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.
Bohemia Interactive’s DayZ has been reclassified MA15+ in Australia, closing the book on a tumultuous few months for the game down under. This means DayZ is no longer banned for sale in Australia and will be able to be released at retail for PS4 and Xbox One later this year as planned.
Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) has seen more action in his career as a Secret Service Agent than most superheroes see in a lifetime, but Angel Has Fallen pits the rugged hero against a new threat to the president he is sworn to protect: himself.
In the second sequel to 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen, Banning is dealing with a mild addiction to painkillers stemming from a series of concussions he’s suffered on the job throughout his career, keeping his physical struggles a secret from his wife Leah (Piper Perabo, taking over for Radha Mitchell) and his superiors, President Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) and Secret Service Director David Gentry (Lance Reddick).
Destiny 2 is getting cross save functionality on August 21, ahead of the approaching Shadowkeep expansion and free-to-play New Light version, both of which will be available on October 1. Cross save is a system that will let you import your Guardians, your stats and your progress between the PC, PS4, Xbox One and Google Stadia versions of Destiny 2, so you can keep going even if you decide to switch platforms. Bungie has posted a helpful guide to cross save, explaining everything you could need to know. We’ve also summed it up below for your convenience.
Which platforms does cross save support?
All of them, including the upcoming Stadia version.
Does this mean that you can play with friends on other platforms?
Unfortunately, if you’re playing on PlayStation 4, you still can’t play with your friends on Xbox One — however, it means that if you jump over to the Xbox One version, you won’t need to start a new character.
Can Cross Save be used to merge Guardians or Collections built up between different platforms?
No. If you’ve already played through the game and maxed out two characters on two systems, there’s no way to bring those characters together onto the same account, unfortunately. It’s a matter of picking a primary account and porting your save over to other systems. The same goes for Silver, so be aware of that.
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No, unfortunately. Make sure that you purchase Shadowkeep, and any Silver, on your primary system.
Can I disable Cross Save?
If you want to do so – because, perhaps, you decide you prefer to split your save files between systems – you can. Once you do so, though, there’s a 90 day wait to re-enable cross save. This is done to discourage account recoveries by other players.
How much does it cost?
It’s completely free! When the New Light free-to-play version of Destiny 2 drops, you’ll be able to comfortably transfer your Guardian and everything you own between systems without spending a cent.
What impact will this have on my clans?
Your active account can only be included in one Destiny clan, which will become your clan across all platforms you’re playing from that account on. Your Active Account takes up one player slot in your Clan Roster, though, regardless of how many systems the account is active on. You’ll also only have access to Clan teammates who are on the same platform as you at any given point. Clan objective progress carries over between systems, though.
A new tournament series from Lynx, Xbox and ESL is asking Aussie gamers to prove their skills, but with a neat twist. In the qualifying rounds, hopeful players can specialise in either Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 or Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, but the gamers who come out on top will then win all-expenses paid trips to PAX Australia, where they’ll compete in both.
If this sounds interesting, head over to the Lynx Legend website to register, then pick the game you want to compete in. You can then take part in as many of the two week qualifying seasons as you like. Season 1 is from August 17 – 25, season 2 is from August 31 – September 8, Season 3 is from September 14 – 22 and Season 4 is from September 28 – October 6. Each will have weekly cups on Saturdays and Sundays, with points awarded based on where you place in each cup. The person who is at the top of the leaderboard for each game in each of the four seasons then wins a trip to PAX AU, so there are eight spots in total up for grabs.
GameStop has announced that over a hundred employees have been laid off. These job cuts hit multiple divisions throughout the company, ranging from corporate headquarters to Game Informer magazine.
“As part of the previously announced GameStop Reboot initiative to transform our business for the future and improve our financial performance, we can confirm a workforce reduction was implemented impacting more than 120 corporate staff positions, representing approximately 14% of our total associate base at our company headquarters as well as at some other offices,” GameStop wrote in a statement to GameSpot.
The Reboot initiative was implemented after GameStop failed to sell itself in 2018, though the company has continued to struggle in the growing digital gaming market. The company has put a greater emphasis on used games and pop culture collectibles sales, but both seem to only be slowing GameStop’s descent, not stopping it.
“While these changes are difficult, they were necessary to reduce costs and better align the organization with our efforts to optimize the business to meet our future objectives and success factors,” the statement concluded. “We recognize that this is a difficult day for our company and particularly for those associates impacted. We appreciate their dedication and service to GameStop and are committed to supporting them during this time of transition.”
Unfortunately for several members of the Game Informer staff, the layoffs impacted them as well. Of the 19 full-time members on the editorial team, seven have announced on Twitter that they have been laid off–managing editor Matt Bertz, senior editor Imran Khan, senior associate editor Kyle Hilliard, senior associate editor Jeff Marchiafava, associate editor Suriel Vazquez, associate editor Elise Favis, and associate editor Javy Gwaltney. If you’re looking for talented writers and editors to join your staff, consider reaching out. All seven deserve to continue doing what they did for Game Informer.
“I am trying to get things right with my people,” Game Informer editor-in-chief Andy McNamara tweeted. “I love Game Informer, its people and its readers more than any corporation could, and I will address all the issues when I can, but for now I need to focus on my GI family.”
Ubisoft’s historical fighting game For Honor is once again free on PC, but this time you’ll only need Uplay to claim it. The offer is only available until August 28, so act fast if you still haven’t picked it up.
First, you do need a Uplay account. After you’ve signed up, all you need to do is go to the Ubisoft Store website and click the “Get It For Free” button. It’ll ask you to either launch or download Uplay, and once the launcher is open, For Honor will be redeemed to your account. Then it’s just time to install it, and you’re off to the races.
For Honor is currently in Year 3 and has seen the release of the Black Prior and Hitokiri classes. Two more are set to release by the end of the year. Ubisoft supports For Honor with regular events, new items, and more.
The Marching Fire expansion released last year. It added the Chinese Wu Lin faction, the fourth after the game launched with Knights, Samurai, and Vikings. The Wu Lin faction consists of four classes: the Dao blade-wielding Tiandi, Guando heavy Jiang Jun, hook sword-equipped Nuxia, and staff-swinging Shaolin.
Prior to the Wu Lin, Ubisoft spent its first year after release adding several new classes to the Knights, Samurai, and Vikings. These included the Shinobi, Centurion, Gladiator, and more.
In our For Honor review, GameSpot’s Matt Espineli said, “[For Honor’s] fundamental tenets of discipline and restraint are bestowed upon you permanently, forever changing the way you perceive a melee-combat encounter in a game. In its highest moments, For Honor is difficult to put down.” He added that those who take the time to dive deep into For Honor’s combat “will be rewarded with some of the most satisfying multiplayer melee fighting conceived in recent years.”
