As teased yesterday, Kojima Production celebrated its 5th anniversary today.

Before you read on, let’s clarify that no games were announced, not even a PS5 port of Death Straning.

Things started with a tweet teasing further news in an hour and linking to a message of thanks to the fans for the support.

The Airborne Kingdom roams the skies, a vast, rattling amoeba of propellers and minarets, hissing forges and thundering gears. It has to keep moving because it has to keep eating. As it coasts between clouds, painted planes slide from curving hangar bays, falling like windblown embers toward patches of coal and timber. The landscape is swiftly exhausted, though many of the key resources regrow almost as fast. Lakes are drained in hours, hillsides sucked clean of ore, forests hacked to stubble before they've even cleared the Kingdom's shadow.

Occasionally, during its grazing, the Kingdom uncovers a town, a tiny toe-nail clipping of huts and cooking fires, poking from the dusty mosaic tiles and cracked flagstones of the map. It sends emissaries to gather up the people of the earth and transform them into creatures of the air. Some surface-dwellers are easily won over by tales over high adventure. Others are resistant, put off by hints of dissatisfaction in the streets above. No matter. The Kingdom will be back for them, once its existing residents are happier.

Doom and Doom II will never die.

I can confirm this, as I recently finished the sequel on Switch for the billionth time. It's one of the few games where it's kind of a given that it's going to be re-released over and over, especially if a bunch of old school lost levels from id Software and the community are proliferated throughout time. That's the sort of gaming history you don't want to lose on an errant floppy disc in a cardboard box somewhere.

To that end, Bethesda has granted access to Doom Zero: a free 32-level-strong DLC for folks who own Doom or Doom II. Described as DLC that "isn't low-calorie" (you could have gone a little more hardcore there!), it features "new enemies, bosses, sounds, music, and sprites." Yet, it's still very much 

This is all possible because of the Doomworld forums mod that was released in 2019 on PC: a solo effort by modder Christopher Golden. You can find out how that whole saga came about here, 

Doom Zero [Slayer's Club]

If you are one of the many Smash Bros. fans who cannot wait to see Final Fantasy VII antagonist Sephiroth in action, then your wait is almost over. Nintendo has announced that the gameplay breakdown for the One-Winged Angel will be released tomorrow (something we already knew); but now we have the additional info that it will run a meaty 35 minutes in length.

Hosted by the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate producer himself, the curiously titled "Mr. Sakurai presents Sephiroth" stream will feature over a half-hour of looooong sword action, showcasing Sephiroth's attacks, abilities, and Final Smash skills. More importantly, it might feature more of Sakurai's amusing dry wit and self-deprecating humor, which is what we actually tune in for. You can check out the stream over Nintendo's official Youtube channel.

Confirmed via a dramatic trailer at last week's Games Awards event, Sephiroth is the third Square Enix character to join Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's massive roster, alongside his FFVII rival Cloud Strife and Dragon Quest's Hero. It will be interesting to see what the reprehensible prick will bring to the SSBU meta, besides washboard abs and wistful angst.

SmashBrosJP [Twitter]

With an announcement as instantly eyecatching as Bugsnax‘s was, featuring Kero Kero Bonito’s absolute banger “It’s Bugsnax!”, the actual game was always going to have a lot to live up to.

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[Update: As expected, the Kojima Productions anniversary updates didn't amount to much. The studio released a wallpaper for its mascot "Ludens," and announced a line of branded clothing. Additionally, head honcho Hideo released a video, (which you can check out below), thanking fans for their loyalty. Kojima Productions is currently in pre-production stages on its next project.]

Believe it or don't, it has been five full years since Hideo Kojima launched his self-founded studio Kojima Productions. Originally established as a subsidiary of Konami, Kojima Studios has since branched out as an independent studio, releasing its first non-Konami venture, Death Stranding, just over one year ago.

As part of the studio's anniversary celebrations, Kojima Productions has teased that it will share several "exciting updates" tomorrow, December 16, at 14:00 JST / 21:00 PT / 00:00 ET. Now, don't lose your drawers just yet, these are "updates," so I wouldn't expect a full-fledged title reveal or anything similar. But it will be interesting to see what Hideo and co. have been up to in this particularly challenging year. We will, of course, keep you notified of any developments.

Capcom is continuing the series of trailers dedicated to the weapons of the upcoming Monster Hunter game Monster Hunter Rise.

The first trailer is dedicated to the light bowgun, while the second is dedicated to its heavy counterpart. Basically, today is bowgun day.

You can watch both below.

“Versatile combat at any range. The Light Bowgun excels at various roles, from rapid-fire barraging to inflicting status ailments, and supporting the hunting party.”

“Outstanding, overpowering ordnance. The Heavy Bowgun channels its weight into firepower, being able to load Wyvernheart or Wyvernsnipe ammo to cover any range or situation.”

A certain amount of escapism through books would have been more than understandable in 2020. (And by “a certain amount” we mean “a lot.”) You’d be forgiven for favoring the comfort food of a reread or a beach read. Or for not reading at all. Because for every person who was able to forget themselves in literature, who…

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Tis the season for Christmas and winter-themed in-game events, and the latest to drop is Overwatch's Winter Wonderland. Players can now load up the new 4v4 Freezethaw Elimination game mode or get started on weekly challenges to unlock Christmas-themed epic skins and other rewards.

The biggest mix-up Winter Wonderland brings is the new game mode, Freezethaw Elimination, which joins Mei’s Snowball Offensive, Yeti Hunt, and Snowball Deathmatch. In the new mode, four players must work together to freeze all four players on the other team. Players will become frozen instead of dying, and can be thawed with the help of a teammate.

Weekly challenges will reward players who win at least nine games per week. The weekly rewards are all epic skins: Elf Junkrat in the first week, Gingerbread Ana for week 2, while the week 3 reward is Frosty Roadhog.

After Sky: Children of the Light was announced for the Nintendo Switch in March this year, the release had to be delayed into 2021 due to work changes caused by COVID-19. Now, Thatgamecompany has confirmed a new release window of Spring 2021, after the game was featured on Nintendo Japan's Indie World presentation.

Sky first launched for iOS in July 2019, followed by an Android launch in April this year. The game has since racked up over 50 million downloads across both platforms, and won awards such as Apple's 2019 Game of the Year and Best Gameplay and People’s Choice in the 2020 Games for Change awards.

Disney+ enjoyed a fairly strong launch when it first made its debut, but it’s certainly starting to hit its stride with even more Marvel-related series on the way. Marvel has just announced a brand new exclusive series for Disney+, titled Marvel Studios: Legends, which is a series that’s meant to highlight the journeys of iconic characters from the MCU, as well as offer a deep dive into their personal stories.

With WandaVision making its debut on the service next January, it makes sense that the first two episodes of this new series would focus on both Wanda Maximoff and Vision.

Here’s the official blurb:

“As the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to expand, Marvel Studios: Legends celebrates and codifies what has come before. Revisit the epic heroes, villains and moments from across the MCU in preparation for the highly anticipated stories still to come. Each dynamic segment feeds directly into the upcoming series premiering on Disney+ — setting the stage for future events. Marvel Studios: Legends weaves together the many threads that constitute the unparalleled Marvel Cinematic Universe.”

The first two episodes of the series will premiere on Jan. 8, 2021 exclusively on Disney+.

The post Marvel Studios: Legends Is a New Disney+ Series that Dives Deep into Iconic Characters of the MCU appeared first on Twinfinite.

The recent re-releases of Doom (1993) and Doom II are receiving a new add-on today in the form of Doom Zero, Bethesda announced today. Doom Zero adds a bulk of new content to the game including new paths, enemies, bosses, sounds and more across 32 levels.

Bethesda provided a brief rundown of the add-on on their official blog post.

“Don’t let the name fool you: This ain’t no ‘lite,’ low-calorie version of DOOM. Made in celebration of DOOM II’s 25th anniversary, DOOM Zero contains a whopping 32 levels filled with new enemies, new bosses, new sounds, new music and new sprites.

Despite being faithful to ‘vanilla’ DOOM’s classic gameplay, DOOM Zero still brings its own original ideas to the old-school formula, from branching paths to challenges that’ll get even seasoned Slayers putting on their thinking caps.”

Doom has seen a slew of new re-releases over the past year since the classic trilogy was released on PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch last summer. This past March, to coincide with the release of Doom Eternal, Bethesda brought out the long neglected Doom 64.

Doom Zero is available now for owners of Doom (1993) and Doom II. The download can be accessed right from the main menu.

Seven years and 135 million copies later, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V simply refuses to slow down. The secret to its success? It’s no mystery at this point. Despite starting life back on the PS3 and Xbox 360, GTAV’s single-player experience is still largely unsurpassed in the open world space – and its juggernaut multiplayer component, GTA Online, has never stopped growing.

This week GTA Online expands yet again with the addition of a huge salvo of new content in what Rockstar has stated is GTA Online’s biggest update ever. The Cayo Perico Heist adds new vehicles, new missions, 240 new songs, and even a brand-new island to Rockstar’s monstrous multiplayer experience – an experience that, when it arrives on PS5 and Xbox Series X│S, will have spanned three separate console generations.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/09/gta-online-the-cayo-perico-heist-trailer"]

But what about players who have been craving more solo GTA content, like the much-loved expansions to 2008’s GTAIV: The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony?

Well, the good news is that Rockstar has actually been spending the last few years weaving more and more opportunities for solo player fun into GTA Online, and that’s reached somewhat of a crescendo in The Cayo Perico Heist – the first GTA Online heist players can do entirely alone, if they choose.

While the Blade Runner universe gets to use actual company logos all over its buildings, Cyberpunk 2077's developers had to create all their brands, departments and services from scratch.

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For most of Cyberpunk 2077, you'll have free rein to take on activities in Night City in any order you please. Much of the main story is divided into parallel investigations as V tries to find people who might know about the biochip in their head, and at any point, you can wander off and work your way through a variety of side missions. At some point, though, you'll hit the end of the road. From here, the main story continues on to its conclusion, leaving you with no opportunities to do any more side content until you've reached the end.

Cyberpunk 2077 politely marks this point in the story for you, flashing a big "Point of No Return" message on your screen so you don't bumble into the game's finale before you're ready. But at the same time, Night City is absolutely overwhelmingly flush with things to do, from side jobs to Fixer gigs to question marks and NCPD scanner hustles. And if you're not interested in completing everything, or if you find yourself impatient to know how it all ends, you might be asking how much of all that side material you absolutely need to do.

The good news is that there's a lot of side quests you can ignore without consequence. The bad news is that a few of them can be pretty important to how the game shakes out, even having an effect on the ending. Here's a complete rundown of everything you should scratch off your list before you pass the Point of No Return in Cyberpunk 2077 so you can be in the best possible story shape for the endgame. It's worth noting, though, that you can continue to level up your character and earn some extremely powerful weapons through additional side quests, and pursuing that stuff might not be a bad idea. Although we tried to limit them, there are SPOILERS beyond this point!

After a long, slow rollout, Halo: The Master Chief Collection is fully available on PC--but it's not done with major updates yet. Halo 1-4, plus 3 ODST and Halo Reach, will receive more features in 2021, developer 343 Industries has promised, with many big features currently in active development.

As part of the MCC December 2020 Update, 343 Industries' "farn" has outlined some of the improvements coming to the six Master Chief Collection titles coming next year, including various quality-of-life changes and new options.

Here's everything that the team is actively working on right now, with most of these updates planned for early 2021.

Ray tracing, currently the big thing in video game visuals, is a perk for those running bleeding edge hardware on PC or next-gen consoles. Or, conversely, anyone who owns a SNES.

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There are a lot of perks you can buy for your character in Cyberpunk 2077, allowing you to customize your version of V to fit your play style and the ways you want to approach the game. There's one perk, however, that you should absolutely avoid--at least in the early part of the game when you're trying to earn money. That perk is called "Scrapper," and it will rob you.

You'll find the Scrapper perk under the Technical Ability attribute, on the Crafting skill tree. At first, it sounds useful enough. Scrapper allows you to automatically break down junk items into crafting components. Cyberpunk 2077 is littered with things that are considered "junk," like old vinyl records, ashtrays, packs of cards, lighters, and dildos. (It's worth noting that a recent update seems to have drastically reduced the number of dildos appearing in the game. For a while, though, there were so. many. dildos.)

Most of the junk items you find in Night City really are junk, and if you check them out in your Backpack, you'll find that they're pretty worthless. Most junk items will net you about 3 Eurodollars (or "eddies" in Night City parlance), so they're basically not worth the effort you'd expend in picking them up and lugging them to a vendor to unload them. Along that line, you might think Scrapper sounds great, since you can instantly break down junk you don't actually want, and that way it's not littering your backpack, weighing down your character (in a literal sense, because if you become over-encumbered by the stuff you're carrying, you won't be able to move quickly).

Microsoft Flight Simulator add-on developers are going into overdrive and another airport is set to bring a bit of summer to your flights.

Today Orbx announced Bastia Poretta (LFKB) Airport and released a ton of screenshots to provide a preview (sources: 1, 2, 3).

The airport is located in Boastia, Corsica, and it serves plenty of airlines bringing holidaymakers to the popular French Mediterranean island.

The scenery includes both the airport and the surrounding area, which is quite charming and always welcome. The creator is Matteo Veneziani, who already made a number of beautiful addons for Microsoft Flight Simulator and previous sims.

You can enjoy the metric ton of screenshots shared today below. No release date has been provided, but the airport is in an “advanced stage of development” so it shouldn’t be far off.

Incidentally, if you’re interested in Microsoft Flight Simulator’s add-ons, you can enjoy our recent reviews of Newcastle International Airport, Sankt Johann Airfield, and Dublin International Airport.

Once the year 2077 rolls around, people apparently won’t bat an eyelash at unclothed dicks, breasts, and butts. In 2020, however, this is still very much an issue, especially on Twitch, where on-screen nudity frequently results in temporary or indefinite suspensions. But the platform does make exceptions for big…

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At this point, it's well-documented that the Nintendo Switch has had an incredible year, with sales of the console up across 2020. Now, Nintendo of Canada has announced some sales milestones the Switch has achieved in the country this year, and they're very impressive.

So far, the system has sold 790,000 units through the end of November. In that last month alone, the system sold an incredible 148,000 units. In 2019, the Switch sold 628,000 units in total in the country. Canada has a total population of 37.5 million, and now a lot of them are Switch owners.

These figures include the combined totals of the standard Switch and the portable-only Switch Lite.

Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't just have a massive arsenal of weapons and cybernetics to acquire; it also has an enormous suite of vehicles to drive. With more than 30 cars and bikes to find throughout your career as a Street Samurai in Night City, you have plenty of options when it comes to getting around town in style and with astonishing speed.

However, Night City and its surrounding areas also hide some vehicles that will take some effort to find and acquire. In this quick roundup, we pulled together a list of some of the more iconic cars you can see in the game. While most vehicles in the game can be stolen or bought, we've rounded up the ones you can find by doing quests or just by heading to the right part of town.

Jackie's Arch (Motorcycle)

This motorcycle will be one of the first bikes you'll add to your catalog of vehicles. Custom made for Jackie, this souped-up and well-designed motorcycle--with some fantastic decals--is an excellent pick for anyone looking for a reliable bike to cruise Night City.

After weeks of teasing and trailers, Grand Theft Auto Online’s latest update, its biggest ever, was released today. The Cayo Perico Heist update adds a new island and heist to the game, as well as 250+ songs, new weapons, and the proverbial “more.” But the star of the update is that new island, Cayo Perico, and its…

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Today Idea Factory International announced that Neptunia Virtual Stars will be coming to PC on top of the previously-revealed PS4 release.

The Hyperdimension Neptunia spin-off will release in 2021 on Steam alongside the PS4 version.

While the PS4 version will include only English subtitles with Japanese voice-overs, the Steam version will also come with Japanese and Traditional Chinese subtitles

The listing on Steam is already available.

You can check out a few screenshots below.

Hitman 3, the conclusion to the current Hitman trilogy, releases on January 20, and now the first cinematic has been revealed. If you didn't finish the first two games, you might want to do so before watching it, though.

The trailer shows Agent 47 teaming up with Lucas Grey, the Shadow Client, as they go after Providence together. The organization has been pulling a lot of strings behind the scenes across the entire trilogy, and while Grey was an enemy for much of the first two games, things changed at the end of Hitman 2.

You can watch the full cinematic above, and get excited for Hitman 3's release early next year. The trailer also gives us a brief glimpse of the outside of the Dubai map building, which will be the first mission.

Nintendo has wrapped up another of its Indie World showcases, firing out news of a fresh batch of titles - including a number of very welcome surprises - heading to Switch in the coming months. And for those of you whose attention was elsewhere, or who accidentally had a 15-minute-long blink during the livestream, here's everything that was announced.

Getting the ball rolling, developer Derek Yu's critically acclaimed subterranean platform rogue-like Spelunky is heading to Switch! And so is its equally well-received sequel, with both games currently scheduled to arrive in "summer" 2021.

Fisti-Fluffs is a feline-focussed action-brawler that sees cats - some wearing silly hats, others brandishing household objects as offensive weapons - duking it out to be crowned the world's best fighter, and it'll be "first on Switch" early next year.

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Gnosia was announced for an English language release on Switch during the latest Nintendo Indie World Showcase, and it looks very interesting. This is a social deduction game about figuring out which members of a spaceship crew are alien invaders disguised as other crew members. It's a similar premise to Among Us, except that this is a single-player visual novel game.

A round of Gnosia lasts only 5-15 minutes, with the player losing if the number of Gnosia on board overtakes the number of humans. Each time you play, which characters are human and which aren't changes, so you'll need to make fresh deductions each time.

Over many games, you can learn some of the secrets of the Gnosia.

Best Buy had some excellent PC gaming deals during Black Friday, and now just before the holidays, two of Razer's best products are discounted: the Razer DeathAdder V2 gaming mouse for $50 (was $70) and the Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition gaming keyboard for $90 (was $130). The DeathAdder V2 deal is only available to those with a My Best Buy account, which is free to sign up for. All you need to do is sign into your account and the discount will be available. Both deals are available until December 17.

The DeathAdder V2 and the Huntsman Tournament Edition make for an excellent PC gaming setup and will work perfectly for everything from RPGs like Cyberpunk 2077 to competitive shooters like Fortnite and Rainbow Six Siege. It's also possible to customize both products' Chroma RGB lighting with the Razer Synapse software and sync them together so they match and alternate at the same time.

You can see both products below, but if you're interested in more recommendations, check out our guides to the best gaming keyboard and best gaming mouse. We cover a slew of products from Corsair, SteelSeries, HyperX, Razer, and more.

It’s clear by now that Cyberpunk 2077 is a bit of a disaster, especially on consoles. During a recent conference call with CD Projekt Group’s management board, executives said they knew the game was busted before its December 10 launch.

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Gameplay informed by real-world data makes a complex sport more fun

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The Valis series is looking to make a return with the launch of a 35th-anniversary "revival project" website.

The post Valis: The Fantasm Soldier 35th Anniversary Revival Project Announced appeared first on Siliconera.