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If there’s one thing I want more of in this world it’s Halloween games. No, not horror. Halloween—the heavily consumerist version they sling in department stores with plastic pumpkins, green witches, and ghost lawn ornaments. I’ve had my eye on Pumpkin Jack, to that end, and am happy to hear that the 3D platforming spookfest is launching this month. Beyond that, it’s in the current Steam Game Festival: Autumn Edition where you can give its first level a try.

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Baldur's Gate 3 is currently available now on Steam as an Early Access title and even though it's just the first act of the game (about 25-30 hours worth of gametime), it's enough to get to know some of the droolworthy companions. While no one can clearly compare to our sassy Astarion, here is every Baldur's Gate 3 companion so far!

Astarion | Rogue

Astarion is sassy and is probably my favorite companion so far. You'll be able to meet him after meeting Shadowheart as he hides from a monster. Take him down, and this cheeky vampire will be able to join your party.

He's very flirty and being a rogue is a very valuable party member to have. He's sneaky, he strong, and he's great when wanting a tactical advantage. He's also very charming with that charisma, so if you need to sweet talk your way out of a pickle, he's your man. Vampire. Whatever. 

Wyrmwood Gaming wants to make boutique furniture for everyone

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Nintendo has officially confirmed that Universal Studios Japan will finally open up the Super Nintendo World area of the theme park sometime in the spring of 2021.

The new theme park area will feature attractions and other activities based around the Mushroom Kingdom and other Nintendo properties. It was initially supposed to open before the 2020 Summer Olympics, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the opening was pushed back.

There will also be a new Mario-themed cafe opening up at Universal Studios Japan next week (Oct. 17) that will have tons of merchandise and adorable, photogenic food items such as Mario and Luigi Pancakes, mustachioed fruit cream sodas, and a Super Mushroom Bottle for all of your soft drink needs.

You can view some images of the cafe down below, as well as some pictures of Super Nintendo World itself, and some of the merchandise that’ll be for sale:

The increasingly regular occurrence that is Valve's Steam Game Festival has returned today, 7th October, for its autumn edition, bringing with it "hundreds" of playable, limited-time demos.

This autumnal reemergence for the event runs from today until next Tuesday, 13th October, and marks the fourth Steam Game Festival in less than a year. Additionally, as was the case with Valve's summer showing, it's another rather unwieldy affair.

While last year's inaugural Steam Game Festival featured just 13 playable demos, Valve has been steadily ratcheting up the numbers with each new outing, and this latest event promises "hundreds" of new demos - a fantastic proposition in terms of choice, but a pretty intimidating number too, given that most will only be sticking around for the festival's duration.

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Baby robots!

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While Spencer notes that it is indeed on the "long list of cool things the xCloud is working on," that reveal comes with the admission that it's still a ways down on the list. ...

#SUPERNINTENDOWORLD featuring attractions based on iconic Nintendo games and characters is coming to Universal Studios Japan ( @USJ_Official ) in Early 2021! pic.twitter.com/HhTEStUGAq

Only one more month to go before Guardians can dive right into Destiny 2: Beyond Light, but while we wait Bungie has shared a new trailer detailing some impressive new exotics on the way. 

The latest trailer, seen below, cycles through the new gear that players can look forward to, but what was most impressive was the new exotics shown. A big focus of feedback since launch is that 'new' gear coming into the Destiny sequel was recycled. Out of everything shown regarding this top-tier loot, most of it was new, though there is one returning drop and a nifty new redesign. 

Here are exotics shown off in the trailer above, starting with one that is coming back: 

I’ve never been more enthralled by virtual playing cards as I have been playing The Solitaire Conspiracy, the latest game from Bithell Games, of Thomas Was Alone and Volume fame. Once the cards finish falling, it’s a clever twist on the classic solo card game with a heaping helping of video game personality Greg…

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Step into the world of Teyvat in miHoYo's free-to-play magnum opus. The scope of the land helps make it inviting.

The post Genshin Impact’s Vast World Is the Key to Its Success appeared first on Siliconera.

A solo D&D simulator

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Developers highlight gameplay enhancements for PS5 and Xbox Series X

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The Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity map of Hyrule was shared, and we even got a peek at some of the game's missions.

The post Here’s the Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Map and Some of Its Missions appeared first on Siliconera.

If you have ever sat down to play League of Legends you probably know how massively dense of a game it is. From its 140+ champions to its constantly changing lore, there is a lot to stay up to date on. The amount of League of Legends trivia that exists is astounding.

For the people who really pay attention, it might be the only game they even have time to pay attention to. The constant changes to the game mechanics keep players on their toes, and the new updates to lore and skins keep the hardcore fans busy.

However, if you are reading this, then maybe you think you are good enough to hit Challenger for League of Legends trivia. Go ahead and give it a shot without googling.

If you find yourself enjoying this quiz, feel free to go check out more on the site here. If you enjoy League of Legends content, check out this ranking of all of the League of Legends music videos.

(Images via Riot Games)

Instead of pitching all those photogenic, influential YouTubers - why don†™t you just become a slick, photogenic YouTuber? Some thoughts for game discoveryland, including the above! ...

During a livestreamed Nintendo Treehouse presentation, new gameplay was shown off for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. The title is being developed by Omega Force and takes place 100 years before the events of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The beginning of the Hyrule Warriors presentation showed off gameplay for one of the playable Champions, Urbosa. She uses her electricity-based attacks to deal with the hundreds of enemies that occasionally pop up on-screen.

We see Urbosa exploring the desert area that we’ve seen before in Breath of the Wild and it turns out that Korok Seeds will be able to be collected, but we’re not sure just how many there are scattered about.

Zelda gameplay was shown off for the first time as well, and she uses a combination of runes to take out literally hundreds of foes.

And similar to the other titles in the Warriors series, you’ll be able to switch between several characters on the fly, allowing you to complete objectives quickly and efficiently.

The world map was also shown off, and you can unlock new locations by using materials, and you can enhance weapons by going to a shop. And no, weapons do not break in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, so if you weren’t a fan of that feature in BotW, you’re in luck.

You can cook dishes too by using materials, and they give you bonus stats before heading into a mission. Some of the characters will even have favorite dishes, so you will want to make sure that you’re feeding everyone stuff that they enjoy.

You can watch the entire presentation down below:

Misinformation and fandom warp the public’s perception

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Pikmin 3 Deluxe Olimar side stories and the Bingo Battle both were briefly shown off in the October Treehouse Live.

The post Pikmin 3 Deluxe Olimar and Bingo Battle Details Shared appeared first on Siliconera.

A little more than a month from now, next-gen consoles will be out in the wild. At this point, you might be regarding your PlayStation 4 or Xbox One as a slowly degrading plastic box that’s doomed to waste space and collect dust. You might have even considered [gasp] getting rid of them.

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The year of digital festivals continues with yet another Steam Game Festival. For its autumn edition, Steam is once again offering hundred of free game demos for you to play paired with livestreams and developer Q&A’s throughout the week. The festival is on now and will run through next Tuesday, October 13th.

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A demo will be released tonight. You can even use its save data in the full game!

The post Pikmin 3 Deluxe Demo Will Appear on October 7, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

We should have been playing Destiny 2: Beyond Light by now, but while the expansion’s delayed to November we can at least gawp at some of its gear and imagine how cool it might be to use. The answer is: quite cool. Bungie today detailed the new Exotic-quality weapons and armour coming in Beyond Light, and some sound powerful, some sound like they’ll open up new tactics, and some just sound great fun. A sniper rifle summoning lightning? Warlock punches spreading contagious poison? My Hunter’s dodge becoming a blink? I’m game.

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Pixel Puzzle Makeout League lets you date puzzle-themed superheroes like an anthropomorphic puzzle piece.

The post Pixel Puzzle Makeout League Combines Dating and Nonograms in October appeared first on Siliconera.

Although not really a mainline Zelda game, Nintendo is kind of pulling out all the stops when promoting Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. There's a bonus where Breath of the Wild save data grants a special training sword. There's amiibo support because Nintendo doesn't miss opportunities to sell these physical add-ons. Now there's a physical pre-order offer that might be too cool to miss out on.

Pre-ordering Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity from GameStop will get you a Mystery Guardian keychain. Here's what it looks like:

During a livestreamed Treehouse Live presentation, Nintendo showcased some new gameplay footage for Pikmin 3 Deluxe running on the Switch.

The gameplay segment shown off starts off near the beginning of the game when Olimar and his crew end up crash-landed on an alien planet, in which they encounter the strange plant-like creatures known as Pikmin.

We see the player breaking down a huge rock wall and gathering materials in order to build a bridge over water by using the power of Pikmin.

We also get to see the awesome camera mode that lets you take pictures of your journey like some sort of wilderness photographer. You can place your Pikmin in the perfect positions and snap some pics of monsters or just the surrounding flora and fauna to then share them on social media.

You can press up the control pad to see some hints that are new to Pikmin 3 Deluxe that will also show you arrows so that you don’t get too lost in the wilderness before sundown.

The Pikmin series is known to be quite tricky when it comes to figuring out how to make the most of each day, and that’s why the hint system is being included, making it easier for newcomers to jump in and play without much stress.

Another neat feature that was first introduced in Pikmin 3 is the ability to control multiple characters at once to solve puzzles and get things done more quickly.

You can also play the entirety of the campaign in splitscreen co-op play, allowing folks to experience the joy of Pikmin with a buddy by their side.

They could have been star-shaped

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Who needs pumpkins?

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Celebrity cameos in games sure can dip into cringe territory but there is nothing, absolutely nothing, cringe-y about Jonathan Frakes narrating another lore teaser for Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds. Regale me with the sordid, unsolved curiosities of Plunkbat, Mr. Frakes. Looks like PUBG Corp’s also planning a whole new website dedicated to lore for the battle royale. What mysteries might it hold?

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The latest issue of Weekly Famitsu includes a brief interview with Xbox division head Phil Spencer about the upcoming launch of the Xbox Series X and S.

Spencer was asked whether the sudden decision to drop the price of the Xbox Series S in Japan from 32,980 yen (plus taxes) to 29,980 yen was affected by the PS5.

He explained that the price was changed to be reasonable according to the exchange rate also having listened to feedback from Japanese users. While the PS5 is Xbox’s rival, the price was changed due to Microsoft’s own circumstances.

The interviewer also asked asked about Spencer’s feeling about the confrontation against PS5 with the release coming close.

Spencer mentioned that he’s confident that the Xbox Series X and Series S are the most powerful and affordable next-generation consoles in the world respectively. On top of that, Xbox Game Pass is a big advantage.

He believes that the fact that the consoles can offer such a wide variety of games via subscription is a great differentiating factor. In addition to that, titles have been enhanced and cloud services have started. He concludes with “There’s an advantage in everything, isn’t there?”

In the west, the Xbox Series X is priced at $499, while the Series S’ price is $299. They will both release on November 10.

The Clive Barker-inspired project is halfway between a film and a TV series launch, without committing to either

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Recently I have been blessed with a plethora of sweet, soothing games with a good sense of humour (like Spiritfarer, for example). I Am Dead, from the developers of perennial RPS favourite Wilmot’s Warehouse, is a 3D puzzle adventure game about past and present and place, and is another tonic for these trying times.

Ahead of its 2021 debut, Netflix teased the second season of Beastars with a preliminary image showing some of its stars.

The post Beastars Season 2 Teaser Poster Shared appeared first on Siliconera.

Mafia starts with protagonist Tommy Angelo spilling his guts to a detective in a diner. It feels so wonderfully 1930s that it's almost a crime the scene has any color. Mafia has a mood about it, and sometimes vibrant hues aren't in service of the overall vibe.

That changes today as developer Hangar 13 has pushed an update to Mafia: Definitive Edition that adds a noir mode. Switching to noir mode simply turns the gameplay and cutscenes black-and-white. Just as Ghost of Tsushima paid homage to Kurosawa, Mafia will pay tribute to the likes of White Heat and Double Indemnity. It's important to look up to someone.

This first update brings about a few other quality of life changes. There are new HUD options where you can switch the objective marker off, turn enemy markers off on the mini-map, turn in-world and mini-map navigation features off. There's also a Minimal HUD option that hides pretty much every piece of guidance. Lastly, Hangar 13 added some content to the Free Ride mode but declined to detail what's different. It seems as though some cars have new hidden features.

This free update is available now on all platforms. It doesn't, however, address the impossibility of the big chapter 5 race on classic difficulty. That's by design though because it's meant to be frustrating just like in the 2002 game. Throwing it into noir mode will probably switch things up as you fail time and time again. Variety is the spice of life. 

Down at the campsite and under the blue wash of moonlight, Edie the owner is dreaming about Greg. Greg is dead. He owned the campsite before Edie, and the handover was awkward - nothing dramatic, just a difference of philosophy. Greg seemed austere and obsessed with rules - tent dimensions, guy rope types, no ball games. But there was another side to him and Edie saw it too late. Now as she dreams, she considers the person she may have misjudged. Is this how relationships go, between the living and the dead?

We can peer into Edie's head here, just as we have peered down into her home on the campsite, the roof stripping back as we move closer. Just as we peered down into the campsite itself, roving between its distinct spaces, plucking them out, rotating them, inspecting them. Hidden object games are often 2D affairs - here's a beautiful picture, and can you find the haunted earrings, the crank for the Victrola, the keys to that funny Citroen with the odd suspension? They are often an elaboration of the books we had as children: spot this, circle that, where's Wally?

It was only a matter of time before Guardians got a chainsaw

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