By GameSpot Staff on Mar 31, 2018 08:31 pm
We get that reference.
Ready Player One spoilers here! Ready Player One is a blast to watch, and a large part of that is the endless flood of references and Easter eggs with which the movie assaults your every sense. These span movies, TV, books, video games, and music, from the 1970s up through the 1990s--and to the present day, which goes beyond what even the original book referenced. The movie just hit theaters, so it will be a while before we can get it at home and start poring over every frame. But in the meantime, we sent as many GameSpot staffers as we could spare to the theater and asked them to note down every reference, Easter egg, and in-joke we could spot in Ready Player One. Here are the results. This won't be comprehensive, but we tried our best. Oh, and for your benefit, we're skipping most of the really obvious ones, like Gundam, The Shining, and the Iron Giant. You're welcome. When you're done here, don't forget to read our Ready Player One review, find out why it's a great movie, check out our analysis of the ending, and read our interviews with the cast and the creators.
Battletoads fight in the big battle scene
Battletoads was released on NES in 1991.
A squad of Master Chiefs (and other Halo characters) fight in the battle too
Artemis uses the Lancer from Gears of War
Wade buys the Holy Hand Grenade from Monty Python's Holy Grail
Although he fails to count to three when he throws it.
Parzival uses the SPNKR rocket launcher from Halo
Parzival briefly changes into Michael Jackson's "Thriller" outfit
He even does the dance.
Tracer from Overwatch appears several times
Chun-Li from Street Fighter is there too
And Lara Croft from Tomb Raider
Aech has a tiny Battlestar Galactica in her workshop
And the Valley Forge from Silent Running
Silent Running was a 1972 sci-fi film.
Wade lists Goldeneye as Halliday's favorite shooter
Although it's a little strange for the movie, since the N64 game didn't come out until 1997, later than most of the other things Halliday loved.
Artemis uses an Alien chest-burster glove to scare Parzival
Artemis uses a Madballs grenade in the final battle
Madballs were a toy in the '80s and even had a TV show at one point.
Halliday's jacket pin is the electronic Simon game
Aech tosses Wade a murderous Chucky from Child's Play
And its many sequels.
There's a Back to the Future hoverboard in Aech's apartment
There's a "Save Ferris" logo in Aech's apartment too
From Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Samantha is wearing a Joy Division shirt when Wade meets her IRL
Joy Division is a post-punk band popular in the '70s and '80s.
Daito sports a Mortal Kombat sticker
Halliday has an Etch A Sketch on his desk at the end
The Magic Etch A Sketch was a toy you used to draw things that your siblings would periodically erase because they were jerks.
Halliday's desk also has slides for a View-Master
These things were always pointless.
There's a Beastmaster poster in Halliday's room too
Beastmaster was a 1982 fantasy movie.
There are also Space Invaders decals on the wall
Is that Speed Racer in the first key challenge?
And the van from A-Team?
AND the 1960s Batmobile?!?!
It pops up later in the race as well.
That's also totally Ryu from Street Fighter
Aech drives Bigfoot, the original monster truck
That looks like Deathstroke in the club scene
And that might be Deadshot
Joker and Harley Quinn are in the club scene too
Maybe the Distracted Globe was having DC night?
And Blanka from Street Fighter
Artemis's bike is Kaneda's bike from Akira
Akira is a 1988 anime film widely considered a classic.
The dance scene is a tribute to Saturday Night Fever
An iconic 1977 film about disco.
Parzival's boombox is an homage to the 1989 movie Say Anything
Starring John Cusack.
Hello Kitty appears in The Oasis
Along with Badtz-Maru, the penguin, and other friends.
Halliday's "funeral" is Star Trek themed
That's El Dragon from Battleborn
Gearbox's 2016 shooter.
Parzival uses the Hadoken move from Street Fighter
In his showdown with Sorrento.
Halliday and Young Halliday wear Space Invaders t-shirts
Paramount's rebooted Ninja Turtles appear in final battle
Freddy Krueger is in the battle where we meet Aech
Christine from Stephen King's Christine is in the race
Greatest American Hero logo on Parzival's headset
A comedic superhero series that ran on ABC for three seasons in the earl '80s.
Goro from Mortal Kombat is Artemis's disguise
Duke Nukem in the Doom World
Right next to Freddy Krueger.
The Serenity is the ship that drops off the Gundam
During the final battle.
Iron Giant gives a thumbs up while descending into lava
Just like the end of Terminator 2.
A Chocobo appears in the final battle
It's not clear if anyone from the Final Fantasy series is riding it.
The Winnebago from Spaceballs is in Aech's garage
And there's even more in the garage...
A Colonial Viper from Battlestar Galactica (The '70s TV series)
A ED-209 enforcement droid from Robocop
Cameron's dad's Ferrari from Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Swordfish II from Cowboy Bebop
An EVA Pod from 2001: A Space Odyssey
Zemeckis Cube
The cube used to turn back time 60 seconds was named after Robert Zemeckis.
Goldie Wilson campaign poster in Aech's den
Goldie Wilson was running for mayor of Hill Valley in Back to the Future.
Art3mis uses the pulse rifle from Aliens
Can be seen in the nightclub scene. Also, the Art3mis action figure comes with it.
A copy of Schindler's Ark is in Wade's room
Spielberg directed the film adaptation, titled Schindler's List.
StarCraft Space Marine
Wade's aunt's boyfriend, Rick, wears this skin in The Oasis.
The DeLorean has KITT's grill
The talking car from the TV series Knight Rider.
By GameSpot Staff on Mar 31, 2018 08:30 pm
Coming out sooner than you think.
The annual Game Developers Conference is where you want to be in order to place your finger on the pulse of the latest trends in the games industry. Unlike E3, PAX, or Gamescom, GDC is a far more low-key show, where indies and AAA developers behind the latest and greatest mingle together to figure out what could be next for the gaming world. While the conference doesn't focus on the spectacle that other shows do, it's still a great place to check out some upcoming games that may not be as well known as others. In this gallery, we've compiled a list of some of the most interesting games we've played during GDC 2018. After exploring the GDC show floor and the conference's surrounding events, which includes Double Fine's Day of the Devs and an assortment of indie games from the The MiX event--we've narrowed things to some of the most evocative and exciting games we played during GDC 2018. Here are 25 games coming to PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch--which are expected to see release this year, or early 2019.
60 Parsecs | PC
Surviving in the cold reaches of outer space with minimal resources can be tough--but it's even worse when you're leading a group of survivors who can barely stand each other. As a spiritual sequel to the post-apocalyptic survival game 60 Seconds, the space journey in 60 Parsecs takes things to the next level by having your reluctant crew of astronauts struggle to survive in the isolated depths of the final frontier. When you're not worrying about dwindling supplies affecting your crew's morale, you'll have to contend with mysterious alien factions looking to interact with your crew--either through possession or by bringing your junker spaceship to their home planet. Despite the bleak premise, 60 Parsecs is largely humorous in its tone and pokes fun at the many tropes and cliches of cheesy '60s sci-fi. It's a game about choices, where even deciding to stay put and repair your ship could lead to drastic consequences--or a happy accident where you'll come into contact with peaceful aliens giving you valuable resources. Expected for release sometime in 2018 for PC, 60 Parsecs is a survival game that will make you appreciate the smaller victories you'll have along your journey. | Alessandro Fillari
Away: Journey To The Unexpected | PC, PS4, Switch
Lovingly referred to as "anime Skyrim" by its developers, Away: Journey To The Unexpected largely lives up to its name. Right from the anime-inspired opening credits, you'll know exactly the type of idealistic and upbeat vibe the game is going for. You play as a young boy who finds himself in a magical land after exploring his grandparents' basement and then gets caught up in an epic quest to save the world. While this type of adventure may seem familiar, Away presents it in a particular way that makes it anything but. While the lead character is smart and resourceful, he's still a young boy with only a stick to defend himself with. Thankfully, he'll encounter many different characters--such as an old wizard with a pair of cracked glasses and a sentiment tree creature--who can join his party and tackle many of the more challenging battles and puzzles that their young leader cannot. One of the more striking aspects of Away is its unique visual style. With all characters and monsters rendered in 2D, within a fully 3D environment, it exudes a rather rich and vibrant cartoonish-vibe that bolsters the upbeat nature of the game. Launching in 2018 on PC, PS4, and Switch, Away: Journey To The Unexpected looks be a rather fun dive into a bizarre and colorful world where all it takes to expand your party is to reach out and grab a friend. | Alessandro Fillari
Bad North | PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch
Bad North is an endearing real-time tactics rogue-lite where you defend an island kingdom against a swarms of Viking invaders. To combat these foes, you command units of adorably tiny soldiers, each with their own unique tactical strengths and weaknesses. Bad North juxtaposes a cute minimalist visual style with mature bloody conflict, which is charming all on its own. However, what really pulls you into the experience are its mechanics, which are accessible, yet difficult to master. Situating units and executing attack formations is quick and simple, utilizing a rock, paper, scissors-like unit dynamic that's easy to pick up and form strategies with. As a roguelite, there are some punishing aspects to the game. For instance, when the leader of a unit dies, all the upgrades they've accumulated up to that point are lost. While this sounds excessive, it never dampens the experience or makes it overtly punishing, as the game encourages you to play multiple times in order to improve and better hone your skills. If you've ever had interest in real-time tactics games but were always too afraid to try them, then Bad North should be a proper fit for you. And for genre veterans, there's more than enough depth in Bad North's mechanics that make it well worth playing when it releases sometime this summer. | Matt Espineli
Bard's Tale 4 | PC
Mentioning The Bard's Tale may conjure up images of the snarky comedy game from the mid-2000s, but developer IinXile's second attempt at the franchise (third if you count the VR offshoot The Mage's Tale) attempts to be much more faithful to the spirit of the original hardcore RPG series. It adds the modern trappings of updated graphics and first-person exploration, though the developers say that there'll be an option for grid-based movement and that some maps will be faithful, one-to-one re-creations of previous games' dungeons. But Bard's Tale 4 is otherwise a party-focused RPG adventure with a few unique additions. A playable GDC demo included the puzzle-upgrading system for some special weapons, spiritually similar to some of Destiny's special weapons. You can earn helpful upgrades after solving arcane clues and completing specific tasks like slotting in specific gems or killing specific enemies using that weapon with it. And the combat is the big change for the series; turn-based battles play out in a limited grid-based system where your party can move around to gain attack advantages or to stay out of harm's way. And as a Bard game, there's plenty of drinking and carousing. You'll be able to craft a party full of hard-drinking musicians who gain powerful buffs from their alcoholic libations. The Bard's Tale is set for release on PC sometime in 2018. | Justin Haywald
Blazing Chrome | PC
Joymasher has dedicated years to developing retro games that recall some of the best titles of the 8- and 16-bit eras. Its latest work in progress, Blazing Chrome, mixes elements from Contra, Turrican, and Metal Slug. These homages--specific weapons, enemies, and interactive objects--are immediately recognizable and guaranteed to trigger feelings of nostalgia. More than just look the part, Blazing Chrome features satisfying controls and epic setpieces, the likes of which made games like Contra 3: The Alien Wars such beloved classics in the first place. We only had the opportunity to play a single level, but it was everything we hoped for after watching the game's trailer, and we can't wait to get our hands on the rest. | Peter Brown
Desert Child | PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch
It's hard out there for a young man on a desert planet with nothing but a rundown hoverbike and some change in his pocket. As a racing game with some light RPG mechanics, Desert Child puts you in the shoes of a drifter who has to earn enough scratch to keep his bike floating and fill his belly with a bowl of savory ramen. In order to make ends-meet, you'll have to compete in a number of races against rivals looking to make a payday. Created by Oscar Brittain, the upcoming Desert Child blends fast-paced racing and shoot-em-up action with moments of calm that make you appreciate what you have. Despite the lead character's low funds, sitting down for a bowl of ramen and or simply lounging around on your hoverbike after races--win or lose--feel like victories in their own right. Desert Child oozes an infectious and uniquely cool style that uses a rather interesting implementation of rotoscope animation that recalls classic adventure games like Flashback or Out Of This World. Expected to launch sometime in 2018, Desert Child's tale of a vagabond trying to stay chill is one you should keep an eye on. | Alessandro Fillari
Doctor Who | PC, Mobile
The inimitable Peter Capaldi may have taken his last turn as the doctor, but the tales of his exploits live on through Doctor Who Infinity. The game tells its story through comic book style cutscenes that feature actors from the show, headlined by Michelle Gomez as Missy. Capaldi isn't a part of the project, though his lines are humorously filled in by Missy, though the game does feature a new central villain played by Bella Ramsey (Game of Throne's diminutive standout Lyanna Mormont). The story will play out over a series of five episodes that will release throughout 2018, and each will feature a different writing and art team. However, the core story will focus on the most recent round of featured characters: Missy, the twelfth Doctor, and companion Bill Potts along with support from Osgood, Nardole, and other series mainstays. Following developer Tiny Rebel Games' success on Doctor Who: Legacy, you'll advance the story by solving Puzzles & Dragons-style gameplay quandaries. However, a brief demo for the game revealed a few new mechanics to that puzzle formula that change up the gameplay and will introduce an intriguing new set of challenges that go beyond simple matching. The first episode is due out soon, but no firm release date has been set. | Justin Haywald
Evasion | PC
Whether it's fighting against space aliens or zombies, VR first-person shooters tend to cover similar ground--making for a "been there, done that" feel when booting up your VR device. However, the upcoming Evasion--launching on Oculus and HTC Vive this year--expands upon what people expect from VR shooters, offering one of the most substantial VR-exclusive games in sometime. Focusing on class-based shooting and squad gameplay with full range of movement with Oculus and Vive touch controls--Evasion pits multiple characters against waves of enemies as they tackle objectives and take out large bosses at the end of each stage. While other VR shooters go for a slower pace, Evasion ratchets up the speed by turning the action and movement into a quasi-shoot-em-up, where evading your enemies and getting off a quick shot is key. Launching later this year, Evasion offers some surprisingly intense action and a sizable amount of content to dive into for fans looking for the next VR action game. | Alessandro Fillari
Lumines Remastered | Switch
If you owned a PSP, you undoubtedly had Lumines. In a stark library for Sony's ill-fated system, Lumines was a shining light of hypnotic rhythm heaven. The Nintendo Switch definitely doesn't suffer from the same dearth of content, but the introduction of Lumines is like a welcome reunion with an old friend; finally, you'll be able to take an amazing musical journey with you once again. Lumines Remastered is coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC as well, and those will undoubtedly be excellent versions as well, but the portability of the Switch makes it feel like the primary platform. That and the fact that you can sync up to eight joy-cons together with the game for a full-on buzzing sensory experience with the game. I only hope they sell Joy-Con compatible straps with the Switch version. | Justin Haywald
The Messenger | PC, PS4, Switch
Retro 2D throwbacks are all the rage in today's age. Often referencing the classics such as Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania, and Ghost and Ghouls--many games seek to reach those same heights, but few go beyond emulating the same style and tone of games from the 2D era. The Messenger--coming to PC, PS4, and Switch--balances its affection for gaming's past, while also crafting a game that pokes fun at the many tropes and challenges of the 8- and 16-bit eras. Taking on the role of a young ninja, he quickly finds himself caught up in a grander conflict, forcing him to move between two vastly different versions of his reality, one 8-bit and the other 16-bit. While this may seem like a gimmick that's a bit passé, it's also tied to The Messenger's broader Metroidvania design, where you'll have to shift between the two realms while traveling through the interconnected world. Coming later in 2018, The Messenger's focus on challenging action and platforming have many callbacks to the classics. But in blending together a humorous story that feels like a loving sendup to the era, it looks to have a style all its own that manages to show off a cool new way to experience multiple eras of gaming. | Alessandro Fillari
Minit | PC, PS4, Xbox One
How much can you get done in a minute? In the aptly named Minit, you die every 60 seconds, starting over at your house each time. With the top-down adventure gameplay of the original Legend of Zelda and a low-fi, black-and-white art style, Minit puts a spin on classic games with an interesting concept inspired by the cartoon Adventure Time (where each episode is largely standalone and a fresh start for the characters). To help you progress, you get to keep the items you collect through each minute-long playthrough. One minute, you might talk to someone who wants you to kill some nearby crabs; the next, you've already died once, found the crabs, and killed them for a reward. Slow-talking NPCs and getting lost will hinder your progress, but part of Minit's charm is learning just how much you can do in an incredibly short time. Minit is developed by a collaboration between Kitty Calis, who most recently worked on Horizon Zero Dawn; Jan Willem Nijman, co-founder of Vambleer; Jukio Kallio, a freelance composer; and Dominik Johann, art director of Crows Crows Crows. | Kallie Plagge
Mosaic | PC, PS4, Xbox One
First shown at GDC this year, Mosaic is a story-driven game about the mundane parts of modern life. Developer Killbrite Studio showed off 10 minutes of the game featuring a person commuting to their job at a generic corporation, though the full game is planned to be a series of vignettes. A significant part of Mosaic's storytelling is done through your in-game smartphone--with it, you can check Orwellian emails about tardiness demerits and play a clicker game as you stand idly on an escalator. (The clicker game even comes complete with microtransactions using in-game money.) The smartphone is an antidote to the game's focus on repetitive, everyday actions; just like real life, you can pull it out during the boring parts of your day. Mosaic takes inspiration from games like Inside, and the team also cites Thirty Flights of Loving and Kentucky Route Zero as recent favorites. Killbrite Studio previously made Among the Sleep, a first-person horror game starring a toddler, and The Plan, a game about the struggles of being a fly. | Kallie Plagge
Mothergunship | PC, PS4
If there's one thing you can say about the roguelike FPS Mothergunship, it's that it loves its guns. Before you know it, you'll be armed with several machine guns and grenade launchers, which the game offers up rather generously. But once you dive a bit further in, you'll see the game's rather complex crafting system--allowing you to place connectors and modifiers onto your guns--you'll discover the game's true passion for weapons. In your fight against alien invaders, you're going to need more than just two guns to fight back against the legion of giant bosses and countless minions. As a roguelike experience, each run will give you a random assortment of guns to use to take down your enemies. Once you acquire enough resources, you'll be able to craft and combine new guns, allowing you to place shotguns, machines guns, and grenade launchers--in that order--on one hand, with the other using flamethrowers and rockets launchers simultaneously. It's a gloriously stupid system, and the game lets you run with it. Mothergunship's greatest strength--aside from its vast arsenal--is that it's remarkably self-aware of how ridiculous it is. And with its release in 2018, players will be able to experience what it's like wielding 5 or more weapons at once--all the while dodging oversized projectiles from minions and baddies in increasing difficult runs. | Alessandro Fillari
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden | PC, PS4, Xbox One
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is an upcoming tactical turn-based strategy game developed by Bearded Ladies Consulting, a studio comprised of individuals who previously worked on Hitman and Payday. Based on the popular Swedish-made tabletop RPG franchise of the same name, the game puts you in control of a party of mutated humans struggling to survive the wastelands of a post-apocalyptic world. While the game bears similarity to the critically acclaimed XCOM franchise, don't let that fool you. Mutant Year Zero brings its own unique twists to the formula with an emphasis on stealth, freeform ability customization, and exploration across a large interconnected world. One of the most compelling aspects of the game is the ability to sneak around enemies in real-time, allowing you to position your group of mutants in more advantageous position before launching into turn-based combat. This small addition gives the formula a nice spin, offering you more strategic control in your approach and a deeper sense of connection to each skirmish. Mutant Year Zero's world and characters are also particularly striking; humanoid pigs and ducks walk alongside mutated humans across its devastated, yet mysterious post-apocalyptic world. At first glance, it's difficult not to be thrown off by its over-the-top '80s-era sci-fi tabletop RPG aesthetics, but that's largely what makes the game so intriguing when you see what it's attempting to do mechanically. It takes the turn-based tactical RPG, plays with its most well-established mechanics, and then houses it within a bizarre and striking retro post-apocalyptic world. If you're a fan of XCOM and tactical stealth games, then Mutant Year Zero should be at the top of your watchlist this year. | Matt Espineli
Noita | PC
Noita, named after the Finnish word for "witch," is a 2D rogue-lite where every pixel is simulated. That means you can burn, explode, or melt most environments; set fire to wood and watch it crumble, or soak yourself in blood to avoid catching fire yourself. You play as a wizard who possesses a floaty sort of jump as well as different magic staffs. Between levels, you get a chance to upgrade your spells. Each level is procedurally generated, and death is permanent, so learning as you go is paramount. We played a build of Noita using a controller, which made it incredibly difficult; developer Nolla Games is focused only on a PC release currently. But burning or exploding your way through levels is impressive to watch and satisfying to execute, making this a game to keep an eye on. | Kallie Plagge
Pathfinder: Kingmaker | PC
Games like Divinity: Original Sin II and Pillars of Eternity show that there's a passionate audience for old-school adventure games. But for players looking for a game that follows the Pathfinder ruleset, Pathfinder: Kingmaker looks to fill that niche. For casual players looking for a general single-player RPG experience, Kingmaker will have streamlined systems that allow you to quickly make character upgrade decisions whether you're familiar with the Pathfinder ruleset or not. But if you're looking to create your own character, or just want to make very specific character upgrade choices, the game will have some of the more recent Pathfinder role-playing game rule additions. The developer, Owlcat Games, hopes to have the game out on PC in 2018. And the team is exploring the potential for bringing the experience to console as well. | Justin Haywald
Pool Panic | Switch, PC
"The world's least realistic pool simulator" is an accurate descriptor for Pool Panic. In this animatedly goofy game from Adult Swim, you knock around an anthropomorphic cue ball to try and hit other balls into assorted gaping holes. But those other balls don't always want to go willingingly into the black unknown. Sometimes they're hiding in porta-potties. Or maybe you have to knock around a grill to scatter hamburgers on the ground and summon squirrely-looking balls from trees. And sometimes the balls are bears that will actively rush at you and try to knock you into the hole instead. There's no limit to the strokes you can take to accomplish your goal of hitting every ball in the hole in this physics puzzler, but the game does track of how many hits it takes you to finish each puzzle as well as whether you scratch. So if you're an overachiever, you can go for the high score. Or you can do what I did and just indiscriminately hit balls with reckless abandon until they all fall in. Pool Party lets you make your own weird fun. | Justin Haywald
Rune | PC
Developer Human Head is resurrecting the Rune franchise, and it's shaping up to be an intense, violent exploration of Norse mythology. Formerly Rune: Ragnarok (now just Rune), the focus of the game is still on the apocalypse, but there will be a heightened emphasis on multiplayer both co-op and competitive. Story paths will let you put your allegiance behind the main pantheon of gods--including the instigator of Ragnarok himself, Loki--but the focus of Rune's GDC demo was the combat. The game encourages you to take weapons from your enemies and try out different combat styles. And of course it wouldn't be Rune if you couldn't rip off your opponent's arm and use it to bludgeon him with. Rune includes ample sailing as well, allowing you to get to your destination in the northern wastes a little more quickly when you have to cross a body of water (and making sure you don't succumb to the frostbite of the game's icy waters). But one thing that was pointed out in the demo is that the 3km x 3km map is meant to prioritize density of experience over having a wide but empty world. Rune is set for release sometime in 2018, and we'll be keep a close eye on it as it approaches launch. | Justin Haywald
Shadows Awakening | PC, PS4, Xbox One
In this Diablo-style action RPG, you take on the role of a demon named The Devourer, who resurrects a fallen warrior in order to continue their quest for more power. While most action-RPG games focus on a single character, Shadows: Awakening--in an interesting twist--focuses on your entire party, which is led by the The Devourer. In addition to fighting enemies in the mortal realm, you'll also travel to the shadow realm and fight specters as the demonic leader. Blending together more adventure-like puzzle-solving and storytelling with its action-RPG gameplay, Shadows: Awakened focuses on letting players define their experience, with aspects of the world reacting to it. Set for release in 2018, this isometric action-RPG is one you'll want to keep an eye out for later this year. | Alessandro Fillari
Spartan Fist | PC
Spartan Fist is a game that focuses on letting you punch stuff. It's really that simple. Playing as a former detective caught up in a gladiatorial-style competition, you'll have to make it through several randomly generated levels through a maze-like coliseum, where the crowd awaits bloodshed from your ridiculously overpowered fists. Instead of swords and spears, you'll pick up a variety of different gauntlets for each fist, offering unique modifiers for your fighter. Coming in 2018, Spartan Fist keeps things simple. Just punch bad guys hard enough, and they'll explode. The crowd goes wild, and you'll continue on to the next fight. What more could you want? | Alessandro Fillari
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes | Switch
Travis Strikes Again takes the No More Heroes series in a very different direction. While thematically it retains the vulgar excitement of the previous games, the latest version promises to stretch the action across a variety of different gaming genres. The demo for GDC focused on a top-down beat-em-up that showcased frenetic, arcade-style combat, but it retains the series signature elements like shaking the controller to power-up your blade and saving by sitting on a toilet. Eclectic and energetic, even by developer Suda 51's standards, Travis Strikes Again is likely to be divisive for the change from No More Heroes' previous third-person, cel-shaded style, but thematically, the game feels like a natural fit series for the series' edgy humor. You can see the GDC demo in from start to climatic mini-boss finish right here. | Justin Haywald
Untitled Goose Game | PC
Geese are notorious assholes. In Untitled Goose Game, you get to play as a huge jerk of a goose whose entire purpose in life is to cause mischief. You start with a goose to-do list that includes things like "get the groundskeeper wet" and "get into the garden," and most things involve tricking a human man and running amok. Developer House House says Super Mario 64 was one of its early inspirations for Untitled Goose Game--it looked to Mario as an example of a 3D protagonist with distinct personality and character. And the titular untitled goose definitely makes a big comedic impact without saying anything (though you can press X to honk). So far, it's looking like a fun, funny adventure in being a little bit of a dick. | Kallie Plagge
WHAT THE GOLF? | PC
What if a golf sim were pretty much everything except actual golf? What the Golf is a cheeky anti-golf game where each level plays by its own rules. It basically works like a golf game in that you aim, charge the shot, and fire, but it otherwise doesn't behave the way you'd expect. Sometimes the club goes flying instead of the ball, sometimes there are portals, and there are even a few levels that parody Superhot and its time-bending mechanics. No matter what, though, it's a lot of fun. Like the game itself, developer Triband has a sarcastic and lighthearted sense of humor. When we asked what their favorite golf games were, members of the team listed Quake, XCOM, and Hatoful Boyfriend--though they said they had played Golf Story. | Kallie Plagge
The World Next Door | PC
Anime-inspired visual novel/puzzle game The World Next Door is still in its early stages, but developer Rose City Games has shown off a short demo that's left us intrigued. It stars Jun, a human girl who's been taken to the realm of the monsters. Humans can only live a dozen or so days in the monster world, so of course Jun gets trapped there. She and her new monster friends have to figure out how to save her before she dies, and they also get into some fights along the way. The World Next Door combines stylish visual novel storytelling and art with real-time puzzle battle gameplay. While we only got a small taste, co-founder of Rose City Games Corey Warning says the team is inspired by the narrative styles of Pyre and Banner Saga. This is also the first game published by anime and manga company Viz Media, so we're keeping it on our radar. | Kallie Plagge
Zanki Zero: Last Beginning | PS4, PC
Zanki Zero: Last Beginning is the latest game from the creators of the cult favorite Danganronpa series. At first glance, Zanki Zero bears visible similarities to Danganronpa; it features an ensemble cast, pixel art in its menus, and purposefully flat environment textures. But unlike those games, Zanki Zero is a survival-RPG with a light dose of old school first-person dungeon crawling. The game puts you in control of a group of eight people--each representing one of the seven deadly sins, albeit with the exception of one--who have awakened from a deep sleep only to find Earth in ruins. Before long, they figure out that they age incredibly fast and are only capable of living up to 13 days. However, a mysterious arcade machine allows them to come back to life after perishing. This throws the group onto a journey to solve the mystery behind their accelerated aging as well as what happened to the world. Age plays a key factor to the story and moment-to-moment gameplay, as your characters steadily grow older as time progresses. It even affects the abilities of your characters. For example, a character who is a child can only carry so many items and cannot brandish a weapon. As a result of your group's accelerated aging, characters are expected to die often, and depending on how they die, they may earn new ability bonuses when revived. Aside from Zanki Zero's aging mechanic, one of the most fascinating aspects of the game is the intrigue of its story and characters. As to be expected from a game from the creators of Danganronpa, there's a host of secrets lurking in the darkness of each character's psyche. We only played a brief demo of the game, and we already have so many questions concerning the state of the world and its characters. Suffice to say, we can't wait to uncover Zanki Zero's myriad secrets. The game currently has no confirmed release date, but it's expected to release on PS4 and PC. | Matt Espineli
By Kevin Wong on Mar 31, 2018 04:26 pm
There are a lot of WWE rumors, especially around Wrestlemania each year. It's good to keep fans a little off-balance and a little curious. Not knowing the how, why, and what allows fans to suspend their disbelief about the onscreen action. Rumors elevate their subjects and make men into superheroes and otherworldly monsters. Here are some of the most persistent urban legends in professional wrestling. Some of them are false, which is a relief. And some of them are true, which is terrifying. If you're looking for more WWE awesomeness, make sure to check in with our Wrestlemania coverage, including rumors leading up to the event. We have a full match card for your to check out as well as our predictions for the upcoming event. And come back on Sunday, April 8 for live coverage of Wrestlemania 34.
The Ultimate Warrior Was An Impostor
From 1987 to 1992, the Ultimate Warrior ran roughshod over the WWE locker room. An intense, muscle bound man, Warrior would squash most of his opponents in under five minutes, if not less. And he was largely seen as the inheritor of Hulk Hogan's throne. But due to a combination of A) being difficult to work with and B) the ongoing WWE steroid investigation, Warrior left the company in 1992. When he returned to WWE in 1996, he had golden blonde, wavy hair and a slimmer figure, which spurred rumors that this new Ultimate Warrior was an impostor, and that the old, original one was either dead or otherwise unavailable. Of course, this wasn't true; it's always been the same man since the very beginning. Is this urban legend true? No
Mr. Fuji Once Cooked A Co-Worker's Dog
Most WWE fans probably know Mr. Fuji from his management stints; he cheated for both Demolition and Yokozuna, and he guided the latter to the WWE Championship. But before that, Fuji was a tag team specialist who fought in multiple territories, including WWE, in the 1970's. Fuji was also known for his "pranks"' which were often times sick and sadistic. His most infamous, legendary one was when he cooked and fed a dog to his fellow wrestlers. Multiple wrestlers have different accounts of what actually happened. Roddy Piper recalled that Fuji pulled this stunt on Toru Tanaka. Hulk Hogan recalled that Tor Kamata was the victim, and he ate a cat, not a dog. Mr. Fuji recalls that he pulled the prank with assistance from Don Muraco, and they targeted Billy White Wolfe and Skandor Akbar (Fuji's memory is hazy on this). At the end of the meal (teriyaki dog, according to Fuji), Muraco revealed the dog's severed head, which caused Wolfe and Akbar to throw up. Is this urban legend true? Yes
Andre The Giant Once Drank Over 100 Beers In One Sitting
Andre the Giant was a walking urban legend--the Eighth Wonder of the World. Everything was exaggerated about him; his height, for example, was cited in various publications as 7'4, or 7'5, or even 7'7. When you're a massive giant in the pre-internet era, you can get away with a little fibbing. But all of Andre's colleagues seem to be united on one point: his drinking prowess. According to multiple people, Andre the Giant could drink over 100 beers in a single sitting. And there's so many witnesses who claim to have seen this, firsthand, that it's probably true. According to Hulk Hogan, Andre drank 108 beers while waiting with him at an airport. At a WWE Legends roundtable which included Dusty Rhodes and Michael Hayes, Andre's colleagues told multiple Andre drinking tales: Once, Andre drank 156 beers in a single sitting. Pat Patterson also recalled a time that a drunk Andre fell asleep in a hotel lobby. Because none of the wrestlers could move him, Patterson took Andre's keys and wristwatch for safekeeping, and they left Andre lying there until morning. Indeed, the truth can be stranger than fiction. Is this urban legend true? Yes
Joey Styles Punched JBL Backstage
Yes, we're talking about JBL again. Only this time, WWE's resident frat boy gets his comeuppance. On WWE's tour to Iraq in 2008, JBL was mercilessly hazing newcomer Joey Styles, WWE's new director of digital content and the former commentator for ECW. And Styles, who weighs over 100 pounds less than JBL, punched his tormentor, leaving JBL with a cut and a black eye. This might be easily dismissed as wishful thinking, but multiple eyewitnesses have confirmed it. RVD told this story on a podcast, and Simon Dean heard the story secondhand from Triple H himself. Is this urban legend true? Yes
The WrestleMania III Attendance Figure Is A Lie
It's a heavily touted figure, especially when Mania season rolls around. WrestleMania III--the one with the Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant main event--broke the indoor attendance record, with 93,173 fans. Or did it? According to longtime wrestling journalist David Meltzer, who spoke with promoter Zane Bresloff, the actual figure was closer to 78,000 fans, WWE had misrepresented the attendance figure to break the record. WWE, of course, denies this. And several months later, the Pope also drew over 93,000 people, so it is possible that that the Pontiac Silverdome could physically hold that many people. But without first-hand, concrete documentation, we'll probably never know the truth for sure. Is this urban legend true? Unknown, but most likely not
Two Different Wrestlers Portrayed Kane
This was nearly identical to the Ultimate Warrior urban legend, only this time, it concerned Kane. Somehow, word got around that two different people played Kane full-time: one while he was masked and the other after he was unmasked. Conspiracy theorists analyzed the two Kanes' contrasting body types to support their supposition. And as with Warrior's rumor, this is not true, at all. Aside from short-lived exceptions, which were exposed as impostors or inferiors in their respective storylines, Kane has always been performed by one man, Glenn Jacobs. And as for the differing body type? Jacobs aged! No one can be expected to maintain the same build and the same musculature over a 20-year career. But fans did have reason to distrust wrestlers with masks and makeup on their faces. Vince McMahon owned the legal rights to gimmicks, which meant he could replace the performers if he wanted to. Doink the Clown, for example, was originally performed by Matt Osborne, and Ray Apollo replaced Osborne in 1993. Is this urban legend true? No
Ric Flair Had 25 World Title Reigns
According to WWE, Ric Flair and John Cena are tied for the record number of world title reigns: 16 reigns apiece. Many Cena storylines are built around this premise; all he needs is one more title reign to be the winningest champion in wrestling history. But according to wrestling statisticians, this doesn't hold up. There's a Reddit thread that has an excellent summary of this conundrum; including his NWA, WCW, and WWE title reigns, Flair actually has 19 world titles. Add in six more world title reigns from smaller, less prestigious promotions, and that brings the total to 25. So whenever Cena does 'break the record' and clinch his 17th world title reign? He's actually got a ways to go before he can call himself the greatest. To be the man, you gotta beat the man. WOOOOOOO!! Is this urban legend true? Yes
Wrestling Is Fake
We're only half-kidding with this last one. But it's getting old. How many times do we have to deal with this refrain from endless haters: "You know it's fake, right? First of all: It's not fake. It hurts when you toss yourself off the roof of a steel cage, even if you brace your fall. And a punch to the face, delivered at 30% power, is still a punch to the face. Let's put a finer point on it than "fake." Professional wrestling is scripted and pre-determined; it's a postmodern, theatrical presentation. And everyone is in on it. No one, outside of the young children, thinks this is legitimate competition, and no adult has thought that way since the late '80s. Of course, fans suspend their disbelief. But we know that none of it is real. Well, except for the Undertaker's urn. That's real. Is this urban legend true? Mixture of yes and no
By Mat Elfring on Mar 31, 2018 04:22 pm
Wrestlemania, WWE's biggest event of the year, is right around the corner. It's coming to the WWE Network and PPV on Sunday, April 8. Fans should get prepared for an all-day affair as 2017's Wrestlemania 33 was six and a half hours long. This year's show will take place at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in the city of New Orleans. Aside from the main card, Wrestlemania weekend will also consist of the Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday--with both Kid Rock and Mark Henry, among others, being inducted--NXT Takeover on Saturday, and Wrestlemania itself on Sunday. At the time of this writing, a Kickoff Show has not been announced, but you can expect one to start two hours prior to Wrestlemania 34 at 5 PM ET/2 PM PT, much like last year's Mania event. While the match card has not been finalized, the PPV is looking pretty full already, and there are still championships that need to be defended and main event stars that need a place on the card. The newest addition to this year's PPV is the Women's Battle Royal match, which will most likely appear on the Kickoff Show with the Men's Battle Royal. Originally, the women's match was named the Fabulous Moolah Memorial Battle Royal, but WWE changed the name due to some controversy. There have been a lot of rumors as to which stars will be on the final card, but as the weeks go on, we will only be discussing matches confirmed by the WWE, including where recently cleared Daniel Bryan fits into all of this. Keep checking back up until Wrestlemania 34 as we'll also have pieces fully discussing each of the matches at the PPV. For now, here are our predictions for the event. - On March 21, Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens was removed from the card, but we expect them to be involved in a match with Daniel Bryan, which should be announced in the upcoming weeks.
Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal
As of this writing, only the tag team The Revival have been announced for the Andre The Giant Battle Royal. However, the winners for the past two years have been newer talent in the company. I have a feeling we will see that tradition continue. While this prediction may change as stars gets announced for this match, I'm giving the win to Tye Dillinger, as he's a guy who needs and deserves a push. He's too talented to be on the backburner. Our prediction: Tye Dillinger wins
Women's Battle Royal
Much like the Men's Battle Royal, the newly-named Women's Battle Royal has yet to announce any participants. More than likely, it will also appear on the Kickoff Show as well. There are a lot of women in WWE that are more than deserving of a big push. However, since losing the Smackdown Women's Championship, Becky Lynch has been on the short end of the stick. She's been in the background for most stories she's involved with and endures countless losses in the ring. I'm giving the win to her simply because she deserves to be in the main event picture again. Our prediction: Becky Lynch wins
Cedric Alexander vs. Mustafa Ali
(For the Cruiserweight Championship) Finally, the match for the Cruiserweight title has been set, as Cedric Alexander takes on his friend and ally Mustafa Ali at Wrestlemania. No matter who wins, this is going to be an incredible match, as these two men are going to put on a clinic. This is the time for Ali to be in the spotlight. I'm giving the win to Ali but not just because he's a Chicago guy, like myself. He's been consistent in the ring, and his matches are incredibly exciting. Our prediction: Mustafa Ali
Randy Orton (c) vs. Bobby Roode vs. Jinder Mahal vs. Rusev
(For the United States Championship) On the March 27 episode of Smackdown, Rusev entered the battle for the U.S. Championship, which was previously a triple threat. Before Rusev's inclusion, this match was uninteresting, as it was merely a continuation of two mediocre storylines, both of which involved Randy Orton. With Rusev a part of this Wrestlemania match, I see him picking up the win. He's truly over with the crowd, and if WWE wants to elevate this title, it needs to be around Rusev's waist and also needs some new contenders in the picture for the Bulgarian Brute to face. Our prediction: Rusev wins
The Bar (c) vs. Braun Strowman & An Unnamed Partner
(For the Raw Tag Team Championship) While the idea of Braun Strowman being a lone tag team champion is hilarious, there was no way that was going to happen. So now, Strowman will have a yet-to-be-named partner to take on The Bar. Raw's tag team division is a mess, and this match does not help. In order for the Monday night show to save face and get back on track, The Bar needs to win; otherwise, it will be a complete joke. As much as I love everything about Braun Strowman--the walking Looney Tunes character--he should not win this one. Our prediction: The Bar wins
Daniel Bryan & Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
Finally, Daniel Bryan's Wrestlemania match has been announced, and it's exactly what fans expected. The build between the four men has been going on for months, and now that Bryan is medically cleared to wrestle, this match can finally happen. The idea of him losing because he's rusty and failing the WWE Universe is just as intriguing, but at the end of the day, I'm giving the win to Bryan. It just makes more sense. Our prediction: Daniel Bryan & Shane McMahon win
The Miz (c) vs. Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins
(For the Intercontinental Championship) As previously mentioned, Daniel Bryan is cleared to wrestle, and I would love for this match to be replaced by one between The Miz and Bryan. However, until there's an official confirmation to what Bryan's plans are, we have Miz taking on Finn Balor and Seth Rollins, which should be a fantastic battle. However, considering that the Miz is exceptionally close to breaking another Intercontinental Championship reign record, I'm thinking he'll retain the title, only to lose it a couple months later. Our prediction: The Miz wins
The Usos (c) vs. The New Day vs. The Bludgeon Brothers
(For the Smackdown Tag Team Championships) Apparently, kayfabe isn't dead as Xavier Woods doesn't have a broken back, even after his beatdown from The Bludgeon Brothers at the Fastlane PPV. Now, the Brothers will take on the Usos and New Day at Wrestlemania for the tag titles. Every part of me wants to go with The Bludgeon Brothers winning this one. However, this match feels like a push towards a longer rivalry between the three teams, so I'm giving the win to The New Day, but it won't be a clean one. Our prediction: The New Day wins
Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Nia Jax
(For the Raw Women's Championship) Things took a turn recently in the relationship between Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss, as the Raw Women's Champion was caught talking smack about her best friend. A title match between the two has been building since Bliss first won the belt, and there will be nothing more satisfying than Jax finally winning the championship. For that reason alone--the sweet taste of revenge--I'm giving the win to Jax. Our prediction: Nia Jax wins
Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Roman Reigns
(For the Universal Championship) Reigns has called out Universal Champion Brock Lesnar for being a part-time wrestler, and that got "The Big Dog" suspended, which later led to Lesnar attacking him. Since Lesnar has been champion, I've unsuccessfully predicted him to lose on numerous occasions. And I'm going to do it again. It's time for the champion to be a full-timer once again, and while Roman Reigns may not be the top dog we want, we strangely need him. Our prediction: Reigns wins If you want to know more about Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns, check out our breakdown feature about their match.
Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey vs. Triple H & Stephanie McMahon
Well, I was hoping for Rousey to reteam with The Rock, but I guess Kurt Angle is a good teammate. The newly signed, former MMA fighter takes on Stephanie McMahon and Triple H in her first bout. This is a no-brainer. WWE will not have Rousey lose her first match. Our prediction: Angle & Rousey win
AJ Styles (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
(For the WWE Championship) Sure, Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles had an epic match in New Japan Pro Wrestling at Wrestle Kingdom 10, but the average WWE fan didn't see it and more than likely won't go looking to watch it. Just like WWE did with Ultimate Deletion, fans will get WWE's version of the classic Nakamura/Styles match. However, this will be just the start of the war between these two. I suspect this will be a long-running rivalry with the championship getting passed between the wrestlers. For the first battle, I'm giving the win to Nakamura. Our prediction: Nakamura wins
Charlotte vs. Asuka
(For the Smackdown Women's Championship) Charlotte has been a dominant champion and Asuka hasn't lost a singles match since coming to WWE and NXT. These are two of the most dominant superstars on the entire WWE roster, and this is a dream match for wrestling fans. There are very few people that could break Asuka's streak, but Charlotte may be one of them. While I see this match going either way, I don't think it's time for the streak to end, so Asuka will get the win after an intense battle. Our prediction: Asuka wins Secondary prediction: Carmella cashes in her Money in the Bank contract and loses If you want to know more about Charlotte vs. Asuka, check out our breakdown feature about their match.
By Kallie Plagge on Mar 31, 2018 03:01 am
Best of the Best
Xbox One launched over four years ago, and a ton of games have come out in that time. As such, it can be hard to sort through all those games and decide what to play. Luckily, we at GameSpot have played tons of Xbox One games over the years. In this gallery, we've collected the best Xbox One games so far. This includes many of the games that have received an 8 or higher on GameSpot, and we've prioritized games that were nominated for our Best Xbox One Game list in the years those games released. For more Xbox One games, see our roundups of the best cheap games on Xbox One, and make sure to check out our gallery of the Xbox One exclusive games confirmed for 2018 as well as the biggest Xbox One games of 2018 for everything coming to the console.
Monster Hunter: World -- 8/10
"Ever since the title was first announced last year, it was clear that Capcom was gunning for something grander than Monster Hunter Generations. It has succeeded, and this is likely the biggest and best that the franchise has ever been. It's not just the comparative depth of the narrative; it also boasts almost seamless integration between combat systems that were previously incomprehensible for amateurs. The Monster Hunter formula has definitely honed its claws, and all the above factors play their part in making Monster Hunter World a meaningful evolution for the series at large." [read the full review] -- Ginny Woo
Celeste -- 9/10
"It's a testament to convincing writing and ingenious design that after playing Celeste I felt like I'd been on the same journey as Madeline. Her struggle is one made easy to empathize with, her low points painful to watch, and her high notes exhilarating to experience. Her tale is delicately told and beautifully illustrated, confidently coalescing with the satisfying, empowering game it lies within. Not bad for a game about climbing a mountain." [read the full review] -- Oscar Dayus, Staff Writer
Fortnite -- no score
The exploding popularity of the battle royale game mode (where 100 players fight in a single-elimination deathmatch) reached new heights with Fortnite. It's the game nearly everyone is talking about and over 45 million have played. Fortnite strikes a great balance between being accessible and fostering a high skill ceiling. The core gameplay is simple enough; scavenge for weapons and items while gathering resources to build. The game feels fast and loose and a lot less like its military sim counterparts, but still offers the intense, high-stakes combat the genre is known for. It's free-to-play and has an inviting aesthetic akin to a Sunday morning cartoon. However, players soon realize the depth of Fortnite's construction mechanics and how the few structures you can build have to be pieced together in clever ways to stand a chance of winning. -- Michael Higham, Associate Editor
What Remains of Edith Finch -- 9/10
"Developer Giant Sparrow managed to strike the delicate balance between joy and sorrow in 2012's The Unfinished Swan, but What Remains of Edith Finch transcends even the latent sadness of that game, finding the beauty--even sometimes the fun--in what's always fundamentally a tragedy. It's not often that a game's plot slips past the bitterness of grief to finally get to the acceptance, but that's the triumph in What Remains of Edith Finch. Ultimately, if the game has any resemblance of a moral, it's that the bravest, most beautiful thing every one of us does is choose to keep going, despite knowing what's coming." [read the full review] -- Justin Clark
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus -- 9/10
"The New Colossus never lets you forget who and why you're fighting. Nazi brutality is on full display, from the blown-out, irradiated remains of Manhattan to each of the resistance members, who all carry mental scars if not physical ones. You're never given a chance between cutscenes, missions, and even downtime on the U-boat to lose sight of the Reich's cruelty. Wolfenstein's tense gameplay elevates this further by giving you the power to truly resist--and come out of each battle ready for another fight." [read the full review] -- Kallie Plagge, Associate Editor
Sonic Mania -- 9/10
"Sonic Mania methodically uses its sentimental appeal to great effect, but in the process, it heals the wounds inflicted by its most disappointing predecessors and surpasses the series' best with its smart and interpretive design. An excellent 2D platformer, Sonic Mania goes beyond expectations, managing to be not only a proper evolution of the series' iconic formula, but the best Sonic game ever made." [read the full review] -- Matt Espineli, Associate Editor
Cuphead -- 8/10
"Everything you've heard about Cuphead is true. It is a difficult side-scrolling shooter with relentless boss battles that demand rapid-fire actions and reactions. Think for too long, and you won't stand a chance against the game's toughest enemies. Battles may only last three minutes at most, but they feel far longer when you know that you can only absorb three hits before you have to start from scratch. When you are navigating your way around bullets, smaller enemies, and pitfalls, while simultaneously trying to damage your primary target, toppling Cuphead's imposing bosses is both a monumental and rewarding task." [read the full review] -- Peter Brown, Reviews Editor
Assassin's Creed Origins -- 7/10
"Assassin's Creed has undergone many changes in its long and storied history, and Origins feels like the first step in the start of a new journey. It has its fair share of problems, but the vision for its future is one worth pursuing." [read the full review] -- Alessandro Fillari, Editor
Stardew Valley -- 9/10
"On the surface, Stardew Valley is a game about farming, but there are more adventures awaiting curious players beyond cultivating a rich and bountiful garden. From mining and fishing to making friends and falling in love, Stardew Valley's Pelican Town is stuffed with rewarding opportunities. As modern day woes give way to pressing matters on the farm and within your newfound community, Stardew Valley's meditative activities often lead to personal reflection in the real world. It's a game that tugs at your curiosity as often as it does your heart." [read the full review] -- Mary Kish
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard -- 8/10
"By the end of the campaign, I was ready for the game to be over, but that's okay. RE7 ends just as it starts to outstay its welcome, and after the fact, I felt like I'd survived a truly harrowing journey. The boss fights may be slightly inconsistent and certain sections might drag after a while, but RE7 is still a remarkable success. It has a clear vision and executes it with impressive patience and precision. By returning to horror, Resident Evil has once again become something special." [read the full review] -- Scott Butterworth
Night in the Woods -- 9/10
"Both intensely personal and widely relatable, Night in the Woods doesn't just tell a story--it gracefully captures complex, often unpleasant feelings and experiences. From the quiet melancholy of doing nothing on a rainy day to the emotional vacuum of severe depression, I felt deeply, sometimes too deeply, while wandering through the cartoon-animal version of a small Midwestern town. Its witty writing and character development keep its crushing existential themes grounded, making Night in the Woods one of the most evocative games I've played in a long time." [read the full review] -- Kallie Plagge, Associate Editor
Overwatch -- 9/10
"Overwatch is an exercise in refined chaos. There are multitudes of layers hiding beneath the hectic surface, and they emerge, one after another, the more you play. This is a shooter that knows how to surprise, one that unfolds at a frantic pace, one that takes a handful of great ideas, and combines them into something spectacular." [read the full review] -- Mike Mahardy, Video Producer
Battlefield 1 -- 9/10
"EA DICE splendidly interprets the early 20th century as a world in technological transition while humanizing the war's participants through well crafted, albeit fictional, narrative vignettes. Combined with an enthralling multiplayer component, the overall result is the studio's best work since Battlefield: Bad Company 2." [read the full review] -- Miguel Concepcion
Titanfall 2 -- 9/10
"Titanfall 2 demonstrates a vitality that its predecessor couldn't. Whereas the first Titanfall kept up its breakneck pace throughout the entirety of every match, Titanfall 2 understands that sometimes, dialing things back for a few moments can make the long run much more enjoyable. In many ways, Titanfall 2 feels like the game Respawn should have made in 2013. It's a fantastic sequel. It's a fluid shooter. It's a spectacular game." [read the full review] -- Mike Mahardy, Video Producer
Dishonored 2 -- 8/10
"Any time I'm given a choice between stealth and action, I go stealth. I love the hold-your-breath tension of hoping a guard didn't spot you and the hard-earned triumph of executing a perfectly timed plan. Dishonored 2 delivers that sneaky satisfaction, arming you with stealth essentials like hiding bodies, peering through keyholes, and silent takedowns. But it's also an incredible engine for gleeful chaos, one so engrossing and amusing that I kind of accidentally beat the entire campaign raining hilarious, elaborate death on my enemies." [read the full review] -- Scott Butterworth
Forza Horizon 3 -- 9/10
"With Forza Horizon 3, Turn 10 and Playground Games affirm the series' status as the driving game for everyone. The new emphasis on off-road options isn't at the expense of traditional races, thanks to the sheer volume of activities. All the while, Playground Games' calculated kitchen-sink design philosophy and rich reward system persistently tempt you to explore beyond your comfort zone, whether it's gifting your first Ariel Nomad buggy or reminding you that stunt races can impress thousands of fans. Enhancing your own brand might feel like a strange motivation to hit the road, but pulling off sick e-drifts on a mile-long series of curves makes the PR work worthwhile." [read the full review] -- Miguel Concepcion
Inside -- 8/10
"This is a beautiful, haunting, and memorable game, a worthy follow-up to Limbo. Its puzzles, although rarely difficult, are engaging complements to the story. The real achievement of this game, though, is the way that it crafts its narrative: detailed environments convey the bizarre world that you travel through; introspective moments are filled with minimalist sound design and just the barest touches of music; and the things you must do to complete your journey force you to confront the realities of humanity, freedom, and existence." [read the full review] -- Alex Newhouse
Dark Souls III -- 8/10
"Dark Souls III is a game of valleys and peaks, down through dungeons and up over castle walls. It's a plummet into places we shouldn't be--an escape from places we don't belong. But of course, we fight our way through the darkness, and find our way out. There are a few stumbles along the way, but in the end, Dark Souls III is well worth the riveting climb." [read the full review] -- Mike Mahardy, Video Producer
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt -- 10/10
"Where the Witcher 2 sputtered to a halt, The Witcher 3 is always in a crescendo, crafting battle scenarios that constantly one-up the last, until you reach the explosive finale and recover in the glow of the game's quiet denouement. But while the grand clashes are captivating, it is the moments between conflicts, when you drink with the local clans and bask in a trobairitz's song, that are truly inspiring." [read the full review] -- Kevin VanOrd
Halo 5: Guardians -- 8/10
"Halo 5: Guardians is fueled by new ideas and propelled by some of the boldest changes to this storied franchise yet. Some of these changes fail, but others succeed, and although Halo 5 falters at times, it whisks us through black holes and across war torn tropical islands at a rapid pace. We can only surrender to its velocity." [read the full review] -- Mike Mahardy, Video Producer
Rise of the Tomb Raider -- 9/10
"Rise of the Tomb Raider's first shot pans over the vast, foreboding landscape we'll soon come to know. In many ways, it functions as a promise on the part of Crystal Dynamics: there are big things ahead of us. And at the end of Lara's journey, after we've seen her through this adventure, and experienced everything the world has to offer, it's clear that promise was kept." [read the full review] -- Mike Mahardy, Video Producer
Ori and the Blind Forest -- 9/10
"It consistently surprises you with new tricks: gravitational divergences, new ways to move through its spaces, and carefully designed levels that require you to think quickly and respond. It is not as snappy as, say, a typical Mario platformer, seeking instead a broader gameplay arc stretching across a single, interconnected world. It's a superb and thematically consistent approach that allows Ori and the Blind Forest to build joy on a bed of heartache, adding a new layer of mechanical complexity with each ray of hope." [read the full review] -- Kevin VanOrd
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain -- 10/10
"There has never been a game in the series with such depth to its gameplay, or so much volume in content. The best elements from the past games are here, and the new open-world gameplay adds more to love on top. When it comes to storytelling, there has never been a Metal Gear game that's so consistent in tone, daring in subject matter, and so captivating in presentation. The Phantom Pain may be a contender for one of the best action games ever made, but is undoubtedly the best Metal Gear game there is." [read the full review] -- Peter Brown, Reviews Editor
Fallout 4 -- 9/10
"Fallout 4 is an engrossing game that lures you in with mystery and the promise of adventure. Its wretched wasteland can be captivating, and you never know what odd person or settlement lies around the next bend. Fallout 4 uses its dark world as a canvas for exciting combat and gripping stories, and when you dig deeper into its post-nuclear-apocalypse version of Boston--defending yourself from violent scavengers and using your wits to climb social ladders--you become attached to the new you, and ultimately invested in the fate of your new world." [read the full review] -- Peter Brown, Reviews Editor
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor -- 8/10
"This is a great game in its own right, narratively disjointed but mechanically sound, made up of excellent parts pieced together in excellent ways. I already knew what future lay in store for Middle-earth as I played Shadow of Mordor; I'm hoping that my own future might one day bring another Lord of the Rings adventure as stirring as this one." [read the full review] -- Kevin VanOrd
Dragon Age: Inquisition -- 9/10
"Inquisition's characters and world recall the grand gestures of the original Dragon Age, even though the game as a whole is so structurally different to its predecessors. It offers the thrill of discovery and the passion of camaraderie. It features a glee club called The Sing-Quisition, and a dwarf with writer's block. It establishes connections with its world in big ways and small, with the sight of a titanous temple and the smirk of an Orlesian commander in love. Dragon Age: Inquisition is a wonderful game and a lengthy pilgrimage to a magical world with vital thematic ties to one we already know." [read the full review] -- Kevin VanOrd
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition -- 8/10
"Lara herself is so well crafted that I grew attached to her exploits and was sad to say goodbye when the credits rolled. And the exquisite visual design is so breathtaking that I continually found myself staring at the scenery instead of pushing onward. Tomb Raider is a great reinvention of this enduring franchise that made me eager to see where Lara goes in her future." [read the full review] -- Tom McShea
Forza Motorsport 5 -- 9/10
"All of this combined makes Forza Motorsport 5 an outstanding improvement to an already excellent racing franchise. It's far more than just a great racing sim, or a gorgeous showcase for the types of feats the Xbox One hardware is capable of. This is a game built on the romantic thrill of motorsport in all its forms, and that love for its subject matter is all but impossible to resist." [read the full review] -- Shaun McInnis
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag -- 9/10
"There's an incredible scope to what you can do in Black Flag, with a level of harmony between its component parts that encourages you to try it all, and a story that keeps you invested throughout the whole thing. If there was ever any question that Assassin's Creed needed something ambitious to get the series back on track, Black Flag is that game and then some." [read the full review] -- Shaun McInnis
By Kallie Plagge on Mar 31, 2018 03:01 am
High Quality, Low Price
Xbox One has been around for over four years now, but the 4K-capable Xbox One X has only been around for a few months. Whether you're a day-one adopter or new to Xbox, it can be difficult to sift through the store and figure out what to play. And yes, there are jokes about how Xbox One doesn't have any games, but that's not true! There's plenty to play on Xbox, and your options are good even if you're on a budget. From newer indies to discounted AAA games, we've picked out the best games you can get for $20 or under (around £16) on the Xbox store. This only reflects digital prices; there are games you can get on sale at other retailers, but these games are consistently this affordable. For more games on a budget, see our roundups of the best cheap games on PS4 and on Switch. And make sure to check out our gallery of the Xbox One exclusive games confirmed for 2018 as well as the biggest Xbox One games of 2018 for everything coming to the console.
Celeste -- $20 / £16
Celeste may look like another pixelated platformer with a youthful protagonist, but it quickly transforms into a brutal, tightly orchestrated gauntlet of death that only the best players can master. It challenges you to traverse spike-lined caverns with a modest selection of skills, with alternate pathways that push your mettle even further as you strive to acquire every last hidden item. You will die hundreds of times, but with quick restarts and a catchy soundtrack, there's never any downtime to wallow in defeat, only a new opportunity to show the game what you're made of. The action and difficulty curve are accompanied by a surprisingly engaging story that adds just the right amount of context to make your arduous journey feel justified, and to solidify Celeste as one of the biggest surprises so far of 2018. | Peter Brown
Inside -- $20 / £16
Playdead games won the admiration of its now-large audience when it released Limbo, a slow-paced puzzle-platformer that relied heavily on the use of light and negative space. For the studio's follow-up, Inside, it delivered yet another somber world to explore. It presents a tale that unfolds effortlessly before your eyes as you advance from one scene to the next, with nary a word from any of its characters. Through the power of inference and suggestion, you realize the infiltration of a malicious organization and bear witness to its sinister deeds. Inside will test your ability to think creatively, but it's the narrative--and the way it's delivered--that makes it a game worth playing. Inside reinforces the notion that, sometimes, less is more. | Peter Brown
The Sexy Brutale -- $20 / £16
The Sexy Brutale is a quirky little puzzle game co-developed by Tequila Works, the studio behind beautiful adventure game Rime. Its essentially Groundhog Day: The Game--you play through the same day over and over, but with each runthrough you learn more about the creepy mansion you find yourself in. After seeing one character shoot another, you might go and find the gun and prevent the bloody murder by replacing real bullets with blanks. A number of these murders are interconnected--solving one puzzle might prevent one murder, but that could change another branch of time elsewhere in the house. There's no way of preventing every murder in one go, but discovering and tinkering with the different timelines is where the fun lies.And with it being playable on Switch, you can live the same day countless times anywhere you want. Suffice it to say, we've played it over and over again--groundhog day indeed. | Matt Espineli
Halo 5: Guardians -- $20 / £15
Halo 5: Guardians is the biggest and boldest Halo game ever. The campaign tells an intriguing story where Master Chief is could potentially be the bad guy, and another team is tasked to hunt him down. Though the overall narrative did not exactly pay off, the campaign pushed the franchise forward with its more open level design that offered a new feeling of freedom. On the multiplayer side, Halo 5 is arguably the series' strongest offering to date. The core modes like Arena are there and have never been better, and Forge mode has allowed modders to create some truly incredible creations. But what's more exciting is the 24-player Warzone mode, which gives Halo's multiplayer a sense of scale that it never had before--and it's a lot of fun. At $20 (or free with an Xbox Game Pass subscription), Halo 5 is absolutely worth checking out. | Eddie Makuch
Crypt of the NecroDancer -- $15 / £12
Roguelikes (or at least roguelike elements) have been one of the most popular trends in gaming over the past handful of years, but few have taken as interesting of an approach to the genre as Crypt of the NecroDancer. It tasks players with navigating a dungeon to the beat of the music. Rather than simply move in the direction you wish or attack the enemy that's in your path, you and your enemies' actions are tied directly to the (always excellent) soundtrack. It's essential that you always be doing something--not taking an action at the next beat resets your combo, meaning you'll earn less gold or deal less damage, depending on the items you've acquired. Particularly as the music becomes more fast-paced, this lends a real sense of tension and excitement to every moment: you need to constantly be considering your next action while accounting for how nearby enemies will react to your movements. It's an experience with few points of comparison, but it's nonetheless one that you'll certainly want to try. | Chris Pereira
Enter the Gungeon -- $15 / £11
Being a roguelike-style shooter, Enter the Gungeon naturally draws comparisons to games like The Binding of Isaac and Nuclear Throne. And while that does offer a decent starting point for understanding what to expect, Enter the Gungeon manages to rise above being a pale imitator. It feels fantastic, with a dodge-roll ability that allows you to satisfyingly evade damage with a well-timed use. There are ridiculous weapons, such as those that fire bees or a gun that shoots guns which themselves fire bullets. The well-crafted procedurally generated environments help to keep each run feeling fresh, as do the wide variety of items and secrets to uncover along the way. And co-op support makes for an especially fun, chaotic experience (although it's unfortunate that the second player isn't able to play as the different characters that the main player has access to). The entire game is also overflowing with personality and color, making for an experience that is as fun to look at as is to play. | Chris Pereira
Stardew Valley -- $15 / £12
Originally released on PC, hit farming sim Stardew Valley has made its way to console with very few compromises (aside from the lack of mods, if that's something you care about). It's an excellent take on the Harvest Moon formula, with a laid-back small-town atmosphere, tons of work to do, and bachelors and bachelorettes to date. But the valley also has its mysteries, and the added intrigue makes it easy to pick up, hard to put down, and rewarding day after day. Even though it has nothing to do with the Harvest Moon franchise, it's easily the best "Harvest Moon" game in years. | Kallie Plagge
Sonic Mania -- $20 / £16
Created by members of the Sonic fan-hack community under Sega's watch, Sonic Mania exudes passion and reverence in its recreation of nostalgic visuals, sounds, and level designs. But the game isn't content with senselessly regurgitating the past; rather, it expands upon the familiar with new ideas of its own and delivers plenty of inventive concepts that diversify and build upon the series' fast-paced level design. Sonic Mania is smart and interpretive in its approach, leveraging the strengths of its design and visuals to craft not only the best Sonic game ever made, but an amazing platforming experience overall. If you've enjoyed Sonic at any point in your life, you owe it to yourself to play Sonic Mania. And even if you're not a longtime fan, the fast-paced platforming on display is a fantastic introduction to Sega's beloved blue blur. | Matt Espineli
Overcooked -- $17 / £13
Overcooked is like a Mario Party mini-game blown up into its own standalone experience in the best way possible. It's a game that becomes exponentially better when played with at least one other person. What starts out as a relatively tame game where you help each other chop some vegetables and get them served on a plate becomes a frantic rush to put out fires, get ingredients distributed between two moving vehicles, and other ridiculous scenarios. | Chris Pereira
Thimbleweed Park -- $20 / £17
Point-and-click adventure games have experienced something of a renaissance in recent years, and Thimbleweed Park--from adventure game legends Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick--is a prime example. The X-Files-inspired journey puts you in the role of two FBI agents that bear more than a passing resemblance to the classic TV show as you relive the glory days of adventure games. Playing on any console means dealing with a gamepad-based control scheme (as opposed to the more natural mouse controls on PC), but Switch makes up for this with touchscreen support when played in handheld mode. | Chris Pereira
Thumper -- $20 / £16
Although it's a game arguably best-suited for VR, Thumper is an incredible experience however you play it. It provides a unique blend of rhythm-based gameplay and action--what the developer calls "rhythm violence"--that provides a far more intense version of the basic mechanics you see in other rhythm games. With an incredible soundtrack and levels well-suited to chasing high scores, Thumper is a game with the potential to stick around on your home screen for a long time. | Chris Pereira
Axiom Verge -- $20 / £16
Axiom Verge is another take on the Metroidvania style, but it distinguishes itself through its wide variety of weapons and tools--most notably, the Address Disruptor, which affects the environment and each enemy type in different ways. It's also a game with an impressive sense of scale and no shortage of secrets to uncover, encouraging multiple playthroughs. Add in an excellent soundtrack and tantalizing story, and there's a lot to like here. | Chris Pereira
Bastion -- $15 / £12
Supergiant Games' debut, Bastion, set the stage for everything else the developer created. This isometric action RPG tells a gripping story of a world destroyed by a catastrophic event referred to as The Calamity in the city of Caelondia. You control Bastion's protagonist, The Kid, who is led by the charismatic narrator named Rucks in a journey to piece the city back together. Very few survivors are left, and hostile monsters litter Caelondia, which is the impetus to put a varied arsenal of melee and projectile weapons to use. The Bastion acts as a sort of home base that slowly comes together as you progress and collect cores at the end of each level.Rucks' deep, instantly recognizable voice (that of Logan Cunningham) adds a level of grandeur to the story that's superbly supported by a truly remarkable soundtrack (by Darren Korb) that's vaguely Celtic, Western, and trip-hop all at the same time. Bastion's fantastical hand-painted art style (by Jen Zee) breathes life into a world nearly devoid of it, torn apart by a conflict of different cultures. These elements came to be staples of Supergiant's work, and Bastion is still a sterling example of the team's ability to craft a game that's both fun and heartfelt. | Michael Higham
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain -- $20 (not discounted in UK)
You may have heard that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the final Metal Gear game to feature the involvement of series creator Hideo Kojima, has flaws. The last chunk of the game involves replaying earlier missions with small tweaks, and certain late-game story content was consigned to a special edition bonus feature. Despite all of that, The Phantom Pain stands as a seminal example of what an open-world action game can be. While still retaining much of what makes a Metal Gear game so distinct, it presents players with a vast open world and the ability to tackle its challenges in many, many ways.The mechanics of Ground Zeroes have been fine-tuned, and you can leverage them in a multitude of ways as you take part in the game's consistently excellent, thrilling missions. Just as enjoyable are the emergent hijinks you'll encounter along the way, and all of this is made better by the consistent progression of building up your own personal army. Although it's undoubtedly an experience best played after playing making your way through the prior games, The Phantom Pain is a game that everyone should ultimately try. It holds up now, even after a few years; all that's changed is the price tag. | Chris Pereira
By Array on Mar 31, 2018 01:36 am
There's a rather substantial amount of fun Easter eggs in Far Cry 5. A lot of what you find are generally references to past entries in the series, but there are even subtle nods to Ubisoft's other franchises, as well as a slew of pop culture references. With so many fun secrets to discover in the tumultuous region of Hope County, Montana, we've highlighted 10 of the most intriguing Easter eggs. Discover any Easter eggs that you don't see here? Feel free to let us know about them in the comments below. If you're interested in Far Cry 5 guides, be sure to check out our feature highlighting nine tips we wish we knew before starting. You can also watch our video guide discussing general beginners tips to follow. But if you are more fascinated by Far Cry 5's Arcade Mode, then watch us discuss how to use it in our guide video. Far Cry 5 is out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Be sure to read our Far Cry 5 review for our full thoughts about the game. In other news, Ubisoft recently announced Far Cry 5's Season Pass, which takes you to settings like Mars and the Vietnam War. We also recently learned more about the game's microtransactions and the game's single-player campaign playtime.
Bobblehead For Vaas And Other Characters
When you purchase a standard vehicle, you're able to customize it in small ways. One of the options allows you to add a Hawaiian Bobblehead onto your vehicle's dashboard. After you make your purchase, you'll notice that the Hawaiian Bobble head is none other than Far Cry 3 villain Vaas rocking a hula skirt and ukulele. If you're hankering for more cool Hawaiian Bobbleheads, you can also get ones of Far Cry 4 villain Pagan Min and a Rabbid by spending Ubisoft Club points.
Far Cry Primal Cave Paintings
South West of Rae-Rae's Pumpkin Farm in the Holland Valley is a location known as Frobisher's Cave. The walls within are covered in primitive cave paintings--no doubt this is a reference to series spin-off Far Cry Primal.
A Blood Dragon Movie
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is one of the series' finest entries, so it's great to see it getting some well-deserved love in Far Cry 5 with an entire side mission devoted to referencing it. If you go to the Grimalkin Radon Mine in the Henbane River, there's a side mission involving a shoot for Blood Dragon 3, a movie helmed by a narcissistic director named Guy Marvel. While the side mission makes for a fun distraction, the best part about the whole excursion is getting to listen to Blood Dragon's fantastic synth-laced soundtrack. It's funny to see Far Cry 5 make fourth-wall-breaking references like this, but it doesn't stop there. The game even makes a joke about that awful Far Cry movie directed by Uwe Boll in 2008. Splendid job, Ubisoft.
Outfits Referencing The Past
There are outfits you can wear that references past Far Cry and Ubisoft games. For example, completing the Blood Dragon side mission unlocks the Omega outfit, which dresses you up like a Cyborg Soldier from Blood Dragon. In addition, there's a Far Cry Primal outfit and an outfit that lets you look like Castle from Rainbow 6 Siege, which you can unlock by spending your Ubisoft Club points.
It's Red Balloon
Surprisingly, there's a reference to the famous Stephen King novel, It. Pennywise's signature red balloon can be seen near an open sewer entrance. If you want to find it, head to the Hope County Jail Bus, which is West of Fall's End in the Holland Valley. Follow the river a short distance south and you can't miss it. All credit goes to TassadarHD on Reddit for finding this reference.
Davenport Farm
Out of all the Easter eggs in the game, this one is the most fascinating and obscure. Last year, PC Gamer editor James Davenport wrote an open letter to Ubisoft asking them to put his dad, a born Montanan, into the game. Davenport's letter wasn't serious, but lo and behold, there's actually a location in Holland Valley called Davenport Farm. If you search the premises, there's not much to allude to Davenport's dad until you find a note which reads: "It is a well known fact that bovines are the most erotic animal on God's green Earth. Sometimes I sneak out here, so I can watch bulls have sex with the cows. Please don't tell my father." This could be a massive coincidence, but if the farm is a indeed reference to Davenport's father, then Ubisoft has completely trolled Davenport.
Climbing Towers Joke
While not exactly hidden, this Easter egg alludes to the infamous tower-climbing structure of Ubisoft's open-world games--which has actually been removed from Far Cry 5. It occurs during the game's tutorial when you're made to climb a radio tower. By the time you make it halfway up, you'll receive a radio transmission from Dutch telling you to not worry and that you won't have to climb towers anymore.
Secret Ending
Like Far Cry 4, there's a secret ending you can unlock during the opening sequences of the game. Follow the Sheriff and Marshall into the church and keep playing out the scene until you're instructed to arrest Joseph Seed. When prompted to press the X/A button to handcuff him, simply do nothing instead and wait out the scene until the secret ending triggers.
Firewatch Reference
There's a reference to indie studio Campo Santo's well-received debut, Firewatch. It appears in the form of a phone voicemail that you can listen to in the fire lookout tower on Dutch's island. The caller addresses the fire lookout as Henry, which is the name of the main protagonist in Firewatch.
All The Assets In Arcade Mode
Far Cry Arcade is a new mode where you can participate in co-op challenges and PvP multiplayer. However, the catch is that all the places you play in are created using the game's robust map editor, which gives you access to not only all the assets in Far Cry 5 but other Ubisoft games as well. For example, you have access to stuff like Far Cry 4's Himalayan statues, Watch Dogs' urban buildings, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's pirate treasure, Far Cry Primal's tribal huts, and even Assassin's Creed Unity's French architecture. With so many assets at the community's disposal, we can only imagine the crazy sort of maps people will come up with.
Donald Trump Pee Tape
While Far Cry 5's narrative mostly avoids connections to modern day events and politics, it seems the devs at Ubisoft couldn't help but sneak in a real-world reference to Donald Trump in the side mission "Patriot Acts." Special Agent Willis Huntley, who is a returning character from both Far Cry 3 and 4, tasks you with removing a tape filled with sensitive information. As the mission progresses you learn the tape is being held by undercover Russians and it has something to do with liquid? If you haven't figured it out already, Huntley is not so subtlety referring to the infamous Donald Trump pee tape.
By GameSpot Staff on Mar 31, 2018 01:31 am
What We Wish We Knew
When you first pop into the free, competitive multiplayer Battle Royale version of Fortnite on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and iOS--without first buying its cooperative counterpart--you'll find a lot that doesn't get explained. Fortnite: Battle Royale offers no tutorial to guide you through its essential mechanics, so it's up to players to discover its nuances, mostly through rigorous trial and error, spectating other players, and dying. The Battle Royale mode also features a whole bunch of guns, materials, structures, and items to learn about and understand, as well as how they interact with each other and the game's systems. Fortnite is full of little tricks and idiosyncrasies that aren't immediately obvious, especially with its emphasis on gathering resources and building structures as part of its combat. Once you know them, however, they'll make you a much more effective player. Here are the 12 things we wish we knew about Fortnite: Battle Royale before we started playing. If you're new to Fornite: Battle Royale, check out our beginner's tips guide and the six biggest mistakes that beginners make, but if you're more advanced, be sure to read our advanced tips guide. You can also check out our video guide on how to build more effectively. Fortnite: Battle Royale is available as a free download for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The mode supports up to 100 players attempting to be the last person or team standing as they hunt other players and avoid being killed themselves. For more on the differences between Fortnite: Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, check out our in-depth feature discussing the two games and what sets them apart from one another. You can also check out details on Fortnite's recent Season 3 update, as well as information regarding Season 3 rewards.
Aiming Matters When Gathering Resources
Whenever you start hammering away at a wall, tree, or pile of rocks to gather resources, you'll notice that a weird blue icon appears on the thing you're smacking. That little marker turns gathering resources into something more active than just holding a button down for a few seconds. You want to move your crosshair over each new blue icon with every swing of your pickaxe. This earns you the most resources you can get with each hit, and increases your harvesting efficiency--which means you'll grab more building materials and leave yourself less vulnerable.
The Shotgun Is Highly Effective
It shouldn't always be your main weapon, but it's a pretty good idea for you to have a shotgun on-hand whenever possible--even a weak one. Fortnite's shotguns have decent range and a big spread (at least for the time being), which means they're great catch-all guns for dropping already-injured targets. Time and again, we've seen players use shotguns as the clean-up hitter of their arsenal; they might fire a rocket in the vicinity of an enemy to knock out their shield, or hit them with a rifle as they close the gap, but the shotgun is often the weapon that closes the deal. Don't be afraid to use it at close- to mid-range. And aim high, because headshots can be very painful.
Crouch And Shoot
A lot of the guns in Fortnite aren't quite as accurate as in some other shooters, and that can make for tough fights, especially when you engage players at long-range. It's possible to increase your guns' accuracy in a lot of cases, though. Whenever possible to do so safely, keep still and crouch--it'll increase your accuracy, helping you take down other players more quickly. That doesn't mean you should stop dodging and stand still in the open during a heated battle... but if you spot someone on the move and are thinking about opening fire on them, you'll have an advantage if you get low and keep still.
Build To Save Yourself From Falling
Fall damage is a big deal in Fortnite. High locations are good places to set up and watch for other players, and when you get good at building, going vertical and taking the high ground is a very effective strategy. Falling off those places can be deadly, though, since shields don't absorb fall damage. Always remember that you can save yourself by using the build menu to quickly drop structures beneath you as you fall; so long as you're close enough to the wall of a tower or a cliff, you can instantly build a floor or ramp beneath you that can stop your descent and save you from certain doom. Use this trick to quickly make your escape from fortifications when someone starts shooting at you with rockets, or when you need to descend a cliff in a hurry. It's a lot easier than trying to find items to heal yourself.
Shield Potions Are Essential
Finding good guns is one thing... but really, the best way to make it through any given fight is to find shield potions. Fortnite doesn't effectively explain how its health system works, but the handiest thing to know is that blue shield potions make you more resilient to incoming fire, and they make a world of difference in any given firefight. As you loot in Fortnite, always drink shield potions right away to fire up a shield immediately, and stockpile the potions that you can't use immediately. They're worth carrying around; your character can drink a small shield potion in about two seconds, which is just fast enough to get you back on your feet as you duck around a corner or build a few quick walls to escape from an enemy.
You Have An Inventory Screen
It's not immediately apparent if you haven't played Fortnite's Save the World mode, but you have more than just the small inventory rundown at the bottom of your screen. You can access a much bigger, more detailed inventory menu--find it by pressing Up on the directional pad if you're playing with a controller, or "I" on a keyboard--and it shows everything you're carrying, including how much ammo of each type you have. The inventory menu gives you rundowns of your guns' statistics, including effective range and damage per second, which can help you decide what to hold onto and what to toss. That's the other handy thing about the inventory menu: It offers you the option to drop weapons onto the ground. Use that to hand off guns, items, or ammo to your teammates, or just to organize your inventory so that you always play with guns and items of specific types in the same slots. The repetition of knowing where you keep heals or certain guns can make it a lot easier for you to switch in a hurry.
Use Bushes And Trees For Concealment
Fortnite's cartoonish art style means that player silhouettes are pretty obvious at a distance--especially when you add in the dust trails left by sprinting across open ground. But you can find a few good places to hide, especially if you're smart about it. While many bushes are solid, you can slip inside some of them, which mostly conceals your character and make you tough to spot at a distance. The same is true of many pine trees, which you can generally duck beneath; these offer decent concealment, especially from above. Stealth can take you a long way if you're patient and don't move too much when sneaking up on people. By the same token, don't ignore those light green bushes around you. Smart players treat them like they might always be concealing someone, especially in the endgame of a match. Putting a shot or two into a bush will quickly reveal if anyone is hiding in it: Watch for the blue flash of their shield taking damage.
Throw Up Some Walls To Protect Downed Teammates
Once you hear it, it seems like a no-brainer, but this is one of those things that's easy to forget if you're used to playing other Battle Royale games. In Fortnite, you want to try to think about how you can solve problems by building--and creating a few quick fortifications can buy you precious extra seconds while you heal a teammate who has been knocked down by gunfire. Just remember to use wood if you're currently under fire; it'll build the fastest, and it can take the most punishment from other players immediately after being deployed. If you're in a rough battle situation, though, you might need multiple layers (or you might just need to leave your friend hanging while you take out the attackers).
Open Doors (Usually) Mean A Place Has Been Looted
Savvy players know that doors can tell you a lot. An open door on a building might mean someone's inside; more often, it means that someone has at least been through that building and taken all the good stuff already. By the same token, closing doors behind you is a good way to throw off other players, or to catch the unwary in ambshes. In our experience, not only are the outer doors of untouched buildings always closed in Fortnite, but so are the inner ones. If you step into a structure that you think is full of loot and start seeing open doors between rooms, it should put you on guard--it might mean someone is lying in wait ahead. Open doors are also a good indicator of buildings that you can skip altogether, to avoid wasting time searching places that have little to offer.
Traps Are A Thing
Traps are a holdover from the cooperative campaign version of Fortnite, and they pop up in Battle Royale to change some situations significantly. You'll find them occasionally in loot drops or certain locations (like mines), and you can deploy them on structures. They don't have a ton of uses, since so much of the Battle Royale experience consists of quickly hurrying from one building to the next, looting as fast as you can--but they do come up every now and then. Traps are great for leaving behind in a seemingly unlooted building in order to ruin the day of someone following you, or to place on your towers to dissuade anyone sneaking up below you. When heading into buildings, it's good practice to stand beside the front door and look inside to check for an ambush; when you do that, take a glance upward too, to ensure you're not about to stumble into somebody else's devilish plan.
The Boogie Bomb Is The Best
If you find the elusive grenade known as the Boogie Bomb, grab it. This thing is the goofiest weapon you can add to your arsenal in Fortnite right now, and it's hilarious as well as useful. When it explodes, everyone caught in its radius is forced to start dancing for five seconds, leaving them completely vulnerable to you cruising up and taking them out. It's especially handy for when you find a couple of other players already battling it out--with one bomb and a quick trigger finger, you can humiliate your opponents, eliminate them, and steal all their stuff.
Getting Good At Building Is How You Win
Grappling with all of Fortnite's systems can be tough--especially if you're using a controller. Between switching guns and building structures, the game has a lot of buttons to keep track of, and a lot of items to switch through with the shoulder buttons. But no matter what platform they're using, the best Fortnite players are expert builders. They've trained themselves through repetition to quickly construct walls, towers, bridges, and ramps in order to save their lives in the heat of battle, or give themselves a ridiculous advantage using height and cover. Though Fortnite has a lot in common with other Battle Royale games like PUBG, building is what sets it apart. If you come to this game expecting to play it like PUBG, you're going to get shut down over and over again by players who've learned to love carpentry. Get good at farming resources quickly and erecting structures even faster, if you want to be competitive!
By GameSpot Staff on Mar 31, 2018 01:27 am
Tips To Build Your Chances Of Survival
While you might be familiar with the battle royale genre--games that 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 bit 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. And if you're already a Fornite: Battle Royale veteran, check out our advanced tips guide, the six biggest mistakes that beginners make, and our guide covering all the things that we wish we knew before playing the game. You can also watch our video guide on how to build more effectively. Fortnite: Battle Royale is available as a free download for PS4, Xbox One. It's also available to play on iOS mobile phones. The mode supports up to 100 players competing to be the last person (or team) standing as they hunt other players and avoid being killed themselves. For the differences between Fortnite: Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, check out our in-depth feature discussing the two games and what sets them apart from one another. You can also check out details on the game's latest weapon, as well as a rundown of the game's current weekly challenges for Season 3.
Pick Your Landing Zone And Avoid Other Players
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.
By Array on Mar 31, 2018 01:11 am
Sea of Thieves is renowned developer Rare's pirate-themed multiplayer action game that gives you a taste of what it's like to pillage treasure and explore remote islands while sailing across dangerous waters. While the main loop of the game is pretty straightforward, it offers minimal insight and guidance into its most noteworthy mechanics. To help you become a confident and successful pirate, we've gathered nine useful tips that we wished we'd known before starting the game. Though, if you're more of a visual learner, you can also watch our Sea of Thieves guide video highlighting other essential beginners tips. Are there any essential tips that you don't see listed here? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to check back often for more Sea of Thieves guides. Otherwise, you can read our Sea of Thieves review for our full thoughts on how it shapes up. Sea of Thieves is the latest game from Rare, a studio best known for its work on classic games, like Donkey Kong Country, Banjo Kazooie, and Perfect Dark. It's a console exclusive on Xbox One, though digital copies enjoy Play Anywhere support, meaning you can play it on both Xbox One and PC. More notably, it's the first game to launch day and date through Xbox Game Pass. In other words, you don't actually have to purchase the game to play it--for as long as you're a Game Pass member, you'll be able to play. The game's launch has unfortunately been less than smooth for many people. Numerous launch issues have impacted the game, including those which prevent players from getting online to play and some that cause a delay before receiving rewards. Rare has acknowledged the problems on its website and says it's working to resolve them, but fixes may take some time.
Gather Supplies
When you first enter a session, your ship-of-choice is automatically stocked with a pre-set number of bananas, cannonballs, and planks. However, you won't have a lot. Before you leave the outpost you spawn in, you should check nearby barrels for more supplies, so you don't need to worry about running out as quickly. When you're cornered by an aggressive crew of pirates, you'll be glad to have the extra supplies.
Maneuvering Your Ship
It can be tricky maneuvering your ship at first; it requires some finesse and quick management of its various parts. If you ever need to turn your boat around, raise the anchor with the sails up and you can turn your ship without it moving forward. You can even do a 180 degree turn if you drop anchor. However, if you want to keep moving after performing a 180 degree turn, then raise the anchor immediately while the wheel is turned to one side.
Speedy Sails
On Galleons, if you have two people adjusting the sail length and direction, you can move around much quicker. You can also lower and turn sails much faster if you have two people adjusting the sails on each side of the boat at the same time.
You Can Check Your Map From Your Sloop's Top Deck
When manning the wheel of your sloop (the smaller ship in Sea of Thieves), you won't be able to simultaneously keep an eye on the map below deck. But rather than head downstairs when you need to judge your trajectory, you can let go of the wheel, turn around, and look over the rear side of the balcony for a glimpse of the map; this especially useful when sailing solo.
How To Dodge
You wouldn't think it, but there's actually a dodge maneuver in the game. If you jump while blocking, you'll dodge in the direction you're holding. This is a handy way to swiftly get out of the way of an incoming enemy attack.
Be Wary Of Enemy Crews During Raids
Be careful when engaging with other crews during a Raid, as it can be difficult to manage the fight with both skeletons and other pirates. As a rule of thumb, it's good to park the boat with cannons facing the island you're raiding on, just so someone can rain cannon fire upon any unsuspecting foes.
Aim For The Mast When Cannonballing To Other Ships
One of the coolest things you can do in Sea of Thieves is launch yourself out of cannon; it can be a handy way to reach far off locations or even an enemy's boat. If you're raring to do the latter, aim for the mast. If you hit it properly, you should drop straight down to the deck.
Take Advantage Of Explosives
Explosive barrels are useful tools found throughout the world, and knowing how to use them can give you an advantage during an otherwise overwhelming fight. You can place them on the ground and blow up groups of skeletons by kiting them near the barrel and firing a well-aimed shot. You can drop them in the water and strike them with a cannon blast as an enemy ship passes by. They are powerful, so be careful; it's easy to hurt yourself if you handle them carelessly.
Swimming 101: The Charge Attack Boost
If you climb onto the top of your ship and do a charged attack (by holding down the attack button), the momentum of the ensuing lunge will launch you straight into the water and give you a boost that covers a large distance. It's a simple technique, but it can help you get to dry land quicker than simply diving into the water and swimming normally.
By Array on Mar 31, 2018 01:07 am
Ubisoft Montreal's Far Cry 5 adheres to to the series' most well-established tenets, but it also manages to make some big changes to exploration, progression, and combat. When you first start the game's campaign, some of these new elements may seem disorienting and unfamiliar--a pleasant surprise for the series' most hardcore fans. To help clear the initial confusion and growing pains, we've gathered nine essential tips that'll help you better play Far Cry 5. Have any useful tips that you don't see listed here? Let us know in the comments below. And if you're looking for a beginners tips-focused guide, you can watch our video guide discussing general starter tips to follow. For those interested in Far Cry 5's Arcade Mode, watch us discuss how the mode works in our in-depth guide video. Otherwise, you can check out our feature detailing the game's 11 most intriguing Easter eggs. Far Cry 5 is out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Be sure to read our Far Cry 5 review for our full thoughts about the game. In other news, Ubisoft recently announced Far Cry 5's Season Pass, which takes you to settings like Mars and the Vietnam War. We also recently learned more about the game's microtransactions and the game's single-player campaign playtime.
If You Explore the World, More Activities Will Open Up
A lot has changed since the days of Far Cry 3 and 4, when you climbed towers in order to populate the map with dozens of activity icons and collectibles. In Far Cry 5, you now discover everything by simply exploring. In addition, the 3D map is now detailed enough that you can clearly see major landmarks and locations, which makes it easy to identify and mark new areas to explore. And as you're traveling, keep an eye out. Road signs reveal hunting spots, maps found inside building mark nearby buildings for you, and magazines tell you about fishing and hunting areas. If you talk to nonplayer characters, they'll tell you about nearby missions, outposts, and prepper stashes. Far Cry 5 is game that wants you to live in its world--so make sure to explore every interesting landmark or curious detail. You never know what you'll find!
Complete the Side Missions for Special Unlockables
Far Cry 5 ditches the repetitive, activity-based open-world structure of previous Far Cry games. For the first time in the series' history, Far Cry 5 brings in actual side missions, each with their own unique dialogue, narrative arcs, and gameplay. From simple missions like saving people from drugged up bears, to letting cows have sex to Marvin Gaye music so you can chop off their testicles for the annual Testicle Festival (yeah, that's a real thing in this game), you'll find plenty of mini-adventures to embark on. If you ever stumble upon any side missions, make sure to complete them, as you can also get some pretty sweet rewards -- like new weapons or beefed-up vehicles with guns attached to them that you can't normally find anywhere in the world.
Get the Weapon Slot Skill Upgrades ASAP
As in past games in the series, you want to prioritize expanding the number of weapons you can carry as soon as possible. These upgrades are acquired via the game's skill tree, as opposed to the crafting system. The sooner you can unlock these skills, the sooner you can start wreaking havoc with a more diverse set of weaponry.
Get the Lockpick and Repair Torch Perks
Far Cry 5 has plenty of locked doors and safes for you to open. Most times, you can find a key or combination hidden nearby, or blow a safe open with explosives. But if you want to avoid the trouble, try investing in both the Lockpick and Repair Torch skills. Both are handy for accessing hidden stashes containing weapons, ammo, or money. Heck, you can even use the Repair Torch to repair broken-down vehicles.
Make Money Quickly by Hunting or Uncovering Prepper Stashes
Money doesn't naturally accumulate as quickly as it does in previous Far Cry games, but you can still make a lot of money if you know what to focus on. A go-to method is hunting and skinning animals. No longer are skins used to craft things like a new wallet; instead, you sell them for direct profit. If you kill an animal with arrows or melee attacks, you'll obtain double the skins that you normally would by killing it with a gun. And when used in conjunction with the Harvest Master perk (which doubles your rewards from animals), $200 worth of feathers becomes $400, and $450 worth of cougar skins nets you $900. This comes highly recommended if you're going to resort to hunting as your main source of money-making. Aside from hunting, you should also keep an eye out for safes, which are usually inside buildings. With the Repair Torch or Locksmith perk, you can easily open them to access their valuables... but in a pinch, placing an explosive on them will also do the trick. The final method is Prepper Stashes, which are side missions that task you to solve some light environmental puzzles in exchange for a pile of loot. Whether it's by swimming across a river, shooting the lock off a door from afar, or navigating a barn full of beehives, your reward is a stack of cash, a couple of magazines that give you free Perk Points, and other goodies like new weapons. We highly recommend pursuing Prepper Stashes; not only are the rewards well worth it, but they're some of the best missions in the game.
Keep an Eye on Your Vehicle's Health
It's difficult to tell how much damage a vehicle can take before it's completely undrivable. A plane or truck is liable to go up in flames after a few bumps, so be prepared to abandon the driver's seat at a moment's notice. And if you can bail in time to launch your vehicle straight at an encampment of enemies, all the better. If keeping track of a vehicle's health is too much trouble, you can take a perk that allows you to make vehicles auto-repair as you drive. Otherwise, you'll have to resort to the Repair Torch perk for repairs.
Mark Enemies and Place Waypoints with Your Binoculars
Situational awareness is essential to your navigation through the hostile territory of Hope County. The binoculars are a useful tool, as you can use them to tag enemies, animals, and even notable interactables in the environment. If you're ever uncertain about what you can use in your immediate area to benefit your approach, your binoculars can shed light on the possibilities. You can also use them to place a waypoint onto a location in the distance--it's similar to placing beacons or stamps in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Take Advantage of Specialists
Expanding upon the buddy system from Far Cry 2, Far Cry 5 features a robust cast of Specialists, which are AI-controlled allies that you can call in for combat assistance. You'll find nine Specialists throughout Hope County; to unlock them, you need to complete their associated story missions. All of their missions are marked on the map from the beginning of the game, so it's relatively easy to find them. Each Specialist has two abilities associated with them. For example, Boomer the dog can tag all nearby enemies and fetch their weapons for you, making him a both a useful scout and a very good boy. The Specialists all sport a variety of skills, so pick the ones who best support your playstyle. And if you acquire the the Leadership perk, you can have up to two Specialists following you at any given time. Lastly, each Specialist has their own perk that decreases their cooldown time, so be sure to upgrade your favorites.
Utilize Guns for Hire
Outside of the Specialists, you have three slots that you can fill up with Guns for Hire, which are civilians that you can save and hire. Like Specialists, they have two abilities; however, these can only be unlocked by increasing their kill count as they fight alongside you. It's also important to note that the abilities they receive are random, so if you end up not liking what they earn, you can always dismiss them and hire someone new.
By Array on Mar 31, 2018 01:02 am
Quality Games On A Budget
There continues to be no shortage of high quality games to own and play on Nintendo Switch. There are Nintendo's flagship titles, like Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Kirby Star Allies, and a variety of other Switch games you may have missed. And if you's interested in revisiting fantastic games from the recent past, the game has ports for bige name games like Bayonetta 2, Skyrim, L.A. Noire, and Doom. However, there's also a burgeoning selection of games that cost no more than $20 on the console's Eshop. These low priced games are not a concept exclusive to Switch, nor is this system the only place to play them. But given the system's a little over a year in, it's remarkable how the platform is abursting at the seams with fantastic games to play. In the gallery above, we've highlighted Switch games that are available now for no more than $20 on the Eshop. This is far from a comprehensive list, but if you're looking for a cheap Switch game to pick up, you can't go wrong with any of these options. Many are not Switch exclusives, but it's often the best platform to play them on, thanks to newly added features or the sheer convenience of having a version you can play both on a TV and on the go. These games are presented in no particular order; they're simply titles that are worth a look. Be sure to check back often as we update this gallery with more awesome budget games. And while you're here, check out our features detailing all the Wii U games we ported to Switch, 13 things we still want to see from the console, and the best games on the console as of 2018.
Celeste ($20 / £18)
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.
The Sexy Brutale ($20 / £18)
The Sexy Brutale is a quirky little puzzle game co-developed by Tequila Works, the studio behind beautiful adventure game Rime. Its essentially Groundhog Day: The Game--you play through the same day over and over, but with each runthrough you learn more about the creepy mansion you find yourself in. After seeing one character shoot another, you might go and find the gun and prevent the bloody murder by replacing real bullets with blanks. A number of these murders are interconnected--solving one puzzle might prevent one murder, but that could change another branch of time elsewhere in the house. There's no way of preventing every murder in one go, but discovering and tinkering with the different timelines is where the fun lies. And with it being playable on Switch, you can live the same day countless times anywhere you want. Suffice to say, we've played it over and over again--groundhog day indeed.
Crypt of the NecroDancer ($20 / £18)
Roguelikes (or at least roguelike elements) have been one of the most popular trends in gaming over the past handful of years, but few have taken as interesting of an approach to the genre as Crypt of the NecroDancer. Originally released on PC and other platforms before making its way to Switch in 2018, NecroDancer tasks players with navigating a dungeon to the beat of the music. Rather than simply move in the direction you wish or attack the enemy that's in your path, you and your enemies' actions are tied directly to the (always excellent) soundtrack. It's essential that you always be doing something--not taking an action at the next beat resets your combo, meaning you'll earn less gold or deal less damage, depending on the items you've acquired. Particularly as the music becomes more fast-paced, this lends a real sense of tension and excitement to every moment: you need to constantly be considering your next action while accounting for how nearby enemies will react to your movements. It's an experience with few points of comparison, but it's nonetheless one that you'll certainly want to try.
Battle Chef Brigade ($20 / £18)
Battle Chef Brigade puts you in control of an aspiring young chef named Mina as she fights to become the best cook in the land. But this isn't your typical cooking game; rather than choose from pre-set ingredients in front of you to make a simple dish, you actually have to hunt and gather them yourself, making use of Devil May Cry-like battle system to eliminate them in the wild. You then have to take what you gather back to your kitchen, throw it in a pot, and cook it in a match three mini-game. F rame this within an Iron Chef-like cook off where the clock is ticking against you and you'll have an idea of what you're getting into. The juxtaposition between the two core mechanics of hunting and cooking make for a tense, fast-paced experience that's both memorable and fulfilling.
Enter the Gungeon ($15 / £11)
Being a roguelike-style shooter, Enter the Gungeon naturally draws comparisons to games like The Binding of Isaac and Nuclear Throne. And while that does offer a decent starting point for understanding what to expect, Enter the Gungeon manages to rise above being a pale imitator. It feels fantastic, with a dodge-roll ability that allows you to satisfyingly evade damage with a well-timed use. There are ridiculous weapons, such as those that fire bees or a gun that shoots guns which themselves fire bullets. The well-crafted procedurally generated environments help to keep each run feeling fresh, as do the wide variety of items and secrets to uncover along the way. And co-op support makes for an especially fun, chaotic experience (although it's unfortunate that the second player isn't able to play as the different characters that the main player has access to). The entire game is also overflowing with personality and color, making for an experience that is as fun to look at as is to play.
Furi ($20 / £18)
Fans of Japanese action games will instantly love Furi, as it utilizes a twitch-based combat similar to fan-favorite games in the genre, like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta. Its premise is simple: you play as a nameless silver-haired swordsman who must fight his way out of imprisonment, facing off against a gauntlet of deadly bosses. Aside from its striking presentation, Furi's most memorable quality is its fast and frenetic combat, which is punchy, nuanced, and elegantly simple. It combines mechanics from both hack-and-slash games and shoot 'em ups, challenging you to handle switching between gameplay styles at a moment's notice in the midst of a fight. If you're a sucker for challenging action games, Furi should be at the top of your list for $20 Switch games to buy.
SteamWorld Dig 2 ($20 / £15)
SteamWorld Dig 2 expands on its predecessor in a number of welcome ways. It looks much nicer, with a better soundtrack and more interesting story, but it also expands on progression. A new mod system allows you to tailor your character to your particular style, and the varied environments provide an incentive to keep digging and new challenges to contend with. Digging your way through blocks remains an enjoyable gameplay mechanic, and particularly with optional waypoints disabled, exploring the depths of this world is a real treat. Read our SteamWorld Dig 2 review
Picross S ($8 / £7.19)
Switch's entry in the Picross series, Picross S, doesn't do anything radically new, and it doesn't have to. It offers the straightforward, streamlined pleasure of its sudoku/nonogram-style gameplay on the go. It's the kind of game that's perfect to have loaded up on Switch--you can easily jump in for a quick puzzle (or eight) while you're on the go or in between sessions of other games. There's plenty to do with 300 puzzles, and simultaneous two-player multiplayer support gives you a way to ease newcomers into the series.
Stardew Valley ($15 / £11)
Like many other games on this list, Stardew Valley feels particularly well-suited to the portable nature of Switch. The system makes it easy to boot up the game for a quick day on the farm no matter where you are, and the controls work surprisingly well--though they could still use some refinement (possibly through the addition of touch controls, which are absent). The game remains a charming take on the Harvest Moon formula and provides a nice, peaceful complement to many of the more action-oriented games on Switch--particularly in lieu of a new Animal Crossing. Read our Stardew Valley review
Golf Story ($15 / £13.49)
Even if you're not a fan of the real-world sport, there's an undeniable appeal to golf games. Golf Story goes beyond simply letting you hit the links, though, taking the form of a traditional RPG that just happens to revolve around golfing. It features a charming story and a delightful, reactive world to explore, along with some trademark Australian humor. Read our Golf Story review
Sonic Mania ($20 / £16)
Sonic Mania marks the latest attempt to recapture the 2D glory days of the Sonic franchise, and it more than succeeds. Fantastic level design and a real sense of speed help to scratch that nostalgic itch, but it also stands as a solid game among its contemporaries. Our review goes so far as to even say it might very well be the best Sonic game ever. In light of Sonic Forces' deficiencies, at least Sonic fans have good Sonic game to play on the system. Read our Sonic Mania review
Overcooked ($20 / £18)
Multiplayer games that can be played with a single Joy-Con are a real treat--wherever you go with the system, you're able to easily play together with another person. And that's good news for Overcooked, a game that becomes exponentially better when played with at least one other person. What starts out as a relatively tame game where you help each other chop some vegetables and get them served on a plate becomes a frantic rush to put out fires, get ingredients distributed between two moving vehicles, and other ridiculous scenarios. Read our Overcooked review
Thimbleweed Park ($20 / £15)
Point-and-click adventure games have experienced something of a renaissance in recent years, and Thimbleweed Park--from adventure game legends Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick--is a prime example. The X-Files-inspired journey puts you in the role of two FBI agents that bear more than a passing resemblance to the classic TV show as you relive the glory days of adventure games. Playing on any console means dealing with a gamepad-based control scheme (as opposed to the more natural mouse controls on PC), but Switch makes up for this with touchscreen support when played in handheld mode. Read our Thimbleweed Park review
Retro City Rampage DX ($15 / £13)
A throwback GTA Online mode aside, Grand Theft Auto has long since moved on from the classic top-down perspective of its earliest games. Retro City Rampage carries on that legacy, offering an open-world crime game in 8-bit style. What could have easily been a mere GTA clone, however, is distinguished with copious pop culture references and a distinctly arcade-style feel to its gameplay. This DX edition offers additional content not seen in the original version of the game. Read our Retro City Rampage review
Fast RMX ($20 / £17)
The likelihood of a new F-Zero game doesn't seem terribly high, but Fast RMX is the next best thing. It offers a similar style of high-speed, futuristic racing, with support for local and online multiplayer (including single Joy-Con play) and wide variety of levels. It's also a good-looking game, running at 1080p and 60 FPS. Read our Fast RMX review
World of Goo ($10 / £9)
It's been around for years, and the Switch version doesn't bring any new content to the table, but now is as good a time as any to play World of Goo if you haven't already. Its construction-based puzzles that task you with creating structures and other objects to fulfill a variety of objectives are still as well designed as ever, making this a worthwhile addition to your Switch library. The one noteworthy distinction with this edition is the addition of local co-op multiplayer (absent from most other platforms); it's also one of the few games to put the Joy-Con's IR pointer to use. Read our World of Goo review
Little Inferno ($10 / £9)
Another of Tomorrow Corporation's game, Little Inferno also doesn't bring anything new to the table for Switch if you're playing by yourself. But if you have a friend, it introduces a new local co-op multiplayer mode not seen on other platforms. For the uninitiated, Little Inferno involves throwing stuff into a furnace and watching it burn for cash (which is then used to buy more stuff to burn). Despite that simple premise, there is a deeper puzzle system at work here where you have to burn different combinations of objects together to fulfill certain requirement. It's relatively short but features a surprisingly intriguing story and has a cat plushie that poops when burned, so it really checks all the boxes. Read our Little Inferno review
Gonner ($10 / £9)
Switch's portable nature lends itself well to quick, pick-up-and-play roguelike games. Gonner is an ideal example, blending procedural generation with action-platforming as you blast your way through countless enemies. With a distinct visual style and seemingly endless replayability, it's another great match with the platform.
Graceful Explosion Machine ($13 / £10)
Shoot-em-ups are not well-represented on Switch, but Graceful Explosion Machine nicely fills that void. Rather than presenting you with an endless stream of foes, it presents confined, handcrafted levels and a variety of distinct weapons with which to dispatch your enemies. Dealing with weapon cooldowns and figuring out the ideal order in which to deal with enemies becomes a game unto itself, and this all takes place within the confines of a cute, colorful world.
Severed ($15 / £12)
Severed is one of the few games on Switch that can only be played in handheld mode, due to its mandatory touchscreen controls. It's a dungeon crawler with a twist, as you're tasked with slicing your way through enemies you encounter by swiping on the screen. But beyond the enjoyable gameplay and slick visual style, Severed's story is the real highlight, as you experience the tale of a one-armed warrior named Sasha. Read our Severed review
Shovel Knight ($10-$25 / £9-£22.49)
This is admittedly a bit of a cheat, as you're best off buying Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, which includes all three of the campaigns released so far (and more content to come) for $25. But just $10 will get you a single campaign which is more than worth the price of entry. Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment puts you in the shoes of one of the main game's antagonists, Specter Knight, as he takes his own unique journey through the same levels featured in the original game. As with Plague Knight's campaign, the unique mechanics at play here (like the dash attack) make for a much different experience. You would be best-served by starting with the base Shovel Knight campaign, but whichever version you play, you'll be treated to a modern take on retro platformers that bests many of the classics it draws inspiration from. Read our Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment review
Snipperclips: Cut It Out, Together ($20 / £18)
Snipperclips was overshadowed at launch by the hype around The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but it remains one of--if not the--best multiplayer games on Switch. Although it can be played solo, cooperative play is where Snipperclips truly shines. You work together to solve relatively simple challenges--get this ball into the basket; pop some balloons--by overlapping your characters and cutting chunks out of one another. This allows you to shape your partner into a tool that can be used for the task at hand. There's little else like it, on Switch or elsewhere. One thing to note is the new Snipperclips Plus version, which offers additional content; owners of the base game will be able to purchase its additions as DLC. Read our Snipperclips review
Thumper ($20/£16)
Although it's a game arguably best-suited for VR, Thumper is an incredible experience however you play it. It provides a unique blend of rhythm-based gameplay and action--what the developer calls "rhythm violence"--that provides a far more intense version of the basic mechanics you see in other rhythm games. With an incredible soundtrack and levels well-suited to chasing high scores, Thumper is a game with the potential to stick around on your Switch's home screen for a long time. Read our Thumper review
Axiom Verge ($20 / £15)
Axiom Verge is another take on the Metroidvania style, but it distinguishes itself through its wide variety of weapons and tools--most notably, the Address Disruptor, which affects the environment and each enemy type in different ways. It's also a game with an impressive sense of scale and no shortage of secrets to uncover, encouraging multiple playthroughs. Add in an excellent soundtrack and tantalizing story, and there's a lot to like here. Read our Axiom Verge review
By GameSpot Staff on Mar 31, 2018 12:55 am
Dream Fighters
After much anticipation, Nintendo finally confirmed that Super Smash Bros. is officially coming to Nintendo Switch. And what's even better news is that the game is actually releasing this year. Naturally, this has us pretty ecstatic, and we're already speculating which characters we want to return or debut to the game's roster. While characters who have been in past entries, like Ice Climbers and Falco, are obvious choices for our staff's most hardcore fans, we're also eager to see characters from other Nintendo franchises and third-party games make appearances. Here are the 20 characters we want to see the most in Super Smash Bros. on Switch. Which characters do you want to appear in Smash Bros. for Switch? Let us know in the comments below. As of writing, we don't know if the upcoming game will be an updated version of Super Smash Bros. Wii U or an entirely brand-new game. If it is a port, it could follow the model of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which offered a slew of new features on top of including all existing DLC. There are plenty of other Wii U titles that deserve a second chance on Switch as well--you can see some of the ones we want most here--but Smash Bros. is undoubtedly the most obvious candidate. Nintendo has remained ambiguous about what form this game will take. In recent news, a Super Smash Bros. Switch tournament is going to be held at this year's E3. For more on the recent Nintendo news, check out GameSpot's roundup of all the recent Nindies Nintendo Direct news and our roundup of all the mid-March Nintendo Direct news, which includes release dates for some of the most exciting upcoming Switch and 3DS games.
Captain Toad
Super Smash Bros. rosters are generally dominated by the expected heroes and villains. What I want to see is another character like Animal Crossing's Villager who is a little more unconventional. Captain Toad may seem harmless, but the idea of him transforming into a fighter who can go toe-to-toe with Bowser, Ganon, or precious Mario (you know Captain Toad hates him and his proclivity for jumping and hogging the spotlight) would get me more interested in the Switch edition of Smash than anything else. While sure to be just one part of an expansive roster, making Captain Toad playable in Smash would help to provide Switch's Treasure Tracker re-release with some additional attention. He may not have the makings of a prototypical fighter, but to me that's what would make him more interesting. I'd be curious to see how Nintendo finds a workaround for his inability to jump--maybe he could throw his backpack into the air before leaping. He has a variety of tools and abilities at his disposal in Treasure Tracker (a pickaxe, an off-screen turnip gun, the ability to pull things out of the ground) that could be leveraged as weapons in Smash. And imagining a matching Treasure Tracker stage--one that messes with camera perspectives--is even more exciting. Captain Toad may not have the glitz and glamor of other names, but his unique nature would make him a worthwhile member of the roster. | Chris Pereira
Crash Bandicoot
Crash never made it into PlayStation All Stars, but he deserves a chance to throw down. With the N. Sane trilogy making its way to Switch, I think it's time for everyone's favorite marsupial to do the same. Crash's moveset is so easy to envision: spinning attacks, throwing wumpa fruit, and a Final Smash that slaps a golden Aku Aku mask on his face, charging him up like some kind of Australian Super Saiyan. If Crash were added to the roster, elements of his games could also be incorporated into the Smash universe. Maybe a standard mask could be picked up by anyone. Maybe the game's signature crates could be added to Smash's group of containers like barrels and party balls. One thing's for sure: making Crash a playable character should also mean Coco joining as an assist trophy. Let's talk stages. The Crash Bandicoot series has been all over the world, from the Great Wall of China to Ancient Egypt to a crazy techno-centric future. Why not take the "warped" mentality of Crash 3 and have fighters bounce between those crazy locations? I can already picture Neo Cortex floating around in the background of the outer space phase of the map. | Tony Wilson
Toon Zelda/Tetra
The Smash Bros. series has seen many Links: Young Link, Toon Link, regular Link, and now, what looks like Breath of the Wild Link. But there's only one Zelda. Zelda/Sheik is one of the standout characters, of course, but it's time for something new. Tetra is a badass pirate queen with a sword, and her Princess Zelda transformation has a bow with light arrows--among other possible weapons. (Her Hyrule Warriors incarnation has a pistol, for example.) She's scrappy, she's sassy, her pirate ship is already a Smash stage, and she already has an Amiibo. Even if she didn't transform like her standard counterpart, Tetra or Toon Zelda would both make sense among the ranks of the top Smash fighters. And it's about time. Plus, I just really want Wind Waker HD to come to Switch. | Kallie Plagge
Ice Climbers
The Ice Climbers were introduced in Super Smash Bros. Melee as representatives of the NES era of Nintendo's history. As a single entity, Popo and Nana were different from the other fighters; if the NPC-controlled Ice Climber was knocked out, you could still fight, just without team moves. Fighting as them was just really...well, cool. Popo and Nana got shafted in Smash 4. Supposedly cut due to the 3DS' limited processing power (and the fact that there probably won't be another game in their series soon, if ever, so they weren't a high priority), the Ice Climbers only appeared as a trophy. But the Switch solves one of those problems, at least! And if what Masahiro Sakurai says is true, and the Ice Climbers were fully functional in the Wii U version, it's not too much to ask to bring them back in the next Super Smash Bros. | Kallie Plagge
Geno
Since his debut in Super Mario RPG, fans have been clamoring for ♡♪!? (also known as Geno for those who struggle to pronounce his true name). While a true Super Mario RPG sequel will likely never happen, there is hope for the badass Star Road warrior to appear in Smash. When Nintendo started to release character announcement trailers for the Wii U and 3DS versions, I'd sit on the edge of my seat hoping he'd be revealed every time. When it came to the final DLC character reveal, Nintendo found a way to get my hopes up, only to crush them instantly. They showed off Geno, but not the way anyone wanted. We were told Geno was available...but as a Mii Gunner costume. While I was happy to see they acknowledged his existence, it was still disappointing to see he was still not a playable fighter. If he were to be added, he'd make an excellent ranged fighter and a welcome roster addition compared to the influx of sword-based fighters in recent games. Geno Beam (or even Geno Flash) would be perfect as a charge attack and Geno Whirl could be used similar to Samus's missile with the side-B attack. For a Final Smash, Geno Blast would look gorgeous as rays of light come flashing down to devastate his opponents.While I know deep down that it's a long shot, I'm still hoping that somehow he'll find his way onto the roster. With the inclusion of Square Enix's Cloud in the most recent version, the door is now open for Geno. I, for one, am eagerly awaiting his arrival. | Gajan Kulasingham
Isaac
One of the most exciting aspects of every Super Smash Bros. release is seeing which forgotten Nintendo characters the developers have plucked from obscurity and added to the roster. Not only is it fun to see old mascots completely reimagined on a modern console, but in many cases, an appearance in Smash Bros. heralds a revival for their series--as was the case with Kid Icarus after Pit appeared in Brawl. While Golden Sun may not be as well-known as some of Nintendo's other franchises, I'd still love to see its main protagonist, Isaac, join the fray. Despite his brief tenure in the spotlight (only three Golden Sun games have been released thus far, the latest of which starred not Isaac but his son, Matthew), Isaac is perfectly suited for Smash Bros. thanks to his special abilities. As an Adept, he's capable of wielding Psynergy, magic-like abilities that would form the basis of his moveset. To further set him apart from other fighters, he could equip different Djinn during a match, which would alter the Psynergy spells at his disposal. And for his Final Smash, Isaac could call upon one of Golden Sun's many other over-the-top summons, such as Judgment, to deliver a devastating, screen-consuming attack. Moreover, Isaac isn't a complete stranger to Smash Bros.; he appeared as an Assist Trophy in Brawl, so it would hardly be a stretch for him to make the leap to playable character. The Smash series may already have a glut of swordsmen on its roster, but I think Isaac has enough unique skills in his repertoire to make a great addition--and if it would help pave the way for a new Golden Sun game on Switch, so much the better. | Kevin Knezevic
King K. Rool
For every great hero, there is a villain that helps define them. For Batman, there is the Joker. For Mario, there is Bowser. And for Donkey Kong, there is King K. Rool. The Kremlings leader has been around since Donkey Kong Country and has frequently opposed the Kongs. Being such an iconic foe to a popular Nintendo character makes his absence in Smash Bros quite perplexing. If King K. Rool were to be added, he'd easily be classified as a heavyweight character--of which there is a significant need in the Smash Bros. games. With so many smaller, faster characters in the game, adding more powerhouse fighters would definitely be a welcome addition. He'd even have a vast array of costume options based off his various appearances in the DK Country games, such as Kaptain K. Rool, Baron K. Roolenstein, and King Krusha K. Rool. As for attacks, he has a wide amount of gadgets at his disposal, which could be attached to his basic attacks. This could make him a fun powerhouse character capable of dealing significant melee damage up close but also have the option of utilizing ranged attacks. I'd be excited to see him added, but I'm honestly surprised he hasn't been in a Smash game already. | Gajan Kulasingham
Crono
The Chrono series, outside of the thoroughly excellent DS re-release and the not-so-good PC port, has been silent for a long time. But aside from the business and development reasons that the seminal RPG only received one semi-sequel in Chrono Cross, a character crossover with the next Smash Bros. actually makes some weird sense. The biggest argument for Crono is that Cloud was playable in Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS. The protagonist from Final Fantasy VII is a staunchly third-party character from a Final Fantasy game that never came to a Nintendo console, so there's at least a precedent for that level of crossover. The Final Fantasy VII Remake gives a reason to elevate Cloud's profile (so maybe Aeris or Tifa would be a more-likely candidate). But Crono is such an outstanding character from developer Square's past and its long-running relationship with Nintendo. The other reason that Cloud makes a good fit is that, despite being yet another character with a sword, his reliance on multi-character attacks mean that he'd have his own unique identity, moveset, and visual flair. Crono is a long shot character, especially since unlike Final Fantasy, there isn't an official high-definition 3D model of the character available. But who would've guessed that Cloud, Ryu, and Bayonetta would ever be in a Smash game? | Justin Haywald
Professor Layton
The austere professor with his oversized hat may sound like an odd fit for Smash, but as an iconic representative of puzzle gaming on the DS, Professor Layton is long overdue for a spot on the SSB roster. The best examples for how Layton would work in a fighter is Phoenix Wright, who made an appearance in various Vs. Capcom fighting games, or a character like the peaceful Animal Crossing Villager. Not having a ready-made assortment of combat abilities doesn't rule out their effectiveness in a wacky game like Smash. And as we've seen from several of Layton's adventures, he's an accomplished fencer, so he's ready to throw down with a weapon when the situation calls for it. And Layton could also introduce fun, interactive stages that play off his previous adventures. Hand-drawn village backgrounds that open up to unlock puzzles, and maybe the characters on the screen would have to try to solve some of the simpler ones in order to avoid hazards from hitting everyone one the screen. Layton has been a dream addition to Smash for me for a long time, and figuring out how he'd fit into the game doesn't feel like a terribly difficult puzzle. | Justin Haywald
Ridley
As Samus Aran's arch-nemesis, the Space Pirate leader Ridley seems like a perfect candidate to go head-to-head with the Metroid hunter in the Smash Bros. arena as a playable fighter. Aside from the intergalactic bounty hunter and the Metroids that she hunts, the fire-breathing boss is one of the most recognizable characters in the series--who seems to always survive the last battle by the skin of its razor-sharp teeth. Despite never having been playable, Ridley has already made several appearances in past Smash games, most notably as a boss in Brawl's Subspace Emissary story mode. It's about time that Samus' nemesis became a playable character, and Ridley's fighting style, which is focused on fast, hard-hitting moves, along with a large set of wings that give it great speed and agility, can make Ridley a welcome change from the other heavy-set characters like King Dedede, Bowser, and DK. Moreover, Ridley's many appearances throughout the Metroid series also opens up the opportunity to let players choose from different incarnations of the character. I mean, who wouldn't want the chance to play as the cybernetically enhanced Meta-Ridley to battle Samus in one of the Metroid-inspired levels? | Alessandro Fillari
Tharja
Super Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS has no shortage of Fire Emblem characters. To be honest, by the time Corrin and Roy rolled around as DLC I was starting to get sick of them, however, Tharja could add something unique to the roster. Unlike Roy, Marth, Lucina, and Ike, Tharja is a Dark Mage and she could specialize in ranged-attack spells. Sure, Corrin and Robin had a fair amount of medium-range attacks, but in most cases, you'd still want to keep your foes close. Tharja could utilize a flashy set of dark spells to deliver powerful blows from afar, and quick on her feet to escape close range fighters. The likelihood of Tharja coming to Smash is slim, but I think she would add much more character and personality to the roster than Robin and Corrin did. | Jake Dekker
Kass
While Breath of the Wild was very much Link's show, there was one character who always knew how to make his presence known throughout the young(ish) champion's quest throughout Hyrule--and it always started off with the faint sound of an accordion in the distance. Kass, the traveling storyteller, could spin a memorable yarn about Hyrule's past, but I'd like to think he can also hold his own in a fight against other Nintendo characters. While we don't ever see Kass fight, that certainly hasn't stopped Nintendo from turning normally passive characters--like Wii Fit Trainer or R.O.B.--into powerhouses on the battlefield. As a member of the bird-like Rito tribe, Kass has the natural gift of flight, potentially making him an agile character in a fight. However, his true gifts lie with his accordion and oratory talents. Much like in Breath of the Wild, Kass can use the power of song to grab the attention of anyone nearby as they listen to him tell the tale of the surrounding environment. While this may seem a bit gimmicky, Super Smash Bros. tends to shine most when it comes to characters that has a specific purpose. And often times, those characters prove their worth and find an audience among fans. And I for one think that Kass has the potential to prove himself on the battlefield. | Alessandro Fillari
Waluigi
If Waluigi can't get his own game, he should at least be added to the Super Smash Bros. roster. Wario has been playable in two previous Smash games, but Luigi's rival, Waluigi, has never been included. Now is the time. Waluigi has already made appearances in Smash as a collectible trophy and assist trophy, and in Brawl, Luigi has a black and purple color swap to make him look similar to his arch-rival. If he's already a part of the Smash universe, then making him playable is an easy transition. Smash Bros. on the 3DS and Wii U had plenty of Nintendo heroes on their rosters and not enough villains. The Switch version's roster could only benefit from adding another fun, fan-favorite antagonist like Waluigi to liven things up with his personal brand of mischief. Throughout the years, his popularity has only been growing. He's sassy, cunning, relatably self-hating, skilled, and ridiculous. Just think about how campy and glorious his taunt would be. It's Waluigi time. | Chastity Vicencio
Shovel Knight
Shovel Knight hits things with a shovel. I want to hit Kirby with a shovel. Honestly, it's as simple as that. Shovel Knight has been one of the best 2D throwback platformers in recent years, a game that perfectly captures the spirit of the NES era while making smart tweaks to make it more palatable for modern sensibilities. That's an excellent fit for a fighting game that oozes Nintendo spirit if you ask me. The game features a wide variety of upgrades that Shovel Knight (who can be male or female) can utilize to take down foes, so there's more than enough options to make Shovel Knight a distinctly interesting Smash character if brute shovel force isn't enough. And look--he's already got an Amiibo, so that's basically his ticket to ride. It's Shovelling Time! | Edmond Tran
Rex
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was one of Nintendo's biggest games of 2017, so it would only be fitting to see it represented in the newly revealed Super Smash Bros. for Switch. Naturally, the most logical choice for a Smash fighter from the game would be its protagonist, Rex, but just as in his own adventure, he should come with a few Blades in tow to make him a truly unique addition to the roster. Whereas Shulk (Smash Bros.' other resident Xenoblade character) is able to use the Monado to grant himself different buffs, Rex could derive his abilities from the Blade he currently has equipped. Like Pokemon Trainer from Brawl, he could swap between the Blades during a match, with each granting him a different set of special attacks. Of course, Pyra would be his primary Blade, but he could also have two others--such as Roc and Nia--at his disposal, just as in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. And for his Final Smash, Pyra could transform into Mythra to rain down a powerful Sacred Arrow attack over the entire field. Not only would Rex be a fun addition to the roster, but Xenoblade Chronicles 2 would make a fitting basis for a new stage. The game is filled with beautiful vistas and fantastical fauna, which could make for some rather interesting stage hazards--imagine having a match interrupted by a powerful Named Monster that forces all players to temporarily team up with each other to take down. As the face of one of Nintendo's most ambitious Switch games to date, Rex certainly deserves a spot on the Smash roster. | Kevin Knezevic
Falco
This might seem like an odd pick considering Falco will most likely be in the game, but as a diehard Melee fan, I want the Falco of old. Super Smash Bros. Melee is my most played game of all time, and Falco was my main man...err...bird. I liked him because of his side-A attack, which acted as a super strong KO kick that would send players flying off stages at moderate percentages. Newer revisions of Falco changed his kick to a much less effective arm-swinging swipe move, which isn't nearly as potent. Falco's shine was also very useful in Melee. Players could use it to perform combos, but later revisions had the shine shoot out of him, which removed these abilities. He's just not the same. As a die-hard old-school Falco fan, I just want Nintendo to return Falco to his glory days. | Jimmy Thang
Star Wolf
Even though Melee is my most-played game of all time, I didn't particularly care for Brawl when it came out. I didn't like the slower pace of the game, and the inclusion of tripping didn't help either. One character that I did love, however, was Star Wolf. His skillset matched with my playstyle perfectly. He has a strong side-A that could finish people, decent recovery moves, an effective arial game, and is equipped with a stunning projectile laser. I was dismayed to hear that he wouldn't be in the Wii U version, considering Nintendo doesn't often remove characters from Smash. I'm hoping Star Wolf makes a comeback and retains his moves. | Jimmy Thang
Snake
Super Smash Bros. has always a been cool way to have a bunch of your favorite Nintendo characters fight it out, and the idea easily invites other game characters to join the fight. But back in 2008 my wildest dream came true. Often said as a joke amongst my friends I always wanted a character from Metal Gear, my all time favorite series, to show up and that is exactly what I got with Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It was show time. Snake is an interesting character mostly due to the fact that he is one of few realistic-looking individuals in a roster of cartoon-y ones. He pulls a lot of his attacks from Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2, but a lot of his mannerisms come from Metal Gear Solid 3. He is a very range-heavy character, but if someone gets in close, he still has a lot of great tools at his disposal to even the playing field. He is a fun character to play with lots of tricks, and I really enjoy all of the small details they put in for fans of the MGS series. They could even incorporate some new stuff from MGSV; maybe just change him to be Punished Snake! From his silly codec taunt conversations about all of the characters to his vast arsenal of weapons rivaling any of the metal Gear games, Snake deserves to come back to Smash. | Ben Janca
Porky Minch
Technically, Porky has already made an appearance in Super Smash Bros.; in Brawl, he was one of the boss characters that Ness and Lucas face while fighting in the Subspace Emissary. But that only proves that he make an excellent addition to the fighting game roster. Although Giygas is the Big Bad in Earthbound, Porky is the malevolent being's willing accomplice. And as the Earthbound sequel, Mother 3, shows, Porky is a resourceful villain who's able to rise above his previous failures to become even more powerful and dangerous. And his appearance in Smash could also bridge the gap between his sniveling uselessness in Earthbound and his powerful but decaying form in Mother 3--a Porky that's just coming into his own powers but also relies on sophisticated gadgetry to pummel his foes. Most of all, I just want Porky in the game so that there's another direct Nintendo connection to the Earthbound/Mother series. I still haven't given up hope of a Western release of Mother 3...and the Switch would be the perfect console to get that long-awaited port. | Justin Haywald
The Champions Of Hyrule
The reveal trailer for Super Smash Bros. on Switch all but confirmed that Link from Breath of the Wild will be in the game. But I hope Nintendo will include more Breath of the Wild characters, like the Champions: Revali, Daruk, Urbosa, and Mipha. It would be awesome to see them all added into the game as four separate characters, but realistically, I could see Nintendo making them a single character slot--similar to Pokemon Trainer from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Having the ability to play and freely switch between Revali, Daruk, Urbosa, and Mipha sounds complicated to implement. After all, having access to four separate movesets seems like it would be both a mechanical and balancing nightmare, but I'm holding out for the possibility of the Champions being playable. Imagine launching an opponent upwards into the air with Revali's Gale, and then switching to Daruk to smash them down with his Boulder Breaker. You could even have Mipha revive you if you happen to accidentally get launched out of a stage. There are a ton of cool possibilities available for the Champions, and given Breath of the Wild's financial and critical success, they ought to be put in the game in some form. At the very least, I hope Nintendo incorporates their moves into Breath of the Wild Link's moveset, or creates an entire stage devoted to them and their Divine Beasts. | Matt Espineli
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