We have a PSA for Civilization fans: If you've been waiting for the price to drop on Civilization VI's newest expansion, Gathering Storm, today's the day to grab it. While the Gathering Storm expansion, which released in February, is still selling for $40 on Steam and elsewhere, it's currently on sale for $26 at Fanatical--and we have an exclusive promo code that slashes the price even more.
If you use promo code GAMESPOTCIV6GS at Fanatical, you can get an officially licensed Steam key for Civilization VI: Gathering Storm for only $20, by far its lowest price yet. As a comparison, the first Civ VI expansion, Rise and Fall, still sells for $30 and is discounted to $19.49 at Steam right now--and it released over a year ago. So this is a good chance to grab Gathering Storm for cheap, as it likely won't drop lower than $20 anywhere for quite a while.
The deal is available now through May 21 at midnight PT / 3 AM ET / 7 AM GMT / 5 PM AET. To claim the 50% off deal, head to Fanatical and add the Gathering Storm expansion to your cart. In checkout, click "Redeem a coupon code" and paste in GAMESPOTCIV6GS.You'll see the price drop to $20, and you'll receive your purchased Steam key immediately. Please note this is Aspyr's version of Gathering Storm for Steam, so you must have a free Steam account to redeem the key.
The Gathering Storm DLC adds eight new civilizations and nine new leaders, along with new world wonders, units, districts, buildings, and improvements. As the name implies, Gathering Storm adds environmental hazards, like volcanic eruptions, blizzards, sandstorms, hurricanes, floods, droughts, and climate change, to wreak havoc on your civilization. Luckily, there are ways to counter nature's fury, such as building dams to ward off flooding and developing cleaner energy sources. Gathering Storm also introduces the World Congress (through which you can earn a Diplomatic Victory), new late-game technology and civics, and new scenarios like The Black Death and War Machine (WWII).
If, for some reason, you're reading this article but haven't yet purchased Civilization VI, it's worth noting you can currently grab the base game for $15 on Fanatical (about 75% off). Civ VI is already on sale for $16.79, and using sitewide promo code MAY10, you can slash another 10% off the price, dropping it to $15.
That promo code also applies to hundreds of other PC games discounted across Fanatical right now--be sure to check out the huge May Madness sale running all week long.
When Darkwood originally launched in early access in 2014, it was an ambitious game that suffered from clunkiness and a lack of identity. In GameSpot's early access review, writer Brett Todd admired its willingness to experiment with aesthetics and rework the concept of permadeath, but couldn't get past the fact that it wasn't quite ready to go on sale. Now, in 2019, Darkwood is an entirely new game.
It was inevitable that Darkwood would be compared to similar open-world survival games like the Burtonesque Don't Starve, and from a gameplay standpoint their top-down perspectives and day/night cycles are similar. However, the most recent iteration of this macabre indie game is unwaveringly confident in itself. Darkwood revels in its eponymous darkness--even its daytime cycles are subjected to limited visibility, courtesy of its field-of-vision illumination. The best thing about this is that it doesn't rely on nighttime to be scary. Even at the crack of dawn, venturing too far from your hideout can result in you coming face to face with blood-curdling, satanic sadists hellbent on mauling you to death.
The game assimilates a plethora of systems into its makeup, including crafting, bartering, and combat. Although the mechanics are quite complex, Darkwood offers an intense but fair learning curve. While the controls are clearly mapped out on the pause menu, learning how to manipulate some of the game's ostensibly unimportant mechanics can give you a major edge as you progress into its more difficult areas. For example, the game affords you skills in exchange for cooking in ominous ovens. These skills usually only have a minor impact on the game, allowing you to benefit from a daily single-use perk such as running without taking stamina into account. However, these perks come at a cost: For every skill you gain, you must apply a negative effect designed to hinder you for the rest of your playthrough. These are incredibly minor, but in a game as brutally unforgiving as Darkwood, it's essential to level up with caution, which subverts the entire idea of leveling up rapidly in the first place.
As a result, opting to favor survivability over gratifyingly quick forward momentum often allows you to live longer in the end--something that's absolutely essential on Darkwood's harder modes, where lives are limited. But even on Normal difficulty, it's important that you recognize that this is an ambiguous world that necessitates experimentation. As the world deteriorates into madness around you, the only way to survive is to adapt alongside decay. Rather than help you, Darkwood's systems affect you in a much more neutral way. I spent a night boarded up in a hideout that was fortified to the teeth with barriers only to be attacked by packs of demonic dogs moments before the saving grace of the sunrise. However, I also happened to survive three nights in a row by hiding inconspicuously in a cramped corner, praying that I wasn't overwhelmed by hordes of red chompers in the twilight.
Because you're never truly safe in Darkwood, it's easy to lose track of time. Eventually, days seem to merge into one another, and it becomes startlingly clear that the majority of society has descended into an irreparable state of madness. People live in a perpetually frozen cycle of day and night in which there are only two recurring parts of the same day, repeated eternally. The characters you meet are mostly uninterested in speaking with you, but among the Silent Forest's more amicable residents are an aspiring astronaut named Piotrek, who is attempting to build a rocket ship out of hunks of scrap metal, and a muttering musician who plays dissonant, apocalyptic notes on a broken violin in an effort to win the hand of a woman kept locked in the basement by her older sister--something made all the more horrifying by how poorly he performs. These post-plague virtuosos are at home in Darkwood's chaos, and their chosen vocations reflect the fact that they've already been absorbed by the chaos of this dynamic and disintegrating world. That's one of the most horrifying things about Darkwood: the way in which humanity learns to use madness as an asset in a world without order.
That's one of the most horrifying things about Darkwood: the way in which humanity learns to use madness as an asset in a world without order.
There are, however, some aspects of Darkwood that indicate the transient nature of life in the forest. At the beginning of the game, you're given the opportunity to euthanize your wounded dog, who sits outside your house whimpering in pain. If you choose not to, the dog transforms into a vicious varmint by the time you return later, ferociously clawing and gnawing at you in a deranged state of mindless violence. Darkwood's narrative is ambiguous at the best of times and is mostly to do with choosing which NPCs to favor in various subplots, but easily-overlooked details like this dog's fate tell disturbing tales of their own. As a result, some subplots only tell part of the story. Other details are intricately interwoven into the environment, and these narrative manifestations and the more ostensible plot points are of equal importance in understanding the world at large.
That's what makes Darkwood so brilliantly-suited to console. Although on the surface a keyboard suits the game's mechanics--namely its hotfixed inventory system and the quickfire solutions that are often necessary for survival in the night--there's something much more visceral about playing with analog sticks and haptic feedback. Instead of simply pressing a combination of keys to attack anathemic abominations, you need to use hyper-sensitive camera control to succeed in combat. Dodging is mapped to an analog click, whereas shooting a gun genuinely feels instinctive because enemies close distance at an alarming rate. It's easy to miss point-blank because of a knee-jerk reaction, and it's the fact that you can be punished once and for all for doing so that makes the game all the more hair-raising.
What makes Darkwood truly special, though, is its world. At one point in the game, you visit an area simply known as "The Village." Here, a group of deranged denizens worship a gnarled sow, deifying it as "The Mother of all Pigs." Almost everyone in the village has descended into a state of utter insanity, with one of the town's most domineering residents having developed a gravitation toward chickens after locking up her own sister to save her marrying a chagrined musician. Most of the citizens here immediately associate you with an aura of antipathy, but the fact they live in such an aloof society is horrifying. All around, the world is darkening and fading, and this singular town, serving as a bastion against a descent into savagery, is inevitably lost. Because you, the safe and sound player, get to witness it from an external perspective, The Village's encroaching demise is drastically more affecting. This is the last of the world, and it's due to go out not with a bang, but a whimper.
While Darkwood is an absolute marvel in terms of its aesthetics and gameplay--as well as its disarmingly dissonant score--I experienced several bugs that caused me to lose minor progress. In one case, I was trapped behind a disassembled tractor, which forced me to quit to the main menu and restart the game in order to press onward. On top of this, one of the game's areas caused the frame rate to drop so dramatically that playing became a chore. This was easily rectified, again simply requiring a soft reboot, but these glitches are a disappointing nuisance plaguing an otherwise exceptional game.
However, these bugs aren't game-breaking. And even though they irritated me, I couldn't pull myself away from Darkwood, no matter how much its uncanny world made me audibly squeal. Rather than relying on jump scares--although they are present, to a minor degree--Darkwood psychologically unhinges you. You're consistently lured into a false sense of security as you hole up in an ironclad hideaway before night falls, or when seemingly benevolent NPCs beguile you with promises of collaboration against the hordes of darkness. It's horror by subversion, because it's only when you're safest that you let your guard down--and it's only when you take that singular breath of respite that you concede to utter susceptibility. There's nothing quite as scary as momentarily looking away before being drawn back in by a sound cue or a controller vibration. And before you know it, it's fight or flight, as you fall into the fray of the unforgiving darkness and are forced to compose yourself within a split second or risk losing half your inventory.
In Darkwood, there's an item you can show several NPCs called "photo of a road." What's interesting about this is that several of these entirely disparate wanderers have the exact same response to this curious snapshot. "Around here," they say, "all roads lead to nowhere." And as Darkwood's forest is guzzled up by the rapidly encroaching night, roads are no longer places-between-places. Instead, they're a communal necropolis, waiting for the creatures of the night to tribute more destitute dupes to its earthy, deathly soil.
Netflix appears to have some game announcements in store, teasing appearances at E3 2019 next month. The studio will have a panel at the E3 Coliseum, and has dropped some intriguing hints about what it has up its sleeve.
A tweet announcing the Coliseum panel says it will cover "news about its plans in the gaming space," and an attached image names the panel, "Bringing Your Favorite Shows To Life: Developing Netflix Originals Into Video Games." Similarly, a Twitter thread from Netflix's sci-fi and fantasy Twitter account mentioned the previously announced Stranger Things game adaptation paired with the upcoming Season 3, but also said "there's definitely more to come!"
Now in its second year, E3 Coliseum is a main stage presentation that takes place at LA Live, adjacent to the LA Convention Center, hosted by Geoff Keighley. It's part of the ESA and E3's initiative to make E3 a more public-facing event.
Netflix has approached games in two distinct ways. The first puts out narrative-driven experiences on its video streaming service, marked with an icon to note that it allows you to steer the direction of the story--like Minecraft: Story Mode and Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. The other involves console and mobile releases of games based on Netflix properties, like the Stranger Things games.
The panel's title certainly seems to imply the latter, but then that raises the question of which properties are ripe for game adaptations. The NX brand tends to promote animated series like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Voltron: Legendary Defender, and The Dragon Prince, along with live-action series like Umbrella Academy, and Altered Carbon.
Be warned: We're discussing Episode 5 of Game of Thrones Season 8, "The Bells," and thus there will be a great many spoilers.
As it approaches its conclusion, Game of Thrones feels like a different show than it has in the past. Blame it on any number of issues--two shortened final seasons resulting in rushed character development, a lack of source material to act as a roadmap, or the cause of the constant (if possibly unfair) refrain decrying "bad writing"--but a generalized reaction among many fans is that something feels wrong.
It may be any or all of those things, but there's something fundamentally underpinning them all that fans are reacting to, even if they're not quite aware of it. Game of Thrones, it turns out, is not about what we all thought it was about.
In Episode 5, "The Bells," Game of Thrones finally takes Daenerys Targaryen from "worryingly willing to burn to death anyone who disagrees with her, but generally out for good" to full-on "child-murdering Mad Queen." She accomplishes what her father never could: She "burns them all" in King's Landing, regardless of whether they're civilian or soldier, or whether it wins her the throne or not. Daenerys's reactions to the loss of two of her dragons, the betrayals in her ranks, and the unwillingness of Westeros to bend to her will finally cause her to snap, and from the back of her last dragon, Drogon, she brings fire and blood to her former home.
Ask many fans/viewers/etc. and they'll say the show has been foreshadowing Daenerys bringing destruction to King's Landing all along. Dany has always been a ruthless character when she has to be, often electing to execute people in a generally cruel and unusual way: by burning them alive with dragon fire. She's particularly unforgiving to people who oppose her, especially when they don't immediately bend the knee. There have been plenty of times when Dany has wanted to just ravage everyone in her path, only to be curbed from her most merciless instincts by her advisers (most notably Jorah Mormont). With most of those people now dead and Daenerys currently at her lowest, she finally gave in to her Targaryen rage.
It's true that Game of Thrones has been foreshadowing that this could happen, but it's unfair to say that it always suggested that it would happen. Really, this goes to the fundamental conflict of Daenerys's character: She's struggling not to become her father, or to fall into the patterns of other monarchs who use their power mercilessly. Daenerys can be ruthless, but she learned a lot in Meereen not just about how to conquer, but how to rule. She has a highly tuned sense of justice. She considers herself the Breaker of Chains, and this is just as an essential part of her identity as being the Mother of Dragons.
Midway through "The Bells," we finally get Game of Thrones' overall thesis statement. The show is a tragedy in which the characters can't break free of their pasts. Power corrupts the powerful, even those with the best intentions. Monarchy is bad. The world is a cold, hard place, where you'll probably die badly and abruptly for no reason; if you're lucky, you'll die badly and abruptly because of a mistake you made two seasons earlier, but at least it'll feel deserved.
The trouble is that Game of Thrones has made thesis statements in the past--or at least, it felt like it did. The most notable was a declaration from Daenerys herself from Season 5, in which she explained her intention to "break the wheel." The system of inherited wealth and power, and constant war over both, destroy people needlessly. It makes the world a bad place to live. It could be better. And Daenerys intended to use her considerable power to improve it.
Daenerys made another similar statement to the same effect when talking to Tyrion in Season 5. Tyrion dispelled Dany's notions of her family being unjustly evicted from the Iron Throne by explaining why her father, the Mad King Aerys Targaryen, was deposed: He became a paranoid and vicious tyrant. With an understanding of what her father had become, Daenerys made a decision to become something else.
"Our fathers were evil men," Daenerys said. "All of us here. They left the world worse than they found it. We're going to leave the world better than we found it."
Over and over again, Game of Thrones has felt like this was what it was really about: When given the choice, even in the face of tragedy and hardship, what do you leave in the world? It's central to the stories of the Stark kids: Jon Snow fights for the good of the realm, up to and beyond his own murder; Sansa Stark learns how to be the best power-seeker in Westeros, but uses those lessons to win independence for the North; Arya Stark is driven by nothing but revenge, until she reestablishes her connections with her family. It was Daenerys's story too, obviously. And it was the story of the Lannisters, who represented the other side of the coin, fully willing to add ruin to the world so long as they were protected. Really, just about every character, from Jaime Lannister to Brienne of Tarth to Sandor Clegane, is trying to shake off the weight of their pasts, to turn away from the path determined by what they've done and what was expected of them, with each achieving varying degrees of success.
In fact, this line of thinking was why the elimination of the Night King mid-season could have been a brilliant move for the show. Fighting the army of the dead brought unity to a variety of people, including former enemies, in the middle of Season 8--but unity against a common enemy only survives as long as that enemy does. When the Night King is vanquished, can you resist the inertial pull to go back to the old petty squabbles that end up costing lives? Dealing with that question is what made Cersei Lannister a better villain than the wordless Night King because she held up a dark mirror of what Daenerys (and other rulers) could easily become. The Night King was an external existential threat, but Cersei represented the threat the characters pose to themselves and each other.
With Daenerys's choice to go full war criminal over King's Landing as the bells start ringing, Game of Thrones makes a choice about which show it is. If Daenerys had felt rage and suffering and considered giving in to those feelings (how easily someone with her power could), but turned awayfrom that choice even with no better angels like Jorah or Tyrion to mutter in her ear, the show really would be about breaking the wheel. Its ultimate message would be that people aren't beholden to our cycles and our baggage, or to the sins and expectations of our parents. The world can be better, but you have to make it better, just like you have to make yourself better.
Instead, Game of Thrones chooses a darker, more nihilistic meaning. Throughout "The Bells," characters fall back into their old ways. No matter how good a man Jaime tries to become, the one person he can't convince that he's changed is himself. No matter how much Sandor Clegane might hope for a life free of violence, the desire for vengeance consumes him. Cersei can't give up her stranglehold on power and control, even in the face of annihilation. Jon Snow's unyielding dedication to his father's ideals of honor leaves him complicit in a massacre. No amount of good intentions (or slaves freed, or cruel institutions crushed) can keep Daenerys from giving in to her worst impulses and becoming the Mad Queen.
The world is bad, it's going to stay bad, and we can't break free of our pasts. Your baggage defines you and even if you try to improve, you're always an inch away from backsliding into becoming the very thing you feared and hated. Life is nasty, brutish, short, and most of all, explicitly, extremely sad because of what we do to each other. The wheel is much bigger than any one person or even any 300-year dynasty, and not even dragon fire can break it. This is just another war in a history full of them.
That seems to be the finality that Game of Thrones has chosen. It's an end that, in a way, has always been written into the show's DNA--but it also seemed as though the whole point of the show was for its characters to overcome it. After having meant so much to so many people, it seems a shame that the "bittersweet" ending Game of Thrones' creators have chosen leans so hard into bitter, and so little into sweet.
As Game of Thrones reaches its very end, the show continues to break records. The most recent, penultimate Episode 5 has set a new audience record for the show and was watched by a massive 18.4 million viewers.
The episode, titled "The Bells," is the most-watched episode in the show's history. This figure includes replays and streaming; in terms of on-air viewing, the episode drew an audience of 12.5 million across two airings on Sunday night. The previous record was held by Episode 3 of Season 8, "The Long Night," which which was watched by a total of 17.8 million viewers two week ago. Prior to that the record was set by the 17.4 millions viewers who watched the season premiere.
While these figures make Season 8 the most popular to date, the show has been a ratings hit from the very start. The show is HBO's most popular series of all time and the most watched scripted show on TV. There is just one episode remaining in Season 8--and the whole show entirely. Episode 6 airs next Sunday, May 19.
Despite the huge viewings figures, like most of the episodes in Season 8, "The Bells" received a mixed response from some critics and viewers. In his review, GameSpot's Michael Rougeau stated that the show has become a "fiery sea of nihilism and cynicism about human nature." Nevertheless, he praised it on a technical level, stating the episode was "a masterpiece of cinematic fantasy television."
After over six months in open beta, Red Dead Online is finally leaving its beta phase and rolling out a huge new update. This week, Red Dead Redemption 2's online mode is getting pumped up with new co-op story missions, Free Roam missions that feature new characters from the main game, new Posse Versus Challenges with activities like fishing and shooting, a new hostility system, poker games that seat up to six players, various gameplay improvements, and more.
To celebrate the occasion, Rockstar Games is making Red Dead Online available to all PS4 players, including those who aren't subscribed to PlayStation Plus, as part of a special bonus period. From now through May 27, anyone who owns Red Dead Redemption 2 on PS4 can dive into its online multiplayer mode. With all the new additions and improvements, there's no better time to see what Red Dead Online is all about.
If you want to keep playing Red Dead Online past May 27, PlayStation is temporarily lowering the price of PS Plus for Red Dead Redemption 2 owners in the US. The 12-month subscription is being offered for $48 (usually $60), while the three-month plan is available for $21 (usually $25); plus, you'll receive 10 Gold Bars per month while your subscription lasts. This offer ends June 3 and must be purchased within Red Dead Redemption 2. The subscription will auto-renew at full price unless you cancel. (Psst--if you don't care about the Gold Bars, you can get a 12-month PS Plus subscription for $40 at MassGenie right now.)
More content and bonuses are planned for Red Dead Online in the coming weeks, including new Free Roam missions, clothing, and PS4 Early Access content, which will release on May 21 in time for players without PS Plus to check it out. Another perk: Anyone who logs into Red Dead Online this week will get a one-time gift of 15 Gold Bars and receive a 15% XP increase on A Land of Opportunities, Free Roam missions and events, Showdown modes, and races. You'll also find 25% extra cash and gold in chests. Finally, Ultimate Edition owners will also receive $100 in Red Dead Online cash and the Throat Slit emote for free.
Each week, digital storefronts and local retailers release a slew of new movies and TV series for you to purchase. While movies like Detective Pikachu are dominating the box office, maybe you want to stay home and watch something on your couch? This week is a pretty large week for releases, even though there isn't anything huge of note.
Digitally, you can find new releases at digital storefronts like iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, and more. The Kevin Hart/Bryan Cranston dramedy The Upside drops this week. The movie follows a wealthy handicapped man who needs someone to help him with his daily routine. He hires a parolee who is trying to put his life back together.
Additionally, there is a new Batman movie available. In Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the dark night teams up with the heroes in the half shell to fight Shredder and Ra's Al Ghul. This is very much a movie title that explains the entirety of the plot. Other releases of note are Apollo 11, Cold Pursuit, and the A24 horror movie Climax.
On the physical side of things, on DVD and Blu-ray this week is Fighting With My Family. The film is the real-life story of WWE superstar Paige and her family, who are also wrestlers. Paige starts off in the indies and works her way through WWE's developmental system, NXT. While the movie tends to make choices that may annoy hardcore wrestling fans, Fighting with my Family is a lighthearted and fun flick. The DVD release includes deleted and extended scenes, a gag reel, commentary, and making-of featurettes, including in-ring training for the movie. If I had a pick of the week, this would be it--mainly because I love wrestling.
Below, you'll find the full list for his week's releases, both digitally and physically.
Last week, Disney revealed the release dates for the three Star Wars movies that will follow Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker this December. It has now been confirmed that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will be making the first of these, which is set to arrive in 2022.
As reported by io9, this news was announced by Disney boss Bob Iger while was speaking at the MoffetNathanson Media & Communications summit in New York. It's not a big surprise, as it's been known for some time that Benioff and Weiss have been working on a new series of Star Wars films.
The new Star Wars movies will be released on on December 16, 2022, December 20, 2024, and December 18, 2026. There are two sets of movies in development, one from Benioff and Weiss, and the other from The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson. It had been rumored that work on Benioff and Weiss's series was further along, and Star Wars Net recently reported that their first movie will begin production this fall. It has also been reported that their films will be set in the days of the Old Republic, hundreds of years before the events of the current movies.
It's notable that the Star Wars release schedule has slowed down. When the series relaunched in 2015 with The Force Awakens, Disney's plan was to release a movie each year. However, the commercial failure of 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story reportedly led to plans for further spin-offs to be cancelled, with Iger admitting that the movies so far had been released "a little too much, too fast." The new films will now be released every two years, alternating their December releases with James Cameron's Avatar sequels.
In related news, the live-action Star Wars show The Mandalorian premieres in the fall, when the streaming platform Disney+ launches. There is also a show focusing on the Rogue One character Cassian Andor in development for the service.
World of Warcraft turns 15 this year, and Blizzard is celebrating in a few different ways. One of those is the launch of World of Warcraft Classic, coming this summer, for those who want to experience WoW in its original flavor. But for fans of the popular MMORPG as a whole, the company is also releasing an anniversary Collector's Edition filled with goodies.
The CE launches on October 8 for $100, and pre-purchases are now available through the Blizzard store. The bonus items include a pair of special mounts, fine art prints, a mouse pad with a map of Azeroth, and an Onyxia pin. The centerpiece of the collection is a large black-and-gold colored statue of Ragnaros.
Meanwhile, Blizzard also announced that WoW Classic will launch on August 27. You may actually get a chance to try it before then, though, as a closed beta is set to begin on May 15. It will also be running a series of stress tests through July. You can sign up to participate through the official site. If you're already a WoW subscriber, you'll get access to Classic as well.
Classic rewinds the clock to World of Warcraft as it existed as of the 1.12 update. It also includes some under-the-hood modern conveniences like Battle.net social features and modern server infrastructure.
Over the 15 years since the launch of World of Warcraft, Blizzard has slowly sanded off some of Azeroth's rough edges. The world is still bustling with dangerous dungeons and harrowing raids, but these days it's a kinder, friendlier world. World of Warcraft Classic aims to fix that, to make Azeroth dangerous again--although it retains a few of the modern niceties.
Blizzard has announced a release date for World of Warcraft Classic, along with a closed beta and a series of stress tests leading up to its August launch. Recent hands-on time with WoW Classic showed a recognizably sparse version of the game, with even basic quest-tracking a little less clearly signposted. This is a WoW meant for fans who have been with the game since the beginning, and who want to recapture that feeling.
Production director Patrick Dawson and WoW Classic lead engineer Brian Birmingham explained the motivations behind this ambitious retrofitting of the popular MMORPG, and what they hope it brings to the fans.
"The community said, we want Classic WoW. And when we looked at it, it looked like a world with crashes, with teleport hacks. It didn't meet the quality bar that Blizzard has today," Dawson told GameSpot. "Well, what if we used our modern infrastructure? Can we retrofit that? So we embarked on a few weeks journey to explore what that world was."
The decision to recreate the classic feeling within the new infrastructure led to some decision points. For some players, the rough edges are part of the original authenticity. Blizzard was left to make determinations on what belonged and what didn't, and the question came down to tough judgment calls.
"Anything that would affect gameplay we want to make sure that we deliver something that is authentic." Birmingham said. "Where we feel like quality-of-life improvements are okay are things like, tabbing to complete a name in in-game mail. That's not a core part of the gameplay experience of leveling, and questing, and trying to explore the world.
"Challenge is part of it," Birmingham continued. "The world feels dangerous. There are difficult group quests out in the world, elite quests that you can't do by yourself, or you would have to over-level if you wanted to do them by yourself. Where they really push you to find somebody else to help you out, or out level them and come back later, or you can just leave them and go on. You don't have to complete every quest in every zone. You can choose your path through the world. So I think that is exactly the classic gameplay that people are looking for."
A different brand of challenge is presented by the PVP, which has undergone multiple phases and metas throughout the game's long lifespan. As in any competitive live game, some classes will be a fan favorite criticized as overpowered in one era only to be left behind in the next. The team says this is one of the main reasons it chose this specific iteration of WoW.
"The 1.12 system is what we're starting with, that's the one target that we aimed at," Birmingham said. "We said, '1.12 was where the game was the most patched, the most complete, and the most balanced.' That's what we wanted to set the systems at for WoW Classic."
That isn't to say that the game will be completely static, however. While the plan is to retain the game as it was in the 1.12 update in perpetuity, players will still find some content unlocking over time, recreating the feeling of being an active player as the game was first rolling out with updates.
"People are asking to be able to go back and play WoW Classic as it was," Birmingham said. "We wanted to create this, almost like a snapshot in time, but we do want have these progressive content unlocks. So things like, Blackwind Lair, and Ahn'Qiraj, and Naxxramas. We want those to unlock over time, as the community is ready for them, as they progress through those various pieces of content. At the same time the systems overall we want to lock in at 1.12, where we feel like they were the most complete and balanced."
The notion of ongoing updates as they originally appeared, though, raises the question of expansions. Blizzard has released seven expansions in all. And while later ones like Legion or Battle for Azeroth would feel out-of-place within the Classic framework, it stands to reason that some players may want to experience earlier expansions--such as The Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King--in the context of World of Warcraft Classic. Blizzard isn't committing to this, but also hasn't ruled it out.
"The community's demand for WoW Classic is why we did WoW Classic," said Birmingham. "So we are certainly open to hearing what people think about it. At the same time what we are focused on right now is WoW Classic. That's what we are committed to delivering. We don't have any plans to announce anything past that."
World of Warcraft Classic, the retro re-release of WoW in its near-original state, will launch on August 27, 2019. Blizzard announced the release date alongside a nifty collector's edition, but you may not have to wait until the summer to try out the game. A closed beta is starting this week.
The closed beta will begin on May 15. Participants will be selected from a small pool of existing WoW players. Subsequent stress tests will run regularly from May through July. You can opt in through the official site.
Blizzard also announced a boxed Collector's Edition for World of Warcraft to ring in the game's 15th anniversary. It includes a Onyxia pin, map of Azeroth mouse pad, art prints, special anniversary mounts, and a large black-and-gold statue of Ragnaros the Firelord. It will release on October 8 for $100, and you can pre-purchase from the Blizzard store.
World of Warcraft Classic lets you play the game as it existed almost 15 years ago, upon the release of the 1.12 "Drums of War" update. Blizzard says it considers that era to be the correct balance of the game resembling its original launch state while also having ironed out some of the rough spots of launch. This version is also including some updates under the hood, like modern server infrastructure and Battle.net social features.
If you're already a WoW subscriber, you get access to Classic as well at no extra cost. WoW Classic will also be releasing content in phases, following the original order of content releases.
Join GameSpot as we celebrate gaming history and give recognition to the most influential games of the 21st century. These aren't the best games, and they aren't necessarily games that you need to rush out and play today, but there's no question that they left an indelible impact on game developers, players, and in some cases, society at large.
From Software's Dark Souls launched in 2011 and, at the time, seemed destined for obscurity. As the spiritual successor to PS3 curio Demon's Souls, it initially garnered interest from a small but passionate fanbase, but few would have bet on it to leave a lasting impression. After all, 2011 was a year littered with tentpole releases: Skyrim, The Witcher 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3, Portal 2, and Modern Warfare 3, to name just a few.
These were new entries in blockbuster franchises that leveraged the cachet of well-known and respected developers--Dark Souls, on the other hand, came from an underappreciated Japanese studio which had cultivated a niche following through the challenging gameplay and obscure design of its previous games. On lists of notable game releases of 2011, Dark Souls still looks like an awkward outsider. And yet, what it achieved resonated with game developers and players in a way that made it one of the century's defining games.
From Software may have received mainstream recognition with Dark Souls, but what made that game special wasn't that it came up with completely new ways to play, it was instead the execution of ideas that From Software had been playing with since its very first title, King's Field. From Software is a studio that iterates more than it innovates, and the building blocks of what made Dark Souls a landmark title were laid out in Demon's Souls, albeit in a configuration that felt less cohesive than they would be in the follow-up.
Dark Souls is a game in which players are cast as the Chosen Undead, a prophesied figure that would appear at the end of the Age of Fire and journey to Lordran to either sacrifice themselves to the flame and extend the Age of Fire, or snuff it out and usher in the Age of Dark. The Souls series has come to be notorious for its difficulty. Death is inevitable, and often woven in on a thematic level. Enemies, large and small, are ruthless, often punishing missteps and undoing progress in a way that feels particularly ruthless. This trait of Dark Souls is what is most prominently discussed and, at the time, showed that games didn't have to be power fantasies where the player always has the upper hand. Instead, the grueling struggle of facing insurmountable odds and the satisfaction of overcoming them was a valuable and appreciated design philosophy.
In the wake of Dark Souls, games began to bear their teeth once again, harkening back to classic, punishing experiences of old school platformers and action games. Titles such as Titan Souls, Nioh, Lords of the Fallen, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Dragon's Dogma, and The Surge, among many others, were built around offering the same sense of powerlessness that Dark Souls popularized. They challenged players to work for the satisfaction of victory and earn their progress, instead of handing it to them on a platter. This is perhaps the most immediate ramification of Dark Souls on games as a whole, but the game's achievements extend so much farther.
Ask a From Software or Souls fanatic what the most impactful part of Dark Souls was, and why they think it has been influential, and they are more likely to cite the game's delivery of narrative and its world-building. Demon's and Dark Souls are games that reflect the way their director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, experienced stories as a child. Growing up poor, he became an avid reader, often delving into stories that were still beyond his comprehension. He would reach passages that were difficult for him to understand, and in those moments would craft his own narratives to fill in the blanks.
That kind of co-authorship is at the heart of Dark Souls. The world of Lordran is rich with history, with various gods, disciples, factions, and ideologies laid out to build a compelling world for players to unravel and understand. But all of the necessary details to do so are scattered around the game as small pieces of a larger puzzle. Those interested in seeing the full picture would need to read item descriptions, which contained small nuggets of information, or listen closely to the vague chatter of characters, and then draw their own connections. Like the gameplay, the process of experiencing the story demands patience, a studious nature, and the willingness to read between the lines and draw conclusions that may never be overtly verified. That sense of narrative minimalism also became pervasive in the post-Dark Souls era.
From Software's depiction of Lordran is one of its crowning achievements, and to this day few games have been able to capture an atmosphere in the way Dark Souls did.
Audiences began placing scrutiny on aspects of games that were previously an afterthought. Things like item descriptions were no longer just treated as simple flavor text, and set dressing didn't just have to be eye-candy. It became an expectation that even the smallest details should be meaningful to the game in some way. In turn, developers seized the opportunity to explore narratives in more emergent ways. Bungie's Destiny, for example, is a game that--on the face of it--launched with a barebones story, but obsessives that read the text attached to guns, armor, and other items could find so much more buried beneath the surface. With that in mind, it's perhaps more appropriate to say that Dark Souls was a game that emphasized lore more than story, and showed that players didn't need to be held by the hand and dragged through a narrative. They could be teased with it and left to find meaning at their leisure. The delivery of narrative and lore became more sophisticated, and you only have to look at the massive online communities that have developed around dissecting Dark Souls' story to see just how valuable this has been.
Lordran itself also holds as significant a place in the history of games. On a broader level, its construction stands out as intricate and thoughtful, with disparate areas connecting in a natural way that imprinted a vivid impression of its whole, but it's the artistic expression that elevates it all. Lordran is a world that feels suspended in time and on the precipice of a great change, waiting for the player to arrive and instigate it. The Age of Fire has not been kind to its people, who have lost their purpose and become husks of themselves because of an endless cycle of death and rebirth. Lordran is oppressively somber, a sad echo of a kingdom that was once prosperous and ruled by a benevolent king. The desperate struggle to hold on to the Age of Light only served to plunge the land into further turmoil, and this is overwhelmingly apparent at every turn. From Software's depiction of Lordran is one of its crowning achievements, and to this day few games have been able to capture an atmosphere in the way Dark Souls did. From its very outset, the game is melancholic, and as you stand in Firelink Shrine--a hub area that players return to frequently--evocative music makes you mourn for a world you barely even know. There's a restraint to the way From Software presented Lordran, with many areas left eerily silent, devoid of life, and bearing the marks of cataclysmic events from ages gone.
In Dark Souls, less was very much more. It sought to instill feelings and evoke emotions: isolation, loneliness, fear, or uncertainty, these are what remain most memorable about the game. In GameSpot's review of Dark Souls, Kevin VanOrd said, "Its terrors emanate from its very core … how amazing that such a terrible place could be so inviting. The game's world is so memorable, and its action so thrilling, that it might invade your thoughts even when you aren't playing, silently urging you to escape the real world and return to this far more treacherous one." This achievement can't be held up as entirely unique to Dark Souls, as games that came before it, most notably Nintendo's Metroid series, Thief, Shadow of the Colossus, and more modern titles such as BioShock, managed similar feats. But somewhere along the way, this method of creating a striking sense of place through minimalism fell by the wayside. In the years following Dark Souls, however, they sprung back into the spotlight, obtuse, empty, and often hostile game world became the aesthetic du jour, with games like Hollow Knight, Sunless Sea, and Darkest Dungeon.
Dark Souls' impact on gaming is undeniable. Such is its influence that the term Souls-like has become a genre in and of itself. But describing a game as "Souls-like" can mean so many things, from challenging gameplay to emergent storytelling, or even a distinct sense of place. The fact that the term can be used in such a diverse way to explain facets of action games, RPGs, puzzle games, or even text adventures is the strongest indication of just how important the game was and is to this day.
A new Nintendo Direct presentation is airing this week, the company has announced. The broadcast is scheduled to take place tomorrow, May 15, and will focus entirely on one of this summer's biggest Nintendo Switch games, Super Mario Maker 2.
According to Nintendo of America's official Twitter account, tomorrow's Nintendo Direct will run for approximately 15 minutes and be "packed" with new details about the upcoming Mario level creator. The broadcast is set to begin at 3 PM PT; you can find time zone conversions below.
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) May 14, 2019
May 15 Nintendo Direct Start Time
3 PM PT
6 PM ET
11 PM BST
8 AM AET (May 16)
You'll be able to stream the presentation from the usual venues. Nintendo will broadcast the Direct on its website, Twitch, and YouTube channels. GameSpot will have the stream up as well, so you can tune in right here to watch the Direct. We'll also have full coverage of all the new details Nintendo will reveal.
Super Mario Maker 2 was first announced during February's big Nintendo Direct. Much like the original Wii U/3DS game, it allows players to create and share their own custom Super Mario levels using a suite of assets and tools. Nintendo showed off a handful of new customization options in the game's reveal trailer. Among other things, players can now create slopes for Mario to slide down, adjust the direction autoscrolling levels scroll, and use assets from Super Mario 3D World.
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