Grotty fantasy Soulslike Lords of the Fallen – which I have been cautiously looking forward to, despite Ed’s efforts to temper my expectations – is getting its chainmail-wearing arse kicked by Steam players. It seems to be selling well, squatting at third on the platform’s global top seller charts by revenue, but the user review consensus tells a different story. There are 1,320 reviews at the time of writing, and they are Mostly Negative, which is quite the showing for a game’s first day on sale.
The next game in RGG Studio’s Yakuza/Like A Dragon series, Infinite Wealth, is a melting pot of old and new. As the bare buttocks of returning Yakuza: Like A Dragon hero Ichiban Kasuga indicated in the reveal trailer for Infinite Wealth, we’re not in Yokohama anymore, but Honolulu, Hawaii. He’s not alone on his journey either. As well as his mates from the first LAD, plus lots more newcomers, mainline Yakuza stablemate Kazuma Kiryu, now extra frosty with his silver hairdo, is also coming along for the ride as well.
Alas, the circumstances in which the two join forces wasn’t covered in my 30-minute demo at this year’s EGX. Rather, we pick up Ichiban, Kiryu and fresh faces Chitose and Tomizawa as they land in Honolulu, in search of a dodgy cop named Roman who’s managed to wrong almost everyone in the group at some point in the past. 30 minutes isn’t long in a game like Yakuza, but hey, I still got to screech at restaurant goers in one of its sidequest stories, as well as terrorise the general public on Ichiban’s always-deployable segway, which I’d still call a pretty strong introduction to this latest LAD.
Microsoft have finally, finally, finally bought Activision Blizzard after many months of haggling with regulators in several countries. The total figure for the company behind Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Overwatch and Hearthstone, to say nothing of whopping mobile game publisher King and Candy Crush Saga? $68.7 billion, making this the biggest buyout in videogames industry history.
DICE’s once-ramshackle, apparently much-improved near-future shooterBattlefield 2042 is free to play this weekend, granting access to the game’s Season 6 “Dark Creations” content offerings, amongst other things. BUT WAIT. There’s an asterisk over the word “free” on the promo art! Everybody drop to cover! See, these are the tiny details you have to watch out for in Battlefield. That asterisk could be the equivalent of the glint on a sniper rifle, aimed squarely at your wallet, purse and/or khaki-coloured bumbag. Let’s zoom in…
Social media users are attempting to pass off videos of Bohemia Interactive’s military shooter Arma 3 as real-life footage of the on-going Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which erupted into open war this week. Several of these mocked-up videos have circulated on Tik-Tok and Xitter, one of them purporting to show a member of the Hamas group shooting down Israeli helicopters. Bohemia Interactive have now released a statement calling on their community to publish and share Arma 3 footage responsibly, while offering advice on how to spot a fake.
How about a little something to lower your spirits? FoxNext have announced that they’re delisting or, ugh, “sunsetting” 505 Go’s Alien: Blackout, the surprisingly solid mobile and tablet horror game you could summarise as Five Nights at Freddy’s, if Freddy’s were a subsidiary of Weyland-Yutani. You’ve got until 31st October to play it, after which all development and support for Blackout will cease and the game will no longer be available to buy.
It’s a beautiful day on the island. The waves are nibbling playfully at the shoreline, the farmyard animals are shuffling about happily in their pens, your little sister is bouncing around being a perfect nuisance like always. Time to get busy, then. The cows need to be milked, the eggs need to be gathered from the chicken coop, the seeds need to be sowed and watered.
You might find an hour to do a bit scavenging, here and there – gathering mussels from the rocks at low tide, or putting aside some wood for that pier your dad asked you to build. Just, don’t forget the gods. The gods have needs too. Today it’s crabs. Tomorrow? Who knows.
Good news, people who prefer their videogame graphics crispy rather than hazy and rainbow-edged! Ubisoft are working on an Assassin’s Creed: Mirage patch that will let you toggle off chromatic aberration – aka the blurring of outlines and details for artistic effect, which you might consider appropriate to a game subtitled “Mirage”, but which some people absolutely despise.
Valve are introducing text message verification for game developers using Steamworks, following what the platform-holders describe as a limited incident which saw hackers taking over several Steamworks accounts and adding malware to their games. Reportedly, fewer than 100 Steam players have been affected by the malware – I hope you’re not among them.
Despite the extremely upsetting news about what nate has been having for breakfast this year, we maintain our composure to deliver an episode of The Electronic Wireless Show podcast all about the Steam Next Fest, currently running until next Monday the 16th. You’ve got a whole weekend of free demos to try, and we’ve knocked back a few to regurgitate into your open mouths as suggestions for what to try first. Plus, we’ve been playing a few current games, and have some juicy recommendations of non-game things.
