Monster Hunter World: Iceborne – Upcoming Dev Diary Teases "The Final Stand"

Monster Hunter World Iceborne_Alatreon

A new developer diary is coming for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne and it could be foreshadowing the end. It will broadcast on August 28th at 5 AM PDT and is referred to as "The Final Stand." No further details were provided except the tweet stating that the final stand was "imminent."

The update will have a returning monster but what it could be is unknown. Many are speculating that it's Fatalis, an Elder Dragon that breathes fire but can also release explosive dust. Most intriguing is that White Fatalis is considered the ancestor for all Elder Dragons, making the regular version that much more imposing (perhaps even more so than the recently introduced Alatreon).

It's expected that this update will go live in the Fall along with Master Rank Layered Armor, the Seliana Fest and the Astera Fest. The timing of this developer diary seems to indicate that it could be sooner than later. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath Gets Klassic With Femme Fatale Costume Pack

mortal kombat 11

For the first time in its storied history, the latest entry in popular fighting game franchise got a story-based expansion. Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath came earlier this year to extend 2019's Mortal Kombat 11. But the party hasn't stopped there as well into the summer it seems we're still getting some costume packs, and today we got some that should appeal to those classic fans.

We got a skin pack not long after to kick off summer with the Summer Heat Pack. Now we got the Klassic Femme Fatale Pack. It features Sole Survivor Kitana, Outworld Courier Jade and Old Blood Skarlet. All three are closer to their classic female ninja looks than their current outfits. You can see them in action in the video below.

Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC and Stadia. The Femme Fatale Pack is available for all platforms to whoever owns Aftermath except the Switch, which will get them on the 28th. The next skin pack is All Hallows' Eve, which is set for October.

Little Nightmares 2 Will Get Gameplay Premiere At Gamescom Opening Night Live

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Little Nightmares was a surprise when it was released in 2017. The little (no pun intended) survival horror game saw you have to sneak past all kinds of massive terrors. The game was well-received and managed to sell over 2 million copies, which is no small feat (again, no pun intended I swear) for a title of its size. The game is also set to get a sequel, and we'll get the world premiere of the gameplay soon.

As announced on Twitter by host Geoff Keighley, we will see the world gameplay premiere for Little Nightmares 2 at the Gamescom Opening Night Live event. The game is said to retain much of what made the original game special, but will see bigger environments and more enemy varieties.

Little Nightmares 2 is set to release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and PC. It was originally announced to come in 2020, but as of now, there has been no official word on what time frame is expected. Opening Night Live will happen on August 27th.

Godfall Highlights The Hinterclaw In New Teaser

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Godfall was one of the first next generation games we got a look at, and we've continued to get bits and pieces of it as we get closer to the new systems' launch. The game follows you as you ascend a tower, and is looking to popularize a new type of genre they are calling the looter slasher. Whether it'll catch on or not is anyone's guess, but today they've decided to tease us with the Hinterclaw.

You can see the brief teaser below that highlights the Hinterclaw and its armor. There's not a lot here, but they actually detailed this in an interview before, and how it has a passive ability to increase the chance of a critical strike as well as a main ability to increase it even further. It's for players who like to play aggressively. You can read more details about it through here.

Godfall is set to launch this holiday season alongside the PlayStation 5, as well as coming to PC. It's been said that the game is not a live service game and will not feature any microtransactions.

The Sinking City Delisted On Some Storefronts After Alleged Breach Of Contract, Per Developer

It was over a year ago now that developer Frogwares brought up a detective story based loosely on the works of H.P. Lovecraft with The Sinking City. The game combined elements of the studio's previous Sherlock Holmes titles with the cosmic dread of the author's style. The game was quite the success for the company, but it seems unfortunately, it's become caught in something of a dispute.

If you aren't familiar, the game was often listed as having Big Ben Interactive (now renamed to Nacon) as the publisher, but they were actually something closer to a licensee for the game and played the role more of a distributor than a traditional publisher. The game has now disappeared from a lot of major storefronts due to what Frogwares is alleging is a breaching of contract. They released a 4-page letter on the removal, which you can see from their official Twitter below.

There's a lot here, but the biggest allegations come to Nacon seemingly causing confusion about them having ownership of the IP as opposed to Frogwares . There's a few very odd stories, such as Nacon demanding the source code for The Sinking City for another unrelated project. It's all well worth reading, but the most important part is here, and thankfully there are still ways to obtain the game:

"However, while there's no need for BBI/Nacon to formally acknowledge the termination, the former licensee has created a perception that it is they who still own The Sinking City, and so various partners and platforms are sometimes confused, overly cautious or preemptively delist the game themselves while dealing with our requests to return full control of the game to Frogwares.

Given these breaches, ongoing hurdles and an unwillingness to cooperate, Frogwares last resort was to request the removal of The Sinking City from any remaining stores to at least halt any further sales going to BBI/Nacon.

Faced with this situation, we have decided to explain to you why you cannot find The Sinking City on certain platforms today.

To all the players that wish to buy The Sinking City – we are more than willing to have the game be present everywhere and we will inform you as we reappear on more platforms on our social channels. For now, you can now buy a DRM free PC version of the game from our website here, or through the partners that we ourselves dealt with such as Origin here or Gamesplanet here, or on Nintendo Switch here."

It's a strange situation, and hopefully one that can be resolved so the game can be returned to major storefronts soon. In the meantime, you can still purchase The Sinking City from the links above, and it seems in some regions the game has not been delisted as of writing this.

Halo Infinite – No Plans for Another Delay or Dropping Xbox One Version, Says 343 Industries

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It's been an eventful month for Halo Infinite and developers 343 Industries. It started with a gameplay reveal that definitely didn't go as well as it should have, and since then, it's been a barrage of major announcements, a delay in 2021, speculation, leaks, and controversy.

Most recently, insider info alleged that Microsoft and 343 Industries were planning on dropping the Xbox One version of Halo Infinite and make it exclusive to the Xbox Series X, owing to poor performance on the base Xbox One hardware. The same report also claimed that Microsoft were even considering delaying the game once more, this time into early 2022.

Now, however, John Junyszek, who is the Halo community manager at 343 Industries, has come forward to deny those reports. Taking recently to Twitter, Junyszek called out "fake leaks", saying that there are "no plans" to change the game's currently planned 2021 releases, or the platforms that it is scheduled to launch for.

A lot could change between now and whenever in 2021 Halo Infinite is supposed to come out, but there you have out- the official public-facing stance of 343 Industries for now is that no further delays are planned, and the game is still coming to Xbox One. Whether things change down the line remains to be seen.

Recently, reports also talked about development troubles at 343 Industries that had led to a rough couple of years for Halo Infinite, but 343 Industries have responded to and refuted several of those claims. Read more on that through here.

PS5 and Xbox Series X's SSDs Are "Fantastic" Upgrades – Destroy All Humans! Developer

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The PS5 and the Xbox Series X are now within touching distance, and at this point, it's become abundantly clear that both consoles are representing significant leaps over their predecessors in terms of their technological prowess. One of the most exciting aspects of next-gen hardware that developers in the industry seem to be particularly excited about is the solid state drive.

The PS5 and Xbox Series X both boast SSDs, though the PS5 has a pretty significant edge over its competitor in that area. According to Black Forest Games' Johan Conradie though, who was technical director on the recent Destroy All Humans! remake, the higher IO speeds that the SSDs of both consoles will enable represent "fantastic" upgrades over what developers have been working with in the console space up until now.

"Having this level of IO performance is a fantastic upgrade to what we have been working with up to now," Conradie said in an interview with GamingBolt. "You'll see a revolution in next-gen games where loading time either is minimal or outright removed. Even the lower IO performance on the Xbox Series X is already a fantastic upgrade."

While the PS5 has the edge over the Xbox Series X when it comes to the SSD, the opposite is true for the CPU. Both consoles are using semi-custom AMD Zen 2 processors, but the Xbox Series X has a marginally higher bandwidth. When asked about what this difference will mean for development, Conradie said that the PS5 will act as the "benchmark platform" for CPU optimization in multiplatform releases.

"The PS5 will be the benchmark platform for CPU optimization where the goal would be to get the same end-result performance on both platforms," Conradie said.

Destroy All Humans! is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, while a Stadia release is also planned. In this same interview, the developers also spoke to us about the possibility of bringing the game to the PS5, Xbox Series X, and Switch- read more on that through here.

Outriders Videos Showcase Technomancer, Co-op Gameplay, and Devastator Abilities

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People Can Fly held its third Outriders Broadcast recently, outlining the fourth and final class that players can choose from – the Technomancer. Furthermore, we got to see the class in action with the Pyromancer and Devastator. The Devastator also received its own standalone video, detailing its abilities and playstyle.

The Technomancer is billed as a "flexible" class that can either serve as a crowd control expert or artillery specialist. Some of its cooler abilities include a frost grenade and summoning a small missile launcher to pepper foes with. It's pretty interesting overall and can synergize with some of the other class abilities quite well.

Outriders is currently slated to release this holiday season for Xbox One, PS4, PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X. It's also coming to Google Stadia in 2021. People Can Fly is promising over 60 hours of content including endgame activities but the game isn't live service. Stay tuned for more details en route to launch.

PGA Tour 2K21 Review – Par for the Course

Golf is a game of patience and skill. It's about taking your time, choosing the right tools for the job, and lining up that perfect shot. It can be slow to watch, sure. But it can also be exhilarating to play. PGA Tour 2K21 seeks to step onto the green with a game that delivers on that experience. And while it succeeds, some technical issues and low production values hold the game back.

PGA 2K21 is the first game in this series to bear the 2K moniker. Originally self-published by developer HB Studios under the title The Golf Club, the series was acquired by 2K a couple of years ago. One might thing this would be a boon for the franchise. After all, 2K isn't exactly a small publisher. They should be able to provide the resources necessary to make a truly state of the art golfing simulator.

"Unlike other sports games nowadays, which implement things like social media, training, and skill points to keep things interesting off the field, PGA Tour 2K21 simply moves you along from one game to the next, with little in between to keep you engaged."

Unfortunately though, despite 2K's involvement, PGA Tour still feels distinctly low budget at times. Visually, the game is all over the place. The environments look decent enough. There's some nice water and lighting effects, and the graphics are distinct enough to tell the fairway from the rough. Character models are well-animated, but the models themselves don't hold up well, especially the faces. The eyes open too wide for too long, and the mouths are a frightening sight. This wouldn't be a problem if the game didn't do frequent close-ups after most holes. PGA Tour 2K21 also suffers from a serious antialiasing problem. Sometimes it gets so bad that objects actually appear to shimmer as a result of the artifacting.

In the audio department too, the game is a mixed bag. The music is pleasant enough, but short and repetitive. There's only so many times I can hear the same soft, pseudo-jazz piano riffs before I start to get tired of them. The announcers, meanwhile, have good delivery, but their commentary can sometimes feel out of place. It seems like not enough lines were recorded to cover all the circumstances on the green. There were more than a few times where I would start a course with a poor performance, coming in at one or two over par. But I would manage to pull it together in the end, coming in well under par on the final holes.

At the end of the game, the commentators would talk as though I had been solidly under par for the entire course, making no mention of my rough start or of my comeback in the final few holes. Compared to other games I've reviewed this year, like MLB The Show and UFC 4, the commentary feels lacking. It repeats too often, and oftentimes doesn't quite match up with the onscreen action.

pga tour 2k21

"PGA Tour 2K21 seeks to step onto the green with a game that delivers on that experience. And while it succeeds, some technical issues and low production values hold the game back."

The game also suffers from some slow load times between matches. Their duration was pretty inconsistent. Sometimes a course would load fairly quickly. But after matches, it often took a very long time to return to the menu. I'm not quite sure why, but after the very opening match of the career mode, the game took over five full minutes to load the career mode menu after the match. The inconsistent load times are frustrating, and it's actually made worse by the fact that you can't count on them to at least always take a long time. Sometimes courses load quickly. Other times the game seems to slow to a snail's pace.

It's a shame that PGA Tour 2K21 still suffers so much on the technical side of things, despite 2K's financial backing. It's unfortunate because despite these issues, the game is actually a lot of fun to play. The experience out on the green is an absolute joy, and really nails the high-skill feeling of professional golf. The controls are smooth, fluid, and responsive. The game gives you plenty of options to help you fine-tune your approach, including a bird's eye view that helps you to more precisely aim your shots. The swinging and putting mechanics are simple to grasp, and PGA Tour 2K21 does a great job of easing beginners into the experience without sacrificing the depth that more experienced players desire. There are also plenty of assists, including a one-time use aim assist during putts.

The game will also help you pick the clubs and stroke every time, meaning those with a more casual understanding of the sport can rely on the game's assistance to help them get a decent performance. But those who want to can ignore or even disable these assists altogether. And if you do so, PGA Tour 2K21 has a well-made golf simulation. The physics are realistic, clear, and consistent. The ball always interacts with hills, wind, and other hazards exactly as you'd expect it to, and the game does a great job of simulating the differences between the fairway, rough, and bunker. Swinging in different situations actually feels different.

Unfortunately, while the experience out on the golf course is excellent across the board, even the rest of the career mode suffers from the same lack of polish as the rest of the game. There simply isn't much here to keep you going if you aren't totally invested in the actual experience of playing golf. The career mode is fairly barebones.

You start off in an amateur match, which serves as your proving grounds for entering the professional circuits. From there, you enter the PGA Tour, vying for the top spot on the leaderboards. Unfortunately, that's really all there is too it. Unlike other sports games nowadays, which implement things like social media, training, and skill points to keep things interesting off the field, PGA Tour 2K21 simply moves you along from one game to the next, with little in between to keep you engaged.

pga tour 2k21

"Unfortunately, while the experience out on the golf course is excellent across the board, even the rest of the career mode suffers from the same lack of polish as the rest of the game."

You earn cash after each game, and from optional mid-course challenges, but these rewards can only be used to purchase new clubs and outfits. The new clubs do have some mechanical differences, but not enough to really feel like they make a difference. I didn't notice much of a difference between the default clubs and any of the unlockable ones.

The cosmetics, meanwhile, are just that- cosmetic. The quality is pretty hit or miss, and aside from changing how you look, they don't do anything. This is a far cry from many other sports games, where your downtime can be spent training, upgrading your skills, and interacting with fans and rivals. There is a rival system, but even this feels dated. Unlike other games, where your rivalries grow organically based on your behavior on and off the field, in PGA 2K21 you simply progress through a series of predetermined rivals. You can actually look in the career mode and see your progress to unlocking the next rival. I suppose it adds a bit of a goal to strive for, but compared to the organic way rivalries operate in other sports games, this feels dated and uninteresting by comparison.

PGA Tour 2K21 offers a mechanically solid golfing experience that genuinely rewards skill and practice. The gameplay on the green is a lot of fun, and really makes you want to keep playing. Unfortunately, it's really the only thing that drives you on, as the rest of the experience feels dated by several years. It's a shame, because with some more polish put into the visuals and modes, PGA Tour 2K21 could have been a stand-out sports game. As it stands, it's only a decent one.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Battletoads Review – Hitting The Roads With The Toads

It might be a little surprising to many that Battletoads turned out well, since everything we have seen or heard of it up to this point indicated that it very much wouldn't. The next entry in Rare's cult classic brawler series Battletoads was announced last year, and when we saw it initially, it looked pretty bad (especially once put next to other classic brawler revivals also announced around the same time, such as Streets of Rage 4). And then Battletoads just… sort of disappeared, and wasn't seen or heard from for a while, causing  most people to forget about it, or worse, associate it with its rather poor initial showing.

Those who have kept up with the game, however, would know that the pieces were coming together for this game to actually turn out well, since recent showings of the game have been far more encouraging. To those people, at least, it won't come as a shock to learn that the new Battletoads is very good. Almost surprisingly so, in fact. While it has some critical shortcomings that I think do hold it back from realizing its full potential, the game is a thoroughly entertaining brawler that seems to deftly walk the line between accessibility and depth, manages to have a lot of incentives to encourage replays, and even comes together on other fronts, such as its surprisingly pleasing art style, and its sharp and witty writing.

That meta humor actually makes an incredibly strong first impression, and helps buoy the game a whole lot. Without getting into the specifics, all I will say is that the game is acutely aware of the passage of time between the last Battletoads game and this one, and the relevance (or total lack thereof) that the eponymous battletoads have in today's day and age, and that it uses those things to drive a lot of its humor. Not all its jokes land, and some feel a bit juvenile and crude, or just fall flat, but on the whole, the humor and wit is definitely a point in the game's favor.

"The game is acutely aware of the passage of time between the last Battletoads game and this one, and the relevance (or total lack thereof) that the eponymous battletoads have in today's day and age."

Where the game is impressive without caveats is on the combat front. It's deceptively easy, but it racks on layer upon layer of complexity subtly, slowly introducing the player to all sorts of mechanics and moves without overwhelming them. Between the combos you can execute with one character, the ability to tag team in and out of whatever character you want to play as at any time you want (this actually helps extend your combos further), and the extremely well differentiated enemy types, each of whom require totally different strategies to take down (seriously, there is more enemy variety in the first act of Battletoads than there is for many games, period), you are basically guaranteed extremely deep and varied, engaging brawler combat throughout the game.

There are other aspects of the gameplay that don't necessarily always hold up as well, though. The hacking minigames, which involve you either routing electricity to gates blocking your progress to open them up, or disabling security, are extremely easy and uninteresting for example, but require just enough time and engagement on the player's part to veer into being actively annoying – especially since they get in the way of the actual fun parts of the game. Other distractions from the combat, such as high octane biking, are much more fun. While they remain reasonably simplistic all said and done, they add enough wrinkles one on top of another to keep things unpredictable and exciting, at the bare minimum (at their best, they can be really thrilling on their own).

Battletoads is also a champion of local co-op, and up to three players can play together, brawling their way through the waves of enemies and bosses the game throws their way. The game excels in local co-op, and is incredibly fun with friends, especially with the chaos of three battletoads and a whole lot of enemies all unleashing their attacks at once. Co-op also helps keep some encounters in the game more manageable, though there is nothing in this game that you can't get through as a solo player.

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"There is more enemy variety in the first act of Battletoads than there is for many games, period."

That, by the way, is a good thing, because in a shocking omission for a brawler, and perhaps more still, a Microsoft game, Battletoads does not have online co-op. It has co-op, and it has online functionality, but it somehow does not have online co-op – which is a pretty major shortcoming for a brawler at the best of times, but can be a critical one in the present context. Like I said, the game remains really fun and engaging solo as well, but you are absolutely not getting the co-op experience short of having people sitting by your side in the same room as you.

I don't understand how this decision was made, because it feels like such a basic and yet significant thing to overlook under any context – how is a brawler in today's day and age released without online co-op? There is always the possibility that this problem is addressed post-launch, of course, but given the game was already delayed, it feels a bit perplexing that it didn't launch with this functionality to begin with.

While the lack of the online functionality is definitely a significant mark against the game, however, like I said, it does not take away from how fun and surprisingly engaging Battletoads is in any other context. Local co-op is, of course, ideal, but even if you are playing it by yourself, this is definitely a game that holds your attention, while also being ideally suited to simply picking it up and dropping out of it whenever you want without necessarily needing long play sessions you need to invest into it.

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"Battletoads may not be as convincing as it could have been, but the new game definitely demonstrates the IP still has a place in today's market, and delivers a really fun experience that stands on its own merits as well."

The missing online co-op is especially a shame in that context, because other than that, whatever caveats and shortcomings I mention are pretty minor, and easy enough to overlook. The game's sharp art style, clever dialog, and incredibly deep and exhilarating gameplay make for a potent package – it's just one that a lot of people can't enjoy to the fullest.

Be that as it may, however, Battletoads grand return is definitely a triumph. It may not be as convincing as it could have been, but the new game definitely demonstrates the IP still has a place in today's market, and delivers a really fun experience that stands on its own merits as well. The battletoads are back – I hope this time, they are here to stay, and we can see further games starring them that build on the successes of this one.

This game was reviewed on Xbox One.