Goldeneye Fan Project Shut Down, Night City Wire 2

Night City Wire Episode 2 Recap

CD Projekt RED has aired the second episode of the Night City Wire series about Cyberpunk 2077. The first episode showed a lot of gameplay, while the second one is more concerned with the kind of choices the player can make.

The Tools of Destruction video shows off five types of weapons, including the Thermal Katana, Carnage shotgun and Projectile Launch System. Judging by the Lifepaths Choices video, your life choices – Nomad, Street Kid or Corporate – determines where you begin the game, although the campaign will always follow the same story.

• Some weapons will only become available if you complete certain storylines
• The developers are lavishing extra attention on melee combat ahead of the November launch

Hot new sounds: The longest video, Becoming Samurai, is about Refused, the band behind the game’s soundtrack. While Keanu Reeves will deliver Johnny Silverhand’s lines, his singing will be performed by Refused’s frontman Dennis Lyxzén.

Which non-Sony platform were the two first Twisted Metal games released on?

• 3DO
• SEGA Saturn
• PC
• None of the Above

The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today’s issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.

The twisted history of Twisted Metal

Sony has built a lot of franchises since launching the original PlayStation – and abandoned quite a few as well, including series that used to be household names. One of them is Twisted Metal, created by David Jaffe.

Four games were launched for PlayStation, before the series was rebooted as Twisted Metal: Black for PlayStation 2 in 2001. Twisted Metal: Head-On was a PSP launch title, and later got ported to PlayStation 2. The final game was simply called Twisted Metal, and was launched for PlayStation 3 in 2012.

The series had a turbulent history. The two first games were developed by SingleTrac, before Sony’s internal studio 989 took the reins for the third and fourth.

Incognito, a studio formed by ex-SingleTrac developers, developed the next few iterations, before Jaffe returned to direct the PlayStation 3 version, developed by his company Eat Sleep Play. Unfortunately, the series never managed to win back the popularity it enjoyed in the late 90s. Will it ever?

Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today’s fact.

Paradox delays Bloodlines 2

Paradox has released their financial report for the second quarter, revealing that Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has been delayed until 2021.

This is the second time the game has been delayed, and the developers shared more about the delay on Twitter: “Due to the quality bar and ambitions we have set for ourselves, we have made the difficult decision that we need more time. This means that our goal to release in 2020 is no longer possible.”

• Second quarter revenue increased by 20% year on year
• Paradox employees have worked from home since March, with no plan to return to offices

Future repercussions: Bloodlines 2 is probably not the only game Paradox will delay. The report discusses the impact COVID-19 has had on the company, and that games risk delay due to the decreased productivity.

Goldeneye fan project killed by MGM

GoldenEye 64 fans have spent three years remaking the game in Unreal Engine 4 to celebrate its 25th anniversary, but MGM has shut the project down with a cease and desist.

All is not lost, however, as the developers have decided to simply ditch the Bond trappings and refocus the game into a ‘90s action shooter’ inspired by Goldeneye 64 instead. The developers don’t seem particularly surprised to be slapped on the wrist by MGM, so they have probably had the backup plan ready for a while.

What to expect: Judging by the Project Ianus Twitter account, the team won’t let their work to go waste and will create a new game based on the assets they’ve completed so far. Project Ianus will feature all the weapons from Goldeneye 64, but will obviously not have the same names. Not the worst thing that could have happened!

Brave Browser rewards you for surfing

Maybe your internet connection is fast, but what about your browser? Ads chew away at your bandwidth, not to mention all the tracking cookies snooping on your online habits.

The Brave Browser is built from the ground up for speed, privacy and providing an ad-free Internet. Brendan Eich is behind the project, who founded Firefox and invented Javascript, and It’s completely free to use for Windows, macOS, Linux and mobile.

You can opt-in for ads that respect your privacy, and even earn rewards. It’s quick and easy to use, featuring the same comforts and conveniences you expect from a modern browser, including built-in support for Tor onion-routing, which offers true anonymity.

If you give Brave Browser a go via our link DailyBits earns a small commission, so you’ll be helping us too!

X-Wing and TIE Fighter each see a limited run of 1,000 units for PC

Classic LucasArts space ship simulators X-Wing and TIE Fighter are being re-released as limited edition collectors editions thanks to Limited Run Games. X-Wing and TIE Fighter both broke new ground in the early 90s, and have sustained their popularity for over 25 years.

The games put you in the cockpits of a range of classic Star Wars fighter ships and presents several campaigns – culminating in a recreation of the classic Death Star trench run. Each game will be sold in a separate box set for $64.99.

This includes the game, art cards, a booklet of retrospective essays, a reversible poster, a commemorative coin, branded Lucasfilm USB drive containing the Steele Chronicles backstory, and – most importantly – an enamel pin for either the Empire or Alliance depending on which game you buy. Orders open August 21st, and batches will be on sale at 10am and 6pm EST.

• Activision’s Call of Duty ARG has revealed a countdown, presumably counting down to the announcement of the new Black Ops game on August 14th
• Funko Pops are doing a PlayStation line of toys featuring Ratchet & Clank, Death Stranding, The Last of Us and Twisted Metal figurines
• Amazon has rebranded Twitch Prime to Prime Gaming, most likely in an effort to broaden the appeal of their gaming presence. Prime Gaming features free games and content for popular online games, and used to require a Twitch account
• Nvidia teases their next line of graphics cards with a mysterious tweet. Nvidia’s Twitter banner reads “21 days, 21 years”, a reference to the announcement of the original GeForce GPU
• First footage of Earthworm Jim 4 revealed by Intellivision. Earthworm Jim 4 is exclusive to the Intellivision Amico, which is scheduled to launch in October

Which non-Sony platform were the two first Twisted Metal games released on?

Answer: The PC!

Few series are as quintessentially PlayStation as Twisted Metal, but both the first games were actually ported to PC as well.

The first game was only released for PC in Japan, but the second one enjoyed a world-wide release. It wasn’t quite as graphically advanced as the PlayStation version, but it did feature online multiplayer, which wouldn’t be possible on console until Twisted Metal: Black. It doesn’t seem likely that the series will ever be revived, but if it is we will ask Calypso to bring it to PC.

Today’s issue of DailyBits was written by Gavin Herman, Erlend Grefsrud, Christian Vaz, Matthew Ralphson, Ken McKown and Jamie Davey.