Resident Evil Re:Verse Looks Intriguing in Over 90 Minutes of Beta Footage
Recently, Capcom unveiled Resident Evil Re:Verse, a 6v6 multiplayer deathmatch game, and opened the game up for beta testing to members of the Resident Evil Ambassador program. RE fans always approach the series' PvP efforts with heathy skepticism (and for good reason), and Re:Verse didn't exactly make the best first impression with its debut trailer. Over 90 minutes of gameplay footage from the game's beta have been uploaded to YouTube though, and it actually looks… sort of interesting.
It still does look a little rough around the corners, and I'm sure most series fans would take a new Outbreak game over this any day of the week, but Re:Verse does seem to have some interesting ideas. Players can play against each other as one of several iconic series characters, including the likes of Leon, Chris, Jill, and Claire.
You're tasked with collecting virus samples scattered throughout the maps (ammo and health pickups can also be found), and when you die, you turn into a monster. How many virus samples you have picked up determines what monster you turn into upon dying, with the best possible option being a Tyrant. Additionally, that comic book visual filter from the game's reveal trailer (which didn't set well with a lot of people) can be turned off, so there's that. Take a look at at the video below.
Resident Evil Re:Verse is in development for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. There's no specific release date announced for the game yet, but anyone who purchases the upcoming Resident Evil Village will get Re:Verse for free as well.
PlatinumGames' Final 'Platinum 4' Announcement Will be "A Little Smaller in Scale" – Hideki Kamiya
It's been almost a year since PlatinumGames kicked off their "Platinum 4" campaign, teasing four upcoming major announcements that they would make in quick succession. The first three turned out to be The Wonderful 101: Remastered, the announcement of Project G.G, and the formation of a new studio.
The fourth announcement turned out to be a bit of a curveball, with PlatinumGames pulling an April Fool's joke (to mixed responses), before finally teasing the actual final announcement of the bunch. It's been many months since that happened though, and that announcement still isn't here… so where is it?
Speaking in a recent interview with VGC, PlatinumGames' Hideki Kamiya spoke about the same, saying that the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench into the timeline, but that it's still going to happen at some point.
"We want to reveal it at the right time, but what we can say at the moment is that this was always intended as the 'Platinum Four', so I think that the expectations should be for something extra," he said. "That being said, this is something that we've had in the works for a while.
"We wanted to get this out a little sooner but then the coronavirus happened, which I know is a common excuse, but we hope that when we can start talking about it, it will bring a smile to our fans' faces and we'll get a good reaction like, 'ah, we love those Platinum guys!"
Kamiya went on to suggest that fans should keep their expectations in check, and that the announcement is going to be a little smaller in scale.
"If we had to choose one end of the spectrum, then I'd probably say it's something a little smaller in scale," he said. "But it's still something I'm hoping fans will get a kick out of."
PlatinumGames are hoping to (finally) give a long overdue update on Bayonetta 3 this year, so here's hoping the two are connected. There's also Babylon's Fall, which they're developing with Square Enix, and I'm sure there are many people who're dying to learn more about that game.
Life is Strange Sequels Will be Developed by Deck Nine, Insider Says
With Life is Strange 2 now having been out for over a year (longer, if you consider when the season's first episode released), fans of the series have been wondering what the future holds. Dontnod Entertainment kicked the series off and then continued it with its numbered sequel, but it seems Life is Strange won't be in their hands going forward.
Taking to Twitter, insider Emily Rogers stated that all future Life is Strange projects will be handled by Deck Nine, the studio that developed Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the prequel to the first game. According to Rogers, Square Enix and Dontnod Entertainment "parted ways a long, long time ago."
Given the fact that Dontnod Entertainment have their eyes set on self-publishing and growing as a developer, it isn't that surprising to hear that they don't have plans to continue working with Square Enix. Besides, series fans can rest easy with Deck Nine's stewardship, since Before the Storm was a legitimately great game in its own right.
Recent rumours have suggested that Life is Strange 3 could be announced soon. Read more on that through here.
Just to re-iterate on my previous tweet:
Going forward, Deck Nine will handle all games related to "Life is Strange". Square and Dontnod parted ways a long, long time ago. It had very little to do with this Tencent deal.https://t.co/APJFscD1rn
— Emily Rogers (@ArcadeGirl64) January 28, 2021
10 Best Recent Free-to-Play Games You Shouldn't Skip
The free-to-play genre of video games has done nothing but continue to grow in 2020. With that, just as it has done over the past several years, the free-to-play space of video games has succeeded in maintaining its massive role in gaming and introduced a better variety of types of experiences then one who's looking into the genre from the outside might expect. While not every great free to play game of this year actually came out this year, many of them have, and the ones that haven't have undergone enough community and developer support to justify their relevance and being mentioned in our list of the best free to play games of 2020. Free to play games have lots of different sorts of experiences within it, and this list also aims to reflect that. With that, here is our list of the 10 best free games of 2020 that, if you haven't tried yet, perhaps you should consider doing so.
Valorant
Out of all of the free to play hero shooters that seemed a little more than somewhat inspired by Overwatch, Valorant is definitely one of the best. It's gotten lots of good reviews and its community seems to be doing nothing but growing since its launch back in June. Valorant doesn't reinvent the wheel with its genre but it does do enough to stand out and of course, being free to play, what do you have to lose from giving it a shot?
Bless Unleashed
There is no shortage of free to play online MMORPGs, but they are not all created equal and Bless Unleashed is definitely one of the best from this year if not one of the best from the past several years. It's got a slower more deliberate action style than a lot of other games in the genre but that also serves to make it stand apart on top of its excellent looking graphics and lush worlds that many games of this type tend to lack for whatever reason. It's not perfect, and could definitely benefit from a little bit of tweaking, but as a free to play experience it's right up there with the best of the year.
Surviv.io – 2D Battle Royale
As developers continue to scramble for new ways to cash in on the Battle Royale format, Survive.io has certainly found its own version with an incredibly simplistic 2D look that definitely has its own appeal although might feel a bit shallow to some. It does kind of look a little bit like an old Flash game from 2001, but it's also got a Hotline Miami sort of appeal as well that has gotten its hooks into many players early on and shows some promise for the future.
Spellbreak
Spellbreak is yet another game that seeks to cash in on the Battle Royale craze with its own version of it. Although unlike most Battle Royale games that rely on guns and hand-to-hand combat Spellbreak is a little bit more of a fantasy take with spells and cooldown timers. It's colorful, almost anime-like art style should be enough to catch your interest but it's the skill-based magical combats that will keep you playing if and when it's able to get its hooks into you.
Hyper Scape
Hyper Scape is something a little different in the free-to-play world that has been able to cross the bridge between people who don't normally mess with free to play games and the people who do. It's a frantic, hyperactive first person shooter, that relies heavily on insane jumping physics and incredibly fast movement that you normally only see in games like this when somebody is exploiting a game's bugs to do a speed run. Because of its frantic style Hyper Scape doesn't really have a lot of room for a careful exploration and taking in very much atmosphere, but in exchange it's a game that rarely lets up and can at the very least kill a few hours before you know it.
Remnants
Another free to play first-person shooter that has insane physics is Remnants, although unlike Hyper Scape, this is all about slowing down and exploring and taking in the world to better understand it. A little bit of combats a little bit of exploration a little bit of puzzle-solving, and a little bit of platforming all add up to this atmospheric shooter that stands out quite a bit more than it might appear at first.
Space Commander: War and Trade
The world needs more spaceship shooting simulation games like this one. Given that Space Commander is a pretty good-looking game with a hefty trading economy and reasonably satisfying combat, you might be surprised to realize that it's free to play. The game so far has enjoyed fairly good reviews on Steam and it's looking like a future could be bright for this one. If it looks like something that might appeal to you, odds are, it is, and you of course have nothing to lose by giving it a chance.
Rocket League
Rocket League has been around for a while, but it was made for you to play and that was a very logical step for the game to maintain its relevance and see another nice new wave of players. Unless you lived under a rock for the past six or seven years, you probably don't need much of an introduction to Rocket League. It's just one of the most fun things to come out of this generation and the fact that it's free-to-play means everyone can give it a shot.
Destiny 2: New Light
Speaking of developers who made their game free to play, Destiny 2 is perhaps one of the best examples of what can happen when the developer is extremely passionate about their game and is willing to overhaul it over time to continue to make it into something special. While Destiny 2: New Light might not have totally rescued the reputation that the first game gave the franchise, it certainly goes a long way towards it, and it does have enough going for it to keep the series going well after 2021. Because of meaty expansions like Beyond Light, Destiny fans and newcomers alike all have plenty of reason to play Destiny 2 in 2021 and well beyond.
Genshin Impact
Here's one that is very likely to go the distance as a classic free to play game for many years to come. Genshin Impact is one part action RPG, one part open-world exploration game, one part mobile game, and a little bit of Breath of the Wild thrown in for good measure. It takes place in its own fictional world and has a setting all its own, despite borrowing some ideas from other things, (which all games do). It's a game that has been crossing that bridge between fans of deep RPGs and fans of simple, pick-up-and-play games in a way that few games seem to be able to do, much less free to play ones. Managing your elemental, stamina-based abilities while exploring every nook and cranny of the world is the name of the game here, and given that the game is so well put together, and provides a good sense of progression without any extra financial investment, its likely it will continue to prevail as one of the best free to play experiences out there.
GTA 6 Could Use Rockstar's New NPC AI Patent in Very Interesting Ways
One of the most important things about open-world games, and what makes them believable is the various behaviors of NPCs. It's one of those things that, if everything goes off without a hitch and works perfectly, it's not really noticed or celebrated all that much. Good NPC behavior is rarely given the praise or adulation it deserves. The opposite, however, is just as true for bad NPC behavior, or NPCs with irrational movements, odd gesturing, or inhuman appearances. It's an unfortunate reality of game development that so many well-crafted NPCs have and will continue to go unappreciated, but they do add to the game's overall authenticity in subtle ways that do ultimately matter a lot. If for nothing else, then to avoid the distraction of illogical behavior.
Creating believable NPCs for open-world games has been a slow climb for developers, and noticeable results of that climb are few and far between, again, mostly because it's the ones that fail to fade into the background that end up being noticed, but they have come a long way over the last ten years or so, and the calibration of non-playable characters for video games has gotten more complex over the years. Knowing all of that, it should be of surprise to no one that NPC behavior has been getting some more attention on the back-end from developers. Most notably from some of the developers that really need it the most, like Rockstar.
Back in April of 2019, Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive filed a patent for a new NPC system that primarily focuses on handling NPC movement, routing, and general behavior. The new system is called "System And Method For Virtual Navigation In A Gaming Environment" which might not be the most flashy name ever given to a system of codes, but still nonetheless promises to bring a lot to the table in terms of upgrading what we can expect from NPCs in future Rockstar games. The new system was headed up by Rockstar's Simon Parr, and David Hynd – two of the higher-ups over at the technical side of Rockstar, and given the pedigree behind the patent it makes sense with how fundamentally monumental it really is. One of the bigger elements of this will be impacting how vehicles behave, which makes sense as a car or boat behaving weirdly is far more noticeable than a random person on the sidewalk somewhere, so it's easy to understand why vehicles were given such a priority here.
Boats, cars, busses, and other sorts of crafts will be able to, within this system, not just understand where they are going and how fast they're getting there, but will also have advanced knowledge of how fast to approach certain turns, how long it might take to slow down for a red light, and the ability to judge their own acceleration. All of this alone will result in far more realistic traffic behavior in all areas. Cars slowing down gradually, using logic to turn corners in safe, realistic ways, and just generally having more of a grasp of their vehicle-type what its limitations are, much like you do when you take over a vehicle in Grand Theft Auto 5. The implications of this are pretty vast, as you could also apply this to pedestrian NPCs and it could help them slow down when getting close to another object or person and adjusting their walking or running speed accordingly to whatever they're doing, whether it be running from a giant explosion or walking across a busy street. If it sounds like it's subtle, well, that's because it kind of is. But as we touched on earlier, the entire field of NPC creation is a subtle one to begin with. Great advancements and achievements are rarely pointed out, but rather just serve as a way to lift up the entirety of the experience and add to it's authenticity. The best-designed NPCs are the ones that you don't even really think about.
The patent didn't stop there though. It also mentioned something of a much grander scale. One part of the description of the patent specifically mentioned "virtual navigation and management of objects in a multiplayer network gaming community." And again, the implications do give the mind a lot to ponder here. Is this referring to online experiences? Seems like it. And if that's the case does that mean that the next big Rockstar game is going to be multiplayer-focused? I don't want to make too many assumptions but it's hard to not draw a straight line from point A to point B on that one. And when you consider how successful Grand Theft Auto 5's online mode has been, coupled with the fact that we all know Grand Theft Auto 6 is definitely on the way, we could very well be in for Rockstar's most robust online mode of all time in Grand Theft Auto 6 or whatever their next game is.
There is even more credence added to this theory with the fact that this entire system is purportedly meant to operate through a network connection. game developers have long been looking for ways to supersede the limitations of whatever hardware their game is on. Whether that be through visual tricks like baked in shadows or 2-dimensional objects made to look 3D, or other sneaky means to make games look and act better than you would think that console could allow. It appears the days of visual tricks might be over though if this patent turns out to be as revolutionary as it's clearly aiming to be. With all of this technology going over a network connection, the relative power of your PlayStation 4, 5, Xbox One, or Series X won't really matter. All that will really matter is the reliability of your internet connection whatever it is. We still don't really know if it requires some sort of huge download upload speed, but odds are it's probably something fairly generous, so the biggest thing to worry about is whether or not the game that includes this system will require an always-online connection to use, and if the system turns out the way this patent seems to imply, that will probably be the case.
So this could basically mean one of two things: either the next big Rockstar game with this NPC system will be an online focused experience, or it will be a regular game with an offline campaign that still requires an internet connection to use this NPC system. So regardless of how revolutionary this new system for NPC navigation is, I think Rockstar needs to tread lightly into this territory. While more and more people are ready for online connectivity, there are still plenty who are not, and still yet plenty of those who are but still don't like the idea of connectivity for a variety of other reasons. If there isn't a way to take advantage of this system offline, then it's going to require an incentive to get people to buy the game that uses it at the numbers Rockstar is used to. With how subtle the advances in NPC development tend to be, it could very well be a nice piece of technology that doesn't really get its point across if it's not handled exactly right in terms of its implementation.
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.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits Has the Potential to be One of 2021's Biggest Surprises
There are a lot of great games coming up for this year and much of next, so it can be difficult to really drill down on any one game and totally wrap your mind around it's potential. Many of the more highly anticipated games of 2021 are huge, big-budget masterclass AAA games, and there's certainly nothing wrong with paying attention to those, but there are plenty of other games that are perfectly positioned to come out and surprise us. These games might not be getting the most google searches or generating the most interest at the moment, but that doesn't preclude them from being outstanding experiences necessarily. Kena: Bridge of Spirits is clearly one such game. While there is no doubt that it has some stiff competition, and it may not surpass the likes of Horizon Forbidden West, it still could have a great shot at being one of the biggest games of the year.
For one, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is keen on bringing a fun, vibrant look to the action adventure genre that we just plain don't see enough of. While most games in this genre tend to concentrate on realism and ultra high-fidelity in-game assets, Kena seems to be striking a noticeably different balance on that with a look that I wouldn't quite call "cartoony" as it is clearly detailed with tons of modern post-processing, but it might remind one of Overwatch before, say, Horizon. This isn't necessarily an objective positive for the game, but it is something that will help the game stand out among what is sure to be a healthy plethora of action-adventure games that are sure to come out this year. It will stand out on digital store fronts and on physical store shelves and that could easily lead to bigger sales and more general popularity down the road.
Kena herself, the world she inhabits, as well as the little creatures who follow her called "the Rot" are all drenched in style, so it's looking like a very appealing package visually that is sure to compliment Kena's other facets. Supposedly some of the artists behind this game also worked on a fairly popular fan film of Majora's Mask called "Terrible Fate" that set the fan film community on fire for its stunning look. So given that the team of Ember Lab has so much talent behind it in this department, it should be no surprise that we're in for a feast for our eyes here. It also doesn't hurt that the story revolves around Kena being a spirit guide who spends her life helping spirits caught in between realms move on to the next phase of their existence. This of course opens up lots of opportunities for interesting and compelling story threads to be rampant in the game.
The glimmers of Zelda in this game's DNA don't stop there though, as the game is clearly designed in a similarly fantastical fantasy world full of secrets, exploration, and magic that Kena must use and confront to restore her world. The overgrown flora, saturated colors, and expertly designed world all seem to beckon to anyone even remotely interested in these sorts of fantasy settings, and while we don't quite know how the world is set up quite yet, this look does lend itself well to semi-open world, segment-driven exploration. So assuming that's the direction they go into, we could be in for a game that not only grabs our attention, but is more than capable of keeping it. This is not looking like a game that you're just going to get through and put it away. There will be totally missable secrets to uncover, story threads to tie up, perhaps even totally optional areas and quests to explore. It doesn't look like it's focused on outdoing open world fantasy games in terms of overall scope, but it does appear to be aiming at matching them in terms of quality and general intrigue, if not exceeding them in that regard.
None of the outstanding visuals or lovingly created characters would mean a whole lot if the gameplay didn't bring something outstanding to the table though, and it looks like Kena: Bridge of Spirits is aiming to knock this element out of the park as well. The game will have a combat system that we've come to know in this sort of game. Expect the fairly predictable light, heavy, and charged attacks to work how they generally do in most action games. Expect upgrades that allow Kena's staff to become a magical bow, as well as a shield that Kena can generate with her pulse ability to protect herself from attacks for as long as that shield can hold out. And expect a healthy variety of interesting enemies to use this combat system on to dispose of them in the game's fast-paced combat. Kena is definitely checking all of the boxes in the combat department, but perhaps in doing so might be creating a bit of a blind spot for itself if it doesn't do much else with it. We'll have to get our hands on the game to know for sure, but we can clearly see from the footage that's already been released that the game will be at the very least totally competent in this area.
Speaking of doing something a little different, Kena isn't just approaching the action-adventure genre so it can check off all the action-adventure boxes. Ember Lab also have a few tricks up their sleeves with the help of "the Rot" a collection of little creatures that we don't know a lot about yet, but we do know they can be very helpful for Kena in various situations. They seem to be mostly geared towards being a puzzle solving mechanic, which would be fine if that's all they really are, but here's hoping that Ember Lab does more with them than that with perhaps getting them involved with combat and/or the overall narrative in interesting ways. The potential is certainly there for that.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits does not appear to be a game that is trying to out-dazzle Horizon Forbidden West, nor is it trying to overpower God of War: Ragnarok – and wisely so – but it does appear to be aiming at taking some major liberties with the action adventure genre and nudging those predictable mechanics in a new direction with quality graphics, Zelda-like storytelling and world design, some solid combat, and perhaps a dash of Pikmin-style puzzle solving thrown in for good measure. Whether or not those ingredients add up to being more than the sum of their parts or just equal to them will largely come down to execution. There is nothing wrong with not being the most inventive game of the year, in fact, most of the best games ever made aren't even close to inventing their genre, but rather stand on the shoulders of similar games before them while adding in their own flavor. But there is no denying that the potential is certainly there for Kena to not only be one of the biggest games of 2021, but also a new iconic character in video games that we end up learning more about and wanting to see more of for many years to come.
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.
Eternal Darkness Was One Hell of a Game
As fans of good games generally know, the early-2000s was a fantastic time for horror games and adventure games alike. Technology had rapidly jumped up a notch from the 32-bit era, yet games were still cheap enough to make that they weren't massive risks that had hundreds of millions of dollars attached to them, so all kinds of crazy ideas could still wind up on store shelves and gamers were far less derivative of each other as they are now. As a result, we got a lot of high budget classics, as well as even more mid-range games that had a lot of the production value that we expected from bigger games but weren't afraid to cross breed different genres and ideas from different corners in gaming to create unique, memorable experiences. Not everything worked out, but that's the deal with being creative.
One of the better games from sort of the middle of the budgetary range was Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. This is a game that tried some interesting ideas, and ended up benefitting from the vast majority of them. With a game as incomparable as Eternal Darkness, it can be sort of difficult to quantify exactly what makes it such a great game, but we have to at least give it a shot, because a game like this deserves to be recognized for the risks it took, how well it managed them, and how ultimately successful it was in delivering it's vision to players.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem could be described as an adventure game crossing over with classic survival horror like Resident Evil. With an elevator pitch like that it's easy to imagine where it could have gone wrong. Action-adventure games are often associated with lots of movement, power, and freedom while survival horror games, especially from that era, are often associated with claustrophobia, limited abilities, and vulnerability. These are two philosophies that might seem like they're at odds and destined to clash at every turn. This is why back then, and even more so today, these two types of games generally don't have a lot of crossover in fear of turning into something like Resident Evil 6 as it ends up pleasing nobody despite trying to please everyone. Mixing action and horror is a tough road to walk if you do it that way, where the horror aesthetic is driven by essentially the gameplay of an action game.
But Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem flips the ratio on that by making an adventure game aesthetic driven with survival horror gameplay. Fixed camera angles, atmospheric lighting, somewhat stilted combat, key-oriented puzzles, you know the drill. But it is improved upon somewhat with more friendly-3D control as opposed to the classic tank controls of its ancestors. It also lets the camera flow around most areas, creating a smooth transition from one angle to the next instead of the sudden cuts that can make walking around in some survival horror games a little disorienting and jarring at times. The game is also broken up into separated levels which minimizes backtracking and your chances of getting lost. This general attitude of taking the groundwork of classic survival horror gameplay and improving on it in subtle – yet effective – ways is a big part of why Eternal Darkness works so well.
The combat system in Eternal Darkness contains perhaps the more interesting and engaging tweaks it introduces into the survival horror framework, and it's certainly the element you'll notice first, and most often. Eternal Darkness' melee weapons as well as projectiles and firearms have a nice aiming mechanism that helps you direct your blows without breaking immersion like, say, Parasite Eve did with it's almost turn-based JRPG approach to combat. While survival horror games of that era and before it did technically usually allow you to aim a weapon up or down, they rarely gave you much of an indication of how that shot would impact the enemy you're aiming at without breaking the mood of the fight with complex interfaces and stopping the moment. Usually, games with this combat would just stay on the safe side and let you figure out the rules of aiming on your own. While that did protect the fragile purity of the horror, it would come at the cost of a steep and occasionally frustrating learning curve. Sometimes, you'd get the headshot of a zombie that's right in front of you, sometimes you'd miss, it was just a crapshoot a lot of the time.
But Eternal Darkness approached that problem with an elegant solution of highlighting the exact body part you're aiming at and letting you select the portion of the body you wanted to attack with the GameCube's analog stick in real-time. This would result in the game highlighting the enemy's torso, head, or other extremities for a quick and simple indication of what you are poised to hit should you choose to hit the attack button at that time. This does perhaps come at the cost of a little bit of immersion for some horror enthusiasts, but I think it's a fair trade for how much more playable it makes the combat. Infact, I think this simple solution makes the combat in Eternal Darkness one of the best combat systems in the entire adventure/horror genre. At least from this era. It lets you have your cake and eat it too, with the atmosphere and tension that a fixed camera can provide, but minimizing the stiffness and imprecision that it can bring to the combat of so many other similar games.
Of course, this isn't nearly as big of a deal as the sanity meter in Eternal Darkness. The sanity meter is something that can make or break you during play, as it goes down with every monster encounter and other moments. This is something you want to avoid as much as possible, as the game will absolutely start turning your experience upside down with more disorienting camera angles, strange voices, and even your items disappearing from your inventory. It messes with you the player more than with your actual character in a way that reaches near Hideo Kojima levels of wackiness. If you've ever played a Clock Tower game or Amnesia, you'll probably recognize the general idea of how the sanity meter works, but Eternal Darkness turns this up to 11 and really leans into it to, I think, great effect.
This is where a lot of the game's finer audio and visual design elements start to show themselves with cool effects and noises that you rarely saw or heard in games from this time, and even less often on the GameCube. Some of them are so fun and entertaining that you might want to play through certain sections multiple times just to see more of them. However, as these "sanity effects" are technically not regarded as a good thing by the context of the game, you do eventually need to snap out of them or avoid them to progress as intended. Your character's grip on reality can be repaired through either executing enemies or casting one of the game's many spells. Spells are also used for solving puzzles, revealing doors, and even buffing weapons, so there is that little dash of fantasy in the mix that makes the game all the more unique among its contemporaries.
Overall, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is a game worth playing for many reasons. It's not the scariest horror game, nor is it the most intuitive action game, but it's ability to improve on some of the blind spots of survival horror gameplay while providing some fun action and a well-paced story do make it stand out among both genres. While the plot does bounce around the timeline a bit much for my taste and the horror isn't particularly scary most of the time, it's still an incredibly unique game that manages to gracefully meld many great ideas that normally wouldn't go together at all. For all of this, it's definitely one hell of a game.
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.
Halo Infinite – Joseph Staten Seems To Be Head Of Creative Now At 343 Industries
While the hope was to have Halo Infinite at the launch of the Xbox Series X/S, the game instead was pushed back into the Fall of this year. While the developer has pledged to start some high level updates on the game, it hasn't quite panned out just yet. It does, however, seem like something behind the scenes for 343 Industries has potentially changed.
Long time Halo fans probably know the name Joseph/Joe Staten as someone who was at Bungie and a key part of the the franchise's writing and narrative. He came on to Halo Infinite as Project Lead after the big delay last year. It seems he's moved up at the studio as his LinkedIn now lists him as Head of Creative for the entirety of 343 Industries. That position is generally referred to as someone who will oversee all creative output as well as long term strategy. Of course, all studios are different, so the position may be different at 343, so we can't say for sure what this role change means in the grand scheme.
Halo Infinite is set to release in the Fall for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC.
On paper, Marvel's Avengers seemed like it would almost certainly be a massive slam dunk for Square Enix, but as has been detailed, did not seem to do near expectations. The game has certainly had some setbacks, but the plan is to continue on with DLC, and now we know when we'll be getting a look at the next one, as well as next gen information.
Last month saw the release of Kate Bishop. Next month we will get a deep dive into the next character, another archer that many will know well: Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye. They will be showing Operation: Hawkeye – Future Imperfect, and the picture hints at Maestro, an evil and powerful alternate future version of the Hulk.
It's also worth noting here that they also list as showing PS5, Xbox Series X information. The game was going to launch alongside the new consoles last November, but was delayed until sometime in 2021. It's unclear if they will finally reveal dates for native versions on those systems or just upgrades to existing backwards compatibility versions. We'll find out next month.
Marvel's Avengers is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Stadia. The Hawkeye deep dive will go live on February 16th.
Get a glimpse of the future with our WAR TABLE Deep Dive: Hawkeye, premiering on February 16!
We'll be showing:
Marvel's Avengers Operation: Hawkeye – Future Imperfect
PS5 & Xbox Series X|S
Like our previous Deep Dive, this will be directly uploaded and not livestreamed. pic.twitter.com/3aD2H5ST1T
— Marvel's Avengers (@PlayAvengers) January 28, 2021
Destruction AllStars Confirmed To Support Adaptive Triggers And Haptic Feedback
Next month will get the next PS5 exclusive title, next generation-only title, Destruction AllStars. As opposed to Sony's previous next gen-only title, Demon's Souls, AllStars is a full on multiplayer experience. The game got a recent showcase, which you can read about and watch in full through here, and now we know a few other things that you can look forward to using.
The game's digital listing has been updated since the beforehand mentioned showcase. One thing that it does confirm is that the game will make use of the PS5's DualSense controller features, Adaptive Triggers and Haptic Feedback, alongside hyping up the game's visuals, audio and near instant loading via the SSD. Unfortunately, there are no actual details on what that entails, but it does seem like Lucid Dreams is looking to get the most out of its exclusive status.
Destruction AllStars will launch February 2nd only on PlayStation 5 as part of PlayStation Plus, alongside Control: Ultimate Edition and Concrete Genie.