Category: Gamespot

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End has picked up another big-time award. What is expected to be Naughty Dog’s final Uncharted game won the overall Best Game at the BAFTAs, the organization announced. The other nominees for Best Game were Firewatch, Inside, Overwatch, Stardew Valley, and Titanfall 2.

Although Uncharted 4 took home the top honor, Playdead’s indie game Inside scored the most awards overall, bringing home four: Artistic Achievement, Game Design, Narrative, and Original Property.

Overcooked also picked up two awards for Best British Game and Best Family Game. The AMD eSports Audience Award, meanwhile, was won by Clash Royale. Other games nominated in this category were Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch, and Street Fighter V.

For Best Multiplayer, Overwatch won the BAFTA, while Pokémon Go came out on top in the Mobile Game category. The Last Guardian was recognised with a BAFTA for its Audio Achievement, and the mystery adventure game Virginia was awarded one for its Music.

Finally, prolific game designer Brenda Romero was presented with the Special Award in “recognition of her outstanding creative contribution to the industry and for her illustrious career in game design, her advocacy for the art and creative process behind game-making, and her commitment to encouraging the next generation of talent in the industry.”

Last year’s BAFTA winner was Bethesda’s Fallout 4, while Bungie took home the award in 2015 for Destiny.

Powered by WPeMatico

Update: Marvel Heroes Omega has also now been announced for Xbox One. However, a blog post on the Xbox Wire does not mention any beta test, suggesting that trial may be exclusive to PS4.

Original story follows.

Gazillion Entertainment, the developer of 2013’s PC RPG Marvel Heroes, has announced a follow-up called Marvel Heroes Omega, coming to PlayStation 4 this spring.

Marvel Heroes Omega “draws inspiration from both action-RPGs and MMOs,” says community manager David Lee. Headline characters include Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, and the Guardians of the Galaxy, while villains Loki and Doctor Doom will also make an appearance in the game’s nine-chapter story campaign.

You can take a look at the game’s reveal trailer above, or if you want to try it out for yourself, Gazillion has stated a closed beta will come to PS4 soon.

It’s unclear whether Omega represents a full sequel to Marvel Heroes–which Gazillion has continued to support since its launch four years ago–or if it’s to be a port of that PC game. We do know, however, that the new game will be free-to-play, just like the original title.

More Marvel games will come in the future, after Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided publisher Square Enix announced a multi-game partnership with the comic company.

In other Marvel news, upcoming Spider-Man reboot movie, Homecoming, recently saw a new trailer released. The film–which is set to hit theaters on July 7–stars Tom Holland in action as Spidey, plus Michael Keaton as the villainous Vulture, and Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is also scheduled for this year, while a new teaser for Netflix’s Defenders series recently got a new teaser–check it out here.

Powered by WPeMatico

Creative Assembly, the studio behind the Total War and Total War: Warhammer series, has said “production for [its] next historical major release is well underway.” The statement follows the announcement of Total War: Warhammer 2, which raised concerns among fans of its real world history-based strategy titles.

“We have had many questions on when our next historical title is going to be available,” reads a statement on the Total War website. “We’re looking at a number of ways of bring a variety of historical content out over the coming months and years, rather than focusing on one singular project.”

According to community content editor Michael Whelan, Creative Assembly’s next major historical title is in development, “with the team working on all areas of the game.” Whelan added that “the game design is locked and asset creation fully underway,” and that the team has “seen some particularly jaw-dropping character and campaign map concepts that have really pushed the strong visual design of this release.”

He continued: “We have also been collaborating with our first historical advisor, pre-eminent in his field and already bringing that world-leading expertise to bear on our designs and extensive research so far–don’t forget, it’s an era that we haven’t tackled yet, so we want to make sure we get it right.”

Creative Assembly is also thinking about producing “additional content or standalones for some of our more recent historical titles.” Developers that worked on Total War: Rome II and Total War: Attila have formed new teams to investigate these opportunities.

By “standalones,” Whelan is likely referring to standalone expansions built on existing games.

Total War: Warhammer 2, meanwhile, does not yet have a specific release date. However it’s due out sometime before the end of 2017. A third game is also expected in the future, as this series has been announced as a trilogy.

Powered by WPeMatico

Yooka-Laylee will receive a day one update to improve its camera and overall performance, developer Playtonic has announced (via Eurogamer).

The patch also fixes a bunch of issues, including some game-breaking bugs. It’s reportedly out now on Xbox One and will be ready on PlayStation 4 and PC in time for the game’s April 11 launch. Take a look at the full list of fixes at the bottom of this article.

In our Yooka-Laylee review, critic Kallie Plagge said a “largely uncooperative camera” was partly what keeps the game “from being more than just a nostalgia trip.”

“Ultimately, Yooka-Laylee’s best and worst aspects come directly from its predecessor, [Banjo-Kazooie],” she continued. “Despite attempts at modernizing the formula, its style of gameplay is still outdated, and it doesn’t stay challenging or interesting for long as a result. But if you’re looking for a faithful return to the Banjo-Kazooie formula, Yooka-Laylee certainly delivers–from the font to the music to the wealth of collectibles, it’s worthy of the title of spiritual successor.”

For more, check out the full Yooka-Laylee review, or check out what other critics thought in our review roundup.

Yooka-Laylee Day One Update Patch Notes

• [Fixed] Camera will become locked in place after completing Gravity Room challenge in Galleon
• [Fixed] Grappling the seeds as they break in Planker’s challenge causes erratic behaviour in Moodymaze Marsh
• [Fixed] Game softlocks and has to be reset if the player leaves the course and faints during the Nimble race in Tribalstack Tropics
• [Fixed] Softlock will sometimes occur on the Hub C slide if the player faints at the same moment as the timer reaching zero
• [Fixed] If the player leaves Brreeeze Block’s room in the Icymetric Palace in Glitterglaze Glacier but remains in the world and returns to the same room then the isometric camera will be deactivated
• [Fixed] If player is killed by a bizzy in hub B and knocked back into the archive door at the exact same time, the screen will still transition. When the player respawns, they will be unable to move
• Performance improvements to various camera transitions in the introductory cut scene
• Performance improvements to Shipwreck Creek and Hivory Towers. Various areas have been improved including camera movement
• Performance improvements when using the light beam in the Icymetric Palace within Glitterglaze Glacier
• Performance improvements during the House of Cards ball roll course in Capital Cashino
• Performance improvements in the Bee-Bop arcade game

Powered by WPeMatico

State of Decay 2 developer Undead Labs has confirmed how many maps the zombie sequel will have at launch. In a blog post, the studio said there will be three maps out of the gate. Each of the areas is “roughly the size of the original,” Undead Labs said.

The maps will be very varied. “You should expect to see slightly different environments, definitely different landmarks and locations, different layouts lending themselves to different strategies, unique home sites, and even different mission types,” Undead said.

The studio went on to explain why State of Decay 2 has three maps instead of one. The idea is that the studio wants players not to experience a sense of “deja vu,” and this also gives Undead the freedom to potentially expand the game world even further with more locales in the future.

“Why’d we do it that way?” Undead said about State of Decay 2 having three maps. “Well, primarily, because it makes the game more fun. It really feels like you’re moving from one small town to another, and creates a tremendous sense of immersion. And perhaps counter-intuitively, it makes the world feel even bigger.

“You know how on one map (even one three times the size as the original game’s) the longer you play, the more you start feeling deju vu with every mission?” it added. “That’s less of an issue with separate maps. And see above about strategies and missions. Oh, and one more detail–the multiple map set up makes it easy to expand the world down the line, if you know what I mean.”

Also in the blog post, Undead explained that its idea is to allow players to take all of the survivors and all every item collected in one area to the others. Additionally, players should get some kind of refund for the buildings they create on one area when they move to the next. All of this is subject to change, as State of Decay 2 remains in development.

“We’ll have all the vehicles parked in our home site parking spaces, along with whatever’s stored in the trunks,” the statement says. “We’re also going to get at least a partial refund on what we sunk into building our facilities. That’s the intention, anyway. As always, specifics may change a bit as we get deeper into testing…”

That State of Decay 2 will have a larger game world than the first game is no surprise. Last year, Undead boss Jeff Strain confirmed that the sequel’s game world will be “substantially larger” than that of the first game.

For more on State of Decay 2, which launches this year for Xbox One and PC (the release date will be announced at E3), you can read GameSpot’s interview below with Strain.

• State Of Decay 2 Dev Talks Larger World, Co-Op, Griefing, And More

Powered by WPeMatico

Terraria: Otherworld, a spinoff PC game announced back in February 2015, has seen its developer ditched as the project is “well behind schedule,” according to publisher Re-Logic.

The game was in development at Engine Software, a Dutch developer behind a number of licensed games and handheld ports. However, in a forum post, Re-Logic stated it has had to end Engine’s involvement with the game as “the game is still equal parts far from [our] vision and well behind schedule.”

“Re-Logic’s focus has and always will be on delivering complete and quality game experiences to our fanbase,” the publisher said. “This means that we will not compromise game quality for speed to market or for any other reasons within our control. Our team had a clear vision for this game–one that we shared with all of you with much shared excitement–and, as much as we hate to say it (and in spite of all of the reforms we tried last year)–the current state of the game is still equal parts far from that vision and well behind schedule.

“As a result, we have made the decision to move on from having Engine Software continue development of Terraria: Otherworld. Re-Logic has possession of the game (code, art, sounds, etc.) as it exists today, and we have been examining the array of options available to us to get TOW to a place to where we can confidently deliver on the vision and expectations we all have for this game. After taking a good hard look at everything, we feel that a new and fresh start/direction is the only way Otherworld will ever reach its full potential at this point.”

Re-Logic, who developed the original game and published it on PC, stated it has shifted development of the spinoff open-world strategy game to Pipeworks, which previously worked on the console and mobile versions of Terraria.

“Based upon their really impressive work to date with the Terraria re-write on console/mobile,” said the publisher, “coupled with an amazingly on-point proposal for completing Otherworld (after a thorough review of the game on their end), we have made the decision to bring Pipeworks on board as our new development partner for Terraria: Otherworld.”

Re-Logic goes on to state that it expects a “quiet period” while Pipeworks gets started on its version of the game. The new developer will “staff up” appropriately so that work on Otherworld “does not have any impact on the timing/quality of console/mobile/Switch launch.” The main game is due to launch on Nintendo Switch at some point in 2017.

In other Terraria news, the original title recently passed the 20 million sales mark. It has certainly proven popular in the years since its 2011 launch, and rightly so: we awarded it an 8/10 in our PC review.

Powered by WPeMatico

A study commissioned by Google has found that teenagers find the Xbox brand “cooler” than they find PlayStation. That preference was switched in millennials, however, as 18-25 year olds thought Sony’s gaming brand was cooler than Microsoft’s.

According to the report, children aged 13-17 thought Xbox was the fourth coolest brand in the world, with PlayStation down in seventh. Top of that list was Google’s own video streaming service, YouTube, with Netflix and Google’s overall brand in No.2 and No.3, respectively.

Some of most popular video game series among teens–which Google defined as those born between 1999 and 2003–were found to be The Legend of Zelda, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Grand Theft Auto, Pokemon, Minecraft, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Nintendo is seen to be less cool than Xbox and PlayStation among both millennial and teenagers, while EA Sports is even further behind, says the report. Additionally, VR and AR are seen as some of the coolest things in the world of technology, along with smartphones and iOS in particular.

The study–which was intended to discover what young people’s favourite brands were–was commissioned by Google but carried out by YouGov and Gutcheck across three surveys. In total, around 1600 teenagers and 800 millenials were polled between May and July 2016, though much of the data came from one particular survey that queried 1100 teens. It should be noted that much of the actual data was omitted from the final report in favor of qualitative statements, while it also appears the survey was limited to young people in the US.

Check out Google’s report for yourself here.

Powered by WPeMatico

Marvel today announced that its next Netflix show, The Defenders, will premiere on the streaming site on August 18. This was confirmed alongside a new teaser that shows members of the Defenders, including Iron Fist (Finn Jones), Like Cage (Mike Colter), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), and Daredevil (Charlie Cox) in an elevator. Jessica Jones ends the clip by smashing the camera.

This teaser is not much to go on, though you can see the name Midland Circle Financial in the elevator. And according to Bleeding Cool, the voice saying “going down” is that of Sigourney Weaver, who plays the show’s villain, Alexandra.

The characters in the elevator are joined by a variety of characters from the individual Netflix shows, including Daredevil‘s Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), Jessica Jones‘s Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss), and Luke Cage‘s Misty Knight, played by Simone Missick.

In addition to the trailer, Marvel has launched a new viral marketing site for The Defenders that offers a few more backstory details about the show.

The Defenders follows the poorly received Marvel show Iron Fist, which premiered in March.

Powered by WPeMatico