News

Destiny 2 Promises Content in the Coming Month

By the looks of it, Bungie is already working to make sure that the game’s frontloaded with content. In a report from Polygon, Bungie has a full month of stuff planned for players. Two raids debut this month: Leviathan on Wednesday and then Trails of the Nine about a week and a half later. Friday sees Baro, I mean… Xur… return with rare weaponry. October has more in store from Bungie, including a prestiged raid and the Iron Banner from the original’s Crucible.

“Story Mode” Setting Delivered to Horizon: Zero Dawn

Patch 1.32 is out for Horizon: Zero Dawn and that means players can make gameplay easier. An earlier patch gave players the option to make the game harder, forcing them to use their wits against tougher, more intelligent enemies. The new patch gives players the option to soften up the combat, focusing on Aloy’s quest to find out more about herself instead.

No Man’s Sky: Time for a Revisit

The Hello Games team has been teasing No Man’s Sky’s 1.3 update patch since earlier this week. And today, it was released! On No Man’s Sky’s birthday, no less. The patch boasts over vehicles, improvements to in-game systems, and over thirty hours of new story content.

Overwatch Brings Back Summer Games

Last year, the Overwatch community was head-over-heels for new things to do in their favorite competitive shooter. The Summer Games, themed after the Olympics, brought new skins, emotes, voice lines, and even a new game mode to the game. This year, they return with more.

International Dota 2 Championships Prize Pool

(Image from here)

The teams competing in the International Dota 2 Championships are fighting for that record-breaking $24 million prize pool distribution! The grand prize being over $10 million, second place receiving $3.8 million, and third place with $1.6 million. The cash reward difference between the first and second place makes my palms sweat and my legs shake. I have much respect for competitive gamers. Esports has come a long way and it will further mark its place in the years to come.

The International Dota 2 Championship is happening from August 7th to the 12th! (Watch it here or…. HERE if you consider yourself a noobie)

Nintendo World Championships Return for 2017

The third Nintendo World Championship (held originally in 1990 and again in 2015) will be held October 7 in the Manhattan Center’s Grand Ballroom, New York, USA.  Qualifying tournaments at select Best Buy stores across the country (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Dallas, Seattle, and Miami) will begin later this month (August 19). At the tournaments, attendees can also play demos for Mario Odyssey and Metroid: Samus Returns. Details and store addresses can be found on the official website.

This year, Nintendo has added a 12 and under division that hasn’t previously been present. The other age division is simply 13+. At the qualifying tournament, the website says that competitors will be playing Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS to compete for their spots in the competition.Whether or not there will be prizes of any kind has not yet been specified.

The Nintendo World Championship is perhaps most well-known from its legacy of the legendary golden Nintendo World Championship cartridges, which are often called not just the rarest NES game, but arguably the rarest video game of all time. For collectors, a golden 1990 Nintendo World Championship cartridge is a holy grail that commands 10s of thousands of dollars when they go on the market (which, as you can imagine, is almost never).

TSM announce “Hjelte” series following Melee player Leffen

TeamSoloMid have announced a new documentary series focusing on the Super Smash Bros. Melee player, William “Leffen” Hjelte. The series, simply titled “Hjelte”, will be 3 parts long, and will focus on Leffen’s time at EVO 2017. According to producer Andrew White, it will be “covering before/after Evo as well as exploring the Melee scene as a whole”.

While the primary focus is on Leffen, we see that in the trailer there is also a focus on his friends/rivals in the community, as shown by interviews with people such as Team Liquid’s Hungrybox and Cloud9’s Mang0.

Overwatch: Summer Games 2017

In a developer update that released on August 1st, our boy Jeff, from the Overwatch team stated that the Summer Games would be coming back for a second year in a row. Although some of the skins will be the same, it’s not without some changes.  

This time around the Summer Games take place in Sydney, Australia. The event will have all of the skins from the previous year, but this time all of them will be available to purchase with in-game credits, a feature that wasn’t present in last year’s summer games. The old skins will be available for the same amount of currency that your standard items have (1000 for Legendary, 250 for epic, 75 for rare and 25 for commons), while the new ones will stay with the traditional event price gouging (3000 for legendary, 750 for epic, 225 for rare and 75 for common).

There will also be a new map for Lucioball, a soccer game mode where the only playable character is Lucio. The new map will be set in Sydney, Australia while the Rio map will also be available to play. This game mode will also feature a ranked mode where players can get competitive points for participating. There are also some balance changes for Lucioball. Lucio’s ultimate ability will now raise his speed and decrease his cooldowns for a period of time. You will also no longer be able to boop enemies, only the soccer ball.

Summer Games 2017 will start on August 8th and will run all the way to August 29th.

PUBG Update: Introducing the “Crate and Key System”

Player Unknown posted the Early Access Month 4 Update for PUBG and this is all the character stuff in a nutshell!

Two new face presets and hairstyles have been added for both genders.

The “crate and key system” will tested in the servers soon. There are two types of free-to-open crates that will be available: Survivor and Wanderer crates. The crate prices will be reset every Monday and the maximum number of crates you can obtain per week six. You can trade the items on the Steam Marketplace as well. The images below show what items you can receive from each crate.

For more information, check out the Early Access Month 4 Update. (provides all the images found here)

Release Roundup 8/1 – 8/12

The next week and a half of video games is on the slower side, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to check out. Here’s the stuff coming out that I think will be worth checking out. Take a look!

 

Patapon Remastered

Patapon is a beloved series of rhythm games that released on the on the PSP starting in 2008. So, if you happened to miss out on the PSP era now is your chance to make up for it. In Patapon you control a tribe of small, black creatures that are mostly eyes, called Patapon. You charge the small Patapon into battle while they rhythmically and menacingly chant past any other tribes that get in their way. This remaster only has the first game in the series and you can get the game digitally starting today for $14.99 on Ps4

Tacoma

Tacoma is Fullbright’s highly anticipated second game, the first being Gone Home. Tacoma is a narrative based sci-fi adventure set in a space station in the year 2088. If it’s anything like their previous work, Tacoma will probably focus on the more personal and human side of being in space rather than the sci-fi aspect of it. The review embargo lifted today and the game will be out on Steam and Xbox One starting on August 2nd for $19.99.

LawBreakers

LawBreakers is the first game made by Cliff Bleszinski’s new studio Boss Key Productions. It’s a first person arena shooter made in the style of games like Unreal Tournament while mixing it with modern shooter abilities and mobility options. This game has seen a lot of iteration through many closed and open beta sessions and seeing the final product is something I’m excited for. You can get it starting August 8th for $29.99

Sony Buys Out Funimation

Funimation and Sony Pictures TV have signed an agreement that would see the majority of the anime distributor bought out by Sony. Funimation’s CEO, Gen Fukunaga, will remain CEO of the company. This could mean that anime produced by Aniplex and A-1, two studios that Sony owns, as well as anime that Funimation has rights to distribute, may see more releases in the United States.

Dark Souls – The Vinyl Trilogy Announced for Fall

Bandai Namco announced the limited edition run of the set this week. The Dark Souls LPs will be available sometime this fall, as a limited edition 2000-copy run. Not only does each game get its own set of LPs, but there will be 9 total vinyl in the box set. The announcement trailer shows that Dark Souls 2 will be spread out on four vinyl, while Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 are only on two each.