2023 marked 30 years since the opening of Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel's notorious Super Mario Bros. movie, a film that no one in their right mind was defending at the time of its release. Flash forward to today and it has plenty of fans willing to go to bat for its b??izarre Dinotopia vision, all culminating in an absurd new?? box set from Australia. 

One of the great things about physical media is, in the right hands, you can see the love for film bursting forth from whatever totem you may be holding. We live in an age of boutique labels that pours tons?????????????????????????? of time and resources into getting their releases just right, and Aussie distributor Umbrella Entertainment pulled out all the stops for this particular Thwomp Stomper. Beyond two versions of the film �including a vastly different workprint that runs about 20 minutes longer than theatrical �the set includes a 480-page hardcover book, and some unique recreations of promotional ephemera from 1993. 

This ain't no game

The main piece on display in this mini-museum is as wildly uneven as ever in 2024. Super Mario Bros. isn't a film that was entirely put together by people who love video games; that wasn't something you were going to get in 1993. There wasn't a ton of Mario lore to expand upon at the time, ??and interviews with everyone from screenwriters like Parker Bennet to late Mario actor Bob Hoskins illustrate the fact that they considered its story to be little more than "jumping around from left to right." 

Whatever the thoughts on the source material may have been, they wanted to do for Mario and Luigi what Tim Burton did for Batman. They designed a suitably gritty world â€?more Total Recall than Batman for my money â€?and established a narrative that saw Dennis Hopper embodying a dictator-like Koopa bent on merging the dying desert wor?ld of the dinosaurs with the thriving metropol??ises the mammals so wrongfully called their own. 

It's kind of a beautiful mess, and as a result it ends up being more interesting than whatever kids like myself might have wanted three decades ago. I was a huge Nintendo nerd; wild for lovable crud like The Super Mario Bros. Super Show and Valiant's Nintendo comics. In my mind, the nonexistent promise of the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie was a faithful translation from game to screen, whatever that would have been. I pictured Mario leaping from chasm to chasm, bouncing off mushrooms and stomping Koopa Troopas in big screen splendor. What I was really imagining was probably closer to a cacophonous approximation of Super Show leads Lou Albano and Danny Wells shouting about spaghetti ??in the multiplex. 

Trust the fungus

That's not what I got, and while I was disappointed in 1993, I eventually came to look back on the Super Mario Bros. movie fondly. In 2023, we got a better idea of what a straight-up cinematic spin on the Mario universe would look like in the aptly-titled Super Mario Bros. Movie. And you know what? It's fairly dull and lacks any form of idiosyncratic inspiration. This may shock you, but it turns out that what I wanted when I was 12 wasn't all that un??ique or exciting. I'm not saying Morton and Jankel's production is some kind of revelatory lightning bolt from the past, but at least they tried to do something with what they had.

The fact that they were able to do it in the first place is the best argument for "showing up" I've seen in a while. Producer Roland Joffé recalls that he flew to Nintendo's headquarters in Japan and met with then-president Hiroshi Yamauchi. During the meeting, Yamauchi noted that other studios were also interested in the material. Whe?n asked why they should give it to them, Joffé simply said "Because I'm here." As the story goes, Yamauchi quite?? liked that response. 

There are plenty of anecdotes like that in Umbrella's Super Mario Bros. set, which is as close as we're likely to get to a historical artifact on the subject. One piece of ephemera in particular lit a latent portion of my aging dino-brain ablaze. The box contains a smaller, but otherwise perfect recreation of the Official Movie Magazine that was released to promo??te?? the film, right down to all the advertisements inside. It's one thing to get insight into a production like this, but it's also helpful to see the other side of the coin; how it was sold and what flavor of unfiltered hype fueled it in that exact moment. 

Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo(lved)! 

The information on the discs and within the expansive hardcover tome will be new to many of those who peruse this set, but much of it has been kicking around online thanks to the tireless efforts of the SMB Movie Archive. Founder Ryan Hoss and Editor-in-Chief Steven Applebaum shared their thoughts on the trajectory of their fandom �Toad actor Mojo Nixon once called their archeological quest an "insane obsession" �in the book's introduction. The artwo?rk, photos, and stories that follow are worth th??e price of admission alone.

Even if you've never come around to the '93 Super Mario Bros. movie, Umbrella's collection goes a long way to emp??hasize the fact that no one sets out to make a "bad" film. All of the artists and creatives behind the production put a ton of work in to realize the vision fueling it all, even if that vision did a compl?ete 180 at one point, leading to more painstaking work. The results are unlike anything one would expect from a Mario movie, and if that wasn't the cast we might not still be talking about it to this day. 

When I first received the set from Umbrella I was hesitant to post much about it simply because it sold out almost immediately. Thankfully, on March 22 Umbrella announced a reprint, complete with everything the original set included but without the limited numbering. There's also the option to go disc-less for those who just want to upgrade their standalone 4K copy. At some point in my life I decided it?? was okay to spend one hundred U.S. dollars on a stupid movie from time to time. This fungal blast from the devolved past easily earned that distinction. 

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A Soviet retrofuture in stunning detail

With its uncanny robots, fearsome enemies, and slick style, Atomic Heart has to be one of my most anticipated games of 2023. It somehow manages to reference all of our favorite blockbuster games while still managing to carve a path of its own -- naturally I'm excited to see a game going all out to try something new. We've gotten to see a nice lineup of trailers since Atomic Heart was announced back in 2017, and now we've got one more to add to the list. During Nvidia's CES 2023 showcase, the devs behind the game, Mundfish, let fans in on how amazing the game's ray-tracing and particle effects wil?l look, especially in 4K.

This new trailer came along with an announcement that Nvidia DLSS, or deep learning super sampling, technology will be supported on 33 upcoming games, of course including Atomic Heart. The company describes DLSS as "a revolutionary breakthrough in AI-powered graphics that massively boosts performance." That sounds great to me, but I'm also assuming you have to have the latest graphics cards and processors to be able to run it. Not to mention?? a 4K monitor and all the fixins that go along with it. I'll likely pla??y it on the PS5, because I'm probably the least tech savvy person in all of gaming. I hope the computer whizzes out there have fun though.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah74ys4t3Fs

I can say with confidence that Atomic Heart is going to look incredible with top-of-the-line graphics, but I also think it's going to be a gorgeous game regardless of specs. It has such a fun, distinct art style and atmosphere, I think Mundfish will have it locked down regardless of which platform we choose to play the game on. I've certainly been let down before, but if nothing else, it's cool to see a studio putting something out that's so different from what we've s??een in the past few years. Nice graphics are just icing on the cake.

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They run in a silky smooth 4K/60fps

Finji Games has been a part of bringing us some of the best indie games of the past few years, including but not limited to Tunic, Chicory: A Colorful Tale, and I Was A Teenage Exocolonist. Now, Finji has just announced that two of their other popular indie titles, Overland and Night in the Woods, are natively available on the PlayStation 5. The real kicker, though, is that both of these games will ?run on the platform at a "delicious" 4K resolution at 60 frames per second, which is a big step up for smaller titles like these. What's more, those who already own these games on the PS4 will receive the new PS5 versions for free.

//twitter.com/FinjiCo/status/1602731322128187395

If you're looking for some nice new indies to play, or you simply enjoyed Overland or Night in the Woods and are looking to start another playthrough, it seems that now is the perfect time. These games don't have any issues running on weaker consoles or PCs, because the reality is that they're simply not all that ?demanding, but who can turn down the opportunity to play a game in 4K? It's one of those things that may not always be necessary, but it certainly is nice to have regardless.

It's cool to see huge games like The Witcher 3 get ?upgrades for the next gen, but I'm hoping that this move from Finji helps inspire other developers and publishers to make new ports for smaller games as well. Even years after its release, the PS5 library of games could still use some filling out, especially when it comes to indies. Plus, having the games look great and making them more readily available to a wider range of play?ers might mean we see more people playing these indie darlings than before; there's nothing that pleases me more than seeing gamers get into indie games for the first time, because there really is so much amazing stuff out there.

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The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach is now in 4K

A little piece of Nintendo history is being preserved thanks to the efforts of dedicated fans. Super Mario Bros. - The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach is available right now, in a 4K restoration?? of?? the original 1986 animation.

Originally released in 1986, the animation predates shows like Captain N or even the Super Mario Bros. live-action movie. It's been easy enough to track down a fan-dub or other version on YouTube. But this restoration takes some significant steps to be the go-to version f?o??r classic Mario.

The upload from FemboyFilms has both a 4K UHD and 1080p restoration, which you can find on YouTube or here on the Internet Archive, as spotted by Polygon. The restoration?? comes from a 16mm reduction print, likely used for local screenings when the animation was first released.

One fan, Carnivol, managed to acquire a reel, believed to be one of, "if not THE only surviving print" in the world. They scanned it, and set out restoring it. After years working on the project, Carnivol entered an agreement with FemboyFilms to restore the film based on the existing sca?n.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzlZy9zpw0Q

A clearer picture

Two team members?? spent months removing thousands of individual pieces of debris manually for the restoration. The latter color-corrected the entire film, using manga and promo materials for the movie as reference. Forest of Illusion contributed additional reference materials too, which helped with deciding what colors should look like.

Then, using the original VHS as a source, the crew created a brand-new audio capture. Alongsi??de all of this, there's also a new subtitle track. It sounds like a titanic undertaking, even for a whole team like this.

The result is the bizarre, offbeat Super Mario Bros. animation in a great resolution. The actual movie of The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach is fairly strange and different from modern Ma??rio. Yet without this effort, this piece of Mario's history might just be lost to time. In the great legacy of video game adaptations, it's good to have this so well-preserved moving fo??rward.

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Turn out the lights

Night mode has been one of my favorite visual quality-of-life updates as screens have become more and more ubiquitous, and today, Xbox owners get theirs. The October Xbox update brings night mode to its consoles, as well as some more features to make the?? user experience a little nicer.

The suite of settings will allow you to customize the light pouring forth from your Xbox, and even apply a blue light filter, which is great for tired eyes in the evening time. A neat little additional update also mentioned in today's Xbox Wire post is that you can also adjust the light settings on your console's power button, as well as the one on your controller. So if you'd like to turn out all t??he lights, including that glowing dot on the controller, you can do so.

Xbox Series X own??ers will also be able run their dashboard in natively rendered 4K now, up from its previously upscaled 4K version. According to Xbox, this should make text and icons be a little bit sharper.

Quick Settings will also let you toggle settin??gs without leaving a game or app, so if you want to swap up accessibility or just? turn out the lights, it won't put a stop to the gaming.

The update is rolling out today for Xbox owners, after being tested out by Xbox Insiders. Maybe celebrate a bit by dimming the power button and ironically viewing the Uncharted movie trailer in the ensuing darkness.

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A report says at least 11 companies have the tools, but Nintendo says it's untrue

A new report from Bloomberg claims that several game companies are in ?possession of a 4K development kit for the Nintend??o Switch. But in a public-facing comment, Nintendo is denying the report, saying it has no plans for a new model aside from the OLED.

According to the report, employees at 11 game companies said their teams had a 4K development kit for the Switch. It notes these range from large publi?shers to small studios, and notes one in particular, Zynga. Developers declined to speculate on Nintendo's plans, but Bloomberg reports they said they expect to launch their 4K Switch games during or after the latter half of next year.

Nintendo provided comment to Bloomberg at the time of publication, saying it was "inaccurate." In a tweet afte??r the story wen??t live, Nintendo denied the claims again.

"To ensure correct understanding among our investors and customers, we want to clarify that this report is? not true," said Nintendo.

In a follow-up tweet, Nintendo reiterates its past statement that it has no plans for any new model other than the Nintendo?? Switch OLED model, launching on Oct. 8, 2021.

Zynga has also denied the report. In an email to Kotaku, a spoke??sperson for the company said it does not have a 4K developer kit from Nintendo.

"As a Switch developer for the upcoming Star Wars: Hunters game that Zynga announced on a recent Nintendo Direct, we can confirm that none of the ??developer kits Zynga has or is in receipt of are 4K developer kits," the spokesperson told Kotaku.

We'll see where the saga goes from here, but it looks like for now, the only Switch to look forward to is the launch of the Nintendo Switch OLED model next week.

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Dated for February 18

[Update: PlayStation has released an official trailer for the 10th Anniversary Bundle, confirming that the remasters are ??headed to PS4 as well?? as Xbox One. You can check out the video at the foot of the article.]

[Update: It has since been noted that the original Bayonetta is also up for the 4K remaster treatment. Both Bayonetta and Vanquish will be available to purchase separately, or together in a special 10th Anniversary Bundle.]

A listing - appearing out of the blue on the Microsoft Store - has revealed a remastered edition of Shinji Mikami's sci-fi shooter Vanquish. According to the listing, this new edition will feature 4K visuals running at 60FPS on Xbox One X, and will launch on February 18. The remaster was first spotted by Twitter user @h0x0d.

Originally released for PS3 and Xbox 360 back in 2010, Vanquish is a mech-heavy ?third-person shooter which sees players pilot DARPA agen?t Sam Gideon through a series of chaotic battlezones. With enemy fire coming in thick and fast, Gideon must use acrobatic and speedy evasive maneuvers while countering with his suit's BLADE firepower.

Inventive in design and breathless in its approach to third-person action, there was nothing else quite like it at the time, which helped Vanquish rack up positive reviews and even some Game of the Year awards, as well as helping to secure developer PlatinumGames status as the a??cti?on game studio of the new decade.

Surprisingly, the Vanquish remaster listing is still up at the time of this writing, so it's likely we'll be hearing some official detai?ls on this release very soon.

Vanquish remaster appears on Microsoft Store [Official / Resetera]

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Lookin' durn purty there, ma'am

Rockstar Games has released a trailer for the upcoming PC port of its wild western epic Red Dead Redemption 2, which shows off the rootin' tootin'?? sequel with lusciou?s 4K visuals in full 60FPS.

It must be said, it's quite a beautiful showcase of the open-world adventure's thick forests, barren plains and dusty trails. We also get examples of the PC port's special effects, including crackling fires, plumes of smoke, mirrored water and raging blizzards. Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC will feature new textures and extended draw distances, amon??g other visual upgrades.

But how good is the fit for your your rig? You can find out for yourself by checking out the recommended specs right here. I'm not sure how luscious those landscapes will be on my potato. Either way, hope you got a mighty sized hard drive.

Red Dead Redemption 2 launches on PC via the Rockstar Games Launcher, Humble Store and Epic Games Store. It will arrive on Steam in December. Red Dead Redemption 2 is also available now on PS4 and Xbox One.

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Remaster of Ghibli's RPG adventure

Bandai Namco has released a trailer for the upcoming remaster of anime RPG Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, which is coming to PS4 and PC later this week.

Originally released for PS3 back in 2013, Wrath of the White Witch is the heartfelt tale of young Oliver who, guided by a fairy known as Drippy, travels into a strange and magical world on a quest to rescue his mother's soulmate, Alicia. What follows is an action-packed adventure filled with lush environments and whimsical creatures, as one would expect from legendary animation team Studio Ghibli, who had a hand in Ni no Kuni's art design and also produced its in-gam?e cinematics.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered will allow PS4 Pro users the option to play this stunning adventure in 4K visuals at 30FPS, or at a maximum resolution of 1440p at 60FPS while also boasti?ng "improved performance."

Nintendo Switch users may also be pleased to know that the original (as in un-remastered) edition of Wrath of the White Witch will also be releasing fo??r the Switch on the same day, allowing you to take Oliver's adventures out on the road with?? you. That's like carrying an entire Studio Ghibli kingdom in your pocket!

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered launches on PS4 and PC September 20. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch also launches for Nintendo Switch on Se??????????????????????????ptember 20.

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This really should be a standard option, especially for next-gen

?Would you rather have a higher resolution or a higher frame rate when playing video games? I'm sure you don't even need to ponder that ?question. We all seem to have our own set-in-stone preferences.

Much to my delight, Gearbox Software has confirmed that Borderlands 3 will offer two different graphical settings on PlayStation 4 Pro: "favor resolution," which is capped at 30 frames per second, and "favor performance," whic?h is capped at 60 frames per second. I'll always choose the latter.

There's supersampling support, too. Even if you only have a 1080p television, you can still benefit from the "favor resolution" mode – "the game will supe?rsample from the higher resolution using the console's hardware," so "the 1080p output will look sharper in this mode than it normally would."

 Borderlands 3 will be capable of 4K resolution and high-dynamic range (HDR), as is becoming commonplace, but interestingly, you can configure this stuff individually, meaning you could, in theory, "play the game in 1080p HDR." As for what to expect from HDR, "nightfall is rendered in much darker bla??cks, and the kille??r sky boxes really pull you into the world." Basically, the game looks more "crisp."

On a related note, Gearbox previously said that Borderlands 3 will have these same?? sorts of graphical options on Xbox One X and that the development ??team is "shooting for 60 frames per second."

It has taken a while given the mid-?console-cycle rollout of the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, but I'm glad to see more console games let players choose between 1080p / 60fps and 4K / 30fps where applicable. I hope to see that momentum carry into PS5 and the next Xbox. Don't force us down a single path!

Behind the Scenes: How?? Gearbox Built Borderlands 3 for PS4 and PS4 Pro [PlayStation Blog]

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Full 4K support for One X

Developer Spearhead Games has announced that its branching narrative, Groundhog Day-esque action game Stories: The Path of Destinies will be heading to Xbox One this month. Coming on March 22, 2019, the game will come with full Xbox One X support for players with 4K display sets. Anyone that picks up?? the game during its first week will get a 10% discount, though no price poi??nt was confirmed (the title is $14.99 on Steam and PS4).

I had a great deal of fun with Stories after getting it on PlayStation Plus, so I'd definitely recommend anyone with a penchant for interesting storytelling to give it a shot. It's not the t??ightest action game around, but it more than makes up for it with style and characters. You can c??heck out a trailer of the Xbox One version below.

Stories: The Path of Destinies coming to Xbox One on March 22 [Gematsu]

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Turn-based gunplay galore

For the most part, Japanese role-playing games are like video game comfort food. For those of us that enjoy them, they're a known quantity and rarely stray away from the flagpole franchises that we're all familiar with like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. 

We might have seen something of a resurgence in these sprawling JRPGs recently, but back in the Xbox 360 and the PS3 era, new games of this caliber were few and far between. Resonance of Fate initia?lly released for the Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2010 and I never did find time to play it. Though a 4K rerelease of the gun RPG seems entirely out of left field, it's great to see titles like this getting a second chance to thrive. 

Resonance of Fate 4K/HD Edition (PS4 [reviewed], PC)
Developer: tri-Ace
Publisher: SEGA
Released: October 18, 2018
MSRP: $34.99

Resonance of Fate takes place on an Earth of the distant future where, surprise surprise, we've? destroyed the environment to the point where our atmosphere can't support human life. To get around this little setback, humans create Basel, a massive air purification system controlled by something called the Zenith system.  Eventually, humans build cities on the massive tower of Basel, but Basel doesn't just control the environment. It controls every aspect of human life. 

Society on Basel is broken up into a caste sys??tem. A person's class?? is determined at birth and the higher your class, the higher in the tower you live. At the very top of the tower are the Cardinals, who otherwise act as the ruling class of Basel. Zenith even programs a "quartz system" that controls every citizen's exact lifespan.

The protagonists of Resonance are Vashyron, Zephyr, and Le??anne. They're part of the middle class of Basel and work as Hunters, hired guns who make a living doing odd jobs. Everything from monste??r extermination to letter delivery. 

The world of Resonance of Fate is fascinating but is quickly squandered by its storytelling. The steampunk city has the potential to be great, but the plot takes forever to get off the ground and relies too heavily on canned character moments that don't land. Whi??le you're trying to figure out what exactly the fuck is going on, the narrative keeps jumping back to moments of off-color humor between our three protagonists that are more cringe-worthy than they are funny. I also wouldn't come here looking for well-written villains. The ruling Cardinal class seems to spend a good portion of their time plotting and laughing about how evil they are.

The best part of Resonance of Fate is its combat, an insanely unique and complex system even the most seasoned JRPG veterans will require more than a few minutes to wrap their heads around. For starters, where most role-playing adventures are filled with swords and spells, Resonance of Fate is dominated by guns? and grenades. It combines some classic turn-based combat with elements you would more commonly find in action RPGs.

Players are given full control over all three party members during ba?ttle. You have ??all the time in the world to plan out your moves, but when you're moving or using an ability like readying an attack, a timer starts draining. This allows you to quickly interrupt enemy attacks or have yours interrupted if you're not careful. It also means one bad move can be the difference between victory and defeat; feeling pretty rewarding when things go your way.

The battle system is very confusing at the outset and is made harder to get a grasp of considering the optional tutorials aren't directly accessible from a menu but have to be sought out at the local arena. You'll have to balance learning complicated team attacks, mastering machine guns and pistols that deal different damage types, and in the end, Resonance is still one hell of a? grind. There are plenty of enemy types in Basel but not eno??ugh to keep things fresh through the fifty or so hours of game. 

Dungeons in Basel are laid out like one long encounter in which you move from battle?? to battle. An idea that is interesting on paper, but it ends up being a series of bland almost identical r??ooms in which you fight some basic enemies and then finally a boss. Also, if you end up deciding to leave and grind out a bit it means you'll have to start the whole encounter over next time, and if you happen to find yourself low on Escape Hexes, the item that teleports you out of a dungeon, you'll have to backtrack all the way out upon completion. 

More interesting than the other varying systems in Resonance of Fate is Babel's ?world map. The entire city is laid out in multiple levels on a giant hexagonal grid. The city is falling into disrepair, and certain areas have become untr??aversable. To combat this, you'll need to lay down energy hexes you earn in combat. As you light up different areas of the grid, you'll find hidden items, gain access to new towns, and opens lifts to other levels of the tower. Certain areas block progress by using color coated hexes only obtainable via story missions. 

Resonance of Fate 4K/HD Edition is definitely a visual update from the original, but even in 4K, it's still sort of an ugly game. The character and city design are just fine, but the whole color palette is muddy and dark. I understand going for an apocalyptic vibe, but it can't hurt to p??op a little more color into things. 

If you're a hardcore fan of Japanese role-playing games, then Resonance of Fate might be for you. The storytelling is far from remarkable, and the battle system requires a whole lot of patience and commitment. It wasn't groundbreaking in 2010 and isn't groundbreaking now, but there are a handful of neat ideas. I can't help but wish they had done the work to make this updated version a bit more approachable via updated tutorials, but for those looking for that classic tale of a group of teenagers out to murder god, you'll find comfort in Resonance of Fate 4K/HD Edition. 

_{[This review is based on a retail build of t?he game purchased by the reviewe??r.]}

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THIS IS NOT A JOKE!

I thought we already knew what the Kingdom Hearts III the??me song was going to be, but Square Enix has thrown a wrench into the mix. According to a Tweet last night, it looks like longtime series composer Utada Hikaru will be teaming up with once mega-popular Dubstep a?rtist Skrillex to produce "Face My Fears". That is certainly an apt title.

The single will release one week ahead of the game on January 18, 2019. I'm sure it will be full of wub wubs and be??at drops, or so I'm told of Skrillex's music. Despite all the hate he gets, I've never found him to be too offensive. Dubstep, to me, was more just a fad that quietly died off in favor of the rise of Pop-EDM. That is far worse.

Kingdom Hearts [Twitter]

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PS4 and PC release

tri-Ace's Resonance of Fate will be getting a re-release soon. Going with the very accurate 4K/HD Edition moniker, the stea?mpunk inspired RPG will be heading to PS4 and PC next month for $35. You can currently nab a digital pre-order on PS4 and wishlist the game on your Steam account. Pre-orders on PS4 will nab you a dash?board theme and system avatars to use.

Along with a trailer, tri-Ace has launched an official website with all the information you'll need for this new version. There doesn't appear to be any changes to gameplay, instead functioning more like a? port than any kind of remake.

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Amazing Spider-Man

Spider-Man will be joining the ranks of God of War and Horizon: Zero Dawn?? as it will be getting a post-launch "New Game Plus" mode. While this isn't an exact confirmation, a fan asked developer Insomniac Games on Twitter about the feature and they responded with, "Yes working on it now and polishing it up!"

There isn't any timeframe as for when that mode will be coming, but with a full DLC season in swing, we're likely to receive the feature alongside one of the City That Never Sleeps packs. I'm not in a rush to have such a feature, but it would b??e nice for people that just want to max Spidey while re-enjoying the main campaign.

Insomniac Games [Twitter]

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All clothed, presumably

With how cryptic Kojima has been about Death Stranding, any chance to get new information gets me incredibly excited. At the Tokyo Game Show this year, Kojima will be present with the entire Japanese cast of his upcoming naked Norman Reedus simulator to hopefull?y present some new in??formation about the game. If not a trailer, I'm sure we'll get some weird ass info about how we'll be crying ourselves to sleep after ripping toenails out.

From the official Kojima Productions Twitter account, the stage show will be happening on September 23 (the last day of the event). With this and potentially a brand new series from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios (Yakuza devs) at TGS, it's a good time to be a fan of odd Japanese titles.

Kojima Productions [Twitter]

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Being riddled with lead has never looked so good

This week at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, Activision and Treyarch have been in full promotional mode, showing off their upcoming cash cow Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

Two new trailers have been dropped this week. The first is a trailer designed to spotlight the PC version of the military shooter, that has been specifically designed to harness the tech of the platform, from both from a rig and a control standpoint. Whether you like CoD or not, it can't be denied that the visuals on display here are top-grade, and will no doubt look splendid in 4K on fa??ncy, ultrawide monitors.

The second trailer features Black Ops 4 gameplay in real-time, as a squad of gung-ho mercs take to the all-new map, Arsenal, to play a round of the territory-staking multiplayer mode, Hardpoint. I must say, everyone seems to be doing a helluva lot better than I did when I hit the beta a few weeks back.
Speaking of Betas, don't forget that the Blackout beta is headed to all platforms next month, and will be open to all those who have pre-ordered the game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launches October 12 on PS4, PC and Xbox One.

The post Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 shows ??off sharp 4K PC gameplay and new Arsenal map appeared first on Destructoid.

No more hunting for you

China's government is notoriously picky with what products go on sale in the country. This has led to numerous instances where incredibly popular games had to be massively censored to even see release, but I don't think I've heard of a case where a game goes on sale for a week before getting pulled. Monster Hunter: World has been lighting up the PC scene since its r?elease, but it looks like our overseas brethren in China won't be able to legally acquire the title for the foreseeable future.

Chinese regulators have demanded that Tencent pull Capcom's massively popula??r multiplayer hunting game from the WeGame platform after receiving "a large number of complaints" regarding the game's content. The likely culprit for this is the persistence of corpses in game, which happens after you kill a monster and are given a chance to loot it.

Speaking to outlet MorningStar, an unnamed Chinese analyst said regulators in the country are known to frown upon overly violent content. Why this wasn't brought up before release is anyone's guess, but? whatever is causing the issue is bad enough to fully remove it from sale.

Players in the region?? will have until August 20 to apply for a refund, after which the game will be removed from WeGame. Owners can also opt to keep the game in their library, though it seems unlikely that the current version will remain operable for much longer. What is likely to happen is that a new, censored version will come back to the platform and replace the current one.

China Pulls P?lug on Tencent Videogame Days After Launch [MorningStar]

Monster Hunter: World removed from sale in China [PC Gamer]

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I really hope this game has a photo mode

Red Dead Redemption 2 is right around the corner and the Rockstar marketing machine is finally kicking into high gear with a series of videos showcasing various mechanics, activities, and simply how gorgeous this game is looking so far. Each of Rockstar's releases has always felt like an event in and of itself and Red Dead Redemption 2 is shaping up to be no different.

Any time I'm anticipating a game, though, one of my favourite pastimes is simply taking high-res screenshots and creating my own wallpapers. So, after a bit of digging, I stumbled on the 4K version of the latest gameplay trailer on Rockstar's website and decided to do exactly that and share? them with you folks here!

Down in the gallery below, you'll find the 1080p jpg versions (21 in total). But, for those interested in the hi-res 4k png captures, be sure to check out this handy Imgur gallery!

The post The most wallpaper-worthy screensh?ots from t?he Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

Suddenly, it's here

Yesterday, we were wondering when Battlefield 1 would get 4K suppo?rt on Xbox One X. Today, we kno??w because EA implemented it almost immediately.

Battlefield 1's summer update launched today on all platforms, and it has all sorts of tweaks and fixes. For instance, load times are better when entering the soldier customiza?tion screen, and there are fewer disco??nnects when trying to join a server. Shock Operations mode has been rebalanced on three maps. Players can no longer teamkill with mortars. That sort of stuff.

There's some less-dense-but-also-good news accompanying the update. EA is giving out Battlefield 1's Apocalypse DLC for free on all platforms. Apocalypse has three add-on maps and the Air Assault mode. Also, Battlefield 4 has something similar going on. Its Naval Strike and China Rising DLC packs are also free right now. This is a ??limited-time thing, so snatch them up while you ca?n.

For anyone who wants the nitty gritty of Battlefield 1's summer update, here are the full patch notes:

Match Experience:

• Improved loading times going into the soldier customization screen and reduced occurrence of disconnects when trying to join a server.
• Fixed an issue with map vote results not being respected, if an RSP map rotation changed whilst in progress.
• Fixed issue with squad boost sometimes counting down during pre-round phase.
• Reinforced the result of the map vote when the game server is migrating to a different host due to maintenance.
• Fixed an issue where players in a queue were blocked from joining a match, behind a player that was waiting for a space to open on a specific team (as a result of join on party or friend).

Maps and Game Modes:

• Rebalanced Shock Operations on Lupkow Pass, Zeebrugge, and Prise de Tahure.

Lupkow Pass:

The goal is to make the first sector a little easier and to reduce th??e impact o??f the Behemoth.

• The first sector boundary has been adjusted to:
• Prevent Defenders from using the rocks on the edges of the boundary to snipe Attackers.
• Prevent Defenders from using the slope at the edge of the boundary to harass Attackers.
• Removed 1 Defender plane from Sectors 2 and 3 to prevent air superiority for Defenders during tough Attacker sectors.
• Removed the single Defender cavalry unit from Sector 1 to prevent cavalry runs out of bounds to harass Attackers.
• Removed the Airship L30 Behemoth from Sectors 2, 3 and 4. The Behemoth remains for the first sector, but between defender planes, AA guns, Burton LMRs and AA rocket guns, this Behemoth shouldn't be so consistently dominant.
• Elite kits have been offered as a comeback assist in Sectors 2, 3, and 4, repurposing some of the existing kits to be used as comeback kits for Attackers.

Zeebrugge:

The goal here is to help the Attackers during the first sector as much as possible. The remaining sectors look pretty good from a sector loss perspective, making th??e first sector easier should help Attackers build some momentum.

• Sector 1 has had its bounds adjusted to prevent Defender access to the lighthouse; the Attacker HQ now includes the lighthouse and part of the mole.
• The Attacker Elite Infiltrator kit has been moved into the lighthouse base. A Flame Trooper has been added there as well, to allow for Attackers to more aggressively push and hold flags in the first sector.
• The A flag capture area has been slightly adjusted to make swimming captures a little more viable.
• Defender planes now respawn a bit slower than the Attacker planes.
• Defenders now only get their second plane when the Attackers reach sector 3, as opposed to sector 2.
• Defenders can no longer use boats in Sector 4 to harass Attackers.

Prise de Tahure:

• It was found that Attackers on the final sector could steal Defender kits and Defenders could steal Attacker "comeback" kits, so that has also been addressed.

Weapons, Gadgets, and Vehicles:

• M1903 Experimental now has an alternative fire mode.
• Fixed an issue where vehicle laid Anti-Tank Mines would have difficulty detecting vehicles.
• Adjusted the reload time of the C96 pistol when loading single bullets to better match its animation.

Gameplay:

• Fixed instances where players could grief teammates using shell type weaponry such as mortars and AA guns.
• Friendly flares will now display their spotting radius to teammates, allowing for better coordination between recon players.
• Fixed issue where damage that resulted in score < 0.5 wasn't messaged to players. Score < 0.5 from damage is now rounded up, granting at least 1 point of score.

User Interface/User Experience:

• Added gameplay options for adjusting color and visibility of the lens sight reticle.
• Added gameplay options to show compass bearing numbers on the mini-map and the big map.
• Added video options for adjusting the screen safe are width and height on PC (Xbox One and PlayStation 4 already have those).
• Moved the objective world icon names from below the world icons to above those to reduce UI clutter and obstruction of the player view over soldiers near the objectives.
• Added gameplay options for adjusting the visibility of the 3D objective and soldier names separate from the icons.
• The world icon customization gameplay options now work in spectator mode too.
• Added gameplay options for adjusting the crosshair size and the hit indicator size.
• Added gameplay options for adjusting the visibility of the receiving damage HUD panel.
• Added gameplay options for adjusting the size and visibility of the following HUD elements (separate ones per each of the elements):
  • Scoring messages
  • Kill log messages
  • Chat log
  • Game mode info panel
  • Squad list panel
  • Vehicle seat layout
  • Vehicle passenger list panel
  • Player info panel
  • Misc HUD elements (weapon/vehicle/reload hints, commo rose, interactions, warnings, awards, etc.)
• Fixed an issue with dog tags sometimes showing up blank in kill cards or when completing a melee kill.

Battlefield 1 Summer Update Notes [Battlefield]

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The past has never looked better

One of 2016's finest games will look its best later in 2018 -- at least on Xbox. Two years after launch, EA DICE is giving Battlefield 1 4K resolution support on Xbox One X.

This is part of the Battlefield 1 Summer Update that's expected to release in the coming weeks. We don't know what else is coming as a part of the update, but we'll find out soon enough. EA DICE is holding a livestream event tomorrow on the Battlefield Twitch channel at 1pm Pacific where it'll reveal all the ways it's improving Battlefield 1.

The visual upgrade on Xbox One X means that 4K will finally be implemented in all versions of Battlefield 1. It launched with native 4K support on PC, and with upscaled 4K support on PS4 Pro. If Battlefield 1 follows in the footsteps of other games that got 4K upgrades on Xbox One, it'll likely be a native 4K at 30 frames per second and an upscaled 4K at 60 frames per second. But, we'll probably know for sure after the live?stream tomorrow.

@Battlefield [Twitter]

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Sony does what Microsoft don't...

Just days after the announcement that Turn 10 Studios would be removing loot boxes from Forza 7, Polyphony Digital has announced that Gran Turismo Sport will be receiving microtransactions for its in-game store. I'm kind of baffled at the flip-flopping that is going on between these two games. Gran Turismo Sport seemed to be on a good path with its added "GT League" career mode and free extra cars, but now we'r??e heading ?back into nonsense territory.

For the most part, the new July update is actually chock full of good stuff. I'm mostly in awe of how Sony just casually throws in the mention that you can outright buy cars in GT Sport now. Anyway, the biggest addition has to be the new "Circuit de Sainte-Croix" circuit that comes in three configurations along with more events for "GT League." As well as that, seven new cars are availabl??e (and not available through micr??otransactions). They are as follows:

• Mercedes AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+ 2017 (Gr.X)
• Mazda 787B '91 (Gr.1)
• Ford GT LM Spec II Test Car (Gr.3)
• Ferrari 250 GTO CN.3729GT '62 (Gr.X)
• HONDA S660 '15 (N100)
• Honda Beat '91 (N100)
• Daihatsu Copen Active Top '02 (N100)

As for the microtransactions, all cars that cost less than 2?,000,000 in-game credits can be acquired directly through the PlayStation Store. The service will launch tomorrow in Asia and America while it won't launch until August 2 in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Oceania.

You can catch a trailer below for a look?? at the new cars in motion. I suppose the added microtransactions aren't horrible, but it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Introducing the "Gran Turismo Sport" July Update: The M??ercedes F1 and a New Track Joins the Lineup [Gran Turismo]

The post For whatever reason, Gran Turismo Sport n??ow has microtransactions appeared first on Destructoid.

'We can't provide people with free servers'

After hinting that custom servers might require a paywall, PUBG Corp's Brendan Greene has confirmed that the feature will be a paid option when it arrives. In an interview with PCGamesN, PUBG creator Brendan Greene stated, "I was a modder for many years, and I didn't expect ARMA to provide me with free servers to mod on, and it's the same with [PUBG]. We can't provide people with free servers...We just can't provide free servers for everyone, it's just not a sustainable business model. I still pay for ARMA 3 servers to? this day, because t?hat's just how the world works."

Greene defends his stance by saying, "For me, it is about building a platform for game modes. That's what custom mode is there to do - it's like modding lite. We really want to give and empower the players to create new modes, as well providing our own presets for people to experiment with." He then closes off the interview with, "sales of a game can only last you so long," and says the company will look into other ways to monetize PUBG that don't affect gameplay.

While I understand the need for a business to maintain stable income, there are a few caveats that Brendan Greene seems to be forgetting. Firstly, Bohemia Interactive charges for ARMA 3 servers for people that can't host their own (DICE did this same thing when Battlefield 2 launched in 2005). The game has a dedicated server option for those with powerful enough rigs to host their own games. Secondly, dedicated servers are always a path one can go down since it then shifts the cost of maintenance onto the user instead of the developer. Thirdly, are we just going to forget how classic games like Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament launched with dedicated server support in 1999?

Putting that all aside, though, PUBG is one of the most popular games around, at the moment, and makes ridiculous amounts of money. You mean to tell me that PUBG Corp can't realistically provide free server support for its users after netting $700 million in a year? This is disregarding how the game has an upfront cost and paid cosmetic microtransactions that users can spend stupid amounts of cash on. There is really no reasonable argument you could make that says PUBG needs to have paid custom serve?rs. We're not talking about the game in its twilight years with waning playe??r numbers. We're hardly seven months into the first year of operation since leaving Early Access.

This isn't a case of PUBG Corp not being able to offer the option. This is more a case of the developer looking for additional ways to nickel and dime players. With the mass success of Fortnite stealing thunder from the once reigning king, I suppose PUBG Corp feels it has to do everything?? it?? can to cash-in on its fame while it still lasts.

Honestly, I'm just sad. PUBG is an incredible idea that took the industry by s??torm, but its developer doesn't seem to understand why people were so drawn to it in the first place. I do hope that PUBG Corp reconsiders its stance on this matter, but I won't hold my breath.

PUBG's creator on custom mod paywall: &ldqu??o;we can't provide people with free servers” [PCGamesN]

The post PUBG’s Brendan Greene insists on making players pay for custom servers appeared first on Destructoid.

Shhh!

It has been close to a year since Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain last received an update. While Xbox One X sup?port is still not available, a much more requested feature has been added to Kojima's finale from the series. Players on PC, PS4, and Xbox One now have the ability to play as Quiet, the mute sniper with barely any ?clothing, in FOB missions online. She comes with a few special abilities that should make infiltrating your friend's now dormant FOB's more interesting.

For starters, her sniping ability to second to none, so you won't experience nearly as much shaking when aiming a rifle with her. Secondly, that crazy sprint ability she had from the main campaign makes a return and allows you to traverse large distances with ease. Quiet can also jump straight up most ladders, further speeding up the process of trekking across a FOB. Lastly, Quiet has a cloaking ability that will activate if she remains still for a few seconds, similar to Snake's stealth camo from Metal Gear Solid 2.

If you're somehow still addicted to the FOB option in Phantom Pain, Konami has also added new difficulty selections for special events. There will be an "Easy" and "Hard" mode with Easy disabling the ability for retaliation from other players. A couple of ne??w weapons are also available for the R&D team to research, though?? they will be limited to FOB missions. The Dark Matter Generator sounds particularly awesome.

July 2018 Update Content [Konami]

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Free in beta, but could change for launch

Custom matches in PUBG have been a feature for partnered players for a while now. Allowing one to tweak basically every facet of gameplay, custom matches are great for mixing up the general gameplay and making PUBG feel a bit more refreshing than the standard game mode. Having been promised for months, the feature is now available on test servers to iron out the kinks before? its official launch.

Custom matches will work will all game modes including the limited time "War" game type and zombies mode. Players will be able to host their own games with variable match parameters including player count, spawn rate for items and even circle speed. This is all pretty great, but of course, it can't be 100% positive with PUBG.

As noted on the Steam community forum post, "Creating custom matches won't have an associated cost during this phase [the beta]. However, due to the extremely large amount of resources required to allow custom games to be available to all players, we may change this in the future?? to ensure everything runs smoothly and the system remains sustainable long-term." Unless I'm mistaken, that reads like custom games will become a paid feature in the future.

On the one hand, I can understand needing to cover the costs of maintaining your game servers. On the other hand, PUBG earned $700 million USD last year. The game has shifted more than 50 million copies on Steam and is still growing. There are also loot boxes in-game that sometimes sell for ridiculously high prices on the Steam marketplace. If PUBG Corp is going to charge for custom games, shouldn't loot crates?? then be entirely free?

Whatever the reason, the feature is definitely coming sooner rather than later. I suppose now would be the time to let PUBG Corp know that custom matches should be free, especially since they sound open to fan reception. "We're open to your feed??back on this system," reads the post, "and we'll have more details on this aspect of the system later."

Custom Match Update - Open Beta Test [Steam Community]

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Still no Kenny Loggins

A little over a year ago, Three Fields Entertainment graced us with a sort of reboot of the Burnout series by a different name. Danger Zone, as it was called, focu?sed on the Crash mode from C??riterion’s heyday and it was a pretty damn fun time. The experience was too short and didn’t exhibit any of the polish of its forefather, but it made a great first impression and gave me hope for the future.

I was excited to hear that we’d be getting a Danger Zone 2, mostly because this could be a direct mirror of the Burnout series. The original Criterion racer was a solid tech demo, but Burnout 2: Point of Impact p?roved that Criterion wasn’t just developing a gimmicky race?r.

While Danger Zone 2 improves on its predecessor in a lot of key areas, it sadly has too many ?technical hurdles holding it back from greatness.

Danger Zone 2 (PC [reviewed], PS4, Xbox One)
Developer: Three Fields Entertainment
Publisher: Three Fields Entertainment
Released: July 13, 2018
MSRP: $19.99

The general concept of Danger Zone 2 is basically the same as the first: you’re some renegade car that has had enough of everyone’s bullshit and is going on a crash spree. I may have made up that part, but this is a recreation of the Burnout series’ Crash mode without any flavor text or backstory. You just crash cars, watch things explode, and accumulate high scores. The biggest change from the first Danger Zone is that you&rsquo;re no longer confined to drab, ste?rile environments.

Danger Zone 2 takes you to the streets of the United States and actually places you on real highways. While these are clearly not modeled after actual roads, the influx of color and lively backgrounds makes the action far more tantalizing. You won’t be staring at the same nons??ense for too long as each region gives you multiple highways to crash your way through.

In a nice touch, if you have any kind of familiarity with Burnout or the previous Danger Zone, you can completely skip the tutorial sections and get right to crashing. I actually completed the entirety of this game’s three regions before noticing I skipped the introduction. That being said, there are a few new mechanics in Danger Zone 2 that ev??en veterans of Criterion and Three Fields Entertainment&rsquo;s titles w?ould do well to go over.

For starters, traffic checking is back (where you ram into cars from behind to send them flying), but you can now guide them in a specific direction by holding X or A on your gamepad (Square or Circle, for PS4 users). Since there are now different vehicles, Boost Chaining makes a return from Burnout and allows you to continuously boost if you don’t smack into anything heavy. Finally, the run-up to each Danger Zone on specific levels has a goal you can meet to increase your score, which adds a??n extra layer of complexity on top of causing chaos.

These are all great additions, fleshing out the core driving of the original and making Danger Zone 2 feel like a better-realized vision. Coupled with those diverse backgrounds, I got a lot of flashbacks to Burnout 3 and Burnout Revenge while I was playing. It’s great to hit your preliminary objective, smash into cars, deploy your Smashbreaker (Danger Zone’s take on the Burnout series’ Crashbreaker) and then start collecting? various tokens in the environment to raise your score.

Danger Zone 2 is still a more puzzle-focused take on Crash mode just like the first Danger Zone. This isn’t purely about slamming into cars and causing mass mayhem, because you’ll rarely hit the score total for a platinum medal if you avoid collect?ing the tokens scattered about each intersection. You’ll need to make careful consideration of where your car is heading and how you’re completing each run-up objective to score success.

Some of the levels are also not just straight crash segments. A few will require you to speed past traffic in an F1 car and reach the main intersection in time for a mega crash. Others will see you occupy a semi-trailer and plow through traffic in a reckless display of violence. Danger Zone 2 tries its best to mix?? up the proceedings and it certainly works to keep you e??ntertained at every corner.

Where this starts to falter is that the general score thresholds on each level are really low. While $1 million in damage sounds like a lot, any Burnout veteran is going to demolish Danger Zone 2 in a little less than three hours with basically nothing else to do. There is no multiplayer to speak of and Three Fields Entertainment has relegated any kind of racing mode to its upcoming Dangerous Driving spin-off. This was a problem w??ith the first game, but it becomes a little harder to i?gnore the second time around (and with an increased price tag, to boot).

I think the biggest issue is that there is only one of each token on every level. The first Danger Zone littered each test zone with multiple tokens to collect, meaning you could miss some and need to rely on raw destruction to up your score. In Danger Zone 2, you’re screwed if you don’t pick them up, but nabbing them all is a lot easier and basically guarantees?? that you’re going to pass every level with the highest score.

That is if you can consistently nab all the tokens. For some odd reason, Danger Zone 2 exhibits more technical issues than its predecessor. Built on an updated Unreal Engine 4, there is a whole slew of graphical enhancements in Danger Zone 2, but there is also the introduction of some wild glitches and bugs. I can’t tell you how many times I?? collided with some cars expecting to crash, yet had my vehicle do a 180 and speed off in the opposite direction.

The collision detection on certain parts of t??he environment can be finicky, sometimes sending you flying through the ai??r and other times putting your car on its side. You’ll hit ramps and crash, for some reason, or fly with the proper arc that Three Fields intended. There are also some objectives where you’ll need to collide with a vehicle in mid-flight, but then that car’s physics will stop on a dime and completely screw up the intended solution.

This could be resolved if your Smashbreaker had the ability to deploy at will, but you need to first crash before that can happen. Since hitting a car isn’t a guaranteed crash, you’ll race into an intersection with a clear plan and then have an entire run wasted because your car decided to be impervious that time. Don’t even get me started on the cars that materialize out of thin air, especially when the draw d??istance shows cars beyond their position.

This does a great disservice to the action Danger Zone 2 does its da??mnedest to change up. I want to love those fast-moving F1 segments, but if cars are literally appearing out of thin air, how am I supposed to maximize my time and score? I want to applaud moving ou?tside of a generic test facility, but if basic collision detection on ramps is so awkward, was the change in scenery really worth it?

To top it off, the general visuals are just bland. I suppose one could ignore the soft filter that is applied to everything, making the camera appear as if it was dipped in Vaseline, but how do the cars still not have proper destruction mapping? I want to see the body of my sedan fold in when I careen into a trailer, not just lightly dent and smoke. I may have excused this the first time out (since it was the first attempt at recreating Burnout), but sequels should improve instead of regress.

The general polish of Danger Zone 2 is a downgrade compared against its predecessor. That it actively starts to affect the gameplay is where I draw the line. I had no problem recommending everyone grab the first game because it was cheap, delivered on its promise, and brought us back to the glory days of arcade racers. Danger Zone 2, though, is mostly the same thing in a wors???e package.

The real killer is that you can grab the absolute best Burnout game, Burnout Revenge, on Xbox 360 for $9.99 on the Xbox Live marketplace and it has backward compatibility on Xbox One. For half the price of Danger Zone 2, you&??rsquo;ll get not only a fully featured racing component and online multiplayer but five times the amou?nt of crash junctions.

Danger Zone 2 isn’t a bad game, but it falls apart under the weight of its technical issues. If there wasn’t already a better version of this game by the same devs (disregarding the Burnout series), I might be more forgiving of some of these flaws. I simply can?’t ignore the shortcomings, though.

Danger Zone 2 has all the groundwork set to make an explosive comeback for Burnout, but Three Fields Entertainment just needs to up its quality control. Also, how do we still not have Ken??ny Loggins on the soundtrack?!

_{[This review ?is based on a retail build of the game provided ??by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Danger Zone 2 appeared first on Destructoid.

PS4 version still has some issues

THQ Nordic is one of the more generous publishers around. They like to reward PC gamers for buying its titles years prior. For basically every remaster of a last-generation title that has jumped to PS4, Switch, and Xbox One, there has been a free PC upgrade for owners of the previous iteration. I don’t know if the older PC versions even needed tweaking, but you can’t really argue with a free upgra?de.

After seeing how shoddy Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered turned out on PS4, though, I was worried the PC edition was going to be just as lackluster. Free is nice, but if the remaster is a step down with regards to the previous “Steam Edition,” what would be the point? Well, you can let out a sigh of relief, because Re-Mars-tered is absolutely fine on PC.

Basically, none of the issues? I encountered with the PS4 version are present. The framerate is rock solid, the game doesn’t crash every other mission (or at all) and the controls are surprisingly solid. I actually don’t mi??nd how the vehicles handle on a keyboard, though I’m beginning to wonder if they were programmed with digital inputs in mind. It is almost a complete night and day comparison between this new PC version and the PS4 port.

As for graphics options, this is probably the only part where Re-Mars-tered isn’t solid. Everything you can tweak is pretty limited and there is not an option for uncapped framerates. You’re simply getting 60 FPS with or without Vsync. I’ll take that over the PS4’s “High Performance” mode, but it would be nice to see Guerrilla running at something obscene like 240 FPS. At least the PC version includes an FOV slider, though I think the values are off. I typically play first-person shooters with 90 FOV, but the max selection of 85 in Guerrilla was tremendously pulled back.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise ?to anyone since the previous PC version offered basically all these same features. The main thing was that the original launched with the godfors??aken “Games for Windows Live” service, but that was changed out for a “Steam Edition” in 2014. Multiplayer got migrated to the far more reliable Steam servers and everything was kosher. I’m guessing this release mainly happened because THQ Nordic worked on the console ports and decided to release an update for loyal PC users.

If for some reason you dislike the remaster, you’ll also receive the original PC port with a purchase on Steam. There really isn’t any reason to not give it a shot, which is kind of mind-blowing to me. A lot of these remasters would be completely unnecessary if console manufacturers would just include backward compatibility, but that is a different debate altogether. I’m just happy that this PC version isn’t a? technica??l mess.

As for how the PS4 version is faring, a patch came out the day before release. I played through the entire game on version 1.00 for review, but as soon as my review went live, 1.01 was available for download. I always try to be as thorough and transparent about my review process as possible, so I didn’t want to leave my 5/10 score up and ignore a potential game saver. S?adly, this 1.01 doesn’t really correct the numerous? framerate issues.

I played through the DLC campaign, Demons of the Badlands, and it was virtually the same as my regular playthrough. The game can hit 60 FPS but typically doesn’t. Explosions cause the framerate to drop and it looks unsightly in motion. To clarify, I made sure I was playing on the “High Performance” mode, so I really don’t understand why 60 FPS isn’t attainable on a PS4 Pro. The FMVs are also oddly more compressed than the main game ?and exhibit a lot of screen tearing, which is rather ugly. ?At least the worst issue (frequent game crashing) seems to be mostly gone.

I sat down for about three hours and finished the DLC in one sitting and didn’t encounter a single crash. When I realized I was done (the DLC is really underwhelming), I figured I would do some side quests. As soon as I jumped in a car and started to speed to my next location, the game locked u?p on me. Ugh. Still, that is a marked improvement over the 1.00 version, so you’re likely to not encounter as many crashes as I did.

Seeing as how the game is now available in stores, I figured I would actually tackle multiplayer to give some impressions. I don’t know why no one was playing it pre-release, but now there are actual players and you can experience the wild multiplayer mayhem that Guerrilla absolutely nails. At least the PS4 version is good for something because the online experience is solid. There are still framerate issues, but the more condensed maps don’t see them rear their ugly?? head that frequently. There is literally no lag that I could spot, but I also have my PS4 wired to my router.

As far as the multiplayer goes, the PS4 version is good. It wouldn’t be my preferred way to play, but the budget pricing on the remaster means you won’t have to break the bank just to get some destruction going with friends. I do hope that THQ Nordic can iron out those performance issues and eliminate whatever is causing the game to crash because I do really enjoy Guerrilla.

Nothing is going to change the ludicrous AI or lame plotline, but playing Guerrilla with a rock solid 60 FPS on PC made me appreciate it just as much as I did eight years ago. The game does hold up, for the most part, it just got a seemingly rushed port t?o PS4. I honestly wonder how the Xbox One version is, now.

The post Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tere??d is perfectly fine on PC appeared first on Destructoid.

Focusing on free DLC instead of Forza 8

In a recent live stream on Mixer, Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios announced that it is hard at work on improving Forza 7. The team is focusing development time on providing free updates to Microsoft's flagship racing series and working to improve the general reception around the game. Chris Esaki, creative director at Turn 10, also stressed that the team is currently not developing a Forza Motorsport 8 yet, ?opting ?to work more on the last title instead of the future of the series.

At around one hour and 37 minutes into the live stream, Esaki states, "The entire team, 100%...the entire Forza Motorsport team is working on Forza Motorsport 7. What that means is, we're not going off making Forza Motorsport 8;?? we're actually not g??oing off and making a grand new expansion; what we're doing is, we're investing in the motorsport experience you have right now."

That sounds very promising, to me. While I didn't expect a sequel to be happening this year (Forza Motorsport and Horizon trade years to give each team more time to develop), my biggest complaint with Forza 7 was the introduction of loot boxes and how it affected the core experience. Having the team continue to polish and refine the design of the game could mean that 7 will end up being the defacto Forza game...up until the inevitable 8 comes out.

If you were wondering about the future of Forza Motorsport, this should put your mind at ease.

ForzaMotorsport [Mixer]

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Smash, Crash, Repeat

As far as games worthy of a remaster go, Red Faction: Guerilla is a prime candidate. The game didn’t sell abysmally, but it never got the attention it so rightfully deserved in 2009. Released at a time where hype for upcoming sequels was at a fever pitch, Guerrilla was brushed aside by the gaming masses for bearing the name of a decent-ish series. That was a crying shame because Guerrilla was one of th??e best ?open-world games of the last generation.

While this remaster gives the title a second chance at success, I wish I could say the port was up to snuff. Sadly, Red Faction Guerrilla: Re-Mars-tered is a pretty sub-standard re-release.

Red Faction Guerrilla: Re-Mars-tered (PC, PS4 [reviewed on PS4 Pro], Xbox One)
Developer: Volition, KAIKO
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Release: July 3, 2018
MSRP: $29.99, Free (PC owners of original version)

The story of Red Faction: Guerrilla is set 50 years after the first game in the series. You assume the role of Alec Mason, a man traveling to Mars to reunite with his brother and start a new life. Within minutes of arriving, your brother is attacked by the Earth Defense Force (EDF) and killed for being a conspirator with the Red Faction. The Red Faction is a ragtag group of insurgents that are fighting against the EDF’s control of Mars with the hopes of one day reclaiming the planet. Since Alec is a mi??ner and has a predilection for destroying buildings with various tools, he joins up with the Red Faction to fight the good fight and avenge his brother.

While there are nods to the first game strewn about, Guerrilla requires basically no knowledge of prior events. The one thing that truly links the ga?mes together is the use of Volition’s patented &ldquo;Geomod” technology. In the original, Geomod allowed you to blast through literally everything and create your own path through the environment. Due to the limitations of seventh generation consoles, Volition had to drop the ability to destroy terrain. In return, we were given some seriously hardcore destructible buildings.

I’m still in awe of how the Xbox 360 and PS3 even managed to run Guerrilla with how many pieces of debris can go flying at a moment’s notice. Take one swing with your hammer and dust will kick into the air, stone will crumble and pieces will col?lapse from the point of impact in a very realistic display of destruction. There is an unadulterated joy in just getting frustrated with trying to shoot an enemy and opting to take the whole damn building down instead.

For a decent chunk of the campaign, this destructibility is actually factored in quite well. Since the Red Faction is (essentially) a terrorist organization, you’re often tasked with causing mass havoc to the EDF by destroying everything they operate with. This means taking your sledgehammer and doing your best M.C. Hammer impersonation or chucking a few remote bombs and setting them off. Missions will send you all around Mars with the ??goal being to destroy all the EDF&rs??quo;s armories, bring down fuel depots and obliterating vehicle factories.

It is in the missions that try to further develop the story where Guerrilla completely deflates itself. Sometime??s the game will throw you into scenarios where you’ll have to directly confront enemies and the gunplay is just not up to snuff. The very odd control scheme can make aiming feel imprecise and the nigh on suicidal NPC A?I makes firefights frustrating. The real killer is just the overall lackluster presentation.

I can excuse the low-quality FMVs as being a product of their time, but the way the game completely freezes the world and bombards you with incessantly dry narration of your current mission is just baffling. It feels so amateurish next to the impressive technology that powers the game and feels either like a cut corner or a rushed addition. Couple that with missions that don’t have an auto-restart option for failing, bafflingly limited checkpoints and the occasional game-crashing glitches and getting through the campaign in Guerrilla can be a test of patience.

I just wish the AI wasn’t so hell-bent on destroying you. Playing on anything above “Normal” difficulty is just asking to have a bad time, but even selecting the easiest setting can sometimes have missions where the enemy will be on top of you from the moment you hit start. As early as the fifth mission in the game, I was driving my car to smash some EDF sensors and I could swear my vehicle was made of magnets. The AI was on top of me almost?? the entire way through and I would attempt to jump out and switch vehicles only to get lost in the sea of cars plowing over me.

It just keeps getting more and more frustrating, too. Later missions have enemies with pinpoint accuracy and in such overabundant numbers that you’re constantly sprin?ting away from everything since there isn’t a point to cover. The open-world design means foes will come from literally everywhere, so you might as well haul ass and try to finish objectives as fast as possible. It really starts to make you hate the structure of these missions and how utterly bland the plotline really is?. There isn’t much reason to keep plowing through other than to witness buildings crumbling to the ground.

What does work is the plethora of side content available. Not everything is a winner, mind you, but they almost all feed back into the central premise for the game and include some way to further destroy the buildings around you. My favorite has to be the small puzzle-like destruction missions that task you with toppling a particular building with specific stipulations. Trying to figure out what the game wants you to do with the tools available is a real treat and highlights exactly what Guerrilla gets so right.

The various collectibles also do this, requiring you to break propaganda signs or smash ore deposits. This then feeds back into the upgrade syst??em, which works by having Alec collect scrap from his impromptu demolition sprees. Topple a building, grab some scrap and upgrade your guns. It really is a well-thought-out system with some meaningful extra content scattered throughout.

What does suck is the driving in the game. It wouldn’t be an open-world game on the 360/PS3 without some kind of driving and holy cow does Guerrilla not get this right. Maybe Mars just has radically different gravity than Earth, but each vehicle feels floaty, imprecise and utterly devoid of pep. Even the fast cars barely move and it feels like you’re almost standing still with how sorry the sound design is. I like hearing the roar of the engine and the screech of tires, but the cars in Guerrilla are pretty damn quiet.

Even with those flaws (and the hopelessly repetitive missions), Guerrilla still remains a solid title. I don’t know if it is worth it to 100% the game, but you’re bound to have a good time with Guerrilla in 2018. That is if you c?an play the thing without it crashing all the time. I’m very surprised at how lackl?uster this port is because it took me quite a few entire system restarts to make it through the campaign mode.

During a few missions, I would encounter bugs where the game would just freeze while the audio kept going. I could circumvent this by quitting the application, but other times the game would hang during the load screens?? along with my PS4. I did actually test out leaving it sit for 15 minutes and the game would eventually load, but other times that wasn’t the case. I would have a black screen and nothing going on, necessitating a restart. At other moments, my PS4 would throw up an error message and automatically clo??se the game for me, causing me to lose some progress since my last auto-save.

Even if these problems weren’t as numerous as they are, the framerate issues are truly confusing. I know the 360 and PS3 couldn’t properly handle Guerrilla, but you’d figure a PS4 Pro would have no? problem running this game in 1080p. Sadly, if you blow up too much stuff at once, the game will chug hard. Couple that with some weird controller lag I would occasionally encounter and I have no idea what went so wrong with this remaster.

The actual graphics look pretty nice, at least. The new lighting model adds a lot of depth to each area of Mars and helps give the game a more defined look. Cars have been given some slightly better polygon counts and there are new normal maps added to each texture. The general resolution of everything has seen a nice increase, looking very sharp and clean. There are definitely some things that still feel like a last generation game, but you could mistake Re-Mars-tered for being a current-gen project.

With regards to extra content, the multiplayer mode has made the cut. Even the DLC is here, which means you’re getting the complete Red Faction: Guerrilla experience and that is awesome. I still don’t understand why some developers w??ill opt for a remaster of a hit game and then ax game modes that people enjoyed.

I just wish all the perfo??rmance issues were resolved before shipping. In all good faith, I can’t recommend you rush out and grab this immediately with how shoddy the performance can be. It would be one thing to deal with a crummy framerate, but having the game crash as often as it did is no good. I want ??to destroy buildings, not sit through boring-ass dialogue, have my game crash and then sit through that chatter again.

Hopefully, some patches bring this remaster up to par, because it would be unforgivable to have Guerrilla fail a second time due to a rushed port.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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WOAH!

It has been quite some time since I last played a Crash Bandicoot game. I have lots of great memories of Crash Team Racing, but I certainly remember all of the zaniness that the original trilogy had. I jumped in after Crash Bandicoot 2 came out as I didn’t own an original PS1 until early 1998. Since I was a kid in love with 3D platformers, the games felt like the perfect complement to Super Mario 64 and all the other Rar?e ti?tles I had been playing on my N64.

Then developer Naughty Dog ??moved on to the PS2 and created a whole new series, leaving many diehard fans wondering what was next. The following games from various developers over the years weren’t all bad, but they never quite captured the glory of that original trilogy. With the varying degrees of quality, many were beginning to wonder if we’d ever see a return to what Naughty Dog did so well.

It turns out that was in the cards for quite some time. Last year, Vicarious Visions released a complete remake of the classic trilogy on PS4 to some rave reviews and tremendous commercial success. People just really wanted to see Crash in his former glory and Vicarious Visions was happy to replicate that experience down to a tee. Shortly after that release, rumblings of ports to different platforms began to make the rounds; it was only a matter of time before Crash would end up on?? Microsoft and Nintendo?’s platforms (along with a PC release).

Enough about the history of the series, though. Now that basically everyone can own a copy of this glorious remake, the biggest question that needs answering is whether or not the PC port (co-developed by Iron Galaxy) is worth a damn. A lot of high profile PC games have been getting the shaft lately, so there was always a very real possibility that Crash would um…crash and burn. Thankfully, that dimwitted bandicoot ?has some zest in him.

Rig: Intel Core i7-3770 @ 3.4 GHz, 16 GB of SDDR3 RAM @ 1600 MHz, NVidia GTX 1060 6 GB, Windows 10 Home 64-bit

As far as graphical options go, the N. Sane Trilogy on PC won’t light your world on fire. There is a decent amount of options, but nothing overly crazy. For some reason, you can lock the framerate to a lot of arbitrary values ??(like 34, 40 and 48 FPS), but the game doesn’t provide an option for uncapped framerates; the highest option is 60 FPS (unavailable on any console release). You can turn off Vsync, at least, which is nice for anyone that demands precision or has a Gsync/Freesync compatible device. Then there is a preset with a couple of different values, the option to turn off motion blu??r, bloom, depth of field and fur blur, but not a tremendous list.

It doesn’t really matter, though, because, on my now five-year-old PC, I’m able ??to get a completely locked 60 FPS with the preset set to “Ultra.” With the vsync off, there can be a few oddities in certain sections, but the game feels a lot more fluid than its previous PS4 iteration thanks to that boost in framerate. What 60 FPS playback does for platformers cannot be understated; ever?ything just feels perfect.

With regards to controls, you cannot rebind any gamepad options, but the keyboard controls are completely customizable. There aren’t more options than what playing with a gamepad offers (so no shortcut keys or macros out-of-the-box), but it is nice to be able to create your own configuration. In a nice touch, the mouse is supported without any INI tweaking needed. It isn’t like there is camera control, but you can use all of the various buttons on your mouse if you’re so inclined. Oddly, no audio options are present, but it isn’t like there is much dialogue in Crash. (Small correction; audio options are present once you?? select a game and then enter the menu. You ??can only access them while playing and not from the main menu - Peter).

Once you get that all squared away, it just becomes a matter of picking the game you want and diving in. There isn’t a separate launcher for each title??, so you’ll just boot up the main exe and then select your preferred game from the mai?n menu. I do like that the announcer tries to eagerly shout each title as you scroll over it, which just sounds funny.

In a really nice touch, the cutscenes have been encoded at 60 FPS, so you won’t be getting odd transitions where gameplay is silky smooth, but then cutscenes look slow and out of place. There isn’t much in the way of compression on them, either, but I don’t believe they are pre-rendered. The graphical quality of the N. Sane Trilogy is so impressive that I’m unsure of what is pre-rendered?? or not.

I didn&??rsquo;t have a display capable of outputting in 4K, but I did enable downsampling on my device. This can be a seriously gorgeous game in certain areas, though others are a little betrayed by being a console title. Some textures look flat and the lighting can clash with Crash’s gloves in a couple of levels. It is never distracting, though, and will only really stick out for people looking for something to criticize.

My only real complaints with this package have to do with the original game. I’ve never disliked the first Crash Bandicoot, but even back in the day, it was my least favorite. This remake makes everything look super nice and even tightens up the animations on all the characters, but the general level design and flow is just kind of off. Being one of the earliest 3D platformers on the market, Crash 1 is just limited in scope and ambition.

It also has a lot of odd camera placement that makes some jumps far trickier than they need to be. You’ll have objects floating right in front of you, obscuring the distant background and causing you to miss your target. The design is also very samey, never really changing themes in between levels or daring to mix things up. It is thankfully a short game (clockin??g in at around two hours), but at least Naughty Dog was able to build upon that foundation for the sequels.

I didn’t take a look at Crash 3 yet, but even just the first level of Crash 2 is a huge improvement over the original game. You’re allowed to select from one of five levels, first off, but even those five showcase more themes, ideas, and enemies than the whole first game had. This is exactly what I remember loving about the series?? and I’m glad that Vicarious Visions didn’t think to start injecting extra nonsense into the proceedings.

As for those claims of a different collision box for Crash in the remake, I’m not sure what to say. This doesn’t feel like a 1:1 recreation of the games I played two decades ago, but it also doesn’t feel dramatically different. Crash is a little weightier in his movement, but jumping is snappy and everything is super precise. You can turn around instantaneously and I actua?lly had to adjust to how precise Crash felt. I would often overestimate his jump arc and stop myself in mid-air to compensate, leading to a death.

That being said, I finished the first game with 85 lives (I lost most of these on the bosses, all of which suck in the original), so I don’t know what to say about the game being harder. Crash didn’t slide off ledges and I was even able to jump on the ropes in the bridge levels in the original. Maybe the collision detection got? fixed for these new ports? Whatever the case, don’t be deterred by people claiming these remakes are somehow inferior to the originals.

If your interest is in getting this compilation for PC, I can safely say tha??t Vicarious Visions and Iron Galaxy have knocked this out of the park. The graphics options could be a little denser and it would be nice to see actual audio options, but everything runs smoothly and looks great. The controls are customizable and all the bonus DLC is included from the get-go. This is just a really solid version of an excellent remake compilation. It also has the added bonus of running at ??60 FPS, which does wonders for making the game feel tight and responsive.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go relive my chil??dhood in glorious HD.

_{[This PC Port Report is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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