The Biggest News In Gaming (Week Beginning 23/9/19)

The Last of Us Part II Gets Release Date

The eagerly anticipated Naughty Dog game, The Last of Us Part II has been given a release date during a PlayStation State of Play live stream.

The Last of Us Part II will come to PlayStation 4 on February 21st, 2020.

Along with this news, we were also given a new trailer which shed some clarity on what the game's story will be about.

Set five years after the events of the first game, The Last of Us Part II will follow Ellie as she goes on a vengeful quest after her romantic interest is either killed or kidnapped.

Fans of the franchise will be relieved to know that Joel, the first game’s fatherly protagonist will be returning to help Ellie on her journey.

Some members of the press were invited to play up to three hours of the game this week, as Naughty Dog opened up on the updated gameplay features the sequel will offer.

Ellie will be able to jump, climb, and be more stealthy as she can now army-crawl through tall grass and the like.

Controversy then followed when Naughty Dog announced that the game will not include a multiplayer mode as the original did.

Given that the developer also said they were making the largest and longest game in Naughty Dog’s history (that will ship on two Blu-ray discs), this is an understandable move in order to keep the focus on singleplayer.

Finally, it was revealed that the game will have a whopping five different editions, depending on your pre-order preference. Details of these can be found here.

PlayStation Plus Free Games for October

Also shown during the State of Play stream were the free games PlayStation Plus subscribers will have access to for the month of October.

MLB The Show 19, the latest in the deeply revered baseball game franchise, and The Last of Us Remastered will be free for the month of October.

Contrasting in genre and gameplay but equally strong choices from Sony, October looks like a great month to have access to PlayStation Plus.

A full round-up of news from PlayStation’s State of Play and Microsoft’s Inside Xbox event held on the same day, can be found here and here.

Borderlands 3 is 2K’s Fastest-Selling Game Of All Time

After only five days on the market, publisher 2K has found that Borderlands 3 has sold over five million copies, making it the fastest-selling game in the publisher’s history.

Notably, this is 50% more sales in the same amount of time than Borderlands 2. Although Borderlands 2 went on to sell over 20 million units, it had a far better critical backing.

“Borderlands 3 delivered the highest pre-order sales figures to date for a 2K title, as well as broke pre-order records with the Epic Games Store.” The publisher said in a press release.

“Initial sales of Borderlands 3 have exceeded the label’s expectations and, in particular, PC sales of the title through the Epic Games Store have been incredibly strong.” They added.

Interestingly, it should be noted that 70% of the game’s sales came from digital purchases.

Modern Warefare Game Mode Will Be Exclusive to PS4 For a Year

Survival Mode, a Call of Duty game mode within Spec Ops, will be included in next month’s Modern Warefare but will be a PlayStation 4 exclusive until October 2020, Activision and Sony have announced.

This has caused upset with many fans, as the Spec Ops mode has long been a fan-favourite feature in Call of Duty, and a segment which has been missing from the previous three games.

The news was revealed during a new campaign trailer for the upcoming game during PlayStation’s State of Play event.

Spec Ops allows players to team up with their friends and take on co-op missions, or tackle these missions on their own. This offers the collaboration of multiplayer with the substance of singleplayer.

While this game mode as a whole will be featured on all platforms, Survival Mode, which will put players against hoards of enemies, will be exclusive to PlayStation gamers until October of 2020.

For an annualised franchise that releases in October, this is understandably ruffling some feathers.

Although PlayStation has gained many exclusive pieces of content for Call of Duty games during the PlayStation 4’s lifecycle, these have usually lasted for a number of weeks at the very most.

Mario Kart Tour Puts Mario Behind A Paywall

Mario Kart Tour, the recently released mobile version of Mario Kart, has come under fire for the inclusion of intrusive microtransactions.

Not only do players have to pay to play as the title character Mario, but they also have to pay a hefty subscription in order to play in the game’s fastest racing category.

The Gold Pass subscription costs $4.99/£4.99 a month, which, players have noticed, is more than the Nintendo Switch’s online service cost.

The subscription grants players access to higher-level rewards, more racers, more vehicles, and access to the game’s 200cc mode.

This is all too familiar to fans of Nintendo’s mobile game outings, as Super Mario Run faced similar criticism for its microtransactions that were akin to video game loot boxes.

The game will feature newly themed races every two weeks but is a simpler version of Mario Kart which lets players take the game with them on the go, and play with one finger.

Mario Kart Tour is available on ios and Android now… but so is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch, so… do with that information what you will.