Geek Culture
Splatoon 2 Nintendo Direct Set for July 6th
Nintendo continues its march towards a big release of Splatoon 2, announcing a Direct set for later this week. The company promises a “re-FRESH-er” on the upcoming title, as well as reveals of new features. The Direct will be streamed on Nintendo’s own site and their twitch channel this Thursday, July 6th at 7 A.M PST.
Continuing on Successes
The original Splatoon was a hit when it released over two years ago. Critics lauded its mechanics, style, and soundtrack. Nintendo also received praise for entering the shooter genre with a new IP. Splatoon hit the perfect balance between family-friendly game and competitive shooter. Splatoon topped sales charts in the UK and Japan on its release, and became Nintendo’s best selling new IP since Wii Sports.
Learning From Mistakes
Splatoon received criticism mostly for its multiplayer. Critics focused on a lack of multiplayer maps at launch, as well as no available voice chat feature. Nintendo provided extensive post-launch support, adding new content on a monthly basis. At launch, the game had 5 maps, by December of the same year, it had 16. Splatoon 2 will continue with these changes, and will have a slew of new features and modes:
- Salmon Run: A 2-4 player co-op horde mode, where players take on waves of “Salmonoids.”
- Local Multiplayer: Perfect for the on-the-go nature of the Switch, players can now play offline with friends on the same console.
- Smart Device Support: Players will be able to voice chat through an upcoming Switch app.
- Controller Support: Players can use the Joy Con controller as well as the Switch Pro controller. Both of these feature motion-control support.
- New Weapons and Mechanics: New weapons include the dual-wieldable “Splat Dualies,” and players now can take advantage of a dodge roll move. Returning weapons like the Splat Roller and Charger have been updated to fit the new game’s mechanics.
- Launch-Day Maps: There will be 6 launch-day maps, 5 of which are new, with “Moray Towers” returning from the original game.
Nintendo again plans to continue updating the game post-launch, promising “Fresh Updates” of new content and in-game events.
A Competitive Scene
Splatoon 2 is part of the first waves of games in Nintendo’s dive into Esports, along with ARMS and Pokken Tournament DX. Super Smash Bros has always been a huge competitive game, but the company never embraced its Esports scene. Holding official tournaments at E3, along with launching Nintendo Versus, an official account for competitive updates, shows they are ready to enter the rapidly expanding industry. Splatoon’s fast-paced and original style make it perfect for Esports audiences. Nintendo has an edge over Sony and Microsoft in console-based competitive gaming, so entering the scene is a wise move. Expect a lot more Nintendo-sponsored Esports events in the future.
Splatoon 2 Launches on July 21st, be sure to check out the direct this Thursday!
Gaming
Ubisoft says that future Assassin’s Creed games will need more time to be made
As Assassin’s Creed Shadows is about to sneak up on people in November, Ubisoft says that the time between developing games needs to be longer to find the “right balance.” Shadows has been in development for four years, longer than any other game in the series up to this point. That includes the huge open-world epics Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Shadows lead producer Karl Onnée (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz) says that the latest AC game took 25% longer to make than Valhalla. He says this is necessary to keep the quality of the series that it is known for: “It’s always a balance between time and costs, but the more time you have, the more you can iterate.” You can speed up a project by adding more people to it, but that doesn’t give you more time to make changes.
Onnée says this has as much to do with immersion and aesthetics as it does with fixing bugs and smoothing out pixels. This is because the development team needs time to learn about each new historical setting: “We are trying to make a game that is as real as possible.” We’re proud of it, and the process took a long time. In feudal Japan, building a house is very different from building a house in France or England in the Middle Ages. As an artist, you need to learn where to put things in a feudal Japanese home. For example, food might not belong there. Get all the information you need and learn it. That process takes a long time.”
You’ll have to wait a little longer for Ubisoft to work on each game. Are you okay with that? In what part of Shadows are you now? Is it interesting to you? Leave a comment below and let us know.
Gaming
You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP on PS5
You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP, a remaster that Dragami Games and Capcom both created. You can now pre-order the PS5 game on the PS Store for $44.99 or £39.99. If you have PS Plus, you can get an extra 10% off the price.
The company put out a new trailer with about three minutes of gameplay to mark the start of the pre-order period. Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP is a remaster of Grasshopper Manufacture’s crazy action game from 2012. You play as Juliet, a high school student who fights off waves of zombies.
The remaster adds RePOP mode, an alternative mode that swaps out the blood and gore for fun visual effects. It also adds a bunch of other features and improvements that make the game better overall. You can expect the graphics and sound to be better as well.
The game will now come out on September 12, 2024, instead of September 12, 2024. Are you excited to get back to this? Please cheer us on in the section below.
Gaming
This Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 zombies trailer is way too expensive
Is there really anyone who is following the story of Call of Duty’s zombie mode? We’ve known about the story in a vague way for a while, but we couldn’t tell you anything about it. It looks like the “Dark Aether” story will continue in Black Ops 6, but we don’t really know what that means.
For those of you who care, here is the official blurb with some background: “Requiem, led by the CIA, finally closed the last-dimensional portal, sending its inhabitants back to the nightmare world known as the Dark Aether, after two years of fighting zombie outbreaks around the world during the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War timeline.”
Wait, there’s more! “Agent Samantha Maxis gave her life to seal this weird dimension from the inside out.” Even worse things were to come: senior staff members of Requiem were arrested without a reason by the Project Director, who turned out to be Edward Richtofen.
Black Ops 6 will take place about five years later, and it looks like it will show more about Richtofen’s goals and motivations. The most important thing is that you will probably be shooting an unimaginable number of zombies in the head. This week, on August 8, there will be a full reveal of the gameplay, so keep an eye out for that.
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