Guilty Gear Strive Trailer Showcases Story Mode and Online Modes

Guilty Gear Strive

Arc System Works' Guilty Gear Strive is still a few months away and there's at least one major character left to reveal. While the developer has detailed many of the offline modes, it released a new trailer to showcase Story Mode and delve into the online action. Check it out below.

Story Mode promises to offer a conclusion to the story of Guilty Gear and will have "further evolved direction and graphics." Not much is revealed, aside from Sol Badguy having to make a tough choice but we'll likely learn more later. GG World also makes a return, detailing everything there is to know about the Guilty Gear universe. It includes a glossary, chronology and correlation map for the various relationships.

As for the online modes, there's Quick Start to immediately jump into a fight from the main menu and Player Match for playing against friends. Player Match rooms can have up to nine players at once. Players can customize their avatar, head into online lobbies and seek out other players.

The new Rating System will arrange players into different floors based on their skill, which is determined by match outcomes as well as actions. An outdoor floor is also available for all players to mingle in, regardless of skill level. Of course, the top of the lobby referred to as "Heaven" is available for the very best players. Rollback netcode is also confirmed and will be similar to Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R on Steam.

Guilty Gear Strive releases on April 9th for PS4, PS5 and PC though Deluxe and Ultimate Edition owners on consoles can access it three days early.

The Medium Developer Says "Overall Experience And Fun" Of Game Same On Xbox Series S As Series X

Xbox Series X_S

As I'm sure you're aware, last year saw the launch of new generation consoles from both Sony and Microsoft. Microsoft took a unique approach to the console space, launching two different systems with two different specs. On paper, the idea is obvious: have a high-end system aimed for enthusiasts and low-end system for the mass market. The idea is one that has gotten many talking, with some expressing concern about the system's long-term viability. Well, one developer seems to have not had any major issue working with Microsoft's baby Xbox.

In an interview with VG24/7, Producer Jacek Zięba for The Medium spoke briefly about the Xbox Series S version of the game. It will release later this week as a console exclusive to the Xbox Series group of consoles. By and large, it seems the developer didn't have any issues developing for the Series S. He compared it to having to optimize and develop for PCs, which has varying degrees of construction, so the team didn't find it hugely challenging to do with these systems that employ the same basic idea. He even says he did a full playthrough on the Series S and was impressed with how close it looked to the Series X.

"With each generation of consoles, they're still closer and closer to the PC," said Zięba. "The structure and everything, so with new consoles and Xbox Series X and S, it was mostly a no brainer in a way, you know, like the engine is prepared for it and architecture is like normal, you know how this stuff works there, not like the PS3 or something. So no, it was a really pleasant experience, mostly.

"Yeah, I even played the whole game on Series S like one week ago and I was blown away because I thought I played on Series X. Somebody told me "man, this is Series S." What! Awesome, wonderful. Of course, you know, there will not be 4K because S does not support 4K, and of course it will maybe look different a little to Series X because X is twice as powerful, but the overall experience and fun from the game, it is the same. I own the Series S and I can't wait to play in my home."

It is probably worth mentioning, of course, while The Medium is the biggest game for Bloober Team, it's still overall in the midrange when it comes to development. A lot of the worry people have is how bigger, AAA titles will be able to scale down. But this is probably a good sign that smaller titles, at the very least, aren't going to have a huge issue in the downscaling process. That said, we won't know what The Medium on Series S will look like until later this week when it releases alongside the Series X and PC versions.

Nioh 2 Shipments Cross 1.4 Million, Atelier Ryza 2 Sells 220,000 Units

Nioh 2 Dakness in the Capital_02

Koei Tecmo recently released its Q3 earnings for the 2021 fiscal year, revealing sales for its latest releases. It confirmed that Team Ninja's Nioh 2 has surpasses 1.4 million global shipments since release. Even with three story DLC packs releasing throughout last year, repeat sales for the base game are still strong.

Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends and the Secret Fairy released in December for Japan and Asia and has sold 220,000 units. The original sold 500,000 copies within 11 months of its launch for the same regions. With the sequel launching tomorrow for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PS5 in North America and Europe, it remains to be seen just how much more it can sell.

Meanwhile, Koei Tecmo is also prepping for the release of Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition on PS4 and PC next week. It's also releasing Nioh 2 Remastered – The Complete Edition and Nioh Remastered – The Complete Edition on PS5 with support for 4K and 120 FPS. Both titles can be purchased through The Nioh Collection on February 5th.

Monster Hunter Rise Gets New Concept Art And Videos Of Characters, Monsters, And More

Monster Hunter Rise

In just a couple of months, we'll be able to get our hands on the next entry in Capcom's star series, Monster Hunter Rise. The game will once again return the series to handheld abilities and has been getting a steady release of material to hype up the new entry. That doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon as we have more material that shows various aspects of the game.

Over the last week, Capcom has released lots of different things on their official Twitter and YouTube. We get new concept art for several characters, including the quest maiden Minoto, the gathering hub overseer Hojo and a young girl named Komitsu who wants to help you in your journey, though it's not specified what her overall role will be. Capcom also released several short videos showing off your companions, some monster fights, and and how to stun creatures. You can see it all below.

Monster Hunter Rise is set to release only on Nintendo Switch March 26th. There is a currently running demo also for the game that will be live until February 1st.

Ghost of Tsushima PS5 Upgrade Might be in the Works

ghost of tsushima

Sucker Punch's Ghost of Tsushima was one of the last major PS4 exclusives to launch for the console before the PS5 came out late last year, and as with any major game that releases at the end of a console's life cycle, there are always questions about if it will get a remaster to bring it over natively to newer hardware. There might be some evidence to suggest that Sucker Punch might indeed be working on something like that for their open world samurai epic.

Sucker Punch's cinematic creative director Dave Molloy might have some tidbits in his LinkedIn profile's about section that may have spilled the beans. The final bits of that section mention that he is "presently working on the Ghost of Tsushima game for Sony PlayStation." So why exactly is that interesting? Well, because until very recently (just yesterday, in fact), that sentence said that he was working on the game for "Sony PS5", before that got quickly edited out (as spotted by Game Rant).

Is it possible that Sucker Punch are working on a full-fledged remaster for Ghost of Tsushima in order to better leverage the PS5's hardware? The game already benefits from a boosted frame rate when played on the PS5, but a native port is by no means out of the question. Then again, job ads have indicated that Sucker Punch are working on a sequel as well, so maybe that's what this is referring to.

Given how successful Ghost of Tsushima has been, especially in terms of sales, it wouldn't surprise us if Sony does indeed greenlight a fancy new PS5 remaster. Until such time that's officially confirmed though, this is just speculation and conjecture, so take it with a grain of salt.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Crosses 3.5 Million Worldwide Shipments

Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity_02

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity saw The Legend of Zelda once again crossing over with Koei Tecmo's musou Warriors games, this time against the backdrop of Breath of the Wild's setting, and it proved to be the perfect storm. Within less than a week of its launch, it had already shipped over 3 million units worldwide, and though its sales have certainly slowed down since then, it has nonetheless continued to see strong numbers.

In their latest fiscal report, Koei Tecmo announced that the Omega Force-developed musou action title has shipped over 3.5 million units worldwide as of the end of December, adding another 500,000 units to its global shipment figures. The slowing down of sales since launch is to be expect, of course, and 3.5 million is an impressive number either way. Koei Tecmo also reiterates that Age of Calamity is the highest selling musou game of all time.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is available exclusively on Nintendo Switch. You can read our review of the game through here.

Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.1 Introduces New Bug for "Down on the Street" Quest

Cyberpunk 2077 - Takemura

Patch 1.1 for Cyberpunk 2077 went live on the weekend and while not the most extensive update, it did offer several fixes. This includes a bug for the quest "Down on the Street" which saw Goro Takemura calling the player for a sit-down – in some cases, he wouldn't call, thus stopping progress altogether. Unfortunately, while that bug has been resolved, a new one has appear.

Takemura will call but not say anything. Yes, for real. Reloading a previous save will see the bug occur again. Support at CD Projekt RED does have a fix of sorts though. When V and Takemura are leaving Wakako's office, they'll have a conversation – once the quest updates, use the in-game "wait" button to wait 23 hours.

After this, Takemura should call and actually have speak to you, leading to the sit-down. It's a somewhat annoying way to address the bug – those who don't have a previous save from that point are pretty much out of luck. CD Projekt RED tweeted that it's working on a hotfix to address it "as soon as possible" so stay tuned for updates.

The Medium Lead Designer Talks Challenges Of Developing Their Biggest Title During A Pandemic

The Medium_02

Later this week, we will get The Medium from Bloober Team. The game is set to be one of the first major next gen exclusives for the Xbox brand, and also looks to be the biggest game that the studio has ever made. It was also being developed in part in the midst of the global COVID pandemic, which proved to be challenging.

In an interview with VG24/7, Lead Designer Wojciech Piejko talked about the challenges the team ultimately faced. While he didn't get into specifics, it was clear that the ambitious nature of the game's dual reality gameplay aspect proved difficult, saying that a lot of the collaborative effort around development was altered. The game also suffered a minor delay, originally being slated for the launch of Xbox Series X/S. In the end, though, he said he was happy about how it all ended up.

"We made the game during the pandemic with a lot of, you know, bad things happening during the development," he said. "Creating the game with two words at the same time was really challenging for us because it was the first time when we don't know what to do with some things, yeah. It was not like, you know, normal development like okay, I want Shooting mechanics, okay, let's see how the best shooters are doing this, yeah, and you can, you know, reverse engineer something and design it. The Medium requires a lot of iterations, like a blind iteration sometimes, because okay, "what do we do with this?" and "I don't know, let's try this and this and this," and we'll see.

"Creating The Medium was a leap into the unknown, like you know, to find new land in a way, and we found it, and we're happy."

The Medium is set to launch January 28th for Xbox Series X/S and PC. You can check out some gameplay features as well as the most recent updated PC requirements for the game through here.

5 Reasons The Callisto Protocol Should be on Your Radar

The Callisto Protocol is shaping up to be a game like few others, and understandably has earned the attention of many survival horror fans. If your eyebrows went up at the sight of The Callisto Protocol's announcement at the 2020 Game Awards, you were not alone. That announcement alone was one of the most talked about moments of the entire show, which is saying a lot given how many noteworthy announcements and awards were presented that night. It's a game that really seems to have a firm grasp on the type of game it wants to be which is something that a lot of people have been clamoring for for a long time, some sort of Dead Space spiritual successor or at least a game that has that style and can give fans of that series something new to play in similar vein. We still don't know a lot yet as the team has been fairly tight-lipped about the game since announcing it, but we do know enough to be excited for it and here are five of the reasons why.

The clear and purposeful inspiration from Dead Space

If you are like me and have been hoping for anything with the words Dead Space on it in the form of a video game for many years now despite the odds of such a thing being as dismal as they are, then you were elated to hear that the game is as close to that as will probably ever get at this point. With the original team that made those original 3 games long since dissolved, and many of those who worked on the games have long since moved on, the odds of us ever getting a proper Dead Space 4 were and are pretty dim. At the most I think we may get a remaster of those three games at some point someday… maybe.

That would still be cool, but a new game is the Ultimate Prize and it's looking like The Callisto Protocol is about as close to that as we could ever realistically expect to get. The Callisto Protocol seems to have us covered on that, as the trailer clearly wants us to know they hear us. Everything from the dark industrial look of the inside of the facility, to the glitchy hologram communication calls, to what appear to be life bars on the back of people's necks, it looks like The Callisto Protocol knows exactly what it's doing, and it's liberally borrowing some ideas from the game that it's so clearly inspired by. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Striking Distance Studios weren't going so far with this to cause impulse buyers a few years from launch to see it on a shelf, mistakenly think it is Dead Space 4, and buy it for that reason alone.

Dead Space veterans confirmed to be on the team

The Callisto Protocol

As if you needed any more reason to think that this is a Dead Space successor, you can now take even more comfort in knowing that several Dead Space veterans have been picked up by Striking Distance Studios to work on this game, if for nothing else then for the pedigree alone. Anybody can make a spiritual successor to anything. Some of them turn out fine, some of them don't. But to go out of your way to bring people on from the game you're trying to harken back to does bring an extra bit of credibility to the project overall and instill more faith in those who are looking to consume it for that reason.

To add even more fuel to that particular fire, the former general manager of Visceral Games who is now working with Striking Distance, went so far as to even say that Dead Space is in his team's DNA. It certainly doesn't guarantee that the game will be a slam dunk. Mighty No. 9 had people on it from Mega Man and it still turned out to be.. well, Mighty No 9. But generally speaking, I would say it's something that speaks to the games favor in most cases. It's also comforting to know that Striking Distance Studios is headed up by the former co-head of Sledgehammer Games, who definitely knows how to stay on track and launch completed games on time.

A new, interesting setting

the callisto protocol

While the setting of Dead Space on the Ishimura was definitely interesting in its own way, it was also a little bit removed from what we can really wrap our minds around in 2021. It was almost too abstract in a way that wasn't particularly helpful when it came to having an attachment to our understanding of the setting. Here the game will be taking place on Jupiter's dead moon of Callisto in a fairly distant future year of 2320. And instead of being a part of a mining operation like in Dead Space, The Callisto Protocol will feature a protagonist who's trying to break out of a maximum security prison, and while doing so discovers lots of horrible unspeakable things. In that way it might remind one of The Suffering just as much as Dead Space. That's a combination I never would have thought of, and I'm all the more intrigued by it.

Development of the game has continued despite pandemic concerns

the callisto protocol

While the pandemic has absolutely rocked pretty much every sector of our lives, it's always good to know when certain projects that we're excited about have managed to survive it.  It speaks to the quality of the team behind it. According to a recent interview that Steve Papoutsis, the chief development officer at Striking Distance Studios gave, the team is pressing on with their 150-person team despite not being able to meet in their office space. This will understandably introduce issues here and there and may very well results and the game being released a little later than we would have liked, but Steve goes out of his way to reassure but the game is well into development and is definitely coming. that is comforting to know. It's also encouraging to know that this team is as capable as they are, which should bode well for the game in totality.

The game is very much its own thing

the callisto protocol

While the game is obviously borrowing a few ideas and taking a few cues from Dead Space for obvious reasons, something that also shouldn't be missed here is that it's going to have its fair share of unique ideas. Instead of a monster like Dead Space's formless Necromorph that seemed to have more in common with The Thing than anything else, The Callisto Protocol's main baddie, at least the only one we've seen so far, will be very much its own design, have its own form, its own rules, and appears to be more insect-like, which is an interesting take for this sort of game.

Also, as previously mentioned, instead of floating out in space, you'll be on a moon, in a prison. This might make it more claustrophobic and also introduce some moral grey areas with the characters, where Dead Space's Isaac was pretty much an innocent guy who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Morally ambiguous characters tend to be more interesting, so this difference between Dead Space and The Callisto Protocol is one worth looking forward to. With all of that, despite the obvious Dead Space undertones, we also have a unique, original horror game to look forward to that happens to have a lot of seasoned Dead Space developers on staff. I don't think I could craft a better recipe for a modern horror game myself.

Returnal is Probably Going to be Better Than You Expect

2021 is looking to be a very eventful year for video games, as most early years for new consoles are. The Xbox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5 will understandably be wanting to flex their power and grow their libraries so they can continue jockeying for our money and attention. One of the best ways to do that is to put out some excellent games early on in the console's life cycle to set the tone. So it should be no surprise that we've been hearing a lot about bigger games like Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok.

With those and several other great-looking games on the way, we will likely have our hands full in 2021. A natural side effect of so many great big budget well marketed games coming out within one year is a lot of other games, that are also looking fantastic, not really getting the attention they probably deserve –  positioning them as dark horses of the year. Returnal is an excellent example of that. There's lots of great reasons to be excited for Reternal despite it not really coming up in the greater conversation as often as it probably should be. Let's take a look at some of those reasons and hopefully encourage ourselves to look a little deeper than the headlining games coming out this year.

First and foremost, this is a game by Housemarque. If you're even remotely a fan of twin stick shooters and arcade throwbacks, odds are, you have played at least one of their games and probably rather enjoy yourself while doing so. If you are familiar with – and a fan of – Housemarque as a studio, then knowing that they are the studio behind Returnal should be about all you need to know to be excited for it. This is not just a team with experience making good games, this is one of the best developers out there today with games like Super Stardust HD, Resogun, and Nex Machina under their belt.

These games are simple in concept and relatively small in scope, especially if you compare them to the gargantuan projects that developers like Naughty Dog and Guerilla regularly undertake, but that doesn't make them any less worthy of your attention, or any less fun to play. Marrying the conceptual foundations of arcade classics like Robotron 2084 or Defender with dazzling, modern visual flair is something the studio has all but mastered over the years, so if you can trust them to do anything you can trust them to pull off a fun game in this style. Returnal is definitely going to be a step up in some ways as well as a step outside of their comfort zone, but at its core it's surely looking to maintain the spirit of so many of their previous games with fun weapons, enthralling combat, and strict-but-fair challenge. For that alone this should be on just about everyone's radar.

Speaking of Housemarque stepping outside of their comfort zone, this makes their upcoming game even more compelling than say another game in the style of, say, Resogun would have been. While it does seem like the developer maybe begrudgingly going in this direction because of lackluster sales on their previous game Matterfall, they're still all the more embracing the third-person action game aesthetic and giving it a few interesting twists of their own. There would be nothing wrong with Housemarque putting out a Resogun 2, but the fact that they are stepping so far outside of what they typically done for the last 10+ years  is all the more reason to be excited because it opens the possibility for Housemarque to discover new strengths within their ranks.

returnal

Maybe they are really good at storytelling, but they just didn't know it because they never really tried it. Maybe they discover that third person action games have been their forte all along, but given the scope of their earlier projects, they just never knew it. It's always interesting to see a developer step outside of their comfort zone and try new things. That mentality is what gave The Last of Us when Naughty Dog stepped away from Uncharted, and it also gave us Horizon Zero Dawn when Guerrilla stepped away from Killzone. While it is true that taking risks with tried-and-true formats can also lead to miss steps, it's a risk that, I think, we should be encouraging Housemarque to take and I see no reason to think they won't handle it perfectly well.

One of the most interesting aspects of Returnal is certainly going to be its storytelling.  We know very little about the context in which the main character finds herself. We don't know a whole lot about this alien world she's stranded on, we don't know a whole lot of why she's there or what she's trying to do about it. But given the clips that we've seen from the couple of trailers that have been released, there does appear to be some sort of story here that at least makes an effort to give enough context to this situation to create an interesting situation for players to navigate through. Like I said before maybe Housemarque really knocks it out of the park with their storytelling here and maybe they phone it in and lean more on the gameplay. At the end of the day, I think I would be fine with either approach as long as it all works, but something tells me that the story here is actually going to be interesting and it looks like they put a reasonable amount of effort into creating a story worth understanding and worth seeing through to the end.

Of course, we can't talk about Returnal without also mentioning the fact that these levels will be procedurally generated, which is certainly nothing terribly new or inventive, but given the level of creativity that the people that Housemarque have already shown with weapons, enemy designs and level variation in previous games, I think putting a procedurally-generated  game in those hands could make that concept all the more interesting and perhaps a lot beefier than what we've seen out of smaller procedurally generated titles like Rogue Legacy or Spelunky.

returnal

There's definitely nothing wrong with procedurally-generated levels being used as a way for a smaller developer to avoid the daunting task of creating tons of detailed levels, but it will also be interesting to see what a developer that already knows how to do that would do with this style of foundation for a game. From what we've seen already in released footage it looks like the weapon variety is going to be a sight to behold and the sheer amount of enemy variations might make it the perfect arcade shooter, in that every time you fire it up you get something a little different, making it a game that you can come back to for years and years without ever really feeling like it's over and done with.

If Housemarque has shown us anything, it's that they know how to make a fun arcade shooter game. So even if they don't totally pull off every single aspect of Returnal, I still think it's a safe bet it's going to be a really fun game and likely one of the greatest dark horses of 2021.

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.