Month: August 2018

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The next game from developer Suda51 (Goichi Suda) and Grasshopper Manufacture, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, has an official release date. It’ll be launching exclusively for the Nintendo Switch on January 18, 2019. Travis Strikes Again is a spin-off from the No More Heroes franchise with series protagonist Travis Touchdown still at the helm, but in a slightly different form.

Those familiar with No More Heroes will instantly recognize the game’s crude humor and off-the-wall premise. This story takes place seven years after No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle and pits Travis in a sticky situation–Badman, father of Bad Girl (a boss from the first game), tries to avenge her death, but ends up getting himself and Travis stuck in a haunted game console called the Death Drive Mk-II. They then have to fight their way out of the Death Drive’s six different games hack-and-slash style.

We had a chance to get our hands on Travis Strikes Again during Nintendo’s PAX West showcase, and you can watch our gameplay in the video above. The game offers co-operative play with one player as Travis and the other as Badman; there are also unique co-op special attacks to pull off, which can be seen during the boss battle.

We’re covering PAX West 2018 from all angles, so be sure to check with GameSpot as the show goes on this weekend. In the meantime, see Supergiant Games’ classic hits Bastion and Transistor in action on Nintendo Switch, or watch four-player mayhem in Samurai Gunn 2 gameplay.

HBO’s Sharp Objects was a mini series with a purpose. Ostensibly, it was a murder mystery concerning the brutal deaths of two young girls from Wind Gap, Missouri. We meet Camille Preaker, a journalist who’s been assigned to cover the murders in Wind Gap. It’s her hometown, and even though she’s spent her entire adult life getting away from it, she accepts the assignment and returns. She’s forced to relive old traumas, and over the course of eight episodes, it becomes increasingly clear why she left in the first place. This is a diseased, decaying place, where memories are long and gossip runs wild.

In the final episode, Camille’s mother Adora is arrested for the murders; we learn Adora suffers from Munchausen syndrome by proxy (seeking attention and validation through the care of another, whose ills you inflict upon them) and also poisoned Camille’s younger sister, Marian, years prior. She might have killed Camille’s other younger sister, Amma, had Camille not intervened.

And then, in the last 60 seconds of the final episode, the show pulls the rug out from under us. Amma is the real killer. She just killed another little girl. And she used the dead girls’ teeth–after pulling them out with pliers–to line the floor in her dollhouse.

What. The. Hell.

But as abrupt and as awful as this was, it was a fair twist; the show had planted multiple hints, both practical and thematic, throughout all eight episodes. Here are nine clues that you probably missed the first time around, gathered from Reddit, social media, and our own analysis. This is a show that rewards repeated viewings–if you have the stomach for it.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 launched for PC in 2007 and is one of the few titles that GameSpot has awarded a 10/10 score. In our Divinity: Original Sin 2 review we said it was “one of the most captivating role-playing games ever made” and showered it with praise for its “immaculately conceived and emotion-wrought fantasy world, topped by brilliant tactical combat,” all of which made it an “instant classic in the pantheon of RPG greats.” The game went on to win GameSpot’s Game of the Year award, driving home our opinion that it is an experience that should not be missed.

With the launch of the Definitive Edition, Divinity: Original Sin 2 arrives on PS4 and Xbox One with tweaks to make it work on controllers. Additionally, the overall game experience has been reworked, which means even those who have already played it on PC are given a reason to jump back in. The story of Original Sin 2 is a captivating journey through a fascinating fantasy universe, and it’s one that almost didn’t get told. In the lead up to the launch of the Definitive Edition, we travelled to Larian Studios to talk to CEO and designer Swen Vincke about bringing the vision for the series to life.

Given how well received the first game was, and how critically acclaimed the sequel has been, it may surprise you to learn that Larian fought what often felt like a losing battle to get the games made, and found themselves on the precipice of complete failure numerous times. However, the studio and its developers maintained their faith in the games and their desire to share their vision with gamers. In the video above, you’ll get to hear about that whole journey from the people involved, and get insight into the tumultuous development behind one of the most beloved RPGs in recent memory.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Definitive Edition launches on Xbox One, PS4, and PC on August 31. If you own the original version of the game on PC a free download will be available to upgrade to the Definitive Edition.

The Nintendo Eshop doesn’t have regular weekly sales like Microsoft and Sony’s digital stores do, but it does offer game discounts periodically. So if you’re looking for something new to play on your Nintendo Switch or 3DS, you can generally find some good deals on games worth playing. We’ve combed through the deals available now and picked out some of the highlights below. So get out your Switch or 3DS and let’s save some money.

The Metroidvania game Axiom Verge is currently half off, at $10. Battle Chef Brigade, a brawler-meets-puzzle game that recently got a big update, is on sale for $12. The adventure games Syberia and Syberia 2 are discounted to $20 each.

Looking to add some retro action to your gaming life? Capcom has dropped the price of Mega Man Legacy Collection to $11.24. It comes with games 1-6 in the series and adds some nice quality-of-life touches to these old-school-tough games. Mega Man Legacy Collection 2, which bundles games 7-10, is on sale for $15.

RPG fans looking for a game to play on 3DS have a few good discounts to choose from right now as well. The JRPG 7th Dragon III Code: VFD is on sale for $20 (down from $30), and two remakes of great DS dungeon crawlers are also on sale. You can get Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl on sale for $10 and the sequel Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight for $15.

You can find even more games on sale by checking out the full list here.

Nintendo Switch

• Axiom Verge — $10
• Battle Chef Brigade — $12
• The Flame in the Flood: Complete Edition — $7.50
• Human Fall Flat — $7.50
• Lifeless Planet: Premier Edition — $15
• Mega Man Legacy Collection — $11.24
• Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 — $15
• Nine Parchments — $8
• Robonauts — $1
• Serial Cleaner — $7.49
• Shining Resonance Refrain — $40
• Syberia — $20
• Syberia 2 — $20
• Tesla vs. Lovecraft — $11.24
• Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure — $10.19

Nintendo 3DS

• 7th Dragon III Code: VFD — $20
• Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl — $10
• Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight — $15

Video game development is a fluid process; things change all the time through development until launch and beyond. One thing that changed with the upcoming Spider-Man PS4 game due out next week was the size of puddles in one particular scene. This has led to claims that developer Insomniac Games in some way downgraded the game’s graphics, and now the developer has spoken up to stress that there has been “no downgrade.”

This issue picked up steam thanks in part to this popular Reddit post (via IGN) that shows more puddles in an older, E3 trailer for Spider-Man and fewer puddles in a newer video. Writing on Twitter, Insomniac confirmed that it changed the size of the puddles, but stressed, “There’s no downgrade at all.” Some believed that Insomniac had to scale back the graphics to meet performance demands, but it appears this is not the case.

Community manager James Stevenson said in his own tweet, “The puddles being moved had nothing to do with performance.” Then why remove them? “Pretty sure it was a design / art / usability reason thing,” Stevenson explained. “Definitely wasn’t performance, as we have spots with tons of puddles in the game with no performance issue.

Other Spider-Man fans have criticised the look of Peter Parker’s suit in newer trailers. It may look different, Stevenson conceded, but that’s because Insomniac is using different, better technology today than it did at the start of development. Importantly, the suit is meant to look good while Peter Parker is swinging from building to building.

“Bright sunlight causes concrete to blow out and look bright. Plus our post effects ( DOF and motion blur tech in particular) are way better in 2018, which causes stuff to be blurrier when pulled like that, but that’s because it’s supposed to look good IN MOTION,” he said.

GameSpot’s Spider-Man PS4 review will go live on September 4, a few days before the game launches on September 7. While the game isn’t even out yet, Insomniac has announced the first DLC expansion will be released on October 23.