Month: August 2018

As Yacht Club Games finishes up on the promises of its original Kickstarter campaign for Shovel Knight, the developer has finally revealed the local multiplayer battle expansion set to debut for the title next year — Shovel Knight Showdown.

IGN can exclusively pull back the curtain on Showdown, a series of new modes that allow up to four players to play as one of several characters from the beloved game and compete. But rather than first going into detail, check out 10 minutes of four-player gameplay from the Gem Clash mode below to get an idea of what to expect.

Players can compete in either one-on-one duels, in four-player free-for-alls, or as cooperative teams battling against AI. Modes in Shovel Knight Showdown include Gem Clash, Showdown, and a full Story Mode, which is customized to each playable character, offering a series of challenges, minigames, and a new final encounter.

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It wouldn’t be a big-budget shooter released in 2018 without a zombie-themed expansion, and Far Cry 5’s latest DLC, called Dead Living Zombies, dutifully indulges that trend. With the same goofy humor we saw in the previous Mars-themed DLC, this one takes us to a fun nightmarish version of the Montana countryside that’s crawling with undead fodder. It’s not bad as zombie-killing shooting galleries go, but the humorous movie-themed approach alone isn’t quite enough to hold back the creeping feeling that I’d killed these same exact zombies quite a few times before.

Like in similarly framed games like Borderlands 2: Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep or Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, this adventure is controlled by a narrator whose ideas are changing on the fly. In this case, would-be director Guy Marvel pitches seven ridiculous zombie scripts to Hollywood’s elite, each more fun and absurd than the last. One of my favorite missions, called Undying Love, uses the story of Romeo and Juliet as a backdrop and spices it up a little bit, with a modern-day gang war and of course, plenty of zombies. This storytelling technique is cleverly used, with various weapons, vehicles, and even strange romantic scenes involving zombies magically appearing whenever Marvel has a new idea.

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After months of anticipation, CD Projekt Red has finally shared the first gameplay footage of Cyberpunk 2077. The developer’s mysterious Twitch livestream, which kicked off earlier in the day and cryptically broadcast lines of code being typed out on a screen for several hours, concluded with an extended look at the upcoming open-world sci-fi RPG, and it was certainly impressive.

The footage on display during the stream was taken from the same gameplay demo CD Projekt Red showcased to press at E3 and Gamescom 2018. The demo begins with V, your customized protagonist, traveling to a gang hideout with her ally Jackie to locate a missing cyborg. That mission quickly escalates into a firefight with the gang members, showing off Cyberpunk 2077’s RPG-rooted take on gunplay. Later in the demo, V is given a quest to acquire a drone, which takes her and Jackie into the compound of the Maelstrom gang. Perhaps most impressive, the footage also provides a much closer look at Night City, the sprawling and richly detailed futuristic metropolis that serves as the game’s setting.

“What we’re releasing today was recorded from a game deep in development,” game director Adam Badowski said in a message accompanying the release. “Since many of the assets and mechanics in the current version of Cyberpunk 2077 are most likely to be modified, we initially decided to show this gameplay only to media. Elements like gunplay (both in terms of visuals and how RPG stats influence it), netrunning, car physics, or the game’s UI–everything’s pretty much still in the playtest phase and we felt uneasy about publicly committing to any particular design. Animation glitches, work-in-progress character facial expressions, early versions of locations–all this made us hesitant to release what you’re about to see.

“However, we are also well aware that many of you want to see what the media saw. Although this is probably not the same game you’ll see on your screen when we launch, we still decided to share this 48-minute video with you. This is how Cyberpunk 2077 looks today. Let us know what you think!”

Despite being announced several years ago, Cyberpunk 2077 wasn’t formally unveiled until E3 2018 this past June, when CD Projekt Red shared the first cinematic trailer for the game during Microsoft’s E3 press conference. The developer also showcased nearly an hour of gameplay footage to press during a behind-close-doors demo at the convention, which was so impressive in its scope and detail that it solidified Cyberpunk as one of our four favorite games from the show.

“The E3 2018 demo for Cyberpunk 2077 was overwhelming with all its detail, but it did give us the impression that there was a large world with all sorts of systems to explore and mess with,” GameSpot’s Alessandro Fillari wrote in reaction to the demo. “The setting and some gameplay ideas are certainly a big departure for CD Projekt Red, but it also has a number of cool and visually stunning details that show off an incredibly rich world to jump head-first into.”

CD Projekt Red would give fans another glimpse at Cyberpunk 2077 at Gamescom last week. During the convention, the developer released a handful of new screenshots that showed off some characters and environments from the game. The studio also shared several pieces of Cyberpunk 2077 concept art that contained a hidden link to another image that displays the phrase “more than meets the eye.”

Cyberpunk 2077 is in development for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. CD Projekt Red hasn’t announced a release date just yet, but the developer says the game is already playable from start to finish–although it still doesn’t have all of its assets, nor have all of its bugs been addressed yet.

We got a chance to speak with Cyberpunk 2077 producer Richard Borzymowski at Gamescom. During our interview, Borzymowski discussed how the studio was able to switch gears from the fantasy universe of its other notable video game franchise, The Witcher, to the sci-fi world of Cyberpunk. He also talked more about the move from the third-person perspective of its previous RPGs to Cyberpunk’s first-person viewpoint.

A new Nintendo Direct is on the way soon. Following Nintendo UK’s surprise Indie Highlights video earlier this week, Nintendo of America has announced it will air its own indie-focused presentation on August 28. [Update: The broadcast begins soon, and you can watch it in the embed below. We’ll report back with everything the company announces.]

The Nindies Summer Showcase 2018, as the broadcast is called, is scheduled to begin at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET. As usual, Nintendo hasn’t specified which titles will be shown off during the presentation, but we’ll get a look at “multiple unannounced indie games coming to Nintendo Switch.”

You’ll be able to tune in to the Nindies Summer Showcase on Nintendo’s YouTube and Twitch channels. GameSpot will also be covering the presentation, so be sure to check back for all its biggest announcements and highlights.

Nintendo UK’s recent indie presentation contained its own share of surprise announcements, including the reveal of Windjammers 2 and the Switch version of Terraria. As often happens, a number of new titles were also added to the Switch Eshop shortly after the broadcast, most notably Bad North, Prison Architect, and Morphies Law.

The release of Destiny 2‘s biggest DLC expansion yet, Forsaken, is right around the corner, and to get players pumped for the game’s next chapter, Bungie has released a new launch trailer. It features a funeral of sorts for one of Destiny’s most prominent characters, as well as the return of another–Uldren Sov–who serves as the primary antagonist in Forsaken.

Bungie’s new video starts out by capping off what we’ve seen previously, where Cayde-6 fights off countless foes before his Ghost is destroyed. That leads to Sov, whom you might remember as the Queen of the Reef’s brother, killing Cayde. From there, we see Ikora Rey holding a funeral for Cayde and swearing to avenge him, while Zavala is unwilling to risk anyone’s life.

It’s at that point we see what is maybe the most significant bit of the trailer, when a Titan vows to hunt down Sov himself. This would appear to be a character standing in for the Guardian that you play as; if that’s true, that marks the first time you actually speak in Destiny 2. Until this point, your Ghost did all the talking.

From there, we see your character and Petra Venj (a Queen loyalist) strike a deal with a portly Fallen to help track down Sov. He, meanwhile, burns down the throne room of the Reef and rambles about various things.

All in all, it’s an exciting look at the new expansion, if only because your motivation–hunting down Cayde’s killer–is as clear and impactful as can be.

Forsaken’s release date is set for September 4 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. We already know exactly when its accompanying update will launch, although we don’t yet have full patch notes. Ahead of release, you’ll be able to try out the DLC’s big new mode, Gambit, as part of a one-day trial on September 1. For more, check out our Forsaken pre-order guide.

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The talk of the town in Fortnite over the past few days has obviously been the appearance of a mysterious giant purple cube. This almighty being (all hail cube) is covered in hieroglyphic symbols, shoots purple lightning, and is slowly moving somewhere, so the fascination with it is understandable. However, a few hours before the cube exploded onto the scene, a significant change happened to Fortnite’s challenges that shakes up the weekly formula in a positive way.

New challenges are released roughly every Thursday, resulting in a deluge of Battle Pass owners hopping on and bombarding a particular location because a new challenge is situated there. It can be a bit of a mess at times, particularly when you’re trying to complete the challenge that revolves around simply opening chests. This sounds easy enough, but when you’ve got around 30 or 40 people descending on somewhere like Fatal Fields trying to do the same thing, it turns into a mad dash just to open a single chest before unceremoniously dying. This is repetitive, frustrating, and makes you question whether it’s all worth it for another dance emote or fancy skin (spoiler: it always is).

However, Epic surprised us last week by finally altering the way chest-centric challenges work. Now it’s a multi-step “treasure hunt” of sorts that scatters the challenge across multiple locations. Instead of this hectic scamper to open a chest before anyone else can, the player base is spread out across the map depending on which step of the challenge they’re currently on. I managed to open all five chests in five different matches with little issue. I wasn’t immediately dying because someone else shot me in the back after finding a chest first; I could actually have a proper game of Fortnite, opening a chest to tick it off the list, before running off to complete other challenges/die somewhere else. This is a marked improvement over previous weeks, and sits in stark contrast to the old formula of landing in the same place and dying over and over again like Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow.

[The new challenge] sits in stark contrast to the old formula of landing in the same place and dying over and over again like Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow

I understand this isn’t some groundbreaking change, but it removes a lot of the monotony from Fortnite’s weekly challenges, and has an effect on the overall composition of matches as well. With the player base spread out, the flow of games is a lot smoother, with a higher likelihood of encountering combat opportunities no matter where you are on the map. It’s a practical change and gives me hope Epic has a few more changes in store for Fortnite’s weekly challenges.

Season 5 has already seen some interesting activities, from using ATKs and trolleys to hop through rings of fire, to the recent time trials that challenged people’s building and traversal skills (complete with an 8-bit remix of the old Fortnite theme). These challenges offer a welcome change of pace, and there’s always excitement in the air each Thursday as we wait to see if Epic has something similarly unconventional up its sleeve. We’re essentially paying for the privilege to compete in these challenges, right? Might as well make them fun.

If you’re still working on getting the newest crop of Battle Stars, we’ve got a Fortnite Season 5, Week 7 challenge guide to help you through it. For all the previous ones, check out our complete Season 5 challenge roundup. Epic Games has also introduced a number of changes to the game, have a read of the full Fortnite patch 5.30 notes for a breakdown.