News for the week of March 19th, 2021.
Gotham Knights sees delay to 2022!
Originally set to launch later this year, Gotham Knights, a co-op game set in the world of Batman by developer WB Montreal, has seen a delay until sometime next year. The studio posted on the game’s official Twitter account that they would require “more time to deliver the best possible experience for players.”
— Gotham Knights (@GothamKnights) March 19, 2021
Following the delay of several other games so far this year, it’s clear that the at-home approach to game development during a pandemic has taken its toll on a great number of studios, unprepared for having hundreds, if not thousands of workers having to build these huge fantastic worlds in their home offices. As Cyberpunk 2077 showed us, releasing an unfinished game can be disastrous, so it’s good to see these publishers learning their lessons of “release now, patch later” that has been pretty commonplace over the past few years.
Gotham Knights is a co-op adventure game where you play with other players in a world where Batman is apparently dead. You’ll take on the roles of Robin, Batgirl, Knightwing, and Red Hood, all trying to not only cope with the death of their mentor but to continue to fight crime in his name.
Deck Nine is back with Life is Strange: True Colors!
Life is Strange, and Life is Strange: Before the Storm are both fantastic adventures that tell a story surrounding the world and people around Chloe Price, a truly amazing character brought to life by actress Ashly Burch. While Life is Strange: True Colors isn’t about to jump on returning to any significant favorites, it still takes place in the same world, even going as far as bringing back a lesser-known fan favorite in the process.
Life is Strange: True Colors is the newest game in the series, and while it doesn’t sport a 3 next to its name, it still offers the biggest changes to the series we have seen so far. First, the game will not be episodic, as it will release in full this September. Also, the game features entirely mo-capped animations and a massive graphical upgrade that still places it firmly set in the Life is Strange visual aesthetic.
Players will take on the role of Alex Chen, a native to Haven Springs who returns home shortly before the death of her brother. She soon discovers that she has the ability to feel other people's emotions, with some stronger cases actually taking over her own emotional state. These powers will serve as a means to get to the bottom of her brother’s death, one told to her as being accidental. While the game will feature a very robust cast, Steph from Before the Store makes her return here, but we are still unsure if she’s given up on her D&D ways or not.
Deck Nine Vice President, Jeff Litchford said this about this upcoming release:
"It has been such an honor to return to the vibrant, emotive, and impactful world of Life is Strange. We are delighted to share this new story with you: a story of empathy, human connection, and the struggle to find a place to call home. All of the advancements of storytelling, development technology, and premium voice acting that we have made since Life is Strange: Before the storm will allow players to be more immersed in the compelling world of Life is Strange: True Colors than ever before."
Life is Strange: True Colors will launch on September 10th, 2021 on PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Series X/S, PC, and Google Stadia, if it is still even around by then. The game will have multiple editions; Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate. The Ultimate edition will also sport you the upcoming remastered set of Life is Strange and Before the Storm, two games that are going to see some vast enhancements such as new animations, lighting, engine upgrades, and more, to make the two games shine like never before. They will also be sold apart from the Ultimate edition as well. The remastered set will release in August, a month before True Colors hits, giving you ample time to play through them before this newest entry makes you bawl your eyes out all over again.
Wakanda Forever.. or at least until the servers go down.
It’s hard not to think of actor Chadwick Boseman when it comes to Black Panther, a role he likely would have suited up for for years to come. Along with his passing, the current slate of Black Panther in films and games has also seen a delay, moving things around to adjust to his loss, and to allow the release of Black Panther content to not feel cashed in on his tragic passing. Initially, the Black Panther content for Marvel’s Avengers was originally supposed to have been out by now, or at the very least, soon.
This week, Crystal Dynamics announced that we will be able to fight as the Wakandian Warrior later this year as a future roadmap of content has been announced, allowing players to suit up as Black Panther as part of their free content roll-out. In addition to the newly added character to the roster, we will see a much-needed power level cap increase, new supervillains, new suits, new factions, and a new story set within Wakanda. This new story will focus obviously on Vibranium, a resource that Wakanda is forever linked to. This will see Black Panther seek out the Avengers to put an end to AIM, as well as Klaw, a powerful villain in the Black Panther world.
What is interesting about this announcement is that the Black Panther content is labeled as an Expansion, and NOT that of being an Operation, hopefully hinting that this is a substantial increase in content as the Operations are rather short experiences as they are. Here is hoping that the new environments are memorable, with locations and points of interest that stand apart as the current offerings of locations in the base game are laughable at best. Crystal Dynamics studio head Scot Amos, had this to say on the upcoming free expansion:
"An Operation like Kate Bishop or an Operation with Clint, those are generally much smaller. When you get to an expansion, this is a whole new area, like, you've never been here before; this is walking into an area like, 'What in the world?' and you're in this whole new Wakanda jungle biome that has new architecture, that has new outposts, that has new enemies, that has new NPCs. Just the scope of stuff that's new and it being a completely new location, for us, when we talk about an expansion, there's an expectation we're setting for ourselves and for players that this is bigger than an Operation; this isn't just a hero drop."
Also, for PlayStation players, the upcoming Spider-Man exclusive character is still in the works but will arrive after the Black Panther content drop.
PlayStation VR 2 is becoming more real every day.
It’s only been a short while since PlayStation acknowledged that PSVR 2 is very much real, and this week, we now have pictures of the new controller that will be in the player’s hands when the VR add-on launches sometimes in the far future. The oddly shaped “hand thongs” as the internet has dubbed them, sure do look interesting, but how they will actually work and how efficient the tracking is remains to be seen.
This week, Senior Vice President of Platform Planning and Mgmt, Hideaki Nishino, spoke on the PlayStation Blog to reveal more details about the upcoming PS5 VR add-on, and in turn, talked up the new controllers:
"Our new VR controller speaks to our mission of achieving a much deeper sense of presence and a stronger feeling of immersion in VR experiences, It will build upon the innovation we introduced with the DualSense wireless controller, which changed how games feel on PS5 by unlocking a new way to tap into the sense of touch."
As you can see from the included picture, the controllers, much like PS5, is a design that stands out. The controllers went through numerous design phases, changing the sizes of the device bases on various hand sizes. The controllers are also designed to support many of the Dual Sense’s features, such as Adaptive Triggers and Haptic Feedback. The controllers also support finger detection, allowing the device to detect the player’s fingers with them directly pressing in on any areas where you normally would place your fingers, and/or thumb. The tracking rings on the bottom of the controller will work in tandem with the headset to provide state-of-the-art tracking, supposedly better than any headset currently on the market.
That’s everything I could fit into this feature this week.
What was your favorite news of the week? Comment below!