SteamVR established its Home as the service's launch screen last month, a digital lounge for players to customize as they pore through their game libraries. Now you can start filling it with collectibles you unlock while playing through their respective games, functioning like bragging rights as much as artistic flourishes for any friend you invite over.
Source: Valve
Nintendo's latest Switch update doesn't exactly come with anything mind blowing, but it has huge list of improvements people have been asking for. One of those is the ability to find paired controllers by making them vibrate. Unless they're too far into the abyss known as the inside of your couch, that would make it easier to find those relatively tiny JoyCons, especially if you have the black ones. Do you use a pro controller instead? Well, take note that the version 3.0.0 update makes it possible to plug it in and use it as a wired option to avoid input lag.
Source: Nintendo
Hey everybody,
After the great response to Retroid's first episode, we were eager to record another one for you. Unfortunately, I made a mistake during recording that made it take a lot longer to edit this show than the first one. Bear with me, I'm learning as I go.
Fortunately, we had a backup recording going, but you might notice that Topher sounds a little different than you're used to. Almost as if he's in some kind of cylindrical tube with a handle.
Our topic this time was collecting, and in addition to Topher and Alex, I was joined by two of the most prolific collectors I know. Bill Platt (also known as Chillybilly) and Jonathan Lee (Funktastic) came on to share some of their experiences with game collection, how they keep track of their stuff, and how the scene has changed since they started. You can listen below or download the episode directly from Soundcloud.
We talked collecting for a little over an hour. In between, our musical interludes this time were Chrono Trigger's main theme at 34: 45, and because we started talking comic books for a moment, Wonder Woman's theme from Blizzard's Justice League Task Force at 54:50. (The new movie's pretty good, by the way.)
There's another break at 1:13:20, featuring Fake Man's stage from Mega Man 9. As always, our outro music is NES Metroid Ending - arrange version by nicoMS0122 on YouTube.
If you'd like to drool over Jonathan's collection, he posts updates on Instagram at jonathanraymondlee or you can find him on Twitter @FunkyFunktastic.
Again, apologies for the rough sound quality, as I'm still working out some kinks. I'm also still working on a few things like setting up an RSS feed and getting our show hosted on iTunes. In the meantime, you can check out our first episode here or follow the show @RetroidPodcast to be notified when we're recording or when a new episode is posted. Let us know what you'd like us to talk about next!
Hey there dudes and dudettes! It's your friendly neighborhood loaf of bread, Lawman, here to provide you with another week of heart-pounding, head-kicking comments! You'll laugh! You'll cry! You'll scream bloody murder! You'll do all of the above! Or maybe none of it! I don't know, I'm not hiding in your bushes outside your window watching what you do on your own computer. I'm in one of the trees instead, and from this angle it's really hard to make anything out.
Now I know that people love their comments segmented, compartmentalized, split and stripped and cuffed and - I might be going a bit too far here. Either way, I have your comments separated into handy-dandy sections! We'll start with:
It feels like forever ago, but 2064: Read Only Memories (which was originally known as Read Only Memories) shipped nearly two years ago on PC. Since then developer Midboss has made its mark on PS4, and as of next year, Switch.
Low key announced during E3, the cyberpunk Neo-San Franciscan adventure will be arriving on Nintendo's newest console sometime in 2018. Now that all of the indies are coming out of the woodwork and seeing that the Switch is a viable platform, expect to see a lot more of these kinds of announcements.
The real test is if publishers like Ubisoft will actually stay in beyond a one original game commitment, or if firms like EA will dip their toes in the water at all.
2064 [Twitter]
Whew - another year, another E3! It seems like moreso this year than any previous in recent memory, the developers, publishers, and whatever the hell you'd call The PC Gaming Show really hunkered down and focused not on flashy presentations and forced attempts at meme-appropriation, but instead on the games themselves. Whether or not you found that to make for a particularly memorable show, it was at least refreshing to see actual games in the spotlight again.
Now that we've had time to settle down and let the hype, reaction, over-reaction, denial, anger, sexual longing, and acceptance (The Seven Stages of E3 Grief, as it were) pass over us, let's start arguing again! Tell us, dear Destructoid Community: Which game is your Dtoid Community Choice winner?!
"Have you played Far Cry before?"
That was the first thing a Ubisoft rep asked me behind closed doors as I picked up a controller, selected a gun-fetching dog as my companion, and waited to load into Hope County, Montana.
"Most of them," I said, before attempting to tally them up one by one.
"Wait, actually, what was the last one? Was it Primal? Yeah. I've played them all."
It's easy to forget. From Far Cry 3 on, everything blurs together in my mind. It's really just the individual stories and settings that spark my memories, not the running, gunning, hunting, and outpost clearing that make up so much of our time in these worlds. Far Cry 5 will be the same way for me.
For some unexplained reason, playing through Zelda: Breath of the Wild only allows you one save per profile, thus making restarts a bit of a chore. You either have to kiss your current progress goodbye or create a new profile on your Switch/Wii U to replay the intro. Next week's DLC pack for the game not only includes a brand new difficulty mode, but allows you to make separate progress in said mode.
I don't know why Nintendo isn't just putting out an update to allow for multiple saves, regardless of DLC ownership, but this is better than having to jump through weird hoops to try out the "Master Mode". It would be kind of ridiculous to have people pay for a new mode and then erase their previous saves, so thankfully Nintendo isn't being too pea-brained.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild hard mode has its own save slot [Eurogamer]
It may be one of the lesser known and liked games in the series, but Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault was an okay time. Even if the game did nothing to innovate on the plethora of World War II shooters we had seen back in the day, it provided a look at the Pacific Theater that rarely gets discussed in media. It also wasn't the trash fire that is Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, so it gets points for being playable.
If you fancy brushing up on your history of historical gaming before the launch of Call of Duty: WW2, then EA has got a treat for you. Starting today, you can nab Pacific Assault for free on Origin through EA's "On the House" promotion. I'm mostly surprised to hear that still exists, but free is free.
Dealing with Origin may not be great, but the service has improved a lot over the years. I don't know that EA will ever make for a proper competitor to Valve's Steam service, but at least they're trying. Its better to be weak than to let one company form a monopoly.
Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault is free on Origin [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
If there's one defining thing about E3 2017, I don't think it's the obvious answer: That this is the year the convention opened its doors to the public. That was notable, but it didn't really change the show. It was more packed, yes, but this is clearly the direction things are headed. With some PAX-style crowd management, E3 might feel close to normal next year if they find a way to make everything less disorganized.
Instead, I think the defining thing is that this is the year that (nearly) every major publisher and platform-holder figured out how to hold an E3 conference. Just about every event was good, especially given where the bar has been set in recent years. This is a much-welcomed development that hopefully turns into a trend.
The winning formula for a good E3 conference? Show us games. Crazy, huh? E3 2017 had a ton of games, which meant that we were scrambling around the show floor to see as many as we possibly could. It was no easy feat, but we're confident that we saw the best of the best.
Which brings us to this list. Here are Destructoid's nominees for Game of the Show at E3 2017 as chosen by our editors. No categories sprawling all genres this year. Just the best of the best, 12 games that we were most impressed by. We'll hold a staff vote and announce the winner in the near future. They're all winners in our minds, but The Robot demands we choose only one.
[Chris already gave us his thoughts on Stormblood, but now that early access has cooled a bit, here's another opinion.]
To say Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood caught the eye of newcomers, intermediate and advanced players alike might be an understatement. Four weeks ago, my mid-population server of Lamia saw an influx of new and returning players and as of Friday's early access the place is so packed there are waiting queues to log in. Not long in my case, but still there.
Stormblood is a big turning point for the FFXIV saga and the addition of Samurai and Red Mage only makes it more enticing. From the inception of FFXIV, the plight of Ala Mhigo and its refugees has been known to players. The nations of Eorzea have not been in a strong position to push the Garlean Empire from Ala Mhigo when the Empire and primals (Ifrit, Titan, Shiva, etc.) have been threatening their own lands from the original release to present.
As the Warrior of Light, you even become something of a refugee yourself in the Heavensward expansion. At the close of the story, you are found innocent of your alleged crimes, have gained the Eorzean Alliance a new ally in Isghard and due to someone instigating a fight with the Empire, the Alliance has been dragged into a direct conflict and now seeks to liberate Ala Mhigo.
As with the initial attempt to liberate Ala Mhigo, the Stormblood early access was not without its tremendous roadblocks.
There are a plethora of subscription boxes to choose from these days, including nerdy ones like Loot Crate and Minecraft, kid-friendly boxes like the one from Nickelodeon, science-based subscriptions from MEL Chemistry and makeup assortments like Birchbox. Now even venerable toy company Hasbro has decided to jump into the fray with a a subscription service of its own, called the Hasbro Gaming Crate. It comes in both kid-friendly and more adult-oriented flavors and will send you three games every three months for $49.99.
Via: TheVerge
Source: Hasbro
To keep up the momentum of its Direct-esque Spotlight during E3, and its numerous miniature Directs before it, Nintendo is dropping another Direct on us this week. It debuts on June 21 at 8PM JST, will clock in at 14 minutes, and will deal with none other than Dragon Quest XI. Evidently this one will focus on the 3DS edition, but either way we've yet to officially see Switch footage.
Dragon Quest XI is aiming to be Square Enix's next big thing while the Final Fantasy VII Remake and Kingdom Hearts III are still in the hopper, and launching it on the 3DS, PS4, and the Switch, three of the most popular systems out right now, is a very smart move. Right now the former two are due out next month, but the Switch version is still in limbo in terms of a firm release date.
Nintendo [Twitter]
Jaguar Land Rover has teamed up with an unlikely partner to recruit its next wave of engineers -- the animated band Gorillaz. The auto company will be using the band's mixed reality app to challenge aspiring team members, fast-tracking the best performers through recruitment.
Source: Jaguar Land Rover
Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator was announced yesterday on Daddy's Da--erhm, Father's Day (thankfully I get gifts on both). It is exactly what it sounds like. From the Steam page: "you play as a Dad and your goal is to meet and romance other hot Dads."
You're a dad and you've just moved to a small neighborhood where, by coincidence, everyone else is also "a single, dateable Dad." Dads abound in Dream Daddy. "Teacher Dad," "Goth Dad," "Bad Dad." You can ask any one of them if you can borrow a feeling. Now, whether or not any of these dads eat crackers, I don't know, and frankly I don't want to know.
Here's what Dream Daddy boasts:
Dream Daddy will be out out July 13.
A lot of you probably didn't even know Atari had put out a teaser for a new console, much less confirmed it at E3, but that's just what they did. According to CEO Fred Chesnais in an interview with VentureBeat, Atari is "back in the hardware business" with a new machine dubbed (for now) the "Ataribox." Yes, that video earlier this month hasn't a hoax.
While we're set to get details "at a later date," Chesnais explains that they've been making a lot of moves lately, including licensing their name for Blade Runner 2049 that you undoubtedly saw in the trailer. We don't know much about the box yet other than that it's PC-based, or what it'll even play, but it exists.
It's probably not even worth disparaging at this point, but Atari might be back in some capacity at some point? I don't know I'm still processing all of this, and the decline of Steam Boxes, which were supposed to be the next big thing.
Ataribox [Atari]
With E3 open to the public this year, I figured this was a great chance to talk to the people. To ask the real, salt of the earth gamers: what's on your mind? Why did you come to E3? What has impressed you so far?
I immediately shelved that idea when I realized I could instead ask people, "What sound does Mario make?" because it made me laugh.
Kenny helped me brainstorm a few more questions -- an important one of which was left off, due to time constraints, but here's a hint -- and I sent him and Myles out on the showfloor to pull aside unwitting strangers and grill them on some of the hardest questions that only a true gamer can answer.
How did you do?
Hideaki Itsuno is a pretty interesting guy. He directed the "we generally don't acknowledge this exists" Devil May Cry 2, but learned from his mistakes and ended heading up Devil May Cry 3, one of the best action games ever made. He then went on to helm Devil May Cry 4 and the beloved Dragon's Dogma. My dude has low key worked on a ton of great games, and is constantly pitching ones I want to see, like new entries for Capcom vs. SNK and Rival Schools.
Another one that's in the rumor mill is Devil May Cry 5, which Itsuno may be working on, and was expected at E3 this year. Well, nothing came of that, and Itsuno himself took to Twitter to announce, "Sorry to not announce anything at E3. Please wait as my project is progressing smoothly." Good news to be sure, but we'll have to wait and see what that actually is.
Hideaki Itsuno [Twitter]
The jaw-dropping Dragon Ball FighterZ (it's good!) from Arc System Works (Guilty Gear, BlazBlue) is coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC in "early 2018." It may also come to Nintendo Switch, but if it does, it'll come late. And only if fans demand it.
Speaking to French outlet GameBlog, Dragon Ball FighterZ producer Tomoko Hiroki explained that porting Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 has been smooth and that it isn't a lack of power that kept Arc System Works from developing this new fighter for Switch. If fans demand it, it'll be done (there's an online petition with over 1,800 signatures at time of writing), but it understandably will not release at the same time as the PS4/Xbox One/PC version. For fans of recent Nintendo consoles, feeling like a third-party afterthought might be familiar.
Dragon Ball FighterZ : Roster, mode histoire, version Switch, la productrice nous répond [GameBlog]
Last November, fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel announced they would be merging -- a deal that was expected to finalize later this year. However, according to an Federal Trade Commission press release, the FTC will try to block the merger.
Via: Recode
Source: FTC
Years back, and I mean around five years ago, Capcom and Bandai Namco teamed up for Street Fighter X Tekken. Despite not hitting sales goals the two firms seemed to enjoy their partnership, including the announcement of Tekken X Street Fighter (which is on hold now) and the inclusion of Akuma in Tekken 7. In other words, in the last five years they've maintained a good relationship, which includes this new development this week,
Capcom has announced that they've entered a "cross-licensing agreement" with Bandai Namco, specifically as it relates to "online matching" in games like Street Fighter. According to Capcom, "The purpose of this agreement is to improve the user experience while accelerating the production of titles and reducing development costs for both parties. Further, with this cross-license for online matching, Capcom aims to effectively utilize the patents it has been granted in game series such as Street Fighter in order to deliver even more exciting content to game players."
Whatever behind the scenes deal this might entail, that's probably good news for all of us. Plus, it might lead to more crossovers in the future, which is fine with me.
Capcom enters into cross-licensing agreement [Capcom]
E3 was more crowded than ever this year with it being open to the public. If you didn't shell out the cash to brave perpetually-under-construction downtown Los Angeles, that's okay! I took some time from my packed schedule to do a full video tour. In fact I took multiple times, because sounds issues made the first one unusable. At least I had Skateallday101 give the back of my head an emergency line up the day before I flew out. I did not anticipate anyone having to look at it this much.
Kenny Redublo came out from behind the camera to help me with our shambling, already-exhausted play-by-play and the much taller Myles Cox managed an impressive piece of camera work, only running into two people, tops. If static images are your bag, we have a lil gallery, too.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 already came and went on multiple platforms last year, but Bandai Namco has revealed that the Switch version is now set for a firm September 7 release date in Japan. Wait, Switch version? Yeah, I forgot all about that one! Don't worry, it's confirmed for the west too and will likely drop around that same timeframe.
According to the V-Jump magazine reveal it'll have the Time Patrol campaign DLC packed-in, as well as a quick unlock for all 70-ish characters. It's a bummer that it's not all of the DLC though. Seeing as this is basically a GOTY edition a year later it really should have everything -- and there's been a lot of DLC so far (four major packs, to start).
Dragon Ball [V-Jump via Siliconera]
The "father of Final Fantasy" Hironobu Sakaguchi is still making Japanese RPGs, albeit no longer with Square Enix, but with the company he founded in 2004, Mistwalker (Lost Odyssey, The Last Story). As we reported last week, the company will unveil its newest project since the cell phone game Terra Battle on June 22, but here's some concept art and some music to hold you over.
The woman's name is Sara. There's also three sometimes-crying-boys called "The Triplets" who look too young to crack open a cold one with, unfortunately. Hopefully the 3D elements in the art (versus the fully 2D Terra Battle) imply a new console RPG. The art does seem to line up with concept art debuted a year and a half ago that was, according to Sakaguchi, a current gen console game that'd probably be revealed in a year's time.
Recently, Take-Two did the unthinkable -- it dropped the hammer on its modding community. Well it's not really that unfathomable given that the publisher noted that it wanted to monetize its userbase more, but people are understandably pissed.
The key issue? Take-Two has been handing out cease and desist letters out of nowhere to modders and modding groups, citing issues with security measures and the sanctity of Grand Theft Auto Online, which the publisher understandably wants to regulate. Unfortunately they went a step further and put sanctions on single player mods, which is where most people draw the line.
This lead to a deluge of negative Steam reviews, and now the entire outfit is in damage control. Speaking to Game Informer, Rockstar (who has previously promoted mods on their official channels), has stated, "Take-Two's actions were not specifically targeting single player mods. Unfortunately OpenIV enables recent malicious mods that allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody. We are working to figure out how we can continue to support the creative community without negatively impacting our players."
At the very least they're looking for a solution that perhaps benefits all parties, and mods might be back in action at some point. Or maybe not. It depends on if Take-Two and Rockstar decide that it's worth to delineate between solo and multiplayer mods within the framework of their game. Whatever the case it's an ill portent for Red Dead 2.
Rockstar Issues Statement On Shut Down Of Grand Theft Auto Modding And Cheat Tool [Game Informer]
Now that our editors have departed from the confines of the LA Convention Center, it's time to reflect on what we saw at E3 2017. More than ever, there was something for everyone, and as it turns out some of us couldn't pick just one "best" game. Whether you were at the show or at home, hopefully, there's at least a single game that made you circle its release date on your calendar -- here are the ones we're waiting for.
While I haven't played anything from Arc System Works since 2012's Persona 4 Arena and haven't watched a full episode of Dragon Ball Z since VHS was the go-to home video format, I was immediately jazzed for Dragon Ball FighterZ. Some of it is nostalgia. After all I was pretty high on that awesome fan-made, sprite-based DBZ fighter.
But let's put it this way: at least three times last week did Brett make a point to mention how cool DBFZ (yep, I'm going with that) looked despite the fact that: 1) Brett doesn't like anime and 2) Brett doesn't like fighting games. And after playing DBFZ -- having just played Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite a couple hours earlier -- we left with the same feeling we went in. This game is dope as hell.
It seems Niantic not only drip feeds updates to its once mega-popular Pokémon Go, but also likes to doll out news about updates in the same manner. We now know that the big summer update for the game doesn't exactly remove gyms, but transforms them into raids. Up to 20 players can now participate, at once, to topple ultra strong Pokémon with a chance to capture it for the player who downed it.
To join a raid, you'll need a raid ticket. Those can be picked up from Pokéstops, but you'll only receive one a day. Obviously you can buy more, because this is a mobile game after all. Participate in enough raids and you'll eventually earn a "special" raid ticket, which allows you to battle at a certain gym for the chance to earn a Legendary Pokémon.
