Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment revealed the patch notes for the game’s latest update introducing a new event, features, and character changes.

As announced during the EA Play Live event last week, the Lost Treasures Collection event will add more cosmetic items to be earned alongside a modified Armed & Dangerous limited-time mode.

The mode will still feature shotguns and snipers only, but players start with a Mozambique, Evo armor, and the new Mobile Respawn Beacon that allows players to place it anywhere in the map to respawn teammates.

The Kings Canyon also receives a new location with Crypto’s Map Room, located on the southeast side of the map. The giant satellite dish will allow players to see “the location of all Legends on the map” and enemy squads nearby.

The patch notes for the update brings new changes to several characters. Lifeline’s drone ability can now revive downed teammates in addition to healing, though the ability replaces her Fast Heal passive for 25% faster self-healing.

Other changes include the ability to double jump off Octane’s Launch Pad, Revenant’s Death Totem range has been removed, Wattson can deploy up to three pylons at a time but for 90 seconds each, and ziplines now have an increasing cooldown each time one is re-grabbed without touching the ground.

The Lost Treasures Collection event and update begins Tuesday, June 23 for Origin on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Apex Legends is planned to launch for Nintendo Switch and Steam with cross-platform play between all versions enabled this fall.

GameStop's latest batch of weekly deals are live now with some nice discounts on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Borderlands 3, and 2K Sports games. But the most notable aspect of this week's ad is the looming Pro Day Sale. Once again, GameStop will be offering exclusive discounts to PowerUp Rewards Pro members this Saturday, June 27. None of the one-day-only deals have been revealed just yet, but you should mark your calendars and bookmark this page, as we'll be rounding up all the best deals as usual.

Respawn has released the full patch notes for the Apex Legends Lost Treasure Collection Event, which will add Crypto's town takeover to Kings Canyon, see the return of the Armed & Dangerous limited-time mode, and offer several new rare, epic, and legendary cosmetics to unlock. The Apex Legends event begins Tuesday, June 23.

Lost Treasures also implements several notable balancing changes, as listed in the patch notes. Of note, Revenant, Crypto, Loba, and Mirage all receive buffs, Gibraltar and Caustic are nerfed, Wraith and Wattson get both buffs and nerfs to their abilities, and Lifeline and Octane are reworked--both of their changes are similar to Mirage's transformation at the start of Season 5: Fortune's Favor.

The Lost Treasures update makes a rather interesting change to ziplines as well, applying a cooldown to re-grabbing ziplines without touching the ground. Jumping off and back on ziplines while riding them has been a popular strategy for avoiding gunfire since Apex Legends launched. This new cooldown will make it more difficult to constantly implement this strategy--which should make it far easier to snipe someone off a zipline.

According to RPS’s Command & Conquer Remastered Collection review, the revitalized classic RTS is “both precisely as good and exactly as dated as it’s supposed to be.” Even so, Petroglyph have found a few places to improve and have released the first round of bug fixes and additions. They’ve eased up on Hard Mode and have added private game lobbies, among other fixes.

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Microsoft will be shutting down its struggling video game live streaming platform Mixer on 22nd July and partnering with Facebook Gaming in its stead.

Mixer initially launched under the name Beam in 2016 and was rapidly acquired by Microsoft, who re-branded the platform with its current moniker the following year. However, despite the company's concerted efforts to boost the popularity of its service - which included signing up hugely popular Fortnite streamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins as a Mixer exclusive in 2019 - its live streaming venture struggled against competition from Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook.

And now, less than a year on from the high-profile hiring of Blevins, Microsoft is ready to concede defeat in own live streaming efforts. Mixer will officially cease operations next month, and Mixer partners and streamers will transition to Facebook Gaming starting today.

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Today Microsoft announced that it will be shutting down Mixer, its livestreaming service, on July 22. This announcement is coupled with another: that Microsoft will be partnering with Facebook Gaming. Starting today, all partners and streamers will be transferred to Facebook Gaming’s livestreaming service.

This is a surprising announcement to anyone that has paid attention to the moves Microsoft has made over the last 12 months to try and make their service more competitive with Twitch. Microsoft invested what is believed to be a healthy chunk of capital to exclusively sign some of gaming’s most popular streamers such as Ninja.

It seems apparent that these moves didn’t move the needle as much as Microsoft was hoping; or at all to any meaningful degree considered how quickly Microsoft has pulled the plug on the idea. MattPat of The Game Theorists not too long ago posted two videos (Part 1, Part 2) that broke down how difficult it was going to be for Microsoft to make these deals work favorably for them.

Microsoft has the money to go for something like this so they don’t have to partner with another entity like Facebook, but clearly it didn’t work out.

According to The Verge, Nothing is now stopping Ninja, or any other streamer or partner from going to back to Twitch, or another new platform such as YouTube, to livestream.

Microsoft has announced that it is shutting down its Mixer video game streaming platform – once the exclusive home of the likes of Ninja and Shroud – on July 22, and partnering with Facebook Gaming as a new locale for viewers and streamers.

In a statement, head of Xbox Phil Spencer said:

Microsoft acquired Beam in 2016 and turned it into Mixer in 2017, and brought over superstar streamer Ninja last year from Twitch.

According to The Verge, which talked to Spencer about the developments, stars who signed deals with Mixer (like Ninja and Shroud) are free to go back to Twitch. As of the time of this writing neither Ninja nor Shroud has officially commented on the situation.

The Verge also talks strategically about Microsoft's move, saying it gives Microsoft a broader base for its xCloud streaming service.

Masayuki Furuya talked about Void Terrarium, The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince, and evoking emotions with a "sentimental atmosphere."

The post NIS’ Masayuki Furuya Talks Void Terrarium and Evoking Emotions appeared first on Siliconera.

Top Featured Product: Lodge 12" Cast Iron Skillet | $39 | Amazon

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For the last few years, Apple's iOS updates have mostly happened behind your home screen. The display you see as soon as you unlock your phone as remained largely unchanged, but with iOS 14, announced at WWDC, it's getting a shake up.

In a way, it's the most radical redesign of iOS in years, but also not the most innovative one in the grander scheme of the industry. Front and center in iOS 14 are widgets--larger app icons that display more information at a glance, and change up the composition of your home screen drastically.

Apple also announced new features to automatically help group similar applications and sort them into folders, which will also be surfaced in groups when an app theme is searched for. Siri, Apple's own digital assistant, is also being reworked so that it doesn't take up the entire screen when dealing with a query. This lets you do more on your display at once than ever before, including new picture-in-picture support (which was introduced on the iPad a few years ago).

The star of Batman ’89 is in talks to return to DC universe

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Microsoft announced today that the company will be shutting down its streaming site Mixer on July 22 and will partner with Facebook Gaming moving forward.

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In exchange, Project xCloud will expand onto Facebook

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Dark Knight screenwriter David Goyer spoke on his vision at WWDC20

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Cyberpunk 2077's release date has moved back again – now sitting as a November 19 release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC – but the delays aren't holding back the merchandise. Following the release of the first series of Cyberpunk 2077 action figures, McFarlane Toys announced it is releasing a second wave in September.

This line once again puts Keanu Reeves' Johnny Silverhand in the spotlight. This figure is nearly identical to the Silverhand from the first series, but now comes with a Samurai duffel bag. The second figure is entirely new and is of Takemura, a character we don't know anything about. Both figures stand in at 7 inches in height and feature 22 points of articulation. You can see both figures below:

Microsoft has announced that it is shutting down Mixer, its streaming competitor to the likes of Twitch. The Xbox owners will be transitioning over to Facebook Gaming instead, partnered streamers having the option to be included with the move or return to Twitch. As of July 22, Mixer sites and apps will redirect users to Facebook Gaming.

Mixer, which was known as Beam.io before Microsoft purchased it, struggled to gain the viewership of its competitors since launch. Big streamer acquisitions such as deals with Ninja and Shroud might have initially drawn viewers in, but it's lacked the mass appeal Microsoft, and Xbox specifically, need leading up to the launch of the Xbox Series X and xCloud, Xbox's on-demand streaming service.

"Ultimately, the success of Partners and streamers on Mixer is dependent on our ability to scale the service for them as quickly and broadly as possible," Xbox boss Phil Spencer explained in a post on Xbox Wire. "It became clear that the time needed to grow our own livestreaming community to scale was out of measure with the vision and experiences we want to deliver to gamers now, so we’ve decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform. To better serve our community’s needs, we’re teaming up with Facebook to enable the Mixer community to transition to Facebook Gaming."

We need some help settling a little office uncertainty: Does this trailer for Smilegate's CrossfireX tease a Metal Gear Solid Walker Gear at the end of it? Here's the timestamped link.

On one hand, the trailer makes a point of going out with a bang, ending on this extremely quick moving biped machine advancing on a Humvee. On the other, Metal Gear didn't invent the idea. This could just be some generic Gundam/anime shit.

But -- and we're back on that first hand again -- this seems like a partnership that maybe Konami would sign up for. Crossfire is literally the world's biggest video game, as it has a lifetime player count of over one billion. It's immensely popular in China and South Korea. Konami has done crossovers for much less. Now, on that second hand yet again, maybe this is just a conceptual ripoff of Metal Gear. A lot of CrossfireX looks like a conceptual ripoff.

When I started writing this story, I was in the camp of "Yes, That's Definitely A Walker, How Could It Be Anything Else?" I was ready to bring the Metal Gear Goodness to the masses. Now, I'm hesitant. In my own head. I still want to believe but it's almost a coin flip.

Crossfire X, the Xbox One version of the massively popular PC FPS game Crossfire, has a closed beta right now, with an open beta running this weekend. The open beta begins Thursday, June 25 and runs through Sunday, June 28.

Xbox Insiders (a free program anyone can sign up for) can register to join the closed beta now through June 23 through the Xbox Insider Hub. A limited number of people will be granted access to the closed beta, with the number increasing as it continues.

The beta features three game modes: Spectre Mode, Team Match, and Point Capture. Players who complete a match during the beta will receive the X-B.C. Axe weapon skin when the game launches.

You get a villager, and you get a villager...

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Eurogamer is reporting that Batman: Arkham Knight developer Rocksteady Studios is working on a Suicide Squad game that may be called Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League.

Talk started when DriftingOrbit posted some uncovered domain names in resetera, and Eurogamer later said it "understands this to be accurate," adding that the suicidesquadkillthejusticeleague.com domain in particular a contender for the final title and indicative of the final product.

Finally, although we should not expect anything substantive about the game for a while, Eurogamer it will be at the DC Fandome event in August.

[Source: DriftingOrbit and Eurogamer]

Epic Games have been pretty vocal about the big changes to Fortnite in the battle royale’s new season. The entire map is full of water, if you hadn’t seen. Another change came in without the same fanfare. Players have noticed that Epic have also removed all the police cars from the game, including Creative mode maps. Epic haven’t made an official statement on the subject, but it would seem the removal is likely related to global protests against police brutality.

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Get the ‘Antisocial Mask’ for a $5 donation

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SuperData’s May report on worldwide digital video game spending is in, and it was another strong month amid the global pandemic. Spending totaled $10.2B in May, which was only down by 3% from April’s record-breaking total of $10.5B.

SuperData notes the numbers are especially impressive considering May featured few major game releases and there was a general easing of the lockdown which had prompted such significant spending in April.

While digital console revenue fell 27% from April to May due to fewer new releases, a 3% growth in mobile earnings made up the difference. Overall spending was still up 14% over May 2019 ($8.9B), with PC up 8%, mobile up 14% and console up 23%.

The Space Invaders Invincible Collection is leaving Japan, and the most expensive of its three physical editions will include a board game.

The post Space Invaders Invincible Collection Is Heading Westward appeared first on Siliconera.

There's not much to say about this masterpiece, that our own Tony "The Italian Tiger" Marzano didn't say in his original review. RUINER is an amazing, visceral, and fun game. One of my personal favorite twin-stick shooters. Now Devolver Digital has allowed it to grace our Switch consoles, and the port is absolutely fantastic. Reikon's cyberpunk gem sings on the little portable that could, and I'm fully absorbed in this jacked up world again. Especially with Her in my ear, egging me on. 

WB Games, like other publishers, has promoted social distancing by offering free games over the past few months. In May, the publisher gave away The Lego Ninjago Movie Video Game, and for the next few days, you can grab Injustice: Gods Among Us on PS4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam. The giveaway only runs through June 25, so make sure you snag Injustice while you can.

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Developed by NeatherRealm Studios, Injustice: Gods Among Us originally released in 2013. It features an all-star cast of DC Comics heroes and villains, including Batman, Superman, Joker, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, Green Arrow, and many more. Naturally, Injustice plays similarly to NeatherRealm's Mortal Kombat games, except without the gore.

CI Games has announced Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 for this fall on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Unfortunately the company isn't saying anything else about the title at the moment, but naturally, players will be executing kills for cash and upgrades, so whether that keeps you up at night is between you and your conscience. The game's current announcement tweet mentions justice, however, so maybe it's not all so black and white.

[Source: CI Games]

The sooner developers can come right out with it and confirm their next-gen upgrade plans, the better.

For its part, Square Enix is launching Marvel's Avengers on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X this holiday season, and players will be able to upgrade from the PS4 and Xbox One versions "at no additional cost."

Player progress will carry over and, going a step further, there's cross-gen multiplayer.

"PS5 players will be able to play [Marvel's Avengers] with their friends on PS4 and Xbox Series X players will be connected with their friends on Xbox One," Square Enix confirmed this afternoon. A quick reminder: the current-gen console and PC versions of Avengers are launching on September 4.

The publisher also shared new screenshots and details on the PlayStation Blog.

More specifics about the Xbox Series X and PC versions are coming "at a later time," but Crystal Dynamics CTO Gary Snethen ran down a list of PS5 features. The big one? You can select an Enhanced Graphics mode or a High Framerate mode – the latter "targets 60 FPS with dynamic 4K resolution."

"The new GPU allows us to increase our texture resolution, push a higher level of detail farther from the player, enhance our ambient occlusion, improve our anisotropic filtering and add a variety of new graphics features such as stochastic screen-space reflections with contact-aware sharpening," said Snethen. As for the fancy new SSD: "When [the team's] optimization is complete, loading content will be nearly instant, allowing players to seamlessly jump into missions anywhere in the game world."

Square Enix will have more to say during its War Table stream at 10:00 a.m. Pacific on June 24.

The PC version of multiplayer shooter Warface has received a new update, and it adds a new PvE operation to the game. Titled Operation Blackwood, the mission marks the first time that players have controlled soldiers from the rival Blackwood corporation.

It's also the game's first non-linear co-op mission, giving players the option of which boss fight they want to try to tackle first. The rewards players receive will vary based on the order they choose, and each boss will become more powerful as their allies fall. In order to receive all the loot on offer, players will have to complete the operation a minimum of three times. The update adds a new map to the game's PvP mode, titled Blackwood Base, as well as an exclusive series of new weapons.

Risk of Rain 2 recently had its 1.0 release pushed back until August, but that doesn't mean you'll have to wait longer for more content to be added. The second iteration of the game's Artefact system heads to all platforms tomorrow, June 23, along with numerous other changes.

Artefacts 2.0 doesn't fundamentally rework the artefact system already in Risk of Rain 2, but it does add more treasures for you to work towards. New artefacts are unlocked by completing challenges, and then available to equip on your next run. Developer Hopoo Games doesn't spoil what some of these might be, but does say to expect a range of treasures that are both fun and challenging to work with.

The latest update will also introduce Risk of Rain 2's fifth stage, with Sky Meadow hosting new monsters and a hidden boss for you to uncover. You will also experience new loot and item drops, as well as new unlockable skill variants for various classes.

PC game keys retailer Fanatical has offered some pretty fantastic sales as of late, and another blowout sale is back with over 3,000 deals on PC games, bundles, and DLC. Fanatical offers licensed Steam keys, and the vast majority of games featured in the latest sale must be redeemed on Steam. The timing for Fanatical's Red Hot Sale is certainly interesting, as it comes just days before the rumored launch date of Steam's annual summer sale, but Fanatical's prices tend to be just as good (and usually better) than Steam's, so it's still worth checking out the numerous discounts in this latest deals bonanza. Spend over $10 in the sale, and you'll also get a free Steam game with your purchase. Right now, the free game is Skyhill, an apocalyptic roguelike RPG set in a hotel taken over by mutants.

The sale notably includes Persona 4 Golden, which launched on Steam last week. The Steam release means the beloved JRPG is now available to a much wider audience (it was previously available only on PlayStation Vita), and you can currently grab it for a few bucks off at Fanatical. The base game is available for $17, while the Digital Deluxe edition is down to $21.24. Check out our impressions of the Persona 4 Golden PC port for more information on how the game holds up in 2020.

Omocat's Omori will be on its way to PCs after new animations are added and bugs are squashed.

The post Omocat’s Omori Is Still ‘a Few More Months’ Away appeared first on Siliconera.

Calling all streamers, content creators, YouTubers, Twitchers, pontificators, talking heads, and smartasses -- think you've got what it takes to impress Mr. Destructoid and win the hearts and minds of our adoring fans? Then enter our So You Think You Can Stream? challenge!

We're looking for the next big name in streaming and it just could be you! From June 15-30 we're asking all talented streamers to throw their name into the hat to audition to be Dtoid's next big thing.

Thatgamecompany, the indie developer behind the award-winning game Journey, has released a new teaser trailer for Sky: Children of the Light on Summer Games Fest ahead of the new season, Season of Sanctuary.

In anticipation of the game’s one-year anniversary, thatgamecompany said they will be launching the new season with new stories, characters, and in the words of co-founder and creative director Jenova Chen, “a relaxing vacation that we all miss,” especially with the coronavirus pandemic still ongoing.

The teaser trailer shows off the world in its summertime prime, with outer-aquatic jellyfish swimming up in the air and children running up the hill to the bell tower.

As of this writing, Season of Sanctuary is still in the beta stages of its development.

Developer Sucker Punch Productions has announced that its open-world samurai game, Ghost of Tsushima, has gone gold. This means the game is ready for production and won't miss its scheduled July 17 launch for PlayStation 4.

The studio shared the announcement on Twitter, with a collage of the many developers working on Ghost of Tsushima while stuck at home in quarantine due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The team said it's "thrilled' to make the announcement and "can't wait to get it into your hands" next month.

This news comes just a month after Sucker Punch talked more about Ghost of Tsushima. During a May State of Play livestream, the studio shared tons of details about Ghost of Tsushima, including the lethality of swords, how foxes are pettable, the two distinct playstyles, and more. We also learned that two very key points about the game: protagonist Jin Sakai is the only playable character and his horse is invincible.

Today Sucker Punch Production has announced that its upcoming open-world action-adventure game Ghost of Tsushima has gone gold.

You can check out the announcement below, made via the studio’s Twitter account.

If you’re unfamiliar with the industry lingo, it means that the development of the data that will be shipped on the disk has been concluded, and the game is ready for its release. There may still be a day-one patch, but what will be printed on the physical release is ready and finalized.

If you’re unfamiliar with Ghost of Tsushima, here’s an official description from Sony.

“In the late 13^th century, the Mongol empire has laid waste to entire nations along their campaign to conquer the East. Tsushima Island is all that stands between mainland Japan and a massive Mongol invasion fleet led by the ruthless and cunning general, Khotun Khan.

One of the most touted new features in Pokemon Sword and Shield's first DLC expansion, The Isle of Armor, is the ability to teach a Pokemon to Gigantamax. Up until now, the only way to get a Gigantamax Pokemon has been to catch one in a Max Raid battle, but thanks to a special dish called Max Soup, you can now teach any compatible Pokemon the ability to Gigantamax.

However, Max Soup requires an ingredient called Max Mushrooms, and they can be a bit of a pain to find. To help you out, we've broken down everything you need to know about teaching a Pokemon to Gigantamax below.

The Gigantamax Factor

The Gigantamax Factor is what determines if a Pokemon is capable of Gigantamaxing. Only certain species of Pokemon have Gigantamax forms, but not every individual monster within that species is able to Gigantamax; it needs to have the Gigantamax Factor to take on its Gigantamax form when it Dynamaxes.