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Final Fantasy 7’s Most Iconic Artwork Officially Remade

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Square Enix is celebrating the 22nd anniversary of Final Fantasy VII‘s North American release by recreating one of the most iconic pieces of artwork for the game. The modern look is in line with the detailed visual style of the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Remake, and fans are sure to get a kick out of the treatment Square Enix has given the art.

Regardless of whether you’re a fan of the Final Fantasy franchise, Final Fantasy VII specifically, or RPGs as a genre, you’re probably familiar with the piece of art in question. It depicts the protagonist Cloud with his back to the viewer as he reaches for his sword. He stands facing the Shinra building, which can be seen towering above him in the distance. A cloud of thick black smog chokes the air above, while brilliant blue lights shoot out of the ground. All of this nicely captures the game’s story of a small group of eco-terrorists fighting against a megacorporation to try and save the world they live in.

The remade artwork comes just six months ahead of Final Fantasy 7 Remake March 3, 2020 release date. Square Enix previously revealed the game will span two Blu-ray discs when it launches on PS4, and there will be a $330 Final Fantasy 7 Remake collector’s edition available. At E3 2019, we got an extended gameplay and combat demonstration, and we recently got to more hands-on time with it too. You can see what we thought in the video above.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-7s-most-iconic-artwork-officially-re/1100-6469705/

Fortnite Update Vaults A Bunch Of Weapons

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Fortnite‘s 10.20 content update arrived earlier this week, and now developer Epic Games has made a few more tweaks to the popular battle royale shooter. The 10.20.2 hotfix is now live on all platforms, and it vaults a handful of weapons and makes numerous other gameplay adjustments. Read on for the patch notes.

First, three guns–the Combat Shotgun, Drum Shotgun, and Proximity Launcher–have been moved into the vault, which means they’ve effectively been removed from the game. As always, there is a chance the guns could be re-added to Fortnite in the future, but for the time being, you won’t find them in the Battle Royale mode.

Those aren’t the only weapon changes. The Suppressed Assault Rifle has been unvaulted; it’s available in Epic and Legendary variants. Epic has also increased the damage dished out by the Automatic Sniper. “The Automatic Sniper was underperforming relative to some of the other Sniper Rifles. This adjustment to damage should make it more desirable as an alternative long-range weapon,” Epic said.

Additionally, Epic has made more tweaks to the controversial BRUTE mechs; now they’ll spawn less during storm phases 3-6. The developer has also increased the “duration of spiciness” of peppers to 60 seconds, and reduced the availability of Obelisks at Retail Row. You can see the full patch notes for the hotfix below courtesy of Epic’s website.

Fortnite’s aforementioned 10.20 content update added a new item to the game, the Zapper Trap, and also brought back another familiar element from a past season: the Floating Island. Fortnite’s Week 6 challenges are also now live. This set is called Boogie Down, and most of the tasks revolve around dancing. You can find maps and guides in our complete Fortnite Season 10 challenges roundup.

Fortnite: Battle Royale 10.20.2 Hotfix Patch Notes

Weapons & Items

Vaulted

  • Combat Shotgun
  • Drum Shotgun
  • Proximity Launcher

Unvaulted

  • Suppressed Assault Rifle (Epic/Legendary)

Automatic Sniper

  • The Automatic Sniper was underperforming relative to some of the other Sniper Rifles. This adjustment to damage should make it more desirable as an alternative long-range weapon.
    • Increased damage from 31/33/35 to 40/42/44

Gameplay

B.R.U.T.E

Lowered the spawn rate of the B.R.U.T.E in Storm phases 3-6 in core modes. Arena spawn rates will remain unchanged.

  • With this change, we’re hoping to reduce the impact of B.R.U.T.Es on late-game scenarios, while retaining their presence in the early game.
    • Storm phase 3
      • New spawn rates
        • 33.3% chance to spawn 0
        • 33.3% chance to spawn 1
        • 33.3% chance to spawn 2
      • Old spawn rates
        • 25% chance to spawn 0
        • 25% chance to spawn 1
        • 25% chance to spawn 2
        • 25% chance to spawn 3
    • Storm phase 4
      • New spawn rates
        • 50% chance to spawn 0
        • 50% chance to spawn 1
      • Old spawn rates
        • 33.3% chance to spawn 0
        • 33.3% chance to spawn 1
        • 33.3% chance to spawn 2
    • Storm phase 5
      • New spawn rates
        • 83.4% chance to spawn 0
        • 16.6% chance to spawn 1
      • Old spawn rates
        • 50% chance to spawn 0
        • 50% chance to spawn 1
    • Storm phase 6
      • New spawn rates
        • Will no longer spawn.
      • Old spawn rates
        • 90% chance to spawn 0
        • 10% chance to spawn 1

Peppers

  • Increased the duration of spiciness from Peppers to a 60-second duration from a 20-second duration.

Retail Row

  • This POI is intended to be a high-risk, high-reward drop location, but we feel the reward has outweighed the risk. By reducing the availability of Obelisks, gathering rare loot will require a little more time investment.
    • Reduced the maximum number of Spawn Obelisks from 7 to 5.
    • Increased the time before Spawn Obelisks respawn to a max of 30 seconds (previously a max of 5 seconds).
      • The respawn timer for Spawn Obelisks is on a loop and time may vary between 1-30 seconds.
    • Decreased the chance to drop Rocket Launchers from destroyed Spawn Obelisks from 18.46% to 10%
    • Decreased the chance to drop Jump Pads from destroyed Spawn Obelisks from 50% to 40%

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fortnite-update-vaults-a-bunch-of-weapons/1100-6469689/

August’s Best Selling Digital PS4 Games In The US

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Sony has revealed the US PlayStation Store’s top digital downloads for the month of August. A couple of new games entered the PlayStation 4 top 20, but there’s one new release that stands out for its somewhat surprising absence.

Madden NFL 20 took the No. 1 spot in the rankings after launching at the very beginning of the month on August 2. Its position on top of the pile isn’t too surprising considering EA recently announced that digital sales for Madden 20 have exceeded physical sales for the first time in series history. In celebration of the NFL’s 100th season kicking off last night, EA is currently offering a free trial for Madden 20 that you can play until September 8. This gives you a good chance to try out the new Superstar KO mode.

The rest of the chart is business as usual with mainstays like Grand Theft Auto V, Minecraft, and Marvel’s Spider-Man hovering around the top of the chart. Scroll all the way down to No. 20, however, and you’ll find another new entry: The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan. Supermassive Games’ story-driven horror game was only released on August 30 but managed to shift enough digital units to crack the top 20. PlayStation doesn’t reveal sales numbers so it’s impossible to tell how well it did.

By comparison, Remedy’s Control was released three days before Man of Medan and is notable for its absence in the top 20. It sold enough physical copies to crack the UK’s all-formats top four during the week of its release. Amazon also heavily discounted the paranormal shooter which may have led to fewer digital purchases.

The full list can be found here. Make sure you check out GameSpot’s reviews for Madden NFL 20, The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, and Control.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/augusts-best-selling-digital-ps4-games-in-the-us/1100-6469693/

Catherine: Full Body Launch Edition (PS4) On Sale At Amazon, Includes Metal Case

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Catherine: Full Body released on September 3, and you can already find the remastered PS4 game at a slight discount at Amazon. Originally listed at $60, the launch edition of Catherine: Full Body is on sale for $53, and that includes free one-day Prime shipping. Notably, the launch edition comes with a gorgeous metal case, which you can check out below, but it’s in limited supply, so hop on this deal fast before it sells out.

No Caption Provided

Catherine: Full Body Launch Edition — $53 ($60)

See at Amazon

Catherine: Full Body is an enhanced port of the acclaimed 2011 game Catherine, which originally released on PS3 and Xbox 360, and was developed by Atlus, the team behind Persona. The story revolves around a man named Vincent and his affair with a woman named Catherine, despite the fact that he also has a longtime girlfriend, Katherine. The gameplay is a mix of platforming, puzzle-solving, and social segments where Vincent interacts with various characters at the Stray Sheep bar. The PS4 port introduces a third love interest, Rin, and multiple endings are possible.

The remaster received an 8/10 in our Catherine: Full Body review, in which GameSpot’s Edmond Tran praised the game’s compelling story, challenging yet satisfying puzzle-solving, stylish art style, and more, although he felt the addition of Rin dismantled the game’s sense of mystery and disrupted pacing.

“Eight years later, Catherine: Full Body is a remaster that demonstrates how well the game’s distinctive premise and exploration of adult themes still hold up, even if its new additions to the plot don’t fit in seamlessly,” he wrote. “But Rin’s presence still brings an intriguing new edge to Vincent’s crisis, and Full Body still tells a fascinating, personal tale. The nightmarish block puzzles are still weirdly intense and satisfying to surmount, and the Stray Sheep is still a wonderful bar to spend your nights in.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/catherine-full-body-launch-edition-ps4-on-sale-at-/1100-6469691/

Gears 5 Praised For Its Accessibility Options And Inclusiveness

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Microsoft has recently been striving for more accessibility in games, releasing the Xbox Adaptive Controller last year to give people with disabilities a viable way to play both PC and Xbox games. Gears 5 is the company’s biggest game of the year, and marks the first in-house production to really focus on being as approachable and accessible as possible.

The Coalition’s hard work has certainly paid off. Can I Play That, a site dedicated to reviewing video game accessibility options, has awarded Gears 5 a perfect score for including comprehensive options for deaf players and those that are hard of hearing. “Readers, you are about to see something I don’t think we’ve ever been able to do before in all of our years of Deaf/hoh accessibility reviews,” Courtney Craven’s review says. “What follows isn’t so much a review as it’s a series of ‘Look at all the things they got so very right.’ Because what they got right is everything. There’s not a single thing I can say needs improving in terms of Gears 5’s Deaf/hoh accessibility.”

The praise starts with how Gears 5 presents all of these options, with the first screen in the game letting you toggle subtitles and select text size before any gameplay or cutscenes begin. The subtitles themselves are lauded for being incredibly information-inclusive and unique compared to what you typically see in games. Subtitles not only relay spoken dialogue, but also tell you if a character is speaking off-camera (like over a radio), spell out various sound effects, and indicate what the speaker sounds like, including the non-speaking noises they make.

The most eye-opening aspect of Gears 5’s subtitles, however, is the fact that they let you know when the combat music stops. This is something most of us take for granted, with the soothing silence indicating that all of the enemies in a combat encounter are dead. Can I Play That says this is the first time a video game has indicated this to Deaf/hoh players.

There are additional accessibility options that extend to visuals and gameplay, too. There’s a damage indicator that makes it clear where you’re taking damage from, and readable bullet tracers let you know who’s shooting at you. All of the buttons can be remapped, which is particularly useful for those using non-standard controllers, and the chat function in online multiplayer has both text to speech and speech to text options. “Gears 5 is essentially a masterclass in Deaf/hoh accessibility,” Can I Play That’s review concludes. “Everything we’ve been harping about games lacking and therefore made more difficult for Deaf/hoh players to play has been implemented and in the six years I’ve been doing these reviews, damn it feels good to feel like, hey, people have been listening.”

Gears 5 has also received praise from the LGBTQ+ community for its inclusiveness. There are 19 pride banners you can choose to equip in multiplayer. When you’ve earned a commendation, your banner will be displayed behind your character at the end of the match, meaning you can share your love of robotics and Sea of Thieves, or proudly state your identity with pride flags including bisexual, polysexual, non-binary, and many more. Twitter user @ashiinu first pointed out the colourful new additions.

Gears 5 launches on September 10 for Xbox One and PC, though those with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate can download it today. In the meantime, you can check out GameSpot’s review in progress, find out what all of the critics are saying, see what Cliff Bleszinski thinks of the cover, peruse some Gears-inspired jewellery, and discover how you can play it for just $1.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gears-5-praised-for-its-accessibility-options-and-/1100-6469690/

Switch Won’t Be Adding New NES And SNES Games In Monthly Batches Anymore

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This week saw the long-awaited arrival of SNES games on Switch. Those with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription can now play 20 classic SNES game on Nintendo’s hybrid console, with more on the way in the future; however, it seems these new additions won’t be coming on a monthly basis as we’ve grown to expect.

Since the Nintendo Switch Online service launched last September, Nintendo has added a handful of new NES titles to the console each month; going forward, however, it appears classic games will come more sporadically. In a statement to Business Insider, a Nintendo representative said, “More NES games will be added in the future, but those releases will not adhere to a regular schedule.”

The same will hold true for SNES titles. “More Super NES games will be added after launch, but those releases will not adhere to a regular schedule,” the Nintendo representative said.

To date, there are nearly 50 NES games on the Nintendo Switch Online service; most recently, Nintendo added Kung-Fu Heroes and the rare Vice: Project Doom in August. The SNES library, meanwhile, already comes with some of the system’s best games, including The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, and Yoshi’s Island. You can see the full current lineup below:

  • Brawl Brothers
  • Breath Of Fire
  • Demon’s Crest
  • F-Zero
  • Joe And Mac 2: Lost In The Tropics
  • Kirby’s Dream Course
  • Kirby’s Dream Land 3
  • Pilotwings
  • Star Fox
  • Stunt Race FX
  • Super EDF: Earth Defense Force
  • Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts
  • Super Mario Kart
  • Super Mario World
  • Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
  • Super Metroid
  • Super Puyo Puyo 2
  • Super Soccer
  • Super Tennis
  • The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past

As previously mentioned, the NES and SNES libraries are available exclusively to Nintendo Switch Online members. Individual subscriptions are available for US $4 / £3.49 / AU $6 for one month, US $8 / £7 / AU $12 for three months, and US $20 / £18 / AU $30 for one year; Nintendo also offers an annual Family Membership that costs US $35 / £31.49 / AU $55 and covers up to eight Nintendo Accounts across multiple systems.

If you’re an NSO subscriber, there’s another freebie available for you right now. Nintendo is giving away a second free Spirit Board Challenge Pack for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The pack includes a handful of helpful items for the game’s Spirit Board mode.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/switch-wont-be-adding-new-nes-and-snes-games-in-mo/1100-6469688/

Binding Of Isaac Prequel The Legend Of Bum-Bo Is Out This Year

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The Legend of Bum-Bo, the long-awaited prequel to indie success The Binding of Isaac, is finally launching on November 12. Edmund McMillen and the team behind Super Meat Boy and The End is Nigh are going in a very different direction with the much-anticipated prequel.

While The Binding of Isaac was a top-down roguelike with twin-stick shooting and pixel art, The Legend of Bum-Bo adopts turn-based combat with a match-four-style puzzle system that’s set in a grubby papercraft world. You play as the titular Bum-Bo–who was previously a passive item in The Binding of Isaac–and must traverse through procedurally generated dungeons, lining up glyphs from a bag of trash to attack, defend, and cast various spells. You can check out the trailer for yourself below.

McMillan first announced the “turn-based puzzle RPG type thingy” back in 2016. It was originally scheduled to arrive in 2017 but has suffered through multiple delays since. Now it looks set to arrive on November 12 for PC and Mac, with iOS and Nintendo Switch versions due some time later.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/binding-of-isaac-prequel-the-legend-of-bum-bo-is-o/1100-6469687/

Celeste’s Free DLC Update Is Out Next Week

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Celeste‘s much anticipated free DLC update, Chapter 9: Farewell, finally has a release date. The add-on for the tough as nails platformer launches on September 9 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC (though the Xbox One release might slip to a slightly later date).

Creator Matt Thorson initially unveiled the free DLC update back in December, saying the team planned to release a set of “very hard” farewell levels for Celeste in early 2019. Clearly, the update is arriving much later than anticipated, but we’ll finally have our hands on it next week.

Chapter 9: Farewell is a new story chapter that takes place after the events of the original game. It contains over 100 new levels, bringing Celeste’s total up to over 800, and incorporates several new mechanics and items to discover and play with as you reconnect with beloved characters for a final goodbye. There are no B- or C-Sides this time around, but it does feature over 40 minutes of new music from Lena Raine. Now that Chapter 9 is finished, the long-awaited physical release of Celeste will shortly enter production, too.

No Caption ProvidedGallery image 1Gallery image 2Gallery image 3

In a blog post announcing Chapter 9’s imminent release, Thorson also explained that Matt Makes Games Inc. is no more. “I started Matt Makes Games when I was working solo in my parents’ basement, and I never thought I’d be working with such an amazing team on games of this scale,” Thorson said. “On TowerFall, my collaborators took a larger role than I anticipated, and on Celeste, it was obvious that calling ourselves Matt Makes Games had become silly.” Now, the Celeste team has been renamed Extremely OK Games, complete with an office in Vancouver where all of the team will work together. The newly titled developer is already working on its next game, code-named EXOK1.

GameSpot awarded Celeste a 9/10 in our review. “It’s a testament to convincing writing and ingenious design that after playing Celeste I felt like I’d been on the same journey as Madeline,” Oscar Dayus said. “Her struggle is one made easy to empathize with, her low points painful to watch, and her high notes exhilarating to experience. Her tale is delicately told and beautifully illustrated, confidently coalescing with the satisfying, empowering game it lies within. Not bad for a game about climbing a mountain.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/celestes-free-dlc-update-is-out-next-week/1100-6469685/

Madden 20 Free To Play This Weekend To Celebrate New NFL Season

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The 100th season of the NFL kicked off last night (condolences Bears fans), and EA is celebrating with a free trial for Madden NFL 20 that runs throughout this weekend. You can download the free trial right now and play until September 8 to get a taste of the new features and game modes on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

The free trial also coincides with the release of a brand new game mode in Madden 20 called Superstar KO. This wacky new mode streamlines the Madden experience with five-minute games that feature truncated playbooks, cooperative 3-on-3 action, and celebrity coaches like DJ Khaled.

“Madden NFL 20 is an improved version of the annualized professional football series that excels in some areas and leaves something to be desired in others,” Eddie Makuch said in GameSpot’s Madden 20 review. “The new QB1 career mode–which includes a barebones NCAA football experience–overall feels like a half-baked idea that doesn’t deliver anything meaningful or interesting. When it comes to the on-the-field action, however, the new X-Factor and Superstar abilities shake up the familiar gameplay formula to give seasoned players and newcomers alike a fresh way to scheme plays and orchestrate strategy on both sides of the ball.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/madden-20-free-to-play-this-weekend-to-celebrate-n/1100-6469686/

Double Fine May No Longer Publish Games Following Microsoft Acquisition

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Double Fine has developed a veritable bucketload of games since Tim Schafer founded the studio back in 2000. From Brutal Legend to Iron Brigade, Broken Age, and the upcoming Psychonauts 2, just to name a few. In 2014, the studio branched out and started a publishing arm as a way to help indie developers and provide their games with more exposure, with Double Fine taking a cut of the revenue in return.

This might not happen for too much longer, however. Microsoft acquired the studio earlier this year, potentially rendering the Double Fine Presents label redundant. “How Double Fine Presents will evolve is kind of an unknown,” Schafer said in a recent interview with Destructoid. “It doesn’t make sense to do exactly the kind of publishing stuff if we can’t do it–like if the platforms are limited. From a business sense, I don’t know if it structurally makes sense to have a publisher within [another publisher]. It’s a complicated issue.”

Despite this, Schafer expressed a desire to continue helping indie devs in any way they can. “If you go back to why Double Fine Presents existed, a lot of it came about because there’s so many games and it’s really hard for any individual game now to get a lot of attention for itself,” Schafer explained. “We’ve been through a lot of deals, seen how they happen, how platform-holders operate, how the press works–all these different things that maybe a first-time indie dev doesn’t know about. We thought we could help them with that and also kind of pick our favorite games and give them more exposure. Whether or not we’re still hands-on publishing those games ourselves, we can still be fulfilling that mission of just helping indie devs even though we’re a part of Microsoft.”

To Microsoft’s credit, Xbox Studios boss Matt Booty said the company would consider allowing some of its studios to release games on competing consoles on a case-by-case basis. When asked directly if Microsoft would allow Double Fine to release future titles on platforms that compete with Xbox, Booty replied, “Yeah, I think we would.”

Even if this doesn’t come to fruition, Schafer expressed a desire to continue helping indie devs in other ways. “We can also still do things like Day of the Devs which is another part of Double Fine Presents that helps elevate 70 or 80 games,” he continued. “We let people come meet those developers and play those games, and it’s free to the public. It’s a great way to approach that same mission, and we can still do that without officially putting our name on it and taking a share of the revenue. We don’t have to do that anymore.”

Knights & Bikes is the most recent game to be published by Double Fine Presents. The charming cooperative adventure from Foam Sword Games was a hit with David Wildgoose, who said, “Knights & Bikes is a wonderfully warm, effortlessly inviting experience that’ll make you feel young again,” in GameSpot’s review. Whether this is the last indie game Double Fine publishes remains to be seen, but whatever the case, it sounds like the studio will continue to support indie creators and give their games the platform and exposure they need to succeed.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/double-fine-may-no-longer-publish-games-following-/1100-6469684/