Developer Drama, Switch Releases, and TGS2017
Wowzers! First and foremost I want to make a formal complaint. I was extremely annoyed by both Marvel VS Capcom and Destiny 2 needing 3 hour updates when I first tried to play. Not cool. Now on to the news, whether good or bad, that everyone wants to hear. However, a brief prayer goes out to our gaming friends over in Puerto Rico. That hurricane hit them hard, from all of us at HMG we wish you a speedy recovery and hope you can join us on the gaming field again soon. On to the shenanigans.
1. Playerunknown’s Battleground developer Bluehole lashes out?
In an interesting turn of events, Fortnite Battle Royale, a game which was already making medium sized headlines on its own, is making huge headlines. Primarily due to upsetting the cry baby Chang Han Kim for sharing so many similarities with the game his team created. Now it is very important to note that Fortnite Battle Royale, which is a new free to play mode, is very much like PUBG in the same way that Need For Speed and Midnight Club are very much the same. With Bluehole already threatening legal action it will be very interesting to see how this plays out over the next few weeks. Regardless, Fortnite Battle Royale launches on September 26th across all platforms, except Switch. The game even accidentally featured cross platform play between PS4, Xbox One, & PC! So, I guess when you take that into consideration I would be crying a tad bit as well.
2. It’s the return of the Duke!
Let’s put this out in the open for anyone who isn’t wildly aware: I am a Playstation fanboy. No shame at all. One of the primary reason I stuck with Playstation at the beginning of the fan war was because I preferred the DualShock controller to the Xbox behemoth known as the Duke controller. This is why this piece of news is extremely baffling for me. Microsoft approved the remake of the classic Duke controller for the Xbox One. My immediate though, as a Playstation Fan, was who wants this? Why in the world would anyone be interested in going back to that awful remote? Then I did my investigative journalism, (i.e. googled what is going on) and found that the remake will replace the center logo with an OLED screen. That explains everything. [Edit: People with BIG HANDS also like the controller. Also, as an Xbox early adopter, I get a bit nostalgic for that monstrosity and this looks amazing.]
3. Jump Gaming
Jump, a service from Jump Gaming was announced back in July and positioned itself as the “Netflix of Indie Games”. The service currently offers 60 games with a huge focus on growing its library. The jump service is now available and offers a free 14 day trial for anyone interested in trying out the service. Unfortunately us console gamers will once again have to kick back and play our games the old way as Jump is currently only available on Windows, Mac, or Linux. If you fall in love with the service in the first 14 days, keeping your membership will cost you $9.99. I personally am really falling in love with this $10 a month buffet style entertainment services.
4. The Witness puzzles us on the go.
The unique puzzle game from Jonathan Blow which originally launched on PS4 and PC in 2016, will now be available on iOS. You’ll get to hurt your brain trying to figure out these intricate puzzles on your iPhone (perhaps a brand new iPhone 8) or iPad wherever you go for only $9.99. No word on whether the game will be coming to the elite Android OS yet, but I can’t imagine any reason the equally powerful competition wouldn’t get it. As far as the game goes, it is a critically acclaimed masterpiece of mystery and confusion. Good luck!
5. Inside is going outside.
The really interesting side scrolling adventure is going to be available on a Nintendo Switch near you. That’s not all though, Inside will also be arriving on iOS as well. Pricing and details revolving the release have yet to be announced and once again no mention of an Android version in the works at this time. Inside, similar to The Witness, was a critically acclaimed game that truly helps the player appreciate games as art. Keep an eye out on the newly updated iOS App store for more information on the iOS release. Everyone knows that nobody actually owns a Nintendo Switch to play any of these games on.
6. The Playstation strikes back!
Tokyo Games Show happened and Sony showed up to the party with a mini arsenal. And no I’m not talking about the angry version of Green Arrow’s sidekick. Monster Hunter World was given a release date of January 25th, 2018 along with a Japan exclusive PS4 Pro. Dragon’s Crown, one of the most popular PS Vita games is officially coming to PS4. Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner is getting a remaster with… wait for it… VR support. Good Lord! the only news better than that was the announcement of a brand new IP called Left Alive (not Left for Dead or I Am Alive, that’s something else) set in the Front Mission/Armored Core universe. Not much was revealed but the trailer looks amazing. There was a crap ton of announcements made regarding the Playstation future this week but Grandmaster Chet already did a really nice recap so you can check it all out here. Kidding no he didn’t, that’s my job and I didn’t either.
7. Sad, sad news for the Vampyr kingdom.
One of the most exciting games on my holiday radar was just pushed into the spring of 2018. Part of me is upset, part of me is relieved. Dontnod Entertainment stated that some technical issued held up the development and they don’t believe meeting the deadline was worth risking the quality of the game. I support this stance entirely for every game. I support it moreso with Vampyr as we haven’t had a good (or really any) vampire game in a really long time. So they can’t screw this up. I moreso moreso support this because now Chet will be able to rip out less hair trying to figure out how to divide games for review. Yay tech issues!