The Super Mega Baseball franchise doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a long-running series created by a company with deep pockets. That said, Super Mega Baseball 3 not only delivers solid gameplay that sticks close to the fundamentals and nuances of the sport, it also adds a dash of style that’s all its own. People think of tradition when they think of baseball, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do things a little differently to still give fans a good representation of the sport.

The age-old battle between pitcher and batter is very much alive in Super Mega Baseball 3. Pitching is particularly important to master; it consists of matching your pitching reticle (on the left analog) to a second moving reticle in the batter’s box. Even on medium difficulty (more on this later), nailing your pitches to paint the corners and avoid serving up juicy meat for batters can be difficult – especially when your pitcher has decreased stats because their stamina is low or because they’re tense due to their performance.

Sometimes you barely hang on to pitch another inning. Other times, you walk a batter and give up a few runs, which leads you to dip into your bullpen unexpectedly before sending it into a full-on death spiral only four or five innings into the game. I like that I started to have success not only by getting better at the physical act of matching the pitching reticles but because I started to pay more attention to my pitcher’s own strengths and weaknesses. For instance, if I had a good amount of stamina and velocity but not a good command of junk pitches, I had a better time if I threw power fastballs more often than trying to get the batter to swing at my not-so-accurate curveballs – even if that meant throwing less variety of pitches overall. It was simply the risk I had to take given my pitcher. Also factor in individual positive and negative traits, and Super Mega Baseball 3 can give you all you can handle, or not if you prefer, thanks to customizable sliders for fielding, batting, pitching, and player speed.

Upgrading your squad in the new franchise mode can be a lot of fun, and while the mode restricts some of the ways you construct your roster, at least developer Metalhead is giving you its own take on a mode that sports gamers are more than familiar with. Player development opportunities (PDOs) are a big part of the mode. They sound like performance-enhancing drugs – and sometimes that might be true – but they’re actually skill boosts you can buy to permanently affect specific players’ attributes. The twists are which ones can be purchased, how long they are available for, the extent of their effects are random, and they can come with negative traits. Furthermore, the money you generate to buy PDOs is tied to your payroll. The less you spend on veteran players with high salaries, the more you can spend on PDOs to develop new talent. It’s a nice tradeoff that keeps teams in check while still letting you build your roster in different ways.

The downside of the franchise structure is that dropping and adding players to your roster is one-to-one, so to add a new third baseman, for example, you can’t drop the salaries of two lesser players to afford the single new acquisition. Also, pitchers must replace pitchers, and fielders must replace fielders – another restriction that stops you from being creative with your roster. Despite these stipulations, in a broader sense, I respect that the game isn’t trying to be a hardcore baseball simulator; things like offering your pitcher named Reef Sandwalker a teeth-whitening PDO for more velocity puts a unique spin on the mode.

Super Mega Baseball 3 could use some tweaks to its gameplay, such as the automatic triggering of small defensive animations to prevent your player from getting turned around on a routine fly ball or missing an easy tag, for example. But on the whole, it provides solid gameplay in a fun, stylish wrapper. Add in the series’ own touches, such as extensive customization options, cross-platform online play, and the abundance of co-op (online or off) opportunities, and you’ve got a game that makes an already-familiar sport stand out.

Continue reading

Sucker Punch's recent 18-minute presentation on Ghost of Tsushima revealed a lot, particularly aspects of the game's combat and environment. The footage also gave rise to questions about Jin's defense of the island of Tsushima against Mongol invaders.

We talked to director Nate Fox, diving into more facets of the game, from Jin's progression as a warrior to some of its secrets.

The Ghost Warrior

Honor is a big part of the samurai trope, but principle alone isn't going to defend the island. During the presentation, Fox referred to Jin's stealth combat moves as "dishonorable," consisting of "dirty tricks." However, deception and stealth assassinations are not forbidden, but additional tools the player can use as they see fit, depending on how they want to approach a situation.

"Our hero is a samurai brought up in the code of the samurai, trained to fight enemies by looking at them straight on," Fox says. "And then the Mongols invade, and all of his fellow samurai, most of them, all get wiped out. Now he's finding himself radically outnumbered by the enemy, and the people that he loves are all threatened. So we have to let go of some of the things that he was trained to do throughout his entire life, in order to figure out new ways to fight back."

As the game progresses and Jin's legendary status increases through the completion of mission objectives, layering on more stealthy attacks (from dagger throws to smoke bombs and well beyond) to his already honed sword skills, which also continue to grow. How you build out Jin's skill tree and utilize his combat skills is entirely up to you, and the tree also unlocks non-combat aspects such as being able to use a grappling hook to aid traversal. Furthermore, some combat skills can be learned and adapted from enemies themselves, and charms and different armor pieces also contribute to his prowess by providing stat bumps.

One of the combat techniques Jin can use is the standoff command. This is pure samurai style, skill, and bravado. You stride up to your enemies, intimidating them before you even draw your sword. Standoffs are about precise, minimal movements, and the gameplay and controls around standoffs are different than normal swordplay. As effective, fun, and dramatic as these can be – enabling you to take out multiple enemies in a single flurry – Sucker Punch doesn't want them to be overpowered. Once regular melee starts, standoffs can't be initiated.

In general, the enemy A.I. attempts to coordinate its attacks, utilizing not only their numeric advantage, but their technological one as well – including gunpowder. "If you think that you can roll up and sword fight an entire camp," Fox says, "you will die."

An Island Alive

Jin's quest to rid the island of invaders naturally takes him far and wide (Fox notes that if you can see a location you can go to it), and exploration is just as big a part of the game as putting Mongols to the sword.

Apart from some areas gated off for story reasons, Tsushima is open for investigation. This can reveal side quests and resources, and like other accomplished open-world titles, Jin can engage in random encounters to further flesh out the experience. The game runs on a dynamic day, night, and weather system, and animals and encounters follow their own routines so they aren't locked into a time and place, giving a natural flow to events.

"Along the way," Fox says, "particularly as you go out there and explore Tsushima, you're going to meet all of these different people who are struggling to survive in this wartime environment. And all of those stories bring the invasion to life..."

Surprises of Tsushima

Discovery is a key part of Ghost of Tsushima, and accordingly, there were things that Fox wouldn't tell us, preferring to leave them as surprises. In the distance, during the presentation, we noticed a harbor with some boats docked and floating in a bay and one mission tasks Jin with destroying a Mongol vessel. Fox wouldn't reveal, however, if we ever get to take control of a ship during our adventure, so hopefully that's an indirect way of saying yes.

As far as combat goes, more secrets remain, such as a particularly tantalizing stealth combat action prompt called "slaughter." This option (as well as the ability to perform chain assassinations) appeared when Jin sneaks up on some unaware enemies in a camp. Kills add to a meter at the bottom-left of the screen, seemingly culminating in an action performed by hitting L1 and R1 simultaneously. Whatever this unleashes, Fox would only say, "There are moves that the hero can do that are really pretty neat that you find by exploring the world of Tsushima."

Finally, in one of the presentation's many bucolic moments, Jin peacefully plays a flute. Does this lead to something else, or is it simply for player enjoyment? Fox told us that it has a "specific role" in the game.

The Way of The Samurai

The story of Ghost of Tsushima is based on real events, but not bound by them – the defense of the island in 1274 was a failure. Still, the game is centered on the island and Jin's actions as a samurai, rather than supernatural stakes. You won't fight monsters or dragons, for instance.

Instead, the game leans into our perception of samurai through movies and pop culture, using the films of Akira Kurosawa such as Seven Samurai and Yojimbo and comics, as inspiration.

"Everything was selected because it was another prop into the fundamental identity of being a samurai, right down to the foliage moving with the wind so heavily," Fox says. "We did that early on because, in these classic samurai movies, you often see the wind thrashing leaves and trees, but there's one stoic samurai not moving with his sword up. And it's that juxtaposition of a still individual with a dynamic environment that really makes them feel powerful."

The visual tenets of samurai battles and their fighting skills come together throughout the game, and none more striking than in so-called boss battles when two legendary swordsmen come together. The action is dramatically prefaced through cinematic, letterbox framing, and the combat requires knowledge of your adversary's tactics so you can effectively chain together the right attacks.

The game might also inform our vision of samurai through the characters Jin meets along his journey. Although Fox didn't elaborate on this point, the Jin we've seen so far easily conjures the vision of legendary actor Toshiro Mifune as a master-less samurai in a classic Akira Kurosawa film. Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, among other things, brings up the theme of class differences between samurai and peasants, and Yojimbo presents Mifune as the wily, enigmatic samurai as he expertly plays two rival gangs off against each other to help a town.

It'll be interesting to see how Jin interacts with those around him and if any side missions, for instance, tell us more about Jin as a person apart from his combat prowess.

Perhaps Jin as a character and a warrior could be contrasted by gamers controlling another person altogether, but when asked about this possibility, Fox only said, "I can't tell you that, because I might ruin the experience for you."

Continue reading

Overwatch is hitting another milestone, and the celebration starts now. The beloved hero shooter's Anniversary event is now in full swing to commemorate its fourth anniversary, and you know what that means: New skins! Blizzard teased some over the last few days, showing off new ones for a variety of heroes, from Reaper to Zenyatta.

The event runs from May 19 until June 9 and offers five legendary skins, three epic skins, and new sprays, icons, and emotes. There are also Weekly Challenges for limited-time items and skins, the schedule is as follows:

• Week 1: Carbon Fiber Sigma (Epic)
• Week 2: Fleur de Lis Widowmaker (Epic)
• Week 3: Masked Man McCree (Epic)

You can get a look at all the new event skins in the gallery below, which includes Hammond as a submarine captain and Ashe as Little Red Riding Hood with Bob as her Big Bad Wolf.

Overwatch first launched back in 2016 on May 24 and received a perfect 10 from our own Dan Tack. Overwatch 2, which currently doesn't have a release date, was announced at this past Blizzcon, so here's hoping we hear more about it soon

Continue reading

At the end of XCOM 2, the human resistance overcame impossible odds to overthrow an oppressive alien hegemony controlling our planet. Now, freed from their shackles, humanity must find a way to live in harmony with the eclectic alien races that now call Earth home. Factions on both sides of the fence are unhappy with this new world order. Chimera Squad is a standalone strategy game in which you manage an elite team of hardened warriors from across the cosmos, putting out cultural fires and hunting down anyone who aims to disrupt Earth’s fragile alliance. Their methods are radical and often explosive, and sometimes they make a few wrong moves – just like the game itself.

Chimera Squad is built atop XCOM 2’s smartly designed strategic action, which is a great starting point. You manage a team of super soldiers through several tense turn-based encounters with fearsome alien monsters. The stakes are always high, so bad positioning and missed shots can have dire consequences, but that sense of heightened danger is all the more thrilling.

Firaxis smartly expands on those existing mechanics with a new system called Breach Mode. At the beginning of each encounter, your soldiers can plan their entrance onto the battlefield. During a breach, you are presented with several entry points, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, a surprise back-door assault might give your units an aim advantage, but the first unit through the door is marked by the enemy and easier to hit. Weighing the costs and benefits for each breach point is fun, and wiping several enemies off the board during the initial onslaught is always satisfying. Overall, the new Breach Mode is a clever system that adds to the XCOM formula without overly complicating the already-deep strategy.

Some of Chimera Squad's other changes are less successful. Instead of issuing commands to all your units at the same time, Chimera Squad features a new interweaved attack order. Each units’ turn is listed on a timeline on the side of the screen, and your units’ attacks are often shuffled between enemy attacks. I can’t overstate how dramatically this alters XCOM's combat, because it changes how you approach each encounter. On one hand, the timeline adds a neat strategic element; many soldiers have special moves that can alter that timeline, like rallying your troops into action early or delaying an enemy assault. I loved tinkering with the turn order, and clearing out groups of enemies before they've even had a chance to move is empowering. On the other hand, this new approach makes it harder to coordinate your units’ attacks. Since enemies often attack between each of your units, they have a greater chance to disrupt your plans. As a result, I fell back on the same attacks and maneuvers for each hero that seemed to work the best, rather than coordinating assaults based on context. Chimera Squad throws a few surprises at you, but near the endgame I had fallen into a repetitive routine.

The XCOM series has never put a big focus on narrative. Instead, it usually excels in engineering moments where you tell your own story with your customized team. Chimera Squad replaces this system with a set of 11 pre-made heroes, complete with their own unique abilities and character quirks. Each hero is fully voiced, which allows them to interact more in narrative moments. I loved the small character moments that sprung up during my journey – listening to one character complain about their locker space, or hearing another confess to eating all the leftovers in the fridge. These soldiers feel like more fully realized characters than the units in previous XCOM games, and I liked using them in battle. But you can’t recruit new heroes whenever you like, which means they are a limited resource. As a result, Firaxis has removed permadeath; whenever one of your heroes dies, it’s game over. Losing a unit in previous XCOM games was a powerful gut punch, now it's just a frustration that forces you to reload the battle, which removes some of the tension in each encounter.

Instead of the all-encompassing global war featured in previous XCOM games, Chimera Squad's action takes place within City 31. This futuristic metropolis was home to an active Starport during the alien rule, so it is teeming with the best and the worst the galaxy has to offer. Between firefights, you manage the city's crime levels from Chimera Squad's HQ. From this central heat map, you can see the crime levels for each district in the city. You can also deploy field teams and issue emergency commands that help control the rising tides of discord. This city-level strategy isn’t too complex, but it offers a nice change of pace from the turn-based combat, and Chimera Squad's HQ is a great place to regroup after a battle as you train your troops and tweak your loadouts.

The XCOM series is well-known for its intricate turn-based action. Chimera Squad augments those systems with a few clever ideas, but some of the new systems don't play well with XCOM's existing foundation. The interwoven turn order and removal of permadeath are fun experiments, but they ultimately weaken XCOM's delicately balanced action. Chimera Squad is a neat standalone project, but it doesn’t stand as tall as the rest of the series.

Continue reading

The Gears of War series has always focused on being tactical in firefights thanks to a heavy emphasis on taking cover and attempting to gain advantageous positions on the battlefield. Now, Gears Tactics is poised to take that notion to the next level with a full-fledged turn-based strategy game.

Xbox Game Studios has released a new trailer for Gears Tactics, detailing many features the strategy-based take on the Gears of War universe has to offer. You can check that trailer out below.

Gears Tactics hits PC on April 28, and is included with a Game Pass subscription. For more, check out our recent preview of the game.

Continue reading

After going radio-silent for nearly three and a half years, the Crysis Twitter account began teasing something earlier this week. After a couple of cryptic tweets, it was finally revealed that it was teasing Crysis Remastered.

The updated version of the beloved 2007 shooter is slated to come to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. This new version of Crysis focuses on the original single-player campaign and will feature high-resolution textures, improved art assets, an HD texture pack, temporal anti-aliasing, new light settings, motion blur, new particle effects, and more. According to Crytek, the result will be, "a major visual upgrade."

Crysis Remastered is set to release this summer. The teaser trailer doesn't show much, but you can see it for yourself below.

MIN

Continue reading