Hello Games has published the full patch notes for all of the No Man’s SkyPC patches released so far.
There have been three of these to date and they addressed many, many things, such as players getting stuck under the world, crashes, and the game failing to save until you died.
The patch notes for all three updates are printed below, as written by Hello Games and published on Steam. Hello Games says these fixes should address about 70 percent of the problems that players have informed the developer of. The team is now at work on fixing the remaining 30 percent.
In this post, Hello Games says the team has been “incredibly busy” since No Man’s Sky’s release for PC on August 12. In addition to tracking issues submitted directly to the developer, the studio is looking at what people are saying in places like Steam, GOG, and Reddit.
“Right now the team is fully focused on categorizing and fixing support issues in order of priority, based on the number of people they are affecting,” the studio said. “The information and crash dumps you’ve posted have been indispensable in helping us track down and fix these issues.”
Looking ahead, Hello Games said it expects to release at least one more “major” No Man’s Sky update next week. The studio, as well as presumably its new QA staff, are working on this patch this weekend.
Thousands of lines of assembly have been rewritten to support AMD CPUs. The game code no longer relies on anything above SSE 2,
Havok Physics has also now created new libs for us to add Phenom support.
Alt-Tab has improved
Some systems/configs were crashing or not pausing correctly on Alt Tab. This should now be resolved.
Improved Performance
On CPUs with 4 threads or fewer, performance has been improved.
On CPUs with exactly 8 threads, performance has also been significantly improved.
Framerate Stuttering due to Shader Caching
Framerate was initially stuttering due to shaders not being correctly cached by the GPU on some systems. We have replaced the GPU caching system. You may notice some stutter during the Galactic Map intro to the game (the very first time you run), but it should be smoother from then on. This is particularly true on ATI cards.
Max FPS Cap
On some CPU/GPU configurations, setting Max FPS to 60 or 30 was not giving 60 or 30 FPS (causing stuttering). This has been fixed.
Radeon 6xxx
Added support for this GPU, which doesn’t support OpenGL 4.5 fully.
Save Corruption
Solution to try to prevent saves getting corrupted no matter what’s going on in background processes (see Patch 3 below, where we also are attempting to recover corrupted saves).
Intel GPU Detection
We do not currently support Intel GPUS. We are working on this for a future patch, to expand our min spec.
In the meantime, the game will now let you know if you are trying to run with an unsupported GPU. This will hopefully flag for some users that their high end GPU has not been selected.
Gsync
Gsync has been disabled by default, which was causing an issue for some users
Mouse Smoothing
Generally this is most helpful for players with sub-30 FPS.
Smoothing on mouse movement has been improved to prevent hitching or stuttering, and is now adjustable through the Options menu in “Mouse Smoothing”.
It defaults to off. If you feel micro stutters in framerate affecting controls, feel free to turn this up. If you feel the framerate is “slow” or “lumpy”, please make sure that this is turned off
Patch 2
Stuck under the world
It was possible for players to save their game stuck under the terrain, leaving them stuck. This was caused by getting shot down in atmosphere, and their ship reaching ridiculous speeds as it crashed to the planet. This has been resolved.
Whilst it won’t happen anymore, if you are currently already stuck under the world, we detect this and do our best to rescue you.
Crash after warping
Occasionally at random the game would lock up after a warp, or return to desktop. This was due to very specific timing in hardware (a threading specific bug) – meaning that unfortunately for some people it was regular, and for others they would never be able to recreate it. This was our most reported crash during gameplay, and has now been resolved.
Game failing to save until you died
If the player died, and then loaded the game ten times without saving, and then died, player progress wouldn’t be saved from then on until you died again. This is fixed now! This was also causing player’s saves to grow in size.
Crash fixes in scanning
Quite a rare crash, but in certain scenarios it was possible to scan from space or on planet and crash the game.
Crash warping inside a freighter
When warping into a battle sometimes the player warped into the inside of a freighter and everything went crazy 🙁
This is fixed now.
Patch 3
Stranded in Space Station
If you died in your ship while in atmosphere of a planet with a damaged ship, you could respawn in a space station with your launch thrusters and pulse engine damaged. If you did not have the resources to fix them then you could no longer take off and be stuck there. This will no longer happen.
Loading Corrupted Save Files
Some players have corrupted save files, we’ve been working with them to still load saves even if they are corrupted (this can happen for many reasons outside of the games control). This fix has allowed many players to still load their save even if they have become corrupt on PC.
Crash fixes for next three most commonly reported issues:
As the player gathers a huge amount of discoveries, there was a threading issue that becomes more prevalent the more discoveries you have, and could cause the game to crash.
If you had collected a large number of blueprints, in a specific order it was possible to crash the game when you received a new blueprint. This has been fixed.
Players who set a large number of waypoints could find themselves in a situation where they could crash the game in the Galactic Map, this is remedied now (PS. A better waypoint system is coming).
The Titanfall 2 pre-alpha tech test is now open to the public, letting PS4 and Xbox One players (but not PC players) try out the next installment in Respawn’s first-person shooter series. We’ve spent a lot of time with the tech test already, running on walls, grappling around, and blowing stuff up with our Titans, and we’ve been impressed with many of the changes and additions.
However, after several days playing the tech test, we aksi have some concerns and questions about the game. The test is very limited–only two maps, three modes, and a handful of weapons are in it–so it’s hard to say at the moment how the full game will turn out. However, there are some parts of the game that we hope are improved or changed before its final release.
Why should we use anything but the grappling hook?
Titanfall 2’s most significant change to its base gameplay comes in the form of the grappling hook, which fits very well into the game’s overall emphasis on quick and rhythmic movement. Getting skilled enough with the grappling hook so that you can swing and catapult yourself around is a big part of the game now, and it’s both fun and effective when you do it well.
But you can swap out the grappling hook for other perks, such as an ability that lets you create a holographic doppelganger of yourself or an item that sends out sonar waves to show enemies on the map. However, in our time with the game, we’ve come to realize that there’s very little reason at the moment to use anything but the grappling hook. It enhances movement in such a way that makes you inherently more powerful than players without it, and the other abilities can’t compensate for this imbalance. Further, the hook is the best way to take on Titans, as you can easily grapple onto them and attack them.
Since it feels like such a fundamental part of the game, it would make sense for the grappling hook to be included in basic movement like jumping or wall-running. Then, have the other abilities on top of that. That way, everyone can grapple, and it gives the other abilities more importance.
Will Titanfall 2 improve and flesh out progression and customization in a meaningful way?
One of the most prevalent criticisms of the first Titanfall was that it didn’t have enough meaningful player progression. The number of weapons and items wasn’t terribly high, and many players felt that the most effective abilities and guns were unlocked very early on. This created an issue for Titanfall–how do you keep people playing?
This tech test is very limited, with only two maps and three modes. It also doesn’t have the full suite of customization options in the game. However, we’ve already noticed that players gravitate toward the single autorifle in the game. The multipurpose gun is by far the most popular. Hopefully Titanfall 2 won’t fall into the same traps as its predecessor. We hope that it will have far more options and weapons to choose from, because combat is more fun and interesting if players are using a variety of different loadouts. But from our first look in this tech test, it seems like there’s already the potential for similar problems to arise as in the original Titanfall.
Can its new Boosts add the same level of gameplay variety as Burn Cards?
Burn Cards were a strange system in Titanfall 1. They provided temporary abilities or advantages during a game, and they added a level of unpredictability to interactions with enemies. Would a foe be using boosted weapons? Would they be able to spawn a Titan right at the beginning of the game?
Burn Cards were controversial, but they certainly gave the game more customization and more variety between matches. Titanfall 2 ditches Burn Cards and adds Boosts, which give you an ability to build toward during a life. Think of them something like the Specialist abilities in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 or a minor killstreak–you build toward them by killing enemies and completing objectives, and they give you a bit of an edge.
However, currently there are only two of these in the game, and they aren’t nearly as interesting as Burn Cards. You can choose between Amped Guns and Ticks–the former boosts the damage of your weapons, and the latter are spider bots that track enemies and blow up. On top of this, the Ticks are currently vastly inferior to the Amped Boost. As it stands, the game gives you little reason to sacrifice the additional weapon damage for slow-moving spider bots that are easily destroyed.
While the system of building toward these boosts seems to work better than simply burning a card anytime you want, there’s also way less variety in matches as a result.
Since Rodeoing enemy Titans has been streamlined, can it live up to the entertaining challenge of taking down a Titan in the first game?
Taking down an enemy Titan has been significantly changed. Instead of riding on top of an enemy Titan and either meleeing it or shooting its core, you instead rip out its battery and immediately hop off it. Or, if its battery has already been removed, you throw a grenade down into its core. It takes several grenades to sufficiently kill it, however, so it’s harder to fight against enemy Titans on foot than it was in the first game.
This doesn’t really feel like you’re “rodeoing” a Titan anymore. One of the most fun parts of taking on a Titan in the first game was seeing how long you could stay on its back, shooting or beating it to death. We’ll have to wait and see in the final game if fighting a Titan on foot feels as challenging and exciting as it did in Titanfall 1.
Will the Thunderbolt anti-Titan weapon prove to be a valid weapon?
How is the Thunderbolt weapon worth using at all? It’s supposedly an anti-Titan weapon, but it shoots a ball of electricity that goes incredibly slowly and barely even damages a Titan–just incapacitates it for a second. The gun works reasonably well at clearing out Grunts, but as a means to attack an enemy Titan, it’s very underpowered at the moment.
The idea of using something other than a rocket launcher to fight against a Titan is a good one, and we hope that the Thunderbolt will prove to be a valid option in battle. But in the tech test, you’re way better off choosing either the rockets or the directed-beam sniper.
Is it actually effective to play as a sniper in a game all about fast-paced movement?
This is the perennial issue for games that emphasize motion–snipers are essential parts of virtually every shooter, but they also require greater patience and precision than other guns. When an enemy can run, jump, and get around quickly, it makes lining up a shot with a sniper so challenging that it’s frustrating. And Titanfall is one of the most apparent examples of this.
In Titanfall 1, snipers were hard to use. In Titanfall 2, you’re going to have an even tougher time holding your own because the game introduces bullet drop. You’re going to have to lead your enemies if you want to successfully snipe them, which makes lining up a shot one of the hardest things to pull off in the game.
Of course, it feels incredibly satisfying to actually kill someone with a sniper–but it currently feels almost more like luck than skill. We’re interested to see how Respawn deals with balancing the sniper so that it’s easier but still rewarding to use.
Titanfall 2 launches on October 28 for PS4, PC, and Xbox One. The tech test running right now is one of two public tests that Respawn has planned before the game launches.
Something has gone terribly wrong. The cavernous atrium of the Talos 1 space station is dark and devoid of life, yet filled with ominous creaks and groans. A lifeless body slumps against a nearby wall. Protagonist Morgan Yu–the key subject in some secretive experiment gone awry–grips a wrench in anticipation of what’s to come.
“When you emerge from the experiment, the disaster that’s overtaking the space station just happened. It didn’t happen months or years ago, it’s happening right now,” says lead designer Ricardo Bare. Though Bare won’t reveal the exact nature of Prey‘s central disaster, its effects can be felt throughout the world. Even the game’s opening area utilizes the same jarring juxtaposition of decadence and ruin that makes games like BioShock such unsettling experiences.
Players can select a male or female version of Morgan, hence the gender-neutral name.
As Morgan creeps through the once-impressive atrium, a shadowy, spider-like figure darts up a nearby staircase. Ignoring decades of horror movie wisdom, Morgan chases after the specter, but when he reaches the top of the stairs, he finds only a trashcan rolling slowly towards him. Seemingly on a hunch, Morgan swings his wrench anyway, and as it strikes, the object instantly transforms into a screeching alien, still shadowy and ethereal in form.
With a few more swipes, Morgan subdues the alien, which Bare later identifies as a Mimic–a creature capable of assuming the form of virtually any object, allowing it to hide in plain sight and terrify unsuspecting experimentees. Jump scares seem inevitable and utterly unavoidable. “It’s not always predictable, even by us, because the aliens do that systemically,” explains Arkane Studios co-creative director Raphael Colantonio. “Based on what objects are around them, they will choose one if they have to flee at this moment.”
While there’s clearly plenty of potential for terror in Prey, Colantonio is also quick to downplay its overall significance. “There are horror elements, but it’s not a horror game in the sense that this is not the focus for us,” explains Colantonio. “The focus is…a story where you were the subject of an experiment and something went wrong, and now you are trying to understand what happened, and who you are, and why you’re here, and how do you escape this place.”
Mimics are capable of assuming the form of virtually any object, allowing them to hide in plain sight. Jump scares seem inevitable and utterly unavoidable.
Indeed, Prey seems to rely more on subdued creepiness than explicit horror and, according to Colantonio, may even resort to fourth wall-breaking psychological manipulation to further seed its subtle yet pervasive paranoia. “We’re going to mess with the players’ heads to some degree, at least at the very beginning,” laughs Colantonio, “because there’s a big theme about identity and what did you want before and what do you want now?”
The developers won’t just be playing mind games, though–they’ll also be empowering players to cope with their dire circumstances, primarily by arming them with makeshift weapons and unconventional abilities. While further exploring the station, for example, Morgan stumbles upon a glass case containing a sinister-looking metallic object called a Neuromod. As the name implies, these devices quite literally modify Morgan’s brain by stabbing needles through his eyeball and rewiring his neurons, thereby unlocking a new ability or upgrade.
“There are two groups of Neuromods,” reveals Bare. “There are human-based Neuromods–human skills like, ‘I want to be a better hacker,’ or ‘more agile,’ or something like that. But then all the alien ones are in a separate group. You don’t have the data for those, so you have to go out and scan the aliens and acquire it.” According to Bare, scanning enough aliens to acquire specific powers will be demanding, often forcing players to venture into particularly dangerous parts of the space station or defeat a certain number of powerful enemies.
Ultimately it’s up to players to decide which options are actually worth the risk, but as you might expect, the rewards are potentially substantial. Perhaps the most compelling example: Morgan can actually acquire the Mimic ability and transform into virtually any nearby object. “There are some rules around the power,” says Bare, “like it has to be an object that’s roughly the size of Morgan or smaller, and it has to be an object that isn’t bolted to the ground. It has to be a physics-based object.”
Despite these loose limitations, Mimic proved invaluable during our demo. At one point, Morgan turned into a coffee mug and bypassed a locked door by rolling through an open window instead. Later on, he converted himself into a small, spherical mine and used some kind of kinetic blast to launch himself up to a previously inaccessible ledge like a scary Samus Aran. And though he never used it to hide from an enemy, Mimic could conceivably be used for stealth purposes as well. Given that the power is physics-based and highly adaptable, Mimic’s applications will likely expand to match players’ creativity.
There are, of course, other powers available to Morgan as well. “We showed off one called Superthermal,” recalls Bare, “which lets you put a trap anywhere in the environment [and] if anything moves past the trap, it’ll explode into a huge cascade of fire. The cool thing about it is that it’s physics-based, so you can trigger it, too. You can throw a box across the room when you want it to trigger. You have to be careful because if an ally walks by it, it’ll blow up too.”
Mimic proved invaluable during our demo. At one point, Morgan turned into a coffee mug and bypassed a locked door by rolling through an open window instead.
Bare further warns “there are consequences” to adopting alien powers since “things like the station’s defenses will start to recognize you as an alien and start attacking you.” Just as Arkane Studios’ other tentpole franchise Dishonored pulled a page from the “choice and consequences” playbook popularized by the original Deus Ex, so too does Prey: you can choose to forgo any and all alien abilities and focus instead on the game’s unusual weaponry.
Like Dead Space, Prey’s scientific setting means many of its firearms are actually repurposed tools rather than guns. “You’re on board of a space station; it was not a military space station or anything like this. It’s a high-tech company,” argues Colantonio. “So there are a few weapons for security reasons, but that’s all.” According to Colantonio, Prey won’t deprive players of ammo the same way a survival game like The Last of Us might, but the development team intentionally avoided handing players an arsenal.
“We wanted to encourage players’ creativity as much as possible,” affirms Colantonio, “and if you give players weapons then they’re just going to shoot. People will usually go for the most direct solution. A bullet is pretty direct. So by limiting this, we give them opportunities for other things, which is super satisfying for players because now they have a reason to be creative, as opposed to trying to do cool things just for fun. They feel like they’re really surviving and using their intelligence, which is cool.”
“We wanted aliens that were not going to fall into the two or three archetypes that we keep on seeing all the time. We wanted to go for a more paranormal, psychological, weird, immaterial, ethereal kind of approach.” – Raphael Colantonio, Co-creative Director
In spite of these efforts to foster creativity, determined shooter fans might still be able to play Prey as a run-and-gunner. As Bare points out, it all comes down to player choice: “We have a crafting system in the game, and players could burn all their resources on making shotgun shells. So you could be the player who’s like, ‘I’m just going to shoot everything in the face because I burned all my resources on supporting that play style,’ and that’s okay too.”
Assuming you’re willing to eschew shotguns and embrace Prey’s unfamiliar firearms, you’ll find options like the GLOO Cannon. This bulky, non-lethal gun spews a steady stream of sticky paste, which at one point Morgan uses to immobilize several enemies simultaneously. “We saw it as an object that was designed initially to control the aliens in case of a problem,” explains Colantonio. “They didn’t want to kill them, but they wanted to trap them. Then it happened that it has side properties.”
Those “side properties” include the fact that GLOO hardens when it dries, allowing Morgan to, say, neutralize a hazard by capping a flaming gas pipe or even build an entirely new vertical path by spraying GLOO up a wall to create a makeshift ramp. The GLOO Cannon’s potential as a traversal and puzzle-solving tool opens the door to creativity and discovery in much the same way as Mimic and the other powers.
And then, of course, there’s the Recycler Charge: a portable black hole that sucks in “anything that isn’t nailed down” (including Mimics) and compresses it into crafting materials, according to Bare. While the idea of completely cleansing a room is pretty satisfying in its own right, crafting materials are significant for another, even more exciting reason: with them, players can upgrade Morgan’s suit with a propulsion system, allowing him to venture out of the station and into the floating field of debris that occupies the cold black space outside.
GLOO hardens when it dries, allowing Morgan to, say, cap a flaming gas pipe or build an entirely new vertical path by spraying GLOO up a wall to create a makeshift ramp.
“The exterior’s one big space that you can fly around in,” says Colantonio. “There are side quests out there, there are hidden areas of the space station that you can only get to by flying outside, and it’s also useful for traversal.” Late in the demo, Morgan pulls himself through an airlock as the atmosphere of the station hisses past him into space. Though he moves slowly and methodically, he seems to be able to maneuver with relative ease, navigating confidently through the debris in search of a missing scientist.
The oxygen meter in the corner of the screen diminishes slowly, affording him enough time to venture into floating chunks of the station that are now exposed to open space. In one such area, Morgan finds the corpse he’s searching for, grabs some data off the body, and turns to head back inside, allowing the camera enough distance to pan over the entirety of the breathtaking station. The structure is massive, intricate, and, according to Bare, completely open.
“The structure of the game is open ended,” says Bare. “We call it an ‘open space station game,’ so you can go anywhere in the space station you want as long as you have the means to get there. There are places, for instance, you could go to way before you have any business being there, and you’ll get your ass handed to you–like in those old school RPGs where you’re like, ‘Okay, I’ll come back when I’ve leveled up significantly.’”
Bare continues, “Late in the game, once the space station is very opened up, then you’ll get missions all over the place, and it’ll be up to you how to get there. Do I want to go on the outside? Or do I want to go through the elevator? Or maybe I’ll crawl through the guts of the space station? You might decide that based on how fast or how dangerous it is.” While you might think opting for the relative peace of open space should be the safest option, you would, unfortunately, be wrong. “There’s combat in [zero gravity], absolutely,” warns Bare. “There are these little flying robots, and some of the aliens are able to navigate in zero-G, so you’ll definitely encounter things like that in space.”
Needless to say, the interior corridors won’t be much safer, but in addition to encountering hostile robots and incorporeal aliens, you may also stumble upon other humans–kind of shocking when you consider the desolation of those opening moments in the atrium. “Most of the people are dead, but not all of them are, and so you’ll find some survivors along the way that are barricaded in or hiding, calling for help,” says Colantonio. “There are different people that talk to you and try to influence you into doing this or that.”
“When you run into these people, you get to decide, ‘Should I help them? Should I hinder them?’” adds Bare. “Some of them are trying to hinder you, but the way that you treat these people has a significant impact on the way the game turns out in the end. Different people will ask you to do different things for them, and some of them are going to be mutually exclusive. If you help one, the other one will be pissed about it.”
Regardless of who you ultimately ally with, Prey promises both plenty of threats and plenty of ways to deal with them. With its Dishonored-esque powers, inventive weaponry, zero gravity combat, unrestricted exploration, and sci-fi conspiracy steeped in tension and terror, Prey’s ambitious mix of ideas and obvious emphasis on player creativity in many ways sets the game apart from the rest of the genre. After all, how many shooters let you turn into a coffee mug?
The Xbox Scorpio device will usher in a new wave of thinking as it relates to console generations.
On the latest Inner Circle podcast, Xbox director Albert Penello spoke about how the new Scorpio device, which launches in 2017, is Microsoft’s attempt at “thinking beyond console generations.” While previous transitions, like the one from Xbox 360 to Xbox One, have been “disruptive”–for developers and gamers alike–the move to Scorpio will be different. The device introduces the idea that Xbox consoles exist in the same family, with the games and peripherals you own able to move forward with you.
“You hear us talking about thinking beyond console generations. It’s not the idea that you don’t want to do consoles anymore or that there’s not going to be more performance [in the future with new systems],” Penello said. “But if you go back and look at console generations, they’re always super exciting when something new comes out, but they’re super disruptive.
“They’re really hard on developers, because they have to learn how to program on these new machines; they’re really hard on customers, which I think sometimes people forget,” he added. “You have to give up a lot of stuff. The idea [for Scorpio and the future] is, can we smooth that out, can this be more about a family, can we think beyond, ‘We’re gonna do this one and then stop and then start all over again.’”
When the Xbox Scorpio, or whatever it ends up being called, is released, it will live alongside the Xbox One and Xbox One S. Xbox Scorpio will be “the most powerful console ever made,” and the entire idea of offering systems with different specs–which is not uncommon on PC–is to give consumers more choice. Not everyone buys a game console for the same reason, Penello said.
“It’s really easy for people to think there’s just one customer for consoles and they’re reason for buying is identical across the millions of people. But there isn’t; it’s just not true,” he said.
Going forward, people will be able to buy a console based on what’s most important to them, be that price, performance, or other factors, the developer said. Whatever the case, “you can’t go wrong,” Penello said, because all the games and accessories will work across devices.
Also during the podcast–which is great and you should listen to the whole thing here–Penello talks about supporting all manner of “Xbox Family” devices. Will the Xbox One be supported indefinitely? It’s too soon to say, Penello said, and nothing has been decided, but the director said you can look to the PC market for an example of what could happen. There, older systems are still supported years and years after release, though if you want the best experience, upgrading is the way to go. The same could be true for the console market.
Curious about Fallout 4‘s Nuka-World expansion? As it’s done with previous releases, Bethesda will show off the content during a livestream event ahead of launch.
As announced on Twitter, Bethesda will reveal new Nuka-World gameplay during a Twitch livestream scheduled for August 23, starting at 4 PM ET. You can watch live on Bethesda’s Twitch channel.
Nuka-World is Fallout 4’s final expansion. It launches on August 30 for all platforms. Some new gameplay was released earlier this week and can be seen here.
The expansion adds new quests, weapons, and enemies, though Bethesda has not fully detailed what players can expect in terms of story and content.
Nuka-World is Fallout 4’s sixth expansion, following Automatron (March 2016), Wasteland Workshop (April 2016), Far Harbor (May 2016), Contraptions Workshop (June 2016), and Vault-Tec Workshop (July 2016). All of that, as well as Nuka-World, is included with the $50 Fallout 4 DLC Pass.
Alternatively, you can buy Nuka-World on its own for $20.
Each week we search and gather up the coolest comic book art you won’t see in actual comics. The reason you won’t is because professional artists often draw sketches for fun or commissions and post them on their websites, blogs, and Tumblrs. Some artists even arrange commissions through their sites so be sure to check them out. This is a way to see the artists working on one book draw characters from other comics or publishers.
Todd Nauck posted some commissions and Post-It art on his Tumblr.
Rod Reis posted more pre-New York Comic Con commissions on his Instagram.
Marcio Takara posted some sketches and commissions from Boston Comic Con on his Tumblr. You can find info. there on his commission list for New York.
Andrew Robinson posted a Superman sketch on his Instagram.
Nico Leon posted a Stranger Things sketch on his Twitter.
Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb has announced the first game to be a part of next month’s Games With Gold. Earthlock: Festival of Magic is set to release for Xbox One on September 1 and will be free for Xbox Live Gold subscribers.
Earthlock is a turn-based fantasy RPG set in the world of Umbra, which is described as “a mysterious, beautiful but harsh planet that stopped spinning thousands of cycles ago.” It focuses on a desert scavenger called Amon, who meets a peculiar creature that looks like some kind of pig/bunny/bat hybrid. In addition to Xbox One, it releases for PC via Steam on September 1. You can check it out in the video below.
More games have yet to be announced for next month’s Games With Gold. The current free games on offer include Warriors Orochi 3 (August 1-31) and WWE 2K16 (August 16-September 15) for Xbox One and Beyond Good & Evil HD (August 16-31) on Xbox 360. It’s worth noting that every Xbox 360 Games With Gold is playable on Xbox One through the system’s backwards compatibility program.
GameSpot will keep you up to date as more of September’s Games With Gold are announced.
Final Fantasy XV has been in development for 11 years and undergone a number of reworks–from a new name to more drastic changes to its combat mechanics. Development began with the series’ longtime producer and character designer Tetsuya Nomura at the helm. However, directing duties were later transferred to Hajime Tabata, whose previous work includes spin-offs such as Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Type-0.
Of course, this tumultuous development cycle has resulted in multiple delays. On August 15, Square Enix confirmed Final Fantasy XV required an extra two months of development time. At Gamescom 2016, we spoke to Tabata about what this extra time affords the development team, as well as whether Square Enix intends to follow up with further games set in the same universe–as it did with Final Fantasy XIII–and more.
You recently delayed the game and previously indicated you were working on a day one patch. Could you tell us specifically what the contents of the patch are and why you felt it was necessary to take that extra time?
It’s not that I’m saying patches are bad or that I’m against patches, and originally we were intending on dealing with adjustments and fixes via a day one patch, but I actually changed my opinion on that. I felt that what we were going to put into the patch would be much better to put into the disc for [release].
What we’re actually going to do in this two months is fix a number of issues that affect the usability and playability of the game. Things like bugs that affect the visuals and some areas where the optimization process wasn’t as good as it could have been. The second major thing we’re going to do is reassess and fine-tune the balance of the gameplay.
The game has had a lengthy and rocky development; do you feel like the multiple delays may have coloured the opinion of it, even before it’s release?
Obviously we were prepared for people to say various things when we made this decision. We understand that people will [say things] and it is very bad to keep people waiting. Ultimately we made this game to give people the best experience that we possibly could. We feel that if we didn’t do that and do everything we absolutely could, it’d be a shame and it would leave people feeling wronged. That’s why we made the decision and we are confident in what we’re doing.
When Final Fantasy XIII came out, its battle system was very different from what fans had come to expect. It was more active, action game-like. There was a lot of pushback towards that. Have you seen the opinion towards that style of combat change and what has been the response to Final Fantasy XV’s continuation of it?
I understand that there are people who are concerned and have negative opinions about the changes in the Final Fantasy series’ systems, and certainly about Final Fantasy XV’s. It’s also undeniable that it’s part of the DNA of the series to challenge ourselves and try new things, to make explorations within the genre itself. Certainly with Final Fantasy XV, we’ve been trying to update and change the technology base that powers Final Fantasy games. Then to provide new gameplay experiences made possible because of that new technological benchmark. [Final Fantasy XV’s] gameplay is very much part of that. We’re aiming to make it a game that can be played and enjoyed by both classic Final Fantasy fans and new people who have just come into it. I really want to reassure people that we’ve got that classic Final Fantasy feel. We very much strive to keep that in there. I recommend just playing it and finding out what’s still very much Final Fantasy about it.
It struck me that a lot of the video material we’ve seen about it doesn’t emphasise the intricacies of battle, such as magic and team-up attacks, immediately. You have to really dig into that yourself because it’s layered in and revealed at a slow pace. Are you worried people may think it’s just not there?
We have taken a lot of different opportunities up until now, and also up until release, then after release, to showcase the different features and those classic Final Fantasy elements we think people will want to see in the game. Hopefully that will help get across that we have got those in the game.
The other thing I want people to bear in mind is a lot of the development staff that worked on Final Fantasy XV are people that worked on classic Final Fantasy [titles]. People each have their favourites, some like Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, and it’s the same people who made these trying to challenge themselves to do new and exciting things within what they think of as Final Fantasy. Hopefully that should reassure people that it really is a classic Final Fantasy, it’s made by the same people with the same love and attention.
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In previous interviews you’ve said this game is a make-or-break moment for Final Fantasy franchise. Now that you’re essentially finished, is it a make or a break? Where do you see Final Fantasy in five or 10 years time?
I don’t think whether Final Fantasy XV does well or not will kill the franchise or keep it living. I don’t think it’s really going to mean that. But certainly there are a number of things already clear that Final Fantasy XV will bring to the future of the franchise. To give you a few examples of that, first of all the fact that we’re bring it out as a global simultaneous launch. I think in the future that will really be what Final Fantasy does. Secondly is the number of languages and regions that the game is localised for, we should carry on doing that. Then of course the technology used to power Final Fantasy XV means that we can depict and create game experiences that the series just couldn’t have done before. I think that’s going to shape the future of the Final Fantasy series.
That sounds like the path that Final Fantasy XIII took. The Lightning Trilogy was a way of using all the work put into the game and leveraging it to get the most out of that effort. It was a good business decision. Does that mean we can expect more stories in the Final Fantasy XV universe and do you want to tell more Noctis stories?
To answer the question of whether we have any intention of making further games with Noctis in them after or continuing the story after Final Fantasy XV is out, I can tell you we don’t currently have any plans for that. There may be a call for it business-wise, but personally from our point of view, the way we see it is there are people that have been waiting for this game for a very long time now, and we want them to keep enjoying it for as long as possible. In terms of what we want to do with the technology, we want to use that technological foundation that we’ve built up with Final Fantasy XV and move on to do something completely new using that knowhow and that base. We’re going to look into new directions with it.
I felt that what we were going to put into the patch would be much better to put into the disc for [release]
I’m interested in the challenges you faced as someone who came into the project part of the way through. It started with Nomura-san at the helm, then you came in and you have your own style. What were the difficulties you faced picking up someone else’s work and did you feel like you may not have been able to express what you wanted fully?
When I took over the project I felt that because we’d already made a promise to the fanbase out there with Versus XIII, it was really Square Enix’s responsibility to deliver on that project. There was no doubt in my mind when I took over the project that we needed to do this. We don’t [think someone should trace around another creative vision]. That’s not a good way of doing it because, obviously, two [different] people can’t share the same vision.
When I started approaching what to keep in and what to take out, I started thinking [about] everything that we’d already presented to the world with Versus XIII that would work within my new vision of Final Fantasy XV[, all that] was kept with no problem. Anything that would have been difficult to keep in there or couldn’t, I cut out. I really tried to make the best use of all the original elements from Verus within Final Fantasy XV. It was a really challenging way to approach it but I think in the end it was the best way and worthwhile.
Fairly early on in the game you find a book with the name of some Summons in there. Are those all the Summons that will be in the game or are there some beyond those? My favorite ones weren’t there, which bummed me out, so I was wondering if they would appear later on down the line.
I understand that every time someone approaches a new Final Fantasy game it’s a very difficult decision to choose which Summons to include and which to cut out. All the fans out there have favorites and ones they want to see, so it was a difficult decision. I’m sure all the previous creators have faced this as well, but when I approached which ones to put in Final Fantasy XV, I really felt I wanted to include Summons that could be a solid part of a story that are meaningful within the world’s story, played a meaningful part, and are representative of Final Fantasy. In that sense I’m very happy with my choices and think I’ve made them well.
As for whether all the Summons listed in the book are the entirety of the set in the game, I’m going to keep that secret. You’ll have to play the game.
I think you could figure out a pretty good way of getting Doomtrain in there.
Because Final Fantasy XV has been in development for a long time, we really do want to make it so those people who do buy it can enjoy it and keep playing for as long as possible. As part of that, once the development on the main game is finished, we looking into keep doing further developments to make new extras to add onto the game. Within that there may very well be a chance to add new Summons into the world and into the gameplay. If people really want to see some that aren’t in there they should keep telling us they want to see them. There’s a very good chance we may include them if we see people really want them.
The PC version of Eternal Crusade, the new online Warhammer shooter from developer Behavior Interactive, will exit Early Access and release in full on September 23. The console versions, however, will now launch “at a later date” that was not specified.
“We are committed to delivering the best experience for the release on September 23, with a PC version that matches our ambitions in terms of content and quality and sets the runway for our free lifetime expansions,” said Behavior’s Stephen Mulrooney in a press release. “To pause the development of the console versions was a tough decision but will result in an optimized and extended experience when released.”
Disappointing as this might be for some, it is commendable that the console versions won’t be rushed out the door.
Eternal Crusade has been available in Steam Early Access for some time now, though it doesn’t offer the MMO elements that make up the complete experience. The current version sells for $40, with in-game credits also sold for real-world currency.
The full game promises to let you take part in PvP and PvE battles between four factions (Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Orks, and Eldar), with players able to choose to align with 20 different sub-factions. There will also be “hundreds of weapons” along with customization options and accessories “drawn from 29 years of Warhammer 40,000 lore.”
In case you’ve missed some of our coverage of the conference, we’ve rounded up the biggest news, interviews, and impressions below. We’ll update this with more, too, as the conference continues. And be sure to check out our wrap-up of all the biggest Gamescom 2016 trailers.
