Monthly Archives: August 2020
Stylish Metroidvania Haak Hits Early Access in September
Haak, the stylish Metroidvania from Blingame, will be released into Steam Early Access on September 16.
Announced as part of Gamescom Studio, a new trailer showed off the game's frenetic combat, platforming inovations using the games energy hook item, and a little hint at how exploration will work.
Check out the new gameplay below:
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Haak is set in an apocalyptic wasteland, as the mysterious lead character seeks to learn what happened to the world around them, all while avoiding the clutches of the shadowy organisation on their tail.
There's much, much more to come from Gamescom 2020 on IGN - check out our full Gamescom schedule to find out what else is on the way.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Stronghold: Warlords Special Edition Announced
Stronghold: Warlords, the castle-building sim coming to PC on January 26 2021 (after a recent delay), will get a digital special edition release with a number of bonuses.
Revealed at Gamescom 2020, the upcoming strategy game will bring a special edition on Steam, priced at $49.99 USD / £39.99 (Australian prices not available at time of writing), including a copy of the game, a soundrack, an art book and a documentary. You can check out the full contents at the bottom of this story.
We also got a look at the game's Japanese faction's campaign mode, which you can watch below:
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Stronghold: Warlords Digital Special Edition Contents
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Full Steam copy of the game
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Soundtrack
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Completely new full soundtrack
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Same Stronghold atmosphere and epic battle feeling, but with a completely new set of instruments and historical inspirations
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Created by fan-favourite series composer Robert Euvino, who has scored every Stronghold game to date
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Based on music Japanese, Chinese, Cambodian, Mongolian and Vietnamese culture
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Taking influence from musicians like Yo-Yo Ma and master Shakuhachi players
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Cover a wide geographical area and hundreds of years of history
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Available in high quality original format
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Art Book
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Over thirty pages of original Stronghold artwork from the game's artists
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Everything from 2D concepts and character models to in-game renders, environmental illustrations and more
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Includes key art created by polish artist Mariusz Kozik
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Insight into Firefly's artistic process and the way art functions in an RTS
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Exclusive game art not available in any other format
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Making of Documentary
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Total runtime of 90 minutes
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Covering 3 years of development
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Mix of behind the scenes footage and interviews with key Firefly staff
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designers, coders, artists, composers, producers and even lowly marketers talk about their experience developing, revealing and releasing Stronghold: Warlords
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An honest look at modern indie game development at a small studio during a global pandemic
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4X Strategy Game Humankind Details Its Religion System
Humankind, the upcoming 4X strategy game, has detailed its Religion system, and explained how wildly it can alter your path through human history.
Explained during IGN's Gamescom Studio show, Religion will be tied into every civilization into the game, with each culture beginning the game with a different religion. Religion begins when a civilization has a high enough population, and can be strengthened over time by adding Tenets, which grant bonuses.
You can check out developers from Amplitude explaining the system in the video below:
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With increased Faith (earned by building holy sites, choosing Civics and more), you religion will spread to adjacent territories and, if your Faith stats are high enough, your beliefs may begin to convert other religious populations, and become entire other civilizations' religions (and if yours is too low, other religions may sweep across your territory).
Religion can be used as a tool of war or control, or used to create a more open and accepting culture. Some cultures will be able to spread religion more effectively, while others can gain combat or science bonuses by engaging with it. However, players can choose not to embrace in a state religion at all, letting their population accept any belief they want and taking the benefits of it along the way.
Religion is just one of many systems used throughout Humankind, a game we've already said "feels like its own branch of historical 4X separate from the Civilization series in mechanics, aesthetics, and philosophy."
There's much, much more to come from gamescom 2020 on IGN - check out our full gamescom schedule to find out what else is on the way and our roundup of gamescom 2020 highlights.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Lonely Mountains: Downhill Reveals New Eldfjall Island DLC
Serene, infuriating, excellent cycling game Lonely Mountains: Downhill has announced a new DLC mountain, Eldfjall Island, as well as new daily challenges and an intriguing 'ASMR soundtrack'.
Shown off on IGN's Gamescom show today, Eldfjall Island is 'coming soon', and will be the largest mountain in the game so far. It will feature 4 new trails, with new challenges and resting spots, and include unique new effects like thunderstorms and volcanic eruptions. You'll also be able to earn new cosmetic items, including Viking-themed gear.
Check out a trailer below:
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The game will also soon add a new free feature in the form of Daily Rides. Every day, Daily Rides will add a new cross-platform challenge for randomly selected trails (including new obstacles and shortcuts), with leaderboards tracking the world's fastest riders. The top players at the end of 3-8 week seasons will earn unique rewards for their trouble.
And alongside all this, publisher Thunderful has revealed that the game will get an 'ASMR soundtrack', due for release this September. As those who have played will know, Lonely Mountains doesn't include music, but that hasn't stopped the developers. The soundtrack will include a 5-minute track for each of the game's mountain, including environmental and bike sounds, as if a player's making it to the bottom of the trail with no crashes.
On top of that, there will be a "story mode" track, giving the feeling of the player visiting every mountain in the game, including the sounds of vehicles transferring the rider from location to location. This one does include crash sounds, and even an ambulance. The soundtrack will be released digitally on Steam in September, and a limited edition vinyl will arrive later this year.
There's much, much more to come from gamescom 2020 on IGN - check out our full gamescom schedule to find out what else is on the way and our roundup of gamescom 2020 highlights.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
The Stone of Madness Announced – a Real-Time Tactical Stealth Game
Merge Games has revealed The Stone of Madness, a "hardcore, real-time tactics and stealth game" coming to PC, Switch, PS5 and Xbox Series X in spring 2021.
Revealed on IGN's Gamescom Studio show, the game features an art style based on the paintings of Francisco de Goya, and sees you guide characters out of an 18th-century monastery 'madhouse'.
Check out a reveal trailer below:
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Played from an isometric viewpoint, the game begins by having you choose an escape plan (each with different requirements and difficulty levels) and sets you in a procedurally generated monastery with a full day-night cycle.
You'll guide a selection of characters, each who begins with traumas and phobias which can either become better or worse due to your actions - although a press release makes very clear that this is primarily "negative character progression", designed to make for a hardcore experience. You can see more on the Stone of Madness steam page.
There's much, much more to come from gamescom 2020 on IGN - check out our full gamescom schedule to find out what else is on the way and our roundup of gamescom 2020 highlights.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Genshin Impact Coming to PS4, PC, and Mobile in September
Genshin Impact will arrive globally on PlayStation 4, as well as PC, iOS and Android, on September 28.
Revealed at Gamescom today, the free-to-play open-world action-RPG (which bears a striking resemblance to Zelda: Breath of the Wild) finally revealed its console launch date. While we'd previously known the same date for other platforms, PS4 has only just been confirmed.
Check out a story trailer below:
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The PS4 version, which is now available for preorder on PSN, will also include exclusive items like the Sword of Descension and Wings of Descension.
Genshin Impact is set in the world of Teyvat, a land in which seven Archons of various elements live among people. Players star as the "Traveler," who sets out to find their missing sibling as well as deeper mysteries.
Studio miHoYo also spoke to the development of the cross-platform game in the latest look at Genshin Impact, which is the studio's first PS4 game:
"We will keep taking feedbacks from our players, further enhance performance and stability on PlayStation 4, and bring better experiences in both single and co-op mode.” said Zhenzhong Yi, technical director for Genshin Impact. “More new functions are in development, and we will have an extensive improvement on rendering and visual effects in future updates."
Right now, pre-register to play the game on the miHoYo website and follow the Genshin Impact social channels for more information.
There's much, much more to come from gamescom 2020 on IGN - check out our full gamescom schedule to find out what else is on the way and our roundup of gamescom 2020 highlights.
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Geoff Keighley Wants E3 to Evolve
Geoff Keighley wants E3 to evolve and adapt to changing industry trends, and that's part of the reason he "broke up" with the show earlier this year.
Ryan McCaffrey sat down with Keighley to discuss a wide range of topics in the latest episode of IGN Unfiltered, including his friendship with Hideo Kojima, Keighley's storied history with awards shows, the Xbox Series X and PS5, what the 2020 Game Awards will be like, and much, much more.
When asked if he wanted E3 to come back following the cancellation of the 2020 event, Keighley said, "I love E3. I've been to every E3 and it really broke my heart when I decided not to do it this year, before it got canceled. My whole thing with E3 is that it really needs to evolve as a concept.
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"You'll find no bigger fan of what E3 represents than me, and part of the reason I kind of broke up with what E3 was going to do this year is I did not believe that it was going to represent the industry in the right way, and in the... progressive way that it needed to be. That was hard for me, but I kind of had to take a stand for that.
"E3 really matters to me. I'm hopeful that E3 finds a way to evolve and... I haven't really talked a lot about this, but I put a lot of ideas in front of the ESA, [the Entertainment Software Association, which owns and operates E3] on how I wanted to see E3 evolve, and a lot of [my ideas were] very digital-focused and global-focused. It just didn't seem like they were ready to take that leap, and I understand, because it's a legacy business of a trade show that has to evolve into something new."
Keighley said some have asked whether he left E3 to do Summer Game Fest, but he said it came about as "a response to not having an E3." Keighley continued, "I left E3 thinking that E3 was going to go on, and I just wasn't going to be part of it, and as the cards fell I ended up doing the Summer Game Fest thing so we had something."
For more interviews with the best, brightest, most fascinating minds in the games industry, check out be sure to check out every episode of IGN Unfiltered, which includes talks with industry leaders like 343's Bonnie Ross, Valve's Robin Walker & Chris Remo, id's Marty Stratton & Hugo Martin, and many, many more.
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Brian Barnett writes wiki guides, deals posts, features, and much more for IGN. You can get your fix of Brian's antics on Twitter and Instagram (@Ribnax).Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Will Offer 4K 30 FPS and 60 FPS Resolution Modes
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will offer two resolution modes, 4K at 30 FPS and 60 FPS at lower resolutions.
That's according to a Famitsu interview featuring Marcus Smith and Mike Daly of Insomniac Games, as spotted by Nibel on Twitter.
In the interview, Famitsu asks about the "supported frame rates and resolutions" for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, with Daly responding that the game will offer two separate modes for players to pick from to balance comfortable gameplay with beautiful graphics. "One is 30 FPS at 4K resolution and the other is lower resolution at 60 FPS," the translation reads.
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Later in the same interview, the interpreter mentions that the Ratchet and Clank series ditched the 60 FPS benchmark set by the PS2 games in favour of 30 FPS and better graphics for PS3 and PS4 players. With the PS5 release, it appears that they're now giving players the choice between these two different styles.
During Opening Night Live, Rift Apart was confirmed to be a "launch window" game for the PS5, and we got a better look at gameplay from the forthcoming action-adventure title. Back in June, it was confirmed that Rift Apart's female Lombax character will be playable.
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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 8 Scheduled for Release in 2021
NBC revealed that Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 8 has been pushed back to 2021, as the network announced its Fall 2020 TV schedule.
The official Brooklyn Nine-Nine Twitter account shared the updated release window for the show's Season 8 premiere in a tweet that also featured NBC's 2020 TV line-up for September through to November, which includes new seasons Law & Order: SVU and The Blacklist, together with One Chicago.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine was originally expected to debut this fall, however, the finished episodes of the new season were officially scrapped in June, as showrunner Dan Goor announced that they had to "start over" after having some deep conversations about the Black Lives Matter movement. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/08/peacock-streaming-service-review"] Terry Crews, who plays Lieutenant Terry Jeffords on the show, explained that the writing team had decided to return to the scripting stage in an effort to amplify themes coming out of the movement, though he didn't elaborate on the storylines of the episodes that won't make it to air. "We've had a lot of somber talks about it and deep conversations and we hope through this we're going to make something that will be truly groundbreaking this year. We have an opportunity and we plan to use it in the best way possible," Crews said. "Right now we don't know which direction it's going to go in." Barring any future casting changes, we're expecting the full regular cast to return for Season 8, which includes Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, Stephanie Beatriz, Terry Crews, Melissa Fumero, Joe Lo Truglio, Joel McKinnon Miller and Dirk Blocker. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=hidden-gems-to-watch-on-peacock&captions=true"] Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 8 will be released in 2021 on NBC and NBC's streaming platform Peacock. Find out more about how streaming is saving your favourite shows from cancellation. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.*Capt. Holt voice* We're in a state of total euphoria. #Brooklyn99 returns in 2021 on @NBC, streaming on @PeacockTV. pic.twitter.com/1sXKIE0Nr9
— Brooklyn Nine-Nine (@nbcbrooklyn99) August 27, 2020
Windbound Review – Against The Wind
Windbound is an excellent island. It's just a shame that it's a poor archipelago.
For my first few hours with the new roguelike survival game from Five Lives Studios, I walked a knife's edge--blissful relaxation on one side, speedily encroaching anxiety on the other. You would be forgiven for being lulled into a false sense of security. The sunny skies and gorgeous ocean are inviting. The art style charmingly stakes out a familiar middle ground: cartoonish gloss, realistic proportions. The monsters are memorably designed, and even the most imposing are at least a little cute. But as welcoming as it can look, the red and yellow gauges at the top of the screen are a constant reminder that this world isn't friendly.
You'll stumble around early on, unable to do much of anything. Okay, you have grass, but what can you do with grass? Okay, you crafted a grass rope, but what can you do with a grass rope? You may try to wade into the water in hopes of swimming to the closest island, but your stamina gauge will quickly dash those hopes. Deplete it and you'll wake up on the beach, back where you started. Eventually you'll find a shrine on the island where you'll receive an oar, which is, in some way, legendarily significant. Locating this artifact will unlock some new crafting recipes. Turns out you can craft a grass boat with enough rope and some elbow grease.
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