Ruined King: A League of Legends Story Receives First Gameplay Trailer
Riot Forge and Airship Syndicate debuted gameplay footage for Ruined King: A League of Legends Story at The Game Awards 2020, showcasing the turn-based RPG mechanics at last. Interestingly, the combat and exploration resemble Battle Chasers: Nightwar, the developer's last big RPG that released in 2017. Check it out for yourself below.
From the battle screen and formation of allies and foes to items like the Greater Tome of Knowledge and field abilities, a number of mechanics seem directly lifted from Battle Chasers. This isn't a terrible thing, per say, especially since League of Legends' visual style fits the action well. It's just a little odd to see.
Then again, it's possible that this is still early footage. Originally slated to release in early 2021, Ruined King: A League of Legends Story was delayed to sometime next year to allow for more development time. Perhaps we'll see more changes and LoL-esque elements introduced over the next few months. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.
Shady Part of Me Announced, Out Now for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Switch
Evil West may have attracted more attention but the first of Focus Interactive's reveals at The Game Awards 2020 was the least expected. Developed by Douze-Dixiemes, Shady Part of Me is already available for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch. Check out the debut trailer below.
As a narrative puzzle game, Shady Part of Me focuses on the journey of a young girl and her shadow. Traversing through various dreamscapes, the two must work together to survive. The core gameplay involves switching between 2D and 3D gameplay and the player can also rewind time to further aid in situations.
The aesthetic is perhaps the most interesting part of the game, offering watercolor-like flourishes and 2D animation in a largely 3D animated game. And if that weren't enough, Hannah Murray of Game of Thrones and Skins lends her voice to the game. Shady Part of Me retails for $14.99 on all platforms but is currently discounted on the Microsoft Store, Nintendo eShop and Steam.
Microsoft Flight Simulator Coming to Xbox Series X/S in Summer 2021
Asobo Studio's Microsoft Flight Simulator has quite a few updates coming up over the next few months. But it's also making the jump from PC to consoles. Yes, you'll finally be able to fly over your house on Xbox Series X/S – check out the trailer below to see how it looks.
The performance should be interesting, especially given some of the issues that the game had at launch on PC. Whether the flight sim can hit 4K resolution on the Xbox Series X, even at 30 frames per second, should also be interesting. You can check out our review of the PC version here, though it's been substantially improved thanks to recent updates.
Available first on PC via Steam and Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft Flight Simulator has sold over one million copies as of October. It's set to receive VR support on December 23rd which will reportedly work for all headsets, whether it's Oculus or Valve. In January 2021, the next World update will flesh out the United Kingdom with more points of interest in Britain, Scotland and so on.
The Yakuza Remastered Collection, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life Coming to Xbox One, PC
Microsoft had a fairly decent presence at The Game Awards this year with The Initiative revealing its reboot of Perfect Dark at last. It also showcased a new trailer for Xbox Game Pass with current and upcoming titles. Sure, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim – Special Edition coming to the service is great but more importantly, The Yakuza Remastered Collection and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life have also been confirmed.
This means that remasters of Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 along with Yakuza 6 will be playable on Xbox platforms and PC for the first time. But that's not all – they'll also be available on Steam as per an official tweet. The Yakuza Remastered Collection arrives on January 28th 2021 for the platform (with each game also being sold separately) while Yakuza 6: The Song of Life arrives on March 25th 2021.
Other upcoming titles for Game Pass include Neoverse, Killer Queen Black (for console), Cyber Shadow and Among Us (for PC). The Medium is also out on January 28th 2021 for Xbox Series X/S and PC players. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.
We're excited to announce that the entire mainline Kiryu Yakuza saga will soon be available on Xbox Game Pass, Windows 10, and Steam!
The Yakuza Remastered Collection (Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 also available separately) – Jan 28, 2021
— RGG Studio (@RGGStudio) December 11, 2020
14 Most Disappointing Games of 2020 You Need To Avoid
2020 was a year of many, many big releases, and though there were many games that blew our expectations out of the water, there were also some that fell on the other end of the spectrum. Not every game can be a winner, but when they end up falling short of high expectations, their deficiencies hurt even more. There were a few of those in 2020 that disappointed us and many others, and in this feature, that's what we'll be talking about.
HYPER SCAPE
The battle royale genre has quickly become among the most popular in the industry over the last few years, and with major publishers like EA and Activision (and hell, even Bethesda with that Fallout 76 battle royale mode) having thrown their hat into the ring, it was only a matter of time before Ubisoft joined in as well. They did that earlier this year with Hyper Scape– but it's fair to say things could have gone much smoother. Battles can be a bit too chaotic, the balancing of the weapons is far from the best, the world and lore are rather uninteresting, and by and large the game feels just a bit too generic. Ubisoft are reworking the game to address some of its more major issues, but in its current stage, it's perhaps the most disappointing high profile entry in the battle royale space.
DISINTEGRATION
Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto and his team at V1 Interactive tried something different with Disintegration, and their blend of strategy and shooter gameplay deserves props for freshness. The concept, however, was far more interesting than the execution. Both combat and strategy never really felt as punchy as they should have, and though the campaign was a decent experience, on the multiplayer side of things, the game had major issues. Merely months after the game's release, its online servers were already taken down, and that really says all that needs to be said about how V1 Interactive's debut game turned out.
POKEMON MYSTERY DUNGEON: RESCUE TEAM DX
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon's first outing on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS is considered one of the most unique and enjoyable spinoffs to carry the Pokemon name, so a remake for the Switch was an interesting idea. And though the game surely still carries a lot of charm on the narrative side of things (which is embellished even further by the beautiful visual aesthetic), on the whole, Mystery Dungeon DX had a lot of issues. A repetitive structure, dull combat, and bland, uninteresting dungeons were a few of the many flaws that plagued the game.
WARCRAFT 3 REFORGED
Blizzard have been having a rough go of it these past few years, but they had a great opportunity early on in 2020 to win back a lot of fans with Warcraft 3 Reforged. A major remaster of one of their most beloved games of all time? If this had turned out well, fans would be a lot less disgruntled with the developer. It did not turn out well, sadly. Not only was it a poor remaster, it also had a plethora of bugs, weird ownership stipulations of user generated content, and many more issues. The fact that Reforged's client essentially replaced the original game made matters even worse.
SURGEON SIMULATOR 2
The first Surgeon Simulator has built up a strong following over the years, having maintained a consistent playerbase thanks to its hilarious operating room shenanigans. Surgeon Simulator 2 should have been s surefire hit, but the game stumbled out the gate. Awkward controls are kind of the point in this series, but even so, in Surgeon Simulator 2 felt a bit too awkward, to the point of being frustrating. And though there were still plenty of laughs to be had, they weren't enough to keep the game's repetitive structure at bay.
RESIDENT EVIL 3
Demand for a Resident Evil 3 remake was ridiculously high after RE2 came out in 2019, and for good reason. Capcom had an amazing blueprint to work off of, especially in terms of Mr. X essentially being a proto-Nemesis- or so it seemed. Resident Evil 3 ended up being far less impressive than it should have been. Raccoon City was woefully underutilized, Nemesis' threat as a stalker enemy was heavily neutered, significant portions of content were cut from the original game, the gore factor was a big step down from RE2's remake, Mercenaries was dropped for the underwhelming Resistance- the list goes on. RE3 wasn't a bad game- not at all. But even with the high production values and solid narrative tweaks, it ended up being a bitter disappointment.
MAFIA 2: DEFINITIVE EDITION
The Mafia series has gone through wild ups and downs since its inception, and though it definitely got an unreserved victory this year with the Mafia 1 remake, shortly before that, it had yet another botch as well. Mafia 2: Definitive Edition should ideally have been a solid modernization of the 2010 game, but ended up being anything but. Issues from the original were still problematic, of course, but even as a remaster, it was a shoddy release, with a bunch of technical issues, performance bugs, visual glitches, and more.
MADDEN NFL 21
EA Sports' Madden franchise has been on a downward spiral for a few years now (like a few other sports franchises), and this year's Madden NFL 21 was, perhaps, its lowest point in a long, long time. Sure, on paper it was more of the same- but that was a big part of the problem. This is a series that has been in need of significant improvements and changes for a long time, but Madden 21 chose to ignore those problems. Its disappointing Franchise mode was perfectly emblematic of that.
GODFALL
Godfall was the first game ever to be officially announced for the PS5, and that combined with the fact that it was promising a deep loot-driven role playing experience in a rich fantasy setting meant that quite a few people had their eye on this game. The final product, as it turned out, did not deserve that attention. Combat in Godfall was fun, sure, but the grind was intolerable, there were some really weird design decisions, most of the mechanics felt far too generic, and the world and the story were disappointingly shoddy.
CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS COLD WAR
Given its troubled and rushed development, it's no surprise that Black Ops Cold War turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Treyarch (with Raven Software in support) had to take the stage a year in advance, and the game definitely showed that it needed more time. Though the campaign was solid enough, Zombies felt one-note and stagnant, while multiplayer was let down by a relative lack of content at launch, design changes that made things a bit too chaotic and arcade-y, and maps that were far too inconsistent with the quality of their design.TORCHLIGHT 3
When Echtra Games and Perfect World Entertainment announced that Torchlight Frontiers had changed course during development and would be releasing as Torchlight 3, they caught the eyes of many series fans, but the game, in the end, did not deserve to be a numbered entry. A classic case of all flash, no substance (or little substance), Torchlight 3 looked good enough, but was let down by a repetitive structure, unrewarding progression, and mechanics that were far too simplistic, especially for a loot-driven game. As is the case with any game of this nature, Torchlight 3 can surely turn things around with post-launch support, but as things stand right now, it needs a lot of work.
NBA 2K21
For a few years now, NBA 2K has been let down by its solid gameplay mechanics clashing with its monetization, and NBA 2K21 sadly carries that series tradition forward. Even if one were to look past that aggressive monetization model, NBA 2K21 still turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, owing to how little it fundamentally changed from its predecessor, resulting in an upgrade that felt far too repetitive even for an annual sports series. Thankfully, the game's next-gen version fares far better- but if you're sticking with the PS4 or Xbox One for the foreseeable future, prepare to be disappointed by this year's NBA 2K installment.
DESTINY 2: BEYOND LIGHT
Given how many times Destiny has hyped up its fans over the years, only to let them down when it counts, it's a surprise that the series is still as wildly successful as it is. Bungie brought about some major changes to how Destiny 2 will function going forward with Beyond Light, and though some of them were definitely worth the wait – such as the raid and the Stasis subclasses – a laundry list of other issues combined to drag the game down. A barren new environment to explore, a forgettable story, bland mission design in the campaign, disappointing post-campaign quests, a lack of content in some of the major modes- the list goes on and on and on.
MARVEL'S AVENGERS
If you've been following Marvel's Avengers over the last year and a half, you're probably aware of how much skepticism the masses were feeling about this game since it was first shown off at E3 2019. The game was unable to shake ambivalence right up until its launch- at which point it turned out that ambivalence had been well-earned. Marvel's Avengers turned out to be repetitive and bland and an absolute technical mess. It had some strengths that stood out, such as its mindlessly fun combat and the decent campaign, but crippling issues like the uninspired post-game content and the shockingly meaningless loot system were major blows to the game's longevity.
Humankind Releasing on April 22nd 2021, "Lucy" Trailer Revealed
Along with announcing Endless Dungeon, a new game in the Endless universe, Amplitude Studios also provided a release date on Humankind, its upcoming 4X strategy title. It's out on April 22nd 2021 for PC. Pre-purchasing now will provide access to the Lucy Opendev on December 15th to 28th.
The trailer below offers a glimpse into Lucy, a dreaming history student who ventures across multiple different eras and affects history in several different ways. What's the relation to the upcoming Opendev? According to Amplitude, it's the biggest scenario yet, covering four entire eras spread over 100 turns.
You'll take on seven AI opponents and work with ten thousand potential combinations of traits for your civilization. The full game covers six eras of history so this should serve as a good warm-up before its launch next year. Stay tuned for more details on the Lucy Opendev in the coming days along with more gameplay footage for the full game.
Cyberpunk 2077 Guide – 15 Tips and Tricks to Keep in Mind While Playing
No more delays. At long last, Cyberpunk 2077 is out now, and finally in the hands of the millions who have been looking forward to its launch for nearly a decade. And as you'd expect from an open world RPG – and one made by CD Projekt RED no less – there's a lot going on here. When you dive into Night City, there's going to be a lot that the game is going to throw at you in quick succession, and to make those early hours and the hours beyond a little easier for you, we've put together some handy pointers that you should keep in mind. Without further ado, let's jack in.
DON'T RUSH THE STORY
Let's begin with the most general tip we have for you. Cyberpunk 2077 is a lot shorter than The Witcher 3, with a main story that can be completed in about 20-30 hours if you want to stick to the critical path- but we wouldn't advise that. Go off the beaten path and do all the optional stuff and side missions you can. For starters, you get more bang for your buck, but more importantly, that'll impact how the main story plays out as well. Side missions can often be tied to the main story and have an effect on how events turn out, while there's also the fact that doing more optional stuff and levelling up will open up more options for you- like with dialogue choices, where you will be able to pass checks to open up new possibilities that would have been locked before.
DON'T SKIP THE TUTORIAL
Within its opening hour, Cyberpunk 2077 will offer you the chance to take on its tutorial, right before you're about to enter the game's first mission, and while you might be tempted to jump straight into the action, it's best to get through the tutorial beforehand. It'll teach you the basics of hacking, shooting, stealth, and melee combat, which will obviously be useful to you throughout the entire game, but it'll also net you with XP upon completion, which you can never have enough of.
PROGRESSION
Cyberpunk 2077 has multiple layers of progression, but one thing that it emphasizes is player choice- play the way you want, and that'll count toward your progression automatically. If you use your handgun often, you'll become more proficient with your handgun, if you stealth a lot, you'll level up your stealth stat, and so on. There are, of course, attributes and skills to unlock with points that you accrue within the game, but something that you should always keep in mind is that the simple act of playing the game the way you want to play it will make you better at the stuff you tend to stick with.
ATHLETICS
Keeping what we just spoke about in mind, we'd recommend sprinting and jumping every chance you get. Doing that will count towards your athletics stat, and athletics is a pretty important stat, since it's something that'll govern some of the most fundamental things you'll be doing throughout the game.
HACKING AND STEALTH
Approaching combat encounters in Cyberpunk 2077 can broadly fall under one of three categories- you can go all out, you can use stealth, or you can hack. The latter two often go hand in hand, and if you are going for a more passive build and don't want to engage in direct combat too much, investing in hacking and stealth is a smart idea. Look over the two branches and make sure you're unlocking the perks that can be used to proper effect in conjunction.
BODY AND TECH
Often in Cyberpunk 2077 you'll come across locked doors, which is always a great way to bug the hell out of players. "But what's behind that door?" you keep asking yourself- which is why pumping attribute points into the Body and Technical Ability categories is something we recommend. High stats in these two categories will allow you to get past most doors you come across – even locked ones – by either hacking into them or literally ripping them off their hinges.
STORAGE
As you might expect, Cyberpunk 2077 has an encumbrance mechanic, which means you have to keep an eye on your inventory space at all times. And given just how much stuff there is to pick up in pretty much every single location you visit, that inventory can fill up quite fast. You can store your weapons and gear in your stash back at V's apartment, but your car will also come in handy if you're looking for a more mobile solution. If you're ever far away from your apartment and find yourself low on inventory space, simply summon V's car and stash some of your stuff in its trunk.
DON'T WASTE MONEY ON VEHICLES
Speaking of V's car- when the game starts out, you'll have a beaten up vehicle to use and get around Night City, and you will invariably find yourself wanting a better, shinier vehicle. You'll get plenty of chances to purchase one – the game literally bombards you with messages about vehicles that can be purchased – but we'd recommend holding off on doing that, especially in the early hours of your playthrough. Some of the best vehicles in the game are quite costly, and money isn't too easy to come by, so you'll be better off saving up for those than purchasing something cheaper but far worse early on. Besides, many of the side missions in the game will reward you with really good vehicles for free, so your money will be better spent elsewhere.
GET REINFORCED TENDONS
Ripperdocs around Night City have a vast selection of useful cyberware upgrades to purchase, but one of the most versatile ones that you can get is the Reinforced Tendons. These allow you to double jump, and come in very handy in exploration, navigation, and combat. It'll take a while before you can purchase this upgrade, since you'll have to save up some cash, but once you have enough money, make sure you get the Reinforced Tendons before anything else.
TEXTS
Throughout your time in Cyberpunk 2077, V's phone will be blowing up on a near constant basis, and you'll be getting texts notifying you of a vast number of things. From side missions and optional activities to conversations with characters that can advance your relationship with them, there's a lot of stuff in your texts that can have a tangible impact on your progress. As such, it's a good idea to keep checking your phone for texts, and respond to conversations whenever you can so that you don't miss out on a chance to strengthen your relationship with them.
KEEP SCANNING
When you hold down L1 or LB, V will do a quick scan of the room, which will highlight all of the loot you can pick up in your vicinity, be it junk or consumable or chests that you can open and so on. There's a lot of loot to grab in Cyberpunk 2077, so to ensure that you don't miss out on anything useful or important, it's best to keep scanning your surroundings regularly. Basically, you should be doing a scan any time you enter a new room or area.
DISASSEMBLING WEAPONS
There's an extensive crafting system to dive into in Cyberpunk 2077, and that, as you'd expect requires lots of crafting components. Thankfully, there's a pretty easy way to get your hands on at a decent stockpile of components. Pick up any and all gear, clothes, and weapons you see around you (including the stuff that dead enemies drop) even if it's worse than the stuff you already have equipped, because you can always disassemble it and get crafting components. If you do it enough, you'll have a healthy supply to fall back on in no time.
SELL YOUR JUNK
As we mentioned earlier, pretty much every single room and location you enter in Cyberpunk 2077 is teeming with things to pick up and cram into your inventory, and while a lot of those things are labelled by the game as junk, you shouldn't be ignoring that stuff either. Picking up junk does eat away at your carry limit, but selling all the junk in your inventory at vendors or drop points is a quick and easy way to make money in Cyberpunk 2077.
DIALOGUE OPTIONS
If you've played even one choice-driven RPG with dialogue options before, this should come naturally to you, but it still bears mentioning. When you're selecting dialogue options, before you select a yellow one – which is what advances the scene and conversation – make sure you exhaust all the blue options, if any are available. These are optional, ancillary choices that can reveal additional information to you, and some of these can even open up new yellow dialogue options.
AVOID FAST TRAVEL
Being an open world game with a sizeable map, Cyberpunk 2077 does, of course, have a fast travel system, and while you might be tempted to make liberal use of it to save time and cut down on needless travelling from point A to point B, we'd recommend avoiding fast travel whenever possible. A lot of events can happen in Night City dynamically, which can open up new quests and activities, and exploring organically is the best way to come across these events. Additionally, when you're traversing through areas, you'll often get calls from fixers who will inform you about jobs and side missions, completing which will count towards your street cred. Fast travelling will mean you not getting those calls.
Crimson Desert Announced For Winter 2021, Gets First Gameplay Trailer
The Game Awards has always been about revealing things big and small, and the very unexpected. The show always manages to have at least a few gems that you had no idea was coming. One such instance here was Crimson Desert, the latest game from the developer of the highly successful Black Desert.
The trailer, which you can see in full below, is said to be captured in-game footage and not edited. There's not a lot here to give a sense of the game's overarching story, but there's lots of action, hacking and slashing and the like. Like Black Desert, the game will have online elements with promises of combining it with a more story-driven experience. There's not many details obviously, but we'll no doubt see more soon.
Crimson Desert is set to release in Winter 2021. No platforms where given, though PC is most likely a given and probably next generation consoles. We'll keep you updated as more information becomes available.
Tchia, An Open-World Game Inspired By New Caledonia, Announced For PC And Stadia
The Game Awards is a place where just about anything and everything gets revealed. From the big AAA titles, such as of the upcoming revival of Perfect Dark from Microsoft, to the smaller titles such as the charming looking indie, Tchia.
Announced with a trailer at the event's pre-show, Tchia is an open-world title that allows you to climb, glide and raft around a tropical island. The titular character can also take control of various animals and objects, such as a crab and some type of fruit as seen in the trailer below. The game is actually inspired by the real world New Caledonia, an island in the South Pacific, and takes much from its culture. You can read more about it on the game's official website through here.
Tchia will release for both PC and Google Stadia. As of now, there's no provided time frame for when to expect the game.
Outriders Outlines The Mantras Of Survival In Latest Trailer
The 1-3 co-op action shooter, Outriders, was originally supposed to come this year, in fact being one of the first titles revealed for next generation consoles. However, it was not to be as it was pushed back to the early part of 2021 instead. The marketing for the game has continued, and at The Game Awards this year we got a trailer to give you some tips on how to survive.
The trailer, which you can see below, is labeled Mantras of Survival and includes four basic tips on how to survive in the world of Outriders. They are Cover is for Cowards, Powers on Tap, Kill to Heal and Think Aggressive. The video is also laced with some gameplay footage to give some examples of how to follow these rules. As you can see, the game wants you to play at an aggressive style among your battles.
Outriders is set to release February 2021 for most major platforms. For a look at what to expect in the post-game, take a look through here.