Crash Bandicoot Voice Actors Tease "Fun New Project"
Crash Bandicoot might not be dead yet. That was a real concern after a report that every studio at Activision was working on Call of Duty that was followed up by reports that Crash Bandicoot developer Toys for Bob was hit with layoffs, which Activision denied. But Crash might be alive yet. At the very least, its voice actors are up to something, according to an Instagram post from Scott Whyte, the voice of Crash himself.
White shared an image of himself and Neo Cortex voice talent Lex Lang on Instagram. The two can be seen on a video call, woking, as Whyte describes it, "on a fun new project." Whyte does say that that "this one is not another Crash game", before adding "or is it?"
Activision previously said that Toys for Bob would continue supporting Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, but since the game is already out, it's hard to imagine what this could be besides new content, especially given the history of these two voice actors. We'll just have to wait and see.
WB Games "Getting Broken Up" as AT&T Unloads Media Business in Sale/Merger
WB Games is getting broken up as AT&T sells off most of its media businesses in a sale/merger with Discovery, AT&T announced today. Warner Media, WB Games' parent company, will merge with Discovery to form a a new company that's already being billed as "one of the largest global streaming players."
AT&T will receive $43 billion in the sale, and its shareholders will receive stock that will make up 71% of the new company. The sale is expected to be finalized next year. WB Games is made up of a lot of 11 studios: Rocksteady, NetherRealm, Monolith, TT Games, Avalanche Software, WB Games Montréal, WB Games Boston, WB Games Los Angeles, WB Games San Francisco, WB Games San Diego, and WB Games New York.
WB Games wasn't explicitly mentioned in the announcement, but a spokesperson told Axios that the publisher will be broken up in some way, as reported on Twitter by Stephen Totilo. "Some of the gaming arm will stay with AT&T and some will go with the new company," the spokesperson said. It is currently unknown which studios will go where.
WB Games is getting broken up somehow due to AT&T's WarnerMedia-Discovery sale/merger. "Some of the gaming arm will stay with AT&T and some will go with the new company," rep tells Axios' @sarafischer. No further info. WB Games lists 11 studios, games for all kinds of IP, devices
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) May 17, 2021
PlayStation Talents Bringing Aeterna Noctis on PS4 and PS5 in December
PlayStation Talents is a relatively low-profile program Sony uses to help small studios in Spain bring their games to consoles. The latest game from the initiative will be Aeternum Game Studios' Aeterna Noctis, which will release on PS4 and PS5 on December 15th, 2021. Aeterna Noctis is a gorgeous 2D adventure built around fast-paced combat and puzzle-platforming.
According to a PlayStation Blog post, players will take on the role of the King of Darkness, will put their skills – including dashing and teleportation – to the test as they unlock the world's secrets and hidden paths. "You can improve your abilities through a huge skill tree, choosing between three different paths: ranged, melee and magic. Allowing you to personalize your playstyle and use six unique weapons and powerful skills."
The game will feature 16 different areas to explore, more than 100 hundred enemies, and 20 bosses. The studio claims Aeterna Noctis is about 20 hours long, but that time can be extended by doing sidequests. "Not only are those quests designed to test you, they've been designed to add to the game's lore, enriching the story of the King of Darkness' journey to regain the power of Aeterna."
You can watch a trailer for the game below:
Subnautica Gets Huge File Size Reduction on PS5
Sony has spoken before about how the PlayStation 5's SSD would be a major shift for the industry. We've already seen its ability to reduce loads times, with games like Resident Evil Village having nearly instantaneous load times. Now, we're also starting to see another benefit of the console's unique SSD: reduced file sizes.
Many games on PS5 are just smaller than their PS4 versions. The latest to prove that point in Subnautica, which is currently available for a free upgrade on PS5. As reported by Twisted Voxel, the PS4 version of Subnautica was 7 GB when it released and is now 14 after all of the game's updates. On PS5, Subnautica is 3.5 GB. That's 70% smaller than the PS4 release while still including the same amount of content.
The difference is possible because of the new compression techniques the PS5 employs. The techniques are obviously impressive, and should help reduce some of the bloated file sizes we've seen in games in recent years. That said, it doesn't work for everything. Games that used pre-redered cutscenes won't benefit, but those that render in real-time will.
EA Patent Would Let Players Choose Battle Pass Rewards
Electronic Arts has filed a patent for a kind of battle pass that will allow you to choose your unlocks rather than travel a linear path. The patent was filed on May 13th under the name "Seasonal Reward Distribution System" and spotted by GameRant.
The main difference between this and the battle pass most players are probably familiar with is that it offers a "non-linear" path, letting players earn the items they want instead of locking them into a linear path.
"The seasonal reward system can provide users with a non-linear map that allows the users to choose how to progress through the reward map when advancing or leveling up a virtual character or user account within the video game," according to the patent. "The virtual map can provide a visual representation of a non-linear pathway or tracks that a user can follow based on how the user would like to proceed and what types of rewards the user prefers to unlock."
Basically, instead of following a set path, you'd be following a branching one that would operate more like a skill tree. It sounds like a cool system, but there is a concerning bit. The patent mentions "pausing gameplays for each of the clients except the first client when the in-game status is favorable to pausing the gameplays for the first client." This suggests EA wants to pause the game for everyone when one player levels up, which might cause obvious issues.
As with any patent, whether EA will actually implement this system is anyone's guess, but given that the publisher owns FIFA, Apex Legends, and Battlefield, it definitely seems like a possibility.
Sony Has Patented Its Own eSports Betting Platform
Sony Interactive Entertainment has patented its own online betting system, according to a patent that was filed in 2019 and released this month. In theory, the patent could be used to allow live betting at eSports events like the Evolution Championship Series, or EVO, the largest and most prestigious fighting game tournament in the world. Sony purchased EVO in March.
According to the patent, the system would use the history and record of any competing player or team to determine the odds, and then offer those odds to players watching gameplay. The system could look at the single game being player or the player's entire history, including win-loss records in separate titles.
In addition, the platform would be able to access game data to determine odds. "For example, video may be searched to identify where in the video a virtual grenade has the possibility of killing one, two, or three characters," according to the patent. The system would then provide the odds for those scenarios. The platform could also offer a variety of specialty bets (such as match length or how much more time it will take a player to win) and even allow friends to bet against one another. It might even allow spectators to choose their own odds instead of just working with the ones in the system.
It's worth noting that, like any patent, there's no indication that this system will actually be implemented. It's interesting coming from a company that just bought EVO, though.
Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis Post-Launch Roadmap Coming May 25th
The worldwide closed beta has wrapped for Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis but Sega has new details to share soon. There will be a livestream on May 25th at 8:30 PM JST/4:30 AM PST that will showcase new fields, characters and more. It will also contain details on the post-launch roadmap.
As a separate entity that co-exists with the main game, Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis offers a large open world to explore. Along with visual improvements, there are new DOLLS, ALTERS and FORMERS enemies to battle. Some foes, like Gigantix, can tower above players and require numerous party members to defeat.
Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis releases in June for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC in North America with a more definite release date still to be revealed. It will also be coming to PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch via the cloud in Japan. Stay tuned for more details after next week's livestream.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Patch Improves Stability, Fixes Achievement/Trophy Tracking
A new patch is available now for BioWare's Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, providing "minor" calibrations, fixes and stability improvements as a whole. The developer noted an issue where the launcher could become unresponsive on Xbox Series X with a wireless headset. While it's been fixed, enabling or disabling a headset can still cause it but an upcoming fix should clear it up.
Other improvements and fixes are on a game-by-game basis. Mass Effect gets improved terrain textures and a fix for an issue that caused Achievement/Trophies to not track kills properly. Mass Effect 2 receives improved lighting and shadows for some cinematics along with improvements to visuals, rendering and VFX on some levels. Both titles have received improvements to pre-rendered cutscenes to reduce the occasional artifact.
Check out the full patch notes here for more details. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is currently available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Along with debuting in the top spot at UK retail, it also had the best launch for a BioWare title on Steam.
General
- Fixed the main issue where the launcher would crash or become unresponsive on Xbox Series X when using a wireless headset. Known issue: This can still happen if you enable/disable a headset in the launcher. A future fix will resolve this issue.
- Improved iris shaders for better interaction with light and ambient occlusion
- Minor calibrations, fixes, and stability improvements
Mass Effect
- Improved terrain textures
- Fixed an issue where kills for achievements/trophies weren't tracking correctly
Mass Effect & Mass Effect 2
- Resolved an issue where the character code would sometimes not display in the squad menu
- Improvements to pre-rendered cutscenes to reduce occasional artifacts
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Enjoys BioWare's Best Steam Launch Ever
A remastered collection of the original Mass Effect trilogy is something series fans have been desperate for for a long time, and now, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is here to deliver just that. Based on the game's debut in the UK retail charts, it seems like it's got off to a great start, and it seems it's doing rather well digitally as well.
At least, it's doing well on Steam. According to Steam Charts, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition had a peak concurrent player count of 59,650. It's worth noting that until a couple of years ago, EA's games did not release for Steam, with many being brought over to the platform belatedly. Even so, Legendary Edition is BioWare's most successful Steam launch to date. In fact, it is also EA's second-best Steam launch of all time, behind only Apex Legends (though that has a pretty healthy lead, with a launch day peak concurrent player count of 330,879).
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is available now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Though the remastered collection doesn't currently include Mass Effect 3's multiplayer mode, project director Mac Walters recently said that could be added to it down the road.
Hades Rated for PS4 in South Korea
Hades was one of the best games of 2020, and probably one of the best games to release in recent memory, so it's no surprise that those who haven't got the chance to play it have been eagerly anticipating its launch on their preferred platforms. The game is yet to launch for PlayStation or Xbox, but it looks like that might be about to change very soon.
Hades was recently handed an age rating for the PS4 by the Game Rating and Administration Committee, South Korea's ratings board. Curiously enough, Take-Two Interactive is listed as the game's publisher, even though Supergiant Games published it themselves on PC and Switch.
Of course, this doesn't officially confirm the game's PlayStation launch (and there's also the question of when the Xbox version is coming), but honestly, it's just a matter of time before it happens. It wouldn't be surprising to see an announcement in the near future.
Hades is currently available on Nintendo Switch and PC. In our review of the game, we awarded it a score of 9/10, saying, "This will probably be the standard that roguelite games will be following for years to come- or it should be, at any rate. If nothing else, Hades is easily the best game Supergiant have made to date." You can read our full review through here.