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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.

Between the likes of Twitch, YouTube and more, a staggering number of people now watch games being played online. On Twitch alone, at any one moment there's on average 1.5M people watching and over 4M unique creators streaming each month. Streaming is, undoubtedly, mass entertainment.

But there's more to all this than simply watching games being played online. With such high viewership, it's imperative that positive LGBT+ representation is supported, and as the number of streamers and teams rises, there's an opportunity to showcase a diverse range of voices.

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Japanese fashion brand Samantha Vega is teaming up with Pokémon for a line of purses and bags.

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It may not be as well known as other Japanese RPGs, but I know the Ys franchise has a very vocal fanbase, and that includes members of the Destructoid staff. For those who've been wondering when the latest game in the series, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, will come to North America and Europe, we now have a better idea of when that'll happen. The New Game+ Expo capped off its show with a reveal of a 2021 western localization of Ys IX to be handled by NIS America.

Not only is the game on its way over to our shores, but it'll arrive on two additional consoles. NIS America confirmed the game will release on Nintendo Switch and PC in addition to the PlayStation 4.

Did you know it has been almost 10 years since the last time we got a new Shiren game? That's far too long for such a wonderful little franchise. While we wait to see what Spike Chunsoft does next with its silent wanderer, anybody who missed out on the Vita port of the fifth game in the series, Shiren The Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate, can rejoice in the news that it's now making its way to Switch and PC.

The existence of a Switch port was announced earlier this year in a Japanese Nintendo Direct, but during today's New Game+ Expo, Spike Chunsoft confirmed it's bringing the title over to our shores. 

If you have no idea what this game is all about, check out my review of the Vita version from 2016. Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate will release for Switch and PC later this year. It's nice to see more and more Japanese games finding their way to PC.

D3 Publisher announced a new spinoff EDF voxel game titled Earth Defense Force: World Brothers.

The post Earth Defense Force: World Brothers Announced as a New Voxel Spinoff Game for PS4 and Switch in 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

As we learned recently during the EA Play stream, Apex Legends is coming to Switch later this year alongside of cross-play with all existing platforms. The presentation was very brief, but now a few extra details are coming to light.

Speaking to GameSpot via the video interview below, Chad Grenier (Game Director at Respawn Entertainment), explained that although crafting the port was a "challenge," it's "running very well." They also highlight that gyro aiming took a while to implement, but it's going to be good to go by the time the Switch port arrives.

Grenier also says that "all five platforms" (including Steam) will be caught up with another and will be "the same game," by the time the Switch arrives. A lot of the holdup is due to "backend work," which will make sure that players can bring over their account info from prior platforms.

It's all sounding good on paper: we just need to see how the port runs in practice.

In a very surprising and straight-up odd piece of news, SNK's Samurai Shodown's next DLC character is "The Warden" from Ubisoft's medieval multiplayer title For Honor. No, really.

The crossover nobody saw coming was announced during this morning New Game+ Expo, where The Warden was revealed as the final character drop for SamSho's season two pass. Warden is a Vanguard hero from Ubisoft's head-chopping game - armoured to the nines and equipped with a devastating broadsword. While SNK is no stranger to crossovers, it can't be denied that the visual style of Warden seems a little out-of-whack with SamSho's exuberant anime aesthetic, and is perhaps more suited to Soulcalibur.

Have sword, will travel, I suppose.

With more people working from home due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, we have gotten a window into all sorts of folks’ homes. This time, it’s Masahiro Sakurai!

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Studios working with Chris Avellone have issued statements addressing their relationship with the prominent games writer and designer, following allegations of sexual harassment posted on social media over the weekend.

Avellone has individually responded to some of these allegations, but has not yet issued a general statement.

Dying Light developer Techland last night said it had parted ways with Avellone, who had been working on the narrative for Dying Light 2.

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It looks like another classic fighter from the Neo Geo Pocket Color console is making its way to Switch. As revealed in this morning's New Game+ Expo presentation, The King of Fighters R-2 will launch on the Nintendo platform next month.

Originally released for the ill-fated handheld back in 1999, KoF R-2 is an adaptation of the beloved Neo Geo release The King of Fighters '98, and sees a bevy of popular KoF characters square off in adorable handheld action. Like most of the Neo Geo Pocket fighters, KoF R-2 features splendid visuals and animation, cool character sprites, a smart soundtrack, and slick, well-handled combat.

Christ, I’m not sure what to make of Griftlands. At first I was close to adoration. It’s an unusually story-focused deckbuilding roguelike – and it’s from Klei, of Oxygen Not Included and Don’t Starve fame. That sounded wild to me even before I learnt that it’s about moseying around as a bounty hunter in an alien city, doing odd jobs for the locals and building up a network of friends and enemies as you work towards pulling off one last big gig. Parts of it are very impressive, and those parts are very impressively tied together. Decisions constantly come back to haunt you in ways that feel seamless.

Thing is, it gets flabby, and the parts where you’re actually playing cards just aren’t that great.

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Marvel's Avengers has a free next-gen console upgrade, Square Enix has announced.

It means you get a free upgrade from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5, or Xbox One to Xbox Series X when the consoles launch in time for Christmas 2020.

You can move your saves to next-gen, transferring player profiles and progression, which means you can pick up right where you left off.

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D3 Publisher announced Earth Defense Force 6 as the latest entry from the series set to launch in 2021.

The post Earth Defense Force 6 Announced and Set to Invade in 2021 appeared first on Siliconera.

With no E3 this year, the gaming community has had to make do with a hodgepodge of different streams, surprise reveals, and sudden announcements that have kept the writing staff of Destructoid on its toes. Some shows have been worth the wait, others not so much. We still have several more to go, but for my money, the New Game+ Expo stream has me the most excited. NIS America, Atlus, Spike Chunsoft, Inti Creates; these are some of my favorite publishers/developers, and to have them all in one show is worth taking a vacation day from my actual job to enjoy.

The organizers are promising new reveals, announcements, and updates for upcoming projects. With the variety of publishers participating, there's no telling what is in store.

So sit back, relax, and find out the games some of Japan's finest gaming companies are bringing our way. And if anything catches your eye, be sure to stay tuned after the showcase for a full day of streams featuring some of the games and publishers featured in the show.

We’ve compiled a list of the absolute best Minecraft shaders for 1.15.2, so you can find exactly the right fit for you. We run the gamut between highly performant, lightweight shaders and glorious trundling behemoths that require beastly rigs to even contemplate using. But all the below shaders are guaranteed to make your Minecraft world look more fantastic than any resource pack could ever make it.

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Battle Brothers

is a very difficult tactical game about managing a mercenary company.

So of course I hired the beggars. I hired the “cripples”, the falsely accused servants, and the oddballs. I gave them decent food and a place to belong. Sure they’d all die horribly, etched with debilitating and ever-mounting physical and emotional scars, mangled and torn by blades and bludgeons, screaming themselves awake from the horror of killing for a living. But until then they were heroes.

Crap heroes, for the most part, admittedly. But still.

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Spanish video game development conference Gamelab starts today and, like everything else, it’s gone online-only. Good news: you now don’t need to go all the way to Barcelona to see talks and chats with folks including Cyberpunk tabletop RPG creator Mike Pondsmith, sweet Ken Levine, Xbox boss Phil Spencer, and Magic: The Gathering lead designer Mark Rosewater. Even our own Matthew is there, talking with some Id bods about Doom Eternal. Free to watch, Gamelab runs Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and does have some interesting-sounding sessions.

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Sega seems filled with renewed confidence in its Sakura Wars brand. After years of silence, 2020 has seen the launch of a new PS4 game, a brand new anime, and some delightful merch based around the long-running, closely-held franchise. It would also seem that the publisher is just getting started.

The 14th Sakura Wars stream was held this past weekend to coincide with the premiere of the aforementioned anime's final episode. While the stream was mostly focused on the TV show itself, various remarks were made suggesting that there were plans for the Imperial Combat Revue going forward. Specifically, Sakura Wars series producer Tetsu Katano referenced a recent Sega survey, noting that fans are already clamouring for a sequel to the latest Sakura Wars video game - a request that fills him and his team with the confidence to push forward. It's probably worth remembering that Sega recently trademarked several mystery titles, including Sakura Ishin ("Restoration") and Sakura Wars B.L.A.C.K.

Ramen burgers exist, so why shouldn’t ramen pizza? Thanks to Pizza Hut Taiwan, it does. 

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Looking for a budget gaming laptop deal to take your gaming on the go? Here’s your latest roundup of all the best budget gaming laptop deals around that you can buy for under £1000 / $1000. Bluntly, the offers aren’t as good as this time last week, because discount vouchers have expired, and in the UK everyone bar Currys seems to have run out of stock of their best deals, without much in the way of replacement. This new Asus TUF addition from Currys’ Ebay store is a bit of a steal, though, packing in an Intel Core-i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and an Nvidia RTX 2060 for £900, so read on below for the full list.

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During last week's EA Play stream, the publisher vaguely promised "seven games" for the Switch platform. One of them, a Burnout Paradise port, had already been released. Another (an Apex Legends port) was confirmed on the stream. So what about the rest? Well, VentureBeat reportedly has the full list.

With two of the seven down, it's time to cross off another old racing game port: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, from 2010, will allegedly be headed to multiple platforms. Yet another (not-so-old) port, Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, is also part of the list, according to sources at VentureBeat. FIFA 21 is also apparently headed to Switch, alongside of Lost in Random and the next project from Velan Studios. 

It's not an exciting list per se, but it's a start. While the super old ports are off-putting to chalk up as "Switch support," simultaneous releases for a few other titles would be a step in the right direction. Either way, EA loves to "commit" to Nintendo platforms with old clunky ports and then bail out, so hopefully they stick around this time.

Here are the 7 EA games coming to Nintendo Switch in the next year [VentureBeat]

Some games manage to win you over with just a few images. When I saw Among Trees, nestled between quick-fire trailers during the PC Gaming Show, I was immediately smitten with its strong visuals. The comparisons with Firewatch that followed the reveal seem apt - both games immediately stand out for the vibrancy of their colour palette. Among Trees' early morning is a mix of light blue mist dissipating into the yellows, purples and pinks of morning sunlight. The woods stretch as far as the eye can see.

Among Trees is a first-person survival game currently in Early Access on the Epic Games Store, casting you as a young woman alone in the wilds. You open your eyes and find yourself next to a dilapidated cabin on a clearing, with no hint as to how you got there. There's no story yet, but none was needed for me to be spellbound early on. The first order of business is clear - the cabin needs repairing. Stepping closer reveals the materials needed to fix it, and taking a note with a button press will display the required number of each item on your HUD.

While some materials are immediately nearby, this first task already requires me to venture out past the clearing, an excellent opportunity to familiarise myself with the four stats always displayed on screen. There's vitality, warmth, sleepiness and of course hunger. As time passes, you will grow hungry and sleepy, and so while I'm on my hunt for cabin materials, I also pull my first mushrooms and mulberries to snack on. Your item menu reveals whether what you've just picked is edible, if it needs to be cooked first, and by how much it will satisfy your hunger.

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Apple is increasing its support for third-party controllers that can be used for gaming or navigation with Apple TV. The next tvOS update coming to Apple TV will bring support for Microsoft's newer Elite Series 2 controllers as well as the Xbox Adaptive Controller.

The Apple TV allows input from Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controllers as of last year, with the update bringing two of Microsoft's newer controllers into the fold. Notably, the Elite Series 2 controller adds a number of additional buttons that can be mapped, compared to the standard Xbox One controller.

The Xbox Adaptive Controller is one of the most accessible controllers out there, making it a welcome addition to any gaming platform. Microsoft has even said in the past that the accessible controller should be available on any platform, including their competitors', as part of "the democratization of accessibility."

So, you've caught yourself a Galarian Slowpoke, and you're wondering how you go about making it a Slowbro? Fear not! I'll be breaking down everything you'll need to achieve the Slowbro dream and achieve evolutionary success with your Slowpoke in Pokémon Sword and Shield!

First up and most obvious, you'll need the Expansion Pass.

Once you've arrived at the Isle of Armor, you'll likely already stumble into your first Galarian Slowpoke. To be extra clear, you'll want to make your way over to the Fields of Honor and run along the beach to find Slowpoke. After you've caught your Slowpoke, you'll need to do some exploring around the Isle of Armor in search of Galarica Twigs.

[Update: A selection of new screens can be viewed in the gallery below, courtesy of Gematsu.]

D3 Publisher has announced a new spin-off title in its bug-squashing Earth Defense Force series... and this one is particularly peculiar. Earth Defense Force: World Brothers will feature all the typical EDF giant-insect action we've come to know and love, but stylised in a cutesy, voxel-graphics aesthetic.

Developed by Yukes, World Brothers will allow the player to form a team of four EDF fighters from a roster of around 100 characters, before going into battle against hordes of giant spiders, wasps, ants, and other creepy crawlies, all hell bent on taking over the planet. All of the characters, skills, monsters, and weapons have been collated from previous EDF titles, making World Brothers a celebration of the entire series. There is unfortunately no trailer as of yet, but the official website is live right here, and there is a selection of great screenshots available for your perusal at Famitsu.com.

I'm really digging this concept. EDF is a lot of fun at the best of times, but this unique visual style is so well-suited to the franchise' goofy action. Currently in development for PS4 and Nintendo Switch, we'll be sure to bring you more news on Earth Defense Force: World Brothers as and when it hatches.

It ain't quite LEGO: Earth Defense Force, but I'll take it.

Skate 4 is happening, having finally been announced as part of EA Play 2020. Now, as the internet reacts and long-time fans flex their kickflip thumbs in anticipation, EA is hiring new staff to work on their iconic franchise.

Two new Skate-related positions have appeared on EA's job page, both looking for people to work at the company's Vancouver, Canada studio. Both roles specify that they're looking for people to work on the Skate franchise.

The first is a Tools and Pipeline Software Engineer position, which is seeking applicants with five or more years of experience in a similar role. The eventual hire will be tasked with building tools within the Frostbite engine, and will have to "create user interfaces to empower the team to interact with content."

After Sky: Children of the Light's Season of Enchantment ended on Sunday, Thatgamecompany has announced that the next season will be the summery-themed Season of Sanctuary. The game's sixth season since release, the event will add a brand new area as Enchantment did with the Forgotten Ark.

The new season trailer shows a "hidden island", with a similar aesthetic to the Daylight Prairie world. With a season emblem resembling a manta, the trailer also prominently features a pair of white mantas.

While pre-orders for the new season opened on Monday, a bug caused both the season pendant and the bonus candles to appear as items for the previous season. The pre-order feature has now been disabled until a fix can be applied, but TGC has promised those who already made the purchase that the items will be updated to Season of Sanctuary items.

Do Not Open, an upcoming PlayStation VR horror game from Quasar Dynamics, has been revealed in a first-look trailer. The game, which was developed as part of the PlayStationTalents initiative and is exclusive to Sony's platform, is an escape room survival horror with permadeath.

The game casts players as Michael J. Goreng, a zoologist and epidemiologist who is trapped within a warped version of his own house. Each time you play, the layout of the house will change, as will the puzzles you'll need to solve to escape the supernatural being haunting the house. There are no save points, so each time you play, it'll be a complete experience from beginning to end, whether you finish without dying or not.

The game is described by the developers as being similar to an escape room, but with a terrifying supernatural bent. Check out the trailer below, which effectively ramps up the tension over its short run-time before...well, you'll see. It's not for the faint of heart, though, so proceed with caution.

The developers of Lego games, Traveller's Tales, spent $1 million on a pitch for a Hobbit video game that never came to be. Studio co-founder Jon Burton revealed this in a new video for his YouTube page, GameHut, and he speaks very freely and openly about the project and how it came to be (and not be).

In 2008, Warner Bros. announced plans to make two Hobbit movies, with Guillermo del Toro attached to direct. Burton wanted to make an Xbox 360/PS3 video game tie-in for the movie, but not a Lego game like his studio had become known for.

Burton and his team got the greenlight to pitch to del Toro and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, and the studio worked for six months to create a demo to pitch in February 2009. Burton said it is his belief that a video game tie-in for a movie should try to replicate the movie as closely as possible so it feels like you're "living" the film. With the movie not out yet, Burton's team used Jackson's The Lord of the Rings as a template, recreating key moments from the movies.

Even though no one is allowed to attend in person, Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference for 2020 is going ahead this week as a virtual event. One of the new announcements to come out of it is that keyboard and mouse gaming will be possible on iPad from June 25, as well as increased support for new controller types.

The news from the conference was tweeted out by games personality Wario64, along with some info from a video mainly aimed at developers, announcing that keyboard, mouse and trackpad controls will now be supported through the Game Controller framework.

Unfortunately for gamers, the update doesn't mean you'll be able to immediately plug a keyboard and mouse mouse in and start playing your favorite iPad game. You'll have to keep an eye out for news from developers on when and whether support for different control schemes will be added.

Command and Conquer Remastered Collection has received a new patch, and it's added a few key features and a whole heap of tweaks and improvements. The big change is the added ability to host private game lobbies, which should make it easier to arrange multiplayer matches with your friends.

The Remastered Collection, which brings together the original game and its sequel Red Alert plus all their DLC, has tailored this update based on "the continued feedback from the passionate Command & Conquer," according to a press release. They've detailed everything included in the patch in a post on the Command and Conquer Reddit page.

Bugs have been squashed in this update too, and a stuttering issue has been addressed, although this may have led to slightly longer load times. The post also warns that the update might have invalidated some mods, and modders will need to update their work to make sure it is still compatible.

Activision is bringing the Crash Bandicoot franchise back with the first mainline instalment in 20 years. Crash Bandicoot 4 is coming to PS4 and Xbox One on October 2, and it brings an end to the 20-year wait following 1998's Crash Bandicoot: Warped, for which it is a sequel.

As part of GameSpot's Play For All charity campaign, we sat down with producer Lou Studdert from developer Toys For Bob. In the interview, Studdert speaks about the game's new art style, new gameplay mechanics like collecting masks and bending time, and the new playable characters. You can play as Crash and Coco, while Studdert teased that you may be able to play as the evil Neo Cortex to give players the ability to see the story from a different perspective.

Also in the interview, Studdert speaks about the new and expanded Crash 4 boss battles and how the game makes use of a new engine to allow for better graphics and gameplay features.

Lin-Manuel Miranda has shared some new insight on the upcoming Disney Plus release of Hamilton coming up on July 3, including how it's censored for the family-friendly platform.

Hamilton on Disney Plus is a recording of a Broadway performance from 2016, featuring the original cast--and the original swears--minus two. The movie version is rated PG-13, so it is only allowed to have one use of the word "f**k." The actual play has three, so two "f**k"s were censored or changed.

In the Yorktown scene, the line "I get the f**k back up again" will be muted on the swear word. The other censor will be on the "Southern mother f**king Democratic Republicans" line.

It could no longer be said that gaming is having a #metoo moment, but rather an ongoing #metoo movement. Amid a new wave of allegations surfacing on social media, those who have previously named their abusers are now demanding to know why the platforms that host known abusers' content have not acted to take them down--with Twitch at the center of the controversy.

With multiple tweets claiming that Twitch has been given information on how some of their big-name partners are using that platform to abuse women, and chosen not to act on it, streamers and fans called on Twitch and its CEO Emmett Shear to step up.

Shear has now shared an internal Twitch email sent on the subject, while Twitch has put out an official statement, but some don't think the statement is enough.

Limited Run Games' Senran Kagura Reflexions physical run has been announced, with all DLC on the cart and preorders opening this month.

The post Limited Run Games’ Senran Kagura Reflexions Physical Copies Include the DLC appeared first on Siliconera.