February 2020

Assassin's Creed is no stranger to other forms of storytelling, but among the series' shelves of tie-in books, stacks of graphic novels and lonely Blu-ray of the Michael Fassbender film, there's not been anything quite like Assassin's Creed Gold. An eight-part audio drama created and released by Audible, Gold is an enjoyable mix of the video game series' usual historical shenanigans - that feeling you're mixing with key historical figures - via a dollop of Hollywood talent to help things along.

Gold's starry cast includes Star Wars: Rogue One's Riz Ahmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Anthony Head, who respectively steal the show as blind assassin Omar Khalid and apple-loving scientist Sir Issac Newton. Together, the two tackle a counterfeiting conspiracy which has left a trail of bodies in its wake. Meanwhile, in Gold's present day storyline, Khalid's descendent Aliyah Kahn (No Offence's Tamara Lawrence) - acts as its protagonist, aided by familiar Assassin faces such as series stalwart Shaun Hastings (the ever-present Danny Wallace).

Dying Light is a zombie game. It does a lot of other things that frustrate or sort of disappoint me, too. But I can’t help loving it in a very reserved sort of way.

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Developer PopCap Games announced that Plants vs. Zombies 3 has soft launched in specific territories on mobile devices, alongside revealing a few details about the game itself.

The soft launch means that the developer can continue technical testing with a wider pool of users. PopCap could also add more and tweak some features in the game with feedback.

The studio revealed that Plants vs. Zombies 3 will be a free-to-play title with “optional” microstransactions that follows the same gameplay of its predecessors with a few key differences.

It is still a lane-based tower defense game, but with a bigger emphasis on “social play, faster combat, and deeper synergies for the plant team,” according to PopCap.

Key differences are removing the “last line of defense” lawnmowers and Sunflower plants becoming its own meter than required to be planted on the field.

The game also features 3D graphics, as opposed to the main series’ 2D art style, and is played in portrait mode “to make the game more phone-friendly.”

While Plants vs. Zombies 3 is currently only available in the Philippines, PopCap plans to add more countries to the soft launch “as time goes on.” There is no set date for an official launch, but will require an Android Galaxy S6 tier-device with KitKat (4.4) and higher or at least an iPhone 6S with at least iOS 13.1 and higher.

PopCap also said it plans to continue supporting the mobile-only Plants vs. Zombies 2, and recently released an update with new levels, enemies, and perks.

One Finger Death Punch 2, the one finger beat ’em up against waves of stick figures, is now available for Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and GOG on PC.

The game first launched on Steam last April, and has now been ported to the two consoles. It is also available on GOG for those who want to avoid Steam and own a DRM-free copy of the game.

The first One Finger Death Punch was released in 2014 for the Xbox 360 through the Xbox Live Indie Games program, where small developers could have their games published for the platform through community voting.

“The original One Finger Death Punch was developed for the Xbox 360 using Microsoft XNA, which then was ported to PC and mobile devices,” says developer Silver Dollar Games’ Jon Flook in a press release.

“It took a little over six years to make a sequel available for consoles, but we know those who enjoyed the original game will love it on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. It’s as fast-paced and crazy as they’d expect it to be.”

One Finger Death Punch 2 contains over 400 levels, 15 level types, four endless survival modes, and two gauntlet run game modes. It is $8.99 for both consoles and $7.99 on PC, though GOG currently has a 50% discount at $3.99.

Happinet announced that its upcoming strategy game Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia will release for Switch worldwide on June 25, 2020.

The post Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia Set to Invade and Conquer Switches Worldwide on June 25, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

Simon Carless dives deep into the Steam sales of Early Access game Academia: School Simulator. The game's generated $1 million in sales so far...but how much of that does the dev actually see? ...

Today Koei Tecmo released a new trailer of the upcoming souls-like action RPG Nioh 2, focusing on the upcoming demo.

The “Last Chance Trial” that will happen between February 28 and March 1.

It’ll include new bosses that weren’t shown before, character creation, and the ability to use appearance codes. Some data like your character’s appearance can be transferred to the retail version of the game.

Anyone who completes the first mission of the demo will get a helmet unlocked in the final game, which you can see below the trailer.

Playing the demo with a save data from the original Nioh will also let you play with William’s appearance.

Cygames released a new trailer of its fighting game Granblue Fantasy Versus, focusing on the second DLC character, Narmaya and announcing the PC Version.

The game is coming to PC via Steam on March 13, joining the already-released PS4 version. Cross-play will not be supported. 

We also learn the Japanese release date for Narmaya’s DLC, which is March 3.

The price in Japan is 800 yen, including a lobby avatar, an icon, two RPG mode quests, and a free skin in the Granblue Fantasy mobile game. Of course, she’s included in the first character pass if you went that route.

The first DLC chraacter will be Beelzebub which will launch on the same day, the fourth will be Djeeta, and we already know that the fifth will be a female character. The sixth, coming withing the second character pass, will be Belial.

You can watch the trailer and screenshots below.

Cygames announced that Granblue Fantasy Versus is coming to PC via Steam on March 13, 2020.

The post Granblue Fantasy Versus is Coming to PC via Steam on March 13, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

In a surprise announcement made on the Granblue Fantasy Japanese Twitter account, it has been revealed that Arc System Works' gorgeous fighting title Granblue Fantasy: Versus is officially coming to PC worldwide - via Steam - and as soon as March 13.

This is quite the surprise, as not only had there been little-to-no murmurings of an incoming PC port, but the noted release date means that Granblue Fantasy: Versus will be launching on PC before it has even hit PS4 in Europe and Australia (though it will be available in North America by then).

Two caveats that should be noted, however. Firstly, it appears there is no cross-play or cross-save support incoming. So hopefully a healthy PC community will be able to establish itself in double-quick time, lest this become yet another PC anime fighter that dies out in a matter of months.

Secondly, the PC edition will not include the exclusive codes that allow you to unlock extra content in the Granblue Fantasy mobile game. These codes will only be available to customers who pick up the PS4 release. This news has already disappointed a number of fans in the comments of the original tweet.

Granblue Fantasy: Versus launches on PS4 in North America March 3, in Europe and Australia on March 27, and on PC worldwide March 13.

Granblue Fantasy Versus PC version releasing March 13th [EventHubs]

In possibly the busiest new week in the company's history, Platinum Games has announced that it is to open a brand new studio in the heart of Japan. Platinum Games Tokyo is the developer's first venture outside of its original office in Osaka, and is expected to open in April.

According to an interview translated by Gematsu, the new studio is already hiring a team of 100-strong developers from all aspects of game creation - from artists and coders to producers, audio specialists, and support team members. Platinum Games President Kenichi Sato has noted that both the new studio and Project G.G. itself are both ideas facilitated thanks to the recent investment by Chinese company Tencent.

The establishment of Platinum Games Tokyo is the third of the "Platinum4" announcements, following the reveal of The Wonderful 101: Remastered and Project G.G. The fourth and final announcement is still unknown, although Platinum Games Studio Head Atsushi Inaba has noted that it will be "interesting and very Platinum."

Project G.G. is currently in pre-development. The Wonderful 101: Remastered launches in May.

Roasted Chestnuts. Kyoto, Japan. By Bobby Vu | Instagram

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If you've even briefly stuck your head into the PUBG subreddit in recent weeks, you'll have noticed things have taken... something of a downturn for the PC version since season 6 began. Multiple new bugs have been spotted, players have reported a severe increase in performance issues (particularly FPS drops), and one of PUBG's prominent streamers announced he would be "taking a break" as a result of the continuing problems.

One of the biggest complaints was a perceived silence from PUBG Corp on the issues - but the company has finally responded, and an official dev letter has been published to address community concerns.

"We know the last few months have had some ongoing issues impacting gameplay and wanted to take a moment to address everything," reads the letter on PUBG's Steam page. "We know the below issues have been extremely frustrating to deal with and we're sorry they've persisted for so long."

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This week's Anthem update, timed for the game's one-year anniversary, has at last removed its wintry decorations and, days from March, ended its Icetide event.

Flowers are now sprouting on trees in Anthem's overworld, while its Fort Tarsis hub now sports various potted plants in vases.

There's more to Anthem's 1.7.0 update, of course. This new patch, available now, sets Anthem off on a "recurring schedule" of rotating challenges and game modes that will keep the game ticking over until BioWare's fabled Anthem 2.0 relaunch - due at some undisclosed point in the future.

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It's hard to imagine the naming of a video game going more badly wrong than it has here. Sticking two vaguely dynamic words together, the makers of Overpass have stumbled - accidentally, I hope - on a synonym for a motorway bridge. Apart from sounding dispiritingly utilitarian, nothing could be less appropriate for a realistic off-road driving game that is all about navigating tricky terrain.

The game itself, though, has something going for it. As Donlan recently pointed out, it has more in common with Spintires or Lonely Mountains: Downhill - or even the hiking gameplay of Death Stranding - than it does with, say, Dirt Rally or MX vs ATV. Yes, it is a motorsport game, based on a real motorsport, and yes it is played against the clock. But it is not about racing. It is about route-finding, problem-solving, reading the ground.

Platinum Games’ PC remaster of their 2013 superhero game, The Wonderful 101, has nabbed itself a May release date. The old Wii U game has you saving the day as a mass of different superheores, all morphed together to form weird and wonderful things to defeat enemies and save civilians. The you can gather even more heroes, and become even stronger Morphs! And it’s hitting Steam on May 19th.

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PlatinumGames announced a new stretch goal for the Kickstarter campaign of the upcoming The Wonderful 101: Remastered.

If the game’s crowdfunding reaches $2.25 million “The Won-Stoppable Wonderful 100” and “Tables Turn” will be re-recorded with an orchestra.

In the meanwhile, the game has passed its $1.75 Million stretch goal, unlocking the remixed soundtrack.

In the middle, there is a $2 million stretch goal unlocking the “Luka’s Second Mission” 2D side-scrolling adventure game.

To be more precise, it’s comfortably sitting on $1,784,291 at the moment of this writing.

If you’re unfamiliar with The Wonderful 101: Remastered, it brings back PlatinumGames’ former Wii U-exclusive action game from 2013.

Just yesterday, we learned that The Wonderful 101: Remastered will release on PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam on different dates depending on region: North America will get the game first on May 19, followed by Europe on May 22. Japanese gamers will have to wait the longest, until June 11.

Incidentally, recently we also learned that PlatinumGames has four (likely self-published) projects in store, two of which have not been revealed yet.

The second was revealed today and it’s code-named Project G.G. It’s PlatinumGames first self-published original IP and it’s directed by Hideki Kamiya himself.

Cygames and Arc System Works released a new Granblue Fantasy Versus trailer featuring the upcoming DLC fighter Narmaya, who will join on March 3.

The post Narmaya Joins Granblue Fantasy Versus On March 3, Check Out Her Swift Moves in a New Trailer appeared first on Siliconera.

The Xbox Series X's quick resume feature was confirmed earlier this week but it's now been revealed that it even lets you resume games after rebooting the console.

Microsoft's Larry Hryb discussed the feature on the February 26 episode of his Major Nelson podcast with Jason Ronald, the director of program management at Xbox. Ronald explained that the Xbox One already lets you quick resume games you're playing, but says that the SSD of the Xbox Series X lets you do that with multiple titles, instantly jumping between them to pick up right where you left each one.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/24/xbox-series-x-has-12-teraflops-new-technical-specs-revealed-ign-news"]

Hryb then recounts a time that he admits he'll "probably get in trouble for talking about," during which he discovered how far the quick resume feature goes. "One of the things that I was noticing when I was in the lab when I was playing it, I was switching back and forth just real quickly and seamlessly between games, but then I had to reboot because I had a system update. And then I went back to the game and went right back to it. So it survives a reboot. That's amazing."

Ronald confirms that this is the case and remarks that it's hard to go back to older consoles after using the quick resume of the Xbox Series X. "If I just want to have a quick gaming experience, I can instantly jump in have a great time, and then know that the next time I come back I'll be right where I was," Ronald said.

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Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (Nintendo Switch) | $30 | Amazon

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Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku’s reader-run community: Beating The Backlog - Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon • The Creepiness Of Home Alone 2 (game) • TAY Retro: Famicom - Buggy Popper (Bump ‘n Jump) [TV Commercial, JP]

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Can you believe it? Today is Pokémon’s birthday. On February 27, 1996, Pokémon Red and Green were released in Japan. The world has never been the same.

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Blizzard has provided an update on the in-development Diablo 4, and confirmed a number of changes following the game's initial showing at BlizzCon last year.

Diablo 4 will offer controller support on PC, Blizzard confirmed, with the option to switch between the two seamlessly. (The game is, of course, the first Diablo to be developed simultaneously for consoles and PC.)

The much-requested option to re-bind the game's primary skill to "anything but the left-mouse button" to separate moving from attacking will also be possible. In fact, any skill can be reassigned and have their keys rebound - something that will also be possible on a controller.

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Happy Pokémon Day! Yep, I had no idea this was a thing, either. Nevertheless, it turns out that 27th February marks 24 years since the launch of Pokémon Red and Green in Japan so a handful of events and offers are running a to celebrate.

Starting off at the Nintendo Official UK Store, you can enter the voucher code 'TEAMBLUE' to receive a water partner Pokémon mug or 'TEAMRED' to get a fire partner Pokémon mug for free with any Pokémon games and Pokémon console bundle. This includes both pre-orders for Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX or the Pokémon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass.

You can find everything that's eligible for the offer on their Pokémon Day 2020 store page. No massive reductions here, then. Just a neat little freebie to go with your purchase if you were considering picking up either anyway.

After receiving a huge free content update back in November, there's more good news for Stardew Valley fans: yet another free content dump is trundling its way towards players.

The news comes directly from Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone, who took to Twitter to announce that more free content is "currently in the works" - although there's currently no details on what this will include, or when it will be released. You'll have to wait until later to mark it on your kalender.

The previous free content update, 1.4, added a vast amount of content to all platforms: including quality of life changes, new rewards, items - practically everything you could think of under the Stardew Valley sun. It bodes well for the next free update, which hopefully will continue to improve and develop the already-brilliant sim.

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When Blizzard suspended professional Hearthstone player, Blitzchung, for expressing his support for Hong Kong on a very public platform - the Hearthstone Grandmasters stream - one thing it probably didn't account for was the outpouring of support and the furore that followed. Long-time players threatened to boycott Blizzard games. Employees staged walkouts with umbrellas, a key symbol of resistance in the Hong Kong protest. United States senators, Ron Wyden and Marco Rubio, as well as representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mike Gallagher and Tom Malinowski, signed a letter to Blizzard, requesting the ban be fully reversed. And in Hong Kong, an anonymous group of game developers witnessed the far-reaching impact of his actions and was inspired to make a game about being at the frontline of the protests against the barrage of attacks by the riot police. The result was the protest game, Liberate Hong Kong.

"The initial idea [behind] this game is the incident of Blizzard. Blitzchung Ng just said eight words, [and] it created a large influence over the world," one member of the team, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal from the authorities, told Eurogamer. "We want to replicate this effect to promote the protest in Hong Kong."

And it worked. Liberate Hong Kong was covered extensively in international media, from the BBC to Bloomberg, which helped draw widespread condemnation for the Hong Kong police's brutality against protesters.

MIMIKYU, YOU GO, GIRL

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The series works best when it does its own thing

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Annapurna Interactive will publish Maquette, which first appeared in 2011

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Mutazione is as dramatic as it is incisive

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New Tokyo team ‘to expand into new genres and styles of play’

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People Can Fly's upcoming RPG/shooter lets players pick between four different character classes, each with its own unique skillset and general combat role. Today, we're looking at the Pyromancer, which is an archetype based on (you guessed it) setting things ablaze. 

In today's NGT, Leo and I walk through some of our experiences playing with a Pyromancer character during our visit to People Can Fly's studio in Warsaw, and share some info about what the class brings to the combat arena. It's not just fire, you know? They can also turn people into weird, ashy statue things. Look, just watch the video, OK?

Outriders is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox One Series X, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in 2020. For more video features on the game, including our rapid-fire interview, visit our hub page by clicking the banner below.