In honor of Game Of Thrones Season 7 Episode 7 "The Dragon and The Wolf", we're giving away Daenerys Targaryen's Dragons plushies and T-Shirts! One (1) winner will be chosen after the giveaway closes on Friday, September 1st at 12:00PM PT.
Open to US residents only, void where prohibited. If you do not win this time, you'll be automatically entered in the next giveaway.
Playerunknown's Battlegrounds has continued to climb the Steam charts since its launch earlier this year, though there was no telling when it would stall out. It recently passed the 800,000 concurrent players mark, leaving it behind only Dota 2. Today, PUBG eclipsed even Valve's hugely popular MOBA game, making it the most-played game on Steam.
PUBG today hit a peak of 877,844 players, almost 40,000 more than Dota 2's highest figure for the day. Although Dota 2 has since returned to the top spot in terms of current players (at least of this writing), this is still an incredible accomplishment, given Dota 2's long-term occupation of the No. 1 spot.
This is not an all-time record for Steam, as Dota 2 has previously seen more than 1 million players in a single day. At this point, amazingly enough, that seems possible for PUBG--its popularity only continues to grow, and there's no sign of that slowing down. Keep in mind the shooter remains in Early Access, and this only becomes more impressive.
Capcom has announced Menat, a new DLC fighter for Street Fighter V, will be available on August 29. A trailer for the character was shown during the Hong Kong Esports Festival where the latest leg of the Capcom Pro Tour competition is being held. You can see Menat in action in the video below.
Menat is a female Egyptian character that manipulates orbs as part of her fighting style. Naturally, the first point of comparison for her is Rose, a character from the Alpha/Zero series. Like Rose, Menat is able to reflect projectiles and can summon them to surround her as part of her V-Trigger move.
It seems like players will be able to position their orbs on a stage to control space and also send them at an opponent or call them back on command, which will be handy for creating lengthy combos and juggling enemies. In the gameplay trailer she can be seen knocking Ryu into the air and then calling an orb back, which hits Ryu into the air again and extends the juggle. At this point she grabs him out of the air and brings him crashing to the ground. The orbs also look to be very useful for pushing and pulling opponents into ideal attacking distances, even when they're blocking.
Unlike Rose, however, Menat has a dive kick and has a number of grab moves on top of the universal throw that every fighter has. Her V-Reversal is a teleport, which means she'll be pretty handy for escaping corner setups. A number of costumes will also be available for Menat when she becomes available and you can take a look at them below.
Menat is available to purchase individually for $6 or as part of the game's $30 Season 2 Character Pass. This pass also includes Akuma, Kolin, Ed, and Abigail.
The last DLC character for Street Fighter V was Abigail, who became available in early August. Abigail is a beefy bruiser that originally appeared in Capcom's Final Fight series, and stands as the tallest Street Fighter character to date.
Capcom also previously revealed more DLC costumes for Street Fighter V's character. Four new outfits be available from August 29 to coincide with the fighting game series' 30th anniversary. The costumes are for M. Bison, Guile, Ibuki, and Karin, and each one retails for $4 each. You can see screenshots of the outfits here.
Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a go. The remake of the original Yakuza 2 is expected later this year on PS4, and even has some snazzy limited edition releases coming at launch.
Yakuza Kiwami 2 surfaced just a few days ago thanks to a leak on Taiwan's PSN. Fans knew it was coming, but we didn't have any official word. Sega has now announced that the remake actually is coming, alongside a new Fist of the North Star title and Yakuza Online.
Gematsu reports the game is being made in Yakuza 6's Dragon Engine, and will include new scenarios with new stories and playable characters. The most notable is "Truth of Majima Goro," in which Majima Goro is playable. The original game's voice cast will not reprise their roles, and instead be replaced by a new one. Japanese alternative band SiM will be doing the title's theme song.
The limited edition will include the game, a three disc Kiwami set with the soundtrack and two CDs based on Kazuma Kiryu and Majima Goro, 10 character business cards, downloadable content including exclusive costumes, weapons, characters and one million in-game yen, a PS4 theme and avatars, and limited edition packaging. There will also be two different themed 500GB and 1TB PS4 slim systems with the same Yakuza Kiwami 2 design in black and white; these systems will most likely be Japan exclusive.
Yakuza Kiwami 2 is set for release in Japan on December 7, 2017. Localization information has not yet been released.
The team behind Yakuza has announced that it's working on a game inspired by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara's Fist of the North Star. The forthcoming title, Hokuto ga Gotoku, is expected to launch for PS4 sometime in 2018 in Japan.
Fist of the North Star was a manga series that initially began in 1983 and ended in 1988. It featured a muscly warrior named Kenshiro in the 1990s after a nuclear war wiped out most of humanity. Kenshiro is the successor to a deadly form of martial arts called Hokuto Shinken, and with this power, he protects the weak and innocent. During its peak, it spurred two anime series, several OVAs, video games, and the like.
This version of the game is presumably after the events of the manga series as Gematsu reports that the story revolves around Kenshiro exacting revenge and searching for his "dead" fiancee, Yuria, in Eden. The rumor of her still living is his only hope as he goes around the world punishing baddies after his own death--and these baddies might just have something to do with the Big Dipper scars on his chest.
With any luck, we'll be seeing more on this forthcoming title in the near future. At this time, no localization details have been announced. Until then, Yakuza Kiwami, a remake of the original Yakuza,is due out later this week. Its sequel is being remade as well.
Divinity: Original Sin II is due out on PC in just a few weeks, and the team at Larian Studios is has announced that the title's 1,200 different characters will be fully voice acted.
Yes, every single character, from the main cast to every other NPC along the way, will be voiced. To break that down, Divinity: Original Sin II's scripts feature one million words, 74,000 lines, and 1,200 different characters with 80 actors to do them all. That's some pretty impressive work to make sure the final title wouldn't have any of what the team calls "cheese vendoring."
With so many voices and so many origin stories, the team claims that you won't be able to hear them all in one playthrough. Get ready to play through this game several times to get every piece of lore and story you can.
Divinity: Original Sin II is the sequel to Divinity: Original Sin and netted over $2 million from 40,000 fans on Kickstarter. The title is available now on Steam's Early Access and will launch fully for the platform this September 14.
The level cap is now 25. As a result of the level cap increase, players can now unlock things like the Bouncing Betty mine and the Fighter Pilot scorestreak.
Additionally, Sledgehammer Games updated fans on some of the feedback it has received since the beta went live earlier this week on PS4. The studio is working on fixes for a number of crash scenarios, while Sledgehammer also said the final version of the game will have a colorblind setting in the menu.
The first wave of the Call of Duty: WWII "Private Beta" runs until August 28, while a second weekend is coming up September 1-4. Xbox One and PC users will presumably get to play the beta at some point, too.
We love the positive reactions to the new overhead camera esports feature. In response to feedback about visibility of objectives, especially Hardpoints, we are currently working on solutions for launch.
Some players are reporting getting trapped in an update loop after they are prompted to restart their game to complete an update of the client. We have been resolving these through basic troubleshooting and are investigating further steps.
You have asked about a color blind setting in the menu. While not in the Beta, we have been working to have this for launch.
In response to all the requests for bumper jumper configuration, we also plan to support this for launch.
We've heard your feedback regarding playlist variety, and have made some adjustments to improve this. You know what else would improve it? More maps and modes.
We've heard your feedback on the Paratroopers Scorestreak having some edge case issues. We made some adjustments today, but they didn't address the core issue in the way we wanted. We've got new fixes coming soon.
We are investigating a bug that causes some players to be kicked back to the Main Menu after accepting an invite from the load screen of any map.
There is a bug causing the title to crash when an invitee accepts an invite while entering a match when the inviter is also entering the match.
Some of you have noted that the incendiary shells feel too strong. We're looking into data to determine if a nerf is needed.
Improvements to Party UI / UX are underway. Implementation date is still TBD, but know that we are actively working on it.
"Obviously we'd have to think about what the meaning and what the significance of bringing this to Switch would be," he explained. "You know, whether people would want to play it and whether it would be the right thing to do for our team."
Right now, the Pocket Edition "doesn't actually have controller support," Tabata clarified.
Earlier this week during Twitch's Gamescom livestream, Tabata said Square Enix wants to "move out and do as much as we can with this game." He went on to tease that a lot of developers at Square Enix are enthusiastic about a console that sounds a lot like Twitch, so you can connect the dots there and get at what he means.
Final Fantasy XV's Pocket Edition is a mobile adaptation of the RPG, with a cute, chibi-esque art style. Gameplay looks to be in the isometric action RPG style, with "casual touch controls optimized for mobile devices." The video above shows off Pocket Edition's recreation of the early scene where Noctis and company have to push the Regalia to a garage after it breaks down. Later, it shows off what navigating the world and combat look like--and we also see that Ignis is still happy to cook the gang a meal.
Pocket Edition will split Final Fantasy XV's main story into ten separate episodes. These will all be available at the same time later this year, with Episode 1 being a free download.
With over 800,000 concurrent users on Steam, Battlegrounds is well ahead of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Grand Theft Auto V. It's still behind the No. 1 game on the list, Valve's free-to-play juggernaut Dota 2, but not by much. The chart below only shows figures for today, but Dota 2 has exceeded 1 million concurrent players before.
As for a sales figure, the game has passed 8 million copies sold, which is incredible when you consider it's only been out since March and isn't even finished yet.
Last month, we invited GameSpot readers to ask any question about the dinosaur-survival game Ark: Survival Evolved. We selected some questions and put them to Jesse Rapczak, the co-creative director, art, and technical art director on the game.
You can find the questions and answers below. Among other things, Rapczak spoke about split-screen support, the possibility of supernatural elements coming to the game, how mean comments affects the team, why there is no cross-play, and a whole lot more.
Ark: Survival Evolved has been in Early Access on PC for more than two years, and unfinished versions of the game are available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The full launch, which will be available digitally and on a disc at retail, is slated for August 29.
"The Windows 10 version of the game will support local splitscreen, since it is based on the Xbox version of the game. We're still evaluating whether to add local splitscreen to the Steam version. Stay tuned!"
"Do you ever plan on adding an overt supernatural element to the game, even as an option? Not so far as a magic system, but anything that strays from the science fiction atmosphere?" -- Submitted by Nerdonomicon
"We are huge fans of fantasy and mythical themes, especially when it comes to designing amazing visuals, lore and gameplay to go with them. While Ark is primarily a Sci-Fi universe, we have already dabbled pretty deep into fantasy themes with Ark: Scorched Earth, adding Wyverns, Rock Elementals, and the ruins of an ancient human civilization obsessed with worshipping the Obelisks and the Manticore. More recently, we added an exciting Griffin that can be tamed on the official Ragnarok mod map. Be sure to check this stuff out if you haven't already, and remember that Ragnarok will be coming to consoles at the end of August!"
Rapczak
"Are you sure it's ready to come out of early access? Considering there are still numerous bugs and performance issues across a number of systems, how confident are you people will pick this game up for double the price it was for early access?" -- Submitted by Smalwex
"We definitely are ready to come out of Early Access, but that doesn't mean we're ending development! Now that the console versions have hit Gold Master, many of the biggest issues in the multiplayer game are being addressed over the next few weeks with the team focused especially on PC optimizations and bug fixing leading up to launch.
Our server refresh and cheating fixes being deployed are intended to fix a lot of the remaining problems players have been seeing with the live game. We are already seeing a tremendous amount of pre-launch interest in the retail version of the console game, and strongly believe that Ark's retail price is a great value at launch--especially for new players!"
"Is there a possibility at some future point that Windows 10/XBL users would be able to play with those that purchased on steam? At some point could the Windows 10 version possibly be activated on steam?" -- Submitted by Groto
"We have said it before and we'll say it again--we want everyone to play together! While there are no issues with Steam, the main hurdle is Sony's policy against PS4 cross-network play with Xbox. We just don't have the time or resources to make multiple versions of the PC game and servers that support cross play with only one console platform (and it's confusing for end users).When the day comes that Xbox Live and PSN players are allowed to play together, we'll be first in line to support it."
"For the full release of the PC version, are you planning any additional anti-cheat measures? Do you think cheaters at this moment in time pose a serious risk for the game and people's enjoyment of it?" -- Submitted by Wiro_
"Prior to the retail launch we are rolling out new server code and infrastructure necessary to prevent critical issues such as server crashing exploits, duping, and DDoSing. This will be deployed on a new server network that will give new players the best experience on launch day. Legacy servers will still be supported, although we plan to remove low population servers over time." (more info here)
"Have any of the negative comments every pushed you to curl up on the couch with a pint of ice cream and just binge your favorite show on Netflix?" -- Submitted by Louis
"I think it's important to remember that we're all hard-working human beings, making huge personal sacrifices to ship a game that we can all be proud of. The internet can be quite mean and nasty sometimes, and I'd be lying if I said hurtful comments don't affect us. That being said, we try not to take the bad stuff personally and appreciate ALL feedback: Good, Bad and Ugly. Negative remarks that aren't simply intended to be insulting often contain valuable feedback, which is why we choose to develop the way we do, with as much transparency and two-way communication as possible."
"How much longer do you feel you can work on this game before you move to something else? Would you consider handing the continuing support of the game to others?" -- Submitted by Louis
"Ark has proven to be a hugely successful IP with staying power, so we don't plan to stop developing it any time soon. We have exciting plans and lots of ideas to extend Ark over the next few years, and you'll be hearing about them soon."
"Do you have a preference for the future of Ark? Do you feel more effort will be put towards new maps, or trying to build in an adventure element? Or will there be a push for yet another level to the tech? Or Filling out what's there?" -- Submitted by Wiro_
"All of the above! We very much feel that Ark is an IP that transcends one game, and you'll be hearing more about Ark's future following the retail launch on August 29th. Stop by our booth at GamesCom (Aug 22 - 26) or PAX West (Sep 1 - 4) to find out more - it's going to be an exciting ride!"
"Good news! We have some nice PC optimizations coming for retail launch based on the console work we recently completed. It's important to remember that Ark's world is fully dynamic, and while we have created countless proprietary optimization techniques, Ark can't benefit from being optimized in the same ways that many other games can.
Nearly every tree and bush can be removed, most medium-sized rocks can be demolished, players can build massive structures everywhere, hundreds of AI creatures can be tamed from tens-of-thousands out in the wild, and we still want to use advanced dynamic lighting techniques and highly-detailed assets. That's why our system requirements are higher than many games if you want to turn some of those features on, and performance can depend on a lot of factors related to what you've managed to get on screen.
"I have always wondered if there are any plans to get private games more improved to allow further player distances instead of being close to the host?" -- Submitted by LLamasOnTheRun
"For console, this is a problem of memory. Xbox One, PS4 and PS4 Pro just don't have enough memory to keep the entire world loaded while also playing the game. Fortunately, the Xbox One X has massive amounts of extra memory, so we plan to remove the host barrier when the host is using an Xbox One X!"
"Will the two follow-up Expansions announced for the Season Pass complete and close the Ark Storyline entirely or is there potential for additional Expansion content not included in the initial Season Pass?" -- -- Submitted by Cyanicember
"As long as Ark players are interested in the type of content we are creating for the Season Pass, we'll continue making it! We have lots of ideas and a full-time writer on staff to help us develop the Ark story further. In the meantime, have you read all the Explorer Notes yet??"
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