The latest patch for Bloodborne is now available, and among other things, it does away with an obstacle when attempting to play with friends.
As of yet, the patch notes for 1.04 have only been published online in Japanese; viewing the update history on a PS4 is of little help, as it lists only "improved game balance" and "various bug fixes." That sells this patch short, in large part because the game now no longer requires you to be within a certain number of levels of other players when trying to join together with a password.
It's key that this change applies only to matches with password matching, as these are instances where you're deliberately trying to play together with a friend. Trying to find other random players online without a password will still require that you're within roughly 10 levels of each other.
Other changes include a big increase in the number of Blood Vials and Quicksilver Bullets you can now keep in your storage, as you can now have up to 600 of each. The Insight store now shows up sooner, as you'll need only one Insight, not 10, for it to appear. And various balance tweaks have been made, such as reducing the stamina use of the Kirkhammer and decreasing the number of Quicksilver Bullets it takes to use certain items.
Players are attempting to document all of the tweaks in this patch over on Reddit, and we're still awaiting the full patch notes to be released in English.
Already an excellent game in its own right, Crypt of the NecroDancer just got a whole lot better thanks to a mod called Crypt of the MegaDancer.
This total-conversion mod gives the rhythm-based roguelike a Mega Man makeover: Levels, enemies, items, and sound effects have all been given the Mega Man treatment. Your character is replaced by Mega Man (or your choice of eight other characters), and basically everything in the game has been replaced by something from Capcom's franchise--even the menu sound effects.
It's remarkable how good it all looks, although the mod initially makes the game much more difficult for those who have played the game. As you don't initially don't know what Mega Man foes have replaced which enemies, you can't be sure about how they'll behave--something that's key to survival.
Work is still being done; leaderboards and replays are already supported, but new cutscenes are still going to be added, at least one sprite will be fixed to make it easier to see, and the disco floors in Zone 3 will be addressed to make them easier on the eyes.
The one thing that's missing from the mod is Mega Man music, something the creator deliberately left out. According to a comment on Steam, this was "because I didn't want to force people to Necrodance to 8-bit chiptunes. It would require even more effort to get used to, and a lot of the songs are really fast." Fortunately, if that's a dealbreaker for you, the game already allows you to import your own music, so this is something you can arrange yourself.
You can download the mod for free now, either through the Steam Workshop or from the creator's website if you own the GOG version (.zip link). Once it's installed, you can activate it by selecting its name in the Mod section of the main menu.
The next DLC character for Mortal Kombat X, Tanya, will arrive in the next few weeks, according to series creator Ed Boon.
Boon, who likes to reveal (or at least tease) things on Twitter, responded to a message asking for news about Tanya with a brief, straightforward poem: "She's koming soon, In early June, Or my name ain't Boon."
That Tanya is coming to the game is no surprise; she was confirmed as a DLC character back in March alongside Jason Voorhees (of Friday the 13th fame), Predator, and Tremor. She's been a playable fighter in a number of previous games, dating back to 1997's Mortal Kombat 4.
Tanya is included as part of the $30 Kombat Pack (which itself is a part the game's various collector's editions) or can be purchased individually, either on her own or in a bundle with new Klassic skins for Kano, Sonya and Liu Kang. If you want to try playing as her without paying, you can wait for her to show up in a challenge tower, as was recently the case with Jason.
CD Projekt Red on Monday released a new patch for the PC version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that, among other things, improves texture rendering quality and makes various bug fixes.
The full changelog is below.
Today's patch follows another major update for The Witcher 3's PC version released last week.
Rebel Galaxy is the result of two veteran action-RPG developers growing weary of typecasting themselves and deciding to make their own space sim with only themselves and outsourced assets. Travis Baldree and Erich Schaefer, who have between them worked on such games as Fate, Torchlight, Diablo, and Diablo II, make up Double Damage Games, and based on a preview build of their upcoming space exploration game, I can say that their risky decision to abandon the genre they've worked on for years is likely to pay off.
Rebel Galaxy drops the conventions of most combat space sims where you take control of an agile fighter with limited firepower. Instead, you control your own capital ship armed with broadside cannons and a generous helping of turrets. Ship combat is more comparable to Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag than the dogfighting of Star Fox, Rogue Galaxy, or the upcoming Star Citizen, in that you line up the enemy capital's ships against your broadsides and unleash hell. If pesky fighters or incoming missile barrages are too threatening, you can take control of your turrets and turn them into space debris.
Ships have shields and separate hull plating for your ship's front, sides, and rear, so combat sometimes involves literally turning the other cheek to mitigate incoming damage or to let your shields recover on one side as you continue to pepper your foes with plasma. The directional damage makes your position in battle paramount, and much of the combat requires maneuvering to reacquire an angle on a softened side of enemy frigates. If you ever fear that your ship isn't quite ready to take on your foes, you can simply activate your warp drive to boost to safety by fleeing and docking for upgrades, repairs, or more supplies.
Much of Rebel Galaxy involves getting money to upgrade your ship, and the game offers a fair selection of routes you can take to do so. If constant combat is your sort of thing, you can hunt down bounties or complete combat-oriented missions. If you prefer the more peaceful route, you can equip a mining laser on your ship and play a much more beautiful version of the arcade classic Asteroids, destroying space rocks or ice to obtain the ore and water hidden within. You can even sign up for the galaxy's Merchant's Guild and make an honest living as a trader, playing the markets from each station to buy low and sell high to turn a profit. If honesty isn't your sort of thing, you can become a smuggler, purchasing contraband goods and carrying them to stations where they are not completely outlawed. Careful, though: if the Militia catches you running drugs, you'll quickly make a powerful enemy.
In addition to the Militia and Merchant's Guild, a few other factions are around, and you must decide whether or not to maintain alliances with them as you captain your ship. If you want to be an upstanding citizen, you should probably avoid intermingling with the three separate pirate factions. If it's always been your dream to don an eyepatch and attempt to navigate the seas of the sun without depth perception, aligning yourself with the Red Devil Cartel, DoubleJack Thugs, or Korian Outsiders may be the right life path for you. Each faction has unique ships you can obtain as you advance in the game, but they're only available if you remain on good terms with those who produce them.
Although the game features an open world, it also offers a primary storyline with a set of missions to complete revolving around your missing aunt and some ancient AI with amnesia. The missions available in the preview build take you all over the first star system, where you meet a plethora of interesting characters, from the suspicious alien smuggler and a robot scientist to a militia leader who knows your aunt (from some run-ins that took place when your aunt had her own smuggling operation). The preview build stopped at the end of the first of 14 star systems, and it managed to yield around 12 hours of gameplay for me, so it looks as though the game will allow players to spend a generous amount of time investing in this world.
As if the game's open nature didn't offer enough of a frontiersman feel for you, the soundtrack is laden with slide guitars and tavern-esque tracks that evoke the space-western aura of Firefly. Given that your goal as captain in this game is to find a job and keep flying, it's most definitely not an unwelcome nod.
Although there is no solid release date, Rebel Galaxy should be available later this year. If the preview build is a good indication, the game will deliver a refined space experience too individual to step on the toes of other space games soon to come, offering multiple avenues of gameplay that should sate a variety of gaming tastebuds.
This week at Australian retailers, Nintendo's third-person shooter Splatoon hits the Wii U on May 30.
In the game, players control creatures called Inklings who can change between a humanoid form and a squid form. In the humanoid form, players can shoot ink onto the stage, marking the territory of the team they are on. The ink's colour represents the team. Players can transform into the squid form to swim quickly through the ink their team has sprayed and traverse up walls and through grates. Ink can also be shot at opponents to force them back to their respawn points.
In addition to the online multiplayer mode which support up to eight people, Splatoon also has a single-player campaign. Local multiplayer is also supported via a Battle Dojo mode, which supports up to two players. Voice chat will not be supported in the game, as the developer had concerns about toxic online behaviour from other players.
Splatoon's Inkling Boy and Inkling Girl characters will also be released as Amiibo figurines. For lots more on the game, check out GameSpot's interview with the game's director, which touches on the project's origins and potential as an esport.
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