Destructoid |
- Report: IO Interactive working on a fantasy-themed IP exclusively for Xbox
- Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Prince's Edition rated for Nintendo Switch
- Streets of Rage 4 celebrates one year of skull-crackin' mayhem, Max Thunder coming in Mr. X Nightmare DLC
- Resident Evil Village puppet show is far cuter than it has any right to be
- Double Fine is getting a feature-length game jam documentary on April 29
- Contest: Win ABZU on Switch from Super Rare Games
- I love the absurdity of the Nintendo Game Man
- Here's a pretty impressive look at Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's gameplay
- Among Us is coming to PS4 and PS5 with some Ratchet & Clank cosmetics in tow
- Subnautica's free PS5 upgrade is coming soon
- A Ratchet & Clank-focused State of Play is on the way
- My Nintendo just got a Pokemon Snap reward, and another one is on the way
- Hey, listen! Some of our favorite Destructoid articles have audio versions
- Right on cue, New Pokemon Snap's whole roster was datamined
- Essays on Empathy are on the way from Deconstructeam and Devolver
- Nioh 2 hits a two million shipments and sales, as franchise celebrates five million total sales
- Nintendo Download: Pokemon Snap
- Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach launches late 2021, spin-off brawler Fury's Rage available now
- You can grab the Nier Replicant '4 YoRHa' DLC for free now on all platforms
- Sunless Skies coming to consoles next month in enhanced 'Sovereign Edition'
- Everyone's favorite WoW character Sylvanas is getting her own book later this year, just don't burn it
| Report: IO Interactive working on a fantasy-themed IP exclusively for Xbox Posted: 30 Apr 2021 04:00 AM PDT The rumor mills are abuzz this morning, courtesy of a report from Windows Central that suggests IO Interactive is currently at work on a brand new fantasy IP, with the project allegedly in development as an Xbox exclusive title. The unnamed game (codenamed "Project Dragon") is reportedly a large-scale, AAA adventure, set in a medieval fantasy world. It should also be noted that development is in its very early stages, and the title is not expected to see the light of day for many years. The game is also expected to be IOI's fabled "unannounced IP" that was teased back in the summer of 2019. IO Interactive continues to see good fortune since it rolled the dice and broke away from Square Enix back in 2017. Having gone independent as both developer and publisher, IOI has seen amazing success with Hitman, bagged a highly lucrative license in the form of "Project 007", and recently secured its third studio in beautiful Barcelona, Spain. Right now, the sky's the limit for the Polish developer. With Hitman cemented as a long-running flagship franchise — and two potentially huge titles on the horizon — IOI could be poised to become one of the biggest and most recognizable developers in gaming's ninth generation. And it deserves every measure of said success.  |
| Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Prince's Edition rated for Nintendo Switch Posted: 30 Apr 2021 03:00 AM PDT The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) has dropped a new listing for Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Prince's Edition on Nintendo Switch. The port has yet to be announced by Nintendo or publisher Square Enix, but has been on the wishlist of fans for some time.  |
| Posted: 30 Apr 2021 01:00 AM PDT [Update: Sometimes it just goes this way. At the exact minute this article went live, Lizardcube announced that Streets of Rage 2's star wrestler Max Thunder will be joining the SoR 4 roster as part of the incoming Mr. X Nightmare DLC. Check out the new trailer below. Sorry 'bout my damn luck.] Today is the first birthday of the fantastic brawler sequel Streets of Rage 4. Yep, that's 12 whole months of pavement-pounding, nose-breaking, croissant-eating chaos, as Axel, Blaze, Cherry, Floyd, and Adam take matters into their own hands, treading the mean streets of Oak Wood City to liberate the people from the evil machinations of The Y Siblings. It was such a long wait, but it absolutely paid off. Co-developers Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, and Lizardcube delivered a gorgeous looking, great sounding, and slickly playing action title, packed with character, style and, most importantly, depth. A worthy successor to the Sega Mega Drive originals, and a fine way for any video game fan to kill a few hours, Streets of Rage 4 is a must-play, and is on track to get a whole lot better.  |
| Resident Evil Village puppet show is far cuter than it has any right to be Posted: 29 Apr 2021 08:00 PM PDT It was originally an April Fools' joke, but nobody's laughing anymore. Capcom has released the first episode of its Resident Evil Village puppet show, which sees the villains of the upcoming horror title brought to life in unbelievably adorable fashion... It's... Something. The creepy-cute show, which you can check out below, stars Heisenberg, Moreau, Angie, and — of course — the lovely Lady Dimitrescu. Packed with super-cute songs, literal buckets of gore, tinsel-based arterial spray, and a worryingly infectious spirit, this heart/brain-melting take on the Resident Evil universe may be among Capcom's best-ever campaigns. Despite the goofiness, it's really well lit, shot, and produced. Come for the cuteness, stay for Lady D going ape with an axe.  |
| Double Fine is getting a feature-length game jam documentary on April 29 Posted: 29 Apr 2021 12:30 PM PDT [Update: Double Fine and 2 Player Productions released The Amnesia Fortnight Movie on YouTube.] I love a good Double Fine behind-the-scenes video, and so far, they've all been good! Over the years, 2 Player Productions' documentaries, in particular, have been entertaining and insightful looks into how multiple disciplines can come together to imagine a video game and then somehow make it real. One of the recurring themes is a two-week internal game jam called Amnesia Fortnight, although admittedly, it's been a while; the last event, in 2017, led to prototypes like Kiln, a pottery game where you sculpt makeshift armor, and The Gods Must Be Hungry, a cooking adventure with giant ingredients. The goal of Amnesia Fortnight is to give staff a chance to pitch something wild and refuel their creative energy for longer-term and far more consequential projects. For us at home, it's fun to watch along. I rarely play the four winning entries that make it through the game-jam gauntlet, but I always tune in. In 2019, during the making of Psychonauts 2, Double Fine hosted another Amnesia Fortnight. The whole process was captured as a full-length documentary — The Amnesia Fortnight Movie — and it'll debut on YouTube on April 29, 2021. You can even just come back to this exact spot for the premiere: Apart from the trailer up top, there's also a hint from Xbox Wire about the featured games, all of which sound conceptually on-brand for a studio like Double Fine: "madcap puppet theater, devious journeys into the underworld, a sinister puzzle game, and grand battles on the back of giant slugs." The key sound bite? "You take a little bit of terror every day, it's like poison: you get immune to it."  |
| Contest: Win ABZU on Switch from Super Rare Games Posted: 29 Apr 2021 11:30 AM PDT In today's contest you can win a physical Switch copy of ABZU from Super Rare Games! Hey gang, remember me? I'm the guy who used to give stuff away like every single day. Then life happened and well it's been a few weeks. Allow myself to reintroduce...myself. I'm Wes, I'm 34 years old, and I like to roll around on the ground with bubble wrap duct taped around my body. Super Rare Games just dropped their physical release of ABZU, so grab some bubble wrap and win yourself a copy!  |
| I love the absurdity of the Nintendo Game Man Posted: 29 Apr 2021 10:30 AM PDT In recent years, we've seen a whole bunch of official new micro versions of some of our favorite old consoles, the most respectably ridiculous of which has got to be the Game Gear Micro — a system so small, you might as well keep a magnifying glass in your pocket. But when it comes to custom builds in the modding community, there's been a renewed interest in bulking up retro consoles to a silly degree. We recently showed you a room-filling Nintendo Switch that, realistically, would need at least two players to handle hitting all of the buttons. Now here's a hulking Game Boy — excuse me, Game Man. The creator of this "handheld" console, Grumpy Modeler, showed off the system in a video last November. I missed it, but now that it's making the rounds again (good eye, SIFTD), I couldn't resist. In the builder's own words, the Nintendo Game Man is "completely impractical and pointless." The sheer size of this thing is entertaining in its own right, but what makes this build so appealing is that it captures the authentic look of the original Game Boy. What about the inside? There's a Famicom board crammed in there, not repurposed Game Boy innards. Yeah. It's an illusion, but a fun one at that. With the right 3D printer, materials, and know-how, you could theoretically build your own Game Man. Grumpy Modeler is hosting the DIY project, as well as a parts list and some pointers, over on Cults. You wouldn't have to use an original Famicom, either — the custom case could accommodate "any hardware, for example Raspberry Pi, with the same LCD screen I used," according to the maker.  |
| Here's a pretty impressive look at Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's gameplay Posted: 29 Apr 2021 10:10 AM PDT Sony debuted a new State of Play today that was centered around one of its big upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusives, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. A large portion of that consisted of gameplay of the new platformer-shooter, and lord, it looks good. Some games are still in the half-step between console generations, but Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is one of a few big next-gen exclusives Sony has lined up for the year so far. With that in mind, today's showcase was both a good look ahead at the next Ratchet & Clank, and a bright sign of what's to come on the new generation of consoles. As detailed in the accompanying PlayStation blog, Rift Apart is making use of haptics inside the PS5's DualSense, as well as the adaptive triggers; Insomniac showcased how one gun fires single shots with half-trigger pulls, and goes into full auto when the trigger is pulled all the way down. That's alongside the rift-jumping dimensional chaos that Insomniac has shown off before, which it says utilizes the PS5's SSD. A really cool note is the focus on accessibility options, too. Insomniac says there's more to share in the future, but spotlighting it in the State of Play is pretty rad, and the early glimpse we saw today reminded me a bit of The Last of Us Part II's impressive accessibility features. I've dipped in and out of the Ratchet & Clank series—sorry, I was a Jak player—but Rift Apart is making a really compelling case for picking it up. The duo's next adventure goes live on June 11, 2021 for the PlayStation 5.  |
| Among Us is coming to PS4 and PS5 with some Ratchet & Clank cosmetics in tow Posted: 29 Apr 2021 09:50 AM PDT The super-popular social deduction game Among Us is coming to PlayStation consoles this year. And as a bonus, patient PlayStation players are getting some cosmetics when it arrives. Among Us' PlayStation 4 and 5 debut will have online and crossplay, but importantly, PS4 and PS5 players will get an exclusive Ratchet & Clank skin, hat, and pet. So you can have Ratchet ears and have a little Clank follow you around on all your tasks (or pretend-tasks). The PlayStation Among Us will also come with all four maps available to play. It's already a number of other systems, like PC and Nintendo Switch, but more mediums for impostor games is never a bad thing. There's no firm date set yet, but the PS4 and PS5 launch of Among Us should arrive sometime later this year.  |
| Subnautica's free PS5 upgrade is coming soon Posted: 29 Apr 2021 09:36 AM PDT During this afternoon's State of Play stream, Sony gave minor updates on a pair of indie games, and one of them was Subnautica: Below Zero of all things. Not that I'm complaining — I adore Subnautica. We got some familiar footage of this standalone new underwater adventure, along with word of a performance mode "targeting 60FPS" and that gotta-have-it haptic feedback support on PS5. Nice gesture: there's a free PS4-to-PS5 upgrade offer for Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero. As explained during the stream and on the PlayStation Blog, "If you already own a physical or digital version of the first Subnautica on PS4, you'll be able to upgrade to the digital PS5 version at no additional cost." The same goes for Subnautica: Below Zero, which is launching on May 14, 2021. I imagine a lot of people recently picked up the first game for free from Sony's Play at Home 2021 promo — if so, enjoy. And if you happen to have a PS5, even better. I'm tempted to replay it. After much back-and-forth-ing about whether or not I should play Below Zero while it was being built in Early Access, I've pretty much run out the clock. I resisted, and there are only two weeks left to go.  |
| A Ratchet & Clank-focused State of Play is on the way Posted: 29 Apr 2021 08:45 AM PDT [Update: The mostly Ratchet & Clank-focused State of Play stream is about to start.] We just got a new look at the upcoming Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart this morning, but that isn't the only one we'll see this week. Sony has announced a new State of Play for Thursday, April 29 at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT. In today's PlayStation Blog, it says there will be more than 15 minutes of gameplay to show, as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will be the focus of the show. For those who don't just want to see Ratchet and Clank venture through dimensional portals though, there will be some other news. On Twitter, PlayStation confirmed that there will be updates on "a pair of upcoming indie titles." The most recent State of Play showed off some rad-looking indie games, including Sifu and Solar Ash, so hopefully there are some surprises in store for Thursday as well. You can catch the stream on PlayStation's Twitch and YouTube channels at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT.  |
| My Nintendo just got a Pokemon Snap reward, and another one is on the way Posted: 29 Apr 2021 08:30 AM PDT My Nintendo is at it again, and it seems like "roughly a day or so before a first-party launch" is going to be the cadence for new rewards. In case you missed all the fanfare, New Pokemon Snap is out this Friday on Switch, and My Nintendo just added a 400 Platinum Point option to pick up: a letter set. It's literally just 12 letter sheets and two envelopes, containing various facets of Pokemon lore. The envelopes also double as a photo stand for 4x6 images. You can find the reward directly on this page. While the letter set is front and center on the main rewards page, you may have missed the proper news article for the announcement. While most of the details are the same in regards to the letter reward, the page also teases an upcoming "clear zipper case set," which will go for 500 Platinum Points. You can find the mockup of the reward below. As a reminder, you can find our full Platinum Point guide here. Bookmark it for when you need quick points for a reward! As a refresher, the Bowser's Fury Cat Mario keychain is back in stock, as is the Racer ID holder and lanyard, the Mario & Me Three Year Journal, the Smash Ultimate greeting card set, the Bravely Default II reversible poster, the Pokemon Sword and Shield four pen set, the Pokemon memo pad, and the Pokemon sticker set. New Pokemon Snap Letter Set [My Nintendo]  |
| Hey, listen! Some of our favorite Destructoid articles have audio versions Posted: 29 Apr 2021 08:00 AM PDT If you've poked around Destructoid's original features section lately, you might've noticed something new — a curious little embedded audio clip at the top of certain articles where there wasn't one before. Wait, when did that happen? Just recently! It's a still-fresh experiment. For this test run, we tapped Dan Vincent and Josh Picard to lend their voices to ten long-form Destructoid articles — some that you likely read when they were originally published, and some that you might've missed. We're talking Zelda's musical legacy, Rule of Rose's rat-on-a-stick, Diablo II: Resurrected's magic trick, and a glowing Portal 2 anniversary retrospective, among other recent topics. For future narrations, we'll strive to have the recording available day-and-date when a new article first hits the site so that those who prefer to listen aren't left waiting around wondering what's up. Although plenty of Destructoid readers still prefer to go through articles at their own pace — what's your WPM?! — we're considering these audio versions to be another option if and when you need it. We're also aiming to build up a spiffy centralized playlist that you can throw on for an impromptu binge-fest when the mood strikes. Does anyone else stock up for long commutes, busy-work afternoons, and Monster Hunter "desire sensor" grinds? Come to think of it, I used to listen to podcasts at the gym... There's something funny about a site with a robot mascot using humans, not AI, to speak.  |
| Right on cue, New Pokemon Snap's whole roster was datamined Posted: 29 Apr 2021 07:30 AM PDT I've just gone from barely keeping tabs on New Pokémon Snap to seeing the entire list of featured Pokémon in a single image. Talk about whiplash! I hadn't really thought about the potential for this photo-hunt adventure to be datamined, but that was so naive. It's still Pokémon — we gotta see 'em all. This is just the latest effort from dataminer @SciresM, whose Nintendo-related findings we've reported on several times over the years. They've shared other New Pokémon Snap info today as well, but for most of us — the folks who can't resist peeking — the game's full launch roster is the focal point. You're going to want to bounce off this post right now if you're averse to spoilers.
This list is a notable (and much-needed) step up from the original Pokémon Snap for Nintendo 64. We've gone from 60-ish species to around 220, not including alternate forms for Pokémon like Vivillon. My #1 all-time favorite ghostly gremlin son, Gengar, is in the game. That's half the battle! I'm not sure I even had expectations for how many Pokémon should be in the sequel, but either way, this seems perfectly fine? For a lot of people, "how long to beat?" is the main question anyway.  |
| Essays on Empathy are on the way from Deconstructeam and Devolver Posted: 29 Apr 2021 06:30 AM PDT Picking just one story to sit down with can be a bit of a task. So rather than one, Deconstructeam is launching an anthology of 10 short narrative works, under the name Essays on Empathy. Published by Devolver Digital, Essays on Empathy is a collection of 10 unique stories coming to Steam on May 18, each an experiment in narrative storytelling from the team behind games like The Red Strings Club and Gods Will Be Watching. The Essays include several former Ludum Dare entries from the team, like Zen and the Art of Transhumanism, Eternal Home Floristry, and Dear Substance of Kin. There's also a brand-new short experience exclusive to the compilation called De Tres al Cuarto, about a couple of comedians trying to make it. Check out the trailer, though heads-up for folks at work, there is some mature content: I dug the tough choices of Gods Will Be Watching, and while The Red Strings Club is still on my backlog, Deconstructeam also made one of my biggest surprises of 2020, a short game called Interview with the Whisperer. It's a free Chatbot-fueled game where you play a journalist interviewing a man who says he can commune with God through his radio, and it's absolutely worth your time. If this collection has some of the same inventiveness behind it, it'll be one to look out for.  |
| Nioh 2 hits a two million shipments and sales, as franchise celebrates five million total sales Posted: 29 Apr 2021 06:00 AM PDT Publisher Koei Tecmo, alongside developer Team Ninja, announced that its yokai-hunting RPG series Nioh has hit an impressive double milestone. 2020 release Nioh 2 has recently achieved a total of two million shipments and digital sales, which brings Nioh's overall franchise sales to the stately five million mark.  |
| Nintendo Download: Pokemon Snap Posted: 29 Apr 2021 05:30 AM PDT It's time for another rare week with a first-party Nintendo release. New Pokemon Snap is ready to open up its doors on April 30, alongside of R-Type Final 2. Folks have been waiting a long while for the former, as the Switch once again welcomes the return of an age-old franchise. In this case, it's been dormant since the Nintendo 64 era for over 20 years! As a result, we're "only" getting 17 other games on the eShop this week, including Angels with Scaly Wings, which probably isn't in the same universe as Angels with Filthy Souls. Nintendo really doesn't have a lot of competition for their first-party release to put up with!  |
| Posted: 29 Apr 2021 05:00 AM PDT During Sony's last State of Play presentation, we got our first look at the next chapter in the extremely popular, jumpscare-tastic franchise Five Nights at Freddy's. Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach will transition the typical CCTV action of its best-selling predecessors into full-on first-person gameplay. Players will gingerly pick their way through a "Wacky Warehouse"-style play center, desperately trying to remain at claws' length from a band of murderous animatronics, led by terrifying host Freddy Fazbear.  |
| You can grab the Nier Replicant '4 YoRHa' DLC for free now on all platforms Posted: 29 Apr 2021 04:30 AM PDT Before launch, Nier Replicant head honcho Yoko Taro and company promised some form of free DLC bonus for the re-release, and we just got it. Quietly! In true Taro fashion the new "4 YoRHa" pack rolled out on all platforms (PC, PS4, Xbox One) in the past 24 hours, and now everyone can download it at no cost. This doesn't seem to be a limited-time run or special initial offer either, as the DLC descriptions in all three marketplaces say that it is a "free downloadable content." It's a very simple little add-on, hearkening back to the days of open world "item pack" DLCs. This one comes with "four costumes and four weapons" (ha, "4 YoRHa") from Automata, transported into the Replicant world. The development team also notes that the costumes might not actually show up in some cutscenes due to the nature of the story. The listing also gives us a chance to revisit the ESRB "mature content description" straight from the studio: "NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… contains adult scenes and theme, strong language in certain areas of the game, including blood, violence, criminal acts and killing." Nice. You can find direct links for all three storefronts right below. You may as well redeem all of them in case you end up getting it on one of those platforms at some point. 4 YoRHa [PSN, Steam, Xbox Store]  |
| Sunless Skies coming to consoles next month in enhanced 'Sovereign Edition' Posted: 29 Apr 2021 04:00 AM PDT The highly acclaimed exploration title Sunless Skies is almost set to bring its awe-inspiring universe to the console market. As announced by developer Failbetter Games, the 2019 adventure will be docking on PS4, Xbox One, and Switch platforms May 19, in the form of an enhanced "Sovereign Edition".  |
| Posted: 29 Apr 2021 03:30 AM PDT For a lot of World of Warcraft players, the wounds from Sylvanas are still fresh. It's really interesting though, as the Shadowlands storyline is taking its sweet time to carry on, and it'll be a while until we start to see more of her motivations and plotline play out. Will she redeem herself? Will it be satisfying enough of a conclusion for her tale, if there even is a conclusion anytime soon? Well it's modern-day WoW, so the odds are about 50/50. In the meantime, you can check out her novel, which is set to debut on November 9, 2021. The gist is that it ties directly into the events of Shadowlands, as Sylvanas wrestles with her past and how she got to be in the position she's in with the Jailer: the presumed big bad of the new expansion that might not actually be the big bad, in classic WoW fashion. It'll deal with her past in some fashion, as these books tend to roll with. You can find the official synopsis below. It's also going to be narrated by Patty Mattson, who voices the character: neat little option! Warcraft: Sylvanas [Battle.net]  |
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