A new listing on the ESRB website popped up for Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, rating only lists Xbox One and PC but it’s also coming to PS4 and Switch.
Is a shadow drop or release date announcement inbound? Only time will tell.
Opinion: Half-Life 3 shouldn’t release
It’s been a long time since we last saw an entry into the Half-Life series, 12 years now in fact. It feels like just yesterday that I went through try after try on my first completion of Episode 2. Those really were the good old days, and I remember just how excited I was to see the series finished in its third installment.
To all of us here, it should be pretty clear that the day never came. We’ve heard many “leaks” from Valve “employees”, and the infamous “when it’s ready” repeated response from Gabe Newell. Still, there’s been no finite proof that Half-Life 3 is or will ever be a thing and honestly, it should stay that way.
If you think about it, the game has had twelve years spent in development hell which is exceptionally long. In that time, players have had time to play through the previous entries and spectate what a final installment could look like. This image has inevitably blown up in people’s minds to very large proportions (including mine). These expectations would put a lot of pressure on the developers which no doubt does not help a game’s development. At this point, you might be asking “But other games in development hell have come out just fine years later?”. This is true, but none of those games have come close to the infamy that Half-Life has created. That isn’t even considering all the revived games that have inevitably become cash grabs.
On top of this, the Half-Life series has spawned a massive amount of innovation in the industry and continues to do so to this day. I watched a documentary by Noclip that described this better than I ever could. I would highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already. The point is that the existence of Half-Life and the lack of 3 has created many new experiences both related and unrelated to Half-Life.
These projects are still being developed to this day in fact such as Project Borealis and Boreal Alyph. These two are recreations of Half-Life 3 using Marc Laidlaw’s (lead writer on Half-Life) “fanfiction” titled Epistle 3. Neither of these would exist without the absence of Half-Life 3, and make the best of unfortunate circumstances. There’s many projects I could go into (such as the plentiful game jams), but we’d be here for ages talking about them. Without Half-Life 3, we’ll see these projects flourish and show what a passionate community can come together to create.
Despite all this, I wouldn’t be completely against the idea of Half-Life 3 releasing in the future. To see closure to such a beloved game series would be a treat no matter how it’s designed. With that in mind though, it’d be extremely difficult for developers to bring closure to a twelve year hiatus. On top of that, the community’s Half-Life 3 imaginings would come to an end which would be bitter sweet. For whatever reason that the game doesn’t exist, I’ll live calmly knowing the community it has created and the memories that have been shared thanks to it.
With that, I will leave you all with this short clip:
Persona 5 Royal’s New and Improved Gameplay Mechanics!
The monthly volume of Morgana News has been released. With this month’s edition, we get a sneak peak at the new features being added to Persona 5 Royal!
Continuing from the previous trailers, Morgana confirms the new name of the combination attacks, “Showtime”! Furthermore, it reveals a new mechanic having to do with “characteristics”; personas can now obtain “characteristics” which allow for certain skills to be obtained. This allows for new builds for your personas and a way to unlock their full potential in battle. The next feature he describes is something that pertains to a feature alluded to in Volume II’s content. You can now use accessories to give your party members skills they could never normally use, as show in the video!
Finally, the biggest reveal is the addition to the Baton Touch/Pass mechanic! Baton Touch now has a ranking system, and depending on your rank, it can give various buffs and effects! The effects shown in the video are an attack buff along with HP and SP recovery. That’s not all though, Morgana explains that if you Baton Touch with all your party members, the last member in the chain can use skills free of HP and SP cost!
That was all that was explained in the new mechanics portion of Morgana News Volume III, there is still a whole lot of new features and places that were revealed in the livestream! Stay tuned for more information on that!
Persona 5: The Royal is being developed and published by Atlus. It is an expansion of the original Persona 5 game for the Playstation 4. It features new gameplay mechanics, palaces, characters and story! It’s expected release date in Japan is October 31st, 2019. Stateside release is still to be decided but it’s expected to release in 2020.
Amiibo function detailed for Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Previews and impressions of Fire Emblem: Three Houses have been making the rounds today. One of the features coming back from previous Fire Emblem games is amiibo functionality.
After finishing the tutorial mission, complete the academy tour as an instructor and the amiibo gazebo will be unlocked. The amiibo gazebo is a special location on academy grounds that allows players to unlock bonuses using amiibo. Scanning amiibo will drop items such as seeds or potions.
In addition, Fire Emblem amiibo will unlock music tracks from previous games in the series! For a full list of the currently unlocked music tracks in Three Houses, visit here.
Will you be using the amiibo gazebo in FE: Three Houses? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter!
You can date whoever you want in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Nintendo confirms.
The newest Fire Emblem entry brings many novelties to the gigantic plate that is Nintendo’s epic strategy fantasy IP.
Three Houses is set in Fódlan, a whole world split into three main nations controlled by obviously three distinct bloodlines. Hence the name Three Houses, the player will be able to pick their house between the three and put their life on the line for the glory of the chosen nation. But the choices don’t stop here. While Nintendo confirmed months ago that dates and romance options are a thing in this game, they recently just confirmed to site USGamer that you can about romance anyone, including same-sex relationships.
Unfortunately, we still do not know the extent of said mechanic and if it’s going to have a true impact on the story and different relationships with characters or if you can literally date anyone without any repercussions à-la Persona 5 but it still is an excellent feature to have as Fire Emblem Three Houses clearly doesn’t shy away from having gorgeous characters that some of us would love to know…more intimately.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a tactical-JRPG releasing the 26th of July worldwide, this year, exclusively to Nintendo Switch. It is developed by Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo Games and published by Nintendo. We are personally excited and we even dropped a poll earlier today just to test waters! Now, we have an idea of which house our readers are aiming towards the most, and so far, it seems like most of you are team Black Eagles!
Retail pre-orders for Cyberpunk 2077 are now available
You can now pre-order the retail version of Cyberpunk 2077! The pre-order page was updated today with a retail version from several different participating stores. The retail version, unlike the digital version, comes with a host of different physical items. You’ll get the case with the game code, soundtrack CDs, the World Compendium, a postcard from Night City, a map, and stickers!
You also get a set of digital items like the digital version. You get the full game soundtrack, an art booklet, the sourcebook from Cyberpunk 2020, and digital wallpapers (for desktop and mobile). If you would like to pre-order the retail version of the game, it’s available from Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop in the US for $59.99. Unfortunately the Collector’s Edition of the game has already sold out in stores.
Cyberpunk 2077 is an upcoming RPG from CD Projekt Red, creators of the popular Witcher game series. You play as a fully customisable mercenary named V, who must venture through the world of Night City. You can go to many different districts, and engage in several missions which change the outcome of the story. The game will be available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One on April 16th, 2020.
Rumor: Amazon Mexico lists October 4th as release date for Luigi’s Mansion 3
Earlier today, a user on ResetEra posted a picture of their Luigi’s Mansion 3 order from Amazon Mexico. What’s interesting though is that the release date has been updated to October 4th, 2019. This does make sense for a number of reasons, as it is on a Friday and it is close to the launch of the Nintendo Switch Lite. Many other ResetEra users are reporting Amazon Mexico also updated their order.
- He may still be cowardly, but Luigi has more tools and abilities at his disposal than ever before. Master Luigi’s new powerful moves of Slam, Suction Shot and Burst
- Team up with Professor E. Gadd’s latest invention, Gooigi, an all-green doppelganger able to slip through tight spaces, walk on spikes, and otherwise help Luigi overcome obstacles he can’t get past alone
- Interchange between Luigi and Gooigi as one player, or grab a friend and control one each at the same time
- Explore the Last Resort, ascending through its differently themed floors full of quirky contraptions and haunting enemies
- Race the timer with up to 8 players to clear objectives on a series of floors in the ScareScraper
What do you think of this rumor? Will you be picking up Luigi’s Mansion 3? Let us know in the comments below, and join the conversation on Twitter!
Everything you need to know to participate in the Minecraft Earth beta
It’s almost here. Mojang and Microsoft are gearing up to open the gates to their builder-friendly take on the Pokemon Go formula in the next couple of weeks for everyone to try out and build a new world around them.
Do you think you are ready for the beta? Just in case you’re not for sure if you have all your steps covered to participate in the upcoming beta for Minecraft Earth, here is some details for you to go over to make sure you are ready to go.
Entering the beta is as simple as signing up. You can head over to the games official website here to go ahead and register. As a bonus, signing up early will get you access to a special skin that naturally looks like the Earth in both Minecraft Earth and Minecraft Bedrock. Please note that registering does not guarantee you access to the Minecraft Earth beta, as only a limited number of participants in certain locations will be let in for the time being. And as always, keep an eye out on your email inbox for that confirmation to see if you got in.
The Minecraft Earth beta will launch on iOS devices sometime in the next two weeks, so sometime by July 25th. The Android version will follow soon after that. At this time, there is no additional information about the Android launch.
As for content, its looking like the beta will provide almost everything that you’ll find in the full game. You’ll be able to explore our local community in block form, pick up Tappables for XP and resources, and drop down Build Plates to make your own creations with friends and family then deploy them into the real world for everyone to explore.
Now if you are selected to be a part of the beta, you will be required to play at least once every seven days. If you don’t, your slot will be given up to someone else so the developers can retain an active pool of testers. And try not to get attached to your progress as the developers say they will occasionally need to reset the game as they test out and add new features throughout the entire beta test run.
Keep an eye out for your beta invites and in case you haven’t yet, head on over to the official site and sign up before it’s too late. Are you going to sign up for the beta? Let us know on Twitter!
Monolith Soft posts three recruitment pages on their website
It appears that Monolith Soft the developers of the Xenoblade Franchise has on their website three recruitment pages as reported by Stealth on twitter. We know Monolith Soft worked on the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as they were a big help, so it makes sense they are helping with the upcoming sequel. It also confirms that they are working on the next Xeno game. It just says “Xeno” so it may not necessarily be Xenoblade but it most likely is. There’s also a recruitement page for their upcoming fantasy IP. This recruitement page just shows how important Monolith Soft has become, as recently they have also surpassed 250 workers. We are all very excited for all three projects they have planned.
MonolithSoft is best known for Xenoblade. Most recently they released the incredible Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on the Nintendo Switch, with it selling incredibly well. They have also assisted with some of Nintendo’s major games, as they have many teams within their studio. For example, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was made by 40 people.
What do you hope MonolithSoft’s next game is? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Valkyrie Anatomia developer Dokidoki Groove Works hiring for large-scale PS4 RPG
Dokidoki Groove Works is now hiring for development of a large-scale PS4 RPG utilizing Unreal Engine 4. It is slated to start-up around August or September and open positions include planners, programmers and graphic artists.
Here’s a statement from their job listing titled, “New PS4 Game Development Project Begins! Make a Hit that Captivates the World”:
This time, it is our pleasure to be participating in the development of a new RPG for PlayStation 4. It is a major project that uses Unreal Engine 4. We will welcome you as members of its development. You should be able to demonstrate your skills and senses to the fullest extent.
The project is scheduled to start-up around August or September, but since we will provide consultation on the day you join the company, please feel free to get in touch with us beforehand.
Won’t you create an interesting game with us that will take players by surprise?
Some of Dokidoki Groove Works’ previous works include Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun for Switch in 2018 and the Square Enix published mobile game, Valkyrie Anatomia: The Origin in 2016.
Let us know what you think about this new RPG set for PS4 in the comments and on Twitter!