Developer Rare is planning to fix Battletoads‘ infamous two-player co-op glitch for the upcoming Rare Replay collection for Xbox One. Speaking this week at Comic-Con, the developer said it plans to remove the glitch, even though it is a “part of Battletoads legend.
“We’re aware of the bug,” Rare studio head Craig Duncan said, as reported by Polygon. “It’s part of Battletoads legend.”
“We have a way of fixing it, so it is something that’s on our final bug list.”
Battletoads, a beat-’em-up originally released for NES in 1991, is known for its difficulty.
But as Polygon explains, the bug made a difficult game even more challenging. After reaching the eleventh level in co-op, Player Two’s controls would bug out, leaving the player unable to move. As a result, the other player needed to give up their own remaining lives so their friend could play on.
Also during the panel, Duncan said that–because of the glitch has become part of the Battletoads legend–Rare wasn’t initially sure that it even wanted to fix it. But, it was later decided that, “Yes, we’re gonna fix it.”
We didn’t get a new trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens at Comic-Con, but Lucasfilm did release a fresh behind-the-scenes video for the upcoming movie–and is does not disappoint.
The video, which you can watch below, outlines the upcoming movie’s use of real sets and practical effects, married with of course the digital technology of 2015. It also gives fans a look at some new heroes and villains, along with returning cast members such as Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher.
“You’ve been here, but you don’t know this story,” Hamill says. “Everything’s changed, but nothing’s changed.”
The Force Awakens, the first installment in a new Star Wars trilogy, opens in theaters on December 18.
In New Zealand, cyberbullying is now a crime. In short, the country’s government has passed a new law that criminalizes being a jerk on the Internet. Get the full story here.
2015 marks the 30th anniversary of Nintendo’s iconic Super Mario Bros. franchise. To celebrate the occasion, Nintendo of Europe has created a stunning Mario mural. Check it out.
Need more information about Fallout 4? Of course you do. Check out this new interview at The Telegraph with game director Todd Howard.
A new Peanuts movie is coming out this fall, and it will be accompanied by an all new Peanuts video game from, you guessed it, Activision. The game is called The Peanuts Movie: Snoopy’s Grand Adventure. It’s a side-scrolling game based, of course, on the iconic comic strip from Charles Schulz.
Alongside NBC’s Heroes TV show revival, the company has also commissioned a pair of video games, one for PC/console and the other for mobile. Read more about them here.
Game Informer’s August issue has a boatload of new details about Tacoma, the intriguing-looking new game from the makers of Gone Home. Read more about it here.
PC peripherals company Logitech has a new name and logo. The company is now calling itself just Logi–because what does “tech” really mean these days, anyway?. Check out the new logo and read more about what the change means for the company in this blog post.
EA recently lost its head of mobile, but the position formerly held by Frank Gibeau has now been filled. Game Informer reports that former Warner Bros. executive Samantha Ryan has joined EA as its new senior vice president and group general manager for mobile.
Boston-based independent Game of Thrones and Star Trek developer Disruptor Beam has appointed a new chief marketing officer. Pete Arden, who formerly worked at Eve developer CCP Games as its vice president of marketing, joins the developer as its latest hire.
What were the top “trending” games on YouTube for June? As you might have guessed, Batman: Arkham Knight led the way, followed by Lego: Jurassic World and Fallout 4. See the full list here.
Here. We. Go. Just exactly what do you do in No Man’s Sky? Watch this new 18-minute gameplay video to find out.
The cutest Pokemon cosplay you’ve ever seen? Definitely maybe. Check out the adorable Magikarp cosplay here.
GamesIndustry has an excellent, wide-ranging interview with PlayStation Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida about the state of Project Morpheus and more. Read it here.
There are many changes coming to F1 2016’s multiplayer mode. Developer Codemasters listed off all the new features and more as part of a new blog post this week, which you can read here.
Despite what you might have heard, upcoming PlayStation 4 horror game Until Dawn will not have a multiplayer mode. A PlayStation Asia press release for the game said it would, but this was a mistake, Sony has confirmed.
Polygon has a great interview with DayZ creator Dean Hall about Early Access, E3, his new game Ion, and a lot more. Read the full interview here.
Abbey Games announced this week that its new game Renowned Explorers: International Society will launch on September 2, 2015. The game is a strategy title set in the 19th century. Watch a gameplay video here.
New Witcher 3 DLC was released on Xbox One this week, but you should not download it, developer CD Projekt Red has announced. An alternate costume for Ciri was accidentally made available this week, and because it wasn’t ready for release, there could be issues, CDPR warns.
The Japanese voice actor for the various incarnations of Snake in the Metal Gear Solid series has said Kojima Productions no longer exists as a development studio.
Otsuka Akio, who has voiced Solid Snake and Big Boss in the console and portable Metal Gear Solid titles, revealed the news in a Twitter update, which Japan-focused gaming website Gematsu has translated.
“[Kojima Productions] has been disbanded,: he said. :It appears that the work that the team has been putting their utmost effort into is nearly complete.:
:I’m not exaggerating when I say that I expect it will become their greatest masterpiece,: he continued. :I couldn’t help it. I just wanted to say ‘Kept you waiting, huh?’ But even if this is the end, Metal Gear Solid is immortal!”
Konami has not yet officially announced whether Kojima Productions has ceased to operate. GameSpot has contacted the company for a statement.
In March 2015 GameSpot revealed that senior staff at Kojima Productions had been given restricted access to corporate internet, emails, and phone calls, following ongoing power struggles between Kojima Productions and its parent company Konami.
Senior staff at the studio, including Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, were essentially working as contractors, as opposed to permanent employees, with a focus on completing work on The Phantom Pain.
A source at the studio explained that, once the Phantom Pain’s development was complete, management at the studio would likely disband and Kojima would leave.
“After we finish MGSV, Mr. Kojima and upper management will leave Konami. They said their contract ends in December,” the source claimed. “At a team meeting, Mr Kojima explained that team have to be one and make a good game for fans.”
Konami said at the time that “Mr. Kojima will continue to develop and support Metal Gear products.”
Silent Hills, which was set to be co-directed by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro, is also believed to be a casualty of the collapse of Kojima Productions. Konami cancelled the project in April 2015.
A month later, Del Toro discussed the cancellation of Silent Hills, saying that split between Konami and Hideo Kojima was “completely unexpected.”
A key executive at Konami later said the company will “pursue mobile games aggressively” going forward, and that smartphones will be considered its “main platform.”
[Update]: Microsoft has released a statement emphasising that only the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition of the Xbox One would include a free copy of the game. During the Comic-Con panel Rod Fergusson, head of Microsoft’s Gear of War development studio, indicated that the game would be available for free with all Xbox Ones.
“At yesterday’s Gears of War panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Rod Fergusson stated that every Xbox One sold starting August 26 would include a copy of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. To clarify, only the Xbox One Gears of War: Ultimate Edition bundle will include a copy of the game,” reads the statement.
“We’re committed to offering gamers a variety of choices to help them jump into the current generation of gaming this year and are excited to offer the Xbox One Gears of War Edition bundle next month.”[Update ends]
During a panel at San Diego Comic-Con today, developer The Coalition revealed that Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, the remaster of the first game in the series, will come as a free pack-in with every new Xbox One following the game’s release in August. The bundle will cost $350, the normal price of the system.
The Coalition also announced that the remaster will include five extra single-player missions. These missions were cut from the Xbox 360 version of the game to let the studio launch the game on time, and they were later added to the PC port.
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition launches on August 25 for Xbox One and later this year for the PC. It includes access to the Gears of War 4 beta, which as of now does not have a date. The Ultimate Edition will be playable at 4K resolution on PC.
Fallout fans may want to pay attention to QuakeCon later this month, as Bethesda has announced plans to host a Fallout 4 presentation at the event, led by none other than game director Todd Howard.
The Fallout 4 presentation will be held on Friday, July 24, at 1 PM CT. Some QuakeCon panels will be streamed live around the world, but it appears this one will be for attendees only.
Other high-profile events at QuakeCon this year include presentations for the new Doom (July 25, 3 PM) and The Elder Scrolls Online (July 24, 4:30 PM), among others.
Not long after Daybreak CEO John Smedley lashed out at one recently convicted Lizard Squad member, the hacking group has claimed responsibility for a new string of DDoS attacks against the studio’s games.
As of this writing, the issues appear to remain unresolved.
“All games, websites, and forums are still impacted. We do not have an ETA for when services will be restored,” Daybreak said on Twitter last night. A follow-up tweet posted this morning states, “We are still working to resolve connectivity issues affecting many of you. Thank you for all your patience and understanding.”
In addition, Smedley has posted a new statement on Reddit in which he again speaks out against Kivimaki, his sentence, and the legal action he plans to take against Kivimaki and other hackers.
“I’m extremely angry that the Finnish justice system chose to let Julius Kivimaki off with a two-year suspended sentence. This guy is the worst kind of bad news,” Smedley started off.
“He’s been involved for years in every kind of terrible thing you can imagine including Carding, hacking, swatting people all over the world,” he added. “He’s also participated in a major way in DDOS attacks that caused a lot of grief for gamers and a lot of economic damage to the companies that make and run games.”
Smedley went on to detail some of the harassment he attributes to Kivimaki. In addition to the grounding of his flight due to a fake bomb threat, Smedley claims that Kivimaki and others sent him “pictures of my father’s grave with nasty stuff on it.” In addition, Smedley said his entire credit history has been published online, along with his Social Security Number and his family’s personal information.
On top of that, Smedley claims he has been “swatted” multiple times and that Kivimaki and company even filed false tax returns on Smedley’s behalf.
“So to put this bluntly, I want this kid in jail for a long time,” Smedley said. “You shouldn’t be able to do crap like this without any hint of a consequence. I plan on doing everything in my power to see him get what’s coming to him in court one way or another. What he just got convicted of were over 50,000 separate incidents of hacking and other nastiness. This has nothing to do with the downing of the plane or the DDoS stuff he did or the things he did to me (not just me btw he did this to a lot of other people too). Those cases are still pending, but they have him dead to rights.”
“So you guys can debate this… and that’s all well and good, but meanwhile this sh** is real to my life and my family’s life and I’m sure as hell not lying down for it for a second,” he added. “I’ve been working with law enforcement to put him and others into jail where they belong. Some of them are minors which makes it tough. Most of them are outside the US, which makes it tougher. But I’m patient and I’m going to be relentless about this.”
The Warcraft movie doesn’t hit theaters until June 2016, but Legendary Pictures is already starting to ramp up its promotional efforts for the film. This week at Comic-Con, Legendary’s booth on the show floor is stuffed with all manner of epic-looking Warcraft movie props.
We caught up with WETA Workshop’s Mike Gonzales for a walkthrough of the booth, which includes practical human Alliance armor and gear used in the movie, as well as expertly crafted Orcs, among other things. Watch the video below or scroll to the bottom of this post to see some more images in a gallery.
WETA Workshop is perhaps best known for its award-winning work on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. The studio, which also has a digital arm called WETA Digital, has worked on others franchises, too, such as The Hobbit, District 9, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Furious 7.
After multiple delays, the Warcraft movie is now scheduled to open June 10, 2016. It stars Clancy Brown (Spongebob, The Shawshank Redemption) as Blackhand and Dominic Cooper (Need for Speed, Captain America) as King Llane. For more on the movie’s cast, check out this story.
At Comic-Con this week, Warcraft film director Duncan Jones revealed that the film is nearly done and that he has ideas for a trilogy. Legendary also released a special VR app that gives you a 360-degree view of Azeroth’s Stormwind region.
We’re expecting to learn more about the Warcraft movie this week at Comic-Con. Legendary Pictures has a panel scheduled for this Saturday, July 11, where we may finally see the first trailer for the Warcraft movie.
Nintendo of America “has no plans” to publish Devil’s Third, the upcoming Wii U title from Ninja Gaiden designer Tomonobu Itagaki and is “not backing it in any way” in North America.
Unseen64, which has a strong track-record of uncovering cancelled Nintendo projects such as Mario Spikers, explains in a new video that the publisher is “purposefully distancing themselves from the game.”
“Nintendo of America has lost faith in [Devil’s Third],” the video states. “We could end up with a Disaster [Day of Crisis] situation on our hands.”
Developed by Monolith Soft for the Wii and published by Nintendo, Distaster: Day of Crisis was initially scheduled for a North America, but these plans were later cancelled.
“Nintendo of America has no intention of publishing the game in the US,” the video claims. “That is why we never saw it on [Nintendo’s E3 event] Treehouse Live this year and that is why it has been removed from the eShop.”
As the video notes, if Nintendo does pass on publishing Devil’s Third in the US, it could still be released via another publishing partner.
Nintendo of America has not confirmed that the rumour is accurate.
As for why Nintendo of America is apparently distancing itself from Devil’s Third, the video states early indications suggest it “just isn’t very good,” and cites sources in the European press playing the final version, who say it has “incredibly inconsistent frame-rate” and “less than sub-par” visuals.
The idea of Nintendo of America choosing to pass on a game other arms of the company are publishing because of quality concerns is not unprecedented.
Following confirmation that Disaster: Day of Crisis would not be released in the US, Nintendo exec Reggie Fils-Aime was vocal about is distaste for the game, going so far as to describe elements of it as “laughable.”
Devil’s Third has had somewhat of a rocky development path. It began life as a THQ title, but the now defunct company eventually decided not to publish the game.
Capcom has released a new video for Resident Evil 0 HD, providing a visual comparison between the different versions of the game.
Unlike most comparison videos, Capcom has opted to take a deeper dive into the history of Resident Evil 0. The video brings together a prototype originally produced for the Nintendo 64 in 1999, the GameCube release from 2002, and the upcoming remastered version for comparison.
Capcom announced Resident Evil Zero HD Remaster (Biohazard 0 HD Remaster in Japan), a high-definition remake of 2002’s GameCube-exclusive Resident Evil Zero in May 2015.
Along with better visuals, Resident Evil 0 HD will have improved sound, widescreen support, and the option to use a “modernised” control setup.
Resident Evil 0 is set before the events of the original Resident Evil, which Capcom also recently remade.
The game follows STARS officer Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen, a prisoner on death row. The duo must team-up to survive a virus that has resulted in a zombie outbreak.
In terms of gameplay, players can switch between the two characters at any time for the duration of the game, a feature called “partner zapping.” Each character possesses unique abilities. Players can also control both characters simultaneously, or have them separate to cover more area when exploring.
