JXE Streams: Me, you and Mewtwo in ‘Super Smash Bros. for Wii U’
Nintendo’s reticence to make downloadable content has been exasperating this past decade. Is it admirable to focus on making full games, the whole thing complete and defined when it ships on a disc? Of course, but it’s also exciting to see games turn into thriving ecosystems of change. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U has already been tweaked, balanced and updated multiple times since its release last fall, but it was only this month that it expanded through big DLC. Mewtwo, the formidable Pokémon fighter last seen in Super Smash Bros. Melee, is back and we’re checking out his moves with The A.V. Club‘s own Matt Gerardi on today’s stream.
Catch a look at Mewtwo in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U starting at 3:30PM ET on Twitch.tv/Joystiq , Engadget.com/gaming and here in this post. We’ll be playing crazy matches with far too many amiibo. Will Mewtwo’s skills let us fend off the vicious AI waiting inside a Rosalina amiibo? Tune in to find out.
If you dig the streams and want more, make sure to follow us on Twitch.tv/Joystiq and to bookmark Engadget.com/gaming to get a look at our upcoming schedule.
[We’re playing a retail disc of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, streamed through an Elgato Capture HD via OBS at 720p.]
Xbox and HoloLens games now under domain of ex-Lionhead boss
Former Lionhead Studios boss John Needham is now in charge of internal development for several games and experiences on Microsoft’s Xbox and HoloLens platforms, a Microsoft spokesperson told Engadget today. Needham reports directly to Kudo Tsunoda, head of Microsoft Studios’ portfolio investments team and former creative director for Kinect Games. Needham took over as the head of Microsoft’s Lionhead Studios in 2013 and he’s been involved in the corporate gaming world since joining Sony Online Entertainment in 2001. As the leader of Lionhead, the studio behind Fable, Needham reported directly to former Microsoft VP Phil Harrison. Needham relocated to Microsoft’s offices in Redmond, Washington, for his new role.
A Microsoft spokesperson offered the following statement to Engadget today (partially repeating its announcement about Tsunoda’s move in March):
“With the exception of Halo, Gears of War, Forza and Minecraft, Kudo Tsunoda will lead the vision and experience development of our other Microsoft Studios portfolio investments in the United States, Europe and across our Global Publishing team. John Needham relocated to Redmond in a new role overseeing internal development for several games and experiences for both Xbox and Microsoft HoloLens reporting to Kudo. All up responsibility for Xbox EMEA will be overseen directly by Phil Spencer.”
This isn’t the only internal shakeup for Microsoft this year: Reports that Harrison would leave Microsoft cropped up in March, and the company confirmed the news in April. Harrison’s new startup, Alloy Platform Industries, deals in bleeding-edge consumer gadgets and licenses some technology from Microsoft, he told Games Industry this week.
Image credit: John Needham
The magic of Nintendo’s new shooter ‘Splatoon’ is in its multiplayer
My Nintendo 64 memories have nothing to do with GoldenEye 007, the famed first-person James Bond shooter that helped define the genre. Unlike seemingly every other N64 owner, I never played that game because, quite frankly, shooters aren’t my thing. With Splatoon, Nintendo’s quirky, new third-person action shooter for the Wii U, ready for release on May 29th, however, it may be time I change my tune.
There are two critical things Splatoon accomplishes for Nintendo: It breathes life into the Wii U’s Zelda-less 2015 lineup and it’s a completely new IP, which should please loyalists. The game boasts Nintendo’s signature polish as it’s filled to the brim with colorful art direction, instantly lovable characters (i.e., the Inklings) and a whimsical squid-ink twist on the shooter genre. What’s more, it’s meant to be “primarily a four vs. four online turf war battle,” according to Corey Olcsvary of Nintendo’s Treehouse. That’s right, with Splatoon, Nintendo’s putting online multiplayer first; that’s an actual first for the company, which typically favors local multiplayer a la Super Smash Bros. The demo I played, however, was focused on the single-player campaign and corresponding Amiibo challenges, so the verdict’s still out on how the multiplayer “meat and potatoes” of the game’ll pan out.
Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s celebrated Mario maker and overseer of the company’s prestigious EAD studio (from which Splatoon hails), is famously averse to a story-first approach to game design, opting instead to focus on “fun” gameplay. And so, Splatoon follows that blueprint with a thin conceit: You, a member of the Inklings, are trying to regain ownership of the Great Zap Fish from archrivals, the Octarians. That’s it. That’s the story.
Players that enter the world of Splatoon begin and end their journeys in a hub world known as Inkopolis. It’s from here that you’ll enter a tower to begin multiplayer tournaments; enter a sewer for single-player campaign; approach an Amiibo box to play those additional campaign challenges; or shop for upgrades like shoes, hats and outfits. There’s no extended ability to converse with the other players that inhabit your hub world as Inkopolis functions much like Wara Wara Plaza on the Wii U home screen. Only player stats will be accessible through interaction with others in the hub.
The single-player campaign in Splatoon plays out more like an extended training exercise and, according to Olcsvary, that’s entirely by design. It’s intended to help ramp up players’ skill levels so they’ll be able to confidently enter and compete in online matches. Each level in the campaign introduces a new mechanic or play style to gradually build up a player’s arsenal of moves and also get them acquainted with the various battle environments.
In typical Nintendo style, this is done so effortlessly as to be invisible. The first levels of Splatoon‘s campaign, while not childishly simple, don’t quite present much of a challenge. The enemies remain mostly static and the platforming elements are non-threatening. Most of that initial play time is spent coming to grips with the somewhat on-rails world of Splatoon and the motion controls of the GamePad, which are used to manipulate the camera. That said, players looking for a more traditional shooter setup can remap the camera to the right analog stick. Although, in practice, I much preferred the default motion setting.
The controls in Splatoon are otherwise fairly straightforward: To spray ink, you simply depress ZR (sorry, but there’s no targeted lock-on). To swim in your inkblots as a squid, you depress ZL. Ink capacity can be re-upped by swimming around and the ability to swap out weapons, of which there are three types (rapid-fire, charger and roller), comes only in multiplayer or Amiibo challenge modes. Upgrades in single-player are limited. Unlike the coins granted by online matches, campaign mode requires players to collect power eggs to improve stats (e.g., faster ink tank refills), not gear. So you’ll be stuck with the “hero suit” for the duration of the single-player campaign.
If you happen to conquer all 20 challenges offered by an Amiibo figurine, however, your Inkling will be rewarded with a special outfit: a schoolgirl look for the female Inkling, a samurai look for the boy Inkling and a “ridiculous” outfit for the squid. The major caveat here being that you must first unlock all the single-player levels in order to even access the additional Amiibo challenges.
As much as I was excited for the single-player experience in Splatoon, it lacks the compelling magic the IP was built around — and that’s the multiplayer mayhem. Though I enjoyed progressing from objective to objective, ink-blasting baddies and leveling up my proficiency in the increasingly difficult campaign, it wasn’t until I went head to head with another local player in Battle Dojo (versus mode) that I began to see the game’s frantic appeal. And this is where the Wii U’s unique design comes into play, as one player uses the GamePad as both controller and screen, while the other gets the TV and a separate controller (likely a Pro).
I’ll admit, I got my ass handed to me several times over while battling in local multiplayer — I’m crap at shooters — but I never felt discouraged and the gameplay never felt unfair. In fact, there are plenty of player assists in the form of power-up crates sprinkled throughout the sandboxed levels. The objective of this mode is simple: Pop as many balloons as you can and impede your opponent’s progress (read: Literally slow them down) by spraying the terrain with your color ink. It sounds simple, but it’s wonderfully maddening to play.
As enjoyable as Splatoon is in its more limited modes, I still couldn’t shake the sense that I was missing the larger picture. It appears as though much of the game’s mass appeal will live and die by the success of its online multiplayer aspect. And for that, we’ll have to wait and see.
[Image credits: Nintendo]
‘Kerbal Space Program’ finally launches on April 27th
Squad’s Kerbal Space Program has often seemed like a never-ending experiment. The first public version of the spacecraft building game was released in 2011, and it’s been in a rough state ever since. At last, though, it’s officially ready for action — the developer has revealed that KSP 1.0 will be available on April 27th. This polished version will be very familiar if you’ve tried pre-release code on your Mac or Windows PC, although that’s not a bad thing. As before, your only real goal is to explore the Kerbals’ solar system using the best rockets, landers and probes that you know how to make, with (mostly) realistic physics teaching you about the challenges of reaching orbit and touching down on distant planets. The game is close enough to the real thing that the likes of NASA and SpaceX’s Elon Musk approve, so it’s worth a look if you want to imagine what a Mars landing would be like years before it happens.
Source: Kerbal Space Program
GameStop’s going retro with classic consoles and games
GameStop is trying a new tactic as it faces increased competition from the likes of Gamefly, Amazon and other online retailers: It’s going old school. IGN reports that beginning April 24th, the company will once again begin accepting classic consoles for trade-in and sale in 250 of its brick-and-mortar locations around NYC and Birmingham, Alabama. Technically, sellers will be able to offload their old consoles in an actual store but buyers will only be able to purchase these units online. Most every console from the 8-bit era on up to PS2‘s will reportedly be offered. And because the used consoles are first inspected and certified by GameStop before being put back up for sale, they’re expected to come with warranties on par with those offered by the original manufacturers. GameStop hopes to roll the service out nationwide by the end of the year.
Via: MCV
Source: IGN
‘Heroes of the Storm’ pits ‘StarCraft against ‘Warcraft’ in June
More than three years after Blizzard announced it would be making a competitor to League of Legends and Dota 2, that game finally has an official release date. Heroes of the Storm comes out June 2nd, brining with it seven maps for players to face off on using over 30 characters culled from the studio’s famous Diablo, StarCraft and Warcraft series. As with other multiplayer online battle arena games, or MOBAs as they’re commonly known, like the aforementioned League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm is free to download and start playing. Blizzard makes money on the game by charging for new characters as well as customization options.
The entire MOBA genre actually began with Defense of the Ancients, a fan-made mod for Blizzard‘s own Warcraft III, the popularity of which ultimately inspired competitor Valve to make Dota 2. While the DotA name was inspired by a Blizzard game, it had no claim to the brand and Valve took advantage of the opportunity to trademark the title. In 2012 when Blizzard first announced Blizzard DotA, the game that would eventually become Heroes of the Storm, it sparked a legal battle with Valve over the name. Ultimately Blizzard had to change the title to Blizzard All-Stars. In 2013 the game was finally renamed Heroes of the Storm before going into extensive alpha testing in 2014 and beta testing in 2015.
Blizzard announced it will host one final beta test for Heroes of the Storm starting on May 19th, shortly after the end of the Heroes of the Dormchampionship eSports tournament. The final match of that tournament will air on an ESPN network and WatchESPN on April 26th.
Source: Blizzard
How would you change Sony’s PlayStation Vita TV?
It’s a PlayStation Vita that you can connect to your TV, but that doesn’t mean you should automatically go out and buy one. When we reviewed the hardware last year, we found that the low price and ability to play retro games were great, but the media streaming let the side down. That said, it was a much better crafted piece of hardware than some Android-powered consoles our reviewer could have mentioned. So, what we want to know is do you like your Vita TV and if so, why? Hop over into our forum and share the love, the hatred and everything in between.
Source: Engadget Product Forums
If you want to chat on Steam, spend at least $5
Earlier this week Valve introduced Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator as a means to keep its users safe from phishing attempts, and now it’s taken another step in that direction. From here on out, until you spend a minimum $5 with your account certain features are blocked. What’re you going to miss out on? Friend invites, opening group chat, the Steam discussion boards and voting on Greenlight games among other things. But, considering that most people use the service for, you know, buying and playing games, this really should only affect those who’re actively using the service for nefarious purposes.
Valve says that the easiest way to identify malicious users from folks who are genuinely using the service is comparing spending habits to account age. “Typically, the accounts being used for [phishing] have no investment in their longevity,” Valve writes. So, if you’re a typical Steam user you shouldn’t notice a difference aside from a hopeful decrease in spam in your inbox.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Steam Support
The slow, unsettling burn of Owl Cave’s indie horror
Owl Cave popped onto the indie scene in 2013 with a macabre, witty point-and-click adventure called Richard & Alice, which received a slew of rave reviews. Studio co-founder Nina White specializes in crafting vaguely horrific stories packed with tension, and her latest creation, The Charnel House Trilogy, is no exception. It’s a subdued brand of horror: no jump scares, no boogeymen under the bed, no demonic children with long, limp hair crawling out of the TV. Charnel House takes place on a train and tells the stories of three passengers over the course of a single night.
“For me, horror’s all about the creeping dread, the slow, unsettling burn,” White says. “It’s this sense of unease and discomfort that I really like playing around with when crafting horror stories.”
White’s experience with horror stems from writing prose fiction, which is one reason she doesn’t rely on jump scares in her games. In text, it’s difficult to make a reader jump in shock from a single, calculated word or punctuation mark. Written horror requires more atmosphere, more world-building, prose that makes the reader truly believe in the story. Writing games, it turns out, isn’t much different for White, though it requires a bit more “stage direction” than storytelling.
“I think when people imagine a ‘writer’ they imagine someone jotting down words that appear on a page, or on a screen, that are then displayed or read to the reader or player,” she says. “With games like Charnel House, there’s a lot of narrative design involved; what does having this box in room 2-C say to the player? What story does that tell? What message am I conveying with this particular audio cue?”
White wants the world to examine horror as an art form in an in-depth way. Mainstream horror is fine, but the genre as a whole offers much more variation than the classic ghosts, goblins and serial killers. There are whole worlds of psychological unease: people sitting too close for comfort, the terror in an unfamiliar road, a breath of cold air on a hot summer day.
“One of today’s Charnel House reviews actually states ‘it’s not a horror game,’ which is an interesting statement to make,” White says. “I think people could make the same argument about my novel, Bright Lights & Glass Houses, too. That it’s not horror. But for me, it absolutely is. This is what the horror genre can do so well, this approach that isn’t exactly what you associate as mainstream horror, and I think people who are heavily involved in the genre are pretty good at building on that.”
Charnel House, out now on Steam for PC, is a 2D side-scroller with a fixed camera. The train and its passengers are drawn mostly in muted sepia tones, a style pulled from a game that Owl Cave launched in September 2013, Sepulchre (it’s one of the stories in the trilogy, in fact). The design of Charnel House feeds into White’s writing, allowing her and artist Ivan Ulyanov to create living photographs punctuated with bits of discomfort.
“Everything’s normal, but then not quite normal…. One of the great things about the low-resolution pixel art style is that it further reinforces the abstraction and plays on the concept of the unknown, where some of our favorite horror resides,” White says. “Then the portraits, far more detailed and realistic, portray these snapshots of each character in differing states of emotions.”
No matter who you are, you can get on board with us and be a part of something we’re creating
White enjoys toying with definitions, stretching them to their limits and bending them to new situations. Owl Cave, for example, consists of her and Ulyanov, but she doesn’t have a solidified idea of what exactly their studio is. They work with a rotating stream of freelance game developers and a community of passionate, dedicated fans. Owl Cave is more than a strictly regulated studio, but less than a free-flowing hippie commune. It’s more like a collective.
“That’s always something I’ve been really keen to do; work with a bunch of different people on an affordable, versatile level spanning multiple projects, but without any of us getting tied down or locked into one thing,” White says. “So there’s that, this sense of community, a fluid and hopefully welcoming atmosphere that says, ‘Hey you, no matter who you are, you can get on board with us and be a part of something we’re creating.’”
Plus, White says, it’s more affordable to run a studio this way. “But that’s a boring answer. Just pretend like we’re a mysterious secret society.”
The first look at ‘Star Wars Battlefront,’ a familiar multiplayer feast
With a new film on the horizon, there’s a wave of excitement attached to the Star Wars franchise that hasn’t been felt since the months leading up to the release of Episode I. Part of Disney’s new plan for the $4 billion series includes a slate of new video game experiences over the course of a 10-year partnership with Electronic Arts.
At Star Wars Celebration, the 10th official convention focused on the iconic property, EA’s DICE studio showcased the first game in its decade-long plan: Star Wars: Battlefront, set to launch on November 17, 2015, for PC, Xbox One and PS4.
Powered by EA’s Frostbite engine, Star Wars: Battlefront brings large-scale, multiplayer-focused battles back to gamers for the first time since the series disappeared after Star Wars: Battlefront 2 launched in 2004.
The Star Wars Celebration-exclusive sneak peek of in-game Battlefront action begins on familiar land. The war-torn forests of Endor appear peaceful before a trio of speeders rips through the landscape. More stormtroopers emerge and the Rebel soldier we’re following begins to fire. A ripple of familiarity shoots through my spine: The combination of the game’s look and sound, even in its pre-alpha state with footage captured from a gameplay session on PlayStation 4, is authentically Star Wars.
To create a consistent look, Star Wars: Battlefront models have been developed with the use of a technique called Photogrammetry, recreating the actual models from the film franchise. With unprecedented access to the LuscasFilm archive, DICE was able to assemble digital facsimiles of original props for in-game models, rather than render replicas.
“When you pick up a lightsaber, or hop into a vehicle, you are picking up the lightsaber. It’s the actual X-Wing you’re [flying],” Battlefront Design Director Niklas Fegraeus says.
“We’ve seen attempts at this before, but they have never felt really like the movies,” DICE Stockholm GM, Patrick Bach, tells Engadget. “That’s the challenge we had and the relationship with LucasFilm on actually re-creating the events that you saw in the movies — scanning the elements of the movie and getting that into your virtual world.”
“Who doesn’t want to get onto Hoth and experience that fight?” Bach asks.
The soldiers on Endor continue their defense, thinning the lines of Imperial troopers, but an All Terrain Scout Transport (AT-ST) appears through the trees and cuts celebrations short. The AT-ST tears up the Rebel Alliance until a soldier boosts into the air with a jetpack and fires a missile at its head, destroying it.
Though authenticity is key for DICE, both as developers and fans of the film franchise, the team says there’s one crucial ingredient required: fun.
“[Fun] is the very essence of Star Wars,” Fegraeus says; a world of epic battles, good versus evil, heroes and imagination. Fun also means lighthearted, which Bach says helps drive the direction of a battle’s effect on the environment. While DICE games are better known for colossal destruction, Star Wars requires a softer touch.
“Star Wars, as an [intellectual property], is shaping what we’re doing. So we won’t do excessive destruction just because we can. It’s more about ‘what do you need and what you want’ in a Battlefield game versus a Battlefront game,” Bach says, adding that environmental anarchy in Battlefront wouldn’t be authentic to the franchise’s sensibility.
There still exists a sense of dread in Battlefront, however. The crunching sound of an All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT) Walker approaching sends our Rebel soldier and allies rushing toward cover. The thunderous sound of its four powerful, metal legs entering combat is immediately recognizable. There’s a reason for that, Fegraeus admits, the sounds featured in Battlefront come directly from the archives at LucasFilm. There’s a sense of strategy with all that you hear. Closing my eyes, I can identify the weapons and enemies that litter the battlefield. That immediate familiarity with what is on the horizon is unique to a series like Star Wars. A blaster is unique from a saber; an AT-ST and AT-AT sound different; a speeder in the distance is immediately identified thanks to its audible signature.
DICE takes things further with Battlefront being the first game to feature Dolby ATMOS support, technology that simulates audio within a 3D space for a more detailed aural experience. (ATMOS support was only announced for PC.)
Making the experience unique is important, Fegraeus says, and players will be able to customize gear, weapons and abilities. They can customize their gameplay style, playing in franchise-classic third-person mode or in first-person and switching on the fly. In addition to a progression system DICE isn’t revealing yet, players can uncover special power-ups by exploring the world, giving teams access to special vehicles, such as X-Wings and Walkers; or abilities, like shields or massive explosives and more.
While DICE says Star Wars: Battlefront is a multiplayer experience “first and foremost,” the game will feature content for offline fans. Star Wars: Battlefront Missions is a series of crafted challenges inspired by the films and available for solo play, or in local and online co-op.
DICE wants players to focus on creating an experience that is fun to share with friends. Battlefront‘s Partner feature is core to this idea: Once a friend is invited to be a partner, you become a tag team that plays together, spawns together and can even share unlocks with each other. Have a friend lagging behind in progression? This feature helps bring you closer.
Back on Endor, our Rebel escapes into an underground bunker with a friend. The halls are quiet as the pair explores the structure until our Rebel’s ally is captured within the clutches of a Force Choke and thrown against a wall. Our Rebel Soldier swings his blaster around the corner and opens fire. The menacing Darth Vader swipes away blaster fire with ease, his imposing figure inching toward the Rebel before taking a fierce swipe of his saber at our tour guide, ending the demo.
Iconic franchise characters like Vader will make an appearance throughout battle, available for players to uncover as special power-ups. While Bach wasn’t prepared to disclose exactly how character power-ups work, he was willing to share what DICE wants to avoid.
“The goal is, of course, to avoid exactly those situations where you race to a point and do bad things because you’re greedy,” Bach says, referring to the rush often seen in games of Battlefield as every soldier races toward vehicles or waits for them to spawn within the world. “We’re trying to design around behavior like that.”
Disney’s investment may well be tested prior to the film’s December 18, 2015, release, with Star Wars: Battlefront launching for PC, Xbox One and PS4 on November 17. Linking the upcoming game to what could arguably be the most anticipated movie of the year is free downloadable content. The Battle of Jakku, a key location from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, will premiere in Star Wars: Battlefront on December 8. Pre-ordering the game will give players early-access to the content, on December 1.
EA’s partnership with LucasFilm is “not a normal licensing relationship,” LucasFilm VP of Digital Business, Ada Duan, promises. The hope, according to Battlefront Design Director Niklas Fegraeus, is it will lead to “the best Star Wars games ever.” At the very least, it’s another element to one of the most exciting years in recent franchise history.
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