Jordan Ramee's Most Anticipated Game Of 2019: Digimon Survive
My introduction to anime was 1999's Digimon Adventure, so the franchise's story about humans and digital monsters working together and becoming stronger has always held a soft spot in my heart. Back in the day, one of my favorite aspects of the show was that the stories matured with subsequent seasons, allowing the anime to continuously appeal to its audience as they grew up.
This pattern finally peaked with Digimon Data Squad, where most characters are 18 or older, before the series refocused on a new generation of children with more kid-centric material in Fusion and App Monsters. This trend, however, has not translated over to the Digimon games, which have mostly been designed to appeal to the franchise's younger audience.
Digimon Survive could finally break that trend though, and that has me so excited. One of the few advantages the Digimon anime has over the Pokemon one is its willingness to embrace more adult material and age its characters; it's been frustrating to see that element mostly absent in the games. Survive is the first Digimon game to seemingly lean into that element by focusing on a group of teens and implementing a choice system with heavy consequences--even the death of major characters.
Admittedly, Survive doesn't need a more adult story to be good, but Tamers and Frontier are so well regarded for their willingness to approach that type of content. In both series, problems aren't resolved in one episode with someone learning to be brave or trust their friends, but instead slowly chipped away at through the continued growth of the entire group. Tamers' Jeri learning to cope with depression and Frontier's Zoe overcoming her crippling self-doubt as a result of cultural ostracization are satisfying to watch because both instances showcase the protagonists' grit. Sometimes life is just hard and you need more than the power of friendship to persevere through it. I want to see those types of stories in Digimon again, and I'm hopeful that Survive provides that.
So far, the only definitive details we have about Digimon Survive are that it tells the story of three teenagers accidentally stumbling into an unknown world. You control Takuma Momozuka, who's partnered with Agumon. Takuma's companions, Minoru Hinata and Aoi Shibuya, are partnered with Falcomon and Labramon respectfully. Aoi is older than the two boys, and is quiet and hardworking. Her partner is rather direct and outspoken in comparison. Minoru is the group's irresponsible jokester, and often tries to talk his way out of a fight. His partner balances him out by being level-headed. Together, the six work together to find a way for the humans to return to their world. Trailers and images seem to imply the group will encounter other humans on their adventure.
Some of Digimon Survive plays out as a visual novel, with the ending dependent on what dialogue options and actions you choose. The rest of the game is a turn-based strategy RPG. In combat, you'll move your team of Digimon across a battlefield and determine what type of action they take against enemies, with the ability to digivolve or warp digivolve dependent on the characters' bonds with one another.
Digimon Survive is scheduled to release for Xbox One, PS4, PC, and Switch in 2019.
It’s the end of the year, a time of reflection, so today we’re going to look back over the last 12 months of reviews across Nintendo Life. Reviews are our “bread and butter” so to speak, but have become quite a challenge for us as a team. The sheer amount of games currently being released means it’s almost impossible to review everything; therefore, we have to pick and choose games we think our audience is most interested in hearing about.
This year we reviewed a total of 603 games – now that is a lot of games. How many of those reviews do you think you read? All of them? Good answer. Across those 603 reviews you generated nearly 25,000 comments, we’ll forgive you if you didn’t read all of those.
It’s been a solid, if not amazing, second year for Nintendo Switch which saw us dish out only three10/10 – Outstanding scores. Can you guess which they were?
The first was back in January when we awarded the amazing adventure/platformer Celeste the top score. Second was Bithell Games’ text-em-up Subsurface Circular in March. Finally, unsurprisingly, was just a couple of weeks ago with a small release called Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Whenever we review a game we have to give it a fair shake – without this integrity the voice of the site is meaningless. Now, when we’re picking games to review we’ll avoid the games that obviously look poor; you don’t need us to tell you about every single release, right? That said, we still reviewed some clangers this year, dishing out 54 scores of 5/10, 21 scores of 4/10, 9 scores of 3/10, 2 for 2/10 and incredibly one 1/10. Ouch.
Most Viewed Reviews
As mentioned above, whenever we’re sifting through the release list every week we have to make decisions on which reviews are going to be useful to the majority of our readers. This task isn’t as simple as it sounds; we don’t simply go after the most popular games, as often really popular games are expected to be good enough for an impulse purchase. In lots of ways we focus our attention on the games that look like they have the potential to be great, but also have the potential to fall flat, hence requiring a review.
To us, a successful review is one that helps inform as many people as possible and help their purchasing decision, good or bad. The main metric we have to measure this is views, so which did you read most this year?
Another metric we can look at is social media, and how often our reviews are shared. This indicates that someone found it useful and wanted to share it.
As you can see, it’s extremely difficult for us to predict how many views or shares a review will get and often the results are surprising. Alas, we will keep trying to perfect our formula in 2019.
If you read, liked, shared or commented on any of our reviews this year, thank you! Were there any games we didn’t review that you wanted to see in 2018? Let us know in the comments below.
In the latest update, Limited Run has now revealed the Collector’s Edition, which will set Celeste fans back $79.99. This edition contains the game, a strawberry plush, steel book case, poster, cassette soundtrack, sticker sheet, patch, postcard and strawberry pie recipe. Below is all of the information about when the physical edition will become available along with an image of all the goodies:
Along with the standard editions of @celeste_game starting their pre-order window next Tuesday, limited amounts of Collector’s Editions will go on sale. The first batch goes up on our site January 1 at 10 am EST, with a smaller final batch going up at 6 pm EST that day.
The physical version of the game is expected to ship in February. Pre-orders for the game will also close on 1st February.
In a separate tweet, Limited Run Games also confirmed Iconoclasts will be receiving a physical release on 18th January next year. Take a look at the artwork below and stay tuned for more information about this release in the near future.
Will you be adding either of these games to your physical Switch library? Tell us below.
Unlock Two Classic Outfits In Mario Tennis Aces Next Month
Mario Tennis Aces is one of the many Switch games that keeps on giving. In the same tournament where you’ll be able to unlock Luma – the star-like creature originally from Super Mario Galaxy, the Nintendo UK VS Twitter account has revealed there’ll also be a chance to obtain the classic overall outfits for Mario and Luigi.
It’s all dependant on your performance in the January tournament. Below is the official tweet:
These outfits were previously available for a limited time, so if you’ve missed them before, now is your chance to grab them. And in case you missed it, here’s the trailer for the technical player Luma:
Will you be participating in this upcoming tournament? Have you already got these outfits? Are you still enjoying Mario Tennis on the Switch? Tell us below.
Comparing the 2.6GHz i7 versus the 2.9GHz i9 Vega 20 MacBook Pro
Four months ago, when Apple refreshed the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro with six-core CPU’s, graphics cards that come standard with 4GB of memory, and for the first time in a MacBook, the option of 32GB of system memory, we compared the performance of all three available CPUs and found the performance difference to be negligible.
The current design of the 15-inch MacBook Pros is incredibly thin and light for the performance that they pack. There are other Windows alternatives that are more powerful but they require a lot more than 87W of power, and as we saw with the Dell XPS 15 if you’re working without wall power, all that extra GPU performance and slightly better cooling are lost and then some — even with all the power saving profiles turned off.
2018 Vega 20 MacBook Pro thin chassis
Although the MacBook Pros have consistent performance when unplugged, that thin design forces smaller cooling assemblies than some of its thicker competitors. Even though each CPU option in the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro features six cores, the CPU clock speeds are nearly identical after the fans and temps stabilize during a heavy workload.
2.2GHz i7 / 555X / 16GBV
2.6GHz i7 / 560X / 16GB
2.9 GHz i9 / 560X / 32GB
Cinebench Score (5-run avg)
991
1001
1011
Cinebench Speed (5-run avg)
3.05GHz
3.1GHz
3.15GHz
In our Cinebench R15 CPU test, which is designed to allow the systems to heat up and eventually stabilize by running it back-to-back repeatedly, there was only a 100MHz clock speed difference between the base 2.2GHz CPU and the top spec 2.9GHz i9. Based on the results, our initial takeaway was that the i9 CPU option wasn’t worth it for vast majority of users.
Since then, Apple released new MacBook Pro models with Vega 16 and 20 GPUs. The pair are entirely new graphics chips which come equipped with fast HBM2 memory built right into the GPU package, with the entire package now cooled by the heat pipes, versus just the GPU in the previous model..
2018 i7 Vega 20 MacBook Pro
We have a full review of the Vega 20 equipped MacBook Pro that you can peruse if you want to see how it compares to the 555X and 560X models. Spoiler alert — the Vega 20 configuration is a screamer.
That leaves one question: If you’re ordering the faster and more efficient Vega 20 graphics, is it worth spending another $300 to jump from the 2.6GHz i7 to the 2.9GHz i9?
Starting off with the standard Geekbench 4 test, as we saw in the past, the i9 model showed noticeably higher single and multi-core scores. Geekbench tests a variety of tasks and the CPU usage is very low most of the time meaning the CPU can turbo boost higher resulting in the i9 scoring about 11 percent faster in single core and nine percent faster in multi-core.
2.6GHz i7 Vega 20
2.9GHz i9 Vega 20
Geekbench 4 Single Core
5105
5675
Geekbench 4 Multi-Core
23552
25650
Onto our five-run Cinebench CPU test, which pushes all cores to the max, we see a bigger difference than in our previous ones with the 560X graphics. Our i7 is slightly slower than our previous i7 with 560X (991 score versus 1001) whereas the new i9 paired with Vega 20 is noticeably faster (1011 versus 1068). It also finished at a higher 3.25GHz clock speed versus 3.1GHz.
It’s important to note that even though we’re seeing an eight percent difference and our i9 paired with Vega 20 is faster than it was paired with the 560X, chipset performance could vary machine to machine.
2.6GHz i7 Vega 20
2.9GHz i9 Vega 20
Cinebench CPU Score
991
1068
Cinebench Speed
3.1GHz
3.25GHz
Moving onto real-world tests, we saw no difference whatsoever in Adobe’s Lightroom. Our past tests concluded that the graphics were practically unused. The CPU’s all ran at the same clock speeds. What actually improved performance was having more RAM.
Now that we have i7 and i9 models, both with 32GB of RAM, we see that the performance is practically the same when exporting 99 RAW 42MP edited images to Jpeg. Develop module performance was identical, both being very responsive.
Lightroom 99 42MP RAW
5 minutes 58 seconds
5 minutes 50 seconds
CPU speed during rendering
3.0GHz
3.0GHz
We then turned to video editing in Final Cut Pro X, and started with the Bruce X benchmark. Both machines took 48 seconds to render this 5K project, which was to be expected since this is mainly GPU intensive.
Next, we stabilized a 20-second 4K H.264 clip. Both the i7 and i9 models paired with Vega 20 took just eight seconds to complete the task, which is very impressive but the performance is the same.
Exporting a five-minute 4K project, our i9 MacBook Pro took 3 minutes and 21 seconds and the i7 model was two seconds faster at 3 minutes and 19 seconds, within the margin of error.
Looking at a more power-demanding format, like 4K RAW from the Canon C200, both machines take much longer to complete the task. The i9 was 21 seconds faster, but given that this task takes about 14 minutes, that’s only about 2-percent faster. Both machines could play the edited footage back at 30 frames per second without issue.
On graded 4.5K .R3D RAW footage from RED Raven, the Mid-2018 i9 Macbook Pro with 560X graphics finished the render with the CPU performing at 2.4GHz, 500MHz under its base rated clock speed of 2.9GHz.
This RED RAW footage maxes out both the CPU and GPU, which results in a lot of heat output. The i9 had to throttle where the 2.6GHz i7 still manages to turbo boost up to 2.8GHz and was faster overall.
Thankfully, that same i9 paired with the more efficient Vega 20 now runs at a stable 2.9GHz and our i7 finished slightly faster than before at 2.85GHz. Running at almost the same speed, the render times were almost identical; less than a one-percent difference.
2018 Vega 20 MacBook Pro
Wrapping up our results, even with the more efficient Vega 20 graphics, we don’t feel that the $300 2.9GHz i9 upgrade is worth the added cost if your workflows are long calculations.
However, if your workflow lends itself to quick processor loading and unloading, then it can make a difference, practically demonstrated by the improvements seen in Geekbench 4. This all comes down to thermal design choices that Apple made, possibly based on promises that Intel gave the company in 2015 when it started working on this case design.
As a result, when the i9 chip is placed in a thin and light notebook like the 2018 MacBook Pro, the thermal limitations inhibit the chip’s ability to turbo boost and maintain anything close to the maximum speed that the chip allows, and it ends up performing at very similar speeds to the less expensive i7.
Save $225 to $400 on every Vega MacBook Pro
For a limited time, Apple authorized reseller Adorama is taking $225 to $400 off every Mid 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro with Vega 16 or Vega 20 graphics for AI readers. These deals, which can be activated with coupon code APINSIDER using the pricing links below and in our Price Guide, deliver the lowest prices anywhere on the newly released configurations. What’s more, Adorama will not collect sales tax on your order if you live outside NY and NJ through December 31, 2018. For most customers, that incentive combined with our coupon will save you between $470 to $790 on these brawny new machines.
To snap up the discounts, you must shop through the pricing links below or in our Price Guide and enter coupon code APINSIDER during checkout. Need help? Send us a note at [email protected] and we will do our best to assist.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 12-30-2018, 12:32 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Aquaman Writer Gives Update On A Nightmare On Elm Street Reboot
The status of A Nightmare on Elm Street has been stuck somewhere in limbo over the past several years. After a 2010 reboot failed to reignite the franchise, fans have been waiting for yet another return for Freddy Krueger, in some form. It was first reported in 2015 that David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (Orphan, The Conjuring 2) would write a new reboot, though there's been no news of the film in the time that followed.
However, Johnson-McGoldrick was able to give GameSpot a bit of an update. While promoting Aquaman--which he's one of the screenwriters of--the writer revealed, "It's still happening." Of course, that doesn't mean you'll see it just let. "Nothing is percolating just yet," he continued.
Instead, Johnson-McGoldrick is currently focused on The Conjuring 3. "The Conjuring universe is sort of first and foremost on [New Line Cinema's] horror burner," he admitted.
There is clearly still a desire for the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, though, and Johnson-McGoldrick recognizes that. "Everybody wants to see Freddy again I think, so I think it's inevitable at some point," he added.
Of course, when it finally comes to pass, there's plenty to learn from the last reboot of the franchise. The 2010 film wound up with a score of 35/100 on GameSpot sister site Metacritic, leaving most reviewers underwhelmed for a variety of reasons--many related to Freddy Krueger himself. While Jackie Earle Haley is a fine actor, his take on the monster of a bladed glove simply didn't hold a candle to Robert Englund's original version--in terms or terror or humor.
As it stands now, there's no set release date for a reimagining of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Still, hearing that the interest is still there is reassuring. The world needs more Freddy Krueger creeping us out in our nightmares.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 12-30-2018, 12:32 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Gamasutra’s Best of 2018: The top 10 game developers of the year
Choosing 10 game developers who left their mark on 2018 wasn’t easy. The achievements we saw from game developers, from indie to triple-A, were incredible.
The way game developers are telling stories, serving their audiences, and helping their employees stay happy, healthy, and creative are evolving year by year. Looking back and seeing all the good stuff game devs have done this year reminds us how games are small miracles, and the people making them are some of the most gifted people around.
As always, our annual top 10 list of game developers isn’t necessarily made up of devs that made the “best games,” or the most financially successful (although that doesn’t hurt anyone’s chances of making the list). These are the developers and studios that left their mark on this year in a meaningful way, shaping the art and business of making games.
Below (in alphabetical order) are the 10 individual developers and studios, selected by Gamasutra’s writers, that exceeded our expectations and pushed creative, commercial, and cultural boundaries.
We’ve known that Warsaw, Poland-based 11 bit Studios is capable of a unique brand of mechanics- and systems-based narrative, particularly with 2014’s This War of Mine. This year’s Frostpunk iterates on that approach with outstanding results, making players care for the hundreds of displaced denizens of London.
But 11 bit isn’t on this list “just” because the studio released an outstanding game this year. 11 bit solidified its reputation for top-tier storytelling with Frostpunk, establishing a method of storytelling in games that 11 bit lead designer Jakub Stokalski calls “a values-driven game design approach.”
This practice uses conflict as the narrative base – which of course is a common approach, but 11 bit has formulated a unique way to make conflict an integral part to every aspect of a game’s design, and inject meaning into a web of intersecting systems and mechanics. 2018 saw 11 bit truly find its unique design voice, and other studios stand to benefit if they pay close attention.
Insomniac Games spent 2018 not only proving the success of its platform-exclusive game development model, the studio also took strides in standing up for the game developers who make their games possible.
Marvel’s Spider-Man is an amazing accomplishment for the veteran studio, and shows how the gameplay pillars they’ve honed over the years can be tuned toward an experience that balances playfulness and somberness with grace.
But while a lot of studios released some astoundingly-designed games this year, Insomniac Games is the one that stood up for its developers under a hail of online harassment. During both the puddle fiasco and the recently-resolved Sam Raimi suit snafu, Insomniac Games relied on the studio’s Twitter account to both try and transparently communicate with players about the state of their development process and push back against a growing tide of anger.
Other events in the game industry this year showed that when players use anger and fury to get what they want, a quid-quo-pro is established. “Get loud enough, and we’ll do what you want, even fire our talented staff.” Insomniac Games chose the opposite path and offered a firm defense of its employees rather then leave them twisting in the wind.
Lucas Pope, the developer behind 2013’s incredible border patrol game Papers, Please, has a knack for solving design problems, with fantastic results.
His latest effort, this year’s long-awaited “insurance adventure” Return of the Obra Dinn is quite a different experience from Papers, Please, but it still retains a clarity of vision that’s becoming a trademark of Pope’s games. And achieving that level of quality isn’t easy. When we talked to Pope earlier this year, he told us about the daunting task of scaling up the small Obra Dinn demo into the full game that launched this year. We love Pope’s problem-solving approach to game design, or as he told us, “in every project I do, I approach it like an engineer, as if there’s a problem that needs to be solved.”
The fact that Pope himself did the programming, art, design, sound, and music on Obra Dinn only solidifies a much-deserved place on this year’s list.
Matt Makes Games, the indie team behind this year’s Celeste, worked hard for the last few years to make a platformer that wouldn’t just be one of the best in the genre. Through Celeste, the studio would also talk about anxiety and depression, real-world problems that players (and developers) tackle every day.
That sense of connected mood between the player and the game heroine Madeline seeps into every part of Celeste’s being. Lena Raine’s synth-driven score is an amazing tool to help guide the player through Madeline’s headspace, Studio MiniBoss broke ground with a pixel art aesthetic that only nods briefly to the retro era before striking out on its own, and Matt Thorson and Noel Berry together deserve credit for looking at the hundreds of levels they nearly threw out and just going “eh, sure” and putting them back in the game.
Not only is Celeste a noteworthy addition to the platfomer genre, it’s a challenging game with an assist mode embodies the games’ ethos about approaching challenge. It’s not a difficulty reducer, it’s a granular tool to help players of different skillsets enjoy the game. Matt Makes Games would kick off a whole year of developers showing how accessible their games could be, and to do so in a genre known for being…well, inaccessible was an inspiring precedent to set.
Microsoft has had a busy year no matter how you look at it. 2018 saw the company go on an acquisition spree so prolific that it earned a spot on our top 5 events of 2018 roundup. But the reason Microsoft has once again landed itself on a Gamasutra end of year list is the company’s powerful push for accessibility and inclusion in video games.
This year, Microsoft released the Xbox Adaptive Controller as an official first-party answer to a long-standing need for more accessible and adaptable ways to play games. The Xbox Adaptive Controller itself offers two large face buttons, but allows for a variety of external input devices that range from one-handed joysticks and foot pedals to standalone switches in a variety of sizes. Players that might have previously struggled with a traditional controller now have many more ways of comfortably playing games on both Xbox One and Windows 10.
It’s a physical reflection of other inclusivity-driven programs Microsoft has rolled out in recent years to make its platforms more welcoming to a wider range of players, such as last year’s revamp of its Xbox Live Avatars to include options for prosthetics, wheelchairs, and more.
French indie Motion Twin has been quietly humming along for nearly two decades, but this year it made an outsized splash in the game industry with Dead Cells. Launched on Steam Early Access last year, Dead Cells 1.0 debuted this summer and was roundly praised as one of the best and most beautiful 2D action games of the year.
To make a game as good as Dead Cells is no mean feat; that Motion Twin did it as a small, worker-owned cooperative where everyone reportedly gets paid the same and there are no “bosses” is a minor miracle — and a significant signal to the game industry at large. In a year in which so many game makers lost their nights and weekends, their jobs, and/or their studios due to decisions made above their pay grade, it’s heartening to see that some devs are committed to figuring out how to make games effectively without giving up equality.
And while Motion Twin’s flat structure has its own unique drawbacks (“everyone in the Motion Twin faces burnout at least once because of our system”, acknowledges Motion Twin’s Sébastien Bénard in an interview with Kotaku), the team seems committed to figuring out how to build a system for making games that doesn’t underpay or overwork anyone involved. For that, and for Dead Cells, we recognize Motion Twin as a top dev of the year.
“We make games that linger in hearts and minds,” is the motto for Mountains, the developer behind Florence, an interactive story about a young woman falling in love. It definitely rings true, as the mobile title has resonated with many and cemented Mountains as a studio capable of telling a story in an engaging and interesting way.
Mountains has some big shoes to fill after its debut game as a studio was so well received, but there’s no doubt that they will thrive. The team is small, but they know how to develop interactive narratives for mobile, and it will be interesting to see what they do next.
Somehow, Nintendo still manages to iterate and push the envelope when it comes to game design. This innovation brought forth the Nintendo Labo, an extension for the Switch including lots of sturdy cardboard. Place into the hands of everybody from children to adults, these crafting kits are great for providing an avenue for creativity.
Released back in April, the Labo has produced a lot of diverse creations and really drives home how (at heart) great Nintendo is as a company when it comes to designing memorable experiences. As an added plus, it’s already being incorporated into classrooms, which is perfect because of how customizable it is.
Sony Santa Monica’s God of War revival is a marvel in many ways, each of which shows the impressive effort of the development team. On the technical side, the Sony Santa Monica squad has been refreshingly open about how different elements of God of War came together throughout the project’s lifetime.
In one such chat, God of War game director Cory Barlog discussed how he fought tooth and nail to have Kratos’ son Atreus as he is in the final game despite the often tricky task of getting his AI to feel just right. The secrets of everything from the process of crafting that satisfying thwack of recalling Kratos’ magical ax to the surprisingly complicated process of making a boat work with both the game and Atreus’ AI have been divulged by the team since the game’s release.
But Sony Santa Monica’s true crowning achievement has got to be taking a decade-old series long known as a hyper-violent bloody slash-em-up and granting those characters and world room to grow and mature. God of War tells a touching story about fatherhood, both through Kratos’ want for his son to become better than him and his own struggles to grow into his relationship with his boy. Barlog himself said it best: “We couldn’t just make another ‘angry Kratos’ game,” and what Sony Santa Monica has created is indeed so much more than that.
2018 was a year chock full of terrific games, made by some tip-top developers. But it was also a year when the issue of workers’ rights seemed to reach fever pitch, with the Red Dead Redemption 2 crunch fiasco and Telltale layoffs once again reminding us how many of the talented creatives in the games industry are often marginalized and exploited by their employers.
Horror stories like those make for grim reading, but there were signs of progress among all the doom and gloom. Ubisoft Quebec proved it’s entirely possible to find critical and commercial success in triple-A without sacrificing the well-being of your workforce during the development of its acclaimed (and rather gargantuan) open-world RPG, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
The Canadian studio impressed us with its commitment to improving the work-life balance of its staff, with studio managing director Patrick Klaus explaining it learned from the mistakes made on previous project Assassin’s Creed Syndicate to reduce the need for massive crunch this time around. Although Klaus stressed the company “could always do better,” it’s clear the studio (quite rightly) prioritized keeping its employees fit, healthy, and happy. After all, the only way to make great games is to keep great teams together, and Ubisoft Quebec is one major studio leading the charge on that front.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 12-30-2018, 12:32 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Celeste has sold over 500,000 copies since January
Matt Makes Games’ acclaimed platformer Celeste has sold over 500,000 copies since launching back in January.
Game director and designer Matt Thorson broke the news on Twitter, and promised to update Celeste with some new “farewell levels” in 2019.
Thorson and programmer Noel Berry initially created a prototype of Celeste for the Pico-8 virtual game console during a four-day game jam.
That early version of the game has since been dubbed ‘Celeste Classic,’ and contained 30 challenging levels designed to test the skills of platforming aficionados and speedrunners.
Eventually, Thorson and Berry decided to turn their prototype into a full-fledged release, and brought the finished product to the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Windows, Linux, and MacOS earlier this year.
Starting at 2:00 p.m. PDT today, members of the Xbox One Preview Alpha will begin receiving a new 1902 Xbox One system update (181217-2102). The 1902 build is a new release of the recovery building upon the latest 1811 build plus new bug fixes. Read on for more about the fixes and known issues in the latest 1902 system update.
Fixes:
Cortana
Fixed an issue where Cortana sometimes does not respond to commands
Console
Fixed an issue that sometimes caused the console to crash unexpectedly.
Known Issues:
Audio
We are tracking audio issues in which some games have audio that cuts in and out
Audio settings reverting to a previous settings after taking an update. Workaround is to please turn on your Audio Receiver prior to turning your Xbox One and the settings will not revert.
Profile Color
Sometimes users may encounter the incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.
Starting at 2:00 p.m. PDT today, members of the Xbox One Preview Alpha will begin receiving a new 1902 Xbox One system update (181217-2102). The 1902 build is a new release of the recovery building upon the latest 1811 build plus new bug fixes. Read on for more about the fixes and known issues in the latest 1902 system update.
Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night Development Has “Reached Its Peak”
Last time we got an update on the Kickstarter project Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Producer Koji ‘Iga’ Igarashi revealed WayForward would be assisting with the development by stamping out some really tough bugs.
In the final Kickstarter update for the year, Igarashi said progress on the game has “reached its peak” – with the development team currently checking the performance of it on each platform while dealing with a number of “progression-blocking” bugs. WayForward has also been improving the title:
“WayForward have already helped us improve the game in a number of ways, including creating incredible assets and lighting placements that we’re looking forward to.”
505 Games’ Senior Community Manager Jason Ryan chimed in at the end of the update to reiterate the current development status of the game as the team worked towards a 2019 launch:
“The team is working on fine-tuning enemy placement throughout the game. This polishing effort is a very important and delicate step. Moving the spawn point for a creature five steps in either direction or adding an additional creature can have a big impact on the flow of a level. It takes a lot of trial and error to get it ‘just right’ and we want it to be ‘just right’.
“In order to get to this point a huge amount of work had to be completed. Level layouts, enemies, animations, assets, combat systems, etc. Due to WayForward’s help on crushing bugs, asset creation and lighting, each level is being made to play better and to look better at the same time.”
Below are some photos of the development team hard at work:
Are you still looking forward to this game? Tell us below.
