Obsidian Entertainment's upcoming PC RPG Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire has passed another funding milestone. The game's crowdfunding campaign on Fig now has now cleared $4 million, making it the most successful fan-funded game on any site since 2015, the developer says.
It's also the most-funded game in Fig's history, though the site only launched in 2015. Unlike Kickstarter and Indiegogo, Fig allows people to acquire equity, allowing them to share in a game's success. At press time, Deadfire has raised $4.15 million from more than 31,600 backers.
It's no surprise that Deadfire is also Fig's most successful game in terms of equity funding; at press time, $2.14 million has come from "Fig Game Shares" and the remaining $2 million from traditional pledges.
If funding hits $4.25 million, Obsidian will add a "soulbound weapon," which is one that is "infused with a personality that can speak to you throughout your adventure."
Obsidian announced this week that Deadfire will have ships that players can use to travel throughout the sea, adding "open-world exploration and discovery" to the game.
"Your ship is a Dyrwoodan sloop called the Defiant, purchased for you by the Steward of Caed Nua, who has made the journey to help you (part of her, anyway) on your quest to hunt down Eothas, and is one of the first allies to join you on your adventure," Obsidian said. "The ship acts as your mobile base of operations, carrying you and your comrades wherever you command. Companions will stay on-board while not in your party, and you can even go below decks to your captain's quarters for rest and relaxation."
"You can customize, upgrade, and add personal touches to the Defiant. This includes changing your sails, painting your hull, and flying flags to show your personal colors/faction allegiance," the developer added. "You can also improve the performance of your cannons, sails, and hull, beyond just their cosmetic appearance."
Deadfire builds on the mechanics of the previous game and promises to offer "truly living cities [and] more freedom to explore the open world." You can read more about it here. A release is currently slated for the first quarter of 2018.
February 24 is also know as Twin Peaks Day, based on the date that Agent Dale Cooper first entered the iconic town in the cult TV show. To celebrate, Showtime have released two new posters in advance of its return in May. One features Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) as she looked during its original run, while the other shows an older Cooper (Kyle McLachlan). Check them out below:
The two-hour premiere of the new season debuts on Showtime on May 21 at 9 PM ET. In the build-up to that, the channel are broadcasting the first two seasons with back-to-back episodes every Sunday at 7 PM ET.
In a recent interview with IGN, actress Madchen Amick, who plays Shelly Johnson, spoke about her emotional return to the show. "The first few days back on set I was crying the whole time," she said. "I was constantly fighting tears the whole time. It was touching, it was moving, it was surreal that we get the opportunity to revisit it and revisit it in a way that is appropriate for the show and celebrates the show that isn't just a comeback or a reunion.
"It's not a reboot. It's just now seeing the characters 25 years later and seeing what they've been up to. People that love Twin Peaks will enjoy it and they'll get to see a lot of stuff obviously that they are familiar with. But for a new audience that comes to it, they're just going to love it for what it is at this point."
Hajime Tabata made a name for himself as the director of Square Enix portable games like Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Type-0. With Switch being a hybrid console/portable device, it would seemingly be right up Tabata's alley.
"I've worked on handheld titles, but I've also worked on console games," he told Polygon. "So the fact that Switch is both at the same time is really fascinating to me. I'm really interested in coming up with ideas and how to capitalize on that technology and how to create the best experience possible on the technology. But I'm not quite sure that I have it yet.
"You have your Switch sitting in front of the television and you're playing on the big screen and then you take it out, put it down on the table. It becomes a monitor. You take out the two Joy-Cons, and you play with a friend ... it doesn't stop there, because in my mind, it would be really perfect if you could then take this new monitor and use it like a tablet, for example, and play different apps on it like you would on your iPhone or your Android. So basically, it's accomplishing three tasks in one machine. It's kind of like the dream machine."
Don't take this to mean he's working on a Switch project, however, at least at the moment. He did admit that he and others on the Final Fantasy XV team are "really interested in the Switch," but he stopped short of committing to anything.
You can read Polygon's full interview with Tabata here; it primarily focuses on Final Fantasy XV's future, which includes a cooperative multiplayer mode (complete with character creation), among other things.
Pixar's upcoming Cars 3 will feature the voices of quite a few NASCAR drivers and others connected to the sport, Disney announced this week.
These include big names in racing such as Jeff Gordon and Richard Petty, as well as Fox's NASCAR commentator Shannon Spake. They all have clever/silly names; Gordon's character is named Jeff Gorvette, while Spake's character is Shannon Spokes. You can see a full rundown below, with descriptions written by Disney.
Additionally, Disney announced a co-marketing plan with TV network Fox for this weekend's Daytona 500. First, Owen Wilson, who voices Lightning McQueen, will be the grand marshal for the event, which takes place on Sunday, February 26.
Also, Disney will release a new trailer for Cars 3 during the Daytona 500, while there will be marketing efforts for the movie in place at other NASCAR Cup Series events this year. What's more, NASCAR and Disney will release elementary school learning materials called Acceleration Nation.
The next gen drivers of NASCAR and #Cars3... in other words, AWESOME!
Chase Elliott,21, was named 2016's Sunoco Rookie of the Year after finishing last season tenth in the driver standings. Elliott, who pilots the No. 24 car previously driven by four-time champion Jeff Gordon, lends his voice to second-generation Piston Cup racer Chase Racelott in Cars 3. Racelott's blend of skills, track smarts and top-of-the-line technology make this rookie a real contender.
Ryan Blaney, a 23-year-old, third-generation racer, pilots the No. 21 Ford in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup series. He voices third-generation racer Ryan "Inside" Laney in Cars 3. Known for his racing passion and ability to have fun on the track, Laney races with talent, speed and precision.
Daniel Suarez, who just turned 25, pilots the No. 19 Arris Toyota Camry in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. The 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion can be heard in the film voicing Danny Swervez, a next-gen racer who's ascending the Piston-Cup ladder against all odds. A mid-season replacement, Swervez is a quick learner who pushes himself to the limit.
Bubba Wallace, 23, won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway in 2013, becoming the first African American to win in one of the top three touring divisions since Wendell Scott in 1963. In Cars 3, Wallace voices next-gen stock car racer Bubba Wheelhouse, a fast and tenacious young racer who knows how to win.
Darrell Waltrip, the NASCAR Hall of Fame racer-turned-NASCAR on FOX color analyst lends his voice to Darrell Cartrip. Cartrip, a veteran Piston-Cup announcer also heard in Cars and Cars 2, may think he's seen it all--but this new season might still have a surprise or two in store.
Shannon Spake, NASCAR on FOX correspondent and college football and basketball reporter for Fox Sports, voices on-the-track reporter Shannon Spokes in the film. Spokes weaves her way into the middle of the action for in-the-moment interviews, and she's not afraid to ask racers the tough questions.
Howard Augustine "Humpy" Wheeler Jr., the legendary NASCAR promoter and former president and GM of Charlotte Motor Speedway, lends his voice to iconic Dinoco team owner Tex Dinoco in Cars 3. Tex, who met Lightning McQueen in Cars, would love nothing more than to see #95 decked out in Dinoco blue.
Jeff Gordon, four-time NASCAR champion, current NASCAR on Fox analyst, and story consultant for Cars 3, lends his voice to Jeff Gorvette. Gorvette, whose number of top-ten finishes remains unmatched, may have hung up his racing tires--but his heart remains on the track. His ability to succeed at all levels turned hoods wherever he raced.
Richard "The King" Petty, team owner and champion NASCAR driver with 200 wins, returns to the role of Strip "The King" Weathers. From his humble beginnings on the Piston-Cup circuit to the glitzy sponsorship and media attention, the champion racer now serves as crew chief for his nephew, Cal Weathers.
Kyle Petty, retired NASCAR driver and current NASCAR commentator on NBC, helps bring Cal Weathers to life in Cars 3. Weathers grew up around the track watching his uncle, Strip "The King" Weathers, tear it up. The veteran racer finds himself taking a step back to make room for the next generation on the track.
Mike Joy is Fox Sports' lead NASCAR announcer who will call his 38th Daytona 500 this Sunday. He lends his iconic voice to on-the-spot radio talk show host Mike Joyride in the movie. Joyride stays one step ahead in the racing news game by keeping a keen eye on where the racing season is headed.
Ray Evernham, winner of three NASCAR championships as crew chief for Jeff Gordon and current consultant to Hendrick Motorsports, lends his voice to Ray Reverham, Jackson Storm's crew chief, and an expert at training in the cutting edge technology and tactics being used by the next-gen racers. Evernham also serves as a story consultant for filmmakers.
Giving away the occasional game to Twitch Prime members isn't new. However, in this case, doing so will help out The Banner Saga 3, which is currently in the midst of a successful Kickstarter campaign. Twitch says it will pledge $1 towards the game's development for each person who downloads and plays either of the first two games through Twitch between now and March 6.
You'll actually need to open up the game to qualify for the $1 pledge; simply downloading it from Twitch isn't enough. On its Kickstarter page, developer Stoic Studios encouraged fans to do so even if they already own or have played the games, as this will still add to the newest game's funding.
Further details weren't shared, but presumably this money won't be directed through Kickstarter itself, which would result in the site taking a cut. As it stands, Stoic has already far surpassed its funding goal of $200,000. With 11 days still go, it has raised more than $315,000. It's already hit two stretch goals, adding a playable Dredge and Survival mode to the game.
343 Industries has announced new Halo 5: Guardians weapons skins themed around unicorns. The weapon skins will be made available "very slowly and very deliberately," the developer explained as part of its latest weekly blog post.
The "Fire" skin
To get the "Fire" skin, you need to "create something awesome" in Halo 5 and have it be featured on the developer's Waypoint site. "We want to recognize and reward players who are creating great content and helping to enrich our community, and this is one of the few things we have left to help do that," 343 said.
The studio will go back through its 2017 Waypoint posts and retroactively award the weapon skins to players. This could be for having their gameplay clip featured as a "Play of the Week" in 343's weekly blog posts or for doing anything else that the studio deems worthy.
"If you've been featured, hang tight," 343 said. "We'll be rolling these out shortly but since it is a manual process we appreciate your patience."
The Unicorn "Ice" skin will be given to people who play with or against during the developer's Community Playdates sessions; the first of the skins will go to people who participated in the Valentine's Day event earlier this month. The next event will take place next week. In the future, 343 said it will publish a schedule for these events so players can have a better chance of getting the skin.
The "Ice" skin
In other Halo 5 news, 343 announced that this weekend's Warzone Firefight Mythic playlist will feature the Skirmish at Darkstar map. Additionally, 343 confirmed that the current rotational playlist, Assault, will be replaced next week by Covie Slayer. Finally, the developer said it has completed work on a "small maintenance update" for Halo 5 that should be out during the second week of March. The primary focus of this patch is bug fixes for the Forge mode.
A console's launch lineup can be important in helping it get off to a good start. After the struggles of the Wii U, Nintendo is surely hoping the Switch gets off to a strong start in March.
While the Switch's full launch lineup has yet to be confirmed, we now know at least a few of the titles that will debut alongside the system on March 3. As confirmed during the Switch news event on January 12, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Nintendo's new party game 1-2-Switch will be launch titles, as will Ubisoft's Just Dance 2017. Super Bomberman R, The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+, and Skylanders: Imaginators are also launch titles, according to Nintendo on Twitter. These appear to be the only confirmed launch titles at this stage. We will round up all the Switch launch titles and those coming later in this post, adding more to the list below as they become confirmed.
By comparison, the Wii U, released in 2012, had 23 launch titles.
Following up on an apparent tease of Overwatch's new character from earlier this week, Blizzard has now provided another hint of who or what it might be.
Whereas the first tease was an in-world interview with a character, this is a tweet and image from an in-world news station about an incident at an airport. "OR15 defense units destroyed in confrontation with unidentified assailant at Numbani airport," it reads. "No civilian casualties reported."
In the upper right, you'll see the shadow of an odd-looking thing--possibly cocoons or something of the sort. Whether that's a detail relevant to the identity of the character remains to be seen; it may be another piece of the puzzle or something to throw fans off.
This new tease tracks with what we've already seen. The aforementioned interview was with an 11-year-old scientist who ominously suggests she has plans for a grant she received. She also notes she's about to take her first trip on a plane. Subsequently, players discovered that an in-game airport arrivals board had been changed. If you look closely, it looks to be the same board as the one in the new teaser image.
Halo Wars 2 launched this week on Xbox One and PC. You can expect developers 343 Industries and Creative Assembly to continue to support it with extra content and updates, some of which were discussed as part of 343's latest weekly blog post.
"Just because the game has launched doesn't mean the work is done," the developer said. "In fact, very far from it, as the Creative Assembly and 343 teams are hard at work on upcoming patches as well as future downloadable content."
Concerning DLC, 343 said players can look forward to new content every third Wednesday of the month, starting in March with a new leader, Kinsano (above). More leaders, units, and campaign missions are headed to Halo Wars 2 in the coming months. At PAX East, 343 will "go deeper" on what players can expect in terms of DLC. We'll report back with more details at that time.
On the more immediate horizon for Halo Wars 2 are updates addressing issues that have popped up since launch. The first of these is already available, while a "large patch" for Xbox One and Windows 10 is coming next week. It includes a "significant" number of fixes and improvements. The patch notes will be shared at a later date.
"Additionally, work and investigations continue into online connectivity, latency, and performance issues that some players have been reporting," 343 said. "We're aware that some players are still experiencing issues and it's a top priority area of focus for the team."
343 also mentioned that it released a hotfix for an XP exploit where players in 1v1 games could destroy their base at the start of a match to earn 600XP. The game continues to show that you received the XP for doing this, but it's not actually applied. "So doing this will not only net you no real reward, it will also ruin the fun for the person you're matching against while inaccurately skewing player skill ratings," 343 said.
Additionally, 343 said it continues to look over player feedback and game data with an eye on tweaking balance in the future as needed. You can send in feedback to 343 here on the Halo Wars 2 forums.
Halo Wars 2 launched without ranked multiplayer; this feature is coming "soon," but a date has not been announced.
"Halo Wars 2 carries forth enough of the series' beloved elements to make any fan of Halo feel right at home at first, but not in the long run," reviewer Kallie Plagge said. "It's palatable for those used to the FPS games, taking inspiration from favorite missions and putting a strategic spin on them; but just when things become more challenging and actually interesting, it runs out of steam."
By Anonymous on Feb 24, 2017 09:30 pm Join GameSpot as we discuss our early impressions of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and thoughts on the Nintendo Switch Console, OS, and more.
When it comes to ambition, it's impossible to fault Ride 2. It seeks to combine the thrill of riding a motorbike--that sense of exhilarating exposure that comes from hurtling across tarmac without the insulation inherent to sitting in a car--with the form and depth of the likes of Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport.
It's an admirable goal, an attempt to give bike lovers the same kind of exhaustive outing that car nuts have been spoilt with for years. And considering developer Milestone had the original Ride to gain experience and test the design philosophy, it's more than reasonable to expect this sequel to offer something slick and highly tuned.
Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Ride 2 stutters at first gear and that awkward first spin off the line plagues the rest of the journey.
One of the great achievements of both Forza and Gran Turismo is that they instil a sense of aspiration among their players. We want to move through the ranks, to earn cash and unlock new vehicles. These games tempt us to learn new skills and put them to the test across new tracks and against more accomplished opponents, online and off. This aspirational drive provides the motivation for self-improvement and when we're rewarded for achieving as much we feel good about ourselves. The cycle of effort, reward, and satisfaction is in place.
Ride 2 offers only the effort portion of this cycle thanks to a series of mishaps that consistently undermine your time spent with it. A uninteresting presentation results in muted enjoyment at every turn, the in-game financial model forces you to grind through your career in the most restrictive, stilted manner possible, and despite the huge number of available bikes it doesn't take long for a sense of repetition to rise to the surface.
Individually, none of Ride 2's problems are drastic enough to be game breakers. In unison, however, their collective impact is impossible to overlook.
The in-helmet camera is just one example of an admirable goal being poorly executed. Racing from this perspective is fine when you're travelling in a straight line, but as soon as you make even the slightest attempt to turn your entire view is warped in such a way as to create an unwelcome and unforgivable disconnect between what your brain expects and what your eyes are telling it.
Your helmet stays static and straight, even as your bike--visible at the bottom of the screen--leans into and out of corners. This has the effect of making it feel as though you, as the rider, exist in a completely separate space to your bike and you soon develop a distrust of the visuals as a means to communicate whether you should be heavier or lighter on the analogue stick. Not ideal for a game with simulation ambitions.
World Tour is where most of the single player content is stored, its combination of events and challenges tied into a system of earning money in order to upgrade and purchase new bikes. It's a straightforward affair of the kind that has been seen many times before, but it's the way its finer points work (or don't) that prevents it from satisfying.
Upon completing the game's initial tutorial you're asked to choose your first bike from a small selection of different kinds, from dirt to road bikes. From there you move on to choose which event you're going to enter as the first of your career, but there's no indication as to what your selected bike is eligible for until you're deep into the multitude of menu layers.
Couple this with an excessive number of loading screens and you're left with an initial user experience that does everything to convince you to stop playing before you've even started to compete. The dreadful voiceover that plays over the World Tour intro video offers little in the way of charm, either, as does the soulless shop housing new bikes.
Individually, none of Ride 2's problems are drastic enough to be game breakers. In unison, however, their collective impact is impossible to overlook.
Acquiring new bikes is essential to progression and engaging in the potential for diversity that such a broad range of vehicles allows. The problem here is that new bikes are not cheap in comparison to earnings for winning races, and your initial hardware doesn't keep up with the competition for long. As such, you soon find yourself racing like a menace in order to give yourself a chance at a podium finish and lining your bank account with enough coin to give yourself a sporting chance.
Simply, the fact that you can race so angrily and aggressively works to undermine the core structure of Ride 2 and its attempts at being the real riding simulator. Cutting off opponents to slow them down, purposefully hitting into them when entering corners and using them as a tool to improve braking all works once you've grasped the physics model. Of course, you don't have to engage in any of this but its mere existence is enough to break your suspension of disbelief and cause you to question whether you're playing an arcade game in simulator clothing.
When you're out in front and given free track to race through things do feel energetic in a realistic, interesting way, and you're motivated to improve your skills. As soon as you're surrounded by competitors, though, the experience devolves into something closer to stock car racing.
You can earn greater financial rewards by increasing the difficulty, but ramping up the AI to its most challenging setting equates to only a five per cent boost in earnings. It's tempting to simply compete against opponents on 'Very Easy' in order to quickly gain enough financial power to buy the kinds of equipment suitable for the tasks levelled at you. Thereafter you can stop worrying about money and race on the difficulty that's right for you.
But this turns Ride 2 into an exercise of grinding through the easiest and least interesting of races until you reach that tipping point whereby you can begin to play as you always intended. The financial formulas underpinning World Tour need serious attention in order to work properly and allow for the kind of personalised approach that other games using this sort of career progression allow for.
Multiplayer is more engaging in that you can bypass those elements that force you to grind your way to a healthy bank account and lock you into a repetitive structure. Here Ride 2 shines slightly brighter, but proceedings only ever reach mediocre entertainment thanks to a physics engine that is not realistic enough to pass for a simulation and not filled with enough simple joy to be an arcade experience. As such you never feel totally convinced that you should dedicate yourself to racing as you would in reality or whether you should be pushing to achieve crazy, impossible feats. This lack of definition is not welcome in the competitive world of online racing.
Just as you try to focus yourself online to one playstyle or the other, you're either thrown off your bike due to being knocked into during a corner turn or you finish last thanks to being too diligent and professional by making sure you avoid contact altogether. At every corner you're reminded that this is a game that doesn't really know how to refine the details of the avalanche of content it offers in the form of tracks and bikes.
Simply, Ride 2 doesn't make a convincing case for more motorcycle games to be produced. Yes, it is a genre that is underrepresented in comparison to its car-based siblings, but the level of expected quality across racing games as a whole is so high that anything other than an outstanding release is impossible to recommend.
On paper, then, Ride 2 is an exciting proposition that bundles the promises of aspirational game design with the raw power and fun associated with motorbikes. Unfortunately, those promises are broken and the resulting game falls flat. Unless you're so enamoured with two-wheeled machines that you simply can't help but pick yourself up a copy, you should wait for a new contender to try its hand at delivering a biking game of this scope.
Gears of War 4 is offering up a new weekend-only Horde playlist and giving out double class XP right now. The new playlist is called Feral Horde, and it's the first-ever playlist for a variant of Horde. In a forum post, developer The Coalition explained why Feral Horde is more challenging than regular Horde.
"Feral Horde ratchets up the intensity of each wave, changing the composition of each wave to focus more on constant pressure and unrelenting assault," the developer said. "Prepare to move, dodge, and scrap your way to victory against new waves filled with hefty amounts of Explosive Trackers, Swarm Grenadiers, DR-1s, Dropshot Scions, and more."
The Feral Horde playlist is automatically set to the Hardcore difficulty, and it's available on only one map, Clocktower.
To encourage people to try Feral Horde, The Coalition is offering up three Swarm character skins. To get them, you need to first register your Gamertag and then do the following:
Complete 50 Waves in the Feral Horde playlist (unlocks the the Tiger Skin).
Complete 100 Waves in the Feral Horde playlist (unlocks the Cheetah Skin).
Complete 200 Waves in the Feral Horde playlist (unlocks the Snow Leopard Skin).
Additionally, The Coalition has released a Feral Horde Pack, which comes with everything shown in the picture above. It's available right now for 400 Credits.
Finally, double class XP is available this weekend for not just Feral Horde, but also the Public and Private Horde playlists.
The Coalition did not announce when the weekend event wraps up.
Store pickup is free (if it's in stock at your local store), while shipping is free on orders of $35 or more, so you'd need to buy something else to get that.
If you pick up Titanfall 2 as part of this sale or already have the game, you can look forward to new content in the future. Just this week, Respawn released the new Live Fire mode, while a free update in March will see the return of a Titanfall 1 map.
For more on Titanfall 2, check out GameSpot's review here and all of our videos and written content here.
The next major PlayStation 4 exclusive, Horizon Zero Dawn, is almost here. Ahead of its release next week, Sony today published the launch trailer for the much-anticipated action-RPG.
The video, which does not contain any gameplay footage, sets up some of the story for the futuristic game in which massive robot machines rule the Earth. You play as Aloy, an inquisitive woman who treks through the world to find out what the robots are and where they came from. You can watch the video in the embed above.
Join GameSpot as we discuss our early impressions of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and thoughts on the Nintendo Switch Console, OS, and more.
Should fans of Dynasty Warriors check out Berserk and the Band of the Hawk?
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