Doom VFR, Star Ocean 4, It’s Quiz Time, more coming to PS Store this week

Posted on November 29, 2017 by John Scalzo

Get your PlayStation VR to Mars! Bethesda will release Doom VFR for the PS4 this week, and fans will finally get the chance to blast away at the minions of Hell in eye-popping virtual reality.

This week’s PlayStation Store update will also include Star Ocean: The Last Hope, an HD/4K remake of the fourth game in Square Enix’s RPG series for the PS4. And finally this week, PS4 owners will have the chance to download It’s Quiz Time, a quiz game that includes more than 25,000 questions for up to eight players.

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

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Iron Crypticle Review – A Nostalgic (But Middle-of-the-Road) Twin-Stick Shooter

Posted on November 28, 2017 by John Scalzo

Iron Crypticle is a medieval-themed twin-stick shooter that evokes the look and feel of several classic games from yesteryear. Developers Tikipod and Confused Pelican even tried to stoke the memory of players by namechecking Smash TV, Gauntlet, and Super Ghouls N Ghosts in the game’s marketing. But while this kind of comparison can often be used to puff up a slight game, Iron Crypticle really does its best to resurrect that trio of titles.

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Civilization VI’s Rise and Fall expansion will be released on February 8

Posted on November 28, 2017 by John Scalzo

2K Games and Firaxis have announced that Civilization VI‘s first expansion, Rise and Fall, will be released on February 8, 2018. As you might expect, the upcoming add-on will bring a number of new features to Firaxis’s strategy game:

Civilization VI: Rise and Fall Features

  • Great Ages: As your civilization ebbs and flows, and you reach milestone Historic Moments, you will experience Dark Ages or Golden Ages, each providing specific challenges or bonuses based on your actions in-game. Rise triumphantly from a Dark Age, and your next Golden Age will be even stronger – a Heroic Age.
  • Loyalty: Cities now have individual Loyalty to your leadership – let it fall too low, and face the consequences of low yields, revolts, and the potential to lose your city to another civilization, or its own independence. But one civilization’s loss can be your gain as you inspire Loyalty among cities throughout the map and further expand your borders.
  • Governors: Recruit, appoint, and upgrade powerful characters with unique specialization bonuses and promotion trees to customize your cities, and reinforce Loyalty.
  • Enhanced Alliances: An enhanced alliances system allows players to form different types of alliances and build bonuses over time.
  • Emergencies: When a civilization grows too powerful, other civilizations can join a pact against the threatening civilization and earn rewards, or penalties, when the Emergency ends.
  • Review your civilization’s history at any time with the new Timeline feature, a visual journey through the Historic Moments that you encountered on your path to victory.
  • New Leaders and Civs: Nine leaders and eight new civilizations are introduced. Each brings unique bonuses and gameplay, as well as a total of eight unique units, two unique buildings, four unique improvements, and two unique districts.
  • New Global Content: Eight new world wonders, seven natural wonders, four new units, two new tile improvements, two new districts, fourteen new buildings, and three new resources have been added.
  • Improved Gameplay Systems: The Government system has been enhanced with new Policies and additional improvements have been made to existing systems.

The first trailer for Civilization VI: Rise and Fall has been embedded above.

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Yooka-Laylee will arrive on the Nintendo Switch on December 14

Posted on November 28, 2017 by John Scalzo

Playtonic Games has announced that Yooka-Laylee will make its long-awaited Switch debut on December 14. The developers delivered the good news this morning in a post on their official website:

Yooka-Laylee for Nintendo Switch features a shed-load of polish and updates, including single-JoyCon play across all eight multiplayer games, a custom Achievement system, plus the ability to take our collecting duo on the go without the need for extravagant extension leads!

Playtonic worked closely with Nintendo and Unity to recreate Yooka-Laylee for the Switch, and the platformer will also include the substantial update Playtonic released earlier this year that added “a brand new camera mode, control improvements, menu options, music… and a lot more” to the game.

And thanks to IGN, you can get a sneak peek at Yooka-Laylee running on the Switch in Handheld Mode in the trailer embedded above.

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Pokemon UltraSun/UltraMoon help Pokemon franchise surpass 300 million copies sold

Posted on November 27, 2017 by John Scalzo

The Pokemon franchise began in 1996 with the (Japanese) launch of Pokemon Red and Green. Since then, The Pokemon Company has added 74 more games to the franchise, including Pokemon UltraSun and UltraMoon, which launched for the 3DS on November 17. And according to the developer, the initial sales of those two games have pushed the Pokemon franchise’s lifetime sales tally above 300 million copies sold.

To celebrate, they’ve released a brand new “Accolades Trailer” for Pokemon UltraSun and UltraMoon, which is embedded above.

This milestone places the Pokemon franchise among some very exclusive company, as Nintendo’s Super Mario franchise is the only other game franchise to surpass 300 million in total sales. However, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto and Activision’s Call of Duty will likely join the “300 Million Club” soon, as both franchises are currently sitting at around 250 million copies sold.

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New Retail Releases: Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Doom VFR, Resident Evil Revelations Collection, More

Posted on November 27, 2017 by John Scalzo

Today is Cyber Monday, so your wallet should prepare for DOOM as stores hurl their best discounts in your direction. But your PS4 should also prepare for Doom, as Bethesda and id Software will launch Doom VFR for the platform this week. Because the game requires the PlayStation VR attachment, Sony has teamed up with Bethesda to also offer a special PlayStation VR + Doom VFR Bundle.

Blasting away at monsters on Mars never goes out of style, and neither does Capcom’s Resident Evil franchise, which makes the leap to the Nintendo Switch this week. Fans will be able to blast away at monsters on a cruise ship in the Resident Evil Revelations Collection, which includes both Resident Evil Revelations and Resident Evil Revelations 2.

And speaking of the Switch, Nintendo themselves will launch Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the third game in the well-loved Xenoblade saga, this week.

Finally this week, the New 3DS XL: Super NES Edition will be available for fans who like it when their handheld has a neat connection to the past.

A complete look at this week’s new retail releases can be found after the break.

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WB Games Montreal is hiring a Technical Director for their next DC Comics project

Posted on November 25, 2017 by John Scalzo

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WB Games Montreal is a name you’ve likely heard a lot over the years.

Since 2011, the developer has linked itself to multiple games connected to the DC Universe, though only two have appeared in stores (2013’s Batman: Arkham Origins and the A Matter of Family expansion to 2015’s Batman: Arkham Knight). However, the development team has continued to push forward, and a 2016 report from Kotaku hinted they were working on a new Batman game starring Damian Wayne.

Officially, we don’t know what WB Games Montreal’s next project will be, but they recently posted a job opening on Facebook looking for a Technical Director. The person selected for this position will oversee the team’s next game, which definitely takes place within the DC Universe. Will it star Damian Wayne? Who knows?

Geoff Keighley’s Game Awards will be held in a few weeks, perhaps we’ll learn a few official details about WB Games Montreal’s next project then. Or possibly not. Nobody really knows anything at this point. It’s just kinda fun to speculate.

But come to think of it, what’s Rocksteady been up to? Batman: Arkham Knight was supposed to close the book on their Batman trilogy, and that feels like a long time ago…

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CD Projekt has delayed Gwent’s single-player campaign into 2018

Posted on November 25, 2017 by John Scalzo

Gwent launched as an Open Beta for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One in May. Since then, developer CD Projekt has delivered multiple tweaks and updates to the game, and a “Full Version” was planned for sometime this Fall. However, it looks like that plan has hit a snag.

Writing on the game’s official website, CD Projekt’s Marcin Iwinski has confirmed the release of Gwent’s “Full Version,” as well as the Thronebreaker single-player campaign, have been pushed back to 2018:

Thronebreaker, Gwent’s story-driven single player campaign, is moving to 2018. We decided to increase the campaign’s scope and need more time to work on it. Shifting release windows is always something we approach seriously, however, we’ll never hesitate to do it if we feel you’ll get a better game as a result. I would like to apologize everyone who planned to play Thronebreaker over the Holidays — I assure you that we will do our best to make the final game worth the additional wait.

But it wasn’t all bad news. Iwinski also said that CD Projekt is planning to “increase the tempo” of multiplayer updates next year, and that fans should expect to see frequent content additions (including “cards, challenges, vanity items, [and] game patches, and balance tweaks”) to the game.

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