Gearbox Creative Director Graeme Timmins published a post on the Official PlayStation Blog today reminiscing about the intensive process of iterating on Borderlands 3’s content since its 2019 launch. Timmins also detailed future updates which includes the variety-packed Director’s Cut DLC that’ll drop towards the end of this week.
Early on, Timmins states that the development team was guided by three significant goals since shipping Borderlands 3: “First, to continue to polish and improve the game by addressing reported performance issues. Second, to strive to maintain a balanced experience so that build diversity could flourish at the end-game. And finally, to deliver a variety of new content, whether free or as part of a paid campaign DLC, at a consistent cadence.” Timmons would also go on to say that despite achieving these goals, they still serve as the definitive metric for how Gearbox continues to improve the legacy and longevity of Borderlands 3.
These contemplative thoughts are meant to commemorate the release of the Director’s Cut DLC which will include a new raid boss, more murder mysteries, daily and weekly challenges through Vault Cards, a cache of exclusive, behind-the-scenes content, and more Legendary items for players to collect. The Director’s Cut DLC is set to release on April 8.
Finally, Timmons took the time out to thank the Borderlands 3 playerbase as well as reassure them that the devs do listen to community feedback (that includes reading subreddits!):
“Whether it’s a narrative premise or a new gameplay hook, we’ve always been able to make our ideas work within the context of the universe. That freedom has been crucial not only to maintaining our own passion for the game internally but also for keeping the experience fresh and engaging for the community. If you’re part of that community now or have been at any point in the past: thank you. We are so grateful you’ve come on this journey with us and given all of our ideas a chance.”Recently, the Borderlands movie summary was unveiled and Édgar Ramirez has been cast as the founder and CEO of Atlas Corporation; the company behind some of the franchise’s well-known firearms. You can read and learn more about that here.
[Source: PlayStation Blog]
Metroid Prime is widely considered to be among the best games in the series and of all time. It’s so good that it kicked off a debate about whether Samus was better suited for 2D side-scrolling or 3D first-person shooting. Debate no more: a team of talented Metroid fans have been tinkering away at a 2D remake of the GameCube classic, and you can play it right now.
Team SCU are the minds responsible for the project, dubbed Prime 2D, which they’ve been working on since 2004. The team consists of programmers and volunteers who have quietly worked to reimagine Metroid Prime in the style of Super Metroid. According to Team SCU, Prime 2D isn't meant to be a copy and paste remake; rather, it's adapting the core concepts of Metroid Prime in what it describes as "a logical 2D solution." After years of work, the team has completed a playable demo and made it available to download. In short, it looks very cool. You can check out the 2017 trailer below to see the translation in action.
Click here to watch embedded mediaI played some of the demo and was immediately impressed with not only how good it looked and played, but how Team SCU smartly translated mechanics like the scan visor into the 2D style. There’s no controller support, unfortunately, but using the mouse and keyboard works well (and I generally hate playing games with mouse and keyboard). You can download the demo here. Polygon points out that over 14,000 players have picked it up already, so it seems to be making some noise.
Considering the fate of the last big Metroid fan remake, 2016’s AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake), you’ll probably want to grab the Prime 2D demo sooner than later. By that, I mean it’s likely only a matter of time before Nintendo releases the hounds its lawyers and brings this awesome project to a screeching halt. If nothing else, Prime 2D might serve as a good holdover until Nintendo decides that Metroid Prime 4 is ready to re-debut.
What do you think of Metroid Prime 2D? Let us know in the comments. If you’re looking for a great Metroid remake that you can play now, Metroid: Samus Returns for 3DS serves as another example of a reimagining done right.
[Source: Polygon]
The 2019 announcement that MLB The Show would go multiplatform as part of Sony Interactive Entertainment's renewed licensing agreement was a big enough surprise, but the fact that the inaugural entry on Xbox Series X and Xbox One would arrive on Xbox Game Pass on launch day was nothing short of shocking.
According to Inverse, the decision to bring MLB The Show 21 to other platforms outside of the PlayStation family, as well as Xbox Game Pass, came from MLB. In a quote from a PlayStation representative (which was also provided with no additional context to Game Informer upon request), PlayStation implies that the decision came directly from Major League Baseball.
"As part of the goal for this year's game, MLB decided to bring the franchise to more players and baseball fans," a PlayStation representative said in the statement. "This decision provides a unique opportunity to further establish MLB The Show as the premier brand for baseball video games."
Since the statement was provided with no additional context, it's unclear whether the quote is referring to Major League Baseball influencing the series' jump to Xbox platforms as a whole or the series' appearance as part of the Xbox Game Pass subscription service on day one. It's entirely likely that it's both, seeing as how the multiplatform announcement came as PlayStation renewed its licensing deal with MLB; it's entirely plausible that MLB looked over at Xbox (and potentially other platforms in the future) and saw a landscape that featured series like R.B.I Baseball and Super Mega Baseball and thought it would make more sense to bring the top Major League Baseball franchise to the those consoles rather than allowing MLB The Show to remain an exclusive title.
Despite Super Mega Baseball, which released its third entry in 2020, generally receiving positive reception from fans and critics, it does not feature the MLB license. The R.B.I Baseball series, which does feature the MLB license and is even developed in-house by Major League Baseball Advanced Media, has been panned across the board since its 2014 revival. The most recent triple-A MLB-licensed franchise to appear on Xbox was MLB 2K13, which released on Xbox 360. Unfortunately, the once-great series saw a marked decline in quality in the final years of its run, and at the end of 2013, 2K Sports announced it had no future plans to develop MLB games. That led to Sony's MLB The Show becoming the sole triple-A Major League Baseball title on the market, leaving Xbox-owning baseball fans with little choice until this year's release.
MLB The Show 21 comes to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on April 20. For more on this first multiplatform release, check out our detailed rundown of what's new in this 2021 entry here.
[Source: Inverse]
Monster Hunter Rise continues to find unprecedented success, but no game is without its selection of technical issues. A few days after launch, a major bug was discovered after players realized that they couldn’t access their save files. If you were to activate the Action or Hurt Pose from your action bar and quit the game right after, there’s a chance that you wouldn’t be able to get back into the game. Capcom offered a temporary remedy to the issue: access the poses from the start menu instead. And today, some good news has finally arrived: the latest Monster Hunter Rise update fixes the major save-lock bug.
According to the patch notes released on the Monster Hunter website, the fix comes packaged alongside a bevy of other miscellaneous services including but not limited to multiple control-lock bugs (most notably the ones that happen in Kamura Village when calling your Cahoot as well as when you’re out in the field using updrafts at the Lava Caverns or riding your palamute up walls). Some display/UI issues that stem from searching for online lobbies and sitting on a bench with your gestures menu open. You can read up on the patch notes here.
I enjoyed my time with Monster Hunter Rise...until I didn’t. I gave it a 7.75 in my review and said, “Monster Hunter Rise’s gameplay often attempts to copy World’s success, which isn’t always a bad thing. Battles continue to be an exhilarating dance with death, gear customization is satisfying, and coordinating hunts with friends makes for awesome fun and unexpected outcomes. Even with the introduction of new mechanics that help amplify these features, Monster Hunter Rise struggles to establish a creative identity of its own.”
Nevertheless, if you’re new to the series, we’ve got you covered; here’s How To Get Started In Monster Hunter Rise (10 Essential Tips).