Marvel’s Avengers Player Base Is Dwindling, But Crystal Dynamics Promises New Content
Marvel’s Avengers released in early September, and now, five weeks later, the game’s playerbase has dropped off somewhat. Steam Charts shows that, on Steam, the game’s daily peak for the last week is 2400 players online (down from a 28,145 all-time peak), which is a problem for a service game like this once players have beaten the 10-14 hour campaign.
Kotaku noted this issue, brought about by the game’s somewhat lackluster endgame, and reached out to developer Crystal Dynamics to ask what their plan is to bolster the game’s population. Studio head Scot Amos gave the site a statement, promising an influx of content to keep players interested and give them new things to do.
“To our players: every day we fight to make the best game possible for our community,” Amos said. “We have a number of new content pieces coming in the weeks ahead including: a totally new War Zone mission type called Tachyon Rifts, a new Outpost that’s a jumping off point for new story missions in the future, and AIM’s Cloning Lab, which requires a coordinated high-level group of four players to beat with new top-end loot rewards for finishing it. And in each of these updates we do tuning and bug fixing to enhance the overall experience.”
Amos also teased the new heroes coming in the future, including two Hawkeyes–Kate Bishop and Clint Barton. They will come “in the near future.”
“Lastly, we will continue to add new content to the game in the coming months as we address issues and overall game balance, including loot distribution and quality of life features everyone is clamoring for to improve our day-to-day experience from accessibility to co-op communication tools to balancing the economy,” Amos promised.
Crystal Dynamics has been proactive with patching the game so far–one patch dealt with over 1000 issues.
Eat Oreos, Get Halo Infinite DLC
Microsoft has partnered with one of the biggest food companies on the planet for a new campaign focused on Halo Infinite. If you’ve been to a grocery store recently, you might have noticed an assortment of Halo-branded sweet snacks, and this is the result of a new deal between Microsoft and Mondelez, the company that owns brands like Oreo, Cadbury, Sour Patch Kids, Nutter Butter, and more.
Packs of Mondelez snacks with Master Chief on the box will come with codes to unlock special content for Halo Infinite, like the Monarch multiplayer armor for Halo Infinite. In Canada, this promotion is called Snack On With Xbox and in the US it’s called Level Up Your Game.
The fine print of the promo states that the Halo Infinite DLC included with the snacks will be available as a timed-exclusive for three months following the game’s release date in 2021. These promos are rolling out now presumably because the deal was in place before Halo Infinite’s delay to 2021.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure–New Trailer Shows Abilities, Levels, And Enemies From PS5 Launch Game
Sackboy: A Big Adventure is coming to PS5 on launch day, and it’s looking like a strong candidate for a day one purchase for anyone looking for something more family friendly than Demon’s Souls. A new trailer released over the weekend shows that the game, which spins off from the LittleBigPlanet series, is looking pretty good, even without any level-building.
This is the “story trailer,” so we get a glimpse at Sackboy’s personality, as well as some of the cutscenes you’ll encounter throughout the game. The visual style replicates the feeling of a hand-crafted world (much like Media Molecule’s Tearaway), and the authenticity of the fuzz on Sackboy’s body is an indication of the level of realism the PS5 is capable of.
In the trailer we get a look at some new gameplay elements, as Sackboy dodges between obstacles, rolls through a level in a ball, and teleports around one level. You can check it out yourself in the video below.
Th game’s two-to-four player multiplayer is shown off in the trailer, too, as multiple players work together to traverse puzzles and platforming challenges towards the end. This has always been a big part of the LittleBigPlanet franchise, so it’s good to see multiplayer back here.
Top New Games Releasing On Switch, PS4, Xbox One, And PC This Week — October 11-17, 2020
New Releases highlights some of the hottest video games launching each week, and this episode as a double-dose of trilogies: Torchlight 3 and Cook Serve Delicious 3 both launch soon. You can also drive a mini RC car in Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit or pilot a hover car in Cloudpunk. Finally, hockey fans can get their fix with NHL 21.
Torchlight 3 — October 13
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Once called Torchlight Frontiers, Torchlight 3 is leaving early access for its full release. You can choose from four different classes and explore randomly generated dungeons, where you’ll battle bad guys and collect all sorts of loot. Look for a Switch version later this year, too.
Halo Infinite — See How The Developers Recorded Huge Explosions
Microsoft has shared another very cool behind-the-scenes video for Halo Infinite that shows how the audio team captured sounds for the sci-fi shooter. This new video shows off how the developers recorded the game’s various explosion sounds, of which we expect there to be many in Halo Infinite.
A warning first: this video contains very loud sounds, and you’ll probably also want to listen with headphones or through a dedicated speaker to appreciate them better. The video runs for about 2 minutes and it showcases a multitude of different explosion sounds. They’re all a treat to watch, but my favorite is probably the underwater explosions that create a very unique sound with the initial bang and the ensuing waterfall cascade. Check it out below.
Halo Infinite was originally set to release in November as a launch title for the Xbox Series X/S. However, Microsoft delayed the game due in part to complications related to COVID-19.
Lord Of The Rings TV Show Passes Milestone After Filming Resumes
Amazon’s big-budget Lord of the Rings TV has resumed production in New Zealand, and the team is making good progress, it seems. Director JA Bayona posted to his Instagram story recently, sharing a photo of himself and various emojis pertaining to a fantasy show like Lord of the Rings. The news here is Bayona has now completed “more than half” of the weeks of shooting on the show.
“This is my face of having completed more than half the weeks of shooting. More tomorrow!” he said.
Bayona, who previously directed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, was announced as the director of the first two episodes in the series, but whether or not his role has expanded due to COVID-19 is unclear. Whatever the case, the production is surely behind schedule given the impact of the virus. That being said, New Zealand just recently lifted all restrictions for Auckland, which is one of the sites where the Lord of the Rings show is being filmed.
Dirt 5 on Xbox Series X Lacks a Next-Gen Punch
Another year off for Forza while it retools and reboots for next-gen means that Dirt 5 will now play the role of the Xbox Series X’s obligatory racing game at launch. And racing games, of course, traditionally act as graphical showcases for your new console. You show them to your friends so they can see what your $500 got you. Well, after playing a couple hours of the off-road-focused Dirt 5 on the Series X, my eyeballs are disappointingly un-melted. That’s not to say Dirt 5 looks bad – that’s not the case at all – but I don’t even think it outclasses 2018’s Forza Horizon 4 in the graphics department. That said, I am thoroughly impressed by the sheer amount of and variety of content on offer.
Let’s get right to the next-gen question for those of you who are only here for that: Dirt 5 looks nice, but not amazing. Yes, it’s got a 120hz mode for Series X (which I can’t show you properly in the videos on this page thanks to the limitations of my gameplay capture equipment, the video player you’re watching the videos on, and/or your screen’s maximum refresh rate). In fact, it’s got three display options total: besides 120hz Mode, there’s Image Quality and Framerate. Image Quality seems to suffer a bit more pop-in, and Framerate indeed is a bit smoother, but 120hz Mode isn’t quite the jaw-dropping upgrade I was hoping for.
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Where Dirt 5’s visuals deserve the most kudos, though, is with their variety. You’ll see snow, ice, dust, the Golden Hour, pitch darkness, a Gymkhana arena, and more as you race through track after track in the Career Mode, with all of that environmental grime kicking its way up onto the body of your car as well. Rounding out the presentation is narration from Troy Baker (who can now check off “racing game” on his “Video Game Genres I’ve Done VO For” BINGO card) as well as two guys who sound like they’re on a 24/7 Extreme Bro Sports radio station.
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When you begin Dirt 5’s career mode, it feels a bit plain. You start with a simple race, but the longer you play the more you realize how many different kinds of off-road races there are on a huge number of tracks. You’ll jump in the driver’s seat of everything from rally racers to Sprint cars while going everywhere from the iced-over streets of New York City to the side of a mountain in Morocco. This doesn’t even account for various sponsorship goals in your career, multiplayer options, the free play area, and more.
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After a couple of hours with the controller in-hand, Dirt 5 seems to be an absolute buffet of off-road racing flavors, even if there’s not as much of a next-gen sheen to it as I was hoping for.
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Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.
Dirt 5 Xbox Series X 4K Gameplay – Ice Drifting And Rally Racing
The rally racing series hits the Xbox Series X on console launch day, and you can see next-gen gameplay of Dirt 5 here.The Walking Dead: World Beyond Episode 2 Review
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow…
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With its second episode, The Walking Dead: World Beyond ticked up, delivering an initial leg of the teens’ journey that was far more interesting than the premiere’s heavy focus on the safe, walled-up world they were leaving behind. A world that would be wiped out by the end of said premiere.
Also, instead of focusing almost solely on the Bennett sisters, as the first episode did, “The Blaze of Gory” helped establish Elton and Silas more as characters and better defined their reasons for wanting to be on this arduous, near-impossible trek in the first place. The first episode touched on the boys’ motivations a tiny bit, but this chapter really helped shape those two a lot more while also creating a very believable, and likable, quartet.
Now that these teens are out in the “real” world of The Walking Dead universe, amongst the destruction, ruin, and walkers (called “empties” here), their saga feels more tethered to the other two shows in ways that just having the CRM around couldn’t produce. These are the badlands. This is the terrain we’ve watched our other heroes traverse for years now. And so “The Blaze of Gory” threw these kids out into the thick of it. Sure, this could have easily made the series become a bit more generic, but, crazily, it helped the show find a bit of uniqueness. It wasn’t going to let these four off the hook. They weren’t going to just be “moderately okay” at killing empties. They were going to straight-up suck. They were going to be clumsy. They were going to hesitate. They were going to be so bad at it that their best recourse, at this point in the show, is to run away. Just like Felix taught them.
You’d think that’d be boring, but there’s nothing really boring about characters thinking themselves out of situations they can’t handle. If they’re mostly retreating after the sixth episode, then we’ll talk.
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Hope and Iris continued grow as individuals, with Hope being the one leaving breadcrumbs for Felix to find (and ultimately being the most vulnerable and fearful of all the teens) and Iris quickly realizing that she might have gotten everyone too far in over their heads with her headstrong approach to the mission. Hope and Elton’s conversation about their generation being special because they not only represent the end of a species line (an “Endling”) but because they know they’re the last was great. Elton, as someone who grew up with no family (thanks to Hope), finds solace in this while the very idea fills Hope with dread. These two make a good duo, not just as friends but as opposite sides of a coin. He wants to absorb all the sights, smells, and information he can while she wants to ostrich and shirk.
Of course, Elton isn’t haunted with every step he takes out into the hellscape either. Hope is still living with the secret of murdering the pregnant woman as a child (which at some point will get back to Elton) so the first part of this adventure is mental agony for her. Both she and Felix have to sort through some painful recollections while making their way through Omaha. For Felix, though, it was the him remembering how monstrous his parents were when he came out, and then making the choice, while traveling with Huck, to go back to his home and drop them as zombies.
Of the teens, Silas is obviously different egg to crack. But in this episode, even as the quiet one, you felt why he wanted to be there. We don’t know his past, we only know that he’s lonely and that he actively does not want to go back to what was a supposedly a choice, comfy environment. As the largest of the four, he’s also not automatically the brute. While Iris hacked away at an empty (eventually vomiting on the ghoul and then giving up, which was pretty funny) Silas won’t even take a swing at one (with his big-ass wrench).
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The idea of a permanent-structure/phenomenon like the Blaze of Gory itself — aka the B.O.G. — made this midwestern area of the zompocalypse feel sinisterly special. The idea that there’s this massive eternal flame, just lighting up the area, cloaking the sky in smoke, attracting empties, is a fun first obstacle for these four to face. It takes a lot of guts to run into a zone swarming with undead, with low-to-zilch visibility, knowing that your strategy is to bob and weave and avoid them. Notably, as viewers, we have to buy these kids wanting to do that. Fortunately the episode worked well enough to make it believable, and a lot of that had to do with the four bonding over silly things, like a bowling ball named “Big Moe” and a board game that’s totally unrelatable in this new world, Monopoly. Once you know they have each others’ backs, you can buy into a ton of dangerous decisions.