Tag: Video Games

Bandai Namco announces Tekken 8 release date at Gamescom 2023

Bandai Namco brought Tekken 8 to Gamescom Opening Night Live in a big way, witha release date, new fighters, and more

Bandai Namco brought Tekken 8 to Gamescom Opening Night Live in a big way, with a release date, new fighters, and more. Tekken 8 launches Jan. 26, 2024, for PC and console, and the six new fighter additions bring the final roster to 32 playable characters.

The six new fighters are:

  • Kuma
  • Leo
  • Shaheen
  • Steve
  • Dragunov,
  • Yoshimitsu

Bandai said in a press release that Tekken 8 features more customization options than ever, including character color palettes and even accessory sizes so you can make them your own.

Bandai also announced Arcade Quest, a single-player mode that lets you hone your skills against foes that learn as you grow. You play as an aspiring Tekken player who travels to different arcades and takes part in matches, so it sounds like a solid way to learn the fighting game if you’re new to the series. Your opponents gradually become stronger as you progress and adapt their approach based on your playstyle.

Tekken 8 pre-orders are open now for the standard, deluxe, and ultimate editions. The deluxe and ultimate editions come with costumes and avatars, along with the Year 1 pass, which gives access to four new characters as they release sometime after the game’s launch.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

[mm-video type=video id=01fqbf8spdsk2y3rc8w5 playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fqbf8spdsk2y3rc8w5/01fqbf8spdsk2y3rc8w5-6f5e02a8c2f1e5073f543eeae73aba35.jpg]

Gamescom Opening Night Live recap: Cyberpunk DLC, Granblue release date, and more

We rounded up all the Gamescom Opening Night Live trailers and announcements, from Alan Wake 2 and Mortal Kombat to Tekken 8 and more

Another Gamescom Opening Night Live is in the books, and with it came mostly updates on known video games, plus a handful of new announcements sprinkled in the mix. Cygames finally announced a (presumably) permanent Granblue Fantasy Relink release date. Bandai and Supermassive are cooking up some Little Nightmares, and it turns out most of the new mechanics in the Cybperpunk 2077 DLC Phantom Liberty are coming to the base game.

There’s another trailer for the next RPG from Genshin Impact maker HoYoverse, a headless Wu Kong bard, and quite a lot more.

9 candidates who would voice Mario for Nintendo so much better than Chris Pratt ever could

As a legend hangs up his famous red cap, we simply have to do better than Chris Pratt.

It’s the end of an era. Charles Martinet, the acclaimed voice of Nintendo’s mascot Mario for roughly three decades, is finally hanging up his red cap for the Super Mario video game franchise. He has definitively bopped the head of his last Koopa Troopa.

For now, Nintendo does not have a planned replacement for the legendary video game character. Yes, we are not talking about someone reciting a monologue from King Lear, but there is still a massive chasm of “yahoo!” and “here we go!” that someone with genuine temerity has to fill. The show must go on, and it must be delightful.

If you’re an esteemed internet purveyor, you might have seen a lot of joking suggestions that Chris Pratt — a human being with surface-level charm who would never dare turn down an easy check — should, once again, voice Mario. After all, he already has the experience of bringing nothing unique or entertaining to the table during this spring’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Why not harness that low-effort, milquetoast energy for the most popular game franchise in existence?

I’ll tell you why: We have standards here at For The Win. And we intend to uphold them. There are many better options to consider for the Mushroom Kingdom’s next lead adventurer. Take notes, Nintendo.

3 reasons why you should be paying attention to Gamescom this year

Here’s the top three reasons you should be watching Gamescom 2023.

Gamescom starts this week, and as Europe’s biggest gaming convention there will be a number of huge gaming reveals for upcoming and unannounced games. Recently, a number of companies have decided to host their own smaller showcases, like the Xbox Games Showcase or Nintendo Directs, rather than taking part in larger showcases. These big-scale conventions are still around, whether that’s Summer Game Fest, Tokyo Game Show or Gamescom. With all eyes in the gaming industry set on Cologne this year, here’s the top three reasons you should be watching Gamescom this year.

[mm-video type=video id=01h8e7ea4m50jb1nkavd playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01h8e7ea4m50jb1nkavd/01h8e7ea4m50jb1nkavd-4014da3bb5d79af736cb09385598cbca.jpg]

New Like A Dragon Gaiden trailer has Kiryu going full James Bond

Sega and RGG released a new Like A Dragon Gaiden trailer highlighting the action game’s story and Kiryu’s James Bond-style arsenal

Sega and RGG released a new Like A Dragon Gaiden trailer highlighting the action game’s story and Kiryu’s James Bond-style arsenal. The hefty, 11-minute trailer is broken into a story section and an action section, and it looks like quite the intense side story, even by this series’ standards.

A seemingly straightforward protection job drags Kiryu out of anonymous retirement, but this is a Yakuza game, where nothing is ever simple. The job goes badly wrong in a fatal way, and Kiryu finds himself – and the children at the orphanage he runs – caught in a brutal war with the Omi clan.

A few familiar faces turn up in the trailer, ones that RGG briefly teased before – the mysterious hacker, the deranged clan lieutenant, and the enigmatic man who gives Kiryu the job in the first place. 

We also see Kiryu’s new Agent Style, a fighting form that gives Kiryu an impressive range of gadgets to fight with. Rocket-powered shoes, deadly cigarettes, Spider-Man-like webs are all at his disposal, but you can switch to the more traditional Yakuza Style as well.

The trailer closes with a heady sprint through some of Gaiden’s mini-games, including the traditional hostess club game, before hinting at how Gaiden ties in with Infinite Wealth, the series’ next mainline game that stars Ichiban Kasuga.

Like A Dragon Gaiden launches digitally for PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on Nov. 8, 2023. Infinite Wealth is set for release sometime in 2024.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

[mm-video type=video id=01ggmp652nm1065vcyv5 playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01ggmp652nm1065vcyv5/01ggmp652nm1065vcyv5-92caa681db3e4c1e875e59c341cc9351.jpg]

Why isn’t Bill Belichick in Madden video games?

Welcome to the fake-Belichick club, Peter Gaffney.

Madden is one of the best-selling and most popular video games of all-time.

And when we play it, we usually aren’t paying close attention to the coaches on the sidelines. We’re much more concerned with how good a given year’s cover athlete is, whether that player will succumb to or defy the Madden Curse, or who the highest rated players are and what new features are in the latest version.

But if you’ve played Madden over the past 15 years or so, chances are you’ve either played with or against the New England Patriots. And chances are you’ve noticed that something is missing — or rather, someone.

Someone blunt, someone too smart for their own good, someone silly, and someone who gives the same answers over and over again in press conferences.

That’s right. Longtime New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick isn’t in the Madden video games — and he hasn’t been for some time.

The reason is simple: EA Sports has a licensing deal with the National Football League Coaches Association to use the likenesses of coaches in their games. And Belichick is not a member of the NFLCA and hasn’t granted EA Sports permission to use his likeness. It’s worth noting that Belichick’s mentor, Bill Parcels, was also not a member of the NFLCA.

So, Belichick hasn’t appeared in the game since the mid-2000s. Below is a screengrab of a rare video game depiction of Belichick in Madden 2002.

And since EA Sports doesn’t have the right to use Belichick’s likeness, they’ve had to come up with some creative stand-ins and fake names over the years. Devoted Madden players might remember Patriots coach Chad Masters, or Patriots coach Griffin Murphy. Sometimes, Madden just named the Patriots play-caller as “NE Coach.”

For Madden 24, New England’s head coach is Peter Gaffney, who absolutely does not resemble Bill Belichick.

In 2012, Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel asked Belichick why he wasn’t in the game, and he gave the most-Belichick response, simply saying: “I don’t know.”

Belichick — who has won six Super Bowls as a head coach, more than anyone else — did admit in 2021 however that he has played the game, telling the Athletic: “Yeah, I haven’t played in quite a while. I know when my kids were growing up, they would play it and I’d watch them and they’d beat me.”

And he also had tremendous respect for the man the game is named after, John Madden, who died in 2021.

The best-selling video game of each year since 1993

From Street Fighter II to Hogwarts Legacy, here’s the best-selling video game of each year.

Video games have become a $350 billion industry as of 2022, and a look back at the sales data provides an fascinating look at the evolution of the industry and the rise and fall of various genres.

Fighting games, buoyed by excellent performance in arcades (remember those?), were strong sellers in the early 90s. In the late 90s, Pokémon became a worldwide phenomenon and topped the charts for four consecutive years.

Music games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band flooded the sales charts starting in 2006, but vanished just a few years later. And in 2009, Call of Duty became an unstoppable sales behemoth, selling millions of copies with yearly releases.

Check out: The top-rated video game of each year since Super Mario 64

Cumulative worldwide sales numbers are used whenever possible, though it can be difficult getting concrete numbers in some years. All U.S. sales data is via NPD.

[affiliatewidget_deal1]

NBA 2K24’s trailer shows Jordan Poole calling for an iso on Draymond Green and fans loved the drama

This was one heck of way to add fuel to the fire.

The beef between Jordan Poole and Draymond Green is well-documented. We first got real inklings of it when Green punched his former Golden State Warriors teammate during a 2022 practice. With Poole officially a member of the Washington Wizards, his father tried to reignite the differences between the two earlier this summer.

And now, the release of NBA 2K24 appears to be doing the same.

With the video game releasing early next month, the developers released a new gameplay trailer Tuesday. In addition to various superstars being highlighted, it shows off a specific moment where Poole clearly calls for an iso against Green. And there is no way it’s a coincidence.

See for yourself at about the 41-second mark below:

In a trailer that shows off some of the NBA’s biggest names doing amazing things — Nikola Jokic, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry — it is notable that it chose to highlight Poole and Green against one another. They are by no means bad players, but they are far from stars who warrant singular attention on their own.

And yet, here we have their virtual selves squaring up on the perimeter.

It seems even video games understand that this beef might not be going away any time soon. A word of caution: If you want to recreate this potential future moment yourself, you’d have to use the sorry Wizards in the game. And I would not advise that if you like experiencing joy.

The most unstoppable NFL player in every modern edition of Madden

These NFL stars were basically cheat codes.

Soon enough, we will have yet another (meagerly) edition of Madden — the popular video game franchise (in dire need of new artistic direction).

But even if the mainline games could desperately use healthier development cycles, Madden itself has become a football institution. Fans who watch all the action every Monday, Thursday, and Sunday often use the latest edition as a way to keep tabs on the season at home. There’s a reason it’s released every August on the eve of another long NFL campaign.

If you’ve played Madden in any capacity before, you understand that some players simply resemble terrifying cheat codes. These are studs who make picking their team in a standard one-on-one “against the rules” in due time.

MORE: Every Madden NFL cover star since 2000.

With Madden 24 now just around the bend, here’s a look at the most unstoppable (and/or most popular) player in every modern edition of the game. Modern, in this case, being circa 1999. Note: There is a heavy skew toward offensive players.

If you wanted better defensive representation, watch the actual games for a fix. No one talks about Madden for defense.

NBA 2K24 player ratings are out for the top 10 players from Nikola Jokic to Devin Booker

Nikola Jokic is the best player in the virtual world, too.

It’s that time of year again, folks. NBA 2k season is here once again. And you know what that means — it’s time for player ratings to come out.

NBA 2k24 is on the way and is featuring Kobe Bryant as its cover star. The game isn’t slated to come out until September 4, but in the meantime, we’re still getting plenty of news and notes coming from 2k itself. That includes player ratings.

To kick things off on Wednesday, 2k hit us with the top 10 NBA player ratings to start this year off as well as the rating of WNBA cover athlete Sabrina Ionescue.

We’ve got all of that here for you below.