Secret of Mana fans are getting quite the tease today: the series' official Japanese Twitter account has tweeted out a video of Seiken Densetsu 3 being played on a Nintendo Switch.
The 1995 game is the sequel to Secret of Mana, but it was only ever released on the Super Famicom in Japan. Unlike Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3 was never released on the Wii U's Virtual Console.
We're still waiting to hear from Nintendo on when it plans to release Switch's Virtual Console. At Switch's launch, the company said fans can expect more information soon. We're already seeing some classic games pop up in the eShop; Hamster Corporation has released several Neo Geo titles.
In the meantime, fans of the Mana series can hold out hope they'll get to play SD3 in the future. Even if the game is only released in Japan, the Switch's region-free settings mean players from anywhere in the world would have their chance to wield the Mana Sword on Nintendo's new console.
The latest update to arrive on Overwatch's public test realm introduces some significant alterations to Lucio and his ability to buff or heal nearby teammates.
Put simply, the changes buff many of Lucio's abilities but limit his ability to aid his entire team at any one time. The area of effect on Crossfade has been reduced from 30 meters to just 10, but the amount of health restored by his healing song has increased by 50 percent. To help players adjust to this, a visual effect has been added temporarily that helps to demonstrate the new range of Lucio's songs. On a related note, his Ultimate, Sound Barrier, sees its range drop to 30 meters to 20.
It's not all bad news for Lucio, as other changes are being made to compensate for this. His weapon's projectile speed has increased from 40 to 50, and wall-riding provides him with a 30 percent movement speed boost. Jumping off a wall also provides an additional "burst of speed."
Blizzard provided some explanation for this in the patch notes, saying, "Lucio has often felt like a must-pick due to his raw healing output and the versatility of providing a speed bonus to your entire team. The goal of these changes is to keep those elements feeling strong, but making them harder to apply to everyone on your team at all times. The end result is that he should feel stronger with teams that he can stay close to but not as strong when on teams with heroes that are often spread out (such as Pharah, Widow, Genji, etc).
"Much of Lucio's character power was tied up in his large passive auras, which caused other elements of his kit to be weakened over time in an attempt to balance him. Now that his auras are more focused it will allow them to be much stronger and allow Lucio to be more active in his role."
Regarding the visual effect indicating Crossfade's range, principal designer Geoff Goodman said in a forum post, "[W]e're looking at getting a more permanent (and better looking) visual indicator at some point, and potentially making it an option to enable/disable."
Elsewhere in this update, Blizzard has introduced a new system meant to reduce the frequency of draws in Competitive Play. Similar to the way a winner can be named on Escort maps based on which team pushed the payload further, Assault maps can declare a winner "based on which team captured the largest portion." To sufficiently test this out, Competitive Play on the PTR will only see Eichenwalde and Hanamura pop up in the map rotation for now.
Eichenwalde is again the subject of a change in this update, as there's a new path from the attackers' spawn leading to the capture point. Custom Games gain a new ability to save a preset, while the Hero Gallery is now home to backstory information about characters and "some of their lore-inspired skins." There are also bug fixes, which you can see in the full patch notes.
All of this is already available on the PTR version of the game, which is accessible to owners of the PC version. There's no word on how soon these changes might be implemented in the full game, but we do know a patch adding Orisa arrives tomorrow, March 21.
Malicious Fallen may not be developed by Platinum Games, but it sure does look the part. This may have something to do with the fact that developer Alvion supported Platinum Games during the development of such titles as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Bayonetta 2, and Anarchy Reigns to name a few. Malicious Fallen delivers some beautiful, colorful, anime-inspired visuals, and presents a familiar approach to massive-scale fights and flashy combo attacks. But that's not enough to shake the feeling we've seen it done bigger, better, and more cohesively elsewhere.
Malicious Fallen tells the tale of a land ruled by an insane king whose wife makes a deal with supernatural powers in order to end her husband's reign of terror. After he's gone, however, she finds herself more than a little hesitant to give up on her power trip. She becomes the new despot, subsequently granting her best warriors a share of the glory in rampaging across the countryside. A group of prophets, loyal to the powers beyond, have you in their back pocket. You play the part of the Spirit Vessel, who's been imbued with all the remaining magical power left in the universe, along with a cape called the Mantle of Cinders, to go forth and triumph over evil.
Since all of this is presented in text form, however, it ends up as an easily missable cover story for what essentially boils down to a dazzling boss rush that throws you to the wolves within minutes of starting the game. You're given a short, perfunctory tutorial, a series of portals to choose from, and off you go. The brevity of training could be forgiven if the game were more of an arcade-style brawler where you only really need to know how to hit, dodge, and maybe perform a flashy special, but Malicious Fallen--to its credit and curse--offers a combat system full of tiny intricacies that only really come together via rigorous, Sisyphean trial-and-error.
You begin your quest with a few attacks: the Mantle of Cinders can turn into a shield for defense, a set of giant fists for close-quarters combat, or it can fire a ranged attack that can target whatever's directly in front, and potentially barrage multiple enemies. To add an extra level of complexity, you can also alter attacks so that enemies who die explode, chaining damage to other nearby enemies. All of this is adds points into a resource called Aura.
Aura is everything in Malicious Fallen. Not only is it the resource that you use to heal, but when your Aura stash is full, you're allowed to unleash extremely high-powered attacks that can make relatively quick work of the game's massive bosses. All of this is technically explained in the tutorial, but these instructions mean little without context; you're ultimately left to figure out how to handle Aura on the fly, and likely die several times in the process.
The other gameplay element is a Mega Man-style system where every boss drops a new ability for you to use, and figuring out which ability will have maximum effect against each boss--or even whether what you have available will even make a dent--is, again, a trial-and-error process. It requires that you get very comfortable with each bosses' patterns and attacks, but it also means a lot of wrestling with the game's twitchy camera. It's the basis for a woefully unintuitive targeting system that only focuses on the boss, and sometimes has trouble even activating. It's not unusual to end up on your back, suffering from a barrage of cheap hits for prolonged periods of time, all because you weren't able to target properly. The kicker? Your life force is measured by having limbs and parts of your outfit knocked off--which, on a busy battlefield, can be near impossible to monitor. Typically, it's not until a single hit results in an unexpected game over that you realize how far gone you were.
Through the chaos, however, there are joys to be found. The game's ornate cathedrals and rollicking battlefields are, at times, breathtaking spectacles. The bosses themselves are fantastically designed, and just watching them move and react is impressive. While combat is poorly explained, going back to older bosses with a new arsenal and a better understanding of the game makes for a gratifying form of payback.
The fact remains that you have to perform a lot of legwork to understand how each boss works in respect to your abilities. There's a fine line to be crossed in a boss rush game, where hard fought battles lead to either sighs of relief or aggravated groans. Too often, Malicious Fallen earns the latter. Malicious Fallen isn't a game that feels triumphant so much as tiring.
A "reimagined" version of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time soundtrack is on the way soon in a number of formats, including very slick-looking CD and vinyl albums.
Called Hero of Time, this Materia Collective project is a 21-track collection of songs that have been recorded by a 64-piece orchestra. You can see a full tracklist below and hear a 10-minute sample here.
Hero of Time is being released digitally ($14) and in a limited-edition CD ($30) on March 27 through Bandcamp, with an iTunes release also on the way. The vinyl is due out in the "coming months" but can be preordered beginning today through iam8bit for $40.
"Orchestral recordings of music from The Legend of Zelda have become increasingly popular over the last several years," said arranger and project director Eric Buchholz in a press release. "With Hero of Time, we sought to create a single, cohesive experience that weaves all of the complex underlying themes of the game, like impermanence and mortality, with Koji Kondo's timeless melodies that have become as iconic as the game itself. The orchestration takes an 'east-meets-west' approach, with the inclusion of taiko ensembles, eastern woodwinds, and harmonies found prevalent in Japanese film and game scores."
Hero of Time was successfully funded last year through Kickstarter, where it raised nearly $52,000 from 1,000 backers, just surpassing the $50,000 goal.
Two new DLC packs are on the way for Dead Rising 4 in the near future, and Capcom has now provided further details about what they consist of.
After outlining the game's DLC prior to release, Microsoft today shared more about the upcoming Frank Rising and Super Ultra Dead Rising 4 Mini Golf packs. Frank Rising is an "all-new single-player story" that covers the events of an outbreak in Willamette where Frank becomes infected. A "former ally" deems him incurable, but Frank "find[s] help from an unlikely resource" as he seeks a cure.
Along the way, he'll gain new strength and abilities, none of which were specified. He no longer eats food to stay alive, instead being forced to "feast on others to survive," though he still endeavors to save at least some survivors.
Frank Rising launches for both the Xbox One and Windows 10 PC versions of the game on April 4 for $10 or as part of the season pass.
Following that is Super Ultra Dead Rising 4 Mini Golf, which Microsoft would only say launches for both platforms "soon" for $10 (or in the season pass). Courses are set in the Willamette Mall and the town itself, and Frank provides play-by-play as you progress. There are different clubs, costumes, and balls to unlock, as well as power-ups to help you kill zombies while getting the ball in the hole. In addition to playing on your own, there's four-player online multiplayer and local, turn-based co-op.
With its release date drawing nearer, Warner Bros. has published a new trailer for Injustice 2.
The new video (above) centers around Cheetah, who was previously confirmed as a playable character. It provides a brief overview of what she's capable of, which primarily takes the form of her beating up Wonder Woman.
This trailer comes not long after Cheetah was shown off in-depth during an Injustice 2 livestream. You can watch that segment below.
By Anonymous on Mar 20, 2017 08:30 pm Eager to get back into the space seat of your space ship to do some space exploration? Here are some handy hints to help you navigate the stars with ease.
Mass Effect: Andromeda arrives five years after the last entry in the series and explores a new, uncharted part of the galaxy light years away from the Milky Way. The original trilogy delivered a vast, rich universe filled with some of the most memorable characters in gaming, so expectations for the newest entry are high.
Created by BioWare Montreal, with support from a number of sister studios, Andromeda is pitched as a new start for the series and a glimpse at its future. To get the inside story of its development, GameSpot travelled to Boston during PAX East and talked to the people that made the game.
Across two episodes we explored the impact of Mass Effect, the controversy surrounding its ending, and the new future BioWare Montreal is trying to build for the beloved sci-fi RPG series. Below you can find both episodes of The Story of Mass Effect: Andromeda, as well as the full transcripts for each of the interviews we conducted. Additionally, we've also included supplemental Mass Effect: Andromeda features. Check it out:
The Dark Knight might not face Deathstroke in the upcoming DC movie The Batman. Following the news that the film won't start production until 2018, actor Joe Manganiello has stated that he is unsure if he will now appear in it.
In an interview for Pittsburgh Today Live, Manganiello was asked if he was still part of The Batman's cast. Without giving much away, the actor threw up his hands in a resigned way and said: "Maybe. We'll see." (via Comicbookmovie)
Last week, Variety writer Justin Kroll, who first reported the movie's delay, tweeted, "any casting rumors you hear are likely BS." This certainly suggests that Manganiello's involvement is not assured.
Deathstroke first appeared in a 1980 issue of The New Teen Titans, and the armored mercenary has gone on to appear in a wide variety of DC comics over the years. He is associated with Batman and is a main adversary to the Green Arrow. On TV, he recently appeared in Season 2 of the CW show Arrow, played by Manu Bennett. He also featured prominently in last year's Batman: Arkham Knight.
Pokemon developer Game Freak's current project is unknown, but we may have just received some small clues.
A new job ad (translated by Siliconera and IGN) reveal that the company is hiring temporary employees to work on a "globally popular RPG" whose platform will be "console."
The job requires someone with experience in creating character models to the level of Wii U and PS Vita, reports Siliconera. The title of the game is not stated, but it is apparently "an RPG game that is popular on a global scale," that "just about anyone knows."
It should be noted that the job ad is found on third-party job listing site Indeed. Similar ads can be found on Game Freak's site, though these do not state the information found in the Indeed listings.
Game Freak is best known, of course, for developing the mainline Pokemon games. Outside of the critter-collecting phenomenon, the company has made smaller titles like HarmoKnight and Tembo the Badass Elephant, the latter of which released for both Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Mainline Pokemon games have always been exclusive to Nintendo consoles, however.
Star Wars actor Mark Hamill has shared what could be the first ever picture of Luke Skywalker. Hamill tweeted the image of himself on the Star Wars set, on the very first day of shooting in 1976. Check it out below:
Taken in Tunisia early morning Day #1 waiting for my 1st shot (emerging from home for robot auction)-Perhaps the very 1st #LukePic#SWpic.twitter.com/WMCGnWCotP
As Hamill notes, Star Wars began production in Tunisia, where all the Tatooine scenes were filmed, before moving to London for the rest of the shoot.
In response to that image, Hamill was asked by Warner Animation publicist Gary Miereanu how he was feeling at the time: "At that very moment, were you thinking 'This is gonna be my big break' or 'Crap, it's early, dusty and way too bright?'"
Hamill replied by saying, "Judging by my clueless expression, probably both. Crew was kind but thought #SW was 'rubbish.' I kept telling them: 'We're on a winner!'"
"I think we are all going to be very upset if he does not win an Oscar, and no one more upset than Mark," Abrams said, possibly not entirely seriously.
The first official poster for the upcoming fantasy movie The Dark Tower has been released. The film hits theaters in July, and this poster suggests that it will deliver something spectacular. Check it out below:
The Dark Tower is based on Stephen King's classic series of fantasy novels. The movie was originally set to hit theaters in February, but the release date was subsequently moved back to July 28. At the time, it was reported that the ambitious post-production process meant that hitting a February release would have added millions to the budget, so Sony decided to delay the release instead.
The film stars Idris Elba as gunslinger Roland Deschain, while Matthew McConaughey is playing demonic sorcerer Walter Padick, aka The Man in Black. The movie is directed by Nikolaj Arcel, who previously helmed the Oscar-nominated A Royal Affair. Check out The Dark Tower's first official images here.
Last September it was also revealed that Sony are planning a Dark Tower TV show. It will be an adaptation of 1997's Wizard and Glass, the fourth book in King's epic series, and will feature both Elba and his 15-year-old co-star Tom Taylor. The pair will form part of a framing device for the central story, which is set many years before the events of the film.
The Dark Tower encompasses eight novels, which King published between 1982 and 2012. The books blend classic western themes with horror, sci-fi, and fantasy.
Ghost Recon: Wildlands has finished top of the UK physical sales chart for the second week running. Ubisoft's open-world game was the biggest UK launch of 2017 so far last week, and it has held on to the No.1 spot for the week ending March 18.
Below Wildlands, Lego Worlds rises one position in its second week on sale to No.2, which pushes Sony's PlayStation 4 exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn down one place to No.3.
Next week's chart may be be shaken up by Mass Effect: Andromeda, which launches in the UK on March 23 (March 21 in North America). For now however, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Lego Worlds, and Horizon Zero Dawn are enjoying the podium positions.
You can read the full top 10 sales chart below. Note this table does not include digital sales data, and so should not be considered representative of all UK game sales.
We explore different worlds in Mass Effect Andromeda with Jean Luc and Rob.
Eager to get back into the space seat of your space ship to do some space exploration? Here are some handy hints to help you navigate the stars with ease.
No comments:
Post a Comment