News:: Crawl's Early Access exit and console debut are set for April 11

With the news that Crawl is nearing a full launch on April 11, 2017, I'm left wondering if I had even realized, until just now, that Powerhoof was still doing its dungeon-based friend-slaying thing on Steam Early Access. Well, either way, not much longer! Along with the final release of the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions, Crawl is also coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on the same day.

The pitch, eternally retold: this is a dungeon-crawler romp with you competing against your local friends (or the AI). Sometimes, you're fighting and leveling as the would-be hero, but the rest of the time, you're in control of nasty monsters and traps hellbent on killing the no-good do-gooder.

The game may not seem like your jam. That's fine! I'd still implore you to catch this trailer for reasons best left unspoiled, other than to say these developers have a great sense of humor about them.

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News:: Canceled arcade fighter Primal Rage II is now available online

Primal Rage is the one series I can barely remember playing as a kid (since it released in 1994), but had all of the toys. Atari had a sequel in the works for a planned 1996 release before shelving the project in 1995. Now, twenty years later, it's available in a fully playable emulator. While there are a few bugs and kinks to work out, naturally, the gameplay is all there. It hadn't been in a playable state yet, but I'm glad someone out there was working on it for so long. 

The stop motion fighter captured my imagination with apes fighting dinos, and Primal Rage II's art style would've improved on the series greatly. If you want to see it in action, The Super Best Friends recently spent some time with the game and it definitely looks like something from the 90s. 

You can find the Primal Rage II emulator here. 

[via Kotaku] 

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News:: These are the new PvP arenas for Dark Souls III

Even if you aren't keen on the idea of more player-versus-player arenas in Dark Souls III, let this pair of videos serve as a reminder that, oh yeah, the second and final DLC for the game isn't far off.

The Ringed City is out on March 28, and there will soon be two new dedicated PvP arenas in Undead Match. There's Dragon Ruins, which draws from the main game's Archdragon Peak, and also Grand Roof, which should look awfully familiar if you've made the trek to the top of Lothric Castle before.

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News:: Ryuji Yamazaki snakes his way into King of Fighters XIV

Plenty of the King of Fighters XIV fans (myself included) were chomping at the bit for a possible Yamazaki roster addition as soon as DLC characters were announced, and with Whip confirmed as the first character, luckily Yamazaki was announced soon after. 

It might just be my overall Yama-bias, but he's looking like a really good addition. His Drill super has a great angle, his animations are crisp (especially his snake arm), and his new model has a lot of personality. His Climax Cancel? Grabbing pieces of the background and nailing his opponents over the head with them. The tuna's a personal favorite.

Yamazaki's release date has yet to be confirmed.

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News:: Street Fighter V getting a balance update in April

Street Fighter V may have had its problems at launch, but it's been slowly evolving the past year to a pretty entertaining fighter. It's still got a ways to go, unfortunately, but Capcom's been paying attention. Even if Cammy is still getting buffed. 

Regardless. a new balance patch is coming for Season 2 toward the end of April, according to Capcom-Unity. It may be a bit too late for the start of their Pro-Tour this year, but there's still time to practice before the tournament circuit really gets going. 

Some highlights of the balance patch include the increase of charge frames (from six to ten, which means Chun-Li is going to have a bad time), Cammy has her damn air throw back, Urien is slightly less of a powerhouse than he was when Season 2 initially launched (his life bar has gone down just a bit), you can't jump out of throws anymore, "Shoryuken" type attacks regained their invincibility and Gief da' Great got some new moves. 

Head over to Capcom-Unity to read the full list of patch details. 

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News:: Firestorm's looking less hot in full Injustice 2 trailer

Revealed a couple of days ago on Austin Creed's UpUpDownDown YouTube channel, Firestorm has finally gotten a full Injustice 2 reveal trailer. Along with some looks at Green Arrow, we get a better idea of how Firestorm's going to play. Rather than be as annoyingly projectile heavy as he seemed in his initial reveal, or utilize any of his alchemic powers from the comics, Firestorm seems to be a rushdown/zoning type of character. 

Which means he's going to be good at keeping opponents far away, but still have some ways to deal with opponents up close. As noted in the comments for the last article, his super is also underwhelming. I'm not sure who's decision it was to make the sequel's supers less interesting to watch than the first game (the main theory seems to be a want to appeal to the competitive scene), but this is probably going to be a bad move in the long run. 

We'll have to see how the rest of the cast holds up when Injustice 2 releases May 16th on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One

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News:: Blaster Master Zero now supports the Switch Pro Controller

It's disappointing that not all Nintendo Switch games (within reason) support the Pro Controller.

Steep price tag aside, it's a great-feeling gamepad, and I want to use it anywhere and everywhere I can with the Switch. It makes sense that something like Voez, a touch-only rhythm game, wouldn't play nice with the device. But Blaster Master Zero? Really? That came as an unpleasant surprise.

At least in this specific case, we didn't have to wait too long for support to arrive. Inti Creates has patched Blaster Master Zero to work with the Pro Controller, so if you've been waiting to play with the superior d-pad, you're in the clear. Look for "version 1.1" on the game's start screen.

As far as I can tell, co-op still only works with two Joy-Con controllers held sideways. Which, drat.

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News:: Someone already nabbed the reward for getting all 900 of Zelda's Korok seeds

Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a huge game. There's a colossal conflict, a giant open world, a tremendous amount of side activity -- it's impressive in both its scale and scope. There's one task that stands out as significantly more daunting than the rest, though.

There are 900 Korok seeds to collect in Breath of the Wild. They're scattered around the land, and are found by completing little environmental puzzles. A few early ones are gathered by diving into the water off a particularly inviting cliff, and by lifting rocks that are sitting ominously all by themselves. It gets more complicated. There are 900, after all.

Getting the Korok seeds is a reward unto itself. They can be exchanged for additional inventory space, a luxury that Breath of the Wild's item system makes extremely appealing. But, someone went and found all 900 of the dang things, and that's probably more inventory slots than even the most dedicated Zelda players need.

As user xFateAwaitsx detailed on reddit (and as reported by Kotaku), there's a unique reward for finding all Korok seeds. Read no further if you're sensitive to spoilers. Carry on if you've already accepted that there's no way you're ever going to set out to nab all 900 of these. Here's a buffer picture between this paragraph and the spoilers:

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News:: Furi's new boss fight DLC is out today alongside a PS4 patch

There's a reason to revisit the boss fight gauntlet Furi this week if you're on PC or PlayStation 4, as those versions of the game have gotten a new boss, The Flame, who was previously only accessible to Xbox One players. He's a part of the One More Fight DLC, out today for $3.99.

The Game Bakers has also issued a patch for Furi on PS4 that's of particular note:

• Alternate control schemes for the gamepad
• Render quality options (may improve performances)
• HUD position option (if your HUD is vertically cropped on your display)
• Retweak for Promenade difficulty mode (added more variety to the fights)
• Slight nerf for The Burst and The Line fights (in Furi difficulty story mode only – NOT in Speedrun mode)
• Added hint for automove on paths in story mode
• Fixed several bugs

I can already feel my old wounds reopening!

Furi DLC One More Fight + big patch on PS4 out today [The Game Bakers]

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News:: Trove, a blocky free-to-play MMO, is out on PS4 and Xbox One

Trion Worlds tested the waters in 2015 on PC, and they're ready to bring Trove out into the console world this week. The game is now live on PS4 and Xbox One as a free-to-play MMO with 14 classes to play around with, and even though it's heavily aimed at kids, it's worth messing around with.

Free-to-play has had a weird history on consoles, with Microsoft refusing the practice unless you have Xbox Live Gold (something many developers have taken issue with), a hole Sony saw to capitalize on with PS+. I wonder how Nintendo will handle it on the Switch if any big names come through? They need to start thinking about partnerships with lucrative F2P mobile developers sooner than later.

[Image source]

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News:: Japan likes shooters too; Ghost Recon Wildlands tops sales charts

Well OK, it only had to beat out the 900 billionth Kingdom Hearts re-release, but selling nearly 90,000 copies to top the Japanese sales charts in its opening week is impressive enough. I wonder if would've sold as as well if Japanese customers had been forced to watch that painful E3 demo with cringe-inducing player acting.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Horizon: Zero Dawn, 1-2-Switch, and NieR: Automata continue to have strong showings, rounding out the top six. The Nintendo Switch had a slightly larger drop from first to second week than both the Wii and Wii U, but 60,000+ isn't too shabby.

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News:: Drawn to Death will be among April's PlayStation Plus lineup

If you've ever once thought Drawn to Death looked like something that would do well to come out of the gate as a free-with-PlayStation-Plus game to help bolster its multiplayer community, I'm right there with you. And so are David Jaffe and co., apparently! The notebook doodle-style arena shooter/brawler title is out on April 4, 2017, and it'll be a part of the PS Plus lineup for that month.

You might've seen Drawn to Death a couple years back. Here's a more recent look.

The standout quote, at least to my mind: "It's less about dropping you into sort of just a chaotic blender of action," explains Jaffe, "and instead saying 'We want smart players, we wanna create a game that really is rewarding you for thinking and being great with reflexes at the same time.'"

Drawn To Death is Free for PS Plus Members This April [PlayStation Blog]

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News:: Bobby Throne: 'As you hold the Ghost Coin in your hand, you can feel your soul wrap around it'

The Bobby Throne Saves The World booth at PAX East is adorned with free coins and pamphlets, all necessary marketing materials to help spread Bobby's important message. A boy who has approached the booth stands a less than a foot away from a large television. He's looking at Bobby, who is in the midst of preaching to his congregation. What makes Bobby different than most televangelists is that he can interact both with his live audience, and the people watching him on TV from the comfort of their own home, with the same level of intimacy. He's also a character in a virtual reality game, but we'll get to that later.

The boy, staring at Bobby and his flock on the other side of the screen, asks "Are you gay?" Bobby, not missing a beat, responds "It doesn't even matter. What matters is the Coin, and the answers it can reveal. I may be on this side of the Coin now, and you little brother may be on the other side, but remember, it's a thin wall that divides us. Through my teachings, you may someday harness the power of the Coin, flip it and reverse it. Take solace in that, my son." The boy laughs.

From where I stand, it's hard to tell who has the upper hand here, and which one is having more fun, the kid who thinks he's screwing with a virtual televangelist, or the virtual televangelist who just may have found new follower.

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News:: NVIDIA releases a tool to benchmark your VR setup

If you've ever wanted to make sure that your PC's virtual reality setup is running as well as it possibly can, you now have the software you need. NVIDIA has released its promised FCAT VR tool, which can check for dropped or synthesized frames, warp misses and other signs that a VR title isn't running smoothly. It'll even show you how a VR program runs at different detail levels, so you'll know if you need to tone down the graphics setting to get optimal performance.

Source: GeForce

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News:: Toukiden 2's demo is out now in the US, has carryover capabilities

If you didn't get a chance to create or access your Japanese PSN account to dig into Toukiden 2, now is your shot since it's even easier to do.

The demo is up in North America, and is coming to Europe on March 17. Like many Koei Tecmo games it's referred to as a "carryover demo," so you can play it and transfer your save over if you opt for the full version eventually. It clocks in at 7.1GB on PS4, and 1.4GB on the Vita.

Or, if you prefer to not actually play it, you can watch the intro below. Our review will be coming within the next week or so, as the full US release is March 21.

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News:: Cancelled '90s arcade fighter 'Primal Rage II' released online

Forget Tekken 7, 2017's hottest new fighting game has just arrived - only it's 22 years later than originally expected. After being cancelled in 1995, Kotaku reports that Atari's long-lost Primal Rage II has found its way onto the internet. Downloading an emulator will allow 90's fighting fans to dive straight into a competent build of the ill-fated beat 'em up. While some menus are still incomplete and it has its fair share of bugs, players will find that the dino-brawling itself works.

Source: Kotaku

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News:: Ape Out will put a smile on your face in these dark times

When I say that Ape Out is a fun little game, I'm not being insulting. The first couple months of 2017 have smothered players with boundless open world games like Nier: Automata, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, or Ghost Recon Wildlands. When the horizon (pff) looks to be more of the same, it's nice to look ahead and see a game about a big orange ape powderizing guards.

It's an amusing trifle, but that's no bad thing! It's nice to have a popcorn indie game on the release calendar. For a few pleasant hours, you don't have to worry about the storm clouds that follow you around like you're Eeyore, you can just enjoy the visceral, immediate pleasures you get from whipping a suicide bomber into a crowd of his buddies and turning the whole lot into paste.

Right now, based on my PAX East 2017 demo, Ape Out absolutely fits that niche. It plays very well, serving as a prime example of how responsive controls often make the difference between success and yet another restart. To be fair, that just comes down to everyone's favorite old nebulous term "polish" -- nothing about Ape Out is particularly revolutionary, but it's still a well-made hoot.

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News:: Bloodborne's Lady Maria is getting a $600 Japan-exclusive statue

Even if she's a character from the lone DLC for Bloodborne, Lady Maria pops up quite a bit in discussions and random artwork for the game. She's recognizable, is what I'm saying, and is probably easier to craft into a statue than a giant lightning monster. That statue, mind, is $600 (69,000 yen), and exclusive to Japan.

Wait, can't you just import it? Well, no, there's no overseas shipping option available, so officially (barring a friend buying it and sending it to you, or scalping) you're out of luck.

Bloodborne [Prime 1 Studio]

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News:: SteamWorld Dig 2 dev: 'This was the game everyone wanted to work on'

Image and Form had been teasing a new Steamworld game for months before finally announcing SteamWorld Dig 2. All that teasing turned out to be a bait and switch. SteamWorld Quest, the game they had soft announced, was a red herring. The next chapter in the series was actually SteamWorld Dig 2, the sequel to their surprise hit from 2013.

So was SteamWorld Quest ever a real game? They won't tell, but Image and Form's Marco Podda did let me know that when their studio had the choice to work on one of two prospective projects, "This was the game [Dig 2] that everyone wanted to work on. The original means so much to us, and there is so much we still wanted to do with it that we didn't have the chance to before."

The SteamWorld Dig 2 demo was painfully short, but it only took a few minutes to see how far the series had come since 2013. Dorothy, the shop keeper from the original game, is now the lead. She plays much like her predecessor, but with more fluid animations and detailed artwork. She also marks a return to the "big head, little body" look, a departure from the more elongated proportions of the characters seen in the SteamWorld Heist, the most recent game in the franchise.

Marco told me that "the big head, little body proportions are important for Dig 2, as they allow the character to be the exact same size as the blocks of dirt and rock you dig through. The more adult looking characters in Heist were fitting for that game, as they made headshots tougher, and were generally more fitting for a game where gunplay is the main mechanic. But don't think that because the robots are cuter in Dig 2 that the game is any less serious, or that the artwork was any less labored over, than what you saw in Heist."

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News:: Yoko Taro says he'll do a Drakengard remaster collection if Square Enix pays for it

Drakengard is a wonderful, weird series that thrust Yoko Taro, also known as "that guy that wears the moon on this head" into the limelight. He directed the first game and from there, was given a host of projects (in different capacities) that took place inside the same universe, including two Drakengard follow-ups and two NieR titles. He's the face of the franchise, and at PAX East, he noted that he was open to giving us a Drakengard collection at some point.

Kicking off with the proviso that no NieR: Automata DLC was coming because they didn't have the budget, he did say that if Square Enix picked up the bill, they'd remaster and re-release all three Drakengard games as a collection. Although he didn't specify this, if it took off, it could easily lead to a remaster of the original NieR.

Don't get your hopes up, but at least it's on the radar right now, and likely in Square Enix's hands.

NieR [Facebook]

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News:: Capcom announces 'Disney Afternoon Collection' with six 1080p retro classics

Well, this was unexpected! We know Capcom is focusing a lot on remasters and re-releases, but six NES classics have been dredged up and risen from their graves for a PC, PS4, and Xbox One collection.

That list includes Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 1 +2, DuckTales 1+2, Darkwing Duck, and TaleSpin. They'll sport 1080p HD visuals, boss rush, and time attack modes. There's also a "rewind" feature that lets you go back in time shortly for beginners, or folks who didn't grow up with retro platformers.

The biggest takeaway from this for me? It's easily the re-packaging of Rescue Rangers 2 and DuckTales 2, two games that were released at the tail-end of the NES' lifecycle, and were barely played even back in the day. The "Disney Afternoon Collection" is out on April 18 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One for $19.99. Since Nintendo still charges $5 for NES ROMs (that have no added features), it's cheaper than the Virtual Console.

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News:: Wander the cheery world of Yonder

Probably the most cheerful game I played all PAX (maybe of all time?) is Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles -- a bright, happy Harvest Moon meets Windwaker style game that goes beyond traditional farming simulation. 

In Yonder, your customizable character washes up on the shores of a delightfully cute village and is immediately put to work collecting materials and running quests across the island of Gemea. Although there's no combat, there's plenty of quests to fulfill and traditional simulator activities to partake in such as farming and fishing along with non-traditional activities like collecting cats.

The landscape in Gemea is vast and contains eight distinct regions -- just in the starting area alone I was able to discover a few villages, a seaport, a bunch of fishing areas, and a farm. Exploration is a critical element of the gameplay and discovering new areas, quests, and crafting materials makes it more expansive than a traditional farming simulator. For example, various materials can be found and harvested in all sorts of places, and items and collectables are hidden throughout the landscapes.

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News:: Pokemon Sun and Moon is getting an exclusive Ash Pikachu distribution

Japan is having a particularly insidious distribution event for Pokemon coming up, and it involves pre-ordering tickets for an upcoming film to get a special creature. That creature is an adorable Ash Pikachu, but there's a massive catch involved.

By pre-ordering tickets during specific times, you'll get certain colored hats with different abilities. The promotion runs from April 15 to October 9, with repeated dates in-between, so you'll have a few chances to get the one you want. And you know some people are going to try to get them all.

You thought GameStop promotions were bad! But really, if/when it comes west, I hope it's just a quick download from the main menu.

Pokemon Sun and Moon [Serebii]

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News:: Snack World begins its quest for domination in April

Level 5 is riding high with Yo-Kai Watch, at least in Japan, where it made a killing for them in the gaming, anime, and toy industry. They're hoping to repeat that success with Snack World, a show that looks like it could get a bigger western following than Yo-Kai Watch with its Adventure Time-esque premise.

You'll be able to see the show, that precedes the 3DS game, soon enough too as it arrives in Japan on April 13, airing on BS Japan at 7:25 PM JST on Thursdays. The teasers have all been cute enough, and the animation style looks similar to the western hit cartoon Sonic Boom, so maybe they're onto something here.

Snack World [Level 5]

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News:: The Morning After: Wednesday, March 15 2017

Hey, good morning!

Welcome to Wednesday. Remember all those big, beautiful TVs from CES back in early January? Well, we have prices for both Sony and Samsung's newest screens. And if you can afford a $5 OLED TV, how about a $1,650 smartwatch? Welcome to the big-spender edition of The Morning After.

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