News:: Warhammer: Vermintide 2 should be chaotic fun

We knew Fatshark had started work on a sequel to Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide, but today the studio has much more to show for its four-player cooperative action game. The Skaven hordes are back, as expected, along with another threat: Chaos. The two forces have "formed a pact to plunge the world into death and decay," and you'll need to put an end to those plans as one of five heroes.

I like how the first part is a standard trailer, then it kicks over to "unedited pre-alpha footage" in which the person playing stabs the absolute shit out of a bunch of Chaos troops. That'll do.

"We have listened to the community, analyzed hours and hours of online playthroughs, and combined this with our passion for co-op games to bring you the very best experience possible," says Fatshark CEO Martin Wahlund. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is targeting "PC and consoles" in Q1 2018.

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News:: The Talos Principle has come to Oculus Rift and Vive

At the risk of being "that one guy on Destructoid who just won't shut up about The Talos Principle," hey, this very good and worth-playing first-person puzzle adventure game has come to virtual reality.

It's available as of today on Steam for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive with roomscale support and numerous movement options: "teleport, instant teleport, blink teleport, [and] classic full locomotion (with or without comfort mode)." The transition to VR felt natural in my hands-on earlier this year at PAX.

The Talos Principle VR is $40 but folks who own the original non-VR version can save 25 percent. Also, the game's perplexing Road to Gehenna expansion is included.

I'm still pulling for an eventual sequel.

The Talos Principle VR [Steam]

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News:: EA shuts down the studio behind 'Dead Space'

So much for hopes of a Dead Space sequel in the near future. EA is shutting down Visceral Games, the studio behind the Dead Space series, Battlefield Hardline and The Godfather. According to EA, the closure is the result of a decision to "pivot" Visceral's Star Wars title. It was intended as a linear, story-driven adventure (not surprising given the involvement of Uncharted director Amy Hennig), but player feedback led EA to decide that a it should be a "broader" game with "more variety and player agency." This included changing "central elements," EA added. To put it another way: the publisher wanted a game that was more, well, EA-like.

Via: Kotaku

Source: EA

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News:: Taiwan wins for the most excessive Gran Turismo Sport bundle

It's not so often that we see ridiculously expensive bundle packages for upcoming video games. THQ still holds the record with their Saints Row IV Million Dollar pack, but the Taiwanese market is getting a pretty excessive Gran Turismo Sport bundle of its own. It's not enough to include the game with a PS4 Pro, because that would be reasonable; no, this bundle includes basically everything needed to transform GT Sport into a real simulator as well as a car.

Not adopting any real special name, the Gran Turismo Sport Super Bundle includes the game with a 1,000,000 credit head start, a PS4 Pro, a full PlayStation VR bundle (that is the headset, two controllers and PlayStation Eye camera), a year of PlayStation Plus, a Sony Bravia 4K OLED television, the Thrustmaster T-GT race wheel, APIGA's AP1 racing seat and a brand new 2018 Mazda MX-5 with custom GT decals. This will retail for NT $1,398,000 (or roughly $46,300 USD).

In all honesty, that isn't the worst thing in the world, but you could actually acquire all of the individual pieces for a lot less. Hell, you could buy another Bravia 4K television with the savings and I know past Gran Turismo games supported multi-monitor modes. The most unappealing thing about this bundle, for me, is the Mazda included. I really don't like Mazda's, but they are one of the cheapest ways to feel like you're driving a sports car.

At any rate, I guess we can add this to the list of ludicrous collector's packages. I'm still waiting for a first-person shooter that will include an actual gun with its bundle.

'Gran Turismo Sport' Super Bundle comes with a real Mazda Miata [Auto Blog]

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News:: Fire Emblem Warriors' launch trailer confirms Japanese audio and DLC plans

The upcoming Fire Emblem Warriors looks like a real delight, but fans of Japanese audio were left scratching their heads. Nintendo has been vague as to whether or not the game would ship with the option and early review copies have only contained English on the cartridge. While Japanese audio won't be contained on any cartridge, a free day one update will add the option for everyone. Odd, but free is free.

Along with confirming that detail, this launch trailer also gives us a more firm idea of when each DLC pack in the game's season pass will be landing. The vague information of Winter 2017 and Spring 2018 has now been transformed into December for the Fates pack, February 2018 for the Shadow Dragon pack and March 2018 for the Awakening pack. We also now know that each pack will bring three new characters and three new "History" scenarios as well as weapons, costumes and support conversations.

Finally, you can catch a quick glimpse of Lucina's bride outfit, which looks a little out of character for her (though is mostly a nod to the development process).

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News:: Mario Party: The Top 100's amiibo support seems fine

Every time I play Mario Party, I think it's going to be a grand old time. But, once the last turn wraps up, bonus stars are awarded, and a winner is named, I swear off the series "forever." These are cruel games meant for cruel people and yet I keep crawling back for more. The cycle inevitably repeats.

It's been years since I've felt the urge to buy a new Mario Party for these and other reasons, but the next entry, Mario Party: The Top 100, stands out. It's essentially a greatest hits collection, one that focuses on the good stuff: the mini-games themselves.

Today's video covers the modes and how amiibo will interact with The Top 100. In short, certain Super Mario Bros. figures will award coins, grant an extra life, and enable early mini-game unlocks.

I'm trying to think what my favorite Mario Party mini-game would be without looking up an exhaustive list of contenders. The first thing to come to mind is Mario Party 4's Booksquirm, so I suppose it's that!

It sure would be nice if Nintendo took this best-of concept, expanded it, and put it on the Switch.

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News:: Yep, Line Rider is still good as hell

A few days ago, YouTube recommended me some video for Line Rider, a monstrously effective time-waster I haven't thought about in close to a decade. Like most of these automated suggestions, I only gave the video's title a glance before moving on to something else. I just assumed it was super old!

Flash forward to today, and Darren asks Destructoid staff "Is it still cool to post Line Rider videos? Because this one [the same exact one I originally skipped] is amazing."

To answer his question, in this case, yes. Yes it is cool. YouTube user DoodleChaos took a month to painstakingly fine-tune a level so that it would sync up with "In the Hall of the Mountain King."

The rest of my day will now be spent fighting the urge to screw around in Line Rider. Well done.

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News:: 'GTA Online' transforming vehicle races start today

There are plenty of new racing games to choose from this fall (Forza 7, GT Sport, Project Cars 2 and Need for Speed: Payback), but none of them will let you change vehicles mid-race. Nor are they anywhere near as crazy as what Rockstar Games has been doing with GTA Online. Today marks the debut of Transform Races, which as the name suggests, has you swapping from plane to jet ski, to stunt car to bicycles all in the course of a single circuit, and in real-time. Simply drive through a waypoint in a stunt race and your vehicle will change instantaneously and appropriately for the section ahead.

Source: Rockstar Newswire

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News:: ARK: Survival Evolved will have two graphical modes for Xbox One X

We're mere weeks away from the Xbox One X launch. Think you'll get one? (Now, or ever?)

Studio Wildcard has spoken about its Xbox One X update for ARK: Survival Evolved and while the new hardware won't lead to a silver bullet that fixes all of the game's performance woes, it'll enable noticeable improvements. The developers are smartly giving players a choice between two modes.

"The first is a Detailed Graphics version with 1440p resolution and Truesky (which is the equivalent to High quality on the PC) at 30fps. The second is a 1080p mode which equates to the current Xbox One graphics, with improved 60fps.

The Xbox One X has increased RAM, 60-70% more RAM compared to the Xbox One, which will help to eliminate out of memory issues. It also means faster loading times and better streaming due to a faster hard-drive and the ability to cache data into RAM (coming November 7th) that will allow faster and better access to repeat files. The Xbox One X will eliminate the host tether in local splitscreen mode and will increase the tether range in non-dedicated mode. Unfortunately we were unable to remove the tether completely due to CPU limitations, but we hope that players will benefit from the increased range."

Wildcard also notes that support for Xbox Play Anywhere and cross-play are still happening, but they're now expected to go live in November. "We're very interested in the effects of CrossPlay, but we're cautious of enabling PC and Xbox Players to game together without having our anti-cheat ready, so it's going to take a little longer to get that sorted, but it will ensure a much better experience overall."

Mysterious Mysteries: Introducing ???????, ARK Digest 51, & Community Crunch 107! [ARK]

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News:: Review: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

In one of this season's episodes of South Park, Randy Marsh remarks "You have to overdo it in today's society. You can't be nuanced and subtle anymore or else critics go 'Wow, what was the point of that?'" It's a slice of meta-observation about what South Park has been fighting for 20 years now. The brash, outrageous, over-the-top, line-toeing comedy gets the attention; any quieter social commentary often goes overlooked.

South Park's newest video game, The Fractured but Whole, doesn't take any chances on subtlety or nuance. It's constantly absurd in every single respect. Sometimes it has a point to make, sometimes it's just pointing without really saying anything. But it's always attempting to one-up itself.

People who watch South Park know exactly what they're getting into. 

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News:: Japan's physicality-themed Splatfest reaches its conclusion

Japan's latest Splatfest concluded last night, as supporters of "Agility" took on fans of "Endurance" over which is the best... fitness... component, I guess?

Anyway, when all was said and done on Nintendo's shooter Splatoon 2, Marina's Team Endurance took a much needed 2-1 victory, proving that how long you can last stands tall over how, I dunno, flexible you are? The public vote went strongly in Agility's favour, but both Solo and Team play were taken by Endurance.

Pearl can console herself with the fact that she won the weekend's Halloween-themed Splatfest with a 3-0 victory. But, for now, the day belongs to Marina.

Splatoon 2 is available now on Nintendo Switch.

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News:: Team Fortress 2 prepares for a major update with an animated short

10 years in and Team Fortress 2 is still going strong. Valve has begun detailing a big update, Jungle Inferno, which adds a control point map called Mercenary Park, several community-made jungle maps, new taunts, and more yet to be revealed. Also, there's a yeti. Also also, there's an animated short.

I sometimes forget how much I adore these shorts.

"If Jurassic Park taught us one thing, it's life finds a way," says Valve. "If Jurassic Park taught us two things, it's life finds a way and Jurassic Park is a good idea to steal for an update. And if Valve's legal team has taught us one thing, it was by screaming at us about not telling you the second thing Jurassic Park taught us."

That was definitely Pyro wearing a jetpack in the video, by the way. You didn't just dream that up.

Jungle Inferno [Team Fortress 2]

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News:: EA has shut down Visceral Games

Visceral Games is set to close its doors in the very near future. Electronic Arts has opted to close the studio that's most well-known for the Dead Space series and Battlefield Hardline.

For the past few years, Visceral has been working on a Star Wars title under the lead of creative director Amy Hennig. That game is going to be reworked into something different and the project will be moved to another studio.

EA explains what this means for Star Wars in a statement by executive vice president Patrick Söderlund:

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News:: Dragon's Crown Pro delayed in Japan, but gets sweet-ass digital game book

Atlus have announced that the revamped edition of PS3 RPG brawler Dragon's Crown will not make its original Japanese street date of January 25, having been put back to February 8.

The silver lining to this story is that they also announced that the first run of Dragon's Crown Pro for the PS4 will come with a digital tabletop-style game book "Treasure of Demon Island". Players will get to take their favourite character on a page-turning quest, rolling digital dice to combat monsters, evade traps and collect treasures.

This announcement is, of course, referring to the Japanese release of the game. So everyone cross your fingers that we can not only get a Western release of the fantasy adventure, but that we also get a translation of this cool little addition. Unfortunately, being a digital game book, you can't keep your finger on the last page, in case you made the wrong decision, sorry.

Dragon's Crown Pro launches on PS4 in Japan on February 8.

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News:: Overwatch reaches 35 million players across all platforms

Blizzard has just shared the news that Overwatch has reached "35 million players and counting" this week.

While the new milestone is impressive, let's make sure we break it down a bit. This isn't accounting for active or concurrent users, nor is it highlighting just one platform. This is across everything, PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and essentially amounts to "units sold," not accounting for promotions. To break it down even further, the game grew from 30 million in April, meaning five million more have joined the fray in six months.

Still, even if a lot of them are inactive, that's a playerbase even AAA publishers can only dream of getting.

Overwatch [Twitter]

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News:: Star Wars Han Solo spin-off gets title: Solo

Now that production has wrapped, director Ron Howard took to Twitter today to spill the beans on the title of the Han Solo Star Wars spin-off. And wait for it, it's a doozy: Solo.

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News:: Nicalis' endless scroller Knight Terrors coming to Switch next week

Nicalis, developers of indie darling The Binding of Isaac, have announced that their new game, Knight Terrors, will charge headlong onto Nintendo Switch October 24.

The game, which features visuals recalling ZX Spectrum games such as Stormlord, has a brave night charging endlessly at threat and danger. Quick reactions and lightning reflexes are need to avoid the bevy of monsters, obstacles and traps bombarding you on all sides.

The game's Gothic horror design is perfect for Halloween week and would make for a pretty good title to play late into the witching hour. Alongside the endless run main game the game features four unlockable modes and high-score tracking.

Knight Terrors launches on Nintendo eShop on October 24.

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News:: Niantic CEO: AR will reach full potential 'when we get the glasses'

Imagine playing Pokémon Go not with your phone, but with a pair of augmented reality glasses. That is the future that John Hanke, founder and CEO of Niantic (the company behind Pokemon Go) wants. "The potential for AR is immense," he said at the Wall Street Journal's D.Live conference today, adding that while AR on phones is a good start, the ultimate goal would be to have augmented reality on glasses.

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News:: Sony's new label 'Unties' is publishing a Switch game

Sony has created a new publishing label called Unties, with the mission to "penetrate the ever-expanding video game market with indie games, which are continuing to draw attention even within Japan." It's a bit convoluted in structure though, because technically Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony, is creating this publishing stable.

Unties will be publishing Tiny Metal, Last Standard, Merkava Avalanche, and Deemo. The biggest get is probably the former, as Tiny Metal is slated for the PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch platforms. Yep, just as Microsoft is publishing all forms of Minecraft across competitor platforms like the PS4 and the Switch, so too is Sony publishing a Switch game.

This sort of crossing over has happened before with subsidiaries and the like, but it's still an interesting situation -- given that the entire game is an homage to Nintendo's now-dead Advance Wars series.

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News:: Play Atari's 'Centipede' on a tiny, authentic arcade cabinet

There's something special to playing a vintage arcade cabinet, but it's usually impractical to own one. It's no mean feat to lug a gigantic machine into your home, and you'll probably have to restore it to recapture its glory. Atari and New Wave Toys think they have a better idea. They've partnered on Replicade X Centipede, a 1/6th-scale cabinet replica that lets you play (what else?) Centipede in an authentic-looking system that won't chew up tons of space in your den. The 3.5-inch LCD won't recreate the experience you get with an old-school CRT screen, but everything else is surprisingly close. It's made of metal and wood, the art is sourced directly from Atari's vaults, and you even steer the game using a tiny trackball.

Source: Kickstarter

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News:: Internet swoons over Overwatch Mercy's concept art

I'm sulking. I'm sulking because apparently some folk have received their The Art of Overwatch tomes already and I'm sitting here with no Art of Overwatch tome (which releases next week). Regardless, lucky owners are already sharing pics of some of the concept art for the arena-shooter's lovable roster of heroes and reprobates.

But, among the test-sketches of stages, poster art and everyone's favourite loot box item, sprays, a portion of the Overwatch community is falling over itself at some Mercy concept art that depicts the angelic healer as a buff-as-hell (heaven?) dude, posted on twitter by user
Pumpkin Spice Enema.

how can i live a normal life when i know this concept mercy exists http://pic.twitter.com/E91lTn8AZb

— pumpkin spice enema (@kenhinaiscanon) October 15, 2017

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News:: Let this Zelda Poe sculpture get you in the spooky Halloween mood

Given that Zelda has such a massive fanbase with decades of history, it's easy to find plenty of amazing creations in any given month. This amazing Poe mold is from legendarytreasures, who creates Zelda scenes with various official merchandise and crafts their own works (like this Poe).

So how did they create this work of art? Well, the molding is by way of Sculpey Firm polymer clay (which can be baked), the little lamp is glowing with help from a pen light, and a fog machine set the mood of the scene. As for the tombstones, they were custom-made with Hylian words gathered from the 'net.

According to legendarytreasures, their next work is a Floormaster. Give them a follow or a bookmark, as you'll probably be seeing them in the future!

Was feeling festive so I sculpted a Poe [Reddit]

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News:: Gran Turismo Sport is barely functional when offline

Always online DRM has been a hot topic for years now. While I can understand wanting to combat piracy, putting such a stipulation mostly hurts legitimate buyers when server issues crop up. Gran Turismo Sport looks to be the next game that suffers when offline, since playing without internet limits you to only arcade mode with no ability to save. Just let that last bit sink in.

So say you run out and grab your copy today (something I will be doing soon), but there is some issue with your ISP that prevents you from connecting to the internet. Well, I guess you won't be doing much with you brand new, fully priced game. Campaign mode, buying new cars, viewing your garage, car livery editing and even taking photos won't be available to you. At least you can play split-screen...and have limited VR use...

To be fair, Sony did warn about this on their blog last month. As they stated, "GT Sport will require an Internet connection for the majority of functionality." Apparently, though, the requirement was, "to ensure that progress, car availability, and driver ratings are properly maintained at all times."

Part of that also has to do with the FIA, which is the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile. They are a global organization that runs and maintains world motorsport and have partnered with Polyphony Digital to ensure that GT Sport is as accurate as possible. I guess to reach that level of integrity means that people with crappy internet connections just have to suffer.

So if you don't have the best internet around or really want to play GT Sport while in an RV at a race track, you're gonna be out of luck. Hopefully the rest of the game holds up, because this restriction is already causing some alarm bells to ring for me.

Gran Turismo Sport is extremely limited in offline mode [Ars Technica]

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News:: Wolfenstein II takes the fight to the enemy in NSFW launch trailer

Next week sees the release of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, as B.J. Blazkowicz and his rag-tag band of underground rebels take to the streets to wipe out the Nazi menace that has conquered America.

Bethesda have released the final NSFW trailer for the title. Whilst other trailers have had a warped, almost juvenile sense-of-humour about them, there's no pissing about in this trigger-happy short, which sees all manner of hot lead thrown in harm's way. Col, Blaskowicz dual-wields his way through throngs of Nazi stormtroopers, all of whom seem to be under the proprietary command of Frau Engel, returning from previous title, The New Order.

However, a teaser at the very end of the trailer seems to reveal that Engel may not, in fact, be at the top of this particularly rotten food chain...

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus launches October 27 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. A Switch release is coming in 2018.

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News:: What do you want out of the next Resident Evil?

The reaction for Resident Evil 7 has been mixed since launch, and as someone who took it for a spin isolated from the discussion, I kind of figured that would happen. People felt scorned by 5 and 6 (and to some extent 4)'s move toward an action series, and Capcom took it further with each subsequent iteration. But that same discussion has been happening for months now, leading up through the unveiling of the long-delayed Not a Hero DLC, and I wanted to get your thoughts.

As many know I've played every Resident Evil game to date, even the kooky spinoffs. I realize it's not a popular take but 5 is my favorite, mostly because of the rad co-op feature and the refined multiplayer Mercenaries mode (which was since topped by Revelations 2). It just feels like a complete action game I can play for ages on end, and I still do, frequently going back between the PlayStation Move and recently released remaster versions.

At this point, that's what I want out of Resident Evil, as long as they don't go overboard like they did in 6 (making it Gears of Evil was too far). I don't need pure horror, there are plenty of indie games (and bigger releases) going for that now. Regardless of my thoughts, I feel like 7 struck a good balance between the two, especially if you have a PlayStation VR strapped to your head.

What about you though?

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News:: Destiny 2 gets PC launch trailer, removes troublesome emote

Activision have released a new trailer to drive up the hype for the PC release of intergalactic RPG sequel Destiny 2, which launched on consoles in September to a positive reception.

In related news, the amusing emote "Bureaucratic Walk" has been removed from the game for now, after it was discovered that the high-stepping animation, a homage to the "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus, allowed some players to comically step straight through walls and into out-of-bounds sections of the game map.

The pre-load for the PC release of Destiny 2 goes live tomorrow, October 18, with the game's servers launching on October 24.

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News:: Sure, I'd play a Kingdom Hearts Cuphead DLC

I love me a good piece of concept art. Some of my favorites are from artist Simon Andersen (who created Owlboy), specifically his re-imagining of certain retro classics on other platforms.

This "Cuphead meets Kingdom Hearts" mashup is just as intriguing, as the Heartless and Xehanort slot in nicely. Not to mention that a lot of Cuphead's art style is aping old cartoons, and some bosses are very close aesthetically to Silly Symphony.

I mean with the game's sales and Microsoft's influence, a lot could happen with Cuphead to make some sort of crossover a reality, even if it was just cosmetic in nature. Will we have to wait half a decade for a follow-up? Or will they supplement the original with DLC? We'll find out eventually!

Cuphead meets Kingdom Hearts [AllGamesDelta]

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