No Man’s Sky “Day One” patch will radically change the game and add multiple endings

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Have you heard that several stores broke the street date for No Man’s Sky, and that a small handful of lucky gamers are playing the highly-anticipated space exploration sim right now? It’s true, but once No Man’s Sky officially launches on August 9, we’ll all be playing a very different game…

In a lengthy post on the game’s official website, Director Sean Murray has detailed the many changes that will be applied to the game as part of a “Day One” patch. Some of these changes include the creation of three distinct “Paths” where “early choices have significant impact on what you see later in the game,” advanced combat techniques, multiple endings, and much, much more:

  • The Three Paths – there are now new, unique “paths” you can follow throughout the game. You must start the game on a fresh save, with the patch, as early choices have significant impact on what you see later in the game, and the overall experience.
  • Combat – Auto Aim and weapon aim has been completely rewritten to feel more gentle in general, but stickier when you need it. Sentinels now alert each other, if they haven’t been dealt with quickly. Quad and Walker AI is now much more challenging, even I struggle with them without a powered up weapon.
  • Space Combat – advanced techniques have been introduced, like brake drifting and critical hits. Bounty missions and larger battles now occur. Pirate frequency has been increased, as well as difficulty depending on your cargo.
  • Writing – The Atlas path has been rewritten by James Swallow (writer on Deus Ex) and me. I think it speaks to the over-arching theme of player freedom more clearly now. Early mission text has been rewritten to allow for multiple endings.

According to Murray, this is just the first of several planned updates to the game. So, after several years in development, No Man’s Sky might be ready for release, but it’s far from finished.

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Bethesda delivers another look at Prey at QuakeCon 2016

With no connection to the original game, or the previously-announced Prey 2, I’m still a bit baffled as to why Bethesda chose to resurrect the franchise’s name for the upcoming first-person game now known as Prey. But resurrect it they did, and the publisher even had a new gameplay trailer on display during this weekend’s QuakeCon convention.

Developed by Arkane Studios, the trailer reintroduced fans to Morgan Yu and gave them their first look at life aboard the Talos I space station. Those who made the trip to Dallas were also treated to an extended (and exclusive) gameplay demo that focused on the different types of aliens Morgan will encounter, as well as the extraterrestrial powers and weapons he’ll be able to wield.

Thankfully, Bethesda.net was able to get Co-Creative Director Raphael Colantonio and Lead Designer Ricardo Bare to open up a bit about what’s in store for players of Prey:

Typhon are roaming the halls of Talos I, hunting down the remaining humans. How you choose to deal with these creatures is up to you. You can take a stealthier route, finding secret paths around the station while using your tools and abilities to avoid confrontation. The station itself is a completely contiguous world. The entirety of Talos I is open to you immediately… provided you can find a way to get there.

Whatever path you forge, you’ll face different dangers at every turn. One of the keys to survival are the neuromods you’ll find scattered around the station, as they allow you to enhance yourself with alien-based powers.

Prey will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One in 2017.

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Weekly Warp-Up: Still Reading Back Issues of Nintendo Power…

No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…

I have to admit, I’m still poring over almost every issue of Nintendo Power that was added as a free download to the Internet Archive this week. If you’re a sucker for video game history, this collection is a real treasure trove of what things were like back in the late 80s/early 90s. And best of all… no terrible Sega advertisements!

And speaking of retro games, earlier this week, Innex Inc announced the The Retro-Bit Generations, yet another HDMI microconsole with more than 100 built-in 8-bit/16-bit games from Capcom, Sega, Jaleco, and Irem. It’ll be released this Fall.

Elsewhere on Warp Zoned, the staff got together to discuss What We Played in July 2016 and to look ahead to The Games of August 2016. As you might have guessed, those were rather short conversations.

If you’re looking for more news from this past week, you can find it after the break.

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New Retail Releases: No Man’s Sky, OlliOlli Epic Combo Edition

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Take me out
To the black tell ’em I ain’t coming back
Burn the land
And boil the sea
You can’t take the sky from me

No Man’s Sky isn’t a video game adaptation of Firefly, but the procedurally-generated space exploration sim from Hello Games will offer the same kind of sense of adventure as players venture out into the black and discover new worlds and alien life. With more than 18 quintillion planets to explore, players on the PC and PS4 will keep flying for a long time (that number has 15 zeroes, in case you were curious).

Also set to be released this week is the OlliOlli: Epic Combo Edition for the PS4. The Epic Combo Edition will collect both of Roll7’s side-scrolling skateboarding sims (OlliOlli and OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood) in a single package, along with three “making-of” documnetaries and a downloadable soundtrack for the sequel.

That’s it for this week’s upcoming retail releases, but we’ll be back soon with a look at this week’s PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop updates.

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Xbox Store Today: Cannon Brawl

xboxgamesstore-logoJust one new addition to the Xbox Games Store today, and its Cannon Brawl, “an exciting mix of real time strategy and artillery gameplay” for the Xbox One. Developed by Turtle Sandbox, players will square off in Cannon Brawl will blast their opponent’s airships and castles while attempting to protect their own base.

More information about Cannon Brawl can be found right here, and on its page at the Xbox Games Store:

Xbox One Games

Cannon Brawl ($9.99)
Cannon Brawl is an exciting mix of real time strategy and artillery gameplay. Your ability to manage combat priorities and focus through the madness of battle will be put to the test. Advance across the kingdom in single player to unlock and discover new units, then experiment with each one to find your favorite combination in online multiplayer.

Posted in News, Xbox One |

Rockstar and 2K have a ton of games in the works that Take-Two still isn’t ready to talk about

taketwo-logoTake-Two Interactive delivered their quarterly financial report to investors yesterday, and the company’s executives used their time in the Wall Street spotlight to also talk about a few games they’re not exactly ready to talk about yet.

Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two’s CEO, started off by saying, “Rockstar Games is also hard at work on some exciting future projects that will be revealed soon.” Zelnick has made this same statement for several years now, so his definition of “soon” probably varies quite a bit from the Oxford English Dictionary. I suppose you can insert your own Red Dead Redemption 2 rumor right here.

Take-Two’s President, Karl Slatoff, also promised big things from Rockstar Games, along with Take-Two’s 2K label: “Looking beyond the current fiscal year, we have a robust long-term development pipeline across both of our labels, which features offerings from our renowned franchises, along with new intellectual properties that promise to further diversify our industry leading portfolio.”

During a previous quarterly financial report, Take-Two executives confirmed that their 2016 release calendar is set in stone, so it’ll likely be a while before we learn anything more about these future projects.

Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One |

Bethesda unveils first Quake Champions gameplay trailer at QuakeCon 2016

Bethesda and id Software surprised the world when they announced Quake Champions at this year’s E3 Expo. While many people (myself included) assumed the developer would move on to a Quake followup after the smashing success of Doom, I don’t think anyone expected it to appear so soon.

But speed is the name of the game when it comes to the Quake franchise, and this hyperactive philosophy is on full display in the very first gameplay trailer for Quake Champions, which was unveiled at QuakeCon last night. As part of his keynote address, Studio Director Tim Willits revealed more information about the four “Champions” from the E3 trailer, and gave the audience an exclusive look at a fifth Champion, Anarki, “a lanky speed-demon with a sweet hoverboard.” Quake Champions will include more than a dozen Champions when the Closed Beta launches next year.

More of Willits’s address can be found at Bethesda.net, including this nugget about the game’s weapons:

In true Quake fashion, you’ll have an arsenal of powerful and unique weapons, each of which will feel familiar to long-time Quake players. “No loadouts, no limit to the amount of guns you can carry,” Willits assured the crowd. “Time the weapon pickups, or kill your opponents. That’s how you get weapons in a Quake game.”

And don’t worry, those rocket jumps will look incredibly impressive as Willits also promised that Quake Champions will run at 120hz with unlocked framerates.

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Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia and three other games added to Nintendo eShop

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It’s a slow week for the Nintendo eShop as just four games were added to the digital storefront today…

The biggest name in the bunch is Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, which was originally released for the DS in 2008, and is now available to download for the Wii U through its Virtual Console service. Also new to the Wii U eShop this week are Dragon Skills, a retro-style game inspired by Arkanoid and Snake, and Overworld Defender Remix, an arcade shooter with music by the Italian chiptune artist Buskerdroid.

Over on the 3DS eShop, players will be able to get into the Olympic spirit with Stickman Super Athletics, a mini-game compilation starring a group of Stickmen. A free demo for Nintendo’s Style Savvy: Fashion Forward is also available to download now.

More information on all of these games can be found after the break.

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Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U |