Remember the part in Ghost Recon: Wildlands when your character did that really tough thing and said that badass quip at one of the villains? Something profanity-laced and war hard and grim. Maybe it was at the villain that unlocks the cowboy hat. Or maybe the one that gives you the pink gun. Your sidekick/handler chick was there, too, and she said also something really tough and badass and also profanity laced. Remember that part? Remember when your characters tell each other jokes and anecdotes while you’re driving to the next helicopter to take you to the next mission? Remember the cutscenes? Remember how consistent the writing is in Ubisoft’s games and how Ghost Recon: Wildlands is a perfect example of that consistency?
That’s just a taste of what you can expect if Universal ever makes a Gears of War movie. Variety reports the studio hired the Ghost Recon writer for a potential Gears of War movie. His name is Shane Salerno, and you can see it in the credits for Armageddon — yes, that Armageddon — where’s it’s listed as “adapted by” him and another fellow. That’s not language you see very often when a movie isn’t based on a comic book or something. It was the result of arbitration with the Writer’s Guild over a dispute about how many of the nine people hired to work and rework the script would get credit. Five of the nine won the arbitration. So there’s Salerno’s name alongside Tony Gilroy and JJ Abrams.
But to be fair to Salerno, James Cameron has tapped him for the upcoming Avatar movies, so Salerno’s name will be more familiar if those movies ever get made. I give it 50/50 odds. A Gears of War movie, on the other hand, probably has about a zero percent chance of ever getting made. The franchise has declined into irrelevance alongside the Xbox One. Nothing ensures failure quite like tethering your game to a ten-pound brick when you throw it into the marketplace (see also, the Halo sales numbers). Although I’ve been told you can play the latest Gears of War on the PC once you figure out whatever error the Windows Store is giving you this time.
Triumph Studios has updated Age of Wonders 3. The Poseidon Patch fixes some longtime bugs, balances summoned units, and adds a nifty Water Fortress. Builder units can now construct this ramshackle ocean location that wouldn’t be out of place in Kevin Costner’s Waterworld. It’s just missing a pre-Napoleon Dynamite Tina Majorino to give us the secret of Dryland.
Nintendo has updated the Wii U and Switch versions of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with language options, putting the kibosh on numerous complaints that the English voice readings for Princess Zelda and others was not up to snuff. Now, picky fans can choose from nine audio and text language options including French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and Russian. Mix and match to your heart’s content! Just note that the majority of the game’s audio will still be high-pitched sounds from Link as he takes damage.
In other Zelda news, Nintendo has released details of the first DLC pack for Breath of the Wild. Wave-based arena trials, a path tracker, “Hard Mode” that powers up enemies, a fast-travel item, and some new masks and outfits round out the DLC. This first expansion pack will be available this summer.
If you’ve played Dungeons & Dragons or any pen and paper role-playing game, you’ve experienced the catharsis of being a fantasy version of yourself in a group social setting. What do sour looks or polite disapproval matter to Thangar the Foul-Mouthed? He enjoys life to the fullest, whether that be with a sword or a mug of ale in his hand!
Kotaku notes that this kind of gaming is of interest to therapists as a tool for emotional exploration. They talked to groups that use Dungeons & Dragons to help teens express themselves and noted some examples of gaming going above and beyond the die roll.
“For someone who never leaves their house except for school, to have a peer say, ‘I need your help picking a lock’ makes a huge difference.”
It’s a good thing they use Dungeons & Dragons and not something like GURPS or Champions. They’d need a week of sessions just to get their characters created.
That’s the soon-to-be-released 2DS XL handheld. It’s Nintendo’s simultaneous clamshell upgrade to the 2DS, and 3-D less downgrade to the New 3DS XL. The 2DS XL has the New 3DS XL’s snappier processor and second analogue nub, but drops the seldom used glasses-free 3-D display. It will sell for $150, and will be available starting July 28th.
The 2DS XL is likely the DS hardware’s swan song. Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime told Wired in January that the DS line has a “long life in front of it” but with resources being poured into Switch and no refresh of the 3DS planned, it’s not likely we’ll see anything new in Nintendo’s portable space after the 2DS XL until we get the Switch XL.
Remember when cheats were free? A hidden developer mode or Easter Egg that you didn’t have to purchase in a season pass or unlock in a loot chest? The infamous Konami Code, IDKFA, or “cheese steak jimmy’s” come to mind along with “show me the money” and dncornholio. Infinite money, invulnerability, and dog rocket attacks all without buying a 99 cent coin pack. For a good while, (before achievements and always online persistent stat tracking) cheats were an expected part of a game. Making good cheats is almost a lost art.
What kind of cheats could you want in a sandbox theme park game? Money isn’t really much of a concern, and neither is there a need for a God Mode, so you’ll probably value cheats that just make things go nuts. Frontier Developments has declared today as Cheat Day and unleashed a pack of cheats on its Planet Coaster fans. Rename a go-kart ride as “BOLLARD” and you can control a go-kart in first-person view with the WASD keys. Rename a shop to “MCLINTHE” and every guest will start vomiting. There are ten largely pointless cheats in all and they’re free to use from now on.
Nope. It’s too late for April Fools’ Day. That’s an actual chunk of DLC coming to Forza Horizon 3. The Hot Wheels expansion brings the tiny collectible toys and circuits to life in the photorealistic style of Forza Horizon. Players will go to six new islands off the coast of virtual Australia and race ten Hot Wheels cars on the plastic loop and curve tracks they used as kids to whack each other around. Why did it take this long for something like this to happen, and when will we get the Matchbox competition DLC?
Forza Horizon 3 Hot Wheels arrives on May 9th on Xbox One and Windows 10. It will be included as part of the Expansion Pass, but it will also be available as separate DLC for $19.99.
See that screenshot up there? See that big green tree in the middle of Ancient Egypt? Guess what that is. That’s a skill tree. Ha ha, get it? A skill tree. But seriously, here’s what it looks like when you use it (i.e. press the E key).
Don’t be fooled by the dippy name. Immortal Redneck is a surprisingly polished, glossily cartoonish, seriously rogue-like, first person shooter set in a procedurally generated catacomb of handmade rooms. Hmm, it feels awfully familiar. Where have I seen this before? Where have I hurtled weightlessly through this kind of bantamweight Painkiller with a grindy metaprogression? Ah, right, Ziggurat! This is pretty much a Ziggurat clone. Which isn’t a bad game to clone, especially if you bring a distinct voice. Think of this as a Redneck Rampage to Ziggurat’s Hexen. Serious Sam as a rogue-like. Shadow Warrior 2 for casuals, but with even dumber jokes. You’re a redneck mummy who comes anew out of a sarcophagus for each playthrough. And whereas the progression in Ziggurat was a bit too oblique for me, Immortal Redneck has an edge in the longer term metagame. You collect your gold as you play, you die, you put your hard-earned lucre into the skill tree however you want, and you try again. I’m sold. The developer is Crema Games and they’ve certainly done the work it takes for a glossy polished game. Who are these guys? Why haven’t I heard of them before? Oh, right, here’s the answer (bolding mine):
CremaGames is a young indie studio from Madrid (Spain) who has been doing apps for Google Play and App Store since 2010.
Night Trap 25th Anniversary Edition is coming to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. You’re not dreaming. It’s been close to 25 years since Night Trap dropped onto the Sega CD system with all the flourish that full motion video could muster. Dana Plato! Grainy video! Screaming Villains, the latest in a long line of studios that have ported the game from system to system, says a PC release is not out of the question.
Ranked match eligibility in Dota 2 will require a valid phone number beginning in May. Valve has pushed out a matchmaking update for Dota 2 that will soon require an unique phone number registered to the Steam account if the player wants to be included in ranked match queues. According to Valve, the change is being made to cut down on people using multiple Dota 2 accounts and cheating. A similar policy was instituted in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive last year, however the Prime Matchmaking rules there still allow players without a phone number to play in ranked matches. CS:GO Prime players are given priority in queues, while non-Prime players are stuck with longer wait times.
The phone number registration for Dota 2 ranked matchmaking will be mandatory starting on May 4th.
Imagine you’re a candidate campaigning to be the next president of South Korea. You’d know that eSports is kind of a big deal there, and you might think getting your name out in front of gamers is a good way to scoop up the coveted youth vote. The kids love StarCraft, and everyone likes free stuff, so why not use that to your advantage? Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea has published two free multiplayer maps for Blizzard’s 1998 real-time strategy game. The maps are meant to remind South Korean gamers to cast their votes for Moon Jae-in on May 9th for the presidential election.
Nice timing, Moon Jae-in! StarCraft just became completely free-to-own with the latest patch. It’s political synergy!
That trailer is for the latest game mode coming to Rockstar’s GTA Online. Tiny Racers takes the stunt racing gameplay and moves the camera to a top-down view, turning Grand Theft Auto V’s online circuits into a throwback facsimile of Death Rally or Micro Machines. At this point, why not? GTA Online has changed so much from its initial 2013 incarnation that adding retro arcade racing modes makes sense. It has a Tron mode. There’s werewolf hunting. It won’t be long before GTA Online adds passable Choplifter or Hello Kitty Island Adventure games.
The 2022 Asian Games will officially feature eSports competition. The Olympic Council of Asia is partnering with Alisports, the competitive subsidiary of online retailer Alibaba, to bring FIFA, MOBA games, and other videogames to the 2022 Asian Games hosted in Hangzhou, China. The Asian Games are recognized by the International Olympic Committee, and it’s largely believed this is a test run for Alibaba’s desire to bring professional gaming to the Olympics. This means we are one step closer to seeing YouTube and Twitch streaming gamers on the front of a Wheaties box.
Halo Wars: Definitive Edition is coming to Steam on April 20th. It’s been available for Xbox One and Windows 10 players as a bundled incentive for Halo Wars 2, but Ensemble Studios’ swan song will finally be playable on the platform of choice for the vast majority of PC gamers. The Steam version will not have cross-platform multiplayer with the other builds, but this likely doesn’t matter since real-time strategy fans seem to prefer Steam to consoles or the Windows 10 Store.
If you really want Halo Wars: Definitive Edition on Xbox One or Windows 10, but don’t want to buy Halo Wars 2, then Microsoft has good news for you too. They will begin selling a standalone version of Halo Wars: Definitive Edition on April 20th as well.
That’s Inferno Squad member and fighter pilot Iden Versio. Inferno Squad is an Imperial special forces outfit, stuck on the forest moon of Endor, when the second Death Star explodes. According to DICE and Electronic Arts, Iden doesn’t take this news well. Instead of bursting into celebratory “Yub yub!” she does what all baddies do – plot revenge. It’s from that perspective that you’ll experience the campaign story in Star Wars Battlefront 2. It’s a surprising move when the last game couldn’t be bothered to give players any story beyond 15-second snippets in front of some of the levels. Then again, the Star Wars videogame license has always given fans a touch of the dark side. From Star Wars: TIE Fighter to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, developers have been keen to let fans work under the auspices of Vader and company.
Speaking of evil, Electronic Arts flubbed their game announcement when Bernd Dierner, creative director for the game, told Mashable that “We don’t have a season pass.” Exciting news from a company that seems to love making gamers pay just as much for map packs as they do the base game. With that comment, people expected the Titanfall 2 model of selling cosmetic items to fund live support for Star Wars Battlefront 2. Mere hours later, Electonic Arts walked back that season pass statement.
While we’re not ready to confirm any live service plans just yet, what we can say is this we heard the feedback from our Battlefront community loud and clear. We know they want more depth, more progression, and more content. So we’re focused on delivering that in every dimension of Star Wars Battlefront II. We’ll have more to share about our plans soon.
It could be that the marketing folks really weren’t ready for that reveal so early in the project’s life, or it could be that they really don’t have the plan nailed down just yet. Either way, Star Wars Battlefront 2 is coming for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC on November 17th.
