With the Christmas chocolates finally dwindling in number, we think it’s fair to say that 2023 is well under way. And as the year kicks off, so too do we see the return of gaming news — nature is healing, people!
It’s set to be a massive year for the Zelda series with the sequel to Breath of the Wild launching this May. As excited as many fans are about the future, many can’t help but reflect on just how long it’s now been since the original game’s iconic reveals.
Google Stadia is officially shutting down on January 18, and the team behind the video game streaming service has gifted the world Worm Game, the final title that will be released for the platform and one that was used to test many of Stadia’s features before it launched.
Worm Game can be played now by anyone with a Google Chrome browser, and it is very much inspired by the classic game Snake. It’s not the most advanced game graphically, but it does have multiple levels, the ability to change the color of your worm, and four modes – Campaign, Arcade, Multiplayer, and Build.
It’s also important to note that, if you’d like to try Worm Game, you need to do so by January 18 as it will become unplayable when Google Stadia is officially shut down.
It’s a rare glimpse behind the curtain of game development, and it is a fascinating look at how the team helped bring Stadia to life.
“Play the game that came to Stadia before Stadia came to the world,” The Stadia Platform Content team wrote. “‘Worm Game’ is a humble title we used to test many of Stadia’s features, starting well before our 2019 public launch, right through 2022. It won’t win Game of the Year, but the Stadia team spent a LOT of time playing it, and we thought we’d share it with you. Thanks for playing, and for everything.”
Alongside Worm Game, the Stadia team has one other surprise in store for those who invested in the failed platform, as it will be releasing a “self-serve tool to enable Bluetooth connections on your Stadia Controller” next week. We don’t have the exact details as to how it will work as of yet, but those will come “on release.”
Google Stadia launched in 2019 and is a cloud gaming service that allows users to stream video games, including such AAA titles as Cyberpunk 2022 and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, to devices that have Google Chrome. It doesn’t matter how powerful the device is either, as everything is run on Google’s cloud service.
The pink puff Kirby is still kind of celebrating his 30th birthday and to close the celebrations it seems there’ll be a special panel taking place this March at the 2023 Game Developers Conference.
According to the official website, this panel will be a “design session” featuring developers Shinya Kumazaki and Tatsuya Kamiyama. It will focus on Kirby and the Forgotten Land and how it made the leap into the 3D world, along with the new features it adds to the long-running series. This also lines up with the game’s first anniversary.
Pre-order Shoulders of Giants today on the Xbox Store, available January 26
After almost three years of development, we’re overjoyed to announce that Shoulders of Giants is now available for pre-order. The game will be released on January 26, 2023, on Xbox! Check out the newest trailer above featuring a mix of single-player and co-op mayhem.
One of the very first ideas we had when we started making Shoulders of Giants, was the silhouette of a smaller character riding on the back of a much bigger character. And then we thought, what if you could control both of these characters at once? How would that work? Would that be fun?
It took a lot of experimentation and prototyping to find the sweet spot, and an experience that felt fresh yet familiar. We thought, what if we split up types of combat between these characters, one character does all the melee, and is a big powerful mech? And the other character perched atop its back a small, nimble, gun wielding frog?
Once we found this combination, we knew we had found the core of the game. The next question we asked ourselves was, what type of world would these characters be in? What would their goal be in the game?
We have always been huge fans of science fiction, and knew we wanted a world where there was a dark force these heroes had to overcome, the classic theme of dark versus light. But how could we actually take this theme and create an interactive way for the player to experience it?
We imagined after an intense boss battle having the entire world transform from barren and dark, to vibrant, lush and full of life in a cinematic way. We experimented with real-time ways the player could do this, and found it to be fun and exciting and it became a pillar of the players abilities.
Speaking of abilities, the last core idea behind the game was that we wanted Shoulders of Giants to feel like a colorful playground with a huge arsenal of sci-fi gadgets and weapons for the player to explore and tinker with.
Players encounter weapons and abilities like a firework-shooting grenade launcher, a giant stomping shoe, a surfable shield, and much more. The core combat is all about experimenting with different combinations of equipment to find that amazing combo that keeps things feeling fresh and exciting.
While combat is the main gameplay pillar, we knew that we wanted a story for the game to take place in and for the characters and world to feel grounded too. The forces of entropy have taken over the universe, it is the players job to combat this dark force and to restore order and balance back to the universe.
As you beat more levels and save more worlds from the forces of entropy, you will build up your heat meter, allowing you to access increasingly difficult levels. As you pass certain heat thresholds, you will unlock special story boss encounters as you make your way to the final boss.
Along the way, you will acquire new weapons for both Froggie and the heroic Robot of the Galaxy as well as new pieces of armor, XP to spend on your skill tree, and dyes to further customize the look of your characters.
While you can customize your own frog and robot with dozens of cosmetics that are unlockable in-game, the four above can only be acquired as a bonus for pre-ordering the game:
This pre-order bonus includes four color sets, so you and up to three co-op friends can save the universe in style right from the start of the game.
Even better, the game is 20% off during this pre-order period. For more information, check out the game’s store page and official website, or join our discord.
Simultaneously control a sword-wielding robot and a gunslinging space frog in Shoulders of Giants, an explosively colorful sci-fi roguelike. Play alone, with a friend, or as part of a four-person team, cutting through waves of enemies on a quest to rescue the galaxy!
The forces of Entropy are spreading chaos through the stars, corrupting living planets and urging on the heat death of the universe. Led by the psychic Owl, one scrappy team of space survivors are fighting to restore the balance. A mysterious mech! A sharpshooting amphibian! Together they must cut through waves of enemies and restore light and life to the galaxy!
Pre-order the game for access to limited-edition dye sets with special visual effects. Dazzle your friends!
Horror film legend John Carpenter really, really loves Dead Space. The director of The Thing, Halloween, and Escape From New York has talked about it extensively in the past. And amidst his love of the series, Carpenter may have just inadvertently teased a film adaptation before it was ever officially revealed.
In an interview with Variety, the publication nudged Carpenter on his pastremarks about wanting to make a Dead Space film. In response, Carpenter backpedaled pretty significantly on the idea that he might be involved, but at the end let slip that “another director” was involved…implying such a thing exists in the first place.
“I’m a big video game fan, so I played all the [Dead Space] games,” Carpenter said. “I was down looking at the new digital cameras, the RED, and happened to mention to them that I would love to do a ‘Dead Space’ film. That just went around, and everybody said, ‘Oh, when are you gonna do it?’ I’m not gonna do it. I think they already have another director involved. And they haven’t asked me to do it. So until someone asks me, I wouldn’t do it. But there’s a new version of the ‘Dead Space’ video game coming out in January, and I’m there.”
It sounds like even if he’s not directing, Carpenter will be front and center as a fan for both the upcoming game, and whatever film adaptation may or may not be cooking. Elsewhere in the same interview, he said that a “perfect day” for him would involve getting up late, watching the news, playing a video game, watching basketball, and going to bed. Sounds pretty good.
Beyond Good & Evil 2, Ubisoft’s open world follow up to the cult classic I’m too young to have played. We haven’t seen hide nor genetically modified pig tail of it since 2018, but rest assured, it lives.
That’s despite the most recent swing of Ubisoft’s game-cancelling scythe, which was brought down on three unannounced games last week due to the company’s underperforming sales.
A League of Legends spinoff title for PC and consoles is reportedly in the works.
First reported by Polygon, the leak comes from South Korea’s games rating committee. According to the leak, the game is titled Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story and has been rated for PC and console.
Riot Games’ New Action Game for PC – The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story has been leaked by South Korea’s Game Ratings Committee. Players play Sylas to save Demacia. pic.twitter.com/UeD17TlynN
The game could apparently star Sylas on a quest to save Demacia. Demacia is one of the kingdoms in League of Legends, ands has often been depcted as a kingdom in turmoil. Sylas is a champion who was added to League of Legends back in early 2019. Also known as Sylas the Unshackled, the character’s basic attack in League of Legends whirls chains around him, damaging nearby enemies.
His equipment could lend itself nicely to an action title, with chain whips evoking memories of God of War’s Kratos or Castlevania’s Simon Belmont. The character also uses stone and steel magic attacks, and as you level the character up, Sylas can also Hijack the powers of opponents. We’ll have to wait and see what the gameplay looks like when and if it’s officially revealed.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
A classic turn-based RPG in the style of Dragon Quest is not exactly the first place my mind goes when it comes to thinking of game genres that would pair well with the action-heavy world of One Piece, but as One Piece Odyssey proves, it’s actually kind of a great fit. The Straw Hats make for one hell of a party of RPG characters; Eichiro Oda’s one-of-a-kind art style lends itself well to filling the world with fantastical and amusing creatures; and the over-the-top nature of battles from the actual manga and anime gives plenty of material for some of the coolest (and funniest) special attacks I’ve seen in any turn-based RPG. Those fights would’ve been better if they were a more consistent challenge, and I could’ve done with less backtracking through areas I’d already explored, but this is still a surprisingly satisfying JRPG that’s not quite by the numbers.
The story begins with Luffy and crew suddenly finding themselves marooned on the mysterious island of Waford. It isn’t long before they meet two original characters: Lim and Adio, who have an understandably deep distrust of pirates. So much so that, upon first meeting, they steal the powers of the Straw Hats, providing a convenient way to explain why Luffy and company don’t win every battle just by looking at their enemies. (Though, that does come later.)
What follows is a grand story that plays out on two fronts: The adventure in Waford sees The Straw Hat crew attempting to help Adio and Lim by defeating a handful of elemental colossi that are responsible for the giant storm that surrounds the island (I know, what’s the worst that could happen?); and another that plays out in Memoria, a world of memory created through Lim’s special ability that allows the Straw Hats to revisit specific locations and events in their history. The revelations and twists won’t shock anybody, but I still very much enjoyed both sides of Odyssey’s story. Lim, especially, is a wonderful addition to the cast, and I loved watching her go from being extremely wary and cold towards the crew to being intrigued and occasionally flabbergasted by each of their individual quirks, and eventually fully embracing the Straw Hats as her friends.
Odyssey is aimed directly at long-time One Piece fans.
It should be noted that Odyssey is aimed directly at long-time One Piece fans, with its story picking up well after the Dressrosa arc (about 750 episodes in), and it is not shy about diving deep into some of the biggest surprises of the show. This makes it a tough recommendation for anybody new to the series, but if you’re deeply invested in the world and characters of One Piece, there are some really great payoffs in the Memoria chapters. These come in the form of “what if”-like scenarios that have the crew revisiting pivotal moments from the series with new perspectives. Even small things, like the crew reacting to seeing the Going Merry docked at Alabasta, is a moment that provides a powerful emotional gut punch for any long-time fan like myself. Moments like these are the heart of One Piece Odyssey’s story, and they’re brought to life brilliantly thanks to writing that feels totally in step with the anime and manga, excellent performances, and a fantastic art style that authentically translates the unique style of One Piece to 3D.
A Straw Hat Scrap
One Piece Odyssey’s combat is refreshingly simple, though that simplicity does wind up being a double-edged sword. The traditional turn-based combat is powered by a rock/paper/scissors logic that assigns every party member, enemy, and boss a damage type of either power, speed, or technique. Power beats speed, technique beats power, and speed beats technique. What makes this system work is that there’s no traditional turn order, and you can just freely pick whatever character you want to take the first move in combat. Even if they’re not in your active party of four characters, you can freely swap them in without taking up a turn. You’re also able to see which of your enemies will be next up to take their turn and try and plan around that as well. Once all four characters in your active party have taken an action, the round of combat ends and everyone is able to act once again.
The one complication to all of this is that there are multiple zones in the combat field, and in order for one character to move from one to another, they must first defeat all of the enemies in their own zone. So on paper, there’s some strategy involved in deciding the order of which of your characters should attack first. Let’s say for example, there’s a group of enemies in one zone that have a weakness to Technique, but my strongest technique character, Zoro, is stuck in a zone with a single enemy that’s weak to Speed. I can have Usopp, my Speed character, go first by using a ranged attack to hit enemies in other zones to free up Zoro; then, Zoro can clean up the other zone with one of his attacks that hit multiple enemies.
One Piece Odyssey is so easy for 95% of its battles that strategy is rarely required.
That’s an example of how the strategy could come into play. The problem is that One Piece Odyssey is so easy for 95% of its battles that strategy is rarely required, and there’s no way to adjust the difficulty. I never grinded – in fact, I ran past a lot of enemies that could’ve given me even more exp – and still felt wildly overpowered for most of the 40 or so hours it took me to reach the end. A lot of this stems from the Dramatic Scenes system, which randomly gives you an additional objective during certain enemy encounters. They’re almost always trivially easy, like “defeat enemy C before a crew member gets knocked out,” but the bonus they reward is just astronomical, sometimes doubling or more than tripling the amount of exp earned for a single fight. I’ve fought packs of rats that gave more exp than big, chapter-ending boss battles. That just seems poorly balanced.
Towards the very end there’s a significant bump in difficulty, but even then I never felt like it made for more challenging or particularly fun battles. It was more that it forced me to pay more attention to my characters’ equipment loadouts, which at least is fun in its own right. Rather than find new weapons or pieces of armor, you find accessories of varying sizes and shapes that you must fit onto an ever-expanding grid. It’s a very flexible system that allows you to assign your own roles to each character, and just as easily switch them up if you want to focus on a different character or bolster a different attribute. You could even make Nami your big damage dealer by loading her up with attack gear, which is surprisingly effective given the fact that for a while, she’s the only character that can hit every, regardless of what zone they’re in. Eventually, you gain the ability to fuse these artifacts and add up to four effects on them, allowing you to really turn your party into absolute beasts.
Despite the lack of tension during fights, I still enjoyed Odyssey’s combat overall, mainly because the special skills are so much fun to watch. They absolutely nail the look, impact, and comedy found in just about every notable attack used by the Straw Hats. Whether it’s the ridiculousness of Usopp’s Rubber Band of Doom, the absolute badassery of virtually any of Zoro’s moves, or the sheer devastation of Luffy’s Gear 3rd and 4th abilities. The attention to detail when it comes to how the developers took these iconic moves from the source material and put them into Odyssey is truly something to behold.
In Memoria
In your journey through Memoria, you’ll visit four main locations from One Piece’s storied history and credit goes to developer ILCA for doing an amazing job of making each of them feel like real, lived-in locations. The Kingdom of Alabasta is enormous, with two bustling towns to explore – Nanohana and Alubarna – and vast deserts connecting them; Water Seven has the vibe of a chill Venetian city with rivers running alongside its many streets; and while you only to get to explore it after all of the birdcage related madness goes down, there’s a chilling sense of grief and overwhelming loss as you walk the streets of the recently ravaged kingdom of Dressrosa.
Of the four, the only one that wore out its welcome was the very first Memoria location of Alabasta. The main quest pads out its length by bouncing you back and forth between locations you’ve already visited, sending you on a bunch of errands and fetch quests, and forcing you through drab caves. It’s a very slow burn to get to the actual meat of the story you’re reliving, and it’s made especially repetitive due to the fact that you don’t get any new techniques or abilities when you level up. Instead, you just unlock a ton of abilities at once at the conclusion of the chapter, making the feeling of progress uneven. So it’s just hours of the same types of battles against mostly the same types of enemies until you reach the end of this one extraordinarily long chapter.
The main quest bounces you back and forth between locations you’ve already visited.
It was especially a bummer for me because Alabasta is one of my personal favorite One Piece arcs. Fortunately, the others strike a better balance of keeping their main quest pointed and focused on the story, while relegating the more menial tasks to optional sidequests, of which there are many, though few of which were actually compelling to start or rewarding to complete. The Hysteria sidemissions are the notable exception, as they at least reward you with neat team-up special moves that gather up three party members for a single super powerful attack.
Outside of Memoria you’ll explore a handful of more puzzle-focused dungeons, which typicallsy require you to use each individual character’s unique field techniques. Luffy can use grapple points to cross gaps as well as grab items from a distance, Usopp can use his slingshot to knock down items or activate certain switches from afar, Zoro can cut through steel doors, and Chopper can fit through small passages and access hidden areas. None of these abilities really enhance the puzzles or exploration in any significant way, but they do a nice job of varying up the visual design of the dungeons, adding some hidden collectibles off the beaten path, and giving you something to do other than just walk on a path fighting enemies for hours.
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Beyond Good & Evil 2, Ubisoft’s open world follow up to the cult classic I’m too young to have played. We haven’t seen hide nor genetically modified pig tail of it since 2018, but rest assured, it lives.