The Witcher 3 – Hearts Of Stone

The Witcher 3 is a massive game that’s brimming with quality content that would keep one engaged for hours on end, but playing the base game alone isn’t the complete experience. Both of the game’s post-launch expansions including Hearts of Stone are equally good in their own right, but we are going with the latter of the DLCs for this list simply because of the fantastic story. Set in an entirely new section of the map called No Man’s Land, Hearts of Stone is all about Geralt trying to defeat the immortal Olgierd von Everec. Hearts of Stone also introduces new Monsters, side quests, and new combat mechanics like Runewords which come together to make this expansion a surprisingly fresh experience that’s unmissable for fans of The Witcher.

If you haven’t had a chance to dive into Insomniac’s Spider-Man, now’s the best time. The Game of the Year Edition is now available for PS4 as of today. It includes the base game and The City That Never Sleeps, the latter consisting of three DLC story packs with new missions, enemies, and more. Even better is the fact that it all costs $40.

Spider-Man has been quite the winner for Sony. It sold 13.2 million units worldwide as of July 28th 2019 and has overtaken Batman: Arkham City as the highest selling superhero game in the United States. The title’s success has arguably been the reason for Sony acquiring Insomniac Games and adding it to its list of first party studios.

You can check out GamingBolt’s review for Spider-Man here. The City That Never Sleeps DLC review can be seen here. While Insomniac hasn’t officially announced a sequel, there have been some teases (not to mention Sony itself wanting to focus on the franchise for the future).

"Storytelling, character interaction, and writing were some of the biggest strengths of Spider-Man earlier in the year, much to the surprise of a great many people, and that continues to be true in all three episodes of The City That Never Sleeps as well."

And that is perhaps the most surprising thing about this package- that the developments in narrative shown across in the three episodes are quite huge. Huger than you’d expect to see in DLC, in many cases. Some characters begin arcs that seem to be setting up major new strands for the sequel, some who had unfinished business left after the events of the base game come back and wrap up their arcs in satisfactory ways (while still leaving room to return in the future), while other narrative threads that were teased by Spider-Man as setup for the sequel also make exciting progress.

Across all three episodes, the cast of characters is as strong as you would expect it to be. The Heist places focus on Felicia Hardy, a.k.a. Black Cat, whose interactions and banter with Spider-Man are excellent to see, and the way their complicated relationship develops in the short amount of time they spend with each other on-screen is handled very well. Turf Wars introduces Hammerhead as a central new villain, who quickly develops into a formidable new foe- he may not be at the level of someone like Mister Negative, or some of the other major antagonists in the base game, but is a solid addition to the roster of rogues in Insomniac’s Spider-Man universe nonetheless. Silver Lining brings Silver Sable back into the limelight, and her uneasy alliance with Spider-Man and their interactions with each other are easily the highlight of the episode.

Other than them, important characters from the base game, including MJ, Yuri, Miles, and of course, Peter, are also shown plenty of love, and continue to be endearing and excellently written and acted characters. Storytelling, character interaction, and writing were some of the biggest strengths of Spider-Man earlier in the year, much to the surprise of a great many people, and that continues to be true in all three episodes of The City That Never Sleeps as well.

"In terms of the content on offer, The City That Never Sleeps is equally satisfactory. If you were to stick only to the main missions, collectively the three episodes can be roughly 8-10 hours long, but clearing out all the Challenges, Crimes, Bases, and other side activities can easily take that figure up to fifteen hours."

In terms of the content on offer, The City That Never Sleeps is equally satisfactory. If you were to stick only to the main missions, collectively the three episodes can be roughly 7-10 hours long, but clearing out all the Challenges, Crimes, Bases, and other side activities can easily take that figure up to as much as fifteen hours. As far as main content goes, Turf Wars, which is the second episode, hits a bit of slump in terms of mission design, and feels more run-off-the-mill than the other two episodes, but The Heist and Silver Lining both offer some excellent set piece moments, with Silver Lining especially having some missions that are just as good as – if not better than – a lot of the stuff we saw in the base game itself.

Side activities in The City That Never Sleeps are, on face value, reskins of the stuff we saw in the base game, but clearing them out is still a lot of fun. The Challenges, which are now themed around the social-media loving Screwball rather than around Taskmaster, have a nice bit of variation to them, while Hammerhead bases provide more of a challenge, and are often situated in some very interesting locations, especially in Silver Lining. Crimes, on the other hand, are mostly very familiar, and though there’s some variation here as well, they don’t do much that we haven’t seen already, and can end up feeling repetitive. There’s also a about half a dozen new side missions across all three episodes, often taking on the structure of collecting items scattered across the city, and many of them centre around some very interesting narrative threads, which might end up coming back in a big way in the sequel.

The City That Never Sleeps has a few technical issues that seem more prevalent than what we saw in the base game. On a few instances, the game completely froze for a couple of seconds, while other smaller issues popped up as well, such as subtitles that wouldn’t disappear even minutes after the scene in question was over, or interrupted dialog interactions that, unlike the base game, wouldn’t resume later on, or some regular graphical bugs and clipping issues. None of it was too intrusive, and nothing was so major that I was forced to restart the game, but the issues were still noticeable.

"If you liked Spider-Man itself, you’re almost guaranteed to enjoy The City That Never Sleeps. Collectively."

On the whole, if you liked Spider-Man itself, you’re almost guaranteed to enjoy The City That Never Sleeps. Collectively, all three episodes offer plenty of new content to dive into, a lot of which is excellently designed, while the core strengths of the base game – its traversal and its combat – are, obviously, very much on the forefront here as well. Best of all, the story told across all three episodes feels more essential than you would expect, acting as a direct continuation to the base game, rather than as a side-story or something that can be easily missed. Retailing at $25 at the time of writing, The City That Never Feels is well worth the price of entry.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Insomniac’s second DLC for Spider-Man on PS4 and the next chapter in “The City That Never Sleeps” saga releases today with Turf Wars. A new trailer has been released, which showcases some of the hardships that ol’ webhead will have to face. And of course, it’s J. Jonah Jameson bringing us up to speed with his usual over-the-top narration.

Turf Wars sees notorious villain Hammerhead taking on the Maggia family, seeking to wipe out all of its Dons. The police have a tough challenge ahead, especially when Hammerhead’s men come into possession of Sable International’s equipment. Along with new enemies, there are new Strongholds full of them that must be cleared out.

Spider-Man will have three new suits and new items to collect, along with different challenges to complete. An additional activity focused on Screwball, the social-media obsessed villain, also appears to be included, along with a small drone for eavesdropping on citizens. Check it out below.

Insomniac Games kicked off their post-launch plans for Spider-Man last month, when the first episode of their DLC series The City That Never Sleeps, titled The Heist, launched near the end of last month. The second episode, titled Turf Wars, was planned for a late November release, and now we know when exactly that’s going to be.

In the main menu screen for Spider-Man, a description for the upcoming Turf Wars confirms that the second piece of DLC is launching on November 20 (as spotted first on Reddit). The description also confirms that Hammerhead, who was introduced in The Heist, will be the main antagonist.

If the quality of The Heist is anything to go by, fans definitely have reason to be excited for Turf Wars. Meanwhile, Silver Lining, the third and final chapter in The City That Never Sleeps, releases some time in December. All three episodes can be purchased separately for $9.99, while The City That Never Sleeps can be purchased as a single package for $24.99.

I was so enamoured by the experience, in fact, that even after I had seen literally every single thing there was to see in the game, I just wanted more of it. Fatigue wasn’t even close to being a factor. As such, even though I’ve been jumping back into the game intermittently since I finished it to just stop some crimes and swing about Manhattan, what I’ve really been waiting for is for The City That Never Sleeps, Spider-Man’s three-episode DLC to kick off. The Heist, the first of those three episodes is out now. And after 100 per cent completion (again) in six hours across two sittings separated by an hour-long break, I can safely say that this first piece of DLC has given me exactly what I was looking for- more Spider-Man. 

"After 100 per cent completion in six hours across two sittings separated by an hour-long break, I can safely say that this first piece of DLC has given me exactly what I was looking for- more Spider-Man."

The focus in The Heist is on Felicia Hardy, a.k.a. Black Cat, the enigmatic burglar with an unpredictable moral outlook and a complicated history with Peter Parker. Black Cat was briefly featured in the base game, and her involvement in future content is something that I’ve been looking forward to, and it’s safe to say she doesn’t disappoint. Just like all the main characters in the base game, Black Cat is very well written, and equally well acted, and she steals the spotlight in almost every scene she is in. Her interactions and complicated relationship with Spider-Man are written with Insomniac’s (and Spider-Man’s) trademark humour, and you never quite know when she’s being honest about something, and when it’s yet another one of her ruses to double cross Spidey.

As a result, she comes across as a capable, unpredictable, and interesting character, and I can’t wait to see more of her in episodes two and three of The City That Never Sleeps– if she makes an appearance, that is. Besides Felicia Hardy, MJ and, of course, Spider-Man himself are at the centre of everything again, and The Heist continues to portray them just as well as the base game did. Their conversations have heart and humour, and its easy to connect to the pair almost instantly. Writing is strong in other areas as well- some of JJ Jameson’s podcast clips, for example, are absolute gold. MJ also gets a stealth-focused mission all to herself once again, and I suspect whether or not you like it will depend on how much you enjoyed those sections in the base game. Personally? I enjoyed it.

The story told in The Heist is also one of its strong points, but I feel it’s hard to judge it as things stand right now- Insomniac are very much telling a single, larger story with the entirety of The City That Never Sleeps, and this is only the very first episode. Several things are set in motion here, and a couple of them have me quite excited about what comes in the future. Besides the main story, The Heist comes with some new optional side content as well. One side mission tasks Spidey with finding ten old stolen paintings scattered and hidden across Manhattan- it’s structure is very similar to the side mission in the base game that had you zipping around collecting pigeons, but puts a different twist on it. Rather than chasing after pigeons, you have to search your surroundings for possible places where paintings might be hidden. It’s not quite as fun as the pigeons quest – since that quest, in spite of being the very definition of generic, was really all about focusing on web swinging (inarguably the game’s biggest strength), which isn’t quite the case here. It’s still inherently fun to get from point A to point B as you look for paintings, but it can get a bit fetch-quest-y. Thankfully, it’s interspersed with interesting narrative tidbits which kept me interested consistently, not to mention the fact that it was over before it could wear on me.

"Insomniac are very much telling a single, larger story with the entirety of The City That Never Sleeps, and this is only the very first episode. Several things are set in motion here, and a couple of them have me quite excited about what comes in the future."

The other side activities are extensions of those in Spider-Man itself. There are a few more crimes to tackle- some, such as store robberies and car chases, are pretty much the same as what was there in the base game. There are two new kinds of crimes as well, one of which sees Spider-Man defusing bombs on top of skyscrapers (with the occasional group of snipers trying to stop him), while the other tasks you with controlling the Spider-Bot to look for a certain number of hidden bombs within a time limit. I enjoyed the Spider-Bot crimes the most, because these were relatively more fresh, and offered a different experience from anything else in the entire DLC. What was a little disappointing, however, was that DLC’s crimes can only be found in a select few of Manhattan’s districts, so wrapping them all up can be done pretty quickly.

There are also new challenges, now set up by the social media-loving Screwball, which are more or less similar to Taskmaster’s Challenges in Spider-Man. Of the new challenges, one tasks Spider-Man with destroying EMP targets within a set time limit in a specific order, another challenges you to defeat a group of enemies before time runs out using only two of your gadgets and nothing else, while others are simple combat challenges. In total, there are six of these, and just as it was with Taskmaster’s Challenges in the base game, attempting them and trying to get higher scores (or beating your own old scores) is an absolute blast. Each challenge also comes with a fun little Screwball-themed twist, called Photobombs, which are opportunities for you to get extra points by zipping through specific areas or by defeating enemies in specific spots of the challenge arena. They’re not a huge addition, but they lend the challenges an interesting new twist.

While the content on offer in The Heist is mostly all enjoyable, it’s what’s not in the DLC that’s a bit disappointing. The Heist comes with three new suits, and while they look cool (or at least one of them does), they don’t come with any new suit powers. As such, these are plainly cosmetic additions, and nothing more, which is a tad disappointing. I was also disappointed by the lack of boss fights, and though the final combat encounter of the DLC’s story is thrilling and fairly challenging, the absence of even a single set piece boss encounter is keenly felt.

"In total, there are six Screwball Challenges, and just as it was with Taskmaster’s Challenges in the base game, attempting them and trying to get higher scores (or beating your own old scores) is an absolute blast."

Spider-Man: The Heist has quenched my incessant thirst for more Spider-Man content, while at the same time also making me hungrier for more. This first episode of Insomniac’s expansion is not exactly essential, and doesn’t bring anything extraordinarily new to the table- but it gives you an excuse to play more Spider-Man, and does it quite well at that, so I’d say Insomniac have succeeded in what they set out to do. Now the wait begins for the remaining two episodes, which come in November and December and, if The Heist is any indication, should be quite good.

We’ll be reviewing the entirely of Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps as a single expansion in December as well, once all three episodes are out, so stay tuned.

The first episode of Spider-Man’s The City That Never Sleeps DLC is out now, and Sony’s released a launch trailer to get you acquainted with all the activities and new content that the DLC brings with it. Just as it was with the base game itself prior to its launch, the trailer is accompanied by narration from JJ Jameson through his podcast, “Just the Facts”.

Other than a new story campaign – or episode one of it anyway – The Heist comes with plenty of other content as well, which includes Challenges, new Crimes, and new Suits. The trailer, which you can view below, gives brief looks at all of these, giving you a fair idea of what sorts of new activities you can expect in the DLC. And of course, JJ Jameson’s podcast is just as golden as ever.

To take a look at the new suits in the DLC, head on over here. Meanwhile, New Game Plus was also recently added to the game, along with some new updates to other features such as Photo Mode. Read more on that through here. Stay tuned to GamingBolt, our impressions of Spider-Man: The Heist will be going up soon.

Insomniac’s Spider-Man will be receiving The Heist, the first chapter of a three-part story called The City That Never Sleeps, on October 23rd. To build anticipation for the same, the three new suits included in the DLC have been revealed on PlayStation Blog. Eager collectors, take note. The suits include the Resilient Suit by Marvel’s Garbriele Dell’Otto, the only original one in the lineup.

Others include the Scarlett Spider II and the Spider-UK suit from Spider-Verse. Their abilities are unknown at this point, but discovering them is half the fun. Along with new suits, The Heist will include new story missions centered on Felicia Hardy aka Black Cat, a new faction, and new crimes (which seems to indicate new open world occurrences that Spider-Man can intervene in).

There will also be new trophies and challenges to earn. Of particular note is the New Game Plus update. PlayStation Blog mistakenly noted that the mode would be going live tomorrow (an error that’s since been fixed). However, community manager James Stevenson clarified on ResetEra that it would be coming “soon, prior to The Heist“.

Additional chapters in The City That Never Sleeps saga will be coming in November with Turf Wars and December with Silver Lining.

Insomniac’s Spider-Man will be released on September 7th for the PlayStation 4, but even if you burn through the 20-hour story in a weekend, there’s more on the way. The previously revealed DLC “The City That Never Sleeps” has received some new details, namely that Chapter 1: The Heist will be out on October 23rd.

The Heist centres on Felicia Hardy, otherwise known as Black Cat. Though she has somewhat of a presence in the base game, Hardy will be fully revealed in the DLC chapter. Along with a new faction of foes and three more suits, players will have new missions to complete. And to keep things rolling, Insomniac has dated the other two chapters for The City That Never Sleeps.

Chapter 2: Turf Wars is out in November, while Chapter 3: Silver Lining arrives in December. You can expect new missions, suits and challenges in those as well. Each DLC chapter retails for $9.99 separately, but you can pick up a bundle containing all three for $24.99.

For now, we’re eagerly anticipating reviews for Spider-Man, which go live on September 4th.