Is it just me or am I really starting to have some pull in the video game industry? After releasing my review of the best mech game available on current generation consoles, we get a release date for a new one. Left Alive, a new spin-off from the Front Mission series, will be available on PS4 and Steam on March 5, 2019.
Left Alive is an upcoming third person survival action shooter set in a dark and gritty war torn world. With art designs by Metal Gear character designer Yoji Shinkawa, this game quickly found its way on my “must play” list. Square Enix has shrouded the game heavily in mystery. However, Left Alive plans to tell a story focused on three unique protagonist fighting for survival.
The game will let players decide between stealth and wit gameplay or going guns a blazing against enemies of all sizes. And armor. That’s right, as shown in the trailer, players will be able to pilot giant mechs into battle. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a proper narrative game with heavy man vs machine elements. Unless we’re still counting TitanFall 2, of course.
Let us know in the comments below, does this game excite you as much as it excites me?
Week 9, the drought continues. There hasn’t been any incredible news. E3 approaches ever so slowly but the rate of speculation continues. So here I am making sure to find all the coolest announcements possible. For you, for me, for us, here are the reasons you should feel like a Lucky Gamer this week:
1. Let’s Start Releasing.
We are going to be all over the place with this, so get your pen and pad buddy. Ready? Alright here we go. First off, PSVR is getting a cute little mouse adventure called Moss. The game which actually plays from a third person perspective is coming to the system on February 27th, 2018. Next, the blue bomber is letting us relive some of his memories again in the for of Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 and 2. This new classic remake is coming to Nintendo Switch on May 22nd, 2018 (my birthday!). The wildly rumored Burnout Paradise Remaster was officially announced and given a release date. Expect to race through exploding car crashes on March 16th for PS4 and Xbox One. And just for good measure we’ll throw in a release time frame. The long awaited game from Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment, codenamed P7, is slated for 2019.
2. And now the Death Stranding announcement that’s been baking.
As the slow drips continue to increase, we are lucky enough to receive more information about Death Stranding. Kojima and team have been very tight lipped about the project so any news is cause for excitement. This is particular though I’m pretty excited about. Voice actor Troy Baker and writer and actress Emily O’Brien have joined the cast. This Hollywood level cast continues to flex its muscle by adding a top tier voice actor and an elite actress with writing credentials. This piece of news helps us in absolutely no way at all with the mystery, but at least we know we are in good hands. No if only we get you know, David Hayter, maybe?
3. Paladins and Metal Gear need help surviving !
Released to absolutely no expecting audience, Metal Gear Survive finds its first headlines across the internet in a negative light. The first major piece of DLC comes in the form of paying an additional $10 for an extra in game save slot. Yea, you read that right. $10 to be able to have an extra save slot. It’s outrageous and few people were interested in this game to begin with. I can undeniably confirm that everyone at Konami has lost their damn minds. On the other hand, developers working on Paladins are working tirelessly to remove the controversial loot boxes. Chris Arson from Hi Rez Studios, the developers of Paladins, openly acknowledged how upset they have made loyal fans. He says the peoples voices have been heard and they will be shifting focus on getting rid of the Cards Unbound update. The update allowed players to purchase gear and weapons which gave an advantage over players who made no purchases.
4. Sony Launches “My Playstation”.
Anyone familiar with the convenience of using the Playstation app will tell you it started off terrible but blossomed very well. That may not be the case this time around. Sony just announced a browser based version of the Playstation Network compatible with almost any up to date browser. Similar to the app, this new site will allow users to search for friends, send and respond to messages and friend request, edit their profile, and many other core functions of the Playstation Network. Still no mention of PSN ID changes anytime soon, I know that’s important to some people. I, however, remain ever so content with my PSN ID: SooperVega. Come get this work. Kidding, I’m actually really bad at video games.
5. Watson, come join us at the gaming table.
Take a step into the next level of gaming, where partnerships between gaming companies and computer technology companies are growing at an amazing rate. First we saw Oculus purchased by Facebook, Apple buying AR companies, and now Unity partnering with IBM. This new team up will be working to bring the powerful Watson AI to video games. The announcement of the “IBM Watson Unity SDK” is already live in the Unity asset store and will allow developers to integrate the cloud based AI in their games. The hope is that this combined set of tools will unlock a brand new potential in the world of AR and VR, with obvious benefits for standard games as well. Who knows, is the world ready for such powerful AI? Does this mean NPC’s will now always remember that one time I hit them pretty hard while testing my new weapons? Find out on the next episode of – Sorry I’ve been watching Dragon Ball Super.
6. Barbie goes tomb raiding.
As Tomb Raider continues to become the first video game franchise to truly succeed in crossing mediums, we get to see another cool partnership. Mattel has announced that a Tomb Raider edition Barbie will be available for $29.99. The new collectible figure is based on and model after actress Alicia Vikander’s upcoming portrayal of the gaming icon. Rebooting Tomb Raider has ended up being an all around success so far, let’s see how the film does. The figure also comes with all the necessary tomb raiding tools like a map, axe, journal, and certificate of authenticity. That last tool is critical, that’s what gets the bad stuff to happen so you can escape it.
7. Net Neutrality Scheduled to officially end in April.
Sorry to take this moment to get political for a moment but I think all gamers can agree this is important. Net neutrality is scheduled to officially go bye bye on April 23rd. For those who don’t understand what Net Neutrality is, here’s a quick summary. Net Neutrality allows the government to treat internet as a base utility, like gas or electric. This prevents private companies from being able to out do smaller companies by offering more money to block other out. Example: a small gaming website like ours vs a major conglomerate like IGN; they have a larger budget than us, so if a major internet provider said, pay more to allow your visitors more bandwidth on your site, they would immediately win that war. (This is not a real situation yet, although it is plausible, sorry IGN just keeping it real, love you) Don’t take my word for it, go do your own research. Involve yourself and take action, let’s be the changes we want to see in the world.
One day while fiddling around in a character creation screen, I realized something important: I like playing as a female when I get to choose. Take whatever you want from that, but ever since I stopped attempting to put my ugly mug into a game and embraced my inner femininity, I am now happy to play as a girl. So when the “create your avatar” screen popped up in the very beginning of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – Tactical Espionage Operations; A Hideo Kojima Game Directed & Produced by Hideo Kojima, I couldn’t bring myself to care about what this avatar looked like. Epic trolling on the developer’s part since you don’t play as that character after you design them.
But then something interesting happens later on in MGSV:TPP-TEOaHKGD&PbHK, as you find out you actually can put people you recruit into the field, not only to play the side-ops missions, but full story missions too. Now, you don’t get to see this character in the cutscenes, you are still Snake in the cutscenes (I don’t expect them to pre-render thousands of characters just for this sake), but the prospect of playing as Not-Snake is not only fun, but beneficial to your character as it raises his/her stats. That’s right, his OR her stats. Because sometimes women get recruited to your base, and if you put them in the Combat Unit Staff, you can then play as them. One of the earliest recruits you get is “Amber Fox”, a blonde woman with a crew cut and a foxhound tattoo on her face. So, essentially she’s some sort of combination of Faith from Mirror’s Edge (tattoo-wise) and Jean Seberg from some pretentious french films you’ll never watch.
