News:: Microsoft surprise releases Miami Street for Windows 10

From literally nowhere, Microsoft has released Miami Street as a free-to-play racer on Windows 10 devices. This new racer is not only compatible with PC, but on Windows Surface tablets as well. The general gameplay of Miami Street is more like a cinematic racer than a traditional Forza or Need for Speed and utilizes a lot of QTEs to pump up the action.

The game features the ever popular energy mechanic, where you'll have a limited amount of attempts at a race before you run out of energy and need to wait (or pay to resume). Your car will automatically steer itself, but you'll need to make strategic use of gas and break to get a boost and speed past your opponents. This is all facilitated either by your space bar and mouse or your touch screen, should you be on a tablet.

The game comes from developer Electric Square, which is a sister studio to Studio Gobo (known for For Honor's DLC and Disney Infinity). The game was soft launched on the Microsoft store, so it may not be available in all territories. As a matter of fact, it isn't even available in the US, so I can't even give it a shot.

Here is a five-minute gameplay trailer that looks positive devoid of life. I can understand wanting to try something a bit different, but I don't know how much life Miami Street has in it. At the very least, you can earn achievements for your Gamertag for free. That is nice...

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via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-surprise-releases-miami-street-for-windows-10-504771.phtml

News:: Bad single-player modes are limiting the growth of fighting games

For the past decade or so, fighting games have both fascinated and intimidated me. I poke into online matches now and then where even in the lowest ranks, I regularly get destroyed by players with exponentially better skills and strategies than my own. I'll admit I'm just not good at playing them competitively, and while I could theoretically develop the requisite skills with enough patience, it's not in my current interest to take hundreds of soul-breaking online losses in that process.

I enjoy these games much more just sticking to fun, single-player modes, which is why Super Smash Bros. Brawl is my favorite fighting game. It’s also why I've barely played Pokkén despite having hyped myself up for it for so long, nor have I touched the Deluxe version. Pokkén's single-player campaign is too exhaustingly padded and too poorly written for me to enjoy, even if I came into it expecting to love it.

Yes, it’s true almost everyone plays fighting games these days just to compete against other players, competitively or casually or somewhere in between. That’s good, but the issue I take is in the growing negligence of other audiences. If these games don’t offer anything else that makes it worth the purchase, that leaves their “real” barrier of entry so high it becomes a huge risk for new players to simply add them to their libraries.

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via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/bad-single-player-modes-are-limiting-the-growth-of-fighting-games-504344.phtml

News:: Review: Conan Exiles

Despite not having much affinity for survival games, I did find Funcom's Conan Exiles rather promising upon its full release earlier this month. In my Review In Progress, I noted that I was having fun in its wide, very pretty, Exiled Lands, largely freed from the confines of a scripted narrative and encouraged to chart my own path to glory and/or death.

I resolved to keep at it for a while longer, at least until I got a taste of the game's more advanced systems, and had seen for myself some of the new content Funcom added for the full launch, namely the new volcanic and swampy territories, as well as taking a crack at larger-scale base-building and the multiplayer scene.

Unfortunately, for all my ambition to drink deeper of the game's offering, a life in the Exiled Lands can be a savage, unforgiving one.

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via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/review-conan-exiles-503571.phtml

News:: Agent 47 is bald because hair was just too difficult

You might've heard the story about Mario wearing overalls and just generally looking the way he does in part because of the limited power of hardware at the time of his creation, but did you know that Agent 47 of Hitman fame also got his iconic look (partially) due to technical constraints?

During his Nordic Game 2018 talk about IO Interactive's transition to independence, CEO Hakan Abrak shared a short but amusing nugget about the making of Hitman: Codename 47.

"It was just too difficult for the engineers to do hair on the main character back then," he said. "I have seen -- and it doesn't look good -- but I have seen the original concepts back then of Agent 47 with hair. They chose to make him bald and it kind of worked out well for us. He is our iconic character."

Let the fan art commence. I'm imagining a Max Payne-style hairdo.

via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/agent-47-is-bald-because-hair-was-just-too-difficult-504594.phtml

News:: How GDPR is affecting the games you love

The tech world has been bracing for a new set of European privacy rules that go into effect: the General Data Protection Regulation, better known as GDPR. Companies will have either changed how they handle their EU users' personal data or face serious fines. The regulations are intentionally broad, which has led them to affect industries that aren't typically thought of as trafficking in user information -- like gaming. That means gamers are protected by GDPR while playing online or posting in forums. But in complying with the EU regulations, gaming companies are nervous that they'll inadvertently run afoul of the new law's vaguely written rules.

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/26/how-gdpr-is-affecting-the-games-you-love/

News:: Getting the most out of your PlayStation 3 in 2018

_{[We ran this in February, but we loved it so much we bumped it again for those who missed it. Enjoy! -Niero]}

The figures are out, and the PlayStation 4 is already close to catching up with the PlayStation 3 when it comes to lifetimes sales. We're reaching peak PS4 time, with huge releases such as Monster Hunter: World and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus coming to the console in the past few months. To be frank, we're drowning in good current-gen games, so it's probably time to sell old consoles to buy extra games, send slightly battered models off to the scrap heap, or simply leave them untouched, gathering dust, on the shelf. 

Hold it right there, though! Now is absolutely not the time to be even thinking of getting rid of your PS3. I would even argue that now is the perfect time to buy a PS3, if you missed out on that era of games. There's still life in the old gal yet, and what's more, it's becoming a very cheap console to collect for. I play my PlayStation 3 probably about 60% of the time I'm gaming, while 30% goes on my PlayStation 4 and a measly 10% goes on low-res adventure and point-and-click games on my battered old laptop. And I can't say I've got bored yet.

So, why should you rush out and get a second-hand PS3? And how do you make the PS3 an exciting, useful console in 2018, when you have a PS4 already sitting in your cabinet? Let me discuss why I think the PS3 still has legs, and what to do to fall back in love with the console.

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via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/getting-the-most-out-of-your-playstation-3-in-2018-486183.phtml

News:: The Morning After: Weekend Edition

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to the weekend. Along with our highlights from the past week, we have good news for fans of The Expanse and a look at Alexa's big mistake.

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/26/the-morning-after-weekend-edition/

News:: 'The Wolf Among Us' season two delayed into 2019

It has been nearly four years since The Wolf Among Us wrapped up its original episodic run, but fans will have to wait a bit longer for a follow-up. Telltale Games announced that season two is delayed from its original late-2018 release window into 2019 due to "a few fundamental changes here at Telltale since we first announced the game last summer." As Eurogamer notes, this could refer to layoffs last year that cut its staff by 25 percent, even though at the time, the studio stated that upcoming releases including The Wolf Among Us season two would not be affected.

Source: Telltale Games

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/26/the-wolf-among-us-s2-delay/