Category: Game

Welcome to another exciting installment of CoolGames Inc, where each week, myself and my dear friend Griffin McElroy take your one-line video game pitches and gently massage them until we find one worthy of our creative powers.
In this week’s episode, we delve into the dark truths behind Pokéball metaphysics, reminisce about the time Jonathan Blow DDoSed GameFAQs and explore the untapped concept of ‘social permadeath.’ Justin McElroy guest stars.

Links to subscribe to CoolGames, Inc. in iTunes, your podcast player of choice or to download an MP3 are all a click away, tucked inside the buttons below today’s episode.

Theme song: “Social Science" by Maxo

Want your game idea to be featured on a future episode of CoolGames Inc? The best bet is to follow us on Twitter: I’m on there as @babylonian and Griffin is @griffinmcelroy. Once a week, we’ll put out a request for your pitches! Stay vigilant!
Before we go: a huge thanks to everyone who shared our first episode and left us a review on iTunes! Our launch week was a doozy, and the response was overwhelming and flattering. Thanks again for listening, and we’ll be back next week with another!

@griffinmcelroy you get home to make dinner but you bought hammers and not the chicken your partner wanted.
— Aaron J. Amendola (@ImAaronJ) February 3, 2016

Rocksteady’s latest will be Windows PC-only on Steam Batman: Arkham Knight is no longer coming to Linux and Mac platforms, according to an announcement posted to Steam. Feral Interactive’s port of the game, which was bound for Mac OS X, SteamOS and Ubuntu, has been canceled.
“We are very sorry to confirm that Batman: Arkham Knight will no longer be coming to Mac and Linux," reads an update posted to the game’s Steam forums. "If you have pre-ordered Batman: Arkham Knight for Mac or Linux, please apply for a refund via Steam."
Feral Interactive, which ported Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City to Mac, originally announced the non-Windows PC versions of Arkham Knight almost a year ago. The publisher delayed its Linux and Mac versions to spring 2016 in October — the same day the Windows PC version of Arkham Knight returned to Steam after being pulled from sale by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

Watch on YouTube | Subscribe to Polygon on YouTube
Only four of Hearthstone’s nine classes normally have the ability to equip and swing weapons at their opponents’ faces. But that’s enough that, several expansions in, Hearthstone’s weapon arsenal has grown to a pretty sizable number.
Are there enough weapons to carry a game mode based entirely around them? That’s the question we set out to answer while checking out this week’s weapon-based Tavern Brawl.
If you’d like to see more Hearthstone videos, take a look at our complete YouTube playlist devoted to Blizzard’s digital card game.

DRAGONFORCE! DRAGONFORCE! DRAGONFORCE! DRAGONFORCE!
Links to subscribe to Minimap in iTunes, your podcast player of choice or to download an MP3 are all a click away, tucked inside the buttons below today’s episode.

Here’s what we’re covering in your daily audio tour through the world of video games, related technologies and pop culture like comics, movies and TV.
THE BIG STORIES

Hitman explains its ‘season’ structure, offers exclusive missions to PS4
Peter Molyneux launches Godus spinoff, Godus Wars, in Early Access
Nintendo reveals the most popular amiibo of 2015
Dust 514 closing down in favor of new shooter in the Eve Online world
Overwatch beta returns next week
Batman: Arkham Knight Linux and Mac ports canceled
Guitar Hero’s hardest song ever makes a comeback

THE BEST OF THE REST

The game industry of South Africa
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak review
New Dark Souls 3 footage shows off a quick-stepping thief

BECOME A MINIMAPPER
We’d love to count you as a daily Minimap listener. You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you like with these handy links:

iTunes
RSS for your podcast player of choice
SoundCloud
Polygon

SHRED

“Through the Fire and Flames" by Dragonforce on iTunes.

Dan Stevens and Aubrey Plaza join FX’s latest FX has announced the first cast members for its X-Men spinoff series, Legion, including who will play Professor Charles Xavier’s son.
Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey), Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) and Jean Smart (Fargo) have all signed on for the New Mutants spinoff, Marvel announced today.
Most notable is Stevens’ role as David Haller, the schizophrenic son of Charles Xavier and Israeli holocaust survivor, Gabrielle Haller.
As a young teen, Haller was diagnosed with the mental illness and admitted to various psychiatric institutions over the years. It’s during one of his stays that he has an eye-opening interaction with another patient that leads him to believe the visions and voices he suffers from may actually be real.
Haller was first introduced to Marvel Comics readers in issue 25 of New Mutants back in 1985. The character later becomes the Israeli ambassador to the U.K.
Plaza, best known for her work as April in Parks & Rec, will play David’s close friend, Lenny. Lenny has spent years battling drug and alcohol addictions, but is described as a hopeful and optimistic person who believes her life could change at any second.
Lastly, Smart — who recently played Floyd Gerhardt on FX’s Fargo — will pay Melanie. According to the Marvel website, Melanie is a “nurturing, demanding therapist with a sharp mind and unconventional methods."
New Mutants was a spinoff comic book series based on Marvel’s popular X-Men that began in 1983 and ran until 1991. When the series ended, the characters that were created and introduced in New Mutants, including Deadpool, were reintroduced as X-Force.
The show is being helmed by Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley, with X-Men: Apocalypse director Bryan Singer on board to executive produce. It’s the first show being developed by FX and Marvel with executives from both companies overseeing the series. On top of the series, there’s also a New Mutants spinoff film in the works at Fox.
The series is set to start production in March with no premiere date confirmed at this time.

Level-5 finally launched its Japanese monster hit Yo-Kai Watch on Nintendo 3DS stateside in November, but that was only phase one of its overseas debut.
The company has partnered with Hasbro to invade several other consumer industries with the Pokémon-like characters —€” none more fitting, however, than the lucrative smartwatch market.
Smartwatches have technically been around for decades; we’ve detailed their long, storied history on Polygon in the past. But it’s only in the last few years that companies have capitalized on the technology, making a play at broader consumer appreciation.
Yet there lies one major problem with devices like the Apple Watch and Samsung Gear: they’re still largely under the purview of technophiles and hardcore gadgetry snobs. It’s not entirely the fault of these products; their cost-to-functionality ratio isn’t great, but it’s also that they’re stereotyped by an unwelcoming society, which often has trouble taking smartwatches seriously.
It seems unlikely that the Yo-Kai Watch, then, can properly address these issues. As the central device in its video game (and anime, and action figure, and manga, and …) namesake, the Watch is meant for one thing: to make kids want to buy it. That means it’s big and cutesy, not sleek and elegant.
But in my time with the Yo-Kai Watch — wearing it around, testing out its features, taking it through the ringer —€” I discovered that maybe elegance is played out. Maybe what the public really wants out of something as high-concept as a high-tech wristwatch is the most ridiculous take on that concept as possible.
In that case, the Yo-Kai Watch fits the bill.

First off, gander at the hunk of plastic: It’s not attractive. It’s dishwater gray with an uncomfortable rubber wristband that’s as wide as the watch face. The sole burst of color is on said face, a mismatched quartet of purple, pink, green and blue spun out like a Yin and Yang symbol.
And that’s all there is to the face, those colors. There’s no screen like the average smartwatch; the Yo-Kai Watch doesn’t even offer touch controls. And it doesn’t have any functioning hands, either. Instead, it mocks the idea that you’d use this thing to tell time. There are hands painted on there, but they don’t move.
The basic function of a watch, dumb or smart, is to tell time. The Yo-Kai Watch doesn’t do that, either. This might be the best thing about it.
When you touch the Watch, something special happens
Because really, who in 2016 needs a dedicated time-telling device? Odds are good you have a smartphone. Odds are better that you stare at said smartphone for the majority of your waking hours. And it’s implausible that your phone doesn’t tell you what time it is in several different countries at any given moment.
Hasbro and Level-5 know this. To differentiate their product, they’ve taken the basic idea of a watch and abstracted it to its simplest components. The Yo-Kai Watch is a simulacrum of a once-precious thing. It is abstract art, a postmodern marvel.
It’s still really ugly though. That’s a fact.

So the Yo-Kai Watch doesn’t tell time. What does it do? Instead of inviting finger presses on its face, the Watch actually discourages you from touching it. Get too hands on and this puppy makes a lot of sound.
The Apple Watch, Samsung Gear and every other smartwatch has some basic apps: a pedometer, a music player, a calculator, maybe some games you’ll actually want to check out. These are all embedded in the device as digital downloads. The Yo-Kai Watch ignores the virtual space and instead embraces the real world by making its applications physical.
A set of medals with different yo-kai characters on them are available to purchase separately from the device, although the Watch comes with two medals packed in. They’re pretty freaking adorable at first blush; they’re brightly, distinctly colored with different yo-kai featured on each one. There’s a helpful arrow pointing in the direction you’re supposed to insert the medal into the Watch; there’s nothing left to chance here.
The Yo-Kai Watch’s face is covered by a plastic hood which lifts up, allowing you to slide in a medal. Once you do, something … special happens.
Here’s the thing: Maybe you’re a shy, private person, and you don’t like to call attention to yourself. If that describes you, well, you shouldn’t bother with the Yo-Kai Watch in any sense because that gigantic contraption will make you stick out like a sore thumb anywhere. But you especially shouldn’t try using the medals in a public setting, because that’s when this thing goes off the rails.
Depending on which medal you put in, the Yo-Kai Watch will serenade you with a relevant song based on its character trait or class or whatever the Yo-Kai Watch version of Pokemon types are called. There’s no volume setting; the medal will activate a sound at full blast, every single time you touch it. Sometimes even when you don’t touch it.
The Yo-Kai Watch gets why you even still wear watches
Look at it like this: If you’re going to wear a gigantic watch on your delicate wrist, as I have done for several hours now, you might as well go balls to the wall with it. A watch is a status symbol —€” like, why do they cost so much money? Duh. Who needs to tell time so often as to warrant a watch on their wrist? No, you’re just wearing one to show off. This is a safe space. You can admit it.
The Yo-Kai Watch, like the Apple Watch or Samsung Gear S2 or whatever else, takes that idea and makes it the most ludicrous thing possible. Which is great, because at its core the smartwatch as a gadget is totally ludicrous in the era of smartphones.
When other people go to inspect your wrist as a way of assessing your character, they’re going to see this gigantic piece of incessantly chattering plastic on your wrist, weighing you down, and they’re going to think one thing: Dude has cajones.
Even so, if someone could explain to me how to get the Yo-Kai Watch to quiet down, that would be super appreciated.

Another thing: The Yo-Kai Watch, as you can probably guess just from looking at it, is heavy. But life is a game of survival, right? Hasbro and Level-5 are aware of this, and recognize that the weak-wristed aren’t going to cut it in this world. In that sense, they’re here to help you out by giving you a phenomenal workout. Wearing the Yo-Kai Watch for even a few hours, and especially in public, will not only strengthen you emotionally — you’ll have to quickly learn to steel yourself against the strange looks you’ll constantly get — but physically, too.
It’s most impressive when you consider that the characters who wear the Watch in the 3DS game are 10-years-old. They are deceptively strong children. And they have to consistently lift their arms to point the thing around looking for wild yo-kai, too; if anything, wearing the Yo-Kai Watch increased my respect for both them and the franchise as a whole.
The Yo-Kai Watch in its real world iteration does not locate yo-kai (as it does in the game and show), or really do all that much. Those medals you can plug in that make it whine incessantly can also be used in far more agreeable ways with the Yo-Kai Land mobile app, so even those have a better application.
But as a smartwatch, there’s something really, really wonderful about the Yo-Kai Watch. It takes the genre and strips it to its most basic components: it’s loud, absurd and no one will ever doubt your self-worth ever again. This is smartwatch as satire and I love it.

American Truck Simulator didn’t feel like home, and that’s exactly what I was hoping for.
Living on the south coast of England, Euro Truck Simulator has given me countless hours of cathartic enjoyment over the years. Switch on the radio, jump into a truck and barrel down the M5 in the wind and rain. It’s familiar weather, familiar roads, familiar sounds, a palate cleanser when you just want somewhere comforting to call home.
Considering my only experience of American roads is L.A. during the Electronic Entertainment Expo, American Truck Simulator’s opening vistas seemed very reminiscent of the sun-bleached highways running between the San Fernando Valley and LAX. American Truck Simulator is, for all intents and purposes, Euro Truck Simulator 2… but with straighter stretches of highway.
“I learned that California’s sprawling, multi-lane highways mean very little, because as soon as you try and take an exit for an area like Central L.A. you might as well walk your cargo to its destination"
In 2012’s Euro Truck Simulator 2, players took on work as a truck driver. Initially taking contract jobs from other companies, you can save up for your own trucks, eventually your own staff, and basically, just drive trucks from A to B. The next step? Upgrade your trucks, take on bigger jobs with more high-risk cargo, form a business of your own and help it to thrive.
American Truck Simulator operates in very much the same vein as ETS, but they’ve swapped out drizzly motorways and small winding towns for huge American highways and cities you can drive through in an almost entirely straight line.
You’ll need to keep an eye on damage to your truck, how awake your driver is, how much fuel you have and if any cargo has been destroyed, all while trying to avoid fines that could end up making a job cost you rather than earning you money.

Controls
In terms of control schemes, American Truck Simulator has several available options. From controlling the camera with the mouse and the truck with your keyboard, to using a full driving wheel setup, various customizable layouts are on offer to pick from.
While a full driving wheel is obviously ideal, mouse and keyboard control works well enough to not hinder gameplay. Steam Controller support was surprisingly solid, employing a combination of sticks, buttons and gyro motion to control the game. American Truck Simulator does a great job with its menu system of highlighting the pros and cons of each control scheme, where they lie between simplicity and degree of control, which should make picking out a control scheme a far less daunting task for new players.
For those looking for the full experience of a driving wheel and a virtual reality headset, be aware that VR support for looking around is not available in the game at launch. While the developer promises VR support as an optional beta branch in the same way it was offered in Euro Truck Simulator 2, there’s no word how far after launch that support will come.

At launch, American Truck Simulator only has two models of truck available for players; the Kentworth T 680 and Peterbilt 579. While this lack of variety is likely to be a shock to current Euro Truck Simulator players, there’s going to be more than enough for the average newcomer to sink their teeth into. The game also only has California and Nevada available to start with (Arizona and other areas are set to arrive in the coming months as free downloadable content). While you’re not going to be doing a coast-to-coast drive any time soon, there’s already an acceptable amount of content to explore. Driving from Sacramento to Oakland and back is going to take some time, show you a variety of scenery and provide a host of unique driving challenges.
Where Euro Truck Simulator employed European-style static speed cameras, which allowed players to become familiar with the routes and simply ignore speed limits when out of the cameras’ range, American Truck Simulator instead utilizes roaming patrols of police cars that can pop up at any time. You have to remain aware of your speed, the vehicles around you, and areas where police might park to watch out for speeders.It removes some of the satisfaction of learning where you can cut corners on a route, but it does add an element of unpredictability, .
The AI also seems to be more alert and aware. Drivers stop earlier at lights to allow you room to make turns, other road users will pay attention to your indicators and provide openings to change lanes and you’re far less likely to have an idiotic driver pull out in front of you mid-maneuver. While these issues still exist to some degree, as unpredictable blockers to progression they are far less common.
As someone who spends most of their life talking to Americans online, but very rarely has a reference point for the tone or feel of any given state, American Truck Simulator allowed me to sit back for a few days and start to soak in the sights, sounds, and unique identities of California and Nevada. I learned Northern Nevada has these beautiful shades of deep red and orange in its sunsets that made me feel like everything, for just a minute, might be okay.
I learned that California’s sprawling, multi-lane highways mean very little, because as soon as you try and take an exit for an area like Central L.A. you might as well walk your cargo to its destination.
I fell asleep in my work chair one night, listening to an episode of Welcome to Nightvale because I had stayed up too late, and the five minutes spent waiting on weather conditions to improve ended up as a 20-minute long chair nap and a late delivery.
I lost almost 20 hours in a single weekend driving around a place that wasn’t home, until eventually it started to feel a little more familiar. That sense of relaxation and growing familiarity is exactly what makes American Truck Simulator so strong.

Logitech this morning took the wraps off their latest gaming keyboard, the G810 Orion Spectrum, an RGB mechanical that seems to nail the sweet spot between aesthetic and features.
The best part is that the Orion Spectrum is one of three mechanical keyboards that will, beginning Feb. 8, come with a copy of Ubisoft’s upcoming living world shooter Tom Clancy’s The Division.
The Logitech G810 Orion Spectrum and Logitech G910 Orion Spark game bundles are expected to be available in the U.S. beginning Feb. 8 for a suggested retail price of $159.99 and $179.99 respectively. The Logitech G410 Atlas Spectrum, Logitech G810 Orion Spectrum and Logitech G910 Orion Spark game bundles are expected to be available in Europe beginning Feb. 8 for a suggested retail price of €159, €189 and €199 respectively. It appears the Atlas Spectrum deal is only in Europe.
As part of the promotion, Logitech is also updating its Arx control applet and created a custom lighting profile for The Division, which is due out on March 8.

I had a chance to go hands on with the Logitech G810 Orion Spectrum at a recent event in New York City.
Like the Atlas Spectrum and Orion Spark, the Orion Spectrum uses Logitech’s Romer-G mechanical switches and includes robust lighting options.
Where the Orion Spark felt a bit too over the top in its presentation, and the tenkeyless Atlas Spectrum felt a bit too stripped down, the Orion Spectrum seems to have found the perfect mix of performance, features and sleek design.
The full-sized board has almost no logos or badging, just the recently redesigned G logo in the top left corner of the board. While there are no dedicated macro keys, the function keys can be used to serve as macros. The board also has physical controls for media, including a roller for volume. The board’s solid base lacks the pinging I found so annoying in the Atlas Spectrum.
We’ll have a full review of the keyboard later this month, but make sure to check out our reviews of the Atlas Spectrum and Orion Spark in our mechanical keyboard guide if you’re considering picking one up for the copy of The Division.

Polygon Backstory is a podcast that celebrates conversations about the games we play.
There’s so much news, so many announcements happening every single day in the games press that it’s hard to keep track of them all. Every few weeks I’ll pluck an individual or a topic out of the stream of stories flowing down the front page and bring them here to you.
This week my guest is journalist Andrew Groen, author of the upcoming book Empires of Eve: A History of the Great Wars of Eve Online. Andrew’s book is so special because it’s the first time anyone has ever set out to document the history of a virtual world. Out of the many stories inside, I convinced Andrew to share one of his favorites with us today.

Links to subscribe to Polygon Backstory in iTunes, your podcast player of choice or to download an MP3 are all a click away, tucked inside the buttons below this episode.

Please take a moment today to subscribe to Polygon Backstory using the links above. Enjoy the show, and if you’re so inclined give it a review on iTunes. That would mean a lot.
There are several ways to follow Polygon Backstory. You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes with one click, or add it to your podcast player of choice using its RSS feed. It also lives online at Polygon Backstory’s SoundCloud page— and in the SoundCloud app. For those of you who’d rather maintain your files manually, you can always download each story as an MP3.
And if you’re a fan of talk radio, news or podcasts in general please look into Polygon’s other programs. Backstory joins our growing list, including our game reviews show Quality Control, our award winning daily news show Minimap and our entertainment podcast, Cutscene.
Thanks for listening.
This week’s soundtrack is a Below the Asteroids, part of the official soundtrack of Eve Online.

Watch in 60 fps on YouTube | Subscribe to Polygon on YouTube
Recently, we got a chance to go hands-on with Nintendo’s upcoming HD remaster of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, a faithful recreation of the GameCube-slash-Wii iteration of the Zelda series, lovingly crafted by Funky Barn developer Tantalus Media.
Purists might be wondering why in the above footage Link appears right-handed, or indeed why the entire game appears flipped — that’s one of the side effects of playing in the game’s new Hero Mode. Essentially, Hero Mode makes the game a great deal more challenging, forcing Link to take double damage and removing all heart drops from the game, all while flipping the entire game world as it appeared in the Wii version ten years ago. (For players wanting a version complete with legible Hylian script and the true left-handed Link, simply choose Normal Mode when starting a new game.)
Above, watch as we reclaim Epona, explore Ordon Village, herd some goats and rescue Sera’s cat. Twilight Princess HD will be released in North America on March 4 for $59.99.