Category: Games

The next Operator for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone has been announced, and he’s played by a very famous Italian rapper.

The Operator is named Morte, and he is played by the Italian rapper Fabio Rovazzi. You can buy the character from the in-game store starting on September 8. Rovazzi documented his experience becoming the character in a YouTube video that you can watch below.

In a press release, Activision said Rovazzi is a “passionate gamer” and a fan of Call of Duty specifically. The character Morte is a former Italian special ops soldier who now has a Old West look that is meant to reflect Rovazzi’s love of Italian-Western films.

“Being a character in Call of Duty has always been a secret and impossible dream of mine,” he said in a release. “And there are no words to describe the excitement of the opportunity to give my voice and my appearance to an Operator. I also love the character tribute to the Italian Western tradition. When I think that millions of players will be able to play with my character, I feel flattered and satisfied beyond imagination.”

Additionally, Rolling Stone’s Italian edition wrote a feature article about Rovazzi and his involvement in Call of Duty–you can check it out here.

Rovazzi is the biggest celebrity that Activision has recruited for a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/Warzone Operator, but he’s not the first real-life person that lent their likeness to the game. The character Ronin is based on a man named Tu Lam, who escaped from communist Vietnam in 1979, fleeing the country in a fishing boat. The Operator Lerch is based on the real-world soldier Tony Sentmanat, who served in the US Marine Corps and later as a SWAT team member.

Unfortunately, it’s true: #VentureBros has been canceled. We got the highly disappointing news a few months ago, while we were writing what would have been season 8. We thank you, our amazing fans, for 17 years of your kind (and patient) attention. And, as always, We Love You.

— Jackson Publick (@jacksonpublick) September 7, 2020

The Nintendo Switch is a great little device, with tons of awesome games. The problem? Buying all those games will quickly make your bank account cry, and deals on Nintendo products are few and far between. Thankfully, this weekend was one of those rare cases where countless Nintendo games went on sale. While a few are no longer discounted, tons of them still are, so act fast on the deals below before they too return to their full price.

Nintendo Labor Day Deals

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A new, free update for Minecraft on PS4 will add PS VR support later this month.

Mojang’s Roger Carpenter revealed the news on PlayStation.Blog and confirmed that Minecraft x PS VR will be “100% the same Minecraft game” players are used to. “Nothing removed. 100% wholesome & pure full-fat Minecraft.”

There is no set release date besides September 2020, but Mojang promises that when it has “finished the final bits of polish to the experience, the PS VR support will arrive via a patch for the main Minecraft game.” Furthermore, everyone who has Minecraft on PS4 will get the patch automatically.

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Players who wish to try Minecraft in VR on their PS4s will be able to play via Immersive or Living Room modes. Immersive mode is your traditional VR experience where you will feel as though you are in the world of Minecraft, and Living Room mode will allow you to play Minecraft on a virtual screen inside a virtual room.

Minecraft has been available on Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality, and Gear VR for some time, and now even more players will get a chance to build their dreams in virtual reality.

Mojang also notes that, even though the COVID-19 pandemic has adjusted how it develops Minecraft, the development of this project has “been relatively drama-free. Dare I say it, normal, even.”

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The reason for this was due to the Minecraft x PSVR experience being based on the Minecraft VR tech that was built for other platforms from a few years ago. SkyBox Labs took that and have been “working their magic to convert and optimize the existing tech for PS VR.”

Until Minecraft x PS VR is officially out in the wild, be sure to check out our piece from a few years ago that looks at 6 ways how Minecraft changes when played in VR.

Streets of Rage 4 has a new update out, celebrating the game having been downloaded over 1.5 million times since its launch in April on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. According to developer DotEmu, the new patch is made up of over 80 smaller updates and introduces plenty of new bug fixes and balance changes that were tested by the Streets of Rage 4 community itself.

The patch aims to make online play more fluid and stable while having less latency, the HUD section has new display options for online stats, and there are major gameplay improvements for all stages. Rare random crashes have also been fixed, while Axel and several other characters have received an overhaul.

Axel in particular has received the most attention, as the series stalwart is now able to move quicker and recover faster on certain attacks. Cherry’s buffs make her flying punch invincible before it hits, and Floyd’s special attack now requires less HP.

You can read the official patch notes, below:

Streets of Rage 4 General Gameplay Enhancements

• Specials and star move can interrupt all hit stun state including air.
• Specials can interrupt hit freeze.
• Faster jump start for SOR4 characters.

Streets of Rage 4 Characters: Fixes and enhancements

Axel

• Improved move speed.
• Added better recovery on-air special.
• Added additional invincibility frames on grand upper start-up.
• Added grand upper on the ground (OTG) property.
• Improved grand upper that now travels farther.
• Added neutral special OTG property.
• Neutral specials have now less hit freeze.
• Pipe swings have now less recovery.
• Improved air special: all hits connect when OTG + ignore weight class.
• Lowered defensive cost.
• Rescaled damage on grand upper.
• Fwp special better hitbox.
• Buff charge kick wall damage.
• Infinite stun-lock fix.
• Special pipe goes farther.

Cherry

• Cherry can now jump cancel after uppercut combo and grab uppercut.
• Added 2 frames stun on punches.
• Cherry’s flying punch from combo is now fully invincible.
• Cherry’s charged flying punch is invincible before hit.
• Full invulnerability during fall is removed.
• Special forward is faster.
• Damage Buff.
• Back throw works in corners.
• Pogo kick can hit OTG.
• Cherry damages are rescaled on normal combo.

Floyd

• Floyd’s attack x3 infinite is fixed.
• Neutral special life costs adjustment.
• Floyd can no longer reset his grab move counter by jumping.
• Special take less HP.

Blaze

• Reduced vertical speed on juggle neutral special.
• Reduced vertical speed on juggle back attack.
• Blaze’s back attack has a high bounce.
• Jump cancel on combo kick 1st hit.

Adam

• Fixed Infinite loop.
• Added neutral special OTG property.

Retro characters: Fixes and gameplay enhancements

Axel Streets of Rage 1

• Added invincibility on headbutt.

Blaze Streets of Rage 1

• Hitting behind with flip kick.

Adam Streets of Rage 1

• Combo feels more like the original.
• Added body hit property to his last kick in combo as in original SOR1.
• Infinite fix.

Axel Streets of Rage 2

• Fixed Star Move not recovering green health.

Max Streets of Rage 2

• Atomic drop recovery is now shorter and bigger aoe.

Skate Streets of Rage 3

• Damage nerf on blitz.

Axel Streets of Rage 3

• Infinite fix.
• Increased run speed (+10%).
• Fixed Star Move not recovering green health.

Shiva Streets of Rage 3

• Nerfed Blitz damage.
• Fixed hitbox on Star Move.

Boss: Fixes and enhancements

Diva

• Bug fix Diva never going in phase 2.
• Diva charge is slower.
• No armor on kicks.
• Electric area disappears faster.
• Diva has longer preparation for snake bite.
• Diva snake bite has less depth.

Commissioner Stage 2

• Balancing.
• Commissioner has longer charge punch time + lower dash grab hitbox.

Estel

• Police attacks are easier to dodge.

Barbon

• Barbon kicks can hit another player after impact.

Shiva

• Smaller hitbox on palm moves.
• Shiva double has a chance to align with the player (instead of being full random).

Commissioner Stage 7

• Fewer armor moves.

Riha & Beyo

• Beyo is a little faster.
• No more armor moves for Beyo.
• Armor finishes sooner for Riha’s moves.
• Less fire pond (lesser time and bigger cooldown).
• Riha fire aoe moves are slower.

Max

• Throw aoe damage nerf.
• Some AI fixes.
• Can’t combo the player anymore with 3 shoulder tackles.

Ms.Y

• Mr.Y is now harder to defeat
• Elite Shadow reinforcements during the fight.

Mr. Y

• MrY stage 11 harder.
• MrY stage 12 evades more.

Robot

• Mr.Y and Ms.Y final fight lasts longer (before the robot appearance)
• Some robot hitboxes are smaller.
• Legs positions have changed.
• Twin getting into the robot regains full life.
• Additional damages on the robot.
• Fixed a bug preventing Mr.Y from throwing grenades.
• Spider robot now has the same attacks in phase 1 & 2.
• Fix a bug with Ms.Y not grabbing in stage 12 last fight.

Stages and Enemies

• Nerfed Galsia weapon hitbox

Stage 9

• Apple added in the changing room.
• Added a roasted chicken.

Stage 12

• Less green life at the beginning.
• Fixed Pheasant and sparrow rising move.
• Shorter electric vial time.
• Reduced steam hazards hitbox.
• Lots of enemies rising armor moves removed/nerfed.

Karate

• Longer parry recovery time.
• Massive punch is easier to dodge

Caramel and Candy

• Headbutt nerf: hitbox + hitbox depth nerf.
• Lower hp.

Diamond / palettes

• Jump kick track less.
• Slap is slower.

Dylan

Raven / palettes

• Slower kicks.
• Slower knee while rising.
• Turn towards the target when rising.

Taser Cop

• Slower start up.
• Smaller hitbox height.
• Less HP.
• Bronze enemy is not armored anymore during his attack.
• Donovan and palettes have a slower jab punch.
• Lower nb of hits to destroy bikes : 3.

Big Ben / Gourmand

• Gourmand jump attack tracks less.
• Gourmand doesn’t do 2 hits anymore with an air attack.
• Armor removed on Big Ben fire attack.

Elite Cop

• Slower shield regeneration.
• Slower attack.

Boss Rush

• Barbon clone bug fixed.

Signal R & D

• Faster walk speed before grab.

Various

• Deactivated special burst in Battle Mode
• Enemies hurtbox while jumping on-screen is bigger.
• You can pick up an item that is in the air if it is in your character height.
• All characters can hit at point-blank.
• You cannot charge a move while doing a charged move.
• Forward specials are not triggered when pressing up or down.
• Wall bounces increments the combo counter.
• A character that is in « Body Hit » mode will collide more easily with other characters.
• Nora palettes aren’t armored anymore.
• Donovan can hold a hammer.
• Gold reinforcements on stage 10 boss.
• Stage 11 more score items on the plane.
• Stage 12 ninja floor changed a little (removed spike ball, added Big Bens).
• Faster transition on stage 1_2.
• Donovan with a hammer on stage 3_1.
• Boss Rush Mr.Y & Ms.Y robot trigger threshold as in Story Mode.
• Bikes are now breakable in Stage 6.
• Walking upward in front of Roo makes spawn 3 vials.
• Score: combo bonuses don’t have a point limit now.
• Better reinforcements spawn code preventing some reinforcements from spawning out of bounds.
• Combo counters stay alive when hitting shields or guards.
• Falling into holes breaks the combo.
• Lowered Koobo control weapons number (2 flying at the same time).
• Fixing Grenade throwers on roff throwing their grenades out of bounds.
• Damage reduced on players when comboed by enemies.
• Fixed a bug where you could infinite combo an enemy and refill his life.
• Fixing pickup bug when several items overlap.
• Weapons start flashing in red at 1/3 life (instead of 1/2).
• Sledgehammer freeze reduced a bit.
• Fixed input bug when canceling blitz by fwd special near a wall.
• Fixed some scripting issues in the 5-2 bar fight.
• Better reinforcements spawning.
• Throwing knives do 36 damage instead of 35 preventing some weird 0hp enemy situations.
• Some K-washi shield issues fixed.
• Retro Shiva boss fight reworked.
• Added 10 frames of stun after vault jump.
• Pummel moves fix preventing some infinite.

Hot on the heels of Kingdom Hearts 3 (relatively speaking, considering the wait fans endured for that sequel) is a new entry in the series that trades RPG combat for rhythm action. Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory acts as a kind of epilogue for the story so far; a musical celebration of what makes Kingdom Hearts so beloved, while also expanding on the story of Kairi.

To find out more, IGN spoke with Masanobu Suzui, co-director of Melody of Memory and founder of Indieszero, the developer behind another Square Enix musical rhythm game, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. Unsurprisingly, it’s with Theatrhythm where Melody of Memory’s story begins…

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Theatrhythm: Kingdom Hearts

The idea for Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory dates back to the release of Theatrhythm Dragon Quest in 2015. Like Theatrhythm Final Fantasy before it, TDQ is a rhythm action game set to music from across the entire Dragon Quest series. “We thought, well, Kingdom Hearts has a lot of really great music in that series as well. Why don’t we do a Theatrhythm Kingdom Hearts?” recalls Suzui.

Franchise director Tetsuya Nomura declined the pitch at the time, but Disney resurrected the idea sometime later. By that time, Nomura felt things were “lined up” for Kingdom Hearts to swing its keyblade in the direction of an action rhythm game.

“This game itself is actually very similar in concept [to Theatrhythm],” says Suzui. “The underlying concept of using music to look back across the whole series.” As a result, you can expect to play along to music drawn from the entire Kingdom Hearts timeline. But, in a change from Theatrhythm, Melody of Memory is a 3D game, which provides its own unique feel compared to its spiritual predecessors.

A full set-list

Selecting the songs for Melody of Memory has been a process of careful consideration. “You’re probably aware that Kingdom Hearts has had world concerts taking place globally, and we use the set-list for that as one particular hint for ourselves,” explains Suzui.

“We wanted to make sure that there was no particular melody that we left out,” he adds. “So when there was a song that we absolutely couldn’t include and we had to cut it down, we would always try to make sure that there was a refrain that hadn’t been included.”

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A story that teases the next chapter of Kingdom Hearts

That completist attitude appies to not just the game’s musical library; Melody of Memory’s storyline spans the entire Kingdom Hearts narrative… and beyond.

“I think it is a summary of sorts,” says Suzui. “The current story arc that came to a conclusion with the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 is all summed up here in a nice, easy to digest format. It’s a really great entrance for new fans who want to come in and pick that up and learn about [Kingdom Hearts].”

“But for the old fans who’ve really followed Kingdom Hearts up until now and know a lot about it, there are hints about what’s coming next,” he explains. “Not quite a signpost, if you will, but just a few little tidbits and there.”

While Suzui would not reveal what’s to come as part of the extension of Kairi’s story, he did say that the new scenario, written by Tetsuya Nomura, had the team “very excited, very surprised”.

Mode mixer

Unlike the core Kingdom Hearts games, Melody of Memory is not an RPG. The musical genre has meant Square Enix has found new approaches to telling stories in the Kingdom Hearts world, via a variety of modes. For those in love with the fiction, World Trip Mode will be the first port of call, as it’s effectively the story campaign. Select Music mode is similar, but allows you to revisit single tracks that you’ve previously unlocked.

Then there’s Memory Dive, in which you can “play with some of the cutscenes and movies from past series and include those in the rhythm sections,” says Suzui. The mode is even inspired by a cutscene from the RPG games themselves, in which the characters dive into memories.

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A new step for Kingdom Hearts is the inclusion of multiplayer, both competitive and co-operative. For friendly matches, the Double Play mode offers local co-op on the same screen, “where one player will play Sora and the other player Riku, and you’ll have to cooperate to get a high score in that mode.”

The Versus mode, meanwhile, has a few more complexities. The 1v1 mode, which uses tracks that have been unlocked in World Trip mode, is played online, or locally against AI. Rounds begin with each player choosing a preference of track, and the game randomly selects which one will be played. Then it’s a race to the best score, with your opponent’s score displayed on your HUD to encourage/upset you.

During rounds, you’ll be able to make use of ‘tricks’. “There are 10 of these different types of tricks,” Suzui says. “At the beginning of the track, you’ll only be able to use one trick, but towards the end you’ll be able to use two simultaneously. That makes it even more tricky and complicated about how you can build these together.”

Winning a Versus match will bag you two collectible cards, and – in a move that feels very evocative of Kingdom Hearts’ kindly values – losers are more like runner-ups, as they get one card, too.

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory releases November 13 on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. If you want to be up to date to get the most nostalgia from its musical cues, be sure to play Kingdom Hearts 3 and its DLC, ReMind, before then.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

When THQ Nordic announced it was remastering 2012’s Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, I was excited to dive back in. This is a western RPG that wasn’t an immediate success but has gained something of a cult following in the years after its developer imploded and the would-be franchise phased into obscurity. However, few cult classics hold up as well on a design level when viewed through a modern lens, and Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning doesn’t buck that trend. It may be an updated version of what was once a forward-looking adventure, but it fails to really deliver on the “Re–” so cheekily jammed into its title by bringing it up to par with its current competition.

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A lot of what our reviewer said then holds true in the 2020 remaster – but nearly every one of those items has an asterisk next to it, all leading to the same footnote: for its time. A western RPG with satisfying action combat? Amazing! …for its time. Being able to re-spec your abilities to try different playstyles whenever you like? Inspired! …for its time. Fully-voiced NPCs throughout the world that don’t all sound like one or two people doing the same voice for all of them? …Okay, I still appreciate that one in 2020 – though you can definitely tell when you run into a Matt Mercer-voiced character now. So many parts of what originally made Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning special in its time now feel mundane, or – at worst – heinously outdated today.

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Amalur’s gameplay – particularly its combat – is still its strongest aspect. It’s a satisfyingly arcadey take on RPG combat, more reminiscent of the God of War series (or perhaps even something by FromSoftware on harder difficulties) than contemporaries like Skyrim or Dragon Age. Timing and skill are almost as important as the abilities you’ve selected or what weapons armor you’ve equipped (and there’s plenty to agonize over in that regard). That being said, while there was a consistent challenge present right up to the final boss, it all felt a bit simplistic when compared to more modern games like 2018’s God of War or Sekiro (or even something like Horizon Zero Dawn), and I found my interest in mastering its limited nuances waning well before I reached the finale after some 40-odd hours.

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Graphics are far and away Amalur’s weakest link, though. Yes, the textures have been reworked for 4K screens and it’s got a boosted framerate and improved anti-aliasing, but the “remastering” here feels like little more than one would see in an “Xbox One X Enhanced” version. Environments are still fairly barren, character models are somewhat blocky and their animations are clunky, and even with the new hardware adjustments the draw distance is surprisingly short. On a technical level, while our original review specifically praised Amalur for its stability (especially relative to other open-world games of the same era) I experienced several crashes and frequent visual glitches throughout my playthrough on a PlayStation 4 Pro.

Similarly, while its menus and interface might have been acceptable eight years ago, today they feel clunky and impractical. Inventory management – something you’ll do a lot of thanks to the frequency at which you’ll collect mountains of new gear – is constantly bogged down in closing one menu only to have to open another, even to do something as simple as select a primary and secondary weapon. Dialogue menus – which are basically just a list of nouns that you can pick to get an NPC to spout lore about that topic – take up two-thirds of the screen for what could easily have been 15 to 20%, maximum, and the “small HUD” option does nothing to help this. It only shrinks the map and stat bars to a nigh-illegibly small size. It’s not a modern redesign by any means.

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That said, there’s a big world to explore with a familiar-but-unique take on classical fantasy. While most of the characters sport a fairly traditional fantasy look and the environments may show their age in terms of density, each area of the map boasts some genuinely interesting and unique location designs. From the spider-silk-covered trees of the Webwood to the massive, gnarled roots bursting out of the swamps of the Drowned Forest, there are plenty of captivating sights all across Amalur’s map – and there’s plenty to do in almost every one.

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Amalur’s main story doesn’t feature the branching paths of, say, Mass Effect 2 or The Witcher 3, but what it lacks in the flexibility of its stories, Amalur makes up for in sheer volume of things to do. Even before you get into the two DLC expansions that are included in Re-Reckoning, there’s an impressive amount of side quests, faction stories, and ancillary adventures. It took me more than 40 hours to reach the end credits – the main story chunk of which was mostly satisfying, despite a few tired cliches and a lot of eleventh-hour exposition – and I definitely wasn’t stopping to smell the roses after the first ten or so hours. If you visited every settlement, dealt with every faction, and accepted every challenge that came your way, you’d likely be looking at well over 100 hours before you cleared everything.

If you enjoy diving into the lore of a game’s world, there’s plenty to love in Kingdoms of Amalur. There are thousands of years of history to read into, developed by popular fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, and that’s something the NPCs throughout the world are all too happy to give you a lesson on. While the option to dive headfirst into such a detailed mythos is appreciated, it’s something of a double-edged sword: Yes, there’s a lot to learn about if you want, but plenty of times throughout the campaign it felt like characters were simply vomiting exposition and oral histories to a point where my eyes started to glaze over, eager to get back to stabbing things. Don’t get me wrong – it’s something that enhances the world the first time you hear or read it, but the second time around you probably won’t have that same sense of discovery.

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It’s worth noting that the development team did take steps to make Amalur more replayable – especially towards its endgame, adjusting the math behind the scenes that determines the difficulty and rarity of loot available in a given zone. It may not sound like a huge adjustment, but I honestly can’t imagine revisiting locations to finish side quests only to grind through low-level enemies and finding chests full of worthless gear, so this was a significant improvement.

 

Shadow Man Remastered is coming in 2021, and now developer Nightdive Studios has released a new trailer for the update.

The game will feature not just upscaled graphics, with higher resolutions–the controls and AI will also be improved, and the soundtrack has been remastered. Furthermore, content that was cut from the original release of the game has been restored, so Shadow Man fans might fight elements they don’t remember from the original.

In the trailer below, though, you can see the numerous ways in which the game has aged–whether the third-person shooter action is satisfying by modern standards remains to be seen.

Shadow Man Remastered is coming to PC, Xbox, PS4, and Switch. This remaster adds modern resolution support, restores cut content, responsive controls, updated AI, and improved gameplay and features a remastered soundtrack.

The original game launched on PC, PS1, N64, and DreamCast. It was moderately well-received, aside from the PlayStation port. GameSpot was not so big on it at release–the game received a 5/10 in the original 1999 review.

Nightdive Studios has also shown off the sharpened cutscenes from Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition.