Month: August 2019

Update: Some tiny new images of Project Resistance have been grabbed using a YouTube video thumbnail grabber website. The last of the four images certainly seems to hint at a four-player cooperative game in the vein of Resident Evil Outbreak.

Original story continues

Capcom is unveiling a new Resident Evil project just prior to the Tokyo Game Show on September 9. Tentatively titled Project Resistance, little is known about the upcoming game but we do know that it’s coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam. A teaser trailer should shed more light on what to expect from Capcom’s latest.

Following the teaser trailer’s reveal on September 9, Project Resistance will have a booth at TGS where attendees can watch members of the development team show off gameplay for the first time. There’s no indication on whether this footage will appear outside of the show floor, but residents of Japan will be able to get their hands on the game by advance registration.

The Resident Evil Outbreak website has been updated with a blank white screen that just says “OK” in the top left corner. This may prove significant, as the same thing happened to the Resident Evil 2 website prior to the remake’s release. Or it could mean nothing and this is just upkeep to maintain the web domain. Time will tell. A new four-player cooperative Resident Evil game would certainly be interesting, though.

All will be revealed on September 9 at 8:00 am PST // 11:00 am ET // 4:00 pm GMT.

Sega has officially unveiled the next chapter in the Yakuza series, which takes combat in a different direction to its predecessors.

Its full Japanese title is Ryu ga Gotoku 7, which roughly translates to Yakuza 7: Whereabouts of Light and Darkness – though its name in the West will likely be slightly different. Yakuza 7 is headlined by an all-new main character, Ichiban Kasuga, but the biggest shake up is its approach to how fighting plays out. The brawling action of past games is being swapped out for turn-based combat.

Gematsu has translated the Japanese press release which describes how the game uses a “”live command RPG battle” system that combines the series’ signature action with an RPG-style command system. It has evolved into a system in which anyone can easily enjoy exhilarating battles. In this completely new battle system, Ichiban Kasuga and his party will fight by selecting techniques with various effects such as attack, recovery, support, and more.”

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Amid all the controversy surrounding the Epic Games Store that came to a head earlier this month, the digital game store has quietly continued to offer free weekly games for its users. Over the past few weeks and months, players have been able to claim critically acclaimed titles like Alan Wake, Hyper Light Drifter, Overcooked, and The Witness, and the best part is that they’re all yours to keep forever, no subscription required. This week’s offering of deals is no exception: For the next seven days, you can claim Celeste and Inside, two platformers with drastically different aesthetics but equally memorable stories. All you need is a free Epic account to snag the two titles.

First up is Celeste, a gorgeous platformer about climbing a mountain and conquering one’s inner demons. You control a young woman named Madeline, who has traveled alone to Celeste Mountain in the middle of winter, determined to reach its summit. As she climbs the mountain, she encounters a colorful cast of side characters who help (or hinder) her journey, including a fellow climber with whom she develops a close friendship. Celeste is an extremely difficult platformer, but also a forgiving one–there are settings you can adjust at any time to decrease the difficulty, even if it’s just to get past one particularly frustrating obstacle. Easily one of the best games of 2018, Celeste is a true gem worth experiencing.

A few weeks ago, Epic released Playdead’s Limbo as a weekly freebie, and now you can play the studio’s follow-up puzzle-platformer, Inside. Similar to Limbo, Inside features a dark, monochromatic environment full of dangerous traps and monsters. The protagonist is an unnamed boy, who must navigate this hazardous environment without dying (spoiler: you’ll die a lot) and eventually stumbles upon a bizarre scientific experiment. In addition to normal platforming elements, Inside also introduces a mechanic that lets the boy control bodies to help him solve puzzles. Just as in Limbo, there’s no dialogue and the ending is a bit open-ended, but it’s one you won’t soon forget.

Both Celeste and Inside will be free to claim until September 5, when they’ll be replaced by the next round of freebies, The End Is Nigh and Abzu.

Claim this week’s free games at Epic

Blizzard Entertainment is suing a number of companies and individuals involved in the making of the free-to-play PC and mobile game, Glorious Saga. The Overwatch developer alleges that the game is a “massive infringement” of its Warcraft intellectual property, stating that “they created a game whose content is almost entirely copied from the Warcraft games and related products.”

Polygon reports that Blizzard is seeking a court order to stop the infringement and maximum damages for the “serious and irreparable harm to Blizzard and its business.

“Defendants did not just copy a few discrete elements from Blizzard’s Warcraft games,” the company claims in the suit. “Every character in the Infringing Game was copied from a character from the Warcraft games, and many even bear the names of popular characters from the Warcraft games such as Jaina Proudmoore, Gul’dan, and Malfurion.” Blizzard is seeking “$150,000 per infringed work.” The image below is taken from the lawsuit, showing side-by-side comparisons between the offending character designs.

“Every monster, creature, animal and vehicle in the Infringing Game was copied from the Warcraft Games. Weapons, amulets, and other objects were taken straight from the Warcraft games, without pretense. Audio cues and sound effects from the Warcraft games were reproduced for the Infringing Game.”

The suit claims that the defendants have “profited handsomely” from Glorious Saga and its alleged copyright infringement. Even the game’s mobile icon recreates the cover for World of Warcraft’s Battle of Azeroth expansion, depicting a human and orc locking eyes while snarling at each other. Blizzard alleges that the use of Warcraft material was “willful and intentional.”

Five companies and two individuals are named in the suit, including Glorious Saga developer InstantFuns, and Sina Games–a subsidiary of Chinese software and tech company Sina Corp. Blizzard alleges that this isn’t an isolated incident for the developer either, as it claims the company also advertises various unlicensed mobile games using the names and characters of well-known IP, such as Yu-Gi Oh!, Naruto, and Pokemon. Glorious Saga is just “among the latest” to have done so.

Blizzard believes many of the defendants are simply shell companies created “as part of an overarching scheme to deceive Blizzard or members of the public,” with the two individuals responsible for running them also named in the suit. Each of the defendants is based outside of the United States, but Blizzard has chosen to file the suit in the Central California US District Court as each company conducted its business through US- and California-based companies, using Google Play and Facebook to distribute and market Glorious Saga to US customers.

Hideo Kojima’s not the only one handing out cameos in his games lately. The enigmatic game director is a guest voice actor in Control, the latest action game from the surreal minds at Remedy Entertainment.

Back in March, Kojima’s publicist tweeted out that the Metal Gear Solid creator was doing “some voice recording for the other Sam.” Now we know this was referencing Sam Lake, Control’s lead writer and the former face of Max Payne, as opposed to the lead character in Kojima’s upcoming Death Stranding. Not only that, but Akima Saito, Kojima Productions’ Head of Marketing, also makes a cameo alongside his colleague, providing the English translation for Kojima’s Japanese lines.

Multiplayer First discovered the very missable easter egg, noting that Kojima and Saito both appear in Control’s end credits.

The side mission in question sees Kojima play the role of Dr. Yoshimi Tokui. As protagonist Jesse Faden climbs inside what looks like a sensory deprivation pod, Kojima narrates a peculiar meditative experience involving the flavor of a bag of potato chips, conversations with trees, and an army of hostile forklifts. You can see for yourself in the video below–just beware this will obviously spoil the side mission if you haven’t played it yet.

It’s a suitably surreal cameo considering the game it occurs in and Kojima’s own penchant for the bizarre.

You can read GameSpot’s review of Control right now, check out how long it takes to beat, and even grab a copy for $10 off on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.