Ubisoft has announced it is finally adding dedicated servers to its online brawler For Honor. The move has been much anticipated by fans, some of whom even started a petition to urge the developer to improve the game’s online connectivity.
The company told GameSpot that dedicated servers will “improve stability, but it will also remove some irritations that the players could have.”
Creative director Roman Campos-Oriola continued: “For example, by being peer-to-peer you need to check your NAT, so that you can play with other players that have the same NAT as you or that have a green NAT, etc. Things like that don’t matter anymore when you have a server–you don’t have false migrations, session migrations anymore when you have a server. So there were obvious wins on that aspect. And it’s also for us a more long-term reliable move, where we want to go with the move to dedicated servers. It’s a huge change.”
“And why we make that change now,” added game director Damien Krieken, “it’s because we have a long-term commitment with that game. Like I said, we’ve updated it a s***load of times already since launch, and we want to continue to support it. As you see with the roadmap, we’re continuing to add content, and so improving the players’ experience when they are playing the game is something very important, and dedicated servers goes in that direction for us.”
Adding dedicated servers is part of a large shakeup–which will also significantly change the defensive meta–For Honor will receive soon. However, an exact timeframe on the changes has not been announced; Krieken simply said the move will “take time.” You can read more about how Ubisoft plans to fix For Honor here.
In our For Honor review, critic Matt Espineli said the game was “difficult to put down.” He added: “Its slow combat pace and narrative shortcomings might turn off those unwilling to take the time to dive deep into what it has to offer. However, make no mistake–those who do will be rewarded with some of the most satisfying multiplayer melee fighting conceived in recent years.”
PlayStation Plus members can play another free game for this weekend only. Sony has announced that Doom (2016) is free on PS4 for this weekend only with a PS Plus subscription.
The full game is available until the evening of Monday, July 31, at which point free access will be rescinded. The trial’s PlayStation Store listing states that the game’s three multiplayer DLC packs–Unto the Evil, Hell Followed, and Bloodfall–are included in the offer. These were made free for all Doom owners earlier in July.
If you want to retain access to Doom after the trial, you’ll have to pay up. Luckily, the shooter is on sale until August 16 for US $15 / £12 / AU $18.
Today, Sony announced a price increase for PS Plus subscribers in Europe and Australia. From August 31, an annual PS subscription will cost £50 / €60 / AU $80, an increase of £10 / €10 / AU $10. Additionally, quarterly and monthly memberships are going up by £5 / €5 / AU $6 or £1 / €1 / AU $1, respectively.
We enjoyed Doom here at GameSpot. Critic Peter Brown said “it captures the essence of what made the classic Doom games touchstones of their day, and translates it to suit modern palates with impressively rendered hellscapes and a steady influx of tantalizing upgrades.” Read more in our full Doom review.
Nintendo’s NES Classic isn’t just a convenient way to play beloved NES games: it’s an easy-to use console that looks the part and plays games the way you remember with a few new quality-of-life features. Marketing and distribution woes aside, it’s the best example of a multi-game classic console to date, precisely because it does what you expect without major caveats.
Nearly a year later, we are now experiencing the fallout of the NES Classic’s success: the arrival of competing classic consoles. This in theory is good news, but there’s something important to keep in mind: Nintendo had direct control over the NES Classic. It understood the hardware, the games, and most importantly, how to deliver a user-friendly device that worked as expected. Without those advantages, any company producing a similar device faces an uphill battle in the face of passionate fans on the lookout for an authentic experience.
How easy is it to screw up a classic console like the NES Classic? Based on our time with AtGames’ new Sega Genesis Flashback console, the answer is clear: very easy. The microconsole isn’t without some merit (it technically works and includes some great games), and it may be the quick-fix some folks are looking for, but by-and-large it fails to play Genesis games the way you remember, has a misleading pitch, and relies on an unintuitive “operating system” that’s not only difficult to use, but one that is also garish and finicky.
Looks can be deceiving.
Let’s start with the basics: The Sega Genesis Flashback is a console that’s packaged with 85 built-in games, two 2.4 Ghz wireless controllers, and a cartridge slot that allows you to use Sega Genesis and Mega Drive cartridges–Mega Drive being the name of the Genesis throughout Europe and Asia. It plugs into your TV’s HDMI port and outputs a 720p video signal.
The first thing you notice when you open the box is the look of the unit. Barring AtGames’ logo emblazoned above the system’s familiar “16-BIT” decal, it’s a close approximation of the Model 1 Genesis. The included wireless controllers are modelled after the six-button Genesis controller that originally shipped with the redesigned Model 2 Genesis, and while the buttons feel slightly stiff, they’re okay overall. So what’s the catch? The controllers run off AAA batteries, cannot be recharged, and the batteries can only be replaced by removing a screw to access the battery compartment. You also need to supply your own batteries (read the ever-so-fine print) so prepare ahead of time or get ready for a trip to the store for power, and potentially a small Phillips-head screwdriver. Should you have any wired Genesis controllers kicking around, those will also work, thankfully.
Where the NES Classic had an efficient design that allowed the unit to be powered through a nearby USB port on your TV or on modern consoles, Sega Genesis Flashback requires the use of a slightly bulky AC adapter.
So you get your batteries together, plug in the Genesis Flashback and turn it on. After a short loading screen, you’re met with a simple-looking menu with categories on the left and games on the right. And the first two games you see? Adventure in the Park, and Air Hockey–two games that you’ve probably never heard of because they were never released on the Genesis. As with AtGames’ previous Genesis consoles–the company has been at this for years–Sega Genesis Flashback is packed with games that you’ve never heard of, and that you probably don’t want to play. Not up for a game of Mr. Balls, Plumbing Contest, or Yawning Triceratops? I don’t blame you.
In total, there are 28 unofficial games, 45 Genesis games, and 12 games that appeared on either the Sega Game Gear or Sega Master System. It’s worth noting that if you add up the games based on individual browsing categories from the menu, you’ll only count 42 games. This is because Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Mortal Kombat 3 were mistakenly left absent from the “Sega Games” category. It’s a small oversight, but one that echoes the overall lack of attention to detail that plagues the system throughout.
Take menu navigation, for example. The d-pad on the controller is used to navigate the list of games on the right, but in order to scroll through categories, you have to use the B and C buttons. You can’t pick a category using the d-pad and then proceed to use it for browsing games. In practice, you’re using buttons on the right side of the controller to navigate items on the left side of the screen, and vice versa.
Unintuitive UI aside, there’s a nasty issue with the wireless controllers that appears, without fail, every time you turn on the console. During our tests, the wireless controllers failed to register the first press of every button on the controller when navigating the menu screen. Whether it’s the d-pad, or the A, B, and C buttons, expect to press an individual button twice the first time you need to use it. This issue doesn’t appear when using a wired controller.
Many of the most interesting games included in the Sega Genesis Flashback can, and should, be played on other platforms.
These faults could all be overlooked if the included games ran well, but again, prepare for disappointment: nearly every game exhibits constant frame drops. It appears as though auto-frame-skip is being used to account for inefficient emulation of real Genesis hardware. For some games, such as the excellent strategy game Shining Force, this isn’t a huge deal. But when you’re playing Sonic The Hedgehog, a game known for being fast and smooth, the missing frames and choppy animation are an undeniable source of frustration and disappointment. This doubles when playing a fighting game like Mortal Kombat or Virtua Fighter 2.
One of most attractive aspects of this HDMI-enabled Genesis is that it supports actual cartridges, but again, things aren’t as simple as they seem. In order for the system to read a game you need to insert it before powering on the console. While it would be nice to be able to swap cartridges without power cycling the console, it’s not an egregious requirement. However, should you insert a cartridge that’s dirty or unsupported, you need to remove and replace the cart and reboot the system to double check if it’s the system’s fault or the condition of the game itself, and endure a bootup screen and allow the cartridge to be dumped to RAM all over again. When a game does work, the system displays a screen with multiple instances of the same game. Which one do you pick? It’s a game in and of itself. And unsurprisingly, the same frame rate performance issues noted above apply to cartridge-based games.
While it’s true that AtGames’ Sega Genesis Flashback is a tempting product in light of Nintendo’s recent efforts, it is nothing like the NES Classic. Nevermind that it’s filled with classic Genesis games–many of which you can buy today on Steam, PSN, or Xbox Live. It’s a misleading and faulty product that is marketed to trick you, to play off of your love of classic Sega games and your residual admiration of the NES Classic. The legacy of Sega Genesis deserves far better than this opportunistic cash-in.
Sony has announced it is increasing the price of its PlayStation Plus service in Europe and Australia. From the end of August, you’ll have to pay more to grab the monthly game library and play online multiplayer on PS4.
From August 31, an annual PS subscription will cost £50 / €60 / AU $80, an increase of £10 / €10 / AU $10. Quarterly memberships, meanwhile, are going up by £5 / €5 / AU $6 to a new price of £20 / €25 / AU $34. Finally, a monthly membership–which currently costs £6 / €7 / AU $10–will go up to £7 / €8 / AU $11. Any payments due after August 31 will be charged at the new price.
When asked by GameSpot whether US customers will also see a price hike, Sony simply stated “there is nothing to announce” at this time. PS Plus memberships increased in North America in September of 2016, and they now cost $59.99 for 12 months and $24.99 for three months in the US.
Capcom has detailed its financial performance for the three-month period ended June 30, 2017, showing an increase in both sales and profit over the same period in 2016.
Sales were cited as $105 million, which is around a 7% rise over 2016’s $98 million. Operating profit, meanwhile, was $7.4 million, which represents around a 13% increase over the $6.5 million from the previous year.
Ultra Street Fighter II launched in May 2017, and Capcom described it as having “an excellent start,” proving to be a “smash hit.” Resident Evil 7 and Monster Hunter XX, both of which were launched in the previous fiscal year, also “contributed to revenue to a certain extent.”
Capcom’s other businesses also contributed to the increases in financial performance. The arcade operation business delivered improved sales, while licensing and the royalties from sale of character merchandise was up 13.2% over the same three-month period in 2016.
Mahershala Ali–who you might know from House of Cards, Marvel’s Luke Cage, or The Hunger Games series–has apparently signed a deal to star in the third season of HBO’s True Detective. That’s despite the fact that Season 3 hasn’t actually been confirmed yet.
According to Deadline, HBO’s director of programming, Casey Bloys, stated that Ali will star in the new season–if it indeed happens. Bloys also said he has read five finished scripts for the potential new run: “They are terrific … I was very impressed and excited,” he said. “We are talking to directors, and when we have a director we want to hire, it will be a go.”
Ali’s involvement in Season 3 was rumored earlier in July, when sources told The Tracking Board that even though the new run has not officially been greenlit, it is “definitely expected to return.” The actor took home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar earlier this year for the acclaimed drama Moonlight. He also played the villainous Cottonmouth in Marvel’s Netflix show Luke Cage, and appeared in House of Cards, Hidden Figures, and the final two Hunger Games movies.
Last year Michael Lombardo, HBO’s last president of programming, spoke about the negative reaction to Season 2. “When we tell somebody to hit an air date as opposed to allowing the writing to find its own natural resting place, when it’s ready, when it’s baked–we’ve failed,” he admitted. “And I think in this particular case, the first season of True Detective was something that Nic Pizzolatto had been thinking about, gestating, for a long period of time. He’s a soulful writer.
“I think what we did was go, ‘Great.’ And I take the blame. I became too much of a network executive at that point. We had huge success. ‘Gee, I’d love to repeat that next year.’
“Well, you know what? I set him up to deliver, in a very short time frame, something that became very challenging to deliver.. That’s not what that show is. He had to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Find his muse. And so I think that’s what I learned from it. Don’t do that anymore.”
True Detective Season 1 aired in 2014 and starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, while 2015’s Season 2 featured Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn, and Rachel McAdams.
With its Nazis-winning-WWII premise, 2014’s Wolfenstein: The New Order manages to be both pulpy and serious. Yes, it has robot Nazi dogs, but it also has a concentration camp scene that’s presented with tact, and that balance keeps the fantastical grounded in a brutal reality. The upcoming sequel, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, walks that same line, and it goes one step further: it brings you out of Europe and to alt-1960s America amidst threats that persist in real-life in the present day.
We recently played a few hours of The New Colossus, broken up into two levels. The first is the opening wheelchair mission, which we played at E3, and the second starts out in Roswell, New Mexico during a 4th of July Nazi parade. Blazkowicz arrives in Roswell dressed as a fireman and carrying a nuke in his fire extinguisher, and the first thing you see, just ahead of you on the sidewalk, is a pair of Klansmen in white robes and hoods.
It’s an uncomfortable feeling, walking toward KKK members in broad daylight in a game and knowing that there’s nothing you can do. But this feeling is also compounded by the knowledge that there are KKK rallies happening in real-life America in the year 2017, an America where the Nazis didn’t win the war. It’s simple fun to blast Nazis to hell in Wolfenstein, but seeing the KKK stroll past a Nazi officer who says he likes their “style” is not so much fun as it is deeply unsettling.
All around Roswell, there is evidence that the language employed by the fictional Reich (and everyone subjugated by it) is not far from sentiments you can still hear today. A newspaper review for a “dystopian” novel about a world where the Allies won, for instance, discusses the moral depravity of different groups, including LGBT people. A newspaper clipping later in the mission features a letter to the editor thanking the Germans for saving America from social ills. A cheekily color-swapped version of the Abbey Road cover in a music shop window reminds you that you are, indeed, in a distorted version of history.
You walk through all of that to a diner you might have seen in the reveal trailer, where a mother practices German with her son, telling him he’ll need to learn it. Then a Kommandant walks in and talks about strawberry milkshakes in a comically threatening soliloquy before getting shot in the head. A cutscene directly after involves your Roswell contact going on about aliens and the “weird shit” in Area 52, which is the first extended respite from the discomfort that precedes it.
But it’s not the last. You take your nuke underground and proceed to fight hordes of mecha-Nazis on a train using powerful machine guns and hatchets, which is pure, ridiculous fun. You don’t have time to think about politics or real-world implications, because all your focus is put toward finding shotgun ammo and not dying. My time with the game concluded at the end of the train ride, but I’m looking forward to seeing if The New Colossus continues to maintain a strong balance between its two opposing tones. The examples we saw kept The New Colossus from feeling heavy-handed in its real-life parallels, which in turn prevented the characters’ wisecracks and idiosyncrasies from getting cheesy. Combined with some good old-fashioned Nazi slaying, it’s making for a promising sequel.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is set to launch on October 27 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
According to a joint statement from the two companies, the developer has “significantly reduced crash instances and performed a major sweep on bugs that have been persistent with the Xbox version.” They went on to apologize for how long this patch has taken to arrive, before adding that they believe “this patch will greatly increase playability and bring the game in line with other platforms.”
The patch notes are essentially a list of bug fixes that pertain to matchmaking, crashes, and more. Additionally the Xbox One’s memory issues, which hindered a previous update from being released on time on the platform, have now been resolved. Take a look at the full patch notes at the bottom of this article.
In our Friday the 13th review, Peter Brown wrote, “As of now, a week after launch, it’s short on content and performs poorly all around, especially on consoles. The story goes that the developers weren’t prepared for amount of people who wanted to jump on day one, but that does little to assuage players who were convinced that they were paying for a finished product. Despite showing potential that may one day be realized, Friday the 13th comes across as an unfinished game that shouldn’t have been released in its current state.”
Friday The 13th Xbox One Patch Notes
Increased stability due to memory issues.
Fixed audio threading issue that could cause stability problems.
Fixed an issue where users could swap save games to use a DLC only Jason in game.
Fixed an issue where sometimes matchmaking wouldn’t find open lobbies. Now can backfill a lot better.
Switched to new memory allocator that increases performance and frame rate.
Matchmaking Fixes. Should decrease amount of time it takes to match make.
Added a Random option in the lobby.
Increased effectiveness of Jason and Counselor spawn preference options. Shuffling the possible Jason list 3x as much to help randomness.
Fixed issue with Jason’s morph cursor not always showing
Disabled inhale sound effect for breathing while in a hiding spot.
Made dead body stingers less obnoxious: Ignored while being pursued by Jason, 10s cooldown, will not fire for witnessed nearby deaths.
Various fixes to the different glitch / hide / exploit spots.
Fixed issue where you have infinite stamina.
Fixed a few areas where the player couldn’t reach with Jason. Also fixed a stuck spot on Packanack.
Fixed perk roller UI sometimes getting stuck if there is an error talking to the database.
Fixed session heartbeat requests to be more resilient to service failures.
Fixed character hair stretching at lower frame rate.
Fixed Jason not always aborting the knife throw when stunned.
Fixed a case where it was possible to get stuck in a knife throw.
Fixed some visibility issues with the door interaction icons.
Fixed some placement issues with dropped items.
Fixed Jason’s mask floating when knocked off.
Fixed Jason not always cancelling shift or morph if they hit a car in reverse.
Fixed an issue with the hiding spot exit code.
Fixed Counselors potentially getting stuck inside of a wall if hit while climbing through a window at the perfect time.
Fixed Rotate Minimap with player not updating when changed until a map change.
Fixed some host specific crashes.
Fixed people being able to share settings save games.
Nearly four years after it first launched, Grand Theft Auto V is the UK’s best-selling boxed game in 2017 so far. According to an Entertainment Retailers Association report, Rockstar’s open-world title outsold every other game in the UK during the first half of 2017, selling 334,280 units in total up to the end of June.
The figures–which originate from sales monitor Chart-Track–come as part of a report into entertainment media sales in the UK. Despite being the best-selling video game, GTA V could only place 13th on the overall chart of game, music, and video sales. However, the figures for games do not include digital sales, unlike those for music and video. It’s possible, therefore, that other games eclipsed GTA V if downloads were taken into account and that the games could be higher on the overall entertainment chart than their current positions.
GTA V and Rockstar have been in the news of late after the publisher’s parent company, Take-Two, attempted to block distribution of a modding tool called OpenIV. Rockstar argued that “OpenIV enables recent malicious mods that allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody.” After fan uproar, Rockstar later released a statement saying that Take-Two “has agreed that it generally will not take legal action against third-party projects involving Rockstar’s PC games that are single-player, non-commercial, and respect the intellectual property (IP) rights of third parties.”
The latest batch of DLC for Street Fighter V is now available. Players can get their hands on the game’s newest fighter, Abigail, as well as an assortment of new and retro costumes and stages.
Abigail is no doubt the biggest addition to the game–both literally and figuratively. The beefy bruiser hails from Capcom’s Final Fight series and is an imposing presence on the battlefield, towering over other Street Fighter characters at eight feet tall. Players can purchase Abigail through the game’s $30 Season 2 Character Pass, which also includes Akuma, Kolin, Ed, and one more character who has yet to be announced. He can also be purchased individually for $6 (or 100,000 in-game Fight Money). You can watch a trailer for him at the top of this story.
In addition to Abigail, Street Fighter V players can now purchase a variety of new costumes. Capcom has released a trio of retro outfits for Alex, Ibuki, and Juri. These costumes are inspired by older Street Fighter titles; Alex and Ibuki’s outfits are based on their respective looks in Street Fighter III, while Juri’s is taken from Street Fighter IV. Additionally, Capcom has released new sports outfits for Ibuki, Laura, and Rashid, as well as the Champion’s Choice costume for Guile. Each outfit retails individually for $4, while the Champion’s Choice costume is $6. You can see screenshots of them above.
Finally, three new stages are available for purchase. The first is Abigail’s home stage, Metro City Bay Area, which is based on his level from Final Fight. Players can also purchase the iconic Suzaku Castle, Ryu’s home stage from Street Fighter II. The final new stage is Kanzuki Family Stadium. The former two can be purchased for $4 (70,000 FM), while the latter goes for $10 and is included alongside Guile’s Champion’s Choice costume in the $25 Capcom Pro Tour 2017 Premier Pass.
