Photo illustration: James Bareham/Polygon
As COVID-19 quarantine restrictions ease and theaters reopen, the problem might be other patrons, not safety precautions
COVID-19 stay-at-home measures have seen a number of publishers and industry organizations scramble to put on their own digital showcases in leu of any physical events this year. Devolver Digital, however, has been at it for some time, and this year it’s set to once again deliver another online showcase of its upcoming games.
You can expect a typically off-the-wall presentation if today’s goofy press release is anything to go by. We’re told that Devolver Digital aims to “raise the bar for overrated marketing videos with this year’s Devolver Direct on July 11 at 12:00 PM Pacific Time.”
You can check out the showcase over on Twitch.
As for the content on offer, Devolver alludes to new game reveals, gameplay reveals, release date announcements, and special guests from the industry. But then again it also alludes to continuing “the tradition of overpromises,” too, so who really knows!
Apparently there will be a few surprises along the way, and some game demos for people to check out, including Carrion, Disc Room, and an unannounced game.
If you’ve not tuned into a Devolver Digital showcase before then you better strap in. You should probably also check out last year’s so that you’re up to speed with the whimsical and rather bizarre narrative that the publisher likes to work into the events.
The post Devolver Digital to Host its Annual Direct Next Week appeared first on Twinfinite.
New SuperGroupies Okami items are on the way. This time, you can order a jacket, sneakers, and umbrella inspired by Amaterasu.
The post SuperGroupies Okami Sneakers, Jacket, and Umbrella Are on the Way appeared first on Siliconera.
The Xbox One Summer Game Fest Demo Event has been dated. For one week starting July 21, 2020, people will get to play over 60 demos.
The post Xbox One Summer Game Fest Demo Event Will Begin July 21, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.
Save the date! On July 11, 2020, the Devolver Direct will bring back Nina Struthers and announce new games.
The post Devolver Direct Will Bring Nina Struthers Back on July 11, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.
Start saving up, as Viz Media's $50 Monster Hunter: World Official Complete Works will arrive in stores on August 11, 2020.
The post Monster Hunter World Official Complete Works Arrives in August appeared first on Siliconera.
Kojima Productions’ esoteric postman simulator Death Stranding isn’t out on PC until July 14th, but I’ve been strolling around an early preview build of the game for the last couple of days and man alive, it’s really very heartening to see such a good-looking PS4 game run at a proper 60fps on PC, lemme tell ya. It bodes extremely well for Horizon Zero Dawn‘s eventual PC release, too, as Death Stranding uses the very same Decima Engine as Guerrilla’s futuristic open world-athon.
The really good news, though, is that Death Stranding’s PC requirements seem to be right on the money, as my early tests show the game’s recommended GTX 1060 graphics card will have no trouble hitting well over 60fps on max settings at 1080p.
Revealed as part of PlayStation's recently announced indie-focused initiative, Where the Heart Is is an new narrative adventure slated to hit PS4 later this year.
The game is being developed by Armature Studio, and tells the strange story of a man named Whit Anderson. He falls down a sinkhole on his family farm, and then relives moments of his life in a series of vignettes. These story scenes have a dream-like quality, and players have the opportunity to make choices that impact the course of Whit's life and the consequences of his actions.
Click here to watch embedded mediaYou can get more details (and see more of the game in motion) by checking out the spotlight on the PlayStation Blog.
Click image thumbnails to view larger version
Earlier this year, the Crysis Twitter account teased the reveal of Crysis Remastered for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. Yesterday, an Xbox store leak implied that the game was set for a July 23 release, but Crytek has since announced that the title is getting delayed a bit longer.
We would like to share an important update with you all! pic.twitter.com/ylu0OisDf3
— Crysis (@Crysis) July 1, 2020
This new version of Crysis will focus on the single-player campaign, and contains high-resolution textures, improved art assets, and other upgrades that will result in, "a major visual upgrade." Stay tuned for more info on the official reveal and release date.
Today brought the reveal of F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch, a new action/platformer from TiGames. With the help of Unreal 4, F.I.S.T. features a gorgeous dieselpunk aesthetic, showing off an industrialized world filled with anthropomorphic animals whose world has been overtaken by a malevolent machine legion.
Players take on the role of Rayton, a rabbit war veteran who dons a mechanized backpack suit that provides tremendous facility in battle. The suit can shift between a fist, drill, or whip attack form, giving Rayton different approaches to combat, from slow and devastating (drill) to fast and longer-distance (whip). Each weapon is built to allow for combo-heavy arcade-style combat against an array of mechanical enemies.
Beyond the 2D battles, F.I.S.T. is also billed as an exploration game, as Rayton makes his way through the interconnected city, so it’s fair to expect at least a bit of Metroid DNA in the mix.
F.I.S.T. makes a strong first impression. The visuals look great, the combat appears fast and reactive, and the world seems both charming and gritty. Take a look at the trailer below.
F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch is planned for release on PS4 sometime in the next few months.
Click here to watch embedded media
Today, Sony is giving us a look at some of the upcoming indies coming our way. One of the reveals was for a story-driven puzzle game called Maquette for PS4.
"Maquette is a puzzle game, but not in the sense that Sudoku is a puzzle, more like a story that has puzzles throughout," writes creative director Hanford Lemoore in a PlayStation blog post. "As you explore the game’s recursive world, you’ll uncover memories of a young couple in love, solving puzzles through creative thinking."
The first-person puzzle game takes place in a "recursive world" (one nested inside itself, infinitely), where you manipulate object sizes to get past obstacles. This means what you do in a smaller, model-size version of the world will impact the regular world. This offers the opportunity for interesting puzzle solutions, like taking a key for the regular world and using its bigger object size in the smaller one as a bridge to get across a gap. The video below offers a good visual explanation of how it all works, so be sure to watch it if you're interested.
Click here to watch embedded media
"Dear Crysis Fans, as you know, Crysis Remastered will be coming into the world this year - and at the same time the Crysis IP will debut on the Nintendo Switch!" "Your passion for the Crysis franchise deserves an undeniably high-quality game, and we are committed to delivering just that. To ensure that we meet that committment, we will need to delay the launch date (all platforms) and trailer premiere by a few weeks. Because they already started, pre-orders for Switch will stay open, but pre-orders for all other platforms will be delayed as well." "The features you're looking forward to are already set, but we want to take the time on polishing the game. You might be aware of the leak yesterday, and we want you to know: we've seen all the reactions - the good and the bad - and we're listening! We're still working on a number of things in game, as well as the storefront.
Note: This article contains spoilers for The Last Of Us Part II, up through the beginning of Seattle: Day 2.
PlayStation has unveiled a new indie-driven initiative and the first nine games it's elevating as part of a new drive to 'spotlight and support the best of the best indie games being published on PlayStation.' ...
"It is such a well-functioning system of control, because there is a lot of conversation happening in the company. It just leads nowhere. An audit in Ubisoft leads nowhere 9 times out of 10." ...
If you've wondered what a locked-down Devolver Digital press conference might look like, we're about to find out soon. The Devolver Direct 2020 broadcast is set for Saturday, July 11 at noon Pacific.
Devolver Direct streaks toward the future's future on Saturday, July 11 at 12PM Pacific via @Twitch! #checkalook pic.twitter.com/xkDnaWsfGC
— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) July 1, 2020
This year's pre-recorded video will be streamed on Twitch and Steam.
The oddball show "continues the tradition of overpromises with new game reveals, gameplay reveals, release date announcements, and special guests from the industry to help usher in these important marketing bullet points. And it's nearly all gameplay because that's what the youths of today demand."
Apart from the annual show's usual mayhem, Devolver is also promising public demos for the death-bringing monster game Carrion, the death-dodging Disc Room, and an unannounced title.
At this point, Stardew Valley has its own lore. If there's a sequel you better believe that developer ConcernedApe will expand upon it, and the fans will demand appearances from some of the more iconic characters and races that inhabit its land. For now, there's this fan-created crossover.
Crafted by Zandrewbert8 over on Reddit, this genius painstakingly brought over every major villager from Stardew Valley into Animal Crossing. It looks like a lot of work, but they snapped a photo of cosplay for all of the big characters doing their thing, including the Wizard creeping it up in their tower among all of their occult items.
They estimate that it took them around 90 hours to finish the project: given that it's provided me with a lot of joy trying to pinpoint everything in his hour of need, mission accomplished. Using this list of Stardew villagers as a key, see if you can spot them all.
I brought the villagers of Stardew Valley to Animal Crossing[Reddit]
The Summer Game Fest is doing what it can to bring the spirit of video game conventions to the stuck-at-home public. Part of that is the Steam Game Festival which brought 900-some demos to PC a few weeks ago. Later this month, Xbox gets in on the action.
Microsoft has announced that it's laying down the beach towel, setting up shop under a comically-big umbrella, spreading sunscreen across the bridge of its nose, and bringing some toys for everyone to play with. A selection of games in the ID@Xbox program will be featured on the Xbox One dashboard with public demos for anyone to try.
Called the Xbox Game Fest Demo Showcase, this event runs July 21 through July 27. That's more or less in line with the second Summer Game Fest stream which premieres on July 20.
We don't yet know exactly how many games or which games will be included. Xbox mentions a selection between 75 and 100 demos that include: Cris Tales, Destroy All Humans!, Haven, Hellpoint, Skatebird, The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, Raji: An Ancient Epic, and Welcome to Elk. Obviously, that's about 10 percent of the final list. There's a lot to come. Xbox turns the summer heat up in three weeks.
Summer Game Fest Demo Event Coming July 21 to an Xbox Near You [Xbox Wire]
Update: Congratulations to RockyNoHands, our grand prize winner! A special thanks to all of our contestants and everyone in our community that voted. If you missed the show, check out the replay here.
Folks, this is not over yet -- a new competition will be announced in the next two weeks as we get ready for this year's Luminosity Gaming Rising Stars tournament, with a prize pool of $30,000. Stay tuned!
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Over the past month, dozens of streamers – including some familiar (and impeccably sexy) faces from the Destructoid community – battled it out in our first ever So You Think You Can Stream competition.
The prize? $5,000 (American dollars, not Dollarydoos) and a fast-track to the top 32 in Luminosity Gaming’s upcoming Rising Stars competition, where they’ll once more battle it out for an even grander prize; $100,000 and one year contract to stream with these esports titans.
Well, it’s nearly over. Tonight, the top three streamers, and a fan-favorite voted for by the community, will battle it out for the top prize.
Here’s our top three contestants:
Alongside those three streamers will be the community’s pick, BadGalShay!
Fallout 76 is still chugging along, coasting off of its free Wastelanders update, but there's more work to be done. The game is getting one of its biggest quality of life changes yet alongside of a potential seasonal cash grab, depending on how it's handled going forward (so far it's fairly innocuous, but Bethesda could always pull an Activision with it).
Yes folks, the premium price tag and a subscription service weren't enough: now Fallout 76 is joining the online shooter "seasonal" craze, complete with the option of buying ranks for atoms (premium currency) in a few weeks. The service is free for all right now, but according to the seasonal FAQ, the team "may add Fallout 1st" (subscription pass) options in the future. You can find that full rundown here, including a nice breakdown of the items.
The biggest part of the update for me is public teams. This is huge, as now players can actually group up with an incentive (more XP/bonus stats), allowing the world to feel less lifeless during play sessions. In short all you have to do is choose the public team option from a menu, then search or create your own party based on specific goals (hunting, roleplaying, event-focus, exploration, building or casual play). It's great.
Summer Game Fest, the months-long video games showcase helping to fill the void left by this year's cancelled E3, continues to rumble on and will be turning its attention to Xbox One later this month, offering a week of playable, pre-release demos.
The occasion is officially being referred to as the Summer Game Fest Demo Event, and it's along the lines of the similar Steam Game Festival on PC, which, you might recall, recently returned in June. The gist is that from Tuesday 21st July to Monday 27th July, Xbox One players will be given access to a host of playable demos, many for upcoming, unreleased games.
According to Microsoft's announcement, there'll be more than 60 such pre-release demos available across the week, and likely a total of between 75 and 100 demos in all.
Image: Infinity Ward/Activision via Polygon
You can help the Pied Piper lead rats through the streets
Team17 is finally jumping on the battle royale bandwagon with its latest Worms title. Earlier today we got our very first look at Worms Rumble in a YouTube announcement trailer.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Worms franchise, these games are typically 2D or 3D turn-based tactics titles. They feature numerous wacky weapons like the sheep launcher, holy hand grenade, and other out-there arms. We got our first look at the holy hand grenade at the end of the trailer, but the guns in the reveal were all relatively conventional.
Team battles have also been a hallmark of the Worms franchise over the years. But this time around, all the action will be completely real-time with multiple worms jumping around the same map. The classic formula has been traded in for the battle royale format this time around.
But don’t expect anything like PUBG or Fortnite when it comes to player counts. Worms Rumble will feature 32 players per map. And from what we’ve seen so far, it appears that all of these maps will be 2D with multiple platforms, staircases, and escalators to help you navigate the terrain.
Besides the battle royale mode, it looks like we’ll also be getting a Deathmatch mode. There is no indication if a team deathmatch will be included at this point.
And if you have friends on PC but you’re on PS4 or PS5, then that’s no problem. Worms Rumble will feature cross-play compatibility with both consoles and PC.
You can pick up the latest title in Team17’s later this year for PS4, PS5, and PC. But if you can’t wait that long, then you can sign up for the beta right now.
If you want to check out the full Worms Rumble reveal trailer from Team17, just check it out below.
A new entry in the Paper Mario series, a port of Catherine: Full Body, and a sequel to Deadly Premonition, a cult classic from 2010. These are just some of the new Switch games releasing in July 2020. There are also a multitude of indie titles coming out as well!
We have a full list of every new game coming to the Switch in July 2020 down below but if you want some more info on some of the more notable releases that we recommend looking into, just keep scrolling down:
Besides Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima and Marvel’s Iron Man VR, there aren’t many new PS4 games coming out in July 2020. With that being said, there are a couple of smaller experiences that some PS4 players might be interested in, such as CrossCode or SkaterXL.
We have a full list of every new game coming to the PS4 in June 2020 down below but if you want some more info on some of the more notable releases that we recommend picking up, just keep scrolling down:
The post New PS4 Games Releasing in July 2020 appeared first on Twinfinite.
Dead Cells studios Motion Twin and Evil Empire released the 19th update for the roguelike action platformer today on Steam with consoles planned in the coming weeks.
The game’s 19th update, called “The Update of Plenty,” has plenty of changes that rework most aspects of the game such as weapons and economy.
The biggest change of the weapons is that crossbows are now two-handed weapons and have two separate attacks alongside other changes. There is also a backpack that lets players store a one-handed weapon while wielding a two-handed weapon.
The economy and merchant have been changed with removing gold scaling and replacing by gear price going up with level instead. Shop re-rolls are also free, but makes the items on sale pricier.
The update also reworks gear qualities, damage over time effects, damage mutation, and difficulty progression to smooth out difficulty spikes. For example, 2BC difficulty has been tuned less hard while 0BC difficulty has become a little more challenging. The full patch notes for the update can be found on the game’s official website.
The studios also announced that Dead Cells has sold over 3 million copies over its lifetime since its Steam Early Access launch in 2017. The game is now available for PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.
A new KonoSuba PSO 2 collab has been announced and launched today, featuring several cosmetic items players can earn via AC scratch tickets.
The post Phantasy Star Online 2 and KonoSuba Collab Kicks Off Today appeared first on Siliconera.
Devolver Digital and Reikon Games to the Nintendo Switch, and we spent some time with its truly fearsome, dystopian cyberpunk world.
The post RUINER Is a Reminder Cyberpunk Isn’t Always Fun appeared first on Siliconera.
Trackmania is a series that… christ, look at this mess. I’m not going to lay out the whole history of the series. They stretch back to 2003, over a dozen or so games on almost as many platforms. They’re mostly about time trial races on outlandish, stunt-filled tracks.
This latest one is a remake of Trackmania Nations, a free online spin-off released in 2006. It’s called Trackmania, because clarity is unfashionable I guess. After some understandable delays, it’s out now, and although it has a subscription model, there’s a pretty generous free version too.
When Team17 first teased a new Worms game coming in 2020 they called it “worms like you’ve never played before.” They’ve now officially announced Worms Rumble and yeah, it is definitely not your traditional Worms game. I was joking when I said “Worms battle royale confirmed” months ago but, well, here we are. The 32-player Worms action game will host a beta later this month and release in late 2020.
For the last couple years, indie publisher Devolver Digital’s have broadcast their own big E3-style press conference of announcements after all the other publishers have gone to sleep. Good news is, they’ve not let FakE3 keep them down. Devolver Digital will still be doing a digital press conference and you’ll be able to catch all fifty shades of freaky on July 11th at 8pm BST / 12pm PDT.
Players of kId-friendly creative place space are discovering their accounts have become inadvertently political, as hackers dress hundreds of users up in pseudo-MAGA gear and inject Donald Trump 2020 campaign messages into their user profiles.
The Last of Us Part 2 is a big, big game that excels at the little things: the way Joel raises his hand to block sunlight from his eyes, or the way Ellie marks up a map of downtown Seattle with a Sharpie.
Image: Atlus via Polygon
Image: Mojang Studios / Microsoft
Image: Discord
