Bandai Namco Entertainment has released a new video for their upcoming title TEKKEN 7. It's the opening cinematic of the game. Surprisingly, a lot of the shots in this one come straight out of the story trailer. 

This opening cinematic does a much better job of communicating the story than the story trailer actually did, or rather, it gives an entirely different perspective that shows the game in a new light. The shot begins with Heihachi tossing what is presumably a younger version of his son Kazuya into a pit, like in the movie 300. What follows are shots of a bunch of characters talking about how Heihachi must be taken out, as he will cause inevitable destruction. Some are just a bunch of glamour shots, also taken straight out of the story trailer. It gives better context for what the characters are doing and, more importantly, why. 

For me, a person mostly unfamiliar with the game series, it was too easy for me to think that, from what was shown in the story trailer, Heihachi was going to be the protagonist, fighting against the world at all costs. Kazuya's red eyes don't do him a whole lot of good in the good guy looks department after all. But, this was an interesting contrast to the story trailer. 

TEKKEN 7 releases June 2nd, 2017. Here's the opening cinematic: 

Happy first birthday, Overwatch! After a wonderful first year on both consoles and PC, Overwatch is celebrating with an event called Overwatch Anniversary. With it comes a lot of new content - so, listen up all you Hanzo mains. First up, we've got three new maps:

• Castillo
• Black Forest
• Necropolis

Thiss is a tremendous addition to an already wonderful set of stages. However, Overwatch players always have an eye on the horizon for new cosmetic items to use on their favorite heroes. With that, a mess of awesome skins and emotes will be available in Overwatch Anniversary loot boxes:

Blizzard has also released Overwatch: Game of the Year Edition; a digital version of the game that comes with even more goodies for Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and World of Warcraft.

If any of your friends have yet to pull the trigger on Overwatch, be sure to let them know that it's free to play this weekend - from May 26th to May 29th. What better way to spend Memorial Day weekend?

Overwatch Anniversary runs from May 23rd to June 12th. When it ends, it takes these loot boxes with it. As Ana would say; "you're powered up, get in there" and get some skins!

TEKKEN 7, releasing June 2nd, 2017, has a new story trailer. In it, Heihachi Mishima, the guy with the signature hair and mustache who I've just called Tekken guy all my life, recounts the series' past history in a dark tone. 

Of course, the main conflict of the game will be between Heihachi Mishima and Kazuya Mishima, which this trailer shows plenty of. Essentially, everything else is Heihachi making vague references to other fighters and past games. There are also plenty of shots of other fighters punching each other in slow motion. 

My favorite part of the trailer? The end, where the two Mishimas duke it out at a volcano, like in Revenge of the Sith. Visually, they are both great analogues to Obi-Wan and Anakin, but I digress. 

I think the last Tekken game I played was at an arcade in my local bowling alley. I remember there being a panda bear fighter, here's hoping that one is coming back. I also played this Bandai-Namco party game that was very similar to the Mario Party games. It had really bad controls and frankly, wasn't very fun. 

Anyways, here's the trailer for the real subject of this article:

While Tuesday is typically the biggest launch day of the week for video games, this week might be heavier at the back end. But I don't mind Friday launches. The majority of my game time takes place on the weekend anyway. Sure, I love picking up a day-one game launch on Tuesday, too, but that often means I'll be staring at it while it sits on my shelf, waiting for the weekend to start so I can finally boot it up. Everybody's week plays out differently, though.

Editor-in-Chief Chuck Husemann is reviewing Everspace. It's a luscious space shooter and looter with roguelike elements, and, after eight months on Steam Early Access, is officially launching with over 1,000 "very positive" Steam User reviews backing it. Not bad.

I'm looking forward to Impact Winter's bleak, beautiful survivalism. But it's having a bad time at launch. Apparently, the key mapping is wonky, fighting players the moment they hit the main menu. Bummer. I mean, that stuff can be fixed, right? But it doesn't sound like it was ready to make its debut just yet.

And Rime could be neat. It looks like the boy from The Last Guardian washed up on The Witness island's shores for some lite platforming and puzzle solving. I'm sometimes put off by games where solving puzzles only rewards you with more puzzles to solve, but that's because I can be dense sometimes, failing to appreciate puzzles for puzzles' sake.

What are you loading this week?

MAY 23
Darksiders: Warmastered Edition (Wii U)
Disgaea 5 Complete (Switch)
Embers of Mirrim (PC, PS4)
Everspace (PC)
Impact Winter (PC)
Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception (PS4, Vita)

MAY 25
Vanquish (PC)

MAY 26
Drive Girls (Vita)
Friday the 13th: The Game (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Get Even (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Guilty Gear Xrd Rev.2 (PS4, PS3)
Rime (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada (PC, PS4)
Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers (Switch)
Constructor HD (PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One)

Howdy partners. Looks like Red Dead Redemption 2 has been red dead delayed until 2018, because that's what happens when Rockstar Games announces a title's release date.

In a press release, Rockstar says it's the first game they're building from the ground up for the current generation, and so "some extra time is necessary to ensure that we can deliver the best experience possible for our fans." Darn it, *spits into a bucket* darn tootin, raggedy dang, darn. What in tarnation.

The company went on to apologize, saying:

“We are very sorry for any disappointment this delay causes, but we are firm believers in delivering a game only when it is ready. We are really excited to bring you more details about the game this summer. In the meantime, please enjoy this selection of new screenshots from the world of Red Dead Redemption 2.”

Check out the screen shots in the press release. They're purdy. Yeehaw.

Man am I excited for this! Fire Pro Wrestling, the greatest wrestling game series in my opinion, returns this summer on both PC and PS4 with Fire Pro Wrestling World and Spike Chunsoft has given us the first details on some of the features included in the early access Steam version of the game.  

Unfortunately no solid release date for the game has been given just yet. 

Offline Play 

• Exhibition: Single match with specific rules.
• Tournament: Single-elimination tournament with up to 32 wrestlers.
• League: 8 wrestlers per bracket with up to 4 brackets. (This is similar to NJPW's G1 Climax show)

Match Types

• Normal Match
• Tag Team
• 6 Man Tag
• 8 Man Tag
• Mixed Tag Match
• Cage Deathmatch - Win by escaping the cage or pinning your opponent
• Barbed Wire Deathmatch - The ring ropes are replaced with electrified barbed wire that explodes upon impact
• Landmine Deathmatch - Landmines are set around the ring. If someone is thrown outside the ring, the landmines explode for massive damage. You can also set the landmines to go off at a fixed time.
• Gruesome Fighting - 3 minute rounds fought in a 12 sided ring for MMA style matches

Battle Royal 

• Normal: Eliminated wrestlers are forced to leave the ring.
• First Win: First pinfall wins the match.
• Endless: Eliminated wrestlers stay in the ring and continue to fight.
• Over-Rope: Any participant that is thrown over the rope is eliminated.
• Timed: The match starts with two wrestlers and other participants enter at timed intervals. (Royal Rumble)

Title Match

• A mode to determine who is worth of holding your custom belt

Mission Mode 

• Single-Player mode geared towards teaching you the ropes. Geared towards new players who need help to learn the grappling system and controls

CPU Matches

• Not technically a mode but you can set all participants in the match to CPU and watch simulated matches

Online modes 

• Everything listed above but only 1v1 matches will be supported at the launch of early access with more being added over time 

Edit Mode 

• Create custom wrestlers, referees, teams, rings and championship belts! Workshop support makes it easy to share your creations. (Spike Chunsoft states that more info about Workshop support will be revealed at a later date)

New Modes / Features

Overhauled Edit Mode

• Now each body part supports up to 9 texture layers for deeper customization.

Move Rename 

• Since you can customize every other facet of your wrestler, it’s only appropriate that you can now also rename their signature moves

Exchange Blows

• That classic back-and-forth contest of fighting spirit where wrestlers take turns trading hits until one (or both) of them falls.

Okite Yaburi

• Japanese wrestling term that implies a blatant diregard for the law. In the west we’d say “Move steal.” Once per match, you’re allowed to use your opponent’s finishing move against them in the ultimate sign of disrespect.

Run into the ring 

• Now you can run and slide into the ring to keep the action flowing.

Rope Escape

• When you’re in a submission hold, hold R1 to inch towards the rope in hopes of a rope break.

New Moves 

• In the ten years since the last Fire Pro Game was released, the sport has evolved and hundreds of new moves have been invented. Fire Pro Wrestling World plans on incoporating tons of those new moves including the Twisting Pull Down Face Buster (Sister Abigail) and the Pole Shift Flowsion and the Turning Short Ranged Lariat 

Far Cry 5 is coming, but today we are only getting a small teaser. The teaser below sets the stage for the next game, which is Hope County in Montana.

So it sounds like this will be the western theme that's been rumored. We'll get the full look this Friday as the full trailer is marked for release on that date. In the meantime, check out this announcement teaser.

At the end of my first Countdown round, my team and I made a pact: That we would never, ever play together again. Sure, we had the excuse that this was our first time playing Destiny 2's new Crucible mode, but the lack of teamwork and skill was completely inexcusable. I'm not going to name names in this case, because that would be wrong, and because I didn't get the names of the other three people on the team. 

Performance aside, Countdown is an interesting new multiplayer mode. The gist is that there are two bomb locations on the map. One team is responsible for defending the spots while the other team tries to plant the bombs. Once the bomb it set the offensive team must defend it until it explodes. Each round is worth one point and the first one to six points wins. 

Each team is limited to four revives, and power ammo is limited to the person who acquires it. The most important thing to know is that teamwork is a must. You really have to commit to working together as it was easy for the other team to tear us apart once our team got separated. This seems obvious, but watching a few other matches showed that even having a really talented player on the team wasn't enough to stop good teamwork.

The map was really well-designed with multiple paths to the bomb sites. There are a few places where you could try to flank the opposing team, but there weren't any major choke points to block, and the bomb sites weren't super easy to defend. To be honest, the map felt a little bigger than I would have expected for 4v4, but the openness forces teams to fully commit attacking/defending one bomb site or dividing up to attack/defend both. 

Time to kill (TTK) for opponents seemed to be a bit higher than I remember it. I've seen some other people mention it, but as you can see from the gameplay footage below, killing opponents takes a lot of work. Then again it also might be my lack of talent.

I dug my time with Countdown and I'm interested to see what the community does with this game mode when the final game ships.

This past week saw a new Nintendo Direct for the upcoming game ARMS. All it took for me to be sold on the game was the first couple of glimpses back before the Switch was even launched, but now we know a bit more info about the game.

To start with, after choosing their character a player can then equip two different ARMS: one on the left and one on the right. These range from things such as standard fists to boomerangs to missiles and can provide offensive and defensive options. ARMS can also have different attributes of which there are seven: fire, electricity, wind, ice, stun, explosion, and blind. Weight is another important factor in determining performance as it affects momentum, so keep that in mind when selecting your ARMS. More powerful ARMS might be slower to compensate, much like faster ARMS might not deal as much damage. Finally, as you fight through the game you'll earn in-game currency that you can use at the ARMS Getter to use your skills to earn new ARMS as well as upgrade the ones you already own.

There are several Versus Mode options in ARMS such as traditional one-on-one fighting, two-on-two Team Battles, and even V-Ball, similar to volleyball only with an explosive ball. In multiplayer you can go through Grand Prix where you have to win ten straight matches to face a final opponent to be crowned ARMS champion, Party Match where you can join an online lobby and battle with up to three other ARMS players at a time in the lobby (one lobby can hold ten systems, but with two people per system you can have up to twenty players in a lobby), as well as Ranked Matches and Local Wireless Mode, the latter of which lets eight players, each with their own system, join an in-game lobby and battle similar to Party Mode.

In the future, Nintendo will release free updates to ARMS that contain new characters, stages, and ARMS. In addition, during the weekends of May 26th - May 28th and June 2nd - June 4th, Nintendo will offer an ARMS Global Testpunch, similar to the Splatoon and Splatoon 2 Global Testfires where players can check out the game beforehand. All you have to do to participate is download the Global Testpunch demo in the Switch's eShop before the trials begin.

One more thing of note, though not ARMS related, is that Nintendo has also released some info concerning Splatoon 2's Single Player mode in the form of the Squid Sister Stories. Head on over to the Splatoon website to check out what's going on with the Squid Sisters leading up to Splatoon 2.

Continue on to the official press release to learn more about ARMS features and characters.

I'm not going to lie, I was really looking forward to playing Destiny 2 on the PC. As someone who grew up on PC first-person shooters, it always seemed odd that Destiny wasn't available on the PC at launch. 

At the reveal event, I had the opportunity to play the PC version of  the first mission—which was featured during the live stream—as well as one of the new strikes. How was the experience?

The short answer: Good.

The longer answer: Really. Damn. Good.

Playing Destiny 2 with a keyboard and mouse felt weird at first as I struggled to learn the keys. The three types of weapons are accessible via the top row number keys. For some reason, using the mouse wheel will only swap you between primary and special weapons, ignoring heavy weapons, which will hopefully be fixed in the final game. Your powers are mapped to F, G for grenade, and E handles the melee attack. Everything else (reloading, sprinting, and jumping) is where you would expect it to be if you've played a modern shooter.

It was nice to bump up the sensitivity a bit and make it feel like a proper PC FPS. The accuracy of a mouse and keyboard is readily noticeable. Sniping, headshots, and tight shots are all much easier to pull off. If you are worried that the game is going to feel like the PC Port of Halo, you have nothing to worry about. The game plays and feels like any other PC FPS.

The demo ran on high-spec PCs (i7 7700k CPU with a 1080 Ti GPU) showing off the game's 4K beauty at a crisp 60 frames per second. The PC version will be uncapped, while the console version will be limited to 30 FPS. PC is the version to get for the best, but not necessarily cheapest, Destiny 2 experience.

The only negative is that Bungie hasn't committed yet to launching on PC simultaneously with console on September 8. Hopefully we'll get clarification on the final date soon, as the PC version might be the definitive Destiny 2 experience.