| Assassin's Creed Origins makes the series' past stumbles feel like ancient history Posted: 16 Jun 2017 12:00 AM PDT  Assassin's Creed has suffered in the past from its quickfire release schedule. Despite being one of the few annual blockbusters not about deathmatches, driving a car or kicking a ball, it was still released, every year, to fans hungry for meaningful upgrades. Sometimes, Ubisoft pulled it off despite of itself - with AC2, Brotherhood, and Black Flag, the series delivered. More often, though, Assassin's Creed has been judged as not having done enough, or simply not being good enough. Happily, it looks like Origins is going to fall into the first camp. Set a thousand years before the series timeline to date, Origins' shrugs off the franchise's narrative weight alongside many of its other preconceptions, and replaces them with an array of role-playing game abilities which fit its wider, wilder world. That's not to say there isn't plenty that's familiar - there's more than a hint of Destiny in the all-new gear rarity levels and slots for almost every clothing item, from boots to hood (which, fans will be pleased to know, can be toggled on or off). There's a quest log, with the main story and side-mission threads laid out so you can pick and choose which narratives to progress. There's even a skill tree you can fully fill by the end of the game. The E3 demo presents a typical mission. Egyptian proto-Assassin and local sheriff Bayek is travelling on horseback through the desert, past oases and palm trees, and towards a large town. It's here I'm being guided by the demo's story marker, to a square where a priest is slapping a young slave. The boy has wrecked a boat and lost two gold statues, although the priest thinks he's stolen them. Bayek volunteers to look for the items, and in doing so prove the youngster's innocence. Read more… |
| Hidden Folks free update adds factory full of 19,475 sprites Posted: 15 Jun 2017 02:42 PM PDT  Hidden Folks, the delightful Where's Wally-esque puzzler about searching for specific targets in crowded, interactive scenery, just received a free update on Steam and the App Store. This patch adds three new stages, one of which is described by developer Adriaan de Jongh as "the most complicated area to Hidden Folks we've ever made." He's not kidding either, as this beast consists of 19,475 sprites, 28 targets, dozens of new interactions, and hundreds of new a capella sounds. Read more… |
| Super Meat Boy's spiritual successor The End is Nigh reveals more masochistic gameplay Posted: 15 Jun 2017 01:39 PM PDT  Super Meat Boy co-creator Edmund McMillen and Closure developer Tyler Glaiel have unveiled more footage of their upcoming platformer collaboration The End is Nigh. We knew The End is Nigh would be a series of single-screen platforming challenges, but now we have a better sense of how it all fits together. It looks like each single-screen challenge connects directly to another part of the world, yet timed events - such as crumbling platforms and towers - reset every time you walk to another screen and back. Thankfully, these transitions are instantaneous. They also only reset the level's geometry, while the collectible doodads - of which there appears to be one per screen - stay with you so long as you're able to snatch one and make your way off-stage. If you collect one then don't make it out, however, you'll have to grab it again. Read more… |
| Here's a SNES-inspired alternative to the Switch's Pro Controller Posted: 15 Jun 2017 10:27 AM PDT  Retro peripheral company 8Bitdo is creating some classy controllers steeped in nostalgia that will offer an alternative to Nintendo's solid but spendy Switch Pro Controller. 8Bitdo recently released a 4.0 firmware update that adds Switch support to all of its oldschool flavoured Bluetooth controllers. More importantly, the company just announced three upcoming controllers compatible with Switch, Windows, Android, MacOS and Steam. Read more… |
| Here's what the revamped and diverse new Xbox Avatars look like Posted: 15 Jun 2017 06:43 AM PDT  Behold the revamped Xbox Avatars, launching this autumn on Windows PCs and "eventually" Xboxes. The new avatars have a particular push towards diversity and inclusivity, allowing prosthetic arms and legs, wheelchairs and even pregnancy bumps. Clothes will not be locked to gender, either, and you will be able to ride mounts like motorbikes, skateboards and even a gosh darn unicorn. The 2.0 avatars are "for everybody everywhere", the slogan goes. Read more… |
| The big interview: Shigeru Miyamoto and Ubisoft's Yves Guillemot Posted: 15 Jun 2017 03:30 AM PDT  Of all the games of E3 2017, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle stands out as the biggest surprise - even if we all knew about it beforehand. After its existence leaked towards the end of May, enthusiasm towards it was low, and then... Ubisoft's press conference began. Company president and figurehead Yves Guillemot stepped out on stage to introduce the game, and with it, a very special guest. What happened next - the arrival of Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto and the two CEOs posing with oversized props - will go down as the start of E3 2017's best press conference, and one of Ubisoft's strongest showings of all time. The duo exuded a sense of fun and positivity found lacking from other shows. Everybody fell in love with the game's tearful creative director Davide Soliani, overcome with emotion in the audience. Oh, and Mario + Rabbids itself? Its deep, turn-based tactical gameplay has silenced critics. Read more… |
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