Gamescom Opening Night Live Trailer Teases Far Cry 6, Death Stranding Director's Cut and Much More
Gamescom Opening Night Live returns this week with world premieres, announcements and much more. Hosted by Geoff Keighley, it will feature over 30 different games, whether its updates for existing games or brand new reveals. As if the excitement was palpable enough, a new trailer has been released, further hyping up what's coming.
Several recognizable games can be seen from Far Cry 6 and Death Stranding (possibly indicating the debut of the Director's Cut launch trailer) to Genshin Impact and Replaced. There are some other interesting titles, like the one at 0:35 which could be gameplay from Unknown 9: Awakening. Sifu, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge and Back 4 Blood can also be seen.
On Twitter, Keighley teased more news on additional titles soon. For now, we know that Saints Row will have an announcement, possibly a reboot for the series, while Call of Duty: Vanguard sees the world premiere for its gameplay. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is also getting a "new look" trailer. Gamescom Opening Night Live airs on August 25th at 11 AM PST to stay tuned for more announcements.
What are you looking forward to seeing at @gamescom Opening Night Live on Wednesday?
More news tomorrow on additional games. pic.twitter.com/Fz2nAMEJQv
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) August 23, 2021
15 Most Disappointing First Person Shooters of All Time
Developers and publishers often don't seem to understand that the more they hype up their games, the more they're going to have to live up to. Seems like simple logic, right? Well, several high profile disappointments over the years have shown us that it's not nearly as commonly understood as you'd expect. Here, we'll be talking about fifteen first person shooters that made massive promises in the lead-up to their launch, but ended up falling short of expectations.
HALO 5: GUARDIANS
343 Industries weren't exactly in an enviable position when they took the reigns of the Halo franchise from Bungie, but even so, Halo 4 was a respectable (albeit imperfect) first outing for them. After that, everything just went downhill. The Master Chief Collection had a terrible launch (that it would take years to recover from), while Halo 5 just continued that downward spiral, thanks to a disappointing story that for some reason decided to shift focus away from Master Chief, and gameplay mechanics that seemed too taken by the likes of Call of Duty for their own good.
Diablo 2: Resurrected – 15 Things You Need to Know
One of the most beloved action RPG looters of all time, Diablo 2, is finally getting its long-awaited remaster on September 23rd. Diablo 2: Resurrected is developed by Vicarious Visions and Blizzard Entertainment for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch. Though ostensibly the same game, there's a bit that's being added on top. Let's take a look at 15 things you should know before buying the remaster.
Story
The story takes place once again in the world of Sanctuary. The Prime Evil Diablo was defeated in the first game but rumors begin to swell about a Dark Wanderer who roams the landscape and brings demons in his wake. He's accompanied by Marius, a seemingly ordinary person who narrates the tale while in prison. There are four Acts in total to go through, each with their own unique environments, and the Lord of Destruction expansion adds a fifth.
Classes
There are seven classes to choose from, five being from the base game and two from the expansion. There's the Barbarian, a melee class fighter than can dual wield weapons and tank damage; the Necromancer who employs Curses and poison along with raising monsters and golems to fight with; the Amazon, a counterpart to the Rogues who can use bows, javelins and spears, prioritizing evasion over damage resistance; the Sorceress who uses elemental spells like fire, lightning and ice along with Teleport for quickly moving around; and the Paladin, a shield-bearer that utilizes various Auras to buff allies and debuff foes. The Assassin, who uses elemental traps, shadow magic and claws to fight. Each class has their own unique talents and skills which can be customized for different kinds of play-styles.
Gameplay and Difficulty Modes
By now, the gameplay loop of Diablo will be familiar to fans – it helped popularize the genre, after all. Explore, kill monsters, collect loot, become stronger, repeat. There are three difficulty levels – Normal, Nightmare and Hell – which add all kinds of unique modifiers to make things difficult for the player like tougher monsters resistant to certain damage types, XP loss on dying and so on. But you get better loot in the process. Hardcore mode also returns, allowing one to test their mettle against the forces of evil with just one life.
Loot and Crafting
Loot is divided into several tiers based on rarity. These are Normal, Magical, Set, Rare and Unique. Normal items are your bog-standard weapons and armor whose attributes stay fixed. Magical and Rare items have randomly generated bonuses with the former having one or two while the latter get two to six. Set items have certain fixed properties that are activated when equipping loot that belongs to that set (with the higher bonus being activated with six items equipped).
Uniques offer three to eight attributes that are fixed beforehand. Items can also have sockets for gems which add additional bonuses. There's also crafting via the Horadric Cube for combining items to create a new one or three of the same gems to create one gem of higher quality. Though Vicarious hasn't outlined how loot drops and such have changed in Resurrected, Diablo 2 isn't known for having the same drop rates as Diablo 3. Set items can be very rare and it may take time to properly min-max a build.
Remastered Visuals and Cutscenes
In terms of visuals, all of the original graphics – from the characters and monsters to items and spells – have been remastered. Environments have been completely revamped, sporting more detail and features like fog, dynamic lighting and so on. Certain spells like Lightning and Blizzard have also had their VFX improved while icons now sport more "brilliant colors" and provide additional clarity to an image. All of the cinematics have also been redone, as seen in the recently released scenes from Act 1 and 2, looking sharper and more realistic.
4K Support and Mode Switching
Other improvements include 4K resolution and Dolby Surround 7.1 support. If the improved visuals and overall aesthetic of Resurrected aren't doing it for you, then there's the option to switch back to the Legacy graphics (complete with black borders on the left and right the screen). This can be done during gameplay with the press of a button if you want to compare the old and new visuals at a glance.
Shared Stash and Automatic Gold Pickup
Not everything is exactly the same in terms of gameplay. Diablo 2: Resurrected offers a revamped UI with more detailed character sheet, comparisons for item tool-tips and automatic gold pickup (which can be toggled on or off). The Stash has been expanded significantly and a Shared Stash has also been added with three tabs, allowing one to transfer items between characters more easily.
Large Font Modes and UI Scaling
Following the technical alpha, a number of other quality of life changes have been added such as UI scaling on PC, large font modes and gamma/contrast settings. There are also options for positioning the mini-map left, right or center along with having a transparent overlay for the map when pressing Tab. Expect more improvements following the beta.
Legacy Save Support
If you've already put hundreds of hours into Diablo 2 and don't want your saves to go to waste, then there's good news. Producer Matthew Cederquist confirmed to IGN Middle East that local single-player save files for the original release can be used in Resurrected without any issue. Of course, it's a different matter entirely with save files that require mods.
Mod Support
In that respect, there's even more good news – Diablo 2: Resurrected will support mods. Designer Rob Gallerani told ComicBook.com that modding in the remaster will be easier in some ways, since modders don't have to hack the game to do certain things. That being said, it also means that certain types of mods aren't going to be welcome. Gallerani states, "Mods that actually hack the game, that inject things into the DLL, those aren't really going to be as welcomed anymore. But with the shift over to a modern Battle.net and us trying to increase security and prevent item duping and bots and other things like that, those types of mods aren't going to be as easy to do." The bad news is that mods which worked in the original game can't just be directly used in Resurrected. They need to be redesigned and optimized for the same. So if you're holding off on MedianXL's 2.0 release in the hopes of playing it in Resurrected, you'll have to wait till the mod author actually designs it for the same.
Won't Replace the Original
But in even more good news, Diablo 2: Resurrected won't replace the base version like Warcraft 3: Reforged did, removing features that fans enjoyed while also ruining things like mods in the process. Don't like the changes made and want to stick with the original? Want to play Resurrected but also have access to new content with mods like MedianXL 2.0? That will thankfully be possible.
Open Beta
If you've pre-purchased the game, then you might have had early access to the beta. Everyone else can partake in the open beta on August 20th at 10 AM PDT with pre-loads available on August 17th for Xbox and PlayStation platforms while PC players can pre-load it on August 18th. While progression carries over from early access to the open beta, neither will carry over into the full game and sadly, the beta isn't available for Nintendo Switch players. With the first two Acts and five classes to try out, the beta should provide a nice extensive look at what's coming.
Cross-Progression
Cross-platform play hasn't been confirmed but Vicarious Visions is looking into incorporating the same. There will be cross-progression, allowing players to transfer their save files across different platforms. This means all of your story progress, quests completed, characters, loot and unlocked talents will be accessible (though you'll need a Battle.net account to set it all up).
Multiplayer
For multiplayer, Diablo 2: Resurrected supports up to eight players in a single game and each can have their own mercenary along for the ride. There will also be ladder seasons with more frequent restarts (though it's currently unlikely that they'll launch alongside the game, instead going live after release). Unfortunately, TCP/IP support won't be included due to "potential security risks." This means you have to play through the official servers for multiplayer.
PC Requirements
In terms of hardware, Diablo 2: Resurrected needs an Intel Core i3-3250 or AMD FX-4350, an Nvidia GTX 660 or AMD Radeon HD 7850 and 8 GB of RAM at the minimum. These may change over time based on compatibility. Recommended requirements include a Core i5-9600k or Ryzen 5 2600, a GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 5500 XT and 16 GB of RAM. You'll need 30 GB of hard drive space in both cases.
10 New Things We Learned About Pokemon Legends: Arceus
The mainline Pokemon franchise has been stuck in a rut for a long time now, what with the franchise refusing to grow and change with the times, but with the upcoming Pokemon Legends: Arceus, it looks like it's finally read to make some much needed changes. After months of silence following the game's announcement earlier this year, The Pokemon Company recently provided some major new details on Pokemon Legends: Arceus and what players can expect from it, and here, we're going to go over some of the biggest talking points.
HISUI REGION
We've known for a while now that Pokemon Legends: Arceus is going to be set in Feudal era Sinnoh, centuries before the events of Diamond and Pearl. As we recently learned though, in Arceus, it's not going to be called Sinnoh. At this time, the region is called Hisui, and by and large, it's pretty wild and untamed. Pokemon and humans haven't formed the sort of relationship that the series has generally portrayed, which means many people consider them to be dangerous and terrifying beasts- which should be an interesting new dynamic to explore for a Pokemon game.
BIOMES AND ECOSYSTEMS
Hisui is clearly shaping up to be a pretty diverse region. It's an open world map, of course, and based on what we've seen of it so far, it seems to be building on what Game Freak did with the Wild Areas in Pokemon Sword and Shield, with a little bit of Breath of the Wild thrown in there for good measure (because what's an open world game in 2021 without a little bit of Breath of the Wild?). In terms of environmental variety, we've seen various unique biomes, from desert landscapes to lush green locations to mountains covered in snow, and each of these are likely going to have unique weather patterns as well. And of course, there's Mt. Coronet towering over everything in the heart of the region. It'll be interesting to see how that is handled in the game- we'd expect a massive, labyrinthine dungeon, but nothing has been confirmed either way just yet.
JUBILIFE VILLAGE
Given the time period that Pokemon Legends is set in, it makes sense that there's not a lot of civilization in the Hisui region. In fact, it looks like there's only one town in the game- Jubilife Village, which will serve as your hub throughout the experience (and is clearly the settlement that goes on to be known as Jubilife City in Sinnoh centuries later). The wooden buildings and Feudal Japanese-style architecture can be seen clearly throughout the village, with the headquarters of the Galaxy Expedition Team (more on this in a bit) situated at its heart. Right now, Game Freak and The Pokemon Company haven't said much about this town, but we're hoping that, as the central hub, it will keep on expanding and changing throughout the game.
GALAXY EXPEDITION TEAM
So here's something interesting- the Team Galactic patches have been visible on the protagonist models ever since the game's first trailers, which has led to some interesting speculation, and now, that's heated up even more. That's because in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, you'll be a member of a group known as the Galaxy Expedition Team. What's their purpose? Well, apparently to survey and catalog all the Pokemon in Hisui, which, in turn, means you have to fill up the region's first Pokedex. The Galaxy Expedition Team is made up of members from different parts of the Pokemon world, and has three corps within its structure- the Medical Corps, the Survey Corps (which you'll be a member of), and the Security Corps. How the Galaxy Expedition Team sets up the creation of Team Galactic (which might not happen… though it probably will) remains to be seen, but we're certainly intrigued.
CHARACTERS
We've also learned quite a bit about the characters you'll be meeting in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. There's the protagonist, of course, which is one of the areas where the game's taking a different approach. You'll be given a choice between two set characters to play as – Akari or Rei – and whichever one you don't pick will appear as a supporting character in the game. Other characters include Professor Laventon, a member of the Survey Corps; Commander Kamodo, the boss of the Galaxy Expedition Team; and Captain Cyllene, the leader of the Survey Corps. Cyllene, incidentally, looks a lot like Cyrus, the leader of Team Galactic in Diamond and Pearl (and hell, even has a similar name), which is yet another possible connection between the two organizations.
STRUCTURE
So what exactly will you be doing in Pokemon Legends: Arceus? Well, Game Freak and The Pokemon Company are keeping their cards pretty close to their chest, but we still have a rough idea of the general structure of the game (or at least its earlier hours, if nothing else). Your main goal, of course, is to go out and survey and catch Pokemon in order to fill up your Pokedex. That means you're going to be heading out of Jubilife Village time and again into different parts of Hisui on Survey assignments, where you'll set up base camps and then venture out into the wild to do your job. These base camps, incidentally, will also serve as your primary place of rest, what with there being no Pokemon Centers. Before heading out of base camps, you'll also make preparations for the excursion ahead- for instance, by using crafting components you've collected to craft your own Pokeballs.
CATCHING POKEMON
How you catch Pokemon in Pokemon Legends: Arceus is going to be different from how we've usually been doing it in Pokemon games all these years. Simply put, you'll just aim your Pokeball at them in real time rather than entering battles and then throw the ball at them. Different Pokemon will also react differently to your presence- some will be docile, some will flee the moment they see you (which means you'll have to approach them stealthily), while some will be more aggressive and attack on sight, which might cause you to faint and kick you right back to your base camp, requiring a more cautious approach.
BATTLES
Even with all the changes being made to how Pokemon are caught, battles are still going to be at the heart of this experience- and the battle system in Pokemon Legends: Arceus is seeing some interesting changes. Throw one of your Pokemon's Pokeball close to a wild Pokemon and you'll instantly enter a battle. These will be semi-turn based affairs where you'll still choose between a selection of four moves, and type matchups are still obviously a thing. Crucially though, each move will have two variants- Strong Style and Agile Style. Strong Style increases the attack power of whatever move you're using at the cost of speed, while Agile Style will decrease the strength of a move but make it quicker, allowing you to unleash multiple attacks in a row. It sure sounds like an interesting variation of traditional Pokemon battles, and if used properly, can lead to a pretty interesting combat system.
NEW POKEMON
Seeing as Pokemon Legends: Arceus isn't set in a brand-new region, but an older rendition of an existing one, it won't introduce dozens upon dozens of new breeds of monsters the way new Pokemon game usually do- but there's still going to be a handful of new ones, some of which we've already seen. There's Wyrdeer, a Normal/Psychic type evolution of Stantler exclusive to Hisui, and Basculegion, a Water/Ghost type evolution of Basculin, also exclusively found in Hisui. Basculegion also has one of the most tragic and metal backstories for any Pokemon to date- when a Basculin becomes possessed by the spirits of other Basculin in its school who did not survive the harsh journey swimming upstream, it evolves into Basculegion. These souls have a will of their own and allow Basculegion to swim for long periods of time without tiring, and also allow it to go into a berserk mode of sorts when it senses danger.
Meanwhile, coming back to the saner and more normal end of the spectrum, there's also a couple of Hisuian variants of older Pokemon that have been confirmed, like the fur-covered Fire/Rock type Hisuian Growlithe, or the Psychic/Flying Hisuian Braviary.
TRAVERSAL
This is one of the areas where the game's Breath of the Wild influences are most apparent. Open world games that allow you to soar through the air with some sort of gliding mechanic are becoming increasingly common, and Arcueus is joining that list as well, what with you being able to instantaneously jump off cliffs and glide using a contraption being borne aloft by a Braviary. Meanwhile, you will also be able to ride on a Basculegion's back across bodies of water, or gallop through the world on the back of a Wyrdeer.
Destiny 2 Xur Exotics – Trinity Ghoul, Sanguine Alchemy and Raiden Flux
Xur is back in Destiny 2, hanging out in the Tower Hangar behind the former Dead Orbit vendor. The Exotic vendor will be available until the weekly reset tomorrow and has quite the interesting selection. First off is Trinity Ghoul, an Energy combat bow that costs 29 Legendary Shards.
It fires an arrow that splits when released – scoring precision kills triggers "Lightning Rod" which causes the next shot to chain lightning between foes. What makes the weapon truly spectacular is its Catalyst since it allows Lightning Rod to activate from any Arc damage final blow. This essentially provides constant uptime for the trait and gives it excellent mob-clear capabilities.
The Exotic gear available this week includes Raiden Flux (Hunter chest), One-Eyed Mask (Titan helm) and Sanguine Alchemy (Warlock chest), each for 23 Legendary Shards. Raiden Flux is well worth picking up for Arcstriders since chaining together hits with Arc Staff increases its damage and duration. One-Eyed Mask used to be incredible overpowered but has been nerfed significantly, no longer highlighting enemies through walls, providing a damage boost and so on.
More Destiny 2 news will be revealed tomorrow with Bungie's next showcase so stay tuned. The developer already confirmed new details for The Witch Queen and Season of the Lost (which sees Mara Sov return). Future content has also leaked for upcoming content – check that out here.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Alpha Confirmed for August 27th to 29th on PS4 and PS5
Sledgehammer Games and Activision confirmed that Call of Duty: Vanguard will have an alpha starting on August 27th, 10 AM PST till the same time on August 29th, free for PS4 and PS5 players. It can be preloaded today from 3 AM PT onwards. Those that have Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War or Call of Duty: Warzone installed can access it through the main menu, which will either load you into the alpha directly or prompt a download from the PlayStation Store page.
The main appeal of this alpha is the new Champion Hill mode. This is essentially Gunfight but with a much larger map and lives along with a tournament-style approach. As a Duo or Trio, your team is essentially competes against others in a round-robin-style tournament with the goal of reducing all of the opposing team's lives to zero. While everyone has the same starting loadout, you can pick up Cash throughout the map for upgrading weapons, purchasing new equipment, assigning new Perks and so on in between.
The map this time consists of four arenas for combat – Airstrip, Trainyard, Market and Courtyard – with a Buy Station in the center. Along with the new mode, players can try out four Operators – Lucas Riggs, Polina Petrova, Wade Jackson, and Arthur Kingsley, who also happen to be main cast in the Campaign – and use 10 different attachments for modifying weapons. More details will be provided on Champion Hill in the coming days so stay tuned.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is out on November 5th for Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and PC with its world premiere gameplay debuting at Gamescom Opening Night Live on August 25th.
Rainbow Six Extraction Gameplay Overview Trailer Details Operators, Maps, and More
Following its delay a couple of months ago, Rainbow Six Extraction is now set to launch a little later than it was previously supposed to, but Ubisoft is keeping the marketing for the co-op PvE shooter going nonetheless. A new gameplay overview trailer has been released, and it goes over some crucial details about what you can expect to find in the game at launch.
Rainbow Six Extraction is going to launch with 18 playable Operators who will be returning from Rainbow Six Sege, but with new twists to balance them for the different style of gameplay here. There will also be 12 "ever-evolving" maps set across various locations and environments where the game's incursions will take place, as well as 13 different missions to take on. In addition to all of this, the game will also have 25 unique gadgets, 69 different weapons, 13 enemy archetypes, and more. All of this and more is detailed further in the overview trailer, which you can check out below.
Rainbow Six Extraction launches for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia in January 2022.
Sony Patent Hints at PlayStation Store Listings That Will Present Info Based on a Game's Lifecycle
Sony filed a patent earlier in the year that recently came to light (courtesy of Reddit), and it might contain some interesting hints about ideas that Sony may have in mind about how to revamp game listings on the PlayStation Store in the future.
The patent essentially discusses pages for games on the digital store that will provide varying information based on the context of where the game is at in its life cycle, as well as information that will be specific to the user. It describes examples of games showing different content on their listings based on their current updates and support, while information presented might also be tailored based on user-specific activity.
The appeal of something like this is obvious, of course. Live service games continue to becoming increasingly common, and it makes sense that Sony will want to highlight details that will be most relevant for an ongoing game like, say, Destiny 2 or Fortnite, where a plain and simple game listing wouldn't make as much sense as something that focuses on the newest content on offer.
Of course, this is just a patent, and a patent doesn't necessarily have to be reflective of things that will definitely happen in the future. More often than not, they're just instances of companies protecting their ideas and technologies, so keep that in mind. Either way, this particular idea would make a lot of sense in the current market, so we wouldn't be surprised to see features like these coming to the PlayStation Store in the not-too-distant future.
Sony is Investing in External Japanese Development, Remains a "Core Part" of PlayStation
PlayStation fans have been more than a little concerned about how Sony has been handling the Japanese side of the brand of late. SIE Japan Studio, a developer that had come up with some of the best and most memorable PlayStation games over the years, was shut down earlier this year, being reorganized as a larger Team Asobi- the studio behind Astro's Playroom, who are at work on what they're calling their most ambitious game to date.
But Sony insists that Japan still remains an important part of the brand's market strategy. In a recent interview with Game Informer, PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst reiterated that Japanese development and Japanese games are "still part of who [they] are". In addition to highlighting the expansion of Team Asobi and the continued work of Gran Turismo developer Polyphony Digital, Hulst also said that Sony is investing in external Japanese development, and that that remains "a core part of the PlayStation identity."
"We're building out Team Asobi under Nicolas Doucet, so we're actually investing in that team," Hulst said. "People forget sometimes that we have Polyphony Digital, which is a team in two locations. We are investing in our external development group out of Tokyo as well, and that's a team that has obviously worked with the likes of From Software and Kojima Productions. So we are very invested in Japanese development and Japanese development is something that we love… I think it's such a core part of the PlayStation identity that I can't ever see us shy away from Japanese or even Asian development."
Interestingly enough, some recent leaks have claimed that FromSoftware is working on a new Soulslike IP exclusive for the PS5, with development support being provided by XDev. You can read more on that through here.
Destiny 2 Leak Spills the Beans on Upcoming Expansions, Raids, Halo Crossover, and More
Bungie is going to host a Destiny 2 stream on August 24 where new details will be shared on The Witch Queen and Season of the Lost, the looter shooter's next big expansion and next big season respectively, but ahead of that, it seems a major leak has started doing the rounds online that contains significant details about what the developer has planned for the game.
The leak originated on the RaidSecrets Discord server with a burner account, and since then has been shared extensively on Reddit and other social media. According to the leak, The Witch Queen will feature new weapon archetypes, weapon crafting, and more. A summary for the expansion allegedly reads: "Darkness returns to Sol, revealing itself to be a powerful tool that Guardians can wield. Humanity's views are shaken by new discoveries about the Light, Traveler, Darkness, and the Entity behind the Pyramids — The Witness. Destiny's ultimate enemy revealed."
There are also some mentions of Lightfall, the next expansion in the works that is currently on the schedule after The Witch Queen. Interestingly, the leak also claims that the end of this year will also see Destiny 2 launching for the Epic Games Store.
Meanwhile, major overhauls for Trials of Osiris, Strikes, Iron Banner, and more also seem to be incoming, while there will, of course, be new Exotics as well. Where raids are concerned, it seems Bungie is preparing to bring back some classic raids from the Destiny 1 days, including Wrath of the Machine and King's Fall.
Most interesting, however, are the details of a Halo crossover event. This has been in the rumour mill for some time, but the leak claims that the event is planned for December 2021 to celebrate Bungie's 30th anniversary. It will allegedly take place on a Halo ring and add other Halo-themed content as well. This will include a Halo armour set for each class (Spartan armour for Titan, Arbiter armour for Warlock, ODST armour for Hunter), a Marathon armour set for each class, an ONI-themed battle pass, two Halo-themed missions, and four Halo weapons (Gravity Hammer, Magnum, Sniper Rifle, Battle Rifle). If it does happen, it would align with Halo Infinite's planned Holiday 2021 launch as well, so that's something.
This is all unconfirmed information, of course, so take it with a large grain of salt for now. August 24 is just a couple of days away though, so we'll probably know more about what the next few months hold for Destiny 2 very soon. Stay tuned for all of those updates.