The first substantial Star Wars Zero Company patch is out, and it remedies some latent performance problems in the tactics game. These issues vary from crashes to mere graphical glitches, and a considerable amount of them have now been quashed to improve your playing experience.
These changes are right at the top of the patch notes from Bit Reactor. "Fixed various crash issues," reads the top bullet-point. "Fixed various visual stutters," reads the second.
Problems for the Beskar mode - where you can only use one save and if someone critical dies, the run is over - have been sorted as well. There was a recurring crash, and a problem where saves were being "temporarily deleted." Both sound rage-inducing, and it's good they've been quashed.
Numerous other issues are listed, across customization, databank, strategy, tactical, and more. There are a couple of additions as well. The back option in the Weapons Mod menu will close the tutorial, and the last fight in Tel-Rea's hero mission will now succeed at the end of the final enemy's turn, rather than finishing prematurely.
Lastly, if you're using GTX 10-series or RTX 20-series graphics cards, the post says that "adjusting a specific video setting can help improve your overall framerates." Switching the Environment Geometry Detail to off should help your machine if you're finding it's crawling along.
This is a truly deep post-launch update, designed to address many bugbears in one fell swoop. It comes on the back of dispiriting reports that much of Bit Reactor's staff were furloughed ahead of launch, with the possibility they'll be brought back if the game is successful. Hopefully this helps encourage players to check it out and lets those devs get back to their positions.
It's finally here – Final Fantasy 14 just got the very exciting Patch 7.56 earlier this week, and the star of the show is most definitely the MMO's new limited job: the Beastmaster.
In case you've not had the chance to experience the class yourself just yet, it plays a whole lot like Pokemon or Palworld in concept.
You capture creatures from all over Eorzea (yes, old A Realm Reborn regions are finally coming back to life), whip 'em out in combat and use all sorts of deadly combos and actions, try to catch more beasts, and… rinse and repeat. There's a handy little bestiary to help you on the way, too.
Put simply, you've gotta (and will wanna) catch them all – and it's genuinely good fun. I've spent hours grinding away in Central Shroud myself, looking forward to the Crucible, in all its painful roguelike-ish glory… and, of course, the glittery Tourmaline Golem mount you can nab by making the duty's official rankings.
I'm not the only loving Beastmaster, though. Discussions over on Reddit prove as much, with one thread dubbing the job "really fun!"
Its poster exclaims, "This content is great," adding that the achievements tied to the new job "are really cool" as well.
A separate post on the Beastmaster sees fans sharing a similar sentiment, with folks writing that they "wish it was a standard job" rather than a limited one – and, honestly, I agree. Another person chimes in that they've "been having a blast" with the job, with a plethora of replies backing their take up.
My favorite conversation so far stems from a screenshot of somebody's Warrior of Light dressed like Ash Ketchum from Pokemon, personally.
"Had to use the appropriate glam," its accompanying words read – and I love it. I also stand with the responses declaring that "the Pokemon vibe is honestly perfect." What else does Beastmaster carry with it, if not a nice old Pokemon vibe? And, that vibe is why so many of us adore the job already.
Obviously, however, not everyone likes it. There are comments here and there about how Square Enix could improve the Beastmaster (and, of course, fears that it might end up a bit… forgotten, like the Blue Mage).
Overall, though, spirits seem high when it comes to the limited job, and I can't say I've found much else to want out of it aside from, well, more levels and more utility in other parts of Final Fantasy 14.
I'm excited to see what Square Enix does with Beastmaster and how it evolves over time. Fingers crossed it's more memorable than Blue Mage – although, for me, it already is.
A few hours into Wolverine I found myself asking, “Why did Insomniac Games make this?” There are obvious answers, of course: It has three excellent Spider-Man games under its belt; it's an opportunity to expand its Marvel Universe; and Wolverine presents ample opportunities for a brutal and bloody action game. But none of that explains why Insomniac Games,specifically,made Wolverine.
Spider-Man is an ideal fit for the studio: an energetic and dynamic hero in the hands of a team known for open-worlds that are sprawling jungle gyms, where it can let players loose with thrilling traversal mechanics and varied combat systems for crime fighting fun. Insomniac also excels at crafting narratives that are as earnest as they are dramatic--perfect for the tumultuous lives of Peter Parker and Miles Morales.
Wolverine is much less ideal of a pairing, as was evident throughout my time with the game. Insomniac doesn't make bad games and Wolverine certainly isn't one. It's a solid, cinematic, and occasionally thrilling experience that ticks all the necessary boxes for a decent action game. But it does so in a workman-like fashion and never aspires to much more than the essentials. Wolverine is an action game that serves the character well enough, but it doesn't lean into Insomniac's strengths or leverage its creativity, and the game feels unremarkable because of it.
Straying too far from who Wolverine is and how he operates would no doubt create questions around the authenticity of the adaptation, but only coloring inside the well-defined lines means never offering anything new or exciting. It turns out that the most authentic version of Wolverine, in this case, is also the embodiment of the character action genre at its plainest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7Nz-WyUq7o
In a world where pretty much every superhero game subscribes to the Batman: Arkham template of combat design, describing how you fight would belabor how familiar it all is. Suffice it to say: light attack, heavy attack, dodge, parry, a few special abilities, and some attribute modifiers.
There are very few distinguishing elements of Wolverine's combat system that make it stand out. The closest it comes is a leaping attack, which allows players to launch him across distances to close the gap and begin an assault on unsuspecting enemies. It's an undeniably satisfying tool to keep up the intensity of each skirmish and ensure you're always applying pressure, but loses its luster after a couple of hours when it becomes clear that it can be employed pretty mindlessly.
The other unique element, a mechanic that represents an escalation of power and brutality as Wolverine's rage boils over, has more longevity in how drastically it shifts the dynamic of combat and amps up the satisfaction of it. As players dispatch enemies, an on-screen rage meter builds until the point where Wolverine goes berserk, putting him in a state where you can chain together executions to tear enemies apart in quick succession. In just a few seconds, Wolverine can create piles of brutally mauled bad guys, and there's a feral savagery to the whole thing that is very effective.
It's a consistently exhilarating moment because, as well as shifting to desaturated visuals to emphasize how unstable and blinded by rage Logan is, these sequences are strong instances of synchronicity between the character and the player. As Wolverine's rage builds, the player needs to be more efficient in dispatching enemies to keep the meter climbing, and when Wolverine finally hits breaking point, the input demands on the player simplify to just pressing two buttons together to eviscerate anything in your path. It is catharsis that comes from Wolverine giving into the monster within and the player embracing that monster in tandem.
If the appeal of Wolverine for you lies in how visceral its violence is, your virtual bloodlust will be well and truly satiated. Insomniac has spared no expense in lavishing Wolverine's finishes with copious amounts of blood and guts--his executions are exactly that in every sense of the word. The violence never strives for shock value by being grotesque in the way something like Mortal Kombat does, so it never feels gratuitous. Even when he erupts into a berserker rage, the coldness of his violence reinforces the idea that he is an efficient killing machine. Wolverine never revels in it; he just gets it done and moves on.
The main issues with Wolverine's combat are that it often feels like it lacks weight, is missing lethality up until he goes berserk, and never finds rhythm. As a result, I often felt frustrated that the game was undermining the sense of power and ferocity that I wanted to feel as Wolverine. And at the same time, the individual components of the combat doesn't have the connective tissue to create a natural flow that made me feel like I developed a mastery of Wolverine's skills.
The adamantium claws that serve as Wolverine's dealers of death and destruction often felt more like needles than blades. The feedback on each attack always felt just a little lacking, and enemies never responded to being struck in a way that made me feel empowered. Quite the opposite, in fact. I can't count the number of times that I would be mid-combo, clawing away at an enemy, and they'd suddenly ignore incoming damage to clobber me over the head with a rifle or slice me with their own blade. It came off as the game deciding it was the enemy's turn to attack because it needed to put an end to my barrage. It made me feel like an angry cat being bonked on the head to calm down.
Fortunately, the various abilities Wolverine has at his disposal feel like they pack more punch and can swing momentum in your favor. These range from a spinning claw attack that can control space and a leaping knee that interrupts enemies, to a grapple that slams enemies down so that Wolverine can mount and pummel them. There's also a spinning Psycho Crusher-like maneuver that can be chained multiple times, an all-out barrage of powerful strikes, and a recovery ability that focuses Wolverine's rage and uses it to heal, among others. All of these introduce new considerations into the combat, making it feel a little more involved and dynamic. However, since there's no real depth or connectivity to the combo system, their execution feels very rigid and disjointed.
Everything is on a cooldown, which suggests that timing and strategy is important in how they're used, but in practice, they can be employed thoughtlessly without much consequence. Many of Spider-Man's abilities served as ways to bridge one attack sequence into another; after smacking an enemy around, he could launch them into the air, chase up, smash them back down, zip to another enemy, swing them around to hit others in the vicinity, launch them into the distance, use a web to close that distance, and continue to string physical abilities together or use gadgets to manipulate enemies to his advantage. The point being, there was an if-this-then-that flow to it that, admittedly, is made possible by the character's agility and dynamism.
Wolverine, meanwhile, feels awkward and brutish by comparison--and not in a good, character-appropriate way. Instead, using his various skills is akin to how you'd approach battles in an MMO, where you just let basic attacks fill the time in between cooldowns and then sequentially work through everything on the ability bar. Sure, you can use those abilities in a way that complements each other, but there's no real requirement or incentive to do so beyond your own initiative.
Defensively, Wolverine suffers similar issues. Tapping the L1 button at the right moment will parry an attack, but the window--even before you use an adaptation to make it more forgiving--is pretty lenient, so it doesn't really take much skill to parry. In fact, I had a few occasions where I was surrounded by enemies all attacking me, sometimes overlapping, and I was able to survive their onslaught and take no damage by spamming the parry button with my eyes closed. That's not hyperbolic--I tested it. Parrying is another part of Wolverine's combat that is functional but unrewarding.
It may be hard to believe but all of that doesn't mean the combat is bad. It is perfectly functional, and I suspect that many people won't think too hard about how it all fits together. The cinematic brutality of it provides enough of a spectacle that everything else may not even register or matter. But as someone who wants to feel engaged and challenged, the vast majority of my time playing Wolverine felt rote. In a couple of stretches, I opted to reduce enemy health to make them easier to kill. Not because they provided any sort of challenge, but because I wasn't engaged enough to care and wanted to hit the next story beat. Being a fan of the character, experienced with intricate combat systems, and knowing how good Insomniac can do combat, this was disappointing.
However, through it all, the care and attention given to visual presentation remained one of the game's strengths. Unlike its open-world Spider-Man games, Wolverine is linear, corralling players from one combat arena to the next by way of streets, up and down elevators, through buildings, onto rooftops, and into the thick of a remote forest or two. Any deviations off the main path are slight and usually to pick up resources used for unlocking new outfits or bottles of whiskey that expand how many adaptations you can equip.
The most evident benefit of this narrowing in scope is in the fidelity of the visuals. Wolverine is a beautiful game, both artistically and technically. I really appreciate how Insomniac is able to bring together the vibrancy of comic books and a grittier aesthetic that allows the game to feature superheroes wearing bright costumes, while also giving the game a grounded, more realistic vibe befitting of Wolverine. There's an impressive amount of detail in the character models, with Wolverine's stout and muscular physique giving him an imposing presence. When the camera gets up close, you can really see just how hairy he is (can relate), but also the gradation in his skin color, his pores, and the grime that builds up during brawls.
Environments also have a high degree of destructability, so while I may not have always felt powerful as Wolverine when attacking enemies, watching the world around me crack, crumble, and collapse picked up some of that slack. This high level of visual fidelity pays dividends most in the larger-scale set-pieces, of which there are only a handful, but they're a lot of fun. There are battles against towering enemies (surprise, there are Sentinels) or knockdown-dragout battles against other superpowered characters.
Wolverine serves the character well enough, but doesn’t lean into Insomniac’s strengths or leverage its creativity
There are other parts of the gameplay experience that never outright excel. Everything in between the combat fits into the Uncharted-esque guided platforming mold, so you'll spend a lot of time jumping from handhold to handhold, swinging from branches and poles, or hopping across rooftops. But because Wolverine has very limited mobility and no interesting traversal mechanic to speak of beyond a big jump, the running, jumping, and climbing portions of the game often feel equally uneventful. Similarly, stealth feels like more of an afterthought than a key pillar of gameplay. Again, I know that's not Wolverine's thing. He doesn't swing from buildings like Spidey or barrel across skylines like Hulk, or sneak like Mystique, but the truth of the matter is I didn't find much to get excited about when moving around the world. The only real exceptions come in the rare high-octane escape or desperate climb for survival, in which the circumstances bring the thrills instead of anything I'm actually doing.
Ultimately, it is what it is because it's all Wolverine really has. And that point is driven home in the numerous times that Jean Grey, the ultra-powerful mutant with telepathic and telekinetic abilities, offers to simply fly herself and Logan to the top of a building or across a city, and Wolverine declines repeatedly. Even when the fate of his friends or of the world is on the line, he opts to take the long and arduous way because, I don't know, it makes his tummy hurt, or he doesn't like how it feels or some other contrived excuse. But I know that taking the quick and direct route would trivialize massive portions of the game, so instead we go through the uninteresting but inoffensive motions.
The strongest aspect of Wolverine is its narrative and character development, but even that isn't without its fair share of oddities and pacing issues. Insomniac has done a commendable job of taking touchstones from the history of Marvel and building something a little more original around them, while also trying to explore Logan from a more emotional, human perspective. Logan's story is intertwined with the increasingly threatened existence of mutants, which have fairly recently emerged.
Although Bolivar Trask is presented as the main threat to mutantkind, the game doesn't waste any time in hinting that a bigger threat may be a little closer to home. The game takes place at a time when the X-Men haven't yet formed and, instead, Wolverine is a member of Team X, a crew also featuring Sabertooth and Mystique. Crucially, Team X was assembled by Nathaniel Essex, better known as the villain Mister Sinister in other Marvel stories.
What begins as a mission to rescue Essex eventually leads to a battle for mutant survival against Trask and his Sentinels, and then a hunt for a mysterious artifact that could change the future of mutant and humankind forever. Along the way, relationships become strained, hidden motivations emerge, and the state of Insomniac's fledgling X-Men universe rapidly develops in some unexpected directions. There are stellar performances all around, with Liam McIntyre's take on Logan bringing more heart and charm to the character than expected thanks to writing that allows the character to be vulnerable and, on occasion, goofy.
Krizia Bajos's Jean Gray also has an emotional depth to her that makes the time she spends with Logan meaningful for both characters. She has been finding and rescuing mutants, and has a worn-down, sometimes defeated vibe to her, but is uplifted by the community of mutants she has built around her. The game is very comfortable letting Logan and Jean have their moments of flirtation and bonding, and although it can occasionally feel rushed, the performances make the deepening connection between them believable nevertheless.
The standout performance, however, is undoubtedly Troy Baker as Nathaniel Essex. Anyone with a bit of X-Men knowledge knows exactly where Essex's story will take him, but the journey is still compelling thanks to the performance. Baker is able to present Essex with the same kind of warmth and conviction that makes him a believable surrogate for Charles Xavier in Insomniac's version of the X-Men universe. But every scene he's in has a line delivered just manipulatively enough to keep the player on edge, waiting for the inevitable turn. The impact Essex has on those around him, especially Mystique and Sabertooth, is also part of the brilliance of his character and Baker's performance. He's able to prey on everyone's vulnerabilities and exploit their nature to his advantage. And Logan is the victim of some of the worst of it.
The story takes its time getting the pieces in the right place, and there are certainly some pacing issues during this process. The early parts of the game are perhaps a bit too introspective and focused on Wolverine and Jean's relationship, while also including some lengthy sections chasing a macguffin around for a bit too long. But the final third of the game essentially switches from being a Wolverine story to a straight-up X-Men story. That's not a spoiler--you won't suddenly see Cyclops and Gambit appear--but the stakes will become crystal clear and the groundwork is laid for something momentous. As a longtime X-Men fan, I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff and it worked on me.
Wolverine is a difficult game to come to terms with. As I've emphasized repeatedly, there's nothing outright wrong or bad about it. It delivers an authentic, highly playable Wolverine experience. I don't regret my time with it and, in fact, I left hoping there's a sequel that makes good on what the game sets up. But at the same time, that inoffensiveness comes from the fact that it's a barebones third-person action game executed in a no-frills way, with no real surprises.
At best, it's a fun but forgettable experience that'll entertain you for a few hours. At worst, it shows that just because you can make really good superhero games with one character, that doesn't mean you can make really good super hero games with any character. Insomniac is an incredibly talented developer, but it shines with characters that allow it to flex its well-trained design muscles. Wolverine might be the best at what he does, but what he does hasn't let Insomniac's developers be the best at what they do.
The GTA 6 extended look presentation on Netflix caused a pretty substantial surge in sales for PS5 and Xbox Series consoles in the US.
Netflix's GTA 6 extended look had 31.1 million viewers in four days, which is to say it seemed to go down pretty well, especially since you could watch it for free on YouTube hours later. It was a massive success: the game looked extremely impressive throughout the showcase, and it clearly pulled in some, as PS5 Pro stock disappeared pretty soon afterward.
Circana's Mat Piscatella reports that following the premiere of the GTA 6 extended look, "In the US, combined PS5/XBS hardware unit sales for the week ending Aug 29 increased 14% versus the prior week."
He notes that PlayStation grew by 17% and Xbox Series X|S by 9%, and that "The combined increase across both platforms amounted to less than 8k units." Meanwhile, Nielsen IQ (via The Game Business) reports that in the UK console sales jumped by 33% for PlayStation and 34% for Xbox.
But you can only wonder what the jump would've been like if consoles weren't becoming somewhat prohibitively expensive for many. The PS5 Pro is almost a grand after Sony bumped the price up by 150, with the regular PS5 consoles getting $100 on top, while Xbox consoles jumped by $100-$150 depending on whether you get a 512GB or 1TB console.
Since the GTA 6 premiere, I've had multiple people who haven't jumped in on this generation ask about which console to get for GTA 6, but many are simply unwilling to spend that much, especially since this is the only generation where consoles have gotten more expensive as it goes on.
Elon Musk's ex is disclosing her non-disclosure agreement offer.
Ashley St. Clair—who is mom to the billionaire's 13th child Romulus—said she was "offered the opportunity not to speak for $40...
EXCLUSIVE: Deadline can reveal the first look at Bare, the feature directorial debut from writer-director Lorna Tucker, starring Florence Hunt (Bridgerton) alongside Isla Fisher and Colin Firth. The ensemble cast also includes Sky Frances, Ruaridh Mollica, Séamus McLean Ross, Mirren Mack, Lewis Gribben, Tut Nyuot, Clay Russell, Umi Myers and Shane Walker, with a cameo from Fatboy […]
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Elon Musk's ex is disclosing her non-disclosure agreement offer.
Ashley St. Clair—who is mom to the billionaire's 13th child Romulus—said she was "offered the opportunity not to speak for $40...
