News:: SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy adds swashbuckler Love Heart

A new fighter has been added to the roster of upcoming all-gal brawler SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy. The new entrant is none other than King of Fighters XIV and pachinko star, Love Heart, as announced in the new issue of Japanese magazine Famitsu.

Love Heart, who made her debut in pachinko title Sky Love, pilots her flying galleon, the Elicon III, on a quest to avenge the death of her father at the hands of the Skull D. Falcon, captain of the notorious Devil Pirates. Players achieve this, I guess, by dropping hundreds of little steel balls into a slot.

The queen of the skies joined the roster of 2016's King of Fighters XIV, where she proved herself as adept at hand-to-hand combat as she is at navigation. In fact, she was a little too good, quickly becoming an S-tier character and requiring some early nerfing.

Now, Love Heart returns for another bout of fisticuffs in Tag Team Frenzy, where she appears to have switched her buccaneer gear for a police uniform, having made the obvious transition from inter-dimensional sky-flying to law enforcement. With Love Heart on board, Tag Team Frenzy's roster currently stands at ten characters. I'm sure we'll be seeing a trailer for the new challenger soon.

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy launches September 7 on PS4 and Nintendo Switch. An arcade version of the game is also in the works.

Love Heart joins the roster of SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy [Famitsu]

Read more...

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/snk-heroines-tag-team-frenzy-adds-swashbuckler-love-heart-504078.phtml

News:: Neon Giant is a new studio comprised of ex-Wolfenstein and Bulletstorm devs

While unknown to most people, developers Tor Frick, Arcade Berg, Erik Gloersen and Jonathan Heckley have been making some great games over the last decade. Their combined portfolio includes the likes of Bulletstorm, Far Cry 3, Gears of War, Wolfenstein: The New Order and even DOOM. Taking all of that expertise with them (a combined 70 years worth), the four have left their respective studios and formed a new super-studio called "Neon Giant."

"At Neon Giant," reads their official website, "every team member is a key player, empowered to help us fulfill our bold vision: to create world-class action games that will stand proud and tall with the giants." With funding from the firm Goodbye Kansas Game Invest, the studio is looking to take Swedish game development into the big leagues.

Goodbye Kansas Game Invest's CEO, Per-Arne Luundberg, said, "Neon Giant consists of a real dream team that not only has enormous experience, they also have an incredibly efficient working process...they coincidentally also have something great in the works—I'm convinced that their first release will be a milestone in Swedish game development." I'm eager to see what they could be cooking up, considering every title mentioned has been quality.

Former Wolfenstein, Bulletstorm devs set up new studio Neon Giant [PC Gamer]

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/neon-giant-is-a-new-studio-comprised-of-ex-wolfenstein-and-bulletstorm-devs-504124.phtml

News:: The ever-present Tencent acquires majority of Path of Exile developer

Grinding Gear Games has been trucking along with the incredible free-to-play Path of Exile since 2013, refraining from implementing pay-to-win schemes all the while. It's a paragon in a sea of over-monetized projects, and the fact that it's a good Diablo style dungeon crawler makes the situation even sweeter.

Some folks are worried, however, that conglomerate Tencent has acquired a majority stake in Grinding Gear Games, PoE's developer. Addressing the issue on their blog, Grinding Gear notes that they will "remain an independant company," and the "high level of autonomy" allowed by the companies Tencent owns a stake in are why they chose to do business with them.

According to the post, Grinding Gear will remain a New Zealand company, and all of its developers remain on-board. They are "assured" by other CEOs that Tencent won't interfere with the game, but give no assurances in particular other than stating that they have "full control."

The first step? Ship a Chinese version of Path of Exile, which Grinding Gear Games notes might get exclusive features at "Tencent's request," which could make its way into the international edition. While I'm not waving the red flag yet, that's their escape hatch in terms of someday justifying a drastic new feature.

Tencent [Path of Exile]

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/the-ever-present-tencent-acquires-majority-of-path-of-exile-developer-504102.phtml

News:: Twin-stick shooter Sleep Tight lights up the night on Switch this July

Last year, I had the pleasure of testing out the first game from developer We Are Fuzzy, a team of designers and artists who have worked on various AAA games, hit television shows, and Hollywood blockbusters. Sleep Tight is a twin-stick shooter that casts players as a kid just trying to survive the night as various ghouls and goblins attack from the shadows. It was a fun experience with a little bit of Pixar charm. Now, two months away from the game's launch, it's looking a hell of a lot better.

We Are Fuzzy dropped a new trailer for the shooter this morning and I can already see some improvements over the build I played several months ago. The animation is smoother, the monsters more lively, and there are now 12 playable characters to unlock, something that wasn't even hinted at during my interview with the development team. Each character will bring their own exclusive ability and play style to game, which mashes up run'n'gun action and base building strategy to see how many nights of a monster infestation you can survive.

Read more...

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/twin-stick-shooter-sleep-tight-lights-up-the-night-on-switch-this-july-504142.phtml

News:: Overwatch is set to receive official LEGO sets

_{[Image courtesy of YouTuber Nick Brick]}

A report from Business Wire has let out details of a deal between Activision Blizzard and HASBRO. While not specified, the deal indicates that a line of Overwatch LEGO products will be happening. There will be multiple LEGO items based on the series at various price points, so my guess would be individual characters and full on sets.

Along with that news, Overwatch will also be getting a NERF sets for your kids to shoot each other with. I'm actually totally down for that, seeing as how NERF guns are stupidly fun. If we can get a foam hammer like Reinhardt's, then we'll really be in business.

Activision Blizzard Consumer Products Group Brings Franchises of the Future, Esports and Fan-Favorite Properties to Licensing Expo 2018 [Business Wire]

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/overwatch-is-set-to-receive-official-lego-sets-504129.phtml

News:: Customizable PS4 gamepad helps with your tricky 'Fortnite' builds

Serious gamers or those looking for more comfort while playing PS4 games might have struggled in the past to find a good alternative to Sony's DualShock 4 peripheral. Xbox One, for its part, has strong replacement options for its regular controller, with the Xbox One Elite and the upcoming Adaptive Controller. However, PS4 fans are about to get a new, official option, as custom controller manufacturer Scuf has a licensed, wireless PS4 peripheral on the way.

Source: PlayStation

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/22/scuf-vantage-ps4-controller-wireless/

News:: Review: I Hate Running Backwards

Serious Sam might not be a household name, but that hasn’t stopped the guy from appearing in a crazy amount of games. Developer Croteam and publisher Devolver Digital have always had a fondness for the character and that has extended to letting indie devs take him in directions never intended. This has led to games with interesting concepts, but shaky execution.

I Hate Running Backwards actually started life as another Serious Sam indie game before becoming a grand Devolver Digital crossover event. While it has cool ideas, a ton of charm and loads of guns, some design choices hold it back from its true potential.

Read more...

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/review-i-hate-running-backwards-504047.phtml

News:: Fused Zamasu and Vegito are headed to Dragon Ball FighterZ at the end of the month

Dragon Ball has the perfect system down pat with its ever-expanding power levels and forms. One can have a favorite character (or fusion of characters) like say, Vegito, and eventually the show will morph them into something semi-new to bring in new fans -- like say, Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan (SSGSS) Vegito.

Both he, and another culmination of that iterative style, Fused Zamasu, are coming to Dragon Ball FighterZ on May 31. We knew about their existence a while back thanks to leaks, but now the date is set in stone. As a reminder you can pick them up piecemeal for $5, or as part of the season pass (FighterZ pass) for $35.

Another bonus reminder: the game is pronounced "Fighters," not "Fighter-Zee."

Bandai Namco Europe [Twitter]

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/fused-zamasu-and-vegito-are-headed-to-dragon-ball-fighterz-at-the-end-of-the-month-504094.phtml

News:: Runner3 spoilers: Something wicked this Martin-way comes

A few months ago, I unveiled a rumor that seemed too weird to be real. I was vindicated in the end, though I understand why some were skeptical. They haven't played Runner3 yet, so they don't know how silly the game can be. They also don't know how silly videogames in general can be, because despite being out for less than a day, Runner3 is already one of the silliest games of all time. 

If you want to see exactly how deep this irreverent hole goes, you'll have to do some hard digging. The video above is one of the many unexplained secrets that I've found in the game so far, and I've only hadit for a week or two. Who knows what we'll have found by this time next year.

If you find anything equally unexplainable, let me know. I'm making a list. 

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/runner3-spoilers-something-wicked-this-martin-way-comes-502894.phtml

News:: 'H1Z1: Battle Royale' arrives fashionably late on PS4

The battle royale genre is certainly all the rage right now, but before Fortnite: Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Daybreak's H1Z1 was challenging players with its zombie survival sandbox. It's been a bumpy ride, however, after three years of early access H1Z1 has not only launched as a full-fledged game, it's also kicking off its PlayStation 4 open beta today.

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/22/h1z1-ps4/

News:: Rumor: Ridley and Simon Belmont to join new Super Smash Bros. roster

Some of my friend's favorite pasttimes involve predicting and watching Super Smash Bros. reveals. I mean at this point any character could make it into the roster, and this latest rumor definitely has legs.

Born out of Vergeben, who correctly predicted that the Ninja Turtles would make their way into Injustice 2 and that Gr0h would debut in Soul Calibur (among some misses from what Vergeben is calling "bad sources"), the new Smash on Switch could host Metroid's Ridley, Castlevania's Simon Belmont, and could see the return of the Ice Climbers.

Given the recent release of Samus Returns, Ridley could be a relevant option, not to mention that fans have been clamoring for his addition for years. Simon Belmont is also very probable, given his involvement in the NES era and that Konami has already partnered with Nintendo on the Smash series (if Simon is in, I'd be down for Dracula DLC). Also Ice Climbers? Yeah, that might be the number one requested returning character given their exclusion in Smash 4. Vergeben also claims that no characters from Smash 4 will be cut. Given that we don't have to worry about "3DS limitations" this time, that could also pan out.

So yeah, these are very safe rumors, but we'll know more soon enough at E3 in just a few weeks (wow, it feels weird saying that).

Big Smash Leaks [GameFAQS via EventHubs]

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/rumor-ridley-and-simon-belmont-to-join-new-super-smash-bros-roster-504103.phtml

News:: Overwatch Anniversary event begins today, new skins revealed in fan video

Today, Blizzard begins its second-year anniversary celebrations for its immensely popular arena-shooter Overwatch. A new selection of unlockables will be made available for the duration of the event, although one fan got the party started a little earlier with a video leak of the new skins, coming to Overwatch today.

As you can see below, cool new gear is on the cards for multiple characters, including a sweet tuxedo for Doomfist, a Bucaneers' outfit for Junkrat, a neat forest design for Orisa and a Magician getup for the ever-frustrating Symmetra, Gunslinger McCree gets, of all things, a Sherlock Holmes cosplay. Even new girl Brigitte gets some fab new duds.

Alongside the new skins will be a new selection of victory poses, highlight intros and sprays. Heroes who missed out on dancing emotes now have their own rug-cutting moves, (including a great cyber-goth pastiche for brainiac scientist Moira). These items will all be available to unlock in loot boxes for the duration of the event. In addition to this, all previous archive missions and seasonal brawls will return. The game is also getting an new deathmatch map, Petra.

The Overwatch Anniversary Event begins today and runs until June 11. Have fun, heroes!

Read more...

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/overwatch-anniversary-event-begins-today-new-skins-revealed-in-fan-video-504075.phtml

News:: Witness the future with Detroit: Become Human's launch trailer

Quantic Dream's next branching narrative title, Detroit: Become Human, launches this Friday (May 25). To celebrate, Sony has uploaded the launch trailer for the game. We get a look at each playable character in the game and get a quick summary of what their motivations are. Despite not explaining all too much, it does give us a nice look at the graphical engine and it certainly looks great. I hear the game is a real treat on PS4 Pro, though even base PS4's provide a full HD output.

Read more...

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/witness-the-future-with-detroit-become-human-s-launch-trailer-504123.phtml

News:: Naughty Dog tweet teases The Last of Us Part II reveal at E3

Naughty Dog's Vice-President Neil Druckmann has set tongues wagging with a vague message on his twitter account, hyping an upcoming reveal for sombre sequel The Last of Us Part II.

The tweet simply features an image of a miserable-looking backwoods road, along with the words "T-minus 3 weeks." Obviously, this countdown will lead us to the upcoming E3 event, to be held in Los Angeles next month. Druckmann helpfully lends to that theory by adding the hashtag "#E32018".

What will be revealed at E3? Will we get gameplay footage? A release date? The surprise swerve that TLOU2 is actually for the PlayStation 5? Ehh, Maybe we'll just get another deeply upsetting trailer. Whatever Naughty Dog have planned, it's sure to get fans in a tizzy, when The Last of Us, considered by some to be one of the greatest gaming brands of all time, finally reveals its new nightmares.

E3 2018 takes place at the L.A. Convention Center between June 12-14.

The Last of Us II teased by Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann [Twitter]

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/naughty-dog-tweet-teases-the-last-of-us-part-ii-reveal-at-e3-504086.phtml

News:: The LEGO Movie sequel gets release date and name

When The LEGO Movie came out everyone was rolling their eyes at it and thinking it would suck as a weird attempt at a cash grab for kids. Well, everybody who hadn't played a LEGO video game, that is. Anyone who had was already aware of the fantastic writing and creativity that LEGO and WB had put into those games so it came as little surprise when the movie was fantastic, and made lots of money and then generated a sequel, which, as of today, we know is called The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part.

Get it? Because of LEGO parts... and it's also the second movie... and also the McGuffins driving the film are magical parts... ahhh.. you get it.

Prepare for the second part. #TheLEGOMovie2 pic.twitter.com/wCgbnbeDTl

— The LEGO Movie 2 (@TheLEGOMovie) May 21, 2018

Anyway, the reveal came over Twitter and also included that image you see above and a release date of February 2019, which is a far cry from the May 2017 release originally announced. My birthday is in February so I'm going to pretend they delayed it all this extra time to give me a nice gift. Thanks, LEGO!

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/the-lego-movie-sequel-gets-release-date-and-name-503980.phtml

News:: ’Days Gone’ will need a stellar story to save its stale gameplay

Me, I love beating the un-living daylights out of zombies. Whether it's the ecchi cartoonishness of Lollipop Chainsaw, the clever weapons crafting of Dead Rising, or the heart-pounding intensity of Left 4 Dead, if it's an unholy abomination risen from the grave to feast on the flesh of the living, I'm more than happy to de-brain it for you. So yeah, I've been more than a little excited to get my hands on Days Gone, the post-apocalyptic open-world zombie survival game from developer Bend Studios since it first debuted at E3 in 2016. That is, until I actually got my hands on it.

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/22/days-gone-hands-on-2018/

News:: NVIDIA's budget GTX 1050 3GB is for gamers, not crypto-miners

Despite the looming arrival of its next-gen graphics cards, NVIDIA quietly unveiled a new budget model, the GeForce GTX 1050 3GB. It's positioned between the regular 2GB GTX 1050 and the 4GB 1050 Ti, with a faster base clock but lower memory bandwidth of 84 GB/second compared to 112 GB/s for the other two models. The 3GB of memory makes it suitable for modern games, but less desirable for crypto-mining, which (in the case of Ethereum) requires graphics cards with 3GB of VRAM at a minimum.

Via: PC World

Source: NVIDIA

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/22/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-3gb-budget-gaming/

News:: The CEO of PlayStation says that the PS4 is 'entering the final phase of its life cycle'

Sony generally has pretty hefty console lifecycles.

The PS2 lasted a really, really long time, like, 13 years until it was discontinued worldwide in fact, even if games stopped being produced for it on a mass scale. The PS3 lasted roughly 11 years (10 in the west) until it was scrapped. The PS4 is coming up on five years old, and some would say the generation has already been fragmented with the PS4 Pro console.

Well, right now, according to Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO John Kodera, the PS4 is in its "final life cycle." With nearly 80 million units shipped it's currently riding high, but Kodera is a bit more pessimistic, noting that given this final phase is in effect, he expects hardware sales to be lower and that they'll have to partially coast on PS+ subscriptions.

PSVR is "healthy" according to Kodera, but for now they're going to focus on both existing and new IP. He's keen to mention the former, noting that Sony isn't just going to constantly create new works. For this fiscal year (until April 2019) Kodera explains that Sony is going to be hyper-focused on PS4 and "recurring revenue" streams like the aforementioned PS+.

Hopefully this generation keeps trucking -- I don't think we've seen the last of it by a mile.

Takashi Mochizuki [Twitter via Gematsu]

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/the-ceo-of-playstation-says-that-the-ps4-is-entering-the-final-phase-of-its-life-cycle--504100.phtml

News:: The Morning After: 'The Expanse' may live again

Hey, good morning!

Wake up! The Expanse might live again. Razer reinvents its Blade gaming laptops to battle a new generation of slim, powerful games machines. And if you don't like bleeding-edge gaming, we also reviewed a new game for the decades-old Atari Lynx. Something for everyone?

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/22/the-morning-after-the-expanse-may-live-again/

News:: Sega's PS3 Yakuza titles are being remastered for PS4

In a move that makes complete sense, Sega have announced that PS3 titles Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5 will all be coming to PS4 in Japan within the next 12 months. The publisher made the announcement in this week's issue of Dengeki PlayStation.

Although there are little in the way of details, these don't appear to be ground-up remakes - like the excellent Yakuza Kiwami and Kiwami 2 - but the remastered titles will be given a fresh coat of paint for their return, with improved resolutions and frame-rates.

The Yakuza series, now over a decade old, only really blew up worldwide with the arrival of Yakuza 0 in 2017. This was followed by successful releases of remake Kiwami and final chapter Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. Now that the series has a whole new generation of fans, these remasters will allow them to experience the Kazuma Kiryu story all on one console. (Well, apart from that time he fought zombies).

Yakuza 3 is scheduled for release in Japan on August 9, with Yakuza 4 to follow in Fall and Yakuza 5 in Spring of 2019. No Western announcement was made, but given the series' recent success, plus the fact there are already localised versions of these games available, it would be silly not to bring these great re-releases overseas.

Yakuza 3, 4, 5 being remastered for the PS4 platform [Gematsu / Ryokutya2089]

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/sega-s-ps3-yakuza-titles-are-being-remastered-for-ps4-504071.phtml

News:: Razer unveils a cheaper external GPU case, the $299 'Core X'

Razer's latest stab at an external GPU case, the $299 Core X, is its most interesting one yet. Like the company's earlier models, it's a way for you to bring the power of a desktop video card to ultraportable laptops. It just does so for much less than the $499 Core v2. And, strangely, it's a better choice for many gamers, since it accepts large 3-slot video cards. The Core v2 only had room for 2.2-slot GPUs. Additionally, the Core X has a beefier 650-watt power supply instead of a slim 500-watt PSU, which gives it room for growth as video cards ans laptops get more energy hungry.

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/22/razer-core-x-egpu/

News:: Razer’s revamped Blade gaming laptop is an upgrade in every way

The Razer Blade is back, and it has pretty much all of the features you'd expect from a gaming notebook in 2018. Notably, the company has refined the laptop's design significantly. Gone are the bulky bezels around the last Blade's 14-inch screen. Now there's a 15.6-inch display with incredibly thin borders. With that, the new Razer Blade is ready to face off with the plethora of lighting gaming laptops this year, like the Gigabyte Aero 15X and MSI's GS65 Stealth Thin.

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/22/razer-blade-gaming-laptop/