Celeste, Pokemon Crystal, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week

Posted on January 25, 2018 by John Scalzo

Nintendo fans will need to climb the mountain to be the very best in this week’s Nintendo eShop update.

First up is Celeste, a side-scrolling platformer for the Switch from Matt Thorson, the creator of TowerFall. Players will take control of Madeline and help her climb Celeste Mountain by completing “hundreds of hand-crafted challenges” and bouncing back from death after death after death.

Over on the 3DS side of the eShop, Nintendo will make Pokemon Crystal available to download for their handheld beginning tomorrow. Pokemon Crystal was originally released in 2001 as a companion game to Pokemon Gold/Silver. This 3DS re-release includes local multiplayer and support for the Pokemon Bank app.

You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop after the break.

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EA might have delayed Anthem into 2019 as Dragon Age 4 begins development

Posted on January 25, 2018 by John Scalzo

According to a new report in Kotaku, BioWare is currently going through a bit of a rough patch, and it looks like both Anthem and Dragon Age 4 have been affected.

Speaking to several people “familiar with the project,” Kotaku’s Jason Schreier has learned that EA has pulled the entire BioWare team onto Anthem (minus the small teams maintaining Star Wars: The Old Republic and doing pre-production work on Dragon Age 4). But even with this increased amount of manpower, Schreier’s sources say that Anthem will most likely be delayed to Early 2019:

Anthem, which was announced at E3 2017, is now scheduled for release in early 2019, according to three people familiar with the project. The “fall 2018” window mentioned during that E3 announcement was “never realistic,” one source said. Exact dates remain in flux—and Anthem’s developers must also plan for a beta release, an EA Access launch, and an ongoing schedule of patches and updates—but it appears unlikely to developers that publisher EA will allow BioWare to delay the game any further than March 2019, when the company’s 2019 fiscal year comes to an end.

As for Dragon Age 4, a small part of BioWare has begun to work on the game, and the team is currently looking to add “live” elements to the game that’ll keep players coming back after they complete the main story:

The day following the publication of this article, BioWare studio head Casey Hudson confirmed that the next Dragon Age will indeed be a live game. “Reading lots of feedback regarding Dragon Age, and I think you’ll be relieved to see what the team is working on,” he wrote on Twitter. “Story & character focused. Too early to talk details, but when we talk about ‘live’ it just means designing a game for continued storytelling after the main story.”

While Anthem’s likely delay and Dragon Age 4’s “live” makeover were the big scoops to come out of Schreier’s sources, his report also includes several gritty details about the day-to-day environment at BioWare and how many of the developers feel about the company’s direction.

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Ubisoft will re-release South Park: The Stick of Truth for the PS4, Xbox One in February

Posted on January 25, 2018 by John Scalzo

PS4 and Xbox One owners will be able to head on down to South Park and have themselves a time next month. Ubisoft has announced they will re-release South Park: The Stick of Truth for the two platforms on February 13.

Originally released for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 in 2014, South Park: Stick of Truth is an RPG from Obsidian Entertainment that also doubles as a parody of ridiculous fantasy sagas like The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.

South Park: The Stick of Truth likely won’t be enhanced in any way for its PS4 and Xbox One debut, but it’ll be available for $29.99 as a retail disc and a digital download.

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Impress a giant blue man in Slam Land on the PC, PS4, and Switch

Posted on January 25, 2018 by John Scalzo

Players will need to impress a giant blue man with their dunking prowess if they want to succeed in Slam Land, a new competitive brawler from Bread Machine Games. Described by the developer (on Twitter) as a “couch-competitive slam dunking brawler,” Slam Land will feature hand-drawn graphics and local play for up to four players.

Instead of dunking basketballs, players will fight it out for the right to dunk each other, which… again… is supposed to impress a giant blue man looming in the background. You can get your first glimpse at Slam Land’s dunking action in Bread Machine’s recent Twitch stream.

Slam Land will be available for the PC, PS4, and Switch this Summer.

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Closed Beta for Sea of Thieves begins today

Posted on January 24, 2018 by John Scalzo

Ahoy, matey! Earlier today, Microsoft and Rare raised the Jolly Roger and launched the Closed Beta for Sea of Thieves.

The pirate simulation will be available for Windows 10 and Xbox One on March 20, but fans who joined the “Sea of Thieves Insider Programme” before December 1 and anyone who pre-ordered the game can take part in this week’s Closed Beta. The pre-release test kicked off at 7:00 AM (Eastern Time) this morning and players will be able to plunder and pillage all they want until January 29 at 3:00 PM (Eastern Time).

A short trailer promoting the Sea of Thieves Closed Beta has been embedded above.

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Batman: The Enemy Within – Episode 4, OK K.O.! Let’s Play Heroes, more added to Xbox Store

Posted on January 24, 2018 by John Scalzo

Welcome to the latest Xbox Games Store update as four new games are now available to download for the Xbox One.

First up is OK K.O.! Let’s Play Heroes, a beat ’em up based on Cartoon Network’s new series. Developed by Capybara Games, players will smash and bash their way through hordes of evil Boxmore robots in an “epic” quest to save Lakewood Plaza Turbo. Also available to download today is Batman: The Enemy Within – Episode 4: What Ails You, the latest chapter in Telltale’s episodic comic adventure.

Elsewhere on the Xbox Games Store, Digital Dreams Entertainment will release the full version of Mutant Football League for the Xbox One (it’s been available in Game Preview since last year), and DOMO Studio will launch an RPG known as Xuan Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament.

You can learn more about all of today’s additions to the Xbox Games Store after the break.

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Creative Director of Uncharted: Lost Legacy joins Crystal Dynamics to lead Avenger Project

Posted on January 24, 2018 by John Scalzo

Crystal Dynamics is continuing to make progress on their Avengers Project, and today the developer confirmed that they’ve hired Shaun Escayg as the game’s Creative Director. Escayg was previously employed by Naughty Dog, where he served as the Creative Director on Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, as well as the Animation Supervisor on The Last of Us in addition to his role.

Of course, because this is an Avengers project, it’s possible that Escayg allowed himself to be captured so that he could then unleash his diabolical scheme from inside Crystal Dynamics. It’s what Loki would do.

“We’re committed to delivering an incredible, completely original Avengers experience to our gamers, and that means we are always looking to add amazing developers to our existing best in class studio talent,” said Scot Amos, the Co-Head at Crystal Dynamics. “As development progresses, our studio continues to grow. The tremendous progress we’ve made on The Avengers Project further drives us toward our goal of crafting something all Marvel fans will be proud of, and will play for years to come. We can’t wait to show you what we mean in the future.”

Crystal Dynamics added a total of 15 new faces to the Avengers Project team, and in addition to Escayg, they also hired Stephen Barry (formerly of Visceral Games), as well as veteran developers from Eidos Montreal and DICE.

“We recently hired fifteen world-renowned industry veterans, spanning production leadership, animation, design, art and engineering, who have previously worked on games such as Batman: Arkham Origins, Dead Space, Star Wars: Battlefront, and many more.” said Ron Rosenberg, the Co-Head at Crystal Dynamics. “Their AAA experience adds to an already deep roster, making us well-positioned to deliver on the ambitious goals we’ve set for ourselves with The Avengers Project. It’s a stellar addition of many people who fit incredibly well into our wheelhouse of building game experiences we all love.”

If all goes according to plan, we should learn more about The Avengers Project later this year.

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Celeste, Lost Sphear, OK K.O.! Let’s Play Heroes, more coming to PS Store this week

Posted on January 24, 2018 by John Scalzo

It’s a big week for the PlayStation Store, and several long-awaited PS4 games will make their way to the digital storefront over the next few days.

Leading the pack is Celeste, a competitive mountain-climbing game from Matt Thorson, the creator of TowerFall. Also set to launch this week is Lost Sphear, the latest retro-styled RPG from Square Enix’s Tokyo RPG Factory. And Capybara Games returns this week with OK K.O.! Let’s Play Heroes, a beat ’em up based on the Cartoon Network series.

Elsewhere on the PlayStation Store, Bandai Namco and Arc System Works will bring Dragon Ball Fighter Z to the PS4 on Friday. It’ll be released on the same day as Capcom’s newest monster-hunting action RPG, Monster Hunter: World. And Supermassive Games will rewind the clock on Until Dawn with The Inpatient, a PlayStation VR-powered sanitarium simulation.

Finally, Telltale will continue their newest Batman adventure with Batman: The Enemy Within – Episode 4: What Ails You.

You can learn more about all of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store after the break.

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