Hi Everyone! Starting off this week, we have a new Destiny 2 PS4 pro bundle announced (#1), WWE 2k18 coming to Nintendo Switch (#5), and Oculus explains why exclusivity is a good thing (#18). Enjoy!
Sony
1- Introducing the Limited Edition Destiny 2 PS4 Pro Bundle (PlayStation Blog)
2- Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age Review
Metacritic– 87
Opencritic-88
3- Nioh DLC coming out July 25 (PlayStation Blog)
Defiant Honor takes us to Osaka Catle and adds a new weapon, new armor, new guardian spirits… and, of course, new Yokai to challenge
4- Digital Foundry: Final Fantasy 12 Zodiac Age PS4/PS4 Pro vs PS2/Emulation Graphics Comparison + Frame-Rate Test
Nintendo
5- WWE 2k18 coming to Nintendo Switch
6- Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 for Switch launches September 22 in the Americas and Europe (Source: Gematsu, Sal Romano)
7- The Nintendo Switch Update for NBA Playgrounds is Now Live (Source: Nintendo Life, Thomas Whitehead)
8- Nintendo files for “Nintendo Check-In” trademark (Source: Japanesenintendo, credit to NeoGAF user maxcriden)
Speculating… but this could be an interesting social smartphone app where you can earn Nintendo points for related events or exclusive content for some games similar to what we did with the 3DS. That would be really cool.
9- Kamiko sold 110,000 copies. Picontier screenshot update (Source: Nintendolife, Thomas Whitehead)
Kamiko is a small $5 game on the Switch. Great little game with a charming art style! You should check it out. They are working on their next game – Picontier – which is a small RPG. Definitely looking forward to it.
Third Party/Miscellaneous
10- Digital Foundry: Why Next-Gen Consoles Need Ryzen CPU Technology!
11- Making game development global again: Meet the Syrian and Iranian developers making an opportunity of Donald Trump’s travel ban – with a little help from Unity (Source: Gamesindustry.biz, Will Freeman)
12- Wild West Online Official Gameplay
13- Paragon – The Next Big Update (Credit to NeoGAF user PackAPunchedMick)
14- Warframe – Plains of Eidolon – Gameplay Demo (Open world expansion)
15- Overwatch’s Competitive Mode is Depressing Right Now (Source: Katoku, Cecilia D’Anastasio)
A gloom has descended on Overwatch’s competitive mode. For over a month, players have reported joylessly grinding through Season 5 to redeem their former competitive rankings, a result of Blizzard artificially depleting them. The community’s reaction, which ranges from sorrow to toxicity, has been depressing to watch, but more depressing to participate in.
16- Jump strives to be ‘Netflix for games’ while still benefiting indie game devs (Source: IGN, Chloi Rad)
A new on-demand, subscription-based video game service called Jump is preparing to launch, offering an initial library of 60 to 100 indie games playable for a flat monthly fee of $9.99 per month. After a closed beta period, running between now and July 24 with a sample library of 10 to 20 games, the full service will offer unlimited, ad-free playtime for its “highly curated” library, with about 10 new games added each month for Windows, Mac, Linux, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift.
Jump includes all the standard features of a Netflix or Spotify-style service, including a way to browse recently added games, recently updated games, games with new content, and sort games by genre. Leaderboards, achievements, cloud saves, matchmaking, and multiplayer are all handled through a third-party service called PlayFab, which would most notably allow your saves to carry over onto new devices.
17- Steam Bans Over 40,000 Accounts (Source: Kotaku, Nathan Grayson)
If you’re gonna cheat, you might as well do it on the cheap. That seems to be the going line of thought among would-be cheaters in games like Counter-Strike, who risk losing access to games and even their accounts if they get caught. Valve, however, has caught on to the loophole.
18 Oculus explains why VR exclusives are ‘the right way of doing things’ (Source: PC Gamer, Wes Fenlon)
Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey (who recently left the company) is contributing $2000 to the CrossVR Patreon, makers of Revive. I asked Rubin what he thought of Luckey contributing to a project aimed at making Rift exclusives playable on other hardware, and if there’s been any policy change at Oculus regarding Revive. What I got was a passionate answer about the importance of exclusives when launching new hardware and some not-so-subtle shade about Valve’s approach with SteamVR. Here’s his response in full.
19- Destiny 2: a tour of the new crucible map endless vale – IGN First
20- Patrick Klepek: 10 Years Ago, I Almost Got Someone Fired While Reporting a Story
Not your typical article but I thought this was interesting. Patrick Klepek is a games journalist that is looking back at one of his biggest mistakes in his career. He talks about how he learned from this mistake and what he is doing to move forward.
