Author: sick skills

Posted on by — Leave a comment

GAME Praises Nintendo and Talks of ‘A Constant Supply of Stock’ for Switch

Nintendo, with the exception of the relatively niche Xenoblade Chronicles 2, has pushed out its big-selling retail games ahead of the festive shopping season. It’s also been ramping up its production in order to ensure that retailers have enough Switch systems to meet demand – now the CEO of GAME in the UK, Martyn Gibbs, spoke positively about the console’s prospects.

Talking to MCV about stock for the retailer, Gibbs praised Nintendo for its efforts in turning around early supply issues.

We’ve got enough Switch coming in on a week-by-week basis, Nintendo needs to take some real credit operationally for how they’ve managed to work this through.

We’ve now got a constant supply of stock coming into the business on a weekly basis, Don’t get me wrong I don’t have [Distribution Centre] stuffed full of 100,000 units, but we do have a good, regular supply from Nintendo.

Gibbs also addressed the perspective that Switch may have ‘peaked early’ for the shopping season with the timing of Super Mario Odyssey’s launch; he disagreed, expected it to be a hot product over the next six weeks.

I’m not sure on that, it’s probably going to be the number one tech-toy for peak, so I think across those two spectrums and across such a wide-ranging base of gamers who all want to play Nintendo Switch I think we’re clear it’s got great demand, the absolute peak of that demand I don’t think we’re anywhere near yet.

More positive vibes around the Switch, and it’s pleasing to see retailers sharing confidence in the system. It could certainly be a lucrative festive period for Nintendo.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Random: Pokémon Fans Are Losing Their Minds Over Pikachu Talking

Pokémon fans, like any other fans you could mention, aren’t always welcoming of change. That’s certainly the case with those who have seen the Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You!, which features a Pikachu that can (gasp!) speak English.

The most famous Pocket Monster of all has traditionally only been able to utter its name, but in the new film it actually converses with the hero Ash. 

You can watch that moment here, but be warned – not only does the original Tweet contain bad language, there are naughty-type swears in the footage as the audience reacts in shock.

Kate Bristol is the person behind Pikachu’s new voice, and she told Guardian Australia about the recording process:

I know a lot of people might think it’s out of the ordinary for Pikachu to speak English. It’s definitely out of the ordinary. It was hilarious being in the theater with the rest of the cast and hearing the audience’s reaction as a huge collective ‘What?’ rose up.

Personally, I did my best to mimic [Japanese voice actor] Ikue Otani as she is the master. This part in Japanese is adorable. At the end of the day Pokémon is a good time and I sure as hell enjoyed being a Pikachu for 0.5 seconds.

Some fans have interpreted the scene as a dream sequence which occurs entirely in Ash’s imagination. What’s your take? Let us know with a comment.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

N. Sane Offerings This Holiday for the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

Top-Ranked Remastered Collection for PlayStation 4 to Delight Fans of all Ages on Black Friday

SANTA MONICA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Crash™ fans will have more to be thankful for this holiday season, as Activision, a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI), shared today some of the hottest offerings of the season for Crash Bandicoot™ N. Sane Trilogy. On November 24, participating retailers nationwide are getting into the Crash craze with awesome deals, including GameStop and Walmart in the U.S. which will have special Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy Black Friday bundles sure to make any gift giver or recipient happy. Additionally, there’s plenty of officially-licensed Crash loot now available to stock up on before the holiday rush.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171115006136/en/

GameStop revealed that its Crash Bandicoot™ N. Sane Trilogy Black Friday Bundle will include the gam ...

GameStop revealed that its Crash Bandicoot™ N. Sane Trilogy Black Friday Bundle will include the game — and a never-before-released pair of collector’s edition Crash Bandicoot socks! (Photo: Business Wire)

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy reached critical acclaim as the top-selling¹ remastered PlayStation® 4 collection to date in 2017. IGN called the game “N. Credible fun,” while Common Sense Media rated the game “5 out of 5 stars.” Game Informer said, “Vicarious Visions made it fun again, without altering its DNA – a feat that deserves recognition.” Biogamer Girl called it “an insanely addictive throwback.”

Those who don’t own Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy yet have the perfect opportunity to get in on the fun with two special Black Friday bundle deals:

  • GameStop has revealed that its Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy Black Friday Bundle² will include the game — and a never-before-released pair of collector’s edition Crash Bandicoot socks! Hitting fans with the nostalgically-designed socks, this GameStop Black Friday exclusive is bringing back the ‘90s. These premium socks feature an iconic in-game image of Crash’s face with his tongue sticking out, perfect for fans who want to spin, jump and wump just like Crash!
  • Walmart also has announced that its Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy Black Friday Bundle² will include the game, as well as the Stormy Ascent level. Those who purchase the Walmart bundle will get their hands on this notorious and insanely challenging level chock-full of vial-throwing lab assistants, flying birds, retracting steps iron spikes, and much more!

Shoppers with Crash fans on their lists will have plenty of options to choose from this holiday season. Fans will be delighted by a nine-inch vinyl, collectible Crash Bandicoot statue by First4Figures, available now. Crash enthusiasts who wish to adorn themselves or their homes with Crash gear have plenty of officially-licensed options by Numskull, including special Holiday sweaters, T- shirts, candles, mugs and more. Fans can also check out Changes for Crash apparel at great stores including Walmart, Amazon, Spencer’s and Urban Outfitters. Those who want to round out their Funko! POP vinyl figure collection can preorder Crash Bandicoot or Neo Cortex figures now.

Crash Bandicoot, one of the most famous game characters in history, takes center stage this holiday in the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. Featuring beautiful remastered HD graphics, fans can play as Crash or his sister Coco in the three games that started it all: Crash Bandicoot™, Crash Bandicoot™ 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot™ 3: Warped. With more than 100 levels to explore, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy takes advantage of PlayStation® 4 features and offers brand-new lighting, animations, textures, models and recreated cinematics—all in dazzling “N. Hanced Fur-K” and PS4™ Pro HD.

For the first time, fans can enjoy seeing how they stack up against their friends and other players around the world via online leaderboards. Full analog stick support and a unified save system and checkpoint system will make it easier for new fans to enjoy the classic adventures, while improved bonus levels and time trials in this epic trilogy will challenge the hardest of the ‘Coot core!

Activision and Vicarious Visions are honoring the heritage of Crash throughout the trilogy in a variety of ways, including a fully remastered game soundtrack packed with all the didgeridoos, xylophones and thumpin’ bass lines you can handle, as well as newly recorded dialogue from some of the familiar voice actors who appear in the original Crash Bandicoot games, including Jess Harnell, Lex Lang and Debi Derryberry, among others.

Developed by Vicarious Visions, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is available now on PS4™ and PS4™ Pro. For more information about Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, please visit www.crashbandicoot.com or follow @CrashBandicoot on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

About Activision

Headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., Activision is a leading global producer and publisher of interactive entertainment. Activision maintains operations throughout the world and is a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), an S&P 500 company. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company’s website, www.activision.com or by following @Activision.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Activision Publishing’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including statements with respect to the expected Crash Bandicoot™ N. Sane Trilogy Black Friday deals, including the dates, features and price of the Walmart Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy Black Friday Bundle and GameStop Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy Black Friday Bundle, are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause Activision Publishing’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include unanticipated product delays and other factors identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Activision Publishing and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Activision Publishing nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Activision Publishing or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

© 2017 Activision Publishing, Inc. ACTIVISION, CRASH and CRASH BANDICOOT are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners.

¹ Based on 2017 unit sales in North American and the European Union, through September 2017, according to the NPD Group, GfK, GSD and Activision Blizzard internal estimates.
² All pricing and offer availability are determined by retailers and are subject to change in their sole discretion.

Activision
Kerstine Johnson
Kerstine.Johnson@activision.com
or
Step 3
Wiebke Vallentin
Wiebke@step-3.com

Source: Activision Blizzard

News Provided by Acquire Media

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Music: Metroid, Kid Icarus And Earthbound Composer Has Released His First Album

Video game composer Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka – also known as Chip Tanaka – has just released his first full album, and the opening single Beaver even has its own animated music video featuring Michael Jackson, several disembodied breasts and Donald Trump. The album is called Django and it launches today.

Tanaka created the music for games like Earthbound, Metroid, Super Mario Land, Kid Icarus and Balloon Fight, and today is president of Creatures, which is involved with the Pokémon franchise.

As well as working on music, Tanaka has assisted in many of Nintendo’s hardware ventures, including the Famicom and Game Boy audio hardware, as well as the NES Zapper, Game Boy Camera, and Game Boy Printer.

Here’s the official PR:

As an innovator who has been transmitting game music across the globe since the 1980s when he worked as a sound engineer at Nintendo, Hirokazu Tanaka knows chipsounds. His illustrious career has taken him from games (EarthBound Beginnings, EarthBound, Super Mario Land) to TV (the Pokémon animated series) to feature films. And now , for the first time ever, he is releasing a complete album under his stage name, Chip Tanaka.

For two decades, Tanaka has been channeling his singular inner whimsy and his love for reggae, dub, and techno to bridge the gap between game music and dance music. This collection of 13 tracks from his own personal label represents a new creative pinnacle. The music video for the lead tr ack, “Beaver,” has been produced by Jun Oson, known for his prolific work in the Asahi Shogakusei Shinbun newspaper, the NHK Educational TV series Aware! Meisakukun, and a number of advertising projects.

Says Tanaka, whose live shows have taken him across Japan and abroad: “If my music can be divided into ʻfor adultsʼ and ʻfor kids,ʼ then this is the culmination of m y harder side, the kind of game music you hear in EarthBoundʼs battle tracks.”

You can purchase Django from iTunes and Bandcamp. It’s also available for streaming on Apple Music and Spotify.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Sonic Forces Struggles in Japan as Super Mario Odyssey and Switch Lead Charts

The Japanese Media Create chart results are out and as always make for some interesting reading. Last week saw a number of new releases, though familiar names continue to lead the way.

Still skipping along at number one is Super Mario Odyssey, holding off Call of Duty: WW2. Despite there being a number of new releases they all struggled to bother the top of the charts. Sonic Forces only managed 10th place and 5,938 sales on PS4, with the Switch version a little behind on 4,686 sales. It’s worth noting that Sonic often struggles in Japan, with the Wii U version of Sonic Lost World failing to even hit the top 20 at launch, for example.

Also of note, Koei Tecmo released three Warriors ports on Switch last week – Dynasty Warriors 7: Empires, Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada, and Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate – and all failed to chart. Results are below with lifetime sales in brackets.

  1. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo, 10/27/17) – 73,315 (652,284)
  2. [PS4] Call of Duty: WW2 (SIE, 11/03/17) – 67,044 (235,368)
  3. [NSW] Splatoon 2 (Nintendo, 07/21/17) – 23,130 (1,318,138)
  4. [PS4] Need for Speed: Payback (EA, 11/10/17) – 20,964 (New)
  5. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04,28,17) – 14,027 (802,472)
  6. [PS4] Assassin’s Creed Origins (Ubisoft, 10/27/17) – 11,051 (82,742)
  7. [PS4] ARK: Survival Evolved (Spike Chunsoft, 10/26/17) – 10,253 (103,800)
  8. [3DS] Style Savvy: Styling Star (Nintendo, 11/03/17) – 9,650 (41,826)
  9. [PS4] .hack//G.U. Last Recode (Limited Edition Included) (Bandai Namco, 11/02/17) – 6,659 (68,475)
  10. [PS4] Sonic Forces (Sega, 11/09/17) – 5,938 (New)
  11. [PS4] Occultic;Nine (5pb., 11/09/17) – 5,846 (New)
  12. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Limited Edition Included) (Nintendo, 03/03/17) – 5,498 (634,850)
  13. [PS4] Gran Turismo Sport (Limited Edition Included) (SIE, 10/19/17) – 5,439 (182,440)
  14. [NSW] Sonic Forces (Sega, 11/09/17) – 4,686 (New)
  15. [PSV] Occultic;Nine (5pb., 11/09/17) – 4,595 (New)
  16. [PS4] DJMAX Respect (Limited Edition Included) (Arc System Works, 11/09/17) – 4,376 (New)
  17. [PS4] Taiko Drum Master: Drum Session (Bundle Edition Included) (Bandai Namco, 10/26/17) – 4,002 (39,925)
  18. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Nintendo, 09/22/17) – 3,862 (115,691)
  19. [3DS] Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux (Limited Edition Included) (Atlus, 10/26/17) – 3,533 (74,180)
  20. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf Amiibo+ (Nintendo, 11/23/16) – 3,085 (267,322)

Moving on to hardware there’s good news for Switch, with sales climbing (likely in response to additional stock) to ensure that Nintendo’s system sold more units than all other consoles combined. The New 2DS LL and New 3DS LL (XL) hold their usual positions, while the Xbox One X made a modest debut; it’s a brand that struggles in Japan. Results are below with last week’s sales in brackets.

  1. Switch – 79,958 (64,387)
  2. PlayStation 4 – 20,021 (21,830)
  3. New 2DS LL – 10,323 (11,116)
  4. New 3DS LL – 7,296 (7,914)
  5. PlayStation 4 Pro – 6,037 (6,993)
  6. PlayStation Vita – 3,210 (3,576)
  7. 2DS – 1,484 (1,539)
  8. Xbox One X – 1,344 (New)
  9. New 3DS – 266 (287)
  10. Xbox One – 121 (114)
  11. PlayStation 3 – 41 (56)
  12. Wii U – 36 (38)

Some interesting chart results, all told, and more positive news for Nintendo in terms of hardware sales and ongoing Mario momentum.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Worms W.M.D Will Bring Havoc to the Switch on 23rd November

Team17 has been offering some decent support for the Switch eShop with upcoming releases, and the next to arrive will be Worms W.M.D. The publisher has confirmed that the turn-based battler will be arriving on Switch on 23rd November.

It should be a pretty good edition, with Team17 previously confirming new content and goodies that’ll be found on the Switch. Beyond that the company has also confirmed a download size of 4.6GB and pricing of £19.99 / 29,99€ / $29.99.

Will you be tempted to dig into this one next week?

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Inside Xbox One X Enhanced: Hitman

Many of gaming’s most compelling stories come from those who’ve helped to create our favorite Xbox One games. In our Inside Xbox One X Enhanced series, these creators will share the behind-the-scenes accounts of the work involved in enhancing these epic games for Xbox One X, how they’ve helped chart the course of the world’s most powerful console, and what that means for the future of gaming. Today, we’ll be chatting with IO Interactive’s Jonas Meyer, Lead Programmer on the intense action game Hitman: Game of the Year Edition.

What specifically is your development team doing to enhance Hitman for Xbox One X?

For Hitman on Xbox One X, we provide two different modes: “High Framerate” or “High Quality”. With High Quality, you get True Native 4K rendering, targeted at 30fps and we’re using the additional GPU power to render Higher Quality shadows. “High Framerate” targets 60fps, at a slightly lower internal resolution – but still renders a 4k image. Both modes use the extra memory of the console to store more high-resolution textures in memory, and has increased texture filtering quality.

How do these enhancements impact the gaming experience?

Using “High Quality” gives you the highest quality image, something only available on PC previously. Using High framerate gives you a super smooth 60fps experience. Whichever mode players choose, I’m sure that they will notice the enhancements that we’ve worked on.

Why did your development team choose to focus on these enhancement areas?

The extreme GPU power of the Xbox One X allows us to render much more at a much higher quality. For High framerate, it is something we’ve always wanted to do. 60fps games just feel a lot better. All locations in Hitman are extremely detailed and are created to immerse our players and the additional power that we could use on our Xbox One X version will show off the game world in an even better way.

How do you expect fans of Hitman will respond to seeing on Xbox One X with these enhancements?

I think people will love playing at the increased quality, and with the new content we have coming out, Xbox One X is definitely going to be the best place to play Hitman. Our lighting artists have recently done some great work on improving the existing locations and they look incredible in 4K and HDR. The skyboxes especially look really good.

How has the process been to get the game up and running on Xbox One X?

Getting everything up and running on Xbox One X was very easy. Increasing our render quality for the High Quality version was also easy, as we have assets from PC we can leverage. Hitting 60fps in High Framerate was quite challenging, but we managed to find a way to hit that 60 fps. Here’s how we did it: As the Hitman world simulation is very complicated, we were not able to optimize the simulation itself to run at 60fps, so instead we opted to double the number of rendered frames, and optimize the rendering instead. This means for every simulation tick, we render two frames, giving that smooth 60fps experience.

What enhancement were you most excited about to explore leveraging for Hitman on Xbox One X?

Definitely 60fps. Once the game is playing, its all about that smooth experience for me. One really nice thing is that both of the modes we support use supersampling, also when running on a 1080p screen, meaning that that even if users don’t have a 4K screen, they will still see the improved visuals.

What does 4K and HDR mean for your game, games in the future and development at your studio?

It means we can provide more pixels that look better. HDR is super interesting, as we’ll be able to continuously improve the quality of the pixels we send out.

Thanks to Jonas for taking the time to chat with us about Xbox One X Enhanced. We’ll be bringing you more interviews with more developers in the future, so stay tuned to Xbox Wire!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Video: BOXBOY! Trailer Hints At Possible New Title

BOXBOY! studio HAL Laboratory has published a video which hints that the series will continue.

The video – shown above – ends with a graphics that says “To be continued”.

Box Boy! was something of a sleep hit on the 3DS eShop and the character was popular enough to gets his own amiibo figure. But what could this teaser be for? A new 3DS outing, or perhaps a new game on Switch? Maybe we’ll see a collection of the existing games on Nintendo’s latest console?

Make your predictions below.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Super Famicom Brawler Gurume Sentai Barayarō Is Getting A Physical Relaunch In Early 2018

Columbus Circle strikes back with the announcement of yet another old Super Famicom re-release, this time planned for early 2018.

The unlikely candidate is the 1995 Winds-developed, Virgin Interactive-published Gurume Sentai Barayarō, a zany side scrolling beat ’em up oddity which focuses on cooking. Think Cooking Mama but with an extensive dose of fighting in-between the food preparation, and you’re close.

There is of course an actual plot that justifies all this cooking. In the fallout of World War III, the citizens of Zeus Heaven Magic City find themselves living in a place of high technology but scarce food. As such, ingestion of proteins is a must for everyone, namely the three playable characters who would not look out of place in a Cho Aniki video game. 

After every boss fight, you get to cook recipes with the ingredient you “liberated” from your foe. This is the only way to recover energy and when you’re down to zero, it’s game over.

This is yet another obscure Japan exclusive Super Famicom oddity that will be given another chance at the spotlight. Besides, how many other scrolling beat ’em ups can you name that have a single button dedicated to strike Super Sentai style poses that serve no purpose at all except looking good for the camera? 

Gourmet indeed.