Warner Bros. Interactive

Master Chief Collection Coming to PC

ISSUE 14 — 17 March 2019

by Shahan Ahmed and Dale Hurst

Top Story: MASTER CHIEF COLLECTION FOR PC ANNOUNCED

The famed Halo series is back! It’s coming to Steam and the Windows store later this year. Pricing is yet to be revealed. Each game in the collection will be released one by one. Halo Reach will be in 4K, 60FPS and has HDR. The Steam page for the collection is already up.

Fans were so happy with the news that they’ve bombarded the developer, 343 Industries, with pizzas. This happens after redditor ‘thewombinthesky’ pre-emptively promised pizza to a responding 343 employee if MCC for PC is announced.

Shahan’s Opinion: Halo isn’t for me personally, but it’s always great to see fans of a time-honoured game series come out of the woodwork to celebrate this announcement. And it’s always great when fans send boatloads of food to devs. Another example of this happening is when Blizzard received hundreds of cookies from Overwatch fans years ago.

ANTHEM FANS CONDUCTED A BLACKOUT

After the latest update for Anthem was released and when the player base experienced the ins and outs of all the new changes, they were not happy. Therefore, a protest went underway to send a message to the developers, investors, etc., directly referring to the rate of loot drops in the game, as it does not adequately reward the amount of time that a player invests in the game. It also mentions the fact that it’s a game with real money transactions for cosmetics, even though there are barely any cosmetics.

And like salvaging parts from a fallen freelancer in-game, the developers are currently underway salvaging Anthem, but not as simply or successfully. This week on the EA Help Twitter, they are looking for help in identifying issues in quickplay missions currently. It just comes across like the game was released far too early and players are just paying to be beta testers. This is far too common in the gaming industry. Understandably game development is more costly and complex from the days of Atari or Dreamcast, but it’s not entitled of consumers to ask for a polished and complete product.

Shahan’s Opinion: Oh boy. To be honest, I’ve been unintentionally conducting a blackout on the game since I last played it. I’ll hop back on if/when Bioware manages to turn things around.

ANOTHER GOKU COMING TO FIGHTERZ

New characters continue to fly into Dragon Ball FighterZ, the DBZ fighting game that many consider to be the best amongst them all. The latest to be revealed is another form of Goku. Specifically his appearance in the non-canon series, Dragon Ball GT. His moves include the Super Kamehameha and the Super Spirit Bomb as well as the Reverse Kamehameha and the good old Power Pole! He is also said to have a hidden attack. Could it involve GT’s infamous Super Saiyan 4 form? We’ll have to wait and see!

For anyone unaware what Dragon Ball GT is and how it fits in with the other Dragon Ball series, here’s a quick run-through. First came the original Dragon Ball; a charming, goofy adventure that followed a little Son Goku and the friends he made as they searched for the Dragon Balls. Dragon Ball Z was next and is the most famous series in the franchise. It introduced the golden, spiky Super Saiyan form, fusions and more. What followed after this was Dragon Ball GT. It brought the focus back on the Dragon Balls and the consequences of them being excessively used since the very beginning. GT was vilified for Goku being turned back into a kid, the minimal involvement of creator Akira Toriyama and various other reasons. Thus it became non-canon. Dragon Ball Super is the current series and continues on from DBZ.

Shahan’s Opinion: They’re acknowledging GT in this game? Ugh. I’d prefer if it was just Kid Goku from the original Dragon Ball with a little Chi Chi throwing her helmet blade or Young Bulma gunning opponents down!

HAS THE PUBG CREATOR LEFT PUBG?

The answer is… no!

Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene has released a statement that you can read above. The creator of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is moving on to create a new division within the PUBG Corp. He will head up the PUBG Special Projects division that will focus on research. He is still tied to the Battle Royale game as a ‘consulting creative director’.

Shahan’s Opinion: Naming your company after your product can be a risky move. It may be simple and easy to understand like Google or Amazon. But then there’s this… PUBG (Game). PUBG Corp. PUBG MadGlory, LLC. PUBG Special Division. What’s next?

SOLAR ASH KINGDOM REVEALED

Heart Machine, the developer of award-winning game Hyper Light Drifter, have announced their next game, Solar Ash Kingdom. Unlike HLD, which is a 2D action RPG, Solar Ash Kingdom is full 3D with third-person camera view. Disasterpeace returns for the game’s soundtrack. The dev has confirmed it is not a sequel to Hyper Light Drifter, but it is set in the same universe.

Shahan’s Opinion: It can be rough seeing a studio go from making a 2D game to 3D. Judging from the trailer alone they are well on their way to pulling it off because it looks MAGICAL.

GLOSSING OVER…

Warner Bros. Interactive and Turtle Rock Studios announce Back 4 Blood

The spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead has been announced earlier this week. It is otherwise, not a sequel, but a zombie co-op FPS “built from the ground up as an original, premium title…”

DMC5 Tops UK Retail Charts

It only launched last week and Devil May Cry 5 has already hit the #1 spot on the UK retail charts. It is the first time a game in the DMC franchise has topped a chart since 2013.

Could Cyberpunk 2077 Feature Lady Gaga?

The Oscar-nominated singer and actress Lady Gaga is rumoured to be in collaboration with CD Projekt Red on their hotly-anticipated game Cyberpunk 2077. Nothing is confirmed for certain yet, but there’s chatter going around in France that she could be doing motion capture for the game, even featuring as a character. Who knows? Watch this space, I guess…

PLAYING THIS WEEK…

Shahan has been playing…

SUPER PAPER MARIO (2007) (Wii)

Dale has introduced me to the Paper Mario games and this week we started Super Paper Mario. It pales in comparison to The Thousand-Year Door (which we completed previously) but it still has its own charming characters. It’s great that Peach is a mainstay in the party, but I sure do miss Goombella…

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.