EA Sports' Madden franchise is known for its exclusive licenses covering the league, players, and coaches, giving the series an air of realism that many fans expect. But as the company has signed the licensing deals and the graphics and presentation aspects have gotten better, showing us the coaches roaming the sidelines between plays, one aspect has stuck out: Patriots coach Bill Belichick is not in the game.
EA Sports may have the license for the Coaches Association, but Belichick – one of football's greatest strategic (and sartorial) coaches – is not in the Association and therefore not in the game. Instead, he's replaced by glasses-wearing Griffin Murphy, an avatar that has become infamous in its own right. Murphy might not be real, but he is based on a real person – former EA Tiburon VP GM and series executive producer Roy Harvey, himself a Pats fan. We talked briefly with Harvey who told us how he became Belichick.
Why did they choose you in particular to be the Pats coach? When did it first happen?
Several years ago when we first started doing head scans the art team put out a call for those of us at Tiburon to come try out the tech for ourselves. They put our faces on sideline characters, referees and the like, which was pretty cool.
Then Jean Adams, our art director said, “Come down to my office, I want to show you something.” He had taken my scan and put it on the Patriots head coach, and took [then studio VP] Cam Weber’s scan and made him the coach of the New Orleans Saints. At first it was just a funny placeholder concept, but then it stuck and we made it into the game starting the following year.
When I first debuted in the game I was Chad Masters. I told Jean, “I can’t be named Chad Masters, it doesn’t work,” as he was the prior stand-in for Coach Belichick and different looking. So we landed on Griffin Murphy, which is an amalgamation of family names.
Did you do a mo-cap session with the skin-tight body suit and everything?Did they ask you to make any Belichick-esque motions or expressions?
Haha! No, I think that would have been a dealbreaker. We used the already-captured coach animations for my character so I didn’t get into the mo-cap suit. I will say that at the time the artists made me little portly, so I tagged that as a bug and had it fixed before the game shipped.
Do you get any bonus pay for your appearances in the game?
No, but it’s an honor to be digitally memorialized in one of the best game franchises in history. That’s payment enough for me.
Has anyone recognized you on the street from the game?
No one’s ever recognized me on the street, but I’ve asked people who play Madden if they ever play against the Pats. If they do then I’ll show them my in-game character, and a couple have asked for selfies.
What do you personally think of Deflategate and Spygate?
I don’t really have anything to say about that.
Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry 5 released earlier this year to high praise. We got a chance to sit down and talk with two prolific composers – Jeff Rona and Cody Matthew Johnson – that contributed to both games’ assorted soundtracks. Their musical work has also been featured in games like God of War III and Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite.
What makes composing video games different from other industries?
Cody Matthew Johnson: Movies and TV are linear; they go in one direction from A to B. But in video games you’re composing not only linearly (because there’s a point at which the game starts and ends) but you’re composing vertically as well. You have to think about the interactivity of the music. I guarantee you that people are much more passionate about video game scores than film scores simply because you can tap your foot to it; you can sing along to a noticeable melody. With video games, you have the opportunity to be a bit more creative and challenge yourself sonically, but, most importantly, get a player completely immersed and stuck in the fantasy.
What does Capcom bring to the table that other developers don’t? What makes working with them so special?
Jeff Rona: I wouldn't say that Capcom is a monolithic, single-celled entity. In fact, the Marvel vs. Capcom team was a different team than the Devil May Cry team which was in a different city in Japan than the Resident Evil team. In each case, Cody and I got emails from the director saying ‘this is my vision for the game’ and it would often come down to one word like industrial, metal, grunge, etc. I give Capcom a lot of credit; they really like to have a lot of contrast. They came to us with a very specific request but each director has the freedom to say ‘this is how I see this game sounding. This is how I see this character sounding.’ They understand that every game and every character has a style and ask themselves ‘how can we push this a little harder and what can we do that we haven’t done?’ So they challenge themselves, first and foremost. Then they invite us to help them figure out how to honor the franchise with completely fresh ears.
Cody, what inspired Dante’s theme (“Subhuman”) in Devil May Cry 5?
Devil May Cry is this weird balance. You have these heavy concepts like blood, demons, angels, and hundreds of thousands of people dying for no reason. But the characters are cocky and have raunchy dialogue, so we needed to think about that. Capcom started describing how they wanted the music to sound and within three or four sentences they included words like aggressive, metal, guitar, and synth about seven times. After everything, I just wrote down a quick sentence that was the synopsis I was thinking about: aggressive, metal-hybrid with brain-shaking synths and requiem choirs. It’s kind of a nasty beast to imagine.
Jeff, what did you bring to V’s theme (“Crimson Cloud”) as opposed to Kratos in God of War III?
God of War is one of Sony’s most popular game franchises. The words that kept coming up again and again with [game director] Stig Asmussen was: ancient, epic, and dark. So God of War III was a big orchestra and huge drums, with Middle Eastern and Asian influences.
But with “Crimson Cloud”? Forget all of that. V is new, in terms of playable characters. So, Capcom said forget anything that’s ever been in Devil May Cry, but, specifically, stay away from guitars. So “Crimson Cloud” is a very aggressive piece of music and probably the loudest thing I’ve ever written. Capcom knew the tempo they wanted. They wanted a female vocalist and they wanted it to be very electronic with distortion. The main thing is that they wanted to make sure that what I did was in fairly stark contrast to the game’s other battle themes.
Lastly, you both worked together on Resident Evil 2. Could you talk a bit about its true-ending theme “Saudade?”
Jeff: Well, “saudade” is a Portuguese word that the director was very fond of, but it doesn’t have an equivalent translation in English. It means something to the effect of: the love that is left when something or someone is gone. Where nostalgia is the pain of remembering, saudade is less about loss and more about the acknowledgement of everything in life eventually going away.
Cody: We were writing a song solely focused on nailing the emotional aspect of Resident Evil 2, to wrap it up in three minutes. We got sent a story that was a few paragraphs long with one word at the top that said: reunion. Kazunori Kadoi wanted the story to be reflected in the song and in its lyrics. The narrative follows a man who moves to a city to fulfill his aspirations. 20 years pass, and he realizes that the city is a facade; he’s looking back at what it’s like to be young and to have hope. That story resonated with Kadoi, looking back on creating the original Resident Evil 2 and defining the survival horror genre. Now, 20 years later, he’s remaking it. Not only is the story of the game about reunion – Claire and Leon branching off and then eventually coming back at the end – but now there’s this added element that Kadoi wanted us to understand: of reunion to self, of revisiting what you and your life used to be.
For more on video game music, read our interview with the composer of Captain Marvel and Fortnite, or check out exclusive footage detailing The Creation of Sekiro’s Soundtrack.
With over 10 years and 21 movies behind it, Avengers: Endgame will finally wrap up an epic, connected film arc for Marvel Studios. Now with Insomniac’s Spider-Man setting up a larger Marvel “gameverse,” questions are bubbling over for what we can expect from Crystal Dynamics’ upcoming Avengers game. Since its announcement in 2017, news has been pretty sparse about the project.
Aside from the bleak teaser, Marvel says, “The Avengers project, featuring a completely new and original story, will introduce a universe gamers can play in for years to come. The project will be jammed pack with characters, environments, and iconic moments that will thrill Marvelites.”
This allows a few different possibilities. Taken at face value, this could mean that the Avengers project is literally a game that can be played for years, implying Crystal Dynamics is making some sort of online, live-service game akin to Destiny or The Division 2. While the popularity of those games is certainly not something to ignore, this could also be Marvel’s way of saying that the world that the game takes place in will be shared between a number of other game worlds. Meaning, hypothetically, Spider-Man’s world, the Avengers, and any upcoming Marvel games could, like the films, be part of a shared universe.
It could also be both of those things, but this has our minds reeling thinking of the potential for a wide-open, single-player Avengers game. If this game could include not only the characters hinted at in the trailer – Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and Captain America – but other Marvel superheroes, then how would we assemble our own Avengers game? We look to games past and present for inspiration to find how we hope The Avengers game will come together.
Iron Man
Say what you will about Anthem and some of its various design choices, but one thing the Avengers could swipe from BioWare’s latest game is the way you are able to seamlessly launch into the air and fly the game’s already very Iron Man-like Javelins. With a sufficiently open space to work with, flying around with the fluidity of the javelins – but perhaps less restricted by overheating – would be a great start to making Iron Man feel comparable to the gods and hulking beasts on his team.
Many of the heroes’ abilities are well suited for more open environments. The game could have more focused, linear levels as well, but an open world for Iron Man or Thor to play around in. Ideally all the characters would be able to traverse the open world at some point as well, just with their own unique skills. It could function like the Marvel Lego games in that regard, so getting around is different depending on who you control. We wouldn’t want them to waste a perfectly good open-world on only some of the characters.
Thor
With so many characters to control, it could be a tall order for the developers to flesh out each one, but for a large-scale production like this seems to be, we’d be interested in seeing the characters take center stage at different parts of the story. They could work alone before finally reuniting. When Thor takes center stage, then, he should look to another prominent video game god for inspiration.
God of War, which itself seemed to crib from Thor’s playbook, would be an excellent place to start. Thor’s primary super power, aside from being a powerful god that can summon lightning, lies with his impossibly heavy hammer, Mjölnir. In the comics and films, Thor hurls Mjölnir into his enemies and stoically summons it back to his hand.
Throwing and recalling Kratos’ axe feels powerful, and shamelessly copying the same feature for Thor’s hammer would make playing as the thunder god exhilarating. Obviously, the game could give Thor devastating lighting attacks, but being able to sling the hammer into a group of enemies and recall it without breaking stride would make us feel suitably heroic.
But much like Iron Man – and unlike Kratos – Thor can fly, so being able to cast lighting at a nearby rooftop before lodging Mjölnir in the alien equivalent of a skull would be perfect. Infamous showed that having lightning function similarly to a gun in a third-person shooter is immensely satisfying, and we would like to see it alongside Thor’s entire suite of abilities.
Hulk
2005’s The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction captured the raw and unrestricted power of the Hulk, and we’d like to see Crystal Dynamics look to it to it for ideas. That game saw the angry, green scientist running up buildings and tearing apart cars to use as souped-up boxing gloves; an idea that still sounds cool 14 years later.
Obviously he should hit hard, but the freedom of movement and his particular brand of rage-induced mayhem are of the utmost importance. Since Ultimate Destruction, we’ve seen plenty of games handle traversal in an open-world well, but Crackdown 3 is a recent standout. We want Hulk to launch himself around the map with grace and precision – hopefully while throwing cars across the city.
And while the Hulk should be able to swiftly navigate the rooftops, we’d also like to see the World-Breaker really earn his nickname. It would be great for him to shred through entire buildings like it’s Red Faction. If that’s not practical, he should at least be leaving buildings in a worse state than he found them. We want to see Hulk smash.
Captain America
Captain America is the de facto leader of The Avengers, but his abilities don’t lend themselves to the high-flying heroics of his comrades. While he might not run up buildings and summon lightning strikes, he is a scrappy fighter and uncompromising leader. We’d like to see Cap take on that leadership role in the game as well. Games like Mass Effect show a good way to issue orders while still remaining present in the fight.
We envision a game where the strong centenarian can deftly move between flashy third-person action combat and tactical decisions for the team. When Captain America is at the helm, we want to be able to sic the Hulk on larger enemies or Iron Man on distant foes. Then we could call Thor to hammer Cap’s shield for an area-of-effect attack. We want to be able to pause and make snap decisions for the Avengers that could create fun, dynamic team-up abilities. Captain America is the leader, but he also gets into the action, so like Commander Shepard, he should be able to easily juggle giving commands and putting bad guys in the dirt.
Spider-Man
Insomniac’s Spider-Man should obviously be left mostly untouched, as swinging through New York and taking out thugs felt sensational. But for The Avengers we’d like to see his repertoire expand to be more focused on team combat. If he could swing in and give an assist to Iron Man or pin an enemy to a car so Captain America can finish the job, it would make Spidey really feel like part of the team.
Hawkeye
There are other characters fighting alongside the big names as well. As an example, what about Hawkeye? It’s the guy with the arrows. He could be like the protagonist from Crysis 3: completely forgettable.
What do you want to see in the Avengers game when it finally gets revealed? Are there mechanics from other games that you think would lend themselves well to Earth’s mightiest heroes? Let us know in the comments and check out the Avengers: Endgame trailer and read the latest rumblings about the game's release.
Fighting games can be tough to get into. Most are multiplayer-focused affairs, which can be a deal-breakers for many single-player fans. Even among multiplayer offerings, they require a degree of dedication to memorize combos, time to brush up on things like frame data and mix-ups that can be intimidating at first. Not everyone is interested in diving into training mode for hours just to make a game “fun” outside of casual button mashing, but NetherRealm Studios has long been doing its best to turn those casual players into competitors.
As the team behind one of the most popular fighting-game series around, NetherRealm is well-aware of the impediments some players have to getting into them. "We know there's a barrier where, anything that's competitive is automatically a barrier for some people,” says lead designer John Edwards. “And fighting games in particular are kind of daunting, because they seem so scary, and mechanically difficult to get into, and there's all these terms that are thrown around. It just seems super-daunting just even thinking approaching trying to learn how to play a fighting game.”
While they can seem intimidating at first, designer Derek Kirtzic is confident that once players decide to dive into them, they’re likely to find learning fighting games easier than they think. “Anybody can be really good at fighting games,” he says. “The secret to fighting games is, it's a lot slower than you actually think it is,” he says. “A lot of people think, ‘The faster I press buttons, the more that's going to happen.’ But actually it's taking the time and just [inputting combos like] 1-1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2-1 back-forward-1.”
“People don't play the piano like this,” Derek says, jutting his fingers up and down on the table rapidly, “They do it very slow. It's very similar to fighting games.”
As developers, it’s NetherRealm’s job teach players how its games work, but the shift in mindset has to come from the player. “It's up to the player to break out of that thought of 'The faster I press buttons, the more things that are going to happen.'”
To that end, Kirtzic tells me Mortal Kombat 11’s will run players through the basics, letting players know all the tools at their disposal, offer a few tips on how to use all of its attacks and techniques, then let players loose to play the game however they want. NetherRealm wants players to have a decent grasp of the game before they get there, however.
While the extensiveness of tutorials in fighting games can vary, lead designer John Edwards says the effect of tutorials on their own is often overestimated. “Having good tutorials definitely helps, but I don't think that helps to the degree that a lot of people think it does,” he tells me.
While much of the appeal of fighting games comes from learning to play them, many people just want to have fun as quickly as possible, and simply don’t want to spend an hour or two doing what can often feel like homework, according to designer Derek Kirtzic. “We cannot force players to do a tutorial,” he says. “[In our games] we always go ‘Hey, you've never played this game before, would you like to play a tutorial?’ And most people are like, ‘Nah dog, let me just go straight to story mode!’” Edwards and Kirtzic aren't alone on this front; Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada also pointed to a lack of player interest which is why Bandai Namco opted to only include a barebones tutorial in Tekken 7.
“And we're not going to sit there and stalk the player and be like, ‘We noticed you haven't done training still!’” Kirtzic says. “It's up to the player what time they're going to invest in it.”
Instead, Edwards points to the other ways NetherRealm gets players to invest in fighting games: By giving them lots of content that just happens to involve playing and improving at the game itself. By playing through the story mode, players get an early feel for how fighting works, and then, according to Edwards, slowly learn some of the instincts the genre requires by playing single-player modes, such as Mortal Kombat 11’s Towers of Time, which has players tackle single-player objectives, tough bosses, unlock items, and invest in creating their own rendition of their favorite character using the game’s custom variation system.
This creates an attachment to fighting games that doesn’t rely solely on being able to play them well. “And then once you've kind of got them hooked on fighting games in general, it's much easier to transition them into the more competitive scene," says Edwards.
That transition is easier said than done, however, as there is a major difference between enjoying a fighting game by beating up computer opponents and playing online against other learned players. Edwards acknowledges the transition can be tough. “You're going to be playing against people who may have been playing for their entire lives,” he says. But it’s a transition NetherRealm is keen on making, since learning to play satisfying matches against other players is the best way to keep players hooked.
Over the years, NetherRealm has experimented with different ways to do this, and many of the incentives for players to play against others are back in Mortal Kombat 11. Once again, Kirtiz says the team is hoping to keep players engaged online by being more up-front about how their opponent is matched against them. In casual matches (as shown in the recent online beta), both players can see their opponent’s win-loss record, as well as their chances to win a particular match. If a player sees they have an edge, or that they’re at least evenly-matched, they might be more inclined to play. This isn't too different from most games that match players against each other, but the way NetherRealm surfaces this data more readily makes the expectations the game has of your more clear.
On the other hand, NetherRealm wants players to challenge themselves and improve, so that on the occasion they come across a lopsided matchup they may choose to decline, but may just as likely face their opponent knowing they probably won’t win, but could stand to learn a thing or two from their opponent. “Hopefully it gets to an extent that the casual player will see progress in their online skill,” Kirtzic says. “We want to make sure that when we match more casual players up, that they're actually seeing that ‘Yeah, actually I can beat these guys, and I'm getting better and better, and I'm seeing my rank is getting higher,’ and things like that. We want to give positive encouragement to the players that are usually kind of standoffish when it comes to a ranked system.”
Another way to keep players coming back to multiplayer is to offer them something besides a higher matchmaking rank for playing. Edwards wants to incentivize casual players by letting them earn koins to unlock stuff in the Krypt, and level up their profile through experience. It also means introducing time-limited modes that use some of Mortal Kombat’s wacky combat modifiers (Kirtzic points to the classic “Juggle Kombat” as an example) that offer exclusive rewards for participating in them.
"Having those fun modes takes down the competitive shield that players have," Kirtzic says. "You're more willing to play characters that you may not necessarily play, and play less strategically than you normally would – especially the casual players. The casual player is like, 'Oh dude, I've been playing this modifier in the Towers of Time, I totally know what to do against this totem while I'm fighting this dude, right?'"
Edwards sees this slope, of getting single-player fans to slowly dip their toes into Mortal Kombat's competitive side, as key to breaking down the misconception that fighting games are a difficult genre to get into. “The more we can kind of incentivize the non-competitive guys into playing competitive for whatever reason, the more they're going to learn naturally, and the more they're going to realize that it's not super-scary,” he tells me. “It just has a little bit more of a difficult of a barrier of entry because there's so many moving parts, as opposed to like a first-person shooter, where they're kind of ultimately all boiled down to kind of the same mechanic [of shooting].”
“It's always a goal for us to try and take the casual player to that next level, so that everybody can enjoy the game that we're offering,” Kirtzic says.
Of course, NetherRealm knows some players will never be the kind of player who sticks with fighting games for the long haul, and would prefer to treat them the way they do most other kinds of games – more as entertainment than hobby. “Some people just don't want to put all this time into practicing good enough that you can beat the average person online,” studio creative director Ed Boon tells me. “They just want to have fun on the couch next to their friends playing story mode, and they're happy.”
For more on Mortal Kombat 11, check out our recent dive into the game’s story mode, a match between NetherRealm’s two best players, and more by clicking on the hub below.
When it was reported last year, an Xbox One without the disc drive seemed like a potential home run for Microsoft. The Xbox One has lagged behind PlayStation 4 in sales through most of this generation, and a large part of that revolved around a botched launch and a steeper price point than its competitor. Microsoft has since rectified many of those problems, listening to its fans and adjusting its prices to compete with the PS4. The digital-only Xbox One could have landed as the best value console on the market, but not enough differential between it and the standard Xbox One S leads to it being a missed opportunity for Microsoft.
An Xbox One with no disc drive removes key functionality of the system. Not only does it lose the ability to play physical games, but it also loses one edge the Xbox One S has over even the PlayStation 4 Pro: a 4K Blu-ray drive. Losing the ability to play any physical media is a large blow, but with the right incentives, it could have made the case that it’s worth it.
Microsoft likely hoped to make up for this huge missing feature with a lower price point. By offering a more digestible point of entry to the Xbox One family of systems, the Xbox One could become the default system for families looking to buy a console without breaking the bank. Unfortunately, the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition is a paltry $50 cheaper than the standard Xbox One S with a disc drive. Not only that, but a simple search on third-party seller sites like Amazon or eBay reveals that you can easily find new, sealed, standard Xbox One S models for even cheaper than the All-Digital Edition as long as you don’t mind buying a game bundle that has been discontinued.
Microsoft tried to sweeten the deal by including three digital games, but the value those bring is questionable. Sea of Thieves continues to receive new content, but it’s far from a system seller. Forza Horizon 3 is spectacular fun, but it’s two and a half years old at this point and is regularly on sale in the digital storefront. As one of the most popular games of all time, Minecraft is arguably the most attractive game included in the bundle, but even that is an inexpensive purchase you could simply pick up independent of this system. Furthermore, Sea of Thieves and Minecraft are included in Xbox Game Pass, as is the newest edition of the Forza Horizon series, Forza Horizon 4.
Even from a cosmetic perspective, the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition does nothing to excite players. Xbox says changing the form factor would jack up costs, but with so little else incentivizing prospective console buyers from considering this model, something that looks cooler than a typical Xbox One S would at least catch eyes. With no optical drive, plus the fact that the more powerful Xbox One X is even smaller than the Xbox One S due to how technology shrunk in the time between those two models, the All-Digital Edition likely could have been significantly smaller, and thus given something else to make up for the lack of disc drive.
With a few adjustments, the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition could reach its full potential. At $250, the sweet spot isn’t far off. A $50 to $70 price drop could launch it into impulse-buy territory. If Microsoft is worried about losing too much money on hardware sales, it should focus on converting those who buy this Xbox One S to its Game Pass service. Scrap the free games and instead give buyers a few months of Game Pass for free, with a special offer to boost it up to a year at a lower price. Microsoft clearly has confidence in the service or else it wouldn’t continue to bolster its impressive lineup, so why not push that instead of three old games that offer no long-term return on investment to Microsoft? Hook people on Game Pass and the initial investment of bundling it with the system will eventually increase the service’s membership numbers as All-Digital Edition owners realize the massive value it delivers.
With the world converting to digital entertainment and streaming services, Xbox isn’t wrong to explore this direction. More people watch Netflix and Hulu than 4K Blu-rays, and there’s no denying the convenience of digital game downloads. However, you can enjoy those on a standard Xbox One as well, and still have the option to play physical discs (and enjoy their steep discounts). With digital games becoming more popular, game-streaming platforms looking like a new direction of the industry, and Game Pass becoming a better value by the month, the future is likely more focused on digital than it even is today. Microsoft is wise to eye the digital future, but it needs to optimize its plans to truly reap the benefits.
Nintendo announced Joker from the Persona series as the first fighter included in the Fighters Pass last December, but we didn’t know exactly when he’d join the battle. Well fans of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate were treated to the surprise announcement last night that Joker is making his debut as a playable fighter today. But who the heck is Joker? If you only own a Switch (and thus haven’t been able to experience the joy that is Persona 5) then we’re here to give you a quick rundown on this character and just what the deal with Persona is. The announcement of Joker as a fighter as well as the recent tease of the upcoming Persona 5 S are both strong indicators Switch players may be able to see for themselves before too long. But who has that kind of time? If you have played both, then good job! You did it! For everyone else, here’s everything you need to know.
Who Are Joker And Arsene?
There’s a lot to sift through when dealing with a game and series as large as Persona, but the important details are that Joker is only the nickname of the game’s high-school student protagonist, Ren Amamiya (as you choose his name, this name only comes from the anime tie-in). Like any Persona game that came before, you must not only manage a stable of monstrous creatures that spawn from your heart – persona – but your stable of high school friends and responsibilities. When you take to the game’s dungeons, or palaces, you don a mask and adopt the Joker identity.
Joker and his friends all come together in this twisted, alternate world to expose people’s inner demons, and their squad is called the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. In the trailer we see Joker wearing his mask from his Phantom Thieves costume, but we also saw him dressed in his normal Shujin Academy attire. This means if Joker looks a little too cool for school, you can literally dress him in school-appropriate clothing.
The reveal also highlighted some of Joker’s more signature abilities from the RPG. Namely, Arsene. In Smash, Joker builds a meter as he fights that will eventually allow him to remove his mask and summon his original persona to fight alongside him and bolster his attacks. In Persona, your characters are essentially useless in battle until they awaken the power of these mystical beings, so it’s nice to see that represented in the combat.
What Are Joker's Moves?
Outside of Arsene, Joker brings his knife and gun into battle as well. Persona 5’s combat added a gun into the mix that had you managing an ammo counter during the turn-based battles, but while the gun is present in Smash, it doesn’t seem like that exact mechanic is making the jump, thankfully. Appropriately though, Joker will be using Persona abilities, Tetrakarn and Makarakarn to reflect attacks when Arsene is present. In Persona those do exactly that: they reflect physical and magical attacks respectively. So, like any character on the SSBU roster, everything they do is in some way rooted in their character’s original abilities.
The video (below) gets into his full suite of moves in Smash, but he’s bringing over moves like Eiha (or the stronger Eigaon) which curses foes and inflicts some damage over time and Persona 5 finisher, All-Out Attack, brings the whole team together for Joker’s Final Smash.
Finally, the trailer showed off Joker’s dynamic new stage, Mementos. In the RPG, Mementos is the palace that represents the hearts of all the people. It isn’t specific to any one person, but people in general. It’s a great nod to Persona 5 players, as well as perfectly evoking the jazzy, gonzo style of Atlus’ game. What’s of particular note for fans of the Persona RPGs before Persona 5, the stage changes to be themed after either Persona 3’s Dark Hour, or 4’s Midnight Channel depending on the music that is playing.
Click image thumbnails to view larger version
None of this is truly important to enjoy your time with a new Super Smash Bros. fighter, but it should provide a good framework to understand why he keeps summoning this ghostly force to fight with him.
Check out our review of Persona 5 or read our feature on the Top 100 RPGs Of All Time from issue 290 of Game Informer magazine where Persona 5 made number 19 and Persona 4 ranked at number 30.
During our visit to Media Molecule's offices last year for our November cover story, the developer stood firmly behind its intentions with Dreams: Create the most accessible and deepest video game creation tool available to a mainstream audience. It was a bold statement, but one that the various demos (and later, closed beta) showed that maybe the developer of LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway could pull off its wild ambitions.
The creation suite of Dreams is now out in Early Access, meaning anyone who pays $30 while spaces are still open for the game can get their hands on the full toolset. For the next week, I’m going to be taking Dreams for a spin, work diligently with the tools to see what I can create in that period of time. The goal here isn’t necessarily to create something amazing (wouldn’t that be swell!) but instead to see what someone with little-to-no game creation experience can do with those tools if they’re willing to put in the work.
Just so you have an idea of where I’m coming from experience-wise: I’ve created and released a few text adventures and a visual novel for commercial purposes. I understand a little bit of Python and have experience creating word-heavy games based on choice and consequence. However, I have never created art assets, have never made music, haven’t experimented with artificial intelligence, and have never dabbled in Unity, the Epic engine, or anything similar. I imagine I’m likely going to be stumbling a lot and will be writing frankly about my follies (hopefully my screw-ups prove amusing). At the end, what I hope emerges is a fairly accurate portrait of what one can expect if they take the deep dive into Media Molecue’s Dreams.
With that in mind: it’s showtime, folks.
Day 1: The Land Of Tutorials
As soon as Dreams’ cutesy introduction sequence, letting you name your imp (the cute little cursor you’ll be using to manipulate the world) and teaching you the basics of moving the camera, I make a beeline for the creation toolset. My logic is that I already saw the ins and outs of how to move and manipulate objects in Dreams’ creation space during a few preview sessions at Media Molecule and thus should be fine learning on the go while messing with the tools.
I quickly pay the price for my arrogance.
Plucking a humanoid sculpture from the game’s huge collection of objects (both those made by Media Molecule and those crafted by Dreams users), I plant the body on top of the creation space’s huge tile of space. From there, I try to create shapes and shrink them down by manipulating the controller. However, this goes awry quickly for two reasons.
The first: Dreams’ shortcut interface is complicated, with you having to combine buttons like L1 with another to do certain things to objects (like shrinking them or spinning them in a space), so it’s easy to lose track of all the commands at your disposal. The second reason is that I’m just not used to literally moving around the screen yet. Unlike most games, Dreams requires you to navigate around the world using the motion control in your Dualshock controller. This makes sense because you’ll eventually be brushing objects, stretching them out, and manipulating them in other ways that are more suited to motion control than analog . However, my hands still get caught up in the unique scheme, my thumbs often pushing on a camera-controlling analog stick when what I want to do is move my cursor.
There’s really no way of getting around the motion control part except for getting used to it over time. However, Dreams’ commands and toolsets are so numerous and complicated that I quickly own up to the truth: there is no way I can skip the tutorials. I’m going to have to eat some vegetables before I get to the fun stuff. C'est la vie.
Heading over to the tutorial section, I see Dreams’ tutorials aren’t your bog standard tips or even quickplay videos showing you how to do whatever you want to do. Instead, Dreams’ presents its playable tutorials like a full on class for operating the game. There are several modules, filled with multiple lessons that average around 3-5 minutes, for basic things like manipulating the camera, sculpting objects, and creating artificial intelligence for your puppets (characters that you can fill your world with to either control or serve as NPCs).
It soon becomes clear that tutorials are going to be the rest of my night. However, the tutorials aren’t so bad. All of them are interactive, with you essentially watching a quickplay video that shows you how to do something and then following through on it yourself. Once you finish a lesson, it’s checked off, and you move on to the next one. And they are genuinely helpful too. Within the first four movement lessons, I learn shortcuts for zooming and manipulating objects that will make moving across the creation space less of a hassle.
As the lessons go on, I find myself less annoyed that I have take tackle these tutorials and more with the fact that I thought I could just bypass it all and learn on my own. Dreams’ toolset is ultimately generous in terms of how much it offers and how quickly it is to learn the ropes compared to taking several months or even years to learn C++, BASIC, Java, or an engine like Unity. Dreams is literally its own language: a set of procedures and elements that you can bend to express yourself in an exciting way. Of course there would be a learning curve.
My only concern now is that I hope that partaking in all of these tutorials pays off, especially when it comes to helping me commit maneuverability and manipulation functions to muscle memory, and that I can stumble just a bit less when I return to the creation space tomorrow, my head sloshing around with lesson after lesson on how to make the game of my dreams.
Check back tomorrow for day two of our adventures in Dreams!
All month long we've been rolling out features highlighting Mortal Kombat 11 from NetherRealm Studios. Hopefully we've answered a lot of your questions about the game, but now's your chance to fill in any gaps. On an upcoming episode of The Game Informer Show podcast, we're speaking with Mortal Kombat 11 designer Derek Kirtzic and will be asking him as many questions as we can, pulled from the comments below. So please leave a question in the comments section, please dive in and ask specific things about designing Mortal Kombat 11... I doubt he'll be revealing any new characters at this point.
The Walking Dead revels in moral ambiguity. Each episode introduced us to new characters, giving us just enough time to love them (or hate them) before putting us in charge of their fates. Choice is often an illusion in Telltale games – characters’ destinies often stay the same regardless of your choices in critical plot moments – however, the studio succeeded in making each decision feel weighty and impossible.
The final episode launched in late March, and Clementine’s story is over (see how Clem’s voice actress reacted to the finale here). So it’s a great time to reminisce about the series’ most gutting decisions. Spoilers below, folks!
10. Looting The Car (Season 1, Episode 2: Starved For Help)
The final decision in Starved For Help comes after a traumatic episode for Lee and Clementine: their starving group takes shelter at a farm where they discover that “human” is an entrée. After surviving the cannibals, they stumble across a car parked ominously in the road. The lights are on, the keys are in the ignition, and the trunk is full of supplies. Players can choose to steal the supplies for themselves or leave them for the person they belong to, putting you in a dilemma where you must weigh the needs of your group against the needs of a stranger who may not even be alive. Regardless of Lee’s decision, the group loots the car, catalyzing a chain of events that results in Clementine’s kidnapping in the season finale.
The supplies, it turns out, belonged to a husband and wife who left their car on the street for a few minutes while they searched for their missing son in the woods. It’s a great setup for one of The Walking Dead’s best guilt trips.
9. Stealing The Medicine From Arvo (Season 2, Episode 4: Amid The Ruins)
In Season 2, Clementine and Jane scavenge for supplies that might help them deliver Rebecca’s overdue baby. It seems like a miracle when, out of nowhere, a crippled boy named Arvo crosses their path with a bag full of medicine. Arvo says the medicine belongs to his sister, but Jane sees holes in his story, so Clem must choose whether or not to steal the supplies for their own group.
It was tough having to weigh Arvo’s unknown circumstances against Rebecca’s impending delivery, but your decision – in classic Telltale fashion – ultimately makes little difference on the outcome: Rebecca dies shortly after childbirth, and when the group encounters Arvo again (this time with friends!), the scuffle between him and Jane results in a firefight between both groups.
8. Save Nick Or Save Pete? (Season 2, Episode 1: All That Remains)
Clem has a hard go of making friends at the beginning of season two. After a dog bites her, she stumbles across a new group of survivors who suspect that the bite is actually from a walker. Nick nearly shoots her, while his father, Pete, gives her the benefit of the doubt. If you had to choose which one to save just off that conversation, the decision would be simple, but the final scene makes everything a bit more complicated: Pete takes a walker bite to the leg while he, Nick, and Clem explore a nearby stream, and then a horde approaches.
Clementine has to make a choice. Is saving Pete at Nick’s expense a lost cause, considering he’s now infected? Or should she save Nick, who doesn’t really care for Clem that much in the first place? This scenario reminded us right out of the gate in season two that this is a series where no decision is black and white.
7. Falling In Love With Kate (Season 3, Episode 4: Thicker Than Water)
The Walking Dead got a major reset after season two, including a time jump and new characters: playable protagonist Javier, his brother David, and his sister-in-law Kate. David goes missing during the early days of the outbreak, so Javi and Kate group up and, well… the hokey pokey still happens in the zombie apocalypse.
In the season’s penultimate episode, after David comes back into the picture, Kate confesses her love for Javi, and players are given the option of slapping a label on it at the risk of damaging their relationship with David. Matters of the heart are always a hard call.
6. Help Kate Save Richmond Or Rescue Gabe And David (Season 3, Episode 5: From The Gallows)
There are some serious stakes in the season three finale. A horde of walkers penetrates Richmond, and while Javi wrestles with choices that impact the future of the community, he’s also forced to make decisions regarding his family’s fate. Kate wants to help save Richmond from the walker threat, but David wants to take his son Gabe to shelter outside the city. Javi, of course, must make a choice.
If you choose to go with Kate, David dies (which isn’t the worst thing in the world if you shacked up with her in the previous episode). If you choose to go after David and Gabe, though, you’ll come back to Richmond to find your boo-thang zombified. It’s a sad day all around.
5. Save Carly or Doug? (Season 1, Episode 1: A New Day)
The Walking Dead felt familiar when its first episode debuted in 2012. It had dialogue trees that let you choose how kind or how sassy you wanted Lee to be. It had QTEs that added urgency to its scenes like other action games. But it was the season’s climax that earned the series its place in the pantheon of standout video game narratives, by way of a choice: Lee and his group of survivors are pinned in a convenience shop by an encroaching hoard, and for the first time in the series, the player’s actions directly determine the fates of your friends Carly and Doug. The novelty of the idea, that choosing one friend results in the death of the other, made this choice incredibly tough and affords it its place on this list.
4. Kenny Or Jane? (Season 2, Episode 5: No Going Back)
This one is a doozy.
Lee and Clementine traveled with a friendly, bearded man in season one named Kenny who tragically loses his son to a walker bite and his wife to suicide. Kenny’s fate is uncertain at the end of the season when a mob of walkers separates him from the group. In season two, though, he reunites with Clementine at a ski lodge, but she can tell something in him has changed.
Clem’s arc in the second season also involves her relationship with Jane. She teaches Clementine how to safely take down walkers despite her size and how to loot them for supplies. Jane is a survivor, Clem learns, and those instincts put her at odds with Kenny, whose mental stability everyone is questioning throughout the season.
In the final episode, the group is gone, and the only people who remain are Clem, baby AJ, Kenny, and Jane. Kenny becomes aggressive, and he and Jane engage in a brutal brawl while Clementine stands to the side. At one point, Clem picks up a gun. She can shoot Kenny, her longtime friend, or not intervene, allowing Kenny to kill Jane. It’s one of the series’ decisions that causes the most second-guessing after you make your call.
3. Interrogating Abel (Season 4, Episode 3: Broken Toys)
Each of these decisions pales in comparison to those you’re forced to make in The Walking Dead’s final season, because the brunt of them involve a subject no one finds easy: parenting. Clem makes decisions throughout the season that we’re told impact the type of man AJ will grow up to become. Low impact decisions – like whether or not you’ll let AJ start swearing – don’t carry much influence over the course of the season, but some scenarios, like the opening to Broken Toys, do.
A group of bandits attack Clem’s home, and she and her friends takes a grunt named Abel prisoner. Players must interrogate him while AJ observes, adding extra weight to choices you make. Will you be the good cop and risk not learning valuable information? Or will you play bad cop – beating Abel’s head against a desk or burning his cheek with a lit cigarette – and risk AJ becoming more violent? This scene is a reminder nobody needed: Parenting is hard!
2. Kill Lee Or Let Him Turn? (Season 1, Episode 5: No Time Left)
You can attribute a lot of The Walking Dead’s success – the first season won Game of the Year in 2012 at the Spike Video Game Awards – to its emotional season-one finale. A walker bites Lee, and in one decision, players choose whether or not they’ll amputate his infected arm to try and save him. Either choice is futile, because the infection has already spread too far. You can’t save Lee.
In the season’s final scene, Lee gives Clementine a choice: shoot him, or leave him to turn. In-game statistics show that the majority of players choose to kill Lee, so while the decision isn’t very divisive, it still draws on the intense emotions players develop for the two characters throughout the season, making it one of The Walking Dead’s hardest choices.
1. Kill Clementine Or Let Her Turn? (Season 4, Episode 4: Take Us Back)
Choosing whether or not to kill Lee is a cakewalk scenario compared to the series’ final choice. As they scuffle up a rock wall to escape a group of walkers, one sinks its teeth into Clementine’s lower leg. The zombies are closing in, and there’s no time to amputate it, so Clem and AJ are forced to ignore the bite until, finally, they find shelter in a nearby barn.
The game puts players in control of AJ now, and mirroring the scene between Lee and Clem in the season one finale, Clem gives AJ a choice: kill her or let her turn. Why is this scenario harder than the scene that inspired it? Because instead of a gun, the only weapon AJ can use is the axe… The moment carries incredible weight, forcing players to decide the fate of a character they’ve watched evolve in-game for seven years. After you give AJ your order, though, he makes his own choice: He cuts off Clementine’s leg, despite your decision. She survives. The Walking Dead, shockingly, gets a happy ending.
Level editors are my favorite endgame destination. I appreciate the highly curated experiences developers create – the easy-to-read level design, or the fine-tuned balance in multiplayer maps – but after I’ve experienced a game the way its developers intended, level editors provide a fun incentive to stick around. They’re often quite educational, too, making me realize the incredible effort that goes into building and polishing my favorite game worlds.
With a level builder on the horizon for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (wahoo!) and PS4 game creation tool Dreams in early access, it’s an exciting time for fans of building games. While we wait, here are some of the coolest level editors I’ve seen in games.
Fortnite Creative Mode (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
At this point, Fortnite’s Creative Mode isn’t just a traditional map editor – it’s a full-fledged game creator. Using the title’s full suite of level-editing tools, players can create everything from medieval castle-themed escape rooms to zombie survival missions modeled after Call of Duty maps. Fortnite celebrates its community of creative players in a unique way, too – developer Epic Games selects the most impressive player creations and features them on a dedicated lot in its Battle Royale mode. Unfortunately, they're not always to good taste.
Unlike most level editors, which are mere bonus features, Nintendo released Super Mario Maker as a standalone title, allowing players to create their own Super Mario platforming courses in both the classic 8-bit and 16-bit aesthetic as well as the modern glossy look of New Super Mario Bros. U. The level editor utilized the WiiU and 3DS’ touch controls to offer an accessible, user-friendly building experience. It’s not too late to build your dream Mario challenge, though! Nintendo is working on Super Mario Maker 2 for Switch, due out this summer.
Far Cry 5 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Since Far Cry 2, every game in the series has featured a map editor, but the latest numbered entry shook things up with a couple game-changing additions. For the first time, players could create custom mission types, instead of building a map and choosing from pre-created game modes. What’s more, players weren’t limited to just Far Cry 5’s assets – they could populate their worlds with objects and imagery from a multitude of other Ubisoft properties, including Watch Dogs and several Assassin’s Creed games.
Skateboarding games have had map editors since the ‘90s, letting players build their dream park and set up their gnarliest grinds – and wipeouts. However Skate 3’s list of features set it apart from earlier skating games: Players could design their own graphics and logos on the Skate website, then import them into the game to adorn their skateboards, parks, and outfits. Additionally, a unique camera feature allowed players to snap screenshots and produce videos of their skating sessions, then upload them to share with the community. We’re still holding out for Skate 4, but while you wait, check out our replay of Skate 3 above.
LittleBigPlanet 3 (PS4, PS3)
LittleBigPlanet’s story mode is charming and respectable as a puzzle platformer, but it’s the series’ level creation tools that really gave each game legs. Between LittleBigPlanet 1 and 2 alone, users shared more than 7 million levels. LittleBigPlanet 3 gave us the most comprehensive suite of tools in the series, including the ability to manipulate the world on sixteen different depth levels. What’s more, Create Mode introduced players to “Popit Puzzle” levels; instead of forcing players to watch long tutorial videos, these levels taught the level editor’s tools by way of puzzles for players to solve.
Spore (PC)
Spore had a lot of big ideas. The game took place over the course of five phases, each with a radically different type of gameplay, following a species’ evolution from pond scum to space explorers. One feature fans requested most when the game launched was the ability to leave their spaceship during the game’s final phase and go on planetside adventures. Developer Maxis listened with Spore Galactic Adventures, a massive expansion that added the comprehensive Adventure Creator. This level editor, like certain parts of the base game, allowed players to create most of their own assets from scratch – from doorways to spaceships – in addition to offering a full library of audio and visual effects to add to player-created scripted missions.
I’d love to see more level editors in games. They’re great tools for players to exercise their creative muscles the same way developers do, and the creations that come from fans highlight the best parts of online communities. While you wait for that Super Mario Maker sequel, check out this list of custom levels built by the Game Informer staff. Here are some games we wish had level builders.
One year for my brother’s birthday, I logged into Runescape right after school, scouring for ingredients to bake him a virtual cake. We met up in-game that night so I could give it to him, and he loved it. I was thankful that we could enjoy the game and his birthday together, since we lived in different homes. I only got to see him every other weekend, but one of the meaningful ways we bonded was through Runescape and its seasonal events. I look back on these days fondly, because today, we no longer play together, let alone talk.
In college, I came out to my friends and family. Most people accepted me when I told them I was gay. My brother didn’t. He hasn’t spoken to me since. Sometimes it’s painful to remember our adventures online, knowing they may never happen again, but I’ve learned to cope with his decision. Still, I wonder how his perception might have been different if Runescape had recognized Pride the same way it recognized Christmas, Easter, and Halloween with festive, in-game events.
I don’t log into Runescape anymore; today, I celebrate my favorite holidays in Overwatch. I pour a haunting amount of time into its annual Halloween Terror event, earning spooky skins and sprays and participating in the co-op mode Junkenstein’s Revenge. For Christmas, I show off as Mei in snowball-fight arenas and explore a bevy of maps that get delightful, candy-cane-colored facelifts. There’s even an event for the Chinese New Year, where capture the flag maps boast colorful firework displays and certain characters get beautiful, ornamental outfits. In-game seasonal events are one of my favorite ways to celebrate the holidays.
Seasonal events, like Overwatch's Halloween Terror, are great ways for developers to rope back in players who've moved onto other games.
Seasonal events brought my brother and I together when we were younger, but once I reached high school, our Runescape binge sessions ended. All that kept us coming back once or twice a year were the holidays. We’d drop whatever games we were playing to dress up as skeletons and trick-or-treat around Port Sarim. His parents, my mother and step-father, prohibited my brother from celebrating Halloween because of their religious practice, which wildly contrasted the home I grew up in. It frustrated me that I couldn’t experience that with my brother, but celebrating with him in Runescape was a worthy consolation.
Runescape’s seasonal events had such a big impact on us, and I often wonder: what would Pride have been like if we had experienced it together virtually? Pride is a celebration of the LGBT+ community that occurs on the anniversary of 1969’s Stonewall Riots in New York. The riots famously propelled the agenda for queer people to obtain equal rights, and today we remember the event with Pride parades, typically in June or July, all around the world. There weren’t any Pride events in the small town my family raised me in nor the rural community where I went to college, but seeing myself – a gay man – represented in the news every year during Pride season always made me feel more visible and validated.
Photo by InSapphoWeTrust / CC BY-SA 2.0
On the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969, police raided New York's Stonewall Inn to arrest patrons on the grounds of sexual orientation, which quickly escalated into a riot.
Pride isn’t just for people like me, though. Millions of people attend both local and national pride observations, like the crowd of 3.5 million attendees at 2017’s WorldPride in Madrid or the 2.1 million people who attended New York City’s 2016 parade. These events draw such huge crowds because Pride isn’t just for queer people – it’s for everyone. It’s about celebrating one’s identity just as much as it’s about embracing one’s sexual orientation.
It’s curious, then, that despite its wide appeal and its invitation to all people, developers don’t consider Pride when planning their in-game seasonal content. It’s a holiday that can be represented in just about any type of game, after all. Games with skins, like Overwatch, could offer popsicle-colored cosmetic items to represent the gaudy, colorful costumes that Pride paraders adorn in the streets. Imagine Overwatch’s payload maps festooned in rainbow colors the way the team redecorates King’s Row during the annual Winter Wonderland event. Replacing the banner in its capture the flag mode with a rainbow streamer would be an easy way for Blizzard to celebrate the holiday, too.
Pride costumes are colorful and exuberant and would lend themselves well as skins for seasonal events, just like the skins players unlock in Overwatch's Winter Wonderland.
It’s easy to use Overwatch as an example here – the diverse roster of playable characters is a major feature that attracts the game’s millions of players, including two leading gay heroes Tracer and Solider: 76. But a developer doesn’t need a Blizzard-sized wallet to observe the holiday. Sea of Thieves developer Rare recognized Pride last year with the simple addition of a rainbow flag that players could fly from their ships’ mastheads. Its inclusion was just as meaningful as any full-fledged in-game celebration or game mode would be in Overwatch. Flags already existed in Sea of Thieves, too, so to add the item probably required short work from a single artist. And yet, the impact it had was huge:
10-yr old came racing up from the basement: "I'm playing a game called 'Sea of Thieves.' You know what? You can make your ship flag be the Pride flag! That's so cool!" *tears off to the basement again*#ProudDad
— Jay Guevara (#CommitCuriosity) (@DrJayDrNo) June 15, 2018
My pirate trolls and I had a particularly successful evening on @SeaOfThieves last night, culminating in us finally docking at base, our Pride flag resplendent in the sea breeze. 🏳️🌈 pic.twitter.com/TE9bqQwO5D
Picture just about any game, and you could probably fit Pride within its scope. Epic could easily create new voguing or death drop dance emotes for Fortnite. Niantic could plan special community days in Pokémon GO for major Pride observances that offer shiny Pokémon. (The legendary rainbow Pokémon Ho-Oh would be a suitable prize for participants.) These features are small asks: they don’t require developers to invest in entirely new mechanics or systems, only to utilize the tools they already have.
EDM superstar Marshmello recently hosted a full-fledged concert in Fortnite, turning Pleasant Park into a phantasmagoria of flashing lights and pulse-pounding beat drops. Is a Pride celebration really such a stretch?
While these ideas may sound simple, their inclusion’s importance can’t be overstated. Representation in games, movies, or any medium has an incredible impact on how we understand and engage with diverse people in the real world. Within the LGBT+ community specifically, the lack of leading gay characters in entertainment keeps our community shrouded in stereotypes and generalizations, to great and terrible effect: gay youth are five times as likely to have attempted suicide than their heterosexual counterparts, and LGBT+ people are roughly twice as likely to develop depression and anxiety.
I can see why including a holiday steeped in social issues might seem risky to a developer: The dark side of the internet is sure to call it “pandering,” and rude players will certainly find a way to react in toxic fashion to any sort of in-game observance. Toxicity toward minorities is something that would have to be closely moderated and controlled; it could even take away from the positivity of the event if handled poorly. I hope that developers don’t dismiss the idea of recognizing Pride in lieu of toxicity, though. It’s visibility, after all, that changes public perception of disenfranchised groups for the better.
I’ve celebrated every major holiday in my favorite games, but not Pride. There’s a good case for developers to observe the event within the scope of their games, considering Pride is a widespread celebration in the real world, and that it’s a holiday that invites anyone to participate. I know it would have real social impact, too, with how mainstream video games have become. How would society’s treatment of LGBT+ people change if we used games as a medium to engage with that community? It wasn’t easy growing up gay in a small town. If I, or maybe even my brother, had seen Pride in Runescape back in middle school, it would have made a world of difference.
Licensed board games present an additional challenge to game makers. In addition to crafting a compelling gameplay loop, nailing balance, and offering art and components that cry out to be played, the best games built around existing franchises must somehow speak to what makes that setting and fiction so memorable to its fans, and somehow loop those elements into the gameplay, presentation, and the feel of turn-to-turn play. If the franchise in question is Star Wars, years of other toys, games, cartoons, movies, comics, and novels must also be factored in, and each can either be a tool for enriching the game, or a path to feeling like a retread.
While there are plenty of reasons to check out Fantasy Flight’s new Star Wars: Outer Rim, it’s the way that the game taps into a very particular corner of the Star Wars universe and nails the bullseye that is most impressive. This is the Star Wars anti-hero fantasy writ large across the gaming table, where Han Solo might pull off a job to save his hide from the Hutts, Boba Fett could hunt down an escaped rebel, and Lando Calrissian is likely to impress the ladies with the insane luxuries available aboard his souped-up ship. Filled with emergent moments of narrative, fast-moving battles, and a galactic rim that grows more dangerous with each passing turn, the latest Star Wars board game has plenty to offer dedicated fans who like the shadowy aspects of the lore.
Dripping in the underworld vibes of that galaxy far, far away, Outer Rim plays like the counterpoint to Fantasy Flight’s earlier (and excellent) Star Wars: Rebellion. That was a game about retelling the sprawling Galactic Civil War, with grand fleet battles, Death Star planet-destroying, and heroes like Luke Skywalker turning the tide of the conflict. In contrast, Outer Rim is a personal game; the stakes are about whether you can bring a character like Boskk or Jyn Erso to notoriety, and keep them alive long enough to scrounge up a new ship. It’s about whether you’ve got the influence to talk down that syndicate thug, or the knowledge to break in and steal the goods from an abandoned underwater temple. It’s also a game about petty backstabbing and politicking, where you might turn in your own crew for a bounty payout if it means eking out a bit of favor with the scrappy Rebels or the authoritarian Empire.
One to four players can tackle a game of Outer Rim in a single sitting. The included solo game rules are great for learning the flow of play (pitting you against an AI card deck), and I’m impressed with the balance work on display in that mode. However, the interplay of multiple characters is undoubtedly the best way to go, and if you have the three-plus hours to spare to get through a complete playthrough, a full four-person complement shows the game at its best. With more players, there’s more competition for the best ships, faction patrols are more active, and it’s just fun to see all these familiar characters zipping between planets like Tattooine, Lothal, and Nal Hutta, as each iconic hero confronts new story moments, familiar character cameos, and sudden battles.
The first thing you’ll notice about Outer Rim is its board, which takes the game name to heart. The semi-circle arc of playspace depicts planets far from Coruscant, and the hyperspace corridors that interconnect them. Taking a cue from other strong narrative-focused Fantasy Flight board games like Arkham Horror, Outer Rim relies on several location-specific card decks to get across its storytelling. Zip down to Cantonica, and you’re likely to face an encounter at the same casino we visit in Episode VIII. Drop off cargo at Mon Calamari, and your encounters are sure to take you into that world’s deep oceans. These read-out-loud story snippet encounters are usually resolved through simple skill tests using the included custom dice. Crewmates you’ve gathered bring their own skills to those tests, dramatically increasing your chances at success, and motivating you to pull fun NPC characters into your adventure, like Chewbacca or Maz Kanata.
More often than not, those crew members join up as you run into them across the rim, as each planet has a random set of contacts to uncover, represented by initially hidden tokens. Maybe you want to pick up Greedo to add his stealth skill to your bag of tricks, but another player may have a bounty for Greedo. If you find his token first, is the slow-on-the-trigger green guy worth the trouble he might bring you?
The location-specific encounter cards and the mysterious identities and run-ins with contacts combine to communicate a sense of organic and emergent story, like an unfolding TV series with a number of competing plots, where the ensemble cast frequently faces their own dramas, but occasionally crosses each other’s paths. The sense of investment in the fiction is accentuated by your choice of character, each of whom brings different abilities to the table that evoke their traits in the canon. Boba Fett is better at tracking down bounties, while Han Solo manages to eke out a bit more speed from every ship he pilots.
Outer Rim also relies on several market decks that represent everything from the jobs you might take on to the luxury items with which you aim to impress the other bounty hunters. There’s a constant ebb and flow between the need to complete cargo deliveries (some of which are lucratively illegal) and other jobs so you can get some credits, and the necessity of regularly advancing your personal fame through more challenging tasks, as that’s the route to game victory. Fame comes from a number of sources, including bounty completions (which can be turned in dead or alive, in most cases), winning combat against patrols of Rebel, Imperial, Syndicate, and Hutt ships, and even through purchasing especially swanky items like a Dejarik Holotable or a gift for the illustrious Jabba. I also like that both your main character and the ships you buy have personal goals that may be completed, both to gain fame and improve that element of your character. It might start as a modified YT-13000 freighter, but put in some work, and that hunk of junk becomes the Millennium Falcon.
Fame may also be acquired through jobs, which tend to be more elaborate encounters that involve multiple skill checks. I love the short mini-adventures that jobs entail, like stealing the Jewel of Yavin, pulling off a rescue from the mines on Kessel, or hijacking a freighter. But I was disappointed in multiple game sessions that it’s so hard to actually complete these jobs early on in a game. Because they involve multiple skills, it’s awfully hard to pull one off in the early to mid-game, so these exciting encounters often only become viable in the last third of an evening of play.
As contacts are revealed, patrols race across the rim, and the pace of the game accelerates, just like a Star Wars adventure should. Combat encounters and skill tests are simple and keep the flow of play moving at a brisk pace, but they also make the whole affair feel a bit swingy. In another game, that might bother me more, but here the fun is more about seeing everyone’s character stories play out at the table than enacting and seeing some especially grand strategy finally pay off. The large number of card decks and tokens are pretty par for the course from big Fantasy Flight releases; they look great, and contribute to a better game, but it also means that setup and teardown can take some extra time.
Star Wars: Outer Rim hits the sweet spot for its theme of exploring the underworld of the Star Wars universe, and that’s what counts the most. Again and again, I found myself chuckling at clever appearances by minor characters, or subtle nods to particular storylines hidden away in an encounter. The art is and presentation is top notch, instructions are clear and smartly organized into separate “learn to play” and “rules reference” books, and while a single game with four players can run long, the straightforward turn structure keeps anyone at the table from experiencing too much down time. If the Mos Eisley cantina, Jabba’s Palace, or Maz Kanata’s castle were some of your favorite haunts in the movies, this is a game that nails the tone of those scenes with aplomb. I’d be hard pressed to imagine a much better structure for bringing this particular theme and setting to life, and I suspect fellow fans will feel the same.
Star Wars: Outer Rim should be widely available for purchase in the coming weeks, but if you’re looking for other recommendations for your game night, there’s no shortage of ideas available on the Top of the Table hub, reachable by clicking into the banner below. As always, if you’d like more personalized recommendations for board games, let me know in the comments or by email, and I’ll offer up some ideas.
My uncle bought me Final Fantasy XII for my birthday in 2006. At 10 years old, a lot of the combat mechanics and branching plotlines were confusing. Regardless, I was enamored with the game’s vibrancy: I specifically recall marveling at hair and garments fluttering in desert winds as well as azure sparks flashing from clanging swords and shields. To this day, it remains my favorite Final Fantasy.
The game originally released as a PlayStation 2 exclusive, but in the last two years, a remaster called, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age has launched on PlayStation 4 and PC with performance enhancements, deeper job customization, and various quality-of-life changes. Now, Square Enix is finally releasing the remaster on Xbox One and Switch at the end of the month. If you’ve never experienced Final Fantasy XII, this is why you should jump at the chance now.
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The Cast
Like most installments in Square Enix’s beloved series, Final Fantasy XII chronicles the lives of heroes rising against a greater antagonistic force. Where other entries employed moody, often unrelatable caricatures to drive their plots forward (that’s right, I’m talking about everyone’s favorite heroes, Cloud and Squall), Final Fantasy XII is less about individual motivations and more about the sum of its ensemble parts.
Street urchins Vaan and Penelo call the impoverished slums of Rabanastre home. While Penelo attempts to find silver linings in their plight, Vaan looks to the sky with dreams of owning an airship and living freely. After many chance encounters with shady folk, the two youths are flung into a world of political intrigue and clandestine coup d’états. Even so, they learn to find companionship in others: Ashe, a forsaken princess, Basch, an exiled soldier, and Balthier and Fran, wanted bounty hunters.
Despite their oddball mix, each member of Final Fantasy XII’s main cast shares similar insecurities – cowardice, loneliness, unresolved grief, and doubts of self-worth. Vaan and his ragtag team of outcasts remain some of the greatest characters in Final Fantasy lore because they’re so easy to root for. Despite struggling with personal shortcomings, they continuously discover ways to defy fate.
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The World
Like Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII’s narrative takes place in the Kingdom of Ivalice. Most of the continent is filled with the unexplored ruins of ancient dynasties. But when your party is not traversing every labyrinthine fortress checkered throughout the expansive backdrop, you’re navigating breathtaking metropolises and townships. As Vaan, you start within the cluttered cityscape of Rabanastre, filled with diverse districts including bazaars and palaces. But beyond the opening hours, players discover larger areas with increasingly exotic fauna including waterways with flaming stallions, badlands with roaming tyrannosaurs, and misty jungles with green chocobos.
Each setting in Final Fantasy XII is aesthetically unique and teeming with secrets. Some areas, like the Skycity of Bhujerba, can only be reached via airship; that’s as simple as purchasing a one-way ticket. Other locations must be discovered on foot, but hubs are small-scale and (in some cases) linear, meaning that traversal is simple. What’s more, Ivalice houses various ethnic groups. For instance, Fran, with her rabbit-like ears and seven-foot stature, is a Viera who hails from Eruyt Village. Other races like the Nu Mou – bipedal canines – are religious nomads. Despite being a cultural melting pot, Ivalice’s racial tensions make intermingling increasingly difficult. To see this negativity reflected in the way strangers react to Fran (and the rest of your human party for even associating with her), makes the game world feel organic and lived-in.
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The Battle System
Fans of traditional as well as modern Square Enix RPGs will find that Final Fantasy XII displays a healthy mix of turn-based and real-time combat: ATB gauges (or cooldowns) from older games make a welcome return, adding an urgency to attack input and party positioning. And a dynamic camera with real-time action makes battles feel intuitive and streamlined.
Rather than unlocking nodes on a static skill tree, progression in Final Fantasy XII is an immersive minigame. Upgrades are recorded through job licenses – spaces on a sprawling checkered board that unlock ultimates, weapon and armor sets, and stat augmentations. These licenses correlate with assigned jobs (or classes). Each job has its own board, but some may share licenses that, when purchased, overlap. For example, my Balthier is a White Mage and Machinist. Both job boards have “swiftness” licenses which lessen cooldown timers. By buying one swiftness node on the White Mage board, I can access adjacent abilities on the Machinist board.
Players can make a plethora of job combinations to stack overlapping skills and take down the game’s most fearsome bosses. With the added benefit of “gambits” – a customizable command system that programs characters to perform important actions like healing low HP allies or attacking specified targets – battles become relaxingly automated, removing the need for frustrating micromanagement.
My favorite RPGs always focus on what matters most: character-driven stories with vibrant locations and fun, captivating gameplay. In 2006, Final Fantasy XII met those standards and it continues to be one of my fondest gaming experiences. The Zodiac Age expanded upon on all the features that made the original great. And now that it’ll be available to every console player in a few weeks, I can’t help but be excited to dive into its world once again. If you love intuitive gameplay as well as the age-old “Final Fantasy formula” done right – an eccentric cast of relatable characters, an epic-scale odyssey, and grand boss fights – then Final Fantasy XII is for you!
The Zodiac Age launches for Xbox One and Switch on April 30. If you’re excited about the remaster too, watch our video detailing four things you need to know about the game in preparation for its re-release.
If you're wondering what games are coming up in 2019, we've put them all in one convenient location. This list will be continually updated to act as a living, breathing schedule as new dates are announced, titles are delayed, and big reveals happen. This should help you plan out your next several months in gaming and beyond.
New additions or changes to the list will be in bold.
As the gaming calendar is constantly changing, we highly recommend you bookmark this page. You'll likely find yourself coming back to this to find out the most recent release schedule for the most anticipated games across PC, consoles, handhelds, and mobile devices. If you notice that we've missed something, feel free to let us know! Please note that games will not get assigned to a month until they have confirmed release dates.
Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition
January
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (3DS) – January 11
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Switch) – January 11
Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – January 11
Onimusha: Warlords (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – January 15
The Walking Dead: The Final Season Episode 3, Broken Toys (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – January 15
YIIK: A Postmodern RPG (PS4, Switch, PC) – January 17
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (PS4, Xbox One) – January 18
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (Switch) – January 18
At the Gates (PC) – January 23
Life is Strange 2 Episode 2: Rules (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – January 24
Resident Evil 2 (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – January 25
Genesis Alpha One (PS4, Xbox One, PC ) – January 29
Kingdom Hearts III (PS4, Xbox One) – January 29
Penguin Wars (PS4) – January 29
Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy (Switch) – January 29
Dragon: Marked for Death (Switch) – January 31
Metro Exodus
February
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (PC) – February 1
Wargroove (Switch) – February 1
Etrian Odyssey: Nexus (3DS) – February 5
The Occupation (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – February 5
BlazBlue: Central Fiction (Switch) – February 7
God Eater 3 (PS4, PC) – February 8
Monster Energy Supercross 2 (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – February 8
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince(PS4, Switch) – February 12
Trials Rising (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – February 12
Tetris 99 (Switch) – February 13
Final Fantasy IX (Xbox One, Switch) – February 13
Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (PC) – February 14
Crackdown 3 (Xbox One, PC) – February 15
Metro Exodus (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – February 15
Far Cry: New Dawn (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – February 15
Jump Force (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – February 15
Yakuza Kiwami (PC) – February 19
Anthem (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – February 22
Dirt Rally 2.0 (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – February 26
The Lego Movie 2 (PS4, Switch, Xbox One ) – February 26
Stellaris: Console Edition (PS4, Xbox One) – February 26
Deltarune (PS4, Switch) – February 28
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
March
Awesome Pea (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, Vita) – March 1
Creepy Road (PS4, Xbox One, Switch) – March 1
Dawn of Man (PC) – March 1
Dead or Alive 6 (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – March 1
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – March 1
Treasure Stack (Xbox One, Switch) – March 1
Black Desert (Xbox One) – March 4
Doom & Destiny (PS4) – March 4
Beat Cop (Switch) – March 5
Left Alive (PS4, PC) – March 5
The Occupation (PS4, Xbox One) – March 5
Pillar (Switch) – March 5
RBI Baseball 19 (PS4, Xbox One, Switch) – March 5
Unknown Fate (Switch) – March 5
Total War: Three Kingdoms (PC) – March 7
Valley (Switch) – March 7
Devil May Cry 5 (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – March 8
Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn (3DS) – March 8
Monument Builders Rushmore (Switch) – March 8
The Caligula Effect: Overdose (PS4, Switch, PC) - March 12
The Legend of Heroes: Trials of Cold Steel – Decisive Edition (PS4) – March 12
Lego Marvel Collection (PS4, Xbox One) – March 12
MX Vs ATV All Out: Anniversary Edition (PS4, Xbox One) – March 12
Truberbrook (PC, Mac) – March 12
RICO (Switch) – March 14
Blood Waves (Switch) – March 15
The Division 2 (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – March 15
One Piece: World Seeker (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – March 15
Turok (Switch) – March 18
American Ninja Warrior Challenge (PS4, Xbox One, Switch) – March 19
Fate Extella Link (PS4, Switch) – March 19
SNK 40th Anniversary Collection (PS4, Switch) – March 19
Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy (PS4, Switch) – March 20
Peasant Knight (Switch) – March 22
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – March 22
Unravel 2 (Switch) – March 22
Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland (PS4, Switch) – March 26
Danganronpa Trilogy (PS4) – March 26
Final Fantasy VII (Xbox One, Switch) – March 26
Generation Zero (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – March 26
MLB The Show 19 (PS4) – March 26
Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World (PS4, Switch) – March 26
The Princess Guide (PS4, Switch) – March 26
The Walking Dead: The Final Season: Episode 4 (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – March 26
Yoshi's Crafted World (Switch) – March 29
Tropico 6 (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – March 29
Assassin's Creed III Remastered/Liberation Remastered (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – March 29
American Ninja Warrior (PS4, Xbox One, Switch) – March 31
Days Gone
April
Bomber Crew: Complete Edition (PS4, Switch) – April 2
Darksiders: Warmastered Edition (Switch) – April 2
Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission (Switch, PC) – April 5
Dangerous Driving (PS4, Xbox One) – April 9
Neo Atlas 1469 (Switch) – April 9
Ace Attorney Trilogy (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – April 9
Zanki Zero: Last Beginning (PS4, PC) – April 9
Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain (PS4) – April 11
Nintendo Labo: VR Kit (Switch) – April 12
Konami Arcade Classics (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – April 13
Anno 1800 (PC) – April 16
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (Xbox One, Switch) – April 16
Tanks Meet Zombies (Switch) – April 16
Wasteland 2 (Switch) – April 16
World War Z (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – April 16
Truberbrook (PS4, Xbox One, Switch) – April 17
Cuphead (Switch) – April 18
Our World Is Ended (PS4) – April 19
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (Switch) – April 23
Mortal Kombat 11 (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – April 23
SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech (Switch) – April 25
BoxBoy + BoxGirl (Switch) – April 26
Days Gone (PS4) – April 26
Super Meat Boy Forever (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, iOS, Android) – April 26
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (Xbox One, Switch) – April 30
Team Sonic Racing
May
The Legend of Heroes: Trials of Cold Steel II (PS4) – May 7
Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PC) – May 9
Life is Strange 2: Episode 3 (PS4, Xbox One, Switch) – May 9
A Plague Tale: Innocence (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – May 14
Cytus Alpha (Switch) – May 14
Rage 2 (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – May 14
Bubsy: Paws of Fire! (PS4, Switch, PC) – May 16
Steven Universe: Save the Light & OK K.O.! Bundle (PS4, Xbox One, Switch) – May 17
Team Sonic Racing (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC ) – May 21
Assassin's Creed III Remastered/Liberation Remastered (Switch) – May 21
Observation (PS4, PC) – May 21
Resident Evil (Switch) – May 21
Resident Evil 4 (Switch) – May 21
Resident Evil Zero (Switch) – May 21
Everybody's Golf VR (PS4) – May 21
Total War: Three Kingdoms (PC) – May 23
Blood + Truth (PSVR) – May 28
Little Friends: Dogs & Cats (Switch) – May 28
Labis x Labyrinth XL Limited Edition (PS4, Switch) – May 31
Trover Saves The Universe (PS4, PSVR) – May 31
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
June
The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – June 4
Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth (3DS) – June 4
Trover Saves The Universe (PC) – June 4
Warhammer: Chaosbane (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – June 4
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (PS4, Xbox One, Switch) – June 21
Judgment (PlayStation 4) – June 21
The Sinking City (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – June 27
July
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers (PS4, PC) – July 2
Dragon Quest Builders 2 (PS4, Switch) – July 12
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order (Switch) – July 19
AI: The Somnium Files (PS4, Switch, PC) – July 25
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch) – July 26
Wolfenstein: Youngblood (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – July 26
Shenmue III
August
Life is Strange 2: Episode 4 (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – August 22
Shenmue III (PS4, PC) – August 27
Control (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – August 27
Astral Chains (Switch) – August 30
September
Catherine: Full Body (PS4) – September 3
Borderlands 3 (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – September 13
Gears 5
2019 Without Confirmed Dates
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Animal Crossing (Switch)
Babylon's Fall (PS4, PC)
Battletoads (Xbox One, PC)
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)
Cadence of Hyrule (Switch)
Code Vein (PS4, Xbox One)
Concrete Genie (PS4)
Daemon x Machina (Switch)
Dangerous Driving (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Digimon Survive (PS4, Switch)
Dragon Quest XI S (Switch)
Dreams (PS4)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remastered (PS4, Switch)
Gears 5 (Xbox One, PC)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Switch)
Indivisible (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)
Journey to the Savage Planet (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Lapis x Labyrinth (PS4, Switch)
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)
Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch)
Man of Medan (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Mario Kart Tour (iOS, Android)
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order (Switch)
MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries (PC)
MediEvil (PS4)
Minecraft: Dungeons (PC)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Xbox One, PC)
The Outer Wilds (PC)
Outer Worlds (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Pokémon Sword and Shield (Switch)
Psychonauts 2 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
RPG Maker MV (PS4, Xbox One, Switch)
Samurai Shodown (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Skull & Bones (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order (Unknown)
Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch)
The Surge 2 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Town (Switch)
Twin Mirror (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Two Worlds III (Unknown)
Untitled Goose Game (Switch, PC)
Wolfenstein: Young Blood (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)
Sony Bend's biker-fueled take on the zombie freaker apocalypse has been a long time coming, and in this episode of NGT, we're taking one last spoiler-free look at the game before launch. Kato has been entrenched in Days Gone for... well, days now, and walks Leo and I through what players can expect from the final game. You'll see Kato take on freaker hordes, an enemy ripper camp, and scrounge for resources as he explains the flow of play and the importance of maintaining your bike – something that is easier said than done at times.
Days Gone launches this Friday exclusively on PlayStation 4, but you can read Kato's review on Thursday, exclusively on this very website! How do ya like them apples?! For tons more info and gameplay videos, visit our Days Gone hub, which is also exclusive but it just feels like we're bragging at this point so don't worry about that detail.
The details regarding Mortal Kombat's monetization are trickling in. At the PSN and Xbox stores Time Krystal amounts have been posted:
500 Time Krystals - $4.99
1150 Time Krystals - $9.99
2500 Time Krystals - $19.99
5600 Time Krystals - $39.99
Furthermore, Shao Kahn is available for $5.99
Original Story:
Mortal Kombat 11 features a number of modes, such as Towers of Time and the Krypt, which dole out rewards like character skins. You can get these skins in exchange for either currencies you amass by playing the game, or by completing challenges, many of which are brutally difficult even with the consumable items you can use to help make these battles easier.
We knew there would be a way to purchase some skins and possibly circumvent these grinds, but we didn't know exactly what that looked like. The premium shop for Mortal Kombat 11 is now live. Here are the initial offerings.
As you can see, you can purchase a total of five cosmetic items right now: two skins, one intro, one taunt, and one "Kombat Kard" decal (which is basically a profile background). The timers in the store indicate these items rotate out every day or so, though how random this rotation is remains unknown. Will there always only be two character skins for purchase at a time? Or could the store potentially offer five skins at some point?
Each item tells you where you could otherwise earn that specific reward, whether it's an unlockable in the Krypt, a reward in Towers of Time, or something you get from playing A.I. battles. Another question here: There aren't any skins from Towers of Time in this initial offering. Is that just a coincidence, or will those skins (which can be difficult to earn on their own) not be on the table? We'll have to wait for the items to refresh to find out.
The skins cost 500 Time Krystals, and as you can see, after playing quite a bit of the game, I'm at profile level 3, have played through the entire story mode, done a ton of the A.I. battles, completed the tutorial, and have only 570. The Jax character intro is 750 Time Krystals, so I can't even buy that one. The taunt is 200 Krystals, while the profile icon is 100. It might be somewhat telling that the most expensive thing is from Towers of Time, but again, we'll have to wait until the store refreshes to see if the mode in which you otherwise earn a reward affects its price.
You can also purchase Easy Fatality Tokens, but not Skip Fight Tokens or experience boosters (as of right now, anyway). You can get five tokens for 100 Krystals, or 40 for 500, or 100 for 1,000.
Overall, I'm a bit mixed on this particular aspect of the game. While I like that I can skip difficult Towers of Time challenges with Time Krystals to get the skin I want, I'm not necessarily doing it to save time – I'm doing it because some of those challenges are frustratingly difficult, and that shouldn't be the incentive to spend additional money on the game. I'm also bothered by the fact that you can't just purchase whatever skin you want, and instead have to wait for it to rotate in.
Another question that's still in play is price. How much do Time Krystals cost? The PlayStation Store market for the game isn't live yet, so that crucial piece of the puzzle is still missing. We'll dive into the store as soon as it's live and update this piece.
SteamWorld Quest hits this Thursday, a campy and cute traditional RPG through a fantasy-steampunk land. All of the turn-based combat takes place through cards! Join Leo Vader, Dan Tack, and Kyle Hilliard for a look at what turns the cogs in this title in this episode of New Gameplay Today!
Over the years, your options to play Dragon’s Dogma haven’t exactly been limited. It originally came out in 2012, followed by the Dark Arisen expansion a year later – and that complete package eventually got ported to PS4, Xbox One, and PC. However, if Capcom’s unique open-world RPG has been in your backlog all this time, you’re in luck! Dragon’s Dogma is available today on Switch, which means a new wave of adventures and their allies will be exploring Gransys for the first time.
If you want to start your journey off right, this guide will help you focus your attention and sort through some systems that might seem confusing at first. That way, you can avoid a few early mistakes and get the most out of your adventure. As someone who has played through Dragon’s Dogma multiple times across several consoles (including the main story of the Switch version), my goal is to provide you with spoiler-free pointers that are helpful without ruining the thrill of discovery.
1. You can change your hero later (sort of)
Lots of people (me included) spend too much time agonizing over the details on the character creation screen. You can do that here if you want to, but you are able to make adjustments later to different degrees. For instance, you can eventually change your hair, skin color, and voice at the barber shop in Gran Soren for a small fee. You can also buy a one-time option to redo the whole character creation process, including physical traits and gender. Beyond that, once you finish the main story, you can buy an item that lets you change these details as many times as you like.
2. You can change classes
As soon as you gain control of your character, you need to pick a weapon that determines your vocation (i.e. class). Beyond the three basic vocations, you soon get three advanced vocations and three hybrid vocations, and part of what makes combat in Dragon’s Dogma so fun is playing around with the different styles and seeing which ones you like. I have my personal favorites (like assassin), but no one vocation is broken to the point that it offers an unfair advantage or disadvantage. So don’t worry about it, because your weapon choice isn’t set in stone.
3. Don’t make an awful pawn
The introductory hours give you a second chance to go through character creation, this time making an A.I.-controlled pawn who will be by your side for the entire game. However, other players can add your pawn to their party (and you can add other people’s pawns to yours). Here’s my biggest piece of advice: You want other players to hire and use your pawn in their worlds, so whatever you do, don’t make something terrible. It may seem funny in the moment, but don’t give your pawn a stupid voice or a vile name – that kind of thing can get your pawn kicked back to the Rift before they can earn any good rewards, and you won’t be laughing then.
4. Hire pawns often
After you and your pawn, you have two additional party member slots to fill. You do that by entering the Rift and enlisting the pawns that other players have created. It’s an asynchronous online interaction with copied data, so you aren’t actually taking a pawn away from other players, and they aren’t taking yours. Instead, you benefit from the skills and experience the pawns have. When you dismiss a pawn, it returns to its owner with any additional knowledge (enemy weaknesses and behaviors, the next steps in quests, the routes to certain locations) it gained traveling with you.
When a pawn comes back, it also brings back Rift Crystals depending on its feats while away. This special currency has uses like purifying items in the post-game and buying certain cosmetic options. You also use them to hire pawns at higher levels than you; if your hero is level 20, you can hire a level 30 pawn, assuming you have enough Rift Crystals to cover the cost. However, hiring pawns at your level (or lower) is always free, and because visiting pawns never level up when they are with you, you should be cycling through them regularly to ensure you are ready for tough fights.
You want your pawn hired because it comes back with Rift Crystals and knowledge, and you want to hire other people’s pawns because they make your party stronger in battle and their knowledge helps in quests. Everyone wins!
5. Give pawns good ratings and gifts
When you send a pawn back, you have the option to give it a rating, add a comment, and choose a gift. Why not use this opportunity to put some positivity out into the world? If you had a good experience with a pawn, take the extra few seconds to bump those default 3-star ratings up to 5-star ratings. Choose a nice message. Don’t send trash gifts like a rotten apples or small nuts. Make other players feel proud of their pawns when they return! Unless, of course, the pawn has a stupid voice or a vile name (see point 3 above).
6. Get to Gran Soren soon
Gran Soren is the capital city, and it’s where you find most of the merchants, quest-givers, and other items of interest for your journey. The sooner you arrive (through the quest “Off with its Head”), the sooner you can dig into the meat of Dragon’s Dogma. Though you shouldn’t necessarily rush to get there (see my next point), don’t feel like you should finish 100% of the activities in Cassardis or the encampment before moving on.
7. Quests can expire
If you’re a completionist, you should consider playing Dragon’s Dogma with a guide that lays out where and when to complete various sidequests. That’s because your optional tasks eventually expire (and automatically fail) as you cross different thresholds in the main story. For example, a few early sidequests you pick up in Cassardis might be gone forever if you advance to Gran Soren without completing them. Even if that happens, don’t sweat it; you can enjoy this game without getting every little reward. But if you’re planning to clean up all the quests you missed in the post-game…well, that won’t work in Dragon’s Dogma. You need to finish them as you go or not at all.
8. Store, don’t sell
You’re going to find a lot a weird stuff in Gransys: monster parts and sour meat and plants and skulls and other questionable loot. How much of that stuff should you sell off? To be safe, you should just keep it all. A lot of that seemingly useless junk is used to enhance weapons and armor, and you have plenty of room to keep it in storage. Plus, you never know when you’ll pick up a random quest like “collect 66 skulls.” If really need the money, the first things to sell are any gold weapons – they aren’t great in combat, but they fetch a lot of coin.
9. Check your storage
Once you make it to Gran Soren, you will find a variety of items already waiting in your storage (just talk to the innkeeper). Several of them are powerful bonus items added to the game after its initial release, like the set of queen’s clothing, or the vagabond’s armor. You can choose to equip these or not; they are more powerful than anything you will find during most of your first playthrough, so be warned that you will rarely get the thrill of opening a chest and finding gear better than what you are wearing. However, one item in storage you absolutely should not ignore is the eternal ferrystone. The next point is all about how to use that.
10. How fast-travel works
The eternal ferrystone is how you fast-travel around Gransys, and you use it like you use healing items or a lantern; you press “–” to open up your item menu, the select the eternal ferrystone from the Tools category and choose “use.” This lets you warp to any portcrystal placed around the world as many times as you want. However, when you start, only two portcrystals are available – one in Gran Soren, and one outside Cassardis. To make other areas of the huge map more easily accessible, you need to 1) find additional portcrystals, and 2) place them manually at the places you want for fast-travel points. This convenience puts portcrystals among the most desirable items in the whole game, but they’re also rare. Finding and placing them as soon as possible will cut down on a lot of frustration later.
As a side note: In the original version before Dark Arisen, you didn’t have one ferrystone you could use infinitely. Instead, you expended single-use items that you needed to restock. These vestigial ferrystones are still in the game, but you should never need to use them; you can safely ignore, sell, or store all of them.
11. Don’t go to Bitterblack Isle…yet
Bitterblack Isle was the new area added in the Dark Arisen expansion. Even though a quest points you there early on, you can’t actually do anything useful or interesting there until much later. If you’re curious, go ahead and check it out, but don’t feel bad if you can’t make progress. It’s intended for late-game characters.
12. Long load times on Switch? Try going offline
Generally, the Switch version of Dragon’s Dogma performs fine on the technical front. My only major complaint is how long it takes to access the server – something that happens every time you stay at an inn or enter the Rift. During that time, the game is uploading your pawn’s current data (level, vocation, skills, etc), or pulling down other players’ pawn data. If you’re sick of sitting through the long wait every time you rest, you can just play the game in offline mode. Press “+” and go to Options, then go to the Gameplay tab and change the Connectivity to “offline.” That fixes the “Accessing server” problem, so your inn stays are essentially instantaneous. However, trading pawns is a big part of Dragon’s Dogma, and going offline robs you of that fun, because it means you only get computer-generated (not player-generated) pawns. So, I suggest only being a part-time offline player, getting connected again when you want to upload your pawn’s new data, hire new allies, or collect rewards from your pawn's adventures. In those cases, you can set Connectivity back to “online,” take care of your business, and then go offline again to keep things moving.
Believe it or not, all of this is only scratching the surface of things to do and discover in Dragon’s Dogma. Advanced strategies, surprising quest outcomes, and the joys of item-forging are just a few of the things to check out once you get familiar with the unique systems and gameplay. And then you can take everything you’ve learned into new game+ and do it all over again!
Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is available today on Nintendo Switch for $30. The game is also available on PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.
Madden NFL 19 wasn't a highlight for the franchise, with gamers unsatisfied with the title's gameplay and bugs marring the experience well beyond launch. This has created a tall task for developer EA Tiburon: How to address issues from last year (and even further back) as well as adding new wrinkles for the next edition.
Where to start on such a formidable job? Here are some of our ideas, and please add yours down in the comments section below.
GAMEPLAY
Clean Up The Gameplay
Madden 19 was rife with bugs, including bad fumble pickups, player warping, tackles/touchdowns/catches not registering, scores not adding up correctly, and more. EA Tiburon can't release Madden 20 in a poor state and then try to fix it after the fact. These bugs – and others – need to be cleaned up before the game goes live.
Smooth Transition Animations
Animations and the transitions between them need to not only look smooth, but also make sense. Madden 19 didn't always do a great job of this, leading to things like suction catches and running backs feeling like they're automatically getting tackled behind the line of scrimmage as soon as the ball has snapped. Last year's Real Player Motion (RPM) movement system needs to produce more fluid animations and realistic moves.
Finally Fix Blocking
Blocking has been addressed in recent years, but we're still seeing offensive linemen ignore defenders as they charge by unabated. They should at least register the defender and stick an arm out or react in some way even if they can't make an actual block.
Add Initial Burst To Running Backs
Running behind the line of scrimmage shouldn't feel slower than when you hit the hole and go past the line of scrimmage. In past Maddens, they feel like two different states.
Redesign The Injury System
The injury system in Madden 19 was maddening, with the same players experiencing game-ending injuries week after week. Tiburon should rework the injury system to make it more realistic and present more risk/reward related to starting injured players. Persistent damage like NBA 2K's would be great, and become a factor as you weigh resigning a player or ranking free agents.
Nerf The Spin Move
After years of being worthless, in Madden 19 the spin move came back with a vengeance, so much so that it feels too overpowered and predominant. Tiburon should retain its usefulness, but reign in the situations where it's effective.
Accentuate Player Differentiation
Players need to feel more different from each other so you can feel their strengths and weaknesses. This should extend to tweaking A.I. stat lines so stars like Drew Brees or running quarterbacks don't produce mediocre stats game in and game out.
Give The A.I. Better Intelligence
Playing the CPU has lost a lot of its luster over the years because it always feels like you're playing the same team. EA should fix A.I. playcalling so it's more varied, related to the situation, and team-specific.
Add The Run-Pass Option
The run/pass option (RPO) that the Eagles made famous on their way to their Super Bowl victory couldn't be implemented last year, so it needs to be in Madden 20.
Bring Back Custom Playbooks
The rigidness of the current Madden playbooks creates a me-too online experience where most people are employing the same few schemes. We'd like to see EA embrace differentiation by letting users build their own offensive and defensive systems.
Add More Challenges
Players need to be able to call challenges for a variety of situations and the CPU needs to award the correct decision. For years the option has simply been greyed out in the pause menu even when you should be able to challenge.
FRANCHISE
Rework Scheme Fit Logic
Madden 19 introduced a new scheme system that governed how players progressed. Unfortunately, it also brought along new problems. As such, multi-dimensional players shouldn't be punished for not fitting into the mode's pre-set schemes, instead favoring a rating threshold for receiving the XP boost. Overall, the system should open up more to let users create the team they want according to their roster's strengths rather than relying on rigid templates.
Give Free Agency The Makeover It Desperately Needs
Free agency should add the pre-free agency "legal tampering" period where teams and soon-to-be free agents negotiate backroom deals. This could introduce drama to the game's free agency – like Anthony Barr's last-second change of heart to shun the Jets and return to the Vikings – and help make this a vital part of the offseason. Franchise mode could even include free agent scouting and negotiation resources to give you more to think about.
Expand Relocation Options
The selection for relocation cities is woefully underdeveloped. We'd love to see this field expanded to see more variety.
Deliver More Stadium Customization
Whether you are relocating to a new city or upgrading your current facilities, we'd love to see a robust stadium editor to let players develop a true home-field advantage.
Bring Back The Coaching Carousel
NFL coaches move around the league frequently, changing the fortunes of franchises year in and out. We'd love to see offensive and defensive coordinators return to prominence in Madden. Teams with great offenses or defenses should risk losing these coordinators just like real NFL teams do, which could feed into an exciting coaching carousel. At a minimum, the coordinator signing bug needs to be fixed so you can't leave the offseason without them.
Give GMs A More Flexible Contract System
Fitting your team under the cap is a huge part of constructing a roster in the NFL, and Madden needs better more options on this front (restricted free agents, fifth-year options, contract restructures for underperforming players, front/backloading, etc.) to give GMs all the tools they need to run their franchises.
Bring Back Mystery To Talent Evaluation
Once you understand the scouting system in modern Madden games, it's easy to game the system. EA needs to add more ambiguity to scouting/rating reveals so drafts become more unpredictable. Similarly, current player comparisons and more prospect news during the season would help flesh out these players and add intrigue to the draft. Anything to get more flavor on the players in general.
Dress Up Draft Day
Madden 19 added a slightly new draft presentation, but more pageantry is always welcome. EA also has some practical matters to improve. For instance, managing trades during the draft needs to be easier to navigate and less buggy so your offers produce real counter-offers.
Add Player Morale
A player morale system would make teams and locker rooms more dynamic, and put pressure on gamers to make the right choices for their team. It could also play a significant role in free agency, with certain players willing to pass on the biggest money offer to play for a winner, wanting to play closer to their hometown late in their career, etc.
Track League History
Those who play franchise modes deep into multiple decades would love to have a comprehensive tracking system that keeps track of all the league's history, from stats and award winners to draft busts and gems. Being able to look back at your whiffs and scores for certain drafts would be amazing.
Add League Discipline
We don't expect EA to touch serious topics like players being suspended for domestic abuse or performance enhancing drugs, but perhaps red-flagged players can be suspended for unspecific reasons.
ULTIMATE TEAM
Don't introduce promos that have an extra currency (beyond points, coins, and training points) and reduce the value of items.
Install a Practice Mode
Rather than making a player venture into the competition to test out new roster lineups, we'd love for EA to add a practice mode so you can see how your current lineup functions/meshes.
Speed Up the Solo Challenge Experience
The grind for coinage can be even grindier thanks to all the aggressive loads. Being able to load into the next Solo challenge in the series without having to go back to the Solo’s menu would be a godsend.
Add Auction Relisting
If you've tried to sell an item in the Auction House and it doesn't sell, you should be able to put it up again for the previously listed price. This way you don't have to re-input the price – especially if you're selling lots of cards and don't always remember what you've tried to sell them for.
Create Better Auction Pricing Guidelines
Like MLB the Show 19, adding buttons to sell a card for its current low/average/high price in the marketplace would be a nice shortcut/starting point.
Bring Team Customization To MUT
MUT is a fantasy mode that allows you to build unimaginable super teams. Why not let us make super jerseys and custom logos as well?
Clean Up Collection Interface
Managing your cards could be made a lot easier with some user interface improvements. When adding players to sets, players ineligible for the set should not be selectable.
Make The Marketplace An Even Playing Field
No packs should be available only for real-money points in the store. Everything should be purchasable with coins even if it costs more than using points.
CAREER MODE
Add A Real Career Mode
With The Longshot story mode concluded, Madden needs to bolster its Be a Pro options in CFM to compete with what rival NBA 2K has been doing with its player career mode. It is filled with choice, progression, and a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a professional athlete. The NFL has a lot of rich stories to tell, too, that give players agency over their career trajectory at the same time.
Planet Zoo is an upcoming management sim by Frontier Developments, the company behind Planet Coaster. We recently got to watch a 15 minute demo of the game in action and came away rather impressed by Frontier's ambitions and the promise of their take on running a zoo and caring for its animals.
Here's why we're excited to play the game when it releases this Fall.
The Developer Knows The Genre Well
If you haven't played Planet Coaster, but loved management sims like Rollercoaster Tycoon and Zoo Tycoon, you should give it a go. Frontier Developments showcased the it knows how to bring the park sim into the next generation by striking a fine balance between meticulous management and wacky shenanigans, and we look forward to seeing the result with Planet Zoo.
The Animals Are Impressive
The occupants of your zoo are more than just units you have to care for. Frontier is working hard to make sure each individual animal stands out, with genomes affecting major things like behavior to small details such as coat patterns. Every species of animal reacts realistically to their real-world counterpart, with wolves following a pack mentality while other species might just go off and do their own thing.
You'll need to do more than feed your animals to take care of them. Every animal has different needs you'll need to respond to in some fashion. Do you have a zoo in the desert? You'll need to build cooling pads beneath the floor of your timberwolves' den (not to mention power generators) to accommodate them as well as shelters for your lions to hide in during storms. Hippos will need deeper ponds than other species so they can swim and bathe, and so on. There's more than enough here to keep nitty gritty management fanatics excited.
The Game Looks Beautiful
Whether you're watching everyone explore your park from a distance or you're zoomed into a patch of fur on one of your lions, everything looks realistic and colorfully vibrant. The visuals here really pop everywhere you look.
A Story Mode
One of the biggest criticisms directed at Planet Coaster was the lack of a substantial campaign or story mode. Frontier Developments wouldn't go into details about what Planet Zoo's story mode is about but the developer did say there would be one, which will hopefully delight those in search of a narrative reason to become the best zookeeper possible.
Seasonal events, like Overwatch's Halloween Terror, are great ways for developers to rope back in players who've moved onto other games.
Photo by InSapphoWeTrust / CC BY-SA 2.0
On the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969, police raided New York's Stonewall Inn to arrest patrons on the grounds of sexual orientation, which quickly escalated into a riot.
Pride costumes are colorful and exuberant and would lend themselves well as skins for seasonal events, just like the skins players unlock in Overwatch's Winter Wonderland.
EDM superstar Marshmello recently hosted a full-fledged concert in Fortnite, turning Pleasant Park into a phantasmagoria of flashing lights and pulse-pounding beat drops. Is a Pride celebration really such a stretch?
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