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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.

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!

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!