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Square Enix will bring Final Fantasy, Lost Sphear, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm to Comic-Con 2017

Posted on July 20, 2017 by John Scalzo

The San Diego Comic-Con kicked off today, and Square Enix brought a handful of upcoming games to the Summer’s biggest convention for fans to test out. While attendees won’t get the chance to play Kingdom Hearts III or the Final Fantasy VII Remake on the show floor, there will be plenty of demo stations in the publisher’s booth featuring these titles:

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (Now Available)
Platform: PS4
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age improves upon the 2006 classic Final Fantasy XII, now more beautiful and easier to play than ever. The HD remaster introduces a reconstructed battle design and the new Zodiac Job System, a 12-job character progression system first introduced in the 2007 title, Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System. With updated trophies and share functionalities, as well as stark visual and sound improvements, players both new and returning will experience the ultimate grand adventure through the world of Ivalice in an entirely new and improved way.

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (Early 2018)
Platform: PS4
Developed in partnership with Team Ninja from Koei Tecmo, Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is the newly announced team-based brawler. The game pits legendary heroes and villains from Final Fantasy’s 30-year history against each other in epic and strategic 3 vs. 3 battles. Players will choose a team from a roster of more than 20 beloved Final Fantasy characters across ten iconic battle arenas and call forth fan-favorite summons. With a deep customization and progression system, players will gain experience points and unlock EX skills, weapons, skins, and more as they develop their favorite Final Fantasy characters, their way.

Lost Sphear (TBA 2018)
Platform: PC, PS4, Switch
Expanding on the beloved I Am Setsuna, the Lost Sphear adventure begins in a remote town where a young man, Kanata, awakens from a devastating dream to find his hometown disappearing. To stop the world from being Lost forever, Kanata and his comrades set out to rebuild the world around them with the power of Memory by manifesting thoughts into matter.

Square Enix will also invite the “key creative minds” behind Life Is Strange: Before the Storm to San Diego for a panel on Friday, July 21. The speakers will reveal “brand new information and insights about their game for the first time,” as well as lead the audience in a live playthrough of the game.

But in case you are on the lookout for new Kingdom Hearts III information, Square Enix unveiled a new trailer (and a 2018 release date) for their hotly-anticipated action RPG during Disney’s annual D23 Expo last week.

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Motiga officially launches 5v5 hero shooter Gigantic for PC and Xbox One

Posted on July 20, 2017 by John Scalzo

Gigantic‘s Open Beta is coming to the end, and Motiga and Perfect World have announced that “Version 1.0” of their free-to-play “Hero Shooter” is available to download for the PC and Xbox One beginning today.

Today’s update will add Text Chat to the game, as well as new Packs, and Gigantic’s 19th Hero. Ramsay is “a cunning heavy-hitter brandishing a seriously lethal blade,” and he’s just the first of many new additions to the game. Motiga plans to add a new Hero to the game each month, in addition to other fixes and updates.

To celebrate Gigantic’s launch, Motiga is giving away several exclusive Skins for players who log in through Steam, Arc, or Xbox One/Windows 10. Steam players will receive a “Stone Relics” Skin for Beckett, Arc users will get a “Lightning” Skin for Tripp, and Xbox One/Windows 10 players will unlock an “Excelsior” Skin for Tyto the Swift.

“We’re thrilled to welcome all players to the vibrant world of Gigantic,” said Chris Chung, the CEO of Motiga. “The team has worked incredibly hard to develop an experience unlike any other. We hope you join us and the community of players who have fallen in love with the game and helped us throughout its development.”

If you’re not interested in Gigantic’s free-to-play business model, you can opt for the Ultimate Pack ($29.99) to gain access to all 19 currently-available Heroes, all future Heroes, and a variety of in-game bonus items (unique Skins, progression boosts, Fortune Cards, and Premium Currency). All Beta participants who purchased the Founder’s Pack will be upgraded to the Ultimate Pack, and all Steam and Arc users who purchase the Ultimate Pack will receive a free Starter Pack for a friend.

A Launch Trailer for “Version 1.0” of Gigantic has been embedded above.

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Telltale’s The Walking Dead will return for The Final Season in 2018

Posted on July 19, 2017 by John Scalzo

Ahead of this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con, Telltale Games has announced plans to produce one final season of The Walking Dead. Fittingly enough, it’ll be known as The Walking Dead: The Final Season, and the first episode will be available for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, and mobile devices in 2018.

Players will once again follow Clementine as she navigates a post-apocalyptic world filled with zombies in The Final Season. A short teaser trailer has been embedded above, and Telltale also created an accompanying retrospective video detailing Clementine’s impact on the development team and the video game industry.

In a series retrospective released today in celebration of Comic-Con through Telltale’s Summer 2017 Update, the development team at Telltale sat down to reflect on the journey of series protagonist Clementine since the first episode premiered in April of 2012. In discussing the character’s path all the way through 2017’s conclusion of The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, Telltale confirmed that this fourth and final season would focus on Clementine in the lead role, allowing players to fully step back into the shoes of the fan favorite character.

“It’s going to be an amazing experience. Thank you all so much, from the bottom of my heart,” said the voice of Clementine, Melissa Hutchison. “It’s been a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, and so much love has been behind this whole experience. Good luck, I’ll be right there with you.”

Hopefully, we’ll learn more about The Walking Dead: The Final Season soon.

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90s Arcade Racer becomes 90s Super GP… and it’ll be released for Switch, PC, PS4

Posted on July 19, 2017 by John Scalzo

Remember The 90s Arcade Racer? The throwback racing game was previously in development for the PC and Wii U, and publisher Nicalis originally planned to release the game in 2013. But here we are four years later, and the game has several new destinations… and a new name.

According to its official website, The 90s Arcade Racer will now be known as 90s Super GP, and it’s now in development for the PC, PS4, and Switch. But don’t worry, its core theme remains:

Overview
It is the nineties, and there is time for arcade racing! 90s Super GP is soaked in the nostalgia of the greatest era of racing video games, when “realism” and tedious minutiae took a back seat to fantastic environments, hyperspeed drifting, and paint-scraping!

Offering three different racing classes and a variety of exciting gameplay modes, 90s Super GP skillfully combines the feel and aesthetic of classic arcade racers with the polish, physics modeling, and widescreen HD visuals of current-generation games.

Features

  • Intense stock car, supercar and formula racing in the style of the best arcade racers of the 1990s
  • Bright colors, crazy track layouts and dance music evoke the golden era of arcade racing games
  • Finely tuned driving physics with precision handling and old-school drifting
  • 12 unique vehicles with different attributes and customizable colors
  • Six dynamic and shortcut-filled courses, three of which have “Long” and “Short” variations
  • Arcade mode for quick races in any unlocked vehicle on any unlocked course
  • Championship Mode with four circuits in each of the stock, supercar, and formula racing classes
  • Local and online multiplayer modes, with online leaderboards

Nicalis isn’t ready to announce a new release date for 90s Super GP, but it’ll hopefully be available soon.

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Telltale will premiere the first episode of Batman: The Enemy Within on August 8

Posted on July 19, 2017 by John Scalzo

Batman returns this Summer, as Telltale Games has announced that the first episode of Batman: The Enemy Within will be available to download in August.

Picking up where Batman: The Telltale Series left off (and the choices you made in that game can carry over to the sequel), The Enemy Within will ask the Caped Crusader to do battle with The Joker and The Riddler. New foes will also stalk the streets of Gotham, along with new allies to help finish the fight:

In this latest chapter, both Bruce Wayne and Batman will be forced into precarious new roles. The Riddler has returned to terrorize Gotham City, but his gruesome puzzles merely foreshadow an even greater crisis. With the arrival of a ruthless federal agent and the return of a still nascent Joker, Batman must navigate uneasy alliances while Bruce Wayne undertakes a perilous series of deceptions. Which of Batman’s new allies will you choose to trust? And how deep into the darkness will you let Bruce descend?

The first episode of Batman: The Enemy Within will be known as The Enigma, and it’ll be released for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, and mobile devices on August 8. A Season Pass Disc, which will include the first episode and downloadable access to all subsequent episodes, will be available in stores for the PS4 and Xbox One in October.

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Major League Baseball might oppose Blizzard’s Overwatch League logo

Posted on July 18, 2017 by John Scalzo

Blizzard has big plans for their Overwatch League. Like traditional sports leagues, Blizzard wants to connect franchise owners in the Overwatch League to a city, and to help build fan support for professional Overwatch franchise at the local level. They even opted to create a logo that should look very familiar to sports fans… a silhouetted figure against a two-toned background.

Unfortunately, Major League Baseball believes the logo looks a little too familiar.

Major League Baseball has requested an “Extension of Time to File An Opposition” against the logo with the US Patent and Trademark Office. This request gives lawyers for Major League Baseball a chance to investigate the Overwatch League’s logo, and decide if its too similar to their own. If the USPTO agrees with Major League Baseball, Blizzard would have to change the design of the Overwatch League’s logo.

While it’s not hard to understand the MLB’s position (the two logos do look almost identical), I find it hard to side with the sports league over Blizzard. Putting both logos side-by-side-by-side with the National Basketball Association logo, which was adopted in 1971 and also features a silhouetted figure against a two-toned background, casts further doubt on the MLB’s tentative claim.

Major League Baseball has until July 26 to officially file the paperwork for an “Opposition” to the Overwatch League’s logo.

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Max Brooks’s Minecraft: The Island novel is now available at bookstores everywhere

Posted on July 18, 2017 by John Scalzo

Mojang teamed up with Max Brooks (the author of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide) to create the first official tie-in novel based on Minecraft. Titled Minecraft: The Island, the book is targeted at a younger audience and it’s available on store shelves today.

When writing Minecraft: The Island, Brooks found inspiration in classics like Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe to tell his own tale of survival and mystery:

Washed up on a beach, the lone castaway looks around the shore. Where am I? Who am I? And why is everything made of blocks? But there isn’t much time to soak up the sun. It’s getting dark, and there’s a strange new world to explore!

The top priority is finding food. The next is not becoming food. Because there are others out there on the island… like the horde of zombies that appear after night falls. Crafting a way out of this mess is a challenge like no other. Who could build a home while running from exploding creepers, armed skeletons, and an unstoppable tide of hot lava? Especially with no help except for a few makeshift tools and sage advice from an unlikely friend: a cow.

In this world, the rules don’t always make sense, but courage and creativity go a long way. There are forests to explore, hidden underground tunnels to loot, and undead mobs to defeat. Only then will the secrets of the island be revealed.

You can read the first chapter right now at the novel’s official website.

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Final Fight’s Abigail will be Street Fighter V’s next downloadable character

Posted on July 17, 2017 by John Scalzo

Capcom has revealed that Abigail, the final boss from 1989’s Final Fight, will be the next downloadable character for Street Fighter V. The hulking leader of the Mad Gear Gang isn’t the first character from the Final Fight franchise to make the jump to the Street Fighter universe… Cody, Guy, Sodom, Rolento, and Maki all previously appeared in the Street Fighter Alpha series.

As always, the Capcom-Unity blog has a detailed breakdown of Abigail’s moveset:

Character Overview
Making his way from Final Fight to Street Fighter V, Abigail was one of the top ranking members of the Mad Gear Gang. His territory is the Bay Area of Metro City, a location he terrorizes with his gargantuan size, and at eight feet tall, he makes the Red Cyclone look like a spinning top. The tires around Abigail’s monstrous biceps make is clear what he’s been up to when he isn’t cracking skulls. This mountain of a man is a complete (mad) gear head that loves to make car noises almost as much as he loves driving them.

V-Skill: Hungabee
Abigail thrusts his sizeable belly forwards (either high or low) countering the opponent’s attack and setting himself up for a combo opportunity.

V-Trigger: Max Power
After popping his two-bar V-Trigger, Abigail can charge up his four different heavy punches for one hit of armour and extended juggles. A full charge will break the opponent’s guard.

Critical Art: Abigail Special
Abigail slams his opponent with a downward open-palm strike that puts them into a daze. He then hoists them into the air, pummels them like a makeshift speedbag before launching a savage hook that shatters the screen.

Abigail will be available to download next week, July 25, as part of Street Fighter V’s Season 2 Character Pass. The first trailer for Abigail has been embedded above.

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