The absolutely wonderful VVVVVV will be heading to Nintendo Switch on November 17, Nicalis announced today. The game will run at 60 FPS and include a bunch of graphical filters to shake things up along with a multiplayer mode (that is awesome!!!). Its only being offered on the eShop, currently, but the game is priced at $9.99 to entice new (and old) players in.
Here is a spicy new trailer to tease that multiplayer action!
Much like their previous anime marathons in the past, and my personal favorite, the time they streamed the entire Power Rangers series, Twitch is at it again with Yu-Gi-Oh! The Animated Series.
From today until November 7, Twitch will stream 200+ episodes of the series. It's the 4Kids English dub, and I know folks on the Internet have dogged it before, but I'm quite attached to this version of the series myself. Goofy as it may be, it pretty much started my love of anime and led to many quotes and in-jokes like "My deck has no pathetic cards Kaiba" and the fact all guns are just pointed fingers.
You can check out the currently in-action marathon here. Battle City's the best arc.
Finally, a reason to revisit the excellent albeit fleeting Job Simulator.
This slapstick virtual reality game is one of the first things I recommend new VR owners check out, but once you've gone through it a few times, there's not much incentive to come back. Developer Owlchemy Labs is addressing this with an endless Infinite Overtime mode and more secrets to uncover.
Work the endless night shift in Infinite Overtime— a free Job Simulator update! PLUS new price! #PrepareToJobForever https://t.co/ANHsJF0wHx http://pic.twitter.com/K2oJpsGS2c
— Owlchemy Labs (@OwlchemyLabs) October 23, 2017
Basically, this is just what the game needed. I'm stoked.
"We've been working in secret on this update for quite a while, creating randomized bot interactions, adding in new mini-meta games, and updating our vehicular drift vectors," the developers said. "Each of the jobs in Job Simulator has been fitted with an Infinite Overtime mode, which includes new tasks, promotions and, of course, easter eggs! Keep at the nightly grind to earn promotions and desk flair to declare your dedication to endless jobbing. Even a human like you could one day be promoted to 'Managing Director of Interns'! Also, we added fidget spinners, because why not?"
Even better, there's been a price reduction. Job Simulator now costs $20.
Job Simulator New Mode 'Infinite Overtime' + Price Drop! [Owlchemy Labs]
If you have friends who own video game consoles, chances are you heard a lot about Destiny 2 in the last month. But anecdotal evidence that the game was everywhere just got backed up by some astonishing sales figures. Just one month after launching on PS4 and Xbox One, Destiny 2 is already the best-selling game of 2017, according to an NPD Group report -- which was released a day before the game comes out on PC.
[This past weekend, our mischievous and blubbery pal Wario celebrated his 25th birthday! Join Khalid on a retrospective and analysis of the coin-hoarding buffoon and how he succeeds as a great parody of an iconic figure. Want to see your work featured by Destructoid? Put something together that catches our eye! - Wes]
Wario - he is fat; he is lazy; he is greedy; he is a cheater; and yet despite all of this I can't help but love him. Wario is, in my humble opinion, the most perfect "evil twin" in the history of video games.
It may seem hard to believe but October 21st 2017 marks the 25th anniversary of the creation of Wario. Wario debuted in Japan back in 1992's Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins, a game produced not by the father of Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, but instead by his mentor and creator of the Game Boy, Gunpei Yokoi. Wario himself was created by Hiroji Kiyotake who also designed Samus and directed the recently recreated Metroid II: Return of Samus.
Night in the Woods, the year's most human game that doesn't feature a single person, is coming to mobile devices in 2018. Developer Infinite Fall announced the mobile port in a thread from Night in the Woods' Twitter account. According to the tweets, concrete details will "come soon."
Dark Horse is putting out The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia this April to accompany their previously released Hyrule Historia and Arts and Artifacts books.
The standard edition of the book looks great as is and the three old tomes will look even better as a complete set. That said, the $80 Deluxe variant of the encyclopedia is one hell of a nostalgia trip.
Following reports that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and TT Games would wrap up their work on LEGO Dimensions earlier than expected, the publisher has has issued a confirmation.
The toys-to-life game won't be getting any new expansions "beyond what is now available," according to Warner Bros., but its servers will stay up for the time being and customer service will still be offered.
From building and rebuilding to the most bricktacular mash-ups, the Multiverse would be nothing without our amazing community. Thank you. http://pic.twitter.com/NEDbBXqjyZ
— LEGO Dimensions (@LEGODimensions) October 23, 2017
I like LEGO games well enough, but I knew Dimensions would be way too much of a wallet-breaker for me to risk getting into. I mean, they even have Beetlejuice in there. I can't say no to that!
Between Disney Infinity, Skylanders, and now this, the toys-to-life segment sure has cooled off.
LEGO Dimensions [Twitter]
If you haven't played Night in the Woods, you're frankly missing out. The made-partly-in-Michigan indie adventure melds witty (and often silly) dialogue with iconic visuals, varied gameplay and discussions of weighty subjects. It's a good thing that the game will soon be available anywhere you go, then. Infinite Fall has revealed that Night in the Woods will be coming to mobile devices sometime in 2018. The studio hasn't offered details yet, but it's safe to say that the interface will have to change if you're going to prank shoppers and get into knife fights on your phone's touchscreen.
Source: Night in the Woods (Twitter)
Grand Theft Auto V was such a smashing success that everyone assumed Rockstar would be hard at work on a potential DLC campaign. The city of Los Santos was vast and the characters were all set up to have some sort of continuation, so what happened? Was GTA Online really that insanely popular that Rockstar never even considered extra single-player content? The answer, it turns out, is a little from column A and a little from column B.
Speaking to Game Informer in a new interview, Imran Sarwar (Rockstar's director of design) stated that Rockstar never thought expansions were, "possible or necessary," and that the lack of single-player content, "was not really a conscious decision, it's just what happened."
"With GTA 5," Sarwar states, "the single-player game was absolutely massive and very, very complete. It was three games in one. The next-gen versions took a year of everyone's time to get right, then the online component had a lot of potential, but to come close to realizing that potential also sucked up a lot of resources...The combination of these three factors means for this game, we did not feel single-player expansions were either possible or necessary, but we may well do them for future projects."
The interview then goes into some details about when GTA Online may finally stop receiving updates and how Rockstar is gearing up to promote Red Dead Redemption 2. At least from the sound of things, Rockstar is pretty keen to push out more single-player content with Red Dead Redemption 2 and that their passion still lies with open-world games.
Sarwar shared, "at Rockstar, we will always have bandwidth issues because we are perfectionists and to make huge complex games takes a lot of time and resources. Not everything is always possible," he stressed, "but we still love single-player open-world games more than anything. I don't think you could make a game like GTA5 if you did not like single-player games and trying to expand their possibilities!"
This all sounds reasonably fair, even if most people won't accept that explanation. I do still kind of think Rockstar saw all the cash pouring in from GTA Online and shifted their focus towards that, but its not like the end result of Grand Theft Auto V was disappointing for anyone. The game is still one of the best selling pieces of software ever created and even with ridiculous microtransactions in the multiplayer portion, the single-player campaign is a fully complete and realized vision. You can't be too upset with that.
Rockstar Discusses Past, Present, And Future Of Grand Theft Auto Online [Game Informer]
BJ Blazkowicz has a high-powered arsenal in his ongoing fight against the Nazis, but you won't necessarily need a high-powered arsenal to see his fight through. Bethesda has just released the minimum and recommended PC specs for Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, and they seem mostly reasonable.
To be able to run Wolfenstein II, here's what you'll need:
Game Center CX, also known as Retro Game Challenge, is arguably the world's first Let's Play series. It's been a hit on Japanese TV ever since its debut in 2003, spawning multiple game spin-offs and other side projects. Satoru Iwata, the late president of Nintendo, once starred in an entire episode. Still, for whatever reason, the Game Center CX brand has been largely relegated to "cult favorite" status in the rest of the world. My guess is that it's the language barrier.
I'm Stuck in a Video Game could be one step towards breaking down that barrier, among others. It's a sweet, simple story about a young girl who enters the world of Pandasourus, her favorite Famicom title. Illustrated and translated by Fangamer and Simpsons comic artist Nina Matsumoto and written by Game Center CX producer Tsuyoshi Kan, the book offers a unique, accessible take on familiar territory.
Cartoons and movies about "getting sucked into the game" have become commonplace in recent years, but children's books that follow similar set ups are less prevalent. To many parents, books are seen as virtuous, and video games are a vice, so combining the two may come off like fat-free potato chips or Glengarry Glen Ross with the swears dubbed out. Anyone who sees I'm Stuck in a Video Game that way is missing out. My two-year-old son's fascination with the book is proof of that.
Chalk up another casualty in the decline of collectible-based video games: Lego, Warner Bros. and TT Games have stopped producing new expansions for Lego Dimensions. They'll continue to sell existing expansion packs, and servers will continue to run, but there won't be any new toys or gameplay. The companies didn't explain the move in the announcement tweet beyond saying it came after "careful consideration." We've asked if they can elaborate and will let you know if there's more they can say on the record.
Via: CNET
Source: Lego Dimensions (Twitter)
If you were holding out hope that the Festival of the Lost would make a surprise appearance in Destiny 2, no such luck. Bungie has confirmed that it won't hold the in-game Halloween event this year.
That makes sense; the studio will be awfully busy this week launching Destiny 2 on PC, and we just got a big seasonal overview that made no mention of the Festival of the Lost. As far as upcoming events are concerned, Bungie is putting its energy into The Dawning, its winter holiday event.
No, Sir. We may see it again someday but Season 1 has been about launch and ritual activation. The first event for Destiny 2 is The Dawning.
— DeeJ (@DeeJ_BNG) October 21, 2017
I never got around to playing the Festival in Destiny 1, so while this is expected news, I'm still bummed.
[Via Eurogamer]
This week sees the release of Assassin's Creed: Origins, the latest game in Ubisoft's historical murder series, which now spans roughly twenty titles. The new game, launching on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, moves the wall-climbing, horse-riding and neck-slicing to the blistering heat of ancient Egypt.
To celebrate the release of the latest chapter of the mainline Assassin's Creed series, Ubisoft have released a final trailer, showing people's hero Bayek blaze a trail for those that will follow him in the future Brotherhood of Assassins, who will forever wage war with the sinister Templar Order.
Assassin's Creed: Origins launches on PC and consoles worldwide on October 27.
The trailer may be locked to U.S territories.
We've been excited about Mike Bithell's surprise indie game, Subsurface Circular, since it released months ago. The developer of Thomas Was Alone and Volume stealthily made the science fiction text adventure game for iOS after he asked Twitter followers in April if they'd buy a unique hour-long video game for $5. Now the game is out and available on the App Store for iPad.
Source: iTunes App Store
If you've been anticipating the upcoming Bandai Namco anime-based game Dragon Ball FighterZ like we have, you're in luck. The gaming company just announced that the title will release on January 26th, 2018 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
Via: Shonen Jump
Source: Bandai Namco
Capcom hopes to figure out who the most popular Street Fighter characters are in 2017. You probably have someone in mind, but before you commit, consider browsing through the whole list.
Me? I'm a Sagat man. But for the purposes of this poll, which may or may not influence where Street Fighter V goes next, I'm tempted to vote in a different direction. Q, for instance. I miss Q.
This isn't the first poll of its kind. In 2013, Capcom asked us to vote for our faves to "help with future games, marketing, and licensing opportunities." Ryu was voted number-one globally, followed by Ken, Akuma, Chun-Li, and Cammy. This familiar group might sound fine, but considering how many characters we're dealing with here, we can mix it up far more than that. Let's not have a repeat!
This year's poll runs until November 5, with the results going out on January 16, 2018.
Character Popularity Poll [Capcom]
Back on April 2, The Walking Dead wrapped its seventh season with style, providing the opening overtures to the theme all out war. Rick and the Alexandrians are saved from Negan, the Saviors, and the Scavengers, by the timely intervention of the Kingdom and the Hilltop societies, along with a few old friends. We know what's at stake, and we know where things are going. Sure, it hasn't been perfect: I, like many of you, I suspect, have issues with trash people and other glaring, less than stellar plot elements, but mostly, it was an engaging season with copious amounts of tension, and a Negan that just keeps getting more evil--somehow.
Now, with the premiere of the 100th episode of The Walking Dead, called 'Mercy,' we are ready for this new war to begin and for the action to intensify. So what did we get to mark such a momentous episode and point in the show's trajectory? Read on to find out.
[Editor's Note: This recap will obviously go into detail about last night's episode of The Walking Dead, so there are going to be a ton of spoilers. Final warning!]
Most of Microsoft's messaging around Xbox One X has emphasized how current games are even better on this improved hardware. Performance is higher, visuals are crisper -- all the stuff that tells console players that the Xbox One X has the best versions of games. As it turns out, everything's not confined to the current generation.
As reported by IGN, the enhancements will trickle down to the vaunted Xbox 360 backward compatibility program too. On the November 7 launch of Xbox One X, Assassin's Creed, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Halo 3 will all receive free updates that seem to focus largely on image quality.
There are two main improvements across all four games. First, they'll all have nine times the on-screen pixels as their Xbox 360 versions did. They'll also utilize a 10-bit color depth whereas the Xbox 360 restricted games to 8-bit color depth. While performance bumps weren't explicitly mentioned, it's worth noting that Xbox One's emulation technique often brings certain enhancements such as framerate smoothing.
A few weeks ago, Xbox head Phil Spencer teased that the Xbox One X would have backward compatibility features that people might "find interesting." This could very well be it, the revelation that improvements extend to the previous generation of Xbox. If that's the case, Microsoft's starting out with four absolute bangers.
4 Xbox 360 Games Getting Xbox One X Enhancements [IGN]
Not all of us are capable of making an automated Pokémon-collecting machine to amass a horde of shiny monsters. That's what distribution events are for! The latest one for Pokémon Sun and Moon starts this week at GameStop and EB Games -- it's your chance to nab a Shiny Silvally.
Codes are available now through November 13, 2017 at participating stores (or until supplies run out).
This particular Pokémon is level 100, holds a Gold Bottle Cap, and knows the moves Multi-Attack, Parting Shot, Punishment, and Scary Face. Strange-looking creature that Silvally. Mighty strange.
'South Park used to be a lot funnier,' I catch myself thinking as I play through the franchise's latest game, The Fractured But Whole (TFBW). Maybe I'm just too old, or has the world moved on while South Park stayed the same? Humor is crucial to the success of the game, which relies on superficial mechanics and an overload of fetch quests and collectibles to pad its length; It's TFBW's jokey tone and writing that hold the game together. But if you aren't already a fan of the show, there's little reason to play the game.
The re-release of Apollo Justice for the Nintendo 3DS gives me a perfect opportunity to bring up some of the important lessons the series has taught us about the law.
In the strange world of Japanifornia, the courts are a place not only of finding guilt, but of putting on the most incredible, often bizarre displays of justice possible. Your arguments are only as good as the flair with which you give them. Just look at their outfits: who but the most desperate performer would wear these suits?
There's always a huge debate over what's better for horror games -- first or third-person -- and the answer always depends on the game itself. You really can't argue with options though, and this very simple change for the PC edition of The Evil Within 2 will help you on your merry way to play the entire journey with the former.
All you need to do is right-click the game on Steam, and type in +com_allowconsole 1 in the launch options. Once you're in, open up the in-game console with Insert, then type pl_FPS 1. That's it! If you want to do some window shopping as it were without pulling the trigger, you can check out the below video that contains footage of the alteration in action.
You know what? Despite the fact that Evil Within was crafted as a third-person experience, this doesn't look half bad, especially if someone were to create a VR mod in tandem with this tweak.
I have been professionally film-critcing for more than 10 years. I see almost every movie that gets released in theaters at one point or another, but, for better or worse, I have never seen a Madea film. Part of this is by choice, but a lot of it just happens to be random luck with my schedule. I'm not crying as they're almost always panned, and I'm not really the target demographic, but I really don't know anyone who wants to go to them.
But they do relatively really well, especially for their shoe string budget. Tyler Perry is a movie mogul with six number one opening weekends, and the films make bank for what they are.
So who here does go to them? Do you enjoy them or are you just committed to now seeing every Tyler Perry movie out of some sort of morbid tradition? Are the critics wrong and these movies are actually funny? They must hit a funny bone because they keep on getting number one openings. Then again, Boo 2's main competition was Geostorm, so maybe we're not saying much here.
Quick side note: Thanks to a probably Halloween uptick, It is on pace to gross more than Superhero tentpole Batman v. Superman.
I used to have my Nintendo 64 on-hand, hooked up to an older TV ready to go, but after a number of 3DS and Virtual Console re-releases, Nintendo has made it a little easier to relive the retro era. This is especially true for Ocarina of Time given the fantastic 3DS port, as the ease of use of that version spurs me into replaying it yearly. I may have to opt for yet another go too after seeing this fantastic inked art from Cameron-Ohara.
Drawn up for the Inktober artist initiative, it recaptures the beauty of each area while maintaining an air of simplicity to it. In that way it doesn't overstate Ocarina itself, which, as an early 3D adventure, generally contains zones that wouldn't be considered impressive today -- especially in light of Breath of the Wild's living world.
Still, you could say that about a lot of retro games. What I appreciate about Ocarina of Time even to this day are the little things, the ingenuity of the temple design, and the novel idea of swapping timelines on a whim. It's still worth playing and I'm glad other people still share that passion.
Cameron-Ohara [Reddit]
In terms of new software, Microsoft doesn't have much to offer Xbox One owners this holiday unless you want to play the fourth Forza in as many years. What it does have though, are a baker's dozen of games from the original Xbox. Some we already knew about like Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge and Xbox launch title Fuzion Frenzy, but there are a few surprises as well.
Source: IGN
In Party Hard, you break up raucous parties by committing mass murder. Party Hard Tycoon is a spin-off taking place in the same world with the same irreverence. Although I never got to see the knife-wielding maniac from the original game, I'm choosing to believe at least one of my parties ended in mayhem, just like I'm choosing to believe both games have Andrew W.K.'s blessing.
I'm not much of a partier in any sense of the word, but I do know my management sims, and this one was described as being similar to Theme Hospital, a game I keep going back to even a decade after its initial release. Party Hard Tycoon is much less frantic, but I can understand the comparison, especially in terms of managing your space and your budget. The fact that it shares some similarities with Theme Hospital is a good point of reference if you're considering this game.
