Month: April 2018

Square Enix has shared some new information about Dragon Quest Builders 2, the sequel to its Minecraft-like Dragon Quest spin-off. On the game’s newly launched Japanese website (via Siliconera), the publisher revealed new details and shared the first screenshots for the upcoming PS4 and Switch RPG.

Like the first title, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a building-centric sandbox RPG. Players assume the role of a Builder and must craft a variety of buildings and objects out of the materials they gather from the environment. This time, players can select either a male or female protagonist and assume the role of the ancestor of the legendary Builder who restored the world.

Where the original Dragon Quest Builders tasked players with rebuilding Alefgard (the setting of the very first Dragon Quest), the upcoming game begins when players wash ashore on a deserted island, which is completely devoid of any inhabitants. Square Enix also revealed that Malroth, the final boss from Dragon Quest II, will play a prominent role in the story and is even mentioned in the game’s Japanese subtitle.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 was first announced last summer, during the Dragon Quest Summer Festival 2017 event. It is in development for Nintendo Switch and PS4 and boasts a number of improvements over the original game. Most notably, player will be able to swim and collect resources underwater in this adventure, and the game supports multiplayer for up to four players.

The first Dragon Quest Builders originally launched for PS4 and Vita in 2016. The game was also released for Switch back in February. We called it a “strong match for the Nintendo platform“ in our Dragon Quest Builders review and said the new Switch-exclusive features “adds another layer of endearment to a game already brimming with charm.”

This April Fools’ Day surprise was no prank. After teasing that it would incorporate a World of Warcraft joke into its April 1 episode, Family Guy fully embraced the MMORPG and the most famous meme it ever spawned.

After being forced to join the Coast Guard, Peter, Cleveland, and Joe find themselves in a gunfight with a bunch of terrorist frat boys–because, of course. It’s then that Cleveland suggests they try “what’s referred to as a Leeroy Jenkins.” He’s speaking, of course, of the 2003 World of Warcraft staged viral video in which a player named Leeroy Jenkins ran into a very difficult battle with little warning, causing the rest of his clan to follow behind and get slaughtered.

And, naturally, that’s exactly what Cleveland does next. He rushes in, guns blazing and screaming “Leeroy Jenkins,” as Peter and Joe follow him. Family Guy doesn’t stop there, though. The show also temporarily drops its animation style and becomes a 3D-rendered World of Warcraft-style view, complete with health bars and potions, of the three.

In the ensuing fire, our heroes are quickly outgunned and retreat, only to run into dragons. “Where did they get dragons? These guys have magic,” Peter says. Just like it played out in Warcraft, the plan leaves all three men dead as Cleveland explains, “This episode has a lot of internet things.”

There’s no doubt that the Leeroy Jenkins joke has been done to death over the last 15 years. However, Family Guy harnesses it in a pretty funny way and it’s the commitment to detail that makes it work so well. Having Joe and Peter plan out their attack and crunch the numbers, just as Leeroy’s clanmates did in the original video, is a great touch. Of course, it’s still not as impressive as the World of Warcraft episode South Park did in 2006, but that would be quite a feat to top.

Acclaimed side-scroller Owlboy is finally coming to PS4 and Xbox One. D-Pad Studio had initially planned to release the PC game on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One at the same time. Instead, only the Switch version released earlier this year. Now the developer has announced more digital versions are coming this month, with physical releases to follow next month.

The digital PS4 and Xbox One versions of Owlboy will release on April 10. Physical PS4 and Nintendo Switch versions will also release May 29. The game has taken a long time to get to this point; development first began back in 2007, and Owlboy was finally released on PC in 2016, with the Nintendo Switch version releasing in February.

Owlboy is pixel-art platformer where you fly, picking up allies and allowing them to act as gunners for you with their unique abilities and stories. It’s a hearty mix of traditional platforming and story-heavy adventure, with big dungeons and boss battles.

In GameSpot’s Owlboy review, Peter Brown gave the game a 9/10, calling it a “heartfelt experience that will touch anyone with an affinity for great art and storytelling.” It sports a beautiful orchestral soundtrack, beautiful pixel art, surprising action sequences, and an unpredictable script that captures genuine feelings of joy, anger, and remorse. It also earned the #18 spot on our Game of the Year 2016 Countdown.

April Fools’ Day has come and gone. This year’s event happened to fall on the same day as Easter, which made for an unusually early rollout of jokes from various video game and entertainment companies seeking to avoid having their efforts missed on a proper holiday. As a result, it was easy to miss some of what was out there.

Below, we’ve rounded up many of the jokes that were shared this year, including those centered around battle royale (all the craze, thanks to Fortnite and PUBG), nostalgia, and dating games, among other things. We also had a gag of our own with Hyrule’s Funniest Home Videos. Be sure to let us know your favorite gags of 2018 and any we missed in the comments. You can see 2017’s pranks here.

Hyrule’s Funniest Home Videos

Rather than do something like trick people into thinking they can pilot a Guardian in Zelda: Breath of the Wild again, we here at GameSpot went a different route this year. Behold Hyrule’s Funniest Home Videos, a BotW-inspired take on America’s Funniest Home videos. You can watch it at the top of this post.

Hyrule’s Funniest Home Videos – The Best Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

Pokemon Go 8-Bit Graphics

In a move that some people would likely have been excited to hear on any day of the year, Niantic announced that Pokemon Go would introduce new, 8-bit graphics. Rather than keep this to just a few images online, it did actually release an update adding these to the game.

Pokemon Go Gets Spritey With 8-Bit April Fools

Official announcement

Fortnite Powers Up Two Items

Epic Games is constantly rolling out new content Fortnite: Battle Royale. Its April Fools’ joke involved increasing the effects of two items: The Boogie Bomb (which forces players to dance) allowed dancers to jump much higher than normal, while the Impulse Grenade (which knocks players back without doing damage) pushed people much further than usual.

Official announcement

Sanic Collection

In another uncommon instance of an April Fools’ joke manifesting in some real way, Sega announced the Sanic Collection, a selection of four items featuring the Sanic meme. You can buy a t-shirt, mug, or phone case featuring Sanic himself for a limited time.

Official announcement / Sega Shop tore listing

Civilization VI For Smart Watch

Aspyr Media, the company responsible for bringing Civilization games to mobile, announced it was bringing the latest game, Civilization VI, to a much different platform: smart watches. “Civilization VI on smart watches features Revolutionary Index Finger Control (RIFC),” a press release touts. “Simply swipe up to declare war, scroll down to build a library, double tap to initiate a religious inquisition, swipe right to fire catapults, or tap and hold to research pottery.”

New World of Warcraft Micro Holidays

Blizzard teased that it would expand World of Warcraft‘s calendar of micro holiday to offer something every day. Highlights include Looking for Queue, a day where you can only join a dungeon queue by having your character physically wait in line outside of the dungeon, and The Yes-Fly Zone, when ground-based transport will be disallowed.

Official announcement

Final Fantasy XIV Go

Following in the footsteps of Pokemon Go, Square Enix announced an expansion for MMO Final Fantasy XIV. This would take the form of FFXIV Online Go, a mobile app that lets you gather resources while exploring the real world, Pokemon Go style.

Official announcement

Mega Man: Date My Robot Master

With dating games like Hatoful Boyfriend proving to be quite successful, Capcom announced its own spin on the genre starring Mega Man. Mega Man: Date My Robot Master sends you to school and allows you to forge relationships with a variety of classmates.

Official announcement

Street Fighter Card Game

Card games are another genre that’s proven popular, and Capcom offered a take on it as well. The company revealed a Street Fighter card game called Hado Stone.

Let It Date

Capcom wasn’t the only one with dating games on the brain, as Grasshopper and GungHo announced Let It Date, which is described as a “full-fledged dating simulator spin-off” of free-to-play action game Let It Die. “Let It Date players can enjoy the underworld of Let It Die in a new sensual and casual way where they get to know their favorite characters on a deeper, romantic level–like Uncle Death. Let It Date invites a new audience to experience the witty and charming dialogue in the Tower of Barbs, who may not be a fan of the hardcore action genre.”

Ascenders, Follow-Up To Descenders

Downhill freeriding game Descenders went in the opposite direction for April Fools’. The developer released a special mode that allows you to tackle the game in a much different way.

Official announcement

Path Of Exile Goes Battle Royale

Battle royale is enjoying a massive wave of popularity, and Path of Exile got in on the fun with a special mode called Path of Exile: Royale. The announcement reveals that the developers have “abandoned” the action RPG genre it’s known for in favor of something that was created with “one day of development.”

Official announcement

Jurassic World 3 has found its director, as the rebooted series returns to the man who started it. Collider reports that Colin Trevorrow will come back to write and direct the third film, having done the same for 2015’s Jurassic World.

The upcoming Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom changed hands to J.A. Bayona, due to scheduling conflicts that kept Trevorrow from helming it. He had signed on to Star Wars: Episode IX, but was taken off that project last fall after reports of creative disagreements and a box office bust in his latest film, The Book of Henry. Trevorrow has still been shepherding the series from afar, both co-writing Fallen Kingdom and already planning to co-write the script for JW3.

This means he’ll be taking a more hands-on approach as director, which will allow him to see through the vision he’s had for these characters arcs since the inception of the series. “I remember telling Steven [Spielberg] even while we were still making the first movie, ‘This is the beginning. Here is the middle. And here’s the end of the end. This is where we want to go,'” he said. “I feel like that kind of design is crucial to a franchise like this if you really want to bring people along with you and make sure they stay interested. It needs to be thought through on that level. It can’t be arbitrary, especially if we want to turn this into a character-based franchise with people who you lean in to follow what they’re going to do.”

Universal has already put a stake down for June 11, 2021 as the release for Jurassic World 3. At that point we’ll see where this long arc goes. In the meantime, the second piece of the trilogy, Fallen Kingdom, is coming on June 22. It brings back the main cast from the first movie, as well as Jeff Goldblum to reprise his role from the original series.

On Sunday, April 8, WWE’s biggest event of the year, Wrestlemania, will come to a screen near you. Like every year, there are plenty of ways to watch the PPV, from on your TV to your phone, and we have a breakdown for the easiest ways for you.

The best way to watch Wrestlemania 34, which will save you a ton of money, is through the WWE Network. Currently, you can get a month free to the network if you are a new subscriber, and you can cancel after Mania. If you enjoy the programming, you can continue with the WWE Network which offers events, original programming, and classic stuff from WWE, WCW, ECW, and more for $10 a month.

Cable or satellite subscribers can also purchase Wrestlemania through their respective services, as not everyone around the world has access to internet fast enough to live stream the event. However, the cost for Mania can be up to six times more expensive than the streaming service.

In addition to the ways you can watch the event at home, sports bars and restaurants like Buffalo Wild Wings play the events as well, but you’ll have to check with your local spot as not all participate in the WWE event. Obviously, if you’re going to a restaurant to watch a seven hour event, you’ll be expected to buy food or drinks, so don’t expect this to be a free trip.

If you are planning on staying home for the big event, the WWE Network is available multiple ways. It can be accessed through phones, tablets, or through your PC (both iOS and Windows 10 have apps available). Also, the network app is available on certain smart TVs as well as devices like Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Chromecast. You can watch the network using your Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, and PS4 by downloading the app through its stores. Sorry Nintendo Switch users, but the WWE Network is not available on the console yet.

Wrestlemania 34 starts on Sunday, April 8 at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT. There is a two-hour Kickoff Show starting at 5 PM ET/2 PM PT with you can watch on the WWE Network and on YouTube. In addition, the second hour of the Kickoff will air live on the USA Network. It’s going to be a packed show, as there will be 14 matches on the card, so strap in for a really long day.