In a recent interview, Todd Howard explains how planet exploration in Starfield would have been a lot more punishing before the team decided to nerf "the hell out of it".
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"So the way the environmental damage works in the game, on planets, and your suit, you have resistances to certain types of atmosphere effects, whether that's radiation or thermal, etc., and that was a pretty complex system - actually, it was very punitive," Howard said on the podcast. "... And what we did at the end of the day, and it was a complicated system for players to understand, is we just nerfed the hell out of it. It matters only a little bit. It matters more in flavor. The affliction you get is more annoying knowing you have it."
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Howard's comment that Bethesda may address it "going forward" implies Starfield may receive a Hardcore or Survival mode-type difficulty level in the game. It would not be the first time Bethesda added a difficulty mode to one of its games post-release, as Fallout 4 received a Survival Mode a few months after launch. This added a set of features not found in the other difficulty levels, such as eliminating the option to autosave or save manually from the pause menu or stronger enemies spawning more frequently. Should such a mode be added to Starfield, the team could bring back the more punitive system for planet exploration.
The Talo Principle II has a new trailer that includes a release date of November 2. The follow-up to the acclaimed 2014 puzzle game was first announced during the PlayStation Showcase in May.
Set in the distant future after the events of the first game, The Talos Principle II unfolds in a world ruled by robots after humanity has gone extinct. These machines preserve human culture in their day-to-day lives, and the story centers on a unraveling the truth behind a megastructure hiding a great mystery and immense power. The story-driven game takes players across several futuristic locations and includes multiple endings. Gameplay features familiar mechanics and new twists, including challenges centering on mind transference and gravity manipulation.
[Release Date Trailer](https://youtu.be/2NgMGOuoAiA)
Don't Nod Entertainment, the studio behind Life is Strange, revealed its action RPG, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, during The Game Awards last year. Earlier this year, in June, Don't Nod announced Banishers will be released in November but today, the studio delayed its release to next year. More specifically, Banishers will now hit PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on February 13, 2024.
As for why, Don't Nod CEO Oskar Guilbert says the team is aiming for a "less saturated period" of video game releases, alluding to the swath of games releasing in the coming weeks, including next month's Assassin's Creed Mirage, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake 2, and more (and that's just some of what's releasing in October, which then leads right into November).
[Gameplay preview trailer](https://youtu.be/YAKRe5itnSM)
Growing Light was first teased during the Letter from the Producer Live event at Fan Fest Las Vegas in July, confirming that Growing Light will be split across two major updates. The first will land in FF14’s patch 6.5 on October 3rd, ahead of the second part in patch 6.55 next January.
As detailed during producer Naoki ‘Yoshi-P’ Yoshida’s latest stream, patch 6.5 will add a host of new content to XIV, the headline additions being the next set of Main Scenario quests - referred to as Part 1 - that will lead up to Dawntrail and continue to advance the MMO in its post-Hydaelyn-Zodiark story arc following the finale of 2021 expansion Endwalker.
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[Trailer](https://youtu.be/v5X8IvNcYBY)
CD Projekt have formally commented on the presence of references to the Russia-Ukraine war in Cyberpunk 2077's recently added Ukrainian localisation, apologising for dialogue lines "that can be considered offensive by Russian gamers", while reiterating their support for Ukraine.
In case you missed it, the Ukrainian script and menu localisation currently includes a number of antagonistic references to Russians and to the on-going Russian invasion of Ukraine. One dialogue line refers to a particular bandit group as "rusnia", and there's photo mode menu text for a squatting character that translates as "like a Russian". There's also lore text that apparently riffs on Ukrainian government rhetoric during the war, and a piece of in-game wallart that alludes to the dispute between Ukraine and Russia over Crimea.
Those buying an Xbox Series X can get a free Starfield copy at select retailers, including Verizon and Target.
Starfield is a popular game, with the title reaching over 10 million players since its global launch this month. Of course, aside from being available digitally and at retailers, Bethesda's sci-fi RPG is also available on Game Pass. Those who haven't bought the game just yet or aren't subscribed to Microsoft's game subscription service can now get a free copy of the game when purchasing an Xbox Series X. Both Target and Verizon are bundling the game for free with Microsoft's Series X console for 'only' $499.99. Interestingly enough, Target's offer isn't limited to Starfield, but it also works with various Xbox Series X titles, including Madden NFL 24, the new Mortal Kombat 1, Hogwarts Legacy, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, and more.
As said, Verizon is currently offering a special limited-time Xbox Series X bundle with a free copy of Starfield for $499.99 (normally $569.98). This item is only available online, and those purchasing the bundle need to be at least 17 years old.
The PlayStation Network store leaves a lot to be desired in terms of features available on other digital storefronts, but from today, a highly requested feature started rolling out to provide users with more information regarding games available for purchase on PlayStation 5.
As reported by multiple users, a user rating system started rolling out today, allowing users to rate games they purchased and added to their personal library. While the system still isn't perfect, as it lets users rate games even without playing them, it is still a nice addition that goes a long way to improve the PlayStation Network user experience, which hasn't seen much improvement for years.
October is almost upon us, which means PS Plus Essential tier subscribers will have a new short-list of free games to try out, and as usual, some of the games have leaked ahead of time. These leaks come courtesy of Billbil-kun writing on Dealabs, who has a pretty much perfect record when it comes to revealing PS Plus titles. In October players can look forward sci-fi horror game The Callisto Protocol and the oddly-popular Farming Simulator 22. There should also be a third title, but our leaker has not revealed that, and it’s likely The Callisto Protocol is October’s highest-profile PS Plus Essential title.
Star Wars' Ahsoka Tano is now a part of Epic Games' battle royale, Fortnite. She joined Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 4: Last Resort this morning and includes a battle pass, her white Jedi Training Lightsaber weapon, Force abilities, and more. Epic says Ahsoka, her lightsaber, and Force abilities will remain in Fortnite until the v26.30 update.
Sega's Endless Dungeon hits PlayStation, Xbox, and PC next month, and ahead of its release, we spoke with singer-songwriter Lera Lynn, who wrote new original songs that play during the game. Lynn is a musician who has also appeared in things like HBO's True Detective series, where she played an in-universe musician at a dive bar in the show's second season. She has experience working on music for TV, film, and now, thanks to Endless Dungeon, games.
We spoke with Lynn about the processes for creating music for these mediums, differences and similarities, the songs that appear in Endless Dungeon, and more. Enjoy our interview below!
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**Lynn:** That's an interesting question. When you're in the thick of making it, you're like, "Yeah, this is so good." And then a couple of months go by, you're working on it, and you’re analyzing every single detail, and you reach a point where you're like, "Ahhh, I f\*\*\*ing hate this." You put it to bed for a while, and you don't listen to it, and then come back maybe six months, or, you know, a year later, in this case, and I'm like, "This is actually pretty cool. I really do like this, I am proud of this work." But that is the cycle for me with all music. I think there's always hindsight. You always can hear areas where you would have done things differently because you're growing and learning and getting better at what you do, hopefully, so that's always in there. But I definitely feel like I'm very proud of this music and really excited for people to hear it.
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[YouTube Endless Dungeon - Free again](https://youtu.be/y08XTwC6giQ)
[YouTube Endless Dungeon - The Garden - live](https://youtu.be/eotX6ia8YiI)
We spoke with Mirage's artistic director about the decision to include this "nostalgic visual filter."
Assassin's Creed Mirage brings players to Baghdad in 861, during its Golden Age when it was the cultural and technological epicenter of the region. The city feels alive with merchants, townsfolk, guards, palaces, and more. It's vibrant, lively, and, well, looks and sounds like a city. It's painted with hues of desert orange and "Arabian Nights" blue skies, something intentional, according to artistic director Jean-Luc Sala.
Having lived in the region, Sala says he and his visual team infused many sights he remembers near the Tigris River to bring Baghdad to life. The result is beautiful, if my two hours of hands-on time is any indication. With Mirage meant to serve as an homage to the first Assassin's Creed that started the series in 2007, Sala and the rest of the team at Ubisoft Bordeaux added an option to make Baghdad look more like the Jerusalem Altair explored.
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"We know how excited our community is [and] we also have a nice surprise for our long-timers," Sala says in the video. "We implemented a nostalgic visual filter as an option for those who wish to explore the game with the desaturated blue-gray color palette from the very first Assassin's Creed game."
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Members of the major SAG-AFTRA acting union have overwhelmingly voted in favour of authorising a potential video game strike.
Ballots were cast by 34,687 members, with 98.32 percent in favour of strike authorisation on the Interactive Media Agreement that covers union members' work on video games.
While this does not guarantee the union will call a strike, the next bargaining session is this week, and this ratchets up the pressure. The leverage of this authorisation could compel movement on either side.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will task players with catching chocobo in real-time out in the wild.
Of course, catching chocobo is nothing new for the series, but a new social post on X (formerly Twitter) from the game's official account shows how it'll work in Rebirth for the first time, with a video of Cloud catching one of the iconic yellow birds.
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In the original game players encountered chocobo during battles, where they needed to distract them while fighting enemies. With the open world of Rebirth, we now know it'll work a little differently.
[Tweet link](https://twitter.com/finalfantasyvii/status/1706345673304703039)
While we wait (and wait) for Ubisoft to show more of Beyond Good & Evil 2, early footage from the project has surfaced from back in 2008.
Yes, 2008. We've really been waiting a while.
This is the version of Beyond Good & Evil we've seen in other clips released or leaked over the years, and which Ubisoft released an early trailer for (showing main character Jade and Uncle Pey'j in a car out in the desert).
[Video](https://youtu.be/CDdyhkBEi9g)
Capcom's president and chief operating officer has said he thinks game prices should go up.
Haruhiro Tsujimoto made the comments at this year's Tokyo Game Show, Nikkei reported. TGS is sponsored by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association, a Japanese organisation which aims to support the Japanese industry, which Tsujimoto is currently the chairman of.
"Personally, I feel that game prices are too low," Tsujimoto said, citing increasing development costs and a need to increase wages.
El Paso, Elsewhere is beautifully simple. It's a third-person action game in which you fire guns and dive through windows, triggering bullet-time as you whittle down ranks of converging foes. Its levels are labyrinthine, its hunger for carnage is nearly endless. It's a thrilling challenge at the standard difficulty and thoroughly cathartic if you drop down the damage you receive, set the ammo to infinite, and just thrash away in the abyss. All of this, yes, but what's special about El Paso is how it's been dressed up.
It comes in layers. A noir hero in a trenchcoat enters a motel and rides the elevator down to hell, stopping at every level along the way. Twin pistols, blocky outlines, fizzing, flickering shadows: at first it feels like a Stranglehold PS1 demake. The character models have the odd silhouettes and triangle noses of early Tomb Raider, while muzzle-flashes are lovingly ragged and pixelated at the edges. Environments have walls and floor and - most often - no ceiling, revealing a twisting Llamasoft sky, while each stage has the twisty-turny relentlessness of a great Doom level.
[Launch Trailer](https://youtu.be/4N-JLLs3oJc)
Mobile game Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis is being developed for PC and will be available via Steam.
Square Enix made the announcement in a Japanese livestream dedicated to the game.
Data will be shared between the mobile and Steam versions, but no further information has been announced yet. It's currently unclear when the Steam version will be released.
I didn’t dig too much into it, but my guess would be no.
Even if you could verify, it’s still an ethical grey area as it’s taking works they paid photographers to generate new works potentially without crediting the original photographers? Their own website tells people they have to credit the original photographer, and I’d be surprised if the AI lists all the works it used to create it.
Though Getty did introduce their new AI today that was only trained on images they own the copyright to. Arguably, still not ethical, but at least it’s things they own the data for.
A small update has gone out for Starfield on Xbox Series X|S, Microsoft Store, and Steam. This update addresses some issues with performance and stability as well as a few general gameplay issues. We are continuing to work on a larger update that will add features and improvements that we noted in our last update notes. Thank you so much for your continued feedback and support of Starfield and we look forward to a future with you on this journey.
General
==========
* Characters: Fixed an issue that could cause some characters to not be in their proper location.
* Star Stations: Fixed an issue where Star Stations would be labeled as a player-owned ship.
* Vendors: Addressed an issue that allowed for a vendor’s full inventory to be accessible.
Graphics
==========
* AMD (PC): Resolved an issue that caused star lens flares not to appear correctly AMD GPUs.
* Graphics: Addressed an upscaling issue that could cause textures to become blurry.
* Graphics: Resolved an issue that could cause photosensitivity issues when scrolling through the inventory menu.
Performance and Stability
==========
* Hand Scanner: Addressed an issue where the Hand Scanner caused hitching.
* Various stability and performance improvements to address crashing and freezes.
Ships
==========
* Displays: Fixed an issue that would cause displayed items to disappear when applied to in-ship mannequins.
* Displays: Fixed an issue that would cause items stored in Razorleaf Storage Containers and Weapon Racks to disappear after commandeering another ship.
How a developer hid Pitfall III inside Pitfall II, and how Activision almost made him delete it.
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The story surrounding Pitall II’s second world has taken on mythical proportions – no doubt in part because recollections have faded over the years and much of the documentation is lost. Some claim you have to collect treasures in a certain order to unlock the second half, which is why it’s an Easter egg. You don’t. Some claim that the extra level is hidden in the other versions. It isn’t. The only way to play it is to finish the first half of Pitfall II on an Atari 8-bit computer or the 5200. If you're curious, you can watch the second world unlock in this WorldofLongPlays video (played via an emulator).
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So Mike started to think bigger, convincing himself that if the original game had 256 screens with seven things – “the alligators and whatnot” – he needed to have 256 screens with seven brand-new things. “One was the rabid bat,” he said, and offered in one of many asides during our conversation: “The rabid bat actually has a repeating pattern, all you had to do is study it.”
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“'We can’t have [that], Brad. We are marketing the two products together and they need to have the exact same gameplay. You are going to have to strip that second game out of the product.' I couldn't change his mind, none of my arguments worked. I drove back to the office trying to figure out how I was going to give Mike this terrible news.”
Fregger recalls that he told Mike that "we are going to have the best, damn, Easter egg ever."
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The ending seemed so elaborate compared to other games, I just had to ask Mike about it – who didn’t disappoint and offered another anecdote:
“I wanted the classic snake-charming music [hums the tune]. And so they brought in a musician and composer, named Ed Bogas, who wrote commercial jingles. Dave Crane is a fucking genius, right? His IQ is off the charts! Ed Bogas is another one. The day he came in to do the music for me, he composed four different sets of music while having a conversation with me. He said ‘give me the translation paper’ and then he memorized it and gave me the notes in hex. While creating four other pieces of music. That’s probably the person with the most bandwidth, the most simultaneous processing I ever saw.”
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From September 2024, any games featuring simulated gambling (such as social casino games) will be rated R18+. R18+ is a legally restricted category in Australia, and games rated R18+ cannot be sold to people under 18.
Additionally, the minimum rating for “games containing in-game purchases linked to elements of chance, including paid loot boxes” will be M. Games rated M in Australia are recommended for people over 15, but this is advisory only; M is not a legally restricted category.
The changes will only apply to games that are released from September next year, and will not apply retrospectively.
From September 2024, any games featuring simulated gambling (such as social casino games) will be rated R18+
According to pre-pandemic figures, Australia has the greatest per capita gambling losses in the world, and is a staggering 40 per cent clear of second place.
The introduction of mandatory minimum classifications for gambling-related content was one of the recommendations from a review Australia’s classification regulations that was undertaken in 2020 and published earlier this year.
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If you're in the US and buy a PlayStation 5 console between now and October 20, 2023, you will be entitled to a free PS5 digital game of your choosing. This brand-new deal is eligible for any who will buy or have bought the console since September 20. This could be a great offer for anyone who is picking up a PS5 in the near future (or before Spider-Man 2 exclusively launches on the console), and well worth keeping an eye on.
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The conversation/free-for-all around the role of automated "AI"-based game development rolls on with a few thoughts from Tom Hall, co-founder of id Software and one of the creators of the original DOOM, who says he's (Commander) keen on the prospect of "ethical" uses for such tools in gamedev, but worries that reliance on them "will homogenize games, sort of like AAA games are now".
Speaking to Sektor.sk, Hall said he was "excited" by "how AI could be used ethically to be more of a core element of the game, so it's almost like a game that you're playing and it's playing you, in a sense, or it knows what you want. It could generate things for you, or enable different gameplay, it can adapt much more seamlessly to what you're doing, or just sensibly create more game content."
But he added: "I don't want it to just willy-nilly be procedural, everything AI, and just not have any crafting to it, because that will homogenize games, sort of like a lot of AAA games are now. They're just kind of like I attack the monster, oh, it's attacking, I'll roll out of the way. It's all kind of the same stuff. And that's what I don't want to happen to games because of AI. I want it to enable us to make cooler things, and more amazing things, but there still needs to be a sense of craft."
Reworked skill trees and new minigames aside, Cyberpunk 2077's 2.0 update includes a Ukrainian localisation of the game's million-plus-word script. It turns out the Ukrainian version is awash with references to Russia's on-going invasion of Ukraine, all of it seemingly in support of the latter. The news comes via Zone of Games, who have published a few side-by-side comparisons from the game's files, underlining differences between the English and Ukrainian translations in various bits of dialogue and menu text.
I asked the organisers of Indie Cup - a Kyiv, Ukraine-based digital festival of games like Pahris Entertainment's upcoming Space Wreck - to help me double-check the Ukrainian version's alterations. The Indie Cup team's Arsenii Tarasov was happy to oblige, and also volunteered a few further examples of more... adventurous localisation from his own research, supported with screenshots.
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Capcom would "gracefully decline" any acquisition offer from Microsoft, according to the company's chief operating officer.
The company also has no intention of acquiring companies itself, exec Haruhiro Tsujimoto has said.
Tsujimoto was asked by Bloomberg how Capcom would respond to an acquisition offer from Microsoft. "I believe it would be better if we were equal partners," he replied.
Video game creation platform Roblox has laid off 30 staff in the company's talent acquisition team, as hiring slows.
The layoffs come following a period of dramatic growth for the game, which now commands 250 million monthly active users - more than Fortnite and Minecraft combined.
Reporting on the layoffs, Techcrunch said it believed the changes reflected a greater push within Roblox - which operates at a net loss - to focus in on its bottom line, which is heavily affected the growing sums it pays developers on its platform.
Great list - these are all worth checking out. Some of these games I spent way too much time playing.
I think Ultima 7 is probably one of the best RPGs of the 90s. Ultima 6 might have been the first to ‘clutter your entire world with junk’ game, but was both beautiful and massive for its time (though 7 did everything better).
It’s hard to go wrong with most of the classic Sierra games, though the text entry ones are in a special difficulty level of their own. King’s Quest series. Conquests of Camelot was enjoyable. Colonel’s bequest. Space quest series.
The Kyrandia games were enjoyable but I played them not too long ago.
Just a guess, but I would suspect it’s because it’s one of the few game genre’s that has a nationality tied to it and it probably feels like a box they can’t escape – just because of where they’re from.
To them, it’s just their own spin on an RPG. No matter how much they change to make it appeal to a broader audience, they’re always going to be a JRPG, which feels very limiting. It’s always going to be “it’s an amazing RPG if you like JRPGs”, which to someone making the game probably makes you feel less than. No other country has that.
It’s similar to splitting k-pop or even j-pop out. TO people making the music, they probably just want to be considered on a world stage as great pop music. Not just K-pop album of the year.
Even if people here don’t mean it negatively, doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel like a shitty box to people. We rarely apply the same sort of boxes to things from other countries. You don’t hear Abba or Robyn are the best S-pop artists of the last 50 years.
This isn’t that strange for a number of open source projects. I don’t know Godot’s specifics, but lots of folks are willing to toss a few bucks via patreon or other sources. They keep a list of donors who don’t mind being named in the source code, and it includes a few companies that make monthly donations. I’m sure they get a number of grants like this one from Epic.
There’s a number of mastodon servers where people pay donate monthly to them.
Upcoming augmented reality horror, Scrylight, will be a "fully immersive, 360 degree ghost hunting experience" that will not just turn your own home into a haunted house, but also interact with your real-life smart lights and doorbells, too.
With ghosts able to "haunt players in real world scenarios, activating real world devices", developer Spectropia Studios utilises Niantic's genre-defining AR technology to "blur the boundaries of what's real and what isn't".
Features of the upcoming horror game include "full 360 interaction between ghosts and players via your smart devices, camera and microphone for realistic entity interactions", infinite, "geographical-specific", procedural entities, integrated machine learning agents and "computer vision for real time interaction with your environment", and full smart device integration "allowing for real world hauntings".
In a recent interview, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth leads Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase shared their feelings on the term JRPG, both having different perspectives on it.
Earlier this year, Final Fantasy 14 and 16 producer Naoki Yoshida spoke about the term JRPG, and how he doesn't like it as when it first started to be used it felt like it was "a discriminatory term." It's an understandable point of contention, as while the genre is quite popular now, go back a couple of decades you'd find plenty of people being rude about the games just because they were Japanese. Now, in a new interview with The Guardian, Nomura, creative director of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Kitase, producer on the game, have shared their thoughts on the term.
Quite notably, Nomura expressed distaste for the term, whereas Kitase wasn't as put off by it. "I'm not too keen on it," Nomura said. "Certainly, when we started doing interviews for the games that I started making, no one used that term – they just called them RPGs. And then at some point – I can’t remember exactly when – people started referring to them as JRPGs. And I’m not really sure what the intent behind that is. It just always felt a bit off to me, and a bit weird. I never really understood it – or why it’s needed."
According to the voice of Astarion himself, there's a whole two hour section of Baldur's Gate 3 no one has played yet.
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"There's even something I know about that you can't get to unless you do something that I don't think anyone's going to work out," Newborn said in the livestream, which you can see him talk about in a clip above. "I was told this in confidence and I think I'm one of the few people who knows about it as well." In the stream Newborn was even asked if he could tell the person he was talking to what it is, but noted "it's one of those few things I cannot friend-DA." Just to clarify, Newborn will have signed an NDA to work on this project, unsurprisingly, but people are people and they do tell their friends things, but this seems like something so secretive he can't even do that.
**Update**: See below, it has been found.
One of the big winners of the Unity debacle is the free and open source Godot Engine, which has seen its funding soar to a much more impressive level as Unity basically gave them free advertising. Certainly helps that Godot ended up launching their new funding platform on the same day Unity announced their hated Runtime Fee system.
Initially when the Godot developers announced their new funding platform they only had around €25K per month from 438 members. This has now exploded up to €50,323 per month from 1,458 members. A much better and more sustainable amount considering they're building an entire game engine.
A new entry in the Star Wars Jedi series is currently in the works, according to the main character Cal Kestis' voice actor.
Speaking a few days at a panel during Ocala Comic Con 2023, Cameron Monaghan, who plays the main character in the series developed by Respawn, confirmed they are working on a third game without adding much more on the matter.
That a new Star Wars Jedi game is coming isn't surprising at all, as the series was confirmed to be envisioned as a trilogy, and Survivor doesn't exactly bring closure to Cal Kestis' story. Still, it will be interesting to see how much the formula will evolve in the third game now that the series' director Stig Asmussen has left Respawn.
[YouTube Video](https://youtu.be/N9t3Vd1VWC0)
New Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator builds that were shared online today promise to bring emulation improvements as well as widespread performance enhancements across several titles.
Mainline build 1567 introduces a variety of fixes and improvements, including emulations improvements for the recently released The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Pikmin 4, and Master Detective Archives: Rain Code.
Also released today was a new Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator Early Access build. This 3893 build replaces queue with a fibonacci heap in core timing, leading to reduced stuttering and better performance in multiple, unspecified games.
Dragon's Dogma was the action-RPG for people who wanted to play alone, but didn't want to feel alone. By far its most charming feature was the Pawn system, whereby you'd create an AI-controlled sidekick and hire two others, shared online by other players, to accompany you on your journey through a fantasy wilderness of tumbledown castles and goblin campfires. Pawns make dependable companions in many respects - pinning enemies for you to tag-team kill, healing or resurrecting you, opening chests you've missed, and enchanting your weapons at the outset of each skirmish. But what makes them fun to be around is that they're a bunch of massive buffoons.
Pawns talk without cease as you explore: a steady patter of idle observations about well-wrought staircases and the local fish trade, advice about the bestiary and, in the case of Pawns recruited from other players, quest tips based on time in their own worlds - all of it couched in the game's quirky faux-medieval dialect. Pawn dialogue is highly context-sensitive, and very often, nonsensical. They'll climb into fountains and complain that they're wet, and launch into pithy descriptions of monsters even as they're set on fire. It ought to be maddening, but somehow, it never is - probably because the Pawns never actually attempt to be witty like ally characters in, say, Xenoblade Chronicles. They're resolutely straight foils in a realm of lions with snakes for tails, chaotic boulder traps, unpleasantly lusty ogres, and players who push the wrong buttons and make random decisions on the fly. Well, pawns are back in Dragon's Dogma 2, which I recently played an hour of, and they're chattier than ever.
This week on All Things Nintendo, Brian is joined (in his dining room) by Atari CEO Wade Rosen. The two chat about the past, present, and future of the legendary gaming company, as well as Wade's lifelong love of video games. Wade sticks around to take part in Definitive Ranking and gives his eShop Gem of the Week. There isn't a video version this week, but we'll be back with the recently introduced video format next week!
[YouTube Video](https://youtu.be/yn8GTA4HMCU)
Announced earlier this year, Bandai Namco's Sand Land looks to translate a cult Japanese comic into an open-world adventure. Playing it on the floor of Tokyo Game Show, I came away intrigued about the characters and story, but less thrilled about actually playing the full game.
Sand Land debuted in the year 2000 as a short-lived tale of a demon prince exploring a desolate wilderness – hence the title. Created by Akira Toriyama, a manga artist of major renown for his Dragonball series as well as his contributions to many games such as Dragon Quest, Sand Land remained a print-only phenomenon until 2023. A feature-length film debuted this summer, with this game serving as the next multimedia tie-in.
At a special showcase for members of the press at Bandai Namco Entertainment in Tokyo, Japan, I had a chance to play an early build of Tekken 8. While renowned director Katsuhiro Harada’s latest sequel will launch with 32 characters, only 16 were available during this meeting. The roster included a blend of old and new faces, including long-established stars like Paul Phoenix and Jin Kazama alongside more recent creations like Claudio Serafino and Lars Alexandersson. However, series producer Michael Murray stated that all Tekken 8 models have been redesigned from scratch, befitting the transition from the Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5.
With a series that celebrates its 30th anniversary next year, Tekken walks a tricky line. The 3D fighter has built up a fan base all over the world over three decades, but the franchise necessarily needs new blood to remain competitive. Tekken 8 will try to satisfy both crowds with dual control options: Arcade style retains the classic four-button attack scheme—one input per limb—while Special style lets players execute command moves and complex combos with simple button presses. Murray emphasized the importance and flexibility of Special style, acknowledging that other long-running fighting games have introduced similar systems. "Ours, you can turn on or off in the middle of a match any time you want," he said.
[Official Trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_prat0DFJi4)
Starbreeze insists it is "working hard" to keep servers online after Payday 3 players endured a second consecutive evening of disruption.
After a three-day early access period for some players, Payday 3 released on 21st September, but players have struggled to get online at peak times due to continuing server issues that have shutdown matchmaking, making it impossible to play the always-online heist shooter.
On launch day, Starbreeze took to its social media accounts to admit that it was "currently experiencing slow matchmaking" and was "investigating and working on a solution".
Supermassive Games' second instalment of the Dark Pictures Anthology, Little Hope, is coming to Nintendo Switch on 5th October 2023.
It follows Supermassive Games' efforts to bring the first The Dark Pictures Anthology title, Man of Medan, to Switch earlier this year, marking the second game of the horror series to come to Nintendo's console.
[YouTube Video](https://youtu.be/AzffNATXXt4)
Oh yeah, they’re probably not waiting months for something to come back. Companies know what’s popular, so they tend to stagger those. So people will not cancel if they know next month or the month after is going to be something they want to play.
If you’re only interested in one or two games, you’ll just buy those (until they stop letting us buy games and force us to rent them).
Yeah, people definitely wait. Don’t have any stats, but I hear people talking about it all the time with regards to streaming services.
THe service does pay for on-loan games, but that’s not a reason to rotate. They’re paying regardless. THey rotate to try and keep things fresh so people don’t cancel.
What can gamers expect from the gameplay of Ys X: Nordics? Dive into a 30-minute gameplay preview to get a taste of what this game has in store for you.
"Palworld" is a multiplayer open-world survival craft monster-collection game that is set in a world where mysterious monsters "Pal" inhabit.
In Palworld, you will meet a variety of Pals, and what to do with them is entirely up to you. Capturing them, raising them, fighting with them, forcing them to work, selling them off, slaughtering them for food; you can do many activities with Pals in the vast world of Palworld.
Character customization, new field boss, big reveal!
Palworld will release a new trailer at Tokyo Game Show 2023!
I think the CMA was concerned about microsoft cornering the cloud gaming market with the acquisition, so granting Ubisoft rights to stream these games alleviated their concerns.
that’s part of every subscription business plan, sadly. The rotation helps keep subscriptions up longer as people have to wait for things to cycle back around.
EVE Online's starry realm of New Eden is a vast expanse of more than 7000 star systems, which we have so far experienced almost exclusively from a distance aboard swooping starships or in the colossal interiors of mega-scale space stations. But all the while, I've imagined what might be going on down on these lonely planets I'm sailing by at impossible speeds. EVE Vanguard, a new shooter module for EVE Online built in Unreal Engine 5, will let us set foot on them and scavenge their riches in person. Well, sort of.
This isn't CCP's first attempt at an FPS set in the EVE universe. From 2013 to 2016 they operated Dust 514, an on-foot experience that was eventually shut down due to low player numbers. Vanguard represents a fresh attempt at introducing a human-scale component to EVE, which the developers hope will eventually combine to create a complete sci-fi experience on the ground and in space. Rather than being sold as a separate game, like Dust, Vanguard is being described as a "module" for EVE, which will use the same launcher and be free to play.
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I’ve had some similar roles before, but more often than not companies just do it anyway, even if you have a lot of data to the contrary. It’s stupidly easy for someone in management to push some of this through despite the data, choose an arbitrary metric to define their success, get their bonus, and then bail for another company. Meanwhile, folks left at the company have to then try and fix all of the nonsense. It blows that we value failing forward. I’ve seen a few decent products just tanked this way.
basically it just means it’s using newer chip-making processes to make the chip smaller and faster. It’s sort of a no-brainer that a new chip would use some updated processes and likely run faster than one made 7 or 8 years ago.
Great points! Yeah there’s definitely a lot more variety and skill involved in Starfield. Most of the NMS ground combat is in the open and is easy to cheese, but it is satisfying to hop in your ship and start shooting things (though now they have it trigger incoming aircraft).
NMS at least has planets without buildings or signs of life, but they’re certain types of planets (eg. lifeless/airless) There are definitely some that have far fewer ships going around too.
NMS is more expansive in some ways, but also fairly shallow in terms of some of the core mechanics. There’s a lot of things to do like having a settlement or building a fleet and sending the fleet on missions, but again, it’s a bit shallow. At the beginning you’re largely focused on resource collecting to build a base, and unlock upgrades. Over time you can automate a lot of this and focus on other things. However, if you don’t like the resource collecting to unlock things, you’re probably not going to enjoy it.
I think the space flight and combat in NMS feels better. For whatever reason, in Starfield space flight and combat feels very slow to me. It doesn’t help that the UI in the starship does this weird laggy update. The seamlessness of flying into a planet can be fun in space combat and the ships will follow you.
NMS has way more copy-paste assets. Starfield at least has grand cities and some unique set pieces or a few different options ,but every crashed freighter in NMS is identical. The buildings in NMS have a tiny bit of variance but they’re all like 1-2 room buildings. All space stations and space ports are identical (just the core race changes). There are pirate space stations, but they’re the same basic one but darker and they’ve moved the vendors inward a bit into tents instead of stalls. A little bit of this is baked into the story of NMS to some extent, but that doesn’t exactly help it.
Title is a bit click-baity, but the core message is the game has seen a boost in users since it’s recent update that was just before the starfield launch.
It’s likely running native as they’ve been touting the ray tracing of their new gpu. They’ve pushed a number of games in the past to show off hardware updates or features, so that’s probably what this is about.
Also, they didn’t drop support for mac, they just focused on their own gaming API. They continue to get new games published.
I’d bet a sizable portion of steam numbers aren’t purchases either. AMD was running the promo such that anyone buying AMD hardware from like July onwards got a free copy.
My argument is that it was inevitable at the time, and everyone saw it coming. It was going to happen regardless of whether Valve created steam or not.
You literally state this:
Turns out it DID make everything a nightmarish hellscape of big brother-esque remote digital rights control where you never own anything you buy. Those 20 year old veterans ruined it all.
I don’t think any of that is true. You can avoid most of the shitty DRM today and the big brother-esque remote DRM. People who adopted it then, didn’t usher this in.
Everyone saw the current landscape coming, and there was no way around it if we wanted online distribution. I hate DRM as much as the next guy, and love my physical collection, but it wasn’t Valve and Steam that ushered in this BS. You can avoid steam, and a large amount of DRM if you genuinely care about. There was pushback years later and even Apple allowed you to DRM-less options.
After years of MPAA and RIAA BS piracy claims from cd & dvd ripping and declining physical sales, every company and their mom was looking into DRM to allay the fears of copyright holders and enable digital distribution. It was going to happen regardless of Steam. Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Philips, etc were all launching the same shit. Apple launched the iTunes store months before with complete DRM and people ate that up. Companies new years before people would adopt it if the benefits of digital distribution outweighed the inconvenience, and they were right.
Shit like Denuvo was going to happen regardless, as despite the push back on some of the invasive DRM, some companies remain unconvinced. They do it even on top of Steam.
From a hardware perspective, that’s been true since just after the 1983 crash, when it was sold to Jack Tramiel’s company – even before the Lynx and Jaguar. The software side was split into Atari games which has an even longer history of being passed around.
top notch exploration, and the story was just the right amount.