Everyone knows Nintendo games rarely, if ever, go on sale before release. But the good news is that it's the holiday season and retailers wants your fat cash.
This week, Target launched a 15% off code slashing game prices pretty much across the board. Amazon is price-matching many of these discounts and doesn't require you to plug in a coupon.
For the most part, games listed at full price are not worth a measly 15% off, especially since Black Friday and Cyber Monday just came and went with many of those games seeing discounts around 50%. Having said that, almost any newly released console game and just about anything Nintendo is an excellent deal with this sales event. (If you're a REDcard holder you can get another 5% off).
Finally, the best and most surprising part of this code is that it works on upcoming games. That means titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are getting an ultra rare pre-order discount. Our top picks of the sale are listed below.
I've been playing Hearthstone regularly for about a year now, and I've seen the game change pretty significantly during that time. Hearthstone is Blizzard's most popular game by a large margin, and it's not hard to see why. Streamlining the esoteric rules of Magic: The Gathering is something that probably needed to happen, and Blizzard's made their fortune by making hardcore formats and genres accessible to the masses. Furthermore, giving you the first hit of dopamine for free is a proven business model, and it works just as well in card games as with less savory products.
Earlier this year, Blizzard changed Hearthstone's rules, rotating out some of the older cards to make way for new ones, and updating many that they felt were too far off the power curve. It looks like that's what they plan to do well into the future, rotating out older sets as new ones become available. Hearthstone expansions come in two different formats. There are story-themed expansions like One Night in Karazhan that you can pay cash for or unlock with in-game gold. Playing through one of these unlocks the same cards for everyone, and they're the best place for new players to begin earning powerful cards. The newest set is the other kind, with randomized packs which can be earned through Arena play or bought with gold or cash.
The cool thing about the most recent update, Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, is that it takes some cues from the story expansions. When you load up the game client right now, you'll be introduced to a two-headed ogre, a representative of Gadgetzan's Grimy Goons faction. (By the way, if he's not being voiced by John DiMaggio, it's an incredible soundalike.) Each of Gadgetzan's factions works with three of Hearthstone's nine hero types, and has some special cards that any of the three classes can use. The ogre will ask you to win three games as any of the heroes his faction works with, and doing so will win you a couple of free packs from the newest expansion. Once that's done, you're introduced to representatives from the Jade Lotus and the Kabal, who represent other sets of three heroes.
The Gadgetzan expansion plays to the wackier side of the spectrum, with Goblin mobsters, Troll alchemists, and Walrusman police officers fighting over territory. Every new expansion includes a new game board to play on, and Gadgetzan's includes several references to Overwatch, including Junkrat's Rip-Tire, Genji's Dragonblade, and a Pachamari doll hidden in the corners of the play field.
Once you've completed the quests for all three of Gadgetzan's competing factions, you'll unlock six of the new packs, which will contain 30 new cards. It's not as good as unlocking all of the cards from one of the story expansions, but it's a good place to start.
Each of the factions has a different theme to build a deck around. The Goons work with Hunters, Warriors, and Paladins, and can give stat buffs to creatures that are still in your hand. The Jade Lotus are aligned with Rogues, Druids, and Shaman, and their theme involves summoning Jade Golems that get more powerful each time you play one. The Kabal is a group of Warlocks, Priests, and Mages who gain huge bonuses if their decks don't have any more than one of the same card.
I'm not sure if there's ever a right or wrong time to jump into Hearthstone, and I'm well aware it's not for everyone. It's free to start and has marvelous production values, though some people will be turned off by the randomness of the cards. It is possible to play without spending any money if you're patient. Eventually you'll be able to work your way towards some of the more powerful cards, though Blizzard does their best to make whipping out the credit card an attractive shortcut. For me, it scratches the itch I get when I'm not able to play Magic: The Gathering in person, but your mileage may vary. I've had a lot of fun with it though, and I'm looking forward to exploring more of Gadgetzan's Mean Streets.
Sonic the Hedgehog has been Sega's mascot since his creation in 1991, and he's one of the most recognizable game characters around. So it's no surprise that he appears to promote formats other than his own video games, but I've gotta admit this is a new one on me.
It's not terribly uncommon for game characters to cross promote with other formats, but usually they show up in other media. It's much less often that you see a game character promoting a form of transportation, though it does happen occasionally; the Pokémon jets flown by All Nippon Airways come to mind. But to my knowledge, this is the first game character to promote a train line.
The Keikyu corporation's "Blue Sky" line are electric commuter trains that service Tokyo, and you may have ridden on one if you've ever taken a train from Tokyo's airport. They aren't nearly as fast as the Shinkansen or "bullet trains," but Wikipedia notes that they can reach speeds of up to 120 kph (75 mph). This of course pales in comparison to the blue blur himself, who can canonically reach speeds in excess of Mach 5.
Sega sent out a mascot to help promote the trains' new livery, and pointed out that the Otorii stop is Sonic's home station, since it's closest to Sega of Japan. if you'd like to ride the trains yourself, they should look like this for the foreseeable future.
[An avatar is a funny thing. For some people, it says something about their likes or interests. For others, it's an extension of their personality. Our resident Avatar Whisperer, ZombZ, hears the deepest and darkest secrets of avatars throughout the community. What does yours say? - weslikestacos]
Hello and welcome. It's community time!
This silly little blog deals with something I wanted to get off my chest for a long time. When I look at many of your avatars, I always imagine them literally talking to me. It's only by pure coincidence, if what an avatar says matches the personality of the user. Almost nothing here reflects my thoughts about the users, so don't take it personally.
Also, this is more a string of 50 comments than a proper, coherent blog. You have been warned.
The idea was to strip down the MOBA experience, whittling away concepts like lanes and creeps to focus instead on harrowing, fast-paced team fights, and that concept has resonated with players. Battlerite has done very well for itself on Steam despite being in Early Access, with 400,000+ copies sold and 95% positive user reviews. I'm not so sure a weekend is long enough to get a true sense of the ins and outs of a meta-heavy game like this, but it'll certainly give you an impression.
Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg, the most successful of the YouTube multi-millionaires, is disgruntled. In a histrionic video titled "DELETING MY CHANNEL AT 50 MILLION." Mr. DiePie echoed a tweet from a few days ago wherein he "decided [he's] deleting [his] channel at 50 million [subscribers]." He notes, "I won’t quit YouTube, I’ll just delete the channel," in order to "start fresh with a new shitty channel probably."
In the video he rails at YouTube itself, saying, "YouTube is trying to kill my channel." Mr. DiePie cites changes to the YouTube landing page, which show "trending" videos ahead of videos users actively subscribe too, and the need to click an additional button beyond "Subscribe" to actually get all channel notifications. Mr. DiePie also claims subscribed users -- not just his own -- are being unsubscribed from channels, a claim echoed by other top YouTubers, but denied by the company itself. Mr. DiePie points to some of his videos that are receiving less than two million views as evidence that something is wrong, given his typically higher numbers stemming from his near 50 million subscribers.
There is some irony, too, in Mr. DiePie railing against "clickbait" videos that "has nothing to do with personality" and "just has a really great title, and a really great thumbnail" (in the highlighted instance, a hot bikini woman's ass and back) finding wild success on the platform (10 million views in 6 days, in this instance of low-hanging fruit). The new multimedia that served as an alternative to new online media that served as an alternative to mainstream/print media is seeing itself struggle to compete with junk content that could just as easily be made infinitely, en masse by computer AI.
It is possible as his content and style change -- for example, releasing a 10 minute video bitching about the problems of being a YouTube multi-millionaire -- people are tuning in less. Or it could be that changes to YouTube's system of alerts and prioritizing which content is shown (including low-hanging "clickbait" style videos) are affecting his viewer counts.
Regardless, Mr. DiePie is upset, and says he will delete his wildly successful channel when it reaches 50 million subscribers. He is currently near 49.4 million subscribers, so it would be a weird publicity stunt with the target goal so close in range (as opposed to, say, deleting at 69 million). Rather than a completely calculated stunt, the sentiment could just as easily be an off-the-cuff expression of his current despair that, when the time comes, Mr. DiePie fails to honor. We'll let you know either way when the fateful day arrives.
It's a banner day for amiibo as the Legend of Zelda 30th Anniversary line of figures -- 8-bit Link, Ocarina of Time Link, Toon Link, and Wind Waker Zelda -- are now available. (Are you still on the hunt?) They look darn cool in their own right, regardless of their usefulness in-game, but Nintendo has also explained what these specific amiibo will do in Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
8-bit Link will reward you with a random number of barrels. You might find rupees inside too!
Ocarina of Time Link will reward you with a random amount of meat.
Toon Link will reward you with a random amount of fish.
Wind Waker Zelda will reward you with a random selection of plants.
With the DLC for Hyrule Warriors finally complete, I now look forward to finding and becoming completely engrossed by my next musou obsession. Dragon Quest Heroes didn't quite tickle my fancy the way I thought it would, but if this trailer is any indication, Musou Stars will succeed where it failed.
Streum On Studio is onto something cool with Space Hulk: Deathwing, its squad-based shooter adaptation of the Space Hulk board game. There's a sense of weight and intimidation to the hulking Terminator armor that other games have sorely missed, and I love those sudden, surprising bursts of speed. And yes, it's true: I'm also partial to a good Genestealer explosion. Lots of that here.
This extended footage comes after a recent beta, and right before the game's rapidly-approaching PC release. "We haven't been waiting until the end of the Beta to start fixing the issues you've reported and optimizing the game," wrote the developers. "We've already made huge progress, and are dedicated to working around the clock until the last minute to make the Emperor proud of our game on December 9th! We're aware that some of you have experienced major technical issues - it's our number one priority to deliver a smooth experience at release."
I doubt my PC will be able to handle this especially well (the game is running on Unreal Engine 4, for what that's worth), but there are also Xbox One and PlayStation 4 ports coming as well.
Whenever there's PaRappa news, our own Jonathan Holmes is on it -- and I'm grateful. I love this series, but Holmes seems to have his own personal radar for it.
There have been rumblings for a new iteration for a long while, but the Korean Game Rating board has actually rated a PaRappa the Rapper game for an unspecified platform. Now, let's unpack this a bit. PaRappa and Umjammer have been re-released in various PSN and portable forms over the years, so it stands to reason that this "new thing" (if it comes to fruition) is a remake (it wouldn't be too difficult to retouch the first and maybe add a song) or another re-release.
Either way I'm anxiously awaiting more news. Paraphrasing the flea market frog -- "I've been waiting since my mama was a baby."
Double Fine is bringing Full Throttle back into our lives with a remaster, and I am so thankful for that. I've somehow only partially played this beloved point-and-click adventure, so I'll happily take this as my chance at redemption. The music at the end of the trailer just feels so damn right.
"Players will be able to switch back and forth between classic and remastered modes, and mix-n-match audio, graphics and user interface options to their heart's desire. Also included is a concept art browser with work from Peter Chan, and a commentary track with the game's original creators.
Full Throttle was the first game with Tim Schafer as sole project lead, and a much beloved cult classic! This special edition has been lovingly restored and remade with the care and attention that can only come from involving the game's original creators. It's headed to PS4 in 2017."
I don't mind the new visuals at all, but I'll stick with the original art, which still holds up in my eyes two decades later. It seems that Double Fine has found a way to reliably balance putting out all-new games alongside these remasters of old favorites. What are you hoping to see next?
The lasting legacy of Doom shouldn't only be attributed to the quality of the main game. Creator id Software had such a lax approach to fan creations that it eventually bought a few for a full retail release (Final Doom) as well as licensed a fan's Linux code for Quake. Those guys loved seeing people enjoy their game and modify it however they saw fit. Boy have the times changed.
ZeniMax Media, the parent company behind Bethesda, has recently issued a takedown notice to the creator of Doom: The Roguelike. For those unaware, this fan game has been around for about 14 years and the first release predates ZeniMax's acquisition of id Software by seven years. While that isn't exactly grounds to base a legal defense on, it does beg the question of why the fan game is only now being targeted.
Kornel Kisielewicz, the creator of Doom: The Roguelike, is also questioning why Brutal Doom 64 received endorsement from ZeniMax and was even nominated for an award at The Game Awards. For all intents and purposes, that title violates copyright laws just as much as Kisielewicz's creation.
Straight from the horse's (or rep's) mouth: "On Sunday, we're launching our Great Big Christmas Sale (Dec. 4 thru 10) and the catalog, which is arriving in homes in the coming days, features Hatchimals and NES. Our stores are receiving shipments of both holiday must-haves to support and we expect that when stores open at 8 a.m., they will sell very quickly."
By "very quickly," they probably mean seconds flat. I've been to a Toys'R'Us toy rush many times, getting various Elmo, Transformers, and other hot items for cousins (or myself), and the scene is not pretty. Good luck if you're heading out on Sunday!
Renowned voice actor Nolan North won the award for Best Performance for his role as Nathan Drake in Uncharted 4 at the Video Game Awards on December 2, 2016. The bigger story is what he had to say during his acceptance speech.
Voice actors have been on strike, using the hashtag #performancematters on Twitter in attempt to emphasize the importance of their role. Nolan North, arguably the biggest name in video game voice acting, does not seem to agree despite taking part in the strike with fellow union members. In an interview with Kotaku, Mr. North says he has not experienced any of the problems that other voice actors report, "I can't speak for everyone else but I've personally never felt coerced to continue a session when I'm not feeling well, and I've never been mistreated by the people I've worked for."
After thanking his wife, family, friends and several members of Naughty Dog upon receiving the award, he gave special praise to the developers including programmers and animators. In response to #performancematters, North states "It does. The performance of every designer, every programmer, every artist, every hard-working, talented person...That performance is so important...Their performance matters more than mine...Without their performance, my performance would not only not matter, it wouldn't exist."
I've never known much about North as a person, but it appears he is dedicated to his work and the developers that provide it, closing with the reassurance that "I will continue on if they will continue to keep bringing the things I do to life. I'll be there for them."
