Recap 11.3.17

PlayStation

• Spelunky 2 was announced during Sony’s PlayStation showcase at Paris Games Week. It’s currently in development and will release first on PS4 and Steam before moving onto other platforms. I think I still hear Tristan crying tears of joy.

• The upcoming DOOM VFR for PSVR has been confirmed to thankfully include support for the Aim Controller.

• Housemarque is known for their stellar arcade-style shooters. I personally loved Resogun and Nex Machina, and while many other review outlets did as well, interest from the general public fell flat with Nex Machina selling under 100K copies across PS4 and PC. This, coupled with similar sales for action platformer Matterfall, have led the studio to move away from the genre with CEO Ilari Kuittinen saying:

  “Are the audience grown up in a way that they are not interested in buying these games? Or is it there’s lots of competition, lots of titles? Maybe the audience have just moved away from these kind of things.”

• November’s PlayStation Plus games lineup has been revealed. Check it out below:
  • PlayStation 4: Bound, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, Worms Battlegrounds
  • PlayStation 3: R-Type Dimensions, Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic
  • PlayStation Vita: Dungeon Punks (cross-buy); Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse (Episodes 1 and 2)
• NOTE You have until November 7th to pick up RIGS Mechanized Combat League FREE for PSVR. As usual, I suggest you add it to your library, even if you’re unsure you’re going to get a VR headset.**

• Sony held it’s conference at Paris Games Week and showed off new trailers for both Detroit: Become Human and The Last of Us Part II, one of which alluded to domestic violence from a drunk father to his your daughter as well as their robot maid and another which depicted disturbing imagery from women towards women. Personally, Detroit’s trailer has me more interested in the title while the trailer for The Last of Us didn’t hype me any more. Sony has caught some flack, specifically for Naughty Dog’s trailer, for the amount of violence. Sony’s senior vice president Michael ‘Murasakeh Babeh’ Denny had the following to say:

  “We’ve always wanted to have a variety of content, lots of choice, we’ve always wanted to be innovative and sometimes challenge as well. It always has been that we trust in our creators. It’s about the experience and the game they want to make. Part of these things are about playing the game and putting them in context – making sure it’s thought-provoking in the right way.”

• PlayStation UK posted a tweet teasing a PSVR experience for Netflix’s Stranger Things.

• Sony announced a new PSVR bundle that will be out in the next few days and includes the headset, camera, and a copy of Gran Turismo Sport for $399, essentially making the game free.

• Sales of the PlayStation 4 have surpassed 67.5M units worldwide, with Sony having moved 4.2M from July through September alone. This is good news for the tech giant, as the company has recorded it’s best

• It’s been revealed the beta for Monster Hunter World will be exclusive to PlayStation Plus members with a running time from December 9th to the 12th. The beta will feature three missions that can be played solo or cooperatively.

Nintendo

• Sure, Rocket League has released on other platforms, but it’s never been portable. Well, that is until Rocket League releases for for Switch on November 14th.

• EA released FIFA 18 on Switch a few weeks ago, however, the publisher said they aren’t in a rush to prepare additional games for the system. Instead, the publishing juggernaut is going to wait and see if demand for the system is still strong one year after release.

• If you happened to download Monopoly for the staggering price of $40, you may be experiencing crazy load times. I’m talking literally 10-15 minutes when booting from the home screen and another 10-15 when trying to load a game. Fortunately, the workaround seems to be restarting your Switch which chops load times down to well under a minute. Ubisoft is aware of the odd bug and is working on a fix.

• Super Mario Odyssey is the fastest selling Mario game ever in the US, according to Nintendo, surpassing over 2M sales since release worldwide with 1.1M of those sales here in the US within the first three days of launch.

• Nintendo’s latest earnings call shows just how incredible of a year the big N is having. Here are some highlights.

  • Nintendo sold over two million copies of Super Mario Odyssey in just three days
  • Nintendo sold two million Super Nintendo Classics
  • Nintendo sold 7.63 million Switches
  • Nintendo sold 4.7 million copies of Breath of the Wild
• We’ll learn more about the upcoming Xenoblade Chronicles 2 during a newly announced Nintendo Direct set to take place November 7 at 9am EST.

• The dev team is working on an update for the Switch version of Stardew Valley in order to squash a lot of bugs. The developer has also improved load times, which you can see for yourself below.

As well as fixing loads of bugs in the upcoming patch, the guys managed to speed up saving on the switch significantly. pic.twitter.com/JQegZGPrIK

— Tiy (@Tiyuri) November 3, 2017

Xbox

• Halo 5 has been updated with 4K at 60fps with limited HDR support for Xbox One X in the newly released Overtime update which also brings the return of the fan-favorite Oddball multiplayer mode.

• PUBG is set to release on Xbox One on December 12.

• The Amazon Prime Video app has released for Xbox One worldwide.

• November’s Games with Gold list has been revealed and contains the following:

  • Xbox One: Trackmania Turbo, Tales from the Borderlands
  • Xbox 360: HD remake of Nights into Dreams and The Farm 51’s Deadfall Adventures

• Xbox owners can now design NFL themed controllers in the Xbox Design Lab.

Industry News

• Razer has unveiled its first smartphone, the Razer Phone, designed to handle high performance games and stream high resolution movies. The Razer Phone boasts some crazy specs, including a 120 Hz UltraMotion screen, Dolby ATMOS and THX certified audio, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with 8GB RAM, 12MP dual cameras and a 4,000 mAh battery for all-day power. It will be released on Nov. 17 for $700.

• Players interested in South Park: The Fractured But Whole can download a free trial for PS4 and Xbox one and enjoy the full game for an hour. Those who choose to purchase the full game will have their progress move over.

• GameStop introduced a new service called PowerPass which lets you play as many pre-owned games as you want for six months at $60 with no limit on the number of games you can play. It’s a solid deal, but the best part might be that when the six months are up, you get to choose a preowned game to keep.

• EA released a blog post outlining changes to Star Wars Battlefront II’s controversial loot crate system. Among the changes are the removal of epic loot from crates and a minimum level requirement for upgrading star cards.