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Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment will be released in April
Yacht Club Games has confirmed (via the PlayStation Blog) that Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment will be available in April.
The Specter of Torment expansion will serve as a prequel to the entire Shovel Knight saga, and will actually turn the game into an acrobatic platformer reminiscent of Ninja Gaiden. Body Swap Mode, Two-Player Co-Op, and a Sound Test Mode will also be available as part of the free update.
Fans who want to give Specter of Torment a shot before its Spring debut should find a way to travel down to San Antonio next weekend, because the developer is going to demo the expansion at this year’s PAX South expo.
However, if you’ve never played Shovel Knight before, you’ll be able to dig into the series in a new way this April. New fans will be able to pick up Specter of Torment as a standalone game, and Yacht Club also plans to re-release the original campaign (rechristened Shovel of Hope) and the Plague of Shadows expansions separately as well. Current owners of Shovel Knight will be upgraded to the Treasure Trove bundle, which will also be available in April, and will include access to all future Shovel Knight content.
The Specter of Torment expansion will be available in April for all owners of Shovel Knight on the 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One.
The standalone re-releases (Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope, Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows, and Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment) will also be available in April for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch.
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged PAX South 2017, Shovel Knight, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
Fire Emblem Heroes will be released for Android devices on February 2; iOS launch coming later
I don’t think anyone could have guessed how divisive Super Mario Run would turn out to be, but Nintendo is taking their second crack at a mobile game next month with the release of Fire Emblem Heroes.
Fully unveiled during last night’s Fire Emblem Direct presentation, Fire Emblem Heroes is a free-to-play strategy RPG that’ll feature a number of “legendary heroes” from the franchise:
Fire Emblem Heroes is an original strategy RPG about two warring kingdoms in a bitter clash. As a summoner, players build their army by calling upon popular Fire Emblem heroes from worlds that span the breadth of the series. Players will wage tactical battles streamlined for on-the-go play and level up a mix of new combatants and legendary heroes. Some familiar hero characters will become allies, while others will become enemy generals.
Players can enjoy the full majesty of tactical role playing on bite-sized maps designed to fit nicely on a smartphone screen, even when playing in short bursts. Players lead their armies with easy touch-and-drag controls, including the ability to attack by simply swiping an ally hero over an enemy. If they manage to defeat every enemy on a given map, victory will be theirs. The heroes are depicted in new art hand-drawn by a variety of illustrators, and their voices have been newly recorded.
A multiplayer mode will give players the option to practice battling with friends and strangers, and future updates will add new characters and content to the game.
Speaking of characters, fans can visit the game’s official website to vote on which legendary heroes they’d like to see in Fire Emblem Heroes. The hero and heroine who receive the most votes will be featured in the game as special “Choose Your Legends” event characters.
In a reverse of Super Mario Run’s situation, Fire Emblem Heroes will be available to download exclusively on Android devices on February 2. Nintendo will announce an iOS release schedule at a later date.
Posted in Mobile, News
Tagged Fire Emblem Mobile
Writers Guild nominates CoD Infinite Warfare, Far Cry Primal, Uncharted 4, Mr. Robot mobile app for 2017 WGA Award in Game Writing
The Writers Guild of America has announced the nominees for this year’s Writers Guild Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing.”
Once again, Naughty Dog has collected a nomination for their work on Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. The prolific developer is a popular choice for the nominating committee at the WGA, previously receiving nominations (and later winning) in 2012 (Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception), 2013 (The Last of Us), and 2014 (The Last of Us: Left Behind).
Other nominees for “Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing” in 2017 include Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Far Cry: Primal, and Mr. Robot: 1.51exfiltratiOn, a mobile app developed by Night School Studio.
The winner of this year’s Writers Guild Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing” will be announced on Sunday, February 19. The complete list of nominated writers can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Far Cry: Primal, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
2017 DICE Awards nominations announced and Uncharted 4 leads the way with ten
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced their nominees for the 2017 DICE Awards.
A Naughty Dog leads this year’s pack, as Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End scored ten nominations including one for “Game of the Year.” The developer’s swan song for Nathan Drake will be competing against Battlefield 1, Inside, Overwatch, and Pokemon Go for the coveted honor. We’ll hear from all of this year’s “Game of the Year” contenders throughout the ceremony as each earned multiple nominations including Inside with nine, Battlefield 1 with eight, Overwatch with six, and Pokemon Go with two.
The AIAS will hand out two new DICE Awards this year for “Immersive Reality Game of the Year” and “Immersive Reality Technical Achievement.” The nominees for both will be announced at a later date.
A total of 56 games received at least one nomination, and hosts Greg Miller and Jessica Chobot will announce the winners on Thursday, February 23, at 10:30 PM (Eastern Time). Viewers at home will be able to livestream the entire ceremony through the AIAS’s official website.
A complete list of this year’s nominees can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Battlefield 1, Inside, Overwatch, Pokemon Go, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Shovel Knight is officially coming to Nintendo Switch; Yacht Club also plans to re-release the expansions as standalone games
Followers of the Code of Shovelry have quite a bit to celebrate today as Yacht Club Games uncovered a massive amount of new information about Shovel Knight on the game’s official site… including confirmation that it’ll be released for the Nintendo Switch.
Yes, the side-scrolling masterpiece will make its way to the Nintendo Switch sometime this year, along with each expansion and all the bonus content like Body Swap Mode and Co-Op Mode. Oh, speaking of Body Swap Mode, it’s finished and will be released alongside the Specter Knight expansion this Spring. And in the spirit of sharing, Co-Op Mode will no longer be exclusive to the Wii U (and the Shovel Knight Amiibo). According to the developer, it will soon be available for all consoles and the PC (but not the 3DS or the Vita) as a free update.
Here’s where it gets interesting.
Shovel Knight’s release structure will soon be undergoing some changes, though Kickstarter backers and other current owners won’t notice anything different. Yacht Club has decided to upgrade the game for current owners to the Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove on all platforms. Available this Spring, the Treasure Trove will include free access to all updates and expansions. But because the expansions have grown beyond being simple character swaps, Yacht Club has decided to raise the price of the Treasure Trove for newcomers once its available. The game’s new price has yet to be announced, but the current $14.99 price (and its promise of free updates and expansions) will remain in place until the Treasure Trove is released.
For everyone who has yet to purchase Shovel Knight (or for those who might want to rebuy the game on a new platform), Yacht Club has decided to split each of the expansions off into its own standalone game. So the original Shovel Knight campaign will receive a new subtitle (Shovel of Hope), and the expansions (Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment, the King Knight campaign, and Battle Mode) will all be available as individual downloads (and for a lower price) on the PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch.
Finally, Yacht Club has begun to think about life after Shovel Knight, and will soon begin work on their “second” game (depending on how you count the Shovel Knight expansions). Writing in a new Q&A, the developer said, “[I]f you want something new outside of Shovel Knight… we have vowed to begin work on a new project this year!”
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged Shovel Knight, Shovel Knight Showdown, Shovel Knight: King of Cards, Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
You should watch this great Shovel Knight speedrun race from Awesome Games Done Quick 2017
Awesome Games Done Quick is hosting their first speedrunning marathon of the year this week, and some of the best players from all across the world have descended on the Washington D.C. area to play through a huge number of games as fast as they can. In addition to putting on an excellent show, the AGDQ2017 participants are also raising money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
It’s a pretty fun week of gaming, and for further proof, just look at this year’s Shovel Knight race. Not only is it an extremely competitive contest, but you can watch two experts masterfully pick apart the new side-scrolling classic. The two players going head-to-head are “Smaugy” and “Munchakoopas,” and they provide a great match featuring plenty of platforming acrobatics, multiple lead changes, and an amazing photo finish.
Yacht Club Games will release the next expansion for Shovel Knight, Specter of Torment, sometime this year.
2017 IGF Awards nominees include Hyper Light Drifter, Inside, Stardew Valley, more
The Independent Games Festival has announced the finalists for this year’s IGF Awards, and it should come as no surprise that critical darlings such as Hyper Light Drifter and Inside have scored multiple nominations. But leading the way is Variable State’s Virigina, which received four nominations (“Best Audio,” “Excellence in Narrative,” “Excellence in Visual Art,” and “The Nuovo Award”) and an Honorable Mention for the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize.”
Other games in competition for the IGF’s “Grand Prize” include the aforementioned Hyper Light Drifter and Inside, along with Concerned Ape’s Stardew Valley, Blendo Games’s Quadrilateral Cowboy, Ocelot Society’s Event[0], and Ghost Town Games’s Overcooked.
The 2017 IGF Awards ceremony will be hosted by developer Nina Freeman on March 1. Fans will be able to tune in to the Twitch channel for the Game Developers Conference to watch the show, and GDC attendees will be able to test out every nominated game at the IGF Pavilion area on the expo floor.
A complete list of the nominees and honorable mentions for the 2017 Independent Games Festival Awards can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged GDC 2017, Hyper Light Drifter, Inside, Stardew Valley
Warp Zoned’s 2016 Golden Pixel Awards: A Look Back at the Year in Video Games
In a very real way, the game industry wiped the slate clean in 2016.
After nearly a decade of development difficulties, Square Enix unleashed Final Fantasy XV on the world. Fumito Ueda and Sony Japan Studio overcame similar troubles to finally release The Last Guardian. Id Software shook off the past and was reborn after the launch of the fourth game in the Doom franchise. Blizzard closed the book on their failed “Titan Project” with the release of Overwatch. Naughty Dog said goodbye to Nathan Drake, but gamers said hello to altered realities that were both “augmented” and “virtual.” Nintendo found new kingdoms to conquer with Super Mario Run. And the launch of No Man’s Sky taught us that while the hype machine sometimes fails to deliver, the chance for a brighter tomorrow is always there.
But before we venture off into that great unknown, let’s look back at some of gaming’s highlights from 2016. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Etcetera, Features, Mobile, PC, PS4, Top Story, Xbox One
Tagged Dangerous Golf, Dark Souls III, Doom (2016), Dragon Quest Builders, Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past, Final Fantasy XV, Hyper Light Drifter, No Man's Sky, Overwatch, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2, Pokemon Go, Pokemon Sun/Moon, Superhot, The Last Guardian, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End