Month: April 2022

After the success of PokemonGo ,, the developer of mobile augmented reality games, Niantic has created a unique digital pet. On Wednesday, Niantic announced Peridot, a new game coming to mobile devices that focuses less on catching ’em all and more on caring for, raising, and breeding unique digital creatures.

In Peridot, players will raise magical beasts called Peridots “that feel real,” Ziah Fogel, the game’s senior producer, said during a press briefing earlier this week. Each Peridot is “100% unique and 100% yours,” Niantic says, differing in visual appearance, personality, their likes and dislikes, and their abilities. Players will raise Peridots from birth into adulthood, breed them with other Peridots at nests, and create multiple generations of their virtual pets, leading to new discoveries.

As you can see in the teaser trailer, Peridots are available in many shapes, sizes and colors. Their designs will be based on real world archetypes. Niantic claims that they are a mixture of procedural generation and hand-created assets. Some Peridots may have traits inspired by unicorns, peacocks, or rabbits. Other, less literal Peridot archetypes revealed include concepts like glitter, jester, metallic, and kintsugi (the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery). Peridots can breed with other Peridots and create new Peridot breeds using a system that is modeled after real-world DNA.

Image: Niantic

Image: Niantic

Like Pokemon Go, Ingress, Pikmin Bloom, and other Niantic augmented reality games, Peridot will place a strong emphasis on walking around and exploring new places in the real world. Daily care of your Peridot is also crucial to its happiness and survival. Peridots will require daily care from their owners. Peridots will have “desires,” meaning you may have to take them on walks, feed them a certain piece of foraged food, or visit a nearby point of interest to keep them satisfied.

Peridot will be played in camera-based augmented reality, using Niantic’s Lightship technology. That AR tech helps Peridots “recognize different real-world surfaces such as dirt, sand, water, grass, and foliage,” Niantic says, from which your pet can forage different types of food. Of course, snapping cute photos of your pet Peridot is also a major draw of playing in AR. Niantic says that players will be able to easily share their Peridot pics on social media, directly from the game.

Image: Niantic

Image: Niantic

Niantic said it plans to soft-launch Peridot in select markets, on Apple’s App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android, in April.

Overwatch 2 is well into production, and Blizzard has released a new origin short for the game’s first new character: Sojourn, a former Overwatch captain who is equipped with powerful cybernetic augmentations and a mean railgun. Players have known that Sojourn will arrive with Overwatch 2 since she was announced at BlizzConline in February 2021, but we get to see a little more of her personality and past in this trailer.

Sojourn worked with Jack Morrison, aka Soldier: 76, during the Omnic War, and the two of them worked well together. She joined Overwatch to protect other agents. You can also see her progress in cybernetics, such as a pair of robotic blue peepers.

Sojourn has been a lore figure in the Overwatch universe for some time now. She appeared in Ana’s origins short back in 2016, albeit briefly in a photograph of the past, and in the “Recall” cinematic in Winston’s terminal. Sojourn was also the guide for players through the Storm Rising Archives event in her capacity as an Overwatch captain. She doesn’t appear in the Overwatch 2 Zero Hour announcement cinematic, though, and her narration in the origin short makes it sound like she might be on another path.

More players will be able to give Sojourn a shot when the Overwatch 2 PvP beta goes live in late April. They will also be able to try out other new hero reworks, like Bastion, who now has a time limit on his powerful turret form. (Also, he has a hat now.) The PvE campaigns of Overwatch 2 do not yet have a release date; they were “decoupled” from the PvP updates to the game.

Sega of America has teamed up with Roblox developer Gamefam to release a licensed Sonic the Hedgehog game on the Roblox platform. On April 14, players will be able to dash their way through Sonic Speed Simulator on Roblox for free.

Sonic Speed Simulator is an open-world online multiplayer game where you play as either your Roblox avatar, or Sonic and friends. This “speed simulator” will have players leveling up the pace of their character by taking as many in-game steps as possible and by collecting special items like Chaos Orbs. The game is free to download on the Roblox app, which runs on Android, iOS, Mac, Windows PC, and Xbox One. The game arrives just after the release of the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie in theaters.

The game will launch with four different areas, including the checkered landscape of Green Hill Zone. A fifth zone and other additions likes bosses will come in a later update. Roblox games are generally known for their Lego minifigure-like avatars. However, in Sonic Speed Simulator, players can unlock skins that allow them to play as true-to-franchise 3D models of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. The game also comes with unique Sonic-themed items for your avatar — including Chao pets that you can adopt in-game.

Part of the challenge of bringing Sonic Speed Simulator to life, its developers said, was balancing the norms and technical limitations of a platform like Roblox with making a game based on a AAA franchise. Gamefam CEO Joe Ferencz told Polygon that Sega helped push the production value of Sonic Speed Simulator so it looked and felt like a Sonic game.

“When you get the speed, this game feels like Sonic,” Ferencz said in an interview. “That is something our producers, designers, and animators know how to do, but we needed Sega’s expert Sonic guidance on it.” Previously, Gamefam has teamed up with other brands like Mattel and Ubisoft to create experiences on Roblox. In 2020, the company released an open-world Hot Wheels driving game called Hot Wheels Open World.

Even though it’s on Roblox, Ferencz hopes Sonic fans will give Sonic Speed Simulator a chance. “I think people have a lot of notions about what Roblox is, and what Roblox is and isn’t,” he said “If people are Sonic fans, we want them to come in and try this game. Even if they’re never tried Roblox.”

QuakeCon, the annual fan convention celebrating id Software and Bethesda Softworks’ video game franchises, will return this August. Like last year’s event, QuakeCon 2022 will be digital-only, which means no in-person convention and no BYOC (bring your own computer) LAN party.

QuakeCon 2022 will take place Aug. 18-20, and will likely be streamed on Twitch.

In a statement published today on Bethesda’s QuakeCon page, the company said that while this year’s event will be digital-only, they were committed to bringing QuakeCon back as an in-person festival in 2023. This is not the first time in the convention’s history QuakeCon has been a remote event, as QuakeCon 2020 and QuakeCon 2021 were both online-only events in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Like you, we’re disappointed to not return to Dallas this year,” Bethesda said. “An event of this size requires months of planning, and in this case, we had to make decisions when there was still too much uncertainty to commit to successfully executing an in-person QuakeCon.”

QuakeCon 2022 will feature livestreaming programming, online meetups, giveaways, charity opportunities, and a virtual BYOC party. Bethesda announced that more details regarding this year’s QuakeCon would come in June.

Bethesda Softworks’ confirmed lineup includes Redfall, the open-world vampire-themed shooter from Arkane Austin, and Starfield, the space-exploration role-playing game from Bethesda Game Studios. id Software is reportedly working on a “long-running iconic action FPS,” which could mean a new Doom, Quake, or something else.

Wednesday’s announcement by Hasbro, the parent company of Dungeons & Dragons creator Wizards of the Coast was that it will acquire D&D Beyond. This acquisition is one of the most popular digital toolsets licensed under the trademark and an online shopfront. Wizards said on its official website it has “no plans to stop supporting D&D Beyond,” and all purchases made by consumers will be honored going forward.

D&D Beyond is the creation of Curse, and launched in 2017. The platform is, at its core, a web application and mobile app that provides players and Dungeon Masters (DMs) with the tools they need to play D&D in person or online. Features include a character builder, a character sheet, and a digital dice-rolling function. It allows DMs to digitally purchase campaign books, and other material for their campaigns. Prices for D&D books are traditionally more or less the same on D&D Beyond as they are on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and at your local game store.

D&D Beyond was purchased by Fandom in 2018 and, according to Hasbro, the relationship has been very lucrative since that time.

“Over three years, Hasbro’s royalty to D&D Beyond was a substantial contribution to Dungeons & Dragons’ fastest-growing source of revenue,” Hasbro stated. That is undoubtedly true, as financial disclosures show that Wizards — and its attached digital properties, including Magic: The Gathering Arena — earned more than $1 billion for the first time in 2021.

Wizards has become a massive part of Hasbro’s overall earnings since the launch of 5th edition D&D in 2014. With an operating profit of $547 million in 2021, Wizards’ business unit accounted for 72% of Hasbro’s operating profit for the year. Taking that into perspective, the purchase of D&D Beyond from Fandom for $146. 3 million in cash seems like a small price to pay in order to lock down a platform with reportedly close to 10 million users — many of which have rushed in over the past two years of the ongoing global pandemic.

But Cynthia Williams, the new Wizards president has greater goals.

” The strategic acquisition of D&D Beyond provides a relationship with fans and valuable data-driven insight to unlock growth opportunities in product development and live services, as well as regional expansions,” Williams stated in a press release. “As part of Wizards, the brand’s leadership will soon be able to drive a unified, player-centric vision of the world’s greatest role-playing game on all platforms.”

Does that mean players will one day be able to purchase a book with a digital code inside, unlocking that content inside D&D Beyond? That’s unclear, but a similar strategy was employed not long ago for Magic: The Gathering, which for a time sold commander decks with digital codes inside that unlocked cards online.

Meanwhile, Wizards does not sell 5th edition D&D materials as PDFs. Books like Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft and the upcoming Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel exist only as physical products or as in-app content for D&D Beyond and other licensors like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. Through a partnership agreement with OneBookShelf, Wizards sells its back catalogue, which includes first and third editions, in PDF format.

If you’re a latchkey kid at heart who pines for the old Thundercats, Wheeled Warriors, or Masters of the Universe, you might want to keep an eye on MythForce. The roguelite RPG, inspired by the syndicated cartoons that were a staple of 1980s UHF television, launches on Windows PC in early access on April 20, exclusively from the Epic Games Store.

The game’s trailer (above), and its workin’-for-the-weekend title song (below), pretty much say everything about where Beamdog and Aspyr Media are taking this project. “MythForce is pure, unadulterated joy — straight out of Saturday mornings in my childhood,” Trent Oster, chief executive of Beamdog said in a statement. “It’s a big departure from the RPG classics we’re known for, but the Beamdog DNA is evident if you know where to look.”

In MythForce, players will explore a procedurally generated dungeon, leveling up their characters and unlocking perks each time they begin the adventure. In a press release, Beamdog stated that players must start from the beginning if they are to be defeated in true roguelite fashion. “But every playthrough makes them a little stronger.”

MythForce‘s early access launch will include four playable heroes (apparently the ones in the trailer) in a rokken-like-Dokken first episode titled Bastion of the Beastlord. “Players can brave the dungeon alone or join forces with friends in online co-op mode for up to four people,” Beamdog said.

Aspyr Media on Wednesday also announced that it had acquired Beamdog. Tuesday’s news release called MythForce the first original title for the pairing. Aspyr, founded in 1996, has been mainly known for ports and adaptations of earlier works published to other platforms.

Beamdog was founded in 2009 by Oster, one of BioWare’s six founders. The studio is best known for publishing three Baldur’s Gate remakes between 2012 and 2016. It also developed and published Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition in 2018.

“MythForce is a feel-good game that speaks to the kid in us,” Oster said. “In early access, we want to collaborate with players who are excited by our wholesome, 80s vision for MythForce, and build up the best game possible. Community will be key to getting us to 1.0.”

In Grand Theft Auto Online, Rockstar has built an elaborate theme park around the fantasy of being an unchained rich criminal. Players can pull off daring heists in heavily guarded casinos and on private islands rich with cocaine and gold; they can buy expensive sports cars and race them on Hot Wheels-style tracks; they can also hang out with Dr. Dre. It’s a picture of avarice, wealth, and stability that feels downright surreal in 2022.

On a purely technical level, GTA Online still looks great, and with tools like the flying Oppressor motorbike and the nuclear-powered Koastka submarine, Rockstar is able to keep players focus on new content over the old. There’s just one noticeable exception: the feel of the world itself. Every Grand Theft Auto game is packed full of references, commentaries, and jokes that are appropriate to the period in which the campaign is set. But while Grand Theft Auto 5’s single-player story remains comfortably wedged in the 2010’s, GTA Online clumsily marches forward.

Some of this isn’t Rockstar’s fault, because 2022 is a hellscape that none of us could truly have predicted. But other parts are very much Rockstar’s fault, like the ambient atmosphere of the city itself.

Image: Rockstar Games

The running joke of a proposition to legalize medical cocaine still hits just fine, even though it’s not particularly funny after seeing it for nearly a decade. Other things, like the vast majority of civilian barks and idle lines, were already awkward and uncomfortable at launch and have stubbornly remained in the game. Women on the street make casting couch jokes, and chatter excitedly about all the hashtag selfies they love to take. Fat pedestrians brag about how much they love lying to their doctors about what they eat, and talk about the next culinary adventure they’re planning. A prominent delivery brand is ‘Post-Op’ with taglines like ‘No longer just mail.’ The brand name of a set of silly scooters? Faggio. Do you get it. Do you get it?

Playing GTA Online feels like the hideous experience of sitting at a table with an edgy guy who would like to tell you all his terrible jokes, peppered with assurances that he’s not bigoted — he hates everyone equally.

Meanwhile, the GTA Online main story missions seem aimed at getting the player to care about the characters and the stakes of the world. Lester, a supporting character in the main game, features prominently in GTA Online. He helps the player character set up their criminal empire, provides tons of useful utility (like clearing off wanted levels, for one) and is later the primary logistical force behind the Diamond Casino heist. He is refreshingly one of the few visibly disabled characters in the Grand Theft Auto canon, using both a cane and wheelchair as mobility devices, and it’s actually pretty nice getting to hang out with the guy and see a side of him the campaign never shows off. The player even plays matchmaker between him and investor Georgina Cheng.

Image: Rockstar Games

Our protagonist in GTA Online is silent; most of the modern storytelling and texture of the world comes from hanging out with characters like Lester, Georgina, and Dr. Dre. This already stretches immersion, as our protagonist just kind of watches and gestures at all of the animated, over-the-top personalities they encounter. Other characters even comment on it, talking about how creepy and silent we are. The player can read it as their character being gobsmacked by the ridiculous antics, or role-play as a quiet and professional mercenary. But when you get out of a cutscene and into the world proper, which is stuffed full of cruel jokes and immature punchlines, it’s hard to really give a shit about the world, let alone saving it from doomsday, financial collapse, or Elon Musk-style supervillains.

At this point, GTA Online feels like falling into some weird alternate history loop, where few of the world-shifting historical events over the last decade or so actually came to pass. Instead, it is set to be a forever-land of plenty, where little people can still be the hero by becoming the outlaw in a corrupt and broken system. It’s just a shame that the world itself is so interested in punching down, as the atmosphere of shitty, petty jokes makes any gravitas or weight GTA Online can muster largely inconsequential.