Full Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Cinematic Trailer Revealed, Contains Major Story Implications

2 years 11 months ago

Final Fantasy XIV players are thriving right now with Fan Fest 2021 kicking off and plenty of new details of the upcoming Endwalker expansion, which is set to launch on November 23 (and November 19 for those who preorder). The full intro cinematic trailer for Endwalker started the show and it contains some wild implications for where FFXIV's story is going.

A shorter teaser version was first shown back in February this year, but this new version is the official six-minute Endwalker intro, and you can watch it below. Be warned, however--the trailer contains spoilers for those who are not caught up to at least the end of the 5.3 story content.

This full version starts similarly with the Warrior of Light walking on the moon, then showing Alisaie fighting beastly creatures on their home planet as the Warrior of Light and Alphinaud--who's sporting the new Sage healer job--come in to join her fight.

The theme song shifts to a big Heavensward callback, then transitions to a new scene with Estinien and his dragon companion Vritra fighting off an army of succubus-like creatures. This looks to be one of the new zones, and it's made of up of islands floating in the sky (which was teased later in the keynote presentation).

With a big Stormblood leitmotif, the cinematic then goes to a familiar scene with villain Fandaniel looking over a burning map in a creepy, bio-organic underground dungeon (which could be related to the nature of Hydaelyn), and going up an elevator to see his partner-in-crime, Zenos yae Galvus, sitting on a throne watching the world burn.

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Michael Higham

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Whatcha been playing this week, Destructoid?

2 years 11 months ago

Howdy folks, it's yer boy Moyse. Back in full effect and now with added Super Blood. Well, perhaps not, but since last week I've had some needles in me, and now I feel the Red, White, and Blue of your American drugs coursing through my very veins. Funnily enough, I was the only person in the room to receive said drug, which is WELL SUS. But I'll take your 95% effectivity rate, thank you very much. I just wish Valentine from Skullgirls had been there to administer it to me. But she wasn't. Mainly because she's a drawing.

In regards to gaming, I mostly bounced around some regular releases, but I also took time out to check out Huntdown's explosive new arcade mode, which somehow makes the game more chaotic than ever before. It's a real blast, and now it's on Steam maybe consider letting loose this weekend with a dose of old-school mayhem. I also went seven leagues under to check out the upcoming Switch port of shark-'em-up Maneater. So look out for my thoughts on that very soon. This shark... swallow you whole.

So I hope that all of you have a very happy and restful weekend. But before you jump into your Saturday morning activities, take a few moments to jump into the comments and fill us in on the games that have been taking up your time lately. Whether up to your eyeballs in bullet-hell aliens, vampiric babes, cuddly Poké critters, or anime corpses, be sure to fill us in on your thoughts about your current obsessions, old or new. (Just go steady on the spoilers, thanks!)

Have a wonderful weekend, from all of us at Destructoid.

Whatcha been playing this week, Destructoid? screenshot

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Chris Moyse

Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker Release Date Announced; Coming November 2021

2 years 11 months ago

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, the next expansion for the Square Enix MMORPG, will launch on November 23, 2021. However, those who preorder the expansion will have early access four days ahead of launch starting on Friday, November 19. Director and producer Naoki Yoshida led the opening keynote presentation for Final Fantasy Fan Fest 2021 and detailed a slew of information for FFXIV: Endwalker including these launch dates.

There are four different editions of FFXIV: Endwalker as well--the Collector's Edition, the Collector's Box, the Digital Collector's Edition, and the Standard Edition. As expected, there will be no physical version of the game itself and all editions come with digital download codes. Whichever edition you preorder, you will be able to start playing on the November 19 early access date.

Several details were revealed during the Fan Fest 2021 keynote, including (but not limited to) the new melee DPS job Reaper, the additional zones like Thavnair and Old Sharlayan, parts of the upcoming story dungeons, new mounts, the next alliance raid series called Myths of the Realm, and a whole lot more. You can also see all the wild implications for the story of FFXIV Endwalker in the full intro cinematic above or read our trailer breakdown.

We'll have more coverage of Final Fantasy Fan Fest 2021 throughout the weekend--stay tuned.

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Michael Higham

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Final Fantasy 14 Endwalker Release Date Annouced

2 years 11 months ago
The next expansion for Final Fantasy 14 Endwalker will be released on November 23, 2021. Players who pre-order the expansion will be able to play four days earlier on November 19, 2021. The next major expansion for Square Enix's Final Fantasy 14 MMORP has officially been announced. Along with a new storyline, Endwalker will include two new classes, the healer Sage class and the DPS Reaper class. The latter was announced at the Digital Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest. The release date for Endwalker is considerably later than past Final Fantasy 14 expansions, which have typically been released mid-to late-summer. However, the developers have cited an abundance of content, plus complications with the coronavirus as reasons for the late release schedule. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/15/final-fantasy-xiv-endwalker-official-full-cinematic-trailer"] However, Square Enix and Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida have shown off quite a bit of content for the upcoming expansion. Yoshida premiered videos showcasing new areas and dungeons, plus the brand new class Reaper. This new class is a melee DPS that wields a scythe and can summon a spiritual avatar to aid them in combat. The Reaper joins the other new class Sage, a healer who can attack and heal using flying mechanical knives. As a final announcement, Yoshida also announced another playable character, the male Viera.
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Matt T.M. Kim

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Mass Effect Romance Options and Guide

2 years 11 months ago
Your romance options in the first Mass Effect are limited, but you'll still need to put in the work to win someone's heart.
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Miranda Sanchez

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Mass Effect: Legendary Edition First-Timer PSA - Play Either As Full Paragon Or Full Renegade

2 years 11 months ago

One of the most memorable features of the Mass Effect series has always been its morality system, which splits between the Paragon and Renegade options. Choice is a huge part of the Mass Effect series, as they are role-playing games, and that's true in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition as well. If you're new to the series, though, you might not realize exactly how the morality system works. It toggles between two extremes: Paragon, a conversation-centric, merciful approach, and Renegade, a down-to-business, confrontational approach. And while it can be fun to change how your Commander Shepard approaches problems on a case-by-case basis, we've got some advice for you: Pick Paragon or Renegade and stick with it.

Your status as either Paragon or Renegade is determined by your choices throughout the game, whether it's in dialogue with other characters or in how you choose to resolve conflicts and solve problems. In dialogue, Paragon choices are always on the top of the dialogue wheel, while Renegade choices are always on the bottom. As mentioned, these aren't so much "good" or "bad"; more like "diplomatic" and "expedient." The Paragon works with other people to try to make everyone happy, while the Renegade gets the job done no matter whose feathers it might ruffle.

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Phil Hornshaw

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Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Trophy Guide - Full Achievement List

2 years 11 months ago

If you're playing Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, either for the first time or as a returning veteran, you might be interested in delving deep and completing the game's trophies or achievements. Whether you're playing on PS4, Xbox One, or PC, we've listed below all the trophies/achievements you can earn across all three of the Mass Effect games in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. We also note the ones you can earn by playing through all three games collectively.

There's a pretty huge number of feats to accomplish throughout the three games, but the good news is that several of them have been tweaked from the Mass Effect games' original releases--making them a little less arduous than they used to be. Here's everything you need to know to 100% each of the original three Mass Effect games and to become the ultimate Commander Shepard. Worth noting, however, that this guide does contain spoilers for the stories of Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3, so read on at your own risk.

For more about how the collection stacks up, be sure to read our Mass Effect: Legendary Edition review in progress. Otherwise, read on for all our guides!

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Matt Espineli

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Wasteland 3 Dev's Next Game Seems To Be A FPS RPG

2 years 11 months ago

InXile Entertainment gave us a hint at what possibly may be the studio's next game. The Xbox Twitter account tweeted out, "What kind of game should I play next?" as an attempt to engage with its audience. However, InXile replied to the tweet, saying "Pulled NEW + FPS + RPG."

No other information was revealed, but we do know that InXile was looking to fill positions to work on a first-person RPG with Unreal Engine 5 back in January. However, the new bit of information here is that it will be a shooter game.

This project is currently in development, and seems to have started after InXile's acquisition into Xbox Game Studios in 2018. So whatever the studio's new game is, it will most likely be exclusive to devices that support Microsoft's ecosystem such as Xbox and PC.

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George Yang

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Pokemon Snap: How to Unlock Every Secret and Alternate Route

2 years 11 months ago
Whether you're trying to get behind the waterfall in Founja Jungle or unlock all-season routes in Elsewhere Forest, IGN has you covered in our complete guide to unlocking every secret and alternate path across every course in New Pokemon Snap.
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Angie Harvey

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Call Of Duty: Warzone's Ban Operations Have Now Hit 500,000 Accounts

2 years 11 months ago

Call of Duty: Warzone has problems with cheaters, fraud, and abuse, as every wildly popular game does. Activision announced that its latest enforcement actions to help get these issues under control have hit 30,000 accounts, bringing the game's lifetime total up to 500,000 banned.

Hacked accounts running exploits like aim bots and other enhanced aim cheats have been widespread throughout Warzone in recent weeks. As a result, Activision has been actively escalating its efforts to deplatform these cheaters, resulting in the banning of hundreds of thousands of malicious accounts.

Several high-profile Warzone players and influencers have been working to draw additional attention to the cheating. This has resulted in some interesting situations, such as when Jack "CouRage" Dunlop managed to get several hackers banned live on stream.

While cheating in a game at the scale of Warzone will always be present at some level, just by virtue of its size and complexity, Activision has said that it is working to better mitigate the problem. Some solutions include issuing daily bans and even rolling out hardware bans for serial offenders (as many exploiters will generate huge numbers of fake accounts on a single console to continue cheating).

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Alex Newhouse

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Devs Get 100% Of Revenue On Itch.io Today

2 years 11 months ago

Today's a good day to buy games to support developers, as digital storefront Itch.io is holding its first ever "Creator Day." For the rest of the day, when you purchase anything on the store, 100% of revenue brought in through Itch.io will go to the creator.

This is an excellent event that can make a big difference for small and independent studios, especially as this can be used to drum up more attention for small games. Itch.io is already extremely friendly to small devs; its normal revenue cut defaults to just 10%, although studios can elect to kick an additional percentage to Itch.io if they so choose. The promotion runs all day until 11:59 PM PT/2:59 AM ET/7:59 AM BST. It's important to note that not all of your money will go to the creator, as taxes and fees have to go to the relevant entities, but just about 100% of the purchase price will be paid out to the studio.

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In his announcement blog post, head of content and business Spencer Hayes said that the company is looking to make Creator Day a consistent event. Itch.io's intention is to help encourage creators to post and promote their work, and thus to increase awareness for small products hosted on the storefront.

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Alex Newhouse

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Text-based RPG Cyberpunkdreams is out now and free to play

2 years 11 months ago

Cyberpunkdreams, as is the law for cyberpunk games, is set in a biggo futuristic city. Ah, but the city in question? No no, not future London. Not New York, or anywhere in California. Welcome to the cyberpunk midwest, everyone. This free, text-based RPG is set in the 2090s border city of Cincinnati. That's in Ohio, which is the middle of the United States, which you'll be forgiven for not knowing if you don't live two hours away from it. As of 2090, it's one of the hottest places to be, the biggest border city between the future states and the badlands, and the place where you'll make or break it.

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Author
Lauren Morton

Why These Modders Are Taking Cyberpunk 2077 Into Their Own Hands

2 years 11 months ago

Rick, a 37-year old from Canada, wanted to fix Cyberpunk 2077's enemy netrunners (the ones who like to hack you in battle). He downloaded a decompiler that let him sift through CD Projekt Red's in-house scripting language, and took aim at some of the bugs lingering in the source code. Rick found a lot more than he bargained for. Apparently, there were a slew of enemy quickhack abilities that, seemingly, never made it into the retail disc.

They had names like “HackDeath” and “HackweaponMalfunction”. Rick tested each one out by modifying the game code to use the hack with the name he specified and found some of them worked and some of them didn’t. “For some of them the hack part worked fine but the status effect they applied did nothing,” he said. "In the case of something like HackWeaponMalfunction, there were four or five different status effects present in the game with names that were variations of JamWeapon, WeaponJamTier2, etc. and I tried them all until I found one that worked." [ignvideo width=610 height=374 url=https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/22/cyberpunk-2077-wall-running-returns-through-mod]

Clearly, there was a time when some of the stronger enemies in Cyberpunk were intended to carry a much larger toolbox, full of dastardly feints and cracks that could overheat your firearms or cripple your movement, designed specifically to screw up V's battleplan in every corridor. Rick can understand why CD Projekt Red made the cut. For plenty of gamers, he says, getting constantly hacked by a platoon of giggling androids might be pretty frustrating. But he still wanted to witness Cyberpunk in all of its pre-alpha glory. "I made the mod for other players like me who would like a more challenging experience," says Rick. You can download it right now, on NexusMods. It's called, "AI Netrunners Enhanced.

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Luke Winkie

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Mass Effect Legendary Edition Makes The First Game Required Playing

2 years 11 months ago

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is out today, remastering BioWare’s space trilogy with 4K HD graphics and other kinds of tweaks and twinges to bring the games into the current generation. Of the trilogy, the original Mass Effect stands out as the game benefiting the most from graphical updates and quality of life…

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Ash Parrish

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Classic sidescroller GetsuFumaDen has just gotten a beautiful PC remake

2 years 11 months ago

If you weren't familiar with 1980s sidescroller Getsu Fūma Den, that's likely becuase it was originally released on the Famicom in Japan. Not to worry though, you can get acquainted now, because Konami have resurrected it in a PC remake. The run-based Castlevania-ish action game sends the Getsu clan's 27th leader Fuma into Hell to battle demon lords and stop the cataclysm. GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon has launched on PC in early access so you can get to slashing baddies right now.

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Lauren Morton

Housemarque Found Out About Returnal's $70 Price Tag At the Same Time As Everyone Else

2 years 11 months ago

For some gamers, it’s been an interesting challenge adapting to the $70 price point for some next-gen games, and that includes the Returnal developers at Housemarque.

According to Axios, Housemarque found out that Returnal would be priced at $70 at the same time as the general public.

Housemarque’s marketing director Mikael Haveri shared how internal demos of Returnal continually impressed Sony, who were funding the game. After each demo the studio showed Sony, Haveri says Housemarque "got a little bit more availability to scope it out more and to grow the game."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/10/how-returnal-shows-the-ps5s-power-performance-review"]

These positive impressions led to the scope of Returnal expanding, and subsequently, it became one of the first games in decades to be sold for more than $60. Housemarque’s team learned about Sony’s decision to price most next-gen games $70 “around the same time as the general public” back in September 2020.

Housemarque’s earlier titles, like Resogun or Nex Machina, tended to sell in the ballpark of $20 given their arcade, smaller-scale nature compared to the 3D Returnal.

Despite this lower-priced history, Housemarque was already focused on making Returnal a bigger game than its previous titles after proclaiming in 2017 that "arcade is dead." This was after lackluster sales for Nex Machina, which pushed Housemarque to start venturing into console-scale development.

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Joseph Knoop

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Trover Saves the Universe Comic Coming from Skybound

2 years 11 months ago
Rick and Morty isn't the only Justin Roiland project to make the jump to comics. Skybound will publish a new limited series based on Squanch Games' comedic action platformer Trover Saves the Universe. Skybound made the announcement during their latest Skybound Xpo digital event. Trover Saves the Universe is a five-issue series, with Tess Stone (Not Drunk Enough) writing and drawing the first issue. Check out a preview of issue #1 in the slideshow gallery below: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=trover-saves-the-universe-comic-book-preview&captions=true"] Here's how Skybound describes the new series:
Welcome to the ICJ—Important Cosmic Jobs—where employees are ranked by their boss, and at the end of each month, the worst employee literally gets the ax. It’s…not a great gig. But when ICJ’s top eyehole monster winds up dead, the company’s most inept (and rival) employees, Klover and Bo, are falsely accused of his murder and hunted by the Space Cops! Now they must clear their names and unravel a conspiracy that reaches the very top…that is, if they don’t kill each other first!
“When Skybound mentioned they were interested in doing a Trover Saves the Universe comic with the help of Tess Stone, I knew it was going to be something of high quality," said Roiland in a statement. "Important cosmic jobs is such fertile soil for storytelling, and Tess has successfully expanded it beyond the game's DLC to create a whole new crazy adventure for Trover fans to follow.” "Working on this series has been such a wonderful opportunity in more ways than one. Not only do I get to play around in the wonderful setting of Justin Roiland and Squanch Games' Trover Saves the Universe, I was given the chance to build up and fall in love with characters of my own,” said Stone.
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Jesse Schedeen

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