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Tue, 23 Apr 2024 14:00:00 CDT

Star Wars Outlaws

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Massive Entertainment
Release:

The June 2023 reveal of Star Wars Outlaws gave us our first glimpse of Kay Vess and Nix, the two protagonists of the game. From talking with Massive Entertainment during our recent trip out to Sweden to get our hands on Star Wars Outlaws, it sounds as though their bond will be special. However, they aren't on this journey alone, as they are joined by a trenchcoat-wearing BX-commando droid named ND-5. Though Kay and Nix were greater points of emphasis during our studio visit, we had to ask the developers about the internet-popular droid that joins the Star Wars Outlaws adventure.

ND-5 joins Kay Vess in her trip around the Outer Rim and beyond, but he has a long history in the Star Wars galaxy prior to meeting up with Kay. "He is a BX-commando droid – a veteran of the Clone Wars – and he works as an enforcer droid for a character named Jaylen," associate narrative director John Björling says. "ND-5 is there to make sure that Kay follows through with the heist job, but together, they're going to face some big challenges and really get to know one another."

The job that Björling refers to is referenced in the latest story trailer (see below). At the start of her adventure, Kay crosses Sliro, the leader of the Zerek Besh criminal syndicate, resulting in him putting a bounty on her head. Jaylen Vrax and ND-5 drop in on Kay to offer her a path forward. The only way she sees out of it is to pull off the ultimate heist to earn her freedom.

Since Kay meets ND-5 early on, he plays a crucial role in the story, as well as Kay's mission to pull off this heist. Because he has experience in the Clone Wars and the criminal underworld, he's a valuable asset to her. "He comes from the Clone Wars and he is wearing a lot of emotional kind of baggage from that," Björling says. "He's an enforcer droid and he's seen a lot and he has a lot of experience in the underworld. Matching him up with Kay, it feels like the perfect kind of combination because she's new to that world; she doesn't know the key syndicates and the major players, but ND-5 is there to guide her and support her as they are moving towards the mark."

The reveal of ND-5 inspired a lot of excitement, with much social media attention put on his design. "First of all, I was very excited to see the fans' reactions to ND-5's design; it was really great to have all these reactions, and I think it really added to his character," associate art director Marthe Jonkers says with a smile. "For his design, we really had a similar approach as we did to all the other characters in really trying to show his background story in his look. So, of course, he's a BX-commando droid. He was made by separatists during the Clone Wars. He's been through a lot; you see that – he has a scar on his chest, but he tries to hide that with his jacket. You will find out more about him in the game, so I'm not going to spoil too much, but you know, he's walking a bit [lumbering]. He's usually sitting hunched over. And, you know, we tried to put a lot of personality into this droid by using these kinds of elements. I'm really happy that people really picked up on them and he became very popular. I think he's a super interesting character and I'm looking forward to people playing the game and finding out more about him."

ND-5 graces the box and key art of Star Wars Outlaws, all but guaranteeing he's a major player in the game

Star Wars Outlaws arrives on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on August 30. For more exclusive information about Star Wars Outlaws, be sure to visit our exclusive coverage hub at the banner below.

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Tue, 23 Apr 2024 10:08:57 CDT

Taming a wolf in Minecraft is one of the game's simplest joys, and no matter how many times I start a new world, I always hoard bones in case I encounter one. But once you've adopted a canine companion, you probably hide them away in a house for safe-keeping, shielding them from the horrors of the game's hostile mobs. Today, Minecraft is adding a way to make them a little stronger – wolf armor.

Like leather armor, wolf armor can be colored using dyes in-game, so if you've got multiple adopted animals, it'll still be easy to tell them apart. This variation is separate from the collar colors as well, creating plenty of possibilities. Even better, the game is also adding wolf fur variants for the first time, bringing eight new patterns for a total of nine. Each variant (Pale, Woods, Ashen, Black, chestnut, Rusty, Spotted, Striped, and Snowy) spawns in a specific biome. You can take a look at all the new breeds in the gallery below.

 

Of course, players will need to be able to craft this wolf armor as well, which is where the new mob, the armadillo, comes in. These armored relatives of anteaters can be found in savannah or badland biomes, where they can be seen strolling around and curling into a defensive ball when certain enemies come near. Armadillos drop armadillo scutes, which are used to make the wolf armor, but the developers have reassured players that they can be brushed rather than defeated, so you won't have to go on an armadillo massacre to protect your pets. Armadillos can also be used to scare away spiders since they eat insects and arachnids in real life, and spider eyes can be used to breed them if you want to make your own armadillo farm.

You can read the rest of the notes for the 1.20.5 update right here.

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 08:41:04 CDT

fornite confrontational emotes setting fortnite take the l

Epic Games has revealed a new setting for Fortnite that allows players to hide emotes the company considers "confrontational." This doesn't outright ban these emotes from the game and those with them can still use them, but if someone has this new setting turned off, they won't see others use them. 

Called "See Confrontational Emotes," players can choose whether they want to see emotes like "Laugh It Up," "Take the L," "Whipcrack," and "Make It Plantain" from anyone, from friends in a party, or never. Epic says players who have these emotes hidden with this new setting will see a player using the emote standing still, with no emote sound. 

This new setting can be found under "Social Privacy" in the Fortnite settings and it defaults to only show these confrontational emotes from friends in your party. Epic stresses that this setting does not change a player's ability to use any emotes. It is now live in-game. 

For more about Fortnite, check out these Avatar: The Last Airbender skins now available in the game, and then read about how Fortnite's next Star Wars crossover will span Lego, Fortnite Festival, and Battle Royale. After that, read about how Billie Eilish is headlining Fortnite Festival Season 3

How do you feel about this new emote setting? Let us know in the comments below!

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 07:47:45 CDT

Metaphor: ReFantazio gameplay trailer release date october 11 2024

Publisher Atlus and developer Studio Zero have released a new trailer for the upcoming fantasy RPG, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and it features plenty of new gameplay. It also reveals Metaphor: ReFantazio will hit PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 11. 

Dubbed "The King's Trial," this new trailer sets up a bit of the Metaphor: ReFantazio's world more, highlighting a tournament for the king's throne at the center of the narrative. It seems our protagonist and the friends and allies they encounter along the way are vying for a crown that others are also after. In order to claim it, players must complete trials across the lands, proving their worth. 

Check it out for yourself in the Metaphor: ReFantazio gameplay trailer below

As you can see, Metaphor: ReFantazio continues to look excellent, with its Persona inspirations on full display. That's not surprising, though, considering Studio Zero is composed of various leads from Atlus' popular Persona series, including the latest in the franchise, Persona 5

If you've played Persona 5 Royal, or even the recently released Persona 3 Reload, then you know we're likely in for a treat when it comes to a few things: combat, narrative, and art. And if this new look at the game's menu are any indication, the Persona team has been cooking something special for Metaphor: ReFantazio. 

Metaphor: ReFantazio gameplay trailer release date october 11 2024

The trailer also reveals Metaphor: ReFantazio will get a special Collector's Edition for $149.99. The game's standard release will cost $69.99.

Here's what the Collector's Edition looks like

Metaphor: ReFantazio hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 11, 2024. 

For more about the game, watch the Metaphor: ReFantazio reveal trailer. Read Game Informer's Persona 5 Royal review, and then read Game Informer's Persona 5 Tactica review after that. 

Are you picking up Metaphor: ReFantazio on day one? Let us know in the comments below!

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 11:03:54 CDT

With the introduction of Fortnite Festival, Epic's rhythm game within the chart-topping Battle Royale, there's more incentive than ever for musicians to have their likenesses added to the game. The latest of these artists is Billie Eilish, who announced her collaboration with the game on social media earlier today.

Eilish is not just getting a skin added to the game (like Eminem, for example), she's the next headliner for Fortnite Festival's main stage event, which will start tomorrow, April 23. This includes a set of artist-specific rotating songs players can compete for high scores in, as well as unlockable skins, songs, instruments, and other cosmetics, though unlocking all of these requires the purchase of the pricey 1,800 V-Buck Festival Pass. Previous headliners were The Weeknd and Lady Gaga.

Eilish recently made headlines for winning a Grammy, Golden Globe, and Oscar for "What Was I Made For" from the Barbie movie, which is a task she's now accomplished twice. Even more recently, she announced her upcoming album Hit Me Hard And Soft, which is likely her main marketing incentive for appearing in the game. For more Fortnite, check out the current Avatar: The Last Airbender crossover and read about the upcoming Star Wars event.

Will you be buying Eilish's festival pass? Which artist do you want to see in Fortnite next? Let us know in the comments!

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 11:00:01 CDT

the lord of the rings tales of the shire first trailer screenshots gameplay animal crossing middle earth hobbits

Developer Wētā Workshop and publisher Private Division have released the first trailer for Tales of the Shire, and it showcases what looks like a Middle-earth Animal Crossing game with hobbits and a cozy place to call home. This trailer arrives after the companies teased releasing the first Tales of the Shire trailer this month, following the game's reveal last year

In Tales of the Shire, players will create their own Hobbit before setting forth into Bywater, the shire setting of the game. Here, players can forage fruits and herbs, tend to gardens, fish, trade with townsfolk, and more, all while working to help Bywater, which has not yet been established as an official village in Hobbiton, flourish. 

"Greet comfort at the door as you deocrate your own Hobbit hole, tend to your garden, fish at the clear ponds, forage wild fruits and herbs, or trade with townsfolk, " a press release reads. "Prepare homemade meals to share with fellow Hobbits and foster relationships. With much to see and lots more to eat, enjoy days of splendor in the picturesque forests, lakes, and pastures."

Check out the first official Tales of the Shire trailer for yourself below

Tales of the Shire's Hobbit hole customization features grid-free placement, allowing players to put furniture and home decor anywhere they want, however they want. You can harvest seasonal crops and flowers as time passes in your homestead, and stock your Hobbit hole pantry afterward. Plus, you can cook using unique recipes, partake in second breakfast, and even host dinner parties with other Hobbits in Bywater. Sharing meals with guests will create new relationships to cultivate as the seasons go by. 

Wētā Workshop says ever-changing weather will affect daily routines and bring seasonal surprises to Bywater. You can obtain rewards through story progression all while meeting familiar and iconic characters, too. You can trade with them for upgrades to skills, clothes, your home, and more, and joining clubs and completing missions and daily activities will further Bywater's status as an official village. 

Here are some screenshots from Tales of the Shire

 

For more about the game, head to Game Informer's Tales of the Shire hub

Are you excited for Tales of the Shire? Let us know in the comments below!

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 10:10:40 CDT

Summer Game Fest is just a few months away, but that's not stopping Xbox from hosting its own indie event next week. Partnering with IGN, the ID@Xbox Digital Showcase will air live next Monday, April 29, at 10 AM PT/ 1 PM ET. The event will feature "epic trailers, fresh gameplay, and new reveals," according to the announcement blog.

They've also given a heads-up on some games we can expect to see. Vampire Survivors, which cracked our top ten games of the year back in 2022, has been on the platform for some time now, but recently announced a new expansion featuring weapons and characters from the Contra series. Dungeons of Hinterberg is an action-adventure title announced at SGF last year that we got a chance to preview. The showcase will also spotlight co-op roguelike 33 Immortals and Don't Nod's upcoming adventure title, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage.

For more context, last year's version of this event included over 20 games, including Sea of Stars, Karateka, and Vampire Survivors again, somehow. Regardless of whether or not it appears, you can bet the comment section will be flooded with Hollow Knight: Silksong fans clamoring for the game, which we haven't seen since the Xbox summer showcase in 2022 when it was announced the game would come to Game Pass on day one.

You can watch the showcase next week on IGN's YouTube channel. The showcase will also be available in American Sign Language.

What are you hoping to see from the showcase? Let us know in the comments!

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 09:00:00 CDT

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC
Publisher: EA Originals
Developer: Surgent Studios
Release:
Rating: Everyone 10+

In Tales of Kenzera: Zau, the debut game from Surgent Studios, the use of the word "Tales" is more literal than it initially seems. To kick off the events of the game, protagonist Zuberi reads a book written by his late father about a place called Kenzera. He uses fiction to cope with his grief, just as the player might do with the plot of the game, and as the studio founder, who lost his father as well, did when creating the story to begin with. While combat and map design in Tales of Kenzera falters at times, this strong, emotional core was what pulled me through to the credits.

Zau is the protagonist of Zuberi's book, and he's who the player controls for the vast majority of the roughly eight-hour game. After his father's passing, he goes to Kalunga, the god of death, to perform a risky exchange: defeating three great spirits to bring his father back to life. Kalunga, who simply appears as an older human man, accompanies Zau throughout his journey, providing wisdom and guidance to level Zau's often reckless behavior. It is a stellar dynamic, and I enjoyed watching them butt heads as they struggled to deal with the other grieving characters of the game.

Zau battles his way through the world of Kenzera using the Masks of the Sun and Moon, relics gifted to him when his father passed. The Mask of the Moon has more ranged options with ice abilities, while the Mask of the Sun is melee-focused with fire abilities, and both are fun to use. Because you can flip between them at the drop of a hat, combat feels creative, giving the player the opportunity to flip to whichever stance fits them best at that moment. That said, later encounters with large crowds of enemies with regenerating health bars sometimes tested my love of the combat, with late-game combat encounters feeling like a chore purely based on how long they took.  

The game is also rife with platforming challenges that make use of all your abilities gained up until that point in the story, but since you start with a double jump and a mid-air dash, movement is a blast from the start. Many challenges involve instant-kill spikes, which can be irritating, but quick respawn times generally keep me from pulling my hair out. This is not the case in certain challenge sections and some chase sequences in story missions, which require you to make it all the way through with only a handful of checkpoints. They're not insurmountable, though, and allow the game to test player platforming skills as well as combat skills during boss sequences.

Tales of Kenzera's main flaw is its map and world designs, which turn a pretty good game into one that's uninteresting and unintuitive to explore. While most games obscure sections of the map until players explore them, Tales of Kenzera opens up an entire zone as soon as you enter a biome. It's a minor convenience for navigating through the main plot but a nightmare for figuring out where you have and haven't been. There's no way to mark the map or see where you've previously visited, save for icons that mark collected items, so in some cases, it's actually more difficult to backtrack to find secrets.

 

Even then, areas are pretty linear, thanks to objective markers making sure the player always knows where to go, so most secrets are just a quick little branch into a room to the left or an alternate path to the right. On top of that, most secrets only reward a small chunk of experience points, which is useful but not particularly exciting to discover and doesn't do much to incentivize further exploration. However, there are also meditation trees that increase your maximum health and platforming challenges to unlock stat-boosting trinkets, so it's still worth heading down the occasional side path.

However, the most frustrating element here is a specific set of secrets: Spirit Trials. Unlike most hidden elements, these combat challenges require the player to backtrack significantly and open an ability-gated area to proceed. I enjoy secrets, but there are only three Spirit Trials in the whole game, and they are the only way to upgrade your spirit bar and trinket slots, which are vital to Zau's abilities. It's a baffling choice to funnel both upgrades into one area and even more puzzling to hide them away like this, especially when their existence is not mentioned until you find one. If the map allowed you to mark certain areas to revisit or had a traditional un-fogging system to see where you haven't explored, it would be one thing, and if it were the norm for other secrets to require a little more work to find, it would be another. But when the player is neither implicitly nor explicitly incentivized to search for major upgrades, it creates a balance issue.

Despite my gripes with Spirit Trials and the map, I have a lot of respect for Tales of Kenzera: Zau, particularly in how it handles grief and self-reflection – it is one of the most thematically cohesive games I've ever played. Every element of gameplay and story is tied back into the dual struggle Zau and Zuberi face in coping with the loss of their respective fathers. Health upgrades come from points of meditation and the processing of emotion. Each character you encounter deals with loss in their own way, which grants perspective to Zau's situation. Even combat upgrades represent Zau's path to get closer to his father – if he can't spend time with the man himself, he'll spend time with the legacy his father left behind.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau conveys its somber themes with nuance and passion. It's just a shame the gameplay doesn't always match those highs, especially in a genre flooded with quality indies, because Zau's journey – and Zuberi's parallel journey – are stories I'll be thinking about for quite some time

Score: 7.5

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Mon, 22 Apr 2024 08:23:26 CDT

embracer group three entities split up company middle-earth enterprises and friends coffee stain asmodee

Embracer Group, the company that recently sold Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake developer Saber Interactive for $500 million, has announced its plans to split into three individual, publicly traded companies. As such, Embracer Group as we know it will be no more; instead, it will largely consist of Asmodee, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends. 

Each of these companies will be run individually and traded publicly in the market, with IP and franchises under the Embracer Group umbrella spread across them. This separation follows a rocky period for Embracer Group, which is behind layoffs at companies like Black Forest Games and Eidos-Montréal after a planned $2 billion deal with Saudi Arabia-backed Savvy Games Group fell through in 2023. 

"During the past years, the Group has made significant investments in acquisitions and into a strategy of accelerated organic growth. To further realize the untapped potential in Embracer Group and better optimize the use of its resources, Embracer Group announced a restructuring program in June 2023 divided into different phases lasting until March 2024," the company writes in a press release. "Focus of the program has been cost savings, capital allocation, efficiency and consolidation, while also divesting selected studios.

Following a careful and thorough review, it is the assessment of the Board of Directors that the current Group structure does not create optimal conditions for future value creation both for Embracer Group's shareholders and other stakeholders. To continue the transformation of Embracer Group into the future for the benefit of all employees, gamers and shareholders, the Board of Directors and the executive management have therefore decided to propose a separation of Embracer Group, creating three separate publicly listed entities: 'Asmodee,' 'Coffee Stain & Friends,' and 'Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends.'"

Embracer Group says each of these entities will have its own balance sheet, financial targets and structure, and allocation strategy. In short, each of these companies will be essentially independent of each other, even if they're formed from the same umbrella. 

Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends

After this new split, Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends is "intended to remain a creative powerhouse in AAA game development and publishing for PC/console," a press release reads. It will remain the stewards of The Lord of the Rings and Tomb Raider IPs, with its main focus being the former.

It will consist of studios like Crystal Dynamics, Dambuster Studios, Eidos-Montréal, Flying Wild Hog Studios, Tripwire, Vertigo Games, Warhorse Studios, 4A Games, and more, with IPs including Dead Island, Killing Floor, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, The Lord of the Rings, Metro, and Tomb Raider.

Coffee Stain & Friends

Embracer Group says this company "is intended to consist of leading publishers and developers focused on a variety of games for PC, console, and mobile, including community-driven free-to-play games, LiveOps games, and indie/AA games." It will operate under two segments, according to the company: Premium and Free-To-Play. 

Its "Premium" operations include studios like Coffee Stain, Ghost Ship, Tarsier, Tuxedo Labs, THQ Nordic, and Amplifier Game Invest. Its IPs include Deep Rock Galactic, Goat Simulator, Satisfactory, Wreckfest, Teardown, Valheim, and more than 200 others. 

Its "Free-To-Play" operations include studios like Easybrain, Deca, CrazyLabs, and Cryptic, with IPs in its wheelhouse including Soduku.com, Blockudoku, Jigsaw Puzzle, Star Trek Online, D&D Neverwinter Online, and more. 

Asmodee

Asmodee consists of 23 fully owned studios and more than 300 IPs and consists of the tabletop games section of Embracer Group. It will continue focusing on tabletop properties while collaborating in transmedia partnerships for IPs like The Lord of the Rings and others in the Embracer wheelhouse. "As a global leader in board and trading card games, with a proven track-record of profitable growth, Asmodee is well-positioned to build on its strategy and continue to prosper as a standalone entity." 

Its IPs include Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders, Azul, Catan, Dobble, Exploding Kittens, and other board games based on The Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Game of Thrones, Netflix, Lego, and Star Wars. 

"This transformation is an important step in unlocking shareholder value," chair of the Embracer Group board Kicki Wallje-Lund writes in a press release. "With this new structure, the three entities will be able to focus on executing their core strategies and leveraging their own strengths, providing more differentiated and distinct equity stories to both existing and new shareholders." 

Embracer Group co-founder and CEO Lars Wingefors adds, "This is the start of a new chapter, a chapter that I intend to remain part of as an active, committed, and supportive shareholder of all three new entities, with an evergreen horizon. This move toward three independent companies reinforces Embracer's vision of backing entrepreneurs and creators with a long-term mindset, allowing them to continue to deliver unforgettable experiences for gamers and fans across the globe." 

Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends will remain within the current publicly listed Embracer Group, which itself will eventually be renamed. Asmodee and Coffee Stain & Friends will hit the market as separate companies within 12 months, during the 2025 calendar year. 

How do you feel about this split in Embracer Group? Let us know in the comments below!

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 02:00:00 CDT

The live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie series that started in 2020 has delivered entertaining adventures starring everybody's favorite Blue Blur and his ever-growing stable of friends. One of the highlights of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was Knuckles, voiced by Idris Elba. The fish-out-of-water gags and his strict adherence to the echidna warrior code, which is in stark contrast to Sonic's fun-loving personality, made for an enjoyable dynamic within the cast of characters. Knuckles, the new six-episode streaming show on Paramount Plus, tries to carry forward that dynamic. However, thanks to low stakes, a palpable disconnect from the larger Sonic story, and too much emphasis on the human characters in the world, it falls short of the heights reached by the two theatrical films.

Warning: While I try to remain as spoiler-free as possible, some aspects of the narrative and characters are mentioned throughout this article.

This spin-off series follows Knuckles as he trains Wade Whipple (Adam Pally), the goofy police officer from the first two Sonic films, in the way of the echidna warrior. Though Wade is fine as comic relief in the films, I often struggled with placing so many of the emotional stakes at the feet of this character. This becomes particularly true once his family joins the show. The weakest parts of the Sonic movies are the scenes featuring the human characters. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 appeared to learn that lesson, as it sent many of the main humans away on a trip, but the inverse is true in Knuckles; on multiple occasions, I wondered why we were focusing so much on the family drama of Wade instead of what Knuckles was up to off-screen.

The family storyline that consumes much of the latter portions of the show can be compelling in bursts, but it almost feels like an entirely different show altogether. The show does very little to inform viewers why we should care about these characters aside from the fact that they're related to Wade. The mother character (Stockard Channing) is the most likable of the bunch, particularly when the other major players feel like cartoonish caricatures of sitcom archetypes – even more so than in the movies. Thankfully, when the titular character is on screen, it's another strong performance by Elba. I'm also happy that much of the CGI of the Knuckles character looks great, particularly when in fights.

The action sequences of Knuckles are the highlight. One scene, in particular, takes place in a kitchen and benefits from crafty camera work and a simulated single-take effect. The action scenes are well-paced throughout the six-episode season, but they do shine a light on one of the most significant shortcomings the Sonic franchise must overcome if it hopes to expand out in spin-off series such as this: Sonic's gallery of enemies just isn't that deep. Having the main antagonists of Knuckles be two rogue agents of GUN and a guy who used to work for Dr. Robotnik demonstrates this in irreconcilable ways. Sure, we're promised Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and we could still get the introduction of characters like Metal Sonic or Chaos in future media, but this series shows that the pool is pretty shallow.

Installing low-profile villains for the franchise's first streaming series could be forgiven if they made their mark, but they feel like retreads of what Dr. Robotnik was trying to accomplish in the first movie; their entire motivation is to capture Knuckles to steal his power. Ellie Taylor and Kid Cudi deliver fine performances as the rogue GUN agents, but the characters rarely serve as anything more than plot devices for the characters to progress on their personal journeys and foils in fight scenes. We do learn of their motivation later in the show, but at that point, I only cared about them because when they showed up, it usually meant an action scene was coming.

When you aren't watching a fight sequence play out, you're usually enduring a joke shotgun blast with a relatively low hit rate. The seasoned comedic delivery of actors like Adam Pally, Paul Scheer, and Cary Elwes do wonders for some of the jokes on offer in Knuckles, but it's often not enough to keep the momentum up and running. Instead, in the times when Knuckles wasn't on screen, I was more enthralled by the heartfelt moments, which, much like the humor, have a relatively low success ratio. Much of the family dynamics are framed around an absurd bowling tournament that apes the vibe and storyline of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story a little too closely, making it difficult to connect to the characters or the overarching narrative. Knuckles feels noncommittal when it comes to the tone it's going for. While it's not impossible to be an action-comedy series with sentimental moments, it's a trickier line to walk than Knuckles can accomplish.

And it would all be forgiven if the story felt essential – or even consequential – to the world of the Sonic series. But instead, having not yet seen Sonic the Hedgehog 3, I can't help but feel that Knuckles has that sitcom quality where everything ends up right where it started. Sure, there's a journey with some sentimentality, minor character development, funny gags, small Easter eggs, and enjoyable action scenes, but if someone asked if they needed to watch Knuckles before going to see Sonic the Hedgehog 3 when it arrives in theaters this December, I'd be hard pressed to find a narrative reason to answer them in the affirmative.

That's perhaps Knuckles' biggest flaw: Despite its sometimes fun and heartfelt moments, it feels entirely inessential. Video game adaptations have an outdated reputation for being bad. Knuckles isn't outright bad, but when compared to its contemporaries like Fallout, The Last of Us, Twisted Metal, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and even Sonic the Hedgehog 2, it feels like a video game adaptation from a bygone era.

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Sun, 21 Apr 2024 10:00:00 CDT

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

Reviewed on: PC
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC
Publisher: 505 Games
Developer: Rabbit and Bear Studios
Release:
Rating: Everyone 10+

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” A small child dressed as legally distinct Sailor Moon chirped this trite little phrase at me about an hour into Rabbit and Bear’s Suikoden successor Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. I’m not sure when I realized the adage applies to Hundred Heroes itself as much as it did to whatever the child was talking about. It might’ve been after I met a cleric whose vices included violence and foul language; but whenever it was, it encouraged me to overlook the misgivings Hundred Heroes’ poor first impressions raised in me, and there were plenty. Hundred Heroes adheres a bit too closely to outdated design conventions, but the strength of its writing and characters makes up for its short-sightedness.

Rabbit and Bear were serious when they promised a modern Suikoden-like. You play as Nowa, a member of the Eltisweiss Watch mercenary corps devoted to keeping the peace. What starts as a piddling series of errands for nearby villages soon turns into something more serious as Nowa and the Watch get drawn into conflicts that threaten their beliefs and the entire world. Also, like Suikoden, Hundred Heroes divides its time between world exploration, where you pick up quests and new characters, battles, and dungeon crawling, the latter of which is basically an excuse for more battles.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

Hundred Heroes also sticks pretty close to Suikoden 2’s combat with a few refreshing expansions. Your team includes up to six active characters with skills you can augment with runes, which grant different abilities and buffs, and each character gets several rune slots that allow for extensive customization. The system is satisfying in itself but comes into its own once you start linking character attacks and forming unique combos.

As the name suggests, recruiting the game’s 100-plus heroes plays a big role. Some join automatically, but the more interesting ones have a quest associated with them that gives a bit more insight into their personality and place in the world. They often play a minor role in the story after that, but their detailed sprite animations and voiced lines still make them feel like part of the story and not an afterthought.

The setup sounds too familiar, but despite writer Yoshitaka Murayama drawing clear inspiration from his previous works, Hundred Heroes never feels derivative and eventually surpasses its source material. It owes much of its personality to that strong cast of brilliantly written characters and a willingness to embrace humor and the ridiculous as a way to cut deeper with its serious themes of autonomy and equity.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

They also save Hundred Heroes from itself. Slow traversal, an empty world map, and tedious dungeons make Hundred Heroes more frustrating than it should be, but the promise of a new character vignette or more plot advancement was always enough to keep me pressing forward.

Hundred Heroes expands Suikoden’s base-building feature with new guilds and groups for your party members to form. At a glance, that seems like busywork, and it is. But it also represents something deeper. Your castle is a microcosm of Hundred Heroes’ themes, a small society of people who look, act, and think nothing alike but who respect each other and fight for the right to live freely, without hate.

In battle, a robust AI system lets you program commands and let your party deal with weaker enemies based on how you’ve customized their runes. Boss fights are just complex enough that they demand your full attention, though, thanks in some part to the gimmick feature. These live up to their name, for better and worse, such as making you guess where an enemy will move or forcing you to attack a specific object. They’re a nice change of pace at first but quickly outstay their welcome.

 

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a good reminder of why the RPG genre left some parts of its Golden Age behind. It’s also a testimony to what makes the genre special and the power of good storytelling to move and inspire. Admittedly, rigid adherence to archaic structures makes those first impressions tough to look past, but a creative battle system, extensive party customization, and top-notch writing make up for the retro jank.

Score: 8

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Fri, 19 Apr 2024 14:00:00 CDT

Star Wars Outlaws

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Massive Entertainment
Release:

While visiting Massive Entertainment to be among the first to get my hands on Star Wars Outlaws, I enjoyed playing through stealth sequences, shootouts, conversations, and open-world speeder gameplay. However, one piece of the Star Wars Outlaws puzzle I did not get a chance to experience firsthand is the space gameplay. Thankfully, in addition to playing a chunk of Star Wars Outlaws during my time in Malmö, Sweden, I also had a chance to ask the developers how the game works once you jump into your ship and leave the planet or moon.

In Star Wars Outlaws, you play Kay Vess and her companion Nix as they travel around the galaxy to locales both familiar and new. Players can land on and explore planets and moons like Tatooine, Kijimi, Akiva, and Toshara, but when Kay enters her ship, the Trailblazer, she can enter orbit and explore. The Trailblazer was created in close collaboration with Lucasfilm Games to ensure it feels like it fits into the Star Wars galaxy. Elements like silhouettes, realism, and personality were all considered to make something believable within the galaxy.

For the Star Wars Outlaws team, having the basis of the game be about crafting a scoundrel adventure meant that space gameplay was a must to complement the on-world element. "What we were trying to work out is, 'How do we create a gameplay experience with a multitude of different possibilities?' because we always knew we wanted to do a huge open-world game and have space travel, hyperdriving, several planets, several locations to explore," creative director Julian Gerighty says. "I think that's the play of fancy for the outlaw. It really is when you think of, 'What would I like to do as an outlaw in Star Wars?' It is stealth. It is combat. It is fisticuffs. It is hanging out at the cantina and having choices – meaningful choices – as a scoundrel, as an outlaw. It is flying. It is jumping on your speeder and going from one settlement to another. It's all of those things. So, it was important for us to have that ambition and push not just the technology but also the design team to have all of those things at the highest possible quality level."

Star Wars Outlaws

Much of my gameplay session was spent exploring the underworld of Toshara within the city walls of Mirogana in particular. However, near the end, I had the opportunity to venture outside the walls on Kay's speeder. "There is a huge element of exploration – the openness, the vibrancy, the boldness of landscapes, visuals, and all these elements that you get from it just going with your speeder outside to find locations and exploring bits of the world," art and world director Benedikt Podlesnigg says. "And from this, you also have among the stars. We take our ship flying to space, which is vast but also very risky. It's wondrous, it's lucrative, but also there's a lot of unknown about it."

Though I don't get to see it, Podlesnigg describes how one of his recent gameplay sessions went. After exploring Toshara, he jumps into the Trailblazer and takes it out into orbit because he heard some intel that somebody in a space station was looking for an item he had in his possession. As Gerighty explains to me, planets and moons have an orbit around them that serves as an explorable area for Kay while aboard the Trailblazer. Once you reach the edge of the explorable area surrounding the planet or moon, you hyperdrive into the orbit of your destination. 

"This is problem-solving for video games, basically," Gerighty says. "We wanted to have an orbit around it with lots of different points of interest, things to do, battles to get in, places to explore. So, the orbits for each one of the moons or planets that we created had to be populated with lots of different things, and we didn't want to create endless space, so you hyperdrive from the orbit of a planet to the orbit of a planet. So, all of the space areas that we have are full of things to do."

As Podlesnigg arrived in space during his playthrough, he received an emergency signal that a freighter was being attacked, so he hurried to their location to help them fight off the attackers. Finally, he landed on a space station. While he can't go too deep into how big these space stations are, there are things to do, including vendors for trades and potentially some side-quests.

I don't get to touch a controller while Kay is piloting the Trailblazer, but the team hopes to appeal to a wide range of players by creating approachable gameplay for spaceflight. "We wanted to make spaceflight as accessible, fun, and action-packed as possible," Gerighty says. "The controls are extremely easy to get into. There's always something to do. It's fast to travel; you can hyperdrive at any moment, and there's combat, of course, both on an intimate dogfight scale but also on an epic scale too. And there's exploration. There's a lot of things to do in space."

I assume we'll eventually get our hands on the space gameplay before the release of Star Wars Outlaws, and outside of the intricate Reputation System, this element is one of my most intriguing parts of the game right now. Star Wars Outlaws arrives on August 30 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. For more exclusive information on Massive Entertainment's upcoming scoundrel adventure, visit our coverage hub at the banner below!

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Fri, 19 Apr 2024 12:58:00 CDT

After The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time reinvented the series in 3D and became its new gold standard, Nintendo followed up with a surreal sequel in Majora's Mask. Set two months after the events of Ocarina, Link finds himself transported to an alternate version of Hyrule called Termina and must prevent a very angry moon from crashing into the Earth over the course of three constantly repeating days. Majora's Mask's unique structure and bizarre tone have earned it legions of passionate defenders and detractors, and one long-time Zelda fan is going to experience it for the first time to see where he lands on that spectrum.

Join Marcus Stewart and Kyle Hilliard today and each Friday on Twitch at 2 p.m. CT as they gradually work their way through the entire game until Termina is saved. Archived episodes will be uploaded each Saturday on our second YouTube channel Game Informer Shows, which you can watch both above and by clicking the links below. 

Part 1 - Plenty of Time
Part 2 - The Bear
Part 3 - Deku Ball Z
Part 4 - Pig Out
Part 5 - The Was a Bad Choice!
Part 6 - Ray Darmani
Part 7 - Curl and Pound
Part 8 - Almost a Flamethrower
Part 9 - Take Me Higher
Part 10 - Time Juice
Part 11 - The One About Joey
Part 12 - Ugly Country

Watch on Twitch!

If you enjoy our livestreams but haven’t subscribed to our Twitch channel, know that doing so not only gives you notifications and access to special emotes. You’ll also be granted entry to the official Game Informer Discord channel, where our welcoming community members, moderators, and staff gather to talk games, entertainment, food, and organize hangouts! Be sure to also follow our second YouTube channel, Game Informer Shows, to watch other Replay episodes as well as Twitch archives of GI Live and more. 

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 08:17:19 CDT

the wolf among us 2 telltale games development update new screenshots

The Fabletown gang will be back, developer Telltale Games has promised in a new development update for The Wolf Among Us 2, its sequel to The Wolf Among Us it announced in 2019. This update, which reveals the studio is still hard at work on the game, arrives after an unspecified number of layoffs hit Telltale Games last October

"We've been quiet because we've been heads down, focusing on the promise of [The Wolf Among Us 2]," the update reads. "While we can't give a big update yet, here's a little something for you: in-progress shots from the current build. The work continues. The Fabletown gang will be back. Thanks for being fans." 

The four in-progress shots from the current build of The Wolf Among Us 2 can be viewed below: 

 

The Wolf Among Us 2 was originally due out last year but was delayed out of 2023 in a March update from the studio. 

For more about the game, watch The Wolf Among Us 2's official trailer, and then read about how the game's first episode will catch you up on what happened in the first game

Are you still excited for The Wolf Among Us 2? Let us know in the comments below!

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 08:01:35 CDT

Stellar Blade music video Eve nakedbibi kpop

PlayStation and K-Pop singer NakedBibi, or Bibi for short, have teamed up to create a new song and music video inspired by Stellar Blade, the upcoming action game from developer ShiftUp. Stellar Blade hits PlayStation 5 exclusively next week on April 26 so this new track, appropriately titled "Eve," is coming at a perfect time to keep excitement for the game going. 

The song itself is pretty great, too, and the music video visuals are very reminiscent of Stellar Blade itself. If you're excited about the game, or a fan of NakedBibi, it's definitely worth your time. 

Check out the "Eve" Stellar Blade music video by NakedBibi for yourself below

If you haven't yet checked it out, there's a free Stellar Blade demo available right now on PS5 to give you a taste of what's in the final release. For more about the game, read Game Informer's exclusive interview with Stellar Blade's director for behind-the-scene details and more. After that, read about how Stellar Blade will have no microtransactions, with one exception

Stellar Blade hits PS5 on April 26, 2024. 

What do you think of this song? Let us know in the comments below!

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 07:44:39 CDT

fallout amazon prime video tv show series season 1 2 confirmation renewal

Amazon Prime Video has renewed its Fallout television show for another season, confirming that Season 2 is in the works following an earlier report. This news arrives just over a week after the series' release on April 10, which premiered two days earlier than expected to rave reviews from both fans and critics. 

We loved Fallout Season 1, and you can read about why in Game Informer's Fallout review, so we're excited to revisit the wasteland with Lucy, Ghoul, Maximus, and others. As for when to expect Season 2 of Fallout, that remains unknown. The announcement simply confirms another season is coming with no details on Season 2's production. 

Fallout joins a string of other hit Amazon Prime Video series currently airing on the streamer service, like The Boys (with a new season dropping June 13) and Invincible, which just had its second season wrap up. It also joins a string of other successful video game adaptations, like HBO's The Last of Us, which is getting a Season 2 next year, Peacock's Twisted Metal, Netflix's Arcane, and Netflix's Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

Fallout Season 1 is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video. 

Did you enjoy Season 1 of Fallout? Let us know in the comments below!

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 15:32:16 CDT

summer game fest

In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, the crew looks ahead at the current slate of publisher showcases happening around Summer Game Fest and subsequent announcements we'd like to see. We chat about Amazon's Fallout show, rewatching the original X-Men animated series, and A24's Civil War before remembering this is a video game podcast. Afterward, Alex shares his very early impressions of World of Warcraft: The War Within's first alpha test, and Charles discusses his time playing Dragon's Dogma 2. 

Episode 703 - The Countdown To Summer Game Fest Begins:

Follow us on social media: Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken), Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7), Charles Harte (@ChuckDuck365)

The Game Informer Show is a weekly gaming podcast covering the latest video game news, industry topics, exclusive reveals, and reviews. Join host Alex Van Aken every Thursday to chat about your favorite games – past and present – with Game Informer staff, developers, and special guests from around the industry. Listen on Apple PodcastsSpotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Matt Storm, the freelance audio editor for The Game Informer Show, edited this episodeMatt is an experienced podcast host and producer who's been speaking into a microphone for over a decade. You should listen to Matt's shows like the "Fun" And Games Podcast and Reignite, a BioWare-focused podcast.  The Game Informer Show – Podcast Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:02:58 - Amazon's Fallout, X-Men, and A24's Civil War

00:17:57 - Summer Game Fest Countdown

00:50:39 - World of Warcraft: The War Within Alpha

01:06:46 - Dragon's Dogma 2

01:20:34 - Housekeeping and Listener Questions

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 13:15:00 CDT

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Deep Silver
Developer: Warhorse Studios
Release: 2024
Rating: Mature

Kingdom Come: Deliverance faced a rocky launch in 2018, with outlets (including Game Informer) criticizing its widespread bugs and general lack of polish, but it found success regardless, going on to sell two million copies and release a slate of DLC and updates. Six years later, Warhorse Studios is getting ready to launch a sequel and invited Game Informer to take a look at some early footage and trailers. While it's too early to speak to any performance issues, it's clear Warhorse has greatly expanded its work on the first game, and fans of the medieval ages may be in for a treat.

The Kingdom Come series is an action RPG set in the early thirteenth century, and while its plot is fictional, the games strive for historical accuracy wherever possible. The sequel follows the continued journey of Henry of Skalitz, a man who set out on a quest for revenge after his village was raided and destroyed. Squire to the carefree Sir Hans, he aims to take down Sigismund the Red Fox, the king of Hungary. With five hours of cutscenes (compared to the prior title's three), this story is a big focus for the game. While the narrative is a direct continuation of the events of the first entry, Warhorse Studios says newcomers should feel free to hop in at the newest entry.

The series plans to expand on more than just its story. For one, the world map is double the size of its predecessor. This includes the massive medieval city of Kuttenberg ("Too big," says creative director Daniel Vávra), which Warhorse claims to be its greatest challenge during the game's development. The urban area is contrasted by the natural wilderness of an area called Bohemian Paradise, a lush green space full of unique rock formations. This diversity of environment and color was particularly important for the game's visuals, according to art director Viktor Höschl, who wants to express that the era wasn't all mud and famine. Lead character artist Anna Pačesová adds to this sentiment, saying, "It was really colorful. It wasn't dark at all."

In addition to the world, gameplay has been expanded in several ways. The series offers first-person swordplay, but the sequel adds new ranged options as well. In addition to the inclusion of crossbows, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II features early firearms, which look like short-range handheld fireworks. The developers also emphasize the series' focus on player freedom and choice, adding new ways for the player to interact with the world’s many characters and new ways for those NPCs to respond. If the player wanders around drunk and naked, for example, townsfolk will verbalize their discomfort, and the player is free to apologize or taunt right back at them.

Our preview ends with a performance of a song from the game's soundtrack. Composer Jan Valta returns with a period-appropriate score, conducting an ensemble of instruments and a choir performing a piece that harkens back to the religious compositions of the 1400s. 

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will be released sometime later this year, and it simply looks better than its predecessor in every significant way. When Warhorse was founded 10 years ago, it was only 11 members strong; now, it's up to 250. It's no surprise, then, when creative director Daniel Vávra, seated in a dramatically lit Kuttenberg cathedral for the video presentation, says, "What we are making now is what it was supposed to be in the beginning, but we were not able to do it because we didn't have enough resources and experience and all that stuff. We've proven that the concept works, and now we can take it to another level."

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Thu, 18 Apr 2024 10:13:00 CDT

Minecraft movie Jack Black

Jack Black seems to have more or less confirmed his rumored role as Steve in the upcoming Minecraft movie. 

The actor took to Instagram on Tuesday to post a short video of himself on a film lot observing a rainbow before entering a trailer labeled “Steve, Minecraft.” The interior features promotional art of Steve as the actor smiles at the camera. 

A report in January stated Black would be voicing Minecraft’s mascot but had not been officially confirmed by the film’s production companies, Warner Bros. and Legendary. Although this technically isn’t an official announcement either, I'd say there's roughly a 99.99 percent chance that Black is involved.

The Minecraft movie, which has been in development in some form or another since 2014, is directed by Nacho Libre director Jared Hess. The cast includes Jason Momoa (Aquaman, Game of Thrones), Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple), Jennifer Coolidge (The White Lotus, American Pie), and Emma Myers (Wednesday). Minecraft is scheduled to hit theaters on April 4, 2025. 

Jack Black is obviously no stranger to video game movies. He voiced Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie and portrays Claptrap in the upcoming Borderlands

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 14:00:00 CDT

Star Wars Outlaws

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Massive Entertainment
Release:

As Kay Vess, the main protagonist in Star Wars Outlaws, you must work within the thriving underworld to accomplish your goals. Because Kay's adventure takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the underworld is thriving. The Empire is focusing its efforts on finishing off the retreating Rebel Alliance. While many of the moons and planets are under Imperial occupation, its primary focus is finding Rebels. Kay must take advantage of the criminal underworld, which led developer Massive Entertainment to create the Reputation System, a reflection of her standing with the criminal organizations she interacts with.

After Sliro of Zerek Besh puts a bounty on her, Kay must work towards the goal of pulling off the ultimate heist to attain freedom for her and her companion Nix. Navigating the Star Wars underworld, Kay interacts with four syndicates, each with its own leader. Jabba the Hutt is the most iconic as the leader of the Hutt Cartel, but Kay also crosses paths with Lady Qi'ra (who many know from Emilia Clarke's portrayal in Solo: A Star Wars Story) of Crimson Dawn, Queen Ashiga of the Ashiga Clan (a new syndicate created in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games), and Gorak of the Pyke Syndicate.

Star Wars Outlaws

Massive Entertainment wanted to create a game in which you must navigate an underworld where, as a scoundrel, you live and die by your reputation. You can improve your standing with the syndicates by taking on jobs, performing tasks, and making choices in favor of the various criminal organizations. If you have a good relationship with one syndicate, your life will be easier when interacting with them or when you're in their territory. 

"Very early on, we knew that we wanted to do a scoundrel story and we knew we wanted the game to be about choice and consequences," lead systems designer Matthieu Delisle says. "So pretty naturally, reputation came as the medium for the player to interact with the game. That's the foundation for the game and then we built the game around that. So, all the features in the game are, one way or another, connected to reputation."

Through having a good relationship with a syndicate, you get access to more jobs to take on, better deals and special stock at shops, high-stakes Sabacc tables, intel, rumors, and more access to that syndicate's territory. Not only that but if you get into trouble with another syndicate and find yourself in a chase, a syndicate with whom you have a good relationship might jump in and help you get away. But it's never so simple; Massive assures me that as a scoundrel, you will get into trouble.

Star Wars Outlaws

While I don't get a sense of just how challenging the balancing act is, an example that emerged during my hands-on demo demonstrated that sometimes your choices will force you to take sides. During my demo, I found a sensitive video file that showed a member of the Pyke Syndicate looking to overthrow Gorak. Kay's original plan was to take it to the Pyke Syndicate leader to fetch a pretty penny and improve her standing, but when she turns in the job she was doing when she uncovered the evidence, the client is revealed as a member of Crimson Dawn. Kay thinks that they might have a keen interest in that sensitive data, so the player is given a choice of who they want to hand the video file over to, with Kay's reputation with that syndicate getting a bump with Crimson Dawn. Because of this newfound standing with Crimson Dawn, my next mission is a bit easier as the Crimson Dawn guards let me walk right into their territory.

"It's really about choosing whichever syndicate benefits her in the moment," senior systems designer Alice Rendell says. "It's really up to the player to decide how they want to balance their reputations throughout the game. You can go all in with one syndicate, but obviously at the risk of displeasing others, or you can try and play the underworld a bit more and try to find something a bit more balanced."

But reputations are designed to ebb and flow. Your reputation with a syndicate can take a hit from making a decision against the syndicate or through your actions. For example, if I go into a part of a syndicate's territory where I'm not supposed to be and get spotted, Kay's reputation will take a hit. Similarly, if you're spotted on a security camera or you raise an alarm, your reputation takes a hit. In one sequence, I alerted the Pyke Syndicate to my presence and began piling up bodies; I didn't get to experiment too much more with my reputation with the Pyke Syndicate, but I imagine I'd have some work to do to repair that relationship.

Star Wars Outlaws

Still, even with that transgression against the Pyke Syndicate in their own territory, you're never entirely cut off from any of the factions. After all, you're dealing with criminal organizations who are primarily concerned with how you can benefit them. If they think you're the right person for the job, they'll still let you do work for them. 

"The way that people in the world react to Kay will vary depending on the reputation, but it is very transactional," Rendell says. "These aren't friendships, so it's still very, 'Okay, can Kay help you out in this moment?'"

But Kay doesn't just have to manage her reputation with the Hutt Cartel, the Pyke Syndicate, Crimson Dawn, and the Ashiga Clan. While they're all key players in the criminal underworld, in this period between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the Galactic Empire is arguably at the peak of its power. While they are largely distracted in their relentless hunt for members of the Rebel Alliance, if you get in the way or break their rules, they won't ignore you for long.

Star Wars Outlaws

Because the Empire holds such power, you don't have a reputation meter with them. Instead, the Empire reacts to you based on your wanted level. If you break enough rules, your wanted level rises. The more wanted you are, the worse the Empire makes your life. 

More imperial troops join the hunt for you as your wanted level goes up, with the maximum level summoning elite enemies to hunt you down. You can try to hide to decrease your wanted level, but the higher your wanted level, the longer it takes the Empire to call off the search. You can also meet with corrupt Imperial officers who might take a bribe or, in the worst-case scenario, participate in a challenging in-world event at the maximum wanted level to get the Empire off your back. 

I didn't get a chance to experiment with the Wanted System at all, nor did I get a chance to truly push the Reputation System beyond the standard interactions and botched stealth sequences of my demo, but I did get a feel for it in action. I'm excited to see how the system reacts to player choices, particularly since when I ask creative director Julian Gerighty if there's a way to max out all syndicates' reputation meters, he says, "Not that I've been able to find." 

Star Wars Outlaws

The Reputation System feels like an essential piece of the scoundrel video game puzzle, and if it can deliver in all the ways Massive touts it to, it's the element of Star Wars Outlaws I'm most excited to play around with. If it can, indeed, provide the level of player agency and systems flexibility an adventure like this all but necessitates, we should be in for an incredible adventure when Star Wars Outlaws arrives on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on August 30.

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I know it's kinda generic, but let's see what people are running nowadays:

CPU: AMD RYZEN Threadripper 2950X 16 Core, 32 Thread
Motherboard: ASROCK X399 TAICHI
Ram : 32gb DDR4
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX2070 8gb GDDR6

1 Comment
Battlefield™ 2042 Gold Edition

4 Comments
Welcome aboard everyone.
Hopefully we can grow our family.
gto3113

6 Comments
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