Category: Gamespot

Zelda fans have decoded Hylian text seen in Nintendo’s demonstrations of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild during E3 2016. It turns out a lot of it is fairly generic, but funny, marker text.

Translated images were posted on NeoGAF by RagnarokX and reveal that Nintendo has used the fantasy language of the Zelda universe to do things such as write “dungeon” over and over across the doors of a shrine.

The doors that hold Link inside the chamber he awakens in at the start have the word “shutout” written on the bottom, which is hilarious if you imagine a sports commentator shouting it at an unconscious Link as the doors are slammed shut.

The text very end of a shrine, where the Sheika sits, looks very mysterious. Could it be an allusion to what’s going on in the world, and what the Sheika’s purpose is within it? Nope, it just says “GOALPOINT.”

Check out all the translated Hylian text from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild here and here.

Breath of the Wild was one of the highlights of E3 2016. During the event we learned you can beat the game without finishing the story, that Link can use his shield as a snowboard, and why the upcoming game won’t feature a playable female hero.

It was also revealed that Xenoblade developer Monolith Soft is helping Nintendo with development.

You can check out more Nintendo stories from E3 through the links below.

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Hands-on Impressions
• Why Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s Link is Right-Handed
• Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Trailer Shows New Weapons, Abilities
• Paper Mario: Color Splash Gets Release Date, Features Talking Paint Bucket
• New Mario Party Box Art Seems to Be From a SpaghettiOs Can
• New 3DS Game Ever Oasis Features Dungeon Crawling, Oasis Building

Head over to GameSpot’s E3 hub to catch up on any news or impressions you may have missed from this year’s event.

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In the impressive Halo Wars 2 trailer from E3, you might have noticed that main characters Cutter and Anders look different than how you may have remembered them from the 2009 original Halo Wars. As it turns out, there’s a good reason for that.

“Because they are different–for both casting and technical reasons,” developer 343 Industries said in its latest weekly blog post. “The first Halo Wars game, for all its glitteringly wondrous CG, contained characters that [effects studio Blur] essentially ‘made up.’”

“They were effectively ‘hand drawn’ amalgams of character, rigging, and aesthetics. Those characters were created in 2008, using 2007 tech and they looked fantastic at the time.”

Since then, the industry has made “geometric leaps forward” in terms of gaphical fidelity, 343 explained. For Halo Wars 2, “the end result is much better immersion in the story and far more believable ‘people’ because they are people–recordings of the performance rather than a simulation or cartoon of it.”

The new actors for Cutter and Anders have changed. Gideon Emery (Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Battlefield 3) plays Cutter–who is seen grayed to reflect the 28 years of passed time since Halo Wars. Faye Kingslee (Mirror’s Edge Catalyst) plays Anders, and 343 said she nailed the role.

“You’re going to love her performance,” 343 said. “While respecting the original character, she’s poured a lot of herself into this. And while we loved Kim Mai Guest as our previous actress for Anders, getting our schedules to jive was a challenge.”

“We’re really excited to have both Faye and Gideon join the Halo family, and we can’t wait to show you more of the story and the amazing Blur cinematics in Halo Wars 2.”

Also in the blog post, it was confirmed that Halo Wars 2 will feature campaign co-op. However, there will be no cross-play between the Xbox One and PC versions.

Halo Wars 2 is a Play Anywhere game, meaning buying it on Xbox One gets you the PC version free and vice versa. Originally set to come out in 2016, Halo Wars 2 is now pegged to arrive in February 2017. A beta is being held right now on Xbox One.

For more on Halo Wars 2, check out GameSpot’s preview from E3 2016, “Will Halo Wars 2 Please RTS Fans?”

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According to a new report, Sony’s more powerful PlayStation 4, Neo, will launch before the end of 2016. That means it would arrive well ahead of Microsoft’s Project Scorpio.

“Several sources have indicated” this information to Eurogamer’s Richard Leadbetter. “If that is the case, it’ll be interesting to see how developers utilize its resources, and whether 4K really is the focus. And we can be equally as sure that Microsoft will be watching just as intently as it gears up for its own next-gen roll-out,” the report said.

Sony’s Andrew House confirmed Neo just days before E3, at the time also mentioning that it would not be discussed at the event. For its part, Microsoft announced Project Scorpio during its briefing, a system the company describes as “the most powerful console ever made.”

Scorpio, which features 6 teraflops of performance, is scheduled to come out in holiday 2017. Pricing has not been announced for the Neo or Scorpio; in both cases, the games that work on PS4 and Xbox One today will also be supported on the new systems.

If Neo is indeed coming out this year, some possible, but not confirmed, venues for Neo’s official announcement might include Gamescom, Tokyo Game Show, or Paris Games Week. It might also be that Sony hosts a dedicated event for the unveiling, as it did for the PS4.

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While we’re still waiting for a firm release date, 343 Industries today shared some new screens and information for Halo 5‘s next free expansion, Warzone Firefight.

As part of the developer’s latest weekly update, 343 revealed some of the new content and Reqs. As announced previously, included in the update are new modes such as Warzone Firefight for multiplayer and Score Attack for single-player.

The update also adds three new maps, including two for Warzone and one for Arena. There is also a new “Tidal” canvas for Forge, while there are of course a number of new Reqs to pick up, including the awesome-looking Temple Banshee.

You can see all of the Warzone Firefight content announced so far in the image below.

In the blog post, 343 shared more information about the new Prospect map. It’s set on the glassed human colony of Meridian, specifically a mining facility.

343 also shared an overview and some tips for how to succeed on the map.

“A key opening strategy is to take advantage of various flank paths hidden in the terrain to gain the upper hand,” 343 explained. “The level itself is layered with strategically placed scaffoldings, plenty of cover, and well-worn trenches, all designed to give players on both sides of the battle more options to take the fight to their opponents, whether they are pushing the objective or holding the line at the Core. Speaking of which, defending that Core now has more options than before.

“On Prospect, players can focus on power weapons and rush, or opt to try open the gates open to get vehicles in to support ground troops. All in all, it’s an exciting new opportunity to evolve the nature of the Warzone Assault game type, and we’re eager to see what new strategies and tactics begin to emerge when your boots hit the glassy ground in the near future.”

As for the new Forge canvas, it’s called Tidal presumably because it’s set near the water. It looks both beautiful and ridiculous. You can see some images of it in the gallery below.

Finally, 343 shared some concept art for an unannounced Halo 5 Warzone map. Take a look:

Warzone Firefight will be Halo 5’s seventh free expansion. The other ones were The Battle of Shadow and Light (November), Cartographer’s Gift (December), Infinity’s Armor (January), Hammer Storm (February), Ghosts of Meridian (April), Memories of Reach (May), and Hog Wild (May). Warzone Firefight is Halo 5’s largest and most significant update ever.

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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.

Andrew Robinson posted some commissions from Denver Comic Con on his Instagram.

Chrissie Zullo posted a bunch of Overwatch art on her Facebook page.

Ryan Stegman posted some new sketches on his Tumblr. He as some art for sale here. He’s also at Heroes Con this weekend.

Skottie Young posted some Batman-related Daily Sketches on his Tumblr. He has art for sale here.

Dustin Nguyen posted a coupe new pieces on his Instagram this week.

Yildiray Cinar posted some new sketches in his Instagram.

Mike McKone is getting ready for Heroes Con and posted a Tigra commission on his Twitter page.

Brett Booth posted a Flash sketch on his Twitter.

Agnes Garbowska is at Amazing Comic Con (in Las Vegas) and posted some art from Fan Expo Dallas on her Tumblr.

Kevin Wada is at Heroes Con and posted some commissions on his Tumblr.

Joel Gomez posted some new art on his Tumblr.

Marcio Takara posted some new commissions on his Tumblr. He’ll be at Heroes Con this weekend as well.

Chris Giarrusso put more sketch cards up for sale on his website.

Jim Cheung posted new sketches on his Instagram. He’ll also be at Amazing Comic Con.

Tom Raney is also doing commissions at Heroes Con this weekend and posted some on his Twitter.

Mike Henderson is also at Heroes Con. He posted new art on his Instagram this week.

Todd Nauck posted more commissions from Phoenix Comicon on his Tumblr.

That’s it for this week. Let us know which ones you dug. We’ll have more awesome art next time.

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Overwatch‘s Competitive Play mode is set to release this month, and game director Jeff Kaplan has now detailed what players can expect to see in a new developer update video. There are changes to Assault, season length, and how the competitive mode will define your ranking. You can watch it for yourself in the video above.

One of the things players asked for was an extension to seasons, which were only a month long during the beta. Each season will now be about two and a half months long with a two week break in between each one. They’ll be based on real-world seasons in the Northern hemisphere–for example, December through February could be the winter season.

Additionally, Kaplan notes that games would too commonly end with sudden death. He said that it would go to the tiebreaker 35 percent of the time, which was too much for Blizzard. The developer has put some changes in place that will help minimize the number of times this happens, and when it does happen, the sudden death will occur on the same map you just played on.

Assault mode will also see a change to its format to make matches last longer and to produce more opportunities for the round to go back and forth between the two teams. Kaplan apologized for not getting specific, though promised the studio would share more details in the future.

Kaplan also detailed changes to Competitive Play’s ranking system. The old system focused on progression, where if you reached a certain tier, you could never drop out of it. Blizzard has changed it so there are no more tiers and will instead use your skill rating to determine your opponents–you’ll get your initial skill rating from placement matches.

At the beginning of each match, you’ll be able to see every player’s skill rating, so you’ll know exactly who you’re playing with and going up against–you’ll also know which players are partied up. Kaplan noted that not every match is going to be fair and explained that if you’re on the less-skilled team, you “stand to gain more if you win and you will lose less if you lose.”

“The downside of a system like this is [your skill rating is] going to go down sometimes,” Kaplan said. “But this is the sort of competitive system that we think players who are attracted to competitive play really want.

“If it’s not, I hope we’ve proven throughout the beta, and our responsiveness to change Competitive Play over time, that we’re going to change this system over time to really be right for Overwatch and the players of Overwatch.”

Kaplan said Blizzard wants the game “to be as great as you do,” as it’s not only working on the game, it’s playing it, too. He added that they’ll continue to change the mode as feedback comes in and will make adjustments between seasons.

The devleoper finished the video by talking about cosmetic rewards you’ll receive by playing the competitive mode. In addition to exclusive sprays and player icons, he discusses a customized golden gun system, which outfits your characters with gold-colored weapons.

“The highest-skilled players will be able to unlock that stuff way sooner than anybody else,” Kaplan explained. “And there will also be some exclusive, other cosmetic rewards that only the highest-skilled players can get–that nobody else can get.”

In other Overwatch news, Kaplan recently discussed new heroes and maps the team has in the pipeline, including a map that was “amazing yet a total disaster.”

Overwatch also saw an update recently that nerfed both McCree and Widowmaker. It made McCree’s alt-fire and Widowmaker’s submachine gun less powerful.

You can check out more of GameSpot’s Overwatch coverage through the links below.

• Overwatch Reaches 10 Million Players
• You’ll Want an Overwatch Anime After Watching This Outstanding Fan-Made Video
• Pro Overwatch Team Eyed by Major Sports Franchise – Report
• Here’s How and When Overwatch Penalizes You for Leaving Games
• Overwatch Stats Site Shows Who Wins the Most and Least

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Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn is already available on PS4, PS3, and PC, but it looks like it could be headed elsewhere. Director Naoki Yoshida told Polygon that Square Enix and Microsoft are in talks to bring the MMO to the Xbox One.

One of the reasons Final Fantasy 14 hasn’t made its way to the Microsoft console is because of the lack of cross-platform play. In the last few months, Microsoft announced its support for cross-platform play across Xbox One and Windows 10–it’s also come out to say that it’s ready to connect the Xbox One to the PS4. Yoshida said Microsoft reached out to them about the “cross-platform opportunity,” but it’s not going to happen just yet.

“When our team reviewed the regulations that are associated with that, we realized that Microsoft may not have the experience or understanding of running an MMORPG as an online game genre just yet,” he said. “The Final Fantasy 14 team has fed back to Microsoft that there are certain elements of its regulations that we would have to consider waived. We’re waiting on Microsoft’s response for that, but we are having discussions.”

Yoshida also commented on the PS3, saying that the developer will continue to support the older console “through the 3.x series of patches.” He added that fans will be kept up to date if anything changes.

Final Fantasy 14’s latest expansion, Heavensward, received a score of 9 in GameSpot’s review. Critic Pete Davison said, “While new players–or those who never beat A Realm Reborn’s complete story–may feel aggravated at being locked-out of the expansion until they catch up, there’s little denying that Final Fantasy XIV as a whole offers astonishing value for those willing to immerse themselves, and it will only continue to grow and expand over time.”

There was a bunch of Final Fantasy news that came out of E3, most of it pertaining to the upcoming Final Fantasy 15. You can see some of the stories and videos through the links below.

• Final Fantasy 15 Has Over 100 Hours of Gameplay
• Final Fantasy 15 Lets You Pause Combat and Think Things Through
• Final Fantasy 15 on PS4 Will Include VR Experience, But Not Right Away
• Final Fantasy 15 – Regalia Type-F Gameplay
• Final Fantasy 15 – Altissia Walkthrough Gameplay

You can see all the news and impressions from E3 right here on GameSpot.

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