SEGA threw Yakuza fans for a loop this week with the reveal of Yakuza 7 in a gorgeous new reveal trailer. The new title, called Yakuza: Like a Dragon in the West, is due out in 2020 on PS4.
The new trailer shows off the newest protagonist Ichiban Kasuga and follows his story in Isezaki Ijin, Yokohama. In the trailer, he appears to turn himself into police, serve some time in prison, and is released 18 years later. The trailer, of course, has its emotional moments, but also shows off some of the quirkiness Yakuza is known for. Check out our favorite stills in the gallery below.
This iteration of Yakuza is a bit of an outlier, however, from what long-time fans might know the game to be. This Yakuza is steering away from its brawler roots to a turn-based combat system.
Decades of video game tribalism, juvenile insults, and schoolyard myths about distant uncles working at certain console manufacturers can be traced back to one provenance: Super Nintendo vs. Sega Genesis. Yes, there were ancient console wars in the ’80s, and today there exists a mild chill between Sony adherents and Microsoft lifers, but the battle was never more ferocious than it was in the mid ’90s, when Sega fielded their Hedgehog against Nintendo’s plumber, and threatened a fight to the death.
Film director Richard Linklater is outdoing himself. The director filmed his Oscar-winning movie Boyhood over the course of 12 years, and now his next film will shoot over a span of 20 years.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie is Merrily We Roll Along, and it’s based on the 1934 play of the same name. The film adaptation stars Beanie Feldstein, Blake Jenner, and Ben Platt, all of whom will be filmed over the course of two decades to tell the story is what appears to be an unprecedented manner.
The story follows a composer, Franklin Shepard (Jenner), who leaves his job making Broadway musicals to pursue a career in Hollywood. The story begins at the end, and works backwards through time to display the key moments in his life. Feldstein is set to portray the theatre critic Mary Flynn, who is also a friend of Shepard’s.
According to THR, filming on the first part of the movie is already finished.
“I first saw and fell in love with Merrily in the ’80s, and I can’t think of a better place to spend the next 20 years than in the world of a Sondheim musical,” Linklater said in a statement. “I don’t enter this multiyear experience lightly, but it seems the best, perhaps the only way, to do this story justice on film.”
Boyhood, which was released in 2014, was filmed over the course of 12 years as it chronicled the early life of actor Ellar Coltrane’s character, Mason. The actor and character grew older through the course of filming as the story reached several key moments in his adolescent life. It was a tremendous use of extended filming, and it’ll be interesting to see how it works over an even longer period of time with Merrily We Roll Along.
Boyhood was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film ended up with one win, with Patricia Arquette winning for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
Metro Exodus was among the first big-name games that skipped Steam in favor of releasing exclusively on the Epic Games Store. This announcement upset some portion of the audience, in part because the game was up for pre-order on Steam before the switch was made. Those who pre-ordered on Steam had their orders honored, but the move still caused some controversy.
In an interview with GI.biz, Koch Media CEO Klemens Kundratitz said his company’s deal with Epic did indeed cause “some ripples,” but overall he is “very happy” with how the game is performing commercially.
“Overall, I’m still of the opinion like I was at the beginning that, as an industry and as a publisher, we should welcome Epic and their business model,” he said. “We have a strong relationship with Epic and we continue to have a strong relationship with Steam as well.”
One sour spot for Kundratitz was the timing of the announcement. He said he wished his company could have revealed the news sooner. “That was not perfect,” he said.
Looking forward, Kundratitz said Koch Media–which owns Deep Silver and itself is owned by THQ Nordic AB–will continue to consider more Epic exclusivity deals in the future. The company does not have a “no Steam” policy, as it will release the game Iron Harvest on Steam in September.
Part of the reason why Koch cut a deal with Epic for Metro Exodus was because the Epic Games Store pays more to publishers. Steam typically gives 70 percent of game revenue to publishers, while the Epic Games Store pays 88 percent. “We need to embrace a digital partner that offers a much more compelling rev share model than anybody else, and I think they act as a role model for us and for other digital partners as well–a 70/30 split is quite frankly anachronistic,” he said.
Back in February, Kundratitz said much the same when it was revealed that Metro Exodus was leaving Steam for Epic. “Epic’s generous revenue terms are a game changer that will allow publishers to invest more into content creation, or pass on savings to the players,” Kundratitz said.
In other news about the Epic Games Store, Ubisoft recently explained why it no longer releases games on Steam, which the company says has an “unrealistic” business model.
You can now watch YouTube’s Karate Kid spin-off series Cobra Kai without needing a premium subscription.
YouTube’s newest initiative is set to make the platform’s original series and specials free to watch with ads enabled. This kicks off with the first season of Cobra Kai, which is available now with season 2, and episodes will drop weekly as of September 11.
There were a few episodes of the show available without premium, but now you’ll be able to watch the whole thing so long as you’re fine with the ads.
Cobra Kai was the fastest YouTube Original series to make it to 20 million views and took the top spot for the highest rated YouTube Red show.
Gears 5 is now available to pre-load ahead of its release in September, and that means the shooter’s file size has also been revealed. It’s big, but it’s not too colossal.
On Xbox One, the file size is 50.04 GB. As for the PC edition, the game’s Steam page shows that players need 80 GB of free space on their hard drives to install Gears 5.
With all of its updates and extra content, the file size for Gears of War 4 grew to more than 120GB over time. For Gears 5, developer The Coalition is promising the “biggest and most extensive” post-launch support in Gears history with more maps and new features, so you can expect Gears 5’s file size to grow substantially over time as well.
Season 2 of the psychological horror series Castle Rock has a release date on Hulu.
The anthology, which features stories set in Stephen King’s fictional town in Maine, will return to the streaming service on Wednesday, October 23 – just in time for Halloween!
Season 2 boasts the climax of a conflict between two sects as well as the introduction of Annie Wilkes, the psychotic nurse who stars in King’s 1987 novel Misery. Wilkes will be played by Lizzy Caplan who’s best known for her work in Cloverfield and Mean Girls.
The episodes take inspiration from King’s work, using the suspense and thriller themes the writer is known for. King also acts as an executive producer alongside other names such as J.J. Abrams, Ben Stephenson, Sam Shaw, and Dustin Thomason. Shaw and Thomason are also showrunners for the series.
Pokemon Masters is officially out for iOS and Android, allowing you to team up with a variety of legendary trainers, gym leaders, and champions in a brand-new region. Though the basics of the Pokemon series are still there–such as battles and evolutions–a lot of Masters plays very differently from a traditional Pokemon game.
To get you started, we’ve compiled all of the basics of what you need to know to understand how Masters works. The game has you visit a brand-new region where you’re partnered with Pikachu. Plenty of other notable trainers and their Pokemon from all over the world have traveled to the region as well, giving you the opportunity to befriend and team-up with them as you all journey together.
In Masters, you don’t catch new Pokemon, you recruit sync pairs to your team–and, oh boy are there a lot to recruit. Each pair consists of a legendary trainer, gym leader, or champion and their partner Pokemon. Each pair has their own unique story too, which typically plays out by evolving the partner Pokemon but can also be unlocked by just playing with the pair. Unlocking these pairs is usually random, though you can drop some cash to get the ones you want.
Sync pairs grow stronger as they win battles and gain experience. The number of stars next to the trainer’s name determines the max level they can reach. For example, most of the sync pairs you’ll encounter early on will have three stars and have a max level of 30. The main exception is Rosa and Snivy, who are a five-star sync pair, and one of the best set of partners you can have on your team for the early game thanks to their powerful “Time to Energize” sync attack. You can increase the star number of any sync pair up to five through the use of Power-Up items. At five stars, the level cap is 40.
Once you’ve earned your first PML Leader badge, you’ll unlock the ability to increase that level cap even further. Maxing out a sync pair requires them to have five stars and be level 100.
Fundamentals Of Battling
In Masters, Pokemon battles are three-on-three tag battles between six sync pairs. You’ll have to balance your team as best you can to account for every battle, defeating all of your opponent team’s Pokemon before they beat you. If you need assistance, clicking “Optimize” while selecting your team will cause the game to automatically assign the three best sync pairs for the job. Hitting Auto Mode during a fight will cause your sync pairs to keep fighting for you if you happen to be distracted by real-world things and become idle in-game.
Every sync pair has its own HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed stats. The first five all work as they did in previous Pokemon games. A sync pair’s HP determines how much damage the Pokemon can take before fainting. Attack determines how much damage the Pokemon in a sync pair can deal out with physical moves, while the Defense stat determines their resistance to physical moves. Special Attack and Special Defense are the same but for special moves.
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Fundamentally, Speed works the same as it always has by determining the order of when each Pokemon can attack. However, Masters is not a turn-based RPG like traditional Pokemon games. Instead, battles occur in real-time and each Pokemon move has a cool-down rate tied to a gauge. Thus, a sync pair’s Speed stat determines how quickly the partner Pokemon can recharge its moves and attack again.
It may not sound like too big of a change for the Speed stat, but Masters departure from turn-based battles makes the stat more important than it’s ever been. It’s definitely something to keep in mind as you make it further into the game and unlock more powerful moves that require longer cool-downs.
Elemental And Class Typing
Each sync pair is assigned one or two type strengths and one type weakness. So don’t just assume a fire-type Pokemon will automatically be effective against all grass, ice, bug, and steel Pokemon. It will only be strong against one or two of those types. Same goes for weaknesses. Instead of being weak to ground, rock, and water, a fire-type Pokemon will only be weak to one. These strengths and weaknesses change depending on the sync pair, so, for example, not all fire-type Pokemon will have the same strengths and weaknesses.
Not only does each pair have an elemental type, but they also have class typing too. Every sync pair fits into one of three classes: strike, support, or tech. Strike pairs have high Attack and Special Attack stats, but lower HP. Support pairs are the exact opposite, and usually learn HP-restoring attacks and status-boosting moves. Tech pairs typically lack high damage dealing moves and instead excel at learning attacks that inflict status conditions, like paralysis and poison, on the opponent’s Pokemon.
When forming your team, class typing is definitely something to keep in mind. Even if your elemental typing ensures you have an advantage over your opponent, you may want to switch one of your sync pairs out for another if they’re all in the same class. A team consisting of all tech pairs, for instance, potentially won’t be able to deal out enough damage to take advantage of their elemental dominance.
Upgrading Your Move Gauge
Every sync pair starts out with only two moves, with one typically usable by the trainer and the other by their partner Pokemon. Only Pokemon moves deplete the move gauge that allows you to attack. However, trainer moves can only be used a certain number of times each battle.
You can learn more moves, however, for an initial cap of four. You unlock new moves through Training Machines, or TMs for short. Not to be confused by Technical Machines, or TMs, of course–the item that’s been used to learn new moves since Pokemon’s first generation of games. Why would that be confusing? Anyway, to teach a sync pair its third move, it will require five TMs. The fourth move (and any passive abilities that the sync pair can learn) will require rarer items in a much greater quantity–a quantity that increases with every additional move after the fourth. The items change depending on the pair.
Unlike traditional Pokemon games, though, you’re not limited to a maximum of four moves forever. For 30,000 coins, you can unlock another slot. You can unlock another for 100,000. So before unlocking moves for a sync pair beyond their fourth, it may be worth investing some coin so that you don’t have to forget anything.
Leveling Up
Like previous Pokemon games, you can level up by just battling. However, there are special battles you can complete and training you can undergo to level up faster.
Early in the story, you’ll unlock the training areas. There are four: level up, strike, support, and tech. As the name of the first area implies, heading into this training ground will help a sync pair gain extra experience and level up faster. The latter three allow you to earn items that assist sync pairs in learning new moves and passive skills without the use of TMs. All four training areas can be completed multiple times. You should do them as often as you can too since sync pairs will level up and grow stronger faster as a result. And once they’re strong enough, you can send your sync pairs into the supercourses.
Supercourses And Rare Items
The supercourses are the more difficult but more rewarding variations of the training areas. You progressively unlock more difficult and rewarding supercourses with each one you complete. However, each supercourse can only be completed three times a day so you need to consider which pairs need the power-up boost more.
Although rare items can be found or bought, you typically won’t run into them until a good deal into Masters’ campaign. Until you reach that point, the supercourses are the easiest way to unlock them. Your team will need to be very strong to take on the higher-level supercourses, but it’s there that you can unlock valuable items like Ultra Buff Blend. In contrast, 50 Great Buff Blends are needed to buy an Ultra Buff Blend from the in-game shop–something that’s far easier to do but will take you a lot longer to acquire.
Co-Op Play
If you open your Poryphone, you can find your personal ID that allows you to become friends with other players and battle together. In co-op, battles play out the same way but you’re only a third of a team and thus need to communicate with your fellow humans.
“Even in person, co-op play isn’t easy; I was surprised at how close some of the battles ended up, even on the easier of the two difficulties available,” Kallie wrote in GameSpot’s Pokemon Masters preview. “There’s also a special ‘unity attack’ you can unlock if you chain enough attacks as a team without taking damage, which takes a bit of coordination or luck to execute.”
Evolving The Pokemon Within Your Sync Pairs
Both evolving Pokemon and unlocking their Mega Evolutions are accomplished very differently in Masters in comparison to the simple hurdles in previous games. It honestly has way too many steps, and only certain Pokemon can evolve. We know the Pokemon listed below can evolve and Mega Evolve, but we’re still testing the game. Given Rosa and Snivy’s usefulness in the early game, getting Snivy to evolve into Servine might be where you want to start.
Sync Pairs With Pokemon That Can Evolve In Pokemon Masters
Barry and Piplup (evolves into Prinplup and then Empoleon)
Kris and Totodile (evolves into Croconaw and then Feraligatr)
Lyra and Chikorita (evolves into Bayleef and Meganium)
Pryce and Seel (evolves into Dewgong)
Rosa and Snivy (evolves into Servine and then Serperior)
Viola and Surskit (evolves into Masquerain)
Sync Pairs With Pokemon That Can Mega Evolve In Pokemon Masters
Agatha and Gengar
Blue and Pidgeot
Bugsy and Beedrill
Karen and Houndoom
Korrina and Lucario
Noland and Pinsir
Daily Missions And Special Events
Every day, new daily missions will unlock in Masters–one of which is always just turning on and logging into the game. The daily counter resets at 11 PM PT / 2 AM ET / 7 AM BST / 4 PM AEDT, so you have until then to complete your missions for the day. Completing your daily missions allows you to earn in-game items. Masters also just has general missions that can be completed at any time, though these count more as achievements/trophies than ways to earn in-game items and rewards.
Once you complete chapter five in Masters’ story, you’ll be able to participate in the in-game limited-time events. These events will be built with different sync pairs in mind, so it’s best to be on the lookout for which event is next so you know which pairs to focus on in preparation for them. Completing the challenges in these events will net you limited-time rewards.
Bungie continues to detail the major changes coming with the start of the third year of Destiny 2 and the launch of Shadowkeep, its next expansion. We already knew Bungie was overhauling the premium Eververse Store and the various cosmetic rewards you receive from it. Now we have a better idea of how you’ll earn a lot of the rewards that used to come from Eververse, as well as some other cool gear, in the game’s upcoming new seasons.
In a new blog post, director Luke Smith outlined the new Season Pass system coming in the next year of Destiny. In the current Destiny 2 year, players purchased an Annual Pass, which included three new seasons of content–including new activities and stories, new Exotic weapons, and new cosmetic gear. In Year 3, you’ll purchase a Season Pass for each new season for $10 a pop, and it’ll function a lot like the Battle Pass system used in Fortnite or Apex Legends.
Starting with the Season of the Undying, which launches as part of the $40 Shadowkeep expansion (and is included in the price), you’ll now work on a Season Rank, which looks exactly like the Battle Pass in Fortnite. As you complete activities and bounties, you’ll earn points toward your Season Rank, whether you paid for the Season Pass or not. Increase your rank and you’ll regularly get new drops that include two Exotic weapons, new finishers, emotes, and armor. You’ll get more rewards faster if you pay in–including an Exotic weapon with your first Season Rank–but there are several rewards you can get even if you play without paying using Destiny 2’s free New Light version.
The system doesn’t sound too different from Destiny 2’s old seasonal engram system, which provided random drops to paying Annual Pass players throughout each season as you leveled up your character over the game’s level cap. The difference here is that drops won’t be random, and that there’s a path for players who don’t buy in. There are 100 levels to earn in each Season Pass, Smith wrote, and Bungie is planning to let you buy ranks toward the end of the season if you’re lagging behind and want to catch up on some rewards you don’t have time to earn as you play.
Here’s the rundown Smith provided about the free and premium tracks in Shadowkeep and Season of the Undying.
Premium Season Pass Includes:
New seasonal activity, the Vex Offensive, which includes:
Four Legendary Weapon drops
Additional weekly and daily bounties
Additional weekly challenges with powerful rewards
A new weapon quest for an Exotic Bow, Leviathan’s Breath
A new Exotic Hand Cannon, Eriana’s Vow
Awarded at Rank 1
Three seasonal Legendary armor sets (one for each class)
All sets unlock at Rank 1
Three universal ornament armor sets (one for each class)
Exotic weapon ornament for Eriana’s Vow
Two Legendary weapon ornaments
New finisher
Exotic emote
Exotic ship
Everything on the free tier, but quicker
Free Season Pass Includes:
Eriana’s Vow
Awarded on Rank 35 of the free track
Three seasonal Legendary armor sets (one for each class)
Collect a complete set during the first 25 ranks of the free track
Two Legendary weapons
Best of Year 2 Bright Engrams
Glimmer and upgrade modules
All Players Get:
Patrolling the Moon destination
The opening mission of Shadowkeep
Two new strikes
Crucible Updates (which I discussed in [link to previous Director’s Cut])
Two returning PvP maps from the D1 era—Widow’s Court and Twilight Gap
Elimination in Crucible Labs
Armor 2.0 build customization
Eye of the Gate Lord Seasonal Artifact
New finishers
Two new pinnacle weapons: one for Gambit and one for Crucible
Apple has sent out invitations for its upcoming iPhone event, officially pegging September 10 as the day the company is expected to unveil new devices. The event kicks off at 10 AM PT / 12 PM CST / 1 PM ET / 6 PM BST at the Steve Jobs Theatre in Cupertino.
GameSpot sister site CNET anticipates Apple will introduce three new iPhone models with largely the same form factor, making this year a lowkey year for the iPhone. Presumably called the iPhone 11, these phones will serve as successors to last year’s iPhone X lineup, which includes the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max. They’re expected to feature better cameras, faster processors, and the latest iOS 13 software.
CNET compiled a host of rumored features for this year’s iPhone lineup. These include 3D Touch getting dropped, the phone’s having three rear-facing cameras, two-way wireless charging so you can charge your AirPods on your iPhone, and more. Apple’s invitation doesn’t specify what will be shown at the iPhone event.
Though dedicated to iPhones, Apple’s events are not always exclusive to just one product in its catalog. Apple revealed the Apple Watch Series 4 and HomePod software updates alongside new iPhones last year. There’s a possibility we could see updates to the company’s other products or software, like Apple Arcade or Apple TV Plus.
