Battle for Azeroth, the seventh expansion for World of Warcraft, launched last week–and the release was a massive success. Blizzard announced today that it sold more than 3.4 million copies of the add-on worldwide on launch day, August 14, setting a new WoW expansion record. It’s not immediately clear if this figure also includes pre-order sales, but whatever the case, it’s a massive number. It beats the previous record of 3.3 million units sold on day one by Legion two years ago. 2010’s Cataclysm also sold 3.3 million units on its first day.
Launch is just the start for Battle for Azeroth. On September 5, the expansion’s first raid, Uldir, will go live. It’s set in an „ancient titan facility housing horrific Old God experiments gone awry.“ Also that day, Blizzard will launch Battle for Azeroth’s first PvP and Mythic Keystone dungeon seasons.
Additionally, Blizzard is planning more updates that will „provide even more content for players on an ongoing basis, including the ability to recruit the Kul Tiran humans and Zandalari trolls as playable Allied Races.“
Battle for Azeroth suffered from some server issues on launch day. Some had problems logging in while others said they had issues viewing their characters.
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.
Despite the cars being the quickest they’ve ever been in the sport’s history, Formula One in 2018 is about much more than pure speed. Impressively, the technical nature of driving the fastest, most advanced cars on the planet is something Codemasters goes to great lengths to portray in F1 2018, and the experience is all the better for it. Behind the wheel, an updated, more intricate tire model and the new Energy Recovery System controls push the game closer to a realistic simulation than the series has ever been before. This shift complements some smart changes to career mode around upgrades and media interaction that expand and broaden the game’s appeal beyond a single season.
F1 2018 returns to the starting grid with a huge number of different game modes. Take control of your favorite driver in a single Grand Prix weekend, or lead them to the title in one of numerous championship events across varying disciplines. If racing against other players is more your thing, F1 2018 includes both ranked and unranked multiplayer lobbies, along with a full, 21-race online multiplayer championship that can be raced with strangers or friends alike. But where F1 2018 shines brightest is in its Career mode, which sees you assume the role of a custom-created rookie who’s new to the F1 paddock, freshly signed to a team of your choice.
Who you sign with will dictate the performance expectations laid out in your contract for the coming season. Sign with a first-class team like Mercedes or Ferrari and you’ll receive a car that’s both capable–and expected–to challenge for wins every race weekend. Sign with a lesser team like Williams or Toro Rosso and you’ll need to adjust your expectations to something more realistic to their performance level, and help the team move up the order through building performance upgrades to improve your chances.
New performance parts come quickly in F1 2018 with the upgrade system having been overhauled to give you more resource points for completing team goals. A steady flow of good performances now mean you can afford to bring multiple upgrades to subsequent races, giving you a noticeably better performing car, and a greater shot at a better finish in future events. The faster flow of upgrades feels far more rewarding than the slow trickle of past games, letting you make tangible gains on the opposition over a season. To keep things interesting in the long run, regulation changes at the end of the year can completely wipe out an upgrade tree, resetting the grid order in the process, making it possible for new teams to rise to the top, and the current dominant teams fall to the midfield.
Each team has a unique upgrade path for each of the four performance departments, and each can be directly influenced by your interactions with the media, who will hound you occasionally after a session with questions on your performance. Keeping your team morale high will keep upgrade costs down along with decreasing the chances of parts failing during development, while saying the wrong thing and upsetting them will have the opposite effect. Although answering the same questions regularly gets tiresome fast, the resulting morale changes to your team make the hassle worth it.
Performing above expectations puts you in a stronger position for contract negotiations, which thanks to the changes to the upgrade system, feels like a more relevant and rewarding process than before. A high driver value gives you more room to push for a deal that will generate more resource points, including the new addition of contract perks, which can grant strong bonuses from extra resource points for upgrades up to faster pit stops.
The only disappointment remains the muted damage system, once a marquee feature of Codemaster’s titles, once again looking like it’s been unchanged since the series‘ early days.
Eight new classic cars join the twelve from last year’s F1 game, representing a gorgeous range of vehicles from the sport’s history in addition to the monstrous beasts of the 2018 season. All of the game’s cars look impeccably recreated; the meticulous detailing of the winglets and carbon fiber on the modern cars being a highlight, despite the much-maligned ‘halo’ surrounding the cockpit. Each of the game’s 21 locations has been given a lick of paint, too, and look gorgeous whether under lights, baking sun or a heavy downpour. Joining the calendar for the first time is the new Circuit Paul Ricard in France, a labyrinthian maze of tarmac and colored lines with a slightly confusing layout, and the return of the mighty Hockenheimring in Germany, a personal favorite. The only disappointment remains the muted damage system, once a marquee feature of Codemaster’s titles, once again looking like it’s been unchanged since the series‘ early days.
The difference in driving feel between the modern and classic cars is huge; where the modern cars demand a certain finesse with the controls to get the most speed, the older cars let you slide around and wrestle with the wheel a lot more. But the real enjoyment comes from driving the 2018 hybrids, with their unbelievable power and grip being bolstered by two new simulation elements in the form of the ERS deployment controls and the new tire carcass temperature model.
While both sound minor on paper, they make an incredible addition to the element of strategy through a race. The ERS system controls the amount of power deployed from the car’s hybrid battery, giving you six different settings to play with, from zero to full deployment. You can change it on the fly to attack the car in front or defend a move from behind, adding an extra tactical element at your fingertips. It can be overwhelming to manage initially, requiring a little thumb dancing on the control pad–it’s much easier with a wheel. Although if that all sounds too much for you, it can be fully automated so you don’t have to worry about changing it while trying to focus on driving.
The tire carcass temperature model is more complex and is the series‘ biggest step into simulation territory yet, measuring both the surface and inside temperatures of a tire to give a more accurate simulation of how it should wear while you drive on it. If you drive them too hard, or use the wrong compound in the wrong conditions, the tire will overheat and you’ll have to slow down to bring them back into their working temperature range. It puts a stronger emphasis on managing your tires through different driving styles, especially in the longer races, and the way overdriving the tires has an adverse effect on car handling and grip is superb.
The simulation-like additions to the driving model bring you closer than ever to the feeling of sitting on the grid with 1000+ horsepower at your feet.
The racing AI feel more aggressive than ever in F1 2018, and it makes for a noticeably more intense racing experience. Drivers not only defend the inside line into a corner, they will generally make more of a nuisance of themselves when trying to overtake you, rarely conceding a corner unless you’ve managed to put them in a bad position. Multiplayer has been revamped to include a new safety rating, which measures how cleanly you race in ranked lobbies, and a skill rank to matchmake you with other racers of like skill level. However, due to the pre-release nature of the build, we have yet to test the robustness of these rankings.
F1 2018 is brilliant, and the most complete Formula One game to date. The changes to career mode make it the strongest and most appealing it’s ever been thanks to the revamped upgrade system, while the simulation-like additions to the driving model bring you closer than ever to the feeling of sitting on the grid with 1000+ horsepower at your feet, without overwhelming those who just want to jump in and drive.
Update: After spending several hours online with F1 2018, in both ranked and unranked modes, the use of the new ranking system shows a marked difference in the quality of racing. Unranked is a wild west of private lobbies and created sessions, and the class of competition can vary wildly. Ranked adds greater accountability with its use of skill and safety ratings, the incentive being that racing cleanly will reward you by matchmaking with other clean racers of a similar skill level. While you’ll still have to dodge the odd non-braker in ranked races, they’re an order of magnitude cleaner than the unranked races, which can quickly descend into farce from the second the starting lights go out. — James Swinbanks, Aug. 27, 2018, 8:20 AM PT
Donut County must be inspired by Katamari Damacy, one of the most important ‚weird‘ games of the last 15 years. Much like that PlayStation 2 classic, it’s all about absorbing increasingly large items, although in this case you’re sucking them into a hole rather than rolling them into a ball. You drag the hole across the ground in each of the game’s 22 short levels, swallowing up any items that will fit. You start small, grabbing rocks, pieces of fruit, and inconsequential detritus, but the hole grows as you gather more items into it, letting you nab bigger objects and eventually, swallow everything in the level.
Donut County is, for the most part, a lackadaisical and gentle game. The control scheme is extremely simple, and the game’s laidback attitude is reflected in its pleasantly chunky art style and folksy soundtrack. It’s focused on the simple pleasures of manipulating in-game physics and the inherent fun of making objects and living beings fall into holes. When you’re finding the tipping point of an object–seeking the moment at which it’ll teeter over and tumble sideways through the hole, or when you’re trying to make an object fall over so you can nab the items sitting atop it–Donut County can be a lot of fun. But while controlling a malevolent hole that sucks in objects, people, and eventually buildings and structures is satisfying, there’s not a whole lot to the game beyond these mild pleasures. Donut County is not as deep as the holes it contains.
The in-game explanation for these holes is that BK, a raccoon who works in the county’s donut shop, is controlling them via an app. Most levels play out as flashbacks, with cutscenes showing the people BK has swallowed up reminiscing about what has happened to them while gathered around a fire in their new underground home (the earth, as it turns out, is hollow). The plot goes in some strange directions as it casually works through and untangles its own strange internal logic, and the script is full of irreverent ‚Internet‘ speak–the term ‚lol‘ pops up frequently in the dialog, which is very casual throughout. The flippancy of the script is charming at times, but it also means that Donut County is difficult to get truly invested in. BK is not particularly likeable, and his friendship with Mira–his human best friend, who encourages him to face up to what he has done–feels one-sided. The game clearly isn’t striving to offer a deep narrative experience, but there are quite a few ’story‘ scenes and most of them aren’t particularly engaging or funny.
Donut County lacks scale, too, with most levels feeling like they’re ending prematurely. Whereas you would sometimes roll up the entire world in Katamari games, levels in Donut County peak with you swallowing, at most, a building. The game instead focuses on the impact certain objects can have on the hole, often with clever or comical effect. Swallow up two rabbits, for instance, and love hearts will spring from the hole before a swarm of newly-born rabbits shoots back out. Swallow up a fire and some corn cobs and you’ll soon have popcorn shooting back out, which must then be collected again. The game is at its best when it’s testing out new ideas or gimmicks like these, but ultimately there aren’t that many clever things you can do with a sentient hole, and many levels absolutely whiz by without introducing anything new. The physics of the hole also don’t quite feel right sometimes–occasionally, objects don’t behave how they should after most of the floor disappears out from underneath them, which can be frustrating.
The last half-hour or so of Donut County is the game at its most inventive. While there are puzzles throughout the game the solutions are often immediately obvious, that is, until the final few levels where they become more intricate and enjoyable. Your hole becomes equipped with a catapult that is capable of firing objects back out, leading to a few neat puzzles where you need to spit objects back into the world to progress. These are mostly straightforward–for instance, you might need to catapult a frog out to capture a bunch of flies floating around the screen–but they add some much-needed variety to proceedings and open some new puzzle possibilities. Unfortunately, the catapult is only used a few times, albeit to an interesting effect, and it’s a shame that it isn’t gained early and used more frequently throughout. The final level hints at something greater still, taking the game in a different direction–without spoiling the ending, it’s an unexpected twist on what has come before, making you wish the rest of the game held such surprises.
Donut County is a game with fun ideas and a pleasantly relaxed attitude, but it’s not the most compelling of experiences. It’s easy to control, clever, amusing, and I finished it across a single session without growing bored. But it doesn’t offer the catharsis you might expect from a game about wanton destruction, and its lightness and short runtime make it feel inconsequential. Once it’s done you’re unlikely to think about it much again, let alone play it through a second time. Like a donut, it’s sweet and satisfying, but you’re acutely aware that there’s a hole in the middle of it.
New Outfits For August 26: The latest new Fortnite skins have arrived. The big new addition is the Ravage outfit, which comes with the Dark Wings back bling and Dark Feathers contrail for 2,000 V-Bucks. The other new item now available is the Iron Beak axe (800 V-Bucks). You can see all of the new outfits and gear in the gallery below.
New Outfits For August 24: It must be literally day of the week, because Epic has released new Fortnite skins. New „Bushido“ outfits and gear are now available, including the Musha outfit that comes with the Sashimono back bling for 2,000 V-Bucks. Also new is the Hime outfit that bundles in the Shiro back bling for 2,000 V-Bucks. You can also now buy the Cat’s Claw axe for 800 V-Bucks and thr Purrfect glider for 500 V-Bucks. You can see all of the new outfits and gear in the gallery below.
New Outfits For August 22: Epic has released new outfits for the battle royale game Fortnite, and they’re pretty cool. One of the new outfits is Rex, which comes with the Scaly back bling (2,000 V-Bucks). Other dinosaur-themed items include the Bitemark axe for 1,200 V-Bucks and the Pterodactly glider for 1,200 V-Bucks. Further still, you can now buy the Tricera Ops outfit with the hatchling back bling for 2,000 V-Bucks. Switching gears, there is a new outfit called Abstrakt thatr comes with the Tag Bag back bling for 1,500 V-Bucks. Finally, you can now buy the Renegade Roller axe for 1,200 V-Bucks. You can see all the new skins and gear in the gallery below. There’s also a new update now available.
New Outfits For August 20: Two very different sets of new Fortnite skins are now available from the in-game store. These include the Omen and Funk Ops outfits. The Omen outfit comes with the Battle Shroud back bling for 2,000 V-Bucks. Another themed item is the Oracle Axe (1,200 V-Bucks). As for the Funk Ops outfit, it invites players to „boogie down to umbrella town.“ It costs 1,500 V-Bucks, and there is no back bling available for it. The other new item is the Disco Brawl, which costs 1,500 V-Bucks. You can see all of the new outfits and gear in the image gallery below.
New Outfits For August 19: The latest Fortnite skins have arrived, and they are themed around pandas and sushi. You can now purchase the Sushi Master outfit and the Chef’s Choice back bling for 1,200 V-Bucks. Also now available to purchase is the P.A.N.D.A Team Leader and the Bamboo back bling (2,000 V-Bucks for the set). Finally, you can also now buy the Filet axe (800 V-Bucks), the Flying Fish glider (500 V-Bucks). Click through the images in the gallery below to see all the new outfits and gear.
New Outfits For August 17: Another day, another set of new Fortnite skins. The latest skin pack comes in the form of the Vanishing set. This includes the Overtaker skin and Lane Splitter back bling (1,500 V-Bucks for both), the Whiteout skin and Ignition back bling (1,500 V-Bucks for both), as well as the Cyclone glider (1,200 V-Bucks) and the White Squall glider (1,200 V-Bucks). These are available for a period of 48 hours. You can see all the new skins and gear in the gallery below.
New Outfits For August 16
New skins are now available in Fortnite: Battle Royale. There are two new outfit sets that you can buy with V-Bucks, including the Norse and Sunshine & Rainbows skins. The Norse set includes the Magnus skin and the Enduring cape back bling (2,000 V-Bucks for both), as well as the Forebearer axe (800 V-Bucks). The Sunshine & Rainbows set, meanwhile comprises the Brite Gunner and Brite Bag back (1,500 V-Bucks for both), while the Brite Bomber costume (1,200 V-Bucks) is also available. You can also buy the Rainbow Smash axe (1,500 V-Bucks). You can see all of the new outfits and gear in the gallery below.
New Outfits For August 15
The latest Fortnite outfits have arrived–and they are some of the weirdest yet. You can now pick up the Flytrap and Leviathan skins for 2,000 V-Bucks each. There are also related items for each, including the Venus Flyer glider (1,200 V-Bucks) and the Tendril axe (800 V-Bucks). The Leviathan outfit comes with the Fish Tank back bling, while you can also pick up the Planetary Probe glider (1,200 V-Bucks) and the Global axe (1,200 V-Bucks). You can see all the new skins and items in the images embedded below.
New Outfits For August 14:
Looking for something new to wear in Fortnite? Epic has released new Raven and Jailbird outfits and gear that you can buy with V-Bucks.
The Raven Outfit (2,000 V-Bucks) makes you look extra spooky, with glowing purple eyes, a feathery cloak, and sharp shoes. It also comes with the Iron Cage back bling as part of the „Nevermore“ set, which is surely a reference to Edgar Allan Poe’s „The Raven.“ You can also buy the Feathered Flyer glider for 800 V-Bucks.
The Jailbird costumes, meanwhile, let you dress up as „Moisty’s most wanted.“ These come in male and female versions called Scoundrel and Rapscallion, both of which cost 1,500 V-Bucks. The Scoundrel comes with the Strongbox back bling, while the Rapscallion includes the Burgle Bag back bling. Additionally, you can get the Nite Owl axe for 800 V-Bucks or the Starry Flight glider for 800 V-Bucks. These are all part of the Jailbird collection.
As with other Fortnite items, you can purchase these from the in-game store. They are only available for a limited time, so you’ll want to act quickly if you’re interested. The store is also offering other items for sale such as emotes, axes, outfits, and more.
For more on Fortnite, check out GameSpot’s recent news stories below.
Bethesda always said the $200 Fallout 76 Power Armor edition was a very limited edition, and now the company has responded to concerns about the short supply. Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines said the company is ordering „as many as possible“ but it won’t be enough for everyone, as the premium edition is sold out on Bethesda’s website.
„We are making as many as possible and made all of them available,“ Hines said on Twitter. There’s no way to make any more.“
In another tweet, he added: „They’re not quick or easy to make. We got as many lines making them as possible in order to get them finished and assembled in time for launch. I’m sorry if you didn’t get one.“
His comments come from the very real concerns among some that people snapped up the Power Armor edition in hopes of re-selling it on the grey market for a higher price. Hines did not address that concern specifically, but it’s an issue pretty much every company that makes things people want has to face.
The Fallout 76 Power Armor edition was announced at E3 2018 in June. The headline item is a working, wearable T-51 helmet that includes a headlamp and voice modulation device. The Power Armor edition also includes a glow-in-the-dark physical map of the game’s six regions of West Virginia; you also get in-game content and access to the upcoming beta.
Fallout 76 launches in November for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC; the beta begins in October, and it’ll be available first on Xbox One. Unlike previous games in the series, Fallout 76 is an always-online, multiplayer-focused game.
With its interconnected world, gorgeous character design, and strong story premise, Death’s Gambit looks every bit the promising 2D action-platformer on paper. Although inconsistent combat and sluggish movement combine to rein in that promise, some clever gameplay tricks and distinctive boss fights keep things refreshing enough to lessen the grind.
Death’s Gambit shrouds itself in mystery from the get-go, giving you very little information before setting you off into its gorgeous pixel-art labyrinth. You select a class and an item to start with, a choice that proves largely inconsequential except for your starting skill points, before waking up on a burning battlefield. You control Sorun, a soldier who is granted immortality after signing a contract with Death to wipe the land of other immortal beings. It’s a great premise that’s backed up by some strong story sequences that play out between your inevitable deaths, helping to set up Sorun’s tragic background and the beginning of his journey as one of Death’s personal handlers.
The core gameplay loop will feel very familiar to anyone who’s spent some time with From Software’s Souls games. Progress comes through grinding it out against powerful enemies, death after death, and combat requires exact timing of both attacks and defensive maneuvers. As you venture deeper into the world, the basics are taught through inscribed gravestones that rise from the ground as you pass near them. As you slice and hammer your way through enemies, you’ll collect shards that are used to level up character skills. You spend these points at Death Idols, statues scattered around the world where you can rest to level up and respawn after death.
Death’s Gambit diverges from the established formula when you die, because you don’t drop your collection of shards. Instead, you drop a Phoenix Plume, a feather that’s used predominantly to heal yourself but can also be imbued into your weapon to increase its attack damage. And although you can collect them from where you died, you can also spend shards to reclaim lost Plumes–handy given that the world is one big linked maze and its easy to lose track of plumes. Given Plumes aren’t tied to player progression, it can encourage you to take a more gung-ho attitude when entering fights, which rarely go in your favor at first.
With the exception of the largest variants, enemies will respawn every time you rest at an Idol, giving you plenty of opportunities to grind out shards and gain early levels quickly. But despite this, there are numerous areas where the difficulty spikes harshly and progress screeches to a halt. More often than not this also means replaying the same sections over and over, highlighting some of the more irritating and inconsistent parts of the game’s combat, which oscillates from calculated and tactical to slow and cumbersome with annoying regularity.
Combat feels deliberately heavy. Attacks are beautifully animated and need a short wind up before the strike, placing an emphasis on timing over button-mashing. Landing hits in combat fills your soul meter, which is used to trigger weapon abilities, and these can range from powerful attacks to defensive spells. But while there are occasional moments when it feels like it comes together, all too often it feels unsatisfying in the end. This partly comes down to movement feeling awkward, both when in combat and while platforming in general, but also because it relies excessively on stamina management, requiring a level of patience the combat rarely earns. Jumps feel underpowered and imprecise, and the weapons themselves, aside from a bit of visual flair, feel plain and unexciting to use. Encounters just feel flat, and when you mix that up with enemies that can kill you with ease, it doesn’t make for a great time.
Thankfully, the world isn’t just full of enemies; there are some friendly characters you’ll meet along the way too. Most folks you meet will wind up back in the game’s main hub and safe area, Central Sanctuary. The shopkeeper there will sell you items and auras, while many others will teach you new weapon abilities, provided you have the shards to pay for them. The cast of characters you’ll meet along the way are all gorgeously designed, especially their avatars shown during dialogue sequences. Death and Origa are particular highlights; with Death’s broad, imposing wings and intricate vest, and Origa’s battle-worn armor and hooded cloak.
Bosses are visually less consistent, ranging from an imposing but detailed Gaian giant the size of an apartment building to the Tundra Lord, who looks like a horned zombie beast that was half chewed and spat out; noticeably lacking the detail present on other characters. Boss fights also offer the most interesting departure from the typical moment-to-moment activities, with some delightfully mind-bending sequences where the world warps and twists; the Thalamus fight is a particular highlight, relying less on combat and more on reactions and memory. It’s very clever.
Despite its rewarding exploration and intriguing story, Death’s Gambit is consistently held back by its combat, which lacks the responsiveness you need when fighting enemies that can kill you in seconds.
Most impressive, though, is the environmental art and world design. Its weaving, interconnected layout can cause you to get lost at times, but it’s small enough that moving from place to place doesn’t take long if you’ve cleared it of enemies. The world will change over time, too, either after taking down certain bosses or after you’ve found a particular item, granting access to previously blocked off regions. Exploration feels rewarding as there’s no shortage of things to uncover, like tomes that grant a small damage bonuses against certain bosses, or a link back to another part of the world, opening up new shortcuts and streamlining the world traversal in a way that’s appreciated after hours and hours of grinding the same locations.
Despite its rewarding exploration and intriguing story, Death’s Gambit is consistently held back by its combat, which lacks the responsiveness you need when fighting enemies that can kill you in seconds. Occasionally it feels like it all comes together, but too often it’s a chore, and when you’re into your 30th run of the same section of a dungeon and you get piled on, it’s crushing. While I was turned off by the excessive grind, Death’s Gambit offers some pay off to those who don’t mind pushing through the gauntlet. But you’ll really have to work for it.
But more importantly, you’re probably wondering how the songs sound with the English voice actors chanting incessantly over them. Well look no further, because we’ve recorded and collected playthroughs of all songs demoed so far from the Western versions of Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight and Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight.
All songs are played on Hard difficulty, achieving a „Brilliant“ score ranking or better. We only managed to get one perfect „King Crazy“ ranking during our demo session, which disappoints us immensely. All Night difficulty has not been shown officially so far.
Set for release later this fall, Blizzard’s legendary action-RPG series will be making its Nintendo debut in the form of Diablo III: Eternal Collection. As the most complete version of the long-evolving title, this will mark the first time where players can engage in the series‘ slash-and-loot gameplay on the go, with the treasure falling in droves and legions of monsters swarming en masse. As the first Blizzard game released on a Nintendo platform in 15 years, the upcoming release of Diablo III is a strong way for the publisher to make its return. Shortly before its reveal, we had the chance to go hands-on with the game and chat with Blizzard about the development of the Switch port.
As a refresher, Diablo III on console is quite different compared to the original PC release. With a totally redesigned control scheme, along with an added dodge move for characters, Diablo III on consoles retains the focus on fast and class-focused action-RPG gameplay while presenting a different take on the series‘ particular style of combat. While far more accessible compared to its PC counterpart, the console version totally stands side-by-side with the original, making for two unique editions of the Diablo III experience. The Eternal Collection for Switch features all of the game’s existing content–which includes the base game with all its revamped content, the Reaper of Souls expansion, the new Necromancer class, and the ongoing Season events.
Speaking with senior producer Pete Stilwell, he detailed the project’s beginnings, and what was needed to adapt the game to the new hardware.
„We were essentially sitting around and talking about projects that would be amazing and additive to what the company has, and maybe even trailblaze some new things,“ said the producer, who previously worked on StarCraft: Remastered. „The Switch was a thing we were all playing, and something we were all interested in. We thought of it as something sweet to bring [Diablo III] onto, and then we started experimenting with the Switch and then got to talking with Nintendo–where we believed that it would be feasible and fun to play on. We wanted to guarantee that it would be smooth and responsive, to ensure that it was everything that you wanted it to be for an [action RPG].“
With the Eternal Collection on Switch, the port takes advantage of the console’s functionality and portability, while still retaining the core aspects of the Diablo experience. Running at 60 frames per-second both docked and undocked–rendered at 720p resolution in handheld mode and at 960p when docked–the game runs well on the modest platform, which has managed to prove time and again that it can handle ports of titles from more powerful platforms. While there are some noticeable drops in graphical quality, such as the textures appearing somewhat muddy and less detailed compared to other releases, Diablo III on Switch is a consistent and smooth experience–especially during its hectic, screen-filling battles.
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One of the most interesting features to come with the Eternal Collection is the drop-in co-op play via LAN, without the need for an online connection. Players with their own devices nearby, or playing off a single Switch with Joy-Cons and controllers, can sync up with others and drop into games on the fly. However, if you’re not able to find others nearby, online co-op via Battle.net is still an option.
During our session, we got to engage in a game of couch co-op play with three different Switch units. It felt incredibly organic diving into a game with a nearby player, and it will no doubt be one of the Switch version’s most defining features. With the expectation that players will be on the move when playing Diablo III, the developers added in offline saves and stat-tracking, which are uploaded to the cloud when players have their Battle.net accounts synced up to their game. The majority of the game can be played offline; however, participating in the ongoing Season event will require online play.
Much like other Switch ports, such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the new release also takes the liberty to add in some Nintendo-themed content. We saw an early look of the new armor sets for the Barbarian and Crusader, which players can acquire by visiting the transmog vendor to turn their gear into items belonging to Ganondorf. The Dark Lord’s armor pulls from his Twilight Princess incarnation–which fits well into the Diablo aesthetic. Furthermore, players can also acquire a unique Tri-Force portrait emblem for their character, along with a pet Cuckoo that will follow their character into battle.
Diablo III has continually gotten better with age, and experiencing it in this new format was a fresh way to dive back into the dungeon-crawler. The Eternal Collection doesn’t look to reinvent things in a big way, and it’s largely what you might expect from a Switch port, but the small changes and additions play well to the console’s strengths. Though the exact release date is still unknown at this time, it’s reassuring to see that the port is in great shape–which will it yet another in a long line of solid ports for Nintendo’s console.
Based on the two-and-half hours spent playing some late-game missions, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey seems to be improving upon all the changes that Assassin’s Creed Origins introduced to the tenured franchise. By better implementing player choice across every aspect of the game, whether it’s in the skills you equip in combat or by the dialogue choices you use to respond to the game’s hundreds of NPCs, Ubisoft is making it easier for you to put a little bit of yourself into every decision.
Ubisoft Quebec (Assassin’s Creed Syndicate) is leading the charge for Odyssey. Interestingly enough, the studio shared in Ubisoft Montreal’s ambitions to turn Assassin’s Creed into an RPG before even knowing that’s where they wanted to go with Origins. Though the team has had the desire to work on an Assassin’s Creed RPG, it’s been an endeavor that’s challenged them for the better part of the last three years.
At a recent Gamescom event, we had the opportunity to chat with Odyssey creative director Jonathan Dumont. We discussed at length Ubisoft Quebec’s philosophy behind its approach to story and combat, as well as Dumont’s thoughts on why Assassin’s Creed works as an RPG, why Odyssey takes place so far in the past, and what the now decade-old franchise means to him as a creator.
GameSpot: When Origins was first unveiled, one of the biggest changes was combat. What sort of influences did you bring to Odyssey when it came to improving that area?
Dumont: Yeah, it’s interesting because I don’t know if we have something that we looked at necessarily. We did want you to feel like you’re more capable of overpowering enemies. As you grow the strength of Leonidas‘ spear [your protagonist’s weapon and a first civ artifact], you want it to become stronger and stronger. You have base combat and then everything we put on top is to facilitate getting the upper hand over other NPCs. We also wanted that to be a player choice, so we tried to have freedom at the core of everything that we’ve added. But in this case, creating your playstyle, creating your class, we were thinking about [it] as, „How cool would it be to mix and match skills?“ We wanted to allow players to say, „I want to do these four things in the game and that’s it. And that’s the way I want to play the game!“
We were looking at it more from a customization perspective instead of trying to enforce a certain way to play the game or unlock things in a certain order. Invest the points where you want them but map them like you want them and create your own playstyle. Because Assassin’s Creed has been around over 10 years now, and we all play different. Some people just want to play stealth and others might want combat, so we want to make sure that your playstyle is the right playstyle for you and that the game allows you to play that way.
Was player creativity and freedom the core design tenants this time around?
Yeah, and it goes with the story too and how you role-play the character. It goes into picking your character at the start of the game. It’s even present when you’re recruiting your ship’s crew. So how do you want to make it your own in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey? Trying to make it feel like what I do as being a reflection of me and that the game offers more choices to do so was important for us in our push to make Assassin’s Creed a full RPG.
What fueled the decision for the main character to have a weapon that’s essentially a piece of Eden?
So, I played all the Assassin’s Creed games. In most of them, you end up fighting a boss that has a piece of Eden, and I have always been intrigued by that. Why can’t we see that from the start of the game? If you’re going to implement that into a game set in the 1500s, it would be tough to introduce, but if you’re going back 2,500 years and, in a setting, where it’s [more] tied closely to the first civilization, it makes more sense. They’re seen as gods still, so it fits within that setting and the traditional hero of that time, which is typically someone elevated by some power or chosen by the gods.
I always wanted to see what would happen if you could manipulate [a first civ artifact] and control one throughout an entire game. It’s not usually present in our games, but with Odyssey I felt like [it’s the] right time to try something a little bit outside our typical pillars.
I heard that both the Montreal and Quebec studios logically came to the conclusion that the RPG genre is where the series should go. How did that epiphany come about for the studio? And why do you think the RPG is where Assassin’s Creed needs to go?
I think we spent a lot of time creating these huge open worlds and we wanted to give more incentives to explore it. We also prided ourselves in creating these credible worlds where you meet historical characters and dive into history, but we still wanted to explore it in a deeper fashion.
The RPG was a no-brainer for us and where we wanted to go with the series, which is funny because the Origins team felt the same way. We were looking at what they were building, and we were pretty much on board, so we took their code and decided that where we wanted to push further was the role-playing elements and combat customization. The RPG genre really opens our franchise to a much deeper and richer experience where you get involved and care more about what is going on than in the past.
Assassin’s Creed has always been a historical fiction series closely grounded in real-world timelines, but it’s intriguing to see how you’re allowing players the choice to change how the story plays out a bit. Not only that, but you’re also introducing these surreal elements fueled by mythology, like Medusa and the Minotaur. How do you balance these inclinations to introduce unearthly aspects while staying within the confines of reality?
Well there’s two parts to that. Even though we have choices, we don’t change history. Your story changes and some of the relationships you have with some characters will change, but history will follow its course and have the same conclusions you know from real life.
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For what’s mythological, these are small pockets out in the world. You won’t see Medusa walking around or anything like that. The Greeks valued adventure, but they also had fears about adventure. The woods were dangerous so those are places you’d find the myths and legends because that’s what they thought were there. In that sense, it’s more of an interpretation of what they saw. But is it a simulation within a simulation via the first civ artifacts? You could ask: „Are they really seeing these things?“ And some of these things will open up more as you play the game on some explanation. We don’t answer all the questions, obviously because questions are interesting and are sometimes even more interesting than the answers.
But as an RPG, we wanted the player to take on bigger things. Mythology was the right choice for us in exploring that. As a whole, 99% of the world is grounded in reality. You’ll get to go to see Athens and we made it just as the city was. You’ll get to go to where the Oracle of Delphi was, and it looks just like what the place was. But then there’s that 1% where we tapped into that first civ to allow some of these mythological elements to come out more. Typically, we do a scenario where a drug allows a character to see these things, but now we’re trying to make it coexist a little bit more with the world.
What fueled this decision for this game to be pushed even further back into the AC historical timeline?
With the introduction of choice, we were looking for a setting that was culturally rich, that exposed a lot of values dealing with chaos and order, which I feel to be the thematic root of Assassin’s Creed. We ultimately fell on Ancient Greece because they were asking questions, trying to find the truth. Everybody’s a philosopher. There’s conversations, dialogue. We wanted that to be sort of what’s going on around the world because we’re introducing choice into the franchise. If you meet Socrates, you talk to Socrates, you ask questions. You’re looking for answers. You’re trying to see what’s good, what’s bad, what’s true, and what’s false. So that is something that we felt that if you’re going to introduce choice, we needed a setting like Greece to facilitate that.
I know you can’t say much, but can you tell us a little bit about what the modern day storyline will look like this time around?
It’s definitely a continuation of Layla’s story, and it will evolve the story quite a bit. You’ll get some character development in there. She’s going to change and take an adventure that goes to places that you don’t expect, which is an interesting way of looking at it. Layla was introduced in Origins, but now we’re digging into what she’s looking for.
I don’t want to talk too much about it because when it comes to the present-day, some people like it, some don’t. You know how it is.
Jonathan Dumont, Creative Director
I don’t want to talk too much about it because when it comes to the present-day, some people like it, some don’t. You know how it is. But the way we do it is if you want to dive a little bit more into it, you can still explore, and we have optional dialogue choices you can pick to ask more questions about what’s going on. Or you can choose to get it pretty straightforward, but we do have a little bit more action thrown in as well to keep it engaging for those types of players too.
Assassin’s Creed has been around for 10 years now. It now has a legacy. So I’m just curious: how do you approach working on a franchise that is so tenured? And for you as a creator, what does Assassin’s Creed mean to you?
Assassin’s Creed means something different to everybody, and people are interested in it for different things. Some are interested in more of the mechanics. Some are interested more in the lore. Some are interested in the history. Personally, I like the fact that it allows us to explore a part of history, and I like that it allows us to recreate a world that we can’t go to see now. So we put a lot of effort into documenting and building those worlds.
But the coolest thing I get to experience while creating Assassin’s Creed is that the series sort of reinvents itself depending on the setting. So, if you want to be true to the setting, you need to implement aspects that fit. In Odyssey’s case, we have Hoplite warriors and we get to introduce large-scale battles because it’s Greece and it’s the middle of the Peloponnesian War. Depending on the setting there’s decisions that we need to make about gameplay that depend on the character and the setting. I personally love the creative freedom that it gives us when we switch settings, since it allows us to try new things.
As a creator, it’s really interesting because, yes, Assassin’s Creed is a running franchise that goes on for a while and we do games one after the other. But man, they’re really different when you look at each one. You go from the French Revolution to Industrial Revolution to Egypt to Greece. That’s crazy! And that’s really interesting in my opinion. And I think that’s why it’s a franchise that people love because they get to be carried somewhere new. And we try to cater to that and make the series a fun place to discover. So, in my opinion, it’s those aspects that interests me most.
That’s really what drives me into making another one. Because you learn quite a bit as you develop them. You learn while making it. We’re not historians. We like history, but we surround ourselves with specialists. We surround ourselves with people that know more than we do. And that first year we sort of try to become experts in a field that’s not our field. Our field is making games, telling stories. But really, it’s like going back to school every time you start making a new Assassin’s Creed, so there’s a lot of growth I get to experience during the development process.
After the amazing gaming year that was 2017, many wondered how well 2018 would turn out. Fortunately for everyone, it has been great. The first half of the year has yielded a wealth of fantastic games, and there’s more on the horizon. Upcoming games for the rest of this 2018 include slew of hotly anticipated new games, like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Red Dead Redemption 2, Spider-Man, and a whole lot more. To help you keep track of all the games coming out and what has already released, we’ve compiled a list of all the noteworthy release dates for the biggest ones confirmed to come out in 2018 so far.
Game release dates change all the time and new ones arrive every month. Be sure to bookmark this page, as we’ll be updating this article with more release dates or any potential changes to any of the dates below. And if you’re eager to figure out the release dates from games next year, you can also reference our feature on the game release dates of 2019.
Below you can find a list of the biggest games that don’t have explicit release dates but are confirmed to release sometime this year. There are also games listed that we expect to launch in 2018. We’ll be moving each of these games into the release date sections above as soon as official dates are announced.
Assassin’s Creed Origins released in 2017 following a year off, when Ubisoft took time off to reassess the future of its flagship series. Beyond the obvious move to Egypt, Origins‘ most notable area of innovation was combat. Previously reliant on engaging enemies and playing out execution animations, Origins completely transformed the series‘ combat into a hitbox-based system emphasizing precise timing and tactical dodging. While this was a welcome shift that introduced more complexity to enemy encounters, it still had plenty of shortcomings. You could easily fall into using a single dominant strategy to win fights, and the relatively low skill ceiling meant that you ultimately had very little improvement to strive for.
Ubisoft Quebec’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed Odyssey seems to be attending to these issues, providing more tactical combat than its predecessor while making subtle adjustments that vastly improve the moment-to-moment thrills of engagement. This might not mean much if you’re more inclined to play stealth or ranged. I’ve personally been more of a stealth player in past Assassin’s Creed games, even in entries that didn’t accommodate such a playstyle–I’m looking at you, Assassin’s Creed III. But I was pleasantly surprised to find during my experiences playing Odyssey that its combat was one of the aspects I enjoyed the most. Here are four major changes I noted during a recent two-hour Gamescom 2018 preview session while playing one of Odyssey’s late-game questlines.
No Shields, Just Dodges
The most welcome change to Odyssey’s combat is the lack of a shield or guarding stance. No longer can you block enemy attacks or arrows–you dodge them instead. This alters the flow of combat, forcing you to pay close attention to enemy movements while also being mindful of the spacing between you and your opponent. This is the best part about Odyssey’s take on Origins‘ combat, as it elevates your active investment in a fight. It was easy to become idle in Origins, often turtling up against enemies with a shield, charging up a strong attack to knock them down, and then wailing on them. You need to be fully aware in Odyssey, unleashing measured bursts of attacks and dodging before getting hit by an enemy follow-up.
You may not come equipped with a shield of your own, but your opponents do! There’s a power imbalance you feel every time you square up against a group of shielded enemies–a feeling I rarely got from fighting such enemies in Origins. Luckily, you’re given a shield removal skill that can quickly put foes on even ground with you. It’s an added layer of defense to enemies that seems superficial at first blush, but during my experiences with Odyssey, it contributed to the tension and reinforced the need to be alert.
A drastic, yet subtle new addition to movement is the roll as an action. In Origins, you could perform a roll after mashing the dodge button three times; it would be the third maneuver Bayek would perform after two step-dodges. However, it didn’t serve much of a tactical purpose and was more of a cosmetic animation. In Odyssey, a roll is performed by holding the dodge button, and it covers more ground than the standard step-dodge. In every encounter, I had to distinguish which enemy attacks called for a roll, and which could be simply dodged with a quick step. It’s a minute change but it made all the difference in elevating my senses during a battle.
You’re Making Way More Decisions In Combat
Remedying the issue of Origins‘ barebones combat are a ton of special skills you can equip and activate on the fly in Odyssey. The most prominently featured skill in early Odyssey footage is the Spartan Kick, which allows you to launch foes away, potentially off cliffs or into shark-infested waters. But there are several other skills you can use–some offensive and others defensive. For example, one allows you to slow down time and move seven times faster than your opponents, something that comes in handy for doling out more damage or simply getting out of harm’s way. Skills are triggered by holding the shoulder button and pressing the face button associated with the one equipped on your wheel. You can equip up to eight skills at once, and each takes up a specific number of points from your Adrenaline Meter–which is now split up into segments–upon use.
During high-level play, having so many skills to mix-and-match made for a satisfying dance of creatively linking together the best ones to inflict the highest damage possible. But it also demanded think about how I spend Adrenaline. While you can use it to trigger a powerful special attack that can easily dispatch a single foe, you might be better served triggering several crowd-control moves to hurt multiple foes or launch them off the battle arena instead. A canvas for players to use skills the way they want was exactly what Odyssey creative director Jonathan Dumont intended to be a part of the game’s combat.
„We tried to have choice at the core of everything that we’ve added.“ said Dumont. „We were thinking about how it would be cool to mix and match skills…we looked at it more from a perspective of customization instead of trying to enforce a certain way to play the game or unlock things in a certain order.“
Boss Fights Are More Difficult And Complex
If there’s anything that Origins was completely lacking in, it was boss fights. Bosses were often just stronger versions of standard enemies, and if they did have something more interesting at play, the strategy to beat them was incredibly simplistic. Even at high-level play, Origins‘ boss fights were prolonged encounters that simply required dodging and walloping on a foe until you had enough Adrenaline to perform an Overpower move; rinse and repeat.
Odyssey seems to throw more variety into difficult boss encounters. Admittedly, this observation is purely based on my experiences fighting against Medusa (yes, that Medusa). But if what I experienced with that fight is indicative of the entire game, then I’m quite excited for what other formidable opponents Odyssey is going to throw me against–mythological creature or not.
Medusa actually had varying attack patterns and different stages as the fight progressed. She would try to slow me down with her petrifying stare and then spawn stone soldiers to gang up on me. But as the fight went on, went on, she’d assault me with petrifying lasers and try to attack me directly, all while more stone soldiers spawned in. The fight actually challenged my ability to dodge and use skills efficiently. It’s exactly what you want a boss fight to be: a test of everything you’ve learned and executed upon using the game’s various systems. You can watch the full battle against Medusa at the end of the footage above.
You Can Restat Anytime You Want
This doesn’t pertain to combat directly, but if you decide there’s another character build you’d like to pursue that would better accommodate your fighting style, you’re free to completely restat your ability points any time at no cost to you. This is a tremendous addition that gives you the ability to experiment and spend your ability points on other skills that may not have fit your initial character build. Once again, this seems to align with what Dumont believes is Odyssey’s emphasis on creativity and player choice.
„Invest the points where you want them but map them like you want them and create your own playstyle,“ commented Dumont when asked about player customization. „Because Assassin’s Creed has been around for over 10 years now, we all play differently. Where some people just want to play stealth or ranged, some people want combat. So, we want to make sure that your play style that you want to bring in is a right playstyle for you. And the game allows you to play that way.“
That creativity is welcomed by the freedom to change the way you play at any time. The build given to me during the preview was focused more on combat, but I was able to restat into a hybrid of both combat and stealth. It made the build more focused on chain-killing as many enemies as possible with the Rush Assassination skill before being seen, and then clearing out the rest with crowd-control and attack buff skills. The opportunity to branch out allowed me to get creative with my character on a whim. It was refreshing to have no penalty for doing so, as Origins forced you to commit to a build for a majority of its runtime.
A Step Forward For Combat
There’s a higher sense of urgency and strategizing in Odyssey’s combat. You’re thinking more and you’re constantly making split-second decisions on the types of skills you want to perform. Enemy groups are quicker to surround and overwhelm you than in Origins, so it’s essential to move quickly and act aggressively. All of this already puts Odyssey’s combat system far above Origins‘ in complexity and nuance, often motivating me to pursue enemies head-on more than I’m usually accustomed to.
As someone who has always relished in playing stealthily in every Assassin’s Creed game, it’s exciting to see improvements that make combat less mindless and more tactical. For the first time in the series‘ history, I’m struggling to settle on a playstyle–not because of lacking quality in one over the other, but simply out of finding each genuinely appealing. It honestly surprises me, and for a series I’ve been following since the beginning, I find that fantastic.
Looking at From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, it’s clear that it’s built on the foundations of the team’s previous work on the Dark Souls series. Focusing on an uncompromising and stoic design sense that rewards patient players who learn from their mistakes, the developer’s next big title definitely channels some of the best of what their last ten years of games have to offer. However, Sekiro is a major shift away from the slower, and more cautious playstyle of action-RPG Dark Souls and even Bloodborne–moving further into the direction of what seems to be a traditional action game.
In Sekiro, you’re tasked with using some unorthodox gadgets, a sharp blade, and a ninja’s cunning and agility to overcome foes that can drop you in only a few strikes. Just prior to Gamescom, we dove into a brief section of Sekiro, which showcased the unique combat and stealth encounters, and got an idea of how it recontextualizes the Souls-formula into a stealth-action experience.
Set in a heavily fictionalized take on Sengoku-era Japan in 1500, you play as a shinobi who faces a brutal defeat at the hands of a rival samurai, losing their left arm in the process. Defying death, the warrior is given a new arm by a mysterious monk who names him the „One-Armed Wolf“. From here, the main character begins his quest for revenge against the samurai and his clan that roam the lands. But during his adventure, he’ll encounter other dangerous beasts and larger than life monsters, slowly revealing a much greater threat that will push his shinobi training to its limits.
Unlike From Software’s past titles, Sekiro focuses on the story of a defined character, and with stripped down RPG mechanics–there’s a greater emphasis on the more action-oriented gameplay and smart use of the tools you have on hand. As more of a spiritual successor to From Software’s previous games–which were also directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki–many of the familiar touchstones from the Souls games remain intact–but with many notable differences.
At its heart, Sekiro is a stealth-action game, and many encounters involve getting the jump up on unsuspecting enemies for quick and efficient kill, or by avoiding packs of foes altogether. With the One-Armed Wolf’s grappling hook, there’s a stronger focus on verticality and movement throughout the levels, where gaining the high-ground above your opponents can mean all the difference in your chances for survival. Though you’re certainly free to engage them head-on, most areas are heavily guarded, and you can easily find yourself outmatched by ranged foes and close-range fighters. The enemies in Sekiro are incredibly aggressive, and they prefer to fight in numbers.
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During my time with Sekiro, I was impressed with the versatility of the game’s main character, which quickly asked you to learn the ins and outs of his arsenal. With the ability to sneak, hug walls, climb steep surfaces, and even jump, the protagonist’s skills give him an incredible amount of flexibility and range, allowing you to uncover hidden vantages above groups of enemies, or secret encounters off the beaten path–such as a Shinobi-hunting monk who’s immune to many of the Wolf’s tricks. But the protagonist’s most valuable tool in his arsenal is the Shinobi Prosthetic, which acts as your all-in-one support item, akin to Bloodborne’s trick weapons. Allowing you to toss shurikens, spew fire, blind foes, and unleash a powerful axe that can break through enemy defenses, the One-Armed Wolf can pull off all sorts of clever moves on the fly–such as igniting your sword on fire to add extra damage.
Like other titles from the Souls series, death plays a large role in Sekiro. While the One-Armed Wolf is an extremely lethal fighter with gadgets and weapons that allow him to kill most common enemies in only a single blow, he’s extremely vulnerable as well. While you’re certainly able to face off against groups of foes, it’s usually the smarter option not to. During one challenging section, I entered a courtyard with several guards trying to a contain an imprisoned Ogre, only to be spotting by ranged bowmen who had the high ground. With the stealthy approach out the window, I tried to engage each target one-by-one–but then the Ogre broke free and joined the fight. What followed was a cascade of violent blows and flying arrows–culminating in the large Ogre powerbombing me and tossing me like a ragdoll.
You’ll die a lot in Sekiro. But as the subtitle of the game suggests, there’s more to death than what it seems. Referred to as the Resurrection mechanic and used as somewhat of a tactical respawn, you’re able to use up a life token (two at max)–found from resting at Sculptor’s Idols, essentially bonfires–to instantly revive on the spot and pick up where you left. In most situations, you can wait for enemies to walk away, revive, and then sneak up for a kill when their guard is down. But of course, if the situation looks too dire–some enemies will choose to stick around your body–you can accept your death instead, which will send you back to the nearest Sculptor’s Idol. And of course, all common foes will return after visiting the rest point, forcing you to take on that familiar gauntlet once again.
Eventually, you’ll come across elite foes that guard the only path forward. These mid-bosses are among the more dangerous opponents you’ll encounter, and battling them feels more like a game of wits and quick reflexes, rather than brute force. Much like stealth gameplay, melee combat is all about taking advantage of your opponent’s vulnerabilities. With the Posture System, aggressive attacks, timed parries and blocks will add pressure to your opponent. Once the Posture gauge tops out, they’ll enter a stunned state, opening them up to critical attacks. However, the elite enemies can do the same to you, which will decimate your life bar in a single blow.
There were definitely a lot of surprises to be found in this relatively modest demo for the game. After passing through the castle grounds, we entered a large canyon guarded by a massive snake. With the only way forward ahead of it, we had to time our jumps and grapples correctly to enter small cave in time to evade its attacks. Soon after, we faced off against the demo’s boss on a bridge surrounded by sparkling red trees–one of the demo’s most visually stunning areas. Known as the Cursed Monk, this multi-phased fight forces you to use every skill you have–even grappling to higher ground to avoid attacks. It was easily the hardest fight in the demo, and unsurprisingly, we couldn’t beat it.
After playing more than half-an-hour of the game, it’s clear that the roots of the Souls genre are still there–yet it’s undeniably its own beast. One of the more common sensations felt when playing games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne is the sense of apprehension and dread. While those feelings are still present in Sekiro to an extent, the tools and skills that the protagonist possessed gave me much more of an empowered feeling throughout. Having said that, there’s still much we have to learn about Sekiro, and just how far it will go with its mashup of stealth-action gameplay and the best of what the Souls series is all about.
For more on our continuing coverage of Gamescom 2018, which includes our hands-on impressions of Devil May Cry 5 and Hitman 2, be sure to check out GameSpot’s hub page for all the latest news and videos.
On the surface, Ubisoft’s new first-person psychological thriller, Transference, is a pretty spooky descent into one man’s misguided efforts to transfer someone’s consciousness onto a computer. As is the case with most fictional mad scientists, Raymond Hayes decides he and his family are the best subjects for his final test and attempts to upload himself, his wife Katherine, and their son Benjamin all into the same simulation. Things do not go well.
Transference picks up at the conclusion of Raymond’s experiment. You take control of a nameless protagonist who stumbles upon Raymond’s work, but instead of a happy family living in never-ending bliss, you discover a twisted digital reality that’s partially incomplete and fractured into three different perspectives.
During a Ubisoft pre-Gamescom press event, I played a 15-minute Transference preview demo on the Vive, but the game is available as a non-VR title as well. After donning the headset, I began to explore a crumbling reality. I navigated a single apartment complex that experienced minute changes, very much like the one in Silent Hills‚ playable teaser, through the eyes of four different characters–the three members of the family and the neutral protagonist who can view the simulation without bias–to escape a collapsing digital world. Despite the urgency of the situation, I was often drawn to stop and watch the emotional distress that had befallen the Hayes family. I desperately wanted to know what happened and solve their mystery. Transference preys on this desire, the need to solve mysteries and fulfill patterns, throughout both its storytelling and puzzles.
„We wanted the player to use their observation and the simple interactions in the game to solve the puzzles,“ said Transference producer Kevin Racape. „The more the player progresses, the more the walls starts closing in. You’re a prisoner of this world. You feel trapped within this simulation–this crazy experiment–and that’s the feeling we wanted to give to our players.“
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Every clue you need to make it to the next area can be found in your immediate vicinity. The trick is changing your perspective. It’s exactly like a real escape room, as each challenging puzzle is meant to be solved through the shared experiences of multiple people. Often, one clue can take on entirely new meaning when seen by a different set of eyes. Our histories affect how we take in information, and utilizing this fact is the key to overcoming the varied puzzles throughout Transference.
Throughout the Hayes‘ apartment complex are light switches. Flipping a switch literally switches which character you see through. When I first entered the simulation, I was looking at the world as the game’s protagonist. He couldn’t get into the Hayes‘ apartment, which comes as no surprise as he doesn’t know what it’s supposed to look like and thus can’t visualize anything past the front door.
Flipping a switch put me into the perspective of little Benjamin, which removed the door entirely and replaced it with a gaping black mass of nothingness. Benjamin’s memories of the front door had been corrupted, as the data was missing a few pieces. Switching back to the protagonist, I went down to the basement, grabbed an extra door knocker, switched back to Benjamin, and added it to the corrupted data to reform the door. As Benjamin, I made my way into the Hayes‘ apartment and into the next room.
Most of the perspective shifts in the Transference demo revolved around puzzles and gameplay mechanics, but there were a few times when jumping from person to person revealed story details as well. For example, both Benjamin and his father view their apartment very differently, one seeing it as a nightmare and the other as a place for new beginnings.
„[Seeing] the whole environment [as a representation of] their own psyche will help a lot in discovering who they are, because if you take the time to explore and observe every item in each of the perspectives, they all have a purpose for being there,“ Racape said. „Through these observations, this is how you’ll manage to put the pieces together. The different perspectives are necessary in order to learn more about each of the characters.“
Learning the backstory behind each member of the family can help inform how to solve the game’s puzzles. Even the protagonist’s perspective is important, as he’s the one who can see that there’s something very wrong with the simulation. Of course, the protagonist himself doesn’t belong and the digital world knows it.
My time with the demo ended with the protagonist being attacked by a living mass of corrupted data. „The monster that the player faces is a part of the corrupted simulation, proof that this experiment did not turn out well,“ Racape said. That’s all Racape would say about the corrupted data, but it seemed like the monster didn’t want the protagonist learning about the Hayes family.
The monster’s emergence forced me into my flight-or-fight response. Unfortunately, my decision to face the corrupted data did not end well. Perhaps Katherine would have seen the monster differently, but she was the only perspective I didn’t get to play. Though terrifying at the time, the corrupted data is a welcome addition to Transference. Every good escape room pushes its players to think creatively by setting a time limit, and the monster’s presence adds the necessary pressure to remain alert for the clues that lead to breaking fee.
Transference launches for Xbox One, PS4, PSVR, Vive, and Oculus on September 18. A demo that acts as a prelude to the main game is available on PS4 and PSVR right now. Although playable in non-VR, Racape advises choosing the VR version of the game for a more immersive experience. It’s certainly a lot scarier.
Taking feedback from the Rainbow Six Siege Test Server for Operation Grim Sky, Ubisoft is implementing balancing patches for a few of the game’s Operators. One of the two new Grim Sky Operators, Maverick, is getting the most changes.
Players must have felt Maverick was too effective an Operator, as all of his changes are nerfs. His smoke grenade is being replaced with a stun grenade and his blowtorch’s volume is being made louder so that he can no longer easily hide where he’s cutting. Maverick’s blowtorch is also being made weaker against barbed wire, so the process of destroying it takes about twice as long as before. Ubisoft has heard that players want Maverick’s blowtorch to run through fuel faster and have a shorter range as well, but the developer is holding off on changing either for now.
In comparison, Operation Grim Sky’s other Operator, Clash, is getting no changes. Ubisoft reports that the team will continue to monitor her performance going forward, though.
Three of Siege’s older Operators are getting changes. Zofia is losing one of her concussion grenades, so it’s harder for her to single-handedly take over a room without a strategy. Glaz is also getting nerfed. A recent bug in Siege prevents him from being able to destroy Castle’s armored panels and Ubisoft has decided to keep it. Ubisoft is also planning a patch down the line to prevent Glaz from shooting through the panels entirely. Hibana is the only Operator getting a buff. She can now destroy a hatch with four of her pellets, instead of six.
Ubisoft has heard feedback concerning the length of Dokkaebi’s phone calls, but the team is passing on implementing any changes for her at this time.
Weapon recoil is also getting patched. Ubisoft is focusing on shotgun recoil for now. An update won’t be ready by the time Grim Sky launches, but Ubisoft will implement one before the new season is over. Ubisoft is also monitoring machine pistol recoil but has nothing planned for now.
The full patch notes for the updates coming to Operation Grim Sky prior to the expansion’s launch can be found on Siege’s website. Although it is not included on the game’s website, Siege tweeted out another change coming to Grim Sky: partial destruction to hatch reinforcements. This balances the meta of the game a little bit back towards the Attackers, who can now eventually get to hidden Defenders with enough explosives.
Operation Grim Sky launches this September. Rainbow Six Siege is available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
Battle for Azeroth, the seventh expansion for World of Warcraft, launched last week–and the release was a massive success. Blizzard announced today that it sold more than 3.4 million copies of the add-on worldwide on launch day, August 14, setting a new WoW expansion record. It’s not immediately clear if this figure also includes pre-order sales, but whatever the case, it’s a massive number. It beats the previous record of 3.3 million units sold on day one by Legion two years ago. 2010’s Cataclysm also sold 3.3 million units on its first day.
Launch is just the start for Battle for Azeroth. On September 5, the expansion’s first raid, Uldir, will go live. It’s set in an „ancient titan facility housing horrific Old God experiments gone awry.“ Also that day, Blizzard will launch Battle for Azeroth’s first PvP and Mythic Keystone dungeon seasons.
Additionally, Blizzard is planning more updates that will „provide even more content for players on an ongoing basis, including the ability to recruit the Kul Tiran humans and Zandalari trolls as playable Allied Races.“
Battle for Azeroth suffered from some server issues on launch day. Some had problems logging in while others said they had issues viewing their characters.
The newest Fortnite patch, v5.30, launched this week 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.
Activision has announced and released a new trailer for Call of Duty: WW2’s fourth DLC pack, Shadow War. The DLC is coming out as a timed exclusive for PS4 first, before releasing on other platforms.
Shadow War concludes WW2’s Nazi zombie storyline in a final chapter titled The Frozen Dawn. Taking place in the hellish depths of a lost city, The Frozen Dawn will test you with new hordes of zombie. However, seemingly magic-infused weapons will be available for you to pull off insanely powerful attacks. Some of them can be seen in the trailer, but Sledgehammer promises there are more secrets to discover in the DLC.
„Thematically for this pack, we wanted to push the fiction as far as we could, have a lot of fun with it, and give the player a sense of creativity as they play,“ said Sledgehammer Games lead multiplayer environmental artist Matt Abbott in a PlayStation blog post.
Shadow War also adds three multiplayer maps: Airship, Chancellery, and Excavation. Airship takes place far up on a mountain next to a docked zeppelin. Owning the zeppelin gives your team the advantage, but you have to run out of cover along narrow cliffs to reach it, and one misstep results in death. Chancellery takes the battlefield to a French stronghold for a nighttime firefight. Buildings at either end of a courtyard provide excellent sniper spots, but you can also hide in the parked trucks and set an ambush. Excavation is located in an Algerian mine. The dug up treasure and artifacts create a littered battlefield.
Operation Arcane is the final piece of content included in Shadow War. Rather than a straitforward battle, you’ll play as the Allied forces who must infiltrate an Austrian lab, steal secret tech, get to the hanger filled with UFOs, and blow up the lab while escaping. The weapons you discover, like the Tesla Gun and a super soldier serum, can be stolen and used to complete the mission.
Shadow War comes to PS4 players first on August 28. The DLC releases for Xbox One and PC at a later date. For a limited time, Call of Duty: WW2 season pass owners can invite other players who don’t have the DLC to participate in the content. From August 28 to October 28, if a season pass owner creates an in-game party and is party leader, everyone invited can participate in the new multiplayer maps, operation, and zombie storyline.
As players dig further into the new Fortnite update, we’re finding more that wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the 5.30 patch notes. While some are silly–like the ability to thank the bus driver–another is pretty meaningful for the game, as the map has seen a big change to one of its named areas, and lightning strikes are now emerging from the rift in teh sky.
Ahead of the update’s release, it seemed as if change was afoot for Tomato Town when part of its restaurant disappeared through a rift, similar to what what was happening to kick off Season 5. With the 5.30 update, Tomato Town has changed significantly enough to warrant a new name–it’s now Tomato Temple.
Many of the same buildings, including the gas station, are still located there. But the central restaurant location has been replaced entirely by a large stone pyramid. You can both climb to the top and go inside, where you’ll find a variety of tomatoes (and, seemingly, relics commemorating the old Tomato Town mascot).
Elsewhere on the map, the screen at Risky Reels has been repaired completely and is now functioning. After showing some typical pre-movie visuals encouraging you to buy refreshments, it airs the winner of the Fortnite Blockbuster contest, which saw fans create and submit Fortnite movies. Janthony’s „Prepare for Collision“ came out on top, and you can see it airing in-game or in the video above (where you don’t run the risk of being shot in the back while watching, as happened to me).
Additionally, players have reported spotting lightning strikes around the map, originating from the rift/tear in the sky. Whether this is a setup for something to come or just a new element is unclear, but you can see an example of this here.
Perhaps to coincide with the update to Tomato Town, Epic has added the Tomatohead skin to the in-game store for a limited time. It sells for 1,500 V-Bucks and will soon rotate out, to be replaced by other new outfits. But for those who do get their hands on it (or already have it), a new style is now available for it that can be unlocked by completing newly added challenges, which are only available for those with the skin.
There’s been a lot to take in from the new Fortnite update. For a complete look at what’s new, check out our coverage through the links below.
There are moments of unfettered joy in A King’s Bird. As you glide through tight corridors or shinny up a long passageway to the heavens, the freedom of no longer being shackled by gravity takes hold. It’s during these stretches where the minimalist art and serene score combine beautifully with your graceful movements that A King’s Bird reaches its potential. But those feelings are fleeting. Instead of bottling the rush of flight, A King’s Bird instead conjures frustration and tedium as you struggle to replicate that brief happiness that vanishes before you could even appreciate it.
Although there is almost no story to speak of in A King’s Bird, it’s told in a lovely manner that meshes wonderfully with the abstract world. An argument between (presumably) a king and his daughter (though it’s never spelled out who any person is) breaks out, but instead of their harsh voices crashing against the pristine aesthetic, dreamy instrumental music floats from their mouths. The feelings are captured without a single word being uttered: a begging question, a firm no, a rush toward rebellion. The story sets an intriguing mood that the rest of the game fails to live up to.
A King’s Bird is a platformer that hinges on maintaining your momentum to overcome the many hurdles that stand between you and the exit. The environments are populated by pillars, horizontal walkways, and slanted surfaces and your only tools are the ability to climb up walls and glide for short distances. Bounce quickly between two pillars and then leap off the very top to build your kinetic energy. Once airborne, zip through the air like a frantic hummingbird, extending your limited flight capabilities by brushing against surfaces as you zero in on your destination.
During the early stages, there’s a great sense of freedom as you glide gracefully around the myriad landscapes. Jumping off a high point to gain as much speed as possible before pulling up to reach new heights gives you that happy queasiness normally found while riding roller coasters. Zipping through the introductory levels is joyous because there are so few restraints. Figuring out how to climb walls to boost the distance you can glide is fun because the world works as a playground waiting to be explored. Even just running across a smooth plateau is pleasant because the surreal architecture is so pleasing to look at.
It’s after you’ve learned the basics that the game stumbles back to earth. There are, of course, obstacles more dangerous than mere pillars. Poison ivy covers parts of the surfaces and death awaits as soon as you make contact with this dangerous substance. A steep challenge is a welcome addition to any platformer if the mechanics and level design can hold up to such stress, but the controls in A King’s Bird aren’t nearly precise enough to complement this level of difficulty.
That nasty poison ivy is situated in the most devious positions and it takes near-perfect execution to float by unscathed. A King’s Bird is undone by the very exuberance that made it so exciting early on. Gliding at top speeds through holes in pillars and across bottomless pits is fun if there is plenty of space between you and death, but as the walls close tighter around you, that fun begins to dissipate. It’s just too hard to consistently pull off the fine movement necessary to wind your way through these traps. So death comes early and often as you bang your head against the wall in the hopes of lucking your way past a truly aggravating part.
The fast speed of your hero clashes with the pinpoint precision needed to excel. A King’s Bird has a zoomed out view that makes your character appear small even on large screens, and this is great in the early going because it lets you see the obstacles that lay before you. But as the difficulty ramps up, and there are only a few pixels between life and death, that far-away view makes it mighty hard to see exactly what you’re trying to pull off. Furthermore, the game often stutters during the moments when you’re flying the fastest, and those slight hiccups usually mean an unceremonious death.
The game isn’t helped by the collectible little birds that hover around each level waiting to be nabbed. These white beings can be difficult to see against the light backgrounds, adding another layer of frustration to an experience that’s already overflowing with it. That free-flowing momentum that makes the early going so appealing is absent as you get deeper into the game. Instead of gliding gracefully through a level you instead spend a dozen lives to struggle to the next checkpoint before you calm your nerves, dry your hands, and try as hard as you can to get to the next checkpoint without throwing your controller.
A King’s Bird also suffers from a lack of real variety. The levels are basically indistinguishable from one another (aside from the color palette) so the game becomes a homogenous marathon to the end. There are a few levels where your gliding powers are stripped away, though the change isn’t as drastic as it sounds because you’re still using your momentum to clear gaps and clamber up pillars. And the lone boss fight is so chaotic at times that it’s hard to know which particle is you and which is a meteor trying to end your life.
It’s a shame A King’s Bird falters because the concept is so enticing. After braving my way through the dozens of increasingly maddening levels, I revisited the early stages and was once again transported to a dreamlike world where beauty and serenity shine through. Difficulty has its place in platformers, but there are games where too much challenge can distract from the core conceit. A King’s Bird locks you in a hopeless cage when all you want to do is fly.
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.
The mighty luchador Juan already had a devil of a time in the first Guacamelee, but that’s nothing compared to his second round. Guacamelee 2 is the best kind of sequel, doubling down on everything that worked in the original. Though it’s diabolically challenging, it always feels fair, letting its meticulously crafted level design and self-aware humor shine through.
It begins a few years after the original, with Juan, now married to Lupita (El Presidente’s daughter), raising two precocious kids in a tiny house on the outskirts of Pueblucho. At least, that’s what’s happening in the good timeline. In the Darkest Timeline, one of dozens of parallel dimensions in–ahem–the Mexiverse, Juan actually dies trying to defeat the previous big boss, Carlos Calaca. A hulking meatslab of a lucha named Salvador is the one who finishes the job, and he hopes to use a sacred, arcane guacamole recipe meant only for the gods to merge the land of the dead with the realm of the living. That has dire consequences, of course, and Juan once again must mask up and trek all across Mexico for the power to defeat Salvador and his minions.
Though there are some new additions, the fundamentals of Guacamelee haven’t undergone any sweeping changes. The clean look of the first game has been upgraded with some beautiful, evocative lighting effects, and the score has more variety, weaving hooks and catchy breakbeats with a wider range of Latin melodies, but that’s about it, aesthetically. The atmosphere is still firmly in the realm of eye-catching and dazzling cartoon aesthetics, but even just those minor tweaks add just the right touch of looming dread to fit Guacamelee 2’s intensity.
Structurally, Guacamelee 2 maintains a balance between Metroidvania and side-scrolling beat-‚em-up, and it doesn’t feel like either genre is being lost in the mix. Just strolling into a room to lay the smackdown on skeletons still feels big and brutal, the way a wrestler slamming an opponent into the pavement absolutely should. A split-second fiesta in the upper right-hand corner that rewards you for big combos is the chuckle-worthy cherry on top of a savage job well done. Hours upon hours later, it never gets old watching the numbers rack up.
The magic lies in how the deadly physicality of your moveset directly feeds into where and how you can explore. Every new move–a frog slam, a flying uppercut–is more than just a way to lay waste to the undead menace, but the keys to mastering your environment. Taking care of a stone barrier between you and the next room, where the solution isn’t some key you picked up clear across the map but the overkill of a big, booming punch or a massive headbutt, is satisfying like little else–especially coupled with the innate Metroidvania joy of being able to backtrack into an area and open up a route you couldn’t take before with extreme, gratifying prejudice.
Guacamelee 2 retains the physicality of the original, but it focuses more on letting you use your physical moveset as a means of traversal and staying off the ground. Along with Juan’s punches, kicks, and grab-and-slam maneuvers, a new magical grappling mechanic can shoot Juan off into different directions, which, until you earn the ability to fly, is the primary way you get through vertical sections of the map or areas where the ground is a hazard. Juan is once again able to turn into a chicken, but what was a cute, occasional gimmick is now integral to gameplay and the touchstone of all of the most delightfully absurd elements of the plot. Chicken Juan now has a high-powered moveset of his own, including firing himself diagonally into enemies and obstacles, sliding through tight spaces, and floating through the air.
As it turns out, staying off the ground is a job requiring more finesse than fight, and finesse is a trait for far more lithe and wiry wrestlers than Juan. The challenges of traversal you face are demanding, but it can absolutely be done, and the greatest challenge of Guacamelee 2 is looking at every obstacle and determining how to execute each of Juan’s abilities–only some of which were designed specifically for traversal purposes–to get to a very precise target. Later challenges even require you to change from lucha to chicken Juan and back again for the same obstacle. Guacamelee 2 will frustrate those who don’t cultivate the skills, but the exhilaration of succeeding and opening up a giant chunk of the map as a result is a wonderful motivator.
While you can now access upgrades at any time–rather than only at checkpoints–obtaining upgrades isn’t just a matter of having enough gold but also performing feats in-game. Want to upgrade your health? You’ll need to have found and opened a certain number of chests. Want more power out of a certain move? You’ll need to have killed enough enemies with the basic version first. The side effect is that you’re given further motivation to explore your environment and engage with even the easiest fights. Gold is still needed to make the purchase, however, and things do get mildly unbalanced there as the game goes on–after a few key upgrades, you’ll be able to earn more gold than you can spend just from getting into one fight with a low-level goon.
Straightforward hand-to-hand fights usually aren’t terribly difficult. Every enemy has a weakness, and once you figure out what attack leaves them wide open, it’s just a matter of you learning how best to capitalize. The danger comes from the placement. To the game’s great credit, no gauntlet of enemies in the game is unfair or unbeatable, they just require a keen eye for picking up the numerous, sly visual cues that tell you exactly what’s possible in a given area.
There is, however, another way to earn the enhancements you’ll need to take the fight to Salvador: Challenge Rooms. These tricky, self-contained obstacle courses with a treasure at the end are numerous in Guacamelee 2. The challenges themselves are wickedly conceived and executed, often designed to get you bouncing off walls, flying across rooms, and barrelling towards the ground at maximum speed, just barely missing a fatal hazard. Typically, you’ll need to use every single available move in your repertoire to emerge victorious–anything less than surgical precision and command over the physics and minutiae of everything Juan can do will get you instantly killed.
The issue with the Challenge Rooms is that the reward at the end can vary. When you survive a rough room, and you’re rewarded with a heart piece that extends Juan’s life, you can walk away knowing it was all worth it. Getting through a difficult room but only receiving 400 gold, can feel like a slap in the face, especially when money is no object.
Thankfully, with infinite lives and the game’s generous checkpoints, you’re never too far from where you started should you fail. You will scream and curse at the screen often, but there’s no luck, glitches, or happy accidents involved in conquering Guacamelee 2’s most stringent tasks; there’s only deft, acquired, well-practiced skill.
But there’s more than just steel-hearted challenges waiting in the dark corners of Guacamelee 2’s world, and many of its secret areas hide the best jokes in the game. There’s an RPG dimension where all of Juan’s fights are turn-based and, probably the best of the bunch, a hilariously spiteful take on lootboxes where Juan must spend enormous amounts of gold to simply open a closet door in a poor family’s home to get his reward for saving their lives. Choozo statues–calling back to Metroid’s Chozo statues–are still where Juan gets his main powers, and the script consistently has fun with the idea that smashing each statue is smashing up Uay Chivo’s private and precious property.
Everything about Guacamelee 2 comes off as smarter and more thoughtful than the first game, even while indulging in its self-aware shenanigans and Rick & Morty-esque dimensional hijinks. The game never stops finding new ways to hook you in, to the point that even the most painstaking and intensive playthroughs feel like they just fly by. Saving the numerous timelines in Guacamelee 2 is just as much about partaking in a marvel of devious, meticulous game design as it is about saving Juan and his family from peril.
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