Posts

Marvel’s Avengers is the new game from Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics, and co-developer Eidos Montreal. Playable solo offline or in online co-op for up to four players, Avengers is the first real AAA attempt to bring Marvel’s iconic team to the realm of third-person action games. I like to think of it as a third-person version of the amazing, but ill-fated Marvel Heroes. We played the beta ahead of its launch, and it reminded us of Anthem....

Indulge me to open this review with a question and an answer. Can you talk about a video game without talking about other video games? Most of the time, I think the answer is yes - but every now and then a game comes along that simply cannot be divorced from its influences and context. Guardians of the Galaxy is one such game. In the case of GotG, that ‘other game’ is primarily Marvel’s Avengers, last year’s prestige action and game-as-service cross-over, that was clearly lavish in expense and vision but lacking in heart and execution....

As I replay the trilogy in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, I’m doing something I haven’t really done in earnest for a long time: achievement hunting. Back in the Xbox 360 era, I was more serious about this whole activity. I would regularly pick up 1000 Gamerscore in games I only liked a little bit - I was an achievement completionist. Sometimes, I’d seek out totally crap games with the sole aim of picking up their achievements....

The December update will go live today at 10am PT, 1pm ET, 6pm UK on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The biggest new addition is the official arrival of offline campaign progression, allowing players to play the full campaign - and make progress - without needing an internet connection. This is something many have been asking for since launch. The patch also introduces a new card type....

Tech giant Microsoft has enlisted some big names to encourage children to start coding. Revealed in a post on its website, the firm announced that it is teaming up with Warner Bros. around its upcoming Space Jam: A New Legacy movie to help get kids coding. The company is running a variety of initiatives to encourage this, including virtual workshops hosted by Microsoft Stores. The firm says that these are designed for kids as young as eight and will run for about 90 minutes each....

Yes, goats are coming to Minecraft with the Caves and Cliffs update, and they are super cute. Announced during Minecraft Live today, the update is being made to the cave and mountain system with improved cave generation and features things like “lush caves and dripstone caves.” There will also be a brand new archeology system adding a sense of a history element to the game, and you can expect to see new crystals in the caves....

This has been a sticking point ever since players first got their hands on the game during the beta, and it has continued at launch and to this day. Although Infinity Ward made several smaller tweaks, and fixed a few bugs that exacerbated the experience further during the beta, the current version of the Modern Warfare 2 UI remains unintuitive, clunky, and often stands in the way of players getting to what they want to get to....

The objective is simple: you and your team breach and clear a sleepy suburban residence as efficiently as possible. But it’s the murkiness that makes it. The battle lines aren’t clear. The house is filled with combatants and civilians, but they all look like ordinary people and it’s up to you to distinguish between threats and people who are just scared. Who is diving for a gun and who is diving for a baby?...

Once you’ve cleared a certain number of missions, you will be able to take on the Rampage; a game mode that sees multiple monsters rush you at once. In order to protect the village, you will need to keep the horde at bay by installing siege weapons and employing the help of villagers. It looks like the Rampage will break up the usual hunt-’em-down-and-fight-’em structure of the game, and appear to create pretty big setpieces that’ll prove to be a significant challenge for the unprepared....

Naughty Dog, the studio mostly known for its award-winning single-player, story-based games, is apparently working on a multiplayer project. So big, in fact, that the developer wants to do in-game economy right. At least, that’s what we can glean from this job ad. Spotted by Gamespot, the job opening is specifically for a multiplayer economy designer, who’s going to be responsible for creating a meaningful reward system for players and ensure the game remains engaging for a long time....

It looks like Netflix really is hungry for all the gaming content it can get. Further to shows based on gaming IP like Castlevania, Resident Evil, and The Witcher, Variety reports that the streaming giant is also working on a live-action Pokemon series. “As the project is still in its early days, no details are available about the plot,” says the site, though it does note that Joe Henderson is attached to write and executive produce....

TiMi Studios, a subsidiary of Tencent Games, has announced a yet-to-be-named mobile game for the Metal Slug franchise. Currently going by Metal Slug: Code J, the game is in development through a partnership with SNK Games. Additional information was not provided, but a teaser trailer is posted below. Originally developed for the Neo-Geo arcade machines and home consoles, the Metal Slug series first launched in 1996.

The base level of the service, PS Plus Essentials, will cost $9.99/€8.99/£6.99 a month (or $24.99/€24.99/£19.99 per three months, or $59.99/€59.99/£49.99 per year) and is effectively the same as PS Plus. The next band up – PS Plus Extra – includes all the benefits you get with PlayStation Plus, as well as a library of 400 PS4 and PS5 games that can be downloaded to your consoles. Marquee PlayStation games like Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, God of War, Returnal, Mortal Kombat 11 and Death Stranding will be available as part of this tier (similarly to PlayStation Now, at the moment)....

In New Pokemon Snap, you will visit various isles of the Lental region, each with diverse ecosystems such as jungles and deserts. The region is packed with over 200 Pokemon waiting to be discovered. As someone just starting out as a Pokemon photographer, you will be working with a Lental region expert named Professor Mirror. You will accompany him and his assistant, Rita, on an ecological survey to photograph Pokemon in nature....

A new report from Bloomberg has revealed yet more details about Nintendo’s unannounced, upcoming Switch model. The new Switch refresh, which may be called Switch Pro, will make use of one of Nvidia’s killer technologies. That, of course, being DLSS, the upscaling tech that takes a lower-resolution image, runs it through machine learning, and ends up with a much higher-resolution result. DLSS has seen two generations on PC, the only other platform where it’s currently in use....

Soccer Story is full of knowing one-liners and little in-jokes, and the game’s entire premise is just as out-there. Football has been banned, meaning no one can just pick up a ball and kick it. It’s outlawed. Soccer Inc has taken full control of the sport, meaning kids can’t just play football with each other, local teams have ceased to be, and no one has seen a football in the flesh for a year....

The Nintendo Direct Mini Partner Showcase gave a look at 12 games coming to Switch. During the presentation, Just Dance 2021 was shown off. It will contain 40 new tracks, and co-op mode when it releases on November 12. We were also given a look at the free-to-play online multiplayer title World of Tanks Blitz. In it, you will pilot more than 350 unique combat vehicles such as historically accurate vehicles, experimental tanks based on blueprints of famous engineers, armored monsters from popular alternative universes, and more....

There’s been a lot of he-said, she-said, they-said this past week, with reports of the supposed Direct airing this week, then getting delayed, then not getting delayed, and now finally it’s confirmed that it will be streamed on the official Nintendo YouTube channel at 3pm BST/ 4pm CEST/ 10am EST. The Direct will apparently feature “roughly 40 minutes of information mostly focused on Nintendo Switch games launching this winter.” Seeing as winter runs from December to March, don’t expect everything that is shown off to be coming out in just December....

An additional 140,000 Nintendo Network ID (NNID) accounts have been compromised since the 160,000 Nintendo reported in April. According to Nintendo Japan, as a result of continuing the investigation, the company found more accounts than previously thought had been accessed maliciously. This brings the total to 300,000 (via IGN). It has since reset the passwords for the additional 140,000 NNIDs and the accounts linked with the IDs. “Less than 1% of all NNIDs around the world that may have been illegally logged in may have actually been fraudulently traded through their Nintendo account, " said Nintendo....

That said, the situation is still very much the same as it was over the last couple of weeks. While stock levels are starting to return to normal in the UK, over in the US we’re still seeing consoles sell out incredibly quickly. Either way, your best option is to grab a Switch as soon as you spot it or risk watching the console sell out once again. The good news, though, is that we’ve actually seen a handful of Switch bundle deals over the last few days....