Sifu has been on our radar for a while, but until now, it hasn't been clear when exactly we'd get our hands on the kung fu action title. During Gamescom's Opening Night Live event, Sloclap announced a release date for the game: February 22nd, 2022. The Absolverstudio initially planned to ship Sifu this year, but it pushed the game back to early 2022 to avoid overworking the team or compromising on quality.
Sloclap revealed the release date at the end of the latest gameplay trailer. The clip shows the protagonist fighting a bunch of goons in locations including a rooftop, an art gallery and a firelit alleyway. Unlike the last trailer, the latest preview doesn't focus on one of Sifu's most intriguing mechanics: your character is a bit older every time they respawn after dying.
Pre-orders are now open for Sifu, which is coming to PlayStation 4, PS5 and Epic Games Store. If you lock in the $40 standard edition now, you'll receive a special avatar pack and an exclusive cinematic pack for the photo mode. If you pre-order the $50 special edition, you'll get those bonuses, as well as a digital art book, a copy of the soundtrack and 48 hours of early access before the official release date.
YouTube has removed 1 million videos for dangerous COVID-19 misinformation since February 2020, according to YouTube’s Chief Product Officer Neal Mahon.
Mahon shared the statistic in a blog post outlining how the company approaches. misinformation on its platform. “Misinformation has moved from the marginal to the mainstream,” he wrote. “No longer contained to the sealed-off worlds of Holocaust deniers or 9-11 truthers, it now stretches into every facet of society, sometimes tearing through communities with blistering speed.”
At the same time, the Youtube executive argued that “bad content” accounts for only a small percentage of YouTube content overall. “Bad content represents only a tiny percentage of the billions of videos on YouTube (about .16-.18% of total views turn out to be content that violates our policies),” Mahon wrote. He added that YouTube removes almost 10 million videos each quarter, “the majority of which don’t even reach 10 views.”
Facebook recently made a similar argument about content on its platform. The social network published a report last week that claimed that the most popular posts are memes and other non-political content. And, faced with criticism over its handling of COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation, the company has argued that vaccine misinformation isn’t representative of the kind of content most users see.
Both Facebook and YouTube have come under particular scrutiny for their policies around health misinformation during the pandemic. Both platforms have well over a billion users, which means that even a small fraction of content can have a far-reaching impact. And both platforms have so far declined to disclose details about how vaccine and health misinformation spreads or how many users are encountering it. Mahon also said that removing misinformation is only one aspect of the company’s approach. YouTube is also working on “ratcheting up information from trusted sources and reducing the spread of videos with harmful misinformation.”
Jurassic World Evolution 2, the next installment in everyone's favorite dinosaur-based park-management franchise, is heading to Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 4, PS5 and PC on November 9th. Pre-orders are open now, and buying the game early will net players three vehicle skins inspired by the 1997 film, The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Jurassic World Evolution 2 allows players to build, manage and mess around in a world of Spielberg-inspired dinosaurs. There are four modes: campaign, chaos theory, challenge and sandbox. Campaign mode takes players through a narrative arc set after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the 2018 movie. Chaos theory presents classic moments from the film franchise, but with a twist, playing out "what if" scenarios. Challenge is the mode for folks who want to test their dino-rearing skills, while sandbox is the creative way to play.
Jurassic Wold Evolution 2 is made by Frontier Developments, the studio that handled the 2018 game Jurassic World Evolution.
The rumors of a Horizon Forbidden West delay were true, although the wait won't be as long as you might think. Guerilla has revealed that Forbidden West will be released on February 18th, 2022 for both PS4 and PS5 owners, with pre-orders starting on September 2nd. The developer previously promised a free upgrade to the PS5 version if you have to continue Aloy's journey on the older console.
The open-world adventure was originally slated to arrive in holiday 2021. However, the COVID-19 pandemic "hugely impacted" development, Guerilla said. Like many game creators, the team had to rethink its work strategy while also trying to maintain a "healthy" work-life balance.
If you can't wait that long, you'll still have a reason to revisit Horizon Zero Dawn. Guerilla has released a free Enhanced Performance Patch for the earlier game that gives PS5 players a "targeted" 60FPS. This won't suddenly drag the game into the next-gen console era, but the improved frame rate should make it that much easier to dodge charging robots and line up bow shots.
Splitgate, an FPS that combines the best of classic Quake multiplayer and Portal, is an unlikely shooter success story. It reached an astounding 10 million downloads during its open beta last month, when it made its way to consoles and unveiled cross-platform play. And to celebrate that success, today developer 1047 Games launched its next beta phase: Season 0.
"In the span of a month, our servers went from supporting 4,000 players at once to 175,000 players!" Splitgate creator and 1047 Games CEO Ian Proulx wrote on the PlayStation blog. "All in all, our servers had some growing pains, so we had to implement short-term solutions to prevent back-end crashes."
Given the influx of new users, Proulx says he chose to delay the game's official launch and extend the beta phase. Existing players can expect a slew of new content in Season 0, including Karman Station, a new map, as well as a new Infection gameplay mode. There's also a Season 0 Battle Pass and plenty of new gear to pick up. They have to support a free-to-play game somehow, right?
After spending more than 10 hours in the previous Splitgate beta, it's easy to see why the game has caught on so quickly. It combines solid shooter mechanics with something entirely new: The ability to place portals around the map, which you can use to teleport or take out enemies. If anything, it's a welcome respite from the flood of Battle Royale titles on the market.
While Splitgate doesn't have an official launch date yet, the beta is pretty stable in my experience. Proulx says 1047 Games is also work on a map editor, as well as additional maps, weapons and other items in the future.
We haven't heard much about Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga since TT Games delayed it indefinitely back in April. At Gamescom's Opening Night Live event, the studio and publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment showed off a new trailer that embraces the series' trademark irreverent humor, in-jokes and sleek visuals.
There are a bunch of nods to famous scenes from the Star Wars movies (the game adapts all nine entries in the Skywalker saga). Along with X-wing battles and lightsaber duels with the likes of Darth Vader and Darth Maul, you'll see moments like Rey flipping over Kylo Ren's TIE fighter. The game includes 20 unlockable planets you can travel between and more than 300 playable characters.
While there's no firm release date as yet, the game should arrive in spring 2022 on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC.
This is the first game in the Lego Star Wars series since 2016, when TT Games Legofied Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It marks the first time that the studio has adapted The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. Warner Bros. initially planned to release Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga in 2020, and then in spring 2021, but TT Games needed "more time" to finish it.
The next Marvel superhero game is reaching deeper into the comic books' back catalog. XCOM developer Firaxis has unveiledMarvel's Midnight Suns, a turn-based role-playing game based on the Midnight Sons team from 1990s crossover issues. The modern take has you play a new Marvel co-created superhero, The Hunter, as she fights the Mother of Demons, Lilith. Your character will have help from Midnight Sons members like Blade, Ghost Rider and Wolverine as well as Avengers mainstays like Captain America and Iron Man.
The title reaches PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch and Windows PCs in March 2022. A gameplay presentation is due on September 1st.
In case you're wondering: no, this won't just be an XCOM game with capes. Game lead Jake Solomon told Polygon in an interview that Midnight Suns shares "zero mechanics" with the XCOM series. You'll play missions with up to three other heroes as you develop The Hunter's powers. When you're not in combat, an open-world area will help you form bonds with fellow heroes. And instead of the paranoia and fear that drive XCOM, you're rolling into battle with confidence — there's no permanent character death, for starters.
This is something of a gamble when many Marvel appearances have involved more conventional brawlers and fighting games. Firaxis has a strong track record, however, and dipping into the Midnight Sons catalog draw in both long-time Marvel fans as well as those who don't want to rehash the brand's most familiar stories.
Alongside the Halo Infinite release date, Microsoft made a couple of other Halo-related announcements at Gamescom's Opening Night Live event. To mark the 20th anniversary of the series, the company is releasing a limited-edition Xbox Series X and Elite Series 2 Controller decked out in Halo-themed looks.
The console features dark metallic paneling with iridium gold accents, as well as a star pattern. The bundled-in controller has an iridium gold 20-year mark on the rear. Best of all, you'll hear custom Halo-themed sounds when you switch the console on and off.
Pre-orders are open for this special-edition Xbox Series X, which will be available on November 15th. It costs $550, which is $50 more than the standard Series X, but it comes with a copy of Halo Infinite. You'll be able to play the game on December 8th.
Also arriving on November 15th is the Halo Infinite Limited Edition Elite Series 2 controller. The matte metallic green look is inspired by Master Chief's armor and it boasts an iridium gold D-pad. The controller comes with a custom carrying case, laser-etched charging dock and swappable components. You'll also be able to adjust the tension of the thumbstick using a special tool. If you pick up this controller, you'll also receive an exclusive Halo Elite controller weapon charm to use in your Halo Infinite multiplayer games.
Pre-orders are open for the Elite Series 2 controller, which costs $200.
In addition, Microsoft revealed a Halo Infinite-inspired Razer Kaira Pro headset and Seagate Game Drive. The latter will be available in October, costing $100 for the 2TB version and $160 for the 5TB model.
Saints Row, the class-clown of GTA-esque open-world sandbox games, is no more. In its place is Saints Row, a reboot of the series with a back-to-basics focus on ground-level crime and violence. In the seven years since Gat out of Hell was released (we’re not counting Agents of Mayhem), the world has moved on, and so too must Saints Row.
Welcome to the Weird West
Deep Silver / Volition
The new game is called Saints Row (which we're told has no subtitle, despite the repeated use of the "Self Made" tagline even on the box art), and is set in Santo Ileso (Spanish speakers, does that pun work for you?), a stand in for America’s Four Corners region which the developers are calling the “weird west.” There are Route 66 signs scattered across the landscape and the desert that surrounds the city, with its patchy grass and tall mesas, looks a lot like Arizona. The neon-strewn casino district (El Dorado) seems to be inspired by those found in Albuquerque. And the financial area, at least from the trailers (and to my British eyes) seems to have been pulled from downtown Santa Fe.
Santo Ileso is made up of nine individual districts with each one designed to use a different traversal method. Running and driving will work best in some regions, while players are encouraged to fly a wingsuit off the top of the financial district’s skyscrapers to cover long distances. Or you can steal a VTOL-equipped craft and just make merry havoc all over the city as you go. The game was built in a brand new, as-yet unannounced engine and these new environments are designed to take advantage of the power that next-gen consoles — if we can still call them that — can offer.
The developers say that Saints Row’s focus is, at least early in the game, going to focus on the material concerns of its young crew. These disaffected millennials turn to crime to, for instance, put food on their table, feel part of a community and pay off their student loans. Chief creative officer Jim Boone says that it’s, broadly, a “contemporary” millennial “power fantasy.” It’s only later that the game’s focus switches to the sort of empire-building that, in the previous series, eventually saw your character becoming president.
Deep Silver / Volition
As the game progresses, players can buy property and businesses which opens up new game modes and levels. You can choose where to put those businesses, too, like putting a garbage collection site in the middle of the financial district. The choices you make here will, for instance, engender resistance if you start putting toxic waste next to wherever the one percenters live and work. And, as you take over more of the city, the bigger your power base will grow.
The storyline sees your ragtag quartet encounter three distinct gangs, each of which owns a chunk of Santo Ileso. The Panteros, for instance, are a bunch of muscle-car enthusiasts who try to use their superior strength to defeat you in combat. Marshall Defense Industries, meanwhile, is a local weapons developer with its own mercenary army equipped with a range of sci-fi weapons and superior marksmanship. Then there are the Idols, a group of Kawaii Cyberpunk Anarchists wearing light-up cat ear helmets who overwhelm you with numbers in a fight.
Meet the new boss
Deep Silver / Volition
As far as we know, references to Steelport, the 3rd Street Saints, Johnny Gat, Kenzie and anything else from the prior series are gone. Or, at least, will be relegated to the odd, deeply buried easter egg for die-hard fans to root out while they’re immersed in this new world. In their place is a trio of characters that work to support your player’s unnamed and customizable protagonist.
There’s Eli (pictured, 2nd from right), an MBA student who works as the team’s planner, speaking in the language of startups, investment and business. Then there’s Neenah (pictured, right), the team’s driver, who had aspirations of becoming an anthropologist but got sucked into working as a mechanic for Los Panteros. Rounding out the quartet (of which you are the fourth member) is Kevin (pictured, left), a topless thrill-seeking DJ who, like his fellow Idols, loves wearing a Kawaii Cyberpunk helmet and wreaking havoc.
The player character is, as before, infinitely customizable — although it’s not clear how broad those options are. Deep Silver says that you’ll have access to the “most advanced suite” of customization tools ever seen in an open-world game.
One of the questions raised in the roundtable with the game’s developers was that of cultural appropriation. The six people made available for interview were all middle-aged white men, creating a game set in a region where a significant proportion of the population is Latinx or Hispanic. Creative director Jim Boone said that diversity was important, and there was an explicit focus on making the team producing the game as diverse as the characters in it.
Inspiration
Deep Silver / Volition
In terms of what we can expect from the new title, Boone said that some of the major inspirations for this film came from the cinema. He cited three titles: John Wick, Baby Driver and Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbes and Shaw as key influences. From the first, you will be able to spot some of the brutality in the combat and some of the melee takedown moves are cribbed from the film’s action sequences. The experience of driving has been pulled from the second, while the third’s penchant for over-the-top action helped provide a baseline for how stunts would work in the new game.
There will also be a broad degree of Fast and Furious-inspired vehicle customization in which every playable ride can be fixed up. The desert that surrounds Santo Ileso, for instance, has plenty of rough terrain that can be used to crest dunes and chase or evade your enemies. Consequently, players can even jury-rig the game’s garbage truck as a heavy-duty off-road vehicle.
Playing together
Deep Silver / Volition
Saints Row is coming to the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One and, for PC gamers, the Epic Games Store. The developers said that cross-platform co-op will be available from the start, and you can play the entire campaign through “untethered co-op play.” One thing that was mentioned was the ability to “prank” your co-op partner, stymying their progress in order to advance your own.
The elephant in the room
Deep Silver / Volition
There are more than a few reasons why Volition chose to make Saints Row, rather than Saints Row V. Boone said that the classic series of games were very much “of [their] time,” with tastes and attitudes having moved on. And it can’t have helped that the company’s last attempt at a reboot, Agents of Mayhem, received lukewarm reviews and poor sales, forcing Volition to make layoffs in its wake.
Lead mission designer Jeremy Bernstein added that the original story, by the end of Gat out of Hell, had burned through all of its narrative runway. When your player protagonist has conquered Earth, ascended to Godhood and escaped hell, there’s not much you can do to top it. Bernstein compared the problem to the James Bond movies circa Moonraker, saying that once you’ve done James Bond In Space, the gritty realism of For Your Eyes Only is one hell of a tonal shift.
But is it still fun?
Deep Silver / Volition
The team wanted to assure us that while the juvenilia that marked the previous series was gone, the irreverence would remain. Bernstein said that it would be pretty much impossible to make a “grimdark Saints Row game” for obvious reasons. And while the developers didn’t elaborate much on silly weapons, like the Penetrator (Saints Row The Third’s infamous Dildo Lance) and the Dubstep Gun (from Saints Row IV), they said one or two had made their way into the title. You’ll also, once again, be able to ragdoll yourself into traffic under the auspices of committing insurance fraud.
If I have a concern, it’s that I always found Saints Row a more enjoyable franchise than GTA because of the emphasis on fun. The challenges soon became repetitive, but the breadth of ways in which you could complete a mission (and the fun weapons) helped smooth the edges. The emphasis here, so far, has been on the difference between the new game and its predecessors, with less discussion on how fun it all is. Maybe that’s just savvy marketing, and the new title will be just as fun and silly as franchise diehards are hoping. But it’s something that I’d like to see more of, or else I’d get the feeling that the title may lose the one thing people are so desperate for it to have.
Saints Row is scheduled to launch on February 25th, 2022 for current and next-generation consoles.
This post contains major spoilers for episode three of What If…?
After two fun, zippy stories that focused on the idea of swapping one character for another, What If…? pivots to a darker outcome in its third installment. This time, the entire Avengers slate is wiped clean, with Nick Fury left to sort out the mess. It’s a nod to the animated series’ comic inspiration, plus a sign that the show isn’t willing to settle into a routine.
The original comic book, also called What If?, often see-sawed between silly and serious scenarios, like what would happen if Spider-Man had joined the Fantastic Four, Gwen Stacy had lived or if Dazzler became Galactus’ herald. With no need to follow continuity, the creative teams of each issue in the anthology were free to take the story wherever they wanted, often in dark turns that ultimately illustrated why the original timeline was the best.
Marvel Studios
However, the What If…?Disney+ series has taken the opposite tack, showcasing one scenario where things are largely the same level of good and bad (for Captain Carter) and another where events went decidedly better (unless you’re Peter Quill). It’s likely the creators didn’t want to immediately scare away casual viewers with anything too grim, keeping the stories as light and breezy as their cinematic inspirations.
The third episode doesn’t just change this course by featuring a more pessimistic scenario, however, it also steps away from telling us upfront why things are like this. The first two episodes had Uatu explicitly pointing out the moment of divergence. This time around, we know something is different — the prospective Avengers are being murdered — but exactly how and why is a mystery.
Marvel Studios
It actually makes for a more interesting show because rather than playing a half-hour game of “spot the difference,” we become engaged in speculation about why this is happening. We know things would be vastly altered if Tony Stark or Bruce Banner dies, but now we get to play detective, plumbing our knowledge of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for suspects and motives. Instead of a straight-up adventure tale, this episode was a murder mystery.
Whether it’s a successful mystery, I’m not entirely sure. Hank Pym is not someone I had considered as a suspect, even with his distaste for SHIELD and the Starks in the main timeline. The point of divergence turns out to be Hope Pym joining SHIELD and being killed on a mission, which leaves Hank alone and bitter. Why he chooses to kill five uninvolved strangers in an attempt to hurt Nick Fury is murky at best. I’d originally pegged the murder of the Avengers as a Hydra plot, which would have actually help shore up the retcon from Captain America and the Winter Soldier of SHIELD being taken over by Hydra — it’s rarely explored why Hydra let the Avengers get as far as they did in the main timeline, rather than strangling that potential opposition in its cradle.
Ultimately, the point of the episode is to set the viewer up for even darker stories to come — at least one future story is focused on zombies, a nod to the rather successful line of “Marvel Zombies” comics from over a decade ago. It also does some tidying up for the main continuity as well, reminding the viewers that three of the early MCU films took place in the same week, and that Loki is stilla jerk. It may not be essential viewing, but What If…? is certainly a useful footnote.
