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Castlevania Grimoire of Souls Announced for iOS

CM30 on April 18, 2018

Ever since the reveal that Castlevania was getting a TV show, there has been much speculation about a new game being released for the series. After all, it’s laid dormant for a while now, despite having an obvious fanbase and a lot of demand, and the series has been brought back into the popular consciousness via its adaptation.

It only seems logical for a new title.

And guess what? As revealed just a few days ago, a new Castlevania game is coming out. Titled Castlevania Grimoire of Souls, the game appears to be another Metroidvania title in the style of the DS games, with all the gameplay elements and stylistic that implies. Here are a few nice screenshots showing it in action:

Plus, some neat official art from the official site:

As you can tell, it’s a decent looking game. Maybe not as artistically ambitious as some of the sprite-based ones sure, but decent enough none the less.

There’s just one problem:

As of this moment… it’s only been confirmed for smartphones. Yup, the next much awaited game in the Castlevania franchise is only coming to smartphones, not consoles like the Nintendo Switch that seem almost perfect for the title. It’s a shame really since something like this seems perfect for the system. After all most of the other games appeared there, from the NES era all the way to the present day.

Let’s Interview: Wii U Modder and YouTube Creator REGNR8 (Jeremy King)!

CM30 on April 16, 2018

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Over the past few years, we’ve interviewed many fantastic creators here on Gaming Reinvented. We’ve talked to popular YouTubers, with people like Guru Larry and the Lonely Goomba being just two of the celebrities featured here on the site. We’ve interviewed fan game devs and ROM hackers about their works, including people like Kaze Emanuar, Skelux and JudgeSpear. And well, when it comes to professional game development, we’ve talked to a few people there too. Like Randy Linden, Grant Kirkhope and Asher Einhorn.

It’s been a good time for the site, and we hope you’ve enjoyed the interviews done so far.

Because today, we’ve got another for you guys. Yep, it’s another interview with a well-known YouTube creator, this time the Wii U modder and YouTuber REGNR8.

Sound familiar?

Well, we thought it might. Cause long before this interview was ever set up, REGNR8 actually provided us with the evidence that the ‘Breath of the Wild multiplayer mod’ everyone was talking about was actually a fake. It was his journalism that debunked the story which set sites like Eurogamer and Destructoid ablaze.

Which is why today, we’re talking to him about his experiences in modding, YouTube video creation and the state of gaming journalism in 2018. It’s gonna be one hell of a ride!

1. Though first and foremost, let’s start with the personal background question. Who exactly are you?

Hi! My name is Jeremy King.

Those who have followed me on YouTube since I started or who are members of my Discord server community, THE KINGDOM OF GEEKS, will know me better by my screen name REGNR8 (reads: regenerate).

I wear many hats so to speak but my current focus is as a content creator where I am busy working on videos and special effects projects.

Most of the videos on my channel have a focus on technology and video game emulation.

However, viewers have also come to expect an eclectic mix of content since I really use my YouTube channel as place to experiment with new ideas for different videos and to share projects that I’ve been working on.

2. And how did you get into gaming?

In 1983, Atari lead the video came industry into a large-scale recession.

It was the video game crash of 1983. The Japanese called it “Atari Shock” (appropriately poetic).

Two years later, I was born. Months later, in the autumn of 1985, the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom) was released in North America.

It’s arguable as to which one was really the zero-day of the video game industry comeback.

Jokes aside, yeah, I’m a child of the 90’s. After Nintendo brought the video game industry back to life in the 80’s, Nintendo was everywhere. So, video games were just a part of life.

My schools also had the old IBM and Commodore 64 machines so I was introduced to educational PC gaming at school when I started at the age of 4 or 5.

Mario, Zelda and Final Fantasy 1 were my entry points on the OG Nintendo Entertainment System.

From there came the GAME BOY, then the SNES and Sega Genesis at some friends’ homes which further indoctrinated me.

That’s where it all began.

I never questioned the presence of video games. They were just always there, and I’ve always been in love with all aspects of them.

3. How about YouTube videos? What made you want to start a channel?

I was a consumer of YouTube videos even before Google bought them back in 2006.

For my own purposes of sharing content, YouTube became a place for me to upload and share my multimedia projects that I had been working on while I was in school via short video clips.

I’d host my videos on YouTube and then embed the clips into my portfolio website REGNR8.com (expired).

If you dig into that old content from when I first created the channel back in 2010, you’ll find a bunch of 3D modelling/animations and special effects projects I was working on.

Even back then my love for gaming was quite evident.

You can find things like a 3D animation of a GAME BOY that I created for a FLEX based web application, a green screen assignment which was heavily inspired by a mini game in Kirby’s Adventure (NES) and the classic Clint Eastwood film, “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” (1966) or even a short video of the first game that I ever coded in QBasic: a tic-tac-toe clone called TITATO which was heavily inspired by the aesthetics of the classic arcade Atari space shooter, Asteroids.

If you go digging even further into my portfolio on archive.org you’ll discover things like a flash player that I designed and coded which plays nothing but old Zelda commercials.

A few years into my YouTube channel, I found myself digging into my HDD archives to upload some more small snippets of projects I had worked on so I could share them with friends and potential employers.

You can even find a few web applications there as well.

So that’s why I started the channel originally.

But the birth of “The REGNR8 Channel” as most know and remember it, came only a few years ago.

I was getting tired of doing web design and development work in the real world and I found my attention being drawn back to my earlier projects in video/special effects.

Because of that, I did a couple fun creative edits to get back into using the apps and it wasn’t long after, that the old video production bug had bitten me once again.

By that time, I had already been following the Cemu Wii U Emulator project for a while and was regularly testing builds as they released.

So, for fun, I thought I’d start recording my testing sessions to share the results with others and that’s where the channel as it exists now really started.

I was quite surprised that people had such an interest in these test videos.

It seemed that there were others just as passionate about emulators and more specifically testing an experimental Wii U emulator, as I was!

Producing video after video really became quite addicting.

I really love the process and I’m continuously trying to learn new techniques to hone the craft and improve my skillset.

Beyond that, it’s been amazing to be able to build and grow an entire community around this passion. I’ve had the opportunity to meet many amazing people because of it.

Now that I’m a few years into it, I’m at the point where I’m really starting to think about the bigger picture and I’m in the planning phases of producing my first official series for the channel.

4. On to some more topical stuff now. What’s with all the focus on CEMU and Wii U mods anyway?

On Cemu:

Sure! So, as I mentioned, I started making Cemu videos.

I’ve always been following the emulation scene and when I came across Cemu, I was excited at the potential.

There were already a few people sharing Cemu content on YouTube at the time. But most of the videos were strictly build testing or preview videos.

There was only one person really doing preview videos at the time. I think it’s funny looking back on it now, but I really came to really dislike those preview videos.

What bothered me most was that they didn’t satisfy what I was looking in Cemu content.

There was no context and no interaction with the audience.

There was also no testing methodology being followed. Or if there was, it wasn’t shared with the audience in most of these videos.

So it really left a lot to be desired. Hence why I decided that I wanted to provide what I was searching for.

It was also very good timing for me to get back into video production for emulation related content.

I had just completed a z97 build and had overclocked my Intel G3258 (20th anniversary Pentium CPU) to a respectable 4.5GHz.

The build wasn’t complete since I didn’t have a GPU yet, so for a period of time I was gaming solely on this overclocked Intel iGPU (Integrated Graphics Processing).

I couldn’t help but be surprised by what this budget CPU was capable of.

As those of us in the emulation community know, emulation is very CPU intensive.

To my amazement, running this budget CPU at a high clock, even though it was an iGPU, gave me an interesting perspective and insight into how the builds of the Cemu emulator were developing on each release.

Since iGPU on Cemu was not (and as of early 2018 still isn’t) officially supported, I found it extremely interesting to see how performance would advance or decrease from build to build.

Looking back, boy has Cemu come a long way!

Here my first Cemu video were I’m testing build 1.4.2 on iGPU running The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess HD:

Of course, the iGPU Cemu testing videos were a very niche thing to fall into but I enjoyed making and sharing these videos with people.

And unbeknownst to me at the time, the best thing to do when starting a YouTube channel is to “find your niche”!

I was also one of the few if not the only person doing this.

I was the only person following the Cemu project who was putting out regular iGPU build testing videos who was also speaking directly to an audience.

That was what helped to build a small following.

Later that year, I was so into making Cemu videos, that instead of just buying a dedicated GPU which I was saving up for, I went ahead and upgraded my entire PC to an X99 platform so that I could focus more on video production.

That’s the build I’m still running and make videos on to this day.

As you know, I’ve done a lot of work covering Cemu from build to build.

My Updates & Changes Cemu videos, which I later named to “Cemulated”, were probably the most watched series that I’ve put together on the channel.

And as I mentioned previously, my goal was to exceed in quality the videos that I felt were lacking in the community.

It took a lot of effort to make them due to the extensive testing and in-depth analysis, but I still look back on my Updates + Changes Analysis videos with pride.

For most of 2017, my highest viewed and most controversial video was my claim to being the first person on YouTube to test The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild on Cemu.

Those first few months after Zelda BOTW was released was huge for Cemu.

Zelda BOTW’s hype brought so many people into the Cemu community.

Especially content creators who didn’t previously cover the Cemu emulator.

Before Zelda BOTW, the Cemu community didn’t know who BSoD Gaming or The Complaining Gamer were.

It also helped to elevate creators who had been following the project for some time.

The hype was real! And it brought a lot of people to the party.

Content creators sub count exploded, the Cemu community exploded with new members and Team Cemu’s Patreon most definitely exploded with financial backing!

Moving forward post the Breath of the Wild release, I continued making a bunch of different types of emulation content.

I even interviewed the lead developer of the Cemu emulator, Exzap.

But Zelda has always been my favourite gaming series and I kept getting pulled into it more and more.

Nintendo Patent Reveals Multi Screen Peripheral

CM30 on April 14, 2018

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Ever since the DS became a mega success, it seems Nintendo has become very fond of the dual screen mechanic in their games and systems. They’ve relied on it for the entirety of the DS’ library, with later games like the Mario & Luigi titles and Zelda Phantom Hourglass making use of the gimmick for things otherwise deemed impossible. They’ve kept using it on the 3DS, to the point where many 3DS games utilised the dual screens even more than their DS counterparts. And well, with the Wii U basically being built around the idea of having a second screen for a home console, it’s clear that Nintendo had plans to keep it around for a long time to come.

Which is why their latest patent shouldn’t really be a surprised to anyone. Why? Because as the title suggests, it’s basically a way to have a multiple set up on a traditional home console.

Yes really. Described as a ‘game system with a plurality of information processing apparatuses that are capable of communicating with each other’, the patent appears to show a system where multiple screens can be connected to one another for use in video games.

However, it’s actually not just a DS copy. Oh no, this version of the system comes with the ability to move the screens anywhere you like and have things in game move across them. As well as to use more than two of them at once in the process.

This means that the old jokes about a Nintendo 3DS or 4DS with 3 or 4 screens may actually become a reality here. Heck, even the patent itself shows a setup with three screens connected in a way to show all angles of a 3-dimensional image!

And when you couple this with even more intriguing uses of the screens and their connectivity (like the ability to angle one screen to change an object’s momentum as it travels into the next, or to change its incoming direction), you’ve got a setup which is basically everything the DS ever wanted to be.

So, check it out if you’ve got the time. It’s an interesting bit of technology, and one that may actually give some hints to where Nintendo might take the 3DS’ ‘successor’ in future!

Source:

Nintendo Patent on US Patent Office Website

2K Studio May Be Developing a New Bioshock Game

CM30 on April 14, 2018

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Ever since Bioshock Infinite in 2013, it seems the Bioshock series has remained in limbo. Oh sure, the games have been ported to later systems, and a collection was released in 2016, but actual new games in the franchise have been non-existent all the while.

However, it seems that may be changing very soon. Why? Because according to a recent Kotaku report on the making on Mafia 3, the developers at a neighbouring studio are apparently working on an interesting game codenamed ‘Parkside’, with rumours going around that said game is actually the next in the Bioshock series.

And that ties in very well with recent happenings hinting at a Bioshock revival. For example, in late 2015, Take Two Interactive (which owns 2K Studio and the franchise) mentioned the series was a ‘permanent franchise’, whereas a few years later the company hinted at a ‘highly anticipated title from one of their biggest franchises’ being released by March 2019.

Which lines up very well with this project, given its current early status in development. So yeah, it seems like the chance of a new Bioshock game is now higher than ever, and that one could well be on its way by March 2019.

However, what do you think about this? Are you with IGN and Kotaku when they say that a new Bioshock game could be on the way?

Or do you think this secretive ‘Parkside’ game could be something else entirely?

Post your thoughts on the matter here in the comments or at the Gaming Latest forums today!

Source:

2K Studio Reportedly Developing New Bioshock Game (IGN)

How to Get Infinite Arrows in The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild!

CM30 on April 13, 2018

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Unlike past games in the series, getting arrows in the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild is not always the easiest thing in the world. Enemies don’t drop them unless they’ve got a bow, grass and bushes don’t hold them like in past games, and while shops do sell them, their supplies are usually limited, and cap off at around the 200 mark or so.

However, help is now at hand. Why? Because thanks to the Breath of the Wild speedrunning Discord, a new way to farm arrows has been found in the game. What’s more, it’s both trivially easy to pull off and entirely free too!

Here’s how you can pull it off:

Firstly, make sure you’ve got the following items nearby:

A multishot bow, like a Lynel one
At least one arrow.
A source of fire. This should ideally be either a campfire or a cooking pot
Something arrows would get stuck in, like a tree or wooden object

Once that’s set up, you then need to take out your bow, and dip the arrow in the fire. Do that, and then shoot the thing at the tree.

This will cause the arrow to get stuck in the tree. However, as it turns out…

You don’t just get one arrow back from it. Nope, because your bow shot multiple arrows, you get as many arrows back as you shot out. This is a pretty damn good exchange rate, especially if your bow can shoot 5 arrows at once like some of the special Lynel ones can!

And it all works because Breath of the Wild does one little thing for player convenience. Namely…

It only uses one arrow per shot, regardless of how many your bow supposedly fires. So, while you only use up one arrow while shooting the tree, the game gives you back up to 5 arrows when you go and pick them up afterwards. It’s basically an infinite source of ammunition.

Plus, it’s quick too. In my video of the trick (shown below), I managed to go from 36 arrows all the way to 105 arrows in merely 2 minutes. Hence if you’re got about 15 minutes to spare (as well as a few disposable bows to use), you can easily make it all the way up to the 999-arrow cap without batting an eyelid.

Try it out if you can. It’s much easier on your wallet to going to all those Hyrulian shops!