Author: Trafficblast

Veteran Bungie staffer David “DeeJ” Dague left the Destiny studio earlier this year, and now he’s landed at Iron Galaxy Studios.

The studio announced that Dague–the former communications director at Bungie–will be the head of communications for Iron Galaxy as it begins work on a new IP. Additionally, Iron Galaxy has appointed Chelsea Blakso as co-CEO alongside Adam Boyes, the former PlayStation boss.

Very little is known about Iron Galaxy’s new game, however, apart from the fact that it will be a “new multiplayer melee combat IP for consoles and PC.”

“Video games bring people together in the spirit of friendly competition,” Dague said in a statement. “This opportunity with Iron Galaxy is a chance to welcome players into a community that we will build with them. There is nothing more exciting than witnessing players discover a brand-new game and come together to define its culture. I’m thrilled to be tackling these challenges with my new teammates.”

Iron Galaxy is growing as a company, jumping from 140 to more than 175 staffers in 2020, despite the challenges created by the pandemic.

“Our supportive work-from-home culture ensures our staff feels cared for and valued as individuals. Our focus on creativity, communication, diversity, and inclusion has helped us attract and retain the best talent in the business,” Blasko said.

In the new role as co-CEO, Blasko will run Iron Galaxy’s day-to-day, while also “maintaining the well-being of its employees and the culture of the studio.”

Iron Galaxy is a relatively new studio, as it was founded in 2008. The independent company is known for its various port jobs, including the recent Switch versions of Overwatch, Diablo III, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

In total, Iron Galaxy has released more than 65 games. The studio has offices in Chicago and Orlando, along with a virtual studio in Austin, Texas.

NBA 2K21 is the latest edition of the annual basketball sim franchise, and as is customary for the series, it’ll be seeing some steep discounts on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch for Black Friday 2020. The former two versions are also playable on next-gen hardware, but you should be aware that a pricier, native next-gen edition exists for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S that is not included in the sales we’ve seen so far.

Best deal: $27 at GameStop (available November 25)

NBA 2K21 will be on sale at a variety of retailers for Black Friday, but the best deal of the bunch so far comes from GameStop, where the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch editions will be discounted to $27 (more than 50% off). If you’d rather shop elsewhere, a number of retailers will sell it for just $28. Either way, this is the cheapest the game has been available for since its release in September.

As noted above, the PS4 and Xbox One versions are backwards-compatible with the PS5 and Xbox Series X, respectively. But with these deals being on physical copies, you’ll need a disc drive to take advantage–meaning PS5 Digital edition and Xbox Series S owners will need to hold out for a possible digital deal.

In our NBA 2K21 review, we criticized the game for lacking major new improvements and continuing its frustrating usage of microtransactions, though it does offer some welcome tweaks. “NBA 2K21 shows that the lone basketball sim we have now has largely stagnated. It’s a full package, for sure, but one that demonstrates little-to-no motivation to meaningfully improve upon itself,” Michael Higham wrote. “That doesn’t take away from the strong foundation that makes NBA 2K a fun and rewarding time. However, when you go through the same grind and the same process with only superficial changes, you just get burnt out faster than years prior. If ball is still life, NBA 2K21 is as good a version as any to pick, although even the greatest ballers need a rest.”

We’ll be updating this post if and when additional deals on NBA 2K21 pop up. Stay tuned for more of our extensive Black Friday coverage, including looks at the best PS4 and PS5 deals, best Xbox One and Series X/S deals, and best Switch deals.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

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Epic’s popular battle royale game Fortnite keeps evolving with new updates and features, the latest of which is video chat, which is coming at any moment.

Fortnite will soon connect with the app Houseparty (which Epic acquired in 2019) to allow players to hang out and have a video chat while playing Fortnite.

At launch, which will be soon, voice chat will be available on PC, PS5, and PS4, and you will also need an Android or iOS device with the Houseparty app installed. Once you’ve done that, just connect your Houseparty account to your Epic Games account and it’s done.

Players who link these accounts will receive a special Rainbow Fog wrap; here’s what it looks like.

Here is a rundown of how Fortnite video chat works, with step-by-step instructions written by Epic:

1. Open Houseparty on iOS or Android and Connect to Fortnite through Settings or the TV icon
2. Join your friends like you normally would or invite them to join you
3. Fire up Fortnite on a PC or PlayStation
4. Continue talking to your friends while you play

Epic said it is concerned about safety, so the video chat will only crop to your face. The app will supply a Fortnite-themed background that wipes out everything but your face. Additionally, only people who are friends on Houseparty can connect to the chat, so you don’t have to worry about random people coming in to watch.

Regarding support for other platforms, including Xbox and Nintendo Switch, Epic said, “We will let everyone now if we’re able to support more platforms in the future.”

Go to Epic’s website to learn more about video chat in Fortnite.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Godfall makes a good first impression. Even if you’re playing on a moderately powerful PC, as I did, it’s clear from the opening moments that developer Counterplay Games has endeavored to show off advancements in visual fidelity, no doubt in light of new hardware such as the PlayStation 5. From the way sparks fly to the myriad particles that coat every inch of its action and the reflectiveness of its gaudy gold and marble halls, Godfall wants you to know that next gen is here. Beyond the visual spectacle, however, lies a game that’s immediately familiar and over-reliant on an amalgamation of loot-driven games from the past eight years or so.

Godfall’s mixture of loot progression and third-person melee combat has been described by Counterplay Games as a new type of genre: the looter-slasher. The name holds up insofar as you loot and slash things, but there’s nothing about Godfall that feels intrinsically new. Diablo, Monster Hunter, and Warframe make up a portion of its overt inspirations, but it manages to avoid feeling completely derivative by pulling from so many different influences at once. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this approach, especially since it mixes in a few of its own ideas as well. The issues Godfall faces occur outside of combat, where its structure and gameplay loop are decidedly uninspired.

The whole game takes place across three distinct realms: Earth, Water, and Air. Upon entering each biome, you’re given a brief tour of the area before being tasked with finding some kind of door that’s locked by a specific number of MacGuffins. From here, you have to return to previously visited locations and defeat a number of mid-bosses–some of which are unique, but most of which are repeats of fights you’ve already had. Once you’ve slain each of these enemies and acquired the requisite amount of MacGuffins, you can open the door and fight that realm’s boss. Then you simply ascend an elevator and repeat the whole process again in the next realm.

As you can imagine, this rigid framework quickly devolves into tedium and wears out its welcome long before the final credits roll around nine hours in. To make matters worse, Godfall’s endgame revolves around yet more fights against the same bosses you’ve already clashed steel with before. There are some new wrinkles to this endgame content, including ways to earn new loot, a reward system that grants temporary buffs, and the prospect of failing and having to start over, but the core conceit of repeating battles to unlock loot to repeat more battles is not an enticing one when that’s all there is to it.

Part of this tedium is due to routine level and quest design that does little more than shuffle you from one battle to the next. Your objective rarely deviates from the basic task of killing everything in sight, aside from a select few outliers where you might have to destroy an object as well. You have no interaction with the world around you, and there’s no nuance to indicate a sense of history in each locale. Enemies simply mill about waiting to die–their entire purpose served by being vanquished at your hands–and the environments, for as good as they look, end up feeling like hollow set dressing. The threadbare story provides little context either, offering just enough of a reason for all the bloodshed. The end goal is to kill your brother before he can become a god and bring about the apocalypse. At one point it looks as though the narrative might add some depth by musing on the potential for power to corrupt those who have no need for it, but this is dropped just as soon as it arrives in favor of a predictable sequel tease.

Godfall is a game built on monotony that would fall apart completely if the combat weren’t there to prop it up. Your melee repertoire consists of light and heavy attacks, a snappy dodge, and a shield that can both block and parry incoming attacks. There’s the usual assortment of gear rarities, with common, uncommon, rare, and legendary loot to find, while your weapon arsenal features everything from giant greatswords to nimble dual blades. Each weapon type is diversified by the range, speed, and cadence of its moveset, but they all share the same four-button combo and an array of abilities that can be unlocked via a modest skill tree. Whichever weapon type you opt for will come down to personal preference, particularly since Godfall’s combat is meaty and satisfying no matter which one you choose, with a palpable sense of skull-crushing weight behind each and every blow.

It can also be surprisingly measured due to the fact you can’t interrupt attack animations if you need to block or dodge. This works well on paper, forcing you to learn enemy patterns and be deliberate in your actions, but it belies Godfall’s emphasis on aggression. Being patient works against bosses and in one-on-one encounters, but you spend the vast majority of the game fighting mobs where speed is of the essence. You need to quickly cut through ranged enemies or healers before dealing with anyone else, and this approach is antithetical to the way defending works. There’s even a Rampage mechanic that rewards you for staying on the front foot with a 20% damage increase. However, these mechanics are undermined by the fact that dying in Godfall is so inconsequential that it’s actually advantageous a lot of the time. Falling in battle simply respawns you back where you died, with all of the enemies right where you left them, whether that means they’re dead or damaged. Doing so also replenishes all of your healing items, so there’s little reason to avoid letting your health bar reach zero unless you want to keep hold of any of the energy you’ve built up. This changes during boss fights, but even these are generously checkpointed each time you deplete a chunk of the boss’ health.

Fortunately, there is some meaningful depth beyond the combat’s familiar basics. Every weapon type has two unique variants of special attacks called Southern and Northern Techniques. You can execute these by spending energy that’s gradually accumulated during the heat of battle. Performing a Northern Technique with the longsword, for example, will launch you into a rapid flurry of strikes that cuts through any foes around you, while the polearm’s Southern Technique sends you into a leaping ground slam that functions similarly to an AOE attack. Aside from being flashy displays of power, these techniques are also a vital part of Godfall’s Soulshatter mechanic. By using light attacks and Northern Techniques, you can apply Soulshatter buildup to an enemy’s health bar before switching to heavy attacks and Southern Techniques to bank all of that volatile energy and dish it out in the form of destructive Soulshatter damage.

There are a number of other abilities you can unlock throughout the game as well, such as a Weak Point skill that lets you aim the cursor at highlighted enemy weak spots to deal extra damage. This adds an element of finesse to those moments when you’re simply wailing on a group of enemies, forcing you to course-correct and hone in on a specific point. There are also Polarity Attacks that encourage you to swap between both of your equipped weapons in the midst of battle by rewarding you with a shockwave attack and extra damage for a brief period. It’s these physical abilities that really stand out during the chaos of Godfall’s combat. Some loot has a chance to apply different status effects like bleeding, or add fire and electric damage on top of your physical attacks, but none of this is particularly noticeable. You know when you’ve killed an enemy using Soulshatter damage because they explode in a bright dust cloud, but status effects just get lost in the noise.

Godfall is a game built on monotony that would fall apart completely if the combat weren’t there to prop it up.

As a result, Godfall’s loot is defined by basic number crunching–where gear is equipped according to the highest digits and little else. Your preference for a particular weapon type will factor into this, but finding a legendary warhammer is only exciting because your damage numbers grow in size. A legendary weapon doesn’t function any differently to a common one; they both still have the same combo and rhythm to their attacks. There’s still an inherent endorphin rush that comes from seeing that golden orb burst forth from a defeated enemy, but this mostly feels like muscle memory that’s accrued from playing other loot-heavy games. Seeing numbers grow is always a good thing, but it does nothing to change or evolve the flow of combat.

Valorplates are similarly disappointing. These armor sets come with slightly different stats and various Archon abilities–which are essentially ultimates–but the stats and passive buffs they apply are still barely perceptible, and there are only three Archon abilities split amongst its 12 Valorplates. They’re varied from a visual perspective, offering different styles on Godfall’s cosmic knights aesthetic, and this does allow you to look different from one another when playing in co-op. The game is naturally better with friends–even if there’s little synergy shared between your attacks and abilities–but you will need friends if you want to play cooperatively, since there is no matchmaking.

Even if you can play with others, Godfall’s meaty combat eventually begins to wear thin after the umpteenth version of the same fight. This is a shallow game bolstered by decent combat that struggles to bear the weight of an entire game. Uninteresting loot mixed with a monotonous and grindy structure is not a good combination, and for as satisfying and fun as it can often be to hack your way through one battle after another, there’s not enough here to sustain that enjoyment for more than a few hours.