Valve will "soon" roll out a reworked version of Dust2 for testing in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive which, wow, it's actually happening! The company even shared a screenshot and everything.
Coming soon for testing in CS:GO’s next beta depot: an updated, refined version of its most iconic map – Dust2. http://pic.twitter.com/0xBbbcXxzy
— CS:GO (@csgo_dev) October 9, 2017
This dang map is going to outlive us all.
CS:GO [Twitter]
I'm still upbeat about WayForward's The Mummy Demastered, a game that looks far better than you'd ever expect from an official adaptation of 2017's lackluster The Mummy. It's a metroidvania that seems to lean much more on the back half of that word than the front, and seeing as how Konami is doing a whole lot of nothing with Castlevania right now, I'm very much in the mood for some vania action.
The Mummy Demastered launches on October 24th! Coming to PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch! https://t.co/dWHdVOK20R http://pic.twitter.com/VrrNBgCcCg
— WayForward (@WayForward) October 9, 2017
The Mummy Demastered is now set for Tuesday, October 24 on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Switch will do just fine. Here's the most recent trailer, in case you missed it.
This should be great week-before-Halloween fodder.
WayForward [Twitter]
Bungie intended for Tuesday to mark the release of both the Iron Banner PvP event and the prestige version of the Leviathan raid, but only the former is happening tomorrow. What's to blame? An exploit.
The studio only described the exploit in general terms, noting that it "causes the encounters to be stripped of their intended challenge." In order to give the team time to address the problem, the Leviathan prestige raid has been pushed to next Wednesday, October 18 at 10:00am Pacific.
"It’s important to us that the team who earns World First status doesn't have their legacy tarnished by doubt, skepticism, or uncertainty," said Bungie.
The raid -- the normal raid, mind you -- still escapes me. I'm fine concentrating on Iron Banner unlocks this week, though I feel for those of you who had your prestige attempt scheduled with your crew.
We are getting a new PvP map, at least!
Tomorrow, we’re adding a PVP map to Destiny 2 with Iron Banner. Distant Shore will be available in all playlists when the event ends. http://pic.twitter.com/oxcvts7Lkv
— Bungie (@Bungie) October 9, 2017
My fellow Destructoid writer and guardian life coach Darren tells me this resembles Shores of Time, a Crucible map set on Venus in the original Destiny.
Bungie [Twitter]
Sega has found a new home for Sonic comics at IDW Publishing, and this weekend at New York Comic Con, the company shared more specifics. Notably, writer Ian Flynn is back on board, which should please fans who dug the Archie Comics series. He even put together a short video for NYCC.
"I'm overjoyed to keep running with the little blue hedgehog, and especially excited to be expanding my relationship with IDW at the same time," said Flynn.
The first comic will drop in April 2018, with the following three issues arriving weekly.
"Those issues will be written by Flynn with a team of artists joining him to be announced at a later date," IDW noted in a press release. More good news: artist Tyson Hesse is attached to the project.
You might've heard about Fire Emblem Warriors offering players a choice between better visual fidelity (1080p, 30 frames per second) or better performance (720p, 60 frames per second). You might've thought "Hey, now that's the good stuff. More games should do that." You might just be me!
Or, better yet, maybe we're in some sort of hive-mind arrangement. The point is, quality and performance options are excellent and, ahead of next Friday's launch, GameXplain has done a side-by-side comparison. You probably already know which you prefer, but it's nice to be reassured.
You know I'm all about that sweet, sweet performance.
For those unaware, the upcoming Middle-earth: Shadow of War is in some very hot water with the gaming community as of late. Users on NeoGAF and other gaming outlets have found the final act of the game becomes a massive grind-fest, unless you pony up some money to get the “true ending.”
However, OpenCritic, one of the largest game review aggregation websites, has decided to take a stand against this by updating its display filters to warn and inform potential customers of games utilizing these types of transactions and paid content.
At New York Comic Con this weekend Warner Bros. announced that they were moving forward with plans to release a remastered version of their classic animated series Batman: The Animated Series on Blu-ray in 2018. Not many details are known but the announcement came as the company's public relations executive Gary Miereanu was handing out a free copy of the DVD box set.
The biggest question as of now will be whether or not the Blu-ray will follow the release strategy of coming out in volumes or as the entire series. I personally can't wait. The original animated series was a staple of my Saturday mornings and shaped so much of my childhood and things that I grew to love that I'll gladly pay the money for this, although I'd prefer the complete series version.
A lot can happen in a decade. Ten years ago, I was a bright-eyed high school student with big dreams and no idea what blogging was. Now, I'm older, a bit heavier, and writing about Overgrowth's campaign. Nine-plus years after development began on the game, its story mode is finally playable from start to finish.
If you're not in the know about Overgrowth (we did an Early Access review in 2014!), suffice to say it's one of the indie gaming world's longest-running attractions. Developer Wolfire Games have been plugging along with its development since 2008, showcasing updates, improvements, and its cast of anthropomorphic melee fighters along the way.
Halloween is always a fun time for gamers. This year, Overwatch fans get their second annual seasonal update in a day or so, while Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare players can jump into a month-long event dubbed "Willard Wyler's Halloween Scream."
There are four weeks of creepy events scheduled, including free supply drops, themed loot, the "Carnage" multiplayer map with double XP and character skins to add to your fun. Starting October 13th, you can drop into themed boss battles, with new baddies added the following two weeks. Plus, there's a weird new mode called "gesture warfare" so you can crush your opponents with hand movements.
Via: Windows Central
Source: Activision
Note: If you are wondering who the hell I am, I'm Shawn aka RGT 85 on YouTube. I do retro gaming vids, and Destructoid can use a lil retro loving, so here I am. If you like me, make sure you let people know so they don't throw me back in the dumpster they found me.
As someone who owns a massive video game collection, there aren't many games that I want to play that I haven't had the chance to. If I don't own the physical game, there's a wonderful thing called "emulation" that you might have heard of that pretty much will let you play any game from your childhood you can imagine.
But let's be honest: Sega Saturn emulation still sucks.
The Dreamcast was literally the easiest system to pirate for, allowing you to simply burn a game onto a CD, pop it into the system, and play it. The Saturn however was Fort Knox in terms of emulation cracking. SEGA went above and beyond to make it a pain in the ass to do any sort of piracy with it, and while major strides are being made in Saturn emulation, it''s still archaic at best to play Saturn games via emulation.
Due to this, there are a ton of Saturn games I've never been able to play because in 2017 Saturn games are EXPENSIVE. Games like Panzer Dragoon Saga and Burning Rangers cost hundreds of dollars to own, and since emulation sucks, you better save up your pennies or sell some plasma if you want to play these classic games. One game that I've always fancied on the Sega Saturn however was a Working Designs RPG called Dragon Force. The thing is though, this isn't something I've wanted due to the rise of the Saturn, it's been 20 damn years of my life wanting to get my hands on this game.
If you didn't get enough rebel-on-galactic action during EA's Star Wars Battlefront II beta this past weekend, you're in luck. EA announced on Monday that it is extending the public event until Wednesday, October 11th. While players won't have access to the new cinematic campaign during the beta, they will be able to experience the large-scale combat in Galactic Assault mode, fight against the AI in Arcade, pilot starships in Starfighter Assault and lead an 8-member fireteam in Strikes. BF2 is available on both the Xbox One and Playstation 4 consoles and is slated for release on November 17th.
The latest Pokémon distribution is now underway at GameStop.
Today through October 23, you'll be able to head to the retailer and score a code for the mythical Marshadow in Pokémon Sun and Moon. The little ghost son is level 50 and notably comes with Marshadium Z, enabling it to use its fancy-pants Z-Move called Soul-Stealing 7-Star Strike.
Unlike some ghost types, Marshadow's Pokédex entries aren't the stuff of nightmares. "Able to conceal itself in shadows, it never appears before humans, so its very existence was the stuff of myth. It lurks in the shadows of others, copying their movements and powers. This Pokémon is craven and cowering."
Life can be pretty tough to a young, upcoming witch. Just ask Belle MacFae, currently under threat of expulsion from the Hagmore School of Magic. Her crime? She ruined the Walpurgisnacht Brew, which had been painstakingly prepared for a mysterious upcoming ritual, an act that has unleashed the whole of the school faculty's wrath upon her.
The thing is, she didn't do it. Young MacFae was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, merely practicing her magic like a good student. Now, she has no choice but to gather the ingredients to mix up a new batch of the brew herself, while tracking down the nefarious wrong-uns who ruined her reputation.
Star Control II is one of the best games ever made.
Getting that out of the way, I was pretty happy when Stardock announced last year that they would be reviving the series. The original creators Paul Reiche and Fred Ford will not be directly involved since making a shitzillion dollars creating the Skylanders franchise (and good on 'em) but it has been clear in very early footage that Stardock is attempting to retain the original feel of the second and best game in the series.
Last weekend, Facebook sent its own artificial intelligence to rumble in a StarCraft tournament that only allows AI participants. This was the social network's first entry in the annual competition held at the AIIDE conference that explores the intersection of AI and entertainment. As Wired reported, Facebook is following in the footsteps of other companies that have used Blizzard's strategy game to showcase their AIs.
Source: Wired
This weekend saw Electronic Arts light up the servers for upcoming shooter sequel Star Wars Battlefront II (No, not the 2005 one). The Beta opened on October 4 for pre-order peeps and October 6 for everyone else, before finally going offline today.
Over the last couple of days I've seen a host of opinions around the net regarding player's personal experiences, fighting it out in the four modes made available: Strike, Galactic Assault, Starfighter Assault and Arcade. These opinions were pretty varied, running the gamut of positive to negative.
We're interested in hearing your own experiences with EA's new space-baby. What did you make of the title? Did you try it? And if not, what was the reason? Which modes did you enjoy? Are you sold on the game or, alternately, have you just crossed it off of your list?
Star Wars: Battlefront II launches on PC, Xbox One and PS4 November 17.
Frontier Developments have released their first in-game look at the upcoming Jurassic World Evolution. The trailer itself doesn't detail much in regards to gameplay or park management, but the dinosaurs and surrounding environment look fairly impressive. However, the developer also released details regarding some of the gameplay elements from the game at their panel at the Frontier Expo.
When you start the game for the first time you'll be sending out dig-teams around the world to look for fossils, then utilizing these fossils to create your dinosaurs through bio-engineering. (Which is very similar to that of Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis). However, where Evolution differs is that you'll be able to expand to multiple islands, for a total of five different islands, each offering various resources.
HAMSTER have announced that the second game in the King of Fighters series, KOF '95, is the next title coming to the Nintendo Switch as part of the ACA Neo Geo Classics range.
King of Fighters '95 had some big improvements over the original. Not only does the game have a more responsive control system, but it allows for players to mix-and-match characters to create their own dream team, as opposed to KOF 94's "locked in" team choices.
It also sees the debut of nightmare boss character Omega Rugal, who may look the shit, but begins his reign of terror of one of fighting game histories most intolerable boss characters. This iteration also features the debut of emo-hipster Iori Yagami, who would go on to become one of the most recognisable fighters in gaming.
I had this title on the Sega Saturn, where it came bundled with a memory expansion cart to cut down on load times. I treated that copy like it was solid gold, getting any KOF titles in the UK at the time was a total nightmare, so it was a pretty special release.
King of Fighters '95 will be available on Nintendo Switch's eShop from October 12.
Neo Geo ACA range [HAMSTER official]
Usually I try to leave these things open for debate for at least a sentence or two before giving my opinion, but there's clearly a right answer here. While Blade Runner 2049 is probably the best result to come out of a needless sequel since this whole needless sequel trend started, I don't want another in any way, shape or form. I have absolutely no desire for a Blade Runner series or universe to be born, and I think the more that the studio uses it the more it will tarnish what already came.
It seems we might not get one anyway. Analysts were predicting a much bigger opening than the $31.5 million the film grossed, as predictions had it possibly breaking October records. It was far from doing that, and far from bringing in a young audience with 86 percent of the crowd being over 25. The kids aren't into science fiction classic evidently.
*shakes cane angrily and tells those damn kids to get off my yard.*
The film won't be a flop most likely thanks to pulling in $50 million overseas, but it cost $150 million to make with marketing aplenty on top of that so it needed a bigger box office than this to be a true success. Given all that I'm hoping that we don't see another film in the franchise, and the two that exist can stand on their own.
A giant detailed statue of Dracula from Symphony of the Night in his "what is a man" pose? I could probably shell out a decent amount of cash for that. But Sagat clutching his scarred chest? $1000 is probably way over my limit.
That's just what PCS Collectibles is charging though, so if you're really into the Muay Thai master you can nab one when pre-orders go up tomorrow. Note however that the $1K pricetag is for the classic Sagat look, so if you want the headband sans-eyepatch model or the arms-crossed mold you'll need to shell out $1,149.99.
I have a fairly strict "only Mega Man" policy for big statues, mostly because things can get out of hand in terms of space. If I'm going to get an absurdly priced doll I may as well have a place to display it! Though anything I've bought typically floats around the realm of $100, not $1,000.
Sagat [PCS]
The U.K charts are currently in a real jumble. FIFA 18 holds firm for its second week at number one, whilst not one, but two Forza titles are backing it up in second and third. Football and Cars, folks, that's the UK.
Destiny 2 is beginning a slow descension from its roost, and Uncharted has left the top ten entirely, pushed out by the apparent success of LEGO Ninjago, one of two LEGO titles currently in the big leagues. Despite this Top Ten shake-up, there's Crash Bandicoot at number six, still riding high.
In other chart news, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga debuted at a disappointing nineteen, and huge sales peaks were seen by Pokken Tournament, from fourteen to thirty, and Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, which has dropped out of the top forty entirely.
EA is very careful with its wording -- I mean, at this point, the publisher has enough experience with courting and engaging disaster -- which is why it calls FIFA 18 on Switch a "custom" edition of the game. For the longest time a lot of people had no idea what that meant, but after its release, come to find out "custom" actually means "stripped of many modes so that it actually runs on the device."
Now those concessions don't come with bonuses. It is indeed a "custom" version that touts portability, but as DigitalFoundry points out, it's more inline with the last-generation versions, a practice that EA still does to this day with PS3 and Xbox 360 releases.
Based on the facts the FIFA 18 on Switch is almost like a "meet me halfway" port, where it's a little more involved than the PS3/360 ports but not quite up to snuff with Xbox One or PS4. It's weird because this whole debate has sparked controversy over whether or not the Switch is a current generation system (why is this a thing, it is!) -- but the real interesting thing is that developers still haven't figured out how to program for it given its docked and undocked status, both of which allow different configurations.
It was a few months ago at this point, but I remember being rather satisfied with Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy series' third episode, proclaiming it a long-awaited payoff for the slow burn of the previous two installments.
Back when I reviewed More Than A Feeling, I finally felt like the choices I had made as team leader Peter Quill were building up, leading up to a world-changing - or at least plot-changing - climax, one that would begin with this new episode, Who Needs You.
I suppose that was a bit naive of me.
While Super Mario Odyssey is still going with the tried and true 3D sandbox design that Nintendo has employed since Mario 64, there's plenty of room for challenge room-esque diversions that will involve more linear tasks.
We got to see a few more concepts over the course of the weekend during the Nintendo World Championship run, including a puzzle that goes from 3D to 2D and another segment that heavily involves the new cap flipping mechanics.
Contestants John Numbers and Thomas G had to pick these mechanics up on the fly during a competition that saw over 400,000 views on Nintendo's official stream account, but we'll have a lot less pressure comparatively when we get to play them later this month. You can catch these new bits and pieces at roughly the 4:35:00 mark in the below stream archive.
A handful of TV networks have started to incorporate more eSports content into their lineups and now eSports have made their way to streaming video on demand as Hulu and ESL have teamed up to create four new eSports series. "Esports appeals to a younger, more digitally savvy audience so Hulu is a perfect platform to build out our original content and expose the world of esports to new audiences," ESL Senior VP of Global Media Rights and Distribution Nik Adams said in a statement.
Source: ESL
Europe's Splatoon 2 community fought it out this weekend in the arena-shooter's latest Splatfest showdown which featured, of all the topics, whether the end of your toilet paper should hang at the front, or the back, of the roll.
In what should come as zero surprise to anyone. "Hanging from the Front" came out on top, taking a whopping 72% of the votes and just pipping over 50% in Solo play. "Hanging from the back" supported by clear etiquette-disaster Marina, managed to pull back 53% in Team play. Ultimately, it was a win for Pearl who, squid-demon or otherwise, is far more welcome to visit my bathroom.
Regardless of result, we can all agree they both look cool as all hell in those suits.
The next Splatfest takes place later this week in North America, where the community will shoot it out in ink-based carnage over which monster is better: Vampires for Pearl or Werewolves for Marina. This Halloween-themed face-off begins October 13 and is probably more likely see a much more divisive vote.
I was talking to some colleagues of mine this weekend about what's left in 2017, and many of them didn't have much enthusiasm to share. It dawned on me that many are PC-centric, so outside of Destiny 2 (which is already out on consoles) and a few other bits and pieces like the multiplatform Star Wars Battlefront II, there aren't a lot of heavy-hitters.
As someone that delves into every aspect of gaming though, Nintendo has quite a lot on the horizon (Fire Emblem Warriors, Mario, Pokemon Ultra, Xenoblade Chronicles 2). If you aren't stoked for the rest of 2017 though, I totally get it.
This year (like many others) has been pretty front-loaded, with a steady stream of Persona 5s and Breath of the Wilds sprinkled throughout. For me, Mario Odyssey is an obvious choice for a late Game of the Year contender, but Assassin's Creed: Origins has been getting a lot of buzz as well. This isn't even including some big, potentially game-changing updates from games like Final Fantasy XIV, a potential Destiny 2 expansion launch in December, and obligatory Heroes of the Storm, PUBG, or Overwatch patches.
2017 isn't dead yet! It's going to go out fighting.
