May 15, 2018 | Game ON news

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

News:: The Switch is getting its own Taiko: Drum Master controller

It's true what they say about how many Japanese gaming stores being meccas. Walking into a Super Potato, or an equivalent, was a pretty amazing experience. There's just games everywhere, sometimes on multiple floors.

Another piece of plastic that will be joining the shelves over in Japan is the Taiko drum kit, crafted just for the Switch. Yep, to accompany the launch of Drum Master on the system the Switch is getting its own piece of hardware from Bandai Namco, which will be released later this year. It even has a drink holder!

If you're so inclined you can just grab Taiko: Drum Master easily on the eShop when it's out, and possibly import the hardware. The series very rarely makes its way over to western shores, so that might be your only option. Now you have time to plan!

Japanese Nintendo [Twitter]

The Switch is getting its own Taiko: Drum Master controller screenshot

News:: Cliff Bleszinski is showing off scrapped projects, and DragonFlies sounds so damn cool

Boss Key Productions, the developer responsible for LawBreakers and Radical Heights, closed its doors yesterday. It was a sad day -- as it always is when these sorts of things happen -- but this one felt a little more unfair. The studio only got to release one game and it was legitimately good. It just never found an audience and that's all she wrote.

Boss Key founder Cliff Bleszinski noted that he's going to take some time off work to reflect. Before backing away, Bleszinski figured he might as well show off some concepts that never got picked up by publishers. The first and most striking is something that was codenamed "DragonFlies."

Here's a tweet chain with all the description that Bleszinski gave:

Cliff Bleszinski is showing off scrapped projects, and DragonFlies sounds so damn cool screenshot

News:: Borderlands 3 reportedly won't be at E3

Six days after Walmart's notorious E3 leak, Gearbox is debunking its involvement. Borderlands 3 was one of the many titles to officially debut at E3. Now, it seems that isn't so.

Shacknews is reporting that at a pre-E3 event yesterday, a Gearbox representative stated that Borderlands 3 won't be at E3. That includes being part of a first-party press conference, having a booth on the floor, and holding appointments in private meeting rooms. Borderlands 3 simply won't be there.

Probably. Or, this could be some classic misdirection to catch everyone off guard when it actually is at E3. Maybe it's damage control to try to preserve some of the surprise. There are two possibilities: A truth and a lie. Both feel equally plausible. We won't know until June.

However, the other half of this story is that Gearbox is showing off something that warrants a pre-E3 event. What could it be? A new Brothers in Arms? Duke Nukem? It seems even if Borderlands 3 truly won't be at E3, something made by Gearbox will be.

No Borderlands 3 at E3 2018, According to Gearbox [Shacknews]

Borderlands 3 reportedly won't be at E3 screenshot

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/borderlands-3-reportedly-won-t-be-at-e3-503123.phtml

News:: Sea of Thieves now lets you create friends-only crews

After a short delay, Rare has added the ability for Sea of Thieves players to create open and closed crews. Under the old system, the game would try and fill out your crew as needed, so if you had a friend duck out, a random player would more than likely be matched into your group as a replacement.

With closed crews, you can start on "either a Galleon or a Sloop, allowing friends to join in when they're available. You can now play with any configuration of players up to the limit on each ship, which is four players on the Galleon and two players on the Sloop, as well as preventing non-friends from being able to join you. This option replaces the three-player Galleon and Solo Sloop options in the Main Menu."

Rare says it also hopes to add an open/closed toggle for changing your crew's permissions while you're playing, along with the option to "make a session fully private by preventing friends joining."

As mentioned in this developer video, one of the update's other new features is currently missing in action. Rare introduced the ability to hand players items like bananas, planks, and cannon balls, but this led to unforeseen performance issues and had to be temporarily removed pending a fix.

Here's everything else in today's update:

Sea of Thieves now lets you create friends-only crews screenshot

News:: Final Fantasy VI's Locke is arriving in Dissidia

As one of the chief members of the cast alongside of Terra, Locke is probably one of the first people you think of when you think "Final Fantasy VI." It's for that reason that he's earned his spot in the pantheon of the series, and now he's coming to Dissidia.

Locke, as was discussed previously, was hinted at as a "male character from the first half of the series." Now we have two male characters from the second half, and two female characters from the second half, one of which is new and one that has appeared in the Dissidia series before. Locke is the second DLC character, followed by Vayne Carudas Solidor.

In case you're wondering the arcade edition does update around the same time as the console edition of NT. Locke is arriving this weekend in Japanese arcades, and next month on PS4. That means there's a roughly two month cadence for DLC characters since the launch of NT.

Final Fantasy VI's Locke is arriving in Dissidia screenshot

News:: 'Rage 2' brings the frenetic action of 'Doom' to an open world

Bethesda's initial teaser for Rage 2 may have been long on hype and short on substance, but it's making up for that with the full announcement. The team-up between original Rage creators id Software and Avalanche Studios (best known for Just Cause and, appropriately, Mad Max) promises to be a significant expansion of the first game's post-apocalpytic open-world concept. The premise is familiar -- you're still fighting gangs, mutants and the oppressive Authority through a mix of on-foot shooting and vehicular combat -- but the mechanics have changed. Even at this early stage, it's clear the title is borrowing a page from Doom's book.

Source: Bethesda

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/15/rage-2-gameplay-reveal/

News:: Hitman: Definitive Edition is out now as Warner Bros takes over publishing duties

So many people are gonna die from inexplicable freak accidents. That's one way of navigating 2016's Hitman -- make everything look like an unfortunate act of god. It's a whole lot less conspicuous than a bullet hole between the eyes.

For anyone who missed out on Hitman the first time 'round (or via the "Complete First Season" re-release), there's another version of the game that released today. It's Hitman: Definitive Edition, which includes all six episodes from the base game, the bonus missions from the digital Game of the Year edition, some exclusive weapons and outfits, and the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X enhancements. It's the most complete version of Hitman that's out there.

However, it's kind of missing one notable piece. The Elusive Target mission were all limited-time and won't necessarily be Definitive Edition buyers. Back in November, they were reactivated for anyone who didn't attempt them during the targets' first appearances. It seems like that's an opportunity that will (or at least should) repeat itself at some point in the future.

This $60 all-in version of Hitman represents more than just a physical edition at the tail-end of a fantastic game. It also marks Warner Bros. first public-facing move as the new publisher of Hitman. It's just the start and hopefully developer IO Interactive will be given the freedom to evolve the series in a way that continually surprises like this Hitman game did. But, it's also just so wonderfully fitting that Warner Bros. introduction was through a Game of the Year edition.

Hitman: Definitive Edition is out now as Warner Bros takes over publishing duties screenshot

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/hitman-definitive-edition-is-out-now-as-warner-bros-takes-over-publishing-duties-503115.phtml

News:: Nintendo Switch exclusives we expect to see at E3

The Nintendo Switch is so incredibly successful that fans are expecting Nintendo to go all in on it. Blitzing out of its opening year with Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, two monumental exclusives, guaranteed millions of early adopters while Nintendo prepared its growing lineup. As we start to enter the second half of the second year, many long-awaited Switch games announced earlier are approaching our grasp, but there’s one little problem… we know almost nothing about them.

Last year gave Switch owners a lot of reasons to be excited for the years to come, but many of these promised games have barely any information revealed aside from a 2018 release date, if even that. And given those anticipated releases plus their long silence, we have to expect to hear more on them soon.

E3’s looming over the distance, so it seems right to anticipate most of these games to get some additional details during the show, if not one of Nintendo’s Pre3 Mini Directs. We might not see substantial gameplay from all of them, but they’re coming too soon for us to not get some kind of mention on most of them! Here’s what we’re expecting to get the spotlight this E3…

Nintendo Switch exclusives we expect to see at E3 screenshot

News:: Gran Turismo races past 80 million sales milestone, second most successful racing franchise

For two decades, the Gran Turismo brand has been synonymous with glossy, detailed and realistic racing simulators. Yesterday, Sony Computer Entertainment released a press statement proudly announcing the series' latest milestone.

From 1997's Gran Turismo, all the way through to 2017's Gran Turismo Sport, the racing franchise has sold over 80.4 million games. This number includes the series' seven mainline releases, as well as various "Prologue" and "Online" titles, the 2006 HD remake and the 2009 Sony PSP release.

"It’s hard to imagine that 80.4 million copies of Gran Turismo have been played during the 20-year history of the franchise," said series creator Kazunori Yamauchi. "It makes me really happy to think of the immense amount of time that has been poured into playing our games! We would like to continue our efforts in achieving the best possible expression and creation of cars and scenery, as well as bringing the highest level of excitement and fun through racing in the years to come."

Gran Turismo is the second most successful video game racing franchise of all time, second only to Nintendo's Mario Kart series, which has been going strong since 1992. This is also, coincidentally, the same year Yamauchi began development on his original GT title, thus beginning the legacy of the internationally renown franchise.

Gran Turismo franchise sales surpass 80.4 million [Sony]

Gran Turismo races past 80 million sales milestone, second most successful racing franchise screenshot

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/gran-turismo-races-past-80-million-sales-milestone-second-most-successful-racing-franchise-503067.phtml

News:: Assassin's Creed done in the style of Infinity War looks spot on

In case you were wondering, there's no Infinity War spoilers here! Just a look at an older piece of promotional art.

Although the assassins of Assassin's Creed mostly exist in different periods of time and have never met each other, that didn't stop artist Turul from imagining them as one cohesive unit. Using the Avengers: Infinity War poster as a base, they managed to smash in just about every major character from the Creed series, with some decent amalgams as it pertains to the Avengers poster. For one, Ezio taking up the large prolific Tony Stark space is pretty perfect, as is the similar pose.

As someone who has played through all of the AC games (with their many ups and downs) I also got a little nostalgic for some of the characters who are no longer with us.

Turul [Twitter]

Assassin's Creed done in the style of Infinity War looks spot on screenshot

News:: Shoot for sashimi in Sushi Striker: Way of the Sushido's Switch trailer

In just under a month's time, Nintendo will release the goofy-but-fun Sushi Striker: The Way of the Sushido on Switch and 3DS. A new Japanese trailer has been uploaded to give fans a glimpse at the comical, reaction-based title.

In a world where sushi has been forbidden by a totalitarian government, rebel and professional fish-eater Musashi takes it upon themselves to overthrow the country's rulers by taking grass-roots, sushi-eating, plate-flinging action.

Sat in one of those conveyor-belt joints that I'm too poor to have ever visited, players use the touchscreen to help Musashi gorge plate after plate of delicious sushi, retaining the discarded dishes as ammo to fend off a series of opponents, ultimately freeing the country from its culinary tyranny.

Once you're doing liberating the people with the power of raw fish, then you and a pal can face off head-to-head in the game's multiplayer mode. You can also take your eating prowess online, tackling players around the world to prove yourself the greatest Sushido of all time.

Sushi Striker: The Way of The Sushido launches June 9 worldwide on 3DS and Switch.

Shoot for sashimi in Sushi Striker: Way of the Sushido's Switch trailer screenshot

News:: Mario Tennis Aces will be getting an online tournament demo

Mario Tennis Aces is still on track for a June 22 release date, so Nintendo is gearing up for the launch with an online demo. Similar to Splatoon's Global Testfire and ARMS' Global Testpunch, Aces will get an Online Tournament demo that will run for a few days to test server load.

While there isn't confirmation on what characters or courts will be available, this will give everyone a chance to try out the game before launch. Players will also unlock Mario's classic outfit for use in the main game on release. The demo will run from June 1 to June 3.

Mario Tennis Aces will be getting an online tournament demo screenshot

News:: Review: Laser League

Honestly, if the description of multiplayer competitive Jezzball doesn't already have you intrigued, I'm not sure anything I write here will help.

Review: Laser League screenshot

News:: Dataminer uncovers new Super Mario Odyssey costumes, including a rad conductor

At any waking moment someone could uncover some Super Mario Odyssey costumes. It's just a given. Nintendo seemingly packs in so much unused data into all of their Odyssey updates that folks have an easy time locating them, and now YouTuber Mizumi has found some more.

Mizumi went through the latest update and identified the following costumes: zombie, Santa, 8-bit Mario cap, conductor, and racer. Perhaps the most disturbing is the zombie, which features an axe in Mario's head, but there's also classy costumes on display (like the noble conductor) or festive ones (like Santa).

Given the content of some of these costumes, I can easily see Nintendo releasing them for Halloween or Christmas at some point just to keep people interested in Odyssey. It's working, as some of these outfits are just enough of an excuse to pop back in and get a moon or two.

Dataminer uncovers new Super Mario Odyssey costumes, including a rad conductor screenshot

News:: Discord nearly tripled its user base in one year

If it wasn't already evident that Discord is becoming a staple of playing (and watching) games, it is now. The chat platform is marking its third birthday this week with word that its user base has nearly tripled in the space of a year, jumping from 45 million in May 2017 to 135 million today. About 19 million people use it every day, and as many as 8.2 million people have used it at the same time. That kind of growth rate would be impressive for most any messaging service, although it's not entirely surprising -- it happens to be in the middle of a perfect storm of circumstances.

Source: Discord (Medium)

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/15/discord-user-base-nearly-triples-in-one-year/

News:: Review: Omensight

Omensight is a game about furry, humanoid, animal things that are all trying to murder each other for various political reasons. The whole spectacle of it is absolutely adorable right up until the moment that it chooses not to be.

The story revolves around several kingdoms, each made up of a specific species, who have found themselves locked into a huge power struggle. The problem is that there are bigger fish to fry. A giant, apocalypse-inducing demon named Voden is trying to destroy all life as we know it, and that’s where the player character comes in. You are The Harbinger, a silent, goofy-looking, glowing creature who has the power to travel back in time. Your journey is spent reliving the same twenty-four hours over and over with the hopes of figuring out how to stop this huge demon jerk from committing a widespread genocide of all sentient beings.

Review: Omensight screenshot

News:: Call of Duty twitter stirs hype ahead of Black Ops 4 reveal

It isn't long before Activision raise the curtain on this year's Call of Duty title: Black Ops 4. In fact, the publisher are stoking the fires a little early, dropping teasers on the franchise's official twitter account.

A tweet that went up this weekend features a gif, almost indiscernible, of some form of shooty tool being locked 'n' locked, before the ominous four bar logo appears, further destroying all support of the Roman numerical system. This image is accompanied by the date "May 17", which is Thursday.

With each passing year, it seems more publishers show off their wares prior to gaming industry event E3. What was once the place to premiere your big release for the year has now become a stage for "and here's some more of that game we revealed last month". Many titles, teasers - even gameplay footage - now appear before the Los Angeles-based event, perhaps to avoid getting lost in the pack on the big week itself.

Either way, we'll be seeing much more of the exciting new CoD title in a just a couple of days time. I'm guessing military-based first-person shooter. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launches October 12 on PS4, PC and Xbox One.

Call of Duty twitter stirs hype ahead of Black Ops 4 reveal screenshot

News:: Battle Chasers: Nightwar brings its Neo-Chrono Trigger style to the Switch

I was a huge fan of Battle Chasers when it was first released. A big reason for that is it was the first comic I ever read that seemed to love my favorite games as much as I did. Artist Joe Mad was just as in love with SNES RPG Chrono Trigger and Capcom's stable of '90s fighting games as I was. He brought that love directly into Battle Chasers, in ways both direct and subtle, and I ate it up regardless.

Flash forward 20 years later and Joe Mad has gone on to work on several games, including the Darksiders series and Battle Chasers: Nightwar. Out of the two, it's Battle Chasers that does the most to capture the energy of Joe's 2D art and his admiration of the previously mentioned influences. Though the graphics here are largely polygon based, this still looks like a cross between Chrono Trigger and Darkstalkers most of the time, making it one of the few modern games that I wanted to play just for the graphics.

The game's jump to the Switch has brought along with it a few minor technical quibbles, but for the most part, it's still a must-have for fans of the comics and/or the games that the comics were inspired by.

Battle Chasers: Nightwar brings its Neo-Chrono Trigger style to the Switch screenshot

News:: Watch Ariana Grande and The Roots make music with Nintendo Labo

Nintendo Labo presents new and innovative ways to use your Switch, and the musical aspect of this is on display in a video from The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, along with The Roots and Ariana Grande. Ariana Grande sings "No Tears Left to Cry" and is accompanied by Fallon and members of The Roots on Nintendo Labo instruments. The sound is coming from the actual Switch instruments and the music is being played live. You can see the video below.

Source: YouTube

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/15/ariana-grande-the-roots-nintendo-labo-tonight-show-jimmy-fallon/

News:: Bethesda unveils first gameplay footage of Rage 2

Just in case you haven't played the original Rage and don't understand the gist -- think post-apocalyptic wasteland, and you're just about on the money. Rage 2, after being outed by a Walmart leak, is now confirmed by Bethesda, and today they just dropped the first gameplay footage.

Shown by way of a one minute trailer we're given a quick rundown of the narrative, in a world "devoid of society, law, and order" (yep, checks out). The game promises an open world format with Avalanche Studios and id Software at the helm, with the backdrop of its 2185 set hellscape.

So far I haven't seen anything particularly interesting that makes my ears perk up, but I'll be keeping an eye on this one. It sure ticks all of the "AAA hype" boxes though for some folks -- first-person shooter, open world, post-apoc.

Bethesda unveils first gameplay footage of Rage 2 screenshot

News:: Review: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux

Nine years ago, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey was my first experience with anything SMT related. I was hesitant at first, not being a fan of first-person dungeon crawlers at the time. I didn't know what to expect when I picked up my copy at GameStop and booted it up on my Nintendo DSi XL. While it would be many more years before the genre would click for me, I came away from the game with a great appreciation for the world Atlus has constructed and its devil-may-care attitude about appropriating various religious deities.

It was the opposite of the happy-go-lucky games I normally play, and even today, Strange Journey remains an oddity in my DS game collection. Strange Journey Redux isn't as much of an outsider on my 3DS having bought every other Shin Megami Tensei game to hit the handheld, but it is still one deep, dark, and devilish ride.

Review: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux screenshot

News:: AirFly connects your AirPods to anything with a headphone jack

Apple's AirPods are apparently a hit, but they're not perfect. One of the major drawbacks of iPhone's wireless headphones is the fact that they're, well, wireless, and aren't compatible with anything lacking Bluetooth. Twelve South, which has a reputation for making attractive, smart Apple peripherals, thinks it's solved the issue with AirFly, which is priced at $40 (£40 in the UK and €45 in Europe).

The dongle (more dongles, yes I know) ensures that your AirPods are now compatible with pretty much anything with a 3.5mm headphone jack. As you might expect, given its name, the AirFly was made for in-flight entertainment.

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/15/airfly-airpods-headphone-jack/

News:: 'PUBG Mobile' update adds Miramar map and more

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has finally dropped its 0.5.0 update for mobile, and it's pretty much everything we'd hoped for. A cut-to-the-chase tweet from developer PUBG revealed that the Miramar Map, progression missions, secret stash and local quick teams are all part of the new patch, which was rolled out over a period of extended downtime yesterday. Availability of the update depends on the region of your store, though, so you might not get it straight away, but unlike the last mobile update, it doesn't matter which operating system you're using as it looks like Android and iOS users will get the goods at the same time.

Source: Twitter.com [@PUBGMOBILE]

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/15/pubg-mobile-update-adds-miramar-map-and-more/

News:: The Zone of the Enders 2 remaster is coming out on September 6

Konami has been toiling away at Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner - Mars, a remake of the second Zone of the Enders, for a good while. First, we eventually got some semblance of confirmation that the game was still alive. Then we got a release window. Now we have a date -- September 6.

Mars is still slated for PC and PS4, with PSVR support for the latter. It'll also sport new modes for both casual and pro fans alike, including a "pro" controller setup with faster outputs, and a "very easy" setting. VR will also allow extra modes like a 3D hangar simulation, a theater, and a 3D model viewer. If you don't opt for VR you can go 4K.

Zone of the Enders 2 is a fantastic action romp with some really cool mech designs, and I'm looking forward to playing it again on a current generation system -- VR or not.

The Zone of the Enders 2 remaster is coming out on September 6 screenshot

News:: Silly space pirates will be eaten by suns in Pan Galactic Railway

As a child, I always wanted a slip and slide, a flat lawn slide that pivoted slipping to death into family fun. I asked my parents over and over until my dad said: "Son, where do you think you're going to set that up, in this apartment building's all-concrete parking lot? You would bust your face." I looked to my mom for an appeal, hoping she'd be the voice of reason. She grinned and added: "No comas mierda." (Literally: Do not eat shit)

I didn't occur to me that we also needed a yard, running water, a hose, and a large section of real estate that was ours. Kids don't think that way. Parks were also not an option, as that's where you'd go to get your toys and beepers stolen. I knew we were poor, but that particular incident added a lot of texture. Now, you're probably thinking, what the f--- does that have to do with a game where you drive the only known space train in the universe?

Slide.

Silly space pirates will be eaten by suns in Pan Galactic Railway screenshot

News:: SteamVR Input beta test helps controllers adapt to any VR game

With the latest beta version of SteamVR Valve is now testing a new setup for controllers that makes things more customizable no matter what controllers you're using, what the game was designed for, or what capabilities the user has. With the new SteamVR Input system, developers are now able to offer alternate control schemes without updating the game itself, while gamers can adjust bindings for buttons and switches to their liking, then share those setups via Steam Workshop.

Source: Steam

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/15/steamvr-input-beta-controller-customization/

News:: The Morning After: Lenovo says no to the notch

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Were you dreaming of a truly all-screen phone? Lenovo may be ready to deliver, and we're checking out how some high schools have added eSports teams to their athletic lineup.

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/15/the-morning-after-lenovo-says-no-to-the-notch/

News:: Review: Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time

Can you imagine working your magic-weaving tail off, all year, reaching your last day of school, only to find that you are forced to relive it over and over again? No summer vacation? No trips to the beach? No mushroom gathering?!

This is the fate that befalls goofy-but-well-meaning witch Akko after her nosy nature gets the better of her. Now, forced to replay the final day of the semester on a perpetual loop, Akko, along with the shy Lotte and awesomely sombre Sucy, must team up with friends, enemies, and friendly enemies in order to get the clock moving again, lest - gasp! - summer vacation never comes!

Bandai Namco's Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time - an adaptation of the popular anime series - is an action-RPG which allows fans the chance to step into the shoes of the students of Luna Nova Magical Academy. Originally launched in Japan in November 2017, this long-awaited localisation gives Western fans the opportunity to save the day alongside Akko and co.

Review: Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time screenshot

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Tuesday, May 15, 2018