Sackboy: A Big Adventure Developer Details The Game's Difficulty, Its PS4 Version, and More
In an interview with IGN, Sackboy: A Big Adventure developer Sumo Digital details the game's difficulty, its PS4 version, and more.
"We wanted to create an experience with broad appeal that everyone can enjoy, he's a wonderfully endearing character, the world is rich and it's inviting, and we just wanted lots and lots of people to get the chance to experience that and to enjoy that," said Sumo Digital's Ned Waterhouse. "So the way that we approached this was, we said we're going to broaden Sackboy's moveset. We're going to introduce loads of new moves, but we said we will only use a subset of those moves to complete the main adventure. That doesn't mean the main adventure doesn't have challenge. It's familiar and welcoming when you start out, the challenge increases as you become more accustomed to the character and the world."
Waterhouse also mentions that the game will be locked at 60FPS to create the best platformer they could. He also mentions co-op and making it work in a way where one player's skill doesn't affect another's. To do this, they've added a feature called assist copter, which has the main player wielding a flare that leads a copter to you and any other players. As long as one player can reach the end of a level, everyone else can.
"When it comes to the PlayStation 4 version of this game, I don't think anyone's going to be disappointed if they buy that version," continued Waterhouse. "For me and for the team, it was really important for us to be on that platform because we wanted as many people as possible to get a chance to play this game. That said, the new console is more powerful. It's got new features, and that allowed us to enhance both the visuals, take advantage of the SSD, and do some work with the DualSense and the haptics."
Sackboy: A Big Adventure was announced back in June during PlayStation's Future of Gaming showcase. The game was later confirmed to be a PS5 launch title during PlayStation's September event, alongside a PS4 version. Additionally, there will be a special edition of the game which includes an artbook, soundtrack, exclusive Sackboy costumes, a Sackboy plushie, and more.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure releases on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on November 12.
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The Pathless Is Up for Preorder Now, Physical Edition and Vinyl Announced
In a tweet from Annapurna Interactive, Abzu developer Giant Squid's The Pathless is available for preorder now on the PSN. There's also a physical version of the game for preorder and a vinyl version of the soundtrack.
The game is up for preorder on the PlayStation Store for $39.99. Players who purchase the PlayStation 5 version get the PS4 version for free. For players that buy the PS4 version, they get the PS5 version as well. For those that don't know, The Pathless has you playing as an archer with its trusty eagle as you explore a mysterious island. You'll get to explore a vast open-world filled with plenty of areas to explore and secrets to uncover. From the first time I saw the game during PlayStation's State of Play in August, I was instantly excited. The game looks visually amazing and the world looks so interesting. Of all the PS5 launch games to play, this will be one of the first ones I check out.
THE PATHLESS from @GiantSquidology is now available to pre-order ($39.99 USD) for PS5. Download the PS4 version at no extra cost when you buy the digital PS5 version from PlayStation Store. https://t.co/YJzC6X6Ssa pic.twitter.com/AbgUZY40eG
— Annapurna Interactive (@A_i) October 28, 2020
In addition to digital preorders being available, iam8bit is offering a physical version of The Pathless. This runs for $52.99 and includes the game, poster, reversible cover, and a set of six postcards. Iam8bit is also releasing a vinyl of composer Austin Wintory's soundtrack of the game. The vinyl comes in two discs that are blue and red. Both the physical game and vinyl feature stunning artwork from artist Elaine Lee.
This wasn't the only game to get a physical release today. In addition to being a November PlayStation Plus title, Young Horses' Bugsnax is getting a physical release along with some new merch. The physical game and merch will start shipping early next year. With Bugsnax releasing at the PS5's launch too alongside some big first-party titles, there won't be a shortage of PS5 games to play for the rest of the year.
The Pathless releases on November 12 on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The vinyl and physical game will be ship later this year.
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The Japanese version of the Nintendo Direct Mini published on October 28 had Nintendo and Koei Tecmo reveal a brand new game, Buddy Mission Bond. Revealed with a trailer, Buddy Mission Bond is coming to Switch in Japan on January, 29, 2021, for 7128 Yen (tax included). In physical and digital. The game wasn't announced outside Japan for now.
Buddy Mission Bond stars Luke, voiced by Ryohei Kimura. Luke is a police officer, following the footsteps of his late foster father. He dreams of becoming a hero, and meets the "Beast" phantom thief Aaron, voiced by Takashi Kondo. Luke and Aaron have a fateful encounter changing their lives forever. A burning friendship story awaits the duo, sometimes counting on each other, sometimes opposing each other.
Buddy Mission Bond takes place on Mikagura Island, the center of a worldwide show business industry. In the island's shadows lurk the criminal organization Discard. Those targetted by Discard all have the "mark of death" on their neck, which makes its victims go berserk.
Keeping on, as Luke investigates the case, he realizes his father had the same mark when he passed away. Luke will, together with his buddies, solve the mystery behind his father's death and unveil a conspiracy shaking the world.
Two more characters will be joining Luke:
The third member is Mokuma, a ninja who loves alcohol and hitting on women. Mokuma is voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa. The fourth member is Chesley the cold hearted swindler, voiced by Daisuke Namikawa. The four of them will form a top secret undercover investigation team, Team Bond.
Buddy Mission Bond is a Japanese Adventure game or ADV, meaning most of the gameplay will be reading. It's akin to what we call outside Japan a visual novel. The game's dialogues will be in 2D with a manga style, while undercover missions are in 3D, with what seems to be actions choices picked through text windows.
Simply put, the missions are divided into two phases. First, before an undercover investigation starts, players will need to form a pair of Buddies among the four main characters. Following that, the two buddies will need to investigate the city and look for clues. When asking the citizens of Mikagura Island for info, some might be more inclined to talk depending on which buddy you picked.
Once the investigation is over, the two buddies will infiltrate the enemy's hideout. Your infiltration route will differ depending on which clues you managed to find in the previous phase. You will have to switch between the two characters and make them work together perfectly to infiltrate the enemy hideouts.
In addition, the character designer of Buddy Mission Bond is Yuusuke Murata. He is mainly known as the mangaka of Eyeshield 21, and the artist of the print version of One Punch-Man. The game uses a manga style that fits perfectly with the chara designs, and looks extremely cool. We have additional screenshots you can check out below.
Buddy Mission Bond Reveal Trailer
Buddy Mission Bond is by far the most interesting game revealed in the October Nintendo Direct, and I personally can't wait to learn more. This is the kind of game that definitely will have a very active BL community at some point too. The characters are all voiced by popular seiyuu as well. It has a pretty good chance of becoming big. Maybe not Tiger & Bunny big, but big nonetheless.
Additional information will be coming at a later date on the game's official site and the Koei Tecmo Twitter.
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Chris Metzen Comes Out of Retirement To Start Warchief Gaming
When Chris Metzen retired from Blizzard a few years ago it certainly sounded like he was done creating games. However, he continued to stay stuck into the hobby; just the analog version. He and Mike Gilmartin (another former Blizzard employee) started up a tabletop gaming club called Warchief Gaming back in 2018. Now, they're taking it one step further and hopping into the world creating sphere once again. While they don't yet have a product to announce, it's great to see two excellent creators back in the game again. Even if it is in a different medium than you might be used to. Check out the announcement video below.
We've seen quite an influx lately of ex-Blizzard employees starting up their own studios. That said, Chris Metzen might be the biggest of them all, though Mike Morhaime would perhaps like a word. Regardless, Metzen is an absolute master at world-building and knows how to build a solid story. Plus, his background in art makes me very excited to see what he does in the tabletop world.
It's worth repeating that we don't know exactly what this new initiative will bring. In the announcement Metzen and Gilmartin talk about all kinds of topics and mention everything from board games to tactics games. So, there's a whole gamut of potential products the team might announce in the coming weeks and months.
Chris Metzen and Warchief Gaming might not have anything concrete to announce just yet; however, I think we'll be seeing it sooner rather than later. In fact, I wouldn't be too surprised if they put out something before any of the other studios founded by former Blizzard devs.
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Wasteland 3 Reaches 1 Million Players
Wasteland 3 released in late August earlier this year and has been met with positive reviews across the board. As of today, the turn-based isometric RPG has amassed 1 million players, and to celebrate, developer inXile Entertainment released a short film created during Wasteland 3's production.
In a tweet this morning from the official inXile Twitter account, the developers shared that Wasteland 3 has reached 1 million players. Additionally, "as a thank you" they posted a two-minute short film that was filmed early in the game's development that served as a "mood piece." It was created to help the team understand the look and feel of the game's setting before getting to work.
We're excited to announce that Wasteland 3 has reached 1 million players!
As a thank you, we're releasing a short film we shot a few years ago as a mood piece to help us set the look and feel of what a post-apocalyptic Colorado could be like. We hope you enjoy it. pic.twitter.com/ICsWAVdMiu
— inXile entertainment (@inXile_ent) October 28, 2020
The film follows a truck driver who gets stopped to help someone on the side of the road before making his delivery. If you've played any of the Wasteland games, you might understand how it goes: poorly.
It feels fitting, as we head closer and closer to winter and colder months, that Wasteland 3 is getting more popular. The frozen environments that players explore throughout the game definitely seem to match the mood of the first snow that many states are getting around this time.
Although the game released in August, inXile hasn't stopped working on it. In a recent patch from October 9, Wasteland 3's load times were reduced by 60% on PC and by 25% on the Xbox One. inXile fixed more than just load times in the update, however, all patch notes can be viewed right here.
For more on Wasteland 3 and inXile Entertainment, make sure to check out this article on inXile's new project which was unofficially announced by developers through Twitter. Wasteland 3 is available for the PC, the Playstation 4, and the Xbox One. You can pick up a physical copy right here to help support our website.
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Xbox is Officially Giving Away a Series X Fridge
Don't let your memes be dreams, as they say (actually I just made that up, I think), and the team at Xbox has definitely been living by that mantra in recent days. After revealing last week that a full-size Xbox Series X refrigerator was a real thing that was actually decided to be manufactured, Xbox has now announced that you, yes, you, can win one of these crazy products for yourself.
Xbox announced a giveaway today where one lucky winner will receive an official Xbox Series X fridge. The giveaway has started today and lasts next week until November 4. Entering is pretty simple and requires that those who want to win the grand prize just follow the @Xbox Twitter account and retweet the tweet attached below along with the hashtag #XSXFridgeSweeps. You can read the full list of rules here.
The one.
The only.
Xbox Series X Fridge giveaway.
Follow and retweet with #XSXFridgeSweeps for a chance to win the Xbox Series X Fridge.
Ends 11/04/20. Rules: https://t.co/4P5hCSBPcy pic.twitter.com/MAt7xcTTQ4
— Xbox (@Xbox) October 28, 2020
Honestly, this is a pretty goofy promotion for Xbox to run, but it's a welcome one nonetheless. The entire social team and marketing wing of Xbox has actually been killing it in recent months, and this is just another feather in their cap if you ask me. Fingers crossed that I can actually win this bad boy.
To see more of the actual fridge in action (which honestly seems to be of a very high quality) you can check out the video below. As for the actual Xbox Series X, it's due out on November 10.
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The Japanese version of the Nintendo Direct Mini published on October 28 had Marvelous announcing May 20, 2021 as the Japan release date for Rune Factory 5 on Switch. Both the physical and digital version will be priced 7678 Yen tax included. The previous ND Mini Partner Showcase in September showed some gameplay for the first time. This time we've got a release date, more gameplay and details on the Japan limited edition.
The new Rune Factory 5 trailer, included below, introduced Seed, the peacekeeping ranger organization the protagonists are part of, protecting the rural town of Rigbart. Overall, Rune Factory 5 keeps the staples of the series we explained in our intro guide to the Rune Factory franchise, with farming, romance, dungeon exploration, and monster capture and raising. We can spot nearly all these game systems in the trailer. Alongside brand new elements like the duo combination attacks.
Moreover, Marvelous also revealed Rune Factory 4 Special will be free for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers in Japan, from November 2, 1200 JST, to November 8 , 1759 JST. Plus, if you decide to get the game, the Japan digital version is on a 50% off sale from November 2 midnight, to November 24, 2359. If you play the free version, you'll be able to transfer your save to the full game. Don't forget you'll unlock two guest characters in Rune Factory 5 if you have a Rune Factory 4 Special save as well.
Last but not least, we have details on the Japanese Limited Edition, titled the Rune Factory 5 Premium Box. It includes an artbook, and an OST CD with newly arranged versions of multiple tracks of the Rune Factory series.
Note that profiles and screenshots for the main characters of Rune Factory 5 were published alongside the Japan release date. We'll be translating all these details about the characters in a separate article. Stay tuned.
Rune Factory 5 Japanese Release Date Trailer
XSeed Games and Marvelous America are handling the American release of Rune Factory 5. The Europe release is handled by Marvelous Europe. Details on both of these releases will probably be coming in mid 2021 or so. We'll keep an eye out for it.
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Halo Infinite Loses Another Director in Chris Lee
Halo Infinite was originally set to be launching in a mere two weeks alongside the Xbox Series X/S, but instead, the upcoming shooter looks to be going through some more struggles internally.
In a new report from Bloomberg, 343 Industries' Chris Lee, who served as a director on Halo Infinite, is now said to have left the project altogether after his role with it was said to be essentially done away with. Lee served as not only one of the primary producers working on the forthcoming Halo title, but he also served as the studio head at 343. Lee has been with the company since 2008 and is still said to be an employee of Microsoft.
"I have stepped back from Infinite and I am looking at future opportunities," Lee said in a statement given to Bloomberg. "I believe in the team and am confident they will deliver a great game and now is a good time for me to step away."
Lee's removal from the directing chair isn't only shocking on its own, but it continues to indicate that there are some larger issues internally at the studio. In fact, Lee has become the second director in a little over a year to have departed from working on the game, with former Halo Infinite creative director Tim Longo leaving 343 in August of 2019. Mary Olson, who became a lead producer in the absence of Longo, announced a mere two months later in October 2019 that she would be departing as well.
Given the fact that Halo Infinite has been delayed indefinitely to 2021 after a showing that many found to be dismal earlier this summer, it's not a shock that there have seemingly been some internal problems with the game. Whatever these issues might be, though, hopefully the studio can come together and rectify them to deliver another memorable experience in this longrunning franchise.
Halo Infinite is set to arrive on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC whenever it does end up releasing next year.
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Temtem is Arriving on PS5 December 8
Temtem, the Pokemon-esque MMO that started on the PC and quickly gained popularity officially has a date for its previously announced arrival on the PS5.
Announced as part of today's flood of information on games coming to the PS5 on the PlayStation Blog, Temtem will arrive on the console on December 8, although it will be in early access. Players on PS5 will also have cross-platform play with other players on PC. It's not clear yet whether the game will also be coming to the Xbox Series X / S or if that version of the game will also feature cross-platform play.
As an early access title though, players on PS5 won't be able to access all of Temtem's content. The game's world is divided into six islands, but at the start of early access, only four of them will be available. When the game is fully released, players will be able to play through its entire campaign in co-op and interact with any other players they meet in its MMO world.
Temtem is currently available for pre-order, with the game's standard edition priced at $37.49 and its deluxe edition sitting at $57.49. By picking up the pricier version, players can snag an exclusive camo outfit and other extra cosmetics once the game fully releases. If you're thinking about holding out for the game's full release to pick it up, that may not be the best idea for your wallet. With every island added to the game, its base price will rise, eventually reaching $44.99 and $64.99 for its standard and deluxe versions respectively at release.
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Bugsnax Launch Trailer Released, Physical Editions and Merch Announced
With only two weeks to go till release, developer Young Horses has released a launch trailer for Bugsnax. You can watch the trailer below. New merch for the game has also been announced.
The trailer gives players an idea of what the game's story is. You play as a journalist who's made it to Snaktooth Island and it's up to you to find Elizabert Megafig, an island explorer. Along the way, you'll meet several island residents and discover dozen of Bugsnax creatures all over Snaktooth. You'll discover the secrets of Snaktooth Island, who Elizabert is, and where the Bugsnax came from. Additionally, there will be 100 different types of Bugsnax to discover all throughout the island.
That's not the only news to come out. Over on Fangamer, you can preorder a physical edition of the game for the PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 for $39. The physical edition won't ship till early next year. In addition to the game, you can preorder a Bugsnax shirt, pin set, and a Strabby plushie, one of the Bugsnax you can discover in the game.
It's almost time to solve the mysteries of Snaktooth Island! Bugsnax physical editions are ready to preorder.
Pick the game up for PS5 or PS4 and you can save on our new merch collection, too: https://t.co/agY10lpLVZ pic.twitter.com/IrLSStHq6y
— Fangamer (@Fangamer) October 28, 2020
Besides the new merch, PlayStation announced the game will be a November PlayStation Plus title. Not only will Bugsnax join Middle-Earth: Shadow of War and Hollow Knight as PS Plus titles, it'll be the first PS5 game to be free for subscribers. The game will be a PS Plus title till January 4th, 2021 for subscribers. For trophy hunters like me, Young Horses' John Murphy confirmed on the PlayStation Blog that the game will feature two separate trophy lists for PS4 and PS5.
"We've been building this charming, weird game for the past six years, with the majority of that time spent working in complete silence," said Murphy on the PS Blog. "So it's pretty surreal that not only will our game finally be out in the world in just a few weeks, but also that thousands of players will be able to enjoy it on day one of owning their new PS5. It's been a pretty wild ride."
Bugsnax launches on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Epic Games Store on November 12. You can preorder the physical edition of the game along with the merch through Fangamer now.
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