Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon aren't the only adventures still in store for 3DS; today publisher Atlus announced it is bringing a trio of RPGs to the handheld.
The first to launch is the next installment in the Etrian Odyssey series, Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth. Like previous entries in the franchise, the game is a first-person dungeon crawler. Players create their own party members and set out on a quest to reach the top of the fabled Yggdrasil Tree. What sets the series apart from other dungeon crawlers, however, is its cartography system; as you navigate the labyrithine corridors of Yggdrasil, you'll need to manually chart out a map of the dungeon using the 3DS's touch screen.
In addition to that, Atlus is bringing two expanded verions of previous RPGs to the handheld. The first is Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, a 3DS port of the 2011 DS release Radiant Historia. Along with redrawn character art and new voice overs, Perfect Chronology contains new story content in the form of a third timeline made up of "what-if" scenarios.
Perfect Chronology also features two different modes, Perfect and Append. Perfect mode allows players to experience the expanded story immediately, while Append mode takes players through the original quest before allowing them to jump into the expanded adventure in New Game+.
The final release is Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux, an expanded port of the DS title. This time, players will encounter a mysterious new character named Alex, who plays an important role in how the tale unfolds. The game also features new demons (many drawn from other Shin Megami Tensei titles), new endings, and an additional dungeon to explore.
Etrian Odyssey V is releasing for 3DS this fall, while Radiant History and Strange Journey Redux are arriving in "early 2018." Each title will retail for $40.
A new update for Playerunknown's super-popular PC game Battlegrounds is coming this week, and now the patch notes and specific timing details for it have been released.
The patch is due out on Thursday, June 8, at 1 AM PT / 4 AM ET, and should take around 1 hour to appropriate, the developer confirmed on Steam. If you're on the game's test server, you can already experience the new changes, apparently.
The new Battlegrounds patche introduces changes to improve server performance. In one area, an issue has been addressed that prevented characters from moving when a "large amount of data is sent." In terms of gameplay changes, the "match ends" timer now displays at 1 minute remaining instead of 5.
There are also bug fixes in his update. Specifically, the patch addresses an issue where weapon icons at the bottom of the screen would not display when switching weapons or opening the inventory. You can see the full patch notes below.
Football fans, this one's for you. Sony has released its weekly deals and they include several top soccer titles under its Futbol Sale.
Until June 13, you can get 60% off several titles including PS4's FIFA 17 Standard Edition for $16 (or $24 for the Deluxe edition). PS3 versions of both games are available at a deal, too, and so is Pro Soccer Evolution 2017 for PS4 ($20) and PS3 ($14).
The weekly deals are a little lighter this week than usual, ahead of Sony's upcoming Days of Play promotion. Starting June 9, there will be a week of game sales with retailers offering Nioh, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and MLB The Show 17 for $40 each, among hardware sales (including a gold-color PS4 Slim for $250).
Ahead of Microsoft's E3 briefing this Sunday, the company today released new teasers for its briefing, inviting people to "feel true power."
The brief trailers are strange and interesting. They show people booting up a console, presumably the Project Scorpio, while all manner of weird images and sequences follow, including pupils widening, volcano plumes, a wolf, and more. They each end with the tag, "Feel True Power," which is surely a reference to Project Scorpio. You can see the videos below.
According to reports, these videos might contain clues about Scorpio, including potentially its release date--an object has the phrase X10S101-317, which some believe is an October 13, 2017 date--and a possible dig at Sony's PS4 Pro. Let us know in the comments below if you've been able to find any secrets in the videos.
More details on Scorpio will presumably be discussed at E3 next month, during Microsoft's briefing on the afternoon of June 11. Keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.
All Xbox One games work on Scorpio, though the Scorpio editions can look and perform better, in some cases, if developers want to do that. It is a similar situation with PS4 and PS4 Pro.
Steel Division: Normandy '44 is a very peculiar sort of real-time strategy game. Instead of trying to encapsulate hundreds of years of history or even the entirety of a single war, Steel Division is all about the specifics. Your pool of units is limited to a few key types. The rest is emergent--these soldiers and their gear were designed to work in tandem, so you'll need to as well. But that leads to beautiful match pacing and aggressive fights that hinge on your intelligence and your mastery of the battlefield.
As you might have guessed, given the name, Steel Division centers on the lead-up to (and resolution of) the 1944 Normandy beach invasion in World War II--better known as "D-Day." What's a bit more surprising, though, is the game's exhaustive approach to detail. The whole of the French countryside has been accurately reproduced here with the help of Royal Air Force reconnaissance photos of the time. For the purposes of play, that means real-world schemes work just as well here.
That, plus the fact that Steel Division comes from hardcore strategy publisher Paradox Interactive, might lead you to think the game isn't inviting to new players. Thankfully, however, that's not the case. Steel Division may layer on meta-strategy later on, but the basics are rather simple. You'll be working with the standard array of tanks, vehicles, infantry, and artillery. The game includes dozens of variants of each, based on different historical divisions and nations, but as far as the single-player mode goes, that's all you need to know.
Matches focus entirely on how well you leverage each of these units' strengths and use them as an interdependent network. There's no base-building or resource management to pad this out. You aren't getting big unit upgrades or fiddling with new supply lines. You have one "resource" that builds up over time, and you spend it to deploy new units. You order up troops, you pick where you want them, and that's it. It's fortunate, then, that this foundation is more than strong enough to carry the experience.
Steel Division gets a lot of mileage out of some very simple concepts. On any given map, you're only managing about 10 different unit types. With those, you'll be either holding an area or heading off to kill some guys--defense or offense. Units counter one another in a simple, self-explanatory order. Anti-tank infantry is for taking out tanks, of course--put them where you don't want tanks rolling. That may sound flippant, but it's not. Each of these units aligns their real-world equivalent so well that your task might be simple, but the outcome won't be. While you're setting up your heavy infantry, your foe is no doubt preparing their artillery to pin down your anti-tank rifles.
This works because the game limits ammunition, forcing you to resupply every so often, and those units are, as you might suspect, squishy. This forces you to divert resources to supply critical positions you hold and means that you're always a little bit vulnerable. It's impossible to perfectly secure your trucks, but foes won't always know where you'll come from. There's a psychological element here that elevates the stakes and complexity of play. The sum of those elements working in tandem is some ferocious blood sport.
The adrenaline of pulling together a coordinated attack is priceless, and Steel Division is all about chaining these moments together, directed as they are by an aggressive tie to historical realism.
You'll have to constantly scan the field, checking up on unit progress and making sure they have enough munitions. It's a lot of micromanagement, but there's enough tactical diversity that it works. Most matches will have you rapidly switching between softening up sturdy targets so that you can secure a new location and running door-to-door to clear out homes with your infantry. Success takes constant vigilance over the field.
For the most part, that's not too hard to manage. The campaign, which is broken up into three sections with four missions in each, doesn't tax the mind too hard too fast. Instead, you'll get a steady introduction to more advanced concepts--like the ludicrously detailed sightlines and how you can and need to use each unit's sphere of awareness to your advantage. You'll play with their use and application a bit before moving onto a new lesson. It teaches you well enough, but it really just serves as a lead into the multiplayer and that mode is raucous fun.
Steel Division lets you group up into teams of up to nine human players, and that dramatically increases the complexity of your tactics. You can apply pressure to enemies by leading them through elaborate ambushes or pulling together an aggressive pincer flank. You'll notice, however, that there's not a lot to be done with defense--that due to the fact that, without bases as a center of power, there's nothing that really needs defending directly. Your necessities are ad hoc: Secure this point so that you can field an assault from that one, for example. This reflects the mobility of the Normandy assault and that neither side was keen on settling in for a drawn-out, bloody fight.
You may scoff at that, though, after your first few multiplayer games. Games with other humans (or even AI) can run on any of several maps that can scale up to positively ridiculous sizes. They exist to encourage dynamic, emergent stories. A hamlet locked down by machine guns and flamethrowers could be a ploy to lure an armored assault, letting you counter with a barrage of heavy artillery. Being at once divorced from the realism of the Second World War and intimately tied to its combatants, location, and gear means that you can arrange high-stakes scenarios that no commander would orchestrate. That leads to some incredible moments when the ploys do actually work out. If they don't, your front may collapse, but a steady stream of resources means you'll probably be able to mount some type of defense in short order.
That synergy leads to its own sort of intra-game pacing. At first, players will all be jockeying for position, but as they settle in, attacks become directed and concentrated--especially with teammates. Then the match shifts to center on how you can best capitalize on openings you've created without overreacting. Overcommitting soldiers can strain your ability to supply them with ammunition--meaning you may earn a temporary foothold in a new spot, but you'll have to be active to make it last. Similarly, swinging too hard against an enemy will turn you into easy pickings. While most strategy games lean on rock-paper-scissors combat pretty heavily, rarely is the difference in effectiveness so pronounced. Artillery shreds vehicles so fast, you'd think the targets might as well have been tissue paper. There's a solid counter to everything, and the challenge becomes finding that solution and deploying it well in countless different micro-scenarios.
Pinning down enemies with suppressing fire is a blast. So, too, is a well-executed offensive that cracks and divides enemy front lines. The adrenaline of pulling together a coordinated attack is priceless, and Steel Division is all about chaining these moments together, directed as they are by an aggressive tie to historical realism. If there's one failing here, it's that the game doesn't offer many chances to explore that rich field on your own before jumping into multiplayer matches. But when it all comes together in the perfect match, Steel Division's magic is undeniable.
The second season of Netflix's sci-fi mystery Stranger Things is one of 2017's most anticipated shows, and it hits the streaming service in October. Now the creators, brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, have been speaking about what fans can expect from the upcoming season.
In an interview with Variety, Ross admitted that knowing the show now had a big following had changed their approach to the next season. "The pressure is we know people are going to watch it," he said. "It's trying to make something that we think they're going to like. We've tried in the writers' room to go, 'Okay, what do we want to see?' And hopefully people will respond to that as well.
"A lot of the story for Season 2 was figured before the show had come out, so we had the big beats figured out already," Matt continued. "Some of the stuff that fans had been asking for, we wanted the same stuff. But the point is not to give everyone what they think they want. Because I don't think they really know what they want."
The Duffers wouldn't give many plot details about Season 2, but did tease that it would feature new monsters. "Hiding the monsters can be more effective than seeing [them], so restraint can be a good thing," Ross said. "I can't talk too much about them, but they're cool."
However, they did confirm that Barb, the fan-favorite character who met a gruesome end in Season 1, wouldn't be back. "There's no resurrecting Barb. It was really surprising how much she took off," Matt said. "I related to her, so I think other people did as well."
In April, David Harbour, who plays cop Jim Hopper, revealed that he had seen the finished first episode of the new season. "I've seen Episode 1 and have seen a lot of the shooting at the monitor and I can honestly say that I am so excited for you all to see this season," he said. "It's so fun and dark and complex. The characters all get to deepen and develop and we get to take on even greater demons (inner and outer). The story moves so fast in the middle and the tension is so high."
A first teaser was screened during the Super Bowl in January--check it out here.
GTA Online's Gunrunning update will launch on June 13, Rockstar Games announced today.
As announced previously, Gunrunning adds new weaponized vehicles, the Mobile Operations Center vehicle, and bunkers where players can store their illegal arms and practice their shots. You can see the content in action in the brand-new trailer released today.
The Gunrunning update will be available on the usual platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC.
In other news, Take-Two recently announced that Grand Theft Auto V has shipped 80 million copies.
By Anonymous on Jun 07, 2017 09:30 pm GameSpot's international team comes together to discuss their hopes for E3 announcements, and their predictions of what the show will have in store.
In ancient Egypt, a Pharaoh's heiress is robbed of her status by the birth of a brother. She lashes out in a rage and unleashes mystical power but is eventually suppressed and mummified, only to be reawakened in the present day, and still eager to claim a position of all-encompassing power. Seeing ancient, magical forces wreak unsuspecting havoc on modern society is a tantalising prospect. But while there is some payoff, The Mummy often gets bogged down in exploring the unremarkable mythology of how and why its titular monster came to be. The cast of mostly one-note characters don't add much to that, leaving the film's brief teases of its expanded universe as the most notable thing about it.
The film begins focused on that lore, jumping between ancient eras in an effort to build anticipation and foreshadow the inevitable events of the film. Eventually, we join Tom Cruise and Jake Johnson from New Girl, who play a couple of unscrupulous American soldiers stationed in the present-day Middle East, and have a knack for getting themselves in hot water while hunting for ancient treasures. We encounter them facing unwinnable odds, but surviving mass destruction nonetheless through dumb luck as a goofy, buddy-cop duo. Jake Johnson is comfortably in his element here, though Cruise comes off worse because of him. Cruise's humorous quips and supposed womanising personality feel insincere by comparison and his jokes never really land, making his lighthearted moments awkward at best, with only a couple of exceptions.
The buddy-cop dynamic doesn't last long, though. When the mummy is finally released into the world, the film shifts to a more ominous tone. Tension becomes the film's primary objective, and it succeeds for a brief time, during the period where characters are still oblivious to the threat at hand. But as the mummy continues to regain her strength away from the main cast, Cruise spends time trying to work out what the hell is going on and how to overcome it, with the help of Annabelle Wallis' archeologist character. But the discovery of this information is given a lot of screentime for what is ultimately superfluous and could have easily been summarized by one of the film's early punchlines: "It's Egyptian." Nevertheless, Wallis' character is devoted to this exposition, guiding Cruise through his discovery of the film's world-building beats, and acting as an emotional foil when necessary.
There is some value that comes out of this, and it revolves around the introduction of Dr. Jekyll (Russell Crowe), who leads a mysterious paramilitary organisation devoted to locating and acquiring creatures of ancient and mystic origin. The influences taken from Marvel's Nick Fury character and his SHIELD organisation are unmistakable, but from the pseudo-scientific methods they use to keep the mummy contained, to the teases of possible monsters to come, to Dr. Jekyll himself, the promise of seeing mysticism go up against modern warfare are the most intriguing parts of the film.
Although her backstory is pedestrian, the titular villain is also interesting in her own right. Sofia Boutella moves with convincingly creepy mystique, and seeing her abilities depicted is entertaining, especially when it comes to showing Cruise's inability to go head-to-head with her. There is also an interesting portrayal of the mummy's curse, which features an aspect of psychological dominance as she manipulates Cruise and others to do her bidding. But because of this mostly uncontested power, a lot of later scenes involve unconvincing chases as Cruise and Wallis run from zombie-like creatures. The threats become more regulated, and scenes of tension are not as well executed, often being undermined by unbelievable outcomes and premature cutaways. Even the climactic world-destroying devastation that arises, though visually stunning, still feels underwhelming with the most disastrous occurrence amounting to a few flipped cars, and a thick layer of dust over everything. Cruise's disaffected character also means that the stakes in these final scenes are ultimately meaningless.
The end of the film leaves you looking ahead to speculate on the future events of the Dark Universe, but those aspects become the only memorable takeaways. Though the mummy herself is an intriguing antagonist, the cast and story structure that support her are mostly uninteresting, making The Mummy a disposable experience at best.
The Good
The Bad
Russell Crowe's Jekyll sparks anticipation for the Dark Universe
New information on Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima's newest project, Death Stranding, has certainly been scarce, but it appears we'll have to wait even longer to learn more about the enigmatic title.
Kojima announced today via Twitter that Death Stranding will not be at this year's E3. Kojima says the reason for this is because his team is "fully focused on development." In typical Kojima fashion, he followed that message with another cryptic tweet, this time of a poster with the word "Bridges" beneath a spider web. While it may not help clarify any details about the game, Kojima says that is the "only new information [he's] able to provide at this time."
Death Stranding is Kojima's first project since the designer parted ways with Konami following the release of Metal Gear Solid V. The game was announced at last year's E3, though much of it remains shrouded in mystery. The title is described as an open-world action game and stars Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus as the protagonist (and features the likeness of actor Mads Mikkelsen and director Guillermo del Toro).
Death Stranding is in development for PS4. The game doesn't have a release window, though Kojima says it will arrive before 2019.
Square Enix has announced Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, the third fighting game featuring characters pulled from across its long-running role-playing series, will be released for PlayStation 4 "in early 2018."
The three-on-three fighting game has been available to play in Japanese arcades for some time now, but this is the first time it will be available on a console. The first Dissidia was released for the PlayStation Portable in 2008.
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is developed by Square Enix in partnership with Team Ninja, the studio behind the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive series, and--more recently--Nioh. Players pick three characters from a range of Final Fantasy heroes and villains, and then pit them against enemy teams in over-the-top brawls.
Fighting takes place from an over-the-shoulder perspective and hallmarks of the series such as magic and summons are a key focus. Check out the video above to see some Final Fantasy Dissidia NT gameplay.
"Offering strategic online and offline play, players can select from over 20 legendary characters and familiar summons, including Ifrit, Shiva and Odin, to bring into 3 vs. 3 battle," reads a press release. "The game also brings back the Dissidia series' unique 'bravery combat system,' alongside unparalleled visuals and seamless gameplay."
Square Enix has also said that producer Ichiro Hazama, director Takeo Kujiraoka, and professional fighting game players Justin Wong and K-Brad will appear at the E3 Coliseum on Tuesday June 13th at 15:15 PDT / 23:15 BST to discuss the game further.
GameSpot will be providing all the latest coverage from E3, including news, previews, and detailed analysis of all the major press conference. You can find out when Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, as well as the major publishers, will have their keynote events using our E3 2017 press conference planner.
[UPDATE] Geoff Keighley has revealed that there will be a one-hour God of War presentation at the E3 Coliseum event to kick things off on June 13. Director Cory Barlog will be there.
E3 Coliseum kick off with an epic 1 hour presentation from @corybarlog and the God of War team. They've been working hard on this one.
The massive poster for Star Wars: Battlefront II is not the only one going up in Los Angeles ahead of E3 2017's official kickoff. Sony is putting up a huge poster for the PlayStation 4-exclusive God of War, suggesting it will have a major presence at the gaming show next week.
Below is a picture of the poster, snapped by Twitter user MonkeyFlop. As you can see, the poster is not quite finished.
That the new God of War would have a major presence during Sony's E3 showing next week is no big surprise, given the franchise is one of Sony's biggest and best known.
The new God of War game was announced at E3 2016, but it was a no-show at PlayStation Experience and we haven't seen much of it at al since the initial reveal. Game director Cory Barlog teased that the wait for new footage will be worth it. "I promise we will be showing something really awesome when it is ready," he said.
With E3 right around the corner, we're putting together lists of all the games you can expect to see at the big-time gaming show. This list is for all the Electronic Arts titles that will be at EA Play, the company's E3 event.
We will continue to update this story as more titles are revealed.
E3 2017 runs June 13-15, with briefings from EA, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Bethesda, and Ubisoft planned for the days before the show kicks off.
This year's Call of Duty: WWII is centered around the European theater of the war. Its single-player campaign includes famous WWII battles and settings, like the D-Day invasion of Normandy and Battle of the Bulge, and primarily stars a young, inexperienced soldier from the US 1st Infantry Division. The game's multiplayer will be familiar to Call of Duty veterans, but it will also introduce a new "War Mode" featuring iconic battles as well as a social space. Call of Duty: WWII launches on November 3 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Below you can find articles highlighting important details we know about the game thus far:
Activision and developer Sledgehammer Games have promised a full multiplayer reveal for Call of Duty: WWII at E3. It will also be playable on the show floor for attendees.
What We Hope To See At E3
It seems like the focus at E3 is on multiplayer. A lot of the game's multiplayer will be familiar for Call of Duty, so we'd specifically like to see the new War Mode in action--it's a team-focused mode set in "iconic" World War II battles, and we're curious if it'll resemble Battlefield 1's Operations mode or something entirely different. It'll also be interesting to see how the game's WWII setting will shape competitive multiplayer.
Of course, It would be great to see something about the Zombies mode. Nazi Zombies in particular has been a fan favorite for a long time, and Sledgehammer could provide a fresh take on the classic.
As for single-player, but Sledgehammer has said that it wants to treat the war with respect. The reveal trailer was pretty bombastic, so it would be nice if the developer took some time during E3 to showcase parts of the campaign that could set Call of Duty: WWII apart from other WWII games. Everything shown so far has been very familiar territory, especially D-Day--E3 is the perfect setting for Sledgehammer to really distinguish its next game.
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GameSpot's international team comes together to discuss their hopes for E3 announcements, and their predictions of what the show will have in store.
With hot new hardware in the hands of gamers what can nintendo do to win over gamers this year at E3?
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