Here are two reliable gaming facts–if there’s a major game that’s not on Nintendo Switch, owners of the Nintendo console will want a port, and if a port is in the works, it’ll likely be accidentally unveiled by a ratings board. This has once again come to pass, with GameXplain discovering that Catherine: Full Body and XCOM 2 Collection have both been rated for the Switch in Korea.
Neither game has officially been confirmed for release yet, but these age ratings are often a strong indication that the game is coming. These are not the only ports to recently receive ratings, either–in January, the BioShock: The Collection was rated in Taiwan.
Catherine: Full Body is an expanded version of 2011’s Catherine, which added a third love interest and plenty of new content to the game. XCOM 2 Collection contains all previously released content for XCOM 2, making it a sizeable package.
Both games reviewed well, with Catherine: Full Body receiving an 8/10 in our review, and XCOM 2 receiving a 9/10.
Bayonetta & Vanquish 10th Anniversary Bundle — February 18
Available on: PS4, Xbox One
These Platinum Games cult classics launched 10 years ago, and they’re being bundled together on PS4 and Xbox One to celebrate. Those of you with a PS4 Pro or Xbox One X can even experience them in 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. Seems like a good way to refresh yourself before we finally get Bayonetta 3.
The Call of Duty movie is seemingly no longer a priority for Activision, though that doesn’t mean it’s been scrapped altogether. Director Stefano Sollima (Sicario: Day of Soldado) said in a new interview with BadTaste that the action movie is on hold as the parties decide how to move forward.
Sollima pointed out that this move is nothing out of the ordinary, given Hollywood movies can take a very long time to come together. The Uncharted movie, for example, has been in various stages of production for more than a decade already and has cycled through 7 different directors.
Sollima also mentioned in the interview that he wrote the Call of Duty movie script alongside Scott Silver, who wrote the scripts for Joker and The Fighter, both of which earned Oscar nominations.
The Sonic the Hedgehog movie has enjoyed a strong first weekend at the US box office, opening to $57 million, according to Box Office Mojo. This eclipses even the most generous of pre-release expectations, and means that the movie has now had the best opening weekend ever for a movie based on a game, surpassing Pokemon: Detective Pikachu’s $54.3 million opening.
It’s worth noting that the $57 million figure is an estimate, and although eventual figures tend to trend up rather than down, there’s always the possibility that the movie made slightly less than expected (Pokemon: Detective Pikachu was originally reported to have made $58 million in its opening weekend, which was later revised.)
In any case, it’s a good opening for the movie, which has attracted mixed reviews (although GameSpot’s review from Phil Hornshaw was very positive, as were many others.) The movie is expected to do well at the box office on President’s Day (February 17), too. The movie has made an additional $43 million outside of the US so far.
Recent successful movies based on games have made the majority of their money overseas. Warcraft and Tomb Raider succeeded internationally while doing poorly in the US, while Resident Evil: The Final Chapter made less than 10% of its money domestically. This makes Sonic’s opening weekend in the US all the more unique.
The NPD Group has released its latest monthly sales report, revealing which games, consoles, and accessories sold the best in January 2020 in the United States.
Starting with games, Dragon Ball Z: Kakorot was the month’s top-seller, and its launch-month sales were the third-highest in franchise history, following Dragon Ball: Fighterz and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare finished No. 2 in January, marking the first month since release that it fell to the second sales position. While it’s dropped down the charts, it remains the best-selling game over the past 12 months.
An early, playable Xbox build of Starcraft Ghost, the canceled third-person shooter set in Blizzard’s Starcraft universe, has reportedly leaked online, according to Kotaku. The footage gives us a major look into Blizzard’s troubled offshoot game.
Images of Starcraft Ghost appeared on Twitter user Andrew Borman’s feed Sunday morning, who said that the images were posted anonymously in Xbox forums.
Who would have thought a month ago that Starcraft Ghost would leak in some form? pic.twitter.com/24wCp4XBsE
If a couple of screenshots aren’t enough for you, another person has uploaded about 11 minutes of footage from Starcraft Ghost to YouTube. YouTuber Leers Meneses shared the footage, which appears to be from the third mission of the same game that Borman earlier tweeted about.
Screenshot: Starcraft Ghost from Leers Meneses
In the footage, we can see Starcraft Ghost protagonist Nova running around a very early 2000’s 3D alien planet, climbing some ledges, and firing on a massive alien with her Gauss Rifle, which, instead of firing projectiles, appears to call down a Hammer of Dawn-style energy beam. Nova later ziplines across a battlefield.
Screenshot: Starcraft Ghost from Leers Meneses
The gameplay itself seems pretty bog standard, even by early 2000s standards (to say nothing of the usual Blizzard polish), which may indicate at least one reason the game struggled to reach completion. Meneses says he used a modded Xbox 360 to access the game.
Another user by the name of Delso Bezerra appears to have uploaded separate footage of Starcraft Ghost as well. The footage shows a noticeably more visually polished version of Starcraft Ghost, featuring a lot of similar running and shooting gameplay.
Screenshot: Delso Bezerra
Kotaku later updated its story saying a source had provided a link to the build of Starcraft Ghost that people have managed to get their hands on, saying it was from a dev kit of the game.
Starcraft Ghost was announced in 2002, and was originally going to launch on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube. Blizzard first worked with developer Nihilistic Software, then later Swingin’ Ape Studios. After several delays in development, the game was put on an indefinite hold in 2006. Former Blizzard president Mike Morhaime put the final nail in the coffin of Starcraft Ghost by confirming its cancellation in 2014.
All that said, it looks like this Xbox build of Starcraft Ghost is now out in the wild proper now, so hardcore fans will almost certainly be able to get their hands on it if they know where to look.
Microsoft is partnering with the military charity Outperform, Serve, Develop (OSD) for a new campaign where the Xbox-maker will donate as much as $250,000.
Now through March 31, Microsoft will match every dollar donated to a new campaign, up to $250,000 USD. The money goes toward efforts that support the mental health and wellbeing of soldiers through resources like video games and tabletop games, among other things. For soldiers at home, the money will go toward supporting recreational facilities partnered with OSD.
The Kickstarter campaign raised £70,091 against a £60,000 goal; according to the album’s website, the final cost of creating the album was £150,000, most of it funded out of pocket by the creative team behind it. It collects remasters of various tracks alongside new orchestral recordings.
Talking to VG247, producer Ash Kapriélov says that many of the tracks will sound very different compared to their in-game equivalents. “Music from Tomb Raider 4 and 5 was completely synthesised so we have some tracks rearranged and performed by the actual orchestra,” he says.
Kapriélov says that he got the idea during “a big Tomb Raider sleepover” at a friend’s place in 2016, when he and said friend stayed up late playing games from the series. He tracked down Connelly and pitched the idea to him online.
The rest of the interview is rather heartwarming–Kapriélov credits the series for saving his life.
The most recent game in the Tomb Raider series was 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider. A new Tomb Raider film is due to release March 19, 2021, with Ben Wheatley (High-Rise, Free Fire) directing.
A stunt actor for Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV show suffered a head injury during rehearsals this month, the streaming network has confirmed.
The company said in a statement to the New Zealand Herald that this stunt performer was taken to the hospital and was later discharged. She is doing well and is expected to return to work soon. The company will perform a safety review in the wake of this incident.
