It’s almost September, and that means the next wave of additions to the Xbox Game Pass library are coming out soon. There are 10 titles being added to the catalog in September, including some big first-party games such as Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Quantum Break. These add to the more than 100 games (across Xbox One and Xbox 360) that are already available in the library.
The Master Chief Collection, which originally launched in 2014, is biggest Halo package ever released. It includes remastered versions of Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, in addition to Halo 3 and Halo 4. All of the multiplayer maps for each game are also included. If you’re playing on Xbox One X, the game looks better and loads faster.
The other headlining game for September is Quantum Break, the 2016 time-bending game from Alan Wake studio Remedy Entertainment. In a big twist for games, the title mixes gameplay and live-action TV, featuring actors like Shawn Ashmore, Aidan Gillen, Dominic Monaghan, and Lance Reddick.
The 10 games coming to Xbox Game Pass on September 1 are:
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Quantum Break
Onrush
Aven Colony
Shadow Warrior 1
Sky-Force Reloaded
Snake Pass
Manual Samuel
Giana SIsters: Twisted Dreams
Innerspace
Xbox Game Pass normally costs $10/month, but through August 31 you can get two months for only $2. In addition to the dozens of back-catalog games available in the program, all of Microsoft’s first-party games launch into Game Pass, meaning subscribers can get games like Forza Horizon 4, Halo: Infinite, Gears 5, and others at no extra cost.
It’s no secret that there are plenty of people who aren’t happy about the first-person perspective for Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt Red knows about it, and is looking into solutions to help people overcome their dislike for the first-person view. That being said, the developer isn’t changing it. First-person is here to stay.
In an interview with DualShockers, CD Projekt Red quest designer Patrick Mills said the team is remaining firm in their decision. Mills added that CD Projekt Red is working on implementing features to help the „small number of people who can’t play first-person for a variety of reasons.“
CD Projekt Red’s decision to keep the game first-person comes as no surprise. The developer has regularly discussed the freedom players will have in the upcoming RPG and how the perspective works with that freedom to create a more immersive experience.
The first public showcase of Cyberpunk 2077’s gameplay is a 48-minute demo that covers how character mods and ability upgrades work, what it’s like to explore the game’s world, and what high-level combat abilities and boss battles look like. Outside of the demo, CD Projekt Red has been keeping most details about Cyberpunk 2077 close to the chest. The developer hasn’t even hinted at when the release date might be.
Cyberpunk 2077 is scheduled to launch on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
Battlefield V has been delayed. The World War II shooter will now launch for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on November 20, publisher EA confirmed in a statement. The company says the delay will give developer DICE additional development time to fine-tune the game as it sees fit.
„We’re going to take the time to continue to make some final adjustments to core gameplay, and to ensure we really deliver on the potential of [new Battlefield live service] Tides of War,“ wrote DICE General Manager Oskar Gabrielson. „We know moving the launch date means that we all have to wait a little longer. But we’re going to take our time to make sure we get it right.“
Battlefield V was previously scheduled to launch on October 19, meaning the new date represents a delay of a month. It also means the game will now be released after Red Dead Redemption 2, along with other big titles like Hitman 2 and Fallout 76. Battlefield’s biggest rival, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, launches on October 12.
The Nintendo Direct-style presentation that preceded Gamescom brought with it word on a trio of new Switch games that all released that very day. A new broadcast, this one from Nintendo of America and again focused on indie titles, only had one such game, but it’s a stellar one: Into the Breach.
Originally launched earlier this year on PC, Into the Breach is the latest title from Subset Games, the developer of the acclaimed FTL. The game is now available on the Eshop for $15/£11.39.
Into the Breach is a turn-based strategy game where you control three giant mechs tasked with defending an area from monsters. What makes it unique is the level of transparency with everything about the upcoming turn: You know precisely what order enemies are going to move in, what they’re going to do, and how much damage they will inflict. Likewise, you know the effects of your own actions; there’s nothing random about how much damage you’ll do, for instance. Combined with the ability to physically move units and enemies around (letting you knock enemies off the map or cause them to attack each other), it all makes for an extremely satisfying experience unlike anything else.
Given its turn-based nature, this should make for a perfect fit on Switch. The game itself is terrific, as detailed in our Into the Breach review. „There is so much strategic joy in seeing the potential destruction a swarm of giant monsters is about to unleash on a city, then quickly staging and executing elaborate counter maneuvers to ruin the party,“ Edmond Tran wrote. „Into The Breach’s focus on foresight makes its turn-based encounters an action-packed, risk-free puzzle, and the remarkable diversity of playstyles afforded by unique units keeps each new run interesting.“
While this might be the only just-revealed Switch game to come out right away, Nintendo also announced numerous other indie titles and exclusives on the way. Among other things, Hyper Light Drifter for Switch will include some new items, while the system is also getting Samurai Gunn 2, a cool-looking action game called Bullet Age, and Untitled Goose Game.
At long last, there’s some big news when it comes to the upcoming streaming service DC Universe. The new offering, which includes original programming, as well as access to movies, TV shows, cartoons, and comics based on TV properties will launch on September 15–otherwise known as Batman Day.
At that point, the service will be released with a slew of content for members, including DC Daily–a new daily show that keeps viewers up to date on everything related to the DC Universe. It was announced during DC Daily’s first live stream, hosted by Kevin Smith, that the daily program has lined up quite an impressive roster of hosts. John Barrowman (Arrow), Samm Levine (Freaks and Geeks), Tiffany Smith (DC All Access), Harley Quinn Smith (Yoga Hosers), and comic book writer Sam Humphries will share the duties.
The other major news to come out of the stream concerns the service’s first major original program, Titans. The live-action adaptation of Teen Titans will not be debuting with the launch of DC Universe. Instead, it will arrive on October 12, following an October 3 red carpet premiere at New York Comic-Con.
The premiere announcement also came with the best look yet at the show’s heroes, Robin (Brenton Thwaites), Starfire (Anna Diop), Raven (Teagan Croft), and Beast Boy (Ryan Potter). While it might be a far cry from some of the extremely colorful versions of the characters seen on the animated shows Teen Titans or Teen Titans Go!, there’s plenty to appreciate in how these characters are being presented.
The first season of Titans will run 12 episodes and is far from the only new show DC Universe has up its sleeve. Other upcoming live-action shows include adaptations of Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, and Stargirl. Interestingly, Doom Patrol will spin-off from the first season of Titans. Additionally, the animated shows Young Justice: Outsiders and Harley Quinn are expected to debut in 2019.
The Yakuza series sits at a unique place in 2018, juggling two different points in the series timeline. The western release of prequel Yakuza 0 in 2017 was a dazzling gateway for a new wave of players and flowed naturally into a remake of the very first game later that year. The next title that followed, however, was Yakuza 6, which bid farewell to mainstay protagonist Kazuma Kiryu while debuting the brand new „Dragon“ game engine. Yakuza 6 was a great finale to a saga that began in 2006, but now, the series has taken another 10-year leap backward in terms of narrative chronology but has taken its latest technology with it. And it’s fortunate things worked out this way, because Yakuza Kiwami 2 combines the best parts of both timelines, as we simultaneously revisit the point in time where the series hit its stride, while being able to enjoy the superior benefits of a seamless world and fluid combat system afforded by the latest engine.
The original Yakuza 2 is more than just a personal favorite; it’s where the series became more ambitious in terms of its world and narrative by introducing an additional location for the first time, the iconic Osakan strip of Dotonbori (stylised as „Sotenbori“), in addition to Kabukicho (stylised as „Kamurocho“) in Tokyo. This not only added variety and scope to its geography and narrative, but memorable personalities with its Osakan characters. Their demeanor contrasts greatly to Tokyo natives, and this plays into the tensions between the major crime organizations in the Kansai and Kanto regions, respectively. Kiryu teams up with ace Osakan detective Kaoru Sayama for the majority of the game, who is a strong, likable character–their odd-couple pairing and growing relationship are some of the things that make Yakuza 2 so exceptional. Supporting them are the familiar Makoto Date and his hardened former mentor, Jiro Kawara, who all play interesting roles with great performances. It’s here where you can see the strong foundations for the multi-protagonist approach that the series would later take, and in general, Kiwami 2’s script is tweaked slightly to be a little more self-reflective from the lens of a present-day retrospective.
In typical series fashion, the majority of the story is told through highly charged, emotional cutscenes that lean heavily on the beats of Japanese drama, and they are as slow-paced as they are impressive to look at. However, Yakuza 2’s plot has the benefit of being one of the more exciting and memorable of the series–there’s an unforgettably gruff and showy antagonist in Ryuji Goda, the „Dragon of Kansai“ that stands in staunch opposition to Kiryu’s „Dragon of Dojima“ moniker, a number of intriguing twists as a multinational blood feud is uncovered, some heavy-set themes about the value of loyalty and being shaped by your past, as well as some of the series‘ absurdly excellent moments, like punching a lunging tiger in the face. It’s truly wonderful to see this PlayStation 2-era experience elevated to modern standards; sharp cinematics and high-fidelity models really amplify familiar performances through subtle facial expressions and body language.
But unsurprisingly, character models featured in secondary cutscenes and the game’s numerous substory side quests exhibit a perceptible drop in quality. But to Kiwami 2’s credit, the baseline fidelity of secondary models has notably improved–they aren’t as jarringly awful as they were in Yakuza 6, but Kiwami 2 sadly doesn’t feature full voice acting in all of its scenarios as 6 did. There are a few nice exceptions to these rules, however, as a few of the game’s most infamous substories (series fans will nod knowingly at the mention of „diapers“ or „fat Kiryu“) get full cinematic treatment.
Kamurocho remains a fantastically atmospheric environment, full of pedestrians and neon lights, exuding a strong sense of true-to-life identity. The Dragon Engine continues to allow for seamless transitions between the street, stores, and combat encounters–it’s also nice to revisit a more complete, „classic“ version of the area after only seeing an abridged version in Yakuza 6. Sotenbori does suffer some minor cuts from the original version of Yakuza 2, and a smaller third area, Shinseicho, is cut altogether. But while these omissions are disappointing from an enthusiast perspective, it doesn’t detract enough from the overall experience to be a significant stain, and certainly not for new players. The five-category experience system for character progression returns, and so does the emphasis on eating and drinking for experience points, which continues to be a positive change for the series that helps encourage a grounded connection and familiarity to the urban environments you roam through.
The Dragon Engine’s version of Yakuza’s crunchy combat also continues to be incredibly satisfying. While relatively straightforward in terms of its move set, especially when compared to the multiple disciplines featured in Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami, the momentum and fluidity of techniques combined with the emphasis on collateral, physics-based damage makes fights exciting–it’s difficult to return to the characteristically stiff combat of 0 and Kiwami once you’ve spent time with it. Small but noteworthy classic mechanics have been reintroduced, including charge moves (which you can now buffer while continuing to move and perform regular attacks), a returning focus on weapons (which you can now collect, store, buy, repair, and equip via quick-menu), as well as a number of location-based Heat moves, where befriended neighborhood denizens help you humorously and viciously assault bad guys.
In addition to the series‘ substories, Kiwami 2 also has some welcome minigame activities that give you ample opportunity to play with the versatile combat system in a variety of different situations. The best of these are the Underground Coliseum, which returns from the original and pits Kiryu in a series of one-on-one cage matches with fighters from an entertainingly diverse background of fighting disciplines, and the new Bouncer Missions, which throw you into gauntlets of increasing difficulty overstocked with weapons, environmental objects, and dozens of enemies, making for exciting group brawls. On the other hand, some of Kiwami 2’s story missions have holdover mechanics from the original that never really gelled well to begin with and feel even more outdated as part of the modernization–immovable brutes that soak damage and pound you with couches and enemies with automatic rifles that you need to block with a medieval shield, of all things, feel like uncreative and unnecessary additions.
Other minigame distractions include Japanese and Western casino games, Mahjong, Shogi, darts, batting and golfing challenges as well as the always-fabulous karaoke. The Club Sega arcade selection is a little weaker in Kiwami 2; Virtual-On seems like a great addition, but it hasn’t aged well despite the option for twin stick controls, and Virtua Fighter 2, despite its balancing tweaks, just doesn’t impress as much after Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown was included Yakuza 6. UFO Catchers are a fleeting distraction, and the Toylets minigame, based on a very real-life Sega amusement which asks you to use the speed and quantity of your urine flow to affect on-screen action, is as strange and uncomfortable as it seems. Also new is Gravure Photography, where you can watch videos of real-life softcore glamor models flaunt revealing outfits, while you, as a creepy Kiryu, attempt to construct coherent sentences while photographing them. Gravure Photography is Kiwami 2’s entry into the list of series activities that feel at complete odds with Kiryu’s honorable and respectful nature.
But Kiwami 2 also features two more impressively substantial minigames featuring real-life Japanese personalities. One is the Cabaret Club Grand Prix, a refined version of the hostess club management concept seen in Yakuza 0, and the other is a much-improved version of the underwhelming Clan Creator top-down strategy minigame from Yakuza 6, now with a tower-defense twist. Both of these minigame iterations have been altered to have a bigger focus on fast-paced, real-time micromanagement and quick decision making, making them more involved and much more exciting as attractions to potentially invest in.
As was the case in Yakuza Kiwami, fan-favorite character Goro Majima is more tightly woven into this remake. As you progress through the main story, you’ll gradually unlock the three chapters of Majima Saga, an entirely separate mini-campaign, which explores how Majima comes to arrive at the position and disposition that you find him in during the events of Kiryu and Sayama’s story. While you’re able to freely roam Kamurocho and Sotenbori with Majima, there are some major differences: Majima has no character progression of his own and cannot earn XP. There are no substories, and enemy encounters are predetermined as large group battles at certain roadblocks on the map, as well as one-on-one battles with Street Bosses, which you’ll also find in Kiryu’s campaign.
Without long-term purpose or flexibility, Majima’s flamboyant knife fighting style, which dazzles initially with a couple of entertaining heat moves, becomes stale fast. His acrobatic moves don’t have the same satisfying impact as Kiryu’s, and it rarely feels like you’re in complete control. While that may suit his character perfectly, without the ability to pick up items or throw enemies, it’s difficult to keep things interesting for yourself here. The money you earn from defeating enemies in this mode can be transferred to Kiryu in the form of valuable items, and Majima has his own unique karaoke song worth seeing. But the interactive parts of his mini-campaign feel like an unnecessary grind to see story cinematics–which are the places where he really gets to shine, and the only good reason for swapping to Majima Saga. Overall, it’s a missed opportunity.
The tale of Tokyo and Osaka, Kiryu and Sayama’s partnership, and Kiryu and Goda’s rivalry remains one of the Yakuza’s best stories, and Kiwami 2’s minor missteps don’t affect the heart of that experience. The modernization of its presentation and its mechanics elevate it, making it absolutely worth revisiting or experiencing for the first time. Yakuza is an exemplary, if flawed series that does an incredible job of steeping you in contemporary Japanese-style crime drama, and establishing an evocative sense of place. Yakuza Kiwami 2 is an excellent example of the series at its best, coupling its most memorable stories and characters with its most sophisticated mechanics yet.
It’s no secret that there are plenty of people who aren’t happy about the first-person perspective for Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt Red knows about it, and is looking into solutions to help people overcome their dislike for the first-person view. That being said, the developer isn’t changing it. First-person is here to stay.
In an interview with DualShockers, CD Projekt Red quest designer Patrick Mills said the team is remaining firm in their decision. Mills added that CD Projekt Red is working on implementing features to help the „small number of people who can’t play first-person for a variety of reasons.“
CD Projekt Red’s decision to keep the game first-person comes as no surprise. The developer has regularly discussed the freedom players will have in the upcoming RPG and how the perspective works with that freedom to create a more immersive experience.
The first public showcase of Cyberpunk 2077’s gameplay is a 48-minute demo that covers how character mods and ability upgrades work, what it’s like to explore the game’s world, and what high-level combat abilities and boss battles look like. Outside of the demo, CD Projekt Red has been keeping most details about Cyberpunk 2077 close to the chest. The developer hasn’t even hinted at when the release date might be.
Cyberpunk 2077 is scheduled to launch on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
It is evident from the onset that The Messenger is heavily influenced–aesthetically and mechanically–by the classic Ninja Gaiden series. But it’s also quickly evident that the game doesn’t just wear its influences on its sleeve, it also brings a brilliant new take on the action-platformer genre.
You play as a young ninja warrior tasked with delivering a sacred scroll to the top of a mountain after his village is attacked by demons. It isn’t a wholly original idea by any means, but The Messenger eschews any self-seriousness in favor of a humorous and self-referential tone, regularly riffing on action-platformer tropes through the ninja warrior’s conversations with various characters. The excellent writing keeps things lively and fresh, with jokes and pop culture references interwoven with an ambitious and clever narrative involving a time-travel mechanic that ties well into the gameplay system.
The ninja’s skillset is initially limited, but it expands quickly to include abilities like a rope dart, wall climbing, and aerial gliding as well as a couple of optional techniques like a boomerang shuriken. Most interestingly, The Messenger replaces the classic double-jump move with something called cloudstepping, an ability that only makes double-jumping available after you’ve successfully landed a sword blow on an enemy or object mid-air.
This means you simply can’t double-jump just anywhere, and an element of skill and timing is added to regular proceedings–chain several hits in succession and you can almost fly across the map by cloudstepping, but whiff one slash and you will find yourself staring into a bottomless pit. There is a great satisfaction to be found in the demands of successful cloudstepping, and the controls are impressively responsive to accompany your needs here.
The rewarding high-risk mechanic is complemented by The Messenger’s smart design. Almost every level is crafted in such a way that it can be traversed using a number of different approaches, and exploration and experimentation are encouraged at every corner. You can take the straightforward route, or you can attempt the more difficult cloudstepping route that ultimately yields greater rewards due to numerous well-hidden secrets sprinkled throughout the game.
The Messenger starts off fairly easy, but the difficulty quickly increases as you acquire more abilities. Harder obstacles and challenges are introduced, and the game forces you to make the most of your abilities in order to keep up. Death is common, but the momentum never stops due to the use of generous checkpoints, allowing you to quickly learn from past mistakes and improve your muscle memory. The Messenger never feels too overwhelming or too easy, and its pacing and difficulty curve is nicely balanced–there is always a satisfaction to be had when a secret is found, a difficult obstacle is conquered, or a boss is defeated.
The Messenger also features a big twist: While the first half of the game is a linear action-platformer, once the midway point is reached, the game’s narrative expands, unlocking time travel to and from the future. The game switches from its vibrant 8-bit aesthetic to an even more beautiful 16-bit art style, with richer backgrounds, a more diverse color palette, and more advanced audio processing to contrast with its previously chiptune soundtrack.
Additionally, the map and mechanics open up in the style of a Metroidvania, and a mechanic is introduced which allows you to travel back and forth between eras. A whole new dimension of puzzling opens up, creating even more tantalizing opportunities for exploration–you’ll have to go back and forth often to maneuver around a level’s physical obstacles and differences in each time zone. It’s a simple but creative and aesthetically impressive mechanic that works very well.
The only thing that becomes distracting at this point in the game is the limited number of enemy types–there aren’t that many of them, and encountering and killing the same monsters over and over again as you explore can become tedious. And while the 20-or-so hours of time-traveling, traversal, and swordfights lead you to a satisfying and appropriate climax, the game has an abrupt ending that robs you of any sense of closure.
The Messenger takes the best parts of the action-platformers it takes influence from and reinterprets them well. With clever writing, well-designed levels, and balanced difficulty curve, the game continuously hooks you with enticing skill-based challenges and satisfying payoffs. Your character might have an immediate imperative to delivering a world-saving scroll, but the journey there is definitely one to savor.
The first two Golf Club games from HB Studios were capable and compelling golf sims, but they lacked the punch of the official PGA Tour license. Thanks to a new deal, HB Studios now has the license, and this–along with solid, smooth swing controls and fine attention to the small details of golf–helps make The Golf Club 2019 a drive forward for the golf simulation series.
The Golf Club 2019 brings six real-world courses to the game, including some of the well-known ones like TPC Sawgrass (home of the Players Championship) and TPC Scottsdale (home of the Phoenix Waste Management Open). The licensed courses are baked into the game’s new PGA Tour career mode, with fictional courses filling in the gaps. The six TPC courses are modeled with a fine attention to detail. The famous and dramatic No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass shines in the Florida sun, and I found myself holding my breath teeing it up to the protected island green. The love-it-or-hate-it party hole, No. 16 at TPC Scottsdale, is captured faithfully with its huge stadium-like atmosphere and massive crowds. The Shriners tournament at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas even includes fezzes as tee boxes just like in real life. If you’ve seen a broadcast or walked any of these courses in person, they will look familiar. The Golf Club 2019 is a good-looking game, particularly when playing at dusk with sunspots peeking through the clouds. And there is a fine attention to the small details. The distinctive cracking sound of a well-struck drive reflects what you hear on the course in real life and on TV. You’ll hear birds chirping and see beautiful vistas of mountainsides, lakes, deserts, and lush forests.
That level of realism, depth, and detail doesn’t extend to the other aspects of the career mode, however. There are no player likenesses, so don’t expect to tee it up as the recently resurging Tiger Woods. Also absent are famous courses like Augusta National and St. Andrews. As a result, The Golf Club 2019’s PGA Tour career mode feels limited, especially when only six of the mode’s 32 events take place on real golf courses. Although the fictional courses are beautiful, challenging, and diverse, I was left wanting a lot more for a career mode carrying the PGA Tour name. That being said, it was a memorable and challenging journey to advance through the different tours, building skills and experience on the way to the top.
It’s too bad that the journey to becoming the best golfer is not generally a fun one to listen to. Just like in last year’s game, tournament commentary in The Golf Club 2019 is distractingly rough at times. You’ll hear the commentary team making out-of-place comments and repeating themselves very often. It almost never feels natural and comes across as forced and contrived, with main commentator John McCarthy speaking in overly hushed, serious tones However, the commentary while playing solo, outside of a tournament atmosphere, is another story. In this more relaxed setup, McCarthy is a delight. He cheers you on and makes polite, playful little jabs when you miss a putt or shank a shot. He even makes groaning, guttural noises when you narrowly miss a putt, and he mimics Borat with a „Very nice“ quip when you make a difficult shot.
As you progress through a PGA Tour season, you’ll level up your player and unlock new customization options like clothing and clubs. You also unlock sponsorship tiers and related items after wins, including gear from real-world companies like Under Armour. These rewards, in addition to a rival system that tracks your progress against a fictional player on the tour, give you ample reasons to keep coming back and shoot low scores. It’s also nice to see that progression–for the career mode and head-to-head multiplayer–does not include leveling up the attributes of your player. This helps keep everyone on a level playing field, unable to smash a drive many yards longer just because they’ve played more. Also of note is that the character creator is extremely deep, letting you tweak things like the fine contours on your face and the color of your hair with a wide spectrum of options. Weirdly, the game only offers one shade of darker skin tone, which stands in contrast to the plethora of other personalization options to choose from.
On the course, The Golf Club 2019 is the most mechanically sound, challenging, and rewarding golf sim out there. The swing mechanics heavily emphasize tempo. It’s a real challenge to make sure you’re swinging with the right speed and direction to send the ball where you want it to go off the tee box or with a short iron into a green. One of the most exciting and compelling parts about golf is creating your own shots and scrambling, and The Golf Club 2019 gives you the tools you need to succeed in this regard. The game automatically recommends clubs and shot angles, but these are mostly suggestions on how to play it safe. While there are times when it’s important to make safe, normal shots, that isn’t always the case and the mechanics are fluid and dynamic enough to give you fine control when you need it the most. Very often you will be in between clubs on a critical approach shot, and your success or failure depends on your ability to dial in the right combination of many distinct elements like height, fade, power, and direction, all of which you manipulate simultaneously. There are also times when you will need to go for a gutsy shot over water or trees, or with draw/fade to get around a corner. It’s a thrill when you get this right, and a gut-punch when you don’t.
Getting to the green is just the start, and putting is where your skills will truly be tested. The game lets you see the undulation of each green, but you must pick a line and judge the speed correctly to send the ball rolling in. Like the two games before it, The Golf Club 2019 earns its simulation nature by being difficult, particularly on the greens. You are punished for poor swings and misreading wind and lies, and the game’s most challenging courses will put all of your skills to the test in an experience that can feel frustrating at first but ultimately rewarding when it all comes together. While the game is unquestionably difficult, the swing mechanics and systems for drives, iron shots, and putting, always feel fair. The ball might not always go where you want it to, but you can always reasonably pin your failure on something you could improve.
A lot of the animations in The Golf Club 2019 are very good. The way your character’s knees buckle when they miss a close putt faithfully captures the pain of that experience many golfers know too well, and. things like body positioning over the ball and the angles and extensions of your character’s arms and hands from start to finish appear natural. Unfortunately, there are some problems as well. There is a fist-pump animation you’ll see after sinking a nice putt, and while it’s effective in capturing the magnitude and emotional expression of the moment, it’s the same animation over and over again which eventually makes what should be an exciting moment a boring one. Some of the animations when your player gets in a precarious position, like near the water or on the lip of a bunker, are not very fluid. There are further unfortunate moments of strangeness, including your character standing over the hole when they sink a putt and galleries during competition rounds looking in the wrong direction and acting in unison as they clap and cheer. These weird moments detract from what is otherwise a well-presented package.
Another major element of The Golf Club 2019 is its robust course-creator that was one of the signature elements of the first two games. Using a relatively simple and intuitive interface, you can adjust and design almost everything on your course. Want to add alligators next to the tee box on a Par 5 that stretches over water on a blustery day to make the tee off even scarier? Go for it. You can upload and share courses with the community, and the ability to play new and never-before-seen courses will surely keep golf fans coming back for a new challenge.
Additionally, the game brings back last year’s online-focused Societies mode, which lets you create and join clubs where you and your friends (or the wider public) can compete against other players‘ ghosts in seasons that run for multiple weeks. There is also head-to-head online multiplayer that, for the first time, now lets you play Skins and Alt-Shot game modes in addition to standard ones like Stroke and Match play. However, as of 10 AM AEST on August 29, I was unable to find any head-to-head online matches on PC.
The Golf Club 2019 remains a challenging and ultimately rewarding golf sim with a solid swing system that puts a premium on skill and strategy. The addition of the PGA Tour license is a welcome but limited addition that gives the game a further level of realism and authenticity, while the course-creator again shines as one of the franchise’s standout features. Despite its issues, The Golf Club 2019 is the franchise’s most attractive package yet.
Hollow Knight routinely finds ways to surprise you and regularly delivers more than you might have bargained for. Its rich 2D world is filled with tragic tales of a lost kingdom that unfurl during an expansive adventure that feels breathless from its humble beginnings to its climatic, emotional end. Its demanding combat and smartly designed platforming puzzles made a strong debut on PC last year, but the more complete package on Nintendo Switch with every bit of DLC to date is a more robust challenge filled with excitement and dread–and one that you’ll struggle to pull yourself away from.
Hollow Knight doesn’t concern itself with exposition and very quickly lets you loose on a massive, sprawling world with little direction. There’s no hint as to your purpose within its curious bug kingdom, one that has seen better days and now lies rotting beneath the surface of the last standing settlement, Dirtmouth. Its citizens–from harmless-looking beetles to aggressively violent bees–protect their spaces with ferocity. There’s peril in adventuring through Hollow Knight’s world, but there’s always something new to poke at to entice you to push further through.
Central to Hollow Knight’s compelling exploration is the large map itself. None of it is filled in from the start, and Hollow Knight doesn’t even present you with a way to track your travels until several hours in. This is frustrating at first. You’ll become hopelessly lost in the labyrinths below Dirtmouth, unsure of whether you’re heading towards progress or in the opposite direction entirely. Purchasable maps help fill in the blanks, but even then, you’ll need to equip a specific item just to see where you are at any given time. It’s overwhelming before you get your bearings, but overcoming that initial hurdle provides you the skills and knowledge required to traverse the rest of Hollow Knight’s intricate world.
Hollow Knight’s distinct spaces are a marvel in design. Each bears a striking aesthetic to make it clear where you are and what sorts of enemies you should expect to face. The depth of their variations is what truly stands out. Honeycomb-laden halls stretch out over multiple screens in a rich, royal bee hive, contrasted by desolate and lonely caverns on the edges of the kingdom. The creaky and eerie waterways below the City of Tears sits comfortably next to the dark catacombs of a spider’s nest, with webs obscuring your view to only increase the tension preceding a surprise attack. Hollow Knight’s spaces each tell a story, and you can engross yourself in the small tales its sparse inhabitants tell through text to piece together what befell this once regal society. They’re accompanied by wonderful musical scores that breathe an immense amount of personality into each area with fitting backdrops, but Hollow Knight also understands that silence is sometimes just as effective.
Exploration is governed by key items you’ll find around the map, giving you new abilities to traverse previously inaccessible areas. The Mantis Claw, for example, allows you to augment your regular jump with chained wall jumps. Another will let you fly across seemingly endless caverns of spikes without a care in the world. It’s immediately clear when you’re not equipped for an area, which helps avoid any potential frustration. A dangerous acidic pool will prevent you from reaching clear pathways to new areas, for example, while a large stretch of thorny vines prevents you from crossing large chasms safely without something to aid you. Its multiple sections also fold over into themselves in ingenious ways, and uncovering useful shortcuts, hidden passageways, and crucial resting places are paramount to avoiding tedious backtracking.
Backtracking itself is only dangerous because Hollow Knight is designed to make your travels as hard as possible. There are hundreds of enemies waiting to knock you back to your last resting area, each with unique attack patterns and behaviors. Mosquitoes are easy to swat away in small numbers, but swarms of the fast-moving devils can become problematic in areas with limited platforms to traverse between. Conversely, larger enemies that deal more damage to you will routinely appear in claustrophobic spaces, such as the heavily armored beetles in Deepnest or the grotesque leeches in the Royal Waterways. These foes make you consider charting out alternative routes to avoid them entirely or entice you to formulate smart attacking options to reap monetary rewards from a successful takedown. Both approaches feel satisfying in their own right because their solutions are not immediately apparent, giving you a real sense of accomplishment for figuring them out.
Combat is deceptively simple, though, and more focused on timing and patience than dexterity. For a long stretch, Hollow Knight only gives you a single attack to work with, but your repertoire is eventually filled out with omnidirectional spells, risky charged attacks, and status-affecting Charms, with enemies keeping up in kind to provide appropriately advanced challenges. It feels great to revisit an early area in the game and cruise through sections of the map that you once had to navigate cautiously. Hollow Knight features plenty of new challenges to uncover, though, be it secret combat arenas, grueling platforming, or hidden boss battles. The more you look, the more you’re rewarded for doing so.
What makes Hollow Knight feel especially brutal at times is the way it handles death. Each time you die you’ll have to navigate back to your body to reclaim dropped currency. You’ll additionally have to duel your disembodied soul hanging over your death spot to reclaim it, which can present problems if you find yourself falling in a particularly dangerous area. For a large part of the game, you’ll use money to acquire upgrades and core items required for progress, so losing a large chunk of it due to careless error is demoralizing. Still, it’s difficult to feel frustrated considering how carefully designed each combat scenario is and how exceptionally good Hollow Knight is at putting the onus of failure squarely on your shoulders.
Hollow Knight offers a ridiculous amount of good content. Its main quest will last easily around 30 hours, without relying on artificially padded areas or needlessly repetitive backtracking. But over the year-plus since its release on PC, Hollow Knight has seen large updates. Three DLC packs have added significant swaths of content to the existing package for free, in the vein of quality-of-life changes, various Charms, and new quests and characters to interact with. Some are small enough that it’s hard to imagine Hollow Knight existing at a time without them (the ability to pin areas on your map, for example, was curiously not present at launch), while others give you more to chew on should the main narrative not satiate your appetite.
The largest of these content packs is Godmaster, which feels like the ideal way for you to truly test your Hollow Knight prowess. It gives you three new areas to explore that aren’t as expansive as you might expect, but do set the stage for rematches against previously defeated bosses. You’ll be able to tackle them with modifiers that limit your total health, deny your use of offensive spells, or reduce the amount of damage you deal out. This makes even the more straightforward bosses found in the early portions of the game test your skills in new ways by forcing you to be more patient and react without useful abilities you might have become comfortable with. The proximity of each of these fights also makes you appreciate how much variety Hollow Knight’s large roster of enemies features, and just how difficult it can be to adapt from one to the next in a small window of time. Given that some challenges require you to have found certain characters, you’ll find renewed incentive to explore areas you thought you had already charted, engrossing you yet again into its loop of exploration.
Godmaster feels like the ideal way for you to truly test your Hollow Knight prowess.
Hollow Knight feels exceptional because so many of its smaller, expertly designed parts fit so well together over an extraordinarily long adventure that could easily have fallen prey to poor pacing. But its expansive enemy roster and routinely surprising areas and platforming challenges ensure that your journey through this fallen bug kingdom is one you’re unlikely to forget. Hollow Knight offers a surprisingly large and harrowing adventure, and it’s a treat that every bit of it is just as divine as that last.
With Monster Hunter: World, the famously esoteric series received a massive overhaul, including many changes that lowered the barrier to entry for new players. Dozens of quality-of-life boons not seen in previous entries–easy quest tracking, extensive tutorials, and more nuanced combat, just to name a few–have made the series a lot more accessible than it’s ever been. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, a Switch port of the 2016 3DS entry, has basically none of those improvements. Generations is tough as nails, unforgiving, and downright cruel at times–especially if you’re coming off of World. Even so, it makes plenty of strong cases for its less-forgiving systems and offers up some thrilling challenges for Nintendo’s hybrid console.
If you’re at all lost on the basic premise of Monster Hunter, rest assured, all you need to know is in the name. Your job is to pick out a ridiculous weapon, find some over-the-top armor, pick a beast to hunt, and bring it down. Truth be told, Generations flubs all but that last bit on some level. You’re plopped into a world packed to the gills with fantastical beasts and gargantuan creatures with little to guide you.
For starters, there are about a dozen weapons that handle in wildly different ways. The insect glaive, for instance, gives you a massive pole arm and a helpful insect that acts as a support character. If that isn’t enough to give you pause, even the standard sword and shield don’t carry the play style you might expect. Where in most games the classic fantasy gear pairing might lend itself to a sturdy, rough-and-tumble fighter able to get in close and mix up attacks and blocks, in Monster Hunter, the class works best as a support. Plus, given the prevalence of long-reach weapons, the shield is helpful, but doesn’t keep you out danger in quite the same way.
What you pick is all a matter of preference, but if you plan on running multiplayer hunts (which is highly recommended), you’ll want to coordinate your picks with your friends so you’ve got good coverage. And, if you’re new to the series, it’s definitely going to help to have someone take point and offer recommendations. Beyond that, though, multiplayer helps make fights more manageable. Enemies scale with how many companions you bring, but having specialized roles and team coordination and strategizing to fall back on when the going gets tough isn’t just about making these challenges surmountable, but about joining together with other players to revel in the carnage. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck experimenting with weapons until you find the right one or picking one and sticking with it come hell or high water.
At first, you won’t have much in the way of beasts to fight. Where Monster Hunter World throws you right into the thick of combat, Generations has a long, slow grind to the interesting foes–the idea being that you can cut your teeth on the weaklings for some time before you’re tasked with a major hunt. Unfortunately, this also means that a good chunk of the early game is a slog.
Breaking that up a bit are the Palicos, anthropomorphized cats that come in a few different flavors across the Monster Hunter games. In this iteration, they are a distinct playstyle unto themselves. As you gather Palico friends to help you along the way, you can take control of them and go on quests like you would as your human avatar, albeit with a few twists. You can’t use items, limiting certain types of tactics, but they also don’t run out of stamina and can survive extreme temperatures thanks to their fur coats. Those distinctions are enough to offer some variety as you progress and give you a chance to get a better understanding of the world.
A big part of the game is also gathering supplies from the environment to craft gear and potions, and that’s another area where Prowlers (an honorific given to Palicos that take up hunting) come in. Because they each have a distinct style, from a party support to grenadier, it’s worth it to experiment with each and see which fits for you, especially since you’ll gain bonuses for the whole clan of kitties if you level each type up. The catch, though, is that while all these extras offer more flexibility in play style, it’s in service to Generations‘ proclivity for grinding through content.
In a sense, though, that’s the point. All the small hunts and gathering missions work together for the grand goal of tracking and hunting the game’s biggest and baddest monsters. Hunts are an ordeal, but the effort that precedes the triumph makes victory all the sweeter. And that’s no mere platitude. Monsters are tricky beasts that are all too happy to grind you to dust, but knowing how to disable a creature, or misdirect it with a flashbang and then also having put the work into prepping that knowledge and the supplies to match is an unparalleled experience.
Part of that stems from the fact that these bouts are grueling affairs. And across that time, you’re watching for telegraphed attacks and possible openings to unleash your own volleys. How you maneuver and jockey for that position as well as pacing out your item use to fit the battle is exhilarating. The grandiose scale of these fights is truly something to behold. And there’s something grippingly primal about them. When you’re facing down the gargantuan metallic black dragon Kushala Daora, it just wouldn’t do to have it felled in a few short minutes. That’s where Monster Hunter breaks from like-minded outings. Nowhere else will you feel quite the same level of powerlessness, and then, through perseverance and planning, reap the high of a successful hunt.
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate game is not for the faint of heart. It is a commitment, and it’s not something that you genuinely play casually.
And that’s all that matters here. The Switch port specifically has more critters to fell than any of its predecessors—-and almost three times the current Monster Hunter World roster. That, combined with some new combat styles and an added difficulty level make it one of the strongest entries for classic fans of the series yet. Hunter Arts and styles, two features new to the original 2016 Monster Hunter Generations, have been beefed up, adding some new techniques and offering plenty of additional content for those coming back for a second round.
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate game is not for the faint of heart. It is a commitment, and it’s not something that you genuinely play casually. You can sink dozens of hours into the game and still not get close to conquering the full set of monsters contained within. For those that are down for such an extraordinary adventure, there’s more than enough here to thrill and delight. Just know what you’re getting into. You will struggle to understand the basics if this is your first Monster Hunter game, but there are incredible rewards should you make it over every one of its initial hurdles.
To celebrate the launch of the new D.Va short, Blizzard is introducing a new skin, sprays, and a player icon for Overwatch players to unlock. However, these items aren’t acquired through the traditional randomized loot box method, and instead ask players to dedicate time to watching Twitch streams as well as playing the game.
The event is called „D.Va’s Nano Cola Challenge“ and is available from now until September 10. If you want to get your hands on the two new D.Va sprays all you’ve got to do is win three games of Overwatch in Quick Play, Competitive, or Arcade. Those that rack up a total of six victories will get a player icon on top. If you’re really good and manage to get a total of nine wins you’ll be gifted with the Nano Cola D.Va skin.
On top of all that, Blizzard has partnered with a variety of Twitch streamers to give away more goodies. All you have to do to get these is watch specific streams for a select period of time. You can see the details for these streams on Blizzard’s website and see the sprays below.
During Gamescom 2018, Blizzard released a D.Va short called „Shooting Star.“ In it, she deals with the trials and tribulations of being a celebrity and also having to protect her city from the Omnics. While D.Va is undoubtedly a capable hero, she struggles with taking on too much, and must come to accept that sometimes she needs to ask for help.
A new Overwatch map called Busan was also announced during the show and is currently in the public testing realm. Themed around D.Va, Busan, is a Control map set in South Korea. „Explore the serene setting of the Sanctuary, surrounded by an ancient temple, beautiful gardens, and historic architecture,“ Blizzard said. „Clash in the bustling metropolis of Downtown, where players will fight across a busy PC bang, flashy karaoke bar, and central light rail station (just watch out for the train).
„Contest for position in MEKA Base–home of South Korea’s frontline defense against the gwishin omnic attacks: D.Va and the rest of the MEKA squad,“ it continues. „Teams must fight to hold each of the three stages to establish complete control of the city that refuses to surrender its way of life to any threat.“
In related news, the developers behind Diablo 3 on Switch recently discussed working with Nintendo’s console, saying Overwatch on Switch is feasible.
Insomniac Games has provided more details on upcoming DLC for its Spider-Man game, laying out a schedule for when the additional content will be available. Posting on the PlayStation Blog, James Stevenson, community director at the studio, confirmed the first DLC will be called „The Heist“ and it’ll be available from October 23.
„As you play the base game, you’ll realize that Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat, is back in town and she’s leaving clues around town to toy with Spider-Man,“ Stevenson explained. „In Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Heist, she finally reveals herself. Featuring new missions and challenges, as well as a brand new faction of enemies and three additional suits to unlock.“
The Heist will be followed by Turf Wars in November and then Silver Lining in December. Together, these three chapters form a DLC pack called „The City That Never Sleeps.“ A bundle featuring all three chapters is available now on the US PlayStation Store for $25, but individual chapters can also be purchased for $10 each when they’re released. Alternatively, a Digital Deluxe version of the game is available for $80/£65, and it has the full game as well as all the DLC.
Stevenson also previously revealed how long Spider-Man takes to complete, saying it’s roughly 20 hours for just the main campaign and side-quests on the default difficulty. For those who want to be completionists, however, it’s „a lot longer.“ Spider-Man launches on September 7 and reviews are set to be published on September 4 at 7:00 AM PT / 10:00 AM ET. Keep an eye on the site around then to get our verdict.
In the mean time, you can see Spidey’s big villains, the Sinister Six–which is composed of Electro, Scorpion, Vulture, Shocker, Rhino and (probably) Doctor Octopus–in a new gameplay trailer.
Forsaken, the next expansion for Destiny 2, arrives on September 4. Bungie has revealed the planned roadmap of DLC content that will come to Destiny 2 after Forsaken has run its course. There are two different paths of content depending on whether you want to spend more money on Destiny 2.
Forsaken kicks off Destiny 2’s fall season, which runs from September through November and is called Season of the Outlaw. On September 1, you can play Gambit as part of a 24-hour trial if you pre-order Forsaken. Forsaken officially launches three days later, and the expansion’s raid, titled Last Wish, goes live on September 14. On September 18, Iron Banner returns and The Convergence map is added to the Crucible. The Breakthrough multiplayer mode comes to Crucible on September 25, along with some more maps. Festival of the Lost returns in October, but Bungie is promising a twist this time around. Continued updates and surprises will be patched into Destiny 2 throughout November.
From there, Destiny 2’s roadmap splits. Each season will run three months long. What you get depends on whether you’re willing to pay. All Destiny 2 players get add-ons from the free seasonal updates path. Paying for the annual pass unlocks a different string of exclusive content.
Starting in December 2018’s Season of the Forge, everyone will have access to The Dawning event, as well as season rankings, the Iron Banner, new Crucible content, and new weapons–including the return of heavy machine guns. Annual pass holders get access to the Black Armory, which includes Light and Fury weapons, as well as the new Forges of the Chain activity, a Raid Lair, exotics, legendaries, and bonus rewards.
This pattern continues into Spring 2019’s Season of the Drifter and Summer 2019’s unnamed season, with new weapons and events unlocking for all players, and exotics, legendaries, and new activities to complete unlocking for annual pass holders. You can see the full roadmap on Bungie’s blog. Bungie is keeping some of the information purposively vague for now in order to surprise Destiny 2’s players down the line.
Dragon Quest is one of gaming’s oldest and most beloved series, spanning more than 30 years and multiple consoles. Its latest chapter, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, arrives on PS4 and PC this September (with a Switch version following down the line), and it marks a return of sorts for the long-running series, after its foray into MMO territory with Dragon Quest X.
In grand RPG tradition, Dragon Quest XI puts players in the role of a silent protagonist known as the Luminary, who is sent to jail early on in the story by King Carnelian because he believes Luminaries are conspiring with darkness. Like other mainline installments in the series, the game features a classic turn-based battle system, which is accentuated with the new Zone and Link systems.
With its release quickly approaching, reviews of Dragon Quest XI have begun to appear online. We’ve collected a sample of them below to give you a cross-section of what critics think about the title. For a broader look at the game’s critical reception, be sure to visit GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
Game: Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
Developer: Square Enix
Platforms: PS4, PC
Release date: September 4
Price: $60 / £45
GameSpot — 9/10
„Innovation in games is talked about a lot, but it’s also great to see traditional gameplay formulas that have been around for decades presented exceptionally well. Dragon Quest XI is one of the best modern examples of this; its beautiful presentation, both visual- and story-wise, combines with a tried-and-true gameplay formula for a journey that’s full of heart and soul. Once you find yourself sucked into the world of Dragon Quest XI, it’s going to be hard to put down until you reach the grand finale.“ — Heidi Kemps [Full review]
Eurogamer
„[A]fter the boldness of past entries–whether that’s the not-so-recent Dragon Quest 9, or even the perfectly executed Builders spin-offs–Echoes of the Elusive Age ends up feeling like it’s missing a trick. This is a pointed return to a different age of RPGs, a throwback to a golden era that shines brightly in its splendour. You’ll be hard pushed to find a more lavish production this year, or one that’s so generous, though you can’t help but wonder whether it’s too much of a backwards step.“ — Martin Robinson [Full review]
US Gamer — 5/5
„Even though Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age is the 11th installment of the series, it feels like a natural follow-up to Dragon Quest VIII. That makes it a good entry point for Dragon Quest-curious players, too. There’s a lot of RPG here, but it all goes down easy. Enjoy it: Games like this only visit us once in a rare while.“ — Nadia Oxford [Full review]
Game Informer — 8.25/10
„Dragon Quest XI stays to true the series‘ sense of adventure, and the long journey culminates in something cool for longtime fans (be sure to reload your save after the credits roll). I had my share of fun, especially as someone who grew up with the franchise and could appreciate the callbacks littered throughout. At times, I was glued to my controller as I discovered the next village, plot revelation, or impressive boss. Dragon Quest has stuck around for a reason: It does what it does well, and the formula still works. However, Dragon Quest XI’s lack of evolution is a hindrance. It’s about time the series took some risks.“ — Kimberley Wallace [Full review]
Polygon
„A lot of my complaints are about the core conceits. The graphics and scope, while updated, are grafted onto a frail and aging skeleton. The huge map that amounts to hallways, the NPCs with endlessly frivolous dialogue, and the incessant load screens all point to an update–in hardware and software–rather than an evolution. Dragon Quest 11 is a beautiful example of what a JRPG can be after 30 years of lovingly guided evolution. Its success is irrevocably tethered to those decades of development, though, and that means you probably already know if this is a game for you. If you’re not already one of the faithful, Dragon Quest 11 is unlikely to make you a convert.“ — Jeffrey Parkin [Full review]
EGM Now — 8.5/10
„Dragon Quest XI brings the legendary Japanese RPG franchise to consoles (properly) for the first time in 13 years, and it’s a mostly fantastic new chapter of the series. Its story, gameplay, characters, and visuals all work to blend timeless series elements with newer-era genre refinements, and most of the time, the results are great. Unfortunately, there are a few times when honoring tradition is a weakness, not a strength—most specifically in the case of the game’s protagonist.“ — Mollie L. Patterson [Full review]
In 2012, Subset Games released FTL–a strategy roguelite whose best moments were when everything worked like a well-oiled machine, but also when you were frantically trying to adapt to dangerous, unexpected situations in the spur of the moment. Into The Breach, Subset’s sophomore effort, again has you enacting carefully planned strategies. The difference is that when the going gets tough, Into The Breach’s turn-based mechanics and tactical tools allow you to improvise precisely, and respond purposefully, with perfectly choreographed counters in an aggressive ballet that feels amazing to conduct again and again.
In a world where giant monsters called Vek threaten the earth, humanity has devised equally giant, human-operated mechs to combat them. Humanity has also invented time-travel technology to give pilots the opportunity to go back in time and start the whole conflict over, should the worst happen. You command a squad of three mech pilots whose purpose is to deter the advances of the Vek, one region at a time, through four different island stages with the ultimate goal of destroying their hive.
In each region, your primary objective is to stop Vek from causing collateral damage–each civilian building destroyed depletes part of the game’s overall power grid meter, and if it hits zero, your game is over. However, Vek almost always outnumber your squad, with even more continually spawning in, which makes wiping them out entirely a difficult task. Into The Breach is a tactics game with an emphasis on deterrence and creatively mitigating damage with the limited tools at your disposal.
It’s a daunting task, but there is one central feature that makes this process enjoyable and manageable: Every action the enemy will make in their next attack phase is clearly telegraphed through the UI during your turn. You can see which tile a particular Vek will hit and how much damage it will do, meaning you can assess your priorities and the response options you have available, then take direct steps to address the fated outcome. In the critical moments, just before a Vek flattens a hospital, you might dash in and tackle it out of range, and into the firing line of another Vek. Or, if your mech lacks close-combat abilities, you might move into harm’s way to prevent the building from destruction. You might notice that more Vek will be spawning from the ground, and decide to throw a boulder on the tile to stop them from emerging, or shoot an off-the-mark missile, letting the explosion push another Vek on top of it.
Knowing the exact outcome of each action means that Into The Breach feels like a game of violent chess, in the best way possible. Each turn will have you pondering over possible moves and outcomes, threats you can feasibly attend to, and pieces you can afford to sacrifice–common characteristics found in any good turn-based tactics game. But because the possibility spaces of Into The Breach skirmishes are so confined (every battle takes place on an 8×8 grid, just like a chessboard, filled with impassable squares) decisions can be reached quickly, and momentum rarely comes to a standstill for long.
What also makes these decisions so entertaining to consider is not just the novelty of the way different components can interact in delightful ways, it’s the certainty of how they will interact. Into The Breach is a tactical game that features a relative lack of probability, uncertainty, and risk. Attacks will always connect and do a distinct amount of damage, the grid-based scenarios mean units move and take actions in exact distances, and nothing ever occurs without at least some warning. The transparency and amount of information communicated provide great peace of mind, since every action you take will go as planned.
The only exception is that when a Vek attacks a building, there is a tiny chance that the building will withstand damage. The probability of this happening is related to your overall grid power and can be increased, but the percentage value is always so low that this rare occurrence feels more like a miracle when it happens, rather than a coin toss you can take a chance on.
The game’s time-travel conceit also has a part to play here–you have the ability to undo unit movement, and each battle gives you a single opportunity to completely rewind and re-perform a turn. It’s possible to execute your most optimal plan for each scenario every time, and the result is that turns in battle can feel like choreographed moves in an action movie, a confidently flawless dance of wind-ups, feints, counters, and turnabouts.
You can unlock up to eight different premade squads, each comprised of three unique units, which focus on entirely different styles of combat. The diversity here is significant enough that each team calls for distinct strategic approaches. The default squad, Rift Walkers, focuses on straightforward, head-first, push-pull techniques. The Blitzkrieg crew works best when corralling Vek together in order to execute a lightning attack that courses through multiple enemies. The Flame Walkers focus on setting everything ablaze and knocking Vek into fire for damage-over-time en masse. Each different combination of mechs can completely change how you perceive a battlefield; things that are obstacles for one squad could be advantageous strategic assets for another.
But where the possibilities of Into The Breach really open up is in its custom and random squad options, and the imaginative experimentation that comes from putting together unique all-star teams with individual mechs from different squads, along with your choice of starting pilot–whom all possess an exclusive trait. You might have a team composed of a mech who shields buildings and units, one that freezes anything on the map into a massive block of ice, one whose sole ability is to push everything surrounding it away, and a pilot that can perform one additional action each turn if they don’t move. Can you complete a run of the game with that custom squad of pacifists? The game’s structure makes these unorthodox options enjoyable challenges that are legitimately interesting to explore.
Into The Breach maintains a roguelike structure of procedurally generated trials and permadeath, but when a campaign goes south not all is lost. If a mech is destroyed during a battle, it will return in the next, only without its pilot and their unique trait. Too much collateral damage is game over but means you have the chance to send one of your living pilots–experience points and bonus traits intact–back in time to captain a new squad, in a new campaign. The game is difficult, but starting over isn’t tiresome because your actions so directly determine outcomes, and you always feel you can improve. And individual battles are so swift and satisfying that they become a craving that you’ll want to keep feeding over and over.
The clean and understated surface elements of Into The Breach complement the precise nature of its mechanics. The simple presentation, as well as the sharp UI layout, is attractively utilitarian and serves as a crucial component of the game’s readability. There is no explicit plot outside of the time-traveling conceit, but the flavor text–small snippets of dialogue for each mech pilot and island leader, whom you’ll encounter again and again throughout multiple playthroughs–adds a modest but pleasant facet of character to contextualize the world and round out the overall tone.
There is so much strategic joy in seeing the potential destruction a swarm of giant monsters is about to unleash on a city, then quickly staging and executing elaborate counter maneuvers to ruin the party. Into The Breach’s focus on foresight makes its turn-based encounters an action-packed, risk-free puzzle, and the remarkable diversity of playstyles afforded by unique units keeps each new run interesting. It’s a pleasure to see what kind of life-threatening predicaments await for you to creatively resolve in every new turn, every new battle, and every new campaign. Into The Breach is a pristine and pragmatic tactical gem with dynamic conflicts that will inspire you to jump back in again, and again, and again.
It is evident from the onset that The Messenger is heavily influenced–aesthetically and mechanically–by the classic Ninja Gaiden series. But it’s also quickly evident that the game doesn’t just wear its influences on its sleeve, it also brings a brilliant new take on the action-platformer genre.
You play as a young ninja warrior tasked with delivering a sacred scroll to the top of a mountain after his village is attacked by demons. It isn’t a wholly original idea by any means, but The Messenger eschews any self-seriousness in favor of a humorous and self-referential tone, regularly riffing on action-platformer tropes through the ninja warrior’s conversations with various characters. The excellent writing keeps things lively and fresh, with jokes and pop culture references interwoven with an ambitious and clever narrative involving a time-travel mechanic that ties well into the gameplay system.
The ninja’s skillset is initially limited, but it expands quickly to include abilities like a rope dart, wall climbing, and aerial gliding as well as a couple of optional techniques like a boomerang shuriken. Most interestingly, The Messenger replaces the classic double-jump move with something called cloudstepping, an ability that only makes double-jumping available after you’ve successfully landed a sword blow on an enemy or object mid-air.
This means you simply can’t double-jump just anywhere, and an element of skill and timing is added to regular proceedings–chain several hits in succession and you can almost fly across the map by cloudstepping, but whiff one slash and you will find yourself staring into a bottomless pit. There is a great satisfaction to be found in the demands of successful cloudstepping, and the controls are impressively responsive to accompany your needs here.
The rewarding high-risk mechanic is complemented by The Messenger’s smart design. Almost every level is crafted in such a way that it can be traversed using a number of different approaches, and exploration and experimentation are encouraged at every corner. You can take the straightforward route, or you can attempt the more difficult cloudstepping route that ultimately yields greater rewards due to numerous well-hidden secrets sprinkled throughout the game.
The Messenger starts off fairly easy, but the difficulty quickly increases as you acquire more abilities. Harder obstacles and challenges are introduced, and the game forces you to make the most of your abilities in order to keep up. Death is common, but the momentum never stops due to the use of generous checkpoints, allowing you to quickly learn from past mistakes and improve your muscle memory. The Messenger never feels too overwhelming or too easy, and its pacing and difficulty curve is nicely balanced–there is always a satisfaction to be had when a secret is found, a difficult obstacle is conquered, or a boss is defeated.
The Messenger also features a big twist: While the first half of the game is a linear action-platformer, once the midway point is reached, the game’s narrative expands, unlocking time travel to and from the future. The game switches from its vibrant 8-bit aesthetic to an even more beautiful 16-bit art style, with richer backgrounds, a more diverse color palette, and more advanced audio processing to contrast with its previously chiptune soundtrack.
Additionally, the map and mechanics open up in the style of a Metroidvania, and a mechanic is introduced which allows you to travel back and forth between eras. A whole new dimension of puzzling opens up, creating even more tantalizing opportunities for exploration–you’ll have to go back and forth often to maneuver around a level’s physical obstacles and differences in each time zone. It’s a simple but creative and aesthetically impressive mechanic that works very well.
The only thing that becomes distracting at this point in the game is the limited number of enemy types–there aren’t that many of them, and encountering and killing the same monsters over and over again as you explore can become tedious. And while the 20-or-so hours of time-traveling, traversal, and swordfights lead you to a satisfying and appropriate climax, the game has an abrupt ending that robs you of any sense of closure.
The Messenger takes the best parts of the action-platformers it takes influence from and reinterprets them well. With clever writing, well-designed levels, and balanced difficulty curve, the game continuously hooks you with enticing skill-based challenges and satisfying payoffs. Your character might have an immediate imperative to delivering a world-saving scroll, but the journey there is definitely one to savor.
The Dragon Quest series is a standard-bearer for an entire genre. Numerous JRPGs that have come and gone over the years have adapted from–and built upon–many of the formulas Dragon Quest established in the 8-bit era. While series like Final Fantasy have transformed dramatically over time, Dragon Quest tends towards traditionalism, enshrining many of its core gameplay and story concepts from game to game.
Dragon Quest XI is no exception. The chosen hero and his growing group of party members go on a globe-spanning adventure in a realm of fantasy and magic, exploring dungeons, solving story beats to proceed, and battling foes in turn-based combat. It’s a tale you’re probably familiar with if you’ve played any classic JRPG. But Dragon Quest XI is proof that traditions and tropes don’t have to feel worn-out and dull, as this gorgeous adventure will challenge your skills, tug at your heartstrings, and keep you eagerly playing further and further into its lengthy quest.
The hero of Dragon Quest XI is the reincarnation of the Luminary, a chosen warrior who will destroy a foretold dark presence. Yet the glorious hero is not welcomed with open arms when his destiny is revealed; some fear him as a harbinger that disaster is imminent, and wish him dead. As the hero adventures from his hometown into the wider world, he makes many friends, encounters wicked monsters, endures intense tribulations, and fights for light in the shadow of an empire manipulated by darkness.
That setup likely sounds quite familiar. The story in Dragon Quest XI doesn’t really offer any novel plot beats or twists, but that’s not a knock against it; the game does a spectacular job of melding familiar story elements with engaging characters and excellent choreography.
For example, a tournament sequence is something you see in a lot of JRPGs, but the presentation, characterization, and sprinkling of humor present in Dragon Quest XI’s tournament arc makes it truly unforgettable. One memorable sequence involves the hero learning about his mysterious origins and the land that he came from. While that sounds like nothing more than a genre cliché, the way it’s presented here is absolutely beautiful and touching.
The characterization of the game’s various personalities helps a lot in making the story and world as engaging as it is. Every member of your party has a well-developed, unique personality that accentuates their role. For example, one of the more iconic party members is the flamboyant entertainer, Sylvando. His over-the-top mannerisms, cheerful attitude, and combat prowess make him stand out, but you also get an impression that the clown act might belie something buried in his past. There are plenty of fun NPCs you’ll interact with in the story as well, such as a love-starved mermaid, an eccentric dean of an elite girls‘ prep school, and a stunningly incompetent prince. Finally, villains like the conflicted Sir Hendrick and the cunning Jasper present a constant threat that pushes you ever-forward.
Like the story and world, Dragon Quest XI’s combat is familiar and traditional, but presented in a charming and engaging way that makes it feel anything but dated.
Special praise should be given to the game’s localization. While it does change quite a few character and place names from the Japanese version, it does a magnificent job of making the dialogue and overall mood of the game feel warm, soulful, and inviting. Character personalities and the flavor of various regions of the world come through in dialogue with delightful flourishes (I feel for the editor who had to write hundreds of dialogue boxes for the characters who only speak in haiku), and even incidental menu and combat text has a fun, lighthearted feel to it that makes simply running through menus more lively. And when things get somber and serious, the writing changes to match, knowing full well what sort of tone needs to be set.
Dragon Quest XI is a very linear game; you hit one story point, solve whatever problem you’re facing there (be it by defeating a monster, collecting an item, beating a minigame, or various combinations of these things), then venture out to the next area where you’re presented with a new story beat, slashing down mobs of enemies along the way to build up your characters‘ levels. You can go off the beaten path a bit to complete subquests and explore optional areas, but most locales are completely locked off until you hit a specific point in the story.
Like the story and world, Dragon Quest XI’s combat is familiar and traditional, but presented in a charming and engaging way that makes it feel anything but dated. Characters and enemies take individual turns based on their agility, and you choose what characters do by either picking commands from a text-based menu or setting the CPU to act based on preset guidelines. Animations play out as blows are exchanged and spells are cast, and every so often there’s a funky little twist to the fight that livens things up, like characters achieving a „pepped up“ state that raises their abilities and grants them access to special attacks.
While there’s a setting in the options that allows you to physically move characters during battle (rather than having them stay in a stationary row), it doesn’t change the combat significantly; positioning doesn’t affect attacks, and the fighting remains strictly turn-driven. Though it’s relatively basic, little animations, messages, and quirks about combat, like enemies that fuse together or bizarre status conditions, keep you interested and engaged. Boss battles aren’t terribly common, but the big fights are truly trying, challenging you to make use of your learned spells and skills against a foe that will utterly wipe you out if you don’t play strategically.
Despite Dragon Quest XI’s massive length (anywhere from 60 to over 100 hours, depending on how you pace yourself and how much extra content and questing you do), it rarely feels like it’s dragging its feet. There’s practically always a new place to explore, a new character to encounter, or a new threat to tackle. The game occasionally fails to maintain its otherwise steady pace–a mid-game sequence involving the search for magical orbs is particularly troublesome–but it doesn’t often keep you in one place or dealing with one subplot for too long. You also won’t have to grind if you’re smart about picking enemy fights and divvying up character skill points. And if you ever need a bit of break, you can invest time in various mini-games like crafting items, horse racing, and a casino with slots and poker, among other things.
Innovation in games is talked about a lot, but it’s also great to see traditional gameplay formulas that have been around for decades presented exceptionally well. Dragon Quest XI is one of the best modern examples of this; its beautiful presentation, both visual- and story-wise, combines with a tried-and-true gameplay formula for a journey that’s full of heart and soul. Once you find yourself sucked into the world of Dragon Quest XI, it’s going to be hard to put down until you reach the grand finale.
The newest Fortnite patch, v5.30, launched recently on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile. It adds one of Fortnite’s most unique Limited-Time Modes to date in Score Royale. Also, Playground Mode gets an update and a new item, Rift-To-Go, comes to the world. You can read the full patch notes here. We’ve spent some time with the new update and here are our thoughts:
Score Royale LTM Is Fortnite’s Biggest, Most Exciting Change Yet
All of the Fortnite Limited Time Modes have twisted the familiar, last-player-standing formula in some way, but Score Royale is the biggest change yet. The mode gives players a very different objective. Instead of fighting to stay alive, you’re going for the highest Point total. You earn Points by collecting coins scattered throughout the map; opening chests, ammo boxes, and Supply Llamas; eating apples and mushrooms; and of course by eliminating enemies. The first to hit the target score of 2,000 points is the winner. It’s an intriguing change of pace, and one that forces you to rethink some of the strategies you may already be familiar with.
Accruing points quickly is essential. So right off the bat, you have a big decision to make. You can drop right away (don’t forget to thank the driver first, of course) to start collecting points, but doing so means you will face a warzone populated with like-minded players; if you get lucky and find a great weapon you can clean up and begin the match with a nice point advantage. But that is not easy. Another choice is to wait it out and drop in a safer zone where your chances of dying in the first minute are far less. I had the most success dropping later.
Dropping later can feel frustrating at first, as you might be 150 or more Points down before you even hit the ground. But don’t lose hope–the first wave of coins doesn’t arrive until a few minutes into the match. So while you may start the round at a theoretical disadvantage by dropping later, you may be able to make up the difference by collecting unclaimed coins and opening uncontested crates. You still need to build smartly and often, while your gun skills will continue to make all the difference in battle. The major change with Score Royale is that you have to always be on the run; that is the only way to win, and it makes the Fortnite experience totally different (and camper-free).
Another noteworthy element of Score Royale is that there are more Llamas on the map and the Storm circle at the beginning of matches is larger and moves more slowly. Epic says this should give players more time and opportunities to loot and rack up points. In the late-game stages, however, the Storm circle closes at a faster rate. Score Royale is the biggest change to the Fortnite formula so far, and it’s a blast to play the game in such a new and different way. I hope this mode stays in rotation for a while.
Some tips:
Eat apples and mushrooms as often as you see them. They only count for 10 points each, but it’s a quick way to collect Points.
Get in an ATK or shopping cart and zip through the hills to scoop up Coins faster than you can on foot.
Playground LTM Gets Small Changes:
Playground, the low-stress mode that effectively acts as a training ground, gets some small changes with the new update. There are now many more ATKs available to drive and ramps to zoom off to practice for the ramp challenges. There are also more Rifts on the map to help you practice skydiving back onto the battlefield. Practice makes perfect, and it’s nice to see Epic continue to add to Playground to help let players hone their skills.
Rift-To-Go Helps You Escape (Maybe):
Similar to the previously released Port-a-Fort item that automatically builds a fort for you, the Rift-to-Go item can be deployed to instantly launch you into a Rift. Just like when you come across a Rift in the world, you immediately get teleported into the sky and begin a skydive. This lets you get out of a firefight in a flash, but there is a catch: the Rift remains open for 10 seconds, so the very enemy you were trying to escape from might go through and be right on your tail. The Rift-to-Go item is Epic-level rarity, so you don’t have to worry about the landscape getting overrun by players teleporting in and out of the world.
The Rift-to-Go, like the Port-a-Fort item and the Vending Machines before it, will likely be criticised for helping contribute to Fortnite being too beginner-friendly in some players‘ eyes. But I disagree. Having any of these items in your inventory never guarantees a victory. Your skills on the sticks will (almost) always be what determines your success or failure.
The new Joker movie from The Hangover director Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix in the title role has added another big name to its cast. According to Deadline, Oscar nominee Alec Baldwin will play Batman’s ill-fated father, Thomas Wayne.
Baldwin is a veteran TV and movie actor, known for his leading role on the comedy 30 Rock and more recently as the voice of Boss Baby in the movie of the same name. Baldwin picked up a Best Supporting actor nomination for his role in the 2003 movie The Cooler. He’s also known for his portrayal of Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live.
In addition to Phoenix and Baldwin, the Joker movie will feature Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Marc Maron, and Frances Conroy, according to Deadline.
The new Joker movie starts shooting on September 10 and is due in theaters in October 2019.
The shackles are off for Pro Evolution Soccer 2019. No longer burdened by an obligation to develop for the previous generation of consoles, PES 2019 feels like the beginning of an exciting new era for Konami’s long-running football series. The visuals have received a much-needed overhaul, while the on-pitch action has been tightened up, refined, and improved. The series’ lack of impactful licenses and insipid UI and commentary are issues that persist, but PES 2019 builds on what was already a runaway title winner to set a new high bar for the series.
The improvements to PES’s superlative brand of football initially appear trivial, like Konami simply slapped a new lick of paint on last year’s game. It still adopts the same methodical pace, tangible sense of weight, and breadth of passing as PES 2018, but after a couple of matches you begin to notice subtle changes that gradually add up. The impact of another year’s worth of development becomes palpable.
Passing is, of course, the bedrock of any great football game, and PES 2019 enhances its passing dynamism with a plethora of new animations, bringing each kick of the ball to life with startling accuracy. Players are intelligent enough to contextually know what pass to play and when, giving you a greater sense of control over each passing move. If you’re receiving the ball under pressure from a burly centre-half, you’ll have the confidence to know you can potentially flick the ball around the corner to an overlapping winger or deftly play it back to a midfielder so he can knock it into space with the outside of his boot.
There’s an impressive variety of passes in any one match, while the fluidity of the players‘ movement and the responsiveness behind each button press lead to moments of scintillating football–whether you’re patiently building from the back, carving a team open with a clinical counter-attack, or hoofing it up to your big target man. PES’s passing mechanics have been so accomplished for so many years now that there’s always been a singular pleasure in simply shifting the ball between teammates. That outstanding feeling has only intensified in PES 2019.
Ball physics have been reworked and greatly contribute to this, too, making that little white sphere feel considerably more like a separate entity than ever before. It never appears as if the ball is rigidly stuck to your player’s feet, nor are your passes laser-guided to their target. There’s an authentic flow and unpredictability to the way the ball moves, curling and dipping through the air, spinning off a goalkeeper’s fingertips, and neatly coming under the delicate control of a player like Mesut Özil. No one would blame you if you hopped into a replay just to ogle the ball’s flight path and the animation that preceded it. Sending a diagonal pass to the opposite wing just feels right, and this excellence emanates out to each aspect of PES 2019’s on-pitch action.
Players are more reactive off the ball and make smarter runs, pointing to the space they’re about to sprint into to let you know when to unleash that inch-perfect through ball. There’s more physicality to matches in PES 2019, too. Hurtling into a tackle and fighting tooth-and-nail to win the ball back with a defender is much more active and satisfying as a result. Players will jostle for position, realistically clattering into each other, and it feels rewarding to barge an attacker off the ball, or hold off a defender with a diminutive winger, before using a feint to create some space and escape their clutches.
Executing feints, step-overs, and other skill moves is intuitive, with each one mapped to the left and right sticks. There are few better feelings in PES than leaving a defender for dead with an eye-opening piece of skill, and this feeds into an added emphasis on player individuality. Cut inside with Lionel Messi and he’s liable to flick the ball over the outstretched leg of a defender, using his low centre of gravity to peel past them, before rasping a left-footed shot into the bottom corner of the net. Meanwhile, someone like Paul Pogba will saunter around the midfield, finding pockets of space and using his large frame to maintain possession, while Roberto Firmino will occasionally bust out a no-look pass, and Cristiano Ronaldo will hang in the air on crosses for what feels like eternity, or smash in a dipping 30-yard screamer that has the ‚keeper rueing his luck. PES has a recent history of making both its players and its teams feel unique, and with a deluge of superb new animations, PES 2019 is no different.
It’s not all roses, however, as it does still share some of the more disappointing aspects of its predecessors. Referees, for example, are maddeningly inconsistent; both too lenient and too harsh in the same match, while match presentation is bland and lifeless. A new naturalistic lighting engine produces some stunning sights, casting realistic shadows across much improved grass and crowd textures. But the UI surrounding it still feels trapped in the past, and stalwart commentators Peter Drury and Jim Beglin return with the same disjointed dialogue we’ve come to know and hate, with little in the way of new lines. Drury will still get overly excited by tame shots, and there’s only so many times you can listen to Beglin say „If you don’t speculate, you won’t accumulate“ across multiple games before you’re tempted to turn the commentary off completely.
Some of the teams that are officially partnered with PES get the red carpet treatment, with recognisable chants and an authentic atmosphere permeating every home match. Play with Liverpool at Anfield and the kop will belt out „You’ll never walk alone“ before the match begins. On the flip side of this, teams with no official ties to PES receive canned crowd noises and indecipherable chants that rob these games of any ambience. This isn’t terrible, but after showing a more accurate depiction of a Saturday afternoon matchday, the lack of a distinct atmosphere in these games can’t help but feel like a downgrade.
Disappointingly, Master League remains almost untouched. The International Champions Cup debuts as a short pre-season tournament, and transfer negotiations have been slightly reworked, giving you more flexibility when it comes to player fees and contracts. You can now include clauses like clean-sheet bonuses and sell-on fees so there’s not just a lump sum involved, but AI transfer logic still isn’t particularly smart. Budgets and fees don’t replicate the reality of the transfer market, with much smaller numbers than the astronomical prices we’ve seen players going for in recent years. It’s possible to buy a player like Aymeric Laporte for £12 million a mere six months after Manchester City splashed out £57 million for the central defender in the real world. At least goalkeepers have finally seen some enhancements. They’re essentially useless when rushing off the goal line, regularly failing to close down an attacking player’s angles, but this is where the faults end. Each number one’s ability as a shot stopper has seen a marked improvement. Just like elsewhere on the pitch, goalkeepers have been blessed with a range of new animations that banish their previously robotic nature. They’ll pull off some eye-catching saves, getting fingertips to shots destined for the top corner, or just generally making themselves as big as possible in order to get something, anything, on an incoming shot.
You’ll need your ‚keeper to be on top form in the latter stages of a match, too. The stamina system in PES 2019 has been reworked to place significantly more importance on your players‘ fitness. This has been dubbed „visible fatigue,“ and it does exactly what it says. Run a team ragged and their midfield and defence will visibly tire as the match wears on, potentially opening up space for you to exploit with fresh legs off the bench. This isn’t a one-way street, though, as you’ll need to be mindful of your own players‘ stamina as well–your star midfielder isn’t much use if he can barely muster a light jog. This forces you to play a more considered game of football, sprinting only when it’s absolutely necessary and making timely substitutions when the situation calls for it. This is a literal game-changing feature, and it wonderfully complements PES’s brand of authentic, methodical football.
It’s a shame, then, that PES is still trailing FIFA when it comes to official licensing. Losing the Champions League and Europa League licences to the EA behemoth is a massive blow for PES. To Konami’s credit, it has responded by obtaining more licensed leagues than ever before, with the likes of the Scottish Premiership, the Russian Premier Liga, and Superliga Argentina all being featured in their official forms. They’re certainly welcome additions, but these aren’t standout leagues that are going to move the needle the same way the English Premier League or La Liga would. If you want to play in the Madrid derby you’re still stuck choosing between KB Red White and MD White, and the Bundesliga is completely absent beyond Schalke 04 and Bayer Leverkusen, meaning two of Europe’s biggest clubs–Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich–are nowhere to be found. Thankfully, the PES community does an amazing job creating update files if you want to mod in the teams, players, and kits that are missing, but you’re out of luck on Xbox One where this isn’t possible.
For as long as EA continues to develop FIFA and hold a monopoly over official licences, PES will be the scrappy underdog just hoping for a surprise upset, even when it’s fielding the likes of London Blue and PV White Red. The lack of licences for top-tier leagues remains a disheartening sticking point, but PES continues to make brilliant strides on the pitch, building on what was already an incredibly satisfying game of football to produce one of the greatest playing football games of all time. It might be lacking off the pitch, but put it on the field against the competition and a famous giant killing wouldn’t be all that surprising.
Editor’s note: This will remain a review in progress until we test Pro Evolution Soccer 2019’s online modes at launch.
The shackles are off for Pro Evolution Soccer 2019. No longer burdened by an obligation to develop for the previous generation of consoles, PES 2019 feels like the beginning of an exciting new era for Konami’s long-running football series. The visuals have received a much-needed overhaul, while the on-pitch action has been tightened up, refined, and improved. The series’ lack of impactful licenses and insipid UI and commentary are issues that persist, but PES 2019 builds on what was already a runaway title winner to set a new high bar for the series.
The improvements to PES’s superlative brand of football initially appear trivial, like Konami simply slapped a new lick of paint on last year’s game. It still adopts the same methodical pace, tangible sense of weight, and breadth of passing as PES 2018, but after a couple of matches you begin to notice subtle changes that gradually add up. The impact of another year’s worth of development becomes palpable.
Passing is, of course, the bedrock of any great football game, and PES 2019 enhances its passing dynamism with a plethora of new animations, bringing each kick of the ball to life with startling accuracy. Players are intelligent enough to contextually know what pass to play and when, giving you a greater sense of control over each passing move. If you’re receiving the ball under pressure from a burly centre-half, you’ll have the confidence to know you can potentially flick the ball around the corner to an overlapping winger or deftly play it back to a midfielder so he can knock it into space with the outside of his boot.
There’s an impressive variety of passes in any one match, while the fluidity of the players‘ movement and the responsiveness behind each button press lead to moments of scintillating football–whether you’re patiently building from the back, carving a team open with a clinical counter-attack, or hoofing it up to your big target man. PES’s passing mechanics have been so accomplished for so many years now that there’s always been a singular pleasure in simply shifting the ball between teammates. That outstanding feeling has only intensified in PES 2019.
Ball physics have been reworked and greatly contribute to this, too, making that little white sphere feel considerably more like a separate entity than ever before. It never appears as if the ball is rigidly stuck to your player’s feet, nor are your passes laser-guided to their target. There’s an authentic flow and unpredictability to the way the ball moves, curling and dipping through the air, spinning off a goalkeeper’s fingertips, and neatly coming under the delicate control of a player like Mesut Özil. No one would blame you if you hopped into a replay just to ogle the ball’s flight path and the animation that preceded it. Sending a diagonal pass to the opposite wing just feels right, and this excellence emanates out to each aspect of PES 2019’s on-pitch action.
Players are more reactive off the ball and make smarter runs, pointing to the space they’re about to sprint into to let you know when to unleash that inch-perfect through ball. There’s more physicality to matches in PES 2019, too. Hurtling into a tackle and fighting tooth-and-nail to win the ball back with a defender is much more active and satisfying as a result. Players will jostle for position, realistically clattering into each other, and it feels rewarding to barge an attacker off the ball, or hold off a defender with a diminutive winger, before using a feint to create some space and escape their clutches.
Executing feints, step-overs, and other skill moves is intuitive, with each one mapped to the left and right sticks. There are few better feelings in PES than leaving a defender for dead with an eye-opening piece of skill, and this feeds into an added emphasis on player individuality. Cut inside with Lionel Messi and he’s liable to flick the ball over the outstretched leg of a defender, using his low centre of gravity to peel past them, before rasping a left-footed shot into the bottom corner of the net. Meanwhile, someone like Paul Pogba will saunter around the midfield, finding pockets of space and using his large frame to maintain possession, while Roberto Firmino will occasionally bust out a no-look pass, and Cristiano Ronaldo will hang in the air on crosses for what feels like eternity, or smash in a dipping 30-yard screamer that has the ‚keeper rueing his luck. PES has a recent history of making both its players and its teams feel unique, and with a deluge of superb new animations, PES 2019 is no different.
It’s not all roses, however, as it does still share some of the more disappointing aspects of its predecessors. Referees, for example, are maddeningly inconsistent; both too lenient and too harsh in the same match, while match presentation is bland and lifeless. A new naturalistic lighting engine produces some stunning sights, casting realistic shadows across much improved grass and crowd textures. But the UI surrounding it still feels trapped in the past, and stalwart commentators Peter Drury and Jim Beglin return with the same disjointed dialogue we’ve come to know and hate, with little in the way of new lines. Drury will still get overly excited by tame shots, and there’s only so many times you can listen to Beglin say „If you don’t speculate, you won’t accumulate“ across multiple games before you’re tempted to turn the commentary off completely.
Some of the teams that are officially partnered with PES get the red carpet treatment, with recognisable chants and an authentic atmosphere permeating every home match. Play with Liverpool at Anfield and the kop will belt out „You’ll never walk alone“ before the match begins. On the flip side of this, teams with no official ties to PES receive canned crowd noises and indecipherable chants that rob these games of any ambience. This isn’t terrible, but after showing a more accurate depiction of a Saturday afternoon matchday, the lack of a distinct atmosphere in these games can’t help but feel like a downgrade.
Disappointingly, Master League remains almost untouched. The International Champions Cup debuts as a short pre-season tournament, and transfer negotiations have been slightly reworked, giving you more flexibility when it comes to player fees and contracts. You can now include clauses like clean-sheet bonuses and sell-on fees so there’s not just a lump sum involved, but AI transfer logic still isn’t particularly smart. Budgets and fees don’t replicate the reality of the transfer market, with much smaller numbers than the astronomical prices we’ve seen players going for in recent years. It’s possible to buy a player like Aymeric Laporte for £12 million a mere six months after Manchester City splashed out £57 million for the central defender in the real world.
At least goalkeepers have finally seen some enhancements. They’re essentially useless when rushing off the goal line, regularly failing to close down an attacking player’s angles, but this is where the faults end. Each number one’s ability as a shot stopper has seen a marked improvement. Just like elsewhere on the pitch, goalkeepers have been blessed with a range of new animations that banish their previously robotic nature. They’ll pull off some eye-catching saves, getting fingertips to shots destined for the top corner, or just generally making themselves as big as possible in order to get something, anything, on an incoming shot.
You’ll need your ‚keeper to be on top form in the latter stages of a match, too. The stamina system in PES 2019 has been reworked to place significantly more importance on your players‘ fitness. This has been dubbed „visible fatigue,“ and it does exactly what it says. Run a team ragged and their midfield and defence will visibly tire as the match wears on, potentially opening up space for you to exploit with fresh legs off the bench. This isn’t a one-way street, though, as you’ll need to be mindful of your own players‘ stamina as well–your star midfielder isn’t much use if he can barely muster a light jog. This forces you to play a more considered game of football, sprinting only when it’s absolutely necessary and making timely substitutions when the situation calls for it. This is a literal game-changing feature, and it wonderfully complements PES’s brand of authentic, methodical football.
It’s a shame, then, that PES is still trailing FIFA when it comes to official licensing. Losing the Champions League and Europa League licences to the EA behemoth is a massive blow for PES. To Konami’s credit, it has responded by obtaining more licensed leagues than ever before, with the likes of the Scottish Premiership, the Russian Premier Liga, and Superliga Argentina all being featured in their official forms. They’re certainly welcome additions, but these aren’t standout leagues that are going to move the needle the same way the English Premier League or La Liga would. If you want to play in the Madrid derby you’re still stuck choosing between KB Red White and MD White, and the Bundesliga is completely absent beyond Schalke 04 and Bayer Leverkusen, meaning two of Europe’s biggest clubs–Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich–are nowhere to be found. Thankfully, the PES community does an amazing job creating update files if you want to mod in the teams, players, and kits that are missing, but you’re out of luck on Xbox One where this isn’t possible.
PES 2018’s online servers are surprisingly stable, considering the series‘ history of troubled connections. We didn’t encounter any noticeable latency across dozens and dozens of online matches. Meanwhile, myClub introduces a few changes to its Ultimate Team-esque formula. Featured Players are now released each week, with outstanding performances in the real world translating to attribute boosts in PES. The way you attain new players has changed, too, with players bundled in packs of four as opposed to the single player you would get in previous iterations of the mode. This lets you build up your squad faster or turn these additional players into XP trainers that can boost some of the key players in your team. If you receive three duplicates of the same player, you can also combine them together to get a higher-rated version of that player. Ultimately, these tweaks don’t alter the structure of myClub too much, but it’s a fun mode to engage with purely to play more of its outstanding brand of football.
For as long as EA continues to develop FIFA and hold a monopoly over official licences, PES will be the scrappy underdog just hoping for a surprise upset, even when it’s fielding the likes of London Blue and PV White Red. The lack of licences for top-tier leagues remains a disheartening sticking point, but PES continues to make brilliant strides on the pitch, building on what was already an incredibly satisfying game of football to produce one of the greatest playing football games of all time. It might be lacking off the pitch, but put it on the field against the competition and a famous giant killing wouldn’t be all that surprising.
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Die technische Speicherung oder der Zugriff ist für den rechtmäßigen Zweck der Speicherung von Präferenzen erforderlich, die nicht vom Abonnenten oder Benutzer angefordert wurden.
Statistiken
Die technische Speicherung oder der Zugriff, der ausschließlich zu statistischen Zwecken erfolgt.Die technische Speicherung oder der Zugriff, der ausschließlich zu anonymen statistischen Zwecken verwendet wird. Ohne eine Vorladung, die freiwillige Zustimmung deines Internetdienstanbieters oder zusätzliche Aufzeichnungen von Dritten können die zu diesem Zweck gespeicherten oder abgerufenen Informationen allein in der Regel nicht dazu verwendet werden, dich zu identifizieren.
Marketing
Die technische Speicherung oder der Zugriff ist erforderlich, um Nutzerprofile zu erstellen, um Werbung zu versenden oder um den Nutzer auf einer Website oder über mehrere Websites hinweg zu ähnlichen Marketingzwecken zu verfolgen.
