The next big Nintendo Switch game, Fire Emblem Warriors, launches later this week, and like many other titles nowadays, it'll receive a slate of additional downloadable content following its release. Nintendo has now shared some more details on what kind of content fans will get with Fire Emblem Warriors' various DLC.
Each DLC pack will retail individually for $9/£8.09. Nintendo will also offer a season pass that includes all three for a discounted $20/£18. Players who purchase the season pass will receive a bridal costume for Lucina as a bonus. In addition to that, Nintendo also announced a Japanese voice pack will be released alongside the game as a free download.
Fire Emblem Warriors launches for Nintendo Switch and New 3DS on Friday, October 20. That same day, Nintendo will release two new Amiibo figures of Chrom and Tiki, which will give players the items Chrom's Training Sword and Tiki's Tear when scanned in the game for the first time. You can learn more about the title in GameSpot's Fire Emblem Warriors review.
According to V-Jump (via Siliconera), the newest characters to join the Xenoverse 2 roster will be Android 13 and Taipon. Both of the warriors hail from different Dragon Ball Z movies. Android 13 is the title villain in the film Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13, while Taipon is the legendary hero who appears in Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon. Both will be released as paid DLC, though the magazine didn't specify a release date or pricing details.
In addition to Android 13 and Taipon, Bandai Namco will release a slate of new costumes for Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. The Universe 2 and Universe 11 battle outfits will come to the game as paid DLC. There will also be a new Hero Colosseum facility that introduces additional story content and allows players to battle each other using figures. Gematsu reports the Hero Colosseum will be a free addition to the game.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The game also recently released for Nintendo Switch. The Switch version allows two players to play together using a single Joy-Con each and lets you use gestures to perform signature Dragon Ball attacks. You can read more about the title in GameSpot's Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 review.
The race is officially underway, as the delayed Leviathan Prestige Raid is now live in Destiny 2. Bungie has rolled out the harder version of the Raid, and Fireteams are now competing to become the first to conquer the challenge.
Going in, Bungie has not detailed exactly what's different. "Mechanical changes to the encounters are minimal, but they are there," it said recently. Based on early reports, players can expect to encounter eight dogs rather than six, and there may be an additional Psion to kill in the Gauntlet. Revive tokens are still active, meaning teams will need to coordinate who handles resurrecting each other. Additionally, the process of running in The Gauntlet is different, as there are only three orbs inside, rather than four. We'll report back as more changes are uncovered.
Bungie has warned players that it does "not expect everyone to be successful in completing this activity," as it's intended to be a real challenge. The developer described it as a "more punishing sandbox," but it's not intended to raise your Power level. Instead, players can expect "unique rewards to help you shine."
We teamed up with Blizzard to give away ten (10) BlizzCon 2017 Virtual Tickets! Entry is open Worldwide. Yup, you read that correctly... WORLDWIDE. Competition ends Monday, October 23rd at 12:00PM PT and ten winners will be contacted via email. Scroll down to enter below.
The Virtual Ticket let's you stream BlizzCon 2017 from the comfort of your own couch, live and in high definition. You'll get coverage of both days of the show, including panels, contests, interviews, the closing ceremony, and more, along with some in-game goodies. This year's BlizzCon takes place November 3rd & 4th.
The in-game freebies you get include:
Overwatch: BlizzCon 2017 Winston Skin
World of Warcraft: Stormwind Skychaser and Orgrimmar Interceptor
StarCraft II: Junker SCV, Probe, and Drone Skins
Heroes of the Storm: Nexus Razorback Mount
Diablo III: Murkromancer Pet
Hearthstone: Mystery Goodie
Enter below (the additional entries are optional to increase your chances of winning):
The Dragon Ball FighterZ roster continues to grow. Another pair of playable characters were revealed for the Dragon Ball fighting game in the latest issue of V-Jump magazine (via Gematsu), along with some details on the game's story mode.
The two new characters joining the roster are Nappa and Captain Ginyu, two of the earliest villains Goku and friends faced in Dragon Ball Z. Nappa can summon Saibamen during battle and fire a powerful beam blast from his mouth. Captain Ginyu, meanwhile, can call in the Ginyu Force and use his signature Body Change ability to swap characters and HP with his opponent.
The new issue of V-Jump also shared some more details about the game's original story mode, which features the new character Android 21 and a resurrected Android 16. According to Gematsu, an event during the story causes the Z-Fighters to "fall one by one." It seems that players will be "linked" to different characters during different points in the story; during the Android chapter, players will be linked to Android 18, while the Enemy Warriors chapter links them with Frieza.
Players will advance through the story mode by battling opponents, and V-Jump says you'll be able to freely focus on where you want to focus on earning experience points, rescuing allies, learning skills, and more. In addition to that, players will be able to "deepen bonds" with characters, which will give you the chance to overhear private conversations.
South Park has once again returned to video game platforms with a successful mix of RPG systems infused with South Park's unmistakable character. The Fractured But Whole sees the kids go on another adventure, but things have changed a little since The Stick of Truth. Not only are they into superheroes now, but there's a new combat system to get your head around, along with a few other mechanical changes.
If you're eager to go into this 20+ hour journey well-prepared, then the above video is for you. Jess McDonell will guide you through some need-to-know information regarding puzzles, character classes, and useful consumable items. If you're already making your way through the game, be sure to comment with any other tips you might have found!
If you're curious about The Fractured But Whole, but haven't pulled the trigger, be sure to check our review. Miguel Concepcion says that "The Fractured But Whole can be appreciated as a standalone adventure, accessible to those who've fallen off the TV series over a decade ago". If you're already on the train, then find out all the details about the upcoming story DLC!
We had a chance to speak with Oculus VP of Content Jason Rubin at Oculus Connect 4 last week. Rubin co-founded Naughty Dog and has been a videogame pioneer starting from the original PlayStation era.
In our in-depth interview, Rubin remains highly optimistic about the future of VR. Setting grounded expectations, he compares it to when the videogame industry gradually transitioned from 2D gaming to 3D in the mid 90s.
The Oculus executive also says that he's confident more AAA publishers will get on board, discusses privacy concerns, and offers criticism against the competition.
GameSpot: We're roughly 18 months into the release of the Oculus Rift. What would you say is the current state of VR?
Jason Rubin: The thing that this reminds me of is when we launched PlayStation, which was effectively taking 2D gaming and turning it into 3D gaming. Some things were pretty easy. For example, virtual racers...Other things were completely untested. I said this today in my keynote. For example, bringing a character action game into 3D. People think, "Oh, you just take your character action game like Mario, or Sonic, or Donkey Kong Country and you make it into 3D. What's so hard?" It's actually really tough. On a scale of one to VR, it's a four. It was hard to make things go 3D. VR is so different from everything that came before. It's a huge challenge.
Name a title that came out before Crash Bandicoot. It came out at the same time as Tomb Raider. It came out at the same time as Gran Turismo. That first year, there wasn't that much great stuff that came out of PlayStation because people were trying to figure out how to get it to work.
Again, I think that was a lot easier challenge than the move into something utterly different like VR. We're not even a year from Touch launch. We're not even at that Crash Bandicoot moment, yet look at what we have. We have Lone Echo, we have Robo Recall, we have Wilson's Heart, we have a lot of really quality titles. We've learned a lot about the business. We also have 300 titles that are Touch-only in the [Oculus] store in less than a year. Go back and count the PlayStation titles. I don't know that they got there that quick. We have a lot going on really fast with this platform. It took a while for PlayStation to finally take off, and for people to say, "Okay, 2D gaming is kind of over. We're into 3D gaming."
Again, this is a much bigger sea change. Prices are different. Everything is just different about this. If you compare those two, I think we're doing really well on our transition. As I said in the keynote, I wouldn't have signed up to achieve what we've achieved in the first two years of VR, in the first 18 months of Rift, and the first year of Touch. I would have said there's no way I can deliver what we've achieved. If someone said, "That's your benchmark. You get a bonus if you hit it." I wouldn't have thought I would get the bonus.
Looking back, you're saying that you think you've come farther than you thought you could be now?
Absolutely. I can tell you why I think we're ahead, too. ...Most transitions are consumer lead. You make a mobile phone, make an iPhone, a year later you have an app store, there's a bunch of people on it. Developers are like, "There's got to be a way to make money there." Developers come after the consumer.
Facebook, at the time that they launched their game apps. They had like 800,000,000 users. Someone [at Facebook] said, "Hey, here's a way to put your app [on our platform]." Zynga was like, "There's got to be a way to make money here." Right? This is the opposite. It's very unique for being the opposite. You have developers, you have Insomniac, Ready at Dawn. Big publishers, Ubisoft, ZeniMax, Bethesda all of them saying, "This is what I want to do. This is clearly the future. I don't care that right now the market is growing. I'm not going to wait. I'm going to have one foot in the future and one foot in the present. It's just going to happen." This is what they want to do. It's been amazing because they're not really asking, "How many users are there on the device?" They're not asking the questions that journalists are asking. What they're asking is, "How do I make this financially make sense for my company right now?" Which, obviously is a consideration. "Even if you can tell me how I can break even, I want part of this. This is why I got into the business."
That's why I think we're ahead of where we are. I thought the hardest part of my job, and my team's hardest part, was going to developers and trying to convince them to get into VR. That wasn't the hardest part of the job. We just gave them dev kits and they said, "We're in. Tell us how to make this work." Then time will take care of itself.
Isn't the goal of every company to be profitable? Isn't it a tough pill to swallow if an optimal outcome is to just break even?
It is and it isn't. If you look at VR and you say, "This is never going to be profitable." You're 100% right. Nobody gets in that business, but if you look at history, there were amazing 2D character action game makers. Then there was Naughty Dog, which was Andy [Gavin] and I at the time making Way of the Warrior, which was a pretty half decent at best, fighting game. We said, "Wait a minute. Here's a new platform. Nobody's making a character action game for it. Maybe we'll make money, maybe we won't make money, but it's a market that we believe in."
While the 2D guys were all stuck iterating on what they knew how to do, we learned how to do 3D before them. [Crash Bandicoot] became a 3D character action game. One of the new ones, and they were too late to the market.
Take a look at mobile. Big publishers were like, "I don't know. There's not that many people on mobile. How do you make these games? Zynga, Playdum, PlayFish and all of these early movers into mobile were like, "There may or may not be a way to make money here, but we believe in it if we get in early. It's not the first title, it's not the second title, we'll do it at some point." To that point, Rovio's 50th title, I've heard 50 or 51, we're gonna call it 50. Their 50th title was Angry Birds. The other 49 failed. They looked at the mobile phone and they said, "At some point, we can make money here." They became a billion-dollar business.
The developers believe that this VR headset is the future. They're not focused on, "Am I going to make money on this specific game?" They can't lose a lot of money, because it's a rough business in developing. If they can break even and learn, they have the opportunity to be the Zynga of VR, or the Naughty Dog of VR.
There's this inflection point that happens every now and then, where the big established company doesn't move, because they're making billion-dollar games. The people that get in early, they don't make money on the first one, but they get ahead. When the money comes, they're the big winners.
Are you saying that you're confident that the big game publishers will eventually get on board with VR?
Absolutely. I said that on stage. Every time I have this conversation with a journalist. There's less and less big publishers that are holding on. As I said, Ubisoft is showing titles on our floor, right? When will they make an Assassin's Creed? That's a multi-hundred-million dollar title. They can't lose that much money, but they know that they have to be involved in this.
You have Bethesda, you have Rockstar, they've announced that LA Noire is coming out, right? If you look at VR as a whole, who isn't in it at this point? I guess EA, although of course they did the Star Wars game for Sony. I guess EA, Activision, Blizzard, there are some to be sure, but less and less, every time we have this conversation. It seems to me that the bar keeps getting moved. It's like, "Okay, you got Respawn, but you don't have this one. Okay, we've got that one. Sure. But you don't have..." There's not that many that aren't involved. That doesn't mean that tomorrow Battlefield is coming out... because the scale isn't right. It does mean that it gets harder and harder for them to ignore the business.
As a VR user, on a pragmatic level, I think one of the bigger challenges is handling movement in virtual reality. How do you move around in VR? There's artificial locomotion, which allows you to move around with a joystick, but it can cause motion sickness with people. Is that something that you feel is a big concern? Is Oculus working to address that?
Yeah. That's a complex question to answer, so let me try. On stage today, I said, "Effectively, I was wrong. Oculus was to a certain extent wrong." We thought nobody would want to play with standard locomotion. A single individual went out and proved that is actually a market. [Developer] Dante with Onward, right?
There are people that are totally fine with the situation as it is. To get to a billion people, which is Mark [Zuckerberg's] desire, I think that we do need to keep pushing forward. We do need to keep expanding upon the locomotion issue. Having said that, when we started, we thought, "You're either in place and it's okay." In place meaning you can move your own head, but you can't use [joystick] locomotion. Well, Lone Echo, because of the fact that you're pulling along [your environment] and The Climb, because of the fact that you're pulling along, totally changed the game.
When all we had was a gamepad, it was pretty binary. You were either using the gamepad, and that made a lot of people feel uncomfortable, or you were standing in place. As soon as we got your hands in there, there's something about you moving your body at the speed of your hands that connects and works. Precious few people feel uncomfortable in Lone Echo. Not 100 percent, but it's better locomotion than we had before.
I think we're going to keep chewing away at the edges of that. There's plenty of things we can do. We can make better lenses, we can start to get focal depth by tracking your eye, and allow you to focus on close things or far away things, which doesn't happen right now in our VR headsets. There's the way the lens curves around. How much field of view you have. There are all these little nuances that will make it better, and better, and better. Fundamentally, when your inner ear doesn't feel something and your eyes believe it, there's a disconnect. It's no different than being on a boat. On a boat, your inner ear feels movement, your eyes don't if you're under. That makes you feel sick. If you're in the back of a car, you're reading a book, your inner ear feels the movement, your eyes think the book isn't moving. That creates, for some people, discomfort. It's exactly the same thing.
People still use boats, people still ride in the backseat of cars. Even though some people don't like riding in the back seat of cars, it did not stop people from going out on boats. It will not stop people from doing VR. Overtime, we will get better and better at it. We will figure out how to lessen it.
You mentioned that you are impressed with where you guys have come so far. Some companies that have invested in the VR industry might not agree. We're seeing some VR companies starting to shutter. What do you have to say to companies that are thinking about investing in VR?
Yeah. I don't want to address any specific company that's shut down. In general, over the last two weeks, I've gotten multiple emails from companies that are not working in VR that have shut down or had layoffs. They're now looking to get into VR, because the 2D business wasn't working for them. There was just an article today, about the middle tier developer is having a hard time. Prices are pushing up. It's very hard for middle tier developers in 2D to make things happen. There is constant thrash and movement. In many cases, the company that isn't making it attributes their failure to some external thing. For example, VR isn't developing fast enough. Instead of looking at themselves and saying, " What are we doing wrong? Why are there companies that are thriving and are happy?" If you're looking for a story, it's easy to find a company that is failing anywhere in the business. There's companies that are coming up and companies that are coming down all the time.
Oculus just announced Dash, which is a way that allows users to use their desktop applications within the VR headset. There are some people that are concerned that Facebook might use this data to mine additional info from Rift users. And on the subject of privacy, some users are concerned that the Rift sensors can be used as cameras to spy on them. With privacy being such a concern now, can you speak to these issues?
Well let's start with the cameras. Let's go in reverse order. Any device that has inside-out tracking with cameras, regardless of which brand has created it, is using cameras. As far as I know, putting aside for a minute the non-positionally tracked stuff. ...Vive has a camera on it, all of the Microsoft things have cameras on it, [PlayStation] Move has a camera on it, Rift has cameras on it. The cameras are the sensors that are being documented. All of those can be used as cameras. It is the underlying technology. I don't think it's unique to Rift. The answer is, we're all doing what we're doing because it works. Nobody wants user camera information for anything. None of those companies are. With regards to privacy and data. I would probably focus privacy and data questions towards Facebook, but that is not our goal....I'm a content guy, so when it comes to specific privacy... I can tell you that is not why we're doing Dash. We're doing Dash because it's awesome. You get in Elite Dangerous, you're flying across the galaxy, it takes forever so you put on Spotify, throw up your music, throw some emails in. It's the future.
What do you think of what HTC, Valve, and Sony are doing in the VR space right now?
I don't want to address any of those in particular. I think, at Oculus, we have a game plan that we've been following from the beginning. We've been questioned often on that game plan. We have been very consistent with what we're doing. Specifically, we believe that the right way to launch a piece of hardware into an ecosystem that doesn't exist is to support it with as much software as possible, so that the consumer gets the best possible experience.
Facebook and Oculus have invested more in the content ecosystem than any other hardware manufacturer. I would guess, more than all other hardware manufacturers combined. We believe that as a result of that investment, that our ecosystem should get the benefit out of it. Sony agrees. Google agrees. There is one player that doesn't agree with that. They are the outlier there. We disagree with what they're doing. We don't believe that keeping the price high, adding on random bells and whistles, and never getting to a point where there's a large ecosystem of content, is valuable. We have continually defended our position that our investment is worthwhile. I think, if you look on Reddit, you look at the response of the community, it's gone from, "Everything should be for everybody." To "Oh my God, look at how awesome Oculus' catalog is. Why isn't everybody else doing this?"
We would like for everybody else to do that, because every time a developer discovers something new, regardless of who pays for it. Regardless of what store it comes out in. Regardless on whether it's on our hardware or not. That pushes VR forward. We've been very consistent with that message. We've consistently also been driving the price down. We've heard other hardware manufacturers say, "Now is not the time for a price drop." Well, guess what, they're following us.
What upcoming VR games should GameSpot, our audience, keep an eye on?
Yeah. It's hard for me to pick favorites. It's like picking a favorite child. I think From Other Suns is going to kill it. I have a great amount of fun playing Arktika, which just came out yesterday. Reviews have been good for that one. I've never been a massive strategy game player, but Brass Tactics is really pretty neat when you're moving yourself across the table, watching your army move in a real time strategy game. We have a ton of great stuff coming out. Coco's going to be amazing.
...It's pretty interesting that one year ago, roughly this week, we had another keynote, and we stood on stage. We said, we're going to deliver the following three titles: Robo Recall, promise kept. Lone Echo, promise kept. Echo Arena was a surprise, actually at that point. We didn't mention it last year at all. Arktika, shipped yesterday. Three titles, three delivered titles, all of them people are reacting very well to.
We've now said, "Here is a bunch of additional titles that are coming out on top of From Other Suns every day. The Marvel title. All of these that we're going to launch." We announce, and we launch, and we keep our promises. We're kind of alone in that space right now.
If I can just piggyback off of that. A while back you said that Oculus isn't going to be in the long term business of making games. Can you elaborate on the situation there?
Mark [Zuckerberg] says we're going to get to a billion units [sold]. That's our goal. My goal on the content ecosystem, as we get to a billion units, is to make the ecosystem self-sustaining. At that point, Facebook's desire is not to be in the game business. Not to be in the content business...
Are you going to be out of a job? *laughs*
Maybe, *laughs* but just like a billion units isn't happening tomorrow, it's gonna take a while for us to get there. This is not something that anyone should read as, "This is imminent." This is something that is in the same timeline as getting to a billion units. If we hit 100,000,000 units, there's a world in which we don't need to be funding content, because there's enough hardware out there that people are building content making a lot of money.
Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo still makes games.
They do.
Even though they make hardware as well.
That's absolutely right. There is a world in which we do still make titles. I'm not sure that's the world we'll be in at that time. The most important thing to Facebook is connectivity. The most important thing to Facebook is bringing people together in the social realm. It's not game. It's not film. Again, this is way down the road, I should have made that clear. There is a world way down the road where VR is so successful that Oculus doesn't have to be in that business.
As you say, it may never happen. For other reasons, we may need to be in the business longer. I like to target getting to the point where we don't have to be. I don't think Sony has to be doing it for the PlayStation 4 to be a healthy business. I think there are other reasons why they make their own titles. I think you can make a very large title for PlayStation and Xbox as a publisher without any money from Sony of Microsoft. You can put it out there and make a very sizeable profit. Look at Grand Theft Auto. Look at Call of Duty. Look at Battlefield. These titles exist on their own. That's the world we need to build.
What do you have to say to our GameSpot readers who run the gamut from somewhat interested in VR to not interested in it at all?
Two different answers. If you're interested, go play a demo somewhere. We're about to launch a demo in November for Marvel Powers United. Best Buy has demos in various places, find a friend who has it, go look at it.
If you haven't any interest in it, the key here is, don't dismiss it until you try it. I read so many people who are like, "I have no interest in VR whatsoever." You haven't tried, you shouldn't be saying that. You may not have an interest in buying something today. You may not have an interest in changing what you do because you love it, but don't knock it until you try it.
Apparently satisfied with the results of a recent Overwatch PTR patch, Blizzard has rolled out a new update for the live version of the game on all platforms. It makes adjustments to a few areas of Overwatch, but further balance adjustments to Mercy are the primary focus.
Following Mercy's overhaul in September, Blizzard has continued to experiment with additional changes to the healer. With this new patch, her Ultimate, Valkyrie, no longer affects the cooldown of Resurrection. Instead, Valkyrie provides a second charge of Resurrect, allowing her to potentially resurrect teammates back to back. This charge only lasts for the duration of Valkyrie, and the end result is that she can use Resurrect fewer times than she could previously.
"This method makes Resurrect more flexible when used with Valkyrie," Blizzard explained in the patch notes. "For example, in the past if you wanted to resurrect two teammates, you had to revive the first target, then activate Valkyrie (causing the Resurrect's cooldown to reset), and then revive the other target. With this change, you can now activate Valkyrie and fly in quickly to resurrect both targets instantly. However, this still reduces the overall number of Resurrects that Mercy can provide, since Valkyrie no longer reduces its cooldown."
Mercy also sees her Guardian Angel ability tweaked. Using Resurrect doesn't reset the cooldown on it now, but she can use the jump key to fly past a teammate she's targeting. The only other balance change involves Lucio, who now gets a 65% speed boost after finishing a wall ride. This is meant to deal with a bug that slowed his ability to wall ride.
Finally, this patch provides an option for PC players to set their status to Online, Away, Busy, or Appear Offline. The latter option will let you hide from that friend you can't bring yourself to delete, but Blizzard warns that this won't stop you from potentially ending up in the same match together.
Players can now set their social status to Online, Away, Busy, or Appear Offline (Note: appearing offline does not prevent friends from seeing you if you are placed into the same match). This option can be found under the social menu
Hero Updates
Lucio
Wall Ride
The speed boost that Lúcio receives after completing a wall ride has been increased by 65%
Developer Comments: A recent bug fix slowed Lúcio's Wall Ride. This change compensates for the reduced speed.
Mercy
Guardian Angel
Players can now glide past a targeted ally using the jump key
Cooldown no longer resets when Resurrect is activated
Valkyrie
No longer resets or reduces Resurrection's cooldown
Developer Comments: Valkyrie no longer resets or reduces Resurrect's cooldown. Instead, it now provides an extra "charge," allowing you to revive an ally even if it is still on cooldown. If the bonus charge hasn't been spent when Valkyrie ends, it will be removed.
This method makes Resurrect more flexible when used with Valkyrie. For example, in the past if you wanted to resurrect two teammates, you had to revive the first target, then activate Valkyrie (causing the Resurrect's cooldown to reset), and then revive the other target. With this change, you can now activate Valkyrie and fly in quickly to resurrect both targets instantly.
However, this still reduces the overall number of Resurrects that Mercy can provide, since Valkyrie no longer reduces its cooldown.
Zenyatta
Added a number of additional voicelines for Cultist Zenyatta
Bug Fixes
Heroes
Fixed a bug preventing Mercy's momentum from slowing down correctly when Guardian Angel was canceled
Fixed a bug preventing the visual effects on Sombra's Pumpkinette victory pose from displaying correctly
Rare's long-anticipated Sea of Thieves is the latest game to receive an extravagant art book. Comic publisher Dark Horse has announced The Art of Sea of Thieves, a beautiful companion tome to the upcoming open-world pirate game.
The Art of Sea of Thieves will give fans "an unprecedented look at the ships, characters, and loot" of the swashbuckling title. The book features "hundreds" of pieces of art, as well as developer commentary that sheds more light on the development of the game and its world. You can take a look at the book's cover below.
Dark Horse hasn't announced a release date for The Art of Sea of Thieves, but the book is slated to arrive in early 2018. It will soon be available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Penguin Random House, and other book retailers.
Along with their upcoming console and PC titles, Square Enix, Capcom, and Bandai Namco all had a selection of mobile games on display at their booths during New York Comic-Con. A few are already available to download from the Apple and Google Play Stores, but several of them were playable for the first time to the public at the show. Here are five of the best ones we got a chance to see.
Puzzle Fighter
Puzzle games are a natural fit for mobile devices, which makes them a suitable home for Capcom's upcoming Puzzle Fighter revival. This new installment is developed by Capcom Vancouver, the studio responsible for the recent Dead Rising games, and features characters from a variety of Capcom franchises, including Street Fighter, Dead Rising, Darkstalkers, Mega Man, Devil May Cry, and more.
As before, Puzzle Fighter is a competitive gem-matching puzzle game. You have to drag and rotate falling pairs of gems; match up three or more of one color and they'll combine into larger gems. The bigger it becomes, the more devastating it'll be for your opponent when you drop a crash gem on it. The art style may not be all that appealing, but the gameplay is fun, making Puzzle Fighter one to watch out for. The game has soft launched in some territories and will be available in more regions later this year.
Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition
Final Fantasy XV has been available on PS4 and Xbox One for almost a year now, but the acclaimed RPG will be arriving to two more platforms very soon. Square Enix is releasing a PC port of the game in early 2018, but ahead of that, the open-world RPG is being adapted for mobile devices as Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition. Unlike the original title, Pocket Edition features a much cuter, chibi-esque visual style and will not be released as one continuous adventure, but rather in 10 episodes, the first of which will be free to download.
Despite the radically different visuals and structure, Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition is a surprisingly faithful port of the home console game. The story unfolds more or less the same way it did in the original title, only this time it plays out from an isometric perspective, which is much more suitable to mobile devices. The touch screen controls also work well, making Pocket Edition a solid way to experience Final Fantasy XV if you've yet to play it and just different enough to try out if you have already cleared the original.
Naruto X Boruto: Ninja Voltage
Bandai Namco had a pair of Naruto mobile games on display at New York Comic-Con this year, and the more intriguing of the two was Naruto X Boruto: Ninja Voltage. Ninja Voltage is an isometric action game. Players maneuver their party with a digital control stick through different fortresses, navigating their traps and battling enemies to reach the boss waiting at the end. The game features characters from Naruto Shippuden and the next generation series Boruto, each one boasting their own unique ninjutsu attacks and abilities.
What makes Ninja Voltage intriguing are its tower defense elements. Each fortress you invade features a different placement of traps and enemies. You can also customize your own fortress, as well as invade those created by other players. Ninja Voltage doesn't yet have a release date, but it'll be free to download when it launches on iOS and Android and will have optional microtransactions.
Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag
Sword Art Online lends itself particularly well to video games, and Memory Defrag is a pretty substantial mobile game based on the series. Bandai Namco says the game features approximately 70 characters so far, and each has a fairly sizable skill tree that can be upgraded to unlock new skills and attributes. It also offers an extensive amount of missions to complete, which take you through the story of both seasons one and two, as well as the Sword Art Online film.
More importantly, the game is fun to play thanks to its parry mechanic. Memory Defrag is a side-scrolling action game, and its missions typically involve defeating all the enemies in a stage. You move your character by holding the touch screen where you want them to go and attack by tapping, but if you hold down on the screen and swipe up just as an enemy attacks, you'll parry and be able to switch in another character for a critical attack. Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag is available now for free on iOS and Android devices.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Blazing
Ultimate Ninja Blazing is the second mobile Naruto game Bandai Namco had on display at New York Comic-Con, and it differs considerably from Ninja Voltage. Where the latter is an action game with tower defense elements, Ultimate Ninja Blazing is a light 2D strategy game that features characters and story missions drawn from the original Naruto series and its follow-up, Naruto Shippuden, making it an enjoyable time-waster if you're a big fan of the franchise.
In Ultimate Ninja Blazing, you take up to six characters into a battle, three of which appear on the field at one time; the remaining three can be rotated in during a mission. To fight, you drag your party members to an enemy when it's their turn and watch as they automatically attack. The gameplay is very simple, though there's some depth to it; each character has a specific attack radius, and if you manage to place them near multiple enemies, they'll attack all of them during their turn. If another one of your party members also falls in the attack radius, they'll team up to launch a more powerful tandem attack. Like Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag, Ultimate Ninja Blazing is available right now on iOS and Android devices and is free to download.
Fire Emblem Warriors brings heroes from the revered Fire Emblem strategy series and drops them onto the chaotic battlefields developer Omega Force's Warriors games are known for. These knights, paladins, and mages are a natural fit for medieval clashes against swarms of hapless enemies, but their influence on the Warriors formula is otherwise fleeting. However fun it can be in short spurts, Fire Emblem Warriors feels like plenty of other Warriors games before it: a simple joy plagued by repetitive and shallow encounters.
Like more recent Fire Emblem games, you're introduced to a new pair of protagonists--Lianna and Rowan. Sibling heirs to the Aytolis Kingdom, their land comes under threat with the appearance of an evil dragon and thousands of otherworldly fiends who've slipped through a rift in space and time. In a similar fashion, characters from various Fire Emblem timelines (The Blazing Blade, Shadow Dragon, Awakening, Fates, and Echoes) come to Lianna and Rowan's rescue. It's a thin narrative that leads to plenty of awkward exchanges and cliche events. And though this may be par for the course for the Warriors series, Fire Emblem games are typically heralded for their captivating stories and deep characters, so it's hard not to be a little disappointed to see very little of that transition over to this experimental outing.
If you're at all familiar with the Warriors games, then you already know what to expect as Fire Emblem Warriors follows the formula very closely: Playing as one of the many available heroes, you venture onto the battlefield and slay hundreds, if not thousands, of enemies during a single mission through hard-hitting yet simple-to-execute combo attacks.
Attacks and combos are input via a two-button system for light and heavy attacks, and you have access to a flashy special ability once your damage meter is full. The weapon triangle system pulled from Fire Emblem dictates how effective one character is against another depending on their default weapon, but weighing the advantages of individual face-offs slows the rapid and enjoyable pace of combat. Likewise, the pair up system, where you do your best to create a bond between two characters, doesn't make this game significantly different from other Warriors spin-offs.
Apart from feeling somewhat shallow, Fire Emblem Warriors plays smoothly, and it's enjoyable to watch favorites like Chrom, Marth, and Lyndis break free from their turn-based ways to slay massive swarms of low-level enemies in real time. Sadly, not every beloved Fire Emblem character made the cut, with notable protagonists like Alm, Eliwood, Ike, and Roy missing in action.
Given the potential impact Fire Emblem's demanding nature could have had on the Warriors series' straightforward hack-and-slash engagements, the diminished classic mode is another source of disappointment.
In keeping with Fire Emblem tradition, you have the option between "casual" and "classic" game modes, though the rules work differently, eschewing classic permadeath for something a little less punishing. During a casual playthrough, fallen allies are easily revived at certain checkpoints; however, they can also be revived on the classic difficulty provided you have enough gold and other relevant items. In other words, no character is ever truly dead. It's also rare that you ever need to worry in the first place, as you're free to switch between any one of the up to four characters you can take on a mission, allowing you to quickly control and heal allies that may be on the verge of death. Given the potential impact Fire Emblem's demanding nature could have had on the Warriors series' straightforward hack-and-slash engagements, the diminished classic mode is another source of disappointment.
The same can be said for your AI partners, who are nearly incapable of autonomy, even when given a direct purpose such as attacking or defending a chosen person or location. They rarely take the most efficient route following your order, and often end up simply standing in place once they reach their destination. With such unreliable partners, you're ultimately left to do everything yourself as missions unfold.
And because Fire Emblem Warriors is a Warriors game, there are hundreds of enemies on-screen at once. The frame rate takes a notable hit from time to time, almost chugging as the game attempts to render both the enemies you've defeated and their replacements spawning into battle. The same issue occurs when characters are introduced during missions in short, voiced cutscenes, causing the game to throttle down to stop-motion like speeds. These performance issues don't hinder your ability to succeed, but they are obtrusive enough to be annoying.
Fire Emblem Warriors doesn't radically change the formula of the two-decade-old Warriors franchise, nor is it concerned with attempting to do so. At best, it's a decent vehicle for Fire Emblem's characters, a chance to flex their muscles in a new venue without the limitations of turn-based combat holding their abilities back. There are signs of potential left unrealized, and the thought of what a Warriors game with truly dramatic character relationships and permadeath could have been lingers. For now that remains out of reach as Fire Emblem Warriors is yet another collaboration where Omega Force's tendencies dominate the finished product.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Witcher franchise, and to celebrate, the most recent game in the series--The Witcher III: Wild Hunt--is going cheap on Xbox One, PS4, and PC in Europe.
Xbox Live Gold members can currently grab the base Witcher III game for £12.50 / €15 as part of this week's Deals with Gold, or the Game of the Year Edition (which includes all expansions and additional content) for £14 / €20. The expansion pass and individual add-ons are also on offer for Gold subscribers--head to the Xbox Store to see more. These prices will go back up (to around double what they are now) on October 24 at 11 AM BST.
PlayStation 4 players, meanwhile, can grab the base game for £12 / €15 or Game of the Year Edition for £16 / €20. You don't have to be a PS Plus subscriber to take advantage of these deals. These deals are good until October 25.
Finally, the game is going cheap on Steam right now. The base game is £12.49 / €15, while the GOTY version is £14 / €20. The Witcher III is also on sale in the US as part of Sony's horror-themed Sale of the Dead. Check out all this week's PS4, PS3, And PS Vita deals for more.
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt launched in 2015 to critical acclaim. We awarded the game a 10/10, with critic Kevin VanOrd calling the open-world title "incredible and sumptuous."
He wrote: "Make no mistake: this is one of the best role-playing games ever crafted, a titan among giants and the standard-setter for all such games going forward. Where the Witcher 2 sputtered to a halt, The Witcher 3 is always in a crescendo, crafting battle scenarios that constantly one-up the last, until you reach the explosive finale and recover in the glow of the game's quiet denouement. But while the grand clashes are captivating, it is the moments between conflicts, when you drink with the local clans and bask in a trobairitz's song, that are truly inspiring." Read more in our full The Witcher III: Wild Hunt review.
The untitled Han Solo spin-off film is untitled no longer. With less than a year to go before its release, Lucasfilm has finally shared the official name of the movie, which is simply Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Director Ron Howard shared the name in a video posted on Twitter today. He notes that shooting has wrapped, thanks the crew, and says that he hopes fans have enjoyed seeing the photos he's shared from the set. He then references the fact that they still haven't named the film, prompting Chewbacca to hand him a board with the name and logo on it.
Solo: A Star Wars Story follows the same naming convention as the first Star Wars spin-off, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Further spin-offs are also on the way, though specifics have not been shared. Among the possible characters they may feature are Obi-Wan, Boba Fett, and Yoda.
Few details have been shared about Solo. One of the aforementioned images that Howard has shared suggests we may see the Kessel Run. Beyond that, we don't know much except that it will provide insight into the life of a younger Han Solo (played by Alden Ehrenreich). Solo's release date is set for May 25, 2018.
The adaptation of popular manga series Lone Wolf and Cub has found a writer to pen its script. The project, which has been in the works on-and-off for over a decade at Paramount Pictures, has hired Se7en scribe Andrew Kevin Walker to write the film. The screenwriter used Twitter to celebrate the news, simply tweeting an image from the manga.
This news was originally reported by The Hollywood Reporter, who points out that Justin Lin--the director behind four entries in the Fast and Furious franchise--is producing the adaptation, along with Kamala Films and Marissa McMahon. THR also notes that Lin is hoping to direct the feature.
The story follows a Shogun executioner who is left devastated when his entire house is murdered--save for his newborn son. He then raises the boy as a warrior with the two becoming assassins, while seeking out revenge against those behind the plot to kill their family.
This will not be the first time the manga has been adapted. Previously, six live-action movies were released in Japan between 1972 and 1974. A seventh film, 1980's Shogun Assassin, was dubbed in English for American and British audiences. Rather than producing a new film, Shogun Assassin was edited together using footage from the first and second movies.
This film comes after another Paramount adaptation of a manga--Ghost in the Shell--was met with average reviews from critics and opened to a lackluster box office performance. Lone Wolf and Cub currently has no scheduled release date.
Nintendo Switch's exclusive fighting game Arms has a new update out now. Version 3.2, announced last week, contains some new features, some balance changes, and more. Unfortunately, the character that many believed to be a new playable mecha version of Spring Man is not, in fact, a playable fighter. Instead, he's a new boss character called Springtron who appears in the latter stages of Grand Prix if you don't lose a match.
Despite the lack of a new playable fighter, version 3.2 includes a fair amount of content. The Badge feature rewards you for completing challenges such as winning your first Grand Prix or playing a number of matches with one character. There's also a new Recent Replays feature, which saves replays from your most recent matches so you can watch them back. Make sure you watch any important matches back relatively quickly, however, since Nintendo says "replay data is automatically deleted when necessary, starting with the oldest data." Updating Arms will also delete all stored replay data.
Meanwhile Lola Pop, who was added last month in an update, has received a buff in this latest patch--her movement speed has been increased. In fact, many fighters have received boosts in speed; take a look at the full patch notes at the bottom of this article.
Receive neat badges as a reward for fulfilling certain conditions.
Wear your favorite badge and show it off to your opponent.
Added new Recent Replays feature.
Select from a list and view replays of past matches.
Replay data is automatically deleted when necessary, starting with the oldest data.
Also, future ARMS updates will cause all replay data from past versions to be deleted.
During replay playback, ZR will no longer switch between targets. The X button instead is used for all camera angle switching.
During replay playback, + - buttons no longer toggle HP gauge display, and instead now bring up the menu.
Fixed issue where, at certain timings, follow up attacks after wind attacks would not land.
Fixed issue where, after suffering an ice attack, players on a snake board could repeatedly jump and the snake board would continuously accelerate.
Fixed issue where, when battle rules are set to 1-punch KO, under certain conditions fighters would become unable to move.
We've identified an interloper who has been disrupting the Grand Prix, going after our fiercest competitors. If encountered, we advise you to dispatch them with prejudice.
Adjusted the abilities of certain fighters and Arms as follows.
Fighters / Arms
Adjustments
Lola Pop
It's already been one month since she joined Arms. Her beginner's nerves have faded away, giving her increased movement speed during air dashes. Increased movement speed during high jump. Increased movement speed when bounding. Adjusted speed when descending.
Byte & Barq
Decreased time interval between Byte and Barq's respective attacks.
Max Brass
Decreased expansion rate of attacks when buffed up. Increased distance from which he can approach targets.
Megawatt
Increased expansion rate when extending. Increased extension speed. Increased expansion rate of charge attacks.
Slamamander
Increased extension speed.
Biffler
Increased retraction speed. Increased floatiness of jump attacks.
Boomerang Coolerang
Increased expansion rate of charge attacks.
Revolver
Increased retraction speed.
Retorcher
Increased retraction speed. Adjusted path followed when extending.
Nade
Fixed online play issue where explosive damage would trigger twice.
Whammer Kablammer
Increased speed of charge attacks.
Blorb
Increased expansion rate when extending. Increased time needed to finish expanding.
Chilla
Decreased homing ability.
Tribolt
Decreased speed of charge attacks. Increased time needed to finish expanding. Fixed multiple online play issues.
Triblast Guardian Clapback
Fixed multiple online play issues.
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