Kena: Bridge Of Spirits Gets Some Slick Screenshots
Sony's PS5 launch had quite the lineup when it dropped in the middle of last month (I would say probably one of the best console lineups ever, even if that isn't saying much). One game that was supposed to be there, however, was Kena: Bridge of Spirits, but it ended up getting pushed back to 2021. In the meantime, though, they are giving us a lot to look at.
It seems Ember Lab has graced us with a few new screenshots of the game. It's not clear if these are in-game or which of the three versions it's from, but one thing is clear: this is a sharp looking little title. We see Kena in fierce combat in some, as well as just out and about in the world in others. You can check them all out below.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is set to release Q1 2021 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC. You can check out a variety of different details on the game through here.
Ubisoft Says They're Looking Into Issues With Physical PS4 To PS5 Game Upgrades
It's an exciting time in gaming right now with plenty of new consoles and new games and new shiny graphics and…well, you get the idea. Of course, with anything new there is always going to be the odd issues popping up here and there. For Ubisoft, it seems the upgrading from the PS4 to the PS5 has been a problem for some.
Via both Reddit and the official Ubisoft forums, people have been complaining that for some of their new titles they got physical versions of for PS4 that are supposed to have free upgrades for PS5, they cannot get the PS5 version to download. For now that includes Watch Dogs: Legion and Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft's next cross-gen title, Immortals Fenyx Rising, will not release until December 3rd). What seems to be even odder here is that it mostly is centered around the UK region. Ubisoft took to their official Twitter to say they are looking into the matter.
Unlike the Xbox One and Xbox Series X versions of these titles which came on one disc and one SKU, the PS4 and PS5 physical copies each had a separate disc. Whether that's the problem here is unclear, but hopefully it's one that can be sorted out relatively quick.
We are aware players in the UK are experiencing issues upgrading physical versions of some Ubisoft games from PS4 to PS5. We're working to resolve this, and can confirm anyone experiencing this issue will still be eligible for their free upgrade. Stay tuned for more information.
— Ubisoft Support (@UbisoftSupport) November 30, 2020
Horizon Zero Dawn Headlines PS Now's December Titles
While several companies have entered into the streaming game as of late, specifically Google with their Stadia program and Microsoft with Xbox Cloud Gaming/xCloud, it can be easy to forget that Sony was one of the first with their PlayStation Now service. It is still going strong, too, and this month we've got a whole new batch to look forward to.
First up, the headlining title is no doubt Sony's first party title, Horizon Zero Dawn. That is the Complete Edition, so the game's expansion is also included. Alongside side that is a helping of action titles with Darksiders 3 and The Surge 2. For something a little more methodical, the survival game Stranded Deep is coming, and then we have some crazy indie with the incredibly tongue in cheek sidescroller Broforce and racing title Wreckfest: Drive Hard. Die Last. You can see more details at the official blog through here.
These games will be on PlayStation Now and playable on PS5, PS4 as well as capable PCs starting this month.
Nvidia Officially Reveals GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, Releases December 2 For $399.99
While the focus has been on the now released next generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft, those who game on the PC have had their own hardware releases to keep them occupied as Nvidia has been releasing their RTX 30 series. So far three different cards have been released this year: the RTX 3070, 3080 and 3090. Now we have one more with the 3060 Ti.
Nvidia revealed the new budget card officially today, though it's been rumored for awhile. The card will be just below the others, but will also be the cheapest card and have access to most of the same feature sets at lower-end levels.
The Nvidia 3060 Ti is set to release officially tomorrow, December 2nd, for the price point of $399.99. Unfortunately, the previous cards have come up and sold out very quickly, with shortages expected to continue well into 2021. While the card will be available at all major retailers, it most likely will not be in stock very long. Good luck to all PC players who will be on the hunt tomorrow.
Fall Guys Has Sold Over 11 Million Copies On PC Alone
Maybe it's the pandemic and everyone being in lockdowns, but it seems as if we've had several smaller titles that blew up in a big way. While 2016's Among Us saw a very unexpected resurgence, this summer's big indie hit, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, hasn't slowed down much at all as the Winter months are upon us. In fact, just on PC alone, the game is still doing very well.
In a press release from developer Mediatonic, they revealed that the game has now surpassed 11 million copies just on the PC. So, that doesn't include whatever sales could be coming from the PS4 (while the game was free on PS Plus for a month, that promotion is long since over). To give you an idea of what that equates to, a financial report from Unity in November said the game had sold over 10 million copies on Steam. That means that in less than a month's time, the title has moved roughly 1 million more units.
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockouts is available now for both PlayStation 4 and PC. The third season is slated to be revealed at The Game Awards 2020 on December 10th.
Desperados 3 Developer Announces New Title, Self-Publishing Plans
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and Desperados 3 developer Mimimi Games is working on its next game. It will be another real-time tactics title and will be co-founded by the German government as part of the official games industry grant. It's currently referred to as Codename Süßkartoffel, which translates to "Codename Sweet Potato."
Obviously, this isn't the final name for the project. Instead, it's an internal codename and follows from Desperados 3 being referred to as "Potato" by the team during its development. One big change that's happening with Codename Süßkartoffel is that it will be entirely self-published by Mimimi Games, with the company taking "full control and responsibility" for it.
The developer will also be expanding from 30 to 40 team members next year to facilitate development of the new game. So for all intents and purposes, Codename Süßkartoffel is very early in development. We'll have to wait for more details, including its target platforms, so stay tuned. In the meantime, check out our official review of Desperados 3 here.
Red Dead Online Standalone Version is Now Available
Rockstar Games' standalone version of Red Dead Online is now available for PS4, Xbox One and PC. It can be purchased for $4.99 but only until February 15th 2021. After this date, it will retail for $19.99. PS4 and Xbox One players will still need PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold respectively to play online.
Separate from Red Dead Redemption 2 (which one can pay to upgrade to), Red Dead Online allows players to choose from a number of different Specialist Roles like Bounty Hunter, Naturalist, Trader, and Collector. Activities include hunting animals, partaking in story missions, hunting down other players or form a posse with up to seven members. There's even an Honor system that takes the one's actions into account.
Console players should note that the PS4 and Xbox One versions are backwards compatible on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S respectively. Whether Red Dead Online will see current-gen enhancements in the coming months remains to be seen. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.
Control, Haven, Assetto Corsa and GreedFall Coming to Xbox Game Pass in December
After some not-so-subtle teasing, Microsoft has confirmed that Remedy Entertainment's Control will be coming to Xbox Game Pass on December 3rd. It will be available for console players and also playable on Android. The Game Bakers' co-op RPG Haven will be out on the same day for console and PC subscribers. PC subscribers will also finally get their hands on DOOM Eternal.
Other titles slated for the same day include RAGE 2 for Android, Slime Rancher for consoles and Android, Va-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action for PC, and Yes, Your Grace for all three platforms. Dragon Quest 11 S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition arrives on December 4th for console and PC subscribers. Next week sees the release of Call of the Sea for console, PC and Android.
Monster Sanctuary will be exiting Steam Early Access on the same day and available to console and Android players on Game Pass. The recently announced Unto The End will be available on December 9th for console and PC subscribers. On December 10th, Assetto Corsa, Gang Beasts, Superhot: Mind Control Delete, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, and GreedFall will be added to the service. Overall, it's a very packed month for subscribers – stay tuned for updates on other titles as they're added.
Dead Cells Hits 3.5 Million Sales Worldwide, Fatal Falls DLC Announced
Motion Twin's Dead Cells continues to be a success with 3.5 million units sold worldwide. Though a minor new update is coming in December, the developer along with Evil Empire has announced a new paid DLC "Fatal Falls" for release in Q1 2021. Check out the teaser trailer below.
The DLC will include two new biomes – The Fractured Shrines and The Undying Shores – along with a new boss. These will serve as parallels to Stilt Village, Clock Tower and the Time Keeper areas, providing even more options for players to explore (and undoubtedly die in). New weapons are also coming though more details on those will be revealed later.
Fatal Falls will cost $4.99 and is the second paid DLC after The Bad Seed released earlier this year. More updates are in store even after the launch of Fatal Falls so stay tuned. Dead Cells is currently available for Xbox One, PS4, PC, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android.
Cyberpunk 2077 – Why Its Smaller Map Size is a Good Thing
Even if you weren't following Cyberpunk 2077 since its announcement back in 2012, it's been a long wait for the title. Originally slated to release in April 2020, the FPS/RPG was delayed to September and then November. It's finally out on December 10th for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Google Stadia. Barring any kind of unfortunate circumstances, at least.
The world design is one of the many things that CD Projekt RED has been hyping about the game. But perhaps the most interesting part about the world map is that it's inherently smaller than that of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Back in Gamescom 2019, producer Richard Borzymowski told GamesRadar that Night City covers slightly less square kilometers than the vast regions of The Witcher 3. However, it's a lot denser in content as a result.
As Borzymowski explains, "Obviously […] in The Witcher we were an open world with vast lanes and forests in between smaller cities and larger cities like Novigrad, but in Cyberpunk 2077 we're set in Night City. It's an integral part of the setting; it's essentially a protagonist if you want to call it that, so it has to be denser. It wouldn't give us the end effect we wanted to achieve if the city wouldn't be believable […] so we packed it full of life."
For many years, it's often been the case that the bigger a game's world is, the better. With the rise of open world games and the sky-rocketing of their budgets, not to mention the sheer amount of time needed to fully "complete" them, it's no surprise that developers often tout the size of their worlds. Players, whether consciously or unconsciously, seek out titles with larger feature sets, more content and tons of things to do. "Fun factor" is still a thing but value is also important.
Look no further than the success of titles like Watch Dogs: Legion, Ghost Recon Wildlands, Red Dead Redemption 2, Grand Theft Auto 5, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and so on. You could even trace this trend back to MMOs where the wide open continents of World of Warcraft offered way more to see and do than any other offline title back in 2004. This isn't to say that any of them are bad games – in fact, they are some of the best examples of executing the formula well.
But it's even more fascinating to see some games buck the trend of massive open world titles in favor of something more compact, while still retaining a large amount of content. The Yakuza series is exemplary in this regard, as is Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. Cyberpunk 2077 also looks to be joining in this trend on its own terms and that can only be good news. But why?
While cities in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt had their own unique politics and ongoing affairs, they weren't the key focus or setting. It was more about Geralt's journey through the world – and others – to find Ciri and stop the Wild Hunt. Night City is different – it's the focal point of Cyberpunk 2077's rundown, dystopian future in almost every aspect. Each district, from the lush City Center to the dangerous Pacifica, is rich with lore, formed by hundreds of unique events in the series. It feels properly lived in despite looking so unlivable because, like the post-corporate metropolises it seeks to satirize, hundreds of thousands of bodies have been through Night City and left their mark, for better or worse.
This leads to the formation of a certain "character" of the city but it's a multi-faceted identity that's as much about the mega-corporations like Arasaka as it is about gangs like the Moxes, Animals and Voodoo Boys. There is no one single characteristic that can define it – the sheer crime rate can be viewed as an opportunity for many individuals in the future. The culture, viewed as hostile to outsiders like the Nomads, could be viewed as homely to the Street Kid. It can be as much about the glitzy advertisements, high profile celebrities and fashions for an individual as the illicit activities.
It's not all that different from, say, Yakuza's Kamurocho in that regard. From a gameplay perspective, a smaller map has other benefits. Taking Yakuza as an example, the size of the area means you're spending less time navigating to different places and more time actually indulging in the various mini-games, substories and battles that have been laid out. Sure, there might be less scenery to admire overall but this means other aspects like the writing and combat are excellent. Furthermore, with less land mass to traverse, you start to become more familiar with the place and identify with its various quirks all the more.
Having a smaller world also allows for the branching style of Cyberpunk 2077's main story and side quests to feel more natural. Your actions have a consequence on your immediate surroundings and the people in them, leaving a lasting impact on the area. The appeal here is in trying out different paths and seeing how wildly the story can branch out from them, whether you're a V who's kind and compassionate or simply on the war path. It's inherently similar to the classic computer RPGs of yore, which is understandable given Cyberpunk's tabletop role-playing game origins.
Being smaller in size doesn't mean the game's scale will suffer. Even if the main quest ends up shorter than The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, there are still plenty of companions to meet, Street Stories to experience, activities like Scanner Hustles and Gigs, random events to indulge in and weapons to collect. And with three different Life Paths, you can be assured of a significantly different perspective on Night City's affairs with each playthrough.
Besides, some may appreciate that Cyberpunk 2077's story doesn't take as long to finish as The Witcher 3. Others may enjoy experiencing all the different side content and simply getting lost in Night City, learning more about its quirky denizens in the process. And then there are those who, while appreciating wide expanses to explore, may also be happy to play in a space where something is happening around every corner. Where all the little nooks and crannies of each skyscraper could be hiding interesting stories and characters that aren't immediately obvious on the street level…just like in the tabletop universe.
At the end of the day, it's not about the sheer size of the world or how much content it contains but how the game utilizes it to form a connection with the player. The jury is still out on how well Cyberpunk 2077 achieves this and there could be a number of issues cropping up, like bugs, performance issues or some mechanics that require more polish. But if CD Projekt RED can convey the soul of Night City, warts and all, then there may end up being no better place to play.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.