At Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2022, Xbox revealed two new initiatives that aim to support developers working on games for the cloud.
The first, titled Azure Game Development Virtual Machine, is designed to leverage Microsoft’s extensive Azure network to provide a pre-built game development kit. This will include core game development solutions like Unreal Engine, Parsec, Blender and DirectX.
Per Microsoft, this will allow developers to boot up a game dev workstation or server “in around five minutes,” more easily validate their pipeline performance and save hours of downloads and configurations for game dev tools. Studios can also use Azure Game Development Virtual Machine to migrate and test cloud-native remote game creation.
The Azure Game Development Virtual Machine is now available in public preview to developers.
Xbox’s second GDC announcement, meanwhile, relates to ID@Azure, an extension of its ID@Xbox indie game publishing division. Through ID@Azure, indie developers will receive free tools, resources and support on cloud services. Specifically, ID@Azure will provide some funding opportunities, as well as a dedicated education portal, 24/7 support from Azure experts and more.
ID@Azure was available in limited beta in December, but Microsoft is now opening it up for general availability. The company adds that the program will be offered to any developer, regardless of which platforms it might be targeting.
Specifically, entrants can snag a custom black Xbox Series S console with the video game movie’s versions of protagonist Sonic and antagonist Knuckles, as well as two controllers inspired by the hedgehog and echidna. However, these aren’t just your standard plastic gamepads — bizarrely, they’ve been given “textured” coatings to simulate Sonic and Knuckles’ fur.
On Twitter, fans were quick to point out that these hairy controllers won’t exactly mix well with palm sweat:
If the console and/or (frightening) controllers are your thing, you can enter for a chance to win them over on Twitter by retweeting this Xbox tweet with the hashtag #XboxSonic2Sweepstakes. This method of entry is available in many countries, including Canada. The contest ends on April 4th.
We might need glasses because these controllers look fuzzy.
Follow and RT with #XboxSonic2Sweepstakes for a chance to win a Sonic 2 Xbox Series S Custom Console and Controllers.
As the title suggests, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a sequel to 2020’s Sonic the Hedgehog movie, which opened right before the start of the pandemic to solid box office performance and generally positive reviews.
In the new film, Sonic (Ben Schwartz) teams up with Tom (James Marsden) and Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) to stop Dr. Eggman (Newmarket, Ontario’s own Jim Carrey) and Knuckles the Echidna (Idris Elba) from conquering the world with the Master Emerald. Notably, the sequel was primarily shot in Vancouver, just like the first film.
Meanwhile, Sega’s next game in the long-running Sonic video game series, Sonic Frontiers, is set to hit consoles and PC in late 2022.
That’s what makes Disney Mirrorverse so interesting. Developed by Vancouver-based Kabam, the team behind the massively popular Marvel Contest of Champions, Disney Mirrorverse is a mobile action-RPG that sees Mickey Mouse assemble a slew of iconic Disney and Pixar heroes and villains to protect the multiverse from the dark forces known as The Fractured.
While that premise would be undoubtedly appealing in and of itself to many fans, the key twist here is that each character gets their own unique spin.
“We’ve been taking a new approach to creating games at Disney — really focusing on telling original stories, and evolving our iconic characters and worlds to form unique experiences that only games can offer,” said Luigi Priore, VP of games at Disney and Pixar, during a media briefing. “So when we started working together with Kabam, we began by building an entirely new universe, one based on the Disney and Pixar stories that we know and love, but different in new and unexpected ways — one that really allows us to explore how these well-known Disney and Pixar characters are evolved in that new universe with a wide range of unique stories we could tell.”
The novelty of this approach becomes apparent quite quickly upon watching the reveal trailer. Recognizable Disney and Pixar characters soon appear, but something’s… different. Sulley from Monster’s, Inc. is wearing shiny armour and a matching shield, Beauty and the Beast‘s Belle is sporting a full sorceress garb and staff, and Brave‘s Merida is wielding Scottish warrior clothing to go with a magical bow. If that weren’t enough, Kabam says it took special care to incorporate classic elements of each Disney and Pixar property into their respective characters. With Sulley, that means his shield is, quite literally, one of the “scare” doors from Monster’s, Inc., while Belle’s staff is actually powered by the enchanted rose from Beauty and the Beast.
All told, it was quite fun to see these otherwise innocent and friendly characters get these decidedly badass makeovers. But how the characters look is only half of the equation. As Kabam character designer Dennis Lever tells it, the team set out to answer “two big questions” when designing the gameplay for Mirroverse.
“First, what kind of gameplay will best satisfy players who have these strong emotional connections to these iconic characters? And second, how can we make sure that our game is both easy to play and challenging to master so that Disney fans of all ages and all walks of life can have fun in our new worlds?” he said.
The answer, per Lever, was “a cinematic style of action gameplay with intuitive controls” through which you have “full control” over the characters. While I didn’t get to go hands-on with Mirrorverse to experience this myself, the briefing did include a brief gameplay demo as played by Kinda Funny‘s Greg Miller and Tim Gettys.
Based on what I saw, Mirrorverse‘s combat seemed reminiscent of the fun Marvel Ultimate Alliance games, albeit in a solid mobile-friendly form. As Lever said, you’re able to fully move around your characters and tap the ground to avoid attacks, which should make it feel less automated than some other mobile titles. (An “auto-play” option will be available for those who want it, though.)
From there, each character has their own unique abilities to effectively give them “classes,” like Belle having healing and buffing spells, Merida using ranged arrows and Sulley throwing heavy melee attacks. Other characters range from Sleeping Beauty‘s Maleficent (switches between witch and dragon forms for lightning and fire attacks) and Toy Story‘s Buzz Lightyear (can fly and shoot lasers) to more unorthodox picks like Zootopia‘s Judy Hopps (quick melee attacks) to The Jungle Book‘s Baloo (a pilot who turns parts from ships into weapons). While I’d still like to go hands-on at some point, the variety of characters looks quite impressive so far.
On top of that, Kabam is also promising a breadth of content, including many Disney and Pixar worlds to visit.
“Since the Mirrorverse worlds were created by a collision of light and dark, it was important for us to pull that same dramatic tension through intimate design of the game world,” explains Johnson Truong, lead artist at Disney and Pixar Games. “We created a visual language to continue to tell the story of light solar magic, clashing with dark Fractured magic that is always threatening to seep in. And their visual story plays out across several Mirrorverse worlds, like Agrabah, the Monsters, Inc. Scare Floor, Port Royal from Pirates of the Caribbean and the Corona Forest from Tangled.”
Other Mirrorverse content will include limited-time quests for rewards, and monthly updates to add new characters, events and more. My two biggest remaining questions, though, surround the story and monetization. With respect to the former, I didn’t get a clear look at the unique character backstories or potential banter they might share, which would certainly be some highlights of a multiverse plot like this. More importantly, though, it remains to be seen how extensive the inevitable in-app purchases will be. Hopefully, they’re not egregious like some other mobile games.
In any event, I’m looking forward to seeing more from Disney Mirrorverse as we lead up to its worldwide release on Android and iOS on June 23rd, 2022. Pre-registration is available here.
As I walk through the hauntingly empty and rain-soaked streets of modern Tokyo, which juxtapose nicely with the catchy jingles in the nearest convenience store, I find myself deeply engrossed in Ghostwire: Tokyo. Developer Tango Gameworks, which is based in Tokyo, has clearly recreated its city with loving reverence.
But it’s a feeling of immersion that doesn’t last. All too often, Ghostwire falls back on dated world design philosophies and repetitive combat. That’s a shame, because there’s quite a lot of potential here, and it’s only somewhat realized by the time the credits roll.
Monotonous magic
All of that is even more disappointing because Ghostwire has an exceptionally intriguing start. One day, the bustling streets of Tokyo are suddenly overrun by paranormal entities known as ‘Visitors,’ reducing the iconic city’s population by a staggering 99 percent. As this happens, a young man named Akito becomes possessed by a spirit detective named ‘KK,’ and together, the two must investigate the strange Visitor threat and save Akito’s sister, Mari. While some of these elements might seem spooky, this is not at all a horror game like Tango’s last two The Evil Within titles.
If anything, Ghostwire first comes off as a wickedly cool power fantasy. Thanks to KK, Akito — who you control in first-person — is granted some ethereal magic powers. These are called Weavings and they’re animated with such lively flair that they quickly become delightfully reminiscent of Aang’s bending skills from Avatar The Last Airbender or Dr. Strange’s spells from the Marvel films. Considering that most first-person action games involve guns, it’s commendable that Tango has taken such a novel, otherwordly approach. The problem, however, is that you quickly see that Ghostwire‘s magic is the epitome of style over substance.
Within the game’s first two hours, you acquire three spells — the single-shot, rapid-fire Wind Weaving, the explosive Fire Weaving and the wider-ranged Water Weaving — and these are the only three spells you’ll have for the 10-15 hour campaign. That wouldn’t be an issue in and of itself, except for the fact that the utility of the Weavings never really changes, and the types of enemies — as appreciably creepy as they can be — aren’t that varied. While the fairly basic XP-based progression system lets you improve the efficiency of these moves, their core “shoot ad nauseum” functionality remains frustratingly the same throughout. You do also have a bow and an instant-kill sneak attack, but the environments simply aren’t set up for stealth, so these don’t really prove to be meaningful additions to your arsenal.
What does somewhat elevate the dull combat is the finishers. Deal enough damage to an enemy and you expose its core, which you can latch onto with your “Ghostwire” to yank out. It’s in these moments where the PS5’s DualSense controller goes wild, delivering visceral vibrations as you pull harder. This, combined with the flashiness of your moves and conceptually unique take on first-person combat, made me lament the fact that fighting Visitors wasn’t anywhere near as fun as it looks.
Rewarding discovery… sometimes
Thankfully, Tango is overall fairly more successful with Ghostwire’s various other aspects, albeit with some key caveats. Interestingly, the game’s narrative has the inverse problem of the combat — it starts weak and picks up as you go along. Initially, Akito is a bland, personality-less hero who only talks about rescuing Mari, and because Ghostwire does nothing at first to develop Mari beyond a token damsel he must save, I found myself not caring at all about his quest. KK, at least, had a slightly more interesting backstory, which I enjoyed uncovering over time. And if nothing else, little bits of banter between Akito and KK, such as the former’s infatuation with dogs and the latter’s constant desire for a cigarette, help create an engaging, if superficial, core character dynamic.
Interestingly, though, Ghostwire becomes significantly more story-driven in the final few hours, bombarding you with flashbacks to Akito and Mari’s childhoods and a deepening of Akito and KK’s bond. On the one hand, these feel like “too little, too late,” but on the other, I appreciated the more methodical pacing for emotional moments. If more time was dedicated to fleshing out all of Ghostwire‘s narrative threads, especially its woefully underdeveloped villain, then more of an impact would have been had.
That said, Ghostwire‘s most well-realized character is named right in the title: Tokyo. Indeed, Ghostwire is at its best when you’re just roaming the stunningly detailed city and absorbing it all in. From towering neon skyscrapers and tranquil shrines to dense underground shopping areas and narrow alleyways, Tango’s fictionalized version of Tokyo feels meticulously crafted. You’ll eventually be able to zip up to buildings using winged creatures named Tengu, which hover in fixed locations and, when used in conjunction with your brief gliding ability, open up a nice degree of verticality to the city.
Some higher areas even require a bit of thought in how to ascend them; in one instance, I had to run through a little plaza to get close enough to jump onto a highway with an abandoned bus, which I could then jump off to reach a gondola to begin scaling my desired building.
Meanwhile, little collectibles that you can find, such as wayward souls speaking about their lives or discarded personal belongings, further help create the feeling that this was a city that was once lived in. Sidequests, too, are quite compelling. In addition to being satisfyingly short and sweet at around 20-30 minutes each, they’re also quite diverse in premise. In one instance, I chased a cackling demon through a multi-story complex to help out a grieving lover, while in another, I gave a moaning ghost some toilet paper. They’re by no means groundbreaking, but the way these quests vary in terms of tone, and the wells of fascinating Japanese folklore from which they draw, often made them more compelling than the main story.
If only Tango left you to your own devices during all of this; unfortunately, the developer has a frustrating tendency to stifle your exploration. The chief example of this is the way in which Ghostwire‘s world is structured. Each district of the map is covered in supernatural fog that you cannot pass, which can only be cleared by purifying sets of Torii Gates strewn about Tokyo. Not only is this an uninspired take on the trite “Ubisoft Towers,” but it’s one that frustratingly just makes you fight more waves enemies at each Gate.
Nowhere is this more egregious than in the late-game, in which you’re required to clear a set of one dozen consecutively to open up the final area. What’s more, you’re forced to watch after purifying Gates as the game automatically opens the map and adds markers for points of interest like sidequests, preventing you from naturally discovering these on your own even if you wanted to.
Given that Tango has created such a beautiful world containing surprisingly solid side content, it’s a shame that you weren’t given more freedom to explore. As mentioned before, Ghostwire is at its best when you’re just wandering the streets and picking up the last remnants of society. It’s an excellent sort of environmental storytelling in the vein of Gone Home or What Remains of Edith Finch, a rewarding and atmospheric way to allow you to piece things together yourself. But sadly, you can never fully do that when the game is constantly bombarding you with mandatory Torii Gates and resulting marker pop-ups.
A solid foundation
If I’ve sounded too harsh on Ghostwire, it’s mostly because I’m just disappointed with how Tango’s questionable design choices often do a disservice to its genuinely clever ones. Rarely have I seen such a unique and detailed open-world setting, nor have I come across sidequests that are well-paced and interwoven with rich and lovely folklore. Hopefully, Tango is able to make a sequel that can double down on all of that while providing a stronger narrative and deeper gameplay loop. For now, though, I wholly appreciate that the developer has taken a chance on a new IP, and it’s one that’s still worth playing, warts and all.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is now available on PlayStation 5 and PC to Deluxe Edition members, and will release for everyone on March 25th.
Originally a PS5 exclusive, Godfall: Ultimate Edition is making its way to Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Steam on April 7th.
The Ultimate Edition includes its several updates and Fire & Darkness expansion and pre-order and special edition bonuses.
Godfall was one of the first games to hit PS5 exclusively; however, since then, the game was made backward compatible, making it available for PS4 players and was somewhat free on PS Plus. Now the developers are launching it for everyone except Switch players — at least not for now.
The Ultimate Edition is also hitting PS5, PS4 and the Epic Store on April 7th as well.
Godfall is a hero shooter focused on loot grabbing based in a fantasy setting.
The latest Nintendo Switch update (version 14.0.0) is now available, and it brings with it a long-awaited feature: the ability to create folders.
Now, you can create custom ‘Groups’ of up to 200 games and/or apps with whichever title you want. Up to 100 groups can be created. As an example, Nintendo cites specific groups for Mario, Zelda and Pokémon games.
The only requirement to create Groups is that you have a minimum of 12 software titles downloaded to your Switch. If that applies to you, then you can create a Group by heading to the Switch’s Home page and selecting ‘All Software.’ From there, press the L Button to view your software by groups. Now, select ‘Create New Group’ and add your desired titles.
The Switch recently turned five years old, and during that time, fans have been calling for a way to organize their games, especially as rival consoles from Xbox and PlayStation have allowed players to do so.
In addition to Groups, version 14.0.0 changes Bluetooth audio volume behaviour so you can adjust the volume on either the Switch or the Bluetooth device itself.
The hack happens when you’re playing online and an invading enemy activates a specific ability. The host’s game will crash immediately and when they re-open the title, their character falls to their death repeatedly.
A Reddit user has found a way out of the loop, but it doesn’t seem to work for everyone. When you open Elden Ring before you fall to your death, quit the game with Alt + F4. Following that, when you re-enter the game you might have enough time to quickly open your map and travel to a ‘Site of Grace.’ If you don’t do this fast enough; however, you’ll remain stuck in the loop.
FromSoftware and Bandai Namco have yet to comment on the situation, but you might want to back up your save files if you’re going to embark on online play.
Over the weekend, gamers started to notice that the Wii and DSi digital storefronts were inoperational.
Then, Eurogamer spotted that they’d been down since March 16th. Oddly, there hasn’t been any comment from Nintendo about this so far.
For context, purchases haven’t been enabled on the Wii shop since 2019, and the DSi store since 2017. That said, the stores’ complete shutdown means any previously purchased content can’t be downloaded. Not officially, at least; those with third-party software like NUSDownloader can still download content.
It’s unclear why Nintendo has made such a move, especially as Nintendo hasn’t updated its support pages for the Wii or DSi shops. No warning was given, either, which would make more sense.
Specific details on Haven’s first title are currently under wraps, but we do know that it will be a live service multiplayer title for PlayStation 5. It will also be a new IP. Around 60 people are currently working at Haven.
Raymond, a Montreal native, is a prominent figure in the gaming industry. At Ubisoft, she helped create Assassin’s Creed in 2007 and founded the company’s Toronto studio, the team behind Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Far Cry 6. Later, at Electronic Arts, she founded the Montreal-based Motive team, which has made Star Wars: Battlefront II‘s campaign and Star Wars: Squadrons.
Haven is the latest in a streak of acquisitions that PlayStation has made over the past few years. In 2019, the company acquired Ratchet & Clank and Marvel’s Spider-Man developer Insomniac, and it has since purchased Housemarque (Returnal), Bluepoint (Demon’s Souls remake) and Bungie (Destiny), among other teams.
Ubisoft announced plans to expand its Winnipeg, Manitoba studio to 300 employees by 2030, creating an additional 200 jobs.
The expansion will triple the size of the current studio and includes an investment of $139 million in the province of Manitoba. That will bring Ubisoft’s total investment in Manitoba to $264 million since 2018.
Moreover, Ubisoft says it will meet its previous goal of growing the Winnipeg studio to 100 employees within five years in March 2022.
Michael Henderson, Ubisoft Winnipeg’s managing director, said in a press release:
“The first three years of Ubisoft Winnipeg have already been an exceptional success. The city has proved to be a hidden gem of techno-creative talent, and an environment that is right for growth thanks to the leadership of Province of Manitoba and City of Winnipeg. We look forward to continuing to grow the industry by attracting national and international talent to the city, and investing in the development of innovation & the next generation of talent locally.”
Ubisoft says the Winnipeg studio plays a strategic role as a triple-A co-development studio that builds tools and technology that help teams create immersive, engaging game worlds.
“In its first years, Ubisoft Winnipeg has already contributed to core technologies such as our Snowdrop engine, taken a leadership role in Machine Learning, and developed innovative new procedural tools and technologies that have the potential to change the way we build worlds,” said Nicolas Rioux, Ubisoft’s Global Deputy Vice President of Production Technology.
Ubisoft will hire additional programmers, including engine, tools, and online programmers, along with talent from other specialized areas of expertise. Roles are open now — you can check those out on Ubisoft’s Careers page.
