Pokemon Gold and Silver Gym Leader Morty and his ominous Drifblim will be added to Pokemon Masters soon.
The post Ghost-Type Sync Pair Morty and Drifblim Will Be Added To Pokemon Masters appeared first on Siliconera.
Bloodstained is kind of like the Fallout 76 of the Metroidvania world: one patch enters, several new bugs leave.
The Bloodstained team has acknowledged some recent bugs, most notably crashes after interacting with NPCs, crashes while playing Bloodless in boss rush mode and items negatively impacting achievements. There's no ETA on the fix right now, but it is in the works.
In other news, that same bugged boss revenge and chroma wheel mode is not yet implemented in the Switch version, so those bugs don't exist. Sadly, that likely means that there's more work to be done in tandem with that Switch patch, so it could be even farther out. Better late than buggy, but the Switch port just can't catch a break.
In fact, this could push back the 2020 roadmap, which was smartly labeled with "all plans subject to change" when it dropped in June. After this mess is sorted out, the next step for the third quarter is chaos/versus/classic modes, as well as a "special crossover."
Bloodstained [Facebook]
Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.
Writer Tom Angleberger reimagines a key episode in Stories of Light and Dark
Popular battle royale title PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has sold over 70 million copies to date. ...
The small Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds map of Sanhok is being revamped as part of Update 8.1 next week, developers PUBG Corp announced today. Numerous locations have been rebuilt, and an interesting new mini objective has been added. Autonomous Loot Trucks will be driving around the island, dropping crates of gear as they’re attacked, and awarding particularly fancy gear when they’re destroyed. Chasing a robopiñata in my tuk-tuk while the laaads in the back blast away sounds great fun. Today’s announcement also brings a big boast: the battle royale shooter has now sold over 70 million units.
Fast, fluid, and effortlessly cool, CrossCode is an astonishing achievement in creative game design, engaging combat, and retro gaming nostalgia. Developed by Radical Fish Games, CrossCode is laugh-out-loud funny, tough as nails, and it’s one of my favorite games of recent years.
An intriguing mix of genres, CrossCode is an action-RPG in which you spend just as much time contending with fiendish puzzles as you do engaging in real-time combat. The whole thing is wrapped in the trappings of a classic MMORPG, veterans of which will get an extra kick out of its humor.
Released on PC back in 2020, CrossCode is now available on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. I spent the majority of my time with the PS4 version, which runs perfectly even during the games more chaotic moments, and looks and sounds amazing.
You play as Lea, an amnesiac player of an MMO known as CrossWorlds, who is unable to logout or even speak, at least initially, due to a malfunction in her avatars speech module. Over time, new words are added, and Lea is able to communicate in a very limited fashion. While it is mostly played for laughs, the whole situation is a really clever take on the silent protagonist trope and something I hadn’t seen before.
Lea’s quest takes her across the vast and varied landscape of CrossWorlds, all rendered in a glorious 16-bit pixel art style, replete with beautiful character portraits, and the story at the heart of her tale is far darker than the game’s colorful presentation would have you believe. The soundtrack, too, is fantastic and is varied and well-performed, with iconic themes for each major area.
Fresh off reading Chris' Ghost of Tsushima review and - in spite of his reservations - been convinced to pick up Sucker Punch's latest? If that's the case, here's the best price for Ghost of Tsushima right now.
You'll need to head over to Currys PC World where you can get yourself a copy of the swish samurai homage for £44.99. All you need to do is enter the code 'GAME10' at the checkout.
It may not be a massive discount, but it's still the cheapest price out there. Most other major retailers are sticking around the full £50, while a few specialist stores have taken a couple of quid of the price at most. If you do want to pay the extra fiver at Amazon, though, you'll get some exclusive cover art.
LovePlus Every service will end before the app's birthday, but Konami will add a Kanojo Plus Lite mode that lets you see the characters.
The post LovePlus Every’s Service Will End, But You Can Still Spend Time With Your (Virtual) Girlfriend appeared first on Siliconera.
Remember back in March when Sony had Mark Cerny give a pre-recorded presentation on all the deep-dive technical capabilities of the PlayStation 5? It was extremely beneficial and useful and enlightening -- just not for the vast majority of the people who were watching. It was mostly lost on the video game-playing layman, as their only takeaway was "Okay, I guess this thing will be powerful as heck."
Microsoft has now done the same for the Xbox Series X but in text format. In a new post on Xbox Wire, Microsoft explains the Xbox Velocity Architecture. This is, broadly, about optimizing performance and speed through new rendering techniques. It's very much a "sum is greater than the parts" kind of thing, as the four components -- custom NVME SSD, hardware accelerated decompression, DirectStorage API, and Sampler Feedback Streaming -- combine to enable Xbox Series X to achieve something that Microsoft says is "beyond the raw specifications of the hardware itself."
Accompanying the Xbox Wire post is the sizzle reel trailer that's embedded above. Here are all the very dense bullet points laid over the very flashy video:
Operation 4: Brothers in Arms is the latest seasonal update for Gears 5 that is out now, and brings new content alongside a few drastic changes to the game’s systems.
The update adds Gears of War franchise favorite Dominic Santiago, Garron Paduk, and four more playable characters. Three maps have also been added with Blood Drive from Gears of War 2, Checkout from Gears of War 3, and an all-new map Reactor.
As detailed last week, developer The Coalition has replaced the scrap and supply systems with a new in-game currency called Gears Coins. The new currency can be earned by playing the game and progressing through the Tour of Duty. It can be used to buy cosmetic items in the store or upgrade skill cards for Horde and Escape modes.
The ranked system has been overhauled to better understand how to rank up, after the old system would regularly penalize players with negative points and rank demotion even after winning matches.
Ranked players now earn Gears Points for winning and doing well within matches. The system offers six different levels from Bronze to Master, three tiers in each, and will cost Gears Points to enter each match with higher ranks requiring more points.
Gears 5 Operation 4: Brothers in Arms is now available for PC and Xbox One, and the full patch notes for all the changes can be found here.
Today Bandai Namco had news to share about its upcoming mobile Tales of game Tales of Crestoria.
First of all, we learn that the game is in the “final stages” of development and will be launched in the “near future.” Pre-download will be available with details to be released on social media.
The number of pre-registrations have passed one million worldwide, which is certainly a rather impressive milestone.
We also get a new trailer showing one of Tales’ iconic skits starring three main characters of the game, Kanata, Misella, and Vicious.
Last, but not least, we take a look at the SSR illustration for all three, plus Aegis.
Mobile game company Nifty Games has opened a new development studio in Chicago to create "mobile-first" sports titles. ...
If you want to be making games for decades, there's no point in choosing between creating things you love or making enough money to sustain your studio. You need a system to do both successfully. ...
Following its PlayStation debut last year, Death Stranding is now out on PC too. This is the latest game from Metal Gear Solid maestro Hideo Kojima and his studio Kojima Productions, and stars Norman Reedus as a post-apocalyptic postman traversing the wastes of the USA. Something’s spooky has happened, see, so Norm needs a baby in a bottle to help protect himself from extradimensional ghosties. In short: some sneaking; a little action; lots of Kojima-y names and exposition; and loads of walking around lovely landscapes trying not to stack it and smash your packages.
Ever since Assassin’s Creed started leaping from ancient Jerusalem to renaissance Italy to colonial America and beyond, there has been a longstanding itch to see the open-world stealth-action series take on feudal Japan. Consider that itch sufficiently scratched with Ghost of Tsushima. Sucker Punch’s latest is an absolutely gorgeous adventure through one of history’s most strikingly beautiful landscapes, and that beauty is compounded by one of the best blade-to-blade combat systems the open-world action genre has seen. There are some stumbles when it comes to stealth, enemy AI, and a few general minor frustrations, but for just about every moment where Ghost of Tsushima falters, there are plenty more where it soars.
Ghost of Tsushima is a fictional tale told with fictional characters, but it’s based on the very real invasion of Japan by the Mongol Empire in 1274 that began on the Island of Tsushima. You take control of Jin Sakai, capably acted by The Man in the High Castle’s Daisuke Tsuji, who starts off as a samurai before a disastrous battle against the invaders quickly teaches him that perhaps the honorable but restrictive ways of the samurai code might not be enough to deal with this new and existential threat.
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Gecco is going to give people a chance to bring not one, not two, but six Silent Hill 3 rabbit figures home.
The post Silent Hill Rabbit Figures Will Be Released Starting in November appeared first on Siliconera.
Ghost of Tsushima is a game of compulsion. Like most open-world adventures, everything is designed to get you to explore what’s over the next hill or across that nearby river. The map is peppered with question marks, many of which surround towns and temples in which you meet allies and upgrade equipment. Helpful…
Quite early on in Ghost of Tsushima, you'll be introduced to its dramatic, one-on-one duels. Two warriors, a dozen yards apart, face each other down across the divide. Up close: narrowing eyes and crumpled brows. Hands hover at hips, knees bend, feet press down into the earth, muscle, sinew and fingers tighten. Then - bang! - combat. It's a cracking moment, especially the first time you give one a try, and it's also a cracking example of what Ghost of Tsushima's all about. These heightened standoffs begin with shot-for-shot facsimiles of that famous scene from Yojimbo, an Akira Kurosawa classic that's both a mirror of older westerns and an inspiration for the '60s greats.
They're also, once you've done a few of them, slightly flat, the enemies you battle mostly re-using the same attacks and movements of ones you've faced before, and the concept quickly becomes a little overused, predictably occurring at the end of certain quests, and generally lacking the complexity to require more than a few tries each time. Like the game itself, they go for authenticity through facsimile - recreating moments without the requisite weight and context. And, like the game itself, they're lacking a little depth. Despite the immediate and undeniable thrill, the gloss can be just a little too quick to wear off.
Open-world design has long been AAA gaming’s in-vogue mechanic, but 10 years on from Ubisoft’s trend-setting Assassin’s Creed and most contemporary examples are disappointingly conservative. We get iterations on the same pop pastiche, but that typically boils down to jamming in more content rather than truly innovating.
I found Sucker Punch Productions’ approach to Ghost of Tsushima highly refreshing in this regard: it’s a AAA open-world game that feels as though it has been created around a conscious effort to avoid being labeled a cookie-cutter, even if it can’t quite resist featuring the same tropes.
Indeed, while its badass swordplay, slick traversal, and astonishingly beautiful graphics are likely to be its biggest attraction for most, the focus on exploration and the extent to which players are left to their own devices impressed me most during my first 15 or so hours with the game.
Click here to watch embedded media
Image: Sucker Punch Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment
A great setting let down by rote design
King Art Games and Deep Silver released a new trailer of the upcoming dieselpunk mecha warfare RTS Iron Harvest.
The trailer showcases the Rusviet Empire, one of the factions of the game, obviously inspired by real-world Russia… with mecha.
We take a look at the Rusviet units, which are an interesting mix of melee and ranged power, and the hero unit Olga Morasova.
You can check them out below.
If you’re unfamiliar Iron Harvest, you can check out the previous trailer and an older one and read an official description below.
Iron Harvest is a real-time strategy game (RTS) set in the alternate reality of 1920+, just after the end of the Great War. The Game lets you control giant dieselpunk mechs, combining epic singleplayer and coop campaigns as well as skirmishes with intense action on the battlefield for multiplayer fans, Iron Harvest is the classic real-time strategy games fans have been waiting for.
Kingdom Hearts fans can now order a special set of themed watches and earrings as part of a collaboration with jewelry brand U-Treasure.
The post Kingdom Hearts Watches and Earrings Available Through U-Treasure appeared first on Siliconera.
A new record has been set for the most expensive video game of all-time... And it's one of the classics. A mint condition copy of the 1985 NES release Super Mario Bros. sold at auction last week, changing hands for a cool $114,000 USD.
During the sale, which was held on July 10 by Heritage Auctions in Texas, a total of 29 bids culminated in the lofty six-figure sum. Unsurprisingly, the copy of Super Mario Bros. in question was in absolutely pristine condition, having been graded 9.4 out of 10, the highest grading an SMB example has ever received at auction.
Still sealed after 35 years, this particular edition even included its original cardboard hang-tab, denoting it as one of a small production run made after Nintendo transitioned to shrink-wrapping its products. This new sale beats out a previous Super Mario Bros. auction held in February 2019, where another copy of the legendary platformer sold for $100,150.
The auction was won by an anonymous buyer, who has no doubt since added the most expensive video game of all-time to what I'm assuming is probably quite a collection. I'm willing to bet they immediately tore open the packaging and dived straight into World 1-1.
Sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. sells for $114k [Eurogamer]
We’re almost spoiled for choice when it comes to great 2560×1440 gaming monitors these days, but the BenQ EX2780Q is another strong contender that’s worthy of your consideration. For starters, it’s one of the few gaming monitors I’ve tested that actually has a built-in (albeit very tiny) subwoofer to accompany its pair of 2W speakers, but it’s also got a super accurate IPS panel, a high 144Hz refresh rate, AMD Freesync Premium support and one of VESA’s DisplayHDR 400 certifications for low-end HDR. In short, it’s got pretty much everything it needs to challenge my current [cms-block] for 1440p champion, the AOC Agon AG273QX.
Type-Moon Studio BB just launched a Fate/Extra anniversary countdown website leading to July 22, 2020.
The post Fate/Extra 10th Anniversary Website From Type-Moon Studio BB Has a Countdown to July 22, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.
In Death Stranding for PC, you can wear a headcrab on your head and drive around in a Half-Life branded van.
Seriously, what else do you need to know?
It's been over three years since PUBG first popped up on Steam, and while that's a relatively short time on paper, it somehow feels much longer. Perhaps it's because the wider gaming landscape around PUBG has changed so much: no longer the only battle royale on the block, PUBG now finds itself sharing that market space with several competitors, with a new contender appearing practically every few months.
Given the game is no longer sparkling new and the battle royale market is so crowded, it's little wonder PUBG's player numbers are not what they were in 2017. But that's not to say the game has disappeared - it's still able to pull in 500k Steam concurrents on a daily basis, and has now sold 70m units. With PUBG heading into its eighth season (on 22nd July for PC and 30th July for consoles and Stadia), it seems as good a time as any to catch up on the general state of the game. I asked PUBG Madison studio director Dave Curd about PUBG Corp's long-term strategy, the Sanhok map remaster, and what sort of changes we'll see in Season 8. And also what's happening with those controversial bots.
There was a time when the chances of key PlayStation exclusives arriving on PC seemed slight - but the situation has changed and the arrival of Death Stranding for PC does a phenomenal job of liberating a stunning game from the confines of its host platform. In the process, the game runs at 60 frames per second (and indeed beyond) - Kojima Productions' original design target. But just how scalable is Death Stranding and what happens for 4K gamers when the PS4 Pro's checkerboard rendering is stripped out in favour of native rendering and other solutions?
A PC game is often defined by its range of options and while there's only a limited array of tweakables to play with, there's still much of interest to discuss. For a start, HDR is supported - just make sure that the option is also enabled in Windows' settings. The control over HDR is not as fine-grain as other titles on PC or indeed console, but it is great to see the feature here where other PC ports sometimes skip it. The good news here is that the implementation is just as stand-out as it is in PlayStation 4 Pro, and adds immensely to the quality of the presentation.
Not so impressive is the lack of camera field of view control. Generally, Death Stranding does have a much higher FOV than most console games so it is not a massive problem, but I can imagine some players feeling its absence and not being particularly happy about it. It's this kind of detail - or lack of it - that gives me the sense that Kojima Productions has an iron grip on artistic control for Death Stranding at the expense of flexibility for the user.
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu | Image: Amanita Design
Explore a spooky subterranean structure full of puzzles
The Lego NES Playset has finally been revealed, and is looking like a cool plastic nostalgia bomb. You can buy it this August!
The post Lego NES Playset Revealed in Official Trailer appeared first on Siliconera.
UPDATE 14/7/20: Lego has made its NES console set official, and given it a UK price of £209.99.
The 2646-piece set will launch on 1st August and is available to pre-order now via Lego.com.
The set includes the NES console and a gamepad, a NES cartridge for Super Mario Bros. and a retro TV where you can see the game being played. There's even a little handle you can crank to scroll the on-screen level forward.
With gaming monitor prices and stock levels finally starting to come back under control, the number of good gaming monitor deals has finally started to pick up again. There are plenty of gaming monitor deals to choose from in the UK and US this week, from cheap 144Hz and 240Hz gaming screens to cut-price ultrawide monitor deals. So read on below for all the best prices on as many of today’s [cms-block]s we’ve been able to find. Whether you’re looking for the cheapest G-Sync gaming monitor deals or the lowest ultrawide gaming monitor deals, here are the top gaming monitor deals of the week.
Tales of Crestoria's producer gave an update on the smartphone game's development, and revealed that the game crossed 1m pre-registrations.
The post Tales of Crestoria Development Hits Final Stage and Passes One Million Pre-Registrations appeared first on Siliconera.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via 
Photo: Razer
Image: PUBG Corp.