Tag: Animal Crossing

Monday 7-30-18: Animal Crossing Co-Director Quits, Gran Turismo Sport Microtransactions, and Gears of War 5’s New Monster

On July 30, 2018

My hands are too dry. But is that really video game news? No, it’s not. Here’s some news instead.

Animal Crossing Co-Director Leaves Nintendo
Gran Turismo Sport Has Microtransactions Now
Gears of War 5’s New Monster: The Swarm Flock

Isao No-Moro

According to a recent Facebook post, game director Isao Moro has left Nintendo. Moro is best known as the co-director for nearly every single Animal Crossing game, as well as The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. His last game was Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. The posting was made on July 26. While any talk of a future Animal Crossing game remains an absolute mystery, this will undoubtedly impact what any potential future titles would be like. For all we know, this was a long time coming internally. This may also be why we haven’t heard anything about a new Animal Crossing for a while. All we can do now is wait and see.

Gran Turismo Sport Microtransactions

Microtransactions, the ability to make real-money purchases for in-game items and effects, is already a sour and disliked topic in the video game industry. Now, nine months after it’s initial release, Gran Turismo Sport has implemented their own Microtransaction system. Currently live in Japan, players can choose to purchase in-game vehicles using real-world money instead of in-game credits. Only vehicles below 2 million credits can be purchased this way, requiring players to still work for the good ones. A screenshot by Sony shows a Mercedes-AMG GT S ’15 being purchasable for $0.99. I don’t like it, but I won’t get into the long rant of capitalism right now.

Gears of War 5’s Swarm Flock

The official Gears of War Twitter account posted a GIF recently, showing off a “new” enemy in the game: Swarm Flocks. Described as “your worst nightmare,” this flying group of Swarm Leeches will quickly barrage the player for damage before retreating. While they’re cool enough, I can’t help but notice their striking resemblance to the Kryll. These were flying swarms of tentacled locust beasts that would overwhelm the player whenever they stepped in darkness. This introduced a new “stay in the light” mechanic. The Swarm Flock just seem like a less lethal Kryll.

https://twitter.com/GearsofWar/status/1022213809371406336

That’s all for today. Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy our latest episode of the Cozy Co-op. Also, I’m nearing completion of the “Chica Update” for the Animatronic. So stay tuned for that. Tune in tomorrow for more news. Otherwise, have a great day!

Thursday 11-30-17: Star Citizen, Super Mario Cereal, Final Fantasy XV, Animal Crossing, and ARMS

By Branden

On December 1, 2017

In daily update, News

Guess who missed another day! This guy! I’m sorry for missing yesterday’s news. I got caught up editing an 18 minute video on Skyrim VR. Here are the last 2 days worth of news:

Star Citizen Sells Real Estate
Super Mario Cereal, that’s a real thing
Final Fantasy XV lets you swap characters in an update
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp starts its winter event
ARMS gets a surprise update, introducing Springtron

Star Citizen Sells Land
The popular Kickstarter-funded space game will be implementing the ability to purchase your own plot of land in game. Backers will get the option to pay $50 in order to reserve a 4-kilometer square plot on a designated planet to do with as they please, be it commercial, private, ect. You can read their FAQ about this concept HERE. I find it hilarious, and I’m all for it.

Super Mario Cereal
Nintendo is partnering up with Kellogg’s to create their own cereal. The cereal, simply titled “Super Mario Cereal”, is a promotion effort for the recently released Super Mario Odyssey. The style is that of Lucky Charms, but with powerups as marshmallows. The most interesting part of this is that the box itself acts an an Amiibo. An NFC chip is implanted into the back of the box, allowing players to scan it into their Super Mario Odyssey game to be rewarded with coins and health. Amiibo Cereal, that’s a real thing. You can see pictures of the front and back of the box at a news post I wrote about it HERE.

Character Swapping in Final Fantasy XV
In a recent dev talk about the one year anniversary of Final Fantasy XV, Square Enix reveals that the game will soon be receiving an update to allow players to swap between any of the 4 main protagonists throughout the campaign. No longer are you restricted to operate purely as Noctis, except for during critical story moments. This update is expected to release alongside upcoming DLC, Episode Ignis. An expansion due on December 13. Square Enix also announced that more DLC will happen next year, implying that they will follow the exploits of the game’s antagonist, Ardyn. You can watch the dev talk video yourself HERE.

Animal Crossing Christmas
It’s not really Christmas, but the new Animal Crossing mobile game has begun their winter holiday event. From now until December 26, players will be able to collect Candy Canes as crafting equipment. They can then use these candy canes to build holiday themed furniture. The event encourages players to give the requested gifts to villagers as much as possible. For more information about the event, you can visit the announcements section in-game.

Springtron Joins ARMS
About 2 weeks ago, a video detailing update 3.2 ended in a teaser for a robotic looking fighter. Today ARMS updated to version 4.1 to include Springtron, a robotic variation of Spring Man. His arms, as well as all arm attachment options are the same as Spring Man’s. The main difference is that when Springtron charges up, he can release to blast out a shockwave that nullifies incoming attacks. You can play him right now, for free, on ARMS for the Nintendo Switch.

That’s all for today. More than normal, probably because I skipped yesterday. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the best in video games. Otherwise, have a great night!

Monday 11-20-17: Desert Bus, Shades of CD Projekt Red, Animal Crossing Mobile Game, Street Fighter V-Triggers

By Branden

On November 20, 2017

In daily update, News

Monday marks the dawn of a new week, and with a new week comes new news. Overall its a generally positive weekend in the world of gaming. here’s what we have:

Desert Bus for Hope is back.
CD Projekt Red remarks on the industry.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp release date
Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition trailer taunts V-Triggers.

Desert Bus for Hope
Desert Bus is Back for its 10th charity drive! For those who don’t know: The Desert Bus for Hope is a charity event where a group of people plays the desert bus mini-game from an old Sega CD game by Penn & Teller. This game has you drive a bus for 8 hours on a straight road in the desert. when these people reach a donation goal, the longer they have to play this incredibly boring game. This is a wonderful cause, raising money for Child’s Play, a charity about bringing toys and games to children’s hospitals. They’ve been living streaming the event for about 48 hours so far, and still have 144 hours to go. You can check out the live stream of the event, which will include more details, at their twitch page.

CD Projekt Red Throwing Shade
With all the recent drama about loot boxes and video games “as a service” going around, some concern has spread to the studio being the Witcher game series. Their CEO in an interview remarked on how to better commercialize future games, and many took this to mean they will be implementing microtransactions. When a popular youtube page posted on twitter expressing this concern, CD Projekt Red responded with a statement that reassured peoples doubts, while also taking a jab at the studios that do use microtransactions. The response can be seen below.

.@PrettyBadTweets Worry not. When thinking CP2077, think nothing less than TW3 — huge single player, open world, story-driven RPG. No hidden catch, you get what you pay for — no bullshit, just honest gaming like with Wild Hunt. We leave greed to others.

— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) November 19, 2017

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Release Date
Nintendo has been entering the mobile game market. With a powerful arsenal of big name (and child-friendly) titles behind them, there is a lot of potential for them in this field. Animal Crossing: Pocket camp is their mobile take on the Animal Crossing series. For the last month, the game has been on a soft launch in Australia only, with the promise of a worldwide release in “late November.” This morning Nintendo of America announced via twitter when that release date is. This Wednesday. That’s right, 2 days from now on the day before Thanksgiving, the game will release on mobile stores worldwide. That’s one thing I know I’m thankful for.

Have you heard the news? Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will be coming to mobile devices worldwide on 11/22! #PocketCamp pic.twitter.com/jShJwDgnls

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) November 20, 2017

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition Trailer
Capcom recently released a new trailer showing off the V-Triggers that are due to appear in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, the updated and complete version of the latest Street Fighter game. At first glance, it looks like stuff we already knew, but the implications behind it are far more important. With these new V-Triggers will come new combo and mixup options for many (if not all) characters. A change to the game of this degree will have an equally large impact on the competitive Street Fighter scene. See the trailer for yourself below.

That’s all for the weekend. Thanks for reading, everyone! Be sure to check back tomorrow for the latest and greatest in video game news. I also have a new longform coming soon, stay tuned. Otherwise, have a great night!