PC Building Simulator is adding new DLC today, with a competitive focus on an esports campaign that will have you building gaming PCs for various esports personalities and teams.
Developer Irregular Corporation says that players will “create, fix and upgrade rigs for professional esports players, and make sure your team rises to the top.”
Real-world brands including AMD, Nvidia, NZXT, Razer, and Republic of Gamers will be featured, while eight esports teams and five games will also be featured in the new campaign mode that will take you approximately 12 hours to complete.
Players will start from the bottom and work their way up to esports glory, switching between the demands of their team, sponsors, and their manager while also keeping an eye on their budget as match day draws ever closer.
Should the gaming PCs you put together manage to help propel your team to victory, the offers will come pouring in and you’ll soon be tinkering on bleeding edge PCs in an upgraded workshop.
You can even jump ship to a rival team, if you feel like accepting their offer. PC Building Simulator will be on sale at 50% off until August 8 on PC as part of the Steam Midweek Madness sale.
PC Building Simulator: Esports Expansion will cost you $11.69 on Steam or GOG until August 11, after which it will revert to its $13 price.
The world we live in today is very different to the one we occupied 10 months ago when FIFA 20 launched. Football stadiums are empty aside from essential personnel, most European leagues have only just wrapped up their seasons after being forced into a three month break, and August signals the return of the Champions League–albeit in an international tournament-style format. Even Manchester City have only just begun spending monstrous fees on defenders in what is a belated transfer window.
Despite all of these delays and disruptions to not just the football calendar, but everyday life, too, FIFA 21 will roll around in the latter months of the year just like every other FIFA has before it. There’s an odd semblance of comfort in this fact, especially when nothing else quite makes sense right now. It also helps that this year’s game is shaping up quite nicely.
That’s not to say the FIFA 21 preview build we got our hands on suggests that this is a substantial leap forward for the series, however. Significant advancements will hopefully come to fruition over the next fews years with the powerful hardware of both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in the developer’s hands. There’s still some life stirring in the current gen, though, as FIFA 21 hones in on refining the moment to moment gameplay with some welcome tweaks and additions.
In our preview session, Sam Rivera, lead gameplay producer on FIFA 21, spoke about the development team’s focus on the game’s three core gameplay pillars: Creativity, fluidity, and responsiveness. Each of these building blocks applies to the myriad elements that make up FIFA 21’s gameplay, from dribbling, passing, creating chances, tackling, marking, and so on. Each of these features was inspired by both real-life football and community feedback.
Agile dribbling, for instance, is a new dribbling technique inspired by diminutive playmakers like Bernardo Silva. The Portuguese attacker is adept at maintaining possession in tight spaces by utilizing his tight control and quick feet to explode past committed defenders. By holding R1 and moving with the left stick, you’re able to recreate this style in FIFA 21, giving you more options on the ball when it comes to escaping the clutches of opposition players.
The faster footwork enabled by agile dribbling grants you more control and responsiveness in one-on-one situations, along with a couple of new skill moves like the bridge dribble and ball roll fake turn. Your success in using this new technique will vary, and there is a learning curve to using agile dribbling effectively. It can be a powerful tool at the feet of the sport’s best dribblers, though, and there’s no doubting the palpable sense of satisfaction that occurs when you nail it and leave a defender for dead.
Outside of giving you new ways to dribble past opponents, the attacking side of FIFA 21 has been reworked to promote more exciting and creative play. Again, this is primarily geared towards giving you more options when in possession of the ball. Teammate AI is smarter when it comes to making off-the-ball runs, but you can also have a direct impact on how they move up the pitch. Double tapping L1 will instruct a player to run beyond the ball, while flicking the right stick immediately following this will influence the direction they run in. This is incredibly useful for moving your teammates into dangerous positions to receive the ball, or to drag defenders away and create space for yourself.
Player lock achieves a similar function, allowing you to temporarily maintain control of a specific player after passing the ball to a teammate. From here, you’re free to move into space and signal the AI to pass the ball back to you when you’re ready. This does mean you’re leaving possession at the feet of the AI, so it can be a risky strategy, but player lock is simply another way in which FIFA 21 gives you an extra degree of control over how your team attacks and creates chances.
A significant part of your build-up play also boils down to the players at your disposal. EA has made a concerted effort to make players feel more unique and accurately reflect their real-life counterparts in this year’s game. This is immediately obvious when you’re running at a defense with Lionel Messi or using Virgil van Dijk’s strength and defensive prowess to pick an opponent’s pocket, but it’s also reflected in how each player moves and positions themselves off the ball. EA is dubbing this Position Personality, but all you really need to know is that it essentially heightens the importance of the positional awareness attribute on both sides of the ball. For instance, world-class forwards are better at holding their runs to stay level with the last defender compared to their counterparts a rung below, while playmakers will seek out space between the lines to give you an option to progress the ball into dangerous areas.
Meanwhile, the world’s top defenders can close down passing lanes more effectively than an average defender, and a defensive midfielder like N’Golo Kante excels at tracking runs and being in a position to intercept forward passes. All of this contributes to the uniqueness of each team and player. Playing as Borussia Dortmund offers a different experience than playing as Burnley. Not because there’s a notable difference in stats between the two teams, but because the players move and react in contrasting ways. That hasn’t always been the case in FIFA. Disparate teams have often felt samey, while the only distinguishing trait between players has regularly been their overall rating and pace. That doesn’t appear to be the case in FIFA 21.
There are other improvements that enhance the general flow of games, too. The new natural collision system eliminates those frustrating moments where you’d concede a goalmouth scramble because the goalkeeper and three of your defenders ended up in a massive heap on the floor. Players are more aware of their surroundings and can avoid situations like the one mentioned above by, say, hopping over the onrushing ‘keeper. FIFA 21 has also upped its consistency when it comes to rewarding you for making successful tackles. The ball is less likely to ricochet and end up right back at the attacker’s feet, aided in part by defender’s knowing how best to position themselves to win the ball back.
The early signs are promising … EA still likes to use a lot of flashy buzz words to promote their annual football title, but there’s some depth behind those words this year that’s immediately apparent in this early preview build
When you boil it down to the familiar act of passing a spherical ball across a carpet-esque pitch, FIFA 21 is shaping up to be an exciting and fulfilling game of football. Animations seem to have been tightened up with fewer moving parts, resulting in more responsive movement and passing. Target selection considers space in a more intelligent way, too, meaning your passes are less likely to go awry because the game selected the wrong teammate. Blocking has even risen in prominence, with a stat dictating how good a defender is at getting something in the way of shots, passes, and crosses. You’re no longer forced to commit and charge forward to attempt a tackle on the edge of your own box because simply getting a body in the way is more than enough. It’s not a foolproof plan, but the increased reliability behind when and how a player will block the ball gives you another option when holding on to a valuable clean sheet.
Of course, the real test for all of these new systems and tweaks will occur when FIFA 21 is out in the wild and the online community is looking to exploit any of its flaws. The early signs are promising, though. Sure, EA still likes to use a lot of flashy buzz words to promote their annual football title, but there’s some depth behind those words this year that’s immediately apparent in this early preview build. EA is set to reveal additional details about Volta, Ultimate Team, and a revitalized Career Mode as it gears up for FIFA 21’s launch, but as far as the on-pitch action is concerned, it doesn’t look like we’re in for a disappointment.
FIFA 21 launches on October 9 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game will follow at some point later in the year.
The Boys was one of 2019’s best news show–a subversive, funny take on the superhero genre that delivered drama, dark satirical humor, and bone-crunching violence in equal measure. The second season is almost here, and the final trailer has been released.
The latest trailer puts the focus on main character Billy Butcher, as well as introducing us to Stormfront, one of the show’s new superheroes. Butcher and his team of superhero-hating mercenaries are in hiding, but he is making plans to fight back and rescue his wife. Stormfront is a powerful new supe, who knows how to use the media and is making big plans for the world’s superheroes, putting her at odds with Homelander. Oh, and there’s a giant exploding fish in there too. Check it out below:
The Boys stars Karl Urban as Butcher, Aya Cash as Stormfront, and Antony Starr as Homelander, and the cast also includes Jack Quaid, Laz Alonso, Tomer Capon, Karen Fukuhara. It’s based on the comic book by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, and the first three episodes hit Amazon Video on September 4. The remaining five will then be released weekly.
In a recent interview with GQ, Urban spoke about playing Butcher and hinted at what to expect from him in Season 2. “Butcher is a fun character to play, because of the degree of internal conflict that wages within him,” he said. “There is a war inside of Butcher, and to get to the dawn, you must first travel through the night. Butcher has both the tendency to be the villain and the hero, which makes him a hell of a lot of fun to play. Looking at season two, some of the shit that Butcher gets up to is truly diabolical. And I pray that I personally don’t get the karma payback for what he does. I didn’t think of it, I didn’t write it, but I’m definitely guilty of doing it.”
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a lot of things on a lot of platforms, but it isn’t a Sengoku-era stealth-action game developed by Hidetaka Miyazaki and From Software. At least, that was the case until modders started recreating Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in Bethesda’s seminal RPG.
YouTuber LowEnder has put together a video showing what Skyrim looks like with over 100 Sekiro mods installed. The protagonist Wolf is instantly recognisable, as is the Japanese setting. There’s some sneaking mixed in with sword combat, and while it obviously can’t capture the fluidity of Sekiro, it’s impressive that you can turn Skyrim into a familiar facsimile of From Software’s fast-paced action game.
The Shinobi Combat–A Sekiro Combat Mod is the most apparent mod on display in the video, introducing blocking, parrying, dodge rolls, posture damage, and deathblows to the game, alongside some flashy katana-based swordplay. The Shinobi Tools Mod is also in effect, adding some of Ghost’s prosthetic attachments like the Lazulite Shuriken, Flame Vent, and Mist Raven. LowEnder doesn’t mention all of the 100+ mods they use in the video, but if you want to have a go at replicating Sekiro in Skyrim for yourself, they do provide the most important ones.
In other Sekiro news, a new update is arriving for the game in October that adds a boss rush mode, new appearance options, and a message system which allows you to share strategies and hints with fellow shinobi around the globe.
As COVID-19 continues to impact day-to-day living in the US, movie theaters are still trying to figure out what the new rules governing movie releases should be. The latest bump in a summer without blockbusters hitting theaters has cinema chains second-guessing themselves and second-guessing tentative deals to finally decide how and when new movies should get in front of theaters: After AMC Theaters and Universal have reached a compromise between theatrical and home digital releases, Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi said he isn’t seeing the rationale behind a reduced 17-day theatrical window.
“We believe an exclusive theatrical window is critically important,” Zoradi told analysts on a call (via The Hollywood Reporter). “While we have publicly stated we’re willing to have conversations with our studio partners to evolve with them, we are mindful that an overly aggressive shortened theatrical window could have an adverse impact on the mid-to tail-end of a film’s life.
Last week, Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger was also similarly skeptical, saying, “People need to be aware that the first big movie from Universal is coming only in six months so there is no pressure here… But we clearly see this as a wrong move at the wrong time.”
Later in the call, Zoradi clarified on the character of conversations happening between major movie studios to help offer more transparency on what has been a messy, protracted process: “I wouldn’t say there’s been any aggressive new discussions that we’re in the middle of. I would characterize it as ongoing… We are open and active with discussions, but relative to negotiations, I would stop there.”
Sony has been coy with PlayStation 5 details since its big E3 replacement stream in June. That wait might last longer still, with plans for another PS5 event only “tentatively confirmed” for August.
Sony have already announced a State of Play for August, but tempered expectations of the 40-minute event by stating that it would focus primarily on PS4 games. It made it clear that the event would not feature new PS5 exclusives or news on either additional hardware or potential pricing, the latter of which is still being strongly debated amongst fans.
In a Bloomberg report focused on Sony’s recent financial results, the company does state that it has plans for another event in August that will be all about the PS5. No other details about the event were shared, other than wording that suggests plans could still change as the months progress.
“An official at the Sony PlayStation unit, who asked not to be identified because the plan is not yet public, said Sony’s next announcement regarding the PlayStation 5 is tentatively scheduled for this month,” the report reads (via Nibel).
Both Microsoft and Sony have yet to reveal prices for the Xbox Series X and PS5 respectively. Sony has two versions of the PS5 launching this holiday, with the second version omitting the disc-drive. Microsoft reportedly will host another event in August after its games showcase in late July, which will supposedly feature the reveal of the rumored cheaper and less powerful Xbox, codenamed Lockhart.
As part of its cloud streaming xCloud service that will launch on September 15 on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for Android devices, Microsoft has detailed how touch controls will work on games coming to smartphones and tablets through the service.
In the latest Microsoft Game Stack stream, The Coalition senior gameplay producer Jarret Bradley revealed how the studio had built a custom layout for Gears 5.
“One of the challenges for us, right from the initial onset, was that there were no other games that we could look at with that touch control,” Bradley explained.
“As we started to dig into it, we realized that the best thing for us to do was to treat this as a different input device. Like we already support keyboard and mouse, controller, and we have customized controls and remapping. We have custom layouts for basically anything you can do in the game.”
The touch controls developed by The Coalition will allow players to engage in the regular Gears experience through these custom layouts, ranging from shooting to reloading, and even having control of vehicles. Gyro controls have also been implemented for action sequences, and the touchscreen controls will also dissolve during cinematic scenes.
“We’ve got compound layers that we’ve done where you can kind of push one button which brings up another view,” Bradley said.
“That’s how we’re doing our weapon changing thing so the D-pad isn’t always visible. What we’re trying to is pull a lot of the icons off the screen that we didn’t need and make kind of contextual layouts when we needed them.”
Microsoft is hoping that The Coalition’s efforts will inspire other studios to design their games with xCloud functionality in mind when they begin development.
A new line of “Designed for Xbox” mobile gaming controllers and accessories for xCloud were also announced this week, ranging from Razer Kishi controllers that can be snapped onto your smartphone, to cradles that can clip onto an Xbox controller and can be adjusted to hold your phone in place.
Untitled Goose Game gained plenty of accolades upon release last year, and its unconventional title perfectly fits its quirky charm. No one explained the joke to Amazon’s retail bots, apparently, as the company altered the listing assuming it was a mistake.
In an exchange on Twitter, Wario64 noted that Amazon was listing the game as simply “Goose Game.” In response, developer Cabel Sasser pointed out that Amazon’s algorithm had mistakenly concluded that the “Untitled” part was a placeholder and removed it, leaving it with the much duller title. As of the time of writing, the mistaken listings are still up.
These listings are for the physical editions, which recently went up for pre-order in advance of their September release. Those include the game, a 24-page catalogue of in-game items, an 11×17 village map poster, and a “No Goose” sticker. A special eco-friendly “Lovely Edition” and equally eco-friendly vinyl soundtrack are also available from iam8bit.
Amazon listing for “Goose Game”
“The important thing is that Untitled Goose Game is a hoot,” James O’Connor wrote in GameSpot’s review. “It’s a comedy game that focuses on making the act of playing it funny, rather than simply being a game that features jokes. Wishing that it was longer speaks to how much fun I had with it. There’s nothing else quite like Untitled Goose Game; it’s charming and cute despite being mean, and both very silly and very clever. It’s also probably the best non-racing game ever to feature a dedicated ‘honk’ button.”
Ahead of QuakeCon this weekend, you can save on a bunch of id Software and Bethesda games at the Xbox Store. The QuakeCon Sale on Xbox One runs through August 10 and features massive discounts on popular franchises such as Doom, Dishonored, Fallout, and more. You can also get 4A Games’ Metro series for cheap this week at the Xbox Store.
The best deals during the QuakeCon Sale are on bundles. If you haven’t played many of the games under the ZeniMax Media umbrella, now’s your chance to do so at really low prices.
Best deals at Xbox Store
The Arkane Anniversary Collection contains every Arkane Studios game available on Xbox One for $30, down from $100, including Dishonored: Definitive edition, Dishonored 2, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, and Prey. The Wolfenstein: Alt History Collection is on sale for $32 and comes with all four modern Wolfenstein titles: Wolfenstein: The New Order, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, and Wolfenstein: Youngblood. Meanwhile, the Doom Slayers Collection is only $13.49 and contains Doom (classic), Doom 2, Doom 3, and Doom (2016).
The Metro franchise sale lets you grab all three games in the post-apocalyptic FPS franchise for around $20. Metro Exodus, which released last year, is discounted to a new low price of $13.19. The Metro Redux Bundle, which contains 2033 Redux and Last Light Redux, is only $7.49.
In addition to all of the deals ahead of QuakeCon, you can claim the PC version of Quake for free via the Bethesda Launcher this weekend.
Microsoft recently announced its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription will begin including xCloud streaming integration. Now the company has given more details, including a release date and some of the lineup we can expect. You’ll be able to stream onto your Android devices starting September 15–iOS support won’t be available right at launch.
An Xbox Wire post from corporate VP Kareem Choudhry states that Game Pass Ultimate members will get streaming access to more than 100 games. The company hasn’t announced a full list but has shared more than 30 of the games that will compose the initial streaming lineup. Those include some big names like Gears 5, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and the recently launched Grounded. You can check out all the announced games so far below.
This is being called a beta launch across 22 countries, to ensure stability as it scales up from there. Those markets include several countries in North America and Europe, as well as South Korea. You can check out the list of supported markets below as well.
As noted above, iOS devices will not be supported when xCloud first launches for Game Pass users. It’s unclear when that might debut, although iOS xCloud testing did begin earlier this year.
To play Game Pass titles on your mobile device, you’ll need to download the Xbox Game Pass app from the appropriate Android store when it launches on September 15. In addition, Microsoft announced partnerships with Razer, PowerA, 8BitDo, and NACON to create new accessories like phone clips and split-apart controllers. You’ll also be able to play with your existing Xbox One and PS4 controllers.
