I had my first opportunity to try out some online play in Animal Crossing: New Horizons the weekend before last. My sister and my friend visited my island so I could give them some of the stuff I had accrued during my extra two weeks with the game. They grabbed new fits at the Able Sisters clothing shop, which had yet…
Hackers and map exploits are already frustrating players in Modern Warfare’s new “Warzone” battle royale.
Update: Its closed beta may be over, but that also means Valorant's official launch is on the way. If you weren't able to get into the beta during its pre-release stage, don't worry--Valorant's release date is right around the corner and, as it was during its early access period, Valorant will remain free to play. Find out if your PC can run Valorant in our minimum/recommended specs guide.
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Taito's Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is coming to Nintendo Switch very soon. The game is due to launch for Nintendo's hybrid console on March 31 across North and South America.
The game was already released in Europe and Australia at the end of 2019, before coming to Japan in February 2020. Taito also has confirmed that additional content for Bubble Bobble 4 will be made available for free via download later this year, including new stages and the character Baron von Blubba.
Bubble Bobble 4 supports solo play or couch co-op with up to three friends. There are 100 levels in all, as players progress to try to take down the evil wizard Bonner. The game is only 660 MB large, so it won't take up too much space your on Switch.
Continue Reading at GameSpotUbisoft hosted a free weekend for Ghost Recon Breakpoint this past weekend, in celebration of a big title update that launched last week which included the game's new immersive mode and a new mission featuring Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher. If you happened to miss it, Ubisoft is now offering a free trial for you to try at any time.
The Trial Pass, available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC, gives you access to the whole of Breakpoint, but only gives you six hours to play. That timer works off of any time you might have spent with the game over the latest free weekend, so don't plan on being able to stack the additional time if you've already played a bunch. Any progress you make during the trial period will carry over if you purchase Breakpoint, which is still on sale across most platforms.
Additionally, Ubisoft is also introducing a Friend Pass, which lets you play co-op missions with a friend who owns Breakpoint. There's no time limit on these missions, and any time you spend in them won't be added to your individual Trial Pass time. You are limited to missions specifically for co-op, and you will need either PS Plus or Xbox Live to play with a friend. The Friend Pass is only available for a limited time, starting today on Xbox One, PS4, and PC and lasting through June 16.
Continue Reading at GameSpotThe Nintendo Switch is apparently about to get a hefty serving of Mario, including several classic 3D games from the series' past and an all-new role-playing game.
Reported by VGC and Eurogamer, Nintendo is planning to release remastered Switch versions of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario 3D World, and Super Mario Galaxy as part of the franchise's 35th birthday celebration.
The remastered games would be coming from four different consoles: Nintendo 64, GameCube, Wii, and Wii U.
Continue Reading at GameSpotAs the coronavirus pandemic forces social distancing, players have turned to social games like the newly-released Animal Crossing: New Horizons to connect with friends and socialize. One couple who was forced to postpone their wedding found themselves the recipients of a surprise, all inside the carefree world of their own New Horizons island.
The story first appeared on the Animal Crossing subreddit, and fans took notice of the sweet gesture. The wholesome event seemed like a natural fit for Animal Crossing. The couple, Sharmin Asha and Nazmul Ahmed, explained how the Animal Crossing nuptials got started.
The two realized they had to postpone the wedding in late February and early March, as the COVID-19 outbreak was beginning to gather momentum and make major news. It was in this time period that organizers for the Game Developers Conference announced it would be postponed this year, and just before the ESA announced the same for E3. Public gatherings were still permitted, but it was increasingly clear they weren't advisable.
Continue Reading at GameSpot
Image: Riot Games
Watching your favorite Twitch streamers will help you get in yourself
Niantic continues to alter Pokémon Go to accommodate trainers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a new blog post today, Niantic says its mission has been to "help people get outside, exercise, and explore the world, with the ultimate goal of helping people connect with others." Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Niantic is adapting its vision in the coming days and weeks to accommodate players who are stuck indoors.
One of the big changes is letting trainers team up with friends to take on raids from their own homes. We don't know exactly how this will work yet, but it should cut down on the unnecessary risk of people heading outdoors to a gym's location to get a Pokémon they don't want to miss out on.
Adventure Sync is receiving a tweak that will allow trainers to track steps indoors and on a treadmill. Niantic is also looking at ways that will allow players to "share memories about their favorite real-world places." Lastly, Niantic is working on a new way to bring Pokémon Go Fest to players. More details on all of these things will be shared soon by Niantic.
The pack-in Intellivision Amico games will mark the return of familiar titles like Shark! Shark! and Astrosmash.
The post Pack-in Intellivision Amico Games Lineup Will Include Astrosmash appeared first on Siliconera.
Morinaga Milk will be produce Pino Evangelion ice cream ahead of the June 27, 2020 release of Evangelion 3.0+1.0.
The post Get a Taste of Evangelion with Morinaga’s Pino Ice Cream appeared first on Siliconera.
Final Fantasy XIV could go down in history as one of the most beautiful games ever made. Scratch that: most beautiful pieces of art ever made. Scratch that: I'm making the push for that to happen right now, not "at some point in history."
Need proof? Look no further than Square Enix's own "Creation of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers" docu-series, which takes a look at each facet of the game in bite-sized 10-15 minute episodes: which, when added together, will form a Voltron of a documentary. So far the publisher has covered the story and environmental aspects of the expansion, and now we've moved on to three other topics this past week.
Episode three, "shaping the styles," touches upon one of the most important aspects of any MMO: cosmetic looks. The fourth episode tackles monsters (which sounds rote but is actually quite amazing given how meticulously designed even basic creatures are) and the fifth episode might be the crown jewel for some people, tackling the wondrous soundtrack of Shadowbringers.
If you play FFXIV and haven't seen these yet, sit back and relax! They're all worth watching.
You can find the first two episodes here.
Twenty-twenty is going to be a somewhat seismic year for free-to-play mobile games if everything releases according to plan. We have Diablo Immortal in the works from Blizzard, the international release of Yoko Taro's SINoALICE, Dead by Daylight Mobile, League of Legends: Wild Rift, and possibly that Tom Clancy's Elite Squad game we first found out about last year.
In fact, just this week we saw the release of a new Disney gacha game, a new Game of Thrones free-to-play app, and the Early Access release of Romancing Saga Re;univerSe. So many games in such a small amount of time, but I think I made the right choices with my picks this week.
A lot of us in the United States, Europe and around the world have been cooped up in our homes as of late. A lot of us are snacking away and eating up what we can find in our cupboards. As a native New Yorker, my pantry is filled with bagels and pizza, of course, and that’s not usually part of any successful summer bod plan.
A recently released track from the official Destiny 2 YouTube channel though might be able to motivate me to get back in shape.
What’s going on here you might ask? An easter egg in Commander Zavala’s office during the recently released 4th Horseman exotic quest revealed that Zavala looks to Shaax for some extra motivation during workouts. No true Destiny fan will blame him.
I’ve said it before on Twinfinite (somewhere) that if I could have a hype person for everything I do in my life Lord Shaax would somewhere near the top of the list of people I feel would be qualified to push me. Whether you’re experiencing victory or defeat, Lord Shaax always gets you pumped and ready for another round of Crucible or even… life.
Koei Tecmo and DMM love to use birthdays as an established way to make some cash in Dead or Alive Xtreme: Venus Vacation and Sayuri’s isn’t an exception.
The gentle nurse Sayuri is the latest heroine added to the game and her birthday is on March 31, which is already today in Japan.
Normally, the developers of the game launch a paid-only gacha to celebrate a girl’s birthday, but since Sayuri is pretty new and many are likely eager to unlock her (which requires drawing an SSR costume), this time around we get two.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you have a better chance to draw the required SSR to unlock Sayuri. Each gacha needs to be rolled on separately, and it has the usual abysmal 1.1% chance of getting any SSR.
Even worse, if you want the specific new SSR costume feature in the gachas, the percentage drops to 0.78%.
If you want to see whether the new costumes are worth your money (I guarantee they aren’t worth mine), you can find a trailer below.
If you’d rather not spend wagons of money, another chance to unlock Sayuri will come on April 6, with the second part of the current Alice Gear Aegis collaboration event. The percentage will be 0.36% then, but at least you’ll be able to use your free V-stones instead of resorting to the credit card.
Riot Games’ upcoming 5v5 shooter Valorant will run its PC closed beta from next month, April 7, the developer/publisher confirmed today. Sign-ups are already live over on the game’s official website, though space is currently limited to players in Europe, Canada, United States, Turkey, Russia and CIS countries.
Riot explains that “the plan is to roll out to more regions, if possible, pending the volatile logistics of launching a beta effectively during a global pandemic.”
Valorant’s closed beta is slated to run through until its full launch in the summer of 2020. Progress made during the beta will not carry over, though Riot will give players their Valorant Points back (the in-game currency), with an additional 20% bonus “as a thanks.”
If you haven’t heard of Valorant, it’s a competitive team shooter in the same vein as something like Overwatch. However, it features a stronger emphasis on precise shooting mechanics, also allowing players to purchase a wide range of guns via in-game currency. It was first revealed in full earlier this month after having been teased as “Project A” last year.
For a deeper dive into Valorant’s development and to better understand the core principles it is being built around, Riot Games has today published a new dev diary video that seeks to highlight exactly that. You can check it out below.
Last week Ninja Theory and Xbox Game Studios launched Bleeding Edge, an Overwatch-style online hero brawler for PC and Xbox One. It has 11 unique playable characters and two competitive game modes. It’s going to take more than that to hold my interest.
Resident Evil 3 brings Jill Valentine back to the heart of Raccoon City to solve puzzles, sidestep zombies, and sprint in whatever direction Nemesis isn’t in. The towering monster really wants a word with you and will hunt you down in the most absurd ways.
In this GDC 2020 virtual talk Capy's Kaitlin Tremblay discusses the inherent fiction behind our most common gameplay verbs, such as shooting, talking, deciphering puzzles, hacking, and the like. ...
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A note from the Microsoft Azure team says that Xbox is working with publishing partners to push heftier updates to off-hours. ...
Far Away Cage has players crawling through the guts of a spaceship, seeking control panels they can use to find information they need to avoid an alien that stalking the ducts. ...
Valve is making slight changes to Steam†s auto-updating feature to free up more bandwidth during the hours newly home-bound internet users need the net for work, education, and the like. ...
If you've been stuck at home and need some games to keep you occupied, then there have been a whole bunch of great offers over the past few weeks, including a lot of free games you can claim right now and keep forever. There have also been a lot of great sales, and the latest one at Fanatical is selling Steam games at excellent discounts.
You can currently pre-order Resident Evil 3 for $47.18, down from the original price of $60. It releases this Friday, April 3, and is a remake of the original RE3 from 1999. Additionally, you can snag some pretty incredible deals on Borderlands 3 on Steam for $28.19 and Metro Exodus on Steam for $24.
Trials of Mana pre-orders are going for $42.49, down from the regular price of $50. It's a remake of the game also known as Seiken Densetsu 3, which originally released on the Super Famicom (or SNES) in Japan. It didn't make its way to North America until last year's Collection of Mana hit the Switch, and now you'll be able to play the 3D remake when it releases on April 24.
Continue Reading at GameSpotIf there's anything we can count on in these uncertain times, it's that Target will continue to offer buy two, get one free sales on video games, and Amazon will continue to price-match them. These B2G1 sales have become fairly common at the two retailers, offering a nice way to snag a bundle of new games for a fraction of the price. And this week, you can take advantage of the latest B2G1 sale at Amazon, which includes many PS4 and Xbox One games along with a few Switch titles. Unsurprisingly, some of these deals are beginning to sell out, and delivery dates will likely take longer than usual as Amazon prioritizes health and household goods. Be sure to check out Target's B2G1 sale as well for even more options.
Amazon's B2G1 sale spans not only video games but toys, board games, electronics, and more. To take advantage of the deal, just add three items from the sale page to your cart. At checkout, you'll see a "multi-buy discount" that slashes off the price of the cheapest item in your cart. Keep that in mind as you select your three items--it may behoove you to pick three items at similar price tags.
League of Legends developer Riot Games has announced the closed beta for its tactical shooter Valorant will launch on April 7. The initial beta will begin in the US, Canada, Europe, Russia, and Turkey, with other regions possibly rolling out later. Riot says that the launch in other territories will be pending developments regarding the coronavirus pandemic.
To register for the beta, you'll just have to create a Riot account through the official site, then link it to your Twitch account. Once the beta starts, you can watch highlighted Twitch streams of the game for a chance to get admitted into the beta yourself.
Valorant is a 5v5 character-based shooter with a look similar to Overwatch and Counter-Strike. It's planning a PC-only release sometime this summer, though it may reevaluate plans based on beta feedback. Riot notes that your progress from the closed beta won't carry over, but if you spend any "Valorant Points" during the beta period you'll get them all back plus 20% to spend on the full game.
Continue Reading at GameSpotIn order to better manage data usage and downloads on its side during these times of social distancing, Steam said it will only push updates to games that have been played within the last three days.
According to a blog post, all other infrequently-played titles will need to be manually updated as Steam has "schedul[ed these] updates for the next off-peak local time period." The post said this new auto-update policy will take effect this week.
Steam also made a number of suggestions to assist with reducing data strain. Scheduling updates for some games, opting out of auto-updates for other games, and self-throttling your own connection to Steam are some ways the company hopes you can "ease the load on your network connection" while stuck at home. Steam said it is also "looking into additional solutions to help on our side."
Continue Reading at GameSpotAfter the success of last year's Resident Evil 2 remake, fans have waited with bated breath for Capcom to give Resident Evil 3: Nemesis the same treatment. Now that the reviews are finally out, it seems that critics are mostly enjoying Jill Valentine's jaunt in Racoon City, albeit with less enthusiasm than its universally-acclaimed predecessor.
In our review, critic Alessandro Fillari praised the remake for its tense opening hours, but found that it lost momentum as the game carried on. "However, as the game goes on, it becomes clear that Resident Evil 3 struggles to maintain its poise when the scope begins to narrow, and how blatantly the game relies on recycling many of RE2's tricks and tropes, which now feel less interesting," he wrote. "This has to do with the game's focus on momentum. Just when you're getting accustomed to a location, particularly the extensive and varied Downtown area, a story beat will occur that brings you to the next area, preventing your return. The series' penchant for puzzles are also infrequent in RE3 remake, putting more focus on exploration and combat which can eventually become exhausting."
Continue Reading at GameSpot
After a seven year wait, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord finally launched on Steam Early Access today, and it's already proving popular. By player count, the medieval action RPG is now the biggest new Steam launch of 2020, mere hours after its release.
The sequel's current peak sits at 165,470 concurrent players, according to SteamDB. That puts it firmly in Steam's top 10 over the past 24 hours, trailing only perennial favorites such as Rainbow Six Siege, Grand Theft Auto V, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. For comparison, the last entry in the series, Mount & Blade: Warband, reached a peak of 33,054 back in 2014.
#Bannerlord becomes the 5th most played game on Steam within 6 hours of its release in Early Access, at 160.000 concurrent players and preceded only by such games as CS:GO, Dota 2, PUBG and GTA V. And this is all thanks to you, warriors! Harvesting season is here! pic.twitter.com/BCHEmq2cm6
In preparation for SoulCalibur 6's upcoming guest DLC character, Bandai Namco has released a new update on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One for the long-running fighting game. We've compiled the full patch notes below.
The headlining feature of the update is Haohmaru, the white gi-clad samurai from SNK's Samurai Shodown. The patch adds him as a playable character, though he can only be acquired by purchasing him individually for $6 or picking up the game's $34 Season Pass 2. Haohmaru will become available on Tuesday, March 31.
The patch also adds new creation items for the game's character creator, including new weapons for Cervantes and Taki-based created fighters, extra clothing and accessory options, and more.
Continue Reading at GameSpotDeveloper GungHo Online Entertainment has dropped the first episode of an animated show based on Ninjala, the free-to-play multiplayer action game coming to Nintendo Switch on May 27.
The first episode delves into the game's lore, with a narrator explaining the ninja's birth and demise before bringing the present day into focus. In Ninjala's world, ninja are incognito these days, living as everyday people while attempting to tap into their latent ninja abilities. The episode shows three scientists--Burton, Berecca, and Ron--experimenting with "ninja gum," a candy-like substance that unlocks their inner ninja and grants them access to ancient ninja weaponry. There's a funny Peter Parker/Spider-Man moment, where two of the three giddily run around the room after discovering their powers. And even a pretty cool fight scene.
You can check out the first episode below. Considering the "To Be Continued" screen, it's very likely GungHo Entertainment may working on more episodes.
Continue Reading at GameSpot
Photo: Marcos Cruz/Vagrant Productions/SYFY
Plus Doctor Who and more fan favorites
Image: Niantic/The Pokémon Company
Niantic to continue evolving Pokémon Go to become a more pandemic-friendly experience
Image: Cartoon Network
And series creator Rebecca Sugar says they were some of the hardest installments to write
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via 
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
Image: Steam
Graphic: James Bareham/Polygon
Image: Nintendo via Polygon