Wednesday, 31 May 2017

YouTuber Drops Switch From 1000 Feet With A Drone To See If It Will Survive

Nintendo hardware, especially its handhelds, are known to be tough. Game Boys have survived bombings, and the original model DS was designed from the start to survive a fall from chest height (Nintendo assumed people would drop their DS while placing the handheld in their breast pocket). YouTube channel UnlockRiver.com decided to take things a little further, or more appropriately, a lot further, by flying their Switch 1000 feet into the air and dropping it. I won't spoil the ending, but it's worth seeing what happens.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

At the beginning of the video, the host expresses fear at dropping his Switch from the sky as he has put some time into Zelda. You know what would alleviate that fear? The ability to transfer or back up save files!

[Source: UnlockRiver.com on YouTube via NeoGAF]



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/05/31/youtuber-drops-their-switch-from-1000-feet-with-a-drone-to-see-if-it-would-survive.aspx

Watch Us Debate Prey's Divisive Ending

Prey has been out for a few weeks now, giving players ample enough time to finish the game. The ending has proven to be just as divisive among players as the rest of the game.

Suriel Vazquez, Matt Bertz, and I sat down to hash out how we felt about the game's ending and how our choices through Arkane's sci-fi adventure. Warning, we cover a lot of ground here that's firmly in spoiler territory, so turn back now if you don't want the whole game spoiled for you. Otherwise, you can tune in by watching below:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

For our review of Prey, head here. You can also check out my column on the game's unique characters.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/05/31/watch-us-debate-prey-39-s-divisive-ending.aspx

Learn About Valkyria Revolution's Characters In These Silly Comics

Valkyria Revolution comes out in a few weeks, and Sega has released a few comics to help players get to know some of the characters. However, these aren't multi-issue scenarios that depict elaborate backstories; they're goofy, lighthearted four-panel comics that put three characters in the spotlight.

Amleth Gronkjaer, Basil Sabancci, and Fritte Eriksen each get to star in two entries. Amleth is a stoic military captain, Basil is flirtatious young tycoon, and Fritte is journalist – though the full scope of their personalities and interactions aren't represented in these vignettes. For that, we'll have to play the full game when it release on June 27.

Check out the gallery below to see all six comics.

For more on Valkyria Revolution, watch this video on legendary composer Yasunori Mitsuda's approach to the game's soundtrack.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/games/valkyria_revolution/b/playstation4/archive/2017/05/31/learn-about-valkyria-revolutions-characters-in-these-silly-comics.aspx

June's PlayStation Plus Games Include Killing Floor 2, Life Is Strange

This month's PlayStation Plus titles have been revealed on the PlayStation Blog. Killing Floor 2 and Life is Strange will be available on PlayStation 4 starting June 1.

Killing Floor 2 is a co-op horde first-person shooter. Assemble a team of friends to take on wave after wave of mutants, upgrading your gear as you progress. Life is Strange is an episodic choice-based game about a time-manipulating teen named Max and her personal journey to discover the mysteries of the town of Arcadia Bay.

Along with those PS4 titles, PlayStation Plus members can also enjoy these games on Sony's other platforms:

  • Abyss Odyssey (PS3)
  • WRC 5: World Rally Championship (PS3)
  • Neon Chrome (PS Vita, crossbuy on PS4)
  • Spy Chameleon (PS Vita, crossbuy on PS4)

 

Our Take
This is pretty solid month for PlayStation, especially given its less-than-stellar titles the past few months. Killing Floor 2 is a great free game that'll give you and your buddies at least one evening of fun, and those curious about the critically acclaimed Life is Strange can finally check it out for themselves free of charge –  if you're a PlayStation Plus subscriber.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/05/31/june-s-playstation-plus-games-include-killing-floor-2-life-is-strange.aspx

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin Is The First Title In Xseed's E3 Lineup

Publisher Xseed Games announced the first game in its E3 2017 lineup today. Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin comes from Edelweiss, the developers of Astebreed, and combines side-scrolling action-platforming with rice cultivation, set against the backdrop of Japanese mythology. 

You play as Sakuna, a harvest goddess who has been banished to an island of outcast humans. The side-scrolling part of the game has you battling demons with farming tools and a "celestial scarf," while the gameplay at your home base involves a detailed rice-cultivating process, which helps improve your harvest and hone your skills. The game is described as "a love letter to Japanese culture" and "an ode to the artistry of cultivating rice."

You can view the Japanese trailer below.

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Old Man's Journey - A Poignant Adventure Through Memory

Old Man’s Journey is about an elderly man who decides to go backpacking through the countryside – an idea that might sound uninspired and dull. However, Broken Rules breathes life into its premise with a fantastic art style, emotional storytelling, and well designed puzzles that make for a great bite-sized adventure. It’s compelling, and a treat for those who like well-told stories and intriguing puzzles.

The titular old man’s journey is presented as a series of colorful and animated landscape paintings that feature a diverse array of environments. You navigate places like a town, a harbor, and a waterfall with a point and click (or touch, if you’re playing on mobile) interface. Each environment has a number of gags that you can discover by touching objects – like a cat that darts from rooftop to rooftop, or bells you can ring. These little details make every place feel even more alive, which is impressive given how each location is lovingly rendered in a beautiful art style. The stellar soundtrack also changes from scene to scene, giving each place its unique melodic delights.

The puzzles are simple but intriguing. Each level begins with the old man entering the scene, usually from the left side, and having to navigate a series of hills and obstacles to get to the other. You clear the way for him by manipulating objects in the environment – usually hills and other landmasses. So you often have to pinch and drag two pieces of land until each of them is touching so the lines of each are running parallel and the old man can walk across it. Later puzzles get more complicated, with you manipulating turnwheels to create bridges or dragging down uneven tracks and bridges so that a train can get across. None of these puzzles are particularly taxing, but they’re fun to solve and even made me feel a bit powerful, as I shifted around hills and buildings like some unseen god.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

The core of Old Man’s Journey is its mundane but emotional storytelling. The old man is not saving the world or rescuing lovers. He’s grappling with nostalgia and the future in a way that’s realistic, but the presentation makes this an uplifting tale instead of a bleak one. The story is delivered wordlessly, with the old man resting at certain points on benches and ships and then delving into his memory. These memories are presented as still paintings of him as a younger man journeying back through the countryside. To say too much here would spoil the story, but these moments hit at the right time, offering a nice breather between puzzles while also building a satisfying emotional arc for our nameless character.

Old Man’s Journey takes around two hours to complete and makes the most of that time, showering players in an array of lovely images and sounds while also giving them some fun manipulation puzzles to solve. I left this beautifully animated countryside having felt that the journey was indeed one worth taking.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/games/old_mans_journey/b/ios/archive/2017/05/31/a-poignant-adventure-through-memory.aspx

Overwatch Tweaking McCree, Reaper, And Roadhog, Adding Heroes Of The Storm Skins To Loot Boxes

Overwatch's new Horizon Lunar Colony assault map is now live on the game's test servers, but that's not the only new thing that's coming to the game. Blizzard has announced a host of new tweaks to McCree, Reaper, and Roadhog, which are bound to please some players while making others gnash their teeth.

McCree is getting a buff to his deadeye ultimate, which will allow him to lock onto targets after 0.2 seconds as opposed to its current 0.8. The damage is also getting increased from 20 to 80 over the first second. Reaper players won't have to scour the battlefield for health orbs. Instead of picking up the healing items from dead enemies, he'll now regain 20 percent of damage done as health. The hitbox around Roadhog's head is getting reduced by 20 percent, a move similar to what happened to Winston a few months ago. His scrap gun is getting a 33-percent damage reduction, though its fire rate is getting increased by 30 percent and its clip size is getting increased to five, from four. Blizzard says that move is being made to reduce the power of his hook/scrap gun combo, without significantly reducing his overall DPS.

In addition, Oni Genji and Officer D.Va, two legendary skins that were previously only obtainable by participating in special events in Blizzard's MOBA, Heroes of the Storm, are being added into standard loot boxes. Game director Jeff Kaplan had previously stated that the exclusivity of these skins was limited, but no timetable was given.

A variety of other fixes are included in the PTR update, which will eventually be released across all of the game's platforms. Take a look at the complete notes here.

[Source: Blizzard]

 

Our Take
The change I'm happiest to see is that the Oni Genji and Officer D.Va skins are coming to classic loot boxes. I wanted those, but I didn't feel like playing Heroes of the Storm to unlock them.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/05/31/mccree-reaper-roadhog-tweaks-coming-soon-to-overwatch.aspx

The Virtual Life – Why Breath Of The Wild Is My Most Important Game Of 2017

The world has unraveled.

That should be the sentence to the opening of a fantasy novel about a broken world. It’s not. Instead, those four words are often swirling around in my head when I wake up in the morning before I’ve had my sacred cup of coffee and taken a look at the headlines. For the past year, it’s become an almost ritualistic form of bracing myself – the sip, the sigh, the glance at the news coming down my Twitter feed or across banners on the top of CNN and NPR.

Crumbling international relationships and government systems. People murdered on public transit for standing up to racists. My idols are dead and my enemies are in power, as the saying goes.

After taking in the daily news I spend much of my day trying to ignore it, for better or worse, sitting at my desk and writing words about video games. Then I go home and often find myself playing more games because, well, they’re great for distraction. They’re objects of escapism. This is nothing new. In fact, it’s embraced in nearly every section of the industry. The last Game Awards show spent much of its time showering praise upon video games as something that steals us away from the horrors of the world.

In recent years, I’ve become uncomfortable with this notion. Yes, of course, games are a form of entertainment but they can be more, I’ve always argued. Can’t they exist as deep, difficult works that challenge us intellectually and emotionally, encouraging us to develop as people? The divide between those two has always been uneasy, not because great entertainment can’t exist as meaningful, poignant art, but because in games it seems so uncommon.

For example, Titanfall 2 is one of the tightest, most well-designed games I’ve ever played and I am constantly in awe of how it’s put together, but I would not say that it’s an emotionally satisfying or philosophically profound game. And that’s fine. That doesn’t make it a lesser game. It doesn’t offer gripping commentary on war or the duality of Man. However, I think the hardest thing for a game to pull off is being a fantastic, entertaining time while also being an experience that, inadvertently or purposely, addresses the anxieties of the era in which it was produced. This is the sort of game that comes along so rarely that between them I often forget it’s possible for them to exist.

Luckily, The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild is such a game.

Breath of the Wild starts on a mysterious note. Link awakens from a futuristic looking tomb and emerges onto a cliff looking over the kingdom of Hyrule. The Legend of Zelda has almost always embraced several core concepts. Link, the knight, is there to serve and save Zelda, the princess, as well as Hyrule by venturing into dungeons and collecting various powers to stop the evil Ganon. In the end, all of these elements carry across nearly every single game in the series. To riff off another popular game series: there’s always a Link, there’s always a Zelda, there’s always a Ganon.

In that respect, Breath of the Wild is no different. Link is still here to save both Zelda and Hyrule from Ganon, but the particulars of these familiar elements have been remixed in compelling ways. The most notable one out of the gate being that when the game starts Link and Zelda have already failed. Ganon has won and Hyrule lay in ruins. It’s a bleak world and we’re playing a would-be hero trying to redeem himself for that failure.

Ganon is also different this time. While other Zelda entries have attempted to make the character into an animal or person, this time the villain is more of an evil, cancerous force more than a character – a purple smog that corrupts everything in sight. This makes this particular incarnation more frightening than he’s ever been before. Man? Creature? You can kill those. But how do you stop a force of nature as ancient as greed and hatred, destined to live forever in one form or another?

Breath of the Wild feels overwhelming but not in the typical open-world way. It isn’t constantly buzzing with distractions or trying to drown you in hashtag content side missions. Instead, there’s a sense of responsibility that shines through Breath of the Wild. Where games like Skyrim and Dragon Age: Inquisition have failed to get me to care about saving the world, I felt obligated and impassioned at every turn to save Hyrule. Why?

The truth is that I don’t really know. Maybe it’s about trying to capture that feeling again when I was eight years old and playing Ocarina of Time, and fully believing I had the power to singlehandedly shape the world. More likely it’s about escaping the here and now in a way that still feels resonant to the reality I inhabit.

The fantasy of Breath of the Wild, for me, is effecting change in a world brought to ruin. I wake up every day trying to stomach dread and anxiety as I read another news report about someone’s rights being trampled or the continued bleakhouse circus that is our government falling to pieces and just feel powerless. I can scream on the internet, go to gatherings, and donate money to however many causes I want, but there’s still a sense of hopelessness at the heart of it all.

I’ve never been a particularly religious person. God and what not have never been my bag, despite repeated attempts to find some belief there. But I’ve found some measure of solace and reward in placing faith in people. In the days following the infamous and thickheaded visa ban for Muslims, I, as many others, found some measure of strength in watching people gather around the world to protest such vile, officially-sanctioned and racist malice. It’s not a victory, per se, but it’s an occasion of countless people uniting against seemingly overwhelming evil. It’s a shred of hope in a world that needs every scrap it can get.

And I think that need for faith is why Breath of the Wild speaks to me. It’s the right game at the right time. There’s a level of spirituality in its focus on the perseverance of the individual trying their best to make things better. And again, it’s pure fantasy. Link is a knight in the most Arthurian sense possible. And Breath of the Wild is most certainly an escapist fantasy that has nothing explicit to say about providing healthcare for everyone, educational reform, or the war on terror. However, hope is eternal and universal, and the game is 100 percent about finding hope in bleak circumstances.

Hyrule is so beautiful. I love climbing the mountains and peeking out over the horizon to see ruins and oceans and deserts. I adore walking through villages and seeing children gather around cooking pots, or strolling through the woods and seeing deer and foxes dart between the trees. The world doesn’t try to sell itself to me with exposition. This world, like my own, feels quietly necessary and worth saving.

I find myself at a place in my life where I’m tiring of pure escapism in general. Part of that is there are so many forms to choose from with varying amounts of investment. I’ve fallen off the Persona 5 bandwagon for now just because the amount of commitment there (I know, I know, I’ll get back on it soon, I promise). Sometimes I spend 30 minutes looking at all the shows on Netflix and then don’t click a single one because there’s just so much there that some absurd form of content anxiety creeps into the picture. But ultimately, in the world we live in now, it’s becoming strange for me to escape. I often don’t want to.

I want to live in the here and now as an informed citizen, contributing meaningfully day-in, day-out, and fighting the good fight against intolerance wherever it rears its head. But escapism is necessary to a degree, to purge your system of anxieties and fears, to recalibrate yourself. So I often find myself attracted to art that confronts the here and now in one way or another, like the rebellious story of Wolfenstein: The New Order or the hope-driven journey of Soma.

Despite the (frankly ludicrous) amount of high-quality games that have released this year, it’s hard for me to imagine a game that will take up more of my time or respect than the latest Legend of Zelda. Not because it’s polished to sheen from top to bottom, because of its intricate systems, or because of some deep love for the series itself. Instead, I’ll remember Breath of the Wild the most because it’s the game that let the light in.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/05/31/the-virtual-life-why-breath-of-the-wild-is-my-most-important-game-of-2017.aspx

How Legendary Composer Yasunori Mitsuda Is Bringing Valkyria Revolution's Soundtrack To Life

The world of Valkyria Revolution is heavily influenced by the European industrial revolution, drawing upon thematic elements from the time period and integrating them into a war of liberation. The game focuses on the concept of death and overcoming the fear that accompanies it. 

Yasunori Mitsuda, the composer of Valkyria Revolution, encapsulates the classical feel of that era, bringing the game's inspiration to life and actively shaping the tone experienced by the player. To reproduce the feeling of the European industrial revolution, Mitsuda conducted a live concert-hall recording with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. The scale of the recording was unheard of in Japan and lends "a great richness to the score," according to Mitsuda. Additionally, Mitsuda places particular emphasis on the score's ability to seamlessly transition between in-game events.

Mitsuda and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra are joined by multilingual Australian-Japanese singer Sarah Àlainn, whose haunting voice appears on several tracks, including the main theme.

Check out the video below to get a sample of the game's soundtrack.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Valkyria Revolution comes out June 27. For more on the game, head here.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/games/valkyria_revolution/b/playstation4/archive/2017/05/31/how-legendary-composer-yasunori-mitsuda-brought-the-soundtrack-to-life.aspx

NCSoft MOBA Master X Master Gets A Release Date

NCSoft's new free to play MOBA Master X Master is moving out of closed beta and into players' hands.  The game is going to launch on June 21 with a whole host of improvements. This means that the time to buy Founder's Packs, which provide exclusive bonuses, is running out. 

Accompanying this news is a new cinematic trailer that shows off some of the game's Masters and the Tag mechanic which allows you to swap between two characters on the fly. 

(Please visit the site to view this media)

When we played the game last month, we were impressed with the tactical variety that the Tag mechanic creates, and the PvE mode looks to provide a fun alternative to the traditional PvP lane-pushing experience. 



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/games/mxm/b/pc/archive/2017/05/31/ncsoft-s-moba-master-x-master-gets-a-release-date.aspx

Get Your First Look At New Overwatch Assault Map Horizon Lunar Colony

Yesterday, Blizzard started teasing something related to Overwatch's Horizon Lunar Colony. Today, it confirms this is all in relation to a new assault map, which is now available on the Public Test Realm. 

According to the latest press release, the map is set in a scientific base on the moon, where, "the colony's goal was to examine the effects of prolonged extraterrestrial habitation  – on human and ape alike."  Apparently, there's some mystery to the base, as research was going well until all contact was suddenly lost. Years later, it's up to you and your team to return to the moon and battle for control over the colony's facilities – only then will you be able to piece together what really happened to the previous inhabitants.

For more information, especially if you're into Overwatch's lore, Winston narrates a video below explaining more about Horizon Lunar Colony. 

(Please visit the site to view this media)

To see some shots of the map, be sure to look at our image gallery as well. 

 

Our Take
I always welcome more Overwatch maps, and I love that there's a focus on Winston here. Not to mention there's a little story to uncover as well.  Now that it's on the PTR, it's only a matter of time before we have all a new map to explore, but hopefully there's not a bunch of narrow choke points.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/05/31/get-your-first-look-at-new-overwatch-assault-map-horizon-lunar-colony.aspx

Ubisoft Unveils New Swirl Logo

Ubisoft has a new logo. Say goodbye to the familiar swirl, and get ready to meet... a slightly different swirl.

"The new swirl is an evolution of our existing logo that marks a new era for Ubisoft, one with an increased focus on live and digital games as well as a player-centric approach to creating immersive worlds," the company wrote on a blog post.

The logo maintains a similar shape of the original swirl, which was introduced in 2013, but it's a bit chunkier.

"Our new logo is minimalist, modern, and monochromatic," the post continued. "It’s a window into our worlds, giving a preview of what’s to come by highlighting the artistry that goes into creating them. The swirl and the letter O are both deliberately created to be reminiscent of hand-drawn shapes and represent our human qualities of enthusiasm, curiosity and the grain de folie that Ubisoft is known for."

Ubisoft says the new logo will be adjusted to take on different colors and textures that will reflect whatever game it's associated with at the moment.

To put the change in perspective, the company also posted the visual timeline, below, which shows the evolution of its logo since it first started. Memories...

[Source: Ubisoft]

 

Our Take
I always liked Ubisoft's swirl, particularly when you got to zoom through it during a game's loading sequence. Oh well.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/05/31/ubisoft-unveils-new-swirl-logo.aspx

MUT Squads Brings Back Online Co-Op To Madden 18

The Madden series hasn't had online team play since Madden 25 in 2013, leading some fans to clamor for its re-introduction back into the franchise. The feature is indeed coming back for Madden 18, and this time it's attached to the Madden Ultimate Team mode.

For those of you who haven't played Madden in years and/or have been living under a rock, Ultimate Team is a mode where you collect player cards in order to build up a team to take online against others or use in solo challenges. While you play the games on the field like in all other modes in Madden, the addiction lies in building a great team made up of current and classic players, whether that be in buying those players at auction, finding them in packs, or winning specific players by completing certain objectives. Of course, you can spend real money in the process, but you don't have to.

MUT Squads is a 2 to 6-player co-op mode using gamers' Ultimate Team lineups. You can play 3v3 with all of your friends, or you can play in other combination with the game using matchmaking to fill out the open slots.

  • Once you're in the mode's lobby, everyone has to select one of three captain roles: offense, defense, or head coach.
  • Your team is comprised of the appropriate players from each participants' MUT lineup according to their role: The offensive captain provides the offensive/special teams players; the defensive captain brings in the defenders; and the team's head coach, stadium, and uniforms come from whoever is the head coach.
  • The offensive and defensive captains also provide the playbooks and call the plays, audibles, and pre-snap adjustments for their respective units, while the head coach determines penalties and time outs.
  • Each person on your team controls players on the field from down to down. When your team is on offense, for example, the offensive captain controls the QB, and the other captains choose any other free player on the offense. If no player is controlling the running back, the QB will automatically take control after the snap if it's a running play. On a passing play, the QB can switch once the pass is thrown.
  • When on defense, unlike the old online team play, you're not tied to a specific position group like only being able to control players within the linebackers, defensive line, or secondary.
  • If a player leaves during a game, their responsibilities pass onto a teammate.
  • The blog says that "quite a few new gameplay mechanics have been designed with MUT Squads in mind."

Developer EA Tiburon hasn't mentioned what the rewards for these MUT Squad matches will be, or what kind of larger match/season structure if any there is for the feature. But for more info on MUT Squads, check out the blog post by MUT producer Jake Stein via Reddit in the source link below.

Bringing back online team play was on my recent Madden 18 wishlist, so click the link for more of what I'd like to see from the game.

[Source: Madden Ultimate Team producer Jake Stein]



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/games/madden_nfl_18/b/playstation4/archive/2017/05/31/mut-squads-brings-back-online-co-op-to-madden-18.aspx

Dungeon Defenders II Gets A Release Date, Coming To Xbox One

Trendy Entertainment has announced a release date for its tower-defense RPG game Dungeon Defenders II, which has been available in early access on PlayStation 4 and PC for quite some time. In addition to the date, the company announced that the game's also coming to Xbox One when it releases next month.

"We’re very excited to finally be able to bring the Dungeon Defenders franchise back to the Xbox platform,” said Marco Busse, CEO at Trendy Entertainment. “Dungeon Defenders II expands on the combination of shared action and tactics that made the original game so enjoyable, and that experience has only continued to evolve as we’ve grown it alongside our incredible community through early access.”

The game is coming to all three platforms on June 20 as a free-to-play release, with split-screen support on console.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

The game has received a variety of updates throughout its early-access period, including a recent one that added Terraria-themed elements to the action.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/games/dungeon_defenders_ii/b/pc/archive/2017/05/31/tower-defense-rpg-gets-a-release-date-coming-to-xbox-one.aspx

Take-Two Acquires Kerbal Space Program

Kerbal Space Program has a new corporate mothership, with the announcement that Take-Two Interactive acquired the game. According to a post on the game's official site, the acquisition won't change much for players of the popular space simulation.

"Squad and the current development team is still here and we’re hard at work on KSP and its future updates, but now we are fortunate enough to do so with the help of an experienced publisher like Take-Two, and we couldn’t be more excited and happy to see where our conjoint collaboration will take KSP forward," the team posted on the game's official blog.

In a post on its own site, Take-Two took the opportunity to talk about the game's sales numbers (more than 2 million) and its 88 Metacritic score, but didn't provide further details, such as the amount of money involved in the deal.

Kerbal Space Program is a simulation where you design and build spacecraft to allow Kerbals to fly into space and (hopefully) explore other planets. It originally launched on PC, but it was later released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

[Source: Kerbal Space Program]

 

Our Take
Squad says that this sale should be fairly invisible to players, but the real test comes with whatever comes next in the series. If a full-fledged sequel does come, would Take-Two try to monetize the game's thriving mod scene? It's too early to collapse on our fainting couches quite yet, but that scenario is certainly possible down the line.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/05/31/take-two-acquires-kerbal-space-program.aspx

Tekken 7 Review – Ruling With An Iron Fist

Tekken 7 has been a long time coming. After releasing the game in arcades two years ago, Bandai Namco has been building up to the home version since, adding new characters and improving polish and balance. The final product is a strong contender, offering a mostly smooth online experience, gorgeous visuals, and clever twists on a combat system that flips between methodical and frantic in a heartbeat. But in other ways, Tekken 7 feels like a missed opportunity and (ironically) a rush job.

 

Tekken’s core fighting system is as lively as ever, emphasizing ducking or dodging your opponents’ attacks instead of waiting for the right move to block. This puts a high emphasis on proper spacing, especially since moving in three dimensions can often get your opponent to whiff a move. Moving quickly around the arena requires some getting used to (be ready to dash often), and with the number of attacks any one character can perform, pinpoint button accuracy is key. This makes Tekken 7 a tough game to learn, but every victory feels immensely rewarding as a result. Combos are important, but the juggle system is loose enough that if you recognize your chance to deal more damage, you can usually add a few moves to your combo, even if they’re not the most optimal ones.

Tekken 7’s changes to this formula make fights more fun. The camera occasionally zooms in and slows down the action when two moves are about to collide, making for suspenseful moments as you wait to see if you won the exchange. Power Crush moves absorb multiple high or mid attacks, but are weak to throws or lows, which makes them as situational as they are powerful. The Rage system, which previously only enhanced the amount of damage characters deal when they were low on health, now has two additional uses: The Rage Art acts as a super move, while the Rage Drive is more of a combo starter with some invincibility. Both deplete your Rage, so using either presents a fun risk/reward that adds a fun layer to combat when it’s at its most tense.

 

Despite this array of new tricks, Tekken 7 does a poor job of introducing them. The story mode tells you which buttons are punches and which are kicks, but only provides combos that don’t work elsewhere and doesn’t delve into wall combos, how different attacks interact, or what Rage or Rage Drives do beyond mentioning you can use them. This means new players should expect to spend their first few hours poring over move lists in training mode or online just to see what characters are capable of. This wouldn’t be such a problem if characters didn’t have an enormous amount of moves (some start to close in on 200) to sift through. You won’t find a fun, comprehensive learning course like Tekken Tag Tournament 2’s Fight Lab here.

 

Curious fighting game players making the jump from 2D to 3D may find a comfortable pick in Akuma, who crosses over from Street Fighter. Akuma retains most of his moves from his home series, including a few staple combos. His Gohadokens aren’t as effective against fighters who can move in three dimensions, but if you’re familiar with other fighting games and want to learn Tekken, he should be your go-to early on, though it will still take a bit to learn the ins and outs of fighting regular Tekken characters.

Stick with the steep learning curve and Tekken 7 gives you reasons to keep playing. A new Treasure Battle mode lets you unlock dozens of fun items to dress characters up in, including pieces of new outfits, knives, and inflatable heads. Customizing my King to wear a pizza on his back and have a fish floating around his head was a fun incentive to keep playing, even if Treasure Battle is little more than a series of fights against easily exploited computer opponents.

 

Tekken is also known for its zany storyline and absurd characters, but Tekken 7’s is hit-or-miss. Heihachi and Kazuya Mishima have thrown each other off cliffs for years, and Tekken 7’s three-hour story mode highlights their long-running feud. The focus on their rivalry leads to some interesting revelations about all the cliff-throwing, but the plot moves too quickly to let any moment linger, making the entire story feel rushed. A character is nearly beaten to death in one scene, only to immediately recover and plan a new strategy in the next. The plot also foreshadows a few developments without following through on them, which left me unsatisfied once the story was over. Akuma, who makes an imposing mark on the Tekken universe without feeling too out of place, steals the show.

 

Tekken is as well known for its outlandish one-off stories as it is its overarching plot, but these stories, too, feel truncated. Rather than place them at the end of the arcade mode, they’re slapped onto the story mode as “character stories,” which consist of a text intro, a single two-round fight, and a short cutscene. Some of the confrontations between new characters like Lucky Chloe and veterans like Eddy Gordo lead to some fun moments, but they aren’t as fun or interesting as in previous entries.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Tekken In VR
Tekken 7 includes two PlayStation VR-compatible modes, but neither is worthwhile. The VR model viewer lets you view your custom characters in VR, but it all takes place on a virtual screen rather than in a full 360-degree environment, which takes away from the novelty. You can also battle a computer opponent on an empty, moonlight lake surface and move the camera angle around with the left analog stick. These modes don’t add much to the experience and you can safely ignore them.

Online, you can expect the standard ranked, player, and lobby modes, as well as a tournament system that works fairly well provided you have the patience to wait for four to eight players to join a lobby. The online has worked fine in my experience, though fights with international players have been spotty. You can tinker around in training mode with a pre-selected character between matches, which prevents counterpicking before the fight. The ranking system emphasizes progression over points (you can get promoted to the next rank even if you lose a match), which eases some of the pressure of playing for keeps. The big omission is replays, which means you can’t improve by watching your own matches, or learn from higher-level players.

 

Tekken 7 does a good job of bringing the franchise up to standard on the current round of consoles. Though it falters in its story mode and getting new players in on the satisfying thrill of dodging your opponent’s attack and hitting them with a round-ending combo, it offers enough incentive for experienced players (or those willing to stick out the initial rough patch) to keep playing. The online works well enough that regular players should have enough of a reason to learn the deep combat system and get ready for the next battle.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/games/tekken_7/b/playstation4/archive/2017/05/31/tekken-7-review.aspx

Tuesday, 30 May 2017

Reader Discussion: What Do You Think Of Arms For Switch?

The first leg of the Arms "Testpunch" finished up on Sunday. What do you think of the game after this early look?

New IPs are rare from Nintendo these days. Arms is not only a new world and collection of characters for Nintendo, but also marks the Switch's first major original, truly exclusive game. What do you think? Are you excited to play the full game? Underwhelmed overall? How quickly did you turn off motion controls? Who is your favorite character?

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Here are my answers: Pretty fun, yes, not particularly, after one round, and Ribbon Girl. For more eloquent thoughts on my early impressions of Arms, head here, or watch the video above.

 



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The Coolest Pokémon Sun And Moon – Guardians Rising Cards We Pulled From Booster Packs

As the second expansion based on the Pokémon Sun and Moon games, Guardians Rising shifts the focus toward the more exotic creatures found in the Alola region. In addition to the titular Guardian creatures, this expansion also introduces the legendary Pokémon that appear on the box art for Pokémon Sun and Moon.

We were sent 36 booster packs, as well as both the Steel Sun and Hidden Moon decks that are headlined by Solgaleo and Lunala respectively. We pulled the ones that were either the coolest or most powerful from the packs we opened and featured them in the gallery you see below. 

Scroll down to see our favorite cards we opened from the Sun & Moon – Guardians Rising expansion. For our favorite cards that we pulled from the base Sun & Moon expansion, head here. For our gallery of our favorites from the retro-facing Generations and XY Evolutions expansions, head to this gallery.

On the next page, we highlight more of the best cards we pulled from our Sun and Moon – Guardians Rising booster packs.



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Katsuhiro Harada's Fight To Keep Tekken Relevant

Like Ed Boon and Mortal Kombat, Katsuhiro Harada is synonymous with Tekken. Loved by the community for his sense of humor and relentless trolling of fans, he's been involved with the storied franchise since 1994. Working his way up from a project producer on the first Tekken – while also voicing Yoshimitsu, Marshall Law, and Kunimitsu – he now sits at the helm of the Bandai Namco's flagship fighting series.

In the lead up to Tekken 7's home console release, through his long-time translator Michael Murray (himself an accomplished game designer), we spoke about the evolution of the franchise, the future of arcades, and whether the Street Fighter and Tekken universes are canonically linked.

Interview by David Milner.

Tekken 7 first launched in Japanese arcades more than two years ago. This is increasingly rare for modern video games. How important is the arcade scene for Tekken?

For fighting games, it's kind of a natural progression. They come out in arcades first, they're polished, and then they come out later on the home consoles.

This is something Tekken has continually done for years, but other fighting games ceased to be able to release an arcade version. Most of them would probably like to because it's still viable if you can sell your game.

It's actually very important for our business model because it allows us to gain a certain amount of revenue, which is then used to create the console version, add in content, et cetera. It's still important to us.

It's also important to our fans because, at the same time as funding this console version, it also ensures [quality control]... It is very important for Tekken still, but how long that will continue is hard to say, because of the state of the arcades.

I heard that your parents wouldn't buy you a console when you were young so you used to sneak into the arcades to play. Are they an important place for you personally?

Of course, there are a lot of memories, fond memories of the arcade and the formative experience that it had. But that can be said for a lot of people of the same age, roughly in their 40s – arcades were the root of their experience with video games.

That said, from the perspective of a business man, it's more and more difficult to continue to release in arcades because of their decline. At the same time, there's the rise of a large group of the Tekken community in Western countries that no longer have arcades. It's something that I'm continually thinking about.

But if we released straight to the console, I'm not sure that we could have maintained the same level of quality. For the arcade, Tekken 7 was one of the first fighting games that actually allowed players to play against an opponent online in another arcade location – since you're paying a dollar each time you play and there's no way to refund it if something goes wrong, we had to assure the players that there was a high level of quality in the online matches. Whereas if we started on console, that would've been the starting point and we can patch it whenever you like, so there isn't so much urgency in providing such a stable experience from the start.

You're including a cinematic story mode for the console release. Street Fighter V launched without one and was met with disappointing reviews. Do you think a story mode is crucial for a fighting game's home release nowadays?

Actually, the importance of the story mode to us isn't anything to do with current market expectations or the reception of Street Fighter V. It's more that it's something that made Tekken successful throughout the franchise.

We've always had CG movies for the opening or character endings, et cetera, so it was really important to provide that deep story experience. We were doing that from so long ago when other franchises were focusing solely on the competitive fighting element of the game. We had had this story element from early on, and that was one of the reasons for our success with a casual audience. It was just natural that we improved upon that for Tekken 7.

Speaking of casual audiences, you're including a comeback mechanic for the first time in Tekken 7 with Rage Arts. What was the thought process behind that? Why did you decide Tekken needed it?

There were actually several reasons for implementing the Rage Arts. As you said, one is that it allows the user to come back from behind if they're losing. But another major reason is that we wanted to make people spectating more easily feel what the players who are playing the match feel, and to more easily understand the point of the match where it's, "Hey, this guy has a chance to come from behind!" Or knowing something dramatic is happening.

So this, in addition to the super slow motion or the Rage Drive, is to make the match more exciting all the way to the end, while making it more of a spectator-friendly experience.

I'm guessing esports is naturally a part of this consideration?

Well, you know, esports is a word that became popular more recently. But fighting games have always had tournaments where people gather, whether it's in the arcade or in a gymnasium or a sports center somewhere, to enjoy the game and watch the competition.

And then we also recognized the shift that people are not only enjoying playing the game, but they were also enjoying watching streams and other things, like on Twitch. And this was an element that made the tournaments very exciting to watch in person but also even on the stream. So, rather than just esports, this was a game design choice to make the spectator experience more enjoyable as a whole.

Up Next: Find out about Akuma's role in the Tekken universe and what needs to be in every Tekken game...



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Science-Fiction Weekly – Star Wars Battlefront II Leaks, Star Trek: Bridge Crew, Crossout

Star Wars Battlefront II is expected to be front and center at EA Play in a couple of weeks, and if recently leaked information is to be believed, showgoers will get a chance to play portions of both the campaign and multiplayer. EA Play is open to the public and is held during the same week as the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Reddit user "Some_Info" showered the Battlefront II community with a wealth of leaked information over the last few days, along with a video that shows 15 seconds of behind-the-scenes footage, and an image of a character select screen.

Some_Info says the E3 multiplayer map is set on Naboo, and is divided up into phases, with the first focusing on the escort of a multi-troop transport vehicle. The leaker fleshed out what to expect from the EA Play multiplayer experience in a post:

"You will be able to play as heroes as well (only two for each side). There is a new type of combat roll, now you can roll forward, backward, left and right. You will get [All-Terrain Recon Transport] vehicles. There is a whole new system for heroes; you will have to play objective, earn points and exchange them [for] heroes and other vehicles or special characters! There are four classes in the game, same type of class for both sides. There is a totally new type of shield, it will no longer protect your like before (like a bubble)."

People initially believed Some_Info's character selection image to be fake, but their tune changed when he shared a link to the video, which showed an identical design for the HUD icons.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Debuting Battlefront II's multiplayer component through what we can assume is a prequel-based map seems a bit suspect to me, but I too believe the leak has some truth to it, as I can confirm some of the footage shown lines up with the behind-closed-doors presentation I saw a month ago at Star Wars Celebration. Regardless, take the information provided with a grain of salt. When asked about the leaked content, an Electronic Arts representative said that they will not provide comment to rumors or speculation.

As excitement for Battlefront II builds, a disturbance in the Force hangs over Star Wars: The Last Jedi. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Mark Hamill shocked Star Wars fans by saying he didn't like what was happening to Luke Skywalker in the script. “I at one point had to say to Rian, ‘I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for this character," he said. "Now, having said that, I have gotten it off my chest, and my job now is to take what you’ve created and do my best to realize your vision.’"

Hamill said he respects Johnson and is happy with how both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi turned out, and was quick to note his ideas for Luke probably aren't the best. In a series of tweets between Johnson, Hamill, and a concerned Star Wars fan, Hamill said his take on what Luke should be doing was wrong.

Hamill recognizing the scripting for Luke is good is reassuring, but it raises a number of questions about how the actor views his character. My hunch is that Hamill sees Luke as a beacon of hope in the Star Wars universe – the ultimate good guy. From what we've seen and heard about Luke in The Last Jedi, it seems like a defeated hero in retreat. I could see Hamill taking issue with a complete shift in tone for Luke. Speculate away in the comments section below.

In the world of science-fiction games, two new experiences await you, both demanding a significant amount of your time. Today marks the launch of Crossout, a post-apocalyptic action MMO for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC that focuses intently on vehicle customization and warfare. Crossout draws heavy inspiration from the Mad Max cinematic universe, placing players into a wasteland ruled by factions like the Lunatics, Nomads, and Steppenwolves. As you complete missions in both PvE and PvP environments, you unlock new customization parts for your vehicle, your lifeblood in this warzone. You'll also be able to craft equipment to help your faction.

I haven't had the chance to check out Crossout, but will hopefully have impressions of the Xbox One version in next week's column. The PC version has been in early access on Steam since last summer and has received fairly positive reviews from the player base. We'll see how it holds up on console.

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Next up is Star Trek: Bridge Crew for PlayStation VR, Rift, and Vive. This is my most anticipated VR game, and I'm a bit worried at how quiet its release was. Perhaps the lack of buzz has more to do with VR as a platform than the game itself, but it came out of nowhere like a cloaked Klingon Bird of Prey.

Game Informer's Matt Miller and I are about to embark on this journey together (along with a rotating crew at our side). The launch trailer below gives you an idea of what to expect from this experience (with the added bonus of actors doing their best with a terrible script). I played one mission of Star Trek: Bridge Crew at last year's E3, and had a blast with it. Sitting idly at a terminal and pressing buttons when prompted may not sound like a rousing experience, but timing ends up being everything as you frantically try to teleport people to your ship or engage the warp engines. The big question that hangs over this release is how it holds up over the span of a campaign. On top of the multiplayer component, we'll be checking out how it functions as a single-player game.

(Please visit the site to view this media)



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Opinion: Overwatch Should Continue To Incentivize Competitive Play

In recent days, controversy has once again swirled around Blizzard's decision to reward golden weapon skins to Competitive mode players. The uproar piggybacks comments made by Overwatch's game director Jeff Kaplan, which were given in an interview at an Overwatch One-Year Anniversary event in New York City.

“I wish we would’ve never added any cosmetic items to Competitive,” Kaplan said told Reddit and ForceGaming. “I think the people playing Competitive should only be there because they really care about playing in Competitive mode, and they want to rise through the tiers – that’s who I think belongs in Competitive. I don’t think we should overly incentivize players because of cosmetic rewards into the system any more than we already have.”

The golden weapon skins are Blizzard’s way of saying “thanks for sinking significant hours into Competitive Play.” These skins may seem like a silly thing to get worked up over on the surface, but for people who enjoy Competitive Play, they deliver a clear message within the map's lobby. When you see a teammate with a sparkling weapon in hand, odds are they are a seasoned player who has spent significant time playing as that hero. It's a reassurance that makes you feel like your teammate, who you likely know nothing about, is a seasoned player who likely has your back.

If Competitive Play is one of Overwatch’s main attractions, Blizzard should continue pushing players to it, even if it means dangling a golden carrot in front of them. For people who don’t enjoy Competitive matches and would rather spend their time in Arcade of quick play, I understand your frustration – why are you not being rewarded in a similar way? That’s the conundrum. Kaplan rightfully wants everyone to have access to everything, all of the skins, sprays, and goodies. If someone loves D.Va and wants to collect everything associated with that character, they shouldn’t have to play Competitive, right? (They also shouldn’t have to play Heroes of the Storm, but that’s a discussion for another time.)

Again, I fall back on that moment of standing in a lobby and immediately knowing I can trust a player because I see they are holding a golden gun. If Blizzard wants everyone to have access to them, an alternative idea that might work is rewarding time spent with specific heroes. Rather than earning competitive points that can be exchanged for weapons for any hero, hours logged in any mode with a specific hero would eventually produce the unique skin. That would be another way to communicate hero familiarity and skill levels.

Skills vary between modes, however, and as much as I could see this idea working, knowing a player earned a weapon skin by only playing Competitive is a reassurance I wouldn’t want to see change. I see it differently than Kaplan, and would like to see this aspect of Competitive Play expand to perhaps offer platinum and diamond skins for 6,000 and 9,000 points respectively. It would further communicate player proficiency just by scanning a pre-game lobby.

Even if Kaplan doesn’t like dangling the golden carrot, I think the exclusive skins are one of Overwatch’s smartest, little touches. Blizzard has a good thing going here. If a future patch opens them up to the entire player base or alters how you get them, I know why it happened, but a strong hook of Competitive dies with it.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/05/30/overwatch-should-continue-to-incentivize-competitive-play.aspx

Watch Sony's E3 2017 Presentation In Theaters For Free

As it has for the last four years, Sony is showing this year's E3 presentation in theaters for free. This is a great way for fans to come together and revel in all the cool announcements. 

On May 12, over 85 theaters across the United States will show the press conference.

If you attend, you also get some goodies, such as an exclusive poster, #76 from the PlayStation collectible card series, and a digital gift basket from the PlayStation store.

You can get your free tickets here. Seats are on a first come, first serve basis until the theater reaches capacity. You must be 17 years of age to attend the screening.

For a full listing of the theaters, you can check out the PlayStation Blog post here

[Source: PlayStation Blog]

Are you going to attend? What are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below!



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How Rime's Ending Reframes The Entire Experience

Rime released on Friday, and it has drawn comparisons to more abstract games like Journey. But Rime has a strong narrative with an affecting ending, and we got together to chat about it.

Join me, Joe Juba, Ben Reeves, and Suriel Vazquez as we discuss Rime in full, including its ending which surprised us all in different ways. Fair warning: we do discuss spoilers, but it's worth noting that knowing the ending before playing could have a positive effect on your pexperience. In this instance, we won't hold it against you if you watch this video before playing. In fact, if you do, let us know in the comments how it affected your experience with the game.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

For our review of Rime, head here. For more episodes of Spoiled! covering games like Final Fantasy XV and Resident Evil 7, head here.



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New Season For PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Starts Tomorrow

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has certainly risen in popularity since it launched on Steam Early Access this past March. After all, the game sold over two million copies in two months. If you've been enjoying the massively multiplayer online survival game, you should know a new season is on the way. Oh, and that the leaderboards are also being wiped.

Starting tomorrow at 8 am UTC, the leaderboards will reset, and approximately five hours later a new season will begin. For some of you, this will be a fresh start, erasing the record of your awful pursuits. For others, you will lose your bragging rights but can reclaim them in the next season. Time to get some practice in, so you can work your way to the top. 

We've been enjoying our time with the game, which pits you in a large scale deathmatch, testing your ability to use your wits to outsmart the competition and survive. You can watch our archived stream of it here to see our best efforts. 

[Source: PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Twitter]



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/05/30/new-season-for-playerunknowns-battlegrounds-starts-tomorrow.aspx

Supergiant Game's Party-Based RPG Pyre Gets A Release Date

Pyre, the latest game from the team behind Bastion and Transistor, now has a release date. It launches on July 25 for PlayStation 4 and PC for $19.99. However, pre-ordering nets you a 10 percent discount.

A party-based RPG, Pyre asks you to lead a team of exiles across mystical land called the Downside. Combat is 3v3 and consists of gladiatorial competitions called Rites where the objective is to extinguish your opponent's flame. In the single player, there is no Game Over and the story adapts when you lose.

Additionally, Pyre has a two-player head-to-head multiplayer mode that was revealed last December at PSX.

If you want to see what we thought of an early demo of Pyre, check out our Test Chamber from last year below.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

[Source: PlayStation Blog]

Our Take
Pyre oozes with Supergiant's distinctive art style and music. It also has some fresh ideas in how it handles its story and battle system, so keep an eye out this July. It could end up being the indie sleeper hit of the summer.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/05/30/supergiant-games-party-based-rpg-pyre-gets-a-release-date.aspx

The Agents Of Mayhem Show Off Their Sweet Rides In New Trailer

Agents of Mayhem is an open-world action comedy from the team who brought us the Saint's Row franchise, and its new trailer shows that the same goofy sense of humor is intact.

One of the main features of the latest trailer is the high-end, combat ready vehicles manufactured by the automotive genius of the ARK, Quartermile. Every vehicle is rigged with an A.I., and conversations between the agents and their cars are sure to provide some entertainment.

Also visible in the trailer is some more footage of the Agents themselves, such as Daisy, a minigun-toting, rollerblading anchor for the squad, and Yeti, who excels at freezing and smashing his enemies.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

You can check out the previous trailer that introduced Hollywood, Fortune, and Hardtack here.  We also got hands-on with the game last month and wrote up our impressions here.



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New Mafia III: Stones Unturned DLC Drops Today

The new Mafia III DLC, Stones Unturned, is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC starting today.

Stones Unturned sees the return of fan-favorite John Donovan as wingman for Lincoln Clay, as they relive the glory days of their brotherhood in Vietnam. With a downed military plane's hazardous cargo on the line, the duo must take on former rival Connor Aldridge and his mercenary army. Clay and Donovan will elicit the help of new heavy weapons, turreted vehicles, sniper support, and other exciting tools to fight through dense, jungle-island terrain in their pursuit of Aldridge.

Check out the launch trailer below:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

For a behind-the-scenes look at Mafia III: Stones Unturned, click here.



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Celebrate The Release Of Wonder Woman's New Film With Injustice 2 Events

In honor of the Wonder Woman film opening this weekend, Injustice 2 is celebrating the character and her big solo screen debut with cool events to mark the occasion. 

From now until June 5, you can earn Wonder Woman gear straight out of the film in the fighting game's multiverse event, "To End All Wars."

The mobile game is also getting on the action with two brand-new Wonder Woman character cards based on the movie. You can also obtain the full gear set by earning characters.

Watch the trailer below to see what's in store. Her shield is sure to come in handy, and it's even cooler to be dressed in her gear from the big screen. 

(Please visit the site to view this media)

For more on Injustice 2, you can read our glowing review here. You can also check out our tips and feature ranking every finishing move.



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Blizzard Teases New Details About Overwatch's Horizon Lunar Colony

Blizzard has posted some new details about the fate of Overwatch's Horizon Lunar Colony, though they raise some tantalizing questions. Specifically: What are we looking at, here?

The info comes in the form of a series of in-universe transmissions between several of the scientists who were working on the colony. They include details about behavioral issues among the facility's gorillas, which include the one we now know as Winston. The final image shows a map of the Horizon Lunar Colony, which went dark after an airlock malfunction.

[Source: Blizzard]

 

Our Take
This is interesting stuff if you're into the game's lore – something that remains comfortably out of sight for people who just want to play the game – but what, if anything, does it mean for players? Blizzard has revealed new characters and updates through similar world-building teases. Is that what we're looking at here? The detailed floor plan makes it easy to assume that we're looking at another new map, though Blizzard likes to avoid doing the obvious. Case in point: Doomfist.



from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/05/30/blizzard-teases-new-details-about-overwatchs-horizon-lunar-colony.aspx

I Am Setsuna Developer Announces New RPG: Lost Sphear

Tokyo RPG Factory – the team behind I Am Setsuna – has announced a new RPG it's working on (to be published by Square Enix) called Lost Sphear, to be released in early 2018.

The game is coming out on PlayStation 4, the Switch, and PC, and looks to play like a traditional party-based RPG, but there's an extra sense of mystery to protagonist Kanata's quest. With his hometown disappearing, Kanata and his companions must rebuild the world as they battle foes and explore the various locales.

The developer says the title's gameplay will build off of I Am Setsuna, including being able to adjust characters' placement during a fight.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

 

Our Take
Judging by Joe's review of I Am Setsuna, hopefully Tokyo RPG Factory can continue to develop its own voice within the genre – apart from giving us a new way to spell "sphere."



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Danger Zone Review: Making The Destruction Matter

I reveled in the bull-in-a-china-shop ethos of Three Fields Entertainments' last game, Dangerous Golf. Both it and Danger Zone – like the Crash mode of the Burnout series which inspired them – are all about taking an object (be it a golf ball or a car) and smashing them through the environment for satisfying big scores. While Danger Zone undoubtedly sets the world ablaze, it also requires thinking along different lines. Danger Zone's more open levels and moving traffic creates situations requiring a more calculating kind of destruction.

Figuring out the greatest effect of jumping, ramming, exploding, and steering your car into traffic creates a longer fuse than the immediate gratification of Dangerous Golf's relative captive audience of stationary fodder. Good timing is often needed to make sure the traffic (which is time-released from specific gates) is at the right intersections when you come barreling through. I got more cerebral satisfaction on some levels from witnessing a well-planned run unfold with clock-like precision than the spectacle of sparks from the explosive Smashbreakers themselves. Of course, saving Smashbreakers (which you detonate in order to propel your car forward and to earn extra area damage) and using them at the right time is also part of the strategy. It speaks well of the game that you can go back to its beginning levels with renewed excitement once you master techniques and discover new strategies.

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The levels themselves are the real instigators of Danger Zone. While the test facility location lacks the visual variety of real-world environments, the level setups are great in getting you to think and ultimately creating satisfying runs. My favorite aspect of the levels is their verticality. This leads to shunting cars off the road so they drop down on lanes of traffic below, using Smashbreakers to flip across multiple lanes, and jumping a wrecked husk up a slope like a salmon heaving upstream.

Your car can get squirrely, even on a straightaway, but it's part of the fun. You control the camera with the right analog stick, which determines your direction once you activate a Smashbreaker and guide the car with some light aftertouch. I understand the game-ness of having to control the camera, but I occasionally felt I missed some intersection explosions and the opportunity to use my Smashbreaker effectively because I couldn't rotate it around in time.

The biggest drawback to Danger Zone is its lack of features. Despite the replayability of its levels, your progression through the game could benefit from including more pickups apart from the bronze, silver, and gold ones that give you more money. This would add increased variety and challenge to the experience the more you play – something that multiplayer modes (there are only leaderboards) would also do.

Despite its sparse offerings, Danger Zone still proves that you can do beautiful things with a car, no matter how damaged it is.



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Monday, 29 May 2017

Quick Hits – 11 Good Games You Can Beat In One Sitting

Between The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Persona 5, Mass Effect Andromeda, and Horizon Zero Dawn, 2017 is already exploding with long, sprawling games that have the potential to consume players' free time for weeks on end. While these games are all well worth your time, there's something to be said about cleansing your gaming palate between these massive adventures. Luckily, many games have the ability to not only fill that role, but also provide meaningful and entertaining experiences. Here are 11 great games you can beat in one sitting.

This article originally appeared in issue 289 of Game Informer. One entry has been added for this version.

Rez Infinite
PlayStation VR • PS4

Rez, the rhythmic rail shooter from the mind of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, has been around for over 15 years, appearing on platforms like Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and Dreamcast. With the latest update, Infinite, Q Entertainment added new areas to blast through, as well as a new way to get even more immersed into the musical gameplay: virtual reality. Playing Rez Infinite on PlayStation VR takes the sensory overload of the game to new levels as you surround yourself with the colorful explosions, pulsating music, and engaging gameplay that made the original so popular in the first place.

140
PS4 • Xbox One • Wii U • PC • Vita

From the mind of former Playdead gameplay director Jeppe Carlsen comes 140. A rhythm-based puzzle platformer, 140 is a delightful minimalistic experience that challenges players to progress through the world by interacting with and climbing on objects that move in time with the stage music. The visuals are simple, consisting entirely of geometric shapes, but the puzzles and platforming sequences ramp up in difficulty as players reach later stages. After you complete the short campaign, you unlock new mirror stages, which create fresh challenges from the stages you already completed.

Superhot
Xbox One • PC

Rarely do games innovate so much in established genres, but
Superhot manages to do so as a first-person shooter. The concept is immediately attractive; when you stand still, so does time, enabling you to plan your next move even as you stand in the middle of multiple heavily armed enemies. Using this gameplay style, players are able to defy astronomical odds to clear out rooms that without the time-slowing mechanic would be nearly insurmountable. At the end of each successful stage, Superhot replays your victory in real-time, showcasing your Matrix-like moves. The story also features some fun twists and turns. In addition to the console and PC versions, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive owners can also check out a standalone, brand-new Superhot VR campaign.

Monument Valley
iOS • Android • Windows Phone

The abstract visuals, tranquil soundtrack, and compelling gameplay combine to create one of the best experiences on a mobile device. Mind-bending, perspective-based tests are the highlight of this brilliant geometric puzzler. While some of the puzzles have the potential to stump you, the solution is always right in front of your face and is immensely satisfying when you figure it out. What's better is that since it's on mobile platforms, you can play through it whether you're on a flight or in a waiting room.

Flower
PS4 • PS3 • Vita

In Flower, you control the wind as you play through the "dreams" of flowers sitting on the windowsill of an apartment. As you push the petals through dead, brown areas, you restore them back to life. Interacting with different plants changes the world in different ways, and the musical cues make each progression feel fresh and powerful. The concept of Flower is simple, but revitalizing the nature that surrounds you – as well as seeing how that affects other parts of the world - is extremely satisfying. Featuring just six main levels and one bonus area, the experience is arguably better if you can set aside an afternoon to finish it in one sitting.

What Remains of Edith Finch
PS4 • PC

What Remains of Edith Finch is the tale of the last surviving member of a bloodline riddled with tragedy and misfortune. Throughout Edith's journey, she uncovers the story of her family and learns its secrets. Rather than tasking players with listening to audio logs and reading journal entries throughout the journey, the game feels like an anthology of short stories, many told through different conventions. Full of clever approaches to its narrative and storytelling, What Remains of Edith Finch joins the other superb examples on this list of why video games are such a powerful medium for storytelling.

Journey
PS4 • PS3

Gorgeous visuals, an astounding soundtrack, and rewarding exploration are all reasons why you should play Journey. To top it all off, the beautiful tale woven by the game's wordless narrative is something every player should experience. In addition, coincidental multiplayer flexes interesting concepts that uniquely bring players together like two ships passing in the night. As the name implies, the ultimate goal of Journey is not what's important. The experience isn't so much about how it all wraps up, but rather the time spent getting there.

Gone Home
PS4 • Xbox One • PC

In Gone Home, you arrive at your family's home to find it completely empty. You must explore the house and go through each member's personal belongings to figure out where they went. With a terrifically crafted story and rewarding exploration of the house, Gone Home is a narrative-driven treat that drives home the importance and weight of self-discovery. With the former PC-exclusive now available on most modern platforms, it's easier than ever to dive in and enjoy this beautiful and touching experience.

Inside
PS4 • Xbox One • PC

Mystery abounds in Playdead's follow-up to Limbo. You take control of a nameless kid, but it soon becomes apparent that this world is anything but child's play. The hostile environments, masked pursuers, vicious dogs, and even grotesquely disturbing creatures can all spell the main character's doom. With fun platforming areas, an enticing world to explore, and ingenious puzzles, the gameplay is enough to recommend Inside to nearly any gamer. However, the events that unfold in the narrative are the highlight. Our best advice: Set aside an evening, turn off all the lights, and avoid all distractions as you dive into this deeply unsettling world from Playdead.

Abzû
PS4 • Xbox One • PC

Stepping into the flippers of a deep-sea diver leads to a serene experience in Abzû. Without worrying about the dangers associated with underwater exploration, Abzû quickly establishes itself as a meditative experience that draws players in with its stunning beauty. The gameplay isn't a heavy focus, nor is this a title that requires you to think too much, but by the time you finish the story, you feel a true connection with the world you have extensively explored. If the idea of floating among beautiful sea life sounds up your alley, Abzû is a great way to spend an evening.

Lara Croft Go
PS4 • PC • Vita • iOS • Android • Windows Phone

The strategic turn-based puzzle concept from the Hitman spin-off comes to Tomb Raider. Controlling your character in the Go series is as easy as flicking your finger across your screen or tilting your analog stick. Each time you move, the hazards between you and your objective move as well. The boards and hazards all feature elements from the Tomb Raider series, so fans can feel right at home in Lara's new genre. While all three of the entries in the Go series (Deus Ex being the third) are fun, Lara Croft Go is the best, as well as the one most suited to play through in a single session.



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