After announcing last year that Dragon Quest XI would get a North American release, Square Enix has finally confirmed which platforms it's coming to. While many stateside fans have been pining for a Switch version, DQ XI has only been announced for PS4 and PC. It appears the company has no plans for the 3DS iteration to come here either, and seeing as the Switch version has yet to debut in Japan, it's unclear if or when we'll eventually see that one. If you're not keen on waiting for the biggest Dragon Quest adventure to date, however, then you'll be happy to know the PS4 and PC versions are coming packed with extras and the release date is merely months away. We recently went hands-on with the game, which, like past entries, includes British voiceovers for the Western release. We got a good look at party member Sylvando and an intense boss battle.
The demo focuses on a desert area, featuring the kingdom of Gallopolis. Gallopolis is known for its horse races and fearless desert knights. The party visits in search of a mysterious branch that can aid them in stopping a dark force from taking over the world. As soon as I enter the vast landscape, I notice the new dash function. This is a nice addition and makes getting around much faster and easier than it was in the original Japanese version.
My main quest is to visit a sultan whose son, Prince Faris, is having his coming-of-age ceremony where he must prove himself in a horse race. The prince says he'll convince his father to give us the branch we need if we do him a favor. He takes us to the circus to discuss it in depth, where I find out he can't ride horses at all, begging our hero to pretend to be him for the big race. At the circus, a cheeky character named Sylvando appears. Sylvando is a jester, and a show-off through and through, spitting fire, juggling knives, and cracking jokes. Later when I take the prince's place in the horse race, Sylvando appears as one of my opponents.
Horse racing is a new minigame for the series. The controls are basic: Hold down a button to gallop, press another to slow for turns, and run through green swirls to gain speed and stamina. Win or lose this race, you prove your skills well enough to the sultan, but Sylvando catches on to the farce. Before much more can be done, a giant, yellow, scorpion-like enemy named The Slayer of the Sands is killing knights left and right. The sultan asks Prince Faris to take care of it, and once again he asks for your help so no one can discover his incompetence.
The turn-based Dragon Quest battle system hasn't changed much since its inception. As this boss battle proves, though, it's not about just choosing an attack. You are challenged to use your abilities, magics, buffs, and debuffs accordingly. To win the battle against this vicious beast, I use a balanced strategy, having two characters focus on healing, buffs, and magic, while the others tap into their special abilities. Special abilities can inflict status ailments such as poison or sleep, or have elemental strength. One of my characters has a spell that automatically deals damage when the enemy attacks, which I make good use of, wearing down the giant scorpion to ensure the prince's success. Sylvando is also along for the battle, but the A.I. controls him. He won't reveal his reasons for coming, which I'm sure is explored later in the game.
I won't spoil what happens with the prince's facade, but I will say there's a cool moment that occurs after the battle. If you're a fan of the series or just itching for a classic RPG, Dragon Quest XI should be on your radar.
OtherSide Entertainment has released a new trailer for Underworld Ascendant, highlighting the flexible systems that players will have at their disposal. In the immersive sim, a spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld, players have a dizzying array of options for burning, flattening, and destroying their enemies.
Improvisation is a key part of the game's dungeon crawling, and players who pay attention to their surroundings will be rewarded for being perceptive. Take a look at the clip below to see how enemies and environments can be tackled using what's nearby - whether it's using a brazier to set an arrow alight, cutting a rope to squash goblins, or, well, finding plenty of other ways to squash goblins.
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Look for Underworld Ascendant on PC later this year. For more on the game, take a look at .
Just ahead of its June 5 release date, Dontnod has dropped a new Vampyr trailer featuring its Victorian setting and lots of neck-biting.
The developer, whose previous work includes Life is Strange and Remember Me, boasts that each unique citizen can be killed or spared by the vampire protagonist. Each action will summarily affect the fate of the other characters, and of London as a whole.
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Vampyr, despite its infuriating spelling, looks really neat. Dontnod has a great track record in terms of involving storylines, and the combat seems interesting and skill-based. Hopefully this will be a nice reprieve for the dry summer months.
Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr is coming out next week, and there's a lot to do in the action-RPG. Developer Neocore Games has released a lifeline to prospective players in the form of a new trailer. It highlights the game's biggest (and bloodiest) pillars and also shows off plenty of in-game action.
Take a look at the video below to see the game's combat, upgrade paths, cover system, bosses, and much more.
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Look for Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on June 5.
World of Demons, the first PlatinumGames title that's made for mobile phones, has a brand new gameplay trailer.
The new trailer shows off more of the action gameplay people have come to expect from PlatinumGames, as well as some of the title's other features, like the demon summoning and asymmetric multiplayer. You can watch the trailer below.
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World of Demons is scheduled for release this summer for both iOS and Android.
10 Chambers Collective, an indie Swedish company led by Payday developers, made waves last year when it revealed the horror-focused co-op game GTFO. The trailer was brief but got the message across: you and your friends work together to complete objectives while fending off nasty monsters.
We haven't heard much about the game, developed on the Unity engine, since that trailer. However, today 10 Chambers Collective revealed some goopy screenshots that give you a good idea of the level of violence you can expect from the game, as well as a glimpse of a jellyfish-lookin' monster. Scroll down below to see all the screens.
GTFO is due out this year and 10 Chambers Collective says that the game will be playable at E3. For more on GTFO, you can watch the reveal trailer .
Time to get your swashbuckle on. Maxi, The Dandy Of The South Seas, is heading to SoulCalibur VI.
The fan-favorite pirate has been a part of the series since the first entry. You can watch VI's version of the nunchaku-wielding fighter in action right here in this recently released trailer:
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Soulcalibur VI is due out sometime this year. For more on the game check out The Witcher's Geralt, an unlockable character, in action .
The trailers for the forthcoming film Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hint that dinosaurs are no longer contained in the park and are on the loose in your neighborhoods and houses. Ludia's latest video game, Jurassic World Alive, echoes this premise, as it invites players out into the real world to use their mobile device's GPS to track down dinosaurs on the run. Yes, this game has a lot in common with Pok&eómon Go, but it also builds on the concepts introduced in Ludia's other mobile Jurassic Park and Jurassic World games.
I'm a big fan of Pok&eómon Go (with a level 36 character), and am finding Jurassic World Alive to be every bit as enjoyable in its opening moments. Tracking down new dinosaurs is a good time, and battling dinosaurs is a strategic affair, but I do worry about mid- to late-game progression, which appears to be tied to numerous types of in-game currency.
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The opening hour of play, however, is hassle free. When you boot up the game, you see yourself standing on a map. Ludia uses Google Maps to give players a precise world to explore, right down to building and road placements. Much like Pok&eómon Go's gyms and stops, Jurassic World Alive players will find destinations on the map called supply drops. You'll need to physically walk over to these spots to be able to collect the drop, which contains coins, cash, and darts.
You'll also see various dinosaurs wandering wandering the wilds. You won't see many of them in any particular area. The most I've seen is three in one clickable space, and it's a much wider space than Go. You can click on a dinosaur that is a few blocks away and still engage with it. When you perform this action, you don't capture or battle it. You instead launch a drone into the sky, and are tasked to shoot darts at the dinosaur to retrieve some of its DNA. This action is handled through a timed minigame, which demands precision. You are trying to hit the center of a circle on the dinosaur. The better your aim, the more DNA is extracted. If you miss, the dart will either deflect off of the dinosaur or fall to the street. Again, darts are finite. I haven't run out of them in these early stages of play, but I wonder what would happen if I went for a five-mile walk and captured everything along the way. This minigame is fun, but it takes way too much time to load. From what I can tell, the game is more stable than Go, but it is much slower in its gameplay and interface.
When collect enough DNA from one dinosaur, you can recreate it in the lab and add it to your collection, of which there appears to be 100 different types of track down. If you keep farming the same type of dinosaur, you can level it up. I did this with my stegosaurus, which is now level two. I'll need to collect 150 more DNA samples to evolve it again. Evolving a dinosaur requires gold. The first level for a common stegosaurus cost me five gold. This next level will cost me 10 more.
The dinosaurs are nicely detailed and animated, allowing the user to click on them to watch them roar or swing their tails. Just collecting the beasts is an engaging affair, but their true purpose in this game is battling against other players' dinosaurs. When you collect four different types of beats, you can enter the Proving Grounds to learn how to battle against A.I.-controlled dinos. These fights are turn-based, pushing players to use different attacks and strategies to take down their opponents. Each dinosaur has a set amount of health (based on its level), as well as a variety of attributes for strength, speed, armor, damage, and critical chance. The strategies vary widely between each dinosaur type. My stegosaurus can deal 1.5x damage with its "thagomizer" attack, which also lowers my target's speed by 50 percent for three turns. My einiosaurus can stun opponents, and my velociraptor deals twice as much damage. While only one of your dinosaurs can be on the battlefield at once, you can swap it out at any time to change up your strategies. Again, only four dinosaurs can enter the fray.
Graduating from the Proving Grounds reveals the Fallen Kingdom, the area where you can battle other players and take on other missions. Matchmaking seems to work well, with opponents being found quickly and at the same level. The battles are quite intense, most coming down to one dino left on either side. There's definitely some guess work involved as to what your opponent may do, but using stuns and special attacks at the right times can turn the tide of war in your favor, allowing you to coast to victory in the final moments. Winning rewards you with coins and incubators that take time to open. Incubators hold a random number of darts, dino DNA, and the various forms of currency. You can wait a few minutes or hours to open one, or exchange the in-game cash to unseal it immediately.
I'm going to stick with Jurassic World Alive for a while. It isn't replacing Pok&eómon Go for me, but I can't say no to collecting dinosaurs, especially when it's handled this well. I'm still in the fact-finding stages, and have plenty of questions I need answered. How evil the in-game currency ends up being is a big one. I also want to know if specific dinosaurs are spawning in specific regions or if they are just randomly spawning all over the place. What can I say, I'm a sucker for these types of games, and can't wait to see what Niantic is planning with Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.
World Seeker is an open world One Piece game, and it looks like it may be taking cues from the Batman: Arkham games.
Along with being able to swing and leap through the game's open city world, the gameplay trailer also shows Luffy activating a detective vision-like ability to look through walls and see enemies. The trailer also shows off a healthy collection of Luffy's combat abilities, many taken directly from the manga/anime.
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One Piece: World Seeker is coming later this year.
Despite his long slumber, Mega Man has a history synonymous
with gaming. With Mega Man 11, the blue bomber is attempting the kind of
revival fraught with the same kind of dangers that dozens of other series have
tried before with few coming out the other end successful. Mega Man's newest adventure,
however, might be more well-equipped for a grand return than any of his former
contemporaries.
We got a chance to play the newest build of Mega Man 11,
which features BlockMan's Egyptian/Aztec fusion-themed level and FuseMan's newly
playable electric bugaloo around a power plant. Mega Man traverses these
environments with his usual repertoire of running, jumping, sliding, and
holding in the charge button the entire time.
The newest tool for Mega Man to use, however, is the Gear
system. Dr. Wily has an epiphany of the gear ability system in his advanced
age, recalling that he pioneered the technology with Dr. Light when they were
both young. The gears can slow down time, power up a fighting robot, or combine
both for a last-ditch effort in battle. Wily decides to power up his current
set of robot masters with the gear system and Mega Man insists that he also
receives the upgrade from Dr. Light to fight off these powered-up enemies.
Using the shoulder buttons, Mega Man can activate the Speed Gear, which slows down time, or the Power Gear, which powers up his Mega Buster
and gives him two full charge shots at its strongest charge. Both abilities are
set on a cooldown, meaning you can't just walk through a level with time permanently
slowed down. Activating either buys you a few seconds to take advantage of the
gear until you stop using it or it runs out, requiring a full cooldown to zero before
it can be used again.
Mega Man can also build up a charge through the level that
allows him to combine both gears as a desperation move, slowing down time and
giving his Mega Buster an extra bit of oomph. The super fighting robot better
have defeated the boss with this ultimate attack, though, or he'll overheat and
be unable to charge shots for a limited time.
The gears are not an easy button as I initially feared they
would be. It allows the designers to be a bit more devilish with the design of
optional challenges. An E-Tank in Block Man's stage requires platforming off a falling
block to reach, which is doable for those with fast reaction times, but made
just a bit easier using the Speed Gear. The Gears alone won't make anyone look
like a speedrunner, but they provide a little smoothing out of some of Mega Man's
hard edges.
The robot masters also have this same technology and use it
to add different phases to the boss fight. BlockMan uses the Power Gear to assemble
a block-filled mech that looks like something akin to Mega Man's monstrous
rival the Yellow Devil. The gears end up making the boss feel fresher than when
they simply bounced around the stage hitting you with projectiles, as classic
as that formula may be.
FuseMan's stage revisits a trope well-worn in Mega Man's long
history, an electric-themed stage littered with traps around Mega Man's feet. Fuses
shoot electric beams as you go through the stage, invoking a Mario-style level
design of introducing a stage obstacle and iterating on its use over the level.
Before too long, Mega Man is avoiding moving electric beams while platforming up
a vertical corridor and avoiding the exposed flooring.
As someone who has grown up alongside the Mega Man series
and counts its games as some of my favorites, I was initially fairly worried about
whether the eleventh game could successfully channel the spirit of its predecessors.
After having played it, I am confident that the final product feels like Mega Man,
and the developers understand just how difficult to define that feel can be.
The blue bomber is modernizing, which in itself can be a game of inches, but he
has not lost his robotic soul in the process.
Mega Man 11 releases on Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and
PC on October 2.
We try out the various new shots and play a few stages of adventure mode....<(a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/games/mario_tennis_aces/b/switch/archive/2018/05/29/learning-what-mario-tennis-aces-adventure-mode-serves-up.aspx">read more)
Feudal Alloy, an upcoming Metroidvania action RPG, centers around a bizarre concept. You play through a medieval era as a robot powered by a goldfish, who is on a quest to defeat bandits that burned down their home.
You're not the only goldfish piloting the robot. In this strange world, all enemies you go head-to-head with are similarly powered by fish. Feudal Alloy features hand-drawn 2D art, giving it a storybook vibe. Developer Attu Games describes the gameplay as discovering a "huge interconnected world, filled with wide range of enemies, bosses, skills, equipments and side quests."
Check out the trailer below.
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Feudal Alloy is expected to launch on PC later this year, though no specific release has been announced.
Sleep Tight is a shooter that reminds you of the fears you had as a kid at bedtime. It's about the monsters that lurk in your closet and under your bed, but this time, you have the power to stop them.
This twin-stick shooter blends base-building with intense combat. You craft fortresses out of bedsheets and furniture while fighting waves of monsters. Your goal is to survive as many nights as you can.
With 12 unlockable characters, you can switch between them to try out varying difficulties and playstyles. Check out the trailer below.
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Sleep Tight arrives on Nintendo Switch and PC on July 26.
Nintendo released a new gameplay trailer for the Switch port of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. The trailer showcases the puzzle game's various features, including a quick look at the New Donk City level inspired by Super Mario: Odyssey.
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Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker comes to the Switch and the 3DS on July 13. When Game Informer's Ben Reeves reviewed the original version of the game on Wii U, he said its extensive use of the console's Gamepad . Now, it actually will be.
Deep Silver has released a new trailer showcasing the upcoming modes in Codemasters new combat-racing game Onrush. The new title is being developed by a team created from the former members of Evolution, who were known for the Motorstorm series. Onrush seems to be a spiritual successor to those games, as it contains the same over-the-top crashes and car combat as Motorstorm.
The trailer dives into the four main modes; Countdown, Lockdown, Overdrive, and Switch. In Countdown, players must work with their team against a timer as they pass through gates to slow the decay of the clock. At the same time, they must stop the opposing team from passing through gates and ensure their timer reaches zero to gain points. Lockdown sees king of the hill get a racing twist, as players must fight with their team for control of a moving zone, and do everything in their power to stop the opposing team from taking it. Overdrive mode is the classic Motorstorm style of racing where players earn boost by driving recklessly and causing opposing players to crash. Once enough of their meter is built up, players can use their boost to gain points. The final mode is Switch, where every time a player wrecks, they switch vehicle classes. After three crashes, they run out of switches and instead must take down opposing players who still have switches left.
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Alongside the trailer detailing the new modes, Deep Silver and Codemasters have released two developer diaries. The Onrush Transmission video series goes behind the scenes, focusing on the design of the game and the influences behind the crash-fueled racer. You can check those videos out on the .
Onrush looks to be a different breed of racer and the influence Motorstorm has on its design shows in spades. The game comes out on June 6 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and is available in standard and deluxe editions.
Inxile Entertainment is working on a new entry in the long-running Bard's Tale series, and the studio has released a lengthy developer walkthrough that shows just what players can expect from The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep. It covers virtually everything from combat and exploration to a glimpse at the game's puzzles.
Creative director David Rogers provides lighthearted commentary in the clip, outlining a quest that has the party exploring a dangerous castle. It's a nice look at not only the game's grid-based combat, but also how puzzles are incorporated throughout the experience - including a cog-based challenge that leads to a door opening, and a little bit of object-based puzzling that unlocks a new weapon's potential.
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The game is coming to consoles and PC later this year. For even more on The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep, take a look at our .
Sega has released the first English-voiced trailer for Valkyria Chronicles 4 today, showcasing Squad E, the upstart company that is looking to change the tide of war.
The new trailer shows off the whole of Squad E with a mix of story cutscenes and gameplay footage to illustrate how the new characters look, act, and play. You can check out the trailer below.
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The new squad includes Claude Wallace, Squad E's commander; Riley Miller, the Grenadier; Raz acting as the squad's Shocktrooper; Kai Schulen the Sniper; and Karen Stuart and her Shiba Inu Ragnarok as the team's medics.
Valkyria Chronicles 4 launches on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch later this year.
Codemasters has teased F1 2018 with the proclamation that the August 24 title (PS4, Xbox One, and PC) has renewed focus on the series' career mode, but today the action is on the track. A new gameplay trailer has been released not only showing the iconic Circuit de Monaco, but you can see the track through the eyes of Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 driver Charles Leclerc.
Apart from Leclerc's smooth driving, you can also take in the game's revised lighting and atmospherics systems and player-managed Energy Recovery System (ERS), a new feature for this year.
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Sixteen years after Battlefield 1942 changed the landscape of competitive first-person shooters with its large-scale land/air/sea battles, the series returns to the same setting with Battlefield V. Today DICE dropped a kiloton of information on its eager fan base, revealing dramatic changes to some core Battlefield tenants, exciting new modes, and a new approach to its post-launch plans. Here's what we know about the game so far.
Battlefield Returns To World War II Yes, Battlefield is going back to the place where it all started for the series. But DICE isn't interested in retreading the most famous battles of World War II. "To be frank, we've all played it - we've all been there," says senior producer Andreas Morell. "We've all stormed the beaches of Normandy and cleared every bunker in France. I think some of us can probably navigate the countryside by muscle memory alone. And we've also seen the movies. So for us, we really wanted to give our players something new."
What does that mean for a war that's been retread in games and films so many times? The studio created this edict: Take players to unseen locations, tell untold stories, and have them fight unplayed battles. DICE teased a few of these during the event, including arctic battles in Norway, airborne operations in Rotterdam, and tank battles in North Africa. We also saw concept art for the French countryside, so not every location will be off the beaten path.
Battlefield 1942 featured some of the most memorable maps of all time, so I asked design director Daniel Berlin how DICE plans to leverage those classic maps. While he said they aren't ready to announce anything, you can tell they have some plans to capitalize on that game's legacy. "I can't say anything about yet, that but there are ideas around these things - there is a lot of good stuff," Berlin says. "I can also say we are drawing inspiration from those old maps. We know that people will play this game and look back to 1942. To certain degrees we want them to be at certain locations and go, 'Oh! I'm getting that feeling that I had [in 1942].' Playing the game, you will definitely get those nostalgic vibes."
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Operations Returns, With A Grand Renovation After the success of Battlefield 1's new Operations mode, a long-form match that took place over multiple maps, DICE is doubling down on the concept in Battlefield V. Now called Grand Operations, the modular experience now switches between different modes as well as maps. In the example DICE gave us set in Rotterdam, you may start the battle as part of an airborne invasion in a new mode called Airborne. The attacking team must drop behind enemy lines and take out the long-range artillery so their invading force can advance. In the beginning, every soldier must spawn in the aircraft and pick where they want to jump as the plane moves across the map. Defenders in AA cannons can target these carriers and rack up crazy kill counts if they manage to down one with several soldiers waiting to deploy.
On day two, the battle still takes place in Rotterdam, but now the invading force is moving in to capture points in the classic Operations fashion, which is now a mode called Breakthrough. The number of troops and vehicles is determined by how quickly the paratroopers took out the long-range artillery in the last round.
When day three begins, the map changes to a bombed-out version of Rotterdam where the players see the destruction from the early bombing runs. This operation could end on this day if the attackers achieve a decisive victory. But if the battle is close, it extends into day four, which in this case is a new Last Stand mode.
Last Stand is the ultimate war of attrition. Ammo is low (you may only start with one magazine), vehicles are scarce to nonexistent, and if a squad is wiped they cannot come back into the match. This puts heavy emphasis on squad coordination to resupply and revive each other.
This is just one example of how DICE could construct a Grand Operation. The developers can modify the modes included, the number of vehicles, and types of weapons at teams' disposal every time they introduce a new one. DICE also plans to use this mode to introduce all the new maps and content coming to Battlefield V over its lifespan, but that content will eventually migrate over to the classic modes like Conquest, Domination, Frontlines, and Team Deathmatch. New (or renamed) modes like Airborne, Last Stand, and Breakthrough will also be available as standalone experiences. We'll play Grand Operations for the first time during EA Play at E3.
Squad Cooperation Matters More Than Ever As the waning rounds of Grand Operations demonstrated, you really need to work together to emerge victorious in Battlefield V. This is the reasoning behind why players automatically spawn into a squad when joining a match in Battlefield V. You can still opt out of the squad and go lone wolf, but the design stresses cooperation more than ever before, and if you go lone wolf you'll miss out on some tide-turning weapons.
This renewed focus on team play begins with the squad leader, who has more power than ever before. If the designated squad leader isn't issuing orders and another player is continually requesting an assignment, the job will automatically switch to the person showing an interest in getting objectives. As the team performs actions together, they earn squad-reinforcement points over the course of the match. Once they hit certain thresholds, the squad leader then has powerful new tools at their disposal that they can deploy to benefit the team. This includes special vehicles only your squad members can spawn into, supply drops, a smoke barrage to supply cover, and even a V1 rocket you can drop on a tough-to-crack frontline to punch a hole in the defense. The squad leader must weigh this decision and determine whether they want to spend these points early for an immediate benefit, or save them in hopes of unleashing one of those deadly rockets later in the match.
One of the most significant changes to Battlefield V relates to revives. For the first time in the series, all squad members can revive each other, regardless of what class they are using. These "body revives" take much longer, and they leave the saved player with much less health than they would have if a medic did the job. If your downed squad member is out in the open, you can now drag them behind cover before attempting a revive, as well.
The squad spawn revamp lets you page through over-the-shoulder looks at each of your comrades to get a better understanding of what you are getting yourself into. You come to this screen by default instead of going back to the full deploy screen every time - unless your squad is wiped. In that case, new indicators tell you where your teammates plan to spawn so you can more quickly get back on the same page.
Scarcity Changes The Way You Play In another move to force team play, DICE is taking a new approach to loading out soldiers when they respawn. You still get a few clips of ammo and a grenade, but unless you're an ace shot, don't expect that supply to last very long. You also don't regenerate your full health after taking a bullet, so staying by a medic is going to be key to survival. To help with the resource scarcity, you can always resupply ammo, gadgets, and health on a flag position - provided one has been built there. Bold soldiers can also run to collect ammo off the corpses of their downed enemies as well, keeping them in the fight a bit longer. We're curious to see how these changes affect the scout class. Snipers who like to camp are going to need an ample supply of ammo before they go perch on the ridge. Maybe this will convince more player to PTFO. DICE hopes this new scarcity creates more micro-lulls in the action where squads regroup before pushing forward, lending the play a more measured and tactical rhythm.
Major Gameplay Changes The list of gameplay changes coming to Battlefield V is long, but let's start with the tool everyone uses the most in the game - guns. DICE is changing how weapons work to reduce the randomness while firing and give each gun a more predictable burst pattern that players can learn over time and eventually master. Where you aim is now where you shoot - no random bullet trajectories going left or right. DICE demoed this new technology on a test range and the variant between burst patterns was dramatically more reliable. This should increase the viability of LMGs for the support class, which can now rip through cover thanks to a new bullet-penetration ballistics system.
Those who like to go heavy have a fun new toy at their disposal in Battlefield V - towing stationary weapons. Now you can attach an AA gun or stationary .50 cal to the back of your tank and drag it to a more strategic location. You can even have one person firing the AA gun on the go while the tank driver is lobbing shells, turning the duo into a mini armored train of sorts.
Grenade spam has been a constant topic in the Battlefield community, and DICE has finally addressed it in a meaningful way by adding the ability to shoot grenades out of the sky or throw them back. Hopefully, this mitigates some of the shrapnel-filled death corridors that have a tendency to develop during battles.
DICE also changed how soldiers move through the environment, adding a layer of realism to wading through water or running through mud. If a player is trudging through shallow water, the soldiers will now lift their legs higher. Running on mud or rocks may cause your soldier to slip slightly, and they now charge into cover with full physicality, violently banging their bodies on the cover when running to the position. The environment also reacts to soldier movements in realistic ways. If you are moving quickly through high grass or shrubbery, enemies may see the blades or bushes moving.
Soldiers have more varied options when going prone as well. Dropping quickly to prone, you can now land on your side to keep your aim in a particular direction. You can backpedal while prone, and even turn 360 degrees. This will be handy when you are positioned in a building but need to get a look at who is approaching up the stairs.
The last major change DICE teased is a revamped spotting system. You can no longer just spam the spotting button to reveal icons all over the map. DICE isn't explaining how the new system works exactly, but we'll get our first look during E3.
Destruction Gets Physical Destructibility has always been a hallmark of Battlefield, and DICE is introducing some impressive physics-based tweaks to the system in 2018. When shredding buildings to pieces with heavy ammo, you will see it react naturally. Exploding a wall from the inside will send the debris outward, and the decimated parts are now all real pieces of the building, not just pre-rendered chunks. Similarly, blasting a building from the outside will send the debris inward. Some pieces may end up hanging by a thread, eventually succumbing to gravity a bit later should another blast shake it free.
Fortification Counters Destructibility One of the most interesting new mechanics Battlefield V introduces is fortification. We've all been hiding in a house, only to have a tank shell rip it to pieces and leave us with no cover. Now, soldiers of any class can make fortifications and rebuild parts of these structures. The fortification mechanics even work out in the open - you can deploy sandbags, anti-tank obstacles, barbed wire, resupply centers near flag points, etc.
Support class builds faster and can create more fortifications than the other classes, including stationary machine guns. They can also repair these types of weapons.
EA Choses Live Service Over Paid DLC The new Tides of War live service replaces the Premium Pass approach from past Battlefield games. Design director Daniel Berlin says DICE has ambitious plans to keep this service evolving. Most content will come in the form of chapters that advance to new fronts of the war, giving the player a deeper context on the breadth of World War II and introducing new modifications to existing modes, new narrative experiences, new cooperative missions, new maps, and new rewards.
The big question this raises: Does this new approach mean a dramatically reduced number of maps? "I can't say anything in terms of numbers, but we are really f---ng dedicated to making sure that this journey in Tides of War is something we're really leaning into," Berlin says. "I can't talk specifics, but there's going to be tons of stuff for you guys." Dramatically Expanded Customization For the first time in the Battlefield series, you can now customize your characters from head to toe. As the screenshot above indicates, this even extends to gender - expect to see a lot more female soldiers in the field. Customization options include facial features, hair, face paint, upper torso, pants, and accessories like goggles and gloves. The trailer shows a woman with a mechanical arm, so expect to see some unique offerings.
Guns and vehicles also have dramatically expanded customization options that extend beyond skins. Weapons each have five-to-seven different visual parts you can customize, including the chassis material, muzzles, stocks, scopes, and trinkets. We saw some guns decked out with immaculate marble stocks, and others that looked more DIY, like having foliage bent over the muzzle.
Customization extends beyond the cosmetic and includes perks. Each character class has different archetypes you can purchase with the grind currency to unlock new play styles, and the same goes for tanks. Maybe one of your Tiger tanks is outfitted with heavy armor plating to take more damage, and your other one is outfitted with upgrades that improve its speed and handling.
All your various class characters, weapons, and vehicles can be accessed via your Company page. This is the all-in-one customization hub where players will spend a significant amount of time.
Yes, EA plans to allow players to buy a currency to unlock customization options, but some items will only be achievable by completing specific tasks in-game. DICE also assured us there are no pay-to-win microtransactions that could give a player a leg up on their competition.
This new system spells the end for battlepacks. Instead of these random loot drops, you can buy what you what when you want it.
The expanded Assignment system gives you a lot of ways to earn more currency, including daily orders and more time consuming special assignments. Since not everyone always had the skill to meet special assignment objectives in previous Battlefield games, DICE offers multiple ways to meet the objectives.
Players can show off their customized look in more places than the killcam in Battlefield V. Now when you go in for a melee kill, your opponent sees the whites of your eyes (and your immaculate fashion sensibilities). You can also get an up-close look at your teammates when they rush to revive you.
War Stories Return Battlefield 1's approach to single-player content won over fans and critics alike with its focused, short-story-style war missions that gave you a deeper glimpse into the lives of the various soldiers fighting the good fight across many fronts. War Stories return in Battlefield V as well, though DICE isn't going into much detail about the breadth of content available just yet. All we know is they are inspired by real events and intended to "make people feel something," as senior producer Lars Gustavsson says. We did get a brief tease of one story featuring a Norwegian woman who puts her life at risk to save her family. Expect to hear more about War Stories as we get closer to launch.
Introducing Combined Arms, A New Cooperative Mode For years, DICE has searched for a new way to onboard players to its impressively deep but sometimes hard to understand intricacies of Battlefield multiplayer. This year, the studio hopes to bridge the gap between single player and multiplayer for good with a new four-player cooperative mode called Combined Arms. DICE built a mission generator that allows the team to customize new experiences quickly in a variety of environments. One mission may have you parachute behind enemy lines and try to stay undetected as your squad moves through objectives. When the mission gets hairy, you will have a tough decision to make: Do you extract to keep everything you have gained to that point, or tough it out to try and retrieve the big reward at the final objective?
By introducing squad mechanics in a PvE space, DICE hopes this properly acclimates new players, while giving veteran soldiers a fresh experience at the same time. All the things you unlock in Combined Arms feed into your company.
Classes Are Being Rebalanced Battlefield V introduces some significant changes to the class system because of the new systems being introduced in the game. "We're adding stuff to the sandbox, meaning the fortification system and towing, and we're adding more abilities to the player - how they can interact with the world and they can shoot grenades in the sky or throw them back, or backpedal and all these things," Berlin says. "With these new ingredients added to the sandbox, we are doing a rebalancing phase as well to make it fit this new formula."
The Battlefield V Play First trial begins October 11 on Xbox One and PC. Players who buy the deluxe edition can join the fray on October 16, and the standard edition launches on October 19 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
The story behind Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle predates
its announcement, when a blurry image of the game leaked out onto the internet
and set Nintendo fan expectations to a level of nervous excitement at best.
When the game was officially revealed and released, players saw that the
synchronicity between the two licenses and how well they gelled together, with
our own Jeff Marchiafava declaring "it ended up
being my favorite Mario game in recent years." Earlier this year,
Ubisoft and Nintendo announced a Donkey Kong-themed DLC expansion for this game
with a new world and new characters and we got a chance to try the new content
out.
In the main game, Rabbid Donkey Kong served as the boss of
the first world and was ultimately defeated thanks to Rabbid Peach dismantling
a tower and pushing the lagomorph-ape down a cliff. The DLC shows that Rabbid
Kong ended up falling into the world's reality-bending washing machine, sending
him to Donkey Kong's island. Later on, Rabbid Peach also ends up in the washing
machine, inadvertently also following to a Donkey Kong Island that has been
taken over by Rabbid Kong with the power of corrupted bananas.
Donkey Kong, Rabbid Peach, and Rabbid Cranky join forces to
take down Rabbid Kong and his hierarchy of magic banana-powered mafioso beneath
him.
The island's titular Kong is the real star of the party as
he functions differently from pretty much every character in the main game.
Rather than dashing through enemies or jumping off teammates, Donkey Kong picks
up friend and foe alike and thus becomes a gamechanger for mobility and defense
on the battlefield. The large rabbids who aggressively stalked your team and
got closer to doing massive melee damage with each attack are made almost
trivial by Donkey Kong's ability to pick them up and throw them out of the way.
Throwing teammates closer to objectives or within skill range can also totally
shake up how you use your long-range squad members.
A further upgrade in the skill tree also allows Donkey Kong
to pluck enemies in the ground that are waiting to spawn the next turn,
allowing you to get a leg-up on damaging them before they get to you. Donkey
Kong's ability to traverse the battlefield is also unparalleled, with special
vine platforms introduced in this new world that allow DK to swing around the
stage in ways plumbers could only dream of.
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The DLC is much of what you remember from the main game,
rewarding creativity and speed in achieving your goals. Thankfully, the Donkey
Kong DLC expands upon the existing mission types and introduces things like objective
destruction to help vary it up. An early mission has your team attacking and
destroying bunches of corrupted bananas, giving players who have mastered
Donkey Kong's movement options a chance to strut their stuff.
While our demo finished after a few battles, the game is both
more of the surprisingly good main game with its own small twists and changes. Moving
around as Donkey Kong and basketball free throwing enemies into each other or into
teammates' range is genuinely fun and hopefully the DLC has a satisfying
challenge progression to keep it fun through the whole expansion.
The Donkey Kong DLC is part of the Mario + Rabbids Kingdom
Battle season pass or will be available on its own for $14.99. You can also
find footage of us playing the game in the New Gameplay Today episode right
here.
Cavernous Wastes - Screenshots