Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Expands Odyssey’s Romance Mechanics

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will continue the trend of letting you pursue multiple romances throughout your adventure, but this time your options for lasting relationships have been expanded.

In advance of Ubisoft Forward, GameSpot recently sat down with Valhalla narrative director Darby McDevitt, who explained how the Viking-themed sequel will still let you explore as many relationships as you wish. This time, however, you’re able to engage with your partner in long-term relationships while also fostering multiple smaller ones on the side if you wish.

“There are definitely a couple of one-night-stands you can get involved in and they’re fun in their own ways but there’s also going to be some longer-term relationships,” McDevitt explained. “A little of both. If you want to be monogamous and have a single, ongoing relationship with somebody, you can do that.”

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Top New Games Releasing On Switch, PS4, Xbox One, And PC This Week — July 12-18, 2020

New Releases highlights some of the hottest games coming soon, and this week has a double dose of invaded kingdoms with PS4 exclusive Ghost of Tsushima and Nintendo Switch exclusive Paper Mario: The Origami King. The multiplatform crowd can try out Rocket Arena, and Death Stranding‘s PC port is here. Finally, those looking for a more zen experience can tend to their farms with Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town.

Death Stranding — July 14

Available on: PC

Our Death Stranding review is quite positive, and now PC gamers can experience Hideo Kojima’s latest outing for themselves. It’s the same story of deliveryman Sam Bridges trekking across a shattered United States, with a healthy dose of Kojima’s signature story beats and zany cutscenes. The PC version also includes a new photo mode and crossover content with the Half-Life series, plus support for higher framerates and ultrawide monitors.

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Cyberpunk 2077 Has No Plans For Xbox Game Pass

It is no surprise, but CD Projekt Red has confirmed that Cyberpunk 2077 has “no plans” to be on Xbox Game Pass. CDPR’s Radek Grabowski confirmed this on Twitter recently.

“No Game Pass plans for Cyberpunk 2077,” he said.

Grabowski’s tweet came in response to a Twitter thread about the possibility of Microsoft paying third-party developers a fee to launch their games on Xbox Game Pass to help promote the subscription service.

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Devolver’s Fall Guys Gets A Release Date And A Gordon Freeman Pre-Order Character

As part of the Devolver Direct event, the publisher announced that its twisted take on battle royale, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, now finally has a release date–and it’s very soon.

Fall Guys is releasing on August 4, and a new trailer has also been released. Check it out below. In addition to providing another look at the colorful, whimsical game, the video confirms that pre-orders on Steam come with a special character–Gordon Freeman of Half-Life fame.

Fall Guys will be released on August 4 for PS4 and PC, but there is no word yet on if the game will also come to Nintendo Switch or Xbox One.

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Far Cry 6: Giancarlo Esposito Speaks About Playing The Ruthless Villain

Breaking Bad actor Giancarlo Esposito and Anthony Gonzalez, who voiced Coco in the Pixar movie of the same name, are lending their talents to Ubisoft’s Far Cry 6. After confirming the game during its Ubisoft Forward event, the company has now shared a behind-the-scenes video featuring Esposito and Gonzalez speaking about their characters and their experiences working on the project.

Esposito plays Anton Castillo, the main villain of Far Cry 6, and Esposito calls him a very smart and manipulative person. Esposito also says you may not want to take what Anton says at face value, and he’s known to lie as part of his excellent manipulation skills.

Gonzalez plays Anton’s son, Diego Castillo, and he talks about the process of getting into character and delivering a meaningful and impactful performance. Both Esposito and Gonzalez also take some time to speak about the challenging nature of working in motion-capture suits and playing make-believe as they are forced to imagine their surroundings.

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The Crew 2 Adding ’70s, ’80s DLC And Much More In Content Roadmap

Despite releasing more than two years ago, Ubisoft’s The Crew 2 is still revving up new content. Following the release of the major Summer in Hollywood expansion, Ubisoft announced even more plans to support the racing game as part of the Ubisoft Forward event on Sunday.

Next up in the Summer in Hollywood schedule is the Beach DLC, which drops on July 15, and adds a number of summer-y vehicles like the Volkswagen Beetle and Bus. After that, Neon Battle is arriving on July 22, and it introduces the Tron-like Kawasaki Ninja H2 light rider edition motorcycle.

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Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Tops The Box Office For First Time Since 1997

With cinemas currently closed around the US due to the COVID-19 pandemic, drive-ins are often determining which films top the box office, and it’s not always new movies. This weekend, for the first time since its 1997 Special Edition re-release, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back has topped the box office, Deadline reports.

The second Star Wars movie is expected to have earned between $400K and $500K across 483 locations across the weekend of July 10-12, which is enough for it to take the top spot. Black Panther and Inside Out are expected to land in 2nd and 3rd.

Other classic movies to top the box office over the last few weeks include Ghostbusters (July 3-5) and Jurassic Park (June 19-21). The figures they are earning are, of course, significantly less than a new movie would typically earn–before the pandemic, it was almost unheard of in the last decade for the top movie of any particular weekend to open to below $10 million.

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Star Wars Writer Teases A Huge Upcoming Film Project

Gary Whitta, the co-writer of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Season 1 of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, is working on something new, and it sounds big. The writer, who is currently hosting Animal Talking, a socially-distanced talk show set inside Animal Crossing: New Horizons, has teased a new project on Twitter.

On July 11, Whitta tweeted about having news that had made his week, and while he can’t say much, he revealed that he “sold a movie.” What the movie is about, and who it was sold to, remains unclear, but he says it’s a “big one.”

Whitta will write and produce the movie, and absolutely no further details are known right now, including whether it’s an original idea or set within an established universe.

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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Will Have Almost No Side Quests

The Assassin’s Creed series has always been filled with side quests to complete alongside the main storyline, and these have grown especially prominent in the recent role-playing games like Origins and Odyssey. For Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, however, Ubisoft has completely changed its approach to side quests. In fact, they aren’t really in the game at all.

Speaking to GameSpot just before Ubisoft Forward, narrative director Darby McDevitt explained that “world events” are included in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but the traditional side quest is “almost nonexistent.” There are longer story arcs to complete as part of the main questline, but extra activities you complete will happen more spontaneously and won’t necessarily be quests you have to seek out.

This approach was chosen to fit the narrative, as the protagonist Eivor arrives in England as an invader rather than a native. Having quest-givers left and right would not make sense, as you’re still actively trying to make alliances.

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