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There’s a new Fate Musou, and this time it’s actually from the Musou people. It’s weird that it took this long for Omega Force to work with Type Moon on a Fate project. It’s especially weird since the Fate/Extella series was already based on the Musou style. Ironically, the house that Dynasty Warriors built opted for something much less traditional. Fate/Samurai Remnant is not only an original story in the series that started with Fate/Stay Night, it’s also a more experimental kind of “Warriors” game. It’s more comparable to Persona 5 Strikers than, say, Hyrule Warriors. It’s more comparable to Persona 5 Strikers than, say, Hyrule Warriors. Mostly what that means is you won’t be fighting massive hordes of dudes while galloping across massive maps and clearing objectives. Instead, you’re exploring various towns in Keian Era Japan as you unfold the mystery of the “Waxing Moon Ritual.” Fights are much smaller in scale, although the familiar Dynasty Warriors combat mechanics are still in play. Not unlike a Yakuza game, you’ll be running into smaller scraps against modest groups of enemies, or taking on challenging one-on-one boss fights that will not approve of blind button-mashing. We get it, we like petting animals In-between the fights you’ll buy food from street vendors, carve Buddha statuettes and sharpen your sword at home, pet dozens of dogs and cats (videogames in 2023, baby) and run errands for people who could kill you with their pinky finger. Fate/Samurai Remnant almost feels like a River City game instead of a Musou. Genre-blending aside, there’s no mistaking the story for anything but a new entry in the Fate series. While Nasu isn’t in charge of the scenario this time, there’s no shortage of waifu/husbando iterations of famous heroes and villains of yore. Ever since Fate/Stay Night in the early aughts, Type Moon has made a name for itself across several different mediums thanks to accomplished writer/creator Kinoko Nasu and an escalating rolodex of weirdly sexy versions of historical and literary figureheads. While Nasu isn’t in charge of the scenario this time, there’s no shortage of waifu/husbando iterations of famous heroes and villains of yore. Alan Moore couldn’t lace this guy’s boots. Sexy Robin Hood, sexy Francis Drake, sexy Jeanne D’arc, et al. Most notable this time is arguably Miyamoto Musashi, portrayed in Samurai Remnant as a rowdy, spiky-haired woman of the Berserker class. She’s one of the only Fate Berserkers who can form coherent sentences, and has the personality of a yoked-up himbo who lives for excessive drinking and fist fights. I would die for her. Genre-blending aside, there’s no mistaking the story for anything but a new entry in the Fate series. Besides the over the top characters, the most interesting part of Fate/Samurai Remnant is how it portrays the massive power imbalance between the Master/Servant pairings in contrast with Omega Force’s signature action style. Normally in Fate games you’d expect to raise Hell as the Servants (sexy history heroes) during action, while the Master (human, protagonist) is your story vehicle. Here, you spend most of the time playing as Miyamoto Iori, a regular dude and mediocre ronin samurai. In the typical Holy Grail War, a group of Masters are assigned Servants, who do most of the fighting on their behalf. Sort of like Human-shaped Pokemon. Masters may have certain powers or abilities and contribute, but they aren’t the muscle. Iori is no different, and can barely hold his own against regular enemies. Meanwhile Servants, such as the ever-popular Saber Iori’s paired with, are capable of superhuman feats of strength. But you’re stuck with Iori, which sounds like a huge bummer. Gods among men There’s a certain desperation Fate stories often want to instill in the audience, and that’s achieved here by forcing the player into Iori’s shoes. His damage isn’t great, his spells cost consumable gems, and he gets stuffed out of most moves while causing very little hit stun in return. However, as you scramble to survive you build up Affinity, opening the door to performing special tag team moves with Servants. The biggest problem is how long the story takes to get going, with what feels like several hours of setup There’s also a separate meter that builds alongside Affinity, which gives you temporary control of either Saber or another allied Servant if available. You get to harness the ridiculous power of Servants, but only for small bursts at a time. Outside of special occasions that give you more time with these godlike combatants, that’s all you get. And boy does it work. Usually in Musou/Warriors games everyone is more or less on the same playing field, and combat is more about being a larger than life general figure on the battlefield. Here you’re playing the role of a relative normie caught up way over his head in something beyond comprehension, and these restrictions help sell that vibe. That juxtaposition makes what would be standard play in other Musou titles feel special in an unfamiliar way. That juxtaposition makes what would be standard play in other Musou titles feel special in an unfamiliar way. Do we really need crafting that much? Even if the story isn’t my favorite, Fate/Samurai Remnant still holds court in the greater Fate universe. There’s a lot of detail and depth in this game, far more substantial than the average Musou joint. And I love these kinds of games for the record, so my expectations were fairly high. Some of the new Servant characters are awesome, and the way the game plays with its own series’ tropes to adapt the source material rules. At the end of the day, there’s a lot for Fate sickos to sink their teeth into, and there’s no outside required reading bogging it down. If the word “Saber” makes you think of angular bangs and a cutesy stray hair instead of a Civil War sidearm, this is a game for you. Do you have any thoughts about Lies of P? Tell us in the comments below, or talk about it on X, Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, Instagram, and HIVE.

Are you really able to play games anywhere with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate? Xbox Game Pass has revolutionized how you play games for not much money. But, aside from being able to play games on Day One of a game’s launch oftentimes, one big draw is the ability to utilize their Cloud to play games as well. We’ll break down what the Xbox Game Pass Cloud is and how to use it on both PC and mobile phones. What is Xbox Game Pass Cloud? Xbox Game Pass Cloud is another feature of the already expansive Xbox Game Pass. By choosing to pull from the cloud, it doesn’t require a full install of a game to be able to play it. In fact, Game Pass Cloud works very well with anything from your PC to a mobile phone. Yes, you can play Halo Infinite on your phone, and it runs great, as long as you have a good internet connection. Instead of taking potentially dozens to hundreds of GB of storage space, the Cloud pulls to your device using the internet. All of the heavy baggage of files aren’t stored on the device and you can play almost instantaneously anywhere. How can I use Xbox Game Pass Cloud? First off, you need to be a member of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. This option offers the ability to play games on your Xbox, PC, as well as the cloud. Luckily, it’s only $16.99 per month and comes with just a ton of benefits. Once you have that, ensure you have a really good internet connection wherever you are. If you’re using your mobile device, especially, connect to the wifi. With the amount of data that has to move, you won’t want to be using your own data for this. Luckily, you don't need to build yourself a fancy gaming PC to do it. You’ll need a couple of things to get going, though. You need an active Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and a controller that connects to your desired device. You also need a good, secure internet connection to this device. How do I connect to Xbox Game Pass Cloud on PC and mobile? If you’re playing Game Pass Cloud on PC: Connect a controller to your PC, via wired or wireless options. If you don’t know how to connect a controller to a PC, KnowTechie has a fantastic how-to over there. You’ll need this before you get going. Yes, any controller can work, including the Xbox Adaptive Controllers. Head to the Xbox app. Click on it and you’ll see tons of options. In the top left menu of the Xbox app, you’ll see Game Pass, My Library, etc. Click on “Cloud Gaming”. Once there, you can view options like “Recently Added” or “Most popular”. If you want to see all of the options, scroll down to “All console games”. Choose a game. You’ll see a button with a tiny cloud icon that says “Play”. Click the Play button and the game will automatically load up and start. As long as your controller is connected correctly, you can play flawlessly now. If you want to play Game Pass Cloud on mobile: Connect a Bluetooth controller to your mobile device. There are some great and not-so-great options out there. If you don’t have it, download the Xbox Game Pass app to your device. Run the Game Pass app. You’ll be able to see all options for PC and console, but you need to click on Cloud. Choose a game and hit Play. The game will automatically start playing and you can hit the ground running. The Xbox Game Pass Cloud is super easy to use once you know where to go. If you’re already paying for the normal PC or console versions of Game Pass, it’s not much more to get all of the possible benefits with Ultimate. Personally, I use an older smartphone that doesn’t connect to any service anymore and it still runs great. Since the device doesn’t matter, it just needs Wi-Fi to get connected properly. If you want to get started, you can grab Xbox Game Pass Ultimate easily in both 1-month and 3-month intervals over on Newegg. (Note: We may get some money when you click and purchase from our affiliate links. That money is going straight into making GameCrate even better. Also, Newegg is our publisher. Thanks!)

A new Story of Seasons spinoff has entered the chat. I feel like we were just talking about Rune Factory not too long ago. Huh! Silent Hope is a brand new game from Marvelous, but it’s vaguely set in the Rune Factory universe. You can tell by looking at the livestock - those cows are unmistakable! That’s about where the similarities end, as the unifying element for Story of Seasons and Rune Factory, farming, is all but gone. Instead, Silent Hope goes all in on the dungeon crawling, trading crops for color-coded loot. Pure, unfiltered dungeon-diving There are some neat ideas here, especially with how streamlined Silent Hope is. This is a game designed to get the player in and out of its dungeons with as little busywork as possible. You pick your character, jump into The Abyss, fight until you leave or get kicked out, sort out your goodies, then jump back in. Everything else on the margins is as simple as can be, intended to facilitate the most important part. This is a game designed to get the player in and out of its dungeons with as little busywork as possible. Silent Hope gets pretty close to hitting a home run in that regard. As the player you’re watching over a group of seven explorers, each with a combat class and a special role back at the base camp. Each role is some type of grindy resource-management, from planting crops and tending livestock to crafting components for blacksmithing. It’s all different-flavored versions of “number go up” menus, but it’s all so quick and simple each stop at camp is just a little dopamine injection. I dig it. The part that doesn’t land is the grinding curve. The chunk of game between the beginning and endgame is not measured well, and progress grinds (ha) to a halt. Good equipment drops slow down, cooking becomes less fruitful and crafting turns into a lot of labor for the sake of exp. By the time things pick up again you’ve already spent several hours spinning your wheels and dealing with HP sponge enemies so long the momentum struggles to turn around. The anime grindset All that said, I found a quiet boost in swapping characters. It isn’t super clear in the game, but when you change to a different fighter in a dungeon, your new hero gets a notable stat buff from the departing homie. The new guy also comes in with a fresh HP pool, extending your run if it was starting to turn down. So there’s a reason to try all seven heroes instead of sticking with the one you like the most. And catching up in levels and gear helps keep the dopamine flowing. While that does help, ultimately Silent Hope is still a slow burn, without a ton of gameplay variance to freshen up the novelty. Unless you’re fully bought into the grind loop, it’s hard to feel driven to see things all the way through. And I can’t imagine wanting to go back in after rolling credits, especially since there’s no multiplayer. It’s all different-flavored versions of “number go up” menus, but it’s all so quick and simple each stop at camp is just a little dopamine injection Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of stuff to like about Silent Hope. The vibes are adorable, and it’s fun to get those orange drops because they’re as goofy as they are powerful. Playing around with the different skills and combos each class has is compelling, and the story happening in the background is more interesting than you’d expect. It’s no Diablo IV, but Marvelous has made a solid effort here in trying something new with the Story of Seasons/Rune Factory/comically rotund livestock brands. A pure dungeon-crawler is not what I would’ve expected from the folks known for farming games, and especially not one so geared towards fast, simple action. A lot of Silent Hope’s problems stem from under the hood tuning, and I can see another swing at this idea landing a much cleaner hit. A lot of Silent Hope’s problems stem from under the hood tuning, and I can see another swing at this idea landing a much cleaner hit. I’m down for another one of these, especially if I get to keep bludgeoning monsters with a greatsword-sized turnip. Silent Hope launches on October 3, 2023 for the Nintendo Switch and PC. A Nintendo Switch code was provided by the publisher for this review. Do you have any thoughts about Silent Hope? Tell us in the comments below, or talk about it on X, Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, Instagram, and HIVE.

We’re talking 98% of the SAG-AFTRA union members said yes. The unions are, ironically, working overtime lately. We recently reported on the imminent vote for video game actors to join the fight, and, well, they didn’t disappoint. SAG-AFTRA, if you haven’t been paying attention to the news over the past several months, has been hitting Hollywood pretty hard. Not only was the WGA (Writers Guild of America) in an even longer strike against Hollywood, but the actors were striking as well, hitting from two sides. Now, SAG-AFTRA is out for blood when it comes to the video game industry. Voice actors are pretty notoriously underpaid for their work in video games and they all agree that should change. We’re not talking about some of them either. They held their official vote and had an overwhelming 98.32% of voters say yes to the strike out of 34,687 member votes. This does not mean that they are striking just yet. It just means that SAG-AFTRA has demands and, if the terms or some sort of agreement are not met, they can immediately call for a strike without hesitation. The terms are under what’s called the Interactive Media Agreement and they’ve been in negotiations since way back in October 2022. The companies, some of the largest in the industry, have not offered acceptable terms to agree upon. After nearly a year, it’s come to a head. The bargaining session starts today and lasts until September 28th. Now that the strike authorization has been voted for, if the game publishers refuse to meet terms this week, a strike can come as soon as this Friday. Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA and The Nanny herself, is done “playing games”. She explained their stance on the game companies. “It’s time for the video game companies to stop playing games and get serious about reaching an agreement on this contract,” said Drescher. “The result of this vote shows our membership understands the existential nature of these negotiations, and that the time is now for these companies — which are making billions of dollars and paying their CEOs lavishly — to give our performers an agreement that keeps performing in video games as a viable career.” These companies, as mentioned, are among the biggest in the entire industry. Getting to an agreement with them would be a game-changer for any negotiations moving forward. They include (in alphabetical order): Activision Productions Inc Blindlight LLC Disney Character Voices Inc. Electronic Arts Productions Inc. Formosa Interactive LLC Insomniac Games Inc. Epic Games Take 2 Productions Inc. VoiceWorks Productions Inc. WB Games Inc. After 5 rounds of bargaining, the companies still won’t budge. While it’ll likely affect release timelines for video games in the future, it’s time for action. SAG-AFTRA has got this.

This Souls-Like retelling of Pinocchio shows that being human isn’t always easy. As a huge fan of From Software titles like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Bloodborne, when I saw the announcement for Lies of P, I was beyond stoked. I was still cautiously optimistic because I have played several games that try to capture the magic that FromSoft’s games bring to the table, and most of them just don’t feel quite right. I’m happy to say that while not perfect, Lies of P does the best job that I’ve seen so far. Lies of P is a story based on the literary classic Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. It’s about a puppet that wants more than anything to become a real boy and he goes on a perilous journey to do so. While that story was a children’s tale, this one is not. The setting for Lies of P is a Belle Époque era world that just hasn’t had the best of luck. Not only is there a disease going around that is petrifying people, but all of the puppets that were created to help humans have now gone insane and are killing everyone. Pinocchio is then awoken in order to put a stop to all of this madness. Lie to get what I came for Lies of P’s developers, Neowiz, have a lot of love for Souls games, and that’s putting it lightly. Lies of P meshes together the fast paced styles of both Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice with how its combat, dodging, and guarding systems work. Guarding is a very big component of the combat here. The way it works is that you can block an incoming attack, but if you just hold the guard button or don’t have the correct timing, you will take a bit of damage. If you retaliate against the enemy quickly though and hit them without taking any additional damage, you will recover a certain portion of your health. If you block an attack at the perfect time though, you won’t take any damage, and this will build up an invisible meter that can cause the enemy to be able to be staggered if you are successful enough times with your perfect guards and then are able to hit them with a charged heavy attack. Unleash the fury Enemies also have attacks where they begin to glow red called Fury attacks. These can’t be dodged through or blocked, but instead have to be perfect guarded. The only issue I have with this is that the timing window for perfect guards is incredibly tight and could probably be upped a few frames. Also, a lot of the enemies you are dealing with are puppets, and they have erratic attack patterns due to their stilted movements. This will definitely make the beginning of the game much more difficult for people who are just trying to block everything. Dodging is also extremely important, and being someone who got Sekiro vibes off of this game with the heavy emphasis on perfect guarding, I neglected dodges for several hours. There are some boss fights that became a million times easier once I started utilizing my dodge. The only real complaint I have about the dodge is that there are two abilities (dodging immediately after a dodge and a dodge recovery when on the ground) that were locked away behind an upgrade system and those felt like they should have been available from the beginning of the game. Attack of the killer…puppets? The weapon combat is fast and smooth, with light, heavy, and charged attacks with whatever weapon you choose at the start: a rapier, saber, or a greatsword. There are many weapons in the game to be found that range from a giant hammer to even a fire axe. The best part about the weapons is that they can be mixed and matched. Each weapon (with the exception of boss weapons) can have its top half removed from the handle section and then you can switch them around however you like. So if you really like the blade of a certain sword but you wish it could use the attack style of the rapier you have, you can make a new weapon like that. Every weapon can also be ascended for higher damage output using materials found in the world. You can even find different crank handles that change which stat the weapon scales damage with, or just raise the current stat a letter grade to make it stronger with that particular stat. Speaking of scaling, leveling up in Lies of P works just like a Souls game. Pinocchio just has to talk to a lady named Sophia in the hub area and she can increase his stats in exchange for ergo. Defeating enemies or finding certain items will give Pinocchio ergo, and this essence can also be used to purchase items, equipment, or ascend weapons. There are no strings on me There are plenty of other items to be found in the game like throwable weapons such as thermite or even saw blades, and all of these can be equipped to Pinocchio’s belt. There are upper and lower as well as an extra compartment to the belt, and these can hold a few items each. The two most important items are pulse cells and the grinder. Pulse cells heal Pinocchio and the grinder will replenish a weapon’s durability. Durability isn’t really a huge issue in the opening hours of the game, but from about the halfway point onwards, it becomes something you have to stay on top of. Another aspect of the grinder that shouldn’t be ignored is the fact that it can be equipped with an elemental effect. This can be used to put an effect like fire or shock onto a weapon for a brief period. Different enemies and bosses are weak to different elements, so using these can make a huge difference in battle. Armed to the nose Pinocchio is also equipped with an arm that can take on many forms. It can be modified to be stronger and can be turned into a flamethrower, shield, or even a cannon. I didn’t use this a ton, but it for sure helped sometimes when I was in a pinch. Enemies and bosses have a good deal of variety to them, with plenty of new stronger variants of enemies in each new chapter. If you think I’m kidding about the variety, just note that there is an operatic puppet spider lady. Yep, you read that right. Bosses were absolutely wild and always brought a nice stiff challenge, even if I do feel like the difficulty ramps up significantly where it should have had a little bit more of a gradual climb as opposed to a giant leap. My world’s on fire, how ‘bout yours? Lies of P isn’t the open world game you might be expecting. It’s broken up into chapters and follows a narrow progression. I don’t really think this is a bad thing though. There are enough places to explore within each chapter that things don’t get stale and you can return at any point to previous areas to do so. There are plenty of secrets to find, characters to interact with, and little side quests to obtain and complete. Sometimes these will even merit the player a record, which can be listened to in order to increase Pinocchio’s humanity. I really dig the tunes, too. They are calm, peaceful, and just all around pleasant to the ears. There is a hub world of sorts called Hotel Krat and this is where you will spend a lot of time in between chapters. It’s where you can upgrade, shop a bit, and relax. The locations in the game primarily take place in places throughout the city. Places like the streets, an Arcade, or an Opera house. There are also areas like forests, a factory, and a cathedral. A beautiful but broken world Most of the areas feel rundown, dark, and empty besides the few people left inside who haven't been taken by disease or the things stalking the streets. It's a sad and overall bleak world and the game captures that aspect quite well. Occasionally during dialogue with a character, you will be given a choice between two responses. One is typically the truth and the other a lie, and these choices impact how the game ends. It also shows that sometimes lies are just a part of being human. The visuals within the game are absolutely wonderful and the framerate was as smooth as silk during the majority of my first playthrough. There are a few visual bugs like certain weapons clipping through floors or large enemies clipping into the background, but nothing that was too terrible. While I do think the audio mixing could use a little tweaking, I really enjoyed all of the music, voice acting, and even the sound of the wind blowing through the trees in certain areas. Little touches like that really elevated the overall experience. Master of puppets Lies of P also has a new game plus mode, which is excellent because who doesn’t like keeping most of their gear and going through a game again with more of a challenge? There are a few things that I think could be improved in Lies of P, like the dodge issues I mentioned earlier as well as the parry window timing and difficulty spikes, but overall this is just an excellent game. It brings so many brilliant elements together and creates its own identity with them. Do you have any thoughts about Lies of P? Tell us in the comments below, or talk about it on X, Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, Instagram, and HIVE.

It’s going to take time for Unity to earn trust back, but this is a good start. After a pretty grueling week or so of waiting for some sort of response, Unity put out a big blog post over the weekend that talks about their folly and what they should have done in the first place. It offers an extensive apology and details about their new policies that should be a good compromise for game developers going forward. Marc Whitten, head of Unity Create which handles the engine, started the entire blog post with a simple “I am sorry”. The next couple of paragraphs can be summed up as “Unity screwed up. We get it and want to try to fix this as soon as possible.” After looking at the new policy, devs are in agreement that it is leaps and bounds better than the original lay of the land. Starting with the Unity Personal plan, they’re keeping it entirely free. They increased that dreaded $100,000 cap that was mentioned in the original Runtime Fee plan to $200,000. Additionally, anyone making less than $1 million for the prior 12 months will be hit with the Runtime Fee, meaning that a dev gets to be entirely on their feet before they start working with them on payment. This lines up a little closer to Unreal’s $1 million policy. Another big deal is that Personal plans will no longer be required to use the Made With Unity splash screen before a game starts. While it seems simple, that’s a huge deal for many devs and speaks volumes to this olive branch that Unity is proposing. Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise users also got some great news. The new Runtime Fee policy only applies starting with the next LTS (Long Term Support) version that ships next year. If you remain on the current version, your terms will not change. This gives devs time to finish their current games without issues, at the least. It also gives them the option to remain with Unity going forward instead of a forced ultimatum. But, they went a step further for the Pro and Enterprise members. They introduced a real choice for those worried about going bankrupt over using Unity. The choice sits as either a 2.5% revenue share or “the calculated amount based on the number of new people engaging with your game each month”. You get billed the lesser amount between the two. Members get to self-report now, instead of the horrible black box reporting that they had originally proposed. “Black Box”, like in airplanes, would have meant that only Unity knew the answers and you just had to trust them. As we mentioned in a previous piece about this situation, this entire scenario resembles what happened to Dungeons and Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast. WotC, late last year, proposed changing the terms of their famed OGL 1.0a which let creators work with their systems and IP at no cost to them. It became a similar situation to Unity in the here and now. And just like Unity did, they came back with a new proposal that made big changes while still offering benefits to both sides and compromising with the users. The positives are that a lot of smaller game engines are getting more spotlight from this fiasco. Godot, an open-source engine, got a lot of support from devs, including a huge donation from Terraria developer Re-Logic. If the WotC situation did nothing else, it shined lights on a ton of lesser-known tabletop games as well. So, this is having very similar outcomes. While it’s going to take a lot of time for game developers to fully earn back Unity’s trust, this is a real start on that journey. It’s nice to see a happy ending like this once in a while.

It turned out that the biggest villain that the Square Enix Avengers would face is time itself. The idea of “Games as a Service” isn’t really a new concept. When we talk about the idea of “GaaS” or “Live services”, that could be as little as a microtransaction in a game all the way up to being a product that has constantly produced content in your face with changing maps and monthly upgrades. I think it’s the catch-all wording that makes things messy. Nowadays, if a game announces that it will be a live service, it brings out a visceral groan from the depth of my soul. I just know that it’ll eventually end. This doesn’t happen if a game just says “You can buy extra cosmetics” or “We have a season pass”, even though those are all part of the same concept. But, the idea of Games as a Service means that it could be either a Fortnite or an Anthem, in my brain. Marvel and Square Enix had high hopes for Marvel's Avengers. Earlier this year, Crystal Dynamics announced that their big Marvel game about the Avengers, aptly named Marvel’s Avengers, would have the plug pulled this month. Marvel’s Avengers spent its entire three-year run in an uphill battle for its life. When it was announced during E3 2019, the idea was, as Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury in the original The Avengers movie would put it, to “bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more”. Sure, you could play the new game single-player, but playing with other people is what Marvel’s Avengers wanted to focus on. Live service meant that you could expect a churning out of new heroes to join the roster. This game had the potential to be the true Marvel Ultimate Alliance of the 2020s and bring together every major hero you could name to face off against AIM and other forces of evil. If you were playing Marvel games before the big superhero craze in Hollywood, you likely remember Marvel Ultimate Alliance. It was a game with an original story, a huge list of heroes to play as, and incredibly fun, addictive gameplay that became my personal comparison tool when anything superhero came out going forward. I feel like I've read this story before. And, as you can assume from my tone here, it wasn’t. The pandemic hit right smack dab between the original announcement of the game and its release. As with a lot of games during that era, it was affected. While the game definitely suffered from that, it seems that the game was just (Doctor) doomed to fail. The game came out with a small bit of fanfare and felt like it leaned too heavily on its “live service” foundation. The game’s story was pretty good and some of the DLC really understood the assignment. But, as a game designed to be a live service, it felt lacking and became part of meme culture. Aside from that, the reception has been mixed since day one. Design flaws mean that it had a difficult user interface to navigate and the game didn’t feel polished enough to merit such a high hype. The redeeming factor is that the story was pretty good, as long as you looked past the issues with bugs and repetitive gameplay. It became a “buy it when it’s on sale” game. They offered an exclusivity for Spider-Man on PlayStation, which to this day is locked only to that console. The game was just never given time to shine. But, it also leaned too heavily on being a GaaS. Square Enix, the publisher of the game, even called the outcome “disappointing” in 2021. This was meant to be the beginning of a big franchise and it sputtered out. Live services can make or break a game. Back in January 2023, Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix officially made the call and announced that the game’s official servers would be shut down this year. No one was surprised. Disappointed, sure. But, not surprised. Come September 30th, 2023, Marvel’s Avengers will be shut down. You’ll still be able to play the single-player campaign. But, without the extra heroes, DLC, or ability to team up with other players, you’re playing a desolate solo story with no special perks. Digital storefronts like Steam have dropped the pricing of the game super low. You can find the “Definitive Edition” on Steam right now for $3.99. The story alone makes that worth it if nothing else. They removed the microtransactions for this version as well. So, you can play the game as-is going forward, even if the online modes will be disabled. If you want to play the single-player option, you need to navigate through some required co-op, which will also be disabled. So, there’s no telling how that’ll affect the game going forward. As with many live service and online games before it, it could potentially become lost media, if it requires the servers to be properly playable. But, considering many games of this nature have come back via private fan servers, this may not be the end of the game. However, unlike the comic book heroes that are presented in the game, Marvel’s Avengers, with its lackluster gameplay and unsolved issues, may not come back from the dead at all. Only time will tell.

Unity grabbed the shovel, started digging, and won't stop. New Reviews on GameCrate! More News from GameCrate! This Week on The Gamer Lounge: BALDUR'S GATE 3 - SpeedFIGHT Competition The Gamer Lounge played Baldur's Gate 3! The game may be a strong candidate for Game of the Year... but have you ever tried to play it... REALLY FAST?!

Unity has lost the trust of so many people that Re-Logic is donating to open source game engines now. There’s a term used on the internet: FAFO. Since we’re family-friendly here at GameCrate, it essentially equates to “What goes around, comes around”. For those keeping track, Unity is currently knee-deep in the FO part of the acronym. We reported last week about Unity’s “fantastic” idea to rug-pull the majority of game developers out there with a new fee and a full TOS change, right under everyone’s noses. People did the math and realized that in a lot of cases, this could bankrupt entire studios, needlessly, and ruin small devs that don’t have good backing or support. Well, Unity is learning the hard way now that trust is easy to lose and not so easy to earn back. The game developers are scared. They know Unity. But, learning a new game engine isn’t exactly a cakewalk. While Unreal Engine 5 has been a possibility for many developers to start learning, open-source engines have been getting a spotlight this past week. Things like indie or mobile games don’t generally need the power that comes from Unreal and that’s why Unity was always better suited for them. Re-Logic makes Terraria, a game not made in Unity. But, with the success of their 2D, procedurally generated survival game, they have some walking around money to spare. So, they decided to use that money for good. On Monday, they announced that they’re donating $100,000 to open-source game engines, Godot and FNA, each. Then, they plan to continue donating $1,000 each month to both just for the sake of showing their support. Re-Logic doesn’t even use either of them. But, the one caveat is that they “remain good people” and continue to build the engines to be better and approachable. The entire game developer community has been dealing with how to handle the future of their games. With such a sudden change, games that have been in development for years are now having to make difficult decisions of canceling projects or starting the slow transition to other engines. We will continue to watch this situation as it progresses.

Leaked documents show Phil Spencer discussing the possibility of purchasing the Mario maker. Microsoft has been fighting for their lives, trying to figure out how to get past the FTC to acquire Activision Blizzard. But, every so often, we get a glimpse into the minds heading the company behind Windows Vista and Halo 5. Phil Spencer, the head honcho over at Xbox, is pretty forthcoming with information, generally. But, everyone has secrets. Court documents have been a real problem when it comes to the court case that the FTC has brought upon Microsoft. This time around, some unredacted papers and emails from 2020 have shined a light on some interesting considerations. You see, Phil Spencer wanted Microsoft to purchase Nintendo, among other things. While that might sound like a wacky scenario, Microsoft has been working much closer with the Japanese-based company for quite a few projects over the last several years. In an email thread with Takeshi Numoto, screenshotted below by IGN, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Microsoft, Spencer was discussing the ideas of bigger, popular companies they could possibly acquire. Starting with Tiktok, Numoto mentioned Super Mario’s parent company. “Takeshi, I totally agree that Nintendo is THE prime asset for us in gaming, and today gaming is our most likely path to consumer relevance,” Spencer explained. It’s no surprise that the idea came up. They go on further to explain that Nintendo would help keep them relevant. One thing that Xbox has argued during the FTC trial is that they’re losing the console wars. When compared to Sony and Nintendo, they claim that they’ve always been in last place in terms of relevance and popularity. He commented about their collabs and intent to work together much more. “I’ve had numerous conversations [with Nintendo] about tighter collaboration and feel like if any US company would have a chance with Nintendo we are probably in the best position.” While Nintendo has been around for over 130 years in various forms, Spencer looked at it as an untapped market. He said this would be a “career move”. “The unfortunate (or fortunate for Nintendo) situation is that Nintendo,” he continued, “is sitting on a big pile of cash, they have a [Board of Directors] that until recently has not pushed for further increases in market growth or stock appreciation.” During the conversation, Spencer also mentions that a ”full writeup” about both Nintendo and Valve. The fact that Xbox wanted to purchase Valve from Gabe “Lord Gaben” Newell seems significant as well. In that scenario, Microsoft would essentially have a monopoly on the entire PC market of games, between their already successful PC Game Pass and Steam. As we all know, this never came to be. But, there’s an alternate reality somewhere in the vast multiverse where the Xbox Switch exists, instead of the Activision Blizzard acquisition. And Halo would be on it.

In a race with Forza Horizon, The Crew Motorfest comes up a bit short The Crew Motorfest is the latest iteration in the popular franchise. In the past, with the first two games, you have been able to race across the United States. Being confined to one location in this game removes some of the allure of the originals.. Once you are able to do so, bring up the world map. This is the hub where you will find all of the events. Interestingly, the map is interactive as you can see cars racing down a road on the map. Activities in the game will include either a car, boat, or plane. Follow Along the Multiple Stories with Playlists For starters, there are the Playlists. Different playlists represent car cultures from around the world. Despite the game being in Hawaii, they found an excellent way to give this international flavor. One great example is the "Made in Japan" playlist. In addition to the Japanese one I just mentioned, there is one for "Dream Cars," another for "American Muscle," "Hawaii Scenic," "Rule the Streets," and more. Each has its own vibe, with the "American Muscle" category giving you a history lesson on American muscle cars as you complete activities. Every playlist that is available in the game is available from the beginning. However, some of them might require that you buy a specific vehicle. Challenge Yourself Throughout Hawaii These playlists are only one part of the equation. You will also see different "feats" available as you explore the map. Feats are a part of the free driving experience. They can begin automatically by passing through a gate with a suitable vehicle. In addition to those different "feats" available to you, there are also thematic challenges. If you are going through the Japan playlist, for example, you might encounter a challenge called "Nihon No Hashiriya." In this challenge, you must drive 15 minutes above 150 Km/h in freeride at night. Battle It Out Online in Multiplayer If you want to test your skills against other players, you can do so with a couple of different modes. There is the "Grand Races," which are races with up to 28 players. These are in three separate sections and will take approximately ten minutes. The second option is the Demolition Royale. This is a battle royale for The Crew Motorfest. You "fight" in crews of four and have up to eight crews, meaning there can be up to 32 players here. The Crew Motorfest is accessible in other ways as well. You can have it on the easiest mode, where there isn’t a challenge. On the flip side, you can put it on the hardest difficulty available and have to fight for every inch as you battle it out. Other accessibility options include subtitles and controlling how they look. There is also a color blind mode, a high contrast mode, a chance to change the text size, and more. It Isn’t Always A Smooth Ride Through Hawaii One issue I had is that since you do have to always connect to Ubisoft's servers, the quick resume feature on the Xbox Series X doesn't matter. Another irritation for me was not being able to select your starting location. Ideally, I would like to pick up the game where I left off, but you always have to start in the same spot. Unfortunately, you can't freely use the fast travel system until after you have completed ten playlists. There was an instance where the game got hung up and could not stay connected to the server, but that was a rare event in all of my time with this game. If inactive for too long, you will get booted out of the game and sent back to the menu. I understand this is probably to manage server load. Chances are I will get kicked out of the game though if I have to get up to do something. Closing Thoughts Overall, The Crew Motorfest is a fun game. If they could fix those issues I discussed with a patch, I would enjoy the game more. I recommend downloading the demo and checking it out since this is a departure from the standard Crew formula. Do you have any thoughts about The Crew Motorfest? Tell us in the comments below, or talk about it on X, Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, Instagram, and HIVE Social. Don’t forget to tag us in the discussion! And don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly Patch Notes!

Sometimes the Plug-And-Play systems look really nice, to be honest. When people think of plug-and-play video game systems, they generally think of the swath of various throwaway systems that you find at your local pharmacy or outlet store. Shelves are adorned with mini arcade cabinets and licensed Intellivision hunks of plastic. Or, maybe you have some memories of playing one of the many AtGames’ Atari Flashback systems that have been out over the past two decades. In any case, My Arcade’s Atari Gamestation Pro takes the idea and gives it a tad bit more polish than older iterations. My Arcade, admittedly, generally is the creator of a lot of those shoveled-out systems you see on clearance. But, at least they’re properly licensed and can offer some really good games sometimes. They also tend to have pretty good controllers. The Atari Gamestation Pro is a small plug-and-play system that comes with two wireless controllers and over 200+ games built-in. Where many have failed over and over, the Gamestation Pro looks a lot nicer. The controller caught my attention first and foremost. While a lot of the crappy Flashback versions tried to perfectly mimic the look of a classic Atari joystick, this one merely takes inspiration from it, while bringing in a modern appeal and quality-of-life changes. Oh, and both controllers and the console itself have RGB LED lighting because of course it does. It’s aimed at a modern gamer after all and anything that doesn’t have neon lights is clearly not for gamers. The Atari Gamestation Pro also brings 200+ games with it. The big deal here is that it’ll include a library consisting of classics from 2600, 5200, 7800, and Arcade, as well as some “bonus titles” that aren’t specifically named. This, according to them, is the first time that’s all happened. The Atari Gamestation Plus becomes the Pro Back in January 2023, My Arcade announced the Atari Gamestation Plus. It was set for $99.99, includes 200+ games, and offers essentially the same thing. According to rumblings on the internet, it was due out last June. A quick cursory look shows that the Gamestation Plus is nowhere to be found. But, when it was announced, the retro gaming forums, such as Reddit, had some complaints. They complained that the system didn’t include the Atari Paddle at all, which is literally a big knob that acts as a controller, used for games like PONG. They also pointed out that the joystick was an 8-direction instead of a smooth 360-degree rotation. Initial impressions mention that there didn’t seem to be expandable memory for saves, either. While the controller may not have changed, the new joystick includes a new little paddle knob on the controller. There’s no mention of the directional options, but it’s likely still the same as it doesn’t affect gameplay much on an Atari system. Plus, the press release mentions a Micro SD slot for saves. It’s not stated that the Gamestation Plus evolved into the Pro, but it’s pretty clearly the case here. Everything is pretty identical to each other, physically, aside from the new paddle in the corner of the controller. Also, the Plus has been swept off any mention from My Arcade’s website. While $99.99 may seem a tad steep for a potentially throwaway plug-and-play system, we hope it can be a bit more this time around. Plug-and-play video game systems are the candy corn of the game industry. The Atari Gamestation Pro is due out on October 31st, 2023. With pricing set at $99.99, pre-orders start today on the My Arcade website. The way they turned the Gamestation Plus into a ghost feels fitting that it comes out on Halloween.