June 2020

Gang Beasts will be kept alive via new self-published updates

3 years 9 months ago

Colourful platform brawler Gang Beasts will continue to receive updates despite its developer parting ways with publisher Double Fine.

The acquisition of Psychonauts studio Double Fine by Microsoft last year left the future of its indie publishing scheme in doubt. Subsequent comments from boss Tim Schafer suggested the studio would call time on the initiative. Double Fine Presents publishing boss Greg Rice then left the company last November.

Today, in a new blog post, Gang Beasts studio Boneloaf said it was now taking on publishing duties itself as Double Fine Presents was indeed "winding down".

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51 Worldwide Games review - a playful history of the world

3 years 9 months ago

Where to put games. In the tech section? In the culture section? In the kid's section? Or how about this: let's put them between the invention of farming and the invention of pottery. The neolithic! This is where the first games are found. Mankind lives in walled environments, someone's in charge, and these game boards are being created, flat slabs with two parallel lines of holes in them.

These extremely early sorts of games are not directly present in 51 Worldwide Games, a Switch compilation that has had me completely spellbound for the last few weeks. Even so, I like to think it's all connected, which means that this reasonably priced compendium of dice and board and card games, of mechanical games and paper games and good old bowling, has sort of been in development for at least 5000 years. No wonder it's such a treat to play! No wonder it's such a confident, comprehensible thing. It puts Valve Time and Blizzard Time in the context of deep time.

I can make it sound quite bewildering if I talk about how it works. 51 Games supports single-player and multiplayer. Some games like Solitaire variants are single-player only, as the name suggests. Most are multiplayer. Many - mainly excluding card games where you need to keep your hand a secret - are multiplayer on a single Switch, some allowing for touchscreen controls, some allowing for Joy-Cons and many allowing for both. Then there's local play, which only requires one version of the game, and online multiplayer where everyone needs their own copy. (Online multiplayer's quite neat incidentally: you select three games you're interested in and then you can play solo while you wait for matches.)

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New enemies, new abilities and new details - hands-on with The Last of Us Part 2

3 years 9 months ago

Naughty Dog has made it very clear that The Last of Us Part 2 centres on some dark human emotions. "The emotional journey of the first game was this idea of, can we - through interactivity, gameplay, storytelling, music, all those things - make you feel, or come as close to feeling, the unconditional love a parent feels for their child," creative director Neil Druckmann tells us after I play through a section pulled from some way into the sequel's story. "There are the beautiful moments that come with that, and the kind of insane horrific moments that could come from that, like how far someone's willing to go for someone they love unconditionally.

"We have this conversation that love is sometimes insane, right? It leads you to insanity - and that's not a judgement necessarily. It's just who we are as human beings. I think we're wired this way, and we see by the end [of The Last of Us] how far Joel is willing to go to protect Ellie. With this game, we toyed with different ideas that didn't work out because they were lacking that same emotional core.

"And then what we landed on, it's a very similar question to how far are you willing to go for love, but when someone has wronged a person you really care about. How far are you willing to go to do right by them to bring the people responsible to justice and what effect that would have could have on you, in this case Ellie, the journey she goes on the people around her, if they're going too far and if so are they ever coming back from that."

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons wedding event begins today

3 years 9 months ago

Last night I logged onto Animal Crossing and Isabelle told me that May would soon be leaving. For a moment, I panicked. Who was May!? I hadn't even said hello! It's been a long month.

Anyway, June is now definitely here (no idea who she is either) and as a result, there are a few new things today in your Animal Crossing town.

First up is the launch of Animal Crossing's wedding event, which sees alpaca couple Reese and Cyrus getting hitched for the entire month. Well, bells do grow on trees.

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Summer seasonal gaming guide

3 years 9 months ago
Images of summery landscapes from Animal Crossing: New Horizons, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and more. | Image: James Bareham

The games we’ll escape into on our summer vacation

Continue reading…

Author
Polygon Staff

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Madden NFL 21 announcement postponed as EA decry “unjust treatment and systemic bias”

3 years 9 months ago

Electronic Arts had planned to today announce Madden NFL 21, the latest annual sequel in their American football series. But in light of the protests, unrest, and violence in America right now after Minneapolis police killed unarmed Black man George Floyd, it didn’t seem the time. “Our immediate attention is on actions we can take to drive change against the unjust treatment and systemic bias that is plaguing the nation and our world,” EA Sports said in a surprising statement.

Update: PlayStation have done much the same for their June 4th event, saying “we do not feel that right now is a time for celebration and for now, we want to stand back and allow more important voices to be heard.”

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Author
Alice O'Connor

Best Terraria mods

3 years 9 months ago

Terraria’s

final update, Journey’s End, is just the beginning. Developers Re-Logic have pulled off one final trick for their huge fanbase, making popular community mod manager tModloader officially supported. It’s a lovely gesture that means the players will have easy access to the bewildering amount of fan-made items, monsters, total conversions, and more, even if development has ceased.

I had to editorialise a lot when looking around for mods for Terraria: there’s a bewildering amount. I didn’t want to overwhelm things with content mods, because there’s an issue of balance with some of the larger mods. As much as I love OTT boss battles, I generally prefer Terraria’s mods to feel like part of the original game. The rest are QoL addons, because there’s nothing better than wrangling the vasy, unwieldy systems of Terraria into something just a tad more manageable. That’s what we’ll be working with, so let’s get to it.

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Author
Craig Pearson

Get a Fus from the past in this Skyrim fan video and its 2012 SFX

3 years 9 months ago

Truly, Skyrim never dies. Its memes, one liners, and in-jokes are probably destined to plague our vocabulary until the end of time. Here’s a deep cut for you all the way back from the annals of 2012. It’s been reshared on Reddit once again because you can’t really beat the silly friends reenact video games vibe. So I’m resharing it too and Fus Ro Dah to anyone who minds.

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Author
Lauren Morton

Wasteland 3 Gets New Video All About Choice and Freedom (and Consequences)

3 years 9 months ago

Today inXile Entertainment released a brand new developer diary video providing a deep dive into its upcoming hardcore RPG Wasteland 3.

This time around we get to see inXile boss Brian Fargo and Senior Writer Nathan Long as they talk in detail about the choices we’ll be able to take in the game and the freedom afforded to the players.

Of course, this also means that we’re pretty much free to hang ourselves, even if the developers have made  a conscious effort to avoid unpredictable results where the player is completely blindsided by the consequences of their choices. 

You can check it out below.

Wasteland 3 has been recently delayed to August 28, 2020,  and it’ll come for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

If you’d like to learn more about the game, you can read our recent hands-on preview, check out the first video of the same series, and the second video.

If you’re not familiar with the game, you can check out an official description and bullet points below.

Author
Giuseppe Nelva

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Pokemon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass Info Dropping This Week

3 years 9 months ago

Coming from a Tweet that was put out by the Japanese Twitter account for The Pokemon Company, more info on the upcoming Pokemon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass will be dropped tomorrow (June 2) at 9 AM ET/ 6 AM PT.

It’s currently unclear how the info will be presented and what will be exactly showcased but at the very least, we should expect a release date for The Isle of Armor, which is the first part of the Pokemon Sword and Shield expansion pass, which is due for release sometime this month.

Author
Greysun Morales

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Top 10 Most Impractical Weapons in Gaming History

3 years 9 months ago

When it comes to the weaponry video game characters use to defend themselves, there’s a long list of items that, fun or not, wouldn’t fly if someone tried to use them in real life. Some push past the absurd into downright ridiculous or harmful to their wielder though, and that’s why they’re on our totally serious list of the 10 most impractical weapons in gaming history.

Author
Keenan McCall

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Pokemon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass News Coming Tomorrow

3 years 9 months ago
We'll get more details on Pokemon Sword and Shield's Expansion Pass tomorrow, June 2 at 6am Pacific / 9am Eastern / 2pm UK / 11pm AEST. Revealed in a tweet by the Japanese Pokemon Twitter account (below), no details were given of what could be revealed. However, with the first expansion for the latest Pokemon games - The Isle of Armor - due to arrive by the end of June, it seems likely we'd get a release date.
Author
Joe Skrebels

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The Last of Us Part 2 Director on How the Infected Have Evolved

3 years 9 months ago
The Last of Us Part II sees Ellie facing off against new human threats as she ventures into Seattle, Washington, but of course the world of Naughty Dog's post-pandemic series is home to plenty of infected enemies as well. And while the familiar forms these foes take return in the sequel, they've changed in some notable ways, as new types have also begun to appear. While you can check out IGN's The Last of Us Part 2 final preview for a breakdown of how the new and improved combat can play out, Part 2 Director Neil Druckmann spoke to IGN about how the development team approached the return of the Clickers, Bloaters, Stalkers, and the new Shamblers. "Like everything we do in The Last of Us, it has to feel grounded and believable in the world we built in the first game. With this game specifically, we wanted to find ways to add greater mechanical depth than any previous Naughty Dog game," Druckmann said. When it came to adding a new type of infected enemy, the Shambler, Druckmann noted that it has to "have a lineage, it has to have the same physiology that we established in the first game," to feel believable as something new in this world. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/01/the-last-of-part-2-the-final-preview"] Shamblers have the ability to hurl noxious gas bombs at the player, which explode into a damaging, sight-obscuring cloud of smoke, and the foe does the same thing itself when defeated. Druckmann said this enemy idea played to the team's combat ambitions for the sequel. "One [reason for the Shambler] is it gets you to move, and the corrosive damage is [useful] when we don't want you to just stand still, we want the fights to feel dynamic," he said. "And, two, like any good horror [enemy], it limits your senses, it blocks your vision.
Author
Jonathon Dornbush

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Guilty Gear Strive dev blog promises 'We will make it rock!'

3 years 9 months ago

Arc System Works has started a new blog series designed to keep fans informed as regards to the development of upcoming fighter Guilty Gear Strive. The "Developer's Backyard" blog will see the team openly address questions and concerns raised from the public regarding the fighter's recent closed beta.

The first entry features a slew of statistics pertaining to the April test beta, totting up the numbers for most popular character, most requested character and, most candidly, releasing the fan-scores regarding various elements of Guilty Gear Strive, from visuals and music, to HUD design and online options. While it appears fans were very happy with the graphics and animations, the U.I. and online options took a bit of a kicking.

Guilty Gear Strive dev blog promises 'We will make it rock!' screenshot

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Author
Chris Moyse

Someone recreated a Pokemon battle in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

3 years 9 months ago

We've had homage after homage for Pokemon in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but this is one of the most clever I've seen to date.

Crafted by The-Nooksters over on Reddit, the scene is set for a faux Pokemon battle within the confines of the New Horizons universe. Taking to the backroom of a home, two villagers managed to dress up like Red/Ash and Gary and use villagers to do their bidding: recreating an iconic first-gen starter battle (Squirtle versus Charmander).

In case you're wondering, Drift subs in for the latter and Pate is the former. I would love to have either of them in my village: I'm sick of my hamster cage of an island.

Pokemon Battle but with Villagers [Reddit]

Someone recreated a Pokemon battle in Animal Crossing: New Horizons screenshot

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Author
Chris Carter

Four seasons in one image shows how beautiful Stardew Valley's pixel art really is

3 years 9 months ago

I stopped and starred at this Stardew Valley image for quite some time.

Shared by pikaprim on Reddit, it showcases all four seasons spliced into one image, which is actually a 33-year-old Stardew Valley farm. For those who aren't aware, it takes roughly five and a half hours of gametime, give or take, to complete a year. So pikaprim has been playing for a long, long while.

And I'd say it paid off if we can all enjoy this scene together. Stardew is one of those games I come back to time and time again, whether it's a multiplayer farm or a solo endeavour, and just chill out. There's so much to do (with more on the way), and given that all the updates are free without worrying about DLC parity, you can just dive in and not feel like you're missing anything: or stress about huge multi-gig patches.

For that low-fi approach and much more; it truly is one of the best games of the decade.

4 season in 1 picture [Reddit]

Four seasons in one image shows how beautiful Stardew Valley's pixel art really is screenshot

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Author
Chris Carter

Hideo Kojima says Death Stranding was profitable, laments recent 'big project' that fell through

3 years 9 months ago

Hideo Kojima has spoken about the financial return on his most recent release, Death Stranding. The strange and otherworldly adventure launched in November 2019 after years of industry buzz and appears, at the very least, to have been a profitable release.

"We surpassed the amount we needed to make a profit, so I think it sold well enough to be called a 'success,' recoupment of development costs included," said Kojima in an interview with LiveDoor News, translated by Gematsu. "We'll release the PC version soon and have already secured enough profit to prepare for what’s next, so there’s no need to worry."

Hideo Kojima says Death Stranding was profitable, laments recent 'big project' that fell through screenshot

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Author
Chris Moyse

Zelda: Breath of the Wild fans are still finding the most inventive combat strategies

3 years 9 months ago

At this point we've nearly seen it all when it comes to Zelda: Breath of the Wild combat strategies. But as Plomn123 points out, there's always something surprising around the corner.

In this simple and quick combat video, Plomn123 shows players how to counter Golden Lynels: a devastating creature found only in Master Mode. The short answer: duck! By going underneath them you can easily avoid their spinning attack, instead of dodging out of its range then going back in to continue the fight. This person must be a Souls fan! That's pretty much the first thing I try when a giant creature comes at me sight unseen.

While I've seen this trick before, it definitely wasn't as widely known as it is now. Given that a host of Dtoiders have noted recently that they're either going into Master Mode for the first time or are replaying it, I figured it's a good time to remind people.

It's also never a bad time to pick Breath of the Wild back up again.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild fans are still finding the most inventive combat strategies screenshot

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Author
Chris Carter

Demonstrations That Changed the Course of American History

3 years 9 months ago

With protests taking place in at least 140 cities over the last week sparked by the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, we thought it was time to look at other demonstrations and riots throughout American history. And given the potential risks to personal safety—not to mention large gatherings in the…

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Author
Elizabeth Yuko on Lifehacker, shared by Riley MacLeod to Kotaku

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It’s Wedding Season In Animal Crossing: New Horizons

3 years 9 months ago

The month of June signals the beginning of summer in Animal Crossing, bringing new fish, bugs, and special recipes to the game. It also brings alpacas Cyrus and Reese to New Horizons for a month-long celebration of their wedding anniversary. They’re so damn cute.

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Author
Mike Fahey

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Fortnite fans reckon new season leak ties into Epic teaser from year ago

3 years 9 months ago

Artwork for Fortnite's under-wraps new season has appeared online - released, it seems, earlier than planned. It comes from the new PlayStation background and icon for the game, which got updated today.

(To be fair to Sony, Fortnite's new season was indeed scheduled to launch this week, before its most recent delay.)

The image shows Fortnite's battle bus flying over a patch of open water, past a desert island with three palm trees on it in the background.

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The Last of Us Part 2: hands-on with Naughty Dog's stunning farewell to PS4

3 years 9 months ago

The last big hurrah of the PlayStation 3 era, The Last of Us launched on June 14th, 2013 - five months before the arrival of PS4. A technological masterpiece for the era and a crowning achievement for Sony first party development, there's a strong argument that developer Naughty Dog pushed the ageing hardware to its very limits - a fitting send-off for the console by one of its most accomplished developers. Almost seven years later to the day, the studio is set to repeat the trick with the imminent arrival of The Last of Us Part 2.

Preview coverage for this title is a little tricky. While we've played the game, what we can explicitly comment on is highly limited and the only assets we can share from this slice of the game have already been shown on last week's State of Play. But what we can confidently share is that, put simply, The Last of Us Part 2 does not disappoint. From a technological standpoint, there's a clear path of progression from The Last of Us Remastered, through the still-stunning Uncharted 4 and the often overlooked Lost Legacy, right up to this latest Naughty Dog showcase.

Some of the basics are easily covered - essentially remaining unchanged from prior trailers and indeed Uncharted 4 before it. Rendering resolution on PlayStation 4 Pro is still 1440p, backed up by the firm's clean temporal anti-aliasing solution. Performance is solid at 30fps, with few deviations, and actually improved overall compared to Uncharted 4's showing on PlayStation 4 Pro. In terms of image quality and frame-rate, we don't anticipate many complaints.

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Pokémon Trading Card Game Announces Battle Academy Board Game

3 years 9 months ago

The Pokémon Company has announced the first-ever board game adaptation of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Pokémon Trading Card Game Battle Academy delivers a modified version of the TCG in the form of an easy-to-learn, 30-minute board game meant for two players. 

When you pick up the Battle Academy box, you receive the two-player board game, three 60-card decks, tutorial guides, and various gameplay accessories. The cards and accessories included in the Pokémon Trading Card Battle Academy box are fully compatible with the standard Pokémon Trading Card products.

The set also includes digital codes for the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online on PC, iOS, and Android.

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

Author
Brian Shea

Gang Beasts is going it alone and self-publishing future updates

3 years 9 months ago

Silly wobble person fighting game Gang Beasts is going it alone, planning to self-publish future updates. Last year, Boneloaf’s former publisher Double Fine Presents was bought up by Microsoft, eventually saying that continuing to be a publisher after being bought by a bigger publisher “doesn’t make sense,” and calling the new structure a “complicated issue.” Looks like Gang Beasts will come out of the equation alright, as Boneloaf are planning some new updates for the game even post-publisher.

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Author
Lauren Morton

Summer of Pride Event Celebrates LGBTQ+ Diversity in Video Games

3 years 9 months ago

MidBoss, a production studio that’s best known for 2064: Read Only Memories, a narrative cyberpunk adventure game, has announced that the second annual Summer of Pride event will be kicking off today that celebrates LGBTQ+ diversity in video games.

Running until June 30, the event features a diverse number of Twitch streamers that will be playing “queer-positive” games to raise money for LGBTQ+ charities such as Trans Lifeline, Trevor Project, and GaymerX via Tiltify.

There will even be a permanent digital storefront curated by MidBoss that will launch this month to promote queer-friendly video games in one helpful place.

Some of the video games that will be featured in the live streams this month will include The Last of Us: Left Behind, the Mass Effect series, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Monster Prom, Fragments of Him, and an array of other titles.

If you’re interested and want more info on the scheduling, you can find out everything you want to know on the official Summer of Pride website.

Also, there will be a Summer of Pride 2020 sale throughout the summer that discounts several queer-related video games like Gone Home and 2064. You’ll be able to find these discounts on Steam and the Nintendo Switch eShop later this month.

Author
Greysun Morales

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Godfall for PS5 & PC Gets New Teaser Trailer Showing “Silvermane” & Intriguing Glimpses of The Lore

3 years 9 months ago

Today Gearbox Publishing released a brand new teaser trailer of its upcoming looting-slashing game Godfall.

The trailer showcases “silvermane” without much in terms of an explanation. The title includes “World of Godfall” so I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the first of a series of teasers focusing on finally presenting the setting of this somewhat mysterious game. 

Specifically, Silvermane appears to be a Valor Plate armor that we can don to fight in Godfall.

Godfall was the first game (at least to my knowledge) to be officially announced for PS5, so it’s obvious that many are keeping a close eye on its progress. We haven’t had news about it for a while, but Gearbox Publishing and Counterplay Games have dropped some teases on Twitter over the past few days. 

You can see them all below alongside the trailer.

Author
Giuseppe Nelva

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Mortal Kombat 11 hotfix shuts down Fujin's wild infinite kombo

3 years 9 months ago

Mortal Kombat - NetherRealm fighters in general - often faces accusations of having some unbalanced characters at the top of their respective food chains, but it's a rarity that someone is straight "broken." Trust wind god Fujin - new arrival in DLC expansion Aftermath - to literally slide into that spot, with a cheeky infinite that NRS is patching out in double-quick time.

As noted in this tweet from @Azeez_Jowder, Fujin's first variation, featuring a slide/hover cancel that can be exploited with help from the relatively useless "Switch Stance" function, a holdover from Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe that remains in the MK code. Essentially, Switch Stance can cancel out Fujin's "hover," allowing the boy to slide, slide, slide his opponent into oblivion. You can also see the gimmick utilised in this video from REO_MK, demonstrated as a sweet 110-hit kombo.

Mortal Kombat 11 hotfix shuts down Fujin's wild infinite kombo screenshot

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Author
Chris Moyse