Epic Games

BAFTA Games Awards 2019 Special

ISSUE 17 — 7 April 2019

by Shahan Ahmed and Dale Hurst

Special Feature: BAFTA GAMES AWARDS 2019

The 15th British Academy Games Awards was held this week at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. The event was hosted by comedian Dara Ó Briain. This year, a new category was introduced: the EE Mobile Game of the Year award. It may be similar to the Mobile Game award, but unlike it and the other categories, this one is voted for by the public instead of the BAFTA committee and the trophy is a solid yellow rather than the standard golden mask.

God of War took home the most awards (with a total of five) including the coveted Best Game award. The list below shows the winner of each category. Check this page for all of the nominees that came close to winning an award.

Award

Winner
Artistic Achievement Return of the Obra Dinn
Audio Achievement God of War
Best Game God of War
British Game Forza Horizon 4
Debut Game Yoku’s Island Express
Evolving Game Fortnite
Family Nintendo Labo
Game Beyond Entertainment My Child Lebensborn
Game Design Return of the Obra Dinn
Game Innovation Nintendo Labo
Mobile Game  Florence
Multiplayer A Way Out
Music God of War
Narrative God of War
Original Property Into the Breach
Performer Jeremy Davis
EE Mobile Game of the Year (voted for by the public) Old School Runescape

Shahan’s Opinion: It has reminded me to try and get around to certain games (God of War and A Way Out) as well as putting some on my radar (Return of the Obra Dinn and Florence).

Dale’s Opinion: Working for or at least being involved with BAFTA is something of a dream job for me so it has been good to look at the Games section of their awards. I’ll be keeping a close eye in future…

New Character Spotlight: KOLLECTOR (Mortal Kombat 11)

The newest fighter to join the day one roster of Mortal Kombat 11 has been shown. Kollector will make his debut in MK11, which releases on the 23rd of this month. He is said to value his own wealth and status.

Kollector works for Shao Kahn and collects tributes for him like a form of tax. Similar to Goro and Kintaro, he has four arms. Two are out in front while the other two are in his backpack ready to bring out what he has collected to fight his opponent with. Not afraid to get close while also having ranged attacks plus the ability to teleport? Kollector will no doubt be a strong fighter to contend with.

Right before Kollector, another character was shown this week. Namely, Cetrion – an Elder Goddess with control over the elements. Her power to use ice, fire and earth comes from her bond to the Earth. Check her out on this GameInformer video.

Shahan’s Opinion: Kollector is one of the more unique characters in the MK11’s roster and Cetrion’s fatality is out of this world!

Dale’s Opinion: He is definitely a character I can see me playing a lot. That is, if I get the game when it comes out…

BORDERLANDS 3 IS AN EPIC STORE EXCLUSIVE

After the positive reactions to Borderlands 3’s unveiling, some bad news has arisen. Epic Games continues to upset PC gamers as they acquire exclusivity rights to Borderlands 3’s launch. Steam users will still be able to obtain the game, but they’ll have to wait six months after BL3’s release date of 19th September 2019. To be clear, console gamers are unaffected.

Shortly the review bombing was underway on Borderlands 2’s Steam page. However, for the first time, Valve is now actually taking action against it. They have introduced a system to mark ‘off-topic review activity’ that excludes reviews that are deemed to be review bombs. Users are able to disable this feature in their settings. Valve has promised to manually check detected review bombs for any reviews that shouldn’t be hidden.

Going back to some good news for Borderlands. After the trailer for Borderlands 3 dropped, the player count on all Borderlands games on Steam increased by over quadruple. Also BL3’s box art and its different editions have been revealed and ready for pre-orders.

Shahan’s Opinion: Even though I’ll be getting this on console for the split-screen co-op, the Epic Store exclusivity is a bummer. This is likely going to be a continuing trend for PC releases in the near-future. Will Valve do anything to entice publishers and developers and prevent delayed releases to Steam…? Time will tell.

BIOWARE’S ISSUES WITH ANTHEM AND THE PRESS

Kotaku has done an impressive article covering Bioware’s woes regarding Anthem. Stemming from the project initially being named Beyond; a name with meaning that was relevant to the premise. Changing it to Anthem caused confusion amongst those who worked on the game. The article goes on to discuss more last-minute changes like this, as well as the game’s being panned by fans and critics alike, plus many more issues. From understaffed departments to tension between two studio locations, difficulties with EA’s Frostbite engine and much more. Staff went on stress leave and some never came back; they were termed as ‘stress casualties’. It was also quoted that:

“Depression and anxiety are an epidemic within Bioware…”

Read the story for more — it’s a long but fascinating read.

In response to the article, the studio’s management did not discuss the topic with members of staff. Rather, the company sent out emails saying, “Don’t talk to the press.” Following this revelation, Bioware’s Casey Hudson sent out an email to all in the studio that an all-hands meeting will take place discussing all of the raised issues.

Bioware has written a response to the article that you can read here. But it has been speculated that the time they had posted their response means that they must not have read the lengthy piece. Polygon have also weighed in on the issue.

Shahan’s Opinion: Revealing such damaging work environments is important otherwise nothing will be done for the well-being of those who work in the gaming industry.

ENTER THE GUNGEON: A FAREWELL TO ARMS LAUNCHES

Dodge Roll’s bullet hell dungeon crawler got its final update: Enter the Gungeon: A Farewell to Arms. The update is free and available on all platforms you can play the game on (PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One). New features include:

  • Two new characters: The Paradox and The Gunslinger.
  • New guns, items and synergies.
  • Rainbow Mode – community inspired mode where each floor offers a rainbow chest but only one gun/item can be picked.
  • New secret floor w/ unique enemies and boss.
  • Starting weapons have new alternate art to unlock.
  • New Beholster shrine.
  • Pet the dog!

Various changes and improvements have been made to the gameplay as well.

Shahan’s Opinion: I don’t have the precision or reflexes for bullet hell games like Enter the Gungeon. Nevertheless, it is awesome to see games getting additional content without the devs charging for every new character or weapon. Excited to see what their next project will be.

GLOSSING OVER…

Netflix Announces “Playing Hard”

A documentary will be released on Netflix later this year entitled Playing Hard. It will be an in-depth look into the four-year production process of the game For Honor.

Yet Another UK Game Setting

Not only will the setting for the upcoming Pokémon games be loosely based on the UK; Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs 3 has also been announced to be set in London.

Microsoft to Investigate Historic Sexual Harassment Claims

A recent employee uproar and human resources nightmare has gone on at Microsoft recently. Relating to historic and otherwise-overlooked sexual harassment complaints. In response, Microsoft has begun investigations into these claims.

PLAYING THIS WEEK…

Dale has been playing…

PIKMIN (2001) (GAMECUBE)

On a real GameCube nostalgia trip these days. When I found and played ZooCube a couple of weeks ago, I also found the disc for Pikmin in there, which to my amazement worked just fine. It had been aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages since I played it last so it was virtually all new to me again. And then I remembered it is so addictive, so fun and so infuriating all at the same time.

Sora and Friends are Back! — Kingdom Hearts III Special

ISSUE 9 — 3 February 2019

by Shahan Ahmed and Dale Hurst

Special Feature — KINGDOM HEARTS III

by Shahan Ahmed

KH3 1

Kingdom Hearts III has finally launched this week (or last week if you’re in Japan)! We’ve been kept in the dark for so many years we may as well be one of the Heartless ourselves! The developers went through great difficulty due to a number of issues, such as changing to Unreal Engine 4 a year into development, but they have managed to pull it off! KH3 has garnered generally positive reviews and promises to provide long-awaited answers that we’ve been waiting for.

WARNING: POTENTIAL MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

FRIENDS

Sora sets out to regain his strength after losing it all at the end of Dream Drop Distance. As you join him on his journey, he will be meeting many friends – both old and new. Sora’s childhood friends (Riku and Kairi) and best buds (Donald and Goofy) are here. You’ll fight alongside Hercules and Captain Jack Sparrow once more. Examples of new friendships being made are Buzz and Woody in the Toy Box, Hiro and Baymax at San Fransokyo and Mike and Sully at Monstropolis.

FOES

Many enemies appear to test Sora’s mettle. The series’ staples Maleficent and Pete are back. They’re on the search for a mysterious black box. Hades reverts to his original age-old plan to rule the cosmos by enlisting the aid of the Titans and attack Olympus. Xehanort and the Organization are back of course! Some past members have actually become allies. Seemingly similar to KH2, a specific member is associated with or assigned to each Disney world.

FORM CHANGES

Let’s delve into the combat for a moment. Remember the cool drive forms in KH2? Well, they are back in a new fashion! Form changes can be activated during battles and most are dependent on what keyblade you are using (three can be equipped and switched between). Each have their own special abilities and they change Sora’s clothing. ‘Second Form’ is the first one available to you and it gives access to classic KH techniques like Sonic Blade and Ars Arcanum. Remember Anti-Sora? He’s back in ‘Rage Form’! Powerful but risky, it is accessible to Sora when low on health and out of magic points.

MINI-GAMES

Kingdom Hearts III brings a wealth of mini-games. You can find one near the beginning of the game after leaving Olympus. Backtrack to the Overlook in Thebes and there’ll be the Cherry Flan; one of the Flantastic Seven! Interacting with the flan lets you ride around Thebes on the Trinity Sled knocking out flans for points. The combat itself allows you to use links and attractions that are basically minigames themselves! From Blaster Blaze to the Magic Carousel. Each one makes every battle a big spectacular show!

Shahan’s Opinion: I literally got goosebumps watching the intro. I just can’t believe it’s actually here! I doubt I’ll feel like this again until the Final Fantasy VII remake. I’ll wait and see if it will surpass my personal fave: Birth by Sleep. But it is so beautiful! Near Pixar-quality visuals in the cutscenes and the environments. It’s even more awesome to know that Hayley Joel Osment (yeah The Sixth Sense kid) would be happy to voice-act Sora forever!

Negative Vibes: ANGER AND THREATS OVER METRO EXODUS EXCLUSIVITY

Metro Exodus is all set to launch this month on 15th February. It has been available to pre-order on Steam and other stores for many months now. However, it was announced that the game will be exclusive to the Epic Store for a year.  Steam pre-orders will be honoured. Unfortunately, the last-minute change that was made for profit has angered PC gamers to the point they review-bombed the other Metro games on Steam.

To further worsen customer relations, one of the developer’s employees has threatened that if PC players announce a boycott on their game, the next Metro game will not be coming to PC.

As much as Steam needs a competitor to combat its monopoly on the PC gaming platform, many would say Epic Games are going about it the wrong way. Check out this informative article over on Rock Paper Shotgun if you want to know more.

Shahan’s Opinion: The gaming industry is not doing well when it comes to PR. Maybe it would’ve been best to stay silent and wait out the storm in this situation. This same situation also supports the argument against pre-ordering.

New Character Spotlight: SNOW VILLIERS (Dissidia Final Fantasy NT)

The villains of Dissidia Final Fantasy will have Snow Villiers from the FFXIII trilogy join their ranks. His default appearance here lends itself from how he appears in the third game – Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Snow is already available for Dissidia Final Fantasy in arcades in Japan. He will be available for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT this month.

Shahan’s Opinion: I should point out I am a fan of the FFXIII trilogy, since I know how much it has split the fanbase. That being said, I have mixed feelings regarding Snow’s portrayal here.

I prefer the more upbeat, optimistic brawler in XIII and XIII-2 rather than the grim Lightning Return’s boss battle Snow. I also like his character design in XIII-2 the most. Sadly it is unlikely that will return, knowing each Dissidia character has two outfits each.

On the other hand, we already have Tifa to bring the punches for the good guys so Cie’th Snow on the villains’ side is still a cool way to represent the games he is from.

PIRANHA PLANT NOW AVAILABLE IN SMASH BROS.

It would be rude not to mention the update Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launched this week, which meant, among other things, first DLC character Piranha Plant is now available for play.

For the most part, its addition has not caused too many problems. That is to say, it isn’t quite perfect. You can’t use it for All-Star Smash without the game crashing, for example. Hopefully that will get fixed in the next patch, which should also bring Joker with it.

Dale’s Opinion: You may remember I did a little special feature on Ultimate when it first came out. Piranha Plant was on my list of five for a potential Squad Strike, and I’m happy to say it’ll stay there. It has great recovery and battering moves, plus spitting poison and summoning Petey Piranha is its Final Smash. Surprising for something I thought was a hoax, but a pleasant surprise all the same.

DRAGON BALL PROJECT Z ANNOUNCED

It’s time to relive the story of the mysterious Dragon Balls once again! Bandai Namco have released an announcement trailer, as well as a few details for Project Z. It is being developed by CyberConnect 2, who are known for the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm and .Hack series. It is aimed to be released this year on PS4, Xbox One and PC. It will include both Japanese and English voiceovers.

Shahan’s Opinion: Massive Dragon Ball fan here. After watching Dragon Ball Super: Broly in the cinema, I hugely welcome this announcement. It’s exciting to see this is an action RPG and open-world too. It reminds me of fond memories I had playing Buu’s Fury on my Game Boy Advance SP.

POKÉMON PAIR UP IN THE TCG – TEAM UP NOW AVAILABLE!

Double battles are nothing new in the Pokémon video games but they’re here to be in the limelight in the latest trading card game expansion. Sun & Moon – Team Up features unique pairings of Pokémon to form the six new Tag Team Pokémon-GX cards. Check them out in the short video above. These cards are high-risk high reward. They have a lot of power and HP but if knocked out your opponent takes three Prize cards (six Prize cards equals a victory).

The expansion has 196 cards (including the secret rare ones) and it includes four Prism Star cards. There are also dozens of Trainer cards such as Erika’s Hospitality; the Full Art print of this card is glorious. The two theme decks for this expansion are called Relentless Flame (Charizard) and Torrential Cannon (Blastoise).

Shahan’s Opinion: It’s great that the focus is on the original 151 Pokémon. The pairings are great! I’m partial to the Latios and Latias pairing personally. If any were to be Dale’s favourite, it’s got to be the Gengar and Mimikyu duo.

Dale’s Opinion: Been a while since I even thought about Pokémon cards! But Shahan isn’t wrong – I do love my Ghost-types and Gengar (as well as Gastly and Haunter) is a personal fave.

GLOSSING OVER…

Resident Evil 2 Remake a Success

The remake of Resident Evil 2 has made it to the Top 5 Most-Played Games on Steam, a first for the franchise. Fans will also be happy to hear about three DLC stories coming soon.

Latest Fallout 76 Patch Reintroduces Old Bugs

The headline speaks for itself. Do you ever think they should just recall Fallout 76 and start again? Hasn’t been great for them so far, has it? One wonders if Bethesda are deliberately trying to alienate their players.

Sony Japan Patents New Backwards-Compatibility System

A system patented by Sony Japan is to be applied to a new console (at this time, hopefully the PS5). This system will enable that console’s CPU to interpret the central unit of previous PlayStation generations, from PS4 all the way back to the PS1.

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.