Tales Of Arise, latest in the long-running Tales Of series, has indeed arisen. After being delayed last year without announcing a new release window, the next Tales Of game has officially set a date for the new adventure. Arise will launch on September 10th this year. Even better yet, we've finally gotten a good, lengthy look at its combat system in a new video.
People of the games jury, please turn your attention to The Great Ace Attorney games. Previously, these two historical lawyer 'em ups hadn't launched on PC or in English, both of which they'll be doing in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. This combo release has been foretold by leaks already, but there are no remaining objections now. It's official. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles launches on PC on July 27th.
For the last year, there's been one SSD that's completely ruled the roost in my best SSD for gaming rankings, and that's the WD Blue SN550. Few SSDs have come close to matching its fast read and write speeds and competitive pricing, and it remains one of the best value NVMe drives you can buy today. However, we might finally have a worthy alternative to the SN550, and that's Crucial's P2.
It sure has been a week for the Rockstar games vault. After accidentally pulling a bunch of their games off Steam on Monday, then bringing them back, some other older Rockstar games got a treat. The PC versions of Max Payne 3 and L.A. Noire now include all their DLCs for free. A nice little treat for the back catalogue.
The tutorial for medieval first-person slasher Chivalry 2 felt like I'd attended my first zumba class run by Stanis Boratheon. I was told the art of warfare lay in the swing of your hips, not your sword. And that to riposte, you match your opponent's movements. But to break someone's guard you use your legs. Got that? Orders were barked, "sir yes sir", and I barely kept pace.
Then I was enlisted into the Siege of Rudhelm. I'd need to stoically defend a fortress with all the moves I'd learned, and I was stressed out. So when the gates opened and I roared my battlecry, naturally, the little I remembered escaped from my mouth and into the breeze. I swung wildly with zero hip-action expecting to get cut down, only to find it worked quite nicely. I even sat down mid-battle and remained unscathed. Then I realised no-one knew what they were doing at all, and I relaxed.
The big Resident Evil news everyone wants today is more info on the VR version of Resident Evil 4, which should come at the Oculus Gaming Showcase tonight. That'll be nice. Looking forward to that. But also, to the excitement of very few people, Capcom are holding another open beta test day for Resident Evil Re:Verse, the deathmatch spin-off tacked onto Resident Evil Village for some incomprehensible reason. I guess it's fitting.
“News from the emperor, my liege”, cringes the chancellor, as he loiters awkwardly before the door of his lordship’s privy. But the only answer he gets is the rhythmic thump of buttocks on wood: once again, the Duke is having intercourse. The chancellor is used to this sound, of course. It is the furtive drumbeat which underscores courtly life in this game of Crusader Kings 3, beneath the faint and ever-present cacophony of the War. And it is distinctly uncomfortable to listen to.
As the video games industry continues trying to cram itself into as few companies as possible, French publisher Focus Home Interactive have announced they've bought a majority stake in Streum On Studio. They're the French studio behind the delightfully ambitious E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy as well as two Warhammer 40K shooters published by Focus Home, Space Hulk: Deathwing and the upcoming Necromunda: Hired Gun. Honestly, they seem a fair fit. And hey, they've made a new Necromunda trailer too.
In the months running up to the release of Ori And The Will Of The Wisps last year, I was gripped by an irrational fear. I'd loved Moon Studio's first Ori adventure, Ori And The Blind Forest, with a fierce and fiery passion. Even now, I still love the bits everyone hates, from its ineffectual combat to its heinous boss escape sequences. But as news struck that its sequel would be taking a slightly different approach to its Metroid-like structure, favouring branching, almost Zelda-style hub worlds, and ditching its unique save system, I was worried that Will Of The Wisps might end up losing what had made Blind Forest such a special game for me. As I said, the fear was irrational, as Will Of The Wisps wasn't just better than Blind Forest; it was probably about as perfect a sequel as I could have possibly hoped for.
Microsoft have been dipping their toes into cloud streaming games for a while now, but today sees the launch of an Xbox Cloud Gaming beta for Windows 10 PCs. What this means is that some paying subscribers of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will be invited to a closed beta whereby they can play games in their web browser, without the need for a lengthy download and install beforehand.