GYGO: BotW VR, Assassin’s Creed Vikings, and BioWare’s Anthem Woes

Happy Wednesday! What games are you playing this week? I have been obsessed with Watch Dogs 2, which has gameplay similarities to GTA V, but you play as a hacker trying to take down major corporations that are stealing people’s personal data. You get to explore different areas of San Francisco, steal cars, steal money directly from people’s phones, sneak into buildings, and much more. I’m also currently installing The Division 2, which I’m excited to play. Let us know on Twitter what you’re playing! Here’s your weekly dose of news.

BioWare’s Anthem Woes

Last week, Kotaku published an in-depth look at BioWare’s development and release of Anthem. The article reveals a lot of the problems various teams at BioWare faced in trying to create Anthem. I noted right after Anthem released that many popular Twitch streamers weren’t playing it at all. This article unveils many factors that likely contributed to why the game has been met with such disappointment. Note that the article has also been updated with EA and BioWare’s responses.

Labo VR Kit, BotW, and Super Mario Odyssey

VR support is coming to Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. Breath of the Wild will be fully supported, while Super Mario Odyssey will have three mini-missions with VR capability. While the Nintendo Labo VR Kit releases April 12, VR capability for BotW and Super Mario Odyssey won’t be released until April 25.

Steam Responds to “Review Bombing”

Steam enacted new measures to combat “review bombing” of games, and Borderlands 2 is the first game they took this corrective action upon. A number of negative reviews in a certain time period were flagged and not counted in the game’s score.

Sekiro Modded

A player-created mod for the PC version of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which released last month, adds graphics options and a sort of “easy mode”: you can adjust the speed of the game, which would be useful for boss fights, for example. There’s more discussion over at Waypoint about this Sekiro mod and similar mods from an accessibility perspective.

Fortnite Adds Apex Legends-Style Respawns

In a patch releasing this week, Fortnite is adding Reboot Cards that you collect when your squadmate dies, which you carry to a Reboot Van in order to respawn your squadmate. This mechanism is similar to respawns in Apex Legends, another example of these how wildly popular battle royale games are influencing each other.

New Games Coming to Nintendo Switch Online

Starting April 10, Nintendo Switch Online subscribers can play Punch-Out!! (a version that does not include Mike Tyson), Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, and Star Soldier. Currently, if you have Twitch Prime membership (which is included in Amazon Prime membership), you can get a year of Nintendo Switch Online for free.

More News

A new teaser for the next episode of Life is Strange 2 released.

The next Assassin’s Creed game is rumored to take place in a Viking setting. This is hinted at by several items seen in The Division 2. The next AC game is scheduled for a 2020 release.

Here’s a first look at gameplay from Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age on Switch. This enhanced edition of FFXII has been available since 2017 on PC and PS4 and is coming to Switch and Xbox One on April 30.

Check out this recreation of the world of Stardew Valley within Minecraft: