Monday, July 23, 2018

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In the 07/24/2018 edition:

Getting Ready for No Man's Sky's Next Update

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 11:59 pm
Join Rob and Jake as they chat about their excitement for the upcoming Next Update coming to No Man Sky tomorrow 7/24/18.

The Lego Movie 2 Comic-Con Trailer Shows The Two Sides Of Chris Pratt

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 11:59 pm

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part portion of Warner Bros.' massive Hall H panel at Comic-Con 2018 opened with a LEGO version of Aisha Tyler moderating a pre-recorded panel with LEGO Batman, LEGO Aquaman (both versions--the classic orange-suited one and the Jason Momoa Justice League version), plus Lego Movie stars Emmet (Chris Pratt) and Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks).

The unfinished, exclusive LEGO Movie 2 footage shown gave attendees a new glimpse at the now-apocalyptic LEGO world--basically, it's Mad Max with LEGOs. "Everything was awesome. Now, everything is bleak," Wyldstyle says. Of course, Emmet quickly breaks the mood by cheerily showing up with coffee. In the footage, the movie's new villain, General Mayhem, kidnaps Wyldstyle. LEGO Harley Quinn points out that rescuing her is a "suicide mission," a tongue-in-cheek reference to Suicide Squad.

Most importantly, the clip introduced us to Rex Dangervest, a new character also voiced by Chris Pratt, who among his many jobs is a "raptor trainer," a cute little Jurassic World joke. The two characters show the dual sides of Pratt, who, as the actor pointed out during the panel, started his career as the hapless Andy on Parks and Rec and is now a superhero and action movie star.

Unlike the first LEGO Movie, which was directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord, the follow-up will be helmed by Mike Mitchell. It's set five years after the first film and, along with those mentioned above, the cast consists of Jonah Hill (Green Lantern), Will Arnett (Batman), Channing Tatum (Superman), and Stephanie Beatriz (Sweet Mayhem). It releases on February 8, 2019.

San Diego Comic-Con 2018 Coverage


[Last Chance] PS4 Game Deals At The PlayStation Store: Fortnite, GTA 5, And More

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 11:45 pm

Each Tuesday, Sony updates the digital PlayStation Store with a new set of deals. The current sale is relatively small--especially compared to the massive Mid-Year Sale last week--but the deals it has are pretty appealing, especially if you're a fan of Fortnite or Grand Theft Auto V. Let's take a look at what games PS4 owners can save money on this week.

In a deal that's sure to please many of the millions of fans out there, all Fortnite packages are half off on PS4. Why pay money for a game that's free? These Founder's Packs come with the "Save the World" PvE mode, plus an assortment of in-game goodies. For instance, the Standard Founder's Pack ($20, down from $40) includes four exclusive in-game banner icons, six Daily Loot Pinata Packs, and an exclusive Founder's Loot Pinata Pack. If you want to go all in, you can get the Limited Edition Founder's Pack for $75 (instead of its usual $150). It comes with lots of additional exclusives items, plus XP boosts, extra inventory slots, and more. Note that Epic says Save the World mode will be free for all players once it leaves early access.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is on sale for $20 this week. It just received a major update that addresses common complaints, including removing the in-game marketplace, making sweeping changes to Shadow Wars, and tweaking the Nemesis system. If any of those issues kept you from playing before, now would be a good time to dive in.

Grand Theft Auto V is on sale for $20--its lowest price ever on the PlayStation Store. Also on sale is the Premium Online Edition, which comes with the Criminal Enterprise Starter Pack to help players "jumpstart their criminal empire." And if in-game cash appeals to you, you can save money on various bundles that come with GTA bucks for use in GTA Online.

A handful of pre-order deals are also available now. You can get Darksiders III Digital Deluxe Edition for $70 instead of its usual $80. The much-acclaimed action platformer Dead Cells can be reserved for $20 instead of the $25 it'll cost when it launches next month. And Shenmue I & II, also launching next month, gets a modest $3 discount, bringing it to $27.

Those are the standout deals, but for the full lineup of PS4 game deals, check the PlayStation Store.


New Fallout 76 Details Coming At QuakeCon 2018

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 11:31 pm

Bethesda's annual fan event, QuakeCon, is just around the corner, and it promises to offer another look at some of the publisher's biggest upcoming titles. Bethesda has already confirmed this year's event will feature the gameplay reveal of Doom Eternal, and now the company has teased it will also share some new details on the highly anticipated Fallout 76.

Bethesda has announced it will host a panel and Q&A session about the upcoming online RPG at QuakeCon 2018. The panel takes place on Saturday, August 11, at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET and will feature Todd Howard and other developers from Bethesda Game Studios providing a "deeper dive into the character system and Perks coming in Fallout 76."

In addition to the Fallout 76 panel, Bethesda will hold a big keynote address at this year's QuakeCon. The presentation takes place at the same time--9 AM PT / 12 PM ET--on Friday, August 10, and will provide updates on several titles, including Quake Champions, Rage 2, and The Elder Scrolls Online, as well as the aforementioned gameplay reveal of Doom Eternal.

QuakeCon 2018 takes place in Grapevine, Texas. Tickets for the event are still available; if you're interested in attending, you can purchase tickets here. If you can't make it to the event in-person, Bethesda will also livestream its keynote address and the Fallout 76 panel as they happen on its Mixer and Twitch channels.

Fallout 76 launches for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on November 14. Ahead of its release, Bethesda will hold a special beta for those who pre-order the title. The beta is slated to begin in October, but it will start off small; Bethesda says it will select players for the beta and gradually expand over time, so not everyone who pre-orders the title will be chosen to participate right away.


Nintendo ROMs Taken Down In New Lawsuit - GameSpot Daily

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 11:20 pm
Nintendo is suing two major ROM sites for damages, while Ghost Recon Wildlands is getting a Siege crossover on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Who The Hell Is Shazam?

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 11:06 pm

If you're a more casual comic book fan, you've probably been hearing more about Shazam this year than you have in your entire life. That's OK--it's not your fault. The story of Shazam is a particularly weird part of superhero history, and a cautionary tale about how even Earth's Mightiest Mortals can be brought low by the dreaded red tape of bureaucracy.

Strap yourselves in, this one is kind of a doozy.

This first thing you need to understand: Shazam is actually nearly as old as Superman, making him one of the earliest superheroes to ever exist. But back in the 1940s, his name wasn't "Shazam," it was Captain Marvel. No, he had nothing to do with Marvel Comics, Carol Danvers, Mar-Vell, or any of the other more popular name associations you might have--this was way before any of those things even existed as we know them today.

Captain Marvel was published through a company called Fawcett that, for a time in the '40s, was one of the most popular and profitable comics publishers in the country. He even beat out Superman for a time in sales and fan recognition, something that competitor National (who would later go on to become DC) weren't exactly thrilled about. Later, after a series of complicated, on-again off-again legal battles that lasted through the early '50s, Fawcett agreed to stop publishing any and all Captain Marvel related comics. Years later, DC bought the licensing rights to Fawcett's characters and absorbed them into continuity. That's why Captain Marvel exists in the DC Universe today--and why, traditionally, he's from a place called Fawcett City.

The name change from Captain Marvel to Shazam unofficially started in the '60s and '70s when DC attempted to revive his solo book, but found themselves up against the newly formed Marvel Comics and all their copyrights. They named the book "Shazam!" but didn't actually change the character's name on the page. The official name change came in 2011 with the line wide continuity reboot of the DC Universe, the New 52. The name Captain Marvel was dropped completely, in theory to save everyone the headache of trying to specify which character and company they were talking about at any given moment.

Of course, old habits die hard, and some fans still use the name Captain Marvel. You may even run into some diehards who uses the nickname "Cap" (he predates Captain America by two years, after all) just to really keep everyone on their toes. Just pay attention to context clues. This one is probably never going to get easier.

But don't worry. Not every part of Shazam is legal battles or name confusion.

The original story went like this: a young plucky orphan named Billy Batson was granted the fantastic ability by a wizard to speak a "word of power" and be struck by magical lightning. The process transformed him into an adult superhero named Captain Marvel. The word--"Shazam!"--was actually an acronym with each letter standing for one of Captain Marvel's abilities: the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury. When transformed into Captain Marvel, saying "Shazam!" reverts him back into normal Billy Batson, giving him a built in secret identity to play with.

The wizard -- named the Wizard Shazam, just to keep that confusion train rolling -- resides in a magical extra dimensional place called the Rock of Eternity. There, he's charged with keeping an eye on the imprisoned Seven Deadly Sins represented by giant monsters bound in place as statues by the wizard's magic. As Captain Marvel, Billy's job is to be the Wizard's champion and protect humanity from all sorts of corruption, from the influence of the Sins themselves to the megalomaniacal stylings of the evil Dr. Sivana.

Basically, he's Superman, but powered by magic rather than Kryptonian genetics and yellow sun radiation--which, coincidentally, was the basis for a lot of DC's old lawsuits against him. Also, just because the magic word physically transformed Billy into an adult, it didn't actually change him into a new person. This is not a Dr. Jekyll/Mister Hyde situation, it's literally a superhero version of Tom Hanks in Big. Billy's still a kid, even when he's got the body and powers of an entire pantheon of Greek heroes--though, of course, the wisdom of Solomon does make him considerably smarter than your average punk pre-teen.

Billy's vintage popularity promptly spun off into new characters with similar powers in the '40s and '50s. Captain Marvel stories formed the first ever superhero family. Fawcett introduced characters like Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel, Uncle Marvel, and Hoppy the Marvel Bunny (no, really), who received their own ensemble book called--you guessed it--The Marvel Family. They phased in and out of continuity for years after the DC license buyout, with some of the most absurd parts (sorry Uncle Marvel) disappearing entirely. Their influence, however, is still around.

Since the New 52 Shazam rebrand, a lot of Billy's history has been modified, but his powers remain the same. He's still an orphan, but has been given rougher edges and made part of the foster care system. The Marvel Family--now the Shazam Family--still exists, but is made up of Billy's foster siblings--and sadly, there are no anthropomorphic bunnies to be found. This is the version we're going to be seeing on the big screen with the upcoming Shazam! Movie, which made its debut at San Diego Comic-Con 2018.


Fallout 76 Beta Launches In October, Will Start Out Small

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 10:59 pm

Fallout 76 is going to offer a beta exclusively to those who pre-order the game. But even if you're among those who are already changing into your jumpsuits and calibrating your Pip-Boys, you won't be venturing into the wasteland of West Virginia for a few more months.

A Bethesda forum post shed more light on the timeline. It says that it will begin selecting participants for the beta from the pool of pre-orders starting in October. The plan is to start small and expand over time, so you may not make it in right away. If you ordered on Xbox One, you have a slight leg up on the other platforms. You can check out the FAQ for more details on how to redeem your code.

Fallout 76 will need to be put through its paces, as it's the first time the series has been an always-online connected experience. That in itself has been a cause for concern, especially given huge world-changing weaponry like nukes being operable by actual human users. That seems primed to invite trolling, but Bethesda has some ideas for how to mitigate the potential problems.

Fallout 76 will release on November 14, 2018, giving the beta about a month to run before the final game launches. Check out our pre-order guide for more details.


$15 Gets You A Bundle Of PC Games On Steam

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 10:57 pm

Humble Bundle is offering a collection of eight games on Steam for $12. As with all Humble Bundles, spending just $1 gets you the first tier of games. It costs more to get games in the higher tiers, but it's always significantly less than if you bought the games separately. This time around, all games come from the Polish developer and publisher CI Games. The Humble Bundle deal goes away July 31.

Spend just $1, and you'll receive Sniper: Ghost Warrior Gold Edition, Chronicles of Mystery: The Scorpio Ritual, and Combat Wings: Battle of Britain. That's not a bad selection of games, especially considering the price. If you pay more than the average amount customers have paid for the bundle, you'll also get the second tier of games, which includes Lords of the Fallen: Game of the Year Edition, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2: Collector's Edition, and Sniper Ghost Warrior 2: World Hunter Pack. Paying $15 or more gets you the complete bundle, which adds Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 as well as its multiplayer map pack.

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There's clearly a lot of sniping here. The Sniper: Ghost Warrior series hasn't gotten very favorable reviews from GameSpot--or our sister site Metacritic--but some of the other games in the bundle have fared better. In GameSpot's 8/10 Lords of the Fallen review, our critic wrote, "Lords of the Fallen strikes a different kind of tone [than Dark Souls]. It is moody and oppressive, but rarely terrifying; it is a power fantasy, not a heart-wrenching death simulator that rolls deadly boulders at you as if you are a single, minuscule bowling pin."

Buying the Humble Bundle also gets you 10% off your first month's subscription to Humble Monthly, a program that gets you an assortment of mystery games each month. August's Humble Monthly is available in part now; subscribing instantly unlocks A Hat in Time, The Escapists 2, and Conan Exiles, with more games to be announced August 3.

You'll save a bunch of money no matter which tier you choose to buy in on. You can visit the Humble Bundle page for more information.

Pay $1

  • Sniper: Ghost Warrior Gold Edition
  • Chronicles of Mystery: The Scorpio Ritual
  • Combat Wings: Battle of Britain

Pay More Than Average

  • Lords of the Fallen: Game of the Year Edition
  • Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2: Collector's Edition
  • Sniper Ghost Warrior 2: World Hunter Pack

Pay $15

  • Sniper Ghost Warrior 3
  • Sniper Ghost Warrior 3's Multiplayer Map Pack

Comic-Con 2018: Sideshow's Avengers: Infinity War And Black Panther Figures Are Amazing

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 10:54 pm


It doesn't matter if you're 4 or 44, it's undeniable that Sideshow Collectibles' Hot Toys line is amazing. While you may not want your four-year-old playing with these figures, they will look exceptionally cool set up around your house, but that's going to come at a price.

At San Diego Comic-Con, Sideshow offered a look at some new and upcoming Hot Toys based on the movies Black Panther, Infinity War, and more. These figures contain an insane amount of detail, and they're all created to look exactly like the actors who portrayed these characters. Because of this, these toys come at a price. The Thanos figure--pictured above--is now available for pre-order and will cost $376. However, this is one of the more expensive Infinity War figures, as most cost just a little more than $200. Yes, it's expensive, but these are display pieces.

There was a lot to see at Sideshow, but some of the highlights were Black Panther's T'Challa sitting in his throne, Shuri, Infinity War's Winter Soldier, and Doctor Strange. Check all the Marvel movie figures we saw, and get ready to tap into your savings account when many of these figures are released in early 2019.

For more information of these Marvel Hot Toys, check out Sideshow, which will have the pricing, pre-order forms, and availability for the majority of the figures seen in this gallery. Additionally, check out the best Star Wars toys from the booth.

San Diego Comic-Con 2018 Coverage



































There's A Rainbow Six Patriots Easter Egg In Ghost Recon: Wildlands

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 10:52 pm

Following the Splinter Cell missions with Sam Fisher, Ghost Recon: Wildlands is crossing over with yet another Tom Clancy franchise: Rainbow Six. We already spent several hours with the update, and toward the end of the content we discovered a tongue-in-cheek reference to Rainbow Six: Patriots, one of Ubisoft's notorious cancelled projects.

Spoilers Follow for Ghost Recon: Wildlands New DLC Update

In addition to a new permadeath difficulty and updates to its PvP mode, Wildlands' newest DLC brings several characters from Rainbow Six Siege to open-world Bolivia.

After discovering the scene of a firefight in which several Cartel members didn't make it out alive, you're introduced to Valkyrie, a fan-favorite character from Siege. She informs you that a small contingent from Team Rainbow is in Bolivia searching for one of their lost members: the Brazilian operator Caveira.

After helping Caveira rescue her brother from the hands of the Cartel, you extract them to one of Ghost Recon's outposts. During the car ride, your Ghost asks Twitch--the French drone specialist from Siege-- about an "Operation Patriots" that was rumored to have "gone south." In the video above, you can hear Twitch's response, and the rest of Ubisoft's self-aware reference to its cancelled project from 2013, which eventually evolved into what we now know as Siege.

The new Rainbow Six crossover mission is the next in a series of free updates Ubisoft has added to its open-world military shooter. You can watch more of the DLC here with Aaron Sampson and Mike Mahardy, and read our full Ghost Recon : Wildlands review here.


Earthfall Review: An Inferior Invasion

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 10:30 pm

It'd be easy to dismiss Earthfall as nothing more than a Left 4 Dead clone, and you wouldn't be wrong to do so. Despite riffing on well-known and beloved source material, Earthfall drags, with unremarkable missions and mediocre gunplay weighing down almost every action-packed setup. Any potential it shows is ultimately undercut by one thing or another, and your enthusiasm suffers along with it.

As one of a group of four players fighting back against an alien invasion, you will blast through gruesome swarms of enemies while completing simple objectives and hopefully make it to the next safehouse to catch your breath and resupply. You regularly encounter choke points during missions where your team gets surrounded by enemies, and Earthfall attempts to make these familiar moments interesting by giving you mobile barricades that can be used to create holding points. But frustratingly, it feels like there's no rhyme or reason to these encounters as enemies just keep coming at you randomly, making it very difficult to strategize as you attempt to fortify your position.

There are rare moments when Earthfall settles into a groove, such as when you get the chance to blow up a group of enemies with a well-placed shot to a gas tank on the back of forklift. Most of the time, however, your encounters are far less impactful. Enemies are usually bullet sponges, especially some of the special varieties. And despite there being a variety of firearms, including shotguns and rifles, they generally sound flat--thin as a hand clap at the end of a long hallway.

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The alien designs, particularly a lot of the drone enemy variants, look like rejected models from the film Pitch Black--large, muscular creatures with glowing heads. Some of the special types, despite being highly derivative, do look cool, however. There's the Blackout, a floating octopus-like creature that can shield itself and swiftly dart about the map, and the Enrager, which looks like a giant levitating brain mass that emits a pulse which makes enemies more aggressive. The rest come off as either uninspired or just a bit silly looking, lacking the kind of fearsome quality that you'd expect from a race that's forcefully taken over the planet.

If there's any part of Earthfall that you can latch onto, it's the schlocky story that puts your rag-tag group into a position where they are directly responsible for standing up against the invaders. It's dumb fun in the way that any B-grade action film can be; you won't care about what's going on or which character is doing what. It's mindless--if temporary--fun. Similarly, the level design helps this along by being interesting enough to want to explore. Each of the maps feel large, which is good given that there are only 10 of them. There isn't enough there to warrant coming back and seeing the same things time and time again.

Unfortunately, Earthfall's online experience can be summed up as non-existent on Xbox. Not even once was I put into a public game with another player, nor did anyone join my public lobbies over the entire 12 hours I spent playing it. When I finally did manage to invite one other random player to a game, the connection seemed fine except for one shaky moment that dropped both of us out to the title screen.

Earthfall follows a proven concept, but its delivery feels outdated, derivative, and woefully underdeveloped. The thought of a new game in the style of Left 4 Dead sounds great, but you would hope that whatever comes out surpasses its inspirations or at least matches it. Earthfall simply doesn't have the content or concepts to make a case for itself in a world where the two Left 4 Dead games are still viable options, and far better ones at that.


Rainbow Six Siege And Wildlands Operators Have A Tense Standoff In This Cutscene

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 10:23 pm
Rainbow Six Siege operators Caveira, Twitch, and Valkyrie make appearances in Ghost Recon: Wildlands Special Operation 2 DLC on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Stan Lee Makes A Very Unexpected New Movie Cameo, And It's Not In A Marvel FIlm

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 10:09 pm

Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee has made quite a second career for himself as an actor. After appearing as a hot dog vendor in 2000's X-Men film, he's become a regular fixture of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and X-Men franchise of movies. He never sticks around very long, but his cameo roles always get a big reaction from audiences.

His latest, though, might surprise you. Lee has switched sides, albeit temporarily. In Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, Stan Lee is a character. If you haven't seen Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, which screened at San Diego Comic-Con, the following could contain spoilers.

Lee pops up, letting everyone know he's there to make his standard superhero movie cameo. And while, at first glance, you may be wondering which voice actor is approximating the iconic figure, that's the Spider-Man co-creator himself poking fun at his constant appearances in a variety of comic book films.

While this is only the second time he's made a cameo in an animated film--shout out to Big Hero 6--it's his first time appearing in a DC Comics property. If ever there was a film to do it in, though, this is the one. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is loaded with meta jokes about a variety of other superhero films, poking fun at the MCU, the X-Men and Deadpool, and it takes a lot of shots at DC Entertainment's own big screen properties.

This is a movie that dreams up a trailer for Batman's utility belt getting its own standalone film. If ever Lee were going to poke fun at his own penchant for appearing in so many movies, this is where it was meant to happen. That is managed to be in a DC Entertainment film is just one more meta layer on top of the movie.

After all, by this point, Stan Lee is bigger than one cinematic universe. He's not associated with any one hero or company. Stan Lee is comic books, and it's exciting to see both Marvel and DC embrace that.

Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is in theaters on July 27.


Ghost Of Tsushima: Everything We Know So Far

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 10:00 pm

Sony's reveal of Ghost of Tsushima was one of the highlights of Paris Games Week 2017, and what a surprise it was to find out that Infamous and Sly Cooper developer, Sucker Punch Games, is behind the project. The original trailer laid the foundation: a fictionalized take on an actual 13th century Mongol invasion, with a protagonist who transforms from samurai to ninja in order to protect the island his people call home. This year's E3 gave us a first look at live gameplay, and our first real taste of the beautifully realized environments that serve as the backdrop for what promises to be a brutal and unforgiving conflict.

We've pulled together everything we know about Ghost of Tsushima so far, including info on combat and details about the island and its inhabitants, and will continue to provide new updates as we learn more.

Characters, Story, and Setting

Ghost of Tsushima is set on the Japanese island of Tsushima, a location that in 1274 was invaded by Mongol raiders. Sucker Punch did extensive research on the actual island, including the study of the original beach where the Mongols first struck land. The team's vision is best summarized as an informed remix of the real island's geography, flora, and fauna. For Sucker Punch, it's all about glorifying the source material to set the stage for equally beautiful and tense moments in a war-torn idyllic countryside.

The lead character is Jin Sakai, and Jin will have to take what he's learned after years of training as a samurai and adjust his techniques in order to fend off forces that greatly outnumber the island's inhabitants, let alone the one-man army fighting to protect them. Sucker Punch's Chris Zimmerman described the tone of the game as brutal, but he also clarified that both sides of the conflict will reflect the humanity that so often gets lost in combat-driven games, with both Mongols and Japanese characters that will defy expectations--Masako, the character in the E3 trailer, being a prime example.

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Combat

One of the primary conceits of Ghost of Tsushima is Jin's gradual adoption of ninja-like fighting and stealth techniques, of which we've only gotten a taste of so far. The majority of the available info on combat is focused on swordplay, either in one-on-one fights or with Jin facing off against small groups of enemies.

Despite the prevalence of realism, Ghost of Tsushima is not Bushido Blade, a fighting game where a single sword strike could spell death--just like real life. According to Zimmerman, this model simply isn't fun in the team's eyes. Still, we have seen moments in the available footage where Jin successfully takes off body parts and kills enemies with a flick of his wrist, and it appears this is more likely to happen while fending off common enemies, versus more important battles where opponents can absorb multiple slashes.

While Sucker Punch has hired weapons experts to help direct combat and attack animations, the studio is also going to play up traditional techniques by judiciously adding flair for effect. "There are things that Jin does when you're fighting that no samurai would ever do," said Zimmerman. "He does spin strikes, which are fun, they're very showy, they are completely… you would never do that [in real life]. You would never turn your back. There are things that he does even right now that we may continue to edit as we look for that balance. We'll see if we can find the best of both worlds, where it's as real as it can be while still being a video game."

Historical Accuracy

One of the most interesting discussions around the game coming out of E3 was about Sucker Punch's philosophy behind making a fun, fictional game based on dramatic real-life events. Once again, Zimmerman offered valuable insight. The team knows what historians have reported, but only so much of it will be honored--a decision made to cater to mainstream expectations of samurai, informed by movies and games alike.

According to Zimmerman: "we're going to deviate from historical truth, we just want to do it intentionally. A lot of the support we get from our friends from Sony in Japan, and our Japanese friends in Sony US, and all the cultural consultants we've assembled to help us do this stuff, is to make sure we don't deviate accidentally. There are things we are going to do that are different and we want to choose those wisely."

"If you have an idea about what samurai look like or how they act or how they think we're going to give that to you," he added. "Most people's idea is really based on an idea of samurai which is really more of a 16th-, 17th-, 18th-century idea of samurai; 13th century, historically, is pretty different. In terms of how they fought, what they wore, it doesn't match your expectations. So we're not sticking exactly to the historical truth of Kamakura-era samurai. It's gonna be a little different. The armor that you see him wear, it's not 13th century armor. It's more warring-states-period armor. Because, honestly, the 13th century armor is pretty jarring looking, it's not what you'd expect. It's really boxy. It doesn't look aspirational. And we wanna make sure that what we give you is your fantasy of what being a wandering samurai is."

Language Options

The E3 gameplay trailer had some of us concerned due to the use of English voice acting, which stood out given the game's historical basis and the stated import of cultural identity. Rest assured, there are language options available for players who prefer to hear Japanese and Mongolian voiceovers with English subtitles.

Difficulty

Speaking to Zimmerman, it sounds like Sucker Punch will create multiple difficulty settings in order to cater to a wide range of players. "There are difficulty levels and that's actually kind of more important for us than it is for a lot of games, because it's an open world game and lots of different people play those games for different reasons. There are people who are going to say it's beautiful and they just want to see what it's like, and yeah, their experience has to be different than somebody who looks at it like they've always wanted to play a really grounded katana fighting game, and the fantasy for them is about challenge, discipline, practice and precision--that's what they expect of samurai and that's what the game should demand from them as the player."

Release Date

Neither Sucker Punch nor Sony have committed to a release date for Ghost of Tsushima at this time.


New Alita: Battle Angel Trailer Eyes Up Some Action

By Anonymous on Jul 23, 2018 09:57 pm

A new trailer has dropped for Alita: Battle Angel, and it gets right to the action. After establishing some light background for the character, the new video spends most of its run-time on the one thing we all came to see: a young girl absolutely beating the crap out of robot-monster-men. She is a battle angel, after all.

Alita has inspired some controversy for the look of the title character. Director Robert Rodriguez explained at SDCC this weekend that he wanted a realistic depiction of the manga source material, echoing James Cameron's wishes to bring the manga to life. An extended look at footage during that panel convinced us that it's easy enough to get accustomed to Alita's stylized look, even if she's noticeably different from the other cyborgs in the film.

The extended look also gave a better idea of what to expect from the film's use of 3D. The faces on some cyborgs still look a little rough, but Weta's visual effects are shaping up nicely for a film still months away from release. Some shots did the classic 3D trick of having objects come straight towards you, which also seems apparent from the trailer and a centerpiece fight against a whip-wielding badguy.

Alita: Battle Angel is coming on December 21.


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