The fall season is quickly approaching, and the news keeps coming thick and fast. Here are the news highlights from last week you may have missed:
L.A. Noire Comes to Switch, PS4, and Xbox One On November 14 and Marks Rockstar Games’ First Release on Switch
Rockstar Games surprised us with an out-of-nowhere announcement for a remastered L.A. Noire on PS4, Xbox One, and Switch, as well as VR platforms. The biggest factor in the release of this news is that the game will be coming to Nintendo’s console/portable hybrid, which makes it the first official Switch release from Rockstar Games. And they’re not playing around either: L.A. Noire on Switch will have unique features, such as gyroscopic and motion controls with HD rumble, over-the-shoulder and wide camera angle options, and touch screen controls while playing in handheld mode. Those are a lot of additions, and this version, as well as the PS4 and Xbox One remasters, will be getting the full game and all of the previously released DLC.
For the PS4 and Xbox One versions, they will run in 1080p, and for those who have the PS4 Pro and Xbox OneS, the remaster will run in 4K. According to Rockstar Games, the remaster will include “a range of technical enhancements for greater visual fidelity and authenticity, including enhanced lighting and clouds, new cinematic camera angles, high-resolution textures and more.” But PC owners haven’t been left in the dust. If you have an HTC Vive, there will be seven cases from the game that have been rebuilt for virtual reality to provide an “unprecedented interactive experience.” L.A. Noire will be coming to PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and HTC Vive on November 14. Whether this could lead to more Noire games is unclear.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Sells Over 10 Million Copies
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds hasn’t even launched out of Early Access and the game has already sold over 10 million copies as of September 5 (via IGN). Battlegrounds is challenging even some of the most popular games on PC, such as DOTA 2 and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, with its record of over 970,000 concurrent players. The game has become a phenomenon among PC gamers and will be launching on Xbox One later this year as part of Xbox One’s Early Access-like program, Xbox Game Preview. Whether the game will ever come to PS4 is unclear. Mike Ybarra, the Corporate Vice-President from Xbox, said to Eurogamer that the game is a “console launch exclusive,” which points to the case that a version on PS4 may be possible. That will ultimately be Bluehole Games’ decision, however.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole’s Difficulty Scaler Changes Your Character’s Skin Color
Ubisoft has included an inspired social commentary within South Park: The Fractured But Whole‘s difficulty scaler. During character creation, the difficulty is correlated to your character’s skin color. The whiter the character’s skin, the easier the game will be, and the darker the character’s skin, the more difficult the game will become, as found by Eurogamer after attending a hands-on. When asked by Aolfe Wilson and Chris Bratt about the feature, Ubisoft developers stated that the difficulty correlates to how much money you receive and how other characters will speak to you. In the game, Cartman says to your character, “Don’t worry, this doesn’t affect combat. Just every other aspect of your whole life.” Genius. South Park: The Fractured But Whole is planned for release on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 17, and if you pre-order the game, you can get its predecessor, The Stick of Truth, as a free download. No Nintendo Switch version is currently planned.
Pokemon Sun and Moon Players Can Soon Get Ash’s Pikachu
To help celebrate the release of the 20th anniversary movie Pokemon The Movie: I Choose You, players will soon be able to get Ash’s Pikachu for free from the official Pokemon website (via GameSpot). Every week, starting from September 19, there will be a Pikachu with every hat from each installment, starting with Red/Blue/Yellow‘s Kanto hat. The schedule is as follows:
- September 19-25: Original hat
- September 26-October 2: Hoenn hat
- October 3-9: Sinnoh hat
- October 10-16: Unover hat
- October 17-23: Kalos hat
- October 24-30: Alola hat
Be warned, you can only redeem one Pikachu from the list, so choose carefully! (But come on, you have to go with the original, right?). Pokemon The Movie: I Choose You comes to theaters on November 6 in the United States, as dubbed through Fathom Events. You can purchase your tickets now.