Fans of Blazblue, RWBY, Under Night: Rebirth or Persona 4: Arena should be excited because ARC System Works just dropped two new character packs as paid DLC alongside Yang from Team RWBY as a free add-on for all platforms.
Character Packs #2 contains:
Jubei (Under Night: Rebirth)
Aegis (Persona 4: Arena)
Carmine (Blazblue)
Character Pack #3 contains:
Hakumen (Blazblue)
Naoto (Persona 4: Arena)
Vatista (Under Night: Rebirth)
Each pack is available separately for $4.99 CDN or as part of the $19.99 CDN Season’s Pass. Alongside the first character pack which was free for the first 14 days of release, we’ve had 9 of the promised 20 DLC characters released thus far. No word yet on who Character Pack #4 might contain but the Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon, Labyrsm as she has been datamined in adorable Chibi form.
Get ready for cheesy one liners, fluid chain building combat and an over the top melodramatic story featuring angels, demons and other mythological creatures in Devil May Cry 5. Billed by Capcom as a true sequel to 2008’s Devil May Cry 4, DMC5 marks the first time Capcom has taken the series in-house after a decade hiatus.
The story of DMC5 picks up several years after the last entry – with a demonic invasion looming and the seeds of the Demon Tree starting to take root within Red Grave City, Dante’s younger ally Nero is drawn to investigate this new threat.Without the power of his demonic arm, Nero must utilize a new mechanical prosthetic (which he can ride like a rocket) to dispatch the forces of hell. Can Nero find Dante in time to stop the oncoming invasion?
Devil May Cry 5 is powered by Capcom’s RE Engine which made it’s debut in last year’s Resident Evil 7. It’ll be directed by Hideki Itsuno and will be released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC in the Spring of 2019.
Grab three friends and get ready to save the earth in a brand new a co-op survival experience that honestly feels very reminiscent of Valve’s Left for Dead titles. Earthfall is a 4 player multiplayer FPS coming to Xbox and PS4 on console and is already available in Early Access on Steam.
Guns aren’t the only tools available for players to aid in their survival – weapons can be 3D printed in a really neat sci-fi looking fabrication process using the Genie Workbench 5 printer. Players can also craft both usable and automatic turrets, barricades and other tools of destruction.
Earthfall features campaign-like narratives that take place throughout it’s various stages. Each of the 4 playable characters have their own personalities, voice lines and interactions, I wonder how long it will take players to see them all?
Here’s the official description of Earthfall from its Steam Page:
“When the world ends, the fight begins! In co-op shooter Earthfall, gather your friends, load your weapons and grab your portable defenses and work together as a team to battle through swarms of ferocious aliens. Complete objectives, fortify and defend holdouts and use 3D printers to create more weapons, barricades and turrets to get the job done by slaughtering the alien scum through 10 epic levels full of brutal combat and rich lore.”
Players on PC shouldn’t really worry about taxing system specs, requiring only a GTX 750 and 8GB of RAM, even medium-spec systems should be able to run Earthfall just fine,
OS: Windows 7
Processor: Intel Core i5-4430
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 750 2GB
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 20 GB available space
Additional Notes: SSD Recommended
Earthfall will launch out of Early Access onto all platforms on July 13th.
Crackdown 3 has been on the radar for a while now, originally revealed in 2014, it is not stranger to long periods of silence before new information comes to light. At their E3 press conference Microsoft showed off a brand new trailer featuring narration of none other than comedian Terry Crews.
Watch as Terry shows us how you can scale buildings, collect those ever present orbs, become more powerful and even summon a mother $#*@ing tank out of thin air!
Despite a long development cycle spanning nearly 5 years, Crackdown 3 will release in February 2018 for Windows PC and Xbox One.
The Crackdown series has been a staple on the Xbox line of consoles for over a decade now, the original Crackdown released all the way back in Feb 2007 and at the time promised players a chance to take part in the then upcoming Halo 3 beta. Crackdown 2 had a whole “zombies but not zombies” horde thing going on and was a bit of a departure from the first.
Perhaps the injection of Terry Crew’s humor is just what this long in-development game needs to stay fresh.
EA kicked things off yesterday afternoon with the first gameplay demo of the upcoming Battlefield V. We already knew that BFV wold set during World War II and will feature playable female soldiers both in the campaign mode and online. While no gameplay of the rumored Battle Royale mode was shown during the conference, nor were concrete details divulged, developers from DICE did confirm that BFV will ship with a Battle Royale mode when the game arrives this fall.
DICE’s Frostbite Engine once again provides the near photo-realistic graphics and physics for Battlefield V. Improvements made to the engine for this year’s title include the ability to vault your soldier through pane of glass and now larger vehicles like tanks can also destroy entire buildings – which admittedly does look really freaking cool.
The Battlefield franchise has never really been my shooter of choice, I much prefer arcadey and up-close titles like Quake and older Call of Duty titles but for those looking for large scale, 64 player mayhem, BFV should have them covered. It will be released on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. An Origin Access Trial Version is set to be released on October 11th, one week before BFV’s general release on October 19th.
Square Enix revealed the first in-engine gameplay trailer for the upcoming third entry in the Tomb Raider reboot franchise, Shadow of the Tomb Raider. This 3 minute long cut of sequences seems to be taken from the same “first hour” demo that I got to play at the Shadow of the Tomb Raider reveal event back in April.
Demo stations featuring a slice of Shadow of the Tomb Raider will be playable at both Square Enix’s E3 booth and Microsoft’s Xbox Experience Theatre. E3 is also the first place that the public will get a look at SOTR running on PC hardware.
Here’s Square Enix’s official description of the demo that’s available on the show floor:
E3 attendees will have the opportunity to experience Shadow of the Tomb Raider firsthand with playable demos at the Square Enix booth and the Xbox Experience at the Microsoft Theater. Meanwhile, the NVIDIA booth will host a behind closed doors, first time playable demo of Shadow of the Tomb Raider on PC.
“This is where things went from standard action movie fare – as seen in the previous two titles – to nearly world shattering. A ginormous tidal wave quickly engulfs the cavernous tomb and sweeps Lara out and onto the city streets. What follows is an almost indescribable amount of devastation as the large wave carries Lara, innocent pedestrians, cars and anything not firmly cemented into a foundation along with it.”
Alongside the gameplay trailer Square Enix also released several brand new screenshots, which you can check out below:
Arc System Works latest 2D fighter, Blazblue: Cross Team Battle, sees the universes of Persona 4, Under Night Rebirth, Blazblue and Rooster Teeth’s RWBY collide in the most epic crossover fighting game this side of Smash Bros. BCTB’s accessible yet deep fighting system – combining aspects of Blazblue, Persona 4 Arena and Under Night: Rebirth together – allows players to ease into their favorite characters, while allowing more experienced veterans room to pull off impressive combos.
Here are some of the features of Blazblue: Cross Team Battle as Arc System Works PR outlined in their press release:
BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle Features
CROSS
Cross over between 4 different universes! Play as characters from the BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena, Under Night In-Birth, and (for the first time ever in a fighting game), RWBY series!
TAG
Dive deep into the accessible 2 vs 2 gameplay system in a gorgeous 2D tag team based fighting game!
BATTLE
Take the fight to your friends, online, or against CPU opponents in robust single and multiplayer modes!
LOOK GOOD DOING IT
High definition anime styled 2D characters alongside beautiful 3D backgrounds and smooth animation brings the game to life!
ARC ASSEMBLED
Developed by Arc System Works, creators and developers of critically acclaimed and fan favorite fighting series BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, and Dragon Ball Fighter Z!
Available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC, Blazblue: Cross Team Batle isn’t just more accessible gameplay wise but price wise as well. The Standard Edition, which includes a 20-character roster, is priced at $59.99 CDN. Additional characters will be sold in sets of 3 for $4.99 as add-on DLC but during the game’s first two weeks the first character pack is available for free alongside Blake from RWBY who will be free indefinitely. A season pass of sorts, the Cross Tag Collection, priced at $19.99 includes all 5 character packs.
More coverage of Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle will be forthcoming later this week as Arc System Works has provided us with a digital Nintendo Switch copy for coverage. Until then make sure to check out several brand new launch day screenshots below.
“Welcome Campo Santo. You have chosen or been chosen to relocate to one of the worlds’ largest digital distribution services. Valve thought so much of your talent they’ll probably relocate your headquarters to Washington state now that they are your benefactors. Whether you’re at Valve to stay or move on to parts unknown, welcome.”
Riffs on Dr.Breen’s Half Life 2 speech aside, yup it is true – Valve has purchased the developers behind last year’s critical success Firewatch. Members of the Valley of the Gods team will move to city 1… err Bellevue Washington as they join forces with the owners of Steam.
Their next game, Valley of the Gods is expected to be released sometime next year. In The Valley of The Gods is a first person narrative driven title set in Egypt during the 1920s. As protagonist Rashida players will have one last chance to live a life of adventure exploring tombs, ruins and other remnants of the long gone Ancient Egyptian society. Players won’t alone in their journey to aid Rashida in her quest, a non-playable partner character Zora will aid her during the story. In The Valley of The Gods also features a working 35mm camera in-game! It can be added to your Steam wishlist here.
“We had a series of long conversations with the people at Valve and everyone shared the satisfaction we take in working with people whose talents dwarf our own to make things we never thought possible. Both sides spoke about our values and how, when you get right down to it, we, as human beings, are hard-limited by the time we have left when it comes to making the things we care about and believe in. They asked us if we’d all be interested in coming up to Bellevue and doing that there and we said yes.”
Platinum Game’s original hack and slash heroine Bayonetta is coming to a handheld system for the first time with a re-release of 2009’s Bayonetta and 2014’s Bayonetta 2 on Nintendo Switch. Due out on Feb 18th, 2018 these two witchy action titles will come packaged together, just as they did when Bayonetta 2 was released on the Wii U. The sequel will come loaded on a Nintendo Switch game card with a special downloadable code for the original game packed inside. Fans looking for both games on a single cartridge might be a little disappointed with this news but fans of combo-heavy action titles have a reason to rejoice.
Bayonetta was originally released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 by SEGA in 2009. It was re-released on Nintendo’s Wii U in 2014 and on Windows PC just this past August thanks to SEGA. Nintendo co-financed the development of Bayonetta 2 and it has remained a Nintendo exclusive, soon to be joined by the also announced Bayonetta 3. When the black-haired witch made her way to the Wii U she brought along quite a few extra pieces of wardrobe. Namely costumed based off of The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox and Metroid!
According to USA GamerBayonetta 2‘s double pack will also receive a special edition which includes a collector’s box (cardboard), a steel case for the game, a Bayonetta 2 Game Card, Bayonetta 1 DLC code, collectible stickers and a set of collectible cards.
Sine Mora EX – the beautiful 2.5D shoot’em up co-developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and Digital Reality makes a pass at the Nintendo Switch in North America and Europe thanks to THQ Nordic. In this sometimes-brutal bullet hell title, players guide a three-dimensional ship along the X and Y axis while avoiding the sea of oncoming bullets. Complimenting the vibrant art style is a unique health mechanic where each stage has an allotted amount of time – taking damage speeds up the countdown while routing enemies adds time back to the countdown clock.
Several enhancements have been made when compared with the 2012 original for the Nintendo Switch release including support for 16:9 resolutions, full English voice over, an improved rendering engine and 3 brand new versus modes – race, tanks, and dodgeball. Also new to Sine Mora EX is the ability for two players to take on the story mode at the same time!
Sine Mora EX will fly by the Nintendo Switch on September 26th in North America and October 10th in Europe. It was originally released in 2012 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 with an iOS & Android port following in 2013. The Switch release of EX will be joined by a release on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as well.
At the D23 Expo Square Enix dropped a brand new 5-minute trailer for the conclusion of Sora’s adventures, Kingdom Hearts III. For the first time in franchise history players will guide Sora & friends through a world based off of a Pixar property – fittingly enough it is based upon the first film to put Pixar on the map, 1995’s Toy Story.
Watching Buzz and Woody interact with Sora, Donald and Goofy is a treat in itself but this new footage has so much more to offer us. Sora using a hand drill to launch spikes out of the ground? Check! Sora piloting two different kinds of toy mecha in a toy store? Double check! Release window?… wait for it!
Yup at the end of the D23 trailer Square drops the bomb KH fans have been waiting for – a “release window” – note, I didn’t say the exact date. We now know that Kingdom Hearts III is intended to be released sometime next year.
With such a huge event happening, this wasn’t the only Kingdom Hearts related news to drop at D23. IGN.com had a chance to ask long time series developer and KH3 co-director Tetsuya Nomura a couple of KH related questions. The most pressing question asked of him – I feel – is the possibility of Kingdom Hearts III coming to Nintendo’s widely popular Switch platform.
Here is what Nomura had to say:
“The Nintendo Switch is definitely a very interesting piece of hardware, but if we lightly say, ‘Oh yeah, we’ll be on the Nintendo Switch,’ I’m sure people will come back and say, ‘But what about the PS4 and Xbox One? We want them out first. Don’t focus on other platforms,’” Nomura told IGN. “So for now, we want to focus on what platforms we’ve already announced we’re going to be releasing Kingdom Hearts 3 on. And so after, perhaps, maybe we can start thinking about other possibilities.”
IGN also asked Nomura about the possibility of the previously released Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 collection coming to Microsoft’s Xbox One / Xbox One X platforms, so if that is of interested definitely check out their article.
What else is there really to say? I’m super stoked to see Kingdom Hearts III finally be released. As a latecomer to the franchise, I’ve still got quite a few games to beat before I’m caught up – specifically Dream Drop Distance, Birth By Sleep and 2.8: A Fragmented Passage. Despite the fact that it feels like I’ve beenwriting about this gamefor years – and I have since its’ 2013 reveal – we might finally get to play the fabled KH3!
After teasing the existence of the third Doomfist since the original cinematic reveal trailer back in 2014, one of the leaders of Talon has finally come to the world of Overwatch in playable form. Today’s reveal comes alongside the release of a developer update featuring game Director Jeff Kaplan, an animated anime short featuring Overwatch Vs. Doomfist and the availability of the mighty fisted fighter on the Public Test Region!
Let’s get the bad news for dedicated followers of Overwatch out of the way – for whatever reason (be it character related, overall direction, perhaps they never considered him for the role) – Terry Crews does not worse Doomfist. Blizzard chose to go with the talent of Sahr Ngaujah – who is known for roles in 2007’s The Signal & Stomp The Yard, as well as last year’s Money Monster.
Jeff Kaplan outlines Doomfist’s key abilities, including his colossus of an ultimate, and goes on to explain that Doomfist is designed as a front line brawler who excels at taking on one or two enemy heroes. He is able to launch heroes into the ground and any time Doomfist gets some air he can slam down dealing damage. Players who are successful at mitigating damage and dealing blows will be rewarded with a temporary shield, extending their survivability, thanks to Doomfist’s passive trait.
Jeff Kaplan outlines Doomfist’s key abilities, including his colossus of an ultimate, and goes on to explain that Doomfist is designed as a front line brawler who excels at taking on one or two enemy heroes. He is able to launch heroes into the ground and any time Doomfist gets some air he can slam down dealing damage. Players who are successful at mitigating damage and dealing blows will be rewarded with a temporary shield, extending their survivability, thanks to Doomfist’s passive trait.
Here are Doomfist’s abilities:
Hand Cannon – Fires short ranged projectile from the knuckles of his smaller hand. Ammunition is automatically regenerated over time.
Seismic Slam – Doomfist leaps forward into the air and smashes down to the ground affecting any foes below him.
Rising Uppercut – Launches enemies that are in front of Doomfist into the air.’
Rocket Punch – A powerful charge forward that completes with a massive blow from Doomfist’s mechanical arm.
Meteor Strike (Ultimate) – Leap into the sky and then come crashing down to deal damage and stun opponents.
The Best Defense (Passive – Gain a temporary shield when dealing ability damage to opponents.
If you are a fan of Blizzard’s origin shorts – such as The Last Bastion or Infiltration (Sombra) then be prepared for a massive treat – OVERWATCH IN ANIME!!! – poor Tracer gets absolutely clobbered by our newest villain however.
So what do you think of Doomfist and his almost fighting game-like ability to send opponents flying upwards and then crashing them into the ground? For me, it brought back memories of infinite air combos from Magneto in MVC2 and I couldn’t help but be reminded of Sentinel after hearing that one of his abilities was called “Rocket Punch”. If you want to have a go as Doomfist he is currently available on PTR, no word yet on when we can expect a release on the non-test version but this usually happens within a week or two.
Great job Blizzard, thanks for not dragging this reveal out for months!
E3 is coming to a close today but there is still tons of screenshots, trailers and news to go through. Namco Bandai reminds all of us that Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is coming to both PlayStation 4, PSVR and PC in 2018 with the release of a brand new trailer and a series of screenshots. This latest trailer gives us a lot more background into the story of Skies Unknown – with one of the military powers in the world of Ace Combat occupying the International Space Elevator the world is plunged into chaos and military conflict. The newly released screenshots give us a look inside one of the game’s hangers, a close-up view of an F-14 and several select screengrabs from the trailer itself.
There is still no confirmed release date for Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown.
Youtuber PS360HD got a 10 minute direct-feed gameplay capture from this year’s E3 conference if you’d like to see how Ace Combat 7 Plays:
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: InfiniteStory 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.
State of Decay 2’s trailer asks us the hard questions about surviving in an urban post apocalyptic hell-scape like: “who do you decide to save?” and “do you kill a friend or do everything you can to save them?”. Player choice, player action and the consequences of both of those are front and center during the gameplay reveal trailer shown at Microsoft’s E3 press conference earlier today.
We see the survivors make choices like where to build their settlements, whether or not to give a party member the last remaining antidote and whether or not to take revenge against the creature that just ripped your friend in two. Literally, there is a visceral scene near the end where we see a survivor get picked up by a large hulking zombie and then torn in half at the waist with visceral levels of entrails spilling onto the floor. Clearly State of Decay 2 is not for the faint of heart.
State of Decay 2 will release on both the Windows 10 Store and Xbox One Store in Spring 2018. It will feature enhancements for the newly announced supped up Xbox One X as well.
