9th September video games roundup: Indy, Borderlands, Peak, PlayStation, and more
All the news and events in the world of video games today.
It's 9th September - I feel like a human calendar - and we're back with another coagulation of all of today's gaming news and events.
Today's question is: 'Borderlands 4 - are you planning to play it?' Because it's creeping up on us: this major new instalment is out on Friday (12th). And I'm curious: is there excitement among you for it? (I'm low-key trying to gauge who I can play with.)
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
MarcusJ says: When does the Bubsy: The Purrfect Collection coverage start? It’s out now.
Right now!
Um...
Rogueywon says: On Borderlands 4, I'd say I'm currently cautiously optimistic. I do love the Borderlands series' gunplay - it clicks for me in a way that other looter-shooters like the Destiny games just don't. I also love that it's a rare looter-shooter that isn't a full-blown live-service. Nobody's going to vault bits of the campaign on you. It also sounds like they're planning interesting things with the classes and mechanics this side.My worries are more around the tone. I know this might put me in a minority, but I really hope they haven't ditched too much of the crass humour. Borderlands 3 may have misfired in places, but Borderlands 2 can still bring a grin to my face. Above all, I really hope they've remembered that in Borderlands, even the good guys need to be pretty awful, something the third game tended to forget.
This is a nice take! And it's interesting what you say about wanting the crass humour too. Does anyone else feel that way?
jimihifi says: I have pre-ordered the super deluxe edition.So yes I will be playing it
Aha! There we go. That's one sale confirmed at least.
Akshay Arrison says: Seeing the Yotei video yesterday, I think after release Playstation should make a low-fi beats with the Miike mode music.Also the talk is getting to me so probably getting Silksong today
Nice, wasn't it? And I love low-fi beats playlists themed around games! I'd listen to that.
Rahmus says: I've always struggled with the Borderlands series. They always feel like games made by and for teenage boys. I know that can be applied to oh-so-many games (and I'm probably missing the point) but I can't get past that.
I hear this.
Silksong's permadeath mode is no joke
Silksong - an already very hard game - has a hidden permadeath mode, if you really want to punish yourself further.
To activate this mode, which is known as Steel Soul, head over the the Extras tab on the main menu, and push Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right on the D-pad. You will see a flash to let you know it has worked.
I tried it this morning on Xbox Series X, and thought sure, I will give Steel Soul a bash. Reader, I did not last long….
Think you've found a safe spot to rest in Silksong? Perhaps, think again...
Team Cherry, you jokers. The Hollow Knight developer is probably laughing at the many of us that have fallen for its trick bench in Silksong.
Yes, Silksong's benches are meant to be a safe place where we can all recover our health and heart rates after the many trials that we have managed to overcome to get there, but be warned, not all are as they seem…
I've played Indiana Jones and the Great Circle's Order of Giants DLC
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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was easily my favourite game from last year. I loved stepping into the boots and fedora of the whip-wielding professor Jones, to then zip across the globe to some truly spectacular locales. So, when it's DLC Order of Giants released last week, I was keen to get back into it. However, while the DLC tells an interesting story, and delves deeper into the lore of the Great Circle's Nephilim order, it is significantly shorter than I was expecting, and lacked the variety (and colour) I had hoped for.
Satoru Iwata thought Animal Crossing was too Japanese to localise
Late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata thought Animal Crossing would be too difficult to localise because it was so Japanese.
Time Extension spoke with former Nintendo localisation manager Leslie Swan about the biggest challenges in her career. She cited Animal Crossing, discussing the response from Iwata.
It was also almost called Animal Acres, as multiple names were considered!
Hollow Knight: Silksong's first patch to make early game easier
The first patch for Hollow Knight: Silksong will be released "mid next week" and will make the early game a little easier.
That's good news for anyone finding the game a little too challenging - it's certainly a big step up from the first Hollow Knight game.
You can check out the full patch notes in the link below:
GTA 6 leak suggests taxis could be replaced by an Uber-like app
What appears to be an in-game website leak for GTA 6 suggests that Jason and Lucia will be using apps like Uber to get around. Does this mean the end of GTA's taxis?!
Got a Game Boy Color? There's a new game out for it
I don't have a Game Boy Color but I'm still delighted to see new games released for it - I love this trend. In this case it's D*Fuzed, a turn-based, logic puzzler I've had described to me by creator Quang DX as "Minesweeper meets inverse Bomberman", which sounds intriguing.
It's made by Asobitech and published by Incube8 and there's even a proper cartridge version of the game available to buy. I'm told you can emulate the Game Boy using using SameBoy and play it that way, too.
Rahmus says: Bertie, get yourself an Analogue Pocket for all of your Game Boy Color needs. It's a wondrous machine which plays all of the GB, GBC and GBA games from cartridge, right out of the box.
This sounds very tempting indeed!
The PS1 turns 30 years old in the US today
Abrupt age-reminder alert! The original PlayStation 1 turns 30 years old in the US today. Yes, today is the day it stops celebrating birthdays and starts ignoring them altogether.
Does it bring back memories - do you remember your first run-in with Sony's famous, game-changing machine?
We reminsced about 30 years of PlayStation in December when the Japanese 30th anniversary rolled around. Our Euro 30th occurs at the end of the month - 29th September - by the way. To mark this occasion, the US birthday, I resurfaced some of the wonderful things we - and you - wrote.
Borderlands once had a very different look
Do you remember when Borderlands looked nothing like it does today but more like a brown Mad Max kind of game? I had all but forgotten this until your comments prompted an archive delve. But when the first game was announced in 2007, it had a much more bland and forgettable art style. The "Mad Max meets Diablo" idea of being a looter shooter was still there, but the iconic look wasn't.
The Guardian's Keza MacDonald wrote our Borderlands preview at the time and you can see screenshots of the old look in it. This look persisted through 2008, as you can see from a preview our former editor Tom Bramwell wrote.
But in 2009, it all changed, for a concept-art-style approach, as Randy Pitchford described it. "It looks cool in screenshots. It looks astonishingly cool in real-time. You'll see soon," Pitchford said at the time. Thus, the look was fixed.
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Rahmus says: Oh, early PlayStation memories: the first game I played on the machine was the original Resident Evil on my (older, cooler) cousin's console. I got up to the FMV where the white-headed zombie turned around and was so scared I turned it off.The whole general vibe of the console was that this is cool and mature. These aren't games anymore, this is part of a lifestyle.
Did you ever turn it back on?
Peak update adds a colourblind mode
The Peak team has added a colourblind mode to its co-op climber. This mode adds patterns to the game's different coloured berries, and makes them easier to differentiate.
There are also a number of balance changes and bug fixes within this latest update.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater stability improvements are coming, but Konami still needs "some time to review and address" these issues
Konami has released a patch for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater on Xbox Series X/S and PS5, which among other things will update some of those wonky textures during certain scenes.
The studio also promised that those stability improvements are being investigated.
Rahmus says: Bertie, I did turn the PS1 (or PSX, as we used to say) back on. The next time, I'd stuck the non-frightening Ridge Racer in the disc drive and it kick-started my love of arcade racers.The genre (and civilisation) peaked with Ridge Racer Type 4.
Redemption! Did you ever go back to Resi?
2much says: I was late to the PS1 and got a Dreamcast the Christmas after it launched, so the PS1 was only main console for a year, but I've got a lot of fond memories of the console. Feels like my entire Years 7 and 8 were defined by playing Tekken 3, WWF Warzone/Attitude, Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis, and Gran Turismo round friends' houses. When I did eventually get one for myself, most of my time was spent with TOCA 2, MUSIC creation for the PlayStation, and the absolutely magical PaRappa the Rapper (which I'm getting a tattoo of later this week!)
A PaRappa tattoo - that's awesome!
Japanese racehorse Haru Urara, which inspired the Umamusume: Pretty Derby character, has passed away
Japanese racehorse Haru Urara, who inspired a character of the same name in popular gacha game Umamusume: Pretty Derby, has passed away.
Haru Urara never won a single race, but was still cherished by many. The cause of her death was colic, it has been reported.
Nintendo's lawsuit against accessory manufacturer Genki comes to an end
Nintendo's lawsuit against accessory manufacturer Genki, which earlier this year debuted a mock-up Switch 2 unit before the console had actually been officially unveiled, has come to an end.
Genki is required to pay an undisclosed amount to Nintendo for damages. The accessories manufacturer is also no longer able to use colour schemes in its products or packaging which are "confusingly or substantially" similar to Nintendo's, while also being prohibited from using approximations such as 'Glitch', 'Glitch 2', 'Genki Direct' and 'Genki Indirect' when promoting its own products.
WipEout was so good on PS1 it ruined everything else
Jim's been beavering away on a new video and the topic of this one should chime a few bells: WipEout. As in, the original WipEout on PlayStation 1, a million - read: 30 - years ago.
And that's a wrap!
OK, that's it for today everyone: hope you've enjoyed the news and features for the day, and we'll be back for more tomorrow - lots more in the pipeline including more from me, a further report from Connor on the way government money is starting to tighten its grip on fighting games, and perhaps (maybe) even more on Silksong, since I know how much literally everyone reading the site loves our continued coverage.
For now, have a pleasant evening and enjoy. Peace!
