Author: Trafficblast

Are you ready to party like it’s 2008? Let’s hope so, because popular Steam hit Audiosurf has received its first patch in over five years.

The main improvements are twofold, according to developer Dylan Fitterer, with improved widescreen scaling that makes the game look much better on ultra-wide monitors. The track will also corkscrew more often now, to highlight big moments in individual songs.

Audiosurf emerged in the late aughts as one of the first rhythm games to use adaptive technology to play any music that the player chooses. A sequel, Audiosurf 2, followed in 2015. Many players have lobbied for the sequel to introduce support for music services such as Spotify, but there are currently no plans for their implementation.

In our review, Aaron Thomas called Audiosurf simple, but enthralling. “Audiosurf is a very good game that gives you an all-new way to enjoy your music,” he wrote. “Granted, Audiosurf does have some technical issues and the lack of alternate play modes is disappointing, but few other rhythm/music games can provide so much entertainment for such a low price.”

Over the years, Audiosurf has inspired a raft of similar PC rhythm games, such as Spin Rhythm, which combines similar “tracks” with DJ-style scratching.

One of the defining elements of Ubisoft’s team-based tactical shooter Rainbow Six Siege is that players have only one life per round. There is no respawning until the round is over.

Before the game’s release, and continuing to this day, there are people inside Ubisoft who wanted to add respawning to help the game appeal to a wider audience. But it’s not happening, and that’s because it would negatively impact the experience, developers say.

In a new video from Ubisoft, the game’s lead designer Jean-Baptiste Hall recalled that someone very high up at Ubisoft said they were certain respawning would be included in Siege, but the developer ultimately got its way.

“I know someone at Ubisoft who is in a very high creative position who said, ‘Oh, [no respawning] is the first thing that’s going to get cut.’ I’m really happy that he was wrong,” Halle said. “[No respawning] felt like something that would never pass the gate; it would never be validated.”

Halle said that in early playtests for Siege featuring no respawning, players moved, looked, and listened in new ways that heightened the tension. “Everything changed immediately. We could see that the relation we had with our character and our surrounding was completely different,” he said, comparing it to an earlier version that had respawning.

Game director Leroy Athanassoff is also featured in the video, and he echoed what Halle said about how no respawning increases the tension.

“If I knew that I was able to respawn, I would probably just sprint around, exploring the map, maybe I get shot but I don’t care, I can come back,” he said. “[But with no respawning] I have just one life. It instantly created the tension we were searching for.”

Athanassoff went on to say that, throughout Siege’s production, people have come in to tell him that adding respawning could help grow the game’s popularity. But Athanassoff has maintained that this is a bad idea, and it’s been shot down every time.

“Yes, clearly, and I won’t deny it: games with respawning are more accessible by nature. It’s maybe more appealing and less scary … but also, the taste and the experience you have is not with the same intensity,” he said.

Siege is doing very well for itself, as it’s attracted more than 50 million people so far. The game launched in a somewhat rocky state back in 2015, and its turnaround has been one of the biggest comeback stories in all of gaming in recent years.

In other news, Ubisoft has confirmed that the operator Tachanka is getting major overhaul with an upcoming update. Additionally, Ubisoft has said Siege should be available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X at launch, featuring multiplayer cross-play with PS4 and Xbox One. On top of that, a new Lara Croft skin is coming to Siege for the character Ash.

The next Rainbow Six game is Rainbow Six: Quarantine, which is a three-player tactical co-op shooter that’s in development for PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC, in addition to current-generation consoles.

Lara Croft is coming to Rainbow Six Siege … well, sort of. Ubisoft has announced that it’s adding a Lara Croft skin for the operator Ash during the next season, Operation Void Edge.

It will be an elite skin, meaning it should cost some amount of R6 credits to purchase, though a specific price point was not divulged. The Ash Elite Set will also include a victory animation, multiple weapon skins, and a Lara Croft chibi charm.

You can check out the announcement video below. Note that the dual-wielding seen in the video may only be for Ash’s victory animation as an homage to Lara Croft’s signature look. Rainbow Six Siege does not support dual-wielding, though it is something that developer Ubisoft Montreal has experimented with.

This appears to be the first crossover skin from another publisher’s game. Given the immense popularity of Siege–it has more than 50 million registered accounts–it makes sense that other franchises might look to the game as another means of promotion.

Siege has crossed over with another franchise before, however, as the game launched a tie-in event for the Netflix series Money Heist back in 2019.

In other news, Ubisoft has confirmed that the operator Tachanka is getting major overhaul with an upcoming update. Additionally, Ubisoft has said Siege should be available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X at launch, featuring multiplayer cross-play with PS4 and Xbox One.

The next Rainbow Six game is Rainbow Six: Quarantine, which is a three-player tactical co-op shooter that’s in development for PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC, in addition to current-generation consoles.

As for the Tomb Raider franchise, 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the latest entry and it was the final entry in the new trilogy that began in 2013. In other news, a new music album featuring remakes of several songs from Peter Connelly’s soundtracks for numerous Tomb Raider games, is available to stream now across several major music services.

Doom (2016) composer Mick Gordon has signed a vinyl copy of the game’s soundtrack for an upcoming auction being held by Bethesda Australia to support bush fire relief. Gordon was asked to provide his signature, but he ended up giving a little more.

In a tweet, Bethesda ANZ showed off the album that will go up for auction, showing that the Doom Slayer is now rocking out with a silver guitar on the cover.

Gordon also sketched a pentagram beneath his name, and faces have been drawn onto several of the demons.

We’re awaiting further details on when the auction will be held, and how you can bid on this special signed copy of the album. On February 15, Bethesda and 2K teamed up to stream each other’s games–with Bethesda employees streaming Borderlands 3 and 2K employees streaming Skyrim–to raise money for Australian Red Cross.

The bushfires in Australia ripped through more than 12 million hectares of land, destroying thousands of homes and killing animals across the country. Estimates say 33 people died as a result of the fires. As of February 13, all bush and grass fires in New South Wales are contained. For more on the Australian bushfire crisis, check out GameSpot sister site CNET’s extended breakdown of everything you need to know.

The sequel to Doom, Doom Eternal, releases on March 20, 2020. It’s shaping up to be a great sequel.

A co-op Aliens game in pre-production was cancelled after Disney acquired 20th Century Fox.

3D Realms vice president Frederik Schreiber (via VG247) posted about the game on Twitter in response to a tweet from Cliff Bleszinski where he also revealed his former studio Boss Key Productions was potentially going to make an Aliens game.

Yup. Game was called Aliens: Hadleys Hope. We went quite far into pre-production before the Disney/Fox acquisition, and then we had to cancel it, and move on with something else.

Maybe some day! I bet yours was very different than ours? pic.twitter.com/brpq4FgwWT

— Frederik Schreiber (@Freschism) February 11, 2020

Schreiber reveals the game was to be titled Aliens: Hadley’s Hope and would take place on a planet with numerous Alien Queens which could only be defeated after a few successful rounds of PvE against her protectors.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/01/30/alien-blackout-review”]

It boasted the use of teamwork and tactics where colonists and marines would fight together to defeat the Aliens and complete other objectives, like egg hunts, to unlock extra lore and loot.

Last year marked the 40th anniversary for the Alien franchise, which the studio marked by partnering with amateur filmmakers for six original short films. 2019 also brought us the mobile game Alien: Blackout and the Alien: Isolation digital series, which expanded on the 2014 game.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]Hope Corrigan is an Australian freelance writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

The Last of Us and Uncharted developer Naughty Dog is helping raise money for the ongoing bushfire relief effort in Australia. The studio has announced a special livestream event featuring game director Neil Druckmann and Ellie actor Ashley Johnson.

The pair will play The Last of Us: Left Behind as part of Sony’s #Gaming4Life2020 charity campaign. The livestream begins at 10:30 AM PT on Wednesday, February 19. You can watch the livestream through Naughty Dog’s Twitch account.

It’s not just Naughty Dog that’s helping raise money for Australia. The Sony Foundation Australia charity campaign will also see Insomniac Games (Spider-Man) conduct a livestream event on February 20 featuring company founder Ted Price. Additionally, PlayStation games boss Shuhei Yoshida will appear on a stream on February 21. LittleBigPlanet and Dreams developer Media Molecule held its own livestream on February 14.

More details on the Gaming4Life2020 charity stream can be found on Sony’s website.

The bushfires in Australia ripped through more than 12 million hectares of land, destroying thousands of homes and killing animals across the country. Estimates say 33 people died as a result of the fires. As of February 13, all bush and grass fires in New South Wales are contained.

Millions of dollars have been donated from individuals and organizations around the world. The Fire Fight benefit concert in Sydney was held on Sunday, featuring acts like Queen and Alice Cooper, and it was a massive success with more than $9.5 million raised.

For more on the Australian bushfire crisis, check out GameSpot sister site CNET’s extended breakdown of everything you need to know.

Ibb & Obb, a co-op puzzle platformer that was first released for PC and PS3 in 2013, is the sort of game that looks and feels like a perfect fit for Switch. Now, years after its initial, well-received release, it’s coming to Nintendo’s portable machine. It will release on March 5.

The two-player game will be playable with detached Joy-Cons, and while you can play the game alone, it’s designed to be played with someone else, as shown in the trailer below. The two characters need to stick together, and many of the puzzles involve dealing with changes in gravity.

The game is available for pre-purchase now at a 15% discount, meaning that you can get it for $12.69. It will sell for $15 after launch.

The game received a 7/10 in our original review, and reviewer Tom Mc Shea wrote that “Beneath the whimsical exterior lies a devious and clever puzzle game that makes you curse gravity for being so strict.”

The Switch has a huge range of games heading its way in 2020, of course–here are some of the highlights.