Today should be a fun one with three bigger streaming eve?nts scheduled in the gaming world. I'l??l be watching all three and want to invite you to join me in an exciting Friday triple-header stream session!

First, the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest kicks off at 1 p.m. ET with a 1.5 hour Keynote presented by FF14 Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida. You can watch along on their Twitch or YouTube once the Fan Fest starts.

Next up we have a Diablo 4 Campfire Chat at 2 p.m. ET. Don't worry, you're not crazy. We just had one of these Campfire Chats on July 21. The Campfire Chat will be streamed on the official Diablo Twitch and YouTube channels once live.

Finally, to round out the day, ExileCon begins at 6 p.m. ET with a Keynote presented by Grinding Gear Games Producer and Developer Chris Wilson. ExileCon will be available live on the Path of Exile Twitch and YouTube channels when they begin.

Now let's take a look at what's can expect fro??m each of the three events, so you know if there's something you might want to watch! Also, as each event starts we will update this post to include an embed of the stream so you can watch along with us.

Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=--_vb2j_qDo

Fans are holding out hope we'll get at least some sort of information about update 7.0, the next expansion for Final Fantasy XIV. Square Enix has not confirmed or denied what we will see in the Keynote. This is the fifth annual fan festival for FF14, and is primarily a chance for fans of the MMORPG to meet up and share their passion for the game. While no date's been set, we probably won't get a new expansion until 2024. Therefore, time-wise it's possible we see some sort of reveal today, but also possibl?e we don't until the winter months.

Surprise, expansion! Here's everything shown at today's Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest keynote.

[caption id="attachment_394120" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Activision Blizzard[/caption]

Diablo 4 Campfire Chat

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5N91g5uMxg

No, you're not crazy. We just had one of these Campfire Chats on July 21. But a week ago the Diablo team promised better communication moving forward, starting with a planned Campfire Chat for today to discuss the upcoming patch 1.1.1. The update will focus on Class balance changes primarily w??ith the Sorcerer and Barbarian. Furthermore, a variety of quality-of-life updates were teased for ?the upcoming patch so chances are we will hear more details about them as well. Finally, last week the team confirmed the release of patch 1.1.1 would follow soon after this Campfire Chat so it's likely we will get a date for it as well.

Well, that's a wrap! Check out our Diablo 4 Campfire Chat recap here.

[caption id="attachment_394122" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Grinding Gear Games[/caption]

Path of Exile at ExileCon

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvah-HfhkYc

Fans of Path of Exile are in for a treat. After four years the second ExileCon ever is finally here, and it's sure to be a big one. Grinding Gear Games has confirmed Path of Exile 2 will be a big component of this year's event. It's likely we'll see some more in-depth gameplay and feature reveals, as PoE2 has been teased quite a bit over the last few months at other events like Summer Game Fest. It's even possible we'll finally get a release date. Also, patch 3.22—the new Path of Exile season—will be revealed today. We can expect a video showing off the new league mechanic as well as any new features and items being added to PoE with the update. Grinding Gear Games has admitted that this ?will be a big event, so who knows what else we may s??ee.

The post Let’s watch today’s Final Fantasy XIV/Diablo 4/Path of Exile triple-header appeared first on Destructoid.

Hone your coin-tossing skills

CD Projekt RED and Netflix have released the full WitcherCon 2021 schedule, spotlighting all of the coo??l activities, events, and features set to take place over the celebratory weekend. As previously noted, the stream will take place on Saturday, July 9, with an encore performance set for Sunda??y, July 10 (to cover for different global timezones).

As you can see from the WitcherCon schedule �depicted in the tweet below �the day-long stream is set to feature various showcases based around The Witcher video games as well as the hugely popular Netflix series. It all kicks off with an extended look at the long-awaited second season of the TV show, featuring appearances from the cast and crew. This is followed by a deep dive into the original lore behind CDPR's excelle??nt RPG adaptation, as well as a look at the development of the games themselves.

Audiences can test out their dedication to Witcher's universe's extended lore with a fan-focused trivia quiz, with the day rounding out with an interview with the big fella himself, Henry Cavill, who portrays The White Wolf in the Netflix show. Not a bad day at all for dedicated Witcher die-hards... Get the drinks and snacks in, put your feet up (in the bath, maybe) and soak up hours of Witcher fun, facts, news, and trivia. Oh, it bears repeating that CDPR will not be revealing any new games over the course of the weekend, but it still seems like a great event for the franchise's f??aithful.

WitcherCon 2021 starts Saturday, July 9 at 10:00 PT / 13:00 ET / 18:00 BST. The encore presentation will stream on Sunday, July 10. You can check out all of the action on the official YouTube and Twitch channels of CD Projekt RED and Netflix. For more details, visit the official WitcherCon website.

//twitter.co??m/witchergame/status/140951?2001395691520?s=20

The post What’s happening at WitcherCon 2021? Here’s the full schedule appeared first on Destructoid.

Free for everyone

Today during their 2018 Fanfest keynote, CCP Games announced the new Into the Abyss expansion for EVE Online. It'll take them into the Abyssal Deadspace, a special new Deadspace location beyond the ??normal pockets. It's a unique hostile environment with new NPCs and rare loot.

Because of the way EVE is structured, it'll be free for all players, not just subscribers. As a reminder EVE went free-to-play in late 2016, and just last year CCP removed some of the training wheels for free accounts,?? allowing them to advance their characters more freely.

Into the Abyss will also feature Faction Citadels, player-created landmarks, a new race of NPCs with ships and modules (Triglavians) and a (non-retroactive) character progression activity tracker -- with multiple progression paths and milestones. The Triglavians "appear to be human" in their origin according to the lore, but are a bit off due to their isolation from other civilizations. You'll access the new Abyssal Deadspace through new items called "filaments," which are basically dungeon keys/Diablo III rifts&nb?sp;th??at can be activated by cruisers with varying rarity.

Into the Abyss is the 38th named expansion for EVE and it'll launch on May 29. Their first was the Castor update?? in December of 2003, seven months after the origin??al launch.

The post CCP unveils details for new EVE Online expansion ‘Into the Abyss’ appeared first on Destructoid.

'Stay away,' is what I'd go with

While fanboys and fangirls may have no filter when it comes to insulting their opposition, usually professional or official Twitter accounts have some form of decorum for poking fun at their competition. I guess whomever is running the account for David Cage's next "masterpiece," Detroit Become Human, failed basic PR classes.

I have no idea how this got by anyone.

In the now removed tweet, you can see ?that clearly someone over at Quantic Dream isn't exactly a fan of Microsoft or Xbox. They als??o seem to just outright dislike fans of Xbox, which could have a pretty big crossover with people who own PS4's.

I mean, I can come up with a few witty retorts to that?? post. The first one that pops to my mind is, "Xbox One is better without David Cage," but the fact that this tweet somehow made it through marketing is dazzling. It isn't the most blatantly offensive sentence, but to insult people for deciding to go with a different console is like some '90s era commercial schlock.

Sega basically did the same thing with the "Nintendon't" campaign, but we've come a long way? from succumbing to schoolyard name calling. Sega also didn't insult people who owned Nintendo products, so there is that. This tweet, though, does nothing to address how Sony has a range of different exclusives not available on Xbox and vice versa??. It doesn't bring up the hardware of its specific platform or any kind of benefits. This is more like tooting your own horn before even seeing if you're worth a damn.

Personally, I haven't enjoyed a David Cage game in quite some time. I was big into Fahrenheit in high school, but I w??as also an angsty teen that listened to sh??itty music by bands like Seether and Fuel. Cage's ridiculous melodrama and asinine plot twists worked for me because it was yearning to be taken seriously by a crowd that rejected it (namely film critics).

As I've gotten older, I've ??learned that you don't need to impress anyone with the things you like. You can listen to whatever you want and no one really cares. Well, some people will care, but they aren't worth your time. You can enjoy something that is "bad" or less popular for reasons beyond trying to look edgy or being "unique"

For artists, if you craft something that is worth telling, most people will find it interesting and even naysayers will admit to the good points of your work. David Cage seems to have gotten lost up his own ass, and his work has become increasingly self-indulgent. One need look no further than Heavy Rain to see a story that has no logic and relies far too heavily on a nonsensical twist to shock players into enjoying the game. Even so, Heavy Rain has its fans and that is fine and dandy.

So to whomever this may concern over at Quantic Dream and Sony, tell your people to stay respec?tful. You can secretly hate us all you want, but just reign that crap in. At least let us live with the illusion that you care about us, because opening the flood gates is going to do more harm than good.

Detroit: Become Human tweet swiftly removed after poking fun at Xbox [Eurogamer]

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Laissez faire

Earlier this week, the Citadel expansion came to EVE Online. Two years ago, developer CCP moved toward releasing more frequent updates for the game, so this type of event is a relatively regular occurrence. Citadel, however, is a pretty big milestone o??n that ?roadmap.

While the Citadel update is a notable one, CCP doesn't necessarily know how it'll affect the larger New Eden universe. That's intentional. Speaking with EVE Online executive producer Andie Nordgren at Fanfest last week, she flatly said "We're just setting it loose and we really don't know what people will do?? with (the citad??els)."

This mindset isn't new for CCP either. It's the guiding light behind EVE Online. According to Nordgren, this hands-off attitude is critical to making a true sandbox game. "If we try to control everything, I don't think you can be successful as a maker of sandbox games. If you think that the proof that you're good at what you're doing is that you can predict anything, I think that's a completely wrong strategy," Nordgren commented. "We're trying to make stuff where if we can predict it, players can predict it even better. At the very least, w??e need to make stuff that we can't predict," she continued.

"If we're putting new tools into the sandbox of EVE ?that give players new capabilities, the ecosystem is so complex and people have so many different motivations, it's basically impossible to predict all the cases. We think that is really good because it's interesting. Players have to figure out what other people are going to do and not just trying to learn the mechanics that we put in. They're trying to learn so that they can exploit them in a good way to gain an advantage over othe?r players."

Even when the developer missteps, Nordgren stresses that it's usually better to take no action. "Sometimes we see some really unintended obvious consequences that we can kind of fix up right away. But, we also want to give it time because all the consequences aren’t immediately obvious. Even if something looks very broken, we hold back a little bit and say 'Okay, let's not rush to a reaction. Let's see if the system can figure itself out.' ??Sometimes someone comes up with something that's really overpowered, but after a while people come up with effective counters for it. If we had rushed in to nerf something right away, we don't let the system play out like it's supposed to."

Last year, CCP made a point to say that it wanted to put power in the players' hands. It wanted to put tools into the game and then step back as much as possible. Developer interaction should be a last resort for any true sandbox experience. So, even if something seems broken in EVE, chances are?? the developers are fully aware; they'd just rather that the system straighten itself out.

The post EVE Online developer has the right attitude abou??????????????????????????t making sandbox games appeared first on Destructoid.

Legion helped it get there

EVE Online developer CCP has a new first-person shooter but there's a chance no one will ever get to play it unless they happen to be in Reykjavik, Iceland this weekend. Project Nova is the name of the game, a moniker ?designed to indicate exactly what it is to this point: A project. Whether it ever turns into something more depends on a number of things, a major one being how ?this weekend goes.

CCP has made it perfectly clear over the past few years that it has no problem shutting down a game before it's ever launched. If a project isn't to CCP's liking, it'd rather not release something than press the issue. Two years ago, Project Legion was announced as the maybe-successor of Dust 514. Now we know that's not the case, as Legion was officially shelved.

Instead, Project Nova has taken over and it seems a much better candidate to actually end up as a finalized product. That's mighty obvious judging solely by the two matches we spent with Nova. But, we also sat down with? the game?'s senior director Snorri Árnason to get a better feel for the developer's intentions.

The nuts and bolts of Project Nova are that it's a free-to-play first-person shooter for the PC. What we saw ??was a six-on-six fray, but Árnason explains that was only to satisfy space restrictions at a convention; it's going to be 16 versus 16 instead. CCP also makes a point to emphasize that it's aiming for an "uncompromised 6??0 frames per second" for rigs with the right specs.

Project Nova is set to have three main classes -- light, medium, and heavy -- but there's a lot of customization beyond that. In all actuality, branching class trees mean that there are 32 different roles. Sentinel, Vanguard, Support, Assault, Inf?iltrator, and Sharpshooter are the six easily identifiable ones. It gets more specialized from there, with loadouts able to mix and match weapons freely.

Proficiency is the only way to earn that specialization, though. Árnason says progression is something that's earned and that the effort is rewarded. "These are not final, but the progression is a kind of tech tree where you have to play in the loadout to earn it -- different from EVE and Dust 514, actually," he comments. "It was kind important to us to say 'Okay, you earned this." You can't just automatically own everything.' There's kind of a respect to the players who play that ?class. If you are true Support, for instance, you earned it."

Despite the fact that Project Nova is intrinsically tied to EVE Online, Árnason insists that the focus on making a great shooter that fits its setting is first and foremost. "I think it's kind of a step back to a proper shooter in some sense. It's meant to be a semi-realistic tactile squad-based shooter. By realistic, I mean that its suppo??sed to make sense in this universe, which is a future universe based on real humans and less fantastical. We can see that a lot of shooters are going into fantasy, cartoons, way more extravagant stuff. We don't want to be there," he offers.

The map that we played struggled to spotlight this desire for identity. It was set on a ship that made for a fine first-person shooter setting, but lacked the personality required to make it a memorable EVE setting. Ár?nason seems to be cognizant of the need to do better in this area.

"It's very important to me and the team to be very thematically accurate and to take place in EVE in a recognizable way. I want to be on ships, I want to see planets, I want to know where I am. I want to feel like I'm in EVE. That's a passion to be in EVE. Dust 514 was maybe too generic on the plan??ets. You wouldn't always necessarily know you were in New Eden," Á;rnason commented.

If that gets sorted out, Project Nova seems as if it could be a very good shooter in the free-to-play space. Dust didn't end up as successful as CCP would've hoped, but at least the developer looks to be learning all the time. For instance, even though nothing ultimately became of Project Legion, it appears to have been integral in laying the foundation for Nova.

As Árnason explains it, the purpose of Project Legion was to be a stepping stone. " Legion was an Unreal Engine 3 game. It was something we basically tried to bridge the gap from PlayStation 3 to Legion in UE3. The idea for Legion at the time was 'Get us to the other platform ?without too much invest??ment into tech, and go straight to PC.' Technically-speaking, it became a dead-end to keep working on UE3. That's why the project was shelved."

He continues "At the time, we were introducing a rigid stage gate release systems within CCP to start being more harsh on how we approach new development and live products. At that point, World of Darkness was also being scrutinized heavily, and ended up being closed. Legion went through that stage gate as well and it was an obvious decision to say 'Okay, this isn't going the right way. We're shelving this idea of a PC first-person shooter in EVE, and we're focusing on Dust 514.'"

"For Dust 514, we spent a lot of time and effort and resources into making it as good of a business as possible. At the end, we also shelved that. When we saw the end of the road for that project, we started thinking about EVE again. Now that Gunjack has been very successful in Unreal Engine 4, we thought 'Can we do something with this (with a firs?t-person shooter)?' We went through the whole concept/prototype stage gate release system that we introduced, and here we are."

It's that gated stage system that holds the fate of Project Nova. Two years from now, I very well might look at this piece and think "Too bad that game didn't actually turn into anything." Things are looking more up than that, though. The fact that it's playable and at Fanfest is an incredibly positive sign. Legion was n??ever afforded that degree of public ?availability.

For now, things are humming along. Árna??son says "I was very happy that we were able to (have a playable demo in Iceland). It’s quite ahead of schedule. We didn't expect to have a robust hands-on at Fanfest. When we saw that it might be a possibility, we changed some of our scheduling to kind of prioritize getting it into the hands of the players. We actually had to switch our milestones. Fanfest was a secondary objective and it turned into a primary objective to get the feedback."

If that feedback is glowing enough, we might see Project Nova by a more official name sooner rather t?han later. Talking about the sought-after goal of introducing the game to a broader audience, Árnas??on reflects and says "We're aiming for an alpha in 2016. This year maybe? Could be."

The post CCP’s new first-person shooter on PC aims to get right what Dust 514 didn’t appeared first on Destructoid.

Live on the scene in Iceland

This past weekend, I was at a? small ?local concert in Colorado. My friends were playing, and that's more than enough reason for me to go see a show. Toward the end of the night, just before they went on, some punk rock kid came up and drunkenly slurred that the next act is John Mayer with special guest T-Pain.

It was a weird combination. This dude played the punk part to perfection, all spikes and patches, so I'm assuming he came up with two acts that he loathes??. "That'd be awesome," I replied. "John Mayer's crazy talented and one of my favo??rite musicians." Wistfully, he shot back "Yeah, me too, man. Me too." Then he thrust a beer at me, a canned Guinness nitro IPA. That's an odd beer for this punk rock kid to carry around a small indie show. Whatever. I obliged and drank it something like Stone Cold Steve Austin, getting more on me than in me.

Three days later I'm remembering this exchange. As I'm on a plane to Reykjavik, Iceland, I have my usual international flight cocktail: Two parts Nyquil, one part John Mayer -- usually Battle Studies. I'm typically out before h??e gets to the song about being a lustful assassin.

Ironically, the only thing waking me up is the seat in front of me banging my head. A few days ago I'm headbanging, now my head is being banged. I shoot incredulous glares at the back of the seat, the inconsiderate person occupying it none the wiser. It's where I make this connection between John Mayer, my punk friend, and, now, EVE Online.

John Mayer may fall out of the equation there, but the punk rock undertones are still plenty apt. This just might be the most uneasy and unsettled EVE Fanfest yet. EVE Online is entangled in an all-out war right now. The Imperium is going at it with the Money Badger Coalition. Almost everyone has something at stake, almost everyone has picked a side. That's probably especially true? for anyone who cares enough about the game to fly out to Iceland to celebrate it.

I guess it's a good year for that state of unrest because Icelan?d itself is in a state of political unrest. Its prime minister and other officials have recently resigned after being linked to tax evasion via the Panama Papers. Thousands of people protested in the Reykjavik city center a few weeks ago. Points for thematic consistency and all these tourists showing up who also have their problems.

How developer CCP addresses all of this will be a treat. Sure, Fanfest will have its share of reveals, updates, and new directions. We'll probably get to see the first-person shooter that's replacing Dust 514. We'll likely get continued progress on the virtual reality front. And, we'll see changes and evolutions to EVE itself. But, there's this explosive, very recent conflict that adds extra oomph this year. I'll be here to report on everyt??hing as it unfolds, like the Geraldo Ri?vera of video games.

The post Give me a punk rock EVE Fanfest appeared first on Destructoid.

What is it really that is going on here?

It's no secret that I hate spiders, but there's one spider I adore. That's MC Spider, the frontman of Powerman 5000. That's why I was raucously excited to hear about the "Worlds Collide" event at Fanfest 2015, obviously a PM5K show at the top of the world named after the legenda?ry group's most popular s?ong.

I was absolutely ready to bang my head and strain my neckbone. That's why the following was an absolute bombshell: Worlds Collide is an EVE Online battle between China and the rest of the globe -- a heroes and villains tale of sorts if you want to get all rock, f????lag, eagle about it. 

Yeah, my dreams popped just like a supernova.

Resigned to the fact that I wouldn't see the stars revolt tonight, I dutifully watched these skilled pilots operate and annihilate. They were just so automatic. It was a slow process, but there were a lot of explosions. Good stuff for any action junkie. Danger is go, you know?

The Tranquility server (representing the Wild World team) wasn't afraid to show them what they got. They did their thing to their enemies and let the good times roll. The Serenity team took a single match, but it inevitably proved to be as bleak a situation as a swim with sharks.

It has to be tough staring into the crowd and realizing "It's Earth versus me." Maybe those intelligent creatures on Team China made some missteps that hurt their cause. That's okay. We all do it. Even Superman shot himself.

At the end of the day, Tranquility was the one and only. But, that's not the takeaway. It was a neat exhibition for the Fanfest crowd -- just another way to live it up before you're dead. I couldn't help but leave thinking "Wow, that's entertainment."

The post The Fanfest ‘Worlds Collide’ event wasn’t the Powerman 5000 concert I was expecting appeared first on Destructoid.

'These almighty pilots finally get to decide what their ships look like!'

The EVE Online keynote at Fanfest 2015 just wrapped up, and one of the major themes was that CCP wants to put more power in the hands of the players. A popular way of accomplishing this is by finally releasing unique ship skins so that pilots can customize their look?.

From the outset, CCP has unveiled 102 new skins, which will bring EVE Online's total to 130. But, the developer has no intention of stopping there. According to executive p?roducer Andie Nordgren, CCP's future plans for additional ship customization are quite elaborate, including the eventual inclusion of exclusive skins.

When asked about the prospect of releasing exclusive skins for top-tier players or extraordinary in-game feats, Nordren commented "Yeah, absolutely. We're kind of taking one step now, just getting the new system out there with a whole bunch of skins so people can try it and play around with it. But, we have all kinds of plans for the future. We want s?ome of these skins to be available through stuff that you do in the game. It might be that you've done something that people know."

Another variable that CCP's taking into consideration is the second-hand market. Nordgren's excited about the idea of simultaneously feeding and evad??ing that environment. "We also have the player market, so it's possible for us to give out stuff that people might resell. But, we could ??also give out stuff that's just on your character that you can't give out to anyone," she said.

While all 102 new skins were shown at Thusday's keynote, CCP hasn't released images of them for public consumption. However, we got our hands on a decent sample size of 11 of the skins. It's only (approximately)? one-ninth of the full collection, but it's enough to get the general idea.

The post EVE Online has plans for exclusive ship s?kins, here are 11 new ones appeared first on Destructoid.

What a shocker

This might blow some fragile minds, but none of the CCP developers who went up against undefeated MMA fighter Gunnar Nelson at the Fanfest '14 EVE of Destruction event tasted the sweet nectar of victory. No one really came close. And, just between us, I don't think Nelson was trying all that hard. Pathetic.

Close to a dozen challengers threw their best at Nelson one at a time, and then tapped ?out in predictable fashion. Twitch content director and former Destructoid all-star Jon Carnage even made a surprise cameo to try his hand. The crowd loved it, but even Carnage went down in order.

Even though it was clearly an exhibition spectacle, there was enough effort exhausted by the developers to keep it feeling like a semi-real event. Obviously Nelson wasn't going to break anyone's arm, but there were a few moments where it looked like someone could possibly get lucky. Then Nelson immediatel?y assumed complete control because this must've been like playing a game with god mode enabled for him.

The night was greatly enhanced by the play-by-play commentator who legitimately had the audience in stitches the entire time. His comedic manner went great lengths to really underline how crazy the entire event was. By the time that the last fighter zip-lined in from the fourth floor balcony, it was cemented that EVE of Destruction had?? provided a lifetim??e's worth of absurdity.

Photo: Brynjar Snaer and CCP Games

The post Yeah, so no EVE developers came close to beating MMA fighte?r Gunnar Nelson appeared first on Destructoid.