Category: Gamespot

In a blog post today, Final Fantasy XV game director Hajime Tabata discussed at a high level some of the free updates coming to the RPG in the future. He said the “great reception” the game has received has allowed the developer to “expand [its] plans even further” in terms of post-launch support.

“We want you to enjoy Final Fantasy XV for a long time to come,” he said. “We have been listening to your ideas on how to make the game experience even better, and so in addition to the previously announced content, we’ll be providing free updates to the game throughout the coming year.”

Square Enix didn’t get into specifics, but said the plan is to “enrich certain aspects of the game.” There will also be “gameplay enhancements” for Chapter 13, as well as buffs to ring magic, among other things. Specifics about the free updates are coming at a later date.

After those updates come out, Square Enix will put its sights on Final Fantasy XV’s story and add more scenes and sequences.

“We’re hoping to delve deeper into the story, adding scenes that will give you new insight into character motivations, such as why Ravus walked the path he did,” he said. “We will need a little time with these, as they’ll need to be localized and voiced in other languages, but we’ll let you know the details once everything is set.”

Tabata went on to say that, in the “long term,” the idea is to make “certain key characters” beyond the main four playable. Square Enix is also considering adding customizable avatars.

“Other features we have in mind include letting you carry over stats from a previous playthrough, and adding items that introduce new playstyles, such as low-level runs and god mode,” Tabata said. “We’re also examining readability tweaks–increasing font size–for certain languages. On top of that, we’re looking at content you can enjoy in real-time, including new bosses with exclusive rewards and achievements, and limited-time hunts.”

All of these updates will be free. Beyond those, Square Enix will also offer paid expansion. As announced previously, these are (working titles):

• FFXV Holiday Pack
• FFXV Booster Pack
• FFXV Episode Gladiolus
• FFXV Episode Ignis
• FFXV Episode Prompto
• FFXV Expansion Pack: Comrades

That last expansion, Comrades, will introduce online co-op.

After years of development and multiple delays, Final Fantasy XV launched on November 29 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It shipped 5 million copies to retailers on launch day, representing a new record for the franchise.

GameSpot’s Final Fantasy XV review scored it an 8/10.

“While it’s safe to assume fans and outsiders will find some aspect of Final Fantasy XV disappointing–be it the shallow story or finnicky Astrals–it would be hard for anyone to deny that Final Fantasy XV is a fascinating game after giving it a chance,” reviewer Peter Brown said. “Where its characters fail to impress, Final Fantasy XV’s beautiful world and exciting challenges save the day.”

For more on the critical reaction to Final Fantasy, check out this review roundup.

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Last week’s Game Awards 2016 was a big success in terms of viewership. Officially announced figures for the show reveal that it racked up 3.8 million views online, up significantly from past years. In 2015, the show reached 2.3 million viewers, and a year before that, it had 1.9 million.

Show creator and organizer Geoff Keighley told Polygon that it was “encouraging” to see The Game Awards’ reach grow both in the US and abroad. “Our goal is to bring this show to as many gamers as possible, and this unique distribution approach continues to pay dividends. The interest and response to the show in China was especially exciting to see,” he said.

Keighley’s production company worked out a deal with Chinese internet giant Tencent (which owns League of Legends developer Riot Games and a portion of Epic Games) to stream the show in China. The country was hugely important to the overall viewership spike, accounting for almost 1 million viewers. According to a report, the number of gamers in China exceeds the US population.

The Game Awards brought a lot of big news and trailers, while Blizzard’s Overwatch took home the overall Game of the Year award.

The awards show was formerly hosted by cable TV network Spike before shifting to an online-only format.

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The upcoming Marvel show The Inhumans has found its showrunner. The series will premiere next year, and will be led by Scott Buck, who is also performing the same role on the new Marvel Netflix show Iron Fist.

As reported by Variety, Buck will be executive producer and showrunner on The Inhumans. Buck has previously worked as a producer on the likes of Dexter, Six Feet Under, and Rome. Iron Fist, meanwhile, is part of Netflix’s roster of Marvel shows, and Buck has overseen all 13 episodes of the first season, which hits the streaming service in March next year.

The first season of The Inhumans will comprise of eight episodes, and the show premieres on ABC in September 2017. It is a co-production with IMAX, and the first two episodes will get a worldwide release in IMAX theaters. They will run for two weeks from Labor Day 2017 (September 4) in 1,000 theaters in 74 countries, before making their small-screen debut on ABC on September 26. The TV versions will include extra footage.

These opening episodes will be shot entirely with IMAX cameras, while some of the action scenes in the other six will also use the large-format technology. IMAX itself approached Marvel with the idea, and are financing the first two episodes.

An Inhumans movie was first announced in 2014, but no longer appears on Marvel’s schedule. The announcement was before Spider-Man: Homecoming and Ant-Man and The Wasp had been added to the studio’s lineup. In addition, the story of the genetically created superhero race has already been explored on TV in Agents of SHIELD.

Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige insisted earlier this year that an Inhumans movie would still happen. Although The Hollywood Reporter stated last month that the TV show does not “replace” the movie, it seems unlikely that it will happen any time soon.

The Inhumans were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in a 1965 issue of Fantastic Four. Led by hypersonically voiced Black Bolt, their first self-titled comic line ran from 1975 to 1977. They have subsequently appeared in a variety of limited and ongoing series over the past four decades.

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Star Wars: Rogue One is a spinoff from the main series and is not expected to get a sequel. But would director Gareth Edwards want to come back to direct another film in the sci-fi series someday? Maybe, he said in a new interview, but it’s more important for him is to have other people direct new installments.

“It’s nearly impossible for me to say, ‘No, I would never ever do Star Wars ever again,’ but I sort of feel like you know, I’ve won the lottery in terms of cinema,” he told IGN. “The most unfair thing you can do with the lottery winning is go buy more lottery tickets. It’s like, you’ve got to let other people.”

Also in the interview, Edwards singled out the iconic Star Wars character Obi-Wan Kenobi as one he would be theoretically interested in exploring in a new film. Specifically, he’d like to drill down on the time Obi-Wan spent on Tatooine as Luke Skywalker’s mentor of sorts.

“The bit that fascinated me before I knew about anything, I probably gravitated toward Tatooine because that’s where I fantasized about as a kid, like, wanting to be like Luke Skywalker,” Edwards said. “And as part of that obviously Obi-Wan Kenobi, his wilderness years. I mean, I feel like that would, I’d pay to watch that film.”

Actor Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan in the Star Wars prequels, has publicly said the character should get his own standalone movie someday.

In terms of new genres for the Star Wars series, Edwards said he’s interested in “something a bit more like a samurai movie or a western.” On the same line, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy recently said one of the ideas for the 2018 Han Solo movie is for it to have a western-type feel.

Rogue One comes out on December 16. Just today, Lucasfilm released a new video for the movie that introduces viewers to main character Jyn Erso, who is played by Felicity Jones.

While you have to wait a bit longer to see Rogue One, you can pick up Star Wars: Battlefront’s tie-in DLC, Rogue One: Scarif, right now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The DLC features four maps set on the tropical planet of Scarif and adds Jyn Erso and Orson Krennic as playable characters.

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One of the most intriguing parts of the new Death Stranding trailer was the confirmation that Hannibal and Star Wars: Rogue One actor Mads Mikkelsen is in the game. Now, Mikkelsen has spoken about working with Kojima and why he was drawn to the project in the first place.

“Kojima is a master,” he told IGN as part of the Rogue One press tour. “He’s the Kasparov of video games. He’s such a visionary person. [Working on a video game] was just something I’d never crossed before, so it was a wonderful opportunity to dive into that world.”

The Kasparov Mikkelsen is referring to is Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov.

In the new Death Stranding trailer, released last week at The Game Awards, it is suggested that Mikkelsen’s character is the antagonist (something Kojima himself later confirmed). And he has some unique abilities; remember those tentacle things? Asked by IGN to provide more details on the character, Mikkelsen declined, saying official announcements will come later.

At PlayStation Experience this weekend, it was confirmed that Death Stranding will run on Killzone and Horizon: Zero Dawn developer Guerrilla Games’ Decima engine.

Mikkelsen isn’t the only Hollywood talent in Death Stranding, as the newest trailer also revealed that Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro will be in it in some form. The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus is also in the game; he’s the playable character.

For more on Death Stranding, check out all of GameSpot’s previous coverage here.

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Star Wars: Battlefront‘s Rogue One: Scarif DLC, which features content from the upcoming movie, launches today for some players. As announced previously, people who own the game’s season pass or have the Ultimate Edition can start playing the expansion today, December 6. The DLC will be available for everyone else beginning on December 20.

Rogue One: Scarif’s four maps are set on the tropical planet Scarif, while the new playable characters are rebel leader Jyn Erso and the evil Director Orson Krennic, based on the likenesses of Felicity Jones and Ben Mendelsohn, respectively. Additionally, a new multi-stage mode featuring ground- and space-based combat called Infiltration is included with the expansion.

Battlefront’s servers were taken offline today to launch the DLC and a new update. The patch–which is available for all players–adds two new weapons (the A180 and the DT-29) and a new Star Card in the form of the Sonic Imploder. This is a “hybrid grenade” that deals damage and also blinds people who are looking at it. The patch also raises the level cap from 90 to 100 and makes a series of weapon and hero balance changes.

Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the full patch notes.

Also launching today is the free Rogue One: X-Wing VR Mission DLC for PS4.

Rogue One: Scarif is Battlefront’s final expansion. It follows Battle of Jakku, Outer Rim, Bespin, and Death Star. If you’re just getting into Battlefront now, you can pick up the $40 Ultimate Edition that comes with the base game and all DLC, including Scarif.

Looking ahead, DICE is working in collaboration with Motive Studios on Battlefront 2. The game is slated to come out in fall 2017, and will feature content based on “the new movies.” Just recently, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen teased that the sequel will be “much bigger” than the first game.

Rogue One, which is a prequel to the original Star Wars, comes out on December 16.

Star Wars: Battlefront December 6 Patch Notes:

Via EA

New Content for DLC Owners:

1. New levels: Four new maps set on Scarif and in space above the planet.
2. New game mode: Infiltration.
   – A three-phased mode in which Rebels must first breach the shield surrounding Scarif by escorting a U-wing to the Shield Gate. Once they’ve landed, their objective is to create a diversion by blowing up an Imperial cargo ship. Immediately afterwards, the Rebels must complete their mission by stealing Imperial secrets and escaping.

New Weapons:

• A180: A unique blaster pistol which can be modified to become other blaster types. Once equipped, your Star Card hand will be replaced with three different modes you can activate.
  – Sniper Mode
  – Rifle Mode
  – Ion Mode
• DT-29: A blaster pistol which uses ammunition instead of the overheat system.

New Star Cards:

• Sonic Imploder: A hybrid grenade that deals damage to the enemies as well as blinds targets that are looking towards the explosion.

New Heroes:

Jyn Erso:

• Rifle Extension – Transforms the blaster pistol in to a blaster rifle. You can switch mode between pistol and rifle modes at any time without a cooldown.
• Sonic Imploder – The grenade deals high damage, blinds enemies and reduce armor for targets.
• Truncheon Surge – Jyn performs a short forward melee strike using her baton. The ability starts with 3 charges, but can hold up to 9.
• Passive: For each kill with her blasters or grenade, Jyn will gain charges for Truncheon Surge. The amount she gains is equal to the level of her trait.

Director Krennic

• Armor Breaker – Krennic will fire a powerful blaster bolt that deals high damage and does armor reduction.
• C2-B5 – A unique version of an astromech droid is deployed. It is AI controlled and has the following abilities
  – Scan Ping
  – Squad Shield
  – Dioxis Defense
• Wrath of the Empire – Boosts team members in a small radius around Krennic. On top of a temporary armor increase, it has the following effects:
  – For regular soldiers it will increase the total health to 200, but it will automatically deplete until the players health reaches 50 Health regeneration will not activate until the player drops to 50 health.
  – For heroes and Krennic they will receive a 10% temporary health boost.
• Passive ability: An armor boost effect is applied to all nearby players, including Krennic. The armor boost effect is dependent on the number of nearby players. Heroes count for two players
  – Level 1: 1 Player
  – Level 2: 4 Players
  – Level 3: 8 Players
• Death Troopers: 2 players are able to spawn in as a Death Trooper whenever Krennic is on the battlefield. They are equipped with the following gear:
  – Weapon: DLT-19
  – Ability 1: Thermal Imploder
  – Ability 2: Cooling cell
  – Ability 3: Smart Rocket

New Vehicle:

• U-wing: A vehicle only available in space above Scarif as part of the new Infiltration game mode. It can utilize the following abilities:
  – Speed Boost
  – Shield
  – Jammer

New Power-ups:

• U-wing: Fire a turret mounted on the side of the U-wing as it circles above the map. You can protect yourself with the following abilities:
  – Shield
  – Jammer
• TIE Striker: An Imperial only power-up available only on Scarif. When activated, an AI controlled TIE Striker will make a strafing run on nearby Rebel players.

Hutt Contracts:

• New Hutt contracts: Four new Hutt Contracts have been added to the game.

General:

• PlayStation: Added the Star Wars Battlefront Rogue One: X-wing VR Mission.
• Drivers: The required AMD drivers for Battlefront are now 15.7 and above.
• Armor: A new armor system has been introduced. Increased armor decreases damage taken, where reduced armor increases damage taken.
• AI ships: Reduced the damage the AI vehicles deal. This change affects the AI support pick-ups from Y-wings, B-wings, TIE Defenders, & TIE bombers.
• Skirmish: Fixed an issue in which the Multiplayer Star Card hand wasn’t available.
• Game modes: Updated various spawn locations.
• Traits: Added a new way in which Traits are level up. It is point based now with different action granting more points. Playing the objective will grant more points than kills will do.
• Traits: Resolved a bug in which the traits will not reset whenever a player is defeated at level 3.
• Speeder Bikes: Resolved an issue which allowed speeder bikes to instantly kill heroes.
• General: Various minor UI issues.
• General: Updated the localization.

Game Modes:

• Death Star DLC: Added Cargo and Droid run to the death star interior levels
• Walker Assault: Resolved a bug in which players could spawn multiple heroes by waiting in the hero selection screen.
• Walker Assault: Removed TIE Interceptors during the last uplinks on Twilight on Hoth.
• Extraction: The shipment will now destroy any medical droid placed in its path.
• Extraction & Sabotage: Resolved issues that could cause the player to get stuck in the hero selection screen.
• Sabotage: Increased the spawn time for AT-STs .
• Sabotage: Increased capture areas and moved them slightly.
• Heroes vs. Villains: Is now best of 3 and all maps are played twice enabling players to play on both teams.
• Battle Station: Space power-ups now properly respawn during the first phase.
• Game Modes: Updated various spawn locations.

Weapon & Star Cards:

• Bryar Pistol: Lowered secondary fire damage from 300 to 120.
• Bryar Pistol: Increased cooling power from 0.1 to 0.07.
• Bryar Pistol: Increased rate of fire from 240 to 280.
• DLT-19X: Raised minimum damage from 65 to 67.
• Stinger Pistol: Increased base impact damage from 5 to 7.
• Stinger Pistol: Increased the active time for both basic and black card by 1 second.
• Stinger Pistol: Removed the penalty of un-equipping the card before firing. It will no longer go into cooldown when performing this action.
• Disruption: Added a 1.5 second delay from when the Star Card is activated to when the effect is triggered.
• Disruption: Users who activated a Disruption card can’t run during the deploy time.
• Disruption: When activating the Disruption card, sparks will emit from the player in order to notify enemy players in close proximity.
• Astromech & Viper Droid: Added a lock-on multiplier that have the following effects:
  – If a target is more than 25m away from the droid, it will not take 1 second to lock-on, but rather 2 seconds.
  – Pulled in the effective range of the projectiles.
  – Lowered the minimum damage slightly.
• Bacta effect: The bacta effect now applies to heroes. This applies to both Bacta Bomb and Medical Droid. When applied to heroes it adds an additional 10%, with 10% being the maximum amount.
• Spawn Screen: Added more clarity for certain weapons with unique effects by adding a short description to certain weapons in the spawn screen.

Heroes:

• General: Stun effects are not applied with each attack anymore. Players have a 1.5 seconds window where they can’t be consecutively stunned by the same attack.
• General: Several attacks are now doing more damage to droids: Lightsaber, Force Push, Saber throw, and Saber Rush.
• Luke Skywalker: Health increase from 1050 to 1100.
• Luke Skywalker: Force Push damage increase from 100 to 130.
• Han Solo: The Shoulder Charge’s hit box has been increased.
• Leia Organa: You can now cancel the Trooper Bane ability.
• Leia Organa: Health Token healing amount decreased from 50 to 40.
• Leia Organa: Health increase from 1000 to 1050.
• Nien Nunb: No longer takes damage from his own Proximity Bombs.
• Chewbacca: Increased damage of main projectile from 40 to 45.
• Chewbacca: Increased explosion damage of main projectile from 25 to 30.
• Chewbacca: Roar active time increased from 10 to 12 seconds.
• Chewbacca: Mobility speed increased very slightly.
• Chewbacca: Health increase to 1500.
• Palpatine: Health Token healing amount decrease from 50 to 40.
• Palpatine: Very slight Lightning damage decrease.
• Boba Fett: Wrist Rocket increased inner blast radius from 2.5 to 3.5m and the outer from 4 to 4.5m.
• Boba Fett: Wrist Rocket homing range increased from 25 to 35m.
• Greedo: Precision Shot will now briefly stun Luke.
• Greedo: No longer takes damage from his own Dioxis Grenade.
• Dengar: Hurricane Strike damage input fixed, it no longer hits multiple times on one enemy.
• Dengar: Increased base damage of Hurricane Strike from 100 to 130
• Bossk: Predatory Instincts will no longer randomly turn off.
• Vader: Can attack and block while Force Choking enemies.

Traits: Added Traits to all base game heroes.

• Luke Skywalker: Sprint speed boost.
  – Level 1: 20%
  – Level 2: 40%
  – Level 3: 80%
• Han Solo: Damage fall off distance and general damage increases.
  – Level 0: 22m and 30 min. damage
  – Level 1: 30m and 40 min. damage
  – Level 2: 45m, 50 min. damage and 75 close damage
  – Level 3: 70m, 60 min. damage and 80 close damage
• Leia Organa: Increases armor for all nearby Rebels and Leia.
  – Level 1: Rebels 20%, Leia 40%
  – Level 2: Rebels 40%, Leia 60%
  – Level 3: Rebels 60%, Leia 80%
• Emperor Palpatine: Recharge Lightning every 3 seconds.
  – Level 1: 9%
  – Level 2: 18%
  – Level 3: 25%
• Darth Vader: Armor increase based on the number of enemies surrounding him. Heroes count as 2 enemies.
  – Level 1: 20% for 1-2 enemies
  – Level 2: 50% for 3-4 enemies
  – Level 3: 80% for 5+ enemies
• Boba Fett: Passive scan distance and Jetpack recharge every 3rd second.
  – Level 0: Scan 5m, Jetpack 0%
  – Level 1: Scan 10m, Jetpack 6%
  – Level 2: Scan 15m, Jetpack 12%
  – Level 3: Scan 30m, Jetpack 18%

Stats & Progression:

• Diorama: Jyn Erso, Director Krennic, TIE Striker and U-wing have been added to the Diorama.
• Ranks: Increased from 90 to 100.
• Appearances: The new Shoretrooper Captain unlock has been added as a rank 100 unlock.
• Scoring: Resolved an issue in which match bonus wasn’t correctly rewarded on Death Star maps and modes.
• Hutt Contracts & Challenges: Improved the system and resolved issues in which Hutt Contracts would not track progress but still grant rewards.

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