Deathloop's ESRB Rating Promises Drugs, Violence, And Wild Times

After a few high profile delays, Deathloop is hitting this September. The game has been an interesting one ever since it was first revealed, and shows a lot of promise. The game has also now been rated by the ESRB, and the rating itself isn't too surprising, even if some of the summary of said rating is…well, it sure is something.

As stated, the official rating has come down from the ESRB, which you can see in full on their website through here. The rating was Mature, as one would expect, but there is some unexpected stuff here. Seems there will be plenty of violence, which is par the course obviously, as well as some type of drug use implied or talked about. That probably isn't too out there, but the statement, "Looks like an over-engineered auto-erotic asphyxiator…Also, it's going to smoke us up. Get us high," is something that maybe you don't think to hear, with hints that we're going to go to some weird places in the narrative.

"This is a first-person shooter in which players follow the story of two assassins trapped in a mysterious time loop on a fictional island. Both characters must assassinate key figures in order to break or protect the loop. Players use machetes, pistols, and sniper rifles to kill human enemies by means of stealth, melee, and ranged combat. Fighting is often frenetic, with frequent gunfire, screams of pain, explosions, and large blood-splatter effects. Some weapons/attacks can decapitate or dismember enemies. Cutscenes depict further instances of intense violence: players' character stabbed repeatedly in first-person; characters shot in the head at close range. During one sequence, a character is seen in a room while sexual moaning sounds are heard. Characters sometimes reference drugs (e.g., uppers, downers) and getting/being high on fictional drugs (e.g., "Looks like an over-engineered auto-erotic asphyxiator…Also, it's going to smoke us up. Get us high."). The words "f**k," "c*nt," and "sh*t" appear in the game."

Deathloop is set to release on September 14th for PlayStation 5 and PC. You can check out the contents for pre-orders and the Deluxe Edition through here. While nothing official has been announced about Xbox versions, it has been confirmed the game's exclusivity window for consoles will be a year.

Apex Legends – Season 10: Emergence Gameplay Trailer Sees World's Edge in Ruins

Respawn Entertainment debuted its official gameplay trailer for Apex Legends' Season 10: Emergence. New Legend Seer is briefly seen in action, tracing the footsteps of his foes while using his mini-drones for other tasks. But perhaps the biggest highlight is World's Edge, which is in complete ruin.

Lava has overrun the map while various destroyed structures abound. This isn't the first time that Respawn has outright destroyed a map (see King's Canyon in Season 8) but it does present several new gameplay possibilities. The new LMG, Rampage, is also showcased, outputting tons of destruction in a single magazine.

Ranked Arenas will also be added in Season 10, allowing teams of three to climb the ranks and reach Apex Predator status. A new battle pass – which offers skins for Valkyrie, Rampage and Horizon along with other cosmetic rewards – will also be available. The new season launches on August 3rd for all platforms so stay tuned for more details, along with a dedicated character trailer for Seer, in the coming week.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: The Siege of Paris Launches on August 12

Assassin's Creed Valhalla's first expansion, Wrath of the Druids, launched launched earlier this year and took players to Ireland. Now, its second expansion, which will head to Paris, is on the horizon as well, and we know exactly when to expect it. While a Summer launch window has been announced for the second expansion for a while, Ubisoft recently released the full update notes for patch going live for Assassin's Creed Valhalla tomorrow, and confirmed that The Siege of Paris will launch on August 12, with support for it being added in the game with tomorrow's update.

Meanwhile, as previously confirmed, the update will also be adding level scaling and one-handed swords. Level scaling is adjustable, and has five levels that you can choose between, with the lowest turning off scaling entirely, and the other four making enemies progressively more difficult to fight against. Meanwhile, he new Sigrblot Festival is a limited time event running from July 29 to August 12, with a one-handed sword being an exclusive festival reward for new quests. You can check out a trailer for it below.

The update's size is 23.79 GB on Xbox Series X/S, 17.72 GB on Xbox One, 6.85 GB on PS4, 15.3 GB-24.5 GB on PS4 depending on your region, and 20.4 GB – 31.37 GB on PC. You can check out the full patch notes below.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is also going to receive a Discovery Tour mode later this year, following in the footsteps of Odyssey and Origins, while Ubisoft has confirmed that it will also continue to receive more expansions in 2022.

The next mainline Assassin's Creed game is currently codenamed Assassin's Creed Infinity. It'll be a live service, ongoing, ever-expanding platform that will continue to emphasize narrative-driven content, according to Ubisoft. The game is currently in the early stages of development.

UPDATE NOTES:

The Siege of Paris – Expansion 2
Added support for The Siege of Paris, preparing the game for the expansion release on August 12. (a separate download is required on release day.)

Sigrblot Festival

  • Sigrblot Festival is a new time-limited event from July 29-August 19.
  • Partake in new festivities and quests to receive exclusive festival rewards (including a one-handed sword!!)
  • Players must reach England and complete one of the first two narrative arcs (Grantebridgescire OR Ledecestrescire) and be at least Settlement Level 2 to participate in the Sigrblot Festival.

Level Scaling

  • We added a new menu option to the game to adjust NPC levels to your liking. You may choose from the following options:
    • Off = Scaling is turned off; enemies appear exactly as prescribed in the region description.
    • Default = Lower enemies are brought up to 30 power levels under the player's level (How the game is intended to be played).
    • Constant = Enemies will be at least the same power level of the player.
    • Harder = Enemies will be 20+ power levels above the player.
    • Nightmarish = Enemies will be 50+ power levels above the player.
  • Note: Boss encounters and game modes will not be impacted by this as they have their own intended difficulty settings.

Skill Tree Update

  • The Skill Tree has improved visibility for new skills added throughout the post-launch.
  • We've added an option that will auto-acquire all the skill nodes required to reach the currently highlighted node (if you have enough skill points available).

New Skills

RAVEN
• Light Fingered: Eivor will now automatically pick up nearby loot with a quick flick of the wrist (without having to press the interact button). • Thrill of War: Gain adrenaline as long as you remain in conflict.

BEAR
• Heidrun Slam: Press R2 while sprinting to knock enemies back with a powerful knee slam. • Idunn's Heart: Passively regenerate recent health loss after a short delay.

WOLF
• Survival Instinct: When at less than a third of health, hold -> for partial healing (Exchange adrenaline for health). • Wolf Warrior: Your damage increases the lower your health.

GAME IMPROVEMENTS

WRATH OF THE DRUIDS – EXPANSION 1

Addressed:

  • Priest's body would be missing in Flann Over Ireland.
  • Cage cannot be opened to free the prisoners in Tuam caves.
  • Only minor runes inside chests in Ireland.
  • Shelf not movable in Cashelore.
  • Cutscene didn't start when sieging the church in The Scourging of Snakes.
  • Couldn't confirm kill on The Ash.
  • Missing sound and subtitles within Wrath of the Druids.
  • King's Pass not collectible if the Raid is not also completed at the same time.
  • Couldn't collect the prison key in Courting the Kings.
  • Barid vanished in Flann Over Ireland.
  • Thorstein teleported back to the cave in the Snaring Thorstein.
  • Couldn't progress when the Puca was killed in Into the Fog.

MAIN GAME

Quests, World Events, and Side Activities

Addressed:

  • Infinite Loading screens during various quests.
  • Couldn't complete War of the Collectors, Aelfred's Jewels, Saint Faith, The Lost Drengir of Ragnar Lothbrok, Lamb Chops, Splitting Hares world events.
  • Faravid wouldn't get on the horse in This Son of Jorvik *This Son of Jorvik indeed*
  • Catching the fish with weapons wouldn't count towards quest objective in Bloody Path to Peace.
  • Couldn't fight Leofrith in Heavy is the Head.
  • Sigurd didn't follow Eivor in A Brother's Keeper. *More like A Brother's Leaver*
  • Objective didn't appear in Twists and Turns *this is how the turn tables*
  • Issues interacting with Petra in the settlement.
  • Eivor died upon arrival in Hordafylke in The Road to Valhalla.
  • Hunter House world event didn't trigger.
  • Hunter & Warlock NPCs missing for The Plight of the Warlock.
  • The Banshee world event couldn't be started or completed.
  • Couldn't progress in the Mistress of the Iron Wood world event.
  • Couldn't interact with the seer in Of Blood and Gods.
  • Reaching Hunwald's house didn't update the Homecoming quest objective.
  • The boss didn't take damage at the start of Extended Family.
  • Hunwald was un-interactable during the Salve for a Fresh Wound.
  • Map marker appeared out of bounds in Fiery Ambush.
  • Couldn't interact with Soma or Guthrum in Holy Day.
  • Players desynced at the start of the fight in King Killer.
  • Couldn't confirm kill in the Reaver of the South.
  • Couldn't complete The Lost Drengir of Ragnar Lothbrok.
  • Guthrum didn't move in Kingdom's End.
  • Couldn't collect the key from a body during Pilgrimage to St. Albanes.
  • Edmund was missing in Puppets and Prisoners.
  • Couldn't confirm kill against Gotafrid Fair-Robes & Nokkfylla Shine-Eye.
  • NPC with the coin didn't spawn or targets didn't appear for the arrow challenge in Firing the Arrow.
  • Stuck between Binding Fate and Of Blood and Gods. *A Binding Fate, indeed*
  • Black screen during Baker's Plaint.
  • Couldn't interact with Halfdan in War in the North.

Graphics, Audio, and Animation

Addressed:

  • Various graphics and lighting issues.
  • Various animation and clipping issues.
  • Various issues with missing SFX.
  • Various issues relating to Audio Menu Narration.

River Raids, Jomsvikings, Raids

Addressed:

  • Appropriate rewards not being provided after completing a Raid.
  • Rations not healing the proper amount of health for Jomsviking.

Mastery Challenge

Addressed:

  • Ability to access restricted areas in Mastery Challenge.
  • Guards could be unreachable in Mastery Challenge.
  • Player being detected from a stealth bush in the Wenlocan Raven trial.
  • Reduced the possibility of doubling Armor sets that were acquired from the Store after completing the Mastery Challenge onboarding quest.
  • Unlocked medals remaining after loading an older save game.
  • Trouble entering stealth mode in some bushes.

Gameplay, Combat, and AI

Addressed:

  • Fire weapons not setting NPCs or combustibles on fire.
  • Enemies not taking proper damage from level 2 Incendiary Powder Trap ability.
  • NPCs no longer attacking if they were ambushed by a snake. Snake 1, Human 0
  • Extended flail combo dealt more damage than intended.
  • Sickle Combo Attacks didn't register properly.
  • Various issues with the Viking Salute ability.
  • Various issues causing the extended flail combo to do more damage than intended.
  • Ostara items missing following Title Update 1.2.2.1.

World

Addressed:

  • Instances where Eivor, NPCs, or the long ship would get stuck.
  • Instances with misplaced or floating objects or textures.

User Interface/HUD

Addressed:

  • Numerous UI/HUD issues.
  • Numerous localization issues.
  • Trouble exiting Photo mode using the ESC button.
  • Some icons not adapting for color-blind modes.
  • Silver Booster not applying correctly when looting low value items.

System

  • Benchmark is not functional when the game path contains non-ASCII symbols.

Performance and Stability

  • Improved performance and stability.

Dead Space Remake Will Include Accessibility Options, Says Creative Director

In an interview with IGN, creative director for Dead Space remake creative-director Roman Campos-Oriola talked about how the team will leverage new hardware and a new development cycle to make Dead Space better than before. In addition to this, he also talked about his plans for including acessibility options in the game.

While Roman didn't outright specify what accessibility options the team is looking into, he believes that it will open up the Dead Space experience to a broader audience. The original game can be a really stressful experience at times, so its likely that the team might include an assist mode or an invincibility mode as Double Fine aims to in its upcoming Psychonauts 2.

"Something that is also really important for us that was not there 12 years ago… is all those options or different ways to play the game if you need it. All those elements of accessibility will definitely be something important for us in terms of opening the Dead Space experience to a broader set of people that didn't necessarily have the opportunity or could play the game when it came out," Campos said.

Accessibility options has become an integral part of games for good reason, as it allows players will physical or mental disabilities to enjoy the games they might be interested in. Dead Space releases sometime in the future for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.

No More Heroes 3 Trailer Shows Off Open-World Elements Ahead Of Its August Release

Developer Grasshopper Manufacture and publisher Marvelous have released a new trailer showcasing more of No More Heroes 3's open-world elements. 3 short teaser trailers showcase protagonist Travis Touchdown cruising and strolling across the game world on his bike as well as on foot, of course. Check out the videos below for more details.

There seems to be expansive plains on the outskirts, bustling city hubs, gardens and a whole lot more. However, the game seems to be suffering from a number of pop-in and framerate issues. In one of the shots, a sea bridge can be seen slowly loading in the distance in a way that is quite unpleasant. It's entirely possible that many of the issues could be alleviated by release but fans should be on the lookout before springing out for any pre-orders.

No More Heroes 3 is interestingly enough, a Switch exclusive. It releases on August 27th on well, the Nintendo Switch.

Astro's Playroom Developer Team Asobi Staffing Up For Next Game

Astro's Playroom developer Team Asobi seems to be in hiring mode for its next project, as originally reported by Gamingroute. A recent job listing for a game designer on LinkedIn confirms the same, and suggests that the studio wants to develop a 3D action game.

The listing mentions the game to have creative situations and elements of hilarity. There seems to be no contention that it would be a PS5 exclusive, and the current state of the project indicates that its still some ways away. Team Asobi recently replaced Sony Japan in an official list of the PlayStation worldwide studios, following the latter being faced with a number of lay-offs.

Team Asobi delivered a short but charming platformer in the form of Astro's Playroom, and fans seem to be quite excited about what the team has in store for the future. Hopefully, substantial information on the matter emerges soon enough.

Xbox Series X and PS5's GPU Differences Are "Not That Significant," Says Dev

In an interview with Gamingbolt, The Parasight CEO Bartosz Kapron gave some interesting insights about the difference between the PS5 and Xbox Series X on the GPU front. Bartosz also talked about other things, of course, such as how the Xbox Series S is an ambivalent piece of hardware.

Bartosz believes that the difference between both consoles – at least on the GPU side of things – is not that significant. He also talked about the disparities between the PS4 and Xbox One's hardware, which "took its toll" on the developers during the tail end of the generation.

"I think the difference between PS5 and Xbox series X is not that significant. I'm pretty sure that every game developer is happy that we have no recurrence of the situation from "old gens", where we had a significant difference between PS4 and Xbox One—which in particular took its toll in recent years. We need to remember that if we are publishing the game on different platforms, we always need to consider the weakest hardware."

As Bartosz mentioned, it's always important to build for the weaker hardware when working on a multiplatform project. CD Projekt Red made a grave mistake of not adhering to this philosophy with Cyberpunk 2077, which led to a number of asset streaming problems on PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game that persist to this day.

Hot Wheels Unleashed Continues to Look Slick in New Trailer

You wouldn't expect, under ordinary circumstances, that a game based on a Hot Wheels licensed would look anything beyond ordinary, so it's been quite surprising to see how good Milestone's upcoming Hot Wheels Unleashed looks. On top of just looking like a fun, well-made arcade racer, it also seems to be capturing the spirit of the license it's based on in more ways than one.

Milestone has released a new trailer for the upcoming racer now, and it continues to look solid. It's a pretty short trailer at just over a minute in length, but it shows off quite a bit of the cars that'll be available in the game's roster, while also showing glimpses of its tracks, environmental hazards in its courses, and more. Check it out below.

Recently, we also got an extended deep dive into the game's track editing tools, which you can take a look at through here.

Hot Wheels Unleashed is out on September 30 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Ys 9: Monstrum Nox PC Patch Adds "Lunatic" Draw Distance Setting

Falcom's Ys 9: Monstrum Nox continues to receive updates on Steam courtesy of PH3 Games. Patch 1.06 adds several fixes for minor issues while providing remapping for confirm and cancel actions and mouse wheel support for the message log. There's also proper Borderless mode support on non-primary displays among other features.

But perhaps the biggest new addition is the "Lunatic" draw distance setting. This is intended to be even higher than Ultra and provides additional improvements to the visuals. However, the team warns that higher levels will have a higher impact on performance. No regressions are expected but in case of any, players are advised to return to previous versions by selecting the "version_*" branch in Steam properties.

As such, the "Lunatic" draw distance setting is only for very-high end systems and meant to provide some future proofing for the title. Ys 9: Monstrum Nox is now available for PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch along with an update that allows it to run in 4K resolution on PS5. Check out our review for the game here.

Input/Controls

  • added remapping of confirm and cancel actions
  • added mouse wheel support for scrollable lists and journal when mouse menu navigation is off
  • added mouse wheel support for message log
  • fixed vibration only working for controller with ID 0
  • improved save game menu navigation by disabling page-wise scrolling for left stick

Monitor/Display

  • properly support Borderless mode on non-primary screens
  • save used monitor for multi-display setups
  • prevent screensaver from activating while the game is running

Draw Distance/LoD

  • added "Lunatic" draw distance setting (higher than Ultra, see notes below)
  • made draw distance setting apply to sub-map level of detail selection (see notes below)
  • make draw distance setting apply to more object types (see notes below)
  • fix calculation of draw distance applied to objects when changing the setting in the menu
  • fix distance fadeout of objects being closer towards the center of the screen than at an angle

Miscellaneous

  • fix specific boulders not starting to move in some situations at framerates ~>100 FPS
  • updated credits

Path of Exile: Expedition is Live on PC, Upcoming Changes Detailed

The newest League and update for Grinding Gear Games' Path of Exile went live last Friday with Expedition. It adds a new activity where players can excavate chests and/or monsters for loot along with trading artifacts for rewards. However, it also brought about a ton of nerfs to mana, movement, flasks, Support Gems and whatnot.

In a new Reddit post, managing director and studio co-founder Chris Wilson revealed that peak concurrent players at launch had indeed dropped compared to Ritual League. "To be transparent, the number is that 23 percent fewer players joined us at launch compared to our all-time record, and this is something we were prepared for. In addition to the normal variance between releases, we completely understand that Path of Exile had a lot of changes in 3.15 and this is definitely unnerving to some players."

A number of hot fixes have been released, from a fix to a new graphical bug that causes T-posing to buffs from the new Summon Reaper gem. Upcoming changes include a display in vendor windows for the Expedition Currency that players currently own; a fix where Alternate-art Flasks weren't displaying; and so on. More importantly, Wilson has taken note of the feedback to mana cost multiplier changes, noting that they were "too extreme."

"Yes, they were too extreme. Based on feedback and data, we are reviewing the mana cost multipliers again and will be reducing many (but not all) of them. While this will ease the impact on your mana by a moderate amount, the goal is still that mana matters a lot more than it did before." Ailment immunity from flasks is also having its duration increased from one second to four seconds. Arctic Armor is also being updated to provide Freeze Immunity. Also, for those who hated the Goatmen from the buffed Act 1 that are super-deadly in end-game, their Leap Slams and Molten Shell abilities will be nerfed.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like there will be an auto-pickup option for the Artifact Splinters that drop after Expedition encounters. Wilson says the developer has noted that there are too many Splinters in the game currently and will "be mindful of this for the design of future releases." Which is something that's been said for numerous Leagues now so interpret that as you will.

Path of Exile: Expedition is out on July 28th for Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Stay tuned for more details and updates to the game in the coming weeks.