June 14, 2017

How Was Destiny 2’s Showing At E3 2017?

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

With the 2017 entry of E3 coming to a close tomorrow let’s take a quick look at how Destiny 2 fared in terms of publicly available coverage coming out of the show. An in-engine “PlayStation Exclusive Content” trailer debuted at Sony’s press conference this past Monday, the PC version was delayed and Bungie devs took questions on PlayStation’s live stream but very little tangible video content came from the expo floor. It is likely that while anyone attending E3 can try out Destiny 2, video capture is probably not permitted.

Major Announcements Surrounding Destiny 2:

  • Player Vs. Player Combat will be divided into a more “casual” and “hardcore” set of playlists. Exact specifics were not announced.
  • Guided Games will allow clans to help prepare new Guardians for the trials ahead of them by learning from series veterans who are in the same clan.
  • In-game clans will be limited to 100 members.
  • Destiny players who invested 100s of hours in the original Destiny will receive some kind of flair or a small reward. Devs described these as “certain identifiers” but did not elaborate.
  • The PC version of Destiny 2 has been delayed until October 24th with the console version coming earlier than expected – September 6th.
  • Beta dates were announced with all platforms: PS4 July 18th | Xbox One July 19th | PC: TBA August 2017.

Exclusive PS4 Content:

  • “Lake of Shaows” Co-op Strike
  • Exclusive armor for all main classes
  • Exclusive Ship – “City Apex”
  • Exclusive Exotic Weapon with three different damage modes
  • Exclusive PVP Map

Overall Conference Rating: Poor

Unfortunate to see a game with such strong marketing muscle behind it falter when it comes to available media and coverage after a huge event like E3 –  but Destiny 2 did just that. After an absolutely explosive gameplay reveal last month – with dozens of journalists, streamers and influencers going hands-on with the game – this was Activision’s chance to really let people know exactly how Destiny 2 plays by allowing attendees to capture media. Sadly, most impression pieces – including IGNs – are vague at best: describing access to the opening mission of the game and one unnamed strike, without giving any in-depth details about what exactly happened within the Strike. Also, Destiny 2 didn’t get an on-stage demo during either Sony or Microsoft’s press conferences. Nor was a live streamed demo on used on the PlayStations channel when developers were releasing new information – all of the footage used was taken from last month’s “homecoming” mission reveal.

Guardians all around the world will get their chance over the summer to see exactly how Destiny 2 plays during the closed & open beta on all three platforms. Is it worth your $60? Hang on for a couple of weeks and decide for yourself during the open beta test.

 

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Square Enix Dedicated An Entire Hour To Disidia NT Gameplay Premiere

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Square Enix dedicated almost an entire hour of their nearly seven-hour E3 live stream to their upcoming fighting game, Disidia NT, during day one of the conferences. Previously known as Disidia Final Fantasy Arcade, this newest entry in the cross-game franchise pits heroes and notable characters from almost every FF title against each other in teams of 3, using a unique battle system. Up until this E3 Disidia NT was confined to the arcades of Japan but now it will be released in North America on PS4 by the end of 2017.

Disidia NT’s battle system is quite unique when compared to other team-based fighters out there. After choosing your Final Fantasy favorites you’ll be paired against two other teams of three in an all out battle. Heroes are divided into 4 distinct roles – Vanguard, Assassin, Marksman and Guard. Each different character type has a distinct role and play style that also determines their position on the field. For example, Guard type excel at being tanks and are useful at the front of the party’s space, agro-ing enemies. Assassins are fast moving characters who excel at reaching the backline of an enemy team’s position and unleashing quick attacks before getting out. Disidia NT’s battles can take place either up in the air or on the ground, a team is eliminated when they suffer 3 deaths – but not necessarily one of each team member. Combine all of these mechanics with two different attack types (HP and BRAVE) and the fact that Brave Points can be traded between players and the ultimate attacks, Limit Breaks can turn the tide of battle and you have one of the most unique/complicated fighting game systems.

Confirmed Characters

  • Warrior of Light
  • Garland
  • Onion Knight
  • Cecil
  • Kain
  • Bartz
  • Exdeath
  • Terra
  • Brantford
  • Kefka
  • Cloud
  • Sephiroth
  • Squall
  • Zidane
  • Kuja
  • Tidus
  • Shantotto
  • Vaan
  • Lightening
  • Noctus

If the battle system sounds a little overwhelming make sure to watch through the entire one hour presentation. Disida looks like a lot of fun, even if I am not really familiar with the franchise up until Final Fantasy VII – yup I came into FF quite late so I’ve missed out on some of the great 16-bit entries.

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Search For The Infinity Stones In The Marvel Vs Capcom: Infinite Story Demo

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Fighting fans can go hands-on with Marvel Vs Capcom: Infinite a full three months before its’ official release this September thanks to the surprise release of the Marvel Vs Capcom: Infinite Story Demo exclusively on PlayStation 4.  The universes of Marvel and Capcom once again collide due to the use of two of the Infinity Stones by “Ultron SIgma” – a fusion of the Marvel villain Ultron and Mega Man antagonist Sigma.  Heroes and villains from both universes will have to band together in-order to stop this ultimate fusion from destroying reality itself. 

Team battles return from previous entries in the Marvel Vs Capcom series, however with the release of infinite Capcom is going back to the series roots by paring teams back to 2 Vs 2 rather than the 3 Vs 3 team compositions that made their debut in Marvel Vs Capcom 2. Rather than using predetermined partner assist attacks that are dependent on a player’s chosen characters – instead Infinite allows a player to call in their back-up at any time, even during long animations. In theory this means that chaining together combos between characters should be easier.  Hyper combos are also no longer activated by inputting a specific set of commands, but simply by pressing two of the face buttons on the Dualshock controller. It is clear that MVC: Infinite shakes up the established formula by changing the amount of total characters, drastic changes to controls + inputs and the removal of pre-canned assist abilities.  

Marvel Vs Capcom: Infinite‘s Story Demo is now available on the PlayStation Store. The full version will be released on September 15th for Xbox One, PC and PlayStation 4. As of the writing of this article there have been 24 confirmed characters on both sides combined with more expected to be revealed soon. 

Confirmed Capcom Characters:

  • Arthur
  • Chris Redfield
  • Chun-Li
  • Dante
  • Megaman X
  • Morrigan
  • Nathan Spencer
  • Ryu
  • Strider
  • Zero

Confirmed Marvel Characters:

  • Black Panther
  • Captain America
  • Doctor Strange
  • Gamora
  • Hawkeye
  • Hulk
  • Iron Man
  • Nova
  • Rocket Raccoon
  • Thanos
  • Thor
  • Ultron

Full 23 Minute Demo Footage

Official Trailer 

Official Screenshots

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Massive Quake Champions Patch Adds B.J Blazkowicz From Wolfenstien

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Id Software and Sabre Interactive rolled out a massive patch for Quake Champions that should make returning testers and new players very happy. The E3 patch adds a brand new champion – the nazi slaying B.J Blazkowicz from the Wolfenstein series. Alongside B.J’s debut in QC this patch also adds 3 new maps for various modes, the much requested “custom games” option for parties of players and so so much more content than can fit into a single paragraph.

B.J’s kit includes the ability to dual wield any weapon in the game by using his ultimate ability. While the ultimate ability timer counts down BJ will spawn a copy of whatever weapon he has active. This duplicating effect carries over to any weapons he might pick up while the ultimate is active or have in his inventory. Want to run around with two railguns, killing everyone in sight? With B.J you can!

Here is a breakdown of B.J’s abilities as they appeared in the patch notes:

NEW Champion: 

B.J. Blazkowicz added to the Champion roster! 

  •    Dual Wield (Active) 

BJ calls for back-up and answers his own call. Double [censored] weapons, BJ takes turns firing them in rapid succession to lay down some heavy fire, but he will burn through some serious ammo to do so. 

  •    Regeneration (Passive) 

BJ can regenerate any damaged health inside one 25 HP block, if he doesn’t receive damage for 3 seconds. 

  •    Stats: 
  •    100 / 100 HP 
  •    25 / 50 AP 
  •    310 -> 560 ups 
  •    Customizations includes 3 outfits and 1 vanity item. 

If you’ve got a whole party of friends who want to play a specific mode or map with a different time limit, frag limit or default team size then perhaps the Custom Game mode is for you. Right now the custom game options are quite limited and there is no server browser or matchmaking for custom games. This isn’t exactly a replacement for dedicated servers, for those that care about that sort of thing. 

The following options are available for custom games:

Custom Game:
–          Party with friends to play private matches on the arena and game mode of your choice!
–          Party Leaders can pre-configure teams in the Match Lobby by dragging players between pillars.
–          Start Match button will be disabled if the amount of players present is lower than required
–          Start Match button will be disabled in Duel mode if players don’t have 3 Champions available

Also added in the E3 patch is the ability for visitors to a game to spectate. Friends who join a custom game can either be assigned to either Red or Blue team or in the “Spectator” role. Those in the spectator role can freely switch their camera either from room to room or between players regardless of which team those players are on.

The patch notes describe the spectator mode thusly:

NEW Spectator Mode: 

  •    Spectator mode added within Custom Game!

o    Invite friends to your party and drag them to the Match Lobby Spectator Box to allow them to spectate the match. 

o   Spectators can toggle camera modes between players, rooms, and free-float by pressing [L. SHIFT]. 

o   Players can cycle through players or rooms with [LEFTARROW] and [RIGHTARROW] or by pressing [1]-[0] number keys for specific players or rooms. 

o   Spectators can press [X] to toggle x-ray outlines to see players locations through walls to help follow the action.

So much more content makes up the large E3 patch than I can cover in one news article – including the three new maps, small bug fixes, a new tutorial system and some menu changes. If you’ve watched the B.J reveal trailer embedded above make sure to head on over to the Quake Champions forums to read the patch notes in their entirety.  

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