Deckard Cain is such a fun addition to the Heroes of the Storm roster. As Chris mentioned before, he really does seem like something you'd expect as an April Fools' joke, but Blizzard made it work.
The iconic Diablo character has joined the game today on the Public Test Realm. He's a support capable of tossing out potions and putting his foes to sleep or sweeping them up in a punriffic "lorenado."
When Battlefield V launches later this year, its microtransaction model will be limited solely to cosmetic items. And when BioWare's Anthem releases early next year, it won't have game-altering loot boxes. Electronic Arts says the premium loot box model is a thing of the past, which is a very expensive lesson it learned from Star Wars Battlefront II.
In an interview with The Verge, EA's Patrick Soderlund (who was recently promoted to chief design officer) acknowledges that the controversy around Battlefront II's in-game monetization actively hurt the game. "I'd be lying to you if I said that what's happened with Battlefront and what's happened with everything surrounding loot boxes and these things haven't had an effect on EA as a company and an effect on us as management. We can shy away from it and pretend like it didn't happen, or we can act responsibly and realize that we made some mistakes, and try to rectify those mistakes and learn from them," Soderlund said.
Learning from those mistakes, as Soderlund put it, involves mostly steering clear altogether. "For games that come next, for Battlefield or for Anthem, [players have] made it very clear that we can't afford to make similar mistakes. And we won't," he commented. Soderlund saying EA "can't afford" a repeat of Battlefront II is quite literal. The pushback against Battlefront II's loot crates resulted in the game selling approximately seven million copies; its sales target was 14 million.
After years of in-game purchases and microtransactions, Battlefront II was the straw that broke the camel's back -- at least for EA. They're likely not gone for good, but it sounds as if they won't be as egregious and predatory from now on. It just took an extremely high-profile failure for the shift to happen.
The original 2D side-scrolling MapleStory made a big splash on the MMORPG scene back in 2003 in South Korea and would do the same with its North American release in 2005. That trend seems to continue with another long release cycle for MapleStory 2. Publisher Nexon America announced the game would be releasing globally, after nearly three years from its original South Korean launch in 2015, with a shiny new trailer over the weekend.
For those of you interested in getting in on the blocky action as soon as possible, the sign-up for the closed beta is open now for anyone living in the Americas, Europe, or Oceania and will be starting May 9. According to Nexon, MapleStory 2 takes place within the same universe as the original but also acts as a prequel. Also, despite the announcement of a global release, an official date has yet to be announced.
The original 2d side-scrolling The original 2d side-scrolling MapleStory made a big splash on the MMORPG scene back in 2003 in South Korea and would do the same in North America in 2005. It would seem that trend and long release cycle is repeating itself with MapleStory 2, as publisher Nexon America announced over the weekend with a new trailer the game would be releasing globally after nearly 3 years from its original South Korean launch in 2015.MapleStory made a big splash on the MMORPG scene back in 2003 in South Korea and would do the same in North America in 2005. It would seem that trend and long release cycle is repeating itself with MapleStory 2, as publisher Nexon America announced over the weekend with a new trailer the game would be releasing globally after nearly 3 years from its original South Korean launch in 2015.
When it comes to horror movies, it's very hard to impress me. I'm not saying that I'm a horror movie snob, but at a certain point, horror just wasn't scary anymore. I wasn't being unsettled by a gruesome monster, or unnerved at a creepy hallway, or dreaded seeing a character walk into an obvious scare. I just became numb to what horror traditionally was.
I grew up watching horror movies like Nightmare on Elm Street, Evil Dead 2, and the classic Hammer horror films. Those movies defined what horror could be for me, but as I got older, I wasn't scared of them. Hell, I wasn't even disturbed by them. I just saw them as good movies with a dark aesthetic that was different from what was popular with my generation. While everyone else watched Disney movies, I was more interested watching Psycho. And let's not even get started at the state of then modern horror movies like The Blair Witch Project, The Ring, and Paranormal Activity.
But a weird thing happened this weekend when I went to go see A Quiet Place. It was a fantastic movie and a part of why it was so good was because it got under my skin in a way that I didn't expect. I wouldn't call it a scary movie, but it presented its concepts in a way that felt different and felt unique. And then I looked back at the past couple of years and realized that there are now plenty of horror movies that I would call modern classics. I can't even begin to count them all, there are just that many of them.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm happy to say that we're in a new golden age of horror movies. An age where creators are willing to take risks on classic horror norms to make something fresh, sometimes scary, but always entertaining.
Swery's The Good Life is still facing an uphill climb on Kickstarter, but Limited Run Games is hoping their pledge to make physical copies will help fund the game. White Owls, Inc. has teamed up with every physical copy buyer's favorite company to produce limited edition bundles for the $130+ tiers of The Good Life'scrowdfunding campaign.
This new edition will feature the game on physical media, a tourist guide, an art book, some trading cards, a postcard autographed by the dev team and a soundtrack CD. The edition will be available for both the PC and PS4 versions of the game, so players sticking to one platform won't need to worry about missing out.
My only concern is that there are 18 days left in the campaign and it still hasn't hit 50% of its goal. I'm not sure how striking a deal to make physical copies was a priority when the campaign isn't even a guarantee, but I suppose this is a last ditch effort to drum up interest. I know a lot of people respect Limited Run Games for its quality standards, so having another box from them could be enough to get that last push needed to successfully develop The Good Life. Here's hoping, because the game looks like a trip.
The summer blockbuster season is nigh, and as always that means Flixist is delighted to bring unto you our summer movie preview. This isn't a comprehensive list of every film coming out, it's just a list of movies we wanted to write about for one reason or another. Maybe we're excited for them or maybe we wanted to mock them or maybe we just fell asleep at the keyboard and tiny elves wrote this for us. Who knows.
I've lost this introduction. The point being, here are some movies starring Dwayne Johnson.
Publisher Rising Star Games have announced that cutesy farming sim Harvest Moon: Light of Hope will be coming to Europe on PS4 and Nintendo Switch in June, .
Using that interminable "Save the Date" motif, a tweet from the company announces that the latest edition in the (very) long-running horticultural saga will be available digitally and in stores from June 22. Originally, the game had been given a May release window for both the U.S. and Europe, so whether this slight delay affects both territories is unclear.
Light of Hope released on PC in Fall 2017 were it was celebrated by its faithful fanbase. In keeping with previous titles, the game sees the player managing a successful farm, from the growing and selling of produce to rearing livestock. Budding farmers will even fend off destruction from predators and terrible weather, and build rapport and relationships with the local townsfolk.
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope is available now on PC. It is coming to PS4 and Switch in Europe on June 22, with its U.S. release tentatively scheduled for May
Maelstrom is a cool, well-executed idea for game. It pits humans, orcs, and dwarves against each other in naval combat. Players will shoot, ram, and sink one another while trying to find loot and maintain a safe distance from gigantic sea monsters that become more aggressive as the match goes on.
The game recently ran a small but successful Kickstarter and launched on Steam Early Access. Describing the fast-paced ship combat is one thing, but you really need to see it in action.
The developers at Gunpowder Games have worked on titles like Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War, League of Legends, Destiny, and Overwatch. The plan is to have Maelstrom fully release in late 2018.
In the current Early Access state, they're "still in an early beta state, iterating on balance, gameplay, and progression. The game is fully playable with three initial races (Orcs, Humans, Dwarves), multiple ships for each race with loads of upgrades, mates and captains. Multiplayer with end match rewards and progression is all fully functional." Future work will include visual enhancements for the ships, duo team play, daily bounties and quests, more maps, new monsters, and professional voice acting.
I don't expect to get into Maelstrom just yet, but I'll be keeping tabs on it, for sure.
Only yesterday we reported that costumes related to Virtua Fighter, Yakuza and Sonic the Hedgehog were coming to Atlus' Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5: Dancing Star Night games. Now it seems the Phantasy Star Online 2 will be receiving some Persona items of its own.
Announced this weekend as part of Sega's Fes 2018 event, the Japanese MMORPG will receive a bundle of fun accessories based on the rhythm-action games. These include character avatars, new clothing items and, of course, a whole new set of dancing emojis, so your player avatar can throw shapes in the lobby with other like-minded players.
Clearly the outstanding success of last year's Persona 5 has had a huge influence on Atlus and Sega, who are pushing these spin-offs to the moon with en masse trailers, endless live streams and crossover campaigns. Surely a Western release for Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5: Dancing Star Night is all but confirmed by this point.
As for a Western release for Phantasy Star Online 2... that, sadly, remains the stuff of a madman's dream.
Sega's latest nostalgia trip isn't limited to a mini Genesis and Shenmue ports. In the wake of a Japanese announcement, Sega has confirmed that it's releasing a swath of classic Master System and Genesis games on the Nintendo Switch in North America and Europe this summer. The titles will fall under the Sega Ages bundle, and most of the initial roster are titles you'll recognize: Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, the arcade version of Gain Ground and Thunder Force IV. The new series should ultimately include over 15 titles.
It's The Witcher 3: Game of the Year Edition at number one. Of course it is!
GOG is currently holding a sale on over 150 of its most-wishlisted games and people are still all about Geralt of Rivia in 2018. As such, The Witcher 3 is down to a cool $20 complete with all DLC.
Other games include Planescape: Torment ($6.59), Baldur's Gate II ($4.99), Hyper Light Drifter ($9.99), Freespace 2 ($4.99), The Witness ($15.99), Grim Dawn ($7.49), and Divinity: Original Sin II ($38.19).
'80s gaming rockstar Billy Mitchell has recorded a short statement regarding the controversies of recent days, whereby his high score records on a selection of games were removed from Twin Galaxies, under suspicion of falsifying multiple Donkey Kong runs.
The video statement was filmed at the Midwest Gaming Classic by Old School Gamer Magazine (of which Billy has an association). Mitchell, wearing the tie that will forever make him a hero in my eyes, speaks of an investigation underway to clear his name and restore his legacy as one of the highest scoring arcade gamers of all time.
"In a professional manner, not in a shock jock mentality, designed to create hits" states Mitchell. "We will show that everything was done professionally, according to the rules, according to the scoreboard... Everything will be transparent, everything will be available... Witnesses, documents, everything will be available to you."
Displaying his trademark coolness, Mitchell appears convinced of his ability to prove his past achievements fair and true. One can't help but wonder if anyone would care about this story had Mitchell not played this charismatic "villainous" persona, and how much of the ongoing drive to usurp his scores was founded in wanting to see the "baddie" fall from grace.
There's no denying that Mitchell is a ridiculously skilled video game player, his perfect Pac-Man score is a mind-boggling feat of memory, patience and pixel-perfect control, but, as this situation continues, the Floridian native risks this recent revelation becoming the defining mark for his entire gaming career. It will be interesting to see the case for the defence, if and when Mitchell is ready to present it.
This week's IRL is about podcasts. Or games. Or both? Kris Naudus loves role-playing games -- the ones with dice rather than pixels -- and she also loves podcasts. Combining the two should be a dream, but Kris has struggled to get into some of the most popular shows. Until now.
People often assume that lighthearted comedies all lack depth, or that their creators don't work just as hard as those that specialize in other genres. This is part of why we so rarely see a comedy film win an Oscar.
Knowing this makes me all the more worried that people will assume the wrong things about Pool Panic when it's released on Switch and PC later this year. This game has a ton of depth. Like the Katamari series, it takes a simple and easy to understand gameplay hook then introduces it to an incredibly wide range of scenarios, turning it on its head each time. You play as a cue ball wandering through a huge world where you meet other balls and inevitably try to knock them into holes. Each area adds a new spin on that goal, requiring the player to think outside of the box. For instance, you may meet a bunch of balls in a marching band that refuse to be knocked very far. Only by pushing down the eight ball first, then grabbing his band leader hat, can you lead the other balls in the band down the pocket.
That's just one of over a hundred stages in Pool Panic, each one building on the last in an effort to defy expectations. Later on, you run afoul of a roaming group of bear balls that can only be taken down with the help of a bear hunting ball who lives in the woods. After the bears are cleared, you'll be able to make it to the suburbs where you meet a ball who enjoys a posh lifestyle, though that hasn't made him immune to vermin infestations. By putting on a rat hat, you can shrink down to the size of a mouse and head into the yuppy ball's living room walls, where your goal is to muscle the rat balls into the holes with their cheese.
All these seemingly incidental, purely nonsensical events are part of a larger story that may or may not involve the God of Pool threatening to plunk the entire planet into a black hole.
It's another successful week for Joseph Seed and co. as Ubisoft's foreboding shooter Far Cry 5 maintains its position at the top of the UK charts. EA's FIFA 18 is still a permanent fixture at number two, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe roaring into third, well over a year after its initial release.
The unstoppable Grand Theft Auto V climbed back to number four with PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds bringing up the rear in fifth. Open-world RPG Fallout 4 has made yet another re-entry into the big leagues, while Crash Bandicoot rounds out the list at number ten.
Elsewhere in the charts, a huge re-entry was made by Bethesda's Prey, slamming in at number 19. Also making their return to the Top 40 were Capcom's Resident Evil 7 at number 31 and Sony's Shadow of the Colossus at number 34.
It's another amazing week for the PlayStation 4, as Sony's God of War and Sega's Yakuza 6 are being unleashed into the world. God of War takes it critically but Yakuza 6, which brings an end to the memorable Kiryu's tale, also has a ton of heart.
You wouldn't be "wrong" for picking one or the other, especially given the reality of the full retail price tag of either heavy-hitter. It's tough to truly compare the two, but with themes of childcare and confronting your past they have a lot in common with one another -- not even delving into the aforementioned PS4 exclusive same-week launch period.
I'm not quite done with Yakuza 6 so it's tough to even recommend one over the other definitively, but in the meantime we wanted to get your thoughts!
Nintendo have started a new series of character trailers ahead of the release of hack 'n' slash adventure title Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, coming to Nintendo Switch in May.
In the triumphant trailer, we get to see Legend of Zelda alumni such as Link, Impa and the fair princess herself go toe-to-toe with a wave of hapless cannon fodder. Then we get to check out some of the games OC Do Not Steal roster members, such as Volga, Linkle and Lana with her giant chicken-based offence.
Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition features nearly 30 characters and support for two players. It was a hit among Zelda fans and Nintendo lovers in general when it first appeared on the Wii-U back in 2014. Hopefully this re-release will bring new fans into the button-mashing flock.
Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition launches for Nintendo Switch on May 18.
Record of Lodoss War is celebrating its 30th anniversary since the birth of the original series of novels, and they're celebrating in a small, but very welcome way.
The developer behind Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue (that fake but actually real SMT sidescroller), Ladybug team, is working on a new Lodoss War 2D platformer and they have a short video showcasing some teaser artwork for it.
It's very early yet, but the clip gives us a look at the elf Deedlit's sprite with some brief animation reels, as well as some concept art, an example environment, and a quick combat demonstration. As long as Parn the the rest of the crew shows up I'm in! The visuals look sleek and the action is crisp, so even if it's a short romp it'll have been worth it just to dive back into this incredible fantasy world. The project is said to be coming later this year by way of Steam.
Capcom have unveiled the trailer for the latest all-new character to land in their flagship fighting title Street Fighter V. The latest addition to the ever-expanding roster is the mysterious Falke.
Falke joins the select group of characters across the series history who brings a weapon to battle. Falke's staff, "Harmony", can be infused with Psycho Power, allowing her to deal heavy damage to foe's noggin.
As one of Bison's clones, Falke has built a strong connection will fellow loner Ed, as the bear the heavy scars of being created for the dictator's nefarious deeds. This connection gives the pairing a brother and sister-esque relationship, which spells trouble for the fighters stood in their path of destruction.
Falke will be available for purchase April 24, as the third character to arrive as part of Street Fighter V's Season 3 DLC, she will be followed by Cody, Sagat and the bizarre looking G later this year.
All we have to go with when it comes to the Sega Ages project that was just recently announced for Switch is an "over 15 games" teaser, but we now have a little more information as to what that lineup actually entails.
In addition to the reveal of Thunder Force IV, Phantasy Star, and Sonic the Hedgehog, we now know that Gain Ground and Alex Kidd in Miracle World are being added to the mix, bringing the running total up to five. These will be released on the Switch eShop individually.
For those of you who are unware, the Sega Ages line is an old chestnut that Sega has been using for many years, referring to various compilations or digital re-releases of old Sega games on systems like the Saturn, PS2, PS3, and now, Switch.
If you were some sort of charlatan psychic who predicted box office returns each weekend you would have gotten this weekend very wrong. Looking at the competition between Rampage, a Dwayne Johnson led disaster movie with giants monsters, and A Quiet Place, a movie that literally has the word quite in the title, you would have used your false psychic abilities to predict Rampage easily winning the weekend.
Well, it did, but not by much, which is great news for the horror film, and not so great news for the giant monster one. A Quiet Place continued to stun with one of the smallest drop offs of the year. Clearly the word of mouth on this one is giving it legs, and those legs could possibly bring it to around $200 million domestically, which is nothing but profit for the low-budget film. Meanwhile, Rampage only netted $34.5 million domestically. Not a flop, but on the lower end of Johnson's box office range. I don't think we'll be seeing a sequel even though the film should manage to make its money back with international returns.
More important (at least for Destructoid), Rampage has cleared the incredibly low bar of becoming the best reviewed video game movie ever... at 50 percent. Yup, you only have to please half the critics to get that medal, and you don't have to please them all that well.
Meanwhile, Blumhouse's Truth or Dare made $19 million, which is an easy profit for a film that cost $3.5 million so we're still in the worst timeline.
Ray tracing has long been gaming's holy grail. A method of creating hyper-realistic lighting and graphics, for years ray tracing has been promised as the technology that will take games the next step closer to total realism. Ray tracing has perennially been just on the horizon, but at GDC 2018, but NVIDIA and Microsoft both showed off technology that could make ray tracing a reality.
Typical graphics technology, struggle with how light works. Most games used rasterization, which draws a frame almost the same way someone paints a picture, one bit at a time, and with a lot of approximation. Ray tracing hews closer to how light works in the real world, by modelling millions of beams of light, and calculating how they'd bounce around a scene.
Kingdom Hearts III is either a few months or a few decades away from release. Who knows with this franchise. After years of silence and side-stories, Square Enix has been providing fans with peeks at the highly anticipated game over the past year, giving us looks at new worlds, new character designs and now, new mini-games. As first showcased during the Kingdom Hearts Union χ Dandelion Meeting, the trailer below shows how Sora can spend his free time playing old school handheld LCD games.
I was there on 9/9/99, with multiple months worth of snow-shoveling money from the winter before and birthday/Christmas money from family, at the launch of the Dreamcast (which also happened to coincide with the release of Final Fantasy VIII) -- at an EGX of all places, which basically don't exist in the US anymore.
It was an amazing console filled to the brim with secrets, from VMU shenanigans toWindows CE OS custom programs. But beyond those great times with some great games -- a lot of gloomy stuff was going down between Sega and some other hardware and software manufacturers.
There were myriad reasons for the Dreamcast's failure, and the newest video from Did You Know Gaming hits on a handful of them. Whether it's issues with 3Dfx over the alleged race to complete the Dreamcast's graphics chip, piracy, or troubles with publishers like EA (which caused a sports game war), the walls kind of just came tumbling down in a gradual way.
My favorite fact? A marketing company went through 5,000 names before settling on Dreamcast.
Hello, Monday! We give our verdict on LG's latest, AI-powered smartphone, hear how the next version of Android might lift some of the smarter features of Apple's iPhone X and get yet another Sony phone to muse on.
