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After cracking open its virtual Pandora’s Box using the magical key of “shooting it with a lot of bullets”, Fortnite’s mythical next season is due to roll out later today. Chapter 5 Season 2 – or Myths & Mortals, if you prefer – will bring a pantheon of god powers, locations from Greek mythology and, uh, Korra from the Avatar: The Last Airbender sequel, who has a gun now I guess.
Akira Toriyama, the mangaka whose work in video games included designing the characters for two of the most influential RPGs ever made, Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest, on top of creating one of the most influential series across all of pop-culture in Dragon Ball, has passed away.
I’m beginning to think we should bury Vampire: The Masquerade back in the forsaken graveyard where it was originally dug up, or at least banish the toothy reprobate back to its pen & paper castle. I don’t know how White Wolf’s RPG is viewed in the land of table tops these days, but here in computerville it has delivered exactly one good video game in the last 25 years (and don’t come gibbering to me about 2022’s Swansong, it wasn’t fit to polish Bloodlines’ fangs). Sure, Bloodlines 2 might prove a winner, but given years of delays and a developer change, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Which brings us to Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice, the beleaguered series’ first prowl through the rain-slick streets of VR. In theory, this should be exactly my cup of haemoglobin; a gothic, linear stealth game where you use your vampire powers to sneak across the rooftops of Venice. In its mechanics and design, Justice aspires to be a cut down version of Dishonored. Unfortunately, it’s in the cutting down where most of its problems arise. It’s too cramped, too basic, and too fuzzy around the edges, and the whole experience ends up being a bit mid.
The second part of Dune is out at the moment, and it has resulted in that most filthy of perversions, discourse – a pastime in which only the most unsavoury characters indulge. Is Dune appropriative? Is the appropriation the point? Whatever the case, Funcom want you to know that their upcoming survival game Dune: Awakening has nothing to do with any of that, posting a short Xeet from the official Awakening account that’s the written equivalent of sticking your arms straight out, waving your hands, and going “Woahwoahwoah, hang on a minute.”
“We agree that religion is an integral part of the Dune universe. This is why in Dune: Awakening you will meet and interact with people of different religions along your journey. However, as opposed to the story presented in the books, the player is not a messiah and will not play a major role in any of them. Leading people on a holy war is not why you arrive on Arrakis,” reads the post in full. Personally, I approve of this effort to keep games apolitical. Politics? In my Dune. No thank you. I am of course being facetious. There is still religion and politics in Dune: Awakening, as confirmed by the statement, but you yourself aren’t doing much of it.
Well before anointing Warhammer 40,000: Darktide as this month’s RPS Game Club game, I’ve wanted to talk about its rock. The rock. The best rock. Best Darktide rocks 2024, number one: the rock.
Dragon’s Dogma series director Hideaki Itsuno has announced that the meat you can cook over campfires in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is, in fact, “real meat”. There’s been a certain amount of PlayStation-instigated speculation about whether the meat is CGI-generated, following the last round of Dragon’s Dogma 2 previews. Speaking to Japanese site 4Gamer, as translated by Automaton, Itsuno revealed that the game’s scenes of sizzling flesh are derived from live action film of steaks being grilled – partly for the sake of authenticity, and partly to save money versus creating computer models of meat products. You can cook several types of meat in Dragon’s Dogma, each of which has its own cutscene, and a number of Dragon’s Dogmatists are already performatively salivating at the prospect on social media.
Developers Arrowhead said that Helldivers 2‘s mechs were “ready for deployment” a couple of days ago, but what they didn’t tell us was how to unlock them. And in what I think is a rather refreshing live service twist, it’s up to us honourable Helldivers to liberate the planet of Tien Kwan if we want those sweet, sweet mechs. Get me in there, chief.
The trailer for Overwatch 2‘s Cowboy Bebop collaboration looks pretty good when judged in terms of style and costume design. It’s even better when judged as it should be: by its music.
The upside of things being bad is that you don’t have to pay attention to them. Think of the time you’ve saved, in life, by movies, TV shows and video games being rubbish, and therefore culturally irrelevant and safely ignored.
In some ways, then, it’s a problem that the Fallout TV show looks good in its latest trailer. You might have to watch it when it releases on Amazon Prime on April 11th.
One of the sillier aspects of the original Dragon’s Dogma was accidentally falling head over heels for some rando innkeeper, and having them appear beside you as your sweetheart during the ending scenes, much to the surprise of many players who didn’t realise they were hitting on every NPC they did a favour for.
The game’s Affinity system saw NPCs organically forming an attachment to players when you interacted with them, gave them things or carried out tasks for them. Towards the conclusion, one NPC is selected as “Beloved” and promptly abducted by a dragon for you to quest forth and rescue. There are a few characters who are positioned more obviously as romanceables, but the brilliance of the system is that you can raise your Affinity with pretty much anybody. If you want to finish the game staring passionately into the eyes of the court jester or that hearty bloke who runs the armour shop, it’s within your power.
