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Nolan North’s a pretty fun-gi… eh… I know most of us assumed it was coming after the massive,massivepopularity and success of Naughty Dog’sThe Last of Us, but Nolan “The Voice of Fucking Everything” North has accidentally let slipThe Last of Us 2is coming. He mentioned it in a panel at Metrocon 2015 where he was asked if he was working on any more projects for Naughty Dog. Be warned, thevideo(Last of Ustalk begins at 1:06:24) and the transcript belowcontain spoilers forThe Last of Us....

At least it’s not another DBZ game A big part of the fun of doing this column is discovering old games I’ve never heard of and trying to figure out why they’ve been forgotten. Sometimes it’s because they are terrible, unplayable messes. Other times it’s because they require being fluent in Japanese, or because they were on a platform that almost nobody owned. In the case ofFuuun Gokuu Ninden, a 1996 Japan-only PlayStation game from Aicom, it’s because the game is so damn mediocre that there’s almost nothing worth writing about it....

I cleared the main campaign on PS4 and I’ve got some impressions to share I didn’t realize how much I missedOrcs Must Die, to the point that even thoughOrcs Must Die 3is more or less the same trap-setting third-person action experience as 2012’sOrcs Must Die 2, I’m having a ball. I didn’tneedto burn through the main campaign in a single weekend, but I did. Happily. And I’ve got immediate plans to go back in there to mop up some missing skulls (the game’s ranking system) and face the hardest difficulty, Rift Lord....

First order of business — get ranked mode out SoOverwatchhas been out for a ‘lil bit, and people are starting to get antsy about what’s next (beyond the competitive mode slated for this month that is). Thankfully the game’s Director Jeff Kaplan is a chatty fellow,so he laid out his team’s plans in detailon an official forum post. According to him, new maps and heroes are being worked on “daily,” and are part of their core initiative....

Despite the victory overSOPA,ACTAand TPP are still around and threatening internet freedom. Anti-ACTA protests have broken out in the EU and so far the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia have all pulled support from ACTA. To keep up this momentum protests have been organized across 200 cities and will occur tomorrow. Fight For The Future is supporting tomorrow’s protests by making a globalpetitionand they have provided amapwith all the protests, so if you want to attend one you’ll know where to find it....

According to Ubisoft, the commercial performance ofRayman Originscould help getBeyond Good & Evil 2developed quicker, with sales VP Tony Key stating more sales would give creator Michel Ancel more freedom. “Ultimately,Raymanis [Ancel’s] original creation, and if all the people that loveBeyond Good & Evilunderstand he is more than a one trick pony … and that ifRayman: Originsdoes well, it gives him more leeway for other opportunities because he has to build up his studio,” explained Key when asked byIndustry Gamers....

Oh dear me While I really don’t think there’s anythinginherentlywrong with free-to-play games, they can definitely be problematic — especially when a developer places the mental pummeling of customers above gratifying gameplay. This is what has happened with Electronic Arts’Real Racing 3— a game that can cost you up to $500 in microtransactions. Although free to download and play, the iOS/Android game cripples the player at every turn, forcing them to wait to perform actions or otherwise spend real cash and acquire things instantly....

Hello, again I tell this story time and time again, but my introduction toOddworldwas completely by accident. It was dropped into my lap by a family member, who heard I liked interesting adventure games and gifted me a PlayStation copy. Man, I’m glad that happened. Oddworld: Soulstorm(PC, PS4, PS5 [reviewed])Developer: Oddworld InhabitantsPublisher:Oddworld InhabitantsReleased: April 6, 2021MSRP: $49.99 In case you missed it,Oddworldis back, in the form of remakes/re-imaginings of the originals....

What that… peabrain? I check theRiver City Ransom: UndergroundKickstartereveryday in hopes for the announcement of new features and/or that they’ve met their funding. Every once in a while I find something new on the page that was either added while I wasn’t looking, or was too deeply embedded in all the other joyous delights for me to notice it. Case in point, this.gif of River City’s two aged heroeson a bike that will look mighty familiar to all of you refugees from Neo Tokyo....

Date is still TBA Shantae: Half-Genie Hero concluded its funding in October of 2013, and it’s still in production. WayForward has been giving out a decent amount of updates, but we’re still no closer to getting a real release window. In the meantime, the publisher notes that things are going well, and that the process has started to pick a design for the rival Genie (you can accessthe backer-only vote here)....

EA is ‘making changes to the business practices that gamers clearly don?t like’ The disastrous launch ofSimCityisover and done with. Emerging from the wreckage with two million sales and counting, Electronic Arts is considering allowing the game to beplayed offlinelike many of us originally wanted. Speaking toGamesBeat, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau said what we were thinking: that the backlash resulted, at least partially, inThe Sims 4being announced as a “single-player, offline experience....

Earlier today,we reportedthat game designer (and freakin’ genius) Will Wright had stepped down from his position with Electronic Arts to pursue something called the “Stupid Fun Club.” OK, so what is that exactly? According to theofficial Stupid Fun Club site, it’s “an entertainment development studio. The ideas developed here can be manifested in video games, online environments, storytelling media and fine home care products.” That makes some sort of sense, I suppose, even if the site — a strange, Flash-based globe that reveals even more oddities — doesn’t....

Pick your deck, fight monsters, (likely) fail, and try again I’m not sure I would’ve crossed paths withSolitairicawere it not for this whole 15 Days of Free Games promo over on the Epic Games Store, but yeah, I’ll take it– a roguelike RPG riff on Solitaire sounds fun. If you’re of a similar mind – or you just like to claim free stuff – the deadline is tomorrow morning. Solitairicais a spell-casting turn-based strategy game with offensive and defensive maneuvering on top of a familiar card-game foundation, and there are extra progression hooks, including unlockable decks and card upgrades, to lessen the sting of promising runs that just fall apart....