Category: Games

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The first trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald has been released. The sequel to 2016’s hugely successful Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them hits theaters in November and stars Eddie Redmayne as young magizoologist Newt Scamander, with Jude Law as the younger Albus Dumbledore and Johnny Depp as the villainous Gellert Grindelwald.

The trailer doesn’t reveal too much about the plot, but it does show that Newt is going on missions for Dumbledore, this time to Paris, and that he must face Grindelwald on behalf of his mentor. Vinda Rosier (Poppy Corby-Tuech), Tina (Katherine Waterston), and Jacob (Dan Fogler) are all back too, and the movie looks set to deliver the same mix of magic and mystery that Harry Potter fans have come to expect. Check it out above.

There had been some controversy about the casting of Depp, following allegations of domestic abuse made against the actor by his now-ex-wife Amber Heard. In December, director David Yates defended Depp’s involvement. “There was one person who took a pop at him and claimed something,” he said. “I can only tell you about the man I see every day: He’s full of decency and kindness, and that’s all I see. Whatever accusation was out there doesn’t tally with the kind of human being I’ve been working with.”

In addition, Yates has also stated that although it has been long established that Dumbledore is gay, the film wouldn’t address his sexuality directly. “But I think all the fans are aware of that,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “He had a very intense relationship with Grindelwald when they were young men. They fell in love with each other’s ideas and ideology and each other.”

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald releases on November 16, 2018 release, and, according to Potter creator JK Rowling, will be the second of five movies.

Capcom has unveiled a new crossover costume for Monster Hunter World. Coinciding with the release of Devil May Cry HD Collection, the publisher announced a set of Devil May Cry-inspired gear for the monster-slaying co-op game, which will allow players to dress their hunters like Dante. You can watch the fittingly bizarre announcement trailer for the gear above.

Along with Dante’s distinctive leather coat and hair, players can get his sword, the Force Edge. The sword falls under the Charge Blade category in Monster Hunter World, though it functions a bit differently from others of its kind. Where other Charge Blades typically come with a shield that can be combined with the sword into a giant axe, the Force Edge eschews a shield completely (although Capcom says you’ll still be able to guard while it’s equipped), and it can instead turn into a giant Alastor.

Capcom hasn’t detailed when the Dante gear will be available in Monster Hunter World, but players will have to craft it with the materials earned from completing a related Event Quest, as has been the case with the other crossover costumes in the game. Unlike the PS4-exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn gear, the Devil May Cry armor will be available to all Monster Hunter World players on PS4 and Xbox One.

This reveal coincides with the launch of Devil May Cry HD Collection, which is now available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The game is a re-release of the 2012 HD Collection, which assembled the first three Devil May Cry titles together into one package. “The HD Collection is a solid way to experience the original games for those that haven’t already,” GameSpot critic Alessandro Fillari said of the compilation. You can read more in our Devil May Cry HD Collection impressions.

In addition to the Devil May Cry gear, Capcom has previously announced a set of Street Fighter costumes for Monster Hunter World. PS4 players who had save data for Street Fighter V had a chance to get the Ryu armor early, although it will return again at a later date for all Monster Hunter World players. The second Horizon event quest, meanwhile, is available right now until March 15 exclusively for the PS4 version. You can find out exactly how to unlock Aloy’s armor and bow in our guide.

PUBG might be losing some ground to Fortnite, but the game remains a juggernaut. According to Valve boss Gabe Newell, the battle royale game is Steam’s third highest-selling game of all time. He revealed the detail during a presentation this weekend, according to IGN.

“You can have a relatively new game like PUBG, and […] they can capitalize on all the other multiplayer games, and all of the technology, [and] the fact that China is now a huge market for anybody who does PC game development,” Newell apparently said. “So PUBG can come out of pretty much nowhere and become the third largest selling game on Steam’s history. Their gross revenue over all-time is already number three in fairly short order.”

It is not immediately clear what the No. 1 and No. 2 best-selling games on Steam are, and Valve may never say.

Indeed, PUBG was only released on Steam through Early Access in March 2017. The game left Early Access in December with the launch of the 1.0 edition. Though the game is officially released, developer PUBG Corp. continues to support the title with regular updates as part of its games-as-a-service approach. Just recently, the studio laid out its development roadmap for 2018, and this includes a new map, emotes, and lots more.

The last figure we heard for PUBG sales was 30 million, which is remarkable. Though player figures have dropped, the game remains popular on a level that the video game industry has almost never seen. On Steam, the game had an unthinkable 2.46 million peak concurrent players today, which is significantly ahead of the No. 2 game, DOTA 2, which had a peak concurrent player figure of 573,511 on Steam today. Notably, DOTA 2 is a free-to-play game, while PUBG costs $30.

PUBG is also available on Xbox One (where it’s reached millions of players) and a PS4 version sounds likely. In fact, PUBG Corp. has said it wants to launch the game everywhere, while movie and TV shows based on the game are also being considered.

For more on PUBG, check out GameSpot’s video above in which editors talk about how the game may need to evolve in the wake of pressure from Fortnite and other similar games.

If the original Q.U.B.E. was a product of experimental design and unhindered student ambition, Q.U.B.E. 2 is the sophomore follow-up that almost ticks all the right boxes. No longer are you messing with unmalleable puzzle rooms; Q.U.B.E. 2 gives you the tools to have greater flexibility with your solutions and feels more rewarding as a result. It sometimes struggles to shake off the shackles of its deeply rooted narrative limitations, but it’s ultimately a wonderful puzzle game that will often have you exclaiming in joy after solving one of its many riddles.

If you played the original game, it might be surprising to hear that Q.U.B.E. 2 redefines how its puzzles work from the start. As was the case with the first game, the objective in Q.U.B.E 2 is simply about moving forward. You enter a room and need to figure out a solution to either exit it at the other end or interact with a specific object (like a power node that routes energy) to open doors elsewhere. But where Q.U.B.E. had you manipulating different colored blocks in increasingly challenging puzzle rooms, it never gave you agency over their initial placement. Armed with a new set of gauntlets that have pulsating neon energy flowing through them, that small amount of freedom is exactly what Q.U.B.E. 2 bestows on you from the outset.

The options you’re given are still somewhat limited to compensate for this, with only three distinct abilities at your disposal. Red blocks can be extended and retracted at will; blue blocks turn neutral white tiles into springy bouncing boards; and green blocks let you create a cube of matter that you can further manipulate, either by moving them around with other abilities to activate switches or use them as additional steps to reach a higher ledges. You can use a red block, for example, to push a green block in front of it, perhaps into a nearby blue spring block that launches it into the air and onto a switch nearby. Learning how these three mechanics intermingle is gratifying, and the intricate levels laid out in a linear fashion do a good job of showing you just how you’re meant to employ them.

You can’t use these abilities anywhere, though, which starts to resemble the restrictive layout of the first game. Although you have the freedom to paint any neutral white tile to a color of your choosing, there’s still only a finite number of them in any given space. Their placement always feels deliberate, acting as signposts for the eventual solution. Such design can be helpful in latter stages where the scope and size of the space you’re solving in grows to overwhelming levels, but it’s somewhat disappointing that you’re never given complete freedom to concoct unusual solutions.

Impressively, the puzzles Q.U.B.E. 2 tasks you with solving are complex in makeup and exciting in execution despite this. Each scenario has a unique twist to the trials that came before it, introducing new mechanics and obstacles. Just as you’re comfortable with spawning a cube and getting it from one side of the room to another, an element like arrays of high-powered fans is introduced. These can, for example, allow you to propel cubes at high speeds, or give you a much-needed lift to a previously inaccessible area. Later, elements like slippery oil come into play, as do magnetic tiles, rotatable platforms, and restrictive doorways that require either sheer force or elemental damage (like fire) to bust open.

Just like the three core abilities, Q.U.B.E. 2 introduces each of these auxiliary mechanics in digestible chunks. As you progress rooms will start taking on themes around these new physics, giving you a playground to comfortably experiment with them before zooming out to larger, all encompassing cranial challenges. Light-bulb moments permeate the game from the opening seconds to its riveting conclusion, with only a few puzzles that seem out of place in terms of difficulty. Several patterns emerge over the six hours of puzzling–I found myself always placing a green tile above a blue one to spawn and instantly propel a cube, for example–but their application in new challenges that tax your spacial awareness never really gets stale.

The same can’t be said for the encompassing narrative that Q.U.B.E. 2 presents, which struggles to find a consistent pace. You play as Amelia Cross, a scientist that’s become stranded on the desolate alien cube most of the game plays out in. The story doesn’t rely on knowledge from the previous game but doesn’t seem to build on anything established either. Instead, it plods along from one revelation to the next, in an attempt to slowly piece together the secrets of the entity Amelia finds herself trapped within. Its latter half is then a rush to a conclusion, quickly introducing new story beats through an overload of exposition, and ultimately leading to an uninspired binary choice at the end. It’s a pity, given that the small cast does deliver some powerful voice acting performances, especially in conversations between Amelia and Emma Sutcliffe, a fellow survivor who seems to know more than she lets on.

Q.U.B.E. 2’s world lacks the impact and intrigue of something like Valve’s Portal series but takes some design cues from its breadth of visual design. Basic test chamber-like sequences are quickly pierced with gorgeous outdoor vistas, letting moonlight flood geometric chambers and cold tile spaces. As the story progresses, Amelia is whisked away to more lush territories, where nature has overgrown the structures she’s trapped in. Vines choke the life out of walls around you as sunlight bathes the chambers you’re slowly working through, giving the entire experience a distinctly contrasting feel. Q.U.B.E. 2 might have benefitted from a higher framerate to keep up with the action at times, but it’s a consistently pleasing treat on the eyes.

C.U.B.E. 2 makes remarkably clever changes to a formula well established by its predecessor, giving you more agency over puzzle solutions with redefined core mechanics. It means veterans and newcomers alike won’t have to suffer through an overwrought tutorial, with a gentle learning curve effectively nudging you along its growing library of tools. Q.U.B.E. 2 struggles to contextualize its clever puzzles with a narrative as engaging as their solutions, but it’s still one nut that is consistently rewarding to crack.

While Capcom’s Devil May Cry series has gone a through a number changes over the years, the focus has always been on offering fast-paced combat with a side of self-aware humor and style. With the re-release of the Devil May Cry HD Collection out now, featuring the original Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition–and the much-maligned Devil May Cry 2–the HD collection should be a solid entry point for anyone looking to check out the series’ PlayStation 2 roots. While the original games still hold up, the recent HD port unfortunately retains many of the same issues that plagued the previous release.

As a port of the 2012 HD Collection, the “new” collection for PS4, PC, and Xbox One is largely left intact. In addition to each game receiving a 1080p resolution bump (an increase from the original’s 720p resolution), which includes some slightly sharper textures and characters models, the HD Collection also features a suite of side-content aimed at fans–including an in-game compendium full of concept art, soundtracks for each game, and fan art from the DMC fanbase curated by Capcom US.

While there have been some slight changes introduced for this release, including the addition of a handy return to main menu option for when you want to switch over to another game, it’s largely the same package on new hardware. While it’s great you can play these games on new platforms, many of the older issues from the port linger. After playing with the PS4, and then revisiting the PS3 version, we pulled together a quick rundown of each game, and how their particular HD upgrade has fared.

Devil May Cry (2001)

Released in 2001, this fast-paced and challenging romp through the dark corridors of a demonic mansion would set the tone for what the series was all about. Balancing macabre humor with the cheap-thrills of a 90s-style action game, the original DMC features a strong focus on creating a slightly dreadful atmosphere, while simultaneously injecting pulse-pounding action throughout. Moreover, DMC1 features an adjusted control-scheme to make it more in-line with how DMC2 and 3 play–particularly swapping the jump and attack buttons. While the combat and in-game graphics have held up well–maintaining a solid 60 frames-per-second throughout–Devil May Cry 1 tends to benefit the least with the upgraded resolution and visuals when compared to the other games.

These issues include strange audio quirks and bad ambient sound looping, slightly warped visual visual effects for attacks and special moves, and some occasional instances where some aspects of the environment and characters to disappear entirely for brief moments. This was a rare occurrence, when exploring some of the more active environments, and other during a combat encounter–which was rather annoying. What’s disappointing about the re-release is that these original issues haven’t been addressed, and many of these problems occur often in DMC1. In addition to the hiccups with the in-game action, many of the stylistic choices from the original game designed around the traditional 4:3 format–including the animated menus text–look incredibly blown out and otherwise weathered.

Despite this, Devil May Cry is still a lot of fun to play. While it’s disappointing to see that the upres hasn’t been kind to some of the game’s already dated qualities, resulting in some muddy looking visuals, the original Devil May Cry is still a strong game with an incredible atmosphere.

Devil May Cry 2 (2003)

Coming shortly after the release of the original game, Devil May Cry 2 ultimately ended up being a poor follow-up to the original, and still stands as the weakest game of the series. With some rather clunky and sluggish combat, mostly barren environments that lacked a sense of atmosphere, and along with an uncharacteristically somber tone–DMC2 lacks the same sort of edge that the series was founded on. On top of the game’s already drab and unoriginal style, visual and design aspects of the sequel have aged rather poorly–making it the most aesthetically unappealing games in the package.

Having said that, the resolution bump does give much of the textures for the characters a sharper look, giving the game’s quasi cell-shaded style a much more pronounced look–making for some interesting-looking characters during cutscenes. Unfortunately, Devil May Cry 2’s issues are far more than skin deep, which no HD port could fix. With that said, the sequel does feature Dante’s best outfit of the series, the black and red leather–which also made an appearance in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. So there’s that.

Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition (2006)

As the crown jewel of the DMC HD Collection, Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition is the most content rich game in the package–and is arguably the best game in the DMC series. As the prequel, the game is more of a return to form, focusing on fast and challenging combat, and ditching the weirdly earnest story of DMC2 for a narrative that revelled in over-the-top action-movie machismo. The HD port keeps much of its luster. But like the other games, there are still some blemishes to be aware of.

One area the Special Edition falters in is with its presentation. The game features many cutscenes and story beats throughout, using both pre-rendered and in-game rendered cutscenes. While the resolution bump shows off cleaner and more visually pleasing upgrades to the graphics, which shine during combat and in-game cinematics, pre-rendered cinematics are cropped from the original 4:3 scenes, making for some rather unsightly and stretched out looking visuals during some key scenes. This is made worse when watching multiple cutscenes back to back, jumping between cropped and in-game rendered cutscenes. Despite these issues, DMC3 still manages to impress throughout thanks to its irreverent tone and excellent gameplay. Gameplay performs at a rock-solid 60 frames-per-second, and the upgraded resolution makes combat much more clear to follow, making DMC3–and all its combat rich mechanics–a total blast to play.

While the DMC HD Collection features a number of unsightly inconsistencies issues with its re-release, ultimately showing how much the series has aged since its debut, the trilogy of games still retains the feel and fast-paced action of the series. I still have fond memories of experiencing the games on the PS2, and playing through this trilogy again brought back all those feelings of excitement and frustration during the challenging combat encounters. The HD Collection is a solid way to experience the original games for those that haven’t already. And for those returning to the action, you’ll find that Devil May Cry’s patented action hasn’t quite lost its edge yet.