Gaming - Page 564

A bunch of new previews are out, and that means a flood of fresh Assassin's Creed Valhalla info.

The general consensus around Valhalla is that it doesn't exactly evolve the Origins or Odyssey formula, but it does add a bunch of nifty additions. The main change seems to be around RPG mechanics and exploration. There's no longer any level system, and instead Ubisoft has opted for Power, which is the sum of your three forms: Bear, Wolf, and Raven. You unlock skills in these three tiers across a huge Path of Exile-style tree made up of passives. Active abilities require players to roam the wilds and collect skill books to unlock.

Exploration is much more free-form this time, and gamers are incentivized to go hunting often. Eating food will help boost your HP and you'll always need to gather materials to upgrade your weapons, items, and generate resources for your settlements and clan. The main motivation for exploration is questing, though, and there's plenty littered throughout the game. Earlier we said Valhalla represents Ubisoft's very own Witcher 3, and that still seems to stand true, albeit the missions are less impacting.

Gamers who buy Far Cry 6 on current-gen systems get a free next-gen upgrade, Ubisoft confirms.

Ubisoft just announced Far Cry 6 as a cross-gen game, complete with optimizations on PS5 and Xbox Series X. Luckily Ubisoft isn't pulling a 2K Games and charging extra for next-gen copies. Anyone who buys the game on current-gen PS4 or Xbox One consoles gets a free copy on PS5 and Xbox Series X as well (technically there's not a separate SKU for Xbox Series X thanks to Smart Delivery).

"Fans who purchase Far Cry 6 on Xbox One or PlayStation 4 will be able to upgrade their version on a next-gen platform at no additional cost after the launch of Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5," reads a press release sent out by Ubisoft.

An ultra-rare sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. on NES is now the highest-valued game of all time.

A Wata 9.4 graded mint copy of Super Mario Bros. was just auctioned for a massive $114,000, making it the most expensive and rarest video game in the history of Heritage Auctions.

Demand for the game was pretty high. There were a whopping 6,108 bids placed on the rare collector's item. The main draw for the sealed copy was the cardboard hangtab on the back, alongside the higher 9.4 mint grade. The hangtab meant this copy was an early black box game shipped in limited quantities in 1985. Turns out there's a science to this higher-level video game collecting and this is the holy grail for black box NES games.

Devolver Digital announced a nifty-looking indie called Olija during its latest digital showcase that's worth checking out.

Indies are the life's blood of gaming and help fill out the giant spaces in between big tentpole releases. And many indies do a better job in conveying and highlighting the more nuanced and enamoring elements of gaming. New titles like Olija from Skeleton Crew Studios looks like one of those games.

Olija is a neat platformer that is kind of like Castlevania on crack. You play as Faraday, a harpoon-wielding survivor who can dish out some serious damage. The game's main hook (pun intended) centers around the harpoon mechanic, which flings you in a stylish blur across levels and right into enemies. I think Eric Lecarde would be proud of Faraday's skills.

Ubisoft's internal teams are reeling after sexual abuse, harassment, and infidelity allegations. Now some of its biggest creative forces are resigning.

Ubisoft recently confirmed that three of its lead executives are leaving the French company, and these departures will have a radical effect on its future games. These include chief creative officer Serge Hascoet, Yannis Mallat, who led Ubisoft's Canadian studios, and HR head Cecile Cornet. The news comes after multiple allegations against Hascoet and Mallat broke out, accusing both of sexual harassment and inappropriate workplace behavior. Their exploits have been detailed in French magazine Liberation.

The company might make games for a living, but it's clearly not playing around this time. Hascoet's departure speaks volumes about the company's past culture, and the future of its biggest franchises.

Kojima Productions built Death Stranding specifically for 60FPS, but had to dial things back on PS4. The PC version is the way the game was meant to be played.

In a recent interview with Digital Foundry, Kojima Productions' technical director Akio Sakamoto confirms the game was always built to run at 60FPS. Of course KojiPro had to scale things down to 30FPS on the PS4 and PS4 Pro. The PC port is the purest form of Kojima's original vision. We know Death Stranding exceeds 60FPS (more on that in our review coming soon) and is fully optimized for both AMD and NVIDIA cards, complete with DLSS 2.0 tech on RTX cards, but an interesting surprise is how the game was tweaked to run on DirectX 12.

Remember that development of the PC version started alongside the console game years ago. KojiPro used Guerrilla Games' Decima Engine to make Death Stranding, which was also used for Horizon Zero Dawn. But for the PC version, KojiPro used a DirectX 12 version of Decima. The upcoming Horizon Zero Dawn PC port will also use DX12.

UPDATE: Nintendo today announced the new NES LEGO set, and there's a buyable store page that lists a $229 price and an August 1 launch.

LEGO is making a new NES set with a "screen" that actually moves.

A new LEGO x Nintendo set has been leaked out, and this time it's centered around the classic NES. The kit has you building a mini Nintendo Entertainment System and an old-school CRT TV that actually scrolls images with a dial on the side to simulate a Mario game. As you twist the dial, Mario will move and jump across the level. It's extremely innovative and interesting, but like all LEGO sets--especially the Mario-themed ones--the NES kit will set you back a pretty penny.

Far Cry 6 pre-orders are live across multiple storefronts and platforms, but the game is missing from Steam.

Ubisoft confirms its new guerrilla-warfare shooter Far Cry 6 won't come to Steam when it launches in February 2021. "Far Cry 6 will launch on PC (through the Epic Games Store, Uplay, and UPLAY+)," Ubisoft said in a press release.

Far Cry 6 will be another Epic Games Store exclusive that skips Steam and even the Microsoft Store. The PC version of the game, which stars Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Eposito alongside a fearsome wiener dog on wheels, is available for pre-order on the Epic Store and uPlay, but is missing from both Steam and the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft has announced that Flight Simulator will be launching on August 18, and in order to make the news even better -- they've released a new 4K trailer for the game. Check it out:

Jord Neumann, the head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, explains: "We have been thrilled and humbled by the support and dedication that has fueled the Flight Sim community for the past 38 years. Since the launch of the very first Microsoft Flight Simulator in 1982, we knew it was finally the right time to develop the next-generation version of Microsoft Flight Simulator".

There will be 3 different versions of Flight Simulator released, these will include:

It looks like someone is about to lose their job at Amazon Australia, with pre-order pages going up for the PlayStation 5, its hardware and accessories, and even a bunch of PS5 games.

A user on Reddit noticed that Amazon Australia had complete pre-order pages or the PS5 console, accessories and games, but you can't pre-order anything right now. The pages are live, and that's it -- but that means we're one step closer to the PS5 pre-orders going live worldwide.

We don't know about pricing on the PlayStation 5 just yet, but we're expecting somewhere in sub $500 range. We have had rumored pricing on the PS5 at $599 and $699, but new PS5 price leaks suggest $499 for the standard PS5 and $399 for the digital PS5 -- both launching on November 20.

Death Stranding is now pre-loading to PC gamers on both Steam and the Epic Games Store, with the pre-load requiring 63GB of storage space.

There's a catch with pre-loading Death Stranding, where if you pre-purchased the game you can now pre-load before the game officially launches on the PC at 7am PST / 3pm GMT / 1pm JP on July 14.

If you've got Death Stranding pre-loaded once the launch is live, you can play it immediately. Those who didn't pre-order will be able to begin their downloads, while you can already be peeing in the game.

Death Stranding is about to release on the PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store on July 14, with the legend himself Hideo Kojima set to talk about the PC version of the game... later today.

We have Geoff Keighley's Summer Games Fest kicking off this week, with Hideo Kojima and artist Yoji Shinkawa from Kojima Productions joining Keighley today to talk about the PC version of Death Stranding -- which launches tomorrow.

We don't know what exactly will be talked about, but they have said it will be a "special conversation" about the PC version of Death Stranding. I'm keen to see what they're going to talk about, especially with the tame PC system requirements. I want to hear about the crazy high-end version of the game with high-end textures and all that, hopefully it's not all about the Half-Life side and selfies.

Flight Simulator is getting closer to official takeoff, with Microsoft to begin a public closed beta on July 30 according to the latest reports.

The announcement itself is coming directly from the latest developer blog by Microsoft, after Alpha 5 was sent out to Flight Simulator testers. It arrived with a new slew of Flight Simulator alpha invitations for previous registrants, so if you've registered for the alpha -- you might want to check your inbox.

Microsoft explains in the blog post: "We are currently scheduled to release Closed Beta on 07.30. As a reminder, if you are currently an Alpha tester, you will be automatically granted access to the Closed Beta. If you are not currently an Alpha tester, we will be sending out new invitations for Closed Beta participation".

Like its predecessors, Assassin's Creed Valhalla will have an in-game microtransaction storefront that allows gamers to purchase items.

A new gameplay trailer for Asssassin's Creed Valhalla confirms the game will be monetized in some way with an in-game store. The footage clearly shows a Store tab in the upper right-hand corner, but it didn't outline what exactly will be sold.

We should expect in-game "convenience items" like crafting materials as well as on-demand purchases of powerful weapons to be sold for Helix credits, the universal Assassin's Creed currency. Both Assassin's Creeds Odyssey and Origins had stores that sold these types of items and used the premium currency.

New Assassin's Creed Valhalla gameplay footage shows some epic new weapons including a "Viking harpoon".

The latest Viking-themed Assassin's Creed game has lots of new combat additions and weapons. One of the most surprising is what's called the Viking harpoon, which is basically like Scorpion's infamous kunai hook. Since it's 873 AD, Eivor uses a rope with a cruel hook on the end instead of a chain to yank enemies into brutal execution moves. In the latest trailer we see Eivor use the harpoon to decapitate a foe.

Gamers can now dual-wield pretty much any one-handed weapon in the game for maximum fury, including hammers, swords, shortswords, morningstars/flails and axes--you can even dual-wield shields. There's also two-handed weapons like bardiches and greatswords that make combat much more visceral, chunky, and lethal.

The latest Serious Sam 4 gameplay footage looks washed out and a little funky.

Today Devolver dropped a new trailer for Serious Sam 4, Croteam's upcoming ultra-chaotic horde-mode FPS, and it didn't look all that good. The footage is a stark contrast to the brilliant and brightly-lit screenshots on the Steam page. Gameplay looks drab, the textures seem like something from a mid-2010's game, and the bullet streamers look quite strange when you're strafing and shooting.

We're hoping this isn't indicative of the final product. Serious Sam 4 is coming out next month, so I'm curious how much time Croteam will have to polish up the experience. Remember this is technically an indie game so expectations should be kept in check, but I darsesay the original game on the OG Xbox actually looks better.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla will release on November 17, 2020, Ubisoft's Italian Instagram account accidentally revealed.

The Ubisoft leaks just won't stop coming. First Sony accidentally announced Far Cry 6 starring Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito, and now an Instagram post confirms the launch date for the new Viking-themed Assassin's Creed. The now-deleted post says Assassin's Creed Valhalla releases in mid-November, just two days before Cyberpunk 2077's launch.

We're not 100% sure if this is the final launch date or not because Ubisoft has yet to confirm anything. They're saving the announcement for tomorrow's Ubisoft Forward livestream. Here's another interesting parallel--Valhalla is said to launch alongside the Xbox Series X, so Microsoft's next-gen console could also release on November 17.

Carrion, the bloody and super-weird indie where you play as a writhing mass of disgusting otherworldly tentacles and gobble up humans, releases on July 23 on Nintendo Switch, PC, and Xbox One.

Today's Devolver Direct was filled with mayhem, hilarity, and weird indies. Games like Carrion really caught my eye. It's the type of experience that'd make horror mavens like David Cronenberg and John Carpenter proud. The basic premise is you control a horrifying alien monstrosity and find creative ways to negotiate platformer-style levels and chew on people in the process.

You can use your blood-soaked tentacles to slide through narrow passageways and even take control over NPCs to do your bidding (you can also control mechs, which is pretty awesome). It looks like an interesting puzzle type of game with a strong emphasis on gore and sci-horror. I daresay there's nothing like it on the market today.

Flying Wild Hog just dropped the first in-game footage for Shadow Warrior 3, and it looks damn good.

During the insane fever dream that was today's Devolvercast we got to see fresh gameplay footage of Lo Wang's triumphant return. The trailer shows off some brutal FPS combat with a new dragon shotgun, a badass magnum revolver complete with Clint Eastwood style quick rapid-fire, and a bunch of cybernetic yokai that get transformed into buckets of blood. There's also a weird mini-gun thing that looks like it shoots Chinese fireworks.

Oh and glory kills are confirmed, too, alongside a new double-handed hammer. The hookshot grappling hook can also be used to pull things towards you or pull switches and activate devastating traps across levels.

Sony's ambitious plans for the PlayStation 5 don't just include higher-end hardware, but also new innovations in its services framework. One of the most interesting advancements is a new feature that will allow gamers to create, edit, and share "gameplay slices" on the PS Network through its cloud infrastructure.

A new Sony patent has been making the rounds and lots of publications are reporting on it. You've probably seen headlines like "new patent will allow PS1, PS2, and PS3 games to play on PS5." The reality is that this original patent is rather old--it was filed in December 2013, a year before PlayStation Now launched, and claimed in 2012--and explicitly describes game streaming on PS Now. It's always been obvious PS Now would be supported on PS5 and that's always been a method for backward compatibility on the next-gen system. But it's the new updated portion of the patent that's most interesting, and it's the part that most websites simply didn't notice.

The update was published on June 10 and basically describes how legacy PS1, PS2, and PS3 games could support a revolutionary new gameplay sharing functionality that lets you create, edit, and share slices of your game as interactive and playable demos.