Interview: How EPOS are building the next generation of gaming headsets on Sennheiser and Demant's foundations

Audio in gaming continues to be an ever-evolving aspect of the hobby. From the restrained bleeps and bloops of the earliest pieces of software, through to the full orchestration and star-studded voice casts of today, what you hear has the potential to change the way you interact, understand, and feel about a game. EPOS are the newest contenders in the gaming audio peripheral market, but they've got something of a head start over any run-of-the-mill start-up. We sat down with Andreas Jesse, EPOS' Senior Director in Global Product Management and Marketing for Gaming, to see what the future holds.

TSA: EPOS is a new brand, built on the foundations of Sennheiser and Demant – how did that come about, and what was the thinking behind the creation of the EPOS name?

Andreas: For more than 15 years, Sennheiser Communications was a joint venture, a 50-50 split ownership between Sennheiser electronics GmbH & Ko. KG and William Demant. It was a very successful journey for both partners. We collaborated on the development of new technology and saw growth of market shares for the Enterprise Solutions, Gaming and Mobile Music headsets segments across the globe.

The market dynamics have changed through the years and in today's climate full end-to-end dedication is needed to succeed. There needs to be a focused R&D approach and the time now is right to continue in our own focused directions.

To be able to fully capitalise on the new opportunities that are presenting themselves, William Demant and Sennheiser decided to end their joint venture and let the business segments evolve organically.

EPOS, a new independent brand and entity under the global audio and hearing technology group Demant, builds upon the rich legacy of Sennheiser Communications and demonstrates our strong commitment to support future growth in the two attractive business segments of Enterprise Solutions and Gaming.

We see great opportunities ahead for the gaming market and we believe that this is the best route for us to create a range of premium audio products that can truly enhance the gaming experience for our customers. Sennheiser will no longer focus on Gaming – this segment will be serviced primarily by EPOS.

As for the name – manifested in the classic language of Latin and Ancient Greek, the term epos denotes words, speech and song. Throughout centuries, the term epos has been elevated as the word illustrating heroic Homeric poetry, in which the traditions of cultures and people were conveyed. At EPOS we want to draw from this historic origin. Our name encapsulates our desire and dedication to create solutions that enable ways of communicating through the power of audio. Today EPOS is crafting premium audio solutions, Homer could have only dreamt about. We pronounce EPOS like "easy", not like "epic"

TSA: Audio in gaming is a key concern for committed gamers, what can EPOS offer them?

Andreas: There are many different reasons why gamers like to play games. Perhaps you are part of a team with a fixed gaming day of the week, or maybe you link up with your guild to jump into raids that require a lot of focused teamwork, or perhaps you prefer to build up cities and empires in a simulation game. You might be the kind of gamer who enjoys solo gaming in rich, immersive worlds. In the end, we are all just looking for ways to be challenged and entertained.

At EPOS, we want to give you an audio experience that is very much out of the ordinary. Great audio can be hard to quantify, but to some extent it is down to understanding how the brain interprets audio, and how we can make the audio as clean and understandable as possible. EPOS gaming headsets are designed to deliver the most lifelike experience as possible you can get from a headset. We focus on the full audio spectrum that human can hear, from 20Hz to 20.000 Hz. We like to think that we offer out of this world audio experiences. When you put on your EPOS headset for the first time, you want to listen to your favourite game soundtrack over and over again, because you discover new sounds and a deeper experience. You may find you can stay focused for longer because there is no listener fatigue, or perhaps your teammates ask you if you've got a new microphone, because suddenly they can hear your voice much more clearly and is much more recognisable than before. This, among many other audio advantages, is what we expect to offer gamers.

TSA: What can we expect from EPOS in terms of range? Will there be something for every budget?

Andreas: We have a certain threshold where we think there are too big trade-offs with quality, and that means we don't have a headset in every single price category. Quality is something that we are not willing to compromise on in order to create a budget headset. Currently we have gaming headsets from around 99€ up to +300€ and that will probably not change in the near future. This also means that when we demand a premium price, we have to deliver a quality experience, and that is something we take very seriously.

TSA: What does high quality audio mean to you?

Andreas: High quality audio draws you deeply into a game and allows you to escape from reality. It's when your brain doesn't have to work overtime to compensate for bad speakers or overly distorted signal. High quality audio is when you notice layers in the music or sound effects that you didn't notice before, and when you click the mouse just one more time to hear the satisfying rumble of your AWP (a popular gun in 'Counter-Strike', even though it will give your location away to your enemies.

TSA: How do you go about making the perfect gaming headset? And how does that differ from a regular pair of headphones?

Andreas: To a large degree, there should be no difference between audiophile headphones and a gaming headset, but in general you can say there are three areas that are extremely important when designing a headset for gaming.

First, audio quality. This is something that is easy to say, but hard to explain what it means. Audio quality for us is not a number like 20-20.000 Hz freq. range. but instead it is an in-depth philosophy on how much colour our headsets should add to the work the audio engineers have done on the game development. Every headset in the world will "colour" the audio in some way and if this is not tightly controlled and designed in a specific way, you can end up with headsets that are overly muddy because of an extreme and unbalanced bass response, or a midrange that is not kept flat, resulting in voices sounding different than in real life. Audio quality is definitely one of the most important factors not only in the development, but also in the manufacturing – a lot of the quality in the audio actually comes from the fact that we check every single headset before it leaves our assembly line, and if the speakers are not within our tolerances it is scrapped and not sent to customers.
Second is microphone performance. A lot of gamers buy a gaming headset because gaming for them is a social experience. Having clear and easy communication will not only make your experience better, it will sometimes also mean the difference between a win or a loss in a 5v5 game.

Comfort is third. Gamers are one of the headset groups that wear their headsets the longest. Because the headset is something that touches your face, we believe that comfort is a very important factor. We do a lot of research into where we can accept pressure points, and where these pressure points would cause irritation or discomfort after extended wear. How big is an earcup? How heavy can it be? How easy is it to adjust so you don't have sound leakage? Comfort is definitely our third pillar.

Then of course there are a ton of other aspects such as surround sound, balancing of L/R speakers, having spare parts available such as ear pads and cables, design, wireless capabilities, good digital to analogue converters and much more – it's a full time job.

TSA: When you get a new gaming headset, what's the first thing you listen out for?

Andreas: First of all, you should notice if the headset seals around your ear correctly. A lot of headsets have what we call 'jaw leak', or some other sound leak from the ear cup. If this happens, there is not enough energy in the speaker to give you any low frequencies and everything will just sound flat. No-one wants that!
Secondly, you should test with a favourite song you know by heart! A lot of people make the mistake of heading to YouTube and searching for headphone testing to test their headsets. The mistake in this approach is that you don't know how it is actually supposed to sound! We recommend you pick a song, maybe from your childhood. It doesn't have to be a song you love, but just a song you have heard so many times that you will instantly hear if it sounds wrong. For me personally I usually use The Beatles for this exercise.

Next, you can test the microphone by asking someone else to check if you sound normal and relaxed when you speak into it. Again, it will be hard to test for yourself because you don't actually know how you sound yourself. Most of your voice travels through your bones instead of through your ear when you hear your own voice.

If all the audio is good, then you can start testing for comfort, ease of placing the microphone, design, and the other details.

TSA: Do you think that audio has become more important in gaming over the years?

Andreas: Audio has definitely become more important – not only in gaming, but in general. I feel like audio is having a true comeback to quality as the years progress. There was a period where badly compressed MP3 files were the benchmark of quality, instead of listening to CDs. This made perfect sense, because streaming and digital files offered so many other advantages, but we all sort of agreed to the tradeoff. In recent years, there has definitely been a return to quality over quantity. Consumers expect more from their audio equipment. If you go on a flight you also see less and less people using the inflight headsets, and more and more bringing their own device. This for me is a sign that we are prioritizing using our hard-earned money on ensuring a decent audio experience.

This goes also for gaming of course – on top of that we are also seeing game developers put more emphasis on audio. This is because we have come so far with visuals and because they have realised audio is actually the quickest way to generate emotion inside the mind of a gamer. A good game is a game that uses the audio to evoke emotions and immersion just as much as the use of visuals

Audio holds power like almost no other sense, to instantly transport you somewhere. Maybe it is the sound of your mother's voice, or the engine sound of the car you grew up with – the sound will instantly take you back to that moment or that emotion, and that is the power of audio.

TSA: Where do you see the biggest improvements coming from in the next ten years of headset design?

Andreas: At the moment, there is a lot of new technology being put into gaming headsets such as new form factors (true wireless), more features as more powerful chips become available, more battery life and more intelligence, but this could be true of any consumer electronic.

What is going to be transformational for gaming audio and gaming headsets is the level of immersion that can be offered through HRTF (Head-related transfer function) algorithms, through better sound rendering in games – maybe even object-based audio objects instead of 7.1 mixing. Finally, we are going to see massive improvements in microphone performance as we will get more used to being together from afar – which seems more relevant in these last few months than ever before. When communicating remotely, it becomes very important to hear the subtle cues in the other persons voice, the warmth that you know from real life and in general a higher quality microphone. No one will accept sounding like they are talking into a cell phone from 1990, when we can do so much better!

Ubisoft's battle royale Hyper Scape gets full PS4, Xbox One and PC launch in August

Ubisoft's first real crack at the battle royale genre, Hyper Scape will be getting a full release next month. The game will be coming out for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on 11th August, diving straight into Season One of its live content plan.

As Ubi gear up for release, they will be bringing the current Hyper Scape Open Beta to a close on 2nd August, giving themselves a little over a week of downtime before launching the game. If you unlocked cosmetics through the beta phases, those will carry over to the full game, whatever platform you decide to play on.

Season One, The First Principle, will see the game receive a steady trickle of new content. There will be a new mid-range weapon, the Dragonfly, and a new hack, Magnet, which can be used to trap other contenders, which will be the first of 11 new guns and 11 new hacks set to be added through the season.

Of course there's a Battle Pass, which will have a free and premium track of rewards, with 100 tiers of cosmetics to unlock. The Battle Pass will cost 950 Bitcrowns (the in-game currency), which can be earned through playing or with microtransactions. You can also progress your Battle Pass by watching others playing Hyper Scape on Twitch with a Hyper Scape Crowncast extension enabled. Since the game's beta launched with a marketing tie in with Twitch to watch streams for access, that sounds about right.

Oh, and there will be a story, which is describes as follows:

Season One kick-starts the overarching Hyper Scape narrative: There is a mystery in the Hyper Scape created by Prisma Dimensions that players will have to solve. Season One introduces Memory Shards that players can collect to discover more about certain characters and events. Every week, a new Memory Shard will be hidden in the game world, for players to find and collect. In addition to Memory Shards, comics will be released during Season One and following Seasons, building Hyper Scape's story.

Source: press release

Microsoft Flight Simulator PC VR and TrackIR support announced

Microsoft Flight Simulator is looking quite incredible, but to make the game experience all the more immersive, Microsoft and Asobo have announced that it will support TrackIR head tracking on day one – the game is out on 18th August – and will be getting support for VR later this year.

They've also released a new trailer looking at the various highly detailed planes and the hand-crafted airports that will feature in the game alongside the ones generated from satellite and flyover imagery.

TrackIR support will be available from day one, allowing you to use the tech's sensors to track your head and look around the cockpit. In this manner, you'll be able to look at controls and toggle them instead of reach for a mouse for the more complicated interactions with your plane.

Later this year that will be joined with support for VR, but (and this is a bit but) this will be exclusive to the upcoming HP Reverb G2 headset on PC when that launches this autumn. We fully expect end users to dive into the game's files and tear down this particular exclusive wall, just as they did with games and content that were exclusive to the Oculus Rift store when that headset launched in 2016, making it compatible with the HTC Vive.

The Reverb G2 has been made in collaboration with both Microsoft for Windows Mixed Reality and Valve for Steam VR, and speaking of Steam… the game will be available on Steam from day one, just as with most of Microsoft's first party titles.

Looking to the game's future, Asobo have committed to continuing to evolve and modify the game world after launch. Everything has been generated from satellite and flyover imagery, and because of that, they can feed new data into their generation system and make improvements to the machine learning algorithms over time to create a more and more realistic world.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is out for PC on 18th August, with the promise of an Xbox home console release at some point in the future. Maybe around the launch of the Xbox Series X? Hmmm? Wouldn't that be a good idea Microsoft?

You may want to check if Microsoft Flight Simulator will run on your PC, and you can check the full specs list here. Stefan had some hands on time with Microsoft Flight Simulator back in December, and he wrote:

"Needless to say, I came away from Flight Simulator very impressed. The series evolved a great deal from its humble beginnings in the 80s through to Flight Simulator X in 2006, and that style of flight sim continued with games like X-Plane and Aerofly, but Flight Simulator is something else entirely with its worldwide scope. This is absolutely one to keep an eye on in 2020."

You can read the full Microsoft Flight Simulator preview article here.

Source: Microsoft

Project Cars 3 handles well, but it's driving away from its sim racing roots

People don't like change, and if there's one thing that Project Cars 3 is doing, it's changing. This is not a run-of-the-mill sequel or follow up, but rather a deep reconsidering of what Project Cars as a series can be. But with change comes concern, worry, doubt, and after the game's initial reveal, Slight Mad Studios have had some convincing to do.

If there's one thing that Project Cars 3 absolutely has going for it, it's the fact that it has vastly improved handling when playing with a gamepad. The first two games both seemed to put racing wheels as the first priority with gamepad controls left as an afterthought. They weren't really, but they never felt… great and fun to drive. In Project Cars 3, gamepad can finally be a real and meaningful option. The cars all just feel tighter to control, there's no longer a strange detachment and weird feeling wobble back to the direction you were previously travelling in. It's just so, so much more enjoyable and predictable to race with. Of course, die hard sim racers will obviously still want to plug in a racing wheel.

That massive step forward for the series goes hand in hand with so many other changes across the game designed to make Project Cars 3 feel more inviting to newcomers. While I enjoyed seeing the career structure of Project Cars 2, letting you move realistically through the different racing categories, it wasn't necessarily the best fit for an actual video game and became quite a chore for me. Project Cars 3 trades that in for something much more game-like and straightforward.

There's now cars that you buy and then upgrade through the career, starting off with road cars and working up through GT categories to the pointier end of motorsports, there's events grouped together thematically instead of in championships where points are handed out after each race. In that way, Project Cars 3 has given up on some of its own philosophy to follow that of Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport instead.

It certainly feels like Project Cars 3 is trying to make a more serious play to fans of those polished and refined console exclusives, but curiously when you get out on track, there's shades of Driveclub or GRID. You'll obviously still want to try and win the races you take part in, but through the career you'll have race objectives to perform X amount of clean overtakes, draft another car for a certain distance, reach a certain top speed, and so on.

But don't think that Project Cars 3 has traded in all of its sim racing credentials. There's still a solid simulation running under the hood and the game asks you to give up some of the assists you might expect from other games. As in the first two games, there's no rewind feature, so if your race goes badly, it's either a case of starting over or of accepting the need to fight back and focussing instead on ticking off those objectives.

Intriguingly, the racing line has also met an end, with this notorious crutch of the racing genre being instead placed by a set of markers to indicate where you should brake, where to try and hit the apex and where you should aim to have your car on exit. These markers (which can be turned off if you prefer) float above the track, asking you to hit each one in order to "master" a corner. While great in concept, and similar to the cornering cones found in GT Sport, they don't seem to adjust to different racing categories, and they give far too much leeway for speed and positioning. It's a looseness that's presumably to aid less adept racers get the mastery rating, but that meant I didn't always feel like I'd actually mastered a corner, despite what the game was telling me.

Speaking of categories, those have also kind of ended up in the bin. Working through the career, you'll see cars grouped together in made up categories like Road A and GT C. That's fine, as an overall indicator of relative pace, but when you then head out on track, creating a race with cars all in the same class, it can lead to wildly different racing characteristics. I'm talking American Stock Cars going up against GT cars, with cars that are strangely mixed up in acceleration, top speed and cornering ability. There's still some balancing work to be done here, but it can lead to custom races that seesaw from corner to corner.

Sim racing fans will also be disappointed to see practice sessions and qualifying go to the wayside, just as there's no fuel consumption and no tyre wear. Sure, I won't miss the pain of having to warm up tyres (or more accurately the pain of this not being optional), but race strategy and knowing when to pit, when to push, when to save your tyres is such a big part of motorsports. No, they're not glamorous parts of racing, but for a series that's traditionally geared itself toward sim racing fans to now omit these, even as an option is so strange.

It's things like this that have had my thoughts on Project Cars 3 swinging back and forth following its announcement and while previewing the game. I really like that it's now got palatable gamepad controls – which is handy because I don't have a racing wheel set up these days – I also like the shift away from having a racing line, but it's just a bit odd that a game series built with sim racers in mind, a game that rode the early wave of esports has put some of the key elements that are really needed for that to one side. And who knows, maybe this is the right step forward for the series? Slightly Mad will have all kinds of metrics showing engagement across all areas of their games, there's focus testing, and there is absolutely space in the racing genre for a game like this right now.

People don't like change, but that definitely doesn't mean that change is bad. It's just, you know… going to be different.

What Happened Review

Continuing the recent trend of games tackling sensitive mental health issues, What Happened promises to take you inside the troubled mind of a teenage boy in an American High School. Dealing with a complex range of mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety, you have to help Stiles navigate the darkness within his own mind to steer him towards a more positive future, a future that is subject to the decisions you make throughout the game. This is a challenging and ambitious project, and one that is rife with possible pitfalls, not least accusations of trivialising truly important issues by gamifying them. Raising awareness is vital but it has to be balanced with sensitivity; how does What Happened fare?

The first thing that hits you when booting up What Happens is the clear gap between the developer's ambitions and their resources. Genius Slackers have opted for a realistic approach to character design but the facial design and animation don't live up to this ideal. This is a shame as it offers a possible hurdle to being taken seriously. This first impression is compounded by some awful voice acting and sloppy subtitle proof reading. The acting in particular is all over the place with accents and intonation veering wildly between and within each character's depiction.  The setting seems to be an International High School which might explain the accents but doesn't excuse the limitations in delivery. It isn't an insurmountable issue but it certainly detracts from the seriousness of the issues being portrayed.

What Happens at least isn't a disaster graphically; in fact the design and visual effects are effective and impressive as the game progresses. Whilst you essentially navigate one location – the aforementioned high school – this takes on various forms from normal to overgrown to Hellspace in order to reflect Stiles' mental state. This works well as you become familiar with the space when it comes to navigating it – particularly useful as there is no in-game map – but visually it doesn't overstay its welcome. Visual effects are well chosen, such as the floating backpacks to signify the invisibility of Stiles to his peers and the positively psychedelic twists – this isn't a game for anybody who has issues with flashing images.

Interacting with the world, both real and imagined, involves a nicely tactile approach to items. Grabbing drawers, doors, notes, and light switches with the left mouse button allows you to move the mouse to manoeuver them. This could be gimmicky but instead helps to put you in Stiles' shoes and works well with the first person perspective. The downside to this approach is that you do find yourself opening a lot of drawers for little reward, with keys and notes being hidden in rooms with a dozen or more possible locations. The alternative to this would be a more linear approach but one that might ensured the flow of the game wasn't lost as you pause to open multiple cupboard doors.

Stiles controls pretty well, with a familiar WASD first-person layout, although the running was often constrained by the whims of the game; I was willing to accept that given the game's central conceit of a boy fighting against his own mind. The right button activates a quick 180 turn, a vital control during the occasional chase sequence, the details of which I'm not going to spoil here. I spent the first few hours thinking it would be hugely effective as a VR title, although that might take the immersiveness a step too far given the subject matter.

The treatment of Stiles' mental state is mostly well judged and steers clear of gratuitous aspects. There are some excellent visual signifiers of his increased anxiety, from paranoid hallucinations to externalised manifestations of threats and the various graphical effects successfully convey a feeling of disorientation to the player. The decks are stacked against Stiles with bereavement, drug use, and a failed relationship all contributing to his mental problems. The drug use isn't really dealt with and feels a little unnecessary as is the ability to raise Stiles' middle finger at the world upon first finishing the game. This might be intended to show his teenage rebellion but actually undermines much of the good work done in treating the issues seriously elsewhere.

As might be expected in a game with this subject matter, player discretion is necessary. I've always been open about my own issues with anxiety and depression – indeed they are a large part of why this kind of game interests me – but What Happened gets very close to extreme depictions of self-harm and suicide. The former fitted with the narrative thrust but was a particularly striking scene that could have the potential to trigger sufferers. The suicide aspect is ever present with some moments where it becomes especially explicit.

There are various possible endings to unlock and my playthrough resulted in a bad one so it is possible that alternative routes are less disturbing. That being said, I'm not sure quite what decisions I made to get the bad ending so this could perhaps be made clearer. Given it is a relatively short title – 4 or 5 hours at most – the potential for replaying is welcome but there does need to be more guidance as to where different choices could be made. Everything felt quite linear in my playthrough with few obvious branching points.

Peaky Blinders: Mastermind launches this August

Peaky Blinders: Mastermind from Curve Digital is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC very shortly, on 20th of August to be precise. You can pre-order the game on Steam of Xbox right now, PlayStation owners have been left out and will have to wait a little longer.

The game takes place immediately before the events of the show's very first season as you join Shelby family's criminal organisation as they discover a sinister plot to put Tommy out of business.

We previewed the game this very day.

"What Futurlab have done to let you manage and control your Peaky Blinders in real time is absolutely fascinating," commented Teflon. "This could have been a game in the vein of Commandos, as you command a group of gang members, setting traps and lying in wait as enemies patrol (while also liberally using a Quick Save feature). It could even have been a turn-based tactical game, where you can agonise over every decision before putting it into play. But Futurlab have skirted neatly around such parallels, instead leaning on time manipulation and putting control of the clock that you're racing against in your hands"

"At any point you can pause the game, wind time back and forth, pick a starting point and try again. Except it's not just correcting your failures, it's also controlling multiple characters, putting together a series of events one character at a time, hopping back and forth to use all of their abilities in tandem like the double/triple/quadruple cross montage at the end of a heist film. It's not quite as glamorous in reality, but it feels almost as good – I imagine, because I've never been in a heist film."

Despite being an odd choice for a video game there are two Peaky Blinders games on the way, the second is a VR title from Maze Theory.

Source: Press release

The free £10/$10 PSN credit is being given out randomly

Earlier this week Sony started crediting PS Plus accounts with £10 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of PlayStation Plus, some people got a credit, some did not, leading to confusion as to what qualified you to get the free cash. It turns out there were no requirements, the gift was given out on a random basis.

Sony have revealed the two games included in August's PS Plus update will be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout.

Not only that, but Sony are giving players a bit of a headstart, with Modern Warfare 2 available to download right now and then Fall Guys following on 4th August. Both will then be available until 31st August.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a remastered version of the 2009 blockbuster, released almost out of nowhere back in March. It's just the single player campaign, and not the defining multiplayer (because Activision wouldn't want to distract too much from the popularity of the 2019 Modern Warfare now, would they?), but for many this is still where the series' story peaked. You can dive into the campaign with improved textures, animations, physically based rendering, high-dynamic range lighting and much more. Could this be a lead in to the announcement of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War?

You'd think Modern Warfare would be the biggest game of the month, wouldn't you? Well, you'd be wrong, because that has to go to the cuddly battle royale of Fall Guys. Mediatonic's riff on Takeshi's Castle is full of bouncy shenanigans as you try to make it through to the final round and clinch that crown as the number one player.

We were playing it over the weekend in the last technical beta test before release and loved it. Read our Fall Guys preview here, where Jim said:

Tied up in such a cheeky, vibrant package, Fall Guys has the makings of a true multiplayer marvel and one that touts slapstick silliness over a constant barrage of blood and bullets. We'll be throwing ourselves into this mad little game on launch day and we'll surely be grinning from ear to ear as we do.

Source: Twitter

Rogue Company update 1.26 fixes beta bugs and map exploits

Hi-Rez Studios and First Watch Games have dropped their latest update for cross-play tactical hero shooter, Rogue Company.

Update 1.26 is now live across all versions of the game including PC (via the Epic Games Store), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch.

This appears to be a minor patch for Rogue Company and one that fixes bugs, exploits, and other issues flag by the player community. Rogue Company is currently running a closed beta with paid access by purchasing one of three founder's packs.

See below for the Rogue Company update 1.26 full patch notes. Check here for the future content roadmap.

As of 4:00 PM ET (20:00 UTC) we released a client only hotfix for Epic and PS4 (Nintendo and Xbox will follow once approved). Please note the following changes:

  • The VS screen now has an indication the match is loading

  • Players should no longer respawn in Chimera when dying in Strikeout

  • Emote Music will no longer be heard next round if player is dancing during the round transition

  • Players can no longer access the roofs of the large buildings in Skyfell

  • Fixed an issue with players purchasing multiple Founder's Packs from receiving them

  • Fixed 2 map exploits in Windward

  • Party leader and party members no longer see different queues while queued

  • When leaving a party, the "A player has left your party" notification will no longer appear twice

Hi-Rez Studios have yet to confirm when Rogue Company will fully launch, at which time the game will be free to download and play on all available systems.

We have been playing Rogue Company following its shift into closed beta and so far we've been left thoroughly impressed, concluding that "in short, Rogue Company should definitely be on your radar. It offers a slightly more accessible gateway into this brutal shooter subgenre, but manages to do so without losing any of its strategic depth."

Source: Reddit

Nioh 2 update 1.11 and Tengu's Disciple DLC live

July is proving to be quite a month for samurai video games. With Ghost of Tsushima finally launching on PlayStation 4, less than two weeks later we have a new major update for Nioh 2.

The Koei Tecmo sequel has a fresh version to download and install, patch 1.11 pretty much laying the groundwork for Nioh 2's first of three post-launch expansions. The first DLC, dubbed "The Tengu's Disciple" is now available via the PlayStation Store, either as a individual purchase or part of the Nioh 2 season pass.

The Nioh 2 update 1.11 patch notes can be seen below:

  • Added content for add-on 1.
  • Expands functionality
  • Adjusted game balance
  • Fixes various bugs

Meanwhile, here's a summary of what to expect from The Tengu's Disciple.

Following the conclusion of Nioh 2's campaign – unleash your darkness once more and extinguish the lingering flames of war.
Travel to the new coastal region of Yashima and go back in time to the final years of the Heian period. There, you'll meet new allies, face fearsome yokai and discover the connection between the legendary Sohayamaru and Otakemaru:

• Test your might in over 10 challenging missions across three distinct new stages.
• Face off against unique bosses, new yokai and brutal enemy variants.
• Master a lethal new weapon type – the Splitstaff, and gear up with powerful new armor variants.
• Find and unleash destructive new guardian spirits, yokai skills, Ninjutsu abilities and more.

Nioh 2 scored a whopping 9/10 in Jason's review, where he concluded:

Nioh 2 builds on the excellence of the original with a fistful of new twists and ideas, from new Yokai abilities to full-on co-op through the entire game. Nioh 2 might well be the best Soulslike that isn't a FromSoftware game, and it's easily one of my personal contenders for Game of the Year.

Developed by Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive studio, Team Ninja, Nioh 2 shipped a million copies in its launch month of May, contributing to the major 2020 growth of the game's publisher, Koei Tecmo.

Pokémon Go Fest 2020 brought catching and community to our living rooms

2020 has caused tumultuous changes to our daily lives, but one of the most noticeable on a personal level has been the lack, or the dulling, of big events. Birthdays and wedding anniversaries have passed by without much of the circumstance we had planned, and similarly gigs, conferences and festivals have come crashing to a halt in the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic. Pokêmon Go Fest, an event that aims to bring Niantic's global community together, seemed destined to be another victim of 2020, but instead their solution proved to be both elegant, and a whole lot of fun.

Pokémon Go Fest 2020 had to take a more… indoorsy approach last weekend. Gone were the physical even spaces to visit in favour of virtual team lounges and streams, gone were the geo-locked Pokémon spawns in favour of scheduled spawns throughout the day, but there was still plenty to do and play with through the two days.

Personally, some parts of it were a little more successful than others. I didn't really feel like engaging much with the virtual team lounges, and didn't really keep tabs on the schedule for when Pokémon of different types would be appearing. Instead, my approach was a little more casual, dipping in most hours throughout the day to see what was popping up on my screen.

You see, the weather on Saturday was absolutely shocking. No way was I going to go out in that rainy hell, and with a PokéStop right outside my front door and not one, not two, but three Gyms that I can reach depending on how wonky my phone's GPS feels like being, I can get plenty of Pokémon Go action from my living room.

Then Team Go Rocket invaded on Sunday, taking over dozens of PokéStops, flying around in their big dumb balloons. I hadn't quite finished the initial set of Pokémon catching goals from the first day, but now I had a ton of battling to do and a new quest line to follow. With the weather improved, I decided an extra long walk was in order for the afternoon, to put an end to their menace.

Well, I didn't quite manage it on Sunday, that string of quests thankfully continued through for me to carry on with over the following days, letting me put an end to Team Rocket's latest menace yesterday afternoon.

Go Fest in the Leighton household

With two young boys in the house, and one eternally hopeful dad, Pokêmon Go Fest hit its target audience right in the Meowth with the Leighton family. After months of home schooling and short walks around the local area, Pokémon Go Fest managed to feel like a real and tangible event, and one that we could still enjoy without having to make the trip to Liverpool's cancelled event.

We were able to do the bulk of our Pokémon catching from the comfort of our living room for a start. The three PokéStops we can spin meant we got to put Team Go Rocket back in their place many times across the weekend, and their low-level grunts gave my youngest son little trouble as he tapped away at the screen of my phone. Tying that in to then capturing and purifying their poor Poké-lackeys gave us an immediate start to bolstering our own roster of pocket monsters, and the limited opportunities to capture them made for some nail-biting encounters.

Armed with some incense, the Pokémon Go Fest weekend was also a fantastic time to capture new, and previously unseen Pokémon. Creature after creature appeared around us, and further cries of delight were brought when it turned out that Squirtle, Charmander, Bulbasaur and Pikachu were wearing the same Pikachu cap the boys were. I find occasionally that Pokémon Go can feel a little run-of-the-mill, facing you with an army of eternally dull Pidgeys to capture and little else, but here it felt vibrant, alive and exciting. It showcased the absolute best of Pokémon Go, and it's served to reawaken a love for it in our household.

Beyond that, the structural targets and activities of the weekend kept things flowing along nicely, and when it was time to pop out for a walk, Pokémon Go directed us towards the local gyms on a route we otherwise wouldn't have taken. It reminded me of the sense of discovery and excitement that the game had when it originally launched and, with other friends playing along at home or in their local towns, there was still the sense of camaraderie and community that the Go Fest would have brought anyway.

I hope that it becomes a regular feature of the Pokémon Go Fest calendar, even when things – hopefully – return to normal. It's never going to capture the feeling of being in a huge crowd of Pokémon Go fans, but equally, that idea seems pretty alien right now. In a world of social distancing and household bubbles, Pokémon Go Fest brought an event to 2020 that felt fun, vibrant and – all importantly – inclusive, and may even have done more for the game's community than the traditional event could have ever achieved.

– Dom

The most important thing, obviously, is that the Pokémon Go Fest got us playing the game again, and I've kept playing it through the week. For some reason, while I've been going for daily walks through the lockdown to make sure that I'm getting out of the house and doing something, often tying in with a trip to the shops or some other chores I need to do, I'd never really decided to turn Pokémon Go on and leave it running in my pocket. A lot of game innovations passed me by like Adventure Sync running in the background, or the new Battle League. Even raiding is something that I've barely interacted with since its introduction a few years ago.

I don't quite know yet if it will truly stick, but this certainly feels like a template for Niantic to continue to use and evolve (geddit?) for future Pokémon Go Fests. Even if the city park takeovers return in 2021 or 2022 – seriously, who knows at this point? – they should absolutely run alongside a virtual event of some sort. This got me interested, it got me engaged, and it felt open to anyone and everyone.

Ghost of Tsushima praised by Yakuza series director

Despite launching just weeks after The Last of Us: Part II, Ghost of Tsushima has already proved a huge hit for Sony. The PlayStation 4's final AAA exclusive topped UK charts for a second week running while also becoming the publisher's fastest-selling original IP of the current console generation, beating Horizon: Zero Dawn.

Unsurprisingly, Ghost of Tsushima (our review) has been a major hit in Japan, both in terms of sales and critical reception. It has also attracted the attention of high profile Japanese game developers, including Toshihiro Nagoshi, executive director of Sega's popular Yakuza game series.

"There are numerous things I bow my head to, like aiming at setting a game in that time period…I could go on and on," said Nagoshi during a Sega livestream (translated by Kotaku). He mentions numerous facets of the game, praising Ghost of Tsushima's technical prowess and the way it encourages open world exploration without a heavy guiding hand.

He also comments on protagonist, Jin Sakai, remarking that he "isn't a particularly handsome lead, don't you think?". Nagoshi goes on to explain how the slightly aged and rugged Jin might not get a pass by Japanese marketing departments who prefer more youthful poster boys.

The Yakuza director also praises the extensive research carried out by developer Sucker Punch and was amazed at the authenticity of Tsushima's setting:

Foreigners who tickle the fancy of Japanese people more than Japanese people are…rather amazing, no?[…] There's like a notion that Westerners don't understand things (about Japan), but that hypothesis itself is mistaken.

Those who have been doing their own research into Ghost of Tsushima will know that the game isn't historically accurate in many respects, it's use of black powder being one particular detail that stands out. We recently took a deep dive into the game's historical background, quizzing a real samurai expert about the game.

Ghost of Tsushima broke sale records in Japan for Sony, recording the best first week sales of any Sony PS4 exclusive with 221,915 copies sold.

Earlier this week the game received a surprise update, patch 1.05 adding an even tougher difficulty level with added accessibility options.

Source: blog.esuteru.com (via Kotaku)

Ghost of Tsushima Guides from TheSixthAxis

Peaky Blinders: Mastermind turns the hit show into a masterful puzzler

Times were pretty bad in the UK just after WWI. There was the whole pandemic situation, for one thing, but the government had tanked the economy to fund the war effort and life for the working class had no real chance to improve compared to the late 19th century. Fertile ground for gangs to grow in influence and, a century later, perfect fodder for a hit TV series.

I am, of course, referring to Peaky Blinders and its upcoming video game adaptation, telling a story set right before the first series of the show. Whatever Peaky Blinders game you might imagine in your head, Peaky Blinders: Mastermind from Futurlab is quite different from what you might expect. In a good way.

What Futurlab have done to let you manage and control your Peaky Blinders in real time is absolutely fascinating. This could have been a game in the vein of Commandos, as you command a group of gang members, setting traps and lying in wait as enemies patrol (while also liberally using a Quick Save feature). It could even have been a turn-based tactical game, where you can agonise over every decision before putting it into play. But Futurlab have skirted neatly around such parallels, instead leaning on time manipulation and putting control of the clock that you're racing against in your hands.

At any point you can pause the game, wind time back and forth, pick a starting point and try again. Except it's not just correcting your failures, it's also controlling multiple characters, putting together a series of events one character at a time, hopping back and forth to use all of their abilities in tandem like the double/triplequadruple cross montage at the end of a heist film. It's not quite as glamorous in reality, but it feels almost as good – I imagine, because I've never been in a heist film.

Tommy Shelby is always at the heart of this – he is, after all the anti-hero whose rise to prominence this game is telling – and at various stages he'll be working alongside other Peaky Blinders. Tommy can sweet talk many a commoner, convincing them to do him just a little favour for a few moments, but he will get spotted in a heartbeat if he walks into a rival gang member's cone of vision. Ada's womanly woman…ness allows her to walk through undetected and even wander over and distract a guard by chatting them up for a few moments. Finn, on the other hand, is able to scrabble through small holes in gratings.

Putting it all together through a level has you hopping back and forth between characters, running through a handful of actions with one character, then rewinding and performing some complimentary actions with another, then taking over with the other, and on, and on. Through the game's opening missions, it's relatively easy to think ahead and come up with the solution to the puzzles, the order of events that need to happen well before you've finished forging ahead with one of the two characters.

Admittedly, it's a bit simplistic to ease you into things, but that's just left me eager to see how complex the puzzles can become. Racing against the clock that you control is an intriguing concept though, asking you to rewind and re-run or re-sequence events to shave tenths of a second off here and there and sneak under the time needed for a Gold award.

So sure, a few levels in, I'm still waiting for Peaky Blinders to show the true depths of its potential complexity, but it's easy to see what a masterful system Futurlab have created to let you inhabit the mind of Thomas Shelby.

Peaky Blinders: Mastermind is coming to PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch a little later this summer.

Animal Crossing Dreaming guide – how does the Dream Suite work in New Horizons?

The Dream Suite is back in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Well… kind of. There's no longer a dedicated Dream Suite building, but with the release of Summer Update Wave 2, you can still close your eyes and visit a dream of another player's island.

It comes as part of Update 1.4.0 for the game, which also brought a weekly fireworks show throughout August and island backups, so you can restore saves from a lost, damaged or stolen Nintendo Switch. Truly the stuff of nightmares!

We've got plenty of other walkthroughs and tips for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and more on the way. Visit our game hub to check those out.

How does Dreaming work in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?

Dreaming in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a way for you to visit a snapshot of a person's island without them being there.

There's no dedicated Dream Suite building that you can build on your island, but instead you can simply take a nap on a bed that's placed in your home. This will now give you the option of going to sleep and dreaming, where you'll visit Luna in the dream realm.

From here you can visit another person's island or share your own.

What can I do when visiting another island?

Things are a bit different compared to visiting a live island, with these dream visits being more about exploring another person's creation. You also arrive, not by sea plane, but with Luna and your bed appearing right in the middle of the island's plaza!

You visit without any of your inventory, meaning you can't chop down trees or make major changes to the island while you're there, but then again, nothing here is permanent.

The one thing you can take back are the custom designs that are hosted on the design portal. This will, appear next to your bed on the island plaza.

Where can I find my Dream Address?

Luna will give you your Dream Address when you create the dream version of your island, but you can also find it when viewing your passport and island map.

How can I update my island?

Since dreams are a snapshot of your island, they do not change or update with the rest of your island in real time. They preserve it at the point in time that you created them, residents, notification board and all.

You can simply visit Luna and ask her to refresh your dream island, but it's only possible for this to be updated once per day.

Animal Crossing Guides from TheSixthAxis

Animal Crossing – How to enable island backups in New Horizons

Finally! Nintendo have added a way for us to backup our previous island paradises in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. A part of the Wave 2 Summer Update, the island backups are intended as a fallback for cases where your Switch has been lost, damaged or stolen, letting you recover your island to a new or repaired Switch.

Incidentally, the Version 1.4.0 patch notes do reveal that a save transfer feature is planned for sometime later this year. Just not yet…

But back to the island backups, how do you enable them? And how do they work?

How to enable island backups in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Island backups are enabled from the main menu of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. From here press the – button to visit Tom Nook's data management area.

Simply select the island backup option and go through his little speech in order to enable them. From this point on, your Switch will periodically and automatically upload a save of your island to the cloud when you're not playing.

You'll be able to see the last time that the game backed up from the lower left corner of the main menu.

Do I need anything in order to backup?

Yes, there are a few requirements for backing up. The main requirement is an active Nintendo Switch Online subscription (this does not mean that Animal Crossing saves now live alongside other cloud saves from other games), but you must also be a user who plays New Horizons on the system and have a resident to enable the service. Finally, backups will only work if your Switch can connect to the internet while in sleep mode!

How to restore an Animal Crossing: New Horizons island backup

Restoring your island backup is not a simple process (sadly). Again, this is only intended for use when your Switch has been lost, damaged or stolen, and depends on if you have a repaired Switch or a brand new replacement console.

If it's a new console, you will need to contact Nintendo Customer Support – Nintendo Customer Support US, Nintendo Customer Support UK – and they will help process the restore for you. If it's the same Switch, however, the process can potentially be handled locally.

If your Switch has been repaired by Nintendo, it's possible that the Switch still has your personal data on it. If not, then follow these steps:

  1. Select Animal Crossing: New Horizons and choose the user with the Nintendo Account that originally enabled island backup.
    • In order to restore island data:
    • Your Nintendo Switch console must have a stable connection to the internet.
    • Your game must be updated to the latest software version (1.4.0 or later).
  2. As the game begins to open, you will see a black screen with the Nintendo logo in the top-left corner. Press and hold the – Button when this screen appears.
  3. If performed correctly, a message will appear that asks if you want to check for island data to restore.
    • If you see Timmy and Tommy at the Nook Inc. reception desk, the button input failed. Close the game and reopen it to try again.
    • If you see a title screen with villagers walking around an island, then you may have already started a new island on your Nintendo Switch console. If you wish to replace this island with your island backup data, you must first delete the new save data for Animal Crossing: New Horizons from your console, then reopen the game and try again. Your new island will not be able to be recovered after you delete the save data.
  4. Select Check to search for island data to restore.
    • If island data cannot be found, it may be because your Nintendo Switch console is not currently connected to the internet or you are not using the same Nintendo Account that was used to enable island backup.
  5. If you enabled island backup for multiple islands, you will be presented with each island name and some details. Select the island you wish to restore on your Nintendo Switch console
  6. Select Yes, please to confirm you are ready to restore the selected island backup.
    • If you started a new island on your Nintendo Switch console, it will be lost and replaced with your island backup.
  7. After your island is restored, the game will restart and you will return to your island.

Source: Nintendo

 

More Animal Crossing Guides from TheSixthAxis

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Update 1.4.0 patch notes reveal save and island transfers planned for 2020

The second Summer Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is here, bumping the game's version number up to 1.4.0 and bringing new features and events like a weekly fireworks show in August, Redd's lucky raffle, the new equivalent to a Dream Suite, and more.

However, there's also some big changes behind the scenes, with Nintendo enabling a new save and island backup service. So long as you have Nintendo Switch Online, this will periodically upload you island and save to the cloud, meaning that if your Switch is lost, damaged or stolen, you will be able to contact Nintendo and have them restore your island to a new or repaired Switch.

This is not a feature that you can fiddle with as a user, and is purely intended for when you are in need of support. However, the Version 1.4.0 patch notes do reveal that a save transfer feature is planned for sometime later this year.

We currently plan on adding a save data transfer feature within 2020. Information on the feature and timing will be announced at a future time.

This will be perfect for if Nintendo are actually working on a new, more powerful version of the Nintendo Switch and people want to switch to a new Switch.

Here's the 1.4.0 patch notes:

Ver. 1.4.0 (Released July 30, 2020)

The software has been updated if you see "Ver. 1.4.0" in the upper-right corner of the title screen.

  • General updates
    • A new seasonal event, Fireworks Shows, has been added.
    • New limited-time seasonal items have been added to Nook Shopping.
    • A new feature was added to the NookPhone Camera app, allowing you to turn off the guide information by pressing in the R Stick.
    • The "funny glasses" item now matches up with player skin color variations.
  • Online connectivity features
    • A new feature allows you to sleep in a bed and meet Luna. You can upload a dream of your island via the internet or visit other uploaded dream islands.
    • New features have been added to the Custom Designs Portal. You can now search by design name or type. You can now create a list of favorite creators.
    • A new feature has been added for backing up save data to Nintendo's servers via the internet. You can use backed up save data with the island backup restoration service if your Nintendo Switch system is lost or broken.
      • You must be a member of Nintendo Switch Online and enable backups within Animal Crossing: New Horizons to use this new feature.
      • Save data cannot be restored at a customer's discretionary timing. If your system is broken, you must contact Nintendo Support to start a repair request. If you have lost your system, you must contact Nintendo Support.
      • This feature does not allow save data (island data) to be transferred to a different system. We currently plan on adding a save data transfer feature within 2020. Information on the feature and timing will be announced at a future time.
    • Learn more about the island backup restoration service.
  • Fixed issues
    • Other adjustments were made to improve the game play experience.

Source: Nintendo

 

Animal Crossing Guides from TheSixthAxis

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered resurrects a GameCube co-op classic

We're just under a month away from the release of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remastered, reviving a GameCube classic that many could have expected to stay locked to that console for all time. Instead, Square Enix have remastered this intriguing action RPG spin-off, and it will be coming to PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android on 27th August.

So what is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles? Well, we have to go back to the late 90s to find out. With Square having jumped ship to Sony's PlayStation for Final Fantasy VII and enjoyed huge success with the games on that system, the mainline Final Fantasy series wasn't about to head back to a Nintendo system in a hurry, but there was space for a spin-off and more importantly, some experimentation. In fact, Crystal Chronicles was one of those wildly experimental games designed to use some of the specific tricks that most developers wouldn't bother with outside of Nintendo.

The game is designed as a co-op action RPG, but with a unique narrative twist to keep players together. The world is poisonous to its inhabitants, with a Miasma that will kill anyone that ventures out of the spheres of safety generated by the fragments of the Great Crystal. To keep the towns safe, their crystals need topping up with myrrh, and that's where your adventuring Caravan comes in.

This need to stay near to crystal fragments is what keeps players together in the game world. Sure, we've seen plenty of co-op games have similar set ups designed to stop players getting separated and need the console to split its processing power on two views into the world, but none have really made it a part of the story.

In single player, you control your character in a hack and slash action RPG, while a Moogle carries the protective vessel around and follows you, giving you plenty of freedom. However, in multiplayer, with up to four players, it's then up to you to carry and move the vessel around.

That doesn't sound so awkward for co-op, I'm sure you're thinking to yourself, but on GameCube, you could only play multiplayer by linking up multiple Game Boy Advance. Utter shenanigans for people wanting a good four player action RPG at the time, but it did allow for unique tricks like moving your player character's info to a personal screen, and allowing you to visit and interact with shops independently. Thankfully everyone needing a direct link cable to a single console is not a restriction for the remaster. Instead, Square Enix have gone in the complete opposite direction.

Alongside the main game's release will be a Lite edition of the game. This is effectively a demo, giving you the first few dungeons to play through, and letting you do so in both single and online multiplayer. That's pretty generous in its own right, but the Lite version also lets you join someone with the main game and play through almost the entire adventure. You can enjoy 13 of the original 14 dungeons, which is simultaneously incredibly generous and a little bit cheeky from Square Enix!

Through the rest of the game, there's then just dozens of other niceties. There's voice overs, a new mimic system, a set of post-game high level dungeons (another full game exclusive), new weapons, armour, recipes and on and on and on. It seems like every part of the game has been looked at and tweaked, which would go some way to explaining why this remaster has been delayed so often.

Thankfully, that wait is coming to an end. That's all we have for this video, but this time next month, we'll all be able to revisit this GameCube classic on some current gen consoles and smartphones.

Star Wars: Squadrons will not be getting a next-gen upgrade

Bad news Star Wars fans, EA will not be giving Star Wars: Squadrons an extra polish if you are playing on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. The news comes via the Creative Director at EA Motive, Ian Frazier, who tweeted "We're not planning a separate version of the game for the next-gen consoles."

Star Wars: Squadrons is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, with full support for PSVR, Steam VR and Oculus Rift VR headsets through the entire game, on 2nd October 2020. Check out the gameplay trailer below.

There's a lot in common with the classic X-Wing and Tie Fighter games, as you balance your fighter's shields against power, put power to the engines to try and race ahead of your foes and spin back round on them. It looks great, with a ton of detail to the cockpits and fully first person, in cockpit gameplay.

There will be a single player campaign, set after the Battle of Endor and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. You'll jump back and forth between the the two sides as the New Republic rises and the Empire fights for survival, able to create and customise your own character on both sides. You'll join the New Republic's Vanguard Squadron and the Empire's Titan Squadron, made up of original characters, though there will be some cameos from familiar faces as well.

However, the game will lie after those first few weeks with its 5v5 online multiplayer. This is fully cross-play across all platforms, with VR able to battle non-VR as well.

There's eight ships in the game – a fighter, interceptor, support and bomber for both sides – each having a specific role in battle. You can unlock and customise them  with over 50 components to alter your ship's loadout, and just having a cute bobble head in the

There's a few different modes. Dogfight is your traditional deathmatch mode, but Fleet Battles are the signature mode. These are multi-stage battles, playable in both PvP and PvE, where you first fight to win the dogfight in the centre of the map before attacking or defending the capital ships, and finally taking it to the flagship to destroy or defend key components and win the battle. You'll be battling around a mixture of familiar and new locations as well, with battles around the gas giant Yavin Prime and the shattered moon of Galitan.

The game will come with a budget $39.99 / £34.99 / €39.99 price point, making it a budget offering. If you're an EA Access or Origin Access subscriber, you'll get 10 hours of play time at launch.

Source: Twitter

Frostpunk's On The Edge DLC will be released in August

11 Bit Studios has revealed the third and final piece of Frostpunk's DLC On The Edge will be available to purchase from August 20th. The DLC was announced in June. On The Edge is set after the events of the main campaign acting as a sort of epilogue to what came before. There is some new content including new gameplay mechanics to get to grips with when handling diplomatic and economic issues, as well as new challenges to overcome as the journey to rebuild continues.

The description of On the Edge says:

On The Edge picks up when the base game has ended. The storm has exposed an army warehouse from times before the evacuation. A scouting party is sent from New London to set up an outpost and a steady chain of supplies. It's time to take another step on the laborious path of rebuilding hope and leading humankind to survival. But… the world of Frostpunk is still full of embroiled dualities: trust or skepticism, independence or domination, union or separation. The question is, what path will you take?

In our review for Frostpunk, Jason wrote:

Frostpunk is a horrifyingly playable post-apocalyptic survival game that demands more out of you than most games ever could. Each decision and each sacrifice you make is hard on your city and on you. There are so many impossible choices and no win situations that the game is almost hard to play, but it's so compelling that you will be unable to step away from it. The only real negative is the sheer overwhelming nature of the world the game is set in, and really that is more of a compliment to the designers than anything else. Frostpunk is a truly harrowing game in the best possible way and one that will have you steeped in the harsh reality of eternal winter for dozens of hours to come.

You can read the full Frostpunk review here.

Source: Press Release

From Bedrooms To Billions: The PlayStation Revolution documentary releasing in September

This September will mark the 25th anniversary of the original PlayStation released in the UK, Europe, and North America. 25 years since that new machine from Sony marked the beginning of a still-unfolding story. To mark that anniversary a new documentary is being released and it is called From Bedrooms to Billions: The PlayStation Revolution, and this documentary will explore the origins of PlayStation as well as talking to some of the key figures behind the brand.  Anthony and Nicola Caulfield are the minds behind this documentary.

The description of the documentary reads:

The PlayStation Revolution is an independent documentary feature film that uncovers the incredible story behind the creation of the Sony PlayStation. It is an essential watch for anyone interested in video games and the history of the biggest entertainment industry on earth. The film investigates why Sony decided to enter the video games business, when it was already dominated by both Nintendo and Sega, who not only produced their own hardware but made and published fantastic games. To compete, Sony would not only have to design and build a new piece of hardware, but they would have to find a way to persuade the game development industry to take a chance and develop games for it long before it even came out!

The documentary will include interviews with some of the key figures behind PlayStation including Mark Cerny, Hideo Kojima, Shinji Mikami, David Jaffe, and Andy Gavin. All of them have contributed to PlayStation's history from the console hardware itself to the very games that have now been enjoyed by millions globally. From Bedrooms to Billions: The PlayStation Revolution will be released on September 7th and it will be available on DVD, Blu-Ray, and through digital services. There is a special edition that comes with bonus features and those are:

  • Creating Wipeout – RT – 10mins 31 sec (featuring game creator Nick Burcombe and Psygnosis founder Ian Hetherington)
  • Creating Gran Turismo – RT – 19mins 12 secs (featuring creator Kazunori Yamauchi)
  • Net Yaroze – RT – 6mins 46 secs (featuring Phil Harrison and Paul Holman)
  • Audio on PS2 – 3mins 12 secs (featuring Jason Page)
  • Director's commentary with Anthony Caulfield, Nicola Caulfield, Heather Gibson & Gavin Rummery (Tomb Raider), Steve Merrett (PlayStation journo) and Shahid Ahmad (former Sony PlayStation dev commissioner)
  • Photo Gallery

Source: Press Release

Hawkeye confirmed for Marvel's Avengers, beta details outlined

Crystal Dynamics has held another War Table briefing for Marvel's Avengers, and the developer has detailed the content players will be able to access in the Marvel's Avengers beta as well as what to expect post launch. The post launch content is led by the addition of Hawkeye and he will have his own abilities as well as mission set to play through to learn more of the Marvel's Avengers story. Hawkeye has been a key figure in the Avengers so his inclusion is welcome though not too surprising.

In the Marvel's Avengers beta players will be able to play through a few campaign missions, the HARM challenge rooms, and access some War Zones content. The first campaign mission will be the Golden Gate Bridge during the A-Day event. In this mission, players will be able to play as Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, and Black Widow as they face off against Taskmaster. The second mission is called To Find Olympia and this sees Hulk and Ms Marvel team up as they look for JARVIS. The third mission is called Missing Links and continues with players controlling Hulk and Ms Marvel.

HARM Challenge Rooms will test player skills as waves and waves of enemies come in to take down the Avengers. In the beta there are three of these rooms to play through, with completion earning a nameplate that will be available to use in the full release. When it comes to War Zones there will be five in the beta, as well as five Drop Zones which are smaller versions of War Zones. In the full game, War Zones can last anywhere between 10 minutes and two hours but it is unclear what the length of the beta ones will be. Iron Man, Hulk, Ms Marvel, and Black Widow will be the playable characters in War Zones. As you play through the missions characters will level up and you will earn gear for them. This progression will carry over through the beta weekends.

The beta dates are as follows:

  1. August 7th – PlayStation pre-Order beta
  2. August 14th – Xbox and PC pre-order beta, PlayStation open beta
  3. August 21st – Open beta for all platforms

Source: PS Blog

Survey: 84% of UK gamers excited by PlayStation 5 compared to 15% for Xbox Series X

Sorry Gabe Newell, you would be very much in the minority if you were living in the UK as a new survey has shown UK based gamers will be buying a PlayStation 5 next generation.

Pop culture agency Experience12 surveyed 3,000 people via the MCM Comic Con online event and 84% of them said they were excited about PlayStation 5, with just 15% looking forward to the Xbox Series X. 37% of respondents would be buying a console on day one, 9% within the first month, 12% with the next three months, and 26% within a year of the consoles hitting the shelves.

Of those surveyed, 59% owned a PS4, 16% had an Xbox One, 14% had purchased a PC, and Switch accounted for 8%. They also asked people what game they were really looking forward to, the top game is no surprise and given it was MCM Comic Con attendees the second place was to be expected.

Top 5 Most Anticipated Releases

  1. Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt)
  2. Marvel's Avengers (Square-Enix)
  3. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 Remaster (Activision)
  4. Dying Light 2 (Techland)
  5. Halo Infinite (Xbox Game Studios)

The earlier news I referred to at the start of this post has seen Gabe Newell, head honcho at Valve, state Xbox Series X is better than PlayStation 5, but then doesn't explain why, just "cos it is".

Microsoft do seem to be having difficulties in when it comes to getting their next gen message across, an event that was billed as showing game play videos had no gameplay videos, and the recent reveal of Halo Infinite was criticised due to the rathher last-gen graphics and pop in. The director of the Halo Infinite narrative experience,Dan Chosich, took to Twitter to comment.

"I've been in your shoes. I know what it's like to have expectations built + feel let down. I want you to know your voice matters + is heard," he said, "You're not falling on deaf ears. I always want to live up to the legacy that Bungie pioneered. I personally care a lot about honoring that."

Source: Experience12 via MCV

Planet Coaster: Console Edition dev diary explores the new controls, camera & UI

A huge hit on PC, Planet Coaster: Console Edition promises to translate the theme park creator and management sim for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X later this year. The first dev diary explores some of the high level controls and UI changes that Frontier Developments are bringing to the game.

Two of the biggest areas that Frontier have focussed on are the controls and the camera in particular. A new camera mode is being introduced to let you build your coasters from a viewpoint that follows the track as you place it. Think that bit where Gromit is laying the model train tracks, but in a video game and with less dramatic music and evil penguins.

There's also a big console focused overhaul of the UI, with radial menus available to replace the keyboard shortcut functionality of the PC version. These will naturally be context sensitive to each mode, whether it's creating a coaster or editing the scenery.

And to help you tap into your creative juices, there's hundreds of new blueprints being added to the game, so you can very quickly drop great-looking buildings and scenery for their park. Of course, for perfectionists, you'll either want to start from the ground up or heavily tweak these blueprints.

In our original Planet Coaster review, Dave wrote:

Planet Coaster feels like a step into more modern times for the genre. There are bugbears when it comes to the camera and the subsequent patience required to build your perfect theme park, but should one have the stamina to intricately design features for their park, the possibilities are nigh on endless. Managing can feel simplistic at times, but for those who want to have the amusement park of their dreams, even if they use mods from Steam Workshop to supplement their masterpiece, Planet Coaster has it in spades. Now if only the rides could be viewed in VR…

Planet Coaster: Console Edition will be out for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X later in 2020.

Source: press release

Plants Vs Zombies Battle for Neighborville July Update (7/28) patch notes are here

EA have released a fairly large patch for family friendly shooter Plants Vs Zombies Battle for Neighborville. As usual it's a mix of bug fixes and tweaks to characters and weapons, here are the notes.

New Features

  • Added station markers within Giddy Park to improve navigation to points of interest.
  • New Weekly Events featuring playable horde characters
  • Adding Private Play; available through the Multiplayer Terminal

Balance Tuning

Common

  • Revive
    • No longer ends Pea Suped or Space Force
    • No longer ends healing if Super Savior upgrade is equipped
    • Plant visual indicator now green to not get confused with Sunflower healing
  • Upgrade Rough Patch
    • Increase time before Overhealth starts to decay, 10->30

Chomper

  • Spikeweed
    • Increase rate of damage so it is easier to identify if victim is ensnared
    • Decrease damage to offset rate of damage from above
    • Decrease arming delay 2->1 sec
  • Grody Goop
    • Decrease initial damage when acquiring toxic, 45->40
    • Decrease duration of toxic 15->13 sec
    • Toxic element is removed on victim vanquish

Kernel Corn

  • Shogun Guard
    • Increase projectile final velocity post drag, 420->500 m/s
    • Increase shield regen rate 10->12.5 health/sec
    • Decrease regen delay when lowering shield 2->1 sec
    • Decrease regen delay when shield is destroyed 5->1 sec
    • Increase min health requirement after shield has been destroyed 12.5->25 health
  • Shuck Shot
    • Increase movement speed when firing, speed multiplier 0.5->1.0
  • Husk Hop
    • Remove camera restriction for improved aiming
  • Upgrade Happy Feet
    • Fix issue with upgrade not getting removed when vanquished

Night Cap

  • Spore Strike
    • Increase accuracy, 3.2->2.8
    • Increase air accuracy, additional jump angle 3->1
  • Fung Fu
    • Fix issue with Fung Fu being activated while in Shadow Sneak
  • AI
    • Fix issue with Night Cap using abilities and primary weapon while in Shadow Sneak

Cactus

  • Upgrade Calibrated
    • Decrease decay time that upgrade is active, 0.075->0.5 per second
    • Increase charge rate per damage event, 0.15->0.35

Snapdragon

  • Blue Blazes
    • Adjust projectile spawn location to better match mouth location when firing
    • Decrease how much movement affects projectile speed, 0.35->0%
    • Decrease time until homing starts, 0.85-> 0.35 sec

Citron

  • Juiced Upgrade
    • Fix issue with weapon taking longer to start, deploy time 1.5->1.05

Acorn & Oak

  • Acorn Dash
    • Now gains two charges
  • Treetop Turret
    • Increase damage 4.6->5
    • Decrease overheat rate 0.0175->0.0115 heat/shot
    • Fix issue with not dealing critical damage
  • Lumber Support
    • Can now grant overhealth
  • Upgrade Nutty Feedback
    • Update text to read "Gain ammo for Shell Shot or Wood Grief by dealing damage." Old text did not reflect the effect on Oak's weapon.

Imp

  • Imp Blasters
    • Increase rate of fire 700->725 rpm
    • Increase accuracy in air, additional jump dispersion 3->1.2
    • Decrease projectile velocity post drag 200->150 m/s
    • Decrease accuracy when aiming, dispersion multiplier 0.5->0.65
    • Decrease recoil when aiming, recoil multiplier 1.0->0.85
    • Fix aim bug that was increasing rate of fire
  • Gravity Grenade
    • Fix gameplay effects on victims lasting after vanquish
  • Mech Deploy
    • Fix issue with Imp not taking damage while calling in Mech

Super Brainz

  • Brainium Basher 9001
    • Charge attack doesn't happen if caught in spikeweed
  • Heroic Fists
    • Fix issue with Alpha Better Shield canceling attack follow-through for each punch
  • Alpha Better Shield
    • Can activate sprint while shield is up, removing need to lower shield first
  • Upgrade Speed Bag
    • Update text to read "Heroic Fists punch faster and Brainium Basher 9001 charges faster by earning a vanquish. Upgrade can stack up to three times." Old text did not reflect the effect on Legendary Upgrade.
  • Upgrade Extra Special
    • Fix issue with shield being lost post Super Ultra Ball if it was used throughout ability

80s Action Hero

  • Bow Blaster
    • Now has camera recoil

Electric Slide

  • Funky Bouncer
    • Restrict victims from using sprint

Space Station

  • Orbital Strike
    • Fix issue with enemy homing weapons not homing to the correct location

All-Star

  • Upgrade Applying Pressure
    • Fix the issue with screen effects not getting removed when enemy is vanquished

Scientist

  • Steam Blaster
    • Decrease overall damage per blast 71->60, shift damage from initial blast to latter part of blast
    • Decrease ammo 5->4

Wizard

  • Co-Star
    • Fix issue with Goatify making Wizard not attach and get stuck in Co-Star mode making him invincible
  • Upgrade Two-Headed Dragon
    • Fix issue with Wizard becoming stuck in Co-Star mode making him invincible

 

Major Bugs Fixed

  • Wizard's Upgrade Two-Headed Dragon is fixed
  • Fixing Water in Turf takeover Resort
  • Performance improvements to Resort TT + map being put back into playlist rotation
  • Mount Steep gnome button fixed
  • Wizard invincibility fix
  • Wizard default gestures second fix attempt

Detailed Challenge tuning

  • Action Hero: "Land Hits with the Bow Blaster" Completion Value 500 –> 250
  • Scientist:  "Deal Primary Weapon Damage" Completion Value 5,000 –> 3,000
  • Scientist: "Revive Allies" Completion Value 20 –> 15
  • Citron: "Land Hits with Spin Dash" Completion Value 100 –> 50
  • Citron: "Defend with Peel Shield" Completion Value 5,000 –> 3,500
  • Peashooter: "Score Direct Hits with Pea Cannon" Completion Value 200 –> 100
  • Peashooter: "Pea Suped Damage" Completion Value 2,500 –> 2,000
  • Pirate: "Full Charge Spyglass Shot Vanquishes" –> "Land Fully Charged Spyglass Shots" (50)
  • Pirate: "Deal Damage with Barrel Blast" Completion Value 300 –> 1500
  • Pirate: Deal Damage with Parrot Pal" Completion Value 800 –> 500
  • Pirate: Post-Anchor Shot Vanquish Completion Value 15 –> 5
  • Mushroom: Vanquish Support Heroes Completion Value 30 –> 15
    • Added Wizard to viable target
  • Sunflower: Sunbeam Vanquishes Completion Value 100 –> 25
    • To bring the challenge more in line with Peashooter's Pea Gatling Challenge.

Source: EA

Gabe Newell says Xbox Series X is better than PlayStation 5

Gabe Newell, head honcho at Valve, has stated Xbox Series X is better than PlayStation 5, but then doesn't explain why, just "cos it is". Valve have not released a game on consoles since CounterStrike: Global Offensive on PlayStation 3 in the United States way back in 2012.

You may recall that Mr. Newell also suggested that Steam Machines were going to kill consoles.

"Our perception is that customers are always going to make the best choices for what they want. We can knock down the barriers that keep PC gaming out of the living room, and then customers can decide what they want." he said in 2015.

"So when we started pushing on this problem [with Steam Machines], there were a lot of people who said: 'nobody wants a PC in their living room'. And we're like 'okay, we need to break that down into tractable problems'." he continued.

Steam Machines did not sell well and were effectively cancelled in 2018. Gabe also had a big rant about the PlayStation 3 in 2007 calling it "a waste of everybody's time".

Looking at the technical specs of the machines that the Xbox Series X is slightly more powerful, but the popularity of the Switch has shown that consumers don't always go for the most powerful machine. PC owners usually buy the most powerful machine they can which may explain Gabe's preference.

A while back PlayStation 5 architect Mark Cerny revealed the console would include a feature that allowed you instant access to certain parts of a game and it seems that WCR 9 director Alan Jarniou and product manager Sébastien Waxin have let the cat out of the bag.

They discussed their game with GameReactor Spain who reported the following (via Google Translate):

However, it is the improvements focused on the execution of the software that can end up changing the experience completely, as WRC 9 will implement fully asynchronous and optimized loading, using the new super-fast SSD memories so that the players get behind the wheel in no time, while the function of the PlayStation 5 Activities system will propose instant 'deeplink' links from the start menu to directly access races or parts of the game, with the intention of "keeping players hooked".

This seems to the feature that Mark Cerny discussed with Wired a few months ago.

Multiplayer game servers will provide the console with the set of joinable activities in real time. Single-player games will provide information like what missions you could do and what rewards you might receive for completing them—and all of those choices will be visible in the UI. As a player you just jump right into whatever you like.

GameReactor Spain have since deleted the article but there's a cached version still available.

Source: Twitter

One Hand Clapping may just be the most unusual game you'll ever play

Your voice is a powerful thing. With it you can express your emotions, your thoughts and ideas; you can change people's perceptions, and challenge societal wrongs; you can create music and rhythm with it through poetry and song. One Hand Clapping gives you something new to do with it, as you use your voice to control a video game, leading your avatar across a colourful 2D world. It's a unique experience.

I think the first thing you have to do when you play One Hand Clapping is get over yourself. It might be easy to shout orders to your team via your headset's microphone in a multiplayer game, but singing in a controlled and steady manner without feeling like a complete idiot is an utterly different skill. I'm a singer, I've played in bands for years, but One Hand Clapping initially tested my resolve, simply due to the alien nature of what it's asking of you.

The next stage of One Hand Clapping is acceptance. Once you've got used to having to make a sonorous noise you have to become accustomed to using it to control a cute purple creature. You'll sing a low note and the on-screen marker is low, sing a high note and it'll move towards the top of the screen. Sing in steps and you'll 'sing' a set of stairs to climb.

You don't have to be Adele, Freddie Mercury or Bruno Mars to play. The tones you're singing – or humming as it turns out – don't have to be especially strong, vibrant or laced with natural vibrato, they just have to be at the pitch the game is asking you to hit. When you initially set up the game it asks you to sing a low note and a high note, gathering data on your range so that everything you're doing should be within your abilities.

You use your voice to solve the puzzles put in front of you, helping your little purple singer move across the landscape. Where there are areas that your little guy can't simply jump up or across, you're able to sing a platform into existence that they can walk on. There are also flowers that will only bloom if you sing the right note, opening up to provide a jumping platform, while bigger devices appear that you have to sing a certain phrase, a bit like a musical Simon Says.

It's strange, but it manages to also be fun. I know I gave a little chuckle every time I did anything new in this early portion of the game, and there's a real sense of discovery and newness that you wouldn't expect from a weary old genre like the 2D platformer. I can really see the seeds of something unique here, and I'm sure that the developers will be aiming to wring every ounce of potential out of the possibilities it affords.

The soundtrack accompanying you is ambient and relaxed, and later on when you're singing refrains back to a floating flower lady, you follow the beat in order to know when it's your turn to sing. It's such a cool, if niche, set-up and if the soundtrack can support it I could see myself really getting into the swing of things. It's not a game to play around other people though – unless they want to hear you poorly holding the same notes for any length of time.

The one shame right now is that One Hand Clapping is an incredibly short experience, with only the first level being playable in Early Access – though that's reflected in its £2.49 price. It's certainly unique, engaging and pleasantly presented, and I'm keen to see more of its narrative and the unusual gameplay opportunities as its development progresses.

Marvel's Avengers War Table stream and beta news coming today

Although it definitely hasn't fallen off our radars, some may be surprised to learn that Marvel's Avengers is just over a month away from launch.

The ambitious cinematic superhero video game is set to release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia on September 4th but there are those fans of Marvel comics and the MCU who still might not be able to wrap their head around Square Enix's next big AAA game.

That's what their series of Marvel's Avengers War Table streams are for. Instead of showcasing the game at big industry events and press conferences, Tomb Raider developers Crystal Dynamics have gone for the deep dive approach with these broadcasts, the next one due later today.

If you intend on watching this latest Avengers War Table then here are the times you'll need to tune in. The stream will go live today, July 29th, at 10 AM Pacific Time (that's 6PM for folks in the UK, and 7PM for those in Central Europe). The stream will go live via the YouTube video above so if you want to save yourself some time then bookmark this page and come back later.

The previous 25-minute Avengers War Table stream in June gave us a deeper look at the singleplayer campaign with some fresh Thor gameplay while also properly introducing us to the MODOK, the game's main antagonist. We also got to see a number of bonus character costumes based on famous and popular comic book arcs with Crystal Dynamics also explaining how new content will be added in future.

So what can we expect from today's Avengers broadcast? For a start, we'll get a better idea of how the game's online co-op will work. Where Hero Missions are strictly solo, story-based affairs, War Zones are where you can team up with other Avengers to complete objectives and level up your characters. The developers will also explain Challenge Rooms as well as how to access the game's upcoming beta. Here's a quick breakdown of beta phases and dates.

  1. August 7th – PlayStation pre-Order beta
  2. August 14th – Xbox and PC pre-order beta, PlayStation open beta
  3. August 21st – Open beta for all platforms

Hopefully we'll be able to share our latest impressions of Marvel's Avengers with you very soon.

Megadimension Neptunia VII Switch Review

The Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise is the biggest cash cow for Idea Factory and Compile Heart by far. Starting in 2010 on the PS3 as a quaint little fourth-wall-breaking JRPG about humanized versions of video game consoles, the series has gone on to spawn anime, manga, mobile games, and tons of merchandise. There's even been a new game in the series every year since it debuted, but with the wild naming conventions of the series, it's hard to remember that there hasn't actually been a main entry in the series in over half a decade.

New genre-swapping spinoffs launch yearly, but the last true mainline entry in the Neptunia franchise was Megadimension Neptunia VII (actually the fourth main game in the series). It isn't clear when another direct sequel in the hyperactive JRPG series will arrive, but in the meantime, Idea Factory is helping a new wave of gamers discover the series by porting this most recent mainline entry onto the Nintendo Switch.

Admittedly, Megadimension Neptunia VII is a bit of an awkward pick to be someone's first Neptunia game. After an oh-so-brief introduction to the world of Gamindustri – a peaceful near-future society ruled over by four gaming goddesses – protagonist Neptune and her sister Nepgear are immediately sucked into a destroyed Dreamcast-like console that warps them into a war-torn alternate reality being ripped apart by a gigantic demonic threat. For someone new to the franchise, it might take a little while to wrap your head around the dynamic of the world and the characters, but the fact that so much of Megadimension Neptunia VII focuses on brand new dimensions and characters actually helps make it a little easier to get into.

It also helps that the game makes you feel like you're always on the same page as the heroes thanks to the fourth-wall shattering nature of Neptune. Every other line out of her mouth is either a jab at generic JRPG tropes or a hilariously casual and brief lore dump. For existing fans, her wit and charm is cranked up to 11 in this game, and for newcomers, the casual way she guides you through the characters and lore is a fun way to get caught up on the ride without reams of droning explanations.

Megadimension Neptunia VII gets just as inventive when it comes to the gameplay, opting for a combat system that's far more than just a traditional turn-based affair. On a character's turn, you can freely move around the field within a certain amount of steps, similar to Valkyria Chronicles. Line your aim up with an enemy and you can use the face-button to dish out a variety of basic attack combos, or opt to deliver a powerful special command instead.

As the game progresses, a variety of mechanics become available to you that stack on engaging new layers. Characters can transform into a powerful CPU mode, and then transform again into a new NEXT mode. If every character is at the same transformation stage, you can surround a foe and activate special group-attacks that deal wild amounts of damage. Even characters you haven't brought into combat can be useful, as you're able to buddy-up unused party members with active combatants in order to gain some stat boosts. With a lack of a punishing grind and a wealth of customization options and ability choices, Megadimension Neptunia VII is an easy game to get sucked into.

It's a shame that the Nintendo Switch port has so many issues that hamper the experience. I thought it was odd that the settings menu for Megadimension Neptunia VII gave me the ability to enable or disable Shadows, Outlines, and in-game Effects. I figured enabling these might simply be for aesthetic purposes, but it turns out that activating all of these options drops the framerate by a staggering degree. Navigating dungeons felt like I was watching a slideshow, and combat only ran slightly smoother. Disabling all three effects is the only way to get the game to run at a smooth and consistent framerate, but loading into battles or dungeons still presented brief moments of stuttering.

The game ends up looking on par with other Nintendo Switch JRPGs with these settings disabled thanks to the crisp and colorful art style, but it boggles my mind that they would make these options available to enable when it results in such a wildly choppy experience.

There's also a lack of some quality of life features like auto-saving or quick saves, which make this slightly less than ideal as an on-the-go JRPG.

The Witcher: Blood Origin announced by Netflix, set 1200 years before The Witcher

Netflix has announced that there will be a spin off series for The Witcher, with the new series called The Witcher: Blood Origin. This new show is set 1200 years before the events of The Witcher and the adventures of Geralt of Rivia. Instead, this story is all about the first Witcher. That is not all as the story will focus on the merging of spheres where the worlds of elves, men, and monsters all joined to become one world.

Declan de Barra and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich are the minds behind the new series, which will be in six parts. Declan De Barra has worked as a writer on The Originals, Iron Fist, and also wrote The Witcher episode 'Of Banquets, Bastards, and Burials.' Lauren Schmidt Hissrich has been a producer on The Witcher, The Umbrella Academy, Daredevil. The Defenders, and Power. That is quite the impressive list of shows to work on.

The Witcher Season Two has already been confirmed with Henry Cavill once again donning the role of Geralt. Joining him this time around is father figure Vesemir, who will be played by Kim Bodnia, whose recent credits include Killing Eve as well as the original version of The Bridge.

Season two has no confirmed release date though it won't be hitting Netflix in 2020. Other actors confirmed to be joining the cast include Kristofer Hivju (Game of Thrones' Tormund Giantbane) as Nivellen, Yasen Atour as Coen, and Paul Bullion as Lambert among others.

Overall we were pretty pleased with how the TV adaptation turned out. It might not have had the same budget as a certain other fantasy series though it managed to capture the essence of The Witcher world and its characters, even if that meant inflicting us with a catchy bard's ditty.

Nic goes into more detail about what he liked and disliked about it, perhaps focusing a little too much on Triss' hair colour.

In other Witcher news, Netflix plans to release an animated film that will focus on Vesemir titled "Nightmare of the Wolf".

Source: Netflix

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes meets Kickstarter goal in 3 hours

Last week, the studio Rabbit & Bear announced a Kickstarter for the game Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. It was notable as the game is from Yoshitaka Murayama and Junko Kawano, who worked on Suikoden 1, 2, and 4, and a number of developers that worked on the Suikoden games. They have pitched Eiyuden Chronicle as a spiritual successor to the Suikoden series and that message seemed to have resonate. The Kickstarter went live on July 27th with a goal of approximately $500,000, and within 3 hours that target was met.

Here's the message from the team thanking people for backing the project:

Thank you so much to all our backers for the incredible outpour of support! Within an incredibly short amount of time, we've been able to hit our minimum goal here on Kickstarter, which means that Eiyuden Chronicle will be a reality!  We really apologize that Kickstarter was unavailable for a long period of time. It seems our backers crashed the site 3 separate times! As Murayama-san said on Twitter, 

This is far from the end, though. We've got a whole set of incredible stretch goals to make Eiyuden Chronicle even better, so be sure to check out the stretch goals on the campaign page!

As we're burning through the Rebuild the Town Discord social goal, now is a good time to mention that we're looking for members of the Eiyuden community to join our community moderation team. If you're interested in joining our team to make the Eiyuden Chronicle community the best it can be, click this link and fill out the form!

Let's make Eiyuden Chronicle the best possible JRPG it can be!

Rabbit & Bear has announced that it will take around 2 to 3 years before release, and it will be developing the game for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC. Oh, and the next generation Nintendo console though the team does not know what that will entail.

Source: Kickstarter

August's Stadia Pro games have been confirmed by Google

Google has announced the five games that Google Stadia Pro subscribers will be able to get in August. Those four games are Metro 2033 Redux, Strange Brigade, Kona, Rock of Ages 3, and Just Shapes and Beats. These will be available on August 1st. Except, Rock of Ages 3 that is which will be available from August 14th. That means Stadia Pro subscribers have until August 1st to claim Zombie Army 4: Dead War.

In our review for Strange Brigade, Tuffcub wrote:

"Strange Brigade is a jolly good wheeze. The 1930's matinee cinema styling makes it unlike any other game on market and that's a rare treat. The campaign, although dragging in a few spots, is just the right length and has replayability thanks to the many hidden treats to discover, while the score attack mode and horde modes are pleasant, if rather flimsy, distractions. Tuning the accuracy of the weapons would make me very chuffed, but as it stands this is a sterling effort from Rebellion. I look forward to the further thrilling adventures of (dramatic pause) The Strange Brigade! Tally ho!"

In our review for Kona, Jim wrote:

"Spanning several hours and sporting a number of more traditional game features, Kona feels far meatier compared to your average walking sim. The combination of nonlinear design and survival mechanics certainly help to dispel some of the issues I have with the genre. That said, the vagueness surrounding some puzzles, frequent backtracking, and a somewhat dissatisfying finale left me with mixed feelings despite introducing some welcome changes to the formula."

In our review for Just Shapes and Beats, Dom wrote:

"Just Shapes & Beats is the best EDM compilation album you can play, and assuming the music floats your ear-shaped boat, it's an absolute treat.  Challenging, engrossing and exhibiting a purity we so often forget, this is a genre mash-up where everybody wins."

In our review for Rock of Ages 3, Stefan wrote:

"Rock of Ages 3 stretches the series' core concept to the limit, but this tower defence and boulder platforming hybrid has still got some legs. Adding a few new game modes and the new level creation tool extends the game's longevity, but ACE Team could do with refining a few of the rougher edges still in the game."
We don't have a review for Metro 2033 Redux, but in my opinion, it is a very good game.
Source: Google