The System Shock remake, a project that was Kickstarted in 2016, has now got a release window of Q1 2020.
Nightdive Studios put the project on hiatus last month to give the team time to “return to
vision” of the game. In an interview with PC Gamer at GDC, Nightdive’s business development, director Larry Kuperman, reiterated that the studio wasn’t “going in the right direction with the game” based on what they had promised backers and the feedback they were getting from them.
It’s a week of new sequels, and older sequels getting re-released. There’s Far Cry 5, with all of its home-grown shooting action, and MLB The Show 18, which has a few new tricks tucked under its baseball cap. Meanwhile, Injustice 2 Legendary Edition gathers all of the comic fighting game’s DLC into one package, while Outlast 2 creeps onto Nintendo Switch. As for originals, Long Gone Days takes a look at warfare through a very different lens.
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Far Cry 5 is looking to close out the month with a bang. The latest entry in the shooter series trades the typical exotic locale for a home-grown conflict in the American midwest. You’ll be fighting to liberate an entire county from a gun-toting cult.
Further Reading:
Far Cry 5 Has Microtransactions, Campaign Is Playable Offline
Available on: PS4
The latest iteration of America’s favorite pastime brings a few changes to the franchise. Character customization is deeper than ever, even letting you tweak your batting stance. Diamond Dynasty, Franchise Mode, and Road to the Show are all revamped with tons of new options too.
Further Reading:
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC
If you missed your chance to throw down with DC’s finest last year, this is the definitive way to jump in. Legendary Edition includes all the previously released DLC characters like Darkseid, Red Hood, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, plus a bunch of Premiere Skins.
Further Reading:
Available on: Switch
Outlast 2 is creeping onto Nintendo Switch this week, so if you missed out on all the jump scares last year, now you can take the horror on the go. This version doesn’t include any extras like HD Rumble support, but that doesn’t change the scariness one bit.
Further Reading:
Available on: PC
Long Gone Days is a modern-day military RPG where your mission isn’t quite what it seems–and not just because of the cool-looking first-person turn-based combat. After deserting the army, your personal mission to stop all war takes priority.
When Ron Howard took over directing duties on Solo: A Star Wars Story from Phil Lord and Chris Miller last May, it was reported that there was only a couple of weeks of production left on the movie. However, Howard continued to shoot for many more months, leading to speculation about how much of Lord and Miller’s footage he was reshooting, and how exactly the different directors would be credited when the film was released.
It was now been confirmed that Howard will take the sole directing credit, while Lord and Miller will be listed as executive producers. The directing duo, who are best known for The Lego Movie and the Jump Street films, were asked about the issue at the GLAS Animation Festival in California. “We were really proud of the many contributions we made to that film,” Miller said, via Variety. “In light of the creative differences, we elected to take an executive producer credit.”
When Lord and Miller first left the production of Solo, they issued a statement suggesting that it was an amicable departure based on “creative differences.” However, a subsequent story in The Hollywood Reporter revealed that it had been a troubled production until that point, with the directors’ background in improvisational comedy at odds with the control exerted by Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy and veteran Star Wars screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan.
Apollo 13 and Da Vinci Code director Howard was hired the following week. Kennedy recently spoke about the decision to change directors. “I think these guys are hilarious, but they come from a background of animation and sketch comedy,” she said. “When you are making these movies you can do that and there’s plenty of room for improvisation, we do that all the time. But it has to be inside of a highly structured process or you can’t get the work done and you can’t move the armies of people to anticipate and have things ready. So, it literally came down to process. Just getting it done.”
Solo: A Star Wars Story stars Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo and Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca. Woody Harrelson, Donald Glover, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Emilia Clarke also star. It hits theaters on May 25, 2018. The first trailer was released last month, and you can also check out a full Solo trailer breakdown here.
In related news, it was announced last month the Jungle Book director Jon Favreau will direct a new live-action Star Wars TV show. The series is set to premiere of Disney’s streaming platform, which launches next year. This is in addition to the two new Star Wars movie series in the work, one from Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, the other overseen by Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
It’s been over two years since the latest Far Cry game, Primal, was released, and nearly four years since Far Cry 4. Thankfully, Far Cry 5’s release date is nearly upon us.
The latest in the series takes us to Hope County, Montana, USA, and it appears to continue the franchise’s recent sillier tone. It even contains a killer bear named cheeseburger. Pre-release, Far Cry 5 had us confused, but what do we and others think of the final game?
Our critic, Edmond Tran, awarded the shooter a 9/10 in our Far Cry 5 review-in-progress. The game contains a number of network features and multiplayer components, so we’re waiting on the public launch before posting our final review, but until then you can take a look at a selection of critics’ opinions below. Alternatively, check out the game’s wider critical reception on GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
“Despite some brief irritations and missed opportunities with its narrative, spending time in the world of Hope County remains absolutely delightful. Far Cry 5 boasts a wonderfully harmonious flow to its adventure, with its smart changes to exploration, discovery, and progression distinctly bolstering the enjoyment of creatively engaging and experimenting with its spectacular open world.” — Edmond Tran [Full review]
“This is the core truth of Far Cry, a series that still has a lot going for it, but remains in serious need of a revamp. It is a moribund apparatus of conquest that is unable to tell any story other than the rise to power of a well-armed outsider over a lushly imagined, exoticised realm, however urgently it might try.” — Edwin Evans-Thirlwell [Full review]
“Far Cry 5’s world is meticulously constructed, and it’s a remarkable facsimile of Big Sky Country. Unfortunately, too much of the action in it is uninspired. It’s a beautiful but bland recitation of what’s come before, from both the series and Ubisoft’s open-world playbook. It’s never bad, but considering how great the past games have been, its overall predictability is disappointing.” — Jeff Cork [Full review]
“Far Cry 5 is a game that struggles in trying to serve two purposes. On one hand, there’s a dark, horrific tale of a cult taking over a small town. On the other, it’s a playground of destruction, letting players fly and drive around, blowing up things with a bear and a dog. Both sides are good, but they don’t really meet in the middle. If you can survive the tonal whiplash, you’ll find a great game here and Far Cry Arcade only makes it better.” — Mike Williams [Full review]
“There are great individual moments in Far Cry 5. The gunplay is excellent, its unpredictable world generates daring stories of accidental heroism, and when it leans into the whole red-blooded American patriotism schtick, it’s genuinely funny. It doesn’t always fit together as well as it should, sometimes forcing the player to work around the game rather than with it – but the wildly vacillating tone is the bigger issue. It’s at once disorienting and noncommittal. Paradoxically, this is an extreme satire of modern America that says pretty much nothing about it.” — Keza MacDonald [Full review]
In the season finale for The Enemy Within, an exhausted, bloody, and beaten Joker asks Batman a question: “Did you ever think of me as your friend?” It’s a spark of vulnerability in a character that is typically sowing discontent and wreaking havoc. Unlike many of the other decision-making points, there’s no timer pressuring you to respond, and in that moment I reflected on the choices I had made up until then. I asked myself whether I feigned friendship with him in the pursuit of justice, or if it was genuine.
Telltale’s Batman: The Enemy Within convincingly presented me with the idea that I could find salvation for the Joker. That I could use the Dark Knight’s unwavering sense of justice as a guiding hand, hopefully to shape him into something other than the maniacal Clown Prince of Crime. I was wrong, and I failed.
In the end, events played out as they always do: A cackling clown and a man dressed as a bat standing on different sides of the law. This is a disappointing bait and switch, but only because I let myself think things could be different–I saw hope where there was none. The fact that I bought into the idea speaks to the strength of the writing and performances throughout the series. Despite this letdown, Episode 5 remains a compelling end to a story in which Batman becomes a participant in the creation his greatest adversary.
While that’s not a unique concept, ‘Same Stitch’ takes the idea that Joker exists because of Batman and explores it more directly. Where comics allow subtlety and subtext to suggest the symbiotic nature between the two characters, Telltale’s take is more overt, and makes a stronger, clearer statement because of it: Maybe Batman is the reason villains exist in Gotham, and maybe his crusade is doing as much harm as it is good.
In possession of a deadly virus and being hunted by an out-of-control Amanda Waller, John Doe comes out of hiding as a vigilante calling himself Joker. That’s the person I shaped though my actions as Batman. Wherever possible, I put my faith in him, trusted him to do the right thing, and gave him the benefit of the doubt, hoping it would have a positive impact. In response Doe modeled himself after Batman, complete with Jokerangs, a grapnel gun with chattering teeth, and the overwhelming compulsion to see justice served.
But, despite my intentions, I had unwittingly placed Joker on the path to realising his villainous destiny, albeit with a short detour through vigilantism. The episode begins with Batman trying to recover the deadly virus in Doe’s possession and stop him from doing harm. Amanda Waller, meanwhile, wants to capture Doe and Batman, and resorts to using villains to get the job done, putting together a Suicide Squad of sorts.
Events quickly spiral out of control. Having been blamed for killing The Riddler, Joker becomes focused on proving that Waller is the real villain in Gotham. His morality becomes black and white, and Telltale does a great job of forcing Batman to admit there are shades of grey. As Waller argues her case, it’s hard not agree with her that Batman has taken similar measures in his crusade. This showing of sympathy, and Batman’s insistence that she face trial instead of suffering a more immediate fate frustrates Joker, making him lash out.
[Joker’s] morality becomes black and white, and Telltale does a great job of forcing Batman to admit there are shades of grey
Batman’s rigid code of conduct and unwavering morality erodes Joker’s sense of what it means to be a hero and conflicts with his need for reparations. The result is is a mentally unstable figure that acts on violent impulses and lives by a twisted sense of self-serving principles. Instead of dropping John Doe into a vat of green chemicals to create Joker, Episode 5 presents your influence as Batman to be one of the reasons Joker is born.
Same Stitch manages to be introspective and thoughtful, while also providing plenty of levity. Joker’s stint as Batman’s sidekick is incredibly memorable, thanks to excellent voice acting and more than a few funny lines. Joker behaves as you’d imagine any Batman fanboy would if given the opportunity to go on a mission with the Dark Knight, revelling in going back to back with his idol, running through the ridiculous superhero names he considered before arriving at Joker, joyfully riding in the Batmobile, and taking pleasure in being mended by Alfred. Sadly, the fun and games are short-lived, as before long he’s on the warpath.
Episode 5 also gives Alfred a more prominent and meaningful role. Having been there for every step of Bruce’s journey, from orphaned child to vigilante superhero, he’s begins to realise that perhaps he’s also been a negative influence, enabling Bruce’s destructive lifestyle and failing in his job as a surrogate father. Telltale takes some bold steps to change the dynamic between the two characters, and it will be interesting to see how this carries over into future seasons, if they happen.
Overall, Episode 5 of Telltale’s Batman: The Enemy Within provides plenty of thrills and is a satisfying conclusion to the story. Although there are a few set-piece fights that are dynamic to watch, much of the actual gameplay remains focused on walking around environments and interacting with points of interest. It’s a shame that the series as a whole didn’t offer more opportunities to solve puzzles, as it did in the earlier in the series, but given the satisfying story payoff that’s easy to forgive.
Over the course of five episodes, the Batman: The Enemy Within has delicately developed John Doe and pulled strings to position Batman as a key player in his transition into Joker. While Telltale’s first Batman season stuck a bit too close to established mythos and delivered an underwhelming ending, the second is a memorable Joker origin story that Bat-fans should make a point of playing.
Sea of Thieves beats competition from EA’s new co-op game A Way Out to top the UK physical games chart this week. The Xbox One and PC exclusive finishes at No.1 in its debut week, ending March 24, according to sales monitor Chart-Track.
In a bumper week for new releases, Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom and Assassin’s Creed Rogue: Remastered debut at No.3 at No.4 respectively. The week’s other new games are Attack on Titan 2, which manages a No.17 finish, and 3DS’s Detective Pikachu at No.23.
Sea of Thieves is Microsoft’s first big console exclusive of the year, and it’s off to a good start in the charts. Our full review is coming soon, but until then you can check out our initial Sea of Thieves impressions. Despite Sea of Thieves’ high finish, combined sales of all six of this week’s new releases are still lower than what Mass Effect Andromeda achieved in the same week last year upon its debut. However, it’s worth noting that Microsoft’s pirate game is the company’s first to be included in its Game Pass scheme at launch for no extra charge, and so fewer people may have bought the game at retail.
Meanwhile in our A Way Out review, we awarded EA’s co-op game a 6/10. “By the time the credits rolled, my partner and I didn’t really feel like we’d been on much of a journey with Leo and Vincent,” we said. “We’d been on a geographical tour, sure–one that was often trite, gimmicky, or cringeworthy–but we didn’t feel the pair had learned anything or grown in any meaningful way. I did, however, enjoy the journey I’d been on with my friend sat next to me. We had to look out for each other while escaping prison, work together to solve puzzles, and save each other’s life on multiple occasions. Our characters might not have grown closer together, but A Way Out’s forced co-op is worth it for the few standout moments it provides.”
Finally, Peter Brown’s Ni No Kuni 2 review awarded the JRPG an 8/10. “Ni No Kuni 2 is a robust game that offers ample ways to spend your time, and even if they aren’t all up to the same level of quality, it’s easy to appreciate how they collectively contribute to the bigger picture,” he wrote. “It’s chock full of excellent battles and surprising moments that make for a far more memorable experience than you initially expect and leaves you impressed by your own accomplishments. If you didn’t play the first game, don’t let this one pass you by too.”
You can read the full top 10 sales chart below, courtesy of UKIE and GfK Chart-Track. Note this table does not include digital sales data, and so should not be considered representative of all UK game sales.