Game and Anime News

It's about time. The gameplay video that Rockstar teased at the ending of last month's gameplay demonstration will be debuting tomorrow morning. The tease, if you need your memory jogged, promised a look at "missions, activities, enemy gangs, robberies, other things to do, and much more." The video will be posted at 9AM Eastern on what we're assuming is the company's YouTube channel . Rockstar made the announcement via Twitter: Gameplay Video Part 2 coming tomorrow 9am Eastern pic.twitter.com/ZjS3ZUhKHg — Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) September 30, 2018 For more on Red Dead Redemption II, check out our impressions of the game from our hands-on demo. from Game Informer https://ift.tt/2zHfHp6 via gqrds

Critical Role , the enormously popular show featuring a beloved cast of voice actors playing Dungeons & Dragons, may have started in 2015, but the group began playing together a couple years prior. The initial idea started when Critical Role dungeon master Matthew Mercer appeared on the All Work No Play podcast with fellow voice actors Liam O’Brien and Sam Riegel. Mercer invited the two to play a D&D campaign with a group of friends and the rest is history. The podcast, which began in 2012, has only released 15 episodes over the last six years as the voice actors became busier and busier. With new ideas in tow, the duo is eyeing a full All Work No Play revival. Riegel, who is best known for his work on series like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Phoenix Wright, says both the original run of All Work No Play and the new rebooted series were born from his and O’Brien’s desire to spend more time together amidst their busy schedules. “We could ‘work’ and ‘play’ at the same t...

Annual football game from EA Sports is out today

The past few days have been rough ones for the games industry, with news that Capcom Vancouver was closing  and that Telltale Games was laying off the vast majority of its staff and ending development on the in-progress final season of The Walking Dead. Both studios created a number of great games, and in today's Replay we offer a tribute. We start off with a look at the final episode of the first season of Telltale's The Walking Dead. There's a lot going on here, including several moments that Kim, Reiner, Reeves, and I completely forgot about. There is one moment in particular that stuck with us, however, though we may not have fully appreciated just how gory the sequence was at the time.  After that, we look at Dead Rising 2, Capcom Vancouver's first Dead Rising game from when they were still Blue Castle Games. Surprise, surprise, it still holds up beautifully. Well, as beautifully as a game about thwacking zombies apart with chainsaws and sledgehammers can get....

PlayStation Experience, the yearly convention held by Sony to celebrate the PlayStation brand and show off new games, is not being held this year, according to Sony Interactive Entertainment chairman Shawn Layden. Layden confirmed the news on the PSBlogcast today , suggesting that there just isn't enough to show this year. "Now that we have Spider-Man out the door, we're looking down in 2019 to games like Dreams and Days Gone, but we wouldn't have enough to bring people together in some location in North America to have that event," Layden said. "We don't want to set expectations really high and then not deliver on it." The convention has been held in North America since 2014, with both large and small announcements from Sony over the years. Last year took a left turn to a smaller, more intimate chat instead of a larger stage show, focusing less on announcements and more on talking to developers, which turned out to disappoint a number of fans. Wi...

For the latest issue of Game Informer , we traveled to The Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York to tour their amazing archive of gaming history. All week long we're rolling out exclusive features showing off some of the museum's most interesting objects. You can learn more about the history and mission of the museum in our interview with Jeremy Saucier who is the assistant vice president for interpretation and electronic games by clicking here . In the video above, Saucier shows off an arcade game from 1946 called Atomic Bomber and explains why the striking and controversial subject did not stand out as such in the years after World War II. Saucier also plays the game and explains its technology functions. To catch up on other videos from The Strong Museum of Play, check out the links below: The Sims' Unseen Design Notebooks from Will Wright Dissecting Age Of Empires' Earliest Prototype How Ralph Baer Introduced The Military To Video Games Carol Shaw...

As one of many games mimicking the style and structure sanctified by Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Timespinner has its work cut out for it. It introduces fun twists that distinguish it from the pack, but Timespinner is at its best when it’s comfort food, since it nails most of the fundamentals players expect to follow its classic look. It takes a little while to get going, but nonetheless delivers a fun time-traveling adventure. Playing as Lunais, a girl raised from an early age to be a time messenger, you must save your clan and village by traveling back to a time before the evil Lechiem empire that threatens them is all-powerful. Here’s the catch: Success means removing this particular timeline (and Lunais herself) from history.  The plot is as labyrinthine as you’d expect from a story about time travel, and gets more complicated as it unfurls. Much of the exposition relies on notes found across the world. They aren’t long or plentiful, but as they complicate the roles o...

Developer Blue Mammoth Games, creators of Smash Bros.-like Brawlhalla, were acquired by Ubisoft just a few weeks ago. Perhaps it was this announcement that made the armor-clad Shovel Knight realize there was an indie fighting game out there that he wasn't a part of, but regardless of why, Shovel Knight and some of the game's cast are joining in what is now Ubisoft's new platform fighter. King Knight, Black Knight, Plague Knight and Specter Knight are also joining Shovel Knight in the game. While the blog post refers to them as skins rather than characters, it notes that they include unique animation and signature effects, as well. Details of when they will be released are still forthcoming. The group joins Rayman, which is also coming soon to the free-to-play fighter. Brawlhalla is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. from Game Informer https://ift.tt/2DBxkKU via gqrds

Welcome back to The Game Informer Show! On this episode, Ben Hanson, Andrew Reiner, Matt Miller, and Ben Reeves talk about the glowing review for Microsoft's Forza Horizon 4 . Elise Favis and Kimberley Wallace then join the show to talk about playing the first episode of Life is Strange 2 and then we talk about the sad and surprising closure of Telltales Games and the ambiguous end for The Walking Dead. The Tokyo Game Show is over and done with, and we have Kimberley Wallace to talk about the stand-out games like Devil May Cry 5 and Death Stranding. After some great community emails, we finish off our spoiler-filled discussion of Insomniac's Spider-Man's third and final act with the GI Game Club. You can watch the video below,  subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes or Google Play ,  listen to episode 417 on SoundCloud , or download the MP3 by clicking here . Also, be sure to send your questions to  podcast@gameinformer.com  for a chance to hav...

Fans get an early look at the upcoming RPG

Prepare for a Star Trek overload. In the next few years, it sounds like we'll see more of Star Trek than we currently are for Star Wars. If you thought Disney was milking the space walrus too much, just wait until you hear what Paramount and CBS are up to. Along with the second season of Star Trek Discovery , fans can look forward to a new Captain Picard television series, a Quentin Tarantino movie, Star Trek 4 (perhaps without Chris Pine), a Star Trek vs Transformers cartoon series, and now something called Short Treks . Beginning on October 4, some of Discovery 's side characters will have the chance to shine in four short 10- to 15-minute episodes on CBS All Access. The first episode is called Runway, and focuses on ensign Tilly and a visitor in need of help. The second episode, which airs on November 8, will reveal if Craft has what it takes to survive on a derelict spacecraft. On December 6, Saru's backstory will be showcased on his homeworld of Kaminar. The final ...

For the latest issue of Game Informer , we travelled to The Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York to tour their amazing archive of gaming history. All week long we're rolling out exclusive features showing off some of the museum's most interesting objects. You can learn more about the history and mission of the museum in our interview with Jeremy Saucier who is the assistant vice president for interpretation and electronic games by clicking here . In the video above, The Strong Museum's curator of electronic games Shannon Symonds shows off their collection pertaining to one of the first female game designers/programmers Carol Shaw. From source code on an unreleased Ralph Lauren game to artifacts from River Raid on the Atari, learn how Carol Shaw left an impact on the history of gaming. To catch up on other videos from The Strong Museum of Play, check out the links below: The Sims' Unseen Design Notebooks from Will Wright Dissecting Age Of Empires' Earli...

New tactics and training mechanics in this year's sim

Over the top puzzle game sequel is almost here

Second season of adventure game series is underway

Scares, sports, and puzzles free next month

Another free update brings new region and boat

Cooperation, stealth, and action offered next month

Pre-order bonuses and collector's edition revealed for strategy title

This morning, Nintendo announced on Twitter that a localized version of Yo-Kai Watch 3 will be coming to North America for the 3DS this February. With a confirmed release date of February 8, Nintendo also tweeted that a European version of the game can be expected sometime this winter. Both games will feature "new locales, characters and an all-new battle system." https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1045300497970843648 Along with the announcement, the free Moon Rabbit Crew update for Yo-Kai Watch Blasters launched today bringing new missions, explorable areas and bosses to the 3DS title. You can check out the announcement trailer down below.  Yo-Kai Watch 3 initially launched as a Japanese title in 2016. The Nintendo Switch title Yo-Kai Watch 4 is set to release in Japan later this year with no Western release date in sight.  [Source: IGN ] from Game Informer https://ift.tt/2N4KTSp via gqrds

Nintendo has added new post-game content for Super Mario Odyssey. After beating the game, gather some coins and head to the Crazy Cap shop to buy the new conductor outfit and conductor wig. Nintendo tweeted out the official look, check it out: https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1045123390439391232 The conductor outfit and wig is the latest in a long line of fun costume dlc that Nintendo's released to liven up Mario's journey. Last month, it revealed the Hariet hat and suit . Super Mario Odyssey is out for the Nintendo Switch and you can see our review here .  from Game Informer https://ift.tt/2NNOnxR via gqrds

Last month, chat app Discord announced their intentions to create a game store through their program . Alongside the store announcement, Discord mentioned that they would be instituting a programmed First on Discord, which provides development support to indie games in exchange for a PC exclusivity period typically around 90 days to the Discord store. Today, Discord revealed the launch lineup of the First on Discord program. •    Last Year: The Nightmare (Elastic Games) •    Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption (Another Indie) •    Minion Masters (BetaDwarf) •    Bad North (Raw Fury) •    At Sundown (Versus Evil/Mild Beast) •    Mad Machines (Hero Blocks) •    King of the Hat (Hyroglyphik Games) These games will launch first on Discord's store on the PC. Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption was one of the indie games we most liked at GDC this past March. King of the Hat was a...

With Sony's bombshell announcement today that they're putting a small crack in the wall preventing crossplay from occurring between the PlayStation 4 and other consoles, people are justifiably excited over what that could mean longterm. While Fortnite is the first game to cross the streams, there theoretically be other games on the way. Unfortunately, it does not seem like Fallout 76 is one of those games. Earlier this year, Bethesda's Todd Howard  insinuated Sony was standing in the way of crossplay for the survival spinoff, but Sony allowing Fortnite doesn't mean Fallout 76 is happening. After applauding the news on Twitter today, Bethesda vice president Pete Hines tried to temper expectations. Folks, chill. I work with a lot of devs and games for whom this is important going forward. Fallout 76 does not support crossplay, for a number of reasons. I have no idea if it ever will. But I assure you it is not on our radar right now as we focus on B.E.T.A. and Lau...

Sequel to rally racing game is coming early 2019

Sony announces a big step towards cross-platform play

Major stars from the films will reprise their roles in the game

Developers can choose to include these new input features

A 2018 celebration event for all things Xbox

Shonen Jump is responsible for bringing us some of manga and anime's most iconic characters. Dragon Ball's Goku and One Piece's Luffy are just a few names on the roster alongside other popular properties such as Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Bleach. Since 1968, the manga shonen anthology has entertained and delighted, leaving a huge imprint on anime culture. Today, many of these shows are still running, video games such as the upcoming Jump Force are still being created, and Shonen Jump continues to retain its legacy of producing some of the most popular manga around.  Japan has a lot of pride in its manga/anime scene and part of the highlight of visiting is seeing all the dedicated shops, billboards, and overall enthusiasm around it. While exploring Tokyo for this past TGS , I discovered a Jump shop in Tokyo Station after my visit to the delightful Pokémon cafe . I couldn't resist snapping some pictures to show you what it's like inside.  Check out the gallery abo...

For the latest issue of Game Informer , we travelled to The Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York to tour their amazing archive of gaming history. All week long we're rolling out exclusive features showing off some of the museum's most interesting objects. You can learn more about the history and mission of the museum in our interview with Jeremy Saucier who is the assistant vice president for interpretation and electronic games by clicking here . In the video above, The Strong Museum's director Jon-Paul Dyson shows off a modified light anti-tank weapon created by the "father of video games" Ralph Bear to help train the United States military on how to fire at tanks in 1979. This is most likely the first use of video games for military purposes. To catch up on other videos from The Strong Museum of Play, check out the links below: The Sims' Unseen Design Notebooks from Will Wright Dissecting Age Of Empires' Earliest Prototype - Revealing Gamin...

Soulcalibur VI's most recently announced character is the fencer Raphael, having been revealed and shown off fairly recently . Fencing is a well-loved style in fighting games and Raphael has a large number of fans who like the way his style feels. Soulcalibur VI producer is Motohiro Okubo is one of those fans and, really, what better opponent for an amateur fencing enthusiast than Olympic medal winner Miles Chamley-Watson? Watson took home the bronze medal in the 2016 Olympic games, which might make him slightly out of Okubo's league. You can catch their fencing battle, and the subsequent second round of Soulcalibur VI with brand new footage of Raphael, below. Soulcalibur VI releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 19. from Game Informer https://ift.tt/2Dvw2Ru via gqrds

Rally racing fans can relish their next seemingly insurmountable challenging as Codemasters has announced Dirt Rally 2.0 for a February 26 release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. So far not a lot is known about the game other than it takes in six rally locations around the world (U.S., Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and Spain), it has custom stages, and Dirt Rally 2.0 is the official game of the FIA World Rallycross Championship. This means it has the eight official WorldRX circuits as well as licensed Supercars and support series. Codemasters is teasing that players will have to think about various race strategies that can affect development of the team and the car. A Deluxe version of the game has also been announced that includes early access on February 22, the first two seasons of post-launch content which each come with three locations, five early unlock vehicles (click the source link below for the full list), and multiple in-game bonuses. Those who pre-...

Square Enix has revealed a list of the actors for Kingdom Hearts III this morning, showing off the various actors and actresses reprising their roles from their Disney films in the game. From the 2013 film Frozen , Kristen Bell (Anna), Idina Menzel (Elsa), Jonathan Groff (Kristoff), and Josh Gad (Olaf) all reprise their roles in the film. This isn't Bell's first foray into video games, as  The Good Place  star played Lucy Stillman in several of the early Assassin's Creed games a decade ago. From Tangled , Zachary Levi reprises his role as Flynn Rider from the movie, while Donna Murphy appears as Mother Gothel. While Square Enix and Disney have not indicated whether Mandy Moore will voicing Rapunzel, it would be odd for her not to return as she appeared in the previous two games as Final Fantasy VII's Aerith. Toy Story's world in Kingdom Hearts III has veterans John Ratzenberger as Hamm and Wallace Shawn as Rex. Tate Donovan reprises his role as Hercules from th...

It's easy to forget that a Monster Hunter movie from Paul W.S. Anderson is on the way. The fairly minimal stories or, well, narrative anything of the games seem like they won't really lend themselves to a movie, but Anderson and his wife Milla Jovavich are going to try. While they do so, The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Ron Perlman and T.I. are also joining in on the monster hunting fun. Jovovich is playing a character named Artemis for whom details are fairly scant. She also took the lead role in every single  Resident Evil  live action movie helmed by Anderson. Those movies were fairly successful for Capcom, which explains why they sought out Anderson to take on their other big franchise. T.I. plays Link, a sniper, one of the characters from the non-Monster Hunter world aspect of the film. The rapper/actor was most recently in Ant-Man and the Wasp.  Ron Perlman's reputation precedes him, as the 68-year-old actor has headlined movies like Hellboy , Pacific Rim...

Adventure game maker is shutting down, staff preparing a lawsuit

The multiplayer shooter servers will be off by March 2019

FoxNext's character-collection game based in the Marvel universe received a big 2.0 update today. In addition to several new features and some new objectives to earn rewards, three marquee characters are joining the roster. Venom headlines the additions as the character's film starring Tom Hardy nears release. Players can earn Venom by completing event campaign missions and new Alpha Strike raids, which come in three difficulties and require players to use the Cosmic, Global, and City heroes on their teams. In addition to Venom, players will also soon be able to recruit Mystique and Ultron. Ultron previously appeared as a CPU-controlled enemy, but this is the first time players will be able to recruit him. With more characters from the X-Men side of the universe coming into play, a new Mutant origin trait has been added to the game. This allows for characters who possess this trait to play off one another and equip new Mutant gear. Announced characters affected by this new t...

Microsoft has announced it is finally rolling out support for an input method that's been somewhat contentious on console: the mouse and keyboard. Announced during today's episode of Microsoft's Inside Xbox show, the previously rumored  feature will be rolling out to a limited number of Xbox Insider users "in the coming weeks." Most keyboards and mice that use USB (wired or wireless) should work, though Microsoft is partnering with Razer on keyboard and mouse method made specifically for the Xbox One. I know what you're thinking: Won't users who use this option, which tends to be faster and more precise than a controller, have an advantage over controller users? They would, but only if the developer chooses to enable the feature. "It’s important to note that mouse and keyboard support for games is added on a title-by-title basis, entirely at developers’ discretion. For all other titles, nothing changes," says Jason Ronald, director of program ...

The lineup for next month's Games With Gold has been revealed. Major Nelson tweeted out that players with Xbox Live Gold can look forward to downloading titles like Overcooked and Hitman: Blood Money. The other two free games in the lineup include Victor Vran and Stuntman: Ignition.  https://twitter.com/majornelson/status/1044680433709985792 Major Nelson also tweeted out the new titles coming to Xbox Game Pass next month, which include Wolfenstein: The New Order and Forza Horizon 4 when it's released on October 2.  from Game Informer https://ift.tt/2OUdQm1 via gqrds

Late last week, Telltale Games essentially shut down, laying off the vast majority of their employees with the intention of shutting down completely after fulfilling some contractual obligations. Yesterday afternoon, a former Telltale employee Vernie Roberts, Jr. filed a class-action suit on behalf of himself and fellow employees alleging that the San Rafael-based developer violated labor laws by not aligning to Federal and state laws outlined by the WARN Act, Polygon reports . When Telltale laid off around 225 of their staff last week, the company did so abruptly, having not given much if any warning to its employees, with reports of some employees having just moved to the Bay Area developer to start work the previous week. Under WARN, Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, employers with over one hundred employees are required to give those employees 60 days notification before any mass layoffs or closures. In California, that number lessens to 75 employees, but st...

For the latest issue of Game Informer , we travelled to The Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York to tour their amazing archive of gaming history. You can learn more about the history and mission of the museum in our interview with Jeremy Saucier who is the assistant vice president for interpretation and electronic games by clicking here . All week long we're rolling out exclusive videos showing off some of the museum's most interesting artifacts that are foundational to gaming history, and today's video focuses on the history of the RTS genre by showing a prototype of Age of Empires from designer Bruce Shelley at Ensemble Studios . Check out the video above to see The Strong Museum's digital games curator Andrew Borman show off the 1995 build which features a surprising number of survival elements and the complete lack of the Age of Empires' series signature age structure. To catch up on other videos from The Strong Museum of Play, check out the links b...

New chapter of turn-based strategy RPG franchise is out today

Total War: Rome II has been the target of a review-bombing campaign on Steam, due to players believing that women are appearing as generals more often than is historically accurate. As  PC Gamer  reports, although a thread regarding the presence of female generals was posted in march, the problem began when a user in that thread posted in an image in mid-August wherein five of the eight generals at their disposal in a battle were women. Some believed the July Ancestral Update for the game increased the chances of women becoming generals, which they believed made the game less historically accurate. As the thread devolved into bitter arguments about the presence of female generals and the roles they play in combat in general, a community manager for developer Creative Assembly eventually intervened. "This thread is a mess so I'm locking it," the manager said. "As has been said previously: Total War games are historically authentic, not historically accurate - if hav...

Upcoming patch will introduce two new settings

For the latest issue of Game Informer , we travelled to The Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York to tour their amazing archive of gaming history. You can learn more about the history and mission of the museum in our interview with Jeremy Saucier who is the assistant vice president for interpretation and electronic games by clicking here . In the video above, the museum's director Jon-Paul Dyson and archivist Julia Novakovic page through legendary game designer Will Wright's notes and sketches showing the earliest glimpses into the creation of the gaming juggernaut The Sims. We hope you enjoy the video above and stay tuned for a new piece of gaming history every day this week at gameinformer.com. from Game Informer https://ift.tt/2Iba9FV via gqrds

Failbetter Games' Sunless Skies, the sequel to the 2015 title Sunless Sea, has a release date.  Announced at a panel during EGX 2018, Sunless Skies is to release on January 31, 2019. Sunless Skies has been in early access on Steam since 2017. Similar to its predecessor, Sunless Skies tasks players to take control of guiding a ship through a treacherous world. It has many improvements, including an overhauled combat system. SUNLESS SKIES will release on 31 January 2019 🌔 Literary horror 🌓 Narrative driven RPG 🌑 Explore a unique, dangerous universe 🌗 Survive nightmares, starvation, terrifying sights 🌖 Murder a sun WISHLIST NOW Steam: https://t.co/qNhlRZh4UE GOG: https://t.co/Wlr3CMZVQQ pic.twitter.com/xMEcVn2PVI — Failbetter Games (@failbettergames) September 22, 2018 Additionally, it was announced that Sunless Skies now has its own pen-and-paper RPG based on the game. The RPG tasks an entire crew of players to make decisions. Titled Skyfarer, i...

Just a couple days ago, word spread quickly online that Telltale was facing big layoffs and closing down the majority of its studio . It came as a shock to most, since the developer had several projects in the works, from continuing The Walking Dead, creating its own take on Stranger Things, and had plans to rekindle The Wolf Among Us. The news, especially for the majority of the studio that was laid off unexpectedly, is devastating.  I'm  devastated because Telltale inspired me to pursue video games as a career. Some of their storytelling is the best I've seen for the interactive medium. I remember playing through The Walking Dead S1 several times with friends because I wanted them to see how brilliant it was too. I remember my jaw dropping at the end of The Wolf Among Us.  Telltale fans from around the globe have been sharing their favorite Telltale moments on Twitter, some of which you can view below: #TelltaleMemories In "Tales from the Borderlands",...

Batman: Arkham Knight is one of the best superhero games ever made , but like most high-budget games, it's cobbled together using lots of tricks you don't get to see if you play the game normally. Luckily, there are other ways of seeing how those tricks unfold. Youtuber Shesez is back with another episode of Boundary Break, which this week tackles some of the behind-the-scenes secrets of Rocksteady's final Batman outing. Some of the secrets include a mysterious orb inside the room where Joker is placed in the incinerator, what happens to someone who goes into the Batmobile, and how the scene with Oracle plays out from another angle. It also confirms that Scarecrow is in fact in the scene where you encounter him for the first time for its entire duration, and not just when the animation where you launches his hallucinogen at you in the diner plays out. from Game Informer https://ift.tt/2Dp9hid via gqrds

The Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, previously available on 3DS, is heading to consoles, and here's the trailer to prove it. The port, which is headed to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC early next year, features many of the features of the 3DS version, including higher-res assets and reworked text. Other than that, however, it looks to be a mostly faithful re-release of the first three games in the Ace Attorney franchise. You can check out the trilogy in action below.   from Game Informer https://ift.tt/2xEJjkA via gqrds

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice impressed us back when we played it at Gamescom , with its interesting twists on the formula From Software has been building on for years. One thing we weren't able to show during our demo, however, was a tried-and-true boss fight - a hallmark of these kinds of games. Thankfully, Sony has uploaded some extended gameplay footage from that demo, including a look at a boss, which shows off just how important grappling and parrying off are during combat. Of course, this being a game from From Software, the demo doesn't have a happy ending for the person playing. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is scheduled to release March 22, 2019. from Game Informer https://ift.tt/2QRCsgj via gqrds