The amount of detail Sony Santa Monica has put into its game is astounding, from animals scurrying through trees right down to Kratos’ wrinkled elbows. But some of these details and Easter eggs are easily missed, so here is a small selection of ones that I have noticed so far. Please note, some of these details could be considered spoilers. If you’re still reading and want to go into the game blind, this is your cue to head elsewhere now....
Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force, Star Trek: Elite Force 2, Star Trek: Hidden Evil, Star Trek: Away Team, Star Trek: Starfleet Command 3, and Star Trek: Bridge Commander are all now for sale on GOG priced £8.39 each. The Activision-published games are running smoothly on Windows 10 for the first time, GOG said, and some offer a working LAN multiplayer. Real-time strategy games Star Trek: Armada and Star Trek: Armada 2 hit GOG at a later date....
Stadia general manager Phil Harrison confirmed the closure of the company’s two internal game studios, based in Montreal and Los Angeles, in a new blog post, signalling an end to its console-like ambitions of creating flagship Stadia-exclusive titles to drive adoption of the platform. “Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially,” explained Harrison of the decision. “Given our focus on building on the proven technology of Stadia as well as deepening our business partnerships, we’ve decided that we will not be investing further in bringing exclusive content from our internal development team SG&E, beyond any near-term planned games....
During a Q&A on the Gotham Knights Discord, creative director Patrick Redding revealed Nightwing’s Flying Trapeze was inspired by “a couple of ideas” including some classic issues in the Nightwing solo book that saw the DC hero using his “aerialist moves with jet-powered gliders”. Additionally, the team wanted it to feel as though Nightwing had been through the late, great, Batman’s arsenal. “We liked the death-defying angle of him looking at all the various stealth drones in Batman’s arsenal and calculating that he could just get away with hanging off one of the smaller models and still be able to maintain or gain altitude with it,” said Redding....
It’s also joined by Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, a multiplayer FPS released in 2017 and developed by Tripwire Interactive, known for the Killing Floor games and Maneater. Considering there’s other, more recent online shooters most people are playing (cough cough, Overwatch 2 and Modern Warfare 2, cough), Filament is the star of this week’s choices, but not without its own reasons. Filament is a brilliant little game in which you play as a robot bringing power back to a spaceship....
For instance, the discounts include Metroid Dread, only released in October, the long-awaited sequel to the 2D series and a shoe-in for a number of Game of the Year lists. Heading back earlier this year is my personal game of the year Monster Hunter Rise which manages to excel to new heights from the breakthrough Monster Hunter: World. Sure, it’ll also be coming to PC with enhanced features in the new year, but it’s definitely worth picking up now at this price....
That eye-watering figure came from Polyphony Digital CEO Kazunori Yamauchi as part of a message to fans to celebrate 25 years of the racing sim. While Sony hasn’t announced it as such, Gran Turismo is PlayStation’s best-selling franchise. Much of that has to do with its longevity - there has been a Gran Turismo game on every PlayStation home console ever released. The first Gran Turismo came out in 1997 for the PSone, and was a smash hit....
It’s been, I’m sure you’ve noticed, a big week for big new games. The Callisto Protocol (which I’ve just spelt correctly for the first time without having to correct myself, which feels like some small progress) is delivering its spin on Dead Space before we get the remake proper next year, while Marvel’s Midnight Suns sounds truly sublime, but - and this won’t come as a surprise, I’m sure - it’s another game that’s caught my attention this week....
It is tempting to see the two games in the context of one another, because they make for such an arresting contrast. They have the same plot: warrior enters cave, fights monsters, plunges deeper. In almost every other way they are opposites. Below’s hero descends into the depths; Grindstone’s fights his way upward. Below is slow, dark, chilly and withholding. It has an air of mysterious self-importance. Grindstone is immediate, colourful, and revels in excess and snub-nosed rudeness....
Halo Infinite’s new custom game browser is designed to work in tandem with the Forge Beta introduced as part of November’s Winter Update. It was originally planned for release as part of next year’s Season 3, but as developer 343 Industries explains in its blog post, “We fully agree with players who felt [it] should be a priority — it’s a key support structure for what players create in Forge and a pillar for the community....
Heardle is a music game inspired by Wordle - where instead of guessing a word, you hear the opening of a song, with each failed guess extending the preview to help you solve the title and artist in question. If you fail to guess once you have heard the complete preview, then you’ll break your streak - which is why discovering today’s Heardle answer is so important for players, especially as some song intros are more elusive than others....
Heardle is a music game inspired by Wordle - where instead of guessing a word, you hear the opening of a song, with each failed guess extending the preview to help you solve the title and artist in question. If you fail to guess once you have heard the complete preview, then you’ll break your streak - which is why discovering today’s Heardle answer is so important for players, especially as some song intros are more elusive than others....
Heardle is a music game inspired by Wordle - where instead of guessing a word, you hear the opening of a song, with each failed guess extending the preview to help you solve the title and artist in question. If you fail to guess once you have heard the complete preview, then you’ll break your streak - which is why discovering today’s Heardle answer is so important for players, especially as some song intros are more elusive than others....
We’ve teamed up with the Hearthstone experts over at our sister site Metabomb to bring you the lowdown on all of the new content that’s launching with the seventh expansion, and a round-up of all the best decks that are beginning to emerge in the new meta. That list will grow over time, and the deck lists and guides themselves will be updated to reflect all the latest developments in the game....
As you would expect, it is a bloody horror filled rampage against some pretty ugly looking fellas. I am talking limbs coming off left, right and centre. There is also a look at a gravity gun in use, and our protagonist stomping down on a felled enemy’s corpse (because you just would if that thing came at you!). We also get to see, erm, well, someone getting trapped in a fan of sorts, resulting in them getting mushed up....
Microsoft released a gameplay video, below, showing a full multiplayer match. In the match we see the Rus against the Holy Roman Empire, with useful commentary from developer Relic. Microsoft has only shown snippets of Age of Empires 4 so far, and I think it’s fair to say it hasn’t always looked wonderful. The community has had its say on pretty much every aspect of the game, including the water, and there has been a degree of negativity....
Sea of Stars Right out the gate, there was much excitement with the first proper look at The Messenger developer Sabotage Studio’s Sea of Stars, which was announced back in March last year. It’s a striking retro-inspired RPG, with modernised elements, telling the story of two Children of the Solstice - able to combine the powers of the sun and moon into eclipse magic - as they battle the monstrous creations of evil alchemist The Fleshmancer....
In a recent AMA on reddit, the Respawn team fielded a number of queries and questions from Apex players, including one from CSKaay who wanted to know “how is Lifeline’s kit being handled?” in the upcoming round of tweaks and improvements. In a list of several thoughtful questions, the commenter suggested that “regardless of whether her ult[imate ability] gets changed or buffed, [Lifeline’s] passive needs a 10-20 second delay between revives”....
Developed by Timur ‘XProger’ Gagiev, this GBA project makes use of OpenLara - an open source engine that began as a reverse engineering project for the original Tomb Raider game and has been made available across various platforms. The game runs on the GBA with nothing more than the console and a compatible EverDrive card. YouTube channel Modern Vintage Gamer has gone in-depth, analysing all the tricks used to get the game running on the GBA hardware....
Speaking to MinnMax, Fils-Aimé stated: “What was interesting is that with the Wii U, there was a full development plan for all of the interesting interactions and all of the interesting capabilities that the system could do, and so in that case, technically could multiple gamepads communicate with a Wii U? Answer was ‘yes’, but the install base never got large enough that that type of implementation made sense.” He went on to explain that “most importantly”, Nintendo never “create[d] a game where you needed another GamePad in order to have a great experience”, which is certainly a pretty key part for any gaming mechanic to be made viable....
