Author: Game Infliction

Tough boss fights are the highlight of any Team Ninja action game, and it looks like Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will be no different. For today’s IGN First, here’s an exclusive first look at one of the game’s earlier bosses, Aoye. Aoye is a fictional creature that appears in the ancient Chinese text Shan Hai Jing, also known as Classic of Mountains and Seas. It is described as a bull-like being with long hair reminiscent of a straw rain-cape.

In Wo Long, Aoye appears as a giant monster that attacks with its long hair and creepy tentacles. While it often lays itself open to attack, each of Aoye’s strikes are heavy and can be fatal. Aoye also has an attack that spreads ice throughout the battle area, which makes it necessary for the player to fight carefully within a more confined environment.

In our gameplay video with Aoye (see it at the top of the page, and then check the 10 minutes of new gameplay we had last week directly above if you missed it), the player character wields the Halberd, a never-before-shown weapon type. Here’s what director Masakazu Hirayama has to say about it.

“The Halberd is best known for warlord Lu Bu’s Sky-Piercing Halberd. It’s a heavy weapon that can mow down enemies like the Glaive. At the same time, it also has some long-range vertical thrusting attacks like the Spear. Utilizing the Halberd’s shape, this weapon type also has a Martial Art (a powerful move that differs per individual weapon) in which you can hook a far away enemy with your blade. You can use this attack to draw the enemy towards yourself and attack from a closer range.”

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is set to release on March 3 for PS5/PS4/Xbox Series X|S/Xbox One/PC and will be available on Xbox Game Pass day one. With Wo Long as January’s IGN First, expect many more exclusives throughout this month. Be sure to check out our gameplay video of the TIanzhushan area as well as a detailed article on the game’s weapons.

Esra Krabbe is an editor at IGN Japan. He wants to master Wo Long’s Staff.

An estimated 20 developers who worked on The Callisto Protocol were reportedly left out of the game’s credits by Striking Distance Studios.

According to GI.biz article, the individuals omitted from the end game credits included senior developers, directors, team leads, and a number of employees who worked on the project for over a year and contributed heavily to the game.

“I understand if a contractor does a small amount of work for a few months and is left off, but we’re talking full-time employees with over a year invested in the title, and had a hand in significant parts of the product,” said one unnamed developer. “That’s where the surprise has come from for a lot of us.”

Sources also aired grievances related to the general level of inconsistency present in the crediting of The Callisto Protocol. A number of developers were labelled as having provided “additional” help, while others were clumped together into a “miscellaneous” category that came at the very end of the credits.

“There was definitely some amount of playing favourites with the people who got credited,” said another source. “My impression is that they pretty much picked people they liked or had some sort of relationship with, and those would get credit and the others wouldn’t.”

Furthermore, according to the sources, Striking Distance Studios had not communicated any policy explaining that developers would be omitted from The Callisto Protocol’s credits if they left before the project was complete.

In a Tweet prior to The Callisto Protocol’s December 2022 release, Glen Schofield revealed that the team had been crunching to get the game ready for launch by working long hours for “six to seven days a week”.

In a subsequent interview with Inverse, Schofield took responsibility for the intense development cycle. “We’re a small-ish team and we were so good about it through the entire development, but at the end I messed up and we worked more than we should have,” he said. “That one got away from us”.

The intense working conditions leading up to the release of the game made being left out of the credits particularly difficult for one of the unnamed sources.

“Game [development] can be intense, especially delivering a product of this magnitude, you don’t always strike the best work-life balance,” said the unnamed developer. “My issue is those of us who took part in that culture, who put in that time, and worked intensely to help craft this product, were punished with a credit omission for not going the extra mile… to stay until it shipped.”

The sources also commented that the studio’s approach to the crunch conditions were contradictory, with representatives stating in meetings that steps would be taken to address the workload, and then later praising those who worked long hours.

Despite the crunch conditions, a number of the sources reported enjoying their time working at the studio while giving their own view as to why developers were left out of the near 20-minute credit roll.

“I actually had a great time working there, and I felt I had a great relationship with everyone on the team, up to the C-staff and Glen,” another source is quoted as saying. “I don’t have anything bad to say about Glen… The only time there was some friction was on exit, and I think devs who left were punished with credit omissions.”

Another disgruntled source echoed this sentiment. “I think the Sledgehammer guys like loyalty, and they can be punitive if they detect a lack of it… [The credits omission] felt like an obvious F-U to those who were left out. Somebody wanted to send a message, and the message was, ‘Next time have a bit more loyalty to us.'”

In our review, IGN awarded The Callisto Protocol a 7/10, stating that it was “a satisfyingly gory spiritual successor to the Dead Space series, but it’s ultimately more of a striking modern mimic than a scary new mutation.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer