Sea of Thieves’ Xbox One and PC beta has experienced some problems since it started earlier this week, with some players unable to access the trial at all until very recently. In response, developer Rare has now extended the game’s beta by two days; the test period will now end on Wednesday, January 31 at midnight PT / 3 AM ET / 8 AM GMT / 6 PM AEST.
Regarding the issues themselves–which have seen some users met with a “too early” message, denying them entry to the beta–Rare says it has deployed a fix that is “unfortunately taking longer than anticipated to reach all affected players.” The company has apologized for the delay and says it is still working on returning normal service to all players.
For those who manage to take part in the beta, Rare says it has crafted a tailored experience for the trial “that offers a true taste of the pirate life,” rather than simply featuring a portion of the full game. Like the Sea of Thieves technical alpha that took place back in December, the closed beta is only available to those who either joined the Sea of Thieves Insider Program prior to December 1, 2017 or pre-ordered the game. Players who fell into the latter camp received the beta automatically if they pre-ordered Sea of Thieves digitally, while those who reserved the title at retail had to redeem a code in order to install the beta.
While some fans of the series were disappointed when Monster Hunter XX came to the Switch as a Japan-only exclusive, the good news is that we don’t have to suffer in region-imposed torture any longer. The latest big fish in the franchise’s pond, Monster Hunter World, is finally here, and it blows the previous western releases out of the water.
For seasoned players, the gameplay loop in Monster Hunter World is immediately recognisable. Your job is a cycle that involves crafting weapons, bulking up, killing monsters, and looting them for materials. However, a well-crafted narrative has not traditionally been a part of that gameplay loop, and that may have been a deterrent for those looking for a foothold into the franchise in the past. Luckily for them, the first major point of difference here from the previous mainline titles is the way that the plot and gameplay are grafted together. A spinoff, Monster Hunter Stories, stepped off the beaten track by introducing a simple yet satisfying narrative, and now Monster Hunter World solidifies that step by using the building blocks of previous narrative concepts to deliver a well-paced experience that spends more time focusing on the bigger picture.
While you spend a lot of time chasing an Elder Dragon that wouldn’t look out of place in the movie Pacific Rim, Monster Hunter World’s choice to integrate Guild and Village quests into one coherent story cuts out any confusion or ambiguity that new players may feel when it comes to figuring out which quests progress your journey. The fact that everything is tuned for a rewarding solo experience is a plus–it’s entirely possible to pump through 60 hours of quests without ever interacting with another player online. And when combined with more intelligent monster AI, facing off against a fire-breathing Tyrannosaurus-like creature on your own makes the stakes feel even higher.
On top of the story, which revolves around the mystery of why the aforementioned Elder Dragon has appeared in the game’s new region, there have been some quality-of-life changes that ease your transition into the world of monster hunting. Instead of frontloading a lot of text-based tutorials as in previous titles, you now have a Handler who doles out helpful information to you as you progress through zones of increasing complexity. It can feel a bit like having an annoying younger sibling tagging along on otherwise deadly adventures, but her vocal cues and vast knowledge about monster types are helpful when encountering new enemies for the first time. This assistance ceases when you start cutting your teeth on High Rank monsters, but hearing about new skills and immediately putting them into practice in the field is an excellent way to learn about the game from the ground up.
Monster Hunter World feels like an open-world game to some extent, with fantastically large maps of a scale that we haven’t seen before (both vertically and horizontally), no discernable game-pausing loading screens between zones in hunting areas, and a wealth of beautifully rendered environments to slaughter colossal monsters in. A helpful addition to this new world is the swarm of scoutflies that serve as a way to track monsters and other objectives.
Navigating the vastness of those areas without scoutflies would have been incredibly tedious. Once you’ve located a few traces of a monster’s path in a zone, your scoutflies automatically track it to its current location. Gather up enough clues over time and soon your insectoid minions will be able to predict where a certain monster is located based on past movements. This is very useful for investigation missions with tight time frames at higher ranks and sticks to your canon characterisation: a seasoned hunter who understands their prey. Except, perhaps, when said prey glitches through two stories’ worth of foliage and can’t be attacked with any weapons that you’ve got on hand. Fortunately, those instances are few and far between.
Part of the ability to capitalise on a monster’s weakness is the smart use of all the tools in your hunting arsenal, with the most important being your weapon of choice. The Hunter Arts from Monster Hunter Generations have been removed, and the game’s focus is solely on your ability to dish out ridiculous amounts of damage using your respective weapon’s combo. Light weapons are still the most mobile while the technical weapons are still the most difficult to understand and master, but there are ample opportunities to get experience with whichever blade, bow, or lance you’ve decided on. Weapon upgrade trees are all viewable at a glance, and the ability to make a wishlist of parts for your next upgrade makes the process more convenient, and helps you decide which expeditions to focus on.
Bowguns in particular have received the most notable facelift: it appears that there has been an effort to mimic the kind of playstyle you’d have in a third-person shooter, and this is most apparent when you’re firing from the hip with the light bowgun. That doesn’t necessarily change the strategy needed; you’ll still have to make effective use of environmental hazards, traps, barrel bombs, and dung in order to chase down your quarry. There are now more ways to get a leg up on monsters, which make combat encounters more accessible to different playstyles. Elemental effects are all the rage once more, with weapons boasting essential new perks that have evolved alongside the enemies that you forge them from, and the benefits of bringing water to a firefight is a lesson you’ll learn early.
Of particular necessity is the ability to mount monsters through aerial combos, or through the slightly less coordinated mad scramble off a cliff onto a creature’s back; you’re given the opportunity to knock a monster down, which will buy you time to slice off a tail or a claw. While the game will reward you no matter what strategies you take, knowing a monster’s weak points is still a must if you strive to upgrade your gear. It’s best to nail down your favourite weapon in the Arena–a mode where you test your mettle with specific gear against a monster that you’ve fought before.
Multiplayer integration is, for the most part, seamless. As mentioned above, there’s no distinction between Village and Guild quests anymore, so missions can be done alone or with a friend, and you’ll both only have to do it once to complete it. You can start a quest alone in an online session and wait for more hunters to pop in to assist. Alternatively, you can seek out an online session for people of a certain hunter rank, and just go along for the ride if they need a hand with anything. The only qualifier is that some story-focused missions require the leader to either watch a cutscene or discover a monster before others can join.
You can be in the same online session as someone else without having to do the quests that they’re doing, which is useful for those who might want to keep an eye on a friend who’s new to the franchise. Players who are struggling solo can also send out an SOS flare that lets their friends put together a little rescue party to save the day. In the downtime between adventures, you can do anything from arm wrestling to challenging each other’s times on the killing leaderboards.
Getting together with your mates takes a couple of extra steps compared to loading into a multiplayer session on the fly with a stranger. To play with friends alone, you’ll have to join in on their fun via the friends list on the console dashboard, or by sharing a 12-digit session ID. In a game that’s all about momentum and sprinting off into the horizon at the next challenge, getting your hunting posse together is manageable but slightly tedious. That being said, a few minutes to specifically set up a multiplayer session doesn’t necessarily make or break the game.
As expected, Monster Hunter World scales the difficulty up if you’re not the only one embarking on the quest. Up to four people can go out into the wilderness at once, and the beta experience has already demonstrated to many how exhilarating group combat can be. The more targets available for monsters, the more unpredictable their movements. This means that while you may have more firepower, it can be harder to lock down a monster that’s particularly prone to relentless charging or rapid aggression. Luckily, playing with others gives you the opportunity to try out different weapon compositions, and while unusual weapons like the hunting horn might see minimal use in the solo campaign, its sweet, party-buffing tunes and your teamwork abilities will become crucial to helping your friends take down the most savage of beasts.
While it may seem like quite a bit has changed, there’s a hell of a lot in Monster Hunter World that’s stayed the same. Whether it’s the appearance of draconic series regulars like the Rathalos and the Rathian or the presence of tried and true weapons, the roots of the Monster Hunter franchise are strong with its latest release. Apart from the overall sprucing up of graphics and the cutscenes with full voice-over, the standout improvements really come from the simplification of the existing systems in a way that welcomes newcomers without alienating existing fans. A lack of loading screens makes exploration a pleasure, and tracking new and improved monsters through areas as they rank up means that you’ve got plenty to conquer once the story quests are complete. There may not be any new weapons, and there may be a Hunter Arts-sized hole left in the hearts of players who spent hours getting good at the various Styles. However, the removal of those old mechanics feels less like a funeral and more like a necessary streamlining.
Ever since the title was first announced last year, it was clear that Capcom was gunning for something grander than Monster Hunter Generations. It has succeeded, and this is likely the biggest and best that the franchise has ever been. It’s not just the comparative depth of the narrative; it also boasts almost seamless integration between combat systems that were previously incomprehensible for amateurs. The Monster Hunter formula has definitely honed its claws, and all the above factors play their part in making Monster Hunter World a meaningful evolution for the series at large.
The final film in the Maze Runner motion picture trilogy comes out this weekend, and we have to be honest: It’s something of a milestone event. No, it’s not because the Maze Runner films are the most popular movies in the world. It’s actually because The Maze Runner series is one of the very few Young Adult (YA) movie franchises to actually reach its conclusion. It may not have made as much money as Harry Potter, Twilight and The Hunger Games, but The Maze Runner actually adapted all the books in the series, and that’s more than most YA would-be movie franchises can say for themselves.
Monster Hunter has always been an intimidating series to jump into for a variety of reasons. It’s challenging for anyone, and traditionally it hasn’t done a great job of explaining its various mechanics, leaving players to seek outside help. Monster Hunter World at least partially tries to address those problems, and in many ways, it succeeds.
In addition to providing more explanation to players in the early stages, players have what’s called a Handler, who dispenses tips until you’ve made enough progress. There are also quality-of-life improvements like scoutflies that reduce the hassle of tracking a monster–something that’s particularly helpful given World’s larger environments.
In the video above, we chat about what it’s been like to play World from both the standpoint of a series veteran and someone with less Monster Hunter experience. It should give you a sense of what to expect from World regardless of your experience level.
Netflix has another hit on its hands with The End of the F***ing World. Originally released on the UK’s Channel 4 and based on a graphic novel series by Charles S. Forsman, End of the F***ing World debuted internationally exclusively on Netflix this month.
The show follows James (Alex Lawther) and Alyssa (Jessica Barden), a pair of troubled teenagers who run away together to escape their miserable home lives. But there’s one thing Alyssa doesn’t know: James, who’s apparently a psychopath at 17, is planning to murder her.
If that sounds dark, well, yeah. Here are seven other things you should know before you dive in.
7. It’s violent
This show isn’t for the faint of heart. James has violent fantasies of which the audience gets frequent glimpses. It goes beyond hallucinations of blood pooling on the floor and a hand gripping a bloody knife, too. S*** definitely gets real in this show.
6. There’s animal torture
Many people these days have become desensitized to violence in movies and TV, but that doesn’t always extend to violence against animals. One of the reasons James knows he’s a psychopath is he has a nasty habit of torturing small animals, including cats, in the woods. The show doesn’t get too graphic with that, but it’s enough to make some animal lovers uncomfortable.
5. There are some very dark scenes
Even beyond the violence against people and animals, The End of the F***ing World goes to some dark places. Specifically, there’s one scene of sexual violence that many viewers are likely to find disturbing.
4. These characters are deeply troubled
This may go without saying, but James and Alyssa are not healthy, well-adjusted teenagers. We’re used to seeing troubled teens in movies and on TV, but usually not to this degree. Watching two young people systematically ruin their lives over eight twisted and darkly hilarious episodes is like to make you squirm.
3. A dog dies
There’s a subset of viewers who will have the most trouble with a late-season scene in which a dog dies. It doesn’t happen in the way you’d think, if you’ve been clicking through this list, but it’s one of the saddest things we’ve seen on TV so far this year.
2. It will make you want to blame your parents for everything wrong in your life
One thing that becomes clearer and clearer as The End of the F***ing World builds toward its finale is how deeply these characters were affected by their parents. James’s mom isn’t around (for reasons that would be a spoiler to explain) and his dad is kind of a buffoon, while Alyssa’s stepdad is a borderline abusive dickhead. No matter how you feel about these two, the show will have you wondering how many of your own problems you can actually blame on your parents.
1. It doesn’t turn out the way you think
Whether you’re expecting James and Alyssa to go out in a blaze of glory, or for the two to somehow find happiness, The End of the F***ing World won’t end the way you expect. Charles Forsman, the author of the original comics, told Vulture that “the people at the top are still talking” about the possibility of a second season, so suffice to say the sordid story of runaways James and Alyssa might not end here.
Spoilers for Celeste are contained in this review. While no specific plot details are mentioned, overall themes and mechanics that you may not be aware of are discussed. Celeste is a wonderful, surprising game, and I think it’s best experienced without prior knowledge of its themes. Hence, if you want to go in completely fresh, go and play Celeste before reading this review. Otherwise, carry on to find out why this game is worth your time.
Despite appearances, Celeste is much more than a game about climbing a mountain. Celeste is a game framed around a challenging platformer but containing a powerful tale of recognizing, dealing with, and attempting to overcome mental illness. Parts of Celeste are challenging to play–in both its gameplay difficulty and its subject matter–but it is a memorable experience worth seeing through.
Playing as a nervous young explorer named Madeline, you’re on a self-imposed mission centered around climbing the titular mountain, Celeste. You’re warned from the outset that the mountain is a strange place, that you might see things you’re not ready to see, but that it will show you who you really are. While the adventure starts relatively simply–jump this gap, grab this ledge, gather this collectible–the mountain soon lives up to its otherworldly billing by realizing Madeline’s mental health issues.
Her anxiety and depression are personified into an alternate version of her, simply named Part of Me, that exists purely to place doubt in her mind, to confuse her, and to tell her she cannot succeed. This occurs both in dialogue and in gameplay, where Part of Me often acts as the primary antagonist. However, Part of Me isn’t doing this out of spite; she argues she’s trying to save Madeline from what she perceives as certain death–Madeline is not a mountain climber, after all.
Madeline meets other characters along the way whose own issues manifest themselves in-game as physical prisons from which you must escape or enemies you must defeat. Rarely do games tie themes and mechanics together so well; combined with a sometimes crippling difficulty level, they accentuate the feeling that you, the player, are on a struggle of your own, as well as enhancing your level of empathy towards Madeline. Seeing her suffer is difficult to handle, and it’s impossible to watch it happen without thinking of your own problems, but that–plus the brilliant merging of gameplay and narrative–is what makes Celeste so emotionally powerful.
Parts of Celeste are challenging to play–in both its gameplay difficulty and its subject matter–but it is a memorable experience worth seeing through.
The only disappointing aspect of this translation of mental struggle into play is a clumsy addition of a new movement mechanic towards the story’s end. The new mechanic itself is utilized intelligently for the remainder of the campaign, but the way in which it’s added–at a key moment in the plot–somewhat weakens one of the story’s most powerful elements. The finale itself, however, is a wonderfully understated and fitting conclusion that I won’t spoil here.
Save for that heavy-handed development, Celeste grows graciously over the course of the roughly seven-hour campaign. It starts off as a slow, traditional platformer, but as new mechanics are added and as your own skills develop, it becomes an intricate, breakneck dance. You might have to jump around one set of spikes, dash over a pit, bounce off the back wall, leap through a warp panel, and fly to the next platform, all without a safe spot to land. But even though each step is tricky, checkpoints are frequent enough (and restarts instant enough) that failure never becomes too frustrating, all while the difficulty is sufficiently high to make success satisfying. I died 975 times, but none of those casualties felt unfair, and almost every one taught me something new. Even though Celeste doesn’t introduce any mechanics that haven’t been seen in other games, its platforming is wonderfully refined and inventive–often leaving me puzzled as to how I’ll ever succeed, only for the solution to suddenly enter my head–and it’s all contained within a campaign unlike anything else.
After the credits roll, Celeste offers more for those who want to relive the journey. Aside from the usual collectibles scattered in various hidden or hard-to-reach locations, there are also a set of unlockable reworked levels, dubbed B-Sides. Be warned, however: these offer some of the most difficult sequences in the game, and like an unfathomable post-game that offers a locked door with seemingly no way in, they lie unfinished on my level select screen.
Finally, Celeste’s sheer beauty is worth mentioning. Its colorful 8-bit style will be familiar to those who played developer Matt Makes Games’ previous platforming title, TowerFall: Ascension, but in Celeste that is joined by a cleaner, more modern look that elegantly adorns the game’s menus, overworld, and end-of-chapter artwork. In-game, as Madeline’s world becomes more twisted and horrific, so do the game’s art style and environments: bright blue ice and golden skies turn to blood-red monsters and greying surroundings. The piano and chiptune-heavy soundtrack adapts in a similar fashion, moving from the serene to the spooky at the perfect moment, all while remaining forever catchy.
It’s a testament to convincing writing and ingenious design that after playing Celeste I felt like I’d been on the same journey as Madeline. Her struggle is one made easy to empathize with, her low points painful to watch, and her high notes exhilarating to experience. Her tale is delicately told and beautifully illustrated, confidently coalescing with the satisfying, empowering game it lies within. Not bad for a game about climbing a mountain.
The Last Jedi was the longest movie in the Star Wars series to date, but fans can expect even more material in the coming months. As well as the deleted scenes that will feature on the Blu-ray, it has been revealed that the upcoming novelization also adds some brand-new sequences.
Author Jason Fry spoke about the novelization on the latest edition of the official Star Wars Show. He explained that he worked on it in collaboration with Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson. “Rian Johnson and I had an amazing conversation,” he said. “We got to write entirely new scenes for the book: Han Solo’s funeral, Rose and Paige Tico together, and further explorations of the fascinating world of Canto Bight, to name just a few.”
The Last Jedi novelization arrives on March 6. We also know that the Blu-ray release, which hits shelves on the same day, will feature 20 minutes of deleted scenes. One of these was also revealed on TheStar Wars Show. It shows Rey racing towards what seems to be a fire on Acht-To but actually turns out to be some sort of Caretaker party. The scene also includes some intense dialogue between Rey and Luke.
Last month, Johnson provided some further hints about what fans could expect from the deleted scenes. “There’s a whole extended sequence where Finn and Rose and DJ sneak through the Mega Destroyer when they’re trying to find the tracker,” he said. “It’s a full sequence of like stuff with them sneaking through this big office area of the Mega Destroyer and then having to fake out these Stormtroopers.”
In related news, Johnson took to Twitter recently to defend one of The Last Jedi‘s most controversial scenes. Through a series of pictures, he showed why Luke projecting a vision of himself to fight Kylo Ren made perfect sense.
The Eshop’s Nindies New Year sale may have recently concluded, but a new batch of Switch games are discounted in the digital store right now. Nintendo has kicked off another limited-time Eshop sale, offering players deals on a selection of great Switch games through the coming week.
You can find the full list of games on sale right now on Nintendo’s website. Many of the above discounts are only available until 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET on February 1, giving you a few days to take advantage of any deals you may be interested in.
There are only a few more days until the 2018 Royal Rumble, and this year’s event is going to be huge. It is the first year that the women’s division at WWE will get their own Royal Rumble match. That means that fans will be getting two Rumble matches on Sunday, January 28.
This year’s event will take place at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT. As of this writing, there are only six matches on the card, but there will be a Kickoff Show on the WWE Network and on YouTube starting at 5 PM ET/2 PM PT. In total, both shows will likely run between five and six hours.
The easiest way to watch the Royal Rumble is on the WWE Network. The app can be accessed on phones, tablets, or through your PC, as both iOS and Windows 10 have apps available. Additionally, many smart TVs have the app available for download or you can use streaming devices like Apple TV, Roku, or Chromecast. The network is also available on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, and PS4 by downloading the app through their stores. Currently, you can sign up for a free month of the WWE Network to watch the Rumble, as long as you remember to cancel the service afterwards if you’re no longer interested. Even though the first month is free, you’ll still need a valid credit card to sign up. Otherwise, you can order the event through your cable or satellite provider. For Comcast subscribers, the event will cost $45, and for those who have Verizon Fios, they will be paying $55.
If betting odds are any indication of the winner, then there are a few surprises coming this Sunday. The odds at BetWay (via Odds Shark) have Smackdown‘s Shinsuke Nakamura favored to win the men’s Rumble, followed by Raw‘s Roman Reigns and Smackdown General Manager Daniel Bryan. On the women’s side–believe it or not–former UFC fighter Ronda Rousey is favored to win, which is who GameSpot’s Greg Thomas picked to win the match. She is followed by Raw‘s Asuka and Smackdown‘s Becky Lynch. Rousey may be a big gamble as she’s currently in Bogota, Columbia filming a movie. She told TMZ that there’s no deal year and her appearing at the Rumble is impossible. However, we’re talking about wrestling and secrets and misdirection are a part of the business.
Come back to GameSpot on Sunday for live coverage of the event, as well as our takes on the PPV itself. If you’re looking for even more information about the Rumble, check out the links below.
