This Week in the Nintendo eShop
While we wait for Puzzle & Dragons to come to 3DS tomorrow, the Wii U should keep us all busy. The biggest title of the week is Swords & Soldiers II, the sequel to the interesting side-scrolling real-time strategy. The Wii U eShop is chockful of other titles, too. Also, Mega May continues on the Wii U with Mega Man Zero 2, a GBA game that might be similar to the original, but the original was fun so that's mostly okay.
Swords & Soldiers II ($19.99)
This Wii U exclusive sequel brings back the innovative side-scrolling real-time strategy design from the first. You can play as Vikings, Persians, or Demons in this mission-based adventure that also includes a one-on-one local multiplayer mode that features TV-vs.-GamePad action. It has a really playful sense of humor and gets rather challenging. As someone who has played a bunch of the final version, Swords & Soldiers II is very special.
Telltale’s Game of Thrones Episode 4 Gets a Release Date
Telltale has revealed when you'll be able to play the next instalment in its Game of Thrones series.
Episode 4: "Sons of Winter" will be available on PS4, PS3, PC and Mac from Tuesday, May 26. Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners get the installment a day later on Wednesday, May 27, while it arrives on iOS and Android devices on May 28.
A new trailer for the next episode has been released, which you can see below. Episode 4 will see players venturing beyond the Wall, into King's Landing and across the sea into the slave city of Meereen.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK News Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter.
Need for Speed Is Being Rebooted
After being teased throughout the week, the new Need for Speed has been officially unveiled, and it's called, quite simply, Need for Speed.
The latest instalment in EA's long-running racing series is being pitched as a "full reboot", hence the stripped back title. EA promises Need for Speed will draw on what it considers the core pillars of the series: "deep customisation, authentic urban car culture, a nocturnal open world, and an immersive narrative that pulls you through the game."
Need for Speed is being developed by Ghost Games – the franchise's dedicated studio in Gothenburg, Sweden – which also produced the 2013 title Need for Speed: Rivals.
The Witcher 3 Gets Graphics and Stability Patch on PC
CD Projekt Red has released a new stability patch for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on PC that also aims to improve graphics.
The developer has announced the console version of the patch should be "available very soon" though no set timeline has been produced. The full list of patch notes are below:
- Improves stability in gameplay and the UI
- Improves performance especially in cutscenes and gameplay
- Fixes grass and foliage popping that could occur after density parameters were changed
- Improves Nvidia Hairworks performance
- Boosted texture anisotropy sampling to 16x on Ultra preset
Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon Coming to Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo has confirmed a new Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon game will be coming to North America in late 2015, and Europe in early 2016.
The latest instalment of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series -- which spans nine games across four platforms and has sold over 13 million copies worldwide -- will again be coming Nintendo 3DS systems.
There are no more details -- not even any images to tempt you -- but Nintendo say that "players can look forward to even greater, randomly created dungeons that change each time they enter."
"In Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, players will battle alongside Legendary and Mythical Pokémon to save the world in a sweeping tale of adventure and mystery."
Basic Wii U Model to be Discontinued in Japan
Nintendo is to discontinue the Basic Wii U model in Japan.
The news comes via the official Nintendo hardware website, translated by Gematsu. From June onwards, Nintendo will start selling a new Premium set, which comes with a white Wii U console with a 32GB hard-drive and a Wii-remote plus.
The white Premium set will retail for 30,000 yen.
Nintendo’s next big thing is the colourful shooter Splatoon, which launches on May 28. If you’re not up to speed in the world of family-friendly paintballing, be sure to check out all the news from the latest Splatoon Direct.
Rockstar Games Files Lawsuit Against the BBC
Rockstar Games, via its parent company Take-Two Interactive, has filed a lawsuit against the BBC in London today for trademark infringement in relation to the broadcaster’s upcoming drama ‘Game Changer’ (working title).
The 90-minute feature will focus on the real-life conflict between Rockstar President Sam Houser and the US lawyer, and outspoken critic of the GTA series, Jack Thompson, with Daniel Radcliffe and Bill Paxton playing the respective roles.
Here is Rockstar’s statement in full, issued to IGN:
These Stone Tools Are the Oldest Ever Discovered
Stone tools have been found at the Lomekwi 3 excavation site in Kenya that predate the Homo genus.
According to Nature, the international weekly journal of science, the tools are the oldest ever discovered at 3.3 million years old. Previously we had thought that species within the Homo genus were the first to learn how to use tools, but the genus only goes back 2.8 million years.
Some large stones were used as anvils upon which cores would be placed, while others were used as hammers in order to create stones with sharp edges. It is thought that these tools are actually too sophisticated to be the earliest examples, so the origins of tools may go back even further.
The Witcher 3 Dev on Accusations of Graphical Downgrades
The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red has acknowledged graphics in the finished game aren't up to the same high level originally shown in the VGX PC gameplay trailer two years ago, and explained why this is.
Speaking to Eurogamer, company co-founder Marcin Iwinski and studio head Adam Badowski refuted claims the console versions dragged the PC edition down, and spoke exactly why some have been left feeling shortchanged.
"If the consoles are not involved there is no Witcher 3 as it is," Iwinski said. "We can lay it out that simply. We just cannot afford it, because consoles allow us to go higher in terms of the possible or achievable sales; have a higher budget for the game, and invest it all into developing this huge, gigantic world.
Splatoon Originally Featured Ink-Battling Tofu
During the early stages of development, Splatoon featured cube-like player characters rather than transforming squids, Nintendo's Hisashi Nogami revealed.
In the latest installment of Iwata Asks, Nogami told the Nintendo president that the game first started with a "white cube in a maze," which Satoru Iwata immediately likened to Tofu. "There was a white thing and a black thing shaped like blocks of tofu, and they were shooting ink and they had to steal each other’s turf," Nogami said.
During the question and answer session, the Splatoon development team also revealed that its family-friendly third-person shooter was only 10 percent complete when it was shown off at last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo.