Various Video Game Stories from the Week of October 12, 2020
Another week of news to cover, starting with something time sensitive from GOG as it has a special promotion going on with Visa currently. If a Visa card user spends $25 or more on GOG, with the details saved for future purchases and they register for this promotion, they can receive a copy of Children of Morta free. The catch is there are only 53,000 of the game codes to give out, so if you want to take advantage of it, you do not necessarily want to wait.
Source: GOG [1] (Visa Children of Morta promotion)
Though not subject to a limit, it was also revealed today that Cyberpunk 2077 will have an exclusive digital comic for those who purchase the game at GOG. Cyberpunk 2077: Big City Dreams is a 50 page digital comic that follows two scavengers, Tasha and Mirek, in Night City. While Tasha’s desire is to become the most famous gangster in the city, Mirek’s interests are less ambitious, and after experiencing a braindance of a happy family, he sees a chance for himself. With Cyberpunk 2077 priced at $59.99, that can be a way to potentially get a free copy of Children of Morta.
Though it would not get you all the way to the $25 amount, I also see Relicta has released on GOG and is on sale for $14.99. Though not perfect, I did find it to be a pretty fun and enjoyable physics-puzzle game.
Source: GOG [2] (Cyberpunk 2077 Digital Comic) and [3] (Relicta)
Coming to 2K now, we have some Borderlands 3 news as its Season Pass 2 has been announced. Available on November 10, this second pass will include two add-ons, Designer’s Cut and Director’s Cut as well as new looks for the four Vault Hunters. Designer’s Cut will launch on November 10 and adds to the ways you can play the game with a new skill tree for each Vault Hunter as well as a new standalone mode called Arms Race. There are no details on what Director’s Cut will bring, only that the current launch target is Spring 2021.
Also announced was that the next generation console upgrades for the game will be available on the day the consoles release. That means that on November 10, if you already own a copy of Borderlands 3 for Xbox One and get either an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, you will be able to enjoy the game with its improvements that day. The PlayStation 5 releases November 12, and if you already have a PlayStation 4 version of the game, you will be able to download and play in the upgraded PS5 version on that day as well. There are some limitations though, as these version upgrades are limited to the console family, and if you have a disc copy of the game on the current consoles, you will need a version of the next-gen console with a disc drive. Save games and DLC can carry over to the new consoles.
Source: 2K [1] (Borderlands 3 Seasons Pass 2) and [2] (Borderlands 3 Next-Gen Console Upgrade)
ScourgeBringer is a rogue-like title from Flying Oak Games and being published by Dear Villagers, that will be reaching full-release next week, so a new trailer for it has been released, as well as the Supporter Pack version. The trailer is embedded below and shows off some of the fast-paced action we can expect on October 21, assuming you do not just purchase into the Early Access version before then. The Supporter Pack will bring with it a 12-page prequel digital comic, artwork from the early prototypes, over ten 4K wallpapers, and on Steam the soundtrack can also be acquired with its 28 tracks by Joonas Turner. With its exit from Early Access, the game will receive a major content update including The Beyond a new secret realm with two new bosses, Chaos Roots post-game mode, revamps to the gun modification systems and item system, some reshaping to the story, new shops and NPCs, new content for previous worlds, and secret rooms you can try to find.
ScourgeBringer is in Early Access on Steam presently but on October 21 it will exit Early Access this and release on the Epic Games Store, GOG, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, andGame Pass for Console and PC.
Source: Press Release (Dear Villagers)
THQ Nordic releases Aquanox Deep Descent today, but earlier this week a new trailer was released to introduce new players to the series that first launched in 2001. The survivors of humanity have had to retreat underwater after the surface of Earth became uninhabitable, and now there are struggles to get the resources necessary to live in this new world of Aqua. You will be one of the pilots tasked with collecting these resources, as well as learning what the hidden agendas of Aqua’s five factions.
Aquanox Deep Descent releases today and will be priced at $29.99.
Source: THQ Nordic [1] (Aquanox Deep Descent Explanation Trailer) and [2] (Aquanox Deep Descent Launch)
Ubisoft shared a lot this week concerning the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, including a Deep Dive Trailer, which is behind an age-gate, hence the link instead of embedding it. Also revealed are the PC specifications, which span from the AMD R9 380 and NVIDIA GTX 960 with the Ryzen 3 1200 and Intel i5-4460 to the RX 5700XT and RTX 2080 with a Ryzen 7 3700X or i7-9700K. Something I greatly appreciate is that these specifications also give the target performance and graphics preset. For those wanting to run it at the High preset at 1080p60, you will need at least an RX Vega64 or GTX 1080 paired with the Ryzen 7 1700 or i7-6700.
| Minimum | Recommended | High | Enthusiast | Ultra | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average Performance | 1080p30 | 1080p30 | 1080p60 | 1440p60 | 2160p30 |
| Graphics Setting | Low Preset | High Preset | High Preset | Very High Preset | Ultra High Preset |
| GPU (AMD) | R9 380 (4 GB) | RX 570 (8 GB) | RX Vega 64 | RX 5700XT | RX 5700XT |
| GPU (NVIDIA) | GTX 960 (4 GB) | GTX 1060 (6 GB) | GTX 1080 | RTX 2080 S | RTX 2080 |
| CPU (AMD) | Ryzen 3 1200 | Ryzen 5 1600 | Ryzen 7 1700 | Ryzen 5 3600X | Ryzen 7 3700X |
| CPU (Intel) | Core i5-4460 | Core i7-4790 | Core i7-6700 | Core i7-8700K | Core i7-9700K |
| RAM | 8 GB | 8 GB | 8 GB | 16 GB | 16 GB |
| OS | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) |
| Storage | 50 GB HDD | 50 GB SSD | 50 GB SSD | 50 GB SSD | 50 GB SSD |
Ubisoft is also putting special effort into making sure their games are accessible to as many as possible, and shared how they are working toward this goal in another piece. There will be a number of ways to change the controls to match whatever you prefer or need, including such things as remapping controls and support for left-handed mice. Both aim and the weapon wheel can be on toggles, and you and choose to use a two-step confirmation system instead of holding, and hold length can be adjusted as well. Quick time events can be set to take one-time presses, holding the button, or repeated presses, and there will be three levels to aim assistance with the bow. It is probably worth looking through this piece yourself, as the list of settings is rather extensive, and while they will help with accessibility, some might just be how you want to play the game. For example, the Guaranteed Assassinate setting will allow you to control whether you can assassinate higher-level enemies or not. When it is disabled, assassination attempts will only partially damage such enemies.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is releasing November 10 on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Uplay , and Google Stadia, and on November 12 on PlayStation 5.
Source: Ubisoft [1] (Assassin’s Creed Valhalla PC Specifications), [2] (Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Deep Dive), and [3] (Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Accesibility)
Lastly I have something that is not strictly game related, but it still might be of interest to see a new 3DMark benchmark. Named Wild Life, this is actually a cross-platform benchmark, so you will be able to compare graphics performance on Windows, Apple, and Android devices. It also offers two ways to test mobile devices; a quick benchmark for instant performance, as well as a long stress test, to see how the hardware holds up under sustained load. With the stress test you will be presented with more than just a single score, so you can see how the performance changed during the span of the test, which can be interesting to see.
As you might guess, being a cross-platform test it uses Vulkan, at least on Windows and Android devices, while on iOS deices it will use Metal. For Android it is available as a free update to the 3DMark Android app, while it is a free standalone app in the Apple App Store. For PC, it is a free update to 3DMark Advanced Edition.
Source: UL Benchmarks
Leave a comment