You might have already heard the news yesterday: Ubisoft mentioned on their Investor’s Call that “Player Recurring Investments” (read: microtransactions) have outpaced the sale of full price and discounted digital copies of their games for the first time ever. In terms of raw numbers of the 343 million euros the company made from their digital businesses 175 million Euros were the result of “Player Recurrent Investments” (which include microtransactions, add-on DLCs, Rainbow Six Siege Season Passes, subscriptions and those sorts of things). The 83% rise in microtransaction purchases over the past year for Ubisoft could signal the tipping point where small recurring payments within the AAA games we play outpaces traditional complete products for the foreseeable future.
I’m certainly not calling this the “death of the $60 game” or “the decline of games as a complete product” but there is no denying that over the past year major game studios have tried to forcefully inject smaller purchases into franchises that have not been known to use the previously mobile only lootboxes / battle crates / whatever you’d like to call them. What started with cosmetic item crates in Overwatchhas quickly morphed into Warner Bros Interactive selling Legendary Orcs for real money in Shadow of War, players being able to purchase level-ups and weapon power in Fortnite‘s PVE mode and most recently random lootbox exclusive mount skins in ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2.
A slide outlining the “digital revenue split” between Digital Distribution and Player Recurring Investments.
Tempting players with the chance of highly coveted items, exclusive skins and other valuables for only a small amount of cash does sound an awful lot like gambling. Yes, there is no chance of getting “nothing” when you purchase an Overwatch loot box but the disappoint that comes when you open a box that contains nothing but duplicates, sprays and the occasional voice lines became such a meme within the community that the Overwatch team found it necessary to fiddle with the odds found within loot boxes so that duplicates are less prevalent.
While I’m on the topic of odds – popular public contests like Mcdonald’s Monopoly, Casino tables and slot machines in British Columbia and other games of chance have to clearly outline the odds that a player faces before they make their decision. The gaming industry has not faced threats of regulation when it comes to disclosing odds to players in North America yet but the Chinese government is well ahead of us and passed a law requiring game makers to disclose the odds of “random drops” within their titles. In the Chinese version of Overwatch you have the probability of one “legendary item” (the highest rarity) for every 13.5 loot boxes. If you try to roughly convert that to $USD or time spent depending on the calculations used you’re either spending $7.99 USD (for 14 lootboxes) or roughly 20 hours of gameplay time FOR THE CHANCE of unlocking a legendary item, not necessarily the one you want.
Are we at a turning point? Only time will tell but here’s hoping that the discussions around microtransactions, gacha style loot boxes and random chances for real world money within gaming face some kind of regulations in the near future. I know personally I’ve spent a good chunk of spare change on loot boxes and microtransactions over the past year and I don’t feel any happier or better off since I did. It would have been nice to know that to get that Soldier 76 Grillmaster Skins during the first summer games would have cost me 20 hours of my life just for the chance…
Pictured in the header: Overwatch’s loot boxes, Fortnite’s Llamas, Shadow of War’s crates, Tess’ Eververse in Destiny 2, Heroes of the Storm’s loot boxes and Guild Wars 2’s Mount Adoption Certificate. Embedded in this post is an amazing video by Jim “Fucking” Sterling, Son!
The latest ‘Hero’ to join the ranks of Overwatch’s roster is the Tallon geneticist Moira. Clad in purples and blacks this support hero uses her scientific knowledge to heal her allies and damage her foes, sometimes simultaneously. Needless to say, her reveal came as a complete surprise, unlike last year’s Sombra reveal, Jeff Kaplan got to keep Moira’s debut a complete secret until he could unveil her to millions of fans during the BlizzCon 2017 opening ceremonies.
She has a healing beam which is she uses to restore health on her allies using her left hand. A dark energy creeps out from her right hand, dealing damage to her foes and healing her and replenishing her ‘biotic energy’. Biotic Orb is a rebounding projectile that damages any enemy it passes through and heals any friendlies it may come in contact with. Fade allows Moira to teleport a short distance, similar to Reaper’s Wraith Form. Finally, her ultimate, Coalescence, as her firing both her healing beam and damaging beam at the same time.
Here are the official descriptions of her kit from the Overwatch website:
BIOTIC GRASP
Using her left hand, Moira expends biotic energy to heal allies in front of her. Her right hand fires a long-range beam weapon that saps enemies’ health, healing Moira and replenishing her biotic energy.
BIOTIC ORB
Moira launches a rebounding biotic sphere; she can choose between a regeneration effect that heals the allies it passes through, or a decay effect that deals damage to enemies.
FADE
Moira quickly teleports a short distance.
COALESCENCE
Moira channels a long-range beam that both heals allies and bypasses barriers to damage her enemies.
Moira is expected to be released on Overwatch’s Public Test Region sometime next week. For now, we’ll all have to watch the videos of her in action coming from the show floor.
The latest patch for Destiny 2, bringing the game up to version 1.06 is now live across all platforms – PS4, Xbox One and PC. One of the big changes included in this update is an increase in a number of Faction Points that Guardians can earn per activity completed. Strikes and Nightfalls will now dole out more Faction Tokens while Heroic Events have had their amount of Faction Tokens nerfed. Destroying enemy resources also no longer rewards Faction Tokens at all.
Crucible matches have had their win conditions adjusted, with a number of modes having the total # of points required for victory reduced.
What do you think of this patch? Full notes are included below:
Destiny 2 Update 1.0.6 Patch Notes
General
Fixed an issue with collision detection on the Bureaucratic Walk Emote
Fixed an issue causing players to encounter empty public spaces too often in free roam
Fixed an issue causing players to be kicked to Orbit
Faction Rallies
Strikes now reward Faction Tokens at a range of 5 to 9 Faction Tokens per completion (up from 3 to 7)
Nightfall now rewards 10 to 18 Faction Tokens on first completion per character
Completing Heroic Public Events now rewards 5 Faction Tokens (down from 8)
Destroying enemy resources no longer rewards Faction Tokens
Opening Lost Sector chests now rewards 3 Faction Tokens for each fireteam member
Crucible
Updated Mercy Rule settings to allow Mercy to activate slightly later in the match, allowing a wider range of scores to trigger it
Clash
Reduced score limit to 50 (was 75)
Control
Reduced score limit to 90 (was 100)
Reduced influence that enemy-controlled zones exert over the spawning system
Survival
Reduced round time limit to 2 mins (down from 3)
Reduced life count to 6 (down from 8)
Supremacy
Increased score-to-win to 70 (up from 50)
We now grant one point for defeating an enemy Guardian
Adjusted the influence enemy crests have on the spawning system
Companion
Android
Improved performance across the app and particularly on the Gear and Progress sections
Improved screen state preservation after rotation
Added the ability to look up Clans by name (exact matches only)
Added suggested Clans to the ‘Browse Clans’ screen
iOS
Added suggested Clans to the ‘Browse Clans’ screen
Destiny 2 Update 1.0.6.1 (PC Hotfix) Patch Notes
Fixed an issue where Clan rosters were not showing properly
Fixed an issue causing gradual performance degradation over time
Monster Hunter World – the first console Monster Hunter game released in North America since 2012’s Monster Hunter 3G on Wii U – will have an exclusive beta for PlayStation Plus members on PS4 & PS4 Pro. Monster Hunter World’s beta will run from December 9th through the 12th and will feature 3 different quests that can be completed either solo or with a friend. It will feature the regions of the Great Forrest and Wildspire Wastes.
Also announced by Capcom during the Paris Games Week PlayStation presentation was an event quest that will see Aloy from Sony’s Horizon Zero Dawn enter the prehistoric world of Monster Hunter. Players will be able to obtain Aloy’s familiar armor from Horizon as well as her bow for use inside MHW. The crossover quest is expected to be release sometime after Monster Hunter World launches on January 26th, 2018.
First marketed as a unique crossover between Minecraft’s base building & resource collection and Gears of War’s Horde Mode, Fortnite has been in the news recently for the success (and controversy) of its Free 2 Play Battle Royale mode. After spending countless hours playing the “Survive The Storm” Player Vs Environment mode on two different platforms I’m ready to give my detailed impressions of Fortnite’s PVE experience as it currently exists.
Early Access Disclaimer: A copy of “Fortnite: Founder’s Edition Standard” was provided by Epic Games for the purpose of this review. No other loot pinatas or other Microtransactions were provided by the publisher. This review reflects the state of Fortnite’s Player Vs Environment experience as it existed in Late September / Early October 2017.
Gameplay: Some Assembly Required
As I sat down trying to summarize Fortnite’s gameplay into a digestible description, I found the game almost indescribable. This isn’t because Fortnite is a bad game – far from it, Fortnite has quickly become one of my daily “go to” game alongside Overwatch and Final Fantasy XIV when I want a multiplayer fix. It is just that there are so many interlinking systems to be found within the game that it is easy to imagine the unsuspecting player being overwhelmed at first blush.
For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to refer to the on-foot, in-engine 3rd person matchmaking multiplayer missions as Mission Gameplay and the menu driven, statistic management and item management portions of Fortnite as Housekeeping to keep things straightforward.
Mission Gameplay
Activities within Fortnite are divided into numerous mission types where the player must work alongside a team of up to 3 other survivors to secure an objective/survivor / x # of items within a large open chunk of the map and build a well-protected fort before initiating a horde mode-like defense sequence. If this sounds formulaic, it is, but the amount of creative freedom Fortnite affords players when it comes to base construction, strategy and bonus objectives allow each match of Fortnite to feel unique.
The opening segments of any mission within Fortnite can be thought of as pure chaos – an entire team of people working towards a common goal but each with their own needs. Player A might find the objective before anyone else is ready to begin the Horde mode defense section while Player B is searching for Server Racks to finish their Daily Quest and Player C is saving survivors to bolster their ranks (more on that in the next section). Uncoordinated teams or those with poor communication are often doomed to failure – especially during limited timed events and higher tier missions.
When it comes time for a team to construct their fort to defend their objective what is the best choice? Iron walls with protected by a constructor’s Forcefield? Cheaper wooden walls defended by all four Heroes with Melee weapons? The open-ended nature of HOW teams come to achieve their common goal is one of the beauties of Fortnite. I’ve played the same mission four times and had a different outcome every time: In one instance an entire team built a Zombie funnel with wooden walls lined with spike traps and on the same mission in another team we lined the front of our fort with jump pads which would cause the Zombies to fly into the air and land to their deaths.
Forts can be broken down into 4 basic components: Floors, Walls, Roofs, and Traps (which can be placed on either the Walls or Floor). Every Hero shares the same four basic kinds of Floors Walls and Roofs – Iron, Wood, and Stone but a team has to consider how much of each resource they have on hand. Each player can carry a maximum of 999 of each resource and the inventory for these is persistent between matches but when you begin reinforcing a well-constructed fort with Tier 2 or 3 defenses, individual resource pools can dry up rather quickly. I lost more than a few missions simply because our team hadn’t brought enough resources to secure our entire Fort design and the back of the Fort was nothing more than a couple of timber pieces nailed to the wall. Just as communication is key to WHEN an objective should be claimed, it is also just as important when it comes to fort design, which portions to upgrade and the team’s defense strategy.
Managing Statistics Is A Game In of Itself In Fortnite
Housekeeping
Once the action has calmed down, the heroes have saved the day and completed their mission what is there left to do in Fortnite? It turns out quite a bit, as long as you don’t mind managing and manipulating various statistics. When not in a combat scenario players are encouraged to level up their playable heroes, manage groups of survivors who provide party wide buffs and additional boosts and spend their skill points. This probably sounds a lot like the back-end busy work of managing a party within an RPG, and not a shooter, yup, one of the most difficult things about Fortnite can come from deciding what type of build you’re going for and not the terrifying monstrosities of the storm.
Leveling Up Heroes– Fornite’s heroes don’t just have a unique look and personality too them. All of them can be divided amongst four key categories: Constructor, Soldier, Outlander, and Ninja. Each class has its own strengths, for example, Soldiers can lob explosive grenades and have a buff to ranged weapon damage while Ninja’s gain a double jump and bonus to melee weapon damage. It is possible to pull two identical heroes with the same rarity (more on that in a bit), name, type & level yet still have them be different thanks to the randomization of the passive abilities that each Hero possesses. As you level up your playable heroes using XP from Llamas & missions you’ll gain an assortment of randomly tiered passive & active abilities.
Managing Survivor Squads – Survivors are non-playable “characters” that can be thought of more as collectible baseball cards than characters you’ll see in the game world. Sometimes after completing a mission, you’ll be rewarded with a handful of “survivor cards” & they can also be obtained from the Llamas for real-world cash as well. Each survivor has a “personality type” and “profession” and it is up to the player to slot these survivors into the appropriate squad (Tech, EMT, Firearms, Base Defense etc) to maximize their potential stats boosts. The higher the levels on your particular squads, the larger the passive boost from that squad and just like Heroes, Survivors are leveled up with their own unique form of XP points.
Spending Skill Points / Research Points – Skill points are accumulated passively regardless of whether or not you are playing Fortnite. Spending Skill Points on one of the four research trees allows you to gain purely passive buffs such as a small addition to your party’s fortitude, damage or build time or increasing a number of total items that you can carry.
Recycling Duplicate or Fully Maxed Out “Cards” – Heroes, Weapons, Traps, and Survivors all come packaged as “Cards” complete with statistics, an independent level and Rarity. It may not seem important when you first start playing the game but the rarity of a card essentially determines how far into the overall progress that you can use it. After several dozen hours I’ve reached account level 25 and am doing missions that are rated for Heroes at power level 40. From my experience, it seems that Green (or uncommon) weapons and heroes max out around this point and I’ve started recycling them into the few blue (rare) drops that have the same type. Once a particular card has reached its maximum level and is no longer useful to you, or you have a duplicate, you can recycle individual cards into the various XP types and feed that gained XP into newer items.
Epic Game’s Fortnite isn’t one to be left out on the Holiday festivities. With just 5 days to go until All Hollow’s Eve, this large & spooky update is ready to scare up some fun for both Battle Royale players and those of us who prefer to Save The World.
New additions to Battle Royale include a brand new baseline item called the “Slurp Juice” which is a 25-second heal over time which will heal 1 health and 1 shield per second and then go on cooldown. Cosmetic items have also been added to BR mode, with two character skins – Skull Tropper & Ghoul Trooper available for purchase with real-world money. Console players on Xbox One & PS4 can look forward to the addition of voice chat on each of those platforms as well.
Save The World players can venture into a special time-limited zone to explore the horrors of Vlad’s Castle. Explore the crypts of a large castle and reinforce placeable sensors along with other familiar objectives to earn special event candies for a brand-new orange & black Llama. Even the Husks have got into the Holiday festivities with Pumpkin Head Husks and Vampire Takers.
Check out these screenshots of the two Event Weapons: The Pumpkin Launcher & Husk Slayer Assualt Rifle:
Eight different Halloween Heroes are available featuring some awesome unlockable like Ghoul Ramirez, Black Cat Ears Constructor Penny and the mummy themed Sarah Hotep. Personally I am hoping that I can unlock either the event only Sarah or Penny.. They both look absolutely purrrrfect.
Players can earn 12 loads of 50 candies towards an event Llama (each of which cost 500 candies or 100 V-Bucks for real-world money) by completing Halloween Quests. Some limited time missions (denoted by a small clock next to them) can also give out a small amount of candies. Realistically this means that players can earn 8 event Llamas without putting in any cash over the course of the event if they complete their daily Halloween quests. Daily Quest llamas for regular Fortnite dailies will also drop 100 candies as well.
I played one round of Vlad’s Castle this afternoon and found it enjoyable – both to have a different aesthetic for once and I was also pleasantly surprised by the short length of the missions. Last month’s Horde Bash was criticized by the community for the length of its 10 rounds: sometimes taking up to 90 minutes to complete and only rewarding 50 tickets. This meant that players had to grind upwards of 10 hours to get a single Horde Bash Llama. Vlad’s castle is much more generous – rewarding a Llama after about 4 hours of game time.
Players will be able to venture towards the stars once again with the impending 4K UHD remaster of Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope on both Windows PC via Steam and PlayStation 4. Square Enix confirmed this morning via press release that this HD remaster will be available digitally on November 28th in North America.
In addition to cleaned up textures and the addition of visual quality sliders on PC, Star Ocean 4 on PC will also support resolutions up to 4K, Steam Achievements and a downloadable bonus “mini-soundtrack” bundled with the game. A post-launch 10% discount will be available on Steam alongside the mini-soundtrack only until December 12th. PlayStation owners can also get a similar 10% discount on the PlayStation Store as well as a PS4 Star Ocean theme and 12 Character Avatars for their profiles. PlayStation bonuses are available until January 12th. Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope 4K HD Remaster will be priced at an MSRP of $20.99 USD.
Star Ocen 4: The Last Hope was originally released as an Xbox 360 exclusive back in Feb 2009 on an at the time staggering 3 DVDs (remember when MS used to court Japanese developers for exclusives? Yeah that was shortlived). It was followed a year later with the release of Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope International for PS3 which included additional music tracks, animated character portraits for party members and both Japanese / English vocal tracks.
Epic Games has released a brand new patch for both Fortnite – Save The World and Fortnite – Battle Royale modes that bring the game up to version 1.7.1. Important additions in this patch include the Battle Eye anti-cheat system for PVP, player statistics for Battle Royale, an adjustment to both monster & hero damage in PVE and changes to the Horde Bash PVE special event.
Here is Epic Games’ description of their inclusion of Battle Eye:
“What are we doing about cheaters?
In this release, we’ve added a report button in-game which will allow players to swiftly report cheaters. What’s more, we released a blog last week detailing our current and future anti-cheat plans”
Horde Bash is a co-op multi-base defense mode where four players party up to defend against ten waves of Husks. What is unique about Horde Bash is that each player has a prebuilt base and there is no resource collection on the map (unlike Survive The Storm from a few weeks back). One of the problems with the new mode has been that players of all levels are required to unlock the difficulties one at a time. Matches could last upwards of an hour and many users complained that this slow progression for storm tickets was just not worth it.
In response, Epic Games has made it so that Tiers 1 through 3 of challenge mode will be unlocked by default. Also depending on where you are in campaign progression, you’ll unlock Horde Bash fights in different campaign zones.
Challenge the Horde
Progression is now determined by the players progress in the Save the World campaign
If the player has finished Plankerton Outpost 3 in the Save the World campaign, then all of Stonewood and the first three Plankerton zones will be unlocked in Challenge the Horde mode.
Quests now have a minimum difficulty rather than a required one.
If a quests states: Complete “Challenge 3 in a rating 9 zone,” the challenge can now be completed in any zone 9 or higher rather than in a zone with 9 difficulty specifically.
When entering a Tier 1, 2 or 3 zone, all challenges within that zone are now unlocked by default.
This will make progressing through the mode quicker.
The last large noteworthy addition in this patch is a general buff to Hero health and damage dealt alongside a smaller buff to Monster health as well. Extra damage & health for heroes will scale higher during end game content and high-level challenges – so this adjustment is aimed more so at players looking for the hardest content in the game rather than those just starting out.
Here’s an outline of the Hero changes for higher level play:
Increased ability damage, health, and shield values on all heroes.
All of these values increase depending on the on rarity of hero
Increased by 10% every 5 levels, to a maximum of 30% for Uncommon up to 60% for Legendary
These values were previously scaling relative to weapons without alterations and were falling well behind the curve at high levels as a result.
No change at low levels, gradually scaling up with difficulty.
Hero abilities and gadgets will have greater impact on monsters at higher levels.
You can find the full patch notes here – they include small details like specific weapon buffs to PVP weapons and the fact that the bus at the begining of Battle Royale has had its speed increased by 30%.
Defiant Development has penciled in a release date of November 7th for their action RPG sequel Hand of Fate 2PS4, Xbox One and PC. Today’s release date announcement came with three brand new screenshots, confirmation of Xbox One X 4K support and the reveal of the game’s final non-playable companion.
Ariadne of Stiegal is the 4th and final companion to be revealed for Hand of Fate 2. She is a melee tank character who has exclusive perks for the “meta board game”, unique dialogue options and her own storyline to explore.
Players of Hand of Fate 2 will have to best challenges constructed from a deck of cards wielded by the returning antagonist “The Dealer”. Combining collectible card game elements, action RPG combat and storylines with optional dialogue paths, Hand of Fate 2 takes elements across a number of genres and fuses them together into a single unique package.
Director of Defiant Development, Morgan Jaffit, had this to say about Hand of Fate 2’s Fall release:
“The team has been keeping our heads down working on the game, and now that we’re nearly done, I can safely say this marks a new chapter in the level of quality we can achieve. I’m incredibly proud of this group and can’t wait to show their work to the world.”
Make sure to check out the brand new screenshots below:
Three years after the release of the original Destiny Bungie sends us into a far future version of our own solar system with the release of Destiny 2 on Xbox One and PS4. While the development of the original Destiny has become somewhat of a cautionary tale about the perils of AAA development – Bungie, Activision and new partner Vicarious Visions have had quite a bit of extra time to polish and improve the loot focused FPS formula that made the first Destiny should a standout title. Can Destiny 2 live up to the expectations & hype for this franchise’s sophomore effort?
Stepping foot into the boots of a Guardian will be familiar to anyone who played Destiny or any of its expansions. Moment to moment gameplay is, for the most part, almost identical in D2 to its predecessor. As an armor-clad un-killable warrior of The Tower, Guardians control very similar to the protagonist from Bungie’s entries in the Halo franchise – if not just a bit faster. Overall movement speed will feel slower when compared to a Call of Duty, Quake title but this de-emphasis on fast-paced action leaves room for strategy, planning, and careful aim.
Speaking of strategically using weapons: each Guardian has three weapon slots, just like the first game –Kinetic (formally primary), Elemental (formally named Secondary) and Power (formally heavy). Elemental weapons will have a given element assigned to them – for example, void, arc etc. – and their damage is aligned with this specific element. Primary weapon damage is un-aspected meaning it has no strengths or weakness when compared to elemental weapons. Just like in the first Destiny ammunition for the Elemental and Power slots is much rarer than primary ammo. The game still does provide you with enough ammunition to shoot enemies in the face – this a series all about killing aliens after all.
Interestingly I went back and read my review of Destiny 1 from three years ago to see how my thoughts on the series have changed since then. I described the gear progression as: “Gear progression exists [in Destiny] but the repetition of the story mission or strikes makes gear hunting much less appealing.” This is actually the opposite of how I feel about D2’s gear progression. Finding a Scout Rifle that does more damage than my currently equipped Auto Rifle made me consider a different playstyle than the all guns blazing route that I went with at the beginning of my journey. Destiny 2 tosses brand new gear at you so often that it becomes an adventure just to see what you’ll find next. By the end of my 20-level journey I was favoring scoped Scout Rifles over louder firearms simply because their accuracy lead to some pretty epic headshots. One of the core tenants for any Destiny 2 player should be “don’t get too attached to your gear” because even when you reach the level cap and finish the story you’ll still be chasing slightly more powerful versions of your favorite weapon type.
Another contrast to the original Destiny is just how alive Destiny 2’s open worlds feel in comparison. I can remember roaming around the worlds of the first title and they felt very baron and lifeless places with a few enemies and bases placed about. Perhaps it is the removal of last generation consoles that gave Bungie the technical freedom to make their worlds much larger or perhaps it was the extra development time but one thing is for sure – there is a lot more to do in Destiny 2’s sandbox when compared to the first. Public events – self-contained 3 to 5-minute objectives – return from the first game now with hidden Heroic variants. Each zone now also has its own Faction leader who will trade hidden tokens found throughout each world in exchange for legendary engrams (post level 20) – giving experienced Guardians a reason to return to the first worlds. In addition to these activities each zone also has a system of hidden passages and spaces that the campaign won’t show you and they are greyed out in the overworld map. Destiny 2’s revamped open worlds feel refreshing and compelling.
Destiny 2‘s single player story is what the original game should have offered: a narrative driven experience that tours the game’s four large worlds, introduces the core activities and mechanics that will keep you coming back after the campaign ends and manages to earn quite a few chuckles as well due to some creative writing. Destiny 2’s campaign (probably) won’t win many awards on its own – if this was all the game had to offer there’d be some issues – but when added with the amount of content already present, the campaign provides an excellent gateway to the larger Destiny experience. Characters that were merely reputation vendors or representatives in the first game are more fleshed out in the sequel – with the witty banter between Peter Dinklage’s Ghost and Nathan Fillion’s Cayade-6 providing the most levity & humor. What narrative is present is told in broad strokes and would have benefited from a bit more characterization, especially for the new menacing villains who feel rather two dimensional and since the player doesn’t know much about them other than “they are the bad guys with a super weapon” – taking down Ghoul’s lieutenants for example doesn’t carry as much weight as it probably should.
Bungie has done a commendable job fleshing out the parts of the Destiny formula that felt under developed when the IP debuted three years ago – especially when it comes to the presentation & coherence of the campaign and the re-designed open world segments. Destiny 2 offers so much for players to do, even solo minded Guardians like myself that it is easy to recommend at full price. If you have friends to run the strikes & public events with, then you are bound to have an even more enjoyable time taking down the baddies found within IO, Titan, Earth and Nessus. Multiplayer PVP or the Leviathan Raid haven’t been mentioned in this review because, in all honesty, the removal of larger teams / streamlining of playlists has removed any drive I had to play it beyond the required 2 matches for an in-game mission. In regards to the Raid – I simply did not have an organized fireteam to try it out before reviewing Destiny 2.
If you like high octane mecha action games staring anime teenagers then Project Nimbus is one title to keep an eye on. Developed by GameCrafterTeam and published by Kiss LTD it is hard not to watch footage of Project Nimbus and be instantly reminded of a brighter, more bubblegum Armored Core title. We may not have got a true Armored Core 6 from Namco and sure Project Nimbus lacks detailed customization in its current Early Access state but it seems to scratch at the same itch.
Project Nimbus will be flying the deadly skies on PlayStation 4 in Japan later this Autumn with a worldwide release scheduled for sometime in Q1 2018. PC players can already snag Nimbus for $15.99 CDN on Steam, but that price may go up as the game leaves Early Access on September 28th.
Here’s a couple of the key gameplay features of Project Nimbus: CodeMirai on PlayStation 4 as reported by Gematsu:
Key Features
Missions set throughout 16 different locations, including sky city, sea fort, mountain base, giant prison, and space stages.
Various mecha and weapons, including smart missiles, laser blades, particle canons, floating laser shields, rail guns, and auto-attacking and defending psycho drones.
A grandeur story of an ace pilot set on a future earth destroyed by war, where a battle between three factions will unfold.
Eye-catching combat style with transforming giant mecha, daredevil pilots, and battles against armed flying boats.
If after watching the below footage your mouth starts to water just a bit – as mine did. I’ve included the minimum specs for the PC version below as well. After watching a handful of trailers and reading the news release about Project Nimbus’ incoming PlayStation 4 release I immediately plunked down the $16 for the Steam version.
Min Specs:
OS: Windows Vista/7/8
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: ATi HD5750 {Any card that support Shader Model 3.0 shall be able to run the game)
Today is a big day for Overwatch fans as the mid-September patch bringing additional damage to the Starcraft playing D.VA, a major rework for the German doctor Mercy and our first playable glimpse of post-apocalyptic Australia with the Junkertown map.
Junkertown
We previously covered this brand-new escort map which introduced us to one of the fandom’s favorite new (off-screen) characters – the Queen of Junkertown. Junkrat’s former home also played host to the last Overwatch animated short ‘the plan’ which hilariously featured Junkrat and Roadhog scheming to gain re-entry into this locked down settlement, only to fail spectacularly. You too can now escort an adorable Pachimari with a golden crown to the goal.
Here is Blizzard’s official description of the map:
Junkertown is located in the harsh and unforgiving Australian Outback. Constructed from the remains of a destroyed omnium, it’s now the home to a band of lawless scavengers known as the Junkers, led by their cutthroat Queen. When they aren’t pillaging the omnium’s skeleton for anything of value, the Junkers blow off steam in the Scrapyard—a massive gladiatorial arena whose combatants fight for glory, riches… and to survive.
D.VA Changes
Our favorite pro gamer has her damage mitigation nerfed in favor of additional DPS thanks to the addition of a brand new ‘micro missile’ ability. This new ability fires a volley of missiles in a straight line towards the center of D.VA’s vision. According to the patch notes Blizzard’s developers felt that Defense Matrix was too strong and reducing its up time without compensating would make D.VA too weak. This rectified with the addition of micro missiles and the fact that D.VA can now continue to fire her canons while using her boosters.
D.va is ready to get her enemies in her sights. – Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment
Micro Missiles (New Ability)
D.Va fires a barrage of small rockets that detonate on impact, dealing damage in a limited radius around each explosion. These can be fired while D.Va is using any other ability or firing her Fusion Cannons
Defense Matrix
Defense Matrix’s resource meter will now deplete twice as quickly
Energy regeneration per second has been increased to 12.5% (formerly 10%)
Boosters
Fusion Cannons can now be fired while flying
Mercy Changes
Probably the most striking in change in this update is the rework to Mercy – instead of her ultimate resurrecting an entire team she has a new ultimate called “Valkyrie”, she does, however, retain the ability to resurrect players with that ability becoming a single person rez every 30 seconds. While in Valkyrie mode Mercy can fly in 3 dimensions for the duration of the Ulti, she does additional damage with her blaster pistol and both her damage boost beam and healing beam chain from one teammate to another if they are within proximity. Will her new ulti be enough to clinch a last-minute overtime victory? Time will tell.
Resurrect (Formerly Mercy’s Ultimate ability)
Ability now targets a single player, instead of every player within a radius
Radius reduced to 5 meters
Ability cooldown is 30 seconds
Mercy is no longer granted invulnerability while Resurrect is active
Valkyrie (New Ultimate Ability)
Valkyrie unleashes the full power of Mercy’s Valkyrie suit, enhancing her weapons and abilities for 20 seconds
Caduceus Staff: Mercy’s healing and damage boost beams now affect all allies near the targeted teammate, and the staff’s effective range has been extended
Caduceus Blaster: Now has infinite ammo and increased projectile speed
Guardian Angel: Increased range and movement speed
Resurrect: Cooldown is instantly reset when Valkyrie is activated and reduced to 10s after the initial cast
Hover: Mercy gains the ability to fly freely, at increased movement speed
Regeneration (Passive): No longer interrupted when Mercy takes damage
Wrapping Things Up
It is going to take some time for these major changes to two of Overwatch’s mainstays to work its way into the meta and for the community to adjust to them. While I’ve played a few games as both the damage dealing D.VA and reworked Mercy but I’m going to leave my impressions unwritten for a few days while I let the changes sink in.
Let me know your thoughts on this latest Overwatch patch in the comments section below.
Gearbox Software’s FPS / MOBA mash-up Battleborn will see its final update released later this fall and while the servers will remain online “for the foreseeable future” the game will not receive any new content or patches. Pretty sad for a game that went Free to Play less than three months ago – but remember in Gearbox’s own words, Battleborn was never F2P but simply an “unlimited demo”.
You might remember the short-lived Overwatch Vs. Battleborn “rivalry” that sprung up in May 2016 after both games were slotted for release that same month. Both games had a few similarities – a roster of hero characters with unique abilities, FPS gameplay with different objective types and while both games focused on co-operative teamplay, Battleborn took a lot more from the MOBA playbook when compared with Overwatch – with A.I minions and defensive structures that could be bolstered by players.
Battleborn got absolutely trounced by Blizzard’s behemoth of a game – eventually ceding so much market share to other titles that the game had only a couple of hundred players online at any given time before the “unlimited” trial was released this past June. Gearbox’s changes would bring in a strong population boost with an all-time peak of 12,000 players – sadly today this is down to less than 120 players according to Steam Chars.
For the few that hung around for the long haul Gearbox will release a final patch with brand new skins before closing this chapter of their history to work on an “unannounced title”.
Here is, in part, a statement from the game’s Creative Director:
“As of this week, there will be no more Battleplans and there is currently no planned content after the Fall Update. Details of any future changes or news will be made on our forums or through social media, so keep your radars on.
Never fear! Battleborn is here to stay. Nothing is changing with Battleborn, and the servers will be up and active for the foreseeable future. We announced the Fall Update for the game at PAX including some new skins, themed around some of your favorite Borderlands characters! That update will also include some updated title art (more full bar titles!) for the more significant challenges in the game, as well as some additional Finisher Boosts and Taunts. Also, there are minor balance changes in that patch.
If you’ve been paying attention to recent news from the Gearbox Panel at PAX West, you’ll have heard that many folks at Gearbox are working on a highly anticipated project. Although I’m sad my time on Battlebornis coming to a close, I’m happy to announce that I will play a significant role on this highly anticipated but unannounced game, and I’m sure you’ll be hearing some from me again in the future regarding Gearbox games.”
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider is out on Windows PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This standalone sequel to last year’s Dishonored II also provides Billie Lurk with the starring role as the playable protagonist for this entry in the Dishonored franchise.
Billie does not have “the mark of the outsider”, instead she has her own unique set of abilities allowing her to plan a bank heist, enter underground fight clubs and ultimately take down the Outsider and bring a close to the plotline of Dishonored II.
Content Warning: Bethesda’s recently released launch trailer does mature content including graphic violence and at least one beheading.
The battle royale formula should be pretty familiar to anyone who has watched/played popular games like Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, H1Z1 or even the most recent Grand Theft Auto V online expansion. 100 players parachute down onto a small section of the map and must scavenge for supplies and be the last person standing before a toxic cloud or plague wipes them from the face of this earth. It is a successful formula and can lead to moments of tensions almost unrivaled from other action sub-genres.
Epic Game’s currently buy-to-play survival/tower defense hybrid Fortnite joins in on battle royale fun with an upcoming addition – ‘Battle Royale PVP’. Hoping to stand out from the rest of the pack with its unique building mechanics – surviving in Fortnite’s best of 100 player matches might just come down to building the right structures along with a little bit of luck and picking the right supplies.
Anyone who owns Fortnite can try out the Battle Royale PVP mode for themselves thanks to the Public Test which runs from today until the mode officially drops on September 26th. In addition to the Public Test, both the Standard and Founders package is 25% off. That means that the Standard package is $29.99 USD, Rare Starter Pack (with 8 heroes) is $44.99 USD and the Legendary Edition is $149.99 USD.
