It's that time again when we all pick our favorite games of the year. 2016 was stuffed with great ones like Overwatch, Doom, and Final Fantasy XV, but those are all garbage compared to the One True Game of the Year.
Of course I'm talking about Battleborn. In a year full of fantastic games, Battleborn clearly blew them all out of the water with its amazing gameplay innovation and writing. Overwhat?
If you didn't get a VR headset for Christmas, you can always take advantage of the best price and bonus of the year. The Microsoft Store must not have sold enough units, because now it's discounting the HTC Vive by $100 and tacking on a $100 Gift Card bonus.
This ties the best deal of the year for the Vive last seen on Cyber Monday 2016. In previous weeks Microsoft has been offering that $100 gift card bonus, but now that the holidays are partly behind us, the extra $100 off is a fine addition to its offer.
This is not too far off from the offer Microsoft has on the cheaper Oculus Rift headset for $599 + a $100 Gift Card. In the Oculus' case there is no $100 discount, but you still get the bonus.
If you're on the fence between Oculus and Vive, the discount to $699 on the HTC unit does make its case much stronger, as the HTC Vive is not just a headset, but extends the VR experience to an entire room. For more on each VR system, check the HTC Vive review here, and the Oculus review here.
The debut Global Mission in Pokémon Sun and Moon was a disaster. This limited-time challenge ran from November 29 to December 12 and asked players to collectively catch 100 million Pokémon. That's obviously a lot, but still manageable, right? We ended up pulling in under 16.5 million. Yeah.
The next mission will hopefully fare better. It starts tomorrow, December 27, and will have us using the game's Island Scan feature to "capture or defeat" a million Pokémon by January 29. That should be doable, assuming enough people have bothered to look through the bottom-screen menu and search for QR codes. After you scan 10 codes, you can use the scanner to summon a specific Pokémon, which you'd then need to find and catch (or send to an early grave) for the purposes of this mission.
To participate, just hit "Festival Plaza" from the touch-screen menu, and then walk straight up to the castle. There's a woman inside, on the right, who will get you sorted for the Global Mission.
If we pull this million-'mon feat off, we'll earn 2,017 Festival Coins, and if we don't, we'll still get 217 FC. If your account is tied to the Pokémon Global Link, you'll earn double those amounts, win or lose.
[Via Serebii.net]
In March of this year, Rock Band underwent a significant business change as Harmonix dropped Mad Catz and signed PDP to co-publish the Rivals expansion. The co-publisher's most forward-facing function is to manufacture the peripherals, the plastic instruments that give Rock Band its signature real-world look.
PDP agreed to produce an extra piece of hardware, one that's significantly more niche and appeals to the most hardcore of Rock Band players. That was the wired legacy adapter, a $30 connector that makes it possible to use high-end electronic drum kits (when combined with the Rock Band 3 MIDI Pro-adapter) for more accurate playing. It's not a product that many people will have use for, but it's the kind of thing that has been fervently requested for a long time by the most serious drummers.
The wired legacy adapter released on November 25. As of December 19, PDP has told customers that it will manufacture no additional units. According to a post on reddit, a PDP representative sent the following email to someone who inquired about the product being sold out: "Hello Samuel, we apologize for the inconvenience. The Rock Band Legacy adapters will no longer be produced, as they were produced in limited quantity, per our agreement with Harmonix."
Predictably, the Rock Band community is full of upset people who suddenly find themselves unable to purchase an adapter that they thought would be permanently in-stock. Nobody's really sure who's to blame for the shortage, Harmonix or PDP. It'll likely stay that way, as the details of the co-publishing agreement will almost certainly never come to light.
While trying to pin fault to someone would be futile, it seems as if there was a crucial breakdown in messaging. A heads-up that they wouldn't be around long might've helped tremendously. But, it also might've sparked the scalper market, and made the adapter even more scarce for the people who actually wanted it. It's a tricky situation all around, and, unfortunately, it results in some of the best drummers not doing their best drumming.
Harmonix declined our request for comment on this matter.
News about the PDP Wired Legacy Adapter [reddit]
You've got to hand it to Marvelous. It knows its audience. The studio's latest effort, Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash, is a dramatic departure from its current fare (but with even more busty ladies) and now we finally have some details as to how it will play thanks to Gematsu.
Along with shooting enemies with water guns (which range from pistols, to dual-wielded pistols, sniper rifles, and something called a "shower gun"), players can "finish off" the girls by soaking their boobs and butts with the "Kunekune Finish" mechanic. This'll cause the girls to take various poses and certainly be something you'll want to watch alone in your room at two in the morning. Players will also have access to brief hand-to-hand combat (but nothing as advanced as the base Senran Kagura games) as well as a customizable card system.
Replacing the ninja arts from previous titles, players can equip up to six cards which include various skill and weapon buffs, as well as summoning little companion buddies to help in battle. It seems the card system will be the deepest mechanic Peach Beach Splash will have to offer, but if that's not your thing at least they all have cute images to gawk at.
OH, speaking of gawking, Marvelous also (helpfully?) uploaded a portrait of each of the girls in the cast along with some profile data with things like bust sizes, hobbies, blood types, voice actresses, and personalities. All the things you'll need to know before selecting your waifu. You can read the full list over at Gematsu.
Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash releases for PlayStation 4 in Japan on March 16 with a Western release expected later.
If you have yet to buy the Batman Arkham franchise, this new bundle of Batman Steam keys at Bundle Stars gets everything from the first three titles for only $8.99. It's a dirt-cheap way to bundle Batman: Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and Arkham Origins for the lowest price to date. Be sure to apply Bundle Star's latest code at checkout to get the best price.
This bundle is in contrast to the Steam Winter Sale, which has good prices on all these games but even with the discounts it would cost you over $30 to get everything in the bundle. Effectively you'll be saving at least $21 over buying these separately at Steam, or if you look at it from a full-price perspective, this bundle saves you $99.
Included in the Batman Arkham Bundle:
This bundle is valid for a limited time (a 48-hour deal) and only lasts through tomorrow, December 27.
We don't yet know much about Shiin, but it's coming to PlayStation Vita, and that alone warrants a quick mention. Well that, and the red-eyed rabbit. I hope that isn't just a part of this teaser. There's a creepy vibe to the whole thing, but as for how that directly translates to gameplay, I'm not sure.
While the PlayStation Japan channel posted this video, based on Shiin's website registration, it's believed to be a third-party title from Stranger of Sword City studio Experience Inc.
That might help clue us in to the genre, but then again, this could just as easily be something else.
[Via Gematsu]
Straight from the horse's mouth, we're getting a demo for Freedom Planet 2 very soon.
It's called "Sample Version," and will feature every playable character. What started life as a Sonic fangame now has a life of its own, and based on the viewcount of this one-day old trailer, there's already a decent amount of buzz behind it for a self-published indie release. Plus, it's only been one year (and a day!) since the sequel was even announced, so getting a demo this quick is pretty badass. If you're so inclined, it'll also be available at PAX South on January 27-29.
Freedom Planet 2 is being developed for PC (where the demo will presumably drop), and "Nintendo systems" (probably 3DS and Switch) in the future.
Galaxy Trail [Twitter]
My most fond memories of Yoshi usually involve flinging him over a chasm to survive in Super Mario World. But in this amazingly adorable clip from Nintendo promoting Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World, we clearly see he has other ideas.
The little guy has had quite the ride, debuting in one of the best platformers of all time (and my personal favorite 2D Mario game), and appearing in a number of great spinoffs like Yoshi's Cookie and Safari. I hope this 3DS port can recapture the magic of the Wii U original, but I don't see how they could screw up what basically seems like a straight port.
In other Poochy news, the official site is open now.
The Oculus Rift VR headset went on sale back in March, but it was only this month that the optional motion controllers arrived. Better late than never, though. In fact, if you already own the Rift, you're going to want to spend an extra $199 on the Oculus Touch: It's comfortable to use, works well as a game controller and allows for smooth, precise motion control. Also, there's already a robust selection of games that support it, with even more to come. As that score of 88 suggests, we have very few complaints, but if we could change one thing, we'd like to see a rechargeable battery in future iterations. Even so, having to periodically swap out the AA battery is a small trade-off for the experience you get.
Overwatch, I'm going to let you finish, but Hitman was one of the best games of all time! OK, well maybe not of all time, but as my personal favorite game of 2016 it got my vote for Destructoid's Game of the Year. While we're at it, the E3 reveal trailer is one of the best trailers for a video game I've ever seen and I still watch it from time to time. I'm tempted to say Hitman was a great "return to form" for the series, but it would be more accurate to say it is a wonderful evolution to adapt to the modern video game scene.
Many people felt that Absolution was an awful step in the wrong direction after the masterful Blood Money. While I did enjoy it and think it is not nearly as bad as many people make it out to be, it will definitely be seen as a tumble in the series' ever increasing quality now that we have hindsight. I say "ever increasing," but I'm still not quite sure if 2016's Hitman will be regarded better than Blood Money. Only time will tell. If season two is as good as season one or even better, it will be an easy choice.
If you happen to have a Japanese account ready to go on your Vita, you can jump in on the newly released portable demo for Valkyria Revolution, which joins the PS4 release that dropped just last week.
Revolution has been a slow-going development process, with rewrites and reworks for some time given poor fan feedback. Sega wanted to take the series into an action-oriented direction, but it seems like they took that concept too far, and have dialed it back a bit to incorporate the traditional tactical elements of the Valkyria series proper.
In the meantime, you can easily create a Japanese PSN account (well, it's easy on PS4, not so much on Vita if you don't want to swap memory cards) and try it out for yourself. It's out next month in Japan, and is slated for a second quarter release in the west.
Eternal Darkness will go down in history as one of the greatest GameCube games to grace the system, but any hope of a follow-up has been complicated by the fact that its developer, Silicon Knights, is in complete disarray.
So while we wait for whatever may come of that jumbled mess of a new project, we can hold out hope that the original will someday arrive as a remaster. Nintendo hasn't been as keen as Microsoft and Sony on that front, but this trademark could have revealed a Virtual Console play.
Among all of the other rumors that the Switch is getting a proper GameCube Virtual Console, this trademark filing is highly suspect, timing-wise. But given how much money those aforementioned HD remasters are making for developers worldwide, we could see one of those as well as Nintendo shifts their business model to sure things. Whatever the case, I wish we just had info on the Switch already.
Eternal Darkness [USPTO]
This was also sort of known roughly around launch, but given that the second Pokemon Sun and Moon guide was just dated, it's worth talking about.
Just in time for the National Pokedex, this second edition will go through the entire Alolan 'dex, providing movesets and abilities, and provide a post-game rundown. The original guide pretty much covered everything (including Zygarde cell spots), but failed to explicitly show Ultra Beast locations -- so I wouldn't say it's really necessary given how easy that questline is.
In all, that's $20 for the campaign guide and $20 for this postgame one if you want everything. But again, I think the original and some light online research will suffice. Splitting it into two like this instead of just putting the 'dex in (it has the list, just not a full breakdown) and one page on Ultra Beasts in the first book is a dick move.
Double Dragon is back, I guess. Ignoring titles like Super Double Dragon, Double Dragon V, and Double Dragon Neon, this game gets the Double Dragon IV title and takes place after Double Dragon II. Whatever you think it should be called, it's going to be available on PlayStation 4 and Steam for on January 20, 2017. It'll be 800 yen which is roughly seven US dollars.
Double Dragon Neon was neat modern realization of the series, and now that Arc System Works has taken the reigns one might think it would get some nice Guilty Gear style art or at least some sort of modern graphics, but they decided to go retro. By "retro" I don't mean the original arcade style graphics, but the NES 8-bit style instead. Sure it's a cheap game to make a quick buck, but I can't help but feel underwhelmed.
Many games that have a retro look nowadays also have a modern design and let you switch between them. Maybe it's unfair to expect everyone to do it, but games are still business and you need to adapt. There's nothing wrong with enjoying a nostalgia trip, but at least do the arcade style or include a more modern design. Something about this just seems lazy to me.
Over at the Japan Fanfest this past weekend, Square Enix gave us a little bit more info on Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood, the game's second expansion. First off the launch date -- June 20, 2017. That "secret" class that they revealed in Las Vegas is now officially the Red Mage, and will wield both black and white magic as well as melee abilities.
As always in the MMO field things could change, but pre-orders are set to go live on January 24, with a collector's edition in tow. The expansion will also see the return of Nobuo Uematsu, who will reveal the game's title track in February. As for other little tidbits, it'll have swimming (in specific bodies of water), a new beast tribe, a unique Primal (Summon/Aeon), and an Ivalice-like raid.
That all sounds dope! These come at the perfect time, once all the previous content starts to wear its welcome out.
One of the first entries in your 2017 calendar should be the release date of a 30th Anniversary entry in the Double Dragon series. Arc System Works acquired the rights to the series last year, and just announced that Double Dragon 4 will be released January 30th on the PS4 and Steam platforms. Despite being the first new update since 2012's Double Dragon Neon release, its trailer flashes the classic side-scrolling beat 'em up action this series has been known for since it started as a coin-op in 1987.
Via: Wario 64 (Twitter)
Source: Arc System Works (YouTube)
The PlayStation VR just got some additional content via the recently announced app launch by Jaunt. The platform will have instant access to 150 cinematic titles from the startup. The app includes videos like the award-winning animation Invasion, CBS' JPL Mars 2020, Shaq Goes to Cuba, Zombie Purge and the Pure McCartney Experience from the former Beatle.
Source: Jaunt
