News:: Rocket League and Universal team up for some more 'Fast and the Furious' DLC

When I was prepping a headline for this article, I was going to make reference to the ridiculous, "I live my life a quarter mile at a time," line, but it turns out developer Psyonix has already made The Fast and the Furious DLC for Rocket League. Imagine my surprise that my totally original reference couldn't be used. Anyway, on October 11, we'll be getting even more Fast and the Furious DLC to play around with.

Coming through a promotion with Universal Studios, Rocket League will be receiving the '99 Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 and the '70 Dodge Charger R/T. There will also be a bunch of decals included with each car, which are going for $1.99 a piece. Why not check out this trailer to see them in action (please don't state the obvious answer in the comments)?!

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News:: Iron Galaxy's ogre-slaying action game Extinction looks slick

This is my first time seeing Extinction, Iron Galaxy's action game about fending off giant ogres, and what an intro! The announcement a few months back was only a cinematic trailer, but today is all about gameplay. The scale of the monsters is impressive, and I love the focus on fluid aerial movement.

They key thing to notice is that the ogres are wearing different pieces of armor that'll necessitate different plans of attack for our hero Avil. One basic example: "a Ravenii decked out in spiked armor isn’t going to be easy to take-down: its armor will injure Avil if he comes in contact with it. Therefore, he must lure a spiked Ravenii into smashing the ground, cracking his own armor until it breaks away. Only then can Avil sever a limb, vertically run up the monster's torso, and make the finishing blow."

This game is coming to PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One early next year. It looks cool as hell.

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News:: Bob's Burgers serving up a movie for 2020

Bob's Burgers is one of those shows I never expected to love as much as I do now. It started a bit slowly, but once it really steered into its grounded absurdity (an oxymoronic nature Bob's Burgers balances so well) it took off and some of the episodes have become classics. 

Like its Sunday night cousin, The Simpsons, Fox is making a film based on the series. According to Deadline, here's what series creator Loren Bouchard had to say about the prospect: 

We know the movie has to scratch every itch the fans of the show have ever had, but it also has to work for all the good people who’ve never seen the show. We also know it has to fill every inch of the screen with the colors and the sounds and the ever so slightly greasy texture of the world of Bob’s – but most of all it has to take our characters on an epic adventure. In other words, it has to be the best movie ever made. But no pressure, right?!

It's eighth season has just started, so I can't wait to see where all of this goes. I hope it's a full-on musical. The Bob's Burgers film is currently slated for July 17, 2020. 

‘Bob’s Burgers’ Movie Ordered Up For 2020 [Deadline]

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News:: Get ready to pop, there's a HuniePop sequel in the works

HuniePop works for a number of reasons, but also doesn't work for its intended one. It's fun as a Bejeweled-light that rewards progress, and it's also kind of a party game my roommate and I had a lot of fun laughing at. If you played the first one for its lewd purposes, more power to you. You'll certainly enjoy the sequel. 

Ryan Koons, director of HuniePop, announced during a "Hunie Direct," that a HuniePop sequel was in the works (along with some footage of another project, The Spiral Scouts). There were no details as far as gameplay, but he did confirm some of the new girls. Kyu, the fairy with sex powers from the first one, Lillian, Nora, and Sara from HunieCam Studio, and Abia, who, uh, I don't want to further unpack right now. 

The HuniePop sequel is certainly going for a specific tone, and it really has to stick the landing. Koons is currently aiming for a late 2018 release. 

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News:: If you're not sold on tomorrow's new Pokemon movie, the full theatrical trailer will convince you

Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! is a call-back to the anime series's roots, retelling the start of Ash's adventure. It's not exactly the same, as it features newer Pokémon and lacks Misty, Brock, and Ash's best hat. It still looks like a great nostalgia ride. There will be a limited screening the next two days on November 5th and 6th, 2017. You can check locations and buy tickets at the Fathom Events site.

I've been catching up on the games this past year, but the long anime is a bit daunting. I'm definitely on board for this when it releases digitally, especially after this trailer gave me goosebumps. Of course I could've seen this in Japanese theaters months back, but it's just not the same Pokémon I grew up with if it's not the English names and voice cast.

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News:: Fan-made Overwatch map looks good enough for release

Although Egypt is represented in Blizzard's popular title Overwatch (via the "Temple of Anubis" map) one fan has decided to try his hand at creating his own map based on the exotic locale, and the results are pretty damn good.

"Cairo" is an entirely fan-designed battlefield, created by artist Joshua Ilorente using software such as Unreal 4, 3DS Max, Substance Painter and even humble Photoshop. The project, his second map attempt to date, will still take "months to finish" but is impressive stuff, genuinely looking like it was pulled out of the Internationally successful arena-shooter.

The video below shows off the dark but beautiful location, featuring bush-covered overhangs for sniping potential, wide-corridors for extended firefights and a seemingly large open area for all your Pharah needs.

Whilst Cairo is obviously just a fan-project, highly unlikely to become available to play, it's very impressive to see this creativity, and authenticity, at work. It's a far cry from me drawing maps for Dizzy games in the back of my maths book, at any rate.

Cairo fan-map for Overwatch [Reddit]

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News:: Nintendo Pro: Sonic Mania

Sonic and crew are back as well, perfectly curated into a 16-bit throwback for the Switch! Sonic Mania is one among many nostalgia kicks for the ever so glorious new platform, which is totally rad... but I don’t know, can you not help but feel a little taken advantage of?

They are taking our most cherished memories and cashing in! I would yell about it but I’m sure most of you have already concluded this. So the question is, do you care?

BEFORE I let you click play, there is something you need to know... I hate Sonic. I used to think it was the poor man’s Mario because it was the only thing to play when my snot-nosed little self was forced to visit my weird cousins that lived farther from civilization than I even did. I firmly believe that gave me video game PTSD and I swore off the stupid Hedgehog at all costs.

So if I sound and look like I like this game? It’s acting. I took a class, but then I failed so we just put the hat on me. I hope it worked.

MARIO FOREVER!

P.S. We’ve been reading comments and feedback and couldn’t feel more welcomed, so thank you guys so much for being so kickass and so engaging. I’m so happy I’m not scared to read the comments here!

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News:: Switch makes yet another surge as Trails of Cold Steel III leads the pack in Japan

The Nintendo Switch is sill red hot, nearly doubling it's sales the previous week reaching 73,231 sales. There is a large gap between first and second place as the PlayStation 4, sitting at number two, moved 22,822 units. I'm curious to see just how much the Switch sales surge when Mario Odyssey releases.

On the software end, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III launched on top of the charts with 87,261. That's not so different from Trails of Cold Steel's (67,718) and Trails of Cold Steel II's (65,498) launch on PlayStation 3, but whereas the newest entry only released on PS4 the previous two also launched on PS Vita. The Vita release garnered the first game an additional 81,622 sales, and the second an extra 86,283. The Vita may be on its way out, but you have to wonder if they couldn't have profited from a portable release.

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News:: This Ditto song is the cutest thing I've ever heard

Much like their official video for the Poke MVP Magikarp, The Pokemon Company has turned the cuteness up to eleven with Ditto. Not only is the song catchy as heck, the video has a clean, storybook style that's absolutely gorgeous. 

You'll be humming the chorus all day for sure. 

Meta meta mon mon, meta meta mon mon, meta meta meta meta...mon mon. 

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News:: New Assassin's Creed: Origins trailer shows us the birth of the Brotherhood

Assassin's Creed has been gone for a while. Or at least, that's how it felt after receiving a new installment every year from 2009 up until 2015. The series had grown stale after years of familiar, safe games, so when Ubisoft decided to hold back for a year after Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, the sudden stop gave many of us whiplash. What would the next game be like?

Well, we now know that Assassin's Creed: Origins will be taking the series back to its roots, and in this new trailer released by Ubisoft earlier today, we'll even get to witness the genesis of the order of Assassins. 

Origins follows the story of Bayek, a guardian of Egypt known as a Medjay. Egypt is "on the brink of collapse," and, "To defend it, [Bayek] must become an instrument of justice and freedom." This game will tell the story of Bayek, and through his eyes, show us how the Brotherhood came to be.

That seems fine enough, but I'm hoping that all this talk of the Brotherhood and the Assassins is just window dressing on top of Bayek's story. Few games have been set in a place like Egypt, and during the age of Pharaohs no less. I'm really hoping Origins lets the larger story take a backseat, and allows Bayek's character and personal struggle as an Assassin drive the story. 

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News:: Final Fantasy III's Cloud of Darkness making her way to Dissidia Final Fantasy

While we wait for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT on PS4, the Japanese arcade version is slowly adding more characters to the mix. Final Fantasy III's Cloud of Darkness admittedly isn't as exciting of an addition as someone brand new to the series would've been, but like every other character, she looks great in this engine.

She does have a projectile based moveset but seems more adept at handling mid-range battle than most other characters on the roster. Hope all these arcade additions eventually make it to NT as well. 

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News:: Dear EA, bring back NCAA games already!

We all know what happened. EA Sports was churning out NCAA Football games until 2013 when after the final entry, NCAA Football '14, lawsuits regarding amateur players getting paid put the series on hiatus. The NCAA as well as several individual conferences and schools were going to stop licensing their trademarks due to the same issue. Despite the difficulties, Peter Moore told IGN last year "One day, I know we'll be back."

Afraid of legal trouble themselves, individual conferences and even schools began backing out one by one in 2013. Considering their reason behind that action was to avoid lawsuits regarding using the amateurs' likeness, it stands to reason they would be back on board if the player issue was resolved.

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News:: PUBG's recent server issues are due to the game being way too popular

Getting into a game of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in recent days has sometimes been more of a hassle than it should be. Error message after error message pops up, each one indicating in some way that it's having a tough time with smooth matchmaking. Most of the time, it'll eventually connect after a few tries.

One of those messages, "servers are too busy," is the most accurate depiction of what's really happening. In a post on the PUBG site, developer Bluehole explains that it's having difficulties handling the surge of players. Essentially, this game is more popular than the developers ever imagined it'd be.

Bluehole says that it originally designed lobbies to handle a million concurrent players. That's ambitious by most any game's standards. Previously, Dota 2 held the Steam record for most concurrents somewhere just shy of 1.3 million players. Sinking development resources into scaling that large would be a wildly irresponsible thing for a studio to do. Approximately 99.9999 percent of games will never reach the same level of popularity as Dota 2.

But PUBG is the exception to that! It's the gaming phenomenon of 2017. Every time it seems like there's no way it can get more popular, it does. As of writing, PUBG topped out at 1.655 million users today and that has become routine. It's more than three times that of CS:GO which is in second place around 550,000 players.

Bluehole's working on it in whatever way it can. "It has become increasingly difficult to manage servers during peak times. To alleviate the above, our development team will prepare our servers far more in advance so that they can handle a much larger number of concurrent players. This is something that we plan to continuously improve on," the developer says. It also addressed outages in Asia, which, again, were caused by a recent influx of players.

The PUBG party is too big. It's the 4'6" 7th grader who hit a growth spurt over Christmas break and came back to school 11 feet tall. Growing pains are bound to happen with most any successful game, and PUBG is currently the most successful there is by a wide margin. It's a fortunate problem for Bluehole, and the developer certainly has the capital to fix it.

Update on Recent Server & Connection Issues [PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds]

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News:: Destiny 1 PlayStation-exclusive content sneaks its way onto Xbox

Sony has always had a nebulous contract with Bungie (and by extension, Activision) regarding Destiny 1. Several items, maps, and strikes (dungeons) were timed exclusives for the PS3/PS4 versions of the game, but how long that period lasted was completely up to a closed doors meeting. In some cases, content made its way onto Xbox platforms in roughly a year, and in others, Bungie simply delayed it on Xbox until they felt like bringing it over.

Now, Xbox players can access the Taken King content Echo Chamber strike, sublime armor, a quest from Petra Venj, the PVP map Sector 618, the Jade Rabbit exotic scout, and the Zen Meteor exotic sniper -- a whole two years later. By proxy a Tyra Karn quest, Iron Camelot armor, and the PVP map Icarus have also been dumped into Destiny 1 on Xbox from Rise of Iron, which didn't take nearly as long to arrive.

To drive the point home of not having a clear deadline, Destiny 2's exclusive content is set to only stay on PS4 until "at least fall 2018." Again, note the "at least," as they could easily just delay it again.

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News:: Miiverse might be closing soon, but it'll have one last hurrah on one last channel

Miiverse was a really cool experiment. I never really used it, but I liked lurking on it. Social media and "following" capabilities were all the rage at the time (and still are), so you can't really fault Nintendo for trying.

But like most things proprietary, it simply didn't have a great infrastructure to support it, and Nintendo wasn't very good at on-boarding people into the thing. It didn't catch on, and alas, it's going to be shut down soon. Before that happens though, there's one last bastion of hope with the Everybody's Message Community channel, where users can reminiscence and chat with each other until October 11.

After that time the channel will be shut down so no one can longer write on it, and the entire service will be removed on November 7. There are still currently no plans to save it on the Switch, so if you want in, you can view it online, or by way of your 3DS and Wii U for the time being.

Everybody's Message Community [Miiverse]

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News:: RWBY's Ruby Rose is going to be quite the earful in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle

I've never seen an episode of RWBY, but its inclusion in Arc System Works' upcoming crossover game, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, is pretty damn neat. The Rooster Teeth series' character designs are on point, and I hope the blonde girl with cool gauntlets eventually shows up alongside the main character, Ruby Rose, too. 

Gray G. Haddock (RWBY's Roman Torchwick) gave us our first look on Twitter at how she plays ahead of New York Comic-Con, and she seems alright? Unfortunately we don't get much beyond a simple combo (though her scythe has a long reach) leading into a projectile and one of her supers, so her yelling stands out a bit more than it probably should. The theme song in the background is pretty good, however. 

As for the core gameplay itself, damage seems a bit high right now (though as a 2-on-2 fighter it makes sense) and the assists don't seem to bothersome. Can't wait to dive in further as BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle gets closer to its release next year. 

(psst) Look what we found on the BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle server! Just don't tell @ArcSystemWorksU 😜#BBCTB #RWBY Play the demo @ #NYCC! http://pic.twitter.com/gxmS9PdCp2

— gray (@graymartigan) October 4, 2017

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News:: Review: Pokemon Gold

Pokémon for me personally was a defining piece of media growing up. I can still recall recess at school and seeing groups of kids huddled around Game Boy screens or playing the card game. I even remember the first episode of Pokémon I ever watched -- “Mystery at the Lighthouse” -- in which Ash caught a Krabby, the gang met Bill for the first time in his bizarre Kabuto costume, and the insanely overgrown Dragonite that left me in awe and immediately hooked on all things Pokémon.

I also still remember the fever pitch and hype surrounding the second generation of Pokémon. I remember all the playground rumors, such as Marill being some sort of evolution of Pikachu or Pichu, or speculation on new legendary Pokémon and talk of a “Mewthree.”

This is something I can't genuinely say about other forms of media I consumed growing up. For instance, I couldn't tell you what the first episode of Street Sharks I watched was, or even what the show was remotely about...other than the insanity of it all and the very real fear I then had growing up of bi-pedal sharks chewing through the cement I was walking on at any given moment.

But, what I can tell you is this: Pokémon Gold is without a doubt a shining example of a sequel done right.

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News:: It's the perfect time to start fresh in Dark Souls

For way too long now I've been telling myself I'm overdue for a fresh run through Bloodborne, but it looks like I'll need to postpone those plans yet again. The Dark Souls reddit community is starting its three-week "Return to Lordran" event today. It's an excuse to create a new character alongside a bunch of other fans to give the game's online features a helping hand. I've got to get in on this.

"This event is essentially the re-incarnation of Global Restart Day. Everyone starts a new character on October 4th at 5pm (CDT), and plays the game. Online play is encouraged during this time, since this should be peak time each year for online activity. Simply play the game at your own pace, summon as many people as you can, throw down your sign often to help others, invade 'til you drop, and enjoy this amazing game! What more could you ask for?"

In short, all you really need to do is play Dark Souls this month and you'll be doing your part. But if you'd like to get more invested or find like-minded folks to assist or duel, the community has a Discord server for just that purpose. These fan-organized events always give me the warm fuzzies.

Return to Lordran is TOMORROW! Full Details! [reddit]

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News:: The Fall Part 2: Unbound release delayed

The Fall Part 2: Unbound has been delayed until February of 2018. Instead of giving us some vague excuse, Over The Moon Games has decided to go the completely honest route in their latest video update. They don’t want to be forced to compete with the huge onslaught of AAA titles releasing during the busy holiday season. By distancing themselves, they hope to stand a better chance of grabbing players’ attention. 

We all saw how Titanfall 2 got neglected last year during the same time frame. A game that, in my opinion, was vastly superior to the competition ended up having trouble finding its audience due to launching too closely to both Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Battlefield 1. If something of that caliber struggled during the window, I can easily see how a small, indie studio might want to avoid it.

The first entry in this series, simply titled The Fall, was hardly a perfect experience, but it managed to do some really great things with its dark, sci-fi story about a rogue A.I.’s attempt to save the life of a dying human. Despite its overwhelmingly oppressive atmosphere, it even had some really damn funny moments as well. If you’re a fan of serious, no-bullshit science fiction, you should definitely give it a chance. Then we can wait impatiently together for the continuation of ARID’s adventures this February on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

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News:: The Witcher 3's 4K update for PS4 Pro is here

Okay, so that PlayStation 4 Pro update for The Witcher 3 might have taken longer than expected, but the important part is that it's here. The update is live as of this morning, providing players with "support for 4K resolution and a slight boost to performance" in the core game and its add-on content.

There isn't HDR support in this patch, but it sounds like Pro owners with a 1080p display can benefit from supersampling, which is a pleasant surprise. That's not always the case for these sorts of updates.

Xbox One X players will also get a 4K update for The Witcher 3 later this year.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is now PS4 Pro Enhanced [The Witcher]

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News:: Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle in the Sky lovingly re-created in Minecraft

After working tirelessly since 2013, this Laputa: Castle in the Sky fan project in Minecraft is complete. You can view the fruits of human-to-digital labor on Mocchi Hajikura's YouTube channel, which showcase not only the actual castle, but the aircraft involved as well.

It's incredibly appropriate, as the Iron Golem, an official NPC type that's been in the game since 2012, was crafted as a direct homage to Castle in the Sky. Given that Laputa is one of my favorite Miyazaki movies (if not my top choice), I'm going to boot this up and explore it as quickly as possible.

It's beautiful.

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News:: Hand of Fate 2 will include day-and-date Xbox One X support at launch

The card dealing action-RPG Hand of Fate 2 is coming early next month. According to developer Defiant Development, the game will be available on November 7 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. In addition to the announcement, Defiant Development also confirmed that Hand of Fate 2's Xbox One version would include full support 4K HD to coincide with the Xbox One X's launch.

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News:: Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition coming December 5

PlayStation have announced on Twitter today that Horizon Zero Dawn will be getting a complete edition later this year, like every major release is likely to do.

Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition will retail for $49.99 and include the Frozen Wilds expansion and all previously released digital deluxe content. The Complete Edition, and its gorgeous cover art, will be available to purchase for PS4 from December 5, 2017.

Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition [PlayStation Twitter]

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News:: Neo Geo revamp Metal Slug X coming to Switch tomorrow

SNK's cathartic shoot 'em up Metal Slug X is coming to the Nintendo Switch this week as the latest title off of HAMSTER's "ACA Neo Geo Classics" conveyor belt.

The 1999 release was an upgrade to Metal Slug 2, which had only been released on the Neo Geo MVS platform the previous year. X changed enemy attack patterns in order to provide a more challenging experience, as well as making adjustments to remove ugly slowdown issues. The re-release also featured remixed audio and various tweaks to the game's arsenal, as well as littering the battlefield with more hidden Power-Ups.

Metal Slug 2 was made available for the Nintendo console back in July, which leaves one wondering if it'd been cooler for HAMSTER to just release X in the first place, rather than asking fans to fork over the same amount of dollar for the revamped edition just two months later.

Metal Slug X will be available to download for Nintendo Switch on October 5, priced at $8.

Neo Geo Arcade Archives [HAMSTER]

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News:: Contest: Win the Super Nintendo Classic / Mini you deserve

Last week I woke up at the crack of dawn to grab an extra Super Nintendo Classic to give away on Destructoid and, sure enough, I was met with a line of people at every location I went to -- and few shy about their intent to list it on eBay the second they got home. While I have to hand it to these lanky youngsters for their enterprising attitudes, it royally fucks over the fan on a tight budget.  Thus, this contest is for you.

Destructoid is giving away a very small Super Nintendo in 2017 in very high demand, a concept that still baffles the mind and puts a smile on my face.  It's my favorite childhood system and I want more people to have them. I'll probably continue to give them away until the price returns to sanity.

How to enter: Just tell a friend about our humble blog and you're entered to win.  If you're overseas we can't ship you one but you'll get the cash equivalent instead. If I'm lucky we'll also have the imported Super Famicom mini to give away as well next month, because Mystical Ninja was a criminal omission.  No purchase necessary, see rules below for more details.  The winner will be randomly drawn by the Gleam widget below.  Good luck!

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