Nintendo reveals additional NES titles for Switch Online alongside special controllers

Nintendo has finally pulled back the curtain on the remaining NES titles that will be available when the Nintendo Switch Online launches on September 18th. The full list of 20 titles that will be available on day one complete with online support include: Soccer Tennis Donkey Kong™ Mario Bros.™ Super Mario Bros.™ Balloon Fight™ Ice Climber™ Dr. Mario™ The Legend of Zelda™ Super Mario Bros.™ 3 Double Dragon River City Ransom Ghosts’n Goblins™ Tecmo Bowl Gradius Pro Wrestling Excitebike™ Yoshi™ Ice Hockey Baseball   In addition, it seems that they will be expanding the library with 3 new titles each month. October will receive Solomon’s Key, NES Open Tournament Golf and Super Dodge Ball. November gets Metroid, Mighty Bomb Jack and Twinbee. Finally, December will net you Wario’s Woods, Ninja Gaiden and ADVENTURES OF LOLO. This will continue into 2019, but which titles they choose remains to be seen. Nintendo will also be releasing NES controllers for the Switch that can slide into the Joy-Con slots to charge. They will be sold as a two pack, and feature L and R buttons similar to the Joy-Con’s SL and SR buttons. These will be sold exclusively for members of the Online Service, presumably to help combat scalpers. The pack will be sold for $59.99 and shipments will begin in mid-December.  

Isabelle Announced as Smash Ultimate Fighter, Animal Crossing and Luigi’s Mansion 3 Announced for Switch

A new fighter has joined the Smash battle, and it’s none other than the lovable mayor of New Leaf herself. The Nintendo Direct gave us many surprises as Isabelle will now be a playable character in Smash Ultimate. She was seen sporting a fishing pole, a Lloid rocket, and balloons that are slightly different from Villager. Isabelle has been a highly requested among the Animal Crossing community as she has been a fan favorite for many years. It is speculated she will be an echo fighter for Villager. In addition, Animal Crossing will be getting a brand new Switch game with a title to be announced later. This might be the biggest news for the Switch as Animal Crossing is one Nintendo’s best-selling and most popular franchises. The release date has not been announced, but Nintendo has set a preliminary date for 2019. Finally, Luigi’s Mansion 3 has been announced for the Nintendo Switch. A cult classic among Nintendo fans, this game announcement was only a matter of time. First released in 2001 as a GameCube launch title, Luigi’s Mansion was seen as a big success in the U.S., but didn’t perform well in Japan. The reviews were mostly so-so to positive. As time went on, the game was seen more and more as a highly underrated classic for Nintendo. Luigi’s Mansion even saw a sequel come to the 3DS 12 years after the original. A third title coming to the Switch is a welcome sight for fans of Nintendo and the bumbling Mario brother. Luigi’s Mansion 3 was also given a preliminary release date of 2019.

EA Has The Final Say For Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning Remaster

THQ Nordic announced last week that the publisher has acquired all properties and collective assets for 2012’s  of AmaKingdomlur: Reckoning, expanding the already massive library the company has made in the past two years. Many fans eager to see more from Curt Schilling’s series, and already assumed the recent acquisition meant an HD remaster of the latest game. But following the article from Eurogamer, it was revealed that due to the game being published under the EA Partner Program, the publisher does not have the publishing rights to the 2012 title. Publisher THQ Nordic told the outlet in an email: At this stage we ‘only’ acquired the intellectual property. Given our track record, we know what the burning questions (remaster, remake, port to current-gen systems etc.) are, but we decided do not answer those specifically as we tend to put our heads together first and then do our homework, and only start to talk about anything once we feel confident and very familiar with the franchise. For any potential installments for the series, we do know that there is still a chance. Mentioned in last week’s acquisition, along with acquiring Kingdoms of Amalur, THQ also obtained the properties to the unreleased MMORPG Project Copernicus. Fans who are eager for the remaster might have to be patient for a bit longer, but Copernicus could keep you occupied in the meantime if THQ decides to do anything with the IP. Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning is available now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Source: Eurogamer

Video Capture For Fortnite On Switch Removed By Developer

Since the debut of the Nintendo Switch last year, many players wanted to show off their adventures on the console/handheld hybrid. Especially when it came to online play, capturing cool moments is something that many would say the feature is for. Epic Games’ Fortnite being one of the largest online titles out right now, the feature is used constantly by the game’s fans. But recently in the latest update for the version on Nintendo’s console, the developer removed the option for video capture. On the Nintendo Switch subreddit, one of the Fortnite community managers has confirmed that the reason for removing the feature was to improve the game’s performance. You may have noticed we’ve disabled the Video Capture feature on Nintendo Switch as of the v5.40.2 client update. This was done for performance and stability reasons as we’ve been seeing a high rate of Out of Memory related crashes. Disabling this feature saves a significant amount of RAM while also having a positive effect on overall performance across the board. The community manager added onto the subject that the feature might make an appearance again in the future if fans are willing to sacrifice better performance to capture video. Fortnite is available for free on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Android, PC, and Nintendo Switch. Source: r/NintendoSwitch

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Technical Analysis

It seems that the Oxford lass cannot travel anywhere without disaster striking, from boats….jeep rides and planes she is a constant insurance firms nightmare. With the 3rd entry in the rebooted saga we reach the end of the origins story, even if Lara is still the centre of her own world we now get a chance to branch out further into hers. Shadow is not an exclusive this time with a full assortment of PC and console versions shipping day this week.   Building base camp   The foundations of a great game come from its engine and TR is built on solid foundations, Crystal Dynamic’s own engine in fact, entitled The Foundation engine. This has been the basis for the previous 2 chapters in the reboot and now concluded in this 3rd entry. One of the many advantages it brings is a fast and iterative development cycle using the inbuilt editor Horizon. This tool allows the team, among other aspects, to design levels, tombs and areas quickly and play test to determine what works and what does not. The central hub design from Rise is a core feature of Shadow but on a much larger scale. The game ranges from intimate linear moments to much larger, open and exploratory terrain offering up impressive expanse & detail. Tombs are a big part of Lara’s attraction, the clue is in the name, with this latest entry Eidos have carried the torch seamlessly from Crystal Dynamics having worked with them across the previous 2 entries and them now swapping roles to support the engine Knowledge share during this development cycle. As they already have a strong foundation in..er..foundation this has evidently allowed them to hit the ground running in short time from the 3 years taken we have a title that instantly fits into the saga mold with little sign of the drastic shift this must have taken. Animation has always been a key element within these adventures, MOVA motion capture tech was used before. Rather than adopting the typical spandex suit and sticky balls, instead fluorescent paint is used releasing the actors to feel more natural while still allowing over 7,000 sample points to be mapped from each capture session. The technology focuses on facial capture giving Miss Croft and crew a far more human and natural level of expression, emotion and realism within gameplay and story beats,this may have been used again here or not. Regardless we are treated to subtle eye movements, nose flair, muscle and tendon simulation and even the wrinkles of lips as they contour over teeth. This remarkable level of bone rigging, blend shapes and skin mapping only heightens the suspension of disbelief throughout. They are joined by a plethora of other nuanced moments that would be all but impossible for an animation team to instill themselves alone. The downside to this like most MC methods lies with the capture points and resulting data limiting the ways to build on this, luckily the cast all appear to be sufficiently talented to deliver some rousing moments throughout this epic adventure and I am sure the animators have worked tirelessly to bring these polygons to life with remarkable success, it has raised the level over Rise on this score. You will of course experience a mix that hit some emotional highs and lows along with an equal mixture of success and failure, collectively though this is better performed throughout with a clearer understanding of what it is trying to deliver. Character models are impressively detailed throughout direct and indirect player control. Polygon count has certainly been balanced well here to maximise the details without over spending the budget with reductions on faces, hands to be used elsewhere making minor difference. Normal maps are brilliantly used to add extra depth and detail to players faces, clothing reactions and muscle deformation. This enhances the level of mobility each of them have without making all segments reliant on vertex points and bone rigging. As the cast speak, wince, scream or cry you can see the immense amount of effort and detail that has been spent on them, not only within the aims of the story but also with thought of the host machines.     Do the Locomotion Procedural animation has been used again with the IK, cloth physics and soft body physics allowing Lara to run, slide, fall and wade through this vast terrain with a fluid grace. The same balance of blending and gameplay designs does highlight some obvious warping moments or miss-alignment from time to time it does not divert from the impressive move sets you and the NPC’s and enemies exhibit during play. The new stealth mechanic does add far more connection to Lara now making it a genuine choice and at many times a necessity to progress. Rubbing mud on yourself and then blending into the environment works wonders to the gameplay not to mention Lara’s complextion. As you slide into position and unsheathe your home-made knife (that’s not a knife). This is a key addition to the game and allows a higher level of precision as you work through a camp with Rambo like guile and an equal level of brutality she is still not full self-ware of just how much a cold-blooded killer she is. Accompanying these finely balanced models is an equally high level of textured assets and PBR based material shaders enriching each fabric stich or worn rock with convincing surface details. Skin balances a high quality sub-surface scattering pass during real-time cut-scenes with a cheaper gameplay version that still provides an impressively rendered heroine when the camera is pressed up close. The main model of Lara sports a wealth of dynamic decal elements that are likely stored in memory and then blended between vertex mesh data in real-time using the collision system. Dirt, water, blood, sweat and even mud now all form the cascade of legacy her adventure leaves behind. Pull yourself free from a swim and your clothes will

New Game Plus In The Works For Insomniac’s Spider-Man

For those who are eager for more of everyone’s favorite web slinger, no need to worry as it’s been confirmed by Insomniac Games that Marvel’s Spider-Man will be getting a New Game Plus mode sometime in the future. Asked by a fan on Twitter, the developer replied that the mode has already been in development and is being cleaned up as we speak. yes working on it now and polishing it up! — Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) September 10, 2018 Hopefully sooner than the first chapter in The City That Never Sleeps, as we won’t see that until late next month. As many fans were able to fly through the game, adding the ability to playthrough the game a second time will keep fans occupied in the meantime. Some here at Rectify Gaming were eager to show off their Photo Mode skills, which you can check out here. Marvel’s Spider-Man is available now only on PlayStation 4.

Player Count For Blackout Increased to 88

Fans for the upcoming installment of Call of Duty recently have been able to get their hands on the new Battle Royale mode for the game, and the set of updates for Blackout was released by Treyacrh focuses on the feedback received from it’s first day going live. What stood out most in the update was the player count being pushed up eight players from the initial 80. When originally revealed, Co-Studio Head Dan Bunting mentioned that the capacity could change following how players feel out the mode. As the game stood out for lacking twenty players compared to the genre’s pioneering titles, this was an impressive mood took from the developer. Here’s the full list of changes and fixes made to the game in the recent update. General: Changed Featured Playlist to DUOs. Raised player cap to 88. General stability and stat-tracking improvements. Quick equip menu will automatically close if not used for 5 seconds. Item Pickups Increased the speed of picking up Items off of the ground – you will still be able to reload your weapon independently without picking an Item up by tapping the reload button. Equipment Reduced duration of Sensor Dart to 2 minutes The beta for Blackout continues until September 17. Fans on Xbox and PC will have to wait until September 14 as PlayStation gets an early start on the new game mode. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be available on October 12, 2018 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. Source: Black Ops 4 Reddit  

Alan Wake Television Series On The Way

It’s been some time since we heard about anything about Alan Wake the past few years. The 2010 title by Remedy Entertainment put you in the shoes of an author as he lives through the story he’s been working on. Since The Writer DLC concluding his story following the events of the base game, many fans have been patient waiting for a sequel to what some might consider a cult classic. According to an exclusive by Variety, Peter Calloway is working on an adaptation of the action thriller title. Remedy Entertainment and Contradiction Films told the outlet that the partnership will be bringing the show to reality. Calloway known from his work in shows such as Legion and Cloak & Dagger, will be writing and organizing the new project. Along side Sam Lake, the creator of the game to be the show’s executive producer. Since the original never received a full sequel it deserved, a TV show is pretty ambitious alternative that will work well for the game’s atmosphere.   Lake stated back in 2015 that there were plans for the series following the cancellation of the game’s initial sequel. That what was laid ahead for Alan Wake will be bigger than the original game and the proper sequel. The outlet spoke with Contradiction Films’ partner Tomas Harlan, who gave slight insight for what’s to come in the upcoming series. Harlan told Variety that the characters surrounding Alan will be playing a large part of the show. Though he is a well focused protagonist, expanding on supporting characters will develop a better plot when exploring the game’s universe. Following up on the subject, Harlan stated: “I think it’s important to embrace those characters and to bring Alan Wake to where he was” Harlan told Variety. “We can’t start the show off where he is fully functioning, running through the forest, taking down lumberjacks.” The Contradiction partner with high hopes said if the show is successful, will influence the sequel the game truly deserves. For right now, Lake stated that there’s no plans for another title for the series. But was eager to say that hopefully this new project might push for another title, “when the time is right”. Contradiction Films is known for crafting film adaptations of videogames such as Dead Rising and Mortal Kombat. Both being received fairly decent, Alan Wake is in good hands for its chance on television. Alan Wake is available for PC and Xbox 360, but only physical versions. The game was previously removed from online stores due to the expiring license for the game’s soundtrack. Source: Variety