EA secures LaLiga in FIFA for another decade

3 years 10 months ago

EA has secured LaLiga in FIFA for another decade.

The deal means FIFA fans will continue to see official match branding from Spain's top division throughout the game, as well as officially-licensed clubs. You'll also see LaLiga players in FIFA Ultimate Team, including in promos such as Team of the Week (TOTW), Player of the Month (POTM) and Team of the Year (TOTY).

EA said LaLiga, which includes super clubs such as Barcelona and Real Madrid, is one of the most popular leagues selected in online play, and has the biggest in-game fanbase across 70 nations worldwide.

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Pokemon Company Teams Up With Tencent for Pokemon Unite, a Team-Based Battle Game for Switch and Mobile

3 years 10 months ago

Today The Pokemon Company held a livestreamed Pokemon Presents and during the video, it was announced that it would be partnering with TiMi and Tencent to develop the first team-based Pokemon battle game.

Pokemon Unite will release for the Nintendo Switch and smartphones and will support cross-play between the two platforms. It’s a free-to-play cooperative Pokemon game with “a lot of depth that anyone can pick up and play,” according to The Pokemon Company president, Tsunekazu Ishihara.

The biggest defining trait of Pokemon Unite is its real-time team-battles with two teams of five Pokemon each. Players can team with one another to help defeat the opposing team.

Each player starts with a level 1 Pokemon and you can grow that starting Pokemon by defeating other Pokemon in the field, and evolve to learn new moves and skills.

You can watch the entire presentation down below to get a closer look at Pokemon Unite:

The development team is hard at work and more news on the game will be revealed soon. No release date was revealed during the Pokemon Presents.

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Greysun Morales

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After today's War Table stream, Marvel's Avengers still has a lot to prove

3 years 10 months ago

Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix showed off around 25 minutes of Marvel's Avengers in today's War Table stream, and if you caught it live, the compression-heavy showing was rough to watch.

If you're checking in now, the 4K upload on YouTube is better. Not great – I'm afraid to see this game running on current-gen base consoles – but better. There's also a co-op trailer if you're in a rush.

Marvel's Avengers will seemingly put most of its attention on A.I.M. – an organization hellbent on curing the "Inhuman infection" and convincing everyone that superheroes are too dangerous.

He won't be the only villain, but MODOK is leading the charge, which is an interesting choice, to be sure. The designers said they wanted "a new face for modern Avengers fans." He's punchable, at least.

In a level set on top of a helicarrier, Thor flew around, wailed on a spider-bot for a bit, and smashed up humanoid robot reinforcements, eventually blowing up the big lug with a God Blast heroic ability. This was a Hero Mission, "a single-player campaign experience focusing on a specific playable character."

The combat seemed... okay. A little dated and clunky. Above all, I'm worried about enemy variety.

War Zones, meanwhile, are up-to-four-player missions from Jarvis, Hank Pym, and others that can be played online or with AI-controlled squadmates "made up of your unlocked and leveled heroes."

Author
Jordan Devore

Apex Legends to Soft Launch on Mobile in 2020

3 years 10 months ago
According to EA CEO Andrew Wilson, Apex Legends is scheduled to soft launch on mobile devices by the end of 2020. As recorded by @ApexLatest on Twitter, Wilson was speaking about mobile business growth on an EA Fireside Chat on June 22, 2020, and said "we have PvZ3 in soft launch, we've talked about having Apex Legends in soft launch by the end of this year. You've heard me talk about 6 or 7 other games in various stages of incubation or production or in finaling phase. We feel very good about our mobile business." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/19/apex-legends-season-5-lost-treasures-collection-event-trailer-ea-play-2020"] If Apex Legends does indeed soft launch on mobile, which would most likely be a Beta of sorts, it will be the third storefront that Apex Legends arrives on in 2020 alongside Nintendo Switch and Steam. Apex Legends will be released on Switch and Steam this Fall, and cross-play between those platforms and all other current versions of Apex Legends will also be enabled. There is no word if cross-play will be available in the mobile version of Apex Legends. During EA Play Live, Apex Legends' Lost Treasures limited time event was revealed and brings with it the return of the Armed and Dangerous mode and a new storyline involving Crypto. The Lost Treasures event began yesterday, June 23. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=apex-legends-lost-treasures-collection-screenshots&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN.
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Adam Bankhurst

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Pokemon Unite, a Co-op Strategy Game, Announced

3 years 10 months ago
Pokemon Unite, a "strategic team-based battle game" has been announced. It will come to Nintendo Switch and mobile devices (with cross-play), and will be released as a free-to-start game. No release date has been announced. Announced in today's Pokemon Presents broadcast, Pokemon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara announced the game, which closely resembles a MOBA, such as League of Legends or DOTA 2. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/24/pokemon-unite-official-trailer"] The 5v5 strategy game is developed in partnership with Tencent's TiMi Studios (Call of Duty: Mobile, Arena of Valor), and will see players battling to control areas of an RTS-like map, earning points and evolving their Pokemon mid-battle. Battling wild Pokemon will capture them, earning you points that you can then bank in scoring areas. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins. Battling will level up your Pokemon, letting you equip a number of new moves, which can be adapted for your playstyle.
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Joe Skrebels

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Burnout Paradise Remastered on Switch: a classic reborn for handheld play

3 years 10 months ago

In the world of Burnout Paradise, running at 60 frames per second means everything. Having smooth, 60Hz feedback is a core tenet of the Burnout series, going right back to the original game on PlayStation 2. Some might say that if it's not 60fps, it's not Burnout. The good news is that the port to Switch sees developer Stellar Entertainment aiming to deliver the same experience - no mean feat considering how CPU-heavy its original open world design is. But just how close to the 60fps target does the remaster get? And what key visual feature set are we getting on Switch: Stellar's own remastered assets as seen on PC, PS4 and Xbox One? Or perhaps the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 originals?

First up, it's worth pointing out that in common with the other remasters, this package is content-complete. All eight DLC packs are included within the game's 4GB footprint and there's eight-player online gaming support too - though sadly in my experience, the servers haven't yet been busy enough to stress-test this part of the package. Still, the single-player experience is in focus and you get all online challenges too. The star of the show remains Paradise City itself: from the busy sprawl of Downtown with its billboard ramps and monuments to Big Surf Island's wilder course layouts. As far as making specific use of Switch features, it boils down to solid HD rumble support on the joy-cons, plus the ability to navigate the map with a pinch and pull system while gaming in mobile mode.

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Spider-Man studio Insomniac responds to sexual harassment allegations

3 years 10 months ago

Insomniac Games, developer of Marvel's Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank, has responded to a former employee's allegations of sexual harassment while at the studio.

The claim, posted on Twitter, referred to the alleged actions of "at least three" staff, whom Insomniac had allegedly "protected". Two of these staff are no longer at the company. A detailed summary of one former employee's alleged actions was included. Other former employees later spoke up to support the alleged claims.

Writing on Twitter shortly afterwards, Insomniac issued a statement to say it was aware of the allegations - and had taken "numerous steps to address them".

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Pokemon Unite Announced, Team-Based MOBA Coming To Switch, Mobile

3 years 10 months ago

The Pokemon Presents livestream started with news of an all-new Pokemon game, Pokemon Unite. The team-based cooperative MOBA game is being developed in cooperation with Tencent and developer Timi Studios. It will be free-to-play on Nintendo Switch and mobile, and support cross-platform play. No release date was given yet.

How Battles Work

The matches are 5v5 and take place on a MOBA-like map split into halves that represent your teams. Each side is littered with several control points that can be used to score goals. Battles will take place in real-time. As you progress through battles, your Pokemon will level up and learn new moves, and each Pokemon has a unique Unite move. But unlike standard Pokemon, there aren't type advantages. The side that scores the most points by the end of the match wins.

The livestream showed off a debut match between two teams of five, complete with commentators. The action looked wild and speedy, with players competing over control points to score goals. Tall grass is used to block vision and create opportunities for ambushes, and when you defeat a wild pokemon you "catch" it. All goals scored in the final minute are worth double points.

Continue Reading at GameSpot
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Steve Watts

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Every roguelike can learn from Monster Train's clan combos

3 years 10 months ago

I am still very much riding the Monster Train. When you write a review as positive as the one I did for Shiny Shoe’s stupendous Slay The Spire-like, you do end up doubting yourself. Oh God, you think, what if it isn’t all that great, actually? What if this was one of those times where a game really specifically catered to my preferences, and my enthusiasm was overblown? What if I stop playing this in a few days, rather than the years (or at least months!) I anticipated. What if I’m bad, actually.

Yeah well forget that, because Monster Train is still ace. I want to talk more about why, and how other games can learn from it. There are loads of lessons I could choose from, but let’s start with clan combos. I think you could apply the principles here to almost any roguelike.

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Author
Matt Cox

Come watch a newcomer and a forgetful veteran play Deus Ex live

3 years 10 months ago

This is a sitcom I would watch.

RPS threw Deus Ex a 20th anniversary birthday bash earlier in the week with a superb oral history of the game’s creation. Did you know that there was going to be a pirate island at one point? That and many other gems await you. To continue the ‘fun’, the RPS vid buds thought we’d revisit the game in a stream. If that earlier feature was the main party, then I guess we are handling the morning after clean-up. Sponging the wine out of the carpet. Unspooling the cat from streamers. Trying to work out where we put Warren Spector’s coat. It’ll be fun.

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Author
Matthew Castle

Rogue Legacy 2 leaps into early access in July

3 years 10 months ago

New generations of heroes will rise and fall when Rogue Legacy 2 launches into early access on July 23. The developers, Cellar Door say they expect a full launch in 2021 for the roguelite platformer, which is about conquering a randomly-generated castle across generations of lives by pumping upgrades into your family tree for your heirs. The original was good so yes, good. Come watch the new trailer.

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Author
Alice O'Connor

Get up to £117 of free Steam credit with MSI's new CPU and motherboard combo deal

3 years 10 months ago

MSI have had some great free Steam credit offers going on with some of their AMD graphics cards over the last few months (and is still ongoing for UK buyers in the market for an RX 5600 XT, I might add), but now they’ve unveiled another free Steam credit giveaway, this time if you buy one of their MSI motherboards, cases or liquid coolers together with select Intel or AMD CPUs. Going the Intel route will get you up to £117 worth of free Steam credit (converted from 130€), while the AMD offer maxes out at £90 (or 100€), but that’s still enough wallet padding for two or three big games at the end of the day, which is certainly better than none at all.

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Author
Alan Martin

Valorant's latest big update brings the classic Riot surrender mechanic into the fray

3 years 10 months ago

It can be really frustrating to start up a match of something that could go on for 40 minutes, only to find out that one or more of your teammates left out of the gate. You kind of have to go through the motions until the inevitable loss, but thankfully Riot Games is adding a surrender option to Valorant: just as they did to League of Legends so many years ago.

Here's how it works. Basically, you can "call for an early surrender," using the chat system, which requires a 100% team vote to pass. To prevent spamming, you can only call for a vote once per half and only spark it after reaching the eighth round. It's restrictive, but that's deliberate, to prevent surrender abuse.

In other news, Viper has been buffed so that her poison abilities are a little stronger now, with a small nerf to her poison orb cooldown (up to six seconds from five). Jett got a no-brainer quality of life upgrade on her blade storm ult (it now procs a refresh after Phoenix dies during his ult), as did Reyna with her Soul Orbs (basically, a faux Phoenix ult death now ostensibly counts as a death). Cypher got a few bug fixes for his abilities, and that's about it: not a huge shakeup.

You can find the bulk of the patch notes below. For specific character and map changes, visit the full blog post, which provides visual cues for the alterations.

Valorant Patch Notes 1.02 [Play Valorant]

Valorant's latest big update brings the classic Riot surrender mechanic into the fray screenshot

Author
Chris Carter

Control, Yakuza and more discounted in the latest PSN Store sale

3 years 10 months ago

Control and multiple entries from the Yakuza series are at some of their best ever prices in the latest PSN Store sale.

Leading the way in all of the Mid-Year Deals is Remedy's supernatural thriller. It's been given one of the biggest price cuts I've seen so far, bringing it down to just £15.99. Definitely snap it up at that price if you've been considering it as, at least for me, Control was one of the most fascinating games I've played in a long time.

If you've already completed the game and want more, the Control Season Pass has also been given a 40 per cent discount. The first expansion, The Foundation, released back in March, adding a vast and somewhat intriguing underground environment to explore. The second, AWE, is expected to launch sometime later this year and will most likely build upon the game's connections to Alan Wake.

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I honestly thought this Minecraft screenshot was just a photo of a laptop

3 years 10 months ago

A screenshot of a laptop in the Ultimate Immersion mod for Minecraft.

For a game whose whole shtick was that you could make anything, so long as you didn’t mind it looking blocky and pixellated, Minecraft sure has inspired a lot of people to attempt to make it look like reality. Last month, I checked out a city that’s taken 400 people a decade to build, and which has now reached such a scale that you can squint slightly and think you’re looking at photos of the real world. That was pretty impressive. But today I saw a mod that mangles Minecraft’s basic premise so profoundly that you don’t even need to squint to mistake it for reality – or at the very least a piece of high-end architectural software.

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Nate Crowley

Darius Cozmic Revelation bringing more classic shmups to PS4 and Switch

3 years 10 months ago

Taito has released some details regarding its second compendium of classic Darius titles. Originally revealed back in March, Darius Cozmic Collection 2 is now Darius Cozmic Revelation, and will blast off on PS4 and Nintendo Switch in Japan later in 2020.

Having already filled out the original Darius Cozmic Collection with a huge array of series favourites, Cozmic Revelation is a far slimmer package. We do know that it will contain the great G-Darius HD, a hit in the arcades and on the PS1 back in 1997, as well as 2010's Dariusburst EX: Another Chronicle +, an excellent four-player shmup renown for its lengthy widescreen cabinet.

As was the case with the original Darius Cozmic Collection, both titles will be spruced up with new features, with details to follow at a later date. Even if this collection doesn't contain nearly as many titles as the previous release, hopefully the inclusion of Dariusburst EX: Another Chronicle + alone should be enough to fire up the engine of stalwart fans.

Darius Cozmic Revelation
will launch in Japan on PS4 and Nintendo Switch this winter.

Darius Cozmic Revelation announced [Japanese Nintendo]

Darius Cozmic Revelation bringing more classic shmups to PS4 and Switch screenshot

Author
Chris Moyse

Pride Week: Life is queer

3 years 10 months ago

Hello! All this week we'll be celebrating Pride and the power of positive representations in games. Every day we'll be bringing you stories and insights from different parts of the LGBT+ community. You can also help support Pride with Eurogamer's newly redesigned t-shirt - all profits from which will be going to charity.

My first memories of playing Life is Strange resides within the hazy window of my early University years, sitting in the living room of my student house and skipping lectures with my housemate in order to play the next episode together.

I didn't know in 2015 how formative these moments would be.

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Apex Legends soft launches on mobile later this year

3 years 10 months ago

Ever since launch, Respawn has been open about its plans to bring Apex Legends to Switch and mobile - and while we recently learned the game will appear on Switch this autumn, it seems like a mobile soft launch is also on the cards for 2020.

As detailed by EA CEO Andrew Wilson in a recent call with investors, Apex Legends will have a soft launch on mobile "by the end of this year". EA previously detailed plans for an Apex Legends mobile launch in an earnings call last year, but this is the first we've heard of a release window.

Crossplay for Apex Legends was also (finally) announced during EA Play Live last week, although it remains to be seen whether this will be input-based, or if mobile players will be included. It's possible Respawn could adopt an approach similar to Fortnite, which pooled Switch and mobile players together after Switch players complained they were at a disadvantage to consoles (via Gamesindustry.biz).

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Oculus ditches Go headset to focus on Quest

3 years 10 months ago

Oculus has discontinued Oculus Go to focus on the Quest virtual reality headset.

In a blog post, Oculus said it's ending sales of Oculus Go headsets this year to "double down on improving our offerings for Quest and Rift".

Oculus Go launched in May 2018 as a low-cost standalone VR headset designed to be as affordable and accessible as possible. But it has been superseded by the more successful Oculus Quest, a completely portable, all-in-one gaming system for casual gamers who want to play VR games but either don't want or can't afford a big gaming PC.

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Pokemon Sword and Shield DLC players have already unlocked the special Shiny Zeraora

3 years 10 months ago

If you've been cruising around the Pokemon Sword and Shield Isle of Armor expansion, slaying Zeraora's left and right this past week, you have my thanks.

According to a tweet from the official Pokemon Twitter account, "over one million players" have already cleared the max raid battle, and thus, have unlocked the Shiny Zeraora reward for everyone. The tweet actually fully breaks down how many people participated, and the number is a staggering 1,435,283 victories as of the end of June 23.

Given how inconsistent raid battles have been (in terms of connectivity), that's quite the feat, and a true testament to just how many Pokemon players there are in the wild. As a reminder, you'll need to transfer a Pokemon off of or into Home (do both just in case) by July 6 (4:59 PDT) to qualify for the Shiny Zeraora.

You can find the full rundown here!

Pokemon [Twitter]

Pokemon Sword and Shield DLC players have already unlocked the special Shiny Zeraora screenshot

Author
Chris Carter

Ex-PlayStation Boss Believes Current AAA Development Growth Is Unsustainable

3 years 10 months ago
Ex-PlayStation executive Shawn Layden has put forward a case to reconsider the scale and scope of AAA video games, stating that the current large-scale offerings are unsustainable for the industry. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Layden discussed the issue at Gamelab Live following a conversation about The Last of Us Part 2, a game that was partially developed during his 25 year tenure at Sony. At approximately 10 hours longer than its predecessor and more technologically advanced, it likely cost a substantial amount more to develop. Yet it still retails for the same price - $59.99. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/12/the-last-of-us-part-2-review"] "The problem with that model is it's just not sustainable," said Layden. He explained that current generation development costs reach between $80 million and $150 million (excluding marketing costs) for AAA games, with the work taking up to five years to complete. Furthermore, AAA budgets have historically doubled each generation, meaning that PS5 development budgets could hit $300 million. "I don't think that, in the next generation, you can take those numbers and multiply them by two and think that you can grow," he added. "I think the industry as a whole needs to sit back and go, 'Alright, what are we building? What's the audience expectation? What is the best way to get our story across, and say what we need to say?' He pointed out how these budgets are unsustainable if retail prices cannot be elastic. “It's been $59.99 since I started in this business, but the cost of games have gone up ten times. If you don't have elasticity on the price-point, but you have huge volatility on the cost line, the model becomes more difficult.
Author
Matt Purslow

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Pokémon Café Mix has dropped onto Nintendo eShop

3 years 10 months ago

Free-to-play puzzle game Pokémon Café Mix has dropped onto the Nintendo Switch eShop, following its announcement one week ago.

This gentle Pokémon cafe simulator has you linking icons to create coffees and cakes, which you can then sell to upgrade your store and hire new Pokémon staff. You can also hold parties to increase your friendship levels with your Pokémon friends.

Pokémon Café Mix is available now on iPhones and Android devices, too. All versions use a microtransaction currency (Acorns) available in various lumps from 99p up to £19.99.

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Warzone loadout guide [Season 4]: best loadouts for Grau, M13, MP5, M4A1, and more

3 years 10 months ago

Warzone loadout guide - Best loadouts in Call Of Duty Warzone [Season 4]

Looking to create a new Warzone loadout for your favourite gun? You’ve come to the right place. Our Warzone loadout guide features top-tier loadout choices for 10 of the most popular weapons in Modern Warfare’s Battle Royale, from the Grau and M13 to the ever-popular HDR – and even one or two surprise weapons you might never have expected to be top-tier. We’ll go through all the attachments you’ll need for each loadout, and why these particular combinations make these weapons some of the very best weapons Warzone has yet seen.

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Author
Ollie Toms

Warzone weapon stats [Season 4]: recoil patterns, damage profiles, and more

3 years 10 months ago

Call Of Duty Warzone weapon stats [Season 4]

If you’ve searched far and wide for up-to-date, concise, reliable Warzone weapon stats, then breathe a big sigh of relief: they’re waiting for you just below. This Warzone weapon stats guide is fully up-to-date for Season 4 and features tables of data for each gun class, covering everything from damage profiles to handling stats, recoil patterns, damage dropoff values, and much more.

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Author
Ollie Toms

Best SMG in Warzone [Season 4]: a guide to SMGs in Modern Warfare

3 years 10 months ago

Best SMG in Warzone

There are some damn fine specimens of the SMG weapon class in Warzone, aren’t there? Built for speed both in their handling and how quickly they can drop an enemy to the ground, SMGs have always been very nearly as popular as Assault Rifles when it comes to premade Warzone loadouts.

Our Best SMG in Warzone guide will walk you through the stats of all seven SMGs on offer, before divulging our personal take on the very best and very worst SMGs that Modern Warfare has to offer.

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Author
Ollie Toms

Oculus Go is going away this December

3 years 10 months ago

Oculus Go

Oculus have announced they’re ending sales of the Oculus Go this year, just two years after it first launched. The all-in-one Oculus Go was the precursor to the now wildly popular Oculus Quest, offering an untethered VR experience that didn’t rely on you on having a particular kind of phone or a powerful PC. It also cost a fraction of the price, with 32GB models starting from £139 in the UK. Alas, Oculus have decided that the Go’s three degrees of freedom tracking (3DOF) isn’t good enough any more, and they won’t be shipping any more 3DOF products going forward, meaning the Oculus Go will very soon be the Oculus Gone.

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Author
Katharine Castle