We are getting a little bit of Rocky Horror Picture Show in the Wayward Roundup this week, as we appear to be in a time warp. We have updates on two pieces of news that we covered last week, and now I can’t get that bloody song out of my head. So, before I go practise my Tim Curry impression, on with the news.
Koji Okada’s Compile Hearts project gets a name and gameplay trailer
We are starting in the same place as last week, but with an awful lot more information. Atlus co-founder Koji Okada has started a project with studio Compile Heart. We have two key pieces of information now. The name, Villion:Code, and a proper announcement trailer. There’s more gameplay, more characters, and more not-in-English, so I sadly don’t understand most of it!
From watching the trailer, I am getting some strong Tokyo Xanadu vibes. The art style has that cartoony anime feel, and combat appears to take place in action RPG arenas. Also, the dungeons are tubes that you can walk along in full 360-degree space, which is apparently all it takes to make me happy. There’s also a 360-degree approach to combat as well, which could be interesting. It releases June 25th in Japan, and I am excited to see the reviews.
Rayman might be returning this year
The PlayStation and PlayStation 2 eras were a phenomenal time for platformers, with classics like Sly Raccoon, Jak and Daxter, Spyro, and Crash all dominating. Another gem up there was Rayman, who turned 30 last September. Welcome to backache, my friend. A revival seemed inevitable.
And now, to no one’s surprise, it is all but confirmed. Multiple outlets spotted a particular entry on the Australian Classification website for Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition, and it was rated G if you’re wondering. I have been unable to validate this myself; they have apparently panicked and removed it. However, it was going to happen one day, wasn’t it?
Division 2 teams up with Assassin’s Creed from inter-company collaboration
It is official: Ubisoft is now so unpopular that nobody else will collaborate with them. So, they have decided to do it themselves. It happened with Watch Dogs Legion, and it is happening now to The Division 2: the Assassins have come to play. In spirit, anyway, as outfits from the Assassin’s Creed series can now be unlocked.
Amongst the outfits you can unlock are the costumes of Ezio Auditore and Edward Kenway, and boy oh boy do they look bad. A bright white Assassin’s robe does not belong in this modern, ruined city aesthetic. The Kenway getup looks marginally better, but he’s holding a 9mm pistol; it just looks terrible. They are available until February 10th, but just don’t.
Ubisoft is asking for redundancy volunteers in Paris
It’s another double dip on the Wayward Roundup, as Ubisoft is having yet another round of layoffs. Last week, we covered the closure of two studios and a raft of game cancellations, and Ubisoft had so much fun that they are doing it again in Paris. Although this time, it is optional, for now.
According to an interview a spokesperson gave to IGN, Ubisoft is seeking 200 workers to take voluntary redundancy. If there is one piece of good news here, it is that they aren’t trying to spin it as a “voluntary career transition program” like they did last October. Of course, that was at Massive Entertainment, which was part of this month’s “restructuring”. Read into that what you will; I am sure we will be back here in May.
GAME is set to enter administration once again
I do wish this week wasn’t all doom and gloom, but the big talking points just happen to be these. If it hasn’t been mentioned, I am from the UK, and our biggest, and pretty much only, gaming store chain is GAME. So it says a lot about high street shopping that there will be administrators appointed again.
It sadly happened back in 2012, when it lost a huge amount of stores, so I am pretty anxious to see what occurs this time around. As of writing, only the notice to appoint administrators has happened, which gives the owners 10 days to try and prevent it, but the writings been on the wall for a while. Online shopping is sadly more reliable and easier. But I will miss GAME, should the worst happen. You don’t get that thrill of randomly stumbling across a great game on Amazon that you do in stores.
