The Tale of The Princess Kaguya | Image: Hatake Jimusho / Studio Ghibli
Hayao Miyazaki has become a legend, but Takahata’s relentless experimentation is just as remarkable
Image: People Can Fly/Square Enix
People Can Fly also take the first deep dive on the Trickster class
An X-wing attacks in Star Wars Battlefront 2. | Image: EA DICE, Motive Studios/Electronic Arts
Sony is bringing some heavy hitters for the long, hot summer
Earlier this month, Natsume announced that its Harvest Moon series is receiving a new entry later this year. At that time, the Switch was the only confirmed platform – but today the company revealed that Harvest Moon: One World will release on both PS4 and Switch this fall.
The story of One World involves exploring an entire world (rather than just your quaint hometown), managing a farm while restoring a variety of familiar fruits and vegetables to the world.
It's worth noting that what we know as "Harvest Moon" in North America is a bit complicated. It was originally the name for the series called Bokujō Monogatari in Japan. Today, that series is called Story of Seasons in North America, while Natsume has continued developing its own farming/life simulations under the Harvest Moon banner.
Even if this isn't the same series as the Harvest Moon you remember from titles like Friends of Mineral Town and A Wonderful Life, One World still has plenty of potential to deliver a pleasant, peaceful simulation on modern hardware.
Epic Games has announced a one-week extension to Fortnite Chapter 2 - Season 2 in preparation to launch Season 3. The season, which began in February, will now give way to Chapter 2 - Season 3 on June 11.
To signal the transition, Fortnite will host a one-time-only live event called The Device on Saturday, June 6 at 2 p.m. Eastern. This event is said to progress the game's story, and will only happen one time, so Epic Games recommends you arrive 30 minutes early since space will be limited.
Prior to the event and start of the new season, you can still complete your Battle Pass challenges to lock in appearance choices for several characters including Brutus, Midas, TNTina, and Meowscles. Once the new season begins on June 11, the Battle Pass characters' appearances are locked in.
People Can Fly and Square Enix have released the first Outriders Broadcast, a special video series designed to give players a deeper look at the upcoming loot-based shooter. Today’s video has nearly 30 minutes of new footage, and a ton of information to digest. Some of it’s new, much of it has been known since our cover story on the game, but it’s definitely worth checking out.
You might not be able to visit Galaxy’s Edge in Disney right now, but you may soon be able to bring a piece of those parks into your home. Oculus Studios, ILMxLAB, and Lucasfilm are working on a new VR experience that ties into the Disney’s Galaxy's Edge theme park at Disney’s resort parks. We don’t know much about the VR experience at the moment, but the studios were careful not to call it a game, which is interesting.
“The rich storytelling in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has redefined what a Disney park experience can be, and we are thrilled fans will have an opportunity to discover new stories, meet new characters and explore new regions of the planet Batuu in Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge,” said Scott Trowbridge, Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Executive. “Now our guests can immerse themselves in these stories both inside and outside our parks.”
What we do know about this new VR project is that it features an original story starring both new and iconic characters from the Star Wars universe, is set on the planet of Batuu, and takes place between the films The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
This all sounds like a fun complement to the Vader Immortal series, which wrapped up late last year, and we’re all for more VR experiences that help us explore our favorite franchise and push the VR medium forward. Hopefully this project turns out well.
A PlayStation 4 version of the new Harvest Moon has been confirmed, and its box art teases some of its animals and crops.
The post Harvest Moon: One World Will Come to the PlayStation 4 appeared first on Siliconera.
The Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition will show up everywhere this August.
The post Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition Will Release on August 27, 2020 Worldwide appeared first on Siliconera.
It's going to be all about the pew-pew next month for PlayStation Plus subscribers, as Sony has revealed that June's second PS Plus game is Electronic Arts' Star Wars: Battlefront II, which will join the service on June 2. The second free title, Activision's Call of Duty: WWII, is available to download now.
Released back in 2017, Star Wars Battlefront II sees characters, vehicles, weapons and locations from the huge Star Wars universe colliding in massive multiplayer battles. Players can run-and-gun as sharpshooters such as Han Solo, Boba Fett, and Lando Calrissian, or unlock the lightsaber skills of iconic Jedi such as Luke Skywalker, Rey, and Darth Vader himself. The PS Plus release will include over 25 updates released since the initial launch.
In case you missed it, Twitch recently secured a deal with SNK to bring a ton of games to the Twitch Prime platform for free.
The first "drop" of three includes classics like King of Fighters 2000 and Pulstar, which will be live next month alongside of their regularly scheduled free stuff. That list includes Forsaken Remastered, Observer, Project Warlock, Steel Rats and The Flame in the Flood.
There's also going to be a few more content/cosmetic drops, most notably drops for Apex Legends and Doom Eternal. Legends of Runeterra and Teamfight Tactics also get a small shoutout to represent the typical Riot loot drop, with a few mobile games mixed in there.
As I've said in the past, thankfully Twitch doesn't do that staggered "half the month you pick up this stuff, the other half you grab the rest" schedule. It's all going to be available from June 1-30. You can check out the full list below!
Twitch Prime [Twitch]
Today sees the launch of the latest entry in WayForward's utterly delightful Shantae series. Shantae and the Seven Sirens, previously available exclusively on Apple Arcade, is now available to purchase on PS4, PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
However, regarding the Switch release, not all territories have seen the Half-Genie Hero and her pals arrive on the eShop. It seems that Europe, Australia, and New Zealand have suffered a last-minute delay, and Shantae and the Seven Sirens will not be available to download on the Nintendo console until June 4. WayForward simply cited circumstances "beyond their control" as the reason for this holdup.
Google’s Stadia game streaming platform will be bolstered by the addition of five new games to its library on June 1, bringing its total to 17. While four of the line-up are older games making their debut on Stadia for the first time, Get Packed is an all-new Stadia exclusive.
It’s a game that Twinfinite has had on its radar since interviewing the team at Moonshine Studios about the game last month. As described to us at the time, Get Packed is basically a “physics-based co-op removals game,” sharing plenty in common with other zany co-operative puzzle games like Overcooked. It looks like a total blast.
Elsewhere, some other indie gems are also coming to Stadia. Little Nightmares, the spooky side-scroller from Tarsier Studios that recently celebrated 2 million copies sold, is one of them. Also, the inventive FPS Superhot, as well as the remake of Panzer Dragoon.
Then there’s Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, a fighting game based on the popular license that has raving reviews over on its Steam Page.
You can check out the game’s trailers over on Stadia’s blog post today — which actually concludes with a handy reminder that The Elder Scrolls Online will be launching on the service later next month, June 16.
The post Stadia Pro Adds 5 New Games, Including Quirky Co-Op Puzzler ‘Get Packed’ appeared first on Twinfinite.
Today CD Projekt RED announced that The Witcher series has sold over 50 million units over its lifetime.
The series originally debuted in 2007 with the first game on PC, followed by the sequel The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings in 2011.
Perhaps the real consecration for the franchise has come in 2015 with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which recently celebrated its fifth anniversary.
The third game of the franchise also spawned a spin-off in the form of Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, which brought the minigame from the title into its own realm on several platforms starting in 2018. Incidentally, the wording on the recently-released financial statement seems to indicate that Gwent isn’t included in the number announced today.
Below you can see the Tweet celebrating the achievement.
Blair Witch, the video game based on the film series of the same name, is coming to Nintendo Switch June 25.
The developer, Bloober Team, created psychological horror series Layers of Fear, and is also making The Medium which was announced for the Xbox Series X during an Inside Xbox event earlier in May.
Blair Witch, a first-person psychological/survival horror, puts the players in control of Ellis Lynch as he joins the search party for a boy, age 9, who went missing in Burkittsville, Maryland. Burkittsville and the Black Hill forest have been the setting for every Blair Witch film, but the game is set after the first/original.
Ellis, with his own demons, heads into the forest with his trusty canine companion Bullet. As anyone who has seen the film(s) knows, once in the forest, the world can be easily distorted and take you exactly where the titular “Witch” wants you to be. Follow Bullet and reveal clues to find the missing boy while Ellis’ begins to be just as haunted by his own past as any monster the woods has to offer.
The benefit to having Blair Witch on the Switch is the ability to hide under the covers when it gets too scary, but still be able to play. Not, uhh, that any of us would ever do that. No way.
Blair Witch was originally released as a timed exclusive for the Xbox One in August 2019, with the PlayStation 4 version coming months later in early December.
The release date announcement comes alongside a harrowing trailer with a chilling narration. See it for yourself here and below:
ILMxLAB, Lucasfilm’s own immersive entertainment studio, has announced a brand-new action-adventure VR experience set within the Star Wars universe.
Star Wars: Tales From the Galaxy’s Edge is currently in development from ILMxLAB in collaboration with Oculus Studios.
According to Vicki Beck of ILMxLAB, Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge will come later this year and she had this comment to make about the adventure game:
This action-packed adventure not only speaks to the promise of connected and complementary experiences by extending the lore around Black Spire Outpost, it represents another meaningful step in ILMxLAB’s quest to transition from storytelling – one-way communication – to storyLIVING, where you’re inside a world making consequential choices that drive your experience forward.”
The original narrative will feature several iconic Star Wars characters as well as never before seen faces. It’s worth noting that the title will apparently be accommodating a “wide variety of players” with accessibility options and different styles of gameplay.
As for the story itself, the plot will be taking place between the events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. It’s set on the planet of Batuu, on the outskirts of Black Spire Outpost of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which is the newly opened attraction at Disneyland and Disney World.
You can see the first concept art for the Batuu landscape down below:
Desperados III has a new character trailer ahead of its June 16 launch date; THQ Nordic is today introducing Kate O’Hara, a hard-hitting country gal whose good looks and charming personality hide a mean streak that her enemies rarely see coming.
Here’s O’Hara’s character bio, sent to Twinfinite in a press release:
She’s got the look and she’s absolutely hitting like a hammer: Kate O’Hara grew up as a Colorado farm girl, dreaming of fame and glamour on the stage in the big city. But she had to learn to get along in the rough wild west, where most men are not natural gentlemen and very often only understand the clear message of a joyfully kick in their … well, crown jewels.
This way, Kate can knock down enemies when she gets close enough – and she’s got many ways to get in melee range. Naturally, she loves to disguise herself with different outfits and of course uses her overwhelming charm to distract opponents. And if these clever tricks fail, she relies on a girl’s best friend: Her Derringer.
Even though it’s been over two months since Animal Crossing: New Horizons released for the Nintendo Switch, it hasn’t stopped hardcore fans from experimenting with the game’s villagers to recreate iconic scenes from television shows and other video games.
If you’re a fan of the popular sitcom that is Parks and Recreation, then you will be delighted to know that the iconic “Ron pulling his tooth” scene from Season 3, Episode (Andy and April’s Fancy Party) has been faithfully recreated in Animal Crossing to a tee.
The brilliant video comes from owoshy on the Animal Crossing subreddit and you can watch it below. We’ve also embedded the original scene from Parks and Rec so that you can watch them side by side for maximum viewing pleasure:
The first of a planned series of monthly broadcasts for Square Enix and People Can Fly’s upcoming shooter-RPG, Outriders, released today and let loose a lot more interesting details. Outriders was somewhat of a surprise when it was revealed last year, and any extra details we can squeeze out about this mysterious title is always welcome.
We’re going to go over the broadcast below and as an added bonus, we were able to speak with People Can Fly‘s Bartosz Kmita (Game Director) and Piotr Nowakowski (Senior Designer) whom both chipped in to clarify a few questions that we had while watching. And of course, if you want to just watch it yourself, you can so above. Otherwise, let’s dive into our summary and interview.
Two AAA shooters from 2017 headline PS Plus’ game line-up in June; both Activision’s Call of Duty: WWII (campaign only) and EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront II are free for subscribers to the service from June 2 – July 6.
PS Plus has been fairly consistent in delivering quality free games as part of the service in recent months, but given the perceived value of AAA games from major publishers, this latest lineup is sure to make a big splash with subscribers.
And so it should, really; both games offer some excellent content. WWII is a typically blockbuster thrill-ride, which, while hardly breaking any new ground, is entertaining from start to finish. Twinfinite’s review of the game in 2017 scored the game 4/5, describing the gunplay as “satisfying and punchy.”
While Battlefront II’s single-player offering is less interesting, its multiplayer modes are absolutely worth experiencing; the game has been extremely well supported by EA Dice since launching in 2018.
Twinfinite also scored Battlefront 4/5 in its review, noting that “you’d be hard-pressed to find anything in video games that looks and sounds more like Star Wars, as the game absolutely nails those aspects, and is even visually stunning more often than not.”
Remember, last month’s PS Plus games are still available to download until June 1.
During the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decisions Conference Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick talked about the next generation of consoles and the future.
Zelnick mentioned that Take-Two is “very excited” about the new consoles will allow the publisher’s creative teams to do. They’ve been developing with new tech for some time and they’re very familiar with where that can lead.
Usually, this includes better memory, better graphics, more fidelity, more beauty, more subtlety, more speed, more richness, more depth, and more characters.
Zelnick brought up the example that the increase in background interactivity in Red Dead Redemption 2 compared to the first game is huge. There is way more happening in the world leading to more realism.
He believes that over time tech will be so sophisticated that you won’t be able to distinguish between computer-generated entertainment and live-action. He admitted that we’re not there yet, but we’re getting closer, and a point will come when photorealism will be possible.
This doesn’t mean that it’ll always be used, Zelnick doesn’t think Borderlands is ever going to be photorealistic as it wouldn’t make any sense. Despite that, Take-two’s creative would be thrilled to make something that would look “totally real.”
According to Zelnick, the more engaging a title is, the more people can play it simultaneously, the more there is to do in the world (this especially for open-world games in which Rockstar excels), the bigger the audience is going to be, the more they will engage with the games, and as a consequence, the more they will pay and the more they will be loyal.
Winter survival game The Long Dark was removed from Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming platform back in March after its developer said the game had been added without their consent. Now it’s coming back, following changes to the service that make GeForce Now opt-in only.
Our long national nightmare is over: As of this writing, Disney+ subscribers can view episodes from the first 19-plus seasons of The Simpsons in the proper aspect ratio, restoring punchlines to visual-information-rich frames like the one above.
Eight years after its original release, scifi MMORPG Phantasy Star Online 2 finally became available on PC in North America yesterday. The only problem? It came exclusively to the Microsoft Store, leading to all sorts of errors and complications for many players.
In 1966, Joseph Weizenbaum created Eliza, the first psychotherapy chatbot. Eliza’s programming was relatively simple: Engage the user by detecting keywords in their statements and reflect this information back at them as an open-ended prompt. (A user might say “I’m sad,” to which Eliza could respond, “I’m sorry to…
Fortnite’s upcoming season was set to start June 4. In a post today, Epic Games delayed Season 3 to June 11. This weekend’s season-ending event has also been moved, to next Saturday, June 6.
So long, Civilization. The latest freebie over on the Epic Games Store is Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, a rather handsome pairing of two Borderlands games to blast your way through without dropping a penny. But Epic’s feeling generous this week – today also marks the surprise release of grimy graffiti sandbox Sludge Life, and this filthy bonus is going free for quite a bit longer than a week.
In the grim darkness of the near future, there is only De_dust2. But look further ahead and- oh! There it is! Only war. Now look back to the present and find the two have come together in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, with new Warhammer 40,000 stickers now sold to slap on your virtual guns. CS’s stickers have always been a bit ‘teenager bunkbed’ so frankly I can’t think of a better match. It’s only weird that AK-47’s haven’t had “WAAAGH!” stickers all along.
It’s been a rough start for GeForce Now. Since leaving beta back in February, we’ve watched publisher after publisher remove their games from Nvidia’s fledgeling streaming service. In an attempt to bring a bit of stability back to their shelves, Nvidia are now asking developers to opt-in before adding GeForce Now support – making their catalogue a little more reliable by only offering streaming support to games that actually want it.
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord has been around for a little while now, but its enormous popularity has been maintained by one very exciting thing: mods.
At this early stage, there are naturally limits on what can be effectively modded without causing players a headache. The Bannerlord launcher has an integrated mod selection and sorting screen, and TaleWorlds have indicated on their forum that they expect modding to get easier and more powerful over time as more elements of the base game are nailed down.
But modders have already made some changes. The near-inevitable overhauls and reskins and unofficial expansions are a long way off, but many generous players are already sharing the fruits of their work to alter Bannerlords the way they think it should be. Here’s a selection of the best ones so far.
With the launch of Intel’s 10th Gen Comet Lake CPUs finally underway, now is a great time to bag yourself a cheap CPU deal, so we’ve listed the best prices for all of today’s [cms-block]s to help you bag yourself a bargain. We’ve got everything here from the best Intel CPU deals to the best AMD Ryzen CPU deals, so whether you’re upgrading your PC or building a new PC from scratch, these are the cheapest CPU deals around right now.
Dunwall is renowned for its striking dystopian aesthetic, blending blinding walls of light with spindly steampunk stilt walkers. But the most memorable part of gorgeous action-assassin hit Dishonored has, for me, always been the boozer where you hang out with your pals between missions: The Hound Pits.
It’s a lovely looking pub, for sure. But coming from Dublin, where subversive relics of independence like The Confession Box are open about the intertwining nature of pub culture and rebellion, my interest is rooted in more than just the aesthetic. It makes sense to me that The Hound Pits is where Corvo and co meet to discuss their next political assassination. So, I reached out to Arkane Studio’s Harvey Smith, co-creative director for Dishonored, and chatted about the reasons why pubs make class revolutionary bases.
May's irreversible slide into June means another batch of games for PlayStation Plus subscribers, and this month they look an awful lot like Call of Duty WW2 and Star Wars Battlefront 2.
Call of Duty WW2 released in 2017 and marked the long-running first-person shooter series' return to its Second World War roots, having zipped all around history (and occasionally the future) in the intervening years. Alongside the series' perennially popular multiplayer modes, it offered up a full single-player story campaign - following the 1st Infantry Division's battles on the Western Front - and a Nazi-themed Zombies mode for co-operative play.
Eurogamer contributor Jon Denton liked what he saw on release, calling Call of Duty WW2 "quite the package" in his Recommended review. "By returning the series to its roots, Sledgehammer has made the series feel relevant again," he wrote, "Call of Duty WW2 isn't just a throwback - it's the best entry in the series for quite some time."
When Outriders properly broke cover earlier this year with our first look at this looter shooter in action, there was a fair amount of talk of it looking like something pulled from 2008. The more I learn about People Can Fly's first solo outing since 2013's Gears of War: Judgment, the more I think it's not so much a slur as something to be celebrated: this is a shooter that's proudly, defiantly old-school.
It's loud and brash and gory and completely over-the-top - like every good People Can Fly game in the past has been, really, from Painkiller to Bulletstorm - with all that excess met by some smart ideas. There's an intriguing World Tier system that sees difficulty adapt on the fly and a class system that looks properly malleable with player choice having a big impact on character builds. Oh and, most importantly, shooting things looks like it'll feel just great.
Yes, the art-style isn't exactly inspired, although the fresh look offered in today's extended presentation demonstrates that it's got a much broader palette than first gameplay suggested. "Our goal with this new was content to show that every level in our game has a different colour palette," Outriders director Bartosz Kmita tells us. "It's not only about the brown colours and the World War One feel. It's much more than just a warzone."
Rumored PlayStation 5 Reveal Event Predictions! | Final Checkpoint Podcast Ep. 38 Read More »
The post https://thegamefanatics.com/rumored-playstation-5-reveal-event-predictions-final-checkpoint-podcast-ep-38/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.
Based on the photo alone you can see the classic Mario transportation pipes leading into different Mario-themed buildings. The largest looks like a structure based on Mario’s World 1-1 stages, but there are also some pyramids towards the north end of the compound.
To the east is a series of pink columns which is likely Princess Peach’s castle, and towards the southwest is a pretty ominous structure that could be Bowser’s Castle.
The partnership between Nintendo and Universal Studios Japan was announced back in 2017 when the two companies announced a new theme park attraction based on Nintendo’s popular characters would be coming to Universal parks.
The Super Nintendo World attractions in Japan are set to expand to other Universal parks, including theme parks in the United States.
Image: DreamWorks Animation
Image: Epic Games
