Stranger Than Heaven hands-on report: brutal combat and the glitz of show business intermix

Who doesn't love a big swing, a bold new direction, especially when so many video game publishers seem increasingly determined to walk the safest route? While Stranger Than Heaven might look familiar at first glance - particularly if you're a fan of Like a Dragon developer RGG's other third-person action games - it differs where it counts. And to my mind, it's one of the most exciting games the studio has worked on in a while. Stranger Than Heaven tells the story of Makoto Daito, a man of half American and Japanese lineage, as he attempts to make a home for himself in Japan. It's a tale spanning numerous decades as the country evolves - decades you'll experience first-hand as the story unfolds - blending a strong narrative throughline with striking melee combat and touches of silliness too. Its Like a Dragon heritage is clear, but it also feels like so much more.

Spanning five cities and half a century, Stranger Than Heaven is Yakuza-maker Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s most ambitious project yet. During a half-day preview event in New York earlier in October, I played five different segments of the game, in three of the game’s five locations. As a longtime Like a Dragon fan, I came away dazzled by its sumptuous environments and fascinated by protagonist Makoto. But I'm still on the fence about certain aspects of the combat and storytelling. I’m from the Bay Area, so I was especially excited to experience RGG’s riff on old-timey San Francisco in the prologue. Turns out, it’s not an explorable area, and the buildings and narrow alleyways had more of a generic East Coast feeling to me. Given how vividly this studio has captured real-world neighborhoods like Waikiki, Kabukicho, and Dotonbori in previous games, I was hoping for more, especially given the time period. (There was an extremely elaborate World’s Fair in San Francisco in 1915!) There’s certainly a lot of fog and it looks miserably cold at night, so at least that part is accurate.

EA Sports has announced that its Fight Night series of boxing games is coming back. Fans have been waiting a very long time, considering the last game in the series was 2011's Fight Night Champion for PS3 and Xbox 360. The franchise debuted in 2004 with Fight Night 2004, and sequels were released in 2005, 2006, and 2009 before Champion came out in 2011. "To everyone who stayed in our corner: Fight Night is coming back," EA Sports said. https://twitter.com/EASPORTSFN/status/2112604926941471213 Beyond the statement and the teaser art, there is nothing more to go on, so we don't yet know when the game might release or what new features it could have. While Fight Night has been dormant since 2011, EA's other combat-sports franchise--UFC--just had its newest release, UFC 6, in June this year. Prior to Fight Night, EA developed boxing games with the Knockout Kings franchise, which debuted in 1998 and ran through 2002. EA bringing back Fight Night is happening just after EA got acquired by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund .

If you’ve ever wanted to visit one of the several Pokémon Center stores across Asia but been unable to make the trip, good news: it sounds like The Pokémon Company is finally expanding to new locations around the world with new permanent stores, starting with a London location in 2029. The company put out an announcement on its official website confirming that the London store will be the “first of several” permanent stores opening around the world, though it doesn’t mention any other specific territories. “We are always exploring new opportunities that help us create unique and memorable experiences for our fans,” Chief Product and Experience Officer at The Pokémon Company International Gaku Susai said in a statement. “This new London store will give visitors the chance to step into the world of Pokémon, whether they’re discovering the brand for the first time or have been Trainers for years.

Giovanni Colantonio is a video game journalist who has covered the industry for two decades. He was formerly a senior editor at Digital Trends and has contributed to publications like Inverse, Fanbyte, and Hard Drive. His specialty is criticism, as he’s focused on a modern approach to video game reviews that’s focused on the nuances of how interactivity communicates to players. He is currently a member of the New York Video Game Critics Circle. You could say that Castlevania publisher has cracked the code