Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, an updated version of one of the best RPGs for the Wii, releases on Nintendo Switch this Friday, May 29. Whether you’re planning on diving in for the first time or revisiting the modern classic in its updated form, you should take a look at the pre-order deal at Amazon. Right now, you can pre-order Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition for $49.94, which is a savings of $10.
This is the same price Walmart was selling the Definitive Edition for, but Walmart is currently sold out. Amazon already sold out of its Xenoblade pre-orders at this price earlier today, so there’s a good chance this offer won’t be available for long. If you already placed your pre-order at Amazon at the full $60 price, you’ll get the discount thanks to Amazon’s pre-order price guarantee.
In addition to enhanced visuals, updated controls, remixed music, and general quality-of life improvements across the board, the Switch version adds a new epilogue dubbed Future Connected that builds onto the story of the lengthy role-playing game.
Xenoblade Chronicles originally released on Wii in 2010, and a New 3DS exclusive port, Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, followed in 2015. With the release of the updated Switch version, three of the four Xenoblade experiences are now available on Switch: Xenoblade, Xenoblade 2, and Torna – The Golden Country (a large prequel expansion). Here’s to hoping the Wii U’s Xenoblade Chronicles X is ported to Switch in the future, too.
In 2019, the head of Bayonetta developer Platinum Games, Atsushi Inaba, said he was not all that impressed by the next generation of consoles from Sony and Microsoft. He said they offered “more of the same,” and those comments led to some debate and discussion.
Inaba has now clarified his comments, telling Video Games Chronicle that his original words led to “a little bit of backlash” and the perception that he was a snob. Inaba now says he’s excited by the fact that the new consoles will allow developers to “do more” as it relates to graphics and technology. However, he stands by his estimation that the leap from the PS4/Xbox One era to the PS5/Xbox Series X era won’t be as dramatic as the shift that occurred years ago during previous console transitions.
“If you think back to the generation between Super Nintendo and PlayStation, and how we went from pixel art to 3D polygons… nobody could have ever imagined that a few years prior,” Inaba said. “When that stuff started coming out people were just blown away: they weren’t ready for it, they weren’t anticipating it… it was just so new.”
The latest console generations, by comparison, leave something to be desired, Inaba said.
“I feel that the announcements that we’ve had for recent consoles generations, while all good and interesting, and of course I’m happy for us as developers to have better technology to work on… it’s a ‘perceivable’ future,” he said. “There’s not the extreme surprise or the unexpected quality that I felt from the leap to previous consoles. Now I see the announcements and I think, ‘Oh, that’s cool’ and then the next minute I think, ‘Hmmm… what should I watch on Netflix tonight?'”
Inaba clarified that this is only his personal opinion, and that–from an industry level–the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X is “all very promising.” He also mentioned that Sony and Microsoft have yet to fully reveal their new consoles, so it’s possible the machines will end up wowing him.
“We haven’t seen everything from next-gen at this point, I think, and it’s still very likely that there could be a quality like that in these consoles that’s going to kind of be a game-changer, that’s going to change how games could be played,” he said. “And if that is the case, then maybe they’ll blow me away. So I don’t want to sound like, ‘Hey, I know everything about the new consoles and they’re boring.’ But with the information that I have now, I haven’t seen any extremely big surprises.”
Inaba also called out the Nintendo Switch as an example of a platform-holder trying something bold and new. “The Nintendo Switch was very groundbreaking in how it was able to just to take a home console and make it portable,” he said. “It’s something that you hadn’t seen a lot of people doing before: it took this wall, that perhaps a lot of people didn’t know even existed, and broke it down.”
The testing positions are open to European players, and while the company hasn’t specified what it’s looking for in a tester, the application form asks about location, availability, previous testing experiences, and which devices you have available.
Testers will have to sign an NDA if accepted for the two-week process, which involved a preliminary briefing, two weeks of reporting based on short periods of gameplay, and a debrief session. Participants will be paid £200 (around $250 US) at the end of the testing period. Applications are now open for the limited positions here.
GameSpot’s review of Dreams praised the tools the game provided for its endlessly creative community, saying “Dreams is a refined constructor for building a wide variety of games, and a community-centric showcase where others can play them. It’s a stunning achievement that encourages limitless creative expression, a place where people can come together, collaborate, and explore each other’s imaginations. It’s a tool for the fools who dream, and one of the most innovative releases in years.”
Media Molecule released a free demo for Dreams on the PS4 earlier in May, featuring limited access to the game’s creation tools and select user-created content.
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In one of the map’s buildings, an RCXD–which is a popular killstreak from the Black Ops series–can be clearly seen sitting on a table. You can check out some images in the embedded tweet below.
This follows from the recent discovery that Warzone’s Bunkers can now be opened, and at least one of them contains another Black Ops-related tease. Bunker 11 was discovered to contain a nuclear warhead. Sources told Video Games Chronicle that this very warhead will be used in the game to change the map and give it a Cold War theme as a tease for the new mainline release. Players have also discovered a Cold War-era spyplane in Warzone by glitching through walls.
After a reported development shakeup, Activision is reportedly planning to release a new Call of Duty game called Black Ops: Cold War in 2020 from developer Treyarch. Activision typically announces new Call of Duty games in May, but the global pandemic might have led to a change in plans for the publisher.
What is clear is that Activision will continue to release full-price mainline Call of Duty games in addition to ongoing support for the free-to-play battle royale game Warzone. Intriguingly, Infinity Ward’s Taylor Kurosaki teased that Warzone will be the “throughline that connects all the various sub-franchises of Call of Duty.”
“It’s going to be really cool to see how the different sub-franchises sort of come in and out of focus, but Warzone will be the one constant,” he said.
Keep checking back with GameSpot for all the latest on this year’s new Call of Duty game, and also for more coverage of Modern Warfare and Warzone.
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This year’s Sonic the Hedgehog film was one of the final blockbuster movies released in theatres before the COVID-19 shutdown. The movie was a big success, surpassing Detective Pikachu to become the highest-grossing video game movie of all-time in the United States.
Sonic Studio’s chief brand officer, Ivo Gerscovich, has now commented on the success of the film and how it’s shaped the Sonic brand overall. Gerscovich said in a Reddit AMA that the movie helped re-invigorate the Sonic series and help it become even more relevant.
“The success of the film has positively impacted many areas of the brand from bringing in a new generation of fans to reaching fans in places all over the world that may not be as accessible for us alone,” he said.
“The team and I have been building the Sonic brand over the last five years and what may have been ‘headwinds’ initially when the new team was formed are turning to ‘tailwinds’ (strong support),” Gerscovich added. “From the inside, working on a brand that was viewed as ‘nostalgic’ previously that has become very ‘relevant’ is like pushing on a big snowball ball to help it gain speed and then it starts picking up momentum and starts rolling faster and faster–and then suddenly it’s about just trying to keep up.”
Gerscovich said the Sonic franchise is now in an “exciting place,” and the success of the movie has opened new doors. “The brand’s growth and success is presenting many new opportunities to tell new stories and deliver new content and products,” he said.
In another reply on Reddit, Gerscovich said he knew early on that the Sonic movie had the secret sauce necessary for success. “Seeing first-hand the talent of all the people involved and the care and desire to make a great Sonic film, my spidey senses told me that we had something special,” he said. “That being said, the fact that the movie broke film records for a video game adaptation is a big testament to all those who worked tirelessly on this project as well as the growing fanbase that supported the film.”
Given the financial success of the first Sonic movie, you might expect there to be a sequel. If it’s happening, it hasn’t been announced yet, but Gerscovich hopes it does. “There is nothing to announce, but speaking for myself and my family, we would love to see another film,” he said. “My kids are still quoting me lines from the movie every day and coming up with new storylines.”
Sonic made $146 million in the US and $167.7 million from international markets for a total of $306.7 million worldwide. While it’s the highest-grossing video game movie in the US, it still lags behind Warcraft ($439 million), Detective Pikachu ($433 million), Rampage ($428 million), and the 2010 Jake Gyllenhaal movie Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ($336 million) at the global box office for video game adaptations. Notably, however, Sonic was not released in China and Japan, while those other movies were.
Sonic is directed by Jeff Fowler, who earned an Oscar nomination for his 2004 animated movie Gopher Broke and made his feature film directorial debut with the project. Ben Schwartz voices Sonic, while Jim Carrey plays Robotnik.
Minecraft Dungeons joins re-releases of some cult classics and heavy-hitter Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition on this week’s new Nintendo Switch eshop finds. While we’ve been waiting eagerly for this remaster of one of Monolith Soft’s greats, there’s also plenty of other indie titles to keep you occupied.
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We definitely enjoyed our time with Half-Genie Hero when it came out, and out of the releases set to drop on May 28, platforming fans likely already have Shantae and the Seven Sirens on their hit list.
May 29 is quite the bumper day of releases, with the XCOM 2 Collection also finally bringing the acclaimed turn-based tactics game to the Switch. What’s not to love about the ability to create alien-fighting hit squads based on your mates? Firaxis is doing us one better now by making the entire process portable, too.
If you’re wondering about some of the top new games out on other platforms like the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One X, you can check out this list here.
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You don’t have to be a sports fan to be gripped by the story of Michael Jordan’s last season with the Chicago Bulls, as played out in ESPN’s documentary series The Last Dance. Licensed by Netflix for the international market, it seems the rest of the world is just as taken by the quintessentially American story.
In a tweet, Netflix revealed its viewership numbers for The Last Dance, with 23.8 million households checking out the basketball documentary.
23 was always his lucky number! 23.8 million households outside the US checked out The Last Dance in its first four weeks on Netflix pic.twitter.com/xS4GCR1uzU
While the way Netflix counts viewers is a little less rigorous than it used to be, we can compare this number with some other figures recently released by the streaming network. Quirky doco hit Tiger King counted 64 million household views in its first month, while at the time of the report Ozark Season 3 was projected to reach 29 million households, closer to the number who’ve checked out The Last Dance.
The Last Dance is now back for a second run in the US, with a series of re-runs on ABC beginning on May 23, and airing two episodes every Saturday until the finale on June 20.
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Outriders, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X game from the developers of Gears of War: Judgment and Bulletstorm, is getting a monthly video series. Titled “Outriders Broadcast,” the monthly program will deliver news and information about the game, which is due for release later this year.
Episode 1, titled “Built for the Core,” will release on Thursday, May 28 at 9 AM PT. It will focus on Outriders’ gameplay features, environments, character classes, and special abilities, featuring insights and commentary from the developers at People Can Fly. You can watch a teaser for the episode below.
In a statement, People Can Fly creative director Bartek Kmita said the studio came up with the idea for a video series to respond to the current climate.
“Obviously, things are a little bit strange in the world right now, and we’re all adapting the best we can,” Kmita said. “We’ve prioritized our people’s safety and all 250+ of us on the team are working from home and staying healthy.”
Kmita stressed that the Outriders development team remains “working hard” on the game and still expects it to launch on schedule this holiday. “With the cancellation of some of gaming’s biggest events of the year, we’ve looked for new ways to share news about Outriders with players,” Kmita said.
In addition to PS5 and Xbox Series X, Outriders will launch on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Outriders will be published by Square Enix, and the publisher has plans for other announcements outside of this game. The company also confirmed that Marvel’s Avengers will also have its own announcement event, but no details have been confirmed.
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Self-isolation may have all of us acting weird, but at least it doesn’t come close to Rainn-Wilson-interviewing-Billie-Eilish weird. The two got together for a talk on his Instagram show, Hey There, Human, where he soon renamed the popstar “William Eyelash” and told her to move on from The Office, as reported by EW.
“I just finished watching The Office for a 15th time two days ago,” Billie Eilish admitted on the show. She’s been open about her Office fandom in the past, with her song My Strange Addiction featuring a handful of voice clips sampled from the iconic show. “Every time I hit that episode that says finale, I’m always like, goddamn it.” Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute through the show’s nine seasons, told her, “It’s time to move on to another show, really. Please!”
It’s a reaction he’s given to other Office fans before–and not just the famous ones. In a 2017 episode of Conan, the actor begged fans to stop tweeting him about The Office in-jokes years after the show ended (though he still occasionally posts them himself).
Billie Eilish managed to change his mind, however. After failing at a round of The Office trivia, Wilson challenged the singer to go and rewatch the show for the 16th time, so that she could do better in the next round.
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, the 2019 fighting game featuring the sentai warriors from the hit series, is expanding with three new characters. A third season of DLC has been announced with a trailer, and while only two fighters have been properly announced, it’s pretty clear who the third one will be.
The trailer below shows off Robert “RJ” James and Lauren Shiba, but the comments below the video have uniformly identified the third character, shown in silhouette, as Scorpina, a long-time villain in the Power Rangers mythos.
The first content from this pass should drop towards the end of June, and in addition to the three extra fighters, anyone who buys it will also receive a new Phantom Beast King character skin for Dai Shi and a Samurai Megazord ultra.
This follows several other updates and DLC packs for the game. In February, the game received online lobbies, and previous DLC fighters have included Lord Zedd and Eric Myers.
As of March, Battle for the Grid was available through Xbox Game Pass. It’s also on Switch, PS4, and PC.