videogames – harchi90 https://harchi90.com Just another WordPress site Sun, 10 Jul 2022 16:11:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.0 206095909 Elechead’s Multiple Endings Completely Broke My Brain https://harchi90.com/elecheads-multiple-endings-completely-broke-my-brain/ https://harchi90.com/elecheads-multiple-endings-completely-broke-my-brain/#respond Sun, 10 Jul 2022 16:11:51 +0000 https://harchi90.com/elecheads-multiple-endings-completely-broke-my-brain/ Image: Nama Takahashi It’s common for games to have multiple endings, usually classified as “good” or “bad” depending on their content and the consequences leading up to their conclusions. Elechead is a little different, if only because it turns that paradigm on its, well, head. I don’t know why you’re even here if you’re worried …

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An electrified, cartoon robot is running towards the viewer.

Image: Nama Takahashi

It’s common for games to have multiple endings, usually classified as “good” or “bad” depending on their content and the consequences leading up to their conclusions. Elechead is a little different, if only because it turns that paradigm on its, well, head.

I don’t know why you’re even here if you’re worried about Elechead spoilers but stop reading if you don’t want to learn more about the thing I specifically mentioned in the headline (ie the only thing most people read anyway).

Image for article titled Elechead's Multiple Endings Completely Broke My Brain

As of June 23, Elechead is available on Switch, which means I finally had a chance to try out its electrifying brain teasers without resorting to playing the Steam version on the same laptop where I work nine hours a day. I spent my nights exploring its futuristic environments from the comfort of my bed and ultimately finished the game in less than a week.

I loved it. Elechead was everything folks said it was after its 2021 launch, providing hours of adorable puzzle platforming without overstaying its welcome. And then I decided to unlock the true ending.

While playing Elechead, you’ll inevitably stumble upon data chip-like items that serve as the game’s main collectibles. Some are in plain sight, while others are hidden and require some clever manipulation of Elechead‘s mechanics to discover. By the time I got to the end of the game, I was still missing a few and thus relegated to watching what I assumed was the “bad” ending.

The ending starts around 36:29 if the timestamp doesn’t work. Nama Takahashi / itch.io

Pretty melancholy stuff. Elechead the robot puts its electric head in some sort of machine, the space station upon which the entire game apparently takes place goes supernova, and the light of the resulting explosion illuminates a nearby Earth. After a smash cut to a late title screen and some intense music, the short credits roll—Elechead was made by only two people—and you’re taken back to the beginning of the game.

Not wanting to be done with Elechead Quite so soon, I immediately set about collecting the last few data chips to unlock the “good” ending (again, its good-ness merely an assumption on my part). It didn’t take long before I found myself walking through a conspicuous door, now unlocked thanks to my brief treasure hunt, and then watching as an elevator carried the game’s eponymous hero towards destiny.

“Elechead basically died in the other ending,” I thought to myself, “so this one might be a little more happy.” It wasn’t.

Go to 33:26 for this ending if, again, the timestamp is wonky. Nama Takahashi / itch.io

Instead of the space station blowing up as in the other ending, the “true” Elechead conclusion sees your tiny robotic protagonist activate a gigantic cannon that completely obliterates Earth. Title screen, credits, what the fuck just happened.

I’ve been taught to expect certain tropes from video games. When one has collectibles, for instance, the ending you get after grabbing everything is generally considered “good,” or at least better than the ending you get otherwise. Gathering all the Chaos Emeralds in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 back in 1992, for instance, rewarded the player with a new conclusion to the story where Sonic becomes Super Sonic. It barely changed the story, but watching the Blue Blur go Super Saiyan felt like a great reward for beating all those frustrating special stages.

Trying to fit Elechead into this mold broke my brain. Earth is far from perfect, but is it bad enough to make its total destruction a “good” ending? Maybe in the world of Elechead, the planet’s been taken over by even more dangerous nutjobs hellbent on, I don’t know, destroying the entire universe with some sort of impossibly massive nuclear weapon? In that case, Elechead’s death and subsequent inability to destroy Earth would be a “bad” ending for more than just seeing a cute character bite the dust.

Maybe it’s deeper than that. While Elechead seems like a simplistic indie game on the surface, it’s possible the devs were trying to make a larger point about the medium’s cliched good-bad ending dichotomy. What is good? What is evil? Aren’t we all capable of both great beauty and great destruction? And for that matter, is creating something beautiful inherently good and destruction always an act of evil? I think we can all agree killing babies is bad, but killing baby Hitler is a bit more complicated.

Of course, like most great works of art, Elechead leaves that conversation up to the player. It’s not even a topic you need to consider to fully enjoy the game. Elechead is very much worth your time from a pure gameplay standpoint thanks to its gorgeous presentation and clever puzzles. But sometimes it’s fun to take things a little too seriously to prompt these sorts of thought experiments. I obviously don’t have all the answers, so I’d love to hear how other folks felt about these endings.

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Valve Made A Load Of Fake Games For Steam Summer Sale https://harchi90.com/valve-made-a-load-of-fake-games-for-steam-summer-sale/ https://harchi90.com/valve-made-a-load-of-fake-games-for-steam-summer-sale/#respond Sat, 09 Jul 2022 15:58:47 +0000 https://harchi90.com/valve-made-a-load-of-fake-games-for-steam-summer-sale/ This year’s Steam Summer Sale is over, so say goodbye to all the deals. But say hello to some rad-looking art! With the sale over, an artist at Valve is now free to share all the fake video game key art and covers that she helped create that were hidden inside Steam’s large digital catalog …

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Two dead seagulls lay on the ground in a cartoon desert.

This year’s Steam Summer Sale is over, so say goodbye to all the deals. But say hello to some rad-looking art! With the sale over, an artist at Valve is now free to share all the fake video game key art and covers that she helped create that were hidden inside Steam’s large digital catalog as part of the sale’s scavenger hunt. Sure, the games are fake, but I really want to play most of them.

The art for these non-existent video games was created by Valve developer Claire Hummel. She’s previously worked on games like Half-Life: Alyx and Westworld Awakening VR. And now, with the Steam sale over and its related time-traveling event ended, Hummel shared on Twitter all the cool covers she made for a variety of fake games spanning various genres.

For example, here’s what appears to be a fishing game about failing to catch fish. I’d play that.

A man standing in a small boat fishes with a lure in a large lake.

And here’s some key art for a game about helping a very important king get to the bathroom. Yeah, I’d play that, too.

A cartoon jester leads a well-dressed king down a dark hallway.

According to Hummel, the idea behind the art was to make it look “relatively convincing” so it would blend in with the thousands of other games on Steam. However, the art and game titles are just odd enough that you might notice something “a little weird on second glance.”

The various game names and ideas were created by Erik Wolpaw and Jay Pinkerton, longtime Valve writers. Once Hummel had a fake game name, she went to work making art for it.

“I just tried to match their energy in the final art,” explained Hummel on Twitter. “Super fun trying to make plausibly polished logos in a whole bunch of different styles/genres.”

This process led to some wonderfully strange but also very intriguing fake video games. For example, who wouldn’t want to at least see a trailer for Custard Castle Small Claims Court?

A brightly colored cartoon judge with pink hair holds a candy-cane-themed gavel.

On Twitter, Hummel shared that creating all these fictional video games from the future “ended up being a whole lot of work” but it was still fun to do.

“I hope everyone got a kick out of finding each of these as much as we did making ’em.”

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Hearthstone Randomly Awards Some Players A Ton Of Free Packs https://harchi90.com/hearthstone-randomly-awards-some-players-a-ton-of-free-packs/ https://harchi90.com/hearthstone-randomly-awards-some-players-a-ton-of-free-packs/#respond Fri, 08 Jul 2022 19:58:50 +0000 https://harchi90.com/hearthstone-randomly-awards-some-players-a-ton-of-free-packs/ Image: blizzard It’s been a hot minute since I traded rungs in the middle of the hearthstone seasonal ranked ladder. But some players who recently returned to Blizzard’s take on Magic: The Gathering were greeted with a generous surprise: dozens of free card packs. Before you go getting your hopes up, however, the reward-spree was …

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Hearthstone art shows players competing at a stone table.

Image: blizzard

It’s been a hot minute since I traded rungs in the middle of the hearthstone seasonal ranked ladder. But some players who recently returned to Blizzard’s take on Magic: The Gathering were greeted with a generous surprise: dozens of free card packs. Before you go getting your hopes up, however, the reward-spree was only for a random set of players in Europe.

One of them was a Reddit user who goes by access547. “Come back to hearthstone and enjoy 20 Card Packs, on us!” read a message from the game they shared on the subreddit. Ten of the packs were from the core set, while the other 10 were from the most recent Voyage to the Sunken City expansion for a combined value of over $25.

But that was at the low end of Blizzard’s gift-giving. Other players reported getting 150 packs. “Saw the post earlier, thought it was fake, got mine today wtf,” wrote Reddit user Altorode. Again, they were evenly split between the newest expansion and the core set, though this time with a combined value of nearly $200.

A screenshot shows a Hearthstone welcome-back card bundle.

ace PC Gamer reports, this wasn’t a glitch or someone at Blizzard going rogue. Instead, it was part of a limited-time experiment specifically targeting players in France and the UK. “We run many different limited and targeted tests such as this to better determine what drives former, new or current players’ interest, which is a common industry practice,” a Blizzard spokesperson told PC Gamer.

A subset of “relevant players” were randomly sorted into groups and then each of those groups were randomly assigned free bonus packs for returning to the game between 20 and 150. Just like what cards players get in each pack, luck alone determines how many packs the lucky winners receive. Fitting for a game where RNG can sometimes play such a big role.

The Blizzard spokesperson didn’t say anything about whether this program would eventually circulate around to other regions as well. hearthstone‘s next expansion, Murder at Castle Nathria, launches in August. In the meantime, if you weren’t one of the lucky players in France or the UK, there are plenty of other card games to try out, including CD Projekt Red’s latest roguelike twist on the witcher mini-game Gwent called Rogue Mage.

And don’t begrudge the UK’s hearthstone players’ good fortune too much. You might not have heard but their government is currently in shambles. Though who are we to cast stones.

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Vampire Survivors, A 2022 Best Game, Gets Final Boss In Update https://harchi90.com/vampire-survivors-a-2022-best-game-gets-final-boss-in-update/ https://harchi90.com/vampire-survivors-a-2022-best-game-gets-final-boss-in-update/#respond Fri, 08 Jul 2022 15:45:46 +0000 https://harchi90.com/vampire-survivors-a-2022-best-game-gets-final-boss-in-update/ Image: poncle Up until now, reverse bullet-hell shooter Vampire Survivors, one of the year’s must-play indie hits, did not have a final boss. That’s no longer the case in the wake of a recent update, which adds a new version of the game’s final stage. Still in early access, and technically first released in the …

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Two vampire survivors stand next to each other in key art for Vampire Survivors.

Image: poncle

Up until now, reverse bullet-hell shooter Vampire Survivors, one of the year’s must-play indie hits, did not have a final boss. That’s no longer the case in the wake of a recent update, which adds a new version of the game’s final stage.

Still in early access, and technically first released in the twilight of last year, Vampire Survivors work a Castlevania-inspired survival game. Though it may look like a top-down bullet hell shoot-’em-up, the core concept isn’t really about dodging projects: You’re the one shooting them, obliterating thousands of enemies. And thanks to a handful of roguelike elements, Vampire Survivors can easily put you into that “just five more minutes” mindset. here’s Kotaku‘s Ian Walker:

Vampire Survivors‘ true power, however, is in its near-constant dopamine rush. It feels like a mobile game without all the mobile game bullshit, or maybe one of those mindless Flash distractions you used to secretly pull up on your school’s study hall computers. Not only is clearing the screen of baddies satisfying, but every so often rare, stronger enemies reward you with a treasure chest that showers you in additional items and money for unlocks with a flashy sequence that rivals even the best loot boxes.

The latest update, 0.8.0 (patch notes here), showers you with even more stuff, inching Vampire Survivors closer to a full release via a slew of new abilities, achievements, and weapons. But the biggest change is the addition of a reworked final stage, “Cappella Magna.” If you survive to the 30-minute mark, ace polygon notesall of the stage’s enemies will coalesce, Voltron-style, into a giant reaper. that’s the final boss. Once you defeat it the first time, “Cappella Magna” will revert to the easier—but still really freakin’ difficult—version. For your efforts, you’ll unlock the Great Gospel relic, which allows you to upgrade weapons beyond their max level.

If you haven’t played yet, Vampire Survivors is worth a spin. it’s part of the PC library for Game Passmicrosoft’s games-on-demand subscription service. Or, and this is key, it costs $3.

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Obscure Japanese PS1 Game Aconcagua Soon Available In English https://harchi90.com/obscure-japanese-ps1-game-aconcagua-soon-available-in-english/ https://harchi90.com/obscure-japanese-ps1-game-aconcagua-soon-available-in-english/#respond Fri, 08 Jul 2022 01:27:39 +0000 https://harchi90.com/obscure-japanese-ps1-game-aconcagua-soon-available-in-english/ Back in 2000 Sony released a game called aconcagua for the PlayStation 1. An adventure game set in the aftermath of a plane crash in the Andes, it has spent the last 22 years only available in Japanese. Until now! hilltop—who we covered last year for their work on Racing Lagoon—will be releasing an English-language …

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aconcagua

Back in 2000 Sony released a game called aconcagua for the PlayStation 1. An adventure game set in the aftermath of a plane crash in the Andes, it has spent the last 22 years only available in Japanese. Until now!

hilltop—who we covered last year for their work on Racing Lagoon—will be releasing an English-language patch on July 11 that will finally make the game playable for, well, anyone who is able to be reading this post.

I’ll be honest, I had never heard of this game until today, and a quick search reveals that it’s not exactly considered as a classic (a 29/40 from Famitsu is never great, even back then), but like Racing Lagoon, that’s not really the point here. The point is that this game is interestingand practically none of us have ever got the chance to play it, so it’ll be cool to get the chance to check it out.

aconcagua has you playing as a number of characters (you can swap between them), after only five people (including a journalist and political leader) survive a plane crash in South America caused by a terrorist bombing. It’s got a third-person viewpoint, and has you wandering around a snowy mountaintop solving puzzles and helping the other survivors get down to the bottom without being murdered by said terrorists.

Here’s some footage of the original Japanese release: note that it actually has a lot of English in it already, but only for cutscenes and voice acting; the text you needed to actually play the game was all in Japanese:

Aconcagua (アコンカグア) Ps1 Longplay [HD]

Here’s the English patch’s trailer, showing that the subtitles have now been translated:

Sony’s Aconcagua PS1 English Patch Releasing July 11th

You’ll be able to get the patch when it’s out here.

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Blizzard Defends Diablo Immortal’s Microtransactions https://harchi90.com/blizzard-defends-diablo-immortals-microtransactions/ https://harchi90.com/blizzard-defends-diablo-immortals-microtransactions/#respond Fri, 08 Jul 2022 00:21:50 +0000 https://harchi90.com/blizzard-defends-diablo-immortals-microtransactions/ Blizzard’s controversial Diablo Immortal to big numbers and high revenue launched. It also set off an ongoing debate about in-game purchases, digital gambling, free-to-play mobile games, and addiction. The massive publisher has mostly remained silent amid the negative headlines and criticism. But in a new interview, Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra has defended the game’s launch …

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Mike Ybarra smiles at the camera with Diablo warriors behind him in the background.

Blizzard’s controversial Diablo Immortal to big numbers and high revenue launched. It also set off an ongoing debate about in-game purchases, digital gambling, free-to-play mobile games, and addiction. The massive publisher has mostly remained silent amid the negative headlines and criticism. But in a new interview, Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra has defended the game’s launch and its controversial monetization, citing high app store reviews to claim that most players enjoy the game.

In yesterday’s wide-ranging interview with the LA TimesBlizzard President Mike Ybarra talked about numerous topics, including the many issues Blizzard faces as it navigates the fallout from last year’s explosive lawsuit by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the ensuing flood of harassment and discrimination allegations directed at Activision Blizzard.

He also talked about the company’s most recent game, the mobile free-to-play action-RPG spin-off Diablo Immortal. While many have the game’s in-app purchases, low drop rates, and possibly exploitative mechanics, Ybarra defended the game, saying Blizzard built it so players could “literally do 99.5% of everything in the game” for free while still getting a full “Diablo experience.”

“The monetization comes in at the end game,” Ybarra told the outlet. “The philosophy was always to lead with great gameplay and make sure that hundreds of millions of people can go through the whole campaign without any costs. From that standpoint, I feel really good about it as an introduction to Diablo

Ybarra also told the LA Times that he and others at the company are well aware of the online complaints and concerns. But he still defended the mobile ARPG by pointing toward its high rating on the Apple App Storethe implication seemingly being that the broader community of people playing Immortal don’t have a problem with the game or its in-app purchases.

A screenshot of Diablo Immortal from the App Store shows its current high rating.

According to the LA Times, Blizzard explained in a follow-up email that the “vast majority” of players are not spending money in the game, but wouldn’t share any specific details. Ybarra seems to suggest that’s a feature and not a bug, but let’s be clear: If this game ever stops racking up millions of dollars, it’s unlikely Blizzard will keep it running out of the kindness of its heart.

Of course, while many players (myself included) continue to play and enjoy Diablo Immortal, there is no denying that it is possible to spend a lot of money on it if you wish to reach the top of the leaderboards and/or want to max out your character’s gear or stats. Blizzard doesn’t seem to have created any real protections to save people from sinking thousands of dollars into the game to get high-ranking gems, and with the game’s abysmal drop rates, it can become a dangerous situation for people unable to control themselves.

Based on what Ybarra has said, and how much money Immortal is bringing in dailyit seems very unlikely that the game will be changed anytime soon to address concerns players have with it and its economy.

Many players are now worried about what to expect from next year’s big entry into the series, Diablo IV. According to Blizzard, it won’t be anything like Immortal and will only include “cosmetic” microtransactionsbut even that might feel like too much for some observers.

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How a New Camera Angle Completely Transforms Art of Rally https://harchi90.com/how-a-new-camera-angle-completely-transforms-art-of-rally/ https://harchi90.com/how-a-new-camera-angle-completely-transforms-art-of-rally/#respond Thu, 07 Jul 2022 23:37:48 +0000 https://harchi90.com/how-a-new-camera-angle-completely-transforms-art-of-rally/ Few racing games are more therapeutic than Funselektor’s Art of Rally, a minimalist, top-down arcade rally racer with an emphasis on driving feel and pleasant vibes. It’s a singular experience — the kind of racing game that rightfully garnered plenty of attention and praise from novices and experts alike. An interview posted today with the …

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Image for article titled How a Small Change in Camera Angle Completely Transforms Art of Rally

Few racing games are more therapeutic than Funselektor’s Art of Rally, a minimalist, top-down arcade rally racer with an emphasis on driving feel and pleasant vibes. It’s a singular experience — the kind of racing game that rightfully garnered plenty of attention and praise from novices and experts alike. An interview posted today with the game’s chief developer, Dune Casu, teases into what makes it so special.

Unlike many other modern racing games, Art of Rally is played from a pseudo-top-down perspective, as was more common in the days before polygons and sprite scaling. Personally, as charmed as I am by the game’s visual style and zen-like approach to driving, that’s always been a sticking point for me; I’ve never got on well with top-down racers. However, a fan-made mod for the PC version was actually created to address that, bringing the camera close down to the ground, directly behind the car, like a chase cam in a more traditional racing game.

Image for article titled How a Small Change in Camera Angle Completely Transforms Art of Rally

Image: funselektor

ace youtuber DustinEden says, it completely transforms the experience. It also causes some graphical and logistical issues, as Art of Rally was never intended to be played from such a vantage point. Those flat-shaded, minimalist assets that previously merged to paint a rich landscape when seen from a distance now seem a little too plain, a little too undercooked this up close. The sense of speed is also heightened, and DustinEden reports a compulsion to brake and lift more frequently out of a fear of losing control.

But the bigger issues actually pertain to pace notes; or rather, the lack of them. In rallying, your co-driver’s warnings of turns and hazards ahead is essential to successful run on a course you’ve never seen before. These notes must also be relayed at precisely the right time, in the right cadence and obviously in a variety of languages ​​for every territory in which the game releases.

Funselektor, however, is a small team that lacks the resources to record pace notes with the level of care they require. By pulling the camera up and back, the player could glean a better sense of what lies ahead without having to rely on verbal warnings. Casu explains this in a little more detail, in his interview with DustinEden, which you really should watch if you’re interested in this sort of stuff, or are a fan of the game.

How Camera Perspectives Effect Your Favorite Games

The interview begins at about the 9:15 mark. Casu starts by explaining how the idea for the top-down camera came from a previous project:

originally with Absolute Drift it was a bit of an accident. It was supposed to be a third-person camera, like Need For Speed or the classic racing games. I was trying to make a main menu, like an interactive 3D main menu, so we just took this camera out and I brought it to this video game meetup, and someone said “oh this is way better, I like it better.” That’s the whole reason we did that.

the camera quickly became the glue that held the entire experience together; Casu recalls she having continually tweaked it “almost up until launch.” Still, he appreciates the chase cam mod presenting another option to the players that want it:

Some people seem to like it! It’s definitely an interesting mod that’s come out, it’s pretty cool to see. People would ask for it to be in the game, a chase camera like that. But then, since it’s a rally game you need pace notes, and the original goal of this game was to have a more minimal rally experience. By having this camera you get to do away with the pace notes. Because pace notes can [require] a lot of skill for a game, especially for localization — we have 12 languages ​​in the game — and getting that for like all the voice acting for everything, and also tuning it so it’s right… I’ve played rally games where the pace notes were a bit off and it forces you to crash. So having it all zoomed out, being able to see everything, that’s like the core of the game.

There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to either camera position, and Funselektor decided this one would be the best option for the type of game they wanted to make — a love letter to rallying presented as a diorama, with a stunning degree of physical depth. Art of Rally is still getting new, free content almost two years on, and Indonesian stages are due to be added in the coming weeks. It’s also available on pretty much every modern platform now, so if you haven’t had the chance to settle in yet, now could be the best time.

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No Major Updates Coming For Red Dead Online https://harchi90.com/no-major-updates-coming-for-red-dead-online/ https://harchi90.com/no-major-updates-coming-for-red-dead-online/#respond Thu, 07 Jul 2022 21:03:42 +0000 https://harchi90.com/no-major-updates-coming-for-red-dead-online/ screenshot: Rockstar Games Rockstar Games has confirmed what many already doubted: There will be no major content updates for Red Dead Online moving forward. Instead, the company is shifting resources to focus on the next installment in the Grand Theft Authe series. It also confirmed more updates and quality of life improvements are coming for …

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A lone cowboy wanders a graveyard during sunset.

screenshot: Rockstar Games

Rockstar Games has confirmed what many already doubted: There will be no major content updates for Red Dead Online moving forward. Instead, the company is shifting resources to focus on the next installment in the Grand Theft Authe series. It also confirmed more updates and quality of life improvements are coming for its wildly popular open-world crime simulator, GTA Online.

Of a blog post released today on Rockstar’s official websitethe publisher laid out its future plans for both GTA Online and Red Dead Online. And while Rockstar had a lot to say about the future of its online GTA game, it said very little about its online open-world western. What it did have to say wasn’t great, as the publisher basically announced the game is on life support and will no longer be a priority for the company.

While Rockstar thanked the RDO community and fans for sticking with the game over the last few years, it had some bad news for folks still enjoying RDO. According to Rockstar, it has been “steadily moving more development resources” toward the next entry in the GTA series, long rumored to be GTA 6. It says it wants to “exceed players’ expectations” with that next game, and resources once devoted to RDO have moved to GTA 6 instead.

This lines up with what Kotaku has heard from sources about the company dedicating more and more of its resources to the next GTA game, to the point of even canceling plans for future remasters in the process.

Rockstar will still continue to hold month-long events of Red Dead Online and does plan to add some new Telegram missions.

However, the publisher confirmed that it has no plans to release any bigger themed content updates for RDO moving forward, like the previous Blood Money or Moonshiners.

Alongside seasonal special events and experience improvements — plus other changes to enhance and maintain a healthy Red Dead Online environment — we plan to build upon existing modes and add new Telegram Missions this year, rather than delivering major themed content updates like in previous years, and we will continue to highlight and share the creative efforts of our Red Dead community at every opportunity via the Newswire and beyond.

It’s not the news Red Dead Online players have been hoping for, but it’s also not surprising either. At this point, many in the community have been calling the game dead, and some are even planning to hold a funeral later this month to mourn the game’s lack of updates and dearth of support.

With this news from Rockstar, the publisher has essentially put the game on life support, and while it will remain active and receive some tiny updates down the line, the reality is that Rockstar is now entirely focused on GTA Online and GTA 6 instead of digital cowboys and the horses they rode in on.

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Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion Won’t Change Original Story https://harchi90.com/crisis-core-final-fantasy-7-reunion-wont-change-original-story/ https://harchi90.com/crisis-core-final-fantasy-7-reunion-wont-change-original-story/#respond Thu, 07 Jul 2022 19:46:50 +0000 https://harchi90.com/crisis-core-final-fantasy-7-reunion-wont-change-original-story/ screenshot: Square Enix We got a bunch of information about Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion today, including the important news that flavor text about Sephiroth’s gratuitously thorough hair care routine will be carried over from the original game. reunion is, as the name suggests, the upcoming remastered re-release Ugh Crisis Corea PlayStation Portable action …

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An armored man with long silver hair is standing against an industrial backdrop.

screenshot: Square Enix

We got a bunch of information about Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion today, including the important news that flavor text about Sephiroth’s gratuitously thorough hair care routine will be carried over from the original game.

reunion is, as the name suggests, the upcoming remastered re-release Ugh Crisis Corea PlayStation Portable action RPG from 2007 that acted as a prequel to Final Fantasy VII. When it arrives on every gaming platform under the sun later this year, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion will feature more voice acting, upgraded visuals, and new gameplay elements, but Square Enix is ​​planning to keep pretty much everything else the same.

Speaking with Eurogamerproducer Mariko Sato explained that the original Crisis Core story remains intact in reunionvery much unlike what’s being done with the ongoing Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy. reunion is largely meant to reintroduce players to Crisis Core protagonist and Final Fantasy VII background character Zack Fair, whose role is expanding in the Remake storyline.

“If you played [Final Fantasy VII Remake]or the original, you’ll probably know that Zack is in the first Remake game where he doesn’t appear at that point in the story in the original Final Fantasy 7”said reunion executive producer Yoshinori Kitase. “So he’s featured more than he was. We thought that people who were starting the story there would really want to know more about this character.”

Square Enix

But let’s be honest: While it was nice to see Zack’s backstory fleshed out, the biggest moment of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII came when we learned how the villainous Sephiroth keeps his long hair so luxurious. Over the course of the original game, Zack can join a Sephiroth fan club known as the Silver Elite that sends him emails with trivia about their silver-maned hero, including his hair care routine.

The introductory message after Zack enlists with the Silver Elite reads as follows:

Dear members of the Silver Elite:

In this update, we present another piece of Sephiroth trivia—the secrets to his beautiful long hair.

The hair products he uses are of the highest grade, made and supplied by the Shinra Company.

He seems to use one whole bottle of both shampoo and conditioner every time he washes his hair.

They are scented with thirteen kinds of perfumes, including Rose and Vanilla.

Apparently, the scent in the air after Sephiroth tosses his hair changes daily!

I don’t need to tell even the most hygienic gamers out there that that’s a lot of shampoo and conditioner. How does Sephiroth even find the time to use that much product between all his war crimes? Kudos for the dedication to maintaining that beautiful head of hair, but damn, does Sephiroth always have to be so extra?

“I think [Crisis Core’s story] stood the test of time,” said creative director Tetsuya Nomura, a man with his own flair for the dramatic. “It’s something that is very highly regarded by people. And when I look back over the story and how it’s put together, there are not many faults I can find in it really. I think it’s still a very complete and almost perfectly put together story in a lot of ways.”

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC sometime in late 2022.

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Replaying God Of War Before Ragnarök? Ignore The New Game Plus https://harchi90.com/replaying-god-of-war-before-ragnarok-ignore-the-new-game-plus/ https://harchi90.com/replaying-god-of-war-before-ragnarok-ignore-the-new-game-plus/#respond Thu, 07 Jul 2022 17:34:41 +0000 https://harchi90.com/replaying-god-of-war-before-ragnarok-ignore-the-new-game-plus/ Image: Sony As the prophecies (aka, Sony’s vast marketing machine) foretold, ragnarok it’s coming. yesterday, Sony’s Santa Monica Studio announced a November release date for its upcoming action game God of War Ragnarok. Maybe you’ve found yourself itching to replay its predecessor, God of War. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing so and …

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Kratos stares intensely into the distance in God of War.

Image: Sony

As the prophecies (aka, Sony’s vast marketing machine) foretold, ragnarok it’s coming. yesterday, Sony’s Santa Monica Studio announced a November release date for its upcoming action game God of War Ragnarok. Maybe you’ve found yourself itching to replay its predecessor, God of War. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing so and lemme tell you: New game plus does note do it for me.

A few months after God of War‘s initial 2018 release, Sony added a new game plus mode to the game. Like most similar modes, you can start a fresh save file with all of the skills and gear you earned over your prior playthrough. Enemies are scaled up in difficulty to match your abilities. From the perspective of pure power fantasy, it’s a blast and, to a certain extent, God of War‘s new game plus makes replaying it feel like playing through a totally new game.

It also doesn’t make a lick of narrative sense.

Yes, yes, say what you will about “ludon************* dis*******” or “playing games inherently demands a suspension of disbelief” or whatever. I’m not new here, and at the risk of opening a whoooole other can of worms, I generally agree. thigh God of War is an exception.

spoilers for God of War (2018).

A yellow banner image warns readers about spoilers for God of War.

God of War cold opens with longtime protagonist Kratos swinging an ax into a tree. He’s living sequestered in the woods. He’s rocking a ZZ Top beard. He has a son, a precocious, kind-hearted kid named Atreus. Most notably, the Blades of Chaos, Kratos’ signature weapons from the original trilogy, are nowhere to be seen. Clearly, a lot of time has passed.

the crux of God of War‘s story revolves around Kratos and Atreus delivering the ashes of Faye—spouse to Kratos, parent to Atreus—to the highest peak in all the realms. It’s not long until Atreus comes down with an urgent, life-threatening sickness, the cure for which he is located in the land of the dead, Helheim. (Though the original trilogy was inspired by Greek mythology, the 2018 entry pivoted to Norse canon.) Kratos’ ax is useless against Helheim’s cannon fodder; he’ll need a different weapon.

The scene is a tour de force. It’s worth watching in its entirety:

Sony / RabidRetrospectGames

Good stuff, right? but here’s the red flag: When you start a new game plus in God of War, you start with the Blades of Chaos already unlocked. Kratos is literally wearing them in the very first scene (along with whatever armor you had equipped at the end of your first playthrough).

That’s not a “spoiler,” per se, nor does it ruin any plot twists; if you’ve played the game, you know Kratos digs up the Blades of Chaos. But it totally defends the game’s most emotionally impactful moment. It’s also just…weird.

Following the news, first reported by Bloomberg last monththat God of War Ragnarok would likely come out in the fall, I decided to replay its predecessor. I initially started with new game plus. Having the Blades of Chaos from the very start just didn’t feel right. and since God of War forces you to commit to a game mode from the start of a save file (in other words, you can’t move from new game plus to new game minus), I had to make a choice. I knew the Blades of Chaos would bother me. I couldn’t continue.

It’s not like playing on the vanilla mode is a pain in the ass, at least personally. God of War is, after all, hailed as one of the best games ever, and deservedly so. It’s reached a level of acclaim that’s only clarified with time. Four years later—with my understanding of combat and knowledge of puzzle solutions covered in a thin layer of mental dust—replaying God of War almost feels like playing a totally new game, even without the new game plus.

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