We're doing the contest thing again, and this time you get to win a Switch right after E3! Your odds of winning are visible this time: your number of entries out of the total entries submitted below.
How to win: Tell a friend about the site with a verified social media profile using Gleam (terms and conditions) and you're in. Gleam will then draw a winner at random, and I'll announce the winner after E3. Good luck!
[The PlayStation 2 is my favorite console, and it's easy to see why. 16-Bit Blast Processing relives his experience with the PS2 launch for the March Bloggers Wanted prompt. Here's a pro tip: If you write a blog, it could make its way to the front page - just like this one! Now, finish reading this, get out there, and write your butt off! - Wes]
The PlayStation 2, in my opinion, is the greatest console of all time in terms of library, exclusive games, and in a large part for myself due to nostalgia. The PlayStation 2, for me, holds so many memories growing up as a kid watching random Japanese footage of it being unveiled for the first time and looking up footage online on Canadian dial-up internet, waiting upwards of five minutes for a thirty second video to load properly without any buffering and hoping nobody in the house wanted to use the phone.
Inti Creates announced that Math Blaster, Master Blaster, Blaster Master Zero was downloaded over 80,000 times worldwide on the Nintendo Switch alone. It was developed by only 35 people in six months and released just over a month ago on March 9, 2017 for Nintendo Switch and 3DS.
Those are pretty impressive numbers for a simple remake made by a small team. The original Blaster Master released in 1988 on NES.
The chill-as-heck ecosystem sim Birthdays the Beginning hasn't been out a week in North America, and already it's getting better. The first PS4 update is not only here, but it's a marked improvement.
Arc System Works and Toybox Inc. have touched up many of the ease-of-use issues that had certain game aspects -- like flying around in first-person to scan newly-created species -- feeling like too much of a slog. Those movement controls are in a much better place now, as is the minimap.
Notably, players can also now unlock Free Mode far earlier than before, which is a crucial change. A large part of Birthdays is toying with your world design to figure out the rhyme and reason behind new flora and fauna popping into existence, and this mode is a no-consequences way to do that.
I didn't explicitly say it in my review, but if you're into fishkeeping, you'll probably dig this game.
Xbox's biggest character won't be at the year's biggest video game show. Master Chief will be standing on the sidelines, not helping anchor Microsoft's efforts at E3 2017. (Well, unless he ends up part of some offshoot project.)
A 343 Industries employee confirmed that Xbox is not bringing Halo 6 to E3 this year. "We'll have a little something at E3 but it's not related to the next major entry in the franchise," Halo community manager Brian Jarrard said on reddit. Some potential candidates for that "little something" might be: Halo Wars 2 DLC, Halo esports stuff, or maybe something virtual reality-related with Xbox app on Oculus.
What it definitely won't be is Halo 6, though. Really, we could've seen that coming. Halo 5 released in 2015 and there's almost always at least three years between major Halo titles (with two years between Reach and Halo 4 being the only major exception). Master Chief will have to wait until 2018 or longer. In the meantime, Xbox needs someone else to step up and fill his big green shoes.
Halo Community Update - May 11th, 2017 [reddit]
It looks like American football is taking something from soccer beyond the sport's name. Well, as far as Electronic Arts' virtual versions go, that is. This year's Madden will feature a full-fledged story mode akin to what FIFA '17 had. In the very evocative trailer below, a young man stares out at the Indianapolis Colts' Lucas Oil Stadium, dreaming of either a burrito or being on the cover of a video game. It's hard to tell which considering all we can see is the unnamed protagonist's expression in the reflection of a hotel window.
Via: GamesRadar+
Source: EA Sports (YouTube)
In a sweet one-day-only deal at Woot, the Amazon-owned retailer is selling the Battlefield 1 Collector's Edition for only $18 plus a flat shipping of $5 (that's $23 for those without a calculator handy). You'll recall this is the $130 list price package that does NOT include the game. It does come with a load of goodies, including:
The current package goes for about $55 as a "used" copy and about $99 for a new copy. Woot's deal ends tonight at 10:00pm Pacific, or until it's sold out.
Last year, The Pokémon Company produced a Japanese song for Magikarp, "the pity Pokémon." Even without knowing the words, it was enjoyable (and by enjoyable, I mean distressing), but now we've got those too. The translated song went up today, and it'll make you wanna hug your Magikarp.
With all the Super Bowls he's won, it's hard to imagine this is the first time Tom Brady has been featured on the cover of Madden. What better time than after an improbable comeback: down 28-3 in the third quarter to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in overtime. The rally cemented Brady in many people's minds as one of the all-time greats, or in hip young meme-speak, "G.O.A.T."
Madden 18 releases just prior to the season on August 25, 2017. For the first time in series history, the game will run on the Frostbite Engine (presumably Frostbite 3), allowing for "stunning new stadium exteriors surrounded by vast cityscapes" according to the product description on Amazon. Also, a short clip in the trailer possibly suggests a story-based career mode like those in the NBA 2k series.
When I first talked with Anders Gustafsson and Erik Zaring in 2012, they promised their creepy, psychedelic, stop-motion game, The Dream Machine, was going to be "better than sex with Jesus." They had a lot of work ahead of them -- they were building the game by hand, with physical materials, and the stop-motion process was inherently time-consuming. Plus, they had to wrangle episodic installments of an intimate yet sprawling story inspired by LSD trips and theories of alternate realities.
Five years later, as the sixth and final installment of The Dream Machine finally lands on Steam, I ask Gustafsson and Zaring if they think their game delivers on its sacrilegious promise.
Through the Xbox One, the Xbox 360 has lived on -- well, to some extent. Not every Xbox 360-era game is backward compatible yet, but a good number of them are. Nearly 400 titles are a part of the program right now, and you'll soon have the opportunity to get many of them on the cheap.
Next week, Xbox is holding a backward compatibility sale. Xbox's Major Nelson revealed the sale on Twitter, noting that more than 275 games will be discounted. Of those, only four were specifically mentioned: Red Dead Redemption, Skate 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and Grand Theft Auto IV.
The promotion doesn't start until May 16, so there's plenty of time to daydream about your wishlist. Savings are "up to 75 percent off," which doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot. We'll surely be checking back in next week to see what's included and how good the deals actually are.
@MajorNelson [Twitter]
PlayStation Network flash sales are highly subjective, but I think this latest sale is particularly good in terms of the game selection and how steep the discounts are. It'll last until Monday morning.
I'm tempted to go for XCOM 2 at $23.99 and struggle my way through it with the slightest of hope that I'll get lucky on Hail Mary shots and my long-term strategy won't fall apart around the midway point. Those of you who missed Doom should give that a look (it's $19.79), PlayStation VR owners should consider Battlezone ($23.99), and all y'all ought to give SOMA ($8.99) some love.
CD Projekt Red has their hands full with Cyberpunk, but until that one drops they're toiling away with Gwent -- a standalone derivative of the card game in The Witcher universe.
Users have been testing out the closed beta for weeks now by way of signups on the official site, but that phase is set to end soon. The developer has announced that as of this weekend, it'll be your "last chance" to sign up for the closed portion, so if you're interested, head on over and try your luck.
That said, Gwent will head into its open phase soon enough. We'll get details as soon as next week, but if you've been putting it off, you may as well make the effort to get in now. Surprisingly I haven't played much of this spinoff, as most of my card game time is spent in Hearthstone, or dabbling in its many competitors like the Elder Scrolls version, and so on.
Maybe by the time the open beta hits I'll get around to it -- I mean, Gwent was mighty fine in The Witcher proper!
Gwent [Twitter]
If you still don't have Civilization VI in your library and you're a fan of the series, the sales generators are in your favor today as the game is now 52% off for a limited time.
Digital retailer GMG now has the game at a total of 52% off with with its seven-year anniversary coupon code. This follows the other flash sale we wrote about a few days ago. For those that missed the mistaken 50% off discount from Amazon last month, this is your second chance. We're fairly positive the game won't be any cheaper in the near future, even during Steam's popular Summer Sale.
Weekend Flash Sale
As part of today's flash sale, GMG is also offering Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III with a big cut down to $36. That's a decisively strong discount for a title that was released less than a month ago. Both the Civilization VI and Dawn of War III deals should expire tomorrow May 13 at 11am Eastern.
Listed above is also Mass Effect: Andromeda, which was price slashed down to $35 for a 42% off cut. While that was supposed to be a 24-hour deal, we suspect GMG has a few keys too many and has decided to keep the offer alive. In terms of expiration of deals above, we think Civilization VI will hold true to tomorrow morning's expiration date, while Dawn of War III and Andromeda will continue to sell until they are out of stock (for that price bucket).
Game deals from Dealzon. Sales help support Destructoid.
I always feel obligated to update people on the happenings with My Nintendo, because I know one person somewhere cares. I don't know who that person is, but this is for you.
As of this week Nintendo has altered its rewards, adding in new Mario Kart 8 themed stuff. There's three offerings -- a wallpaper (for smartphones or your PC), a Link (but still Mario Kart) themed calendar, and a sample of the Deluxe strategy guide.
Oh, I don't know, I wish any of these rewards were physical? I'd love to get an official calendar with that rockin' Link motorcycle art. Even if they just did Platinum (not even Gold) rewards at the end of the fiscal year, I'd take it.
Here's hoping that once the program is in full swing with Switch rewards that it's even half as glorious as Club Nintendo.
Mario Kart [My Nintendo]
A lot of people don't realize that the DiRT series is based on a real sport. Rally driving is pretty damn dangerous and many a driver stare death in the face on a regular basis. You have to be crazy to get behind the wheel on a slim mountain, but that life or death factor is what makes for gut wrenching excitement. Codemasters is looking to capture that feeling with DiRT 4, so this latest trailer takes a closer look at the racers that are helping shape the game.
I've been pretty consistent about my feelings regarding SteelSeries headsets for the past four years or so. They're on the expensive side, but they more often than not end up being my headset of choice on various platforms.
I'm probably going to start rotating the Arctis 7 into that equation.
Ed is nearing release (at least in beta form) this month, and Capcom has given us an introduction of sorts to the Balrog/Bison mashup of a fighter. While his weak story involvement and his aptly coined "Psychic 8-Mile" original look were pretty bad, this video has pretty much sold me.
Ed's V-Skill can be used to block fireballs, initiate a command drag, and his trigger launches a variable speed fireball. I absolutely love his OTG (off the ground combo) potential, as in the video he's seen using his V-Skill to drag players around and set up new combos. Also, despite his relation to Balrog, he is not a charge character.
Like I've said in the past, Capcom is doing wrong by the community in many ways, but at the very least they're nailing their character drops and mechanics.
On May 26th, video streaming platform Twitch will celebrate a site-wide holiday called "TwitchUnity" that celebrates diversity and inclusivity. It plans to highlight channels on its front page that "exemplify a positive culture" that day, and it's encouraging streamers to generate relevant discussions. The platform is also releasing an official emoji for the event, which you can see in the image above. If you want to personally support the effort, you can buy the special t-shirt Twitch is releasing for the event or check out the dance-a-thon it's conducting. All proceeds from both efforts will be donated to Amnesty International's fight for human rights around the globe.
Source: Twitch
I always love a good clay-based aesthetic, and Claybook, an upcoming physics-centric puzzle-platform game from former Trials series developers, takes full advantage of its malleable look.
"Everything acts like it would be made out of real clay," according to independent studio Second Order. "Every inch of the environment can be shaped and molded. Everything has matter inside it, not just an outer shell. Clay can be deformed, destroyed, melted to fluid and frozen back to solid."
This looks so cool to me. Like, hell, even just messing with the clay water seems entertaining.
Nintendo is still rolling out Mega Stones in various ways, and this one just happens to be easy peasy code-based.
If you own Pokemon Sun or Moon, log in, then type in the code "AZUL." You'll get a set of Mega Pidgeot, Mega Steelix, Mega Heracross and Mega Houndoom stones for your trouble. In a sort of balancing measure you can't use the stones online until May 16, to ensure that everyone is able to grab them and is on equal footing, which makes perfect sense.
I've been winding down my Pokemon Sun and Moon time since I nabbed every 'Mon, but it's still one of my favorites in the series. It has so much character -- I really hope we don't have to wait too long for a followup or even a third version.
Pokemon Sun and Moon [Serebii.net]
One of Alan Wake's best features was its licensed soundtrack, and now the tunes developer Remedy Entertainment carefully curated are causing a bit of grief. Remedy's rights to The Black Angels' "Young Men Dead" and "Up Jumped The Devil" from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (among others) are expiring, and with them, so must Alan Wake itself. Remedy tweeted that because of this, the game will be delisted from Steam and other digital storefronts after May 15th.
Source: Remedy Entertainment (Twitter), Steam, Xbox Marketplace
PaRappa the Rapper and Gitaroo Man are some of the brightest, weirdest and catchiest music games I've ever played. They're crazy for sure — how many titles let you spit rhymes with a humanoid onion in a kung fu dojo? But they're also bold, imaginative and constantly surprising, begging you to tap X and see what happens next. Now, Masaya Matsuura, the creator of PaRappa and Vib-Ribbon, and Keiichi Yano, the mastermind behind Gitaroo Man and Osu! Tatakae! Oeunden (the original inspiration for Elite Beat Agents on the DS), are teaming up for a new game called Project Rap Rabbit.
Source: Project Rap Rabbit
It seems that Remedy's Alan Wake won't be available for purchase much longer. Announced over on the Remedy forums, the team will be pulling the original game from sale due to the music license expiring. This will effect both PC and 360 versions as well as physical copies and digital ones. American Nightmare was able to get re-licensed, so that game will remain (for now).
If you've always fancied getting the game, Remedy will be holding a sale on Steam from tomorrow (May 13) until May 15. The game will be 90% off (making it roughly $3), so you really won't have much reason to say no. American Nightmare will also be on sale to push people to get into the series.
I definitely enjoyed Alan Wake when I played it. With Remedy seemingly losing the rights to Max Payne, Alan felt like a proper continuation of the dark comedy they started with Max. It also had similar controls and even featured the voice of everyone's favorite pill popping, depressive murder machine (James McCaffrey). It was just plan good.
Alan Wake Sunset Sale 13.-15.5.2017 [Remedy Community]
If you're in the mood for more Switch party games (there's already a few at the moment, like Fast RMX, Snipperclips, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe), you can mosey along to the Japanese Switch eShop and grab Battle Sports Mekuru on May 18 for 980 yen (roughly $8.60). For those of you that forgot, the Switch allows folks to easily swap regions with different accounts and pick up any game digitally (it's also region free on a physical level).
Given the price it's hard to believe that Mekuru will involve any more drastically different modes, so fighting it out on block style arenas seems like that's all she wrote.
Earlier this week, a supposed leaked screenshot from Red Dead Redemption 2 surfaced online. It's a genuine image, as it turns out, but there's just one problem: it's not from Rockstar's coveted new open-world adventure. It's actually from something called Wild West Online. Uh, whoops!
Ahead of an impending Kickstarter campaign and a planned launch on PC later this year, PC Gamer got the first details about the game, a player-versus-player MMO which reportedly "won't be the typical routine of questing and grinding levels, but a seamless open world using server shards where a few hundred players will coexist together or die trying."
I mostly thought the nature of the presumed leak was amusing, but if things go according to plan, Wild West Online sounds neat in its own right (albeit worryingly ambitious). For instance, instead of sending NPCs after you to make you pay for your crimes, it'll be on other real-world players to hunt you down. There's a lot of ideas like that which sound good but maybe won't be as fun in practice.
"There's an audience for [this type of game] that just wasn't being served on PC," said DJ2 creative vice president Stephan Bugaj. "So we wanted to make this big, open Wild West world with a bit of a twist that, like the best MMOs, is a place where people can really live in."
Wild West Online revealed: The Red Dead-like MMO 'built from the ground up' for PC [PC Gamer]
Well! The rumors and leaked pictures are true, the creators of PaRappa the Rapper and Gitaroo Man are working on a project together, that's described as a "story-drive rhythmaction adventure."
Given the mashup, for weeks folks believed that it would be a literal crossover with the two characters from both of the aforementioned franchises, but this clearly seems to be a brand new IP. There's a teaser website up right now that basically just confirms the existence of the project (along with a tweet, so we'll likely get more info soon).
I would have loved a PaRappa reboot, but I'll take this for sure.
Project Rap Rabbit [Project Rap Rabbit]
The Russians. Comrade Putin and company have threatened our very democracy with alleged phishing schemes that fooled an old man and single-handedly led to Trump -- who is gay for Putin, by the way. I love our modern red scare, woke homophobia and complete inability to reckon with personal failings. The damn commies are at it again (even if they haven't existed in 30 years).
Europa Universalis IV is cashing in with a new, free expansion, Third Rome, which focuses on Russia. Updates include:
- Tsardoms and Principalities: New ranks of Russian government with new abilities and, for Tsars, strong bonuses including the right to claim entire States – not just provinces
- Iconography: Commission great religious icons for the Orthodox Church, boosting your empire’s power depending on the saint you choose to revere
- Patriarchs: Consecrate highly developed provinces with Patriarchs, adding to the authority of the Orthodox Church, but for a cost.
- Streltsy: Special Russian soldiers that excel in combat, but raise the cost of stabilizing your empire
- Siberian Frontier: Russian nations can slowly colonize uninhabited border regions, with no fear of native uprisings
- New Graphics: Includes three full unit packs and new portraits for Eastern Europe.
