Indiana Jones and the Great Circle releases on December 9th on Xbox Series X and S, Game Pass and PC. You can grab it HERE.

We look back on the year 2024 in gaming, reviewing the year in terms of its announcements and quality of releases. We also look at the year ahead, reflect on PlayStation’s 30 years of history and Shuhei Yoshida leaving Sony.

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THIS WEEK’S TOPICS

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:11 Treat Time
• 04:55 Reviewing 2024
• 11:51 Xbox’s 2024
• 20:56 Nintendo’s 2024
• 24:54 PlayStation’s 2024
• 32:53 Looking Ahead to 2025
• 37:31 Celebrating PlayStation’s 30th Anniversary
• 45:29 Shuhei Yoshida Leaving PlayStation
• 48:59 PlayStation 30th Anniversary Themes
• 50:33 What The Wiki?!
• 01:01:05 Outro

The post Reviewing The Year 2024 In Gaming — The Press Start Podcast appeared first on Press Start.

We react to the Game Awards 2024 nominees, make some predictions, discuss the potential of the PlayStation Portable/PS Vita making a comeback and unpack Brodie’s review of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

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THIS WEEK’S TOPICS

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:16 Living with the Nintendo Alarmo
• 08:09 Our Game Awards Nominee Reactions & Predictions
• 35:28 PlayStation Handheld Rumours
• 43:10 Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl Review
• 52:07 Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 Release Date?
• 54:03 What The Wiki?!
• 01:02:16 Outro

READ THE REVIEWS

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Review-In-Progress – Zoned Out

The post Our Game Awards 2024 Predictions — The Press Start Podcast appeared first on Press Start.

We’ve been playing LEGO Horizon Adventures together and discussed our review. Brodie weighs in on Metro Awakening VR too, and we discuss the latest on Grand Theft Auto 6, a classic mode returning to Overwatch and Donkey Kong Country’s deep dive reveal.

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THIS WEEK’S TOPICS

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:29 LEGO Horizon Adventures Review
• 14:27 Metro Awakening VR Review
• 19:21 GTA 6 On Track
• 32:15 Classic Overwatch Returns
• 38:31 Donkey Kong Country Deep Dive
• 43:08 Rapid Fire Question
• 46:14 What The Wiki?!
• 50:41 Outro

READ THE ARTICLES:

• LEGO Horizon Adventures Review — The Pieces Don’t Quite Connect
• Metro Awakening VR Review — Tunnel Vision

The post Our LEGO Horizon Adventures Review Discussion — The Press Start Podcast appeared first on Press Start.

I had hoped LEGO Horizon Adventures would be a reimagining of the now-classic Horizon Zero Dawn with universal appeal. Having grown up with Traveller’s Tales’ LEGO games, I couldn’t be more excited to relive Aloy’s origin story with the charm and whimsy of a LEGO recreation. While Pixar films or Bluey do a great job of entertaining the kids while conscious of the parent in the room, LEGO Horizon Adventures struggles to find the depth that would keep even the uninitiated interested.

No doubt, much of what would have made LEGO Horizon Adventures special rests on the LEGO brick presentation style. The game looks exceptional. Even playing in Performance Mode, the rebuilt post-apocalyptic environment looks incredible in LEGO form. Environmental artists have had a field day adding extra details that don’t go unappreciated; little LEGO skeletons dotted amongst rusted ruined buildings brought a smile to my face. The lighting is also gorgeous, contributing greatly to an impressive presentation that feels more reminiscent of LEGO Builder’s Journey than LEGO Star Wars.

Poking about the nooks and crannies of each level, however, I was left disappointed by a lack of interactivity. It’s hard not to compare LEGO Horizon Adventures to the other PlayStation-exclusive platforming title released this year, ASTRO BOT, which rewarded you for hitting almost everything. Thinking back to past LEGO-based games, I’m accustomed to whacking and breaking almost every little thing. Bar identifiable barrels, there was little to break to collect those studs, the in-game currency.

With no hidden collectibles or easter eggs to be found, it feels like a missed opportunity. Chests containing studs and powerups are never far from the beaten path. Nor are little LEGO builds, which often feel like the same object repeated, with no indication there’s a certain amount to be discovered in the level. Occasionally, some straightforward environmental puzzle-solving is required, mostly with fire or explosive barrels to break through a wall.

The creative creature design, adapting Horizon Zero Dawn’s many memorable robotic dinosaurs into LEGO form is another strength. They have all been given the same quality, LEGO treatment as the Tallneck set that adorns the shelving in my gaming room. Each new enemy encounter comes with the thrill of seeing how they’ve been recreated in LEGO.

The enemy design also emulates the approach taken by the source material. Like the two Horizon games in the series thus far, combat revolves around hitting weak spots on the machine. Each has its weak spots, with enemies like the Shell-Walker proving more of a challenge with a shield to navigate and two clasps keeping a large weak point at bay.

It’s a combat system that worked well in the original games, darting your way about the level to work an angle on the machine. However, its simplified translation into isometric LEGO form requires the player just point the stick in the general direction with your arrow or spear automatically targeting it.

Playing as Aloy or Varl, you get the option of these two ranged attacks, with the other characters Erend and Teersa having a hammer and bombs respectively. The latter two proved effective if less precise and I gravitated towards Aloy and Erend the most.

Adding more variety are the rare weapons and gadgets you can collect throughout levels. Pickups add elemental damage to your chosen weapon, and in the case of Aloy add scattershot or multiple notched arrows for extra damage. Gadgets get a bit more creative, my favourite being a deployable hotdog truck where the vendor tosses explosives in the general direction of enemies. These pickups have limited uses, but bring some welcome variety to the otherwise monotonous combat.

Sadly, the game’s combat never amounts to much. Granted, LEGO games have never been known for their complex combat mechanics, but still, I was left wanting more. Aloy’s spear never appears for close-quarter combat, whereas past LEGO games have dynamically altered the basic attack based on your proximity to an opponent. That and limiting a dodge/dash mechanic to a consumable pickup seems a misstep, particularly when some of the larger bosses have large area-of-effect attacks that ask more of the player.

Stealth is present somewhat. As you do in the core Horizon games, hiding in long grass makes you invisible to enemies, although there are no stealth takedowns or overrides; an upgrade available later in the game rewards some extra damage from a hiding spot but that’s it.

THE CHEAPEST PRICE: $99 WITH FREE SHIPPING

To make it more approachable to the youngest gamers, I fear Guerilla Games and Studio Gobo have gone too far and lost much of what makes Horizon’s gameplay enjoyable.

That said, the story is decently executed. Elements of what is admittedly a complicated narrative get glossed over as you would perhaps expect given the target audience, but they have done a commendable job distilling it down to its basics whilst doing the original plot justice. Clearly, emphasis was placed on the character arcs of Aloy — and to a lesser extent the supporting characters — making sure to highlight the key themes most important to young newcomers.

The humour synonymous with the LEGO brand is on full display too, with Rost adopting the role of the narrator with a bunch of self-referential jokes that just about bow out before just becoming overdone. Ashly Burch also pivots to a more family-friendly tone commendably, with fun quips injected throughout.

LEGO’s sense of humour translates into the customisation central to the game. Of course, you can change Aloy’s attire (and that of the other characters too) into any number of daft outfits including spacesuits, chicken costumes and Ninjago gis. Customisation extends to different buildings you add to Mother’s Heart, the Nora Village which serves as the overworld where you upgrade your abilities and start challenges.

Upgrades don’t feel terribly consequential. There are two options: upgrades that increase the powers of all characters, and those tied to each character that can be progressed up to level 20. Each new character level increases their damage or health, whilst the overall upgrades increase the amount of XP earned from various takedowns, the damage done whilst hiding or the duration of elemental effects, for example.

Besides levelling up all the characters, completionists ought to seek out all the Gold and Red bricks they can to unlock all the customisations. Gold Bricks are earned by completing Story Mission and Community Challenges — which range from elemental takedowns to exploring a Cauldron in a spacesuit — and Red Bricks are rewarded for completing the Alpha Machine Hunts.

Story Missions blur together but are divided into different subsections within four chapters, each set in a unique biome. Tallnecks and Claudrons are to be found on alternate paths within these levels, which make for a welcome break in pace. The Story wraps up in several hours, with the Alpha Machine Hunts rounding the game out to what I believe is around a 10-12-hour game.

Alpha Machine Hunts become available after completing a chapter, with more unlocked for that region after progressing the story further. Here the challenge steps up, even on the middle difficulty of the five available. Should you want a serious challenge, there is one should you want to make the grind for all the costumes more arduous. Beyond that, the Platinum seems achievable, but little else would entice me to keep playing.

As expected, playing the game co-operatively online or locally makes it more engaging. The co-op play works well; an online friend can join your story back at Mother’s Heart. Locally, another player can drop in any time you like. Your companion will assume the role of one of the remaining three other characters, at whichever level you have progressed them so far, with all progress tied to your save.

The post LEGO Horizon Adventures Review — The Pieces Don’t Quite Connect appeared first on Press Start.

We’ve spent a week with the PlayStation 5 Pro and share our review. We also reviewed Slitterhead and Mario & Luigi: Brotherhood, reacting to the closure of Firewalk Studios, and dissecting Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s huge launch.

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THIS WEEK’S TOPICS

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:32 Firewalk Studios Closed
• 10:26 PS5 Pro Review
• 21:14 Slitterhead Review
• 30:01 Mario & Luigi: Brotherhood Review
• 36:13 Dragon Age: The Veilguards BioWare’s Biggest Steam Launch
• 39:08 Scream in Mortal Kombat 1
• 39:57 What The Wiki?!
• 45:30 Outro

MORE PS5 PRO COVERAGE:

• Our PS5 Pro Review
• The PS5 Pro Comes With 1.9TB Of Usable Storage
• The PS5 Pro Has An Exclusive Background
• No Man’s Sky Now Runs At 8K On The PS5 Pro
• Star Wars Outlaws Has One Single PS5 Pro Graphics Mode That Is The Best Of Both Worlds
• The PS5 Slim Faceplates Don’t Fit The PS5 Pro But It Seems To Be For Good Reason
• The PS5 Pro Blends The Best Parts Of The OG PS5 And The PS5 Slim Design

The post Our PlayStation 5 Pro Review Discussion — The Press Start Podcast appeared first on Press Start.

2024 keeps delivering! We discuss our Dragon Age: The Veilguard review and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 review. Brodie has also played Indiana Jones And The Great Circle and shares his gameplay preview, including combat and puzzle solving.

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THIS WEEK’S TOPICS

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:23 Dragon Age: The Veilguard Review Discussion
• 17:33 Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Review Discussion
• 26:44 Indiana Jones At The Great Circle Hands-On Preview
• 37:39 What Games Are We Making Time For?
• 41:23 PlayStation Stars Changes
• 42:40 What The Wiki?!
• 48:21 Outro

The post Our Dragon Age: The Veilguard Review — The Press Start Podcast appeared first on Press Start.

Nintendo is currently conducting a playtest and one brave participant leaked the details. The game sounds like a world-building sim not too different from something like Minecraft. We discuss the unannounced game, Fear the Spotlight, the Xbox Partner Showcase, the lack of Spider-Man 2 DLC and Shannon’s preview of LEGO Horizon Adventures.

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THIS WEEK’S TOPICS

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:40 Fear the Spotlight Review
• 06:03 Nintendo’s New Minecraft-Like Game
• 14:12 Xbox Partner Showcase
• 23:57 No Spider-Man 2 Story DLC
• 28:52 LEGO Horizon Adventures Preview
• 32:54 PlayStation Welcome Hub Launches In Australia
• 35:23 What The Wiki?!
• 42:29 Outro

The post Nintendo Is Making A Minecraft Style Game?! — The Press Start Podcast appeared first on Press Start.

Not-so-fresh from PAX Australia, the gang discuss the week’s worth of gaming news including retailers cancelling PlayStation 30th anniversary orders, going hands-on with Avowed, the Nintendo Alarmo reveal, our Neva and Super Mario Party Jamboree review discussion, the Game Freak leaks, Steam making changes and more!

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THIS WEEK’S TOPICS

• 00:51 PlayStation 30th Anniversary Cancellations
• 02:56 PAX Australia Review
• 08:51 Avowed Preview
• 12:30 Nintendo Alarmo Reactions
• 16:12 Neva Review Discussion
• 22:25 Super Mario Party Jamboree Review Discussion
• 28:50 You Don’t Own Your Steam Library
• 34:54 Steam Deck Australia Launch
• 40:54 Pokemon Leaks
• 48:29 Xbox Partner Preview Predictions
• 56:22 Nintendo Switch Online Updates
• 59:02 What The Wiki?!

The post Our Neva And Super Mario Party Jamboree Review Discussion — The Press Start Podcast appeared first on Press Start.

343 Industries has rebranded to Halo Studios and revealed an engine change: switching to Unreal 5. We unpack what this might mean for the future of Halo and discuss our Metaphor ReFantazio review, Ubisoft’s turmoil, more upcoming Assassin’s Creed games, Alien: Isolation 2 entering development, and the God of War trilogy potentially getting remade.

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THIS WEEK’S TOPICS

00:00 Intro
01:16 Metaphor ReFantazio Review
13:43 Ubisoft News: AC Shadows Delay and Acquisition
29:03 More Upcoming Assassin’s Creed Game
33:03 Alien: Isolation 2 Announced
38:37 What’s Next For Halo?
49:17 God of War Trilogy Remake
51:45 What The Wiki?!
59:44 Outro

The post Halo Will Never Be The Same Again — The Press Start Podcast appeared first on Press Start.

The much anticipated Silent Hill 2 remake is out and James loved it! Here’s our Silent Hill 2 Remake reviews discussion, Shannon’s time so far with Until Dawn and our debrief on the chaos of the PlayStation 30th Anniversary pre-orders.

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THIS WEEK’S TOPICS

00:00 Intro
02:36 Silent Hill 2 Remake Review
17:46 Until Dawn First Impressions
23:34 PlayStation 30th Anniversary Pre-Order Chaos
35:23 Avatar: The Last Airbender New Game
36:36 What The Wiki?!
40:02 Outro

The post Our Silent Hill 2 Remake Review Discussion — The Press Start Podcast appeared first on Press Start.

The 30th Anniversary PlayStation collection and PS5 Pro launch is upon us. Still, there’s stacks more news to discuss this week including our review of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom review, our PlayStation State of Play reactions, endless PlayStation remasters/remakes, the Palworld devs getting sued by Nintendo, and our first look at the Nintendo Switch 2!

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THIS WEEK’S TOPICS

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:50 PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection
• 05:43 The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review
• 16:17 PlayStation State of Play Reactions
• 28:18 PlayStation Remasters: When Will They Stop?
• 33:39 Nintendo Sue Palworld Devs
• 38:29 Nintendo Switch 2 Pictures Leaks
• 44:35 Rocksteady Making Another Batman Game
• 47:10 What The Wiki?!
• 53:21 Outro

The post Our The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review & PlayStation State of Play Reactions — The Press Start Podcast appeared first on Press Start.

At this morning’s PlayStation State of Play, Remedy Entertainment revealed the first trailer for Alan Wake II’s upcoming DLC, The Lake House. It is the second and final content update coming to the survival horror title, our Game of the Year last year.

Coming out in October, The Lake House looks to be a more substantive update than the DLC released earlier in the year, expanding more on The Bureau’s presence at Cauldron Lake. Sadly, there’s no specific date as of yet although it’s safe to assume it’ll coincide with the physical release of the game on October 22nd.

Following Agent Estevez, played by Janina Gavankaras, The Lake House sees players investigating the mysterious titular research facility where a pretty grizzly scene awaits, with more Overlap shenanigans keeping her on her toes.

Here’s the official tease from the PlayStation Blog earlier this year:

The Lake House, the second and final expansion to Alan Wake 2, tells the story of a mysterious government facility on the shores of Cauldron Lake, and the time the secret research conducted there went terribly, terribly wrong. Look forward to the Lake House expansion later this year!

Watch the trailer below!

The post Alan Wake II Looks Scarier Than Ever In New Trailer For The Lake House DLC appeared first on Press Start.

Favourable or not, a review is unlikely to change the present discourse around Concord. It may already be too late for the ambitious, PVP first-person shooter — and the debut release from the new PlayStation first-party studio, Firewalk Studios. The internet seems to have already made up its mind.

Concord, as a reminder, is the Guardians of the Galaxy-esque hero shooter first announced at a PlayStation showcase last year. It’s the latest iteration of PlayStation’s live-service push, albeit with an emphasis on narrative with weekly story vignettes. A beta for the game occurred some weeks ago and was met with a middling reception.

Several factors might explain the poor reception. The announcement received backlash for leading with the narrative elements before revealing it was a hero shooter. An understandable scepticism surrounds PlayStation’s much-critiqued shift in strategy towards live-service titles. The $60 price tag attached to the multiplayer-only title stands in stark contrast to the free-to-play model adopted by many of Concord’s competitors.

It’s a shame. Concord is a nicely presented, well-designed and surprisingly unique competitive hero shooter. The decisions holding the game back seem more strategic blunders than the fault of the developers. Speaking to them recently, they tow the party line whilst speaking ever so passionately about the game and world they’ve built.

They should be proud, as any developer should. Spending the majority of the weekend playing the game, I find myself writing this eager to play more even with its shortcomings.

Concord’s design is a unique twist on the hero shooter genre. Rather than pointing players towards a single character — and ‘maining’ said character — you are actively encouraged to flick between a few mid-match.

THE CHEAPEST PRICE: $49 WITH FREE SHIPPING FROM AMAZON

Different classes of character (or Freegunners, as they’re called) award Crew Bonuses, awarding perks to each you select thereafter. Play as Emari and get increased healing. Then play as Lennox, you’ll keep increased healing and add improved weapon range. Switch to IT-Z and get both bonuses, plus improved mobility. Every character is enjoyable to play and a meaningful addition to a crew.

Assembling a crew and putting a plan into action is immensely rewarding. I often started a match as Roka picking up some quick elims whilst getting a mobility buff, before switching to Haymar and improving my range. That allowed me to play Emari without as significant a penalty to her mobility as a tank, and better range on the minigun.

When it all comes together, combat is super rewarding and produces some tense, competitive matches. Each character’s loadout is varied but equally versatile, the gunplay is tight, the dodge makes for handy last-minute getaways, and the mad dash to a health pickup creates some tense cat-and-mouse moments. Certain the moment-to-moment gameplay is the game’s strong suit.

Been playing a tonne of Concord this weekend and enjoying it thoroughly! Here’s a tidy 7 elimination streak playing as Lennox ?? pic.twitter.com/EDcn96eaHl

— Ewan Roxburgh (@Ewan_Roxburgh) August 25, 2024

For now, the game has six modes grouped into three playlists: Takedown (team deathmatch), Trophy Hunt (kill confirmed), Area Control (domination), Signal Hunt (hardpoint), and the no-respawn modes Cargo Hunt (search and destroy) and Clash Point (king of the hill).

Plotting out which characters you’ll select in different phases of the match, across different modes, adds an interesting layer of strategy that makes the game deeper than it appears at face value. The team at Firewalk are right to compare it to a trading card game in terms of planning out late-game plays by carefully selecting the cards (or characters) you play first.

Frustratingly, the game does a poor job of explaining this mechanic. Those without the attention span to look beyond a Freegunner’s loadout and abilities might miss one of the more interesting elements of the game.

The added tutorial section to the game post-beta doesn’t do enough to explain it but a welcome addition to the game to onboard new players. Concord seems rather approachable for newcomers to the hero shooter genre.

For now, however, the game feels light on content. Granted it’s only the first week, but over a couple of evenings I completed my weekly, seasonal and variant challenges, leaving me with little consequential to progress until the weekly reset.

Of course, you could continue ranking up your Freegunners and your overall Reputation level, but often there’s not much of a carrot being tangled.

Progression feels a little unrewarding. None of the skins or other customisations you could unlock excited me. Even if they did, how you unlock any particular item is not explained. You can only ever see your next unlock and must wait until you complete that to see what’s next.

Uninteresting unlocks seem to be a consequence of character design that prioritises recognisable silhouettes over player expression. Granted, it works well on the battlefield; at a glance, you can see who’s coming at you and adjust your approach accordingly. Comparing it to another hero shooter though, Apex Legends did such a great job of offering interesting character and weapons customisations without confusing.

Concord lacks a little personality. An effort is no doubt made but like an over-enthusiastic guy at a party trying a little too hard to be your friend. There’s a heavy-handedness to the delivery that irks me. Given that you can skip straight past them, I expect these vignettes to do something rather special to earn the view.

An introductory cutscene and the first week’s vignette favour Lennox over the others. It’s early days sure, but there is little to showcase the characters out of the box. The rest of them have a single throwaway voice line repeated upon selecting them in a match and touches of dialogue in-game. The only one I can say is particularly memorable is Roka chanting “Roka, Roka, Roka” after running up a streak.

What the game lacks in charisma, however, it makes up for in art direction. I adore the 70s sci-fi aesthetic; the maps, characters and weapons are all distinctive but fit together. It carries over to the UI and sound design too. Bar a couple of hiccups in the framerate and menus sometimes not loading, it’s a smooth experience with the level of polish you would expect from a first-party release.

PlayStation has been eager to promote the world of Concord in the marketing of this new IP. I hope Firewalk Studios gets the opportunity to explore it further, but for now, it’s not terribly impactful. Presently it feels like a missed opportunity to set up each match with little than some text suggesting “a rival crew is challenging you.”

I’m eager to see more weekly vignettes, for however long Firewalk can justify doing so. Hopefully, surprising stories emerge.

Outside of the vignettes, Concord’s lore is relegated to flavour text and the Galactic Guide. There are some interesting concepts tied up in this. The

Tempest at the far left side of the map is an unexplained phenomenon seemingly gobbling up and distorting parts of the galaxy. Gloom, one of my favourite maps in the game, has an asteroid in the centre that the Galactic Guide reveals was the focus of religious studies by an ancient species that once occupied the planet.

There’s interesting lore embedded in here that may influence how the game shapes and evolves. I foresee a day when The Tempest swallows up sections of the galaxy in an event akin to Fortnite’s major map resets.

Will a community be there to bear witness to these events? Concord wouldn’t be the first live-service game to turn things around should it pull it off, but the odds are stacked against it at this point.

Much has been said about Concord’s pricing. Truthfully, I can rationalise the $60 price tag: all that purchase Concord gets its 6 modes, 12 maps, 16 characters and unlocks, wrapped up in a premium, AAA package. If three-quarters of the unlocks were tied to a Battle Pass, I have little doubt there would be a negative reaction to that too.

It doesn’t differ all that much from Helldivers II where the first Warbond was included in the same $60 price. Given the opportunity, I’m sure Concord will introduce more paid elements too.

What I can’t rationalise regarding the price is the lack of competitive analysis. Going up against the likes of Overwatch, Marvel Rivals and Apex Legends — to name a few — fans of the genre are accustomed to the free-to-play model.

Saw someone do this in Concord and wanted to give it a go myself ? pic.twitter.com/9TuEkOuVGW

— Ewan Roxburgh (@Ewan_Roxburgh) August 26, 2024

Without hype or an overwhelmingly positive word of mouth, it’s hard to imagine many giving the game the time of day. Adding Concord to the Game Catalogue reserved for PlayStation Extra and Premium subscribers seems like a no-brainer to me.

Content brings community, and a community brings content. It’s an almost chicken-and-the-egg scenario, or at least a delicate balancing act.

For a live-service game, I feel like the game lacks a little staying power. The core gameplay is engaging and is the reason I’m coming back for now, but I struggle to see what keeps me coming back long-term if not more modes, ranked lobbies and must-have unlocks.

From there, the full extent of Firewalk Studio’s ambitious vision can come alive.

The post Concord Review – Time To Change Course appeared first on Press Start.

Today, Firewalk Studios releases Concord – an ambitious PlayStation first-party multiplayer hero shooter. A new IP on debut, Concord represents another string in the bow of PlayStation’s live-service push, contending with the same scepticism faced by those before it.

Yesterday I interviewed the team at Firewalk Studios, checking their temperature mere hours ahead of release. There’s an understandable sense of nervousness and excitement.

I ask how they’re feeling with Concord, the culmination of years of hard work, soon out there in the world.

“Terri-fident,” jokes Jon Weisnewski, the Lead Character Designer on the game. “Confident and terrified,” he elaborates upon being asked how they’re feeling with the launch upon them.

Claude Jerome, Firewalk’s Lead Gameplay Designer, agrees. He adds, “It didn’t feel real to me until I sat down to play with real humans at home on my couch with my little snacks, playing against people doing strategies we’ve never seen before.”

I was eager to hear more about the feedback they’d received from players, particularly during the Beta period where it felt initial interest waned. I was pleased to hear about several quality-of-life improvements.

“We have little things like join in progress and leaver’s penalty,” began Claude, “[and] we added the firing range, practice and solo experience.” Those are welcome additions; it’s challenging exploring a character’s abilities in the throes of a match.

Thank you to everyone that took part in the #ConcordBeta!

Before you officially board the Northstar next month, we wanted to answer some of your most common questions during the beta! pic.twitter.com/b9VFb2FGXn

— Concord (@PlayConcord) July 24, 2024

However, I feel it doesn’t address some of the key concerns surrounding the game, notably how it stands out in contrast to Overwatch or this year’s Marvel Rivals.

It’s nearly impossible to talk about the game without drawing parallels to other properties — Guardians of the Galaxy being another from a character and narrative perspective. I was eager to hear more about its unique selling point from the minds of those crafting it.

“The cool thing about this game to me is that there’s so many layers,” says Kim Kreines, the Director of IP at Firewalk. Kim references her love of trading card games and her past experience working with Magic the Gathering.

She identifies the moment in which she unlocked Concord’s ‘Crew Builder’ as being the moment she “started to realise what these brilliant game designers had setup,” nodding towards Claude opposite.

The ‘Crew Builder’ allows you to assemble an assortment of the game’s 16 ‘Freegunners’ — and any unlocked variants of a character — for you to select in a match. Concord actively encourages you to switch characters between respawns to build up buffs (called ‘Crew Bonuses’) that are carried from one character to another cycling through your crew.

There is a similarity to trading card games I hadn’t appreciated until now: like Magic the Gathering, sometimes a late game clutch requires you to play the right cards first.

“I can see where I fit into my team,” continues Kim, “at the same time I’m strategising about my own personal gameplay, I’m also strategising about my team’s gameplay and balancing that out.”

She continues with an example of this in action. “I play as Daw so I can plant a dome and get my healing pad out for my team, but before I play Daw I know I have to get the crew bonus that gives me a faster reload.”

Keeping each match dynamic leaves me astonished the game is balanced. Interestingly, I’m informed that wasn’t entirely a concern.

“I’ll be frank, we didn’t set out to keep them balanced,” admits Jon about the game’s cast of characters. “I think a big part of Concord’s identity is leaning into the asymmetry… we just wanted to find interesting player personalities, interesting collections of like, a loadout, like a weapon and some abilities that felt like an identity.”

The world of Concord at this point factors in. “What’s their personality type,” Jon says they queried upon blueprinting these characters. “Who’s the human or the alien or the robot that embodies that combat style,” they would then ponder according to Jon.

“Once we built them up and we had these strong identities, then it was like ‘okay, this character is definitely too strong,’ so we’re gonna bring that down,” laughs Jon. A little bit of balancing is still necessary in the end.

The characters are central to the experience, as you’d expect in a hero shooter. But the vignettes are a little different to what we’ve seen previously, particularly in that they’re released weekly. I wondered what the logistical challenge would be.

“We’re really lucky to have an awesome production crew on the vignettes,” says Kim, dodging the question a little.

“The thing I’m most excited to do with this IP is it all comes of gameplay: all of our stories, all our characters — all of everything.”

“The vignettes you’ll notice tend to focus around what is happening in the game, what the player experience would be, the characters and worlds you’re seeing,” explains Kim.

Of course game development is an incredibly collaborative effort, but at this point, I’m impressed at how the work of Kim, Jon and Claude combines in terms of character, combat and story. It’s an ambitious and no doubt costly exercise, but I hope Concord’s longevity is such that we get to see it play out.

Indeed the different playstyles of the characters, and the motivation to switch between them, are interesting design elements to me (that I praised in my impressions of the Beta). However, I’m still apprehensive about the game’s ability to pull people away from the competition, and ultimately build the community it needs to enjoy a long life as a live-service game.

“A big thing for us is that we knew from the beginning that we want the player experience to feel very complete,” explains Kim adding, “and the experience they have from season to season, as they grow with us, to feel like we’re all on this journey together.”

The same rationale explains Concord’s pricing strategy. Whilst the free-to-play model is common in the genre, Firewalk Studios and PlayStation are charging $60 for the game here in Australia.

“At launch, everyone’s got everything,” highlights Kim, “all 12 maps, all 16 characters.”

Claude elaborates, adding, “There’s lots of different shapes and ways these games can be put together and when we looked at our game, we looked at all the options; the viability of bouncing between characters, the depth of the variance, the maps, the modes, all the different things that make that core experience.”

“We just felt like they were all necessary.”

“There’s no way we can sort of see those things not exist in tandem with each other,” noted Claude.

I have no issue with the price for entry. I would rather that then the piecemeal alternative Claude describes in which the player base is fragmented.

That said, a player base is needed first before you can fear it becoming fragmented. It’s a difficult balancing act offering people a quality experience that commands their attention, at a price they’re willing to pay. I don’t envy the hard task Firewalk Studios has embarked on.

Prying people away from games can be tough. Communities can be ironed on having invested considerable time and money in the game of their choosing.

“I think it always comes back down to these deep, asymmetric characters with gameplay that makes you feel like you’re truly embodying the character,” suggests Claude. With all the characters available at launch, he teases, “We can push the meta in interesting ways without having to wait for other characters to come out — there’s all these different things we can do with that strategy layer.”

Jon picks up on the shifting meta of the game over time, saying the systems they’ve designed “with the long view in mind.”

“These are systems that are capable and ready to withstand a whole bunch of new injections of new characters, variants, maps, modes — every injection of content that we’re going to be offering in this game… that I think will be really exciting long term.”

I was curious too how far ahead they’re working given new seasonal content has been teased to April of next year already.

“Really far ahead actually,” laughs Kim.

“Sometimes uncomfortably far ahead,” says Claude with a smile.

“I say that because we also want to leave room to adapt to what players are finding value in and what they’re finding they want to attach to.”

“We want to pay attention to that and we want to grow this with the community,” promises Claude.

“We’re working on even Season Four content right now,” Kim interjects. “We have so much that we’re excited to unveil both from a storytelling perspective and a gameplay perspective,” she adds, referencing the Season One content dropping much sooner in October.

As they all tease, the launch is supposedly just the beginning for Concord. But first impressions matter. Concord’s story may be defined by its first day.

Based on my conversation with Kim, Jon and Claude at least, I hope to see the full extent of their vision realised.

There’s a promise of more surprises to come and we’ve seen games gain momentum over time, but Concord’s fate ultimately rests in the hands of the community it can galvanise.

The game’s now available to all, so it will be an interesting one to watch.

Stay tuned for our own thoughts coming soon.

The post Firewalk Studios Is Terrified But Confident About The Launch Of New IP Concord appeared first on Press Start.

Concord’s first beta weekend has now wrapped. The hero shooter is the first from new PlayStation first-party studio Firewalk and was being testing by those that have pre-ordered the game or subscribed to PlayStation Plus ahead of its release next month. Although doubtful it would resonate, I’ve come away seriously impressed by PlayStation’s latest foray in their much-critiqued live service strategy.

Of course Concord comes hot off the heels of the blockbuster success that was Helldivers 2, I like many other curious players dove in to see if the PlayStation could start a streak of addictive multiplayer titles. Trepidatiously, I fired up the game, but several hours later left pleasantly surprised to find Concord building upon the hero shooter genre with tight mechanics and an interesting cast of characters.

At face value, Concord appears a mere amalgamation of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Destiny’s Crucible, Overwatch and Valorant. I’d argue instead it cherry picks the best aspects of these games, creating something that feels bigger than the sum of its parts. The floaty shooter mechanics characteristic of Destiny lend themselves well to the map design and introduce verticality to each gunfight. Many of the heroes — or “Freegunners” as they’re labelled in Concord — have familiar perks and abilities to Valorant, demanding frequent use of them to control the battlefield with a time-to-kill nearer to Overwatch.

I thoroughly enjoyed the several hours I spent over the course of the weekend with the game. Ducking in and out of hot zones to heal in a moment of reprieve creates tense one-on-ones whilst open central locations lead to frantic team-against-team clashes. Coordination with your team is essential; lone wolves will get mopped up comfortably with rare exception.

Unlike other games in the genre, in which you typically “main” a single character, the game rewards actively changing up your hero. Playing as a character in a match then applies its perk to any other character you later select. Start as Jabari with reduced recoil and that same perk will carry over to each other Freegunner you later chose in the same match. Likewise, then play as a character that reloads upon dodging, and that perk will also be added to any and all future picks. It’s a neat system that rewards switching up your character and experimenting with different combinations.

Given the game encourages you to cycle through characters, the head-to-heads are always changing, affecting your strategy as a team. Adjusting for what your opponents do and which portion of the map attracts the most fighting factors into your decision making. In one match, a Roka (the airborne, rocket launcher-wielding Freegunner) racked up 24 of the 30 required kills in a match, yet we pivoted and still clutched a win fending them off with the shield-carrying Emari.

You quickly unlock the ability to customise your crew of 12, assembling a different roster with variants of the same character should you have collected them. Lennox was the first character for whom I unlocked a variant, with different perks on each. I could play as Lennox twice in one match, but still add different perks to my pool for the duration of the game. It’s a system not well explained by the game, which is devoid of any playable tutorials at this stage.

The hero characters themselves are all quite unique, with the typical range of offensive, defensive and healer archetypes. There’s 16 in total, an almost overwhelming amount at first. You get your head around them reasonably quickly, but a training area to experiment, or at least a reminder of their abilities on the pause screen, would be a welcome addition. As too would be an in-game scoreboard, although it was a little refreshing not to be worrying to much about my stats mid-match.

Playing through your crew in the one match keeps each game feeling fresh despite the limited maps and modes available in the beta. In the beta there’s just a playlist of team deathmatch and kill confirmed (or Trophy Hunt as they call it), and another with search and destroy and hardpoint-style modes. The later two offer no respawns, and prevent you from selecting the same character again having won a round, making for some competitive games.

The maps themselves are again very emblematic of the kind you would encounter in Destiny’s Crucible or Overwatch and Valorant, with a variety of different sci-fi stylings giving each a unique look. They each have different focal points, but otherwise maintain a consistent three-lane design with plenty of flanking opportunities. There’s often a little verticality involved too, all heightening the need to work as a team covering all angles. Opponents can be quickly dispatched with a coordinated pincer movement flanking both sides.

My gripes with the game come mostly down to the spawns as they currently exist, and the movement of some of the characters. Sticking with your team is vital, which is difficult if you’re killed and spawn on the opposite end of the map from your allies. As a tank, you move incredibly slowly, making you an easy target to get picked off if you teammates are wiped at the wrong time and leave you exposed. Some adjustments to spawn and movement speed of the tanks wouldn’t go amiss.

Otherwise, the balance feels pretty solid right now. Whilst I’ve encountered Roka absolutely dominating a match, my squad managed to counter and contain them on numerous occasions. I’ve heard others complain about other characters which might actually indicate the balance is pretty reasonable. It would look to me that, played right, each Freegunner can be useful.

Performance wise, the game is also pretty slick. Environments were sufficiently detailed and visual effects popped, all without any slowdown in the 60 FPS managed on the PlayStation 5. There was a handful of connection hiccups, my friends list refused to load, and some button presses on menus seemingly refused to register, but that’s all very forgivable in a beta assuming its fixed up by launch.

I’m eager to see at launch how the world of the game is expanded upon. Perhaps even more ambitious than the likes of Overwatch and Apex Legends, the team at Firewalk has committed to weekly cutscenes expanding the story of the game. The two cutscenes present in the game look stunning and are well written, borrowing heavily from the tone of Guardians of the Galaxy, but didn’t do enough to grab me at this stage. Humour and set pieces may add some appeal in the short term, but the sooner we see some drama and character development injected into the narrative of the game, the more compelling it will be.

Disappointingly, there’s nothing setting up each match embedding it into the world other than text indicating you’re up against a rival crew. The same cutscene played on repeat loading into a match would get tedious I know, but I felt it was a missed opportunity to ground each session in the world.

The beta also didn’t give much sense of progression with a level cap at level 14. XP is awarded for completing daily and weekly missions, with some bigger event style challenges tied to more consequential rewards like character variants. Cosmetic unlocks are not tied necessarily to the characters you play as, making it perhaps quite a grind to get different skins and accessories for your favourites. It a common formula, but no less annoying.

All said and done, at this stage I’m left to wonder if I would recommend Concord at a $60 It’s hard to tell purely from the content available in the beta, but I’m optimistic I could come launch. More modes, deeper progression, a fleshed out story, adjustment of the spawns, tweaks to character mobility and a final polish all appear achievable. The game’s not far off the mark, and the end result would be a polished, feature rich experience worth the price and deserving of my time.

As for who I might recommend it to, Concord ought to have broad appeal. The game feels much more approachable for those that have dabbled in hero shooters but grew intimidated by the complexity of the meta. The core mechanics of hero shooters are still present, but cycling through characters makes for a changed pace I think most would enjoy. It’s well-rounded, nicely polished, with a generous assortment of unique but balanced characters.

But I’ve been here before. Of late, both The Finals and XDefiant absorbed a decent amount of my time before they were sidelined in favour for the latest hotness. There’s a step up in quality I think Concord brings in comparison to those two games, but only time will tell if it has a stickiness that surpasses them. We will have to wait to see but for the meantime, sign me up for more.

The post Concord Beta Impressions – A Hero Shooter For All appeared first on Press Start.

Anger Foot isn’t a game for everyone. It’s weird, crude and chaotic, not in the slightest bit shy of being silly. But nor should it be. Doubling down on the weird is what makes Anger Foot wonderful. The game is at its best when it leans into the outlandishness, delivering one of the year’s most unique, adrenaline-inducing experiences.

Free Lives, the South African indie developers behind the game are, of course, no strangers to the absurd. They’re a perfect partner for publisher Devolver Digital, having previously collaborated on games like Genital Jousting and Broforce. The insanity they channel into their games is evident in the title. If not Anger Foot, what else would you call a game in which kicking goons with a gnarly green foot is the primary mode of combat?

In case you’ve somehow forgotten the trailers from Devolver Directs of yore, I’ll try to describe it as best as I can. Anger Foot is a fast-paced, first person shooter following a balaclava-wearing protagonist in violent pursuit of his prized sneaker collection. With the unique ability of a lethal leg kick, you must navigate each of the game’s 63 levels in the fastest time possible to unlock new sneakers that imbue your feet with different enhancements.

It’s a formula that doesn’t overstay its welcome. Hurrying through, the game can likely be played through in a matter of hours. Levels are knocked over in mere minutes, but the stars awarded for completing the bonus challenges will draw you back in for a redo. Whether it be posting a faster time or dispatching members of the Debauchery Gang differently, these harder tasks suck you in for more playtime.

Some of the levels are surprisingly grueling. Death comes quickly; give an enemy the opportunity and you’ll swiftly have to restart the level. Much like other games of its type, there’s an element of puzzle solving required to navigate each level and survive the various enemies awaiting you with an assorted arsenal of ranged and melee weaponry. If you’re not careful, a pistol-wielding gangster might stumble out of a toilet cubicle with their pants down and start blasting. Learning which enemies to knock off first, which exploding barrel could be kicked to knock out a crowd, and which guns are best to steal is essential for swiftly sweeping through a level.

The bosses serve as refreshing changes in pace with multiple phases creating narrow windows of opportunity to land a kick, but aren’t particularly formidable. Instead, tougher armoured and shield-carrying enemies gradually up the intensity as you progress, with the real challenge arising when countless enemies fill a room to the point performance would occasionally stutter.

The powerups granted by the new shoes warrant the extra time spent perfecting a level. Some introduce quirks to the gameplay that contribute to the often hilarious situations the game thrusts you in. Others offer new ways to approach a level that dramatically change how you navigate the course. Certain sneakers will have you circling back to prior levels suddenly feeling better equipped. It all adds to replayability, but I was grateful you don’t need to perfect every level to unlock all that are on offer.

No doubt the design will sound familiar to fans of Hotline Miami and Neon White. I’m certain that fans of those games will find a ton of enjoyment within the game’s addictive loop, even if a handful of shortcomings holds it back from standing alongside them.

Anger Foot’s titular kicking mechanic has a slight delay to it that makes the game feel less sharp than the likes of Hotline Miami or Ghostrunner, two games I love for their snappiness. I quickly adjusted, but it makes the feet a little less powerful then they deserve. Often I gravitated towards the guns scattered about the levels in lieu of my kicking apparatus.

Levels also tend to blur together, not switching up level design or enemy variety at the pace required. Right from the opening level of each added area, I was expecting to be confronted by something new. Anger Foot flirts with increased verticality and platforming, but doesn’t come close to rivalling the likes of Neon White. The various gangs don’t feel appropriately distinct either, with the same enemies reappearing across the four different gangs you encounter. When I would suddenly encounter a new enemy type halfway through a new set of levels, it felt mistimed, like a missed opportunity to treat the introduction of each new gang and accompanying missions with a whole new look and feel.

Anger Foot’s presentation otherwise very much suits the tone of the game, with a rough-around-the-edges, cartoony style reminiscent of Squanch Games’ work. The character models all have an appropriately backwards look to them that complements the dystopian, drug-addled world. The rather industrial techno soundtrack wasn’t quite to my taste, but was always fitting as bullets ricocheted off explosive fuel tanks.

The post Anger Foot Review – Fast And Furious appeared first on Press Start.

Nervous. That’s how I felt ahead of my Forspoken preview. A couple of delays and an awkwardly-narrated trailer had me worried. However, having played Forspoken’s opening chapters and exploring the fantasy open world of Athia, I left wishing I could magic parkour back later for more.

I perhaps needn’t have worried. Yes, Forspoken is Luminous Production’s debut, but they have a fantastic pedigree. Much of the team worked on Final Fantasy XV. Attached are Amy Hennig and Gary Whitta, two writers I revere for their respective work on Uncharted and Rogue One.

A proudly narrative-focussed game, I was pleased to see the influence of these respected writers apparent within the first few hours of Forspoken.

It is well-trod ground: a wise-cracking, anachronistic heroine begrudgingly embarks on a quest to save a realm into which she’s inadvertently stumbled. Likewise, ‘the Break’ — a blight infecting Athia and blamed for all the destruction — is very reminiscent of other vague-but-destructive video game phenomena, ala the ‘Corruption’ Aloy combats in Horizon Zero Dawn.

The Cheapest Pre-Order: $79.99 at Amazon with free shipping

That aside, I immediately took a liking to Forspoken’s heroine, Frey. Ella Balinska’s performance won me over where the trailers had not. Be it cheeky one-liners or some of the early emotional story beats, Balinska does the heavy lifting.

I didn’t warm to the supporting characters quite the same as they offered up exposition and side quests. Of course, whilst Hennig and Whitta chalked up the overarching story beats, they didn’t necessarily script every line of dialogue.

I start my preview in Athia and get introduced to Cuff: a sentient bangle affixed to Frey’s wrist. Seemingly the source of much of her magical ability, Cuff is voiced by the English actor Jonathan Cake and is oddly affluent if one-dimensional in the opening chapters. He seems more Destiny’s Ghosts than Halo’s Cortana.

Venturing off into the open world, Frey discovers her newfound powers and starts to take a liking to this beautiful yet troubled world. As did I; the combat is really where Forspoken shines.

Starting light on spells, within the first couple of hours of Forspoken I’d acquired quite the magical arsenal. Already bouncing between different spell combos, I struggle to comprehend wielding the nearly one hundred spells in the final game.

By the time I arrived at my first boss fight, I was getting the hang of things, using the magic parkour to traverse combat arenas and dodge attacks whilst slinging spells back at the enemy. It’s fast and flashy and full of Final Fantasy flare.

Timing things right and using the environment to your advantage, the combat also revolves around switching up your attacks depending on the situation. At range, switching to a quick-fire blast dealt damage from a distance. Up close, slower, higher-damage attacks were effective. A shield you can then shoot off like a shotgun, and support spells like one that spawned a flower-like turret were ace for crowd control.

It’s addictive too. It was quite the thrill evading fireballs and getting close enough to the boss to slap them with a tendril and leech HP. Having bumped the difficulty up a little higher than recommended given my lack of levelling, it took me a few goes but I was engrossed. At the end of my session, I was eager to play more.

I was pleased to discover a substantial amount to uncover in the open world of Forspoken. Keeping the more Goldilocks-like open-world fans pleased, there seemed a fine balance of things to do without being too dense. Designed with the traversal abilities in mind, a treasure chest, challenging enemy encounters, or something meatier like the Lock Labyrinths or the Combat Challenges, are often within sight. It would appear there’s always something on the horizon inviting you to go check out.

Darting about the dangerous open world of a Break-afflicted Athia — as Frey so colloquially describes the supernatural corruption plaguing the realm — there are plenty of hints at the parkour potential. Zipping about takes a bit of getting used to, particularly in more cramped corners, but it makes for some effortless exploration. In combat, it creates incredibly graceful-looking ducking and weaving, with the Luminous Engine’s trademark VFX producing some very watchable fights.

Flicking through the different graphics settings, I settled on the performance mode on my PS5. Although I could — upon close inspection — observe the fidelity hit, it made for much more fluidity to the parkour and combat.

Where concern started to creep back in was with the breaks in the pace that would often occur in Forspoken’s opening moments. There’s a bit of a staccato nature to Forspoken at first; as you get to grips with the combat, cutscenes regularly interrupt to advance the story.

Just as it threatens to drag, not long after persisting through an awkward stealth sequence, you’re thankfully handed the reins. Setting off into the open world is where Forspoken truly hits its stride.

I didn’t experience the sort of impactful storytelling that might win awards, nor an open-world design that redefines what we know, but Forspoken has a lot to love. Seemingly, it has all the hallmarks of a JRPG blended with those of a Western open-world action-adventure game, establishing a new IP dense with lore. Whether it be the charismatic protagonist, addictive combat or fluid parkour, I think those eager to play Forspoken will find something they enjoy.

Forspoken launches on January 24th 2023 for PS5 and PC. Press Start travelled to London upon the invitation of Square Enix to attend the preview. 

Amazon currently has the game at a pre-order price of $84.99 with free shipping.

The post Forspoken Preview – A Promising New IP Carried By Its Spellcasting Combat appeared first on Press Start.

Having gone hands-on to preview the early chapters of Forspoken, I was invited to sit down with some of the team from Luminous Productions to discuss the game. With me was Takeshi Aramaki, Head Of Studio & Forspoken Director, Takefumi Terada, Forspoken’s Co-Director, and Raio Mitsuno, Forspoken’s Creative Producer.

What I’d played in the morning had reassured me that I, like my colleagues who’d previously demoed the game, would enjoy it upon release, despite delays and an awkwardly narrated trailer leaving me worried.

Of course, I still had some pressing questions to ask…

I want to start with the most important question first, if I may. And that is – can you pet the cats? I’ve come across two and couldn’t pet either of them?

Takeshi Aramaki: You can. For the cats, we started first and foremost with the sort of scenario in the story setting where Frey is a character who loves cats. 

But we know there are a lot of players out there who love cats as well. So we’ve put lots of little things in for them to enjoy as well. And you’ll be able to find some of those kinds of features out in the open world. So we hope that you’ll explore and discover lots of those.

The Cheapest Pre-Order: $79.99 at Amazon with free shipping

Amazing, I’m glad. The last time you spoke to a colleague of mine at Press Start, you mentioned a few things the delays have enabled you to complete. How are you now feeling about the polish of the game, and its imminent release?

Raio Mitsuno: So we’re pre-master. Obviously, the games coming out on January 24th. So we’re very close to it. We’re still going through the final tweaks and polishes. But I think we’re at a state where we’re very comfortable. And we’re happy with what we’ve been able to do.

And I know fans have been waiting for a little bit longer than we were initially hoping that we’d have to wait, but we’re very happy with where we’re at. And yeah, we’re just going to keep on going until that final date.

Was there anything strategic to the release window? I sense there was an effort made to avoid coming out alongside any kind of existing properties being it’s a new IP?

TA: So the delay from October to January was actually decided in conversation with other titles and games in terms of our lineup. So that one was less about sort of the polishing time and more sort of about that conversation with that release schedule.

As much as I love open-world games they can often be hard to fill with things to do. What have you added to ensure there’s always something to occupy the player in the open world?

Takefumi Terada: Obviously we’ve looked into many different kinds of open-world games on our side as well, researching titles like GTA, Ghosts of Tsushima, and Spider-Man, but really what we think of as the defining characteristic of the open world of Forspoken is the magic parkour. 

So we really used the element of that as the basis for creating Athia, whether that’s the speed of the fast pace of movement, or the height of which Frey can jump. That was really the concept we wanted to hone in on – the world being a playground to experience magic parkour. 

And those capabilities were what informed us on sort of the density of content and the placement, and generally a whole scale of the world.

I’ve only got a taste of the side quests so far, but I take it there are a fair few of them. Are there tangible benefits to completing those other quests? Are there spells you won’t unlock unless you get the XP that’s available in those side quests?

TT: So what we’re really focusing on for the side quests is the experience of interacting with the NPCs and the other characters living within Cipal, and learning more about their story.

The main story is Frey’s adventure of course, and this was something you know that we’ve relied on the scenario written by the team outside of Japan for. 

On the other side of things, for the side quests we really wanted to focus on the world around her; a world that’s on the brink of destruction. And the NPCs living in the world – what they’re struggling with, the friendship that evolves there and developing the world.

And there aren’t any spells that I would say you can’t get unless you compete side quests. There’ll be enough points out there for you to unlock that by exploring the world. 

But in the same way, you can grow through side quests. So depending on the player, some people may want to put more focus on exploration. Some people may want to put more focus on becoming stronger through interactions with NPCs.

I came across one dialogue choice. Are those prevalent and do they impact a relationship with the characters at all?

TT: The story of Forspoken is the story of Frey’s adventure. So your dialogue choices aren’t going to dramatically alter the course of her journey, but they will alter the reaction of the NPC that you’re talking to. They might give you different information, they might respond to stuff very differently. So we hope that people will take care when choosing their responses and that it will maybe allow them to see a different side to some of the characters.

Another criticism I’ve levelled at a couple of open-world games in the last year is that they can be slow-paced at the start, and maybe take a while to get going. How do you engage the player early in the game, and make sure there’s enough early progression?

TT: I think one of the defining elements of Forspoken is the story where the character shifts from the modern real world — after a certain incident — into a fantasy world. And obviously, if someone from modern-day times and our current world, found themselves transported into a fantasy world, you’d have a lot of questions like: What is this world? What’s going on? Why am I here? 

And so I think that you can really create a lot of surprising situations for that character, whether that’s battling with monsters or just whatever they encounter. So we did keep in mind, the fact that we wanted to create lots of things to sort of keep the player engaged.

Open-world games often scare off time-poor players as well, but Forspoken promises to be a narrative-focused game. How long do you expect it’ll take players to see out the story?

TT: Since it is an open-world, obviously the amount of play time can really wildly differ depending on how the individual player approaches it and how they, you know, play through the game. But if you were to sort of solely focus on the story, I think you’d be looking at 20 to 30 hours.

And upon completing the game, is there a New Game+ mode? If you wanted to go back into the world and continue exploring, could you do that?

RM: Frey’s journey doesn’t end at the end of the game; it continues on and she’s still trying to figure out how to save the world and all that stuff. So after you know you clear the main story, there’s still gameplay. 

There’s no new game plus, but yeah, there’s still more to do so if you haven’t explored every crevice of the world you’re still able to.

You can make sure you go back and pet the cats?

RM: And pet the cats!

Be it the Locked Labrinyths or the Combat Challenges, there looks like some parts of the game where some assistance from a friend would be a welcome opportunity. Was there ever a discussion, at least early on, to add any co-operative elements or have any life service elements to the game?

TA: This is a single-player experience from the very beginning. And at its core, this is a story about Frey’s journey and her experience. So having co-op or multiplayer, it’s something that might dilute that somewhat, but hearing your thoughts on that just now is very interesting. Something I’ll have to go away and think about.

I don’t want to throw a spanner in the works last minute.

[laughs]

Lastly, in launching a new IP and creating this amazing world — I can see the lore that you’ve put in there — what do you hope for the future of Forspoken? Is there more of Athia you want to explore?

TA: At the moment actually, we’re also working on DLC that will sort of delve a bit more deeper into some of the aspects as well, alongside the main game of course. 

But we have created this new world of Athia, and we really want to sort of treasure that world, it’s really important to us. So if an opportunity presents itself in the future, there’s still a lot we’d like to explore.

And we’d like to put more cats in it.

Forspoken launches on January 24th 2023 for PS5 and PC. Press Start travelled to London upon the invitation of Square Enix to attend the preview.

Amazon currently has the game at a pre-order price of $84.99 with free shipping.

The post Forspoken Interview – Combatting Open-World Fatigue And Petting Cats appeared first on Press Start.

It’s easy to get attached to premium features. For that reason, I typically daily drive SteelSeries’ top-of-the-range Arctis Nova Pro Wireless; creature comforts like hot-swapping batteries and simultaneous 2.4GHz and Bluetooth audio are luxuries to which I’ve grown accustomed. However, a headset priced near that of a next-generation console is not for everyone and in the process of completing my SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3 review, the lightweight wired headset has become my go-to recommendation for a mid-tier headset.

It was the next in SteelSeries’ new lineup to catch my eye. At a lower price — retailing shy of $200 here in Australia — the lightweight wired headset has a few perks its big brother does not.

For starters, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3 offers broader compatibility thanks to its simple setup. A single USB-C connection supports almost anything, with included cables also offering connection to 3.5mm jacks and USB-A ports. Plug-and-play connectivity between my PlayStation, PC, iPad and Samsung phone is convenient, even at the expense of wireless connectivity. If you lack the patience for what can be a more complex setup with a wireless adapter or DAC, you might prefer the Nova 3.

On PC and Mac, the SteelSeries GG software allows you to change mic settings, and EQs, and customise the subtle RGB ring that encircles each ear cup. A feature unique to the Nova 3, the RGB can be turned on/off with a single switch on the side of the right earcup. Besides being stylish — and very Gamer — I used this function to signal to colleagues when I was on a call in the office. It’s a nice touch for gamers that have to pretend to be professional sometimes. 

THE CHEAPEST PRICE: $166 FROM AMAZON 

It adopts a similar design aesthetic and is equally as comfortable as a more premium model. With the ComfrotMAX System — a strap suspending the headband above your head — and a lighter-weight construction, it’s a headset that suits all-day use. Despite an overall cheaper feel and fabric memory foam earcups rather than synthetic leather, the Nova 3’s build quality is solid. I’m confident it would serve you well over years of rigorous gaming should you not hurl it across the room having lost a game of FIFA.  

And as I now expect from all SteelSeries headsets, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3 sounds fantastic. Games, music, and media all sound brilliant, even if they might lack a little oomph in the lower end. A volume wheel on the side allows you to fine-tune volume with onboard controls next to a mute button for the high-quality, retractable mic. It supports 360° spatial audio and PlayStation’s 3D audio, so if you want to hear directional footsteps in Call of Duty or scare yourself silly in Resident Evil, you’re good to go.

If you’re in the market for a wired headset that sounds excellent and is well-made and comfortable, it’d be hard to look past the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3. Surprisingly, I got some use out of the RGB, but I could take it or leave it. USB-C connectivity, however, is a huge bonus; the lack of frills translates to a no-fuss, lightweight, versatile headset that’s a great deal under $200. 

The post SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3 Review – A Comfortable And Versatile Wired Headset appeared first on Press Start.

A PS5 price increase is effective immediately in Australia and other markets around the world due to the “global economic environment” PlayStation has confirmed in an official blog post.

Prices are bumping up about $50 for both the disc drive and digital versions of the PlayStation 5.

THE NEW PS5 PRICE IN AUSTRALIA

• PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – Now $799.95 AUD
• PS5 Digital Edition – Now $649.95 AUD

PlayStation has put the price increase down to “high global inflation rates, as well as adverse currency trends, impacting consumers and creating pressure on many industries” admitting it was a “difficult decision” to make.

The price increase is effective immediately, meaning it is already too late to get one at the cheaper price unless you already have one on order. Obviously, this is not the news to hear if you’ve been unable to get one already, or have been saving and are already impacted by the increasing cost of living.

The only real positive to come out of this is that they’ve reaffirmed their commitment to increasing the supply of PlayStation 5s. The blog post continues by saying, “our top priority continues to be improving the PS5 supply situation so that as many players as possible can experience everything that PS5 offers and what’s still to come.”

It doesn’t look like we’ll see any PS5 deals after this price increase, but keep an eye out for our bargain guides to help you save where you can.

We’re sadly not the only market to be receiving the price increase either. Europe, the UK, Japan, China, Mexico and Canada are all getting a PS5 price increase. The full list of impacted markets are below:

• Europe
  • PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – €549.99
  • PS5 Digital Edition – €449.99

• UK
  • PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – £479.99
  • PS5 Digital Edition – £389.99

• Japan (effective Sept. 15, 2022)
  • PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – ¥60,478 yen (including tax)
  • PS5 Digital Edition – ¥49,478 yen (including tax)

• China
  • PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – ¥4,299 yuan
  • PS5 Digital Edition – ¥3,499 yuan

• Australia
  • PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – AUD $799.95
  • PS5 Digital Edition – AUD $649.95

• Mexico
  • PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – MXN $14,999
  • PS5 Digital Edition – MXN $12,499

• Canada
  • PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – CAD $649.99
  • PS5 Digital Edition – CAD $519.99

The post The PS5 Just Got A Price Increase In Australia appeared first on Press Start.

TCL has surprised me with its C835 Mini LED TV. Alongside the likes of Samsung, Sony and LG, I’d always associated TCL with more reserved, budget-friendly specifications and quality. However, with features that felt prohibitively expensive just a couple of years ago, the TCL Mini LED C835 ushers in next-gen TV tech with a favourable price tag, giving other major manufacturers a run for their money.

The Cheapest TCL C835 Mini LED TV Prices: 55″ – $1,595 / 65″ – $2,395 / 75″ – $3,195

The Display

Rattling off the specs makes for impressive reading: a Quantum Dot Mini LED display, full array local dimming, a 144Hz refresh rate, HDMI 2.1 ports, VRR and ALLM support, ONKYO speakers with an in-built subwoofer, support for Dolby Vision IQ, Dolby Atmos and IMAX Enhanced content, and Google TV. 

But it’s first and foremost the display where the TCL C835 Mini LED shines. 

And ‘shines’ is right; this thing is bright! The 4K Quantum Dot Mini LED screen works wonders for brightness and colours in both well-lit and dim environments, so much so that I needed to crank the brightness way down with the lights off.

Firing up IMAX Enhanced content such as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on Disney+ looks incredible once you navigate through the picture settings to disable motion smoothing. HDR10+ and Dolby Vision certification, which settings that automatically adjust to the displayed content, ensure you’re getting the best picture without messing around with options too much. The glossy finish is a touch reflective but allows the colours to pop.  

Full array local dimming with hundreds of zones results in decent blacks that aren’t OLED-level inky but more than sufficient for a fantastic movie-watching experience. If you’re concerned about burn-in or an OLED holding up in a sun-soaked living space, a screen such as this would be worth considering.

Gaming Features

Of course, the gaming experience on the TCL C835 Mini LED is excellent.

The Quantum Dot Mini LED tech and HDR mean colour-rich games such as Horizon Forbidden West look stunning. Full array local dimming also ups the scare factor of horror games like The Quarry. The contrast looked amazing and greatly improved the experience compared to the similarly priced gaming monitor on which I’d previously been playing the game.

Support of 4K 120 frames per second gaming, with automatic low latency support (ALLM) and a variable refresh rate (VRR), mean your not skimping out on all the next-gen features of your latest console via one of the two included HDMI 2.1 ports. 144Hz is possible through one of the ports with HDMI 2.1 compatibly gaming PC too

TCL’s game bar allows you to tweak some settings on the fly, display a stat bar and access an in-built aiming aid that adds crosshairs to your screen. However, I largely left the gaming settings alone; messing with the picture settings and disabling ALLM resulted in too big an increase in response time it immediately had me switching back. 

The Design

Whilst the specs of the TCL C835 Mini LED feel premium, it’s perhaps the design of the TV where the comparatively low price point is a bit more noticeable.

Alongside the competition, the C835 is a touch on the thicker side. Although the bezel is nice and thin, if you’re looking for something to wall mount and sit flush against the wall, this likely isn’t a candidate. Resting it on an entertainment unit is no problem; the included stand is nice and minimal, but mine, unfortunately, came with a couple of dints and the white rubber feet that are visible from the front otherwise break the clean metallic grey finish.

The in-built ONKYO speaker system complete with subwoofer is commendable for this price point — and will get you buy should you be putting off a soundbar purchase — but paled in comparison to the entry-level hi-fi system I coupled with the screen. 

My only other complaint with regard to the design is the location of the ports which are mostly all aligned on the right edge of the screen whilst facing it. The power connector is the only exception, stretching to the opposite side of the screen. Althought they’re easy enough to stretch across the back and route down through the stand, doing so means you lose a good half a metre or so of cable length.

Streaming & Smart Capabilities

Google TV makes for a solid experience navigating the TCL C835 Mini LED’s menus. Content and settings are easily accessible, even if it wasn’t always clear looking through the options what picture settings the automatic adjustments to displayed content were locking off and altering.

Although it shouldn’t come as a shock given how well it handles the picture, I was also pleasantly surprised by how decent the processor was for the price. Scrolling through the menus feels snappy and apps open and load content sharply.

I was a big fan of the remote control too. Devoid of any motion tracking or any gimmicks like that, the simple remote includes all the keys you need, including dedicated streaming buttons for Netflix, Stan, Prime Video, Disney+ and YouTube. The only hindrance is the button for the TCL Channel I never touched.

Setup was effortless, and connecting the TV to my Google Home was easy. Support for Alexa and Apple HomeKit is also a welcome addition. Almost all the apps I required game pre-installed, but thanks to the broad compatibility Google TV offers, everything else you may need is only a button press or two away. 

The post TCL C835 Mini LED TV Review – All You Need Without Breaking The Budget appeared first on Press Start.

All of this morning’s announcements at the Xbox + Bethesda Games Showcase come with the added excitement that most of the newly announced games will come at no added cost to Xbox Game Pass subscribers. 

More than 30 games shown during the event are being added to Xbox’s subscription service, some of the 100+ teased to be coming in the next year.

Every Xbox Game Pass Game Announced During The Xbox + Bethesda Showcase That Is Releasing In The Next 12 Months

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (Console, Cloud, PC) 2022
• Ara: History Untold (PC) 2023
• Ark 2 (Console, Cloud, PC) 2023
• As Dusk Falls (Console, Cloud, PC) July 19th 2022
• Atomic Heart (Console, Cloud, PC) 2022
• Cocoon (Console, Cloud, PC) 2023
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (Consoles, Cloud, PC) 2023
• Ereban: Shadow Legacy (Console, Cloud, PC) 2023
• Fallout 76: The Pitt (Console, PC) September
• Flintlock: The Seige of Dawn (Console, Cloud, PC) Early 2023
• Forza Horizon 5 Hot Wheels DLC (Console, Cloud, PC) July 19th 2022
• Forza Motorsport (Console, Cloud, PC) Autumn 2023
• Gunfire Reborn (Console, Cloud, PC) October 2022
• Grounded (Console, Cloud, PC) September 2022
• Halo Infinite: Season 3 (Console, Cloud, PC) 2022
• Hello Neighbour 2 (Console, Cloud, PC) 2022
• High On Life (Console, Cloud, PC) October 2022
• Hollow Knight Silksong (Console, Cloud, PC) TBD
• Lightyear Frontier (Console, Cloud, PC) Spring 2023
• Microsoft Flight Simulator: 40th Anniversary Edition (Console, Cloud, PC) November 2022
• Minecraft Legends (Console, Cloud, PC) 2023
• Naraka Bladepoint (Console, Cloud, PC) Jun 23rd 2022
• Party Animals (Console, Cloud, PC) 2022
• Pentiment (Console, Cloud, PC) November 2022
• Person 3 Portable (Console, Cloud, PC) 2023
• Persona 4 Golden (Console, Cloud, PC) 2023
• Persona 5 Royale (Console, Cloud, PC) October 2nd 2022
• Ravenlock (Console, Cloud, PC) 2023
• Redfall (Console, Cloud, PC) 2023
• Replaced (Console, Cloud, PC) 2023
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 (Console, Cloud, PC) 2023
• Starfield (Console, Cloud, PC) 2023
• Scorn (Console, Cloud, PC) October 21st 2022
• Sea of Theives: Season 7 (Consoles, Cloud, PC) July 21st 2022
• Slime Rancher 2 (Console, Cloud, PC) 2022
• Sommerville (Console, Cloud, PC) 2022
• The Last Case of Benedict Fox (Console, Cloud, PC) Spring 2023
• Valheim (Console, Cloud, PC) 2022
• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (Console, Cloud, PC) 2022
• Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (Console, Cloud, PC) Early 2023

Riot are also partnering with Xbox to “level up all Game Pass members’ experience with some legendary PC and mobile games.” The in-game content unlocks for members include: 

• League of Legends [All Champions Unlocked] (PC)
• League of Legends Wild Rift [All Champions Unlocked] (Mobile)
• Valorant [All Agents Unlocked] (PC, Mobile)
• Legends of Runterra [Foundations Set Unlocked] (PC, Mobile)
• Teamfight Tactics (Select Little Legends Unlocked] (PC)

Overwatch 2 also received a new trailer and confirmation of an October 4th release date. It’s going free-to-play, so will also be available to Xbox and PC players. 

EB Games Has A Decent Xbox Series S Bundle Deal With Some Epic Console Trade Deals To Boot

The post Every Xbox Game Pass Game Announced During The Xbox + Bethesda Showcase Releasing In The Next 12 Months appeared first on Press Start.

Critiquing each annual entry into the Call of Duty franchise is getting increasingly difficult. A victim of its own success, each release treads treacherous ground; whilst fatigued fans want something new, millions more are content with it staying the same. 

The task, therefore, falls to Sledgehammer to iterate on a near twenty-year-old formula whilst introducing new modes and mechanics that millions of players won’t openly reject. It’s a challenging balance act that I’m sure factored into Vanguard’s strangely turbulent development cycle.

And iterating on what Call of Duty diehards know and love, Vanguard stands up alongside some of the series’ best. Whether it be a bombastic, action-flick inspired campaign, endlessly addictive multiplayer or now-staple zombies mode, the game feels like comfort food. However, I remain doubtful that the game’s new and updated modes will do enough to win over anyone that needed convinced.

A couple of the game’s new additions come the way of multiplayer. Notably, there are two new modes: Patrol and Champions Hill. 

Patrol riffs on the Hardpoint mode, asking two opposing teams to hold and control a single zone that gradually moves about the map. Rather than jumping from point to point, it’s continually crawling about the map, moving the fight about the place. It’s a solid addition to the lineup and one that’s earned a permanent spot in my preferred list of modes. Using the new match filtering options, I kept Patrol on rotation throughout my first weekend with Vanguard.

The new filters are rather useful. Allowing you to tailor your experience, Vanguard adds the option to set your preferred pacing of the game. For a more traditional, tactical experience, you can specify a preference of 6v6, whilst the ‘Assault’ and ‘Blitz’ options allow for up to 24 and 48 players respectively. Of course, it’s never so clean-cut and depends on maps and modes, but greater preferential control is very much welcome.

The other new mode is Champions Hill. Somewhere between round-based matches reminiscent of Counter-Strike or Valorant and a battle royale, the mode pitches teams of 2 or 3 against each other. In a short match on a close-quarters, Gunfight-esque map, you’ll fight one opposing team and eat away at a limited pool of lives.

Survive the match with some lives left, you’ll progress to another game against another team, continuing to whittle away at their respawns as they chip away at yours. Collect currency each match to buy extra lives and upgrades at ‘buy rounds’ between matches. Eventually, only two teams remain with the last one standing crowned champion.

It’s a decent mode that results in some tense fights — and is indicative of a tilt towards an esports space dominated by other first-person shooters — but I can’t see it pulling people away from the core multiplayer experience, or Warzone which has taken on a life of its own outside of each annual release.

Of course, that is largely because the multiplayer experience is as rock-solid as we’ve come to expect from recent releases. With customisation and progression abound — and one of the more impressive lineups of maps I can recall in a Call of Duty game of late — the same addictive gameplay lives on.

With each release, the balance feels more refined too. A wide palette of weaponry seems perfectly viable; no one weapon seems dominant. Drop-shotting is seemingly non-existent, killstreaks don’t rain death from the sky, and spawn points aren’t easily pinned down. Of course, experience may vary, but in my time playing the game as a somewhat average Call of Duty player, the things that usually frustrated me seemed sparse.

Of course, you shouldn’t spend all your time with Vanguard in multiplayer; skipping the campaign would be a shame. Opening with a train heist in the pouring rain on the outskirts of Hamburg, the story starts with a bang. Impossibly detailed, spectacularly lit and running a smooth 120Hz, it feels like next-gen Call of Duty has arrived.

Following a handpicked bunch of Allied soldiers, the story sets a similar tone to Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds; you play as some of the German’s most feared adversaries out to seek revenge. With unique abilities that alter gameplay, I had a ball getting to know each specialist. It’s a shame these abilities don’t translate in any substantial way to multiplayer.

The Russian sniper, Polina, is among the best of these characters. With an ability to move quicker crouched she move through levels that have clearly received more design work, she stalks enemies through combat arenas.  I’d gladly take a standalone Polina game. With two standout missions before you meet other characters, I reckon it was obvious to the devs too that they were onto a winner. 

As an Aussie outlet, I’d be amiss not to mention the campaign’s rather faithful portrayal of a couple of Aussie larrikins, right down to the quote, “we’re not here to f*** spiders.” Although it’s starting to feel like an unfairly crass representation of Australians, I did take offence at a British superior remarking, “typical Aussie: no loyalty, no honour.”

Shout out to the Melbourne-based arm of Sledgehammer, who I’m sure had a major role in making Lucas Riggs a somewhat likable rogue.

Ultimately the campaign is short but sweet, taking me roughly three hours to play through, if that. Indeed, it doesn’t overstay its welcome and serves as a neat introduction to everything else the game has to offer now, and into the future as more content is drip-fed to players. You’d be forgiven if the formula is feeling a little tired and uninspired, but the game is enough mindless fun I keep coming back for more.

All that leaves left to mention is the ‘zombies’ mode, which I’ll say is a pleasantly more simple package this time around. Featuring just the one map at launch, you spawn in and explore a hub-world encircled with portals. 

Go through a portal and you’re transported to another location where you must complete a certain task. It might be to survive a period of time, kill zombies and load runes they drop into crystals, or escort a glowing yellow orb to a certain location, with each challenge you complete rewarding hearts you can trade for perks.

Completing challenges allows you to level up your perks and weapons and increase your odds at surviving longer until you eventually exfil, in an almost roguelike, run-based fashion. 

But that’s about all there is to it at the moment. It does feel like a victim of the games rockier development. In continuing the Dark Aether saga that started in Cold War, I’d have hoped there was more to it at launch, but no doubt more will come over time.

And that’s just it. Vanguard will continue to evolve and expand over the course of the next year, but at the moment it amounts to ‘just another’ solid entry into the Call of Duty franchise. If you still love Call of Duty, you’ll no doubt play and enjoy this game. You’re probably already doing so.

If you’re on the fence, however, I’m not sure if I could convince you to give it another shot. Yes, aspects of the multiplayer that’d infuriate me have been stripped back, and yes, the campaign is a fun next-gen experience, but I cannot, with confidence, tell you Vanguard could win you back.

THE PS5 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW.

The post Call of Duty Vanguard Review – Sticking With What Works appeared first on Press Start.

Experience The Power of Audio with EPOS. The EPOS B20 microphone is a studio broadcast streaming microphone with a hassle free design that makes it perfect for podcasting, streaming or just chatting with friends. You can find out more about the EPOS B20 HERE.

Thinking of starting a podcast or getting into live streaming? They’ve never been so popular. It’s awesome to see so many fellow gamers getting creative, recording weird and wonderful shows of their own.

Making a podcast has never been so easy. Chances are just some minor tweaks and upgrades can turn your workplace or gaming setup at home into a broadcast-quality audio studio.

To make your podcasting or live streaming dreams a reality, we’ve prepared this handy guide for getting started with the help of gaming audio experts EPOS.

Once you’ve nailed the audio basics, you’re then able to use the EPOS Gaming Suite in order to fine tune both what’s going into your microphone, but also have great control over what’s coming through your headphones. Here’s what you’ll need to get started. 

Microphone And Audio

First and foremost, your podcast or stream has to sound good. It’s one of the most important elements of your podcast/stream and will instantly upgrade the quality of your content from amateur to professional.

EPOS’s brand new B20 Streaming Microphone is a fantastic example of a high-quality microphone. Besides looking the part, it sounds the part, with top-notch audio quality at an affordable price point. It’s also a USB mic, so plugs straight into your computer without the need for a complicated and costly audio mixer. But, with its integrated audio control knobs, you can still adjust audio settings on the fly.

Even if you don’t have the quietest space to record in, the four pickup patterns let you tailor how the mic works so you still sound crystal clear. These settings will also help you use the same mic in different situations, be you gaming in your bedroom, or live streaming some cooking content from the kitchen. The bidirectional and omnidirectional settings allow you to pick up audio from multiple directions too, which makes this a great mic for recording multiple people and bringing guests onto your podcast.

An included desk stand is also super handy (don’t expect that with every professional mic you might look at), but the EPOS B20 is also compatible with industry-standard boom arms, should you wanna keep the desk uncluttered. The EPOS Gaming Suite software (available as a free download) lets you dig even further into the microphone’s settings, EQs and more to finesse your sound.

Make sure to pair your microphone with some headphones. If you’re after a wireless headset, the EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid is a great versatile pair of in-ear headphone, but to go with the B20 microphone we recommend the EPOS H3 gaming headset. It’s a great all-rounder headset that will not only suit your gaming audio needs but will also be perfect for podcasting or streaming. You can plug these straight into the EPOS B20s in-built headphone jack, which can even support 7.1 surround sound if enabled through the software, to monitor audio levels in real-time and avoid any audio playback bleeding into your microphone.

Software

Every podcaster’s best friend is Audacity. The free software has become the staple of quickly and easily recording a microphone into your PC. A USB mic, like the EPOS B20 Streaming Microphone we mentioned earlier, hooks up to it no problem. It’s also suitable software to edit your podcast if you want to avoid splashing out on something like Adobe’s Audition, available via a monthly subscription.

If you’re recording your podcast via Discord or the like, OBS is a great way to capture both your audio, but also everyone else’s coming through the Discord chat.

OBS is well known for its streaming use, but you can also configure the Desktop Audio capture to record the sound coming via Discord, and add another audio source to record your microphone. Hit ‘start recording’ and you’ll save a local video file with the audio you need.

The good news is you don’t need a beefy PC to do any of this. Chances are, whatever desktop or laptop you’re currently using will be able to manage this all just fine.

Video

If you want to incorporate video into your podcast or live stream, you will of course need a camera.

The easiest way to add video of yourself is via a USB webcam. Simply plug in one of those bad boys, and add it as a source in OBS to capture it, or screen record Discord with your webcam enabled for a video podcast.

If you really want to take your video quality to the next level, we’d recommend investing in a DSLR camera. With the right software and connection, you’ll be able to use your DSLR as a webcam, which provides a really high-end solution. You may be able to use a capture card to record the HDMI output of the camera as an alternative, assuming you can turn off all the information/settings overlay you often see on the camera’s screen.

Lighting

A decent camera will only be as good as your lighting setup. Making sure you’re well lit will dramatically improve the look of your video. You don’t need to go all out with custom neon lighting setups either, a couple of cheap LED studio lights off Amazon will more than do the job. I swear by these lights, and just have one to the left and right behind my monitor attached to some shelves with a magic arm.

Game Capture

Steaming and want to include gameplay? You’ll need a capture card from someone like Elgato or AverMedia. Multiple options are available, just be mindful of the resolution and frame rate you want to capture, and what you want to pass through the capture card. If you’ve got a next-gen console, be mindful nothing supports HDMI 2.1 yet, so you’ll have to settle for 4K 60fps at best when passing through a capture card.

With it all hooked up, it’s again another input you can add to OBS to then output to your stream. You can use OBS to also capture a game running off your PC, but be mindful this will be taxing on performance, and should only be attempted if you’ve got a powerful enough CPU that can both render the game, and encode/upload video.

Non-Essentials

That’s really all you need to kick off your podcasting/streaming career. Tempting as it may be, a swanky Stream Deck, fancy gaming chair and custom RGB smart lighting can wait until you amass millions of listeners/viewers. You’re money’s much better spent early on a good quality microphone and some decent camera/lighting equipment.

The post A Beginners Guide To Starting A Podcast Or Streaming appeared first on Press Start.

Perhaps the only thing that rivals my obsession with video games is my love of music. When these two passions collide, it’s something special.

Such was the moment in the first Life Is Strange, as Max inserts a disc in Chloe’s CD player and Angus & Julia Stones’ Santa Monica Dream begins to play. As the opening chords of the acoustic guitar ring out, I recognise the song. Through the music, I better connect with the characters and understand all that they are going through.

“I wrote that song at a time when I was really deeply in love with somebody who lives in Santa Monica,” said Julia Stone on the track that began their relationship with the Life Is Strange series. 

“I think we can all relate to when you meet somebody and go down that fantasy road of, you know, the life with them, and what the life with them would be like,” she elaborates.

“I guess I knew I wasn’t going to choose it.”

Julia and her brother, who together form the folk-duo, Angus & Julia Stone, have come back together, lending not just a track to the upcoming Life Is Strange: True Colours, but an entire body of work. The release comes as a pleasant surprise to fans (myself included) as the pair have spent the last few years apart working on individual projects: Julia with her own successful solo career, and Angus with his psychedelic-folk project, Dope Lemon.

“It just had so much pull,” reflected Angus, “we go off to just be doing our own thing and we have these really wonderous things bringing us back together.”

“Life is strange like that.”

“We don’t push to work together,” Julia added, referring to a sort of mystical force that sees them offered opportunities to collaborate. 

“Working together has always like it’s been a bit of the opportunities you can’t say no to,” Julia reflects, “that’s not just the fans of Angus & Julia, but in an industry send we get offered really great opportunities like this game, or like the stuff with Rick Rubin” who brought the pair back together to produce their 2014 self-titled release.

As a duo, the siblings have put out five studio albums, including Down the Way and the self-titled Angus & Julia Stone, which both went #1 here in Australia. Their last, Snow, was released five years ago in 2017.

“Julia and I coming back together, it was easy,” Angus added, talking on how the album came together. “We’d be sent the brief, where they basically ask for certainly emotives [sic], colours, styles, and genre,” Angus elaborates. “I would sit down [with Julia], and we’d have a cup of tea, and we’d discuss how we’d approach these different scenes within the game and songs.”

Despite growing up in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Julia’s now a self-confessed city girl lives in Melbourne whilst Angus resides at his ranch near Byron Bay.

“Julia would come up from Melbourne, we’d kick a few songs around, then she would go do her own thing and come back,” said Angus. “I think we were in New Zealand for a bit, doing a vineyard tour over there and we stopped off in Neil Finn’s studio for a while, and we got a few songs out of that.”

“We were sort of going along as the game was sending us these briefs, the story’s ‘Zen moments’, and just chipping away as we go, and it was fun.”

The game’s ‘Zen moments’ see the game’s protagonist, Alex, pause and reflect, taking in her surroundings as a song off the soundtrack plays. A video of such a moment was shared alongside the album to accompany its launch ahead of the game’s release.

“I think there’s so much variety on the record because of that,” Julia contributes, speaking to how they’ve become more comfortable working together as artists, as time’s gone on. She acknowledges, “it wasn’t one thing that we were experiencing at the time, you know, one moment in our life of this particular person, or that particular choice.”

Subsequently, their own lives got caught up in the themes they were addressing with their songs. “We were kind of following a journey of a character, but also having to go through our life together and our life as individuals and find experiences that related to Alex’s experience, which was, it was a real cross-section of life.”

“So, that was different.”

Thinking on how creating the soundtrack differed from other albums in their discography, Angus adds, “for us, that was a really interesting way going about writing a record because usually, we go in, we have things up our sleeves and we sorta hit it, work hard and get it done.”

“But this [album]… it feels like we wrote this record for the characters in the game, but also for the things we are going through and as we are going through as human beings walking this earth.”

“Alex, she has these powers, these empathetic powers, and she’s trying to figure out how to control them,” Angus goes on to note about the game’s lead character. “I think we all have that empathetic power within us, whether you let someone in the room that’s going through something heavy… it can stick to you and you can let it affect you.”

“For me, I want to be able to control that as well, as you know, as being an empathetic human being.”

Julia was equally as emotionally invested in the project. “When they asked us to to the whole season, I was excited,” Julia remarks, “to be teaching through gameplay how to manage your emotions — it’s something that we all struggle with and I just, I really liked the idea of a game like that being in the world, and being a part of it and bringing it to life.” 

“I’m not a big gamer,” she admits, “Angus was more of the gamer out of the two of us.” She thinks back to the “huge old PC” they had growing up, on which she learnt to touch type with one of the only games on the computer.

“We love the gaming experience together, ” Julia goes on to say, “I love watching other people game.” She thinks back to a time on tour (“its me and fifteen boys, and they all love gaming”), recalling a moment when “everybody had Doom on their computer… and everyone had their laptops out playing against each other after the show.”

Of course, touring isn’t an option for so many artists at the moment, Angus and Julia Stone included. I ask them what thoughts they wanted to share at the moment with so many artists going through a tough time.

“Fundamentally now, for anyone who plays music, the way that you survive is through touring,” said Julia, “streaming isn’t exactly the same as selling records or CDs.”

“As soon as it opens up, go out and support live music… particularly artists that have just started. I think it’s hardest for them because we’ve been around for a while and we have opportunities like this… but when we started, it was all about touring, it was all about being in front of people and building your audience.”

She goes on to suggest, “if there are other ways of supporting friends of yours that play music, just asking them to play a song on Zoom for you — I think all musicians, myself included, love when a friend says ‘hey, have you written any new songs? Can I hear it?'”

Angus shares his sister’s sympathy with artists doing it tough, but urges them to stick with it. “Without getting too political, I think the government should kick in and have more kickbacks for the arts,” Angus replied on the same topic, “but if you are in that world, just keep creating.”

“Now is the time to be an introvert and focus on what you can love… this time can be used as a positive.”

If you want to help support Australian music until live shows return, Support Act provides financial and wellbeing support to music and performing arts workers. You can learn more about them and donate at supportact.org.au.

Angus & Julia Stone’s Life Is Strange is out now, and Life Is Strange: True Colours comes out September 10th.

The post Writing A Life Is Strange Soundtrack: An Interview With Angus & Julia Stone appeared first on Press Start.

The ideal mouse really is a matter of personal preference. I play various games on my PC and have always required a multi-purpose mouse: one suitable regardless of the game I’m playing. I’ve always been on the lookout for one that’s comfortable and durable, with enough programmable buttons to map to the harder-to-reach keys on the keyboard.

For years, the Logitech G502 has been my go-to. Good as it was, a couple of the keys on the side were slightly awkward to reach, and the angular design had a habit of collecting dust and grime. So when SteelSeries revealed their Rival 5 mouse, with their typical sleek, black design and a different approach with the buttons on the side, I was eager to get my hands on one.

Having used the mouse as my daily driver for the last couple of months, it has not disappointed me.

As someone that pretty heavily palms their mouse, the mouse is comfortable to use for hours at a time. I’ve not had any hand or wrist complaints. It’s lightweight, at just 85g, but still feels premium. Its matte black finish looks good as new months later, even with my penchant for snacking at my desk.

Much like SteelSeries entire range of products, the sleek, black design straddles the boundary between more professional, high-end tech and your typically garish gaming peripherals. Of course, there’s plenty of customisable RGB on the mouse to make it stand out on your desk, but from most angles, it’s elegant and understated.

It’s on the left-hand side the gaming credentials are apparent. Five programmable buttons sit within reach of your thumb: one pressed by extending your thumb forward and the other by scrunching it towards your index finger. It’s that latter movement I’ve taken issue with before, but with one button serving as a switch you push up or down, the Rival 5 frees up space and makes the configuration much more comfortable.

If I were to make a complaint, it’s that the big button reached by extending your thumb is a fraction too far away. Edging even just a few millimetres back would make me avoid having to shift my grip slightly to make use of it, but the experience will vary depending on hand size.

Whereas with other mice, I’ve usually had one or two buttons too uncomfortable to reach they have gone unutilised, I have made use of all the buttons on this mouse. Easily configured via SteelSeries’ newly improved GG software, you can set up numerous profiles, have them automatically enable when certain apps open, and tailor sensitivity levels within each. Should you want to go to the extent of adjusting acceleration, angle snapping and polling rate, you can do that too. It’s all very painless to use.

The post SteelSeries Rival 5 Review – Style & Substance appeared first on Press Start.

Alien, as a franchise, is sadly no stranger to being done dirty. 

Following Ridley Scott’s original 1979 sci-fi horror and James Cameron’s 1986 action-packed successor, subsequent films became bogged down with studio interference, questionable narrative choices and tie-ins with the Predator franchise. 

Of course, video game adaptations aren’t much different. Bar a few exceptions, most notably Alien Isolation, Alien games have often met a lukewarm critical reception.

Perhaps you could mount a defence for some films and games along the way, but my hope was brighter days were ahead following Disney’s takeover of the franchise as part of the acquisition of 21st Century Fox.

If Aliens: Fireteam Elite, is indicative of the quality we should expect from the franchise under Disney’s helm though, I’d be concerned.

Purposefully pluralising the ‘Alien’ in the title, Fireteam Elite, does what these game adaptations often do, leaning into the action elements of the franchise. Assembling a fireteam of three, the game pits you against what I can only describe as an onslaught of Xenomorphs — or ‘xenos’, ‘morphs’ and ‘bugs’ as the game often describes them.

Progressing through a campaign divided into four chapters, each with three missions in each, you play as a team of marines treading a well-trod path and responding to a distress signal to discover a Xenomorph presence. You soon discover Weyland-Yutani are up to their usual antics and it’s not long before you confront surprisingly well-armed synthetics or ‘synths’, too.

The story unfolds almost entirely through off-screen dialogue, narration and written objectives proceeding each mission. Although there’s a handful of NPCs you can interact with on your ship, dialogue is stilted, with no lip-sync on the characters models.

Consequently, the story takes a backseat. It’s simple enough to follow should you be paying attention, but fending off wave after wave in seemingly endless shooting galleries keeps you distracted enough that I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re left wondering what the hell you’re actually doing.

However, you can argue in a cooperative, survival shooter like this, the story is ultimately unimportant; it’s all about the experience you can have with your friends. Sadly, if your experience is anything like mine, you’ll find the game so monotonous and miscalculated that the tedium will make your friends very reluctant to stick around.

Although there’s been a clear effort to vary up the enemies, you’re never asked to approach a fight any differently than shooting straight. Be it your standard ‘bug’, the bursters, the spitters or the larger Xenomorph Drones, Warrior or Praetorian Guard, don’t expect to do anything different to take them down. Rather than pick off bits of armour and expose weak points, or make use of elemental damage with the flame thrower (one of my favourite weapons in the game), emptying whichever gun you’ve equipped does the job. 

Rather than make a point of introducing these new enemy types, they’re just thrown at you. You’d be forgiven for not realising if you’d come up against new variants. Your friends might have dispatched them before you’d realised, or they could be eaten up in the swarm of enemies coming your way.

It’s relentless. Right from the get-go, a menagerie of aliens scuttles your way, with very little in the way of escalation. Weirdly, you come up against literally thousands of Xenomorphs before you even get a glimpse at a face-hugger. Zero suspense is built; thrown right into the action, it’s guns blazing for the handful of hours it’ll take you to mop up the alien threat.

Strangely, one of the positives I can point to is the Prowlers, which will sometimes hide in adjacent rooms or around corners and jump you, triggering a quick-time event to shake it off you, or a friend to rescue you. Face-huggers and some of the larger Xenomorph variants act the same. I usually wouldn’t celebrate a quick-time event, but in this case, it’s a momentary change in pace.

I appreciate too, that Xenos — god, it’s starting to catch on — crawl along the floors walls and ceiling, keeping you on an eye out for that one elusive enemy that’s preventing you from moving onto the next stage in the level. However, the famous motion sensor, relegated to the UI in the bottom right corner of the screen rarely serves much purpose. The threat invariably comes from one direction: straight ahead of you.

A staple of the Alien franchise, synths have a predictable murderous streak, but this time with the ability to throw grenades and snipe you from a distance, sometimes in heavy variants, other times with a riot shield or a flamethrower. Like every other threat in the game, all you’re asked to do as a player is point and shoot.

Rarely are you expected to make use of the cover mechanic. On occasion, utilising consumables you collect in each level, throwing down cryo traps and automated turrets, are useful in fending off attacks, but min-bosses just ask you to shoot at them longer.

I was pleased with least that there was a passable level of loadout customisation offered through five different classes, each with its own equipment and weapon variants. I spent much of my time with the Demolisher class, as I developed an attachment to the flamethrower and Micro Rockets, but you benefit as a squad from diversifying, ensuring you have Doc ready to throw down a Trauma Station, and maybe a Gunner or a Technician to protect your rear.

However, other systems that make other cooperative shooters work are missing from Aliens: Fireteam Elite. Players only have access to missions they themselves have unlocked, meaning you cannot have friends drop in and help you out unless they’ve progressed that far too. There’s no option to invite a friend to join you mid-mission either, should you need the help. With no checkpoints either, even on the lowest difficulty, you’ll need to make sure you’re up to the task to avoid having to restart missions repeatedly and add to the tedium.

Thankfully, if you do have a hard time convincing your friends to stick with it, the game incorporates matchmaking and scales accordingly should you switch to a private lobby and fill your squad with bots.

Harder difficulties unlock upon completing the campaign, along with a Horde more that challenges you to survive as many waves as you can. Why you could be bothered sinking much time into either is beyond me.

Challenge cards and the prospect of more upgrades, weapons and cosmetic unlocks through repeating missions add to replayability, without giving you much new to do in moment-to-moment gameplay. 

Retailing at just $60 AUD, the game’s lower production budget is evident, not only in the brevity of the game, limited variety and shallowness of its mechanics but in the presentation of the game. 

The script is at times laughable and the delivery is not much better. With chapters divided up, individual missions often end abruptly, your character freezing as you pass through a door as you work towards what you thought was a climactic moment in the story. Breaking the pace up more, you can only customise your loadout and character at your ship, which serves as a sort of Tower-esque, hub world from Destiny. Although you can navigate through your loadout customisation screen mid-mission, you can’t change anything. Equipping a new unlock means navigating back to the ship, to reload the mission after you’d dug into your inventory.

I was pleased to see the Xenomorphs all looking like you’d expect, sound effects pulled straight from the source material and close enough attention to detail to include the edging on the sides of the guns in James Cameron’s Aliens as customisable weapon decals.

However, with such strong visual design stemming from H.R. Giger’s work on the original film and Ridley Scott’s affinity for practical effects, I can’t help feel the environmental design of the game lacked the same impact and believability. They seemed light on detail, and almost like a knock-off version. Arguably, Returnal and the upcoming Scorn do a better job of pulling off the H.R. Giger stylings.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Aliens: Fireteam Elite Review — No One Can Hear You Scream In Frustration appeared first on Press Start.

Ahead of today’s Marvel’s Avengers War for Wakanda expansion launch, we had the pleasure of chatting to two phenomenal men. The first being Christopher Judge, who voices Black Panther but is also known for voicing Kratos in God of War as well as many, many other roles across other entertainment mediums. We also had the chance to talk to Evan Narcisse who is a former video game journalist himself but has also worked as a Narrative Consultant on games such as this one, but also Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales as well as written Marvel’s Black Panther comics.

We had the chance to talk to both men about what it meant to work on Black Panther, how Christopher channelled Chadwick Boseman’s performance, and much, much more.

This is one that we also would recommend listening to (if not for Christopher’s smooth voice alone), which you can do so below:

Undeniably the character of Black Panther has enormous cultural significance. What did it mean for you two to help bring this character to life in the War for Wakanda expansion?

Christopher Judge: The realisation of a childhood dream. my wildest aspirations as an actor, it has been an embarrassment of riches. Being able to voice this character that has been part of my life, my family’s life, my culture’s life, the whole pantheons life for so long is … for my mum it’s “oh you finally made it”. No it’s tremendously humbling and one of the truly great moments of my life.

Evan, you’ve obviously worked on the character of Black Panther before, but what did it mean for you to work within the video game space as well?

Evan Narcisse: I’m a former Games Journalist, and I’ve watched video games become huge. Writing the comic is different than creating this game, because I have a sense of what the reach of the comic was going to be right, but this is a version of the character that’s going to live in front of million of people. The scope and the scale of it is entirely different, and now just from a marketing reach, but in terms of endeavour from a creative side. And the character has always meant so much to me, like Chris he’s been a favourite of mine since I was a kid. I’ve watched the character evolve over the course of his publishing history and I feel like one of my deeply held personal beliefs is that every time somebody black touches this character in a creative capacity, the possibility space for it expands.

When people think about Black Panther these days they obviously think about the Chadwick Boseman portrayal in the cinematic universe. Can I ask the two of you to speak on him and how his portrayal may have influenced you or inspired you in any way?

CJ: It was such a sweeping masterpiece of a performance that in the beginning of this and we started this process while Chadwick was still with us, I was conflicted. I was afraid, as an actor that something I did would be compared to what Chadwick had done. I was conflicted with even playing a role that Chadwick had played so masterfully, but the way that this story is constructed, it’s a different part of this life, it’s later in life, and he’s been King for a while, so even though relationships are familiar, they’re different. Going in, I said this had to be my take on it, I’m not going to be doing voice matches and once that was agreed upon, then the knowledge of what I was owed to this character, I gave 100% immersion, 100% emotional availability and even the alteration of my physical being. Other characters that I’ve played have always been hugely, muscular and in my mind T’Challa is quick and flexible and that also is mental, so to me, to vocally embody him, I had to have the physical tools to do it.

Being heavier, being more muscular gives me a certain resonance in my body and a slower way of speaking, so doing all that work in cooperation with learning the dialect, it all started to come to be and then as I got more familiar with the story, it truly lends itself to a different take of T’Challa. Then the conflict I had in my own mind about playing T’Challa was nothing I will do ever do is will ever dim the extraordinary performance that Chadwick gave, but I would then be included in this group of gatekeepers of this character and it was actually a comment that I had read that made me fully realise that we (the people involved) are all gatekeepers of this important, beloved character and then I finally embraced being one of the gatekeepers and it freed me up.

Evan, I take it you’re no stranger to video game discourse. Given you’ve written about the politics of Black Panther, I’m curious to ask what are your thoughts on the reluctance to involve politics in video games?

EN: I’m of the belief that every creative decision that an individual group makes is informed by the politics which shaped their lives, right. So your decision to include or exclude people from certain experiences and walks of life is political, the way you build your world, the stories that you prioritise inside of them, is political, right?

You’re not always political in terms of seeking to advance like a legislative goal, but they express a philosophy that you usually inherent from the culture that you exist inside of right. And it can be in response to some of the aspects of the culture that you feel like need improvement, or it can be in to reinforce some of the good aspects of the culture that you live inside of right so you know. Some of the most meaningful video game experiences I’ve had were premised on intense political, socio political situations and points of view. There was a game that I reviewed back in the day at Kotaku called This War Of Mine. You’re a bunch of refugee and you’ve got to go out and forage for medicine and food and trade with other people who you may not be able to trust. If I remember correctly, the script was a group of developers that had kind of lived through the Balkan War and s it calling out a specific politician? No, but is it calling out what war does to us and how it dehumanises us? Yes.

And that’s political. It’s not about like, Democrat versus Republican or anything like that, or left versus right. It’s examining the politics of the world and the repercussions it has on people and that’s ripe storytelling fodder. If you find the right lens. It’s totally fair game, in my opinion, pun fully intended.

But if you’re exploitative, if you’re dehumanising, if you are re-traumatising your audience with racism and sexism, and other kinds of discrimination, and that happens subconsciously, that’s something you need to examine, I think. But a lot of what these controversies and hamster wheel discourses are really afraid of is a broadening of who gets to participate in the making of meaning, in engaging with video games is an art form.

And the making of meaning happens on the creative side on the left side also happens on the audience side, and how they’ve been discussed, so when we talk about politics, it shouldn’t be a narrow frame and if video games are really going to be a mature art form, there needs to be room for the specificity of people’s experiences, culturally, politically, emotionally, psychologically, within the art form, and that may mean coming to grips with things that you don’t necessarily agree with, but they deserve to be told.

I’m curious to know what your thoughts are on the storytelling potential of video games in comparison to film, TV and comics. God of War for instance, Christopher, is held an incredibly high regard for storytelling. What excites you about the medium of video games presently and into the future?

CJ: I said this earlier. Any sort of spoken word in video games used to be to get you to the next battle, or to the next fight. Now, it is an integral part of the gaming experience. Games are now more and more character and story driven and that potential is just being realised. So what’s exciting to me is, let’s face it, movies are limited by roughly a two hour fromology, TV an hour to 30 minutes. The ability to tell an extended story with true arcs and true feeling, character involvement in gaming is the future of storytelling and we’ve just started to scratch the surface of it and where it’s going is what’s truly exciting. And the acceptance of it and recognition of it by the fans of gaming and gamers.

Evan, curious to ask the same question to you?

EN: It’s a hoary old cliché to talk about interactivity in video games, right, but it really does give you a set of opportunities and tools in terms of storytelling that other medium cannot match up with. If I’m telling a Black Panther story in a comic, you are locked into the way I tell it. You have to go from one panel to the next panel to the next page and yeah, if I was like, a genius level storyteller, like Matt Fraction or Karen Gillan you could make the panels work, forwards, backwards, upside down, all around, when you’re a master of the form, which I am not, I’m still journeymen, you can do those things. But video games let you avail yourself of non linearity, different kinds of embedded narrative in the environments in overheard conversations, there is this impulse to make games, more like movies, but they can be so much more than that.

I hesitate to talk about this, because it’s not specific to this project, but I remember we were in a meeting one time for Miles Morales and of course, the movie came up, and there’s that scene beginning where he’s walking through the neighbourhood, he’s pointing fingers, he’s kind of saying hi to everybody and one of the things I said, when we were working on Miles with Insomniac was like, yeah, we can have a neighbourhood talk back to him. That’s what video games can do that a movie can’t do and so we built like, a dialogue system to kind of achieve that goal.

it’s a 360 kind of storytelling where the whole world can, and all the world building can can point towards a goal. It’s an exciting time for the medium. One of my favourite games from last year was Hades and the way they tell that story, all these different threads, some of meet in intersect and intertwine, some of them don’t, but the way they deliver that story, and intertwine it so expertly with the mechanics, you just want to keep playing. You’re like, Oh, yeah, I got a new power up for this weapon, but really, I want to find out what does Zeus mad at me about now? We were just boys a couple of playthroughs ago, and now he’s got beef. It’s that kind of stuff, that is amazing to me. Chris is like “Zeus, Zeus, who’s talking about my daddy”.

Chris, between Marvel, Stargate and God of War fans, who’s crazier?

CJ: Well, I hesitate to use crazy, but fan is the root word of fanatical. You know, it’s just a great fandom and I’ve gotten the ability to see how much crossover there is between the fandoms and what I would like to see is because a lot of our super objectives are the same between all fandoms we want to be seen, we want to be heard, we want to be taken seriously, we want to dream and hope and love just like everybody else I would like to see a lot of the fractioning of the fandom stop and at least this be a safe place for all of us. Not that there’s not a difference of opinion, but those differences are always treated with respect, and maybe just a dash of kindness, because at least we can insulate ourselves in this world. That world out there is tough enough, so hey, that’s my two cents.

The post We Spoke To The Voice Of Black Panther Christopher Judge & Evan Narcisse About Marvel’s Avengers’ War For Wakanda Expansion appeared first on Press Start.

As a self-confessed AFOL (an “Adult Fan of LEGO” for those not in the know) I’ve not only collected sets since I was a kid, but grown up playing a litany of Traveller’s Tales LEGO games. Whilst several other LEGO-themed games have cropped up outside of the licensed franchise-centric games, none have caught my eye quite like LEGO Builder’s Journey.

This platforming puzzle game, follows the story of two intrepid explorers, overcoming the obstacles in search of adventure, and the opportunity to flex their creativity. It’s a simple premise, told plainly, through seemingly straightforward levels that require you to place bricks that create a path for your characters to progress from one side to the other.

But bloody hell is it beautiful.

With an art style that blends a small-world, isometric approach with the aesthetics of LEGO, the first thing that will stand out is how gorgeous this game is. Stretching its legs after the initial Apple Arcade exclusivity, LEGO Builder’s Journey represents the first Unity-based game to receive NVIDIA’s ray-tracing and DLSS treatment.

Putting it through its paces, with the settings maxed out at a 1440p resolution and ray-tracing enabled, DLSS helped my RTX 3080 edge towards 60 fps on what is easily one realistic looking games I’ve laid my eyes on. Dialling the DLSS up, moving to the Balanced saw me comfortably above 60 fps, and Performance nearer the 80-mark, all without overly noticeable dips in graphical quality. 

For those unfamiliar with the technology, Deep Learning Super Sampling (or DLSS for short) renders the game at a lower resolution, and then intelligently upscales it to your required resolution, milking extra frames out of what would be a much slower framerate without it. DLSS has magical powers I still can’t fully comprehend.

Ray-tracing too makes a notable impact on the experience. Almost every level began with me panning about the levels, watching the light reflect and refract off the LEGO bricks. Translucent blues bricks used to recreate water in the environments were particularly stunning.

As for the game itself, I can’t help but feel the title is an obvious homage to that game company’s Journey. In a similar vein, in which the story is told with no dialogue, LEGO Builder’s Journey develops a heartwrenching, bitesize narrative using little more than crafty game mechanics, a fantastic soundtrack and expressions conveyed purely through the animation of its faceless protagonists.

As a player, you feel the mundanity of the repetitive nature of the parent’s day job; you’re just as eager as them to return to the construction of your castle back at home with your child. This game pulled on the old heartstrings in a way I did not see coming, with a compelling narrative as the pair’s adventure becomes thwarted.

For a company that’s made billions of selling pre-designed sets complete with instruction manuals, I’m in awe of how much LEGO as a brand continues to champion creative freedom. Throughout most of the game, you feel multiple solutions are possible, and ultimately how you solve the puzzle is up to you and your creativity.

The trade-off is that the puzzles are typically not overly challenging. Rather than trying to perfect the arrangement of blocks, more often than not you can slap them down and get away with it. There wasn’t much adherence to the physics of things; stretching an elongated piece into nothingness supported only by a single stud had no consequence.

I was often pushing myself to utilise what was in the environment rather than rely on the robot companion that would gift you blocks. It wasn’t clear to me if the robot served as a hint mechanic, or if you were indeed expected to turn to them for assistance; a lot of the time it felt very much the latter.

Each level asked you to switch up your approach though, and I really did enjoy manipulating pieces and trying to craft the route forward. The creativity was liberating, but it made the occasional moment in which the answer does feel pre-ordained — or a LEGO brick is unusable and a fixed part of the terrain — a little jarring. Likewise, a couple of sequences in which piecing together LEGO and building is much less the focus of the puzzle-solving felt a little noncommittal.

That said, this game — which only takes an hour or two to play through — is more about the experience than the challenge. And it is magnificent. For those like me with a lifelong affinity to LEGO, you’ll no doubt relish every frame. This game brilliantly and intelligently captures the creativity and nostalgia that encompass LEGO, beautifully recreating these moments of bonding between parent and child through the familiar lens of exploring the great outdoors.

For those without the same emotional connection to the humble plastic brick as I, I have little doubt the puzzle mechanics and minimalist storytelling will appeal to a broader audience.

The post LEGO Builder’s Journey Review – Bricktacularly Beautiful appeared first on Press Start.

Looking for a shot of adrenaline to resurrect the troubled Marvel’s Avengers, Crystal Dynamics have been hard at work delivering on their promised roadmap, offering a new trailer for the game’s upcoming Black Panther: War for Wakanda expansion.

Delayed in the wake of the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman, the expansion is now slated for an August release date and will be included for free for owners of the game.

HEAD HERE TO SEE EVERYTHING THAT SQUARE ENIX ANNOUNCED AT E3. 

The expansion introduces Black Panther as a playable character amongst the roster of Marvel’s Avengers heroes, as they face off against Klaw, as he seeks to steal Wakanda’s Vibranium.

The post See Black Panther In Action In the New Marvel’s Avengers War For Wakanda Story Trailer appeared first on Press Start.

A HUGE amount of games were confirmed to be coming to Xbox Game Pass this morning during Xbox’s E3 2021 conference. The list includes Xbox’s lineup of first-party games, a stack of third-party titles and a new batch of Bethesda games adding to the library already added.

Highlights include the critically acclaimed Hades, the co-operative zombie survival game, Back4Blood, and the indie game starring Willem Dafoe and Daisy Ridley, Twelve Minutes.

ALL THE NEW XBOX GAME PASS GAMES ANNOUNCED

• Yakusa: Like a Dragon Console/PC (Today)
• Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance Console/PC (June 22, 2021)
• Microsoft Flight Simulator Xbox Series X|S (July 27th, 2021)
• The Ascent Console/PC (July 29th, 2021)
• Hades Console/PC (August 13th, 2021)
• Twelve Minutes Console/PC (August 19, 2021)
• Psychonauts 2 Console/PC (August 25th, 2021)
• Aragami 2  Console/PC (September 17, 2021)
• Sable Console/PC (September 2, 2021)
• The Anacrusis Console/PC (Spring, 2021)
• Scorn Console/PC (Spring, 2021)
• Back4Blood Console/PC (October 12, 2021)
• Age of Empires IV PC (October 28th, 2021)
• Forza Horizon 5 Console/PC (November 9th, 2021)
• Shredders Console/PC (December 2021)
• Halo Infinite Console/PC (Holiday 2021)
• Among Us Console/PC (2021)
• Hello Neighbour 2 Console/PC (2021)
• The Gunk Console/PC (2021)
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2: Heart of Chernobyl (28th April, 2022)
• Somerville (2022)
• Starfield (November 11, 2022)
• A Plague Tale: Requiem (TBA)
• Atomic Heart (TBA)
• Redfall (TBA)
• Eiyuden Chronicle Hundred Heroes (TBA)
• Eiyuden Chronicle Rising (TBA)
• Contraband (TBA)
• Party Animals (TBA)
• Replaced (TBA)
• Slime Rancher 2 (TBA)
• Outer Worlds 2 (TBA)

HEAD HERE FOR ALL OF XBOX + BETHESDA’S E3 2021 ANNOUNCEMENTS. 

10 Bethesda games are also joining Xbox Game Pass today.

• Arx Fatalis
• Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
• Doom
• The Evil Within 2
• Rage
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
• Fallout
• Fallout 2
• Fallout Tactics
• Fallout 3

The post Every Xbox Game Pass Game Announced During Xbox’s E3 2021 Conference appeared first on Press Start.

To celebrate the release of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, the boys from Fairbairn Films have teamed up with PlayStation to put their unique, comedic spin on the game’s arsenal of weaponry.

In the video, the brothers/comedy duo muck around with the rifts and weaponry featured in the PlayStation-exclusive title, in a bigger budget production than they’re used to producing from their home in country South Australia.

Lachie Fairbairn, whose personal favourite Ratchet & Clank gun is the Sheepinator, travelled to Sydney to produce the video in what “was probably like the most high production set we’ve got to date.”

“We usually just make it up as we go and don’t put all that much thought in,” said Lachie when he caught up with Press Start. 

“I think our fans will really love it. I think most of the comments will be like, ‘Fairbarin’s got budget? How the hell did they get this?!'”

Avid fans of the Ratchet & Clank franchise themselves, this is a dream project for the pair from Fairbairn Films who have clocked up 1.55 million subscribers on YouTube. “I remember my older brother got Ratchet & Clank 2 for his birthday,” reflected Lachie, “and then I begged my mum for number three [Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal] but she wouldn’t get it for me because the name she thought was too rude.”

“We were obsessed; we have every game up until — even the PS3 games we almost have everyone.”

Subsequently, there was no reluctance in getting up to some antics with Ratchet & Clank’s famously bombastic guns. “We do lots of deals, but we’re always really happy about the ones that actually have something to do with something we love,” notes Lachie.

“And I told my mum because she [eventually] bought the game for us when we were little, and she was like, ‘what the hell, how are you being paid by them now?'”

They’ve even spared a thought to dream up what they think fellow Aussie blokes would design if they were tasked with designing a weapon for Ratchet & Clank: the Climatinator. “It would cool down the general temperature in the summer,” muses Lachie, “just across the whole country, like it would just bring it down five degrees.”

Lachie is one of the lucky few in Australia to have got their hands on a PS5 already. He actually “walked into” his local EB Games and “snagged one last week.” His review: “holy shit, it’s fast, I tell you that.”

So far, he’s played some God of War, NBA and Call of Duty, but he’s hugely excited for more Ratchet & Clank. “I’m just happy they’re still making them,” said Lachie, “’cause, I’m mean, that was the PlayStation 2 days and this it’s the PS5 and they’re still making them!”

“That just makes me happy on the inside really.”

“We were a big Ratchet & Clank family — that and Jak & Daxter were like the two big games we’d always play.”

Asked if he’d like to see Jak & Daxter make a comeback, he responds, “oh, there’s nothing I’d want more in the whole world!”

Check out their Ratchet & Clank video, and all their other videos, over on their YouTube channel.

Not picked up your copy of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart yet? Check out our bargain guide to see where you can get it the cheapest.

The post Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart’s Weapons Feature In A New Video From Aussie Larrikins Fairbairn Films appeared first on Press Start.

We recently spoke with Dinga Bakaba and Sébastien Mitton from Arkane Studios to learn more about Deathloop. Besides getting a detailed explanation of how exactly its unique time loop mechanic works, we learnt how the timed console-exclusive makes the most of the PlayStation 5.

With death and a rinse-repeat style of gameplay playing such a big role in the game, I queried the pair on the importance of the consoles fast load speeds, but was surprised to hear that the console’s power afforded the developers much more possibilities in improving the game.

“Fast loading is one that we’re pretty excited for,” replied Game Director, Dinga Bakaba, “loading into a map in a matter of seconds versus minutes on a PS4 for Dishonored.” 

“It helps you get into the loop of dying as a part of the gameplay and the story,” he notes, which is a pretty interesting reflection on how the technology has a direct influence on our experience of the story. 

However, even more interesting is how the extra power afforded by the latest generation opened up new prospects for the game’s quality.

“The PS5 is also quite a powerful machine right, so it helped the team not have to compromise at the later end of the project, which we normally have to do,” said Bakaba.

“This time we actually raised the quality at the later end of the project, which is rare in this industry.”

But it doesn’t stop there either.

Bakaba added, “same for all of our designers, the maps are quite dense and have sight lines that were completely not possible on the last generation and more NPCs in fights.”

“Overall, we are really happy with the hardware from this new generation,” continued Bakaba, “the PS5 is definitely a beast and it’s been something that has been quite a liberating force.”

I’m sure they’ll say the same about the Xbox Series X in due course.

Lastly, I was amazed to hear Bakaba didn’t yet have his own PS5, much like so many of us eagerly waiting on more stock.

“I don’t have a PS5 at home because it’s tough to get one,” admitted Bakaba, “but I have a dev kit and it’s true that as soon as I tried it, I was like this is a nice toy.”

Hopefully, PlayStation can hook him up in time for the game’s release.

Deathloop is out on PS5 and PC on May 21st. You can find our full interview with the team HERE.

The post Arkane Raised The Quality Of Deathloop To Make The Most Of The PlayStation 5’s Power appeared first on Press Start.

Deathloop oozes style, that much is obvious. Every glimpse of it we’ve seen since it’s announcement back at E3 2019 suggests as much.

What has been less clear, however, is just exactly how the player will navigate this complex, sixties-inspired world of murder, magical powers and time loops.

Sitting down with Arkane — all the way from Lyon, France — I ask them to explain what they mean when they describe the game as a ‘murder puzzle’.

What’s Deathloop all about?

“It’s more about the campaign or the story itself,” says Dinga Bakaba, Deathloop‘s Game Director.

Taking on the role of Colt, an assassin imbued with supernatural powers, you must break the loop in the only way possible: “killing the eight visionaries before the end of the day.”

The Visionaries, the inhabits of the time-affected island, Blackreef, revel in an endless party shirking all responsibilities and moral decency. Scattered across multiple districts, Colt needs to hunt down and eliminate each Visionary before the day is out.

Of course, you’ll need to be on the lookout for one Visionary especially: Julianna. The exact relationship between the pair is unknown, but for whatever reason Juliana is hellbent on stopping Colt from completing his objective. She’ll show up unannounced throughout the game making a concerted effort to wipe you out every loop.

Rather neatly, the role of Juliana can be assumed by a player tasked with making your life difficult in an unconventional take on multiplayer. I was excited to hear that you have the option to be ‘invaded’ only by friends and, inversely, raid a friend’s game should you choose. 

How does the time loop work?

The time loop continues as long as one Visionary stays alive. You need to locate and assassinate them all in one day to break the loop. Thankfully, you’re not up against a countdown clock in taking them all out.

“The game is divided into four periods of time: the morning, noon, afternoon and night,” explains Bakaba. “At each barrier, you can choose a district to go… [but] the most [Visionaries] you can kill is four because there are four periods in the day.”

“From the start, it’s an impossible mission,” explains Bakaba, “but you are the assassin that is doing the impossible, and you do that by investigating the targets and trying to find loopholes in their schedules.”

The challenge then resides in “uncovering the impossible… reading clues, listening to conversations and finding abilities.” 

Piecing together the ‘murder puzzle’ — through multiple loops — you must find the ‘perfect loop’ in which all Visionaries are brought together so they can be knocked off in a single day.

And every time I die, I have to start again?

Although it conjures up ideas of a roguelike, Deathloop hasn’t been described as such. 

Knowledge is power, as is repeated in the most recent ‘Deja Vu’ trailer; with every loop comes extra wisdom that helps you progress in a seemingly more linear fashion than games of the roguelike genre. 

Colt’s memories survive each reset and so is granted the opportunity to gain extra, valuable intel. Each loop means more knowledge which you can leverage to get your targets where you need them, edging closer to the ‘perfect loop’ in which you assassinate your targets in a fell swoop.

Dying triggers a reset — as too does the expiration of the fourth period in the day — but you’re not without a second chance. “Colt has a power that we call ‘Reprise’, that allows him to rewind just a tad,” describes Bakaba.

“It’s a little bit like a BioShock Vita-Chamber, but you only have two and it’s not on a set place, so it will just go back dynamically. Sometimes it will take you back to a situation that is not preferred, but you have a few seconds of invincibility to hide.”

No doubt that’ll come as a bit of comfort.

But I’m not good with puzzles. Should I be worried? 

Concerned the more impatient or time-poor gamers out there — that could be turned off at the prospect of a rinse-and-repeat, Groundhog-esque gameplay mechanic — I queried how much direction we could expect.

“That’s something we’ve been working on for the last year at least,” noted Bakaba, “we have to build this very complex structure and then making accessible was the second step.”

“The way we are approaching it is to have the beginning of the game be a bit more directed to push you through the beginning of the story, and acquiring the core gameplay.”

After the initial guidance, “hopefully, you’ll have a good idea of where to go next, and you’ll have a number of investigations or leads open at the beginning, and then you’ll have more as you go to meet the other targets.”

For those eager to stray from the beaten track, “there are quite a few things to discover in the way of side content, gameplay vignettes with rewards and some of the unique weapons that are hidden on the island as well as learn a little bit more what happened before the story begins.”

How does each loop vary?

Seeing as we’ll be spending a bit of time revisiting each area, I was curious to find out how much each district might vary between visits.

I was surprised to hear Bakaba reply, “the loop itself doesn’t change much… it is the same area, which allows the area to learn where the dangers are or where the patrols are.”

It makes sense what they’re trying to achieve. Again, it harkens back to the “knowledge=power” mantra; the more familiar you get with each loop, the more efficient you become dispatching foes.

However, “each [time] period is quite different from the one before,” notes Bakaba, “the patrols are different, some areas are open and some are closed, the side content is available or not available, the weather will be different during the day or night.”

Additionally, “each district has a kind of story that happens during the day.” He goes on to tell me about one district in which a concert is set to take place in the afternoon: in the morning a truck rolls up with the sound system but by the evening the concert is over, and something seems to have gone wrong.

Consider me curious.

What might you take away from Deathloop?

Curious too about the themes of the game, I quizzed Deathloop‘s Art Director, Sébastien Mitton, on what might stick with the player after they’ve rolled credits.

“I hope they have a trip that they will remember, but this is quite something… [and] the journey is more important than the destination,” replied Mitton.

“If we can get people to think about what it takes to break out of habits or the fact that there is a cost of escaping reality… but moving on is definitely one, and refusing to accept reality and growing up is also another one that we liked to infuse in the game.”

Whereas, “Dishonored was a lot about political themes and people with power… Deathloop is about personality and ecological things.”

As I once rambled on at length about Firewatch, I’m a big fan of any exploration of the theme of escapism within the context of video games. 

Could there be more Deathloop to come?

Also weighing in on the game’s themes, Bakaba added, “there is [sic] always more stories to tell, but at the same time, it’s been envisioned as a self-contained thing.”

“Since the theme is about moving on, I think it’s fitting that it’s something that has a beginning and an end to this story,” added Bakaba. 

“We might want to explore things in the future, but the story doesn’t end with a cliffhanger.”

Deathloop is out on PS5 and PC on May 21st.

The post Deathloop Explained: An Interview With Arkane’s Dinga Bakaba and Sébastien Mitton appeared first on Press Start.

When Xbox announced their intent to acquire Bethesda six months ago, plenty of people were surprised, including Deathloop‘s developers at Arkane Lyon, one of the many studios acquired in the deal finalised just a couple of weeks ago.

Deathloop, due to release May 21st, remains a PlayStation 5 console-exclusive for a year after release despite the deal, in a strange situation that sees Xbox release an exclusive on a competitor’s console.

In a recent interview with Deathloop’s Game Director, Dinga Bakaba, and Art Director, Sébastien Mitton, shared their initial reaction to the news.

“It was pretty surprising, I would say,” said Bakaba, “It was unexpected, to an extent… [but] after the surprise, it made a lot of sense.”

“First of all, we are very creative, driven and we really care about doing games that are original, that have a lot of personality and style.”

Speaking to Arkane almost a year ago — well before this deal was announced — we learnt how important originality and creative freedom is to the team, so to hear they are unconcerned about that being jeopardised will come as welcome relief to their fans.

Of course, multiple Arkane games have come to Game Pass as part of the deal. 

“Being able to be apart of the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem makes things a bit different for us because we can occupy a space in that service, and we will continue to make the kind of games that we make and make them well,” added Bakaba.

“If you’ve looked on social media, you’ll see that games like Prey and Dishonored 1 and 2 coming to Xbox Game Pass, a lot of people are saying that you need to play these games and have no excuse not to, so it’s been very encouraging.”

“It’s a service that will allow us to remain creative and have the audience and build that relationship over time and that’s really exciting.”

Deathloop is out on PS5 and PC on May 21st. You can find our full interview with the team HERE.

The post Deathloop’s Developers Were Surprised By Xbox’s Acquisition Of Bethesda appeared first on Press Start.

It’s hard to believe that 2010 was already a decade ago. Nonetheless, here we are. 

Marking the tenth anniversary of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Criterion Games and Stellar Entertainment have once again come together, as they did for Burnout Paradise Remasteredback in 2018. Much like last time, they’ve remastered and repackaged the original game, updating the visuals for the current generation of consoles and bundling in additional DLC.

Needless to say, this feels like a bit of a stopgap. Solid an arcade racer it may be, it’s worth noting the first remaster in Need for Speed’s history comes on the precipice of the next-generation of consoles. Perhaps this is more of a pitstop, refueling for bigger and better things ahead.

Whilst I still dream about a return of the Carbon or Underground subseries — albeit with a new game and not a remaster — the Hot Pursuit games are among my favourites. Long time listeners of the Press Start Podcast might remember I played so much of Hot Pursuit 2on the PlayStation 2 that the pause screen was permanently burnt into the display.

Of course, this is a far cry from what I spent hours playing back then. As you’d expect from a remaster, the graphical fidelity is hugely improved. Going back to the original PlayStation 3 version was a shock to the system seeing how far we’ve come since then.

All the licensed cars look as good as you’d expect these days, but the surrounding environments — which are the same sections of forest, coastline, countryside, or desert on repeat — all seem rather flat and lifeless. Of course, with the cops hot on your tail, you’re not likely to be taking in the surroundings.

With only a handful of exceptions, the roster of cars is mostly the same as they originally were. With the Super Sports Pack, Lamborghini Untamed, and Porsche Unleashed, the game’s DLC, now integrated into the main career, expect more than your fair sure of Porsches and Lambos stocked into your garage.

Disappointingly, they all feel exactly the same to drive, however. Nothing feels like it handles any differently; the speed and acceleration sliders are just adjusted here and there. These are all cars designed to go fast, and that’s where the variety ends.

As far as I could tell, the soundtrack is mostly the same too. In itself, it’s a bit of a musical time capsule. Hearing ‘Opposite of Adults’ by Chiddy Bang was a throwback.

As far as the gameplay checks out ten years on, it a rather unobtrusive, easily accessible arcade racing game. True to form for Need for Speed, tracks are rather forgiving and invite you to maintain a high speed and slide around every corner. Keeping your foot down, picking the right shortcut, and refilling your boost is the key to posting the fastest times.

Here comes in to play the much-talked-about Autolog system, which features in the marketing today as much as it did back then. Capturing your fastest times and achievements, Autolog records you and your connection’s accomplishments and pits you against each other for bragging rights. At the time, I understand it was a point of difference, but is part and parcel of multiplayer racers.

Whilst I couldn’t find a race pre-launch, everything you’d come to expect from multiplayer is carried over. I appreciate that you can set up custom races for just you and your friends and split up into racers and cops. 

Of course, the fundaments of the police pursuit orientated subseries are all here. The titular mode, Hot Pursuit, sees a point to point street race thwarted by a police chase. Suddenly having to concentrate on more than holding your racing line, these chaotic modes are where the game shines. It can get quite desperate stuff, as your car’s health dwindles low and you duck and weave between traffic to scrape across the line in the first position.

Whilst the game’s slow to start, as soon as you open up the full gamut of races and modes it picks up pace. Of course, in Hot Pursuitthere are two separate careers which you can complete simultaneously: one as a Racer and the other as a Cop. I’d recommend bouncing back and forth between the two, swapping shoes every so often to break up the rather tedious time trials.

I had as much fun sabotaging races as I did evading the law.

As you unlock extra equipment races heat up even further. Not only do the Cops have an arsenal of helicopters, spike strips, and EMPs at their disposal, but the Racers also have a few tricks up their sleeves. In some of the most adrenaline-inducing modes where you have a set amount of these powerups from the jump, you’d be forgiven for confusing this with a combat racing game. 

All this aside, it’s a rather no-frills racing game. Absent is any sort of real narrative or car customisation. The former isn’t missed, but the latter is a little bit of shame. Limited only to a palette of colour options and a pretty rudimental photo mode, it’s hard to get excited about poking around the garage despite the litany of licensed vehicles.

Still, the sorest letdown of the game is the tracks and the setting. The tracks aren’t anything special, lending themselves to sprinting from A to B without giving it much thought. One alpine course with a series of hairpin turns is a notable exception, but otherwise, they’re pretty bland.

Weirdly, half the time the ‘shortcuts’ feel like a waste of time. Besides getting a little bit of refill on your boost, often it’s a short jaunt offroad that doesn’t feel like it’s closed the gap on the race leader at all.

A free roam mode is available too, which can drop you in on the map at any of the race starts. Why you’d ever bother to do this is beyond me, unless maybe you wanted to test a car or mess around with a photo mode that does afford you a few more options drive. The world’s terribly empty with no real offroad areas to poke about or collectibles to uncover.

Perhaps my biggest complaint with this remaster is how unnecessary it is. They had already remastered the better game in Burnout Paradise and this just doesn’t feel like it was necessary. Again, it feels like a stopgap. Unless you’re bored to death with Burnout or Forza Horizon 4 and have an itch to scratch, I can’t recommend what is a lesser game.

THE PS4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS TESTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered Review – An Unnecessary Detour appeared first on Press Start.

It’s hard to imagine anything more destined for cult following status than Necrobarista. They’ve got the recipe right: unique, oddly relatable characters, a world oozing with style, and a banging theme song accompanying its title sequence. If Scott Pilgrim was set in Melbourne and swapped band practise for necromancy, you’d be pretty close to what Route 59 Games has accomplished.

Necrobarista is many things, but it is not a game like you know it. Falling into the somewhat niche genre of 3D visual novels, don’t expect typical mechanics you may associate with other video games.

But sure, there are hallmarks of other games. Built-in the Unity game engine, the coffee shop is explorable from the first-person perspective between episodes. In these moments, you’ll briefly use WASD on your keyboard, finding tangental stories unlocked using keywords collected from the game’s main plot.

The story is mostly experienced as a visual novel however, clicking through scenes and on-screen dialogue without decision making or interaction with the world. Player agency isn’t what it’s about; the focus is solely on the story Route 59 has sought to tell. They overtly shrug off potentially more profitable game design choices in favour for championing this lesser-known genre, peeking through the fourth wall with the line, “I just feel like everything’s a battle royale these days.”

Ultimately the discussion surrounding its status as a video game is reductive and distracts from the magic contained with Necrobarista. However light it is on gameplay, Necrobarista more than makes up for it with a double shot of emotive storytelling.

With its musings on life, death and letting go, Necrobarista is a heart-wrenching story set within the space between this world and the next. Choosing a back alley coffee shop in the inner-city suburb of Carlton as limbo seems oddly apt. The nihilistic pontification between its characters is indicative of the brunch time conversations you might hear between a gaggle of Melbournites. As a local myself, I was very excited to see a milk crate dragged out as a chair.

Australian references don’t end there. A bro-ey interpretation of the infamous outback outlaw, Ned Kelly, is a central character and slang such as ‘tradies’ and ‘goon’ are frequent. I’d recommend an international audience keep Urban Dictionary close to hand.

But Necrobarista is an example of cultural hybridity at its finest. Blending style and aesthetics inspired by Japanese anime with a generous helping of Australian culture and history, the resulting mixture is something fitting of Melbourne’s multicultural roots.

Despite the supernatural and mysterious Terminal cafe setting, a coffee shop somewhere between this world and the next, the world is strangely believable. If an underground alchemist/necromancy scene does exist within Melbourne, I’d imagine it’d be exactly like this.

The characters and equally convincing and relatable. From the cafe owner and lead necrobarista herself, Maddy Xiao, to the eccentric, knife-wielding teenager, Ashley Capek, I quickly felt a connection with the coffee-obsessed crew. That renders their heartache, as they struggle to deal with the transitory nature of life and an inability to escape consequence, all the more painful.

Necrobarista is exceptionally well-written. Route 59 perfectly capture those pointless conversations you find yourself as you skate around the elephant in the room. But when characters do open up, boy do they tug at your heartstrings.

No amount of caffeine will soften the punch packed into the game’s self-described “heavy” moments. Touching, sometimes all-too-real dialogue punctuates an expertly told, very human story interspersed between moments of typical Melbourne cynicism. Bouts of introspection setup thought-provoking monologues that playfully bounce into witty banter, much of which I’ve captured in a folder of screenshots. There are brilliant lines in there I’d refer back to in my own moments of self-doubt or repurpose as a meme in a group chat.

It’s also laugh-out-loud hilarious at times.

This oscillation between deep personal reflection, one-liners and puns does bear a degree of whiplash, but none too different from that you’d expect to see within an anime or a comic.

It gets away with it thanks to the brilliant score composed by the BAFTA-nominated composer of Florence, Kevin Penkin (who’s making a habit of scoring the Millennial Melbourne existence) and Jeremy Lim, with collaborations from the indie-pop group Soft Science. From the very-anime title sequence to the punchy beat the accompanies the commentary between Ashley’s sentient robots at the end of each story chapter, the music contributes greatly to the game’s mood at any given moment. I’m not typically the type to listen to game soundtracks in my own time – with Hotline Miami‘s the only exception – but I’m glad to see that the tracks already on Spotify.

Sadly, on the topic of sound, Necrobarista is almost entirely reliant on its soundtrack. Sound design is sparse to non-existent. Bar some occasional ambience in the cafe, and the odd sound effect here or there, without a recorded dialogue – which is all told through text – tracks are reused time and time again. The mix from scene to scene isn’t always flash either. If the soundtrack wasn’t as strong as it is, it would’ve bothered me a lot more than it did.

Visually speaking, there’s a lot to commend. The heavily stylised 3D presentation creates a unique, immediately recognisable aesthetic. Equally so, the character and environment design deserve to endure in whatever form Necrobarista next presents itself. It’s low poly and occasionally a little rough looking – with the infrequent bit of clipping – but I was able to mostly overlook minor issues as I became enthralled in the narrative.

It’s still incredibly cinematic too, even with minimal camera movements and very infrequent character animation. I’d like to have seen more movement in the scenes, but clever tricks used with dialogue text and the character’s designs and posing are sufficiently expressive. 

What’s most exciting about Necrobarista though is what is yet to come. And no, I’m not talking about the fan fiction this first tale from the Terminal will inevitably brew.

Necrobarista is destined for more. Battling burnout and the ‘grind’ that was its development – I hope they appreciate that shocker of a pun – Route 59 Games have succeeded in setting up a world Netflix would be lucky to have. You can’t just go throwing about mentions of the Council of Death without creating more questions than you can answer in a tight, five-hour experience well worth the price of admission.

Thankfully, for now, Route 59 Games have more in store. If scenes and characters never realised but teased in the title sequence aren’t enough evidence, their promise in December last year for “post-launch feature updates and significant content additions” has me excited.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS TESTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Necrobarista Review – Delight in Melbourne’s Dark Corners appeared first on Press Start.

Most of you will probably recognise Arkane Studios for the work they have undertaken since they became a part of the Bethesda stable.

They’re the masterminds behind the Dishonored franchise, the critically successful Prey reboot and more recently their work on Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Cyberpilot, which they helped co-develop alongside MachineGames.

What most gamers wouldn’t know is that before their time at Bethesda, they were quite a way into the development of a new Half-Life episode called ‘Return to Ravenholm’ (which was subsequently cancelled) as well as a revolutionary shooter called ‘The Crossing’ that merged single-player and multiplayer which was also for Valve (but subsequently cancelled).

They were also developing the hugely anticipated ‘LMNO’ for Electronic Arts in collaboration with Steven Spielberg, but this game was also cancelled. Not all was lost though, as by looking at gameplay from all three of these games (which you can watch here in the recent NoClip documentary), it’s evident that all of these games have had a huge impact creatively and gone on to inspire elements of games such as Dishonored and Prey.

“But the thing is we strive not only for originality but for quality”

In celebration of this amazing studio’s 20th anniversary, we got to speak to Studio Leads Dinga Bakaba (Co-Creative Director and Game Director) and Sebastien Mitton (Co-Creative Director and Art Director). We touched on everything from all of the wonderful projects that the studio got to work on pre-Bethesda, the franchises that they’ve gone on to built in recent years and also the future of the studio involving the upcoming Deathloop, which is set to be Arkane’s next game.

It was a hugely fascinating chat which you can listen to in full below:

The best thing about Arkane Studios is that they’re not afraid to take risks, which has been evident in all of their games. This was summed up brilliantly by Dinga Bakaba:

“I remember Raf [Colantonio] saying something like, “if this game with everything we’ve poured into it in terms of passion.. if the industry and players reject it, we might as well go into a bakery” or something else.”

“Which is interesting, because when you play the game (Dishonored) it looks very confident in what it’s doing. But it’s those moments of doubt for the team that, for a moment, it was such a strange beast at the time. And we’ve gone through that again even in the sequel. The guys in Austin went through the same thing, “what is this game (Prey)? What is this game? What is it even?”

“And Deathloop is an adventure [laughs] in terms of ‘what the hell is this?'”

“But the thing is we strive not only for originality but for quality. It’s something we really care about. We care about being genuine with our players, you know, and respecting them with propositions like this that are interesting, and a little bit unique.”

As part of the studios 20th anniversary, Arkane is giving its first-ever game away as well as a digital artbook showcasing the work of all of their games. You can find out more about that right HERE. 

The post We Spoke To Arkane Studios About The Past, Present And Future Of The Studio appeared first on Press Start.

One question always seemed to surround Minecraft Dungeons: who was it for? Whilst we think of Minecraft as being popular with kids, in actuality the blocky sandbox’s millions of fans are both young and old. A dungeon crawler inspired the likes of Diablo, Torchlight and Gauntlet, might then resonate with the portion of Minecraft’s more nostalgic audience, but could it capture the magic of Minecraft and the same broad appeal?

To find out, I enlisted the help of my mum. Listeners to our podcast would know my mum is a keen gamer, and avid Minecraft fan, but beyond the occasional Legend of Zelda game, she doesn’t have a lot of experience with dungeon crawlers. I was curious to see what she would make of it and was eager for a co-op buddy. And I’m pleased to report, she loved it.

Playing through Minecraft Dungeon’s story isn’t a serious undertaking. The story itself is simple: an outcast finds the Orb of Dominance, granting them evil powers that they use to ‘dominate’ the Overworld and wreak havoc. After a brief tutorial, there are just nine main missions that make up the bulk of the game, with a brief preamble contextualising each level. We moved through it rather comfortably throughout the weekend, albeit with a few attempts at the final boss.

That of course, would suggest the game is neither that long nor that challenging, but… there is a but. Difficulty does ramp rather suddenly. Within the ‘Default’ mode, you’re given a spectrum of difficulty for each mission that’s influenced by your ‘Power’ level. 

As you find progressively stronger, better weapons, armour and artifacts (which grant you special abilities), you’re ‘Power’ will increase and game difficulty with it. You’re typically given a band on the spectrum with which to slide the difficulty up and down, with options one above and below your ‘Power’ level. If you want to smash through it, you can drop it down, but if you’re keen to chase better loot, slide it up. Perhaps a comparison to Destiny’s ‘Light’ level mechanic is apt; there’s a recommended level to play each mission, with a caution to those that overextend themselves before putting in the time chasing higher level items.  

And that’s just within the game’s ‘Default’ mode. Once you’ve beaten the game, the ‘Adventure’ mode opens up, that ups the ante even more. It’s now put to you to replay the game with the difficulty significantly increased, but the rewards are all the better. You’ll encounter new enemy variations, new gear and new artifacts.

Beat the game again, and you guessed it, ‘Apocalypse’ mode opens up for the ultimate challenges and rewards. The endgame is formidable, and the challenge renders it not for the faint of heart, but once you get a glimpse of the gear you can get, you’ll be tempted to persist. Whilst the first playthrough is pretty friendly for all, those that are looking for a challenge are sure to find it. 

Seeing as there’s a repetitive element, a lot rides on the game design and combat, which works rather well given its simplicity. A swing of your sword, ace, dagger, whatever, is mapped to one face button, with the others assigned to your equipped artifact. You can shoot arrows using the trigger, which often works in combination with an artifact that imbues the arrows with particular element powers. You can roll with one on the bumpers and heal with the other.

To stay alive, you’ll need to make use of everything at your disposal. There’s no way you can hack ‘n’ slash your way through it, especially at harder difficulties. Remaining evasive and timing your attacks is critical. Often, you’ll need to slink away to heal back up, or hope you find a consumable right when you need it.

Progression, as I’ve already mentioned, is very much tied to your gear. To a certain extent, so are character classes. There’s no one mage class, solider or tank, but equip the right combination of gear and you can kind of emulate it. I was particularly fond of a mage-like setup using the game’s ‘Souls’ mechanic. Defeating enemies allows you to collect ‘Souls’ which would fill up a meter and allow you to use artifacts not reliant on a timed cooldown. The right sword, bow or cloak would allow you to collect ‘Souls’ faster and make more frequent use of your magic attacks.

The combat is simple and intuitive, but variation comes only through the gear you acquire and changeup. Whilst there are subtle differences between the swing and the area of effect between a hammer and a sword, for instance, I’d like to have seen more variety in melee attacks with some combos or the like. For instance, whilst you can charge a ranged attack, there’s nothing similar for a melee attack. 

There’s plenty of variety in the levels, however. These core nine missions take place across varied, yet familiar Minecraft environments, often inspired by the various biomes you see in the original game. Moving from cave to castle, from desert temples to swamps, each level feels unique, and a little fresh every repeat run with levels somewhat randomly generated. The sufficient enemy variety too, with some classic Minecraft baddies, but some new scaries as well. 

In typical dungeon crawling fashion as well, you’ll need to explore every nook and cranny. If you don’t find hidden chests, loot and mobs, helping you increase that level completion score, you might stumble across one of the game’s secret levels. You don’t just stumble across them either; we’re still to uncover a couple.

They’ve done a brilliant job in condensing and transposing Minecraft’s unique, very blocky art style into an isometric view. Everything feels familiar, down to the soundtrack and sound effects that must’ve been pulled straight from existing game files. However, it’s clear the team has had fun putting these levels together; little details make the world feel lived-in like you’ve joined someone’s expertly put-together server. The highest praise I can think to give comes courtesy of my Minecraft-obsessed mum, who was jotting down ideas for her own castle as we played.

If you couldn’t have guessed by this point, I’d argue this is a game best experienced with others. The couch co-op works well for the most part; you can drop in and out instantaneously at any moment and keep multiple characters saved to a profile. If you leave an ally downed for too long, ‘Night’ will fall guaranteeing an almost immediate death, ensuring you don’t go it alone to the annoyance of your co-op buddies. You can’t pause or access your inventory at the same time, which is a little frustrating, but it’s obviously designed with online multiplayer in mind.

My mum and I are likely to keep playing, however. Those high-level items are an attractive perspective and are keeping us motivated through the grind as we progressively increase our ‘Power’ level. Better yet, with two expansions already announced, and an island marked ‘coming soon’ on the map, there looks to be plenty more to enjoy.

THE XBOX ONE VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Minecraft Dungeons Review – You Better Sharpen That Pickaxe appeared first on Press Start.

As the sun sets here in Melbourne, it’s early morning in Stockholm. Out my window, it’s raining. The notorious Melbourne weather defies whatever stereotypes you might have of sunny Australia. Of course, this won’t surprise Måns Olson. Prior to joining Mojang, he spent a year at the University of Melbourne. I play down the fact I attended the cross-town rival, Monash University.

I can only imagine as part of Xbox Games Studios they get a free license. Måns, the Game Director on Minecraft Dungeons, is joined by Art Director Daniel Bjorkefors. We’re touching base on the final stages of the game’s development, which has been only slightly delayed thanks to COVID-19. They’ve transitioned to working from home rather smoothly, and I was glad to hear the team is happy and healthy given all that’s unfolding the world over.

They don’t sound phased at all actually. Instead, they sound super eager to get the game out there for everyone to play. It’s a passion project years in the making, and a departure from the Minecraft we’ve known and loved. It’s a foray into a beloved genre spearheaded by a small, enthusiastic team and it was fantastic to hear first hand how it all came together, and what inspired it’s development.

I see Minecraft Dungeons compared to Diablo a lot – a comparison that you seem to welcome – but what does Minecraft Dungeons do differently from other dungeon crawlers?

Måns Olson: So when we — I mean we’ve talked a lot about our inspirations to the game. Diablo is obviously one of them, as is Torchlight, Gauntlet, we take a lot of inspiration from modern first-person shooters like Left 4 Dead or Vermintide for the cooperative aspects. But that’s just the background right; the main source of inspiration is always going to be Minecraft. And so when we develop, new features when we put content in we always look at Minecraft first and see what’s already there. How can we adapt it? What are some of the rules of Minecraft, the do’s and don’ts. And a big part of Minecraft is that your character does not have any inherent abilities. And for us, that meant that we could not have classes, which is sort of one of the foundations or games in the genre. Typically, you have your class, you play with that there’s a skill tree, you choose your skills accordingly. So we had to approach a lot of the progression and a lot of the kind of systems design from a different angle not having that. And instead, we focused on this concept of you are what you were. So you build your character by combining weapons and armour and artefacts and then enchanting your gear with randomised enchantments meaning one sword will be different from from the next word that you find. And we think there’s a lot of interesting synergy in that and it makes it play a little bit differently than in some of the other games in the genre.

Yeah, I love the combination of lightning with the hammer as well. You suddenly become Thor all of a sudden I think it’s fantastic. Is that strictly how progression is gonna work in the game; you kind of collect items and you try different combinations in your character they get progressively more powerful as you go is that how progression is gonna work in the game?

M: Yeah, essentially. So we also have – I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to play the beta – but the beta version that we just ended recently has the first difficulty that we call default. Within that there is what we call a threat slider, you can choose between six different sub difficulties. And in the full game, we have two more difficulties after that called to adventure and apocalypse. And those kinds of not only progressively scale up the difficulty, but we also add some new stuff, new gear, new artefacts that you can find that weren’t available in the default difficulty, right as new secrets to be uncovered. So I think the combination of that sort of difficulty system that gives you a lot of freedom to choose how you want to play it from easy to hard coupled with the item progression. It’s so nice.

Sounds like there’s plenty of scope for all types of gamers in that as well. If I’m not mistaken it’s a reasonably small team working on the project. I’m interested to know how it began I kind of get the impression that it was a passion project that really stemmed from the team. Is that right?

M: Yes, I would say that’s an accurate description. So we had a team that was looking into building new Minecraft experiences something that you cannot get in the base Minecraft game. And because of the scope of Minecraft, where you can do Creative, you can do Surival, there’s Adventure Mode. There’s all these mods there’s so many ways to play Minecraft. So you have to stray kind of far from that base core of Minecraft in order to get something entirely new. And we have a lot of people on the team that love the genre of dungeon crawlers and also the love the old like 2D Zelda top-down games. And so it started as a small project we were around seven people at the time looking into how that could be matched with Minecraft and we think it’s quite a good fit. Because you do a lot of the same things in Minecraft, you ventured down into caves, you fight mobs you find treasure. So that was really the initial pitch from the Stockholm office, but then it’s grown and been supported in the organisation and we realised that we thought you make a good multiplayer game, that it would be a good fit for more platforms than we had originally envisioned. It was a 3DS game at the start of development and we we moved it to Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox, Windows and Xbox Game Pass.

Okay. All right, so it’s kind of been on the back burner for a while, kind of slowly, slowly evolving by the sounds of things.

M: Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty accurate. But we’re still a small team in the scope of things. It’s about 20 to 25 people.

And having been with my Mojang for eight years now I’m eager to hear your thoughts on what you sort of alluded to there: the evolution of Minecraft. Because I must admit, I was surprised to hear that there would be no mining or crafting features in this game, but of course, that wasn’t a feature of Telltale’s Minecraft: Story Mode either. Is this the continuation – do you think – of Minecraft heading in the new direction and expanding into other genres? Can we expect it to go forwards or further in the future?

M: I don’t think that you should assume that all games will follow that same trajectory. [But] in terms of kind of bringing new experiences to Minecraft, to the Minecraft audience, yes; that’s something we want to keep doing. And we’re currently exploring that in two big ways: Minecraft Dungeons, that is this action-adventure combat focus game. And we have Minecraft Earth, which is you know, an augmented reality game where you build Minecraft in the real world. And I mean going forward there may be other projects if we find the right ones.

Cool! Well we’re just excited for everything Minecraft, we’ll take it all. Obviously, Minecraft Dungeons is procedurally generated much in the same way that the core original game was and features a lot of familiar enemies and environments too. Daniel, what sort of room did you have to play around with from an artistic perspective? Are there new things that you’ve been able to add to the Minecraft ‘multiverse’ anything that might make its way back into the core game at some point as well?

Daniel Bjorkefors: Yeah, sure. I mean, we always base everything on the original Minecraft, but the gameplay needs some additions, of course. So they’re the mobs. I think most of the story about the Illager for example, how it got to be. But yeah, I think we are basing everything on the base game and we’re even like building the levels in the same way as we do for Vanilla. But other than that we just we keep adding but we always sync with like Jens and all the people that have the best knowledge to stick within the Minecraft universe. You know, the point is that we really want our mobs to fit in into Vanilla. I want them to go there. Yeah, actually, maybe they will, maybe they won’t. It’s not the main idea, but it should be possible.

Whilst I’ve got you Daniel, I love those printable templates that you and your son made for your DIY Minecraft LEGO sets. As both a Minecraft fan and an artist with experience working in quite a wide range of mediums, what was unique about working on Minecraft Dungeons?

D: I think the unique thing was to work within the Minecraft universe style I think. It’s you know, it’s blocks. It’s pretty basic textures and so on, but I did get the chance to play with the lights and shadows on such a scene.

You’ve managed to make it look really moody. I think you’re right to touch on the lighting there like the way that you’ve managed to shape the lights and really cast those rays. It creates a different mood that I’ve not typically associated with Minecraft in the past. That’s really cool.

D: Yeah, we thought it was you know, it’s an RPG game, so you need to have that kind of fantasy look, especially when it’s only top down. So to create some depth we’re using a lot of fogs and things in the distance just almost not visible. So yeah, it’s been a great project

You and I have that love for LEGO in common Daniel, and I’m so excited for you to see that set to being made based on the game. Please tell me what that’s like and what influence LEGO has had on the art direction of the game for you.

D: Well, I can’t say that LEGO has had any influence on the on how the game looks now, but of course, it’s a childhood dream. So yeah, I got it. I promised my child like five years ago I’d work with LEGO, so yeah. Check. I’m really proud of this. Super cool. Hopefully, they’ll make more pieces.

Yeah, no doubt! I know it took place a bit of time to find secret loot in the beta and I can imagine there are plenty more secrets awaiting players in the game. What do you think will surprise players the most when they get their hands on it come May 26?

M: Well, that’d be a bit of a spoiler wouldn’t it?

D: I was biting my tongue for a minute here!

M: I mean, I think it’s it’s a difficult question to answer because it will be different depending on who you are. But we’re hoping that we’ll surprise players by just you know, having these charming, interesting kind of secrets and of world-building that will just feel right and kind of Minecraft-y while still being delightful. So I love the little like glowing mushrooms that makes sense when you step on them in Creeper Woods. Little details like that are very important.

D: And you’ll find like push buttons, suddenly you can push and things open up. Hopefully, people will scream by enjoyment. I’ve been talking earlier, we developed a rune alphabet for Dungeons, in particular. And we’ve hidden that as much as we can. So it’s for the hardcore gamers to explore, [there may] even maybe [be] a bit of the Minecraft universe. So it’s big.

Well, based on having played the game on the PAX show floor here in Australia last October, it was attracting a big diverse crowds. I suspect it’s one of the biggest kind of sleeper hits of the year. I feel like it’s one that’s unduly flying under people’s radar. But will find a very, very big audience indeed. So I’m super excited for you.

M: We certainly hope so. I mean, we’ve it’s been so exciting to see the the the reactions to the beta when players have been streaming the game because it’s kind of a first chance to see it on a large scale. Just hands off when we don’t have we can’t step in and tell players what to do, right? It’s just him speaking for itself. And it seems to be received well, so far. That’s super exciting and pretty emotional because you know it’s a scary thing taking on trying to make a sort of spin-off title to Minecraft because it’s got such a passionate community around it there are so many players that have very strong opinions and feelings about what the game could and should be. So it’s daunting but it’s fun.

Is there hope you’ll be able to return to it again in the future and bring out additional content for it and introduce new enemy types to expand on the story at all that kind of thing?

M: Absolutely, we’ve, we’ve announced two DLC packs that you’ll get if you buy the Hero Edition game. So there’ll be you’ll get them as they release. And we’re currently looking into what we can do after those first two DLCs and then how we can update the game after release. But those plans will by nature be a little bit vague because we need to release the game and sort of see the reactions of players and, you know, figure out what the demand is, what things do players want to see more of? What is it okay for us to focus a little bit less on? And sort of take that into account as we develop the game.

Yeah, I think it’s fantastic as well, that is coming to so many platforms too. I get – based on what you’ve said today – that that might not necessarily been the plan from the beginning, but when the plans did change to bring it wider than the 3DS version, was it always it’s got to be on PlayStation, PC, Switch, Xbox Game Pass, just get it into as many people’s hands as possible?

M: Yeah, I mean, generally speaking, that’s always our hope. We just want to make sure that as many players as possible can play our games and sort of regardless of what platform they’re on.

The post Taking Minecraft Into New Genres: An Interview With Minecraft Dungeon’s Måns Olson And Daniel Bjorkefors appeared first on Press Start.

If you’d asked me a couple of years ago, I’d have guessed there’d be few people that love Crash Bandicoot as much as myself. As I write this, licensed Crash socks warm my feet and plastic recreations of the iconic character adorn my desk. Clearly, I’m not the only Crash fan ecstatic to have him back though. When the N-Sane Trilogy was announced, I was, of course, tremendously excited but secretly wishing its inevitable success would bring back my true favourite Crash game, Crash Team Racing. Sure enough, my prayers were answered and Nitro-Fueled is here, and it’s everything I hoped it would be.

Booting up the game was a near spiritual experience. As a kid of the late nineties who grew up with PlayStation, I spent a significant amount of time burning rubber in Naughty Dog’s original kart racer. The theme music and selection sounds are ingrained in my memory and to hear them remade and blaring from TV once again fixed a permanent smile on my face. Popping into the menus, I notice you can switch on the ‘Legacy’ music for the original sounds, but it’s not necessary. Beenox has nailed this remaster and created the definitive CTR experience.

The game looks incredible with Beenox going further than a simple recreation, adding all sorts of new details to each course. Animated scenes playout along the edge of the track, all within the theme for the character associated with the track. Rats scuttle about in N. Gin Labs and the stained glass windows of Cortex Castle tell more of the story between Crash and Dr Neo Cortex than before. Along with each of the character’s voice quips and signature celebratory dance moves, it works to bring more personality to the game than the original.

It’s awesome to see a bunch of Nitro Kart tracks added in there too, but I’m a little divided on the tracks as a whole. It’s a holdover from the original, but as memorable as they are for me, I don’t know if newcomers will be as enamoured with them. Sure, the tracks are varied enough and the well-hidden shortcuts keep you on your toes, but the track hazards are rather basic and there are no real super memorable, crazy setpiece sections I associate with numerous Mario Kart tracks.

I was a little disappointed to see the menus and character selection overhauled as drastically as it has been. The black and white checkered flag backdrop has been replaced by a rather solid blue and you know to choose from a rather generic character selection screen rather than scrolling through each of the characters in their workshops like in the original. It’s a rather superficial complaint, but with such attention to detail everywhere else, I’m a little disappointed they didn’t give you at least the option here.

But how it plays remains relatively unchanged. I was genuinely surprised to find the controls were the same by default. Starting my first lap, I held down the trigger to accelerate, like a fool. Indeed, there is an alternative control option (albeit only one) but anyone attached to the classic will no doubt appreciate playing it as it comes.

The same mechanics are all there too. Whilst it looks slicker than ever, power-sliding around each corner is the secret to speed. Chaining together consecutive boosts to reach maximum speed is a simple enough challenge to wrap your head around, but pulling it off in the heat of the race is another challenge altogether. It’s the age-old easy to learn but hard to master formula; the game is accessible but racing the perfect lap can prove quite the challenge.

The game’s classic Adventure Mode has also seen some sensible changes. If you can remember, the campaign-like mode sees the alien, Nitrous Oxide, threaten to destroy Earth if the planet’s best racer is unable to beat him in a race. You can see where Rick and Morty’s Cromulons got the idea! It’s a straightforward, appropriately zany story in which you use an overworld to travel between a series of races, collect keys to face bosses in head-to-head races before eventually facing Oxide himself. There’s also added Time Trials and collectible challenges you need to complete to 100% the mode and face Oxide in a final showdown.

From memory, the game got hard real quick and I was excited to see a ‘Classic’ difficulty mode which recreates this ramp in difficulty. It really challenges you to master each course and perfect all the twists and turns to triumph. Doing so sometimes took me a good hour, and there was this monumental sense of achievement when I finally clutched a win, crossing the finish line meer microseconds before my opponent. In my mind, it was reminiscent of the feeling when you beat a Dark Souls boss that’s been pummelling you for hours, but that’s obviously as far as that comparison goes.

Like I alluded to previously however, this game is much more accessible. I experimented with the other difficulty settings and the ‘Easy’ mode is very manageable and keeps the game family friendly. ‘Medium’ is where it starts to get tough, and only real pros ought to be able to tackle ‘Hard’. All in all, it should take a bit of effort to Platinum the game is you’re up for the journey.

In each of these new modes, you can change your character and difficulty setting on the fly. They’ve added a bunch of character and kart customisation options that you too can adjust on the go as you unlock them. I had a lot of fun playing around with different looks for the characters and there’s more promised in the roadmap of soon-to-be-released content.

The game is rather generous in awarding new cosmetic items at the end of each race, as well as rewarding you with coins that can be exchanged at the ‘Pit Stop’ for other unlockables. I was initially apprehensive at the idea that certain characters, karts, etc. could only be unlocked by purchasing them at this virtual store, assuming this would be where microtransactions take over, but all of these are earned by playing the game. I was able to accrue enough coins in my playtime to at least unlock all the characters so I’m sure completing it in its entirety will provide ample opportunity to unlock everything.

With brand-new online functionality and split-screen returning, there’s plenty to keep you busy unlocking everything with other modes on offer, from Grand Prixs to Battles. I’m a touch disappointed that there isn’t a Mario Kart-style ‘VS Race’ with customisable rules as I’m sure there’s an item or two some people will hate and like to remove if it were possible. I didn’t take any issue with the balance, however, so personally, I’m not all that phased.

And that’s as much as I can critique the game. My past week with it has been quite the ride, a delightfully nostalgic (road) trip. Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled is everything I hoped it would be. It’s a super polished, accurate recreation of the original game I hold near and dear, with added flair and personality. It holds up against the best contemporary kart racers and is perhaps the best kart racer available on any non-Nintendo platform. It’s a damn good time to be a Crash fan. I’ll see you on the track.

THE PLAYSTATION 4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled Review – Buckle Up, the Turbo-Boosting Bandicoot is Back appeared first on Press Start.

Dark Crystal is coming to Netflix with a highly anticipated series, but also to Switch with the game Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics, as announced during Nintendo’s E3 Direct.

The game is a tactical strategy game taking place in the fantasy world of Thra and is based on the events of the Netflix series. It promises never-seen-before playable characters, stories and environments and is due to release later this year.

The post Dark Crystal Is Coming To Switch As A Tactical Strategy Game appeared first on Press Start.

Daemon X Machina, the battle mech game that sees you defending the world from corrupted AI robots, is coming September 13th and will be improved upon following the criticism its demo attracted.

A trailer breaking down the improvements with regard to enemy locking-on, boss battles, equipment scavenging, incoming fire warnings, gyro aiming, controls, weapon reloading, aerial speed, damage effects and more.

The game is coming to Switch September 13th.

The post Daemon X Machina Is Listening To Feedback After Its Rocky Demo appeared first on Press Start.

Wrapping up E3 2019, Nintendo had their direct in the early, early hours of this morning, showing off a bunch of reveals and updates for games on the Switch. Here’s a video showing off a bunch of the games and a full report on all the announcements!

New Challengers Approach

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is getting new fighters from Dragon’s Quest.

Dragon Quest XI

https://youtu.be/Yx3eK-aZJhs

Nintendo and Square Enix have today shown off another trailer for Dragon Quest XI, the Definitive Edition which is coming to Nintendo Switch later this year.

Luigi’s Mansion 3

Luigi’s spooktacular adventure got a new trailer featuring some gameplay.

The Dark Crystal

A game based on Jim Henson’s Dark Crystal is coming to the Switch this year. It’s called Age of Resistance Tactics. 

Link’s Awakening

The remake got a release date of September 20th 2019, and a new trailer.

Trials of Mana + Collection of Mana

Trials of Mana is a full HD remake of the series’ third game coming 2020. The collection bundles the first three games together and is available today.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

It’s coming to the Switch as a complete edition.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

The game is still coming July 26th and got a new trailer.

Resident Evil 5 + 6

Both games are coming to the Switch Fall 2019 (our Spring).

No More Heroes

While we don’t know much, today it was confirmed that No More Heroes III will be coming to Nintendo Switch sometime in 2020.

Contra Rogue Corp and Anniversary Collection

https://youtu.be/T4Ac9rTRwxk

Contra Rogue Corps was announced but fans may be more excited to hear that the Anniversary Collection will be available on the eShop later today.

Daemon x Machina

The game got a release date for September 13th and has improved a lot since the demo.

Panzer Dragoon

A “remade version” of Panzer Dragoon is coming Winter 2020 (our Summer).

Astral Chain

PlatinumGames and Nintendo today announced in their Nintendo Direct that Astral Chain would be releasing on August 30th for Nintendo Switch.

Empire of Sin

Empire of Sin is a new narrative set in Prohibition-era Chicago coming Spring 2020 (our Autumn) delving into the “gritty underbelly of organised crime”.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3

The game is getting an expansion pass with content from X-Men, Marvel Knights and Fantastic Four.

Cadence of Hyrule

Cadence of Hyrule is hitting the eShop later this week, after being given vague release dates at least twice prior.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

https://youtu.be/NpKvB796n3Y

Mario and Sonic return to the Olympics this November.

Animal Crossing

There was a new trailer, but bad news, it’s delayed until March 20th 2020.

Spyro: Reignited Trilogy

Spyro coming Sept 3 pic.twitter.com/InwqPBum6r

— Wario64 (@Wario64) June 11, 2019

It’s coming to the Switch September 3rd.

More Switch Games Coming

https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1138485467303665664/photo/1

They also announced a bunch of games coming over to the Switch, including Alien Isolation and Super Lucky Tale.

Banjo and Kazooie Coming To Smash

There was a moment of panic when we thought it might have been an epic troll, but there was no need to worry.

Breath of the Wild 2

Yep, you read that right. It’s in development.

Keep up with everything from E3 over on our E3 Hub!

The post All Of Nintendo’s Announcements From E3 2019 appeared first on Press Start.

Sound the alarm, Nintendo has just surprised us all revealing that a sequel to the much loved The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is in development. Not a lot was revealed about the game so far, and it’s still likely a fair way off, but the reveal trailer has us hyped!

The game seems to maintain the art style established in Breath of the Wild, and potentially utilising the same game world too. We get a tantalising glimpse of Zelda and Link alongside each other, bearing witness to some unspeakable evil awakening upon the world. With any hope, it’s just more Breath of the Wild and we don’t have too long to wait.

The post The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Is Getting A Sequel appeared first on Press Start.

Mario and Sonic are returning to the Olympics for Tokyo 2020 and Nintendo have shown a new trailer to celebrate revealing the game is coming November this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpKvB796n3Y

A whole bunch of familiar events and minigames are reappearing the game, but some new additions like kickboxing and rock climbing are also included.

The post Mario And Sonic At The 2020 Tokyo Olympics Has A Trailer And Release Date appeared first on Press Start.

During Nintendo’s E3 Direct, a new top-down Contra game, Rogue Corps, was announced, but fans may be more excited to hear that the classic games will be available to purchase as a collection on the eShop later today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Ac9rTRwxk

The new game is a top-down action shooter that will feature wireless co-operative play between multiple Switch consoles.

Fans, however, might be more excited for the Anniversary Collection, a 10-game collection of the classic games announced back in March will be made available sometime today.

The post Contra Rogue Corps Is Coming But More Importantly, The Annivesary Collection Is Coming Later Today appeared first on Press Start.

UPDATE: A press release had confirmed The Complete Edition includes all content released post-launch, including the two story expansions: Hearts of Stone & Blood and Wine.

One of the most acclaimed RPGs of this generation is making its way to the Nintendo Switch. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, from developers CD Projekt Red, is coming as a complete edition to the hybrid gaming console.

Presumably, it will have all the added on content from the expansions the games received since its launch.

It will be released sometime this year.

The post The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Is Coming To The Nintendo Switch appeared first on Press Start.

Luigi’s spooktacular adventure got a good showing during Nintendo’s E3 Direct, showing off some of the game’s gameplay mechanics. Frustratingly, no release date was given, it was just reconfirmed for 2019.

Scarescraper Mode is the game’s multiplayer mode where you and your friends must clear haunted floors of a skyscraper before time runs out.

The post There’s A New Luigi’s Mansion 3 Trailer Featuring Some Ghostly Gameplay appeared first on Press Start.

This morning, Square Enix took to the stage at E3 2019, announcing a bunch of new information for the games they’ve got in the works. Here’s all they announced.

Final Fantasy VII Remake

There was a deep dive into Final Fantasy VII Remake. They announced they’ve got two Blu-Ray discs worth of gameplay content, but the first part would be Midgar as a stand-alone game. That is to suggest the release will still be staggered to some extent.

https://youtu.be/O8RDPxUFjkU

The combat takes place in real time, but levelling up a meter allows you to activate tactical combat with freezes time and allows you to plan out attacks, in a turn-based fashion. These attacks can also be mapped to buttons to keep things real-time too though if you prefer.

Collector’s/special editions were also revealed.

Life Is Strange 2

Got a new trailer. But, you know, the game’s been out for a while and the last two episodes are still coming out later this year.

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is getting a remaster treatment as well as a release for mobile platforms this year. The release will also include online multiplayer.

Octopath Traveller

The RPG is now on PC and available to download on Steam.

The Last Remnant Remastered

https://youtu.be/_1RMBp37M20

The Last Remnant has been remastered for the Switch and will be available to download sometime today.

Dragon Quest Builders

Dragon Quest Builders 2 is making its way to the west July 12th on the Switch and PlayStation 4, but in the meantime, we’ve got a new trailer and a demo out June 27th on the PlayStation Store.

Dragon Quest XI

Echoes of an Elusive Age: Definitive Edition is coming to the Nintendo Switch this Fall (our Spring) and we got a new trailer.

Circuit Superstars

Circuit Superstars is a quirky racing game coming 2020.

Final Fantasy Soundtracks

Final Fantasy soundtracks are coming to a bunch of streaming platforms.

Kingdom Hearts III

It’s out, and I think Square just wanted to remind everyone…? But there’s another trailer for the ReMind DLC already announced.

Final Fantasy XIV

It was announced that Final Fantasy XIV Online’s Shadowbringers content would be released on July 2.

Dying Light 2

https://youtu.be/MWSR42a5B3g

The zombie parkour game got another gameplay clip.

SaGa

Romancing SaGa 3 and SaGa Scarlet Grace: Ambitions are coming to the West on a myriad of platforms.

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius: War of Visions

It’s coming to mobile and got a trailer.

Outriders

Developers People Can Fly revealed their new game Outrider with an announcement trailer. 

Onikani

The game got a release date of the 22nd August and got a trailer.

Final Fantasy VIII Remaster

The Final Fantasy game plagued by licensing issues restricting its remaster is finally free. It’s coming this year to PS4 marking its 20th anniversary.

Marvel’s Avengers

The long-awaited Avengers game from Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal finally has a proper trailer showing Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk and Black Widow in action. And golly gosh, doesn’t it look incredible.

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The long-awaited Avengers game from Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal finally has a proper trailer showing Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk and Black Widow in action. And golly gosh, doesn’t it look incredible.

Each character seemingly is playable and all the footage shown is apparently in engine. It’s a cinematic, character-driven campaign spanning multiple years.

It also supports up to 4-player online cooperative play. There’s no random loot boxes or pay-to-win scenarios.

As far as the voice cast, Nolan North is recognisably the voice of Iron Man. Troy Baker is playing Bruce Banner, Jeff Shine voicing Captain America, Travis Willingham brings to life Thor and Laura Bailey is, of course, playing Black Widow. It’s a star-studded lineup.

It’s coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC May 15th 2020, but they’ve partnered with PlayStation for early beta access and “unique benefits” still to be revealed.

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The Techland developed open-world zombie parkour game, Dying Light 2, has already had a bit of a reveal during the Xbox E3 presentation, but publisher Square Enix also took some time to discuss it during theirs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWSR42a5B3g

They shared some more footage showing some of the parkour and combat in action, proving it will still be as spooky and gruesome as the first.

Spring 2020 is still tagged as the release window, which would make the Australia release sometime on our Autumn. Ahh, these hemispheres get annoying at times.

The post Dying Light 2 Has Got A Spooky New Gameplay Trailer appeared first on Press Start.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 is making its way to the west July 12th on the Switch and PlayStation 4, but in the meantime, we’ve got a new trailer and a demo on the way.

The demo will be available to download June 27th on the PlayStation Store.

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Octopath Traveler, the popular Switch RPG, is available has come to PC. It is now available to download on Steam.

We enjoyed the Switch version of Octopath a great deal, giving it an 8/10 saying, “Octopath Traveler is truly a charming and wonderful J-RPG that has reminded me that there’s still a place for old classics. “

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Earlier this morning, Ubisoft had their turn at E3 2019, announcing a bunch of new information for their existing roster of games, and some new ones. Here’s all they announced.

DIY Assassin’s Creed Quests

During the pre-show for their E3 conference, Ubisoft announced that a Story Creator mode would be coming to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey that will allow players to craft their own huge, expansive narratives with branching dialogue choices and options.

Assassin’s Creed Symphony

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VYkp7AE8no

Before you get too excited, it’s just an orchestra travelling the world performing score from the games.

Watch Dogs Legion

Ubi really kicked off the show with a gameplay trailer of Watch Dogs Legion, indeed set with a dystopian London. Most interestingly, it now features permadeath, requiring you to assemble a team of hackers you can select to play in the event of death.

Unbelievably, any character in the game world can be recruited to join the cause. They all have backstories and are fully voice-acted and animated. Pretty crazy!

Mythic Quest

https://youtu.be/9a5tWM5yQZA

A new TV show made in collaboration with Ubisoft and Always Sunny in Philadelphia writer and star, Rob McElhenney, taking the piss out of game development and an egotistic creative director.

Rainbow Six Seige – Phantom Sight

A trailer for the new Rainbow Six Seige update was released, featuring the new operator, Warden.

Brawlhalla x Adventure Time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWT0YH1WFNk

Finn and Jake, along with Princess Bubblegum, are coming to Brawlhalla. The event also features a new Buddy game mode and a new Adventure Time themed map called Tree Fort.

Ghost Recon: Breakpoint

Jon Bernthal took the stage after a new story trailer properly introducing his character, as well as introducing a new gameplay trailer. It was also announced there will be a playable beta September 5th.

Tom Clancy Elite Squad

A new mobile game assembling a roster of familiar Tom Clancy characters, with a cutesy, cartoony art style, was announced.

Just Dance 2020

https://youtu.be/EtiXKHNAFew

The new Just Dance was revealed with a musical number featuring Panic at the Disco’s “High Hopes” led the way, followed by “Kill This Love” by Blackpink and Little Big’s “Skibidi”.

For Honor LTM

For Honor is receiving a limited time mode, Soul Rush, with spectral customisations for all heroes and “otherworldly map ambience.”

Rainbow Six Quarantine

A brand-new Rainbow Six game, called Quarantine was announced. It’s a 3-player tactical co-op first-person shooter that can be experienced entirely in co-op. It’s out next year.

The Division 2 Update

Three new expansions are coming to The Division 2, taking players outside of Washington DC and to the Pentagon. A second raid is also on the way.

Uplay+ Subscription Service

Everyone seems to have a subscription service now and Ubisoft clearly felt left out. Uplay+ will cost $US14.99 a month, grant access to a library of over 100 games including access to the most premium digital versions.

Roller Champions

It’s a free-to-play PVP roller derby game that pits two teams of three against one another where the goal is to race around tracks while maintaining possession of the ball. The Alpha is available for PC now.

Gods & Monsters

Perhaps the nicest surprise was Gods & Monsters, a new game from the team behind Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. They’re maintaining the Greek setting but committing to the fantasy/mythology and a Breath of the Wild art style, putting aside realistic visuals and historical accuracy.

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It has certainly become a trend for games publishers to have their own subscription service to a catalogue of their own games. Of course, Xbox has had a lot of success with Game Pass, and EA perhaps less so with Origin Access, but now Ubisoft is entering the fray.

Late into their E3 presentation, Ubisoft announced Uplay+, a subscription service granting paying subscribers access to over 100 PC games via their Uplay launcher, but also Stadia when it’s released.

It’s important to note that subscribers will get access to the most premium digital version as well. For example, if there’s a ‘Gold’ version of the game let’s say, with added content not included in the ‘Standard’ version, subscribers will get all the ‘Gold’ content. Pretty cool.

It will cost $US14.99 per month, but if you sign up now you’ll get temporary free access in September.

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At E3 2019, Ubisoft announced the follow up to Rainbow Six Seige, a brand-new 3-player tactical co-op first-person shooter. It’s set to be released next year on Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

They were light on details at the conference but have published a video explaining the gameplay. The entirety of the game can be played in co-op, and they suggest that although it is similar to Seige, it’s a good place to jump in and experience Rainbow Six for the first time.

It borrows some existing Operators players will be familiar with.

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On the Ubisoft E3 stage, amongst announcements of a new Watch Dogs and information on Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Ubisoft announced a new mobile game that looks like a cutesy, blocky action game reminiscent of Rainbow Six Seige. 

The game assembles a familiar cast of characters, including plenty of recognisable characters from the swathe of Tom Clancy games including The Division, Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six. Even Sam Fisher, who we’ve not seen in a Splinter Cell game for some time makes an appearance.,

You can pre-register for it now, but otherwise, we don’t know an awful lot about it yet.

The post Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad Brings Some Of Your Favourite Characters To Mobile appeared first on Press Start.

Bethesda has just wrapped up their E3 2019 presentation where they announced… Here’s everything they spoke about.

The Elder Scrolls: Blades

An update drops sometime today including new dragon questlines, new jewellery and new arena battles. It’s also coming to the Nintendo Switch, for free in Fall 2019 (that’s our Spring).

It’s cross play and cross progression between mobile and Switch too. Way to go Bethesda.

Fallout 76

The controversial Fallout 76 – which Bethesda acknowledged was problematic – is receiving some major updates. One update, Wastelanders, is adding human NPCs and questlines, features the game weirdly lacked prior to now. It will be a free update.

There will be a free trial for Fallout 76 for the week starting tomorrow.

A new game mode is being added, Nuclear Winter, a 52-player Fallout Battle Royale. That’s a gameplay trailer above. Wow.

Ghostwire: Tokyo

This is a new action-adventure game from the Japanese studio, Tango Gameworks, fighting paranormal activities plaguing the city. The creative director came out to the stage to show a trailer.

The Elder Scrolls Online

Dragons are coming to ESO and to celebrate, Bethesda premiered a glitzy cinematic trailer. It’s all part of a new wave of story content called Dragonhold.

In the meantime, there’s some more dungeon DLC coming called Scalebreaker, which is an equally cool title.

Commander Keen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ZD9_tLwgA

Zenimax Online announced they were working on a number of titles in addition to Elder Scrolls Online, including a Commander Keen mobile game coming to iOS and Android.

Elder Scrolls Legends

The mobile card game is getting some new content with the Moons of Elsweyr update.

Rage 2

The recently released Avalanche game is getting some new content, including some cheats and a new expansion, Rise of the Ghosts.

Wolfenstein

Wolfenstein Youngblood got a new trailer and Cyberpilot, the already announced VR Wolfenstein project, got another mention.

DEATHLOOP

Arkane made a surprise appearance (depending on who you ask I guess) to reveal a new first-person action game called Deathloop. It seems to focus on two characters seeking to kill each other.

Arkane promises mindbending gameplay and meticulous world design. It looks like it could have some really tripping gameplay mechanics. Sign me up!

Orion

Doom being played on mobile, streamed, showing no latency pic.twitter.com/SD30k5sbDk

— Wario64 (@Wario64) June 10, 2019

Bethesda, having boasted their technical innovation, showed off some new streaming technologies that improve game engines so they can be played over an internet connection better, such as required by the likes of Google Stadia or XCloud. It’s meant to help reduce latency and makes streamed games “faster and better,” as well as reduce the cost for players and publishers.

Doom Eternal

A new trailer and more gameplay were shown off and – most importantly – a release date was given. The game will be out, November 22nd, a little later then we’d have liked but it will have a rad collector’s edition. If you’re lucky enough to be at E3, it’s playable on the show floor. Very jealous.

The new multiplayer mode, Battlemode, was also discussed and some footage shown.

For everything else from E3, check out our E3 Hub!

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Early this morning, Xbox took to the stage at E3 2019 to reveal a tonne of Xbox news, showing off game trailers, new accessories and – you guessed it – their next generation of console.

The Outer Worlds

The epic looking space role-playing game was given a new trailer and an October 25th release date.

Bleeding Edge

As per the leaks, Ninja Theory’s new game, the first after their acquisition by Xbox, is Bleeding Edge, a 4v4 action melee game.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Microsoft finally unveiled a release date for Ori and the Will of the Wisps, detailing that it’s set for release early next year on February 11, 2020.

Minecraft Dungeons

Microsoft has owned the Minecraft property for a little while now, but haven’t done an awful lot with it. Of course, they announced Minecraft Earth – a new AR game being worked on – but at E3 2019, they have also announced Minecraft Dungeon, an isometric dungeon crawler embedded within the Minecraft world. coming to Xbox and PC Spring 2020.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

The hotly anticipated Star Wars game received a new trailer, showing off Forest Whitaker in full force.

Blair Witch

https://youtu.be/e7j6Jo2Ryp8

A trailer for a new Blair Witch game was shown and it looks real spooky. Viewer discretion advised.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk got a new story trailer, a release date of April 16th 2020 and revealed Keanu Reeves is in the game.

Spiritfarer

The game “is a cozy management game about dying.” You play as a “ferrymaster to the deceased, build a boat to explore the world, care for your spirit friends, and guide them across mystical seas to finally release them into the afterlife.” It’s coming 2020 to all platforms.

Battletoads

Battletoads was announced last year but it was this year that we finally got a chance to see how the game will look and play. Utilising a highly stylised art direction that calls back to the original games but still seems to be it’s own, the game will support up to three player couch co-op as well as some pretty gnarly boss battles.

The Legend of Wright

It’s coming in 2020 and is an RPG inspired by tabletop games.

ID @ Xbox

A tonne of indie games coming to Game Pass were shown off in a snappy trailer.

Game Pass

With a library of over one hundred games, curated just for the PC, the service is in open beta right now. Some of the games coming to PC in the package include Imperator: Rome, Football Manager 2019 and Master Chief Collection.

Batman Arkham Knight, Metro Exodus, Hollow Knight and the Borderlands Handsome Collection is coming to the Xbox as well.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Flight Simulator is one of those games that people have always kind of wanted but never really made a splash this generation as much as it did in previous ones. Microsoft today have revealed a brand new Flight Simulator, which will run in 4K and is powered by both real map data and Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure.

Double Fine Productions Is Now An Xbox Studio

Last year, Microsoft expanded their Xbox Game Studios stocks by gobbling up a number of high-profile studios which, based on what we’ve seen so far, has certainly appeared to bear fruit. During their E3 2019 conference, it was announced that Double Fine Productions has become the newest acquisition of Xbox Game Studios.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

All nine films are given the LEGO treatment coming 2020.

Dragon Ball Z Kakarot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy9FuthWVkE

A new Dragon Ball game is coming in 2020.

Age of Empires II

The game will feature updated 4K visuals, remastered audio as well as a brand new campaign called The Last Khans.

12 Minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h5kBrSqnbc

This tense trailer for the upcoming game 12 Minutes was shown. It’s coming to “PC and console” but no more clarification was given.

Way To The Woods

It’s got a beautiful art style and is coming in 2020. Don’t kill Bambi!

Wasteland 3

Got a new trailer suggesting it’s adopting a vastly different tone to its predecessors.

Gears of War 5

The Coalition revealed a new trailer and a release date of September 10. They also showed a new mode and a Terminator-themed character pack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErqsgG0HRR8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSaZPvtSIBs

New Elite Controller

A new Elite Controller is coming, with a bunch of new and improved features.

Forza Horizon 4 LEGO Speed Champions

LEGO vehicles are being added to Forza Horizon 4.

Dying Light 2

They showed a new trailer revealing the main character Aiden, who is infected themselves. It also got a loose release date of Spring 2020 (Autumn for us here in Australia).

Gears Pop

The mobile game announced last year received a new trailer. It will be available to “preorder soon” on the App and Google Play Stores.

State of Decay 2: Heartland

The downloadable add-on with two new stories and threats is available now.

Phantasy Star Online 2

https://youtu.be/1kwL2Lm_PsA

It’s coming to the west free-to-play via the Xbox One in Spring (slash Autumn here) in 2020.

CrossfireX

CrossfireX is a massive multiplayer war shooter coming to Xbox first in 2020. It’s phrased as “first to console”, so we assume it’ll launch simultaneously for PC.

Tales of Arise

Again, as per the leak, Tales of Arise is coming next year.

Borderlands 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S033QSkblL4

The September game got a new trailer.

Elden Ring

https://youtu.be/3CTszPmd7ks

Here’s George R. R. Martin’s game made in collaboration with From Software. We got a trailer, but not much else.

XCloud

Xbox’s game streaming service is available to test on the show floor. It is coming to existing Xboxes.

Next Gen: Project Scarlett

“The console is vital and central to our experience.” They spoke about faster low times with a solid-state drive, a four times more powerful processor, resolution and frame rates not seen before. 8K and 120 frames per second were mentioned.

Halo Infinite

It got a trailer and was confirmed to be a launch title for Xbox Scarlett. Despite the trailer giving off ‘soft reboot’ vibes because it does feel like a breath of fresh air for the series, 343 Industries has been pretty firm about it being a sequel to Halo 5: Guardians which wasn’t received well by fans or critics.

Keep up to date on everything E3 over on our E3 Hub!

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Microsoft has owned the Minecraft property for a little while now, but haven’t done an awful lot with it. Of course, they announced Minecraft Earth – a new AR game being worked on – but at E3 2019, they have also announced Minecraft Dungeon, an isometric dungeon crawler embedded within the Minecraft world.

There’s familiar enemies and environments, and by the looks of things, plenty of recognisable weapons and equipment to be collected to help you on your quest.

It’s coming Spring 2020 with 4-player local and online co-op, with PC and Xbox releases. Again, it’s coming to Game Pass.

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As per the leaks, Ninja Theory’s new game, the first after their acquisition by Xbox, is Bleeding Edge, a 4v4 action melee game.

It features a bunch of highly stylised characters, reminiscent of hero shooter games such as Overwatch and the like, each seemingly with unique abilities. The combat comes the way from game director Rahni Tucker, who worked as the combat director on Devil May Cry.

It will be coming to Xbox Game Pass at launch.

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We’re less than twenty-four hours away from the official start of E3 2019, but let’s be real, it feels like it started a week ago. Moving away from the traditional press conference approach, EA has kicked off their EA Play event which included a number of presentations on their slate of games, revealing all the new content coming to the likes of Apex Legends, Battlefield V and The Sims 4, as well as new reveals of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Madden 20 and FIFA 20. 

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

We’ve known about Fallen Order since it was teased by studio head Vince Zampella at E3 last year, and received story details at Star Wars Celebration this year, but we’ve been eagerly anticipating the reveal of gameplay. Thankfully, that wait is now over.

Fallen Order looks to play exactly like we hoped it would. It’s third-person, over-the-should action adventure with plenty of melee combat. The 14-minute gameplay clip shows off some devastating lightsaber attacks, force powers and an impressive enemy variety, including alien creatures. The Stormtroopers go down in a single hit, as you would expect them too, but some of the tougher enemies look like they pose more of a challenge. There are climbing and alternate pathways in a fashion reminiscent of the Uncharted franchise of games. It’s very impressive visually and flows well, with smooth transitions between ‘cutscenes’ and gameplay.

FIFA 20

FIFA returns in 2019, unsurprisingly. Besides the usual lick of paint and refreshed rosters, the game is introducing a new mode, called ‘Volta’ (which means ‘the return’ in Portuguese, FYI), that promises to take “football back to the streets with the authentic culture, creativity and style of the small-sided game.”

Apex Legends

Apex has been criticised for its lack of regular content drop and updates. Of course, it has been Respawn’s plan all along to stagger new content to ensure more substantial changes with each update, without rushing things and risking balancing issues. But that looks about to change.

In a 20-minute feature on the content coming to Apex, the team revealed a new playable character, or legend, called Wattson. She’s a defensive/support character that can drop ‘fences’ that weaken and ping enemies and their squads, with an Ultimate that repels airstrikes and grenades whilst regenerating shields. They committed to building out the lore of the game too, showing an animated clip detailing her backstory and her involvement in the construction of the arena with her father.

Respawn also announced changes to the Battle Pass in Season 2, adopting challenges as a form of progression and ensuring it will be able to be completed faster. They’ve also removed badges and trackers in favour of three new content rewards. A new gold gun from supply drops is being introduced, a sub-machine gun with enough power to blow open doors, as well as a suite of news skins for existing characters and guns.

Battlefield V

DICE’s tentpole multiplayer first-person shooter had its new Tides of War Chapter 4 content revealed, called Defying the Odds, featuring new maps starting with the map ‘Marita’ coming out in July. The Greek mountainside setting focuses on close-quarters combat with light vehicles. A new desert map, ‘Al Sundan’, and one inspired by the classic Battlefield 3 map ‘Operation Metro’ is coming, now named ‘Operation Underground’. Two others, ‘Loften Islands’ and ‘Provence’ were also mentioned, so there seems to be no shortage of new maps on the horizon.

It was also revealed Battlefield V is headed to the Pacific with Chapter 5, invoking serious Battlefield 1942 vibes. It’s really starting to look like every Battlefield game rolled into one.

Furthermore, DICE also promised regular content updates to their own battle royale, ‘Firestorm’, and that the game will be added to the Vault, granting access to those who subscribe to EA Access or Origin Access.

The Sims 4

Everyone’s favourite life sim is getting a new expansion pass, called ‘Living Island’, coming to PC June 21 and to consoles on July 16. As the name suggests, it features picturesque island settings, coral reefs, boats, beachside bars and maybe even… mermaids?

Madden 20

Madden also returns this year, with a new career campaign and improved gameplay features, including new additions such as Superstar X-Factors and Zone Abilities. The campaign, titled ‘Face of the Franchise: QB1 follows the rise of your own player-created quarterback from college football to the NFL. A trailer featuring the new cover athlete, Patrick Mahomes, was also released.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MVNCFoeD9I&feature=youtu.be

Keep up to date with all the E3 announcements over on our E3 Hub!

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The pursuit of immersion has taken us to some weird places. I wonder what archaeologists, thousands of years from now, will make of the swathe of plastic steering wheels, guitars and tennis bats we’ve used for gaming purposes. Peripherals always seem a little odd at first. I’m sure in 1997, when the Rumble Pak was introduced for the Nintendo 64, there were a few raised eyebrows.

As time has passed, however, we’ve become accustomed to force feedback in our controllers and it has become ever more precise, allowing us to feel every bullet fired and bump in the road. A feature that might have once seemed odd is now commonplace. So, when Razer came to me with a headset that rumbled, a headset that had haptic feedback built into the earcups, I tried to remain open-minded.

It’s hard to deny that the Razer’s Nari Ultimate wireless headset is unlike any other. Featuring their ‘Hypersense’ technology, the headset reacts to your game’s sounds, rumbling with every impact. Anything that makes a significant sound causes the earcup to vibrate against your head, endeavouring to push immersion further. In a sense, it works. Gunshots hit a little harder and bass feels a little punchier, but only because the headset is bringing a physicality to sound that I’ve not experienced before.

It also disguises what is rather unimpressive sound quality. It’s not terrible, and will of course likely be a noticeable improvement if you’re using a significantly cheaper headset, but at $350 you ought to be expecting the premium stuff. It lacks the depth I’d want, all the sound feeling a little muddled and washed out. It’s worth noting there’s not a great deal of noise isolation, and the headset does bleed audio rather substantially too.

The ‘Hypersense’ is a neat gimmick, but ultimately it is little more than that; a gimmick. Unfortunately, it’s inconsistent and struggles to distinguish between heavy bass, a blast or various audio cues. The sound design in games in increasingly complex and sadly the haptic feedback struggles to handle it. At times it feels somewhat natural but at other times it feels uncomfortable. Never quite as bad as the dentist drilling into your teeth, but not far off.

Fortunately, the Razer Synapse software – which has had a significant facelift in the current 3.0 beta – offers plenty of control over the headset. Using it on PC and making full use of the companion software is where the headset shines. You can take full control over the 3D audio positioning and dial back the haptic feedback, or more importantly, turn it off altogether. I was very impressed with the suite of mixing and EQ controls and the wireless functionality, that allows chat and game audio to be separated into two channels via the one USB output.

Whilst it is compatible with consoles, sadly the features don’t extend that far. Audio and game chat are merged into the one channel, making the headsets inbuilt balance control knob obsolete. Of course, you can manage that using the console’s own software, but on my PlayStation, there was only so far I could bring down party chat, which always felt a little loud. My preference is always a headset that makes use of a console’s optical audio output and USB output to separate the channels.

Otherwise, I can’t overly fault the headset. It’s well-built and feels solid. It’s got an enormous form factor (I would never make use of the included AUX cord and take this out and about) but is lightweight and comfortable for long play sessions, in part to its loose-fitting design. I like that the boom mic recoils within the headset and there’s a little cavity to store the USB adapter. The battery life and range is real decent too, it’s just a pity they opted for a micro-USB charging input, the worst of all the USB inputs to be honest. The grey and black combination of plastic and metal is very much my aesthetic and the customisable glowing Razer logo on each earcup reps the brand well without being obnoxious.

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It’s telling that Respawn is afforded the same stage on which, just some twenty-four hours previously, J.J. Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy revealed the title of the final film of the Skywalker Saga. By the same time tomorrow, the Jon Favreau series, The Mandalorian, will too have been revealed in the same arena. It’s a proclamation that video games are very much part of the fold, alongside film and TV, when it comes to Disney’s Star Wars. As a massive fan of both the franchise and the medium of video games, it’s tremendously exciting, but no less exciting than the game itself.

Of course, it’s hard not to be excited for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and to set your expectations accordingly. In the limited time I had to speak to Game Director, Stig Asmussen, and Director of Franchise Content & Strategy for the Lucasfilm Story Group, Steve Blank, I neglected to ask them if they felt the pressure, but I wouldn’t doubt it’s on their mind. Respawn is on a roll at the moment. The success of Apex Legends has propelled the studio into the limelight and warranted a resurgence in appreciation of their previous Titanfall titles, criminally overlooked by the broader gaming community at release. All eyes are on Respawn and they know it, Asmussen admitting in a blog post back in 2016 that this was “the chance of a lifetime.”

So far, the messaging seems on point. Confirmation at the ‘Galaxy Premiere’ on the Celebration Stage that the game would be solely single-player and narrative-driven, and free from any microtransactions, warranted a flurry of lightsaber waving and cheering, a loot-laden Star Wars fans version of applause. There was even a scream, which – if I’m honest – might’ve been a little much.

But it goes to show the strength of people’s infatuation, a love that is magnificently infectious. It’s hard not to be excited. Stood in one of the corridors that make up the sprawling, labyrinthian complex that is Star Wars Celebration 2019, waiting as politely and patiently as I can for the interview, the winner of cosplay competition gleefully celebrates with a security guard. It’s unclear if they know each other, or even if the security guard was already an enthusiast, but quite frankly it doesn’t matter. Like it or not, everyone within a ten block radius of the McCormick Place convention centre in Chicago has been converted into the most diehard Star Wars fans can be.

For those of us already deeply obsessed, the passion simply intensifies. We’ve got the final film on the way, a big budget TV show on the horizon, a theme park we could have only dreamed of opening ahead of schedule, and the narrative-focused video game we’ve wanted for so long. What more could we ask for? Details.

So I sit down with Stig Asmussen and Steve Blank hoping to get some.

Ewan: I’m a massive Star Wars fan, obviously, a massive Respawn fan, and action/adventure, third-person games are totally my jam. So you’ve got me sold. When did this journey begin for you guys? I know it’s been quite a long process. When is the beginning, in terms of development?

Stig: I think it started with EA approaching us at Respawn, and asking. I had a team, we were working on a game, and they said, “What do you guys think about Star Wars?”

Steve: What a question.

Stig: And unanimous, my team hands down, everybody was interested in working on a Star Wars, even though we were really interested in the other game that we were working on, we saw this as an opportunity. It’s like, “Hey, when are you ever going to get a chance to work on a Star Wars game?”

It was several months before we even met with Lucasfilm. I’m assuming that you guys knew that we were signed on, but it was probably four months or something, at least, where that we knew that we were going to be working on it, and we started coming up with what our own ideas. What we could bring to the table at least from a gameplay standpoint.

Ewan: Was it always a singleplayer story-driven game?

Stig: Yes, yes. There was never any question of that.

Steve: Mm-hmm.

Stig: And, we came to the Lucasfilm offices and met with Steve and several other members of the core game team at Lucasfilm, and we basically had a conversation. I said, this is the type of game that we’d like to make, which is more describing the mechanics that we’re interested in, and less about — Like, there was a little bit about the story. We wanted to tell a hero’s journey, and we wanted to have — I think even back then, we were already talking about having a droid in the game.

Steve: Yeah, yeah, I think so.

Stig: It was a conversation, at that point.

Ewan: And combat’s obviously very central to it as well. I think “combat is key,” you said during the panel earlier today. You mentioned as well that it’s thoughtful combat? What exactly is thoughtful combat? Is it kind of methodical, in that sense?

Stig: It means you really have to understand not only the enemy that you’re going up against, but the group of enemies, and they each have their own strengths, and they each have their own weaknesses. You have to figure out what tools that you have in your skill set to best take them down.

A lot of it’s influenced by, you know — If you look at a game like Zelda Wind Waker, as you get different abilities, each enemy is crafted in a certain way, or even Metroid, or something like that, the enemies are crafted in a certain way that once you upgrade, you can think about how you’re going to approach them differently, and maybe they aren’t as big a challenge as they were at one point.

Then it becomes, well how do we make that work in Star Wars, because we can’t go out and make all these mechanic-oriented AI to fight against. They have to be authentic and real, in Star Wars.

Ewan: Do we see boss battles at all? Is that something that emerges?

Stig: Yes, certainly. There’ll be bosses in the game.

Ewan: You mentioned as well today that it’s quite accessible, and that the mechanics are easy to pick up, and it may be a bit more challenging to master. Is that an effort to dissuade the idea that it was going to be Souls-like? That there was going to be this extreme difficulty to it?

Stig: Look, I love the Souls games. You’re not going to be able to make a melee action game without having a little bit of influence from the other games. DMC is really cool. God of War’s awesome, but… What was your question again? I want to make sure I’m not —

Ewan: Sounds like it’s obviously not… You’re steering clear of —

Stig: We don’t want to have something that’s super punishing. There’s a lot of people that are going to want to play this game, and as much as I like those games, we’re going to have to do a little bit more, kind of, I don’t want to say hand-holding, but we have to — Players have to be able to just pick it up, and it’s like, “Oh yeah. This feels right. I felt like this at other experiences before.”

But, I still think there’s a layer of depth within the combat, and how you use the Force powers to take down enemies more efficiently. As you grow, those that are keen, will recognize that there’s different things that, maybe tells that enemies give, that allow you to open them up, and take them down a little bit faster.

Ewan: I’m glad you mentioned the Force, actually, because I was going to ask about that as well. Are Force powers always available to you in combat, at any given time?

Stig: I don’t want to answer that question right now. We’re going to be talking about the game in greater detail, and answering those exact types of questions.

Ewan: Is that the same for parkour, how that factors in as well?

Stig: Again… You’re mentioning parkour because of the wall-running?

Ewan: In the trailer, yeah. 

Stig: Yeah. The more ability stuff, I think we want to save for a later date.

Ewan: Sure. Yeah. You’ve got to keep some surprises.

Stig: Exactly.

Ewan: I got the impression that there’s several progression systems embedded within the game, with regard to the lightsaber, the Force, and the droid as well. Would you say that there’s some RPG elements at play?

Stig: I wouldn’t say RPG, but I would say that the world is presented to you in a certain way. Enemies are presented to you in a certain way that you can unlock and dominate it, based on your abilities.

Ewan: With regard to the narrative. The story in itself, throughout the course of the game, is that self-contained?

Steve: Yeah.

Ewan: And how is it structured as well? Is it going to be mission after mission, or is there going to be scope to go into side missions? Explore the other characters you meet and their story?

Stig: That’s for another conversation.

Ewan: Do you know if there’s a timeframe with which the story spans, [probing] maybe a playtime as well?

Stig: We know we’re not ready to talk about those details quite yet, [chuckles] on either front. I mean, in terms of timeframe, it’s not going to be a short game

Ewan: Yeah?

Stig: It’s safe to say it’s not going to be a short game.

Steve: Yes.

Stig: I’ve read some stuff. Comments like, “Oh, it’s going to be a five-hour game,” after Vince [Zampella] announced that we’re going to be single-player only, and no microtransactions, and that kind of stuff. It’s going to be a quality experience.

Ewan: I get the impression as well that you’ve had a quite a free, creative license with it, in terms of adding new locations and new characters, and stuff like that. What more can you tell us about the characters that have been added, and new locations as well, which were —

Stig: I wouldn’t say it’s a free license at all.

[laughs all round]

Steve: No.

Stig: I think what we often do, is we present, “Hey, from a gameplay standpoint, this is a problem that we have.” We’ve got this thing that’s fun, or we have this thing that’s not fun, and I think it’s always Star Wars first, right?

Steve: Yeah, I think that’s always our mentality, and we encourage — You know, there’s a lane of things that are known, and there’s a lane of things that are unknown and new, when you’re crafting a new story or creating a new game, or anything like that. And, both of those lanes come with unique challenges, but also great opportunity.

One, you have connectivity. One, you have new things that you can make your mark, and add to the galaxy with, but crafting, like going to places, or seeing people that are known, has a whole slew of challenges with it, in terms of matching exactly what already exists. And, creating something whole-cloth, has other challenges and unique things too, there. But, there’s both opportunities in both of those lanes, and things in both of those lanes will be present in Fallen Order, but we’re not ready to go deeper into the specifics yet.

Stig: Yeah, but I think sometimes on a higher level, sometimes we’ll say, “Hey, we need this thing,” and Steve and the group will be like, “Oh, we have something that totally fits that need.”

Steve: Yeah, yeah.

Stig: “Let’s just go with this.” And then there’ll be other times, they’ll be like “Well, we think this thing will work,” and then we’ll try the thing, and it actually doesn’t. And then at that point, it’s like, can we make something that fits within the Star Wars range? Is it worth it? How long is it going to take to really develop that thing?

Steve: Right, right, right.

Ewan: Sounds like there’s a conscious effort made to draw upon the existing universe as much as possible?

Stig: Yeah, I think there was a great desire when we first started this game, for my team, it’s like, “Hey, we can add all this new Star Wars stuff.” And, we started to realize a couple things. There’s the reality of production, and that every time you make something new, there’s a huge amount of work, effort, that has to go into building that thing up to something that can actually be part of Star Wars.

And the other part of it too, is that it’s just — It comes to a point where it’s like, well it doesn’t even feel like Star Wars anymore, because you’re not using any Star Wars elements.

Ewan: Right. 

Stig: So we got to make sure of that, and very early on, because we’re like, “Look guys, that would be great, but you’re not even making a Star Wars game anymore.”

So, it’s been a great learning experience. I was asked earlier today, “What’s your Star Wars knowledge coming in?” I was like, “The movies.” I really liked them, I really like the movies, and now my brain is just Star Wars all the time.

Steve: Welcome to our world.

[laughs]

Stig: All the Star Wars knowledge, but it’s still, it’s just a fraction of what the people in Lucasfilm have. So, it’s been a great collaboration.

Steve: It really has been.

Stig: We’ve been able to — We’ve had a lot of challenges, but we’ve been able to meet pretty much every one of them.

Steve: Yeah, the challenges is like anything you create, anything you are making in any situation, there’s always going to be challenges, but we’ve overcome I would say all of them, and grown from each one of them, and they’ve just added, ultimately, to incredible stuff in the game. It just takes time to get there.

Ewan: I suppose that means as well that there will be a lot of stuff in the game that’s familiar to Star Wars fans?

Steve: There will definitely be known stiff in there, for sure.

Stig: There’s got to be enough.

Steve: Yeah, yeah.

[I laugh]

Ewan: A question for you, Stig. I know you’re quite close with Amy Hennig. Was she influential to the game at all?

Stig: I was talking to her while her project was going on. We were having conversations. I was having direct conversations directly with her, and through Lucasfilm, to make sure that we weren’t stepping on each other’s toes. So, I don’t know how much we were influencing each other. Steve, he’d probably know better. It’s like, “Hey guys, you can’t do these things, because something else is doing that.”

Ewan: Right. 

Stig: I don’t know where there was any direct crossover there.

Steve: Right, right. I don’t think so much with this specific project.

Stig: There was a name of a character I know for sure that we wanted —

Steve: Oh man…

Stig: And we both arrived on.

Steve: …I totally forgot about that. Yeah, yeah. So there are things like that.

Stig: Which is kind of weird. It’s like how do was both come up with the same name?

Steve: I know, yeah, yeah. I totally forgot about that.

Ewan: I’ve got just one more question for you guys, and that is when can we expect to see more…

Stig: E3.

Ewan: …specifically gameplay? E3?

Stig: E3.

EWAN FLEW TO CHICAGO AS A GUEST OF EA TO ATTEND STAR WARS CELEBRATION 2019 AND THE PREMIERE OF THE GAME.

The post We Spoke To LucasFilm And Respawn About Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order appeared first on Press Start.

Whilst at Star Wars Celebration 2019 in Chicago for the reveal of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, I sat down with the game’s Director, Stig Asmussen, to discuss the game set to be released November 15th 2019. Whilst they were reluctant to share too much about the story, for fear of spoiling anything, Asmussen was a little more forthcoming with regard to the duration of the game itself.

When asked about timeframe the story spans and the estimated playtime, Asmussen responded, “it’s safe to say it’s not going to be a short game.” Elaborating further, Asmussen added, “I’ve read some stuff. Comments like, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a five-hour game,’ after Vince [Zampella] announced that we’re going to be single-player only, and no microtransactions, and that kind of stuff. It’s going to be a quality experience.”

Whilst he didn’t provide an estimated number of hours with which players can expect the Jedi: Fallen Order experience to last, it certainly sounds promising.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC November 15th, 2019.

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Respawn’s long-awaited single-player Star Wars game, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has finally been revealed at Star Wars Celebration 2019 in Chicago. Several members of the development team, including Respawn CEO Vince Zampella and Game Director Stig Asmussen, took to the stage to divulge story details behind the game, introduce the characters and show off a story trailer, before confirming the release date of November 15th 2019.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order centres around the new character Cal Kestis, as performed by Cameron Monaghan (Gotham, Shameless), a young Padawan attempting to escape from the clutches of the full-strength Empire, hunting down Jedi following the enactment of Order 66. Monaghan spoke of his character as good-hearted who, despite his traumatic past, maintains a “quiet optimism” as he sets upon the game’s adventure.

Cal, having lived in secrecy, is forced on the run after his true identity is revealed. He must flee the clutches of new enemies, the Purge Troopers, who are specially trained in combat against Jedi. Posing a bigger threat, however, is the Inquisitor, Second Sister, is a familiar enemy to fans of Star Wars Rebel. Set between Episodes III and IV, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order very much exists within the world of Star Wars, with these new enemies having already made sneaky appearances in the current run of Marvel Darth Vader comics.

The “Jedi fantasy story game” is, as Game Director, Stig Asmussen describes, is an “action melee” game. Cal must adapt to survive, learning the ways of the force. Upgrade systems to his lightsaber and force powers, as well as his droid accomplice, BD1, were all teased. The game also features parkour, seemingly quite reminiscent of that included in Respawn’s Titanfall games, that is said to help battle enemies and solve puzzles.

Respawn CEO, Vince Zampella, reiterated that this is a single-player, narrative-driven game featuring no multiplayer and no microtransactions, much to the excitement the audience at the Celebration Stage. Like the rest of the panellists, he was clearly excited about their upcoming release, Asmussen adding he was “super confident we are onto something.”

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC November 15th, 2019.

The post Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Story Details and Release Date Finally Revealed appeared first on Press Start.

Sea of Thieves ushers in its second year come April 30th, dropping the Anniversary Update featuring a bunch of new content for returning players and newcomers alike. The update’s two main additions come in the form of Tall Tales – Shores of Gold, the first real piece of authoured story content in the game, and the Arena, a brand new PvP mode. Press Start recently travelled to Rare’s studios just outside of Birmingham to check out the upcoming additions and chat to Joe Neate, the game’s Executive Producer, and Senior Designer, Shelley Preston, about Sea of Thieves’ future, and the possibility of The Arena becoming the next popular esport.

The Arena is all about competitive multiplayer, thus has the potential to develop into an esport, but Preston describes The Arena as “not your typical competitive mode.”

“It’s competition, and it’s highly competitive, but it’s Sea of Thieves‘ version of competition. So it’s not taking a template of any other competitive mode, it’s still about your soft-skills, your social-skills, your strategizing, how good you are at reading the maps, bating the water, steering the ship. It’s not just about hand-to-hand combat or PvP or twitch reactions, and I think because of that we believe it can bring competitive multiplayer to a more accessible, to a broader audience. And because of that, I think we are aware that there is that crossover that people who are playing Sea of Thieves for the Tall Tales or for the sandbox adventure might find themselves enjoying Arena more that they necessarily thought they would because it’s not your traditional competitive mode.”

That is to say that there is greater scope for players of all different styles and abilities to engage competitively with the game. Having played a couple of matches (which you can ready about here) we asked about any plans to develop the mode as an esports platform accordingly, to which Neate replied, “TBD.”

“I think we want to grow as a competitive platform and we think it will be very watchable. But esports means a lot of different things from a lot of different people. I think what we have the opportunity to do is, like Shelley says, it’s a competitive mode for potentially a broader, different audience than maybe feel excluded by the super competitive first-person players and first-person games that are there now, and you have to be a certain level of skilled at first-person twitch kind of game-playing stuff.”

“There are different roles you can take in Arena, so we think there’s an opportunity to bring competitive gaming to a broader audience like we did with Sea of Thieves and just multiplayer as a whole. We brought a lot of people to multiplayer that perhaps didn’t want to do it.”

Sea of Thieves is available now on Xbox One and PC and the Anniversary Update including The Arena is out April 30th. You can read the full interview here and check out our preview here.

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Sat out in the English midland countryside, Rare’s studio is a pirate-infested creative oasis buzzing with a sense of excitement. Walking through its halls, framed artwork plastering the walls, there is a palpable energy. Two separate wings, nicknamed the ‘barns’, are now unified in their focus. Rare, once a place of secrecy and seclusion in which your keycard would gain you access to your barn and not the other, has been transformed into a sun-soaked creative hub filled with animators, artists, programmers, musicians, writers, directors and online support staff that all seem to share an infectious excitement about their game. Almost everything is produced in-house, including the game’s score and foley sound effects. Even voice-actors were sourced from amongst the staff until recently.

Standing on the balcony overlooking the rolling green hills, Rare’s Studio Head and fellow Liverpool FC fan, Craig Duncan, tells me of the significance of the studios surrounds. Behind us, some of his co-workers take some time to exercise on some of the ground’s equipment, not far from a football pitch where they hold friendlies each week. A pair stroll past walking a dog, deep in conversation. He tells me they often do that, using the acreage around the studio buildings to grab some fresh air and get the creative juices flowing. It shouldn’t come to any surprise that Craig’s pinned tweet includes a picture of the studio buildings below a clear blue sky, with a link to their current job listings.

Beautiful blue skies over @RareLtd today #MondayMotivation #WeAreHiring #GameDev #Gamejobs https://t.co/DtpWDWEOe8 pic.twitter.com/PBQJp1nZl3

— Craig Duncan (@Gamerboss) March 25, 2019

I can see how their space might have influenced their latest on-going game, Sea of Thieves; the same sense of freedom and tranquillity I have often experienced in-game is felt here. But Sea of Thieves has impacted their studios too. Cannons and a ships steering wheel sit by their water feature between the two barns, and merchandise sits amongst the BAFTAs on display on the way to the cafeteria. I can’t help but feel as though this a deliberate effort to remind everyone every day of Rare’s successful past and present, and ambitions for the future. Something similar can be said for the model ship taking pride of place on the front desk in the reception area. It’s a testament to the strength of the game’s passionate community who stuck with the game and championed it long after its rocky start with a lukewarm critical reception. Created and sent in by a Sea of Thieves superfan, it sits alongside a book and a card sharing the stories of community members, who all chipped in to mail it to the studio in celebration of the game’s first anniversary.

The Sea of Thieves Anniversary Update Might Make Me Finally Embrace The Pirate Life

It’s Sea of Thieves’ first birthday that brings myself and other press to the studio to experience first-hand the upcoming anniversary content coming to the game. After a considerable time spent with two of the update’s most major additions, Tall Tales – The Shores of Gold and The Arena (which you can read all about here), I sat down with Executive Producer, Joe Neate, and Senior Designer, Shelley Preston, to chat about the game’s future.

Ewan: So we’re here in part to celebrate the anniversary of Sea of Thieves a year on. How would you sum up the first year of the game?

Joe: An adventure.

[Everyone laughs]

Ewan: How do you think it compares now to how it did at launch? What’s that adventure been for the past year?

Joe: Been pretty intense. [Looking at Shelley] Like, it has, right? We’ve been working hard as a team and as a studio to — Like leading up to the launch and then straight into okay, we’ve got to just keep adding stuff, keep growing it, keep enriching the world. And then it was like okay, cool, now we’re gonna do this anniversary thing, we’re just gonna and — I think, as a team, its been intense it has but its been incredible as well.

Shelley: Yeah. It’s been just amazing, I mean, like we had obviously we believed so strongly in what we’ve got and what we’ve built with Sea of Thieves, but to see just how that has actually come into reality. Especially the strength of that community, they’ve been just there’s such positivity it’s such a great community that we’ve built around there.

And then, everything that we’ve learned along the way about everything that we’ve done, every piece of content that we’ve added to the game, every update that we’ve done we’ve learned things along the way. And that was always the intention. Obviously, you go into it knowing that that’s entirely unpredictable, you try new things, you go learn along the way. But kind of, as you look back a year of that is kind of overwhelming really.

How much we’ve learned and how far the game has come, and how much we now know about our community, and kind of what their expectations are and what, you know, what works and what doesn’t work in Sea of Thieves and what we can and can’t do. In terms of — we wanted to get authored story things in there and we tried little bits with Hungering Deep and we saw what worked and we’ve tried things along the way and we’ve learned oh, we can’t actually do that, we can do authored story in an online, shared multiplayer world. We can do authored quests still within that world. That’s been really awesome to learn we can make great additions like that to Sea of Thieves.

Ewan: Yeah, I wanna get back to that in a sec. Am I right in thinking that the content roadmap changed in the early stages post-launch?

Joe: Yep. Definitely as soon as it launched.

Ewan: Was there another turning point along the line? Or did you sort of suss it out then and it’s gone according to plan since?

Joe: Hm. Good question.

Shelley: Well that roadmap was quite far, it was quite a long roadmap. I think we just stop making long road maps?

[laughs]

Joe: Yeah, that’s true.

Shelley: Because you don’t just know.

Joe: Let’s go a couple ahead, yeah.

Shelley: Yeah, you could make a twelve-month roadmap, and then the first release after maybe three months — it changes everything on its head.

Ewan: So how long is it at the moment?

Joe: The roadmap? ‘Till about April 30th.

Ewan: You’re hoping that you’ve got more anniversaries to celebrate though I’m sure.

Joe: We will, we will, but I don’t think — I think for the second year post this anniversary update we’ll… we’ve got… the game has changed now so you’ve got Anniversary, you’ve got Arena — oh sorry, you’ve got Adventure, you’ve got Arena. So these two — all the As. Is that triple-A? Finally!

[We share a chuckle]

Joe: But um — What was I talking about? So you’ve got Adventure and Arena and they’re two platforms now to grow on. We’ve had Adventure for like, a year, but now we’ve Tall Tales within there. So that, now, is something we wanna grow so we launch for the series of them, but now we want… as we introduce new features to our world, and new activities, new engagements, new things in the next year, we wanna do that in a more lore-rich kind-of way, in a way that just engages a bit more, and Tall Tales gives us that.

That’s probably moving away from those bigger content updates, to a more steady delivery of things in content and stuff to players with more story delivering them, but then they’re there to enrich the world from then on.

And then with Arena…we’re kind-of with Arena like we were a year ago with Adventure. It’s a new platform, it’s a new thing, how’s it gonna land? How are people gonna react to it? How do we wanna iterate on that mode? What competitive structures do we wanna build around this? What tournament kind-of things do you wanna give players? How do we grow this? ‘Cause it’s different. It’s a different play-style, it’s a different thing.

So, we’re gonna have to learn and build and grow but we’re very much looking at those two things. Almost, it’s like, kind of set for roadmaps. There will be some overlap, like some features just work in both, like Ship Damage. You bring that in for Arena- great, it works in Adventure. You bring in the Harpoon, it’s the same. But, some things will be specifically for each mode. Yeah, you’ve kind of got this different place that we’re in now, but it feels like the launch of Anniversary, we have [an] incredibly rich experience that meets so many motivations. It meets the people that won’t go at the goals, it meets shorter play sessions with Arena, it meets competitive demand as well as the freeform adventure thing that loads of players love already.

So, it feels like for anyone coming to Sea of Thieves then, if you’re already engaged with it there’s loads of cool stuff for you — like if you stopped playing a while ago, if it wasn’t for you, there’s real reasons to come back. Now that Tall Tales trailer we showed you, I think, makes you look at Sea of Thieves in a completely different light. Like “Oh, okay that’s a different motivation, I can come and play that game.” Competition, same thing, and then get shorter sessions. You can play in the evening before dinner’s ready, like in a small fan session.

Yeah, I would just think it puts us in a really strong position now going into that Year Two. And we’ve learned so much in this year, right, about everything that we’ve added and that hopefully, all the stuff we have in the seasons remaining I think will be even better than the last year. ‘Cause we’ve learned so much about our players and about our game and what works.

Ewan: I feel like the two different modes that we’ve seen today are appealing — I mean they work quite — I expected to enjoy the single-player story-driven stuff much more than I anticipated enjoying the Arena, just ’cause that appeals to me. But I thoroughly enjoyed the Arena…

Joe: Multiple people have said that to me.

Ewan: Yeah, I can see how there’d be overlap between the one player wanting to experience both. But was that your intention, or are you hoping to reach two different gamers with that added content?

Shelley: I think yes and no. For players who really, really only want that authored kind-of quest thing, we have that in Tall Tales and we know that that’s gonna appeal to that player and for players who only want competition or they only want those specific sessions that’s gonna appeal to that type of player.

But we’re well aware that there’s massive potential for crossover and I think Arena is not your typical competitive mode. It’s competition, and it’s highly competitive, but it’s Sea of Thieves‘ version of competition. So it’s not taking a template of any other competitive mode, it’s still about your soft skills, your social skills, your strategizing, how good you are at reading the maps, bating the water, steering the ship. It’s not just about hand-to-hand combat or PvP or twitch reactions, and I think because of that we believe it can bring competitive multiplayer to a more accessible, to a broader audience. And because of that, I think we are aware that there is that crossover that people who are playing Sea of Thieves for the Tall Tales or for the sandbox adventure might find themselves enjoying Arena more that they necessarily thought they would because it’s not your traditional competitive mode.

But then there’s players who do love traditional competitive — competition, sorry, they’ve got that in abundance with Arena.

Ewan: Is there a plan to develop as a kind of an esports platform and grow it that way?

Joe: TBD. I think we want to grow as a competitive platform and we think it will be very watchable. But esports means a lot of different things from a lot of different people. I think what we have the opportunity to do is, like Shelley says, it’s a competitive mode for potentially a broader, different audience than maybe if excluded by the super competitive first-person players and first-person games that are there now, and you have to be a certain level of skilled at first-person twitch kind of game-playing stuff.

There are different roles you can take in Arena, so we think there’s an opportunity to bring competitive gaming to a broader audience like we did with Sea of Thieves and just multiplayer as a whole. We brought a lot of people to multiplayer that perhaps didn’t want to do it.

Which, jumping back to your other question, I think — my belief for Tall Tales is one at least… not only does it meet that demand for story-to-tell for guided goals and things. But I think it can also do a really good job of bridging the gap between people who come into Sea of Thieves and are like “I don’t know what to do in this world. Where are my goals? What, like-” and it’s just overwhelming, almost, to try and figure out how to do a ship and then you get sunk by someone you don’t like- “I don’t know what the quests are, what am I doing?

Ewan: This all sounds feels very familiar.

[We all laugh]

Joe: Yeah, but with this guided sort of quest which takes you through and introduces you to kind of map-reading and solving puzzles and just saving the ship and all this kind of stuff. I think it introduces you to what is great about Sea of Thieves.

So once you’ve completed that first set of Tall Tales, I think as a player, you’re far more likely to be engaged in what Sea of Thieves is. You’re far more likely to fall in love with the experience, all that, and then invest the time in figuring out the other stuff. For a new player, for me, or someone that played for a bit and has gone away- if they come in and kind-of play through the Tall Tales and get that great story. But then it’s like, “oh now I’ve got the entire rest of this game open to me. There’s this competitive mode I could go and try, or I could just go and try these different training companies.”

I just think there’s — “oh, now I can go fishing, I can go do this.” There’s so much more for people. But I think the Tall Tales can do a great job at really, just, introducing people into what is great about this shared world and this multiverse.

Ewan: So upon release for Tall Tales, that’s available upon booting up the game for the first time? You can launch straight into that?

Joe: Yup. One-hundred percent. Yup. So basically your front-end is Adventure and Arena. So you’re going to Adventure, going to the Mysterious Stranger, right on the map, right on the book, and you start the first little tale. And then you’re led to the second one.

Shelley: And then some point it branches out as well as with these other people and it kind of comes back together at the culmination so you guys have a choice at some point out of, like, four tales. You get all nine title that you can go and start that journey on straight.

Ewan: So was that the strategy at the beginning of it then, as a means of attracting new players to the game?

Joe: I think it’s about meeting a wider range of motivations, which ultimately will bring new people in, it will satisfy our existing players. I think that’s the thing that’s been great, is for the last two months we’ve been testing with insiders and they — it blew their minds when we put the first Tall Tale in there because they were like “we never you’ll do this” in a good way — add narrative like this to Sea of Thieves. Even though we talked about it at high level, we want more lore-rich questions — they’ll be like “you’re doing it, you’re doing that!”

Shelley: Yeah, I think people expected it to be more like our campaigns that we’d done ’cause we kind of dipped a toe in the water with the campaigns, we were trying different things, and I think people just expected that we were doing, probably, just doing more of those or bigger versions. We’ve actually — they were just scratching the surface of what we could really do with authoured story. And these stories and the trailer — the depth of mechanics that are in Tall Tales as well, so after you play one Tale, but if you imagine that with the depth of mechanics across those nine Tales there’s so much in there.

Joe: And if you think about strategy in the core-est of terms, you want to engage your existing players but you’re always looking to bring new people in, that’s just —  it’s like, that’s good business, right? You want more people playing your game, more people coming in, and I think this update does all of that, and it brings what — it’s just — there’s so many different reasons for people to come in, right? If I’ve played it before but it didn’t click with me or whatever, but now there’s all these different reasons to try.

‘Cause if you played it before you clearly had an interest, right? You clearly were like, “I want to like that game. I want to like that game.” And for whatever reason, you didn’t know at the time. So now, you’ve got “Oh, there’s a narrative, maybe that’s the thing that does it for me” or maybe you love fishing. Maybe that’s your thing. That’s something loads of people do — I’m always, just, surprised about how many people love fishing.

Ewan: Well, I mean, that’s certainly where I’m getting from, not so much on the fishing, but what you were saying prior to that was that I hadn’t really played much of it until a week or so ago. And I certainly was overwhelmed at the start of the possibilities,  ran into a Kraken [laughs] exactly like you said, I was like “okay, I feel a little out of my depth here.” But I’m very much someone that gravitates towards something a bit more focused and narrative-driven. So to play that today really struck a chord with me. I was getting very excited, you’re ticking all the right boxes there.

One of the things I do admire about Sea of Thieves, though, and the work you guys do, is how much the community is involved with it. How much of it — I mean a percentage might be tough, but how much of it is driven by the community and what’s being requested, versus your own creative input?

Joe: It’s a real mix.

Shelley: Yeah, the community have a hand, I would say, in pretty much everything we do. It’s always — whether it’s the community are specifically vocal about a certain thing that’s missing like authored quests, or whether it’s like trying stuff in our insider program… where players can play content really early. We have Arena and that since February and taking feedback from that is always — so even if it’s not necessarily the features that we’re building on, certainly iterating on the stuff that’s in there. So they kind of have a hand in everything.

Joe: Yeah, it’s true. So there’s some things that we’re probably less likely to do, like Skeleton Ships was one. We’ve always said every sail on the horizon is another player, and now it’s every sail apart from the tall ones.

Shelley: It might be a deadly skeleton.

Joe: And the — fishing is a big one. Fishing — we did have early on in prototyping form, but that definitely got bumped up the list by just — it was almost at the top of most voting things that people would do on forums and stuff and you’re just like —

Ewan: And pets were somewhat similar?

Joe: Yeah people want pets now. Like, honestly, I’ve never been begged to add monetisation options.

[Everyone laughs]

Joe: But I have to apologise, it’s not coming yet so you can take them later.

I think we kind of take it from everywhere, whether it’s Twitter or it’s Reddit, it’s the forums, it’s any avenue. It’s videos, it’s however people communicate. We look at it, and we look at the sentiment and we try to figure that into the stuff going forward. Like even traps, that are coming as part of Tall Tales — the Fishing was feedback on more things to do on the ship, like in-between on those on the journeys. We were doing in-between the different Tall Tale quest points you were doing fishing.

For the attractions, like more things on islands, more of those common adventure islands that isn’t just run from point to point on things. And the same with the puzzles as part of the Tall Tales quests. Like, now you’re really looking around you on islands whereas you weren’t really before.

So again, you get that kind of feedback, there’s not enough to do on island. And we’re like, “okay, how do we go and make that? Enrich it and make things?” And we use our skill and common knowledge to do that.

Shelley: Yeah it’s quite a melding of understanding the sentiment and understanding what the community want, but then we have to take that and shape it into the right output forces.

Ewan: Sure, yeah, that makes sense. And that dialogue is kind of indicative of a cultural change at Rare as well, a much more so transparent, and more of sort of speaking about what’s been worked on at any given time. How much of that has being a deliberate change and how has it influenced the creative process?

Joe: Absolutely deliberate.

Shelley: Absolutely.

Joe: We knew new IPs are hard to launch. A new IP that’s multiplayer and that’s completely different to anything you’ve played before is gonna be hard to launch. One that’s so reliant on player behaviour and how people interact in the shared world. We were like “we just have to get it out, start testing it, start taking feedback, start building a community that understand it and that help us and” —  So by the time we hit the launch for the game we had a massive community.

We had like a hundred thousand Reddit subscribers on the launch for the Sea of Thieves. And we were looking at kind of really engaged social games. And it was like a Reddit account, it was only good metrics. Like, are people interested, are they talking about it, are they sharing? ‘Cause having that community meant that when we launched and loads of people came in and were like “What’s this? What’s this bar again? What do I do?” Then loads of people could tell them and help them and then when people were going “We’re need more things, we need more stuff.” And that community are like “Yeah that’s cool, they’ll listen, they’ll like it, they’ll do it.” They’re there to help land the message and support you and give you the right feedback and let you know when you’ve made mistakes like our barrel inventory addition that we made sort of halfway through the year where we messed up on introducing — we didn’t message it correctly and everyone was like “what have you done?”

But that community’s always been with us and, so it was very purposeful. But, you’re totally right that being transparent and being open is something that’s hard and difficult and it’s new and it can be challenging. But we genuinely believe that by being an open and transparent, you inform your community about what your game is and you get — you build that relationship. And that’s the — putting human faces to a development team. There’s so many of us that are active. Even just our weekly stream that we do. We just play the game every week, and different members of the team are on it. And I think, you put that human face out there, people realize it’s not just a faceless development team, making stupid decisions, “why have they done that?” It’s people that know what they’re doing. I believe that that’s the same in any developer in the world, but —

Ewan: I know you’re quite vocal about this. Has that helped make the criticism more constructive? Are people more respectful?

Joe: Yep totally. They really are. And that core community kind of calls out people that aren’t.

Shelley: Yeah, it’s almost like — well it’s just the same as we put the private code in the tavern to say how we want players to play the game. In terms of treating everybody equally and those kinds of human values. And we have the same thing, asking for feedback to be given constructively. It’s like, I think —

Ewan: And the community self-manages —

Shelley: Yeah, and you’ve got to I guess communicate that that is what you believe in as a developer and as a human being and we’ve built that trust in our two-way relationship between the community and us as a developer. I think you earn the right to do that, I guess because you’ve given them so much information and so much transparency all the way through. That you kind of —

Ewan: It’s a two-way sort of street.

Shelley: Yeah, I guess, yeah.

Joe: But it builds up trust ’cause we will make mistakes, we will make the wrong decision sometimes —

Shelley: And we have.

Joe: Yeah. But that community trusts you and you talk about it and you’re open and you hold your hands up and it just works. I loved, even for our year one anniversary on our birthday, our community was celebrating more than we were. They sent us presents —

Shelley: We were just heads down.

Joe: ‘Cause literally Craig [Rare’s studio head] was like “are we doing anything for the anniversary?” I was like “why?” And he’s like “should we celebrate it?” We were like “shit.” So we had to send some people from the facilities team to the shop to buy some fucking champagne.

[Everyone laughs]

Joe: Honestly, that morning — And our community’s on social someone says, “oh it’s amazing, here are some presents!” And we’re just like “uh…”

Ewan: I was gonna leave that as a sort of feel-good question at the end, but I know you got a bunch of submissions. People sent you stuff. I mean, I don’t want to be asking to pick a favourite, but were there certain stand-outs?

Joe: I think the thing that was the most special for me for that anniversary for the 20th of March was @thechocmoojoo who is like — she’s a lady, that’s her username on Twitter. But she’s a lady, she runs a gaming tuition thing and teaches people about streaming and really forward-thinking gaming thing in Santa Barbara in the States. But she loves Sea of Thieves. She plays with her dad as well, Pappa Choc, and they like it. So she brought him in and they play together in Sea of Thieves.

Thank you to the super talented ?@thechocmoojoo? for sending us her impressively built and painted ship with ?@RareLtd? sails and the collection of lovely community messages ????? – The post it notes below are by ?@JoeNeate1? pic.twitter.com/WN4WQNFohG

— Craig Duncan (@Gamerboss) March 20, 2019

So she built a ship, like a model ship over a period of weeks. But she had painted herself, she painted the Rare sails like the Rare sails that we have as developers. She put little explosive barrels in the crow’s nest and stuff, all modelled herself.

So she sent that in and actually — well, first of all, she built it and then she went to sent it and then she was given like $800 shipping charge because she wanted to package it all up and was just like “how far am I gonna follow this?” So she went onto — well she messaged me going “I’ve got a problem, I wanna send this to you but I can’t.” And let’s say half an hour later she was like “the online community sorted it.” And I was like “what?” And she was like “yeah I just posted it on this board and they all chipped in and we’ve now got this shipped!”

Ewan: That’s unbelievable.

Joe: But she also collected a ton of different messages, did you read the booklet that came with this?

Shelley: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe: So she literally put together a card that just had messages from so many members of the community, just celebrating and kind of congratulating. And there was telling their stories, and there was — literally by the end of it I had a little tear, because just how it affected so many people and people saying, “you know what, me and my brother, but he’s in the military on a different part of the world, but we get together and play this like once a week,” and things and the best bit was that there were all these heartfelt messages. And there was one from someone that was half a message and then it was this open bracket “add more cosmetics” closed bracket.

[Everyone laughs]

Shelley: I think for me as well — Have you seen the video as well of all the community singing the —

Joe: We Shall Sail Together?

Shelley: Yeah, the We Shall Sail Together, which is like the kind of anthem if you like, the theme of Sea of Thieves. And for me, I woke up on the morning of the anniversary and I watched that video with my husband who’s also a senior designer. And we both like shed a tear at that because I think that was so indicative of what we’ve built, because not only the words of that song as being “we shall sail together” and what we’ve tried to do with Sea of Thieves as a community but the video was different members of our Sea of Thieves community and you can see them and their pirate and they were actually singing. The people were singing the words and —

Joe: Some better than others.

[Everyone laughs]

Shelley: Some better than others. But all better than me. So I think — and there was a real, genuine touching beauty to that just seeing all these faces of all these people’s lives that we’ve touched positively with Sea of Thieves, and I think —

Ewan: I can only imagine how rewarding that must be, to not only make this game but this community —

Shelley: It genuinely is super humbling. It’s just like, we do what we do, we love what we do, and sometimes we can be very heads-down because we’re working so hard on what we’re doing, so to take that moment in time on the anniversary and receive those messages, that ship, and to see those videos and all the many of the things that got sent to us in messages and wishes that we got sent through that were just amazing. I think it’s just testament to the transparency that we’ve had with the community and the commitment that we’ve made to listen to the community and to truly build the game alongside them.

Ewan: Hmm. That would’ve been a really nice bit to end on, but I did have other questions I wanted to ask you.

[The PR representative indicates there’s time for just one more.]

Ewan: Time for one more, okay. I better ask this one then, ’cause otherwise, my editor will kill me. And that is that these days, Xbox and Nintendo have quite a close working relationship.

Joe: You’re the first person to ask this.

Ewan: Am I? Right, there you go. Do you think there’s a possibility that Rare may one day appear on a Nintendo platform again?

Joe: No idea. Honestly, no idea. I think for us it’s about — it’s all players playing in the same world, the same universe, the same player, like cross-play, all of that kind of stuff is what’s critical. We always want everyone to be in the same universe. Our goals right now are — the future for us at the moment is new content, it’s new adventures, it’s just new things like that. So, I have no idea, I couldn’t say one way or another.

But there’s a certain charm to it, isn’t there? But honestly we just want as many people as possible to play, there’s an adventure together and have great fun in the world of Sea of Thieves. That’s all, that’s the future of Sea of Thieves. We’ll see where that takes us.

Ewan: That doesn’t sound like it’s being ruled out so that’s gonna make him a happy man. Thank you very much.

Shelley: Thank you.

EWAN FLEW TO THE UNITED KINGDOM AS A GUEST OF XBOX FOR THE SEA OF THIEVES ANNIVERSARY EVENT.

The post Sea of Thieves’ Past, Present and Future – An Interview with Rare appeared first on Press Start.

As a little boy, I had many ‘phases’. There was the dinosaur phase, the Star Wars phase (which I’m still kind of stuck in if I’m honest) and, of course, a pirate phase. In my early years, I was drawing secret maps, donning an eyepatch and taking a shovel into the backyard in the search for buried treasure. Afternoons at the pool were spent looking for shipwrecks. Given that, it might come as a surprise that I totally let Sea of Thieves fly under my radar. Perhaps the mixed reception it received at launch was enough to dissuade me, but for whatever reason, a sandbox in which I could live out every pirate fantasy I ever had was not enough to entice me.

But when Rare invited me to their studios just outside of Birmingham to see what lay ahead in the game’s second year, I finally gave it a shot. Although I was a little overwhelmed and would have enjoyed being a little more directed in the opening hour or so, I could see why Sea of Thieves has cultivated such a passionate community in its first year. It has a certain magic, even if it wasn’t necessarily realising its full potential.

But that could all be about to change. Having gone hands-on with Sea of Thieves’ Anniversary Update, out at the end of the month, it might be time to consider raising the anchor and setting sail.

The Anniversary Update, which centres around the beginnings of new authored story content, Tall Tales, and a new PvP mode, The Arena, addresses some long-awaited fan requests. Tall Tales takes some of Rare’s experimentation with storytelling, such as that in past update, The Hungering Deep, and takes it to the next level. Although there are some procedural elements within the narrative, changing the locations of buried chests and hidden vaults, it’s the most focussed story has ever been in the game. Playing through the Tall Tales various quests helps you grapple with Sea of Thieves’ systems and unpacks the gameplay loop in a condensed, easy-to-follow story that plays beautifully into the sense of adventure integral to the game. Speaking to Sea of Thieves’ Executive Producer, Joe Neate, and Senior Designer, Shelley Preston, they confirmed that you can jump into the Tall Tales story right upon booting up the game, even if it’s for the first time, meaning its perfect for first-timers starting out their pirate campaign.

Sea of Thieves’ Past, Present and Future – An Interview with Rare

But that’s only part of Rare’s strategy with the Anniversary Update. Joe told me, “it’s about meeting a wider range of motivations, which ultimately will bring new people in, [but also] it will satisfy our existing players.” In that sense, there’s something here for veterans of the high sea and newcomers alike; a lore-rich story that neatly wraps up everything there is to love about Sea of Thieves in a neat package sprinkled with mystery and intrigue. And Shelley says this is just the beginning, that they are “just scratching the surface of what we could really do with authoured story.” Whilst it’s already a promising start, it’s a sign of much bigger things to come.

Our first session had us play the opening two hours or so of the first Tall Tale, starting our journey to the Shores of Gold. You begin – as Sea of Thieves players will be familiar with – by talking to a mysterious stranger in the tavern. He gives you a captain’s journal which you must read through to uncover clues as to where you might a sunken wreck containing the ship’s log that will help you later in your voyage. Retracing the captain’s footsteps, you must explore the shipwreck on the seabed, locate the log and employ your detective skills further to uncover an abandoned chest, thrown overboard in battle. As we journey on, we load bait onto our hooks and engage in a spot of fishing, another long-requested addition that is making its debut in the Anniversary Update. I very nearly become distracted from the quest as hand as I realised this opens up an entirely new progression system inviting you to collect some fifty species of fish and return them to a hunter for extra rewards. Gotta catch ’em all, you know?

We eventually find the chest which contains a key to a hidden vault, which we too must find on an uncharted island. It becomes immediately apparent that Indiana Jones has been used as a source of reference as we nervously enter the tomb wary of traps around every corner. There is, of course, a puzzle which we must solve, made more difficult by the fact that we managed to misplace some important medallions in a fight with a bunch of skeletons. Eventually, we uncovered the Shroudbreaker, an important part of Sea of Thieves’ expanding lore that was going to help us later in our journey. At that point, we were asked to down out controllers, much to my disappointment. I was already hooked. Talk of secret pirate treasure and bountiful booty was scratching an itch I’d forgotten I had. Childhood fantasies of being a pirate were suddenly reawoken.

I am, of course, being intentionally vague with the specifics of those first couple of hours of Tall Tales. They benefit from being unspoiled, allowing you to progress at your own pace and solve the mystery by yourself. Coming at it as a relative Sea of Thieves newcomer, I was enthralled. This was the sort of direction, a focus I felt I needed when I first played Sea of Thieves. Very quickly I felt I had a new appreciation for the game and a better understanding of its systems. I was even beginning to tinker with new additions, such as the fishing, but also the harpoon guns, which have also been added to the front of the ship. To achieve the immersion realised in Tall Tales in a shared, pirate world is an impressive feat. I went from being kind of ho-hum about Sea of Thieves to being giddily excited about the potential adventure awaiting me.

And The Arena, Sea of Thieves’ new PvP mode, only sweetens the deal that is the Anniversary Update. Whilst PvP has been limited to chance encounters you have out in the shared world, The Arena creates a new opportunity to engage with Sea of Thieves in a more bite-size fashion. Matches take only 24 minutes, allowing you to have smaller play sessions than adventuring typically afford, and pit five crews against each other in a race to uncover buried treasure, and return the chests to cash-in points, themselves ships at sea. Everyone starts with a treasure map revealing the location of a chest, which refreshes once it’s been dug up. You gain score for digging up the chests, returning them, sinking ships and killing enemy pirates, inviting a number of different strategies. Some teams were quite successful in engaging in conflict head-on and scavenging any chests that fell overboard. Others would try to sneak onto the island unnoticed and hoard treasure chests whilst others were distracted by battle.

Our crew attempted to be quite confrontational at first, leaving others to do the hard work in reading the maps and digging up the goods. Sadly, we weren’t as prepared for a fight as we thought we were. Between loading cannons, frantically repairing masts and bailing out water that flooded in from the holes riddled in the walls, we were defeated in the chaos. We scrambled to get any points at all, racing between stations on the ship, failing to notice as enemy pirates scrambled on board, dropped out anchor and stole our treasure, leaving us stranded and sinking. Admittedly, we didn’t really know what we were doing.

The Arena is a mode for people well accustomed to Sea of Thieves’ mechanics, such that everyone knows their strengths and fulfils a predetermined role aboard the ship. I can’t imagine it is possible to jump straight into The Arena; you really do benefit from having spent some time in the Adventure portion of the game to familiarise yourself with everything, but specifically how to sail the ship. Cohesion and communication amongst your crew is also absolutely essential. That being said, there’s room to facilitate a tonne of different playstyles, as Shelley suggested.

“… [The] Arena is not your typical competitive mode,” she said. “It’s competition, and it’s highly competitive, but it’s Sea of Thieves‘ version of competition. So it’s not taking a template of any other competitive mode, it’s still about your soft skills, your social skills, your strategizing, how good you are at reading the maps, bating the water, steering the ship. It’s not just about hand-to-hand combat or PvP or twitch reactions, and I think because of that we believe it can bring competitive multiplayer to a more accessible, to a broader audience. And because of that, I think we are aware that there is that crossover that people who are playing Sea of Thieves for the Tall Tales or for the Sandbox Adventure might find themselves enjoying Arena more that they necessarily thought they would because it’s not your traditional competitive mode.”

With that in mind, our second attempt faired a little better as we set about to individual roles. With someone steering the ship and two crew members including mys managed to get to some islands ahead of the opposition and dig up some chests for a reasonable point score. That was despite accidentally disclosing our genius strategy of ‘scoring more points than everyone else’ in the pre-game lobby, in which all twenty pirates lark about in a tavern as the game loads.

But in the final game is where things got real intense. Having sussed out our roles, a pair of us cannonballed onto an island. We swam in the shallows, hiding from a pair of cutlass clashing swashbucklers on shore. Stealthily, we worked our way on land and uncovered a hoard of chests. Unfortunately, our ship had run into trouble off-shore. Unsure what to do with our chests, we stashed them in a lake on land, crossing our fingers no one would stumble across them. We returned to our ship to support the crew and journeyed back to the island to reclaim our booty. As the clock counted down, we scrambled to get the chests on board. Fog began to roll in and to our east, we saw three ships fighting it out, cannons ablaze. But on the horizon was the cash-in point. We had the equivalent of 3,000 points on board the ship, assuming we could make it in time. There was 60 seconds on the clock. As we approached, a ship sank costing the team points and putting us within reach of second place. We stood poised at the prow, ready to crash into the ship where we could cash-in the points. But alas, time elapsed, and the fairytale finish not to be.

But I did not feel the pang of defeat. Instead, I felt exhilarated. I and the rest of the attendees poured out of our booths, loudly sharing our stories. As we raced the clock, a massive skirmish has taken place in the final moments with chest changing hands repeatedly. Clearly, multiple stories took place simultaneously, and I grew envious of the team watching the visual feed in the adjacent room. It would have been great as a spectator, making me think of the potential for this mode, full of adrenaline-inducing, nautical carnage, as an emerging esport.

I guess that depends how well it takes on, but I was convinced. I fully expected to resonate with the Tall Tales component of the Anniversary Update but was pleasantly surprised by how much The Arena took my breath away. Of course, it depends on your ability to assemble a crew. That makes all the difference, but trust me when I say I’m trying to convince people already that they need to get aboard. I’m convinced, and if this is just the beginning for many more anniversaries to come for Sea of Thieves’, we’re in for a treat. It’s the pirate life for me.

EWAN FLEW TO THE UNITED KINGDOM AS A GUEST OF XBOX FOR THE SEA OF THIEVES ANNIVERSARY EVENT.

The post The Sea of Thieves Anniversary Update Might Make Me Finally Embrace The Pirate Life appeared first on Press Start.

When Gearbox announced they would be holding a panel at PAX East, everyone crossed their fingers we would finally hear about the latest Borderlands game, a franchise that hasn’t seen a release since The Pre-Sequel in 2014. Thankfully, it looks like our hope wasn’t misplaced. Over on the official Borderlands Twitter, it has been confirmed that Borderlands will be at the panel tomorrow, with the tweet including a teaser trailer subtitled ‘Mask of Mayhem’.

Mayhem is coming! Tune in tomorrow at 2pm EDT / 11am PDT at https://t.co/7iButjDoDj for @GearboxOfficial's #PAXEast livestream. pic.twitter.com/K8SOgPXwQQ

— Borderlands (@Borderlands) March 27, 2019

The brief teaser pans around colourless, still character models which includes some familiar faces. It’s not clear is the game will be called Mask of Mayhem itself, as the video is titled, but there is no doubt that we are now less than a day away for the proper reveal of Borderlands 3.

The Gearbox live stream will kick off 5 am AEDT tomorrow, the 29th March and will be viewable at Borderlands.com or through PAX’s own streaming channels on Twitch.

The post A New Borderlands 3 Teaser Confirms An Announcement Is Coming Tomorrow appeared first on Press Start.

An evening spent rebuilding civilisation amongst the dilapidated, gang-infested streets of Washington DC might not sound like the ideal social occasion, but I assure you, that’s all that I want to do right now. Thankfully, that is exactly what The Division 2 offers, an incredible realisation of a nation’s capital in disarray, with communities to liberate and checkpoints to loot. Venturing out into the chaos with your clan mates is near endless fun, with a shiny new bit of gear always tantalisingly within reach, earning its “just one more mission” stripes. Massive Entertainment’s second entry into the ‘looter shooter’ sub-genre is the complete package and, in my mind, sets the new standard.

The Division 2 takes place seven months after the events of the first game, but there’s no expectation for you to be intimately familiar with the predecessor’s story. Most of it is rehashed in dramatic opening cutscenes and bursts of dialogue. Washington DC did not fair any better than New York after the spread of the ‘Green Poison’ virus through banknotes on Black Friday, and with the Division communication network suddenly down, it’s up to you to regain control of the city. I’m convinced the concept is a neat idea, society falls apart and sleeper agents amongst the civilian population are activated in order to restore balance, but unfortunately, much like the last, I struggled to engage with the game’s narrative or connect with any of the characters. A silent protagonist doesn’t help, but the tonal contrast between their fight for survival, and missions reclaiming the Declaration of Independence was also jarring. The Division 2 attempts to create a dark, gritty world, complete with Outlaws armed solely with explosive vests, but it’s hard to take it seriously when the same enemies drive Robo Wars-esque RC cars at you with buzzsaws attached at the front.

Regardless, the story does loosely tie together all the missions and facilitate some fantastic set pieces which are complemented by the top-notch environment design. Whilst the reason behind you completing an objective might be forgettable, the missions are often anything but. Washington DC was a genius choice of setting, not specifically for its political significance, but for the variety of its environments. The city’s museums appear in a couple of notable missions where the exhibits temporarily transport you through time and space, so to speak, and will no doubt distract you as a wave of enemies launch their attack. Likewise, claiming a checkpoint at the base of the Washington Monument, or storming the enemy encampment at the Lincoln Memorial is similarly awe-inspiring.

The attention to detail in recreating these environments, and reimagining them in a post-apocalyptic state, is an impressive achievement by Massive and the seven other studios that aided development. With every mission you complete, the impact on the world is increasingly noticeable as Settlements rebuild. The streets feel dangerous and desolate, but the communities lived in. There are elements of environmental storytelling, some more subtle than others, helping capture the events that unfolded, and you are rewarded for exploring off the beaten track. I often found loot, even high tier weapons, hidden down back alleys and secret rooms.

The new setting also offers more open space than returning players will be used to, inviting new approaches to combat. There’s often the opportunity to seek higher ground and defend your position with a sniper. Otherwise, you can bounce from cover to cover, getting the jump on enemies with an SMG, as you may be more accustom to. Either way, the game – complete with eight different skills and a tonne of loadout options – invites some variety to how you might tackle a mission.

Don’t be mistaken though, this is unquestionably a cover-based shooter, and running-and-gunning won’t get you very far. The Division 2 is as every bit challenging as it is rewarding. Loot may be awarded generously, but not without a test first. The enemy AI is some of the best I’ve encountered, constantly flanking you and coordinating attacks. Dealing with an onslaught of aggressive shotgunners or exploding drones can be difficult, whilst infantry flanks you either side and a sniper takes aim from a distance. Enemy types are varied enough to keep you on your toes. The spongey enemies of the first, who seemed to absorb bullets, have been replaced by heavily armoured baddies instead, who fit within the world a little neater. There’s not a great deal of variety when it comes to the bosses and the final mission does feel anticlimactic, but the arenas with which they take place often makes for more enjoyable final battles.

Although the whole game can be experienced solo, and the difficulty scales accordingly, playing with a mic’ed up squad is my preferred approach. Coordination and some tactical effort definitely does help, even if the in-game matchmaking system is a little slow and cumbersome at this stage. Otherwise, in terms of social controls, there is everything you could ever ask for, including in-game clan management with its own progression system. Hopping on regularly with your clan mates and playing at the same pace seems wise too; whilst it attempts to scale your level to match that of the highest player, the enemies you encounter as a scaled-up player seem more formidable than if you were legitimately that level. It’s an issue Massive are already sorting out, but for now, trying to stay alive whilst unable to pose much of a threat yourself is rather frustrating.

The gunplay remains solid and the cover mechanics work brilliantly, even if you do get caught on the occasional bit of rubble. Moreover, The Division 2 is incredibly system dense, with modifiers that can be equipped to weapons, skills and gear with each infusing new status effects that will no doubt have you pouring over your character stats. The character creation options are sadly, however, underwhelming, and most of the cosmetic changes seem caught up in microtransactions, bar the occasional item you scavenger or pull from a freebie loot crate. Still, there’s plenty of reason to be fiddling about in the easy-to-navigate menus, even if some screens play up when trying to use the directional pad, or assign to actions to the one button. I’m sure in time, these minor issues will be patched out.

There is a tremendous amount to do between main quests and side missions, Checkpoints and Strongholds, the PvP Dark Zone and Conflicts, all before you complete the core game and hit the level cap. It never feels overwhelming, and beyond the main missions, you are only really expected to sample the other offerings. There’s no real reason to engage with the PvP stuff if you don’t want to, nor any reason to get bogged down ticking every box in each area.

Completing the main game is, however, only just the beginning. Having cleared Washington DC of the enemy factions, a new, tougher threat invades the map in the endgame and breathes new life into the completed Strongholds, Checkpoints and select mission areas. I was pleasantly surprised to see the objectives of these missions changed slightly, making revisiting the same area feel far less repetitive. It may appear to be restarting you, albeit with a more deadly foe, but thankfully there’s more complexity to it than that.

To counteract the increased threat, there are some new gadgets at your disposable. You can select from three different Specialisations, Sharpshooter, Survivalist and Demolitionist, each with their your own skill tree. You can swap between all three anytime back at the base of operations giving you a whole new set of perks to unlock and strategies to master. The world also gains a new progression system where at each stage you will be awarded better and better loot that then upgrades your character’s power level. All in all, it is a generous endgame offering without considering the PvP side of things or the eight-player Raids that are still to come in the free first year of content.

THE PS4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post The Division 2 Review appeared first on Press Start.

This review has taken many different shapes over the last week and a half that I have spent with Anthem. If you’d asked me a week ago what I thought of Bioware’s first foray into the ‘games as a service’ category, I’d have told you I was tearing my hair out. Playing during the game’s week of early access, thanks to an EA Access Premier subscription, I was fighting through a seemingly endless barrage of game-breaking bugs, glitches and load times. These issues, I felt, were dramatically altering my perception of a game I thought I could otherwise enjoy. I decided to bide my time, and struggle through as best I could, but hold my review until after the day one patch dropped, which happened to release a day before ‘launch’, despite the gaming having been fully playable for six days prior. The patch promised to fix a lot of the issues I had with the game, so I waited. And I’m so glad I did; I am now properly addicted.

Some issues persist, but for the most part, the game works just fine now. After the most recent 1.03 update, I’ve not had any of the issues that I had been previously experiencing. On occasion, I would arrive at a waypoint and none of the enemies load, but I still take damage. A couple of times my game would crash, and sometimes take my PlayStation out with it. The only issues I have now include the Vault, where it seems to take too long to scrap un-needed loot, the Expedition Screen and squad UI not displaying what it ought to, and sometimes the inability to revive players and change which mission your tracking. The much talked about load times have been dramatically reduced but remain all too frequent.

Now that it’s functioning better, I’m enjoying Anthem for what it is. The game we have now is really the beginning of something bigger, much in the way that Destiny, The Division and other ongoing games have evolved over time. I think Bioware has done a great job establishing the world and introducing a litany of characters, including Faye and Haluk brilliantly portrayed by Rochelle Neil and Nick E. Tarabay. There’s a lot of lore to sink your teeth into, and mounds of data entries to explore if you want to dig into it deeper. The story may be underwhelming and simple, and the bad guy so vanilla it hurts, but it’s relatively easy to follow and condenses a lot of this lore into a rather digestible narrative that can be wrapped up quickly. If you pay attention – which I understand can be difficult whilst in the squad’s party chat – there’s a decent enough plot to be enjoyed with big set-pieces, a couple of surprises and character development that mightn’t be comparable to Bioware’s previous work, but is at the least reminiscent. The post-credit scene, however, has me more excited about what is still to come; the story teases some far more interesting stuff that I’m sure will be explored in future story arcs. At the very least, I need to commend the main campaign for getting me invested in Anthem’s world.

But the game does a less than impressive job of introducing you to its systems and efforts to do often gets in the way of telling the story. Early into the game, as you may have already heard, you are faced with the ‘Challenges of the Legionnaires’ in which four tombs you need to explore are gated off until you complete a set of three or four challenges. They range from fairly basic tasks, like opening chests and gathering collectibles, but others require a bit more effort, such as fifty ultimate kills, or three multi-kills, or fifteen combo triggers. The game forces you to go out and explore everything else the game has to offer in order to progress the story but offers you no guidance as to how to achieve this. Thankfully, I was able to suss it all out via trial and error, but a wealth of community content has now accumulated online, for which Bioware should be very grateful.

Story progress is again derailed later on so that you are forced to make some progress working with the Factions. This is essential to unlocking Legendary Contracts in the endgame, which reward you with some of Anthem‘s best loot, but breaks up the pacing once again. There’s a mission that involves waiting for someone to complete something, such that you have to “do any Mission, Contract or Freeplay”. There exists this conflict between telling the story and showing you everything the game has to offer that drove me up the wall. Constantly being confronted with load screens also hinders storytelling, as does joining Expeditions midway through and missing chunks of dialogue.

There are some questionable decisions made. Not being able to access the Forge – where you customise your Javelin’s appearance and loadout – other than when you’re back at base in tedious. I’d much prefer being able to swap weapons on the fly or add component upgrades as you collect them. Similarly, not being able to access your Journal to check out missions on the Expedition Launch Screen is also weird. Social controls are majorly clunky and you can’t drop waypoints on the map in Freeplay. All of the quality of life features we’ve come to expect as standard in games such as this are just non-existent with no real explanation as to why. Lastly, there are dialogue options when talking to all the characters in Fort Tarsis, but they seem inconsequential. It’s just all a bit puzzling.

The fact that Fort Tarsis is closed off just for you is also weird. The Launch Bay provides a Tower-esque social space, as in Destiny, but it’s literally just a large mainly empty room. They do a reasonable enough job for justifying why an eclectic mix of Freelancers join you on your Expeditions and I feel could have explained why more might have been milling about the Fort. I feel like they opted for Fort Tarsis as being a strictly private, first-person perspective place for the sake of immersion, but it comes at the expensive of the social side of things. For a game that’s supposedly all about multiplayer – and it absolutely is, this is not a game meant to be played alone – again there seems a mismatch.

However, it’s easy to forgive these weird design decisions and clunkiness when the moment to moment gameplay feels just so damn good. The maneuverability of the Javelin is fantastic and helps create fast, frantic and explosive gameplay. Flight works well in areas big and small, and is useful for both evading enemy attacks and setting up your own. I cannot express enough just how much satisfaction there is in jetting about, diving underwater, bursting through a waterfall, setting some Scars, Dominion or Outlaws on fire, then summoning a bolt of lightning from the sky. The sound design compliments this brilliantly. Beyond the incredible score – which includes some very cool didgeridoo – there are these awesome sound effects that sort of ‘ching’ when you land a combo. It creates an addictive gameplay loop with varied enough enemy design to constantly present new challenges. The environment design is also top-notch, with incredible diversity throughout the world. At times I was reminded of Avatar or Halo as if I was in some kind of idyllic science-fiction mashup. Everything feels, looks and sounds fantastic.

Sadly, this is not enough to make the underwhelming endgame content any more exciting to grind through. The three strongholds are either very similar or in fact repeated Expeditions, so besides the Legendary Contracts you might acquire, there’s not a lot in the way of new missions to complete. There’s little reward for the grind to level 30 except for the Grandmaster difficulty, which allows you to repeat missions some more in the hope for some of Anthem‘s best weapons and cosmetic unlocks. Really, you’re just being asked to invest your time in levelling up your character as much as you can until new content drops in the coming months.

For all its flaws, it has to be said that Anthem is a lot of fun. Some 60 hours in, between both PC and PS4 where I’m onto the endgame in both, I still enjoy the moment to moment gameplay. At least for now, I am still enthusiastically completing every mission and contract required to complete the rather demanding challenges set for you in the endgame, repetitive as it may be, in the quest for more Masterwork weapons and gear. This is thanks to the slick, addictive nature of the gameplay, and the fact I can hang out with my mates, but not a lot else.

All things considered, it will only get better. Future content drops and continued patching to iron out the many kinks will likely improve the game a great deal. I suspect, after a couple months, the game will feel drastically different if the community sticks around, as I suspect they will. In the space of a week and a half, it has already come a long way, and I look forward to what this game will turn out to be, even if it has me a little disappointed right now.

THE PS4 AND PC VERSIONS OF THIS GAME WERE PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. DIGITAL REVIEW CODES WERE PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Whilst I enjoyed my time with The Division, it lacked the endgame content to keep me around. It was super atmospheric, it’s abandoned, crime-ridden vision of New York post-epidemic proved a really cool setting to go galavanting around with your mates, mopping up baddies. But once the initial series of missions were completed, I wasn’t compelled to keep playing. Still, I’m really excited to see what the Massive Entertainment helmed sequel has in store, and based on what I recently saw as part of an early look at their Beta, I think I’m right to be excited.

The Division 2 builds upon the formula and lore established by its predecessor but offers so much more. It includes everything that was added through numerous content drops in the original and promises more through free added content after launch. A generous amount of objectives quickly populate the map, each of varying difficulty. I didn’t experience much variance in gameplay, with each task seemed to involve you sweeping through a place clearing it of enemies, but it more than makes up for it in its environmental design.

Washington DC is a very smart setting for The Division 2, one carefully crafted through “dozens of trips” and “thousands and thousands of photographs”. It’s a smart setting not just because it plays into the lore – given that America is grappling with a national-wide crisis, it makes sense to travel to the capital – but because it offers much more diversity in terrain than the urban setting of New York ever could. DC is more spread out and nature plays a bigger role. You transition from rooftops to subways, from city streets to open parkland very quickly.

As David Kennedy, the Game Director at Ubisoft Annecy (one of the eight studios collaborating on the project), noted, “Washington DC has a lot of varied environments,” environments they aim to make feel alive with animals skitting about and NPCs venturing out in search of supplies.

“So they have residential in Georgetown or near the Mall, you have the monuments, some of the government architecture – the really Brutalist architecture of the government – you have commercial areas. You have a lot of variety. There’s natural areas as well, that are really cool.”

This invites much more strategic play than I remember in the first, which make for great cooperative play. Kennedy added, that it gives you some real opportunities to play with space and distances a little more.” Snipers are much more effective in these spaces, and my squad often juggled between weapons mid-firefight, flicking between shotguns for close-range and then the rifles for the distance. The carefully structured levels opened up multiple pathways, encouraging us to flank whilst others held down defensible positions. The enemies AI was impressive though, they quickly adjust to our maneuvers and came at us much in the same way. If I wasn’t careful, I very quickly surrounded.

One particularly memorable mission took place in the Air and Space Museum. Moving from exhibit to exhibit, from the planetarium to the Mars rover room, made for some really cool set pieces. You almost got too distracted by the environment to remember your target. Spaces like these made helped separate the missions, making each on unique and – I’d imagine – more easily replayable.

Of course, it is inevitable that there will be a bit of retracing steps and repeating missions areas. Such is the nature of the grind in games such as this. Although, given the opportunity to same some of the game’s early moment, then the endgame, the degree to which the challenge escalates is quite dramatic, which I imagine will compliment the variety in the map to make for more enjoyable replay then we’ve previously experienced.

The endgame sees a new, more challenging threat invade the map and repopulate regions liberated through the course of the main game. This opens up three different specialisations available at launch, each with “a new skill-tree where you can level up… gain[ing] new mods for your skills for your grenades… [and] a signature weapon.” Again, this varies play and excites me about actually completing the main story missions and getting stuck into the endgame, building up each class unlocking some sweet loot. And that’s before we even get stuck into the “super hard, eight-player Raids” that Kennedy was reluctant to talk about too much.

Much like we’ve seen in other games, the different specialisations “are not class locked.” Kennedy says, “if you choose to do the Sharpshooter, you can max that out and then you go back to do the Demolitionist or the Survivalist.” This allows you to swap between them to complement your squad if you go back to lend a buddy a hand in missions you might have already played.

All this comes after what Kennedy suggests is “40 hours” of main game content and before the additional content drops promised down the line. It looks and feels great, and includes almost too much content to cover in this preview. I’m sure we’ll have a lot to do once we have the game in our hands come March 15, and I can’t wait to get my squad amongst it.

The post The Division 2 Hands-on Preview – The End Is Just The Beginning appeared first on Press Start.

I’m sure many Crackdown fans are hugely excited for Crackdown 3. After all, it’s been a while in the making’ beside the delays, it’s been nine years since Crackdown 2. According to the team at Microsoft Studios, it promises to be a “true Crackdown experience,” which I’m sure takes someone’s fancy. However, based on the slice of the game I recently had the opportunity to play, I’m sorry to say I won’t be amongst those eagerly anticipating its release.

That’s not to say there isn’t fun to be had with the game. Indeed there is, even as a first-time Crackdown player like me. It would appear that Crackdown 3’s primary focus is fun. Microsoft Studio’s Creative Director, Joseph Staten, and Head of Production, Jorg Neumann, confirmed this when I spoke to them last week. “I think the good news is that there are at least two axes of fun,” said Staten, “if you want to jump in just by yourself, within a big explosive playground of action – you just play through the campaign – Crackdown has that for you absolutely.”

“There’s also another side of the game – which hopefully you got a chance to play – which is Wrecking Zone. That is PvP in this destructive arena. So if you’re in that mood, the game has that for you too. So I’m hopeful that actually we can appeal to lots of different kinds of players and people want to play their kind of Crackdown.”

In fact, I did get the chance to play some of the Wrecking Zone multiplayer mode and enjoyed it a great deal. It’s a sort of ‘Kill Confirmed’ style mode that awards points to either side for killing enemies so long as they collect the tokens they drop upon death. It plays well into the sort of destructive chaos of Crackdown 3‘s multiplayer, which had us bouncing between skyscrapers, launching rockets at each other in the hope you’d score a couple of eliminations before eventually, a rocket found you.

It sounds simple, and to an extent it is; it very much has an arena shooter vibe, albeit with an insane amount of verticality and speed. You are highly agile and are able to jump and dash multiple times before you’re grounded. The game adjusts with very generous aim assist, to the point that your vision tracks the player when aiming down the sight. However, they’ll take a significant amount of damage requiring you to hunt them down or chain multiple attacks together to deal with them quickly. Evading fire sounds straightforward, the amount of hidey holes dotted up each building provided ample cover momentarily, but my foes quickly found they could punch holes in the walls, ceiling and floor – or bring the entire building down – which meant I was exposed once more.

The destruction is, of course, all powered by the cloud, and worked pretty damn well in my mind. There was nothing that made it obvious the processes wasn’t being run there on my console. The environment reacted as I expected it to – with all the explosives detonating about the place – without any delay. Its cool tech such that means, as Staten notes, “if you’ve got a first generation Xbox [One], or you’ve got a Scorpio [Xbox One X], that experience of destruction is the same.”

“It is a total change as far as to what the industry can achieve long-term,” said Neumann.

“As we’re entering these joint open-worlds, it’s going to be super interesting what people do with persistence. In this case, it’s persistence in destruction, but it’s persistence in general that will go up a lot with all the cloud processing.”

The destruction helps make for frantic, fast-paced and most importantly, fun, multiplayer, even if it doesn’t overly fresh otherwise. Besides it being literally ground-breaking, it doesn’t feel it figuratively, and I can’t see it sinking its hooks into me. I can certainly see how you might team up and develop a bit of a strategy to make for some pretty competitive matches, but I don’t know if it’s got the sort of meta-game that might give it lasting appeal. Perhaps having a better look at the roster of maps (we only played several games on the one map), the full extent of the progression system and the other game modes will change my mind.

The problem was only emphasised in the brief glimpse I got of the main campaign. Of course, the story is not to be taken seriously despite its gloomy, dystopian, almost apocalyptic premise. It quickly becomes painfully obvious this game prioritises “over-the-top fun”, but it would appear to me to be a rather uninspiring open-world, story missions dotted about with loosely related side-missions and checkboxes in between. It looks to be everything we’re familiar with, with lots of shooting, without contributing anything fresh. My first task involved climbing up a tower to claim a power station with the sort of climbing mechanics we’ve seen a million times before, but not nearly with the fluidity or presentation we’ve seen from the likes of Tomb Raider or Spider-Man.

Perhaps I needed more time with it, but it seemed as if I wasn’t going to be doing much other than bouncing about and shooting a lot of baddies in an open-world comparatively bland to recent games. Over time, I’d hope your character dramatically strengthens, acquires crazy new weapons, and the enemies become bigger and badder such that the challenge becomes more than extra waves of enemies, or a taller tower to climb, but requires more than point and shoot combat.

Staten promises “a playground of fun, with very few restrictions, you can go anywhere… a different kind of open-world experience… a big giant sandbox of fun.” I hope that’s the case.

The post Crackdown 3 Hands-on Preview – Breaking Buildings, Not Ground appeared first on Press Start.

Yesterday, Australia’s largest ever esports competition, the Fornite Summer Smash, took place at Margret Court Arena as part of the Australian Open. With a $500,000 prize pool, and $100,000 for the winner of the solo competition, the rivalry was fierce. Likewise, the afternoon’s Pro-Am, featuring a number of gaming personalities, sport stars and entertainers also saw plenty of action with participants competing for a share of the $100,000 to be donated to a charity of their choice.

In the solo competition, X2Twins Jesse, from the Renegades esports team, claimed the top spot in the points, nabbing three Victory Royales and a second place finish by out-healing his opponents in the final circle. His near-unstoppable strategy bagged him the points need to take and hold top spot so as to claim the $100,000 prize. Araki and NotNaapr place second and third in the overall standings, netting $50,000 each.

Another player on the Renegades roster, Mrfreshasian won the Pro-Am against competitors including DrLupo, Valkyrae, Vikkstar, Lachlan, Lazarbeam, Loserfruit, MrFreshAsian, Muselk, AlexAce and MrWoofless, as well as Dave Hughes and Nick Kyrgios. He won $50,000 for the charity of his choice in what was a dominant display from the Renegades team.

What a day for #RNGFortnite at the #AusOpen #FNSummerSmash! Each of the boys turned up and showed the world what they're capable of and we couldn't be more proud.

A huge thanks to the fans, the crowd, and everyone involved ? #ytb pic.twitter.com/1NPLpZZvtK

— Renegades (@Renegades) January 27, 2019

If you missed the action, the stream is available on the Australian Open Twitch archive.

The post Here Are The Winners From Yesterday’s $500,000 Fortnite Summer Smash appeared first on Press Start.

Australia’s largest ever competitive gaming event, the Fortnite Summer Smash with a whopping $500,000 prize pool, wraps up tomorrow at Margret Court Arena during the 2019 Australian Open.

The solos final takes place tomorrow morning, beginning at 10 am AEDT competing for a share of $400,000. 100 finalists from today’s round of qualifying have progressed through to the final, which will be made up of six matches with points awarded based on final placing and number of eliminations. The eventual winner will take home $100,000, with second and third winning $50,000 each. Every finalist already nets themselves $1000 for making it there.

Following the solo final, there will be a charity Pro-Am where the likes of DrLupo, Valkyrae, Vikkstar, Lachlan, Lazarbeam, Loserfruit, MrFreshAsian, Muselk, AlexAce and MrWoofless will be taking part. The winner of the Pro-Am wins $50,000 for the charity of their choice, with $20,000 going to the second and third placing competitors and $10,000 going to fourth.

Some of Fortnite’s biggest personalities arrived at Melbourne Park this morning, taking part in the solo qualifying rounds and having a hit on the court. Speaking ahead of the event DrLupo said, “there’s some really scary good players here. I’d like to think that I can compete but it’s all going to come down to nerves and on-the-spot thinking and situational stuff.”

If you are in Melbourne, tickets to the Fortnite Summer Smash Fortnite at Margaret Court Arena are just $5 for kids or $54 for adults. You can purchase them here. Alternatively, you can stream the finals live over on the Australian Open Twitch channel.

The post Fortnite’s $500,000 Summer Smash Is Happening Tomorrow At The Aus Open appeared first on Press Start.

As I launched a circular saw blade from a crossbow into the back of an unsuspecting enemy’s head, and petals of a nuclear super bloom floated past my next target, it occurred to me how strange it was that Far Cry has never ventured into the post-apocalypse before. It seems like a natural fit; Far Cry’s outlandish escapades feel right at home in the wasteland. The franchise’s usual hallmarks – capturing outposts, hunting, liberating prisoners, managing moral conflict – all transpose effortlessly into a world coming back to life following nuclear winter. Far Cry New Dawn, conceptually, is a no brainer.

But it is the first time the franchise has ventured into the post-apocalyptic first-person action game and the first time the franchise has adopted somewhat of a serial approach. New Dawn picks up some seventeen years after the events of Far Cry 5, which – as you can imagine – conclude rather dramatically. As James Nadiger, the game’s Associate Narrative Director, notes, it is a “standalone sequel”; whilst you benefit from having experienced the conclusion of Far Cry 5, “you can jump right in.” The introduction, all too familiar this many iterations deep, propels an unwitting protagonist into a dangerous mission, only for things to go seriously wrong almost immediately.

Quickly you find yourself amidst are a tumultuous world of warring factions, fighting for survival, but ultimately the future. Of course, Far Cry is all about its baddies. Out in the wasteland, what remains of Eden’s Gate, the cult central to Far Cry 5’s plot, looms, but this time not one, but two big bads are introduced. New Dawn’s sinister set of sibling villains, the twins Mickey and Lou, the fight is all about the present. They lead the Highwaymen, roaming bandits who capture and consume mercilessly, taking all and leaving nothing. In the time I was able to play, I only encountered the pair once, but it was enough to leave a lasting impression on me. That was certainly the objective of Nadiger, hoping to create a villainous threat that would “stand out”.

“What unifies the Far Cry villains is that they’re utterly convinced that what they are doing is the only sane way to get by in this world. And they’ll have a chance to try and convince you but if you can’t see things their way then you guys have a problem. In that respect, the Twins are a good entry into the pantheon of Far Cry villains.”

“Just having two of them shakes it up as well because we’re so used to these one-on-one conversations. Just the dynamic of having people share this power is interesting when you get face-to-face-to-face. And how they each react to you as you become a bigger pain in the ass.”

You side with the people of Prosperity, an idyllic speck of sanity, clutching on to the ways things once were, determined to bring about a brighter future for the children amongst them. New Dawn’s narrative and gameplay seemingly revolve around their objective: reclaiming Hope County and rebuilding civilisation. Hence, familiar missions present themselves, recruiting new allies to the cause and liberating sections of the map.

It’s a colourful world, and the cast of characters I had the opportunity to interact with seemed plenty colourful as well. A variety of caricatures “with a twist” present themselves, each with their own flare or “attitude” as Nadiger puts it. The colour palette is the most vibrant I recall a Far Cry game as having, with nature reclaiming mid-west America. New Dawn meets expectations of the post-apocalyptic sub-genre, embedding a decent amount of environmental storytelling, inviting you to read more into a character or solve a puzzle by detecting clues around you. On occasion this was subtle, maybe markings on the wall. Other times, readable notes provided background or context, or a vital clue in completing a puzzle.

You’ll seemingly spend a substantial amount of time scouring through every nook and cranny of New Dawn’s world. Scavenging plays a critical role in the game, which boasts light RPG elements, in another fresh development for Far Cry. Upgrading your home base, its stations, your weapons and vehicles all require a variety of components to be tracked down in the world, much in the way animal pelts have enabled you to upgrade your character previously.

Completing missions and side quests grant you skill points which you can use to level up your character in other capacities, increasing the amount of ammo you can carry, granting you the ability to grapple and wield up to four weapons. Animals, in various slightly mutated forms, are still there to hunt and serve various trading purposes. Rather than scavenging for the resources you require, it seems you can instead hunt particular animals skins and trade them for copper, or duct tape, or whatever you require.

Fortunately, there is a variety of ways in which to acquire the materials you require. I took it upon myself to go on the hunt for duct tape in order to unlock a particular silenced assault rifle that took my fancy. Each location you discover has a type of material associated with it you can collect, which is marked on the map, which made it easy to locate what I was after. Whilst driving between locations, I was alerted to a falling supply drop which grants you a mixture of materials assuming you can beat the Highwaymen there.

Spontaneous events like this add to the drama in the world, but not its originality. I can’t recall supply drops in recent releases, but the others feel copied across from Far Cry games before it. Freeing prisoners from transport vehicles, stopping supply trucks, chasing down couriers and fending off patrols are all back. I suppose that is to say that I don’t get the sense from the first couple of hours of the game that there is anything terribly new here for those that have been uninterested in Far Cry games before. Fans will appreciate the new additions and changes, but it does not mess with the formula enough to convince me the fanbase will broaden. That’s not necessarily a complaint, however, more a warning.

For returning fans, I think there’s enough to be excited about. I consider myself quite a fan of the franchise and the addition of RPG elements, post-apocalyptic setting and the cast of characters – new and returning – is reason enough for me to be excited. Additions such as the Expeditions, which allow you to go off the map to complete special missions and chase better loot, and escalating Outposts are welcome changes. The escalating Outposts allow you to repeat them by essentially handing them back to the Highwaymen for ethanol, the primary resource that allows you to level up Prosperity. Really what both the Expeditions and escalating Outposts offer is better replay value, cooperative fun and perhaps more of a challenge then we’ve seen in past Far Cry games.

Expeditions, escalating Outposts and RPG elements, on top of the very apt setting, are perhaps the major drawcards for returning players. In the time I was given with the game, it was clear that the Far Cry formula remained, but was given a thick, fresh coat of paint that reinvigorates it. At the end of the play session, I was kinda bummed to put the controller down. I had just collected enough duct tape to get that silenced assault rifle I wanted and was ready to make some significant progress in taming the dystopian Hope County. I suppose I’ll just have to wait until February 15th, with eager anticipation.

The post Far Cry New Dawn Hands-On Preview – At Home In The Wasteland appeared first on Press Start.

Without technology, we simply wouldn’t have games. The two go hand-in-hand but so often gaming-centric technology is bogged down with so many bells and whistles it would put Santa’s sleigh to shame. Much to my own embarrassment, I once owned a keyboard with a plug-in fan designed to keep your hand cool deep into a PC gaming session. 

So when I got my hands on the Razer Phone 2, their second foray into the smartphone market, I was sceptical. Was it just be another overly embellished, more-style-than-substance device hoping to scoop some extra bucks out of the pockets of gamers? Or, perhaps, behind the chroma colours and marketing slogans, could there be a phone worthy of being a daily driver?

I’m pleased to report, the Razer Phone 2 is very much the latter. Having used the phone as my daily driver some time, I can see why someone other than a gamer might desire this impressive device for more than “the winning edge.”

Of course, it is unquestionably built for gamers. The powerhouse of a phone with 5.7” 120Hz 1440×2560 display, with support for HDR, means games look and run exceptionally well. Playing graphically intense games like Asphalt 9, Shadowgun Legends, Fortnite and Into the Dead 2 was a breeze. Thanks to inbuilt optimisation controls, the ease with which the games ran astounded me as I’d become accustomed to some stutter on portable gaming devices, let alone my other phones. Despite the addition of ‘vapor chamber cooling’ it did get a little warm at times, but not dangerously so.

A familiar Razer feature, the customisable chroma light-up logo on the glass back, appears at face value an over-the-top, unnecessary addition but is a welcome inclusion. Whatever cost is added to the phone (the sum of which is on par with rival flagship devices), it is worth it for the looks of envy from other phone users as they admire the range of colours pulsing out of the back of your phone.

These jealous looks aren’t nearly as fun as the sheer joy that is flicking smoothly through your social feeds as high refresh rate. You can set it at a max of 120Hz, or lower if you want to conserve battery life, but 90Hz or above results in a silky scrolling experience that has to be seen to be appreciated. I can’t compliment this screen enough really. Watching videos, playing games or going through your messages all looks and feels gorgeous.

But I’m divided on the design of the phone itself. I love looking at it, sat parallel to the edge of my desk; it’s indicative of Razer’s obsession with sharpness and clarity, and kind of monolithic, reminiscent of the mysterious black monuments in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Its sharp, rectangular shape that doesn’t stray far from what I guess is the default slab shape of a smartphone.

However, sat in the palm of your hand it is slightly uncomfortable. With essentially no curve to its corners, I feel I’m always fighting to get a good grip on it. Instead, I feel like I’m sort of balancing it on my fingertips. Some might put this down to its size, but it’s not substantially bigger than my S8+ or the Samsung Note’s I’ve used in the past, and I don’t recall the same level of awkwardness with those.

Holding it horizontally does work well though. I’m able to tuck the corners under my knuckles easily, making for a pretty painless Netflix experience on the go. The front-facing speakers, which are common practice these days, are commendable but are loud but default. Dialogue sounds alright on it, but it was hard to avoid a tinny sound playing any music. Furthermore, the grills covering them are prone to collecting dust and bits of grit which look rather unsightly on the face of your device.

I should shout out the placement of the lock button and the volumes keys though, which are conveniently placed for the thumb and forefingers respectively for right-handed individuals such as myself. The fingerprint sensing lock button is flush with the edge of the phone, which, fair warning, may make a case a little annoying.

But you’ll likely need one. The Phone 2 is glass backed to enable wireless charging with its (sold separately) wireless charger, also equipped with chroma lighting, because of course. Glass backs are, sadly, the way to go these days so we may just have to put up with the constant threat of shattering the back of our phones.

The glass back is to facilitate the addition of wireless charging to the phone. I experienced some difficulty using my own wireless charging pads, both on my bedside table and in my car, as the charging coils on the phone are situated on the lower half of the device, rather than being centred as I have become accustomed to. This suits Razer’s own Chroma-enabled wireless charging dock, which the phone slots into vertically, but on a flat charging pad, I had to balance the phone’s lower end on the pad with the top half hanging off. It was a bit fiddly to get it sitting in the right spot.

However, you ought not to worry too much as the battery life is refreshingly good. Gone are the days when my battery would limp through the day and need an evening refill if I were to be heading out after work. With casual use, the battery lasts you well into the evening and into the next day, but the included USB-C to USB-C charger does wonders in quickly topping it back up in a push.

The camera is up to standard as well. It’s 12 MP rear camera and 8 MP front-facing didn’t blow me away, but they certainly didn’t disappoint either. Portraits and close-ups look clean and crisp, with colours popping nicely on the Razer Phone 2’s gorgeous screen. The camera comes equipped with all the functionality you’d expect from a smartphone camera, and I was impressed by its low-light performance. I challenged it photographing and videoing some fireworks and was pleased with the results.

With everything considered, the Razer Phone 2 is a joy to use. It comes installed with basically stock Android, with just a couple of Razer additions facilitating optimisation and custom themes, as well as Google’s suite of pretty staple applications. There’s this beautiful theme of simplicity to the phone, which carries through its hardware and software. Razer has crammed in everything they felt necessary but omitted the novelty that usually muddles other devices.

The post Razer Phone 2 Review – Powerful Simplicity appeared first on Press Start.

Big W is absolutely crushing it when it comes to gaming deals this Christmas. They’ve got some great bargains when it comes to consoles and games, so if there’s stuff on the Christmas list you still need to cross off, this might be your best opportunity.

When it comes to games, they’re advertising:

• Spider-Man (PS4) – $39
• NBA 2K19 (PS4 & XBO) – $59
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (PS4 & XBO) – $65
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4 & XBO) – $79
• Pokemon: Let’s Go (Switch) – $62
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch) – $69
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) – $79
• Fortnite Deep Freeze Bundle (PS4, XBO & Switch) – $39
• FIFA 19 (PS4 & XBO) – $55
• Battlefield V (PS4 & XBO) – $59
• Grand Theft Auto V (PS4 & XBO) – $27
• Spyro: Reignited Triolgy (PS4 & XBO) – $42
• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (PS4 & XBO) – $49
• Fallout 76 (PS4 & XBO) – $49

Big W is also repping the PlayStation Christmas Sale hard, and is offering some of the cheapest prices on consoles and PS VR:

• PS4 500GB – $259
• PS4 1TB w/ Spider-Man – $369
• PS4 Pro 1TB – $469
• PS VR Worlds Bundle w/ Astro Bot – $249

As well as games:

• Uncharted Lost Legacy – $20
• GT Sport – $20
• Horizon: Zero Dawn – $20
• Batman: Akrham Knight – $20
• Mortal Kombat X – $20
• Little Big Planet 3 – $17
• Ratchet and Clank – $17
• Uncharted Collection – $17
• Killzone: Shadow Fall – $17
• Until Dawn – $17
• Driveclub – $17
• inFamous: Second Son – $17
• Uncharted 4: A Theif’s End – $17
• Bloodborne – $17
• The Last of Us: Remastered – $17

Get into Big W whilst the going is good.

The post Big W’s Christmas Gaming Sale Is Pretty Great appeared first on Press Start.

PlayStation’s massive Christmas Sale is starting today, with whopping discounts on consoles, VR headsets and games.

In collaboration with a number of retailers, the prices on PS4 consoles have been dramatically reduced. Starting tomorrow at Big W, you can pick up a 500GB console for just $259, but it is also under $299 on Amazon, EB, JB Hi-Fi and direct from Sony. If you’ve not bought one yet, you’re in luck. If you have already, it might be worth seeing if you can exchange it for the cheaper price.

1TB consoles with Spider-Man are also available, with Big W also having it cheapest tomorrow for only $369. Amazon, EB, JB and Sony are all offering the same bundle for less than $399.

If you’d prefer a Pro 1TB, Big W will be selling them tomorrow for $469, but Amazon has them up for $449.10 right now, and EB for $499.

Already got a console and just after some accessories for Chrissie? You’re in luck; the VR headset is also epically reduced. The VR Mega Pack (which includes the headset, camera, Astro Bot, Doom VFR, Skyrim VR, WipEout Omega Collection and VR Worlds) is available for $349 at both Big W and EB Games.

The Starter Kit bundled with just Astro Bot sets you back only $249 at Big W tomorrow, $299 at Sony or $279 at JB. Want Skyrim VR with that as well? Head to EB Games instead and get the bundle with the extra game for $299.

Big games such as Spider-Man, God of War, Detroit: Become Human, Horizon: Zero Dawn, GT Sport and Shadow of the Collusus are all at least 45% off too, with PlayStation Classics (including the likes of the Last of Us Remastered) now less than $20.

PlayStation has also announced that they’ll be giving away prizes in celebration of their new PlayItCool campaign featuring Beau Ryan. You can head to their Facebook page to get in on the give away goodness.

The post PlayStation Has Launched A Massive Christmas Sale appeared first on Press Start.

Christmas is just over a week away, and if you’re hanging for a bargain on an Xbox One S, this might be your chance.

Amazon has slashed the price of their 1TB model, bringing it down to just $269.10 with free delivery. Not bad, not bad indeed.

If you or someone know fancies one of this for Christmas Day, you better order quick. For the time being, it is still possible to get it delivered prior to the big day.

The post Amazon Has The Xbox One S For Cheap appeared first on Press Start.

Yesterday, PlayStation announced the full lineup for the PlayStation Classic, a miniature version of its original console set to release December 3rd this year. The console will come with 20 classic PlayStation game pre-installed and two replica controllers. 

For many gamers, the original PlayStation – and the swathe of games released on it – hold a special place in their heart. There’s a countless amount of games that could be included on it, but here are the ones that missed out and definitely should have been on the console.

Tomb Raider

PaRappa the Rapper

Now somewhat of a mascot for PlayStation, PaRappa the Rapper would be a welcome addition to the lineup of games. His participation in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale catapulted him into the spotlight again, as we were reminded just how catchy his songs were. It’d be a lot of fun to spit some more rhymes and besides, a rhythm game would help make the PlayStation Classic a little more genre-diverse.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Metroidvania games are certainly in vogue, but they would not be nearly as half as good as they are without the achievement that was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. With nearly impeccable game design, SotN set the standard for side-scrolling action platformers. It holds up tremendously, and I’m sure there are countless players that would relish the opportunity to replay it, with near the same experience they did all those years ago. There are rumours its coming to the PS4 though.

Twisted Metal 2

The Twisted Metal franchise may have been dormant since an attempted reboot in 2012, but the original game is a PlayStation staple. The vehicular combat game earned Classic status back in 1997, with four games being released on the console. Sweet Tooth is another character to mascot for PlayStation, but whether he appears on the PlayStation Classic will have to be seen.

Ape Escape

Humour us. Ape Escape is famous as being the first game to make analog controls mandatory to play the game, right? It is also, therefore, worth noting, that the PlayStation Classic controller replicates the original controller, so therefore does not have the analog thumb-sticks. However, Ape Escape was ported to the PlayStation Portable, where the controls were adapted to accommodate the PSP’s lack of dual analog sticks. Given its status in the PlayStation roster, we feel it’s worth making it work on the Classic.

MediEvil

Another frustratingly dormant game franchise is MediEvil. The series is a fan favourite; every E3 has us crossing our fingers that a reboot will be announced. With lack of new games to play, it would be fantastic to replay the original and join Sir Daniel Fortesque on his quest once more.

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2

Few games earn the sort of sentimental attachment Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 did. Many will have vivid memories playing this game, with its soundtrack still playing on a loop in their head. The music may pose a problem – licensing is always difficult – but it would be our hope that one of the Tony Hawk games manages to find its way on the console.

Wipeout

Another must-have game is Wipeout. The series is hugely significant in the history of PlayStation, and another one to be made available on PlayStation 3 and the PSP. We can be pretty certain the game would be included, being one of the best known PlayStation One and early-3D graphic games.

Silent Hill

Silent Hill is another PlayStation game to spawn an iconic series and define survival horror games as we know them today. Despite the limitations of the technology at the time, the game succeeded in terrifying its players. Although well received back in the day, the importance of the game has only been better appreciated with time and is widely considered as one of the best games of all time. It would be fantastic to have it on the Classic console.

Gran Turismo

Gran Turismo, the 1997 racing sim, was the best-selling game on the original PlayStation, and the best-reviewed racing game of all time, with a rating of 94.95% on GameRanking and 96 on Metacritic. Having launched one of PlayStation’s most commercially successful franchises to date, it is almost guaranteed to feature on the Classic.

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos

As far as PlayStation 3D platformers go, Croc might not be your first pick. However, as one of the first ever iterations in the genre, developed by one of the pioneers of 3D console graphics, Argonaut Software, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos would be a sensible inclusion.

Honourable Mentions + A Note on Crash & Spyro

Once again, there are so many PlayStation titles worthy to be on this list. 20 games kind of feels too few. Some of our other favourites at Press Start include: Driver, Rugrats: Search for Reptar, Speed Freaks, Die Hard Trilogy, Rascal, Tenchu: Secret Assassins, Pandemonium!, Tomba!, Parasite Eve, Soul Blade, Battle Arena Toshinden, Ninja: Shadow of Darkness, Kula World, Motor Toon Grand Prix and Gex: Enter the Gecko.

Absent from our list to is the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro games. Given that Crash has received a recent remake, and Spyro will be in November, we figured they would not likely appear on the Classic console, as upsetting as that may be.

The PlayStation Classic will release on the 3rd December 2018 and is available for pre-order now.

THIS STORY ORIGINALLY APPEARED AS ’15 GAME THAT WE WANT TO SEE ON THE PLAYSTATION CLASSIC’

The post 11 Games That Should Have Been On The PlayStation Classic appeared first on Press Start.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate still feels too far away, and Nintendo aren’t making the wait any easier teasing us with more footage from the game included in a new trailer. The game sadly isn’t coming out for over a month still, on the 7th December this year, and the trailer doesn’t include any new character announcements but it does show some of the final smash attacks in action.

If you’re headed to PAX this weekend, you’ll be able to get your hands on the game ahead of is release. Pokemon Let’s Go will also be available to play at the event, which starts this Friday, 26th October. It will be the first time that Pokemon is playable in Australia and that Super Smash Bros Ultimate will be playable outside of Sydney.

The post Super Smash Bros Ultimate Is Building The Hype With A Brand New Trailer appeared first on Press Start.

To celebrate the upcoming release of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, the iconic character is throwing himself an Aussie-style BBQ party over the PAX weekend.

The platforming purple dragon will be making an appearance with a special fire show on the hour every hour. If you’ve ever wanted to see Spyro breath flames IRL, this is your chance!

The fire show will take place every hour during the following times:

• Friday 26 October: 12pm – 4pm, 6 – 7pm
• Saturday 27 October: 12pm – 4pm, 6 – 7pm
• Sunday 28 October: 6pm – 7pm

Located at the Common Man (39 Dukes Walk, South Wharf), the BBQ is open to all PAX attendees, where you’ll be able to pick up a lamb lunch, choosing from three delicious dishes.

• Sheila’s Pick: BBQ’d lamb kofte with minted yoghurt (3) – $9
• Toasty’s Nightmare: BBQ’d lamb kofte (3) with Greek salad and minted yoghurt – $12
• Spyro’s Flame Feast: From the spit – rosemary and garlic marinated Salt Grass Lamb roll with gravy – $14

Grab your camera and leave some room in your belly for a fiery feast with your favourite dragon this weekend!

The post See Spyro Breathe Fire At His Aussie BBQ During PAX appeared first on Press Start.

Red Dead Redemption 2, is nearly upon us, eight years after the last. You are no doubt super keen to get the game installed and playable as soon as you can, so you can begin running riot in the Wild West as soon as you can.

Fortunately, EB Games and JB Hi-Fi understand. That’s why, at midnight tonight, they’ll be opening a number of their stores so you can pop in, pick up your copy and get playing! Not every store is doing a launch, but several in each state are.

EB Games are doing some official major launches too at nine different stores around the country where those that attend receive an Exclusive Red Dead Redemption 2 EB World Card and poster. There will also be food giveaways, and over $400 worth of prizes for the best dressed and most knowledgeable in Red Dead trivia.

You can find our bargain guide for Red Dead Redemption 2 HERE. 

EB Games

Official Major Launches

• EB Games Ipswich
• EB Games Narellan
• EB Games Werribee Plaza
• EB Games Robina
• EB Games Marion
• EB Games Belconnen
• EB Games Charlestown Square
• EB Games North Gate
• EB Games Midland (breakfast launch)

ACT

• Belconnen
• Woden Plaza
• Tuggeranong
• Canberra City

NSW

• Albury
• Tuggerah
• Erina Fair
• Coffs Harbour
• Lake HAven
• Sttlement
• Grafton
• Kempsey
• Lismore
• Tweed City
• Geenhills
• Tamworth
• Raymond Terrace
• Charlestown Square
• Kotara
• Dubbo
• Wagga Wagga
• Bathurst
• Orange
• Jesmond
• Glendale
• Salamader
• Broken Hill
• Liverpool
• Mt Druitt
• Stanhope
• Rouse Hill
• Richmond Markets
• Penrith #2
• Narellan
• Katoomba
• St Clair
• Lithgow
• St Mary’s
• Nepean
• MacArthur Square
• Warrawond
• Wollongong
• Campbelltown
• Nowra
• Shellharbour
• Goulburn
• Figtree
• Wetherill Park
• Westpoint Blacktwon
• Parramatta #2
• Merrylands
• Burwood
• Miranda
• Hurstville
• Bankstwon
• Chatswood
• Eastgardens
• Eastgardens
• Roselands
• Sydney Central
• Bondi
• Galeries Victoria
• Broadway
• Chullora
• World Square

QLD

• Rockhampton
• Canelands
• Mt Pleasant
• Gladstone
• Indooroopilly
• Chermside
• Ipswich
• Carindale
• Toowoomba
• Springfield
• Albert Street
• Sunshine Plaza
• Morayfield
• Northlakes
• Garden City
• Strathpine
• Browns Plains
• Brisbane City Myer Centre
• Stockland Cairns
• Stockland Townsville
• Cairns Central
• Castle Town
• Smithfield Cairns
• Willows Townsville
• Logan Hyperdome
• Beenleigh
• Helensvale
• Robina

SA

• Hollywood
• Sefton
• Firle
• Mt Barker
• Murray Bridge
• Gawler
• Munnon Para
• Marion
• Colonnades
• Rundle Mall
• Seaford
• Southgate
• Hallet Cove
• Victor Central
• Berri
• Tea Tree Plaza
• West Lakes
• Elizabeth
• Castle Plaza

TAS

• Northgate

VIC

• Northlands
• Greensborough
• Epping Plaza
• Doncaster #2
• Plenty Valley
• Craigieburn
• Chadstone
• Broadmeadows
• Watergardens
• Werribee Plaza
• Southlands
• Knox City
• Ringwood
• Highpoint
• Melton
• Ballarat
• Fountain Gate
• Mildura

JB Hi-Fi

ACT

• Belconnen
• City – Canberra
• Woden

NSW

• Albury
• Glendale
• Parramatta
• Tamworth
• Chatswood
• Liverpool
• Penrith
• City – World Square
• Miranda
• Shellharbour

QLD

• Chermside
• Ipswich
• Willows Shoppingtown
• Indooroopilly Shopping Centre
• Rockhampton Stockland

SA 

• City – Adelaide

TAS

• Hobart
• Launceston HOME Superstore

VIC

• Ballarat
• Broadmeadows
• Chadstone Shopping Centre
• Craigieburn
• Doncaster
• Fountain Gate
• Greensborough
• Highpoint
• Melton
• Northland
• Ringwood
• Southland
• Taylor Lakes (Watergardens)
• Wantirna South – Knox
• Werribee

The post You Can Pick Up Red Dead Redemption 2 At Midnight At These Stores appeared first on Press Start.

Booting up a new Call of Duty game often conjures up a feeling of deja vu. Part of me is teleported back in time to 2009, playing hours on end of Modern Warfare 2 on a warm school night, crafting makeshift aluminium Wi-Fi boosters to maintain a faster connection. Fortunately, a lot has changed. Gone are my internet difficulties and gone is the infamous ‘noob tube’.

Yes, Call of Duty has changed too. Black Ops 4 is arguably the most different a COD entry has been in a while. It’s perhaps a sign of the times; there’s no shortage of multiplayer games competing for your attention. The best-selling franchise has frequently been criticised for relying too heavily on a more-or-less unchanging formula. Any changes were often pegged as superficial marketing points, attempting to lure millions back every year. It would be unfair to lay the same charge against Black Ops 4. Whilst it feels familiat, this is Call of Duty finely tuned, aware of the current trends, proud of its past, striding confidently into the future.

To hear Black Ops 4 wouldn’t include a single-player campaign was a disappointment. More often than not, they were surprisingly good despite their shooting gallery linearity, stringing together high-octane set-pieces and explosive drama with the satisfaction of a big budget, Hollywood action flick. The Black Ops series was no exception.

I cannot help but feel the campaign came at the cost of keeping up with the times, but it doesn’t go amiss. Black Ops 4 is entirely multiplayer-focused with an emphasis on its latest take on its suite of competitive multiplayer modes, cooperative survival in Zombies and – most notably – Blackout. Blackout is their first foray into the now massively popular Battle Royale genre, a genre that’s only recently achieved widespread appeal. It is therefore surprising that Treyarch has been able to so quickly produce Blackout, and for it to be as fleshed out and polished as it. More like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds than my recent obsession, Fortnite, Blackout is a more grounded, realistic experience.

This is where Black Ops 4 feels the most different as a COD title. The tight, close-quarters maps synonymous with the franchise’s frantic multiplayer matches are forgone in favour for wide-open landscapes. With sparse cover, it’s the most vulnerable and tense I’ve felt playing a COD game. It’s fast, tactical, edge-of-your-seat type of stuff that asks you to ditch the typical run-and-gun COD tactics that are, by now, second-nature.

Unlike the Battle Royales preceding it, Blackout feels feature complete at launch, packed with a wide array of gadgets and gizmos, weapons and perks, and vehicles. This means a hefty amount of inventory management which is a bit clunky, especially when juggling attachments between weapons. However, it includes everything we now expect from the genre but adds it’s own touch, with COD‘s signature fluidity and tight gunplay, as well as the addition of zombie hordes, which pose an extra danger but increased potential reward.

This is indicative of the game as a whole; Treyarch has taken great inspiration from its competition but tries to offer something different with Black Ops 4. Multiplayer, where I still have spent the majority of my time, once again borrows from its peers but draws from its tradition. In doing so, it doesn’t stray too far from the formula. The class system, which has carried through the last couple season entries, have you choosing abilities based on characters reminiscent of hero-shooters such as Overwatch. It’s a straightforward system that you quickly get your head around, made easier by Specialist HQ which allows you to sample each in unique tutorials, view backstory videos and post high scores. It did not take me long to find a ‘main’ that I vibed with, but there are several I’m comfortable to play as. So far, I’ve seen a pretty even mix online, suggesting the balance is pretty healthy too.

The character-based classes, however, do not restrict your customisation abilities. The ‘Pick 10’, point-based custom class system remains with enough fan favourite returning perks, scorestreaks and equipment, along with a decent amount of new options. Similarly, the guns feel both new and familiar. Based on the weapons I’ve so far used, there’s an argument to be made for using each one, and no doubt you will find one that suits you. Gone is the wall-running and high degree of mobility that has previously bothered COD fans, and the server issues that have plagued prior releases. I did have a couple of hard crashes, but never during a multiplayer match, just mucking about in Theatre mode and loading up a Specialist HQ mission.

The maps as well, both old and new, are fantastic. The return or fan favourite maps from the Black Ops sub-series is a nice touch, although I’m sure there will be a handful that suddenly feels like they’re playing a game they’ve already played. However, I feel it’s more of a Super Smash Bros Ultimate-style move (although admittedly not nearly as complete), bringing together the best Black Ops bits into one package. Coupled with the new maps, this makes it one of the strongest sets in a COD game. Icebreaker is a particular stand out (in my opinion) from the 10 new maps, which combined with the four returning maps makes a total of 14 at launch, with Nuketown coming free next month.

All that leaves is the new and improved Zombie mode. Fans of the mode, one of the highlights of COD games since it was introduced in World of War, will be pleasantly surprised to see that it is even zanier in Black Ops 4. We got a glimpse of how insane it would be in some of the promotional material that was released prior to release, and I’m pleased to report it is as wild as I hoped it would be. The assortment of weapons (including magical staffs, swords and shields) and power-ups is bonkers, the maps are some of the series strongest, and the customisable class system is super refreshing. The supernatural and mythical themes, as well as historical references, are also super cool for a geek like me.

Black Ops 4 takes a great deal of inspiration from its competition but amalgamates it all in a polished package that manages to offer something refreshing with Blackout and Zombies. However, it doesn’t go so far as to offer anything revolutionary, content in following the trends rather than setting them. For all intents and purposes, when it comes to multiplayer particularly, it still feels very much like Call of Duty has, and mightn’t win back fatigued players.

THE PLAYSTATION 4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REIVEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW.

The post Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Review – Keeping Up With The Times appeared first on Press Start.

A few days ago, it emerged that PlayStation 4 users were having their consoles bricked through seemingly innocuous messages sent to their accounts. As it turned out, the messages – which were simply text, and emoji and some sort of non-compatible symbol showing up as a question mark – were rather dangerous and were making PlayStation systems inoperable.

The messages looked like this one below:

PlayStation has now issued a fix. A software update, 6.02, dropped last night in response to these issues, preventing the crash loop triggered by these malevolent messages. You should update your console as soon as possible so you don’t risk losing your console prior to Red Dead dropping.

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In an in-depth interview with Rockstar’s Co-founder and VP of Creativity, Dan Houser, Vulture is reporting that Red Dead Redemption 2‘s story is approximately 60 hours in length. The interview reveals that five hours of “the 65-hour game are dumped” following the completion of all the acting for the story mode. The 60-hour number comes about through some simple subtraction. 65 – 5 = 60. Quick maths.

The removed five hours apparently related to a second love interest for the game’s protagonist, Arthur Morgan, simply because they decided it “didn’t work.” Additionally, other missions were removed in their entirety as they weren’t “going to work technically or be quite slick enough.”

The interview also discloses some other interesting facts and figures about the game. Reportedly, the final draft of the story script was some 2,000 pages long. Houser estimates that if you piled up all the pages for the story, and all the side missions and additional dialogue, the stack “would be eight feet high.” 1,200 actors were required over 2,200 days of motion-capture work contributing to 300,000 animations, with 700 actors contributing to a total of over 500,000 lines dialogue for the game. Supposedly, even each non-playable character has 80-pages of script attached to them.

The number that’s attracted the most controversy, however, is Houser’s admission that the team worked “100-hour weeks” multiple times this year to get the game to the standard they wanted. Such excessive working hours is indicative of the harmful ‘crunch culture’ that surrounds video game development, with many criticising the unhealthy ramifications of such strenuous work. Harold Goldberg, who penned the interview, also spoke with Navid Khonsari who worked with Houser on multiple Grand Theft Auto projects and defended the culture at Rockstar saying Houser, and his brother Sam, “always rolled up their sleeves” and “never left us holding the bag.”

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Fortnite’s latest update, v.6.10, will introduce in-game tournaments that will allow you and your squad to compete against some of the game’s best. In-game tournaments will be open to all and found under the ‘Events’ tab, you just need to opt-in to cross-play to compete against Fortnite pros for “prizes and glory.”

Cross-play means that no matter which platform you are on and – in this case – which input method you are using, all players will play together. Yes, that means if you are playing on your phones, you could be matched with PC players using a mouse or keyboard. However, Epic has been quick to remind us that some of the best players in the world can still perform well using a controller.

What you need to know:

• Tournaments will run according to scheduled dates and times, with each one representing a fresh opportunity to make a name for yourself in the competitive Fortnite scene. Lasting several hours, competing players will earn points based on their standings in each match, and how many eliminations that get.
• Matchmaking works according to your performance. If you and your squad are dominating, you’ll be matched with players scoring similarly to you. If you’re sucking, you’ll be matched with players who are likewise struggling.
• Each tournament will have a target score. Reach the score and you’ll be awarded a pin that may influence advancement into future tournaments, or make you qualify for certain prizes.

But it doesn’t stop there. Epic is going to continue developing tournaments over the next few months, with pins being used in progressive tournaments that must require players to earn the pin to progress to the next round. They promise additional modes and scoring formats in the future too.

And the most exciting part? Later this year, all Fortnite players will have the opportunity to qualify for the 2019 Fortnite World Cup through a ‘Showdown Royale’ event that will run through these new in-game tournaments. Pretty sick.

So far, the following schedule has been posted:

• Alpha Tournament (Solo)
  • Dates: October 16 – October 21
  • Description: Participate in the first in-game tournament, spanning across several days of daily competition!
• Beta Tournament (Duo)
  • Dates: October 23 – October 25
  • Description: Grab a friend and take on the world – until you are the last two left.
• Friday Night Fortnite (Squad)
  • Dates: October 19 – November 30
  • Description: Join your friends every Friday and kick off your weekend with some exciting Squad action.
• Salty Springs Cup (Solo)
  • Dates: October 27 – October 31
  • Description: One week and three attempts to prove you’re the saltiest that Salty Springs has to offer.
• Tomato Temple Cup (Duo)
  • Dates: October 28 – November 1
  • Description: Become legends of the Tomato Temple Cup.

Specific times for Australia will be labelled on the events as the update rolls through and adds the tournaments to the ‘Events’ tab. Once we have them, we’ll update you.

The post Fortnite’s New In-Game Tournaments Is Your Chance To Go Pro appeared first on Press Start.

Like millions of other gamers, I spent all weekend playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Whilst I’m still in the process of writing my review, there’s little doubt in my mind that there’s something special about this game. Having had a love-hate relationship with the franchise, Black Ops 4 feels like a game very aware of the current trends, but not afraid to put their own spin on them.

Perhaps this is no more apparent than in Blackout, the game’s take on the massively popular Battle Royale game mode, popularised by PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and, of course, Fortnite, a game I have been shamefully addicted to. Blackout is comparable more to the former than the later; it prioritises realism and more grounded gameplay. It steers clear of any building mechanics and instead of asking players to juggle weapon attachments and equip armour in the fight for survival.

In doing so, it’s also the most different COD has felt in a long time. The tight, close-quarters maps synonymous with the franchise’s frantic multiplayer matches are tossed aside in favour for wide-open landscapes. With sparse cover, it’s the most vulnerable and tense I’ve felt playing a COD game. Scary as that may be, it’s a nice change of pace from Fortnite. It’s fast, tactical, edge-of-your-seat type of stuff that asks you to ditch the typical run-and-gun COD tactics that are, by now, second-nature.

Given the option, I’d rather play Blackout over Fortnite right now. Don’t get me wrong, Fornite has a charm that I’m sure will see my squad return to it from time to time. It’s early days, but there’s something really exciting about Blackout. It’s a new, immersive and challenging experience that has sunk its hooks in me. Evidently, Treyarch has played close attention to the competition and built upon it nicely, creating something that feels fresh as Fortnite’s seasonal changes fall a little short of shaking up the gameplay. Every other Battle Royale out there should be nervous. Very nervous.

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Razer has today announced their brand new flagship mobile device, the Razer Phone 2, which prioritises mobile gaming and streaming more than any other phone on the market. They pushed mobile gaming further than ever before with the original Razer Phone, their first smartphone, fully kitting it out for a premium gaming experience on-the-go. However, they upped the ante in their second iteration. Having gone hands-on with the new powerhouse of a phone, its apparent Razer is cramming in all they can to stay ahead of the competition in providing a premium mobile gaming experience.

In designing the Phone 2, Razer has taken on the feedback their first foray into the category received. The screen is 50% brighter, the camera has improved stabilisation, Dolby Atmos is supported and the CPU has been upgraded, with added vapour cooling managing the device’s heat. A new glass back allows for wireless fast charging and boasts IP67 certified water resistance. The 8GB of RAM remains, as does the expandable memory and large 4,000mAh battery.

Their barebones version of Android 8.1 has virtually no bloatware, only adding some useful apps of their own allowing you to optimise game settings to suit your display and power consumption preferences, and change the settings for the glowing Razer logo on the back, another new addition. The rectangular shape is virtually unchanged from the original, it’s just slightly larger and thicker accommodating a screen size increase from 5.7 inches to 5.72 inches.

The phone is slick and sophisticated inside and out. It has a sharp, sleek design, looking as if it was lifted straight from the set of a sci-fi film.  Its hard corners are a deliberate effort to make the phone stand out from the crowd and reinforce that this phone is about precision, clarity and power.

And powerful it is. Although my time with it was limited, Fortnite ran impressively well, the menus feeling even more responsive than it does on the Switch. Despite its edges, it sat comfortably in my hands, it’s weight a reminder of the sheer amount of tech packed within the 8.5mm from its front to it back. Brief as my play session was, I did not encounter any stutter or sluggishness in any of the games I was playing. The 120Hz screen refresh rate provides the super smooth gaming, unlike anything else I’ve seen on a phone. But then again, this is unlike any other phone.

I’ve always felt gaming on mobile devices to be a bit pointless. Phones, being as they are, are naturally disadvantaged by their form factor. I believed gaming on them would always feel inferior but man, does the Razer Phone 2 close the gap. In the palm of your hand, the Razer Phone 2 feels anything but inferior.

How it holds up as a daily driver, of course, remains to be seen. I still have reservations about the comfort of its sharp rectangular design when the trend is to curve our every possible edge. With so much under the hood, I’ll be curious to experiment with the settings and see how well the battery holds up too, but I suspect there will be a lot to love about the Razer Phone 2.

We won’t have to wait long to get our hands on it here in Australia too. The Razer Phone 2 will be available on the Razer online store first, sometime in November, and then with Optus on a plan. It’s going to be available for $799 USD over in the States, but we’ll update you with Aussie pricing when it becomes available.

The post The Razer Phone 2 Looks Awesome And Is Coming To Australia Soon appeared first on Press Start.

Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Challenge came to Metcalfe Park in Sydney last weekend and, despite some poor weather conditions, was a lot of fun for all the buddying assassins that attended. The enormous obstacle course lived up to its name, as participants, sports starts, influencers and cosplays braved rock climbing walls, swinging rings and even an IRL Leap of Faith.

Check out the action in the highlights video below:

It was, of course, all to promote the release of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, available now and quite possibly the best AC game yet.

The post Sydney’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Challenge Went Off appeared first on Press Start.

Netflix has today announced a more complete cast for their upcoming Witcher series. Joining Henry Cavill, announced as the lead back in early September, Freya Allan will play Ciri and Anya Chalotra will play Yennefer. Speaking with the Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich spoke about the casting choices saying, “we’re looking for the best actors for these roles. Period. End of story.”

Also announced as cast member were Jodhi May (Queen Calanthe), Bjorn Hlynur Haraldsson (Eist), Adam Levy (Mousesack), MyAnna Buring (Tissai), Mimi Ndiweni and Therica Wilson-Read (Novice Sorcerers), and Millie Brady (Princess Renfri). Hissrich noted the casting process was particularly intense, beginning after the hiring of a casting director back in June. Over 200 women from across Europe auditioned for the role of Ciri, but it was Allan – who initially read for another role – that was selected.

The series, which draws from the original books and less so the popular CD Projekt Red game series, is soon to enter production, aiming for a 2019 debut on Netflix.

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Cloud-based gaming is all the buzz at the moment. Numerous manufacturers and publishers have talked about the possibility of powering all your gaming via the cloud, but the promise of untethered, console-quality game streaming has yet to be realised. Enter Xbox. Back at E3, Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s Executive Vice-President of Gaming, promised their engineers were working on revolutionary technology that would provide such a service. And they’ve revealed it this morning.

Project xCloud allows gamers to play Xbox’s games on mobiles and tablets. Their philosophy is simple: “entertainment should be available on demand and accessible from any screen.” Utilising Microsoft’s cloud-based computing technologies, Xbox has adapter their console hardware to support to make games streamable to any device and connect your controller via Bluetooth or use the on-screen touch controls.

But they are aware of the challenges. Overcoming latency issues, and maintaining graphical fidelity and framerates are of particular focus for Xbox. There have traditionally been the sticking points for other streaming services. However, Xbox appears confident however that these won’t prove troublesome again, beginning private testing of the service next year using data centres that already reach 140 countries. They are currently working with “networking topology, and video encoding and decoding” as well as getting ahead of the curve in trialling 5G mobile network coverage. Currently, testing is working off 10 megabits per second internet connections, which – surprisingly – would be within reach for most Australians.

Obviously, this is within controlled environments, but it’s promising news. Cloud-based game-streaming might finally be delivering on its promise.

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Capcom has just announced that Mega Man will be gracing the silver screen in a live-action film produced by 20th Century Fox. The film does not yet have a release date, but is tentatively titled MEGA MAN with Capcom promising it “maintains the world of the Mega Man games, while incorporating the grand production and entertainment value that Hollywood movies are known for.”

In a press release, they revealed Chernin Entertainment (Planet of the Apes) and Masi Oka (Heroes) have been attached as producers, with Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman writing and directing. Joost and Schulman are perhaps best known for their work on Paranormal Activity 3 and 4, and their 2010 documentary, Catfish.

There is no word yet on when we might expect to see the film hit cinemas.

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In the latest in a series of questionable reports about the ‘dangers’ of Fortnite, ABC 8 News based in Richmond, Virginia, along with WCNC in Charlotte, North Carolina, has reported on ‘expert’ warnings from doctors suggesting the game can be as popular as heroin.

The initial report claimed, “medical experts say video games like the popular one called “Fortnite” can be as addictive as heroin” and can even, “get in the way of your child’s brain development.”

“It literally causes cravings that they can’t live without it, and they just get obsessed with it.”

The reports adds “many of the kids tested were teenage boys” and includes mention of a story where one boy “continued to play Fortnite even as a tornado swept through his neighbourhood.”

The focus is on the “dopamine system” which they state “releases addictive chemicals which are very similar to a drug addiction.” Admittedly, dopamine has been linked to the addictive nature of drugs, but they can also be activated eating, exercising and fornicating. The story seems heavily sensationalised.

The “medical experts”, “doctors” and “psychologists” are never named in the written report, but Chris McCarthy, a licensed professional counsellor with 20 years experience, a PhD and 3 Masters degrees does provide some anecdotal evidence in the television segment. Otherwise, the report is devoid of any comprehensive research.

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Nintendo of America President and Chief Operating Officer, Reggie Fils-Aime, has talked about Nintendo’s future as an entertainment company, rather than strictly being about gaming, during an appearance at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle. Doing so would mark a shift into a wider array of media, rather than just the consumer electronics and gaming they are presently known for.

During the discussion reported on by Arstechnica, Reggie identified three core “pieces of the business,” being the video game company everyone knows and loves, their recently developed mobile gaming arm and their broader work with their IP in other mediums. These mediums include the new themed areas coming to Universal Parks and Resorts in Osaka, Orlando and Hollywood, as well as a Mario film with Illumination Entertainment, the animation studio behind Despicable Me.

Reggie discussed the importance of their IP, including Mario, Zelda and Pokemon adding, “how we leverage these across a variety of entertainment platforms is how we’re looking to grow the company.” Of course, the Mario movie seems like a big leap in this direction. Rumours have long circulated that Nintendo were collaborating with Netflix on a Zelda television series, rumours downplayed by former Nintendo CEO, Satoru Iwata, back in 2015.

It seems possible that such deals, including the partnership with Illumination, will become more frequent as Nintendo hope to grow and expand across the entertainment industry. Hopefully, there will be more Nintendo films and television series on the horizon.

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As a gamer who also has a massive love for LEGO, I was stoked to see Blizzard announce a collaboration with the toy company this morning.

Over on Blizzard’s Twitter, they shared a video of Vice President Jeff Kaplan assembling an adorable Tracer Minifigure.

Along with the video, the caption teases further announcements soon revealing the complete range of Overwatch LEGO sets.

Build the perfect team, brick by brick.

Coming soon: @LEGO_Group Overwatch sets! pic.twitter.com/ycjEzigkyL

— Blizzard ANZ (@Blizzard_ANZ) October 2, 2018

I suspect we will not have long to wait before they fully reveal the range. Blizzcon is just at the end of the month and a page is already live on the LEGO website – featuring a pile of bananas – anticipating the reveal. Whilst we don’t know how many sets will be released, or how big they’ll be, there’s a tonne to work within the extended Overwatch lore, so I suspect we all better get saving if you’re planning to add all of them to your collection.

The post Overwatch LEGO Is Coming So Prepare Your Wallets appeared first on Press Start.

Barnesy’s screaming in the now meme-ified music video for the Kirin J Callinan track ‘Big Enough’ is a gift that just keeps on giving. The Australian music legend has now made is way into a promotional video for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 courtesy of his rather memorable vocal performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkDHRsKc2dM

The clip, part of the #CODNATION series of videos showcasing community created videos, likens Barnesy’s screams to the cries of a man having been hit in the nether regions. I, for one, couldn’t foresee the man behind ‘Working Class Man’ cropping up on the official Call of Duty YouTube channel, but here we are. This is the world we live in.

The post Jimmy Barnes Makes An Appearance In A Black Ops 4 Promotional Video appeared first on Press Start.

Forget roller coasters.

If the newly announced game by Vile Monarch, Weedcraft Inc is granted classification here in Australia, you’ll be able to become a marijuana tycoon and cultivate an empire.

Announced this morning, the game functions much like other tycoon games, allowing you to grow an empire from humble origins into a burgeoning business. However, instead of theme parks or lemonade stands, Weedcraft Inc tasks you with overseeing an emerging weed producer in America, grappling with financial, political and cultural challenges along the way.

It sounds like an interesting game, prepared to tackle some complex social and political issues, but one that might struggle to be approved for classification by the Australian Classification Board (ACB). According to the National Classification Code, games that “depict… drug use or addiction… in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults” are refused classification. Historically, the ACB has taken a hard stance against any game incorporating the use of illicit drugs related to incentives. It seems likely this game might be problematic in this regard.

The game is due in 2019 on PC.

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It’s crazy to think we are just mere weeks away from one of this console generation’s most highly anticipated games, Red Dead Redemption 2. After years of waiting, the wild west epic is so nearly here. As the days draw closer, RockStar has been teasing us with new details of what seems to be their most system rich game to date. I mean come on, it’s got dynamic horse pooping.

Yesterday, they dropped a brand new gameplay trailer in which every moment of the footage is captured in-game. There’s a lot to take in in the four minutes worth of gameplay, but here are our 13 favourite moments.

HEISTS

Easily one of the best additions to Grand Theft Auto 5 was the heists. Orchestrating grand plans, with multiple missions contributing to a final massive haul, was a super fun and rewarding challenge. It makes perfect sense that in Red Dead Redemption 2, when outlaws were still very much thriving, that heists feature heavily in the game. Watching those doors blast open, scorching the walls with burning embers, is also a sight to behold.

WARNING SHOTS

There’s a tonne of player freedom being promised for Red Dead Redemption 2, including the ability to rob trains, hold up stores, burgle a house and play the role of an ol’ highwayman. In this brief instance, the player fires a warning shot, which may be an interesting mechanic when it comes to a bit of crowd control in a heist. Considering how dynamic crowds have been in previous Rockstar games, I can imagine this being quite effective at dispersing people, or intimidating them, if need be.

BLOOD & GUTS

The wild west was pretty grizzly. I’m not talking about the grizzly bears either. It was a violent time and Red Dead does not shy away from this. We had already heard that you’d be able to dismember opponents in the game but seeing some of the blood effects in action in this gameplay trailer remind us just how messy these shoot-0ffs can get.

A DANGEROUS WORLD

There is evidently a lot out to get you in Red Dead Redemption 2. The ‘wanted’ system unsurprisingly returns, with bounty hunters coming after you if a price is put on your head. Rockstar warns that you’ll always need to be prepared to defend yourself, as you may get jumped at any moment. Hopefully, you’ll be able to defend yourself as well as Arthur does in the clip above. As a side note, how incredible are those facial animations and sound effects?!

DEAD EYE

The much loved dead eye shooting mechanic returns to Red Dead Redemption 2 but adds extra complexity. You can now target critical or fatal points of the enemy, the hurt them or to end them. It adds greater control and player choice, allowing you to leave an opponent injured rather than dead in the event you need to take them alive. You can also target explosive targets for some added drama if you so desire.

DUAL WIELD

In keeping with player freedom, it appears you’ll now be able to dual wield a combination of different weapons. In this one clip, Arthur appears to be armed with both a sawn-off shotgun and a revolver, being precise whilst packing a punch. It looks like a pretty handy combination.

A WORLD OF ACTIVITIES

Rockstar has always included an insane amount of stuff to do in their massive open-worlds. In Red Dead, you can participate in numerous mini-game activities, including fishing, playing cards and that knife game (you know the ones where you risk cutting your fingers off — fun). I can’t help but think The Witcher 3 has influenced every open-world game released after it, so hopefully, there’s as much fun to be had in these activities as there is in the rest of Rockstar’s wild west.

SECRETS

Again, Rockstar are no strangers to hiding secrets in their games, and it appears there will be more to seek out in Red Dead. The gameplay clip only briefly shows Arthur opening up a hidden doorway. What is hidden behind it is anyone’s guess, but we can’t wait to find out!

TAKE IN THE THEATRE

There is no shortage of things to do within this game. You can even go to the theatre and take in a show between shootouts. I don’t know why you’d want to, but you can.

THEY WILL REMEMBER YOU

The non-playable characters in the game will remember how you behave and it will affect your experience throughout the story. Every action, big or small, sounds like it will impact the world differently, ensuring everyone has a unique adventure and forms different relationships with the characters. I’d advise against pissing everyone off too much, you never know who might challenge you to a duel.

FIRST-PERSON

It was added in later for GTA V but first-person will available right from the get-go in Red Dead Redemption 2. For those seeking extra immersion, the mode looks like it works really well and plays amazingly. I can’t wait to give this a go.

CINEMATIC CAMERAS

New cinematic controls allow you to bring out your inner cinematographer and capture some really incredible shots in the game’s breathtaking environments. Whether your just making your daily ride a little more cinematic, or creating your own western, I can’t wait to see what people do with this tool.

Red Dead Redemption is coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One October 26th, 2018.

The post The 13 Wildest Moments In The New Red Dead Redemption 2 Trailer appeared first on Press Start.

Fortnite Season 6.0 is here and we finally know what it will include. Faced with increasing competition from Call of Duty, they’ve introduced some major changes to really shake up the gameplay.

https://twitter.com/FortniteGame/status/1045221527053127680?s=19

The rumoured pets have been added and new consumables, Shadow Stones, grant you increased powers and invisibility. There’s changes to the maps, adding floating islands, ‘corrupted areas’  and a haunted house, and a number of weapons and items have been vaulted.

Long-awaited controller bings have also been added, allowing players to full customise controls regardless of their platform. Console players using keyboard and mouse will also no longer be matched with players using controllers.

The full patch notes are as follows:

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With Forza Horizon 4 releasing this Friday amongst critical acclaim, including from us here at Press Start, developers Playground Games are looking to expand their studio with an additional 100 employees. The job posting, spotted by @PostUp_BBB on Twitter, includes Lead Artists, Producers, Designers, Engineers and Animators, amongst others, which had some speculating they were equipping the studio with an extra team to work on additional projects.

Playground Games Plans To Grow To 400 Employees.

They posted in LinkedIn over 100 jobs and if you go at their website there posted even more.

They want to create three studios division:
1. Forza Horizon Studio
2. Open World RPG Studio (Next Gen Fable)
3. New IP Studio (Unknown) pic.twitter.com/lakluR3zJk

— Post Up (@PostUp_SOG) September 22, 2018

In the absence of any official confirmation, it is unclear what the expansion may be for; there is, of course, the possibility the expansion will just be to support existing staff. The expansion would make Playground Microsoft Studios’ second-largest studio behind 343 industries, which houses some 500 employees.

In a month marred by multiple studio closures, to see new game-dev jobs being created in encouraging to see.

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In celebration of the fifth Outbreak Day, the infamous date in The Last of Us universe where the cordyceps virus pandemic began, developers Naughty Dog have released a bunch of new merch and free digital goodies. As detailed in a post on the PlayStation blog, a commemorative limited edition poster and the first volume of a rereleased vinyl soundtrack will be made available through a collaboration with Mondo.

The poster will only be available until 2:00 AM AEST this Sunday 30th September so you better get onto it quick if you fancy it.

Other merch includes a new shirt made in collaboration with Insert Coin Clothing, featuring Ellie’s tattoo from The Last of Us Part II available for £24 (approximately $43.50 AUD). A new theme song, Cycles, from the composer Gustavo Santaolalla is also available for download and streaming via Tidal.

There’s also a swathe of free digital goodies, including a PS4 theme, avatars and stickers for Apple Devices.

The PS4 theme and avatars will be free to download, but only until 2 AM September 28th (TONIGHT) so do it now!

It’s pretty cool that Naughty Dog celebrates their game this way every year and fans ought to make the most of the limited time offers. You can find everything available, via Naughty Dog’s website.

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Codemasters has today announced Dirt Rally 2.0, a new entry in their series, a spin-off from their Colin McRae Dirt games. In a report from VG247, the developers promise the addition of long-requested off-road vehicles and six locations, including Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Spain, Poland and the US.

The Dirt Rally series is the official game of the FIA World Rallycross championship and includes cars and recreated tracks from the competition. This time around, again as reported by VG247, the tracks will be hand-crafted rather than procedurally generated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=iEcf6Arn77k

The complete list of features, per the game’s website, include:

• OVER 50 OF THE MOST POWERFUL OFF-ROAD CARS EVER BUILT – Tear through environments with an iconic roster of historic and modern-day rally cars, VW Polo GTI R5, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X & Citroen C3 R5. Also take on the challenging power of the Chevrolet Camaro GTR.4.

• 6 REAL LIFE RALLY LOCATIONS –Take the wheel through the stunning environments of New Zealand, Argentina, Spain, Poland, Australia and the USA.

• FEEL YOUR RACE – Improved handling, surfaces, fallibility and environments deliver the most authentic and focused off-road experience ever.

• THE OFFICIAL GAME OF THE FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP – Race at Barcelona, Montalegre, Mettet, Lohéac Bretagne, Trois-Rivieres, Hell, Holjes and Silverstone in a multitude of different series.

• DEVELOP YOUR OWN TEAM – Create a team, hire your staff and expand your garage of vehicles as you choose.

• TUNING – Tune your vehicle to suit your driving style and environmental characteristics. Alleviate wear and tear by configuring each car’s set-up, and upgrade your parts to ensure your vehicles are ready for whatever challenge lies ahead.

• GET COMPETITIVE – Race the entire DiRT Community in Daily, Weekly and Monthly Challenges, with worldwide leaderboards and events.

Along with the announcement, they released the trailer above and revealed the release date of the 26th February 2019.

The post Dirt Rally 2.0 Announced Promising New Vehicles and Better Tracks appeared first on Press Start.

It’s the question on everyone’s mind: how will Fortnite compete with Blackout? What will they do to keep people playing? The answer: pets.

Following a spate of rumours, a promotional image seemingly showing pets was posted to the PlayStation Store and immediately taken down, but not before FortniteIntel grabbed screenshots. In the image below, a small pup is clearly visible on the shoulder of the DJ Llama. (Yes, that was a sentence I just wrote.)

What these woofers might mean for the game, of course, remains to be seen. We are just days away from the launch of Season 6.0 however, so we don’t have long to wait to learn what pets in Fortnite might mean for gameplay.

The post It Appears You’ll Soon Be Able To Have Pets In Fortnite appeared first on Press Start.

Long-rumoured but now officially confirmed, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood are being bundled together exclusively for the PlayStation 4 in Castlevania Requiem. Requiem will be available for digital download on October 26th, in just under a month’s time (the same day as Red Dead Redemption 2).

In addition to the announcement over on the PlayStation blog, Konami also released some screenshots.

The two games, arguably amongst some of the best games ever released, the two games will be upscaled for 4K and 1080p screen, include multiple HD backgrounds to be displayed behind the game screen, different rendering options and a complete batch of Trophies to be gained, including a Platinum although PlayStation promise it will be hard to earn. The DualShock 4’s speaker will also emit a chime when you pick up an item. Pretty neat!

Castlevania Requiem is available for pre-order on the PlayStation Store now.

The post Two Legendary Castlevania Games Are Coming Exclusively To The PS4 appeared first on Press Start.