Atomic Wolf, the indie developer behind the Bomberman-like Mad Age & This Guy, has given us a first look at a new title called Liberated during PAX East 2019. In stark contrast to the studio’s previous effort, Liberated is a stylish, narrative-driven 2.5D stealth game inspired by noir films and graphic novels.

Set in a bleak, dystopian future where the government is using technology to surveil and manipulate the public, Liberated tells the story of a group of characters who cross paths with the authoritarian police force and a violent opposition group fighting against it. The narrative is framed like a graphic novel; the game is divided up into four chapters, which are presented as four comic book issues, with story and gameplay sequences unfolding across different panels.

Throughout the course of the game, players will be faced with choices that will affect how the story is shaped and lead to entirely different endings. Among other things, players must choose whether to cooperate with the government or the opposition group. As the story unfolds, however, you’ll realize the decision isn’t as black-and-white as it may initially appear, and every choice you make will carry a consequence.

You can watch an exclusive trailer for Liberated at the top of this story. We’ve also captured more than 10 minutes of gameplay footage at PAX East; in the video above, you can watch Atomic Wolf play through a portion of the game’s first chapter, which follows a hacker who was discovered by the police.

Liberated is slated to launch on Steam later this year. Following its PC release, Atomic Wolf is also planning to bring the game to PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/pax-east-2019-exclusive-trailer-for-stylish-25d-st/1100-6465928/

Sega has announced the Genesis Mini–or Mega Drive Mini, if you’re in Europe. The compact version of its classic 16-bit console will allow fans to indulge their nostalgia and play a range of old school games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Castlevania: Bloodlines, and Gunstar Heroes on modern displays.

The Genesis Mini was revealed as part of Sega’s Fes event, which is taking place in Tokyo, Japan, and is scheduled to launch worldwide on September 19. It will cost $79.99 US/£69.99/€79.99/AUD$139.95 and have 40 games.

The company has confirmed that this list of titles includes Sonic the Hedgehog, Ecco the Dolphin, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Space Harrier 2, Shining Force, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, ToeJam & Earl, Comix Zone, Altered Beast, and Gunstar Heroes. Sega has said the remaining games will be “announced intermittently over the coming months.”

The Sega Genesis Mini is based on the Model 1 Genesis, except is approximately 55 percent smaller than its original incarnation, according to Sega. In the box will be the Genesis Mini, two replica three-button USB controllers, one USB to Micro-B power cable, and one HDMI cable. In North America a power adapter will also be included.

The game ports that are on the Genesis Mini were handled by M2, a team that is well known for its work on emulation and re-releases. M2 previously worked on Sega Ages and Sega 3D Classics Collection.

Releasing Mini versions of classic consoles has become something of a trend recently. Nintendo led the way with the NES Classic and the SNES Classic, both of which were received well by critics and went on to be hot commercial items. Sony followed suite with the PlayStation Classic, which wasn’t received as warmly.

For those looking for a more immediate option, and one that offers a few more options, there’s Analogue’s Mega Sg. “While roughly $200 is a lot to spend on a console to play Genesis games, right now, the Mega Sg is the easiest way to get them up and running on a modern TV without sacrificing audio or video quality–the support for Master System and Sega CD games is the icing on the cake,” said Peter Brown in his Mega Sg review.

“Some people will always prefer to go the route of using emulators, and others may only want to play with original hardware and stick to aftermarket mods. But if you are open to the idea of a third-party Genesis console, and you want the peace of mind knowing that it looks and sounds better than the best original console from Sega, there’s no better option on the market than the Mega Sg.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sega-genesis-mini-revealed-has-40-classic-games/1100-6465925/

Sega has announced a range of video games for the Olympic Games being held in Tokyo next year. Among them is Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, a Switch title that will once again reunite the characters from Nintendo and Sega’s most iconic franchises to compete in sporting events.

However, Sega also has Olympic Games: The Official Video Games in development for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch. On top of that there’s an arcade version of Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, and Sonic At The Olympic Games — Tokyo 2020 for mobile devices. These games are showcased in a trailer, which you can watch below, albeit briefly.

Obviously, the main differences between the various titles is whether or not they have Mario or Sonic attached to them. Sega is making a standard Olympics video game available on all platforms, and this is currently listed as coming 2020 on the game’s official website. Mario and Sonic will join in on the competition for Switch and Arcade, with the Switch version arriving in Winter 2019 while the arcade version follows in Summer 2020. Finally, on mobile, it’s just Sonic and the game headed to the Olympics, and that game is set for Summer 2020.

In the trailer there are a range of events from the various games shown, including running, swimming, shot put, tennis, basketball, volleyball, motorsports, skateboarding, baseball, hurdles, and long jump, among others. It looks like there’s going to be a nice variety of games for players to check out.

The original Mario and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games launched in November 2007 and proved to be very popular, becoming a sales success. Critically, however, the response was mixed. In GameSpot’s review the Wii version received a 6/10. “The trouble lies in the often uninteresting and occasionally frustrating motion controls combined with some events that are too similar to one another, as well as shallow gameplay that brings the game down,” it concluded.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sega-reveals-mario-and-sonic-at-the-olympic-games-/1100-6465926/

Valve has announced it will slow down on pushing out updates for Artifact in order to start focusing on the digital card game’s larger issues. The company published a blog post on Steam explaining its reasoning.

“Obviously, things didn’t turn out how we hoped,” Valve game programmer Jeep Barnett wrote. “Artifact represents the largest discrepancy between our expectations for how one of our games would be received and the actual outcome. But we don’t think that players misunderstand our game, or that they’re playing it wrong. Artifact now represents an opportunity for us to improve our craft and use that knowledge to build better games.”

“It has become clear that there are deep-rooted issues with the game and that our original update strategy of releasing new features and cards would be insufficient to address them,” Barnett continued. “Instead, we believe the correct course of action is to take larger steps, to re-examine the decisions we’ve made along the way regarding game design, the economy, the social experience of playing, and more.”

Specifics are not listed for which “larger issues” will be addressed outside of the general descriptions supplied in the quote above. Barnett does warn, though, that the “process of experimentation and development” will most likely “take a significant amount of time.” So you probably shouldn’t expect new updates for Artifact anytime soon.

Artifact is Valve’s first new game in years. Conceptually based on Dota 2, Artifact is designed by Richard Garfield, who previously created the Magic: The Gathering card game. Artifact is available on PC, with plans to bring the game to Android and iOS this year. Valve did not announce whether the mobile port will now be delayed on account of the shift in focus to address the game’s larger issues.

Despite the game’s issues, in our Artifact review, we gave the game an 8/10, describing the title as “a capable reimagining of modern trading card games.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/valve-is-slowing-artifact-updates-to-handle-the-ga/1100-6465923/