While it’s not exactly Call of Duty or Battlefield, the Far Cry series has become one of the biggest first-person shooter series in the industry. With its latest entry, Far Cry 5, set to release soon, we decided to look back at the franchise and how it got to where it is today.
In the video above, we run through the complete history of Far Cry. We start with the original, open-ended game from Crytek, the studio that would later go on to make the Crysis series. We look at the transition as Ubisoft Montreal took the reigns with the stellar Far Cry 2 and its many follow-ups–there have been quite a few Far Cry games, despite the fact that we’re technically only up to Far Cry 5.
In many ways, Far Cry 3 firmly established the formula that the series still follows today; it was also the first to latch onto the tower-climbing of Assassin’s Creed, introducing the climb-the-radio-tower mechanic used to unlock the in-game map. And who can forget Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, the bizarre spin-off that no one would have thought to ask for yet offered a brilliant, distilled Far Cry experience seeped in ’80s action movie cheese?
Watch the video above for a trip down memory lane. There’s not much longer to wait until the next entry in the series is here, as Far Cry 5 is due out on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on March 27. You can watch us chat about the somewhat confusing game in a recent video and read all about the confirmed DLC.
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Nintendo’s latest Direct yielded a exciting announcement: Super Smash Bros. is officially coming to Nintendo Switch. And that’s not all; the game is coming in 2018. Naturally, this has us pretty excited, and we’re already speculating which characters we want to be on the game’s roster. While characters who have been in past entries, like Ice Climbers and Star Wolf, are obvious choices for us, we’re also eager to see characters from other Nintendo franchises and third-party games make appearances. Here are the 20 characters we want to see the most in Super Smash Bros. on Switch.
As of yet, we don’t know if this an updated version of Super Smash Bros. Wii U or a brand-new game. If it is a port, it could follow the model of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. There are plenty of other Wii U titles that deserve a second chance on Switch as well–you can see some of the ones we want most here–but Smash Bros. is undoubtedly the most obvious candidate. Nintendo has remained ambiguous about what form this game will take.
Which characters do you want to see in Smash Bros. for Switch? Let us know in the comments below. For more on today’s Nintendo Direct, check out GameSpot’s roundup of all the Nintendo Direct news, which includes release dates for some of the most exciting upcoming Switch and 3DS games.
Valve boss Gabe Newell has signaled an end to the company’s long hiatus. At a talk yesterday, the president said the company is “going to start shipping games again.” He also opened up about why the pace of its releases slowed down so much, and what’s changed since then.
The presentation (via PC Gamer) was centered mostly on Artifact, the Dota 2-themed card game announced last year. But he made sure to point out that it’s not the only game on Valve’s slate. He explicitly said that it’s “the first of several games” coming from the studio. Since the release of Dota 2, Valve’s gaming efforts have been focused mostly on supporting it and Team Fortress 2.
As for why Valve moved away from games, Newell frankly said he was concerned about PCs becoming more of a closed system. He said his investments into Vive were an effort to “offset” the impact of Microsoft and Facebook looking into OS and VR concepts that the company considered less open. The result has been a newly revised Valve that he says feels comfortable in hardware design as well as software. Newell hinted that may impact how they treat their game designs going forward.
“We’ve always been a little bit jealous of companies like Nintendo,” Newell said. “When Miyamoto is sitting down and thinking about the next version of Zelda or Mario, he’s thinking what is the controller going to look like, what sort of graphics and other capabilities. He can introduce new capabilities like motion input because he controls both of those things. And he can make the hardware look as good as possible because he’s designing the software at the same time that’s really going to take advantage of it. So that is something we’ve been jealous of, and that’s something that you’ll see us taking advantage of subsequently.”
As for the identity of these mystery projects, Newell was much more tight-lipped. He did say in a Reddit AMA in January that they’re working on a single-player game. He’s also mentioned three more VR games on the way. That’s four more in addition to Artifact, with a notable focus on custom hardware, so those could be the games he was referring to. Either way, though, it sounds like Valve is back in the games business.
President Trump hosted a roundtable discussion with games industry stakeholders and critics yesterday to talk about the potential impact of video game violence. Like most high-profile political events, it was fodder for the late-night comedy circuit. The Daily Show‘s Trevor Noah took a swing at lampooning the attempt to draw a link between video games and real-life tragedy.
The centerpiece of Noah’s argument focuses on Japan, which is the third-highest consumer of video games in the world, but suffers dramatically less gun-related crime than America. In fact, in 2015 the country had only one gun murder. “I’m sorry but if you’re the only gun death in a country of 120 million people, you probably deserved it,” Noah quipped.
The meeting on the whole was described as respectful but occasionally contentious. The White House opened the meeting with a montage of violent imagery from several video games, removed from context, includingCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,Fallout 4, and others. Media Research Council president Brent Bozell suggested tougher regulation on games, and Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) said afterwards that such regulations should also apply to other media like movies.
The industry’s side, represented by the ESA and ESRB among other leaders, refuted the connections. They had an ally in Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) who pointed out there’s been no evidence that the Parkland shooter was motivated by playing video games. He did advocate increasing measures to make sure parents are aware of resources like the ESRB to monitor their kids’ entertainment.
The Division may have recently passed 20 million players and gotten a massive content drop in December, but publisher Ubisoft is already thinking about what’s next for the series. We know that the recently announced The Division 2 will transfer some amount of progress from the original game, but we won’t learn much more about the sequel until E3 later this year.
The original Division was released two years ago, and the sequel is being developed by the same trio of developers: Massive Entertainment, Red Storm, and Ubisoft Reflections. And while the original only received middling reviews at launch, the game’s recent 1.8 update has introduced far-reaching improvements. And just because a sequel is on the way doesn’t mean that support for the original Division is ending; current players will still be getting global events and a 4K patch on Xbox One X.
But what’s on our wishlist for the best possible version of The Division 2? Here are our suggestions for features we hope make it into the next game.
1) More world-building and environmental changes
At the start of The Division you arrive at the Hudson Refugee camp; even after hundreds of hours, the camp doesn’t really grow or change. The Division 2 needs to show progress in the world to increase your investment in the experience. There are literally people waiting in line forever to get into the camp. You’re never given a sense of how your actions have positively impacted the world outside of your personal base’s progression.
2) Better faction system
The “kill everything” approach to the various factions in the original Division really hurt the game’s potential for creating a truly memorable experience. Let enemy factions make their case to you and force you to work with some and against others. Take a page from Fallout: let the factions fight each other or perhaps make some parts of the map more or less dangerous for players based on their alliances.
GS News Update: The Division 2 Officially Announced
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3) A more integrated story
By the time your agent got to New York in the first Division, the interesting pandemic stuff had already occurred, and all you were left with were memories in the form of echoes. Destiny made a similar mistake the first time around when it took the strongest story beats out of the main game experience. And while The Division’s separation isn’t quite as tedious as searching out Grimoire cards, it would be far more impactful to get to know neighborhoods full of people and their struggles to survive rather than just running across the stuff they left behind.
4) Survival elements and meaningful cosmetics
The Division had players scavenging empty apartments for items such as soda cans, but that busywork didn’t pay off until the Survival DLC. In-game cosmetic items were equally dull and useless; what’s the incentive for taking a walnut-colored beanie over a beige one? The Survival DLC added stats to cosmetic items as well as weather events that finally gave players a reason to consider their outfits. Survival was a standalone mode, but those elements should be considered for the base game.
5) Baseball caps shouldn’t be bulletproof
One universally agreed criticism of the original was that dumping hundreds of rounds into a looter whose only protection was a hoodie was more than a little immersion-breaking. Damage in The Division 2 needs to make visual sense. The game has made strides through the 1.8 patch to address this, but Ubisoft needs to go further with the sequel.
6) Stat balance the Dark Zone
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On paper, the RPG-style Dark Zone sounds good, but in practice a top tier of players have emerged to unstoppably rule the Dark Zone, ruining it for everyone else. Destiny’s stats-balanced model makes a lot more sense in making PvP fair. The 1.8 patch did add a Rogue toggle and turned off friendly fire to make the DZ more balanced, but shooting still doesn’t feel anywhere near as good as other PvP games. Also, the Dark Zone needs to have some kind of new, special infected units and more interesting unique gear to be relevant.
7) Get rid of enemy grenade spam
Certain enemy types in The Division not only spammed grenades but seemed to magically be able to damage you through walls and ceilings. Later Incursion bosses mimicked this annoying feature with endless waves of RC car bombs or unstoppable mortars. Division 2 needs to put an end to this frustrating spam.
8) Expand on the Underground DLC idea
This one’s simple: The Division’s post-launch Underground DLC introduced randomly generated dungeons, and we’d love it if they were further expanded on in The Division 2’s endgame. Players quickly grew tired of daily story missions in the first game because they were predictable and often didn’t require high level strategy beyond knowing which sections to bypass. The randomly generated model from Underground could add unpredictability and longevity to grinding for those endgame currencies.
9) Build off the updates to The Division
We know that something will carry over from Division 1 to Division 2, but we really hope that Ubisoft’s sequel learns from the mistakes of Destiny 2. Specifically, do not take away progress built between the community and developers. Updates added global events and made important changes to going rogue in the Dark Zone. Division 2 shouldn’t start all of that over from nothing, but should instead introduce that as a baseline starting point for the sequel.
Not long after the latest one, Sony has launched another flash sale on the PlayStation Store in the United States. As always, this brings some steep discounts to games on PSN for PS4, PS3, and Vita but only for a very limited time.
As you’d expect, PS4 is home to the majority of these deals, of which there’s quite a wide variety. Among the highlights is Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection (one of our picks for the best cheap PS4 games at its regular price), which drops to just $8–quite a steal considering it includes remastered versions of three full games. Diablo III‘s Eternal Collection, which packs in last year’s excellent Rise of the Necromancer DLC, is just $30, while the Necromancer pack on its own can be had for $9.74.
All of these prices are available from now until Monday, March 12, at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET, and there’s no additional discount for PS Plus members. You can see everything on sale here. If you don’t find something to your liking, the usual PS4 weekly game deals are still live in the US until Tuesday, while those in Europe have a PSN sale of their own going on right now.
Change is afoot at Uncharted and The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog, though it all appears to be positive news. Naughty Dog has announced new roles for several individuals at the company, including new co-directors for the upcoming Last of Us Part II.
In a post on Naughty Dog’s website, president Evan Wells shared news that was announced during a recent in-house meeting. Neil Druckmann, who played key roles in the development of the first two Uncharted games and served as creative director on both The Last of Us and Uncharted 4, has been promoted to vice president.
“In recognition of his expanded role, contributing on critical, studio level decisions, Neil Druckmann is now Vice President of Naughty Dog,” reads the post. “He’s been a vital part of the management team for some time now, and we’re proud to formally acknowledge his involvement.”
Despite the lofty new title, Druckmann will still serve as Last of Us Part II’s creative director. Meanwhile, its game directors have been named as Anthony Newman and Kurt Margenau, both of whom were lead game designers on Uncharted 4 and worked on the first Last of Us. “Both Kurt and Anthony joined Naughty Dog during Uncharted 2 and have been instrumental in leading the design department, and have been key contributors on our subsequent games,” Wells said.
Finally, Emilia Schatz and Richard Cambier will serve as the lead designers for Part II. They, too, have worked on multiple Naughty Dog games, including Uncharted 4 and The Last Of Us.
The Last of Us Part II is currently without an exact release date, and there’s still a lot we don’t know about it. Druckmann has teased that “no one is safe” and promised more details on the PS4 game are coming at this year’s E3.
