For existing players, a return to beta for Crucible won’t come with many noticeable changes, other than more involvement from developer Relentless Studios
Amazon’s first foray into the wide world of video games has apparently hit a snag. Scott White, one of my fellow Staff Writers, previewed the game, saying that “Crucible finds itself hamstrung somewhat out of the gate.” Apparently, that couldn’t be more true, as Crucible has taken a development step back, essentially de-releasing and going back to a closed beta. Crucible had originally launched May 20.
The move to scale back to a closed beta was announced through a developer update on Crucible‘s site. The update starts by saying that the planned roadmap for the game will still continue – player feedback will still be taken into account to change the game for the better. In fact, for existing players it doesn’t seem like the Crucible experience will change even as it’s de-released. If anything, it seems that developer Relentless Studios will be much more active with the community during this time. The update goes on to say “One of the biggest changes you’ll see is that we’re going to schedule dedicated time each week when we as devs will be playing with the community and soliciting feedback.” Besides that, players will still be able to play the game 24/7, launch it from Steam and create any content they want with the game. It’s just as well that if you’ve been playing Crucible, you won’t lose any of your progress or items.
Another big addition for the Crucible community will come in the form of a “community council” which will be made up of players from across the skill spectrum. This council will work closely with the game’s development team, assumedly to make focused changes.
However, as a closed beta, there is the question of what will happen to those looking to get into Crucible. As it turns out, they’ll have to act fast. The update suggests that potential players purchase the game before 9 a.m PT tomorrow morning, leading me to believe it will no longer be available after that time. It goes on to say that “In the near future, newly interested folks will be able to sign up through playcrucible.com.” The duration of Crucible‘s closed-beta was not specified, nor was a time frame for the game to relaunch.
Wing of the Asteria is a new horizontal shmup, coming to PC and Switch in 2021, with charadesigns by Shujirou Hamakawa, BGM by Yoshinori Kawamoto.
Japanese developer PiXEL announced it’s developing a new horizontal Shoot’em Up titled Wing of the Asteria, coming to PC, Steam, and Switch in 2021.
The character design and artwork was handled by Shuzilow.HA (Shujirou Hamakawa) an artist and animator who worked at Konami on Twinbee and Gaiapolis. When it comes to anime, he worked on series such as SPT Layzner, Dream Hunter Rem, or Seirei no Moribito . He was also the Character Designer and Chief Animation Director of Solty Rei, an anime which already aired 15 years ago now, reminding me how fast time passes by.
The BGM in Wing of the Asteria was handled by Kawagen (Yoshinori Kawamoto) of the Bandai Namco Entertainment Sound Team. Kawagen previously worked on Phelios and Burning Force.
Burning Force
Twinbee
Phelios
Gaiapolis
All the games we’ve cited had a typical Japanese Bishoujo aesthetic, as in cute anime girls with sexual fanservice to some extent, so it’s not surprising to see Wing of the Asteria has the same feel to it. While we haven’t seen any actual gameplay yet I’m already pretty interested thanks to that oldschool feel.
Wing of the Asteria is based on Greek mythology. The playable protagonist is Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, who shoots with a bow and rides a pegasus in battle. She wishes to save her lover Orion, who died following the plotting of Apollon, her brother who wouldn’t accept their relationship. This also triggered a great disaster endangering both the realms of the gods and the human world. One mid-boss, Gryphon, was also revealed:
Wing of the Asteria Artwork: Artemis, Orion, Gryphon
PiXEL’s works include Horgihugh on Switch and Steam, another horizontal shoot ’em up.
Lastly, it also organized an event on December 22 2019 for the 30th anniversary of PC-8801mkIISR RPG Emerald Dragon, with Charadesigns by Akihiro Kimura, who was present at the event.
Old shmup games are regularly newly released on Switch, but it’s not often we hear about a brand new game. The only example that immediately comes to mind is Granzella’s R-Type Final 2. I don’t know about you, but one discussion often coming back in French otaku circles is why Japanese developers don’t make as many Shmup and Danmaku games as in the past. I have an online friend who always summarize the situation pretty well, it’s simply that people stopped buying these games, despite the vocal fans’ presence. Everything is a matter of money in the end, and companies don’t take the risk.
Anyway, I wish Wing of the Asteria all the best and will be keeping an eye on it personally. More details will be coming on PiXEL’s Twitter.
Japanese studio Compile Heart known for Nep Nep is working on at least one PS5 game. Date A Live Ren Dystopia was also finally dated in Japan.
Compile Heart held the Compile Heart TV #3 stream on June 30, making multiple announcements. The stream featured Compile Heart’s President Norihisa Kochiwa and Compile Heart “Info Broker” Hitomi Isaka. At the end of the stream, at around the 10:30 mark, President Kochiwa and Isaka started chatting about the PS5. She asked him if Compile Heart has plans for PS5. Basically, Kochiwa didn’t directly answer but strongly hinted that the answer is yes through a staged comedy skit, and more info will be coming at a later date.
Alternatively, the stream also revealed a new trailer and the release date for the 4th and newest DAL adaptation, Date A Live Ren Dystopia. The game is coming September 24 in Japan, exclusively on PS4. All three previous Date A Live games have been localized on PS4 and Steam through the localization of Date A Live Rio Reincarnation. The third game in the series, which also included remasters of the first two.As such, Ren Dystopia will probably be announced westwards by Idea Factory International at some point.
Date A Live Ren Dystopia was announced back in January 2019 and was supposed to launch in Summer 2019 but got delayed. Japanese games always get delayed, but it was a pretty long delay. I translated a lot of about the game in the past so I’ll just redirect you to that(here and here) and the game’s official website.
Date A Live Ren Dystopia Japanese Release Date Trailer
The original Date A Live novel by might be over, original author Koshi Tachibana started a new novel based on Kurumi, titled Date A Bullet. The franchise is pretty popular too. Meaning the adaptations won’t be stopping soon. Date A Bullet is also getting an anime movie adaptation titled Dead or Bullet, where Kurumi will still be voiced by Asami Sanada, also known for voicing Broccoli’s Dejiko, or Garuru in Pretty Series. Asami Sanada is also one of the many seiyuu who opened a YouTube channel to encourage fans during the Covid-19 pandemic. She regularly publishes muscle training videos.
If you’re planning to import Date A Live Ren Dystopia, Dengeki Online also revealed a limited edition only available on its shop with specific preorder goods. All the other shop specific preorder goods can also be found on the game’s official site.
Compile Heart is also currently working on Neptunia Virtual Stars, launching on PS4 on August 6 in Japan and in 2021 in the west.
The studio also develops Death End Re;Quest 2 already available since February 13 on PS4 in Japan, and coming to PS4 on August 25 in North America and August 28 in Europe. A Steam version will also release worldwide on August 25.
Lastly, Compile Heart is also working on Mary Skelter: Finale launching October 8 in Japan. It was not announced outside Japan yet. Mary Skelter: Finale includes an Adventure Mode (as in, no dungeon crawling) that features the stories of the previous games Mary Skelter: Nightmares and Mary Skelter 2.
It’s unclear for now if Compile Heart is working on one or more projects on PS5.
Nintendo has announced it will no longer permit European retailers to sell digital download codes for its games starting tomorrow, 1st July, meaning digital sales of its first-party titles for Switch will be restricted exclusively to its own online eShop.
Retailers have had the option to sell digital download codes for first-party Nintendo titles (which would frequently be discounted to prices significantly lower than those offered directly on eShop) alongside physical copies for some time now – but that changes tomorrow.
UK online store ShopTo.net first broke the news to customers yesterday evening, and Nintendo has since confirmed the decision in a statement provided to NintendoLife. The company didn’t go into specifics, only saying it had ended digital download code sales for its “own-published software” after “careful examination of the evolving European marketplace in recent years.”
Hi, just to let everyone know, due to a Nintendo decision for all EMEA territories, as from Tomorrow 30/06/20 at 23:00 we are no longer able to offer/sell Nintendo digital full games.
We will however, be continuing to offer/sell online membership and add ons, so, with this in? pic.twitter.com/11hrqvEU1m
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It did note, however, that retailers will still be able to sell digital download codes for third-party titles as well as for Nintendo eShop funds, Nintendo Switch Online memberships, and DLC add-on content such as the recent Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield Expansion Pass.
“We’re always investigating new avenues, and will continue to work on new methods to bring Nintendo eShop content to as many players as possible,” its statement concluded.
Three community made maps will be the first available when Skater XL launches in July
I know we’re all still getting over the hype of the next Skate title, but it’d be obnoxious of us to ignore the games that have tried to fill that spot. One of those titles is SkaterXL, which has been out in early access for a while now – since December of 2018 – and in that time, it’s grown quite a following. With its release now only a month away, we’re getting a first look at the content that the game’s community has put together, and what players will get to check out from fellow skaters when Skater XL launches.
Revealed in a new trailer, three community-made maps will be the first available with Skater XL across all platforms when the game officially releases, and they’re pretty gnarly. The first map is ‘Grant Skate Park’ by Theo, a modder who ended up joining the team at Easy Day Studios. Any readers of ours from the state of Illinois may recognize the name – Grant Skate Park is one of the premier skate parks in Chicago. The second of the three was made by map creator Jean Olive, and is simply titled ‘Streets.’ It’s a map with several city blocks worth of skatable territory, with plenty of urban architecture to use. Eagle-eyed skaters may also recognize some sites from New York City and Los Angeles thrown into the map. Finally, we’ve got the ‘Hűdland Training Facility’ made by Pactole. This one is a simple skater’s dream. Rails and planters to grind, ramps and gaps to catch some air, stairs, quarterpipes and more.
These three maps will be coming to Skater XL once it officially launches, but PC players won’t have to wait that long for community content. There is an extensive list of mods available at Mod.io, from packs that change the game’s sound to new pairs of sneakers.
So, let’s be real. Skate 4 isn’t coming for a long time. But until we get there, there are still some great looking skating games with large creative communities looking for your time. Skater XL launches July 28 on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.
The fourth game from Niantic, the maker of Ingress, Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, will be… Catan: World Explorers.
This new themed take on the developer’s massively-multiplayer augmented reality formula uses the same library of real-world locations to turn the planet into a giant Catan game board.
As you might expect, you’ll be collecting brick, lumber, grain, ore and wool to trade with other players and build settlements into cities.
There’s team gameplay, too, to collect Victory Points at local and global levels.
Niantic’s website for the game is now live, and you can pre-register there to play at launch. It’ll debut in beta form “very soon”, though there’s no firm release date yet.
Niantic also announced today that those 10 projects also included “prototype for AR wearables” and “multiple projects” in collaboration with British theatre company Punchdrunk “to reinvent storytelling for a 21st century audience and further expand the horizon of interactive entertainment”.
The original concept Noah teased by Yusuke Hashimoto in April 2019 and the Project Noah MMORPG by Tencent are two completly unrelated things.
Since April 2019, ex PlatinumGames Producer Yusuke Hashimoto has been teasing on social media an original concept he’s working on titled Noah.
Hashimoto actually didn’t say anything about Noah besides sharing artwork, which he uses as Twitter avatar and banner, so we don’t even know if Noah is actually a game concept or something else.
On June 27 at the Tencent Games Annual Conference 2020 (Check out our news roundup of the event), Tencent announced Project Noah, a new MMORPG for mobile. Naturally, a lot of people asked themselves if that turned out to be the project Yusuke Hashimoto teased. After all, Tencent is widely known for its aggressive strategy when it comes to Japanese developers, studios, and IPs.
Following that, a fan simply asked Yusuke Hashimoto about it on Twitter. Hashimoto answered that he is not involved with Project Noah, but is still working on something new we should look forward to:
I’m not involved with that project, but I am working on something new, so look forward to it! https://t.co/ysMUHPtlAI
— 橋本祐介 Yusuke Hashimoto (@yusuke8shimoto) June 30, 2020
Here’s a quick reminder on Yusuke Hashimoto’s life as a game developer. Hashimoto first most notably worked at Capcom on the Resident Evil series. He left Capcom with several employees to form Clover Studio (Viewtiful Joe, Okami, God Hand, etc) and then PlatinumGames (Mugen Kouro, Bayonetta, Vanquish, The Wonderful 101, Astral Chain, etc).
Yusuke Hashimoto left PlatinumGames in January 2019. In September 2019, Yusuke Hashimoto announced he is now working on a new project with Breath of Fire Character Designer Tatsuya Yoshikawa.
Tatsuya Yoshikawa recently held from April to May 2020 a pretty cool art exposition with gorgeous original artwork. In a message published back then, Yoshikawa explained the expo, held exclusively online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, was dedicated to his late father.
Now that one million players have defeated Zeraora in Max Raid battle in Pokemon Sword and Shield, you can claim your new shiny pokemon right now.
As part of June’s first Pokemon Presents presentation, it was confirmed players will have the chance to get their hands on a Shiny Zeraora to celebrate the launch of the Pokemon Sword and Shield expansion, Isle Of Armor. In order to get their reward, trainers had to compete in special Max Raid battles that contain the Mythical Pokemon between June 17th and 28th. The bonus Pokemon was to be unlocked when one million players defeated it, with one piece of Armorite Ore being rewarded for every 100,000 times Zeraora is beaten.
How to Claim Your Free Shiny Zeraora in Pokemon Sword and Shield
As of June 24th, it was confirmed almost 1.5 million players had beaten Zeraora, and therefore have unlocked the reward – plus at least 5 pieces of Armorite Ore for good measure, which is all available right now. But how do you claim it?
The rules are as follows:
Zeraora and subsequent Armorite Ore must be claimed between June 29th at 5:00PM PDT and July 6th at 4:59PM PDT.
Trainers will be required to make one transfer from Pokemon Home to Pokemon Sword/Shield or vice versa.
Shiny Zeraora will then become available as a mystery gift through the Pokemon Home mobile app.
It’s as simple as that. Seeing as this is the first time this generation’s trainers have been able to get their hands on Zeraora, who was originally released on the 3DS’ Sun and Moon, plus the fact it’s shiny means it’s certainly worth claiming.
You can catch up with all of our coverage from that presentation right here including the three new Pokemon games that were announced; Café Mix and Smile which are both available right now, and most importantly a new Snap as well as a new MOBA Pokemon Unite which was announced to a bit of furor the following week from fans who were expecting the announcement of a remaster of either Gold and Silver or Diamond and Pearl.
For next-gen, Nintendo wishes to focus on making fun games on Switch instead of a high-spec console as PS5 and Xbox Series X close in.
Remember the Nintendo shareholders meeting on June 26, where Nintendo mentioned the Switch production, slowed down due to Covid-19, is going back to normal soon? Now, the Kyoto cards game company published an official report of the meeting. Various questions were asked at the meeting including how work conditions at Nintendo changed with the pandemic. Our peers at Famitsu most notably pointed out Nintendo was asked about prospects regarding a next-gen console.
The question was first answered by Nintendo’s Representative Director and President Shuntaro Furukawa:
Shuntaro Furukawa: “Our current console, the Nintendo Switch, is living its fourth year now, but its popularity is still increasing. We believe there are two factors behind this. First there’s how we have two hardware with different characteristics, the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch Lite. The other reason is the fact we only have the Nintendo Switch as a platform, so we can focus all of our firm’s development resources to make software for it. We want to make the most out of these factors and extend the Nintendo Switch’s life cycle as much as we can.”
Ko Shiota, one of Nintendo’s Senior Executive Officers, added the following:
Ko Shiota: “Our consoles are based on how to make fun software for our customers rather than high specs. Nintendo Switch can be played on both TV or on the console’s screen itself, so compared to other consoles, customers get more occasions to play. New ways for game machines to interact with the customers’ daily lives have been discovered thanks to the Nintendo Switch. We see that all the time on social media, with customers sharing videos of their families and children all playing together. It made us realize once again the value of our game consoles. We will keep all of this in mind while thinking about how to develop our consoles in the future.”
Famitsu explained how in these meetings, questions regarding next-gen consoles prospects often pop up but are rarely directly answered because they company can’t say anything yet. Hence why these indirect answers. Famitsu believes the probability of a next gen console by Nintendo getting announced soon is low, but mentioned it’s interesting to imagine what Nintendo could do for a next-gen console based on these answers.
I would also personally add it’s important to keep in mind we’re talking about a shareholders meeting here. The people there basically ask in various roundabout ways “Hey how can you make me even more money?” and the company’s executives deliver business-like answers. So it’s not surprising to see we didn’t learn much. Everyone already knows Nintendo doesn’t focus on high-specs these days.
Lastly, it’s not like Nintendo ruled out a “Switch pro” though as a “Switch Pro” could technically still be considered the “same platform”. Moreover, in an interview with Games Industry, Dr Serkan Toto also said in January 2020 he has no doubt a “Switch Pro” will be launching this year. That was before the pandemic ravaged the world though so who knows what would happen now.
Nintendo Switch is still getting more and more popular, thanks to blockbusters such as Animal Crossing and Minecraft.Animal Crossing is also doing crazier and crazier collabs, such as adding outfits from centuries old prestigious Kimono house Chiso.
Kickstarter backers of The Wonderful 101: Remastered are facing long waits for their physical copies of the game – more than a month after its digital version went on sale.
Production of the game’s physical copies and other Kickstarter rewards has been delayed due to the current global pandemic, developer Platinum Games and distributor Yetee previously told backers.
Those left waiting for their copy have been gifted a Steam key for the game instead.
But some have no intention of playing the game on PC, and simply want the Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 4 version they paid for in advance.
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In a private Kickstarter blog post shared with backers last month, Platinum wrote it had “heard some feedback that affected backers would rather receive a complimentary code on a console platform of their choice”.
“Unfortunately as we’ve already prepared and begun to send codes out, we won’t be able to fulfil these requests,” the developer continued. “Additionally, for financial reasons, we will not be able to switch out the complimentary Steam codes with Switch or PS4 version codes. We hope you’ll all be able to wait with excitement until your version arrives.”
Today marks six weeks since the game launched digitally via the Nintendo Switch eShop, and some fans are still waiting.
Others have begun receiving their copies only to find themselves hit by another snag here in the UK – an unexpected £16.82 import cost. This is almost half of the game’s price again.
Kickstarter sucks. I think it will be a rarity if I even back anything ever again on there. pic.twitter.com/WdVSS2e6xJ
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These charges are commonplace when purchasing items from abroad, but multiple people hit by them say they were not warned of it when purchasing (and that Kickstarter rules require this). The Wonderful 101’s page now does warn of potential import charges – though fans I spoke to today claim this was only added more recently.
“UK backers are being hit with customs charges of £16 (the game itself being £35, so UK backers paying +50% extra),” one fan told Eurogamer. “I’m still awaiting delivery, but expecting the same. There was no warning about potential customs charges when the Kickstarter began, however Platinum Games have since added this (irrespective, this info was not available to early backers, like me).”
Eurogamer has contacted distributor Yetee for comment.
NBA 2K21 has revealed its first of three different cover athletes, with Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard gracing the box art for current-gen consoles.
To kick off the first of three consecutive days worth of announcements, 2K Games today unveiled the first cover athlete that will be landing on the box art for NBA 2K21 this year.
When it comes to the current generation versions of this year’s basketball sim, Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard will be appearing on the cover of NBA 2K21. Lillard is one of the league’s most electrifying players and has been a five-time All-Star in his eight-year career.
“This is a special moment for me in my NBA career,” Lillard said in an accompanying statement. “I’ve been a fan of NBA 2K for years and love how they represent all aspects of basketball culture. I’m an avid 2K player so I’m honored to join the other NBA greats who have been on the cover. I’m grateful to all my fans and can’t wait for everyone to experience the game later this year.”
As mentioned, Lillard is just the first of three planned cover athletes, all of which will seemingly be revealed this week. He will also be the only player appearing on the art for the PS4, Xbox One, Stadia, and Switch installments.
As for who the other cover athletes might end up being, it stands to reason that Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans could end up appearing on the next-gen iterations of NBA 2K21. Just a few weeks back, Williamson appeared in the first trailer for the game which debuted during Sony’s PS5 reveal stream. When it comes to the final cover athlete, recent history would tell us that it would be a former player, much like last year when Dwyane Wade appeared on the art for NBA 2K20’s Legend Edition.
NBA 2K21 still doesn’t have a release date just yet, but we’ll learn more about its official launch later this week on Thursday, July 2. At that time, pre-orders for the game will also be going live as well, so stay tuned.
“We are continuing to aim to improve our products.”
Nintendo has given its first formal apology for the continued Joy-Con problems faced by Nintendo Switch owners.
In a recent investor briefing, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa was asked about the ongoing issue which has plagued the Switch’s Joy-Con controllers ever since the system first launched.
“Regarding the Joy-Con, we apologise for any trouble caused to our customers,” Furukawa said (as translated by Kotaku).
Specifically, the question was around an ongoing class-action lawsuit Nintendo is facing in the US from Switch owners who have experienced “Joy-Con drift” – the seemingly common experience of finding your controller not responding properly to analogue stick controls, or suddenly controlling itself.
“We are continuing to aim to improve our products,” Furukawa continued, “but as the Joy-Con is the subject of a class-action lawsuit in the United States and this is still a pending issue, we would like to refrain from responding about any specific actions.”
“At Nintendo, we take great pride in creating quality products and we are continuously making improvements to them,” a Nintendo UK spokesperson told Eurogamer at the time. “We are aware of recent reports that some Joy-Con controllers are not responding correctly. We want our consumers to have fun with Nintendo Switch, and if anything falls short of this goal we always encourage them to visit http://support.nintendo.co.uk so we can help.”
This is going to be a beautifully reflective game.
With CD Projekt Red broadcasting its first Night City Wire event last week for Cyberpunk 2077, there was also something we missed in regards to raytracing. Over on the Nvidia website, the company known for its graphics cards, shared some details about the raytracing support and GeForce NOW, and DLSS 2.0.
In 2019, Nvidia entered a partnership with game developer and publisher CD Projekt Red which allowed the developer to bring raytracing support to Cyberpunk 2077. In the latest blog post, it’s revealed that the game will feature 4 ray-traced effects that will make the graphics look more realistic. The following features are powered by DirectX 12 Ultimate’s DXR Raytracing API, so make sure that’s up-to-date ahead of the game’s launch.
Firstly, it’s revealed that the latest trailer, titled “The Gig” shows off the game with RTX on. The trailer was originally revealed during the Night City Wire event. As for the effects, Ray-Traced Diffuse Illumination is one feature heading to the game. This has a focus on sky radiance and emissive lighting from various surfaces. Basically, you can expect reflected lights to bounce lighting more realistically, with billboards —for example— actually lighting up areas. The sun and moon will also realistically affect the way the city is lit.
Ray-Traced Reflections is another feature that will be available. No surprises here as this feature ensures that ray-traced reflections are on all available surfaces and will be viewable for a good distance.
Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion will bring realistic ambient occlusion to the game and is detailed to “calculate how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient lighting,” and creates new AO shadows for all in-game objects and elements. In addition, Ray-Traced Shadows will be present in Cyberpunk 2077, ensuring that the game has pixel-perfect shadows. The game will also feature directional shadows from the sun and moonlight and is effected by the strength of light, scattering through the clouds, and “other factors.”
The game will also have Nvidia DLSS 2.0, a “deep learning neural network” which essentially improves the games frame rates while the raytracing features are active.
Also revealed, was that Cyberpunk 2077 will be available to play using Nvidia’s GeForce NOW streaming program at launch. The service basically allows you to stream your games from Nvidia’s servers, meaning you don’t need a high-end rig to get the best performance, but a decent internet connection is worth having. Nvidia claims that at launch, users of GeForce NOW will be able to play the game with raytracing on, DLSS 2.0 enabled, and be able to play the game at 1080p 60fps.
The images featured throughout this post —and the featured image— are the screenshots shared by Nvidia showcasing the RTX effects in action inside Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City.
Cyberpunk 2077 is slated to launch later this year in November for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It’s also to be heading to PS5 and Xbox Series X. Ray-traced effects will only work for PC versions of the game, however, with PS5 and Xbox Series X boasting a level of raytracing, you can expect to see the next-generation hardware bringing similar results. It will be launching on Google Stadia as well, but not at launch.
There’s still 26 hours to go until Crysis Remastered is officially revealed to the world via a YouTube gameplay premiere, but you can see how the game looks right now – and find out its release date – via the Microsoft Store.
Crysis Remastered will launch on 23rd July and weigh in at 7.01GB on Xbox One, according to its Microsoft Store listing. HDR and 4K visuals will be supported.
As previously announced, the game’s multiplayer portion does not appear to be making a return.
Here’s tomorrow’s trailer:
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“The classic first person shooter from Crytek is back with the action-packed gameplay, sandbox world, and thrilling epic battles you loved the first time around – now with remastered graphics optimized for a new generation of hardware,” its description reads.
This is the third time in six weeks the Microsoft Store has leaked details on an upcoming unannounced game – following the early release of info on Star Wars Squadrons and Mafia Trilogy.
Crysis Remastered is coming to PC, PlayStation 4, Switch and Xbox One. Expect a shinier version of the above trailer in around 26 hours.
Since launching in February of this year Ori and The Will of the Wisps has become one of the Xbox One’s most critically acclaimed titles this generation. Commercially the game has also had huge success recently surpassing over two million players, no doubt owing some thanks to Xbox Game Pass which has recently been shown to have an impact on sales figures.
With Ori and The Will of the Wisps being a successful follow up to 2015’s Ori and The Blind Forest, which was also ported to the Nintendo Switch, there were always going to be questions regarding further sequels and Switch ports. Luckily developers Moon Studios were happy to answer these and more in a recent Reddit AMA.
When questioned about a potential sequel or another game set in the Ori world the developer replied, “We really felt that we told the story that we wanted to tell – Ori’s story – across the two games. It’s really Ori’s journey, and we’re happy with where it ended and what we wanted to say through telling that story. If you’ve finished the game, you can see that we’ve left the door cracked open a bit for a potential continuation, though we don’t have anything specific to share at this point and time.” Answering a further question however the team replied “Nibel and Niwen are both filled with storytelling possibilities”.
Another user then asked the question on everybody’s lips regarding a possibility of a Nintendo Switch port to which Moon Studios replied “We love the Switch! But right now we don’t have anything to share when it comes to Ori and the Will of the Wisps port. If it were to ever happen though I can tell you that it would be extremely difficult port to make it run at 60fps that’s for sure!”. This unfortunately means that if a port were to happen, some sacrifices would ultimately have to be made, likely leaving Ori feeling less special.
So it looks like bad news for Ori fans with no direct sequel or Switch ports in the works however Moon Studios refused to rule out a spinoff based in the lands of Nibel and Niwen.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is available now on Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass and Steam (where it’s 20% off due to the summer sale) and you can read our review of the game here.
Fortnite: Save the World, the PVE arm of the incredibly popular Fortnite brand is leaving early access. Announced today by Epic Games, the team-based game will have its Early Access label removed, but rather that going Free-To-Play will be remaining as what they call a “premium experience”. Epic also announced that development for the game will slow down, but have stated that “the adventure doesn’t end here for Save the World”
The co-op, survival game in which “You and your friends battle to hold back the monster hordes and explore a vast destructible world” usually retails for around $40 and increases depending on editions, as opposed to the more popular Battle Royale mode which remains Free-To-Play. The Battle Royale mode makes its money through the sale of Skins, Gliders, Back Bling and a range of other cosmetics, that compliment the Seasonal Battle Passes.
These purchased cosmetics are usually compatible across both games (Battle Royale and Save the World) however today’s announcement confirms that going forward this will no longer be the case. Players can breath easy though as items that were compatible prior to this announcement will still be available in both games.
Find out what’s next for Save the World in our newest State of Development.
Some good news however, the post details a new pricing/packaging structure. Rather than differing levels of Founders Packs, which are now being retired with the Early Access tag, newcomers will pay $20 for access to the game and some additional items and content. The first set of content includes a new Hero, the Papa Bear weapon schematic, Warning Bow Back Bling and the Metal Team leader Challenges but it’s unclear if, and how often these items will be changing.
The post also introduces a new “season-long excursion” mode to Save the World titled Ventures. Ventures is designed to increase “replayability” of the game and offers different difficulty levels and rewards. Epic detailed how these structure changes will start to look by stating “we’re shifting to an annual recurring seasonal schedule where existing in-game narratives and events, such as Frostnite and Dungeons, will continue on a seasonal rotation unique to Save the World and separate from Battle Royale.” however then goes on to reiterate the fact that this all takes place at a slower pace.
It’s easy to imagine why these changes are taking place and development is slowing down, due to the sheer popularity of FortniteBattle Royale coupled with the support it needs but it’s hard to see where Save the World goes from here. Epic seem to be aware that this may upset people as they’re trying to soften by upgrading all Founders Packs to the next level free of charge.
Epic, who are currently trialing a range of collaborations, have confirmed that Fortnite will be hitting Next Gen consoles, but it will be interesting to see how much support, if any Save the World will be receiving.
Harmonix has developed many games about recreating and performing music. This time around, the Guitar Hero and Dance Central studio wants players to get creative. Fuser is all about creating mashup remixes out of popular songs, either in a campaign, freestyle mode or multiplayer.
After preview events earlier this year, this is the first extended hands-on with Fuser, giving me a full four days with 31 songs, two campaign missions and the freestyle mode.
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You manage four channels – each song is divided into drums, a bassline, and a melody instrument such as synths or strings and vocals. Each of these categories is mapped to a fixed button, so you always press the right-hand button for the vocal track, the left hand one for drums and so on. As intuitive as the controls are, Fuser is immediately a lot. Unlike previous Harmonix games, which have you focus on your instrument by relegating the crowd and your avatar to the background, there’s a whole music festival virtually standing between you and your table. Initially, I had a good giggle at the idea that attendees at a huge festival like that would dare to shout “I want country!”, but it’s just one of the ways in which gameplay doesn’t really fit the rest of Fuser’s ideas. The skill it asks of you lies in dividing your attention between crowd requests, in-game tasks and, oh yeah – making actual music.
Fuser is such a departure for Harmonix not only because it ditches the dexterity challenge of classic rhythm gaming, but because the developer is actively trying to reach players who either aren’t interested in music gaming as a test of skill, or are unable or unwilling to invest in peripherals by basing everything around your controller only.
“With how things have developed, Fuser is coming at the right time,” marketing director Dan Walsh tells me, referring to how the coronavirus crisis has made it more difficult for peripherals to be produced and shipped. “But the overall accessibility was our main concern from the beginning. Fuser works the same no matter what platform or controller you play with, and there is no wrong way to play it.”
Walsh also mentions Fantasia: Music Evolved and DropMix, the latter of which is probably the closest to Fuser but struggled due to the large board it required and its prohibitively high price at launch. “DropMix used the mechanics of a board game, and asked players to make strategic decisions that weren’t about the music, first and foremost,” Walsh says. “With DropMix and Fantasia, we went into the direction of introducing more player agency, something Guitar Hero for example didn’t have. With a game like Guitar Hero, your experience with a song and my experience are going to be indistinguishable, we both reach a five star rating the same way. In Fuser, skill has a completely different meaning.”
Product director Daniel Sussman adds: “We’re never gonna tell you your mix is bad. Taste is subjective. We’re asking you to put yourself out there and we’re not gonna punish you for that.”
There are few categories you’re actually scored on, and you can’t lose points, but I soon discover that what brings you points isn’t necessarily musically interesting. This regularly put my instincts as a musician and a player at odds with each other. Let’s say you’ve just found a mix of tracks you want to keep going for a bit, only to be interrupted by a request. Whatever the digital festival-goer shouts at you might go terribly with your current mix, so you likely won’t change just one thing, but everything. Sure, it keeps you on your feet, but it gives you very little time to just enjoy the music for a bit or wait until the song has reached a good point for a break. You have the option to ignore the request, but fulfilling requests and quickly changing anything on the fly is ultimately where the points come from. There’s also an overall crowd appreciation meter that’s likely driven by the software interpreting how well your chosen tracks go together. To satisfy Fuser’s requirements as a game, I sometimes ended up building mixes I personally didn’t like, even though most tasks are open to your interpretation, like “play a song from the 2010s” or “only use three discs”.
Everything is automatically mapped to the same beat and the same key, but I’m assuming tracks where the vocals have to be immensely sped up to fit the beat will make you less of a hit with the crowd than those that have a more natural fit. As a player going for a high score, it worries me that I sometimes can’t tell what exactly I’m scored on. All I know for certain is you get the most points for dropping and ejecting tracks on the downbeat. There’s a visual aid showing you the timing depending on your beat, but if you don’t drop a record immediately and instead hover it over the plate by holding down the button, you also see markers for points at which it would sound more natural and interesting to drop a new melody or beat. The fact that making points and making something that sounds good can at times be mutually exclusive is Fuser’s one big letdown. At times, the software defiantly works against you to make something it deems acceptable, too: I did try my best to break the game, but if something doesn’t go with the rest, Fuser is likely to just mute sections of the offending disc or use it to replace the track it’s at odds with. Things can still sound awkward – I got a small victory out of successfully finding a place for tracks that didn’t seem to go with anything at first, but more often than not, I felt Fuser was gently taking the reins before I could make ears bleed.
With Fuser, Harmonix stresses diversity and open-mindedness. Your avatar doesn’t have a set gender, and there is a generous array of body types and skin tones. Similarly, Fuser forces you out of your musical comfort zone by making you familiarise yourself with songs you might not know or like. The demo has a big focus on rap and pop songs, but then there’s a lone country song, daring me to use it with a host of songs that couldn’t be more different. I ask Walsh and Sussman if these real-life musical differences ever lead to difficulties in licensing music.
“We’ve definitely had artists tell us no because they’re not comfortable with being remixed in this way,” Walsh says. “Artists from the 2010s who are more familiar with mashup culture and remixes were generally more open to the idea when we’ve explained what Fuser is.”
The first stage you play in the demo is the full game’s first stage and thus features a short tutorial. The second stage available to me is one from later in the game and features a previously unavailable sample pad. At one point, you need to create a short loop with your pad, record it, and then use it in your mix. This requires me to navigate to a menu, choose a sample pad, roughly know what sound it makes and what I’m going for and record, all within a time limit. It’s a lot. It’s not something you can be good at using the skills games usually ask of you, and it does give me great respect for real-life DJs. You will have to get intimately familiar with the up to 16 songs you’re using at a time. Whenever I’m not playing, I’ve been whistling the horn section from Lizzo’s Good As Hell, because thanks to Fuser I now know what it sounds like. I also know it goes great with the bass line from Rock the Casbah. To me, these are exciting discoveries to make. I love to be able to take songs apart, listen to what makes them so recognisable and then use that in a different context, but getting to know something so well takes time, time the campaign mode likely won’t give you. I’ve already played most of my hours in Freestyle Mode because the feeling of it all coming together, of it sounding just right, is better to me than any high score. But in Fuser, the chase for a high score and freedom of expression are often the only things that don’t mix, even when everything else does.
The Last of Us Part 2 is a deeply harrowing game that provides emotional gut punch after gut punch, but beneath its somber exterior lies some wholesome little gems just waiting to be found. As we saw towards the end of The Last of Us, Joel told Ellie that he would teach her how to play the guitar and by Part 2, Ellie could strum her heart out. In one particular scene in The Last of Us Part 2, Ellie and Dina enter a music store that includes a room where Ellie sits down and plays her now-infamous A-Ha’s “Take on Me“. What’s amazing about this encounter is that players could totally avoid this beautiful moment in the game and not enter the room at all, but even more incredible is the amount of cover songs you can get Ellie to play on the guitar.
The mini-game allows players to interact with the DualShock 4’s touchpad for strumming while Ellie’s chords are played through button prompts on a radial wheel and even capo placement is implemented to allow for a super realistic guitar playing experience. Of course, it’s of no surprise that creative players have taken this opportunity to cover some of the world’s best guitar tunes and to share them online. Over on VG247, they have put together a video showcasing some incredible cover songs played on Ellie’s guitar which includes the likes of Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Californication, Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun, Shawn James – Through the Valley, Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here, Chris Isaak – Wicked Game, Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah, The Cranberries – Zombie, Radiohead – Creep, Bob Marley – Redemption Song and The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army. Sorry guys, no Wonderwall was included in this instance, but give it time!
Doing some digging of my own over on YouTube, I found a few other cover song gems but I’m sure I’ve missed quite a lot. The few that stood out was KnotsWithFoxy‘s recreation of Metallica’s iconic “Nothing Else Matters” and Johnny Cash‘s heart-wrenching song “Hurt”. You can have a listen to them below then go out and pick yourself up a guitar if you haven’t got one by now, and learn some of these tunes or a cheaper way, I guess, is to play them all in The Last of Us Part 2.
The Last of Us Part II has already and unsurprisingly reached over 4 million in sales and has become the PS4’s fastest-selling exclusive ever. Sony revealed the news on the PlayStation Blog today that as of June 21 the highly anticipated sequel has done extremely well in such a short space of time, overtaking PS4’s previous record holders, God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man. This news comes after we heard that in Japan, The Last of Us Part II became its top-selling first-party PS4 game selling 178,696 copies in total. If you ever wondered how The Last of Us Part II’s developers created those chilling sounds that The Infected make, you can check out Naughty Dog’s sound designer who delved into the process.
Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann has more information on whether The Last of Us Part II would have a DLC like The Last of Us:Left Behind. During a spoilercast with Kinda Funny Games, Neil stated that currently there are “no plans” to release DLC for Part II. But who knows, maybe we will see a DLC drop sometime into the future.
If you want to find a cool and slightly gross way of distracting those hungry clickers to give you a little breathing room, check out this article that offers up a crafty way to get a step ahead of those big infected heads.
The Last of Us Part II released exclusively for PS4 Friday on June 19, 2020, and you can order the game on Amazon. You can also check out our review of the game if you haven’t already.
This post contains affiliate links where DualShockers gets a small commission on sales. Any and all support helps keep DualShockers as a standalone, independent platform for less-mainstream opinions and news coverage.
Microsoft has joined a growing list of companies which have “paused” advertising on Facebook.
That’s according to a Bloomberg report, which cites an announcement made internally by Microsoft marketing exec Chris Capossela.
In the past week, numerous big brands such as Coca-Cola, Honda, Unilever, Ford and Starbucks have all publicly stated they will – temporarily, at least – no longer spend their advertising money on the social network.
Facebook has recently drawn fire for its policies which allow hate content to remain visible on the platform, in contrast to changes on social networks elsewhere.
Companies have expressed concern about the possibility of adverts for their brands being placed next to this content.
But Microsoft is yet to announce its decision publicly, and has so far not responded to requests for comment on the decision.
In the past 24 hours, reddit issued a new set of community rules and banned more than 2000 subreddits, including infamous pro-Trump forum The_Donald. Twitch, meanwhile, temporarily banned Trump’s own channel, used to post videos of campaign rallies, for “hateful conduct”.
Listen to some punk music from Refused being featured in the game.
If you’ve been following the Cyberpunk 2077 game long enough, you’ll probably know that CD Projekt Red has been working with the band Refused to bring an in-game band to life. The band goes by the name of Samurai in the world of Cyberpunk 2077 and we’ve seen the logo adorned on clothing such as the protagonist’s jacket collar, and yesterday a brand-new song was released.
You can listen to the latest track below, which is Samurai’s song “The Ballad of Buck Ravers”. However, there are many people being directed to this video through the limited edition controller that people have received recently that includes a QR code on the reverse of the controller, sending them to the video.
The lyrics touch on liberty, revenge, and a lot of violence, which seems rather fitting to the style of the game. It’s also perhaps the heaviest of the tracks released, and personally, I love it.
There have already been two songs previously released, “Never Fade Away” was one, while the other was “Chippin’ In“. Refused has been working on the songs, including writing, recording, and producing with creative direction from CD Projekt Red’s composer team which is being led by Marcin Przybyłowicz.
The game should have songs that are heavily inspired by original source material as well as original tracks that have been created exclusively by Refused for Cyberpunk 2077. There are other musicians and bands as part of the game’s soundtrack, but Refused seems to be the most prominent one, being fronted in-game by Keanu Reeve’s character, Johnny Silverhand.
5/24(日)まで延長決定
