Category: Games

Given the pedigree of Platinum Games, there’s reason to believe the Nintendo Switch exclusive Astral Chain could be the next breakout game in the stylish hard-action genre. It’s directed by Takahisa Taura, who was a lead designer on Nier: Automata, and supervised by Hideki Kamiya, who brought us Bayonetta and the original Devil May Cry. But what those games had, in addition to gratifying and refined combat systems, was a star character with a unique voice who brought their stories to life.

You may think that a game that lives or dies by the greatness of its combat system could easily get away with a silent protagonist. However, a lot of the bombast and attitude that exudes from stylish action games are borne out of a character who sets the tone throughout. I think about Bayonetta’s confidence and ferocity and how it’s part of what makes those games pop, and how the on-screen action is very much an extension of that charisma. Even Vanquish lead Sam Gideon’s corny, hard-boiled temperament was part and parcel to the game’s attitude.

In the opening minutes of Astral Chain, you choose between playing as a male or female character, both of which are siblings in the story. You give them a name, hairstyle, hair and eye color and jump straight into some varied third-person action scenarios. You’re a slick anime cop who’s quickly propelled to special status by taking on a Legion, a separate entity you control simultaneously to fight the Chimera threat that plagues your city. In the heat of these moments, your character will yell, grunt, and call out to their Legion upon summoning, but they’ll never speak, even when spoken to.

Instead, the silence of Astral Chain’s lead makes for those awkward moments that warrant a vocal response in dialogue. And to be clear, there hasn’t been any narrative reasoning to why they don’t talk. Maybe it’s that Astral Chain puts less of a focus on story or character development. But I begin to wonder if those bits of emptiness could have been flipped to help the game establish a distinct attitude and help elevate the critical action-packed scenes or lend more weight into the smaller investigative decisions you make.

What makes this design choice even more curious is that whichever sibling you didn’t choose becomes a key supporting character who features fully voiced dialogue. Voice actors Aleks Le and Brianna Knickerbocker play the roles of the male and female characters, respectively. And by virtue of having to choose one, you have to pass on the other’s performance. It also feels like we could’ve had a more fleshed-out lead with a distinct personality, like in Platinum’s past games.

Last month, Platinum Games put out a blog post in which Taura-san explained the decision to go with a silent protagonist and said, “I want players to be able to project themselves onto the player character, so they naturally feel like part of the game. So [we] don’t give the player character any extreme expressions that might give them too much of a predefined personality.” But now having played Astral Chain, silence doesn’t seem to be benefitting it in that particular way.

I don’t see silent protagonists as an inherent flaw; my favorite games of all time, like the Persona series and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, put them in starring roles. And those characters develop alongside you as you make specific decisions that have narrative implications over the course of the game’s story. That’s not exactly what Astral Chain is doing, as the few dialogue options I’ve seen during investigative scenarios seem inconsequential, so it’s hard to get in the mindset of having the lead be an extension of yourself.

Of course, it’s just one aspect to the multitude of things Astral Chain is trying to do. There’s a uniqueness to the function of the Legion and how it diversifies combat in a way that Platinum hadn’t done before, and the visual flair complements the satisfaction of tearing through Chimera. It’s probably not going to be a deal-breaker that your character doesn’t speak since the game is much more than that, but I can’t help but think of it as a missed opportunity.

Who will appear?

Most of those shows have rather large casts, which makes for tricky storytelling. We know for sure Green Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Batwoman (Ruby Rose) will be involved. Black Lightning (Cress Williams) will also be getting into the mix. While various members of their respective teams might also play a role, chances are it will have to be in a supporting capacity.

As for Legends of Tomorrow, that’s a bit trickier. Expect to see, at the very least, White Canary (Caity Lotz) in Crisis. Leaving her out would be a mistake. As for the rest of the team, it’s too soon to tell.

However, there is one Legends actor playing an interesting part. Brandon Routh, who stars on Legends as the Atom, will appear in Crisis as a version of Superman. The actor played the role initially in 2006’s Superman Returns, though it doesn’t seem like he’s playing that same take on Superman. Instead, he teased at San Diego Comic-Con that he will play a version of the Man of Steel based on the Kingdom Come comic book story, which follows an older version of the hero.

Routh isn’t the only Arrow-verse actor playing a new role. In addition to the Monitor, Garrett will play the evil Anti-Monitor. Meanwhile, Cavanagh will appear as Pariah. In the comics, Pariah is an evil scientist that lets the Anti-Monitor loose, resulting in the destruction of universes.

The Pokemon Company dropped a new trailer for Sword and Shield ahead of this weekend’s Pokemon World Championships. Fittingly given the occasion, the video focuses primarily on new battle mechanics that are being introduced, and now the official Pokemon website has shared more details about how online battling will work in the titles.

Like previous Pokemon games, Sword and Shield will give players the ability to connect online and battle other trainers around the world via the Battle Stadium. This time, however, it appears your battling options have been expanded significantly. First, the games are introducing a Ranked mode. In Ranked Battles, you’ll be matched up against other players of a similar rank, and you’ll earn points depending on the outcome of your matches and potentially raise your standing.

Ranks are divided up into several different tiers, with the competition getting stiffer as you ascend the ladder. There will also be different Ranked seasons. The Pokemon Company notes that players’ ranks will “go down a certain amount at the end of each season before being carried over to a new season.”

For less competitive players, there will also be a Casual Battles mode, where wins and losses don’t matter. On top of that, Casual Battles allow players to use certain Legendary and Mythical Pokemon that would normally be barred from Ranked Battles. Both Casual and Ranked modes support two battle formats: Single (each player has one Pokemon on the field at a time) or Double (each player has two Pokemon on the field at a time).

In addition to the new Battle modes, Sword and Shield will feature two different types of Online Competitions: Official and Friendly. The former are held by Nintendo and feature different rules and restrictions, like the tournaments regularly held through the Global Link service for Pokemon Sun/Moon and their Ultra counterparts. A chance to participate in the Sword and Shield World Championships may also be on the line as part of some Official Competitions. Friendly Competitions, meanwhile, can be hosted by any player.

If you don’t have your own team of battle-ready Pokemon, you’ll have the option to use rental teams in both Casual and Ranked matches. You can read more details about all of the online battling options on the official Pokemon website.

Players will need to have a Nintendo Switch Online membership to make use of the Battle Stadium and other online features, such as trading and Max Raid Battles. Subscriptions are available for US $4 / £3.49 / AU $6 for one month, US $8 / £7 / AU $12 for three months, and US $20 / £18 / AU $30 for one year. Nintendo also offers an annual Family Membership that costs US $35 / £31.49 / AU $55 and covers up to eight Nintendo Accounts across multiple Switch systems.

As previously mentioned, Pokemon Sword and Shield’s latest trailer revealed a handful of new Pokemon Abilities and held items that will shake up battle strategies considerably, such as Galarian Weezing‘s Neutralizing Gas, which mitigates the Ability of every Pokemon on the field, including your own in Double battles. We also got a look at the Eject Pack; when equipped, it will cause your Pokemon to automatically switch out of battle if its stats are lowered.

Pokemon Sword and Shield launch for Nintendo Switch on November 15, just a few days after Nintendo releases a special Pokemon edition Nintendo Switch Lite. You can see all of the new Gen 8 Pokemon revealed so far in our gallery. For more info about the titles, including where you can secure a copy, be sure to check out our Pokemon Sword and Shield pre-order guide.

The 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie is a classically infamous example of video game movies gone wrong, but it still has a place as a historical curiosity. The Super Mario Bros. The Movie Archive has been documenting this oddity and happened to recently discover an extended cut of the film, complete with extra footage. The fan site recently uploaded the first of these hidden treasures to YouTube.

The scene takes place before Mario and Luigi go on their wild journey into Dinohattan, while the two are just down-on-their-luck plumbers from Brooklyn. They go to the Riverfront Cafe for a job, only to find their competition already in the building. Doug and Mike Scapelli are insisting that fixing a broken dishwasher is a two-day job, but the always-honest Mario tries to let the owner know that it should only take a couple of hours. They end up losing the job but getting a free meal from the restaurant.

The fan site had previously documented the existence of this scene based on material found in the novelization and trading cards. This new footage confirms the existence of the scene, but serves as the first time the community has actually scene it. The site discovered a trove of deleted scenes by obtaining a VHS tape once owned by the film’s producer, Roland Joffe. This scene is part of a number of deleted scenes that the archive is exploring, totaling about 15 minutes of new footage.

Nintendo has partnered with Illumination Entertainment to bring a new Mario feature film to theaters. That movie is planned to release around 2022, and will be produced by creator Shigeru Miyamoto. Illumination is the animation studio behind films like Despicable Me and The Secret Life of Pets.

Tim Longo, the creative director for Halo Infinite, has left 343 Industries. Longo previously worked as the creative director for Halo 5: Guardians.

As first reported by Kotaku, Longo was a part of a 343 Industries leadership shakeup, having previously been moved out of the creative director role to another position a few weeks ago. Following this change in position, Longo left 343 Industries voluntarily.

In a statement, Microsoft wrote, “Roles and responsibilities of various team members regularly evolve to meet the needs of a game, throughout development. We have recently had two changes to the Halo Infinite development team. Our Executive Producer, Mary Olson will now take charge of the Campaign team on Halo Infinite as the Lead Producer, utilizing her many years of experience at 343 to help craft a great campaign for fans.” The other change is Longo. Microsoft added that “creative vision and production of the game remains led by [Halo Infinite studio head] Chris Lee” and that no ill will is felt over Longo’s departure.

Prior to working at 343, Longo was the creative director at LucasArts where he worked on an unannounced Star Wars first-person shooter. After being cancelled, the game was revealed to be similar to 2005’s Battlefront II and codenamed First Assault. Before that, Longo held a few positions at Crystal Dynamics and worked on the Tomb Raider franchise.

Though this can be viewed as a troublesome omen for Halo Infinite, it’s important to remember that leadership changes like this do occasionally happen in the gaming industry. Just because Longo has left, it doesn’t necessarily mean Halo Infinite’s creative direction is going to completely change. For context, Cyberpunk 2077 creative director Sebastian Stępień (who previously worked on all three The Witcher games) left CD Projekt Red for a role at Blizzard back in January 2019–as reported by Variety–and that game still looked very impressive at E3 2019.

Halo Infinite is the sixth mainline game in the Halo franchise, scheduled to release for Xbox One and PC in Fall 2020. The game will also be a launch title for the next-generation Xbox, codenamed Scarlett. 343 Studios boss Bonnie Ross describes Halo Infinite as a “spiritual reboot” for Halo though further details have remained sparse. As of right now, we’ve only gotten cinematic trailers and previews of Halo Infinite, no actual gameplay.

Cliff Bleszinski tweeted recently that he had an idea for a new video game, and naturally this led to a lot of speculation and intrigue about what the Gears of War creator might do next, especially after he initially said he would probably never make another game.

Bleszinski has now clarified his comments, saying his new game would be “small” and developed “remotely.” It sounds like it would be very different from the productions he’s worked on in the past, including Gears of War and LawBreakers, both of which were made with relatively large development teams and published by big companies.

“I have some ideas gestating, but if I did something it’d be small and most likely done remotely. Indie stuff,” Bleszinski tweeted.

In other tweets, Bleszinski confirmed that he doesn’t want to make a battle royale game, though the ideas he have “won’t get out of my head.”

“I thought I was truly done. But then, stupid brain shows up. UGH,” he said.

Currently, Bleszinski is focused on signing a deal for his memoir, which he has positioned as “Kitchen Confidential” for the gaming industry. Kitchen Confidential was the late Anthony Bourdain’s breakout writing about what happens behind-the-scenes in professional kitchens.

Bleszinski said the deal-making process for his book “has been kinda painful,” but thankfully for him, he said he’s close to signing papers with a “major publisher.”

In his post-Epic Games life, Bleszinski turned his attention in part to another one of his passions: theatre. He was an investor/producer for the play Hadestown, which won eight Tony awards, including Best Musical.

After finding success with Hadestown, Bleszinski was approached to co-produce another Broadway play, a new version of Terrence McNally’s “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.” The new version stars two-time Oscar nominee Michael Shannon and Audra McDonald.

Bleszinski is also involved in the restaurant business, having invested in The Raleigh Beer Garden and The Station in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“Make no mistake, though, games will always be my first love,” Bleszinski said in July.

Bleszinski was able to “retire” earlier than most in part because his career and investments in gaming and technology have proven to be lucrative. He saw a massive payday when Chinese internet giant Tencent bought shares in Epic. He was also an early investor in Oculus, and made a “very sizable chunk of money” when Facebook bought the virtual reality company.

He created and designed the massively popular Gears of War franchise while at Epic Games. After some time away, he set up a brand-new studio, Boss Key. The North Carolina studio would go on to release LawBreakers and the battle royale game Radical Heights. Both titles failed to capture a sizable audience, and Boss Key would eventually shut down. After that, Bleszinski said he would probably never make another game for a number of reasons, but now it appears he is at least entertaining the idea of coming back to gaming.