"Be Wary of Preordering Baldur's Gate 3 Anywhere", Says Larian
If you've caught a glimpse of a Baldur's Gate 3 preorder deal that might have been too good to be true, it probably is. At least this is what Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios' Director of Publishing, Michael Douse (@Cromwelp), said on Twitter on Saturday, August 1.
"Be wary of preordering BG3 anywhere right now. We won't have a pre-order period. We have no plans to work with retail yet, and no 3rd party distributors. Haven't announced a price or date. We can't guarantee you'll get anything from them.", reads the tweet sent by Douse on the matter.
Douse goes on to explain that Larian Studios isn't actually able to verify store stock as, once again, no keys for Baldur's Gate 3 will exist prior to (early access) retail launch. So while some of those deals might be, in fact, legitimate— or rather, legitimate sometime down the line— there's no way that retailers can currently get those keys to stock preorders with in the first place.
As Larian has been hyping up an early access launch of Baldur's Gate 3 set vaguely for August, this has come as something of an unpleasant surprise for fans, some of whom have taken to Twitter to express concern that the launch will be postponed indefinitely.
Luckily, Douse hasn't skipped a beat, jumping right back into the Twittersphere to quell any fears that this might be the case.
"Big news very soon" could mean that we'll be getting an official release date for the early access build "very soon", or some other kind of announcement is waiting just around the corner. Either way, it's easy to get excited about Larian's latest project.
Initially crafted by the BioWare of yesteryear, Baldur's Gate 1 (1998) and 2 (2000) remain pinnacles of the computer RPG genre, defining much of what roleplaying games have transformed into over the past several decades. Now that the Baldur's Gate IP finally makes a return with a third iteration under Larian's creative direction, coming hot off the heels of Larian's wildly successful and deeply innovative Divinity: Original Sin 2, it's no surprise that so many CRPG fans are frothing at the mouth to get their hands on the long-awaited Baldur's Gate 3.
Once again, an early access version of BG3 is promised to release on Windows and Google Stadia sometime "soon".
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Wide Ocean Big Jacket Update Brings 'Meryl and Alan' Chapters
Independent Games Festival Finalist Wide Ocean Big Jacket now has some new content in the form of new 'Meryl and Alan' chapters, according to developer Turnfollow, who made the announcement on July 31 on Twitter. First shown off in a demo at LudoNarraCon earlier this year, these chapters add some new perspective and new adventures to an interactive experience that had previously only clocked in at around 60 to 90 minutes.
The new chapters center around an older couple; the dynamic duo of Meryl, who loves to talk, and Alan, the strong, silent type. As with the chapters in developer Turnfollow's original game— which was very much like an even more relaxed, chiller, shorter, and more artistic play on Firewatch— the two go on a pleasant camping trip. This time around, however, you get to do things like control both characters at once while walking along a beach, which is something that other 'walking sim' type games don't ever really let you do.
Gameplay in WOBJ is all about undertaking very simple tasks, like cracking open a beer or searching for a lost cellphone. Granted, if you're more interested in shooting aliens or thwarting a devious plot than letting yourself drift off into a virtual space, Wide Ocean Big Jacket and its latest Meryl and Alan chapters may not be your cup of tea.
One of the things that set Wide Ocean Big Jacket apart from other, similarly relaxed games, is that dialogue is shown on black title cards— much like the ones used in silent films from the 1920s. This is to put separate emphasis on the simple but rich visuals and dialogues peppered throughout the player's experience just existing in that world.
Wide Ocean Big Jacket was originally released on February 4. You can currently buy it for $8 on Steam, the Nintendo Switch e-shop, and/or itch.io. Happy camping!
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Street Fighter V Will Have Two-Week Free Trial With All 40 Characters
The Japan Fighting Game Publisher's Roundtable livestream that premiered last night dropped tons of news, including a brand new announcement for Street Fighter V. According to the stream, there will be a two week free trial starting on August 5th. The trial will feature all 40 playable fighters from the Champion Edition:
Street Fighter V will have a two-week trial starting August 5th, all 40 characters pic.twitter.com/wXK8EFqPRn
— Wario64 (@Wario64) August 1, 2020
And just to reiterate, a new Street Fighter V stream will premiere this coming Wednesday (Aug. 5th) at 10 AM PT. The livestream, according to the previous Twitter status update, will reveal the future of SFV. This includes esports news, Season V character reveals and news, and more. Hopefully we'll get some really juicy news.
Street Fighter V: Champion Edition launched earlier this year on February 14th. The Champion Edition included 40 characters, 34 stages, over 200 costumes, and all the modes released so far for the title. In addition, Gill — the main villain of Street Fighter 3 — was added to the roster either through the Champion Edition in February 2020. Seth from Street Fighter IV also made his debut with a complete redesign.
However, poor netcode continues to be a long running issue among players. Back in January a subredditor by the name of Altimor took to fixing it on the PC side, showing that it could be done in two days. Unfortunately the code did not work for PS4 and broke crossplay between the console and PC. Then on February 12th, Street Fighter V Executive Producer Yoshinori Ono announced on Twitter that Capcom was working on a netcode adjustment for a later release. Six days later, that patch came out and the results have been muddled, to say the least.
The last big announcement for Street Fighter V involved three new fighters being added to the game: E. Honda, Lucia, and Poison. The same news also involved an apology from Valve as they accidentally leaked said characters before they could be revealed properly at EVO 2019.
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Tekken 7 Season Pass 4 Trailer Announces New Moves for Fighters, Online Play Enhancements
Tekken 7 dropped a new trailer showcasing their upcoming Season Pass 4 during the Japan Fighting Game Publisher's Roundtable livestream last night. According to the trailer, every fighter will get brand new moves. There will also be online play enhancements and new features:
The Season Pass 4 will release this fall for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. In a bonus surprise, longtime favorite Kunimitsu was teased:
The last character to come to Tekken 7 was Leroy Smith, who made his official trailer debut in a gameplay/music video fusion. Previously two other challengers were revealed in two new trailers: veteran Ganryu and new fighter Fahkumram, alongside Tekken veteran Zafina was revealed for the title. The character first debuted in Tekken 6 and returned as a playable character in Tekken Tag Tournament 2. During the same EVO event we saw the fake Solid Snake fighter reveal, which garnered ire from longtime Solid Snake VA David Hayter on Twitter.
Two years ago, the developer unexpectedly announced Noctis from Final Fantasy XV as a character. The next year they showed fans a video announcing that Negan from The Walking Dead would be a playable fighter. You can check out more screenshots of both Neegan and returning fighter Julia Chang here.
Last year, Bandai Namco revealed that the game had passed four million copies sold worldwide. We found Tekken 7 to be a great fighting game that won us over with its "rock-solid fighting mechanics."
Tekken 7 launched in Japanese arcades back in 2015 and on consoles worldwide in 2017. It has since remained one of the most widely played titles in the fighting game community. The game made its return at EVO 2019 in early August with the third-highest entry numbers. Just under 2,000 players competed in Tekken 7 this year and just as we expected we ended up with a really entertaining tournament.
The game is currently available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. You can purchase Tekken 7 on Amazon.
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Soul Calibur VI Reveals the Deadly and Beautiful Setsuka, DLC and Free Content Update Coming Soon
Soul Calibur VI had its own fair share of announcements during the Japan Fighting Game Publisher's Roundtable livestream last night. The biggest was the reveal of beloved fighter Setsuka, who will be coming to the DLC pack 11 later this week. For those familiar with her, she still uses Iaido as her signature style:
Launching on the same is DLC pack 12, which will feature brand new content for the character creation mode. And beside that release will be free content update 2.20 featuring a brand new stage, battle adjustments for all characters, Setsuka's classic costume parts, Tekken themed outfits, new Groh episode, and more.
In other Soul Calibur VI news, Princess Hildegard von Krone was revealed to be coming to the game as its latest DLC fighter, as a part of the Season 2 DLC pass. Other returning fighters from the franchise include Yoshimitsu, Voldo, and Seong Mi-Na and Astaroth (who were revealed during EVO 2018).
2B from Nier: Automata also made an appearance in the weapons-based fighting game. 2B is an android and the protagonist of NieR: Automata. She wields two swords as her primary weapons, although she also wields spears and combat bracers. Her pod support system helps her in battles by allowing her to glide, and attack enemies from a distance.
On the official Japanese website, Bandai Namco warned players about NSFW creations, specifically that if you make an inappropriate character in the Create a Soul mode, you may get banned from online play.
Dualshockers very own customizable characters Bowsette and Boosette were a very big hit, with players crying out asking where they can find a guide for the two characters for a Soul Calibur VI build so they could do it too. You can check out our guide on how to make Bowsette and Boosette in Soul Calibur VI's character creator here. You can also check out our review of the game here, which declares that it's "undoubtedly one of the finest fighting games of this generation."
Soul Calibur VI is available right now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One and you can pick up your copy by heading over to Amazon.
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Guilty Gear -STRIVE- Drops Two Character Trailers, Confirmed for PS5 and Steam
Guilty Gear -STRIVE-, the next entry in the long running franchise, received an exciting new character reveal trailer during last night's Japan Fighting Game Publisher's Roundtable livestream. Leo Whitefang and Nagoriyuki were announced for the title and they both look like a blast to play:
On top of that Guilty Gear -STRIVE- has been confirmed to be coming to both PS5 and Steam on top of its original PS4 release, though it's still delayed to 2021. And the next character trailer will be released in early October, so that'll be some more exciting news. Meanwhile check out the gallery of art and screenshots that made its debut as well:
Recently Arc System Works confirmed that the title will feature rollback netcode after much fan request. The Final Round stop in the tourney, which was scheduled for March 20th-22nd, had been cancelled due to Coronavirus concerns.
The most recent trailers revealed Ramlethal Valentine as well as Millia Rage and Zato=1. So far we know that the previously announced characters are the protagonist Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske, Axl Low and May, and Chipp Zanuff and Potemkin.
During the stage event dedicated to Guilty Gear at Tokyo Game Show 2019, Daisuke Ishiwatari and Akira Katano explained how they particularly detailed the characters' facial animations and how it's basically "3D Sakuga." You can really see that with the tons of different expressions the characters emote during their attacks and supers. At that same event, they also mentioned that the stage change mechanic has actual gameplay mechanics embedded into it. We've translated the full event here if you want to read more.
Guilty Gear -STRIVE- was first teased during EVO 2019. Daisuke Ishiwatari, the General Director, stated how the new Guilty Gear game isn't an "evolution" of the series, nor a "return to its roots," but instead a "complete rebuild of the franchise." Instead of adding or removing elements compared to the previous games, he described the development as completely breaking it down, picking up everything that made the series charming and unique, and rebuilding it with those components.
Ishiwatari then mentioned that this new Guilty Gear game is a "big challenge which will go head to head against the essence of fighting games." He added that going this route is a risky bet, but they're confident they can pull it off and bring out new possibilities, using all the experience and materials they've accumulated so far. He ended the message saying he believes games are bridges which can connect people, so he hopes this new Guilty Gear will reflect this idea.
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Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Developer Tease Future Content in AMA
During a Reddit AMA, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout developer Mediatonic answered fan questions on how the game became a PlayStation Plus title, if it'll come to the PS5, and about future content. For those that don't know, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is a multiplayer battle royale game where 60 players face off in wacky mini-games against each other.
Several fan questions were related to future content coming to the game. "We literally have huge spreadsheets full of level ideas that we love but haven't had the time to implement due to a pretty short dev cycle," said user ScrambledMeg, a lead level designer. "There will be variations of existing game modes as well as brand new levels with new mechanics. These will drop with the season content or on the off occasion might get dropped whenever we can get it in."
Other questions asked about topics like if there will be a split-screen mode, if there will be a creator mode, and if there will be exclusive PlayStation 4 skins. For all three questions, the answer is either these are things in development but won't be available at launch or aren't confirmed. With such a quick development cycle and small team, it's understandable why these features among other things aren't ready yet.
One user asked if the game will come to the PlayStation 5 and the developer said they can't confirm anything on that yet. Another user asked about how many people have worked on Fall Guys and the developer said 45 people have been on the game during its two years of development.
When asked how the game became an August PlayStation Plus title, user FallGuysJoe, lead game designer on Fall Guys, said "Sony were really enthusiastic about the game when we showed them an early version of it, and we felt that taking this route would help expose the game to a far larger audience than we could have reached on our own. Also, it's something that worked super well for Rocket League which has been one of our inspirations."
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is available on PlayStation 4 and PC on August 4. It'll be an August PlayStation Plus title alongside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The game is having a beta this weekend as well.
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Beyond Good and Evil Movie from Netflix and Detective Pikachu Director in the Works
In a story from The Hollywood Reporter, Detective Pikachu director Rob Letterman is teaming up with Netflix to direct an adaptation of Ubisoft's Beyond Good and Evil.
The live-action/animated adaptation of Ubisoft's game is early in development, with Netflix looking for writers for the screenplay. Jason Altman and Margaret Boykin from Ubisoft Film & Television will be producing the film. Besides these details, there's no information on casting or when the film will release.
Released in 2003, Beyond Good and Evil is set in the year 2435 where we follow Jade, a journalist who helps expose a government conspiracy that'll save her planet. It wasn't until 2017 where we got the announcement of Beyond Good and Evil 2, a prequel to the series. The game will be open-world, let the player choose their gender, and include online modes. One of the last major updates about the prequel was from 2018 where we learned Ubisoft Blue Byte is one of five Ubisoft studios on the game. The other three are Ubisoft Montpelier, Ubisoft Barcelona, Ubisoft Sofia, and Ubisoft Bordeaux. Additionally, the game will require an internet connection to play it.
The last major film Letterman directed was 2019's Pokemon Detective Pikachu, which he also wrote. It went onto become the highest-grossing video game movie of all time in July 2019, having made $433 million dollars. The film received a score of 68 on Rotten Tomatoes and a 53 on Metacritic. Currently, there's been no official announcement of a sequel in development. The first film stars Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, and Ryan Reynolds.
While we wait for the Netflix adaptation and Beyond Good and Evil 2, Beyond Good and Evil HD is available now on the Microsoft Store. You can also watch Pokemon Detective Pikachu now on HBO Max and VOD. As more news releases on Beyond Good and Evil, we'll be sure to let you know.
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Grounded Has Attracted Over One Million Players to its Backyard
After just two days of being available on Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview, Grounded has already racked up over one million unique players. This news comes just after we've learned that the game managed to hit over 12,000 concurrent users on Steam.
This stunning number was revealed through a post on Xbox's site by Adam Brennecke, a Game Director for Grounded. Following this milestone for the brand new title from Obisidan's 13-person team, Brennecke also announced when the game would be receiving monthly updates. Arriving with extra content and fixes to "ensure the best player experience possible" Grounded will begin receiving regular updates starting on August 27.
It's not entirely surprising that Grounded has gotten so much attention over the past couple of days. Besides having a fairly reputable name behind it, the game has been making its own rounds due to ads and its accessibility features, such as an Arachnophobia mode that allows players to alter the appearance of the creepy crawlies. For instance, instead of being a massive, hairy, lumbering thing with protruding mandibles, players can change spiders into a vague yet aggressive group of balls and ovals and even remove their specific audio effects.
Thank you all! To show his thanks, Grounded's Game Director, Adam Brennecke, has a special message for everyone: pic.twitter.com/wBDriapsOC
— Grounded (@GroundedTheGame) July 31, 2020
While the number of players Grounded has attracted to the backyard is astounding in and of itself, it seems like the most surprised group may be Obsidian's team. Brennecke recorded a video that ended up on Twitter via the official Grounded account and said "It's blown us away, the team is so happy, and we're overjoyed with all the support we're getting."
Grounded is currently available on Xbox Game Preview and Steam Early Access for $29.99 USD.
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Halo Infinite Multiplayer Officially Confirmed to be Free-to-Play
Earlier today, new rumors starting swirling that Halo Infinite's upcoming multiplayer mode would be free-to-play for everyone and would also run at 120 frames-per-second. Well, while many rumors in the video game industry like this often get debunked, it turns out that this is instead absolutely true.
343 Industries took to the official Halo Twitter account this afternoon and confirmed that the multiplayer portion of Infinite will be absolutely free. Furthermore, it will run at 120fps on the next-gen Xbox Series X platform. This performance will likely be applicable to the PC platform, too. 343 then opted not to say anything further about this development and instead simply said that more information will be provided in the future.
Halo is for everyone. We can confirm #HaloInfinite multiplayer will be free-to-play and will support 120FPS on Xbox Series X. More details will be shared later! pic.twitter.com/9bIrppFiON
— Halo (@Halo) July 31, 2020
Even though there's still not much we know about Halo Infinite multiplayer (other than the fact that it will feature the franchise's new grappling hook) this is a massive deal for the series. To make the premier franchise of Xbox Game Studios a free-to-play title, even to those who aren't subscribed to Xbox Game Pass, is something that many probably would have never expected. It also potentially adds credence to the rumors that Microsoft itself might be looking to shutter Xbox Live Gold.
Obviously, though, the campaign itself will still apparently cost you a typical retail fee, although it hasn't been disclosed just yet how much that might cost. And if the idea of paying a full retail value for a game that is only a campaign sounds like a ripoff, the fact that 343 will be expanding the single-player component of Halo Infinite over the years after it releases should ease those concerns a bit.
Halo Infinite is set to launch later this year alongside the release of the Xbox Series X and will also be coming to Xbox One and PC. Stay tuned within the coming weeks as we should start to see and hear a whole lot more about what the free-to-play model for Infinite entails.
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