Category: Games

As part of the Devolver Direct event, the publisher announced that its twisted take on battle royale, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, now finally has a release date–and it’s very soon.

Fall Guys is releasing on August 4, and a new trailer has also been released. Check it out below. In addition to providing another look at the colorful, whimsical game, the video confirms that pre-orders on Steam come with a special character–Gordon Freeman of Half-Life fame.

Fall Guys will be released on August 4 for PS4 and PC, but there is no word yet on if the game will also come to Nintendo Switch or Xbox One.

The game is developed by UK studio Mediatonic, which previously developed the Gears of War Funko Pop game, Gears Pop.

GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.

Breaking Bad actor Giancarlo Esposito and Anthony Gonzalez, who voiced Coco in the Pixar movie of the same name, are lending their talents to Ubisoft’s Far Cry 6. After confirming the game during its Ubisoft Forward event, the company has now shared a behind-the-scenes video featuring Esposito and Gonzalez speaking about their characters and their experiences working on the project.

Esposito plays Anton Castillo, the main villain of Far Cry 6, and Esposito calls him a very smart and manipulative person. Esposito also says you may not want to take what Anton says at face value, and he’s known to lie as part of his excellent manipulation skills.

Gonzalez plays Anton’s son, Diego Castillo, and he talks about the process of getting into character and delivering a meaningful and impactful performance. Both Esposito and Gonzalez also take some time to speak about the challenging nature of working in motion-capture suits and playing make-believe as they are forced to imagine their surroundings.

“I hope the players will take away that Anton is a human being; that he really has a wide spectrum of emotions that we all feel as human beings,” Esposito said of Anton. “And that he’s also conflicted.”

You don’t play as Anton or Diego, however. Instead, you play as a character named Dani Rojas, and you can choose to be a man or a woman. Your character lives in the fictional city of Yaran and is part of the revolution seeking to overthrow Anton.

Far Cry 6 launches in February 2021 for Xbox Series X and PS5, in addition to PS4, Xbox One, and PC. For lots more, check out GameSpot’s extended coverage of Far Cry 6 in the links below.

Despite releasing more than two years ago, Ubisoft’s The Crew 2 is still revving up new content. Following the release of the major Summer in Hollywood expansion, Ubisoft announced even more plans to support the racing game as part of the Ubisoft Forward event on Sunday.

Next up in the Summer in Hollywood schedule is the Beach DLC, which drops on July 15, and adds a number of summer-y vehicles like the Volkswagen Beetle and Bus. After that, Neon Battle is arriving on July 22, and it introduces the Tron-like Kawasaki Ninja H2 light rider edition motorcycle.

There will also be special “mood” events coming to The Crew 2, including The Super ’70s (August 19) featuring the Ford Mustang Boss 429.

Another event, Dust Bowl, will take place in July, while August will welcome events such as So French 2, Human Nosball, and Flashy ’80s featuring a special version of the car from Back to the Future, the DMC 12 Rad Edition.

The hype video also reveals that even more content is coming to The Crew 2 in September, October, November, and December, and beyond.

And as a thank you to fans for their support and patience over the years, Ubisoft is dropping the price of the 1967 Volkswagen Beetle in the store to just one credit.

Despite the ongoing abuse allegations at Ubisoft, the publisher did not address them during today’s pre-recorded show.

As for what Ubisoft did announce during Ubisoft Forward, check out GameSpot’s roundup of news.

Overall it was kind of a meh week but today came in strong with a GREAT ending, for reasons that will become apparent to you all at some point in the future. Can’t say more.
Okay, okay. I sold a movie. A big one. Writing and producing. Hope to be able to talk about it soon!

— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) July 11, 2020

The Assassin’s Creed series has always been filled with side quests to complete alongside the main storyline, and these have grown especially prominent in the recent role-playing games like Origins and Odyssey. For Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, however, Ubisoft has completely changed its approach to side quests. In fact, they aren’t really in the game at all.

Speaking to GameSpot just before Ubisoft Forward, narrative director Darby McDevitt explained that “world events” are included in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but the traditional side quest is “almost nonexistent.” There are longer story arcs to complete as part of the main questline, but extra activities you complete will happen more spontaneously and won’t necessarily be quests you have to seek out.

This approach was chosen to fit the narrative, as the protagonist Eivor arrives in England as an invader rather than a native. Having quest-givers left and right would not make sense, as you’re still actively trying to make alliances.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will release on November 17 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. It will also launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X, but those consoles’ release dates have yet to be confirmed.

Valhalla was among the games featured during Ubisoft Forward. Just prior to the event, Ubisoft announced it would not address abuse allegations during the show.

Giancarlo Esposito, perhaps best known for his role as the villainous Gus Fring on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, is playing the villain in Far Cry 6. The first trailer introduces his character, Anton Castillo, and gives us a look at how his relationship with his son will play into the game’s plot.

In an interview with Variety, below, Esposito (sporting an excellent, scraggly beard) dives into the character of Anton Castillo, and what makes him tick. He talks about the character’s past, and how he’s trying to prove that he’s a better leader than his father, a previous president of the game’s fictional setting of Yara, was. “He may not be the dictator his father was,” Esposito says.

He reveals that the character is a former child soldier, who was “born with a silver spoon in his mouth” but was unable to ascend as a ruler until his father was unseated by revolutionaries. He talks about his beliefs, and there’s some clear parallels between Castillo and the former leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro. “When you get in bed with America, things change,” Esposito says. “But does Anton want that for his own country? I don’t think so.”

The actor also talks about working in mocap, as this is his first all-digital performance, saying that he would be happy to do it again. He also opens up about what it’s like to play a character in a video game, and how the presence of a player alters the thought process behind his performance.

Esposito also spoke with Entertainment Tonight about the role, and gets more into the details of the game’s plot, and also says that he played the game, but was “so bad” at it. He says that he wants to play the game and “learn how to be a gamer” with a title that he features in.

This interview is a bit more conversational, and doesn’t have any grand reveals in it, but it’s worth a watch just to see how different the jovial Esposito is from the characters he’s best known for playing.

The Hollywood Reporter also has a written interview with Esposito, where he talks about Far Cry 6 is relation to his previous turn as a villain in a game, Payday 2 (which was an FMV performance rather than motion capture). “To use just your physicality and face and emotions, it reminded me a bit of doing a stage play,” the actor says. “I come from theater, so it was a way for me to explore this new world and get back to my roots, as well.”

He also says that he did not consult with Better Call Saul co-star Michael Mando, who played Vaas in Far Cry 3, before taking on the role, but discussed it briefly at the Better Call Saul Season 5 premiere. “I mentioned to him that I was doing this game and said I was going to ask Ubisoft to show me what you did,” he recalls. “He said he enjoyed his time working on Far Cry 3 and was excited I was going to be a star in Far Cry 6. He fell short of giving me any pointers.”

He also talks more about wanting to play more games now that he stars in one. “I find it fascinating that it all comes from coding and how it all blends to bring a game to life. In our case, we’re really making a movie that will have more resemblance to a real film than ever before.”

But his most interesting response comes from a question about which other real-world leaders influence his performance. He sites Mugabe and Castro as particular influences on the character, but also says he’s had real-life encounters that he is drawing from. “Because I’ve been to Burkina Faso, I’ve met a couple of dictators,” he explains. “What I get from them is an overwhelming sense that they’ve seized power and control but what’s lacking to me is their ability to translate that into caring and compassion for their people. There are some seeds there that I felt like I would like to cultivate in terms of seeing a different type of dictator.”

“I really like the story of King Solomon, someone who ruled with an iron hand but shared his wealth with the people and empowered them,” he continues. “We have an opportunity to tell a story that is a little larger than the particular dictator story that we’re privy to in our news and our history.”

On top of Far Cry 6 and the upcoming final season of Better Call Saul, Esposito will also appear in Season 2 of The Mandalorian as Moff Gideon, who appeared in the previous season finale.

Here’s everything we know about Far Cry 6 so far.

While E3 2020 did not happen this year, there has been plenty of video game news this summer. The news train chugged along this week with Ubisoft Forward, and next up is the next part of Geoff Keighley’s Summer Games Fest with an announcement about Death Stranding.

Hideo Kojima and artist Yoji Shinkawa from Kojima Productions will speak to Keighley on July 13 for a chat about the PC edition, which releases on July 14. Kojima and Shinkawa will have a “special conversation” with Kojima about the game, according to a promo, but no further details were divulged.

Death Stranding was originally due to launch on June 2 on Steam, the Epic Game Store, and retail, but the release was delayed due to the shift to a work-from-home setup because of COVID-19.

Death Stranding was announced for PC earlier this year, after launching exclusively on PS4 in 2019. The port will feature higher frame rates afforded by more powerful PC hardware, ultra-wide monitor support, and a photo mode (which was recently added to the PS4 version). The port also features some crossover content with Half-Life, with Sam Bridges seen wearing a Headcrab in the announcement trailer.

Death Stranding was one of our favorite games of 2019. In our 9/10 Death Stranding review, critic Kallie Plagge praised the game’s themes and its relevance, saying, “It’s positive without ignoring pain; in fact, it argues in both its story and its gameplay that adversity itself is what makes things worth doing and life worth living. It’s a game that requires patience, compassion, and love, and it’s also one we really need right now.”

Leyou, the parent company that owns a majority stake in Warframe developer Digital Extremes and Gears Tactics developer Splash Damage, is looking increasingly likely to be bought out by Tencent. On July 10, Leyou announced a trading halt, “pending the release of an announcement pursuant to the Hong Kong Code on Takeovers and Mergers which constitutes inside information of the Company.”

Initially, rumors persisted that Sony was the likely buyer, but the Leyou board released another statement indicating that they were entering into an agreement with Tencent. “The Board announces that on 10 July 2020 (before trading hours), Mr. Yuk and the Company entered into an exclusivity agreement (the ‘Privatization Exclusivity Agreement’) with Tencent Mobility Limited (the ‘Potential Acquiror’), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tencent Holdings Limited,” the announcement reads.

This does not make the deal a definite thing, but it means that if Leyou sells within the next three months, it will be to Tencent. “There is no assurance that any negotiations mentioned in this announcement will either materialize or eventually be consummated and the negotiations may or may not lead to a possible acquisition and privatization of the Company,” the statement clarifies.

Leyou also owns their own publishing label, Athlon Games, which publishes Samurai Shodown and is a publishing partner of LCG Entertainment, which has revived several Telltale Games properties following the company’s collapse. Athlon is also currently working on the Lord of the Rings MMO with Amazon. All of this would likely make the company attractive to Tencent.

VentureBeat posits that Tencent, which has a huge presence on mobile devices, is likely looking to replicate its successes on the PC market. In a statement provided to the site, Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad says that because Leyou “owns a number of studios that have expertise in global online free-to-play game development for console and PC,” they would likely be useful to Tencent’s efforts to expand overseas.

Tencent recently announced that it was opening a new studio, led by a former Rockstar dev. It is also working on Pokemon Unite, a new Switch/mobile Pokemon MOBA. The company also has investments in Epic, Riot, Ubisoft, Activision, Grinding Gear, Supercell, Platinum, Yager, Frontier, and Funcom, among others.