A modern take on classic sandbox action. Framed for your father?s murder, you?ll need to do whatever it takes to unveil the real culprit. Tackle thrilling missions for the criminal underworld ? just don?t let the cops track you down! Set in the deep south of the 80s, American Fugitive is a love-letter to the classic movies and games of old.
Cyberpunk 2077's Release Date Announced At Xbox E3 2019 Conference
Cyberpunk 2077, the ambitious new RPG from The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red, finally has a release date. During Microsoft's Xbox E3 press conference, we learned that Cyberpunk will launch on April 16, 2020. The game is releasing on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
The news came following the reveal that none other than John Wick actor Keanu Reeves will have a role in the Polish developer's new game. Reeves himself appeared on stage and was the one to announce Cyberpunk 2077's release date, which is really pretty perfect. He'll be playing a character known as Johnny Silverhand, who's described as a "legendary rockerboy."
Cyberpunk 2077 was announced many years ago, so it has been a long time coming to finally learn its release date today. The 2020 date is fitting, given the game is based Mike Pondsmith's tabletop game Cyberpunk 2020.
Following a leak earlier in the day, CD Projekt Red also confirmed Cyberpunk 2077's Collector's edition. Inside a cool-looking box, you'll get a 10-inch statue of V, the game's main character, along with a steelbook, art book, and more.
Divinity: Original Sin developer Larian Studios is behind Baldur’s Gate 3
Larian Studios, the developer behind the Divinity: Original Sin games, is working on the next game in Wizards of the Coast’s Baldur’s Gate series.
The studio had lightly implied as much on Twitter in the days leading up to today’s Google Stadia stream, and both Baldur’s Gate 3 and its development team were among the reveals during today’s Stadia event.
During the stream, Larian CEO Swen Vincke shared that he had previously tried to pitch Wizards of the Coast on putting them at the helm of a new Baldur’s Gate game years ago, but the company originally turned them down.
“When we were released Divinity: Original Sin 1, I tried approaching Wizards of the Coast, trying to tell them that we should be the ones making Baldur’s Gate 3,” said Vinke. “They didn’t necessarily believe me back then. But then we started making Divinity: Original Sin 2 and then at some point they just reached out to me and said ‘well you’re the guy that wanted to make Baldur’s Gate 3. Do you still want to make Baldur’s Gate 3?’”
“And that got the conversation rolling. And before you knew it, we were constructing story,” said Vincke.
The game is set to launch for both Google Stadia and PC, and comes nearly 20 years after BioWare released its predecessor Baldur’s Gate 2.
The award-winning RPG comes to PC! Eight travelers. Eight adventures. Eight roles to play. Embark on an epic journey across the vast and wondrous world of Orsterra and discover the captivating stories of each of the eight travelers.
Based in beautiful Kyoto, Japan, in what started out as a sparse event in something close to a gymnasium, Bit Summit has rapidly become the second-largest independent games showcase in the country, just behind the grand spectacle that is Tokyo Game Show.
Now situated in central Kyoto’s Miyakomesse event centre, this year’s event – titled Bit Summit 7 Spirits – overperformed for yet another year, with record levels of attendance, veteran guest stars of the game industry, a wide range of incredible games and live performances by top quality musical talent.
Nintendo Life got to check out this year’s event to bring you some of the best highlights. Sitting comfortably? Then let’s begin.
Nintendo, as Bit Summit’s Platinum sponsor this year, had a very cheerful cafe theme for its Indie World Cafe booth, sporting long tables and vibrant walls reminiscent of cosy coffee houses. Some of the games on show this time around included the delightfully absurd Untitled Goose Game by House House, that naturally attracted a lot of attention for its farmer-harassing goose and its particularly trolly game mechanics.
The brilliantly addicting rogue-like Slay the Spire by Mega Crit was also on show at the event, just before its June 6th release date, mixing card battling with often brutal defeats against all manner of bizarre enemies in a constantly-changing tower. You can check out our review here.
Among some of the more interesting titles to play, particularly in the Devolver area, was a demo for the DLC update to The Messenger, entitled Picnic Panic. While no release dates were forthcoming, the developers assured us that the announcement would be “soon”. Make of that what you will.
With over 100 games on display this year, deciding what to play made walking around the event a challenging experience. One of the more popular titles for event-goers was Heave Ho by Le Cartel, another Devolver-published title. Up to four players can “hang out together” as each dangles, grapples and swings their way across numerous misshapen environments. Think of Tarzan, where you’re nothing but a head with arms and your friends are the ropes, and maybe you’ll get the gist. While Heave Ho has no set release date yet, expect it fairly soon with an approximate date for summer 2019.
Of the non-exclusive Nintendo titles spread out across the event hall, there were a few other stand-out titles that caught a lot of interest. Chrono Sword, developed by South Korean studio 21c Ducks co.,Ltd is a mix of old skool Diablo and Dark Souls, providing some kinetic isometric action with excellent sound design and pixel animation.
For those horror fans out there, World of Horror by panstasz, a solo Polish developer, garnered a lot of attention for its monochromatic, Junji Ito-inspired art style and atmosphere. Part adventure, part point-and-click, World of Horror is a game made to fascinate and disturb in equal measure, but is one to look out for if you’re after something a little grittier for your Switch.
While much of the event is about seeing and playing the games, attendees got the chance to hear from some of the big names behind the games, and with Bit Summit being a more up close and personal experience, many of these figures in gaming were there walking the floor, often inviting interaction with attendees.
During the two-day event, a mix of both international and local gaming talent sat down for Q&A sessions as well as directed talks on development subjects of their choice. Atsushi Inaba, studio head of PlatinumGames, spoke on ‘Training the Next Generation of Disruptive Creators’, a running theme with indie developers.
Fans of Ninja Gaiden III and Captain Tsubasa III would have been no doubt delighted to see Kaori Nakabai on stage, speaking about her work as the composer for those particular games alongside Keiji Yamagishi, composer for Ninja Gaiden, Captain Tsubasa and Tecmo Bowl.
Kouji Igarashi of Castlevania fame spent some time on stage with his talk ‘A Bloody, Bloodstained Development’, talking on the issues that arose with his game Bloodstained and addressing the somewhat prickly response of fans to its previous state, and the massive turnaround to make it the hotly-anticipated title it is today.
Bit Summit just wouldn’t be the same without accompanying entertainment of the more musical variety, and this year was no exception, with two acts worthy of note. Doseone, a prolific rapper, producer and artist in his own right, has provided music for numerous games over the years, including Enter the Gungeon, Nuclear Throne, Gang Beasts and Nidhogg 2. Performing on stage throughout the two-day event, Doesone added some heavier yet equally impressive chip-tune mashups for attendees to rock out to.
On the Sunday, local Kyoto-based rock band Nice Legs performed original music for the event, while dressed as trees. It was apparently Tree Summit for them. While they clearly didn’t get the memo as to what the showcase was actually about, the music was still highly vibrant and entertaining, with some slick guitar riffs and melodic vocals. Nice Legs recently had a song in the Toejam & Earl telethon and can be regularly found hanging around Kyoto’s indie game dev scene.
While the event may have only lasted for two days, the attendance already beat last year’s with a total headcount of 17,048. While that may not seem much for a game event, Bit Summit has already proven to be a strong contender for game developers to showcase their games in a more friendlier, more intimate setting compared to its Tokyo-based mega event Tokyo Game Show.
As this year’s event was unfortunately quite close to E3, the organisers of Bit Summit have made the decision to already announce the dates for next year’s 8th showing, guaranteeing a much bigger and better weekend for games.
Bit Summit 8 will open its doors again at Miyakomesse, Kyoto on May 9th & 10th, 2020. Should you find yourself in Kyoto during that time and are looking for something to do in between getting your photo taken by the old Nintendo building and checking out the tori gates where Star Fox was first conceived, why not visit the show and see what it’s all about?
XSEED Games Cops Backlash Online For Not Crediting Former Employee
XSEED Games is currently under fire for not crediting former members of staff. This is all tied to its policy to only acknowledge its current members of staff.
According to Eurogamer, the US company which specialises in the translation of Japanese games has been attacked on social media, after former localisation producer Brittany Avery revealed on Twitter how her name had been removed from the credits of the PlayStation 4 title The Legends of Heroes: Trails ofCold Steel and quite possibly the sequel as well.
XSEED felt obliged to issue its own statement via Twitter, explaining how it appreciated the hard work of everyone who had contributed, but the company policy was to only credit current members of staff. The tweet further explained how the company has never credited staff members for individual roles or when an employee has departed prior to a game’s release.
Unsurprisingly, there was a huge backlash to this response – with many replies to this message demanding the company change its policy immediately and patch in updated credits acknowledging all staff members (current and former) who had worked on these game projects. This has also reignited debates about unionisation for video game developers.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time this sort of incident has happened within the industry before and it probably won’t be the last.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 06-09-2019, 06:58 AM - Forum: Lounge
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E3 2019: Full Press Conference Schedule (AU Times And Dates)
E3 2019's press conferences proper are about to begin. The EA Play livestream has already taken place, and it'll be followed over the next few days by more traditional media briefing-style showcases from Microsoft, Ubisoft, Nintendo, and more. Of course, with the show happening in LA, California, things can get a little confusing when trying to work out what times the shows start in your local time, so we thought we'd list the key E3 dates in Australian (AET) time below.
But the exciting stuff is still to come. Even if we now know every event that's happening over the next two weeks, we won't be lacking a surplus of game news over the next week and a half. Expect plenty more rumors and leaks, too.
Below you'll find a quick look at the start times, in AET, for all of the major events and press conferences in the coming days. For more information on each, such as how to watch and where to find a livestream of the events, click on their respective links. If you're after American times, both Pacific and Eastern, check out our main look at the E3 2019 press conference schedule, or alternatively you can check out the full list of UK times for E3 2019.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Has Now Sold More Than 1.7 Million Copies Worldwide
One of the best role-playing games on the Nintendo Switch that also happens to be exclusive is Monolith Soft’s Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The title made its debut on the system in December 2017 and is still considered a “must-have” game for seasoned adventurers.
In terms of sales, we already heard last September how the sequel had exceeded expectations outside of Japan when Monolith Soft Executive Director Tetsuya Takahashi revealed he was surprised to see so many people within North America and Europe pick up the game.
Now, in a recent interview with 4Gamer, Takahashi has revealed more than 1.73 million copies of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 have been sold as of March 2019. Sure, this figure might not be anywhere near Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sales, but if it can crack the 2 million mark, there’s a chance the open-world action JRPG could eventually surpass lifetime sales of certain other major Switch releases. It’s also the best-selling game in the Xenoblade series so far.
In the same interview dating back to last September, Takahashi said he wasn’t willing to provide any concrete details about the future of the series, but right now, it looks rather bright. Especially when considering the ongoing reports about Monolith expanding and hiring more staff for new projects.
Did you pick up Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on release? Have you bought the new DLC yet? Would you like to see a new entry in this series? Tell us in the comments below.
This time around, we’ve rounded up even more of the talented folk who help to make Nintendo Life the amazing (ahem) site that it is, so we hope you have fun reading through even more entries. As ever, feel free to join in via our poll and comment sections below. Enjoy!
Gavin Lane, staff writer
This weekend I’ll be doing my best to relax before the excitement of E3 next week. I’ve had ABZU sitting on my Switch for ages but haven’t got around to actually playing the thing. I also picked up GRIS in the Devolver Digital sale so I’d like to blast through that before the Nintendo E3 sale arrives to clog up my micro SD card. Both games are supposed to be beautiful, sedate experiences, and that’s just what I’m after.
Having said all that, I might take the opportunity (weather permitting) to head out in the sunshine with a games mag under my arm and simply relax away from a screen with a little reading material, and perhaps a frosty beverage of some description. Ah, summer’s coming…
Ryan Craddock, staff writer
If you regularly read these weekend features, you might remember that I’ve been replaying Banjo-Kazooie over the last few weeks. I’ve started to reach a point now where I’m finding it incredibly tricky to find the last few Jiggies I need (I don’t think I ever made it this far as a kid) so I’m needing a quick change of pace.
I’m keeping my current N64 streak going, though, with my attention now shifting over to GoldenEye 007 for a bit. The nostalgia is ridiculously high with this one (I let out an audible ‘aww’ when I killed the man sitting on the toilet from the comfort of the vent above) so I’m determined to play through the entire campaign. For England, James?
Stephanie Woor, reviewer
Ryan has kindly reminded me that there’s this thing called a ‘weekend’ to plan for – newly freelance, I’m not actually sure how those things work now. My hardcore gaming credentials must be in my other bag too, because I was about to try to get away with saying my plans include “a long walk while playing Pokémon GO”.
I’ll instead try to save face by mentioning that I have been promised Mario Kart 64 at the homebrew ale and mead party I’ll be at tomorrow. Trouble is everyone is expecting the A-game I bring to Mario Kart 8, but (don’t tell the editors) I was a PC gamer back then. Where the heck is Toadette?
Gonçalo Lopes, contributing writer
Apart from surpassing a 150-day streak in Fitness Boxing, I haven’t really been playing much Switch this week and it looks that this will remain so for this weekend. Despite all the E3 insanity already going around I will be mostly working on my upcoming music album while the SNES Classic has been reassembled next to my TV. I fully expect some short burst of arcade action with Contra III and Super Castlevania IV along with some lengthier sessions of Final Fantasy VI. One day I will most certainly become a full-time retro gamer, but for now I’m just taking a breather.
Still did manage to find a game of the week: Timespinner is an absolutely incredible Castlevania Symphony of the Night homage, so it will nicely fill the gap Konami keeps unwilling to fulfil on the Switch.
Austin Voigt, contributing writer
This weekend I plan to play some – hold up… E3 is in four days?! Forget playing games, I haven’t even started packing yet! Gotta grab my Switch, some caffeine pills, my notebook that looks like a Pokédex, some Water of Life potions, a few tissues in case I see Charles Martinet… so much to do! No time to talk… Maybe some time to play Smash on the plane. See y’all in LA!
Dom Reseigh-Lincoln, reviewer
With Paladins‘ latest battle pass introducing lots of viking-forged skins to the game, it was going to be impossible for me not to sink some money on it. So expect to see me once again causing lots of trouble with Vivian, Androxus and Ruckus in TDM and Onslaught.
Elsewhere, I’ll be putting my spy tradecraft to the test in Phantom Doctrine. I love games that try to encapsulate the dangerous world of espionage, so I’m looking forward to playing spymaster on my Switch. Maybe I’ve just watched too much Homeland and Spooks!
PJ O’Reilly, reviewer
I’m helplessly addicted to Slay the Spire at the moment, so I’ll most likely spend most of my weekend trying to inch my way through the insanely difficult Ascension levels of that whenever my son isn’t hogging the Switch to play Yoshi’s Crafted World or Super Mario Odyssey. I also just picked up FIFA 19 and The Messenger in the ongoing eShop sale so I’ll definitely be getting stuck into some ninja platforming action and online Seasons when I get the chance; I’m sure I haven’t lost my silky smooth football touch since I last played a FIFA game about two years ago, right?
Ollie Reynolds, reviewer
Since Luigi’s Mansion 3 will be playable at this year’s E3 (and I’ll be firmly stuck in the UK), I’ll be digging out the 3DS for another round with the brilliant Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon. That’s if I can tear myself away from scouring the internet for Nintendo Direct rumours, of course.
In anticipation for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night later this month, I’ll also play through the 8-bit companion game Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. Time permitting, I may even boot up Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for some fully fledged Igavania action!
Liam Doolan, news reporter
Now that the new 2.5D Yooka-Laylee game has been revealed, I think it’s about time I got around to finishing the original 3D outing, which was released on the Nintendo Switch at the end of 2017. For reasons I can’t really remember, I got up to Capital B’s casino level and then dropped right off. I’m guessing it probably had something to do with the release of Super Mario Odyssey a few months beforehand.
Brushing aside this minor setback, I now intend to complete Yooka-Laylee before the arrival of the sequel. That’s all for me this weekend!
Lewis White, reviewer
Have you played Tetris 99? I’ve played Tetris 99. I’ve played so much Tetris 99 that I’ve literally, and I do mean literally, been seeing Tetrominoes flow whenever I close my eyes. It’s a deep-rooted problem. Will I ever stop? Probably not!
