News:: Kirby's Blowout Blast will land on 3DS next week

_{[Header courtesy of Deviantart user Krukmeister]}

If you remember from earlier in the year, HAL Laboratory announced that Kirby would be getting three 3DS games this year. While one was merely an upgraded, standalone release of a mini-game included in Triple Deluxe, the second was a title called Blowout Blast. Not much is known about the game, other than it being set in a 3D world.

If you've been looking forward to the title, you won't have much longer to wait. Nintendo of America announced via Twitter that the eShop title will be available for download on July 6, 2017 (July 4 for our Japanese brethren), which is next week!

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News:: First footage of Gundam Barbatos Lupus DLC for Gundam Versus

Bandai Namco has released a trailer today for Gundam Versus today, showing off the previously announced DLC mobile suit Gundam Barbatos Lupus from the recent hit anime Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans. The trailer not only shows off the gameplay of the Gundam, as well as its health and abilities, but also what other content is included. Overall, it's a mixed bag.

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News:: Don't expect a new Splinter Cell for a while

Splinter Cell seems like the odd man out in current day Ubisoft, which oscillates between high-fidelity, big budget games that all feel like the same game (Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs, Far Cry, The Division) and lower budget, smaller team titles (Grow Home, everything made in Ubiart). 

With two releases in 10 years, what's a storied stealth franchise that can't easily be rammed into an open-world-with-towers format to do?

Ubiblog asked Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot about Splinter Cell at E3 and Guillemot had this to say: "What we can say is that we are receiving lots of sketches and proposals around the brand and we are going to pick one up. I think you will be able to see something, but you will have to wait for that."

Yeah, it's going to be a while.

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News:: Modern Warfare Remastered is standalone on PS4, but do you still care?

As of today on PlayStation 4, you won't need to pony up for Infinite Warfare to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered. It has gone standalone. More than half a year later, Activision finally did that thing some of us wanted it to do. The game costs $40 on PlayStation Network, which, yeah.

If you want everything, you'll probably also want the Variety Map Pack, which is a separate $15 charge for the multiplayer maps Broadcast, Chinatown, Creek, and Killhouse. There's also now Supply Drops to contend with. If you haven't kept up with CoD, you can earn credits in multiplayer or buy points that fund Supply Drops containing things like emblems, weapon camos, and reticles. Welcome to the new age.

As for Xbox One and PC players, you'll presumably get the standalone option in one month.

I want to mess with Modern Warfare -- particularly the campaign, which I haven't played in years -- but not for $40. I might've parted with that much money on this last year, but not now. It's too late.

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News:: Deal: dirt cheap refurbished Xbox One bundles on sale for $139

It truly is a shame. All those refurbished Xbox Ones without a home. They lie packed in giant warehouses stacked several pallets high. Unloved. Unwanted. But maybe, just maybe, for the right price...

If you wouldn't mind picking up an Xbox One this summer, three of the older refurbished models are going on fire sale at NewEgg. The formerly "Walmart Exclusive" white Xbox One 500GB Gears of War Limited Edition bundle is only $139.99, making it one of the cheapest Xbox One bundles to date, even as a refurb.

Upgrading to a 1TB won't put much of a dent in your pocket if you go with a refurbished Xbox One S 1TB Madden NFL 17 bundle going for only $182.99. That's $167 cheaper than the $350 list price they were originally going for last year, and probably the best bang for your buck on an Xbox console as of writing.

A third deal to consider lands in about the middle of the other two in terms of price and specs. It's a 1TB Xbox One of the older variety: the bundle with Tom Clancy's The Division. The console has fallen to only $158 at NewEgg. Previously priced at $350 around its original March 2016 release, believe it or not, you can still find it for around $270 online elsewhere.

All three deals are running through this Saturday, July 1 or until sold out. They are priced low enough that we expect stock to move. Shipping is free in the USA.

With the rate things are going, we won't be surprised if near-$100 price tag refurbished Xbox One and Xbox One S units show up toward the end of the year.

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News:: So that's how you score a billion points in Nex Machina

I've hit a wall in my slow ascent up the Nex Machina leaderboards and that has led me to look up unbelievable runs to glean tips and tricks. This one by Twitch streamer Xaerock is astounding.

After clearing the game on Master difficulty (in which you get only five continues and have to go up against "drastically faster" enemies who also drop revenge bullets upon death), the credits roll -- then it loops back around with an even harder difficulty called Hero. Xaerock nearly beats that too.

The video is a lengthy watch, but it's worth it to see his score break the billion-point mark. My nerves would be shot to hell if I had to do a back-to-back run. Practice, practice, practice.

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News:: Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Future Tone DLC announced for the West

Sega has confirmed that the previously announced digital plans for Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Future Tone DX will be happening for international fans this year. This means that current owners of Future Tone will be able to download the upcoming content, which includes the new song "Ghost Rule" by DECO*27.

Sega has not confirmed a date for the downloadable content at this time, nor if the physical version, along with the limited edition, will be coming to international shores. While I can understand the lack of any news on a physical version compiling all of the Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Future Tone content together, the lack of a date for the downloadable content is odd, given that there shouldn't be much to translate other than the song. Then again, I've never played the games nor looked into their development, so perhaps there's something I don't know.

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News:: This VR headset is just for porn

Porn is always on the cutting edge of technology. People were looking at porn on their PS3s before the first iPhone even released, and there were, according to my research, websites dedicated to watching the nasty on the console. People will pull pud at their convenience and in whatever glorious new way technology allows. 

That's why, while virtual reality feels like its already passed with the Vive, Rift, and PSVR, VR porn still abounds. Hence the newly announced VRotica headset.

It calls itself "the world's easiest virtual reality headset." You don't have to slot in your phone, connect it to a high-powered gaming rig, or really do anything. "Just turn it on and start" [cranking your hog].

It's a modern kinetoscope. Like the one I saw titties on for a nickel at the Santa Cruz boardwalk's ancient arcade. Videos are pre-loaded onto the device and you can "download new videos, or buy USB thumb drives with preloaded videos online." The VR porn is in the $220 VR headset. Simple.

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News:: Review: Hover: Revolt of Gamers

I tend to avoid direct comparisons when analyzing a video game, but the fact that Hover: Revolt of Gamers proudly exclaims its relationship with Jet Set Radio, it becomes inevitable. It plays on the nostalgia heartstrings pretty hard, even getting composer Hideki Naganuma to contribute a couple of tracks.  

Jet Set Radio is my favorite game of all time, so I jumped headfirst into Hover (I am never using that full title ever again) with a giant grin on my face, excited for what awaited me. After all, JSR is quite old and the controls don't hold up as well as I'd like, so there's lots of room for improvement. While the controls are definitely better here, I can't say the same for everything else.

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News:: Here are some loud Nintendo bags from LeSportsac

Nintendo is doing a line of GAMER BAGS with LeSportsac, which is actually an American company, despite the French affectation, though it is owned by a larger Japanese company.

The sacs are coming to Japan on July 19 and will be released stateside in the fall. You'll be able to get them at the Nintendo store in New York and online via TheSportSac. You may even be able to get them other places, but we don't know that yet.

Aside from the bigger sacs, "Complementing the collection are five additional items, including an authentic pouch shaped like the Game Boy system, a round Piranha Plant pouch, and a Super Mario Bros. cosmetic." All the sacs, big and small, have Mario coin zippers. A real coin purse!

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News:: You can nab Double Dragon Trilogy for free during GOG's week long sale

If you frequent GOG for their sick deals and DRM free games, then you'll have even more reason to make a purchase this week. From now until July 3, you will receive a copy of Double Dragon Trilogy for free with any purchase from the store. That is right; you don't need to hit a minimum price or have a certain number of games in your cart. Any purchase is eligible (minus free games).

The cheapest game I can spot is Unreal 2 for 99 cents, but that game is some hot trash, so I wouldn't recommend nabbing it solely for Double Dragon. For that matter, the PC port of this trilogy isn't especially good, though its not terrible. It just lacks standard graphics options and has some odd issues with text wrapping that obscures things like dialog and health bars.

Still, an extra game is nice, so I'm sure there is bound to be something on GOG that interests you. Here are a few more choices from their sale that I would actually recommend:

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News:: 'Dishonored' studio co-founder steps down after 18 years

Today the founder of Arkane Studios, Raf Colantonio, announced that after 18 years with the company, he is now stepping down. In a statement Colantonio said, "It is time for me to step out to spend some time with my son and reflect on what is important to me and my future."

Source: Bethesda

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News:: Arkane's president and co-founder resigns after 18 years

Raphael Colantonio has parted ways with Arkane Studios. The company's co-founder and president announced his resignation in a farewell note that was published on Bethesda's site. Colantonio had been the head of Arkane for 18 years.

The move seems like a positive one. Colantonio states "The last 18 years have been an amazing adventure -- from starting Arkane in 1999, to making our first game, Arx Fatalis, to joining ZeniMax Media in 2010 and releasing the Dishonored series and Prey to critical acclaim -- it is time for me to step out to spend some time with my son and reflect on what is important to me and my future."

It's unknown as to what's next for Colantonio. His message is vague about whether he'll stay in games, if he's moving to a new industry, or if he's taking some time off from everything. However, he does mention that he'll stick around long enough to help the Lyon branch transition to a new management team.

Of Arkane's 18-year history, it's only in the past five or so that the studio has really made a name for itself. Dishonored (2012) was the developer's first breakout hit. Its two games since then, Dishonored II and Prey, were both successes. Colantonio is leaving right as Arkane is on the upswing. But, before doing so, he sailed the studio into smooth waters.

A message from Raphael Colantonio [Bethesda]

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News:: Review: Diablo III: Rise of the Necromancer

The Necromancer has risen again. Again and again (like that NSFW Wu-Tang joint), actually, as it was featured in Diablo III as an Act 1 mini-boss and a fully fledged character in Heroes of the Storm. The class is immensely popular, and for good reason -- it's mechanically fun to play in its inaugural game Diablo II, and the power to use Diablo's army against him makes for some amazing aesthetic gymnastics.

But with a pricetag of $15, Diablo III: Rise of the Necromancer's cost will probably hit you upside the head and knock off your rose-tinted glasses.

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News:: Snake Pass discounted on Nintendo Switch and PC

If you didn't get around to buying Snake Pass on Nintendo Switch for the newly-added time trials, you're in luck: the slithering platform game is on sale. Normally priced at $20, it's 40 percent off on Switch from June 27 to July 4, and 50 percent off on PC (Steam and Humble) from July 5 to July 19.

This is the first Switch eShop discount, right? More Snake Pass deals will come "later in the summer," according to Sumo Digital. So if you were more interested in playing on Xbox One or PS4, sit tight.

There's also DLC on the schedule, hence that one-second teaser at the end with the strawberry.

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News:: The new Assassin's Creed mobile game will kill you with cuteness

Assassin's Creed: Origins isn't the sole Assassin's Creed releasing this year. Emerging from the shadows, Ubisoft revealed a new mobile game called Assassin's Creed Rebellion. And it looks cute as hell.

Assassin's Creed Rebellion is a free-to-play strategy role-playing game for both iOS and Android devices. It's set during the Spanish Inquisition, and it tasks the player with forming an Assassin Brotherhood. With a hand wave of the lore, Rebellion features many familiar characters all together at once (Ezio, Aguilar, Shao Jun, etc). Ubisoft justifies this by saying there's "a new version of the Animus the merges the memories of several Assassins together."

Canon issues aside, Rebellion's most striking characteristic is its aesthetic. It has a charming cartoon vibe to it, as if it were inspired by the Funko Pop line of toys. That's a marked departure from the emphasis on realism in the mainline series, and the bold brush painting-like animation of the Chronicles games. This is cute and Assassin's Creed hasn't really ever been cute before.

Adorable probably can't shoulder the entire Assassin alliance, though. We shouldn't have to wait too long to see if the Brotherhood building and infiltration missions in this strategy RPG can carry themselves. Ubisoft says Assassin's Creed Rebellion will have a worldwide release "soon."

Assassin's Creed Rebellion -- Build Your Own Assassin Brotherhood [UbiBlog]

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News:: This is one of the best PlayStation Network sales in recent memory

The last few PlayStation Network flash sales haven't resonated quite as well as past promotions, but forget all that -- this week's Mid Year Sale is a beast.

Hundreds of games are discounted, including one I've been waiting to snap up: Ratchet & Clank! That's eight bucks with PS Plus, and ten without. Expect lots of VR games and even some Vita love, too.

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News:: 'Crackdown 3' lives in the shadow cast by 'Agents of Mayhem'

Microsoft's biggest hurdle with Crackdown 3 isn't its rumored troubled development cycle, it's that Agents of Mayhem exists and is coming out first. Both share a similar premise: You're a super-powered human given free reign over a cartoony open-world. There are plenty of physics-based shenanigans that result from shooting harpoon rifles at snipers and black-hole guns at gang members in both, and each has a familiar structure of taking out a crime syndicate from the bottom up.

The difference lies in the execution: There are a lot of cooks working on Crackdown 3 -- some brand new to the franchise -- while Mayhem's team is a group of seasoned open-world veterans.

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News:: Cars 3: Driven to Win's Miiverse community is full of amazing art

I completely forgot about Cars 3 until yesterday, when Destructoid's Nick Valdez took it upon himself to catch a day drunk buzz and watch the movie. I think it's about sentient cars and coping with life after horrific accidents, but I'm not entirely sure. I saw Cars once, but it was during a high school Spanish class, so I might be a bit off on the series' plot.

One thing I am sure of, however, is that the Miiverse Community for Cars 3: Driven to Win is popping off. I stumbled across it last night when I turned my Wii U on for the first time in ages. I intended to watch some Netflix but instead spent an hour combing through different Cars 3 posts, drawings, and messages. 

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News:: NYU lands New York City's ambitious VR/AR hub

New York City is diving into VR in a big way with the launch of a virtual/alternate reality hub at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering. It'll serve to nurture companies and projects relying on the new technologies, with the hopes of cementing NYC as a place where AR/VR can thrive. The hub will be backed by $6 million in funding from the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, as well as NYC's Economic Development Corporation. The city also claims that the NYU lab will also be the first publicly funded VR/AR hub in the country.

Source: NYU

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News:: Twitch rolls out subscriptions for Affiliate streamers

Twitch Partners get a lot of perks, including extra emotes, 60 days of past broadcast storage, financial support and the ability for fans to subscribe to their channels for $5, $10 or $25 per month. Starting this week, Twitch Affiliates -- streamers who make money on the site but aren't yet Partnered -- will also be able to collect monthly dues from their most dedicated viewers. Affiliate streamers will have the option to offer subscriptions at all three tiers, alongside one custom emote per payment level.

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News:: CI Games admits it stumbled with Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3

You can find a plethora of chronicles on the internet about how Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 is a pretty broken game. Our official review wasn't very keen on it, making mention of the lengthy load times and other bugs like crashes and environmental glitching. It has been a pretty bad time for developer CI Games, all things considered. Speaking with PC Gamer, CI CEO Marek Tymiñski admits, "By positioning the game in a AAA category, it took us away from what we could have done great."

"When we began development of SGW3, we decided on such a relatively large scale of the game with its open world that now we realize it was just too ambitious versus what we could have been able to deliver in any reasonable amount of time."

While I can understand that logic, what bugs me is that CI Games still charged $60 for the game. It's fine to have faith in your product and sell it for what you believe it should have been, but there can't be a single QA member who played Ghost Warrior 3 and thought it was ready to launch. Most of the issues with the title are surface level stuff, even if the plot is threadbare and the gameplay boring.

Closing out the interview, Tymiñski states its next shooter will have more depth, "without the trapping of a large open-world setting." Whether that means Ghost Warrior 4 will return to the style of the first two games is up in the air. Hopefully, though, CI releases a game without as many problems. I can deal with a boring game, but a broken one is another issue entirely.

Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 was 'just too ambitious', says CI Games [PC Gamer]

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News:: Review: Final Fantasy XV: Episode Prompto

Gladiolus got his due with his own Final Fantasy XV DLC a few months back, and we all kind of stumbled through it.

Coasting by on the fumes of XV's core mechanics, the idea of witnessing a brief gaiden that ultimately ended up lacking an impact on the narrative just didn't feel like add-on material. Prompto's gun-fever lore-heavy mission in an arctic sandbox though? A little more so.

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News:: Yooka-Laylee just got a massive polish-centric patch on PC

You gotta love the PC platform.

While studios are bending over backward trying to get their patches approved on consoles they can generally just roll out anything they want on PC, and developer Playtonic did just that with their huge "Spit 'n' Polish" update for Yooka-Laylee.

It's a big one that adds new speech options (including less gibberish if you want it), signposts to help guide players a bit more, a restart option for certain challenge, improved controls, and most importantly -- a completely revamped camera that gives the player more control. If you've ever touched this game and have put it off in favor of waiting for alterations, this is the time. Read through the novel of notes below and see exactly what's changed.

Playtonic is looking to bring this to consoles "in the coming weeks," and the Switch version will have it by default.

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News:: Don't play Garfield Go while driving, or at all

There was a time, eons ago, where the comic strip known as Garfield was okay. Nay, it was good. Back in the late '70s and '80s, the daily dalliances of Garfield, Odie, Jon, and, for a brief time, Lyman was decent shit in the funny pages of this nation’s newspapers, becoming the most widely syndicated comic strip in history. Suck on that, corpse of Charles M. Schulz.

Side note: if you are too young to know what a newspaper is, ask an older person, preferably one who drives around elementary schools in a panel van.

It wasn’t long before the cat leapt off the pages of the Sunday funnies and into the car windows of the nation’s mini-vans. Creator Jim Davis told the Washington Post in 1982 Garfield was created to be a marketable character. It wasn’t about being particularly funny nor relevant to the zeitgeist and social events, it was about making money. Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin & Hobbes, called another Davis creation, U.S. Acres, an abomination, saying Davis’ whole process is “an insult to the intelligence.” Garfield merch has brought in more than one billion dollars to Paws, Inc., the company tasked with licensing out the original Grumpy Cat. For fuck's sake, Davis has been inducted into the Licensing Merchandiser’s Hall of Fame, as if that’s a hall that should even exist. 

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News:: July's Xbox Games with Gold is lacking any real standouts

July is about the most dead video games get during the calendar year. Spring and fall are for new releases, and winter is for sales. June has E3 and August is when things ramp up to the holiday season. July is for fireworks and barbecues and sweating and working through your library of unplayed games.

This particular July is also for one of Xbox's more mediocre Games with Gold offerings in recent memory. It's full of a bunch of perfectly okay games that will leave most people struggling to feel overly enthused. They can't all be bangerz.

It's the Xbox One side that has a significant advantage this month, and not just because it has the newest games. July's first featured game is Grow Up, Ubisoft's quaint little collectible-obsessed time-killer about going higher and higher. (Also, the review subheader "Such Great Heights" reminds me of the time that I wrote a post for The Order: 1886 to the lyrics of a Postal Service song.)

The other Xbox One title is something of an overlooked gem. Party platformer Runbow is free from July 16 through August 15. Runbow originally released on Wii U in 2015, and this marks its Xbox debut.

On Xbox 360, the first half of July sees the not-particularly-great Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days on offer. The latter half is reserved for Lego: Pirates of the Caribbean. As usual, both Xbox 360 titles are playable on Xbox One through backward compatibility.

Book a Staycation with July's Games with Gold [Xbox Wire]

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News:: The legendary Pac-Man Vs. will be part of the Switch's Namco Museum collection

The multiplayer tinted Pac-Man Vs. is one of the most interesting games in the franchise's long history. It was actually developed by Nintendo EAD and headed up by Miyamoto himself, which is why you rarely see it hit other platforms (it's on DS and GameCube).

Well, given that the Namco Museum is coming to the Switch, Bandai Namco and Nintendo seemed to have worked something out -- Pac-Man Vs. will be a part of that collection when it arrives later this year, as revealed by Famitsu magazine.

This is a pretty big deal given the portability of the Switch and how many there are in circulation, as we could see another resurgence for Vs. Over the years it's been frequently played at conventions and the like. So much so, that it's odd to go to an event and not see it present somewhere.

If Pac-Man isn't your thing regardless of the wrapper, the full list of Museum entries (so far) is below.

Pac-Man Vs. [Famitsu via Gematsu]

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