Minecraft's 1.17 update launched a few weeks ago, but that was only part one of what's collectively known as the Caves and Cliffs update. We've known what's coming in 1.18 for a while, and the key feature, new terrain generation, is now available to play via an experimental beta.
Calling all Japanese game fans: Humble is running a 'Big in Japan' sale right now with up to 85% off on titles from Japanese developers, from classic titles like Chrono Trigger and Devil May Cry to newer releases like Code Vein, Balan Wonderworld and Persona 5 Strikers.
HighFleet is one of the game's I'm looking forward to most this year. It's a simulation game, but it's simulating fictional machinery: giant dieselpunk airships, which spew smoke and missiles. In between, there's exploration and diplomacy and diegetic interfaces.
I'm quite excited that we now know it'll be out in two weeks, on July 27th.
It's been eight years since Company Of Heroes 2 came out, and now finally we have some news about Company Of Heroes 3. The third addition to the WW2-based RTS series is headed to PC next year, and will come the series' biggest campaign yet, as well as a new and improved tactical experience for long-time fans. You can read Nate's hands on preview impressions of Company Of Heroes 3 if you want meaty gameplay details, but we also had a chance to chat with some of the developers at Relic about bringing the old series back to life - and they told us that they want to keep players entertained with a new, non-linear approach.
The Total War series are the Kinder Eggs of strategy gaming: a layer of delicious, map-based strategy, with a dramatic RTS toy hidden inside. It's a tasty formula, and I've often wondered why more games over the years haven't adopted it. I'm not alone in this: David Littman, executive producer at Relic Entertainment, always wondered the same thing. But then along came Sega, gulping down strategy studios like a big mad whale, and Relic ended up in its belly - right next to Total War devs Creative Assembly. So he asked them about it.
“Turns out,” says Littman, “it’s because it’s really hard to do”. So there you go. But Littman was not deterred. Working away in the leviathan's guts, with the famous motto of the SAS in mind - “You’ve got to at least have a go, even if it's really hard”> - Relic learned from their fellow strategy Jonahs at CA, and set about applying the knowledge to their landmark WW2 strategy franchise, Company Of Heroes. Now, the Sega whale, she is a-rumblin'. Sometime next year in late 2022, she will belch up Company Of Heroes 3, and it will have a brand new, Total War-style campaign map. I've ventured down the whale's gullet to have a go, and I think it looks promising.
If you're into football games on the PC and had hoped that EA would consider it ‘next-gen’ enough to combine FIFA 22 with their fancy HyperMotion tech, a mixture of mo-cap and machine learning for player animations, then you have very specific tastes. Also, you’re out of luck. FIFA 22 on the PC will once again be cast from the ancient ‘last-gen’ console versions, relying solely on motion capture to convey the silky moves of Ian Football Jr.
You need to know what it is in order to know what you’re missing out on. The tech is so integral to the game that the whole trailer is based on it.
You can officially hit the road with your friends in American Truck Simulator. Developer SCS Software added multiplayer convoys to the game today after a couple of months of beta testing. The new mode enables up to eight players (pals or otherwise) to truck together, doing tasks and admiring each other’s paint jobs on the long and open roads.
I can picture it now: cruising down Vice Point, behind the wheel of a Cheetah, giving off big divorced dad energy as W.A.S.P. bellows from the car stereo. How brilliant would it be to head back to Rockstar's Miami? If you believe what's been said over the past few days, we'll all get the chance to revisit one of video game's great locations in a few years time.
Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima doesn't like that the upcoming new version is called a "director's cut". Yesterday, he took to Twitter to explain his reasoning, saying that director's cuts of films typically add stuff that was filmed then taken out. Death Stranding's new version, on the other hand, will supposedly have a bunch of completely new content added. He'd rather it said "Director's Plus" instead - a pretty reasonable argument, I think.
Throughout my early playthrough of 1C Entertainment's upcoming tactical RPG King's Bounty 2, I couldn't help but think of CD Projekt Red's Witcher 3. Sure, King's Bounty 2 is an RPG that's shaped by turn-based tangos on hexagonal grids rather than the familiar, third-person adventure mould we know and love, but everything from its world and atmosphere to its exploration and dialogue feel very much inspired by Geralt's high fantasy japes. That, and I'm pretty sure the voice actor behind Geralt's smooth dialogue, Doug Cockle, has also lent his vocal tones to a bloke in King's Bounty 2, compounding the comparison even further.
Of course, stacking up any RPG against CD Projekt Red's juggernaut probably isn't going to turn out too favourably for the stackee, so perhaps the comparison is a little harsh, especially when the bulk of King's Bounty 2 - its turn-based, tactical battles - is clearly doing something very different to Geralt's witchering quests. Nevertheless, the RPG element of King's Bounty 2 feels a bit lacking by comparison. When Geralt talks to a cursed tree with that lovely voice of his, you just know it's about to spiral into a complex, emotional side-quest with repercussions that'll ripple throughout the story. In King's Bounty 2, on the other hand, you'd either speak to the tree or snap all of its branches in two. Those are your only options.