Cyberpunk 2077 Delayed until September

Cyberpunk 2077, the much anticipated game from CD Projekt RED, has been delayed until September 17, 2020. If you don’t know what this game is about, check out the trailer here.

In the announcement, they say that “…the game is complete and playable, but there is still work to be done.” This is in reference to the content in the game, specifically Night City where the game takes place.

They want to make the game “perfect” because they want the game to be “…our crowning achievement for this generation”.

Best of luck to them, and I hope that the game performs at launch as well as they say it will. We will keep you informed as more updates become available.

Destiny 2 Season of Dawn update

As of this writing, Bungie has released a new puzzle for the community to solve, implemented a much needed hotfix, and has gone through a lot of discussions. Let’s catch up on the past few days.

The Corridors of Time

So what’s this now? Well for starters, it’s pretty neat and I love the design of it. When you first enter the mission, the Sundial takes you to a passageway that leads to a hexagonal room with five other passages. Each passage has a symbol on a pillar in front of it, leading to another room with more doors. This is the crux of the Corridors of Time. So far the community, with the help of r/raidsecrets, has found 19 separate paths through the corridors, but they all lead to the same conclusion. They lead to a grave.

Whose grave this is is under debate within the community right now. Some say it’s the Guardian’s grave. Personally, I think something is going to happen with the Vanguard because of the symbol on it.

The puzzle has evolved to be supremely large, like thousands of pieces, but it all boils down to those same symbols. Nobody knows what the true ending to this puzzle is, yet. We’ll know soon enough though.

When you get close to it, it will teleport you back to the beginning of the corridors. Each time you complete a path, you should gain a lore entry, 19 in total. Begin with a new path, and continue on until you earn all of them. Oh, and little secret, there’s an emblem you can earn here. Watch the reflections. Or you can use this for all of the paths, credit to @berserkbrandee on Twitter for the graphic.

What is at the end of this questline? I hope a new weapon of some sort, cause that would be awesome. If you want spoilers to see whose grave that is (thanks to datamining), and what the potential reward could be at the end of all this, see this article from Paul Tassi at Forbes.

Hotfixes

Bungie put out some hotfixes to some very annoying problems yesterday. For starters Tess won’t bother me anymore because they disabled her notification in the Tower. Now only the Postmaster will bother me when I go to the Tower. I don’t need those Modulus Reports right now, but I’m too lazy to delete them one at a time.

They fixed Wish Ender, which was dealing up to 5 times its normal amount of damage thanks to its Broadhead perk. Bows are still good weapons, but sadly people will probably be using less of them now that this is fixed. Le Monarque is a great bow in my opinion because it deals poison damage, and it’s great for ad clearing if you have it.

The EDZ obelisk should allow you to interact with it now every time instead of randomly. You used to have to switch instances by fast traveling multiple times until you found one that worked, or by logging in and out of the game if you were on console. Somehow the interact component was despawning when loading into the instance. Weird, but that’s code for you- fix one bug, 100 more come up somewhere.

Something I didn’t know, there was another Telesto glitch which allowed you to get more Special ammo when using the Heavy Handed mod on your armor. Why is Telesto always involved with glitches?

“Discussions”

To wrap up this update, I’ve been seeing a lot of “discussions” going on lately around Bungie’s content, and I just want to add my two cents.

I see people saying that the content that we get with the season is stale and uninteresting and that they’re not going to play the game, and that’s fine. You don’t have to blast Bungie because you think their content isn’t good, just don’t play the game, play something else.

You can’t expect content on the level of Shadowkeep or Forsaken every 3 months though. 3 months is not enough time to produce that kind of content, even a year isn’t really enough time to produce that kind of content without employee burnout. That kind of content has to go through design, planning, coding, and testing, then public release. Bungie is doing all of this in-house now; they don’t have Activision helping them anymore, so cut them some slack guys. They’re still doing their best, and I applaud them for that. I’ll keep playing with my friends and having a good time, while those who just want to complain about it can go find something else to do with your time. /end rant

Sorry, just had to say that. With that said, I’ll be exploring the Corridors of Time tonight on our Twitch channel at 8 pm EST, so come hang out and chat, I’d love the company.

Sony Skips E3 For the Second Year in a Row

Sony has announced that the company will yet again miss E3, one of the biggest video game shows of the year.

A Sony representative told gameindustry.biz that the company would instead “attend ‘hundreds’ of consumer events” throughout the year to showcase its games. After skipping E3 in 2019 many wondered if Sony would decide to jump back into E3 with a brand new console to show off. It appears Sony is content to rely on other events and its own State of Play showcases to promote its new console.

E3 has had its fair share of issues over the years (like the fact they leaked journalists’ personal info accidentally last year) but Sony skipping a second year in a row likely isn’t going to help the show. Microsoft still plans to attend as well as major publishers like EA and Ubisoft but gameindustry.biz also notes that the ESA, which organizes E3, has struggled to keep attendees happy by allowing the public access but also keeping the show industry-focused. Hopefully they can draw back Sony in the coming years or the show might be in a lot more trouble if Sony skips a third time.

Jumping for (Nurse) joy — A recap of the 01/09/2020 Pokémon Direct

I’m quite certain most of us can agree that today was a good day to be a Pokémon fan, as today’s Pokémon Direct hit us with three very cool announcements.  The most prominent reveal was that of the Expansion Pass that will add 200+ Pokémon and two areas to your journey through the Galar Region.  Some gamers were a bit aggro about a duo of Pokémon games having paid DLC ($30 or otherwise), but I have confidence the content in said DLC will be worth the dinero.

But Sword & Shield were not the only stars of the show, as the Direct kicked off with the reveal of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX, which is a Switch remake of Pokémon Blue & Red Rescue Team.  This remake is due for release on March 6, and there is an eShop demo available now.

The Direct wrapped up with Pokémon Home being announced for a February release.  Home is a hub app that allows for transferring Pokémon from game to game, and that includes importing from Go to Sword & Shield.

We’re not even a full month into 2020, and it’s already looking like it’s gonna be a fantastic year for the mega-popular Pokémon franchise regardless of how controversial Sword & Shield seem to be.  From Switch games to mobile apps, 2020 will no doubt be a fun year to catch ’em all

Should You AD(D) This?: Johnny Trigger

Like most people, I’m on my phone a lot, and because of that, I like to find some fun (and most importantly: FREE) games off the Play Store to download to play when I want to pass some time.

I’ve found some real fun little games that I enjoy playing, such as: Governor of Poker 3, Pokemon GO, 2048, Plague, INC., and FLOW.

But, with free games comes the greatest agony of gaming off of a phone or tablet: ALL. OF. THE. *breathes in* AAAAAADDDDDSSSSS!!!!!!

Specifically, ads for other games.

But then I did some thinking, and I started to wonder: Would it be worth downloading some of these apps? Are these games worth the 5 to 30 second ads I have to sit through to go download and take up space on my phone and SD card?

Well, starting today, I’m going to find out.

So here’s how each review will work:

Title of game (with pic and developer info if and when possible)

Average rating on Play Store as well as best and worst review rating (Sorry, Apple users)

My personal review

Star rating, 1 thru 5, with either an “AD(D) THIS!” Or “IGNORE THIS!” suggestion.

So, with all of that out of the way. Let’s get to our first review, shall we?

Game: Johnny Trigger (developed by SayGames)

Average rating on Play Store: 4.5

Top positive review: 5⭐

Top critical review: 3⭐

My review:

A side-scrolling shooter that puts you in the shoes of what appears to be a top secret spy who’s goal is to take down some baddies and save some hostages with a wide array of guns that you work to purchase or can unlock through a gamble by selecting one of three cases (though, if you can sit through 3 different ads for about 30 seconds each, you can unlock all 3 cases). As you’re about to take out some bad guys, time slows down and an aim assist comes up and allows you to line up your shot and PEW. Fire away. But be careful. If you miss a target while in slowmo, or get a hostage killed, you’ll fail the level.

Fortunately, each level has 1 or 2 checkpoints you can reach as you progress, in case you do goof up, you won’t have to go all the way back to the beginning.

At your disposal throughout the game is 3 types of weapons: Pistols, submachine, and special. Each weapon has damage amount and ammo amount. The pistols shoot one shot per ammo slot, the submachine’s fire anywhere from 3-5 shots per slot, and the specials, from what I know as of writing this, fire one per slot.

Another thing you can unlock throughout the game is different skins for your character, and, I have to admit, is probably my favorite aspect of this game.

There’s several “Great Value” style skins to choose from, (Mario, Lara Craft, Britney Spears even, I think) but these two (Mandalorian and Daft Punk, respectively) are my personal favorites.

With 16 costumes (that I’ve unlocked anyways) there’s a character skin for just about any play style.

Next I want to talk about the level design, enemy design, and overall aesthetic.

If I could use two words to summarize these things, it’d be beautiful… and repetitive.

This is probably the only real low point for this game. Artistically, each stage is very pleasant to look at. However, after taking handfuls of levels to get through each stage (with 2 boss fights per stage) it can get old really quickly. You will also find that the amount of ways you do these levels loses it’s luster rather quickly. Once you get through the first few stages, the game just recycles levels. I get it though. I’m sure the developers have legit reasons for this, but it is annoying and once you’ve unlocked over 90% of collectables in the game, it makes you grind hard for the other 10% with no real satisfying payoff.

Aside from the “bosses” all the enemies are, for all intents and purposes, literally the exact same, appearance wise. So are the hostages. They aren’t bad, but, again, do become mind numbingly repetitive. When you first start playing you feel like with each completed stage you’re going to get new enemies and learn who you are as Johnny and why you’re doing what you’re doing, but you don’t. I can understand why they didn’t add more depth, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t express my disappointment about it.

All in all, since playing this game the day before Thanksgiving, I’ve really enjoyed it. Though it has its downsides its a fun, simple, and well designed game. If you’re looking for a good time waster, you need to download “Johnny Trigger.”

Rating: 4.5⭐

AD(D) THIS!

Thanks for reading my first game review. Let me know what you think of this game or if there’s anything I missed. I look forward to writing my next review. If you have any mobile game suggestions for me to review, leave a comment, or @ me on Twitter @TheRichieBuzz (no one has mentioned me in a tweet in like…3 years. It’d be nice to see a new mention notification)

For SSG, I’m Richie Bazurto.

SSG_Preston’s Gaming Wishlist for 2020

What’s up, everybody? I hope you all have been having an incredible holiday season! With 2020 being just around the corner, myself and many other gamers have already begun compiling lists of games we’d like to see in 2020.  My list is a blender of wishes that are probable and ones that are not-so-probable.  Hopefully my wishes of the latter kind won’t irk those of you who are reading this.  I have quite a lot of wishes in my noggin, but I’ll narrow this article down to a handful of them and save others for later times.  Without further ado, let’s go through them one at a time…

Wish #1: More 3DS games ported to the Switch

Since Nintendo themselves acknowledged back in June that the 3DS has no first-party titles left in the tank, I believe that it makes sense to increase the speed of the rolling ball when it comes to 3DS-to-Switch ports.  There are a handful of 3DS games that I feel would make great for Switch releases, such as Super Mario 3D Land, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and the 3DS versions of the Nintendo 64’s The Legend of Zelda games.  I have other ports in mind, but I’ll save discussing those for another time.

Wish #2: Super Mario Sunshine HD

Remember when Nintendo tweeted a picture of Mario munching on a watermelon, and the caption contained the word “sunshine?” That tweet lit the fuse that was speculation of the GameCube’s Super Mario Sunshine getting a remaster on the Switch.  It’s now the closing days of 2019, and the big N still hasn’t announced such a thing.  Will it be announced during E3 2020? I sure hope so!

Wish #3: Mario Golf on Switch

A year ago, the folks at Camelot served us Mario Tennis Aces (Obvious tennis pun is obvious), and it has since become one of the Switch’s best-selling games.  And now that all the DLC for the aforementioned tennis game has been released, I really want Mario Golf to step onto the Switch’s tee box.  We haven’t seen Mario and co. hit the links since 2017’s hit-and-miss Mario Sports Superstars on the 3DS, so I don’t think it’s an unreasonable wish on my end.

Wish #4: Mario Kart 9

What Nintendo console would be complete without a fresh installment of Mario Kart? It’s been nearly three years since Mario Kart 8 went from the Wii U to the Switch, so I think 2020 is the year that we’ll finally get the ninth main installment in this iconic racing series.  Some have suggested that this game be a crossover racer like Sonic & All-Stars Racing, and I personally would love for that to be a thing.

Wish #5: F-Zero on Switch

Yes, I know this is kind of a pipedream considering we haven’t seen this series in action since a 2004 GBA title, but I still hold onto hope that we will one day see the return of the white-knuckle racer that is F-Zero.  And no, Fast RMX doesn’t count! If Nintendo could whip up an F-Zero game on the Switch, I’d personally buy it in a heartbeat, especially if it had online multiplayer.  If we can get F-Zero tracks in Mario Kart, getting a new F-Zero game is not completely impossible.

Wish #6: Skate 4 or a new Tony Hawk game

Skateboarding games have always held a special place in my heart, and I still miss the days when they were a truly big deal on the market.  It’s been nine years since the cult-classic Skate 3, and 2015’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 was an absolute catastrophe.  We’ve got some indie skating titles roaming around as of late, but I’d love to see one of the two aforementioned series make a comeback in 2020.  Whichever one is more likely is a mystery.

Wish #7: NCAA Football returns

Since the NCAA stated that they will allow their athletes to earn money off of the use of their names and likenesses, this gives us more reason to believe that EA’s NCAA Football can one day return to the gridiron.  We’ve got a handful of colleges in the latest edition of Madden NFL, so that’s a good start.  NCAA Football ’14 still maintains a cult-following, so I don’t doubt a new installment would yield EA a truckload of profits.

 

So, which of my gaming wishes for 2020 are going to come true? Are any of yours going to come true as well? Only time will tell.  Until next time, thank you for reading another Silver Soul Gaming article.  And from all of us at SSG…Have a Happy New Year!

Three’s a crowd…Of zombies — Resident Evil 3 remake announced

It hasn’t even been a full year since the remake of Resident Evil 2 hit the shelves, and Capcom isn’t done yet.  Recently, the publishing powerhouse from Japan has announced that a remake of Resident Evil 3 will arrive in 2020, providing another dose of nostalgia for those who love reminiscing about classic zombie-shooters.  Coming along for the ride is a multiplayer mode called Resident Evil Resistance, an online battle between a team of four and a “mastermind” who sets all the traps.  Considering how heavily-revered the previous remake has been, I have full confidence this next one will be nothing short of enthralling.  The zombie-shooting fun resumes on April 3.