Author: Trafficblast

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Humankind, the 4X strategy game from Amplitude Studios, has been delayed to August 2021. The studio said it is taking extra time to implement changes based on the feedback of early players from the game’s OpenDev program.

“Through the OpenDev program, you have given us invaluable feedback on the game. While Humankind is already a great game, many of you think it could be even better, and after analyzing all your great feedback, we realized that we could make even further improvements to make Humankind the best game that it can be,” the studio said. “These improvements take time, however, so we have decided to move the release date.”

The new release date for Humankind is August 17, 2021.

“This will give us time to further polish the game for a great day one experience, address the feedback from the OpenDev scenarios, and keep working with our community to improve the game,” the studio said. “We want to thank you all for your passion for our dream, the feedback you have given, and the support for this decision many of you have already expressed.”

Now until release, Amplitude will be focusing on improving Humankind’s pacing and balancing across numerous gameplay systems and features, as well as further enhancing the game’s diplomacy tools. The studio will also take more time to improve the onboarding experience, while the studio is looking to enhance the user interface and overall experience in various areas. You can read Amplitude’s ridiculously in-depth blog post here to learn more.

Amplitude also released some early stats for Humankind from its OpenDev release, and this includes 26,000 games played, 2.7 million turns played, and 8.5 million districts built. Check out the infographic above to see more stats.

For more on Humankind, check out GameSpot’s preview, Making History In Humankind Makes 4X Less Confusing.

Now Playing: In Humankind The Most Famous Civ Wins

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Valve is issuing an update that aims to make Dota 2 more inviting for new players, set to coincide with the release of the Netflix anime adaptation, Dragon’s Blood. The plans include a smaller pool of heroes for beginners and a dedicated character aimed to nudge you in the right direction.

In a lengthy blog post detailing the changes, Valve says that linear tutorials aren’t effective at learning the game, which can be “overwhelming” for new players. The new tools will provide a “gradual learning opportunities rather than relying on a single dump of complex information.”

A new player quest system will set simpler objectives for new players, guiding them toward some basic skills, and a set of quest rewards will give them cosmetic goodies for sticking with the objectives. A “New Player Mode” will be available with a limited pool of characters, and new players will always be queued against other solo new players instead of parties or vets. New players can also leave this mode at any time without a penalty, and a bot will take their place. The bots have said to be upgraded to be smarter and more flexible as well, to make them more effective learning tools.

The update will also introduce a new tooltip character, the wizard seen above. He’ll pop up once in a while to guide new players in the right direction, offering advice when a player may be about to do something dangerous.

A new version of the shop will be more streamlined and help guide players along the path of new craftable choices. Veterans can opt out of the simplified shop interface, but it should help rookies learn the basic steps of upgrades. New players will also find their own dedicated chat channel, and a free three-month trial of Dota Plus while they get their feet wet. Finally, smurfing will be a bannable offense, to keep the new player environment friendly.

Valve is likely expecting an influx of new players whose interest in the game is piqued by the Dota: Dragon’s Blood anime. That anime premieres today on Netflix.

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The upcoming horror sequel Spiral: From the Book of Saw has moved forward a week. The latest film in the long-running Saw series will now hit theaters on May 14.

Spiral was originally due to be released in May last year, but was pushed back a year to May 21, 2021. It will now be with us a week earlier. Distributors Lionsgate are sticking to a traditional theatrical-only plan, making Spiral one of the first major films to hit screens this summer. The new release date was announced in a teaser:

In a statement, Lionsgate’s President of Distribution David Spitz said, “With movie theaters now open in New York and Los Angeles and moviegoers returning to their favorite pastime, Spiral puts a fresh spin on a favorite franchise. We know that Saw fans, as well as those experiencing their first Saw adventure, will be on the edge of their seats with this thrilling new film. We are proud to support the exhibitors with one of our most eagerly awaited films. We are confident this film will kick off a robust summer moviegoing season.”

Spiral stars Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Samuel L. Jackson, and Riverdale’s Marisol Nichols. It’s directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, who previously helmed Saw II, III, and IV. The first Spiral trailer was released in February last year, shortly before the movie was delayed.

Saw is one of several long-running horror franchises returning to screens over the next 12 months. The Forever Purge hits theatres in July, while Candyman and Halloween Kills arrive in September and October respectively. Beyond that, Scream releases in January 2022, and there’s also a new Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel expected soon.

Independent games label Team17 has announced that it has entered into a partnership to publish developer OverBorder Studio’s Thymesia later this year on PC. Thymesia is described as a punishing action role-playing game, where players have to survive a world ravaged by a deadly plague by combining weaponized diseases with fast-paced melee combat

While the game’s synopsis has big “read the room” energy considering the current global pandemic climate, anyone intrigued by the idea will be able to step into the boots of Corvus. The survivor of the deadly outbreak, Corvus has the ability to rip diseases from enemies and use them in combat against the numerous monsters in the world of Thymesia.

Overborder Studio says that players can also use an arsenal of Souls-like moves, such as parries, dodges, and other offensive abilities to survive. Corvus can also be customized with different gameplay builds, and the game will offer multiple endings if you can overcome the creatures that have been horrifically mutated by a deadly plague that has ravaged the land.

“Thymesia is a unique title for Team17, and we’re dead excited to be working with OverBorder Studio on this dark and gloomy title,” Team17 producer Craig McCarthy said in a press release. “We’re confident that players are going to enjoy exploring the world and testing their combat skills as Corvus, challenging themselves against the monstrous foes that await.”

Team17, a veteran of the video game industry that made a name for itself with the Worms series of games, has been busy lately as a publisher of numerous other games. Having distributed games such as Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, Blasphemous, and The Escapists, it also announced this week that it will publish tactical FPS game Ready or Not, which is currently in development from Void Interactive.

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So you watched Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and now you’re wondering: “What would’ve happened if he was able to direct Justice League 2?” Who can blame you?

After the release of the four-hour epic, fans are calling for the Snyder Cut of the rest of the DC extended universe films. This is very unlikely to happen, but during his press tour, Snyder was extremely candid and revealed what the future might’ve been for the dark knight, and the man of steel. Let’s take a look at what the original Justice League trilogy might’ve been.

There have been so many Justice League members over the years that Zack Snyder’s Justice League could’ve included any number of cameos and teases. Two scenes in Sndyer’s film featured prominent League member Martian Manhunter, played by actor Harry Lennix. Snyder revealed in a new interview with Esquire, though, that last scene was meant to feature the Green Lantern known as John Stewart.

“The last scene with Martian Manhunter, originally, I had shot it in England. And the dialogue was very similar, but it was supposed to be one of the Lanterns,” Snyder said. “And then the studio had told me I wasn’t allowed to shoot anything. There would be no film made of any kind. During production, that was a thing they insisted on.”

The journey to Zack Snyder’s Justice League has been anything but traditional, though, and Snyder defied the order. “I shot stuff anyway, of course, in my yard. And one of the things I shot was the Green Lantern scene.”

“And then they asked me, when they saw the movie and saw that I put it in there, they’d take it out,” Snyder continued. “I said that I would quit if they tried to take it out. And I felt bad. The truth is I didn’t want fans not to have a movie, just based on that one stand I was going to take.”

“The Green Lantern was John Stewart,” Snyder said. The director told the ReelBlend podcast that he filmed the scene in his driveway with “an amazing actor” playing the Lantern. “I was like, I don’t want to take a person of color out of this movie, I’m not going to do it. But I felt like having Harry Lennix’s Martian Manhunter, that was okay.” Stewart debuted as Green Lantern in December 1971 as the very first Black superhero to appear in DC Comics.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League hit HBO Max on March 18–here’s how to watch. If you’re curious what’s different between the four-hour epic and the 2017 theatrical release, check out our breakdown. Once you’ve read it, you’ll know more about the differences than Snyder himself, because Chris Nolan and wife/co-producer Debbie Snyder warned him not to watch the 2017 release. You can also check out our review or find out what was up with the other new addition to the movie, the Joker.

In It Takes Two, you fight the kind of common, red toolbox that might be sitting in your garage, or your parents’ garage. It’s one of the best boss battles I’ve ever played.

In the level leading up to this, co-op protagonists Cody and May learn to chuck nails and wield a hammer head, respectively. Cody can shoot nails into wooden surfaces; May can use the hammer to swing on those nails. Cody can nail moving platforms in place; May can hop onto those platforms, or wall jump between vertical surfaces that Cody can position via strategic nail shots. Eventually, he gets three nails to throw instead of one, leading to some excitingly frantic platforming.

The boss fight that closes this level uses those abilities in concert. Cody and May stand on a plywood platform, facing off against the toolbox. It can swing at them with bolted on plywood arms, which the duo needs to dodge. To deal any damage, Cody has to pin its long, wooden limb to a wall with his three nails, allowing May to swing over and smack its tinny body. As the fight proceeds, the toolbox shoots nails into the air which hurtle down at the plywood platform, a platform which gradually shrinks as the toolbox uses a handsaw to whittle it down to a nub with strategic cuts.

This whole arc is a virtuosic showcase of what this game does so well. Like developer Hazelight’s previous game, A Way Out, It Takes Two can only be played in co-op, online or local, and success requires teamwork. This level introduces a new tool for each character to use, doles out a wide variety of tasks for you to accomplish with those tools, and then puts it all together in a wildly creative boss battle that forces you to work together to succeed. It’s astoundingly good and the rest of the game maintains a consistently high bar of quality.

It Takes Two is the most creative 3D platformer I’ve played in years, but it builds on well-trod family comedy territory, with a story that marries elements of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids! and The Parent Trap. May and Cody are a 30-something couple who just can’t seem to find the time to spend with each other. When they are together, they can’t stop fighting. As the game begins, they sit their preteen daughter Rose down at the kitchen table to tell her they’re getting a divorce. Rose is, understandably, upset. She goes to her room, where she pulls out a pair of dolls: one made of clay, which looks like Cody, and one carved from wood, which resembles May. She cries, and when the tears land on the dolls, the ill-defined kind of magic that animates movies like Freaky Friday and 17 Again springs into action, transforming the flesh and blood May and Cody into their doll doppelgangers.

Their quest to return to their bodies takes them on a journey of personal growth, a story that mostly succeeds. That story is carried by Cody and May, who have a believably real relationship despite the cartoonish premise. The dialogue is often corny, but the voice performances from the two leads is impressively casual. This is some of the most natural-sounding small talk I’ve ever heard in a game. Their rapport helps sell the conceit that this is a couple that love(d?) each other deeply, but just haven’t made time to prioritize each other. There’s warmth here, even when they’re bickering. There’s certainly a naivety to the idea that forcing a couple to spend time together will make them like each other again, but it worked for me here because the problems in May and Cody’s relationship do seem to stem primarily from a lack of time and attention. I never got the sense that they were fundamentally incompatible as a couple, just that they had forgotten why they fell in love.

The game’s biggest problem, meanwhile, is Dr. Hakim, an anthropomorphic relationship advice book guiding the pair to reconciliation. He shows up about once a level to hint at where Cody and May should head next. Hakim heavily plays into the “Latin Lover” trope in a way that is loud, stereotypical and a little offensive. He’s got a thick accent and each time he appears, he’s accompanied by the sound of a strummed guitar and clacking castanets. He’s pretty obnoxious. My wife–who I played the game with for this review–and I took to saying, “Oh, this terrible fellow again,” each time he showed up on our splitscreens.

Cody and May’s journey takes them across a wide variety of levels that wind their way through their home and the yard outside. There’s a garden level, a snowglobe world, a trek through a village of wooden dolls, and many more. At first, these levels seem like semi-realistic recreations of the residential areas in question. But when you find yourself taking a psychedelic joy ride on a koi fish through the hollow trunk of a tree where an army of squirrels is battling a horde of hornets, it becomes crystal clear that It Takes Two is using the suburban setting as a springboard, not a one-to-one inspiration. And it’s all the better for it. Like its deeply boring title, It Takes Two’s setting appears mundane at first blush. But its everyday theme hides a wealth of creativity.

Here’s an example from the garden level. Cody and May enter an area and find a large group of moles sleeping. A common household pest, but in their shrunken state, the couple are dwarfed by the creatures. As you approach the restful rodents, a meter appears at the side of the screen indicating how much noise the two of you are making. You crouch to muffle your footsteps, but to get past the creatures, you still need to jump between stones, over the noisy red mulch in between, and manage how loud your landing is. Easy enough.

We made it through this section on the first try and, when I noticed that the noise meter had disappeared, I assumed that this brief, one-off stealth section had come to a close. But then we moved into a second shady area, this one populated by a few dozen more dozing moles and substantially fewer rocks to help traverse the mulch. In this garden section, Cody has temporarily been granted the ability to turn into a plant at certain key moments, and that ability comes into play here. I morphed into moss, moving in time with May’s movements, providing a rolling carpet of greenery to muffle her footsteps as we snuck past the moles. Eventually, we made it to the other side and the coast seemed clear. But then we heard the sound of a stampeding mole in the distance, and the splitscreen perspective merged into one shared screen with the camera in front of us framing a Crash Bandicoot-style run-at-the-camera chase scene. As the chase stretched on, the camera shifted perspectives multiple times, introducing new challenges each time. We escaped down a pit and found another mole who, startled by our appearance, fell on its back, blocking our path downward. So, we ground-pounded the poor creature’s belly until it fell out the bottom and we scrambled through one last bit of sidescrolling. At the end, we found a pair of frogs, saddled up, and hopped on to the next challenge.

This is It Takes Two’s impressive loop. You are constantly doing something new and novel. Each chapter has moments like that moss moment, where the game introduces a new mechanic, briefly iterates on it, and then quickly moves on to something completely different. Most surprisingly, each new mechanic feels good. The game is built around a framework of Ratchet and Clank-style platforming action, merging running and jumping with left trigger, right trigger shooting. But everything that Hazelight has built on top of that structure can change on a dime. You might be holding the right trigger to pilot a flying fidget spinner, or you might be using the same button to cause a plant to grow, creating a bridge for your co-op partner.

Hazelight is exclusively interested in making cooperative experiences. Creative Director Josef Fares previously explored familial relationships in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which gave a solo player control of two characters, and odd couple pairings in previous co-op game, A Way Out. It Takes Two, similarly, gives each player one half of a full toolset and forces them to communicate and work together to solve problems. Part of the reason It Takes Two feels satisfying to play is that you constantly get to feel useful, building the set-up for your partner’s mechanical punchline and vice-versa. You are frequently reminded that you are reliant on your co-op partner, providing a pleasing ludonarrative harmony with the game’s story of rediscovering what made a failing relationship work.

It’s impressive stuff. It Takes Two is the best 3D platformer I’ve played since Super Mario Odyssey, and like that game, it has a flair for variety. You may ride a frog or fly a plane with wings made from Cody’s boxers or hack-and-slash through a Diablo-style castle. Despite the downright wild amount of things to do, It Takes Two manages to handle every mechanic well. This is the second release from Hazelight, and while A Way Out had plenty of fans, it seems that it may just take two to make a thing go quite this right.