Yakuza: Like A Dragon Unleashes The Power Of Crustaceans In Latest Gameplay Footage
After a very long wait, next month will see the west finally get the seventh installment in the mainline Yakuza series, Like a Dragon. The game takes the more action beat'em up focus from the previous six titles and morphs into something resembling a Japanese RPG, and boy, does it manage to capture that feel better than you'd expect.
On the latest Xbox podcast, we got to see some new English footage of the game, specifically a mission featuring the main protagonist and his fondness for a crawfish named Nancy. I mean, if that wasn't weird enough, it accumulates in getting an old fashion style RPG-style summon and, well, I won't ruin it. If you didn't know the Yakuza series had a goofy side, I imagine you will after this.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon will launch on November 10th for PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC. A PlayStation 5 version was also announced but won't launch until March 2nd 2021.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare Spec Ops Survival Mode Now Available On Xbox One And PC
We are just over a month away from the latest entry in the ever-popular Call of Duty series, Black Ops Cold War. Of course, a lot of focus is there, especially with the beloved Zombies Mode making a return. But last year's Modern Warfare is still going, and now some players finally are getting a taste of a mode they lacked at launch.
If you recall, the PS4 version of the game got the Spec Ops Survival Mode as an exclusive for a year. The year is now over and everyone else can jump in. The mode pits you and up to three other friends against ever increasing difficult waves of enemies. You can more about the mode through here.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC with the Spec Ops Survival Mode now being live on all versions. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will launch on the same platforms as well as PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.
Pikmin 3 Deluxe Asks If You Know What Pikmin Really Are In Latest Trailer
October is generally a month for spookiness as the Halloween holiday generally looms everywhere, but Nintendo is going the opposite direction for the month's end with Pikmin 3 Deluxe. The game is an enhanced re-release of a Wii U title with new content and all previous DLC. Today Nintendo has set out to educate everyone on what a Pikmin is.
In a new humorous trailer, we get to see a reintroduction of the little critters in a series of vignettes and animated sequences that show how you play the game. If you aren't familiar, you basically take the cute little guys and throw them around, killing them as you battle other bigger creatures. Even if you are familiar with the games and how to play them, you'll sure to get a nice chuckle out of it. The game will include all previous DLC as well as new side stories for you to explore.
Pikmin 3 Deluxe is set to release exclusively on the Nintendo Switch on October 30th.
Baldur's Gate 3 Races, Classes and More Detailed Ahead of Early Access Launch
Larian Studios is prepping Baldur's Gate 3 its early access launch via Steam and Google Stadia on October 6th. Along with providing some 25 hours of content and Origins characters with their own stories, players can also create their own characters. The selection of races, subraces, classes and more is extensive so Larian has broken down a lot of it in a new post on Steam.
Said races include Human, Githyanki, Elf (High Elf, Wood Elf), Drow (Seldarine Drow, Lolth-Sworn Drow), Half-Elf (High Half-Elf, Wood Half-Elf, Drow Half-Elf), Dwarf (Gold, Shield), Hafling (Lightfoot Halfling, Strongheart Halfling) and Tiefling (Asmodeus Tiefling, Mephistopheles Tiefling, Zariel Tiefling). Some races like Drow and Githyanki will have unique interactions with different NPCs and this can affect one's overall playthrough.
There will be 150 heads to choose from when creating a character. You can also adjust eye colour, hair-styles, beards, voices, tattoos, makeup and so on. "Canon" options are available for hair and eye colour but these can be disregarded entirely if one so chooses.
Talking about class, there's Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock and Wizard. Each will have "at least two" subclasses and there are also Cantrips and Spells for magic users to choose from. Classes further have their own unique dialogue choices and decisions, and feats (which are essentially talents) become available at level 4.
Baldur's Gate 3 early access is nearly upon us after several delays. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout – Season 2 Starts on October 8th
The age of knights, paladins and dragons in Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is nearly here. Mediatonic has confirmed on Twitter that Season 2 for the wacky battle royale-style platformer begins on October 8th. The medieval-theme extends to the new emotes and skins that are coming.
New customization options like nicknames and flags are also being introduced. There will also be new levels though the developer hasn't revealed too many details on those just yet. As Season 1 comes to a close, there will be double Fame points available to earn, starting from Monday and until Season 2 launches.
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is currently available for PS4 and PC players. It's had a massive amount of success since launch with SuperData noting that the PC release was the biggest since Overwatch in 2016. Over seven million copies were sold on Steam as of August and it's already the most download PS Plus title of all time. Stay tuned for more details on Season 2 in the coming days.
BEAN SPILLING POST
Announcing dates always feels like you're cursing things, but it's Halloween month, so let's get cursed!
Season 2 launches on Thursday 8th October
Season 1 will now end as Season 2 begins and we're going to DOUBLE fame points during this time!
pic.twitter.com/J9TFIZ1BDd
— Fall Guys
(@FallGuysGame) October 2, 2020
Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda has brought about a major shift in power in the industry, with eight studios and several major AAA IP suddenly joining the Xbox Game Studios pipeline. Regardless of how long it will be before we start seeing the proper results of that, there's no doubting that the results will be felt sooner or later.
We recently spoke with industry analyst Michael Pachter about the same and many other things in a lengthy interview. After speaking about how he thinks the Bethesda deal will impact Sony in the long- and short-term, we asked Pachter if he felt Sony might respond with a similarly big acquisition of a major publisher.
According to Pachter, interestingly enough, should AT&T choose to sell the WB Games division in the future – after recently having decided against it following reports that those assets were indeed up for sale – that Sony could be in a good position to tap up those assets and licenses, and that IP such as Batman and Mortal Kombat could fit very well with their first party portfolio- though he expects that in all likeliness, Sony's acquisitions will continue to be relatively smaller, along the lines of last year's Insomniac deal.
"Their acquisitions have been smaller, like Insomniac, and those are the kinds of acquisitions that I would expect," Pachter said. "I do think Sony is in a good position to buy Warner Bros. Interactive assets should they ever go on sale again. Depending on whether AT&T chooses to sell them, and how. If they just want to license their IP out, they will probably not go with exclusivity deals, because they won't want the games limited to just one platform, but if they sell perpetual rights to Batman or Mortal Kombat, I think those assets would be pretty cool for Sony to fold into their lineup. They already did it with Spider-Man, so we know they would be interested in something like that. I really hadn't considered this scenario, since we had heard WB was off the table, but now that Bethesda just got bought for $7.5 billion, you have to think AT&T are thinking, 'could we get $7 billion?'"
Of course, some have speculated that rather than tapping up publishers, Sony could purchase individual third party IP, with the likes of Metal Gear and Final Fantasy being brought up by several people- which makes sense, given the close association both have always had with PlayStation, and the fact that Final Fantasy 16 is already confirmed as a PS5 launch exclusive. However, Pachter believes that neither of those would hold much value for different reasons.
"Well, Metal Gear without Kojima might not be worth very much, and Final Fantasy, when did the last one come out? 2016?" he said. "I'm not sure anyone really cares there, I think that that's just a couple of million units we are talking about, that's not a system seller. It probably is in Japan, but the Japanese aren't buying Xbox, so Sony doesn't really have to worry there, especially since all those Japanese games will be on PlayStation anyway, so Sony isn't at risk of losing those titles."
"I don't think those assets are worth much," he concluded.
Our full interview with Pachter will go live soon, so stay tuned for that.
Silent Hill 4: The Room Now Available for PC
Konami's Silent Hill 4: The Room can now be played on PC. After a PEGI rating for the same popped up recently, the PC version's listing has gone live on GOG. It retails for $9.99, which is the same price as Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance on PC.
Released in 2004 for PS2 and Xbox before coming to PC, Silent Hill 4: The Room follows Henry Townshend who's stuck in his apartment. The only means of escaping is through a strange portal which leads to a realm of horrors. Along with new monsters and a variety of different environments, the title also features first-person gameplay along with third-person exploration.
If one has never played the Silent Hill series, then Silent Hill 4: The Room is worth checking out. However, with Konami re-releasing its old PC ports on GOG, it might be worth waiting for Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 to arrive first. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War launches a little over a month from now, but as is the norm with Call of Duty games, before that happens, players will have the chance to try out its multiplayer component over the course of a beta period.
Some players have already dipped their toes in the water with the recent multiplayer alpha that was available to all PS4 players, but according to Treyarch designer Tony Flame, the beta is going to be a significant step up over the multiplayer alpha. In a recent tweet, Flame wrote that the beta "is quite an upgrade over the alpga", mentioning "new features" and improvements to the "core feel".
The beta kicks off for PS4 players with pre-orders on October 8 and for Xbox One and PC players with pre-orders a week afterward, on October 15. PS4's open beta will begin on October 12, while the beta will become open to all across every platforms on October 17, until October 19.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will launch on November 13 for PS5, Xbox Series X / S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Check out some footage from its campaign through here. The game's Zombies mode was recently unveiled as well- check that out through here.
The Black Ops Cold War Beta is quite an upgrade over the Alpha. I don't think anyone quite realizes what this team can do in a short amount of time. From new features to the core feel, nearly everything has taken leaps forward.
My favorite part tho: the new lobby music kicks it
— Tony Flame (@Tony_Flame) October 2, 2020
Destiny 2: Festival of the Lost 2020 Trailer Showcases New Halloween Cosmetics
Bungie has released the first trailer for Destiny 2's Festival of the Lost, its yearly Halloween event. Starting on October 6th, players will be able to earn new cosmetics, including armor sets, emotes and of course, masks. Check out the first trailer below.
In keeping with the Halloween theme, each class will now have a more distinct armor set. Warlocks get vampire-like armor; Hunters look more like Wolves; and Titans resemble Frankenstein's monster. One can also earn different mummy-themed cosmetics like a Ghost, Sparrow and ship.
Festival of the Lost will likely see the return of the Haunted Forest as well so stay tuned for more details. It's currently slated to run until November 3rd for all platforms. That should be more than enough time before Beyond Light, the next big Destiny 2 expansion, launches on November 10th. The Destiny Content Vault will also become available on the same day, sending older locations, activities, campaigns and so in into the Vault.
GeForce RTX 3070 Launch Delayed by Two Weeks
November will be dominated by the launches of next-gen consoles, but these past few weeks have been all about the next generation of PC gaming. Nvidia recently revealed their impressive RTX 30 Series lineup of GPUs, and two of those three – the 3080 and the 3090 – have launched so far.
Both have met with stock shortages, with Nvidia apologizing for the 3090's shortages even before the GPU launched. It seems they want to avoid similar issues with the weakest card of the bunch, the 3070.
In a recent update, they announced that the 3070's launch has been delayed by two weeks. Previously due for launch on October 15, the card will now be in stores on October 29. Nvidia says this has been done to make more cards available for launch day.
"We know this may be disappointing to those eager to purchase a GeForce RTX 3070 as soon as possible, however this shift will help our global partners get more graphics cards into the hands of gamers on launch day," the company writes,
The RTX 3070 is supposed to be the weakest of the new 30 Series cards, but it's still an incredibly impressive GPU. It's 60% faster than the RTX 2070, boasts 5888 CUDA Cores, and has an 8 GB GDDR6 VRAM. The RTX 3070 will retail for $499 when it launches.