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- Contest: Win an Xbox One Assassin's Creed Unity bundle!
- Sportsfriends hits Steam on Friday, but Johann Sebastian Joust isn't playable in Windows
- It's almost 2015, and I just beat my first Metal Gear Solid
- GOTY 2014: Best musical
- The latest Assassin's Creed Unity patch is a meager, tiny 40GB on Xbox One
- Nominees for Destructoid's Best Multiplayer Design of 2014
- Life is Strange releases its pent up teenage angst next month
- GOTY 2014: Best willful misspelling in a title
- Hollow Knight has about a day left to hit some stretch goals
- A game like X-Files and True Detective? Just don't go Normcore
- MechWarrior Online's Community Warfare has taught me what it feels like to be the frustrated parent
- Dragon Age: Inquisition gets a multiplayer update, it has wolves in it
- Go grab SSX for free on Xbox Live if you're a gold member
- Disgaea 5 will come to North America and Europe in 2015
- Destiny patch ups base stats of Crota raid gear, adds a mission back
- Well I'll be sucked, Tak Fujii has left Konami
| Contest: Win an Xbox One Assassin's Creed Unity bundle! Posted: 17 Dec 2014 01:00 PM PST [Update: Last chance to enter!] Our friends at Microsoft have bestowed upon us an Xbox One Assassin's Creed Unity bundle to give away to one lucky Dtoider! Included in the bundle is a standard Xbox One console and Kinect sensor, a standard Xbox One wireless controller, a standard Xbox One chat headset, a one month Xbox Live Gold membership, a digital download code for Assassin's Creed Unity, and a digital download code for Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag. (Click here for full details.) Sweet! To enter to win, just leave a comment in this thread! Limit one entry per person, and the contest is open to anyone in the world. The winner will be chosen at random on Thursday, December 18 at noon Pacific time; just in time for a Christmas delivery! Good luck! And remember, our Huge members get automatic entry into all contests (and double entries if you enter one manually), exclusive beta code giveaways for upcoming games, ad-free browsing, and more! And most of all, your $3 a month helps directly support the site you love. Try us out! |
| Sportsfriends hits Steam on Friday, but Johann Sebastian Joust isn't playable in Windows Posted: 17 Dec 2014 10:00 AM PST I was under the assumption that Sportsfriends was on Steam already and had been for a long time, but it's not -- hardware issues have slowed the Windows/Mac/Linux release until now. The four-in-one local multiplayer game hits Steam and the Humble Store this Friday, with a catch: Windows players will miss out on one of the titles, Johann Sebastian Joust. What gives? "[W]e've been working tirelessly on hardware-related issues, especially as it relates to getting PlayStation Move controllers working on home computers," says Die Gute Fabrik. "Our trusty programmer Jonathan has spent most of his time since the PSN release ensuring that we can establish a stable connection between the Move controller and Mac/Linux hardware. As we described in our last update, JS Joust should be more robust than ever on both platforms. He also spent time researching Bluetooth issues that prevent the Move controller from reliably pairing to Windows machines. Unfortunately, it seems like Windows is engineered in a way that makes it infeasible for us to get pairing working robustly." BaraBariBall, Super Pole Riders, and Hokra may not be as widely known, but they're nice too. So is this nugget of hope: "We're also still looking into creating a custom Linux 'JS Joust distro' that you can boot into from your Windows machine by USB stick. More on that later." Rowdy Holidays! Sportsfriends comes to Steam & Humble this Friday! [Die Gute Fabrik] |
| It's almost 2015, and I just beat my first Metal Gear Solid Posted: 17 Dec 2014 09:00 AM PST As much as wish it weren't true, it is: I've never completed a Metal Gear Solid until now. This is a series plenty of you adore playing, thinking, and talking about and that affection has rubbed off on me over the years. It's infectious, but not quite to the point where I've committed myself to seeing the whole thing through from beginning to end. It's difficult to talk yourself into such an undertaking, even if you know it's for your own good, that starting is the hardest part. Before that day comes, if it ever does, I've got my eyes on Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Then again, who doesn't? You read Steven's preview in all its sheep-stealing, horse-pooping glory, yes? Saw the "Nuclear" trailer? I'll be right there with you during next year's launch. The lead-in game, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, is on sale this week on Xbox One. I'm a new console owner and, yeah, $6.60 sounds about right for what many have called a "demo." As it turns out, a demo was exactly what I needed. The format worked in my favor. |
| Posted: 17 Dec 2014 08:00 AM PST What a dismal showing this year. Last year had Frozen, which tailed into this year, world without end, amen, with a long icy tail like Halley's comet. When are we going to have the "Let it Go" of videogames? We'll never have made it as an artform until games can produce a number with such virality and ubiquity that I start to wonder, "Wouldn't my life be better without a son," and "Remember the end of Ichi the Killer, with the sewing needles? That movie had some good ideas." Here are some of the so-called "big musicals" of 2014 that failed to register a single musical number: Alien: Isolation. Dragon Age: Inquisition. The trailer for the new Star Wars film. Bayonetta 2. Dark Souls II. Embarrassing. While no one put their bach into it to interrupt all sense of tone and pacing with a barrage of gaudy sung intermissions, I hereby award Kentucky Route Zero Steven Hansen's Destructoid's GOTY 2014 for Best musical, namely for its one stirring musical number in Act 3. This is quality over quantity folks. Kentucky Route Zero's first two parts are enough to make it one of the best games of last year, and the lone Act 3 enough to make it one of this year's best--and the best musical. First, the number pop ups organically, at a place you might expect song singing to happen, rather than in a prison or a dementia care home or the post office or just generally a place where you might not expect synchronized singing of thoughts and emotions by patrons. Oh, also a hair enhancement clinic. That's another one where a musical number feels out of place. Anyways, the sensibility of the time and place clashes beautifully with the levels of mediation inherent to the genre and toyed with in the mechanics. Just play the damn thing, the whole of it. |
| The latest Assassin's Creed Unity patch is a meager, tiny 40GB on Xbox One Posted: 17 Dec 2014 07:30 AM PST The fourth Assassin's Creed Unity patch released yesterday, and Xbox One users found that it was substantially larger than advertised. The update, which was meant to be 6.7GB, clocks in at 40GB on the Microsoft console. The only thing getting assassinated around here anytime soon is your hard drive. Ubisoft addressed the issue on the Assassin's Creed site, stating that the update is unintentionally replacing the entire game rather than just the areas that the patch targets for users that have previously applied the third patch. The publisher's working with Microsoft to reduce the download to the intended size, but has no estimated time-frame for a solution. However, Ubisoft has a work-around. Uninstalling and then re-installing Unity is said to revert the patch to its correct form. That should be relatively quicker for those with physical copies than downloading 40GB. Sorry, anyone with bandwidth caps! Patch 4 Release Notes [Updated] [Assassin's Creed] |
| Nominees for Destructoid's Best Multiplayer Design of 2014 Posted: 17 Dec 2014 07:00 AM PST [Image credit: Mike Lambert] Friends can make any game worth playing. Growing up, couch play was a staple in my household. I would often have videogame themed birthday parties, inviting all of my buddies over to have fighting game tournaments and, one time, a Tenchu II level editor challenge. While a great single-player game can always elicit strong emotional reactions within oneself, a great multiplayer game lets you share those emotions with your loved ones. These are the games that made us feel special this year. The ones that had an impact on our lives as we gamed into the late night hours with the best of company. These nominees have mechanics specifically designed to facilitate engaging interactions with others, which inherently differs from the design choices found in solo experiences. |
| Life is Strange releases its pent up teenage angst next month Posted: 17 Dec 2014 06:30 AM PST The introductory episode of Dontnod's Life is Strange is scheduled to bend time and break the rules on January 30. The indie-tinged five-part adventure game about all the mixed emotions of being a teen is coming to PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Square Enix has outlined the pricing model for Life is Strange. Individual episodes will cost $4.99. A season pass comprised of episodes two through five runs $16.99. Anyone that wants to take the plunge right off the bat can get all five parts for $19.99 (Xbox 360 excluded, for some reason). Dontnod intends to release installments approximately every six weeks. Life is Strange grabbed my attention in a gamescom 2014 demo, and shot to the top of my list of anticipated titles. In my limited time with it, the teenage uncertainty that so often defines our formative years felt genuine, Max and Chloe so easy to empathize with. And, like the song in this trailer, it was wonderfully melancholy and hypnotic. |
| GOTY 2014: Best willful misspelling in a title Posted: 17 Dec 2014 06:00 AM PST Might be your taste makers on this webpage made a Huge™ boner and left Samurai Gunn out of its 2014 game of the year plans. Because of its mid-December 2013 release, it was left out last year, too, and should have had 2014 eligibility. And there certainly isn't a multiplayer game I've had more fun with over the course of the year than the only game trying to carry Bushido Blade's torch. And there ain't a game that makes better use of a superfluous double consonant neither, so I am hereby awarding Samurai Gunn the Steven Hansen's Destructoid's 2014 GOTY award for Best willful misspelling in a title. Like a real gun or a decorative katana beneath your anime tits wall scroll, the second 'n' just makes you look cooler. This is how you name a game folks (incidentally, this is how you don't name a game, for the love of my Rouroni Kenshin reverse blade replica katana). Do you see a lazy, '90s raditude 'z' slapped on the end there? Oh hell no. You may get three bullets per life, but there ain't no god damn, highfalutin pluralization nonsense happening here on the part of developer Teknopants. No. They doubled downn. That shows grit. Character. "You pronounce every god damnn letter," it screams. And you have to, or else you're pronouncing it wrong, like when you pronounce anno (year) as ano (anus). This isn't Samurai Ass. It's Samurai Gunn. Though I wouldn't mind seeing the former. Hit me up. |
| Hollow Knight has about a day left to hit some stretch goals Posted: 17 Dec 2014 05:30 AM PST Hollow Knight's Kickstarter enjoyed a healthy beginning, keeping up a pace to hit the base funding goal of $35,000 AUD well within its run. For the final week of the campaign, developer Team Cherry has released the above trailer. Now it is setting its sights on stretch goals, and it has already knocked out the first two: additional areas and quests to explore. The next big milestone is at $50,000, enough additional funding to cover the cost of releasing on the Wii U. With about a day left in the campaign and about $7,000 to go, it just might have a chance at it. The "weird and wonderful world" of Hollow Knight looks like one I want to explore; all the better if I can do that on the Wii U GamePad. |
| A game like X-Files and True Detective? Just don't go Normcore Posted: 17 Dec 2014 05:00 AM PST Oh no! It's the end of our three part interview with Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, creators of Maniac Mansion and the masterminds behind Thimbleweed Park, a game that has currently raised over $500K on Kickstarter. We didn't learn that David Fox, the creator of Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, was on the team until after this interview was over. Otherwise we would have included him in this interview too. Sadly, it's too darn late for that, as the Kickstarter has less than 24 hours to go until it's all over. The campaign recently hit the stretch goal for full voice acting, but it's still far off from the iOS/Android goals. It'd be a big deal if they got there, as it would open up their potential audience by at least a few hundred people, maybe more if Apple could just figure out how to properly market the iPhone. C'mon Apple, when are you going to learn how to properly promote your brand? We talked to Ron and Gary about why those smart phone stretch goals are important to them, the potential for console ports, fetishes, being otherwise unemployable, Joe Flaherty, and a lot more. Thanks again for the interview gentleman, and for returning to the style of game design that helped me to fall in love with the medium all those years ago. I've been waiting for you two to get the band back together since I was 12 years old. Now let's just cross our fingers and hope that you can live up to 25 years of built-up expectations. No pressure. |
| MechWarrior Online's Community Warfare has taught me what it feels like to be the frustrated parent Posted: 17 Dec 2014 04:00 AM PST In the land of MechWarrior Online, Christmas came early last week. Or severely, massively late depending on your perspective. Much like my relationship status with MWO in general: it's complicated. Community Warfare, the long-, long-awaited “core pillar” of the game finally debuted (in beta form at least) last Thursday. A week ahead of the scheduled patch that was intended to usher in a new golden age of stompy robot combat, and roughly three years behind schedule otherwise. It's finally arrived, the holy guts of the game; the real MechWarrior starts here. The idea behind Community Warfare has always been to have players recreate and rewrite the history of the Battletech franchise. To combine the qualities of a largely player-run MMO like EVE with a mech combat simulator. The chance to pick a side and become either a noble Inner Sphere pilot fighting to defend your home, or a member of the crusading Clans, deep-space warlords who left the known solar system centuries ago and have returned as almost alien invaders; humanity's past sins come back to haunt them. You narrow that allegiance down further, pledge yourself to a particular Great House or tribal Clan, seize home-worlds from the others, foster relations you will inevitably betray, engage in a deadly dance of political and steel warfare. Like Game of Thrones in space, but with giant mechs and laser cannons instead of a bunch of creepy dudes on horseback. If you're already guessing that what's been released has failed to live up to the hype, give yourself a gold star. |
| Dragon Age: Inquisition gets a multiplayer update, it has wolves in it Posted: 17 Dec 2014 03:00 AM PST Most of the people I know who bought Dragon Age: Inquisition are still playing it. Proof positive that the lengthy single-player experience isn't dead, and not every game needs to be multiplayer. Wait a minute, Inquisition has multiplayer too. Uh, this is awkward. So anyways, if you're still playing that mode, BioWare has added a free update to the game that mixes up the map a bit. Now you can randomly find wildlife roaming around each arena, which will help you and attack you at will. Also, you'll find new paths to locate. Finally, a $10 digital upgrade is available if you didn't grab the Deluxe Edition, and includes extra weapons, Inquisitor armor, a mount, and a few other items. New multiplayer pack & digital upgrade offer now available [Dragon Age] |
| Go grab SSX for free on Xbox Live if you're a gold member Posted: 17 Dec 2014 02:00 AM PST Once upon a time EA rebooted the SSX series in 2012. You can grab that reboot now on the Xbox 360 for free, provided that you have an Xbox Live Gold account. It's not the best game in the series by any means, but it's still pretty great -- if you're been hankering for some snowboarding action lately, this is your huckleberry. As is the case with all of the Games on Gold, you can keep them even if your subscription runs out, so if you aren't going to renew over the holidays, just get SSX now. SSX [Xbox] |
| Disgaea 5 will come to North America and Europe in 2015 Posted: 17 Dec 2014 01:00 AM PST 'Dis guy, ehhh? At the Tokyo Game Show we learned Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance (awful subtitle*) was coming to PS4 in 2015. NIS America has confirmed it will be available in North America and Europe in the fall of 2015 as a retail and digital release. A lifetime ago, I reviewed the last numbered entry in the series, Disgaea 4, which I liked. And by a lifetime, I mean just over three years ago. So the lifetime of a hedgehog. Hey, maybe that's why Sonic games got so bad. *A press release specifically pertaining to the European release of Disgaea 5 refers to it as Disgaea 5 (Working title), so either that name is tied up in Europe or someone got wised and decided to call it something better. |
| Destiny patch ups base stats of Crota raid gear, adds a mission back Posted: 17 Dec 2014 12:00 AM PST It's only a week out from Destiny's Dark Below expansion, and a small patch is upon us. The biggest change is definitely the buff to Crota raid gear, including the base light stat of +30 to all raid armor and 300 attack to all Crota weapons. That's huge as they are much more effective out of the gate, and can be equipped immediately as opposed to holding off. As a result, I logged in to find that my Hunter had jumped from 29 to 30. There are some other small fixes in there as well, and the raid helmet can now be obtained in the normal raid (with a "higher chance" in the upcoming Hard Mode). Also, the first DLC mission has been added back into the world map selection process -- which is good, because there were only a few of them. Destiny Hot Fix [Bungie] |
| Well I'll be sucked, Tak Fujii has left Konami Posted: 16 Dec 2014 05:30 PM PST Metal Gear Solid, Pro Evolution, and literally nothing else developer Konami has lost its brightest star aside from the one that goes around wearing a Drive jacket and hanging out with Kiefer Sutherland. Tak "Extreeeeeeeeeme" Fujii, who one year ago announced he had cancer, took to Twitter a couple of days ago, "just letting you know that I'm not dead yet," after being quiet since Halloween. Just a couple hours ago, Fujii tweeted this: "It's been great 20 years of creation. Thanks for all who supported, loved my titles. Farewell and may the extreeeeemeness be with KONAMI." He's not done making extreme games, though. He's got a link to his LinkedIn account in his bio and seems to be job hunting. And he won't leave us in the cold anymore, "I'll be sticking more in Twitter so I don't leave from you all troops, so don't leave from me, please, I'm begging and yelling." Tak Fujii is begging and yelling for us folks. Let's give him something back. What extreme game idea should Tak Fujii do next? |
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