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The Geek Dojo Weekly

/ Jeff Jones / Leave a comment

Hi, I’m Jeff and welcome to the The Geek Dojo Weekly for the week of February 25th! This is a weekly video games newsletter featuring my top 5 stories of the week. 

Anthem is dead, PlayStation hits us with a slew of new information, and some Konami games are getting a second chance at life. Let’s get into the news!

Konami Plans to Outsource Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania to Third Party Studios

Via: PSU

Konami is reportedly looking to outsource development on new Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania games, according to VGC’s Andy Robinson. These new games will not be seen for quite some time. There is very little information with no planned ideas or who will be developing.

This is pretty exciting to hear especially since Konami has pretty much been out of gaming for a long time. They have quite a few IPs that many of us love. I have personally wanted the MGS series to come back in a big way so it would be great to see another studio get the rights to it. If Konami really wants to shake the table, they would outsource the Suikoden franchise.

PlayStation News Extravaganza

Via: Game Informer

Sony hit us with a slew of information of what to expect in the coming months/years. First up, a new PlayStation VR headset is in development. It is currently in development for the PS5 and will not be launching in 2021. The headset will feature improved resolution and field of view. It will also only have one cable to connect to the PS5 console which is a huge plus. The headset is a long ways out, but devs kits will be sent out soon.

Next is the Play at Home initiative returns next month. Last year at the start of the pandemic, Sony announced Play at Home as a way to give back to the community. They offered Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Journey free for a limited time. Since the pandemic continues to spread, this program is being brought back again. Play at Home 2021 starts March 1st in the PlayStation store. Ratchet and Clank PS4 will be available for free until March 31st. Beginning on March 25th, Sony will be offering an extended access period for new Funimation subscribers.

Sony also announced more games will be coming to PC, starting with Days Gone. CEO Jim Ryan opens up about the topic in a recent GQ interview stating, “…our studios made some wonderful, great games. There’s an opportunity to expose those great games to a wider audience and recognize the economics of game development, which are not always straightforward. The cost of making games goes up with each cycle, as the caliber of the IP has improved. Also, our ease of making it available to non-console owners has grown. So it’s a fairly straightforward decision for us to make.”

Lastly, to top it all off, a brand new State of Play will premier this Thursday. Well today since this newsletter goes out every Thursday. I will cover it in next week’s post. It will be 30 minutes and will give us a deep dive on 10 upcoming games. I’m fully expecting a Kena: Bridge of Spirits release date. Tune in today at 5pm EST to find out more.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has Been Delayed

Via: Twitter

Paradox Interactive released a statement this week noting Bloodlines 2 will be delayed out of 2021. It seems the game has run into some development issues as the lead development team, Hardsuit Labs, has been dismissed from the project. No new release date has been given and no more pre-orders will be taken at this time.

I have never played the first game, but this one was on my radar for 2021. It is disappointing to see this happen, but take your time Paradox.

Cyberpunk 2077 February Patch Has Been Delayed

Via: Twitter

CD Projekt Red announced the next big patch for Cyberpunk 2077 will be delayed into the second half of March. “While we dearly wanted to deliver Patch 1.2 for Cyberpunk 2077 in the timespan we detailed previously, the recent cyber attack on the studio’s IT infrastructure and extensive scope of the update mean this unfortunately will not happen — we’ll need some additional time.” They also mention, “We’ve been working on numerous overall quality improvements and fixes, and we still have work to do to make sure that’s what you get.”

CDPR has definitely had a rough go at things since this game launched. Even though things have been rough, I’m am glad to see they are working to make things right. I have not made it very far into the game myself, but I am content with waiting on this big patch to see how much has the game improved.

Anthem 2.0 Development has been Cancelled

Via: Game Informer

Anthem had a troubled launch in 2019. It was a new direction for BioWare and EA. Upon release, the game seemed like it had something special in the beginning, but everything quickly feel apart after an hour or so in. EA looked to revamp this game with an Anthem 2.0 update. Two weeks ago there was a report that judgement day for Anthem was coming. EA would decide if they will save the game or discontinue development. Fast forward to Feb. 24th, it has been reported EA will be pulling the plug on Anthem completely. BioWare’s Christian Daily blames the pandemic for the project not coming together completely. The team working on Anthem will be moved over to Dragon Age 4. RIP Anthem.

Noteworthy:

PS5 and Xbox component shortage to be investigated by President Biden: Gamespot

New NieR Replicant trailer: Twitter

Pyra/Mythra Smash Bros. Ultimate Showcase date: Twitter

New Skullgirls DLC is on the way: Steam

Upcoming Monster Hunter showcases: Nintendo Everything

Notable Releases:

Via: Kotaku

Tuesday, February 23

Persona 5 Strikers | PS4, Switch, PC

Thursday, February 25

Hellpoint | Switch

Ghost n’ Goblins Resurrection | Switch

Littlewood | Switch

Friday, February 26

Bravely Default II | Switch

Catch me every Monday on The Skill Tree: A Gaming Podcast

Madness (Episode 17) – The Skill Tree (A Gaming Podcast)

On today's festive episode (which features Hashim in the best mood he's possibly ever been in), the guys talk about their initial impressions of Guilty Gear -Strive-, and the first part of the Summer Games Fest for 2021, which includes (but not limited to): Elden Ring, Tiny Tina's Wonderland, Battlefield 2042, the Ubisoft Forward, Devolver Digital, and more! The guys also talk about Overwatch finally getting crossplay, and Back 4 Blood rumors.  — Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theskilltree/message
  1. Madness (Episode 17)
  2. StoneCold (Episode 16)
  3. Affiliated (Episode 15)
  4. Bullying (Episode 14)
  5. Legally (Episode 13)

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The Geek Dojo Weekly

/ Jeff Jones / Leave a comment

Hi, I’m Jeff and welcome to the The Geek Dojo Weekly! A weekly video games news article featuring my top 5 stories of the week.

Guilty Gear Strive Gets a New Trailer

Via: YouTube

Arc System Works published a new trailer detailing Strive’s various game modes. Tutorial mode, arcade mode, mission mode, survival mode, training mode, and of course there is online play. It’s about what you would expect from a fighting game and it’s good to see there will be plenty of offline content for those who don’t necessarily want to play online. In the trailer, it seems like they made an effort to make sure we know Strive will have, “optimized net code.” Arc Sys has announced last year GG Strive will in fact have roll back net code, which is a major plus for online play. Only thing I wish was included in this trailer is a date for the next beta.

Guilty Gear Strive will be available on PS4, PS5, and PC via Steam on April 9th, 2021. Crossplay will be available between PS4 and PS5, but PC has not been mentioned in that conversation just yet.

Could We Finally get An Update on Bayonetta 3 this year?

Via: DualShockers

It seems very likely. PlatinumGames has been teasing various announcements on their official website, since last year. Four have already been revealed, but the fifth star on the website has been mysteriously updated with the year 2021. According to DualShockers this lines up with a recent interview with Hideki Kamiya, who mentioned we will get an update on Bayonetta 3’s development later this year.

Bayonetta 3 was originally teased at the 2017 Game Awards show and we really haven’t heard anything since. This is a Switch exclusive I’ve been waiting for for quite some time so I am sure it will be worth the wait.

EA Creates a New Studio for the Skate Series

Via: Gameindustry.biz

Electronic Arts revealed their new Vancouver based studio, Full Circle. This studio will be dedicated to the Skate franchise and led by Microsoft’s former head of Xbox Live, Daniel McCulloch, with Deran Chung and Cuz Parry, who were creative leads on previous Skate games, joining the team as well. Fans, including myself, have been wishing EA would bring the Skate series back from the dead for well over a decade. The latest entry, Skate 3, came out in 2010. Skate 4 was revealed to be in the works, at EA Play back in June 2020, to much excitement. Considering EA has created a whole new studio for Skate, the series might be back for good. Maybe we could get a Skate game compilation with the first three games included. Finger crossed!

A BioWare-less Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Game is in the Works?

Via: Game Informer

According to a reputable Star Wars insider, Bespin Bulletin, that is. During the latest episode of B.O.B. The Podcast, Bespin claims the game is in the works and fans will never guess what studio is behind the project.

“Amongst my digging, I heard there is a Knights of the Old Republic project in development somewhere,” Bespin said. “I talked to a couple of people, and I also found out that Jason Schreier said that it’s not with EA, and we’ll ‘never guess’ who the studio is that’s making this game.” 

Even though this is just a rumor at the moment, this does excite me. EA losing their exclusive rights is a great thing and other studios will get a chance at making Star Wars content. Whoever the studio is, I’m sure they will do Knights of the Old Republic justice.

Seems like Ninja Does Not Want to be a Good Role Model

Via: GameSpot

Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins recently sat down with The New York Times and had an interesting take on parenting. The interview itself covered quite a few topics, but the part making headlines is on the kids who frequents his livestreams and their behavior in his chat.

“It all comes down to parenting,” Blevins says. “You want to know who your kid is? Listen to him when he’s playing video games when he thinks you’re not. Here’s another thing: How does a white kid know he has white privilege if his parents never teach him or don’t talk about racism?” He continues, “If they’re gaming and their first interaction with racism is one of their friends saying the N-word and they have no idea what it is–what if it was on my stream? Is it my job to have this conversation with this kid? No, because the first thing that’s going on in my head is, This kid is doing this on purpose to troll me. If someone says a racial slur on someone else’s stream, it can potentially get that streamer banned. It’s awful, but that’s the first thing I think of.”

My take is, he has a point. Parenting is in fact part of the problem, but I also think it’s Ninja’s job to moderate his streams and try to be a better role model in the public eye. Yes, it’s not his job to have conversations with them, but they are in your chat. You should not let that type of behavior go on in your chat to begin with. Shut it down, explain why that’s an issue and why you won’t tolerate it, and move on. If the rules are not followed then maybe that person should not be allowed in your stream. Just from these quotes, he comes off as a coward in my eyes. He refuses to step up and make a change in society and that is just sad.

Noteworthy:

Bandai Namco is interested in more Pokken Tournament: Nintendo Everything

Cyberpunk 1.1 patch introduces a new bug: Kotaku

Halo Infinite monthly development updates: IGN

2021 DICE Awards Nominees: VG247

PS+ February Lineup: PlayStation Blog

Scavenger Studio is in Hot Water: Gameindustry.biz

Notable Releases:

Via: Kotaku

Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & The Secret Fairy | PS5, PS4, Switch, PC [Tuesday, January 26]

Project Winter | Xbox One [Tuesday, January 26]

Cyber Shadow | PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC [Tuesday, January 26]

The Medium | Xbox Series X/S, PC [Thursday, January 28]

The Yakuza Remastered Collection | Xbox One, PC [Thursday, January 28]

Word from the author:

This is a part of my new experiment to start blogging again. I really enjoyed putting this together and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Look for the Geek Dojo Weekly every Thursday.

Also, if you didn’t know already, I started a new podcast with a couple of friends. It’s call The Skill Tree: A Gaming Podcast. Brought to you by The Geek Dojo and The L1TEWORK Company. K1ngeljay, Hashim (Paul), and myself break down the week in gaming news. New episodes every Monday. Check it out, share it with your friends, and leave us a good review!

Star Wars Battlefront 2 Will Release This Year

/ Jeff Jones / 1 Comment

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2015’s Star Wars Battlefront left a lot to be desired. It’s not necessarily a bad game, but it does not live up to what Battlefront used to be. EA and DICE realize that and will fix that in the upcoming sequel.

EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson, stated in a recent earnings call that the next Battlefront game will be released this holiday season. It will feature a new single player campaign mode as well.

“There will be new ways to play, including an all-new single-player campaign, and much, much more that we are excited to share with our player in the months ahead,” Wilson stated.

Wilson also mentioned that the game will be bigger, have more locations, and more characters that span across multiple Star Wars stories. It’s safe to say Rogue One and The Force Awakens will for sure be included in this one. Check out the statement to shareholders to see for yourself.

What do you want to see most in the next Star Wars Battlefront game?

For more video game news, visit The Geek Dojo.

New Mass Effect Andromeda Trailer

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thegeekdojo.net

Bioware really didn’t have anything to show off for the upcoming sci-fi epic. They say that we will get more information this fall so look forward to that.

The new trailer is nice though. It really gives you the feel that Bioware is really going back to the roots of Mass Effect when it comes to exploring. There are even a couple of scenes featuring the Mako! That’s enough to get me excited, really. Check out the trailer below.

Mass Effect Andromeda is expected to launch March of 2017.

For more video game news, visit The Geek Dojo.

 

Star Wars Battlefront 2 Will Come Out in 2017

/ Jeff Jones / Leave a comment

thegeekdojo.net

Battlefront 2 will feature “bigger and better worlds,” EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said during an earnings call today. The game will also feature content from the new movies so expect to see stuff from Episode VII. The first game only featured content from the original trilogy.

Jorgensen also said that EA plans to release a new Star Wars game every year for the next three to four years. He also confirmed that the Star Wars action game from the Dead Space developers, Visceral, will be coming out next year as well. The third-person action adventure Star Wars game from Titanfall developers, Respawn, was mentioned, but with no planned release window.

With all of that info being dropped in one day, it sounds like we will have plenty of Star Wars video games to keep us busy between movies. I just hope Battlefront 2 is a major improvement.

Source: Gamespot

For more video game news, visit The Geek Dojo.

DICE is Now Moving on to Working on the Next Battlefield Game

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thegeekdojo.net

DICE’s development director tweeted recently that he will be moving on to the project since Star Wars Battlefront is now done.

Work is still being done for Battlefront DLC and such, but the team will now start to focus on the next true Battlefield installment.

Others on twitter, including myself, have already been a bit concerned. DICE has handled the Battlefield series pretty well for the most part aside from Battlefield 4 being a bit buggy, but you just have to wonder if it will be a true Battlefield game and not super casual like Battlefront is. Only time will tell.

The next Battlefield is slated for a holiday 2016 release.

Source: IGN

For more video game news, visit The Geek Dojo

Here Are Some Awesome New Details on the Star Wars: Battlefront Beta

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The beta will be open for four days on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on October 8th-October 12th. There will be three different game modes to chose from: Walker Assault, Drop Zone, and Survival Mission. Walker Assault and Survival Mission will require a internet connection to play, but if you want to get some couch co-op fun, then you can start up Survival Mission.

A leveling system will also be included. You can level your character up to level 5, but sadly that progression doesn’t carry over to the full game in November. There will be some in game items and such you can unlock for the final game though.

The best part about this news is you do not have to register or pre-order anything. When the beta goes live next month, all you have to do in download the application, and play.

The full Star Wars: Battlefront game come out November 17, 2015

For more video game news, visit The Geek Dojo

Oh Hey, Need for Speed is Coming Back

/ Jeff Jones / 2 Comments

EA released a teaser trailer for the next iteration of the franchise. Despite rumors of it being NFS: Underground 3, EA decided to drop the number and completely reboot the whole NFS franchise.

Not much else is known outside of the trailer, but EA says the game “will feature deep customisation, authentic urban car culture, a nocturnal open world, and an immersive narrative that pulls you through the game.” I don’t know about you all but it sounds like this is as close to a good “Fast and Furious” game that we will ever get. We shall know more by the time E3 rolls around next month.

Need For Speed will be on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Here is the trailer: