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‘Yakuza 7’ gameplay trailer reveals wacky features and job classes
We knew that Yakuza 7, or Yakuza: Like a Dragon, was going to shakeup gameplay with turn-based combat. Thanks to a trailer released at Tokyo Game Show, we have a better idea of what that will look like. The gameplay preview shows the new combat style, as well as some insane features and RPG silliness.
Boeing’s autonomous fighter jet could arrive next year
Boeing has unveiled an autonomous fighter jet which is expected to take to the skies in 2020. The aircraft is designed to fly alongside crewed jets during combat, performing early warning tests, intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance.
Epic giant robot battle scheduled for October 17th
Are you ready for the world's first giant robot fight? (If your answer to that was "No," who even are you?) We've been waiting for a date for the MegaBots vs. Suidobashi duel, and now it's finally here. The fight will take place on October 17th, 2017 at 10:00 PM ET. It will be streamed worldwide on Twitch. If you miss the live stream, you can catch it on YouTube and Facebook immediately after the event concludes.
Massive 'No Man's Sky' day one patch is live a day early
No Man's Sky's substantial first-day patch is available now for the PlayStation 4, a day earlier than the game's August 9th release date. The patch's file size is 824MB, which isn't too large considering the number of fundamental changes it makes to how the game plays, but it is roughly a quarter of the game's size, which is 3.69GB.
Take a look at how 'No Man's Sky' handles combat
In the almost three years since we first saw No Man's Sky, gameplay videos and previews have focused mostly on its exploration and survival aspects. Now, mere weeks ahead of its PlayStation 4 launch, we're getting a better look at how the game earns its "fantasy violence" descriptor from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. The clip embedded above focuses on combat not only in outer space against armadas of ships, but also the various procedurally generated (and dangerous) creatures on the planets you'll galavant around.
'Elite Dangerous' offers space combat in a separate game
Elite Dangerous is a trading, fighting and exploration space game, but if you're only interested in the "fighting" part, you can now do that for a lot less. Developer Frontier is offering a standalone module called Elite Dangerous: Arena for $7.50 on Steam ( £4.99 in the UK and €6.75 elsewhere in Europe). That's a big savings over the $30 price of Elite Dangerous, and you'll still get session-based player-versus-player gaming and the same physics and handling of the full title. In addition, you'll be able to play owners of the standalone Arena module, Elite Dangerous or Elite Dangerous: Horizons.
The Air Force will have combat lasers on its war planes by 2020
The Army has its HEL-MD (not to mention is working on GI Joe-style rifles and minesweepers); the Navy put a battleship-mounted railgun aboard the USS Ponce; and within the next five years, the Air Force expects to have laser weapons of its very own. These armaments, dubbed directed-energy weapons pods, will be mounted on American warplanes and serve to burn missiles, UAVs -- even other combat aircraft -- clean out of the sky. "I believe we'll have a directed energy pod we can put on a fighter plane very soon," Air Force General Hawk Carlisle said at a Fifth-Generation Warfare lecture during the Air Force Association Air & Space conference earlier this week. "That day is a lot closer than I think a lot of people think it is."
Navy AR goggles turn a golf course into a battleground
Marines on a sunny golf course in Quantico, Virginia, this week demonstrated a pair of augmented reality glasses that simulate combat scenarios. The Office of Naval Research recently completed development of the goggles and this week hooked them up to a larger training system known as the Augmented Immersive Team Trainer for the first time. Representatives from the Army, Navy and Marine Corps showed up at Marine Corps Base Quantico to see the AITT in action. The AR glasses themselves have a wider field of view than similar products on the commercial market, and the full AITT experience incorporates real-life weapons props, binoculars and other physical equipment necessary in a potential combat zone. "For Marines, this system increases their situational awareness, whether for training or operations, giving them a wider aperture for information to help make better decisions," ONR action officer Le Nolan said.
New Skyforge dev diary is all about combat
Skyforge has just released a new video dev diary focusing on the title's combat, which the devs say is "90 percent of the game" in modern MMOs. Senior designer Dmitry Borodin walks you through a six-minute clip that traces the journey from traditional MMO combat to the "action-oriented combat of Skyforge today." Further details on the title's combo system as well as Skyforge's healing mechanics are in the video past the break as well as the textual diary on the game's website. [Thanks Toastngravy!]
Salem lead mulls solutions for sub-par combat
Are you a fan of indie fantasy sandbox Salem? Do you like walls of text that give your mousewheel a serious workout? You might enjoy today's Salem update, then, as Mortal Moments project lead John Carver has a lot to say. And why not? It's been nearly six months since the last such dev blast. Carver writes with affection of Salem's refusal to "cater to the masses" and its similar disdain for "polygon counts over content." Combat, though, isn't quite where the devs would like it. Carver says that combat is "by far the dumbest thing we do," and that despite the intentional learning curve, some sort of "upper level strategy is missing." While Carver doesn't outline specific remedies, he says that the first step is to expand Salem's available combat moves. [Thanks Chrysillis!]
The Daily Grind: Do you prefer 'action-combat' in MMORPGs?
"Action-combat" has been one of those stock gameplay tropes that MMO developers have been shoving into their games since at least Age of Conan. But is it actually wanted by the core MMO audience? Massively reader theodorus321 commented last week that he prefers the old-school TAB-targeting combat systems of older MMOs. "I don't want a challenge to my leet gaming skillz," he wrote. "I want to explore an interesting and immersive world while building up my character in the conventional way and finding some cool stuff." He got 16 likes, so clearly, he's not alone. I agree with him too! I'm happier with slower, more tactical RPG combat or hybrid systems than I am with purely twitchy stuff. What do you think? Would you rather have "action-combat" or old-school tab targeting or something else entirely in your MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Bless Online offers combat peek in latest trailer
Bless Online's second closed beta is coming up soon, with testing beginning on December 16th and going on until the 22nd. But hopeful testers don't have to wait until then to get a glimpse of the game's combat; Neowiz has released a brief combat trailer that shows off various fighting styles and their accompanying skills. Unlike the official trailer, this one is filled with in-game footage, complete with a peek at the UI. Check out a bow, sword and board, mace, and two-handed axe in action in the video below.
Sunless Sea update goes 'steel' with major combat changes
Sunless Sea's "Steel" update is now live for all players, and brings a major change to the game's combat. The roguelike seafaring RPG previously featured turn-based combat, deemed "tiresome" in our time with the Early Access game in July. As demonstrated in a video provided by Failbetter Games after the break, the Steel update brings combat out of the game's menus and into the same top-down overworld in which players pilot their ship. The new real-time combat system still relies on players charging weapons and keeping enemies within range, though the latter is now represented by a red arc that circles their ship. Failbetter also "made some changes to the way the map is laid out in terms of balance and variety" and recommends that players start the game over with a new captain and chart to get the most out of the Steel update. The update entered a beta phase late last month. Sunless Sea is available through Steam Early Access and DRM-free on the developer's site for $18.99. [Image: Failbetter Games]
The Daily Grind: How many button presses should it take to kill a mob?
MJ and I were talking while playing The Secret World the other day about the game's legendary fight length. Well, at least I consider fights in this MMO as taking longer than normal. I told her that generally if a standard, level-even mob isn't dead by a rotation-and-a-half of my skills, or about eight button presses, then it begins to irk me. Now it definitely depends on the mob strength and situation, but I don't want to be pounding 30 keys and sitting there for two minutes before a critter drops. However, saying that got me wondering what you all consider as a normal, acceptable number of button presses (or skills used) per fight. What do you think? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Trials of Ascension will include playable dragons
Pay attention, students: Trials of Ascension is coming up to the head of the class to give a progress report. Don't be timid, fledgling game. We're all listening. First of all, Trials of Ascension has hit its $60,000 crowdfunding goal. This means that Forged Chaos will be including a playable dragon race at launch, so prepare your Dragonheart names now. And in a new progress video, Trials of Ascension showed off its new dynamic spawning tech for mobs and plants, its resource gathering system, improvements to combat with full-body animations, items that persist when dropped in the game world, and a naming and chat system that won't automatically identify strangers. There's more to it than that, of course, so check out the full progress video after the break. [Source: Forged Chaos press release; thanks to Azrile for the tip!]
Disney Infinity 2.0 channels Ninja Theory's combat expertise
Disney Infinity 2.0 is all about merging different universes, a philosophy that apparently also applies to its development team. Polygon reports that during Giant Bomb's panel at PAX Prime, Infinity 2.0 Executive Producer John Vignocchi revealed that Ninja Theory was brought on in February due to the studio's talent with combat, most recently on display in DmC: Devil May Cry and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Vignocchi clarified that Ninja Theory developed Infinity 2.0's sand tornado-summoning Princess Jasmine, but also helped with Loki, the Green Goblin and Ronan the Accuser. Ninja Theory is of course still working on Hellblade, a new IP announced at Gamescom that the studio hopes will capitalize on its core strengths. Last year's DmC stands as Ninja Theory's most recent release (on consoles), which managed to ship one million copies to retailers. [Image: Disney]
Norrathian Notebook: I tasted Landmark's combat and I like it!
Better late than never, right? At long last, after months of only mining and voxel magic (and then an overnight delay), I have finally partaken of the Landmark combat fruit. And oh, how sweet it is! Of course the system was just barely implemented and is in only its first iteration, but that doesn't stop me from sharing the experience I had upon first logging in to check things out. So in I jumped just as soon as servers went live... and there I lost the rest of my day. Even with the inevitable bugs, I was not disappointed by my first few hours of this update. There are flingers and teleporters, weapons and proximity mines -- plenty of things to keep a slightly wacky mind occupied. And who can leave out the new joys of fall damage? Here are my unadulterated first impressions of that much-anticipated system.
Landmark's combat patch goes live
Combat has finally come to Landmark, but there's much more to this update than just armor, weapons, and death. There are plenty of new Kerran-themed props, new materials (10 new color of Stucco variations and 16 new Burled Wood tints), movement props, and bug fixes. On top of that, there's a new way to pay claim upkeep; those who desperately want to keep their claims but don't want to bother with copper now have the opportunity to pay with Station Cash at a cost of 10 SC per day per claim. And here's probably some of the best news from the mouths of the devs themselves: "We've made a number of optimizations that should improve framerates for many players. This does not include the Multithreaded Rendering, which we are still working on." If you plan to dive in and check out combat, SOE has posted instructions for setting up the PvP games on the forums to help answer any questions. Full details on the update can be found in the patch notes. For now, all claims will be flagged for PvP until the observer mode can be added. Finally, the Workshop livestream is moving! Starting August 28th, the show focusing on the collaborative development of racial buildings will be broadcast on the EverQuest Next Twitch Channel Thursdays at 2:00 p.m. EDT.
SOE Live 2014: More on Landmark's islands and combat
I think there's a consensus that you can never get too much information about Landmark, and the devs at SOE Live certainly delivered more juicy details about the game's islands and its upcoming combat system. For instance, did you know that Franchise Director Dave Georgeson revealed this little fun fact for RP: All the player characters in Landmark are actually from somewhere else and were just placed on these islands. How or why, Georgeson didn't say! We've got a slew of other tidbits for you here, everything from island rulesets to the use of grappling hooks in PvP to more info on the game master system. And that's just the beginning!
Camelot Unchained will feature a customizable 'component combat' system
Welcome back to our coverage of City State Entertainment's batshit-crazy days for Camelot Unchained! A few weeks ago, we spoke with CSE co-founder Mark Jacobs about each of the topics being revealed this week via livestream; this morning, we picked his brain about the game's innovative combat system. Massively: Can you explain why the component combat system and player design of combat abilities doesn't render the concept of classes moot? CSE's Mark Jacobs: Absolutely! Think of the combat system in the same way you would magic. As a member of a certain Realm, you might not have access to particular components, whether for magic or melee combat. Further, your class might have further restrictions in terms of combinations of components. For example, the HelBound will be able to use some healing components that pure fighter classes can't, but they won't have access to the vast majority of magical components.
