Last night, we got a first look at some gameplay for Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, showing off loads of the exciting bits from all nine episodes of the Star Wars films that we’ll get to play through. Riding banthas, cool lightsaber fights, and rides in a bricky Millennium Falcon are but a few of the things we can expect when the game launches in spring 2021. Check out the new trailer from Gamescom Opening Night Live below.

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Level-5's gorgeous anime-inspired Ni No Kuni series is getting an MMO for smartphones in Japan.

Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds is a massively-multiplayer online role-player set to release later in 2020, though has so far only been confirmed for Japanese iOS and Android phones (thanks, Gematsu).

Its story gives the series' idea of travel between two connected worlds (our own, and Ni No Kuni's fantasy setting) and gives it a rather different twist.

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Of all the self-indulgent fancies which games companies blow marketing budgets on, my favourite is League Of Legends putting out K-pop from a virtual girl group of real singers pretending to be League wizards. K/DA is their name, and last night they released a new single to herald a new EP. Yes, a whole EP of songs from people kinda pretending to be video game characters. The thing is: K/DA’s first song, Pop/Stars was pretty great. See what you make of the latest, The Baddest.

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[Update: With the dust of Gamescom Opening Night Live settled, we now have a bit more info on this one. HappyGiant has revealed the full title (Sam & Max: This Time It's Virtual!), as well as a release window of 2021.

Steve Purcell, the original creator, is involved, and the game will play as a "new recruit" alongside of the titular Sam & Max. You'll have to prove yourself to the duo while uncovering a mystery at an abandoned theme park. Sure!]

Sam & Max are coming back! Yes that Sam & Max.

After living it up in the '90s in game form and getting a revival in the late 2000s, the duo are coming back thanks to HappyGiant Games. According to Geoff Keighley, it will be VR-based.

"Stay tuned for more info" is how the trailer concluded after it debuted during today's Gamescom Opening Night Live festivities. Welp! I will indeed stay tuned.

In the mid 2000's The Legend of Zelda was in the midst of an identity crisis. After twenty years of steady success, the landmark series had become a victim of its own longevity, as the need to innovate clashed up against the expectations of an aging fanbase. Wind Waker was declared too cartoonish and suffered poor sales compared to its predecessors. 'The Legend of Zelda is not for children!', cried men who had played Legend of Zelda as children. 'I demand a serious mature game, to reflect my serious mature life!'

The solution was a split. While the so-called 'Adult' timeline continued on the GameCube and later the Wii, the cell-shaded, kid friendly world of Wind Waker was transplanted to handheld consoles. The first of these games was a fun if narratively confused ride that suffered from sluggish pacing, but the second - Spirit Tracks, or Whistle of the Wide World in Japanese - was exceptional.

Gameplay-wise, the main gimmick of Spirit Tracks is the train. This reportedly raised a few eyebrows at Nintendo during development. Aren't trains a bit... industrial? What's next, Link on an airliner?

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Little Nightmares was a fun little game. I feel like I can't say that much more than that without spoiling anything: but it was a fun little afternoon romp and a great rainy day activity to have in your back pocket.

Based on our brief time with the sequel, I think it's going to be a little more memorable this time around.

The majority of us try to get through life without any unnecessary conflict. It’s a hassle that most can do without. That’s why I love games that allow for some tomfoolery. All the fun of being a bit mean, without any of the consequence. Although, I should say that I’m not talking about choosing the renegade option in Mass Effect; I’m talking about some wholesome rascality, like snatching a sock from the clothesline of an old lady or swiping spectacles from a child.

Untitled Goose Game embraces the art of mischief, without any malevolence. While you’re encouraged to be a sleepy English village’s number one nuisance, you’re not an evil goose. You’re a goose who just likes a bit of a laugh. A member of the gaggle that likes a giggle.

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Today Sega released a music video revealing a mysterious “Project B.L.A.C.K.” coming down the line.

The announcement showcases three female characters named Kurumi Saimei, Prana Tosei, and Meisa Akashi.

The acronym “B.L.A.C.K.” stands for “Brilliant Legislative Artistic Celebrity Knights” and they’re defined as artists who sing and fight for the future of Japan. 

Among them, the mesmerizing performances including singing and dancing by twelve aces called “Noble 12” are considered unparalleled.

A full reveal has been teased for September 2. 

In the meanwhile, you can check out the rather lovely music video below. The song is titled “Wonderful Future.”

You can also check out the artwork for the three performers below. They certainly look cute.

Sega has announced that it will reveal a new title next week, currently in development under the placeholder name of "Project B.L.A.C.K." The long-time developer/publisher has opened both a Twitter account and a new teaser website for the mystery title.

For all intents and purposes, it seems that "Project B.L.A.C.K." is more than likely connected to the long-running Sakura Wars franchise. Early images feature a trio of anime women in military uniform, who also appear to be a pop group. As Sakura Wars' fans will be aware, series heroes often have a career in The Arts when they're not out engaged in mech-based warfare. The biggest giveaway, however, comes from the reminder that Sega trademarked Sakura Wars B.L.A.C.K. back in May.

A music video "Wonderful Future" has also been released, with the track composed by - you guessed it - Sakura Wars' Kouhei Tanaka. You can check out said music video below.

Madden NFL 21 on PlayStation 4

The Madden franchise has been treading water for the better part of this console generation. I feel like I’ve been playing the exact same game with just little tweaks for years now without a noticeable shake-up in gameplay. Fortunately over the years, EA has found ways to spice things up by injecting new and exciting modes or other features to help counter the fact that Madden hasn’t really changed all that much in a very long time.

In previous iterations, additions such as Draft Champions, X-Factors, and Longshot, coupled with the beefing up of its competitive online game modes in MUT, has helped the series keep its head above water for the most part and, in some years, even excel. 

Last year, though, we saw this strategy finally start to buckle under pressure, and now as of Madden 21, the dam is starting to break. 

By far the big new thing this year in Madden 21 is the addition of a new game mode known as The Yard. The Yard is a mix of traditional Madden gameplay with arcade-style rules that may resemble something you used to play with friends and family in the backyard or behind a school somewhere. 

There's a new Hatsune Miku Nendoroid on the way, and she's dressed up like Agumon from Digimon in honor of Digimon Adventure.

The post The Hatsune Miku Agumon Nendoroid Will Launch in May 2021 appeared first on Siliconera.

Artyom Turskyi is an artist at GSC Game World, the team behind the STALKER games.

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Set for release on August 28 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, Project CARS 3 is shaping up to be the most robust entry in the series to date. While it stays true to the series' sim-racing foundations, the third entry in the franchise shakes things up to offer something more approachable for the general racing fan base.

During GameSpot's Play For All event, we had the chance to interview esports Manager Joe Barron and production director Pete Moorish about the third game's revised approach to sim-racing. In addition to fleshing out the game's customization, the career mode will also highlight more of the experience being an up-and-coming driver who's a part of a global racing league. Along with this, rival drivers will have more advanced AI and attributes, aiming to make for more engaging races.

Before the release of Project CARS 3, we had another remote correspondence with Barron about what's to come with PC3 and how it will evolve following its launch.

According to actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, it's going to be video games--not feature films--that will push storytelling forward in new and exciting ways. Appearing on the latest episode of Hot Ones, Gordon-Levitt said he sees more room for growth in storytelling in video games than film.

"The future of storytelling, it's going to be video games," he said. "I don't think it's going to be filmmakers who figure out how to do that. But [video games] feels like kind of the most groundbreaking storytelling. Storytelling that's completely in a whole different realm than anything we've seen before, I don't think it's going to necessarily be the feature film form."

Gordon-Levitt didn't have anything more to share on the subject, and even this response was broken up by the actor trembling due to the heat of the hot wings he was eating.

Every year a new Madden NFL game comes out, and every year the marginal improvements and new additions feel like just enough to keep the series moving forward. This year, however, things feel a bit different in Madden NFL 21. Despite the introduction of the surprisingly fun and unique The Yard mode, the list of persistent issues, neglected features, and new annoyances is growing quite long. So even though the underlying moment-to-moment football gameplay has continued to make progress with its fine-tuning refinements, just about everything else is underwhelming -- including technical performance.

I have two kids, and so my hopes and dreams for LEGO sets over the years have slowly shifted from “Dragon Roost Island playset” to “adequate storage solutions”. And the new and surprising collaboration between LEGO and IKEA is definitely taking care of the latter.

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Up until this week, Amazon Games wasn’t exactly batting a thousand. Its most notable achievement of the year was releasing Crucible, a team-based shooter that flopped so hard it had to be un-released. Its upcoming MMO, New World, is off to a much stronger start, in part because Twitch streamers are involved in a…

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Jurassic World Evolution: Complete Edition is coming to the Nintendo Switch Frontier Developments announced today during the Opening Night stream for Gamescom 2020.

The dinosaur park management sim, which has already made its console debut on PS4 and Xbox One X in addition to of course hitting PCs, will hit the Switch on Nov. 3.

While a big of a visual downgrade is to be expected going from PS4, Xbox One and PC, everything else about Jurassic World Evolution will make its way over to Nintendo’s portable/home console hybrid. You trade some visual quality for portability that’s… kind of the deal when it comes to Switch ports.

While our reviewer back in 2018 felt the PC version needed a bit more depth, this version for the Switch will include all of the game’s additional content, so we’ll see if that helps spice the experience up in November.

The post Jurassic World Evolution: Complete Edition Coming to Switch This November appeared first on Twinfinite.

One of the most jarring things about the new Avengers game is that, since we’re all so used to everyone’s faces from the movies, seeing other faces just doesn’t feel right. So here’s what the game would look like if it had somehow got the rights to use the likenesses of Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth and Robert…

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EA Sports has delayed the NHL 21 closed beta and postponed the announcement of more news about the game in a show of solidarity for athletes' strikes regarding racial injustice.

Writing on Twitter, EA announced that it has postponed the start of the closed beta, which was scheduled to begin on August 28. The company also said it won't be releasing new details on the World of Chel mode for NHL 21 today as it had planned to.

"Out of respect for much more important conversations around social injustice, today is not the day. We stand with the African American / Black community in solidarity against racism," EA said.

As a nice little Gamescom surprise, Bloober Team today announced that Observer: System Redux will also be coming to PC. The original Observer from 2017 was a lovely little cyberpunk horror game starring Rutger “crying in the shower” Hauer, and the upcoming System Redux is an expanded and prettied-up version – but was only announced for next-gen consoles. Well, Bloober today not only confirmed a PC release, they released a demo so we can see for ourselves. System Redux won’t be a free upgrade, but it does have a discount if you’re quick.

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Gotham Knights made a splash last weekend, and not only because the game is a new promised fixture in the universe of DC video games. In a surprise narrative twist, the opening trailer for the game revealed the death of Batman, setting the stage for four other characters to step into the lead as Gotham’s premier crime-fighters.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s debut trailer—which has already attracted controversy—gives a lot of airtime to Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov and his views. Views which have, in recent years, become a dangerous rallying cry for far-right conspiracy theories and the people who peddle them.

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If the old 'press button go bang' style of shooter is starting to wear you down, then you might be intrigued by newly announced Lemnis Gate. Created by Canadian studio Ratloop Games and released as part of Elite developer Frontier's new publishing initiative, it's a tactical turn-based first-person shooter built around a constantly repeating 25-second time loop.

Lemnis Gate unfolds at some unspecified point in the far-flung future, with humanity on the brink of extinction. In an attempt to postpone its fate, Earth has built a massive interstellar device which, once activated, will sling the planet back in time by 50 years. Unfortunately, a whole heap of parallel universes have had the same idea and are now engaged in battle to be the one to turn on the device and be the reality that survives.

Whether or not that dollop of scene-setting ultimately makes the slightest bit of sense is largely irrelevant. Once in-game, Lemnis Gate jettisons anything approaching a story to focus its attention on its competitive time-manipulating multiplayer skirmishes, where, each round, combatants take turns adding their characters to a 25-second time loop.

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Following a brief and vague announcement last year, publishers Nacon today revealed that Blood Bowl 3 is coming in 2021 with more violent fantasy American football. Cyanide Studio’s latest adaptation of the Games Workshop tabletop warsportsgame is building on the latest version, with the new teams and rules of the Second Season Edition. Today’s new trailer doesn’t have any of the game in action, but it does show some downright unsporting equipment like lawnmowers and tentacles.

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Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games released another video showcasing upcoming improvements for the game. 

First of all, we get to take a look at massive volumetric gas clouds that can range between slightly smaller than a moon and much bigger than the biggest planet in the game. 

The second part of the video shows new physical reactions for impacts that go from being shot to being knocked off a ledge or down when your ship gets rammed. 

You can watch the video below. 

In other Star Citizen news, the crowdfunding total has passed $311 million.

To be more precise, it’s sitting on $311,347,643 at the moment of this writing.

The number of registered accounts is now well over 2.7 million (currently 2,760,864).

As usual, it’s known that not all of them are paying players. The number includes free accounts created for a variety of reasons, including free fly events.

For the sake of full disclosure, the author of this article has been a Star Citizen backer since the original Kickstarter campaign several years ago, so you should keep that in mind while reading.

Fortnite: Chapter 2's Season 4 is finally here. There is one secret challenge that ties into the season's overarching Marvel theme. Baby Groot, one form of the super tree, is hidden somewhere on the map, and if you find him you'll get a special back bling. This guide will help you locate him quickly.

Where is Baby Groot?

Baby Groot is hidden in the nursery at Holly Hedges. Holly Hedges is a named location, so it shouldn't be hard to find. Dive into that location and head to the southwest corner area where a fence of hedges surrounds a little outdoor shopping area. Baby Groot will be surrounded by three potted plants. Simply walk up to them and pick him up.

Some players have reported that Baby Groot is not spawning every match, so be prepared to try this several times. Hopefully Epic Games has a fix for that bug soon.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have canceled the NieR: Theatrical Orchestra 12020 performances, but you can still buy the shirts.

The post NieR: Theatrical Orchestra 12020 Shirt Pre-orders Open appeared first on Siliconera.

The time that Pokemon GO fans have been waiting for since Mega Evolutions were announced has finally come. Megas are now in Pokemon GO.

In the mainline Pokemon games, Mega Evolution only stayed active while in battle. However, in Pokemon GO, you can Mega Evolve a mon and it will stay that way for you to set as your buddy, to use in PvE battles, and in battles against friends. It will only revert back to its standard form if you Mega Evolve a different Pokemon.

There were also items called Mega Stones in the mainline games which let certain Pokemon evolve. Instead, Pokemon GO uses an item called Mega Energy to perform the evolution. Once a Pokemon uses this item for the first time, it’ll require less energy to get back to Mega form the next time. It’s also important to note that shadow and clone Pokemon can’t Mega Evolve.

If you’re more into the cosmetic additions in Pokemon GO, then you’ll want to check out the Mega Bracelet items that have been added to the Shop. They’re not necessary to use Mega Pokemon, but they still look pretty neat.

But if you just want to get to collecting all the Megas right now, then you can play A Mega Discovery, the themed Special research that culminates in obtaining a Mega Beedrill. Or if you’re even less patient, then you can try your hand at Mega Raids which let you take on these powered-up mons.

And if you just gotta catch em’ all, there has been a Mega section added to your Pokedex that will keep track of which ones you have obtained.

Finally, there will be a Mega-themed event coming up in September with each week having a specific goal. Here are all the details from The Pokemon GO Team:

The PlayStation Store has multiple major sales going on right now, including a budget-friendly sale with games under $20 and a Hidden Gems Sale featuring great games you may have missed. But if you're looking for that next game to dive into, there's another small sale that just cropped up, and it has some fantastic deals worth checking out. The PS4 "weekend offer" includes over 40 games and bundles, and it's available for just a few days, ending Tuesday, September 1.

Notably, Deluxe editions and other bundles are marked down in the weekend sale, netting you the game along with various DLC. Persona 5 Royal Deluxe edition, for example, is down to $45.49 from $70, the cheapest we've seen this version of the game. It gets you the base game (the definitive version of the acclaimed JRPG) along with the Kasumi Costume Bundle that unlocks four sets of cosmetic items for the new character. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Deluxe edition is just $35 (normally $70) and gets you cosmetic skins for BD-1 and the Mantis ship, a digital art book, and a director's cut with 90 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage.

If you haven't picked up last year's excellent remake of Resident Evil 2 yet, the Deluxe edition is down to $25 and comes with the Extra DLC Pack that includes more costumes for Leon and Claire, a new weapon, and the option to play the game with the original RE2 soundtrack.