Animal Crossing: New Horizons Update Adds Fireworks, Dreams, And Very Limited Save Backups
The second summer update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is launching this week, bringing with it a new festive fireworks event during August, the ability to visit other islands through dreams, and some limited but welcome save backup support.
Yes, Animal Crossing: New Horizons will now finally let you back up your saves, but they’re not supported in the same way as cloud saves for most other games on the Nintendo Switch. Announced earlier this year, New Horizons will periodically update at unspecified times, backing up your island and all its inhabitants to Nintendo’s servers.
You can then retrieve this save through Nintendo Support, and only if your Switch breaks or is stolen, according to the very specific wording in the press release. It is also only available for players with an active Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Nintendo also states that you’ll also be able to transfer your island to another Switch soon with a future update.
Halo Infinite Art Book Available To Pre-Order Now
Last week, Mondo’s stunning Halo Infinite art print sold out within an hour of going live, but you can still get your hands on some art for the upcoming first-person shooter. The Art of Halo Infinite, an official art book from 343 Industries and Dark Horse, releases this holiday. It’s available to pre-order now for $40 at Amazon.
Amazon has a December 29 release date on the listing, but that’s probably a placeholder date that will change once Microsoft announces the game’s launch date. The 200-page hardcover features a gorgeous cover designed by Halo Infinite’s art director Sparth. The book contains illustrations and commentary from Halo Infinite’s art team, taking fans “from concept to launch inside the artwork of the most ambitious Halo game to date.”
Maid Of Sker Review – Inn For A Frustrating Time
Maid of Sker begins in earnest as you walk under a burgundy banner advertising the Sker Hotel’s grand reopening. The ivy-covered building looks more castle than inn, with gray stone walls and a central spire flanked by turrets. It’s an imposing piece of architecture, starkly distinct from the sun-bleached wilderness that surrounds it. Passing under that banner and into the dark and secluded inn is the playable version of that moment in a horror flick when things in idyllic suburbia go sideways, or when a shark shows up to wreck a perfectly nice day at the beach. The banner is the dividing line between Maid of Sker’s “before” and “after.” Unfortunately, much of the evocative promise of the before disappears the moment you enter the after.
We move through this story as Thomas Evans, a composer who has traveled to Sker Point, a rocky peninsula on the southern coast of Wales, to rescue his lover Elisabeth. She grew up here, the daughter of renowned singer Prudence Williams–the titular Maid of Sker. Her father, owner of the reopening hotel on the Point, intends for Elisabeth to take up the mantle now that her famous mother has passed and to become the star attraction, drawing visitors to the isolated land. She tells Thomas that she has refused and that, as a result, her father has locked her up until she acquiesces.
But as Thomas arrives at Sker’s abandoned train station, it becomes clear that Sker Point has descended into supernatural chaos. Elisabeth has sent Thomas her mother’s locket and asked him to compose a song that serves as a musical counterpart to the melody within. This will, in some way that remains unclear for much of the game, help defeat the “darkness gathering here.” In his quest, Thomas needs to explore the hotel and surrounding grounds to collect four brass cylinders scattered throughout, then plug them into her father’s harmonium, a massive pipe organ that dominates the hotel’s central hall.
343 Industries Confirms That Halo Infinite Will Take Place On Zeta Halo
In a new interview with GamesRadar, 343 Industries studio head Chris Lee confirmed that Halo Infinite will be set on the ring world of Zeta Halo now under the control of The Banished led by War Chief Escharum. Known as Halo Installation 07, this ancient Forerunner superweapon was at one point home to a race of humans in author Greg Bear’s Forerunner Trilogy of novels, and is the only surviving ring of the original 12 that were created.
“Halo Infinite will be set on Zeta Halo,” Lee explained. “We want to create something that’s familiar, but different. The TACMAP gives you an idea of the size and scale, and some of the objectives that you will find in Halo Infinite. It gives players a lot of choice and freedom as they play through the world. You’ll be running into objectives, setting points on your map, and kind of navigating and exploring as you go.”
AAA Devs Say 2000 People Working On One Game Isn’t At All Unusual
If you played The Last Of Us 2 to completion and then sat through the credits, you may have got some idea of how many people it takes to make a game of that size. As recently reported by VG247, the exact number is 2332 people–that is 2169 developers credited and 163 extra “thanks”.
Those people aren’t all employed at Naughty Dog, of course, but involve workers at 14 other studios outsourcing certain work. That includes two studios brought in to help with sound–one for general sounds and one specifically for weaponry and combat–and the remaining 12 external studios helping with the game’s art in various forms.
While it’s impressive to think about the mammoth effort that brought TLOU2 to life, AAA devs on Twitter have suggested that that’s not exactly unusual. In a response to VG247’s tweet of this story EA’s Sam Sharma, who’s also worked at Guerilla Games and Ubisoft, said “if you’re surprised at this, boy do I have stories for you about AAA game dev.”
Rick & Morty: New Free Anime Episode Pits The Pair Against “Genocider”
A new Rick & Morty anime short has premiered, and it’s called Rick & Morty vs. Genocider. It’s directed by Takashi Sano (Tower of God) and follows Morty as he travels to Tokyo to meet up with Rick and deal with a genocidal force.
The plot of this short is a little difficult to follow, honestly, but it certainly looks good. It directly references things that have happened within the show, but whether or not it’s “canon” is anyone’s guess.
You can watch the free short below. If you have a good read on what you think it’s all about, let us know in the comments.
The previous Rick & Morty anime episode, Samurai & Shogun, was set far in the past, and used 3D animation. Rick And Morty vs. Genocider has a more contemporary setting, and uses 2D animation.
Comic-Con@Home Failed To Get People Talking
While San Diego Comic-Con is usually one of the hottest tickets of the geek year, with badges tending to sell out within minutes, that interest doesn’t seem to have carried over to Comic-Con@Home, this year’s virtual event. Variety has crunched the numbers around Comic-Con’s virtual panels and social media engagement, and it doesn’t look good.
While you might think that opening up the fabled halls of Comic-Con to a wider audience, albeit in virtual form, would drive more traffic, it looks like the convention has suffered from the lack of attendees on the ground.
Figures from social analytics company ListenFirst, as quoted by Variety, show that tweets mentioning Comic-Con were down 95% against the equivalent from 2019’s event, with just 93,681 tweets against last year’s 1,719,000. Anyone relying on the event to hype their upcoming projects would have been disappointed too. Tweets about the top 10 TV events were down 93%, and tweets about the five biggest movie panels were down by 99%. Ouch.
Xbox Game Pass Is Not A Big Money-Maker Right Now, But Microsoft Is Thinking Long Term
Xbox Game Pass offers such a good value that many are wondering how Microsoft isn’t losing money hand over fist on it. This is a sentiment that Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg hears often, he said in a recent interview with What’s Good Games.
Greenberg said people don’t need to worry about Microsoft–they’ll be just fine. In terms of the profitability of Xbox Game Pass for Microsoft, Greenberg confirmed it’s “not a big profit play” right now, as Microsoft is just starting the program. Greenberg said the investments Microsoft is making in Xbox Game Pass today might be costly in the short term, but they will ultimately pay dividends down the road if everything goes to plan.
“We always laugh [when we hear that]. Please don’t worry about us,” Greenberg said about people expressing concerns that Microsoft is losing money on Xbox Game Pass. “Microsoft is going to be alright. We’re gonna make it–I think we’re gonna be OK.”
Leak Suggests Cuphead Is Coming Soon To PS4
It looks like Cuphead is on its way to PlayStation 4 after a leak on the PS Store revealed its existence. A game tile for the hard-as-nails run and gun platformer appeared on the store’s featured page before eventually being deleted, though clicking on it didn’t take you anywhere.
Twitter user Wario64, among many others, spotted the early promotion, as it appears as though someone hit the publish button a tad too early. This would indicate that the game’s release on PS4 isn’t that far away. Geoff Keighley and the Summer Game Fest is hosting a special update from an indie studio later today at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET / 4 PM BST, so it wouldn’t be surprising if we hear official word then.
Cuphead may be coming to PS4, it’s appearing on international PSN stores right now but game listing doesn’t load yet pic.twitter.com/ME7oRLkSEM
— Wario64 (@Wario64) July 28, 2020
Cuphead originally launched exclusively on Xbox One and PC back in 2017, but it eventually made its way to Nintendo Switch early last year. Created by Canadian developer StudioMDHR, the visually striking game was met with favourable reviews when it first launched.