Gamescom is almost upon us and it seems like SEGA is already teasing a new game announcement. From the looks of it, this appears to be a new IP called Humankind which lines up with teaser website.
Back in April, SEGA filed a trademark for it in both US and Canada. A lot of people are saying it’s Trauma Center or Hatsune Miku cause of the URL or Heartbeep, however based on speculation it lines up with my rough estimates which include a mysterious image. Stay tuned for more information on this announcement.
The latest Galar Research Update for Pokemon Sword and Shield is here! For this update, many online features were detailed including Battle Stadium. Ranked online battles and seasons will be introduced in Sword and Shield, allowing for competition against many trainers. Casual battles will also be available for those wanting to play for fun instead of glory. Legendary and Mythical Pokemon can be used in Casual battles as well, but not in Ranked battles. Here’s all the information from the official Pokemon Twitter account:
Time to get battle ready, Trainers! In #PokemonSwordShield, you can get online and challenge Trainers from all over the world in the Battle Stadium. Rental Teams and Online Competitions allow for more ways to connect to other Pokémon Trainers. bit.ly/33zFr3D
In Ranked Battles, you’ll take on Pokémon Trainers from across the globe! Your rank in Ranked Battles indicates how strong you are as a Trainer. http://bit.ly/2z2iB6m
Here’s how Ranked Battles work: Each rank belongs to a specific tier. The top tier is where Trainers aim to become the best in the world! Ranked Battles also have seasons. Once a season is over, your rank gets adjusted, then a new season begins.
Not into competition? No worries! In Casual Battles, you can enjoy Pokémon battles without worrying about who wins and who loses. You can also use certain Legendary Pokémon and Mythical Pokémon that are not eligible for Ranked Battles!
There are two formats for battles in #PokemonSwordShield: Single Battle and Double Battle formats. You can choose from these two battle formats for Ranked Battles and Casual Battles, too.
The two kinds of Online Competitions: Official Competitions and Friendly Competitions. Official Competitions consist of special battles with different rules. In Friendly Competitions, you can join competitions hosted by others—or host one yourself! http://bit.ly/2KMIrko
Rental Teams let you borrow Battle Teams easily by inputting IDs available online. You’ll also be able to make your own Battle Teams public to Pokémon Trainers all over the world! http://bit.ly/2z1Q8xH
The Dynamax phenomenon not only makes Pokémon huge—it can also sway the course of a battle by giving them a power boost! The Max Moves that only Dynamax Pokémon can use aren’t just powerful, either. They all have impressive additional effects! http://bit.ly/2ZaLUOO
Remember, Trainers—you can Dynamax any Pokémon from Galar so long as you have the Dynamax Band. You can choose which Pokémon to Dynamax depending on what’s happening in the battle, or even have your Pokémon hold items that boost their offenses, then unleash powerful Max Moves!
New Items Discovered! Room Service will lower the holder’s Speed when the move Trick Room is successfully used. Eject Pack switches out your battling Pokémon if its stats are lowered! http://bit.ly/2KKRB0Q
Some Pokémon have rare Abilities known as Hidden Abilities, which differ from their usual Abilities. In #PokemonSwordShield, it seems that Pokémon caught in Max Raid Battles might have these Hidden Abilities. http://bit.ly/2ZacuaM
There’s also a chance you’ll encounter Pokémon that can Gigantamax in Max Raid Battles! While extremely rare, by attempting many different battles, there’s a chance you could even find a Pokémon that can Gigantamax…and also has a Hidden Ability!
That’s all for the August 16th Galar Research Update! Stay tuned at Final Weapon for more news regarding Pokemon Sword and Shield.
Nintendo has announced that a Indie World presentation will air on August 19th at 9PM Eastern.
Tune in Monday, Aug. 19 at 6am PT / 9am ET for an all-new, livestreamed #IndieWorld video showcase, featuring roughly 20 minutes of information on indie games coming to #NintendoSwitch!
This presentation is very similar to the Nindies Showcase, as Europe had a a few of these in the past. After Nintendo announced Cuphead and Cadence of Hyrule at the Nindies Showcase in March, what could we be in store for this time? We’ll just have to find out on August 19th!
According to Mat Piscatella of the NPD Group, the Nintendo Switch was once again the best-selling platform of the month. It is still the hardware sales leader for 2019. Along with this, 6 of the top 10 best selling games of July 2019 were Switch exclusive:
Its important to note that none of the major consoles experienced year over year growth. However, the Nintendo Switch was the only console during the month of July 2019 to have experienced sales gains year to date. Stay tuned at Final Weapon for more news regarding Nintendo Switch and NPD results!
US NPD July 2019 results are here thanks to Mat Piscatella and Mortal Kombat 11’s momentum since release isn’t stopping. It is now the best selling game of 2019 year-to-date. Lifetime sales of Mortal Kombat 11 are 2nd highest in the series now. Mortal Kombat 11 managed to become one of the top 5 best selling fighting games of all time as well.
Stay tuned at Final Weapon for more news regarding fighting games like Mortal Kombat 11 and NPD results!
US NPD results for July 2019 are out now thanks to Mat Piscatella and it appears that Fire Emblem: Three Houses is off to a blazing start. Fire Emblem: Three Houses was the 2nd best selling game of the month as well as the top selling game for the Switch! Additionally, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is now the 2nd best selling game in the entire series. It instantly outsold Fire Emblem: Fates and it’s right behind Fire Emblem: Awakening.
Stay tuned at Final Weapon for more news regarding Fire Emblem and NPD results!
The highly anticipated Borderlands 3 is less than a month away and there’s an update about the performance we can expect to see when the game releases next month.
Recently, Windows Gaming Central reached out to the publisher wanting to know what we can expect the game to perform at on Xbox One X and they have gotten a response from the source themselves.
“Borderlands 3 will feature two modes on Xbox One X. Favor Resolution boosts the visuals to 4K resolution, but caps the frame rate to 30 frames per second (FPS). However, Favor Performance lowers the resolution to 1080p, but unlocks the frame rate so that it goes up to 60 FPS. It’s unclear if the final build will feature a stable 60 FPS or a fluctuating frame rate, but that’s the goal at the moment. We’ve also learned that the game will come in at 40 GB on Xbox One X and features a field-of-view slider.”
It’s great that the game will let the player decide how he wants to see and play the game. Borderlands 3 will hit the shelves and hopefully our hearts on September 13th.
When it comes to almost any kind of media, one of the best things I love to do is turn my brain off and take in all the campiness and cheese it can offer. It could be so bad it’s good like The Room, hilariously campy like Street Fighter: The Movie or in the case of Metal Wolf Chaos, a glorious homage to B-Movies with awful voice acting and dialogue that you’d think would be dated by today’s standards. However there’s something about Metal Wolf Chaos that works.
For those who don’t know, Metal Wolf Chaos was originally a 2004 game released only in Japan on the original Xbox by From Software. While it went under the radar when it first came out, it quickly gained a massive cult status. So much so that in recent years it has been much harder to obtain an import copy. In comes Devolver Digital with the announcement at E3 2018 to the surprise of many by announcing an HD remaster. This came after an overwhelming amount of fan demand back in 2017 when they asked if anyone would be interested in an HD remaster. The result is a solid remaster that stays true to a cult classic.
Story
To say that Metal Wolf Chaos has a fun yet simple plot would be an understatement. In a way this is about campy as the Earth Defense Force series. You play as Michael Wilson, the 47th President of the United States as the United States plunges into a state of civil and economic unrest. The military starts a revolution led by Vice President Richard Hawk and succeeds in gaining control of the nation’s government institutions. It’s now up to you to take down Richard Hawk and save the US from nuclear destruction, all while piloting an armored mech.
There is so much charm in the story from the bad voice acting to the cheesy as hell dialogue. A lot of the memorable quotes come from Michael Wilson especially the opening cutscene which is undoubtedly the best representation of its tone. Sometimes it’s best if a game doesn’t take itself seriously and still has an enjoyable story. It’s gloriously bad in all the right ways.
Gameplay
If you’re familiar with Armored Core, (Another game made by From Software) you should feel right at home but even if you aren’t this is still a competent mech game. Metal Wolf gives you a good amount of fun weapons that you can upgrade as you progress. Each level is represented by a different city in the United States that has been taken over by the military.
One small problem I do have is that the game can get a bit challenging in later levels especially if you run out of ammo. Newcomers might also have a bit of a challenge if you’re unfamiliar with mech games due to a lack of tutorials and weapon management. However it’s a small price to pay as you progress through the story. That’s the best way I can describe the gameplay since it’s basically Armored Core with a massive amount of cheese but honestly that’s fine by me.
Presentation
As I said before, I think this is a solid port but there are a few issues. On both my tests with the PS4 and PC versions, XD suffers from both buggy audio and sound mixing. Sometimes the sound effects are way too loud or the cutscene audio just cuts out for no reason. General Arcade has said that it’s working on fixes these issues but as of patch 1.02, the problem still remains but at least they’re aware. Much like the original Xbox release, Metal Wolf Chaos XD runs at 30FPS with English VA’s only on all platforms. It isn’t really that big of an issue because it’s tied to the game logic and I didn’t really notice any drops, in fact the same thing that happened with Shenmue 1 & 2 last year.
In regards to graphics and sound, it does the job. You’re rather limited in terms of PC options but you can scale the resolution all the way up to 4K. PS4 Pro and Xbox One X users also have this option to output at 4K although the game still remains at 30FPS. You’re also stuck with English Voice Over only I primarily played this game on PC at 1080p but whatever version you get, the remaster looks decent and sharp.
Final Thoughts
Despite some minor issues, Metal Wolf Chaos XD is a great way to experience this underappreciated gem of the Early 2000s. The game still holds up quite well due to its fun plot and good gameplay. At $25, it might be a little steep but all the problems should be fixed in the next month or so. If anything, I would recommend getting the physical version at the end of August but either way you’ll be satisfied with this game.
Developer Chucklefish has announced a physical edition for their popular strategy RPG, Wargroove for PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
The game released digitally on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC with a PS4 version announced but having yet to release. It looks like the physical version may be the first copy to hit PS4 but we’ll see.
As of now, there’s no date for the physical release, but it’s being released as ‘Wargroove Deluxe Edition’ and will include the following via the Wargroove developer blog:
Mini Strategy Manual with stats & tips on all units (available in English, French, Italian, German & Spanish)
Reversible coversheet – it’s a clean version of the key art without all those messy logos, but complete with standard spine so that it still looks normal on your shelf!
Switch owners have yet another game to add to their extensive list of upcoming titles. The Switch version of A Hat in Time has been revealed, and Switch pre-orders are now available. The news was discovered from the game’s official listing on Amazon, which you can find here.
A Hat in Time is an action-adventure platformer developed by Gears for Breakfast and published by Humble Bundle. You play Hat Kid, a little girl who is trying to return to her home. Everything goes awry when her time pieces fly out of the ship and land on a nearby planet. Your goal is to traverse the planet and collect all the time pieces so you can find your way back home. Along the way, you meet many lovable characters and visit very unique places, along with make new friends of course. The game received an 80% average score on Metacritic, calling it a “must-buy for any 3D platforming fan”.
You thankfully won’t have to wait too long for this title either. A Hat in Time releases on the Nintendo Switch on October 18th for $39.99 USD. Have you played Hat in Time already or plan to in the future? Let us hear your thoughts.
