Ahead of Ubisoft’s big holiday releases–Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Watch Dogs Legion–you can save on the publisher’s most popular franchises at the Xbox Store. A new Ubisoft Publisher Sale is live now through September 14 with discounts on practically every major Ubisoft game released on Xbox One. If you’re looking to catch up before Valhalla, Legion, or even Far Cry 6 releases, now’s your chance to snag titles from those franchises for up to 70% off.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla releases November 17, so you still have plenty of time to catch up. Valhalla will continue the trend of pushing the series more toward the role-playing side of things, much like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (on sale for $15) and Assassin’s Creed Origins (on sale for $12). If you want to play some of the older titles in the series, a trio of collections are on sale for stellar prices.
In addition to the reveal of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, 2020 will also see the introduction of new GPU architecture from both Nvidia and AMD. Nvidia’s new hardware will be on display very soon: The GeForce Special Event announced a few weeks ago will take place today, September 1, at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET. You can watch the Nvidia livestream right here to see all of the news and announcements it has to share regarding its new Ampere GPUs, including the RTX 3090.
Nvidia has spent recent weeks on social media celebrating the past two decades of PC gaming and hardware advancements. During the event, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will deliver an update that “highlight[s] the company’s latest innovations in gaming and graphics.” It hasn’t explicitly stated that the RTX 3090 will be among the hardware on display, but it’s a safe bet based on leaks.
News of this event came shortly after a series of short teaser trailers that Nvidia has been sharing on Twitter. This included one that simply reads, “21 Days. 21 Years.” This September 1 date in line with both rumors and previous Nvidia reveals, which typically took place in August during Gamescom ahead of a product release in September. With Gamescom having just concluded its digital event this past weekend, Nvidia will focus now host its own event today.
Marvel’s Avengers has launched worldwide to those players who pre-ordered the game for early access, with the worldwide launch coming on September 4. The story of how the Avengers reassemble to face the threat of Advanced Idea Mechanics is only part of the full experience, as the game will continue long after the main campaign has wrapped up.
According to a new blog post from developer Crystal Dynamics, these events will be split between weekly and seasonal activities such as missions, faction challenges, and community challenges, and will reward players with cosmetics and gear if they can complete these objectives before they expire.
Missions can be accessed through the war table, and will also feature weekly content and their own unique loot to earn. Modified operations will be playable through Priority Missions and Priority HARM challenges that include several modifiers, while two new mission modes will be activated after Marvel’s Avengers launches. One of these new modes focuses on co-op play and is only active during weekends, while the second challenges you to use your entire roster of heroes to run a gauntlet in solo play.
Now that Marvel’s Avengers has released in Australia and other parts of the world, we have learned a little more about the game’s microtransaction system and how much things actually cost.
The in-game currency is called Credits, and, like many other games that use microtransactions, you can buy the Credits in various allotments. From the in-game store you can purchase Credits in groups of 500, 2,000 (plus 200 bonus Credits), 5,000 (plus 1,500 bonus Credits), and 10,000 (plus 3,000 bonus Credits), according to Stevivor.
In terms of pricing, it begins at $5 USD for 500 Credits and scales all the way up to $100 USD for the package of 13,000 Credits.
Koji Igarashi, the assistant director on PlayStation game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, is widely credited with establishing what came to be known as metroidvania. In a new episode of Limited Run’s Games Behind the Games, he explains how Zelda, and not Metroid, was the primary inspiration for the game that started it all.
The Games Behind the Games is a docuseries digging into some of the industry’s most iconic games by looking at the earlier games that inspired them. During the course of the interview, Igarashi plays A Link To The Past while explaining why it was the key inspiration for the ways Symphony of the Night differed from previous Castlevania titles.
“Back then there were many action games where the goal was to clear the stage,” Igarashi explains. “This game, however, was focused on exploration. It is still an action game with defeating enemies, but it lets you explore the map.” He describes how it seemed like the first game to let you play for a long time–while other action games still held on to the fast-playing arcade formula, designed to part players from their quarters.
Katamari Damacy Reroll, the remake of the PS2 cult-classic currently available for Switch and PC, is coming to other systems. The game’s Japanese website has announced that the game is coming to PS4 and Xbox One on November 19, 2020.
While the title has only been announced for Japan so far, there’s plenty of reason to be hopeful for an international release–the game has already been localized, after all, and every Katamari title on console has eventually made its way to the west.
The game is a full remake of the first Katamari Damacy game, with redone cutscenes and HD graphics. It was great on Switch and PC.
According to Gematsu, the game will cost 3200 yen ($30), and on Xbox One it will be a digital-only release. Hopefully we’ll have news of a western release soon, too.
Katamari Damacy director Keita Takahashi’s latest game is Wattam, which released on PS4 last year. It scored a 7/10 in GameSpot’s review.
Hiking in the digital wilderness of A Short Hike is a reminder of the small joys of stretching your legs out on the trails. Its pixelated habitat is saturated with the familiar sights and sounds of the backcountry in real life–like the bubbling of a sluggish stream through the woods or greeting fellow hikers as they trek along the steep edges of grassy plateaus. As a young canary named Claire, one of the first characters you’ll come across is a pint-sized frog at the beach in Hawk Peak Provincial Park, who’s clearly struggling with building a sandcastle. Her problem, unfortunately, is that she’s heaving a full-sized shovel about, a clunky tool unfit for the refined job of sand sculpting. You can hand her a toy shovel, and over time, see her modest sandcastle gradually expand into a sprawling sand empire–simply a charming, heart-swelling sight.
This is just one of the many minute scenes you’ll embrace in A Short Hike, an exploration title about trudging across a park’s hilly terrains and muddy routes. It’s a game with a simple, singular objective: Trek towards the summit of Hawk Peak Mountain, as that’s the only place with any cellphone reception. While this sounds scant, there are plenty of activities you’ll need to busy yourself with in order to get to the top. You can collect seashells and sticks along the way, help other hikers out with their problems, or cast your hook into the tranquil rivers in hopes of snagging a rare fish. Doing these tend to net you some rewards, be it in the form of gold feathers–one of the most essential items in the game–or an assortment of tools and accessories. While some of these are purely cosmetic, others unlock more abilities for Claire, like the capacity to sprint, fly further, or bounce high on the island’s fantastical plants.
It’s tempting to see these as mere side-quests to complete, but that defeats the point of these experiences–the real reward is in enjoying the plain beauty of these mundane moments. That’s by no means a narrative flaw; it’s these small instances that encapsulate the grandeur of traversing through A Short Hike’s large, mountainous landscapes. Interactions with fellow visitors, like following along on an anxious painter’s journey to seek inspiration in nature, an elusive endeavour even in this picturesque landscape, usually culminate in heartwarming conclusions. Other encounters also make for quietly humorous anecdotes, much like a private joke you recall sharing with close friends.
One of gaming’s worst-kept secrets is the second next-generation Xbox, believed to be the Xbox Series S, and now even more evidence of the console’s existence has emerged.
Twitter user Brendan said they bought a new Xbox One controller and the bundled Xbox Game Pass Ultimate trial code mentioned the Xbox Series S console. Someone replied to their tweet saying they also received the packaging with a new Xbox controller that references the unannounced Xbox console.
I got a new controller for my Xbox since mine was broken. Interestingly enough, the Game Pass Ultimate trial code sheet mentions the unannounced @Xbox Series S. It’s definitely a thing. pic.twitter.com/GX1rOYG5g7
