Far Cry 6 Gameplay Details Leak – Supremo Backpacks, Crocodile Companion and More

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Ubisoft has a livestream later today to unveil Far Cry 6's gameplay but fans won't have to wait for details. YouTuber Rojson went early with eight minutes of different mechanics and sequences, showcasing some of the new things that players can expect. While the video has since been removed, you can check out GIFs and a mirror via Reddit.

Gameplay is very much in line with previous titles, whether it's in the gun play or stealth. There is quite a bit that's new though. Handmade weapons and vehicles are here, providing for some hefty customization. One such weapon launched CDs and would play Los del Rio's Macarena. Supremo Backpacks are also a thing with one acting somewhat like a jetpack (though it merely causes damage to nearby foes with its exhaust). Another allows for firing mortars at enemies.

Fangs-for-Hire are referred to as Amigos and along with Chorizo the dachshund, who will distract enemies, there's a crocodile that can outright shred them apart. Clothes can also provide different stats with some being better suited for combat or stealth. Other RPG elements are present like previous games but there aren't many details to go off of.

Far Cry 6 is coming to Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC and Google Stadia sometime before March 31st 2022. Stay tuned for tonight's livestream which kicks off at 9:30 AM PT.

Monster Hunter Rise Passes 7 Million in Worldwide Shipments and Digital Sales

Monster Hunter Rise - Magnamalo

After proclaiming that its sales surpassed expectations, Capcom's Monster Hunter Rise has hit a new milestone. It's crossed seven million in shipments and digital sales worldwide. The action RPG launched for Nintendo Switch on March 26th with shipments and digital sales passing six million as of April 28th. To celebrate, Kamura Pack 3 is available free in-game and provides items like Mega Potions, Well-done Steaks, Large Barrel Bombs, Mega Demondrugs and Mega Armoskins.

The continued success of the title is no surprise especially with Capcom stating that it drove record profits in fiscal year 2020/21. Expect sales to increase even further – Update Ver. 3.0 dropped recently, adding Apex Zinogre and Crimson Glow Valstrax to the game and more content is slated for the coming months. This include three Capcom Collabs and new quests.

Monster Hunter Rise is currently exclusive to the Switch but will be coming to PC in early 2022. In the meantime, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin releases worldwide on July 9th for PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch. Check out the latest story trailer here and stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

Resident Evil Village – 10 Things Players Dislike About the Game

Capcom's Resident Evil Village has been out for a few weeks now and, in case you missed the memo, is pretty darn good. Of course, there are some criticisms to be had, from slight nitpicks to downright annoying things. These don't diminish the overall game's quality but it's still interesting to see what hardcore fans dislike. Let's take a look at 10 things here. If you haven't finished the game, beware of heavy story spoilers.

That Village Firefight

The first really tense firefight in the village sees Ethan having to survive against numerous lycans that just keep coming. At first, it's pretty great as you have to stay on the move, fortify your surroundings, use explosive barrels to take out packs and avoid Urias (the giant hammer-wielding lycan) until a bell rings and the assault ceases. However, it kind of just keeps going and it's not super-clear how the entire sequence is meant to end. Do you have to collect something? Kill a certain number of lycans? Stay alive with a certain amount of ammo remaining? Different players have reported the assault stopping under different circumstances and it turns what should be an awesome homage to Resident Evil 4 into a somewhat confusing affair.

What Went Wrong With Biomutant?

Back in 2017, indie studio Experiment 101 took the stage at Gamescom to showcase a bold, ambitious new game- Biomutant, an open world action RPG boasting mechanical depth, set in a vivid post-apocalyptic setting, and promising an adventure with a completely unique flavour all of its own. Its fascinating premise and the fact that the game was being developed by former Avalanche Studios developers who had worked on the likes of Just Cause and Mad Max promised exciting things, and all eyes were immediately on the game.

But its development didn't go exactly the way one would have hoped. Originally due out in 2018, the game was pushed back from its target launch window to a 2019 release. And that was the first of many delays. Bits and pieces of the game would be shown off here and there over the coming years, and though hands-on impressions would often remark on how rough the game was feeling, by and large, the unique vibe and aesthetic of the whole experience was drawing even more people in. And now, at long last, after a protracted development cycle (during which the studio and the IP were even acquired by THQ Nordic) and multiple delays, Biomutant is finally out- and critical reception is far from glowing.

We've seen this more than a few times in the games industry, sadly enough. Games build up hype and anticipation for years and years, with developers making exciting promises and said games themselves generating excitement based on their interesting concepts and ideas. But then, after a lot of anticipation, they launch to less than stellar critical reception. Much to the disappointment of the legions that had been anticipating the game's launch, the experience turns out to have fallen way short of expectations. And sadly, it seems that has been the case with Biomutant as well. At the time of writing, the game has a score of 67 on Opencritic, and 62, 68, and 67 on Metacritic for its PS4, Xbox One, and PC versions respectively. Our own review of Biomutant, in which we gave it a score of 5/10 and called it "too derivative for its own good", wasn't exactly overflowing with praise either.

So what the hell happened? Where did Biomutant go wrong. How is it that a game that was looking like it had the potential to be the next big open world darling and one of the biggest surprise hits of the year has turned out to be a bit of a damp squib?

Well, it's a tale as old as time- overreach. Simply put, Biomutant is too ambitious for its own good.

As much as we all bemoan cut content and good ideas that fail to make it into the final product, it shouldn't be forgotten that that is a crucial part of game development. Coming up with exciting ideas is crucial, of course, because if you don't have ideas, you don't have a game. But knowing when to pull back and when to abandon some ideas when it feels like they're not being implemented properly, or that they're conflicting with other parts of the game, or that they're just not gelling with the rest of the experience, is just as crucial, if not more so. Of course, we don't know the behind the scenes story of Biomutant, so we don't know what was cut out. Obviously, some things must have gone on the chopping board during the course of development. But playing the game makes it clear that many more things needed to be cut out as well.

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Because really, Biomutant is a classic case of feature creep. It feels like the developers at Experiment 101 kept on coming up with new concepts, new mechanics, new ideas, and just kept cramming them all into the game, with little to no regard for whether or not things that must have sounded good on paper were good in practice as well. This is a studio of less than twenty people, who have been working on this game for many years- rather than overreaching and trying to do so much and not managing to do most of those things well, what they should have done was identify fewer key mechanics, polish them to a sheen, and build a game around them. That's crucial in any experience, but especially so in an open world game, and in an RPG.

On top of that, some of the decisions that Biomutant makes are just… baffling. Take the narrator, for instance. Every creature you encounter in the game speaks in a made up language, when is then translated by a narrator. Which means that every conversation is twice as long as it should be- someone says something, stops, the narrator translates, and on and on it goes. Not only does that mean that characters end up being robbed of any unique voice and personality, it's also just a very basic problem that shouldn't have made it into the game in the first place. The more time you spend having to sit through conversations that drone on an on, the more time you're spending away from actual gameplay. And of course, it doesn't help that crucial pillars of the gameplay – such as the floaty, unimpactful combat and the frustrating camera – are highly unpolished.

What's frustrating is that Biomutant has a lot going for it. There are a lot of really interesting things in the game, most of all its vibrant, varied, imaginative world. Simply existing in that space, learning more about it, and exploring its environments can be a lot of fun on its own (even though, frankly put, Biomutant has absolutely no restraint when it comes to dropping lore or world building). But those good things are buried under a haphazard mountain of frustrating issues, conflicting ideas, undercooked mechanics, and baffling decisions.

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It needs to be acknowledged, of course, that there are a lot of people who are definitely enjoying Biomutant- and that's great! This is a game that's been anticipated for many years now, and if it's living up to your expectations, or at least coming close to doing so, that's great news. After all, something like Mad Max, which was developed by a lot of the same people, wasn't exactly a critical darling (it has a Metacritic score of 69), but there's a legion of people out there who swear by that game and sing its praises. Biomutant may very well be another one of those open world diamonds in the very, very rough.

Even so, it's undeniable that there's a lot of wasted potential here. If Biomutant was a much more focused game, it in turn would have been much more polished, much more enjoyable, and much more coherent. Right now, it's a bit of a jumbled mess. And that jumbled mess can be fun for a lot of people- but this game could and should have been so much more.

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.

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Won't Have Rollback Netcode

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown is releasing on PlayStation 4 on June 1st, and will be available for PlayStation Plus subscribers from June 1st to August 2nd. Ultimate Showdown is a ground-up remake of Virtua Fighter 5, which originally released in arcades in 2006. The new game uses Yakuza's Dragon Engine to add high definition textures, new details like sweat on characters, and redone stages.

What the game won't have, unfortunately, is rollback netcode, instead opting for the delay-based solutions of the past because the game is built on Virtua Fight 5 Final Showdown. Sega confirmed that the game would not use a rollback solution in an email to Kotaku. Without getting into a long technical explanation of why rollback netcode tends to work better, suffice it to say that it does, which is why several upcoming fighting games, like Guilty Gear Strive, are implementing rollback solutions. Delay-based netcode can work over small distances, and tends to work fine in Japan, but tends to fall apart across longer distances. That's not to say that rollback is a perfect solution, as it can still be done poorly (see: Street Fighter V), but there's a reason that many fighting game developers are implementing it. It's unfortunate that Sega isn't.

That's not to say that Sega hasn't done any work to further their eSports ambitions with Ultimate Showdown. Sega has added a 16-player Tournament mode, round-robin matches, and the ability to spectate matches in real-time. Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown had good netcode when it released in 2012, so hopefully that will continue to be true. You can get more information about Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown here.

Frost Giant Studios Partners With Dreamhaven, Licenses Unreal Engine 5

Frost Giant studios has been busy lately. Today, the studio announced an advisory partnership with Dreamhaven, a company founded by former Blizzard co-founder and president Mike Morhaime, and a licensing deal to use Unreal Engine 5 for its upcoming RTS game via Upcomer. The studio, based in Orange County, California, was founded by Tim Morten and Tim Campbell, the production lead on StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void and the lead designer of Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, respectively.

"We are so fortunate to be able to work with the industry giants at Dreamhaven who were instrumental in creating the RTS legacy that inspired Frost Giant," Time Morten, Frost Giant's CEO said. "Mike Morhaime has helped set a benchmark for real-time strategy games that has not been surpassed. He remains engaged with the genre and the community today, and his advice will be incredibly valuable as we work to bring real-time strategy (RTS) games to a broad audience."

Dreamhaven is also staffed by former Blizzard developers, including several several prominent members of the StarCraft II team. Frost Giant plans to use Dreamhaven's expertise in product development, pre-production, and playtesting. to aid in the development of their RTS.

Frost Giant also announced that it has licensed Unreal Engine 5 for the game. They hope to make RTS titles more accessible. In addition, the studio manages to improve "upon co-operative gameplay, continuing the legacy of competitive esports, and empowering the growth of user-generated content."

Cyberpunk 2077 is Getting a New Director

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It's not unheard of for game's to change directors during development, whether it's because of illness, delays, or a director simply leaving a studio. It is fairly rare for a game to change directors after it comes out, but that's exactly what's happening at CD Projekt Red, according to a new report from GamesIndustry.biz.

Former Cyberpunk director Adam Badowski is stepping down from his role to take on other leadership roles inside CD Projekt Red, including the studio's transition into developing multiple AAA projects simultaneously. The move means that neither of Cyberpunk's original directors are no longer working on the game. Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, the director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and the second director and head of production on Cyberpunk, departed the studio earlier this month after accusations of bullying.

Gabriel Amatangelo will replace Badowski in the director's chair. Amatangelo joined CD Projekt Red as a creative director in 2020. Before joining CD Projekt Red, he worked at BioWare as design director on Dragon Age: Inquisition DLC and directed several expansions for Star Wars: The Old Republic. He will be charged with leading development on Cyberpunk 2077's expansions. CD Projekt Red is also still trying to get the game back on the PlayStation Store.

Horizon Forbidden West – Launch Date Update Coming "Very Soon"; Development is "On Track"

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Guerrilla Games showed off a meaty chunk of new gameplay footage for Horizon Forbidden West in the upcoming open world action RPG's gameplay debut. With impressive tech and new gameplay features shown off, there was a lot in the State of Play episode for those looking forward to the game to dive into. But, of course, the one thing that was missing was a launch date. Seeing as the game is scheduled for a 2021 release, many were expecting that an exact release date would be announced.

Minutes after the show ended, developer Guerrilla Games took to Twitter. Acknowledging the lack of information on a release date, the development assured that Horizon Forbidden West's development "is on track", before adding that they will "have an update for you very soon."

If the game is going to stick to its late 2021 launch window, a release date announcement would have to come within the next few months. PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan has previously said that Sony is feeling confident about the game hitting its target launch window, so there is that.

Whenever it launches, Horizon Forbidden West will be available for PS5 and PS4.

Horizon Forbidden West State of Play Shows Off Impressive Graphics, Gameplay

horizon forbidden west

The wait is finally over. We have some Horizon Forbidden West gameplay, and it looks absolutely gorgeous. The reveal comes from Sony's Horizon Forbidden West State of Play, which offered us a 14 minute look at Guerilla's newest game all captured on PlayStation 5 as well as some information from the developers themselves.

In the gameplay trailer, Aloy searches for Erend, one of the characters from the first game, who is in danger of being captured by Raiders riding Clawstriders, which are essentially robotic velociraptors. Aloy traverses lush forests and beaches, and even gets to spend some time taking a swim as she battles enemies and traverses the environment. It should probably go without saying at this point, but the game is incredibly gorgeous and vibrant-looking.

Naturally, Aloy still has her bow, but the game's combat has seen several upgrades, including a more viable spear and a special area of effect attack that channels electricity through that spear. Aloy also has access to a grappling hook and, in an obvious nod to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a hang glider. The developers promised we would get more updates on weapons and weapon upgrades in the future.

You can watch the full reveal below:

Dying Light 2 Deluxe and Ultimate Editions Detailed, Expansion Pass Confirmed

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Along with providing new gameplay footage and details for Dying Light 2, Techland also unveiled bonuses for pre-ordering the game. The Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition were also detailed, both which include additional outfits and story DLC. Pre-ordering any edition nets the Reload outfit, weapon skin and paraglider.

The Deluxe Edition includes the Legendary outfit, weapon skin and paraglider along with exclusive weapon charms. Players will also receive a digital comic, soundtrack, art book and wallpapers along with access to a story DLC that will be available in "the months after the release." As for the Ultimate Edition, it includes all of the Deluxe Edition content along with a two hour Night XP boost, digital comic, wallpapers and crafting items.

There's also a physical Collector's Edition that's available in limited quantities. Along with the base game and all of the digital content in the Ultimate Edition, it contains the following:

  • UV Flashlight
  • Art book hard copy
  • Thank you letter from the creators
  • UV Stickers
  • Map of "The City"
  • Steelbook
  • Collector's Edition box
  • 'Defender of the city' over 10″ statuette with stylized UV Lamp

You also receive the Expansion Pass which provides two extra stories that will be available post-launch. Dying Light 2 is out on December 7th for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5 and PC. Stay tuned for more details and gameplay in the coming months.