Whatever you think aboutCyberpunk 2077four years on, one thing is undeniable -CD Projekt Redis in a much better position now than it was in 2020. For those of us who loved Cyberpunk 2077 from the get-go, it’s been a great few years. Thanks to the studio’s quest to win back goodwill, we’ve seen years of hotfixes and patches which fixed bugs and brought the game more in line with what we were promised....
It’s hard to overstate how influentialDemon’s Soulshas been since it was first released 15 years ago.FromSoftware’sPS3exclusive began life as a niche classic in Japan, but slowly gained a cult following thanks to word-of-mouth, while growing imports eventually convinced Sony to spring for an official localisation. And the rest is history. Demon’s Souls came along at the perfect time when modern video games were settling into a predictable rhythm of annual shooter blockbusters and action-adventures that seldom tried to challenge players in fear of turning them away....
Summary While theDragon Ageseriesset up a surprising amount of plot points from the very first game, one thing that hasn’t remained consistent is the combat.BioWarehas played around with it in each game, withDragon Age: The Veilguardmarking the biggest change yet, as it made the game much more action-orientated. Naturally, fans are pretty divided on this. Ever since The Veilguard launched, many have said they’re struggling to return toDragon Age: Origins, calling fora remake of the first gamein the style of the most recent....
Summary Dragon Age: The Veilguardis the first sequel in the series thatdoesn’t let us import our world states from previous games. This means that, with the exception of the Inquisitor and three of the decisions they made, the previous protagonists can’t really be referenced, since the game doesn’t even know their names let alone what they got up to. There is one touching reference to the player character fromDragon Age: Origins- the Hero of Ferleden - as you canfind the chalice they drank from to become a Grey Warden....
Summary The newDragon Age: The Veilguardart book seems to confirm that BioWare considered bringing backworld statesat some point during development. It mentions a scrapped quest where you would have saved whoever you left behind in the Fade duringInquisition. To do this, BioWare would have had to make one of the choices canon, or allow us to import our choice from the last game. I.e., a world state. For context, there’s a mission in Inquisition calledHere Lies the Abyssin which the party, along with a returning Hawke, get stuck in the Fade....
Summary If you’ve playedDragon Age: The Veilguard, you already know the character lip syncing during cutscenes and dialogue is abysmal. You might even know this if you haven’t played it yet. Even before the game was launched, and all we had to judge the game from was its handful of trailers,fans were already complaining that the facial animations were whack. BioWaregames have never been known for great facial animations – in fact, I’d go so far as to say they’re known for having pretty stiff characters....
Summary Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remakelaunched earlier this week, and to say that it’s a pretty popular title for Square Enix would be a pretty big understatement.Most likely helped by the stellar reviews that have come out recently, Dragon Quest 3 HD -2D Remake has managed to gather up a very impressive number of players just one day after release. Head on overto the game’s SteamDB page, and you’ll see that the all-time peak player count is currently sitting at a pretty whopping 37,273 players, and that’s just a day after launch....
Summary The PS5 Pro is finally here, and you’d think with the improved tech, games likeElden Ringwould finally be able to reach a steady 60fps, but that isn’t the case. As broken down byDigital Foundry, Elden Ring has three modes — quality, performance, and ray-tracing. Quality runs at native 4K, performance aims for 60fps by using dynamic resolution, and ray-tracing reduces resolution to 1620p for the improved lighting effects. Unfortunately, none of them are viable for reaching a consistent 60fps....
Summary This week marks the30th anniversaryof thePlayStation. Released in Japan in December 1994, nobody could have predicted the heights thatSony’sgray box would propel the company to. But things could have turned out so differently. In a new interview, former Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Shawn Layden shared the unconventional method the company used to pry one of its now-flagship titles away fromNintendo. Sony Music Helped Shape The Course Of PlayStation’s Future In a fascinating interview withEurogamer, Layden shared how Sony drafted its music team to handle marketing, advertising, and publisher relations for its new gaming department....
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthhad its fair share of bloat. WhileSquare Enix’s open world wassignificantly more compelling thananythingUbisofthas done recently, it consistently felt like many of its materia springs and combat encounters were present just to give us something to do, rather than feeling like legitimately engaging content. The remake trilogy was always going to bump into this problem. While the first entry featured some larger towns and similar zones to explore, it was otherwise confined to Midgar, making use of these constraints to tell a tight and engrossing story that expands on the original in so many ways....
Summary For the second year in a row, there has been a hugeGrand Theft Autoleak on Christmas. As reported byGTA Focal, a forum user named FrankieLiberty posted several Rockstar Games documents dating back to 2001 in protest of someone known only as “John Doe”, who they accuse of profiting from stolen assets and even game builds. The leaked design documents detail the cancelled GTA 3 Online game that Barking Dog Studios developed in 2001....
Summary Helldivers 2fans have currently been enjoying -and complaining about- the game’srecent crossover with PlayStation’s Killzone franchise, bringing some of the Helghast’s iconic armor into the game. It’s the first proper crossover that Helldivers 2 has offered fans,and despite initial gripes about the price of things, it’s been largely well-received. We can call it a successful trial for developer Arrowhead Studios, and if it hasn’t been scared away from the idea by the controversy, then we can likely expect more in the future....
Quick Links Back in Act 1 ofFantasian Neo Dimension, when you only had Leo, Zinikr, and Ez, you might recall a rather ominous chest in the back room of the Maxi Toy Box. Maybe you even opened it, and were forced to face (and be defeated by) Eternal Holy. While it might have been impossible that time around, you’re just in luck this time. Eternal Holy can be fought and beaten this time, and even comes with a great reward for Leo....
