Before it launched in early July, few people could have guessed that Rocket League, a game about rocket-powered cars playing soccer, would be one of the most popular games of the month. But only a few weeks after it was released, it had accumulated more than 5 million downloads across PlayStation 4 and PC and reached well over 100,000 concurrent players. Even in a month that witnessed the haunting fifth episode of Telltale’s Game of Thrones series, a soccer ball and a car resonated with us the most. They call soccer the “beautiful game,” and not much is more beautiful than a good, well fought match between acrobatic vehicles in Rocket League.
July wasn’t thin on good games, either. Episode five of Telltale’s Game of Thrones showed us once again that Telltale is capable of crafting dark, emotional stories. Its tumultuous events culminated with a heart-wrenching ending that motivated us to talk at length about our choices and what will come in the final episode. Tembo the Badass Elephant proved that Game Freak, best known for Pokemon games, can make a great platformer, and Tembo’s over-the-top story works in conjunction with precise controls to make it a must-play. The King’s Quest series finally returned with the triumphant release of Chapter 1: A Knight to Remember, which reminded us why the series is so beloved. Even if you’ve never touched a King’s Quest game, A Knight to Remember is still a fantastic, beautiful, and rewarding adventure game. Guild of Dungeoneering takes the classic dungeon crawler formula and turns it on its head, letting you build dungeons around your character and then fight through the enemies you’ve placed.
And yet, we kept coming back to Rocket League. The consistency of Rocket League bouts–its field, physics, and car stats are all completely and predictably the same during every single match–is its strongest asset, creating a framework that allows for huge range of skill levels. It’s a sports game in its purest form, but it also provides players with the excitement of explosions, rockets, and high-speed races. Whether it’s a quick game during lunch break, or hours-long marathons on the weekends, Rocket League has proven to be a deep and competitive experience that keeps us hooked. It’s a testament to the game that, following GameSpot’s brutal loss at the hands of developer Pysonix, we immediately went back to playing more of it.
In a month with a moving story and a brutal platformer, a return to a classic series and a novel take on a well known genre, Rocket League comes out on top. For the way Rocket League manages to be one of the best sports games in recent years, and for the way it manages to make matches intense and exhilarating while also bound by a set of well defined rules, Rocket League is GameSpot’s Game of the Month for July 2015.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain launches in a few weeks, and today developer Konami revealed a bunch of information about how Forward Operating Bases, microtransactions, and online functionality will work in the game.
Recently, the team working on the game held a GameSpot-exclusive Q&A on Twitter and explained some of the new features in The Phantom Pain. Specifically, Konami clarified how players can customize their bases and defend them against enemies. In addition, the studio provided some details about how you can interact with your friends’ bases.
Check out some of the best answers below.
Q: So you can fight with your friend to defend his FOB? (@ThatMightyGuy)
A: Not at the same time, there is no co-op but you can fight in place of them to defend his/her base.
Is the Motherbase/FOB platform architecture randomly generated when you build a new one, or can you manually design each platform? (@Android_LJ)
What you can decide is the placement of your defenses and to what level you want each area covered. This includes how many soldiers, security devices, or high-powered weapons are available in each area.
Follow-up: So will all FOB/Motherbase platforms have the same construction layout? Will every FOB I invade look the same?
Because players will develop their FOBs at their own rate and customize them, no, they won’t look the same. But the platforms themselves have similar architecture across the community.
What other things can we do at Motherbase as far as choices go? (@YanNeppy)
Train and do some target practice, take showers, and explore as well as talk and fight with fellow Diamond Dogs. There’s even more to do throughout your base but we want you to look forward to finding out for yourself 9/1.
What online features are tied to the PS Plus service on PS4? (@Jormungandblood)
To play online, you’ll need to have PS Plus subscription for PS4 and Xbox Live Gold for Xbox One/Xbox 360. This includes Forward Operating Bases and Metal Gear Online. Additionally, FOBs can be developed and your base defenses can be customized while you’re offline.
Will the microtransactions impede gameflow with timers or is it limited to camo and skins for online purposes? (@Ninja7emon)
No additional purchases need to be made to complete or build anything in the game, however you can use MB coins to speed up development as well as within the FOB system.
Normally games get delayed, it is rare for a game to come early. Any reason behind the PC version coming earlier? (@Adnan_Ahmed)
Feedback from PC users was powerful enough to convince us we need to bring this game to all platforms 9/1.
Developer Moon Studios announced the news at Gamescom this week as part of an Xbox broadcast (see below). Director Thomas Mahler called the new game the “ultimate” version of Ori and the Blind Forest.
It will include new areas and game mechanics, and “potentially” new abilities, Moon Studios said.
The Definitive Edition will launch this fall across Windows 10, Steam, and Xbox One. Pricing has not been announced.
For more, check out the announcement itself, which begins at around 56 minutes in the video below.
Take a look at Ancel’s creation in the video below, which comes by way of Nintendo France’s YouTube account. As such, the video is in French. But it’s still quite interesting to see how he works–Ancel even uses graph paper to plan out his level before implementing it in the game.
Retailer Best Buy has announced a pretty nice Back to School deal where you can save big on a new TV and an Xbox One. Beginning this coming Sunday, August 9, shoppers can pick up the Samsung 40-inch 1080p Smart HDTV and a new Xbox One together for just $500.
The TV right now sells for $430 and new Xbox Ones go for $350, meaning you’ll save about $280 through the limited-time promotion. This deal rolls out Sunday and runs for a period of one week, ending August 15.
Best Buy is aiming this deal at college students.
“It’s the perfect college student deal, as a gaming console like the Xbox One is a college essential and a 40-inch TV is a great size for a dorm room,” the retailer said in a statement.
Looking for more gaming deals? Check back later today for GameSpot’s full roundup of the day’s best offers.
Warner Bros. and developer Avalanche Studios have announced the minimum and recommended PC system requirements for their upcoming car-combat action game, Mad Max. The specs were published on Mad Max’s Steam page recently, as discovered by Gameranx.
You’ll need at least 6 GB of RAM to play the game, which takes up 32 GB of hard drive space. Check out the full minimum and recommended PC specs below the video, which was released this week at Gamescom.
Minimum:
OS: 64-bit Windows Vista, 7, or 8
CPU: Intel Core i5-650, 3.2 GHz or AMD Phenom II X4 965, 3.4 Ghz
RAM: 6 GB
Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660ti (2 GB Memory or higher) or AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2 GB Memory or higher)
With just a few more weeks to go before Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain arrives on September 1, Konami has announced resolution and frame rate details for the game across its various platforms.
The PlayStation 4 edition will run at 1080p/60fps, while the Xbox One version will run at 900p/60fps. As is often the case, the PC edition stands to look the best, provided your computer can run it (see specs here).
Both last-generation versions of The Phantom Pain run at an equal 720p/30fps.
The PC version of The Phantom Pain was originally supposed to launch on September 15, but Konami this week brought forward the game’s release date to match up with the console version. Konami also announced that everyone who preorders The Phantom Pain on Steam gets a free copy of Ground Zeroes.
The Xbox One‘s upcoming feature to record over-the-air-TV will not work unless an external hard drive is plugged into the console, a Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed to GameSpot.
Speaking during a presentation of the Xbox One’s upcoming Dashboard redesign, project lead Richard Irving explained that DVR functionality will not record TV footage to the console’s internal hard drive.
“You need an external hard-drive specifically for DVR because we want to keep the [storage] paths optimized between playing games and watching TV,” he said. “We don’t want them to interact with each other.”
A digital TV tuner, already available for Xbox One across Europe and North America, is also required to play over-the-air TV.
During Microsoft’s Gamescom press conference on Tuesday, Xbox head Phil Spencer announced that the Xbox One’s existing user interface will be completely redesigned with a new update, scheduled to arrive before the end of the year.
Known as “the New Xbox One Experience,” the Dashboard will replace the existing Windows 8-themed layout in favour of a more straightforward panel system. Also included will be the option to look through the Xbox One’s TV guide and schedule recordings of upcoming shows. These recordings can be activated remotely too, via the SmartGlass or Xbox on Windows 10 apps.
Microsoft has told GameSpot that the highest theoretical resolution of over-the-air-TV recordings will be 1080i, but dependent on ariel signal quality. [Update: Microsoft has since told GameSpot that “Xbox One Free-to-Air DVR will record TV at the same quality level of the broadcast, including shows that are broadcast at 1080p.”]
Another feature coming with the system update will be the option to transfer TV show files onto a Windows 10 tablet within the same home network. This means that the tablet will store the downloaded shows, and will be able to play them offline and on the go.
However, Microsoft has confirmed that this feature will only work with Windows 10 devices, and not on those running Android or iOS.
To the untrained eye, Street Fighter V may look like last year’s model with a fresh lick of paint. But for those who know the difference between QCF and HCB, the latest entry in the series will feel like the most aggressive shakeup of Street Fighter fundamentals since Third Strike.
If the game’s V-Skill and V-Trigger systems aren’t big enough indications of this, the changes made to veteran fighters such as Ken and Vega will be. But before we talk about the seasoned world warriors, let’s shine a spotlight on a newcomer.
Necalli is the first brand new character announced for Street Fighter V. His background is shrouded in mystery, but it clearly involved hanging around with dangerous wild animals. He uses a feral style of fighting suited for close quarters, trapping his prey, frustrating them, and dealing big damage in a short space of time.
Necalli isn’t quick on his feet, but makes up for this with a set of tools useful for maneuvering into an advantageous positions and capitalizing on them. To close the distance, he has a lateral dash that ends with a scratching attack. Since this move has some armor, Necalli can take a normal single-hit fireball without flinching, which is sure to keep Hadoken-happy shoto players in check.
Once close, he can rely on his array of slow but powerful punches and kicks, slotting them in between the enemy’s poorly timed strikes to open them up. For those that turtle, Necalli has a answer in the form of a command grab. A half-circle-back-plus-punch motion that makes him snatch his prey off the ground, leap across the screen with them in tow, and slam them down; an excellent way to deal damage and move the opponent to the edge of the battlefield.
With his enemy stuck in the corner, poking and prodding normals are used to keep him or her pinned, and a Shoryuken-like rising scratch attack can shutdown attempts to jump away. It’s also a good anti-air to dissuade jump-ins. Finally, his dive kick is ideal for mix-ups and guessing games.
The most interesting aspects of Necalli, however, are his V-Skill and V-Trigger. With the the V-Skill, he stomps on the ground and creates a shockwave, which emerges either close, mid, or far range, depending on what direction the player is holding. This is a great way to control or limit enemy movements, and it can also be used as a particularly damaging ender on a target combo.
The main goal for Necalli players will be to fill the V-Trigger bar as quickly as possible, ideally through landing his V-Skill, but taking damage will also fill it up. Once activated, the V-Trigger transforms Necalli dramatically. Visually, his hair and tribal body markings begin to glow red, signifying him being consumed by power. When in this mode, new combos and a different Critical Art is unlocked. The frame data on all his moves also changes, which means–in essence–Necalli players are learning two characters, and opponents need to develop strategies for both variations.
Unlike other members of the character roster, the benefits bestowed by Necalli’s state change are permanent. Once he transforms, he stays that way for the remainder of the round. Smart players will be able train into behaving a certain way, then completely shift the dynamic of the battle by transforming into a character that behaves in drastically different ways.
Necalli didn’t play anything like I expected. Based on watching the trailers, he seemed almost like a substitute for Abel, a lithe grappler character who also piles on the pressure and punishes mistakes. While there are some similarities, overall Necalli moves at a much slower pace than Street Fighter 4’s French martial artist. His damage output potential makes him just as deadly, but he’s not as explosive a character. Instead, he is most effective with careful planning, as well as anticipating opponents, and the thirst to punish mistakes to their fullest.
Narcissistic Spanish bullfighter Vega, meanwhile, has undergone significant changes that force you to throw away years of accumulated character knowledge. Vega has two different styles of fighting, which change depending on whether he is or isn’t equipped with his claw.
With the claw on, he’s a formidable ranged fighter who can keep enemies at bay with pokes, while quickly slipping in and out of the mid-range for footsies. Execute a fireball-plus-punch motion, however, and Vega will do a balletic twirl and remove his weapon, transforming into an aggressive character with a devastating command grab and higher combo potential.
Like with Necalli’s transformations, Vega’s two modes are designed as a means to keep players on their toes. When they think they’ve figured out long-range claw strategies, Vega can switch to his fists and turn the heat on. The Spaniard’s V-Skill, called the Matador Turn, functions as a dodge, which has an animation that is strikingly similar to the mode switch spin. This is by design, as it creates the opportunity to cause some confusion for players to take advantage of.
Long-time Vega players will need to change the way they think about and play him, not only because he’s no longer a charge character, but also because he now must capitalize on different situations than before. It takes time to get used to the changes, but for character specialists, fresh takes on old favorites like this are what make Street Fighter V an exciting prospect.
The changes Capcom is making to classic characters are significant and smart.
Finally, Ken has also undergone a major overhaul. Over the years, Capcom has slowly made changes to Ken to differentiate him from his sparring buddy Ryu, but the two have always walked parallel paths. Street Fighter V, however, is a pivot for the hot-headed brawler, who puts a decidedly American twist on the ancient Japanese fighting style. New Ken looks and feels closer to a kickboxer than a practitioner of a karate derivative.
At the centre of his gameplay style is his V-Skill, which launches Ken into a sprint towards his opponent. Depending on whether the player holds medium punch and medium kick, this can end with a lunging step kick. Ken faithfuls will immediately notice the reduced range of his normal attacks. This change has been made to encourage a playstyle oriented around aggressively rushing down and pursuing his opponent.
Almost all of Ken’s normal attacks can be cancelled into his run, and the transition between a punch or kick into a run is fast. This ability to throw out a random normal, have it unexpectedly connect, and immediately dish out a crushing follow-up makes him feel unpredictable. Along with the changes made to the arc of his hurricane kicks and the combo potential unlocked by unleashing his V-Trigger–during which his feet actually catch fire–Ken has become more exciting to play than ever. He’s got a playful bounce, a cocky demeanor, and a commanding presence; the perfect pick for show-offs.
The changes Capcom is making to classic characters are significant and smart. Clearly there’s been a great deal of thought put into making the Street Fighter V roster look and feel diverse. It’s exciting to see re-imagined characters that fans are deeply familiar with, and at the same time, newcomer Necalli feels like he has a lot of potential; a new puzzle for the fighting game community to solve.
That’s not to say it won’t happen sometime down the road, however.
“First of all, there’s been no discussions about Minecraft 2 at the moment,” Mojang CEO Jonas Martensson told IGN, adding that he expects the first game to be supported through at least 2020. “I can’t promise forever there’ll never be a Minecraft 2, but for the foreseeable future there won’t be.”
Microsoft Game Studios general manager Matt Booty added that Microsoft has “never” had a conversation about Minecraft 2 because he sees Minecraft as more of a platform that is continually updated over time.
“The way to think about it is more to do with continual updates and a continual process,” Booty said.
So instead of a full-on sequel, Martensson said Mojang’s main directive–right now, at least–is to listen to player feedback, support mods, and release the game for as many platforms as possible. Minecraft is already available for PC and most major gaming platforms, but there is one notable exception. The game is nowhere to be found on Nintendo’s home console or portable devices.
