Rockstar also teases some Grand Theft Auto 3 surprises

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The 1/20 Hoenn legendary Pokemon figures will also come with a piece of chewing gum.

The post Hoenn Legendary Pokemon Scale World Figures Will Appear This Year appeared first on Siliconera.

Look to your left. Now your right. Now in front of you. Now behind you. Now up above. Odds are you're looking at someone who has two Switch units, because that attach rate is roughly 20%, Nintendo says.

Via the new financial results briefing to investors for the last fiscal year, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa opens up about just who is buying Switch hardware by giving us another demographic: multi-buyers. This past fiscal year ending in March 2021, he says "roughly 20%" of Switch sales were from people who already owned one.

Here's his full statement: "In the previous fiscal year, household demand for multiple systems accounted for roughly 20% of unit sales of the Nintendo Switch family of systems. Going forward, we expect demand for multiple systems per household will increase even as hardware unit sales grow. By region, significant sales growth is continuing in Asia, and we believe there is still room for sufficient growth of new demand in Europe and the United States, considering the sizes of those populations. To this end, we must thoroughly convey the appeal of existing titles and future titles to consumers."

This is something Nintendo has been hammering home for years, trying to get people to buy into the idea of the Switch being a "family" console and portable. And it's paying off. Right now based on their sales report of 84.59 million Switch units sold, multi-buyers added 16.91m to that number, which is an impressive jump that allowed Nintendo to get ahead of lifetime Xbox 360 and 3DS sales.

If they can keep the momentum, they'll hit 100 million soon enough. Furukawa is probably pushing them to release more exclusives as soon as possible.

The back half of May will see a whole bunch of additions to the Game Pass library, anchored by Knockout City. I have lost many, many games of dodgeball IRL, so I’m looking forward to continuing that trend in an interesting-looking game that may or may not fizzle out immediately. Always impossible to predict how these…

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Ezmerelda D’Avenir and the big changes being made to D&D

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Twitch is introducing local subscription pricing to ensure the cost of subscribing to streamers better aligns with the cost of living in different regions. ...

This article includes a partial transcript from an online Q& A with veteran game composer Winifred Phillips, along with additional content expanding on topics from the session. ...

Grand Theft Auto 5 hits PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S on 11th November, Rockstar has announced.

Currently, the game is playable on current-gen consoles via backwards compatibility.

The standalone version of GTA Online will be available to players on both platforms. But, as previously announced, the standalone version of GTA Online will be available for free exclusively to PS5 players during the first three months, ending in February 2022. This means that if you want GTA Online on Xbox Series X and S at launch, you need to pay up for the full game.

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Rockstar has announced a pair of big summer updates coming to GTA Online and Red Dead Online. Beginning this month and lasting into the summer, fans of the popular multiplayer destinations can look forward to partaking in new modes and quality of life updates. 

Later this summer, GTA Online’s new offerings puts a spotlight on street racing, with new multi-part heist missions centered on stealing the hottest rides. To get players ready beforehand, eight new stunt races, along with additional tracks, will join the GTA Online Stunt Series on May 27. 

Rockstar is also adding seven new arenas to the Tron-esque Deadline competitive mode, and Survival mode will stretch across to new locations in Los Santos and Blaine County. Unfortunately, the update doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the single-player focused content that was hinted at last December. 

The items will have illustrations drawn by Type-Moon's very own Takashi Takeuchi.

The post Tsukihime Remake Will Have Store-Exclusive Merchandise in Japan appeared first on Siliconera.

Neon Giant has set a date for its action-shooter RPG The Ascent. The fireworks will start on July 29, 2021 when The Ascent arrives on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

The Ascent takes place in a contained corporate metropolis, which quickly becomes a battlefield as multiple groups move in to seize power. Essentially, see bad guy, start blastin'. It's got a vibe of co-op alien shooter Helldivers, but with more RPG mechanics.

It looks mostly isometric, though there are some other camera angles and twists in the trailer. Neon Giant says The Ascent will have a "free-roam play style" set in a cyberpunk, dystopian world, but also have some RPG features that let you build your character up over time.

The Ascent is also playable in either solo or up to four-player co-op mode, and to help with that, it will also be coming to Xbox Game Pass on its launch day as well. Looks like if you're aching for some co-op shootin' with an RPG flavor this summer, The Ascent might be able to make that happen in July.

"For us it's pretty simple: The Lord of the Rings didn't make people fed up with fantasy; they wanted more of it." Arcade Berg, creative director on The Ascent, makes a good point. The Ascent (announced today as coming July 29th to the Xboxes, PC and Game Pass) is a cyberpunk game, all towering industrial dystopia, body augments and neon street signs, and we've had a few of those recently, but like most games it is more than its genre, and even in the wake of Cyberpunk 2077's noisy implosion the appetite for that genre is probably as strong as it's ever been, anyway.

Berg and the rest of the very small team at Neon Giant seem especially keen to emphasise, too, that these two games are different beasts. You would think that's pretty obvious - The Ascent is an intimate, top-down twin-stick shooter, for starters, not a blockbuster open world - but still, point taken. Do not compare The Ascent to Cyberpunk 2077.

It is tempting though. The two might well be different beasts but, playing the first hour or two of The Ascent, the impression is of a kind of alternate-universe version. It's surprisingly RPG-heavy, surprisingly stylish, surprisingly gorgeous, frankly. The core team at Neon Giant is just twelve people strong, a new studio founded by some "former AAA" developers with a bit of lingering frustration about the "waste" that comes with big-budget development, and they've made a game that's focused but also clearly quite ambitious. This is really the point here, too, more than the genre stuff. The Ascent is the type of game you get when a dozen veterans get together in a room and make whatever they want.

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Neon Giant's dystopian vision of a future, The Ascent, arrives on July 29. The Ascent is slated to land on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC, and is joining Xbox Game Pass. I had a chance to play a demo of the upcoming title, an isometric cyberpunk romp with tons of questing, lots of looting, considerable customization, and relentless action. Despite absolutely feeling like a sort of Blade Runner or Shadowrun world, many of those modern games brands in the isometric space have decided to go with a classic CRPG feel. Not The Ascent.

The Ascent takes place in a world of shadowy deals, cybernetic implants, and neon lights, but the combat is action-oriented and far away from turn-based fare. Mastering dodge-rolling and reloading windows becomes essential, especially when you're under duress from some giant creatures with hammers or some rowdy gun-toting goons.

When the PlayStation 5 was first revealed last June, the event kicked off with the announcement that an enhanced version of Grand Theft Auto V was heading to the console. We then learned just as quickly that the game was coming to Xbox Series X/S too. Rockstar Games has finally confirmed that the new-gen version of GTA V arrives this November and will include new features and perks for those who upgrade.

Circle November 11 on your calendar if you’ve been waiting to experience the wildly successful sandbox game on your next-gen console. While the game will likely look and run better, Rockstar hasn’t detailed its specific features as of yet but promises to share more information in the months to come. For now, it does share that players who upgrade will be treated to “special benefits” related to the GTA Online’s upcoming summer updates. 

Speaking of GTA Online, the popular online mode launches for new-gen consoles the same day. However, PS5 players will get to play it for free during the first three months after launch. Don’t forget that if you’re a PS4 player subscribed to PS Plus, you can claim $1 million in-game dollars from the PlayStation Store at the start of each month. You can do this every month until GTA V releases on PS5.

It's common in a lot of survival and role-playing games to pick up an item, and suddenly find yourself glued to the floor. We speak with creators on games like Fallout, Fable and more to get down to the design motivations behind encumbrance. ...

The off-road trucking of SnowRunner has ended a year of Epic Games Store exclusivity, today coming to Steam as well as Xbox Game Pass For PC. It's the follow-up to MudRunner, which was itself a spin-off from Spintires - two great games about dirty gert trucks getting stuck in physics-simulated mud. This time, it has snow too! The publishers have also kicked off a second year of free content updates and paid DLC.

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Zelda: Breath of the Wild has some incredible art, both in and outside of the game.

The box itself was pretty much perfect, showing off our hero Link in his new digs, overlooking a vast world that invited you to explore it. Artist Dion42o decided to take that beautiful art a step further and animate it.

I tried to make it as clear as possible in the headline: but this is a video effect imposed on the box itself. You can find a full rundown of how Dion42o did it here in this time-lapsed video. They used Adobe After Effects, as well as Photoshop.

The creator stated their original vision: "I really wanted a Guardian fight scene for the open case part, I was envisioning link parrying a beam and it shooting way outside of the case but I couldn't find anything like it."

Hey, this works! That Gold Lynel piece is one of my favorite all-time single selections of Zelda art. It really sums up the imposing feeling of squaring off against one for the first time: and all of the memories that go along with conquering them.

If there's one thing I've discovered about my gaming habits over the last couple of years, it's that I love a good photo mode. Lining up the perfect shot of a particularly pretty bit of virtual scenery is all well and good, but my favourite photo modes are the ones that let me fiddle about with what's onscreen, creating character poses and expressions that are totally incongruous with the rest of the scene. When a photo mode lets me tell my own version of events, I just can't help myself. Case in point: Days Gone's photo mode might not be the best or most flexible one out there, but it is a much funnier game when you use it to make Deacon's beloved bike invisible while he's still sitting on it.

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Alolan Rattata is in the spotlight May 18

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The daily cute Guilty Gear video series also newly introduced May's robotic copy.

The post Guilty Gear To Release Story Explanation Videos Starring May appeared first on Siliconera.

More information regarding Knives Out and Identity V will be revealed during the broadcast.

The post NetEase Connect 2021 Online Presentation Scheduled for May appeared first on Siliconera.

The Fallout 76 team continues to pump out more content, as the game sustains itself on the subscription service, microtransactions, and season passes: it's give and take.

The recent Locked and Loaded update added a ton of quality of life upgrades and generally more oomph to "dailies," and now the squad is going to build on that foundation with a larger content update. Specifically, we're getting a Steel Reign narrative mini-expansion, that builds on the Brotherhood content released several months ago.

That's in testing now, actually! If you have the game via the Bethesda launcher, you can boot up and select the PTR and give the upcoming content a go. In fact, Bethesda says that "the entire Steel Reign questline" (!) is in, which features the "conclusion of the Brotherhood of Steel story" in Fallout 76. It's meaty!

Other additions include the legendary crafting/attribute rework, as well as the Meat Week event. Bethesda is going to release the Steel Reign update after the testing period concludes, but they also have more minor patches to deliver before that happens.

This month 76 will host a patch on May 25, which is "mostly prep work" for Steel Reign, and involves bug fixes. Welp, the game could always use those! A lot of the big stuff (and more importantly, the egregious quality of life issues at launch) has been addressed, but the original foundation was so shaky, the team is still catching up.

Inside the Vault [Bethesda.net]

The word anime is often defined as “animation from Japan.” If only it were that simple! When you hear the word “anime”, images of large eyes and colorful hair come to mind. Maybe something like this?

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Mass Effect Legendary Edition has only been released a few days, but already there are dozens of mods to customise its experience.

Numerous options available via NexusMods tweak the trilogy's lighting, colour palette and field of view - such as the Better Camera (Higher FOV) mod by JadeBarker.

An early attempt at unlocking gay romance in Mass Effect 1 has also already appeared. Same Sex Mod for Default Shepard lets male Shepard romance Kaiden and female Shepard romance Ashley. But this will only work with the game's default Shepard models, and does not add any cut dialogue (Mass Effect did originally record voice lines for these romances, but did not implement them in the final game).

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Update: This is now sold out, but you can grab Home Circuit at the next best available price of £65 from 365Games.

The AR version of Mario Kart for the Nintendo Switch - Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit - is down to its lowest price yet at Amazon, just £55 for the Mario version of the game or £57 for the Luigi version.

If you're not familiar with Home Circuit, it essentially transforms your living room - or any other area of your house - into a Mario Kart racecourse by using the AR camera on the RC race car that comes bundled with the game. All you'll need to do is place the four cardboard gates also included with the game down onto an open space in your home to create the track.

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A new Shaman King title is on the way and will arrive on mobile devices soon.

The post Shaman King: Funbari Chronicle Announced for Mobile Devices appeared first on Siliconera.

SNK has released the first gameplay footage taken from "Metal Slug Code: J," the in-development mobile project currently on the workbenches at Tencent's TiMi Studios. The still-unnamed (and undated) run 'n' gun adventure is in the works for iOS and Android devices.

Early plans for Beyond Good & Evil were for it to feature multiple worlds - a vision its vapourware sequel was finally supposed to realise. But Beyond Good & Evil is all the more brilliant, I think, because of a sole focus on saving its singular planet: the beautiful, fragile Hillys.

It's hard not to fall in love with this chunky, colourful place when you're first introduced to it via Beyond Good & Evil's heroine Jade. There's a beautiful, memorable shot of her balanced on a cliff edge, practicing some kind of yoga with one of her orphan charges. Is it an orphan goat? I think it's a goat.

Anyway, Hillys is a peaceful world torn apart by war, and Jade's lighthouse sanctuary is where you are introduced to both her and the current, embattled state of everything.

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Mass Effect Legendary Edition received its first big update last night, bringing some helpful calibrations to BioWare's freshly remastered sci-fi RPG trilogy. Oddly, some of the changes include improved textures and lighting, which I thought was the point of the remaster in the first place. Other tweaks include achievement-tracking fixes and cutscene improvements, but the patch notes are pretty vague - especially for a patch some players report was an 11GB download.

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The wonderful SnowRunner has today launched on Steam, Xbox Game Pass and Nintendo Switch alongside Season 4: New Frontiers - and we've got confirmation of a second year of post-launch support.

SnowRunner, which Christian Donlan described as a "beautiful game about getting nowhere slowly", launched last year on the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

New Frontiers, meanwhile, is set in Amur Oblast, Russia, and provides 16 square kilometers of Russian wilderness to navigate for the rehabilitation of an abandoned rocket launch site.

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