“Female or male?” This question has plagued Mass Effect players since the start of the series. Which gender should a player make their Commander Shepard? Which is correct? For a long time, the official marketing materials from BioWare featured only the male Shepard, so it was assumed that he was the default. Female Shepard fans rejoiced once the studio began using their favored option in pre-sale imagery. All along, the argument has raged. FemShip is too bossy. MaleShep is too generic. Thankfully, Mass Effect: Andromeda presents a solution. In the latest PlayStation Access, BioWare’s Mac Walters revealed that the male and female versions of the new player avatar, Ryder, are both canonically correct. In fact, they are siblings.
“What a lot of people don’t know – little surprise here – is that these two are brother and sister and they both exist in the game world at the same time. If you’re playing as the sister Ryder – female Ryder – your brother is somewhere in the universe.”
You can watch the full gameplay demo of Mass Effect: Andromeda from the PlayStation Meeting here.
Sony has announced the PlayStation 4 Pro. It’s the incremental upgrade to the PlayStation 4 that was code-named “Neo” before it went all pro on us. According to Sony, it’s all about 4K visuals and high dynamic range support. That’s fancy talk for “It makes games look better.” While exact specifications aren’t available yet, Sony’s presentation at the PlayStation Meeting in New York did mention a 1TB drive and an upgraded graphics processor. Sony representatives say the new-ish console will play all current PlayStation 4 games, but it will be up to developers to decide how to best support the Pro’s strengths.
At launch, games that will support the PlayStation 4 Pro’s upgraded graphics capability will be Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Watch Dogs 2, Horizon Zero Dawn, Battlefield 1, For Honor, and the new Spider-Man game from Insomniac. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will get an update later this year for the Pro console.
The PlayStation 4 Pro launches on November 10th for $399.
The Trail is the newest game from Peter Molyneux’s studio 22Cans and publisher Kongregate. The latest creation from the developer of Godus is available on iTunes in the Philippines only for now. You can check out the iTunes page here. Players move their avatar down a trail, encountering quirky characters, gathering crafting materials, and trying to build up a fortune on the way to their eventual destination. In the gameplay video from IGV, it looks a bit like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker’s art style crossed with Fable: the Journey.
The practice of “soft launching” a mobile game in a less active territory is a well-known way for developers to test their applications out with a smaller live audience of players. There’s no word on when The Trail will launch for the rest of the world, but perhaps we’ll see it when Godus is finished?
The greatest thing about Star Ruler 2, a superlative space 4X strategy game, is also the most confounding thing about it: it’s nothing like Civilization. Sid Meier’s Civilization is the template for so many grand strategy games, including ones set in space. Cities are planets, armies are spaceship fleets, mountains are asteroid belts, tech trees are tech trees, voila! Space! That familiar gameplay is one of the reasons Master of Orion was so successful. It’s also one of the reasons the latest Master of Orion reboot is so rote.
But Star Ruler 2 ignored the template and did its own thing. It has its own economy, its own diplomacy, its own population model, its own alien races, its own ship design (or lack thereof, if that’s not your thing). The price it pays for being unique? It can be hard to learn, and therefore appreciate.
Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary Edition World Tour is coming. It’s another version of Duke Nukem 3D. This new remastered version of the shooter features slightly upgraded graphics, an improved framerate, re-recorded voice acting by Jon St. John as Duke, five new levels, and some new weapons and enemies. Much like the Halo remasters, players will be able to toggle between the original graphics and the new renderer on the fly, although Gearbox Software cautions that other than some cleaner textures and a “true 3D” presentation, the game will look the same as you remember it. Producer Scott Warr emphasized that keeping the game’s original feel was important even in the new episodes, despite the old tools being somewhat of a headache for the level builders.
As far as jumping in and using all the tools, I remember some of the complaints of like, “Ah, crap. Now I remember this,” or, “Oh, I forgot the trick that I was supposed to do to make this work.” That was awesome to watch because me being a fan, I was sitting there like, “I can’t believe this is happening.”
Multiplayer has also gotten a thorough overhaul to work on modern systems. There’s eight-player multiplayer, eight-player co-op, and one-player bot matches. Bot matches! Now you can jetpack around the maps, shrinking and stomping on outclassed enemy bots until you’re all out of gum.
Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary Edition World Tour is coming for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on October 11th for $20.
Despite still being an early access game, Ark: Survival Evolved is offering a $20 expansion. The Scorched Earth DLC features a change from the tropical island of the base game to a desert-themed experience with the big ticket opportunity to fight and tame dragons. It’s available now on Steam and Xbox One. Previous DLC for Ark like The Center and the Primitive Plus expansions were given to players for free.
Besides adding a bunch of new stuff to Ark for players of the base game, the expansion has opened up a new frontier in the industry. Premium DLC for unfinished games is a new wrinkle, and likely one that will go through some growing pains. If successful, we can expect others to follow suit.
First, have a gander at Perfect Woman, coming September 14th for the Xbox One and Kinect. Yes, Kinect. It’s not technically dead yet. Did you get a good look at players trying to fit into the roles of being a perfect woman? (Get it?) Great! Now, check out Dead or Alive Xtreme 3‘s new virtual reality update coming in October which adds functionality for PlayStation VR. Bounce physics and up-skirt VR camera angles.
Both games feature players contorting themselves into pretzels to participate. Both games seem to put the gameplay secondary to the pander. If there’s a lesson here, it’s probably lost between the goofball antics and generous cheese.
Metal gear Solid V, the definitive Hideo Kojima experience, is being bundled up by Konami into Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience. The full package comes with The Phantom Pain, Ground Zeroes, the multiplayer, and all the DLC. This includes all the goofy costumes like Naked Snake, (hur hur) chicken hats, and alternate Mother Base staff uniforms. That’s a ton of stealth gameplay in one convenient box. Sneak around, snatch people up with balloons, and marvel at the ways Kojima’s psyche worms its way into the narrative in unexpected ways. Bikini dance-off time!
Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience will launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 11th.
Quarter to Three is hosting a Twilight Struggle tournament with actual prizes donated by publisher GMT Games. As far as I’m concerned, that makes it the Official Unofficial World Championship. You might want to consider getting a sponsorship or two if you enter. Maybe Raytheon. The Project for a New American Century think tank. The Casper Weinberger Foundation. Get a T-shirt made with the various corporate logos for your sponsors, or maybe just a big picture of William Kristol on the front. There’s no reason Twilight Struggle can’t be like NASCAR.
To enter, first you should be good at Twilight Struggle. Which I am not, so you’re on your own. Second, you should own a copy of the superlative port of the seminal boardgame. Third, you should post a message in the comments section for this article. Once registration closes, further instructions will be posted and you’ll be matched with your first opponent! Good luck, comrade. I mean, fellow defender of liberty, free commerce, and whatever the Independent Reds card does.
Among today’s Steam releases are a handful of unexpected blasts from the past: Phantasmagorias 1 and 2, a couple of Gabriel Knights, a bundle of Police Quests and another of Quests for Glory, and Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magicka Obscura. Remember when Arcanum was unique for having a steampunk aesthetic? And you can’t beat that subtitle.
Activision has been making some of their older games more readily available lately, which is probably wise because how far can you get on Call of Duty, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, and Skylanders? Always have a fallback plan.
I’ve been playing the Playstation 4 re-release of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 recently, because I recall those games being great. And they still are. There’s an endearing pre-Disney obliviousness about how much you can nickel-and-dime Marvel fans, so here’s everything in one great big overflowing bag. The Avengers weren’t even a gleam in any studio’s eye and Joss Whedon was just some guy doing a silly cheerleader show. So it’s really cute that Thor isn’t yet an Australian surfer dude, Maria Hill is just another SHIELD lackey, and no one’s ever even heard of Black Widow, so she sits off to the side somewhere, entirely un-Johanssoned. Heck, the Fantastic Four weren’t even a joke yet and you could have X-Men running alongside Avengers because they hadn’t been exiled to Fox yet. Those were the days. Marvel was a free-range property that hadn’t been hooked up to the milking machine yet.
Which reminds me, does anyone want to buy a whole mess of Disney Infinity Marvel characters?
As they developed and updated Prison Architect, Introversion co-founders Chris Delay and Mark Morris regularly posted videos in which they showed off what they’re doing. They’ve got the easy rapport you’d expect from any two guys who’ve been working together for fifteen plus years. And English accents, to boot. Those videos come to a halt today. With the last update to Prison Architect, they’re signing off for the time being. But before they go, they’ll give you a look at what might be Introversion’s next game. Scanner Sombre and Wrong Wire are design prototypes that, like everything else Introversion does, is nothing like what Introversion does.
If you’re so inclined, you can vote for your favorite here. I picked the one that didn’t require any knowledge of wires and voltage.
Back when Microsoft first announced that Halo 5: Guardians’ Forge map editing utility would be coming to Windows 10 as a free download, the creative community was excited by the possibilities. That excitement was tempered by PC gamers wondering yet again why the latest Halo game was not going to actually be playable on their preferred platform, especially in light of Microsoft’s Play Anywhere strategy. Forza and Gears of War are coming to PC, so why not Halo?
Fret not! Along with map editing, the ability to play custom multiplayer matches is coming with Halo 5: Forge on Windows 10. Forgers (that’s what I’m calling them) will be able to host games with up to 16 players. Like Bethesda’s mod system on the Xbox One and Steam versions of Fallout 4, Halo 5’s community content browser will span across both platforms.
Halo 5: Forge will be available on September 8th for Windows 10 PCs. A related Halo App will also be available at that time.
The Ashes of Ariandel DLC for Dark Souls 3 is coming. Besides snowy locales and new armor sets, weapons, and magic, the DLC offers a gentle welcome to new players. It appears to be meant for kids or Pokemon Go fans. There’s some guy with a magic wand. Another with a big cup. Everyone looks like they want to give the player a hug. But really, what can one expect from a game with such an easy difficulty in the first place? This is a game that almost plays itself, trying to “git gud” at being a challenge. How cute!
Ashes of Ariandel for Dark Souls 3 launches on October 25th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam.
Offworld Trading Company, Mohawk Games’ genius take on martian mining and economic strategy, is leaving the surly bonds of Mars in its latest DLC. The Ceres Initiative takes venture capitalists to the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Besides a palette shift to grays and blues, the new location brings with it new challenges that will force players to change their safe strategies. Since resources can diminish over time on Ceres, companies must be prepared to either modify their manufacturing chains as shipments deplete, or they must seek out new sources of raw material. Wind turbines are not possible on the dwarf planet, meaning that an early source of easy energy is denied. Ceres also presents opportunities in the form of a new building, the nuclear power plant, and newly discovered pockets of uranium.
The Ceres Initiative is available on Steam or through Stardock’s site.
PlayStation plus is about to get more expensive. On September 22nd, the console subscription service is going up in price by $10. That’s $59.99 for a year of membership. Sony says you’ll still get all the stuff you’re currently enjoying on PlayStation Plus, just at a slightly higher premium.
This marks the first time that PS Plus membership prices will increase in the U.S. and Canada since the launch of the service in 2010. The new pricing reflects the current market conditions while enabling us to continue providing exceptional value to our members.
Although you can usually find a better deal for subscription codes by scouring the usual sites on the internet, you can count on even those discounts going up a bit when the official change kicks in. The good news is that if Sony follows the precedent, the next price increase won’t happen until at least 2024.
