Bungie only just released Destiny 2's "Go Fast" update, but it's already set to talk about its next releases -- and this time, the most important moves are outside the game itself. The studio is readying updates to both the Companion mobile app and its website that will make them decidedly more useful when you're away from home. An April 4th update to Companion for Android and iOS will bring back the 3D models available in the original Destiny era. You can not only see what your Guardian looks like with equipped gear, but explore your weapons, vehicles and ghosts. It's helpful for bragging rights with your friends, of course, but it also gives you a better reason to dig through your equipment when you aren't playing.
Playstation blog The Drop has announced that SNK's King of Fighters '97 Global Match, which was revealed earlier this year at EVO Japan, will be hitting PS4 and PS Vita in just a few day's time.
The re-release is expected to be a straight port of the Neo Geo fighter. But will, of course, include online support, even allowing PS4 and PS Vita players to throw hands with each other in crossplay action.
As I've stated previously, it's a bit of a random release. The KoF titles have been made available again and again over the last ten years. Whether through Hamster's Neo Geo Classics range, PSN store releases, actual retail compilation discs, or the top-tier '98 Ultimate Match and '02 Unlimited Match titles. But ehh, I'm not SNK's dad, they can do as they please.
The King of Fighters '97 Global Match launches April 5 on PS4 and PS Vita. It's a safe bet that the PC release will follow presently.
Today, we have a very special interview for our loyal Destructoid readers. We’ve reached out to head of Totally Real Indie Studio Bledi Bleino, who happens to look exactly like myself but with a funny mustache, to talk about TRIS’s first project on the day of its public reveal.
Bleino’s magnum opus, Mor’Al Choisses, is a divergent narrative-driven tactical action Japanese RPG featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series, themed around moral choices. While the preview build I played and all the footage I took is still under embargo, I can say the build reminded me of sensational hits like inFamous: Second Sonand Mass Effect Andromeda.
This completely professional discussion revealed a lot about his deep understanding of intertwining game design with narrative design. He demonstrated a masterful demonstration of demonstrating moral choices in video demonstration games. Just talking with him gets me excited for choosing between binary moral compasses!
Disclosure: Bledi Bleino is my third cousin twice removed. I barely even remember he exists, so no bias here. Also disclaimer, he paid me $100,000 in exposure to talk about his game.
I’ve never watched Gnomeo and Juliet, the first entry in the British Garden Gnome Public Domain Property Parody Adventure series, but apparently they opted not to end the first film with mutual suicide.
If you’re looking for a mystery or surprises, this movie isn’t for you. There’s two twists that are painfully obvious, and it’s largely just the gnomes moving between strangely empty setpieces looking for clues that make sense to nobody but Sherlock. The story is incredibly simplistic, which makes it strange that there’s still plotholes every step of the way.
When I was in the box office line, the family in front of me had the following conversation:
Mom: Honey, you want to see Sherlock Gnomes, right? 6yo Daughter: NNNNOOOOooOOOOOOOooOO!!! Dad: Uhhhh 3 for uhhh Pacific Rim, I guess?
So if you’re wondering who this movie appeals to, the answer is literally nobody. I saw this alone in an empty theater.
Since earlier this week, a number of digital retailers are discounting large swath of Bethesda PC games from the publisher's catalog. You'll find discounts at DLGamer, Fanatical, GamersGate, and Green Man Gaming. The sale is essentially the same discount across most retailers, but GMG has up the ante against other stores by offering a sitewide 20% off coupon code that stacks with the Bethesda sale. This means ridiculously cheap Skyrim, Fallout 4, Dishonored, and more.
Our personal pick would be $16 The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Special Edition (just in case you're one of the few who only owns 2 version of Skyrim), $16 The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind (gets you all ESO content and no subscription fee), or $11 Doom.
All deals listed below are Steam key, and except for Doom, everything else must use coupon code PAYDAY20 at checkout to get the prices shown below. If you spot a Bethesda title that we neglected, let us know and we'll add it to the list below. As far as we can tell, the sale is running through Tuesday morning next week.
There's no doubt Stephen Hawking will be remembered for his work on black holes and relativity, but he will also be remembered for his distinctive voice. San Francisco Chronicle tells the story of the Silicon Valley team that helped create, and later save, the physicist's iconic sound.
I had the chance recently to sit down and play an early preview build of Lust for Darkness on PC from developer Movie Games, which oddly enough, was also the final Steam Greenlight game. Successfully Kickstarted last year, the game is set to release later this year on PC and after having survived the preview build... let's just say I've been places and seen things I wish I could forget.
Lust for Darkness at its core could basically be described as a horror game somewhat in the same vein as the Amnesia series. You walk around creepy old-timey interiors (or in this case, a Victorian mansion) in a first-person perspective, fidget around with the mouse back and forth to open doors, and sometimes you run into a humanoid penis monster.
Nintendo have unveiled details on not one, but two new splatfests, which will see players unleash colour-soaked hell in Switch shooter Splatoon 2 in order to answer life's big questions.
Next weekend, North America will fight it out over a question of sport. Do you prefer Baseball or Soccer? Pearl prefers Baseball, probably because she gets to cave in heads with the bat, while Marina is choosing Soccer, which I assume Nintendo picked because, had they chosen U.S. Football, it probably would've been a whitewash.
In fact, Marina, a proven fitness-freak, seems a little lost on the whole "Sports" concept. I hear ya, sister.
If you've ever wanted to bring your own customized Star Trek Online ship to the physical realm, now is the time, as it seems that the game's partnership with Mixed Dimensions' GamePrint service is now live. As previously reported, GamePrint is a system that 3D-prints 12-inch physical models of players' custom ships based on the in-game 3D models.
Based on the debut video below, PC users can now simply place an order directly from the in-game ship tailor. The pricing, though, might inspire some second thoughts. A fully-painted custom model with details and shading will run customers a cool $350, with single-color and primer-only versions costing $225 and $200, respectively. That's kind of a lot for a ship model, though having it customized will probably be worth it to some folks.
Sadly, not every ship in Star Trek Online's hundreds-strong collection is available for printing, likely for licensing reasons (the Star Trek: Discovery ships) or practical concerns (the Iconian "Herald" ships defy the laws of physics). Check out a list of them here.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds continues to ramp up the changes as it fights back against Fortnite for the battle royal crown. One part of the plan that we'd already heard about is a smaller map option called Codename: Savage measuring at 4x4 Km, which is just a quarter of the size of Erangel and Miramar, the two maps already included in PUBG. The smaller play area should add even more tension to the game's fast-paced action.
Whether it's a game about to be delisted from a digital marketplace or one that's about to leave Steam Early Access and bump up its price, I always appreciate a little advance notice. The automated factory builder Factorio is nearing full release on PC and now's a good time to buy if you're interested.
"The price of the game has been growing steadily together with the game becoming bigger, more stable and polished," said Wube Software. "After careful consideration, we have decided to set the new price of the game to 30 USD (or your regional equivalent). This change will become effective as of the 16th of April 2018. This is the final Factorio price update, unless something unforeseen happens, so it will also be the price for the game for 1.0 release."
The developer has reiterated that it won't hold sales for Factorio "on Steam or any other platform," meaning the current $20 price for the Early Access version is as good as it'll get deal-wise. "I'm aware, that the sales can make a lot of money in a short period of time, but I believe that it is not worth it in the long run, and since we are not in financial pressure we can afford to think in the long run."
It's not a pricing strategy you see very often for a number of reasons, but it is one I wholeheartedly respect. Based on how Factorio has been received so far, the no-sale policy should work well.
The free-to-play Fortnite: Battle Royale has become a cultural sensation with a wide-ranging playerbase. How do we know? Because professional sports players won'tstopmimicking the game's weird dances in real life. Maybe one day they'll be doing one of your dances -- because Epic Games just launched a contest for players to submit video of their smooth moves, with the best one making it into Fortnite.
I can't believe it's been nearly twenty-five years since Star Trek: Deep Space Nine first aired. I didn't watch it when it was new (I was a Voyager kid myself), but despite having joined the party on the Promenade late, I can subscribe to the notion that it's arguably the best Trek series of them all.
Now Star Trek Online is getting ready to explore its last undiscovered country, in the game's next free content expansion, Victory Is Life. Set to launch on PC in June (with consoles to follow later), the expansion will send players to the Gamma Quadrant itself, which is pretty much the last place in the Trek galaxy that doesn't have all that much content set within it. Sure, it's the home of the Dominion and of the game's current major threat, the Hur'q, but beyond those factoids, little concrete information has been shown in the canonical content.
Ten Deep Space Nine alumni, including Rene Auberjonois (Constable Odo), Alexander Siddig (Dr. Bashir), Nana Visitor (Major Kira), and Armin Shimmerman (Quark), will return to reprise their roles. The expansion will also debut a playable Jem'hadar subfaction that will start new characters at level 60, kind of like the Hero Classes in World of Warcraft. For everyone, the in-game level cap will be raised from 60 to 65, and all will also be able to partake of new narrative content, progression systems, public events, and playable ships. Check out a trailer for the expansion below.
Despite the recent arrival of Deviljho, I've been hesitant to dive back into Monster Hunter World.
I went from playing it every single day since launch to taking a now much-longer-than-expected break. The other day, I logged on with the full intent to fight the pickled monster. But once I got in, I fumbled with the controls and decided "not tonight." I need to set aside enough time to find my groove and build up my muscle memory -- if not for Deviljho, then for Capcom's new round of event quests.
Not to alarm you, but with the Egg Lovers United quest, you can craft a Kulu-Ya-Ku head piece.
The recently teased tropical island map for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will be available on the test servers next week. Going by the title of "Codename: Savage," the map will be a generally smaller take on the battle royale subgenre than what players are currently accustomed to. This was all revealed at GDC today along with a bunch of screenshots of the new island.
The testing window for this new map will begin on April 2 (7:00 pm PDT) and run until April 5 (4:00 am PDT). I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to the super janky test servers, but I'm very intrigued to see where PUBG will go in the wake of Fortnite's success.
Reviewing faith-based movies can be tricky to say the least. I don't think I'm going to shock anyone by saying that faith-based movies can be very, very, very difficult to pull off correctly. Usually faith-based movies end up one of two ways. One, it is so inept in its message that it becomes hilarious and cannot be taken seriously (see Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas). Two, the movie becomes hateful and meanspirited to anyone that doesn't follow the movie's chosen faith and will shame you for it (see God's Not Dead).
But if you're a religious person, who am I to tell you that you can't find spiritual meaning in a movie. Maybe the messages and values being preached in the God's Not Dead franchise hit you in all the right ways. I don't feel it's right for me to invalidate your experience with a movie just because we have differing ideals. So let's just agree right off the bat about something. I am not going to make any religious commentary or discuss the validity of faith here. All I'm going to do is talk about the movie as a movie and not as a piece of Christian filmmaking. Are we good? Can we do that?
If so, then it shouldn't be too much of a surprise for me to tell you that God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness, it pretty dull and lifeless, but at least I wasn't offended by it. Progress...?
Telltale has shared artwork for The Walking Dead: The Final Season and detailed its plans for PAX East. The festivities kick off next Friday, April 6 at 12:30pm Eastern with a first-look panel (viewable here) that will reflect on "Clementine's journey so far and take a sneak peek at how it all ends."
The studio is also hosting a post-show alongside some folks from Skybound. That'll start at 2:00pm Eastern on Twitch and the developers "will answer more questions about the upcoming season."
I'm interested to hear more and see how Clementine's journey does (or maybe doesn't!) come full circle. And with a sequel to The Wolf Among Usannounced, I feel like I can finally rest easy.
Most people who are interested in Golem probably won't be familiar with its developer. Golem is made by Longbow Games, a Canadian studio that has spent nearly 20 years making historic-set strategy titles. This isn't like those. But Golem seems like a decent first stab at something new.
Golem is a point-and-click puzzle game in which a young girl tries to find water for her desert-bound village. She stumbles across the ruins of an ancient tower and befriends a sentient golem. Together, they traverse 10 seemingly-expansive levels in an effort to hydrate the dehydrated.
Early on, the golem seems to be more of a burden than anything else. It's in constant need of being pushed around, maybe only useful for applying weight on switches. It evolves as the game progresses, though. It has five different stages, most of which have real-world analogs like dog and ape. Eventually, it seems like the golem might be more useful than the girl.
As for the story Golem intends to tell, it's more than just a trek up a tower. Glyphs will illuminate in the background, and these images will shed light on the golems and the dire desert situation. Will it be well-conveyed though? Games often times struggle to tell coherent tales solely through player interpretation of hieroglyphics.
Regardless, Golem looks to have the other aspects figured out. It has that exact aesthetic and feel to it that we've come to expect from indie puzzle games. Longbow's first crack at this type of project seems to be on-track, but we'll find out for certain soon enough. Golem releases on PC sometime in the coming months. If all goes well enough, console ports might be a viable option.
Sega is keeping the Sonic Mania train rolling with Sonic Mania Plus later this summer and also a five-part series of animated shorts, the first episode of which is out now on YouTube.
"Sonic has just arrived back after the events of Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces, but something is already amiss. What are the huge holes being dug in the ground? And why is Eggman already capturing more animals? The story begins here, with the first of five parts in: Sonic Returns!"
Much like the game's intro, the animation is just wonderful to look at, but more than that, I like how they kept it light and fun. You're in, you're out, and you're left feeling good. There's no baggage!
The Nintendo booth at PAX East is bound to be a madhouse. But, if you make time for it, you'll be able to get your hands on some cool upcoming first- and third-party games. Here's the official lineup:
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze from Nintendo
Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition from Nintendo
Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido from Nintendo
Dark Souls: Remastered from Bandai Namco Entertainment
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus from Bethesda Softworks
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes from Grasshopper Manufacture and Suda51
SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy from NIS America
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy from Activision
There's also a "Nindie Arcade" section:
Just Shapes & Beats from Berzerk Studio
Dead Cells from Motion Twin
The Messenger from Sabotage and Devolver Digital
Lumines Remastered from Enhance Games
Runner3 from Choice Provisions
West of Loathing from Asymmetric
Pool Panic from Adult Swim Games
Pode from Henchman & Goon
Garage from tinyBuild Games
Next Up Hero from Aspyr Media and Digital Continue
PAX East runs from April 5 - 8 at the Boston convention center. Attendees can get a free poster at the Nintendo booth and, by checking in with their My Nintendo QR code, receive a pass "to a priority line to skip ahead to play select games during specified times." (While supplies last, of course.)
As I make my way through Assassin's Creed Rogue Remastered, I can't help but notice how Assassin's Creed Origins has already rewired my brain. I keep trying to crouch like an extra sneaky assassin, but that button doesn't exist. I find my fingers wandering to the shoulder buttons in combat, but this is the system where you just wait to counter-kill attackers.
It's sort of staggering how Assassin's Creed took a year off and changed so many fundamentals of the series. Playing the Origins DLC and Rogue Remastered in quick succession really highlights how different they are. I know this won't be popular, but I kind of miss the old Assassin's Creed.
My mom makes the best BLTs and that isn't much to brag about because a BLT is a stupidly easy sandwich to make. But I'll be damned if a BLT isn't the first thing I want to eat every time I go back home. It's a comfort food, and comfort foods don't have to make sense to anyone else. If my mom made a BLT for a stranger, that person would probably say "yeah it's fine, whatever."
That's the entirety of Assassin's Creed for me, right up until Origins. Objectively speaking, yeah, Origins is a better game. Origins is a hip gastropub's pork belly banh mi with duck fat fries that you wash down with a cask-aged floral IPA. So complex! So many notes and they complement each other so well!
Sometimes I don't want that, though. Sometimes I just want two pieces of toast with bacon, lettuce, and tomato between them. That's Assassin's Creed Rogue for me right now. It's familiar and it's comforting and it's simple. And it's more palatable knowing that the series is probably never reverting to this exact style.
Zen Studios are releasing two new tables to their ambitious pinball simulator Pinball FX3. These new additions are both based upon that Star Wars movie you-hate-even-though-its-fine-honestly, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.
The Last Jedi table will feature a recreation of 2017's muddled sci-fi opera. In keeping with previous Pinball FX Star Wars tables, game modes and "Hurry Ups" will be based around famous scenes from the movie, from the incredible Throne Room battle to that bit where BB-8 saved everybody in every given situation because reasons.
The second table is based around Anch-To island, where aces hero Rey goes to receive Jedi training and help the film make its 152-minute runtime. The Anch-To table is designed to be "more organic" according to the developer, with the various ramps and habitrails designed to represent the natural flow of the Porg-filled retreat.
The Star Wars: The Last Jedi pack comes to Pinball FX3 April 17. Pinball FX3 is available now on PS4, PC, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
As someone who mostly enjoyed the low key adventuring of the first Final Fantasy Explorers on 3DS a few years back, I've been looking forward to Final Fantasy Explorers-Force.
Initially folks thought the follow-up would also arrive on 3DS when it was slated for a 2017 release, but it was swiftly revealed as a mobile game on both iOS and Android, and was subsequently delayed multiple times throughout the year. Instead of arriving in late 2017 it was pushed back further to March 15, and now it just hit the two million download mark.
Right now you'll have to swap regions to grab the free-to-play game, but with any luck (given it's success, at least in terms of raw downloads) it could come westward.
A batch of new DLC content has rolled out for Techland's roof-hopping zombie shooter Dying Light. Content Drop #4 has been made live on all formats, bringing a selection of fun additions to the 2015 release.
First up is new mode Prison Heist, where players, alone or with buddies, must bust into a new location, the originally titled "Prison Island" and tool themselves up with goodies from the penitentiary's over-stocked armory. Time is of the essence, as the speed in which you reach the loot will decides the quality of the rewards.
Sgt. Deathrow, and all-new Demolisher, has also been let loose in the game. This heavy-hitter is worth a chunk of XP if you take him down, so keep an eye out for him as he cuts a path of destruction through Old Town.
The final addition is the Eater-themed Harran Egg Hunt, where players can bag themselves a miserable, garish yellow outfit by gathering up eggs strewn around the map while watching out for a zombified Easter Bunny. Should the entire community gather one million eggs by April 3, then a gold-tier weapon will be unlocked. Get cracking.
I've had some mighty cakes in my time. Pretty much everyone I knew growing up was aware of my passion for games, so people have me made everything from Street Fighter cakes to Zelda cupcakes over the years. It rocks!
You know what also rocks? This Korok cake from the Instagram account "Always Be Caking," a self-described self-taught baker. The account is full of great cakes and dessert concoctions, ranging from properties like Skylanders to Trolls to Overwatch.
But the aforementioned Korok cake? It's something else! I'd find some way to preserve it and put it in my Zelda collection.
Nintendo are dropping new content in their popular arena-shooter Splatoon 2 this week. Yesterday we reported on the return of classic map Piranha Pit, while today brings the pain rain with news of the new Sorella Brella weapon.
The Sorella Brella is a variant on the classic Splat Brella. Opened, it provides basic protection for the carrier, while constantly dribbling a colourful path. When closed, the Brella allows for messy, unfocused blasts of ink, which can travel quite a distance when combined with a jump.
This new Sorella variant comes equipped with an Autobomb sub and a Splat Bomb Launcher special. It will arrive alongside the Piranha Pit map tonight in North America, with Japan and Europe to follow early tomorrow.
This weekend also sees the finals of the Splatoon 2 European Championships, which take place March 31 in Switzerland. Polymanga will also be hosting a special Off the Hook concert at the Montreux Music and Convetion Centre for those in attendance. How wonderful!
