Scott Pilgrim is taking on the world, again, in March. Capcom leans into Leon’s “hot uncle” makeover. And an old Kickstarter for a tabletop game reveals the worst outcome possible. It’s another edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news, rumors, and culture. Speaking of fan speculation and rumors, it’s never a good sign when the official franchise account responds to you with a GIF from Grand Theft Auto. The Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag remake was reportedly delayed, but hopefully the next game from indie standout Red Candle Games is coming along smoothly.
Scott Pilgrim EX has a release date and a new trailer
It’s out March 3 and will include League of Evil Exes’ Matthew Patel and Robot-01 as playable characters. This spiritual successor to the 2010 brawler is a bit more RPG-lite with non-linear quests and exploration, according to the devs at Tribute Games. They recently helped launch Marvel Cosmic Invasion, another excellent retro throwback with some neat tricks. Hopefully the team has put some cool surprises in Scott Pilgrim EX which, with today’s news, is now handily my most anticipated release of the winter.
Monster Hunter Wilds fixes a bizarre DLC bug recently unearthed by a modder
The new PC performance patch is out and the notes include the following: “Fixed an issue where system load could increase around the Support Desk at Base Camp or the Grand Hub due to claimed content status checks.” Hopefully it brings the Steam version of the game more in line with the console version and turns things around in a meaningful way heading into the game’s one-year anniversary.
RuneScape maker promises no genAI that players can “feel”
“We’ve got a pretty hard line stance with the team, which is a commitment that no generative AI will ever be present in any asset that a player can touch, hear or feel. There will be no generative AI in the game that they experience,” Jagex SVP of product James Dobrowski told GamesIndustry.biz. Tooling efficiency, which seemingly means coding, QA checks, and other process-oriented stuff, is another story.
“Where we are open to the use of AI is in things like tooling efficiency; how do we make the way we work more efficient in order to make our staff’s lives easier and allow us to produce better content. But we do not want to be using AI to drive creativity,” he said.
Capcom talks about Leon’s “hot uncle” makeover
“We’ve spent quite a lot of time polishing Leon’s visuals,” Resident Evil Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi told Automaton. “Leon has many fans among Capcom employees, and women in particular were pretty strict when reviewing his design. They would point out and comment on even the finest details like the wrinkles on his neck. When I mentioned that story in the past, a female fan told me, The women developers at Capcom did a really good job (laughs).”
Arc Raiders hit by DDoS attack ahead of next patch
Players who were recently having connection issues now know why. Community lead Julia Ossen told fans on the game’s Discord that the studio has been “under extensive, coordinated DDoS attacks” which the team is addressing. “The strike team has been working hard on mitigations and solutions to fix the problem, and we are making good progress,” she wrote. “But at this point in time the attacks are still ongoing.” The attack happened alongside the game’s new patch which includes some stealth nerfs.
The Darkest Dungeon board game is dead
Over 28,000 backers pledged $5,657,479 to help bring this project to life and no more shipments will be going out. “We put our trust in Mythic Games to deliver on their promises and uphold the Darkest Dungeon name,” Red Hook Games announced this week. “We won’t mince words, their collapse and inability to fulfill Wave 2 orders is an enormously disappointing development and we know it deeply affects many Darkest Dungeon fans.” An ex-employee is providing the studio with the source files for all of Mythic’s work so players can make their own versions.
More indies are bailing on Xbox
Xbox versions of the stylish medieval combat game 1348 Ex Voto and Nickelodeon’s Splat Pack have both been binned, TweakTown reports. “While we previously announced that the game would be released on Xbox consoles, we have the unfortunate news that this is no longer the case,” the developer behind 1348 Ex Voto said this week. “As release approaches for the indie team, priorities are constantly evaluated and sometimes must shift to deliver the best experience possible.”