Newegg’s Tech is in the Air sale kicked off today, offering steep discounts on a wide range of gaming PCs, monitors, and PC peripherals. While tech is certainly the focus, there are also some solid game deals sprinkled throughout, including an excellent discount on Resident Evil 2’s Deluxe edition for PC. Resident Evil 2 Deluxe edition is on sale for $17.49, which is the lowest price we can recall for this version of the impressive 2019 remake.
The Deluxe edition comes with multiple costumes for Leon and Claire, a bonus weapon, and the soundtrack from the 1998 original. You have to enter promo codeEMCESEU25 to drop the price to $17.49 at checkout. If you snag this deal, you’ll receive a code that can be redeemed on Steam. The discount is only available through tomorrow, February 5.
The remake earned a 9/10 in GameSpot’s Resident Evil 2 review. “Resident Evil 2 is not only a stellar remake of the original, but it’s also simply a strong horror game that delivers anxiety-inducing and grotesque situations, topping some of the series’ finest entries,” editor Alessandro Fillari wrote. “But above all, the remake is an impressive game for the fact that it goes all-in on the pure survival horror experience, confidently embracing its horrifying tone and rarely letting up until the story’s conclusion. Though Resident Evil 2 has its roots firmly in the past, it reworks the familiar horrors into something that feels brand new and all its own.”
Resident Evil Village, the next entry in Capcom’s survival horror series, releases on May 7 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. There are multiple editions and bonuses up for grabs, so make sure to check out our Resident Evil Village preorder guide.
Famed movie director David Fincher has turned his sights to TV for his latest project: a beer ad for the Super Bowl. Anheuser-Busch recruited the Fight Club director to shoot the company’s first-ever Super Bowl ad that will play this weekend during the big game. The music in the film comes from Atticus Ross, who won an Oscar for the music he created for Fincher’s Facebook movie, The Social Network.
Ahead of that, the beer company has released the trailer online. Called “Let’s Grab a Beer,” the 90-second spot aims to demonstrate how getting a beer with friends and loved ones not just about the beer; it’s about spending time together.
“When we say, ‘Let’s grab a beer,’ it’s never just about the beer. It’s always about life’s most meaningful moments–big and small–that happen when we come together over a beer,” reads a line from the ad’s description. It’s all a little bit odd, given the current health crisis that is keeping people physically distant these days.
Super Bowl 55 ads are priced at $5.5 million for 30 seconds, so Anheuser-Busch is paying about $16.5 million for this spot, though whether or not the full thing airs during the game is unknown.
Anaheuser-Busch previously announced that there would be no traditional dedicated Budweiser Super Bowl ad this year–the first time in decades–but this new spot does feature that beer. It’s meant to be an all-encompassing advertisement from Anaheuser-Busch’s numerous brands, including Budweiser, Bud Light, Bud Light Seltzer, Michelob Ultra, Stella Artois, Goose Island, Busch Light, and Cutwater Spirits.
This was not Fincher’s first beer commercial, as he previously directed his Fight Club star Brad Pitt in an ad for Heineken called “Beer Run.” Fincher’s most recent movie was the acclaimed black-and-white Netflix movie Mank.
Rockstar Games has quietly updated Grand Theft Auto V with an unannounced patch for GTA Online. The background update fixes a fairly major glitch that gave a single Molotov the power to destroy an entire submarine.
GTA Online’s expensive Kosatka submarine–added in the recent Cayo Perico Heist update–can be used as a base to set up heists or as a lumbering nuclear-powered vehicle. Considering it’s virtually immune to small-arms fire, it’s easy to imagine the owner’s anguish when a lone Molotov is more than enough to blow it out of the water. Thankfully, the new patch fixes the problem.
Aside from this, the dupe merge glitch, which allowed players to merge and duplicate vehicles, has also been patched out. The update also makes some minor adjustments and fixes to freemode event spawns.
The NFL is looking to expand its presence in mobile gaming–the most popular gaming platform in the US–and has announced a new game jam of sorts where developers can create football video games with NFL branding.
The NFL signed a deal with the esports company Skillz to host what it is calling a “global game developer challenge.” Developers and studios can create an NFL-themed game using the Skillz esports platform, and successful games will get the joint marketing support of the NFL and Skillz.
The NFL is partnering with Skillz as part of its effort to expand its presence on mobile and reach the “next generation” of football fans.
“Mobile gaming continues to be an important platform to reach and engage new and existing fans,” NFL gaming boss Rachel Hoagland said. “Our agreement with Skillz provides access to a trusted platform and a highly engaged player base, making Skillz an ideal partner long term.”
The game jam will take place in Q2 of 2021. Developers can create any type of game they want, except it can’t be an 11 v 11 simulation-style game because EA Sports holds the exclusive rights to those types of games.
IO Interactive has revealed the February roadmap for Hitman 3, which kicks off with the Baskerville Barney Escalation Contract in the Dartmoor level. The goal here is to eliminate the entire Carlisle family and make each murder look like an accident.
Featured Contracts on the Dubai level will arrive on February 11, courtesy of video and podcast show Minnmax. IO Interactive says that you can expect to use plenty of bananas in these contracts. The Sinbad Stringent Escalation Contract will be added on February 18, and will also take place in Dubai.
Unlike other Escalation Contracts, these missions will feature Agent 47 practicing his knife-throwing skills against boxes that have been arranged throughout the level, with each slain cube containing some sort of a surprise.
The second round of Featured Contracts will bring players back to Dartmoor, with each mission having been created by the crew at Kinda Funny. Owners of Hitman 3’s deluxe edition will have two exclusive Escalation missions on February 23, which also reward those players with unique items. The Gauchito Antiquity on the Mendoza map will add the Guru suit, an emetic poison syringe pen, and an emetic grenade to Agent 47’s arsenal once those missions have been completed.
The Proloff Parable takes place on Hitman 3’s Carpathian Mountains level, and transforms Agent 47 into a ninja who has to work his way through that level’s very first Escalation mission. The risk is worth the reward though, as players can earn a White Shadow ninja outfit, a custom Sieger 300 silenced sniper rifle, and a white katana.
Hitman 3 February content
Lastly, Hitman 3’s first Elusive Target mission will arrive on February 26 and will run until March 8. The Deceivers takes place in the first Hitman’s Sapienza level, and you’ll be tasked with eliminating two targets. This will be the type of content that players can expect in Hitman 3, as outside of a possible remix of existing stages, IO Interactive has no plans to add new levels to the world of assassination sandbox.
Hitman 3 launched earlier this month, and its strong sales saw IO Interactive to recoup all development costs in just a few days. In our Hitman 3 review, critic Phil Hornshaw praised the game’s perfect execution of stealth, storytelling, and its ability to subvert player expectations. Check out our Hitman 3 guides and tips to help you plan the perfect assassination opportunities in preparation for February’s content drop.
The head of Borderlands developer Gearbox Software has teased that the studio is working on ambitious new IP projects that he believes are capable of shaking up the gaming industry and make an impact not dissimilar to Borderlands.
Speaking to VentureBeat about Gearbox’s recent sale to Embracer Group for $1.3 billion, Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford teased that the studio has “so many new IP concepts” that the company is incubating right now that are primed to “explode.”
Selling Gearbox to Embracer will help allow Gearbox to take bigger risks and make bigger bets that might not have been possible as an independent studio.
“We could wait for the right publishing partner who’s willing to make a bet, rather than only take a risk on something they know Gearbox has already done before,” he said. “Those publishers that have taken risks on us for what we want to see next have always been rewarded. But for some reason they can’t be comfortable with that kind of risk. Now we get to take that risk.”
Pitchford didn’t reveal any of the specifics of the new IP that Gearbox has in the works, but he said the studio has been successful in “disrupting” gaming in the past with its new ideas. With Borderlands, Pitchford said Gearbox takes credit for creating an action game with RPG mechanics and metagame systems, both of which are now ubiquitous.
Pitchford added that Gearbox is in a unique position because it doesn’t have to “burn the boats” to pursue these new IP projects. Making a comparison to Epic Games, Pitchford said Epic “burned the boats” when it sold Gears of War to Microsoft to give them the money to make something brand-new that turned out to be Fortnite.
“We don’t have to do that. We can maximally deliver on the IP we have and pursue new IP as a consequence of this relationship. That’s incredibly exciting for me. I feel like we’re just getting started,” he said.
Also in the interview, Pitchford said he’s no longer a spring chicken, so he made this deal with Embracer in part to realize some of his ambitions while he still has time.
“I don’t know how many years I have left, but I want to get as much done as I can while I’m still useful to this industry, while I’m still useful to people who want video games. I’ll do it as long as the world wants me to. I intend to die in office. I hope that’s a long time from now,” he said.
Although Sonic the Hedgehog technically received the Lego treatment alongside the toys-to-life game Lego Dimensions, a full kit starring Sega’s iconic mascot has never been released. That’s changing soon with Sonic Mania: Green Hill Zone, a fan-created design that was submitted to the Lego Ideas platform. Lego is now moving forward with production on Sonic Mania: Green Hill Zone, though it’s unclear when the kit will launch.
The original concept design was submitted to Lego Ideas by Viv Grannell, a UK-based Sonic fan. The design exceeded the 10,000 fan votes required to get Lego to consider the project for production. “I’ve been invested in the world of Sonic for almost my entire life, and it’s such a perfect fit for the LEGO system that I spent about a year rallying support for it to happen,” Grannell said in a statement.
Sonic Mania: Green Hill Zone
While it’s too early to know the exact specifics of the set, the concept design was based on the beloved Green Hill Zone, the first level of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game that was remixed in Sonic Mania. Grannell’s design calls for roughly 700 pieces and includes a Sonic minifigure and brick-built versions of Dr. Eggman, Motobug, Heavy Gunner, Heavy Magician, and three Flickies. There’s also a towering Egg Robot mech and a buildable playset featuring a loop, palm tree, and more.
The Sonic franchise is celebrating its 30th anniversary this June, so it seems likely more Sonic news could be on the way in the coming months. A new Netflix series dubbed Sonic Prime was recently announced and will stream on Netflix next year.
Tale of Immortal has been out for barely a week as an Early Access title, and already the open-world sandbox based on Chinese mythology and cultivation has become one of the most popular games on Steam. Concurrent players peaked at 172,000 users this week, resulting in Tale of Immortal being more popular than Grand Theft Auto V or Rust.
With its tile-based 2D world aesthetic and a single language option of Simplified Chinese, Tale of Immortal might seem like an incredibly unlikely game to have debuted as the fifth most popular game on Steam. User reviews are overwhelmingly positive though, as the combination of Chinese mythology, vibrant monster-slaying action, and a low price has resulted in a smash-hit debut.
This can also be chalked up to Steam’s current presence in China, which now has over 30 million players on the platform who regularly flock towards similar games such as Amazing Cultivation Simulator and other Chinese-produced indie games that celebrate the culture of the country. Steam still has plans for a more official launch in China this year, as the platform currently exists as more of a grey market for users on that side of the world.
The launch of an official Chinese platform will allow Steam to sell games that fall in line with Chinese government regulations, though Chinese gamers aren’t happy about the change as the international Steam client has a much broader selection than what would be possible on an officially sanctioned digital distribution platform.
China is notorious for having strict rules regarding video games, as titles that are intended for sale must first apply for a license before they can be published. In 2020, only 97 games even managed to obtain a license in China.
The new trailer for the upcoming Netflix sci-fi series Tribes of Europa has been released. The German-language show comes from the producers of the highly acclaimed series Dark, and it is released later his month.
Tribes of Europa is set in a post-apocalyptic Europe where warring tribes have emerged after a mysterious global disaster. The show focuses on a trio of siblings from a peaceful tribe who find themselves hunted by some very scary rivals when they encounter a man in possession of a strange and powerful cube. It looks like an expensive, sprawling mix of fantasy and Mad Max-style dystopian action–check the trailer out below.
The six-episode series is directed by Philip Koch and Florian Baxmeyer, and it hits Netflix on February 19. The cast includes Henriette Confurius, Oliver Masucci, David Ali Rashed, and Emilio Sakraya.
Another lavish fantasy action series about to hit Netflix is Shadow and Bone, which arrives on April 23. It’s an adaptation of Leigh Bardugo’s novels and is set in the war-torn land of Ravka, a world inspired by 18th century Russia. There’s also Season 2 of the streaming giant’s hit series The Witcher due later this year, while a spin-off titled The Witcher: Blood Origin is in the works.
After decades of vampires hogging all the spotlight in the World of Darkness, I’ve been drooling over the prospect of a good Werewolf: The Apocalypse game to showcase my favorite side of that fantastic universe… but it might be a couple decades more at this rate, because Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is an unambitious swing at video game-ifying the beloved tabletop roleplaying game of fangs and fury that originally got me into that hobby. If it can’t make transforming into a massive beast and ripping your enemies limb from limb fun, what are we even doing here?
In Earthblood, you play as Cahal, a Garou of the Fianna tribe born under the moon sign Arhoun who must battle Banes and Fomori to save Gaia. If you found that sentence confusing, this story is going to be a doozy because it barely ever stops for even a moment to explain any of the concepts of its rich but sometimes perplexing setting. And to anyone without an understanding of werewolves and their culture, a lot is going to be lost from its storytelling. This stands in stark contrast to the classic Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, which is set in the same universe. That game spends the first few hours explaining to you what vampires are, what they can and can’t do, and how their society works. Earthblood, meanwhile, seems to be written for existing Apocalypse fans only. If you’re exploring this part of the World of Darkness for the first time get ready to be bewildered – and that probably describes most players.
Anyway, Cahal is a tough guy in a leather jacket with a bunch of stock character traits who, through about half the story’s 20-ish hours, doesn’t seem to be able to express anything that would register above a two or a three on the emotional Richter scale. This includes when multiple people close to him are killed. In a game with the tagline, “When will you Rage?” it’s kind of a problem that your lead character has a hard time expressing believable anger. The voice acting improves a little in the second half, but overall it’s very flat. And the dialogue writing isn’t particularly good, either, which ends up making most of the characters seem almost creepily robotic.
Garou Kidding Me?
Cahal and his werewolf buddies are basically eco-terrorists, fighting against an oil company called – and I am really not making this up – Endron. If this were South Park or Robot Chicken, that kind of on-the-nose nod to a real company might have worked. But tonally, there is no levity to be found at any point in Earthblood: these are serious business werewolves. Each level involves infiltrating these greedy polluters’ facilities, sneaking past security, beating up guards, and completing simple objectives like planting a bomb or putting a bug on a computer terminal.
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Stealth%20action%20is%20the%20one%20thing%20that%20kind%20of%20works%20about%20Earthblood.”]This central stealth action routine is the one thing that kind of works about Earthblood (which is nice, except that werewolves in Apocalypse aren’t generally known for their stealthiness). Going swift and sneaky in wolf form lets you sabotage equipment, shut down turrets, and thin the herd with stealth kills. And to its credit, the levels are well-constructed enough to make whittling away the defenses as much as I could before the alarms went off a satisfying puzzle that tested my observation skills and quick execution. But on the other hand, when it’s fully possible to just kick the door down, roar, and splatter all of your enemies into jelly on normal difficulty, it can feel like a waste of time because you don’t get any extra rewards for doing things the quiet and patient way.
A lot of Earthblood’s weaker points could have been forgiven, at least to some degree, if Cyanide had managed to make it fun to go on a rampage as a snarling 400-pound hellbeast. But forgiveness must be earned, and combat – the part of Earthblood that seemed to get the alpha’s share of the attention – is really mediocre.
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=The%20fact%20that%20you%20never%20feel%20scary%20hurts%20the%20roleplaying%20experience%20a%20lot.”]It’s floaty and arcadey in the worst way. You don’t feel much of a sense of momentum, which hurts the illusion that you’re playing as a massive, bloodthirsty beast. The animations aren’t that great either, and that’s particularly noticeable when most enemies won’t even flinch as they’re being slashed by a clawed arm as big as they are. They’re too dumb to even flee in terror when you’ve killed all of their friends! It’s a far cry from the World of Darkness tabletop game, in which most average mortals go temporarily insane just from looking at a werewolf in the Crinos form. The fact that you never feel scary hurts the roleplaying experience a lot.
There’s some variety to the slaughter in that you can toggle on and off a special heavy stance, but that just makes you into a plodding, cumbersome Frankenstein’s monster. Why the designers would choose to include this instead of one of the other iconic Garou forms from the lore doesn’t make much sense to me. Especially when the bear-like direwolf shape from the tabletop game is used by several werewolf NPCs, but you never get access to it yourself.
Building up a special meter in Crinos form can let you activate Frenzy, but it’s basically just a power up that, for a limited time, lets you kill just about anything by button mashing. That’s disappointing because in the lore, Frenzy is a dangerous and even transgressive act in Garou culture, but that’s only briefly explored, and not in a way that gives you any reason to avoid using it. The World of Darkness breaks down entirely when its superficial power fantasies aren’t tempered by real, usually horrifying consequences. And that fact is written all over Earthblood.
Perplexing Prey
The enemy design is extremely annoying as well. Security guards with shotguns will just stand there blasting you with cones of buckshot even when you’re right up in their faces going to town. You’d think it would be hard to aim when you’re being actively mauled by a monster twice your size, but not for these guys. Most human foes will also slide around like they’re on ice skates when you come barreling into them, rather than being knocked down.
Some of the boss fights against monsters and giant corporate mechs are okay, in that they’re refreshing and even sometimes challenging compared to fighting hordes of henchmen. Having to fight two enemy werewolves at once was probably the most fun I had with the combat in Earthblood. But in general, I ended up playing a lot of the levels in almost pure stealth mode just because fighting isn’t enjoyable, and the lackluster upgrades from progression never made it that much better.
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=I%20ended%20up%20playing%20a%20lot%20of%20the%20levels%20in%20almost%20pure%20stealth%20mode%20just%20because%20fighting%20isn’t%20enjoyable.”]Story missions and boss fights give you spirit points, which you can also find more of by exploring each area using Earthblood’s version of the obligatory Batman Detective Vision. The perks and abilities they unlock are mostly so underwhelming, though, that I would sometimes let them stack up for hours because there was nothing I was all that excited about buying, and when I finally did it just confirmed I hadn’t missed anything. They mostly make you better at the things you can already do or let you throw in an extra special move to your attack combos, but that doesn’t really change how you fight. Almost none of them open up new ways to play, in or out of combat.
I don’t get a sense that I’d have a significantly different experience if I were to play the campaign again and make different choices because you don’t get to pick Cahal’s Tribe or Auspice (the moon sign a werewolf was born under, which serves almost like their character class in the tabletop game), so there isn’t much by way of customization. You don’t even really get to decide how you want to roleplay him. Aside from one story choice at the very end which is played out with all the emotional weight of a wet sock, his personality and values are set in stone. I am again compelled to contrast this with Bloodlines, in which all the different ways of making your vampire your vampire were among the main strengths.
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=You%20don’t%20get%20to%20pick%20Cahal’s%20Tribe%20or%20moon%20sign%2C%20so%20there%20isn’t%20much%20by%20way%20of%20customization.”]I could go on and on about how Earthblood also fails to successfully capture the major themes of Apocalypse, or any of the things that make werewolves in that universe so uniquely cool. There’s a lot. And it’s especially frustrating because there are some artifacts of a better game here. For example, during development, Cyanide mentioned that keeping your inner beast caged for too long by using stealth and diplomacy could lead to your rage overflowing, causing an involuntary transformation and starting a fight at a perhaps inconvenient time. That would have been awesome, and it’s the sort of thing that happens in the tabletop game all the time! Losing control and going on a rampage is as much a part of being a werewolf as drinking blood is part of being a vampire. But it doesn’t seem to have made it into the final game, because there are never any lasting consequences for anything you do.
Building up your rage meter just gives you more mana points to use when you do go full beast mode. Earthblood barely deals with the consequences of being a monster outside of some incredibly short, scripted story moments that had nothing to do with any choices I made. A level that takes place inside a prison and lets you negotiate with a powerful inmate to get information almost managed to be interesting… until I realized I could still just berserk out and easily kill all the guards to skip those missions entirely. There was no incentive to ever use anything but violence to achieve my goals – not even a pat on the head.
In the background, the music is generally just as boring as almost everything else. Generic, distorted guitar riffs make up the bulk of it, which at least fits with the overall mood and tone of Werewolf: The Apocalypse and its often over-the-top action-horror sensibilities. None of the more contemplative or emotional moments are scored appropriately, though. This soundtrack has one trick, and it’s only really good at drip feeding you a bit of extra adrenaline. The one exception is Kai Tangata, a pulse-pounding track full of intimidating chants and a clean, emotion-rich vocal hook written in the Maori language by Alien Weaponry, an excellent Maori metal band from New Zealand. It seems to only be used on the menu screen and over the credits, though, so it’s a bit underused.
