will be less about cooldown reductions and more about changes you’ll notice right away. A few mods Cotton was able to reveal to us were Icarus Grip (which improves your weapon’s accuracy while airborne), Radar Tuner (which decreases the time it takes for your radar to return after you’re done aiming your weapon), and Targeting Adjuster (which grants your weapon better target acquisition).
According to Cotton, bonuses like these will make mods more impactful overall. As a counterweight, mods will also be harder to acquire, but when you get one you like, it should feel like you’re making a weapon your own. “Ideally they aren’t something that you are swapping in and out regularly,” says Cotton. “[They’re] more something you use to put the finishing touches on your favorite weapons and armor.”
These changes also apply to raid weapons, which will use the same mod system, but also have access to unique raid mods. And while raid mods for the new raid that will follow Forsaken’s launch will be tailored to that specific raid, “there’s nothing stopping us from sneaking in some more universal raid mods in the future,” Cotton says.
While new content is always great to see, it’s the fundamental underpinnings of a game like Destiny 2 that can mean the difference between checking in with it every once in a while and having it regular rotation. With these sweeping changes to both milestones and mods, Cotton and the rest of the team at Bungie hope to move Destiny 2 further into the latter by always giving players something new to do, and making their choice of weapon and mod matter more than ever.
For more on Destiny 2: Forsaken, such as a look at a match of the new Breakthrough mode and your community questions answered, click on the banner below to see all of our Destiny 2 content, and check back throughout the month for more coverage.
Quantic Dream, the studio behind titles like Detroit, Beyond: Two Souls, and Heavy Rain, has lost a French labor court case against a former employee. The verdict brings back into question Quantic Dream's reported toxic work environment that plagued the company earlier this year.
In January, a joint investigation from multiple French newspapers alleged that Quantic Dream had fostered a work environment centering around harassment, sexual harassment, and racism. While Quantic Dream founder David Cage denied the allegations and said he was "shocked" by the suggestion, the studio took the massively unprecedented step of suing the publications that ran the story.
One of the allegations was that the internal office servers held 600 photoshopped images involving employees' heads photoshopped onto risque or racist images. One employee quit as a result of discovering this, then invoking employment law that allows them to receive unemployment and benefits despite leaving voluntarily. As Eurogamer reports, this process involves showing that the work environment victimizes them and an independent labor board making the final call.
In this case, the labor board investigated the claims and found in favor of the employee. This means that, considering the circumstances, the employee is eligible for benefits despite resigning. Quantic Dream now has the right to appeal.
As the studio continues to deny the initial reports of its work environment and sue publications that claim otherwise, the overturned resignation does little to bolster their case. Other employees have tried to invoke the labor law in their favor, but two were dismissed and one is still in appeals.
[Source: Eurogamer]
The initial reveal and subsequent launch of Xbox One was less than ideal for Microsoft. Marred by DRM concerns, a shoddy Kinect-focused interface, and inferior hardware, Xbox relinquished its last-gen lead to largely play second fiddle to PlayStation this generation. While PS4 has continued selling well, delivering an inarguably stronger lineup of exclusive titles, the Xbox team has slowly improved its standing and won back the Xbox faithful by listening and reacting to its community in a way never before seen in the console space.
Recovering From Early TumultThe signs that Microsoft would need to listen to its community more came early, as the company quickly backpedaled unpopular announcements prior to launch. Xbox One’s initial reveal fostered overwhelming hostility surrounding restrictions of offline play and used games while making players buy a Kinect with their console and carrying a higher price point than the competition. With such a groundswell of negativity, Microsoft had no choice but to roll back those announcements.
Sony further shined a light on Microsoft’s blunders during this time by producing a short sketch at E3 2013 starring PlayStation executives Shuhei Yoshida and Adam Boyes, which showed how easy it is to share used games on PlayStation 4. This dunk was seen as one of the ultimate mic-drop moments in E3 history, and further served to crystalize the problem in a meme-friendly way. From there, Microsoft knew that real transformation had to take place to salvage its upcoming console.
Microsoft began pivoting, rolling back its controversial stance on always-online requirements and used-game restrictions. It proved too little, too late for Xbox One’s launch later that year, as Sony pulled away to an early and decisive sales lead it has maintained to this day. Former Xbox president Don Mattrick departed shortly thereafter. His replacement, current executive vice president of gaming Phil Spencer, had the task of rebuilding the relationship with the Xbox faithful.
Upon his appointment to this spot, Spencer told us his primary focus was to reassure Xbox’s hardcore base in the wake of a launch that centered more on entertainment apps than actual games. “My goal, first and foremost, is to make sure that everybody understands that Xbox is a gaming brand and it’s going to be gaming first,” Spencer told us in 2014. “That’s a leadership principle that I will bring to the program from day one.”
Spencer also committed to listening to the community to right the wrongs that led to the rough launch. In a 2014 interview with Xbox Live’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, Spencer explained the importance of interacting with the hardcore fans and paying attention to things like social media and internet forums. “That two-way dialogue between us and the fans will be important as we drive this product forward,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a foundational element to the culture of this organization. I want the two-way dialogue. We hear what fans say. They have great ideas, and we should use that as an input to how we build our product.”
While many executives make similar declarations, the actions the Xbox team has taken since show these words were not empty. Microsoft quickly abandoned the unpopular Kinect peripheral and began selling a cheaper version of the system that was in line with the pricing of the PlayStation 4. The Xbox One S console revision in 2016 added HDR support – something PlayStation 4 featured in its base models – and 4K support for Blu-rays and video streaming, which are still not offered by Sony even on the PlayStation 4 Pro. In addition, new Xbox One controllers added features like Bluetooth integration and a built-in headphone jack. The platform adjustments didn’t stop there, as Microsoft’s ultimate vision for the Xbox One was yet to come.
Throughout its history, the Xbox brand has prided itself on power; the original Xbox was more powerful than the PlayStation 2, and multiplatform games often ran better on Xbox 360 than PS3. With Xbox One, PS4 had a noticeable advantage in both categories, and Microsoft wasn’t satisfied with that. Early reports hinted at a more powerful console, but when Xbox finally revealed the initial details of its console revision, codenamed “Project Scorpio,” it packed an impressive amount of oomph.
“For me, and for the fans and for the developers, Xbox has always meant innovation and the latest technology and delivering the world’s most powerful console – something we absolutely want to do,” Xbox corporate vice president Mike Ybarra said in the E3 2016 reveal video for Project Scorpio.
“Two years ago when we started this journey, you told us you wanted certain things from us. You wanted power; you wanted community; you wanted choice,” Phil Spencer said in that same video. “This […] is absolutely the culmination of all of your feedback and something that we think will truly move Xbox forward.”
In addition to dwarfing the PlayStation 4 Pro in terms of raw power, Xbox One X added to the 4K video offerings of the Xbox One S by delivering true 4K gaming capabilities. According to several Xbox figureheads, this was in response to fulfilling fan expectations of Microsoft often delivering the most powerful systems.
These hardware updates not only served to close the gap between Xbox One’s initial design and what PlayStation 4 was already offering but expand beyond it. Through an iterative approach with its operating system and feature set, Microsoft has improved on the software side as well.
Sony’s lead on the sales charts hasn’t discouraged Microsoft from innovating; if anything, it has pushed the gaming division to explore new features that differentiate its offerings from Sony and recapture its reputation as a worthy gaming platform. Throughout the Xbox One’s five-year history, Microsoft has continually reworked the system to give fans features they want.
From early updates like revamping the home screen’s layout to be more usable, to more recent additions such as allowing players to create custom groups for their games and apps, the Xbox One operating system has received numerous overhauls and facelifts. Microsoft has worked to deliver things like a customizable home screen and a more usable party system more in line with the popular features present on Xbox 360. Microsoft’s reactive approach has gone hand-in-hand with its community’s requests.
With each update, Microsoft doubles down on customization, allowing players organize their home screen and game collections how they want. These changes and new features stand in stark contrast to the vanilla layout of PlayStation 4’s home screen, which offers minimal customization options outside of downloadable themes and limited folder options. This level of customization has substantially improved the Xbox experience.
Plays Well With OthersXbox has improved the digital-game experience through other avenues as well. One such push has been its Play Anywhere campaign. Play Anywhere takes Xbox’s first-party lineup and makes it playable on Windows 10 PCs. While this has essentially cut Xbox One’s lineup of true exclusive games to nothing thanks to the nature of the program, it ultimately benefits the players by letting them choose if they want to enjoy these games on the couch or at their desk without having the purchase them two times.
Microsoft has also vastly increased its player-base options through working well with other companies. In 2014, Electronic Arts launched EA Access on Xbox One in collaboration with Microsoft. The service offers subscribers access to more than 60 Electronic Arts games, as well as trials of new games before they launch. Sony passed on bringing the service to PS4, saying it, “does not bring the kind of value PlayStation customers have come to expect.” However, unless there are other unspoken factors at play, it would have been nice of Sony to allow its customers to make that judgment call for themselves as Microsoft did.
In a similar fashion, Microsoft has worked with first- and third-party developers to bolster the lineup of its Netflix-like subscription service, Xbox Game Pass. This monthly fee subscription service is like EA Access, but it spans multiple publishers and even grants subscribers access to first-party games from day one.
Xbox has also demonstrated its willingness to work with perceived competitors by beating on the drum of cross-platform play. Xbox users can play popular titles like Fortnite, Rocket League, and Minecraft with Switch and PC players. Meanwhile, Sony has come under fire for its unwillingness to cooperate with developers and competitors on crossplay initiatives.
Just last month, Bethesda’s Todd Howard expressed his team’s desire to make its upcoming game Fallout 76 work between multiple platforms, but lamented that, “Sony isn't being as helpful as we want them to be.” This isn’t the first time it’s been suggested that Sony has appeared uncooperative in this regard. This became even more apparent during E3, when Fortnite players attempting to transfer their Epic Games accounts linked to PlayStation 4 over to the Switch version of the game, only to be denied.
Microsoft representatives have expressed interest in working with Sony to allow games like Fortnite to work across platforms, but Sony CEO Shawn Layden says that they’re trying to, “get to a solution which will be understood and accepted by our gaming community, while at the same time supporting our business.” Former Sony Online Entertainment John Smedley says it’s a money issue for Sony.
Regardless of the reason its primary competitor has not embraced cross-platform play, the fact remains that Microsoft is being accommodating. As long as it continues expanding its crossplay library while Sony remains stagnant, Xbox will continue looking like a shining example of a platform holder working for the larger gaming community.
Old Is New Again… And Done The Right WayAll these improvements have given Xbox’s player base plenty to be happy about in the years since the system’s launch, but perhaps the biggest example of Xbox listening to its fan base came in 2015 with the introduction of backward compatibility. Microsoft’s approach to backward compatibility isn’t a streaming service like Sony’s PlayStation Now or a system that requires you to re-purchase games like Nintendo’s Virtual Console; Xbox One’s backward compatibility is the feature done right.
The list of games available, which started at around 100 Xbox 360 titles, has steadily grown each week and now features more than 500 games across original Xbox and Xbox 360. Even better than the continually growing library is that if you own the game already, it automatically works on your Xbox One either by redownloading your digital copy, or by installing the files off your physical disc.
While new games are always paramount, this has given players the ability to go back and re-play an incredible game like Red Dead Redemption before its sequel launches or experience the magic of the Mass Effect trilogy for the first time. For collectors, it’s also satisfying to see the complete run of favorite series like Assassin’s Creed sitting in your library ready to be played. This oft-requested feature was implemented correctly and continues to add community-requested titles every week. The best part is that Microsoft shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, even stating intent to carry this philosophy into the next stages of the Xbox brand.
Microsoft’s commitment to backward compatibility goes beyond looking to the past. In 2016, Spencer told me the plan is to make sure fans have the peace of mind that they’ll be able to play the games they buy today in the future. "When I’m building something today, I know that it will be playable 10 years from now because I’m building on a platform that a company like Microsoft is out there supporting,” he said. This intention sets the standard for how platform holders should view their catalogs in terms of future-proofing, but until Sony or Nintendo commit to similar plans or Microsoft makes good on this statement, there’s no way of knowing if the industry will embrace this idea.
Microsoft’s dwindling first-party software lineup remains the most glaring weakness of Xbox, and the biggest concern among fans; the Xbox One simply can’t compete with the breadth and depth of Sony and Nintendo’s exclusives, and there isn’t a quick solution to the problem. However, Microsoft has taken a step in the right direction with the recent acquisitions of studios like Ninja Theory, Playground Games, and Compulsion Games. Bulking up its first-party development now, Microsoft will not only improve its offering on the Xbox One, but also safeguard against the same mistakes and backsteps for its next console.
Already, the rumors of offering a choice between a streaming console and a traditional console shows Xbox is being flexible and making sure it doesn’t alienate the core as it did with the initial Xbox One reveal. Though it ultimately strayed from that initial Xbox One vision, Microsoft has listened to its players to come full circle and accomplish the primary goal of the system as laid out in the 2013 reveal: to be an outstanding place to enjoy games and entertainment.
The PlayStation 4 version of H1Z1: Battle Royale is leaving open beta and officially launching on August 7 as a free-to-play game.
Daybreak Games announced several new additions coming to the game at launch:
Two new weapons, the RPG and the SOCOM Sniper Rifle A new vehicle, the ARV, which seats up to five players The Season 1 Battle Pass, which allows players to unlock content through either free, premium, or PS Plus reward tiers The Hardline Deluxe and Viper Starter launch bundlesDaybreak Games also announced improvements to movement, weapons, airdrops, and loot distribution.
For more information, you can read H1Z1 Producer Terrence Yee's post on the PlayStation Blog.
Turn 10 has announced in a blog post that they will be changing the in-game economy for Forza Motorsport 7 alongside getting rid of prize crates and in-game currency for Forza Horizon 4. The studio said "While we’ve never charged money for prize crates in Forza Motorsport 7, their presence in the game has continued to be a source of controversy. The overwhelming feedback has been that this system feels out of place in the game. After careful consideration, we have decided to completely remove prize crates from Forza Motorsport 7. "
This decision comes with the caveat that it won't be implemented until winter, and while there have already been changes rolling in, the economy won't see their total removal for a while longer. There are no microtransactions in Forza 7, a popular misconception about the game, but all the crates are acquired with in-game currency. Unfortunately, the system was designed around players using their credits to purchase randomized crates and hoping that the random number generator delivered. A quote from the blog states.
"Due to the complexity of removing prize crates from the game – while keeping access to Driver Gear, Mods, and Badges – we expect that this process will be completed in the winter timeframe. Starting this month we’ve already taken steps towards that goal, first by unlocking more than 100 previously locked 'exclusive' cars and, second, by completely removing cars from the prize crates in the game. The current lineup of prize crates offers no competitive advantage and only offer Driver Gear suits, Mods, and badges, and these crates will remain in place until crates are removed entirely."
In our review, we called the system "fussy" and that it ended up making many of the cars disposable based on their division requirements. It is great to see that the system won't make an appearance in future titles like Forza Horizon 4, but it is unfortunate that Forza 7 had to be a casualty to make this possible.
Forza Horzion 4 will be out on Oct 4, check out our preview for more information on the game.
[Source: Forzamotorsport.net, Resetera]
Destiny 2: Forsaken is an expansion in all senses of the word and that includes new gear for your guardian. Bungie has released a video showing some of these and the effects they'll have on the enemies in front of you. Check it out below.
You can see new armor like Antaeus Wards, which creates a projectile-reflecting shield, or the incredibly named One Thousand Voices, which shoots out an energy beam of fire.
We've been running down exclusive Destiny 2: Forsaken information all month, which you can catch up on at our Destiny 2: Forsaken hub.
Crossing Souls was a pleasant surprise early this year, a pixelated indie title with more story depth than immediately apparent. The game features a number of playable characters, each with specific abilities, and they can be swapped out for one another at any time. We said it was a "fun action game that tells a beautiful story about the power of friendship in the face of rampant greed and materialism."
Initially the game was only released on PS4 and PC. However, Devolver announced that as of today, the game is also available on Switch for $14.99.
YES.
It's happening.
It was all true!#CrossingSouls is coming to #NintendoSwitch on 26th July!
This is a dream come true.
Thanks for your incredible support
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.
Day 2
After suffering through the doldrums of tedious resource management (and Kyle's vicious bullying), I decided to start a new game in No Man's Sky, this time in Creative Mode, which gives the player infinite health and resources for building and maintaining equipment. Immediately after starting on a dry husk of a planet, I blasted off world, upgraded all my ship equipment with a few button presses, and zipped into another system in search of a place I could call home.
After chatting with some aliens on a space station and leaving the dock, I spied a world behind a ringed planet of dead rock. It was cold and bleak, just how I like all things in life. I shot over to it, broke through clouds of ice and snow, in search of flatlands to build my base on. After exploring for a few miles and seeing only slopes and jagged rocks, I found a flat mountaintop and landed, setting to work. I would call this world Planet Minnesota.
I quickly built a computer and claimed the local areas as my outpost before building the first structure, a large, circular office building containing terminals, a health station, and a save point. I lost myself for an entire hour in No Man's Sky's simple to use and entertaining building system. I created lengthy hallways, planted flags and portable refineries. I even put up a viewport room at the edge of the mountaintop so I could peek out to see the sun rise and set.
Shortly after all of my work operations were done, I decided I needed a place I could kick back and sleep. Heading to the outskirts of the camp, I slowly built, panel by panel, a wooden cabin and filled it with weapon racks, tables, sofas, a bed, and...uh interesting art.
I had so much fun building my outpost that at one point I looked up and realized that an hour had gone by without my noticing. The construction stuff is so much fun to use and encourages such creativity, that I can't help but wonder just how much of the experience is marred in the base game by poorly designed resource management loops. How often would I have to break away from my creative process just to go scrounge up some more materials?
Indeed, though I've only spent a handful of hours with it, so far the Creative Mode is shaping up to be No Man Sky's closest thing to redemption. By eschewing the survival mechanics, players are able to focus on what truly makes the game special: the exploration elements, and gaining a sense that you're truly carving out a place to call home in this massive galaxy. Sure, the mode removes the 'challenge' the base game has but what use is that challenge in the first place if all it does is create barriers between you and the little moments that make No Man's Sky worth playing in the first place?
Tomorrow we'll be heading off-base for a while to check out missions and to see just how much fun it it is to ride around in a space buggy on bumpy planet surfaces. After that, who knows? It's a big galaxy. I'm sure we'll find plenty to do.
Until then this is Cadet Gwaltney at Outpost Shiba Snout, signing off.
I woke up excited and ready for a new day of base-building and exploration in No Man's Sky. It was the first time I was actually legitimately excited about loading up Hello Games' universe and playing around in it since the original release. I was mostly keen to work on my base and expand it into a small town on the surface of a frozen planet.
There was just one problem:
Yep. My base had disappeared. My nice office building? Gone. My quaint little cabin to spend my time in after a hard day's work? Poof. While it's certainly within the realm of possibility that Kyle Hilliard logged into my account and deleted everything while I was sleeping, I suspect the disappearance of my work lies with No Man's Sky's habit of being a glitchy mess at the most inopportune times.
Regardless of the cause, I didn't have much patience or enthusiasm for rebuilding my outpost from nothing (especially if the game was just inexplicably going to delete it again), so I took off to the stars in search of missions. Well, 'missions' might be a generous term. After talking with the mission dispensary guy, I was assigned two tasks: take pictures of flora and take pictures of a desert planet. Not exactly the most thrilling of endeavors.
En route to a desert-looking planet, I discovered a freighter and attacked it in a fit of boredom, robbing the cargo of its fine goods. As gold and cobalt floated to my ship, I received a notice that my relationship with the Gek faction, an alien race in the game, had taken a hit because I had stolen their goods. Sorry fellas.
From there I zoomed toward the planet and landed. I snapped shots with the camera feature and kept waiting for a mission completion indicator. Nothing. I scanned the world and it turned out that, despite looking as much like a desert as Nevada does, this planet was actually a "toxic" planet and not a "desert" planet, which is nonsense but whatever.
Frustrated with the chores disguised as missions, I spawned a couple of the game's Exocrafts to take for a spin. The Roamer is a fun little truck to outfit with mining lasers and boosts. The Colossus is bigger and looks like a tank but it's mostly just to haul resources. The wheels on both vehicles tore into everything they came across (plant, animal, rock) and the mining laser ripped through resource-bearing trees like nobody's business. Still, without any enemies to take on or races to participate in, the entertainment factor boosts of these vehicles didn't amount to much.
To be fair: there are tools here for you to build your own stunt ramps, and you could create impromptu races in multiplayer with other players. They're probably very useful tools in the main game for fetching resources. However, they're still surprisingly dull as vehicles for exploring alien worlds and I wish there was more content geared toward using them.
After riding around these barren hills, I took to the skies once more and received a mysterious transmission from someone who sounded like they were in need of help. I quickly jetted off in the direction of a new planet with a mission marker on it and, after climbing a tower, found a hologram of a funky looking fella waiting to chat:
He told me I was an explorer like it was some grand revelation that would blow my space boots off despite me having zipped around the galaxy for hours upon hours at this point. Then he asked me to help him build some signal boosters for some reason i don't really know I stopped paying attention four textboxes in.
I took a hard pass on his request and left the tower to find something exciting below: a raptorduck. Okay, that's not the actually name of whatever this is, but I'm gonna call it a raptor duck because I discovered it. Not you, not Kyle Hilliard, me. Just look at him. Look how glorious he is. Look at how fantastic we are, playing together in this desert toxic wasteland.
Now watch the game delete him just to spite me.
Tomorrow we'll be having all sorts of fun with No Man's Sky's photo mode. Until then, you can check out Reiner's Sci-fi Weekly discovery log on the original version of the game.
Microsoft has announced what games Xbox Live Gold members can look forward to in August, and there’s a good amount of variety in the selection of freebies.
Throughout the entire month, players can grab Forza Horizon 2 for Xbox One, which received solid reviews back in 2014. For the first two weeks of August, players can also pick up the polarizing Dead Space 3, which is playable on both 360 and Xbox One thanks to backward compatibility.
Starting on August 16, players can participate in some knight-on-Viking-on-samurai warfare in Ubisoft’s For Honor, which despite a rocky launch, has been improving ever since and is kicking off its seventh season of free DLC next month. Players can also pick up Epic Mickey 2 in the latter half of August; like Dead Space 3, it is available on both 360 and Xbox One.
As an extra reminder, don’t forget that you still have a few days to pick up some of July’s free offerings of Assault Android Cactus, Death Squared, and Splinter Cell Conviction.
[Source: Microsoft]
During a recent visit to EA headquarters, I got extensive hands-on time with NHL 19, and am happy to report the gameplay looks to be in great shape compared to years past. Both the Real Player Motion skating improvements and new collision system help the game take the dramatic step forward many fans expected the series to take back when it made the generational leap to PS4 and Xbox One. If you want to get your hands on it now, you can via the open beta.
In addition, I also sat down with creative director William Ho to discuss many of the questions hardcore franchise fans have been asking on social media and in the comments section of our first look. Read on to find out about the status of adding more player likenesses, EASHL practice mode, online franchise, and many other hot-button issues.
"We very deliberately didn't play with the player rating spread a lot this year. I think that's because we really wanted to focus on the effect of traits and specialties on players. Especially because we don't just have the traits and specialties in World of Chel. We also have them in Be A Pro, and we wanted to be very deliberate about what those boosts are when you are applying those traits, because that is additive and also subtractive on player ratings. You'll see swings like sometimes plus or minus five points on primary traits. That is where we get variability on the high end. If you max out your shooting abilities you can take a guy from 89 shooting to 96 shooting, which is getting pretty up there. ...You shouldn't be surprised if we do a recalibration of player ratings in the future, but we didn't want to tear down that house for NHL 19."
On New Commentary"After last year, where there wasn't an update for certain reasons, this year we were adamant to get as much recording time and studio time with Doc and Eddie. What's nice is those guys are total pros. You may be aware that most of the material is actually ad-libbed by them. We provide very little and they are so pro about it; we're able to book a number of sessions in Chicago, get our crew down there. We were able to get several thousand new lines. It's mostly in what we call 'heavy traffic' areas. That's the most common place you're going to hear much more variety in those calls. And then there's a certain sort of 'low traffic' comments, the fringe context for VO, which we added a bit to but not as much as we added to the 'heavy traffic' areas. We hope fans will notice a difference."
On Adding More Player Likenesses"There are a number of updates. I think we've gotten some of the younger players. I think Boeser – we have an update and there is a handful of other younger player's we've gotten in. We've spent considerable time and effort on some of the alumni teams we've added. We do have a new representation of Wayne Gretzky in there. Some of our players we have likenesses that are still okay from years past, but we don't have some of the players from the '80s and previous to that, so we spent some time and effort on lovingly recreating likenesses of those classic players.
"We can do it manually; there's nothing that a good video artist can't create from photo reference, from video reference. But we are looking at ways we can be more mobile so we can meet halfway with the athletes, or if they are passing through Vancouver we can get them into our head scanning room. But we're always looking for more ways that we can get more updated likenesses."
On Changes To Be A Pro Mode"We haven't messed with the core of it, but we have added traits, so that as you level up your player, you earn points that you can spend on skills and work your way down several different skill trees. That's that extra layer of strategy, choice, and personalization that I think gives more choice but also doesn't violate the fantasy of it being a simulation mode."
"We know there are lots of fans of Be A Pro, myself included. We are looking at ways we can add to it and freshen it up in years to come."
On Why "Ones" Mode Doesn't Support Offline Play"We originally envisioned it as a way to get more people to play online. People love 3v3 and 6v6 and EASHL, but it is a bit intimidating to some players, so we deliberately designed Ones to get people to play online and show that hey, it can be instantly fun instead of having that huge learning curve. I like to design features in phases, and I think this is just phase one of Ones."
On The Prospect Of Outdoor Rinks Coming To Other Modes"We did design Ones as this tournament/festival out in the mountains on the lake. We're looking at ways we can have other modes outdoor because we know that aesthetic of having outdoor ponds, it's a sunny day, you have everyone in their casual gear, it's just a great vibe. We're definitely looking at ways to get it into other modes."
On The Lack Of An EASHL Practice Mode"All of the features we hear about year over year, we don't deliberately just ignore them. We don't have EASHL Practice Mode in NHL 19, but it's not to say we didn't consider it. But there are lots of loud voices on our team campaigning for it, so hopefully we'll have better news sometime in the future.
On Why They Haven't Added Online Franchise Mode"GM Connected is something we always evaluate, because we hear it too. We know there is a demand for fans who want that level of connectedness, that depth, and that realism. There's a lot of moving pieces that have to contribute to something that has so many dependencies. We want it, but I think it will have to happen at the right time. You mentioned it wasn't as satisfying as it could have been when it was in NHL, we don't want to do it that way again. It would have to be a full, top-notch experience for us to ship it."
On Improving A.I. Behavior"This year was more of a consolidation and quality of life year. We've taken a lot of the feedback from the community and really focused on how we could take the existing A.I. and polish the heck out of it. A lot of the pain points, a lot of the things that players have noticed, particularly with goalie A.I. and player positioning. We've done a lot of polish there. With player switching, this is not "A.I." but there is logic there that affects your ability to play. We've done a lot of internal user testing on that to see how we could improve that. And for people who really want, "I need the left wing right now" or "I want a right defensemen" you can just hold down the right trigger and use the right stick to select the player you want. That sidesteps any edge cases in our logic."
No Man's Sky received a huge update recently that adds a wealth of content to the game, including fleshed-out multiplayer. However, some players are reporting issues with the Next update, namely that the game starts them from the very beginning when they load their save file.
Hello Games has responded to this issue, saying there is a hotfix for that issue (and several others) on the way. It will go live on PC first and then PS4/Xbox One soon:
A new build has been sent to experimental on PC. This will go live to everyone on PC soon. Hot fix patches are in flight for PS4 and XBox (MS/Sony cert means this is a tiny bit slower, but will be with you asap) https://t.co/wm30JeWt5W
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) July 26, 2018For our thoughts on No Man's Sky's NEXT update, check out the log I've been keeping as I explore the galaxy.
Start practicing your dangles and cellys with the NHL 19 open beta, which starts today (at the time of this writing it's not yet available) and runs through August 2. This year's preamble focuses on the game's World of Chel hub, including Ones, Threes Drop-In, and the Pro-Am.
Ones is a 1v1v1 free-for-all where everyone simply competes to grab the puck and score on a single goalie. Threes is self-explanatory, and the Pro-Am is a single-player tutorial of sorts to get you attuned to the player-lock play of the EASHL.
No matter which mode you play you can try out the game's revamped class system, which lets you tweak your physique (which then alters your attributes) and try loadouts of primary and secondary traits. These traits, like Booming Slapper, also positively and negatively affect your player.
NHL 19 comes out on September 14 (PS4, Xbox One), and we'll have extensive hands-on details later today.
[Source: Official PlayStation Blog]
Ni no Kuni II won us over with its combination of strong storytelling, solid RPG combat, and base-building mechanics when it released last March. For those who can't get enough of this colorful kingdom, more DLC is on the way soon.
Bandai Namco laid out plans for forthcoming content, including season pass DLC, which the publisher says the first part will be available this winter. However, the free Adventure Pack update will be arriving first on August 9, offering two new bosses for players to take on as well costumes for Evan and crew:
Adventure Pack (free) – The Adventure Pack provides new challenges for experienced players. It adds additional floors to the Faraway Forest cave, upon clearing, players will be rewarded with new costumes for Evan and other characters. Players will have the opportunity to challenge themselves with even stronger new bosses: Blackhart and Zeta. Additional quests will be unlocked after completing the story and unique rewards can be acquired.
Season Pass DLC #1 – Available this winter, this DLC will feature a brand new enigmatic dungeon for players to explore. Evan and friends will plumb the depths of this cryptic dungeon facing increasingly stronger enemies while trying to reach its deepest levels. The journey will be difficult, but the reward will surely be worth it!
Season Pass DLC #2 – Expected to release early 2019, an additional story expansion of Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom will be available full of exciting content. More details to be announced soon.
For more on Ni no Kuni II, be sure to check out our review.
Dota 2 players in the Netherlands can now see what's going to be in their next loot box in the Treasury after Valve made changes to the game to satisfy Dutch regulations.
Players can see the contents of their next loot box, which is tied to their account, so resetting your computer isn't going to change what's in the box. Furthermore, the box odds are the same, and boxes can only be bought one at a time, with the contents of the next one only appearing after you buy the first one.
Earlier this year, Dutch authorities declared that loot boxes in titles like Dota 2 ran afoul of the country's gambling laws because they're tied to real-world value. Dota 2's market is apparently disabled, but Valve made the change to the boxes nonetheless.
[Source: Reddit user Larhf via PC Gamer]
Comments
Post a Comment