There’s little doubt in my mind that we’ve recently seen the latest addition to that exclusive club. Elden Ring launched into an unprecedentedly busy spring, and proceeded to suck all of the oxygen out of the rest of the room. At another time, any of the glut of major titles that launched between January and April might have been the biggest game of their moment; Pokemon Legends Arceus, Horizon Forbidden West, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Dying Light 2, and plenty of others. All seem to have performed well but, regardless of their critical or commercial success, were simply drowned out by the cacophonous noise of The Lands Between. 

For all of Elden Ring’s success so far this year, however, its path to outright domination has long been beset with potential obstacles. The first of those was Horizon Forbidden West, which might have claimed the lion’s share of attention from PlayStation fans, but Aloy has already been swept aside. Next up on Sony’s slate is God of War: Ragnarok, but console exclusivity has already proved to be no challenge for FromSoftware. Elsewhere, Nintendo’s next major offering is Pokemon Scarlet and Violet – another console exclusive following hot on the heels of two recent entries in the same franchise – while legions of Harry Potter fans could turn Hogwarts Legacy into a smash hit, if its massive scope doesn’t push it into 2023.

Plenty of potential obstacles remain, but Elden Ring has arguably already seen off two of its biggest challengers. Both Starfield and the Breath of the Wild sequel were likely to be among the biggest games of whichever year they released, but after delays for both titles, that year will no longer be 2022. Those two massive holes in the schedule are good news for other projects hoping to launch towards the end of the year, but they’re also great news for Elden Ring – having established itself as the biggest game of the first half of the year, it’ll now presumably get to ride that train through to December, whether or not it gets any DLC some time over the next few months.

 The Elden Scrolls 

A smash-hit so assured that you can see the end of year headlines more than six months in advance doesn’t come along very often. The cadence isn’t exactly perfect, but I reckon it’s around every other year – the last time we got a hit this all-consuming was arguably Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which seemed all-but untouchable in the early days of the pandemic in 2020. Before that, it was Fortnite, which was all I seemed to write about for vast swathes of 2018. 2014’s Destiny is the next most likely contender, with Skyrim unquestionably dominating the early years of the 2010s.

But while Tom Nook and co were the perfect antidote to early 2020, it was The Last of Us 2 that eventually walked away with the bulk of that year’s Game of the Year awards. Fortnite might have hopped on the battle royale bandwagon in 2017 and helped kickstart the metaverse in 2018, but it was the original Breath of the Wild and God of War that claimed those respective top prizes. For almost any game that you might think of as the biggest of its year, there’s at least one major challenger to its title. Even Skyrim, which walked away with more than half of all of the GOTY awards given out in 2011, had to contend with the likes of Portal 2, and, ironically, Dark Souls.

Realistically, it’s far too early in the year to be genuinely discussing Game of the Year. When it comes to quality, there’s a lot I’m yet to play, plenty more that’s yet to launch, and a summer conference season formerly known as E3 2022 that’s sure to reveal great games that haven’t even been announced yet. But there’s an important distinction to be drawn between the best game of the year and the biggest game of the year. The noise surrounding Elden Ring has been deafening, and with Starfield and Breath of the Wild 2 out of the picture, the few games currently left to stand against it might well struggle with console exclusivity or further release date woes. There’s always a chance FromSoft’s latest won’t sweep the Game of the Year lists, but that’s unlikely to stop 2022 from being the Year of Elden Ring regardless.

Want to make sure you keep up to date with all of this summer’s announcements? Here’s our guide to the E3 2022 schedule.

The post With Starfields delay, 2022 is set to be the Year of Elden Ring appeared first on Game News.

The developers behind new PC game Palia call it a community sim, but the first thing your brain screams when you see it in action is Valheim meets Animal Crossing. Think all the social, homebuilding parts of an RPG MMO, but as wholesome as a puppy who has had sensitivity training. Your customizable character will build and decorate a home, farm and fish, befriend and even romance NPCs, and have the chance to do it all with your friends by your side. 

You play as a human – a race that is just starting to mysteriously return to the world of Valeria – who takes up residence in a small community by a lake. It’ll be up to you to discover more about humanity’s past and, of course, to help forge its future. The game’s creators promise a main story that will take years to reveal and lots of lore to uncover along the way. Creating the look of your human character will be one of your first tasks, and the developers are keen to give players as many options as possible. We got a quick look at some concept art showing a diverse range of face and skin tones, different hairstyles, clothing that can be customized with colors and patterns, and were told there would be a couple of different body types at launch. 

The sense from the developers is that they’re keen to react to what the community wants when it comes to these kinds of options. “One of the good things about the game as a service is that what we offer on day one is just the beginning,” says game director Aidan Karabaich, “and choice here is really core to our beliefs. So expect to see these options continue to robustly expand over time.”

It all looks gorgeous too, falling into that gap between realism and the bright colors of an animated movie, and everything in the trailer is either green or cozy, like a place you’d want to go for a weekend break if you were a Disney princess. The studio cites The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Studio Ghibli as influences, and it shows. 

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Palia really wants to be somewhere you find and meet with friends, and promises lots of opportunities to collaborate as you explore the world. You’ll be able to play with your nearest and dearest without worrying about what server they’re on, and there’ll be a social matchmaking system to make connection easier. Instead of guilds, you’ll be able to create neighborhoods or find those you want to join and earn rewards as a team. 

The creators likened these communities to Mr Rogers-style neighborhoods, which is a big hope for anyone who has ever spent any time on any part of the internet. Imagine heading over to a friend’s house to help them decorate, or to work on their garden together. Actually interacting with the world your friends have created is the next step beyond what current community games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons allow right now, and make it more likely that you’ll want to spend more time together, given that you can really achieve things as a team. It’s one of the secrets of the cult success of Valheim, a game packed with combat but where players have really spent time coming together to build impressive buildings and weird structures.  

Luckily the studio, Singularity 6, knows a thing or two about building a community. Two of the leads on the project used to work at Riot Games, and creating a safe world where you can connect with your friends, but also control what other players can see and do on your turf, is key to the project. They’re planning to have proximity voice chat, but only for people you’ve designated as friends. 

Meet the locals

Misanthropes like me will be pleased to know that if you can’t find any real friends to play with, Palia will have plenty of NPCs who, Karabaich promises, are more than just set dressing. “These characters are so much more than simple quest givers. We’ve developed a rich, deep set of characters and, as you play, you’ll have the opportunity to discover their hopes and dreams, their fears and challenges, and see how they evolve and react to a changing world, and to the actions you ultimately take as a player in our game.

We got a glimpse of Einar, the fishing mad golem – no, he can’t be romanced – and the innkeeper Shura who will help you settle into your new life. Like in Stardew Valley, gifting will be an important part of getting to know and wooing any potential Palia life partners. Some might like love poems, others will want you to hang out and share their hobbies. Gifting a particular flower to a romanceable character will start you on your path to love.

“Just like with real life, people, when you meet them, they reveal certain aspects of themselves. And as you increase that friendship, whether it is through doing quests for them, or gifting them items, they start revealing more about themselves,” says community lead Edaleen Cruz. “They also have a set of items that they like, they have items that they love, and then they have items that they absolutely dislike!”

The launch cast is “just the beginning” too, with new characters added as the game is updated and again, the studio promises to react to player feedback when it comes to romance and friendship options. 

Choices and charges

Throughout this first preview of Palia, Singularity 6 really wanted to highlight just how much choice players will have. Hate people? You can play solo. There is combat in the game, but it will be entirely optional and you won’t miss out on loot for skipping it. You’ll be able to make your home feel truly yours, at the time of launch there will be over 1000 items, each with its own customization options, available. Your character, meanwhile, can become a brilliant cook, or an elite gardener, or a hunter of big game or bugs.

Update: Singularity 6 has released a lengthy blog post (opens in new tab) to outline how Palia will launch as a free-to-play game. The studio is set to incorporate light microtransactions in as a result, which gets back to one of our original concerns. Thankfully, the studio is being transparent in its application of the F2P system, noting that Palia will monetize cosmetic items when it launches later this year but it won’t charge players for game-progressing items, and you won’t be able to purchase loot boxes either.

As outlined in that blog post, Palia is embracing free-to-play with a focus on respecting player’s time, choices, and trust. The entire thing is well worth a read on the link above.

It sounds like a willing compromise for such an inherently chilled out game. We look forward to learning more about Palia as it get closer towards release.

The post Why everybody is talking about Palia, the free-to-play community sim that looks like Valheim mixed with Animal Crossing appeared first on Game News.

Mass murderer

On one level it’s the story of a detective trying to save his ex-girlfriend from being murdered. On another, it’s about the birth of the universe, because the detective is actually time, his ex represents mass, and the murderer is energy. Still with me? If you’re not, it doesn’t really matter, because the game is still gorgeous. The world is represented entirely in shades of black, white, and gold, and the scenery shifts and changes as you wander through it, figuring out what you can interact with, and why you would want to. 

According to developer Feral Cat Den, the game is inspired by Italo Calvino’s 1965 short story collection Cosmicomics, but an understanding of the science of the creation of the universe won’t help you, and a lack of one won’t stop you from enjoying the experimental, dreamlike state induced by wandering through the game, listening to the jazz score rise and fall. In fact, at times the game felt more akin to a walking simulator than a point and click, a story I was just bumbling through and interpreting at my own pace. 

Flower power

Even when I was working through the puzzles, growing flowers by shifting the ground like radio frequencies, or applauding a giant saxophone solo, it always felt more like I was intuiting what the game wanted me to do, rather than following a logical pattern. There’s no dialogue or instructions or even any annoying, angry bleeps when you’re doing something wrong, so it all becomes a process of gentle trial and error until something clicks. You could be connecting a network of gold, white and black orbs to light up a constellation, or trimming tree branches, or planting seeds to suck up lines of white light blocking your path. 

It all sounds complicated, and it is on paper, but in practice, there’s a soothing, smooth progression that pulls you along, without ever leaving you so stuck you’re tempted to shut it all down and angrily google a solution. Each section is minimal, often with only one or two things you can interact with within a whole scene, so if you’re really struggling you can just go with the age-old method of waving the cursor around until the icon changes. 

Little game, big ideas

For all their bluster and bombast, it’s not often a big blockbuster game gets me pondering the big, energetic accident that resulted in the universe and me sitting at a desk in sweatpants clicking at a big glowing screen. What Feral Cat Den has managed to do with a few simple, beautifully created tools, and a powerful artistic vision is to be applauded, even if it all sounds too woo-woo for you to ever play it. Give it a try though, and you might surprise yourself. 

Genesis Noir is out now on PC, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One. 

The post Have you tried… investigating the birth of the universe in jazzy point-and-click detective game Genesis Noir? appeared first on Game News.

My hands-on with the game starts from the very beginning, as bounty hunter Samus Aran finds herself stranded somewhere beneath the surface of the planet ZDR. A troop of Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifier – or E.M.M.I. – robots were sent ahead but disappeared, and on her arrival, Samus finds that they’re hellbent on killing her. To add insult to injury, she’s attacked by a mysterious Chozo – advanced, powerful, rocking a distinctly ancient Egyptian style of armor – and when she wakes us is suffering a “physical amnesia”, game speak for losing all her power-ups like Morph Ball.  

A to ZDR

Then it’s straight into the action, working through the labyrinthine tunnels and chambers of ZDR, looking for a way to the surface. Navigating them is a manic mix of exploration, combat, and problem-solving, and an in-game minimap has never felt like such a blessing. You’ll retrace your steps even when you’re not looking for secret areas, but the acrobatic dance from platform to platform, wall jumping, sliding through small gaps – a new addition to Samus’s skillset – and blasting and parrying enemies makes every round trip a satisfying sci-fi sandwich. 

Even if you’re not usually one for hunting down hidden items or secret areas in your games – who has the time in this economy? – my time with Metroid Dread made me want to, just because experimenting with the environment was so rewarding. There’s a reason this series invented the Metroidvania genre, and Metroid Dread acts as a powerful reminder of why. Exploding walls to drain flooded areas, revealing new paths, was especially fulfilling and showed just how much exploration you can offer even within the confines of a 2D side scroller. There are even areas that you’ll need to upgrade your power suit to even set foot in, like icy cold caverns, but I didn’t manage to find any of these during my hands-on. 

Kill command

The moments that really impress this old horror fan are those when you’re in the territory of an E.M.M.I, and it’s chasing you across the map with alarming speed and intelligence. The game gives you a sweet taste of victory by having you encounter a damaged E.M.M.I. first, taking it out with an omega cannon before pulling the rug (and the cannon) out from under you and leaving you to face hearty and healthy E.M.M.I. enemies.

They’re sensitive to noise and deliver a one-hit kill that’s almost impossible to evade – I didn’t manage it even once – so fleeing in as dignified a manner as possible is your best course of action. There’s no way to stay cool when you’re scrambling to find a route to escape, knowing that one slip or mistimed jump means an almost inevitable death. Someone really wanted to make sure the game lived up to the Dread moniker, and they succeeded.

Sharp suits

Metroid Dread also manages to somehow walk the line with maintaining a certain retro flavor while also feeling completely up to date, and a large part of that is the visuals. It’s recognizably a Metroid game, but it all just looks so polished. Yes, we were playing on the latest and greatest Nintendo Switch device, but those neons and blacks and shiny suits will pop on any screen. 

After 19 years Metroid fans would have been happy with whatever the next side-scrolling Samus adventure delivered, but the challenge was always going to be attracting new players to the series. With killer looks that make the OLED screen update feel like an essential rather than an upgrade, and an even slicker selection of abilities, Metroid Dread marks a new era for the iconic Samus Aran. It’s been a while since I dusted off the power suit, but Metroid Dread got me ready to hop back onto the Metroidvania hype train. The game will be released alongside the new Nintendo Switch OLED on October 8. 

Here are the best Switch games you should be playing while you wait for Metroid Dread, from Super Mario Odyssey to Minecraft.

The post Metroid Dread makes power suits sexy and robots terrifying again appeared first on Game News.

All of that was on show in the Stalingrad demo. It’s a stunning nine minutes of footage, working to showcase what can happen when Call of Duty is given an extra year of development. I personally thought that last year’s Black Ops Cold War looked a little washed out, but Vanguard appears to have picked up right where Infinity Ward and Modern Warfare left off. The visual and audio fidelity is out of control; the lighting, environmental and particle effects help to immediately create a foreboding sense of atmosphere. As for the ever-impressive soundscape, well, it’s no surprise that Vanguard’s creative director used to hold the position of senior audio director at Sledgehammer. 

In fact, it looks and sounds so good that it’s almost easy to miss the new (and some returning Modern Warfare) features, like the light platforming mechanics to help Lt. Polina Petrova reposition herself during combat, the ability to mount and blind fire weapons, the detailed handling and reload animations, and greater points of interaction with the crumbling environment. But here’s the thing: Sledgehammer knows how to make great looking and sounding games. By looking at Vanguard from the perspective of 2017’s WW2, it’s clear that there are far greater issues the studio needs to address to make its second shot at the Second World War a journey worth taking on November 5, 2021.

From Verdansk to the Western Front

The Battle of Verdansk wasn’t the greatest live event in Call of Duty: Warzone history, but it did inspire me to return to one of the more divisive entries in the series. It was that agonizing battle against a German armored train, equipped with rows of anti-tank ordinance and compartments concealing ranks of soldiers, that did it, reminding me of one of the better missions in Call of Duty: WW2.

S.O.E. sees the 1st Division team up with members of the British Special Operations Executive to intercept an armored train carrying V2 Rockets just outside of Argentan. Things go wrong, then the bullets start flying, and then things start to go really right. The mission is as explosive as it is shallow; loud, brash, and decently paced, which is perhaps the best way to describe Call of Duty’s return to World War 2 after it spent nine years exploring the frontiers of modern, advanced, and then infinite warfare. 

It’s a solid entry to the series let down by a lot of competing objectives. Call of Duty: WW2 fails to reflect the scale of the conflict happening around you, but manages to keep you busy enough that you very rarely notice. The return of health packs after a decade of regenerating HP, and the introduction of squad abilities to help keep your consumables stocked, were interesting concepts that were poorly executed. It’s telling that our first look at the Call of Duty: Vanguard campaign confirmed that automatic health regeneration is returning, the UI has been heavily scaled back, and that the confined, claustrophobic combat spaces of a Stalingrad under siege were used to highlight an intimacy to its engagements. 

Where those engagements will take place in Call of Duty: Vanguard clearly demonstrates that Sledgehammer has learned from its last entry too. The decision to focus the Call of Duty: WW2 campaign on one squad, around some of the most widely known conflicts of the Second World War – D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, Hill 493, and I’m sure you can guess the rest – made sense conceptually, but the resulting experience felt as if it were treading old ground. By the time the WW2 campaign reached its end, it felt like I’d sat through a highlight reel of Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault rendered out in 1080p. 

Vanguard is set to span four theaters of war and four playable characters, each with their own unique abilities, motivations, and identities based in reality: Sergeant Arthur Kingsley, British Army’s 9th Parachute Battalion; Captain Wade Jackson, of the US Navy’s Scouting Squadron Six; Second Lieutenant Lucas Riggs, of the Australia Military Forces’ 20th Battalion; and, of course, Lt. Polina Petrova, of the Red Army’s 138th Rifle Division. The decision to take a contemporary lens on history, and to explore less visible elements of the Second World War, will certainly help breathe new life into Call of Duty’s renewed focus on World War 2.  

Vanguard takes form

Read more

For more details on the upcoming instalment to the series, get your eyes on our Call of Duty: Vanguard preview. 

The truth is, the video game industry has largely moved on from World War 2. There was a point in time where the replication of scenes from Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, and Enemy at the Gates highlighted the strides studios were making with visual fidelity and immersion. With WW2, Call of Duty got caught trying to pass old tricks off as new; it trapped itself in the gulf between fun and realism, and never found a way to free itself. While there is, admittedly, a small part of me that would like to see what this team, working with this engine and experience, could do with something like the assault of Point du Hoc on this new generation of consoles, it’s unnecessary. 

Sledgehammer needs to take a modern perspective on the Second World War, and it needs to reflect how far the industry has come – games don’t look, sound, play, or tell stories like they did when Call of Duty 2 defined a new generation of shooters in 2005. The success or failure of Call of Duty: Vanguard will likely depend on how aware Sledgehammer is of this, and how it presents and paces the action through a darker and more claustrophobic examination of World War 2. If this first look at Vanguard is any indication, I’d say Sledgehammer has learned all the right lessons from its last trip to the Western Front.

Call of Duty: Vanguard is set to launch on November 5, 2021. It’s being developed by Sledgehammer Games and is set to launch on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Publisher Activision is being investigated by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and you can read more about the  Activision Blizzard lawsuit here. 

The post Call of Duty: Vanguard looks like it has learned the right lessons from Call of Duty: WW2 appeared first on Game News.

Wildermyth is a game about stories. Set within the pages of an unfinished tome of epic tales, the final chapters are yours to complete via a collection of would-be heroes, all of whom want to do something worthy of immortalizing. When an army of monsters finds its way into your village, or sentient machines begin staking a claim to the land, every character seems to acknowledge that a call to adventure of this kind of magnitude doesn’t come along very often. From those humblest of beginnings stems a perfect format, as your band of adventurers sets out knowing exactly what’s required of them to make those stories come to life.

But within the major narratives – those you might expect to hear a bard sing of in some ancient tavern – are dozens of other stories. Away from the fight, your characters have their own lives to lead. They grow old, fall in love, mourn old friends, lose beloved keepsakes, or just tell each other stories; each time Wildermyth turns a page, there’s another outpouring of personality from both its surprisingly naturalistic dialogue and its charming character art. As you play, you might think that some of those stories belong to you – those of your perfectly crafted strategic approach or desperate, last-ditch critical strikes that save your entire campaign – but your characters lay claim to those moments as well, dramatizing their most daring escapades to win over new recruits. 

When it comes to those grand deeds, the storybook elements do take a back seat, as conflict is resolved through relatively traditional turn-based combat, a playful papercraft art style never letting you forget the importance of narrative. The three classes available at the beginning of each campaign mean early battles are a simple affair; nimble hunters fire arrows at distant foes, while beefier warriors mop up damage in close combat. Most interesting is the magic-wielding mystic class, whose power resides in the ability to ‘interfuse’ with objects in the world. Fuse with a tree, for instance, and you can cause it to explode, showering an area in splintering shards of wood. That same tree, however, can also conjure roots and vines to grab an enemy and pin them in place. Over time, a mystic might learn more about specific elements, specializing in destructive fire magic or learning to wield stone or metal with deadly force.

Those branching combative possibilities might initially be most apparent in Wildermyth’s magic users, but as a campaign progresses, every character will get their own chance to shine. For some, the process is gradual, with new abilities learned with each new level. For others, it’s more drastic. As your party travels the world, they might stumble upon forgotten altars or solitary forest guardians. In one campaign, my hunter gained an explosive fire attack that works fantastically with my mystics, but in another, one of my warriors announced they’d eventually be leaving my party to become one with nature or something similarly wholesome. Narratively, it was a perfectly delivered, heart-in-mouth moment – as a towering, faceless, lord of the forest crouched over one of my party’s most important members, I was terrified that I was about to see him crushed to death by a power beyond any of our understandings.

These events can provide a serious boon when it comes to etching your name in the annals of eternity, but they’re also what truly shapes Wildermyth’s most successful role-playing elements. In my experience of tabletop games, it’s rarely the climactic fight with the big bad that shapes a player’s idea of their character. Instead, it’s any number of tiny interactions spread throughout a campaign that might last years, both in fiction and in real life. Wildermyth captures all of those – from the most throwaway remarks to the most reality-bending alteration of the self – just as effectively as any great tabletop-inspired CRPG, creating a party of characters that feel like they belong to you, but that change and grow organically, somehow seeming to own their own stories even while you play out the game on their behalf. It’s a truly special bit of design and one that puts my own Dungeon Mastering skills to shame.

Wildermyth is out now on PC. Looking for some more hidden gems? Check out our list of new indie games 2021.

The post Have you tried…running your own personal D&D campaign in Wildermyth? appeared first on Game News.

“For me, the starting point was this archetype of the private eye, the hard-boiled cop,” says Lake, whose portrait need never be printed so long as Max, for reasons you either know already or will soon learn, appears in a screenshot. “The team wanted images and ideas seen in countless action and crime movies, even in pop culture generally. Just something that hadn’t been seen much in games.” 

“John Woo had this action where all this trash was flying in the air – we just wanted that style,” says programming lead Olli Tervo. “Lots of things had to be happening.” “One of the first things we did technologically was the particle system,” adds Sami Vanhatalo, the game’s lead technical artist. “And once you started seeing the particle effects with this huge slowdown it was like: ‘God, something good must come of this.'” 

Lake, however, was concerned more with the bad – the creeping, contagious bad of a modern film noir. He wanted a “deeper, more psychological” story than existed in action games of the time, something preoccupied with both outer and inner turmoil, the city as well as its people. Much of what sets Max Payne apart today is the quite alien, Scandinavian air that rips through its New York streets, rapping on its windows as an impenetrable blizzard devours the skyline. Ragnarok, the Norse vision of the end of the world, was as natural an association, suggests Lake, as any squalid crack den or alleyway. 

Subscribe to Edge

This making of Max Payne feature was first printed in Edge #195, 2008. You can purchase new issues of Edge at Magazines Direct (opens in new tab) or find information on Edge #361 here.

“Max’s journey is a revenge story about a man who’s been pushed so far into a mad, impossible situation that normal, everyday life has lost its meaning. It’s disappeared. So you couldn’t describe what was happening in that context – or at least Max couldn’t. All that’s left are archetypes and metaphors, monsters and demons. It becomes a myth. So it felt like the right thing to do to bring all those references to it.” Plus, as we remind Lake, no small degree of comedy – not something you’d automatically find in discarded needles, dead babies, and baseball bats. “We didn’t want to avoid that over-the-top feel because the player is going to create comical situations in any case, always. Humour is a natural part of playing games and, as a writer, you’re always trying to match the gameplay experience. If you’re too serious about it, that simply doesn’t happen.” 

Development of Max Payne spanned several years, with ’96 and ’97 seeing the leap from Quake 2-era 3D accelerators to cards capable of, as Remedy would discover, near-photographic realism. Until technology intervened, the game was a more cartoony affair drawn entirely by hand. “But if we wanted to set the game in, say, some sleazy motel in New York, we needed some kind of reference,” says Vanhatalo. “We’d already sent the art guys to some really nasty neighbourhoods with a couple of bodyguards, and then we realised that we had all these photos. Why not use them as the basis for our textures? There were a lot of art tricks you had to do to get those textures to work: getting all the unnecessary light information out, for example. But once we’d decorated part of the game, everyone was like: ‘Wow. This is what we’ve been trying to make.'” 

Well, not quite everyone. To some, explains studio co-founder and development director Markus Mäki, the arrival of real-world textures felt less like the start of something than the end. “To them, you weren’t an artist any more if you did something like that. But if you’re basing things on the real world, it’s just the sensible thing to do.” Were there ever fears that it wouldn’t work? “I don’t think that was an option.”

Turning a page

Lake had already pitched the idea of using graphic novel panels for the game’s cutscenes, casting himself in several ‘heavily Photoshopped’ examples. But the advantages, says Mäki, already spoke for themselves: “With a graphic novel, the nuances are there in the head of the reader, and it would be much harder to reach that level with in-game or even prerendered cinematics. Now you can do that stuff believably; back then it was a different ballgame. And there was the other reason: production. 

“We did a lot of streamlining and reorganisation of the story anyway – but once you had the graphic novels you could cut them up, put them on walls, follow the whole game and say: ‘You know, that should really be there’. And in 30 seconds you’d made a dramatic plot change. Even if it meant redoing some of the imagery, you were talking a day or two instead of a week of doing cinematics.” 

Fans and critics know only too well, of course, the side-effect of Lake’s proposal: a fourth-wall shattering twist worthy of Stephen King, which saw the writer awake one morning to find he’d become his character. “We were still talking about this rise of photorealism and at the time it didn’t feel like a big deal,” he admits of having his own face wrapped around Max’s polygonal chunk of a head. “With all these hand-painted pictures, no one would have recognised me anyway. Fast-forward a couple of years to the end of the project, though, when we’re using photographs for all the textures in the game, and there I was. At that point, the idea might have given me pause.” 

He insists it was fun, however, with his expanding role including casting many of his friends and relatives as the game’s crooked line-up of cops, executives, politicians and thugs. “And if you look at us, we’re not exactly Italian mobsters,” admits Vanhatalo. “So we were like: ‘Quick! Check out the guy delivering the pizzas. Get him over here for a while’.” The game’s credits, we’re told, are a cornucopia of cousins, fathers and girlfriends, with the occasional industry figure tossed in. One is now CTO at AMD. 

Is Lake recognised in the street? “At trade shows like E3, mostly, where I’d been doing countless demos of Max Payne or Alan Wake. There was this one time a couple of years ago when I was walking home from the office in Espoo; it’s a nice neighbourhood, but the street was totally deserted apart from me and this car. It slows down and I see these four guys peering out of the window. Then it turns round, passes me again and stops in front of me. Two climb out and shout at me to stop, and by this time I’m nervous enough already. Then they proceed to ask me if I’m Max Payne; they want my autograph. It happens rarely, luckily enough. Finns are reserved people. We rarely talk to strangers. 

“The whole thing did end up being quite a lot of work, though. That was one of the reasons I didn’t want to do it for the sequel, because the schedule was much tighter and there was much more story. The screenplay of the first game was something like 150-160 pages – for the sequel it ended up being 600. It didn’t make any sense to waste a month or more of precious writing time for those photo shoots again. First time around, we didn’t have a choice.”

A logical progression at a glance, with better physics, acting talent, and the obligatory combo moves, Max Payne 2 was an altogether different proposition for its creator. Take-Two’s purchase of publisher The Gathering had muddied any prior relationship with Rockstar Games, whose interest had nonetheless produced valiant, difficult ports of the first Max Payne for consoles. Now, the obstructions were gone. 

“They’re a very eccentric company that works in strange ways,” says Vanhatalo. “But surprisingly compatible. I don’t recall a single instance where someone was trying to steer us into doing this when we really wanted to do that. We were on the same page the whole time.” 

“I do remember some Stranglehold-esque proposals from one of the Rockstar producers, for Mexican stand-offs, stuff like that. But the time really wasn’t right,” adds Mäki. “But we both wanted to go higher on the production values and be more ambitious with the story. They’re straightforward and honest guys: they expect a lot but deliver a lot when you need them. After five years of working with them, I don’t think anyone has anything bad to say.”

The Fall of Max Payne

While Remedy set about introducing its high-flying particles to early Havok physics, Lake was left to wrestle with the more obvious dilemma: now what? What next for the cop who had destroyed the world of his enemies – just as they’d destroyed his – only to find himself stood atop the rubble? In the darkly titled The Fall Of Max Payne, we learned the answer: if life couldn’t get any worse for Max, it could certainly get more complicated. Did the introduction of Mona Sax, the femme fatale in a grander, murkier and more open sequel, pose problems for a story that was, at its best, about the isolation and disintegration of just one man? 

“I did worry, and I did struggle,” Lake admits. “The main reason was Max’s narration, his internal monologue. That was a very important tool to tell the story, maybe the most important one. Through it, we get to know what Max thinks and feels. He’s not an empty vessel. I did want to switch to Mona [she later became a playable character] – in fact, had there been more time, it would have been nice to add levels where you play as Vinnie, Vlad and Bravura – but it was problematic. In the end, Max frames those sequences with his narration, saying that he doesn’t know exactly what happened, or what Mona did, but it must have been something like this. In other words, when you are playing Mona, you are actually experiencing Max’s guess of the events.” 

Boasting an understandably superior lead performance from Timothy Gibbs, a professional actor, the game reviewed well, ported admirably to PS2 and Xbox, and has since helped the series achieve sales of over seven million copies. But not everyone allowed the drama and spectacle to excuse the unwavering action epitomised by Max’s slow-motion leaps. EDGE magazine, notably, scored the first game six out of ten. 

“We’re firm believers in focusing on something,” insists Mäki. “I’m not sure you could do it quite so focused nowadays, as people’s expectations have grown, but it was deliberate. Deliver an experience and deliver it well.” 

“And we’ve always been very aggressive when cutting stuff out of a game,” says Vanhatalo. “We’ve never been fans of having to backtrack through the level to get the red keycard, for example. That whole 30 seconds thing [a reference to Halo’s self-professed recycling of action moments] is often called the core loop – and that was our core loop. A good recent example would be something like Call Of Duty 4: you pretty much do the same thing but with a different gun in a different place, but it nails the core loop so perfectly that you never tire of it.” 

20 years on from the release of Max Payne, its impact is still reverberating throughout the videogame industry. Its influence can still be seen driving Remedy Entertainment too, with the company injecting its propensity for kinetic combat systems, smartly-crafted storytelling, and photorealistic visual design into everything it has done since: Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Control. But perhaps most importantly, Remedy has continued to create what Lake calls “strong leads”, making games that don’t just point its camera at a character, but look at them directly, creating more than just a player-inhabited shell. 20 years later, that’s perhaps the most important legacy that Max Payne left behind.

The post Max Payne turns 20: Remedy Entertainment looks back on the making of its iconic action game appeared first on Game News.

Compare the Nintendo Switch OLED to other mid-generation refreshes like the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X and you’ll see an obvious lack in actual upgrades. Nintendo has invested in hardware refreshes for its own systems in the past, although the New Nintendo 3DS was undoubtedly a larger leap over the 3DS than what we’re seeing here between the Switch and Switch OLED. Perhaps it’s no surprise that some are disappointed with the announcement, then – and that’s before we even get into the rumored features that never became a reality. 

Expectation vs Reality 

The Nintendo Switch OLED will release on October 8 for $349/£309. Expect stock to go fast, so if the new model entices you,  get your Nintendo Switch OLED pre-order sorted. 

Nintendo never confirmed nor denied the existence or development of a Nintendo Switch Pro, but that didn’t stop the steady circulation of rumors. In early 2019, the Wall Street Journal (opens in new tab) reported that two new Nintendo Switch models were on their way: a “cheaper option for casual gamers” (which ended up being the Switch Lite), and a more powerful, full-HD Switch model for the hardcore Nintendo fans.

Then, in August 2020, Bloomberg (opens in new tab) reported on a rumor that Nintendo was working on a 4K HD Switch with more computing power. The general consensus was that the Nintendo Switch Pro would come equipped with an upgraded dock that would allow for 4K gaming on your TV, increased battery life for the console in handheld mode, and a larger full 1080p display. Then, just a few months ago, Bloo (opens in new tab)mberg reported that we would see a 4K Nintendo Switch with a 7-inch OLED screen sometime before the year was up. Well, the reports were partially true – we are getting a larger, 7-inch OLED screen – but that’s about it.

You can’t blame Nintendo for the Switch OLED not living up to the expectations generated by the rumor mill, but that doesn’t absolve the company entirely. It’s been little over four years since the Switch made its debut and the need for a number of quality-of-life improvements to the system has only grown in that time. Players have spent years asking for better Joy-Cons that won’t suffer the dreaded drift (which is still something many encounter to this day). An upgraded processor and increased RAM would have helped boost the speed of the Switch, and improve stability in the games that are beginning to stress the system. A longer battery life would have made handheld play more viable, particularly as more demanding games make a quick snack out of the current model. 

These are the types of problems that hardware refreshes are designed to solve. Why Nintendo opted for minimal revisions to the Switch OLED remains to be seen, but it does likely mean that we’ll be waiting out the console’s cycle to see what The Legend of Zelda’s Hyrule looks like in 4K. Recently, Nintendo president Doug Bowser stated that the Nintendo Switch was “redefining what a console life cycle can look like, and the vibrancy of that overall life cycle with a strong cadence of content.” The Nintendo Switch OLED seems to be an attempt at a mid-cycle console update, but it’s a weird one when you compare it to similar moves by PlayStation and Microsoft – and even Nintendo’s hardware from over a decade ago. 

Mid-cycle Minutiae 

intendo Switch sits straddled between two different Sony and Microsoft console cycles: the Xbox One into Xbox Series X and the PS4 into PS5. With the mid-cycle console refresh precedent set by other industry titans (and Nintendo itself) it’s difficult to avoid direct comparisons between the Nintendo Switch OLED and previous mid-cycle updates of both Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Those comparisons only make the Switch OLED look worse, unfortunately.

The Xbox One X debuted in November 2017 and retailed for $499, the same price as the original Xbox One. The mid-cycle console doubles the storage from 500GB to 1TB, increases the processing power and RAM, and offers 4K HDR gaming. The PS4 Pro was released in November 2016 and cost $399, the same price as the original PS4. PlayStation’s version of the mid-cycle console is very similar to its competitor: it doubles the storage, increases the processing power, and provides the highly sought after 4K gaming experience.

Compare that to the Nintendo Switch OLED, which doubles the internal storage from 32GB to 64GB and offers a larger screen. The processing power remains exactly the same as the original Switch, so don’t expect games to run any faster on the OLED, and there’s no increase to battery life. And most confusingly, the Nintendo Switch OLED has 720p resolution in handheld and 1080p when docked – which is the exact same as the original Nintendo Switch. With the adoption rates of 4K televisions only rising, the lack of support for improved resolutions feels like a missed opportunity to future-proof the console – particularly as so many third-party publishers are prioritising higher fidelity experiences for PC and other home consoles. 

The Switch OLED seems weirder when you look at Nintendo’s hardware history: the Nintendo DS was released for $149 in 2005, then a year and a half later came the DS Lite for a bit cheaper. The DS Lite was slimmer and more lightweight, with a longer battery life and adjustable brightness settings. Then came the Nintendo DSi and DSi XL, which offered an even bigger screen for just $40 more (and internet connection). Almost every new iteration of the DS made sense, offering changes that warranted purchasing a new console. The Nintendo 3DS console generation followed a similar trajectory, with its console revisions offering noticeable improvements like bigger screens, better processing power, and a new suite of buttons, thumbsticks, and triggers. Compare the two previous generations to the Nintendo Switch OLED and it’s no wonder many of us are feeling underwhelmed. 

While the rampant rumor hype can be blamed in part for the disappointment that comes with a lack of 4K gaming, the rumors aren’t the reason why the Nintendo Switch OLED feels like a strange console. Four years after the release of the Switch, Nintendo is just giving us a console with a slightly larger screen in a different colorway – and that doesn’t feel like enough in today’s hyper-competitive console race.  

An analyst claims a Nintendo Switch 4K model may still be in the works. 

The post Nintendo Switch OLED has some decent upgrades, but lacks the bigger picture in a next-gen world appeared first on Game News.

If that’s a bold claim to make for the pre-alpha demo we went hands on with, that’s because it already feels like OlliOlli World has nailed the “flow state” that it wants to achieve, managing to generate challenge without ever tipping into pad-snapping frustration. That comes from one of the game’s major tweaks, where if you land without pressing X, you’ll no longer bail and end your run. If there’s any worry that might reduce the complexity or rush from conquering a level, then some of the optional challenges squirreled away in levels – such as trying to avoid a gaggle of blue frogs who sit awkwardly at the bottom hills where you want to land – promise to be hard as any personal Everest you’ve conquered in this series.  

All of these feelings come into sharp relief towards the end of the levels that are available in my demo called Branch Heights. The warm russet tree that I’m skating down is filled with new additions and opportunities to try out advanced tricks. From quarter-pipes that change the direction I skate in and give me enough air to try out the new grabs, to billboards that keep combos going by wallriding across them, it’s a medley of all the new systems that create a focused rush of adrenaline as you slip into the ‘zone’, that sense of the outside world blurring into the background as your focus becomes total. But more importantly, it’s because OlliOlli World feels like it wants you to enjoy the game, rather than best it.

Working 9-to-grind

This significant change is something creative director John Ribbins highlights when I ask him about the game’s more welcoming tone. “We did a bit of soul searching when we came back to the series. I think one of the key things that we wanted to change was… in the earlier games, if you did something wrong, we punished you, basically. Whereas this time around, if you do something wrong, maybe we don’t punish you. Maybe we’ll reward you for doing the right thing. So you’re not just going to fall on your face the whole time.”

That reward comes in the form of finding that rhythm and flow through levels, one that has been sharpened thanks to the game’s myriad new additions. Top of the list is the ability to switch lanes, which creates denser levels with more depth – both in the literal and figurative sense. Early on, we play a level in Sunshine Valley where skidding into a different lane gives us a chance to meet Sloshtar, the fortune telling fish. He sets us an objective on a different level before we carry on skating, but it’s an early sign that Roll7 will use these different paths to not only offer differing objects and obstacles to tackle, but ways of broadening how you interact with its world. 

For such a fundamental shift in how OlliOlli has usually played, Co-CEO of Roll7 Simon Bennett explains how it initially came from an idea for a different game: “We were in very sort of early stages on the project, and prototyping a number of different parts of the game. John [Ribbins] had always had this other idea – it was this wacky idea, and I think it was maybe even going to be a mobile thing. It was like: it would be cool if there was a game that basically replicated the way that competition street skating actually works; the tour that runs worldwide and has for years, it runs on exactly the same format. What if you had a game that has OlliOlli-style lines, but then you can switch lanes, and kind of come back on yourself?”

The team went away and started prototyping, with the idea of turning OlliOlli on its head. By allowing you to switch lanes, to skate from right-to-left, the studio would be able to lose the linearity the series had been known for and expand the scope of play. As Simon continues: “We’d already decided that the game was going to be called OlliOlli World, but it was at that point that the word “world” actually had real meaning. Building the characters, building the art and everything, that in itself is a world. But making it actually feel more 3D and giving you more choice for exploration within the world, it’s this key pillar to the title. I think that, for me, that was the bigger shift.”

Decked Out

The visual design of OlliOlli World is also a striking departure of what’s come before. If previous games were 2D, the move to 3D has also brought along an effervescent new art style that feeds into the game’s aim to embrace all types of players. As Simon describes it: “If Pixar made a film about skateboarding, where the entire world was inhabited by people on skateboards that just live and go about their daily business as skaters, that’s the world that OlliOlli World is. That’s what we kind of wanted to build.”

That’s not hyperbole either. In motion, levels are humming with background detail, from the sanguine wave of an octopus’s tentacles in Sunshine Valley to the frequent flutter of giant bees in the forests of Cloverbrook. These are environments you want to manuel right into, a world that is throwing its arms open and inviting you in.

This tone also comes from the cast of characters you’ll be skating through Radlandia with, a diverse bunch who offer you challenges as well as encouragement throughout levels. There’s Dad – not your in-game Dad, just what people call him – who is clad in protective gear and always on hand with some kind words. Joining him is Gnarly Mike, who loves to set you optional challenges, the pithy Suze who always has a camera in hand, and Chiff, the Skate Wizard who is on hand to save your checkpoints through levels (another break from OlliOlli tradition that helps ease in newcomers). 

Roll7 wants to reflect how skateboarding is an inclusive and welcoming sport and show a side of the culture that sometimes isn’t highlighted in other more realistic takes on skating, and that’s why this crew are a friendly bunch. As Co-CEO Thomas Hegarty explains: “That links back to the idea of the part of skateboarding that OlliOlli World is trying to get across. So it’s more about hanging out with your friends. It’s more about trying things out. The crew are kind of there in a supportive way. Having said that, they’ve been through several iterations. At one point, Suze was very cutting and dark, [but] it didn’t quite work. It feels much nicer now that they are more warm and welcoming, and they encourage you as you go on your journey.” 

OlliOlliOlli, oi oi oi

That vibe can also be seen in OlliOlli’s calling card the, as Thomas describes it, “swazzy music” that has set the tone for the series. While skating games are usually associated with punk, rock, and hip-hop, OlliOlli’s soundscape has always been calmer, an electro-chill that you might not necessarily have expected. The reason though, as Simon and John explain to me, is that when developing the first OlliOlli, they did initially plan for a heavy, loud soundtrack, but as Simon says: “Playing a game, especially with OlliOlli 1, that wasn’t actually hugely welcoming – when you layered over the top of that someone screaming at you in French or people just playing really heavy, heavy music, those things weren’t congruous with one another.”

When the team found out that people were playing the game listening to the ‘swazzy’ music that has come to define the series, they decided to make that an official part of the game, which has continued into OlliOlli World. As Thomas explains: “Hopefully when you sit down, and the first track comes on, you want people to relax. Shoulders untense. You get into that zone. And it really does kind of get you into the flow, and it gets you into that Zenlike mode. It really does help. We actually did some music testing recently, and there was one guy who they asked to commentate his whole music testing. One of the first things he said was, “This music is great. It’s really got me into the zone.” I was like, ‘Yes, that’s exactly what we’re trying to do.'” 

All these elements are coming together to create the most absorbing OlliOlli yet. If the game is about getting into that flow state, every tweak has worked in its favor, creating a melody of platforming action that celebrates the skating culture in a way that we rarely, if at all, see in games. The sensation of coasting through these breezy worlds, taking in the immaculate art that already feels perfectly suited to the series, and finding the groove through the lines you discover is exactly the sort of treat we deserve after the past year. OlliOlli might not demand perfection in the way it once did, but you’ll still want to strive for it. 

OlliOlli World is due out this Winter on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Nintendo Switch. 

The post OlliOlli World is the fluorescent action platformer we all need right now appeared first on Game News.

We’ve gone through the new Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 trailer, frame by frame, to discover what we can from our latest look at the upcoming Nintendo Switch exclusive. We’ve tried to pick out as much as we can in this Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 gameplay trailer breakdown but, if you reckon we’ve missed something, let us know in the comments below! Otherwise, stay tuned to our E3 2021 guide for all the details on the latest announcements and reveals from this week.

You’ll be exploring the skies above Hyrule

When The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 was announced in 2019, director Eiji Aonuma said that the reason Nintendo was making a continuation, rather than introducing a brand new subtitle to the series, was because he “wanted to revisit that Hyrule again and use that world again” as the backdrop for new gameplay and stories. We got our first look at that in the new Breath of the Wild 2 gameplay reveal. Hyrule itself looks incredibly familiar until, that is, Link gets a little air. There’s a whole new world to explore above the clouds, floating islands that you’ll likely be navigating as you attempt to gear up before an inevitable showdown with what appears to be a mummified (and energized) calamity Ganon. 

Oh, and at least we know why Nintendo has been pushing the The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD for Switch so hard this year…

There may be two sequel time periods

The Legend of Zelda has a history of messing around with timelines and dark mirror worlds, so it’s no surprise to see Breath of the Wild 2 doing the same. If you pay close attention to the new trailer, it’s clear that we’re seeing Link from two different points in time. In the first, we see our intrepid explorer running around Hyrule with his feet on the ground, all while wearing his iconic BotW clothing and ponytail. In the second, Link is sporting a more breathable ensemble and has shaggier hair – although, to be fair, it’s hard to keep hold of a hair-tie while flying through the air. Expect the fallout of Breath of the Wild’s ending, and the opening hours of Breath of the Wild 2, to have some impact on the state of play for Link, Zelda, and whatever remains of Hyrule. 

There are great heights and free-falling 

In Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link gets to soar through the skies with a nifty paraglider. While we do see this make a comeback in the upcoming sequel, we also see our hero free-falling through the sky. Why or how you’re able to do this remains to be seen, but perhaps there’s a new way to travel around the open-world. Even when Link does appear to use a paraglider, it looks to be from great heights. As the gameplay teaser confirmed, the upcoming adventure has been expanded to include the skies above Hyrule. 

Link’s glider has an upgrade

Check out those two talon-like objects protruding from Link’s glider, which very much weren’t a part of the equipment during the events of the first game. This alteration surely can’t be cosmetic alone, suggesting one of our favourite forms of transportation in Breath of the Wild is about to get an upgrade. Could they increase our glide distance and speed? Or offer something else completely unexpected? I can already hear the Zelda speedrunners going mad at the very prospect of it. 

Link can seemingly teleport through rocks now 

There’s definitely some kind of new power you’ll be able to play around with in the world of Breath of the Wild 2. During the gameplay teaser, we see Link shoot up through a rock via some kind of watery portal, and as if he’s being propelled by his arm. Interestingly, just before this happens, the water seems to go in reverse – the whole thing looks very much like the odd watery way in which Link received updates to his Sheikah slate in the original game, just set in reverse. With the adventure taking us up to the clouds, this new mechanic will no doubt help us reach the sky islands above Hyrule. It’s definitely one of the most intriguing elements of the gameplay that was shown.

The sequel introduces new powers

In the Breath of the Wild 2 gameplay, it’s clear that something is going on with Link’s right arm (that’s his sword-swinging arm in Breath of the Wild). We see corruption wrap around it in the opening beats of the trailer and then, later, it appears that the hero is able to wield the powers of the Sheikah Slate just by pointing his palm out at enemies – he’s using Statis, and there’s no Slate in sight. This will likely have massive implications for Link and how the action unfurls around him throughout the game. We also appear to see his arm bandaged in Sheikah technology, and offer a telling green glow – expect that to be an reoccurring sight as Link finds, unlocks, and upgrades new abilities throughout the adventure. 

Old enemies are teaming up

As if Link’s adventures through Hyrule weren’t troublesome enough, his roster of enemies are now teaming up against him! It appears as though Bokoblins have figured out how to ride, and develop camps atop of the Stone Talus giants that presented mini boss fights during the original game. Link will likely have to take out the Bokoblins shooting at him from the Talus before taking out the giant itself, but we can already imagine having some fun tinkering around with the game’s emergent physics systems to turn this Bokoblin-Talus hybrid against itself.  

We’ll be fighting with fire

As well as implying the prospect of more classic, longform dungeons, the shot of Link fighting an enemy underground also shows him wielding some form of flame shield in combat. This could be a new weapon, Hyrule’s answer to the flamethrower, or it could actually be a new Sheikah Slate ability entirely – it’s hard to distinguish the arm from the power amidst the action of the scene itself to definitively confirm anything at this point. Either way, anyone who’s played around with fire in Breath of the Wild will know the kind of havoc this can cause across the landscape – this new ability will only amplify the carnage. 

There’s a new release date! 

The first glimpse of the upcoming sequel initially came back in 2019. At the time, it only revealed the game was in development, and there was plenty of speculation surrounding when we could expect to see it launch. This latest gameplay teaser closed by officially revealing that Nintendo are aiming to release Breath of the Wild 2 sometime in 2022. While we still don’t have an exact date just yet, it at least confirms a timeframe after many rumors pointed to an expected release this year. 

The post Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 gameplay breakdown: 9 details we spotted in the BOTW 2 E3 2021 trailer appeared first on Game News.