Considerations for the coronavirus have caused another studio to pull out of PAX East.

In addition to Sony, Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV Japanese team (but not the US team, more on that in a moment) is pulling out of the show entirely due to health concerns. The studio shared their thoughts directly on the official Final Fantasy XIV blog, The Lodestone, citing the outbreak of the virus throughout the East Asia region. According to Square Enix, "This difficult decision was based on our desire to prevent any potential spread of the virus and to prioritize the health and safety of our team and our fans."

As a result, the PAX East festivities for XIV have been "scaled down," and will now pivot to a livestream from Japan (in English and Japanese) on Saturday, February 29 at 8:00PM ET (that's 10:00AM JST on Sunday). There will be no photo opp or autograph sessions or fan gatherings at PAX East, though the booth and demo stations will still be present: just with no dev team members manning it. Several other Square Enix related booths will be manned at the show.

GDC is also seeing its fair share of cancellations, as Sony and Facebook Gaming (Oculus) have pulled out of that show due to "the evolving public health risks." For reference, GDC, EGX Rezzed and SXSW Gaming are set to take place next month. We might be looking at more cancellations as more studios pull out.

I know there are a lot of Warhammer 40,000 video games covering a lot of genres, but I never thought I'd see a Warhammer 40,000 aerial combat video game - all about Orks.

Warhammer 40,000: Dakka Squadron is due out on PC and consoles during the fourth quarter of 2020, and is described as a "fast-paced, aerial shooter where the player is an Ork Flyboy, taking to the skies to do what Orks do best - fight!".

You start off as a lowly Flyboy and conquer worlds as you work your way up to the position of Warboss. We're promised multiple planets, a 20+ mission campaign, a "grim humour" tone and various techniques, such as dog fighting, dive bombing and carpet bombing to master. "All of the player actions revolve around fighting," reads the official blurb. "Building and crafting is for the grots."

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Both games provided social commentary from the perspective of their Taiwanese developers, making them valuable pieces of media.

The post Horror Games Devotion and Detention Will Be Preserved by Harvard-Yenching Library appeared first on Siliconera.

SkyBox Labs stylistic platform adventure Stela will be making its way to PC and Nintendo Switch in just a couple of weeks, following on from its October release on the Apple Arcade and Xbox One platforms.

For those of you who missed out, Stela is an abstract adventure which follows a lonely woman's journey through a collapsing fantasy world, filled with surreal, dangerous creatures and bleakly beautiful landscapes. Not dissimilar to titles such as Gris and Limbo, Stela is a disquieting journey, equally creepy and captivating. You can check out CJ Andriessen's review right here.

This week, Sea Of Thieves introduced some very angry treasure chests – appropriately named Chests Of Rage. These chests are pretty needy, if you don’t pay attention to them they blow up, engulfing everything around them in fire, and letting out a hearty scream as they do so. As it turns out, that scream is the voice of none-other than the game’s award-winning composer, Robin Beanland, and he’s treated us Sea Of Thieves fans to a lovely video of one of his recording sessions.

It’s literally just a recording of a dude yelling his head off.

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If you've seen Parasite (which is very easy to do now since it's been re-introduced to a ton of theaters and is out on home video), you probably won't get its mansion out of your mind anytime soon. In case you want to ponder its themes even further in a first-hand investigation sort of way; you can check out this re-creation of the house in The Sims 4.

In a fascinating turn, the video below was created by "simkoongarchitect," an actual architect that tackles various designs (like Arendelle Castle from Frozen) under the title "Real Architect Builds." The clip is a VR tour: so you can click around and interactively check out the house.

If you haven't seen the film I recommend going in completely blind, without knowing anything about the house: so bookmark the video and come back later!

The greasy realm of the videogame is not always the best place to look for good writing. For every Disco Elysium there are roughly 800 Detroit: Beyond Humans. But it is a good place to look for wondrous, over-the-top nonsense. I’m talking about character dialogue so flamboyant and exaggerated, you could insert some line breaks and it would instantly become a verse in a glam rock anthem. Here are the 12 most extravagant, exuberant, and intense lines of dialogue. In games, subtext is just whatever’s written on the side of the nuclear submarine.

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Following on from its previous 2019 delay, THQ Nordic has announced that wild west strategy sequel Desperados III will finally mosey on into town this summer, raising hell in a hand-basket on PS4, PC and Xbox One.

As a quick refresher, Desperados is an old west variant of the classic Commandos series, and tasks players with completing a campaign of challenging missions. each requiring the use of uniquely-skilled characters. This part must work in synergy to complete acts of espionage, robbery, assassination, and sabotage. The first two Desperados games launched on PC in the early '00s, so this sequel, developed by Mimimi Productions, has been a long time coming.

Record of Lodoss War is one of those franchises that's endured and withstood the test of time. Not only does the original anime hold up, but it also pops up every so often in the form of a new game or manga series. Always the fighter, it's getting yet another game, and it'll be playable very soon.

Titled Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-, the Team Ladybug-developed project is set to hit Steam Early Access on March 13, 2020. You'll play as Deedlit, the iconic elf heroine of the series, as you "awaken in a strange, unknown place" and meets "old friends" (main characters from the manga/anime) in an attempt to escape. The "first stage" will be playable in Early Access, with six stages set to accompany the final edition.

Team Ladybug promises an "immersive story" that "fills in blanks left in the original" tale, as well as "diverse stages," and a "wide variety of weapon and spirit abilities." So far, I dig the art style and the move to 2D, which suits this series well. Touhou Luna Nights was also fairly high in quality, so I trust them to some degree to give us something at least worth playing.

Record of Lodoss War [Steam]

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare recently released its second season, and I'm having a blast with it mainly because of the addition of Rust.

Modern Warfare's impactful gunplay and 60fps performance combine to create one of the best-feeling shooters in all of video games. But at launch I felt it was badly let down by its maps, and after a few weeks I stopped playing.

The arrival of Rust convinced me to jump back in. Such is the draw of this most wonderful of Call of Duty maps that I soldiered through season two's huge 60GB update (seriously, the updates for this game are ridiculous). Modern Warfare's Rust is a faithful recreation of the Modern Warfare 2 map of the same name, a ring-fenced oil rig in a small, square desert space that makes for fast-paced, close quarters action.

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Today Bandai Namco Entertainment released a brand new set of trailers of the upcoming Musou-style game One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4.

This time around, we get to see four more playable characters, starting with the beautiful pirate empress Boa Hancock, and continuing with Buggy, Dracule Mihawk, and Emporio Ivankov.

As usual, we get to see an example of their flashy move, as they tear entire regiments of Marines to pieces.

You can check them out below.

If there's one (of many) elements that makes Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series so utterly enduring, it's the games' beautiful scores, which embody the spirit of dangerous adventure without ever losing the natural charm of the Zelda universe and its characters.

Link's Awakening is a perfect case in point, and fans of that particular entry's classic score might want to take a look at this brand new soundtrack set, which is coming to Japan next month.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Soundtrack is a smart four-CD set which contains a huge 205 tracks in total, taken from both the 1993 Game Boy release and the 2019 Nintendo Switch remake, with each release receiving two CDs of wonderful, nostalgic music from composers Minako Hamano and Ryo Nagamatsu. The CDs come housed in a sleek collector's box, featuring the Japanese sleeve art for both games.

The Double-A Team is a feature series honouring the unpretentious, mid-budget, gimmicky commercial action games that no-one seems to make any more.

You can catch up with all of our Double-A Team pieces in our handy, spangly archive.

Déjà vu. It happened when I was browsing a clothing catalogue in one of Red Dead Redemption 2's general stores. Among the abundance of cowboy hats, a lone flat cap. After equipping that careworn burgundy outlier, a decade melted away. I was no longer crotchety desperado Arthur Morgan. Instead I had resurrected Sean Devlin, gutsy Irish racing daredevil, two-fisted scourge of jackbooted bullies and indefatigable liberator of occupied Paris. A memory rose, unbidden, of wild nights in the City of Light, incinerating Nazi zeppelins while yelling: "My toothless old gran's tougher than you!"

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Today the CESA (Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association), that organizes Tokyo Game Show every year, reached out with a press release including the first details.

First of all, we learn about the theme for the exhibition that will run between September 24 and September 27 at the traditional Makuhari Messe venue in Chiba, near Tokyo.

The theme is “The Future Touches Gaming First,” with the promise to feature next-generation consoles, and new technologies like 5G and cloud gaming.

“The theme of TGS2020 is “The Future Touches Gaming First.” Games are the most updated and accessible means to experience the emerging technologies that will unlock new possibilities for the future. With the theme of this year, the event expects to provide an opportunity for people to touch and play the latest games and immerse themselves in the feel of an exciting future that is just around the corner.

Featuring novel game consoles for the next generation, TGS2020 is sure to attract even more attention from around the world. The event will focus on the full-fledged launch of cloud gaming and its advanced gaming environment such as the start of 5G services for commercial use, and will boost the unprecedented gaming experience brought by new platforms. Moreover, TGS2020 will host the area where visitors can explore “new frontiers” of games through crossing over with education, fashion, arts and other industries.

TGS2020 will team up with various popular influencers from Japan and overseas to create buzz prior to the event, not only for visitors but also for game fans who cannot be at the venue on the event days. Through tie-ups with domestic and overseas media partners and multiple video platforms, the latest news on the event will be released in Japanese, English and Chinese to reach the growing number of online viewers on a global scale.

Castle Crashers was, like predecessor Alien Hominid, a beautifully animated, arcady, 2D scrolling beat ‘em up by The Behemoth. It eventually made it to PCs in 2012, although it was out on console in 2008. Curiously, however, I know for sure that I played it in 2007 – I guess it must have been a demo, or something. But good grief, what a vivid memory I have of playing it. Yep, that’s right – prepare for another wild swerve off the road of talking about the actual game, and into the rugged backcountry of soul-rummaging reflection.

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Every Friday, A.V. Club staffers kick off our weekly open thread for the discussion of gaming plans and recent gaming glories, but of course, the real action is down in the comments, where we invite you to answer our eternal question: What Are You Playing This Weekend?

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Yostar is continuing to showcase new content for its popular mobile game Azur Lane, offering the first glimpse at what appears to be the next major event. 

Matching with the “Northern Front” pre-event that will start tomorrow and end on February 27 (followed by phase 2 until March 18) we get to take a look at content from the Northern Parliament faction, which is basically Russia. 

We get to see a new skin for Avrora, the only shipgirl from the Northern Parliament currently existing in the game.

On top of that, we also get the reveal of two more shipgirs. The first is Pamiat Merkuria, a light cruiser from the same faction.

The choice of name is interesting, as it was used when the real ship was in service with the Russian Empire before she was renamed Komintern in 1922 by the Soviet Union.

The second shipgirl is Soviet destroyer Tashkent. You can see them all below.

Today Bandai Namco Entertainment released a brand new trailer of he upcoming Musou-style game One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4.

The trailer focuses on showing the heroes of the game, on top of featuring the main theme music performed by the Siena Wind Orchestra.

It’s certainly a nice combination, and you can take a look below.

Today D3 Publisher announced that Omega Labyrinth Life and Bullet Girls Phantasia have reached milestones in shipments.

The announcement was made via Twitter, mentioning that cumulative sales worldwide Omega Labyrinth Life have passed 50,000 units, which means including all platforms and both digital and physical sales.

On the other hand, Bullet Girls Phantasia passed 100,000 units shipped with the same parameters.

You can check out the tweet below.

Today Asobo released a brand new video of its upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator on top of new screenshots from the current alpha test.

The video included in an account-protected insider feature focuses on airports. The game includes every single airport on Earth, and 37,000 are manually edited by the development team. 

Among those, 80 airports received additional details, and a further selection received even more detail, reaching “a new level in flight simulation.”

That’s certainly a bold claim, considering that some third-party add-on airports in previous entries of the series were mindbogglingly detailed.

Perhaps even more satisfying is the simulation of ground traffic and airport life, with things like pushback trucks, baggage handlers, refueling, staircases, and even animated catering services.

You can check it out below.

A further development update included screenshots from alpha participants and an updated development roadmap. 

Below you can see screenshots by Lash123456, Bonham Five, redl0l, TangoAlpha3d, JonasAlexander2, and Acktunasrabi.

Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku’s reader-run community: Weathering With You Review (Scotland Loves Anime) • Returning To Gamerhood • TAY Retro: Nintendo Entertainment System - “What Will The Future Bring From Nintendo” [TV Commercial, NA]

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In December, it was reported that League of Legends developer Riot Games would pay $10 million to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit. However, this settlement total was later thought to be many millions lower than what it should have been, and now it's been withdrawn by the legal team representing the staffers who filed the lawsuit in the first place.

A new team of lawyers hired by the former female employees of Riot Games withdrew the proposed settlement of $10 million, saying it was the result of "alleged mistakes and improprieties by prior class counsel," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The members of the class action group have now hired women's rights attorney Genie Harrison and employment lawyer Joseph Lovretovich to take over for the previous counsel.

If you’re eagerly awaiting for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX to land on the Nintendo Switch, you have come to the right place.

Today, the Japanese branch of Nintendo released an extensive trailer and two TV commercial for the upcoming game.

Of course, if you know anything about Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team, you’ll likely expect the new videos to be absolutely adorable. And in fact, they are. 

The trailer is particularly extensive, clocking at approximately five minutes. It’s one of those “introduction” trailers that do exactly what they say on the tin, providing an overview of what you can expect to find on the game.

We also get to see plenty of the game’s renewed graphics over the original released for the Nintendo DS in 2005. 

The TV commercials are, of course, much smaller, following the traditional thirty-second format.

You can watch them all below.

The third Fighters Pass for Dragon Ball FighterZ was recently announced, and will begin on February 28 with the release of Kefla. She'll be the first of five new characters coming to the game, with Ultra Instinct Goku and three unannounced warriors also joining the battle.

Bandai Namco has released video of a fight featuring Kefla, showing off her fast kicks and red ki blast attacks. It looks like she'll move fast, and the video shows off some of her longer potential combos as she cuts through Frieza, Goku, and Vegeta.

Akatsuki and Too Kyo Games have revealed Tribe Nine, an IP that they hope will span multi-media while being distinct, like the MCU.

The post Tribe Nine Combines ‘Tokyo,’ ‘Extreme Sports,’ and ‘Street Fights’ appeared first on Siliconera.

Tonight, let’s take a look behind the scenes at some of the concept art that went into the creation of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, one of the most Star Warsy-lookin’ games of all time.

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PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) recently released released patch 6.2 on PC, adding a team deathmatch mode to the game. The update will make its way to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game soon too, and is now available on the Public Test Server.

Beyond everything else included in the patch, this update will finally allow players to make cross-platform parties, meaning that PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players can party up before the beginning of a match.

While cross-play has been available for some time now, this is a new feature, and it'll make it much easier for players to team up with their friends on other systems. Previously, a PUBG match could be populated with players from either console, but parties could only be formed by players on the same console; as of 6.2, that restriction will no longer be in place.

The NFL season ended earlier this month with Super Bowl 54, but EA Sports has not stopped supporting Madden NFL 20 with new updates. The latest patch has arrived (along with full patch notes), and the most notable introduction is related to the Super Bowl.

Specifically, the playbook has been updated with new plays and formations that were seen in Super Bowl 54. There are many new plays added to the playbook, including the memorable Jet Chip Wasp from the pivotal 3rd and 15 first-down conversion by Patrick Mahomes to Tyreek Hill. It's part of the Gun Trey Y-Flex Weak formation, which you can see below.

You can see a full list of new plays that are now available in the patch notes below. In addition to the new plays, the Madden 20 update fixes a bug that allowed quarterbacks to abort the hand-off animation during certain reverse plays.

The latest Street Fighter V patch finally addresses one of the game’s most prevalent problems: shoddy online multiplayer. It took constant prodding from fans and a recent third-party fix to finally get these changes, four years after the game’s release.

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The popular SteamWorld series will soon make its way to Stadia, publisher Thunderful has announced. The four most recent games in the series, SteamWorld Dig, SteamWorld Heist, SteamWorld Dig 2, and SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech are all coming to the platform "soon." An exact date has not been announced.

The games, which all debuted on Nintendo platforms, cover a variety of genres. The two Dig titles are platformer adventures where you dig underground seeking treasure and battling enemies; Heist is a turn-based strategy combat game; and Quest is a card-based RPG.

All four games will be available for Stadia owners, but users with a Stadia Pro subscription will be able to pick up the two most recently released games, SteamWorld Dig 2 and SteamWorld Quest, at no additional charge.

All four games have been critically well received, and SteamWorld Quest is yet to make its way to PlayStation 4 or Xbox One yet. After launch, the game received a major update that added a new difficulty level and a New Game Plus mode.

Hopefully we'll have release dates for these new Stadia games soon.

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town reached 200,000 combined sales as of last week, according to series character designer Igusa Matsuyama.

The post Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town Harvests 200,000 Sales in Japan appeared first on Siliconera.

Dune is an experience so broken I don’t even know where to begin. Except to say it’s the best board game I’ve played in a long time.

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