Epic Games has begun to implement its long-awaited achievements system within certain games played via its PC launcher.

At the moment these will be tracked in the background and only displayed within some games while the interface is fine-tuned.

In a message posted to Twitter last night, Epic cautioned the feature was still an early version and would be improved over time. For now, here's how it looks in action within Ark: Survival Evolved:

Read more

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 has gotten an update that adds in the new Legend Mode difficulty, making for an even tougher tromp.

The post Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 Steps Up the Difficulty with Legend Mode appeared first on Siliconera.

The time has finally come for Animal Crossing: New Horizons' latest update.

Although I often find myself twiddling my thumbs with this game for long periods of time, updates usually provide at least a week of fun: patch 1.4.0 is no exception. This time the second summer update has added a fireworks show, which will be a seasonal event along with various new seasonal items.

Thankfully, Nintendo has addressed a huge issue within the content creation community: the camera. While folks were using a glitch to eliminate the HUD to craft more interesting Animal Crossing videos, Nintendo was keen to patch it out these past few months. Now, they've seemingly relented with an official option: if you press in the right stick you can eliminate the guide on the UI.

You'll also be able to go to sleep and meet Luna, which allows you to "upload a dream of your island to the internet." Read: this is essentially that long-awaited backup system on top of the added dream island functionality. You just need to be a Switch Online member, and according to Nintendo: "Save data cannot be restored at a customer’s discretionary timing. If your system is broken, you must contact Nintendo Support to start a repair request. If you have lost your system, you must contact Nintendo Support."

You cannot, however, transfer to a different system. That featured is "planned within 2020."

Animal Crossing: New Horizons [Nintendo]

Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games has responded to fans left waiting on a new development roadmap for the long-awaited single-player portion Squadron 42.

Unfortunately, months after admitting the game's previous roadmap no longer matched reality, yesterday's post amounted to a new, vague roadmap to get to the actual new roadmap instead.

As spotted by Kotaku, CIG's four-part plan for a new plan goes as follows:

Read more

UPDATE 30/07/20: In response to significant criticism from the League of Legends fan base and casters, the LEC has ended its controversial sponsorship deal with Saudi Arabia city project Neom.

The news was announced via a statement from Alberto Guerrero, Riot's director of esports for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

"As a company and as a league, we know that it's important to recognise when we make mistakes and quickly work to correct them," Guerrero wrote. "After further reflection, while we remain steadfastly committed to all of our players and fans worldwide including those living in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, the LEC has ended its partnership with Neom, effective immediately.

Read more

People Can Fly, the developer behind ultra-ballistic shooter Bulletstorm, has revealed that it is already at work on a brand new AAA title for PC and next-gen platforms PS5 and Xbox Series X.

The "highly ambitious, groundbreaking action-adventure" will be developed in the Polish developer's New York studio, with assistance from its sister studios in Warsaw, Rzeszow, and Newcastle. More staff are to be hired to further facilitate production of the new title, under the guidance of studio head David Grijns and creative director Roland Lesterlin. If that wasn't enough, then People Can Fly also intends to open another studio in Montreal within the next 12-18 months. All hands on deck, it would seem.

While there are no details pertaining to the mystery title's genre or plot, the developer's press release is abuzz with excitement. "It's rare to ever get the chance to work on an original AAA game in today's world, never mind being part of the origination process," said Lesterlin. "We're looking for brilliant and curious people to help us shape the vision of this incredible new world we’re building."

People Can Fly, formerly Epic Games Poland, were brought to the forefront of the industry due to its work on high-energy shooters such as Painkiller and the Gears of War series, before making a standout name for itself with Bulletstorm. It is currently working on another shooter, Outriders, for Square Enix, which is expected to launch later in 2020.

Samurai Shodown will add Gongsun Li from Honor of Kings as a free DLC character on August 5, 2020.

The post Samurai Shodown Will Add Gongsun Li From Honor of Kings as a Free DLC Character on August 5, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

We're now onto day 8 of the Gamesplanet Summer Sale, where the highlights include some of the best prices so far on Resident Evil 3 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

The latest 24-hour flash deal on Resident Evil 3 brings it down to just £25 on PC - that's the cheapest it's ever been since launch. Elsewhere, Sekiro is now £30, which is actually quite low for a game that's held its value extremely well since launch back in March 2019.

You can find today's full selection below, which also includes Resident Evil 2, Alien Isolation and Overcooked 2.

Read more

[Update: The SNK games are now live here, alongside of a new Doom Eternal skin.]

As we shared back at the start of June, Twitch Prime is partnering with SNK to give Prime members free stuff.

Seven games (mostly fighters) were dumped on the service last month, but now Twitch is ready to deliver seven more as of today. Those games are Metal Slug 2, SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad, Baseball Stars 2, Sengoku 3, Ironclad and King of the Monsters. This time around SNK is going hard with beat 'em ups and shoot 'em ups.

It's kind of a trick though: in a good way! One of those seven games (SNK 40th Anniversary Collection) is actually a bundle of 24 other games: sneaky! That one includes titles such as Beat Busters, Baseball Stars and Ozma Wars.

You can find the full list below for the second collection, as well as the first run, which is still live on Twitch Prime. As a reminder, you can claim them here.

The new Microsoft Flight Simulator has wowed ever since it was first unveiled last year, though the announcement of the release date contained details that had some people's jaws dropping for other reasons as it emerged to access a small number of high-profile 'premium' versions of airports such as Heathrow - an example that hit home seeing as it's so close to home - you'll have to buy the pricey premium edition.

"Honestly, when we started, our attitude was let's be very humble, and let's be generous," Microsoft's head of Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann told Eurogamer. "We basically said, let's put a bunch of planes in there, and let's put a bunch of airports down. The thing that's interesting about the flight sim world is that there's this community of third party developers, and they make a living making airports.

"We didn't fully realise that we need to tread very carefully, because if we make too much stuff, we're hurting them. And we don't want to hurt them. We want to have a thriving ecosystem, and they can be as creative as they want to be for years to come. We actually took out a bunch of airports and stopped development on a bunch of airports because it was too much."

Read more

SNK has released a trailer for the next character headed to its human-chess fighting title Samurai Shodown. Hailing from Tencent mobile title Honor of Kings, the lovely Gongsun Li will be added to the roster, free of charge, on August 5.

The cheerful bunny gal steps outside of her MOBA comfort zone - where she is typically utilsed as a "Marksman" character to get up close and personal with Haohmaru, Galford, Darli and the rest of the Samurai Shodown crew. The trailer depicts a fighting style based around her attractive parasol, as well as a range of sweeping, open-handed strikes.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is coming to Steam, with all versions of the forthcoming game now live to pre-order and with a day and date launch with the Microsoft Store version due on August 18th.

Game Pass owners will of course get the base version of Microsoft Flight Simulator for free, with the option to then upgrade to the deluxe or premium editions where you'll have access to more craft and more 'premium' versions of airports.

The news comes as Microsoft Flight Simulator enters a closed beta prior to its launch next month. VR support was today confirmed for post-launch, and we've recently been able to spend a fair amount of time with the impressive sim.

Read more

Aquaplus president Naoya Shimokawa took to Twitter yesterday to announce that Utawarerumono composer Michio Kinugasa sadly passed away.

The post Aquaplus Utawarerumono Composer Michio Kinugasa Died appeared first on Siliconera.

If you haven't noticed, opportunities for air travel have been a little bit scarce as of late. Sure, it's still possible to fly from here to there, but it's much less desirable than it used to be for obvious pandemic-related reasons. And I definitely miss it. Playing the new Microsoft Flight Simulator has done a lot to fill that gap, and then some, offering up the chance to not only see the Earth from thousands of feet up, but also the opportunity to take control of one of 20 different planes to chart my own courses.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=32-of-microsoft-flight-simulators-37000-airports&captions=true"]

The great thing about Microsoft Flight Simulator and its real-time Bing maps integration is you can hop into a plane and take off from basically any airport in the entire world. At last count, over 37,000 airports, airfields, and even tiny dirt airstrips were available to you. The 30 airports available with the base game are hand-crafted to resemble the actual airports on which they're based as accurately as possible. If you've ever flown into LAX or JFK, you'll probably be astonished at how well they've been recreated here by Asobo Studios. But the 36,970 other airfields are also impressive, even if they aren't modeled on actual architectural blueprints like the hand-crafted ones. For example, my local airport in midcoast Maine is absolutely tiny, with two runways: one just over 1,500 meters and the other just over 1,200 meters.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=You%20can%20hop%20into%20a%20plane%20and%20take%20off%20from%20basically%20any%20airport%20in%20the%20entire%20world."]

As Microsoft’s longest-running software franchise, Flight Simulator has accrued a dedicated following of those wanting to take to the sky in a realistic way. With the most recent entry launching in 2006, the technological leaps forward in the new edition are staggering. Not only has developer Asobo Studio mapped the entire world, but the team’s attention to detail even has those of us with no interest in aviation keeping our eyes on this title.

Around the world in 2 petabytes

Continue reading…

The HP Reverb G2 will be compatible at launch, other devices to follow

Continue reading…

Of course, the first thing I do in the new Microsoft Flight Simulator is fly over my house. Heading out from London City Airport in the nimble, aerobatic Extra 330LT, and up into the late evening sky to see the sun melt into the horizon. Skimming The O2, then grazing the tips of Canary Wharf's mob of skyscrapers before banking left over the Isle of Dogs, buzzing the Royal Naval College as we head up over Greenwich Park and then Blackheath as London blooms into parkland south of the Thames.

Then it's simply a case of looking out for the cluster of buildings that marks Lewisham to the right, dipping right then left once again to pick up the Waterlink Way. And there it is. My home. In a video game, for what I'm pretty sure is the very first time. I step away from the controls and out into my garden, slightly dizzy from it all, only to see the sky has darkened to the exact same shade of hazy blue as the one I was just flying through.

Microsoft Flight Simulator isn't the first game to pull in real-world map or weather data to make for a more authentic simulation, nor is it the first game to try and bring us the entire world. But there's an alchemy here that goes beyond bullet point feature lists or plain numbers, blending together to create one of those rare wow moments that come along once a generation, or that maybe herald the next. This really is a phenomenal thing.

Read more

VR support, one of the most requested features for the forthcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator, has been confirmed, and it'll be launching alongside the HP's Reverb G2 headset when it hits these shores later this year.

While VR support isn't exclusive to the headset it will make its first appearance there before rolling out to other headsets. "We're starting with them," Microsoft's head of Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann told Eurogamear. "There's some extra work to be done for some of the others. I mean, we're going to bring it to all the devices - all the common ones. It's just going to take a few more months after that."

VR support will be a free update, and it forms part of an ongoing support package that will see 'a meaningful release every month'. Track IR has just been introduced as part of the new beta, while seasonal conditions are also slated for the future alongside shared cockpit functionality.

Read more

Today Nihon Falcom released a large gallery of screenshots and details of its upcoming Trails JRPG The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki.

First of all, we take a look at many returning characters from previous games of the series including Fie Claussell, Emma Millstein, Gaius Worzel, Millium Orion, Roselia, Fran Seeker, Celine, and a much grown-up Shizuku Maclaine.

A new character, code-named “Emperor” also appears. He’s an executive of an organization that uses its members as tools. His ruthless personality brings him to condemn deserters to be executed.

He wears a set of golden artifacts that give him the power to control gravity to crush his foes and he is currently tracking two members of the organization who are on the run.

We also get to see a new episode unlocked in the New Reverie Corridor focused on Freddy.

Last, but not least, the “Beach DE Vacation” lets you bring together the old and new members of Class VII to the beach enjoying various minigames like watermelon splitting and banana boating.

There will also be “communication events” letting you have a conversation with party members to deepen your bonds with them. Moving the camera may change the conversation topic, and reaching a certain level of affection can unlock a special event that will make the relationship even closer.

These events will support PlayStation VR with a post-launch patch.

Initially, you have a limited number of tickets to access the beach, but you can unlock more in the New Reverie Corridor.

You can check out all the screenshots below. Incidentally, if you want to get into the series, you can still take part in our The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III giveaway.

I want to like Sea Of Thieves so badly that I’ve convinced myself I do like it, even though deep inside I find it quite dull to play. I don’t understand why I find it dull. The premise is superb, it looks great, and I know lots of folks who routinely have the time of their lives being weird, balloon-bodied pirates. I just can’t seem to see what they’re seeing.

Well, that’s not strictly true. The few sessions I have played, with folks here at RPS, have been a right laugh. But without sounding like a bit of a poorly elephant, I mostly put that down to my colleagues being fun people to hang out with, rather than to anything we actually did in the game (although firing myself out of a cannon at a kraken was fairly noteworthy). Even if the fun I’ve had is largely down to company, mind, I’ll still applaud Sea Of Thieves for providing such a pretty, easygoing place to hang out.

(more…)

People who had issues with the Paper Mario: The Origami King Shangri-Spa VIP card glitch can expect a patch to fix it.

The post Paper Mario: The Origami King Shangri-Spa Glitch Will Be Patched appeared first on Siliconera.

The Animal Crossing New Horizons 1.4 patch added new activities and adjusted the Nookphone Camera and Custom Design Portal.

The post Animal Crossing: New Horizons Gets NookPhone Camera and Custom Design Portal Changes appeared first on Siliconera.

SNK certainly seems to be picking new Samurai Shodown characters from rather peculiar sources, and today a brand new one has been announced.

The new character is Gongsun Li and she comes straight from the mobile game Honor of Kings by Tencent. 

She is voice by Kana Ichinose, that Final Fantasy XIV fans may know as Ryne from the latest expansion Shadowbringers.

The good news is that she’s going to be completely free, and she’s releasing on August 8 on all platforms. 

Below you can enjoy a trailer and a few screenshots from the press release.

“As a company and as a league, we know that it’s important to recognize when we make mistakes and quickly work to correct them. After further reflection, while we remain steadfastly committed to all of our players and fans worldwide including those living in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, the LEC has ended its partnership with NEOM, effective immediately. In an effort to expand our esports ecosystem, we moved too quickly to cement this partnership and caused rifts in the very community we seek to grow. While we missed our own expectations in this instance, we’re committed to reexamining our internal structures to ensure this doesn't happen again.”

Players and content creators are ecstatic

Continue reading…

The League of Legends developer has backed out of the partnership

Continue reading…

Moka is a freelance illustrator based in the UK.

Read more...

We learned back in April that Grounded, the new miniaturized survival game from Obsidian Entertainment, would include an “arachnophobia mode” for players with an aversion to spiders. Let’s take a look at how this accessibility option works now that the game is out in the wild.

Read more...

While modern sneaker collabs tend to be focused on contemporary games and series, this upcoming Blazer ‘77 by Nike is instead going in the opposite direction.

Read more...

If you’re among those who purchased Azur Lane: Crossowave for PS4 or PC, you may have wondered when North America and Europe would get the DLC shipgirls.

Today Idea Factory International finally answered that question via press release. The five DLC shipgirls will come west this fall alongside their story content and a bunch of support shipgirls.

There will be five packages and each will include a main playable shipgirl, three support-only shipgirls, and a story campaign dedicated to the main heroine of the DLC.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the DLC, here’s a full list of the five packages.

Main Ship: Taihou
Support Ships: Saint Louis, Dunkerque, Jean Bart
Taihou – Additional Story Mode content

Main Ship:  Formidable
Support Ships: Warspite, HMS Neptune, Zara
Formidable – Additional Story Mode content

Main Ship: Roon
Support Ships: Graf Zepplin, Deutschland, Admiral Graf Spee
Roon – Additional Story Mode content

Main Ship: Le Malin
Support Ships: Essex, Baltimore, Centaur
Le Malin – Additional Story Mode content

Main Ship: Sirius
Support Ships: London, Alabama, Azuma
Sirius – Additional Story Mode content

Below you can also check out a gallery of screenshots.

The latest Famitsu interview for Fate/Grand Order's 5th anniversary discussed how many chapters are left and Zeus and the other Greek gods' designs in Lostbelt 5.

The post Kinoko Nasu Says Fate/Grand Order Is Only Halfway Through Arc 2 appeared first on Siliconera.

While the wider world has accepted that Star Citizen (and its singleplayer spin-off Squadron 42 campaign) are perhaps never coming out, those who paid for the game back in 2012—and have either paid or kept paying since—are growing increasingly unhappy at developer Cloud Imperium Games’ lack of apparent progress and…

Read more...

Death Sovereign Hel will be the next Fire Emblem Heroes Mythic Hero.

The post Fire Emblem Heroes’ Hel Will Be the Next Mythic Hero appeared first on Siliconera.

Plus, buy-two-get-one-free Blu-rays

Continue reading…