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What is Dreams, exactly? That’s a question I’ve been asked a lot this week. In the broadest sense, Dreams is a toolkit for creating all sorts of video games, from puzzle platformers to bullet hell shooters, action RPGs, and anything else you can put your mind to. But it’s also so much more than that. It’s a place where you’re given the ability to create whatever you can imagine, even if it’s not technically a video game. It could be a short story, a musical, a highly detailed plate of food, or characters for other people to use in their own projects.
It’s also a place where you can ignore the creation side completely and fall down a rabbit hole of playing other people’s work. It’s like YouTube for video games, where a single hour can take you on a journey through so many disparate and imaginative experiences. There are the usual imitators with myriad recreations of levels from the likes of Sonic The Hedgehog, Crash Bandicoot, and so on. But even some of these are inspired. One imagines what Silent Hills could have been if Konami didn’t pull the plug, adding some LA Noire-esque interrogations to the mix, while another stars Persona 5’s Morgana in a 3D platformer about stealing pizza.
The majority are original creations, however, and their sheer diversity really stands out. There’s a game called Southpaw Cooking that “simulates” cooking with your left hand because your right is too busy holding a phone to your ear. Others are more elaborate, like Project Ikelos, a Souls-like action game, or Ruckus: Just Another Natural Disaster, which lets you destroy a city as a laser-beam-shooting Kaiju. Then there’s also something called Duet, a short music video featuring a ukulele-playing green guy and a pink dinosaur with a kazoo. Others, like The Collector, are simply showcases for impressive and highly detailed character art.
Developer Media Molecule has beautifully curated Dreams’ playable library with showcases for the community’s favourite creations, award shows where Media Molecule highlights its favourites, Game Jams that task the community with adhering to a particular theme in a short amount of time, and a robust search engine that lets you find what you’re looking for with a few simple keywords. You can effortlessly hop from one game or singular experience to another and discover something worthwhile.
On the flip side, the creation suite is a daunting proposition. With the freedom to create anything you can put your mind to, the toolset has to be incredibly exhaustive as a result. Fortunately, Dreams is chock full of informative tutorials that run through each tool and technique that’s available to you, from the basics to masterclasses on its most complex systems. Learning it all means investing a significant amount of time, but aside from being enlightening and incredibly helpful, each of the tutorials maintains Dreams’ focus on creativity. It actively encourages you to express yourself even when learning how the toolset works, and this makes working your way through its tutorials an enjoyable experience when tutorials can so often be a drag.
I need to play through more of these tutorials before delivering a final verdict on Dreams, but so far it’s a fascinating and frequently breathtaking game. Media Molecule released Dreams in early access less than a year ago, but the community has already developed some stunning creations that exhibit imagination, innovation, and artistry. With the game now in more people’s hands, and with more time on the clock for other creators, the future of Dreams is an exciting proposition. You can expect my full review early next week.
EA’s first-person shooter Battlefield 5 has received a quick update that cuts the number of tanks on the field in half, reducing the initial tank spawn rate on Breakthrough’s first Sector to two instead of four.
DICE’s global community manager Adam Freeman announced on Twitter that the change affects the first Sector on Solomon Islands, a new Breakthrough map part of the game’s Chapter 6: Into The Jungle update. According to Freeman, DICE has noticed that Defenders on Breakthrough have been getting crushed due to the tank onslaught. The reduction should give players on that side some breathing room.
We’ve made a change to Solomon Islands today that affects the first Sector on Breakthrough #Battlefield
We’re seeing a really balanced experience for the map overall but the 1st two sectors have been quite brutal for Defenders so we’ve reduced the initial Tank Spawn from 4 to 2 pic.twitter.com/9tSIZPo6eP— Freeman (@PartWelsh) February 13, 2020
Freeman doubled down on the decision in a follow-up tweet, ensuring that the reduction will create a “balanced number of Tanks on the Battlefield for the Second Sector.” He said DICE will monitor the change on Breakthrough over the weekend and implement more adjustments should they become necessary.
In addition to Solomon Islands, Battlefield 5’s Into The Jungle update also includes a bevy of new weapons like the Type-11 LMB, Model 37 Shotgun, M2 Carbine, and more.
DICE has teased a few other changes coming in Battlefield 5’s 6.2 update, including a big weapons balance adjustment. Further, tank customization is in the works but there’s no word on when it’ll go live.
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“I think what Uncharted offers that most video games films don’t is that it’s an origin story to the games,” Holland told IGN. “So if you played the games, you haven’t seen what’s going to happen in the film. And if you haven’t played the games, you’re going to enjoy the film because it’s information that everyone else is getting at the same time. But I’m super excited to make that movie and it’s been a long time coming.”
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Holland’s casting in the role of Nathan Drake raised some eyebrows because the boyish Spider-Man actor seems years away from resembling the roguish treasure hunter, but it turns out that was done on purpose. Holland intends to show the beginnings of the character in order to tell the story of how he eventually becomes the man gamers are familiar with.
Holland was enthusiastic about the latest script from writer Joe Carnahan, saying, “I read the newest draft of the script on the way over here and it’s one of the best scripts I’ve ever read. It really, really jumps off the page.”
He also praised his co-star Mark Wahlberg, who will be playing Nathan Drake’s mentor. “I think Mark Wahlberg’s going to kill it as Sully and it’s going to be a lot of fun,” he said.
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Uncharted lost its sixth director in December 2019 when Bumblebee’s Travis Knight dropped out, reportedly because there was a scheduling conflict caused by Holland’s Spider-Man commitments. The Uncharted movie was recently pushed back to a March 5, 2021 release date, but a new director has yet to be named by Sony. The latest rumor says Venom director Reuben Fleischer is in talks to come on as the new Uncharted director.
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Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.
Warning – SPOILERS! After backlash from the first design of Sonic in the first movie trailer, Sonic the Hedgehog has a brand new look and the movie has finally been released. Sonic (Ben Schwartz) a blue, talking hedgehog from another planet, flees his home planet and goes to Earth to hide from evil forces who want his power.
Sonic lives in secret in Green Hills, Montana, home of sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden). Sonic accidentally causes a massive power outage with his powers, which the US government reacts to and sends Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) to investigate what caused it.
In the video above, Chastity and Richie break down the storyline, characters, Easter eggs from Sonic games, and the mid credits scenes from the new movie! Be sure to check out our full list of 42 Easter eggs and references you may have missed, and 16 of the weirdest Sonic characters.
Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company.
Final Fantasy XIV players know that half the battle is fashion, called glamour in-game. Hell, we at GameSpot even held a glamour costume contest with the community during our Extra Life 2019 livestream. There’s also has a whole system where players can get married with a ceremony and wedding party (in-game, that is). Now when it comes to glamour and weddings, FFXIV’s next update will drop gender restrictions on all wedding attire.
All characters regardless of gender will be able to equip all wedding gear, confirmed in the details laid out in the official FFXIV 5.2 patch notes. This accounts for the tuxedo and outfit for the groom and dresses and other accessories for the bride and bridesmaid (the groomsmen tuxedo and outfit has always been unrestricted).
The items for the bride and groom are made available for those who take part in the Ceremony of Eternal Bonding (the official name FFXIV weddings) while all players can purchase the “Best Man” and “Bridesmaid” gear in the city Ul’dah. It’s also worth noting that the FFXIV allows for characters of the same gender to marry, which was implemented back in 2014.
FFXIV director and producer Naoki Yoshida alluded to this change last year in an interview with Kotaku. In regards to the Ceremony of Eternal Bonding wedding content, he said, “we’ve already started to make adjustments. Once we officially release this, you won’t have gender restrictions. If you both wanted to wear a dress, that’s perfectly fine. If you want to both wear the tuxedo, that would also be fine.”
That’s just a small part of FFXIV’s next update. It’s going to a big one with plenty of new content which includes new quests that continue the main story, new boss battles like FFVII’s Ruby Weapon, the next phase in the Eden raid series, and so much more. The update drops on February 18, and you we have you covered with our detailed breakdown of FFXIV patch 5.2.
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At the beginning of the movie, a sign says that Perfection has a population of 14 people. The math on this checks out; if we discount Rhonda, who’s a graduate student (presumably from a neighboring college), and Howard and Carmine (who are jackhammering a nearby road, but may be contractors who do not live in Perfection), there are 14 characters in the movie: Earl Bassett, Val McKee, Burt Gummer, Heather Gummer, Melvin Plugg, Nancy Sterngood, Mindy Sterngood, Miguel Sanchez, Walter Chang, Nestor Cunningham, Edgar Deems, Old Fred, Jim Wallace, and Megan Wallace.
If Val and Earl stick around after the events of the movie, the town needs to update its sign to 8 people. If not, it’ll be down to 6 people.
The PlayStation 4 exclusive Dreams, which is finally out after an extensive Early Access period, may make the jump to Sony’s next-gen PlayStation 5 at some point, according to developer Media Molecule.
At a recent London event celebrating the game’s launch, Media Molecule co-founder Mark Healey said PS4 is where Dreams resides for now but PS5 isn’t out of the question. It all depends on success and popularity.
“Obviously at the moment we’re focused on PS4 and I would actually hope that it extends the life of the PS4 to be honest with you,” Healey told Video Games Chronicle. “Then maybe when other companies start making games for it, the community will carry on making games for it, but if it’s as successful as we hope it is then it’s an obvious progression.”
Healey continued: “You know, it’s a platform, so ideally in the future we’ll migrate to whatever is relevant. That’s probably about as much as I can say without getting smacked by someone.”
It’s unclear how long Media Molecule plans to wait before considering porting Dreams to PlayStation 5, but Sony’s next-gen console arrives this holiday season.
While no one was particularly surprised when it was announced in May 2019 that a new Saw movie was on the way, the fact that comedian Chris Rock was set to co-write and star in it was unexpected. But it turns out that Rock is a long-time fan of the series, and two months later, the next Saw movie was in production.
Saw is one of the most successful horror franchises of the past two decades. The original 2004 movie, which was directed by James Wan and written by Wan and Leigh Whannell, was a huge hit, grossing $103 million from a tiny budget of $1.2 million. The film’s inventive blend of gritty cop thriller and intense horror kickstarted a series that was known for its inventively gruesome set-pieces and increasingly complicated storylines. The insane trap-setting maniac Jigsaw became one of horror’s most iconic villains, and the series inspired a whole sub-genre of gory imitators.
Of course, no movie series remains popular forever, and the commercial disappointment of 2010’s seventh movie, Saw 3D, led the franchise to take a much-needed rest. Seven years went by before 2017’s Jigsaw. While this prequel/reboot didn’t quite hit the box office heights that the series did a decade earlier, it was successful enough to show that interest was still there. The ninth Saw movie is set for release in May–it’s titled Spiral: From the Book of Saw and looks set to take the series in another intriguing direction. So here’s everything we know so far about it…
When Nvidia abruptly pulled support for the entire library of Activision Blizzard games on its GeForce Now streaming service, it offered little explanation other than casting blame towards the publisher. Nvidia has now provided a more detailed and softer explanation, chalking it up to a simple misunderstanding.
Bloomberg reports that since Activision had participated in the beta test, Nvidia mistakenly thought the agreement extended into the free trial period for founders. The issue came up because Activision wanted a new commercial agreement for the general public launch, the company said.
“Activision Blizzard has been a fantastic partner during the GeForce Now beta, which we took to include the free trial period for our founders membership,” Nvidia said in a statement. “Recognizing the misunderstanding, we removed their games from our service, with hope we can work with them to re-enable these, and more, in the future.”
The statement casts light on what happened to prompt the issue, but notably doesn’t lay out details on when we can expect the library to return.
That means that games published by Activision Blizzard, including Overwatch, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and World of Warcraft, will no longer be playable via the streaming tech. Customers who have purchased the games will still have access to them, however.
GeForce Now is one of a handful of game streaming options to enter the market lately, which includes competitors like Google Stadia and Microsoft Project xCloud, which recently opened (and filled) its iOS test preview.