A new 10-minute gameplay demonstration has been released for Nier: Replicant ver.1.22474487139.., showing off some very impressive upgrades to both the visuals and the combat. It gives us our clearest view yet of how the game will improve on the original 2010 game and even how it integrates elements from the sequel, which Square Enix didn’t release for another seven years.
The video focuses on the protagonist and Kaine as they enter the Barren Temple, an area previously hidden by a sandstorm. It features large environmental puzzles as well as classic Nier combat, combining hack-and-slack action with third-person shooting and dodging projectiles.
If you played the original Nier, you know the combat wasn’t exactly tight or particularly fluid. That changed with Platinum Games’ input for Nier: Automata, and those same improvements are evident in the retooled Nier: Replicant. There is a sense of weight as you break an enemy’s guard and send them flying backward, and you can also deflect their attacks and deliver devastating counter-blows. The Ikaruga-inspired enemy projectiles are still here, as well, mixing in a healthy dose of arcade action into your existential adventure.
Despite only launching on current-gen systems and PC, Nier: Replicant looks remarkably better than the original version, and it also sounds incredible because of Keiichi Okabe’s score. We’re sure it’s going to make us cry, as will Yoko Taro’s story of sacrifice and family during a humanity-eviscerating plague.
Nier: Replicant releases for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on April 23. It’s being developed primarily by Toylogic, and a mobile-only game called Nier: Reincarnation is also launching later this month in Japan. An English-language release date hasn’t been announced yet.
Update 02/12/2021: Chivalry 2 will be released on June 8 for PC (via Epic Games Store), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. All versions will feature cross-play.
Pre-ordering on PC will get you guaranteed access to a Cross-Play Closed Beta event, open from March 26-29. That beta will, of course, run for all consoles, but PC is seemingly the only platform with guaranteed beta access for pre-orders. Pre-orders on all formats will net you a Royal Zweihander sword.
Chivalry 2 has been delayed and will now be released in 2021 on PC (Epic Games Store), Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.
Announced by Torn Banner Studios, this delay is “necessary to allow Chivalry 2 to be the greatest game it can be, and one that realizes our vision of a “true sequel” to the original Chivalry: Medieval Warfare.”
The developer cites COVID-19 as a big factor for the updated timeline, but the extra time will allow them to “incorporate several quality of life improvements and also include what was originally post-launch content, in the release.”
While this will mean that more maps and game features will be playable at launch, horses will still be arriving after launch as they “need a bit more time in the training stables.”
Chivalry 2 recently completed its sixth round of its Alpha stage, and Torn Banner Studios reassures fans that this delay will not impact the previously-planned Summer beta. There is no specific date given yet, but more information will be coming soon.
Chivalry 2 was announced during E3 2019 and looks to bring players into their favorite medieval movie battle scenes. It features first-person melee battles of up to 64 players and will allow players to relive moments that invoke battles like Game of Thrones’ Battle of the Bastards.
The NPD Group released its latest monthly report, this one covering the January 2021 period, and the Nintendo Switch and Call of Duty had a big month to help lift up the overall US gaming industry substantially.
Total spending on games, hardware, and accessories reached $4.7 billion, up 42% year-over-year, and representing the biggest revenue in any January since NPD began.
For hardware, the Nintendo Switch was once again the top-selling platform based on units sold, reaching the highest of any console–Nintendo or otherwise–since the Nintendo Wii in January 2010. The PS5, however, drove the most spending in terms of dollars due to its more expensive price point. It reached the highest dollar since for a January month since the Wii in January 2009.
Total spending on hardware rose 144% year-over-year to $319 million, the highest for a January month since January 2011 ($323 million).
In terms of games, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was the top-seller in January; it’s been the best-selling game each month since it was released in November. It’s also now the 20th best-selling game in US history for dollar sales, after just three months.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was No. 2 in January, and it’s now the second fastest-selling game in the series in the US, only behind Assassin’s Creed III, when looking at its first three months.
You can see the full list of the top 20 best-sellers for January below.
Moving to another unit, accessories sales rose 73% to a January record of $222 million. The PS5’s white DualSense controller was the best-selling accessory in January.
Top 20 Best-Selling Games In The US For January 2021
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Madden NFL 21
Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*
Ring Fit Adventure
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
NBA 2K21*
Super Mario 3D All-Stars*
FIFA 21
Immortals: Fenyx Rising
Mortal Kombat 11
Just Dance 2021
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
Minecraft: PS4 Edition
Cyberpunk 2077*
Super Mario Party*
UFC 4
*Digital sales not included
Nintendo Best-Sellers For January 2021
Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*
Ring Fit Adventure
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
Super Mario 3D All Stars*
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
Just Dance 2021
Super Mario Party*
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
Super Mario Odyssey
*Digital sales not included
PlayStation Best-Sellers For January 2021
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Madden NFL 21
Minecraft: PS4 Edition
Demon’s Souls
Ghost of Tsushima
FIFA 21
NBA 2K21*
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
*Digital sales not included
Xbox Best-Sellers For January 2021
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Madden NFL 21
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Forza Horizon 4
NBA 2K21*
Cyberpunk 2077
FIFA 21
Minecraft: Xbox One Edition
UFC 4
*Digital sales not included
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Battleborn may not have been a success for 2K Games–the game’s servers were shut down for good just days ago–but the publisher hasn’t given up on action-focused multiplayer games. One of the writers of Overwatch is now working with 2K Games on a project that sounds like it could be an Overwatch rival.
Spotted by IGN and Twitter user MauroNL, the new 2K Games studio 31st Union, which is co-helmed by ex-Dead Space and Call of Duty developer Michael Condrey, has Overwatch lead writer Michael Chu on board as the narrative lead. Chu has also worked on Grounded, Diablo, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, among other games, and will hopefully get to write more actual story for this game instead of the backstories and dialogue we mostly got in Overwatch.
The studio hasn’t officially announced its game, but we do know that it will be a “multiplayer character-action game” based on job openings. Does that mean it will be similar to Overwatch? Possibly, especially with the first-person shooter experience that Condrey brings to the table. However, “character-action” is also a term used to describe games like Bayonetta and Devil May Cry, so the game could take a completely different approach.
It would certainly be a strange decision for 2K Games to take on Overwatch with another game given the massive flop of Battleborn, which saw its price tank shortly after launch before going to a pseudo free-to-play model. It didn’t seem to slow down Gearbox Software, however, which saw big success with Borderlands 3 before being purchased by Embracer Group.
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G4 has announced that Adam Sessler and Kevin Pereira are officially returning to G4 and will be hosting the revivals of X-Play and Attack of the Show!, respectively.
Sessler has been a huge part of G4’s relaunch, beginning with its first teaser from last year. Since then, he has brought back Crazy Adam to launch #G4Needs Talent and Ebeneezer Sess during the holidays. He even did a game review for Cyberpunk 2077. In the new version of X-Play, Sessler will review games while inviting guests from across gaming to talk about the industry at large.
Kevin Pereira, or Colonel Duckbuckets, is also making his return to Attack of the Show!, in which he was an original cast member. G4 also teased that there is “no word from his former co-host, though…” One of Pereira’s co-hosts, Olivia Munn, was reportedly in talks to return to G4 back in August 2020.
Alongside Adam Sessler and Kevin Pereira’s return, it was also announced that Ovilee May and Froskurinn will be the first two on-air cast members for G4’s official slate of esports programming. Last week, these two made their debut with The Bleep Esports Show for the B4G4 beta campaign.
You’ve almost certainly played some weird games in your time, but have you played a game in which you attempt to escape a town where everyone thinks you’re a criminal, and your every move is watched by a gigantic policeman who towers over the horizon? That’s the premise of Militsioner, a delightfully strange immersive sim from Russian developer TallBoys.
Oh, and you can talk to the policeman with your actual voice. Just in case it wasn’t strange enough for you yet.
TallBoys has released a new gameplay trailer, which you can watch above, that demonstrates the voice mechanics and shows off the world and tone. The immediate vibe is Half-Life 2’s City 17; it’s drenched in a communist dystopian atmosphere, and has a giant face in the sky watching you at all times. The difference, though, is that in City 17 you couldn’t answer back to Dr. Breen, but in Militsioner you can get snarky with your massive parole officer. You can even tell him to eff off, if you’re brave enough to face the consequences.
The city itself seems to be freely explorable, with NPCs to talk to using the real voice communication system. The townsfolk, at least in the trailer, do seem to hate you for the crimes you’ve been accused of, though. It seems that finding help in the town may not be easy.
While Militsioner seems to be a haunting comment on the police state, it looks to be really quite funny in its bizarre methods. The giant policeman isn’t chasing you with pepper spray or guns, and seems open for a chat. And, of course, that chat comes through your actual voice, which lends it a sense of potential absurdity.
The developers are working on making sure the voice system is as natural as possible. “In order for the policeman and the environment to understand the player correctly, we are working on a system that will correctly process the player’s responses based on the context,” a dev blog from TallBoys says. “It is important that it does not make stupid mistakes or create obstacles, as the answers will influence the mood and attitude of the Militsioner towards the player.”
For anyone who would rather not shout at their own computer, Tallboys is looking at “alternative text input as an option and possibly even a classic dialog system” according to a post on Twitter.
For more immersive sim style games, check out the upcoming System Shock remake, as well as our reviews of Dishonored 2 and Prey. None of these involve giant police officers, though. Sorry.
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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer.
Just as it did back in 2009, the announcement of the new version of the Iraq War game Six Days in Fallujah this week caused a stir online over its subject matter. A FAQ on the game’s website contains some responses to questions people might have regarding whether or not the US government is involved, if it’s being used as a military recruitment mechanic, and if the deaths of certain US Marines will be depicted.
The US government is not involved in the development of Six Days in Fallujah, the FAQ states, and there are no plans for the game to double as a recruiting tool officially. “The Marines, Soldiers, and Iraqi civilians who’ve helped us participated as private citizens, and the game is being financed independently,” the page says.
People wondered about these points specifically due to the involvement of Peter Tamte, the head of new publisher Victura. Tamte previously ran Six Days in Fallujah’s original developer, Atomic Games, which also created training simulations for the US military. The company was funded in part by In-Q-Tel, the venture capital firm funded by the CIA. As the FAQ says, the new game is financed independently.
Also in the FAQ, it states that a portion of the sales from Six Days in Fallujah will be donated to organizations that help service members affected by war. “Our focus will be on those whom traditional relief efforts are not yet reaching. Marines, Soldiers, and civilians who’ve helped us create the game will be deeply involved in directing these donations,” the page says.
The FAQ page goes on to state that Six Days in Fallujah will not recreate the death of any specific soldier, unless their family gives consent. The game will, however, display video interviews with real service members who speak about their experiences in the war.
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You won’t always play as an American in Six Days in Fallujah, either, while there will be missions in the game where you play as an un-armed Iraqi civilian.
”Multiple countries had forces in the city, not all of which have been acknowledged publicly. Additionally, the single-player campaign includes some high-intensity stealth missions in which you play as an un-armed Iraqi civilian,” the page says.
Players will never take on the role of an insurgent, however, either in single-player or multiplayer.
The developers of Six Days in Fallujah don’t agree with the idea that video games should stay away from depicting real-life events.
“Throughout history, we’ve tried to understand our world through events that happened to somebody else,” the studio said. “Six Days in Fallujah asks you to solve these real-life challenges for yourself. We believe that trying to do something for ourselves can help us understand not just what happened, but why it happened the way it did. Video games can connect us in ways other media cannot.”
More than 100 Marines, soldiers, and Iraqi civilians spoke with the developers to share their experiences, including a corporal who was on the ground kicking down doors and the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq.
“Based on their stories, we’ve invested more than three years building technologies to explore specific parts of the combat experience more realistically than other games have so far,” the studio said. “We hope that participating in these real-life ‘moments of truth’ will give each of us a new perspective into events that have already shaped so much of our century. Perhaps now, more than ever, the best way to understand what’s actually true is by experiencing reality–for ourselves.”
Six Days in Fallujah’s creative director, former senior Halo developer Jaime Griesemer, said on Twitter that the stories in Six Days in Fallujah are worth being told. His comment came in response to a former soldier on Twitter who said they have PTSD and would not be able to play the game due to the trauma of it.
“The stories are worth being told, and our medium can tell them in a unique and powerful way. Although the realism may well be too much for you and I would encourage you to be cautious,” Griesemer said.
The stories are worth being told, and our medium can tell them in a unique and powerful way. Although the realism may well be too much for you and I would encourage you to be cautious.
Call of Duty Warzone appears to be teasing a Zombies crossover, with out-of-place trial machines and screen distortion being reported by players.
As spotted by Eurogamer, an unfinished version of the Cold War Zombies Trial Machine has cropped up in the Verdansk Hospital in Warzone’s Rumble playlist. You can see the machine in this tweet from EricMaynardII. When approached, the player is given a prompt which reads ZAI/ACTIVATE_ZOMBIES, but it does nothing. The script for the prompt is clearly not what it should be – it feels like players weren’t supposed to find this yet, or maybe it’s part of a wider easter egg or ARG.
Soooooo…. There’s a Cold War Zombies Trial Machine in Hospital On Warzone…
Other Warzone players have noted in-game screen distortion, which operates a bit like a jumpscare except with TV static and morse code. CaberCC triggered the morse code pop-up, which has chanting in the background. Over on Reddit, user Soggy_nugget86 posted a similar video on the recently added Rebirth Island, which seems to be an extended version of the scare, which contains a few voice lines in Russian. In the comments, user Wolf-of-icewrack has seemingly translated what is being said.
-Dispatch, this is russian ship “Vodyanoy” channel 1-2, over
-This is dipatch, requesting shipping permit to Verdansk, over
-Dispatch, cargo secured, all systems are fine. Get ready to go. Over.
You can actually see the ship Vodyanoy in Warzone, as spotted by KStidge on Twitter. But what is it transporting? The community thinks it’s Nova 6, given that Rebirth Island is where the chemical weapon was developed, and the gas appears throughout Black Ops lore, and in the game’s Zombies mode. The Warzone lore is looking very interesting right now, so expect more news and easter eggs in the coming days. All signs point to zombies.
Nvidia has worked with Epic Games to bring native Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) support to Unreal Engine 4, allowing any studio to download it from the UE Asset Store.
DLSS is Nvidia’s proprietary AI scaling solution, allowing games to run at lower internal resolutions and then utilize powerful AI-specific cores in Nvidia GPUs to accurately scale them back up. The result is often an image that is indiscernible from a natively rendered one (and in some cases, better) that also runs far more efficiently, allowing you to play at higher resolutions with much higher framerates.
The first iteration of DLSS required the AI model to be trained for each game specifically, which hampered some of its early adoption at studios. But DLSS 2.0 removes that limitation, letting developers implement the technology with little fuss. And now with it being included in Unreal Engine 4–one of the world’s most widely used game engines–you’ll likely see it supported in more games, too.
AMD is working on its own version of AI scaling for its recently released desktop GPUs, which all run on the latest RDNA 2 architecture. This is the same architecture used in both the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, but AMD hasn’t yet confirmed if its solution will make it to consoles. Considering the massive performance advantage it has given Nvidia with its products, it’s unlikely that AMD want to take too long to get its own version out.
Nvidia is reportedly launching its latest desktop GPU, the RTX 3060, on February 25. It will join the growing RTX 30-series family of products, although you’ll likely still have issues buying one for the foreseeable future.
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Dave Chappelle has announced that Chappelle’s Show is now streaming on Netflix again.
As reported by Variety, Chappelle posted an Instagram video on Thursday from a recent standup performance at Austin venue Stubb’s. Partway through the 10-minute clip, which he titled “Redemption Song,” the comedian summarized his past dispute with Comedy Central and its parent company, ViacomCBS, which resulted in him requesting the removal of his show from Netflix late last year.
At the time, Chappelle criticized ViacomCBS for licensing the Chappelle’s Show streaming rights to Netflix without compensating him, but now he says that the issue has been resolved. In the candid clip posted this week, Chappelle confirmed that he was able to renegotiate a deal with the involved parties, which meant that his hit sketch-comedy show could return to Netflix on February 12.
“I asked you to stop watching the show and thank God almighty for you, you did,” Chappelle said in the video. “You made that show worthless because without your eyes, it’s nothing. And you stopped watching it. They called me and I got my name back and I got my license back and I got my show back and they paid me millions of dollars. Thank you very much.”
Chappelle then thanked Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos for listening to his request and having the “courage” to remove his show from the platform in November at “a financial detriment to his company.” He also extended his gratitude to Chris McCarthy of ViacomCBS for having “an interest in making the past right,” and doing something the was “very courageous.”
The comedian ended the clip with one final shoutout, saying, “And finally, after all these years, I can finally say to Comedy Central: It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”
Chappelle’s Show originally aired on Comedy Central from 2003 to 2006. The series ranked number 19 on IGN’s Top 100 TV Shows of All Time. Though he signed a lucrative $50 million contract with the network for two more seasons, Chappelle famously left the series in 2005, citing creative burnout and describing himself as sometimes being a “difficult dude.”
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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
