If you’ve been on the internet between December 2020 and now, you’ve probably heard of Cyberpunk 2077’s supposed revival. to the point that some people, maybe you included, are wondering if it’s time to jump on the Cyberpunk 2077 bandwagon, or if you should just wait for the September 26 release date. That’s a good question, and as someone who’s spent a few hundred hours in the original game, and already played a bit on the expansionI have ideas and can hopefully help you make an informed decision on when or whether to head to Night City.

What changes Phantom Liberty?

According to CD Projekt Red, Phantom Liberty is in the process of overhauling several systems in the base game, to the point where parts of it will play completely differently to not just the game as launched, but as it exists. now for almost three years and a few patches later. This includes new skill trees, new gear, new quest types, enemy type overhauls, new features like vehicular combat, and new tactics and tweaks to how the police react to your crimes. A lot of that is done by gutting the old game and putting something new in the space left behind. Your old version will likely require respec, and you’ll also have new options in those skill trees. Basically, as CD Projekt Red describes, your style of play will be quite different after Phantom Liberty launches.

What happens if I play Cyberpunk 2077 before these changes?

At this point, playing Cyberpunk 2077 before Phantom LIberty is playing a mostly upgraded version of the game that launched in 2020. Basically, the game is still the same as it was, but it’s held together by a better base. There’s an argument to be made this game cannot be recovered, even as CD Projekt Red has rolled out a ton of free patches and updates over the past three years. And to some extent, I agree with that. Having a game that crashes less doesn’t make its combat encounters more engaging, it doesn’t improve its rancid and cynical politics, and it doesn’t make Night City feel like more than a very, very pretty skyline. of the city that beckons toward possibilities it cannot realize. But Phantom Liberty seems like a serious attempt to deliver on some of the mechanical promise the game had before launch.

Learn more: Your Cyberpunk 2077 love story will continue in Phantom Liberty

The skill tree changes alone made Cyberpunk 2077 a different game when I played it. I was given a build that most closely resembled something like Overwatch’s Genji, with dashes, deflecting bullets with my arm blades, and brutal finishes that gave me a reason to approach. I didn’t have as many options in the base version of the game. Whether these larger game ideas really come to fruition remains to be seen, but I’m more enthralled with the game offered by CD Projekt Red than the one I can play right now, and it’s coming from someone who somehow loves the base game as it exists today.

On top of that, you won’t have to pay for a lot of system changes, because they will be part of the main gamefor free, so the initial investment amount you’ll have to pay when you get started for what the studio is positioning as the best experience is much smaller than it will be if you buy the $30 Phantom Freedom before trying all these new changes.

Screenshot: CD Projekt Red / Kotaku

What reason is there to play Cyberpunk 2077 now?

If for some reason you haven’t played Cyberpunk 2077 yet, knowing that a revised version of the game is just a few months away should be reason enough to give you pause before buying it now. But as someone who watched the game go from an absolute disaster to a mostly mundane RPG with a real heart beneath the rot has been fascinating. That’s what makes changes like the ones that Phantom Liberty promises to be interesting to watch, because I have the context of what 2077 once was to look back and distinguish how things changed and didn’t. have not changed. Truly, the story of Cyberpunk 2077 as a gem that needed polishing was one of the most gripping things about it. Wondering whether or not there’s merit to the story the internet loves to tell is as entertaining an experience as playing the game can be when it gets it right.

But if that’s not how you engage in video games, I see no reason to play Cyberpunk 2077 right now, when many of its fundamentals are going to be significantly changed in just a few months. If you’ve been waiting nearly three years to jump into Night City, an extra three months won’t hurt. If Phantom Liberty delivers on its promise of a revitalized game, ignorance of what it once was may be its own bliss. But while the video game industry continues to release games that look fundamentally different years later, Cyberpunk 2077 as a product is as compelling a tale as anything Night City offers.

But if you decide not to take that advice and jump into Cyberpunk 2077 anyway, be sure to check out Kotaku’s guides at quests to watchhow find love in night cityAnd general tips from someone who has played the game more than once.

Remember when we thought star field was going to be a $60 role-playing game coming out in 2022? Good time. While we have to wait until September 6 to gain heightexplore its 1,000 worlds, and listen to its 250,000 lines of dialogue, we now have a much better idea of ​​what you’ll actually be doing in the game. And at today’s Xbox showcase, Bethesda pulled back the curtain again further, giving us our best look yet at what will likely be one of the biggest games of 2023.

There will be a more Starfield-focused show later on Sunday, but for now, you can check out a fully in-game trailer that…sounds like Fallout?

Official Starfield Story Trailer

And here is the longest deep dive in the Starfield Direct:

Starfield Direct – Deep Dive into Gameplay

What we know about Starfield

As you may already know, achieving liftoff seems to be a key concept in all of this. Unlike most portrayals of space travel, it looks like Starfield will show a grittier, more dangerous approach. This is not futuristic Star Trek. Humanity travels through the stars, but in a precarious way.

Much like other Bethesda games, the focus is on player choice. It has a classic Bethesda dialogue system, as well as a persuasion system influenced by your stats. You can choose a career background for your character as well as personality traits that will influence your build, but Todd Howard assures players that the system is pretty relaxed when it comes to allowing for different playstyles. traits that give you advantages, but each comes with some type of disadvantage to balance it out. It’s very convenient, but in many ways Bethesda wrote the playbook to begin with. And if nothing else, one reason to be excited is that this isn’t a re-release of Skyrim and it’s been a while since Bethesda released an original game!

Learn more: Everything we know about Starfield, from its world to your companions

In an interview with IGN, Howard said the developer has put off its next fantasy RPG for a bit in favor of exploring a new world, which it hasn’t been able to do in a long time. Unfortunately, this vast expanse of space not going to have a lot of sex in it. Boo.

Also, Starfield will have a very sleek controller it’s probably one of Xbox’s finest accessories to date.

Todd Howard pointed out that Bethesda didn’t have the technology to create something like this until now, allowing them to “realistically” generate the world around you.

Highlights of Bethesda’s Starfield Showcase

During Starfield’s longest showcase, Bethesda’s gameplay of a character arriving at a base, where they quickly began gunning down enemies for some XP. And then the looting began. There seems to be plenty to collect and customize, with a particular focus on food. They call the vibe of it all “NASA punk”, which you can do whatever you want. Oh, and there’s a photo mode.

The space gameplay, meanwhile, was very reminiscent of No Man’s Sky. We see a ship land on a planet, where the biggest city Bethesda has ever built (according to them) is. Their hope is to try to tell as many stories as possible in one area. We also got to meet some of the factions, including the obligatory humanity-focused one.

However, just because we’re in space doesn’t mean we can’t embrace a different aesthetic. There is civilized space, and then there are things beyond, where everything goes. We got a glimpse of a city that looked straight out of a western, and moments later something that looked like cyberpunk. Each planet will have its own gravity, and sometimes this gravity can affect you while you are shooting.

“We are pushing our cities and settlements further than we have ever done before,” Bethesda said.

Each time you level up, you get a skill point that you can use to rank up skills. You can do challenges to earn skill points. One skill, for example, lets you control the minds of aliens while another lets you boost your jet all over the place. Another skill lets you hit really, really well. But you can also sneak through the world, crawling through air vents if that’s what you prefer. Or you can blow things up. There seems to be a skill tree for almost every approach.

You can buy a ship, customize that ship, and even hire a crew to operate it. Some teammate interactions can turn into romance, although the conversation that was shown did feel a bit wooden. I guess it’s because the dialogue isn’t as fleshed out as a full-fledged companion. Just like companions, most crew members can lend a hand in the field.

Space game in Starfield

During space combat, you can redirect energy from your shields to your weapons to boost them. After destroying ships, you can loot them in the air. You can turn them into scrap metal or board enemy ships themselves. The gameplay revealed that enemy ships will often have things to shoot inside them, but if you prevail you can take control of the actual ship.

What systems will Starfield launch on?

In related news, you should know that Starfield is an Xbox console exclusive, though it will also release on PC and Steam. by Bethesda Pete Hines wants you to know he’s so sorry about itbut hey: that’s what happens when you’re bought out by Microsoft for billions of dollars.

Kotaku covers everything about Summer Game Fest, from Thursday’s main show to other events happening throughout the next week. Whether you like larger-than-life triple-A games or intimate, offbeat indies, you can follow all things SGF here.

I can’t imagine how daunting it must be to start creating a Diablo-style action RPG. Not only are they so few in number, but those that are known are behemoths. Diablo, obviously, then Titan Quest, Torchlight, Grim Dawn… Who would deliberately want to step into its shadow, especially with Diablo IV coming out next week for a chorus of stellar reviews. Now imagine trying anyway, when there are only two people making the game. It’s Ghostlore, which just came out on Xbox Game Pass, and wow, it succeeds.

To be a Diablo-like, there are a few checkboxes. You need an isometric perspective, thousands of enemies to attack with an ever-increasing number of skills, portals to shops, and most importantly, a nearly endless amount of loot. All of these demands are incredibly difficult for any developer, requiring not only a frightening sheer volume of content to create, but also a cobweb of aspects to balance perfectly. I can immediately see why most wouldn’t try. And that only adds to my respect for developers Andrew Teo and Adam Teo (unrelated), who were undeterred.

Ghostlore achieves all of the above, only slipping slightly in difficulty, and even adds a few unique twists to the format. This is largely due to a lot of common sense when it comes to range.

Bringing action RPG to Southeast Asia

Described as an “Eastpunk” game by its creators, Ghostlore draws inspiration from South Asian folklore, including the mythologies of Singapore, Malaysia, China and Indonesia, set in a particular blend of the modern world and planes and forests infested with monsters. Rendered in beautifully drawn sprites, the world has a smart 90s look, while playing like a classic ARPG, delivering all the enemy- and loot-busting antics you’ve come to expect from the genre. Ghostlore then adds unique enemies, including an intriguing bonus system and the ability to combine classes to create new sets of skills and attacks.

For the most part, you know what you’re getting here. There is a central town with quest givers, merchants and that person who will remove the gems from your gear or the gear from your gems. You then go off to different grayed out regions, exploring, attacking and looting, leveling up, changing speed, getting mad that you just found a better shield just after spending all your money and gems to upgrade your current one, and blowing health and mana potions like a tense wizard.

Screenshot: Andrew Teo/Adam Teo/Kotaku

But between these familiar aspects lie some really interesting ideas. (Don’t hate me if you’ve seen them elsewhere – they were new to me.) The first is the Glyph system. Glyphs can be found among the loot in large quantities, each with a boost property, such as, for example, “+12% increase in minion HP” or “+81 MP”. These are placed in a tiled grid next to your inventory, in which new spaces unlock as you level up. (By the end of the game, I had 49 of the total 60 open.) However, you can also find Compound Glyphs, which are five-tile shapes, pentominoes if you will, which then enhance the properties of all other glyphs that fall into their tiles. It’s a mini-game in itself, trying to fit your best compound glyphs into the best possible arrangement in the grid. And for min-maxers, it’s manna from heaven.

Another fantastic idea that I want to see copied everywhere is the way Ghostlore handles classes. At first, you choose from one of six – Sentinel, Feral, Exorcist, Hashashin, Geomancer, and Adept – then unlock slots in another grid that allow you to choose from their selection of skills. You can swap them whenever you want and quickly unlock more slots to include more skills. Or, you can choose to insert a skill modifier or class bonus, the former empowering other skills on that grid row, the latter being unlocked for every four filled tiles of that class. But it gets much more interesting when you reach level 15.

At this point, you can add a second class to your character and thus also access all of their skills. But in a splendid feature, if you place particular skills from either class next to each other in the grid, they combine to create a third ability, unique to that specific class combination. Place Summon Sentinel Crows next to Feral Unleash, and the two combine to create Summon Sunbirds. They are more powerful creatures, used to help when attacking enemies. Or place the Exorcist’s Exorcise next to the Dervish of Hashashin, and the result is Summon Taming Sari, and a collection of possessed blades fighting alongside you. Reach level 30 and you can add a third and final class, and start making even more combinations in your skill grid.

Screenshot: Andrew Teo/Adam Teo/Kotaku

The trouble with Diablo likes

So many aspects to tweak will delight those who play Diablo-likes to meticulously hone their characters. But also, for those who just want to hit stuff with a stick, anything is possible to use with a more sloppy attitude and I just hope that helps.

This brings us to Ghostlore’s big problem: difficulty. There’s not enough. It’s important to read this knowing that I’m usually the person who advocates for better easy modes, or is furious at the difficulty of spike-shaped bosses, so it’s not about bravado or elitism. It’s been way too easy for way too long, so much so that for the first 25 levels I never used a health potion. (I’m level 39 now, playing post-game content.) In this genre, it’s not necessarily a terrible problem, given how many players play ARPGs almost like idle games, something to click while listening to a podcast. But it’s definitely more fun once it starts to get more complicated. (It should be noted that there is a permadeath mode, however.)

Complete the main story, however, and you’ll gain access to entirely new areas that offer a much higher degree of challenge, which is beautiful. There’s also local co-op, and of course the replayability of trying out different class builds.

Ghostlore clicked for me just like Titan Quest, but on a smaller scale. But that’s also a selling point here – it’s not going to take over your life like Diablo IV might next week, but rather give you a shorter burst of fun and for a fraction of the price.

Diablo IV’s open beta is finally over, which means we won’t get a chance to play the loot RPG again until it releases on June 6. Now that most everyone at Kotaku has had a chance to experience hell (or at least the emissaries you meet at the start of the game), we decided to get a few people together to chat about what we liked, what makes us optimistic and what left us a little wary during our time at Sanctuary.

Ethan Gach, Senior Reporter: I wasn’t really thinking about Diablo IV until 2023. After this beta, it’s probably the game I’m most looking forward to this year after Starfield and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It was completely unexpected, even if it is, at first glance, much more Diablo.

Learn more: Diablo IV is the perfect empty head, shitty game

Eric Schulkin, video editor: The most Diablo, Ethan. Like you, I hadn’t thought much about Diablo IV this year. It loomed in the background of my mind like the presence of a First Evil. It was nice to get a glimpse with this beta of how hopelessly obsessed I would become with the full release of the game in June.

Levi Winslow, Editor: Obsessed totally describes my weekend with the beta, TBH. Like you two, Diablo IV wasn’t something on my radar. I knew it was coming, of course, but I didn’t think I’d become so enamored with the idea of ​​killing Hellspawn until I had some time with the game. Now, weirdly, it is all I can think of. Guess digging through hell is going to take up a lot of my time in June. What courses did you all take during your time with the beta?

Ethan: I played very briefly with Druid and Necromancer, but mostly just stuck with my Barb, which is extremely annoying but I feel oddly compelled to redeem. I can definitely see the potential at higher levels, but this is definitely the least “interesting” class I’ve tried.

Eric: I played a lot of Rogue which, in my humble opinion, is awesome. Setting up caltrops and traps, choosing when to hang back and use my bow while dashing around added variety to fights for me. We will see how I feel through several acts. I also spent some time with the Necromancer.

Learn more: Let’s talk about Diablo IV’s most controversial change

Levi: This time I played with the Necromancer. I still think the Rogue Is Dope, but IDK, something about the Necromancer is really broken. Summon a gang of skulls to aid you in battle (at one point I had seven skeleton warriors with me, dark fools), siphon health from enemies through blood arts, plant curses that deal damage and status effects, which could be paired with passive abilities to deal even more damage and status effects… Necro feels OP at early levels. Some of my power started to diminish as I approached level 20, but even then the necromancer was working! It felt good to be a goth, hellish girl. Possibly my favorite class right now. Speaking of OP classes, what do you think of Blizzard’s comments regarding the inequality of each character at the start? Have you noticed a power difference?

Learn more: Diablo IV Classes Won’t Always Be Balanced, According to Blizzard

Ethan: It definitely takes a while for the Barbarian to connect, but I also like that the classes have unique power curves. I’m used to MOBAs like Dota 2 where sometimes it takes a while for your investment in a build to pay off. Much of this will certainly be mitigated by playing co-op.

Eric: Yeah. At this point, some Diablo classes and builds are better suited to being in a group. Especially early in the game, which is what I think this comment from Blizzard was getting at. Don’t expect everyone to have the same level of strength right from the start. The Rogue is your classic damage dealer, but it also has survivability options outside of standard evasion, so I always felt like I could handle whatever the game threw at me.

Levi: I agree that it’s kind of obvious that not all classes would feel equal in power from the start. I’m not sure it would make such a fun experience anyway. That said, I think there are two classes in particular – the Necromancer and the Rogue – that have some early game advantages, particularly when it comes to their damage and handling options. However, things changed around level 20. My partner and I played much of this beta in couch co-op, with me as a necromancer and her as a druid. By the time we both reached level 20, I saw that she was beating bosses a bit faster than me. The damage difference wasn’t astronomical or anything, but I could tell she was hitting a bit harder than me. Still, there’s no such thing as rolling eight-deep hell and just jumping fools. It’s my favorite thing.

Ethan: What else has impressed you in the beta so far? I think my understated favorite thing is the incredible soundtrack that leans very hard into sinister fatalism. Here, I smack skulls and compare rolls of armor while violins cry like I’m in the middle of a black-and-white WWII movie. Diablo III’s mood swing does a lot of work to make me feel like there’s a world worth investing in here beyond the multicolored loot slot.

Eric: You can tell in real time and the care was put into making that mood shift happen as the eerie, dark goth vibes were immaculate. Hearing the goats bleat their last breath never gets old, it turns out. I was very impressed by the overworld. Discovering the dark corners of the Diablo IV map has been a truly satisfying experience. The caves, dungeons, side quests and fortresses added a lot of richness to the gameplay and felt well designed. I didn’t like Destiny-esque world events, as they dragged my frame rate while playing on PC, and I sometimes felt pressured to participate in them as I was funneled through areas of the map while advancing through the main campaign.

Levi: Yeah, I agree, world events have also been the bane of my PS5’s existence. Every time I started one, the frame rate dropped to near stop-motion levels. It wasn’t good, and it probably didn’t help that I was playing co-op most of that weekend. That said, I think the world was the most impressive part. The gravity of the narrative juxtaposed with the lushness of certain environments left a lasting impression on me. The variety of locations, the characters you meet and how they interact, the way the evil slowly unfolds as you progress through the story – Diablo IV has an evocative world I could get lost in . I called it the perfect podcast game. I still feel that way, but that certainly doesn’t mean there aren’t dead roses to stop and smell once in a while. The world is teeming with life in every corner, which inspired me to turn over as many stones as possible.

Learn more: Diablo IV: Blizz explains the lack of co-op couch on PC

Ethan: All of that is why I wish there was a way to play offline, or the social aspects were more siloed. Having random strangers running down a bespoke city street can break the illusion, but most of the time it only led to weird rubber band issues and other connectivity issues in line. Have any of you run into the issue where your character can’t run to the next instance as if caught on a treadmill at invisible breaks on the map?

Eric: Yes, several times. When I tried to flee from the main center of Kyovashad or a small settlement, my character could not advance further. I wish there was an offline mode or even a way to opt out of these world events.

Levi: It definitely needs an offline mode. There have been so many instances where my partner has said to me, “What’s going on right now? as our characters raced in place trying to leave towns and settlements. Knowing the games, I thought it was frustrating albeit hilarious. My partner? She didn’t have the same patience, finding the rubber band more frustrating than hilarious. The dichotomy of the two of us. That said, it wasn’t really a problem after the end of Saturday until the start of Sunday. I didn’t experience the issue as much as the beta slowly ended. Hopefully this will be smoothed out in the full game. Speaking of the full game and as we begin to wrap up, is Diablo IV a day one buy for you all? I think my partner is invested enough that I pick it up when it comes out on June 6th. She’s a fan of Gauntlet Dark Legacy and we’ve played Minecraft Dungeons through hell and back, so another couch co-op dungeon crawler is going to be big for us.

Learn more: Diablo IV’s Butcher is leaving Shooketh players

Ethan: I think the beta, while a good first impression, is just a small preview of what this game could be, so I’m curious to see how the final product will fare. Will the game feel polished or look like an Early Access release? Just a few months ago, some developers told the Washington Post that there was internal pressure to potentially crush to release the game by June. And the biggest question will be about monetization. The real-money auction house was such a bad idea that it initially killed all the goodwill and momentum of Diablo III. The game eventually recovered, but it was a huge misstep. Hopefully Diablo IV avoids this and keeps seasonal microtransactions live as far as possible. I hope that’s what Diablo Immortal was for.

Eric: I’d like to believe I’d have the self-discipline to wait those first few weeks and see what state the game gets into, but really, who am I kidding? I’ll also be a day one purchase, helping the people of Sanctuary with their collective mommy issues. The beta showed me enough of what I was looking for in a new Diablo game.

Levi: And we all have mommy issues, especially when succubus mommy Lilith comes knocking on the door. Yeah, the beta was a good look at the depravity of Sanctuary. I’m glad to see how far this hell goes.

Although the Diablo IV Early Access beta ended on March 20, another one will run from March 24-26. This window gives you access to the five classes, two of which, the Druid and the Necromancer, were initially unavailable. Although neither has anything in common, other than their propensity to kill evil shit, one thing you might have noticed if you jumped into Sanctuary last weekend is how unbalanced they were. According to Blizzard, that’s quite the point.

Learn more: Diablo IV is the perfect empty head, shitty game

Diablo IV is the fourth entry in Blizzard’s long-running isometric action-RPG. Following the events of Diablo III, this new game puts you in control of a baby angel-demon bent on putting a lid on the flaming bottle of Hell. He’s not totally reinventing the wheel. Instead, it’s the perfect podcast game, something you can skim through with your brain at the end of a long day. I enjoyed the handful of hours I put into the early access beta, and I’m thrilled with the progress I’ve made with what I’ve dubbed my Shadow Rogue to carry over to the open beta this weekend. But maybe the reason I had so much fun with Diablo IV was because of my class choice, and Blizzard seems to reaffirm that.

All that muscle and yet no power

In an interview with the British culture and entertainment site NME, Diablo General Manager Rod Fergusson said that not all classes in the game should be equal in power at the same time. Some are better than others, but not forever.

“There’s a lot of balance there, but the thing about balance is that it’s a balance in time, not a balance in the moment,” Fergusson said. “Not all level five classes should have the same power. Due to the enchantment specialization, wizards will have the most skills of all classes because [with] Barbarians having four weapons, they will have the most legendary slots of all classes. When you take this for each of them, there will be different moments in time [where] a barbarian is in some ways a bit underpowered compared to some of the other classes in, say, the first 10-20 levels. Phew. Ouch, even.

However, Fergusson’s comment makes some sense – “some” being the operative word here. There’s no reason for a wizard to feel as strong as, say, a druid in the early levels of the game. departure. Still, that the Barbarian is an idiot at the start of Diablo IV is a bummer, especially considering that the course starts with the strongest.

Muscles will get a buff, however

The community also seems to feel this, essentially noting that Barbs muscles are all for show. On the game subreddit there were people saying the barbarians for to feel weak, have trouble beating bossesAnd lack of mobility. Twitter gamers echoed the same sentiment, saying the class is “grossly malnourished.” It will not always be so. Fergusson clarified that when the Barbs reach the middle and end of the game, especially with the number of legendary weapons they can hold, the tanky class can begin to embody demons and fiends.

“But when you get to level 30-40 and legendaries drop a lot, barbarians can be super strong,” Fergusson said. “Then there are things around the skills gap, which I think are built into it. I think the agility and mobility of a rogue is harder to play than a necromancer who has 12 skeletons fighting alongside him that he can just dispatch and fight.

Learn more: Report: Diablo IV devs say June release date will lead to more crunch

And talk to GamesRadar+, game director Joe Shely reiterated Fergusson’s point, saying Barbs players will see a few tweaks that should make mid-to-late play less frustrating and more satisfying in the long run. Bless.

“We don’t want a player creating a Barbarian to feel weak at low levels,” Shely said. “So we have to balance the class so that their strength at the end of the game is realized in that they are powerful, but not make the game unfair at low levels. Of course, with a game like Diablo IV, the classes aren’t balanced so everyone has exactly the same power level 35, 36, 37 and beyond. Their set [power] need to be balanced against each other, and they need to be balanced, especially late game, midgame in general, and early game.

Learn more: Let’s talk about Diablo IV’s most controversial change

Kotaku has contacted Blizzard for comment.

There’s comfort in knowing that the class known for its strength should see some tweaking to prove that muscle doesn’t make up for something. Still, it sucks to know that players who opt for the Swole class will struggle in the early levels of Diablo IV. Sorry to all the Barbs out there.

Strategy specialists Paradox had a big day today, wrapping up a slew of new projects slated for release over the next two years, including new games and expansions to existing games.

CITIES: SKYLINES 2 ANNOUNCED

Biggest news first: Cities: Skylines, the world’s first city builder and a game that’s kind of eight years old now, gets a sequel. The first trailer is unfortunately entirely cinematic, so there’s not much to take from it, but the accompanying press release has a little more information:

A modern take on the city-building genre, Cities: Skylines II lets players create and maintain cities that come to life like never before, with fully realized transportation and economy systems, a wealth of options construction and customization and advanced modding capabilities. . Revealed during the Paradox Announce Show 2023Cities: Skylines II evolves the city-building genre, allowing players to build the cities of their dreams with the most open-ended city-building sandbox on the planet.

OK, so it’s not. It doesn’t really tell us anything either, especially what it’s going to do that we can’t already do in Cities: Skylines. Ah well, at least it will be prettier! Maybe!

Cities Skylines II | Trailer I

CRUSADER KINGS III: TOURS AND FILMING

Crusader Kings III is getting a new expansion called Tours and Tournaments, which, like the game’s latest major update, Royal Courtfocuses more on the character and the RPG side of the game than on its broader strategic content.

There’s a lot more info on it herebut basically:

By gathering an entourage, selecting options for your journey, and hiring a Caravan Master, you are ready to hit the road and travel to activities across the world. The travel system is integral to the activities, with the host and guests traveling to reach them – creating a stronger sense of place when you see your route mapped out and your character moving directly across the map.

The expansion will add three major events for you to travel: Grand Tournaments, Grand Weddings, and Grand Tours, each of which allows you to strut around your kingdom, meet people, and give the player even more menus that appear asking you to choose a dialogue/action choice.

It will come out at the end of spring.

Crusader Kings III: Towers and Tournaments – Trailer

THE LEAGUE OF LIGHTERS

It looks cool ! It’s a whole new thing, a “turn-based tactical strategy game set in an alternate 1933”, which is a longer way of describing what was surely its elevator pitch, which is “It’s Indiana Jones x XCOM”.

The League of Lamplighters – Trailer

Since this trailer contains no gameplay, here’s a second:

The Lamplighters League – First Look at Gameplay

The game is expected to release on “PC and Xbox Series X and S consoles in 2023”.

EUROPA UNIVERSALIS IV

The venerable strategy classic Europa Universalis IV gets its 2168th expansion with Domination, which “features new mission trees, new government reforms, new domain management, and new events for several of the game’s great powers.”

This means that powers like Britain, Spain and France have been given “new life and balance, with greater historical depth, more promising rewards and branching mission trees so that the choices of players can have a dramatic impact on the course of history”.

Europa Universalis IV: Domination | Trailer

Paradox also made a bunch of smaller announcements for smaller titles, like a Surviving the Aftermath expansion and “Mechabellum, a sci-fi auto-battling game where players take on ever-growing armies of mechs, robots, and heavy weapons”. which you can view here.

I really like the Iron Bull. I would have a drink with a guy like him in real life. We would defend each other if someone laughed at us. That’s why I can’t help but think about how badly her story ended in the action-RPG Dragon Age: Inquisition, and why I revisited how it aligns with how whose poorly marginalized cultures are dealt with in BioWare’s sprawling series.

The Iron Bull is a companion that shows up to offer aid to your character’s army when it was a small peacekeeping force before it became an entity robust geopolitics. He immediately explains that he is a spy for the hostile nation of Par Vollen (based on the Mongol Horde) and that his bosses have common interests with you.

See, there’s a fucking hole in the sky. No one knows how it happened, but it spawns monsters and spews green lightning. The clerics are freaking out, no one seems to be in charge of fixing the thing, and the only way to seal it is to use a glowing seal on your hand. This is how you find yourself at the head of a paramilitary force sponsored by the Andrastian Church. Due to your continued heroism against the greatest natural disaster this world has ever seen, potential allies from other countries are gathering to see how they can help. This includes the normally hostile Qunari, which is a religious group I’ve feuded with for most of Dragon Age 2. They value conformity at all costs, harbor a powerful army, and have expansionist tendencies. Most of the inhabitants of the continent Thedas do not appreciate being invaded or horned beings who do not worship their lord and savior. Thus, for the first time in the history of Dragon Age, the player works with the mysterious and dogmatic Qunari as an equal. .

Iron Bull’s complicated situation is incredibly relatable

I was thrilled that Iron Bull was paving the way for international friendship, even if it was through a military alliance. You see, his story reminds me a lot of mine. Growing up as a Chinese in the United States was tough. Kids would assume your people were the reason all American jobs were going away. White people would panic if our national government sneezed in any direction. And I understand. People feel small and powerless in the face of geopolitical forces beyond their control. It’s easier to project that nasty shit onto a human being, and they do, both in Thedas and in real life.

Screenshot: Electronic Arts / Kotaku

Iron Bull is not just an active follower of Qun. He is a secret policeman for the Qunari nation of Par Vollen. Despite being part of a police force that engages in assassination and religious re-education, Iron Bull attempts to carve out a life outside of the line of duty. He believes the Qun is the best political system, but he doesn’t want a holy war. He also enjoys drinking and having sex despite the religious stigma against hedonism. I feel close to him for that, because I too choose what I like about being Chinese. I also prefer to talk about anime than the communist party. But most foreigners don’t care what I believe. Like Bull, I have to be armed with an icebreaker for every conversation. We are considered threats until proven otherwise.

Despite the stigma, I love that Bull remains true to his religion and is willing to risk his life for it. Why shouldn’t he? Human Templars fight and die for Andrastianism all the time, and that doesn’t mean they’re bad fanatics. My friendship with him in my first race was special because I was playing as a member of his race, albeit one who was never born into the culture (Vashoth). Our lives were different, but we both knew what it was like to be assumed to be a freak in front of the man.

The quest “Requests of the Qun” soured me on the Iron Bull arc

Midway through my first campaign run, Par Vollen tries to extend an olive branch, and I find myself extremely invested in that scenario. When a group is strongly associated with a hostile nation, warming relations result in less racial discrimination against that group. My character accepts the joint military operation out of pragmatism. On a more personal level, he wants to live in a world where people wouldn’t assume he was a threat.

This game was last updated seven years ago and the post contains spoilers.

My character should learn to live with disappointment. The military operation goes terribly wrong and the group is faced with a decision: either they sacrifice the Iron Bull mercenaries to save the Qunari ship, or they sacrifice the mercenaries to preserve the ship (and thus the Qunari alliance). His mercenary children are essentially his found family that exists outside of religious culture. If you choose to save the Iron Bull mercenaries, the alliance offer collapses. Iron Bull will be exiled from his homeland. His homeland will send assassins after him after he has served them loyally all his life. Damn.

Now, I understand that all-or-nothing player choices are a hallmark of BioWare games. Someone always has to get screwed. But this choice in “Demands of the Qun” seems particularly forced and… bad? Par Vollen would surely respect the military acumen of one of their most talented officers. If the Iron Bull thinks its group of mercenaries was worth more than a ship, there’s surely room for negotiation. Especially when an alliance with the most powerful military force on the continent is at stake. What has become of the famous pragmatism of the Qunari?

Screenshot: Electronic Arts / Kotaku

It’s getting better. If you don’t forcibly sever its relationship with its homeland – if you don’t give up the continent’s first chance at international peace in centuries – then the Iron Bull will turn against you in the Trespasser DLC, which is focused on the story. epilogue that takes place after saving the world from the evil zombie mage Corypheus. You are forced to kill him in battle, specifying which choice was the most “canon” for him. I hate this outcome because Dragon Age has always had players sacrificing a few to save the many. Now, how many Andrastians and Qunari have to kill each other because we haven’t found an alliance? The post-game DLC makes even that sacrifice worthless, since the Qunari end up turning on you anyway. Sometimes life bites you in the ass even when you make all the right decisions. It’s something I’ve always respected in BioWare games. But what bothers me is that BioWare has this unfortunate tendency to dehumanize its marginalized cultures in the universe.

But the quest is not about big, important issues like peace or sacrifice. This is a smaller, more personal. Could Iron Bull prioritize his personal feelings over his loyalty to a dogmatic culture? A companion of mine, Solas, makes this point even more explicit: Either Iron Bull is an independent being or he is not. But I don’t care what Solas thinks of the Qunari. He is a racist towards everyone. I care what BioWare has to say about this fictional race, which they made a replacement for non-European forces This threat Christian Europe. Dragon Age has never had any respect for non-humans who think their culture is worth protecting. The “Demands of the Qun” quest is an extension of this continued disregard for non-hegemonic diasporas.

Dragon Age’s persistent issue with non-human characters

Take Varric, for example. He’s been a companion in two full Dragon Age games, and his character revolves around the fact that he’s far better off never having experienced proper dwarf culture like his brother did. Come on man. Aren’t you the least bit curious about the intergenerational trauma that has shaped your entire family? Apparently not. Making peace with family history and letting it go is one thing, but Varric doesn’t even bother to question his non-human past. I always feel conflicted when I see fans flattering him. He’s not a “dwarf” character. He succeeds because his rejection of his heritage renders him harmless, like a fantasy model minority. Would he still be so beloved if he had strong opinions about the dwarven caste system, or cared about the sprawling spires where his family had resided for generations?

And don’t even tell me about Solas, an ancient elven god who wants to bring back his lost civilization by committing genocide against the entire world. Why are these the issues, BioWare? And why did you make the representative of this incredibly important civilization a total dick bag who clearly doesn’t care about lives other than their chosen few? Maybe we should bring Arlathan back. But not on his terms. And the prankster elf Sera? She can’t spend five minutes in my party without reminding everyone that she’s not like the other elves.

On the other hand, the human Cassandra Pentaghast (who is also a member of the secret police) is narratively rewarded for clinging to her coded Christian faith. When she discovers that her religious organization is corrupt, she has the opportunity to reform it. There is no reform for extremists like Solas or the Iron Bull, unless they are willing to leave behind a crucial part of their personality.

I wouldn’t care so much about everyone being a perfect saint if we had well-aligned characters who held traditional, non-human values. But unless you’re culturally coded as a Christian in the Dragon Age universe, being attached to your heritage makes you a heretic. And just like the kingdoms of medieval Europe, the only cure for heretics is conversion, exileOr death.

It was announcement earlier today than Elden Ring, FromSoftware’s Game of the Year 2022 for many people (including most employees of this website), has sold 20 million copies worldwide since its release a year ago. It’s a lot.

You might be wondering why am I reporting this on Kotaku, a website that in 2023 generally couldn’t care less about sales numbers, especially when featured in a publisher press release?

That’s because I think Elden Ring, a nail-biting action/RPG that’s essentially a single-player experience, is making a hell of a point by releasing and selling 20 million copies in 2022-23. This shows publishers and people who control their purse strings, that not every video game released in the modern era has to be a forever game, a live service time that not only demands our constant attention, but constantly demands money while it does so.

You buy Elden Ring, you play Elden Ring, you rinse Elden Ring and you’re done! There are no DLC packs, no season passes, no multiplayer modes selling skins for $2. What you paid for is what you got. For many people raised on less exploitative games, or tired of the demands of modern gaming (or both!), Elden Ring was, conceptually, a near perfect video game experience.

I know it’s far from the only one. It’s not like every game ever released these days is a live service leak. Indeed this GOTY list I linked to above is dominated by standalone single-player experiences.

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But none of them have sold 20 million copies. That’s what makes Elden Ring’s sales so important. They don’t just show a traditional video game can do well, they show it can be an absolute blockbuster. While nailing down specific sales figures in these days of digital shopfronts can be hard, 20 million puts the game in the same ballpark as Modern Warfare 2 And EA’s FIFA Seriesan extraordinary achievement for a game that’s as tough as hell and enjoyed a fraction of the promotional budget than those behemoths – two full-priced retail games that then try to scam players for even more money on the road – have received.

Do you know what else is in this sales stage? Cyberpunk 2077 – which, admittedly, had its issues and also an astronomical marketing budget – sold over 20 million copies. God of War Ragnarok, another very single-player experience released in 2022, has itself sold over 10 million copies (to Sony’s credit, much of their proprietary strategy, from Horizon to The Last Of Us, follows a similar path). Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, the first single-player Star Wars game in a very long time? Oh hey, it also sold for over 10 million, making more than enough to warrant a big-budget sequel coming out very soon.

These huge sales figures are not only success stories for the companies involved, but also a sign for other publishers that perhaps the people who buy and play games are tired of this obsession with ripping us off at every turn and to rip our hearts out in a desperate attempt to prolong our time with them. I understand that companies know that a live service game can potentially make more money than a regular game – look at FIFA, which has made billions in digital card sales on top of its retail profits – but it is not guaranteed. Not all games have to do this. We don’t have the time or the money for that.

Sometimes people just want to play a video game, finish it, enjoy it for what it was, and then move on with their lives. And these folks are showing that there’s enough to not just buy a few million copies of these games, but turn them into absolute blockbusters.

After watching Honkai: Star Rail for a few minutes during a live media preview, I mostly liked what I saw. HoYovere’s “space fantasy” RPG doesn’t reinvent turn-based combat, but the performance was smooth. The combat animations were some of the best I’ve seen in anime games in recent years. The battle turn tracking, team combos, type clashes, and battle animations were reminiscent of games like Shin Megami Tensei and Persona 5. But HoYoverse definitely doesn’t want you to think of it as one of those games. . Besides the apparent identity confusion, my conversation with the developer left me with little optimism about racial inclusion in Star Rail’s space fantasy.

Here’s how Star Rail works: Although you start with a protagonist character, the bulk of your roster will come from rotating wives and husbands through the gacha system. You use them to explore maps filled with enemy encounters (rather than real-time combat like in HoYovers current mainstay Genshin Impact).

Once you have encountered an enemy, you will begin a turn-based battle. Each of the four members of your party will have two skills. Some will be offensive, while others will be support or healing based. Each attack matches an element, and effectively using elemental type matches will allow you to break shield bars. Once an enemy is vulnerable, you can use team combo attacks to kick them while they’re down.

Screenshot: HoYovere/Kotaku

Despite the relatively simple combat, the game will feature an auto-combat mechanic. This should make daily battles for resources easier, which is an essential feature that some modern gacha use to keep games alive.

Star Rail will have a main story campaign and regular side quests. Although it shares similar characters from Honkai Impact 3rd, Fish Ling, a representative of HoYoverse, assured me that there would be no story crossover with their insanely heavy real-time action game.

According to Michalel Lin, another developer representative, the driving force behind Honkai: Star Rail’s development was HoYoverse’s desire to diversify its portfolio from the usual action games it publishes. Second, HoYoverse felt that the turn-based combat was conducive to “the story we want to tell”. Its design philosophy was driven by a desire to make turn-based combat accessible to newcomers.

Things got murkier, however, when I tried to ask who the target audience was. The Star Rail presentation mentioned that the game would feature different cultures. Remembering how bad Genshin Impact flubbed representing darker-skinned people and Southwest Asians in the Sumeru update I asked how the devs intended to improve representation in Star Rail. What lessons have they learned from the overseas community?

“The game takes place in a fictional world,” Lin said. “What we do depends on the growth of intellectual property. As a combination of cultures in our world, there is no specific culture that we are targeting. We’ll continue to listen to fan feedback, but how the world will be built, we can’t say for sure.

Screenshot: HoYovere

It’s 2023 and Asian RPGs continue to drop diversity. This hugely disappointing response reminded me of Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida. answer as to whether or not this game would include people of color. Their response was that their world was fantastic, so it couldn’t be held to diversity standards at all. Star Rail includes characters that are culturally Chinese, so it’s really shit that his launch characters seem to be even clearer than those in Genshin Impact. Once again, we need to start keeping asian RPGs to higher standards.

I got similarly vague answers when I asked where Star Rail got its inspiration from. “We think turn-based RPGs are very appealing and have an active audience in the market,” Lin said. It took me a few minutes to remember that the The Persona series has sold 16.8 million units worldwide and was probably at least one of the games alluded to. When pressed on the studio’s creative inspiration, Lin told me that the Star Rail team consists of 500 individual developers. Therefore, it would be impossible to reduce the specific influences.

I can guess why HoYoverse is so coy about its Persona 5 game in space. It’s probably because the the Internet torn in Genshin Impact during launch for its similarities to Breath of the Wild, to the point that the developer had to reassure the players that the game was more than a clone. But Star Rail will will probably come out this yearand people will be able to see Persona DNA embedded in the way the game plays.

So here’s the honest summary of Star Rail: It’s a space fantasy game that you’ll probably enjoy if you’re a fan of the Persona or Shin Megami Tensei series. Pay attention to the gacha system and don’t hold your breath on the improved diversity over what we’ve seen so far.