Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, the massive sleeper hit from Mediatonic and Devolver Digital, is getting its first update. Included in the patch will be Jump Showdown, the “fan-favorite” level from the beta. It’s the one with a large booms that spins around, knocking players off, while sections of the floor fall away. The developers say more levels and costumes are coming as well, which is great news for the multiplayer party game.
There’s no word yet on how Mediatonic will respond to reports of rampant cheating. The developer said they are aware of some issues and are working on fixes.
Sorry, web-head fans on PC or Xbox. Spider-Man will only be available on the PlayStation version of Marvel’s Avengers. Spidey will be joining the character roster in 2021 as part of a post-launch update to the superhero game but only on Sony’s console platform. Crystal Dynamics’ Scot Amos confirmed the news and explained the reason for the exclusivity. It’s a licensing issue related to the movie business.
“So the beauty of Spider-Man and what Spider-Man represents as a character in this world is, again, it comes back to the relationship with PlayStation and Marvel. We happen to be ones who can execute and deliver when it comes down to choices of where and what Spider-Man can be, that’s a relationship question that you know PlayStation absolutely has the rights to that as you guys know with Sony’s [movie rights] ownership there and Marvel with Sony saying, ‘hey, this is something we can do, this is something we can do on this platform’ and as creators we have this opportunity that we can make something unique and fun and awesome.”
Never fret, true believer. Amos offered this advice for players that need a dose of Peter Parker in their game.
“And for those players who absolutely want to play as Spider-Man, you have the option to do so on PlayStation.”
Frog Fractions, the craziest edutainment game you can play, is now on Steam in a Game of the Decade Edition. It’s free, with some optional hat DLC. If you don’t know anything about Frog Fractions, then play it immediately and don’t read any further. Seriously. Don’t.
But what if you’ve played it already? Is there any special reason to pick this up? Spoilers ahoy!
Epic is finally publicly testing achievements on the Epic Games Store client. As of now, only Ark: Survival Evolved has them, but according to the brief announcement, it’s a work-in-progress. It’s been on the software roadmap for over a year, but better late than never.
Judging by the replies to the announcement, a lot of gamers think achievements are annoying or a plague on the hobby. Obviously, the “gimme” ones for sleeping through a tutorial or the impossible ones that sit forever in your incomplete box can be aggravating, but not all achievements are useless. Smart developers use them to lead players towards alternate goals or even different modes of play. You’ll get that one for killing all the pigeons in Grand Theft Auto IV yet!
It’s no secret that Epic’s Unreal Engine is being used for all sorts of things outside of gaming. From commercials, to architectural schematics, to bringing the galaxy around The Mandalorian to life, the game system has got a lot of life outside of Fortnite. Now that some live in-stadium sports are coming back, Unreal is also being used to fill empty venues with enthusiastic crowds of virtual people. With on-cue waves and idle animations that wouldn’t look out of place in the stands of MLB The Show or a Forza game, we’re quickly approaching the point where sports will be a recognized part of gaming.
We were so close. We almost made it through an E3 season without any gamer memes. With all the normal E3 live stage shows cancelled this year due to the global pandemic, it seemed a foregone conclusion that we wouldn’t have any good fodder for viral sensations. The virtual briefings were safe from mishap and impromptu dorkiness. No giant enemy crabs. No Ravi Drums. No families clumsily gyrating though motion controller routines. Alas, Microsoft and 343 Industries showed up at the last minute with their Halo Infinite gameplay demo that featured the serene space ape now known as Craig the Brute. At about 4 minutes into the video, Master Chief smacks this charging Brute, and a legend is born.
Even though Craig was born from the complaint that Halo Infinite’s graphics don’t look all that “next-gen” yet, 343 Industries Brian Jarrod is joining in the fun. It’s a sound strategy to disarm the comments, but Craig’s woeful face is a throwback to the similar “Tired Face” meme that dominated all conversations about Mass Effect Andromeda. Beware, Chief! A nonplussed budget Thanos may end up being your biggest enemy this go around.
Rocket League is going free-to-play. The car soccer arena (otherwise known as “lorry footy pitch” in Europe) title just celebrated its five-year anniversary, so it’s a perfect time to shake things up by shifting from Steam to Epic Games Store on PC, and by reducing the price to zero. What does this mean for current players? They get a bunch of free stuff like all previous DLC and a bunch of loyalty swag like the gold rims in the image above. They’ll also have five years of practicing 360 back-flip turbo ball kicks that will crush new players.
Current Steam players can continue to play Rocket league via Valve’s client. The developer says they will update and support it, while cross-play will ease any population worries. New PC players will have to go to the Epic Games Store once the game relaunches.
Techland has delayed the Hellraid DLC for Dying Light. Originally intended to be a full separate game in 2014, then put on “indefinite hold” in 2015, and finally announced as a DLC project for Dying Light in June of this year, Hellraid moves the undead smashing to a medieval dungeon. As a DLC, you’re just doing it as your normal Dying Light protagonist and with a lot less of the planned features, like the procedurally generated environments, it would’ve had as a full game.
Hellraid is just missing it’s originally planned launch date of July 23rd and shifting back to August 13th.
Nifty Knitting is the second DLC for The Sims 4 that was suggested by the community of players. (The first was 2018’s Laundry Day pack.) Obviously, with the knitting focus and ability to make an in-game profit on “Plopsy” the DLC should appeal to the DIY and Etsy folks.
Full disclosure: The only reason for this post is to get that awful earworm music into as many heads as possible. Good luck getting that out of your noggin.
How many contestant runs will end in a panicky kitchen fire? That’s the question for The Sims Spark’d, an upcoming cable show about using The Sims to create stories that will get judged by a panel of c-list entertainers. Also, there’s a guy with a fez, which… Look, I’m not the audience for this. I admit that. But maybe one of you can tune in and let us know who wins?
That’s a pretty straightforward commercial for the upcoming Pokemon Go Fest 2020. No subverting expectations there, unless you look behind the lens. The ad was directed by Rian Johnson, previously seen upending the locked room mystery genre in Knives Out and making old Luke Skywalker aggressively milk a space walrus in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
“As a longtime Pokemon trainer, it was a real pleasure working with Niantic on this spot.”
Pokemon Go Fest 2020 is a virtual affair this year. It begins on July 25th.
When Halo 3 is added to the Master Chief Collection on PC, cosmetic skins will be added to it as well as to Halo: Combat Evolved. For Halo: CE, this will include weapon skins, visor colors, and vehicle skins. The June update from 343 Industries lays it all out, including a deep dive into how audio works in the legacy Halo titles and why it’s taken so long to get that pesky audio glitch in Halo: Reach corrected. But we’re not here for sound! We want to know about the Master Chief with a pink visor.
“We wanted to bring a greater level of customization to the games that didn’t have as many customization options for armor sets so players can have their uniqueness in each game.”
Fret not, purists! There will be an option to toggle them off so you don’t have to see the hot rod paint jobs on Warthogs or “squirt” rifle decals. Ominously, the studio is looking at further ways to spice things up.
“This season will have some content that’s available for any title, like nameplates, but the customization items will be focused on Halo CE, and we are looking in the future seasons to add customization items to other titles as well.”
Who knows what’s next for the game? Emotes? Sprays? Victory poses? Celebrity voice announcers? Combat evolved!
You probably don’t remember Crucible, the free-to-play team shooter from Amazon Game Studios, that came out on May 20th. It’s okay. Amazon wishes everyone would forget. By the few reviews available of it, the game was pretty bad. Even though it officially launched as a 1.0 release, and not as an early access title, most accounts characterized the game as a buggy, sloppy, unfinished mess that wasn’t all that interesting to play.
“For the most part, your experience as a Crucible player will stay pretty much the same while we’re in beta.”
Amazon is pulling the game from the public eye and putting it back into closed beta. If you’re interested in checking out what’s there, you have until tomorrow at 9AM Pacific to download the client. After that, the game will disappear from Steam‘s store and only people that played it prior to the cutoff will be able to continue playing, at least until the developers are ready to put it back in the harsh light of day. It’s all part of a previously announced plan to right a ship that came out of dry dock already listing to one side.
I saw a blurb on Steam about a new zombie faction in Civilization VI as part of Red Death, which is some sort of battle royale mode. The zombies have unique horde powers, which sounds about right. So, I figured it was time to reinstall Civilization VI again and see how it’s coming along. And it turns out that, yep, it’s just a battle royale mode in which units walk around and punch each other. The godawful one-unit-per-tile tactical combat jammed into a last-man-standing match, and each faction has some sort of jokey special ability. Civilization VI, which arguably works as a city-builder, stripped of the part that works. Why is this even in here?
While Googling how to set it up as single-player game, I came across a Red Death Wiki entry, which begins:
“Originally conceived as an April Fools’ joke…”
You don’t say.
I did notice a variety of different “rulesets” for multiplayer games. A two player duel over the Nile, a Cold War arms race with nuclear weapons, Vikings trying to amass the most wealth, that sort of thing. They looked intriguing, and I was briefly tempted to try one of them before I came to my senses and realized that would mean playing Civilization VI.
That’s Apan on the left. She just rode into Children of Morta on a dragon and added herself as a new playable character. When she’s not partaking in the game’s seriously good pixelated action RPG action, she sets up an ornate backdrop in the Bergson household’s main foyer and dances around in front of it, recreating myths and legends from the far north. Sort of like when your favorite crazy aunt comes to visit.
