In this city, one hope shines through the night: The Gamesline Podcast starring John, Rose, Lilith, and Nikolas! John enters the pastoral world of Pokopia while also returning to Raccoon City in Resident Evil 9. Rose played many games, including Resident Evil 9, Nioh 3, Marathon, Slay the Spire 2, Trails Beyond the Horizon, and Mewgenics! Lily played ULTRAKILL Layer 8: Fraud, Trails to Azure, Monster Hunter Rise and numerous Next Fest demos, including Annihilated, Cicadamata, and Firestarters. Finally, Nikolas has also been playing ULTRAKILL and Mewgenics!

In the news, Nagoshi Studio is in danger of shuttering, Nintendo is suing the US government over tariffs, PlayStation isn’t going PC ports anymore, Xbox is officially making a new console, Pokemon Winds and Waves was announced, Highguard is shutting down, a new Hunter: The Reckoning game was accidentally revealed, and Cookie’s Bustle is free from spurious copyright claims.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on social media @gamesline.net, John, Rose, Lilith, and Nikolas.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, and tell a friend about the show!

If you want to send in questions, send them to our email podcast@gamesline.net!

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Edited by Crystal with video production by John

The post The Gamesline Podcast Episode 84: Cookie is Free appeared first on Gamesline.

While gamescom has overtaken the crux of major video announcements, several other sudden surprises and unsurprising slops have also taken space on the newspaper stand.

Gamescom Big Gains

gamescom 2024 is still ongoing into the weekend, and you can catch up with our roundup of opening night’s announcements here! But a big crux of the annual convention’s major programming has reached its climax with its award show with the following winners:

• Monster Hunter Wilds for Best Trailer, Most Epic, Most Entertaining, and Best PlayStation Game
• Little Nightmares 3 for Audio, Visuals, and Best Xbox Game
• Genshin Impact for Best Mobile Game
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 for Best PC Game
• Frostpunk 2 for Gameplay
• Tavern Talk for Most Wholesome
• Creatures of Ava for Games for Impact
• Microsoft / Xbox / Bethesda / Blizzard for Best of Show Floor

Tango Gameworks Dances Again

In a sudden turn of events, games studio Tango Gameworks has been taken over by publisher of PUBG: Battlegrounds, Krafton, with full intent on resuming all work activities as norm and ambition to further continue the Hi-Fi Rush IP.

The Hi-Fi Rush developer was founded by Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami and went on to be acquired by ZeniMax Media, in turn, later getting folded over into Microsoft. News that Tango Gameworks was to be shuttered erupted back in late spring.

Packing Up Camp

Meanwhile, the bell tolls for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp—and certainly not those kinds of Bells—and it has been announced that services for the mobile game will end November this year.

That said, Nintendo has further elaborated they intend on releasing a paid, offline version of the game, and Pocket Camp players will be able to transfer their data from the original game.

In other news…

Steam now has a new feature in reviews to indicated if a reviewer has played the title extensively on the Steam Deck.

While among several of the lineup of announcements made at gamescom 2024, developer Warhorse Studios emphasizes that Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will not be released until the first quarter of next year on February 11, 2025.

In the midst of another wave of SAG-AFTRA strikes that has now evoked a rally for video game actors, Amazon Games CEO Christopher Hartmann claims that games “don’t really have acting“.

The Backyard Sports video game franchise is being rebooted.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios has unveiled a 60-day plan to address player complaints.

John Carpenter is reportedly heavily involved in the production of a new Halloween game, to be developed on Unreal Engine 5.

Final Fantasy XVI is now up for preorder on both the Epic Games Store and Steam. The game is due out September 17th, and a demo is available now. Meanwhile, a rumor also suggests that game will also soon find itself on the Xbox.

To no one’s shock, the Borderlands movie flopped at the box office. You can still get the Claptrap popcorn bucket watching something else though! (while supplies last)

And finally, United States Vice President candidate for the Democratic party Tim Walz was apparently a huge Dreamcast gamer, to the point his wife had to hide the console away from him.

The post The Bulletin: Not the Last Dance appeared first on Gamesline.

Call of Duty trailer. Set in the early 90’s. Everything is launching on all consoles with all content, and Black Ops 6 is going to be on Game Pass.

Doom: The Dark Ages! 2025. Set in a medieval kind of era. Tons of new weapons, a shield, and riding dragons.

State of Decay 3 trailer, mix of CG and maybe gameplay, maybe not, hard to tell. No release date.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard. New characters, CG trailer setting the scene. Fall 2024.

Starfield DLC, looks very horror themed. “Shattered Space”. Coming this year. Also new content added tonight.

Fallout 76 update. Set in Appalachia. Big new map expansion. Includes Vault 63. Skyline Valley’s the name of the place. You can also play as a ghoul in 2025. Skyline Valley is dropping on Wednesday.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from Sandfall Interactive. Turn based RPG about a group of people trying to stop a sorceress who kills everyone after every year. 2025.

South of Midnight. Compulsion Games. Animated like Spider-verse, but it doesn’t work as well in a game. 2025.

World of Warcraft expansion. Very introspective trailer. The War Within. August 26th 2024.

Metal Gear Solid Delta. David Hayter’s doing Snake’s voice here. There’s mud disguises, which is new.

Sea of Thieves will now let you be evil, have a stronger warship, have skeletons on your team. Season 13, July 25th.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. Releasing July 18th 2024. Souls-lite with a little critter companion.

Age of Mythology: Retold. September 4th 2024.

Perfect Dark from The Initiative. Joanna’s got detective abilities. You can scan people’s voice and information. Does look pretty slick, but where’s the alien… No release date, but it’ll be on Game Pass.

Diablo IV update, Vessel of Hatred. October 8th. Very messed up evil trailer.

Fable from Playground Games. Shows some gameplay! Looks pretty fun. 2025.

Fragpunk, 5v5 hero shooter where you can pop effects to change the game as you go.

Pine Creek Games with a mouse. Survival, crafting, rebuild the mouse society. Winter Burrow. Early 2025.

Annapurna Interactive game, developed by Beethoven and Dinosaur, the people who made Artful Escape. They got a bunch of 80’s and 90’s music. Mixtape, due out in 2025.

Microsoft Flight Sim update, commercial flight modes added, do a variety of careers like agricultural, search and rescue, and more. Hot air balloons as well. November 19th 2024.

Elder Scrolls Online. Ten year anniversary celebration. All DLC free for a limited time, new expansion Gold Road June 18th.

Life is Strange new entry. Dimension hopping. Made by Deck Nine. Starring Max from the first one. Double Exposure coming October 29th.

Indiana Jones from MachineGames. It looks exactly what you’d expect. Fist fighting, world traversing, historical mystery, Nazi killing. Fun chase scene. Nailed the vibe! 2024.

Mech battle game, very fast and action packed. Macross style transforming. Mecha Break. 2025.

Wuchang Fallen Feathers from 505 Games, Soulslike game, very slick. 2025.

Obsidian game, Avowed. It’s a first person fantasy game! It’s what you want! 2024.

Atomfall from Rebellion. European village with evil experiments happening under it. 2025.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows, cool ninja lady and Yasuke! Looks pretty slick for Assassin’s Creed. November 12th.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl. September 5th.

New all digital Series X, and it’s white. Out this holiday.

Gears of War E-Day. Prequel based on when the Locust first attacked. No release date.

There’s a Call of Duty Direct after but I am not watching it.

The post Bulletin+: Xbox Showcase 2024 appeared first on Gamesline.

Howdy, Partners

Microsoft’s announcement last week that four of their games would be coming to other consoles came true, as both Grounded and Pentiment were confirmed for Switch andPlaystation consoles. (While Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves were announced for the PS5.

Epic Mickey is being remastered for Switch, Playstation, Xbox, and PC, with new visuals and updated gameplay. No release date was confirmed.

The original Monster Hunter Stories game, originally a 3DS exclusive, is getting remastered for Switch, PS4, and PC this Summer.

A new game in the Ender Lilies universe, Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist, was announced for this year.

Gundam Breaker 4 will release this year for Switch, Playstation, and PC.

Sega’s releasing a new Super Monkey Ball, Banana Rumble, with four player co-op and 16 player battle race modes. This will be Switch exclusive and launches June 25th.

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, is confirmed for October 10th. We can accept this Nintendo Direct farm game representation.

Suika Game, the viral puzzler, is getting a new multiplayer mode. Local mode is available now, and online multiplayer will release later. It is paid DLC, and a bundle of the DLC and the base game is available.

Shin Megami Tensei V is getting a new version, subtitled Vengeance. This new version will have a brand new route that splits right at the start of the game, adds another 80 hours of gameplay, and has updates to demon interaction. It’ll be out on Switch, but will also be getting released on Playstation, Xbox, and PC, and maybe finally run at a good frame rate.

Penny’s Big Breakaway, the 3D platformer via ex-Sonic Mania devs, is out now! (Right friggin’ now!) It’s available on all consoles.

A release of Star Wars Battlefront has been announced that bundles both of the classic original titles into one! There are new characters and maps as well, plus 64-player matches. This will be hitting every console and PC as well.

Game Freak’s 3DS sleeper hit Pocket Card Jockey got a Switch port available now. It’s really good, if you like card games, please check it out!

Switch Online’s classic games got an update, with five Rare titles added. Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll, R.C. Pro-Am, Battletoads in Battlemaniacs, Killer Instinct, and Blast Corps. are all available today. In Japan, the GBA Switch Online roster got MOTHER 3. Keep dreaming, MOTHER fans. Maybe some day. (Just go replay the fan translation, John knows he will.)

Another Japan exclusive (so far) announcement was the RPG REYNATIS from FuRyu. Its staff is absolutely packed, and John agree with the below Tweet—this better get localized.

The last announcement was a new Endless Ocean, subtitled Luminous. The old Wii games were a delight for the senses, so we are sure this will be a treat as well. There will even be up to 30 player multiplayer as well. It drops May 2nd.

There were a few other reveals, such as a date for the new Contra and Aggro Crab’s new Crab-based Soulslike, so check the rest of the Direct here.

Other Reveals

IGN also had a few reveals lined up, mostly trailers for previously announced games. However, the big new announcement was a port of the Game Boy Advance title Ninja Five-O. This is exciting, as Ninja Five-O is a solid title that many haven’t experienced due to its massive aftermarket price. Now more people will be able to experience this fun title thanks to Limited Run.

Beloved MOBA Gigantic is coming back—this time as a $20 release. The Rampage Edition will release April 9th, with a closed beta starting today.

The League of Legends fighting game, previously known by the codename Project L, is officially named….2XKO. Pronounced with each letter/number separately. Two Ecks Kay Oh. What’re we doing?

Tekken 8’s developers confirm that the game will soon receive a microtransactions shop, certainly concerning players.

The Borderlands movie got its first trailer. We’re sorry for showing you this, but news is news—and this isn’t even the worst bite this week! At least Jamie Lee Curtis gets to cosplay.

Elden Ring‘s expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, has been confirmed to release June 21st. New weapons, areas, and characters were shown off in the below trailer.

Continuing Losses

Creator of Suikoden and director of its spiritual successor Eiyuden Chronicle Yoshitaka Murayama passed away on February 6th. He was 55 years old.

Toys for Bob, the Activision subsidiary behind the recent Spyro and Crash games, laid off 36 people. Rumors said the entire studio shut down, but instead they cut around a third of their staff and went fully remote. This followed the massive 1,900 layoffs Microsoft enacted throughout their gaming sphere after the Activision acquisition went through.

Nijisanji EN vtuber Selen Tatsuki was publicly fired after a lengthy absence, which was revealed to have been due to a self harm. Now rebranded as Dokibird, she has re-entered the Vtuber space and has regained success. Nijisanji released multiple statements on the matter, but only ended up fueling further anger at them.

Kazumasa Habu has stepped down as producer of Digimon titles at Bandai Namco. There is still a new Digimon Story game in development without his involvement.

Mane6, developers of indie fighting game Them’s Fightin’ Herds, were fired from development on the game while mid-quality assurance for the last two characters in their season pass. The characters were released in an unbalanced, broken, buggy state, and it has been confirmed that further development is not planned. Promised story mode additions will not be made.

Maximum Entertainment, the current owner of the Them’s Fightin’ Herds IP, is ending active development on the fan-inspired My Little Pony fighting game, reportedly shifting their focus onto an Avatar: The Last Airbender 2D fighting game set for 2025 and Diesel Legacy, set for this year.

In other news…

Larian Studios achieves several more wins from the 27th D.I.C.E. Awards, ending on a high note by ultimately winning another Game of the Year award for Baldur’s Gate 3. Unlike the limitations that they dealt with at The Game Awards, the recipients were able to take their time in their winning speech to call out the current melancholic and unsustainable state of the games industry.

Hosts of the show this year, Greg Miller of Kinda Funny Games and Stella Chung, were also not privy to holding back on cracking scathing jokes against executives who were in attendance.

Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 also walks away from the 51st Annie Awards winning Best Character Animation in a Video Game.

2B from Nier: Automata has been released as a playable fighter in Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising.

Lady Gaga has come to Fortnite, with her music being added to the Festival mode and a new skin so you can play as Mother Monster and shoot Peter Griffin.

IGN’s Creators Guild has been voluntarily recognized by Ziff Davis. There’s still more work to be done by the union, but this is a huge step in the right direction.

And finally, a beta version of Hotel Mario has been found by YouTuber Game Pak Rat at a thrift store. This beta has unused dialogue and clear versions of old speech, meaning YouTube Poop just got DLC, baby.

The post The Bulletin: Nintendo News and Borderlands Blues appeared first on Gamesline.

Developers Were Direct In Xbox’s New Showcase

Microsoft’s Xbox Developer Direct showed off updates on a few new titles. We got our first look at MachineGames’ Indiana Jones game, The Great Circle, that’s coming out this year surprisingly.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II got its release date, dropping May 21st.

Obsidian’s next RPG epic, Avowed, is confirmed for Fall this year. There was a “deep dive” on the game shown at the Direct.

Square Enix showed up to talk Visions of Mana, the next Mana title after a decade. They also showed off a nice chunk of new info.

And finally, Ara: History Untold, a Civilization-like game made by people who worked on the classic series.

2024 is Already Rocky in the Layoffs Department

A variety of layoffs have transpired in the past while, including

• Discord laying off 17% of their staff.
• Google has released “hundreds” of staff from their Google Assistant team.
• Behaviour Interactive of Dead by Daylight fame has cut “around 45 people”.
• Unity laid off 1,800 staff even after releases in November last year.
• Twitch laid off 35% of their staff, following multiple layoffs last year.

Layoffs continue to happen at an intense rate in our industry, and most of it can be attributed to poor management and overhiring.

And Yet, Games Continue to be Made

Even though they let go of a few people, Behaviour Interactive was also able to put out a new season of Dead by Daylight content. This time around, famous writer Alan Wake will be joining the game as a survivor.

Xbox and PC exclusive Hi-Fi Rush has been rated for Xbox One, PS4, and Switch.

The Golden Sun GBA games have been added to Switch Online + Expansion Pack.

Sometimes Good Things Happen!

NCSOFT, rights holders of City of Heroes, have given full license to Homecoming, a CoH fan server, to officially run the servers with their support.

Eddy Gordo has been confirmed as the first DLC character for Tekken 8.

A debug version of Persona 5 has leaked onto the Internet Archive. A few things have been dug up so far, including unfinished versions of iconic music from the game.

…But Also, Dumb Things Happen Too

For some genius reason, all heroes will now have a self-healing passive ability in Overwatch 2 next season.

Square Enix said that they used AI art for in-game icons in their upcoming title Foamstars.

Also, the Apple Vision Pro launches today, here’s Geoff wearing it.

The post The Bulletin: Xbox Developer Direct 2024 appeared first on Gamesline.

It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for another episode of the Gamesline podcast. This week, Scott, Maverick, and Lorelai sit down to talk about how they’ve all been playing Final Fantasy XVI. Scott also played a whole lot of the Addison Rae event in War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius to keep himself sane after reviewing and streaming AEW: Fight Forever. Lorelai also spent some time in the Diablo 4 endgame and digging into the new Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty DLC Battle of Zhongyuan.

In the news, we had some games announced at the Sonic Central presentation, Niantic is closing it’s LA studio, Unity and Steam are taking a stand against AI assets, Skullgirls updated some old content to remove objectionable material, and the Yakuza titles had a bunch of credits removed from the GOG version of the games. Mattel is releasing a Barbie themed Xbox to celebrate the movie coming, Hopefully we’ll also get some more Horse Adventures. Apparently Microsoft considered acquire Bungie and Sega, Annapurna Interactive is making Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth, Daedalic Entertainment is also shutting down internal game development and shifting to publishing. A judge in the Microsoft Activision case also revealed that the next Call of Duty game was coming in November while Bloober Team is done making psychological horror games.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @TheGamesline, @FKASocks, @Maverickdrifter and @judgementscythe.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at gamesline.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or directly to our RSS feed.

Edited by Lorelai

The post The Gamesline Podcast Ep. 9: Addison Rae’s Final Fantasy Doordash Tacos appeared first on Gamesline.

Sony has wrapped up another State of Play, showcasing a new look at games like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Street Fighter 6 characters, and further gameplay in the Resident Evil 4 remake.

The newly released Atomic Heart is facing controversy due to its purported pro-Russian connections and security issues in the midst of the continuing escalation of the Russo-Ukraine War. Ukraine’s Digital Ministry has requested the companies Steam, Microsoft, and Sony to remove the game from platforms. Questions have been called into whether or not the game is harvesting data to Russian security forces. The game’s composer, Mick Gordon, has donated his fees made from the game.

Atomic Heart has also come under scrutiny due to an aesthetic that appears to romanticize the Soviet Union and due to its timely release close to Russia’s official invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. This date also coincides with Defender of the Fatherland Day, a holiday that originally celebrated the Russian Armed Forces. Ukraine has otherwise no longer observed the holiday since 1994.

Games Done Quick has officially banned not only Hogwarts Legacy, but also every other Harry Potter video game adaptation from future events. A full list of GDQ’s currently banned games can be referenced and found on their submission guide.

Rovio Entertainment Oyj, best known for the Angry Birds franchise, has decided to delist the original game from mobile platforms—because “it is negatively impacting their other games”, hoping to redirect attention to their other free-to-play titles.

Nintendo is further expanding its reach by having officially signed a contract with Microsoft to now allow previously exclusive Xbox games to be playable on Nintendo platforms.

Sega is increasing the average monthly salary of its Japanese employees by about 30 percent. This increase will not officially take effect until July 2023 of this year.

Studio head of Xbox Game Studios’ Tango Gameworks Shinji Mikami is set to leave the company. Mikami founded the company back in 2010. Tango Gameworks will continue to support Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Super Nintendo World has officially made a grand opening at Universal Studios Hollywood. The themed area’s biggest feature is currently a Mario Kart simulation powered by augmented reality and projection mapping technology. More importantly, you get to hang out with Toad. Super Nintendo World opened in Universal Studios Japan on March 2021, and is currently slated to open Universal Studios Singapore in 2025 with construction underway.

The post The Bulletin: Throwdown With Toad appeared first on Gamesline.

It’s another big news week this week and Scott and Maverick are here with the proper Host/not host dynamic to go through all of it. Our biggest story of the week is the incredibly disturbing story of abuse coming from the developers of Fight Knight. You can find Wren’s post Why I Left The Fight Knight Project here and the record of abuse at Dangen Entertain and from CEO Ben Judd here.

With the heavy stuff out of the way, we go into Discord’s tease of NFT’s, X-Box’s twitter getting deleted, Among Us and Baba is You are getting updated, and the complete messes that are the Popeye game and the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy remasters. Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 along with Jump Force are being removed from digital storefronts while 1 vs 100 is coming back. The Hat in Time developers are teasing something and I Maed a Game with Zombies In It just popped up for free on steam.

The dynamic duo have also been playing a few games, with Maverick digging deep into Trails of Cold Steel 3 and Scott really just wanting to spend all his time in Inscryption when he’s not playing Cruelty Squad.

As always, you can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @VGChooChoo, @scottblah, and @mavsplaniamania.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at videogamechoochoo.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Subscribe via iTunes, hipcast, direct download, or listen below!

The post VGCC Episode 379: Don’t Buy Fight Knight appeared first on Gamesline.

Starfield

Bethesda has apparently been working on this in some way for 25 years, scary. Though they teased it a few years ago, there was little we knew about Starfield other than the fact that it’s one of them Bethesda RPGs but in space. Now…we know pretty much the exact same amount except that it’ll come out next year! Okay! From the concept trailer it at least looks like there might be more of a story than the usual Bethesda fare, but that might not actually be the case because cinematic trailers are always just sort of like that. Starfield comes out November 11, 2022 (the eleventh anniversary of Skyrim!), and will be on Game Pass right from the get go.

As someone who’s become heavily disenfranchised with Bethesda-made RPGs, it would be nice if Starfield is this more bold and open and barely put together mess of good and creative ideas like their older works, but based on games like Fallout 4, it’s hard to believe that’s even a possibility anymore.

Fallout 76: Steel Reign

Oh hey yeah look right here! This is the exemplification of everything that’s made me stray away from Bethesda. Fallout 76 apparently recovered from its disastrous launch when it added NPCs to the game with the Wastelanders update that came out last year. I don’t really know what recovered means, (I know maybe a total of three people that played it and it was not for very long) but apparently it was enough to warrant continued support. The Steel Reign expansion will continue to focus on the Brotherhood of Steel, with all the associated iconography and such that have come to be associated with them. It’ll add “Legendary Power Armor” and conclude the storyline set up last year in the Steel Dawn expansion. It’s coming out for free to Fallout 76 players next month, on July 7th 2020. 

It really sucks that even if Fallout 3 and its ilk weren’t exactly bastions of thoughtful ideology and concepts, at least there was like something there right? Fallout 76 has taken the Fascist conceptualization of the Brotherhood of Steel that was meant to be a warning with regards to militarization and just ended up making all of that into epic cool stuff even more than ever before. Seeing the American flag power armor in 2021, still being used for the same reasons, is depressing beyond belief.

Also speaking of Fallout 3 I guess they’re gonna do DLC at some point that takes you back to The Pitt from Fallout 3, in a new “Expeditions” branded format. Okay.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 : Heart of Chernobyl

Okay now here’s the post-apocalypse I can get behind. 

Over ten years in the making, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl is the fourth S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game! It looks a bit more approachable than previous entries in the series, but who knows if that will be true because video game trailers love to lie! It will have multiplayer and a full main story campaign that seems to be in a more traditional AAA format. I don’t know much about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. but if I can actually comprehend and play this one then that would be really cool! 

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is allegedly coming out April 28, 2022, but take that with a pinch of salt as always.

Contraband

Not much about this one!!! It’s a co-op open world game from Avalanche, the makers of Just Cause. It looks like it might be in some sort of swampy place? Who knows!

Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life

A free Pirates of the Carribean expansion for Sea of Thieves! They got more than just Jack Sparrow, they’ve got pretty much every single Pirates character like Davy Jones and such. The only thing that really struck me about this one is that all the Pirates characters look worse than they did in Kingdom Hearts II! Sad.

Atomic Heart

I had forgotten that this game even existed, but I remember its concept trailer being pretty popular when it came out all those years ago. The conceit is still pretty grounded in a wacky 1950’s Russian aesthetic, but who knows what it’ll really be. There’s still no release date, or like, gameplay outside of setpieces so????? Who knows.

Psychonauts 2

Psychonauts 2 is apparently for real coming out on August 25th! After being delayed this many times, I must express a degree of trepidation, that has only exacerbated my concerns that I don’t think a sequel to Psychonauts almost 20 years later could be all that good. While it’s fun to hear the Invader Zim voice again, most of the comedy feels like it’s been taken right out of the original’s playbook, and I don’t know how well that plays in the irony-warped year of 2021. There aren’t that many 3D platformers left though, so maybe just that’ll be enough to be happy about.

Party Animals

This is just Gang Beasts with animals???? This is just Gang Beasts with animals. Okay. 

Hades

The best Roguelite of all time is coming to consoles other than the Nintendo Switch! Hades will be on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S through Game Pass on August 13th. Please play this one if you haven’t already, one of the GOATs.

Somerville

So this just looks like Limbo or Inside and there’s a reason for that! It’s made by the former CEO of Playdead, the company that made those! This one shockingly didn’t lead with the weird random child murder so I was a little confused at first. Somerville looks like a sad dad game set in an alien apocalypse of some kind. That’s probably the general gist of the game -these affairs don’t usually have dialogue of any kind- but we might find out more before its release in 2022.

Halo Infinite

Energy Sword Sunday.

Halo Infinite returns after its bumpy first reveal with a short look at Master Chief hopping around. It originally seemed like Infinite was going to take a bit of a departure from the main story that 343 had been setting up, but this new cinematic placed it firmly in a post Halo 5 world. There’s all sorts of mentions about Cortana and they added a new AI lady for Master Chief to talk to as well since she’s uh, gone?

They also finally showed multiplayer for the first time and it sure looks like Halo! There are some new armor ability type things like hand-held shields that bounce back plasma pistol shots that seem like they could be really fun if balanced correctly. My only problems with modern Halo have stemmed from trying to be like Call of Duty, and the ways the fetishization of military aesthetics have of course come along with that. While what was shown does little to allay my concerns, it looks like a lot of the funkier Halo vehicles are back, and they made new cool samurai armor that you can wear so maybe it’ll be really cool again! A girl can dream.

Halo Infinite and the first season of its free to play multiplayer will launch sometime this Holiday season.

A Plague Tale: Requiem

So this is like out of nowhere but they’re making a sequel to A Plague Tale, a game that has one of the most insane endings I’ve ever seen in a video game. This time around it seems like they’re frontloading the rat tornadoes, which is cool I guess. The vibes of this game are inscrutable to me, but I’m sure somewhere out there is someone incredibly stoked that the evil Plague Pope is gonna spit rats at you again.

Slime Rancher 2

Oh cool they’re making Slime Rancher 2! I still haven’t played the original, but I love the concept behind the game, and I think I’ve bought it for like three different people over the years. While I wonder what could be so boldly new and different about a sequel, it’s still cute and nice, so that’s good.

Shredders

You can snowboard with your bros, December 2021.

Replaced

This game looked sort of like that Cyberpunk one that was made by the weird UBI guy from a couple years ago, do you remember that? Anyways this game is made by Sad Cat and Coat Sink which really rips to type out like this let me tell you. While the gameplay seems pretty interesting and the lighting is really cool, I can’t help but be fatigued by its dour and redundant post-apocalyptic imagery. Can we please move on from the post-apocalypse I am begging you. Replaced comes out sometime in 2022. 

Grounded

The weird Honey I Shrunk the Kids game from Obsidian is getting a new “Shroom and Doom” update. This will add mushrooms and the ability to sit, alongside a bunch of other stuff. There was one bit where they introduced a big spider boss and then joked about how you could put on the arachnophobia slider to make it look like an orb and I get that it is very funny but it felt kind of weird! Anyways that’s coming out June 30th.

Among Us

While it’s unclear whether this will be coming out alongside the other stuff outlined at the Summer Games Fest, Among Us will be adding 15 player lobbies. Crazy.

Eiyuden Chronicles

They pretty much just showed the trailer from the Kickstarter campaign for this Suikoden spiritual successor. Afterwards, a weird spin-off 2D platformer or brawler game called Eiyuden Chronicles Rising was announced to be coming out in 2022, with the full game coming in 2023. While I’m sure they’re being made by different teams, I really wonder why all of these Kickstarters just make one of their stretch goals to make an entirely separate ass game. So weird to me.

Age of Empires IV

It looks like Age of Empires but they asked me what I would do if I could control history and buddy I’d rather play Fate/Grand Order. 

The Outer Worlds 2

An incredibly painful trailer that spoofed AAA games concepts trailers announced that Obsidian is working on a sequel to The Outer Worlds. Apparently it’s still in incredibly early development, so they have absolutely nothing to show. I really did not care for The Outer Worlds, I felt that its critiques of capitalism were so surface level and devoid of genuine human understanding that I couldn’t even begin to resonate with its world or characters. I know the game has plenty of fans though, so I hope that it at least delivers something they can enjoy whenever it comes out.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

This one is coming to consoles on July 27th, that’s pretty much all there is to it. There will also be a weird Top Gun expansion later this year, but very little was shown and it’s unclear what that will even be? The only thing I know about Microsoft Flight Simulator is they recently cut their game file size down significantly and in a world of Call of Duty Warzones I truly respect that.

Forza Horizon 5

Forza Horizon 5 is the fifth Forza Horizon game, yeah. This one takes place in Mexico and takes you around to all sorts of pretty places that games usually ignore when they make their weird racist fearmongering renditions of Mexico! Very cool plateaus, old architecture mingling with modern day, it’s all really nice to see. They also seem to be adding some more party modes to the game, with things like Bowling, or Pinata collecting. There also seems to be some sort of Halo map editor type stuff that looks like Fall Guys? Unclear. This presentation was like 15 minutes long and I retained nothing except for the fact that they did the fake presentation multiplayer talking and I live for that shit. Forza Horizon 5 drops November 9th 2021.

Redfall

This is a new single-player/co-op game from Arkane studios, the people who make Dishonored and Prey, as well as the upcoming Deathloop. Redfall looks like some sort of vampire survival/arcade game, but it’s hard to tell exactly what gameplay will be like from its proof of concept cinematic. A lot of the dialogue was cringe-inducing, but ultimately if the real game does deliver on the premise of actually killing vampires via their designated weak points that could make for something really interesting!

It’s also pretty funny to me that this was the game that got all the Youtubers in a tizzy last year when the name Redfall got copyrighted because they were so sure it was Elder Scrolls VI! Remember to never trust leakers, everyone! 

The post E3 2021 Day 4 – Xbox/Microsoft/Bethesda Showcase Roundup appeared first on Gamesline.

Balan Wonderworld is the first game developed by Balan Company, a studio with Yuji Naka at the helm, alongside artist Naoto Oshima, someone he hasn’t worked with since the days of Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast. When I think back to that game, I remember how fun and creative the level design was and the charming character designs. For many fans, this seemed like a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, Balan Wonderworld is not the game people were expecting.

The game puts you in the shoes of one of two protagonists, Leo Craig or Emma Cole, who are called to the Balan Theater by a being called Balan after their lives have taken a turn for the worse. The theater transports them to a magical place called Wonderworld, where the children traverse through twelve chapters to help people who have different misfortunes and are being attacked by the Negati, monsters born from their anxieties and fears. 

Balan Wonderworld’s story is pretty much non-existent. There is no dialog, and it is unclear what the goal of the narrative is. Balan looked like such a neat and interesting character, but we learn nothing about him and this really makes the entire experience feel worthless. Compare this to Nights into Dreams, which also had no dialog. The cutscenes get right to the point even without words. You really feel for the children and you want them to become more confident after one is humiliated by a group of older kids, and the other becomes stricken with stage fright. In Balan Wonderworld they attempted to show the problems that Leo and Emma faced in a similar way to Nights. Leo has isolated himself from society after a big argument with a friend years before, and Emma worries about what others might be saying behind her back. The game doesn’t make you care enough about these issues the kids are faced with, because the cutscene that introduces them doesn’t show the deep emotional trauma of their psyches much like Nights did before.

When it comes to the stories within each chapter, you are introduced to the character who needs saving through a short cutscene. In the first chapter, a farmer is afraid of a storm destroying his corn. We see them corrupted by the darkness and create the boss. With what little time they had to show the story of these characters it is acceptable. When you have 12 small stories to tell, it doesn’t really leave room to flesh them out.  After you save them, however, the main character and the person you just saved perform a dance number to a strange song in a fake language. If you cared about them before you will most certainly not after seeing this stupid display. And this happens many times throughout the game. Why not show more scenes with these characters instead of wasting time with the dance number? 

The main gameplay loop of Balan Wonderworld has you collecting Balan Statues throughout its levels to progress the story. To help you do that you’ll need to wear one of 80 “unique” costumes giving you the power to complete puzzles and reach hidden areas. Each stage has its own specific costumes based on the creatures that inhabit them, which can be obtained by finding various keys to open the gems containing them. The keys aren’t even hard to get, so you can basically pick up as many as you want to save for when you lose a costume or want to pick up a different one. 

The costumes in general are a mixed bag, ranging from good to downright terrible. Some of the good ones include the Tornado Wolf that lets you rapidly spin to destroy blocks and deflect tornado attacks, and the Dusk Butterfly that has a neat ability limiting its flying to the night by triggering timed switches. On the other hand, the Box Fox is one of the worst costumes. It changes you into a box, but you can’t control when it happens, causing your character to slide around and fall off the stage. Several costumes that are used for attacking disable your ability to jump, such as the Dainty Dragon and the Sickle Slinger. It quickly becomes apparent that 80 costumes is way too much, and so many of them end up being completely useless. The Lovely Lantern is a good example of this, with its pointless ability to light up dark areas, when the stages aren’t even that dark to begin with.

It isn’t much of a challenge to go through the levels either. You may find yourself going back through a level a few times to collect all of the statues needed to unlock new stages, but completing them multiple times feels like a chore, especially with their lackluster design providing very little challenge. Even after finding all of the statues in the level proper, you still have to locate a top hat and do a QTE mini game with Balan called a “Balan’s Bout”. Matching his pose perfectly on each attempt will nab you a statue. Get even one not so perfect match and you’ll have to come back and redo it. These sequences feel very whimsical, but the same-animation-every-time routine that plays out gets old quick.

The catch to collecting the statues comes with the fact that not every one of them can be reached with the costumes in that specific chapter. At each checkpoint you can change your set of three costumes from ones you have picked up in other chapters, but if you happen to lose said costume, you’ll need to go back to the chapter it’s originally from and grab it again. It would have been so much easier to have the costumes available from that menu without having to go pick them up again. 

Once you finish two levels of each chapter, there is a boss fight, which are best routed by using the costumes specific to that chapter (though they’re all easy regardless). Beat them three times using different costumes and strategies and you get Balan statues. At times it feels like there should be a second phase to the fight when the screen pauses for a moment. If that were the case there might have been room for more gameplay variety. Boss fights in other games produced by Yuji Naka like Sonic Adventure 2 have interesting mechanics that make many of them fun and challenging the first time you play them, such as adding in new attacks to the bosses after a few blows to their weak spot, or using items like a timer to activate a panel revealing the sunlight to help weaken them.

Similarly disappointing compared to Naka’s past works is the Isle of Tims. Upon completing a level you will return to this hub full of little bird/rabbit like creatures named Tims that can be fed drops that you collect during the game. Once one gets big enough, it will show a bubble with another Tim in it. You’ll need to throw a smaller Tim at the big one to make it breed a new one. This isn’t the only way to get new ones, as the Tims follow you around in the levels and bring you new eggs to hatch when you return to the Isle. The point of collecting so many Tims is so they can ride a mechanism on a tower so many times that it will grow higher. This unlocks secret costumes and new Tims with different looks.

On the surface it feels like they tried to make the Isle like the Chao Garden in Sonic Adventure, but with less complexity. The Tims are certainly a cute addition to the game, but they don’t have that same effect as Chao did back in the day. If they wanted to do something similar, they could have added in some mini games similar to Chao Racing to do with the Tims, and made the system for them growing when eating drops more interesting, such as changing their color based on what color drop they ate the most of, or certain drops making them appear with new features like ears, a hat, or a tail. 

One of the only strong points for this game is its art direction. The designs of the bosses and the creatures in the game are quite creative and colorful. If you check out each specially made artwork for all of the creatures that the costumes are based on, they are actually really cute and look like something out of a children’s story book.

Unfortunately, nice art and colors do not save this game from being a bland waste of potential. Everything was there for a brand new fun experience with Yuji Naka on board to bring us a game in the spirit of those old SEGA games so many people loved in the 90s and early 2000s. Potentially, if the game was delayed, they could have fixed a lot of issues, such as removing a lot of the unneeded costumes and allowing the ones that can’t jump that ability, but as-is the game is a misguided mess.

Balan Wonderworld is a mediocre experience that failed to capture people like the classics it’s inspired by. It’s sad to see Yuji Naka attached to something that doesn’t live up to the hype it cultivated. It feels like most of the budget went into the opening cutscene and it shows. The standard price point of sixty dollars is downright ridiculous. Lately it got so much negative press that the demo was removed. If you are still curious about it, waiting for it to become dirt cheap would be best. However it’s clearly not something to write home about.

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