As the popular battle royale genre continues to search for new locations, realms, and even eras with which to wreak its multiplayer mayhem, fledgling studio Team GRIT has announced its intention to take the Last Person Standing concept back to the wild west, with the announcement of a brand new hard-shooting free-for-all: Grit.

Currently in development for PC, Grit will see 100 varmints take to the dust bowls, saloons, gold mines, and deserts of the Old West, engaging in tense, gun-slinging mayhem in hopes of becoming the last desperado in town come sundown. Looting trains and treasure will help kit out your cowboy with one of 20 different weapons, while scavenged poker cards will add various buffs and effects to your custom character's playstyle.

Capcom has also released a statement, mentioning that the company would like to extend the scope of the brand.

The post Monster Hunter Rise Sales Surpass 5 Million Units Worldwide appeared first on Siliconera.

Monster Hunter Rise is selling extremely well pretty much everywhere, and now it hit another milestone: five million shipped globally. As a reminder, this is just on Switch, as it's exclusive to Nintendo's platform at the moment.

Capcom has confirmed the new number as of this morning, noting that this is part of the 66 million in sales that the series has reached overall. Accounting for Monster Hunter: World's 16.8 million units, these two games alone have basically made up a third of the entire franchise sales figures.

But circling back to the big picture a bit, with five million shipped, Monster Hunter Rise is already part of the respectable "top 10 platinum title" club, a list joined by Monster Hunter: World, RE7, RE2 (remake), RE5, RE6, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, SFII, SFV, and RE2. The addition of Rise has knocked Monster Hunter Freedom 3 out of the top 10.

Also, on the same landing page, Capcom reconfirms that the game is set to debut on PC in "early 2022." So if you think about it, it only has up to go from here. Rise is about to take on Street Fighter V for the eighth overall spot, and will likely beat out Street Fighter II in a matter of time.

Watching Studio Ghibli movies can make you hungry. The food always looks so darn good. But why? There has to be a reason for this, and producer Toshio Suzuki has it.

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Final Fantasy XIV's registered users continued to climb as the latest update patch draws near.

The post Final Fantasy XIV Surpasses 22 Million Registered Users Worldwide appeared first on Siliconera.

The jovial Geoff Keighley is the latest event organizer to announce their plans for summer in lieu of the typical E3/gamescom live-show gatherings. Keighley has announced that Summer Games Fest will return this June, bringing with it news, reveals, interviews, and Q&A sessions - as well as another "Day of the Devs" showcase for upcoming studios.

Described as a "free, industry-wide celebration of video games", Summer Game Fest 2021 will give viewers the opportunity to check out a wide variety of incoming releases and exciting trailers from the comfort and safety of their own homes. This year's show promises world exclusive reveals, as well as musical performances. Keighley will, of course, be on-hand to host live streams and chat with featured developers and other industry pals.

The "Day of the Devs: Summer Game Fest Edition" is a sub-event produced in association with Double Fine Productions and iam8bit. This feature will spotlight developers and games on a more focused basis and will feature a specially curated selection of upcoming games and studios chosen by Keighley and the Day of the Devs team. If you are a developer and would like your game to be considered for the show, then you can submit your application right here. Submissions close on April 9, so get a wriggle on.

Summer Games Fest 2021 will take place this June. Specific dates will be disclosed soon.

The new character promotion reels will each feature a character from the series starting with Shinji Ikari, accompanied with music by Hikaru Utada!

The post Six New Evangelion Character Promotion Reels Will Appear This Week appeared first on Siliconera.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has addressed reports that it will be hiding content from its upcoming E3 2021 experience behind a "Premium Package" paywall, which was rumored to be offering demos and other content for an "entrance" fee of sorts.

News outlet VGC originally reported that it had spoken with sources within the industry who had indeed been offered a "paid access" E3 experience. But following the publishing of said report, The ESA contacted VGC - and also took to social media - to declare that "that there will be no elements at E3 2021 that will be behind a paid-for pass or paywall." and that everyone will be able to tune into the online event free-of-charge.

2021 is a vital year from the long-running industry show. E3 has been held annually in Los Angeles since 1995, and for decades has been considered the premier industry show. But the modern proliferation of the internet, the rise of social media, and the simplicity of live streaming has led many major publishers to hold their own showcases online, away from the hustle and bustle of the event.

Metroid Prime is a classic. I don't think that's up for debate. It just is.

Nintendo thinks so! Which is why they released it again years later in trilogy form on the Wii after its GameCube debut in 2002. But ever since that 2009 Wii edition, the series has remained dormant. I mean, there's allegedly another one in the works! But that could be years away at this point. Enter the fandom.

There's still a huge collective rallying around the Metroid franchise at large, as well as the Prime series. One of those groups managed to craft a demake of Metroid Prime, which is now available in demo form. Said demo entails the Tallon Overworld, Artifact Temple, and the Chozo Ruins, but the team "needs to spend more time" working on it to expand upon that setup.

The demo itself is the result of five years of work from "Team SCU." Presumably to avoid legal issues, the team is calling this project "Prime 2D," though I'm not sure that will be sufficient if Nintendo really wants to nail this.

Since I'm inevitably going to get the "thanks Destructoid, you personally emailed Nintendo to get this shut down!" messages, I'll note here that the project creators put up a public post for the demo, and "Let's Plays" are already on YouTube (like the one below), one of the world's largest video platforms, for public viewing. The "secret" is out!

Metroid Prime 2D Demake [Metroid Database via Nintendo Life]

Konami has canceled the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2021. This isn’t a first. The event was also canceled last year.

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A few years ago, I had some time to kill in Huddersfield and decided to check for any interesting books in the Oxfam shop. I'd never seen a copy of Granta before nor hunted one down, presuming my intelligence was below its target readership and assumed my pretentiousness lay elsewhere. (Spoiler: despite ongoing questions regarding my intelligence, it didn't.) But here it was, an issue dedicated to the best young American writers.

It included a short story by Karan Mahajan called The Anthology. I'd previously read his second novel, The Association of Small Bombs, and the queasy, uncertain feelings it gave me were reason enough to make me a fan. The Anthology brought out a similarly uneasy reaction in me, as it's another dark story, one about the aftermath of a bombing and it begins in Delhi in 2000 at a literary event. It's a world away from video games, but Mahajan's focus on politics and world-building felt relevant to the spaces where games often find themselves these days. Mahajan's work reminds me of Donna Tartt's theory of "density and speed" as being central to her work, something she emphasised during the release of The Goldfinch. "You're building a big, heavy article but you want it to go fast. You want the readers' experience of it to be fast. And you want there to be detail in it."

Tomorrow sees the return of one of gaming's weirdest and quirkiest franchises. It's been a long time coming, but Oddworld: Soulstorm will see brave Mudokan Abe stand against impossible odds to save his people from slave labor at the greasy hands of the Glukkons.

Developer Oddworld Inhabitants has released a quadrilogy of videos, focusing on various elements of Oddworld: Soulstorm. From the stealth gameplay and "follower management" of previous titles, to new looting and crafting mechanics. The four videos offer fans a taste of the epic adventure to come. Described as a "re-take" of 1998's Abe's Exoddus, Soulstorm is a fresh sequel to the franchise's original release, Abe's Oddysee, and will follow Abe and his friends as they continue their quest for liberation.

YouTuber Michael Pick managed to craft a gigantic Nintendo Switch that actually works. So how did Pick do it? Well, there's a very breezy and informative roughly four-minute video to catch, but here's a quick overview.

In short, it's a Switch hooked up to an embedded 4K screen. Basically, the giant thing has working buttons, but for ease, you're going to want to hook up something like a Pro Controller to it. At 2:38 in the video Pick opens up the "Joy-Con" to show the internal wiring. Real Joy-Con are mounted inside each faux giant Joy-Con, with servos that control the overarching "giant Switch."

The entire rig is 65 pounds, has a 4K display, and clocks in at 30 inches high and 70 inches wide. The story doesn't just end there either! Pick donated the giant Switch to Saint Jude's Children's Hospital.

This reminds me of when my old gaming crew would hook a game up to a projector and play it on the side of a building, or in a movie theater. As someone brought up in the comments of the YouTube video, one really cool way to use this giant Switch would be for a co-op game that tasks players with using the same controller: having two people negotiate the giant Joy-Con would be a fun team-building exercise.

Today Capcom announced with a press release that Monster Hunter Rise passed five million units shipped worldwide.

Of course the number includes both copies shipped to physical retain stores and full-game digital downloads.

The press release also mentions that Capcom intends to roll-out initiatives beyond games to increase the value of the Monster Hunter brand. The franchise has shipped 66 million units as of December 31, 2020, which means that now it’s at over 71 million units.

Below you can read the full announcement.

Capcom Co., Ltd. today announced that Monster Hunter Rise for Nintendo Switch has shipped 5 million units worldwide.

The Monster Hunter series consists of hunting action games that pit players against giant monsters in a beautiful natural environment. Beginning with the first title in 2004, the series established a new genre in which players cooperate to hunt ferocious monsters with their friends and has since grown into a global phenomenon with cumulative sales of the series exceeding 66 million units shipped as of December 31, 2020.

Can a menu be epic? Of course it can, and the folks at Drydock Dreams Games proved it with a brand new Task Force Admiral Vol.1: American Carrier Battles video.

The video showcases the game’s main menu alongside the candidate music theme of the upcoming strategy game set in the Pacific theater of World War II.

You can check it out below and see what I mean.

If you want to see more about Task Force Admiral Vol.1: American Carrier Battles, you can take a look at more images, another batch, and the original announcement.

The game doesn’t yet have a release date, but we already know that it’s coming for PC.

You can also read an official description below.

Developer Troglobytes Games and Publisher 101xp new videos of the upcoming action game Blind Fate: Edo no Yami.

The videos showcase three enemies that we’ll fight in the game. The Akaname, the Wanyudo, and the Dorotabo.

You can watch them below with a brief description for each.

Akaname (垢嘗) – (“Filth Licker”) is a demon from Japanese folklore that found its place in our upcoming game Blind Fate: Edo no Yami.

Wanyūdō (輪入道) is a yokai that is said to take the form of a burning oxcart wheel bearing the tormented face of a man that found its place as one of the mobsters in our upcoming game Blind Fate: Edo no Yami.

The four chimeras introduced in Pokemon Sword and Shield are getting plushes.

The post Fossil Pokemon From Sword and Shield Appear as Plushes appeared first on Siliconera.

I’m not saying the composer on Balan Wonderworld ripped off a classic tune from the Ghostbusters film soundtrack, but the similarities are striking...

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Outriders is an always-online game that you can play entirely solo. Normally, you can’t pause it even when alone. But a clever PC player figured out a way to pause the game using their Nvidia GPU.

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The Kotobukiya Madoka Yuki model kit is the first in the Sousai Shojo Teien line and is both easy and enjoyable to build and display.

The post Kotobukiya’s Madoka Yuki Model Kit Is a Versatile Delight appeared first on Siliconera.

Star Trek Legends, recently released on Apple Arcade, plays a lot like Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes, Disney’s Sorcerer’s Arena, DC Legends and countless other turn-based mobile RPGs. But without any energy meters or annoying microtransactions. As a result, it feels like a game and not a treadmill designed to ferry you…

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Respawn has done a phenomenal job at ensuring that the Apex Legends experience continues to evolve in a meaningful way. Set within the Titanfall universe, many players have been wondering if the battle royale game would be incorporating more fully with its Titanfall counterpart. Luckily, Apex Legends season 9 promises just that, though we're selfishly hoping that a Titanfall 3 will be coming down the pipeline sooner rather than later. 

On Reddit, one player shared a clip with Fuse's "ready" sound that seems directly connected to Titanfall:

Fuse's tactical ready sound is from Titanfall, different from other legends. from r/apexlegends

A recent roundtable panel revealed the confirmation fans have been looking for, at least regarding Apex, confirming more Titanfall-inspired content on the way. After saying that players are "going to see a ton of Titanfall coming into Apex in one way or another," the panel continued saying: 

“Titanfall is a war story, Apex is life after the war; we’re trying to integrate Titanfall into that. We’re looking at what Titanfall means for this universe. It has lasting impacts that are going to become bigger and bigger.”

From April 2-6, Warner Bros. is running a special event in their free-to-play mobile RPG Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem featuring a chubby variant of Bugs Bunny, now officially called "Big Chungus." This version of Bugs first appeared in a 1941 animated short called Wabbit Twouble, though he was not any sort of chungus in a formal capacity until now. Sweet children and sad adults hooked on the title might assume that this new fat rabbit is just another wacky original concept. But anyone who farted around gaming Twitter for the past few years is likely aware that Big Chungus started with a meme in 2018. 

Or did he?

They say that explaining a joke is the best way to kill it. That goes triple for "random internet humor" that thrives off the appearance of coming out of nowhere and meaning nothing. 

Friends, nothing is random. Everything has meaning, and everything comes from somewhere. Even Chungus. Especially Chungus. 

No one knows exactly who was the first person to say the word "chungus." It could have been a caveman. It could have been your dad. It could have been the famous Meatloaf, mispronouncing his own stage name in Vietnamese in a weak, sweaty attempt to sound cultured. When it comes to social media though, this off-hand tweet from 2010 is often cited as the oldest chungus utterance. 

Not as the weird snake goop thing that was ‘90s VFX gone wild. But...y’know, just Eric Roberts going to town on a scenery buffet in the way all great Master performances do.

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Microsoft has been trying quite hard to win the heart of the Japanese audience over the last few years, and this week they attempted something new to advertise Xbox Game Pass.

The Japanese arm of Xbox worked with popular virtual YouTubers Shishiro Botan and Himemori Luna to advertise the service, showcasing the perks and features of Game Pass (including the recent acquisition of Bethesda) and gameplay from Gears 5, Control, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and Forza Horizon 4.

Shishiro Botan is part of the popular Hololive vTuber agency. Belonging to the 5th generation, she’s a relative rookie. Having debuted only in August 2020, she earned her popularity very quickly, currently counting over 700,000 subscribers on her channel.

The stream had 106,845 views and the audience certainly appeared to enjoy it, with over 10,000 likes against only 52 dislikes.

Himemori Luna is from Hololive’s fourth generation, having debuted in January 2020. She has over 500,000 subscribers and her stream was watched by 108,769 people, currently with over 11,000 likes and only 46 dislikes.

Taking the waifu route certainly isn’t a bad idea to appeal to Japanese gamers. We shouldn’t forget that the Xbox 360 used to be a very popular platform among visual novel developers back in the day. Besides, Shishiro Botan’s appearance and style somehow feel appropriate for Xbox.

To those who celebrate, Happy Easter! To those who don’t care or just realized today is Easter Sunday, happy Sunday! A year ago things were bad. Today, things are...still bad. But getting better! I think.

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Sega released brand new screenshots of the upcoming Phantasy Star Online 2 spin-off Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis.

The images were, as usual, provided by the official community Twitter account Rappy.Commu with some of the notes translated via the official PSO2 global Twitter account.

They showcases bosses and enemies, including the “Alters,” a demon-like kind of monsters.

You can check them out below.

The effect parts let you recreate the cutest versions of their deadly attacks.

The post Tanjiro Kamado and Giyu Tomioka Nendoroids Rereleased appeared first on Siliconera.

The evil genius archetype is one that fascinates me. It’s not that outlandish that an eccentric megalomaniac could gather a group of underlings and launch a campaign against the world, but I can’t convince a courier to leave a package at my doorstep, let alone a legion of faceless goons to lay down their lives for me. I also don’t know what I’d do with the world if I ruled it. Enact permanent daylight savings and mandatory nap times?

Forget that, though; what would I make my minions wear? What humiliating nickname would I give my most loyal henchman? How would I mock secret agents? I’d probably invite them to tea and just repeat everything they say.

Back in 2004, Evil Genius provided me the chance to live my dream. Kind of. I really enjoyed the game, but it definitely had its problems. Nonetheless, Rebellion has seized the reins and has breathed new life into the property with Evil Genius 2: World Domination. Their approach to a sequel seems to be a complete do-over. The result is another game that may not be for everyone but certainly tightened the screws on the old doomsday device.

Third-party developers had more news to share about Microsoft Flight Simulator scenery today, particularly for those who love to fly in Japan.

Metropolitan Airport Development Brothers revealed the first trailer of its Osaka Itami Airport (RJOO), which will finally provide another reasonably large international airport (even if it serves mostly domestic flights) to the archipelago.

You can watch it below.

More news comes from Gate15Scenery, who announced Okegawa Airfield (RJT1), also known as Honda Airport, it’s a small one in Saitama Prefecture reasonably close to Tokyo.

Sure, the hunting monsters is cool and all. But I think the best part of the Monster Hunter games is all the good food. Like the big “Chef’s Choice Platter” from Monster Hunter World, which was recently recreated by the YouTube channel Binging With Babish.

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Cyberpunk 2077's 1.2 patch arrived last week, accompanied by an absolutely gigantic list of bug fixes, tweaks and upgrades. Dedicated players should see game-breaking bugs addressed, but fundamentally, has the game been fixed on consoles? Can we now recommend purchasing the title on last-gen systems? To cut to the chase, there's good news for PlayStation 4 Pro owners, but in terms of performance and stability, there's still a long, long way to go.

What the patch notes don't spell out in great detail is any particular push to optimise the experience for the PS4 and Xbox One generation of consoles, though there is a long list of engine-specific optimisations that should in theory improve the experience for all users. There are also promised improvements for the controversial temporal anti-aliasing solution, plus improved screen-space reflections. Xbox One is singled out for memory management optimisations too - but it's the streaming optimisations that caught our eye as it's this that seems to be the key for dramatic improvements on the title on PlayStation 4 Pro.

The Oddworld: Collection will launch on Nintendo Switch on 27th May.

The bundle - which includes Oddword: New'n'Tasty, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath - was announced on 1st April, leaving some fans uncertain if the news was real or an elaborate April's Fool joke, particularly as all games are already available separately on the Nintendo eShop.

Thankfully, the official Oddworld Twitter account was on hand to assure players that yes, the announcement was real.

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The free-to-play, low-spec version of PUBG, PUBG Lite, will close down at the end of the month.

Originally known as PUBG Project Thai, PUBG Lite is a low-spec version of PUBG that allows players with basic PCs and laptops to access the game. It was first trialled in Thailand, before rolling out to other territories a couple of years back.

Now, however, the free-to-play game is being shut down on 29th April. No reason was given for the decision.

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