Persona 5 may be months away from launch in the West, but it’s just days away in Japan. As such, Japanese PlayStation Store listings are now live for the PS4 and PS3 versions with screenshots of each, giving us a good look at how the two compare.
Until now, we’d only seen the PS4 version; game companies typically show off the best-looking versions of their games until late in the pre-release cycle. That can result in disappointment for those playing on older hardware, but it may not be the case here.
At least based on the three screenshots from each version we have, Persona 5 looks good even on the 10-year-old PS3. Take a look at the comparison shots above and below to see the differences; the PS4 version is on the left in each. You can see the PlayStation Store listings (via DualShockers) for PS4 and PS3 here and here.
Video and hands-on impressions of the PS3 version may reveal the gap is larger than the screenshots suggest–the frame rate and load times could be worse, visual effects may be reduced, or–gasp—those beautiful menus might not be quite so slick. But based on what we can see here, playing the PS3 version of Persona 5 may not be as unfortunate as some perhaps expected.
Persona 5 launches in Japan on September 15. It’s due out in North America and Europe on February 14.
Among the new features in Destiny‘s upcoming Rise of Iron expansion is an item-customization option called Ornaments. Despite sounding like something that hangs off of your weapon or armor, Ornaments are essentially new skins for items, and now Bungie is showing off what they look like on a selection of weapons.
The company began sharing images on Instagram today of the different looks that Ornaments make possible for some of Destiny’s new and existing Exotic weapons. Those posted so far include Telesto, Monte Carlo, Trespasser, Invective, and Khvostov, which is the starter weapon from the very beginning of Destiny that’s been turned into an Exotic for Rise of Iron.
We’ll continue to update this post as more images are shared. It sounds as if we’ll only be seeing Ornaments applied to weapons today, based on a tweet from the official Destiny account.
Some significant changes are coming to Hearthstone‘s Arena mode, beginning with the removal of several dozen cards.
In a blog post that deems Arena “a fun environment that could use some overall balance tuning,” game designer Dean Ayala explained what Blizzard sees as its problems and how it intends to begin resolving them.
“One goal we have for Arena is that we want it to feel meaningfully different from any other way you might play Hearthstone,” he said. “I think we’re hitting that goal now, but it’s important for us to keep that in mind when thinking about future changes. Variety among all game modes is important to us, but an equally important goal is to have a wide range of experiences within each game mode. This is an area where we feel Arena has some room for improvement.”
When starting out an Arena run, Blizzard doesn’t want you to pick your class based on what’s considered to be the most powerful one. Ayala admits Mage and Rogue have been among the most powerful, followed by Paladin, and then everything else in some order.
“So what are some ways we can address Arena balance?” Ayala continued. “Tools that we have available immediately involve removing cards from Arena completely–C’Thun-synergy cards and Purify are examples of this. We’d like to avoid removing strong spells and weapons from the Arena, because they add to a lot of the unpredictability and excitement surrounding the possibilities outside the current board state.
“We’d also like to avoid removing iconic cards, since they are generally versatile and familiar tools to veteran and new Arena players alike. Additionally, we can remove lower-performing cards in order to make room for a class’s more commonly utilized cards to show up more often in your Arena draft.”
This is the thought process Blizzard is bringing to the game with an upcoming patch, which will remove cards belonging to eight of the game’s nine classes (Paladin being the exception). You can find those at the bottom of this post; they include Priest’s Mind Blast, Hunter’s Starving Buzzard, and Mage’s Forgotten Torch.
Blizzard has further plans to continue improving Arena, but it doesn’t sound like those are coming just yet.
“We’re looking to develop additional solutions to balance Arena as well, such as the ability to adjust the rate that individual cards show up in your draft depending on a designer input value,” Ayala said. “If we pursue that route, there is still the matter of deciding on the best way to go about using that tool to achieve balance for each of the nine classes and still have Arena feel fun and different each run.
“Drafting by card rarity is another discussion that we’ve been hearing a lot. If it’s a matter of balance, we’re fairly confident the ability to adjust the ‘weights’ of cards available can solve that.”
Ayala said Blizzard will keep an eye on the changes it’s making in this update and wants fans to share their feedback with the company.
According to the development team at Hangar 13, a lot of research went into building New Bordeaux, the fictional version of New Orleans that serves as the setting for the upcoming Mafia III. It wasn’t just enough to create a new city to rival former Mafia series setting Empire Bay in scope and detail; the team wanted to create an experience that is many ways could be called true to life.
In this microcosm of New Orleans’ sordid past, the mafia ran the city with surprising efficiency and a hefty amount of drama. To this day, as you walk the streets of the densecity, you’ll see storefronts that once housed dangerous criminals and cunning mobsters, and were home to people who sought to use New Orleans’ origins as a city of smugglers and cheats to their advantage. Even down in the bayou, there’s a sensation in the air that this area has a raucous past–one that it’s more proud of than willing to hide.
After a recent lengthy hands-on demo with the opening hours of Mafia III and a tour detailing the city’s criminal past, here is everything you need to know about New Bordeaux before you dive in.
1. The game opens with a statement about its portrayal of racism and prejudice. As you start up Mafia III, the first thing you see is a note from the development team. The note says that the game contains foul language and terrible behavior connected to the societal tensions of the 1960s, the era in which Mafia III is set. In this statement, developer Hangar 13 says they do not condone or support this kind of behavior, but it was necessary to include things like racist slang and gross misdeeds to accurately paint a picture of the time period.
“Hopefully it comes off as a heartfelt note, because I wrote it, and it was a heartfelt note when I wrote it,” says Hangar 13 studio head and Mafia III lead Hayden Blackman. “It really was just to acknowledge, ‘Hey look, we are attacking a subject that makes people uncomfortable and we felt like we needed to in order to capture the sense of time and place.’ There’s strong language in the game that goes beyond race. There’s violence in the game because we’re dealing with criminals fighting criminals.”
“In terms of the concept of the game, the kind of line that we need to balance there is, what feels natural in this part of the world and doesn’t seem like it’s forced in,” lead writer Bill Harms explains. “Lincoln uses the world in a very specific way because of who he is, and the world has the specific view of him for that very reason, and since it’s 1968 and it’s the south, it’s a very terrible year. Racism is part of his world and his experience.
“However, the game is not about racism. It’s just part of the game, but it’s not the primary focus,” Harms says. “Mafia III is really about Lincoln Clay just destroying the entire mafia. Because of who he is, those racial elements do come in and are reflected in the world as you make your way through it.”
2. New Orleans may not be the first city that comes to mind when you think of mafia activity. But according to some locals, the reason no one ever talks about the city’s criminal past is because it was better run under the mafia’s care. The Matranga crime family, established in the 1850s and one of the oldest American crime families in history ran New Orleans through extortion and labor racketeering. They were so influential and so wealthy that after a time, even the police began to turn a blind eye to their activities. Members of the family known to have committed heinous crimes and murders were acquitted without a second word. But even as the mafia moved into selling drugs and running underground gambling and prostitution rings, the city of New Orleans flourished, and for regular citizens there was a kind of peace.
Some characters in Mafia III are also based on real mafia members that lived in New Orleans. Sal Markano, the biggest baddie for Mafia III, is based on Carlos Marcello, “the Godfather” of the New Orleans mafia who rose to power in the 1950s. Under his leadership the mafia flourished, and he had numerous hands running from the city’s illegal gambling network all the way up into the U.S. Senate.
3. There are a lot of systems at work in Mafia III, and when they all work together, it can be total chaos–unless you learn to use it all to your advantage. You can be stealthing your way into a hideout only to suddenly be discovered and have your enemies call in backup. In the time it takes that backup to arrive, you can do one of several things: you can try to shoot as many enemies as you can before a fresh wave arrives, you can flee the scene and hope no one follows you, or you can take a moment to call in reinforcements of your own. (This last option comes with some pretty intelligent AI, so don’t be shy about using it if you think you can’t handle a larger enemy group).
These are just a few examples of what you can do while infiltrating hideouts or hunting a target. You can throw a Screaming Mimi voodoo doll into the middle of a room and watch enemies flock to it, seeking the source of the strange noise, and then bomb them all to bits with a grenade. You can strap bombs to cars and send them into hideouts, blowing your target up without breaking a sweat. And while you’re in the middle of all this, you have to be constantly aware of the police–if even one officer becomes suspicious of your activities, a squad will be on your tail. Then you’ll have to leave your target to find a vehicle and outrun them to lower your threat level.
In one area of a demo I played, I was too aggressive in searching a closed supermarket for my target, and when the police showed up I was unprepared. Winning in these situations requires you to intimately know your arsenal and that you pull the trigger in a second to get something done. Lincoln can call in a weapons dealer to get new gear, order cars to be dropped off at his location, call for backup, or connect with someone who will dispatch the police (for a fee, of course) to prevent them from attacking.
4. Your associates can betray you if they don’t think you’re treating them well. Vito, Burke, and Cassandra–Lincoln’s three lieutenants, if you will–provide you with resources and connections in exchange for you giving them access to the hideouts and territories you conquer. But give too many territories to Vito, for example, and Cassandra may fly off the handle and turn on you.
5. This is not a hero story. Protagonist Lincoln Clay is a criminal, and having this kind of lost, emotional character in the player role was important to the writing team. “It’s not always important to have a likable character,” says Harms. “You need to have a character that people can empathize with, and with Lincoln, it breaks along two lines. Part of it is, he grew up as an orphan and then he lived on the streets. He doesn’t know where he belongs in the world, and that’s one of the reasons he joined the army. He thinks he can find his place in the world in the military, but he doesn’t, so when he comes back he is still searching for that, and I think that’s pretty universal.
“People get of collage, get out of high school, and at some point in their life they say, ‘Where do I belong in the world? What must I be doing? What should I do with my life?,’” says Harms. “The other thing is that he suffers a tremendous loss. Basically the only people, the two people that he loved the most, are violently taken away from him, and again, it’s something that people can relate to at some point in their life.”
6. You can feed people to alligators in the game. This is because director Hayden Blackman insisted on cutting a cinematic trailer with Lincoln feeding a man to an alligator. After this, according to Blackman, there was no way they could move forward with the game without including this.
7. Mafia III is full of small moments that build its world in big ways. NPCs talk about Martin Luther King Jr. and President Kennedy’s assassination. They discuss politics and civil rights, commenting on signs of the times. In one scene, Lincoln and his friends flee a successful heist with “I Fought The Law” blaring from the car’s radio, the boys twisting the lyrics to suit the moment. In another, “Paint It Black” serenades a brutal murder. “Born to Be Wild” colors a boat chase. Characters tell each other that just because you’re home from the war, doesn’t mean you’re completely back. This smaller moments paint a larger picture of 1968’s New Orleans, and set the stage for Mafia III.
Although this year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was a box office hit, it proved unpopular with both critics and many comic book fans. It has now been reported that the negative reaction has influenced the story and tone of the follow-up film, Justice League, which is currently in production.
In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, DC Films head Geoff Johns explained that the main issue was the basic approach that Warner had previously taken to its superhero movies.
“Mistakenly in the past I think the studio has said, ‘Oh, DC films are gritty and dark and that’s what makes them different.’ That couldn’t be more wrong,” he said. “It’s a hopeful and optimistic view of life. Even Batman has a glimmer of that in him. If he didn’t think he’d make tomorrow better, he’d stop.”
Fellow Warner executive Jon Berg went onto explain the reason why the original plan to split Justice League into two movie has been abandoned, with a single film due out next year. “We accelerated the story to get to the hope and optimism a little faster,” he said.
This isn’t the first time that those involved with Justice League have stressed that it will be a lot lighter in tone than the dark and moody Dawn of Justice.
“There’s definitely room for more humor,” Batman star Ben Affleck told Slashfilm in June. “DC movies I think, by their nature are a little more gothic, or mythic rather, than some comic book movies are. But [Dawn of Justice] was very dark and heavy because it was really rooted in Dark Knight Returns which is a heavy, dark book. And this is not that.
“[It] brings together all of these characters who have had their origins. It’s about multilateralism, and it’s about hope and about working together and the kind of conflicts of trying to work together with others.”
Justice League hits theaters on November 17, 2017. It is directed by Zack Snyder and also stars Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, henry Cavill, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Willem Dafoe, and Amber Heard.
Homefront: The Revolution will be free to play this weekend as part of the Steam Free Weekend promotion. The game’s campaign and cooperative Resistance mode will all be unlocked to sample between 10 AM PST on September 8 until 1 PM PST on September 11.
According to publisher Deep Silver, this will give players an opportunity to see the “significant improvements made in the recent Performance Patch.”
“The entire game will be unlocked and available to sample, including the vast 30-hour single player campaign and full access to Resistance Mode, Homefront’s online co-operative experience, together with the new Missions released since launch,” it said.
“The ‘Performance Patch’ launched earlier this month on console and PC, providing a significant boost to frame rates and overall performance thanks to a focus on GPU, lighting and particle optimisations, and checkpoint save and enemy spawning optimisations, and two new free Resistance Mode missions.”
Homefront: The Revolution will also be on sale during this period.
“Its substantial story campaign is impressively rich and its shooting can be tense and fun, but half-baked stealth, an unfulfilling story, and a vast menagerie of technical inadequacies drag the overall experience into disappointing mediocrity,” critic Scott Butterworth said.
Bethesda has announced the contents of an upcoming free update for Doom. Included in it will be Deathmatch, Private Matches, and Arcade Mode. The publisher has also released a short teaser which, along with gameplay, provides information and a stream where it will discuss these additions further.
The stream will be held on September 13 at 11 AM PT and will be hosted on the Xbox Twitch page, with id Software’s Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin appearing to talk about the game. Ahead of this, Bethesda has provided a few details on the new modes.
“Deathmatch brings free-for-all mayhem to DOOM’s fast-paced multiplayer, and arrives as part of Free Update 3 this month. Private Matches are also coming in that update, allowing you and your friends to create private multiplayer matches where you determine the maps and modes,” it explains on its website.
“You’ll also be able to adjust settings like the time limit, score limit, or turning demons and power weapon off or on. Plus, you’ll see a sneak peek of Arcade Mode, an upcoming competitive addition to the game’s critically acclaimed campaign mode, set to arrive in a future free update this fall.”
Henry, who was very much the Captain America of French football before he handed in his boots and retired, will appear as a “regular court side star during home games of the San Antonio Spurs.” Hmmm, maybe he’s more of a Nick Fury then.
According a press release, Henry will be playable in NBA 2K17’s Blacktop mode, which features “different types of basketball games ranging from 1v1 to 5v5. You’ll be able to test the soccer star’s skills against the greatest basketball players of all time. Seems a bit unfair if you ask me.
“Being a basketball and NBA fan since I was a kid, I’m honoured to be the first football player ever to be playable in NBA 2K17,” said Henry. “Seeing myself go toe to toe with the legends of the sport is an amazing feeling.”
While Avengers: Infinity War doesn’t start shooting until November, pre-production work is well underway. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo have posted the first image from the set on Facebook, and it reveals actor Josh Brolin in the motion-capture suit he will wear to play the intergalactic tyrant Thanos. Check it out below:
Earlier this year, Brolin spoke about the decision to film a mocap Thanos, as opposed to the CGI version that appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy. “I’m there and I’m not in a booth. I’m being filmed,” he told Superherohype. “I have a bunch of crap on my face. I’m being filmed by like thirty-four cameras? Thirty-six cameras? Something like that. Every movement, everything.
“So, it’s very new to me, it’s very exciting, it’s very unnerving. But I sure trust these guys!”
“The movies are very, very different from one another,” Anthony Russo told IO9. “It’s not a part one and part two scenario, necessarily. They’re just two different expressions. I think it creates a misconception that we’re shooting them at the same time.”
Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on May 4, 2018, while the untitled fourth Avengers movie follows on May 3, 2019.
Nintendo has kept very quiet about its mysterious NX console, but it appears we won’t have to wait much longer to learn more about the system. Analysts toldThe Wall Street Journalthat they expect Nintendo to “release NX details” by early October, so it might be just a few more weeks until we know more.
“One of the things that we have to do better when we launch the NX–we have to do a better job communicating the positioning for the product,” he said. “We have to do a better job helping people to understand its uniqueness and what that means for the game playing experience.”
In terms of games, Fils-Aime touched on the frequency it releases new games at. One of the issues with the Wii U was the lack of regular, noteworthy game releases, especially from Nintendo itself.
“We have to do a better job from a software planning standpoint to have that continuous beat of great new games that are motivating more and more people to pick up the hardware and more and more people to pick up the software,” he explained.
