biteho.com

Steam is on its way to China as a separate marketplace co-created by Valve and its Chinese partner, Perfect World. The Shanghai-based video game developer and publisher said Steam China will be “almost entirely independent of Steam.”

That’s according to a report by Technode. The bespoke marketplace is officially titled “Zhengqi Pingtai,” which translates to Steam Platform.

By creating a self-contained version of Steam specifically for China, it ensures Valve will be able to conform to the increasingly stringent rules Chinese regulators have placed on video games, without damaging its interests in other regions. Valve has come under close scrutiny in the past because of the violent and sexually explicit games it distributes on the marketplace, but an independent Chinese store should alleviate these issues in the future.

According to Perfect World CEO Xiao Hong, Steam China will be “tailored for Chinese users,” with “high-speed servers and high-quality operations teams.” Around 40 games will initially release on the new platform, all of which are currently available on the international version of Steam, including Dota 2 and Dota Underlords.

Nintendo devoted its pre-show presentation to a slate of indie games on Switch, but promised the week would be littered with new footage of its first-party 2019 lineup as well. The company has now delivered for The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, with an extended 30 minutes of gameplay.

The new footage features a lengthy look at the snap-together dungeon creator, highlighting how simple visual prompts let you know if your design works. It also takes a look at several mini-boss battles that will look very familiar to anyone who played the original.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening appears to be a very faithful remake of the 1993 Gameboy game of the same name. As highlighted in the trailer, Link’s Awakening was remains a very different kind of Zelda game, with cameos from Mario characters, short side-scrolling segments, and other oddities that would be a bit out of place in Hyrule.

The remake will come alongside a new Amiibo featuring Link in the game’s new art style. US customers can get the Dreamer Edition that includes a book of concept art, while Europe gets a Limited Edition with an art book and a steelbook case modeled after a Gameboy. You can check out more details in our Link’s Awakening pre-order guide.

While there have been many Stephen King adaptations over the past few years, it was 2017’s It that has proved by far the most successful. The movie took more than $700 million at the worldwide box office and within a few weeks of release, a follow-up had been announced. The first reviews of It: Chapter 2 are now with us.

The movie hits theaters next month. The movie picks up the story 30 years later and completes the adaptation of King’s classic 1987 novel. While the book interwove two timelines, the movies have separated them, with the story of the Losers Club and their childhood fight against the evil being of the title occupying the first film. It: Chapter 2 features the adult versions of those characters, as they reunite to fight evil once more.

The film is directed by Andy Muschietti and stars James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, James Ransone, Andy Bean, Isaiah Mustafa, and Bill Skarsgård. The first trailer was released in May, with another scary promo and exclusive footage shown during San Diego Comic-Con in July.

It: Chapter 2 has now been screened for critics ahead of its September 6 release. Opinion so far is mixed, with some critics praising the film’s ambition and dark themes, while others commenting that it falls short of the standards set by the first movie. Check back soon for GameSpot’s review of the film, and in the meantime, here’s what the critics are saying about It: Chapter 2 on Twitter:

Before its release later next month, you can begin your journey early by downloading a demo for Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition on the UK Switch Eshop and the US Switch Eshop right now.

All of your progress will carry over into the full game, allowing you to get a head start on the latest grand adventure in the Dragon Quest series.

The demo will also give you a taste of some of the new additions coming to the Definitive Edition on Switch. There’s a comprehensive host of changes and new content, including new character-specific stories, fully orchestrated field and battle music, side quests that allow you to journey into past Dragon Quest worlds, and the ability to switch between not only HD and retro-inspired 16-bit visuals adapted from the 3DS version, but Japanese and English voice tracks as well.

GameSpot reviewed Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age back in September last year when it was initially released for PC and PS4. Reviewer Heidi Kemps gave it 9/10, saying, “Innovation in games is talked about a lot, but it’s also great to see traditional gameplay formulas that have been around for decades presented exceptionally well. Dragon Quest XI is one of the best modern examples of this; its beautiful presentation, both visual- and story-wise, combines with a tried-and-true gameplay formula for a journey that’s full of heart and soul. Once you find yourself sucked into the world of Dragon Quest XI, it’s going to be hard to put down until you reach the grand finale.”

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition launches on Nintendo Switch September 27.

You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Sorry, but you can’t access this content!

Although Spider-Man has had some of his most successful movie outings as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the fact remains that the cinematic rights to the character are owned by Sony, rather than Marvel Studios parent company Disney. A dispute between the studios over the financing of future Spidey movies led to reports this week that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will no longer serve as a producer on future Spider-Man films. Now Sony has commented directly on the issue.

In a series of tweets, Sony claimed that many of the reports about the dispute have “mischaracterized” discussions between the studios. The statement focuses on Feige’s involvement, but clearly places responsibility for the decision for him not be involved with Disney. It also makes a clear reference to “IP they do not own,” emphasizing that, ultimately, Spider-Man is Sony’s property as far as movies are concerned. Check the tweets out below:

Sony’s tweets follows comments the studio initially made to io9, in which it stated that negotiations between the two sides are still in progress and that the issue at hand was over Feige receiving a producer credit on the films.

The big question remains over the future of Spider-Man and the MCU. Spider-Man: Far From Home was the official end of the MCU’s Phase 3, setting the stage for what’s to come from the universe of films. With Feige no longer being involved, it’s possible that the Spider-Man franchise could instead exist outside of the MCU. Sony has already been building a non-MCU Spider-Man universe thanks to the film adaptation of Venom, as well as the upcoming Morbius movie, in which Jared Leto stars as the titular living vampire. Sources told Deadline that there were already two more planned Spider-Man films starring Tom Holland as the web-slinger, with director Jon Watts expected to return.

The situation could always change and the two studios could come to an agreement. Deadline, however, noted it would take something “dramatic” for that to happen. For now, an extended cut of Spider-Man: Far From Home will hit theaters on August 29.

The Witcher 3‘s upcoming Switch port, which releases on October 15, looks like a miracle beyond what we thought the Switch was capable of. Now, in a new interview with Eurogamer, CD Projekt RED’s Piotr Chrzanowski has explained how the port, which was largely done by Saber Interactive, came to be. The game has been in development for “around 12 months”, and the team has managed to fit the entirety of The Witcher 3, including its DLC, onto a 32GB card.

“When it comes to expectations we wanted to really bring the same experience,” Chrzanowski told Eurogamer. “So our goal was to bring the same game: not to cut anything, not to change things unless you really have to.” CDPR made themselves available to Saber Interactive for guidance, but he makes it clear that Saber led development on the port. The port process has included working “a lot on memory optimisation,” as the Switch has much less to work with, but they’ve been able to add features as the game got more stable – ambient occlusion will be available in the final build, for example. No new assets had to be built; instead they “took the ones that were existing and we compressed them a bit.”

The game’s geometry is unchanged from the original release, while cutscenes have been cut down to 720P. Models haven’t been changed much either, although “there were slight adjustments in some cases.” Chrzanowski says that Crookback Bog and Novigrad Market were two taxing sections that they wanted to get right. “It’s the same experience,” he told Eurogamer. “You play it, you feel the same way, you have all the systems, so you don’t feel that anything is cut.”

The Witcher 3 is one of just 15 games to receive a 10/10 review from GameSpot.