Category: Gamespot

Would Nintendo ever remake any of its Super Mario games? If so, it won’t be what series creator Shigeru Miyamoto would want, it seems. He said in an interview recently that he has no interest in remaking any of the past Super Mario games–he wants to look forward instead.

“I don’t really feel like I want to remake any of them,” he told IGN (via Nintendo Enthusiast). “It’s more natural to always create new mechanics and new games.”

Super Mario remakes are not totally new for Nintendo, as the DS game Super Mario 64 DS was a remake of sorts of the classic Nintendo 64 title.

The next Super Mario game is Super Mario Odyssey, which launches in October for Nintendo Switch. Miyamoto previously talked about how the game is “a little more on the core side” for the Super Mario franchise. The game is more in the vein of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine in that way instead of the more casual-focused Super Mario Galaxy series, he said.

“So we’ve been making Mario games for over 30 years, and through that process, we’ve made changes to the games. Some games tended to be a little bit harder, and a little bit harder to play, and then so we teeter back to make it accessible to all kinds of gamers, and then we go back the other way,” Miyamoto explained. “It’s been kind of a give and take in that way.”

For lots more on Super Mario Odyssey, check out GameSpot’s hands-on impressions from E3 2017 and all of our previous coverage here.

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Star Wars: Battlefront II doesn’t launch until November, but you may not need to wait until then to try the new sci-fi shooter. Multiple people on games forum NeoGAF are reporting that they received an email today containing a code for a Battlefront II alpha on PC.

That’s all there is to go on at the moment, as DICE does not appear to have officially announced an alpha testing period for Battlefront II as of yet. We have contacted publisher Electronic Arts will report back with anything we hear in return.

EA community manager Mat Everett reportedly said in a since-deleted forum post that the Battlefront II alpha test will be available across PC, Xbox One, and PS4. However, he later clarified that the alpha may not be available on all platforms.

What we do know is that a multiplayer beta for Battlefront II is on the way, but it won’t be available until closer to launch. Specific timing details have not been divulged as of yet.

In other Battlefront II news, the game’s loot crate, microtransaction, and progression systems have been detailed. For lots and lots more on Battlefront II, which also has a single-player campaign this time, check out all of GameSpot’s written and video content here.

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Sony has given the TV & Video section of the PlayStation 4 a refresh to “help you find your favorites and discover new and exciting content” using the video streaming services available on the console.

The TV & Video app now allows users to quickly cycle through Amazon, Netflix, CrunchyRoll, WWE Network, the PlayStation Store, and other popular apps. Content is now organised in lists based around where they’ll be streamed from or themes such as “Superheroes” or “Movies for Gamers.”

According to a post on the PlayStation Blog “the refresh is available in the following markets: Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.”

In other PS4 content news, Sony has launched the Mid-Year Sale on the PlayStation 4, offering discounts on hundreds of games PS4, PS3, Vita, and PSP. We’ve covered some of the highlights here.

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A big new patch for Halo Wars 2 is coming out today, June 28, and it makes a number of changes across many areas of the Xbox One and PC strategy game.

Starting off, the patch makes changes to the selection box to allow players to be able to select units more easily when they’re on the fringe. Additionally, the camera scroll speed has been tweaked to make it a more pleasant experience; speed can be changed through the Scroll Speed setting in the options menu.

The new Halo Wars 2 patch also changes the AI so they are no longer aware of when the player is starting to target them with a leader power. Additionally, AI is now blocked from putting rally flags where they should not be able to.

Building and unit values are changing, too. One example is that the Supply Pad upgrade time is dropping from 25 seconds to 18 seconds. What’s more, Scorpion can no longer shoot two canister shots, while Spartans can’t damage the unit they’re hijacking.

The upcoming Halo Wars 2 patch also fixes an issue that could lead to a desync in 3v3 Strongholds matches. Additionally, multi-GPU support is now available on Windows 10. You can see the full patch notes below, as rounded up and posted by Microsoft on Halo Waypoint.

At E3, Microsoft announced the next big expansion for Halo Wars 2. Awakening the Nightmare, as it’s called, adds a new campaign and two new leaders for multiplayer, as well as a pair of multiplayer maps. You can read more about it here.

Halo Wars 2 June 28 Patch Notes

UI/Navigation

• Improved selection box to allow for easier selection of units when on the fringe of the unit
• Selected unit sub-selection now more responsive when using Right Trigger and Y button to cycle through the selection
• Fog of war made more readable
  • Now lines up more closely with logical sight ranges
  • The visual transition when units emerge from the fog of war is much quicker
• Improvements to camera scroll speed and feel when playing with a controller – regular scroll is noticeably more responsive, and fast scroll (holding LB) gives a much larger speed boost
  • Changing the Scroll Speed settings in options also has a much greater effect than before, resulting in more control over how scroll speed to feels
  • Speed can be reduced to previous levels by adjusting the Scroll Speed setting in the Options menu
• Hid player gamertag and rank in the map load screen

AI

• AI is no longer able to place rally flags in places players are not allowed to place
• AI no longer knows when the player is beginning to target them with a leader power before they use it
• Units won’t be aggroed by Suicide Grunts and won’t automatically move towards them to engage (they will stand their ground instead)

Buildings/Units:

• Supply Pad upgrade time reduced from 25 to 18s
• Shield Generator stacking reduced per generator from 50% efficiency to 20%
• Special abilities (Hijack, Slam, Phoenix Missile, Brute Warlord’s Hammer Shockwave, etc.) now gain the benefit from generic damage upgrades
• Fixed an issue where the Hunter Captain would not be able to attack if its taunt ability was interrupted
• Hunter Captain no longer receives as much healing from Combat Repair
• Hunter Captain health lowered
• Adjusted Locust’s behavior when targeting units in the fog of war
• Upgrade 3 for Vehicle, Air, and Infantry apply the correct amount of health to appropriate units
• Skitterer health from Vehicle Upgrade lowered at all levels
• Skitterer can no longer become useless if the unit it is going to pair with dies before pairing is complete
• Kodiaks should no longer fail to target an enemy on the other side of a cliff or hill if they have line of sight
• Cutter’s Jerome Hero unit will no longer get stuck in a vehicle if upgraded while in a vehicle
• Spartans no longer become unresponsive when slamming a teleport pad
• Spartans no longer damage the unit they’re hijacking
• Honor guard will now have more success when attempting to slay a fleeing unit
• Units grouped with engineers should now be able to use their Y ability when the group is selected
• Snipers can now be commanded to attack units in garrisons without being grouped with other units who could
• Units will now auto attack garrisoned units as they walk past
• Scorpions now have better accuracy when attacking garrisoned units
• Scorpion can no longer fire two canister shots
• Chopper can no longer trigger ram animation when selecting an air unit
• Condors will no longer waste their Y ability when targeting air units
• Decimus can now use Y ability on buildings
• Hornets no longer fail to do damage after firing at a target for a prolonged time
• Blisterbacks shouldn’t be deployed under the surface of the map anymore
• Veteran Blisterbacks can once again be healed to full
• Johnson’s heal beacon size and effect now correctly match
• Johnson can no longer move to cancel his animation and fire additional smart missiles
• Skitterers now correctly apply full damage from focus beam upgrade
• Colony’s Living Barrier benefits from base Fortify upgrades
• Shipmaster’s Grunt squad leaders are now rightfully Sangheili instead of Jiralhanae, and now can be upgraded to cloak instead of having Shrapnel Mines
• Normalized damage of hijacked vehicles regardless of who made the vehicle
• Kinsano’s Cyclops Hero unit selection circle should now be more visible when not hovering over it
• Decimus and Warlord will no longer try to pull units that are already close to them
• Warlord no longer resets his attack animation when selecting a unit to attack
• ODST charges will now explode when placed on top of or next to buildings in side plots
• ODSTs can no longer throw more than 1 charge at a time
• ODSTs can’t attempt to throw their demo charge at air units

Leader Power:

• Atriox Fortifications slightly reduced in effectiveness at level 1, and greatly reduced at level 2, and is specifically less beneficial to shield generators
  • Cost reduction on bases, stronghold upgrade, turrets and shield generators changed reduced to 15% per level.
  • Fortifications-altered cost of Fortify upgrades rounded to nearest 5.
  • Upgrade speed buff on stronghold upgrade and turret upgrades reduced to 15% per level.
• Vehicle Symbiotes power can now target turrets
• Buffed Vehicle Symbiotes to now apply correct armor and health
• Scorch Mines can no longer blow each other up on deployment
• Shipmaster’s Displacement can now affect Protector Sentinels
• Restoration Drones can now target turrets
• Scatter Bomb now more correctly aligns with its targeting reticle
• Vortex Lightning now damages and debuffs units in garrisons
• Garrisoned units no longer heal faster from leader powers than ungarrisoned units
• Mech Overcharge and Combat Salvage can now be invoked regardless of whether the reticle is in the fog of war or not
• Mass Cloaking now removes units from the minimap in Blitz mode
• Reavers will no longer continue to shoot when hit with EMP Mac Blast while stunned
• Vehicles stolen by Ghost in the Machine are no longer visible in the Fog of War
• Ghost in the Machine can no longer permanently increase Isabel’s population cap by using it on units that are teleported
• EMP Mac Blast now more correctly matches the targeting reticle

Engine:

• Graphical settings now defaults to ‘Low’ when using an integrated GPU
• Fixed an issue with AMD Radeon R9 390 GPU that could cause some graphical corruption in campaign
• Fixed an issue where the “Graphics Driver out of Date!” message could refer to an incorrect driver version in some cases
• Idling in the main menu for extended time should no longer permanently disconnect the player from services for that session
• Players should no longer be able to remove the command point cap earned in a mission by loading a save
• Loading a save and finishing a previously completed mission should no longer add the complete mission time to time played
• Fixed a desync that could happen in 3v3 Strongholds
• Fixed a crash that could occur when loading saved games
• Multi-GPU support is now enabled on Windows 10
• Up to two GPUs are supported
• This implementation of Multi GPU synchronizes data between the two GPUs. Running at 4K resolution and higher-quality graphics options may exceed the bandwidth available to synchronize the cards, which may cause in-game performance issues.
• Updating to the Creators Update of Windows 10 is strongly recommended
• Make sure you’re on the latest graphics driver

Art:

• Fixed graphical corruption that could appear near wraiths in campaign
• Nightingale’s smoke screen no longer disappears when camera moves view off of it and back
• Colossus’ legs face the right way when targeting enemies now
• Vulture’s yellow warning light is now attached to the craft when firing its missile
• Mantis chaingun effects have been cleaned up
• Decimus’ Siphon no longer leaves green effects on the units

Audio:

• Added some audio to the Cyclops death animation
• All leaders were missing the voice over callout when the player’s base was destroyed
• Fixed Chopper’s ramming audio loop
• Corrected explosion of Lotus Mines to play the appropriate sound effect
• Anders sentinels will no longer play Grunt audio upon death
• Johnson’s EMP should no longer cause audio to stutter

Last, but not Least:

• Players affected by earlier issues with loss of progress will have their progress restored, based on their halowaypoint.com Service Record

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Microsoft’s Xbox One X console launches this November. It’s the most power console ever made, and it’s aimed at people who want an ultra-high def console gaming experience, according to Microsoft’s Dave McCarthy.

Asked who the Xbox One X is aimed at, McCarthy told us that people who want the very best will want the Xbox One X. That being said, the Xbox One S has features like HDR and 4K support (for those with capable TVs), so it’s all about choice, he said.

“It was a really conscious move on our part to support customer choice,” McCarthy said. “I think people are going to decide what they want to gravitate to. I think when they see experiences running on Xbox One X, whether it be games where developers haven’t touched a thing and they’re just loading faster with smoother frame rates and they are looking better, or it’s an experience like Forza Motorsport 7 or Anthem where it’s been really crafted with the high-end capabilities in mind, they’ll see the difference.”

“If they’re not ready to make the jump, [all of the Xbox One S controllers, games, and accessories are] going to work whenever they do make the jump [to Xbox One X],” McCarthy added. “But I would get back to that point of, if you really place a premium on ultra-high definition, high fidelity, spatial audio, all those things, you will not find a better price, performance combination and design than you will with Xbox One X.”

McCarthy has already addressed the fact that the Xbox One X, at $500, is much more expensive than the PS4 Pro, the console it will likely be compared to most. “As far as I’m aware, there is nothing that offers the combination of power and performance at the price that we’re doing right now [with Xbox One X],” he said.

he Xbox One X launches on November 3. Internationally, it will go for £450, €500, CA$600, and AU$650. For lots more on the console, check out GameSpot’s breakdown of everything we know so far.

This story has been updated.

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At E3 2017, Psyonix announced that there would finally be cross-play support for Rocket League across Xbox One and Nintendo Switch–but not PlayStation 4. Sony has its own reasons for not allowing cross-play with competing consoles, some of which were explained by Psyonix’s Jeremy Dunham in a new interview.

“There have been slight variations on how it’s been presented to us, but essentially it’s the same answer,” he told Engadget. “It’s, ‘Not right now” or, ‘It’s something we’ll consider.’ That’s paraphrasing, but there hasn’t been any movement.”

Psyonix has been persistent, apparently. Dunham said ever since Rocket League’s launch on PS4 in 2015, at least one person at Psyonix has asked Sony about cross-play “every single day.”

By comparison, Nintendo gave Psyonix a positive response about cross-play for Rocket League on Nintendo Switch the same day that Psyonix inquired about it, apparently. Microsoft needed more time, but only about a month to agree to it.

Also in the interview, Dunham said said Pysonix has tested cross-play between Xbox One and PS4 in closed environments to ensure that it will work, and the results were positive. Now, it’s just a matter of Sony giving the green light.

Sony won’t allow cross-platform play for Minecraft, either. At E3, Sony’s Jim Ryan suggested that Sony is concerned about what could go wrong when allowing its own players, some of which could be children, to connect to a network outside of its own.

“We’ve got to be mindful of our responsibility to our install base. Minecraft–the demographic playing that … it’s all ages but it’s also very young,” he said. “We have a contract with the people who go online with us, that we look after them and they are within the PlayStation curated universe. Exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after, it’s something we have to think about very carefully.”

You can read the full interview here at Eurogamer.

Microsoft’s Dave McCarthy told GameSpot at E3 that the company has had discussions with Sony about cross-play, but Sony is “not quite there yet.”

“My hope is that they join the party as well because I think it’s an awesome thing to do for gamers,” he said.

In March 2016, Microsoft publicly announced that it was open to connecting Xbox Live to other gaming networks, including PlayStation Network and Nintendo’s own online service.

Rcket League for Nintendo Switch supports TV and mobile play, as well as online and local multiplayer. Online multiplayer supports up to eight players, Psyonix said. The Switch version of Rocket League has all the same content, features, and updates from the other editions. There are exclusive Battle-Car and customization items, including Mario and Luigi hat toppers.

Rocket League’s Switch edition will launch this holiday, though a specific release date has not been announced. More details about the game will be announced later this year.

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