Following a surprise release on Nintendo Switch after the December 2020 Indie World Showcase, Among Us is now available on Xbox Game Pass for PC.

In a blog post detailing the announcement, Microsoft specified that Among Us is currently only available on PC through Xbox Game Pass or as a standalone $5 purchase. An exact release date for when Among Us will be available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S is unknown, but developer Innersloth's social deduction game will hit Xbox consoles sometime next year.

Among Us, which originally launched in 2018 but catapulted to success this year on the back of popular streamers, is also now available on Nintendo Switch. The game features cross-play between mobile devices (Android and iOS), PC, Switch, and now Xbox Game Pass for PC.

Call of Duty: Warzone now includes 30 new weapons from Black Ops Cold War and players are having trouble adapting to them. They've found that the new weapons are at a disadvantage compared to ones that have been in Warzone since March.

"These guns cannot and will not be able to compete with the current Modern Warfare guns," said Redditor ruckh in a thread about the new update. "It boils down to the attachments--specifically the barrel, the suppressors, and the grips."

Black Ops Cold War weapons were brought to Warzone with all of their original attachments and stat types--which are different to the ones used in Modern Warfare and Warzone. The attachments they do have can't compete with ones that were available before the update.

Today the good folks at Turtle Rock Studios showcased plenty of gameplay of the upcoming Back 4 Blood.

On top of the gameplay, we also got to see a developer diary video in which the team explains the vision behind the game.

You can check both out below.

Back 4 Blood was originally announced in 2019 and came back this year at The Game Awards.

CD Projekt Red launched Cyberpunk 2077 last week on PC and consoles and you might’ve heard at this point that the game is crammed with some nasty bugs and glitches. It’s specifically hurting those who chose to play the latest AAA open-world RPG on base PS4 and Xbox One consoles.

I’ve already put together an article of some of the funniest glitches in bugs in the form of viral tweets and Reddit posts, but you know what’s better than separate tweets? That’s right, one single video that cuts together all of the best glitches found so far in Cyberpunk 2077, and the short clip is very well-edited if I might add.

The Reddit post comes from u/Campbell_Beans and is meant to mimic a launch trailer for Cyberpunk 2077, which would typically be presented in a way to sell gamers to Cyberpunk 2077. But this ‘Launch Glitches Trailer’ sort of does the complete opposite.

Take a look below and get ready to have a good ol’ chuckle.

The Immortals Fenyx Rising Adventure Time Character Pack has items inspired by Jake, Finn, and Lady Rainicorn.

The post Immortals Fenyx Rising Adventure Time Pack Brings in Finn, Jake, and Lady Rainicorn appeared first on Siliconera.

In a year full of all kinds of bad real-world news, pop culture still managed to poke its head up periodically to remind us that not everything sucks. Of course, this being 2020, that same realm also managed to leave a few steaming piles for us to step in, too. Here are our picks for the year’s highlights and…

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We talked to Ion Hazzikostas about everything Torghast

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The Monster Hunter star reflects on her journey as an underrated cinematic slayer

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Sure, Fortnite may have its Winterfest, and Overwatch has its Winter Wonderland, but Vikings? Vikings practically invented the winter solstice, and Ubisoft is showing that off in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s free holiday update, dubbed the “Yule Festival.”

Valhalla’s Yule Festival runs from December 17 to January 7, letting players collect some free cosmetics and play around with some new activities. Note: You’ll have to complete one story arc (either Grantebridgescire or Ledecestrescire) to access the Yule Festival.

The first thing players will likely notice is the expansion to Ravensthorpe, the settlement that players establish as Eivor early on in the game. The area is much snowier as a result of the winter solstice, and the settlement has been decorated in preparation for festivities.

Side activities include drunk brawls (the best kind), archery challenges, and others. Players who play throughout the activities will receive “Yule tokens” to exchange for cosmetic rewards, like new outfits for Eivor.

Here’s the full list of Yule rewards.

• Mōdraniht Ceremonial Outfit

• Mōdraniht Tattoo Set

• Mōdraniht Ceremonial Seax

• Mōdraniht Ceremonial Shield

• Traditional Yule Garland

• Sacrificial Altar

• Ritual Tree Ornaments

• Cozy Fire Pit

Epic has kicked off its annual Holiday Sale, which includes big discounts on a wide variety of PC games. Not only can you get games like Immortals Fenyx Rising, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and others for their lowest prices yet on PC, but you can also save even more on your purchases thanks to nifty, unlimited coupons. The Holiday Sale runs until January 11, so you have a few weeks to take a look around.

Like other big sales at Epic, the extra promotion make the discounts even more enticing. If you have an Epic Games Store account (which is free), you simply need to sign in to claim a $10 off coupon. The coupon works on all games priced $15 and up. Best of all? You'll get a new coupon with every eligible purchase. This means every game on the Epic Games Store priced above $15 is effectively $10 cheaper than the advertised discount. Coupons will expire at the end of the sale.

A hands-on guide to how you predict and control the player's meaning-making by differentiating between cognitive and behavioral goals in sequencing a motivating game space. ...

It's been nine years since Left 4 Dead 2. That's right, I feel old too. In that time, there have been plenty of games that have tried to duplicate the thrills of the Valve classic with variable rates of success. Back 4 Blood is also entering the undead arena, but there's a difference this time. The game is being developed by Turtle Rock Studios, the team that brought us the original Left 4 Dead and ushered in an era of zombie-slaying co-op madness.

But the developers aren't content with just rehashing what worked before. Back 4 Blood features an all-new deck-building system that sees players using cards to boost their abilities during the match. But the zombies aren't the only enemies gamers have to worry about. Back 4 Blood features a game director similar to Left 4 Dead that also draws cards and ramps the difficulty according to how well you're doing. But how does that all combine in-game and does it stray too far from the successful formula of what came before it? You'll just have to watch to find out.

Join Kim Wallace, Liana Ruppert, Alex Van Aken, and me as we team up to take the zombie hoard down and show off everything you can do in Turtle Rock's closed alpha event. 

Pikkon will Thunder Flash Attack his way into Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 this spring.

The post Pikkon Will Join Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Next Year appeared first on Siliconera.

Twelve years ago, a small development team owned by Valve, known as Valve South, dropped a little game called Left 4 Dead — A zombie themed coop first person shooter that pit four players against a zombie horde and forced them to look out for the group as opposed to just looking out for the individual if they hoped to survive.

This helped give birth to a whole new sub-genre of coop survival first person shooters, and while Valve continued the legacy with Left 4 Dead 2, the original developers of Left 4 Dead, now reformed as Turtle Rock Studios, had not returned to the genre that they helped pioneer.

That changes with Back 4 Blood, an appropriately titled four player zombie themed coop survival shooter that goes into closed alpha testing starting today, and if my early impressions are anything to go off of, it’s good to have Turtle Rock back where they belong.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/17/back-4-blood-full-campaign-closed-alpha-gameplay"]

So much of Back 4 Blood is directly inspired by Left 4 Dead that I think it’s actually important to lead off with the areas in which it tries to be different, and nowhere is that more apparent than in its deck building system. In Back 4 Blood, you actually build a deck of cards that you take in with you to each level. These cards are broken up into four categories: Reflex, Discipline, Brawn, and Fortune. Reflex cards typically focus on granting bonuses to speed or stamina; discipline cards are all about efficiency, so they offer buffs that give better accuracy, better healing, more ammo, and so on; Brawn cards buff your health, damage, and resistances; and finally fortune cards focus on giving you a percent chance of something happening, along with other general utility focused boons, like the ability to have unlimited ammo on your secondary weapon, or being able to shoot while sprinting.

In today's contest you can win Spirit of the North: Enhanced Edition - Signature Edition from Signature Edition Games!

Have you heard of Spirit of the North? I hadn't until the kind folks over at Signature Edition Games gave me a copy to give away! Win yourself a PS5 copy in our first ever next-gen contest!

Original Left 4 Dead developer Turtle Rock evolves the zombie shooter

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There are few finer pleasures than getting to see someone who's really bloody good at something doing what they're really bloody good at, which probably explains the massive smile on my face after ploughing through the first act of Turtle Rock's co-op shooter Back 4 Blood. This, quite simply, is the team behind Left 4 Dead back doing what it does best, and doing it that little bit better too. It's a return to the same concept - you and three friends against seemingly endless hordes of undead - with that same exquisite balance, and that same chunky gunplay. From the blunt borrowings of the title and beyond, it's clear that Back 4 Blood isn't shy of inviting comparisons.

"Yeah, well, I think it's fair to say for sure," says Back 4 Blood's creative director and Turtle Rock co-founder Phil Robb. "I mean, anyone who is a fan of the Left 4 Dead series will feel comfortable playing this game - but we've got a lot more stuff we've packed into it as well. There are similarities, but it's its own thing."

That's the thing that's most striking about Back 4 Blood - at first, at least, before you begin to grasp some of its own quirks and twists. There's the familiarity of it all, the heft of its assault rifle in the hands as it chugs through swarms of undead as reassuring in its own way as putting on a pair of favourite slippers, but in Back 4 Blood everything's been dialled up a notch or two.

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Today Striking Distance Studios revealed a brand new trailer of their upcoming survival horror The Callisto Protocol.

The cinematic trailer is an extended and uncensored version of what we saw at The Game Awards, showing off more of the atmosphere that we can expect from the terrifying game.

You can check it out below. You’ll likely have to click through to YouTube because of the age restriction.

The story focuses on the protagonist’s attempt to escape a prison on Callisto, and discover the dark secrets hidden in the facility in the process. Of course, surviving is also kind of the point of a survival horror game.

The developers selected a prison as the setting because it’s a terrifying and ominous place on its own, and it’s even worse if it’s set on a dead moon lost in space.

The game is developed by Striking Distance Studios, which counts on developers like Glen Schofield and Steve Papoutsis, veterans of the Dead Space franchise.

It’ll be interesting to see if this new game will be the spiritual successor that many have been waiting for.

Epic looks to be creating its own app store

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Oh boy, it’s crime time

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Wondering about the Harvest Moon: One World romance options? Well, a new trailer shows portraits of the 10 love interests.

The post Harvest Moon: One World Love Interests Shown in a New Video appeared first on Siliconera.

Not to get your hopes up, but Subnautica: Below Zero is still in early access. It's close to the finish line – close enough that Unknown Worlds is about to raise the price by $10 – but it's not quite there.

That said, if you loved Subnautica and you're down for more alien ocean expeditions, Below Zero is a pretty safe bet at this point, even if you have no intention of playing it until the 1.0 update goes out.

The deadline to remember? January 5, 2021 – that's when Subnautica: Below Zero will jump from $19.99 to $29.99. On the same day, the original Subnautica will go from $24.99 to $29.99.

Should you play it now? "As of the Relics of the Past update, Below Zero is now playable from start to (almost) finish. While we will continue to polish the game up until its 1.0 launch, all creatures, biomes, vehicles, and items that are currently in-game represent what will be there in the final version."

As a reminder, Below Zero is not an expansion – it's a new, separate game – and if you buy or already own the early-access version of Below Zero on Steam or the Epic Games Store, you'll "receive the 1.0 release, as well as all future patches," when the time comes. Consider this our official heads-up.

Subnautica: Below Zero Price Increasing on PC Storefronts [Unknown Worlds]

It's times like these that we all need a little more music in our lives. And as luck would have it, we're here to give you a chance to create your own remixes of hit songs and share them with your friends!

From the creators of Rock Band™ and Dance Central™ comes FUSER™, described as "a nonstop virtual music festival where you control the music!" Combine elements of the world’s most popular songs to create your own sound or partner with friends on epic collaborations, then share your amazing mixes and headlining performances with the world!

For more info on FUSER, check out Brian Shea's review or Matt Miller's feature article. 

Check out the Fuser launch trailer here:

We are so excited to have 20 free download codes available to give away for FUSER VIP Edition for PlayStation 4 or Xbox One (Note that FUSER is fully compatible with both next generation consoles). This is a random drawing and you only have until midnight CST Tuesday, December 22, 2020 to enter. North America players only. Make your console selection below with the first entry method. You can enter  once a day per registration, but the bonus entries are only once per person/email address. Full official rules available with each entry method.

In a fun twist that feels straight out of Sakurai's "anything goes" playbook, if you settle your score with Sephiroth in a one-on-one showdown in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, you'll unlock him early – as early as today, even. The Final Fantasy VII fighter isn't officially releasing until December 22, 2020.

To play the Sephiroth Challenge (and unlock him, the Northern Cave stage, and nine sweet tracks ahead of schedule), you'll need to have paid up. If you got the $30 Fighters Pass Vol. 2 or you have the piecemeal Challenger Pack 8, you're squared away. You can put him in his place. Watch out for Meteor.

We've also got several iconic Mii Fighters lined up for next week, including dear old Geno.

Geno, from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, will be joining as a Mii Fighter costume as well. The Warrior from Star Road’s costume will be for the Gunner Mii Fighter. pic.twitter.com/i3LbyPXXGw

— Nintendo Versus (@NintendoVS) December 17, 2020

If Nintendo goes ahead and puts Super Mario RPG on Switch Online, I'll call it even.

Today Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games released a rather awesome cinematic short set in the universe of the game.

The short is the full version of the video we saw a few weeks ago, focusing on Alex Dougan and Madi Zhen, and it includes plenty of explosions, spectacular escapes, and drama. It certainly took a few pages from the Star Wars book.

You can watch it below.

“Intrepid smuggler Alex Dougan is in the midst of a messy job that sees her reunited with unpredictable former cohort Madi Zhen, pursued by bounty hunters and gangsters, and haunted by specters from her past. Can Dougan pilot her trusty Crusader Mercury, the ‘Belligerent Duck’, out of trouble yet again? Or will her luck – and her quantum fuel – finally run out?”

This kind of cinematic prowess certainly bodes well for the upcoming Squadron 42 single-player campaign which adds a star-studded cast on top of it.

A lot of features that would make hopping into Sackboy: A Big Adventure more tempting, like online multiplayer and cross-play, are all available now.

The post Sackboy: A Big Adventure Online Multiplayer and Cross-Play Added appeared first on Siliconera.

Will I make it to the end of the year without buying Sackboy: A Big Adventure? I'm not sure I can wait for a sale as originally planned. It seems like too jolly of a time for me to miss this during the holiday break.

Helping resolve my on-the-fence-ness, with today's update, Sackboy has online multiplayer support and save-file transferring between the PS4 and PS5 versions (look for an option in the Extras menu).

That's important! Ten of the levels are specifically co-op only, and while there's already local multiplayer in this game (for all types of levels), that's obviously not going to work for everyone in all situations. If you ever hop online with friends or strangers, "your progress will be carried over to your local game."

Another cool thing I always appreciate: online multiplayer is cross-gen, and that should help fill the ranks. I imagine plenty of people got Sackboy on PS5 despite having only one DualSense controller.

Astro's Playroom seriously put me in a platformer mood, so it's just a matter of time.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure update adds online multiplayer today [PlayStation Blog]

The invisibility glitch is no more

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What a pandemic year meant for American comics

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They might make a mess of tramlines and festivals, but at least I don’t have to trust Edinburgh City Council with keeping the town from falling out of the sky. Spare a thought, then, for the citizens of Airborne Kingdom‘s skyward metropolis, who have you to thank for keeping their livelihoods safe above the clouds. The Wandering Band’s lofty city-builder took flight today, a floating management sim that dares you not to create a town-shaped hole in the ground below.

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Hades is a fantastic game whether you’re enjoying it on a high-end PC or completing runs in bed on Switch. For those seeking the best of both worlds, developer Supergiant announced yesterday that cross-save support is now live via a new update to the Nintendo version. 

Supergiant launched Hades with cross-saves built in but the function had been disabled until now (barring resourceful players who got around it). To do it, select the "cross-save" option in the Switch version’s main menu and link your Steam/Epic account. Once that’s done, pause and quit to upload the data, and you’re good to go. Once linked, you’ll be able to easily transfer save data to and from PC and Switch. 

Hermes is here with some good news: Our Cross-Saves update for HADES is out now on Nintendo Switch!💾↔️☁️

Please read the in-game Help & Info section for details. This update also includes various other improvements from our post-launch PC patches. #HadesGame #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/UgwBRQsUOo

The Dec. 22 update will also add VR support

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Good news game developers! The deadline for submitting a GDC 2021 Core Concepts talk has been extended to January 11th. ...

Get ready to jam out to Revo's new music in Bravely Default II.

The post Bravely Default II OST Will Release in March 2021 appeared first on Siliconera.

As a lover of ultrawide PC games, I’ve been chomping at the bit to see what Cyberpunk 2077‘s Night City looks like in 21:9. I’ve had to refrain from doing so for the last week as I put together my Cyberpunk 2077 best settings and ray tracing performance guides, but now those are complete I’ve finally found some time to swap out my regular 16:9 monitor for my trusty ultrawide Asus screen.

And the results are… fine, I guess? It didn’t blow me away as much as I thought it would, but hey, at least I made some GIFs so you can see what it looks like yourself.

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Halloween isn't just a day, it's a way of life. It's 365 and one more on Leap Years. That means when Christmas rolls around, it's also Halloween.

Pumpkin Jack is all about that life. Eight days from Christmas, this jack-o-lantern-headed mascot platformer gets a winter update. There's a new Christmas outfit that brings snow whenever it's worn. There's also a new batch of collectibles, as each level has five gifts hidden away; finding all five in any given stage unlocks something special.

With a little seasonal shakeup, Pumpkin Jack has a little more life. Stay tuned for the Presidents' Day update where Jack's gourd is replaced with the stone Mount Rushmore heads.