News by Matt S.
Welcome to Digitally Downloaded’s regular catch-up news feature. With each issue we will bring you the best news that you may have missed. Grab the biggest mug you’ve got, fill it with your favourite brew, and catch up with us (and our favourite news anchor, Dee Dee)!
We have 11 minutes of the Until Dawn developer’s latest fright-fest
Until Dawn remains one of the best horror games of the generation. An early-era PlayStation 4 title, it was one of the first games that really stood up and showed people what the console could do. The developer of that game, Supermassive Games, is back with another horror title – The Dark Pictures – Man of Medan, and it looks excellent.
Stylistically it looks a great deal like Until Dawn, with a highly cinematic visual engine, and a cast of hot young things that you just know are going to cop all kinds of nightmares. The focus of this one is very much in trying to keep as many of these people alive as possible, too, which will be immediately familiar to fans of Until Dawn.
The 11 minutes of gameplay footage above – captured by Game Informer – show you everything that you need to know about the game, to get really excited for it when it lands in summer (winter for those of us in the southern hemisphere).
Blood Bowl III is happening! Hit ’em huuuurd
If you haven’t played Blood Bowl or its sequel yet, you should have… but don’t now, because there’s a third on the way, and I’m sure it’ll be bigger and better than the (already excellent) first two.
The Blood Bowl series is developed by French studio, Cyanide. Know for doing a remarkably good job with niche RPG and tabletop properties, Blood Bowl is the feather in the company’s cap. For those who don’t know anything about it – it’s a Games Workshop property that takes the well-known races and factions of the Warhammer fantasy universe, and then has them compete in a gridiron-like sport where there are no rules preventing maiming and killing your opponents.
Cyanide is owned by Bigben Interactive, which will publish it in 2020. So, it’s a while away yet. For now there’s a tiny snippet in this “upcoming games” trailer to whet your appetite.
The next Samurai Shodown trailer is… a dude. Boo.
Who actually uses the male characters in fighting games? How utterly boring. Especially when, like in Samurai Shodown, there are so many beautiful ladies to choose between? Anyhow. For people who care, the next character trailer in SNK’s countdown to the release of Samurai Shodown is Genjuro.
Genjuro’s a pretty beefy dude, and he has a sword. He also seems to be pretty handy and handling that sword… which I guess is important given that these characters are all locked into battles to the death.
The other tidbit of news we have to share is that we’ve finally got a firm release date for the game outside of Japan! It releases on June 25 in Europe and the Americas (and, we assume, Australia, New Zealand, and other such countries too unimportant to actually be announced by the publisher). That’s on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A PC and Nintendo Switch port will come later in the year.
There’s a free-to-play JRPG coming to PlayStation 4 that actually looks good.
On July 16, you’ll be able to jump on the open beta for a new free-to-play JRPG called Caravan Stories. That’s if you live in North America. the general release for the game comes on July 23. And while we’re as skeptical of free-to-play with the narrative genres as anyone, this one does look like it has potential.
As per the press release: “Thousands of stories are waiting to be told in Iyarr, a vast world of unbridled beauty and unexpected danger. Players can choose from four playable races to start and can unlock an additional race through playing the game. A sixth race will be added soon after launch. See a world filled with mysterious cities, elegant forests, and imposing canyons. Along the way players will befriend non-player characters, growing the fellowship by recruiting them and taming monsters.
“From dastardly dungeons to open-world raids, only a party of stalwart companions can overcome the dangers of Iyarr. Up to six creatures and allies can band together, each boasting different skills and specialties. An assured victory will require players to balance the strengths and weaknesses of the party in thrilling, strategic encounters with monsters and demons.”
Note, if you are desperate to play it now, the game is available off the PS4 store for Asian markets like Singapore, Indonesia, and Japan, and those versions all have English subtitles enabled. You’ll need to deal with the issues of having servers located in Asia, though. For people who care about pings, you’ll want to wait for the North American release (mind you, Australia’s close proximity to Asia actually makes the Asian servers the superior option for us. HAH! Finally, we come out on top on something!)
