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Biomutant's Mercenary Class Can be Purchased Separately Post-Launch

biomutant

THQ Nordic and Experiment 101 released a new trailer for Biomutant today, highlighting the different weapons and techniques that can be used in combat. However, it also revealed a class that could be obtained on pre-ordering – The Mercenary. In a press release, the developer provided more details on the class, which can be purchased separately after the game's launch.

The Mercenary has the ability to dual-wield and starts with a katana and wakizashi. It can be played from the very beginning, though more information on the "unique combination of perks" has yet to be provided. The class is available with digital pre-orders and physical special editions like the Collector's Edition and Atomic Edition.

The incentive is meant to provide a "slightly better deal" for those who pre-order the game as opposed to purchasing it and then the Mercenary class later. When the Mercenary class can be purchased separately post-launch has yet to be revealed. Biomutant is currently slated to release for Xbox One, PS4 and PC on May 25th. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

Humankind Delayed to August 17th

Humankind

Amplitude Studios' ambitious 4X strategy title Humankind has been delayed. It will now be releasing on August 17th instead of in April. In an official statement on Twitter, chief creative officer Romain de Waubert said that the developer wants to "honor the community's expectations" for the title.

Revealing that Humankind was "the game we dreamed of creating," Waubert said that the extra time would allow Amplitude to "keep working with the community and polishing" the title for "an amazing day one experience." The developer also announced a Twitch stream at 10 AM PDT where it would provide more details on the delay. It also thanked fans who supported the Lucy OpenDev, which offered a 100-turn scenario spread over four eras for a limited time in December.

In development for PC and Stadia, Humankind functions a lot like Civilization as players progress through major eras in history, building cities and developing their civilization. The main hook is that your civilization can be a mix of different templates, providing different bonuses and penalties. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Biomutant Trailer Highlights Ranged Combat, Combos and Elemental Attacks

biomutant

Following its reveal in 2017, THQ Nordic's Biomutant would see sporadic details over the years. However, it's now on track to release this May, bringing its brand of open world exploration and combat to previous gen consoles. The latest trailer highlights some of tools that players can use in battle – check it out below.

Biomutant offers both ranged and melee combat with weapons ranging from rifles and machine guns to elemental weapons that shock or freeze foes on hit. It's also possible to switch weapons in the middle of combat. As you explore the world, you'll find different parts which can be used to craft weapons with unique affixes.

Biomutant is out on May 25th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC though it will also be playable on Xbox Series X/S and PS5. Pre-ordering the title nets the Mercenary class, which provides a "unique combination of perks." As for other classes and their perk combinations, we'll have to wait for more details on the same so stay tuned.

Immortals Fenyx Rising – Myths of the Eastern Realm DLC is Out Now

Immortals Fenyx Rising - Myths of the Eastern Realm

The second paid DLC for Immortals Fenyx Rising, Myths of the Eastern Realm, is now available for all platforms. Departing from the Ancient Greece setting of the base game, the DLC is inspired by Chinese mythology. It sees a new protagonist Ku assisting the Goddess Nuwa to save Heaven and Earth.

Along with meeting Chinese deities, players will battle ancient beasts and solve puzzles. There's even Ruins in the Heavens, optional challenges akin to the Vaults of Tartaros. Much of the combat will be familiar to base game players though there are new abilities to learn.

Immortals Fenyx Rising – Myths of the Eastern Realm is live for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Google Stadia, Nintendo Switch and PC, either standalone or as part of the season passs. For more details on the base game, check out our review here. The Lost Gods is the third and final DLC, and provides top-down hack and slash style gameplay with a new hero named Ash. Stay tuned for more details on its release in the coming months.

Halo Infinite Actor Says the Game Will Launch in November

Halo Infinite campaign_04

Halo Infinite was originally supposed to have launch last November alongside the Xbox Series X/S, but Microsoft and 343 Industries chose to give the game additional development time, delaying it by a whole year. Currently, it officially only has a rough Fall 2021 launch window, but that have been narrowed down a little further.

Speaking with GamesRadar, actor Verlon Roberts, who confirms he's done voice acting and motion capture for Halo Infinite, may have let slip the new intended launch window, stating that the game is currently scheduled for November of this year.

"[I auditioned] for the video game, Halo Infinite, which was supposed to already be out, but with the pandemic and everything, and then I think they had some leadership changes, so now it's pushed to later – November of this year," he said.

Elsewhere in the interview, Roberts also revealed that he plays the role of Spartan Griffin, a character that you might recognize from the novel Shadow of Reach, but who has never made an appearance in a Halo game, and hasn't yet been officially confirmed for Infinite. According to Roberts, who says he's shot motion capture scenes with the actor of Master Chief as well, Spartan Griffin and the Master Chief will also appear in scenes together in the upcoming first person shooter.

Whenever Halo Infinite launches, it will be available for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. 343 Industries recently revealed a bunch of new details on the shooter, talking about its open world gameplay, story structure, and more. Red about it all through the links.

Bethesda Game Studios Says Transition To Working Under Microsoft Has Been Smooth

xbox bethesda acquisition

Well, it's official. After announcing that Microsoft intended to purchase Bethesda via buying out their parent company Zenimax, the once independent third party publisher is now under the umbrella of Microsoft. While we probably won't feel the full impact of that move on the industry for a few years, it does seem as of it's going well for the developers involved for now.

Shortly after the reveal of the latest content roadmap for Fallout 76, several developers participated in a Reddit AMA. While the focus on it was obviously about Fallout 76, it was asked what the transition has been like with the recent buyout. Project Lead Jeff Gardiner stated that it's been smooth so far, and that they look forward to working with them for future projects, saying, "The transition to working with Microsoft has gone very smoothly and we're excited to be able to partner with them for all things Fallout into the future."

Of course, if you want to play the cynic, it's doubtful that had there been some issues that someone would go out of there way to mention it, but let's try and be positive. New entries in the Fallout series will be exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem, or the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem at least, so let's hope all really is well.

Turn-Based Strategy RPG Black Legend is Out Now

black legend

Warcave's turn-based strategy RPG Black Legend hasn't been grabbing a lot of headlines, but if you're a fan of the genre, there's a pretty good chance that you've kept an eye on the game. And it's now out (on pretty much every active platform out there right now), so you can get your hands on it if you're interested. Check out its launch trailer below.

Black Legend is set in the fictional 17th century inspired city of Grant. A thick fog has settled over the city and inflicts madness upon anyone who gets caught in it, while a cult that worships that fog has also taken control of the streets, driving the city into chaos, with the responsibility to restore order set on your shoulders. The grid-based and turn-based combat system mixes the classic mechanics of strategy RPGs with an alchemy system.

In our review of the game, we awarded Black Legend a 7/10, saying, "Black Legend might not be an unmissable game, but it's still one that fans of strategy RPGs should definitely have on their radar." You can read our full review through here.

Black Legend is available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Metal Gear Solid 5 Would Shine With the Snyder Cut Treatment

In 2017, while Marvel and Disney were on top of the world with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC and WB were scrambling to catch up. But where the former had worked towards their spectacular success by patiently building towards it over the course of multiple films across several years, the latter wanted to skip ahead and get straight to the point where they could release a big superhero team up movie and rake in the cash. It was blatantly hasty, driven by a desperate need to catch up with a steamrolling competitor- but Zack Snyder, the man who was responsible for ensuring that the DC Extended Universe could get to that point, had a vision. And though there were many who weren't big fans of what he was doing, he was, if nothing else, building towards that vision in a consistent manner.

2017's theatrical cut of Justice League was a slap in the face to those who believed in that vision. It was a far cry from the movie that Snyder had been making and had been on track to release. Entire crucial plot lines were cut out, action sequences were neutered, the film's tone was mutated into something it was never supposed to be, character development was ruined. Thanks to a ton of trimming and reshoots by a man who didn't understand what the tone of the story and the film was supposed to be, the 2017 theatrical cut of Justice League was, in no vague terms, a trainwreck. Recently, however, after years of demands from fans, WB released the Snyder Cut, allowing the man to show the world what movie he had originally been working on. And make no mistake- though it's far from perfect, it's an entirely different film from the one we saw in 2017, and significantly better, too.

There are plenty of examples of video games that would benefit from that sort of treatment as well, but the one that comes to mind before almost anything else is, of course, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. The 2015 open world title had a lot going for it, but in so many ways, it was a disappointment to long time series fans. In the years since then, it has become clear that there was a plethora content that was cut out, both from gameplay and story. Content being cut out from games is an extremely common occurrence- it's actually kind of impossible to name a game that didn't have content cut out during development. But Metal Gear Solid 5 in particular had to chop out a lot of crucial stuff. And so here we are, wistfully thinking about what it would be like if the impossible came to pass, and we got to play a hypothetical Kojima Cut.

The most obvious improvements a hypothetical Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 5 would make would be, of course, to the story. In its current state, The Phantom Pain's plot is full of massive gaps that fans have had to fill in for themselves, and the biggest of these comes right at the end. Episode 51 doesn't exist in the game that Konami released (at least not the way it was supposed to), which is still a real shock, because datamining over the last few years has uncovered just how crucial it was going to be. Not only was it going to be set in an island that wasn't part of any other mission in the game, from a story perspective, it was going to wrap up Eli's (or Liquid Snake's) storyline for the game. The ending to that episode was a pivotal moment for Liquid Snake, and would have served as the perfect setup for his story in future games, tying The Phantom Pain into Metal Gear Solid 1 in particular perfectly.

Having that content included in the game would also make the ending shown in Episode 46 much more palatable. In its current state, Episode 46 is a particularly hard pill to swallow, not only because it sort of ruins the whole legend of Big Boss, but also because of how jarringly abrupt it feels. There's very little buildup for that ending, and when you're about to throw a twist as big as that one at the player, you need buildup- and if not, buildup, you at least need something of an epilogue. In the years since The Phantom Pain came out, fans have had to connect the dots between its ending and the beginning of Metal Gear 1 themselves, but the ideal scenario, of course, would have been a game that does that itself. Talk about how the Diamond Dogs morphed into Big Boss' military state of Outer Heaven, about how Venom Snake and Big Boss went from fighting to protect child soldiers and rescuing animals to leading an army of terrorists who're harbouring weapons of mass destruction.

metal gear solid 5

And then there are the info tapes, which contain some of the most crucial narrative elements in the entire game. So many of the loose ends in the story, so many inconsistencies, so many plot holes are addressed by these info tapes. Crucial plot points about Zero, Paz, Ocelot, Huey, and Skull Face, pivotal conversations and scenes between some of the most major players in the series' overarching story, connections to plot points from earlier in the series' chronology, and setup for threads that would be picked up by later games- it's shocking how much stuff there is in these info tapes, but what's even more shocking is that all of this is relegated to audio logs that can be entirely missed by the player. It's great that this stuff is in the game, of course, but how much better would it be if it was all included in the game in the form of actual cutscenes and direct storytelling? This stuff would have solved so many of the problems that currently exist in the game.

Then there are other narrative flaws that a director's cut of Metal Gear Solid 5 could address. The Skull Unit is currently a faceless group of nameless soldiers with no personalities and no backgrounds, which is such a far cry from the extensive character development we've typically gotten for the bosses and bad guys in all Metal Gear games. Concept art discovered in the book The Art of Metal Gear Solid V has suggested that Kojima was originally planning on keeping Chico alive in The Phantom Pain, and have him returned as a grizzles, scarred, battle-hardened recruit for the Diamond Dogs, and that would have been absolutely awesome to see. Meanwhile, characters such as Code Talker, and more could be given proper, definitive resolutions to their arcs.

And of course, it's not just the story that would benefit hugely from a Snyder Cut-style treatment of Metal Gear Solid 5. The gameplay, too, would ideally see massive improvements. Chapter 2, for instance, is full of missions that are just remixed versions of missions from Chapter 1, but if development constraints for a director's cut were not a consideration, that wouldn't be the case. The open world, meanwhile, could see heavy improvements, with more enemy patrols, more enemy convoys, more enemy bases. Things such as guard dogs and battle gear – both of which were originally supposed to be in the game and would have made both stealth and combat so much more exciting – could be restored. Admittedly, some of this stuff has been addressed by fan-made mods, but how awesome would it have been if these things were, you know, actually in the game to begin with? How excellent would it have been if we had gotten the chance to take on Skull Face in an actual boss fight, rather than seeing the game's main villain die in a cutscene?

metal gear solid 5 the phantom pain

Of course, it's highly, highly unlikely that any of this will end up happening. Even if Konami does ever decide to go back to the Metal Gear IP in a meaningful manner (which doesn't seem likely at this point), something like this would require massive time and financial investments, and I'm not so sure they would see the value on that- to say nothing of the complicated relationship between Konami and Hideo Kojima, and how difficult that would make it for a venture like this to ever come to fruition. So yeah, there's almost no chance that Konami will ever release the Kojima Cut. But we can always dream, right? We can always dream.

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.

Bokeh Game Studio Shares Potential Concept Art From First Game

Bokeh Game Studio_First Game

Last year saw the departure of several key members of Sony Japan, including the Creator of Silent Hill, who has now gone on to form his own independent studio, Bokeh Game Studio. They are working on a new game, but it won't be out for quite some time. In the meantime, though, we have gotten a few teases, including a new one recently.

The developer released a video that had lots of teaser artwork for whatever the new project will be, which you can see through here. They've also taken to Twitter to post a new piece of what looks to be potential concept art from the new game. It's quite a bit different from the previous material, giving off a much more western occult vibe than the disturbing transformations of the older one.

The game is being targeted for a release at some point in 2023, but nothing is known about it as of now.

Final Fantasy 11 Mobile Has Been Officially Cancelled

Final Fantasy 11

Final Fantasy 11 was the franchise's first foray into the MMO space, and while it never quite took off to the same extent as Final Fantasy 14, it still held a special place for some. For roughly six years, a mobile version of the game has said to be in development from Nexon, who even stated it was still being worked on as early as a year ago. However, it was reported from anonymous sources at the end of 2020 that the game had finally been cancelled. Now, it seems that is official. 

As reported originally by Gamebiz, Nexon stated in their most recent financial report that the mobile version of the game, originally commissioned in March of 2015, had quietly been canned. There isn't many details given, only that it was not meeting expectations. The title's development was halted at the end of last year, matching up with the rumors mentioned above, and then officially cancelled. 

Final Fantasy 11 originally released for PS2 and PC, with a Xbox 360 version coming later. The servers for the PS2 and 360 editions have since been shut down, but the game remains running on PC.