We told you the anticipated version 5.0 update for ARMS would be launching soon and now it has arrived. In addition to tweaking current members of the roster, this update also adds the new fighter's newest character: Dr. Coyle.
Bandai Namco today announced that the infamous show G Gundam will be joining the roster of Gundam Versus. The first two mobile suits from the show will be God/Burning Gundam and Master Gundam, piloted by protagonist Domon and antagonist Master Asia. It was also announced that some free content would arrive this month as well.
The arrival of G Gundam has been a long time coming to say the least, and even Namco's Twitter account knows it.
So Falcom's countdown for The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV ended on Wednesday, and they announced some juicy stuff. I think the most important one is that they added The End of Saga to the game's title. In other words, they're reminding people that this installment will mark the end of the Trails series' "Erebonia Arc."
Trails of Cold Steel IV -The End of Saga hits Japan in Fall 2018 for the PS4, and it'll be larger than its predecessor. While we haven't heard any word of the third installment going West, this should give me enough time to complete the original Trails in the Sky trilogy.
As a heads-up, the following information about Falcom's upcoming RPG contains spoilers. Some of them are related to Trails of Cold Steel III and the others involve characters from the series' previous sagas. If you're trying to play them without being spoiled, make sure you avoid the stuff after the jump.
You have been warned.
Once upon a time someone leaked that we'd be getting Firebat in Heroes of the Storm and a heap of other characters, which ended up being pretty spot on. The thing is all those heroes came to fruition, but BlizzCon came and went, and the Firebat was never announced. Until today that is.
Blizzard just confirmed via a YouTube video tease that the next character to hit the game will be "Blaze," the veteran Firebat. He'll arrive in January 2018, and is a "dual-incinerator cannon wielding Warrior who excels at area-of-effect damage and locking down an area of the battlefield."
Right now the rumor mill has run pretty dry, but I've heard tales of Mal’ganas coming at some point from the community. Coincidentally, the Dread Lord has actually been number one of my wishlist since the launch of the game -- and would still be relevant with Legion partially focusing on the Nathrezim. Make it happen, Blizzard!
It's getting to be that time. Pokémon Go has begun its holiday event and this year that means the return of festive Pikachu, the debut of that little scamp Delibird, more Ruby and Sapphire critters, and gifts.
- As a special bonus, the first PokéStop you visit each day between December 22 at 1:00 p.m. PST and December 25 at 1:00 p.m. PST will award you a single-use Egg Incubator with your first Photo Disc spin, so make sure to check in every day to collect an incubator.
- From December 21 through December 25 at 1:00 p.m. PST, special boxes will feature items such as Super Incubators, Lure Modules, and the all-new Star Pieces, which earn bonus Stardust for 30 minutes when activated.
- From December 25 at 1:00 p.m. PST through January 4, 2018, keep an eye on the in-game shop for special boxes, featuring items such as Premium Raid Passes, Super Incubators, and Star Pieces.
You'll start seeing fresh-faced Generation III Pokémon beginning today, including Snorunt, Wailmer, Sharpedo, Luvdisc, Relicanth, Feebas, and Milotic, among others. Kyogre is on the way, too.
If you haven't stayed current with Pokémon Go, it's worth bringing up Niantic's new AR+ feature for iOS players that better incorporates the game with the real world during encounters and has you slowly and steadily moving closer toward wild Pokémon for a capture bonus. It looks super neat!
Celebrate the holiday season with Pikachu and friends! [Pokémon Go]
Hello my little spandex suits, it's me, PlasticTree, once again here to fill in for my fellow hosts whenever they are indisposed. I'm a little late with this entry, so I called upon some help to finish it. Apologies! What a week we've had. It's the kind of week you usually only see after the E3 event, when it's actually good. I mean fuck the Oscars, right? But fuck, fuck the Oscars!
Bayonetta 3 is a reality, and FromSoft are teasing a new game, possibly something involving blood of some description? 2017 is a year that keeps on giving, a consolation prize for the sour 2016. Comments of the Week is back, good games keep churning out, and somehow The Game Awards were actually interesting. Here's hoping The Last Jedi is good when I'm watching it on Wednesday. How about we keep celebrating 2017 through your comments last week!
Here we go!
With today's PC and PS4 update, Ubisoft's social space sim Star Trek: Bridge Crew no longer requires players to use a virtual-reality headset. If you've been trying to talk your friends into playing (or vice versa), that conversation should be simpler now. VR and non-VR players can form a crew together.
This should definitely help get some fresh blood in the matchmaking system.
The update also includes "graphical enhancements that were created specifically for non-VR," according to game director Brian Tate, who adds that "if you have a high-end PC, you can enable these features and get an even more graphically impressive experience in virtual reality."
Lastly, Bridge Crew has added support for Windows Mixed Reality headsets.
Star Trek: Bridge Crew Now Playable Without VR After Free Update [Ubisoft]
Here's another big one for you guys, just in time for Christmas/Holiday fun! The awesome folks at ConsoleTuner.com are at it again: letting you pick your choice of controller (xb360, xb1, PS3 or PS4), and a free console of your choice: Nintendo Switch, PS4 Slim, or Xbox One S! and of course, the Titan One and Two. Now some of you may be asking, "What's a Titan One or a Two?" Fair enough, let's check the blurb:
Sega will host a live stream next week to showcase the first ever gameplay footage of upcoming strategy title Valkyria Chronicles 4.
The broadcast is set for December 27 at 20:00 JST/ 03:00 PT/ 11:00 GMT. It will be available to watch live on Periscope, LINE Live, or, for the more traditional among us, YouTube. Hosted by Valkyria Chronicles mega-fan Hashiyan Kousaka, and featuring voice-actors Naomi Ohzora and Yukiyo Fujii, the stream will give us a glimpse of the beautiful but war-torn imagery in the anticipated sequel.
Sega have not been shy with info for the game, releasing a lot of images and data concerning characters, classes and mechanics. Hopefully all this hype and hope will pay off when Valkyria Chronicles 4 hits PS4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One in 2018.
Valkyria Chronicles 4 live stream announcement [Official site]
It's hard to believe we live in a world where a new Kamen Rider game was released in English. I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise since Bandai Namco's Singapore division localized a couple Super Robot Wars and Gundam titles in Asia.
My exposure to the franchise began with Saban's Masked Rider, the Americanized version of Kamen Rider Black RX. When I started college, I learned from a friend that the show was adapted from an ongoing franchise in Japan. Eventually, I became addicted to its action and character-driven stories. In fact, some of its installments feature elements that appeal to older viewers. Also, I couldn't turn down the chance to see a program about bug-eyed bikers who kick their opponents to smithereens.
As a person who's seen a good amount of Rider shows, I was happy about Bandai Namco's decision to release Kamen Rider: Climax Fighters in English. Sadly, this arena brawler fails to do the franchise justice.
Usually, playing Civilization on the go means playing one of the cut-down Revolution games. They're fine, but they're not the same thing. You won't have to make that compromise from now on, however. Aspyr Media has released Civilization VI for the iPad -- yes, the whole thing. If you can't stand the thought of waiting to get home before advancing science or invading an empire, you just have to tuck an Apple tablet in your bag. That's no mean feat given how visually and computationally intensive the turn-based strategy game can be.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: App Store
While Psychonauts 2 didn't have a firm release date, it now won't be making the originally planned 2018 window. Confirmed on an update over on Fig, Double Fine has stated that, "we know a lot more about the size and scope of the game we are going to make...from those projections we know that Psychonauts 2 will not be shipping in 2018." Sad news, indeed.
"We love the game we're making and we want to make sure that Psychonauts 2 is something you’ll love too — a game that carries on the legacy of Psychonauts in a meaningful and special way." I can respect that, especially since the game was only announced as being funded nearly two years ago. I would rather everything be in a polished state than just shat out for the sake of closure.
Today marked the beginning of Steam's Winter Sale and that means folks are poking around to potentially give older games a second chance now that they're discounted. With that in mind, I hope you weren't in the mood for Transformers over the holiday break. You're going to come up empty-handed.
Transformers: War for Cybertron, Fall of Cybertron, Rise of the Dark Spark, and Devastation are no longer available for purchase on Steam, and that also goes for their DLC packs. What's more, we've lost out on another (albeit much less fondly remembered) game from Platinum: The Legend of Korra.
These games have also vanished from PlayStation Network but, at the time of writing, are still available for purchase on Xbox Live. That said, it's surely only a matter of time if this is a licensing issue.
It's a shame Activision didn't give an advance notice.
[Via @RobotBrush]
Champagne. It's fizzy. It's expensive. It's classy as hell when drunk by Jay Gatsby, 007, or Marilyn Monroe, yet immediately, and irreversibly, trashes up any given situation when purchased by pretty much anybody else.
Splatoon 2 fans can ring in this weekend's yuletide celebrations by popping their cork in the face of their opponents, as this week's new weapon is the "Foil Squeezer". The weapon is reminiscent of what uncouth Brits might refer to as "A bottle 'o' Bolly", usually drunk alongside pie and chips by Terry, in his too-tight polo shirt, and his stumbling girlfriend, who lost her shoes in the club.
The Squeezer Foil is a new weapon to the Splatoon universe, so its use in battle is a mystery. According to the Inkpedia, it fires out singular, high powered shots. Sounds akin to taking a cork in the face, like that snow owl scene in Dumb and Dumber. Either way, the Foil Squeezer is equipped with a Splash Wall sub and Sting Ray special.
The new weapon goes live tonight in the U.S. and early tomorrow in Japan and Europe.
Festive inkings, squid kids!
This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter, reviews for the real world. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here.
Before we sing "Auld Lang Syne" and wave farewell to this year, Valve wants to sell you a few more games. Yep, Steam's Winter Sale is officially underway.
You know how these things go -- thousands of games are on sale and you have to do the digging if you want to know about all of them. As for some of the front page deals, there's: Hellblade for $22.50, Vanquish for $10, SteamWorld Dig 2 for $13, Elite Dangerous for $7.50, and Tekken 7 for $25. There's plenty more, though. I'm thinking about grabbing Portal 2 for $2 just so I can say I have it on PC.
No real need to act quickly, either. Despite all the stuff I said in the opening paragraph about getting one more sale in before the year ends, Steam's Winter Sale actually straddles the calendar year and extends into 2018. It technically ends on January 4. So maybe you want to wait until you see what's in your stocking before committing cash to PC games.
Steam Winter Sale [Steam]
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's performance on Xbox hardware has never been what I'd call "great." So, when Microsoft announced that CD Projekt RED's massive single-player RPG was one of the games getting an "enhancement" patch for the One X I got pretty excited. Finally, the game would be playable on the system I got it for. The patch recently arrived, and with it an "advanced" tab in the display options. You can pick from either 4K Mode or Performance Mode. The former gives you 4K graphics at a locked 30 FPS on a UHD display. For 1080p TV owners, that translates to super-sampled visuals and 60 FPS in my brief tests.
Source: CD Projekt RED
Samus Returns. And how.
MercurySteam knocked it out of the park in 2017 with Metroid: Samus Returns. The Nintendo 3DS title took the 1991 Game Boy release Metroid II: Return of Samus, and re-envisioned it into a gorgeous, aggressive and addictive adventure for a whole new generation of players.
The game takes the Game Boy's green-screen graphics of yore and replaces them with spectacular 3D visual effects. Just the right amount of nostalgia is drip-fed through memorable music (described by our own Chris Carter as "hauntingly beautiful"), iconic weaponry, curiously familiar scenery and boss-battles past.
As September approached, fans got twitchy and vocally tentative, with many preparing themselves for what they were convinced could be a real disappointment. This fear, as we now know, was misplaced, as the game eventually launched to high praise from critics and Metroid-fans young and old.
Metroid: Samus Returns was able to pay homage to the early days of one of gaming's greatest heroes, whilst bringing her forgotten intergalactic adventures screaming into the modern age of gaming. Often imitated, but rarely bettered, when it comes to the namesake genre of Metroidvania, nobody does it better than the gal in the Power Suit.
Apple has always operated its app business with an eye to protecting its customers from potentially shady business practices. From early guidelines around app content to more recent bans on misleading apps, Apple has a heavier hand in what shows up in the App Store. Now Apple has added a new requirement for games that offer loot boxes with randomized rewards for purchase. If your game offers them, you have to now disclose the odds of receiving the rewards promised.
Via: Polygon
Source: Apple
New frontiers ahoy for Sid Meier's Civilization VI. After spending the past year or so on PC, Mac, and Linux, the renowned 4X strategy game is coming to a more mobile format (if we ignore the invention of laptops, of course.)
Today, Civ VI is available on newer iPad models. The exhaustive list of compatible Apple tablets is: iPad Air 2, the 2017 model of iPad, and any iPad Pro. Also, it has to run iOS 11. That's the equipment you need before you even think about the cultural nirvana you want to create.
To help ease the resource burden, 2K is launching Civ VI at a discounted rate. Through January 4, the iOS version will be $30; afterward, it jumps back to the regular $60 price. For those unsure folks, the free 60-turn demo is in effect -- although you can't accomplish a whole heck of a lot in 60 turns. And, for anyone concerned about storage, this takes up 3.14GB of space.
It's probably also worth noting that this is only the base game without any of the expansions. So those extra civilizations like the Vikings and the Aztecs aren't included. But, it's still an important development leading up to Civ VI's Rise and Fall add-on releasing next February. Chalk this one up as a victory.
Hamster are bringing another classic SNK arcade to modern-day platforms. As part of the ongoing ACA Neo Geo range, today sees the release of platform shooter Metal Slug 3 for the PS4 and Xbox One.
Originally launched in arcades in 2000, before being ported to almost every home console under the sun, Metal Slug 3 is one of the most well-remembered of the frantic run 'n' gun series. Taking a deviation from its military roots, this edition of the series features undead monsters, intergalactic beings, Ark of the Covenant-esque spirits and, yes, crab people.
The game also introduced branching pathways to the series, and is well remembered for its comedic mechanics which turned the player into a zombie soldier, or a portly ball should they collect too much food. The four selectable characters can ride into battle atop a range of new Slugs, including Drill Slug, Slug Mariner and the amusing animal hybrids: Elephant Slug and Ostrich Slug.
Given it's low cost, it may be worth pulling the trigger on this arcade classic. Metal Slug 3 is available for download today on PS4 and Xbox One, priced at $7.
The trailer below is for the game's previous PS3 release.
After declaring that ARMS' next update would be out before the end of 2017 not four days ago, Nintendo has announced that the new 5.0 update will be available tomorrow! While this is currently a confirmation for the UK, I would find it hard to believe this isn't going to be a worldwide thing.
Video game RPGs can translate very well into the tabletop realm. It's a sort of cyclical relationship, as many entries in the genre are born out of precepts forged in the pen and paper era, and running them back to board games just seems natural.
Fallout: The Board Game is one such endeavor. While it's not a perfect realization of the trials and tribulations of wasteland wandering, the questing system manages to capture the feeling of being bested by twists and turns all while ghouls and robots alike are trying to rip you apart.
Team Battle mode is coming to Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. The new feature was announced via the Capcom Unity blog yesterday.
The mode will pit teams of up to five players against one another in a lengthy battle of endurance to be the last squad standing. Players will have to stick out their initial character choices, but will be able to change V-Triggers between matches, allowing for adaptation to their next opponents.
A range of customisation options will allow you to set the rules to your liking: Choose whether meter and health is recovered between matches, specific round and timer settings, whether teams can change players between rounds, and if matches are to be fought Elimination style, or as a Best-Of series.
It's great to see another new mode announced for the re-issue of 2016's fighter. To be honest though, Team Battle always dies a death within weeks. It did in Street Fighter IV and it did in Mortal Kombat X, to name just two examples. The problem lies in the fact that people are impatient, fully aware that they could have had multiple matches in the time it takes for eight or more players to connect and their series to play out, leading to a ghost town pretty quickly.
Hopefully that won't be the case here. Provided you have a comrades and opponents to hand, Team Battle is always a blast, especially when the pressure come down on yourself as the last man standing. It can also be very useful in a tournament environment, where Team v Team truly comes alive.
Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition launches January 16 on PS4 and PC.
Tiny Metal is the big Switch holiday eShop release, which is interesting as it's actually published by Sony, and is currently the subject of Kickstarter controversy.But it isn't alone, as it's joined by Federic: Resurrection of Music, 60 Seconds, Tiny Troopers Joint Ops XL, Puzzle Box Maker, FruitFall Crush, The Deer God, The Coma: Recut, Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, NeoGeo Pulstar, Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King, The Next Penelope, Heart&Slash, Tactical Mind, Bloody Zombies, Sparkle Unleashed, Energy Cycle, RXN Raijin, Mom Hid My Game, and a demo for Dark Witch Music Episode.
The 3DS is also hosting My Hid My Game, as well as The Legend of Dark Witch 3 Wisdom and Lunacy, and Picross e8.
As confirmed earlier in the month, Atlus' fantasy brawler Dragon's Crown Pro is indeed heading West earlier next year. The revamped adventure will also be available in the Americas in a fancy steelbook variant.
The "Battle-Hardened Edition" is the name given to pre-ordered and first-run copies of the game. These will come in a steelbook featuring exclusive art, and will also contain seven lovely art cards, explaining the skills of the game's playable classes.
Dragon's Crown Pro is an enhanced remake of the PS3 and PS Vita classic. It features 4K visuals, a fully orchestrated score, and cross-play and cross-save support for last generation's releases. It is expected to launch in on PS4 in America and Europe Spring 2018.
The bike from the second Zelda: Breath of the Wild DLC has opened up all sorts of possibilities for people, and I've seen clips of players using it as cover on top of its normal uses -- which is damn clever.
But RinHara5aki takes the cake on most interesting DLC video so far as they don the Ravio hat and a broom, go shirtless, and create a flying machine that incorporates the bike. Not only is the scene absurd (and classic Breath), but it's fairly functional.
I love how the thread is filled with people who weren't even aware that a motorcycle was added. Although a lot of people were let down by the DLC's story portions, Nintendo keeps doubling down on the open world bits.
