Today Zenimax Online Studios released a new trailer of the new Flames of Ambition DLC for The Elder Scrolls Online.

The DLC brings two new dungeons the Cauldron and Black Drake Villa, and is kicking off the Gates of Oblivion year-long saga.

It has been released today for PC and Mac, while console versions will launch on March 16. It’s accompanied by update 29, which brings a redesign of the Champions system an improved character sheet, and more.

This will be followed by the Blackwood expansion on June 8. As you may know, it’s tied with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion just like the previous expansions were tied to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

You can check out the trailer below.

Here’s how Zenimax describes the DLC.

While Microsoft have been on a spending spree in recent years, snapping up studios of all shapes and sizes, it's still a little surprising that they're buying ZeniMax. That's Bethesda, Id Software, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, and the rest of the ZeniMax family joing Microsoft. And join they seemingly will, as financial authorities in both the US and Europe have recently approved the deal. $7.5 billion! The big bucks.

Read more

Coming this fall from Nintendo and Jakks Pacific, the $40 Super Mario deluxe Bowser Ship playset plays the airship theme as the 2.5-inch plumber climbs aboard to wreak havoc.

Read more...

Pokemon Card Rarity

After the 1.4 update, we'll see a Genshin Impact Childe rerun banner that will bring him back and give people a chance to get Rosaria.

The post Upcoming Genshin Impact Banner Will Include Childe and Rosaria appeared first on Siliconera.

My favorite video game clips are the ones where players show off a mechanic, feature, or trick that's either obscure, entertainingly unnecessary, or just plain easily overlooked by most people. If the idea is hiding in plain sight, even better! I want to feel silly for not even considering doing it before.

One recent-to-me example: you can use a bug net to pop balloons in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

When you don’t have a slingshot... from r/AnimalCrossing

You could be a normal player and just use a slingshot, of course. Or, if you want to live a little after spending countless hours with this game, you can load up the Island Designer app on your phone, plop down a cliff, climb up it with your ladder, and knock down the floating present with your humble net.

As impractical as this is, more than anything, I appreciate Reddit user ItzStarr86 demonstrating an alternate use for the terraforming tools. They're great in theory but they're too finicky for me.

Realistically, I'm never going to use this trick, but I love that I can – a cute a-ha moment.

My friend and colleague Harron Walker once found it difficult to preface the force that is Torrey Peters. Now, here I am, repeating that confusion, at a loss for how to possibly describe a writer who refuses to be pinned down by other’s expectations. Her debut novel, Detransition, Baby, published in January, has been…

Read more...

Arkane Studios is well-known for its love of systemic game design, which allows players to approach combat encounters and puzzles in myriad ways. Titles like Arx Fatalis, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and Dishonored helped the studio build a sizable cult following, and now the team is taking its artistic approach to game design and building something new: Deathloop.

Set on the chilly island of Blackreef, Deathloop is a story about a secret society that invents an eternal timeloop. There is just one catch: Most of the people caught in the cycle don’t have any memory of previous loops. Colt Vahn is the hapless hero who actually remembers everything that happens from one day to the next, and if he wants to escape this torment, he must assassinate the eight leaders of the program. Unfortunately, everyone on the island is also out to kill him.

During this morning’s Monster Hunter Twitch showcase, Capcom announced that Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is launching worldwide on July 9 to Switch and, surprisingly, PC via Steam. A new trailer gives us another look at the story-focused game’ narrative as well as teases of the game’s new features. 

Players control a custom Monster Rider, child of the legendary Rider Red. After Rathalos disappears from the world, players must uncover the truth behind a mysterious prophecy centering on the Wings of Ruin. They’ll be joined by Wyverian Ena and the returning Felyne hero Navirou. 

EA is building excitement for its upcoming co-op platformer, It Takes Two, with a brand-new trailer. The game launches in a few short weeks, on Mar. 26. It’s the latest title from Josef Fares and Hazelight, the team behind A Way Out, and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.

Much like Hazelight’s other games, it’s a co-op adventure that’s meant to be played with a friend in either online or couch co-op fashion. Friends can also play for free using the Friend’s Pass if one player already owns the game.

It Takes Two tells the story of May and Cody’s relationship. As you’ll see in the trailer, the two were magically turned into dolls by their daughter, Rose.

To return to normal, they’ll need to work together to mend their relationship while overcoming more than a few platforming obstacles.

Check out the It Takes Two trailer below to get a quick feel for the storyline and gameplay ahead of the game’s release.

Pacific Rim: The Black is dour and dire, but at least it develops the world

Continue reading…

Riot Games’ ambitious Valorant Champions Tour is proving a huge success so far, and it’s about to hit its first major milestone following the conclusion of Challengers Stage 1, leading into Masters next weekend.

While both North America and Europe have stood out as the most competitive and most-watched regions since the inception of Valorant esports, it’s the American scene that is typically considered the dominant force right now. It’s an opinion I’ve seen shared by players and analysts alike, and one that I’ve mulled myself, too.

But it’s not really based on anything tangible given that there’s been no opportunity for international competitions since Valorant’s launch due to COVID-19. There haven’t been any LANs.

The notion is instead predicated mostly around the simple fact that the American scene is just bigger: there are more teams, more competitions, and more prize money, and so it must be more competitive.

It’s a situation that Riot has actually nurtured itself through its own initiative. The company has, perhaps understandably, sought to establish Valorant on home soil first, supporting the region to a greater extent than anywhere else.

Super Nintendo World officially has a grand opening date in Japan for March 18, 2021. The opening has been up in the air regarding when was safe to do so given the issues due to the ongoing pandemic with COVID-19. While the other locations, including Florida's opening in the United States, are still under review regarding any opening dates, folks in Japan can dive into the fun later this month. 

The grand opening was originally slated to happen during Summer 2020, but COVID-19 had other plans. The date then moved to February 4, but another delay was unavoidable for similar reasons. Now, it looks like everything is finally set in stone. 

While this is exciting, I am a little sad that the marketing team missed the opportunity to have fun with "Mario Day" references that would have been allowed with a March 10 (MAR10) opening. Ah, what could have been.

The SMT III Nocturne HD Remaster ESRB rating is here and, while there are no spoilers, it does confirm the same rating and return of a familiar demon.

The post SMT III Nocturne HD Remaster Will Be Rated ‘Mature’ Again appeared first on Siliconera.

Bethesda shared the key art for Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Part Two, and yep, it's awesome.

Let's not forget that the art for The Ancient Gods - Part One was also on-point.

What about the DLC itself? When can we play it?

Based on the difficulty of the first part, I hope your aim, your traversal skills, and your ocular-patdown instincts are ready to go. Bethesda plans to release a teaser trailer for The Ancient Gods - Part Two on March 15, so the wait shouldn't be too much longer now. Doom Eternal turns one on March 20.

It's worth reminding everyone – myself included! – that Doom Eternal will have a free PS5 and Xbox Series X/S upgrade. I'm expecting to feel like Milhouse when he entered his name in Bonestorm.

In the meantime, if you're okay with spoiling yourself, the Part Two achievements leaked.

The Oval Office is the closest thing the U.S. has to a throne room. It is the inner-sanctum of the presidency. Most of us know it through news broadcasts, photos published by the news media, and its many depictions in pop-culture, and we know there’s a desk, some flags, a couple couches, and a landline phone. But…

Read more...

Rescue operations seem to be rather popular across gaming communities at the moment, as along with Valheim's very own unit of body recovery specialists, a modder has brought Fallout 76's Responders faction to Fallout 4.

The Commonwealth Responders mod, made by TU3SD4Y, adds a total of 28 new quests, 27 new outfits, 30 buildable items and 52 buildable signs to Fallout 4 - all themed around the Responders faction, of course.

The story focuses on the last surviving member of the Commonwealth Responders, who needs your help to rebuild the Responders from the ground up. (The Responders is a volunteer relief organisation introduced in Fallout 76, if you need a refresh.) The mod even comes with a snazzy trailer, which you can watch below:

Read more

After eight years the devil is clocking in at MgRonald’s again

Continue reading…

Walmart’s Mario games sale and the Apple iPad Pro 12.9" lead Monday’s best deals.

Read more...

Back in September of 2020, Microsoft revealed it was in the process of acquiring ZeniMax Media and all of the studios under that umbrella. With this acquisition comes many beloved franchises such as Doom, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Wolfenstein, and more. While what that means for all future games on the horizon (as we're still seeing PlayStation announcements for games under ZeniMax) remains to be seen, the European Commission (EU) has officially approved the $7.5 billion deal. 

The approval comes with the added notation that there are no "serious doubts as to its compatibility with the common market," meaning that the acquisition has no added conditions for this process. 

“The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns, given the combined entity’s limited market position upstream and the presence of strong downstream competitors in the distribution of video games,” reads the European Commission statement regarding the approval. “The transaction was examined under the normal merger review procedure.”

Six Days in Fallujah publisher Victura has issued a new statement on its upcoming controversial shooter set during the US-led invasion of Iraq.

The statement, issued via the company's Twitter this afternoon, repeatedly states that "the events recreated in Six Days in Fallujah are inseparable from politics", in contrast to widely-criticised remarks suggesting the opposite made last month by Victura boss Peter Tamte during an interview with GamesIndustry.biz.

"Players need that context to understand why they're in the city fighting those Al-Qaeda people," Tamte said previously. "We are going to provide that context, but keep in mind that we can provide that context without making a political statement, or without in any way disparaging the service of those who are actually there to fight."

Read more

The European Commission has approved Microsoft's seismic $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media. ...

Gaya Simulations just released its Kristiansand Airport (ENCN) add-on for Microsoft Flight Simulator enriching the growing simulator with another Norwegian destination.

ENCN isn’t a massive airport, being only the ninth-busiest in the country, but it gets a nice mix of airliner traffic (both regular and seasonal) and general aviation.

It also has a fairly short and relatively challenging runway with glide angles that are slightly steeper than the norm. The approach to runway 03 is very scenic, overflying the beautiful Topdalsfjorden and the city of Kristiansand.

Incidentally, below you can see said approach in detail, while the second video is a full flyover showing the airport from every angle and in every condition.

Like all Gaya add-ons, this is available on Orbx Direct for approximately $18, which means you can install it and keep it updated comfortably with the Steam-like Orbx Central client.

For 20 years now, the Stronghold series has fortified itself in an interesting place somewhere between a city builder and a more traditional real-time strategy. Stronghold Warlords continues this tradition with a new flavor as it takes us, for the first time in the series, to the battlefields of ancient and medieval East Asia. But as an RTS, it feels like it's still living in the mists of the past. And the city building, while it can be an interesting and almost zen little puzzle, often feels at odds with the goal of straightforwardly conquering your enemies.

The biggest, often refreshing difference between a Stronghold game and, say, Warcraft or StarCraft, is in how it pushes you to think about space. You're going to be turning an open plot of land into an impressive, thriving walled city... assuming no one razes it to the ground first. And it's not just the availability of natural resources you need to worry about. Decisions like placing your main stockpile close to resource collection areas can have a big effect on the efficiency of your economy, and keeping your people happy later on will partly depend on how many of your buildings are in the radius of temples. You really have to try and picture how everything is going to fit together, on top of building out your defenses to maximize your home field advantage. It does a good job of scratching that Tetris-y itch and making long-term planning pay off.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="legacyId=20099252&captions=true"]

The new trailer also shows more flashy actions that stay true to the original Dynasty Warriors games!

The post Dynasty Warriors Live Action Movie Will Land in China This April appeared first on Siliconera.

Outriders | $60 | Best Buy

Read more...

Thirty-five years ago, a new phrase first entered the pop culture lexicon: “There can be only one.” It’s from Highlander, a 1986 sci-fi fantasy from director Russell Mulcahy. The film stars Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod, a Scottish warrior who learns he’s an immortal being destined to battle across the…

Read more...

Just Flight will soon launch its PA-28R Arrow III add-on aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator, and today they released a trailer showing it off.

This is a highly realistic rendition of the aircraft, with in-depth reproductions of its systems, and it appears to be the perfect model to move from simply playing the game to the deeper learning aspects of the flight simulation hobby.

It will come with 11 liveries and will grant a 66% discount on the purchase of the Turbo Arrow when it releases.

You can check it out below.

Recently, we published our massive interview with head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann, who provided a lot of new info about the present and future of the sim.

While there may not have been any movies released in the franchise yet in 2021, Phase 4 of Marvel’s MCU is already kicking it into high gear thanks to its new television shows. And with WandaVision already wrapping up its season, Marvel is already prepping fans for the next big show on the docket, Falcon and Winter Soldier.

As the title dictates, Falcon and Winter Soldier will follow Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes just after the events of Avengers Endgame. The two must work together in order to stop a sinister plot from returning Avengers Age of Ultron villain Baron Zemo.

In order to best prepare fans for the upcoming mini-series, Marvel Studios’ Legends is set to let you relive the journey of each character, following them from their introductions right up until the start of the show.

For Falcon, Marvel Studios’ Legends revisits Sam Wilson’s journey to becoming The Falcon, also detailing his eventual partnering with The Winter Soldier. Bucky’s tale is a bit longer, as it relives his dark past and ultimate redemption.

A cohesive narrative is important to stories of all kinds, not just video games. Ori and the Will of the Wisps maintains this narrative cohesion for everything but one vital character. ...

Gamasutra editor-in-chief Kris Graft speaks with Ian Main, technical marketing principal at virtual desktop and workstation platform Teradici about remote game development during lockdowns and beyond. ...

Monster Hunter Rise is on the way and to celebrate, Capcom just revealed a brand new trailer for fans of the series to enjoy, including new monsters on the way. In addition to the Monster Hunter Rise gameplay trailer, we've also got confirmation about the next demo for the upcoming game. But first, the trailer. 

New Monster Hunter Rise gameplay trailer and features

In our latest look at Monster Hunter Rise, Capcom showed off a new Rampage quest type as Hunters work alongside the citizens of Kamura Village to prepare them for survival against hordes of hungry monsters. With the new trailer also comes a first look at some new gameplay features, including the Silkbind Attacks that all four weapon types will be able to utilize and the Switch Skills for each weapon's progression. 

Monster Hunter Rise will also include dynamic difficulty scaling for multiplayer that will automatically adjust for new players as they come and go out of the online experience. 

Today FuRyu released another trailer of its upcoming JRPG Caligula 2, or The Caligula Effect 2 as it’s going to be called in the west.

The trailer focuses on MU-Kun, one of the “Obbligato Musicians” that guard the virtual world of Redo and that will oppose the heroes’ drive to freedom.

He is voiced by Taku Yashiro, whom you may know as Magnai in Final Fantasy XIV.

The associated composer is Police Piccadilly. You can check out the trailer below.

The Caligula Effect 2 has recently been revealed and it’ll be released in Japan on June 24 for PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Western gamers will have to wait a bit longer, but we already know that it’s coming to North America and Europe in Fall 2021 for the same platforms, courtesy of NIS America.