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Dragon Age: The Veilguard Is ‘Respectful And Referential’ To Previous Games Without Making Them Mandatory

tadmin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 03:01:08 +0000

With 10 years between 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, the most recent release in the series, and the upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the latter has much riding on it. It’s both a follow-up to a beloved game from a decade ago in one of BioWare’s most beloved series, and it’s the first BioWare game since the launch of 2019’s Anthem, a live-service multiplayer effort EA sunset less than two years later.

Curious about the pressure surrounding the release of Veilguard, I spoke to BioWare about lessons learned from following up on Inquisition and what it’s been like returning to this series so many years later.

”We start out in pre-production,” BioWare general manager Gary McKay tells me when I ask about BioWare’s guiding principle for developing Veilguard. “We spent a lot of time iterating, experimenting, and innovating on different things. At one point, it was multiplayer – we did a hard look at multiplayer, but we felt we really couldn’t return to our roots. And when we asked ourselves, ‘What is the game that we want to develop,’ we really wanted to get back to our roots, which is amazing storytelling. It’s about those unforgettable characters. And it’s about having the opportunity to influence the world.

”And we really felt multiplayer wouldn’t do that. But single-player RPG is really where we wanted to spend our time, so after spending that time in pre-production, really honing in on what the vision of this game is, and [being] afforded the opportunity to deliver on the creative promise of this game, [now] we’re really excited about what’s coming out.”

McKay says Veilguard blends seasoned veterans with new voices and perspectives, and “that’s really important for this game.” For example, people like former Dragon Age producer Mark Darrah, who left the studio in 2021 but is now consulting for Veilguard, and creative director John Epler together have decades of experience at BioWare. They work with people like game director Corinne Busche, who joined BioWare shortly after the launch of Anthem (but brings in a love of Dragon Age from the series’ 2009 start), every day to develop the game we’ll be playing this fall.

”[You] want to have different perspectives, different backgrounds,” McKay says. “If you bring a bunch of people together that have only known one thing, that’s not where you see creativity. That’s not where innovation comes from. Innovation comes when you have […] that past history and blend it with some new voices and perspectives.”

Darrah has been attached to BioWare in some capacity since its early Baldur’s Gate days, and when I ask him about the studio’s progression from that series to the next Dragon Age, he says it’s been amazing. “The thing that is so amazing about Veilguard is this is the game where we finally said out loud that BioWare’s greatest strength is telling stories through characters. If you go all the way back to Baldur’s Gate 1, Baldur’s Gate 2, these games are telling stories through characters, but there wasn’t an intentionality behind that. And in this game, we’re finally putting that intentionality first and foremost, putting the characters first, building the game around that, around those character moments, which is really the best way that BioWare knows how to tell stories.”

I ask Darrah if there’s anything Veilguard is doing that BioWare wanted to do on previous games but couldn’t, and he says, “Storytelling through animation.” In previous games, each character moves in “exactly the same way,” and everyone is homogenous in that way, he says. “If you put on a suit of armor, and you put it on Alistair, you looked exactly the same standing right beside each other.

”Now, we’re able to keep the character coming through in the visuals and the motion, even as you’re customizing them, which just wasn’t possible in the past.”

He also mentions BioWare’s confidence in its game development engine for Veilguard, which, like Inquisition, uses EA’s proprietary Frostbite. “Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II were doing what they could with the technology they had; Dragon Age: Inquisition did a good job of using Frostbite respective of the engine,” Darrah says. “But with this game, there’s a better understanding of the engines over a lot more time, but also, the technology of the hardware that the game is going to be played on moving forward [is] able to do a lot more stuff [and] execute it visually to a degree that just wasn’t possible in the past.”

On Inquisition

With 10 years between Inquisition and Veilguard, BioWare has to balance satisfying longtime fans of the series with newcomers jumping in for the first time. Epler says the studio worked hard to ensure Veilguard is respectful and referential to previous games without feeling like you need to have played Inquisition, Dragon Age II, or Origins to fully understand what’s going on.

”So while there are references, there are moments that we have callbacks, it really is its own story, its own continuation with a different cast, with different characters,” he says. “Historically, Dragon Age has always had a different cast per game, so that gives us a lot of freedom in terms of what we want to lean on in the past and what we want to really bring in that’s new and forward-facing.”

Darrah adds that Veilgaurd’s events play out with a storytelling goal for the future of the series. “This is a game which takes the ball that Inquisition had, puts its own spin on it, has its own characters, takes its own direction, but continues the path forward into the future,” he says.

”Dragon Age has always been about change. Every game has had a new protagonist, and it’s been exploring its own space all the time, and this game is no different. [Veilguard] does a good job of bridging that gap. The really super fans of Dragon Age have actually made a lot of really educated guesses, and some of them are pretty right about where the franchise is going. The thing we need to make sure is that people who may have only played Inquisition are understanding what the franchise is really about – it’s about a new protagonist, it’s about change, it’s about evolution – and don’t come in expecting a direct sequel to a game they played and then are disappointed. This game is something new, something that evolves, something that is greater than what came before, the same as each game […] before it.”

For Busche, balancing newcomers and fan expectations in Veilguard is about managing assumptions. She says Veilguard takes place in a part of Thedas BioWare has only hinted at. The team has hinted at the Grey Warden fortress of Weisshaupt, the depths of Arlathan Forest, the Rivain Coast, the Grand Necropolis of Nevarra, and Minrathous, but now players will finally go to these stories’ locations.

”We have a rich history of world-building within the IP, so existing players will be familiar with these places and very excited to go to them and explore their mysteries,” Busche tells me. “But for our new players, we’re not assuming you know anything about these locations. I would say that also extends to the characters; we’ve taken great care in how we introduce each and every single companion and major story figure within the game [with that in mind].”

Epler tells me that Veilguard differs from Inquisition and other Dragon Age games in the way that Rook, the player character, can’t save the world without the characters they meet on their journey.

”Dragon Age has always been about characters but to some degree, it’s almost felt like we’ve lucked into that,” he says. “Inquisition is a story that ultimately, you, the main character […] have the biggest part to play. We wanted to tell a story this time where you literally cannot save the world without these characters. Beyond that, though, we also wanted to give them their own arcs that can run parallel to the main story and really give them that kind of deep storytelling our fans really enjoy.”

Though he’s biased for obvious reasons, Epler says Veilguard is his favorite Dragon Age game he’s worked on (and he’s worked on all of them, starting as a quality assurance tester on Origins). He says one reason for this is the storytelling in the characters, companions, and relationships.

”They have their friendships, they have their rivalries, and lean into that concept,” he tells me. “You’re not just pulling together a bunch of people who will do whatever you say. You’re assembling a family, and that becomes the core of what the Veilguard is all about. It’s about taking this group, this found family, and saving the world, side by side with them.”

For more about the game, including exclusive details, interviews, video features, and more, click the Dragon Age: The Veilguard hub button below.

Fallout Show Nominated For 16 Emmy Awards, Including Best Actor For Walton Goggins

tadmin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 03:01:08 +0000

Fallout, a TV adaptation of the popular post-apocalyptic video game series, was released on Amazon Prime this past April. Video game adaptations can be a bit of a mixed bag sometimes, but in this case, fans and critics alike (us included) loved its characters, world-building, and its overall take on the Fallout universe. It should come as no surprise, then, that the show has been nominated in numerous categories at the 2024 Emmy Awards.

Fallout was nominated in 16 categories, but two of them are particularly exciting. First, the show is one of eight nominees for Outstanding Drama Series, ranking it among other big shows of 2024, like Shōgun, which currently leads the pack with 25 nominations. Secondly, Walton Goggins was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series for his portrayal of The Ghoul. This is his second Emmy nomination – the first being for Supporting Actor on the show Justified back in 2011.

Here’s a full list of the show’s nominations:

Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes

Outstanding Stunt Coordination For Drama Programming

Outstanding Production Design For A Narrative Period Or Fantasy Program (One Hour Or More)

Outstanding Picture Editing For A Drama Series

Outstanding Picture Editing For A Drama Series

Outstanding Main Title Design

Outstanding Period Or Fantasy/Sci-Fi Makeup (Non-Prosthetic)

Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series

Outstanding Drama Series

Outstanding Sound Editing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour)

Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour)

Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Season Or A Movie

Outstanding Stunt Performance

Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series

Outstanding Music Supervision

Last year’s Emmy Awards had video game representation as well, with HBO’s The Last of Us, which earned a total of eight awards. Whether or not Fallout manages to reach that level of prestige, it’s already been renewed for a season 2, so fans of the series can look forward to a return to the wasteland sometime soon. To see all of this year’s Emmy nominations, click here.

Nintendo Is Raising The Famicom Detective Club Series From The Dead With Emio – The Smiling Man

tadmin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 03:01:08 +0000

Nintendo is, relatively speaking, a family-oriented company. Their games are aimed at kids, their parents, and everyone in between with bright colors, wholesome storytelling, and extremely approachable game design. That said, there are exceptions to this rule, like in this creepy 15-second teaser uploaded to the company’s YouTube channel last week. A man in a trench coat wearing a paper bag with a smile drawn on it stares into the camera while a distorted music box plays in the background. The only additional context we got was the hashtag #WhoIsEmio, leaving fans scrambling to figure out what exactly this was hinting at.

Today, that mystery has been cleared up. Emio, also known as “The Smiling Man,” is the star of a new game in the Famicom Detective Club series, which hasn’t had a new entry in 35 years. The game was revealed today alongside a video featuring series producer Yoshio Sakamoto, who wrote the first two games and went on to direct titles like Super Metroid and Metroid: Zero Mission. According to him, they decided to make this new entry during their time developing the Famicom Detective Club remakes back in 2021.

”In Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club, a student has been found dead in a chilling fashion, his head covered with a paper bag with an eerie smiling face drawn on it,” a press release reads. “This unsettling visage bears a striking resemblance to a recurring clue in a string of unsolved murders from 18 years ago, as well as Emio (the Smiling Man), a killer of urban legend who is said to grant his victims ‘a smile that will last forever.'” Players will assume the role of a private investigator and set out to solve the case and stop the killer for good.

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club will be released for the Nintendo Switch next month, on August 29. Hopefully, the titular killer won’t murder too many people before then.

Are you excited to see this series revived? Let us know in the comments!

Xbox 360 ‘Blades’ Interface Returns As Dynamic Background Ahead Of Digital Store Closure

tadmin — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 03:08:39 +0000

The Xbox 360 digital store shuts down later this month on July 26. Amid a wave of price reductions and other end-of-life updates, nostalgic fans can relive the console’s earliest days via a new dynamic background modeled after the old “Blades” interface.

For those too young to remember or didn’t get an Xbox 360 until years later, the Blades interface was the console’s first dashboard design. It was the first thing players saw from the console’s launch in 2005 until it was updated to an entirely different interface in 2008. Navigating it felt smooth as butter, and some diehards still believe it’s the best UI of any Xbox console.

Although it’s less detailed, and you can’t flip through the Blades of this dynamic background and hear that satisfying “whoosh” sound, it’s nice to see Microsoft acknowledge the 360’s like this. Here’s how you to make the Blades your Xbox background:

Press the Xbox button on your controller to open the guide.
Navigate to Profile & system > Settings > General > Personalization > My background > Dynamic backgrounds.
Choose Xbox 360 Blades under Featured or Xbox dynamic backgrounds
Select the background art you want using the A button.

You can read more about the impending Xbox 360 store closure and final updates by visiting this Xbox Wire article.

Dead By Deadlight Gets Lara Croft Survivor Today, 2v8 Mode And Cross Progression On The Way

tadmin — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 03:08:38 +0000

Dead by Daylight’s 8th-anniversary stream revealed a few big updates for the popular asymmetrical horror game. The most immediate is the addition of Lara Croft as the game’s latest crossover survivor along with the impending addition of the much-requested 2v8 mode.

Tomb Raider Chapter

Lara Croft (the 2013 reboot version, specifically) joins DBD today, and though she lacks her pistols and bow, she sports three new perks highlighting her adventuring prowess. Here’s an explanation of each per DBD’s website:

Finesse: Your fast vaults are faster when healthy, with a cooldown after a successful use.
Hardened: When you open a Chest and cleanse or bless a Totem, Hardened activates for the duration of the Trial. From that point, every time you scream, you’ll instead reveal the Killer’s Aura.
Specialist: When you open or rummage through a Chest, gain 1 Token (up to 3). When you do a Great Skill Check, consume a Token to reduce the max required Generator progress.

2v8 Mode

On July 25, a new 2v8 multiplayer mode descends into the game. This pits two Killers against eight survivors in expanded versions of five classic maps. The number of generators has been doubled, and Survivors must now repair 8 out of 13 to escape. Captive Survivors are now sent directly into cages, and Survivor perks have been reworked into a new role system designed to encourage teamwork.

Cross-Progression

Cross-progression is being implemented on July 22. This means players can now sync their progress across multiple owned versions of the game. Everything can be shared across any platform except for Switch, which has a few restrictions as you can see in the chart below.

Click to enlarge

Today’s stream also revealed a new trailer and the release date for The Casting of Frank Stone, the single-player DBD game developed by Supermassive Games (Until Dawn, The Quarry). You can read all about that here.

The Casting Of Frank Stone Terrorizes Players This September

tadmin — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 03:08:38 +0000

The Casting of Frank Stone, Supermassive Games’ single-player narrative-driven horror game set in the Dead by Daylight universe, has a release date. This intriguing horror collaboration will arrive on September 3, and a new trailer provides a proper introduction of the main cast.

Developed by Supermassive (Until Dawn, The Quarry) and published by Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive, The Casting of Frank Stone stars five teenagers – Christine Gordon, Jaime Rivera, Linda Castle, Robert Green, and Bonnie Rivera – who film their own horror movie in an abandoned steel mill. Unfortunately, this mill has ties to a notorious murderer named Frank Stone, and the youth’s innocent art project goes horribly wrong.

We still don’t know much about the narrative other than that it is set within the world of Dead by Daylight and takes place in the town of Cedar Mills during the summer of 1980. Gameplay-wise, The Casting of Frank Stone follows a similar blueprint to Supermassive’s previous horror titles in that it’s a choice-driven adventure where characters can be permanently killed off based on your decisions. You can check out a recent gameplay trailer here to see it in action.

The Casting of Frank Stone is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 Multiplayer Weekend Betas Announced

tadmin — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 03:08:38 +0000

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launches in October, but players can get in early via a pair of open betas. Activision is running two of these beta periods during consecutive weekends, and the dates and times for each have been revealed.

Here is when you can jump into each beta:

Weekend 1: Early Access (for preorder customers/Xbox Game Pass subscribers) – August 30 at 10 a.m. PT to September 4 at 10 a.m. PT

Weekend 2: Open Beta (for everyone) – September 6 at 10 a.m. PT to September 9 at 10 a.m. PT

Both betas are multiplayer only and will feature several online modes, weapons, equipment, and perks for players to tinker with.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launches on October 25 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Set in 1991 during the Gulf War, the espionage-themed campaign centers on a mysterious organization’s infiltration of the U.S. government. The Black Ops agents must go rogue to stop this threat, which takes players across the globe with new faces and returning favorites like Woods and Adler. You can learn more about the game by checking out our Summer Game Fest preview here.

A Deep Dive Into BioWare’s Companion Design Philosophy In Dragon Age: The Veilguard

tadmin — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 03:15:42 +0000

During my visit to BioWare in its Edmonton, Canada, office earlier this year for the current Game Informer cover story on Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I heard a sentiment repeated throughout the day from the game’s leads: in past Dragon Age games, BioWare stumbled onto great companions, but with Veilguard, it’s the first game where the studio feels it purposefully and intentionally created great companions. As such, those companions are key to everything happening in Veilguard.

With such a significant emphasis on these characters, I spoke to some of the game’s leads to learn precisely about BioWare’s philosophy on companions in Veilguard.

“No, that is the case,” BioWare general manager Gary McKay tells me when I ask if he agrees with the stumbled-onto-greatness sentiment. “I would first start with Dragon Age – each installment in this franchise has been different, so we didn’t set out to make a game that was a sequel or the same game as before. We really wanted to do something different and we did push the envelope in a couple of areas, companions being one of them. Once we got knee deep into it, we really realized we had something special with these companions, again, around the motivations, the story arc, and it really started to become the centerpiece for this game.”

The Philosophy Behind Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Companions

Game director Corinne Busche agrees, adding that Veilguard’s companions are “the most fully realized complex companions we’ve ever crafted.” She also believes they’re the Dragon Age series’ best. “They’re complicated, they have complicated problems, and that’s what’s interesting,” she continues. “As much as I adore the companions and the journeys I’ve been on with them in past Dragon Age titles – previously, it feels like companions are going on an adventure with me, the main character, whether it’s the Hero of Ferelden or Hawke, you name it. But in [Veilguard], in many ways, the companions are so fleshed out that it feels as though I’m going on a journey with them. I’m exploring how they think and feel; I’m helping them through their problems. We’re working through their unique character arcs. They feel like my dear friends, and I absolutely adore them.”

Busche says these companions participate in the game’s darker and more optimistic parts. “We’ve really moved into a place where you can have the highest of highs, and it can be colorful, it can be optimistic, but also, you can have the lowest of lows where it gets gritty, it gets painful, it gets quite dark. But throughout it all, there is a sense of optimism. And it creates this delightful throughline throughout the game.”

When I ask creative director John Epler about BioWare’s philosophy behind Veilguard’s companions, he reveals a phrase the studio uses: Dragon Age is about characters, not causes.

“What that means for us is […] let’s take the Grey Wardens, for example – the Grey Wardens are an interesting faction but by themselves, they don’t tell a story, but there are characters within that faction that do,” he tells me. “And the same thing with other characters in the story. They represent these factions, they show the face of the other parts of Thedas and of the storytelling we really want to do, which, again, shows Thedas as this large, diverse living world that has things going on when you’re not there.”

Epler says one of BioWare’s principles when creating Veilguard was that the world exists even when you – Rook – are not around. There are things, ancient conflicts, grudges, and more, that happen even when Rook isn’t participating in them, he says.

“You kind of come in ‘in media res’ in some of these, so that’s where we wanted to go with the companions,” he says. “They have stories of their own. Where can Rook come into these stories, and what interesting ways can those stories develop not just based on themselves but also based on Rook’s presence within them?”

Dragon Age series art director Matt Rhodes adds that companions are the load-bearing pillars for everything in Veilguard, so “when you’re designing them, it’s not just designing a character; they’re the face for their faction, the face for, in [some cases like Bellara Lutara], an entire area of the world.” From his aesthetic-forward part of developing companions in Veilguard as the game’s art director, he tells me Veilguard’s characters are (hopefully) going to give cosplayers a challenge.

“The previous art director had the mindset we should make things easier for [cosplayers], which I think is a misunderstanding of cosplayers,” Rhodes says. “We’ve seen the kind of challenges they’re willing to take on, and so we’ve gone for, in some cases, a level of complexity and detail that I hope a lot of them are excited to rise to the challenge for.”

A Quick Detour: Neve Gallus

As Neve Gallus is the companion I spent the most time with during my visit to BioWare, I asked Epler about this character and her role in the game. Here’s what I learned: “So Neve is a private investigator in Minrathous. Minrathous is the capital city of the Tevinter Empire. It’s also a mage-ocracy; mages run the entirety of the Empire – they’re all-powerful. A lot of them still believe in slavery, they keep slaves, it’s a very oppressive, totalitarian regime. And Neve is a member of the Shadow Dragons, which is a rebel faction within Thedas that fights back against this mage-ocracy, fights back against this oppressive, very damaging regime that’s taken over the city, because she believes there’s good, and she is there for the common people. So if you’re not a mage in Tevinter, you are lower than dirt for a lot of people. She and the Shadow Dragons, in general, fight back, but Neve, in particular, is this character that represents this more, ‘voice of the streets, the voice of the common people.’ In previous Dragon Age games, you go to Orlais, you meet Emperor Celene, you meet Briala; we wanted to have a character that showed not just what is Tevinter at the top, but what is the average person who lives in Tevinter. And she is very much about, again, fighting oppression, fighting tyranny and, as a private investigator, finding clues and ways through problems that aren’t maybe as action-focused as some of the other companions.”

Companions, In And Out Of Combat

Rook’s companions in Veilguard have roles both in and out of combat, but since I only saw a few hours of this game (which is sure to be multiple dozens of hours long), I wanted to ask Busche about these roles and how they play out. Here’s what I learned:

In Combat

Bushce: “So companions as realized characters, we have to take that premise when we talk about how they show up in combat. These are their own people. They have their own behaviors; they have their own autonomy on the battlefield; they’ll pick their own targets. As their plots progress, they’ll learn how to use their abilities more competently, and it really feels like you’re fighting alongside these realized characters in battle. So I love that, I love the believability of it. It feels like we’re all in it together.

“But then when it comes time for the strategy, and the progression I might add, that’s where a sense of teamwork comes into play as the leader of this party as Rook. When I open the ability wheel, I almost feel like we’re huddling up. We’re coming up with a game plan together. I see all the abilities that Harding has, and I see all that Bellara is capable of, and sometimes I’m using vulnerabilities synergistically. Maybe I’m slowing time with Bellara so that I can unleash devastating attacks with Harding, knocking down the enemy, and then me as Rook, rushing in and capitalizing on this setup they’ve created for me. It is a game about creating this organic sense of teamwork.

“Now, there are more explicit synergies as well. We very much have intentional combos where your companions can play off each other, you can queue up abilities between them, and each of those abilities will go off and have their effect. But it results in this massive detonation where you get enhanced effects, debuff the entire battlefield, all because of planning and teamwork. What makes it really cool is you can introduce Rook into that equation as well. One of my favorite things to do is upgrade some of Harding’s abilities so she will automatically use some of these abilities that normally I’d have to instruct her to do. And she’ll actually set my character up to execute that combo that, again, has that detonation effect.”

Outside Combat

Busche: “It’s one of my favorite topics. I talked about the idea that these are fully realized characters, that they’re very authentic and relatable. So outside of combat, what that means is they’re going to have their own concerns, fears, distractions, and indeed, even their own sanctuaries, their own personal spaces. In our base of operations this time, our player hub, the Lighthouse, each of the companions has their own room. And what I love about it is it becomes a reflection of who they are. The more time you spend with them, as the game develops as you work through their arc, their room and their personalities will evolve and flourish and become more complete as they trust you more and you understand them better.

“What’s interesting, you mentioned romance, the companions also develop romantically and I’m not just talking about with the main character Rook; I’m talking about each other. There are moments in the game where two of our companions fell in love with each other and I had to make some pretty challenging choices as it related to the quest we’re on. And it broke my heart, it absolutely did [Editor’s Note: I get the sense Busche is talking about a specific playthrough of Veilguard here – not a definitive sequence of events for every playthrough].

“So I would say, as you’re adventuring with them, as you’re returning to the Lighthouse and getting to know them – all these decisions and conversations and things you learn about them – it endears them to you in a way that I honestly haven’t experienced before. And sometimes that fills me with joy and sometimes it breaks my heart.”

For more about the game, including exclusive details, interviews, video features, and more, click the Dragon Age: The Veilguard hub button below.

TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Gets First Trailer And October Launch Date

tadmin — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 03:15:41 +0000

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed, the video game follow-up to last year’s TMNT: Mutant Mayhem animated film, has its first trailer and a release date. The game was first announced last September.

A Heartful of Games is developing the game, which retains the stylized Spider-Verse-inspired art direction from the hit film. The story unfolds after the movie’s events and sees Leo, Raph, Donny, and Mikey battling a new wave of mutants invading New York City.

As previously covered in our exclusive preview earlier this year, Mutant Mayhem is a third-person action/platformer game, and each turtle features a unique playstyle. The game also supports up to two-player local co-op.

TMNT: Mutants Unleashed launches on October 18 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. The game is also getting a fancy Collector Edition, and you can see the contents of that here. Mutants Unleashed is one of several TMNT games to arrive in recent years (and the third in 2024 alone, following Wrath of the Mutants and the Switch port of Splintered Fate), and you can read all about the franchise’s history in video games in our in-depth retrospective.

Takeda Joins The Mortal Kombat 1 Roster Next Week, First Gameplay Revealed

tadmin — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 03:15:41 +0000

Mortal Kombat 1’s final Year 1 DLC fighter arrives next week, and it’s Takeda Takahashi. The young Shirai Ryu warrior makes only his second appearance in a Mortal Kombat game and looks every bit as capable as his older clanmates, Scorpion and Smoke.

Although Takeda was Kenshi’s son in his debut appearance, Mortal Kombat X, the remixed timeline of Mortal Kombt 1 has changed him to Kenshi’s cousin. Like Kenshi, Takeda grew up a Yakuza but was more faithful to the clan than his cousin. As such, the Yakuza tasked Takeda with killing Kenshi, and the two battled, with the latter coming emerging victorious. Takeda was mortally wounded in the battle and rushed to the aid of the Shirai Ryu, where Kenshi protected him from being killed by the Yakuza for failing his mission. This causes Takeda to have a change of heart and join the Shirai Ryu to wage war against Earthrrealm’s criminal underground and, eventually, the evil forces of Outworld.

Takeda still utilizes the Shirai Ryu fighting style, including his signature pair of bladed whips. He also sports shurikens, a barrage of teleporting flame attacks, and an aerial grapple best described as mid-air corkscrew piledriver. Check Takeda out below.

Takeda will be available on July 23, both as a standalone purchase and as a free download for Kombat Pack owners. The same day also sees previously revealed Kameo fighter Ferra become available to buy. Both Takeda and Ferra will be playable for the first time during Evo 2025 this weekend.

For more on Mortal Kombat 1, check out our review as well as the trailers for previous DLC fighters Homelander, Omni-Man, Ermac, Peacemaker, and Quan-Chi.