Ghost of Tsushima will be Sucker Punch’s biggest game ever, as the Infamous and Sly Cooper studio sets out to craft an ambitious story and world on the island of Tsushima.
Speaking to IGN after the recent Ghost of Tsushima State of Play, Creative Director and Art Director Jason Connell spoke to the scope of Tsushima.
“It’s a lot bigger [than Infamous: Second Son]. It’s definitely Sucker Punch’s biggest game we’ve ever made by a landslide, both in the amount of stuff that’s in it and also just sheer landscape, square footage-wise,” Connell, who also told IGN about Ghost of Tsushima’s move away from a karma meter, said.
Connell explained that the team often gets asked about Ghost of Tsushima’s size in terms of length of completing the game, though he noted it’s hard to pinpoint because “completing” can mean various things for people with open-world games. Some people just play the story and others want to find everything. The studio recognized this, and worked “to create a world big enough that has both those opportunities. People that can just play story and people that can go get lost in the environment.”
And as our few looks at that environment have shown, Ghost of Tsushima looks to be a visually beautiful adventure. Given that it’s Sucker Punch’s first full game since Infamous: Second Son in 2014, one of the first first-party games on the PS4, Connell explained how the studio has worked to push the hardware now as, currently, the last PS4 first-party exclusive for the system.
“We’ve learned a ton and we’ve just built on tech, on tech, on tech, and we have amazing technical rendering gurus at Sucker Punch,” Connell said. “They’ve managed to pull out every little ounce of performance so that we could have our dreams of making this game.
“You can see pretty far in the game as we show off, and that’s not some fabricated thing with hacks. You can just get down from that mountain and go to those places. It’s stunning what they’ve been able to pull off for us from a technical perspective,” he continued, noting the combined work of the many different teams within the studio coming together to produce Tsushima.
That work has gone into producing the ambitious island of Tsushima, inspired by the real-life location, though set hundreds of years ago. Connell explained that while the team sought to honor and respect the real-life setting — the in-game landmass is pretty much geographically the same shape as the real-world Tsushima — it’s not meant to be a one-to-one recreation, especially given the setting’s period.
“When it comes to some of the biomes and places that you go to, it’s so long ago, there’s not a perfect map of forestry of what was where,” Connell said, noting Sucker Punch’s similar approach with Second Son to capture the essence of Seattle without necessarily recreating it building by building.
One of the biggest aspects in creating this open, engaging space involved making the many areas of Tsushima artistically unique, as Connell pointed to the Golden Forest seen on the horizon during Tsushima’s State of Play. Connell didn’t offer an exact number of the distinct regions, but counted the giant fields showcased at Tsushima’s last E3 reveal, a bamboo forest, a swamp-like area, and more among Tsushima’s biomes.
The Golden Forest can be seen beyond the green forest area, and Jin could head there from this spot.
“We try really hard from an art direction perspective to make [each area] feel distinctly different and try not to muddy things up,” he said.
“And while that may feel a little bit loud, when you approach it, it feels very memorable. I can remember where it is, I can see it from everywhere on the island. And that’s important to us because the island’s big and so, and we’re not putting markers all over the place, so you have to come up with other visual anchors to keep your directionality intact.”
As for whether players can explore the entire island from the start, Connell remained coy on exactly how much would be available to explore, but from the sound of it, Tsushima will focus players in on Jin’s story first before opening the wider world.
“As a story as big as ours and a game as big as ours, it is incredibly important to us that people understand Jin’s journey first. It’s a lot to take in. So the first part, we want to make sure that you understand who he is, what’s happened to this island. So there’s a little bit of setup,” he said. “It’s really important to do that before we just open the flood gates. But then once you get to that point, then it’s pretty open.”
It sounds like a model not unlike some other major open world games have taken, similar to how Horizon Zero Dawn opens up dramatically after The Proving early in its story.
New Super Lucky’s Tale, the Switch updated version of Xbox One exclusive Super Lucky’s Tale–which was itself a new version of VR title Lucky’s Tale–is coming to PS4 and Xbox One. The game, which greatly expands on the original, will release on systems other than Switch for the first time.
Developer Playful Studios announced the game’s impending release on Twitter, although a date is not available yet.
New Super Lucky’s Tale is coming soon to Xbox One and PS4!! Stay tuned for more details… pic.twitter.com/PhjHiQWfEw
— New Super Lucky’s Tale (@PlayfulLucky) May 18, 2020
In a follow-up tweet, the New Super Lucky’s Tale account addressed a fan who owned the original game on Xbox One, and was wondering if the “New” version would be available as an update. New Super Lucky’s Tale is being treated as a “new” game, though, as quite a bit has been changed–so fans of the original will need to buy this version of the game anew.
The latest patch for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the battle royale game Warzone is out now, bringing with it new maps and a series of changes. The update dropped on PS4, Xbox One, and PC at 11 PM PT, so if you don’t have it already, it’ll be here soon. It weighs in at a whopping 30.86 GB on Xbox One, and is around the same size on PC and PS4 too–although it’ll be smaller if you only have Warzone, and not Modern Warfare.
Ahead of that, Infinity Ward has posted the full patch notes, which you can see below.
The biggest new additions in the update include a new Gunfight map for Modern Warfare called Aisle 9, and a new Modern Warfare multiplayer map called Hardhat. Coinciding with the release of the new maps, Modern Warfare is getting a special 24/7 playlist for Hardhat and a Face Off Moshpit playlist for Aisle 9.
Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road, the upcoming fast-paced mobile spin-off, has been delayed. The game, which was originally targeting a Spring 2020 release, will now arrive later than expected.
The news of the game’s delay was announced on its official Twitter account, which said that more details will be revealed in June. Kingdom Hearts fans will have to wait a while to find out when Dark Road is releasing, but as the tweet notes, “current conditions” amid the COVID-19 pandemic aren’t ideal for development.
Due to current conditions, development for KINGDOM HEARTS DARK ROAD has been delayed.
We apologize for the late update, as we were trying to find some means of making a Spring release.
— KINGDOM HEARTS DARK ROAD (@kh_dr_na) May 19, 2020
If it still comes out this year, it’ll be the second Kingdom Hearts release of 2020, following Kingdom Hearts III Re:mind. Once it releases, Dark Road will be available within the Kingdom Hearts Union X app, although it’ll be a standalone experience.
The game will explore the pass of villain Xehanort, so fans of Kingdom Hearts’ lore will likely appreciate it. Hopefully we’ll have an updated release window soon.
Actor Colin Farrell has shared a little more information about the upcoming Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson that shut down production recently due to COVID-19. In a recent interview with GMA, Farrell said The Batman feels “original and fun,” adding that he’s excited to return to filming.
Farrell, who plays Penguin in the film, set expectations for fans that his character isn’t the focus of the movie. However, the Irish actor said Penguin is featured in some “tasty” scenes, which certainly gives us a lot to think about.
“I had only started it and I can’t wait to get back. The creation of it, the aesthetic of the character, has been fun and I really am so excited to get back and explore it,” Farrell said (via Collider). “And I haven’t got that much to do. I have a certain amount in the film. I am not all over it by any means. But there are a couple of some tasty scenes I have in it … and I can’t wait to get back.”
The latest Madden Bowl competitive gaming tournament took place over the weekend, and Raidel “Joke” Brito won the series and claimed a giant cash prize in addition to bragging rights. It’s notable because, despite being one of the best players on the Madden pro scene, Joke had never won the Bowl. Not only did he win this year’s event, but he claimed the title in the final without throwing a single pass.
That’s right, Joke defeated Daniel “Dcroft” Mycroft by a score of 17-0 with his run-only offense. In fact, Joke won all of his Madden NFL 20 games in the tournament without ever passing the ball, according to ESPN.
Joke employed a unique strategy to secure the victory. He opted to select specialist players, forgoing a true quarterback, and instead chose to run the ball and rely on his defense to win the tournament. The event was conducted virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can watch a replay of the competition in the video above.
