Month: May 2021

While they may not be blockbuster-level releases, Nintendo’s obscure Famicom Detective Club games arrive on Switch next week, making this a notable moment for the system. As Nintendo itself has called them, these two games are “deep cuts” from the company’s early years, a pair of previously unlocalized visual novels that originally launched for the Famicom Disk System (hence their namesake) back in the late ’80s. This marks the first time either title is ever being released outside of Japan, and I hope Nintendo continues to bring more of these kinds of curiosities to the West.

If nothing else, the Famicom Detective Club remakes are noteworthy for their historical value. As with Fire Emblem, my own introduction to the series came through Super Smash Bros. Melee. The fighting game featured a number of trophies calling back to Japan-only titles, including one of Famicom Detective Club’s heroine, Ayumi Tachibana. That small Easter egg was a fascinating glimpse at a lesser-known piece of Nintendo’s oeuvre, but I had long assumed the series would remain just that–a footnote in the company’s history. Their release on Switch, however, finally gives players outside of Japan their first official chance to experience the titles, and introduces the forgotten series to a modern audience.

What also makes Famicom Detective Club interesting is the team behind it. The games were originally developed by Nintendo R&D1, the division that produced Kid Icarus and Metroid (among other titles). Many of the developers who worked on those classics had a hand in Famicom Detective Club, including Yoshio Sakamoto. While he is perhaps best known for his work on the Metroid series, Sakamoto was responsible for penning the script for both Famicom Detective Club titles–some of his earliest writing credits on a video game.

It’s rare to see Nintendo revive these kinds of obscurities, but the company has seemed more willing to open its vaults in recent years. Last December, Nintendo celebrated Fire Emblem’s 30th anniversary by releasing an official localized version of the series’ first installment, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light–the first time this version was ever available in the West. A couple of years prior, Hamster released an Arcade Archives version of Nintendo’s long-lost arcade game, Sky Skipper. The latter, in particular, is a small miracle of preservation. As Nintendo of America’s Don James explained during a Treehouse Live segment at E3 2018, Sky Skipper never received an official release in the US, and the only extant cabinet is stored in Nintendo’s archives. In order to bring the game to Switch, the company had to remove the ROMs from the cabinet, copy them, and send the copies to Japan.

Even before Switch, Nintendo occasionally dusted off some of its previously unlocalized titles, and each time it did so felt like a special occasion. The unreleased Star Fox 2 was included in the SNES Classic mini console (and later added to Nintendo Switch Online’s SNES library), while the very first Mother game received its official Western release on Wii U–as EarthBound Beginnings–back in 2015. Thanks to the Virtual Console service, other previously unlocalized games like The Mysterious Murasame Castle and the original Sin & Punishment were also made available in the West.

None of these games will likely ever be multi-million sellers on the level of Mario or Animal Crossing, but that’s in part why it’s encouraging to see Nintendo still willing to release them. These historical curiosities are effectively a treat for longtime fans more than anything, and I only hope the company continues to bring more of them to the Switch. I’d personally pounce on an Arcade Archives version of Nintendo’s Popeye game, and many are still clamoring for Mother 3 to be localized (count Terry Crews among them). There’s no guarantee we’ll ever see any of these titles, of course, but releases like Shadow Dragon and Famicom Detective Club help to keep the dream alive, hopefully paving the way for more long-overdue localizations from Nintendo’s deep archives.

Red Orchestra Series’ take on Vietnam: 64-player MP matches; 20+ maps; US Army & Marines, PAVN/NVA, NLF/VC; Australians and ARVN forces; 50+ weapons; 4 flyable helicopters; mines, traps and tunnels; Brutal. Authentic. Gritty. Character customization. And napalm in the morning.

In today’s digitally-based world, protecting your sensitive information is paramount. By now, you’ve undoubtedly heard of compromising data leaks or cyber thieves who can pull credit card, bank account, or even social security numbers from your laptop or smartphone just using shared public Wi-Fi.

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Take-Two has been a fairly big supporter of the Nintendo Switch, bringing some of its biggest games to the little system that could. Several of those games are currently on sale via the Nintendo eShop, offering enormous discounts, and many of the titles are actually bundles containing a few games. BioShock, Borderlands, and XCOM are among the games with their prices slashed, so don’t delay if you want them.

BioShock: The Collection is one of the biggest deals during this sale, with its price dropping from $50 down to $20. The bundle includes all three BioShock games, with the first two being remastered versions, and it also has all single-player DLC–the multiplayer from BioShock 2 was omitted from the collection. If you prefer to get BioShock, BioShock 2, or BioShock Infinite on their own, you can do that, too. They are $8 each, down from $20.

A similar deal is available for the Borderlands games. Borderlands Legendary Collection is $20, down from $50, and packs in the original Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel with their DLC included. The only exception is Borderlands 2’s Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary pack. You can also get Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, which doesn’t include the first game but is $16, or Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition for $12. The Telltale game Tales from the Borderlands has a slight discount, too, dropping from $25 to $20.

Last but certainly not least, XCOM 2 Collection is $20, down from $50. It features the main game with four smaller DLC packs plus the War of the Chosen expansion. It’s one of the best turn-based strategy games ever made, so you don’t want to miss out.

You can see the best deals from this sale, Carnival Games not included, in the roundup below.

Best deals on Nintendo Switch eShop

• BioShock Remastered — $8 ($20)
• BioShock 2 Remastered — $8 ($20)
• BioShock Infinite: The Complete Edition — $8 ($20)
• BioShock: The Collection — $20 ($50)
• Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition — $12 ($30)
• Borderlands Legendary Collection — $20 ($50)
• Borderlands: The Handsome Collection — $16 ($40)
• Tales from the Borderlands — $20 ($25)
• WWE 2K Battlegrounds — $16 ($40)
• XCOM 2 Collection — $20 ($50)

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is changing in some big ways very soon. A development update for the game posted by 343 Industries community support and engagement coordinator Tyler Davis has revealed some of the changes players can expect as the game gears up for its seventh season.

Today’s post goes over planned updates to features across The Master Chief Collection, from multiplayer to flight plans for the next season. It even touches on the upcoming custom games browser for the game, which was recently added to the game for a stress test.

Quit Bans

Anyone who has played a game of Halo multiplayer knows that quitting players are a nuisance. Changes are coming to the system meant to deter players from leaving a game before it ends, though. According to the development update, quit bans are going to be reserved for anyone that ruins the fun of a game. Specifically, that means the first half of a team that leaves. Anyone else that quits out of a game after half their team has left won’t be punished.

There is also apparently an increasing number of players leaving matchmade games or going AFK. In response, 343 will be increasing the time someone stays banned after quitting. Here are the updated numbers:

• 1st offense: 5 minutes
• 2nd offense: 15 minutes
• 3rd offense: 30 minutes
• 4th offense: 60 minutes
• 5th offense: 180 minutes
• 6th offense: 16 hours

Custom Games Browser

The custom games browser for Halo: The Master Chief Collection is well into its development, but there are still some kinks 343 has to work out. Thankfully, the stress test of the browser went well, and the developer managed to gather some useful data from it.

According to Bradley Grey, a UX designer at 343 Industries, there were four main requests from players who participated in the stress test. Players’ main concerns surrounded finding games quickly, finding full game sessions, getting enough information about game sessions, and additional controls for session hosts.

Solutions for the first two issues are already in development according to Grey. However, the team is also working on additional, unrequested improvements like search filters. A quick match button is also in development that would put a player into a custom game immediately.

Season 7 Flighting

Before rolling out the game’s next season, 343 Industries has typically let other players give it a “test drive” first. This test drive is called a flight, and the developer went over some of the new content players who participate in it can expect. It’s important to note though that content included in flights doesn’t always make it into the game.

According to the update, visual improvements will be coming to Halo: CE to “better match legacy.” Naturally, bug fixes will also be included, along with cosmetic content for Season 7. However, the most notable changes coming in this flight surround the maps Waterfall and Edge, both of which are being improved. Waterfall was added to Halo 3 in the Season 6 update for The Master Chief Collection, but Edge was left out.

Hackers and Cheaters

343 Industries didn’t share much about how it’s approaching hackers and cheaters in the Master Chief Collection with this update. However, the developer did say, “Although we haven’t publicly talked about this a lot, know we are not ignoring these issues. We are working with our partners to make improvements to cheat detection, actively banning those that we confirm are cheating, and are investigating the causes of these issues.”

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If you’re one of the millions of users who access their streaming services through a Roku-branded television or streaming box, you may have noticed just how long it took HBO Max and Peacock to arrive on the service. Now, Google and Roku are at odds over the YouTube app following Roku’s removal of the separate YouTube TV app. Google added fuel to the fire today by adding YouTube TV to the existing YouTube App.

The fun kicked off last week when Roku removed the YouTube TV app from the Roku store. The distribution deal between the two companies expired on April 30, and Roku says Google is asking for unfair terms meant to not just benefit YouTube, but also to negatively affect Roku and Roku users. The terms include things like providing Google with special access to consumer data, Roku to build a special YouTube search function into the Roku interface, and even for Roku to meet certain hardware specs. In short, it sounds like Google is asking Roku to be another branch of its existing Chromecast product line at additional cost to Roku itself.

When negotiations stalled out and the distribution agreement expired, Roku removed the YouTube TV app.

Today, YouTube added a new menu item to its YouTube app that lets you click on “Go to YouTube TV” to watch programs within the application. YouTube is also “working with other partners to secure free streaming devices in case YouTube TV members face access issues on Roku.”

This sure seems like a power move to shift people off of Roku and onto Google-powered streaming devices, but this also isn’t the first time an app provider has complained about Roku making unreasonable demands to allow an app on its devices. Last year, the HBO Max and Peacock apps arrived late on Roku asking for “egregious” terms over access to things like advertising.

“We have only asked Google for four simple commitments,” Roku said in an April 30 statement (via The Verge). “First, not to manipulate consumer search results. Second, not to require access to data not available to anyone else. Third, not to leverage their YouTube monopoly to force Roku to accept hardware requirements that would increase consumer costs. Fourth, not to act in a discriminatory and anticompetitive manner against Roku.”

YouTube fired back, stating that “Roku often engages in these types of tactics in their negotiations. We’re disappointed that they chose to make baseless claims while we continue our ongoing negotiations. All of our work with them has been focused on ensuring a high quality and consistent experience for our viewers. We have made no requests to access user data or interfere with search results. We hope we can resolve this for the sake of our mutual users.”

Google said in a blog post that it wanted to “renew the YouTube TV deal under the existing reasonable terms,” but said that Roku used the opportunity to “renegotiate a separate deal encompassing the YouTube main app, which does not expire until December.”

Google says that it is “still working to come to an agreement with Roku to ensure continued access to YouTube TV for our mutual customers,” noting that existing YouTube TV members can still access their content on Roku as long as they don’t delete the app. Google also says that it is working with Roku to “certify that new devices meet our technical requirements.”

Roku, meanwhile, says that Google continues to “blatantly leverage its YouTube monopoly,” and that the company’s “actions are the clear conduct of an unchecked monopolist bent on crushing fair competition and harming consumer choice.” The company adds that it hasn’t asked for any additional money from YouTube, but rather for “Google to stop their anticompetitive behavior of manipulating user search results to their unique financial benefit and to stop demanding access to sensitive data that no other partner on our platform receives today.”

One sticking point with regard to hardware is that Google wants Roku to allow use of the AV1 video codec, stating that “Roku requested exceptions that would break the YouTube experience and limit our ability to update YouTube in order to fix issues or add new features. For example, by not supporting open-source video codecs, you wouldn’t be able to watch YouTube in 4K HDR or 8K even if you bought a Roku device that supports that resolution.”

YouTube is a worldwide streaming giant, and Roku is huge in the streaming hardware space. It seems likely that Google would want to edge Roku out if possible, considering it has its own streaming devices, and knows that the loss of YouTube would be a huge hit against the service. Roku, meanwhile, has shifted from providing just streaming hardware to handling things like advertising and offering content, putting it in a space to compete with companies like YouTube and WarnerMedia. It remains to be seen who will blink first.

Kelly Olsen (Azie Tesfai) will be picking up the mantle of Guardian in the twelfth episode of Supergirl’s sixth and final season, titled “Blind Spots.” She is taking over the role from James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks), who left the series back in Season 5. Take a look at Kelly in full Guardian costume in Tesfai’s celebratory tweet below.

Making the moment even more special is the fact that Tesfai co-wrote the episode alongside co-producer J. Holtham. It will also be directed by an Arrow-verse regular, David Ramsey, who is slated to appear in it as his fan favorite character, John Diggle. A full description of the episode is not yet available, but it will deal with and address racial inequality.

Kelly’s debut as Guardian has been a long time coming in Supergirl, first being teased back during the Arrowverse crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths which began running back in 2019. Thankfully the long wait is nearly over. “Blind Spots” is scheduled to air on the CW on September 21.

While Supergirl may be coming to an end with Season 6, many of the CW’s Arrowverse shows have already been given their renewals. Superman & Lois, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, and Batwoman will all be continuing on into next year.