If you've been eyeing the 16th June arrival of Wild West tactical stealth sequel Desperados 3 with mounting anticipation, there's some good news; PC players can get some rootin', tootin', and sneaky shootin' in early courtesy of a new demo - one of several, including a playable look at troubled System Shock reboot, now available on GOG.com.

The original Desperados, if you're unfamiliar, released all the way back in 2001, gaining immediate acclaim for its compelling cowboy-themed take on WW2 strategy hit Commandos' squad-based real-time tactical action.

Its follow-up, Desperados 2: Cooper's Revenge, was less well-received, but hopes are high for this long-awaited third entry (actually a prequel to the original), given that it's being handled by Mimimi Games - the developer behind 2016's hugely enjoyable, and mechanically similar, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.

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Fast and Furious Crossroads is a video game about driving cars with guns on their roofs, while actors from the film franchise narrate what is going on.

In one chase sequence, your car must shoot at a tank. In another, your car must dodge giant wrecking balls. In a third, your car must chase a space rocket which is firing along the ground.

This is Fast and Furious Crossroads, developed by Project Cars studio Slightly Mad. It arrives for Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 7th August.

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Elite Dangerous

finished a second beta test for its new fleet carriers this week. The giant player-owned ships are scheduled to appear in the main game sometime in June.

I’ve been ruminating on it for a while now, and much as I like the idea, the reality so far has been distinctly underwhelming.

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The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki will add a PlayStation VR mode post-launch so people can interact with characters.

The post The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki Will Eventually Let You See Characters in VR appeared first on Siliconera.

Dr. Mario World’s standards are clearly slipping, because now a doctor's a dolphin. Will we need to carry fish for our copay?

The post Now There’s a Dolphin Practicing Medicine in Dr. Mario World appeared first on Siliconera.

For years, Venezuelan players have been making a living by playing RuneScape

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A digital games showcase called the Wholesome Games Direct aired yesterday, dedicated to cute and colorful games. It put the spotlight on over 50 upcoming indie games that run the gamut from train sims to augmented reality adventures. I want to play them all.

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Enjoy E3-style reveals from the comfort of Twitch

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The day has finally arrived. This afternoon, NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley are scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon and fly to the International Space Station. You can watch this historic launch live right here.

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Today Capcom announced that the Street Fighter V: Champion Edition is getting a brand new season.

The new season pass will be the fifth for Capcom’s popular fighting game, and it’ll include five additional playable characters and three new stages.

Basically no additional information about this was revealed, but more details have been promised for the summer.

An online version of EVO 2020 is coming, so it’s likely that we’ll hear something then.

If you want to see more about the game, you can also enjoy the reveal of the Champion Edition, a recent trailer featuring Gill, some of his gameplay gameplay, and the reveal Seth in this new and slightly unusual guise, some more gameplay, and the launch trailer.

Street Fighter V: Champion Edition is currently available for PS4 and PC.

If you’ve been debating whether to sign up to Humble’s gaming subscription service Humble Choice recently, then now is absolutely the time to do it, as Humble have slashed the cost of a year’s subscription by 40% off for new subscribers. Hurry, though, as this limited time offer will end tomorrow on May 28th at 11.59pm PT.

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Five new fighters and three new stages are on the way to Street Fighter V.

The post Street Fighter V Season V Will Bring V More Characters to the Game appeared first on Siliconera.

Naughty Dog just finished up giving us an extended look at The Last of Us Part II, and there wasn't a major takeaway. Unlike the Ghost of Tsushima State of Play a few weeks ago, The Last of Us is a fairly known quantity. No one has been left wondering what to expect from this game.

However, in an eight-minute extended sequence, we got confirmation that the PlayStation Vita is still alive and well in The Last of Us' world -- even if the rest of civilization isn't. Ellie sneaks up on a woman who's playing her Vita and, after forcing some intel out of her, sticks a knife in her neck. The last game that woman ever played? Hotline Miami.

The Kingdom Hearts series has garnered a bit of a reputation for having a... convoluted storyline, to say the least, so perhaps it's just as well that Disney has a TV series planned for it rather than a film - if recent reports are to be believed.

The news broke via a tweet from Emre Kaya of Cinema Spot, who mentioned the series will be produced by Square Enix instead of Disney, with the company having already created a pilot episode using Unreal Engine. The rumour was also backed up by MCU Cosmic editor-in-chief Jeremy Conrad, and Skyler Schuler, editor-in-chief of The DisInsider. Schuler similarly heard the series would be an animated CG production, and added that Disney voice actors would return to reprise their roles.

According to a video by DidYouKnowGaming? back in 2015, Square Enix and Disney apparently had plans for a TV adaptation of Kingdom Hearts several years ago, but the project was scrapped due to concerns the show's interpretation of the plot was too different to the original game's story. While the rumoured TV series is yet to be officially announced, here's hoping they get the story right this time.

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The phased reopening will start with Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom

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FIVE!

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This article is part of a new initiative on IGN where we spend a whole month exploring topics we find interesting in the world of video games (and hope you will, too!). May is Development Month, where we'll tell untold stories from behind the scenes of our favorite games.

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Story modes in fighting games have always been a tricky puzzle for developers to figure out. The origin of the fighting game genre has its roots in arcades, where the coin-operative design of games like Street Fighter 2, Killer Instinct, and Mortal Kombat prohibited any traditional storytelling. Instead, arcade games delivered their stories in small disjointed chunks via character-specific endings, as a reward for clearing a gauntlet of increasingly difficult battles. Even as fighting games started to move towards home consoles, these “Arcade Modes,” remained the standard for the genre when it came to anything story focused.

But then, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe changed everything.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2008/11/21/mk-vs-dc-x360-ultimate-trailer"]

Released in 2008 by Midway Games, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe was received rather lukewarmly from critics and fans alike for its gameplay prowess. These days it is remembered best as a T-Rated Mortal Kombat with neutered violence. However, it was also one of the first fighting games to introduce a four-hour-long, fully acted and motion captured story mode.

“We were really trying to just break the mold of fighting games with what's typically expected of them,” said Ed Boon, co-creator of Mortal Kombat and creative director at Netherrealm Studios. “And also just because mixing Mortal Kombat and DC was such a dramatic, unexpected thing. We thought, okay, let's just really shake things up.”

Niantic is aiming to up the immersion factor in Pokemon Go with the addition of two new AR features: Reality Blending and Pokestop Scanning. ...

The Last of Us Part II will be the focus of Sony's next State of Play stream, scheduled to take place today, May 27, at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 10 PM CEST.

The stream will feature a deep-dive on gameplay mechanics seen in previous showings of the sequel, with Naughty Dog vice president and The Last of Us Part II co-director Neil Druckmann narrating the footage. Although a lot of the stream will give context to gameplay that's already been shown, there will be around eight minutes of gameplay for a brand-new area of the game, too.

The State of Play stream is expected to be around 20 minutes long in total, similar to the most recent stream for Sony's other upcoming PS4 exclusive, Ghost of Tsushima. And in case you were wondering, Sony makes it very clear in the announcement of this State of Play that there will be no mention of the PlayStation 5. However, it appears news could be coming on that console soon, as a June 3 presentation will reportedly focus on PS5 news.

The latest rumors suggest there could end up being a PlayStation 5 reveal event on June 3, 2020 looking at games.

The post Rumor: PlayStation 5 Reveal Could Happen on June 3, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

This article explores how we can use psychology to strengthen players†™ emotional bonds with NPCs in order to give them a more fulfilling experience and keep them playing for longer. ...

Ah look! Summer’s on, which means that both I and my wallet are about to start sweating. Me because of the oppressive humidity and my wallet because of my oppressive desire to own Dragon Age: Origins on five different storefronts for reasons I cannot explain. GOG have spun up their summer sale machine and would ya lookit that, Dragon Age: Origins—and many other RPGs and not-RPGs—are indeed on sale. Have at it ’till June 15th.

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Catherine: Full Body, the definitive new edition of Atlus’ acclaimed story-driven puzzler is making its way to Nintendo Switch later this summer, July 7. A new trailer, appropriately titled Fall Into Temptation, has been published earlier today to celebrate the announcement.

Full Body’s release on Switch comes with a new feature over its release on other platforms; specifically, the options that reference Atlus’ Persona series. Here are the details, sent to Twinfinite via a press release:

For those who haven’t yet experienced Catherine, its blend of saucy storytelling and challenging puzzle gameplay is certainly unique. The story centers around commitment-phobe Vincent, who is at a crossroads of taking the next step in his long-term relationship or leaving it all behind.

Succumbing to the temptation of a new romance, Vincent then finds himself trapped in a recurring nightmare of a crumbling tower of puzzle blocks he must climb to survive to see another day.

DC comic book movies, The Criterion Collection, Adult Swim shows, and new originals collide

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Oh sure you’ve played Dark Souls with your Donkey Konga bongos and Untitled Goose Game with a goose costume, but this new weird controller mod could give you a serious workout. Someone has modded Grand Theft Auto V so you can ride its bicycles by pedalling your actual real bicycle, using one of those smart bike trainer kits with sensors. It’s a bit like virtual races in Zwift except you’ll race round fake Los Angeles instead of generic Yorkshire, plus you might get hit by a car.

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The marriage between Games Workshop’s Warhammer franchise and the tactical depth of the Total War series has been both a happy and fruitful one. There have been some rocky moments over the years, it’s true, but Total War: Warhammer and its sequel Warhammer II, are arguably the finest video games to be set in that grim-dark fantasy world to date, and they are getting better all the time.

Released in 2016, Total War: Warhammer was a smash hit right out of the gate. Creative Assembly, the developers of the Total War franchise, captured the tone of the tabletop game expertly, treating it with the same respect and attention to detail that they bring to each of their games based upon real-world history.

Fans were delighted to learn that this would be a trilogy of games and, in an ambitious move, that each game would add to a greater whole. Players that owned more than one game would be able to play on the largest Total War map ever made, with the lands introduced in each being Frankesteined together to better replicate the Warhammer world. This sandbox arena, separate from the more narrative campaigns of each of the base games, would come to be known as Mortal Empires.

Mortal Empires was pitched as a game mode in which all of the factions of the tabletop game would be playable on the same massive map and, perhaps more importantly, that they would each be balanced and viable. It’s been a long road to get to this point, but with the release of the latest DLC, The Warden & The Paunch, that promise has been realized, at least until the next game is released.

Sony is reportedly planning to host a digital event for its next-generation console, the PlayStation 5, next week. Sources close to the matter say the event will take place on June 3, but also that it could be subject to change.

The report, published by Bloomberg and corroborated by VentureBeat, states that Sony won't reveal every aspect of the new console in the first presentation for it, with the company planning additional events throughout the coming months. There is no confirmation on whether the presentation will focus on hardware or software, or a combination of both.

Sony has detailed the technical aspect of the PS5, first announcing its internals during a recorded GDC presentation delivered by Mark Cerny. Since then it has revealed the PS5 DualSense controller and featured the first Unreal Engine 5 demo running on its next-gen hardware. The PS5 is still scheduled to launch during the holiday season of 2020, with Sony not expecting the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to change that.

Catherine: Full Body preorders are now open on the eShop, and the English release will have the three new voice options for Catherine.

The post Catherine: Full Body’s English Release Includes the 3 New Voices appeared first on Siliconera.

For the second time ever, Pokemon Go developer Niantic gave fans the chance to vote on the game's next Community Day Pokemon. The voting has now ended, and the two winners are Weedle and Gastly.

Weedle received the most votes out of the four possible candidates, which means it will be the featured Pokemon during June's Community Day. Gastly was the runner-up, so it will be July's featured Pokemon.

Niantic has not yet announced when June and July's Community Days will take place, but we already know what event-exclusive moves will be available during each. Beedrill will be able to learn the Ground-type attack Drill Run as part of June's Community Day, while Gengar will be able to learn Shadow Punch during July's event.

In another timeline, we'd be two days away from The Last of Us Part II. Originally set for May 29 (well, actually, originally set for sometime in February), Naughty Dog's newest was pushed back to June 19 because 2020 jacked up literally everyone's plans.

Instead, we'll have to settle for an extended look. This 20-minute special edition of PlayStation's State of Play is hosted by director Neil Druckmann and focuses on key points of gameplay and story. Sony says it'll end with an 8-minute extended sequence of never-before-seen footage.

Remember to take care to avoid the rampant spoiling of The Last of Us Part II's plot. If you're watching on the embed above, you should be fine. However, if you click through to watch it on YouTube, make sure to hide the live chat. The comments are disabled, but chat is enabled by default. The same goes for Twitch. Hiding chat should be your first move.

So, just 15 more minutes until our last big look at The Last of Us Part II before its launch. It wasn't necessarily planned this way, but, man, Sony is sending PlayStation 4 out with a bang. Two highly-anticipated first-party games back to back in The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima during the summer, and then PS5 in the fall. If the PS4 era was defined by PlayStation's excellent exclusives, then this is the most fitting finale.

A Kingston 480 GB SSD, a BBoutique sex toy giveaway, a Le Creuset stockpot, a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles, and a large room air purifier lead Wednesday’s best deals.

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You, there, stop that. You’ve got new videogames to play. Good Old Games has just launched free demos for Desperados 3 and the System Shock remake, along with a handful of other upcoming games. I’ve already had a sneaky play of both tactical cowboys and cybernetic spaceship loners, so I can already tell you they’re worth your time. Aren’t I good.

This is also another chance to check out Carrion, a horror game where you are a horrible mass of sticky tentacles.

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Fast & Furious Crossroads from racing experts Slightly Mad Studios was originally planned to come out this month, but due to the global pandemic, is now slated to release on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on August 7.

Today's new trailer gives us the first glimpse at the title's single-player gameplay through some epic encounters that look to liven up the normal chase-and-destroy and escape missions found in other action-racing titles.

After its reveal ended 2019’s Game Awards show, news on Fast & Furious Crossroads has been scarce. Now, Codemasters has released a first look gameplay trailer and revealed that it will now release in August.

Initially slated to release in May, alongside the F9 movie, Fast & Furious Crossroads is an action-packed racer featuring all the famous voices and faces from the franchise. During the trailer, you hear from Vin Diesel and almost all of his death-defying crew.

Since the release of F9 was delayed until 2021, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the release date of Crossroads was up in the air.

In a statement to investors released in March, Codemasters had the following to say about the game’s progress and planned release:

“Timing for the launch of the Game is now uncertain but, provided the Company releases the F&F Game in Q1 of FY21, the Board anticipates that the later release date of the F9 Film will not have a material impact on its financial expectations for FY21.”