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Publisher: 2K GamesDeveloper: Gearbox SoftwareRelease: September 13, 2019Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
It seems like only yesterday that Borderlands 3 was revealed and it's already nearly upon us. The game's initial showing at PAX East was marred by some technical difficulties, but it doesn't seem like the same thing is happening to the game itself, as it has gone gold over a month ahead of its release date.
The news comes in the form of a tweet from Gearbox themselves this afternoon, celebrating the occasion with an appropriately tinted GIF.
https://twitter.com/GearboxOfficial/status/1156685732204953603In the video game industry, going gold means that a game has reached a point where they can press a master disc upon which all other discs are based on. This does not necessarily mean that the game is at 1.0. In theory, a master disc could contain most or all of the game but still be unplayable for content or quality reasons until an update is applied. Still, if it is being shipped out for production now, I cannot imagine there is too much that needs to be fixed.
Borderlands 3 releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on September 13.
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Publisher: Electronic ArtsDeveloper: EA TiburonRelease: August 2, 2019Rating: Rating PendingPlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
We've been playing Madden 20 for a little while now, but as much as we've seen we're still not ready to deliver the final review verdict. Until then, here are my impressions of the game so far, from the new X-Factor and Superstar abilities to the QB1: Face of the Franchise mode.
GAMEPLAY & NEW SUPERSTAR ABILITIES
Madden NFL 20 feels better than last year in terms of how players feel – particularly in the running game or in the open field. It's not miles away from Madden 19, but it feels better making slight adjustments and there aren't as many jerky movements.
The X-Factor and Superstar abilities add in another layer of strategy that is noticeable but relatively balanced. Superstar abilities are automatically always active for the players that have them, like T.Y. Hilton being better at the double move than your average player or Landon Collins having a guaranteed tackle when hit-sticking ball carriers. X-Factors, however, must be activated by gameplay, like Saquon Barkley getting a better fake-our rate on defenders after he first runs for 10+ yards three times. At launch, there are 50 players with X-Factors (who also have Superstar abilities) and 30 players with just Superstar abilities (and then only a small handful that have two).
In a regular game you might only activate the X-Factor a few times. These abilities are noticeable but don't overtake the game. That being said, just having the superstar abilities can make guys pop in the gameplay and make you have to account for what they can do. Maybe that's having one less second in the pocket when Joey Bosa comes off the edge or making sure you scheme to contain Alvin Kamara out of the backfield.
QB1 FACE OF THE FRANCHISE MODE
This new mode is part story mode, part player-focused career mode. You play a quarterback coming off some success in the college playoffs (you can play for one of 10 real college teams) who's drafted to a team in need of a new signal-caller. From here you build your QB through your on-the-field performance and dialogue decisions in the locker room. The XP system is the same as in recent iterations of Franchise mode, with skill points raising pre-determine groups of abilities based on your overall player archetype.
During the season you'll get calls from the media, teammates, coaches, and players on teams you're about to face. How you answer these text-based calls determines if you get morale or XP boosts, and can also affect your teammates. Your wide receiver might want the ball more, or you might be tasked with holding Christian McCaffrey to no TDs for an appropriate reward. These goals give you something to shoot for and serve as a way to get more XP, but they fall short of either being a character-driven story or an engaging career-long journey.
FRANCHISE MODE
The scenarios you experience in the QB1 Face of the Franchise mode are also present in the regular Franchise mode, but this is the most substantive chunk of new material for the mode. Draft scouting has been tweaked slightly to shake up some of the predictability of previous years, but overall the mode is largely the same as last year. This means free agency, trade A.I., and other mechanics haven't been updated.
MADDEN ULTIMATE TEAM
MUT's overall flow has changed in that Missions are now the overriding sorting structure for challenges (no longer called Solos since you can play some in co-op). Either way, all the content and your progression is familiar. X-Factors and Superstars are also in the mode as unlocks on Power Up cards you can activate by spending training points. Once you do that you can have numerous abilities, but only so many can be applied to a player based on a tier system. Furthermore, you can only have three offensive and three defensive players with these abilities on the field during games. Of course, similar to the red chems of previous years, players with an X-Factor and/or Superstar abilities are going to be potential difference makers and greatly influence the market.
Stay tuned for my full review online in the coming days, and until then you can check out the game in action in our recent livestream.
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Hello Toothlessthedragon,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
Toothlessthedragon joined on the 07/31/2019.
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Publisher: CodemastersDeveloper: CodemastersRelease: October 11, 2019Rating: Rating PendingPlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Racing fans have been looking forward to Grid's return for some time now, and a new video from Codemasters shows just what's on the horizon. In addition to showing off the new Havana street circuit, the video highlights how you'll be interacting with other drivers on the track.
Teammates will allow you to draft off them, but not everyone is as friendly. As you can see in the clip below, if you trade paint with the wrong driver you can initiate a new rivalry, thanks to Grid's nemesis system.
Click here to watch embedded mediaGrid is coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 11. For more on the game, you can read our hands-on impressions from E3 here.
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Publisher: EA SportsDeveloper: EA VancouverRelease: September 13, 2019Rating: Everyone 10+Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One
The hockey-obsessed Game Informer staff has put dozens of collective hours into the NHL 20 beta over the weekend, our longest look at the game thus far. Though the gameplay in this build is about eight weeks behind the work EA Vancouver has done to polish the game, the time on the sticks still gives us a good idea of how the experience has evolved from NHL 19. Here are our biggest takeaways thus far regarding the presentation, modes, and gameplay.
The Reworked Broadcast Presentation Is Divisive
The longtime NBC duo Doc Emrick and Eddie Olczyk pass the torch to a new broadcast team in NHL 20. As good as that tandem is in real life, their work in the game never captured their dynamic commentary and began to feel stale. New play-by-play man James Cybulski raises the energy level in his performance, which is a refreshing change of pace. That said, some people we played with are already annoyed at his exuberance.
Ray Ferraro moves from the Pierre McGuire role to assume color commentary duties, and his work is a mixed bag so far. He doesn't interject himself into the conversation as much as you would expect for someone in that role, and right now the broadcast feels light on insight or anecdotes that enlighten beyond the moment to moment play. Their commentary is clearly a work in progress – they aren't even announcing the player names you pick in EASHL – so perhaps these pieces are coming later.
The broadcast changes that we enjoy the most so far are the reworked replay system and Play of the Period highlight package. The new dynamic camera angles do a better job of celebrating big moments, even if the slo-mo sound effect gets old quickly.
The new scoreboard placement appears to be the most divisive change thus far. Its new location on the bottom of the screen makes it harder to peek at the clock at a glance. Maybe they add an option for players to select where they want the scoreboard?
EASHL Gets No Love
Many hockey fans purchase the NHL game and only play the EASHL mode, which pits teams of three (or six) users against one another in a divisional ladder format. Despite its popularity, it appears EA largely took the year off in offering improvements. Some of the player classes have slightly tweaked skills and a few of the traits are gone, but everything else appears to be on par with NHL 19's offerings. This means no practice mode, no changes to the abysmal CPU A.I., and no toxicity tools to deal with the unsavory team and player names that run rampant in the mode.
The progression rewards system has a few minor tweaks in that you no longer automatically receive useless goalie equipment if you never play goalie (though you still unlock useless goalie traits and specialties), and the weekly challenges give you aspirational items to earn. However, these challenges require you to play through all the modes in World of Chel. We would prefer if challenges were mode agnostic so experienced players aren't forced to waste time in casual modes like Pro-Am and Threes if they want a rare team jersey or some other coveted reward.
The Good Gameplay Innovations
One of the biggest features EA touted for NHL 20 is the contextual shot animations. After playing the game for a while, we can say with confidence these are a nice addition to the experience. Particularly when playing Versus mode, we noticed players lunging to get their stick on the puck, opting for soft tap-ins at the back door, and repositioning themselves to get a shot off even if the pass is too tight to their body to get a full-powered shot.
The pace picks up in the transition game thanks to the new feature that allows players to receive passes in stride, which helps make the game feel faster when moving the puck from your back-end to the attacking zone. Aim your pass correctly and you may start generating more odd-man rushes or breakaways.
I've also been largely impressed with the goaltenders so far. Netminders are much more active with poke checks on breakaways, during penalty shots, and when skaters cut across the crease. They also do a better job at redirecting pucks away from high traffic areas (with one major caveat we'll discuss in the next section).
Areas Ripes For Improvement
Open betas are meant to be dissected by users, and NHL 20 has a fair share of areas that need addressing. The most glaring issue right now is the wonky puck physics. Far too many goalie saves careen into the stands – we're talking 5-10 times a game on average. In addition, we're seeing several unnatural situations where the puck pops slowly into the air after a deflection and takes forever to come down to the ice. Couple this with the legacy issue of pucks being deflected all the way to the other end of the ice with the speed of a slap shot, and this area of the game just feels off.
The passing also hasn't found its sweet spot yet. Far too many passes move much slower than anticipated, even when you're charging up the pass power by holding down the trigger. We've seen way too many dribblers slide across the goalmouth, making it easy for trailing defensemen to pick off one-timer attempts.
While puck pickups operate much more fluidly in transition, we still see a lot of problems related to loose pucks. We've seen instances were multiple players skate over a puck to seek possession, only to move right past it.
As we mentioned in the EASHL entry, the CPU A.I. is also lacking no matter which mode you're playing. Overzealous forwards skate offside clearly ahead of the play. Defenders curiously move out of sound defensive position for no particular reason. The worst culprits of all are Saros and Kurtz, the buffoon A.I. defensemen in EASHL. These hosers always pass a second too late, run right into goaltenders on breakaways, and love to jump into the offensive play when the forwards are already in position, leaving the team exposed to breakaway counter-attacks. The tragic A.I. makes you want to take the night off when you don't have a full roster of human players.
Casual Modes Get A Boost
EA says more people than you think played the arcade-centric World of Chel modes like Pro-Am, Ones, and Threes in NHL 19. The second year of WOC should be better than the first for fans of these modes thanks to some smart evolutions. Ones Eliminator and Threes Eliminator extend both of these experiences with a round-based winner-take-all format, and Ones Now finally lets you play with friends on the couch. I personally would have preferred these efforts went into improving the more popular EASHL, but here we are.
The beta comes to a close tomorrow, so time is running short for forming your own opinions on where the game stands today. If you've already played, share your thoughts in the comments section below and check out the list of changes EA has already made to NHL 20 in the lead-up to launch.
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Publisher: CapcomDeveloper: CapcomRelease: September 6, 2019Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
After some 500 hours put into Monster Hunter World, it seems near impossible for the Monster Hunter series, much less its latest console game, to really surprise me anymore. While Iceborne, the upcoming expansion to World, is not a revolution in the series the same way the base game was when it released in 2018, it manages to elevate the game with new mechanics, a more expansive story, and most importantly, harder monsters.
I got to play Iceborne from the beginning of the expansion, which you can only access after you have rolled credits on the game and defeated Xeno’jiva, all the way through defeating Barioth. Hunters kick off the expansion by talking to a character hanging out in lower Astera, who prompts Fiver and the Handler to explore something weird going on in the Ancient Forest. There, the pair discover a mass migration of Legiana, and the elder dragon Velkhana inserting itself within the swarm for a meal.
During our month of coverage on the game, we talked a lot about how Capcom sees the first major DLC campaign to a Monster Hunter game. While the series has always gone with revisions to major games in the form of G-rank updates, known as Master rank in Iceborne, but none have ever come in the form of a download expansion. In that sense, Iceborne feels like a new beginning to an older game, onboarding hunters who may have a bit of a gap since the last time they went out to beat up some monsters, but definitely doesn’t pull its punches.
As I hacked away at the expansion’s introductory monster, the shark-like Beotodus, I realized that this fight was taking a lot longer than I expected a Monster Hunter fight to take. The Capcom representatives confirmed my suspicions: the first monster you fight in Iceborne is designed to introduce you to the Master rank. That means it has a lot of health and doesn’t go down easy. Regardless of how good a hunter you were at the end of Monster Hunter World, Iceborne requires you to be a bit better to take on its roster.
A few of the other monsters I saw were variations on Monster Hunter World’s creatures. One of them, the Viper Tobi-Kadachi, is a poisonous version of the electric lizard from the main game. The Kadachi’s most dangerous move, a quick spinning tail-swipe, is faster, used more often, and poisons on contact. Another variation is the Nightshame Paolumu, a darker variation of the fuzzy bat. The Nightshade version is a lot more aggressive and uses its sleep-steam at the drop of a hat. Finally, I saw the Coral Pukei-Pukei, a Coral Highlands version of the poisonous lizard. This one absorbs water through its body and spits it out at you like a pressure washer.
There will also be interactions and turf wars between the new monsters and old ones, complete with new animations. In two separate hunts, the Fulgur Anjanath showed up during a fight with unrelated monsters to fight them briefly, then leave the map, which seemed to be its modus operandi.
If you want to see some of these hunts in action, check out our New Gameplay Today right here. Don’t forget to also look through our Monster Hunter World: Iceborne hub from our cover story for videos and insights from the development team.
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Click here to watch embedded media
Publisher: CapcomDeveloper: CapcomRelease: September 6, 2019Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Monster Hunter: World's upcoming expansion, Iceborne, adds a host of new monsters, combat moves, and mobility options. In addition to seeing some creatures from past games in the series, players will get to fight tougher new versions of some of the monsters from Monster Hunter: World. In today's NGT, we take a look at two such hunts. Say hello to Viper Tobi-Kadachi and Nightshade Paolumu.
Like all of the new hunts in Iceborne, these are master-rank battles (what used to be called G rank in previous installments). Unsurprisingly, these remixed monsters take a lot of damage to defeat and also bring a few new tricks to the hunt. Would you believe that Viper Tobi-Kadachi trades his electric attacks for poison-based effects? It's true! And Nightshade Paolumu wants you to sleep...forever. Take a look at the episode to see a pair of West Coast news editor Imran Khan's hunts, as Leo and I ask him lots of questions.
Iceborne is coming to PlayStation 4 on September 6, with the PC version coming later this winter. For more on Iceborne, take a look at our cover-story hub, which is filled with exclusive interviews, features, and more.
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Hello Thunder1555,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
Thunder1555 joined on the 07/31/2019.
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EA has a strange relationship with unannounced games, as they will frequently just talk about games that are assumed to exist but haven't officially been unveiled, as they are currently doing with Need for Speed. Another example is NBA Live 20, this year's entry into EA's somewhat embattled basketball series, which has been assumed to come out with other annual sports games but was not revealed alongside its contemporaries. Although it has never had an official date, EA has now "delayed" the game into late 2019.
The news comes from EA's earnings call today, where the company scheduled out their remaining year. While basketball games tend to come out in September ahead of the NBA season, EA has been fairly quiet about this year's edition of NBA Live, even as we come up on August. This year, EA says they want to rethink the game a bit, so they're taking more time to get it right, scheduling it between October 1 and December 31.
It's not necessarily a great look for the series which, over the last decade, has found itself in various states of disarray. Before the series was rebooted as NBA Live, it was known as NBA Elite, which itself once had a game cancelled as it sat in store stock rooms ready to be put on shelves. It will be interesting to see how EA plans to change things up this year.
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Publisher: ActivisionDeveloper: Infinity WardRelease: October 25, 2019Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
When Black Ops 4 rolled around, Treyarch decided to replace the Call of Duty series' killstreaks with something a little more cooperative. In previous games, killstreaks would give you advantages based on how many people you killed in multiplayer without dying yourself. To emphasize teamwork, Black Ops 4 made them scorestreaks, which a lot of veterans of the series didn't like.
In a tweet today ahead of Thursday's multiplayer unveiling, the Call of Duty account revealed that killstreaks are returning, and gave a few examples of the rewards you got for them.
https://twitter.com/CallofDuty/status/1155886018232328192The use of white phosphorus, which is banned by the UN as a conventional weapon of war due to the way it sticks to and burns through flesh, is certainly an odd choice to advertise. That said, the tweet doesn't really clarify how it will be used, as white phosphorus as a signal is commonly accepted. There's also the Juggernaut suit to make you a walking tank and, well, an actual tank.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will be released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 25 and supports full crossplay between those platforms.
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Apex Legends Preseason Invitational
Sep 13-Sep 15, 2019
Location: Krakow, Poland
Qualification: Invite-Only
Prize Pool: $500,000
WHAT IS THE APEX LEGENDS PRESEASON?
The Apex Legends Preseason is a set of live and online competitions where players from around the world go head-to-head (or headshot-to-headshot) to decide who’s the ultimate Apex Champion.
PRESEASON COMPETITIONS
The Apex Legends Preseason will consist of multiple competitions, each a standalone event, including the EXP Pro-Am Apex Legends Exhibition in Los Angeles (sponsored by ESPN), the EXP Invitational – Apex Legends at X Games Minneapolis (and associated online qualifiers) (sponsored by ESPN), and the Apex Legends Preseason Invitational in Poland. Stay tuned for more updates on these competitions throughout the Preseason.
HOW TO COMPETE
Players can apply for an invitation to the Apex Legends Preseason Invitational by emailing ApexLegendsPreseason@ea.com and including their Origin ID and associated email address. In total, 80 invited teams will compete.
The invitation process is closed for the EXP Invitational – Apex Legends at X Games Minneapolis.
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Hello DontPay4Digital,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
DontPay4Digital joined on the 07/30/2019.
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Publisher: 704GamesDeveloper: Monster GamesRelease: SeptemberRating: Rating PendingPlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Although there isn’t a particular, hyped new feature for NASCAR Heat 4, that doesn’t mean the game isn’t changing in some fundamental ways. In fact, developer Monster Games has made a host of improvements for this iteration of the series that should be evident right from the start. Several of these upgrades are born out of a single feature: more gameplay control via sliders. Whether you directly use these or not, even behind the scenes they are part of how NASCAR Heat 4 is working to be better than its predecessor.
Multiple Race Lines
In my hands-on time with the game, one of the things that was immediately noticeable was the fact that the rest of the A.I. cars took multiple race lines around the track when possible. This is a change from past iterations, and it opens up different strategies and outcomes. For the players themselves, the long-term advantages of using a different line throughout the race may necessitate tweaking your car’s setup to get maximum results.
Running with the Pack
A new slider this year allows you to adjust how compressed or spread out you want the field to be. This has a big influence on the overall difficulty of the race, the availability of draft partners, and is philosophically tied with the new collision sliders. Since you can manually tweak the stability of both your car and the A.I. cars (as well as their ability to recover from contact), you’re determining what happens when cars get together. This attempts to fix a previous concern about cars sliding out too easily at times and gives options for players of all abilities. Through these mechanisms the game not only brings the pack together – if that’s what you want – but also improves what happens afterward.
Finally, the game’s drafting has been redone, in part because of the new aero package dictated by NASCAR in real-life for some tracks. The result is different kinds of drafting playing can play a bigger role in the racing, including your relationships on the track (see below for more).
Dirt Track Origins
Dirt racing plays a larger role in the game at the beginning of your career. The progression curve is a little slower than last year, in part because there are fewer interruptions to your dirt season thanks to fewer hot-seat opportunities for other racing series. Of course, if you want to go directly to those other series, like the trucks or even the cup cars, you can choose to start immediately in them.
On the dirt tracks themselves, the A.I. racers get loose and turn into corners more, giving fans dirt-track racing’s familiar corner sliding.
Better A.I. Behavior Means Better Racing
Apart from changing the A.I. through sliders (see above), developer Monster Games has changed the A.I. lap times so they fall off more realistically, bringing them on par with those of the player. A.I. fuel and tire consumption can be tweaked by the sliders, but the game’s overall tire compounds have been redone for all the tracks, which affects everyone’s lap times and tire grip. This in turn means the A.I. pits more than they used to, at different times, and comes out with various pit times, further changing complexion of races. Furthermore, the A.I. has better crash-avoidance behavior as well as a controllable slider for their rate of mechanical failure.
Changes Not Made
While NASCAR Heat 4 should look and feel different, there are some aspects that are remaining the same. The custom car creator functions the same as last year, the leader on a restart will not be able to pick their lane, and speeding on pit road is a park penalty and not a pass-through one. One thing that is different, however, is that races can end under caution instead of going to overtime. The developer said in the past this was due to a bug, but that it’s been addressed.
The career mode interface has been redone, including for practice sessions. Practice lap times will tell you whether you're fast enough to hit goal objectives.
The Next Stage In Your Career
NASCAR Heat 4 is adding incrementally to the series’ career structure in a few ways that fans will notice, apart from the new graphics and user interface. I previously touched on the overall progression when talking about the dirt series (above), and the mode’s contract payouts have been changed to create more incentive for those who want more challenge.
In the shop, your racing team is affected by how you treat your chassis during the weekend. In an attempt to deal with the issue of damage, if your car returns to the shop without it, you’ll be awarded a clean race bonus that lets you get that chassis to a higher rating, like 75 versus 70. There is also a shop upgrade that gives you faster and more efficient pit times.
Although you cannot hire a second driver for your organization in the game, you can get help in the form of the friends you make on the track. The friends and rivals system was in the last title, but NASCAR Heat 4 wants to bring out the friends aspect more via drafting on the track. Friends you’ve made through good racing will actively draft in front and behind you (depending on the track). This could be a big help in moving up through the field and/or regaining spots if you step out of line accidentally. Of course, on the last lap, it’s everyone for themselves.
THE TICKER
Extensive Details On NBA 2K20's MyGM & MyLeague Modes
NBA 2K20 Demo Announced for August 21
FIFA 20 Pro Clubs Mode Details
PES 2020 Adds Exclusive License for Brazil Second Division League
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Publisher: 2K GamesDeveloper: Gearbox SoftwareRelease: September 13, 2019Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Borderlands 3 may have a familiar look to its predecessors, but its cast of four playable Vault Hunters is all new. To help players get to know the cast, Gearbox is releasing character-specific trailers that show off a little more of each one's personalities. First up is the decoy-wielding operator, Zane Flynt.
Zane seems a little too cool for school, which is bound to create some interesting conflicts with the rest of the crew. If you can get past his abrasive attitude, he brings a slick set of tools into battle, including holographic decoys and shields.
Click here to watch embedded mediaFor more on Zane, including our hands-on impressions of the character, take a look at our recent preview. Borderlands 3 is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on September 13.
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Click here to watch embedded media
Publisher: 505 GamesDeveloper: Remedy EntertainmentRelease: August 27, 2019Rating: Rating PendingPlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Control from Remedy Entertainment recently went gold, and today the title takes another step towards its August 27 release (PS4, Xbox One, and PC via the Epic Store) with a story trailer that fittingly prompts more questions than provides answers.
The Federal Bureau of Control's HQ, The Oldest House, is the site of the game's freaky goings on, and one of its residents dreaming of The Hiss – a mysterious force even by FBC standards – is not a good sign.
For an extensive look at Control, please check out our hub of coverage below from our previous cover story on the title.
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Hello Silver,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
Silver joined on the 07/30/2019.
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Publisher: Sony Interactive EntertainmentDeveloper: Media MoleculeRelease: April 16, 2019Rating: TeenPlatform: PlayStation 4
During my time visiting Pixelopus, developers of the new PlayStation 4 exclusive Concrete Genie, I got a chance to talk to the studio a little about how the game was created. In the game, Ash can paint genies on the walls to whatever specifications the player wants. You can place wings all around a genie, make their body tube-like or chubby, give them different faces or put vines for their arms, and all of this decides the genie's personality type.
Jokingly, I asked creative director Dominic Robillard whether there was ever any personal competition in terms of which Sony studio is making the better creative generation game, Pixelopus with Concrete Genie or Media Molecule with Dreams.
"No, actually," Robilliard chuckled. "We actually worked together, some of the tech in Concrete Genie is thanks to them. We have these things where Sony studios meet and talk here in San Francisco. We show each other our games and exchange ideas and technology. We were talking to someone at Media Molecule and saying 'We're working on this thing but we haven't ironed everything out with this one thing yet.' And then they went 'Oh! We know how to solve that!' So we ended up working together and they supplied us with technology for a while after to make the game possible."
Dreams is available in early access form on the PlayStation 4 as Media Molecule works to add more to the game. Concrete Genie releases on October 8 for a discounted price of $29.99.
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Publisher: Sony Interactive EntertainmentDeveloper: PixelOpusRelease: 2019Rating: Rating PendingPlatform: PlayStation VR, PlayStation 4
There’s a certain degree of rebellion inherent to the idea of street art. To some, graffiti is considered a public nuisance, a dirtying of architecture and engineering that went up for the utility of society. To others, it is self-expression that uses the structures to convey what society is actually thinking and feeling beyond just the slab of stone keeping it up. Concrete Genie does more than fall into the latter category, it grabs the theme with both hands and seeks to ennoble the act.
This is the first time I have gotten to play Concrete Genie’s non-VR mode since the game was announced two years ago. The first time developer Pixelopus showed it to me shortly after announcement, it seemed little more than a tech demo of the genie creation, but I never got a good sense of how the actual game worked. This time, I got to play the first hour of the game, as well as skip toward the third act for a surprising change in gameplay.
In Concrete Genie, players take control of Ash, a young kid who spends his time in a dilapidated port town with shades of the Pacific northwest and other coastal towns. In addition to an obvious economic downturn, the town has been overrun by a gang of bullies who relish in making Ash’s life harder. In the opening cutscene, this group of bullies takes his sketchbook filled with creatures born of Ash’s imagination and scatter the pages to the wind. They then lock Ash into a one-way tram to the lighthouse, which is purported to be haunted by a ghost, but actually contains the power to bring his genies to life.
The gameplay loop of Concrete Genie involves Ash collecting these pages of his torn-up sketchbook and creating genies from them. Painting these genies on the wall leads to them requesting certain things through icons and speech bubbles, like campfires on the ground or stars in the sky, to fill up lightbulbs hanging on those same walls. As Ash works to rehabilitate the port town, he fills up each region with paintings and genies, transforming the area into a living, breathing space once again. Sometimes puzzles need to be solved that involve getting multiple genies into one spot, which requires leading them from walls and around buildings, oftentimes some distance away.
Pixelopus warned me before I started that, at a certain point, the demo would jump ahead to a different kind of gameplay mechanic in the game’s third act. In this act, Concrete Genie becomes a lot more like a lite Infamous than the previous, decidedly chill opening hour. As the boss races around the small but circuitous areas you just spent painting, Ash uses his paintbrush to launch attacks of different elements at the fast-moving enemies. To keep up, he surfs on the magic paint that he had just been using to paint the walls bright colors to revive a town now being ravaged.
It will be interesting to see how the final game manages to balance this escalation in gameplay style, but it did somewhat assuage fears I had concerning whether the game could get repetitive after the first hour. With just a few months until release, Concrete Genie is shaping to be a fascinating addition to Sony’s software portfolio.
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Hello Albinoid,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
Albinoid joined on the 07/30/2019.
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Hello thegorgot,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
thegorgot joined on the 07/29/2019.
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Hello OnoderaMukuro,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
OnoderaMukuro joined on the 07/29/2019.
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Publisher: Warner Bros. InteractiveDeveloper: IO InteractiveRelease: November 13, 2018Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Agent 47 is heading out on a new mission tomorrow with the release of the new Siberia map for the game's Sniper Assassin mode. He might want to pack a jacket, because things are going to be chilly.
In the new Siberia map, players have to take out a pair of targets at a Siberian prison and several members of an elite mercenary force. Roman Khabko is a Russian mobster (and inmate), and Vitaly Reznikov is the warden who runs the place. Taking them out undetected from your sniper perch won't be easy, especially with members of Reznikov's Siberian Tigers posted as guards.
Click here to watch embedded mediaPlayers can take on the challenge solo or with a co-op buddy. You'll be able to unlock new challenges and mastery levels for the ICA Druzhina 34 Arctic sniper rifle. Complete the highest mastery ranking and you can unlock the rifle in the game's sandbox modes.
The DLC is available as part of Hitman 2's expansion pass and its Gold edition. The Siberia map will be available tomorrow on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
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Publisher: 2K SportsDeveloper: Visual ConceptsRelease: September 6, 2019Rating: Everyone 10+Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Every year as we approach the release of the next entry in the NBA 2K series, we look forward to how Visual Concepts' franchise team plans to continue its path of innovation. From big changes like creating a story mode in MyGM to subtle improvements like tracking a player's injuries throughout his career or having veterans mentor younger players, the team always has novel ideas to advance the way franchise modes operate. For NBA 2K20, Visual Concepts has some bold plans for bringing more RPG elements into MyGM and letting users see how they stack up against other GMs across the 2K world. Let's break down some of the bigger changes coming this year.
Introducing MyGM 2.0
NBA 2K20 gives MyGM such a major overhaul that Visual Concepts calls this the 2.0 version of the mode. So what's new? A lot. Taking a page from turn-based RPGs, this year introduces the concept of Action Points. Each day, you only have so many Action Points to complete your managerial duties. This means you need to make some savvy choices of how you spend your time. Do you try to build camaraderie throughout the building conversing with some staff and players? Work on a blockbuster trade to transform your roster? Drop directly into the game to play? Each of these costs Action Points. We won't know if this system feels restrictive or realistic until we spend some time with it, but Visual Concepts says you can change the difficulty if you feel like you're too starved for AP.
New Sphere Grid Style Leveling System
NBA 2K20 introduces a new leveling system and skill tree. You earn XP by winning and completing goals and tasks, which can be given by more than just the team owner this time around. Once you level up, you can pick a new skill from the new Final Fantasy X-style sphere grid.
At level one, you choose which skill you want to make your primary management style. Visual Concepts describes these skills as such:
• Leadership (L) – A man of the locker room, a leadership-focused GM is better able to build the trust of those around them, gain boosts for playing games, and lower trust loss in press conferences.
• Diplomacy (D) – A way with words, a diplomatic GM can build trust by having chit-chats with several different groups, can help improve revenue and help sign more big-name free agents.
• Insight (I) – A deep sense of understanding, an insightful GM can understand what affects the mood and trust of those around him, access the trade finder, or improve scouting.
• Finance (F) – An eye for the bottom line, a financial GM can improve revenue, sign players for less and gain additional sponsorship slots.
• Facilities (FC) – A man with the plan, a facility-oriented GM can choose from a specialty facility for a permanent boost to one of five areas, can help boost players on game days or turn high attendance into improved relations with sponsors.As you level up, you also gain the ability to gain more AP each day, bank AP, and even respec once a month. For instance, maybe it makes sense to reconfigure to a Finance-focused loadout right before a critical free agency period is about to begin so you have more negotiating power.
Relationships Matter More
The MyGM and MyLeague modes have always felt more real than most other franchise modes because you actually have to manage relationships with coaches, players, scouts, and other personnel. NBA 2K20 features revamped morale and chemistry systems, which gives users the ability to have relationships with their entire roster, the team staff, the owner, and even your rivals controlling other NBA franchises.
Maintaining these relationships will make or break your prospects in very real ways. For instance, you need to develop a strong enough rapport with the head coach if you want to access the coach gameplan menus. You can gain points with players, coaches, and the like by chit-chatting with them, but these conversations may come with new tasks that may not fit with your vision for the team in the long run. You need to navigate these treacherous situations with a deft touch if your ideas don't jive with the person requesting a certain action, or risk permanently damaging the relationship.
MyGM Now Keeps Score With Leaderboards
Unless you were playing MyLeague Online, the NBA 2K franchise modes essentially operate in a vacuum. You never had a way to compare your success with that of other users, until NBA 2K20. This year, Visual Concepts tracks your MyGM performance via a new scoring system that rewards points for every action that makes your team better.
Visual Concepts says scoring is scaled so your success with a stacked roster you inherited doesn't give you an advantage over someone tackling a more ambitious rebuild. The leaderboard includes filters for tracking your progress against the entire globe, seeing how you stack up against friends and seeing who's having the most success over the last month. Each difficulty setting tracks a different amount of time: Five years for easy, ten for medium and fifteen for hard. The leaderboards stop tracking after that, but you can still go 80 years deep. We hope there are some deep reports in this system so you can see how exactly someone scored more points than you, because given the different circumstances everyone faces it sounds like they must use some voodoo economics to make it all track.
Better Hand-Holding For New Users
Deep, complex systems are what makes NBA 2K's franchise modes so amazing, but they can be overwhelming for newcomers. Visual Concepts hopes to better onboard fledgling GMs in NBA 2K20 with a few changes. The new scoring system should give new players a clear sense of whether an action help or hurt the team, and a new Assistant GM panel helps shepherd users through the year, making sure they've gotten a grasp on scouting, lineup management, etc.
New Personality Badges For Max Players
Tracking where max players ended up in MyGM and MyLeague has been maddening over the past few years. What incentive would Kevin Durant have to sign with the Orlando Magic, for instance? It made no sense, yet it could still happen. Visual Concepts admits it's hard to replicate two players plotting to shake up the league to play together like we've seen with KD and Kyrie Irving, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, etc. To better control the flow of star players in free agency, NBA 2K20 introduces a few new badges:
• Media Ringmaster – This player thrives in front of the cameras and prefers to play in big markets. Pretty straightforward, you should expect players with this badge to be more likely to sign to a big-market team.
• Warm Weather Fan – These are for the beachgoers that would rather play in warm, temperate climates and avoid the really cold home teams.
• Finance Savvy – These are players that factor in the tax rate in where they want to go in the hopes of really making the most out of their money.Other Smaller Changes
NBA 2K20 includes several other small but notable changes, including a Staff Card that groups all relevant information about your team into one place, improved auto-generated draft classes that more accurately reflect NBA draft classes, improved player DNA management tools that make it easier to find players you want to add to your draft classes, the option for force winners in MyLeague sims, and a new quality of life change that lets you hold LT/RT to scroll quickly when adjusting sliders in the menus (including for contract offers).
So what didn't 2K address? The big one for me is the server performance for MyLeague Online, which frankly was terrible last year. We hope to hear more about that in the coming weeks.
To learn more about the changes coming to MyLeague and MyGM, head over to the official 2K post.
NBA 2K20 releases on September 6 for PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. You can play the demo starting August 21 on all platforms besides PC.
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The career mode interface has been redone, including for practice sessions. Practice lap times will tell you whether you're fast enough to hit goal objectives.
New Fortnite Season Adds Titans (I Mean Mechs) [Updated]
in Apex Legends
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The new season of Fortnite started earlier today and brought a new round of surprise changes. The most titanic one to drop? A new two-player mech called the B.R.U.T.E.
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