It's a whole week of new premieres revolving around the heroes of the DC Universe and their shows on the CW. Which of these shows kicks off with a bang and which ones fail to hit the mark?
Over the course of the next couple of months, we'll be looking at a selection of new and returning shows and giving you a quick breakdown of what is worth watching and what you should pass on. This week, we're talking about Supergirl, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow.
Supergirl: "Girl of Steel"
After the loss of Mon-El, Kara has alienated herself from her friends and put her sole focus into being Supergirl. She faces a new threat that has a connection to someone close to her, but she has to learn that she'll need to open up to her team if she wants to bring down the bad guys.
Typically, Supergirl hasn't been my cup of tea. Even though this episode had a pretty slow start, it ended up being pretty fantastic, hitting on a lot potentially brilliant storylines, including what seems to be the season-long villain. While everything seemingly gets wrapped up perfectly by the end of the episode, the Season 3 premiere sets up the idea that Kara has trouble living a split life between her job as a reporter and being a superhero. It seemed like she was mere moments from abandoning being a regular civilian in the city. Hopefully, as this season progresses, this is something the show goes back to because it's one of the most compelling parts of the episode.
Is it worth watching?: While it's filled with the angst and emotion that CW is known for, this is a really strong opening episode, as long as you can get through the first 10 minutes.
Flash: "The Flash Reborn"
At the end of Season 3, Barry Allen stepped into the Speed Force in order to save Central City. Now, six months later, Kid Flash and Vibe are the new faces of the superhero scene, bringing down bad guys left and right. A mysterious flying samurai wants to face the Flash, but how can he if Barry is gone?
This was a fun opening episode for Season 4, up until the final act. Without spoiling too much, the episode goes pretty much where expected, but it's interesting to see how the team dynamic has drastically changed with Barry gone. The majority of the problems with the episode stem from the third act wrapping up way too quickly, in a nice, tight package. This should have been a two-parter, but for some reason, this series shies away from doing that time and time again. Regardless, the season opener may have been a bit disappointing, but it was a fun ride.
Is it worth watching?: Longtime fans of the series will really enjoy this episode. Newcomers may feel a little lost, but regardless, it's still enjoyable.
Legends of Tomorrow: "Aruba-Con"
Rip Hunter has created a new agency to monitor time and take care of any anachronisms. That means the original Legends of Tomorrow have been disbanded, against their wishes. However, Julius Caesar is loose in Aruba, and only the Legends can fix the problem, as the new time agency doesn't believe them. However, per usual, the team messes up and has to clean up after themselves.
Legends of Tomorrow is easily the most entertaining of the shows this week. It's a bit silly and the special effects tend to look a bit cheesy, but that's all a part of the allure of the show. It exists in this larger CW/DC Universe, but it doesn't shy away from it, including Wally West in this episode. It's the only CW show that successfully embraces how outrageous it can be, like during a scene where Caesar rallies a bunch of frat bros on a beach. It's weird, but it works. While all the CW/DC series are essentially team shows, Legends is the one that works the best, as each of the characters feels fully fleshed out, adding a wonderful dynamic to the episode.
Is it worth watching?: Even if these CW series aren't for you, Legends of Tomorrow is a ton of fun and well worth your time. This season should be a blast as both Gorilla Grodd and John Constantine will appear.
We'll be back in two weeks and talking about The Walking Dead, At Home With Amy Sedaris, and Stranger Things.
LawBreakers, the first game from Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski's new studio Boss Key, launched in July on PC and PlayStation 4. It wasn't the out-of-the-gate success that the studio might have wanted, however, with player figures reportedly very low. In an interview with GameSpot, the industry veteran spoke frankly about the game's launch and told us what Boss Key plans to do in the future to get more players into the game.
We published a portion of this interview last month, and now we're bringing you the full thing. In our conversation, Bleszinski talks about the feedback since launch, why launching in "Destiny season" might have been a little problematic, support for new consoles like PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, and if Boss Key might ever consider bringing LawBreakers to Nintendo Switch. You can find the full interview below, edited and condensed for clarity.
LawBreakers is available now on PS4 and PC for $30.
GameSpot: What were some of the key pieces of feedback you've heard since launch?
Cliff Bleszinski: People who sit down and play the game see that, apart from it looking very different, art style wise, it actually plays quite a bit different. However, it's because I didn't do the same archetypes of the guy who builds the turret or the sniper or the traditional kind of healer that follows behind people, the healing ray, we kind of rolled our own archetypes. That ultimately proved to be very confusing for a lot of core players who were getting into it, in regards to, are they gonna watch the tutorial video? What happens if people like to go online and then they hit all the buttons or all the keys and they just want to figure out, kind of in a vacuum, what they can do with that?
So, what we've done is you kinda double back. And I'm not going to go into all the future content yet, in terms of things we're working on, but creating a far better onboarding experience where it works on PlayStation, it works on PC, it'd have more of a scripted tutorial and continue to look at ways we can improve our offline mode, so people could quote, you know, practice their lines a lot better before they get on stage. So, that was the big take away, honestly, from us.
"We made a skill-based shooter that people who actually play it love"
What are some of the things that you think went well?
Well, I think we made a darn good shooter. And the elephant in the room is our fledging CCU, which we totally understand. We remain committed to the project and those that we have who are our fans are dedicated and we're engaging with them constantly and they're doing fun things like grassroots tournaments that they're organizing themselves. But we made a skill-based shooter that people who actually play it love and continuing to double down on marketing and awareness of it and committing to the product, is something that we're very much intent on. But, if you look at ... If you Google the game right now, the first thing you see on the top right is aggregate of nine out of 10 on Steam. And for me, that's the feeling that, "Yeah, we did our job. I did what I set out to do three years ago."
And like I always said in the other interview, it's a marathon, not a sprint. We're just gonna keep iterating and keep working on it. And at the end of day, I just didn't want to make the exact same archetypes that everybody else did and I wanted to make a game that was, first and foremost, a shooter for shooter players.
The CCU's and just how many players are in the game today, that's ... I guess, how are you feeling about that? You said it's not exactly where you would want it to be, but if you could just talk a little bit more about that, that would be great.
Yeah, I mean, so the thing is, is we're now officially in Destiny season.
Right, yep.
And God bless Bungie for the fantastic job they did. The first one I played for about a week and I was like, "Okay, I get the idea." But, it looks like the second one addresses a lot of those issues and is a, really, knock it out of the park, especially with a really good frame rate on the PC version that's forthcoming. But, in regards to that, it's one of those things that there's a situation where players look at numbers on Steam, that doesn't happen on PlayStation 4. And I don't have the numbers in front of me, but in regards to, you look at PC CCU health versus PS4, PS4's doing fine. Because people just chop up, cough up 30 bucks and hop online and they just play and they don't overthink it. On PC, there's this immediately wanting to declare something a success or a bomb by this kind of internet culture that loves to just observe things.
And it's like, "Well guys, the small bit that we have, we're gonna continue to iterate with and engage." And as we issue content drops, maybe there's gonna be sales or a potential free weekend somewhere down the line. You know, continue to fluff that CCU up and I continue to go back to games like Warframe, that slowly built their very small audience as a bunch of dedicated fan and then, continued to fluff it up. And you watch the graph of the CCU and it's so low, so low, and then eventually, over the course of a year, year and a half, two years, it became this phenomenon that a lot of people weren't even talking about it. But, my friends at Digital Extremes committed to that and that's what's required. Especially in such a crowded market when you're launching a new IP.
That and of course, rebranding of the marketing, showing all the new content and saying, "Hey, if you gave it a go, come back or if you haven't done it yet, try it." And maybe other techniques like send out a, "Hey, here's a free code for your friend." So, you could write a dissertation or an entire GDC talk on the keeping, care, and feeding of maintaining a healthy player base.
One of the things that goes along with that I think would be matchmaking times. It's something you've said is maybe a little bit slower than people would have liked to see and that goes along with the player figures. Here in Australia we've been testing and it's been difficult to find a match on PS4.
Yeah, well, it's one of those things, the Australian market is one that we want to definitely support. But, when it comes to actual number of CCU with a game that has a fledgling player base, it's not a lot to be frank. So, the big thing we have to do is continue to pump into this. People said they want a team deathmatch, they've played the dart game like teamdeath match so we're like, "You want team deathmatch? Here, have it." And you just want to get around and shoot people and ignore the objective, stick with it. So, even further on down the line, we've got new maps coming, such as Valhalla, which is our first forest map, which is our first asymmetrical one.
We got our rapid fire updates hitting and it's just, that's the main thing that we do right now and continue to remind people of it. It's one of those things that whenever I talk about the game on Twitter with my pretty good following there, people respond when our LawBreaker's Facebook page posts about this, that, and the other in regards Balance. People who are playing the game are engaging and so, we're gonna continue to remind them that, in the words of Megatron, "I still function."
That's good. And kinda just what you just said there, with scrimmages, you're adding team deathmatch and that's something people had obviously been really, really asking for. But, if you could go back a little bit and talk about why that wasn't included in the product to begin with?
That was part of my design mantra in regards the way the classes were designed. I didn't want to do the exact same stuff everybody else did. And the funny thing was making a character-based, class-based shooter where it has those ... Even though it's not as simple as a traditional arena shooter, it still, it kinda has a lot of that kinda feel underneath it all. In hindsight, I think it was a mistake to not ship with it. I was stubborn. And I'm like, "Oh, everybody's done TDM, you've done it." Even Blizzard's like, "Screw it, we need to put some TDM action in Overwatch," because fundamentally, at the end of the day, players just want to get in and shoot some stuff sometimes. They don't want to think about, "Okay, what am I carrying? This objective, am I selecting the right? I just want to hop in, shoot some friends or enemies for 20 minutes and have a good time."
And in hindsight, that's one of the other mistakes, you know, you asked about things that I felt were mistakes. Not having that from the get go, honestly. I mean, that's one of my things that I consider my strengths, is I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong. I think the people in the public eye would do them a great benefit to do that more often.
I have a reputation for being brash and loud and everything like that, but I'm the first person to admit when I'm wrong. And we certainly did make our share of mistakes with the game. In spite of the mistakes, we're going to continue to update and iterate and the reviews do not lie for me.
And one of the other elements going forward, too, that I was reading about was Boss Leagues mode. It seems like a more competitive level. We don't really know too much about this. Is there anything more you can say about boss leagues and what that mode is going to entail?
"Those of you who have been kind enough to drop 30 bucks on this. We got your back and we're sticking with it."
Yeah, it's basically kinda like ... Almost like a season zero for kinda testing kind of what our kind of season based game play would be and kind of dipping our toe into that water. And again, that's admitting things we should've shipped with. Shipping with an actual ranked mode instead of just one way would've, of course, made sense. The problem with what we were trying to pull off with this company and this title was shipping a quality product with a team of 65 people without ruining everybody's marriages. And so, certain concessions did have to be made from a production standpoint. And it's easy for me to sit there and go, "Oh man, we should've shipped with this, we should've shipped with that. You know, changed the date and everything like that."
In hindsight, it would've made sense. But, as you know, hindsight's always 20/20. And if I could go back in time, I would've figured out a way to re-change the schedule and ship with more of those things and maybe not even before the crazy holiday season. But, you've gotta work with what you've got now and telegraph it to everybody. And there's a reason why we did that kinda cool little graphic that's my Twitter header profile right now that kinda just graphically lays out, boom, boom, boom, stuff is coming, those of you who have been kind enough to drop 30 bucks on this. We got your back and we're sticking with it.
Before launch, you had the big news that switching from free-to-play to a premium product and I think now, some people have been suggesting or stating online, which doesn't necessarily carry any weight, but that the game could be looking to go back to a free to play model. Is that something that's on the table or no?
"I don't want to get into Candy Crush type-tactics 'cause I just won't be able to sleep at night and I don't sleep well to begin with."
Which just boggles me, my brain because my ... I've got a decent business sense. Especially when it comes to this industry. It's gotten me fairly far. And under the assumption that games are expensive, 60 dollars is a lot of money. Even 100 dollars for all the special editions that you see coming out. And I was of the belief that $29.99, it's a little bit over ... It's pretty much an impulse buy. And did it help? Did it hurt? Should it have gone free? Maybe. Would we consider experimenting with that in the future? I wouldn't remove it from the table. But, I just ... I don't want to get down into sleazy free to play, as much as I want to keep this game afloat and with our, like I said, our fledgling community, I don't want to get into Candy Crush type-tactics 'cause I just won't be able to sleep at night and I don't sleep well to begin with.
But yeah, I wouldn't rule it out in the future, especially if we consider rolling the game out ... Well, we're considering in the future, rolling the game out in Asia. It's one of those things that you almost have to do that in Asia, so we'll be considering doing that, maybe one of those things if we do it there, would it make sense to roll it back out to the states? Possibly. But, I don't want to start doing gun rentals any time soon in game.
Another thing that's gonna keep people coming back is new roles and you've released a silhouette teaser of this new character and confirmed that, I think it's a guy. So, is there anything else you can tell us about this new hero and why people should be excited about it?
He's very good at defense, I guess that's one thing that I want to say. And it's ... He's got ... His device that's, were jokingly called a thumper, that when placed by multiple players playing as that class can essentially turn the enemy team into almost like a human pinball machine, which provides for some highly amusing moments. Oh, by the way, in hindsight, this just reminded me, I ... Having class limitations is something we also, in hindsight, would've made sense to ship with so you don't have five Wraiths stacked on one team, which just, players are merciless with each other and they ruin somebody's experience and a person's like, "Well, these guys are being dicks. I'm just not gonna play anymore," which certainly didn't help the situation.
So, in the latest patch, we limit it to two per team, which we think is fair. We don't have the ridiculously large cast that games like Overwatch has. So, limiting it to one would not have made sense. We felt like two was kind of a good compromise, which we got that feedback and that idea directly from the community. So anyway, he's an interesting character. Trying to make sure the silhouettes keep getting more and more unique as we move forward 'cause that's one thing I think we could be better about as well. Again, in hindsight.
Whenever we introduce these new classes, they're probably gonna wind up overpowered in the build, but that's an old kind of technique, taking some moments to kind of try and get people to try the new hero and then, of course, massage your back and balance it once players get a sense of it.
Is there a ceiling that you might have in mind for how many characters you might want to have in the game at the end of the day?
You know, if we can fluff up our CCU and if we can keep people engaged, I would love for it to go on as long as humanly possible. I love what we built, we have playtests and I still come out sweaty and I still thoroughly enjoy myself. And this is our baby. This is three years of blood, sweat, and tears. And the news story of the CCU is not much right now and everything, it's ... You gotta maintain a positive attitude about it. But, one thing I'm happy about is, even anecdotally from my Twitter feed, it's no longer about Gears. As much as Gears will always be a part of me, it's nice to say, "Oh, went bowling the other night," and people aren't replying and saying, "Did you chainsaw the lanes?" They're talking to me just in general about everything I post and they occasionally talk ... They're having a dialogue about the game.
Which, for me, was one of my actual goals in starting the studio and the product. I'm not going to deny my legacy of what Gears was and I'll be happy to comment and give my opinion on any future things that come out of it. But, it's nice to be known from this generation for more than one thing.
And you had kinda touched on it earlier, too, though, and I was reading in a blog post about a revamped marketing campaign. Can you talk about what that might entail and why you wanted to change things up in that regard?
Here's the thing; I really like and enjoy the characters we shipped in the game because I wanted to go in the opposite of the kind of style that's really popular right now. And is it a little bit retro? Sure, it's a little bit '90s. Maybe it's that my love of the whole '90s Spawn archetype's coming through. Who knows if that's the case? But, the thing is, is we're not gonna beat some of those other games in regards to their crazy, 400 Pixar animators creating these amazing ... The five-minute shorts that make you care about a robot and a bird, right? So, it's like the direction that I've been working with with [community manager Rojan Rivas is to] double down on the verbs you do in the game and in particular, the guns. Let's put the characters in the background, but let's really double down on the sliding, the shooting, the stabbing, the sexiness of the manufacturers of the weapons.
And remind people that what I've been saying tirelessly in interviews is we're a shooter that then, also has characters and I feel that the marketing campaign should've represented that. I also think in hindsight, leading with the [Blink 182-like logo] probably wasn't the best move to do. The example I use is going to Comic Con this year and Game of Thrones was there, of course, everywhere. But, only now, after how many seasons, they're at the point where they can just do the font with GoT? When you look at Grand Theft Auto, only when they got to GTA four or whatever, they did the Roman numerals. Only now, could Gears just pop out the crimson omen. You have to ... Eventually, if you want to get to the point where people you're Nike swoosh, that's the point. But, leading with that ... You look at that logo and actually, I like it. It's on the back of my phone.
People love the hats. People have already got some tattoos of it. But, if you're a casual person who just sees that, you know that we're a cool ... Kinda gritty, class-based shooter. You just think you're gonna have a bad time, right? So that's, the other things ... Hindsight, once again, is 20/20, which could be the damn name of this interview.
So, the concept art for the new map Valhalla looks really, really gorgeous and it's unique, as you said, and it's the first asymmetric map that you have in the game and I was also reading that it's gonna have some environmental hazards and fresh ways to mix up the game play. So, I was just wondering if you could offer an overview of Valhalla and why you think you're ... Or, why you're so excited about it?
Well, one of the trips I want to take eventually is to go to the redwood forests. And it's kinda like almost like a high tech Ewok village. It's essentially kinda the training grounds for the Valkyries. And the idea is that certain sections of it have had to be deforested because some of the trees were dying and the way that they have to do that with these large trees and they have these giant kind of wood chippers that are there. And as the battle breaks out in this location, it just so happens that you may accidentally kicked into one by an enemy and kinda go full Fargo in this game. And for me, this is ... That's one of those just things that you can do in our game that you can't see in a lot of the other kind of hero-based shooters where we could mulch people.
It's just ... We aren't gonna make it completely disgusting. When it happens, you're gonna laugh kinda like the old school Unreal Tournament. And also, just for me, this is gonna be probably one of our most vertical maps yet because the stacked layers of kinda the high tech Ewok village and since the trees are mostly vertical and for me, it's a full circle moment because that was one of the very first images that just, I had concepted all those years ago, four years ago, when I was initially kinda conceiving the game. And it's one of those things that I'm excited to break out of kinda that cycle of techy doo doo. We have a lot of really great, fun maps, but some of them are just kinda ... It's a reactor. Fuck it.
And yeah, the map looks great and it's cool, but you want to really get that sense of atmosphere and location that if the crap hasn't hit the fan or the mulcher in Valhalla, hearing some birds tweet in the background or kinda having that kind of contrast of a beautiful nature environment with the over the top verticality and violence is what Law Breaker's kinda entails and it's a good map and yean, it's fun.
All of your DLC, the maps and everything is free and this is the case for a lot of multiplayer games these days, but it definitely was not always that way. So, I'm wondering if you could talk about just why it was important to have the DLC in that way be free?
Well, first off, separating the player base, especially when you have the fledgling one that I've said multiple times of course, through the course of the interview. But also, it's just that nickel and diming that happens with players. It's like, "If I sell as a player, it's like oh hey, you're at this even, this party at a bar. But, if you want to go in the other room where your other friends are, now you have to pay an extra cover charge. Oh, then there's another one with another cover charge," and it's like, I love how I always use restaurants and bar in my analogies. But, it's just, it's kind of an old school, flawed way of thinking. And for me, I if I get these kind of cosmetic crates, which I'm rewarded and encouraged to kinda stick around and play the game?
When there's DLC, I'm just like, "Yeah, okay, you just lost me now. You're just gonna split your servers and I have to just cough up more money for a game that I felt like should have had this in the box from the get go." So I think that's why the movement's shifted that way. I think there is a lot of gamer resentment, based on the old techniques that everybody used to use, throughout the industry, which is why we're here now. It just took a while to get here.
And another big topic these days is new consoles and the power inside them. And we know LawBreakers is gonna have enhancements, or already does, for PS4 Pro and obviously, Lawbreakers is not announced for Xbox, but I wonder if you could speak more generally to what the power of new machines can do for a game, specifically like LawBreakers.
I think it always goes back to Moore's Law, where the computing power doubling, and what you saw with this generation of consoles, is very, very quickly the power kind of really kicked in, hence the need for the new Xbox and the PlayStation Pro. And in regards to considering doing an Xbox version. I'd love to, but there's still other discussions that need to be had. And I think, you look at Xbox ... from my prior work, and I think they felt miffed and kind of rejected, that we chose PlayStation, but for us it was just a matter of install based for PlayStation at the time, and then considering we'd see for Xbox down the line.
Obviously there has been solid third-party support already from companies like 2K and EA, but is Nintendo Switch something you're ever thinking about, or you have ever thought about for LawBreakers?
We would probably consider the Xbox first, and then we're very much in wait and see mode right now. It is a fine console, the Switch. I am taking my wife to Japan on a trip tomorrow, and I'm finally going to take the time to sit down and continue digging in to Zelda, because the entire concept of it is just brilliant. Nintendo just really knocked it out of the park with this one. Would definitely love to have even more games on it. But I sit back and think about what kind of experience. If we were to do the Switch, would it be like a Rocket Arena, 1v1 with nearby people or something like that? I don't know. But if we were to do it, we'd want to switch the game up in a fun and interesting way, that would make itself work with the portability aspect of the console.
Rabbids is also wonderful too, if you're looking for something to do on Switch.
Is it? You mean Minions?
Yeah, basically. Basically.
Somebody at Minions is like, "Hey, those rabbits? Let's just do that."
I think it worked out for them. I think it did. And then, I saw some of your recent tweets about the realities of living and working in San Francisco as a game developer. I know this is very different. I know that you had talked about making North Carolina a game dev hub. So I was wondering how you think things are going in that regard, and would you ever consider running for a political office, to try to push that initiative forward?
That's a lot.
Sorry about that.
So the first thing is, I've been here since 1998. I'll talk about North Carolina first. And I have a shirt that says, "I used to be a Yankee, now I'm a Southerner." And the South is a fantastic place. It's not without its faults, but I'm doing everything I can to kind of help encourage the South to kind of be this new South, that's more known. Not just known for sweet tea and BBQ, but also technology, with my small crew of 65 folks. But also, I have gotten involved with local politics. I'm on a first-name basis with the Governor, that helps kind of get him elected with all the HB2 garbage that was going on. And to kind of steer this state right back in the, what I consider the better direction.
But the thing about San Francisco is it's a fantastic city. There's a great documentary I'd recommend watching on Netflix, called San Francisco 2.0, that kind of basically outlines the thing the drew the tech companies to San Francisco in the first place, is the very thing that they're driving out with the gentrification and all of the money in tech. Yeah, San Francisco is such a great town, with such an amazing Bohemian art scene and everything, and then here come the tech bros, then the rent goes up and all the awesome artists that made San Francisco what it is and was, are driven out. I saw that image a couple years ago, it was a public bus that had gotten in an accident with a Google bus and it was like the ultimate metaphor for the contradiction that that city has.
But if you're a game developer, especially if you have a family, the main thing that they consider often is, "Okay, well if things don't work out in one studio, there are a bunch in the area that I could potentially move over, without having to uproot my family and the kids have to go to a new school." Because I don't have kids, but the one thing I've learned the last few years of moving people to the state of North Carolina, it's basically they find the proper school that they want their children in and then they put a pin there, and then they put the radius out for what house they're gonna pick. And the school is the deciding factor for that. And San Francisco's expensive. It's ridiculous over there. But also, the West Coast has a very large concentration of game development, and for me, I always talk about North Carolina. You can buy a beautiful house for a quarter million dollars out here. And help bring North Carolina forward.
It's one thing I learned from my business partner in the restaurants is, find an emerging market and ride it up. Raleigh recently is, the shared working spaces are starting to explode out here. We finally have Barcades, restaurant wise. Putting the beer garden out here when there was none. And the beer garden's doing rather well. My buddy put a meatball shop down here, 'cause he saw there's a bunch of those doing well in New York. And make Raleigh happen and watch it change. And one of my favorite things to do is, if I have to do a temperature check with employees, on a nice day go outside, just go for a walk and see, "That old storefront has cardboard on it. I wonder what's going in there. Oh, it's going to be a new coffee shop." And to see our little Southern city grow, it's very much one of my favorite hobbies to do.
That's really nice. Another question, I'm sorry, this one goes back to Gears. What's your take on Gears of War 4 and the future of the series in Microsoft's hands?
Well, I have fans tweeting me occasionally, "Come back to Gears, the screwed it up." And it's like, if you love something that much and you love your memory of it, I don't know if anything can ever compete with what your memory is of it, right? And so I played through Gears 4 in co-op with my wife. I really enjoyed it. Would there be things I would have done differently? Of course. That's because I wasn't working on it.
I'm not going to delve too deep in to what Rod's going for in the [Gears of War] mythology, but there's a lot that he layered in there, in a very, very smart, tricky way. And I remember, we were always grappling with, "So, are we going to be in a civil war at the beginning and are we just gonna have a protagonist that's just going to be killing other people? Are we going to have the Nathan Drake problem, of he's charismatic and swagger, but he just murdered 4,000 people."
That's true.
That the internet was losing their brains over. It's a video game, but why did he shoot that guy? He shot at him first, he was defending himself. He just happens to be a mass murderer. But also, what they wound up doing was going with the robot that you're fighting in the first are killing people, which is a really smart and creative solution to that.
And I guess just the last one, I know we're running out of time here, but what kind of future would you say you see for LawBreakers, potentially as an Esport? Now that the game is out there, are you looking at this as a new path maybe to grow, for the growth and visibility of the game?
I believe that I made a very fun core shooter, that is very watchable and it has a lot of, the marketing term, the buzzer beater moments. I would love for it to potentially eventually happen, we just, we need the bodies. We need to keep fluffing up the CCU and then once we get to better numbers, do the things like that phase match that's going to be happening, I think it's tomorrow. Where you get the phase players playing the game in this kind of almost eSport like setting, because there's so many times in our lab, or when we've done events with influencers, that people don't see, where the energy in the room is amazing, where people are streaming and hooting and hollering and getting sweaty. And I've seen influencers get up from their computers, literally shaking after playing it.
And that's not coming across right now. So we need to do what we can to let people know that this is a really sweaty palm type of experience, that hopefully can lend itself to ESports, but I have to keep this game alive first and foremost. I could be very cocky and very brash on social media and realizing that the fledgling player base that are very humbling for me and I'm gonna continue to iterate on this game, continue to add to it. And try to be less of a dick, honestly.
A new Hearthstone hero is joining the fray this Halloween season, and you can claim her for free starting October 17. Warlock Nemsy Necrofizzle will be available at any Fireside Gathering Tavern--even after the Hallow's End festivities come to a close.
If you're wondering where you've seen this tiny, red-headed warlock before, you wouldn't be wrong in recognizing her. Nemzy has been seen on the Bog Creeper card from the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion set.
To get your hands on this pint-sized gal, all you have to do is participate in a Fireside Brawl at any Fireside Gathering Tavern. These taverns, which are a part of the game's Halloween event, are real-life locations and events. For more details on finding one near you or hosting, head on over to the Fireside Gatherings website.
This month, the exclusive Fireside Brawl is a game of Tag Team. While you're out at one of the Taverns, you'll be paired with others around you for a 3v3 team tournament.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was a marquee game for benchmarking PCs back in 2014 with its expansive environments and chaotic action sequences. The recently released sequel, Shadow of War, follows suit, and we figured this new adventure into Mordor is ripe for a quick graphics settings guide with some performance tips. It's an open-world action game, so twitch reactions and precision aiming aren't really part of the equation. It's not exactly necessary to maintain 60+ frames-per-second (FPS), but of course you want a smooth experience with as much eye candy as possible.
Shadow of War's System Requirements
The game uses Monolith's own Firebird graphics engine (formerly known as LithTech), and despite having large, detailed environments, the system requirements aren't too demanding. However, for a more optimal experience on PC, the recommended specs provide more than enough juice as you'll see in our results.
Minimum requirements:
CPU: Intel Core i5-2300 / AMD FX-4350
GPU: Nvidia GTX 660 / AMD HD 7870
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Disk Space: 70 GB
Recommended:
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 / AMD FX-8350
GPU: Nvidia GTX 970 or 1060 / AMD RX 480 or 580
Memory: 12 GB RAM
For the purposes of our tests, we're using a mid-range system that closely represents the recommended specs for the game. Our PC includes an Intel Core i5-3570K CPU, MSI GTX 970 GPU, and 8GB of RAM.
A Look At Our Graphics Options
Let's take a quick look at our options. We're sticking with 1080p for our resolution, but there are more than enough choices here, even allowing you to try 8K (7680x4320). V-Sync helps prevent screen tearing, although we prefer to keep it off. Dynamic resolution helps maintain consistent performance by adapting resolution in real time to how demanding the game gets; you can set the floor for how low the resolution goes.
While Shadow Of War has six graphical quality presets, we're going custom here. Lighting, Shadows, Mesh qualities are all set to High. Texture quality is also set to High since Ultra is specifically for the 4K texture pack and requires a video card with at least 8GB of video memory. Tessellation adds more three-dimensional detail to surfaces based on mapping data; we kept this on for more visual flair. Depth of Field is an effect that blurs areas that aren't at the focus of the player, and you should set this to your preference.
Graphics options menu in the PC version Shadow of War
The game doesn't specify what type of ambient occlusion techniques it uses outright, but we found Medium to be a good balance between performance and visual quality with our specs. For anti-aliasing, we used TAA (temporal anti-aliasing). It's an increasingly popular technique to get rid of jaggies, since it hits a nice balance of quality and performance. You'll definitely want this on over FXAA (fast approximate anti-aliasing), which tends to look too blurry. Texture filtering should be set to Ultra; this basically means anisotropic filtering is set to 16x.
Shadow of War does a great job of showing you what's going behind these graphics settings. Not only does the game explain what each setting does, but it gives you a breakdown of how the settings affect system memory and VRAM consumption. It even provides you with a neat little benchmark tool to get specific frame-time readings and FPS results through a 60-second fly by of an in-engine sequence, which is how we tested our systems.
Running On Recommended Specs
With our modest system close to the recommended specs and aforementioned choices in graphics settings, the benchmark results showed an average of 71 FPS. It hit a minimum of 41 FPS but just for a brief moment it got as high as 96 FPS. For the most part, the live FPS readings were consistently between the mid-60s to mid-70s. This gives you a little wiggle room if you want to bump a few other options up a notch.
The benchmark tool tries to capture many of the scenarios you'd encounter in-game.
Bumping shadows up to Ultra alone brought the average down to 62 FPS, which is still an admirable result. If we max out all the quality settings (except for textures), the average went down to 51 FPS; it's still playable, but not as smooth as we'd like. Regardless, if you meet the recommended specs, you should have no issues running Shadow of War at 1080p with plenty of visual bells and whistles.
Balling Out On 4K
What if you're on a high-end system and want to do 4K? We also ran the benchmark with a few of the beefiest graphics cards: AMD's RX Vega 64, and Nvidia's GTX 1080 and GTX 1080 Ti. The system we used for this also had an Intel Core i7-6700K CPU and 16GB of RAM. Not only can we can benchmark performance at 4K (3840x2160), but we're now able to factor in that 4K HD texture pack since these high end cards have 8GB of VRAM or more.
With every graphics option set to max, the GTX 1080 produced an average of 39 FPS while the RX Vega 64 pulled ahead with an average of 44 FPS. If we turn anti-aliasing off and set shadows down to High, we got a slight FPS boost to a 43 FPS average on the GTX 1080 and a 49 FPS average on the RX Vega 64.
When we slapped in the GTX 1080 Ti and cranked every graphics setting up along with 4K, our average was 55 FPS. To get us over the coveted 60 FPS bar in the benchmark, we turned anti-aliasing off and knocked shadows down to high and got a 61 FPS average.
Verdict
There were slight hitches during normal gameplay, but they were few and far between and inconsequential to the game's action in our experience. Visually, the game looks a little flat overall, but the PC version of Middle-earth: Shadow of War runs exceptionally well, even on modest hardware. But we were also reminded that 60 FPS at 4K resolution with the highest visual quality in modern games is still tough to attain unless you're willing the shell out the big bucks for the best video card available.
If you want more coverage on this latest game in the Lord of the Rings universe, check out Justin Haywald's Middle-earth: Shadow of War review here on GameSpot. He gave the game a 7/10 and stated, "At its core, it's a fun experience with brilliant moments that provide fascinating insight into some of the untold stories of Middle-earth." For gameplay tips, check out all of our Shadow of War guides and walkthroughs.
All your fire-type cuddle dreams are about to come true. Vulpix joins Build-a-Bear's line of Pokemon plushies beside Meowth, Charmander, Pikachu, Squirtle, and Eevee.
Vulpix comes just a month after the release of Meowth's plushie. Fashioned in it's in-game likeness, this softer version Vulpix sports its six curled tails, but in a more convenient flat, fan-like form. You can check out its plush and the two outfits designed for it below.
The plush itself is $28 in stores. On online exclusive bundle includes a cape, pokeball sleeper, 6-in-1 Vulpix sound box, and a Build-a-Bear Workshop Vulpix trading card for $60. The cape and trading card are exclusive to the online bundle.
Build-A-Bear also offers bears based on characters from popular franchises such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, My Little Pony, Minions, and Peanuts. You can get your hands on Vulpix online here. The website is also offering $20 for orders of two bundles or more.
It is Xur day my dudes! Which means it's time to once again look into the Destiny 2 merchant's cavernous void of a face and shuffle through Exotic wares to find something that tickles your fancy. Don't get too close though, who knows what those weird tendrils will do.
This week, Xur has planted himself on Nessus. It's fairly straightforward to get to him as he's popped up there before. Simply fast travel to Watcher's Grave and then scoot over to the tree in the north end of the area. You'll spot him lurking at the top of the large tree. He has the usual array of three pieces of Exotic armor and one weapons for sale. Here's what you can expect to find.
Knucklehead Radar (Hunter Class Helmet): 23 Legendary Shards
Peacekeepers (Titan Leg Armor): 23 Legendary Shards
Wings of Sacred Dawn (Warlock Class Chest Armor): 23 Legendary Shards
Earlier this week Destiny 2's Iron Banner event kicked off. If you'd like to see all the Iron Banner weapons, gears, and other rewards, head to our gallery. In related news, Bungie has said it is hearing criticism of Destiny 2's endgame activities and is taking it to heart. Although it didn't provide any specific details, the developer nonetheless said that discussions about endgame improvements are happening internally.
Furthermore, Bungie has said it is working on fixing Destiny 2's black screen issue. In the meantime, it has detailed two workarounds that can help alleviate the issue. A new hotfix for the game--1.0.3.2.--was out this week, and it fixed issues involving The Tower crashing when players load into it. This is separate from the black screen issue mentioned above.
In just a few weeks, Microsoft will launch a new console in the form of the Xbox One X. A more powerful version of the Xbox One, the system arrives on November 7, priced at $500 in the United States. While Microsoft of course expects it to sell well (the pre-orders are apparently strong already), Xbox boss Phil Spencer has now reiterated that the lower-cost Xbox One S model will remain Microsoft's best-selling console this generation.
"Xbox One S will be the market leader for us. It's the more affordable console. It plays all the same games," Spencer told us at the Brazil Game Show. "It will be the console that sells."
The Xbox One X, meanwhile, is aimed at players who are looking for the "very best experience" with a home console. Even if you don't have a 4K TV, you'll still see the benefits of the console's increased horsepower and more, Spencer pointed out. But similar to the Xbox One Elite controller, the Xbox One X won't be for everyone. It's all about giving players choice; if they want to spend more for a high-end experience, they can. This has been the setup on PC basically since the start, and now consoles are catching up, starting last year with the PS4 Pro and now the Xbox One X.
"Whether you're on a 1080p TV or a 4K TV, you're going to have a great experience. But it's not for everybody. It's like when we built the Xbox One Elite controller, we didn't try to say to everybody, 'If you need an extra controller, go buy the Elite controller.' We sold a ton of those controllers. We know in the gaming segment, there are a lot of people who play games casually and there's also people where gaming is their number one hobby.
"Their number one form of entertainment, and we want to give them the very best experience. I've played games in true 4K with HDR, and they look fantastic. But it doesn't mean everybody has to do that. So we're giving gamers a choice. Whether we've pushed the innovation too far? It's hard to do that with gamers. I guess we'll see; I feel very confident in the product we have coming to market."
Are you going to pick up an Xbox One X next month? Let us know in the comments below!
You can also read GameSpot's full interview with Phil Spencer here. It encapsulates all the stories featured below, plus a little more insight from the Xbox boss on 4K TVs, staying ahead of the curve in tech, and Microsoft's strategy for third-party games.
Speaking to GameSpot today at the Brazil Game Show, Xbox boss Phil Spencer spoke out against the idea of companies like Microsoft paying to secure exclusive content in games. He immediately recognises the irony of this situation, given that Microsoft had the timed-exclusive deal with Call of Duty before it shifted to Sony. The company is also working with Activision on a timed-exclusivity deal for Destiny 2, while Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2 will have some content that's exclusive to PS4, at least for a time.
But on Microsoft's side, it sounds like you shouldn't expect these kinds of deals to happen on Xbox. "People always knock me on this; I've been on record... I don't love the idea or practice of us paying so other platforms can't play or use a certain gun in a game or do a certain level," he said. "I know I say that and, Xbox history--DLC exclusivity windows with Call of Duty--I understand the fingers are pointing right back to Xbox. I can only be who I am. It's not the best PR answer. But I don't like that."
In terms of timed-exclusives for full games, Microsoft recently reached a deal with PUBG developer Bluehole to bring the game to Xbox One this year as a "console launch exclusive." It could very well come to PlayStation 4 at some point down the road, but no announcements have been made about that. Microsoft's deal with Bluehole, which presumably includes funds to help support the game's development (and may reportedly get extended), is part of Microsoft's aim to make the "best games possible" for Xbox.
"People ask, when's that coming to PlayStation? I've got a deal, working with [Bluehole] to build the very best version of PUBG," he said. "That's where I am focused. Right now, we're helping that game come to console. Our focus is on making the best games possible."
Another recent example of a exclusivity deal Microsoft made is with StudioMHR for the well-received and very difficult platformer/run-and-gunner Cuphead. The game is exclusive on console to Xbox One forever (though it is also available on PC). It is never coming to PlayStation 4. Spencer said Microsoft invested in Cuphead because it saw potential in the title and wanted to help make it all that it could be.
"When there are games that come along, Cuphead is a good example, and the team had certain ambition about what they wanted to go do," he said. "And together with them we wanted to invest more. We saw more opportunity. And what that turned into was us having an exclusive game on our platform. That's a game that probably wouldn't have happened the way it did if we didn't invest the way we did."
Console exclusives are a way to drive sales of a particular system. Microsoft has Halo and Gears of War and Forza, while Sony has Uncharted, God of War, Killzone, and others, just to name a few. While there will probably always be full exclusives like these, Spencer said the future of gaming lies in games that may not necessarily be tied to a specific device.
"If you define the gaming market as console and that's all you're focused on, then maybe that's an important part of the business consideration," Spencer said about console-exclusives driving system sales. "I'd say one of the reasons PC is still so strong, is because it's an open platform. Through things like cross-play we're working to allow people to play games together regardless of where you bought the games. if you're really about trying to drive just a specific device and say I just looked at the gaming opportunity all up as a single device opportunity, maybe that's an approach. We don't see it that way.
"When we look at things that are really large in gaming today, we look at Twitch, Steam, PUBG, Minecraft. People on Minecraft on Switch are playing with people on an iPhone. They don't own a Windows machine or an Xbox. But they own our game or are using Xbox Live across multiple devices, that's what gaming in the future is about. Getting caught in a definition of gaming that's about me trying to do everything I can to get you to buy one specific device to play one specific variant of games, is not really about growing the business."
For lots more on our conversation with the boss of Xbox, see the stories linked below. You can also read GameSpot's full interview with Phil Spencer here. It encapsulates all the stories featured below plus a little more insight from the Xbox boss on 4K TVs, staying ahead of the curve in tech, and Microsoft's strategy for third-party games.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer was a big fan of Destiny 1, having played some 700 hours of it. He's also logging time in the sequel, and now he's told us more about his time with the game. Speaking to GameSpot at the Brazil Game Show today, Spencer said he keeps his fireteam (and sometimes his Xbox Live party settings) open so anyone can join him. His gamertag, which he frequently shares openly on Twitter and elsewhere, is P3
He has to kick people out from time to time, however, because he's not a high enough level to play end-game activities like Leviathan raid. He told us at the show that his character is Power level 237. You need to be at least 260 to play the raid. Not being a high enough Power level for the raid keeps him awake at night, Spencer said, perhaps jokingly.
Spencer's public page on Destinytracker shows that his character, an Awoken Titan, now has a Power level of 241. That's not the highest, of course, but Spencer is a busy, busy person with a lot on his plate, so it's understandable. He told us he's traveled to Tokyo, the US east coast, and then Brazil just in the past few weeks.
The Xbox boss also told us about which weapon he wants the most in Destiny 2. After very much enjoying the MIDA Multi-Tool in Destiny 1, he's looking to get the weapon in the sequel.
Spencer also light-heartedly said he's bummed that Bungie won't allow him to play his Destiny 2 character in the PC version right now. The game doesn't launch for PC until October 24, but given his high-up position and contacts, we wouldn't be surprised if Spencer received some form of early access.
For more on our conversation with Spencer, check out the stories linked below, and come back soon to see our full Q&A.
As the Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer played a key role in bringing the critically acclaimed platformer Cuphead to Xbox One and PC as an exclusive for Microsoft. One of the perks of his position is getting to play games ahead of release. He told us at the Brazil Game Show today that while he beat all the bosses ahead of launch, he hasn't completed the retail version of the game--and he has a good reason.
"I think I finished all of the bosses at one point before it launched. But no. I've been traveling for four weeks in a row so I haven't had much chance to play," Spencer said. "It is [an excuse]."
Spencer also told us that Cuphead is selling "very well," though he didn't get into specifics about sales numbers. "I am so happy for the studio; they worked a long time on the game. And to have the success they're having--it's selling very well," he said. "The reaction has been great. It's just fantastic when those kind of things come together."
As part of Microsoft's exclusivity deal for Cuphead, the game is staying exclusive to Xbox One and PC forever. It is never coming to PlayStation 4. Spencer said the version of Cuphead that exists today might never have happened were it not for Microsoft's investment.
"The team had certain ambition about what they wanted to go do. And together with them we wanted to invest more," he said. "We saw more opportunity. And what that turned into was us having an exclusive game on our platform. That's a game that probably wouldn't have happened the way it did if we didn't invest the way we did."
Developer StudioMDHR has announced that Cuphead has gone platinum, having sold more than 1 million copies since launch. It did not provide any kind of breakdown between Xbox One and PC, which are the only two platforms Cuphead is available on currently.
"It's not true that people don't play it. I've seen those online arguments about nobody uses it or everybody uses it. It's not true that everybody plays backwards compatibility games, it's not true that no one does," he said. "A lot of the data is third party data so I can't really tell you how many people are playing a certain game; it's not my game. I think the best signal we had so far is when Black Ops II landed and that month it hit NPD's Top 10 that month for game sales. An Xbox 360 game that's years old, that shows that people care."
The Xbox One is the only new-generation console that has true backwards compatibility support. The PlayStation 4, by comparison, requires users to re-purchase older games to play on the system through PlayStation Now and the PS2 Classics program.
"We continue to invest in back-compat because it matters. Not because somebody else [Sony] doesn't have it. If somebody else did it tomorrow, we wouldn't stop. We see it as a commitment to our customers that the games you buy from us [will work on new platforms]."
In addition to Xbox 360 games, the backwards compatibility lineup will add support for Original Xbox games before the end of the year. Microsoft is "really close" to launching this, Spencer told us, also teasing some news about support on Xbox One X.
Also in our interview, Spencer spoke about how he wants to move beyond the old way of thinking that when you buy a new console, your purchases for the older device are rendered useless. That's part of the reason why backwards compatibility is so important to Microsoft.
"I want to give gamers a choice. It's about growing gaming not being divisive and artificially trying to move you ahead. That's why Xbox One X plays the same games Xbox One S does. PC has done this for years. It's not rocket science in how you figure this out."
For more on our conversation with Spencer, check out the stories linked below or our full Q&A with the Xbox boss.
Now, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has provided an update on where things stand with Sony. He told us at the Brazil Game Show today that Microsoft speaks with Sony all the time, but the conversations haven't amounted to anything--and they may never.
"We talk to Sony all the time. With Minecraft on PlayStation, we have to be one of the biggest games on their platform in terms of sales and gameplay," Spencer said. "Same with Nintendo. The relationship with Nintendo on this front has been strong. They've been great supporters and we continue to collaborate with them. But I think Sony's view is different. They should talk about what their view is..."
Asked if cross-play between Xbox One and PS4 is a lost cause, Spencer said he doesn't want to speak for Sony. Nothing is ever set in stone, but the way things are now with Sony makes Spencer believe the company may never come around.
"I have a real struggle making comments about their motivation or timelines. I know there is a certain view that says if my friends have this console, they can't play with people who buy another console. That's a reason they go buy my console," he said. "That reason is not going to go away. So we're putting Minecraft out there as one of the biggest games on any platform and allowing people to play together regardless of what device they bought. I don't think everybody is taking that same approach to the ecosystem. So I'm never going to call anything a lost cause but I think some of the fundamental reasons and certain scenarios, they're not really going away. So I don't know what would change."
Speaking generally about the appeal of cross-play, Spencer said it allows the multiplayer environments for games to stay rich, because the player pools are larger than they otherwise might be.
"I think people look at [cross-play] and say is it better for gamers. If it's better for gamers, I have a hard time thinking why we shouldn't go do this, especially when you're trying to make the gaming business a bigger business; grow it, get more games, create more opportunity," he said. "Especially in the indie space, actually. If you're creating an online indie game and you're going to create five [shards] of your game--the Steam version, Xbox Live on PC, Xbox version, the PlayStation version, the Switch version creates hard matchmaking scenarios. We should help developers, not make their lives more difficult."
You can also read GameSpot's full interview with Phil Spencer here. It encapsulates all the stories featured above plus a little more insight from the Xbox boss on 4K TVs, staying ahead of the curve in tech, and Microsoft's strategy for third-party games.
After launching for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in September, Bungie's Destiny 2 comes out for PC on October 24. Today, Bungie announced the game's exact unlock time and revealed the final PC requirements. Servers will become available at 10 AM PT on October 24, which works out to 1 PM ET / 2 PM BRT / 6 PM BST / and 4 AM the next day in Australia. Check out the map below to find out precisely when Destiny 2 unlocks where you live.
Bungie also today announced the final minimum and recommended specs for Destiny 2, following the preliminary specs from the beta last month. You need 68 GB of free space to install Destiny 2, while Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 are supported operating systems. You can check out the full minimum and recommended specs in the image below, which Bungie shared in its latest weekly blog post today.
The PC version of Destiny 2 will be available at physical retailers and through Blizzard's Battle.net, but not Steam or other digital stores. That's notable because Destiny 2 is the first non-Blizzard game to be offered on Blizzard's PC gaming platform. For more on the PC edition of Destiny 2, check out GameSpot's roundup of everything you need to know.
Bungie has also said it is working on fixing Destiny 2's black screen issue. In the meantime, it has detailed two workarounds that can help alleviate the issue. A new hotfix for the game--1.0.3.2.--was out this week, and it fixed issues involving The Tower crashing when players load into it. This is separate from the black screen issue mentioned above.
GameSpot and CNET have teamed up to give you a chance to win an SNES Classic Editionfor free! Two (2) winners will be chosen after the competition ends on Sunday, October 15th at 11:59PM PT. Entry is open to legal residents of the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada; void where prohibited.
To enter: Please read the rules carefully, fill out the form below, and remember to share the unique link you will get at the end of your registration. You can get up to 10 extra entries to increase your chances of winning.
Don't forget to check out our review to learn all about the SNES, and good luck!
The Evil Within 2 is out now, and it's a solid improvement on its predecessor. Aside from getting to play through a story that centers around returning protagonist Sebastian Castellanos attempting to save his daughter, players can also come across a variety of Easter eggs. [Potential spoilers ahead.]
We've already called attention to one particular mode that unlocks after finishing The Evil Within 2. A "more cinematic game experience" awaits those who make their way through the campaign, giving players the option to toggle on a letterbox mode. This was a contentious aspect of the first game, which made the unusual choice of forcing a 2.35:1 aspect ratio on players, though this was ultimately made optional. Given the unlock screen in Evil Within 2, this seems to be a tongue-in-cheek callback to the first game.
But that's not the only secret waiting to be uncovered. You unlock a number of bonuses for completing the game, but other Easter eggs require you to actively explore and uncover things for yourself. As you'll see in the video above, there are collectibles scattered throughout the game that reference other games published by Bethesda. These include Doom, Wolfenstein, and The Elder Scrolls Online.
A new batch of games is coming to the Nintendo Switch Eshop. Seven more titles arrive to the digital service today, many of which are definitely worth a look for those anxious to buy something new for their Switch.
One of today's new releases is Yono and the Celestial Elephants, an adorable isometric puzzle-adventure game. Players must help the titular elephant Yono navigate through three dungeons, using his trunk to spray water, shoot flames, and more in order to solve puzzles. The game also features four towns full of NPCs and sidequests, as well as a variety of treasures to find. Yono and the Celestial Elephants runs for $15/£13.
Yono and the Celestial Elephants
Also available today is Wulverblade, a retro-style side-scrolling beat-'em-up. The game features a "historically accurate" story and has players battling through eight levels in the campaign mode to defeat the invading Roman army. Wulverblade also supports two-player co-op and features an arena mode. It retails in the Eshop for $20/£15.
GameSpot News with Jess McDonell and Dan Crowd is your ticket to catching up on the day's video game news, and impressing your friends with only the freshest, most trending-est information. Here's a rundown of the stories covered today:
Michel Ancel Wants To Make More Rayman
The main mind behind Beyond Good and Evil 2 still has a soft spot in his heart for one of his original creations, it seems. Ancel recently posted an Instagram photo of a Rayman statue he found in the wild and got a bit emotional.
Have you been avoiding playing Destiny 2 because you're a PC master race zealot who can only bring yourself to play games if you're bathed in the rainbow LED glow of your Razer peripherals? Well get ready, because Bungie revealed the unlock times and recommended specs for Destiny 2 on home computer systems.
Hey, you know the guys who created Humble Bundle? Did you know they also make their own games? That's right! Their latest one is called Overgrowth and it just left early access, and people seem to be into it.
If you participated in the open beta for Star Wars Battlefront 2, you might have noticed it placed a heavy emphasis on boosting your characters with Star Cards, which you obtain via the game's loot crate system. Needless to say, people weren't very happy with how this worked, and it's sparked a whole discussion among the community and the developers themselves.
The co-op sandbox survival game Fortnite from Epic Games and People Can Fly has been pretty popular! So popular that some players have been cheating to get ahead! Those people are losers, and the developers know that. That's why they've been banning them and now, have gone the extra step to file lawsuits against two of them! Let this be a lesson to everyone: Play nice, play fair, don't get sued by a company with way more money to spend on legal fees than you.
GameSpot News will be back next Monday to catch you up on all the video game news you missed out on over the weekend. Or maybe you'll prove us wrong and keep visiting GameSpot for all the latest news, reviews and features? Sounds like a plan!
Gravel isn't the only off-road racer Square Enix will release next year. Ahead of the Monster Energy Cup 2017, the publisher today announced the officially licensed motocross game Monster Energy Supercross.
Monster Energy Supercross is developed by the same studio behind Gravel. The game features real-world motocross stadiums, bikes, and athletes from the 2017 Monster Energy AMA Supercross. Players will be able to play in two classes--250SX and 450SX--and choose from a roster of notable motocross racers, including Chad Reed, Ken Roczen, and current champion Ryan Dugney.
In addition to that, Monster Energy Supercross features a career mode and extensive customization options that allow players to tweak both their racers and bikes. Players can also use the game's track editor to create and share their own custom motocross courses with others online. You can check out the game's announcement trailer and first screenshots above.
From now until October 25, catch your best shots of Pokemon in Pokemon Go for a chance to win some Pokemon Go swag. The top ten AR photographers will get their hands on a Pokemon Go Plus accessory, a poster signed by the Niantic team, and wireless Bluetooth headphones.
To participate, take a screenshot in-game and share it on Instagram with the hashtag #PokemonGoContest. Make sure not to include people in your shots though--this is all about your favorite pocket monsters.
Judges will be looking at three main components for each entry: originality, creativity, and fun. While most Pokemon will be lurking in the tall grasses around home, the best way to get your hands on the prizes will be venturing out to new horizons. The ten winners will be selected and notified via Instagram direct message on October 25.
Splatoon 2's next Splatfest competition is scheduled to begin very soon. This month's event kicks off in North America tonight, October 13, at 9 PM PT/12 AM ET and concludes at the same time tomorrow, October 14.
For the first time since Splatoon 2 launched this past summer, North America's Splatfest features a different theme than Europe's. While European players battled over the proper way to hang a toilet roll, players in North America will be settling a more fitting dispute in time for Halloween: which monster is better, vampires or werewolves?
Ahead of the Splatfest, Nintendo is adding a pair of new weapons to Splatoon 2. This week's free DLC guns are the Custom E-liter 4K and the modified Custom E-liter 4k Scope. These two chargers will be available tonight at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET and can be purchased using in-game currency from the Ammo Knights weapon shop.
Both the Custom E-liter 4K and Custom E-liter 4K Scope come outfitted with the Squid Beakon sub-weapon and Bubble Blower special. The difference between the two guns is their range; the Scope variant can fire further, but it isn't able to store a charge shot like the standard model.
WWE 2K18 officially launches next week, but some PS4 and Xbox One players can start playing this year's wrestling game a little early. Those who purchase the Deluxe edition can access the title starting today, October 13.
2K Sports has also announced a slate of downloadable content that will be released for the title. Five different themed WWE 2K18 DLC packs are on the way throughout late 2017 and early 2018, which will add new moves, iconic wrestlers like the Hardy Boyz, and more to this year's wrestling game.
Season 2 of Riverdale, the darker, grittier take on Archie, premiered earlier this week on The CW. It was the first new episode since Season 1 concluded in May, but if you missed it or just want to watch it again, you can watch it online right now.
For those in the United States, you can load up the CW app on your phone or head to the network's website. You can stream the entire episode, "A Kiss Before Dying," for free without needing to login with a TV provider. That said, you will have to sit through some ads.
Those outside of the US have what's arguably the more desirable path to watching the show. Not unlike Star Trek: Discovery, Riverdale episodes air on Netflix outside of the US. Episodes will arrive on Netflix internationally the day after they premiere in the US. There's no official word yet on a Season 2 release date on Netflix for US fans, although Season 1 is still available through the streaming service.
Riverdale's second season is set to be much bigger than the first. Whereas Season 1 consisted of only 13 episodes, this upcoming season received a full, 22-episode order. You can check out our feature from earlier this year about why Riverdale is worth checking out.
Three years after he initially signed on for the movie, Channing Tatum is finally going to get to play card-throwing mutant Gambit in a spin-off of the X-Men film franchise. It's been a long road to develop Gambit, which has already seen directors Rupert Wyatt and Doug Liman drop out of the project. Now though, with a release date and a director, it looks like all systems are go.
Gambit will follow in the footsteps of Deadpool with a release in the middle of February--specifically, February 14, 2019. So start planning your Valentine's Day accordingly.
The film hails from 20th Century Fox and will be set in the same X-Men universe as Deadpool, Logan, and the upcoming New Mutants. As previously reported, Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski is set to helm Gambit with a script from Josh Zetumer. Tatum will produce the film, alongside Reid Carolin, Simon Kinberg, and Lauren Shuler Donner.
This will not be the character's first appearance in the X-Men films. Previously, Taylor Kitsch played Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, though given how panned the film--and the portrayal of the character--was, it should come as no surprise that they are going in a different direction. Gambit is actually the second character from that film to be rebooted within the franchise, the first being Deadpool. Interestingly, Ryan Reynolds played both versions of the merc with a mouth.
Before Tatum hits the big screen as Gambit, there will be three other X-Men films coming to theaters. New Mutants, Deadpool 2, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix are all scheduled for 2018 releases.
Being in the writer's room for Big Mouth sounds like an insanely personal experience.
"We had all of our writers on day one bring a picture of themselves as an awkward-ass adolescent," Mark Levin, one of the show's creators and executive producers, told GameSpot.
"And if you looked too good, it's like, nah. You're not playing this game right," Andrew Goldberg, another EP/creator, added, laughing.
Big Mouth stars comedians Nick Kroll as his prepubescent self, and John Mulaney as a stand-in for a more-pubescent Goldberg. The two wrestle with their hormones--literally, in the case of Mulaney's character Andrew, who's haunted by a sex-obsessed Hormone Monster who encourages him to touch himself and constantly inserts inappropriate thoughts into his brain.
It's basically a Seinfeld situation; Kroll and Goldberg created the show, Kroll is himself, and Mulaney plays Goldberg. That makes Kroll, who ended his eponymous Kroll Show in 2015 after three critically acclaimed seasons on Comedy Central, Jerry Seinfeld; Mulaney, who appeared regularly on Kroll Show, is Jason Alexander; and Goldberg, who grew up with Kroll in real life, is pretty much Larry David.
That's a comparison Big Mouth itself acknowledges in a couple of gags throughout its 10-episode season. But it's not a perfect analogy, because on Seinfeld, you never watched George Costanza masturbate or saw Elaine use a handheld mirror to chat with her own vagina.
"I think the whole show, it was a question of, 'This is funny to us, but is it going to be funny to more than us?'" Levin said.
Bar Mitzvah Boys
We'd met during New York Comic Con at the NYC headquarters of Titmouse, the animation house that helped create Big Mouth. Titmouse co-founder Chris Prynoski, who sat in on the interview, said he was surprised how much heart the series has, in addition to all its dick and period jokes.
"We got away with a lot, really because we were with Netflix," Levin said. "Because they give you the creative freedom that you hear about, and in our whole careers we've never really experienced."
In Levin and Goldberg's original conception, the show would have been called "Bar Mitzvah Boys." But the idea morphed as Kroll became more involved and Levin was inspired by his own son's journey through puberty.
"Mark really empathized with [his son]," Goldberg said. "He was like, 'Is there some way to use animation to create some sort of physical manifestation of the angst of puberty? And I said, 'Like a hormone monster or something?'"
"Later that day I was on the phone with Nick and as soon as I said the words 'hormone monster' Nick instantly had the voice," Goldberg recalled. "And the first thing he said was 'Touch yourself Andrew.' I was like, 'Yes! That's it! Exactly! That's the guy!'"
The ultimate title, "Big Mouth," comes from Kroll's famously large mouth, which Goldberg said is drawn in the show to more or less realistic proportions for 12-year-old Nick Kroll. Much of the show's conflict arises from Nick's envy over Andrew's faster development. Nick gets jealous when he sees Andrew's pubes, for example, and he wonders when he's going to get his own Hormone Monster pal.
"Like 6th, 7th, 8th grade was when the two of us really spent every single moment together, like every night sleeping over at each other's houses, kind of becoming members of each other's families," Goldberg said. "Where the two kids are developmentally at that age is very much based on where Nick and I were. Puberty smashed me over the head like a two-by-four when I was about 12 years old, and Nick was a much later bloomer. At the time I didn't realize how much that affected him."
That's the kind of thing that came out in this writers room. "When we were interviewing writers to join this and sit at the table, we would ask them masturbation questions, and period questions, right in the interview," Levin said. "And then if they weren't comfortable there, they weren't going to be able to really feel comfortable in the room. So by the time we were in the room together it was a really safe environment."
"I think Nick and I would set the tone by being very honest," Goldberg added. "And it's one of those things where, like, when somebody says, 'Yeah, I came in my pants slow-dancing with a girl,' Nick says like, 'I got pantsed and had no pubic hair and a little penis and I was humiliated.' Everyone else is like, 'Oh yeah? Well I have to keep up, so I will tell you that what happened to me is this!'"
Those personal pre-teen embarrassments are where they mined most of the material for Big Mouth, from Andrew getting too excited while slow-dancing to their friend Jessi, voiced by comedian Jessi Klein, having her period for the first time while wearing white shorts on a school trip inside the Statue of Liberty--one of the biggest women in the world.
Levin's wife, Jennifer Flackett, worked on the show as executive producer and writer, and her experience was crucial for the episodes that focus on female characters like Jessi and Kroll Show alum Jenny Slate's Missy. Big Mouth goes way past periods while exploring female puberty, including an episode where the boys discover that "girls get horny too" when all the female characters--pre-teens, moms, and teachers alike--start obsessing over a made-up romance novel called The Rock of Gibraltar. The women even have their own Hormone Monstress, voiced by Maya Rudolph.
Goldberg and Levin said they were able to capture those often very personal things so effectively because of the women involved at every step of Big Mouth's creation. "You, as a man, don't totally relate, but you can tell that it resonates amongst them, and you trust them," Goldberg said.
The big question
When the show's first trailer debuted, some online commentators wondered at the legality--never mind the good taste--of showing animated pre-teens' genitals. Obviously, that came up during creation.
"The question was asked, I think by John Mulaney, on day one," Goldberg said. "He's like, 'Are we sure we're not doing child pornography?' And we really thought about it."
"I feel like the people who have those objections for the most part have not seen the show, and if they have, and they're looking at these images and finding them sexy or titillating, to me that says a lot more about them than the show," he continued. "What we've experienced a lot more is people watching the show and saying, 'Wow, that's just what it was like, or what it is like, going through this, and I feel better and not alone,' which is what our goal is."
Goldberg's parents, at least, approve--although to varying degrees. They aren't portrayed in the most flattering light in the show, and it just so happened that his mother, who was in town to watch their New York Comic Con panel, was also in the room for our interview.
Goldberg said he felt awkward showing Big Mouth to her and his dad, and their tepid reaction to the first episode caused a row between them and his wife.
Since then, "I think at least my mother has genuinely come around," Goldberg said. She confirmed that she'd watched the whole season after all, but she felt more comfortable watching it without her husband present.
"My father didn't appreciate the extended description of Marty's balls," Goldberg admitted.
"Well, I'm glad they got that far," Levin quipped. "That's good!"
A new mode is coming soon to Grand Theft Auto V. Beginning October 17, GTA Online players will be able to take part in the much-anticipated Transform Races, a new type of race that Rockstar describes as the "next evolution of Stunt Racing."
Unlike in a typical Stunt Race, during a Transform Race, your vehicle will be changing between bikes, planes, and more depending on the terrain. As you can see in the trailer above, these transformations happen instantly when you hit a specific point on the course, which should keep races constantly surprising.
On top of transforming vehicles, Transform Races add a new type of checkpoint called Warps. These instantly transport you to a different location on the map, which Rockstar says "allow[s] for a huge range of new Stunt Race types."
Transform Races will be available with next week's GTA V update. Until then, you can still take advantage of this week's GTA Online bonuses, which include the new Buckingham Pyro airplane, as well as discounts on a handful of vehicles and upgrades. Beyond Transform Races, GTA Online players also have new Condemned and Dogfight modes to look forward to, both of which will be added to the game "in the coming months."
The wait for Cuphead was a long one, first being featured during Microsoft's E3 press conference in 2014--at which point it had already been in development for several years. Despite being on the market for just two weeks so far, the ultra-difficult action game has already reached a major sales milestone.
On its website today, developer StudioMDHR announced that Cuphead has gone platinum, having sold more than 1 million copies since launch. It did not provide any kind of breakdown between Xbox One and PC, which are the only two platforms Cuphead is available on currently.
"We have worked tirelessly over the past few years to deliver a game that remained true to our vision and we are both humbled and excited that so many people from around the world are playing Cuphead--it truly makes it all worth it," wrote developers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer.
Cuphead was developed and published by StudioMDHR with help from Microsoft, hence the current exclusivity. Xbox boss Phil Spencer spoke with us about the game recently and admitted he hasn't beaten Cuphead yet--but he has a good excuse. He also alluded to positive sales, though he didn't get into any specifics at the time.
"I'm so happy for the studio," he said. "They worked a long time on the game, and to have the success they're having, selling very well, the reaction's been great--it's fantastic when those things come together, so it's great."
Justice League is a month away, which means teasers for the movie are going to start appearing all over the internet, giving a better idea at the new superheroes being introduced in the first. First up is none other than Aquaman (Jason Momoa).
Given that Aquaman is the first DC superhero set for a solo movie after Justice League, it makes sense to feature his character. After all, he hasn't been seen much outside of that short glimpse in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice--the same goes with Cyborg (Ray Fisher). Meanwhile, The Flash (Ezra Miller) made a cameo appearance in Suicide Squad.
In this new look at Aquaman, Momoa gives some insight into who Arthur Curry is when introduced in the film. "He's the heir to the throne of Atlantis, but he's not the king yet," the actor explains. "When he finds his place with the Justice League, that's when he can really put his skills to use."
He also shares a highlight from production of the film, which also happens to be one of the better moments seen in trailers for the movie thus far. "One of my favorite things to film was when I jumped on the Batmobile," Momoa says. "That was badass. I was like, 'I cannot believe I'm surfing the Batmobile right now.'"
A second, much shorter teaser focuses on the building of the team as they prepare for a battle against Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons. As with almost every other promotional clip for the film, Superman (Henry Cavill) is nowhere to be seen. While he died at the end of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the character will appear in the film.
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