Diablo 2: Resurrected Trailer Highlights the Barbarian
Blizzard's Diablo 2: Resurrected, a remaster of the beloved 2000 action RPG, is out in September and serves to revive the old hack and slash looter formula with revamped visuals. One thing that hasn't change is the class selection – there are still seven to choose from and each retains their signature abilities. A new trailer focuses on the Barbarian, a class capable of dual wielding and tanking damage.
The Barbarian is capable of using Warcries to damage and stun nearby foes while Battlecries lower their damage and defenses. Along with skills like Bash and Taunt, he can also Leap Slam into foes and perform a Whirlwind to attack multiple at once while moving. There's quite a few ways to customize the class but it's mostly meant for those who favor up close and personal melee combat.
Diablo 2: Resurrected is out on September 23rd for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch. For more details on what to expect, check out our feature here.
Genshin Impact – Kujou Sara Stars in Latest Character Trailer
Though the Raiden Shogun has been garnering more attention, Genshin Impact's next 4 star character is worth keeping an eye on. Wielder of the Electro Vision and skilled with the bow, Kujou Sara serves the Tenryou Commission and is a loyal bodyguard to the Shogun. Her character banner goes live tomorrow with update 2.1 so it's a good time to see what she can do.
Along with firing up to five times with her normal attack, Sara unleashes an Electro-infused arrow with charged shots. Her Elemental Skill is Tengu Stormcall, which instantly allows her to retreat and gain Crowfeather Cover for 18 seconds. Aiming and firing in this state will create a Crowfeather, which triggers Tengu Juurai: Ambush and provides the active character a bonus to attack based on Sara's base attack damage.
Sara's Elemental Burst is Subjugation: Koukou Sendou and sees her calling down a burst of Electro energy, followed by four additional blasts dealing AoE damage. Once again, the active character will receive an attack bonus if they're within its area of effect. Stay tuned for more details on Sara's passives when the character banner goes live tomorrow.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite Review – Unforgiving In All The Wrong Ways
Cold Iron Studios' Aliens: Fireteam Elite takes a number of design cues from Valve's Left 4 Dead games, but falls flat in achieving the heights of its inspiration. Aliens: Fireteam Elite has a great concept, but lacks the polish and variety found in Valve's offerings in the same space which made it a household name in gaming for more than a decade. Many of these oversights are further exasperated by a litany of glitches and technical problems that make enjoying Aliens: Fireteam Elite a tough ordeal at times.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a co-op survival shooter set in the world of the Alien IP. The source material is the posterchild of inconsistent output with titles such as Aliens: Colonial Marines which was abysmal in many ways, and Alien: Isolation which was a true gem, with both of them occupying two completely different ends of the quality spectrum. Aliens: Fireteam Elite does a great job at capturing the aesthetics of the source material, with what seems to be a pretty authentic representation of the Alien universe that lore buffs would have a great time with.
"Aliens: Fireteam Elite has some good stuff going for it, but none of it really stands out in any particular way."
The game is set more than 20 years after the original Alien trilogy and sees players controlling a custom character titled Marine. As a soldier under the UAS Endeavor, players will be tasked to rid planets and installations across alien planets of well, Xenomorphs, all the while uncovering a larger narrative involving hideous experiments, synthetic robots, and whatnot. The story isn't exactly front and centre for Aliens: Fireteam Elite, but the game manages to pull off a respectable job with its writing and voice cast. I particularly enjoyed the hilarity provided by commanding officers and other officials, which share some funny banter among themselves. It's nothing spectacular, but this does lend a sense of authenticity to the overall vibe that makes listening to these conversations endearing.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite has 4 separate campaigns, each with a set of 3 missions that players can take part in as a group of 3 people or with AI bots if matchmaking doesn't get you partners in time. The game has a handful of different classes to choose from – Demolisher, Gunner, Technician, Doc, and Recon. Each class has 2 special abilities that operate on a cooldown timer, as well as class-exclusive perks that players will utilize over the course of their playthrough. Most of my time with the game was spent with the Demolisher, who has a flurry of rocket blasters and a firecracker of sorts that stuns enemies in a given radius. Other classes have grenades, health stations – all of which can be pretty useful at times. There's a decent variety amongst the classes, and using abilities in tandem with each other is pretty enjoyable.
"Gunplay feels solid, with great sound design and feedback that gives each weapon the heft it should carry. "
The majority of the gameplay revolves around fending off enormous hordes of increasingly tough Xenomorphs and Synth soldiers. Gunplay feels solid, with great sound design and feedback that gives each weapon the heft it should carry. However, there is a big issue with the camera, it feels that it's jutted so close behind your character that peripheral vision remains quite limited. It's quite common to continually get backstabbed by a Xenomorph, which can become quite annoying at times. The controls can also feel equally sloppy at times. Rolling in general is accompanied by a pervading sense of clunkiness and unresponsiveness at times. What makes this issue more egregious is that most Xenomorph types will continually rush towards your position – making rolling an essential part of the combat loop.
When it comes to Xenomorphs and Synths, there is a fair bit of variety in the roster of enemies but in the heat of the battle you don't necessarily need to be tactical in your approach, and everything just essentially boils down to pumping Xenos with hot lead until they stop moving. The AI can glitch at times, with some enemies getting stuck on cover or terrain which makes finding them an annoying ordeal after a stressful encounter. The Synths, on the other hand, are bullet sponges for the most part. Defeating them involves taking cover and exchanging gunfire, which gets stale pretty quickly due to the aforementioned sponginess. The heavy synth variants are even worse offenders in this regard, and their gargantuan health pools make them feel more like a raid boss than an enemy meant to fight alongside a horde of marginally weaker enemies.
"The heavy synth variants are even worse offenders in this regard, and their gargantuan health pools make them feel more like a raid boss than an enemy meant to fight alongside a horde of marginally weaker enemies."
A neat trick up Aliens: Fireteam Elite's sleeve is that most fights against these hordes will have a preparation phase before it – where players can choose to install their line of defence using a number of sentries and mines. It's quite satisfying to see this preparation bear fruit when the arena gets filled with dozens of different kinds of enemies.
As mentioned before, Aliens: Fireteam Elite has some great art direction, and the levels look great from a purely aesthetic standpoint. However, the rooms that players will fight through to get to the end of each stage just feel bland with repetitive layouts and visual designs, which when combined with repetitive objectives make getting through levels a slog at times. Undoubtedly, the biggest factor contributing to this front is the lack of mid-mission checkpoints.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite doesn't feature any mid-mission saves.
A mission can last up to 40 minutes or even more, and failure will set players back to the starting of each stage. This makes the game extremely unforgiving and bland at the same time. This issue becomes even more painful when the aforementioned litany of bugs and glitches come into play. Furthermore, during my time with the game, I experienced a number of glaring issues – such as getting kicked out of sessions even when my internet was working completely fine and the game refusing to open doors even when all teammates were present at the spot. During one mission's finale, the audio would completely cut off making dealing with a humongous horde an exercise in pain.
"A mission can last up to 40 minutes or even more, and failure will set players back to the starting of each stage. "
There's also a progression system in the game, where you have to fit a number of perks such as stat boosts and upgrades in a frame. It works in a similar way to NieR: Automata's chip system, and there is some potential to push for specific builds. The same mechanic is present for weapons, whose individual parts such as muzzles and magazines can be swapped out for better ones which provide some added benefit. From what I experienced, the effects of these perks didn't feel impactful except my arbitrary combat rating kept going up. Much like Valve's Left 4 Dead, players can choose challenge cards for a particular mission – which is an interesting concept executed well enough in Aliens: Fireteam Elite. One particular run with a Challenge Card reduced our health pool significantly, but gave the team health regeneration ability provided that we didn't take damage for a certain while.
There isn't a lot left to do once you beat the campaign. There's a Horde mode which tasks your Fireteam to fend off these same enemies in increasingly tough waves. You could always go back to the campaign and beat it on higher difficulties or with challenge cards, but from what I experienced – not a lot of changes with every new run. Enemies spawn in exactly the same location as per my observation, and the number of revives per teammate decreases with increasing difficulty levels.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite has some good stuff going for it, but none of it really stands out in any particular way. There's some clunkiness within the gameplay loop, which becomes more aggravating when coupled with a number of bugs and glitches. It's not impossible to have fun with Aliens: Fireteam Elite, but doing so requires putting up with several annoyances such as no checkpoints. For fans of the Aliens franchise, Fireteam Elite might serve well as a co-op shooter but for others – there are better options out there.
This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.
Lost Judgment Reveals English Cast in New Trailer
Lost Judgment will be the first Yakuza/Judgment game to receive a simultaneous worldwide launch, and naturally, following in the footsteps of its predecessor and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, it will also have a full English dub at launch. In a newly released trailer, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has revealed the game's English cast. Check it out below.
Greg Chun is returning as protagonist Takayuki Yagami, of course, as is Crispin Freeman as Masaharu Kaito. Stephanie Sheh will also be voicing Saori Shirosaki once again. Fumiya Sugiura is also returning, and will once again be voiced by Mark Whitten. Matt Y. King will play Kazuki Soma, Todd Haberkorn will be Jin Kuwana, while Artt Butler will voice Akihiko Ehara. There's also Erica Lindbeck as Yoko Sawa, and Brent Mukai as Daimu Akutsu.
Lost Judgment's localization director Scott Strichart has previously said that due to the tighter timeline of the game's development and localization, its English lip syncing won't be as smooth as it was in last year's Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Read more on that through here.
Lost Judgment launches on September 24 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and Xbox One. It's possible that it gets a demo soon, some time before its release.
Tormented Souls Review – Back to the Basics
Even though the survival horror genre has seen a resurgence in recent years, there's a very specific itch genre fans have that very few games are scratching even now. The itch for a classic, moody, old-school, fixed cameras survival horror game with a focus on exploration, puzzle solving, and resource management, like the Resident Evil and Silent Hill games of old. The elevator pitch for Torment Souls is that that's exactly what it is. It's a game that is singularly focused on the idea of creating a modern old-school survival horror game- and that is this game's biggest strength, but, at times, also its biggest weakness.
Tormented Souls evokes the original Resident Evil (and its remake) in a lot of ways, from its fixed camera angles to its haunted mansion setting (or part-haunted mansion, at least) to the moody atmosphere and quite dread it so successfully builds. Making your way through the dimly lit, creepy halls and rooms of a hospital that once used to be an abandoned mansion is done exactly the way you'd want- deliberate exploration and carefully searching environments is encouraged, and the pace is kept slow.
"Tormented Souls evokes the original Resident Evil (and its remake) in a lot of ways, from its fixed camera angles to its haunted mansion setting (or part-haunted mansion, at least) to the moody atmosphere and quite dread it so successfully builds."
Plenty of emphasis is placed on resource conservation and management right off the bat, which means running and gunning isn't always advisable, and often isn't even an option, and deciding when to use your healing items and when to hold on to them also adds an element of strategy. This is all typical survival horror stuff, of course, but it's executed well enough here, and definitely deserves to be praise. Tormented Souls' horror isn't about sudden spikes of fear as much as it is about maintaining a constant foreboding atmosphere, which is the perfect way to utilize its setting.
Solid lighting and well-crafted decrepit environments with blood splattered across the wall and unsettling objects or paintings scattered here and there contribute a whole lot to that atmosphere. Tormented Souls' setting definitely has a sense of place, and its fixed cameras definitely leverage that strength. Camera angles are carefully placed and serve a range of purposes- in a small room, the camera angle ensures that you can't see too much of the space in front of you, so you never know what's around that corner. Walking through a hallway, however, the camera might dynamically move around to give you a better look of your surroundings.
Tormented Souls also uses darkness as an actual gameplay mechanic- which isn't a novelty in the horror genre, sure, but is used quite well here. Many of the halls and corridors and environments you'll find yourself in will be quite dimly lit, or even completely dark, but staying in darkness for too long physically hurts you. Your tool against the darkness is a lighter, but if you have that equipped, you can't equip your weapon- which makes treks through patches of darkness particularly tense, especially if there are enemies lurking around. The fact that you can only save the game with tapes – like Resident Evil's ribbons – further heightens the tension. Tapes are not abundantly found, and you need to be careful about when to use them.
"Quite a few of the puzzles are really well designed, and honestly, I'm all for a deliberately paced survival horror game that's all about the puzzles and exploration- but Tormented Souls doesn't quite strike the right balance at times."
Another area Tormented Souls borrows a lot from classic RE and Silent Hill titles is its focus on puzzles. Careful exploration is crucial (as is backtracking, naturally), because finding items and item pieces scattered everywhere and then figuring how and where to combine or use them is how you solve most puzzles, in classic survival horror fashion. Quite a few of the puzzles are really well designed, and honestly, I'm all for a deliberately paced survival horror game that's all about the puzzles and exploration- but Tormented Souls doesn't quite strike the right balance at times.
For starters, the map is not the most useful, which is a cardinal sin in a game such as this one. The game also just throws a bit too many steps of different puzzles at you at the same time, and it can get a little hard to keep track of what items you have, or where a particular item needs to be used. Narrowing down things a little bit and not having too many puzzles active at the same time would probably have made for a better, more focused experience, because more than anything else, this leads to aimless exploration and trying to grapple with some obscure cues that you can't quite make sense of without some trial and error.
Movement in Tormented Souls is also a little rough around the edges. While the fixed cameras themselves do a great job of heightening the tension, both movement and aiming can feel a little clunky and, at times, sluggish, especially in instances when the camera angle switches and your direction is suddenly changed. Trying to zigzag around enemies to just run past them if you're trying to save ammo also always take more work than it has to, and combing through environments as you're searching for items and resources feels a little sluggish as well. I realize that this stiff movement is a very deliberate choice on the developers' part, since that's what they're trying to evoke in this decidedly old-school horror game, but they didn't have to retain this part of that experience as well.
"While the fixed cameras themselves do a great job of heightening the tension, both movement and aiming can feel a little clunky."
Storytelling isn't one of Tormented Souls' strengths either. The story on the whole is quite forgettable, thanks to several well-worn tropes, predictable twists, and uninteresting characters. The Resident Evil fan in me did enjoy picking up bits and pieces of logs and files to get a deeper understand of the backstory and the history of the creepy hospital/mansion, but the actual content of the narrative is uninspired at best. The writing is consistently sloppy, and the completely stilted and wooden voice acting doesn't do it any favours either. Also as much as I do think the visuals do their job of crafting creepy, atmospheric environments, they just don't hold up very well when the game takes control for cutscenes or more directed storytelling.
It feels a little unfair to ding on the game for some of these things, because though this is clearly a small-budget production, it's been made with a lot of love- a lot of love for the classic days of survival horror games. Tormented Souls is completely dedicated to realizing its vision of delivering a hardboiled old-school experience, and honestly, that is why it excels when it comes to its focus on exploration and resource management and its palpable atmosphere. But there are plenty of rough edges too, all of which do add up in the end. For fans of the fixed camera era of the survival horror genre, Tormented Souls is a solid trip down memory lane, but even so, it's got a lot of room for improvement.
This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.
Bravely Default 2 Has Sold Nearly 1 Million Copies
Bravely Default 2 may not have been the most high-profile release of the year, but those who're always on the lookout for a good old-school JRPG (which means most of us) were more than satisfied with what Square Enix delivered. On top of solid reception from critics and players alike, in fact, the game has also done pretty well for itself in terms of sales.
Square Enix announced in a recent press release that Bravely Default 2 has sold nearly a million copies on the Switch since its launch in February- over 950,000 copies, to be exact, which is a pretty solid figure. With the game also coming to PC in just a few days' time, it seems likely that it will continue to sell pretty well for the foreseeable future.
Bravely Default 2 is currently available on Switch, and launches for PC on September 2. You can read our review for it through here. A mobile game, titled Bravely Default: Brilliant Lights, is also currently in development for iOS and Android devices.
Dead Space Will Show a "Very Early Look at Development" in a Livestream Tomorrow
EA and Motive Studio announced the Dead Space remake over a month ago, but details on the game have been scant since then. While it certainly seems like we're going to have to wait longer for some substantial information on the game to emerge, we're certainly going to get something very soon.
Developer Motive Studio has confirmed on Twitter that it'll be doing a livestream tomorrow at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, during which we'll get some "very early" glimpses of how the survival horror remake's development is progressing. So don't expect to see a ton of gameplay or new details on the game- but we'll probably get some interesting insights from the development team, so stay tuned for that.
Dead Space is currently in the works for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, but doesn't yet have an official release date. It's been reported that the game is currently targeting a Fall 2022 launch if things go to plan- you can read more on that through here.
The passionate team at @MotiveStudio are bringing you in for a very early look at the development of #DeadSpace.
Tune in to our stream tomorrow at 10am PT / 1pm ET. https://t.co/woBW8jSB8z pic.twitter.com/Jb1D0foen9
— Dead Space (@deadspace) August 30, 2021
No More Heroes Developer Wishes To Make A Deadpool Game With Marvel
In a recent livestream with IGN Japan, No More Heroes creator Goichi Suda revealed what he wishes to do after the recent release of No More Heroes 3. In the interview which you can check out below, he expressed his desire to work on a Deadpool game with Marvel.
Of course, this is just wishful thinking on Suda's part, since he also mentions that there are a number of IPs already in development that are currently in the works. That being said, it'd be certainly be great to see Grasshopper use its learnings from the No More Heroes IP with a Deadpool game.
"So you can definitely look forward to a lot of new, interesting original IPs from Grasshopper. We also of course have other plans and are working hard on them to bring them to fruition," Suda said(as transcribed by VGC). "But [in terms of] the kind of things I'd love to do, I'd also love to work with Marvel on a Shatterstar or Deadpool game, something sort of Grasshopper-y like that. Maybe a Quicksilver title of some sorts. So, Marvel, you know."
The No More Heroes series is now over, which was confirmed recently by the series' official Twitter account. With 2K games licensing out Marvel properties for its upcoming Midnight Suns, it wouldn't be too farstretched to imagine a full-fleged 3D action game from Grasshopper Manufacture using Marvel's Deadpool.
Psychonauts 2 Developer Double Fine Doesn't Have "The Extra Budget" Required To Add More Languages
A recent post by Double Fine's community manager James Spafford on the official forum reveals that the studio doesn't have the time or budget required to add more languages to the game. Many fans and industry people have been critical of this post, which of course – resulted in a heated debate on the matter on Twitter.
The post reads,"We would love to add more languages to Psychonauts 2, and we are investigating to see if that could be possible at some future time. Script wise this is the largest game we've ever made and adding even one extra language would take a lot of work and a lot of extra budget that we currently do not have. To add languages that use entirely different alphabets and have other considerations is an even bigger job still. We may get that chance, and we really really hope we do, but we can't make any promises, and we also would not be able to do so in time for launch."
The recent launch of Psychonauts 2 was received extremely well by critics and fans, with many pointing out the litanny of accessibility options Double Fine included in the game – most notably an assist mode. Coupling this with the fact that Double Fine now has the financial backing of Microsoft, many fans including Jez Corden from Windows Central have criticized the game for lacking on this front.
Another fan was quick to point out that a budget would have been announced prior to release, which probably prohibited multi-language support. Of course, it remains to be seen how this pans out post-launch but it'd certainly be great if these fan-requested features get added in a future update.
It's normal if you consider that prior to launch a budget was assigned and the developer itself wanted to focus on the core experience of the game and to deliver before asking the budget for more languages.I'm positive that considering the success of the game actions will follow.
— Andrea (@Or1onSLi) August 28, 2021
Yakuza Creator Toshihiro Nagoshi Is Leaving SEGA – Report
A recent Bloomberg report statest that industry veteran and Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi is on the brink of leaving SEGA and negotiations with NetEase are already underway. The report states that the change is directly influenced by China's recent crackdown against gaming addiction.
It's been also stated that Toshihiro Nagoshi will be assembling his own team at NetEase which will then be working on new games for the Hangzou-based company. It's believed that if these negotiations do come to fruition, this would be a clear confirmation of NetEase to expand beyond the region of China. As of the time of writing, Sega and NetEase are yet to comment on the matter.
NetEase is one of many Chinese gaming giants who have been eyeing on potential partnerships with developers and publishers outside the region. The Tecent-owned TiMi Studios recently partnered with The Pokemon Company for Pokemon Unite, announced a partnership with Xbox Game Studios, and completed the acquisition of Sumo for $1.27 billion.
NetEase itself has been a publishing partner for Blizzard for a while now, and reportedly wants to hire foreign talent for its original IPs. Yakuza developer Sega also recently got embroiled in a controversy with Lost Judgment voice actor's talent agency over a PC release, which you can also read through here.