Terrible news! Santa ignored all my letters asking for 2025 to be a year when no new videogames came out so I could catch up on everything I missed from the past several years. In fact, it seems like maybe someone else might have sent him a letter asking for there to be more big games coming than ever.
]]>The world is changing. Geopolitics are fractious and unnerving, environmental catastrophe seems more likely each day, and rampant digitally-disseminated disinformation further erodes our trust in one another. But I'll let lesser reporters tell you about that stuff. I'm here to report that Capcom have made the big bonk feel good again. They’ve heard player feedback on the missing weapon oomph caused by the lack of hitstop in the Monster Hunter Wilds beta, and they’re bringing back the bonk.
Here’s a handy breakdown of the issue by X user Blue Stigma, but briefly: hitstop is the brief pause in an attack animation the moment the weapon connects with an enemy, giving you a real sense of bonkitude and making say, a hammer feel different from a dagger. As the video showed, the hitstop was greatly reduced in Wilds compared to previous Monster Hunters, and many players reported the combat just feeling a bit off as a result.
]]>I've spent quite a lot of today trying to figure out why, exactly, some of the monsters in the Monster Hunter Wilds beta looked like bundles of copulating pyramids slathered in crocodile gravy. Nic clued me in on this reddit thread earlier, which cites unnamed Chinese players who've allegedly data-mined the beta's monster models, and learned that they are extremely large, encompassing hundreds of thousands of polygons.
If every monster in Monster Hunter Wilds were that fancy all of the time, your computer would become a volcano. As such, the game resorts to loading-on-demand systems to ensure that you only see those gorgeous details when the monsters are close by and, as the case may be, angrily sitting on you. When they're further afield, the flourishes fall away to free up memory and processing power. The popular Redditor explanation for the presence of monsters that look like Henry Moore sculpture is basically that the LOD systems are being forgetful, and neglecting to load the additional polygons at proximity.
]]>I didn’t get much further in the extremely popular beta for the haute-couture-asaurus action of Monster Hunter Wilds than perfecting the exact orange-to-white ratio of my cat. Not because I wasn’t having fun, but because I immediately started looking up GPU prices after playing for ten minutes. As such, I didn’t spend enough time with the combat to get a proper feel for it. Cultural osmosis has once again allowed me to form an uneducated take, however, and I’m getting the sense there’s been some mixed reactions re: bonk quality. According to a clip shared on X by user Blue Stigma, there's a good reason for those misgivings. It's all about frames, you see.
]]>Stroll on down to Uncle Capcom's garage, girls and boys, because it's time to meddle with a cat's voicebox, ride a combat peacock and meticulously injure a vast, blubbery teddybear. By which I mean, the Monster Hunter Wilds beta is now live on Steam through to 4th November at 2.59am GMT. That's 2.59am sharp. If you're hurrying along at 3am on Monday absolutely desperate to polish the aesthetics of a small enslaved catperson, you can sod off and play Dragon Age: The Veilguard instead.
]]>Spider dislikers, your concerns have been noted. At least by Capcom, anyway. The developers of Monster Hunter Wilds are including an option in the upcoming beast-skinning action RPG that will turn all arachnid style monsters into something much less creepy and/or crawly.
]]>The Monster Hunter Wilds open beta will launch next week, Capcom have announced. It’ll be live on Steam from 31st October to 3rd November 2024, allowing the more impatient Capcommandoes amongst us to get a taste of the new setting and combat mechanics ahead of the game’s full release in February next year.
]]>Something magical occurred to me this morning: fit-flaying RPG Monster Hunter Wilds will be the first time I get to play a Monster Hunter game while also being a cat dad. It’s going to great! “What’s that, eh?!” I’ll say, pointing to a Doshaguma in a manner that might foolishly suggest I expect her to give a damn. “Mraow”, she’ll reply, knock over my coffee, then go back to sleep. “It’s you!” I’ll exclaim, pointing to the Palico I’ve spent six hours making look just like her. “That looks nothing like me, you odorous lummox,” she’ll insinuate with a cocked eyebrow, then go shout at an ant for a bit.
Ah well, at least I have videogames - this one is out on the 28th of Febwar, 2025. Here’s a trailer from last night’s Sony-me-doo:
]]>The monst! The monst are back! Whoo-hoo! We’re still a while off from the TBC 2025 release date of haute-couture-asaurus RPG Monster Hunter Wilds, and Capcom have finally graced us with some delicious Actual Details, following the previous cinematic trailers. These come in the form of three short videos uploaded today on the official Monster Hunter channel, detailing the basics, focus mode, and the great sword's moveset.
]]>This piece is written in memory of the Alpha Doshaguma, a huge furry quadruped with the belly, gait and mournful disposition of an orphaned St Bernard, which - no, who was sleeping blamelessly in a canyon when Capcom's demo presenter strolled up and bopped it with a bayonet howitzer. The demo in question was for Monster Hunter Wilds, which they probably should rename Monster Hadron Collider in that a major selling point appears to be making the megafauna converge and murder each other. It's possible to do this in previous games, especially 2018's Monster Hunter: World, but not like this. Not like this. Alas for the Alpha Doshaguma. Getting rocket-speared in the bum was only the start of its worst day ever.
]]>Capcom's series about big beasts and the clothes you can skin/steal from them continues in Monster Hunter Wilds, which looked as great as ever in its newest trailer from tonight's Summer Game Fest show. We get new peeks at some lovely dunes, reptile-chicken mounts and bulky weapons. Oh, and some monsters ripe for huntin', presumably.
]]>Capcom's upcoming entry in the lizard pants-making sim, Monster Hunter Wilds, got a new trailer at last night's State Of Play. It showed off more of how its lovely desert environments morph to fit the weather and how its inhabitants largely don't get on. We also got a look at some cursed lions, an armoured frog with an unsettling tongue and a rideable Chocobo-esque mount that lets you ping arrows on the fly. Let me break it down for you readers, as someone who is increasingly excited at the prospect of more colourful pants.
]]>My PC has a big white case, and sometimes, I sit and think: “big white box good!” But other times, I glance over to my PS5 and think: “other big white box also good!” Then I start getting fanciful and imagine a lovely future where they can both combine into one. Keeping track of two big white boxes is hard! Luckily, I only have to write about one of those big white boxes for RPS the vast majority of the time. Today is one of the rare occasions I do have to cover both, so here’s everything announced at yesterday’s Playstation State Of Play that you, the discerning big white box owner, might find relevant:
]]>Capcom have unveiled the next entry in their dinosaur hat/pants/jumper-making sim this evening, and it's called Monster Hunter Wilds. A kick in the dino groin to this year's monster hunting pretender Wild Hearts, perhaps? Who can say. Formally unveiled at tonight's Game Awards, this new Monster Hunter is coming in 2025, and looks to be the jazzed-up successor to Monster Hunter: World. That's not a diss on Rise (which was excellent). Just that it's being developed for PC and consoles first, rather than Switch. And it looks rad as heck. Come and watch the reveal trailer below.
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