Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Last month, developer Volition provided us with a playable build of the new Saints Row. I had access to a handful of story missions, some side activities, and the entirety of the Santo Ileso map to explore. Volition encouraged me to drive, glide, and wreak havoc to my hearts' content. So, that's exactly what I did. While the content is still very much in development, I was able to understand how the game is shaping up in its early state, and it's looking good so far.
During the super-powered trip that was Saints Row IV, cars were rendered nearly useless when you had the option to Super Sprint and Jump around Steelport. With this Saints Row reboot, those powers are nowhere in sight, so you'll be either hoofing it or stealing a random car off the street to get around. Luckily, Saints Row features a wholly reworked driving system, bringing a new weight to driving and shifting the focus of car combat from guns and drivebys to using the car itself as a weapon.
In an early story mission (which you can read about in our Saints Row cover story), I learned all about two key features of this new driving model. One is the ability to jolt your car left or right with the press of a button, essentially punching with your vehicle to do damage or run rival racers off the road. The other is a new drift that will crank your car into a sideways slide while the camera cooly tilts and zooms in a bit for added effect.
Drifting in Saints Row feels very much like a Mario Kart drift, and that's high praise. No matter the vehicle, drifting will always set your car at a mostly predetermined angle while in the slide, giving you control on the analog stick to adjust your car for ideal positioning when you're coming out of the turn. There's no worrying about applying the e-brake too much, having the tail-end of your car whip out too far, or losing too much speed while performing the maneuver. I appreciate that it's clearly designed to keep you moving and not get in the way of having fun. Eventually, I was drifting around every turn, no matter how fast or slow I was going, just because it was fun.
Playing as the very capable protagonist known as The Boss, you're able to get on top of your vehicles, even while moving. On the roof, you have a full 360-degree vantage to take out any pesky local gang members from the Los Pantheros or Idols factions you may be locked in battle with. You also have the option to take to the skies in the new wingsuit. If your car is moving quickly enough, you can jump off the roof and soar through the air to get far away or land on another set of wheels to take as your own.
Wingsuiting around Santo Ileso like a deadly and maniacal flying squirrel is exhilarating and some of the most fun I had with Saints Row. You start a glide from high structures like an office building or the mountains and hills surrounding the city in addition to the roof of a moving car. There are also spots scattered across the map housing mechanisms to fling you into the air; no skyscrapers required. It's not always easy to find a spot to take flight, but I like how that reinforces the importance of ground traversal and being reliant on driving for most of your trips around Santo Ileso's districts.
Utilizing the wingsuit is a great way to make it across short spans of the city quickly. While you're always at the mercy of gravity, diving to pick up speed and pulling up to regain altitude can extend your flight sessions greatly. I love the sense of speed and the amount of control you have while flying around. I'd compare it to something between the cape from Super Mario World and Batman's gliding abilities from Arkham City.
From my time with Saints Row, the shooting felt the most mundane. We had access to a suite of pistols, assault weapons, and rocket launchers, which all perform how you'd expect in a Saints Row game. Some of the wilder weaponry promised by the developer wasn't available in my time attempting crime around Santo Ileso. Still, rocket-powered explosives and lesser ballistics were more than enough to take care of who or whatever stood in my way.
Outside of the gameplay, a question in the gaming community is whether it feels like past Saints Rows. Volition has been upfront about wanting to provide a tone somewhere between Saint Row 2 and Saints Row The Third, and from the small segment I've played, I'd say it hits that mark. I find the writing and humor are in the same ballpark. There's plenty of cussing, s--t-talking, and other vulgarities which haven't been present in much of what's been shown publicly at this point. You are a group aspiring to build a crime syndicate, after all.
This core group of Saints is new, and you get to meet and become friends with them. It's one of the best parts of past entries, and I'm looking forward to taking on the world with Eli, Neenah, and Kevin. They complement each other well, and even from the little I've seen, I can see where conflicts may arise, but I also get the feeling they're ride or die for their fellow Saints. I'm ready to take over Santo Ileso with them and be part of the calamity and destruction caused along the way.
Be sure to check out all of our Saints Row coverage throughout the month like our Rapid-Fire Interview with Jeremy Bernstein, Lead Mission Narrative Designer. You can find everything at our cover story hub by clicking on the banner below.
In the world of comics, X-Men has been a hot property in recent years. While the popularity of Marvel's mutants has rarely been at risk in the last couple of decades, the current narrative arc, launched with the House of X book in 2019, has injected new life into the characters and stories. That same story has all the makings of a thrilling video game and one that uses a very particular gameplay structure – the roguelike. As if written to use that very conceit, a roguelike X-Men game could capture something intriguing and exciting about the current fiction. And that vision would be at its best if it came from a small team given creative freedom to make the game its own.
For the uninitiated, the Dawn of X storyline helped relaunch the X-Men comics a couple of years back, reinventing some core aspects of the narrative to reinvigorate the mutant family of books. [Notable spoilers follow, in case you're still hoping to discover it for yourself.] Without getting hung up on the details of an especially complex setup (even by comic standards), the X-Men are in a very different place than they were before. Old enmities, like those between Xavier and Magneto, have been set aside. Most mutants now live together in a mutant nation on the living island of Krakoa. After decades of feeling like underdogs facing constant assault, the tone of the books has shifted, showing a mostly united mutantdom demanding a seat at the international (and even intergalactic) table. Key to this change of fortune is a great secret mutants now hold; thanks to a confluence of powers from several key mutants in their ranks, any mutant can now be resurrected after their death, brought back to fight once again.
And die they do. The X-Men family of books has been filled with dramatic turns where some of our favorite heroes, like Jean Grey, Wolverine, and Nightcrawler, have met grisly ends, only to emerge once more on Krakoa to continue the fight. It makes for some fun scenes since the heroes can make the ultimate sacrifice and then show back up the very next issue. Of course, the miraculous secret of resurrection constantly seems at risk of discovery or corruption. "Oh no! If you die in this other world, you don't come back right!," and other related shenanigans help to maintain narrative tension. The power fantasy at play also lends a potent twist to the ongoing themes at the heart of the X-Men mythology, namely, that a minority population often faces violence and even death from an indifferent world. In these latest stories, that painful reality is subverted, giving power and confidence to the heroes.
Gamers hardly need to be sold on the potential for fun inherent to heroes that die and then start the fight back over from the beginning. The roguelike genre has risen in prominence over the last several years, capturing something magical and thrilling that few other games can manage. Fight hard through a seemingly unconquerable sequence of battles, and then die. Use the expertise gleaned during that fight to reach a little further the next time. Gain skill, knowledge, and mastery. "One more run!" becomes the mantra.
I'd love to see Marvel recognize the potential for the X-Men's current resurrection-focused stories to translate over into a roguelike game. And to do it justice, they should entrust that effort to the same sort of team that has had the most luck in capturing the intensity and excitement of the roguelike formula – small, independent studios who have already walked these paths with successful games.
Imagine Dead Mage translating its expertise on a game like Children of Morta, and instead having a pixelated action/adventure with characters like Jean Grey and Storm. Or consider Motion Twin's side-scrolling exploration as seen in Dead Cells, but with Wolverine slashing through a heavily guarded space station orbiting the sun. Mega Crit Games helped popularize the card-based deckbuilding roguelike; it's not hard to envision its take on Marvel's mutants, unlocking new characters with each run, and drawing new cards for your deck that reflects mutant powers.
Independent developers are often independent for a good reason; many of those studios are filled with talented individuals who left large studios to pursue their creative visions. They want the freedom to make their own mistakes and triumphs and take risks that a big dev house simply won't take. Marvel (and other big license holders) should take note of that ethos and consider partnerships that leverage that penchant for risk-taking. Many smaller studios formed specifically to pursue their own passions and projects, and may be justifiably hesitant to veer from their own creative ventures; after all, many went independent to get away from sequels, corporate game development, and in some cases, even the limited control inherent to some licensed work. However, I suspect at least some smaller studios would jump at the opportunity to create something with a big property like the X-Men, especially if the pitch was: "We loved the work you did on your last game. We have this story concept about resurrecting mutants in the X-Men mythology, rising to fight the same hard fight again and again. We'd love to give you the freedom to take that and run with it in your own direction."
I've been impressed with Marvel's willingness to take chances in recent years, extending opportunities to work on popular franchises like Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Midnight Sons (Suns), and The Avengers to a variety of top-tier development houses. We even recently got word of a dedicated Wolverine game from Insomniac. The next step is to open the door to smaller deals with lesser-known development studios, where strong talent and proven success stories could allow for some fantastic games.
I can think of few franchises as ripe for such treatment as the X-Men. Varied superpowers from an array of richly drawn characters, lots of memorable conflicts and villains, and a story setup that lets players experience that live/die/repeat structure that makes roguelikes so fun – it all adds up to a game that fans would love to experience. It's okay for some licensed games to be smaller, feature pixel art, or take characters in unusual directions that you'd never try in a larger and more expensive project. I'm ready to take Cyclops on that seemingly impossible mission to hunt down Nimrod, only to face his demise, and then be forced to try again, optic blasts at the ready. The concept is ready-made for gaming success, but only if the right partnership can transform the idea into a reality.
We're diving into the upcoming Saints Row reboot for this month's cover story. We sat down with Jeremy Bernstein, Lead Mission Narrative Designer at Deep Silver Volition, to ask him 84 rapid-fire questions about the game ahead of its February release date. Firstly, why is it just called Saints Row? Second, where the heck is Johnny Gat? We learn a lot about the project through our rigorous questioning, including its new cast of characters, how the Saints use food trucks for their Criminal Ventures schemes, and the game's surreal American Southwest setting.
For this month's coverage, we're showing you an in-depth look at Saints Row. You can look forward to exclusive interviews about the creation of the game, how Deep Silver Volition is reimagining its beloved series, a look at the series' new traversal mechanics – including a wingsuit and revamped driving systems – and of course, a slew of exclusive gameplay on our YouTube channel. You can also read our 12-page cover story with a digital or print subscription to get even more information on the upcoming reboot. If you haven't yet, also be sure to check out our Saints Row exclusive coverage hub.
Now that Alex has his mitts on the Switch OLED, we've got some lovely glossy footage of how it runs in comparison to the original Nintendo Switch, using the "infamous bottleneck" (his words) of Super Mario Odyssey's New Donk City.
If it's a comparison of the screens you're after, check out his other video; this one's specifically about seeing how the two run.
A lot of hay's been made about Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl's supposed failings. There's no voice acting, the graphics are rough, the roster is disappointing, it feels like an early access game, etc. But I'm here to say none of that matters. Well, okay, it may matter to you, which is totally valid, but in the grand…
This weekend is your chance to jump into the nail-biting world of Phoenix Point, as the tense turn-based strategy game by famed designer Julian Gollop is free to play for the next two days on Steam. As this is the Year One edition, you'll have access to Phoenix Point plus all the DLC expansions released during its year of Epic Games Store exclusivity.
Phoenix Point returns to Gollop's X-Com roots: you command a team of highly trained soldiers whose job it is to fight back against a mutant alien menace that has devastated Earth. Between turn-based battles with aliens and other enemies, you'll have to make key decisions about which factions to forge alliances with and how to direct your scientists' research efforts.
There's also more of a global exploration element in Phoenix Point, since when the game begins, the aliens have pretty much already won, and your once familiar planet is twisted and overrun by the occupying forces. You'll also have to decide how you want to deal with the other factions, some of whom may wind up cooperating with the aliens - do you want to crush your rivals outright, or use espionage and deception to outmanoeuvre them?
You know an MMO's starting to click with you when you're logging on during lunch breaks. There's a moreish interplay between New World's gathering and crafting that's got its hooks in me. But for everything that Amazon Games has got right in its new MMO, there are plenty more features that feel undercooked and ill-considered, putting a significant dampener on the experience.
Does it scratch that itch you've got in the back of your brain for a new MMO? Definitely. Will you be gasping in awe, wondering how Amazon Games has managed to reinvigorate the genre? Probably not.
As soon as you get your first sword and shield in the tutorial zone, you'll notice that New World's combat differs significantly from most other MMOs. Rather than leaning on auto-attacks and cooldown-based abilities, New World employs an action-combat system that's closer to Elder Scrolls Online's bastardised take on Skyrim's combat. The result is that swordplay feels so much more satisfying, and I'm no longer mindlessly clicking between mobs until the XP bar ticks over. It's certainly not the first MMO to give the player a more active role in combat, but melee brawls feel tight and responsive.
Eronoctosis was one of tons of excellent-looking horror games in today's EEK3 indie horror showcase. It happened to stand out though because I'm a real sucker for a high contrast lo-fi colour scheme. Also I'm a sucker for co-op, especially with horror. Eronoctosis: Put Yourself Together looks to be a psychological horror about banishing badies from inside your own mind. You're required to play with a friend, which makes the price tag of free a real good selling point. You can jump in on Monday when it launches free on Steam.
It's not often, if ever, that you get to build an impressive PC for free and without fear of irreparable failure. You can have both if you snag PC Building Simulator as the freebie of the week on the Epic Games Store through next Thursday.
The nation of Yara is filled with countless armaments for warfare, including unique weapons. The El General is one such example. Here's our Far Cry 6 guide to help you get the El General unique auto-pistol from a Yaran Contraband chest in the FND Munitions Storage in Vencejo. Note: For more information, check out our Far Cry 6 guides and features hub. Far Cry 6 Yaran Contraband guide: How to get the El General unique auto-pistol in Vencejo Similar to The Autocrat, the El General is one of the unique weapons that you can acquire very early in Far Cry 6's campaign. That's because the place where you'll find it is the FND Munitions Storage in Vencejo, the western portion of Isla Santuario. Since this is essentially a tutorial island, you don't have a lot to worry about. Anyway, there's no need to rush straight for the depot. Just wait until you receive a mission called "Fuel the Revolution." In it, you'll meet another guerril...
Currencies are extremely important to amass in any game, and that's true even in Far Cry 6. You'll want to make sure that you have more than enough just so you can buy gear pieces whenever you wish. Here's our Far Cry 6 guide to help you get more Yaran Pesos and Moneda in the game. Note: For more information, check out our Far Cry 6 guides and features hub. Far Cry 6 guide: How to get more Yaran Pesos and Moneda Yaran Pesos in Far Cry 6 The standard currency in Far Cry 6 is the Yaran Peso. The currency is used to purchase various items such as weapons, armors, maps, and more. You're likely to use it when checking out the goods being sold in camp facilities, as well as those provided by arms dealers in the military bases that you capture. You could pick up a few Yaran Pesos as you're exploring, usually by killing soldiers that drop them or opening containers. You may also exchange the materials and resources you've acquired. As far as the be...
The nation of Yara is filled with countless armaments for warfare, including unique weapons. The Rococo Loco is one such example. Here's our Far Cry 6 guide to help you get the Rococo Loco unique auto-pistol. Note: For more information, check out our Far Cry 6 guides and features hub. Far Cry 6 guide: How to get the Rococo Loco unique auto-pistol The Rococo Loco unique auto-pistol is actually one of the easiest weapons to acquire in Far Cry 6. That's because all you need to do is complete a Los Bandidos mission. As mentioned in our Los Bandidos guide, this is a feature that you'll unlock once you've got access to a main base in Yara's three regions (this is done by completing the introductory quests that lead you to the rebel forces that are operating in each region). At the start, only one leader is available (Benito), but that's totally fine. You probably don't have a lot of recruits yet, but you'd still be able to manage. You...
The nation of Yara is filled with countless armaments for warfare, including unique weapons. The Lethal Dose is one such example. Here's our Far Cry 6 guide to help you get Lethal Dose unique pistol by completing "The Mongoose and the Man" treasure hunt. Note: For more information, check out our Far Cry 6 guides and features hub. Far Cry 6 "The Mongoose and the Man" treasure hunt guide: How to get the Lethal Dose unique pistol In the meeting with Clara Garcia and the other Libertad guerrillas in Zamok Archipelago, she'll tell you to head to the Madrugada region first. Although some might head to other regions, there's a good chance that you played the game the same way as I did and you just went to Madrugada. If that's the case, then the "Meet the Monteros" quest marker would take you to the town of Siniestra along the southwestern coast of the region. If you check one of the notices plastered on a post, you'll...
The nation of Yara is filled with countless armaments for warfare, including unique weapons. The Le Petite Mort is one such example. Here's our Far Cry 6 guide to help you get the La Petite Mort grenade launcher by completing the "Sword-Crossed Lovers" treasure hunt. Note: For more information, check out our Far Cry 6 guides and features hub. Far Cry 6 "Sword-Crossed Lovers" treasure hunt guide: How to get the La Petite Mort unique grenade launcher "Sword-Crossed Lovers" is a treasure hunt that you can stumble upon in Far Cry 6. I was able to obtain a clue that led me to it from a note in front of San Rafael Hospice. The building itself is at the eastern edge of Barrial in the Valle de Oro region. You can see it on the map below. To clarify, you don't need to beeline straight for San Rafael Hospice. There's actually an operation/main mission that you'll get as you progress further in the Valle de Oro arc. It's ...
Nintendo has come out with another "Switch My Way" commercial. This time around, it's Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl as well as Mario Party Superstars that get the focus. View the advert below.
Scholastic, Sony Pictures Consumer Products, and developer Cosmic Forces have issued a new 1.01 update for Goosebumps: Dead of Night. It adds an Extreme Mode with supercharged monster AI, new achievements, and more. It's somewhat of a surprise to see Goosebumps: Dead of Night getting an update after such a lengthy period. The title came to Switch in July 2020,...
We previously reported that a new Hatsune Miku collaboration was planned for Ninjala, and we now have a proper trailer for the event. All players can participate in the fun now. As a refresher, here's a rundown of what's included in the event: Concert-goers can dress up as their favorite virtual singers with the new Miku Magical Mirai 2021 Outfit...
Once in a while, you need to take a break from the stress of constant adventures and danger, perhaps to pursue the life of a humble shopkeeper in a fantasy world. That's why Shop Titans has appealed to me for over a year now, giving me the opportunity to run my own little store where […]
For the fourth year in a row, MapleStory will be holding its own festival to celebrate its players and unveil new announcements for the game with the return of MapleStory Fest, which will be an all-digital event streaming on Twitch and YouTube Saturday, November 13th, at 4:00 p.m. EST. Not only will fans be getting […]
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The nation of Yara is filled with countless armaments for warfare, including unique weapons. The El General is one such example. Here's our Far Cry 6 guide to help you get the El General unique auto-pistol from a Yaran Contraband chest in the FND Munitions Storage in Vencejo. Note: For more information, check out our Far Cry 6 guides and features hub. Far Cry 6 Yaran Contraband guide: How to get the El General unique auto-pistol in Vencejo Similar to The Autocrat, the El General is one of the unique weapons that you can acquire very early in Far Cry 6's campaign. That's because the place where you'll find it is the FND Munitions Storage in Vencejo, the western portion of Isla Santuario. Since this is essentially a tutorial island, you don't have a lot to worry about. Anyway, there's no need to rush straight for the depot. Just wait until you receive a mission called "Fuel the Revolution." In it, you'll meet another guerril... 
Currencies are extremely important to amass in any game, and that's true even in Far Cry 6. You'll want to make sure that you have more than enough just so you can buy gear pieces whenever you wish. Here's our Far Cry 6 guide to help you get more Yaran Pesos and Moneda in the game. Note: For more information, check out our Far Cry 6 guides and features hub. Far Cry 6 guide: How to get more Yaran Pesos and Moneda Yaran Pesos in Far Cry 6 The standard currency in Far Cry 6 is the Yaran Peso. The currency is used to purchase various items such as weapons, armors, maps, and more. You're likely to use it when checking out the goods being sold in camp facilities, as well as those provided by arms dealers in the military bases that you capture. You could pick up a few Yaran Pesos as you're exploring, usually by killing soldiers that drop them or opening containers. You may also exchange the materials and resources you've acquired. As far as the be... 
The nation of Yara is filled with countless armaments for warfare, including unique weapons. The Rococo Loco is one such example. Here's our Far Cry 6 guide to help you get the Rococo Loco unique auto-pistol. Note: For more information, check out our Far Cry 6 guides and features hub. Far Cry 6 guide: How to get the Rococo Loco unique auto-pistol The Rococo Loco unique auto-pistol is actually one of the easiest weapons to acquire in Far Cry 6. That's because all you need to do is complete a Los Bandidos mission. As mentioned in our Los Bandidos guide, this is a feature that you'll unlock once you've got access to a main base in Yara's three regions (this is done by completing the introductory quests that lead you to the rebel forces that are operating in each region). At the start, only one leader is available (Benito), but that's totally fine. You probably don't have a lot of recruits yet, but you'd still be able to manage. You... 
The nation of Yara is filled with countless armaments for warfare, including unique weapons. The Lethal Dose is one such example. Here's our Far Cry 6 guide to help you get Lethal Dose unique pistol by completing "The Mongoose and the Man" treasure hunt. Note: For more information, check out our Far Cry 6 guides and features hub. Far Cry 6 "The Mongoose and the Man" treasure hunt guide: How to get the Lethal Dose unique pistol In the meeting with Clara Garcia and the other Libertad guerrillas in Zamok Archipelago, she'll tell you to head to the Madrugada region first. Although some might head to other regions, there's a good chance that you played the game the same way as I did and you just went to Madrugada. If that's the case, then the "Meet the Monteros" quest marker would take you to the town of Siniestra along the southwestern coast of the region. If you check one of the notices plastered on a post, you'll... 
The nation of Yara is filled with countless armaments for warfare, including unique weapons. The Le Petite Mort is one such example. Here's our Far Cry 6 guide to help you get the La Petite Mort grenade launcher by completing the "Sword-Crossed Lovers" treasure hunt. Note: For more information, check out our Far Cry 6 guides and features hub. Far Cry 6 "Sword-Crossed Lovers" treasure hunt guide: How to get the La Petite Mort unique grenade launcher "Sword-Crossed Lovers" is a treasure hunt that you can stumble upon in Far Cry 6. I was able to obtain a clue that led me to it from a note in front of San Rafael Hospice. The building itself is at the eastern edge of Barrial in the Valle de Oro region. You can see it on the map below. To clarify, you don't need to beeline straight for San Rafael Hospice. There's actually an operation/main mission that you'll get as you progress further in the Valle de Oro arc. It's ... 
