Blizzard Arcade Collection Launches Today For PS4, Xbox One, Switch, And PC
While Blizzard is largely known for World of Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft, the company's roots actually got quite a bit deeper than that. At this year's digital BlizzCon, it was announced that the company is going back, way back, with a collection of enhanced re-releases of their arcade past.
Blizzard announced the Arcade Collection, which will include enhanced ports of three titles: The Lost Vikings, Blackthorne, and Rock N Roll Racing. The three games were all originally released in the early '90s by the company. This release will include several bonuses such as art, interviews and unused content. For maximum nostalgia, it will also have both the remastered definitive editions of these games alongside the original editions, which will have watch modes that allow you to watch through an entire playthrough of the game and jump in whenever you wish.
Blizzard Arcade Collection will be available as of today for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and PC.
Diablo 4 Trailer Reveals Rogue Class and Gameplay
Along with announcing Diablo 2: Resurrected, a remake of the 2000 action RPG and Lord of Destruction, Blizzard Entertainment showcased a new trailer for Diablo 4. As the rumors noted, the Rogue class was finally revealed. Check out its gameplay below (complete with an uncomfortable number of ears).
The Rogue is very much akin to the Demon Hunter from Diablo 3. Along with close-ranged daggers and swords, which can dish out combos, she can also utilize poison for slaying foes. Ranged attacks with bows are also possible and Shadow Magic also appears to be in effect. Overall, there seems to be a decent mix of styles for players to specialize in.
A release window wasn't mentioned but we may hear more about it at the game's dedicated panel. Diablo 4 still in development for PS4, Xbox One and PC though. Stay tuned for more updates and announcements from BlizzConline 2021 along with more details on Diablo 2: Resurrected.
Diablo 2: Resurrected Announced, Out in 2021 for All Platforms
The rumors are indeed true – Diablo 2 is indeed being remade. At BlizzConline 2021, Blizzard Entertainment and Vicarious Visions revealed Diablo 2: Resurrected, a remake of the base game along with the Lord of Destruction expansion, releasing in 2021. Check out the announcement trailer below.
Along with the original graphics, players can switch to the new fully 3D visuals. These support up to 4K resolution and have dynamic lighting, physically based rendering and improved animations and effects. All cinematics are being remade entirely while Dolby 7.1 is being supported for the sound. The core gameplay remains intact with improvements like a shared stash added in.
Diablo 2: Resurrected is out this year for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC via Battle.net. It will support cross-progression across all of these. Technical alpha test sign-ups are currently live now but only for PC players. Stay tuned for more details from BlizzCon 2021 shortly.
Bravely Default 2 Gets First Japanese TV Commercial, Focused On Story
We're a week away from the release of Bravely Default 2. The game is a long awaited sequel to the RPG series that began on the 3DS. It's a throwback in many ways to old school Final Fantasy, both in its combat and chibi art style. We've seen quite a lot of the game, from its battle system to the cast of characters you'll encounter. Now we get the first taste of how the marketing will deal with the RPG.
The first Japanese commercial for the game has popped up. It's brief, running at only a minute, but gives you an idea of how they'll be presenting the title. It focuses on the story and characters, with small snippets of the turn-based combat. It is, however, in Japanese. You can use closed captions, but it seems that only translates the song playing over the footage. There is a bit of new footage here, however, if you are a non-Japanese speaker.
Bravely Default 2 is set to release exclusively on the Nintendo Switch February 26th. If you're not sold on the game just yet, we have everything you may want to know about it through here.
Hideo Kojima Book, "The Creative Gene," Will Be Localized In English This Fall
Considering the nature of making games, it's rare that a single personality can rise to prominence and actually stay there. One of those rare individuals is Hideo Kojima. Largely known for the Metal Gear Solid franchise, which he helmed for nearly 30 years, he's now heading his own studio and put out 2019's Death Stranding. That same year he also put out a book, though many people probably didn't know that outside Japan. Now, however, it seems that will change.
Viz Media announced that they would localize the book under the title The Creative Gene in English later this year. The book is a series of essays penned by Kojima that details his influences and inspirations for his works. It also involves his critical analysis of some of his favorite works.
Kojima Productions has confirmed they are working on a new title, though as now no details have been revealed on what it is. The last game from the team with Kojima as Director was Death Stranding for PS4 and PC. The Creative Gene will release in English October 12th.
Announcement: Hideo Kojima, creator of Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid, explores the influences and inspirations that shape his work. The Creative Gene drops Fall 2021. pic.twitter.com/VKL6yXtK79
— VIZ (@VIZMedia) February 19, 2021
Street Fighter's Ryu And Chun-Li Join Fortnite February 20
Fortnite and Epic Games seem like they're on something of a quest. The battle royale shooter was one of the biggest games ever made, and continues to do incredible business, but the goal seems to be to suck up any and all pop culture possible to eventually be part of the game. Now it seems a beloved fighting franchise is getting their turn.
Street Fighter finds its way into Fortnite via skins for Ryu and Chun-Li. They are two of the most classic fighters, with Ryu dating back to the original, often forgotten first game, with Chun-Li being part of the original Street Fighter 2 cast. They get a neat little introduction in the trailer below, harkening to the series' arcade roots. It's also interesting as for as many properties have found their way to the game, there hasn't been a lot of Japanese-developed crossover just yet, making this a bit of a trailblazer potentially.
Fortnite is available now across all major platforms with the exception of iOS due to ongoing legal disputes between Epic Games and Apple. The Street Fighter skins will release on February 20th.
Future Little Nightmares Games Will Not be Developed by Tarsier Studios
Tarsier Studios have delivered two excellent puzzle-platforming horror games back to back with both Little Nightmares titles, but it seems their time with the series is now up. Tarsier were acquired by Embracer Group in 2019, and now that they have finished up development of Little Nightmares 2, which was ongoing at the time, they're going to move on to new properties under new ownership, with Bandai Namco continuing Little Nightmares without them.
Speaking to IGN, Tarsier Studios CEO Andreas Johnsson praised Bandai Namco as a partner, but said that the developer will "create new IPs and explore new worlds."
"For the last 6 years, our mission at Tarsier Studios has been to create mesmerizing worlds. Little Nightmares was our first attempt and was a huge success," said Johnsson. "I personally love how Little Nightmares has gathered fans around the world over the course of the last 4 years. From the fan art, extensive fan theories and genuine reactions, it all has been amazing to witness. Our collaboration with Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe has been extremely satisfying, they listened to our creative vision and took our crazy ideas and ambitions to heart.
"That being said, it is bitter sweet to announce that we are leaving the world of Little Nightmares behind us. Little Nightmares will always be dear to us at the studio. Since being acquired by the Embracer Group in December 2019, it is now time for us to embark on a new chapter, create new IPs and explore new worlds. Personally I am very excited to see what our studio creates and counting down the days until we can welcome our fans."
Meanwhile, Bandai Namco has said that though it has nothing to announce about the series' future just yet, given the strong reception for Little Nightmares 2, the publisher is planning on delivering more content in the series in the future.
"We have nothing to announce at this moment, but since we received so much love from fans all around the world with the release of Little Nightmares 2, we feel energised to deliver more content in the future," said a Bandai Namco spokesperson.
It's not surprising that Bandai Namco isn't willing to let Little Nightmares die, given the success it has seen. The first game has sold over 3 million units, while the property itself has expanded as well, with the mobile prequel Very Little Nightmares, a comic series, an upcoming TV show, and, of course, the recently released sequel. Who will take over as Little Nightmares developer remains to be seen though.
Little Nightmares 2, meanwhile, is available now on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Stadia, with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S upgrades arriving later this year. In our review of the game, we awarded it a score of 9/10, saying, "Little Nightmares 2 makes every single moment count to craft a truly unsettling experience and to wordlessly deliver an expertly paced and impactful story." You can read our full review through here.
Everspace 2 Early Access Roadmap Revealed, New Content Coming in April
After numerous delays, Rockfish Games' Everspace 2 finally released for Steam Early Access this past January. The development team has more content in the works, outlining its first major update coming in April. It will add new loot, new activities in Ceto and Union, new side and mini-missions, and two new ship sub-classes – the Vanguard and Bomber.
A new companion and "overhauled game balancing" are also planned, as noted in the current early access roadmap. Summer 2021 will see a new system, Zharkov, which brings new enemy types and creatures along with unique phemonena. It will also introduce the first increase to the player level cap.
Rockfish also addressed story content – it wasn't planning to add more beyond what's currently in the early access version but can understand players' wishes for more. It did note that the cinematics are being polished more by Puppet Works so that's a plus. Check out the roadmap below for more details on other content planned for this year.
Everspace 2 will launch out of early access in 2022 for PC. It's also in development for PS4 and Xbox One.
Persona 5 Strikers Launch Trailer is Full of Accolades
The Western release of Persona 5 Strikers draws near and to celebrate, Atlus has a new launch trailer. Along with outlining all of the critical praise garnered by the action RPG, it also provides a bit of context on the Phantom Thieves' newest mission. Check it out below.
Set several months after Persona 5's ending, Strikers sees the Phantom Thieves dragged into a strange version of Tokyo called a Jail. It's here that they must battle Shadows and ultimately find out what's going on. Developed by Omega Force along with P Studio, Persona 5 Strikers' combat plays out in real-time. All-Out Attacks, pausing to issues commands with Persona, and Persona fusion are still included though.
Persona 5 Strikers is out on February 23rd for PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC. However, those who own the Digital Deluxe Edition can start playing it early. For more details on the game and how it fares, check out GamingBolt's official review here.
Outriders Early Tech Analysis – Not a Visual Showcase, But Looking Promising With Performance
Another looter shooter? Between The Division 2, Anthem, Destiny, and the juggernaut that is Borderlands, that's an increasingly constricted space. However, People Can Fly of Bulletstorm fame are set to release Outriders in just a couple months to compete in that exact space. The Unreal 4-powered sci-fi romp might not be doing too much from a gameplay perspective. It is interesting, however, as one of the first looter-shooters built to scale with next-gen consoles in mind. Yes, Godfall technically falls in this category, but we're going to pretend that launch-day disaster didn't exist. So how does Outriders stack up visually? Does it leverage the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X's capable GPU/CPU setups? Or are we looking at an enhanced eighth-gen port essentially? Let's dive in and find out.
Engine overview
At this point of time, Unreal 4 is familiar, well-trodden territory. While it hasn't seen the kind of third-party licensing success as Unreal 3, this is an engine of choice for AA efforts from studios like People Can Fly. You have an accomplished deferred rendering setup in place, allowing for a large number of dynamic light sources at a time. Both DirectX 12 and DirectX 11 code paths exist. What's interesting is that it's the same core technology that Borderlands 3 is built on. It'll be interesting to see what directions People Can Fly tale things compared to Gearbox. People Can Fly have outed a positively massive amount of gameplay content for Outriders over the past couple months.
This is great since it offers a solid basis for analysis. Based on what we've seen so far, however, People Can Fly hasn't exactly pushed the envelope. When the initial trailer was outed last May, some outlets described the game as appearing like something that "came out of 2008." While the brownish palette and sci-fi militarism are a nice throwback, many of People Can Fly's technical decisions seem retrograde too, which is much less of a good thing. All in all, this is much more of a cross-gen title than we expected. And, arguably, even if it had released exclusively on eighth gen a year ago, Outriders wouldn't exactly have won any awards for its visuals. What does it get right? And what could have been improved? Let's take a look
Lighting and shadow rendering
Gameplay scenes in Outriders feel strangely flat. It's hard to put your finger on exactly what's wrong until focusing more closely on the game's lighting setup. Between Lightmass global illumination and a scalable deferred rendering solution that allows for a large number of shadow-casting light sources on-scene at once without too much of a performance hit, Unreal 4 has the potential to deliver great lighting. Unfortunately, Outriders isn't exactly a shining example of this. In interior scenes such as caves, we saw a disappointingly limited number of shadow-casting lights. While sky lighting (from the sun) casts player and NPC shadows in exteriors, interior details like an animal carcass hanging over a fire don't seem to cast dynamic shadows. This is puzzling since this is something even old games managed to do. Presumably, this is a performance-oriented optimization to ensure that the game runs at a steady 60 FPS clip across the next-gen platforms. But as a result of this, there are plenty of areas in the game that, at first inspection, wouldn't hold up even in a standard eighth-gen title.
We do see a reasonable number of dynamic light sources (albeit not shadow-casting ones), including muzzle flash and explosions. Puzzlingly, even certain explosion effects used unlit particles, resulting in some very flat-looking scenes.
Ray-tracing and DLSS? Nope!
Outriders will not feature ray-tracing. Considering its relatively less ambitious asset quality, ray-traced reflections and shadowing could have been implemented without too much of a performance hit. After all, this is a game where the recommended GPU for 1080p/60 FPS is the GeForce GTX 1060. There is definitely enough performance headroom for RTX graphics cards to run ray-tracing effects and even to make that an option on the console outings.
While ray-tracing is absent, People Can Fly have opted to include NVIDIA's DLSS 2.0 technology. This is a fantastic addition and could potentially make 4K/144 Hz gaming a possibility on cards like the GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3090. DLSS 2.0 reconstructs the frame leveraging deep learning and, in cases like Control, the results are nothing short of phenomenal: near-native or better than native image quality with a massive boost to performance. Since Outriders doesn't feature RTX effects, baseline performance is expected to be high and DLSS will only push things further.
Asset quality and material rendering
We'd say Outriders features decent character and environmental models – if it were an eighth-gen exclusive title. As it stands, however, asset quality is disappointing. People Can Fly make use of relatively low-polygon character models during gameplay. While substantially higher quality assets do make their appearance in cutscenes, much of the time, the game brings to mind earlier Gears of War titles, and not necessarily in a good way. Material rendering is par for the course, with a physically based material rendering pipeline. Certain assets like rocks and exterior surfaces look good enough. However, material quality really isn't where it ought to be at, even in cutscenes.
Post-processing effects
Outriders makes full use of Unreal 4's post-process suite and in this area, at least, the visual takeaway is decent. We see a high sample count motion blur implementation, both per-object and for the camera. Screen-space reflections are in place, fleshing out puddles and other highly-reflective surfaces. We were also pleasantly surprised by the ambient occlusion quality: Outriders is a bit heavy-handed with AO, but AO adds considerably to scenes that would be otherwise flat due to the lack of dynamic shadowing. Bokeh depth of field is also in play, though it's considerably more noticeable in cutscenes.
Conclusion
Outriders isn't going to win any awards for its visuals. It wouldn't exactly have impressed if it came out in 2016. But while the visuals are a disappointment, gameplay looks to be Outriders' strong suit, with Gears of War-style snap cover and more than a little Bulletstorm DNA in the mix. Even if the graphics don't impress, we expect performance to be Outriders' real savior. The game's minimum specs indicate that even the ancient GeForce GTX 750 Ti will be able to deliver a 60 FPS experience, albeit at 1080. The min specs are actually a shade lower than Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, remarkable considering that the latter is a 7th gen remaster. Whether or not it looks good in the process, Outriders looks set to be one of the most performance-friendly titles we've seen in a while.