February 2020

Dragon Ball FighterZ just dropped the Kefla DLC, but someone over on Twitter thinks they may have cracked the code on who's coming next.

Although Arc System Works teases out the same silhouettes for upcoming DLC (not much help there), there are coloring schemes that are tied to each entry. For Kefla, that color was red, an obvious nod to her outfit. But it stands to reason that the rest (silver, blue, green, tan) will follow suit.

As such, Twitter user Senyu posits that silver is Ultra Instinct Goku (yet another Goku that was already confirmed), blue is Majin Vegeta, green is Pikkon, and tan is Master Roshi. You know what? Other than Ultra Instinct Goku, I could get down with that.

Naturally lots of characters don those colors throughout the course of the series, and Arc System Works has shown that they don't mind using the dregs of the Dragon Ball society for DLC, so it could be anyone. For now, it's fun to speculate.

Senyu [Twitter via ResetEra]

Among the many releases scheduled to appear at the upcoming Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2020 event is a mysterious new title by the name of "Wonder Boy Universe: Asha in Monster World," first spotted on the official GDC 2020 exhibitor page.

There are no images or information accompanying the listing save for the address and website of Japanese indie studio Artdink - previously responsible for a huge variety of titles across franchises such as A-Train, Dragon Ball Z, Sword Art Online and Macross.

While this is purely speculation, the use of "Monster World," along with the name-checking of Asha, could suggest a remaster or remake of 1994's Monster World IV - a Sega Mega Drive sequel that starred a spritely, green-haired hero of the same name. Monster World IV never saw the light of day outside of Japan until the last decade, when it was finally localised and released on platforms such a the Nintendo Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Still, in the wake of excellent releases such as DotEmu's Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap and love letters like Game Atelier's Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, the time would be perfect for a full remake or sequel to this lost classic. Again, this is just speculation, but hopefully the mystery will be cleared up soon.

GDC 2020 takes place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco between March 16-20.

Wonder Boy Universe: Asha in Monster World on GDC website [Resetera]

Game Freak is still mixing up the whole max raid battle event schedule in Pokemon Sword and Shield, and the next era has begun: but it's going to be very brief.

This time the stakes are a little higher, as Kanto region (Generation 1) creatures are now scattered around the Wild Area raids. The event is live now, and will run through March 1 at 3:59PM PT: I said it was going to be brief, didn't I? That's not even a full week!

Note that the rules are a bit different for this raid event. So you can fully catch Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle, as well as their secondary evolutions. But! You cannot catch the Mewtwo that is also live during the event: beating it will only grant you bonus items (which you can view in the galley below). As always, you'll need to sync your game up using an online connection to do the latest raids.

Good luck! I already have the original trio and I'm only interested in fighting one Mewtwo just to see how it goes.

Max Raid Battles [Pokemon]

Fighting Road: Champion Road Beyond - the story mode expansion penned by the legendary Suda 51 - is now available to purchase for Spike Chunsoft's great ring-rocking sim Fire Pro Wrestling World.

Champion Road Beyond is a direct sequel to the story mode of 1994's Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special, in which a young Goichi Suda penned the tale of fictional wrestler Morio Sumisu, a tale notorious for its ultra-grim tone and tragic climax. The waves made in the Japanese game industry by this shocking release helped get Suda's name on the map as a daring developer, and the rest is history.

The new FPW DLC will see players take on the role of Morio Sumisu's son, who is just starting out in the business and hopes to find his own path of glory. But with the legacy of his father haunting his every move, will the younger Sumisu succeed in his quest for fame and super-stardom? Or is he destined to fall to similar misadventure?

Also included as part of the DLC download is a brand new interview with Suda 51 himself, in which the No More Heroes and Killer7 director talks about his history with the Fire Pro Wrestling series.

Fighting Road: Champion Road Beyond is available to purchase now for Fire Pro Wrestling World on both PS4 and PC.

Following in the footsteps of several other major tech firms including Sony and Facebook, Microsoft and Epic both said today that they will no longer be attending this year’s Game Developers Conference due to the growing health risks posed by COVID-19, better known as the coronavirus.

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Iris and the Giant is a collectable card game that blends in a nice amount of role-playing and strategy elements, wrapped up into an experience that encourages you to push past the fear of failure. It uses a beautiful primary color palette and cubist-like art style to illustrate its sincere tale of a young woman…

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The creators of the popular plague simulator say it was taken down by China’s Cyberspace Administration over “illegal” content.

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A 65" Vizio M-Series 4K HDR QLED TV for $500, a $190 refurbished Dyson cordless vacuum, and a heavily discounted Tacklife 1200A car jump starter kick off Thursday’s best deals of the day.

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Developer Ndemic Creations has announced that Plague Inc. has been removed from sale on the China App Store. The Cyberspace Administration of China determined that the strategy game "includes content that is illegal in China."

Back in January, sales of the eight-year-old game skyrocketed in China, as players began using it to gain a better understanding of how diseases spread in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak--more commonly known as coronavirus. Plague Inc. is a real-time strategy game that tasks you with creating and evolving a deadly pathogen than can wipe out humanity before the world's top scientists are able to devise a cure. Its authenticity and educational importance has frequently been recognised by health organisations like the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

"Plague Inc. is a huge critical and commercial success," Ndemic said in a statement. "Eight years old and with over 130 million players, it's the #1 strategy/simulation game worldwide and has been the most popular paid game in China for many years. Plague Inc. stands out as an intelligent and sophisticated simulation that encourages players to think and learn more about serious public health issues. We have a huge amount of respect for our Chinese players and are devastated that they are no longer able to access and play Plague Inc.

EA is currently experiencing server issues, which is impacting a number of the publisher's games, including Apex Legends and FIFA 20. The EA Help Twitter account acknowledged the troubles, tweeting, "We're looking into issues with our websites, games, and services." [Update: EA says its servers are now back online, so you should be able to resume playing games as per usual. If you were upset about the downtime, at least it brought with it word about a cool new Apex Legends event that's on the way.]

EA hasn't provided a time frame for when these issues could be resolved, but the company says it will "be back with updates as [it has] them." We'll continue to update this story as more information becomes available. The latest update comes from the FIFA Mobile account, which says that login issues have been resolved, so you should be able to at least enter the game.

After celebrating four years since its release and a recent content update, Stardew Valley is set to get even more DLC in the future. And it still won't cost you a cent.

Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone thanked fans for celebrating the game's anniversary, remarking that he was happy that all players across all platforms could now access the new content as part of the game's 1.4 update. In conclusion, Barone revealed that work on another big content update (that's 1.5 now) has begun.

When asked whether this update would be free again, Barone replied, "No plans for paid DLC or anything, but I do plan on creating & releasing more games in the future!". Barone has previously spoken about his plans for new games, but has said they are still a while away.

A new Max Raid event has begun in Pokemon Sword and Shield. To commemorate Pokemon Day, the Legendary Mewtwo is appearing in Max Raid dens for a limited time, as are the original three starter Pokemon, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle--and you'll get some great rewards for defeating them.

The Mewtwo Raid in particular differs from other Raids in a few ways. First, Mewtwo is uncatchable. Before you join the Raid, you'll see a warning that Mewtwo can't be caught, but there's still a good incentive to battle it; you'll receive some fantastic rewards if you can defeat the Legendary, including Ability Capsules--which can be used to change one of your Pokemon's Abilities.

Earning these rewards won't be easy, however. Mewtwo is level 100, and it's incredibly fast and powerful; it can move four times in a turn and knows a broad range of attacks. The Kanto starters, however, can be caught. These Raids likewise dispense rare items as rewards, including Flame Orbs, which could previously only be obtained from Sword and Shield's true antagonist, the Ball Guy.

Maquette, a new first-person puzzler from Graceful Decay and published by Annapurna Interactive, has been announced for PC. It's will release on Steam, but currently has no release date.

A love story wrapped in a puzzle game, Maquette is billed as a recursive puzzler where you'll explore a world within itself. Approach the center of the core grand structure, and you'll be greeted with a smaller representation of the level you're in. Manipulating one level has an immediate effect on the other, letting you witness small objects existing as much large ones in the same view.

It's a concept that's quite striking, as you can see in the reveal trailer above. Each level features new puzzles that tie into an ongoing imaginative love story, using the world's sense of scale to accentuate how small issues can have large effects on its surroundings.

The latest Epic Games Store freebie, InnerSpace, is available to claim now, but you can also start looking forward to next week's offerings. Another two-game free week starts March 5, with real-time strategy game Offworld Trading Company and platforming roguelike Gonner up for grabs.

After three years of livestream shows, Mojang is reviving its old MineCon live event format and taking its annual Minecraft celebrations back out into the real world as Minecraft Festival.

As was the case with Minecraft's MineCon event, which ran between 2010 and 2016 before its livestream replacement MineCon Earth took over the following year, Minecraft Festival will be a sizeable live affair, this time open to "thousands" of ticket holders.

Minecraft Festival, which is being organised by Eurogamer parent company ReedPOP, will be held from 25th-27th September at the Orange County Convention Center in Florida, and Mojang calls it "a celebration of the epic adventure we've all shared for the past 10 years". It promises interactive exhibits, competitive tournaments, and live entertainment, as well as panels and the opportunity to meet content creators and the Minecraft development team.

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FunCraft, a mobile studio formed last year by a group of former Zynga, Juicebox Games, and EA staffers, has secured $1.8 million in funding to create "casual forever" games.  ...

The Behemoth shows first gameplay of Alien Hominid Invasion

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Fans also discovered an image of several character names and abilities

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I need you to just ... settle down, please.

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I will go out and buy chocolate

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Sludge Life is a damn good name for anything, honestly. But it’s an even better moniker for Devolver Digital’s latest reveal. A slimey lo-fi open world riot, Sludge Life is a filthy collaboration between developer Terri Vellman and music man Doseone, the folks behind supernatural shootout High Hell. Tag your way to the top, tear down your corporate overlords, or kick back and grab a light with the cats at the docks – who the hell cares when you’re stuck on a planet made of goo?

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It would be so easy to call Corruption 2029 “Mutant Year Zero without mutants”. That is, after all, the first impression it gives to probably anyone familiar with the same developers’ irradiated manduck tales.

MYZ had personality and atmosphere, and that helped carry it through its weaker parts. And here I once again come up against the question of how fair it is to judge a game only in relation to another. Because Corruption 2029 plays very much the same way for the most part, for good and ill.

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Plague Inc. is a game that pushes players to try to annihilate all life with an evolving pathogen. The game was released on mobile devices in 2012 and has been played by more than 130 million people, but has recently been pulled from China's digital stores during the coronavirus outbreak.

Ndemic Creations, the studio behind Plague Inc., issued a statement that details the reasoning for the removal. The game "includes content that is illegal in China as determined by the Cyberspace Administration of China."

Ndemic says Plague Inc. has been one of China's most popular paid games, and the team is working hard to try to get the game back up in the stores. "It's not clear to us if the removal is linked to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak that China is facing," the statement reads. "Plague Inc.'s educational importance has been repeatedly recognized by organizations like the CDC and we are currently working with major global health organizations to determine how we can best support their efforts to contain and control COVID-19."

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's Gunfight matches are meant to be fast, but not this fast. Reddit user IPyro58 posted a clip that achieves a feat most of us will never duplicate – three headshots with one bullet. The opposing team was well coordinated, but the formation was too tight. The only way this match could go faster is if IPyro58 didn't have to run to get into position. What a shot!

My fastest 3v3 round ever from r/gaming

It’s been a long wait, but Borderlands 3 is finally coming to Steam in just a few weeks time.

During Gearbox Software’s press conference at Pax East 2020, the company revealed that Borderlands 3 will be available on Steam starting Mar. 13. The game will likewise offer cross play functionality with those who bought the game through the Epic Games Store, allowing PC players to engage in co-op regardless of their launcher.

It has not yet been revealed whether the game will be listed at full price or if it will be offered at a discount. Likewise, it wasn’t confirmed whether the game’s latest DLC expansion, Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot, will be available through Steam alongside the game.

Should this information become available, we’ll update this piece accordingly.

Released on Sept. 13, 2019, Borderlands 3’s PC version was originally released exclusively through the Epic Games Store. The move drew some criticism, but the game still managed to sell several million copies even without being available on Steam.

Borderlands 3 is currently available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. For more on the game, check out our review of the title from launch. For more on the Borderlands series in general, check out our ranking of every Borderlands game from fine to phenomenal.

Among the Rune Factory 4 Special changes are ones that make it easier to connect with your virtual spouses.

The post Romance Feels Like It Matters More in Rune Factory 4 Special appeared first on Siliconera.

The coronavirus has waylaid the Microsoft GDC 2020 plans, and the company will hold online events March 16-18, 2020 instead.

The post Microsoft GDC 2020 Plans Canceled Due to the Coronavirus appeared first on Siliconera.

Wow, it's a hot week for the Nintendo eShop! As I've been saying like a broken record for weeks now we've been getting over the post-holiday slump, but now we're back in full gear. There's 46 games dropping on the eShop this week, a far cry from Nintendo's previous 30+ mark that they wanted to hit a few years back.

Although many of them are older games that publishers are playing catch up with, the Switch has become a powerhouse in its own right in terms of its library. And, for the most part, has avoided the largely taboo "shovelware" descriptor unlike the WiiWare and Wii U eShop markets, with higher-quality ports from studios like Saber Interactive and Panic Button.

Anyway, Bloodroots is probably the headliner today, along with all of the below games, which are all for Switch: no 3DS or Wii U love (before you say anything, there still is occasional love for both systems!). Just last week the Wii U got an exclusive game called Space Hunted: The Lost Levels.

Anime game lovin' publisher XSEED will be showing off its wares at PAX East in Boston this weekend, giving attendees the chance to check out some of the gorgeous-looking new releases.

Rune Factory 4 Special is the Nintendo Switch remake of 2012 3DS title, and features all of the farming, crop-growing, animal-rearing and marital strife of the original. New features in dual audio support for English and Japanese language, an all-new "Newlywed" mode, and a higher difficulty option for anime farming pros. The western localisation of Rune Factory 4 Special is available right now, having launched just this week.

Also at PAX is RPG Ys: Memories of Celceta. This 2012 PS Vita remake tells the story of a young man, Adol Christin, who is tasked with mapping the dangerous and mystical Forests of Celceta. Obviously, this job leads to dramatic adventures, friendly and not-so-friendly encounters, and a helluva lot of fighting. Ys: Memories of Celcta will launch on PS4 sometime in 2020.

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is a cute-looking adventure title that blends farming simulation with platforming action. Players take on the role of the titular Sakuna, a troubled harvest goddess who must help the inhabitants of Hinoe Island fend off armies of demons while simultaneously facilitating the growth of a struggling rice crop. Destructoid's CJ Andriessen checked the game out at E3 last summer, and you can find his thoughts right here.

VIZIO 65" Class M-Series 4K (2160P) Ultra HD HDR Smart LED TV | $500 | Walmart

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When PlayStation Now first launched, in 2015, it was more confusing than enticing. On paper, it was meant to be a streaming service that allowed modern gamers access to classic games. But the monthly price was steep—higher than Netflix—and it featured a vexing pay-per-hour model on top of that. Plus, even though PSNow…

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This week, the other shoe dropped for people living in the U.S. worried about the spread of the new coronavirus. Officials have reported the first local cases of the respiratory illness, COVID-19, in California. The virus is here—and has probably been here for some time—and the U.S. is almost certain to face the sort…

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This week Jeff Bezos made a huge advance in his ongoing quest to make humankind obsolete: Amazon opened up its first full-sized Amazon Go Grocery, a cashierless supermarket that requires shoppers to interact with exactly zero other humans. The store is located in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, just across I-5…

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Borderlands 3 has been one of the most high-profile games to forgo a Steam release in favor of Epic Games Store exclusivity, but that will soon come to an end. As part of a PAX East panel, developer Gearbox announced that Borderlands 3 has a Steam release date: It launches on March 13.

The Steam store page is now available and you can add it to your wishlist, although pre-orders aren't yet available. While cross-play with the PS4 and Xbox One versions will not be available, cross-play is supported across both PC versions, letting Epic and Steam players join together for online multiplayer.

Borderlands 3 originally released on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on September 13, 2019. That means this Steam release arrives exactly six months later; we had previously heard it would come no sooner than April. Also as part of the PAX happenings, Gearbox unveiled Borderlands 3's new DLC.

You can race pretty much anything in Grand Theft Auto V's GTA Online. Whether you're racing against other players in supercars, mopeds, SUVs, planes, boats, RC cars, or even something as ludicrous as an airport baggage carrier. And yet, there's something missing... The next logical step is obviously to compete in the San Andreas Prix in F1-style open-wheel vehicles.

GTA Online: Open Wheel Racing is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The update adds two brand new ultra-performance vehicles for you to race in, the PR4 and R88. Both share the same stats, but you can take each one to Los Santos Customs to fine-tune and purchase spoilers, tires, liveries, engine mods, and more.

Apex Legends next limited-time event, System Override Collection, starts next week on March 3 and will continue for 14 days. System Override Collection adds a brand-new mode, legendary cosmetics, and another character heirloom--this time for Octane.

The new mode is called Deja Loot. From March 3-9, it will take place on World's Edge and from March 10-17 it will send you to Kings Canyon. The mode will see the same loot spawn in set locations, allowing you to know what you're going to find wherever you drop. If you find a fully-outfitted Triple-Take in Skull Town, that same Triple-Take will be there every time. The dropship path and ring locations will be the only aspect of the game that changes day-to-day.

Steam's free weekends give players the opportunity to enjoy a game for free and then buy it at a discount if they wish to continue past Sunday, and this particular weekend's slate of games is especially exciting. Ark: Survival Evolved, Descenders, and Deep Rock Galactic are available to play for free right now. All three of them are excellent games, offering distinctly different experiences among them, and definitely worth giving a shot. All you need to do is head over to their Steam page and click "Play."

Each game can be enjoyed free-of-charge until Sunday at 10 AM PT / 1 AM ET. After that, you'll need to pay for the full game to keep playing. Thankfully, each game is currently available at a steep discount. Ark: Survival Evolved is $10, down from $50, until March 9; Descenders is $15, down from $25, until March 2; and Deep Rock Galactic is $15, down from $30, until March 12.

Ark: Survival Evolved is one of the biggest survival games on Steam and puts players into a world full of dinosaurs and ever-advancing technology. It's had a rocky development cycle, but recent reviews have given it a "Very Positive" user rating. It seems like there's never been a better time to jump in than right now.