Metroid Prime 4 — Nintendo Speaks Out

ISSUE 8 — 27 January 2019

by Shahan Ahmed and Dale Hurst

Top Story — OVERWHELMING POSITIVITY TOWARDS METROID PRIME 4 HONESTY

Nintendo has come clean to their Metroid fans. Shinya Takahashi, Nintendo’s General Manager of Planning and Development, presented a development update, in which he states that the current progress on Metroid Prime 4 was not up to their standard. They have taken the decision to restart production from the beginning and have producer Kensuke Tanabe work with US-based developer Retro Studios, who worked on the original Metroid Prime series as well as Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze.

Even though it’s not happy news for everyone eagerly waiting for Metroid Prime 4, the reception to Nintendo’s actions have been positive. The fact that they themselves were not happy with how their game was turning out and being transparent about it. It comes across sincerely and can be seen as respectful towards their customers. They are setting an example for everyone else in the gaming industry. It is a stark contrast compared to recent stories of how certain developers have let down their fan-base.

Shahan’s Opinion: Honesty is the best policy. Also bringing back Retro Studios to continue the Metroid Prime series seems like a no-brainer! They know the games inside-out and no doubt they will push the franchise to new heights with the fourth instalment.

New Character Spotlight — DAI (Jump Force)

dai

Dragon Quest protagonist Dai is the latest revealed addition to the roster for the upcoming anime crossover game Jump Force. He was revealed alongside a new story trailer; however no details as to a moveset or anything else have been given as yet. However, an educated guess suggests that Dai’s magical abilities and sword will both be the cruxes of his in-game capabilities.

Shahan’s Opinion: I am super stoked to see Gon and Killua from Hunter x Hunter be in Jump Force. But the game itself looks kinda ugly to me…

Dale’s Opinion: It’s much too early to say for certain how I feel about this revelation. The way they’re packing all these characters into Jump Force, we won’t exactly run out of choices who to play…

STREAMER RAISES OVER $340K FOR TRANS RIGHTS

Hbomberguy started a charity stream to raise donations for Mermaids UK, an award-winning group that supports transgender rights. The stream involved playing Donkey Kong 64 to 101% completion – not an easy feat to accomplish even for experts who know all of the secrets of the classic Nintendo game.

Harry Brewis, the real full name of Hbomberguy, has done this in response to the actions of Graham Linehan, creator of UK TV shows Father Ted and IT Crowd. Upon hearing that Mermaids would receive a £500K grant from the National Lottery, Linehan started a campaign telling his followers to send emails for the grant to be revoked. Thus the grant has been halted.

The charity stream was complete after 57 hours. It garnered views from across the globe and attracted the attention of various famous figures. Two examples are US Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Matilda actress Mara Wilson.

Shahan’s Opinion: The highlight for me was Grant Kirkhope, Donkey Kong’s own voice actor and DK64 composer, calling in to say “Trans Rights”!

BLIZZARD PERMANENTLY SLASHES OVERWATCH’S PRICE

The Standard and Legendary editions of Overwatch can now be bought at a cheaper price from now on. The difference between the two editions are that being Legendary Edition has cosmetics for the heroes as well as additional goodies for the other Blizzard games.

As their player-base lessens, this may be a way for them to bring in newbies who have otherwise held off from their popular first-person shooter.

It is the Year of the Pig and Overwatch’s Lunar New Year 2019 event is currently underway, to end on 18th February. As with previous recent events, it brings new skins, emotes, voice lines, etc., but nothing fundamentally new gameplay-wise.

Shahan’s Opinion: The miniscule amount of Overwatch lore being trickled out is not keeping my attention. It’s a shame what with the incredible world and characters they’ve created.

THE END OF MCNS

Here’s a quick overview on what MCNs (or Multi-Channel Networks) are. They are organisations that offer services to content creators on video sites like YouTube to take care of the behind-the-scenes aspects of their job. This includes dealing with AdSense, which is how YouTubers monetise their videos. Essentially, this meant that money in the form of ad revenue go through MCNs first. They receive the money, take their cut and send the rest to the content creator. Examples of MCNs are Maker and Fullscreen. This week, the 2 MCNs that have hit the news are Machinima and DEFY Media.

Machinima Hides All Videos

After Fullscreen’s acquisition of Machinima, all the videos on their YouTube channel (of 12 million subscribers) have been privatised and therefore cannot be watched. Many years’ worth of gaming content just vanished as if by the snap of your fingers. You can’t go back and see the classic playthrough of Chaser by the old Inside Gaming crew. Content creators who are part of Machinima’s network received a letter stating they are now part of Fullscreen’s creator network instead. However, some were completely dropped.

This along with the news of the Wii Shop Channel closure at the end of this month is a reminder that something put on the Internet is not as permanent as you may think. Potentially your digital goods, from video games on PS Plus or Xbox Live to movies on Amazon Video or Google Play Movies, may be lost to you for any number of reasons temporarily or permanently.

DEFY Media Steals $1.7 Million

This story comes from Matthew Patrick, otherwise known as the YouTuber MatPat who is known for the Game Theorists, Film Theorists and GTLive. For legal reasons, he has not spoken of these circumstances until now. In November 2018, DEFY Media shut up shop with no notice and laid off workers without warning. They did this without providing the money that their 50 content creators had earned. This amounted to $1.7 Million, the sum of which has ended up with Ally Bank. Matthew Patrick and his wife Stephanie have been spending money out of their own pocket to get everyone’s money back and are now looking for help. Hence why MatPat has come out with this story. He says the next big decision is to be made in May.

Shahan’s Opinion: Regarding Machinima, it is likely the bigger names will have their content stored by fans and shared in certain places of the Internet. When it comes to the DEFY Media situation, it’s pretty shocking. Especially if it affects any content creators who are relying on that money for their everyday lives.

A NEW CONSOLE COMPETITOR?

Slightly Mad Studios, the developer of Project Cars 2, have announced their goal to create their own game console. This week CEO Ian Bell has unveiled on Twitter how the controller will look like. Ian Bell has made incredible claims regarding the console. This includes:

  • Be on par with a fast PC two years from now
  • 4K Visuals
  • Support for major VR headsets
  • 90FPS “per eye” for VR

He has also said the company will give the game engine to studios for free if they want to develop games for the Mad Box. The system is estimated by him to be three years away from release.

Shahan’s Opinion: I prefer the simple yet effective approach. A minimalist design can often be the best and most pleasing to the eye. It’s pretty futuristic I guess!

GLOSSING OVER…

Incineroar Nearly Didn’t Make Smash Bros. Ultimate…

…But Decidueye nearly did! It’s always the way. A new Smash Bros. instalment always calls for new representatives from the stalwart series — Mario and Pokémon, anyway. The grassy-ghostly arrow-slinging owl Decidueye very nearly joined the roster instead of the fiery feline pro wrestler Incineroar, it was revealed recently. Some may have preferred it that way, to be honest. Who agrees?

Smash Bros. Celebrates 20th Birthday

While we’re on the subject of Smash Bros., it has been 20 years since the original instalment debuted on the Nintendo 64. Who feels old now?

New League of Legends Cinematic Revealed

The headline pretty much speaks for itself. If you love League of Legends and haven’t watched it yet, go ahead and click here.

Resident Evil 2 Demo Hits Record Player Count

ISSUE 7 — 20 January 2019

by Shahan Ahmed and Dale Hurst

Top Story — RESIDENT EVIL 2 DEMO PLAYER COUNT HITS A RECORD 11K

Capcom has been on the right track in recent years. Monster Hunter World is their best-selling game ever. Positive reception of Mega Man 11. Devil May Cry is looking to be a return to form for Dante and friends. And they’ve also managed to turn the Resident Evil series around. Turning away from the action game direction, they’ve headed back towards their horror roots with Resident Evil 7.

The remake of Resident Evil 2 releases next week on the 25th. Beforehand, Capcom has made available a demo that lets you play the game once for 30 minutes (of course, players have found a way around this). The demo lets you control Leon S. Kennedy as he explores the Raccoon Police Department and what has occurred there. The full game will also have you play as Claire Redfield, so the two will be available to play just like in the original. Where the remake differs is in the use of the RE Engine, which was also used for Resident Evil 7. So the gameplay is modernised and there are no fixed camera angles like there were back then. This has caused Capcom to think of other ways to bring the horror, for example through the lighting, sound design, etc.

Signs point to the launch of this series’ latest instalment being the biggest in the franchise – if the demo’s player count is anything to go by. The RE2 Remake demo has had almost triple the amount of concurrent players on Steam than RE7’s demo had. RE2R hit a peak of 11,000 players while RE7’s ‘Beginning Hour’ demo reached 4,000. Will Capcom hit the ball out of the park once again? We won’t have to wait too long to see…

Shahan’s Opinion: Hopefully this will influence other big game developers to make triple-A horror titles. There’s nowhere near enough high quality scary games to play.

New Character Spotlight — GERAS (Mortal Kombat 11)

April 23rd — get over here! That’s Mortal Kombat 11’s release date, after all. And as it rapidly approaches, NetherRealm Studios are showcasing more of what is to come. They made the controversial decision to make Shao Kahn available to anyone who pre-orders the game. And Ronda Rousey of UFC and WWE fame will now be the voice actor for the classic MK character Sonya Blade.

This week they have released a gameplay trailer. Not only that, they have revealed one of the new characters to be introduced to the series; Geras. He has the ability to control time, use stone and sand as well as teleport in order to rip off bones, break limbs and vice versa. However, in terms of the story, not much is known about him, except that he serves Kronika, who deems herself ‘The Keeper of Time’. She is also completely new to the franchise but is said to be “running the show since the first Mortal Kombat” according to Ed Boon; the series’ co-creator. After the main staple character Raiden kills Shinnok in MKX and affects the timeline, Kronika intervenes to bring balance to the universe. She will be the first female main antagonist for Mortal Kombat.

Shahan’s Opinion: The animation looks to have been much improved from the previous game. Geras’ whole ‘Sands of Time’ aesthetic reminds me of Prince of Persia. So it’s a thumbs up from me!

Dale’s Opinion: You know my opinion on huge-roster games and Mortal Kombat is no exception. Geras’ moves and skills look right up my street. May have found a replacement for Shinnok…

EA CANCELS OPEN-WORLD STAR WARS GAME

Recovered from all of the Star Wars that Disney is forcing upon us? (Geddit? Forcing?) Either way, there’s one addition to the series that has been pulled from your reach. Electronic Arts has cancelled a SW project and it’s not the first time.

Their Vancouver office was reportedly working on an open-world Star Wars game since the shutdown of Visceral Games back in 2017. Before their closure, Visceral (developers of the Dead Space series) were working on a linear SW game codenamed ‘Ragtag’ with Amy Hennig of Uncharted fame as director. Art assets were taken from Ragtag by EA Vancouver and implemented in an open-world game nicknamed ‘Orca’. This is the latest Star Wars game that was cancelled. Why was it cancelled? Because it was deemed that it would take too long to develop and launch. So, it was scrapped, and resources were put towards a smaller Star Wars project without laying anyone off.

EA sent a statement to Kotaku a day after their publication saying,

“There’s been speculation overnight about one of our Star Wars projects. As a natural part of the creative process, the great work by our team in Vancouver continues and will evolve into future Star Wars content and games. We’re fully committed to making more Star Wars games, we’re very excited about Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order from Respawn, and we’ll share more about our new projects when the time is right.”

Shahan’s Opinion: For me, being reminded of Ragtag’s cancellation is sad. Especially being a fan of Amy Hennig’s work, particularly on the Legacy of Kain series.

VALVE’S ARTIFACT HITS LOWEST PLAYER COUNT

For anyone unaware, Valve surprisingly has developed and launched a video game recently. Named Artifact, it is a digital card game (à la Hearthstone) that is based on Valve’s Dota 2 universe. Artifact was also designed by Richard Garfield, the creator of the original trading card game Magic: The Gathering.

It received a mixed reception due to its high learning curve and how it has been monetised. After all, it is not free-to-play like many of its competitors. It is a digital card game you pay for and then you have to pay for the cards you want to play with as well!

Within weeks of launching, the player base dropped and carried on dropping. By the beginning of December it had lost 60% of its players. Now, after two months of the game’s release, Artifact has lost 97% of its players!

Shahan’s Opinion: I’ve played a few card games here and there. Both digital and the real cardboard stuff! I still have my shiny Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards in a binder! But I’ve never played Dota and Artifact’s art style does not appeal to me personally.

GLOSSING OVER…

AGDQ Funds Counted…

In light of last week’s top story, we felt it was necessary to inform readers that AGDQ 2019 raised a fantastic $2.4 million. This comes as the result of over 40,000 donations.

Steam Has 30,000 Games on Platform

While this is a whopping figure, these 30,000 games do not include any associated DLC or software. With the increase in games released on the platform over the past couple of years, it is expected/hoped that Steam will release up to 10,000 games in 2019.

From Bad to Worse for Atlas

Pirates-themed MMO Atlas has gone offline a couple of times due to hacker and cheater activity. Things such as spawning tanks, whales and planes, as well as hackers regaining admin permissions and spawning dragons.

Thank you for reading — we apologise it’s a little short this week, but both of us are sick and it’s been a bit of a quiet week in the gaming world. Hope to see you next issue!

AGDQ 2019 Comes to an End

ISSUE 6 — 13 January 2019

by Shahan Ahmed and Dale Hurst

NOTE FROM THE EDITORS: This issue covers more of what happened over the holidays. So some of the news stories here may date back two or three weeks!

Top Story — ADGQ 2019 IS COMING TO AN END

If you are not familiar with Games Done Quick, this is a charity fundraising organisation that holds an event twice a year that involves video game speedruns and marathons. They are held in January (AGDQ) and in the summer (SGDQ), each running for a week. There have also been impromptu events set up to support victims of disasters such as Hurricane Harvey and 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

In keeping with previous years, these events support the charity Prevent Cancer Foundation. At this point in writing, they are on their way to $2 million and, knowing the last day rush, it is highly likely they will continue their trend of surpassing the previous year.

Shahan’s Opinion: It’s fascinating to see experts efficiently play and literally break through games for a good cause. It was also amazing to see that during the Final Fantasy IX speedrun, there were more viewers for the classic RPG than there were Fortnite viewers.

If you want to catch the action at AGDQ, here’s where to do it…!

New Character Spotlight — NEGAN (Tekken 7)

Last month it was confirmed that the dastardly, baseball bat-wielding villain of The Walking Dead, Negan, will be joining the line-up of Tekken 7. He, along with three other characters: Tekken alum Armor King, Craig Marduk and Julia (also from The Walking Dead), are additions to the roster made available by the game’s second Season Pass.

Dale’s Opinion: Unlike when Darth Vader and Yoda were third-party guest characters in Soul Calibur IV, Negan appearing in a Tekken game actually fits. It’s not something I ever imagined happening, but when I found out, I thought, “Hmmm, that’s an interesting idea!”

FAN RECREATES THE SILENT HILLS DEMO

Years ago in the summer of 2014, Hideo Kojima (of Metal Gear Solid fame) showed off a Playable Teaser for an instalment in the Silent Hills franchise. He had been working on it in collaboration with film director Guillermo Del Toro and it included an obscurely hard-to-obtain ending featuring actor Norman Reedus. The game ended up being cancelled as Kojima left Konami. It was taken off of the PlayStation Store and Konami made it difficult to reinstall it again.

Fast-forward to the present. RadiusGordello, a fan and developer, spent the last nine months recreating Silent Hills PT from scratch in the Unreal engine (the original was made in the Fox engine). Radius has provided VR support in addition to keyboard/mouse and PS4/XB1 controllers. However there seems to be issues with the game when exploring the haunted hallways in virtual reality. Radius has made this available on itch.io for free so get it quickly before it becomes much more difficult to find once Konami takes it down in due course.

If you’d rather squint through your fingers and watch a play-through of the remake, check out GTLive’s video here. This is especially good for anyone who hasn’t experienced the original as MatPat and Steph haven’t either.

Shahan’s Opinion: Grabbed it straight away. I’m going to scare friends and family all month! The original was literally genre-defining and makes you wonder what could’ve been. It has inspired many indie developers to put their own twist on the concept. This fan remake is incredibly close to being just as good, which is remarkable for being made by a single human. Silent Hills PT had an entire development team behind it after all!

BETHESDA SETTLES WESTWORLD LAWSUIT

Cast your minds back to the announcement of Fallout 4 on June 2015. It was a huge surprise. They revealed that Fallout 4 would launch in a matter of months. Unheard of in the gaming industry! Not only that, they released a mobile app available to download immediately! It kept fans talking until F4’s November release. The mobile game was called Fallout Shelter. A resource management game that had you in charge of a vault (one of the series’ infamous underground shelters) and the residents within.

Now, fast-forward to 2018. Warner Bros. Interactive hires Behaviour Interactive, who helped develop Fallout Shelter, to help create a Westworld mobile game. It was launched in time for the finale of Season 2. On that same day, Bethesda filed a lawsuit claiming it was a blatant rip-off, using the same code plus similar game design, art style, animations, etc.

It has now been confirmed a settlement has been made but no details have been revealed. Bethesda and WB Interactive have reached an amicable agreement and Bethesda dismissed their claims.

Fallout 76 Catch-Up – Nuka Dark and the Dev Room Thefts

While we’re on the subject of Bethesda, here’s what’s been happening with Fallout 76 since the last issue of Warp Point Weekly.

If you weren’t aware, the special edition of Fallout 76 promised a bottle of rum as one of its goodies. Branded as ‘Nuka Dark’ following the series’ iconic ‘Nuka Cola’, they started to ship out towards the end of last month after delays. Lo and behold, fans were not happy with what they have received. The bottles are a plastic covering with a shorter glass bottle inside (adding pouring issues to the disappointment). It should be pointed out that usable Nuka bottles can be bought from Etsy at a fraction of the price.

Regarding the video game itself, F76 players have found a secret developer room within the game. D rooms are nothing new. They give developers space in-game to conduct tests. They are in Bethesda’s previous games; Skyrim and Fallout 4. World of Warcraft had an entire dev island for example. The Fallout 76 dev room was discovered to contain plans for every single in-game item as well as unreleased content that is to come in a future update. There are reports of players swiftly moving the stolen items to other accounts and/or selling them on eBay. Bethesda are suspending accounts of anyone who enter the room. The biggest surprise of all in the dev room is that an NPC can be found there! Could actual voiced characters be coming to the post-apocalyptic West Virgina of Fallout 76!?!

Shahan’s Opinion: Fallout Shelter was a fun mobile game. I personally had no idea there was a Westworld one! The best thing about Fallout Shelter were the pick-up lines the little characters would say to each other before they would procreate and pump out another vault dweller.

BOWSETTE CONFIRMED NON-CANON BY NINTENDO

Bowsette — the fan-made character that took over Japan and set the Internet ablaze at the tail end of last year. He/she has been indirectly confirmed to be non-canon by Nintendo. Bowsette was born from Bowser donning the newly-introduced Super Crown. However on the official website for New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, it confirms that only Toadette can use this item.

The website explains, “Super Crown – When Toadette finds one of these, she can transform into the super-powered Peachette. (Sorry Luigi – only Toadette can use this item!)”

Mentioning Luigi is likely a reference to the two times he has dressed up as Peach, (i.e. in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and the comic Super Mario Adventures.)

Shahan’s Opinion: Toadette is adorable in Super Mario Party. Peach is my best girl. Combine the two together? Hnnggg.

Dale’s Opinion: I’ve never quite been convinced what the fuss has been about regarding Toadette and this Super Crown, much less the whole Bowsette thing! Personally, I think they could have given a playable role to a much more prominent character like Wario.

SOULJA BOY STILL SELLING BOOTLEG CONSOLES

Soulja Boy has resurfaced by selling bootleg video game consoles. The Crank That rapper, who self-proclaims that he has made the biggest comeback of 2018, started selling ‘fake’ consoles that are available on Amazon or AliExpress. He slapped on his own brand on them and sold them at a much higher price on his website. These consoles boasted having hundreds and thousands of games pre-installed. These games are old classics from popular IPs (Mario, Crash, Pokémon, Final Fantasy and many more) alongside some knock-off games too. The issue is this has clearly been done without any licensing done by Soulja Boy. So, it is essentially theft.

On Twitter, Soulja Boy has responded to this. To paraphrase, he claimed Nintendo aren’t going to do anything and they would’ve done something the first day. He isn’t scared of Nintendo or any “nerds making YouTube videos”. A few weeks later, they are no longer on his website. Rumours are that Nintendo were looking into taking action.

But now he is back at it again! His newest ‘SouljaGame handheld’ looks just like the PlayStation Vita. Next he’ll have Sony’s lawyers in pursuit. It is priced at $99.99 while the original bootleg (that sounded silly to say) is half the price on Amazon and even cheaper on AliExpress.

Shahan’s Opinion: Wow. The sad thing is that one of them actually sold out. There must’ve been a lot of casual gamers who were taken advantage of. Or there are a lot of Soulja Boy fans showing their support…

JACK BLACK IS A GAMING YOUTUBER!?!

Not long before Christmas, Jack Black amusingly threw forward his gauntlet as he called out PewDiePie and Ninja. He is now a gaming YouTuber, with his son being one of the editors. Jack and junior have played at the arcades but have yet to make a real gameplay video. He promises they are coming soon. Videos on the channel are posted every Friday.

This is not Jack Black’s first foray into the world of gaming. In terms of YouTube, he and his son had a taste of the infamous Five Nights at Freddy’s series in a video with Markiplier (a prominent gaming YouTuber). Jack Black also stars as axe-toting and guitar-strumming roadie Eddie Riggs; the protagonist of Double Fine’s Brütal Legend.

Shahan’s Opinion: Nachoooooooo- ahem. I like Jack Black. It was great seeing him in that Gorillaz music video last year. And Brütal Legend was righteous! Until it reached a point where it became an RTS…

GLOSSING OVER…

Smash Bros. Ultimate Smashes Sales Records in Japan

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate already took its huge fan-base by storm when it was first released, but as confirmed by Twitter, it took them five weeks to do what its 3DS predecessor did in three years! It is confirmed to be the bestselling title of the series in Japan.

Money Trouble Drama for Odd Tale Games

The developers of the highly-anticipated indie game The Last Night confirmed in a string of Tweets on New Year’s Eve last year their recent financial difficulty. This even forced them to cancel a new trailer at 2018’s The Game Awards.

It’s Divorce for Bungie and Activision!

On Thursday, it was confirmed that gaming developer Bungie and publisher Activision will be going their separate ways. Bringing an eight-year association to an end, but also leaving their project Destiny solely in Bungie’s hands.

 

HEROES OF THE STORM NOW ON THE BACK BURNER?

ISSUE 5 — 16 December 2018

by Shahan Ahmed and Dale Hurst

Top Story — HEROES OF THE STORM IS LEAVING THE NEXUS?

Blizzard has announced that they are taking some of the developers behind their “love letter to Blizzard’s worlds and characters” Heroes of the Storm, and moving them to other teams who are making both live games and unannounced projects. They have said that the game will continue to be worked on and new content will come. Nevertheless, it is clear that Heroes of the Storm will no longer be high priority from this moment onwards.

In addition to this, Blizzard has cancelled the Heroes Global Championship and Heroes of the Dorm events in 2019. This stifles any hope of Heroes of the Storm ever being a viable e-sport. This announcement comes as a shock to anyone who made a living off of the game. Heroes of the Storm streamers are already moving on to other MOBAs, such as League of Legends or Dota 2. Many in the pro scene feel blindsighted and left in the dark, including players, coaches and captains.

Examples include Liam O’Malley, an aspiring HotS e-sport player who was about to join the Endemic team, dropped out of college for Heroes of the Storm. He spent three years to pursue his dream of playing in the Heroes Global Championship.

Then there’s Justing, who is captain of Simplicity’s HotS team, who said: “good thing i [sic] *was* a team owner and asked repeatedly for information, even signed on for an apartment and I was given *zero* information regarding my job in 2019 LOL what a joke”.

Finally, Darrie, general manager of the professional gaming organisation known as Method, made a statement. It included the disbanding of Method HotS and termination agreements being sent to team members.

Shahan’s Opinion: I tend to lose interest in Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas, but I remember spending a fair amount of time with Heroes of the Storm. Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, was my go-to character.

Negative Vibes — SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE ONLINE TURNS E-SPORT PLAYERS OFF…

It has been regarded as one of the top crossover games in history so far, and a fast-selling (forgive the pun) smash-hit with Nintendo Switch players. It broke records in Japan and the UK.

However, like with so many great games, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s online multiplayer mode has left a fair bit to be desired. A lot of users have called their subscriptions to the Nintendo Switch Online service a waste of money for a number of reasons. Lag, for one thing. In the early days of online multiplayer gameplay, lag was to be expected. But years have passed since then, so you would expect developers to have ironed out such issues – especially for such a popular fighting franchise as Smash Bros.!

Another thing aggravating gamers is the online mode’s seeming inability to honour the rules preferences for multiplayer matches. That is to say, you could want a 1 vs. 1 match with no items, and end up with four fighters and Pokéballs flying all over the shop.

All these issues have now reportedly put off e-sport players. That’s a huge blow for Nintendo, who have been quick to implement as many tweaks and fixes to their online modes to win back this large chunk of their customer base.

Dale’s Opinion: I am not big on the online gameplay, personally, so this doesn’t bother me too much. Having just bought the game with the console, I am just glad to hear the game has received rave reviews for its offline modes. I’ll just stick to those I guess.

New Character Spotlight — 2B (Soul Calibur VI)

The main heroine of the popular NieR: Automata is coming to Soul Calibur VI on Tuesday. We’re posting this ahead of time before we take a break for Christmas.

2B is a man-made battle android tasked with fighting a machine army sent by invaders from another world. Her game is set in the year 11945 AD on a post-apocalyptic Earth. Androids lack emotions and true names but they have particular attitudes to set them apart; 2B’s attitudes being calm and composed.

NieR: Automata has passed 3 million sales worldwide and is getting a ‘Game of the YoRHa Edition’ next year on February 21st. It will include the base game and all DLC.

Shahan’s Opinion: I might just have to ditch Taki and check her out! Hmm… Do you think she compares well to Ivy? I’m sure Dale doesn’t think so!

Dale’s Opinion: Yeahhhh, I’m a bit too loyal to Ivy to trade her in for a newer model. I’ll still give 2B a go, mind you…

KINGDOM HEARTS III TRAILER ARRIVES!

Square Enix has shown a new trailer for Kingdom Hearts III this week. The trailer is a sneak peek as to how Sora’s adventure will begin. It features the trio of trios (Hmm… The three trinities? Triple Triads! Ha! Sorry; Final Fantasy joke…) of friends and the villains they’ve faced in past games as well as Mickey, Donald and Goofy. It also includes a young Xehanort with the glorious-looking chess set from previous trailers that symbolises his plans being in action. Square better make a real-life chess set like that!

The trailer is accompanied by the song ‘Face My Fears’, another song by Utada Hikaru but this time featuring Skrillex! Who knew he was a big fan of the KH series? He approached Square Enix to do a remix of ‘Don’t Think Twice’, the main theme of the latest game. Instead, this ‘banger’ or ‘bop’ came to fruition.

Shahan’s Opinion: This collab between Hikaru Utada and Skrillex has divided fans but the song is right up my alley! Loving it. If I had to group the songs, Don’t Think Twice leans more towards the melodic Sanctuary while Face My Fears is more on Simple and Clean’s energetic side. But as always, Utada manages to give each song a unique feel to it.

KINGDOM HEARTS III FULL GAME LEAKED!?!

Staying with the same topic, it turns out the full Kingdom Hearts III game has been leaked over a month early! Fans are warning each other to beware and steer clear of any spoilers.

Mods on the r/Kingdom Hearts sub-Reddit are ready to ban anyone who posts any leaks. There are rumours going around on Twitter as to the origins of this leak. It all points to copies being stolen during the shipping of the game. The director of Kingdom Hearts III has responded to the situation, as below:

KH3 Leak Response

Shahan’s Opinion: To be fair, even if you DO see any spoilers, good luck trying to understand how it all fits in with the rest of the crazy plot!

OFFICIAL UNION FOR UK GAME DEVELOPERS

GWUU logo

Unionising efforts in the United Kingdom have led to the formation of an official legal trade union called the Game Workers Unite UK. It is the first union of the video game industry in the country. Its goals include fighting racism and sexism, ending unpaid overtime and securing a liveable wage for all.

This is welcome news after hearing about the woeful conditions that come with the industry’s infamous crunch times. If you haven’t heard, various famous game companies have a culture where overtime is standard and just part of the job. Not long ago, stories broke out over Rockstar being guilty of this after one of the co-founders proudly claimed he did 100-hour weeks working on Red Dead Redemption 2.

Shahan’s Opinion: After hearing the many horror stories of gaming industry’s crunch times, it is good news that workers are getting the support they need for their rights.

GLOSSING OVER…

The Game Awards’ Viewership Doubles

It was announced this week that 2018’s TGAs reached a record viewership of 26 million people. That’s over twice the figure from last year’s ceremony.

Real Money for Virtual Gold Bars

Microtransactions are now available on Red Dead Online, allowing you to purchase gold bars for real money as opposed to earning them in-game.

Stardew Valley Multiplayer Update Now Available

The update for the Multiplayer mode of the Nintendo Switch’s Stardew Valley was released on Wednesday 12th. You can click here for the full details of the update.

THANK YOU FOR READING!

Once again, we hope you have enjoyed the content. As mentioned earlier, we will be taking a couple of weeks off now for Christmas and New Year. In which case, we can wish you season’s greetings and all the best for 2019! See you then!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Special

ISSUE 4 — 9 December 2018

by Shahan Ahmed and Dale Hurst

Special Feature — SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE

by Dale Hurst

It is the game that all Nintendo fans have been looking forward to all year. On Friday, the latest instalment in the much-loved crossover fighting series Super Smash Bros. was released and the praise has pretty much been non-stop.

I have enjoyed Super Smash Bros. since Melee back in 2002, and almost religiously followed the series from there on in. This one brings back a lot of the favourite elements from previous games, while introducing further new concepts. Here are my top 3…

EVERY CHARACTER FROM THE PREVIOUS GAMES IS PLAYABLE – I love a huge playable character roster. Not just in the Super Smash Bros. series, but in all fighting games. Take Tekken, Mortal Kombat and Soul Calibur, to name a couple. But this must be the first time a Nintendo game attempted something so ambitious. By the time the six DLC characters are released, a roster of over 80 characters will be featured. I have a hard enough time deciding who I want to play in the older games, so now I’m REALLY screwed!

WORLD OF LIGHT STORY MODE – That trailer was emotional enough (when Sonic tries to save Pikachu (sniff)). Brawl’s Subspace Emissary storyline was okay, I guess. But I do hope this new story mode outranks it severely. I have high hopes.

NEW BATTLE MODE: SQUAD STRIKE – Ever play Team Matches in Soul Calibur? I loved them, since you could choose up to five of your favourite fighters and battle with them one after the other. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is doing the same thing, with either three-on-three or five-on-five matches. Who would be in your Squad? I got mine and Shahan has his as below:

smash bros squad

New Character Spotlight: JOKER (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)

Here seems as good a place as any to reveal the latest in the line-up for the next Smash Bros. game. Another third-party débutante – Joker from the Persona series. His forthcoming appearance in Smash as one of six DLC characters was announced during The Game Awards.

Unfortunately, as of yet, no information as to his moves, powers or Final Smash has been revealed. So, really, it’s just a reveal trailer for you to enjoy!

Dale’s Opinion: Must get a Switch. Must get a Switch. Must get a Switch.

Shahan’s Opinion: Whoa! Looking cool, Joker!

Special Feature — THE GAME AWARDS 2018

by Shahan Ahmed

This year’s TGA had some memorable moments. Reggie Fils-Aimé, Phil Spencer and Shawn Layden of The Big 3 shared the stage to deliver a speech. Alita: Battle Angel co-stars Christoph Waltz and Rosa Salazar arguing about controllers versus keyboard and mouse. Josef Fares of last year’s TGA fame (F*** the Oscars!) was back being his lovable self. Kratos tells Atreus to “Read it Boy” right on stage!

AWARD WINNERS

Red Dead Redemption 2 won the most awards: Best Narrative, Score/Music and Audio Design. Roger Clark, voice of protagonist Arthur Morgan, also won Best Performance. God of War takes home the one that was most waited for; the Game of the Year Award. It also won Best Game Direction and Best Action/Adventure Game. Celeste won Best Independent Game as well as the Games for Impact award. Something worth noting is that SonicFox (professional fighting games pro) winning E-sports Player of the Year has caused online debates of what competitive gaming genre takes more skill. If you want to see the full list of award winners and nominees, check out Polygon’s complete list.

WORLD PREMIERES

The show played host to some exciting world premieres this year. Nintendo Switch got plenty of love. A stylish game called Sayonara Wild Hearts, involving motorcycles and funky music, is making its way to the console. The Ultimate Alliance series is returning exclusively to the Switch with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order. And Reggie presented an announcement that Bayonetta 3 is confirmed to be currently in development.

RPG lovers should be hyped for The Outer Worlds. It’s brought to you by the original creators of Fallout and developers of Fallout: New Vegas. This seems to be perfect timing as Bethesda continues to make blunder after blunder with Fallout 76. Bioware revealed a teaser for Dragon Age 4, which includes the voice of returning character Solas from DA: Inquisition. For fans of FPS games, post-apocalyptic trailers of Far Cry: New Dawn and Rage 2 were shown. Prefer fighting games? A gruesome cinematic befitting Mortal Kombat 11 revealed its April 23rd release date.

Taking a quick trip down memory lane, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is getting the remaster treatment and the Double Fine fans waiting for Psychonauts’ sequel need to see the story trailer if they haven’t already.

On the indie games front, Hello Games shows off their next charming game, The Last Campfire. Supergiant Games announced that Hades is available now in early access with more content to come post-launch. These were not all the premieres as this year’s Game Awards was laden with great reveals.

Shahan’s Opinion: I’m loving RDR2 and glad to see it collecting trophies. I’m happy that Monster Hunter Worlds won an award (it shouldn’t have been the RPG award) yet sad that our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man didn’t. The web-crawler seems to be this year’s Horizon: Zero Dawn. The world premiere that interested me the most is Hades by Supergiant Games. Transistor is my favourite indie game and their artwork is always beautiful to look at. Greek mythology looks incredible in their art style. Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds is a close second. New Vegas’ story, characters and their dialogue had so much character, so I can’t wait to see what their space opera brings to the table.

See all The Game Awards 2018’s finest moments here.

EPIC GAMES STORE TO USURP STEAM’S PC THRONE?

Epic Games Store is live! Could it be a viable competitor to the Steam marketplace? Can it disrupt the monopoly that Valve has on the PC platform? It has a real chance at doing this, especially since they have a huge user base thanks to Fortnite. Epic Games Store offers incentives to developers such as a 12% cut/commission from sales (Steam takes 30%) and it does not require digital rights management.

The Fortnite developer has also stated that they aim to provide a free game every fortnight. The first three games already available on the store (not including Fortnite and Unreal) are Ashen, Hades and Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek. Darksiders III is also on its way there on December 14th. Furthermore, Subnautica and Super Meat Boy will be playable for free for two weeks each. As if all that weren’t enough, Journey, the acclaimed game by thatgamecompany, will soon be branching out from its PS3/PS4 roots. It is confirmed to be coming to the Epic Games Store but no release date has been given yet.

If you’re a regular user of Steam, you may have heard of Steam Spy. It’s a site run by Sergey Galyonkin as a hobby. A site he uses to provide various statistics after taking in publicly-available data from Steam profiles since 2015. It turns out Sergey lives up to his site’s name as he has been working on the Epic Games Store for the past several years as Director of Publishing Strategy. His side project has given him valuable insight on Steam’s pitfalls, which has had direct influence in the layout and features that are and will be on Epic Games Store. For example, there are no forums available because developers did not want them due to the toxicity they bring.

Shahan’s Opinion: I’ve got the Epic Games Launcher installed due to tinkering with Unreal Engine 4. I’ll definitely be checking out the regular free games that’ll be available. If Hades for some reason never comes to PS4, then I’ll be getting it on the Epic Games Store I guess.

STRANGER THINGS SEASON 3: THE GAME

The hit Netflix show’s third season will be getting a game in a retro 16-bit graphic style. You play as the characters from the show, and it will follow the same events of Season 3 but with its own surprises.

This isn’t the first Stranger Things game. The developer of this game, BonusXP, made Stranger Things: The Game for the mobile platform. However, this new game will also be available on consoles. A release date hasn’t been given as yet, but it’s a fair bet to say it’ll be available in time for the show’s next season.

Shahan’s Opinion: I still need to see the show! I know I know… Well if you’re looking for a video game with a similar ‘80s vibe to Stranger Things, you need to check out Stories Untold! Four creepy short stories that’ll unnerve you like no other. I dare you to play it in the dark!

COUNTER STRIKE DOES BATTLE ROYALE

The success of Fortnite brought with it multiple games that have done their own take on the Battle Royale genre. Ring of Elysium adds a cool snowboarding twist to the formula. Cuisine Royale started off as an April Fool’s joke with all its kitchenware covering your body but it proved to gain its own fans. Even Call of Duty is following the trend with Blackout.

And so the era of Battle Royale games continues. Counter Strike has launched its own Battle Royale mode this week: CS:GO – Danger Zone. Alongside this release, Counter Strike: Global Offensive goes free-to-play as well. But they have added a new Prime status that you can upgrade your account to.

Shahan’s Opinion: Even though Battle Royale games don’t appeal to me personally, CS:GO Danger Zone’s use of drones is something I find legitimately cool. They are a form of supply drop you can order to you when you need equipment or ammo. But they show up on the map and are clearly visible in-game. So your enemies can spend precious bullets shooting it down to prevent you from getting much-needed supplies or follow it to confront you directly. It adds an interesting layer to the game.

GLOSSING OVER…

Bethesda Messes Up… AGAIN!

Bethesda Support has had a major digital security blunder. Several Fallout 76 customers’ personal information, including names, addresses, phone numbers and card details, have all been leaked.

Announcing: JP Games

Hajime Tabata (Final Fantasy XV Director and former studio head of Square Enix’s Luminous Productions) announces the establishment of a new company, JP Games. The business launch is intended for January 2019.

And the bestselling VR Headset is…

According to SuperData, PSVR has been announced as the year’s bestselling VR headset so far.

Thanks ever so much for reading!

We hope you have enjoyed reading our articles so far. Check us out again next week with more gaming news and views.

Red Dead Online Arrives

ISSUE 3 — 2 December 2018

by Shahan Ahmed and Dale Hurst

Top Story — RED DEAD ONLINE IS HERE!

The beta for Red Dead Online has now been rolled out to all players of Rockstar’s Wild West epic. The character creation element, in which you can make your own cowboy or -girl, is a great improvement from Grand Theft Auto Online’s ancestry system. It’s also a complete change from the first RDR’s online component.

On the other hand, the in-game economy has irked many fans. Various items in the online mode cost a lot more than in single-player and you don’t make that much money either. Reddit user ConvictedWaffles has pointed out in the Red Dead Redemption sub-reddit, the fact that you can sell a gold wedding ring for $1.15, but a can of baked beans costs $1.50!

In the near future there will be micro-transactions for Red Dead Online. Gold bars are a premium currency that will be purchasable with real money to pay for what you want in RDO. Gold bars can be obtained in-game, but it has been calculated by reddit user UnavailableIDs that it takes approximately 8-9 hours to earn 100 gold nuggets, which equates to a single gold bar. Be prepared for a long grind if you’re going to avoid spending real money on this in the future. Micro-transactions have been a worry for fans since GTA Online and the rising prices of its cars and items over the last five years. However, it is only in beta, so changes are likely to occur.

By the way, lassoing has finally made it into the multiplayer mode. Take a look for yourself in these clips!

RDO1
RDO2
RDO3

Shahan’s Opinion: Lookit! My pretty outlaw! Quick story: She’s alone at Twin Rocks looting the place for any worthwhile goods. After picking up some hair pomade off the table indoors, a guy tackles my cowgirl out of nowhere and chokes her out! Vengeance became top priority. After respawning, a headshot is inflicted on the perpetrator with the Carbine Repeater. It seems the fool had a friend, so she heads for the hills. They attempt to play smart and head for her from opposite directions. The Pump-Action Shotgun proves to be the perfect tool for the situation as they’re both summarily obliterated. She then rides off to start the next story mission. Conclusion: Griefers are very annoying but killing them is INCREDIBLY satisfying. And on occasion, they can be pretty funny too!

This Week’s Popular Choice — DARKSIDERS III

It made our headline last issue, and a couple of days later, it was released for purchase. The third instalment of the Darksiders series, with Fury and her steed Rampage taking the lead in the story, was released on 27th November. And the reviews, both from users and critics alike, have been very positive.

Many have praised the gameplay, though there seems to be a divide in opinion about the simplicity, with some reviews calling the game demanding, others remarking on its refreshing easiness. FromSoftware are infamous for their games’ challenging nature, in an age where many video games seem to hold their players’ hands. Perhaps they’ve acted on the feedback?

Shahan’s Opinion: I must confess. I’ve already spoiled a certain moment in the story by watching it on YouTube. I couldn’t help myself! I HAD to see them show off the fourth Horseman, Strife. He’s a badass. I have to get this.

Dale’s Opinion: I have to get this game, and the two before it. I love the sound of what Gunfire Games have done with the idea of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Plus, as was pointed out in last week’s issue, I have a bit of a thing for anti-heroines. And Fury is no exception…

New Character Spotlight — LUMA, BOOM BOOM AND PAULINE (Mario Tennis Aces)

The playable character roster for the Switch’s instalment of Mario Tennis is expanding further. A new wave of DLC characters was unveiled for Mario Tennis Aces earlier this week, revealing that Rosalina’s little friend Luma will be returning to the court, plus playable debuts for both Bowser’s henchman Boom Boom and the mayor of New Donk City herself, Pauline. All three are expected to be available for purchase from early 2019.

Shahan’s Opinion: Seeing how great this Mario sports games is looking, it makes me want Mario Strikers to return. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not much of a football fan. I don’t care for FIFA. But I remember having a blast with Mario Strikers Charged. Good times.

Dale’s Opinion: I have always loved the Mario sports spin-offs since I was a kid, primarily because they give you a chance to play characters you wouldn’t otherwise get to. Now that she’s back in the mainstream series, it was only a matter of time before Pauline became playable. Surprised we haven’t seen her slated for a Smash Bros. slot. I mean… if they’re giving it to a Piranha Plant…

PVP BATTLES IN POKÉMON GO

The popular augmented reality mobile game has been missing one of the most quintessential parts of the Pokémon experience; battling your fellow trainers. Niantic has announced via Twitter that PvP trainer battles are coming soon. Trainers will be using three of their Pokémon to go head-to-head against one another. Niantic has also shown that there will be three leagues to choose from and take part in; two of which have CP limits.

For anyone not up-to-date with Pokémon Go, Niantic added the ability to trade Pokémon in June and Generation IV Pokémon were introduced to the game back in October.

Shahan’s Opinion: I’ve not opened the app in a long while. Never caught a Dratini. Never got myself a Dragonair…

Dale’s Opinion: If and when I can be persuaded to get Pokémon Go, this idea will probably appeal to me. I was always in it for the head-to-head battles. Getting my competitive streak on.

UPCOMING GAMES TEASED IN THE GAME AWARDS TRAILER

The Game Awards are going to take place next week, hosted by its creator, Geoff Keighley of gaming journalism fame. He has posted a video to tease what’s in store for the big event. The clip contains snippets of the most hyped games that many gamers are waiting for, including Cyberpunk 2077, The Last of Us 2 and Death Stranding. The Game Awards this year will include appearances from Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz, the Russo Brothers (directors of The Avengers), the Duffer Brothers (creators of Stranger Things) and gaming YouTubers/streamers Pokimane, Ninja and Jacksepticeye, as well as other key figures of the gaming industry.

Shahan’s Opinion: I’m rooting for RDR2, Spider-Man and Monster Hunter World to win awards. I’ll have my fingers crossed for more details on Cyberpunk 2077. Maybe, just maybe even a release date!

STARDEW VALLEY DEVELOPER MOVING TO SELF-PUBLISHING

Concerned Ape, creator of Stardew Valley (one of the most popular indie games of the generation), is going to take up the role of publisher, in addition to being the developer. Specifically, he will be the publisher of Stardew Valley on the PC, Xbox, PS4 and PSVita platforms.

Chucklefish, his publisher beforehand, will continue in their role for the game on Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms. You can read the announcement including a statement from Chucklefish on the Stardew Valley developer blog.

Shahan’s Opinion: This can be seen as a success story for anyone who’s creating a game by their lonesome. I’ve not played Stardew Valley myself. I would not have thought it’d be a game for me but that was before Dale introduced me to the incredibly charming Animal Crossing series. The farming aspect and my soft spot for classic RPG graphics makes Stardew Valley a game I NEED to get to at some point!

GLOSSING OVER…

No Superman game from Rocksteady

The developers of the acclaimed Batman Arkham series have made it clear they will not be making an announcement at The Game Awards. Sefton Hill, game director and co-founder of Rocksteady Games, has tweeted as such and he also pointed out that whenever their current project is ready to show, it will prove not to be a Superman game.

Telltale’s Minecraft: Story Mode launches on Netflix

This is Telltale Games’ final project: a Netflix version of their episodic take on Minecraft. It has been adapted to be playable on the streaming service, so characters can’t be controlled and there are no QTEs to get through. The focus is on the decisions you make during the story.

Bethesda Continue to Make Mistakes?

It just keeps getting better for Bethesda. Consumers are now disappointed with the bag that comes with the Power Armor Edition of Fallout 76. As an apology, Bethesda are offering 500 Atoms (virtual currency) to affected accounts with proof of purchase.

Thank you for reading!

Please visit us again next week when we’ll have more gaming news and views for you. If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read so far, please like and comment!

The Apocalypse Cometh… for the Third Time!

ISSUE 2 – 25 November 2018

by Shahan Ahmed and Dale Hurst

Top Story — DARKSIDERS III IS ALMOST HERE!

 

 

The third instalment of the Darksiders series is out on PS4, Xbox One and PC in just a couple of days. The gameplay has taken influence from the Souls series by From Software, but it still retains the Zelda-like gameplay of the previous two as well.

For those not familiar, this series revolves around the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War, Death, Fury (in the place of Famine) and Strife (instead of Pestilence/Conquest). The end of the world occurs in the first game, and War finds himself in the battle without his siblings. There, he is killed and blamed for the Apocalypse. War vows to clear his name, so he is released back to Earth (where 100 years have passed) to search for the true culprit. In the second, you play as his brother Death during the same time period. He looks to clear War’s name for the crime and to find a way to revive mankind.

This time around, you play as the sister Fury as she hunts for the Seven Deadly Sins to restore balance as they are wreaking havoc upon Earth. Rampage (her horse) has just been revealed in the latest ‘Horse with no Name’ trailer.

And if you want to see some Darksiders III gameplay with some funny commentary, check out Funhaus’ video here.

Shahan’s Opinion: If you’re like Dale and you love anti-heroes like Ivy Valentine, you should check out Fury! Right? Am I right? I know right!

Seriously though, I enjoy the Four Horsemen thematic a lot. I prefer War over Death when comparing the first two games. But Fury may take the top spot! My heart sank when Vigil Games shut down, so I am ecstatic the series managed to continue.

Dale’s Opinion: What Shahan said…

The similarities to Ivy are quite striking!

NEXT POTENTIAL HALF-LIFE INSTALMENT TO BE… IN VIRTUAL REALITY

One of the most revered video game series may finally be returning. However, not quite in the way you may expect. A prototype VR headset with the Valve logo was leaked via Imgur. From what we can gather from the leak, this possible new Half-Life instalment looks like more of a virtual reality spin-off/prequel. This may not be the Half-Life 3 that fans of the series were hoping for.

Shahan’s Opinion: I’m not one of those still hoping for Half-Life 3. When it comes to virtual reality, I’ve been excited for the horror games that would launch for the platform. But it is the high price point of VR headsets that is putting me off.

This Week’s Popular Choice — POKÉMON: LET’S GO PIKACHU / EEVEE

 

As Spyro did for us a few weeks ago, nostalgia has taken over the gaming world again with the long-awaited release of Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu and -Eevee. Taking the 3D charm and graphical capabilities of Pokémon Go! (with which it has full compatibility) and amalgamating it into the plot of Pokémon Yellow from way-back-when. Plus reducing the Pokédex right the way back down to the original 151, plus a couple of new ones created especially.

And, of course, critics and players alike have loved it. However, some fans are looking further forward to the new core series game — totally separate and standalone — for the Switch due next year.

Shahan’s Opinion: I feel like this is a light-hearted entry and I miss the complexity of the core Pokémon series. It seems ideal for those who never got into the games and don’t want to go through the traditional RPG grind.

Dale’s Opinion: I like the idea of having the Pokémon journey transferred to the big screen for once. For me, the nostalgic element is inviting, but there’s still something lacking. Maybe I’m after a brand new plotline and fully-textured Pokémon (with fur or feathers or whatever). Let’s see what this new instalment for next year will bring.

Negative Vibes — IT GETS WORSE FOR FALLOUT 76

 

 

 

 

Fallout 76 already failed to impress its users and the official critics haven’t had much better to say about it. With only a small percentage reviews on MetaCritic being positive, you don’t need us to tell you how it has been received.

One word that keeps being used to describe it again and again: “soulless”. Other scathing remarks and comments include accusing Bethesda of betraying Fallout’s spirit, and of the game itself having no redeeming features.

Its reputation is beginning to travel, too. If Twitch is anything to go by, interest in Fallout 76 has dropped in a big way.

Shahan’s Opinion: As I mentioned last week, having no NPCs and the story told to you only through audio tapes and emails on terminals is a big letdown for me. I can understand why it is done story-wise, but still.

They are making an effort to fix things with its huge 47GB patch though. I personally feel they need to make a whole new game engine, which they are NOT doing for The Elder Scrolls VI.

Dale’s Opinion: Bethesda have a rep to rebuild. And they will want to do it fast if they want the Fallout series to remain lucrative and profitable for them. If they produce another instalment without addressing all this hate, they’re going to end up with very few fans at all…

New Character Spotlight — NEEKO (League of Legends)

 

 

 

‘The Curious Chameleon’ is the latest to join Riot Games’ roster of heroes. Neeko has a passive shapeshifting ability that makes her appear like one of her allies. Lore has also been released for her, which goes into great detail. For example she is the last of an ancient tribe who managed to escape the death of her homeland thanks to her self-sacrificing tribe elders.

It has been noticed by LoL players that Neeko has a preference for the female champions of the game over the males. Riot Games’ senior narrative writer Matt Dunn has confirmed that Neeko identifies as a lesbian. This makes her the second gay League champion after Varus.

Shahan’s Opinion: She’s cute. Her VA does a great job getting across her inquisitive and quirky personality. I’m loving that theme music for her during the trailer.

KINGDOM HEARTS III GOES GOLD

Five years since it was first announced. Six since Dream Drop Distance was released. And 13 years since KH2. Kingdom Hearts III has wrapped up development and gone gold. It is out on 29th January 2019!

The latest game brings the forces of light and dark to a clash that promises to bring an end to the Xehanort saga. All while visiting Disney worlds, both old and new. From Toy Story and Pirates of the Caribbean to Frozen and Winnie the Pooh. Plus many more.

Speaking of Pooh Bear, KH3 is not officially sold in China because the President is insulted that Winnie is used as a euphemism for him. And China’s stringent censorship laws include banning anything seen as a mockery of the President.

Shahan’s Opinion: One of my most favourite series of all time. I hope we get to meet Leon and the rest of the Final Fantasy crew back at Radiant Garden. Let’s all hope the next saga this game leads to is less of a convoluted mess.

FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE NEXT UP AS PR PRIORITY

This month Square Enix held an event for the third anniversary of the Dissidia games, their fighting games series involving Final Fantasy heroes and villains. Tetsuya Nomura, director and character designer of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts fame, was at the event. He spoke to Famitsu and took the chance to explain:

“I just wanted to say that the current PR priority is Kingdom Hearts III, as it was during the ARTNIA event the other day, but after that it’ll be Final Fantasy VII remake, so please don’t worry.”

A Quick Reminiscence:

Let’s look back to the unveiling of the PS3 at E3 on 16th May 2005. It showcased a Final Fantasy VII tech demo that displayed a craftsmanship of incredible heights at its time. And it ignited hopes of fans across the globe that Square would remake the entirety of the original game up to this high standard. But there were no plans for them to do so. Over the years, endless rumours would arise that a remake was being worked on.

A decade passes. After a lot of doubt, the remake was announced to an incredible reaction. This, alongside the reveal of Shenmue 3, made this one of the topmost E3s of all time.

Shahan’s Opinion: Between this series and Kingdom Hearts, I am always alternating between which of the two I would put in the top spot. Incredibly excited for this.

WRECK-IT RALPH BREAKS INTO FORTNITE

Ralph has found himself in a number of fictional arcade games inspired by real games. However, he’s recently been found in the immensely popular Fortnite. He was found on an outdoor big screen in-game on a livestream by MozzzyTwitch.

This is not the first time a character owned by Disney has shown up in Fortnite. For a special event, Thanos was available as a playable character for anyone good enough to grab the Infinity Gauntlet. So is this cameo of Ralph a sign for another special event? Only time will tell…

Shahan’s Opinion: I’ve never played Fortnite. The ‘Battle Royale’ genre does not appeal to me sadly. Super excited for Wreck-It Ralph 2 though! Those 3D models of all the princesses! Dayum!

GLOSSING OVER…

Ocarina of Time turns 20

Who feels old now?! I know I do… (Dale). One of the best and most popular, if not the best and most popular instalment of The Legend of Zelda games celebrated its 20th birthday last week, on 21st November.

Cyberpunk 2077 to be as Refined as Red Dead Redemption 2, says Developers

CDProjekt RED have announced their aim for high-quality games when it comes to the release of their current ongoing project, Cyberpunk 2077. Off the back of the three months it took to rid The Witcher 3 of all bugs, CEO Adam Kiciński has stated that quality will be “of paramount importance” with Cyberpunk.

63 Amiibo Figures to be Released in Limited-Edition Box Set

Nintendo fans will be eagerly awaiting the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in a couple of weeks’ time. The major fans will certainly enjoy the special Smash Bros. amiibo box set that was revealed this week, containing a whopping 63 figures. Some of which, we might add, have not been previously released. Better keep those savings aside…

Thank you for reading!

Please come back next week for more gaming news and views.

K/DA Single Hits No. 1 on Chart

ISSUE 1 – 18 November 2018

by Shahan Ahmed and Dale Hurst

Top Story — RIOT GAMES’ K/DA SINGLE “POP/STARS” TOPS CHART

IT may seem a little strange to hear that a fictional K-Pop group, created by a video game company, could have a single out; let alone one hit Number One in a chart! But they have done it all the same. The guys behind League of Legends – Riot Games – created K/DA as a promotional device for the release of new skins and cosmetics for four playable heroes from the game.

The song, POP/STARS, which debuted with the group at the live opening ceremony of the League of Legends 2018 World Championship finals has since topped the Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart.  The performance even included the four aforementioned playable heroes showing up as augmented reality holograms.

K/DA is actually formed of professional singers, two of whom are part of the K-Pop group (G)-Idle.

Shahan’s Opinion: Awesome! I’m loving it for modelling and animation reasons of course! Nothing else… Honest…! *cough* Ahem…

This Week’s Popular Choice — SPYRO’S REIGNITED TRILOGY

AFTER a couple of months’ delay, everyone’s favourite purple dragon has finally arrived back on our screens with Spyro’s Reignited Trilogy. And the reviews have been, for the most part, very favourable.

Let’s face it — as Crash Bandicoot’s remaster proved last year, that nostalgia from childhood is never going to fail. In the UK, at least — given it’s currently at No. 1 on their chart, beating Red Dead Redemption 2.

One somewhat negative point worth mentioning, however: like Red Dead Redemption 2, the game’s physical copy comes on multiple discs. If you have a bad internet connection, it will take a while to install.

Shahan’s Opinion: It looks absolutely stunning and the characters look full of life! A must-play, especially if Spyro is a part of your childhood. Even if he wasn’t and you grew up with Crash/Jak/Ratchet/Sly Cooper/whoever, Spyro is one of those gaming series that has an important place in gaming history.

Dale’s Opinion: When Crash came back last year, I was already pretty tempted to get a PS4 purely for that reason. I resisted, saying that only if they did the same to Spyro, would I definitely buy one. I guess I know what I’m getting for Christmas now…

Negative Vibes — FALLOUT 76 FALLS THROUGH

THE online-only multiplayer outing for the Fallout series has failed to impress users, with over 500 negative reviews on Metacritic alone. It hasn’t been all doom and gloom from some of the more loyal fans of the series, who have stated the negativity has come from perfectionists and “balance maniacs”.

A Beta version had been released beforehand, alongside a letter from creators Bethesda to their fans to ask their help in finding the important issues to fix. Both of these were met with mixed reviews.

Shahan’s Opinion: When it comes to Fallout, the main draw for me is the stories that it tells in its apocalyptic setting. After the news broke that there were no NPCs in the game, my interest took a nosedive. But it seems like fun can be had with a group of friends if you can wade through the bugs and glitches.

New Character Spotlight — ASHE (Overwatch)

ADDING to the ever-growing cast of the Overwatch universe comes the white-haired outlaw, Ashe. Looking past the débâcle at Blizzcon this year with Diablo Immortal, Jeff Kaplan unveiled a new animated origin story trailer for Overwatch’s latest playable character.

Without giving too much away, Ashe is the leader of the Deadlock Gang, who has a history with McCree. The rest, you’ll have to watch and play to find out for yourselves…

Shahan’s Opinion: This wild-west inspired hero and animated short is perfectly timed after the release of the cowboy simulator known as Red Dead Redemption 2. I’ve tried playing as Ashe and she is a blast to play. As Bob was one of the main highlights of the animated short, it was also great to see him implemented in the game as Ashe’s ultimate ability. On the other hand, I’ll probably lose interest again afterwards until the next event/hero. I just want more lore.

Dale’s Opinion: I see a lot of Soul Calibur’s Ivy Valentine in Ashe. They’re both from wealthy families but otherwise somewhat secluded individuals. Not to mention, they’re both anti-heroines. Those sorts of characters are my not-so-guilty pleasures to play. She’ll get a good share of my attention should I get around to playing Overwatch.

Detective Pikachu is voiced by… RYAN REYNOLDS?!?

POKÉMON has been all over the gaming news, with the release of Let’s Go Pikachu and -Eevee just yesterday. But attention to that is shoved into second place compared to the first full trailer for Detective Pikachu. Featuring the voice of Ryan Reynolds, no less (though let’s just hope he doesn’t play this as Deadpool dressed in a Pikachu costume…) The nerd from the second Jurassic World movie, and a scarily cool-looking Charizard are also featured.

Shahan’s Opinion: I like the style of the 3D models. The humour is what didn’t hit the spot for me as much as I am a fan of Ryan Reynolds. But I’ve seen bad trailers for movies I ended up enjoying immensely. Also seeing grumpy Jigglypuff gave me Pokémon cartoon flashbacks of Jigglypuff getting mad and drawing on Ash Ketchum and friend’s faces after they fall asleep to her singing. If the trailer showed her revealing her pen, I would’ve been 100% sold. Maybe she will in the film.

Dale’s Opinion: Everyone from our generation should remember seeing Mewtwo Strikes Back in the cinemas way back when, but this is a Pokémon movie of an entirely different kind. The creatures in realistic, 3D textures – Pikachu is SO FLUFFY! I don’t care how old I am — I will see this film!

DELTARUNE – NOT A SEQUEL TO UNDERTALE?

Toby Fox, developer of the indie game Undertale that gained a cult following, has released the first chapter of a game that he says is not a sequel to his much-loved RPG (even though they are anagrams and involve the same in-game characters). Predicting the questions that will arise, he pre-emptively says that Undertale’s world and Deltarune’s world are different. Your ending in Undertale will be untouched. This isn’t a sequel or a spin-off.

“It’s just a game you can play after you complete UNDERTALE, if you want to.”

In fact, he explains that although Undertale was released first, Deltarune is the one he wanted to create originally. It took a few months to make the demo of Undertale but it took a few years to make the demo of Deltarune!

Shahan’s Opinion: Undertale is one of the most charming RPGs in recent times. If the characters have the same amount of life and personality in Deltarune as they did in Undertale, it’s going to be another gem by the ‘Annoying Dog’. Let’s just hope he’ll be able to assemble and lead a team well enough to bring this project to fruition.

 

GLOSSING OVER…

Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4 Next DLC Incoming

The trailer for ‘Turf Wars’, the second downloadable content of Marvel’s Spider-Man, has been released. The DLC itself comes out 20th November. It involves Hammerhead and the Maggia crime family.

We did think of doing a small tribute to Stan Lee here…

…but what obituary or tribute could really do him justice?

Sony will be a no-show for E3 2019!?!

The best-loved and looked-forward-to event in the gaming calendar – E3 – will be 25 years old next year. For the first time in the its history, Sony will not be attending. This adds on to their announcement in September that they are cancelling this year’s PSX (PlayStation Experience) in December because they feel they don’t have enough to show.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales Disappoints CDProjekt Red

CDProjekt Red has gained many fans with the success of The Witcher 3, who many claim it to be the greatest game of all time. Even more are excited for a futuristic in-development title ‘Cyberpunk 2077’. However it seems not as many fans were interested in this spin-off. Adam Kiciński, a joint-CEO of CDProjekt Red, has stated in a financial call a couple days ago that, “The game appealed to the community, which drove up our expectations regarding sales. Unfortunately, as yet, these expectations have not been fulfilled …”

…AND FINALLY… WELCOME!

This is the first in what will hopefully be many weekly instalments of gaming news and views. We would love to hear any suggestions for features, content and other such. Therefore, we invite you to comment.

Hope to see you again next week!