Universal Studios’ collaboration with Nintendo on a new Mario-themed section of its theme park is almost complete, and an enterprising photographer managed to capture an aerial photo of the park during construction. It’s the best look at Universal’s Super Nintendo World, which looks near complete. A Japanese photographer captured a shot of the park during construction and posted it online. Based on the picture alone you can see that many of the structures already look complete from the outside. And thankfully the different structures are pretty distinct, making it easy to speculate on the coming attractions. Based on the photo alone you can see the classic Mario transportation pipes leading into different Mario-themed buildings. The largest looks like a structure based on Mario’s World 1-1 stages, but there are also some pyramids towards the north end of the compound. To the east is a series of pink columns which is likely Princess Peach’s castle, and towards the southwest is a pretty ominous structure that could be Bowser’s Castle. The partnership between Nintendo and Universal Studios Japan was announced back in 2017 when the two companies announced a new theme park attraction based on Nintendo’s popular characters would be coming to Universal parks. The Super Nintendo World attractions in Japan are set to expand to other Universal parks, including theme parks in the United States. Universal promised that aside from physical attractions, the Nintendo parks will integrate with digital wristbands, and even possibly Nintendo consoles. The first Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios Japan is scheduled to be opened in summer 2020 and was supposed to coincide with the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. However, the Olympics have been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Universal Studios’ collaboration with Nintendo on a new Mario-themed section of its theme park is almost complete, and an enterprising photographer managed to capture an aerial photo of the park during construction. It’s the best look at Universal’s Super Nintendo World, which looks near complete. A Japanese photographer captured a shot of the park during construction and posted it online. Based on the picture alone you can see that many of the structures already look complete from the outside. And thankfully the different structures are pretty distinct, making it easy to speculate on the coming attractions. Based on the photo alone you can see the classic Mario transportation pipes leading into different Mario-themed buildings. The largest looks like a structure based on Mario’s World 1-1 stages, but there are also some pyramids towards the north end of the compound. To the east is a series of pink columns which is likely Princess Peach’s castle, and towards the southwest is a pretty ominous structure that could be Bowser’s Castle. The partnership between Nintendo and Universal Studios Japan was announced back in 2017 when the two companies announced a new theme park attraction based on Nintendo’s popular characters would be coming to Universal parks. The Super Nintendo World attractions in Japan are set to expand to other Universal parks, including theme parks in the United States. Universal promised that aside from physical attractions, the Nintendo parks will integrate with digital wristbands, and even possibly Nintendo consoles. The first Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios Japan is scheduled to be opened in summer 2020 and was supposed to coincide with the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. However, the Olympics have been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

This week in Grand Theft Auto Online, score a slew of Weeny Issi bonuses, freebies, and more to celebrate your teeny-car love.

This week in Grand Theft Auto Online, score a slew of Weeny Issi bonuses, freebies, and more to celebrate your teeny-car love.

Outriders features a character customisation system so flexible that you can create a build that rarely needs to fire a gun. Talking to IGN, Outriders’ creative director, Bartosz Kmita, said “There are builds where you can even resign from shooting at all.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/28/outriders-preview"] The possibility comes from one of Outriders’ core combat philosophies. “We didn't want to create powers as an addition to the shooting mechanics,” says Kmita, referring to the game’s large selection of supernatural abilities. “We wanted it to be a 50/50 approach where the powers are as important as guns.” But that balance between the elements can be shifted as you progress and develop your character. “Through your different choices, depending on the loot you will find and on the character progression tree, you will decide if you want to shift more onto the skill side and make it even more of an RPG game with the skills, or maybe more of a shooting style, or stay 50/50,” explains Kmita. When I ask Kmita if it’s possible to make the game 90/10 focused on the supernatural powers, he replied “It's even more, because it depends on the items you will find. You will have the possibility to use your skills many times without cooldowns. There are builds where you can even resign from shooting at all.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=outriders-first-screenshots&captions=true"] Lead game designer Piotr Nowakowski points out that the World Tier - which dictates the difficulty of the game - may impact how successful your builds are. “There are ways to create builds that are really skills focused, with super short cooldowns that are resetting them all the time, but it's just a question of will that build work on higher tiers?” he muses. “I can imagine on lower tiers I will probably be able to pass the game almost without shooting, but that's at very low tiers where enemies are not so challenging.” The World Tier system goes up to tier 15, with World Tier 3 being considered equivalent to ‘normal’ difficulty. The suggestion from Nowakowski, then, is that fully skills-based characters could be viable on the easy and standard difficulties. As for anyone who’d rather go all-guns, Nowakowski notes that there are supportive powers that you should consider in your build. “There are skills that are not based on power, but are more about supporting your playstyle with the weapons,” he notes. “Blocking someone, CCing him, and then having nice and easy headshots.” For more from Outriders, check out our hands-on preview, a full 17 minutes of gameplay, and a look at the classes and powers in the game. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Outriders features a character customisation system so flexible that you can create a build that rarely needs to fire a gun. Talking to IGN, Outriders’ creative director, Bartosz Kmita, said “There are builds where you can even resign from shooting at all.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/28/outriders-preview"] The possibility comes from one of Outriders’ core combat philosophies. “We didn't want to create powers as an addition to the shooting mechanics,” says Kmita, referring to the game’s large selection of supernatural abilities. “We wanted it to be a 50/50 approach where the powers are as important as guns.” But that balance between the elements can be shifted as you progress and develop your character. “Through your different choices, depending on the loot you will find and on the character progression tree, you will decide if you want to shift more onto the skill side and make it even more of an RPG game with the skills, or maybe more of a shooting style, or stay 50/50,” explains Kmita. When I ask Kmita if it’s possible to make the game 90/10 focused on the supernatural powers, he replied “It's even more, because it depends on the items you will find. You will have the possibility to use your skills many times without cooldowns. There are builds where you can even resign from shooting at all.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=outriders-first-screenshots&captions=true"] Lead game designer Piotr Nowakowski points out that the World Tier - which dictates the difficulty of the game - may impact how successful your builds are. “There are ways to create builds that are really skills focused, with super short cooldowns that are resetting them all the time, but it's just a question of will that build work on higher tiers?” he muses. “I can imagine on lower tiers I will probably be able to pass the game almost without shooting, but that's at very low tiers where enemies are not so challenging.” The World Tier system goes up to tier 15, with World Tier 3 being considered equivalent to ‘normal’ difficulty. The suggestion from Nowakowski, then, is that fully skills-based characters could be viable on the easy and standard difficulties. As for anyone who’d rather go all-guns, Nowakowski notes that there are supportive powers that you should consider in your build. “There are skills that are not based on power, but are more about supporting your playstyle with the weapons,” he notes. “Blocking someone, CCing him, and then having nice and easy headshots.” For more from Outriders, check out our hands-on preview, a full 17 minutes of gameplay, and a look at the classes and powers in the game. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Outriders requires a constant internet connection, but this does not mean that it is a service game akin to the likes of Destiny or The Division. Talking to IGN, Outriders’ creative director Bartosz Kmita confirmed that “It's online only. We have a lot of things in the backend so you have to be connected to the internet to be able to play.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/28/outriders-preview"] Outriders is a co-op shooter, but can be played solo, despite the requirement for an internet connection. The always online nature may have players questioning if Outriders is a service game, but Kmita emphasises that’s not the case. “We wanted to release the game as a complete product, so the story, the endgame, everything is in the box when you buy it,” he states. “We are not chopping the content we have created to release it month by month, we are giving all what we have created on day one. It’s all that we think is necessary to have a complete experience with Outriders.” That also means that the microtransactions that you’d associate with service games won’t be present in Outriders. “The bad things that are sometimes connected to games as a service, like loot boxes or any pay to win mechanics, we are against them,” says Kmita. “So we're not using them at all in our game.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=outriders-first-screenshots&captions=true"] But the ‘whole product’ approach doesn’t mean that developer People Can Fly will not be supporting Outriders after launch. “You can think of it as a more old school approach like the Diablo games, where you get the more or less finished product and then a big expansion from time to time that expands the whole game and whole universe,” explains Kmita. “Not that every week they add two additional items or small things, or they force you to do some activities to unlock some other things. It's not our approach.” For more on Outriders, check out our hands-on preview and a closer look at the RPG systems at play in the game. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Outriders requires a constant internet connection, but this does not mean that it is a service game akin to the likes of Destiny or The Division. Talking to IGN, Outriders’ creative director Bartosz Kmita confirmed that “It's online only. We have a lot of things in the backend so you have to be connected to the internet to be able to play.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/28/outriders-preview"] Outriders is a co-op shooter, but can be played solo, despite the requirement for an internet connection. The always online nature may have players questioning if Outriders is a service game, but Kmita emphasises that’s not the case. “We wanted to release the game as a complete product, so the story, the endgame, everything is in the box when you buy it,” he states. “We are not chopping the content we have created to release it month by month, we are giving all what we have created on day one. It’s all that we think is necessary to have a complete experience with Outriders.” That also means that the microtransactions that you’d associate with service games won’t be present in Outriders. “The bad things that are sometimes connected to games as a service, like loot boxes or any pay to win mechanics, we are against them,” says Kmita. “So we're not using them at all in our game.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=outriders-first-screenshots&captions=true"] But the ‘whole product’ approach doesn’t mean that developer People Can Fly will not be supporting Outriders after launch. “You can think of it as a more old school approach like the Diablo games, where you get the more or less finished product and then a big expansion from time to time that expands the whole game and whole universe,” explains Kmita. “Not that every week they add two additional items or small things, or they force you to do some activities to unlock some other things. It's not our approach.” For more on Outriders, check out our hands-on preview and a closer look at the RPG systems at play in the game. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition will be released on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android on August 27, 2020. Square Enix's Web Content Editor Duncan Heaney gave more details on PlayStation.Blog for the upcoming remastered edition of the GameCube classic that was first released in Japan in 2003. A new release date trailer was also released, which you can see below. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/28/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-remastered-edition-release-date-announce-trailer"] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remastered Edition was originally revealed in September 2018 was delayed a couple times, most recently from its January 23, 2020 date. This Final Fantasy game is a 1-4 player RPG that follows the Crystal Caravans, a group of adventures on the hunt for the previous and rare liquid known as myrrh that can cleanse and maintain a "crystal the protects them, and their world, from a poisonous gas." This Remastered Edition adds improved visuals and audio, character voiceovers, online multiplayer with crossplay, new challenging dungeons, and a new Mimic feature. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-remastered-edition-release-date-screenshots&captions=true"] This Mimic feature is described as: "By collecting stamps, visiting Moogle Houses or completing difficult dungeons, you’ll get Memory Crystals which you can use to change your characters’ appearance to that of various characters you’ll meet on your adventure. If you want to add a bit more pizazz to your party, now you can!" In our review of the original Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, we said "The bottom line is that Crystal Chronicles is a fun multiplayer game if you own enough GBAs. There are some problems, more than I'd like to see from Square, but overall it's a fun experience. The single player game, on the other hand, isn't nearly as fun." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN who has always wanted to try this game and this feels like the perfect excuse. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.