Tag Archives: Video game characters

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade Had A Dedicated Team of Lighting Experts

Screenshot: PlayStation@YouTube

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When Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade was announced earlier this year, Square Enix detailed how it changed the textures and lighting, as well as added fog effects. Some changes were more subtle.

During today’s Sony online event, Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase ran through the changes in the PS5 version. Most of the information was new, but while detailing the lightning improvements, the event’s celebrity host Hatsune Matsushima noticed something and asked if the tree had changed.

Screenshot: PlayStation@YouTube

The tree in the Shinra Building is different, it seems. But, I’m not actually sure if it’s different or if the lighting improvements make it look different.

Screenshot: PlayStation@YouTube

It really does seem like Square Enix did more than just slap a coat of PlayStation 5 paint on the new version. According to Kitase, this was the first time for a Final Fantasy game to created a dedicated team of lighting pros, who moved lighting sources around in the game to light the scenes like on a Hollywood film.

Screenshot: PlayStation@YouTube

The lighting improvements are certainly noticeable! The tree improvements, less so.

Screenshot: PlayStation@YouTube

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Mario Kart Speedrunners Are Racing To Blow Themselves Up With Blue Shells

Gif: Nintendo / Skilloz / Kotaku

Do you know you can hit yourself with a Blue Shell in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? Speedrunners do, and they’re going all out to blow themselves up with the first place-targeting item as quickly as possible.

Skilloz, the current world record-holder for the hilariously named “Blue Yourself” category, uploaded a video yesterday (h/t Polygon) showing that it’s possible to go from the beginning of the race to spinning out in a Blue Shell blast in just under 38 seconds. If you’re a fan of Baby Daisy—there’s got to be at least one of you out there—you might want to look away.

Here’s how Skilloz did it, according to the man himself:

The items you get depend how far away you are from first place. Knowing this, I sandbag at the start to get a good chance of getting a Star. Then I rush to the next set of items and I’m at the point where getting Triple Mushrooms is also a pretty decent chance. These aren’t too terribly difficult to get if you’re able to correctly position yourself.

The toughest part is getting the Blue Shell. There’s no real way to manipulate it. You can only get a Blue Shell if you’re at least 2000 units behind first place. Since that’s the closest you can be, it’s about a 5% chance of receiving a Blue Shell. You can also only get a Blue Shell once 30 seconds have passed in game.

So when I hesitate in front of those item boxes, I’m waiting on those two things: the first-place CPU to get at least 2000 units ahead of me and 30 seconds of in-game time [to pass]. A member in our community, GsFlint, found that these two conditions can basically line up with each other at the same [time] in Mario Circuit.

My favorite speedruns are those that see players take a small, preferably ridiculous part of a game and get very serious about learning how to do it fast. It’s hard to say how low folks will be able to get “Blue Yourself” times in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but you can bet I’ll be watching with bated breath.

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After Years Of Trying, WB Games Has Successfully Patented Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis System

Screenshot: WB Games

After trying multiple times since 2015, WB Games has successfully secured a patent on the nemesis system featured in Shadow of Mordor and its sequel, Shadow of War. The patent goes into effect later this month.

As reported by IGN, on February 3 the US Patent and Trademark Office released an issue notice confirming that WB Games’ patent on the system was approved and would become effective officially on February 23, 2021.

(That issue notice link wasn’t working at the time of publication.)

The nemesis system first appeared in 2014’s open-world-stab-athon Shadow of Mordor, and would be expanded on greatly in the 2017 sequel Shadow of War. The Nemesis System uses randomly generated orcs to populate the world. Players then attack these orcs, sometimes killing them, taking control of them, or even losing to them. As these events happen the orcs will react, becoming more powerful, gaining new abilities, and directly referencing past experiences with the player. It’s a cool system. And soon, only one publisher, WB Games, will have the ability to use it.

Once the patent becomes active, other developers or publishers wanting to use a Nemesis System will have to cut a deal with WB Games or face legal action.

Since 2015, shortly after the release of Shadow of Mordor, WB Games has been trying and failing to secure this patent. Previous issues included a lack of specificity, which is very important in a patent, and conflicts with other existing patents.

WB Games will have the ability to maintain this patent until 2035, assuming they keep all their orcs in order legally and financially.

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