The Secret World's mix of supernatural horror and real world settings made it a cult hit with MMO fans, but the game's developers are now gearing up to bring even more players into fold on the game's 10-year anniversary. The rebooted, free-to-play "shared-world action RPG" version of the game, now titled Secret World Legends, goes live on Steam on June 26th.
Source: Secret World Legends
BioWare's new intellectual property is seemingly going to remain elusive for some time to come. The vaguely-talked-about project, which was previously described as an action-adventure game that'll "bring players together in exciting ways," is no longer on track for release by the end of March 2018.
As relayed by Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson today in an earnings call, BioWare's unnamed new IP is now scheduled for EA's fiscal year 2019, meaning it will launch between April 2018 and March 2019. Which, looking at how Mass Effect: Andromeda turned out, that's assuredly for the best.
"We're very pleased with the progress of our new action IP from BioWare," said Wilson, as reported by Polygon. "The design is stunning. Gameplay mechanics are excellent, and the action will be exhilarating. The game is built around a live service, and through our creative process, we decided to add more to the disruptive new social design for our players."
The game has been pushed back, at least in part, "to further develop the live service component," according to EA CFO Blake Jorgensen. I imagine we'll get a few info scraps out of E3 next month.
BioWare's new game delayed past March 2018 [Polygon]
Polybius is another hectic arcade shooter from Jeff Minter, albeit one designed with virtual reality in mind, and I'm not so sure I can handle his brand of trance-inducing madness while I'm strapped in. It's playable on a standard PS4 without PlayStation VR, but that seems like a lesser experience.
If you think you're up for it either way, the game released earlier today on PlayStation Network. Last we had heard, Polybius was "nearly done," and now here it is, ready and waiting. It's priced at $15.49, with one early-impressions post from reddit user shimbo00 describing it as follows:
"Mix Tempest with Tron. Add some Death Star trench run. A sprinkle of Mario Kart. A dash of Space Invaders. Throw in some cool music and retro sound effects. Add a touch of psychedelic drugs. That is what Polybius is like. When a game makes you say WTF under your breath while playing, it's a wonderful thing."
The screenshots might as well be indecipherable, so to get at least some sense of what this thing looks like, here's a trailer from last year. It's a Minter production all right.
And because I'm contractually obligated to also mention Polybius was an old urban legend (which this new game has leveraged for publicity), here's some further reading.
PlayStation [Twitter]
This year's Rocket League Championship Series regional tournament carried a little more importance than usual. In the first two seasons, the regionals served as a way to determine which teams from North America and Europe would go to the grand finals and how they'd be seeded. For Season 3, there was a guaranteed spot in Season 4 at stake too.
Psyonix has changed the format of the regionals to include this critical caveat: The two teams to make it to the finals would auto-qualify for the next RLCS. This means that they don't have to go through the open qualifiers that all the other squads do. The open qualifiers have proved troublesome in the past; this year, Iris missed the cut and many people consider them to be one of the best teams in the world.
At last weekend's North American regional, team Atelier (whose core players are Matt, Sizz, and Turtle) was playing for more than just a bid in the world championships and a spot in the next RLCS. In all probability, it was playing for a sponsorship too. Atelier is one of the best unsigned teams out there and everyone kind of assumed that them making the top two would lead to a sponsor picking them up. After all, they'd be clear of the uncertainty that their new signing wouldn't even make the tournament for Season 4.
After a bye in the quarterfinals, Atelier downed Denial eSports 4 games to 1 to clinch a spot in the finals. Even the commentators acknowledged how the victory meant a little bit more to Atelier. They were eventually swept by NRG in the finals, meaning that they missed out on a bit more prize money. But, everyone assumed it meant a sponsorship was likely imminent.
Three weeks ahead of the RLCS grand finals in Los Angeles, that prediction came true. Las Vegas-based Rogue decided to dip its toes into the Rocket League waters. Rogue added the Atelier players to its stable of professional teams that already spanned Overwatch, Call of Duty, H1Z1, Vainglory, and CS:GO. They were signed, in all likelihood, because they'd be at Season 3's RLCS and because they're guaranteed to play in Season 4 too.
We reached out to Psyonix about the signing, and the developer confirmed to Destructoid that the team is allowed to compete under whichever name it wants during RLCS. The official rules state that "players or teams may not change their usernames or in-game names without approval from tournament organizers." It seems Psyonix is lenient enough to let them have their day in the sun. Atelier hasn't yet said which name it's using during the grand finals, but it'll most likely be Rogue -- and it's mostly due to what they accomplished during regionals and an alteration to the RLCS format.
@GoingRogueGG [Twitter]
Hollywood made a movie based on Battleship -- of "You sunk my battleship!" fame -- and still made $300 million at the box office (against a $200 million budget), so it's hard to be surprised at absolutely anything that comes out of billion dollar movie studios.
Including a live-action film based on the video game Contra, courtesy of China.
"In 1988, a huge meteorite lands on an uninhabited island in the South China Sea. Chen Qiang and Li Zhiyong investigate but come up empty handed. 29 years later, Chen sends commandos Bill and Lance into a combat mission there to neutralize the villainous Red Falcon Organization, but end up facing a different enemy altogether."
Sure! Whatever! Neither the teaser nor poster necessarily represent the final product, which you'll have to wait until 2019 to watch ironically.
Classic 1987 Arcade Game ‘Contra’ Set To Become Movie [China Film Insider]
An 11-year-old in Florida got a surprise from GameStop with his used copy of Grand Theft Auto V: a bag of meth.
Luckily, according to a Facebook post, the boy brought the bag to his mother, Kayla McAllister, who then called the police.
Today i took my son to gamestop in Tallahassee to trade in games and get some new ones. When he opened the booklet inside one of the pre owned games he ( MY ELEVEN YEAR OLD SON!!!!!!!) found this. A baggie of fucking meth! Clearly the game was not properly checked when it was traded in and because of the carelessness i could have lost a child. Thankfully He brought it right to us and said what is this?
Kotaku obtained the police report filed with the Gadsden County Sheriff's Office that confirms that the little baggie tested positive for six grams of methamphetamine. The drug posed an obvious risk to the 11-year-old, as well as his 3-year-old sister. McAllister said GameStop called to offer a replacement game, which she refused, more upset that a GameStop accidentally gave an 11-year-old meth for the second time in less than a year.
GameStop issued a hilariously insufficient statement in response:
"We are disappointed to hear about the experience one of our customers recently had when purchasing a pre-owned video game from one of our local Tallahassee, Florida stores. We work diligently to ensure the quality of our pre-owned items are like new. Unfortunately, in this circumstance our thorough process fell short. We are extremely concerned that this incident occurred, and are working with the local police department to support them in their investigation."
The experience one of our customers recently had!
Eleven-Year-Old Gets Used Copy Of GTA V, Finds Bag Of Meth [Update] [Kotaku]
A pair of publisher sales popped up on PlayStation Network this week -- one for Santa Monica Studios, the other for Ubisoft, both lasting until Tuesday morning. You into The Order: 1886 for four bucks?
Especially for the Ubisoft portion of the sale, many of these games are known quantities at this point, with discounted prices that may or may not finally sway you to action. But for the Santa Monica lineup, I'll say this much: PlayStation VR owners should consider Bound. It'll impress you.
When I think back on my time spent with Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, I feel a total sense of joy (except for clearing Mouse-Man's secret room -- that place almost broke me). It's everything I'd want out of a remake, and despite never playing the original game back when it was new, I still had a great time. The Dragon's Trap holds up in 2017, design-wise, and the new visuals are gorgeous.
That's all to say that even though this is digital game, it wouldn't be unheard of to want a physical copy for your collection. Limited Run Games is planning exactly that for PlayStation 4 this summer.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap physical PlayStation 4 disc coming this Summer to https://t.co/rZI6STrUid! Collector's and standard editions. http://pic.twitter.com/ftBzsrle1g
— Limited Run Games (@LimitedRunGames) May 9, 2017
If I double dip, it'll likely be to get the Switch version. But this sounds nice too!
Limited Run Games [Twitter]
T-Mobile is in the middle of making a serious play to be the "fun" mobile service provider. Every week it holds T-Mobile Tuesdays, a promotion for subscribers where they can nab free or discounted offers and enter contests. One of today's deals appeals to our core demographic.
Anyone who is a T-Mobile subscriber can get a free one-night video game rental at Redbox. The details are a bit fuzzy (mostly because I'm a proud Verizon user) but it seems like you have to download the app (iOS, Android) and claim the offer by the end of the day. Then, you have until the end of May 15 to actually redeem it at a Redbox.
Anyway, just a quick PSA that will apply to a few of you. Maybe this will give you a reason to go check out a game you've been hesitant about. I've heard Prey is surprisingly good. But all you Cricket and Boost users will have to pony up the three bucks to find out.
Prizes [T-Mobile Tuesdays]
The little indie fighter that could, Skullgirls, is coming to mobile devices on May 25. Why this version exists is a little beyond me, but more people playing the underappreciated gem is a good thing. There won't be any exclusive features in this version, apart from touch based controls I would assume.
As to what mobile platforms, neither Game Informer nor the dev blog state any. The game will be launching in North America, South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines, so you're bound to be able to actually buy it. There isn't a price mentioned, but the regular version goes for $9.99 on PC, so I would guess that. The dev blog does say that other characters will be introduced through updates, so I doubt this is a port of 2nd Encore.
Skullgirls Mobile Arrives May 25 [Game Informer]
I asked last week if you'd be down for a Deadly Premonition board game, and it looks like plenty of fans are, even if it means going through Kickstarter first. We're headed for Greenvale!
Officially unveiled this week by Rising Star Games, the project is a two- to four-person card game "inspired by Deadly Premonition's delivery of big reveals, plot twists, and consequential moments." You'll play as agents working to gather evidence, protect innocent Greenvale residents, and incriminate your suspects. The twist -- there's always a twist -- is that one of you is the hidden killer.
That's what the game builds up to. "Once all your suspects have been cleared of guilt and you have proven yourself to be a trusted detective, you can begin to go on the offense to identify which player is the hidden killer by extracting information from incriminated suspects on their board."
According to the Kickstarter pitch, this all began "as just an idea between colleagues," eventually leading to a proposal for Deadly Premonition creator Swery, who is now at his own studio, White Owls.
With $31,000 raised at the time of writing, the game is well on its way to meeting and exceeding its $50,000 funding goal. Currently listed stretch goals include things like more action cards and weather conditions and, notably, a "new agent character from Swery" at the $125,000 level.
Deadly Premonition: The Board Game [Kickstarter]
Indie developer and publisher tinyBuild is the subject of the newest Humble Bundle, as it brings a good number of its quirky but often-overlooked games to the bargain bin. There are 11 titles available across four price tiers. Let's get into it.
At the "Pay what you want" (but a minimum of $1) level, buyers will Divide by Sheep, Road to Ballhalla, the remaster of No Time to Explain, and Speedrunners. For those willing to chip in more than the minimum (which is $7.11 at time of writing), that'll add Party Hard, The Final Station, ClusterTruck, Early Access title Guts and Glory, and the deluxe edition of Punch Club.
The solid stream of games slows down a bit at the $15 level, as that adds Final Station add-on The Only Traitor and Early Access title Streets of Rogue. The last tier is a hefty bump; for $40, you get everything else and a Hello Neighbor pre-order. Hello Neighbor currently sells for $30.
Humble tinyBuild Bundle [Humble Bundle]
Electronic Arts isn't waiting until E3 to begin dishing out a few Need for Speed details.
This year's installment, once again developed by Ghost Games, is focusing on customization ("it will play as strong a role as ever") and an open-ended world, including cop chases ("you're going to want a world that not only looks beautiful, but offers you the space in which to do the things you want").
Oh, and this crucial detail: "you will be able to play through a single-player experience completely offline. Before you ask, and we know you will, this does mean you will be able to pause the game."
"To say that [always online] is a topic you're passionate about would be an understatement, and whenever there's a topic that gathers as much attention and feedback from you as this did, we take note," the studio wrote in a blog post.
The online requirement in Need for Speed (2015) was poorly received, so it makes sense EA would want this we-learned-our-lesson news to be one of the first talking points. Sharing that now, ahead of E3, will help keep it from getting lost in the June news shuffle. It's a start, but I'll need to hear more.
Need for Speed 2017: Paying it Back [Need for Speed]
The sales number are in for Japan from April 24-30, 2017. Typically these release on Wednesday, but last week was Golden Week, a series of holidays smushed together. That big holiday is why these numbers are a little delayed (and also incidentally why I've been out a bit). Anywho let's look at what Japanese gamers picked up to dive into for the long holiday.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe kicked the door in with over 250,000 sales despite being mostly a port, which is a big reason Nintendo Switch sales surged from around 45,000 per week to over 76,000 leading up to Golden Week.
The ultra-sleek isometric shooter, Tokyo 42, is set to release on PC and Xbox One on May 31. Developer Mode 7 Games have also announced that the PlayStation 4 version will launch in Mid-July.
Accompanying the release date announcement is a super short trailer. In 4.2 seconds, a series of flashing images leap across the screen, effectively serving as the world's most efficient elevator pitch for Tokyo 42.
I'll just take a second to pour one out for Roger. Would a Fosters be appropriate? I don't know, nothing seems right, he should have been included -- I mean, we almost missed out on Lucky Chloe as it is!
So, sans Roger, you can peruse the below character trailer for Tekken 7 and get a feel for who's in. The usual suspects (Paul, Law, Jin) are obvious, but you should be able to find someone you like in the roughly 40 character roster that will drop in the console version. For those who haven't been keeping up in terms of fighters new to Tekken Akuma is in, as is Claudio, Gigas, Jack-7, Josie, Katarina, Lucky Chloe, Master Raven, and Shaheen.
I'm planning on giving Akuma a go day one along with my typical main, Yoshimitsu.
Alright kids, ready for a tale of weird localization? You already know that instead of the original Super Mario Bros. 2, we got a reskinned Yume Koujou: Doki Doki Panic, only getting the real game much later.
Unlike Super Mario Bros. 2, we got the real Castle of Shikigami game back in 2003, but only mostly. It was branded as Mobile Light Force 2, a sequel to Mobile Light Force, and had all the story stripped out. The first Mobile Light Force is an arcade shoot-'em-up originally titled Gunbird, another Japanese arcade title completely unrelated to Castle of Shikigami. But then we got Castle of Shikigami 2 in tact, but the voice acting quality is legendary.
When you go to buy a digital game on Nintendo's Wii U or 3DS consoles, you only have to enter your payment information once. The systems store your credit card number so you can make your next purchase without having to type that string of digits in each time. Nintendo's hot new mobile/TV-based Switch, however, did not have this same ability. Thankfully, the gaming company has tweaked the Switch eShop today with the feature, making it even easier to spend all your money on digital downloads.
Via: Polygon
The pieces are slowly starting to come together, like a fractured memory recovered in the Animus. Ubisoft hasn't made mention of when it plans to reveal this year's Assassin's Creed, so the internet at-large has decided to do it for the publisher.
This morning, a reddit user posted the first off-screen image of the next Assassin's Creed from a burner account. The picture (which can be seen below) features the playable character navigating a small ship, and he has a shield and bow and arrow on his back. The mission status is "Assassinate the Crocodile."
Lending weight to the image is Eurogamer, who reports that it has received three confirmations from separate sources who all say it's legitimate. Those same sources corroborate yesterday's leak that the game will be titled Assassin's Creed: Origins.
It's just a matter of time now until Ubisoft speaks up. The cat's already out of the bag, after all. For what it's worth, these were the reveal dates for recent Assassin's Creed games: May 12 (Syndicate), March 21 (Unity), August 5 (Rogue), and March 4 (Black Flag). Those are kind of all over the place, meaning that Ubisoft hasn't really fallen into a marketing routine of announcing at the same time each year. But, we can still probably expect to officially hear about Origins sooner rather than later.
Ugh fuck it.. Here it is, enjoy: Your first look at Assassin's Creed: Origins [reddit via Eurogamer]
Microsoft's Build conference isn't just about giving developers the tools they need to write apps or create Windows-friendly hardware -- it's also Microsoft's chance to outline its vision of the future. What software and devices will matter in the months (or even years) ahead? And this time around, there's no shortage of new developments to discuss: Windows updates, the Cortana AI assistant, HoloLens, partner hardware and even a chance at new Surface gear. It's not necessarily clear what's likely to show up, but don't worry -- that's what we're here to sort out. We've rounded up some of the most promising leaks, rumors and logical predictions to give you a sense of what to expect when Build 2017 kicks off May 10th.
I've been saying since its launch that King of Fighters XIV deserves more respect. Sure, visually it looks ugly as sin, especially compared to the beautiful Guilty Gear Xrd, but it plays well, it has a massive roster, and shipped with an arcade mode (heyo).
Well thankfully it's breaking the chains of being stuck on the PS4, as SNK has announced that the game is coming to Steam..."this May." Wait, that's this month! Yep, apparently pre-orders and a closed beta are planned for later this month, which doesn't leave much time for the beta to actually play out if it's still arriving by the end of May.
Lately I've been playing Rock/Terry/Joe to some success, and I think I'm going to just stick with PS4. That said, I'm eager to try out the PC version and I hope it finds a decent community (and shows well at EVO this year).
SNK [Twitter]
Seeing the Dissidia versions of Final Fantasy characters in a higher resolution is a dream come true, so waiting on a console version has been pure agony. It's especially worse knowing Dissidia Final Fantasy's current arcade run is doing well enough Square Enix and Team Ninja updates it with new characters every once it awhile.
The "newest" addition (as part of a May update) is Exdeath, the armored wizard tree from Final Fantasy V. I didn't use him enough in the PSP titles, so I don't know the specifics of his move changes but I'm hoping they removed the super defensive skills he had in the first two titles.
The latest villain additions have been fine, but I'm hoping some newer characters show up soon. Then again, it's not like we'll be able to play it any time soon.
We haven't heard much out of Microsoft's camp when it comes to pretty much...anything, Many of their exclusives have been either canceled or delayed, and at this point it's obvious that they're pretty much saving all of their surprises for their press conference at E3 (something a few other publishers have toned down in recent years).
Either way, what's happening with the Scorpio? It's still in full swing, Xbox head Phil Spencer says. Speaking to a fan on Twitter he noted that the "schedule looks very good right now, no issues," in respect to the Scorpio, which at this point is a holiday 2017 target.
What I'm really interested in seeing though is how people take to the promise of 4K/60 FPS gaming. Folks clamor for it frequently (I mainly just want 60 FPS for action games where it matters), but will they actually pony up and buy a machine that does it? Then again, those folks probably own a top-end PC that can pump those specs out anyway. So yeah, I'm still very invested in seeing how the Scorpio does.
Phil Spencer [Twitter]
Do you have four minutes to learn a complicated glitch sequence for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? No? Too bad I'll break it down anyway. Because nearly two million people own the game and have been playing it constantly, multiple bugs have been discovered -- thankfully, most of them add to the fun rather than ruin it.
This one involves getting a horde of foes to shoot tons of arrows (which is facilitated by the act of dropping bows en masse at the start of the video), which breaks Link's inventory and the UI in general. Doing this enough eventually allows one to drop the Master Sword.
To break this down a bit, Nintendo seems to have installed a sort of fail safe anti-glitch measure for the Master Sword, an item that you can't drop or otherwise lose. Just in case crazy speedrunners or other folks figured out a way to bug out the piece of equipment, they added a special parameter that allows you to get it back.
At the end of the glitch the Master Sword kind of floats away into the sky while a message appears on-screen. Skyward sword...get it?
Originally slated for a May 2 release, The Caligula Effect was recently pushed back to May 9, 2017 in Europe. Unfortunately, that extra week has been extended to an indefinite "later" per an Atlus press release. No specific reason nor updated release window was given.
From my experience, the European and American version of games tend to be fairly identical. I'm curious to know what could cause such a delay, assuming it has something to do with localization. It's an RPG so I guess for that British English they have to make extra sure to put in that ugly 'u' after every 'o' in the text.
For weeks we've known of the existence of an arcade stick for the Switch by way of Hori, but now we have official confirmation. Hori tweeted out a picture of the final design of the Real Arcade Pro V, which is expected to come at some point around the launch of Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers later this month.
We still don't know the price point either, which could be a point of contention if the Switch doesn't actually get any more worthwhile fighters (beyond the SNK/Neo Geo ports not much is in the works). It feels like just yesterday that Capcom was going full bore with their Mad Katz relationship with Street Fighter V, but that situation has obviously changed.
Hori [Twitter]
