February 2020

Today, kind of out of nowhere, Bungie teased the next story beat that may be coming next season during Season of the Worthy (or perhaps even further down the line), and it appears like we’re going to be merging a few of the loose threads from season 1 together.

Spoiler Warning: We’re going to show and talk about the cutscene now. We’ll put in the video form via iiDutchboyy below for you to see right now if you want, but if you prefer to log into Destiny 2 and see it on your TV the way Bungie intended go ahead and do that first and then come back.

OK, so first question: What the F? Second question: What did Rasputin say at the end there? Did he even say anything at all? Let’s break the cutscene down.

So we have our pal Osiris, who is finally allowed to do things now, poking around Rasputin’s home on Mars. We haven’t really heard much from the super AI Warmind since Destiny 2: Warmind’s story campaign where we teamed up with Ana Bray to bring him back online proper in spite of the Vanguard and especially Commander Zavala’s trepidation for doing so.

Even if you’re someone who’s not familiar with The Addams Family, you’ve probably seen the Thing sometime in your life –it’s that ghoulish-looking hand that moves on its own that’s disconnected from a human body and someone has basically created a proof of concept of a VR game that lets you control said hand.

push_matrix on Reddit posted this GIF earlier today to the gaming subreddit and asked folks if they would play a VR game where you could essentially throw your hand to solve tricky puzzles.

Of course, you wouldn’t actually be throwing your controller across the room (that’s just dangerous) but you would instead perform a throwing motion and then let the hand-tracking take care of the rest.

You can see the short video down below showing how the concept would work with a player “throwing” their right hand to hit a big red button that sits on a small table that then opens up a door:

In this classic postmortem, the Atlus team behind Persona 4 discuss what went right and what went wrong in creating the acclaimed RPG, touching on design challenges and QA woes. ...

THE LONGING has a player waiting for four hundred real world days for the return of their king. How will you spend all of that time, though? ...

Conference organizers encourage you to take advantage of the free GDC 2020 Session Scheduler to lay out your week at the show in an intuitive, easy-to-navigate fashion. ...

It's a new week, which means more deals are live now on Best Buy's website. The retailer usually offers a decent batch of new game deals as well as discounts on various tech and accessories, and this week is no different, with quite a few great deals on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and even some PC titles.

The great thing about being a PC gamer is that you don't have to worry about new hardware making your current machine obsolete, whereas new consoles tend to make their predecessors redundant. On the PC, you can usually play the same games everyone else is, even when new graphics cards or processors are released--though you may have to sacrifice higher settings for an enjoyable experience. Thankfully, there are plenty of deals out there for PC gaming hardware and accessories.

Of course, in addition to the internal components like graphics cards, processors, and RAM, there are a ton of PC accessories that get discounted all the time: keyboards, mice, headsets, and much more. Even though you can grab some of these products at a steal, they'll still last you a long time--and new hardware won't make them obsolete.

One thing the PC has on consoles is the sheer number of game sales happening at any given time. Steam, the Epic Games Store, Green Man Gaming, Fanatical, GOG, and many more retailers are always offering deals on PC games, making it incredibly easy to never pay full price for any game you want.

Some new games are coming to Xbox's all-you-can-play Game Pass service, including Yakuza 0 and Kingdom Hearts 3 for the Xbox One. And unfortunately for PC players, while Yakuza 0 will also be added for the PC service, Kingdom Hearts 3 will not.

Kingdom Hearts 3 and Yakuza 0 will drop on February 25 and 26 respectively. Xbox Game Pass will also add Ninja Gaiden 2 on February 20, Wasteland Remastered and Two Point Hospital on February 25 (both of which are also available on the PC Game pass), and Jackbox Party Pack 3 on February 27. Games exclusive to the PC Game Pass service, Reigns: Game Of Thrones and Indivisible, have unknown release dates as of this time.

The Nintendo Switch continues to win over people's hearts with every passing year since its launch. After the middling reception of the Wii U, many were concerned about how the company could possibly manage against industry giants like Sony and Microsoft in the increasingly competitive games market. However, Nintendo succeeded against all odds with the Switch's intuitive and innovative design. Capable of transitioning from a portable to a living room console at will, the promise of the Switch is one that has captured the imaginations of the game playing public.

Alongside the Switch's release was the universally praised The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, giving it the killer app it needed to quickly rise to the top of console sales charts and dramatically increase Nintendo's revenue. But in the years since its launch, there has been no shortage of amazing games. We've got big first-party games like Mario and Fire Emblem. On the other hand, there are indie darlings like Dead Cells, Celeste, and Stardew Valley.

Former Nintendo Switch exclusive Little Town Hero is headed to PlayStation 4 on June 2 with a few extra goodies, publisher NIS America announced on the PlayStation blog.

The headlining feature of Little Town Hero's Big Idea Edition is the inclusion of a new Easy Mode. It drops the strength and defense power of enemy attacks, as well as reduces the frequency of enemy special effects. In addition to this new difficulty setting, the Big Idea Edition comes with an art book, poster, lapel pin set, and official soundtrack with music composed by Undertale developer Toby Fox.

Developed by Pokemon makers Game Freak, Little Town Hero is a turn-based RPG with a unique combat system. As Axe, a big-eyed boy with even bigger ideas, you use your imagination to attack and defend your little town from large threats. It originally launched in October 2019 for Nintendo Switch.

The Mazda 4-hour media race is one of the most difficult challenges in the Gran Turismo series--an actual test of endurance and skill that relies on careful strategy and efficiency. This year marks the 30 year anniversary of the iconic event, and Tim Stevens of GameSpot sister site Cnet was able to take part in it for real to see how the in-game event compares to the real thing.

To start, the challenge actually takes place exclusively with Mazda MX-5 Miata models, aka the Roadster in Japan. It has been a test of skill and patience for a long time, but recently the race has added the new wrinkle of fuel efficiency. Since last year, each team receives only 60 liters (almost 16 gallons) of fuel, making drivers skillfully squeeze every last drop to last the length of the entire race.

Whereas most competitive races have drivers burn fuel as quickly as possible to push the limits of speed, the endurance race has them carefully expending it only when necessary and only reaching certain RPM levels when given explicit permission. Stevens practiced for the event at Polyphony Digital's studio.

I played Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy for the first time in 2020, and I have zero regrets about that decision. I almost certainly would've clicked with it even more in 2001 (I just had a GameCube at the time), but things didn't work out that way. The remastered PS4 version holds up really well.

If you're ever hoping for a 3D platformer in the vein of Jak and Daxter with a bonus dash of MediEvil, consider keeping tabs on Pumpkin Jack. It looks straightforward in the best way. There's a dodge roll, basic combo attacks, and assists from companions like a crow – nothing too fancy or over-designed.

You can also pop off your head and crawl around the cheerfully spooky place. I badly want to do that.

Pumpkin Jack is launching at the end of 2020 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. If you're curious enough to try a demo, surprisingly, there is one! It's playable on Steam right now.

I can already picture droning on and on about this game with Chris and Brett in the room until Brett has no choice but to snap. "Who the hell is Pumpkin Jack?! You've been talking about him all day long."

Whatever you do, don't tell him. He might read this, but at some point – months from now – he'll forget.

The UK Charts saw three new entries this week, with Sega's Yakuza Remastered Collection smashing into the Top Ten at number two, while Sony's excellent game-creator Dreams settled at number eight. THQ Nordic's Darksiders Genesis finally arrived on consoles and also made a modest impact, landing at number 11.

None of these releases had a strong enough launch to unsettle Electronic Arts' FIFA 20 or Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare however, both of which continue their dominance of the charts. This has become de riguer for most January/February seasons, with the annual football/shooter releases often taking hold when not challenged by popular franchise titles (such as Resident Evil 2 and Kingdom Hearts III last year, or Monster Hunter: World in 2018).

The quiet continued success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order should also be noted. While the game has fallen out of vogue in terms of chatter and word of mouth, EA's intergalactic adventure has maintained a lofty presence in the Top Ten since its initial release way back in November.

EVE Online studio CCP Games has confirmed its troubled EVE-themed multiplayer shooter Project Nova is officially cancelled, although work on a new sci-fi shooter, with expanded scope, will continue at its London studio.

Project Nova was initially unveiled in 2016 as a spiritual successor to CCP's long-defunct free-to-play PS3 shooter Dust 514. All went largely silent after that, however, and it wasn't until October 2018 that more on the game - said to offer a blend of "tactical co-op PvE and explosive PvP modes, with a strong emphasis on mastery and strategy" - was finally revealed.

Just one month later, though, CCP announced it would "return to the drawing board" with Project Nova, telling fans that the "gameplay experience in its current form does not live up to our original vision and would not achieve our ambitious goals for this project."

Read more

Final Fantasy VII Remake will be over 100GB pic.twitter.com/WNgBjpgGD7

The next Nintendo Direct in 2020 will be an Animal Crossing Direct on February 20, 2020.

The post Animal Crossing Direct Will Move in on February 20, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

Nintendo will reveal all about Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Continue reading…

Seven kilometer eggs will only have fossil Pokémon now

Continue reading…

Studio is committed to ‘whatever we need to do to move the franchise forward’

Continue reading…

Look at that rainbow grilled cheese!!

Continue reading…

Medieval strategy game Besiege is officially launching on PC today after five years of being in the Steam Early Access program.

The game allows players to create their own medieval destruction machines to crush soldiers and fortresses with a combination of mechanical parts, weights, and physics.

The game includes Workshop support so players can download others’ creations, though some players were able to make some incredible machines right after the Steam Early Access launch.

Besiege originally launched on Steam Early Access in January 2015, and the 1.0 update finally launched today after five years in the program.

The 1.0 update adds the final island, Krolmar, to the single-player campaign alongside a new category of blocks dealing with logic and automation. The four new blocks allow players to perform several actions in a machine with one button press, or perform it when the machine reaches a certain altitude, sensor, or time.

Developer Spiderling Studios says it plans to continue working on the game with improvements and prototyping experimental features.

Besiege is currently 50% off its regular price of $9.99 until Tuesday, Feb. 25. After the launch sale ends, the game will increase in price as per the developer’s early access plans.

The post Besiege Leaves Steam Early Access Today After Five Years appeared first on Twinfinite.

The Nintendo of America Twitter account has announced that there will be a live-streamed Direct airing later this week. It will feature the upcoming game Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

The Direct will take place on Feb. 20 at 9 a.m. EST, and it will last for approximately 25 minutes. It will give an in-depth look at Nook Inc.’s Deserted Island Getaway Package, which is the in-game reason for the player character to build his or her home on Tom Nook’s island.

Fans of the Animal Crossing series have been hungry for more news ever since the last trailer aired in the form of a commercial back in early January. Since then, the only news has been the announcement of an Animal Crossing themed Nintendo Switch console, which is set to release on March 13.

There’s still a lot that we don’t know about the upcoming Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so it will be interesting to see what Nintendo plans to reveal in the Direct. As we have seen in the past, a lot of information can be packed into a 25-minute spotlight, especially when it focuses on a single game.

If you are thinking about getting the game, you should know that Target is offering a pre-order bonus in the form of an adorable Animal Crossing themed journal. You can also visit Nintendo’s website if you would like to learn more about the game.

Out of nowhere, there seems to be a mini-event going on in Pokemon GO featuring fossil Pokemon hatching from 7K eggs.

These ancient Pokemon who were previously available in 2K, 5K, and 10K eggs are now only found in 7K eggs. Also, Riolu will return to 10K eggs effective immediately since the gifted eggs can now only produce fossil Pokemon.

This isn’t the first time that there have been special events focused on the 7K eggs you receive from gifts. The only difference is that this temporary change came out of nowhere.

Unlike other hatching events, there are no boosts in incubator effectiveness. Likewise, there’s no stardust or candy boost to speak of here. For now, it just seems to be a change in what Pokemon can hatch from 7K eggs.

The list of fossil Pokemon that are now hatching from these pink and yellow eggs is literally all of the fossils that are currently in the game. Here is that full list:

• Omanyte
• Kabuto
• Aerodactyl
• Lileep
• Anorith
• Cranidos
• Shieldon
• Tirtouga
• Archen

While most of these Pokemon will now take longer to hatch, this event will decrease the distance it takes to hatch a Tirtouga or Archen from 10K to 7K.

Thanks to the increased amount of candy you get for hatching Pokemon this will be a great way to work on your fossil collection. This should also make it easier to obtain more Tirtouga and Archen candies to evolve them into Carracosta and Archeops.

As of right now, we’re not quite sure how long it will run. The official release closed by saying that Spark is on the case so we’ll likely hear more soon.

Capcom’s Monster Hunter and FromSoftware’s Bloodborne feature some of the most popular “hunters” in gaming, and Good Smile Company has made both available for pre-order in Nendoroid form.

Both Nendoroid action figures can now be reserved at Japanese retailers, including Ami Ami.

The Nendoroid Bloodborne Hunter is priced at 4,360 yen, which translates into approximately $40. He’ll be released in August 2020.

He’s sculped by kan-D! of knead amd he’s 110 mm tall.

“The Night of the Hunt Begins.

From the PlayStation 4 Action RPG “Bloodborne” comes a Nendoroid of the Hunter who traveled to the city of Yharnam seeking blood healing. Optional parts include the Saw Cleaver, the Hunter Pistol and one of the lamps that function as checkpoints throughout the game. Be sure to add Nendoroid Hunter to your collection!”

The Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Hunter: Female Nargacuga Alpha Armor Ver. comes in standard and DX versions, priced respectively at 4,620 yen (approximately $42) and 6,300 yen (aproximately $57).

Both versions release in August 2020, and are scumpted by Shichibee, 100 mm tall.

The difference between them is that the DX version has more accessories.

“One who hunts under the cover of twilight, moving like the wind.

From the PlayStation 4/PC (Steam) game “MONSTER HUNTER WORLD: ICEBORNE” comes a fully articulated Nendoroid of a female hunter in Nargacuga Alpha Armor. This special DX version includes all the parts that are included with the standard version together with bonus parts for even more display options!

The Bigger Game – Far Cry 3 (Xbox One)

Xbox Games with Gold Predictions

The official reveal of which free games will be offered on Xbox Games with Gold for March 2020 is right around the corner, and in the meantime we have some predictions as to what those free games might be.

Usually one larger game leads the list, and for next month it seems like Far Cry 3 would be a perfect fit considering Microsoft’s history with Ubisoft.

Tons of Ubisoft games have been offered on Games with Gold in the past, including:

Google Stadia hasn’t enjoyed the smoothest of launches. Quite apart from a less than impressive library of games, a host of missing features has made its first few months on the market feel more like a beta than a proper release. Today, however, Google is taking a much-needed positive step by adding more robust support for mobile devices.

From Feb. 20, users will be able to enjoy Stadia on more than just Google’s Pixel family of smartphones. The service will support devices from Samsung, ASUS, and Razer.

The complete list of new compatible phones includes:

• Samsung Galaxy S8
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
• Samsung Galaxy S8 Active
• Samsung Galaxy Note8
• Samsung Galaxy S9
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
• Samsung Galaxy S10
• Samsung Galaxy S10E
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
• Samsung Galaxy Note10
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
• Samsung Galaxy S20
• Samsung Galaxy S20+
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
• Razer Phone
• Razer Phone 2
• ASUS ROG Phone
• ASUS ROG Phone II

Today’s news comes by way of a community blog post over on Stadia’s official page.

Frustrated with Stadia’s lackluster release, Twinfinite recently compiled a wishlist of five games that we think would make the service much more competent. You can check it out here.

I love Square’s classic tactical-RPG Final Fantasy Tactics as much as the next person, but a Reddit user by the name of DividingPrescott either loves it way more than me, or at least has the patience and time of a god.

Recently posted on r/finalfantasytactics DividingPrescott, who self identifies as a “sick, sick boi”, showed off his most recent accomplishment: getting every main character and supporting character to level 99 using only the first map of the game.

It goes without saying that this took a ton of time and must have been a massive grind, but it’s even more than that. In random battles the enemies scale up to you and remain challenging however; DividingPrescott doesn’t have access to shops to get new equipment yet. Meaning he’s stuck using whatever weapons and armor he has at the beginning of the game.

DividingPrescott describes how he did it in a reply to a commenter also wondering how in his Reddit thread:

Just a lot of time and grinding. The hardest part is that the monsters level with you, but your gear doesn’t get any better.

Make sure you always have a way to resurrect party members.

The squire ability, focus, is the key for most the grind. You just focus. Forever. Eventually arithmetics and dance/song can replace fundements. Sometimes I had a character with martial arts. Never really bothered with any other secondary ability.

Jp up is required. Shirahadori on all my characters too. Move-jp is nice but moving usually takes more time than it’s worth for the jp, so I just camp my characters in a corner.

Right now there are several sales going on on the digital Xbox store that feature heavily discounted titles from EA and Ubisoft as well as a sale on Anime games and another sale that discounts video games that star animals –there’s a lot happening at the moment.

As for the EA Publisher Sale, you can grab Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for $44.99, The Sims 4 for $9.99, FIFA 20 for $23.99, Titanfall 2 for $4.49, and even the not-so-great Anthem for only $8.99; considering that Anthem will be getting overhauled pretty soon, it’s not a bad idea to buy it now while it’s dirt-cheap.

Last week, Fire Emblem: Three Houses received a shiny new piece of DLC. Unlike the previous “waves,” it’s not just a handful of new quests and costumes and other small-scale additions. This DLC, called Cindered Shadows, is a fully contained standalone campaign, wherein Byleth, Claude, Edelgard, Hilda, and some other…

Read more...

The next Nintendo Direct is scheduled for this coming Thursday, February 20, and will focus exclusively on the upcoming Animal Crossing: New Horizons. That sound you just heard is Animal Crossing fans around the world letting out a collective sigh of relief.

Read more...

I’ll be honest, I thought Besiege—the construction/puzzle game that was one of the stars of 2015—was already out. Nope! It’s actually spent the last five years in Early Access, and only now is it out.

Read more...

Final Fantasy XIV’s current expansion Shadowbringers landed with a bang last July, and it’s been expanding since then with more battles and intrigue. Those additions have come in pieces: a string of raid monsters here, a cross-over collaboration with Nier Automata there. The early additions were enjoyable, but the…

Read more...

After last episode’s fairly deep dive into the world of Volkswagen semi-automatic transmissions, I thought this week it might be fun to do some more old driving video game stuff and maybe something a bit more hands-on. But nothing too involved, something that if someone liked the idea, she or he could replicate it…

Read more...

AfterThought is looking for a dev familiar with Unreal Engine 4 to join its team in Nevada. ...

In this 2019 GDC session Tara Brannigan, Robin Yang, and Elizabeth Sampat discuss why salary negotiation is important for your career in game development -- no matter who you are or where you start. ...

The latest Call of Duty: Modern Warfare playlist update has arrived, and one of the most notable additions is a new 1v1 playlist on a fan-favorite map.

A new playlist called 1v1 Rust is now available as part of the "1v1 Me Bro!" game mode where two players enter the arena to duke it out for bragging rights.

"It's just you, me, and Rust," reads the playlist description.

Google Stadia will work with far more mobile devices following an update on February 20. Stadia has announced that Stadia games will be playable on numerous new Android devices soon, with support coming for Samsung, Razer, and ASUS phones, including the Samsung S20 line and many older phones.

Here's the complete list of phones that will now be compatible following the update. If you're a Samsung owner, there's a good chance you'll be able to play Stadia games on your phone (as long as you're in reach of a Wi-Fi connection) soon.

• Samsung Galaxy S8
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
• Samsung Galaxy S8 Active
• Samsung Galaxy Note8
• Samsung Galaxy S9
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
• Samsung Galaxy S10
• Samsung Galaxy S10E
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
• Samsung Galaxy Note10
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
• Samsung Galaxy S20
• Samsung Galaxy S20+
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
• Razer Phone
• Razer Phone 2
• ASUS ROG Phone
• ASUS ROG Phone II

While Stadia is expanding, it is still not compatible with iOS devices. Hopefully this will change in the near future.