Detroit Become: Human proved to be one of 2018's more divisive games. While some praised its ambitious storytelling, others found the way it handled its themes about technology, classism, and racism to be underwhelming. If you haven't played the game yourself yet, PlayStation Plus has made it one of this month's offerings so subscribers can find out on which side of the fence they fall.
Interestingly enough, Pro Evolution 2019 was supposed to be the original offering for this month, but Sony replaced it at the last minute with Detroit for unspecified reasons:
Update: We are making a swap to the PS Plus games lineup for July. This month, we are adding Detroit: Become Human Digital Deluxe Edition, which also includes Heavy Rain, to the July games lineup instead of Pro Evolution Soccer 2019. We apologize for any inconvenience.
For more on Detroit: Become Human, read our review here.
The androids' long-standing war with soccer fans continues with no end in sight. Sad.
Spider-Man: Far From Home is in theaters today, so what better time to fire up Insomniac's PS4 game? If the timing isn't enough to get you back into the swing of things, would a wardrobe upgrade change your mind?
Insomniac has added a pair of new suits to the game, and better yet, they're available at no cost. After updating your game to version 1.16, they're yours! Well, you have to build the Advanced Suit early on. But after that... they're yours!
For more on Spider-Man, check out our hub page on the game, which is filled with behind-the-scenes details on its development and a ton of exclusive video features.
If Capcom’s goal for Monster Hunter: World was to bring the niche title to the mainstream, they absolutely succeeded. That game managed to please longtime hunters while also acting as an emissary to players who’d always been curious about the series but couldn’t get past some of its more peculiar elements. With more than 12 million copies sold, it’s now become Capcom’s best-selling game. Where do they go from there? How about someplace cold?
While the game has had a variety of updates and extra content added since release, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is the game’s first major expansion. What does it add? How about an all-new region to explore, with new monsters to hunt (as well as some returning favorites). We got to spend extensive time with the game during our studio visit, and we’ve got loads of info to share, including details on our hunt with the Iceborne’s flagship elder dragon, Velkhana.
There’s a lot to dig into, and a lot of info packed into our 12-page cover story. Even if you’ve been keeping up with the expansion’s dev diaries and played the demo, you’ll find plenty of exclusive info and impressions in the August issue of Game Informer. Also, you can watch our trailer below teasing our month of online coverage coming to gameinformer.com/iceborne.
That’s not all that’s in the issue, however. We’ve devoted a huge section of the magazine to our post-E3 analysis. That includes deep recaps of some of the show’s biggest moments, an examination on what’s ahead for streaming games, and a rundown of the tech that debuted during the conference. Of course, it’s all about the games, and we’re not scrimping there. We’ve got lengthy previews on the 50 hottest titles from the show, which provide a great road map for what we’ll all be playing in the years to come.
Print subscribers can expect their issues to begin arriving in the coming weeks. The digital edition of this issue launches today for PC/Mac, iOS, and Google Play. You can also get the latest issue through third-party apps on Nook and Kindle later this week. To switch your print subscription to digital, click here, or to create a new subscription to the digital edition, click here.
Click on the banner below to reach our hub for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. We’ll be adding new content throughout the month to more fully explore how Capcom is expanding the world.
Swedish punk rock group Refused is writing, recording, and producing an EP of the "greatest hits" of Cyberpunk in-game band Samurai. Samurai is a popular chrome rock group in the Cyberpunk universe that features Johnny Silverhand, who ia now-famously depicted by actor Keanu Reeves, as lead vocalist.
The EP, which is being created in collaboration with CD Projekt Red's music and composer team, features tracks inspired by the original source material, as well as new ones created by the band exclusively for the Cyberpunk 2077 game. You can listen to the first single off the EP, titled "Chippin' In," above. The song was referenced in the Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop game, with lyrics even appearing on the front cover of the Second Edition release of the game in 1991.
Johnny Silverhand, who will be depicted by actor Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077, is the lead singer of Samurai
Refused itself has released four full-length albums, as well as multiple EPs, over the course of its existence, which began in 1991. Vocalist Dennis Lyxzén is excited about bringing the music of Samurai to life. "Like us, Samurai is a group of rebels, albeit in a different time and place," he said in a press release. "Working together with CD Projekt Red, writing music and song lyrics for Cyberpunk’s chrome rock icon was fun, but also very different in the creative sense. It was an unexpected challenge that turned out to be right up our alley and really got us going. The songs turned out great and the game looks insane."
"Chippin' In," is available now on Spotify, YouTube, iTunes, Apple Music, Tidal, Wimp, Amazon Music, and Deezer. Cyberpunk 2077 is currently scheduled to launch on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on April 16, 2020.
We had a lot of fun live streaming Super Mario Maker 2 last week (see the embedded tweet below), but there was something missing that we're hoping to correct in a follow-up stream. During that stream, we played the pre-release version of the game which had special dedicated servers for reviewers, and as a result, we couldn't play levels from the community.
We'll be streaming the game again on Monday, July 8 at 2:00 p.m. CT, and this time we want to play your levels! Leave us your level codes in the comments below, and if it's a level better-suited to co-op, let us know and we will try to download it in advance.
Be sure to follow us to be notified when we go live next! You can watch (and subscribe!) on all of our various channels by following the links. You can watch on Twitch, YouTube, or Facebook. For our review of Super Mario Maker 2, head here.
With Game Informer's new cover story on Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, we'll be rolling out a ton of exclusive features about Capcom's expansion. Our first video above reveals the grand return of Barioth to Monster Hunter, as he battles a Banbaro in the new region Hoarfrost Reach. On July 8th we'll be revealing even more details about Barioth in the game and we'll be talking about hunting him and Velkhana on the next episode of The Game Informer Show podcast.
Click on the banner below to enter our constantly updating hub of exclusive features and videos on Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.
Cuphead continues to get more content by way of free updates, but fans were eagerly anticipating the launch of The Delicious Last Course, premium DLC that was announced last year for a 2019 release. However, developer Studio MDHR took to the Xbox Wire today to provide an update to fans, with one piece of information letting players know they'll need to wait just a bit longer than expected to dive into the new content.
"Our highest priority is making sure this new adventure meets the meticulous level of care and quality we always strive for," co-director Chad Moldenhauer said in the Xbox Wire blog post. "We want to be absolutely certain that this next adventure feels at home in the world of Cuphead and is full of moments that surprise and delight players. Furthermore, the development of the original game taught us a great deal about the importance of making things in a way that's healthy and sustainable for the team."
The Delicious Last Course DLC is set to deliver new weapons, charms, and bosses on a new isle, as well as a completely new playable character, Ms. Chalice. This additional character has a distinct play style with unique abilities like a double jump, and will be playable across every isle in the game, giving players reason to revisit boss battles from the base game.
Studio MDHR is teasing even more surprises for the DLC as we get closer to release. Until then, you can see the teaser for the DLC above. Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course launches in 2020 for Xbox One, Switch, and PC.
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is a more interesting and polished game than Pokémon Go, yet is too much of a spiritual successor for its own good. Many of the gameplay mechanics and ideas that carry over are shoehorned in, and ultimately hurt an experience that delivers some magic in the elements that truly speak to the license’s appeal.
Like Niantic’s last AR phenomenon, Wizards Unite has you visiting real-world locations and interacting with fictional objects in order to build up a collection. Wandering the Muggle world and using various spells to round up misplaced “confoundables,” which can be characters, beasts, or wizarding items, doesn’t have the same appeal as collecting cute Pokémon, yet is the backbone of Wizards Unite. When a confoundable is captured, it ends up as nothing more than an image in a sticker book.
While some fun comes from trying to place every sticker on the book’s pages, catching the same thing over and over again is an exercise in monotony. Once a page has all of its items, you can wipe it clean and start again. The reward for this accomplishment? The page gets a new border design, and you’re asked to claim even more of the same types of things. Since these items don’t have any gameplay value (unlike Pokémon, which can battle for you in Pokémon Go), the only reason to catch them is to grind experience points. That grind becomes more pronounced the more you play. Catching the Weasley’s Clock dozens of times just isn’t fun, yet is the definition of what this game is.
To catch something like the clock (or even Luna Lovegood), a spell must be cast like. To do this, you simply trace a squiggle that appears on screen as quickly as you can. This may sound easy, but it’s a surprisingly challenging and amusing test. Any kind of deviation from the line leads to a less powerful spell, which increases the chance of the confoundable running away. You can use potions to make the encounters easier, but these resources are not bountiful, and must be concocted using ingredients found in the world. Inventory space is ridiculously tight, and the bag fills up in no time, especially given you have to keep track of 23 different items. As a result, you are frequently asked to expand the bag's size using in-game gold or real money. Wizards Unite’s microtransaction baiting is intrusive, and decisions like repeatedly telling the player to expand the bag size make the game worse. The push to spend real money is far more pronounced than it is in Pokémon Go.
This is frustrating since players are encouraged to collect everything they see, but the time it takes to brew potions with those ingredients doesn't line up with the time spent exploring. The player is better off exiting the game for extended periods to brew potions and free up some inventory space...or spend money.
Wizards Unite also delivers a respectable kind of frustration with the confoundables. Even if you happen to stumble upon a Tom Riddle or Harry Potter encounter and perform a perfect spell, they may run away. The player needs to gain more power to have a better shot against them, and this is where Wizards Unite fascinates and sinks its addictive hooks into you. It delivers a legitimate pursuit of power with relatively deep RPG systems.
When a player selects their profession, deciding to be an auror, magizoologist, or professor, they open up a skill tree offering over 130 upgrades that can enhance stamina, defense, and percentages to various things like wand damage and critical hit chances. The more the game is played, the more powerful the wizard. The grind is beneficial to gaining power, yet isn't that entertaining given just how often confoundables are repeated.
Strong RPG elements also bubble to the surface in the fortresses, which push a team to battle against a set number of beasts and wizards on each of the 20 floors. The higher the floor, the higher the difficulty, and the need increases for players to team up to provide healing, buffs, and other kinds of support. I had a blast journeying through fortresses with friends, but wish they weren’t timed. All too often our progress would come to an end because we spent too much time discussing tactics.
Up to five wizards can journey together, but each battle is a one-on-one affair. These encounters are good fun, pushing you to hover a reticle over a moving target until a meter fills and a spell can be cast. When an enemy strikes, you simply need to swipe in a specific direction to deflect some of the attack. Damage is sustained no matter how perfect the swipe is, but you can at least limit how much is dealt.
Now to the worst part of Wizards Unite: Progress for any activity can come to an abrupt end when a wand runs out of spell energy. Even if you are in the middle of a battle, the action pauses to ask you if want to spend gold to replenish the wand's energy. The only way to get it back is to visit inns, complete tasks, or cash in that rare gold. Again, Wizards Unite frustrates in its design, which often pushes for real money to be spent.
Pokémon Go was (and still is) criticized for not having enough content, and Niantic and WB Games clearly took that to heart with Wizards Unite. Although everything revolves around the casting mechanic, this game is swimming with challenges, events, and mysteries to solve. A lot of this stuff comes down to dumb luck with what spawns around you, but at least there’s some depth here to take a bit of the bite out of catching that damn clock repeatedly.
No corners were cut with Wizards Unite’s visuals. Each encounter plays out like an animated skit, with detailed character models doing different things for catches and misses. I was quick to turn off augmented reality for catching, but it is used in a clever way for Portkeys. If a player enters a Portkey, they are transported from their reality to the Wizarding World for a fun 360-degree scavenger hunt in a known location like Hagrid’s hut.
When Wizards Unite is trying to do something new, it can be good fun. Most of the content sadly ends up feeling like a strange version of Pokémon Go, giving players flimsy reasons to catch or zap ‘em all.
Score: 7
Summary: Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is a more interesting and polished game than Pokémon Go, yet is too much of a spiritual successor for its own good.
Concept: Explore the real world to cast spells on Harry Potter characters and beasts
Graphics: The detailed character models and animations are impressive, making each encounter a little more fun…until you’ve seen them all a dozen times
Sound: Familiar Potter melodies ring out in the overworld and menus, and you occasionally hear banter from the characters
Playability: Casting spells is simple, but fun and surprisingly challenging. Depth comes in the form of a skill tree and plenty of quests
Entertainment: While rich in content, a lot of the catching and questing comes down to the dumb luck of spawns
From today until July 16, players can get in on the new limited-time event: Showdown. With a new 3v3 map, Fort Truth, players can choose to fight as The Law or The Graveltop Gang. In order to win, teams need to secure the area and the gold. Each round is going to be a fast-paced 90-second shootout.
Which side are you on, The Law, or The Lawbreakers? Face off on the new 3v3 map, Fort Truth, in the Rainbow Six Siege event: Showdown! Play this limited-time in-game event from July 2 - 16. pic.twitter.com/91bChBa9fx
Players can get a free Showdown Collection Pack just for logging in and a unique BOSG.12.2 weapon skin for completing a Ubisoft Club Challenge. For more on Rainbow Six Siege, check out what they brought to E3 2019.
If you're a digital subscriber to our magazine, you can now learn new details about Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. Following today's cover reveal, our digital issue is now live on web browsers, iPad/iPhone and Android devices to subscribers. Individual issue will be available for purchase later today. You can download the apps to view the issue by following this link. All of these digital options are included in a standard subscription.
The issue launches later this week on our third-party subscription apps including Google Play, Kindle, and Nook.
Not a digital subscriber yet? Convert your existing print subscription here or start a new subscription here.
Click on the banner below to reach our hub for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. We’ll be adding new content throughout the month to more fully explore how Capcom is expanding the world.
Division 2's fifth update patch notes were unveiled yesterday, bringing a few changes to the game's on-going structure. Kicking off the update come two new main missions, Manning National Zoo and Camp White Oak, pitting agents against two enemy groups. The missions task you with eliminating Emeline Shaw and the Outcast who have holed up in Manning National Zoo, and the Black Tusks and their leader in the woodland outskirts of D.C.
Two new exotics have been added, the Diamondback Exotic Rifle and the BTSU Exotic Gloves. Exotics can now be dropped by Heroic Bosses as well. Two other weapons were added, the assault rifle Carbine 7 and a light machine gun, the Stoner LMG.
The Washington National Airport raid received the Story difficulty, which is the easiest difficulty the game has to offer. Expeditions have been implemented as well; according to the patch notes, expeditions are "Expeditions are free events that bring players to unexplored locations around D.C. to discover new narrative and gameplay opportunities." They offer new collectables, boss mechanics, and more.
The oft-requested flashlight attachment has finally been added to the game, and it will give you a reason to use your pistol. Currently, the flashlight can only be equipped to pistols, but this is better than no flashlight at all.
There were many more updates to gameplay, visuals, and mechanics coming to the game as well. While all of these updates are first coming to a Play Test Server, players likely won't have to wait much longer for the update.
For more on The Division 2, check out our breakdown of the gunner update.
A few months ago, Nintendo and Marvelous collaborated for the fairly unusual act of releasing a demo of their upcoming mech game Daemon x Machina, months and months ahead of release. The demo was explicitly intended to get feedback for the final game, which Nintendo and Marvelous say they gathered. Now they have released a video saying exactly what that feedback yielded.
If releasing a prototype demo was an unusual move for Nintendo, then releasing a trailer showing what changed is just as strange, but you can watch it below.
There's numerous changes, like motion controls getting more sensitivity options, indications of where an enemy is shooting at you from, the speed and momentum of player movement, and many other things. As someone that was unimpressed by the initial demo, I am pretty surprised at how different the game looks to play now. It also just plain looks better graphically than it did a few months ago.
Daemon x Machina releases on Nintendo Switch on September 13.
There's been a lot of talk about The Walking Dead comic recently, especially with the upcoming issue. Creator Robert Kirkman has been on Twitter talking up the importance of this release, but didn't really clarify why. We'll tell you why, but make sure you want to know first, because Kirkman for sure does not want you to know.
Details about this issue will more than likely start to leak today. If you’d prefer to not be spoiled, I would recommend being very careful online until the issue is released Wednesday. It’s a big issue in more ways than one. #understatementoftheyearpic.twitter.com/xSAr3EjR75
This upcoming issue, #193, ends the long-running series.
The news of the abrupt ending comes courtesy of IGN, which prints Kirkman's goodbye letter from the issue in its entirety. The zombie apocalypse series has been running since 2003 and has spun off adaptations in the form of TV shows and video games.
Kirkman has gone through great lengths to ensure the abrupt ending would shock fans, even having publisher Image Comics produce listings for further issues with original cover art made for them.
I haven't done a particularly good job of keeping up with the Layton series in terms of overall stories, but every so often I'll poke my head in and try and figure out what's going on. The last major inflection point for that mentality was when Layton's daughter came into the picture in a search for her father. And what better way to do that than through puzzles?
The 3DS and mobile title Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy is now coming to Switch after first releasing in 2017. Since the game was designed with a touchscreen in mind, you can play with said touchscreen in Switch portable mode. Otherwise, you can use the joycon motion control when docked.
For the most part, the Switch version will look more or less identical to the HD iOS version released a few years ago, but will have the game's entire DLC catalog, 40 new puzzles, and 50 new outfits. There should still be a few graphical touch-ups, but you're really here for the puzzles. It is unknown if the Deluxe version will expand upon the game's somewhat loose narrative and cliffhanger ending.
You can pick up Layton's Mystery Journey on November 8, just a week ahead of Pokemon, if you need something to tide you over for seven days.
The limited-time Showdown event hit Rainbow Six Siege today, which accelerates the action in fast-paced 3v3 matches. Better still, there are cowboys! Leo played a few matches today, and you can see how he fared in today's episode of NGT!
In addition to the gameplay, we can watch Leo's will erode in real time, as he blows a not-insignificant amount of cash on some cosmetic items. Cosmetic items that, as you will soon see, are basically terrible and without any merit whatsoever. But they're there, so what can you do?
Showdown is in the game starting today and running through July 16.
Last month, YsNet and Deep Silver made the surprising revelation that Shenmue III on PC would be exclusive to the Epic Games Store for one year. This in and of itself is not anything extraordinary, but the prominence of the game combined with the fact that it was Kickstarted with promised Steam codes, worked in concert to generate massive anger from fans of the game and people who were decidedly not fans of the Epic Game Store. YsNet, the developers of the game, were caught off guard by this backlash and promised to look into this decision.
This put YsNet into a precarious position: Epic paying for exclusivity likely paid for the game's delay and final polishing phase, which they seemingly needed for the title, but giving refunds to PC backers would rip-off the entire financial band-aid they just put on. Their solution was to ask backers who preferred not to use the Epic Games Store version, whether because of feature convenience or ethical precept, to switch to PlayStation 4 instead. That did not go over well. The other solution was to ask people who wanted Steam keys to wait a year. That also didn't go over well.
Today, YsNet announced that they would instead be issuing refunds to those for whom not having a Steam code is a dealbreaker. Epic boss Tim Sweeny explained that, in these instances where a crowdfunded game has to give out refunds because of EGS exclusivity, Epic will pay it out themselves. Additionally, they are going to start working with publishers to figure out how to best handle these situations where Steam codes are promised in the future so those backers can get those codes.
Epic is funding the cost of all Kickstarter refunds resulting from Shenmue III’s move to the Epic Games store, so that refunds won’t reduce Ys Net’s development funding. https://t.co/mSGdbzYPJ5
This isn't the solution that people who wanted to play Shenmue III, but not on Epic Games Store, wanted, but by and large the response to this plan seems largely withered acceptance varying to positivity, depending on who you ask.
Details on how to get a refund are forthcoming, but it is safe to say that many who complained about it will be availing themselves of this new option.
On this special edition of The Game Informer Show podcast, Leo Vader and Andrew Reiner wrap up our month of coverage on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order with an interview with game director Stig Asmussen, asking questions from the Game Informer community.
Crytek's horror multiplayer shooter Hunt: Showdown is exiting Early Access soon for a full release.
It was in Steam Early Access since last year, and in Xbox Game Preview earlier this year. Now, it's launching in full on both PC and Xbox One as of August 27. PlayStation 4 owners can get their hands on the game at an undisclosed time in the fall.
Hunt: Showdown casts players as bounty hunters who must slay a beast that haunts rural Louisiana, then bring back its head. You can watch us play a portion of it here as well as read our impressions from the early access PC build here.
McCree, Junkrat, and Zarya are joining Hasbro's new (and popular) Overwatch Ultimates action figure line. The first of this six-inch series kicked off in a big way a couple of months ago, giving fans the chance to add Mercy, Reinhardt, Reaper, Lucio, Sombra, Pharah, Ana, and Soldier 76 to their collecting shelves. The second series, which will make its official debut at this year's San Diego Comic Con (running from July 18 to 21), introduces the heroes of note, and the series' first variation.
If you are in attendance at this show, and don't mind standing in lines for extended periods of time, you can purchase an exclusive version of Reinhardt at Hasbro's booth. This version isn't just a repaint. This sculpt gives Reinhardt a new head as well as his Bundeswehr skin and a gold hammer. No release date has been given for series two's figures yet, but you can take a look at all of them below.
Capping off our month of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order coverage, game director Stig Asmussen called into The Game Informer Show podcast to answer lingering questions from the community. One of the show's viewers asked about protagonist Cal Kestis' lightsaber, stating that the blade didn't deliver as much vibrancy as we usually see from these weapons.
More specifically, the blade apparently lacked the bright white light in its center. "We made a mistake on that one, and since then have fixed it," Asmussen said during the interview. "That was fair feedback and criticism. We've tweaked [the light], and also tweaked the shape of the lightsaber blade a little. You can see the difference right away."
You can check out that specific discussion in the timestamped video below.
Johnny Silverhand, who will be depicted by actor Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077, is the lead singer of Samurai
