To say Capcom fumbled Street Fighter V is an understatement. SF5 launched in an incomplete state, going all-in on “esports” to the point that it shipped without even basic single-player modes, and the flat, offense-heavy combat came off so canned, so rote, that it almost felt turn-based. (Also, Ken had bananas for…
Back in February 1991, Capcom released Street Fighter 2 to arcades. Unbeknownst to Capcom at the time, Street Fighter 2’s massive success would cause it to become the blueprint for fighting games - a genre the game effectively created upon its release. This blueprint proved to be so influential that even some of Street Fighter 2’s most underwhelming elements are still being parroted in fighting games today. As a result, more than 30 years later, one constant in the fighting game genre has always remained true: the story mode is gonna suck.
There have been some valiant attempts at rectifying this in the last decade, but the core issue has always remained the same; fighting games are inherently designed to be played against other people, and back-to-back fights with AI controlled characters will never be able to properly match the competition of the real thing. Yet, with Street Fighter 6, Capcom have seemingly done the impossible. Street Fighter 6 has the best story mode in any fighting game I’ve played. Admittedly a low bar, but still, Capcom could have easily half-assed the story mode, just as so many other fighting games still choose to do, and still have been widely praised based solely on the strength of its multiplayer. Instead, Capcom are offering fighting game developers a new blueprint to copy - one that prioritises teaching new players above everything else.
Street Fighter 6 feels like a response, the counter-punch from a developer bruised and battered after a heavy defeat. You can't call it a comeback - for the fighting game core Street Fighter 5 served its purpose well enough. But you can call it a triumphant return to the ring; better, wiser and with a new plan of attack.
Street Fighter 5 launched half finished. Online play was a broken mess, the story mode was barebones and there was no arcade mode - a fighting game prerequisite. Street Fighter 6 follows up on that release disaster with a meaty campaign mode unlike anything we've seen in the series, an online hub that recreates the feel of an old-school arcade, and a raft of single-player options to fuss over. All this on top of a world class combat system and fighting feel. It's a fantastic package - perhaps the best Street Fighter's ever had.
Remember when Street Fighter 5 came out and a lot of people were disappointed by its distinct lack of meat on its bones? Street Fighter 6 is the polar opposite. Complete with an excellent 18-character roster of both new and returning fighters rendered in a killer new art style, an incredibly ambitious online Battle Hub that puts all other online fighting game lobby systems to shame, and just about everything you could ever ask for when it comes to training tools and systems to help you get better at fighting games, it’s a spectacularly feature-rich fighting game. Street Fighter 6 takes many swings in many different directions, and though not every blow connects, the ones that do are absolute knockouts.
The gameplay of every Street Fighter game since Street Fighter 2 can generally be defined by a unique mechanic. Street Fighter 3 had parries, 4 had focus attacks, 5 had the V-System, and now Street Fighter 6 has the Drive System. And for my money, it’s the best the series has ever seen.
Every character gains access to five powerful abilities that are all governed by their Drive Gauge: Overdrive special moves, Drive Rush, Drive Parry, Drive Reversals, and Drive Impact. Overdrives are essentially the new EX Special Moves and cost two bars, Drive Rush allows you to quickly close the distance between you and your opponent at the cost of one bar (or cancel out of specific normal attacks at the cost of three bars), Drive Reversals allow you to get an opponent off of you while you’re blocking their attack at the cost of two bars, and Drive Impacts… well we’ll get into those in a bit.
Square Enix has begun detailing the endgame activities that Final Fantasy 16 players will be able to look forward to after they finish the main story, and they include New Game+ and the game's most difficult challenges.
As reported by Game Informer, one of the biggest draws of New Game+ is the addition of a new harder difficulty setting called Final Fantasy Mode. Alongside allowing you to bring over all of your abilities and gear from your first playthrough like most New Game+ modes, this new difficulty setting will also change monster placement and will see them showing up in different parts of the game to keep you on your toes.
“The main design philosophy is that the first playthrough is about learning Clive, learning the controls, and then enjoying the story,” Final Fantasy 16 combat director Ryota Suzuki says. “The second playthrough, we want to shift that focus – because the story hasn’t changed – to the action. For example, in Story Mode, while players may encounter waves of enemies, a lot of times, enemies don’t attack at once to allow players to be able to handle everything. In the harder modes of the game, we have removed these limitations so that you have multiple enemies all attacking Clive at the same time.
“Basically, what we’ve done with [Final Fantasy] Mode is give players controlling Clive the sense that they’re always in danger, that death is around the corner, and that you’ll need to really, really pay attention to be able to clear the content.”
The developer of viking survival game Valheim has urged fans not to charge for mods they create.
In a new blog post on Steam, the Iron Gate team noted it's been receiving "a lot of questions regarding mods" and addressed some issues around the modding scene.
The game doesn't have any official mod support, but the team is flattered and "definitely happy to see that people are engaging with our game".
Over the weekend, Microsoft's Australian Xbox account shared a cryptic tweet, and this communication has led many to speculate a Psychonauts 3 announcement is imminent.
The tweet in question showed your typical naughts and crosses style grid layout, with the letters H, S, X, Y, X, O, C, X, P filling out the nine spaces.
"WHAT DOES IT MEAN?? No please seriously, someone help us out," the account teased.
RGG Studio will hold its next RGG Summit livestream event next month.
The developer is best known as the team behind the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series and its spin-off Judgment games.
We know what's in the pipeline for Like a Dragon, so here's what we could see shown off.
Link's Ascend ability in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a particularly useful addition, but have you ever wondered exactly how it works?
When ascending, Link is transported through rock via, seemingly, a loading screen of darkness and green swirls.
Thanks to a new video from YouTube channel Boundary Break, we can see what's going on behind the scenes.
The Witcher 3 has now sold 50m copies, cementing the title's position as one of the best-selling games of all time.
Developer CD Projekt Red announced this latest milestone during its recent earnings call. Here, CDPR exec Adam Kicinski also revealed the Witcher trilogy combined has now sold in excess of 75m copies.
"This clearly shows the strength of the franchise and we are excited looking forward to our next projects within the Witcher universe," he said on these latest figures.
CD Projekt, developer of The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, has dismissed speculation it will be bought by Sony.
Online reports had suggested the maker of PlayStation was interested in snapping up CD Projekt for itself, apparently based on a rumour spread by a well-known Destiny leaker.
CD Projekt has previously insisted the studio wished to remain independent. And now, in an investor call, CD Projekt boss Adam Kicinski has ruled out the developer being available to buy.
A design for an airbike in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has become hugely popular for its simplicity and ease of use.
Traversing the vast space of Hyrule (and the Depths) can be a bit of a slog on foot or horse, but one vehicle has easily solved this problem.
The airbike, as demonstrated by YouTuber Uncle Dane, only requires two fans and one steering stick, which can be easily gotten from Zonai Device Dispensers or found scattered about.
I've been spending more time with my nephew recently and, at age five, it's been exciting to see him start getting into video games. It's also been something of an education, to be honest, on the kinds of games available to him, as well as the sorts of things he's drawn towards. He plays on a tablet, and it may not shock you to hear that a lot of the games he's keen to try - and that get advertised to him - have some pretty dodgy-looking monetisation mechanics. Slot machines, chance-based mechanics, loot boxes - there's a reason the tablet isn't hooked up to any kind of payment device.
The gacha machines in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom are thankfully about as far away from all that as you can get, but their inclusion in the game still caught me a little off guard. Here, in this beautifully-crafted fantasy epic, was a nod to something very different. Of course, the Zelda series is no stranger to anachronistic distractions and mini-games within its ostensibly medieval setting, but this, initially at least, felt more of a surprise. This was Nintendo riffing on a much-criticised monetisation structure - or, looking at what my nephew wants to play, the entirety of the gameplay - of other games, with a knowing nod and a wink. And it's especially amusing to see Tears of the Kingdom include this following the launch of the gacha-powered Genshin Impact, which sparked more than a few comparisons with Breath of the Wild.
Street Fighter 6 is a fighting game for everyone. With control schemes that will let you do cool things simply by mashing the buttons, a sprawling single player mode, and a character creation system that allows you to cobble together whatever moveset you like, it feels like something designed to give you whatever you want out of a fighting game. Not that it's leaving competitive players in the lurch, as its Drive Gauge system gives you plenty of tools to create wild combos from round start, an escape route from pressure, and an armored strike. Marry all this with a fantastic roster of new and old characters, and you have an exquisite fighting game.
Whether this is your first game or if you've been around since Street Fighter II, there are a few control schemes you can make use of to choose how you will be inputting your attacks and combos. Classic Control Type has the complex directional button inputs that long-time players will find instantly familiar. Quarter circle forward and punch to pull off Ryu's Hadouken, for example. Many of these inputs can be challenging when you're new at them, but since your special moves are tied to these inputs, that frees up more buttons for you to use light, medium, and heavy punches and kicks, as well as your Drive Impact and Drive Parry commands.
The October 2022 announcement of Silent Hill: Ascension, an interactive streaming series from Genvid Entertainment and Konami, raised some eyebrows from fans but provided little in the way of details. Today, Genvid broke its silence by not only giving us new details on the series but also a trailer.
In this series, which will unfold simultaneously across the globe, those watching can help decide the fates of Ascension's main characters. This means that as the story plays out, the audience will have a say in who survives the surely horrific story, who will be redeemed or damned by their actions, and who will suffer the almost certainly ghastly consequences. According to Genvid Entertainment, not even the developers will know the results of the story until it unfolds.
Silent Hill: Ascension features an ensemble of new characters, monsters, and locations within the Silent Hill universe. Genvid has crafted a real-time interactive system that allows viewers from around the world to decide these characters' fates within the narrative the studio has crafted. Beginning later in 2023, fans can tune in to live story moments where each day is different based on audience interactions.
Silent Hill: Ascension is set to stream later this year. If this unique concept has piqued your interest, you can check out the reveal trailer below.
HoYoverse has just released its latest gacha game, Honkai: Star Rail, and this latest space adventure has met endless comparisons to its sister gacha, Genshin Impact. After spending dozens of hours trailblazing through Honkai: Star Rail’s galaxy, I’ve experienced and combed through a huge number of different systems…
Some Shrines in Tears of the Kingdom have obvious solution. Others, well, if you’ve come across the Mayachin Shrine, which contains a giant target and a big ball that perpetually rolls down a slope, well you might still be standing there unsure what to do.
Multiple Silent Hill games are on the way, and there’s a new look at the Silent Hill: Ascension “interactive series.” The trailer notes that this will be more of an adventure line featuring multiple characters who find themselves dealing with the horrors of the town. As such, it means players’ decisions decide what happens. There’s still no exact release date, but it will appear in 2023 from Behaviour Interactive, Genvid, and Bad Robot Games.
Here’s the Silent Hill: Ascension trailer showing off the new game’s characters. It hints that like other entries, the people we’ll follow are suffering from some sort of guilt due to their actions. While these protagonists are new, it does look like some monsters reminiscent of past ones appear. For example, it looks like Silent Hill 3’s Insane Cancer might be back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP6R0bC4LYI&ab_channel=GenvidEntertainment
The Tears of the Kingdom community has discovered a new time saving trick that allows players to solve select Korok puzzles in a matter of seconds using Link’s weapon fuse ability.
Pointed out by Twitter user aquatic_ambi (below), the Korok puzzles that have Link find a missing rock to complete a pattern on the ground can be completed using a rock-fused weapon. By performing a jump attack at the location of the missing pebble using said weapon, or by otherwise positioning the rock end in the gap, the puzzle will be considered complete.
“You have done us all a great service today. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to recover from my mind getting blow by this,” said one of the many Twitter users responding to the video highlighting the trick.
so happy i never have to lift a dumb rock ever again #TearsOfTheKingdom pic.twitter.com/WqspvGq1fa
— 💙ambi☁️ (@aquatic_ambi) May 29, 2023
“Excuse me what? I swear this game just has way too many things that I haven’t discovered yet,” commented another excited player. "It counts?!," digitally shrieked another, "What the heck have I been doing”.
A Long Journey to an Uncertain End, the sci-fi narrative adventure game, finally has a release date of 28th June on PC.
What's more, it will also be released on Nintendo Switch later this year.
The game will mark the debut of studio Crispy Creative, whose founder Kylan Coats was a UI designer at Obsidian, and a team including former members of Telltale Games.
Two narrative games will arrive on Xbox Games with Gold this June.
Xbox Live Gold members will have access to both games for a limited time, beginning with Adios from 1st June to the end of the month.
The second game is The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, available from 15th June to 15th July.
Microsoft has announced the next wave of games coming to its Xbox Game Pass service.
From today, users will be able to get their hands on Chicory: A Colorful Tale (Cloud, Console, and PC) and Farworld Pioneers (Console and PC). Ed recently interviewed Chicory's composer Lena Raine, which you can read here.
Then, on 1st June, Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 (Cloud, Console, and PC), Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer (Cloud, Console, and PC) and The Big Con (Cloud, Console, and PC) will arrive.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is the next first-party PlayStation title making the jump to Steam on July 26, marking the series' first appearance on PC.
The 2021 dimension-hopping adventure served as one of the earliest showcases of the PlayStation 5’s tech (namely it’s fast-loading SSD), and the PC version sports additional bells and whistles such as:
Developer Nixxes Software is handling this PC port of the acclaimed action platformer, which sees Ratchet & Clank fighting to stop their old foe Dr. Nefarious from conquering the multiverse with the help of Ratchet's alternate universe counterpart, Rivet. In our review, we scored the game a 9 out of 10, with former editor-in-chief Andrew Reiner writing, "It’s a great continuation of the series that is just a joy to play. It steals your eye with its stunning vistas, makes you care about the characters, and is loaded to the hilt with fan service (especially in the alternate dimension and a weapon you have to assemble)."
Will you be checking out Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on Steam? Let us know in the comments!
Designing combat in a Final Fantasy game seems like a double-edged sword. On one hand, you likely want to appeal to the fans of the series, and on the other, you want to attract new players. But it’s impossible to please everyone when making big changes like developer Creative Business Unit III is doing with Final Fantasy XVI – using a real-time action combat system that couldn’t be further from the series’ classic turn-based roots.
As someone who loves the franchise’s turn-based format and its more action-forward design as of late, and as someone who’s played FFXVI for more than five hours at this point, I’m quite pleased with the combat. It’s fast-paced, action-heavy, and perhaps most importantly, fitting of this world and these characters. I especially like the singular focus on Clive, as you never control any of your party members (although you give combat-related orders to Clive’s dog companion, Torgal).
Designing this combat was the biggest challenge of FFXVI’s development, according to producer Naoki Yoshida (the same Yoshida that’s the director of Final Fantasy XIV).
Square Enix has revealed that Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai will be released this September.
More specifically, it hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC on September 28. Alongside this release date, Square Enix has released a new trailer showing off more of what to expect in this game set in the Dragon Quest universe.
Check out the new Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai trailer for yourself below:
Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai is a video game adaptation of The Adventure of Dai anime, which is based on a manga, which itself is based on the Dragon Quest game series. It is an action role-playing game that combines visuals from both the manga and anime of The Adventure of Dai, and it will feature a Story Mode and the Temple of Recollection. In the former, you'll play through a standard campaign that adapts The Adventure of Dai, while in the Temple of Recollection, you can fight through a dungeon that changes with each playthrough.
After six months, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet now have Pokémon Home support, allowing players to transfer some of their old favorite ‘mons from the storage app to the latest games. The update allows a select number of Pokémon to join your Paldea journey, but as fans have been exploring the update, they’ve discovered a…
Silent Hill Ascension, Konami’s cryptic “live, real-time interactive series” game, just got a brand new trailer. It looks tense, with nasty enemies that should provide enough nightmare fuel to last through your waiting for details on other upcoming Silent Hill projects, like the Silent Hill 2 movie and desperately…
Tetris gobbled up so much of my time during the early years of university, partly because it functioned as a quick break between writing essays. Those quick breaks soon became trances though, as my eyes stayed unblinking and my fingers snapped across the keyboard with a mind of their own. The best game of all time, some might argue. Professional procrastinators can now rejoice as there’s a new way to play the blocky puzzler: Setris, or Tetris with sand.
Developers Iron Gate have been receiving questions about Valheim mods, and “what we as a company approve of - as well as what we don’t approve of.” So the team decided to clear up their stance on mods, and most notably, their stance on paid mods which is what they’ve been asked about the most.
Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter's #screenshotsaturday tag. And every week, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. We're running late again because of Monday's holiday, but the games are still just as good. This week, my eye has been caught by big spaceships, some sort of Looney Tunes logic take on Hitman, and a game about the very real lives of the video games media. Come see!
For a certain sort of PC gaming fan, System Shock is where it all began. 30 years of immersive sim development started here, as Looking Glass escaped the restraints of the RPG genre and embraced thoughtful first-person action. SHODAN broke free, and the world was never the same. Without System Shock, there would be no Thief or Gloomwood, no Prey or Dead Space. Bioshock was conceived as its sequel. The creative figureheads behind Deus Ex and Dishonored were wrapped up in its creation, and forever changed by contact with Looking Glass and its unique philosophy.
Countless studios have used Citadel Station as a star to steer by, measuring their own work against System Shock’s commitment to simulation, dense atmosphere, and method-ish refusal to break character. This was not so much a game as an alternate reality. As one of our interviewees tells us: “We were trying to build the holodeck.”
Here’s the story of how it was made, as told by the people who made it.
Two weeks ago, the up-and-coming farmlife sim Roots Of Pacha was pulled from Steam following a rights dispute between the publisher Crytivo and developer Soda Den. The prehistoric Stardew-like has now returned to storefronts after both parties agreed to “amicably part ways under conditions that are mutually beneficial.”
Two big crossovers are coming to Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis. Sega announced in the May 30, 2023 NGS Headline that there will be Ghost in the Shell and Sonic the Hedgehog items in PSO2. Both crossovers will happen in the second half of June 2023. Sonic items arrive on June 21, 2023, while Major Motoko Kusanagi and the crew will show up on June 28, 2023.
The Sonic the Hedgehog PSO2 New Genesis event is being held in honor of his birthday. The hub will feature statues of Sonic, Tails, Amy Rose, Knuckles, and Dr. Robotnik. There will also be a Special Training: Green Hill Sprint limited quest. This is a practice drill with item drops like a Curio Holy Ray. It also offers extra quest point bonus rewards for getting rings and Chaos Emeralds. It’s designed to behave like a Sonic level. As a reminder, Sonic items often appear in the game, such as a Tails Mag Form or other customization items.
As for the Ghost in the Shell PSO2 New Genesis AC Scratch Ticket, it is based on SAC 2045. People can dress up as Motoko or Batou with its items. There are also Weapon Camo options based on the series. It also looks like there will be a Tachikoma Mag Form, as there are stamps based on characters from the series. It looks like there will be a Tachikoma characters can ride too.
Hololive announced a new Nanashi Mumei merchandise set to celebrate the Vtuber reaching 774,000 subscribers. The milestone is significant, because 774 can be read as "nanashi" in Japanese. She also announced she would be taking an approximately two-week-long break for health reasons.
The 774k subscriber celebration merchandise for Nanashi Mumei includes a porcelain mug and a hooded towel available individually or as a set. The set also includes a bonus sticker sheet. The items are available via the Hololive Store and Geekjack. The set will cost ¥4,400 JPY/$30 USD, or it is ¥2,200 JPY/$15 USD for each of the items individually. Shipping is estimated for late November-December 2023.
You can get a look at the new Hololive merchandise in the gallery below:
[gallery ids="965475,965470,965471,965472,965473,965474" link="file"]
Mumei reported having a cough for almost three months and said she will using the break to rest her vocal cords. She discussed the problem in her last stream before the break, which included pre-recorded singing sections.
You can watch the stream below:
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzgBF2XsT8k[/embed]
Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada appeared at Combo Breaker 2023. When he did, he also ended up showing his artistic skills. He drew a number of different characters, both from Tekken and other titles, then shared them online. For example, people could see “Unlucky” Chloe, Street Fighter’s Chun-Li, and KOF’s Mai Shiranui. After he did, he reminded people that he developed these skills due to starting as “a game planner and game designer.”
First, here's the picture of Chloe he drew:
Do you know what happened yesterday? Yes, the "Unlucky Chloe (Just a concept doesn't make it happen)” Trailer has leaked. It was a very unlucky day.
BTW, one of the "unlucky" TEKKEN fans who came to the Combo Breaker venue might get this original picture…I drew this 5 mins ago. pic.twitter.com/LQXPMaoAKX— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) May 28, 2023
Next, here's what Katsuhiro Harada's sketch of Chun-Li looked like:
Ok Smiling Chun-Li
I just drew this because I lost my job at Combo-Breaker. https://t.co/XHePwZUzpX pic.twitter.com/2x7QXTRMDq
Potential Street Fighter 6 PC players now have a benchmark tool to help look at system requirements. Capcom shared the free program worldwide. It's now live at the official site, with a brief download that lets someone see what to expect if they get the game at launch and play it on their current setup.
The Street Fighter 6 benchmark tool is easy to use. Once downloaded, start the program. You can then use it to automatically assess your computer. A score out of 100 will show how capable it is. A 91-100 score is ideal, but people who manage above 71 should also be able to play. Capcom also featured a 31-70 window, which could mean adjusting some settings. However, if the benchmark tool gives someone a 30 or lower, that means a person’s PC system requirements are not ready for Street Fighter 6.
As a reminder, here are the Street Fighter 6 PC system requirements from Steam.
MINIMUM:
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom players are using the game's new Ultrahand ability to create some ridiculously elaborate traps to stay one step ahead of the pesky Yiga Clan.
These sneaky baddies roam the map dressed up as normal NPCs before launching an attack on Link out of the blue. Thanks to the power of respawning, however, the player is able to get one step ahead of the undercover attacker.
Though this was also a trend in predecessor Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom players like Fareeha on Twitter (below) are using the new mechanics to essentially create death traps for the poor Yiga Clan members.
the most efficient way to deal with all those pesky yiga clan members #TearsOfTheKingdom #Zelda pic.twitter.com/yNInXOqpx0
— Fareeha (@AskFareeha) May 21, 2023
Fareeha put together a remotely detonated lava shower, triggered by a bomb when the Yiga Clan member jumps out to attack. This enclosed the NPC in a box before lava spewed down from above, making short work of the enemy (though Fareeha admitted they "spent way too long on this thing").
"I'm going to kill Ganon with a shower," they added. All's fair in love and war, of course, and the Yiga Clan definitely started this fight. Tears of the Kingdom players are also taken by the clan's obsession with Link, as their hideout holds unflattering drawings of the Hyrulian.
Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater was one of the biggest announcements from the recent PlayStation Showcase, and IGN had the chance to speak to the team behind the game to learn more about exactly what this remake is.
While the team wasn't ready to reveal everything about Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, which doesn't currently have a release date, they were ready to talk a bit about if Hideo Kojima or Yoji Shinkawa had any involvement in the project, if there will be more remakes from the Metal Gear series, and more.
One of the biggest questions many had after the announcement was whether Metal Gear Solid 3 director Hideo Kojima was involved in the project. There wasn't much hope that Kojima was going to be a part of the project, especially after his breakup with Konami, but it was a question nonetheless.
We also asked if Yoji Shinkawa was involved, as he was integral in the art of the Metal Gear Solid series and is now working with Kojima at Kojima Productions.
"They are not involved," a Konami spokesperson said. "However, the development team will work hard to create this remake and also the ports (for Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection) so that they can be enjoyed on multiple platforms by even more players all around the world."
It might not have created the genre, but fighting games wouldn’t be as important and popular as they are today without Street Fighter. This is a series that introduced the idea of combos, a six-button layout, and motion inputs for special moves. It also helped build a competitive scene for fighting games, it made the arcade scene rise in the 90s, and it revitalized the genre in the era of online play.
With each main entry, Street Fighter tried to create something new or focus in a new direction that would make other iconic fighting game franchises, such as Mortal Kombat or The King of Fighters, pay attention. However, the series surpassed its walls and became a cultural phenomenon, with its well-known roster appearing in different types of media and even games outside of the fights, like Fortnite.
In this article, you’ll find a chronology of the series if you’re interested in playing each entry from the start and following its intricate story.
Jump to:
You might've spotted some Diablo 4 reviews going live right about now, but unfortunately there won't be one from Eurogamer - yet. We've been playing the game a fair bit, but right now we're just not ready to publish a full review that meets our standards for thoroughness.
There are a few reasons for this - generally, when we hold off on publishing a review it's because either some key features aren't available for us to check out; because it's a game with a significant online component that hasn't properly been stress-tested yet; or because there's been some funny business or other awkwardness with getting access to review code in time to hit the deadline.
In Diablo 4's case it's actually a mix of all three. The in-game shop wasn't live during the period of early access we've had to the game, and while some official assets have been provided, and some promises publicly made by Blizzard about monetisation in Diablo 4, including a cosmetics-only focus and the inclusion of a more palatable 'battle pass' system, this feels like something we had to see in action as part of our review. Diablo 3 players will remember the hoo-haa about the auction house when it launched, while Blizzard's mobile take on the series, Diablo Immortal, has at times been under major scrutiny for its monetisation, so it's one we'd like to check on live servers first.