Domenico Selvo, Doge of Venice, did not bring the fork from Asia to Western Europe. I point this out because Bosnian newspaper, Dnevni Avaz, recently gave him the erroneous credit for the deed in an article spotted by a Reddit user. According to the paper, Domenico Selvo’s wife Theodora had a couple of the eating utensils given to her as part of her dowry, and Domenico Selvo popularized their use in court dinners of the day. But that’s just not true. Theophanu, Holy Roman Empress Consort of Otto II, brought the fork over a few decades before. Not content with just being wrong, the editors of Dnevni Avaz used a portrait of Domenico Selvo from Crusader Kings II. It’s a nice enough image, but come on Dnevni Avaz! You didn’t even fully crop out the game’s portrait border. Nerds, especially European Crusader Kings nerds, see that stuff.
Tapeworms, sleepwalking, claustrophobia, and the shakes. These are a few of the new negative perks available in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. You’ll need to take at least two of these character handicaps to experience the new Hardcore Mode that’s been added to the game. If the medieval life simulator wasn’t difficult enough for you, playing in the new mode will disable the compass, make healing more difficult, and eliminates fast travel among other restrictions. Get out there and die like a peasant!
The From the Ashes DLC for Kingdom Come: Deliverance launches in July.
Fancy an early look at Fallout 76? Modder SK550 uploaded a cheeky facsimile of Bethesda’s upcoming multiplayer survival game for Fallout 4 that recreates the worst of the preview rumors. It enables random nuke attacks, most campaign characters get deleted, and you’ll get randomly spawning NPCs that act like the jerkiest of human players with “l33t-420” style names to go with them! Experience multiplayer Hell in all its glitchy glory! Fallout 4-76 is available now!
That’s Sir Lora the Squirrel Knight. His story, and an opportunity to gain him as a companion, is a pre-order bonus for the Definitive Edition of Divinity: Original Sin 2. Folks that already have the regular game on PC will just get him and the Definitive Edition for free when it launches.
Other changes and additions to Divinity: Original Sin 2 coming with the Definitive Edition are outlined in this video from Larian Studios. The developers have adjusted 150,000 words in text and recorded 130,000 new spoken bits of dialog. A “story mode” difficulty is being added that combat-averse players should find even easier than the game’s current “explorer mode” option. A new tutorial area will greet novice players. Returning players will see a ton of balance and performance improvements. Finally, there’s Sir Lora and his Great Acorn apocalypse.
Like Divinity: Original Sin’s upgrade, this sequel’s Definitive Edition on PC will be a separate install. PC owners will have the option of playing both versions. The Definitive Edition launches in August.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is rolling out a time-limited season pass system for unlocks along with the addition of the Sanhok map to the public game. In a lengthy announcement, the PUBG Corp explained that the Event Pass will be progression-based and will dole out rewards to players as they complete missions and achieve level milestones. Players that do not buy immediately, can still participate and track their progress, then purchase the pass before it ends and all previously attained rewards will be unlocked at that time. A rather generous proposition for hesitant players.
Savvy battle royale players have noted the broad similarities to the way Fortnite handles its Battle Pass system, with most applauding the change. Sanhok and the Event Pass launches on June 22nd.
John Deere equipment is finally coming to Farming Simulator. While you were drooling over E3 fodder like Ellie’s kiss in The Last of Us 2, Smash getting Ridley, or Fallout 76 dropping nukes in West Virginia, fans of the Giants Software Farming Simulator games were going nuts for a green and yellow tractor. John Deere’s iconic line of tractors will be in Farming Simulator 19, marking the first time the brand has officially joined the stable (pun intended) of machines in the series.
Farming Simulator 19 is still on track for a late 2018 release.
For Honor’s free update releasing concurrently with the recently announced Catching Fire expansion contains a significant makeover. The changes include an overhaul to the characters turning them into full hero personalities with stories and dialog. It won’t be “knight with a sword” after the update. It might become “Rokknar the Killonator” who has mommy issues and wants to retire to the countryside once the fighting is done. Perhaps For Honor can get the kind of fan-fiction Overwatch has all the time?
Dead or Alive 6 will include less sexy fanservice. Game director Yohei Shimbori doesn’t want to lose the essence of the Dead or Alive fighting game series, but the developer acknowledged that the upcoming game will tone down the sexualization of its female fighters. Costumes will be designed to more closely ape modern superhero outfits, and the infamous “boob physics” have been scaled back. Shimbori told Eurogamer that the new attitude represents their commitment to being a serious competitive game.
“This is a fighting game. We felt people were not looking at this as a pure fighting game. They were looking into something that was the wrong direction. So we wanted to make sure this is a fighting game first.”
Presumably, fans will still be able to depend on the Dead or Alive Xtreme series for their jiggle excitement.
The latest update for Far Cry 5 is now available. Title Update 7 tweaks some missions in the base game, fixes some bugs in the Hours of Darkness DLC, and generally pops a band-aid on some issues. The real news is that assets from Assassin’s Creed Origins have been added to the game’s editor and the male or female Origins costume is now in the player’s wardrobe. This means that if you’re proficient with the Far Cry 5 editor, you can create that first-person Assassin’s Creed experience you’ve always been looking for in other games.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has a season pass. The Black Ops Pass includes a bonus zombies mode mission that will be available at launch, four additional zombies missions available later, twelve standard multiplayer maps spread throughout the duration of the season, and four special characters for the Blackout battle royale mode. In a kick in the face to fans, content in the pass will not be available separately according to the game’s support page, an unwelcome change from the way previous Call of Duty games have operated.
Q: Will I be able to buy parts of Black Ops Pass content individually, like DLC Map Packs from previous Call of Duty games?
A: No. The contents included in Black Ops Pass may only be purchased as a bundle.
In attempt to quell backlash over the pass news, a developer representative on Reddit cited the long record of support for Black Ops 3.
With Black Ops 3, we’re three years after release, and we continue to support it with new content and continuous updates – and we’re not even done yet. Our commitment to the game has maintained engagement…and Black Ops 4 has far more post-release updates planned for the entire community. In fact, it’s a game that was built for expansion. Launch day is just the beginning of a long journey.
It’s a disappointing decision from Activision and Treyarch that goes against the current trend in the industry. Map packs may have been the accepted standard for getting more revenue from multiplayer gamers for the past few years, but popular games like Overwatch, Fortnite, Rainbow Six: Siege, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds have chosen to give maps away for free while enticing players to spend on money on cosmetics or early access to other content. Even EA’s tentpole shooters are doing away with map packs.
While no separate pricing is available for now, the Black Ops Pass can be pre-purchased with the “deluxe” versions of the game. The season pass for Call of Duty: WWII is $50 by itself.
Are you looking forward to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on Nintendo Switch? How much do you want it? Do you love it enough to watch almost a half-hour of a detailed fighter parade, move demonstration, and an exhausting reel of changes from previous games? Good news! The Nintendo E3 2018 presentation was basically the Smash show.
Sony’s E3 2018 show was a bit odd. Not Ubisoft quirky, but just plain weird. First they put everyone in a makeshift church tent, and played some banjo for everyone. Then Naughty Dog premiered some gameplay from The Last of Us Part II. Once Ellie was done getting her Lara Croft murder spree on, Sony had the audience move out of the tent and into the regular auditorium for the rest of the show. While that was going on, an awkward panel of hosts at an ESPN-style desk showed off Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer maps remade in Black Ops 3 to promote Black Ops 4. There was an underwhelming trailer for Days Gone. Then, a gaggle of PlayStation VR stuff was played. At the end, Destiny 2: Forsaken got a vague teaser.
When the lights came up in the main auditorium, a puzzled crowd watched someone play a bamboo flute in front of a large screen showing videogame grass blowing in the wind. Thankfully, this was the prep for the Ghost of Tsushima gameplay trailer showcasing some violent samurai antics. We got a new Pirates of the Caribbean trailer for Kingdom Hearts III. Remedy Entertainment announced Control, which looks like the best parts of Quantum Break and Alan Wake combined. A rat discovered the remake of Resident Evil 2. Hideo Kojima’s super odd Death Stranding confused everyone with Norman Reedus acting like the walkabout delivery service, then CG young Lindsay Wagner busted in and really perplexed viewers. Finally, Marvel’s Spider-Man from Insomniac Games returned us to the normal world of AAA action videogames.
It was a nice try from Sony, but they’ll have to get some drum major pandas and dancing cartoon girls next year to outdo Ubisoft.
That wasn’t the weirdest thing. There was the intro from Just Dance 2019 with a truck dock as a backdrop. Joseph Gordon-Levitt pimped his media company Hit Record (pronounced like the verb “to record” and not the noun) that’s working with Ubisoft on Beyond Good & Evil 2. Elijah Wood then hyped his media company Spectrevision that’s partnering with Ubisoft on Transference. Starlink: Battle for Atlas is still a toys-to-life game, but on Nintendo Switch you can play with the Arwing from Star Fox. The cherry on top was when Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot brought Shigeru Miyamoto on stage to present a nifty model of the Arwing to him.
For Honor’s starter edition is completely free on PC through Uplay now, and Chinese combatants are coming in the Marching Fire expansion. Ubisoft also announced a new Trials game. Trials Rising is kicking off a beta soon. Finally, Skull & Bones, the multiplayer ship-to-ship pirate combat game got a neat cinematic trailer.
Skyrim is on everything! That’s the joke. Everyone has said it at least once since the third or fourth version of the game was announced. Skyrim VR, Skyrim Special Edition, Skyrim for Nintendo Switch, Skyrim, Skyrim, Skyrim. Bethesda joined the fun in their E3 show with the above video. Skyrim is on pagers, refrigerators, and Alexa now. Get it? But wait! Skyrim on Amazon Alexa is not just make believe. It’s real.
Microsoft spent all the money for their E3 2018 kickoff event. To be more accurate, they spent their money to purchase a bunch of studios and showed off 50 games for Xbox and Windows 10.
First, the reveals that were a given. There was a snippet of the next Master Chief game. It’s something called Halo Infinite and it involves dinosaurs and camping in the woods. Forza Horizon 4 goes to merry old England with dynamic seasons and a more massively multiplayer Crew-like structure. Crackdown 3 may be delayed to late 2019, but Terry Crews is still blowing things up in trailers that are looking more and more dated as we go. Sea of Thieves will be getting some much-needed content soon. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds continues its desperate hold on the system as an Xbox console exclusive. Gears 5 (that’s just “Gears 5” and not “Gears of War 5”) will feature Kait’s story in the Gears saga.
In more surprising news, there’s a mobile game bit of oddness coming called Gears POP! which is a collaboration with The Coalition and bobblehead manufacturer Funko POP! There’s also a Gears Tactics which looks to answer the burning question “What if Gears and XCOM had a baby?” (Funnily enough, there was a similar prototype concept back in 2014 that was eventually canceled.) Battletoads is a thing. Goofball Dante is back in Devil May Cry 5. We all got another painfully scripted play demo from Ubisoft, this time for The Division 2. Dying Light 2 features more parkour, melee, and zombies, but now you can supposedly influence the story with your choices.
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer announced the acquisition of Undead Labs, Playground Games, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion Games. The company is also starting The Initiative, another new in-house studio based out of Santa Monica.
Finally, this year’s “oh, and one more thing moment” was for CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077.
