Category: Gamespot

The Epic Games Store has pulled a lot of exclusives with its promise of advances to developers and publishers, and its more generous revenue split compared to Steam, and now it’s taking another step to make things better for the companies releasing games on it. A change in the Epic Games Store policy means that developers are now free to use whatever payment and purchase systems they want within their games.

As reported by Gamasutra, until this change games on the store had to use an Epic-approved payment system for in-game purchases. “We support developers’ right to choose among the best stores, in-app payment processors, online services, and engines,” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney told them.

This will mean that developers will potentially be able to retain a larger share of the revenue generated from in-game sales, whether those be microtransactions or the purchase of more substantial downloadable content. From a consumer point of view–and, indeed, for a lot of developers–this change probably will not mean much, but there’s now potential for developers to make more money from their in-game sales.

The latest major Epic Games Store exclusive is Phoenix Point, a spiritual successor to XCom.

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Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York, the spin-off visual novel with RPG elements announced shortly after Vampire: The Masqerade – Bloodlines 2, has faced a slight delay. The game, which was due to release for PC, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One on December 4, will now arrive a week later.

The delay was announced via the game’s Steam page, and has been attributed to a need to deal with a few bugs and sharpen up the visuals in a few spots. It will now release on December 11, at 6PM CET / 5PM GMT / 9AM PT.

The game is developed by Draw Distance, best known for their game Serial Cleaner. It’s set in the universe of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition, and focuses on the conflict between the Camarilla and Anarch vampire factions. You’ll be able to choose a character from among numerous different clans and choose between different approaches to the situations your character finds themselves in. It’s designed to be played through more than once, with numerous different endings.

Bloodlines 2 was recently delayed into late 2020. Fans of the series will be able to delve into Coteries of New York very soon, though.

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Death Stranding, Sony’s big holiday 2019 release, is the first game from Hideo Kojima in the wake of his split from Konami. The game received mostly positive reviews (including our own 9/10 review), and seems to have pleased many fans of Kojima’s previous work on the Metal Gear Solid series. In a recently-published discussion, held shortly before the game was released, Kojima has briefly touched on the possibility of a sequel.

In a discussion with Variety, Kojima discusses his friendship with Norman Reedus, and talks about wanting to work with Reedus again. Kojima said that he would consider making a Death Stranding sequel with Reedus, but that he would “start from zero;” it seemingly would not follow on directly from the first game. There are no further details or thoughts given (although Kojima does share a charming anecdote about Reedus’ cat throwing up.)

Another great tidbit casually dropped in this piece is that Helen Mirren attended the game’s launch event because her stepson, Alex Hackford, worked on it as the head of Creative Music Affairs at PlayStation.

Kojima has also hinted on Twitter that he might return to horror after the cancellation of his much-anticipated Silent Hills, which also would have starred Norman Reedus. Nothing specific has been announced about the next game from Kojima Productions, although Death Stranding will receive a substantial update in the middle of December.

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Trover Saves the Universe, the strange, Justin Roiland-created platformer/adventure game that released for PC and PS4 earlier this year, is coming to Nintendo Switch and Xbox One–and you won’t have to wait long at all. It will come to Switch this week on November 28, before an Xbox One release on December 3. Trover Saves the Universe will bring Roiland’s weird sense of humor (the same one that’s behind Rick & Morty, which he co-created with Dan Harmon) to all modern console owners.

The game will come to both consoles without support for the VR modes possible on PC and PS4; Xbox One does not have VR compatibility, and there’s no mention of Labo VR support on the game’s Switch store page. The Switch version is available to pre-order now, but the Xbox store page is not up yet. This release will come with both free DLC packs that have released for the PS4 version of the game: Jopo Mode, which gives you a new playable character, and “important cosmic jobs,” which are playable jobs that can unlock Justin Roiland comedy sketches.

Trover Saves The Universe is a comedy game first and foremost, with the platforming and combat generally being quite simple. It earned a 7/10 in our original review, and critic Justin Clark summed up the game as “a really messed up alien buddy comedy.” If you pick it up, be sure to look out for every Easter egg hidden away in the game.

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Apex Legends, which launched earlier this year to critical acclaim, has introduced a minor nerf for one of its most powerful weapons. The Peacekeeper, which got a tweak in the November 5 update, has received two very minor changes. Rechamber time has been increased by a tenth of a second, from 1.1 seconds to 1.2 seconds, while the head shot multiplier has been cut from 1.5 to 1.25.

This could potentially be the difference between life and death in some instances, although fans have been quick to point out that it’s not the change they were expecting. As professional player Rogue notes, it was the pellet size that many players took issue with, not how fast it rechambered or the modifier on head shots. These changes, he and others responding to the original tweet have argued, will not actually fix the issues some players have faced.

This is not the only concern players have with Apex Legends’ balance at the moment–as Dot Esports has noted, a recent Reddit survey found that 77% of players think that Pathfinder’s abilities make the legend overpowered, while a whopping 91% believe that Mirage needs to be buffed. This survey, conducted for the game’s third season, collected 1936 responses–a tiny portion of the player base, but a considerable number nonetheless.

It’s possible that the Peacekeeper will receive further nerfs and changes. In October, EA reported that Apex Legends had been played by over 70 million players–it’s a huge success.

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Google Stadia is right around the corner, with the system launching on November 19. Google recently announced the system’s launch titles, along with the other games coming in 2019. It was a thin list, with only one console exclusive (Gylt), which had some potential customers concerned. Thankfully for early adopters of the new machine, the launch line-up has been expanded, with many titles that were due at some point in 2019 now arriving on day one.

The news was announced by Google vice president Phil Harrison, who thanked the developers and publishers who worked to prepare their games for the system’s release.

These are the 12 games initially announced for the Stadia launch, which are still coming on day one:

• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
• Destiny 2
• Gylt
• Just Dance 2020
• Kine
• Mortal Kombat 11
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Thumper
• Tomb Raider
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Samurai Shodown

And now, here are ten more games that will now release on November 19 alongside the new system:

• Attack on Titan: Final Battle 2
• Farming Simulator 2019
• Final Fantasy XV
• Football Manager 2020
• Grid 2019
• Metro Exodus
• NBA 2K20
• Rage 2
• Trials Rising
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Borderlands 3, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 2 and Darksiders Genesis are also due before the end of the year. Darksiders Genesis will release on December 5, the same day as the PC version, making it a console exclusive to Stadia for about three months (it launches on PS4, Xbox One and Switch on February 14, 2020.)

To find out more about what to expect from Google Stadia’s impending launch, be sure to check out our unboxing of the new system. We know that it’ll launch with several missing features that will be added over time.

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Rocket League has received some new free cosmetic items, and they pay homage to another huge indie darling.

The latest Rocket League / Beat Saber crossover has brought a new topper and boost to Psyonix’s car soccer game, based on the blocks you’re slashing away at in Beat Saber. You can wear one of the hood of your car, or fit it out with a boost that looks like the lanes from Beat Saber, with blocks travelling down. Check out the gif in the Tweet below for a better look.

Just last week the music of Rocket League came to Beat Saber, giving players of the VR rhythm game access to six pieces of music from the game. This free cosmetic DLC could be a way of promoting that pack, which will set you back a few dollars.

Rocket League is big on collaborations–it featured a Stranger Things event over Halloween. There are some big changes coming to the game soon, too, as it will soon ditch loot crates in favour of ‘Blueprints‘ that show you exactly what you’re getting. Beat Saber, meanwhile, is available on Oculus and PS VR. In our 8/10 review, we praised it as “an exhilarating rush and an exhausting game to play in the best way.”

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Where The Water Tastes Like Wine, a narrative-focused game in which you work your way around the 1930s American Dust Bowl, hearing and trading stories, is come to consoles later this month. The game, which released on PC in 2018, is coming to Switch, PS4, and Xbox One on November 29.

The game’s impending release was announced by publisher Serenity Forge on Twitter. It’s now available to pre-order on Switch.

The game also received a new launch trailer ahead of its console release.

The game, which contains a guest appearance from Sting, struggled at launch, with creator Johnnemann Nordhagen publicly discussing the difficulties developer Dim Bulb Games faced following the game’s release. “At the end of the day it’s astounding that a game that got this much attention from the press, that won awards, that had an all-star cast of writers and performers, that had a bizarre celebrity guest appearance(!) failed this hard,” Nordhagen wrote. Perhaps the game’s console release can recoup some of the costs of development.

We gave the game a 6/10 in our original review, stating that “if the basic premise of gathering folk stories across a version of 1930s America strongly appeals to you, then Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is worth a look, but it’s probably not worth finishing”. Since launch, the game has been updated with Chinese-American tales. It’s currently discounted by 70% on Steam.

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The latest trailer for the new Guilty Gear shows off two more characters who are coming back for this upcoming release.

The game, which was revealed during Evo 2019 with a trailer featuring Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske, has been slowly unveiling its cast across a series of trailers. We found out that May is returning to the series not long after its initial reveal, as well as Axl Low. Now, in anticipation of a playable demo popping up at fighting tournament Arcrevo America 2019, two more fighters have been revealed.

First up is Chipp Zanuff, who appeared in the first game in the series as well as numerous sequels. He carries an arm-blade, as well as various ninja tools, such as a kunai and shuriken. He’s looking extremely jacked, and he’ll be able to divide himself up and attack as multiple copies of himself.

Potempkin is also shown off for the first time in this trailer. He’s another character who originated in the first Guilty Gear, and while he might look like a robot there’s actually a person under all that armor. Based on this trailer, it looks like he’ll have a lot of range with his attacks, although his size could also make him an easy target.

The most recent game in the Guilty Gear series, Guilty Gear Xrd: Rev 2, released in 2017. The final name for the new Guilty Gear has not yet been announced, but it will release on PlayStation 4.

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