Welcome to Digitally Downloaded’s weekly news feature, Catch-up coffee Monday. Each Monday we will bring you the best news from the previous week that you may have missed. Grab the biggest mug you’ve got, fill it with your favourite brew, and catch up with us!
Minecraft is coming to a Nintendo console for the first time
Although it’s not arriving in the form of the original, open-world Minecraft that we all know and love – instead, Telltale Games’ Minecraft: Story Mode is coming to Wii U. This is the first time since Microsoft acquired the hugely popular series that it will be on a new platform, which hopefully means they don’t plan to make the Minecraft world a Windows/Xbox exclusive. Minecraft: Story Mode takes the familiar look of Minecraft and turns it into an episodic choice-based game. For the first time in a Telltale Game, the player can choose the character they play as. The game is also coming to Android, iOS, Mac, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One (AKA just about anything anyone may own).
Related reading: Minecraft as narrative; one of the great misunderstandings in gaming.
Boss Key Studios officially announces its first game, LawBreakers
In a world forever changed by The Shattering, everything is different. The event nearly cracked the world in two, and resulted in boiling oceans and a loss of normal gravity. Still, humanity moved forward and rebuilt. But there were those with less positive outlooks: the Breakers. They were formed when Cartels unified, souped up on supplements and armed with the knowledge of gravitational manipulation. When they expand to the US, law agencies also unify to form the one collective that may be able to take down the Breakers: the LawBreakers. LawBreakers is the first game from Boss Key Studios, although you may have heard of it under the codename “BlueStreak.” The company is led by Cliff Bleszinski, formerly of Epic Games; he was involved designing the Unreal series before becoming lead designer for the Gears of War series (including Judgement, which was a shooter that Matt actually liked!). At the very least, we expect the world in LawBreakers to be vast and visually striking!
Sega reveals Dwarfen Units for Total War: Warhammer
We’ve been talking a lot about Total War: Warhammer in the past several months; in fact, we have high hopes that it will be the Warhammer game everyone has always wanted but that nobody has been able to deliver. To add to the mounting excitement, SEGA has released an introduction video that showcases the Dwarfen Axe and Hammer Units. Longbeards, Ironbreakers, and Hammerers are three melee units that truly exemplify Dwarfen combat style by using ornate weapons. Dwarfs are one of four playable races set for the initial launch of the game, and are expert miners and craftsmen. Check out the video below for more information!
Final Fantasy XV’s release date reveal date announced
Whew, that was a mouthful. Got all that? At PAX Prime, FFXV’s director Hajime Tabata confirmed that the game is expected to be released in 2016. While he didn’t have an exact date, Tabata promises that Square Enix will be holding a special event in March 2016 when the official release date will be announced. Tabata was kind enough to provide some updates on the game’s progress, stating that the cameras, AI behaviour, combat, and user interface are somewhere between 30 and 80 percent complete (um… big difference between 30 and 80, don’t you think?!). He also clarified the game’s driving mode, where players can either sit back and enjoy the ride or drive the Regalia themselves – but be warned, it can and will run out of gas and you’ll have to push it to the nearest station for a refuel. FFXV is slated to be released simultaneously worldwide on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Does any of this news tickle your fancy or make you steaming mad? Let us know in the comments! And meet us again next week for a new edition of Catch-up coffee Monday.
– Lindsay M.
News Editor
