While this year is packed with numerous highly anticipated big-budget games, it's also filled with a wealth of exciting new indie games that you shouldn't miss out on. With so many hidden gems to keep track of, we've compiled the 15 indie games we're most excited about. Click ahead to see what's in store for this year.
There's way more exciting indie games coming this year that we didn't mention here. Which ones are you most looking forward to this year? Let us know in the comments below.
For more on the bigger games this year, check out our individual features highlighting the most anticipated PS4 games, Xbox One games, PC games, and Switch games for a broader look at the year ahead. If you're curious about exclusives, be sure to check out our features highlighting the most anticipated PS4 games, Xbox One games, PC games, and Switch games for a broader look at the year ahead.
Celeste | PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Celeste is a magical game that will challenge you in a multitude of ways. Its platforming is really, really hard, and you'll likely get frustrated at your fumbling fingers for failing a jump or at your slow brain for not figuring out how to get to the next safe zone. But when you get to that checkpoint, it's satisfying to know your fingers and brain aren't, in fact, useless.
More than its platforming, though, Celeste's story is challenging. The main protagonist, Madeline, is faced with a horrible journey--both climbing a mountain and battling her own mind--and at times it's not easy to watch her suffer. The game's writing is such that it's easy to project that suffering onto yourself, and that can make it tough to face playing the next level.
But you should absolutely do so, because it's a story with an ending worth the struggle and a cast of characters so endearing you'll be rooting for them to succeed. Just expect to fail a few leaps of faith along the way.
Donut County | PC, PS4, iOS
If you've played Katamari Damacy, you might be familiar with the concept of Donut County--just in reverse. In Donut County, you control a hole in the ground that grows the more you can get to fall inside of it. Start small with lawn chairs and pebbles and work your way up to buildings and even mountains, all while solving physics-based puzzles to fit everything in the hole.
Donut County is a solo project by indie developer Ben Esposito, who worked on What Remains of Edith Finch and The Unfinished Swan. Playing as a hole sounds really silly, and Donut County's colorful art and sassy animal characters are cheekily charming, but in practice it's meditative and relaxing to play. We're excited to see more of what Donut County and its trash (or treasures) have to offer--and hopefully what's at the bottom of that hole.
Griftlands | PC
Griftlands is the "pirate" game we've always wanted (and one of our most anticipated PC games for this year). You might take a good long look at it and say, "This is a sci-fi/fantasy mashup RPG, not some swashbuckling romp on the high seas." And you'd be right. But who says green aliens and humans can't come together and form a pirate crew? It's space piracy we're talking about.
Unlike most RPGs, you're not an adventurer setting out to save the day; you're a space pirate/mercenary-type looking for your next big payday. In your journey for riches, you'll come across a bunch of different characters, potential party members, and bandits, and you'll be able to choose exactly how you deal with each character and situation. There are written questlines for certain characters, but the larger story is one you'll craft on your own as you play and make decisions. We played it at PAX West last year and chose to be a jerk who treated their friends with reverence and anyone else with extreme disrespect. After about 30 minutes of acting like a tough guy, we saw ourselves losing weekends to it.
Griftlands is scheduled to release sometime in early 2018, so we're on high alert for a release date announcement. We can't wait to get back to our quest for fortune, casually intimidating NPCs, and giving bandits who stand in our way what-for.
Iconoclasts | PS4, Vita, PC
Calling Iconoclasts a "Metroidvania" is accurate, but simply seeing it as that undercuts what makes it truly special. Its world is full of deep, resonating conflicts: science vs. religion and technology vs. nature, just to name a few. The faces of these conflicts are quirky, fleshed-out characters with personality bursting from every pixel of their 16-bit sprites. But for as quick as the game is to make a joke, it can also tug at your heartstrings, whether it's by killing off a character's family or showing an unhealthy mother-daughter relationship.
As for the Metroidvania elements, protagonist Robin's wrench has more uses than a Swiss army knife. You can ride rails, crank open doors, and even deflect enemy attacks. The game also constantly shakes things up with puzzles and boss encounters that truly put the basic moves you've learned to the test. Top if all off with a great soundtrack and colorful level design, and you've got yourself a delightful indie package. The fact that it was all developed by one man over nearly a decade is just icing on the cake.
Jenny Leclue | PS4, PC, iOS
Jenny Leclue's charming and vibrant hand-drawn art style is captivating, but its atmospheric world and endearing premise is what makes it worth getting excited about. Told in the form of a metanarrative, you experience a mystery through the eyes of Jenny Leclue, a fictional character from a detective novel written by fictional author Arthur K. Finklestein.
As you control Jenny, you're faced with choices that can affect both Finklestein's story and his narration of the events that occur in the game. You'll also solve an array of brain teaser-like puzzles in your quest to discover the truth. While not much has been shown of the game since its playable teaser early last year, what we've played so far has shown great promise.
Knights and Bikes | PC, PS4
Grand adventure! Bicycles! Kids with asthma! Knights and Bikes is an adventure where two kids use their imaginations (and their bikes) to overcome surreal mysteries in their hometown. And when you pedal your bike too hard, you've got to take a hit from your inhaler.
The art style gives the game a timeless look, but theold-school action adventure gameplay captures the variety of real-time combat games like Secret of Mana. And while this is indie studio Foam Sword's debut game, the developers have a track record of success, having previously worked at Media Molecule on LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway.
Knuckle Sandwich | PC, Mac
If Undertale's brand of Earthbound-style weirdness wasn't quite weird enough for you, then Knuckle Sandwich might be more up your alley.
What we've played so far, Knuckle Sandwich wears the skin of a polished 16-bit-era RPG set in the modern day, and very quickly goes to some unexpected places. It's surreal, off-the-rails, and laugh-out-loud funny. You can expect satisfying turn-based combat with real-time action components, a variety of mini-games, a sharp sense of style, and impeccable comedic timing.
Mind-bending and visually striking, Manifold Garden is like playing through an M.C. Escher painting (in the best way possible). The puzzle game puts you in a stunning world that stretches out into infinity, and it's your job to learn its rules and master its physics to traverse it. If you can't get to a platform, try jumping off the one you're on; as you'll fall, you'll pass what's either a recursion of it or a repetition, but either way, you can use the world's loop to find your way around seemingly impassable obstacles.
Navigating Manifold Garden is almost like looking into a pastel-toned hall of mirrors. There's no up or down, and it can be hard to get your bearings. But when you do solve a puzzle, you're struck by the beauty of its physics and its art, making it one of the games we're most looking forward to in 2018.
Mothergunship | PS4, PC
Mothergunship is the rare sequel that makes every improvement you could ask for. It takes the entertaining concept of Tower of Guns--a first-person shooter with elements of bullet-hell games and roguelikes--and addresses every major complaint about it.
You don't even need to pick up a controller to see that Mothergunship presents much smoother mechanics than its predecessor, with fluid movement and gunplay that is enjoyable in its own right. The latter point is particularly welcome in light of the newly added weapon crafting system, which lets you build outlandish weapons with a dozen barrels that each launches homing rockets. Silly as the prospect of mounting a fish tank on top of your gun might be, there are legitimate considerations to take into account in terms of how much energy an especially ridiculous weapon will require to fire.
Mothergunship also introduces new persistent elements to provide a greater sense of progression as you play. Combined with the ability to play cooperatively with a friend online, and it seems like there will be far from more reason to keep coming back for more.
Necrobarista | PC, Switch
Where do you go when you die? Probably not a coffee shop occupied by transient souls, but then again, it might be just crazy enough to work. In visual novel Necrobarista, the dead get a chance to extend their lives in a mysterious Melbourne cafe. The catch: You might not know who's alive and who's dead.
Inspired by anime, including the excellent Death Parade, Necrobarista tells a story over the length of a typical TV season and with a distinct anime flair. 3D cutscenes bookend exploration sequences where you can explore the room you're in, reading snippets of information about the history of where you're standing or the characters around you. Expect Cowboy Bebop references, dramatic knife sequences (really), and a lot of love for coffee.
Ooblets | PC, Xbox One
Ooblets is what happens when you cross the simulation aspects of Stardew Valley, the battle structure of Pokemon, the stylish cuteness of Animal Crossing. The game looks like a chill experience with a focus on enjoying the journey of collecting and exploring its pastel-colored world with all the hallmarks of the games it encapsulates gathered together in one place. The creatures you collect in the game are called Ooblets, and you can use them to battle against other Ooblets you meet in the world. You can customize your character's appearance and clothing with a wide range of styles. And you can even decorate and rearrange your room.
And you can dance, too! Dancing automatically makes games more exciting. There's no set exact date for Ooblets yet, but it's set to launch sometime this year for PC and Xbox One.
Overland | PC, Mac, Linux
If you're a fan of turn-based tactics, difficult decisions that come back to haunt you, or American wilderness, Overland should be on your radar.
It's a post-apocalyptic rogue-lite road-trip across the USA, where monsters run rampant and gasoline is sparse. You'll start off with just one survivor and attempt to travel west, making pit stops along the way to recruit strangers, fortify your car, and find supplies.
Its minimalist visual design is super-slick, and like every good survival game, there are constantly tough situations to deal with. Are you confident enough in your combat abilities to venture far away from your vehicle? Do you spend extra fuel to drive to a more dangerous, but possibly more lucrative location? When overrun, do you try and get that straggler back in the car, or take off without them? Do you boot one of your squad members to give their car seat to a very good dog you just came across?
At the time of writing, Overland is in a "first access" phase on itch.io, meaning you can play a development build of the game now and get a taste of its campaign and mechanics. And it's a very, very good taste. We're very much looking forward to this one when it launches in full.
Return of the Obra Dinn | PC
Return of the Obra Dinn is one of the most visually striking upcoming indie games. Taking inspiration from classic text adventures on PC, it sports a two-tone color palette that at times is a bit tough on the eyes, but hidden behind the retro aesthetic is a fascinating detective game.
Before arriving on board a ship called the Obra Dinn, you're given a book and a mysterious pocket watch. When you find a person's dead body, your watch allows you flash to the moment of their death, while revealing other details, such as who was in the vicinity. With this knowledge, you fill out the details of the crew in your book, flipping through the ship's manifest to intuit who died and who was killed by whom. As you steadily make more discoveries, more mysteries are revealed.
The sense of intrigue that pervades the experience sets up a narrative that's not only fascinating but gratifying. It's rare when you get a detective-centric game that allows you to flex your deduction skills. Return of the Obra Dinn challenges you to make sense of the events unfolding and gives you the freedom to infer. With seven pages worth of names to discover in the manifest, we can't wait to step aboard the Obra Dinn again to uncover more.
The Gardens Between | PC, PS4
The Gardens Between uses some clever tricks to present a story about nostalgia and friendship between two protagonists. As a narrative-focused puzzle game, each stage presents a sort of hodgepodge of their collective memories, referencing moments and locations from their childhood. As you maneuver both characters past giant retro consoles and CRT television sets, you'll come to understand that their collection of memories hold a deeper meaning--one that examines their bond and how it will shape their future.
This peculiar puzzle games plays with time and perspective. Simply walking propels time forward, while walking backwards will rewind it. Manipulating your surroundings creates new pathways for the two friends to progress. You'll often have to separate the two characters and have them tackle their own unique challenges to help the other move forward. But by the end of every stage, they'll unite and move on to the next stage, together.
From the small chunk of gameplay we played, there was an endearing and heartfelt quality to it. With more levels that aim to push your perceptive skills--forcing you to think ahead with every interaction--they'll also reveal more of the reasoning behind this nostalgic romp for its two characters. It'll be exciting to see unfold, and The Gardens Between is definitely one you'll want to keep an eye out for when it releases later this year.
Wattam | PS4, PC
Even if you aren't familiar with the name Keita Takahashi, there's a good chance you've played his most famous creation: Katamari Damacy. That game solidified his reputation as a developer with an eye for cute characters and absurd scenarios, and Wattam, Takahashi's upcoming PS4 and PC game, fits the bill perfectly.
It's a game about experimentation and discovery, where the act of play is valued over completing explicit challenges. Some could argue that it's not a game at all. So be it. Maybe Wattam deserves to fall into a category all its own, because it's definitely unlike anything else around.
Playing as a Mayor with a bomb under his hat, it's your job to create colorful explosions to attract new citizens, and you accomplish this by holding hands with different objects and characters in your environment. These pre-explosion interactions produce many kinds of unexpected surprises, lending Wattam a consistent charm that only grows with each explosion, as new potential friends--and sources of entertainment--enter the scene. We've only played a fraction of Wattam so far, but it instantly put a smile on our face and we can wait to see what else Takahashi has up his sleeve.
Way of the Passive Fist | PS4, PC
Way of the Passive Fist offers a unique twist to the side-scrolling beat 'em up genre. Instead of relying on standard button mashing to beat up pixelated goons, the game focuses on timing-based mechanics where you parry and dodge enemy attacks to defeat them. The result plays like a bizarre love child between Streets of Rage and Street Fighter III. It's awesome.
The action is fairly straightforward: enemies take turns trying to fight you, gradually teaching you the varying pace of their attacks before eventually tiring out. Then you simply push them over. While this fighting style sounds counterintuitive for a beat 'em up, it works surprisingly well. The act of parrying and evading is easy to execute, yet it offers a steady degree of challenge, especially against multiple foes with different attack patterns. Add that on top of a Fist of the North Star-like narrative, and you have an action game that's as charming as it is mechanically distinct.
Though you might be familiar with other games in the battle royale genre--games that tend to stick one player (or a small team) on a map where they fight against others to be the last one standing--Fortnite: Battle Royale is a little different. The game takes the basic premise of the genre and adds its own twist that changes everything: You can instantly construct stuff like walls and stairs, allowing you to build fortifications to protect yourself and create your own tactical advantages.
Fortnite drops you onto an island with 99 other players, and the last player (or team) left alive wins. Though it's similar to games like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, plenty of small differences make Fortnite into a very distinct experience. Knowing what to carry, when to shoot, and what to build are essential if you're going to be the last person alive on the island.
You won't find a tutorial in Fortnite Battle Royale, so when you drop onto its island, all you have are your wits and whatever you can find along the way. Here's everything you need to know to get a strong start--and maybe survive long enough to find yourself a minigun.
Fortnite: Battle Royale starts with 100 players dropping out of a vehicle (in this case, a flying bus) onto an island below that's littered with weapons. Check your map at the outset and watch the flight path carefully--where you land is your first big decision in Fortnite, and it can help you get off to a fighting start.
Your first order of business is weapons, and if you're new to the game, you'll also want to try to avoid other players. Weapons are mostly found inside buildings, so pick a drop location with a few structures, but try to avoid major settlements or towns along the flight path early on. Those places have great gear, but also attract a ton of players; you'll want to avoid a fight straight off until you've gotten a little more comfortable with the game. Usually, it's best to hold off jumping for a few seconds to pick your spot and stay away from the largest pack, which usually jumps as soon as the doors open. You can also set waypoints on your map screen, making it easier to locate any structures or settlements you've got in mind for looting.
You'll start your jump by skydiving, but at any time, you can follow the onscreen prompt to deploy your glider. Flipping to your glider early will make you fall slower, allowing you to cover much more distance. Use this to get away from other likely drop points that other players might be headed to, but don't take too long--the faster you hit the ground and gear up, the better. Be sure to keep an eye out for other players dropping nearby as you head down, to avoid getting ambushed or falling into a fight. Your goal is to survive, so as you're learning the ropes, it's best to let other players take each other out, rather than go looking for a battle.
The Storm Is Your Greatest Enemy
Like PUBG, Fortnite matches are dictated by "the circle"--or, in this case, "the storm." Near the start of each match, a large circle will appear on the map in a random position, dictating the eye of the storm. Outside of this circle, the approaching clouds will damage and kill you. A timer in the corner of your screen notes when the storm will contract, creating a new, tighter circle. Over the course of the match, the storm will close in more and more, shrinking the play area on the island and forcing everyone closer together until only one (or one team) remains.
This means that paying attention to the circle's location and the timer are your top priorities. You can't just run to the center of the first circle that appears in a match and stay there, because smaller circles won't always have the same center point. Often, the movement of the circle means you'll have to make a run for it to escape the storm, leaving you vulnerable to attack. Always keep the circle in mind, and know where you need to be. The best practice is to get there quickly and carefully.
Gather Resources First
When you first land on the island in Fortnite: Battle Royale, you'll be armed only with your melee pickaxe. You can fight people with it... but that's not especially effective, and will get you killed against pretty much any other weapon. The pickaxe's main use is for bashing through structures and gathering resources, the latter of which is one of the first things you want to do--provided you're far enough from other people that it won't immediately draw attention. Breaking up anything causes a commotion; for instance, you might destroy some vehicles to get a decent bounty of metal, but you risk triggering its alarm and broadcasting your location to other players.
To start: Smash walls, structures, and (especially) trees, and gather yourself at least 300 units of wood. This will supply you with key materials that can keep you alive. If you switch to the building menu, you'll see that you can cycle through a few structures, like floors, roofs, walls, and stairs. You'll need resources to build those things, so gather materials quickly before taking off toward the circle. It's much safer taking time to gather materials in the early game than it will be later on, and you can smash just about anything to get the wood, brick, and metal necessary to make stuff.
Practice Building (Especially Under Fire)
With your resources in-hand, you'll want to spend your first few matches learning the ways that buildings can help you. Building structures is Fortnite's claim to fame--and using structures creatively will get you out of trouble, help you traverse the map, and provide cover in a firefight. You don't want to be building constantly, but you need to get comfortable with the system, so that you can make whatever you want as fast as possible when things get hairy.
The build menu lets you choose a structure, its material, and its location very quickly. Once you click the button to start building something, it constructs itself automatically. This means that even under fire, building is a viable option: If you start to take fire, you can lay down a wall ahead of you to absorb some of the incoming bullets while you use it as cover and shoot back. Ramps get you over otherwise impassable terrain and can help you create instant high ground that give you an advantage over other players. It's a system that you definitely shouldn't sleep on, because it can give you serious advantages.
Just note that structures make noise as you're constructing them, and messing around in the build menu can leave you vulnerable. Player structures are also visually very conspicuous. The various materials have their pros and cons, too; brick and metal sound like the stronger materials at first blush, but using them in construction takes longer than wood, and they can be tougher to find. In touch-and-go battle situations when you need immediate cover, wood is usually the right call, while brick and metal are better saved for endgame fortifications when you expect to be in tougher fights.
Gear Up
As soon as you hit the ground, it's time to hunt for weapons, so head into a building and grab whatever's there. All your usable items go into one of five inventory slots, located on the bottom of your screen (that goes for guns, as well as health and support items). You'll want to get armed with whatever you can find straight away--but don't be afraid to drop things in favor of better weapons.
Weapons come in several varieties. You'll find close-range shotguns and long-range assault and sniper rifles, as well as pistols, SMGs, and occasionally rocket launchers and more. Weapons also have rarity classifications: Weapons with white auras around them and white icons in your inventory are the most common and also the weakest; green are uncommon and a little better; blue are rare and better still; purple are epic; orange are legendary; and gold are mythic. As a general rule, the higher the tier of the gun--and the better it is. Rarer weapons are often more accurate and more powerful, and come with add-ons like silencers or scopes. Swap out more common guns for rarer ones during the course of the match to increase your firepower.
You'll find a lot of these rarer guns in treasure chests, which are hidden in buildings. These are indicated by a glowing gold light and a humming sound, but they're usually hidden behind walls that you might have to destroy (or attics that you'll need to build stairs to reach). Always try to seek out chests, as they have valuable gear--such as bandages and shield potions--as well as guns. You'll definitely need all the supplies you can get if you want to be a contender in a match's late game.
Keep Quiet
The large scope of Fortnite: Battle Royale's island means that players can spread out quite a bit. Finding other people and avoiding detection are two of your main concerns in a given match, because it's easy to get ambushed or taken out from afar. Especially as matches go on and the play area contracts, you'll be closer to players--and they'll be able to hear you moving around, building, and shooting. Sound and silence are essential tools to victory, and good speakers or headphones is highly recommended to help you get a bead on what's happening around you and locating the source of sounds.
Running is a noisy way to move around, and sprinting is even louder, and even kicks up some dust behind you. You can reduce your movement sounds by crouching and moving more slowly, but note that even rotating your character creates the sound of footsteps. Doors also make a ton of racket, but in Fortnite, you'll often find it's possible to jump through a window and avoid doors entirely. You'll also want to avoid shooting unless absolutely necessary, as the sound is like raising a flag on your location--although silenced weapons help with that issue a great deal.
Finally, gathering resources with your pickaxe and building stuff makes a lot of noise, often for an extended period of time. These are essential to survival at Fortnite, but always be aware that when you smash or build things, you might be giving away your location.
Don't Fight Unless You're (Pretty) Sure You Can Win
Firefights in Fortnite, as in other Battle Royale games, can start out looking like clear victories and quickly become disasters. Your greatest advantage at all times is surprise, but you only have one life to live. This crucial fact means that often, it's better to ignore another player and stay hidden (if you can't get the jump on them), rather than attack them and risk losing it all, even when you have great weapons.
Aiming in Fortnite is a little harrowing as well, which can make actually hitting other players tough at any kind of range. First off, you'll want to pick the right gun for the job: Up close, even a fairly common-level shotgun can be devastating with a headshot, while further away, assault rifles and sniper rifles can take people out before they know what hit them. Take your time, line up your shots, and make sure your opponent is within range so that you take them down before they can react. Survival is your most important goal, so use discretion: If you're not confident you'll be able to take down whoever's in your sights quickly and cleanly, you're probably better off letting them go.
Be Careful In The Open
Players used to PUBG know that the game often consists of sprinting across open ground, trying to get to a closing circle. In Fortnite, moving into the open is just as harrowing, because the cartoonish art style makes you more visible at a distance--and you can't get any lower to the ground than a crouch. This means picking your path when you move in the open is an essential skill to learn, and the players who live the longest typically minimize their time in the open or move smartly to different positions to avoid getting caught.
First, use structures and cover like cliffs and boulders to your advantage, to protect your back or sides and limit the areas you have to keep an eye on. Next, move quickly while in the open, and carefully and slowly when you're in cover. The human eye is built to detect movement, so you're safest when you're not in motion. You can occasionally hide among pine trees or in bushes to make yourself even tougher to spot. You'll also want to make use of Fortnite's third-person perspective to position your character to peek around corners and through doorways before you enter them, and avoid walking into an ambush (or right into someone hiding in a corner, out of your line of sight).
Another quick tip: Close doors behind you. It's an easy way to make it less obvious that you're in a building, and this makes it tougher for other players to track you.
Drink Shield Potions As Soon As You Find Them
Health in Fortnite: Battle Royale is divided into two types: your player health, which is a green bar on the bottom of your screen, and your shield, which is a blue bar--each topping out at 100 points. Shield depletes before health, and when your health is gone, you're dead. You won't start the match with a shield, however, so you'll have to find one.
Treasure chests are the places where you'll often find health items--and in particular, blue shield potions. These take up a space in your limited inventory, and since you won't start the match with a shield, it's usually best to drink these as soon as you find them, as your shield lasts until it takes damage. Shield potions come in two types. Larger shield potions give you 50 shield points, and can be stacked twice to double your health; smaller shield potions give you 25 shield. Only the larger potions can push you up to 100, though: If you use two small shield potions, you'll top out at 50 shield points.
Note that shields won't protect you from falling damage, so take care of yourself. If you can find health items like bandages and medkits, you'll likely want to hang onto them for later use (bandages give you 15 health to a max of 75, while medkits will heal you fully). A rarer healing item called Slurp Juice--which comes in a purple bottle--replenishes your shield and gives you back health over time at a rate of one point per second for 25 seconds, making it more versatile in a sticky situation. Even rarer Chug Jugs are also extremely useful, fully restoring your health and shield, but requiring 15 seconds of your time to use.
Watch For Player Buildings
As matches wear on, you're likely to start seeing player fortifications. The good news is that player buildings are usually square, blank, obvious towers... so you'll usually see them from a distance. They're great indicators of where players are staked out, so if you ever spot a tower or other fortification, you should absolutely approach it with caution--it usually means someone's waiting with a scoped rifle, hoping to take down passersby.
Often, when you're on the ground and spot a tower, it's best to keep clear of it. Usually, fortifications suggest that players are well-stocked and ready for a fight from a distance--and if they're up high, they typically have a line-of-sight advantage. If you're looking to fight someone in a tower or other structure, you're going to want strong weapons. The newly added minigun can chew up materials like wood and brick pretty well, and tough-to-find rocket launchers can absolutely devastate fortifications. You should always try to bring the right tools for the job.
Fall damage can play a big part in some of these fights. If you can destroy the bottom of stairs or the supports of a tower, you might be able to collapse it altogether, so pay attention to how you can use the environment and the construction to your advantage.
Never Trust Cover
No cover in Fortnite is foolproof. Just about everything in the game is destructible--not just player-constructed fortifications. Even buildings on the map can all be wrecked with the right weapons; locations that feel safe generally aren't, and every wall can be destroyed in the middle of battle.
This means that even when you're hiding out or grabbing cover in a firefight, you should always be prepared to move, strafe, run, and otherwise do your best to avoid fire. Walls won't save you--and especially late in the game, the likelihood of someone bringing along a rocket launcher or minigun to a battle increases tremendously. Those things annihilate cover pretty easily, so learn not to rely on it. Mobility is often your greatest ally, so jump and build to give yourself additional advantages in battle.
Be Careful When Looting Defeated Players
Fights in Battle Royale games are almost always close calls that fill you with adrenaline, and taking down another player always comes with a rush of relief. Don't let your guard down, though; every time you fire your gun, you announce yourself, and the loot that players drop when they die makes those locations targets for other players. Immediately after winning a fight is when you need to be extra-careful.
Instead of rushing up to a dead player and going through all their gear (which can leave you very vulnerable), it's often better to take a beat, grab cover, and survey the situation. Other players might be attracted to the gunfire or spot the loot as you're on your way to grab it, allowing them to get the drop on you. Similarly, you might be able to use the dead player's loot to get the drop on them. Being careful is key to survival in Fortnite: Battle Royale--so play smart, and always expect another player lurking nearby. The same goes for the supply drops, which occasionally get ejected into the sky by the party bus as it flies overhead. The drops have great loot, but almost always attract a lot of attention, so approach them carefully.
Use This Time To Learn
Most of these tips are geared toward teaching you how to keep yourself alive in Fortnite, and it can be tempting at the start to hole up inside a building deep in the circle with the first gun you find, trying to outlast everyone else. You might even find yourself getting into the top 10 players in a match without firing a shot. It's worth it to experiment in Fortnite: Battle Royale, especially early on. Learn your capabilities and get a handle on how other people play the game. In other words: Go get yourself killed.
Finding good weapon locations, discovering how to use buildings effectively, and getting used to how guns handle in firefights is all part of what it takes to win in Battle Royale games. Fortnite matches pit you against 99 other players, so the likelihood that you're going to lose is extremely high. Embrace it, and use your first matches to build skills rather than hide out in an attempt to win. You'll do better in the long run when you start to learn the ins and outs of the game, as well as what you're comfortable with and how you can best succeed. You can also spectate other players once you're dead, which can clue you in on how more experienced players approach the game--it's a highly useful learning tool.
Xbox One's UI is ever-changing, but the latest update isn't about a visual makeover. Instead, this update is more about ease of access, making small changes to game hubs, do not disturb and inactivity options, and next achievements.
Game Hubs and Next Achievements have found a new home in the guide in this update. Now instead of leaving your game, having to track it down, and then go to the game hub to find all that extra community content you love, you'll find your favorite hubs with just a press of the home button.
Next Achievements works in a similar way in terms of ease of access. But, instead of giving you all the information you could possibly want for a game, it's all about achievement hunting. Not only can it show you which achievements you're closest to unlocking, the function can also be sorted by common, rare, most common rare, and highest gamerscore.
Stepping away from the guide, muting notifications and power saving just got easier. Do not disturb mode mutes your notifications for as long as you have it on, and lets your pals know it might not be the right time to bombard you with party requests.
This update also added additional inactivity options. Instead of your Xbox turning off after one or six hours of inactivity, you can choose to have it automatically switch off and save you some power after two, three, four, or five hours.
Monster Hunter World may be one of the most entertaining and accessible Monster Hunter games to date, but it's far from perfect. More than a few things would have improved its overall quality. Whether these additions are in the form of an update, patch, or a future sequel, here are 11 things that would make Monster Hunter World a better game than it already is.
What do you think would make Monster Hunter World a better game? Let us know in the comments below.
Monster Hunter World's tutorials usually consist of multiple subsequent walls of text with some accompanying images or videos. They're not great--partially because they often don't actually explain things very well, and partially because they're so boring that many players will feel tempted to skip them entirely and try to figure things out for themselves.
The worst example has to be the 14 different weapon types. Yes, you can try them all out in the training area, and go over some rudimentary tutorials and combo examples for each. But the reality of using many of these weapons is so much more complicated than the game ever bothers to tell you, especially the deeply complex ones like the hunting horn and charge blade. Effectively using these weapons--much less mastering them--practically requires you to head online to peruse user-created guides.
That active, helpful fan community is part of what makes Monster Hunter World so great, but it would be even better if it could actually teach you what you need to know to play it. -- Mike Rougeau
Improve Organization Of Investigation System
Monster Hunter World's menus have a lot going on. Some of those text-heavy menus make sense, and they allow for complex systems like armor and weapon crafting to grow and evolve over the course of the game. The Investigation menu, however, is in dire need of some help.
Investigations are extra quests that allow you to hunt down monsters for increased rewards while under some kind of restraint, like a shorter time limit. But the way you earn and manage those quests is a confusing morass that makes the structure feel like more trouble than it's worth. At the very least, you should be able to sort or search through your list of available investigations by monster type. After that, the game should offer a way to bulk-delete the quests that you don't want anymore.
But the biggest improvement that Monster Hunter World needs is a way to manage investigations directly from the quest board. Speaking to the Resource Center, both to access and remove quests, adds an additional unnecessary step to get to the most important part of the game: hunting monsters! -- Justin Haywald
Make The Hub Online, Not Just The Hunter's Gathering
Taking full advantage of the ability to play online can be a ton of fun when your session is filled with players to hang out with. It's therefore a shame that you can only see other players in the Hunter's Gathering, rather then all of Astrea. It somewhat unnecessarily separates multiplayer and single-player--and even though your session may be full, you won't really know unless you and those other players are hanging out in the Gathering.
While the Gathering offers its own version of amenities (like the Bounty Board and Canteen), you still need to visit the rest of Astrea regularly for things like the Smithy and Resource Center, which creates frequent inconveniences in your attempts to prepare for hunts. It's time to break down the barriers and open the entire hub to multiplayer activities. -- Jean-Luc Seipke
Add More Flexible Online Features
Monster Hunter World's online systems make sense on paper. To play with your friends, you need to join the same online session; you can matchmake into random sessions, or join your friends via invitations. But the system's many wrinkles make it difficult and counterintuitive to use, especially for newcomers to the series who might expect that they can simply hop into friends' hunts with little forethought.
Limitations like not being able to join others' "assigned" (story) missions until they've seen all the cutscenes, or being denied loot if you join too late, add further confusion. Problems arise, for example, if you want to help a friend with a story mission, but they take too long to find the monster... so, by the time you join them, the quest's rewards are no longer available. Joining and posting quests via the job board-style menu could be made easier as well.
One possible solution could be to allow you to simply join and invite your friends from a separate menu, independent of sessions, postings, or SOS flares, with a little more flexibility. They could even do away with some of the penalties that might otherwise be present (such as letting you collect rewards no matter how late you join a friend's mission). It would also be nice if the game were more clear about why you can't invite or join someone when it decides you can't--if you're not actually in an online session, for example, or if you're simply too early in a story mission. A little feedback could go a long way. -- Mike Rougeau
Better Load Times
For a game that is out on the current generation of consoles, the load times for Monster Hunter World feel way too long. Sure, breaks between hunts are nice--but the fact of the matter is, we're routinely looking at screens with loading bars and a few tips (you even have to load into your personal living quarters, even though its part of the HQ!). Many games in the last year or so have been revolutionizing how they either hide loading screens, or finding ways to greatly shorten the time between each new area. Monster Hunter World's players would get more done overall if the loading times followed suit. -- Erick Tay
Improve The Item Upgrade Menu
With no traditional experience bar to speak of, gear is the name of the game in Monster Hunter World. The process of building, upgrading, and comparing items should be as pain-free as possible... and yet, it's a challenge. The inherent complexity in the upgrade tree shouldn't necessarily be eliminated, but it's often frustrating that seemingly simple tasks aren't as easy as they could be.
At the simplest level, previewing an item from the upgrade tree is a less-than-smooth process if you're exploring the entire tree. Seeing what an item looks like requires tabbing over to stop the menu from blocking your view of your character, while moving back to the tree causes you to lose the spot you were looking at. A button to provide a clearer look at your character (or one that hides the menu) would make checking out a new piece of gear much easier.
Crafting upgrades is also not the simple process that it could be. Comparing two possible upgrades--which is not terribly uncommon, given how the upgrade tree branches at certain points--requires jumping back and forth between the two items. And keeping track of costs becomes a manual process, as you can't easily see the combined money and material cost if you want to craft several consecutive upgrades.
The complexity of item upgrades can be great; each time the tree expands, it comes with a (pleasantly) overwhelming world of possibilities. It would just be nice if the actual upgrade process were less of a hassle. -- Chris Pereira
Provide Easy Access to Safari Management
The option to stay out in the field following a quest is a welcome feature, but a trip back to Astera is necessary from time to time, to complete the required lap--visit the Ecological Research area, complete and acquire new Bounties, see what the Argosy has for sale, and check on your Safari. It's that last bit that I've come to find tiresome, as it takes you out of the main hub area.
The only way to manage a Safari is to head to the Research Base or your room. The latter is accessible straight from Astera... but since it's a separate zone, this makes managing a Safari more cumbersome. While you might not need to do this more than once every five quests (unless you want to end a Safari early), it's still an unnecessary step that feels like it only exists to get you to visit your room more frequently. This also potentially forces you to temporarily abandon a quest you've signed up for, because doing so prevents you from leaving the main area in Astera to visit your room.
Your housekeeper works for you, right? Then have them wait outside the door to spare you the unnecessary trip inside! -- Chris Pereira
Show Monster Health Bars
This one seems simple: Large monsters should get health bars. You might disagree, and that's fair--but there's an argument to be made here. Yes, monsters often give some indication when they're injured, whether it's some ruffled feathers or the telltale limp and skull icon that let you know they're almost dead. And the pulse monitor located next to your minimap can be helpful, too. But for less-experienced players, those signs can be hard to pick up on, making the game frustrating early on--which is exactly when it should be at its most welcoming.
Monster Hunter World's user interface is already unbelievably cluttered with bars, icons, numbers, buttons, maps, menus, and more... so why not add one more to make the experience just a little bit friendlier? -- Mike Rougeau
Fix Monster Health Pool Scaling
This is a big one, and it should be a relatively easy fix. Currently, Monster Hunter World has two difficulty settings: single-player and multiplayer. Monsters have a certain amount of health if you're hunting solo, and a much larger health pool if you're in a pack. The problem is, said health pool doesn't scale depending on the number of players on your team.
This means that Monster Hunter World's ferocious, giant monsters have the same amount of health when you're rolling with two players as they do when you have a full squad of four. Anyone who's played with just a single partner knows how insanely hard it can be to take down monsters, since each player needs to do the work of two. This unfortunately serves to actually discourage you from playing with friends, unless you can get more than two people together. We're assuming that this likely isn't the intended experience.
Should playing with two people be harder than playing alone? This game needs to scale the difficulty for the number of players in the game. Full stop. -- Mike Rougeau
Add A Notifications Center
You have countless things to keep track of while playing, particularly as you advance further into the game. Notifications pop up when you first head back to Astera, to inform you of any developments... but the ways these are presented is far from ideal.
What Monster Hunter World needs is a more robust notification system. The brief messages that pop up to let you know a Safari has returned are permanently gone within seconds, and given the rarity of crafting materials from Zorah Magdaros, you can easily miss the opportunity to replay the optional Zorah mission. Likewise, the messages about new downloadable content and quests are limited to the Daily Login Bonus screen. All of this would be better suited to a proper notification screen that is readily accessible and also allows you to see the status of other time-sensitive content, such as Limited Bounties. -- Chris Pereira
More Monsters To Fight
While I understand that this is a new game with entirely new assets, and we are eventually getting additional monsters to fight by way of DLC (I am ready for you, Deviljho!), I still can't help but feel a little let down by the fairly meager amount of monsters in Monster Hunter World. I would love to square off against the everyone's favorite ice-cold land shark Zamtrios, the brutal Tigrex, or even my most recent favorite: the Gore Magala. Capcom also did a great job on the designs of the new monsters, and I would love to see more original designs as well!
Thankfully, this will probably happen. We already know DLC is on the way, and fans can always hold out hope for the possibility of a Monster Hunter World Ultimate. Get some more monsters in there along with G-rank, and it will make an already fantastic game that much better! -- Ben Janca
Of the many story-driven games that feature user-dictated time travel, Radiant Historia ranks high. This RPG treats altering events as essential to its story, forcing you to regularly jump back and forth between two streams of time. The impetus for this temporal weaving is so well ingrained into its narrative that it subverts any question of gimmickry. This engaging mechanic also complements Historia's traditional RPG gameplay of pursuing quests, surviving turn-based battles, and exploring a vast landscape. Originally released in 2010 on the Nintendo DS, Radiant Historia gets a welcomed re-release on the 3DS, and is an enhanced port in every sense of the term.
An Atlus RPG not associated with Shin Mega Tensei or Etrian Odyssey, Radiant Historia is based in its own original world with a built-in history. In fact, you start the game in what appears to be the twilight of the continent of Vainqueur--the game's setting--as its being slowly devastated by an unexplained "desertification". Sand isn't only consuming the land but also living beings as well. The kingdom of Alistel blames neighboring Granorg for this plague, inflaming a conflict between these warring lands.
You initially play as Stocke, an Alistelian agent assigned to escort a spy back to your capital. Though a series of events lead to the downfall of Stocke, two subordinates, and even the spy, our hero gets a supernatural reprieve. Finding himself in another realm, Stocke learns that the White Chronicle--a book given to him by his superior, Heiss--has the power to transport the user to key events in the past thereby giving you the ability to alter these moments. Using this tome to revive Stocke and his companions to further the interests of Alistel is only part of the story. Key characters like Heiss are aware of the White Chronicle and figuring out their motives is part of the narrative's draw.
Once empowered with time travel, you're presented with turning points and key branching paths on a regular basis. This system is at its most appealing when you're faced with a barrier--literal or otherwise--and trying to find the key event in the past that lets you bypass that hurdle. There are two distinct timelines and often the solution to advancing in one involves making progress in the other. Mentally arriving at some fixes can be a nuanced process, compelling you to retrace story events and figure out where an action or choice can create a new outcome.
As you overcome roadblocks and jump to the other timeline to surmount those obstacles, you'll come across optional opportunities to change the fate of others. Provided you have a keen eye to read your surroundings, using the White Chronicle can affect the environment and the nearby characters who might otherwise perish if you didn't get involved. Even after having the satisfaction of saving a life, there's an alluring sense of mystery in whether rescuing someone will ultimately lead to a positive or negative result further down the line.
The beauty of these diversions is that they don't feel like optional objectives in the traditional sense. The feeling of accomplishment in attending to the needs of others is often as gratifying as reaching a milestone in the main story. And since the White Chronicle timeline diagram is well-laid out with nodes denoting fail states, open story paths, and side routes, there's a strong compulsion to see every result as soon as you spot the clues leading to those endings. The satisfaction of filling in the White Chronicle isn't unlike finding all the dead ends in a dungeon before venturing forward on the presumptive main path. With 283 nodes to discover, Radiant Historia Perfect Chronicle is that rare breed of RPG where the drive to find minor and bad conclusions is as strong as reaching the main "good" ending.
Venturing out of the capital of Alistel to accomplish your missions will bring you face-to-face with all manner of hostile creatures and soldiers from Grenorg. These battles--triggered by making contact with enemies visible in the field--unfold in classic turn-based fashion. Facing off against foes who are laid out in a three-by-three grid presents its share of strategies. One of the most useful battle skills allows you to knock your target into another enemy-occupied space, either one space back or to the sides. With the right planning, a follow-up attack can deal shared damage to those crowded square in a single blow. There's further combat depth since you're also offered the option of swapping turns with other teammates. These opportunities deliver a puzzle-like sense of strategy, which make victories feel rewarding.
It's a battle system that feels both traditional and brain-teasingly fresh and it would've been superb if not for its quality-of-life shortcomings. For instance, if your threesome targets a single enemy and it's vanquished before all your team's turns are used up, remaining attacks will not defer to the other opponents. This results in wasted turns, which is all the more frustrating when party members in your reserves swoop in randomly to offer a one-off support action. This well-intentioned perk is appreciated when a teammate heals or buffs, but not when he's attacking a monster the active party is already cued up to attack. And if you hope to avoid excess grinding, think again; the advanced difficulty of the combat discourages trying out new characters as active teammates in battle, given their relatively low starting levels.
The improvements in Perfect Chronology over the original DS version range from minor to significant. The changes in 2D art character designs isn't an upgrade so much as it feels like Atlus trading the works of one talented artist for another. More clear cut production enhancements like new voiceovers, a retooled soundtrack, and a new anime-styled opening music video adds freshness to this game, but Perfect Chronology's more substantial upgrades are found in its new modes. A bonus dungeon called the Vault of Time provides opportunities to fight more monsters for a chance at exclusive items like support skills, which often prove useful in the main story. The difficulty of the vault increases with each subsequent floor and the stakes are heightened by the inability to use items.
The boldest new feature by far is the addition of a third stream of time. Given the tight woven relationship of the two other timelines, this third path--dubbed 'Sub-History'--unsurprisingly doesn't affect the original game's story or outcomes. Rather, it presents a host of what-if adventure scenarios where Stocke interacts with familiar friends and enemies, some whom behave out of character. It offers a look into the world and inhabitants of Vainqueur that manages to be insightful even if it's non-canonical.
With all the time juggling, the brain-teasing mechanic of the White Chronicle doesn't overshadow Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology's story. Its politically charged tale complements Stocke's personal journey as he follows his orders and makes sense of his powers. The White Chronicles' close connection to the plot only makes temporal manipulation all the more engrossing, regardless if you're working your way to the game's best conclusion or hitting every node in the timeline. This feature maintains its grip for much of the game's 60-hour journey in spite of its combat shortcomings. Had this been a straight port of the DS version, it would still warrant the attention of RPG enthusiasts who missed Radiant Historia the first time around. With its upgrades and considerable bonuses--particularly the Sub-History--even those who think they got their fill by beating the original game should check out this definitive edition.
As expected with Disney's D23 event taking place in Tokyo, Japan this weekend, more of Kingdom Hearts III, Square Enix's upcoming crossover RPG, has been revealed. During a special event held in Disneyland the publisher showed a new trailer which confirmed there will be a new Monsters Inc world in the game.
The trailer opened with Sora, Donald, and Goofy meeting Marluxia, a member of New Organization XIII. The character was first introduced in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, but this is his debut in a mainline entry in the series. Although Marluxia knows about Sora and the gang, they're not familiar with him. After this, the video brings in Sully, Mike, and Boo of Monsters Inc fame.
Of course, Sora has been transformed into a monster version of himself, and now sports furry blue skin and red spiky hair. Donald now has a single eye, much like Mike, while Goofy's monster transformation is ... goofy looking.
The trailer transitions into quick cuts between different sections from throughout the game, and we're given very fleeting glimpses at the Tangled world and The Little Mermaid's Ariel making an appearance, as well as Vanitas, the Keyblade wielder that made his debut in Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.
The trailer also showed Rapunzel, who interacts with the world by swinging her hair. She uses it to traverse environments and can also whip enemies with it. According to Square Enix she has a number of ways to use her hair in the game. There's also a new minigame styled after a Game & Watch title, but an official name for the game hasn't been revealed yet. Check out the full trailer above.
During the event Square Enix revealed some further details about the game, including that Gummi Ship segments will return. This time, however, it has been split into two phases. There's an exploration phase, which was likened to being more open-world, and there's a combat phase. Combat has been increased in scale, with more enemies than ever before.
According to Square Enix, everyone in the Osaka studio is working on Kingdom Hearts 3, with 100 people from its Tokyo studio also involved. Development is split into three sections: Early, middle, and late. There's around three worlds per section, but Square Enix noted that this doesn't mean there's nine worlds in total. The early phase worlds are 90 percent complete, while middle section worlds are at around 60 percent. It didn't confirm what stage the end section is, but Tetsuya Nomura, director of the series, said it was "something he's always wanted to do and put into Kingdom Hearts, ever since the days of working on Final Fantasy." He added: "It is bound to surprise everyone."
Finally, Square Enix confirmed that Utada Hikaru will be returning for the third game's theme song, which is called "Don't Think Twice." You can hear the song in this second new Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer, which ends with Rikku leaving his Keyblade behind for the other version of him to use.
It's been an incredibly long wait for Kingdom Hearts III, which concludes the story of the trilogy. Kingdom Hearts II was released way back in 2005, though there have been some spin-offs and remakes in the meantime. Kingdom Hearts III promises to be exciting for many reasons, including the larger party size (you can now have up to five members at once), new Keyblade transformations, summons that are based on Disney theme parks, and the introduction of the first Pixar world (Toy Story). Other new worlds include those based on Big Hero 6 and Tangled.
Notably, Kingdom Hearts III is coming to Xbox One in addition to PS4; no previous entry has been released on an Xbox platform. The game is still without an exact release date, though it is due out sometime in 2018.
A new update has arrived for Overwatch. Blizzard has kicked off this year's edition of the Lunar New Year event, which this time around is dubbed Year of the Dog. It revamps the game's Capture the Flag mode and introduces other new features. But as is to be expected from any new update, there are a variety of new Overwatch skins and cosmetics now available in a limited-time loot box.
In terms of skins, there are six Legendary ones in total: those for Hanzo, Genji, Mercy, Pharah, McCree, and Widowmaker. Additionally, there are more than 50 new items in all to get your hands on; there are new sprays, victory poses, and other cosmetics now available. The event also sees the return of the skins from last year's Lunar New Year.
You can check out all of the new skins, as well as many of the new cosmetics, in the gallery above. We've also got galleries of all the recently added Blizzard World update skins, as well as the huge number of Overwatch League skins introduced earlier this year.
With new skins now available, this update marks the addition of a welcome feature for those with a growing collection to show off. From the Assemble Your Team screen before a match, you can now easily change your skin. This is only accessible during the pre-match phase, no doubt to avoid having players spending time contemplating their choice when they could be helping the team, but it should still make it easier to rotate through your collection.
Also new in this patch is the aforementioned CTF revamp. This sees the introduction of a new Sudden Death mode--meaning no more ties--where flags are located closer to one another. Also, throughout the match, flags are now picked up instantly, though it will be dropped when using certain abilities, like Winston's leap. Blizzard says this should all result in a more "action-packed" experience overall.
Arcade gamer Billy Mitchell is not an easy man to get ahold of, despite the wide, mainstream coverage that he's received this month. Donkey Kong Forum moderator Jeremy Young concluded that Mitchell cheated to attain his famous Donkey Kong scores. Twin Galaxies, which has been recording game scores since 1981 and partners with Guinness World Records, is launching a separate investigation.
In layman's terms, the core allegation is this: Three of Mitchell's scores--1,047,200 (the infamous sent "tape" from the documentary The King of Kong), 1,050,200 (achieved at a mortgage brokers meeting in Florida), and 1,062,800 (achieved at the Boomers arcade close to Mitchell's home) were captured on a PC running MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) rather than a traditional arcade machine. There is a separate leaderboard for MAME scores, and the emulator is more susceptible to cheating, such as splicing together multiple playthroughs.
Young and others in the community rest the brunt of their argument on the way the images load on an arcade versus on MAME. An arcade loads images from side to side. MAME, meanwhile, loads images in large portions. You can see the difference in the images below, which are taken from Young's explanation on the Donkey Kong Forums.
This first one below is from test footage that Young captured of a genuine arcade machine.
And this second image to right is captured from Mitchell's 1.05M run.
Aside from a meandering, bizarre interview on the East Side Dave Show, Mitchell has been mum about the scandal, and he has declined opportunities to speak to the press. Mitchell would only speak to GameSpot via a conference call that also included Richie Knucklez, the man who organizes the Donkey Kong community's annual Kong-Off. Knucklez orchestrated the interview; Mitchell did not pick up the phone when I called him directly several times.
Mitchell has always had a penchant for theatrics. It's baked into every element of his presentation, from his retro, long-styled haircut, to his patriotic neckties, to the salesman's thumbs up he gives when posing for pictures. And his gameplay is similarly confident and dramatic. He was the first person to achieve a perfect game of Pac-Man. He was the first person to reach the Donkey Kong "kill screen." And for years, he held the highest recorded Donkey Kong score--until Steve Wiebe came along.
The conflict between the two men competing for the highest Donkey Kong score was immortalized in the aforementioned The King of Kong documentary. Directed by Seth Gordon, it portrayed Wiebe as the outsider and underdog, and Mitchell as the villain, protected by an insular community of old-school gamers.
This new controversy is a continuation of that perception--that Mitchell's scores have been afforded a level of leeway that other gamers' scores would not have been afforded. Mitchell, however, is insistent that his scores are real and were captured on an original arcade machine. He claims that he doesn't even have MAME installed on his computer.
"I'm the least tech savvy guy in the world, so I'd be lost without the kindness of people I've never met before, calling me with information and insight," says Mitchell in his interview with GameSpot. "In some ways, it's a bummer. There's a lot of other fun stuff I would rather be doing [than clearing my name]. But if it's a cross I have to bear for a little while, that's okay."
Mitchell has two primary objectives at the moment. The first is getting original tapes of the scores' direct feeds, which Twin Galaxies should have, according to Mitchell. One, the 1.06M points tape, was recorded by former Twin Galaxies referee Michael Sroka. Mitchell believes there is another tape--one that shows a pullback crowd shot of the entire room--which will prove there was no shady business going on. No one, thus far, has been able to locate this tape, though several people in the community have allegedly heard about it before.
Two of the original tapes--the 1.04M and the 1.05M tapes--were uploaded to YouTube by a man named Dwayne Richard, before they were turned over to Twin Galaxies. Richard appeared in The King of Kong, but he was also involved in the creation of two post-documentaries--the King of Con (2012), which purports that Mitchell received payoffs from the King of Kong filmmakers, and The Perfect Fraudman (2012), which questions Mitchell's claim of having the first perfect Pac-Man game.
Knucklez characterizes Richard as someone with an axe to grind against Mitchell. And he proposes that this bias--and any suspicion of doctored or altered footage--can be eliminated by simply cutting Richard out of the equation. Knucklez reasons that if the critics can watch the original tapes--the ones Richard turned over to Twin Galaxies, rather than Richards' uploads--that would be fairer.
Knucklez recalls an incident from years ago, when Richard asked Knucklez for help in faking MAME footage. He also repeated this anecdote on his Facebook account (which we've lightly edited for grammar and spelling):
"I remember it well. I was in the parking lot of a Walmart when [Richard] called and asked me to participate in a MAME Donkey Kong ruse. In his exact words, 'To put egg on Twin Galaxies' face.' I told him I was not interested."
Knucklez concedes, however, that the original Kong footage could be exactly the same as Richards' upload, or even prove Mitchell guilty. And in the last couple of days, a former Twin Galaxies referee, who Knucklez declined to name, came forward with one of the original tapes.
"He reached out to me and said, 'I still have the original copy. If it'll help Bill in any way, I can send it to you," says Knucklez. "In Dwayne Richards' letter to Twin Galaxies, he listed the people who received the tape, and [this referee's] name is on the list."
Knucklez estimates that the tape should arrive and be in his possession within the next day or two. He believes Mitchell's denial and says he is supporting his friend.
Mitchell claims that the arcade tape footage may also have a technical explanation for looking like MAME. Mitchell says he has spoken with experts, who explained to him how the visual look of the arcade footage could have been altered due to Mitchell's use of a direct feed--one that takes its signal straight off the arcade's board rather than from the monitor.
"I talked to the company that manufactured it, and I asked, 'Why would the right look different from the left?'" says Mitchell. "And he explained it to me--not that I understood. And I said, 'Oh, you've got to explain it to these other guys.' So they're in the process of quickly putting that together. [They said that because I was] obsessed with capturing the screenplay this way, that's why I'm having this mess. Every single time, I recorded it that way."
Billy Mitchell (Left) and Richie Knucklez (Right) Image Credit: Non-Sport Update Magazine
Mitchell, who repeatedly states that he is not a tech-savvy person, declines to explain further, deferring to the aforementioned experts.
"If I sit here and try and explain it to you, I'm going to sound like an idiot, and people are going to pick it apart, because I don't know what I'm talking about," says Mitchell. "These answers require presentation and research. It takes two minutes to tell a lie. It takes a lot longer to give a proper response that's acceptable."
Mitchell says the reasons for him getting involved in this latest fracas have less to do with him and more to do with the community.
"This is the first time I've had to answer, because people like Richie, people like Rob [Childs, the tech support present at the Boomers Arcade DK high score run]...and many [other] people are being called liars," says Mitchell. "And if my friends are being kicked between the knees, I have to respond, and I am responsible....There are a lot of good people who have legitimate questions, and that's who we're catering to."
"I have become known as an advocate of competitive games and an ambassador for competitive video games," continues Mitchell. "And for that reason? Yes, this is important to me."
One can see the ongoing drama on Donkey Kong forums, where many posters are going through an existential grieving process over Mitchell's scores. Without Mitchell and these scores, there would be no The King of Kong. And thus, the community, as it currently exists today, would have never developed. Has it all been based on a lie?
Near the end of our conversation, Mitchell's tone turns more emotional.
I have to present what any fair-minded person would look at and go, 'Oh. I see.' I can help the people who want to know exactly what happened and how it happened.
Billy Mitchell
"Rob was there when this happened," reiterates Mitchell about his 1.06M score. "The technician from the arcade was there when this happened. They were the ones who set up everything and set the board. There were Twin Galaxies people there. They set this up. There were cameras set up. There was an event set up. There were crowds. There were people. There was media. So all of those people are in on a big conspiracy? That's just stupid."
"So now," Mitchell concludes, "I have to present what any fair-minded person would look at and go, 'Oh. I see.' I can help the people who want to know exactly what happened and how it happened. And they will--very shortly."
There's an irony to all this. All this hay is being made over records that are not even the world record anymore. Mitchell was long ago surpassed by younger players. The current record holder is Robbie Lakeman, who beat Wes Copeland's 1,218,000 score with a 1,247,700 score on February 2, 2018. This current fight over frames of animation, direct feeds, and circuit boards is being waged entirely on principle. And it might cause an outsider to question whether Mitchell's belief--that people are targeting him--is ego-driven paranoia rather than fact.
But then you step back, and you realize that if Billy Mitchell was dedicated enough to get a high score (legitimately or illegitimately), it would stand to reason that someone else is dedicated enough to tear it down. Mitchell gets a lot of flak for his outsized persona, and for exerting such charismatic power over his small fiefdom. But are the people criticizing him, who created two anti-Mitchell documentaries in the space of a year, any more down-to-earth? Whether or not Mitchell proves that his scores are valid, there's no doubt that there will be another conspiracy, and another coverup, and another follow-up. Because when things reach this pitch, it's no longer about the scores. It's about something more personal.
There's a common observation that Batman, by existing, has empowered and created his enemies. The presence of a superhero is an implicit challenge, and it leads to the creation of a supervillain. Batman and Joker are symbiotic, in a sense. They are doomed to fight, over and over again, because on some level they thrive off the conflict. Maybe Mitchell is legit; maybe he isn't. Maybe he's a villain, or perhaps, he's created some villains along the way.
Along with Sony's upcoming version 5.5 firmware update for the PlayStation 4, PS4 Pro owners that aren't on 4K televisions will be getting a significant graphical enhancement: supersample anti-aliasing (SSAA). PS4 Pro consoles will soon be able to leverage its extra power for non-4K displays and force SSAA when it outputs a 1080p resolution. This will be an option users have to enable manually, and it has been put into action with mostly positive results.
SSAA is a form of anti-aliasing that forces a game to render a higher resolution then downscale it to fit the proper screen resolution. The result is a smoother picture with less "jaggies" since you're essentially getting a shrunken version of a finer image. According Eurogamer's Digital Foundry, the PS4 Pro will act as if its connected to a 4K display and work to downscale the improved image to 1080p. While there are a few games that offer benefits with 1080p displays, some games (such as Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain) would lock out 1080p users from accessing any PS4 Pro benefits; an example of the inconsistency of the enhancements from the more powerful console. This will not be the case anymore with the new anti-aliasing option.
Digital Foundry was able to put this to the test and rounded up some early results. One example is Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection, which now supersamples a 4K image for 1080p, instead of locking itself to 1080p. The game also runs at a locked 30 FPS regardless of resolution, so there's now some benefit for non-4K-ers. The Last of Us Remastered now gives 1080p users the option for supersampling instead of only offering the 60 FPS improvement (but not both).
Resolution sizes relative to each other. Downscaling a 4K image produces better quality on 1080p displays.
However, it's not a perfect solution for all games. For example, The Last Guardian offers a stable 30 FPS at 1080p, while the 4K enhancement can cause frame drops to around 20 FPS. Since PS4 Pro supersampling essentially imitates the Pro-enhanced resolution available, the potential frame drops translate as well. The same goes for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, a game where framerate is arguably more important than resolution; its 4K option doesn't offer as stable a framerate as it would at 1080p.
Keep in mind that games are still subject to the specific PS4 Pro enhancements. The 5.5 firmware update simply gives you access to the finer image quality that 4K users get, but in the form of antialiasing at 1080p. Whether or not it works well will be on a game-by-game basis, but the bottom line is that PS4 Pro users will have more options, regardless of the display they use. Firmware 5.5 for the PlayStation 4 is currently in beta testing and there's no word on when the final version releases.
The battle royale game mode isn't exactly new, but its current mainstream spotlight can be attributed to the virality of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. After it sold tens of millions of copies on Steam during its early access period alone, there was bound to be a wave of games trying to capitalize on the genre's exploding popularity. As of now, though, Fortnite: Battle Royale is the frontrunner in challenging PUBG's dominance. And while many have dubbed Fortnite's rendition a PUBG clone, there are just as many stark differences as there are similarities between the two.
A drastic contrast in presentation will hit you first. PUBG has a realistic, military-inspired look that's layered on top of the already nerve-racking concept. Fortnite looks like a cartoon; it's bright, colorful, and animated in a way that takes the edge off the imposing battle royale mode. Oddly enough, both games use Epic's Unreal Engine 4 despite the divergent graphical styles. These games were also born out of disparate foundations.
At its core, PUBG shares much of the same DNA as its predecessors. Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene himself helped create the original battle royale mods for Arma, and through several iterations these mods eventually led to H1Z1: King of the Kill, which became the premiere battle royale game just before PUBG came onto the scene. However, PUBG offers a more accessible and streamlined experience than its forebears while retaining the military sim framework that taps into your tactical instincts.
This begs the question: How did Fortnite, of all games, become the one to go toe-to-toe with PUBG? Fortnite has its own tumultuous development history, but its initial vision was a mashup of Gears of War's Horde mode and Minecraft's construction mechanics, driven by a loot grind to hook players. At first, a game that controls fast and loose, almost like an arena shooter, doesn't seem ripe for battle royale. However, Epic was able to adapt Fortnite into its own battle royal mode early on and capitalize on the trend, carving out its own piece of the pie.
There are a number of things that make each game unique, but the ultimate goal is to be the last one standing.
Fortnite also had two key advantages over PUBG when its battle royale mode launched: it was both free to play and available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. PUBG recently hit the Xbox One in an early access phase, but it has a long way to go to match how smooth and stable Fortnite runs. Even on PC, you're likely to run higher framerates and have a lower chance of experiencing game-breaking bugs.
When it comes to the overall concept, PUBG's influence on Fortnite is clear. In both games, a 60-second warm-up takes place on an isolated island off the shore of the main island. 100 players are crammed into an air vessel and parachute down to the main island where a single-life deathmatch takes place. You're continuously forced into smaller zones at random via a lethal circle as the match progresses; you'll never know exactly where the final firefight will take place, either. Everyone scrambles for weapons, ammo, and health items across the map's numerous towns and structures. You can either do this alone, as a duo, or with a squad of four, but it ends the same: the last person or squad standing is declared the winner. Conceptually, these games are the same, but in practice, they play very differently.
Regardless of your weapon of choice, you have to be precise. PUBG is all about precision.
Most noticeably, PUBG's rules of engagement are in sharp contrast with Fortnite's. When it comes to PUBG, player movement and the act of firing a gun are very deliberate and calculated. Tactical situations rely on positioning and working the given environment to your advantage; lying prone in brush to stay concealed in a open field, peeking around rocks or trees to take shots, and checking corners when entering houses are just a few of the basic (and best) practices. Guns fire with impact and have distinct recoil patterns and damage models in relation to the armor your target has equipped. Regardless of your weapon of choice, you have to be precise. PUBG is all about precision. You can't say the same about Fortnite, at least to the same degree.
Fortnite's building mechanics are remarkably easy to use and crucial to master.
Of course, aiming is key to winning in Fortnite, but the way assault rifles and shotguns work is closer to Unreal Tournament than it is to Arma. Rocket and grenade launchers are also part of Fortnite's arsenal, and traps give players a chance to exercise a different type of cleverness. Because of the nature of its style, Fortnite feels much more chaotic and kinetic, and you can't overlook the importance of building structures to stay competitive.
Players can build structures and change a game of Fortnite: Battle Royale.
Fortnite retains crafting from its original Save the World mode, and getting a grasp of it is essential for victory. A pickaxe that functions as your only melee weapon is also used to destroy structures and vegetation which turn into wood, brick, or steel. With these elements, you build walls, stairs, or a roof, and can then be altered with windows and doors. It's almost a guarantee that firing upon an enemy in an open field will lead to them throwing up a wall out of instinct to protect themselves and heighten their chance of survival. Scaling mountains and seemingly hard-to-reach places is made possible with an ad-libbed staircase. Fortnite's building mechanics are remarkably easy to use and crucial to master.
On the other hand, part of PUBG's appeal is that the clumsy crafting elements of its predecessors are gone, allowing players to focus on gearing up and executing tactics to survive each firefight. Ditching granular mechanics helps keep a relatively fast pace and lower barrier to entry while maintaining the realistic tactical shooter vibe. You need to strap on an armored vest and helmet to protect yourself, and weapon attachments help get the most out of the deep roster of firearms. Inventory management is relatively streamlined in PUBG, but Fortnite simplifies it to such a degree that you only have to worry about five inventory slots instead of a managing a weight limit.
Both games have large, sprawling maps, but PUBG incorporates vehicles that are of utmost importance to reach advantageous positions without getting swallowed up by the circle of death or gunned down by a preying squad. However, close-quarters encounters are a microcosm of how much PUBG and Fortnite diverge. If you fight in and around the buildings and towns of PUBG as if it were Rainbow Six--scouting enemy movement, peeking for sightlines--you'll improve your odds of survival. In Fortnite, destruction is around every corner; if you know an enemy is on the second floor of a building, you can blow apart the floor beneath them for a surprise. You rack up kills by getting the jump on opponents in either game, but you can't play PUBG like Fortnite, and approaching Fortnite like PUBG will only get you so far.
In Fortnite's late-game, when it comes down to a single-digit player count, you'll often see enemies creating their own fort-like structures in the safe zones, essentially building makeshift houses to leverage their resources and wit. It's not much of a mystery where the last players are when you see them exercising their architectural prowess. Often times, PUBG's final moments boil down to a waiting game, who gets spotted first, or a risky push with smoke grenades as your last bit of cover; it's about seizing a short window of opportunity where things go from 0 to 100 real quick. It's intense and frightening.
The more you dig into both games, the more you'll see how their takes on battle royale offer unique experiences and tap into different skills, even though one is closely modeled after the other. The thirst can be quenched with either PUBG or Fortnite (or both), because the thrill of besting 90-plus other players is rewarding in a way unlike other multiplayer shooters. If you have to choose one over the other, keep in mind that Fortnite is best for those who want to engage in a form of base-building within a chaotic shooter that doesn't rely so much on precision and realism, whereas PUBG has the look and feel of a tactical shooter to drive home the uneasy tension of battle royale.
Fortnite's free-to-play Battle Royale mode has surged in popularity over the past few weeks, recently hitting a new record of 3.4 million concurrent users. Unfortunately, the influx of players has also resulted in a number of server issues across PS4, Xbox One, and PC, which developer Epic has addressed in a new post on its website.
"We were not able to stay ahead of our continued growth and multiple of our backend services have been struggling under load the last several weeks. And we also shipped v2.3.0 with significant bugs. We don't consider either acceptable," Epic wrote. As a result, the developer says it has "changed [its] release plans [and] processes to help improve quality of client builds."
Among the areas Epic looks to improve are load times. The developer says it is "testing and bug fixing improvements that will deliver better level streaming with less hitches." Similarly, Epic says it is "close" to the point it can test a major optimization of its networking code, which would bring the developer "closer to running the server at a solid 20 Hz."
Additionally, Epic has announced it will roll out an optional 60 FPS mode for PS4 and Xbox One (as well as PS4 Pro and Xbox One X) later this month. "This 60 FPS mode is tuned for each console to maximize frame rate while minimizing loss of visual quality," Epic says. The studio has also added West Coast servers and will add Brazilian Xbox servers in order to further improve the game's connection.
You can read more on Epic's website. In the same post, the developer teased several upcoming limited-time modes for Battle Royale, among them the return of the 50v50 event. Epic also shared concept art of several new items and outfits that will be available in Battle Royale soon, such as a Glider modeled after a Chinese dragon.
Bungie's purveyor of Exotic wares and face obfuscation enthusiast, Xur, has returned once again for another visit in Destiny 2 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. As this week's Flashpoint is on Io, that's where you'll find him with a new set of Exotic gear for sale, including a weapon that was added in Curse of Osiris.
Reaching Xur is relatively easy. Head to Io and spawn at the Giant's Scar Landing Zone. From there, hop on your Sparrow and follow the path through the building just to the right of where you spawn. Take it to the left when you exit the building, and you'll be able to head just off the road ahead to enter a cave, where Xur has taken up residence from now until the weekly reset on February 13.
In terms of items, he has one piece of Exotic gear for each class: Titan, Warlock, and Hunter. All of it is gear from the base game, so you won't need to own the Curse of Osiris DLC expansion in order to acquire it. However, that's not the case with Xur's one weapon, the Exotic Scout Rifle The Jade Rabbit. The unique effect with this gun is The Fate of All Fools, which lets you fire body shots in order to gain bonus damage with your next precision shot (and return ammo directly into the magazine). Here's everything he has for sale:
The Jade Rabbit (Exotic Scout Rifle) -- 29 Legendary Shards
As always, besides the specific pieces of gear, Xur offers the Three of Coins, which increases your odds of securing an Exotic item drop for four hours. You can also pick up a Fated Engram, which--while pricey--guarantees to decrypt into an Exotic you don't already own.
Following this appearance by Xur, Bungie will kick off Destiny 2's first Crimson Days event to celebrate Valentine's Day. This primarily consists of a unique 2v2 Crucible mode that encourages players to stay close to their partners. It also introduces a bunch of new items that you can obtain both by playing this Crucible mode and by simply leveling up (provided you've reached the level cap). Beyond that, Bungie has a ton of other new changes on the way to Destiny 2, following the recent addition of Masterwork armor and Raid armor perks.
Since the short-lived 50v50 mode it introduced back in December, Fortnite developer Epic has been regularly holding limited-time events for the game's free Battle Royale mode, and even more are on the way in the near future. In an update on its official website, Epic gave players a peek at some of the limited-time modes it plans to hold for Battle Royale soon, including the return of the 50v50 event.
According to Epic, approximately five limited-time modes will run in Fortnite: Battle Royale "in the next month or so." The developer hasn't detailed which of the events will be held first, nor has it provided a time table for when they'll roll out, but one of the modes players can expect to play is another 50v50 event. Unlike the previous version, Epic says this one will be "closer to the 50v50 trailer experience," with more supply drops and a bus for each team.
In addition to that, Epic plans to hold a limited-time Blitz Mode in Battle Royale, which will feature shorter matches than usual. Epic also says it will introduce modes that feature team sizes in between 50v50 and squads (which features four-player groups). You can read more about some of Fortnite: Battle Royale's upcoming limited-time modes on Epic's website.
On top of the new limited-time modes, Epic has also teased some new items that are coming to Battle Royale. These include a Glider modeled after a Chinese dragon, a spacesuit outfit, and a Llama Unicorn Pickaxe. Epic hasn't announced when the items will be available in Battle Royale, but it has shared concept art for them, which you can take a look at above.
New Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer shows Monsters Inc World and new gameplay details!
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