Phil Spencer, CEO of Xbox Game Studios, promised a brighter future for Arkane’s Redfall after the FPS game’s troubled launch
Phil Spencer, CEO of Xbox Game Studios, said he’s surprised and disappointed by Redfall’s lackluster reception, but promised a brighter future for the FPS game. Spencer made the comments while speaking on the Kinda Funny Games show, though he didn’t indicate what kind of updates Arkane Austin has planned for Redfall outside the 60fps patch.
“The team at Arkane is taking the near-term feedback,” Spencer said. “We’re still working on the 60fps update. We have a good timeline for that [and] we’re gonna continue to work the game. We’ve shown a commitment to games like Sea of Thieves and Grounded to continue to go and build games. But I also know these games are $70, and I’m gonna take full responsibility for launching a game that needs to be great.”
Spencer said the team expected aggregate review scores to be “double digits” higher than they were. Redfall has a 57 aggregate score on PC, where it faced the worst performance issues, and 62 for Xbox. However, he doesn’t believe performance troubles are what caused the game’s poor reception.
“When I look at the review scores of this game it’s [about] did we have enough creative differentiation in our core idea and did we realize that creative ambition?” Spencer said. “I’m a huge supporter of Arkane Austin. Their track record is awesome, [and] I love a lot of the great games that they’ve built. This is one where the team didn’t hit their own internal goals.”
Arkane hasn’t issued a statement since Redfall launched, so whether the team feels the same way about failing to meet its own creative goals is unclear.
Redfall is on Xbox Game Pass for console and PC, so if you wanted to give it a try without shelling out $70 for it, that might be the best option.
The latest Minecraft update is pretty standard stuff for the PC game, but Mojang pointed out one special bug fix
The latest Minecraft update is pretty standard stuff for the PC game, but Mojang pointed out one special feature: a bug fix for an issue that’s plagued the game for 11 years. It sounds more dramatic than it actually is, though Mojang still felt it worth pointing out and even gave it a proper bug code in the patch notes, MC-1133.
The MC-1133 bug caused footstep sounds to vanish if the player approached the edge of a block. Apparently, the game thought players were walking in midair and removed all noise. You’ll be as noisy as you want from now on, and Mojang went even further and added some extra noise functions to underwater blocks. Any block you tread on in the inky depths will give off a muted version of the usual sound.
The rest of the Snapshot is pretty standard stuff. The Jukebox is in the Redstone tab now, you don’t need a Smithing Template to put item stacks in other slots anymore, and you can read the power signal of a chiseled bookshelf using a comparator.
The update also introduces new telemetry events and fixes a range of other bugs, including lag spikes and some issues with Sniffers.
Minecraft snapshots are only for the PC version, so unlike the crossover expansions that launch simultaneously, you’ll have to wait a bit for the update to roll out on consoles and mobile.
Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. Are you wondering why May the 4th is Star Wars Day? We’re here to help.
[Editor’s note: We published this in 2022.]
Happy Star Wars Day to all who celebrate!
But if you’re here, you might be wondering why May 4th has become the annual celebration of all things from the George Lucas franchise that has exploded into a phenomenon that continues to feed us amazing content and expands into all kinds of timelines and characters.
So let’s jump in with some explanations and a bit of history:
The game was acquired last year by music streaming service Spotify, which announced last month that it would be shutting down the game. Why? Per Tech Crunch: “Now the company says it will sunset Heardle on May 5, as it aims to focus on its other objectives around music discovery.”
This is also a good reminder to save your stats if you so choose. And what was the final song on its last day? SPOILER ALERT! SCROLL DOWN IF YOU WANT TO KNOW!
Ready?
OK.
It was (Theme from) New York, New York by Frank Sinatra (get it? Because they’re “leaving today.”). Here are some goodbyes from users:
Remember back in 1999, before The Phantom Menace, when we were starved for Star Wars content? Before the prequels, we had the three original movies, some less-than-great TV specials, and books, video games and comics that reached far beyond the depths of the extended Star Wars universe. Now, in 2023, it feels like we’re getting new Star Wars stuff in the form of TV or movies every year.
You might be wondering, how does all this stuff fit into the timeline? Is there an order to all of this?
Indeed, there is. It’s not all “hokey” religions and ancient weapons.
For example, both The Mandalorian and Ahsoka take place after Return of the Jedi but before Force Awakens. And the animated series The Bad Batch takes place after Revenge of the Sith, but before Solo.
If you want to do a full Star Wars rewatch, or consume everything in story order for the first time, here’s how you do it. Included here are all of the TV shows and movies considered to be part of Star Wars canon, and all of them are available on Disney+.
The events in the animated Clone Wars film actually take place after some of the early episodes of the series. It’s fine.
The last few episodes of The Clone Wars and the first episode of The Bad Batch take place during the events in Revenge of the Sith.
The events in the episodes of Tales of the Jedi are scattered across the same time as the prequels. Two episodes take place before The Phantom Menace and one takes place after Revenge of the Sith. I recommend diving into Tales of the Jedi after watching Attack of the Clones but before watching the seventh season of The Clone Wars for more background on Count Dooku and Ahsoka.
Some of the events in Rebels and Andor are happening around the same time.
The best Honkai Star Rail Tingyun build gives your party an excellent supporter capable of keeping energy topped up and buffing attack power
Keep your party going strong in the toughest fights with the best Honkai Star Rail Tingyun build. This support hero follows the Path of Harmony, as most support characters do, and she dishes out lightning damage. However, her main strength is topping up your party’s energy and raising their attack. Tingyun earned a top spot in our Honkai Star Rail tier list, and while this is just the game’s launch version, her excellent support capabilities mean she’ll likely remain one of the best characters in the RPG for a long time to come.
The second installment of Denis Villeneuve’s fantasy thriller Dune is one of the most highly-anticipated movies of 2023. Although it doesn’t release in theaters until November 3, we got a taste of Dune: Part Two with a trailer on Wednesday afternoon.
We rejoin Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) among the sandy — you guessed it — dunes of the planet Arrakis where he’s accompanied by the mysterious and blue-eyed Chani (Zendaya), who is a member of the tribe known as the Fremen.
The new trailer shows us all sorts of drama: Atreides fighting alongside the Fremen, a handful of new characters and people riding those terrifying sand worms.
Florence Pugh is one of the big names joining the cast, but it’s the arrival of Elvis star Austin Butler that had everyone wondering one important thing: will he do the voice?
Butler, who was widely praised for his performance as The King of Rock and Roll, famously saw his voice evolve throughout filming.
It’s time for May the 4th sales once again, and this time, you can get your hands on over two dozen Star Wars games at deep discounts
It’s time for May the 4th sales once again, and this time, you can get your hands on over two dozen Star Wars games at deep discounts – most of which even work on the Steam Deck. Some of the games up for grabs include Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel, along with classic multiplayer games, and some more recent hits.
First up is Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, TT Games’ reimagining of the entire Lego Star Wars saga in one open-world package. It’s down to $19.99 on both storefronts, compared to the usual $49.99, and you can grab the DLC character packs at a discount as well.
On the multiplayer side, you can get Star Wars Battlefront(Classic) for $3.99, the classic Battlefront 2 for $3.49, and Empire at War for $6.99. Steam has the more modern Star Wars Battlefront 2: Celebration Edition for $9.99 and Star Wars Squadrons for $5.99
Knights of the Old Republic and The Sith Lords are going for $3.49 each, and then there’s a slew of other classic Star Wars games as well – Dark Forces, the X-Wing Bundle that includes the likes of TIE Fighter, the old Jedi Knight collection, and Republic Commando.
Steam and Humble Bundle are running sales until the end of the day on May 4, 2023, or slightly after, depending on the game. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Survivor aren’t included on either storefront, though. May the 4th comes but once a year, though if you can’t splash out on some new Star Wars just yet, these are almost always featured in other Steam and Humble sales.
Super Mega Baseball 4 is coming soon, with a range of improvements and the first-ever inclusion of real baseball stars in the sports game
Metalhead Studio and EA Sports are bringing their fan-favorite baseball series back for Super Mega Baseball 4, but this go around, things look a little different. Not only is it Metalhead’s first sports game produced in partnership with EA Sports, but it’s also the first time the series introduces players from real-life baseball.
Metalhead co-founder Scott Drader tells GLHF the decision to add famous baseball stars was a long time coming and one the team hopes will make Super Mega stand out to a new crowd.
“We’ve always tried to make super mega baseball as accessible as possible to the whole spectrum of baseball fandom [and] to people that maybe don’t consider themselves hardcore fans,” Drader says. “That’s probably obvious if you look at the presentation and the style of the earliest ones. I love bringing in some of the biggest names in the sport as a way of connecting some of the more serious baseball fans to a game that, if you were to just look at the presentation style, doesn’t necessarily look like it takes things too seriously.”
Drader also hopes that adding “star power” will help Super Mega overcome one of its persistent obstacles: being an indie series in a crowded space. Devoted communities sprang up around the previous Super Mega games, but Drader says there was always a sense that people overlooked this indie game with no official licensing, no partnerships, and no in-depth simulation modes like 2K games offer.
While the team wants to reach new players by including recognizable baseball stars, figuring out how to add them while keeping Super Mega’s signature style proved to be a difficult problem.
Some sports games are tied to the era they released in. The SNES game Ken Griffy Jr Presents Major League Baseball, for example, won’t feel quite as relevant in 2023 as it did in the 1990s, now that most of the players are no longer in the league. Current rosters and player ratings that change every season don’t fit with Metalhead’s vision for Super Mega Baseball, as Drader wants them all to feel as fresh and playable in the future as they are now.
The team debated at length over the best way to introduce real players, and they eventually drew on the game’s community to help find a solution.
“Our community is full of people that have a super deep nostalgia for baseball history, and since [Super Mega] has always been a timeless ode to the sport, bringing in these star players from the past just feels like a super good match for the timeless nature of the series.”
Legends exist in a separate mode alongside Super Mega Baseball’s usual “create-a-player” system, one that features 200 players from baseball history, including David Ortiz, the series’ first cover athlete. You can also create a roster of self-made players and all-stars if you’d like.
Legends aren’t the only new feature in Super Mega Baseball 4, though. One of the biggest additions is the robust traits and chemistry system, which Metalhead prioritized after getting hundreds of requests from players to add certain characteristics to player types. Drader says the team ran with the idea, adding “a ton of stuff” in the chemistry system that will influence how a team plays based on which players and traits are put together.
You’ll also have more control over how they look – fans wanting to make teams based on friends and family members was another frequent request – and how they change and progress in between seasons. Super Mega won’t feature contracts like more realistic simulators, but it’ll let you invest in your favorite characters and not see that investment wasted a few seasons down the line.
Super Mega Baseball 4 launches for Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on June 2, 2023, and pre-orders are open now.
It’s the list that always gets music fans riled up: Who’s going in to the latest class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland? Will someone who deserves to be in get snubbed?
In the 2023 class, there really isn’t much to argue with. A group of big-name artists across a bunch of genres — rock, hip-hop, country, 80s pop, R&B — that are deserving names.
This year, the awards ceremony will be held in New York at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Nov. 3. So that should be a blast of a lineup.
Let’s run through all the names of the Class of 2023:
