By Anonymous on Aug 25, 2017 12:15 am This month, Xbox One owners can grab Forza Motorsport 5 and Oxenfree, while 360 gamers can get their hands on Hydro Thunder Hurricane and Battlefield 3.
A new expansion for the Pokemon TCG recently launched, and to celebrate, there's a new video of a Pikachu horde fighting in a battle. A dance battle.
In the video, a group of life-size Pikachu dance their way to victory against Team Skull, the antagonists of Pokemon Sun and Moon. Watch it below.
The Sun and Moon Burning Shadows expansion includes a Guzma supporter card, which was popular at last weekend's Pokemon World Championships. The leader of Team Skull allows you to switch one of your opponent's benched Pokemon with the Pokemon they currently have active in play--and in turn, you switch your own Pokemon as well.
Burning Shadows was released on August 4. The next TCG expansion, Shining Legends, is coming October 6 and will add over 75 cards to the Sun and Moon set.
Quake Champions launched this week into paid Early Access, and today Amazon revealed that there's an easy way to get some free stuff for the game. The newest Amazon/Twitch Prime promotion gives subscribers loot, a weapon skin, and a name plate for use in Quake.
Subscribers can grab a Twitch-branded rocket launcher skin, Twitch name plate and player icon, and three loot chests. These chests include two cosmetic items each, such as shaders and weapon skins.
As with other Prime freebies, this one's only available if you link your Amazon Prime and Twitch Accounts. You can do that by going to Twitch, logging in, and connecting to your Prime account. The Quake freebies are available from today until September 23. Right now, Twitch Prime members can also get a bunch of loot in other games, such as Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, LawBreakers, Madden NFL 18, and Warframe.
As for Quake Champions, the game is playable in Early Access right now if you purchase the $30 Champions Pack. Although it'll eventually have a free-to-play version, the game is currently locked to those who buy the pack. However, those who played the game during its closed beta will still be able to play a restricted version for free.
More new games are now available in the Nintendo Switch Eshop. Today, three titles have been added to the hybrid console's digital store, with one major release following early next week.
Headlining today's batch of new games is Forma.8, a stylish, Metroidvania-style adventure. The game puts players in the role of the eponymous exploration probe and tasks them with exploring a labyrinthine, alien world teeming with power-ups and enemies. Switch owners can pick up Forma.8 for $10/£9.
Forma.8
Today's batch of releases also includes the requisite Neo Geo game. This time, it's Puzzled, a falling-block puzzler reminiscent of Tetris. The object here is to clear a vertical path in the tower of blocks to allow an airship to travel to the top of the screen. Like other ACA NeoGeo titles, Puzzled costs $8/£6.29.
Rounding out today's releases is another puzzle game, Piczle Lines DX. This title challenges players with completing hidden pictures by drawing lines between pairs of numbers. The game features 100 levels in its Story mode and over 200 puzzles in Puzzle mode, with more content set to come as free updates. Piczle Lines DX retails for $15/£14.
These three games join Minecraft: Story Mode - The Complete First Adventure, which made its Switch debut earlier this week. That title includes all five episodes of Story Mode's first season, as well as all three episodes from its Adventure Pass. Next week, August's marquee Switch game, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, arrives for the console. We recently learned the title will have a season pass, which will give players access to exclusive weapons and additional story content down the line. Mario + Rabbids releases on August 29.
Bandai Namco has announced a release date for Tekken 7's first major piece of downloadable content. The fittingly titled DLC 1 pack launches next week, on August 31.
The biggest feature of the upcoming DLC pack is Ultimate Tekken Bowl, the bowling mini-game that debuted in Tekken Tag Tournament for PlayStation 2. As you can probably gather from its name, Ultimate Tekken Bowl allows players to hit the lanes with their favorite characters for a 10-pin game of bowling. You can watch new footage of the mode in the trailer below.
In addition to Ultimate Tekken Bowl, the DLC pack also includes an assortment of new character costumes. Players will get the following outfits as part of DLC 1:
Blood Vengeance school uniforms (Xiaoyu and Alisa)
Swimsuits (all female fighters)
Vintage 1920s bathing suits
Idol Master-themed costumes (all female fighters)
Traditional Japanese Fundoshi (all male fighters)
Tekken 7's DLC 1 pack is included in the game's $25 season pass. Players in the Americas also have the option to purchase it individually; we've reached out to Bandai Namco for pricing details. Tekken 7's most recent slew of DLC released last month and introduced one new paid fighter, Eliza, and an assortment of free items based on the Taiko Drum Master series.
Blizzard is starting to feel more and more like Disney. While games like Warcraft and Overwatch have established a reputation for high-quality cinematic trailers, Hearthstone's animated offerings have tended to only serve as introductions to upcoming content releases. But that changed today; as part of its Gamescom presence, Blizzard revealed the first of it Heathstone-themed animated shorts.
In what Blizzard promises to be "the first in an upcoming series," the mini-movie above is a musical number that provides an even stronger frame story for the world of Hearthstone, which is itself just a game set within the world of Warcraft's Azeroth. Also, it looks like something straight out of Pixar.
The shorts will have a recurring cast, which Blizzard outlined in a press release below:
Harth Stonebrew: The Tavern's jolly dwarven proprietor is a welcoming and gracious host.
Ava: A curious teenage girl with an indomitable, resilient spirit and a knack for Hearthstone.
Malto: This kindly old mage is a source of wisdom and encouragement.
Sarge: Sarge is no ordinary mouse--Malto's magical companion is the heart of the Tavern.
Lou: A boisterous, happy-go-lucky paladin with a positive attitude. The life of the party.
Fewz and Wick: These goblin brothers provide thrilling commentary for the Tavern's most heated Hearthstone matches.
Velaris: This snooty blood elf's card collection is dwarfed only by the size of his ego.
Roberta "Bertie" Clickfizzle: A brilliant gnome whose curiosity knows no bounds.She's in her element when tinkering with unique deck ideas.
Urk: This orc loves playing aggressive decks, but watch out! He has anger issues and has even been known to flip a table or two.
You can see some more shots of the trailer below.
In addition to the new Hearthstone short, Blizzard also revealed a bittersweet cinematic for Overwatch today, which sheds light on Mei's journey from scientist to icicle-shooting hero.
With September approaching, it's nearly time for the next batch of free games for Xbox Live Gold subscribers. Microsoft today announced the four titles that will be available across Xbox One and Xbox 360 through Games With Gold, and there are some quality ones in there.
September starts off with Forza Motorsport 5: Game of the Year Edition, an Xbox One launch game, being free for Gold members. The timing is perhaps a bit odd, with Forza Motorsport 7 launching in early October, but this may be meant as a teaser for that game. The Game of the Year Edition comes with a Top Gear DLC car pack that introduces another 10 vehicles to the game.
Halfway through the month, on September 16, Xbox One owners will also be able to grab Oxenfree. The atmospheric, dialogue-driven adventure game first released early last year, making it the much newer of the two Xbox One games for the month.
On the Xbox 360 side, the first half of September brings Hydro Thunder Hurricane, the water-based racing game. It'll be followed by Battlefield 3 starting on September 16. Both of these games are playable on Xbox One through backwards compatibility.
Most of August's free Games With Gold titles remain available for the next week. One of those games, Trials Fusion, will remain free through September 15.
September 2017 Games With Gold
Xbox One
Trials Fusion (August 16-September 15)
Forza Motorsport 5: Game of the Year Edition (September 1-30)
A big update to Fortnite is on the way next week. With Epic's new game now available in early access, the cooperative shooter will introduce a new, limited-time mode, as well as a number of other things.
Fortnite's new mode is Survive the Storm. As the name suggests, it's a Survival mode that involves making it through a storm that brings with it various modifiers, including enraged husks and limited health. Players are tasked with collecting resources during the daytime when it's safe before facing waves of enemies when night rolls in.
Special loot is available for playing Survive the Storm, although few specifics were shared. We do know you earn tickets for doing so, which can then be used to acquire nine "high-impact" weapons from the new hydraulic set. You can get a glimpse of some of these in the trailer above, and see everything new in the image gallery.
Also coming in this update are new heroes and defenders, along with new art for the Canny Valley Outpost, which had until now been unfinished. Unspecified performance improvements arrive in this patch, too.
The Survive the Storm update launches on August 29, although we don't know at this point how long the titular mode will be available for. Fortnite itself is available now in paid early access on PC, PS4, and Xbox One ahead of its full free-to-play release in 2018. You can check out GameSpot's early access Fortnite review here.
DC's upcoming Justice League movie features many well-known and iconic heroes from comic book lore, but one of those characters isn't as familiar to the average moviegoer: Cyborg. However, Joe Morton--who plays the character's father, Dr. Silas Stone--says that while Cyborg may be unknown to some, there is enough in the film to introduce him and make people care about the character.
While promoting the theatrical re-release of Terminator 2: 3D, Morton--who played Cyberdyne Systems employee Miles Dyson--discussed his role in Justice League as the father of Cyborg. We were first introduced to Dr. Silas Stone in 2016's Batman v. Superman during a string of clips introducing the audience to Flash, Aquaman, Silas, and Victor Stone (AKA Cyborg).
Aside from the pages of DC Comics, the superhero has appeared in a few animated series, Smallville, and most recently, Injustice 2; however, the character still doesn't have the reach--nor the same time in the spotlight--as his Justice League counterparts. "Some characters you'll know better than others," Morton told GameSpot. "Flash, there's been a lot of stuff about Flash, either on TV or I think [he] even has a movie coming out. There are certain characters that the audience knows because they have a history. Batman and the rest of it. They all have history. I think the only folks that'll know about Silas Stone and Cyborg are the comic book geeks, the folks who really, really know the comic books.
"I suppose on that level they are relatively new characters to get to know and supposedly what will happen after Justice League, at some point, is there will be a movie that centers on Cyborg, so you'll get a better picture on who he is and what his life and what his whole thing is about."
While there have been many fans critical of DC and Warner Bros. for first introducing characters in a team movie, there are plenty of examples where this has worked in the past: Wonder Woman in BvS, Punisher in Daredevil, Black Widow in Iron Man 2, Hawkeye in Thor, and even Guardians of the Galaxy introduced the world to five lesser-known cosmic Marvel characters without any problem at all. However, this isn't the end-all, be-all for Cyborg, as he will get his own solo film in 2020: Justice League is just a taste.
That's not to say there won't be any insight into who Cyborg is in Justice League. According to Morton, the film will provide the audience with some of his backstory: "With Cyborg, and with Silas Stone, you're getting sort of the outside story. You'll get to know them vis-a-vis the death of Cyborg's mother. You'll get to know what Silas did in terms of reconstructing his son. You'll get to know the angst that's sort of created between Silas and Victor, his son. So I would imagine in the same sort of ways you're going to get to know the other characters.
"What I love about what they've done so far, to me--especially because the character is African American--is you get to, in a metaphorical sort of way, understand the difficulty of being 'the other.' Cyborg, unlike the other superheroes, has no alias to hide behind. He is who and what he is. So when he walks down the street, that's who you see, and people are obviously afraid of him."
Whether or not the audience is familiar with the character as they head into the theater doesn't matter, as it's the job of the filmmakers to sculpt, mold, and make the hero compelling as the movie progresses. From what it sounds like, there will be more than enough to make Cyborg just as interesting as the rest of the team.
Ahead of its release next month, Nintendo has shared a new trailer for Metroid: Samus Returns, the first new Metroid game in seven years. Despite being a remake of the series' lone Game Boy installment, Metroid II, Samus Returns introduces a number of new elements to the adventure, many of which were showcased in today's trailer.
In addition to the game's new melee counter, the biggest additions to Samus Returns are the Aeion abilities, four unique powers fueled by a special energy bar. One of the first Aeion abilities we got to see was the Scan Pulse. This power lets players scan their surroundings, revealing destructible blocks and hidden paths.
The remaining three Aeion abilities were shown off in today's trailer. The Beam Burst ability greatly enhances the power and firing rate of Samus's arm cannon. Lightning Armor is more defensive, making Samus temporarily invulnerable to attacks and allowing her to pass through hazards. The final ability, Phase Drift, allows Samus to slow down time around her.
The trailer also gives fans a look at some of the power-ups Samus will acquire during the course of the game. Along with the Morph Ball, players will obtain the usual array of staple Metroid weapons, including the Ice Beam, Space Jump, Spider Ball, and Grapple Beam. The latter appears to have a new function this time around; in addition to allowing Samus to swing across chasms, the bounty hunter can be seen using it to pull and destroy a block at one point in the trailer.
Final Fantasy XV may not be getting a sequel, but Square Enix continues to support it through a combination of DLC and free updates. The latest example of the latter arrives in just a week's time in the form of an unexpected crossover event with Assassin's Creed.
With the release of an update next week, Lestallum will be home to the limited-time Assassin's Festival event. This will bring mini-games and exclusive items, as well as "gameplay elements from the Assassin's Creed game series," which appear to include the ability to perform a Leap of Faith right in the middle of the city.
The items include Medjay's Assassin's Robes that all four main characters can wear to resemble Assassins. Noctis can also get Master Assassin's Robes through the Dream Egg, which comes from the Moogle Chocobo Carnival that returned recently and runs through the end of September. As the trailer above shows, it's all a bit dissonant--there's something strange about seeing Noctis and company dressed like Assassins in Eos while Cindy sits around in her usual outfit.
The Assassin's Festival begins on August 31 and will run until January 31, 2018. A free update will arrive at the end of the month for both PS4 and Xbox One players. At this point, we don't know if there are plans to have it return again in the future, or if PC players will ever get to see it once Final Fantasy XV arrives on computers next year. There's also no word on if we might see this year's Assassin's Creed game, Origins, include some Final Fantasy-themed content.
Telltale has ported its episodic adventure games to almost every modern platform--including mobile devices--so it was only a matter of time before it started bringing them to Nintendo Switch. Today, Nintendo confirmed that Switch versions of the first seasons of Telltale's Batman and Guardians of the Galaxy series are on the way.
On Twitter, Nintendo of America stated that the Telltale games are being ported to the console. "Get ready to defend the galaxy or become the Dark Knight when more [Telltale] adventures arrive on Nintendo Switch!" the company wrote.
The news was first teased by Job Stauffer, Telltale's head of creative communications, in an interview with Rocket Beans TV at Gamescom. Following the recent release of Minecraft: Story Mode on Switch, Stauffer commented, "I think you can expect to see other titles like Batman, Guardians of the Galaxy, maybe Minecraft Season 2 in the future." In addition, the Switch ports were leaked way back in March by listings from retailers.
There's been no official announcement of Minecraft Season 2 yet, although Nintendo's tweet seems vague enough to leave open the possibility of more Telltale ports later on. There's no release date yet for Batman or Guardians of the Galaxy.
In other Telltale news, the studio recently announced and released the first episode of Batman: The Enemy Within, the second season of its Batman series. In his 8/10 review of the episode, GameSpot's Tamoor Hussain wrote, "While gameplay is not markedly different, combat is tweaked just enough to make it an improvement over its previous iteration. Overall, The Enigma is a successful opening chapter to a Batman story that's shaping up to be more ambitious than anything Telltale attempted in the first season."
Nintendo's SNES Classic is all the rage right now. Unfortunately, it isn't set to launch until September 29, 2017, and it's almost impossible to pre-order right now. Fortunately, we can show you how to build your own little SNES Classic emulator using a Raspberry Pi mini-computer right now.
What You'll Need
Super Tinytendo Case with Cooling Fan
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
iBuffalo classic USB gamepad
5V 2.5A power supply
Micro SD card
USB stick
HDMI cable
Philips head screwdriver
Note: We want to strongly state that we do not condone piracy in any way. This means we will not provide ROM download links in this story. It is vital to ensure that you've purchased legitimate copies of any ROMs you intend to download.
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
Developed in the UK, the Raspberry Pi is designed to be a small single-board computer geared towards tinkerers. We're going with the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, which is the latest version of the computing device. With its 64-bit quad-core 1.2GHz Broadcom CPU and 1GB of RAM, it has more than enough firepower to run any 16-bit game you throw at it. It also supports four USB ports, a full-size HDMI connection, and has a Micro SD card slot. The fact that this much computing costs just $40 is icing on the cake.
Price: $39.99
Super Tinytendo Case
This is the Super Tinytendo Case. It's designed by Collector Craft, and as the name implies, it's a super tiny homage to the SNES chassis. It measures 4.7x1.5x3.9 inches and has cut-outs designed to work specifically with the Raspberry Pi 3. It also comes with an internal fan, which helps keep the Pi cool.
Price: $29.99
iBuffalo Classic USB Gamepad
While you can use almost any USB controller with the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, it won't feel like an authentic SNES experience without the proper controller. That's why we went with the iBuffalo Classic USB Gamepad, which is modeled after Nintendo's variant.
Price: $15
Canakit 5V 2.5A Raspberry Pi 3 power supply
While the Raspberry Pi 3 is almost a steal for its price, it unfortunately does not come with a power supply. To power it, you'll need a 5V 2.5A adapter. We recommend Canakit's solution.
Price: $9.99
Micro SD Card
Super Nintendo ROMs are often very small, so you don't need a high-capacity Micro SD card. We went with SanDisk's Ultra 16GB module, which offers plenty of storage.
Price: $9.95
USB stick
The easiest way to transfer ROMs from your computer to the Pi is with a USB stick. You can use any USB stick as long as it's formatted as FAT32 or NTFS. You can use Windows Disk Management to reformat it in the event that it isn't formatted appropriately.
The Building Process: Open Up The Case
The first thing you'll need to do to build the SNES Classic emulator is to flip the Super Tinytendo Case upside down and remove the four Phillips screws. This will allow you to open up the chassis.
The Building Process: Prep The Pi
Once you have it open, you'll see an additional four screws inside. Unscrew these so you can seat the Raspberry Pi into the chassis.
The Building Process: Seat The Pi
With the screws removed, lay the Raspberry Pi down. Make sure that the ports on the Pi align with their respective cut-outs on the case. From here, tighten the four Phillips screws back into place to secure the system.
The Building Process: Plug In The Case Fan
From here, plug the case fan cable into the Pi. You'll need to plug it towards the top left array of pins, but make sure you skip one pin and ensure that the red cable faces outwards to the left.
The Building Process: Close The Case
From here, flip the case upside down and screw the chassis' four screws back in. Then you can plug in the HDMI cable from your TV/monitor and controller's USB cord into the system.
Download RetroPie
After you've assembled the hardware, the first thing you'll want to do is download the latest version of RetroPie, which is our SNES emulator. You'll want to download the Raspberry Pi 3 variant for our model.
Once you've downloaded it, you'll need to use an extracting program like 7-zip to extract the .gz file so you can get access to the .img file within.
Now insert your Micro SD card into your computer. From here, you'll need to download image mounting software so that you can mount the .img file to your Micro SD card. Windows users should download Win32DiskImager (Mac users can download the equivalent Apple Pi Baker software). From here, open up the mounting program and locate the .img file and let the software write to the card. This will begin the mounting process. Once that's complete, insert the Micro SD card into your Pi (with the label-side facing down) and power it on by plugging in the AC adapter.
Configure The Controller
Your Raspberry Pi will take a few seconds before it boots up to RetroPie's Emulationstation interface. With your USB controller plugged in, it will detect your gamepad and ask that you configure it. This amounts to a straightforward process where you map your buttons.
Loading ROMs onto your USB stick
Drag your legal ROMs into this folder.
The easiest way to load ROMs from your computer onto the Raspberry Pi is with a USB stick. We want to reiterate to you that we do not condone piracy in any way and would like to remind you that you should purchase legitimate copies of any games you intend to download ROMs for.
With that out of the way, insert the USB stick into your computer and create a folder called "retropie". Now take it out of your computer and plug it into the Rasberry Pi and give it a few seconds for the system to create directories within the folder you just created.
Once this process is complete, unplug the USB stick from the Pi and plug it back into your computer. From here, you'll notice that it has created a ROMs folder and an SNES directory within that folder. You can drag any unzipped, legal SNES ROMs you may have downloaded into this folder.
From here, unplug the USB stick and re-insert it back into the Pi. Give it a few seconds for the RetroPie emulation software to copy the game/s over. Another way you can tell if the copying is complete is if the lights on the Pi stop blinking rapidly. Once this process is finished, restart the Emulationstation software on the Pi and your SNES Classic Emulator will be good to go.
One of the great things about our Raspberry Pi system is that it isn't relegated to just SNES games. In general, you should be able to run games from the 8-bit and 16-bit era. This includes Sega Genesis or NES ROMs, too. Just make sure that you are using legal ROMs.
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This month, Xbox One owners can grab Forza Motorsport 5 and Oxenfree, while 360 gamers can get their hands on Hydro Thunder Hurricane and Battlefield 3.
A major new event kicks off in Final Fantasy XV's Lestallum at the end of the month on PS4 and Xbox One.
Lucy and Dave scour the Gamescom show floor to find the weirdest and best things to buy for only €30.
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