‘Mass Effect Legendary Edition’ shows off graphical updates
A new Mass Effect Legendary Edition trailer has showcased the various graphical changes made to the games.
The latest trailer, which you can watch below, shows off side-by-side character comparisons, improved beauty passes for environments, and new post-processing effects. All of these improvements combine to create greater visual fidelity for the Legendary Edition remasters, which can run at 4K.
EA has explained how all of the 10,000+ textures across all three Mass Effect games were improved using batch processing, with artists taking care to hand-tailor certain more important textures such as characters.
The GUI for the game has been rebuilt to support 4K resolutions, and all of the game cinematics have been improved. The game’s pre-rendered cutscenes have been re-rendered in 4K, and bugs in certain cutscenes have been cut out – though EA promises certain Easter Eggs will call back to old Mass Effect bugs.
EA also says that many of the world designs have also been updated by “comparing levels we shipped to their original concept art, design intentions, and artistic inspiration”. This gives a lot of the levels a brand new look in screenshots, with higher contrast and often completely different colour palettes.
EA have detailed all of the changes that have been made in a blog post from EA, which also shows comparison images between the original games and their remaster.
Last week, gameplay changes to the Legendary Edition were confirmed, including an update to combat, and the handling of the infamous Mako ground vehicle in the original Mass Effect.
Recently, actor Henry Cavill teased a potential future Mass Effect project in a post he made on Instagram. “Secret project? Or just a handful of paper with random words on it….,” he said in the caption. “Guess you’ll have to wait and see”.
- Published in PC Game News, What's New
‘Diablo II: Resurrected’ fan creates graphics comparison video
A fan of Diablo II: Resurrected has created a comparison video between the original game and the remaster’s technical Alpha test graphics.
Players who opted in for the Alpha were inducted into their first glimpse of Diablo II: Resurrected this week, giving them a chance to experience the remaster first-hand.
Focusing mainly on single-player Barbarian, Amazon, and Sorceress classes, the Alpha will test the game’s readiness to launch, so that a launch date can be established. The Diablo II: Resurrected Alpha includes the 4K resolution, upgraded graphics, and 27 minutes of fully remade cinematics – all of which have made their way into this comparison video.
The characters remain similar to their former selves, with a few upgrades here and there, but the environments appear to have been given the most attention. You can select to play Diablo II: Resurrected in either the new graphics or the legacy graphics.
Any progress made on the Diablo Alpha will be discarded upon the game’s launch, and players are encouraged to “livestream, capture, and publish gameplay footage, or take and publish as many screenshots as you like from anywhere in the game.”
Diablo II: Resurrected will retain the original game’s playstyle, but will introduce enhanced graphics, including up to Ultra High Definition 4K (2160p) support on PC. Resurrected will include the base game and its expansion, Lord Of Destruction.
The game will release on PC – and for the first time, consoles including the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and Nintendo Switch. Cross-progression support is also being planned.
- Published in PC Game News, What's New
WWE announces ‘WWE 2K22’ with new teaser trailer
WWE and 2K Games have released the first teaser trailer for WWE 2K22.
The short teaser clip was unveiled during Night 1 of Wrestlemania 37 on April 10. The teaser is the first glimpse of this year’s professional wrestling sim from both companies since the release of WWE 2K20 in 2019.
Check out the teaser below.
The teaser features a blend of in-game footage as well as real-life promotional material featuring Mexican wrestler Rey Mysterio. All in-game footage shared comes from a “work-in-progress build”. It also includes improved graphics compared to 2K20, and a new tagline – “It hits different”.
“That [mantra] doesn’t just apply to the game itself but the way we market it and communicate with the press, content creators, and our community,” said 2K global communications manager Al Stavola in a statement to GamesRadar.
Stavola continued: “We want to try out new ideas and bring everyone along for the journey. You’re going to see things earlier than you have before, with more behind-the-scenes [content] than we’ve shown in the past. Transparency is really important. This is a different and huge step in the right direction.”
A release date for WWE 2K22 has not been announced, but has been teased to be “coming soon”.
WWE announced in April last year that it had cancelled WWE 2K21 following the negative reviews for 2K20 from critics and fans alike due to the game’s buggy gameplay and the lack of new game modes.
The cancellation of 2K21 has given 2K Games more time to work on this year’s 2K22 title, which according to promises from the company, should include a “significant evolution in gameplay”.
As a result, 2K Games released an arcade brawler titled 2K Battlegrounds as a replacement. “WWE 2K Battlegrounds is undoubtedly a better game than WWE 2K20, despite a lower budget and a more stripped-back approach,” said Stacey Henley in a three-star review for NME.
- Published in PC Game News, What's New
‘Outriders’ developer promises “restoration event” to return lost gear
People Can Fly have promised a “mass restoration event” in Outriders, to give people back gear that they have lost.
Players of Outriders have reported full inventory wipes that are leaving their characters without any gear, with some players being unable to log back in after the wipe.
Posts on the official Outriders reddit show people listing the things they have lost. User ‘Ok_Entertainment_112’ wrote:” Everything gone, 94 hours lost, almost complete build lost, this is a joke. Naked at login, server can’t connect yada yada like everyone else.”
According to Ok_Entertainment_112, the wipe came after they tried to join a Multiplayer Expedition. User ‘Wolphoenix’ also reported losing 80 hours of progress on their main character. Both users report issues with loading back into their characters, effectively locking them out of the character, as well as losing all of their gear.
User ‘Grimmboo’ also posted a clip of trying to connect with their wiped character. On connecting to the game, the character gets booted immediately due to a connection error.
Lost everything. And can’t even load back in. Fuck man. from outriders
Square Enix and People Can Fly’s official response to the bugs has been the promise of a “Restoration” event to return high level gear to players. In the Post Launch Dev News thread, Square Enix rep ‘Thearcan’ has said that the upcoming patch should greatly reduce the occurrences of the bug, before detailing plans for the restoration.
The restoration is planned to be a “one-time event” and will restore “the most valuable tiers of items, e.g. Epics and Legendaries.” The post stresses that restoration will be unlikely to restore an inventory full of blue gear, and that restored items “may not have the exact same stats as lost items”.
Due to the nature of the issue, the rep has said that “while we try our hardest to make things right, we unfortunately cannot make guarantees for the specifics of the above or the timeline of this, as we may run into technical difficulties that delay our work.”
Since the launch of the game, People Can Fly have been attempting to respond to bug reports by users. Prior to launch they outlined their plans for dealing with cheaters, which involved adding a permanent visual watermark to the accounts of players using hacks and cheats.
- Published in PC Game News, What's New
‘Neo: The World Ends With You’ gets new trailer confirming release date
Square Enix has revealed a new trailer for Neo: The World Ends With You.
The release date trailer not only shows off more gameplay, but also confirms that the game is headed to PC as well.
Neo: The World Ends With You takes place in modern-day Shibuya, Tokyo, with locations based on the real place albeit rendered in an anime art style.
Players are forced to take part in the life-or-death battle of the Reaper’s Game, while uncovering the mysteries behind it.
The trailer also reveals the large cast, consisting of rival Reaper teams players will be facing against, as well as their respective English voice actors.
Most importantly, the trailer reveals the game’s release date on PS4 and Nintendo Switch for July 27. A PC release via the Epic Games Store is also confirmed, but is tentatively schedule for “this summer”.
The trailer can be viewed below, with more details provided in PlayStation Blog.
Neo: The World Ends With You is a follow-up to The World Ends With You, originally released in 2012 on Nintendo DS, making use of the handheld console’s unique dual screens.
It was subsequently adapted to work on a single screen with ports on iOS and Android subtitled ‘Solo Remix’, followed by a Nintendo Switch port dubbed ‘Final Remix’.
Elsewhere, Square Enix also showed footage of Final Fantasy XIV running on PS5, which is getting an open beta later this month.
- Published in PC Game News, What's New
Lil Nas X releases free browser video game, ‘Twerk Hero’
American rapper Lil Nas X has released a free browser video game titled Twerk Hero.
The musician announced the game’s release on Twitter on Thursday, April 8. The game is now free to play on internet browsers and acts as a tie-in to his latest hit single, ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’. The game can be played on PC browsers as well as mobile browsers.
MY NEW GAME “TWERK HERO” IS OUT NOW! CAN U MAKE IT THROUGH ALL LEVELS?! pic.twitter.com/Juhr1jiZx4
— nope 🏹 (@LilNasX) April 7, 2021
The game, which can be played here, was developed in partnership with Roni Games and Columbia records. Twerk Hero will give players control of Lil Nas X with his back faced towards the screen as players get him to twerk along to ‘Montero’ without missing as many beats as possible, akin to popular rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero.
Lil Nas X is no stranger to video games, having hosted a virtual concert in Roblox last November, which was attended by more than 33million gamers worldwide. Check out the concert performance below.
Lil Nas X also shared his thoughts on the future of virtual concerts in games earlier this week. The rapper suggested in a short tweet that GTA Online should begin hosting virtual concerts
Other musicians who have recently released their own version of rhythm games recently include Queen. The legendary British rock act released their first official mobile game titled Queen: Rock Tour in March for iOS and Android devices.
The game was released to celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary, and gives players the ability to recreate bits of the band’s iconic styles, while costuming their outfits. Gamers are able to play as Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon or Roger Taylor, and will perform at 10 historic venues worldwide, recreating the band’s iconic tours.
- Published in PC Game News, What's New
